The Circle of Life

Remember those silk worms that turned into moths that mated like crazy and laid about a gazillion eggs? Enough eggs to line the walls and bottom of a huge box? I had real fears of the eggs hatching one morning and we'd have a gazillion little silk worms to feed. I needed to get rid of the box before they hatched because once they hatched I'd feel a responsibility to care for the little buggars. However, Kael was talking about his moths every day so I couldn't get rid of them until his interested waned.

Unfortunately, it never did. Eventually fear of the eggs hatching propelled me to secretly toss the box out one night. And sure enough, the next morning Kael asked what happened to all his moths.

OK so this would have been a prime moment to explain to him about the circle of life, about life and death, and how everything comes around full circle, blah blah blah. BUT how could I explain death caused by me throwing away the eggs in the garbage?? It's not as if they all died a natural death.

Instead I told him that they went home. That they missed their mommies and they all went home to their families. (I know - I can hear you all groaning "Sonya Sonya Sonya.")

I know it's a cop-out but I just wasn't ready to explain the D-words (Died and Dead). So all this time he's gone on with the notion that his silk moths went home. He still talks about them and will tell people he meets in the elevator, the grocery store, the mall, people everywhere about his silk moths and worms.

This morning he wanted to talk to Shana and Ryan. I call them up and first he chats with Shana. Then he chats with Ryan. Somehow the topic of silk worms came up and he asked where are Ryan's silk moths. (I'm a little alarmed because I know that Shana threw them away and didn't tell Ryan the same warm and fuzzy story I told Kael.) Ryan tells him they died. (At this point I'm trying to get Kael to steer the topic to something else: "Ask Ryan what he's eating for breakfast! Ask him what he's wearing! Ask him what he's watching on TV!") Instead Kael gets a concerned look on his face and tells Ryan that his moths (Kael's) went home. And Ryan tells Kael (very matter of factly): "No Kael, your moths died too."

Omigod. The look on Kael's face. I can't even begin to find the words to describe it. He gave me a wide eyed look of... Confusion? Dismay? No it can't be true? He tells Ryan again: "No, Ryan, my moths went home with their mommies." To which Ryan replies: "No Kael! They all died! They're all DEAD."

At this point I've got my head in my hands, with the image of my son's crushed look seared forever onto my retinas, desperately screaming in my head "SHANA TAKE THE PHONE AWAY FROM RYAN!", hoping that she'll get my ESP message. But no, the DiDodo's were probably laughing their asses off, knowing what was going on on this end of the phone call, and did not get my ESP signal.

I manage to get the boys to say good bye and the first thing Kael asks me "Mom, where are my moths? They aren't dead, are they? Are they, mom? Are they DEAD?" I distract him by telling him that I'm on the phone with Ms. Shana and gave him some Matchbox cars to play with. Shana gets on the phone and sure enough, she's laughing her ass off. She tells Patrick that I haven't told Kael about the moths dying and that I told him they went home to their families. Patrick is astonished that I haven't told Kael the truth. He takes the phone away from Shana and tells me he wants to talk to Kael. I ask him why. He tells me that he wants to explain the circle of life to Kael and how everything dies in the end. But I tell him I'm not ready to talk to Kael about that stuff yet so Patrick (who knows me so well and already anticipates the years ahead) gives me an option: "Sonya, you have a choice. Either let me talk to him about the circle of life or I will talk to him about the other circle of life."

Great, that's just what I need: the Italian Stallion telling Kael about the birds and the bees.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

Woo-hoo! Christmas came early to the Mai house and with it came not one... not two... but FOUR teeth!!

All I can say is: finally. Maybe now we can get some sleep and perhaps squeeze in a meal (or two or three). Malia's top two molars cut through Monday and Tuesday. I noticed that her bottom tooth was starting to push up and thought to myself: "great, another month of agony." But surprisingly it cut through within a few days. And even more surprising was another bottom tooth on the other side cut through last night without any of her typical signs of teething (no red gums, no bruising).

