Bejeweled

Zach and I share a new pasttime. It's an internet game called Bejeweled.. Actually Bejeweled 2. And Zach calls it Bejewels. I know, the last thing a mom wants is a six year old getting hooked on video games. That will come soon enough. But I can justify it... ummm... he's learning to match up his patterns! You have to get at least 3 gems in a row to get points and have more jewels cascade down. And I could say that it's fostering our relationship. Whatever. The fun thing is that we'll play it together. It's not a game that two people can play at once, but we'll sit side by side, one watching the other play. Sometimes, the player will get in a hard spot, and the one watching will help out with hints or point to some gems that could be moved to be three in a row. One day, I had both Asia and Zach trying to help me. Asia would say, move the green one and the white one. There's lots of green and white ones, Asia, which ones in particular? Or they'd both be pointing to the screen so that I couldn't even see what I was playing. But again, I was treasuring sharing something with my two kids. I figure each moment counts because when they're teenagers, they probably won't want to share anything with their outdated mom.

Another thing we share is loving to go to the mall. Of course, I'd love to actually go to the mall to shop for stuff for me, but the kids usually can't stand waiting for me to try on clothes or something. I took Zach once to buy a coat for him and some other things, and when we were going through the women's section, he kept asking, "Mom, why do we keep stopping?" He didn't get why I stopped at practically every aisle. He tried to be patient, but he was the one pushing the shopping cart and wasn't appreciating not getting too far. Anyway, today we went to the mall. The goal was to get a birthday present for Zach's friend, Steven. The other goal was just to kill some time without exhausting myself.

A few days ago, Zach had the stomach flu - hit him around 11 PM. So that night was sleepless for John and myself. Luckily it was something like a 6 hour flu. Zach was fine in the morning. Asia slept through the whole thing. I'm not sure I'd be able to sleep to the sounds of the person in the bunkbed above me, puking away every 1/2 hour.

The mall here has a great little play area for young kids. It has all these rubber slides. Rubber! So they're really slippery yet if you fall, you won't get hurt. So all these little kids are running around them. Asia and Zach love playing chase, catching each other and pulling each other down the slide. I try not to watch in case they accidentally roll over some little one year old or younger who's crawling around the play area. We also always do two things when we're at the mall. Stop at the food court for ice cream or frozen yogurt and stop by the toy store - in this case, Kaybee toy store which supposedly is moving out of the mall. So today everything was 20% off. And after visiting the Disney store and coming out of there without purchasing anything, I thought KB toys was very cheap. So Zach and I haggled over a few things til we both agreed on some toys for Steven. Then I told Zach to choose one thing under 5 dollars. A nice young worker there pointed out that everything was on sale, so he could get something nice. So Zach learned how to read price tags as well as picked out a nice sword and shield. Asia picked out a fairy doll that was actually over five dollars originally, but I think with the sale, it neared five dollars. There was no use reasoning with her, I took what I could get. She was eyeing all these other dolls that were 20 dollars and up. So when she found one that was something like seven dollars, I took it. She really liked this Dora toy that you push the buttons and she reads them off, but she already has something similar at home. Luckily she didn't put up much of a fuss when I said we weren't going to get it. I had let her play with it at the store for at least 20 minutes while Zach was trying to figure out what he wanted to get. Again, I am so lucky that Zach is so reasonable. Both my kids could have laid on the ground and cried and made a fuss. I worry that I spoil them because I can afford the things they want. I feel like they have way more toys than I ever had. But then I wonder if that's true. I had my Barbie dolls. I might not have had the Barbie Corvette or Barbie's horse, but I did have my dolls - at least 2 or 3 of them. I remember my brother had a Nintendo system that he then upgraded to a Sega system. So again, it's not like we didn't have toys. I don't know how my parents did it. I never felt poor, but looking back, I don't think we were ever financially strong. I guess John and I both have our parents to thank as to why we raise our children to be the same - to not be spoiled, selfish, thankless and instead to be grateful for what we have or what we get. At least we try.

