Sleep Over, Red Light, and Precision!

Moody, Anes, and Tala

Tala has a planned sleep over with Morgan today. It could still be called off for Morgan's aunt might arrive today from out of town. In this case, they will just have a play date.

Moody has a sleep over with Anes on Sunday. His first time out of the house--we're sure he'll be fine. He's been asking when he's leaving and when he's coming back.

Tala has grown and "matured" so much in the past week or so. She's past the toddler stage, I guess, and gets sweeter and sweeter by the day. She has been testing a lot with behaviors and phrases. Yesterday, we stopped by a store and as she was getting out of the car, she said, "I promise I will behave in the store, Mom." Of course, that didn't happen! She wasn't bad, just being silly with her "broder." later at home, she said, "I'm sorry for writing on the table and chair, Mom." And she showed me where she did that with the crayon. A third time, she came to me and said, "I'm sorry for making a mess in the bathroom." She had unrolled the toilet paper off the roll! I explained to her that it's better not to do what she knows is not right, rather than do it and then say sorry. She has also been doing not-so-good things to Moody and saying sorry immediately after. What's her point? Just testing how the sorry word works and if it saves her any consequences and makes the actions OK? Don't know!

It's getting tiring keeping up with them two jrabee3! I have to be on guard all the time... It seems that everything they say is to somehow set Sol or me up for something or the other... long gone the innocence! lol

Moody and his linguistic precision: It is amazing, but sometimes gets to be annoying. He does not let a sentence or a word pass by without testing it, evaluating it, and correcting or commenting on it. On the one hand, I want him to keep this ability and develop it further, on the other hand, I don't want it to become some sort of a social hindrance for him.

Tala has figured the traffic lights and the color codes. If I'm turning right, she would say, "You can't turn on red! The light is red! You should stop!" And then I start the sermon of explaining it; but then comes another red light and another right-turn and we start all over again! If a traffic light--that is a mile away--turns red, she would say, "Mom, STOP, it's red!" I guess red means freeze wherever you are--immediately!

Her latest fascination nowadays is directions. Wherever we're going, she'd ask, "Where's the way to..." We just tell her to wait and she'll find out once we're driving there. She has been recognizing streets and knows our destination if it's a place she's been to before. Amazing! When I came to the US, it took me a while to distinguish the different streets and intersections. Most of them looked the same to me with no landmarks. It was just very different to Europe. How could a 3-year-old know one street from the other, even when they look pretty much the same!

Raising children is such an enlightening eye- and mind-opening experience in itself. Every stage of my children's life revives the same stage of my life. I'm reliving my childhood, enjoying my life, and learning along with my children.