Unfortunately with her new teeth making an appearance, also comes biting. She's like a little piranha - biting all exposed areas within reach. My arm, my shoulder, my fingers... Kael. He is not thrilled about this new development in her personality and in fact I'm waiting for him to bite back. I know it's coming, the writing's on the wall -- or in this case, his face, that look in his eyes -- so it's just a matter of when.

Trix are for kids

Just a few more weeks and Kael will be FOUR! Crikey, time flies fast. He's of an age now where he has definite preferences, likes and dislikes. I recognize the benefit of giving him opportunities to make choices -- to both help with his decision making abilities and to get him involved in his day-to-day life.

Take for example: cereal. It seems so silly that choosing a cereal would be such a big step. But look at it from a 4 year old's point of view: the endless aisle of colorful boxes, the pretty pictures, the cool shapes, the neat toys. Do I want the pirate cereal or the tiger cereal? Wow - marshmallows! The choices are mind boggling.

The last time I let Kael choose his cereal he picked Peanut Butter Captain Crunch. Not the best but certainly not the worst. He actually ate the entire box. By himself. Malia wasn't too keen on the Captain and stuck by her trusted Cheerios. On Wednesday I decided to pick out his cereal myself so I can be assured of a certain level of nutrition. Kael won't eat Cheerios as he's deemed it a "baby cereal", Raisin Bran is out due to the raisins, Kellogg's Corn Flakes look so boring, and Grape Nuts -- we used to feed it to the ducks at the duck pond. Plus I had to pick a cereal from General Mills for the Box Top. So I picked Chex and, keeping in mind that he's 4 and will want something with a little more oompf to it, Chocolate Chex (made with real cocoa powder) was the ultimate winner.

Thursday morning he was thrilled at the new cereal and ate it quickly at first. We were running late to get to preschool so I was really hurrying him. And true to Murphy's Law, the later it became, the slower he ate. Finally it was a pretty soggy mess and even I couldn't in good conscience encourage him to finish. I threw some in a snack trap for Malia to eat on the way and off we went. We were super late and the whole way there Kael kept telling me: "I can't believe you made me late for school, Mom! I can't believe we're late! Mom, we're really late!" I park the car and I hear the school bell ring -- crap!! I throw open Malia's door to get her out.... and she's covered in chocolate powder. Covered. Her face. Her hair. Her ears. Her chest. She's a total mess. I stand there and stare at her, not knowing where to begin, what to do. Kael snaps me out of my dumbfoundment with a "MOM GET ME OUT OF HERE! I'M LATE FOR SCHOOL!" I take her, grab a wipe, run around to let Kael out and we start speed walking to the gates with me trying to clean Malia who's perched on my hip and she trying to avoid the wipe. Of course the classroom door was closed and circle time had already started. Everyone stared at us as we entered the classroom and I can only imagine what a sight we made: slightly out of breath with a pissed off Malia who only had half her face clean because she kept turning her face away. Poor Kael - he was mortified as he tried to get to his spot on the circle without attracting further notice. I felt awful. He's not even 4 and I've already embarrassed him in front of his friends.

After school we went to the market and this time I allowed Kael to pick his cereal. I managed to steer him away from Lucky Charms and Coco Puffs. I couldn't get him to go for the healthier flake cereals because he wanted a "ball cereal that is crunchy." We settled on.... Trix.

I know. Trix. I know! I don't remember the colors being so.... so.... vibrant. Shana was floored that I had Trix in my home. No surprise here, but Gina and Malia loved it. Gina could not get enough of the colorful little balls. I have yet to read the ingredients list and I don't think I will. Ignorance is bliss. Hey, at least Malia is eating something, right??

"I've been working on the rainbow..."

On a typical day, we run errands after Kael is picked up from school at noon. Today we headed over to Costco. As I load the kids up in the shopping cart and head over to the entrance, I notice Kael's singing something but I don't pay much attention because it's a couple hundred degrees outside (seriously!) and Malia's determined to chuck her sippy cup onto the ground (3 attempts, one successful). As I enter into the cool air conditioned oasis that is Costco, I finally take note of the words of Kael's song:

I've been working on the rainbow, all the dah-dah day!
I've been working on the rainbow, all the long day gone!

