he's korean!

we visited a friends' house after church today. it wasn't really necessary to take off our shoes (no one had done so), but after playing a little while, i guess it occurred to mosey that he needed to take his off. without my guidance or permission or anything, mo sat down, took his shoes off, and put them neatly by the door. he didn't even tell me to brag about it, he just did it and went on playing.

i'm so proud of our korean son. :)

smarty pants

when i went to go pick up mosey, our daycare teacher, miss shanna, told us that they heard a fire truck earlier that day. moses ran to miss shanna to tell her excitedly, "fire truck!!!" then he paused, and said, "where fire truck going?" miss shanna answered, "it's going to help people." you know what smarty pants says in return?

"no, fire truck going to the fire, shanna!"

miss fizah also had a story for me. she had asked mo who dropped him off in the morning, and he responded, "helen." she was confused (the teachers don't normally know the parents by their names). she asked, "is helen your mom?" he answered her simply and kind of also confused at her question, "yes."

do other toddlers also refer to folks by their names? he almost never calls me helen to my face, but apparently he refers to me as helen to other adults. he also calls shane by his name only when he's referring to him, and not talking to him. he does this with grandpa too, refers to him by ed, but calls him grandpa. this has got to be some kind of advanced social intelligence, yes?

lovelove,
moses mom

bedtime stories

this child has a pretty good idea of what clothes he has. he usually asks for certain pj's by name, and tonight was no different. he wanted lightening mcqueens. when i put him down and gave him his shirt, he danced around his room swinging his shirt around saying, "it's nice to see you, mcqueen!"

also, he usually has an endless desire to read his bedtime stories over and over, but this time, we read his bedtime story twice, and he told me, "me go bed." i didn't think i heard him right, so i asked him what he said, and he repeated, "me go bed, mommy. night night."

i sang a few rounds of God is so Good, tucked him in, and he was off to sleep. so easy! 

love that kid. 

fortune cookie

on saturday, mo's fortune cookie said, "you have a strong instinct to take care of people you love."

it immediately made me think of the time that shane and i were having a disagreement, and i was crying. moses pulled up a chair next to me, climbed up on it, and holding my hand, told me, "sit next to you, mommy." and then, pointing at shane, he said firmly, "no talk mommy!!"

also, the other day, i lied down on the couch, and i told moses, "mommy's tired." he wanted to play with me pretty bad, but after just momentary disappointment, he said, "you tired, mommy? you want blanket, mommy?" and i said yes, so he dragged a big old comforter and tucked me in as best as he could.

love that kid.

color, mommy!

sometimes i wonder if i'm a helicopter mom. there's so much research that's saying that that style of parenting produces children who lack independence, confidence, problem-solving skills, understanding of consequences or natural relationship to their parents. so... not what i want for mosey.

cut to tonight: our son asked if he could color after dinner, which was nice. a low key activity. he pulled out all his crayons, opened up the coloring book, and asked me to sit down with him. every time i stopped coloring for a while, he would hand me a new crayon and tell me, "color, mommy!" this went on for about half an hour. the entire page was filled with beautiful scribbles of color! i was quite proud, honestly. i'm hoping this doesn't count as helicopter mom'ing, because it was so enjoyable to just sit and color with him.

also, i think he's officially left-handed. i could just die of pride.

on a more disturbing note, i broke a crayon tonight and considered hiding it from mosey so that the next time he used it, he would think he broke it instead of me. what?? this kind of thought doesn't even cross my mind usually. where has my integrity gone? i'm a terrible person.

lovelove,
helly

he's got a great memory

he asked me the other day about the elmo balloon that aiden gave him. that was nearly 6 months ago for his birthday--what a memory! he's also started talking about the zoo again. i can't remember exactly when we went, but it was definitely several months ago. one specific memory of the zoo involved seeing the snakes--when we went, he hardly said a word about it while we were there (he wasn't talking much yet back then). now he's got the words to talk about them, how they were behind the glass, and he even told me about their colors and everything! wow. it makes me kind of scared about how much he understands even now, before he acts like he understands. yikes. #betterwatchwhatwesay

wife

mo recently learned the concept of "wife," i.e. he can call me "my mommy" and shane can call me "my wife"

he was reading a mickey book and told me, "minnie's mickey's wife!"

hablas espanol??

in the car today, i was chatting it up with moses about his day. he was telling me all about who had cried that day and why, and of course, cars and trucks. i was thinking about how ximena's mom was speaking to her in spanish, and i also remembered that they have a visiting spanish teacher once in a while. i decided to brush up my spanish-speaking skills with mo.

