on vacation

me and the kids are in oregon for a bit while andy's at home studying for the MCATs. wish him luck! i'll be back here in a couple weeks.

streamers & recycling

not so into the streamers on a stick. very into tape dispensers lately though.


and sorting through the recycle bins. future job: recycling sorter.

poor crab

yep. this is who we had for dinner last night. i guess you can say kai has been into food with heads lately. last week he wanted to try a whole fish. so, we did. luckily, andy has a much better stomach for these things than i do and he can go along with it without any hesitation. the fish was tasty, as was the eye (apparently). yes, you read correctly. you can ask kai how they tasted. as i said, he's been into food with heads lately. so we were at the store the other day, and we came upon this big item. of course, we had to bring it home. this is kai playing with the crab and having him/her pick up things with the claw. a rubber band here.

manners

teaching how to be kind and manners to your little ones is a big part of parenting .... for most. while i do believe that they are important in society, i do think that teaching them to kids is tricky. i remember reading in alfie kohn's book unconditional parenting (so good!) that in telling our kids to say sorry, thank you, please, etc. when they don't really mean it, is in fact teaching them how to lie. uhh, makes sense to me. so, we (sometimes I) usually refrain from insisting that kai voice certain feelings (unless by his choice), and hope that he'll learn through observation and innately, by discussing with him why he chooses to do what he does. this week, though, inside i was secretly wishing he chose to be a little more kind.

1st scenario: we went to our neighbor's third birthday, and on the way he told me repeatedly he didn't want to play, just eat cake! and voiced this preference when we got to the party. (luckily they had cake).

2nd scenario: walking home yesterday, we passed by our neighbor working in the yard and stopped for a short chat. he asked why her hair looked so funny. luckily she's a little hard of hearing.

**inserting unrelated text: we're all hanging in the living room right now..... kai just busted out this question: "daddy, i'm going to the store to get some rubbers!" no, no not the kind you're thinking. he was referring to the rubber tires are made out of. classic.

love how the 3 yr old mind works.
have a relaxing, spring weekend!