Womze - Cross Cultural Parenting

For weeks I’ve been waiting for some big block of time to open up for me to pour out all the great posts I never quite post.  The more time passes, the more I experience indecision when I do have a few moments to work on half a post.  Indecision leads to inaction, few moments disappear, more post ideas accumulate.  In short, the system is clogged.  And I’m hoping this is the post that unclogs the brain/fingers/whereever writing comes from.  So here goes my brain/fingers dump. 

Monopoly and Maths
I recently realized what a great game monopoly is.  I loved playing it as a kid and in December, I picked up a Disney Junior Monopoly from Kohls.  An impulse buy.  Couple of weeks ago, snow day, indoors with the kids, Darling Angel asked me “Can we play the monopoly now?”.  I thought “why not?”.  We tore open the box.  It has little plastic TVs instead of houses - because it’s Disney.  The money is in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 bill units instead of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 - because it’s Junior monopoly.

As the game proceeded, I hoped Darling Angel would tire of it quickly so I could escape.  Then we started to have great lessons.  “You owe me $4″, I said.  She was out $1 bills, so she had to figure out that two $2 bills would do.  Yeah, we had great lessons. 

Baby Brother to home daycare
I never realized I could be so happy with a home daycare.  I thought the money savings at a homecare compensated for whatever else.  But we’re saving money (very important in this economy) and happy with the quality of care.  And better yet, the lady who watches him shares my philosophy on potty training - the earlier the better.

Baby Brother on Potty
He’s 15 months, we’ve started potty training.  I’ve been told that is ridiculous, but the lady who watches him is excited to train him along with her son.  No great success story to share yet.  I know it could drag on for possibly years, but that’s no reason not to try.  He know when he’s pooped.  He tells me “poopoo”, unfortunately, he’s not uncomfortable enough to want to change.  He just informs me.  “Poopoo” and he returns to play.  But he sits on the potty, for a little while before he gets up to run around.  A few days ago, I tried the child seat on the toilet and he loved that.  He seemed to understand better what it was all about.  We’ve had a few pees in the toilet.  Every pee is an opportunity to celebrate and let him know the purpose of this potty-sitting activity.

Skipping Kindergarten
Darling Angel spent half a day at a school to get evaluated for first grade.  And she’s in!  She’s currently in a two year kindergarten program, but instead of going from K4 to K5, she’ll go to grade 1 in this other school.  I’m glad that is finally settled - watching my daughter just go through school without being engaged with anything she was learning was frustrating.  I hope the new program works out next school year.  At least, I’m hoping the teachers will be more open to working with kids to make sure the full potential of each is realized. 

Eating too little and eating too much
How do I get each kid to eat just right?  Darling Angel remains a picky eater, improved this year but still picky.  She’s tall for age but so skinny.  Baby Brother on the other hand eats all his food and whatever his sister leaves behind.  He’s chubby.  He’s a baby.  Thankfully he’s active.  Very active.  But I worry that if he keeps eating like he does, he’ll become obese and I’ll have obesity on my hands.  I don’t know how to deal with that.  I don’t know if it’s something I should even be concerned about.

This is all the brain/finger dump I have time for now.  Will catch up some more later.  Bye!

“Tomorrow I’ll be five years old”, Darling Angel declared as she went to bed the night before her birthday.  She woke up the following morning a different person, now a really big girl - a 5 year old.

She gulped down her customary cup of hot milk (that hasn’t changed), but instead of crawling back into bed until I nudge her out, she got up, headed to the bathroom and picked up her toothbrush.

“Wow!”, I was wowed.  “You didn’t wait for mommy to ask you to go to the bathroom”.

“I’m 5 years old.  5 years old can brush their teeth by themselves.”

“Wow!”, I continued, but convinced her that mommies can still help 5 year olds to do some of the brushing.  (Should I just have let her?)

Then she was out of her clothes, waiting for me to turn on the shower.  Without any prompting.

“Wow!”  Usually, she whines about being tired while I try to separate her from her clothes.

“5 year olds can just take off their clothes by themselves.”

When she got out of the shower, she dressed herself while I got Baby Brother ready.  Then I saw her.  Darling Angel had put on not only the clothes that I laid out, but she had gotten her coat, gloves and hat.  She had put on both shoes.  She was holding on to her backpack.  “Wow!”  I was amazed.  “Mommy, you’re the one making us late today”, she said to me looking at me like she had done nothing out of the ordinary.  When I commented on the great job she was doing, she told me nonchanlantly, “five year olds can get ready by themselves”.

We got to her school, and unlike the day before, she was able to hold the door open for me.  “Five year olds are stronger than four year olds”, she told me.

A few days earlier, we were at a birthday party.  Someone asked me how old Darling Angel was.  “She’ll be 5 in a few days”, I said.  The lady replied, “Then she’s 5.  Short story”.  I felt almost silly.  Not quite, just almost.  “Yes she’s 5″, I agreed.  But now I disagree.  Those few days do matter.  The day before she turned 5, she had 4 year old abilities.  Now she’s 5.  What a difference one day makes!

I had written in my last post how I expect 2009 to be easier than this year as my children get older and start to do more things for themselves.  Well, it’s not New Year yet and it’s already happening!  I can only hope that her enthusiasm for age 5 lasts into age 6 when she steps up the game even more.  And to help, I will continue providing many wows of wonder and let her know what a great job she is doing.