CandyLand

One of Asia's favorite games is Candyland - her version, so maybe it should be called AsiaLand. She picks the cards for you and moves you to where she thinks you go. And she always gets Queen Frostine. Sometimes you get the Queen Frostine card too, but only after she got the card and is much farther ahead. Sometimes you get the Goose, which means you get stuck in the Gooseberry swamp or something. You lose a turn. Most times I get sent back to the beginning, but I always say that way I get more gumdrops. Plus the game lasts only a few minutes because after Asia gets Queen Frostine, she only needs maybe 3 more cards and the game is over.

Winter Cometh

It is now officially winter.

Birthday Party at Chuck E Cheese

You just gotta love having a small birthday party during the middle of the week at Chuck E Cheese. There were hardly any cars in the parking lot, almost leading me to believe that the place was closed for some reason - electrical failure, pizza oven fire, something.

Zach invited a few friends from school - Sean, Nick, and Steven A. Then other friends he invited - Zach F, Ethan, and Emme. And of course, Asia was there, holding her own amongst all the Kindergardeners. :)

The Chuck E Cheese host, Will, was awesome. He was the young guy, maybe college age? He had all this time and energy for our little party. Another good thing about booking during a weekday night. We were the only party there. And there were maybe 2 other tables filled in the entire place. That left the kids to run around without worrying about bothering too many other people or waiting for the games. Anyway, here's a link to a video of the kids dancing, led by fearless leader Will.

Happy Birthday

My son is now six years old. Six! My little boy is six. I can't believe it. I have a six year old. That just sounds old. :) You can still pretend to be a young mother when your kid is like pre-elementary age, or like 5 and under. Once you have a six year old, you're just lumped together with older couples. Even if you're still in your twenties, which I'm not.
Anyway, we're celebrating Zach's birthday on Wednesday at good ol' Chuck E Cheese. Zach invited a few of his friends to the party. We've heard from all but one so far. So we have Sean, Emme, Ethan, and Steven.
We still had a small family celebration today. Asia made Zach a card. She wrote on it, "Dear Zach. Asia." That's alot of words for her to write already. Zach, in turn, made Asia a card. It said, "To Asia. Yoor cool." I love his phonetic spelling. It's so cute. I hate correcting him but he needs to learn to spell the right way. I haven't figured out yet how to encourage his initiative yet not discourage him when I try to correct him. Anyway, I digress as usual....
I bought a bunch of toys at ToysRUs. Half are for Christmas and Asia's birthday. I figured I'd just buy them all at once. I also made a stop at the dollar store. Spent 1.50 on a blue gift bag. Stuck a Power Ranger outfit in it and two shirts (Power Rangers again and Incredibles). I don't know why I bothered with the gift bag. Zach doesn't care about the wrapping. He put that Power Ranger outfit on right away. Then he proceeded to zoom around the house and wore it til bathtime. The kid is so easy to please. Luckily. After dinner, we also had a little fudge cake that Asia and I had made. I put some Cool Whip on it and then stuck a candle in it. We sang Happy Birthday and Asia told Zach to make a wish. For the next 10 minutes, Asia and Zach re-enacted the blowing out of the candle, switching off on who would be the birthday kid and who would turn on and off the lights when the candle was blown.
I'm lucky that these kids are easy to please. I was fretting about what to buy Zach. A few days ago, I took Zach to Target with me and had him go aisle by aisle down the toy section and tell me what he wanted. He liked the remote control cars and planes, the puzzles, the pirate swords, and the Power Ranger outfit. I told him that I would surprise him with one of those. The Power Ranger outfit at Target was a fancier muscle suit that cost like 35 dollars. I found a simple one at ToysRUs for 10 bucks. I am so lucky that Zach didn't care that I got a cheaper one. I don't think he totally knows who Power Rangers are anyway, he doesn't watch the show. He's just one cool kid.

Happy Thanksgiving

The mornings usually start with Asia coming into our room, climbing over me and plopping herself down on my pillow with her pink blankie. Then she'll rub her eyes and say, "Mom, I want to watch TV." I'll scooch over because she's practically laying on me and because most of the time, she prefers to lay on the covers instead of under the covers. I predict this every morning, so once she gets into bed or onto the bed, that is, I'll hold on tight to my side of the covers as she preceds to kick herself out of the covers, if she ever got in them. Once the TV is on, within 15 minutes, Zach's up and in our bed. The next few minutes depends on whether Asia is in a good mood or bad mood. If she's in a good mood, then she'll let Zach lay in between her and John. If she's in a bad mood, she'll complain that he's squishing her or that he's got all the covers or that she wanted to be next to dad or that his leg is touching her or anything related to his existence. At that point of time, I have to get out of the bed since I'm going to fall out anyway. This gives Asia room to move over and take my spot and give her brother some peace.

