My First Mother's Day Presents

Last Mother's Day was an emotional day for me. The day before Padon, Sophia, and I had gone to the Woodland Park Zoo for Mom and Me Day and had a good time but the actual Mother's Day was stressful due to bad traffic, trying to find lactose free ice cream, and family stress due to loud and rambunctious children at my parent's house. Walter wasn't there to help because he was helping with an SCA event and it was overall a very stressful day.

So this Mother's Day I surprised myself with my want of a special day just about me. It was seeming more and more like nothing was going to happen other then the get together I had preplanned with my Mom and sisters and I was feeling more and more disappointed. Until I came home on Friday to a potted purple flowering plant, a paper sunflower made up of yellow construction paper hand prints and a picture of Padon's smiling face, and a note that read " My love for you grows and grows" on the construction paper leaves. Padon was very excited to give me the present and said "smell it Mommy! It smells like candy!" and he was right! Next to it on the table was a magnetic framed picture of a smiling Pia that said "Happy Mother's Day! Love Sophia!" and had her tiny hand print stuck to it. I had to bite back the tears. I had been waiting for the day that my kids would make me Mother's Day presents and I LOVED them and it made my Mother's Day wonderful! I wouldn't have thought school made presents would come this soon but I loved them nonetheless and I love Josephine House for being so thoughtful as to make these things with my kids so they could help make my day that much more special. I'm going to save them forever!

Padon's 4th Birthday!

Again this year I was at a loss of what to do for Padon's birthday. The concept still wasn't quite there for him and when I would ask him what kind of party he would like he would give me an answer that would be about birthdays but not about what he wanted for his birthday. But finally, a month before his birthday, we were walking from the bathroom on the ferry, on the way to Leo's, and I asked again and Padon replied, "I want a Spiderman birthday party; Greg can have a Batman party but I want a Spiderman party!" I was stunned and the more I thought about it the more I got excited. I said "Oh Padon, I can do a Spiderman party! Let's go tell Daddy!"

It was great we had a month to plan because then we could really take the time to plan the activities. We decided to have the party at our house, crossing our fingers for sun and great weather, and we sent out the invites.

Both Walter and I worked hard on keeping the party items a surprise and that meant having to send Padon to school on his birthday. To my surprise he remembered that in our house you have Pancakes for breakfast on your birthday, something I wasn't prepared to make in time, and that he didn't want to go to school on his birthday, he wanted to go to the zoo. I desperately needed his birthday, two days before his party, to buy the last few items and assemble the party favors and games. We plied him with going by school with the promise we would pick him up early and we would go to Red Robin for dinner. He was pleased with that and off we went.

Walter and I bought mylar balloons from The Dollar Tree among other items and bought the remaining items needed from Party City, which was really fun, and went to pick Padon up. I brought the balloons to his classroom and wowed him with the beginning of his birthday celebration. He wanted to carry the balloons and we went to Red Robin. He got to have his requested burger and loved, albeit it shyly, the singing waiters and waitresses who sang Happy Birthday to him and brought him an ice cream sunday.

After we went over to Walmart and looked at bicycles, still with the balloons. Walter and I had talked about getting Padon a Bicycle and Walter said it was something a father and his son did together (this I did not know) but he still felt like he was having that moment with me there. Padon wasn't too impressed with the two wheeler Walter found in his size, though, and it was obvious if we got him one it would result in a lot of tears and we didn't want that. Instead Padon was doing laps around the aisles on a radio-flyer tricycle. He loved it! So much that Walter and I agreed this was the bicycle we needed to buy. Under the guise that Walter had to go to the bathroom and we would meet him at the car, Walter snuck away with the tricycle in a box, and we played just long enough for Walter to buy the tric and stash it in the trunk of the car.

I couldn't wait for Sunday! Finally the birthday party was here, the sun was out and the weather warm, and Padon was relieved and ecstatic. He had eagerly been checking the days to his party off on a calendar for about a month and when his party didn't happen on his birthday I could tell he was starting to believe it was never going to happen. Instead we had pancakes, let him open the tricycle which Walter assembled with him and I just about bear hugged Leo who came early to help watch the kids while we put the party together and I iced cupcakes. Friends and family arrived to a super hero cape assembling table (plastic table cloths cut into 3 foot wide sections with yarn strung through the top to hold them in place and a bunch of markers and stickers to decorate with, as well as super hero masks to also decorate), a hamburger and hot dog BBQ, a spider web game assembled in our living room (the kids each got a piece of yarn they had to follow and untangle through a web of toys and furniture to find a prize tied at the end), and a Spider tagging game (a spiderweb drawn on a really large piece of cardboard with large and too life like spiders stuck on it. The kids smacked them off with a sticky hand and when they knocked one off they got the spider and the spider's nest; a ball of Spiderman party favors and candy wrapped up in zebra stripped crape paper). We opened presents, had cupcakes, and the kids ran free in the yard. It was a very successful and fun party to plan and everyone had a really great time. I look forward to what Padon will want to do next year. I can't believe he is 4 already!

