CityMama™

Seven

It's kind of scary how much she really gets it

Conversation with Bunny.

Bunny: Mamma, are you the boss of all the bloggers?
Me: No, but I am the boss of my own blogs.
Bunny: So you can make whatever blogs you want?
Me: Yup.
Bunny: I have an idea. I think you should make a blog called "Totoro Moms." Then all the moms who love Totoro like you will have a place to go and talk about how much they like Totoro.

And then I bought a domain name. I'll probably never do anything with it, but it's for her.

I'm the mother of a second grader today

Today Bunny officially became a second grader, and I officially became verklempt. How did my baby turn into such a big girl so fast?

My baby, who it seemed just yesterday was babbling and nursing and crawling, now writes us letter upon letter, keeps a diary, loves Broadway musicals and the Black-eyed Peas, has thoughtful conversations with me about life and death, and recently confessed to having a crush on the cute, little Korean boy in her class. (I know that warms her Tata's heart.)

Dearest Bunny, my first baby, my beautiful girl, I am so proud of all you have accomplished this year. You have a specialness that eminates from you that I have never been able to describe with words. To know you is to know you are truly something else. You are such an amazing person, and oh I love you!

Now let's have a great summer!

The real developmental milestones

Remember when we all hovered over our babies waiting for them to smile, sit up, crawl, walk, or talk? Some of us probably sized up our kid with all the other kids in playgroup, or constantly checked BabyCenter to see when our babies should have a pincer grasp or eat solids or be expected to sleep through the night. All those developmental milestones are encouraging to parents, but I venture to say they aren't as important as the real milestones of young childhood. Like:

Learning to wipe her/his own butt. At a meeting with teachers before Bunny started kindergarten two years ago, the teachers said that they expected the kids to be able to handle all their own potty needs. All. So the next day, I bought a box of Kandoos and went to town teaching eager-to-learn and independent-minded Bunny proper bum-wiping skills.  Two days later, she was solid. Wallie, on the other hand, refuses to even try and starts to cry when I mention it.  We have a whole summer to work on it. Wish me luck. I'm going to need it.

Clicking her/his own seatbelt. At age four, I taught my kids to click their own seatbelts. Pull, pull, pull the belt, hold it, then click. Then, pull, pull, pull it tight. For several weeks I gave a final check until I was confident that the belts were straight and tight.  My back thanked me very much for not having to lean into a car, across two kids to click seatbelts. And I admit I am a little thrown when we carpool a kid who still can't do it, so I teach him/her how. They can do it! Let 'em!

Working the TV/DVD Player/AppleTV: "Wallie, push the button that looks like a house...yes, that one...take out the DVD...put the new one in DON'TFORCEIT!...Now push the button that looks like a sideways nose, the triangle button...It'll start...NODONTPUSHITAGAIN...just WAIT...it'll start....I said wait!"  You know what?  That is BULLSHIT.  Bunny is our official AV Kid and that's how I like it.  As long as she asks permission before renting or buying any movies on AppleTV, she can pretty much run the TV viewing show in this house.  (It's not a free-for-all, they have designated TV times and have specific shows they can watch, but not having to push the TV/Video button to get the TV on the right setting to watch regular TV or DVDs or AppleTV = priceless.)

Bunny's latest obsession

I am convinced no child can resist the dulcet tones of Harold Faltermeyer. Gather the kids 'round and hit play on this oldie but goodie.  You'll see I'm right.

Of schedules and routines

We've always been a pretty routine-oriented family. From a set bedtime routine that has been the same since both kids were babies to our habit of having coffee and pastries at the mall every Saturday when the weather is nice (it's an outdoor mall that is very pretty and pleasant) to Sunday mornings spent moving from one hippie church activity to the next until lunchtime, we're kind of set in our ways.

 The hardest times for me are the after school to bedtime hours, I know these hours are hard for a lot of stay-at-home parents. They are especially tough for me as a work-at-home parent because I am interrupted so many times during the day by appointments or phone calls or school volunteering or school picks-ups that oftentimes I'm not even really getting rolling with work until after lunch.  The afternoon is also when I try to schedule all my calls, something I may have to revisit.

We have after school activities that fill an hour or two here or there, but for the most part, we've been playing those hours fast and loose. And it's been a problem.  Left to their own devices, the girls will play for a while and then eventually start getting on each other's nerves. Then the day ends on a bad note where everyone is frustrated and pissed off at each other.

Who goes to the ER for a nose bleed? I do.

The vacation so far.

We kept Bunny out of school for a couple of days before leaving for Hawaii last Thursday because she seemed to be coming down with something.  She had a cough and was running a low-grade fever.  On the day we left for Hawaii, she was feeling better and the plane ride over was uneventful until a tray table that she thought she had locked properly came crashing down on her nose as she was bending down to reach for her backpack.

She was sitting a couple of rows in front of me with her cousin and came to me crying.  She rarely does that anymore, and so I scooped her up into my lap and rocked her like a baby while she shut her eyes, held her nose and sobbed.  After a few minutes, she felt better and went back to her seat.

When we landed, I noticed she was looking a little wan, and at the Korean restaurant where we stopped for a quick dinner, I made her a little bed out of three pushed-together chairs and she feel asleep.  The waitresses came over and clucked and fussed over her as only Korean waitresses will do, and found some towels with which to cover her. She didn't want to eat even when her favorite things were placed in front of her.

Smile Found Update

On last Friday's bullshit timed tests, she got both tests 100% correct (one addition, one subtraction) and was the 9th one finished (instead of being in the bottom three).  She was so happy.

And so was I because it meant she took what I said to heart. 

1/30/09 Update: This week she finished 6th. Atta girl, Bunny!

Mandoo Soup and Half-Birthdays

Today I went to Bunny's class to show them how to make Mandoo (Korean dumplings) which my family makes and eats to celebrate the New Year.

It also happened to coincide with her half-birthday which I maintain is a bogus, school-created construct to get parents to shell out $15 in frosted sprinkle cookies when it's not their kid's birthday.

Ah, but she was so happy. 

I've written about mandoo before, but I've never shared a recipe. I think it's because there are so many and even within my own family it seems we never make it the same way twice. I finally hit on a recipe that anyone can make with ingredients found in any well-stocked grocery store.

She's been reading the Secret

 

All December long she's been telling everyone who asked her that were going to Tahoe for winter vacation. We had no plans to go and despite my telling repeatedly that we weren't going skiing, she was undaunted.

"I hear you're going to Tahoe," friends would say.

"No we aren't," I'd respond.

This went on all during December, and I worried that Bunny would be disappointed as vacation came to a close.

On New Year's Eve we got a last minute invitation from friends to join them in Tahoe for the weekend and here we are. She knew it all along, that girl.

[posted from Sierra at Tahoe while waiting for Bunny to finish her ski lessons. It was about 15ºF when that photo was taken. More photos on Flickr.]