This Thanksgiving for some reason, the kids are all excited. Yesterday, both kids kept asking if it was Thanksgiving. Then this morning, Asia asked if it was Thanksgiving and when she found it was, she was really happy. Zach came in to our room this morning with a big smile on his face and said, "It's Thanksgiving! And then it'll be my birthday!"

Another funny thing that happened this morning. Asia is recovering from a cold so her nose is a little stuffy. She announced, "I have a booger." I hurriedly gave her a tissue so she could put her treasure in there. She then said, "I'm going to put it in here to save for later. Then I'm going to put it back in my nose." At breakfast time, Zach asked Asia if she put that booger back in her nose. Hilarious!

those darn preschool starter memories

Every now and then, I get a flashback of Zach's first day of preschool in Chicago. Especially when I look at his old preschool pictures. I see the first day when I sat with him in class. I snuck outside for a little bit to see how he would be without me. For a few minutes it was fine. Then the teacher put on a record of Bert & Ernie on a safari hunt. Suddenly, I heard Zach screaming. I looked in and saw Zach in the middle of the floor with his hands over his ears, crying and screaming. The teacher and kids were marching around him. It was like some cannibals in the jungle, marching around their captured prey, getting ready for dinner. I'm sure it wasn't really like that. I know the kids were following the teacher and doing actions according to the record - look a tiger! Shoot the tiger! But at that time, Zach had a fear of unknown noises - as in where is that noise coming from. You have to explain to him that the sound is coming from the record player. What also amazes me is why one of the two teachers didn't try to comfort him. I know they want him to be more independant, but come on! This is the first day of preschool! I compare that to his first few days at day care at Taylor Tots. He would cry, and the teachers would pick him and hold him, hug him. That's comforting to the parents.
Then I picture the 2nd day of preschool at Children of Peace. I drop Zach off and to try and make it less painful, I exit right away and run into the car. I look out the window and see his little head popping up and down trying to look out the window. I see him crying.
On another day, I drop him off and he's lying on the floor crying.
So then I compare that to his first day at preschool hear in Pittsburgh. Yes, he's older. But he basically went willingly and ran right into the kids and I'm not even sure he looked back. Asia was basically the same.
It really makes a difference with how the school looks like - brightly painted walls, etc. And even more, the teachers. All of the teachers so far for Zach and Asia here have been so smiley. That's a big thing. Zach's montessori teacher at Children of Peace - I'm not sure I saw her smile once. She wasn't mean, just strict. And this was her first time teaching this age. I heard she was a kindergarten teacher or something. The previous teacher at Children of Peace went on maternity leave and decided not to come back. Maybe it was also the curriculum - Montessori. I think it taught Zach some good practices for his studies, but it just wasn't something he looked forward to going to at his age. On top of that, Children of Peace was a Catholic school. So that probably added another strictness or gray factor.
Anyway, I am so glad that I haven't had to go through that same experience again of the screaming and tears. It's been what... two years? And I still have those bad memories. Thank goodness my little boy wasn't traumatized. Just his mom.

First Tooth

Yes, usually you see a blog post saying - baby got his first tooth! Well, now it's - Baby lost his first tooth! Zach's bottom two adult front teeth are already growing in. You'd think they'd wait til the old baby ones were out. Anyway, the first baby tooth came out today. John had to pull it out since Zach was having difficulty eating pizza with his tooth twisting everywhere. So anyway, big day today! I wonder if this has anything to do with all the Halloween candy he ate yesterday... :) I'll talk about that tomorrow if I get to blogging it. The little tooth and the pizza slice the little guy was trying to eat, as well as the pliers John tried to use to pull the tooth, are all on John's nightstand right now. Would make a great picture. Yuck.

Kindergarten?

