Conversations with Daddy

Let me set the scene:

It's our home about 9 pm in the girls' room. The girls should be sleeping however Jeff can hear giggling and talking from their room. In walks Jeff through the girls' bedroom door...

Daddy: Are you two sleeping in here?
Katie: (sitting straight up) I'm sleeping!!
Bella: (sitting straight up) I sleepin'
Daddy: So how is it that you are sleeping and sitting up in your beds?

Bella and Katie lay back down
Jeff exits out the bedroom door and closes it

So what you do all think?? Were the girls sleeping?? Or were they having a party in there room with lots of giggling and talking??

Next morning scene is that Bella is still sleeping however Katie is up and cranky. Do you have any ideas as to why she might be so cranky??? Could it be that she stayed up past her bedtime and woke up at her normal time???? Naw couldn't be that, could it?????

~Jen

Elephants, Counting, Tea Parties, and Music

Elephants

Ask Katie what her favorite animal in the world is and she'll tell you...ELEPHANTS!!!!! We took out books from our public library and she was quite upset when we had to return them. She'll tell you the parts of the elephant (from the tusks to the tail). She'll tell you what the Mommy, Daddy and baby elephants are called. She was absolutely delighted to get elephant stuffed animals and books on elephants for Christmas.

I asked her recently what she wanted to do when she grew up and besides being a Mommy who adopts, she wants to take care of animals and have an elephant as a pet. Boy my girl can dream big here!!!! Jeff and I have tried to tell her that we can't have an elephant as a pet in the home and her response was "okay how about a baby elephant??".

Someday we're going to have to take this girl to go see elephants in person. I can't begin to imagine her reaction to elephants then.

Counting

Ryan is doing really well with counting...especially after I created a little game that just he, Katie and I do right now. Before he could count up to 50 with quite a bit of help. Now he can count up to 100 with some help (mainly the 10's spot).

Tea Parties

Bella loves to host tea parties. She cooks in her little kitchen, pours the tea into tea cups, and hands out the goodies to eat as well. She is a very good hostess most of the time.

Music

All 3 kids love to sing and listen to music. Ryan will sing songs that he has learned from PBS Kids or from his computer along with Katie. Bella loves to sing along to me singing "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore" and so far this is her most requested song. I think that if she could, she would put Mommy on repeat all day long.

Dick and Jane Story Collection Volume 1 & My 4 1/2 and 3 Year Olds

Both of my oldest two kids are learning to read. Ryan is on page 114 of 193 . Katie is on page 66 and read 13 pages last night with little problem. It's simply amazing to see something just click like this.

Tonight we're reading Dick and Jane again. Bella wants to read but she is learning her letters, colors and numbers for now.

~Jen

What's for Breakfast in Our Household

Okay the proverbial question "What's for Dinner" is now also "What's for Breakfast?". This morning the kids (all three of them) asked for white kimchi made by Sunja's Kimchi (as they call it--it's the non spicy kind) for breakfast. They ate up the 1/3 of the jar that we had of it. Unfortunately we haven't been able to find more of it at the grocery stores in our area. However I did find it for purchase online and we're just going to have to pick some up. Now should we it up by the gallon???

Now also for breakfast they asked for a rice dish while not Korean is similar to Bibimbop (rice, meat, and vegetables galore all mixed in).

Tomorrow morning should be interesting as we have red kimchi (the spicy stuff as the two oldest call it) only in the refrigerator and the rice dish is all gone since they ate it up this morning. I have tried the washing off of the kimchi to please their palates at the moment but they will not eat it for fear of getting some spiciness. Will there be protesting in our home???

For those of you who read this that are local to us (and you know who you are), please be on the look out for the Sunja's White Kimchi and either pick some up for us or let us know where we can find it.

~Jen

As the sickness goes around the house...

It was either Daddy or Bella who got sick first. Then Katie and then myself. Now Mommy is sick as well. It's a cold but it is wiping people out who get it (well at least Bella and Mommy and Daddy). Katie and I don't think that we're sick at all so we're running and jumping and did I mention running around??

Mommy and Daddy say that we should rest BUT that's no fun to do!!! How else are we supposed to play with our Christmas toys???

Can you say that we are going stir crazy in the house?? So much snow outside and we can't play in it due to it being too cold out and us having colds!!! Definitely not fair!!! However when we get over our colds in this home, we will head outside to play in the snow once again. We're sick of being sick here. We're sick of the runny and stuffy noses. We're sick of having to blow our noses.

~Ryan

Waiting for the Big Man in Red to Come

We are waiting for Santa to come to our home. We were reluctant to sleep (well at least two of us were and it wasn't me). We are hoping that Santa thinks that we are on his nice list since we haven't been so nice this month.

Well gotta go for now before Mommy and Daddy catch me on the computer!

~Ryan

Pre-Christmas in our Home

We have been preparing here for Christmas to come. The tree is up and decorated by mostly the kids (I'll have to upload photos after Christmas for you to see). I have hung up the special ornaments for the kids. The lotus blossom trinket that I picked up at Jogyesa Buddhist Temple in Seoul when we were there last year, the individual grandson/granddaughter ones that the kids have gotten from their grandparents and more. I have baked brown sugar cookies already (and have already tasted the ones that broke--mmmm good!!!!).

On the menu so far for Christmas is:

pineapple/cream cheese dip with crackers
Christmas ham
peas and pearl onions
corn
scalloped potatoes
homemade bread
various cookies
chocolate cream pie (that is if my dad is good)
Korean pear (got them from the Korean food market and boy are they good!!!!)
Korean rice cookies for Bella in particular but also for Ryan and Katie if they would like it

The kids are awaiting Santa's presence however the kids in this household haven't been on Santa's nice list this month (uh oh!!!!!). We hope that changes very soon as Christmas is just days away.

~Jen