"moses, hablas español?" (moses, do you speak spanish?)
"yeah."
"sí? sabes todos los númberos?" (yes? do you know all the numbers?)
"yeah."
"sí? uno, dos, tres, quatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez!" (yes? 1-10)
"yeah."
"sí? sabes todos los colores?" (yes? do you know all the colors?)
"yeah."
"sí? diga rojo y azul..." (yes? say red and blue...)
"yeah."
"moses, diga sí!" (moses, say yes!)
"sí!"

what?? continued conversation proved that he did not understand what i was saying, but it was fun for that moment where i thought he was a linguistic genius. :)

lovelove,
proud mamá

"moses not stanky"

the other morning, as i changed mosey out of his wet diaper, he said to me, "moses not stanky."
"oh... is mommy stinky?" i asked.
"no, mommy's not stanky."
"how about daddy?"
he pauses a long while, hears that daddy is actually going poopoo on the potty, and he replies, "daddy's stanky!"

haha...

mosey was upset about something

one other time that he was upset, i told him he needed to go to sit in his chair in the living room until he could stop crying. well, this time he was upset, he took the initiative and told me, "i go sit in chair and cry." he followed through with it, and when he was through, he told me, "all done crying, mommy." and the storm was over.

teaching our kids about the world

i have this really deep conviction that we, as parents, are responsible for teaching our kids about the world. i'm not sure i know exactly where it's come from, but i do know that my parents did their best to teach me. they taught me how to behave in public, how to speak to adults, how to eat a variety of foods, that racism exists and that it's not fair. they taught me how they believed the world worked, and how we could live within those constraints. it wasn't always accurate, but it was guidance and i feel like i have some kind of secure foundation to stand on as an adult. a frame of reference, if you will. one from which i know i can decide right from wrong and what my own opinion is and how i can understand where others stand.

so, when i read stories about how:

California has become the first state in the nation to allow transgendered students to choose which school bathrooms and locker rooms to use and which sport teams to join based on their gender identity.

i feel both anger (towards parents and adults that fight for that kind of thing) and a sense of dread (about the future for these kids). i mean, there is some degree to which i understand that we live in a really cruel world, and that a transgenered child may actually be in danger (of physical and emotional bullying) if they go into the wrong bathroom... i still think those kinds of decisions need to be on a case by case basis. i feel we are doing a dis-service to kids, allowing them to think the world will accommodate and change norms for their differences. we (as human beings) need to know how to work within boundaries, and i believe this ruling is ruining that essential lesson. i also wonder if mixing bathrooms and sports teams will result in young people getting physically and sexually harassed more. i mean, think about a transgender girl trying to change in the boy's locker room after a game. do you really think that all the boys will always behave? i am actually afraid for general safety. lastly, the transgendered kids, though in a tough situation, are the minority, and the majority is paying the price. even as an adult, i would feel uncomfortable using a bathroom stall next to a person with male genitalia. this is, and always will be, true. it's not because i hate men or transgendered folks.

oh, and also, the story makes it seem like this ruling will help ease discrimination and prejudice against transgendered folks. can you tell me how this would happen? 

the world is so broken.

lovelove,

me

proud and joyful moments

the other day, we were eating some brown rice as part of our dinner, and mosey, in between fistfuls of rice, asks me, "this quinoa, mommy?" my heart was so proud at his advanced knowledge and love of foods.

yesterday, as we were playing "lie down together" (yes, we have the BEST toddler in the entire universe), mo started sucking his thumb. i asked him if i should suck my thumb too, and he replied, "yeah, mommy, suck thumb too." i laughed and told him that i don't suck my thumb, and he proceeded to teach me, saying, "look... moses" gesturing to himself and demonstrating how he puts his thumb in his mouth. when he saw it wasn't working, he pulled my thumb up and guided it gently into my mouth! this child. i love him.

also yesterday, i called little mo "booboo" and he told me, "i'm not booboo, i'm moses kringry!"

tonight, we ate tortilla chips as an appetizer at a local mexican restaurant. when the food arrived, we had him put his chip down on the table and hold our hands to pray. as we were praying, i sneaked a peek at our son. you know what he was doing? he was putting his mouth down to the table to pickup and eat the tortilla chip while still holding onto our hands as daddy prayed. puahahaha!!!

lovelove,
mamma bear

TP time

i found out today that mo and his chum at daycare threw a whole roll of toilet paper in the john and jumped around the bowl while flushing and laughing and having a grand old time.

#whendidhebecomealittleboy

quick turnaround

so, this morning, we were getting ready to get out the door, and mosey started to take out some cars and trucks to play with. i told him that it wasn't time for that, and that he needed to put his toys away. he, of course, in classic two-year old fashion, started having a meltdown. i proceeded to ask him calmly to put his toys away. and you know what happened? he turned his attitude right around and started putting his cars and trucks back in the box. and he said, "mommy, i'm not fussing."

i couldn't have been more proud. who is this awesome toddler? i can't handle it.

lovelove,
me