Or is it kindergarden... a garden of kinder kids? Anyway, John and I am thinking of putting Asia in Kindergarten next year, if we can get her in. I'm sure it'll be a lot of red tape and whatnot. The question is whether she's ready.. as in ready for first grade the year after. She can write her name, though her S's are backwards. She can also write the letters F, T, M, O (she can write out the word MOM). Today, she counted on her own to 29. Then after that, it was 20-10. :)

zach's shaker

The other day, Zach was watching TV. There was a small segment on a craft that you can do with your children. Well, Zach needed no prompting. And I'm not sure if he saw this TV segment several times or not. If not, then this boy's a genius. I was in the bathroom getting ready and he yelled, "Mom, I'm going to make a shaker!" So he found an empty toilet paper tube. I'm not sure he found it. I have a stash I keep for church crafts, but it's in a plastic bag covered by other plastic bags in the linen closet. Or maybe there just happened to be an empty one in the trash. Anyway, somehow he found this toilet paper tube and then put a napkin over it. Then he wanted a rubber band. I told him to look in the drawer next to the silver ware. He shouted out joyously, "Mom, you're right! There are some here!" See, mom does know some things and is often right. So he wound up a rubber band around the napkin. Then I'm sure the TV show said to put rice or beans or sand or little pebbles in the tube or oatmeal carton. My son goes outside, probably doesn't see any little rocks or sand (that's dry) and comes back in with his hands full of cedar mulch. I'm not sure cedar mulch is supposed to make lots of sound in a shaker, especially after it rained. Anyway, in goes the mulch. Then we had to leave, so I told him we'd finish the shaker another day.
True to my word, we finish the shaker at lunch time. I suggested he put some rice in his shaker. Zach agreed that this was a good idea and proceeded to dump some rice in his little shaker, the rest went on the floor. He and his friend Daniel spent the next 20 minutes picking up kernel upon kernel of rice and trying to put it back in the rice bag. I saw Daniel picking up one little kernel at a time! It didn't dawn on me what they were doing until after Daniel and his parents left. I was cleaning up and noticed all this rice on the floor. So easy to sweep up, but must have been quite a task when using little fingers to pick up each kernel.

So here's a picture of Zach's shaker. I offered to trim the napkins around it so it would look nicer, but he said that if I did that, all the rice would fall out. He proceeded to show me how the rice was falling out. It didn't matter that it was because the rubber bands weren't on tight enough. He was convinced that it was because the napkins weren't covering the entire tube. Also, he was shaking the tube so roughly that half of it was already caved in. But the thing I like is that he took the initiative to create this shaker. There are some good things about TV. :)

taking over my desk

Asia is slowly taking over my office desk. She likes to use my laptop, which is why I'm probably on my 3rd laptop. The keys fall off. The hard-drive went bad over the summer, but luckily the data was all recovered. A year's worth of pictures! And yet, I still haven't backed up recently.
Anyway, enough of that. I wanted to show the little things I find on my desk from Asia.

Ballet, Hockey, Soccer, TaekwonDo....what else can we add?

Look at these! Asia's first ballet slippers! She starts dance at the elementary school tomorrow. She was all excited about getting these. Of course, she wanted the pink ones, but I told her that the teacher said she had to get white. Luckily, the shoe store still had her size. There were maybe 5 boxes of white shoes left and a gazillion boxes of pink and blacks. I put in two pictures - one to show her shoe size. I think these ballet slipper sizes run big.

So this is going to be a very busy year. We've got Zach in tae kwon do on Tues, Thurs, and Saturday - two classes, one being a weapons class. Then he's got soccer on Saturday. And just started hockey (deck hockey) today. We'll see if he can stay in hockey or not since Mondays is not a good day for him to be playing. I've got band practice. Then on Tuesdays, we also have Asia starting up her dance class. Then I've got pottery on Thursdays. We also have a family vacation in Gettysburg this weekend, a family wedding to go to at the end of the month. Another family get together and Zach's birthday in November. Fun fun fun! I think we'll take a break in May.