1st Pig Tails

Carley, one of Sophia's teachers at Josephine House, puts all the kid's hair in pig tails. There are a few boys in her class too so I assume the picture of all the kids with their pig tails are stink'n adorable. When I took Sophia's pigtails out for bedtime I saw the little rubber bands matched her shirt. I love the little things they do for her in her class. I get just about no feedback from Padon's classroom and it totally bumms me out. Sophia is beyond adorble in her little whispy pigtails. It made me have to go out and buy her, her own little rubberbands so we could do it more often. But because we don't do it very often and because I'm afraid of hurting her, we're not pros at doing putting them in. But when I do get them in, it makes me giggle. She is so cute!

Easter 2010

Weather had been so wet and cold all winter and into the spring that when I caught wind that the Saturday before Easter was supposed to be sunny I asked Padon if he would be interested in getting in his Easter clothes and taking pictures outside. He surprised me when he enthusiastically said yes. I didn't waist any time in getting him in his slacks, dress shirt, vest, tie, and new dress shoes and quickly put Sophia in the super adorable pink and ribbon adorned dress that my mother had bought for her, her white tights, and fantastic pink sparkle shoes. We ran outside and I started posing the kids and snapping pictures in as timely a manner as I could. I was dangerously close to Sophia's nap time and she was fading fast. Padon was eager to help and between eating Dandelions and telling me they tasted like ear wax, and Sophia crying because Padon hugged her, I got some beautiful pictures of a couple wonderful and cute kids!

It was such a great opportunity too because the next day the clouds had rolled back in and the rain was upon us again. Instead of pictures by the lake at my parents house I posed the kids inside, in front of my Mom's fireplace with her Easter decor. Jane caught the most adorable picture of Padon and Sophia and that ended up being the picture that I framed and hung on our hallway wall.

Easter morning, for the first time, we opened Easter baskets at our house, before having a delicious pancake breakfast. I had gone to the dollar store and for $5 each filled Padon and Sophia's baskets with three toys each and three pieces of candy; perfect for two little kids. They were both so excited to wake up to the baskets and really liked what they found inside (transformers and a sketch pad for Padon and a squishy jelly bean, rattle, and tiny tambourines for Sophia), and Sophia ate all of her candy in giant mouthfuls as her chubby fists just kept shoveling it in. I did discover that both Sophia and Padon weren't too keen on the marshmallow candy which I had accidentally bought as two of their three pieces of candy: chocolate covered marshmallow eggs, peep bunnies stuffed in plastic eggs, and peanut butter filled chocolate rabbits. It was still a hit and I felt such warm gushies sharing this day with my little and wonderful family.

On the way down to my Parent's house it came up in the car, via Padon, that we were going down to Grandma and Grandpa's because of a birthday party in which Padon was sure he was going to have cake. Walter and I looked at each other, wondering how one who doesn't attend church with their family discusses Easter. I thought for a moment and then launched into my explanation. I said to Padon "Well, once a very long time ago there was a man and his name was Jesus. People liked him a LOT because he told the most wonderful stories and helped a lot of people feel better about themselves and get better because they were sick. One day Jesus died and a lot of people were really sad. His Dad was really sad too and came to get him and take him home. Everyone was really happy that Jesus's Dad was able to come and get him and it made them feel so much better to know he would be taken care of. It was such a special and memorable day that the people said let's never forget of this day, let's call it Easter! And so we celebrate Easter every year!" Walter whispered under his breath, "Well done!" and Padon said "Jesus?!" Like, who names their kid Jesus?! and then "Oooohhhhhhh!" I impressed myself too, ha!

At my parent's house, Padon and Greg were now pros at Easter egg hunting and it was so fun to walk Sophia in her little dress with her basket; even if in the rain. It made looking back at her 2010 Easter pictures so surprising because the size comparison is so big and she was so little. Next year she will be over two and searching on her own for Easter Eggs and talking about them!

My Mom was so kind as to make a special meal for the kids so we could eat our traditional meal without fighting the small mouths over onions and rice, and lamb, and other foods that tiny taste buds rebel against. She also had them all sit down at her end of the table where she could feed them and we parents could eat at peace and leisure. It was such a special treat and much appreciated. It was such a memorable day.

