Maggie!

who said, “We’re having our first this August, so the Baby Bjorn carrier would *definitely* come in handy for walks throughout the fall and winter!”

Congratulations, Maggie!  I hope you and your little one enjoy your walks in comfort! Look for an e-mail from me so I can get your mailing address.

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway.

That’s why I’m super excited about getting the chance to attend a media event showcasing the educational series, Little Angels developed by Roma Downey

Penny, Ella, and I will be going on Tuesday morning to get a look at this new series.  It looks really cute.  Although we aren’t particularly religious, the girls attend a Lutheran preschool and Ella is really talking a lot about God right now, so I think she’s going to enjoy it.

Also, Roma Downey is going to be there!  I have to say, I loved the show Touched By an Angel (even though that dates me), and I’m really excited to get a chance to see her.  A DVD show for the girls, a celebrity for mommy, should be a fun day.

I’ll definitely be taking pictures and giving my two cents about the series in the near future.  So stay tuned.

What do your kids watch when you need a break?

Samantha is about half way through the school year, so I thought I should do an update.

At her first parent teacher conference, both her English and Chinese teacher said she was doing very well.  She was doing solid kindergarten work in the English portion and her Mandarin teacher was very pleased with her progress.  She knew the vocabulary and could answer questions in Chinese without prompting.

At home, we’ve just been astounded.  She’s reading and writing in both English and Mandarin.  For the Mandarin portion they have an online program to use at home.  She can pick out correct sentence structure. Her vocabulary grows every day. I think she can read better in Chinese than English.

But, here’s the thing. Sammy doesn’t know it.  She’s in a class where some of the kids are already bilingual and it’s starting to become apparent.  She doesn’t understand her classmates came in knowing Chinese. She just knows they seem to understand everything, and she doesn’t.  And it’s stressing her out.  She’s been complaining of stomach aches in the morning when she starts with Chinese.  I hear of her laying down in the class with a stomach ache.  I even had to pick her up once from school for the stomach aches.  She’s stressed because she doesn’t know how much she knows or that’s she’s not expected to know everything.

We talked to her about it. Told her she’s doing well, that her teachers say she’s doing very well, that she’s not expected to know everything, she’s there to learn.  But still the stomachaches.

Very luckily, our neighbors are from China and the wife teaches at one of those Saturday Chinese schools, and they agreed to help her with her homework.  We went last Saturday and they were very impressed she knew so much already and how well she pronounced her Chinese.  They mooned over her, and she ate it up.

I left her for an hour and they played games with her and their older daughter (11), who Sammy adores.  When I picked her up, they had been playing pictionary in Chinese. The husband said to me, “My daughter drew a banana and she said banana!” I nodded. “In Chinese!” I nodded.  She already knew banana. They also practiced saying “I/he/she/they want” using strawberries. Sammy ate 17 strawberries (with sugar)  by asking for them in Chinese. Needless to say, she wants to go back.

I’m hoping that they will help her realize how well she’s doing and boost her confidence.

She loves her classmates and all the special activities they have.  They just had their Chinese New Year celebration, they did a lion dance, a professional lion dance team, they tasted traditional New Year’s foods.

I want her to learn Chinese, but I don’t want her to be stressed in kindergarten. Really, I don’t want her to be stressed in school period.  As long as she’s working hard and doing her best, that’s all I ask.  All this self-imposed perfectionism is not good in my opinion.

Any suggestions to help her be less hard on herself.  It’s kindergarten, for Pete’s sake.

I make these pretty frequently.  I usually have the ingredients on hand for those days when I just want something easy or I realize I forgot something for the meal I was planning on making and need a back up plan.

Ingredients:

1 bag Diced, cooked potatoes.  You could do your own or buy pre-made ones in the store. I go with pre-made.  I use Potatoes O’Brian in the frozen section because I like the peppers and onions in them.  There are also plain in the refrigerated section.

1 can vegetarian refried beans

1/2 c. salsa – your choice on what kind and spiciness you like. Diced tomatoes or tomato sauce also work in a pinch.

1 TBSP taco or chili seasoning. I buy the little packs, you could just add whatever spices you’d like, too.

taco shells

shredded lettuce and diced, fresh tomatoes (you can omit these if you don’t have them on hand)

Instructions:

Cook the potatoes according to the instructions.  Mix in 1 TBSP of the taco seasoning at the beginning.

Mix the beans and salsa in a microwavable bowl and heat for four minutes.

Put the beans, then potatoes in a taco shell. Add lettuce and tomatoes on top.  That’s it. Super yummy.  If you want, you can cheese it up by adding shredded cheddar to the potatoes the last couple minutes until it’s melty or put cheddar on top of your taco at the end.

I’ve decided to institute a child friendly scale.  No one likes to make a meal their kids won’t eat.  Keep in mind, these are my kids, used to my cooking. This one is a 4/5.  I leave the components separate so they can make their own tacos or just eat what they want.  They all eat the taco shells and usually the potatoes.  Ella won’t eat the beans, but the other two will.  And I give them shredded cheddar on the side that they gobble up.  (My kids aren’t vegan.)

1. Have Children

I know, it seems like a lot just for a clean shower, but think about it. A. Clean. Shower. You don’t have to have more than one, but it will work faster if you do.  As you’re going through those sleepless newborn nights, dealing with dirty diapers, potty training, and temper tantrums, keep the payoff in mind.  A. Clean. Shower.

2. Begin to Make Cleaning Fun

Start early.  Make games out of picking up.  Make sure they see you cleaning so they understand how important and clearly, fun, it is.  Let them “assist” you with dusting or wiping door knobs.  Sing silly songs about cleaning.  Kids eat that stuff up.

3. Decide to have them Shower

This is the most important step.  They need to be old enough to not fall in the shower and to be able to keep their faces up so they don’t get soap in their eyes with the shampooing.  Soap in the eyes kills the cleaning process.  Plus, you need to be able to leave them behind the closed door if you want that clean.

4. Put a Sponge in the Shower

This was accidental on my part.  Sean had to unclog the shower and he used a sponge to clean the gunk when he was done.  Then I was too lazy to take it out.  Plus, he used a new sponge and it seemed like a waste to throw it.

Turns out, kids love sponges!  As soon as Sammy saw it, she started scrubbing the shower door, making bubbles and really scrubbing that thing!  I mean, way better than I do.  And she liked it!  She even cleaned it with the squeegee when she was done!

4. Encourage the Behavior

Tell them they’re doing a great job.  Tell them they’re better at cleaning showers than you are.  Point out the dirty spots on the tile and say how you can’t get it clean.  Challenge them to do a better job than you.  Again, kids eat praise up.  Soon after I started that, Sammy began scrubbing the walls and grout like their was no tomorrow.

5. Set the Rules

I have only one, use Daddy’s soap, not Mommy’s more expensive, nice smelling soap.  You can have more rules if you’d like, but keep in mind, too many rules make it not fun.

That’s it!  Clean shower until they catch on, and then if you had more than one child, you just move the next one up.

But wait, you say, what about child labor laws?  Don’t worry, as far as I can tell, they don’t apply to your own children!

The only downside is they can only clean as high as they can reach, so try to have tall children.