Loving kids

Aren't these two adorable? I'm going to love showing this to them when they're like 12 and 14. "Mom, get that picture out of my face!" "But look how loving you two were! Why don't you two hug again for me?" That'd be me begging. You only have your kids once. Once they're grown, they're grown. Yeah, that's a duh statement but it hits when you remember your babies taking their first steps, first words, all of a sudden they're not hugging you all the time any more. They don't need you to tell them what to do, what to wear. So I gotta get what I can now. :)

Starting school again

Zach started Kindergarten last week. No problems so far. No crying. Nothing. No overjoyous moments either. No coming home and saying,"Mom, look what we did!" so we'll ask him to empty his backpack and show us his crafts. I'll ask him what he ate for lunch, knowing already what he ate by looking at the menu. His answer is usually PBJ (not on the menu) or one time he said shrimp (which was dinner the night before). He seems to like it. I say this because he doesn't fight to not go to school.
Asia started preschool today. Just a one-hour session with parents. She seemed to like it, though she was all clingy to me. That's why I have to have John take her to school. I'd love to be able to drop her off and see her run off with her friends to play. But she'd drag me in with her. With John, it might be more like, "see ya!".
We're considering having her go to Kindergarten next year instead of waiting another year. We'll see how this year goes and how Zach is in Kindergarten. I think Asia would be fine if she went half-day. She'd be 1/2 year younger than her friends in class, but she was like that last year and was fine. As long as we work with her on her letters. She can already write the letter A for her name. Then I 'll write the rest of the letters in dots so she can connect them.

Weird Sensation

Last night, the strangest thing happened. Strange as in how I remembered it. Around 2 or 3 AM, Asia started crying from a nightmare or something. J didn't wake up at all since we had a box fan going to drown out outside street noise. This is what I recall from being woken from my slumber:

Dreaming... I'm in some kind of warehouse/dorm/circus tent. I hear kids sounds, crying. I figure the employees or enemies have kids in some room far away.
I start walking towards the sound.
It's a girl.
That girl's name is Asia.
She's my daughter.
I have a daughter.
She's crying.
Bad mom is taking a long time for this all to register and go get her daughter.

I finally wake up and get Asia. She wants to come into my room to sleep next to me. I'm too tired to argue.
As I'm laying in bed with Asia snuggled between me and J, I think that for a few minutes there, I had no sense of having kids. While I was half-awake, it didn't hit me that it was my own daughter crying. There was no sense of responsibility. That was a very weird feeling. I don't think I remember having this kind of feeling since Zach was born. The feeling of not having to be responsible of someone else who couldn't take care of him or herself. Though it was only a few minutes, it just seemed so strange.
Then Asia turns in her sleep and flails her little arm around, whacking me in the face.

Success!! so far....

Asia is doing an awesome job in potty training! Several times today, she told me she had to go to the bathroom and then waited til we got there. That is an accomplishment. Not so much telling me, which is a big feat, but holding it til we go to the toilet. I am so proud of her. And then just a few minutes ago, she announced, "I am going to sit on the potty chair." It's one of those blue and white BabyBjorn portable potty chairs. So it's sitting here in the dining room. Yes, sanitary, right? Anyway, it's gotta be near her. We'd never make it upstairs to the bathroom. The plus of having a bathroom on the main floor. So she takes off her pull-up's and cute pink shorts. Sits on the potty. Puts her pink blankie over her legs. Then decides to hold up an open purple umbrella over her so that no one can see her unless she wants them to. Picture that. Privacy at your fingertips.

So here's some of Asia's words that she still says and made up. "Dokdy." A boy. "Dikdy" is a girl. Scribblebidgit is a river, Asia says. But the meaning keeps on changing. Supposedly it's from the CD game, Busy Town (Richard Scarry's characters). So every now and then she'd say, You're a Dokdy. Or if you're a girl, "You're a dikdy."

She also decided her name is Lilly. She said today, "Mommy? What's my name." My simple response, "Asia." "Asia Bria Neill," she corrects. "Call me Lilly," she then states. So I guess I named her incorrectly. Her bear is named Lilly. Her invisible friend is named Lilly. Where she got that name, I'm not sure. She doesn't have any friends or acquaintances named Lilly. All I can think of is Lilly Lavender on one of the Wiggles' episode, the episode that Zach can't stand because of the scary eyes on the door to the Wiggles house.