A Fantastic Day in the Sun And at the Park

It has been the wettest winter and spring this year and FINALLY we got a whole weekend of sun and temperatures above 60 degrees. Leo came to visit with us and we decided that a trip to Forest Park, in Everett, would be really nice. Padon had a fantastic time running around independently, which is so nice for Walter and I to see, showing Padon has learned good social skills from "Josephine House". Sophia was pleased as punch to find she could walk around on the bark and not loose her balance and was very keen on sliding down the slides again

and again.
Padon also was all over trying new things and I rounded a jungle gym to see him swinging from the ring/ monkey bars. The rings were my favorite thing to do in elementary school and it made me smile to see him. But the minute he saw me he lost all courage and suddenly needed my help down.

Padon really wanted to go down a very big hill into the field below to "go play games and fight". Walter and I were laughing with each other on how this meant there was probably football going on down there as Padon shoulder checked Walter in the inner thigh. We were also making up excuses about why we didn't need to go all the way down so we didn't have to go all the way back up the hill. Leo, wasn't with us, while we were having this exchange, however, and as soon as Padon had a chance he excitedly lead Leo over to the grass and told him how he wanted to go to the bottom of the hill. Like a really nice Grandpa, Leo, said "okay..." and walked down the hill with Padon and then very tiredly all the way back up. I did go down too to help them come back up and marveled at the highschoolers sliding down the hill on blocks of ice. I had never heard of such a thing and felt like I had missed out.

Sophia was a walking machine. She walked and walked and walked the whole time. She spent a good portion of the time pushing her stroller from behind, which with her little waddle butt and mini skirt, she was beyond cute. Best of all she had put her blanket in her seat and like many of her most favorite items she would call it "Baby". She would push the stroller quite a ways and then stop, saying very purposefully, "Baby!", walk around to the front, pat her blanket firmly in place, confirming it was still secure, and then walk back around to the back of the stroller and continue walking. Walter and Leo seemed to think that this behavior was amazing and advanced and looked to me for a confirming opinion. I don't know if it is advanced, I just thought it was stink'n awesome and cute.

I did have to squat down with Padon, right before it was time to leave, to talk to him about burqas; another situation that makes me really wish he had a full size world map. He had seen a lady at the play ground dressed in a full burqa. And I mean full. Had she not been wearing her sunglasses all that you would have seen of her were her eyes. Padon looked at her with a grin on his face that mixed with awe and mischief. This ended with him running at her, pushing her hard on her thighs and yelling excited and happy, "you're a robot!" Seeing as how she was completely covered I have no idea if she was humored by him, disgusted by him, or further saddened at how removed she was from her own culture. I pulled Padon aside with Walter to say, "You know how we live in the country called America?", he nodded his head yes, "I said there is a country called Saudi Arabia and in Saudi Arabia the women dress in black from head to toe. They believe they are most beautiful when they are completely covered (I didn't really think this was the case because I know there are movements to stop the oppression and the religous expression of the burqa but I honestly, at that moment, couldn't remember the true cultural significance) and so she is showing you how beautiful she is by covering herself in all that beautiful fabric. She's not a robot at all! "(smiling). Padon looked at her again with awe and a smile on his face and then said "yes, she's a robot!" laughed to be contrary, and ran away. Oh, well I tried. I considered going up to her to apologize but then thought, bygones. I mean when you come to a country who doesn't share that same thinking and then go to a play ground full of little "christian" kids what can you expect. I wasn't mad at the little kid who told me I was a monster when I had teal hair.

I wish I could get Padon a full size map of the world that he couldn't tear to shreds. Hummmm...maybe I could paint a mural on his wall! Oooo!

Passed Out

I got the pleasure to hang out with Sophia all by myself, Saturday morning, and we had a good time playing on myside of the bedroom while I put away my shoes and clothes. Sophia is really cute about handing you things but then putting them back when you say "Nope, put the diaper back in the box." She purposefully turns around to put the diaper back in the box but then pauses to pull it or a new one back out of the box to play the whole game again. Eventually it became time for lunch and so I put her in her highchair and made her a mini cheese and ham quesadilla and gave her a sippy cup of milk. She doesn't need me staring at her while she eats and so I went back into my bedroom to finish up cleaning, since I was making really good progress. She had been jabbering happily away but then I realized that it had gotten really quiet. I came walking out of the bedroom saying "Hey, Pia, are you doing ok?" and rounded the chair to see this:

So freak'n cute she had fallen asleep with a hand on her milk and a piece of tortilla on her bib. I snapped a quick picture and then tried to gently pull the cup away. She jumped, like "Where's my milk! I wasn't sleeping!" I laughed and picked her up, giving her kisses, and put her down for a nap. The morning made me realize that we really needed to spend more one-on-one time together.