Quip du Jour

Sean: "What the cow says, Sam?"
Sam: "Moo......."
Sean: "What the dog says?"
Sam: "Woof! Woof!"
Sean: "What the horse says?"
Sam: "Neigh....."
Sean: "What Mom says?"
Sam: "Go bath!"
Alec: "No, Mom says 'brush your teeth!' ".

Quip du Jour

We went hiking today and saw lots of monkeys in the mountain by our house. The monkeys made all kinds of noises and scared Sam. She instantly grabbed my leg and scream: "Mom!!! I don't like that. I don't belong here!"
Me: "You don't belong here? So, where are you supposed to be, then?"
Sam: "I belong at home. Painting. Drawing rainbows and horses. Coloring, too"

Understanding the Tradition

This year, Sam finally understood the whole meaning of Christmas and our tradition. We open a present for her tonight and read her to bed. She was so ecstatic to see the present and went to bed immediately when we tell her we will open more the next morning.

Merry Christmas Sammy-Sam-Sam. We love you.

By the river

Quip du jour

Sam was playing at the playground and bummed her chin on the slide.
Me: "Oh, no. Are you ok?"
Sam was sobbing and said: "I fell and it hurts and I was drowning"
Me: "But you are nowhere near water. Did you mean you can't breathe?"
Sam: "Yeah, that one"

Busy Day

Sam had a long, busy day today. With Mom, she dropped Alec off at school and then helped Mom decorate the room for Alec's class Christmas party. Sam helped tape up the red background below, handed Mom ornaments, hung wreaths on the wall...she was a such a trooper. The big distraction came when people started to arrive with colorful Christmas cookies, ginger snaps and candies. Then she was more interested in tasting everything.

The teachers were so grateful that grade 1 classes had so many Moms willing to make the party work. Dad came and joined the party at noon and soon after that we were heading to the Regent for Dad's office party. Sam also got to meet Santa and coyly chatted with him and told him what she wants for Christmas. Santa was very surprised that she didn't want Barbie. But Santa said he would see what he could do to get her a pony.

Nail Polishing

I know every parents will say this, but I think Sam is getting cuter everyday. Her personality also both charming and funny. She probably didn't mean to be funny, but she surely made me laugh a lot. She made lots of cute comments that made me giggle and feels like I could talk to her forever. Like this evening, she made a comment when she offered me help to decorate the tree. She made a comment when she choose the ornaments, when she hung them, when she dropped them, I mean; this kid never stop talking!

Sam also getting into girl stuff, like nail polishing. She shows her interest when I did my nails and tonight, I let her have it. And she did quite marvelous job!

Ginger bread house

I volunteered on every field trips at Sam's school. Though it was predictable, but every single trips were always fun. Today, we went to Wendell's, a German's restaurant in Tien Mu. The cheft taught the kids how to make a ginger bread house. Being kids, most of Sam's friends started to eat all the cookies and candies that supposed to be for decorations. I was surprised that Sam was so well behave, she didn't eat them until I said "(it's) ok (if she wanted to)". I was so proud of her.

Pretty Sam

Halloween at Child's World

We dressed Sam to school today to celebrate Halloween together with her classmates. She has her butterfly costume and looked very, very cute. It was crazy morning and we were all running a tad late. I took the back way of the mountain thinking it was closer and hoping to get there on time. We live all the way up in the mountain top and Sam felt very sick all the way down through the winding road. She managed to hold her self up until we parked.
And then she threw up.

She was so upset that her outfit was a mess and stinky. She took off her skirt and walked in to her classroom. Within 15 minutes, she took off her wings. (Thank goodness she kept her clothes on).
Momma is very sorry, Sam!

Less is more

Sam was struggling on her first 4 days at the new school. She goes to school complete with the screaming, tears, the tantrums and all the wonderful-sweetness-(almost) a 3 year old has. But on the 5th day, it was like a button we forgot to push, it was suddenly come together. It was so weird, she suddenly decided to stop screaming. With a pure joy of her teacher and the thrilled of her assistant teacher, she was cheered by them and the Principal each morning. She LOVES it.

Now, the new adventure begins: riding the bus. Ah yes, for the past month school has been a fun place to go for her and she is actually looking forward to it. I thought I really don't want to jinx it by sending her to school by bus. But no, she is anxious to ride the bus and doesn't want to do anything else in the morning but sit on the porch waiting for her bus. She doesn't even want me to walk her to our gate to ride her bus.

As parents as I'm sure you are all feel the same whether your kids have enough food at school. So, I have this habit to feed my girl some snacks after school or get her new things to make her feel better. I know, I have a horribly sensitive guilt button that works even before anybody is 'thinking' about pushing. But come on! She left at 8.30 and isn't coming home until 3.15 p.m!

And then she said it. "No, mama. Enough!" She doesn't want anymore stickers I have for her. It was like a wake up call for me from my sweet girl.

To make long story short, I strangely started to think about how (almost) empty our new house is and I kinda like it. And the more I ponder, the more how grateful I will be if State Department accidentally loose our stuff from Medan somewhere in the sea. I don't know where to put them all because we have such a limited space here.

It is not that having more is bad or wrong, its just the desire to have more and more and more is insatiable. And as long as you think more is better, you will never be happy. I think.

Rambling in Sunday morning

I love writing. I especially love writing about kids, not just mine I love to write about others as well. I love to tell the world about weird and exciting personal experience we have, since we moved every 2 to 3 years to such exciting places, thanks to State Department. Cross cultures and ancient traditions from other countries made us truly humble to see our difficulties from the other person's perspective.

But it comes to the point when I think I should protect my kids' privacy and as much as I want to "brag" (don't we all?) about how silly and such a belly ticklers our kids are, I am thinking to stop blogging. For good. Perhaps making it more private, I don't know...

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Bear Lake

Cennecot Copper Mine