Asia and Acacia

Asia and Acacia

Party

I'm planning a party for my birthday. I was going to go with a dress-up theme. Since girls love an occasion to dress up, but then I thought about all the husbands and whatnot who'd come and guys don't like to dress up. Especially when it's hot out. So I opted for a Hawaiian luau theme. Lauau. Luau. That word just doesn't look right. Anyway, it's supposed to be a feast, so I was looking into caterers only to be appalled by the prices. I'd have to spend 300-400 dollars on food. I'm trying to figure out if I make everything myself, would it end up being the same price anyway? If I cater, I save myself some headache. I can't decide and I think I'll end up making everything myself and having some people bring stuff. I already spent 200 some dollars on novelties like grass skirts and leis. :) Gotta love that Oriental Trading Company. Still sending the same old stuff. I think this is where dollar stores get their stuff. You can buy it in bulk. I remember as a teenager, buying a bunch of stuff like pencils and keyrings from Oriental Trading Company. I was going to sell it to make money. I don't think I sold even one pencil. I ended up giving them away. And I think I still have some of the pencils.
So far I have about 33 people coming. There's about 10-15 people who haven't RSVP'd yet or dont' have email so I have to give them a physical invite. I sent out my invite using www.evite.com. Very nice cuz everyone can see who is coming when they RSVP. And I can see who viewed the invite and when. Very clever.

God is lucky

Gotta love kids' quotes:

"God is the luckiest because He has everything. But not candy. Because if He ate all the candy then His skeleton would get a tummyache."

Zach Neill
5-26-06

Three year old's and Tulips don't mix

Why do I say that three year old's and tulips don't mix? Well, the tulips don't stand a chance. As soon as the tulips sprung up and flowered, my daughter has been breaking off the flower heads and bringing them to me.

"Look, Mom! A flower for you!" Asia says, holding out the top of a tulip with about 3 inches of stem.
Gasping and then eking out a smile, I say, "Thanks dear! It's beautiful! Let's not pick any more, okay?"
I'll then try to put the flower in a bowl of water, nevermind a vase. With only a few inches of stem, the flowers barely peek out of salsa jar. One day, I did have a pretty nice centerpiece from this small clay pot I had thrown and glazed in a pottery class and then five or six tulip heads. Again, I say heads due to the lack of the stem. The kids had fun taking the tulips out of the water and putting them back in, squashing some of the tulips down into the water. Tulip petals dropping everywhere.
I'm just glad someone's enjoying those flowers. Maybe not the people driving by the house or neighbors looking at our backyard. Besides yourself, that's who the flowers and general landscaping is for, right? Otherwise, we'd all have dirt or crabgrass in the front or maybe our own personal jungles. No mowing required.
I just remember early November, desperately burying all those bulbs. Luckily I got Zach to help out. He'd dig a hole, or make a dent in the dirt, that is. I'd dig deeper. He'd put the bulb in and help me cover it up. It was so cold and dark that night, but we had fun planting. Zach would run inside to warm up and then come back out to help me some more. At the end, I had no idea what I was planting, I just wanted to get those bulbs buried.