I start to laugh and I ask him, What's wrong with the rainbow that you have to work on it? He replies, it's broken and it's taking me a really long time to fix it. Then he sings:

I've been working on the rainbow, all on Saturday!
I've been working on the rainbow, all two Saturdays long!

It was hilarious. He clearly gets his singing ability from me as I can't remember words to songs to save my life. But I tend to lah-lah-lah my way through songs so he's a couple of steps above me.

At Costco we got Malia a little Winnie the Pooh ride-on toy. She always gets on Gina's so I figured it was time to get her her own ride. At home both she and Kael wanted to ride on it and I had to intervene before there was blood shed. I need to take a picture of Kael while he's on it, with his knees practically up to his ears because he's all leg. So Malia's on it and Kael's pushing her which she does not like. I think she realized this was her toy as she didn't even want him touching it. After a few minutes, she figured out how to propel it with her feet and within 15 minutes, she was able to go in an intentional direction. The funny part is as she rolled past, she'd wave and say "bye!" It was hilarious. Maybe more so for me as I'm her mom than for the rest of you...

We didn't do much this Labor Day weekend. We couldn't - it was too hot! It wasn't just hot or really hot or even really REALLY hot. It was "I can't believe how f****ing hot it is" hot. Yesterday it reached 111 degrees. On Sunday is a little cooler at 108 degrees. I knew all of Southern California would be at the beach so I definitely did not want to head there. And we couldn't head to California Adventure to the water park because of the Disney marathon. So instead we set up the slip and slide in the front yard.


Just add water.












Thai getting a little help from Robert. He's never been on a slip-n-slide before (Thai, not Robert). Robert was telling me he used to make SnS with trash bags. In Fresno. Go figure.















I love the look of concentration on Kael's face as he takes his running start.























Perfect take off - right in the middle...



























and into the puddle of water...



























for a perfect landing!



























This is what summer looks like.











Thai wasn't into the SnS so we moved the activities to the backyard and set up the kiddie pools. Clearly he needs to spend some summer time in Fresno with Robert.


And from there the kids moved to the sand table.
























And while the kids were playing, Dad cooled off. Hmm... maybe we ARE in Fresno.

Test Results are In!

Well, actually they've been in for a week or so but I keep forgetting to post them. Thank you to everyone who asked.

So here are the results from Malia's tests:

Blood - Negative for celiac's disease
Poop - Negative for malabsorption
Sweat - Negative for CF

What does that all mean?? It means she's perfectly normal. Her thyroid test done earlier was within normal ranges too. Soo, she's just a little peanut. A really REALLY little peanut.

She's been on a food and milk strike the past few weeks and I can tell she's lost weight. The pants that she used to fit are saggy and she's back to wearing some things in size 3-6 months. I can count on her to eat at least 2-3 spoons of whatever I'm feeding her before she refuses. Interestingly though, she has no problems eating pretzels and mint chocolate chip ice cream. Yesterday Truong was giving her some of his mint ice cream and I placed a piece of real food on top (I can't remember what it was). She ate it but had a look on her face like "What the heck?!" We did it again and she gave me an evil eye but ate it. The third time Truong put the real food on first then scooped a bit of ice cream with the tip of the spoon -- and she just ate the ice cream and use her tongue to push back the food. Smart girl. So next Truong got ice cream first and put food on top, in front. She used her lips and sucked the ice cream from underneath the food and left the food on the spoon. Again.

So do you think we're going to have any eating issues with her?

This morning we went to dim sum and she seemed to like it. She certainly ate more that she's been eating, and she ate a lot of the pluot I gave her for dessert. I think there's something about holding the fruit in her hands and taking a bite out of it that's getting her to eat the fruit. Maybe I should make a giant meatball the size of a baseball and let her have a go at it... At this point I'm willing to try anything!