Asia's 2nd professional haircut

Asia and I went to get our haircut yesterday. I had a coupon for a free child hair cut with a full pay adult haircut. I was in the mood for a change in hairstyle anyway. My bangs are growing out and part of it likes to hang near my eyes, rubbing against my face. It's that annoying piece that you can feel is there and won't go away unless you mousse or spray it or put a silly barrette in. And then the weather has been so dry, that my hair is all staticy and that little part of growing out bang clings to my face even worse. On Asia's side, her bangs are getting into her eyes and the length of her hair over all is getting unmanageable - getting into her food, her mouth, etc. I could easily trim it, but it would be nice for her bangs to be straight once in awhile. This was also my idea of mommy and daughter time. Yes, let's get our hair done! I see us doing this as a tradition - mom and daughter getting their hair done, nails done, pedicures. Sounds so typical right? Dad and son spend time fishing or hunting. Mom and daughter spend time beautifying themselves. Oh well. It's like when I was pregnant and said my daughter wouldn't be wearing pink all the time. Well, she's not wearing pink ALL the time, but she has her pink blanket, her pink sippy cup, her pink bear....
So back to the haircut. I coaxed Asia into the hair salon with promises of chocolate. "Where's chocolate?" Asia would ask in the car. "I'll give it to you when we get there." Then we get to the hair salon, "Where's chocolate?" "You'll get it when you're getting your hair cut." "Will it hurt?" Asia asks. I think she's remember when I brush her hair. Yank, Ouch! Sorry, your hair is full of knots. Amongst other things - dough, paint, whatever.
So luckily we got the manager who is good with kids. I told her the one thing Asia really doesn't like is being sprayed with the water bottle. Back in Chicago when she got her hair cut, she would bawl when they sprayed her hair because it would never fail that the residual mist (which would be cold, I 'm sure) would waft into her face. So the manager, Gwen, would spray her comb and then comb Asia's hair to wet it down. Very smart. I stood next to Asia the whole time, feeding her M & M's, showing her that her doll Belle was sitting there watching. Gwen would ask Asia about her brother Zach and Asia wouldn't talk back but would nod or hold up her fingers to show how old she was. Eventually she loosened up more which meant she was curious enough to look around now. Not the easiest way to cut hair. But no crying happened. We went through one small bag of M&M's and one mini Twix bar. She then got a balloon which occupied her while I was getting my hair cut.
The bummer is that my coupon didn't take. It was a coupon for Great Clips that I got off of a cereal box. We were at Supercuts. Ha! Oh well.

Here's a picture of Zach's class during Halloween. Zach is the fireman in the back. The pink fairy is Emme. The princess in the yellow wig is Julia. The black caterpillar is Lance. The cowboy next to Zach is Gary. The green Grinch is Josh. The scarecrow is Briar. Princess Leia is actually Riley. The purple fairy is Carly. Belle is Rachel. Batman is Anthony. The power ranger is Luke.

Here's the kids in the backyard with their Auntie Es and her dog Corey and me in the early Fall 2005.

Karate Zach

Okay, not really karate. It's taekwondo. Zach graduated today from the first belt - white - to orange belt! He had to earn 6 black stripes on his white belt and then test into the next level. Of course, that also meant forking over 50 dollars for the test fee and belt. I was told there is a certificate, but I didn't see that. Anyway, the main thing is that it's an outlet for Zach's energy. He's really enjoying it, getting to know some of the kids in his class. I think it's a confidence booster. But mainly, I enjoy seeing him stick with it over these past months and going to class with enthusiasm. The teachers are pretty good. They keep the little kids in this class interested. The class is called Tiny Tigers. I don't remember what the age limit is, but it's like 4 years to 7 or 8 or 6? There are some really little kids in it. They're so cute to watch. Some of them seem like they're not even tall enough to jump over some of the barricades the teachers put up for an obstacle course. All the kids get the white shirt and pants for free and those outifts are pretty much one size. So a lot of the little kids are swimming in these outfits. One mom hemmed the pants for her son and pointed out that she hemmed one leg shorter than the other. :) I keep forgetting to at least fold up Zach's sleeves. Today, I wanted to walk into the classroom to fix Zach's shirt. We were in a hurry, as usual, to get to class so he had his coat on before I had his belt on. I had him lift his coat up so I can tie on his belt. I didn't find out til he took off his coat and went to class that I had only tied in half of shirt in the back. The rest was hanging out all sloppy. When Zach was trying to do his test with his teacher, he kept having to pull his shirt down because it was falling off. Luckily he didn't care, he was having too much fun.

Back in Chicago

J, the kids and I am back in Chicago for the week. I'm teaching a training class in our downtown office in Merch. Mart. We're staying in the Holiday Inn connected to the Mart. The view is beautiful from the 21st floor. We can see the trains going by, all the cars and traffic going across the bridges, and where the two rivers intersect. I was walking to the training class in the morning and going past the train station turnstiles and elevators and it felt great to be with all these people going to work. It made me miss a big city environment. People well-dressed going to work. It just felt neat to be part of a big group like that.
Anyway, the kids seem to be having a ball seeing their old babysitters and cousins and whatnot. Ellen, Katie, Justin, Lizzy, Seth, Rron and his parents. I miss the restaurants here too! Great food at high prices. ha! So I don't miss the cost of everything, but the thing is that in most of the restaurants, you're not only paying for awesome food, but for awesome service and often great ambience.