Trick or Treating at School

This morning was the Halloween party at school and Kael did OK. We had moments where he froze and didn't want to participate but overall he did much better than last year. Quite honestly, I was surprised he even wore his costume at all. I was really relieved when he wanted to be a firefighter this year because the costume is similar to regular clothes so he wouldn't feel so out of sorts wearing it.

Kael with his friend Lauren. He thought it would be funny to slouch. I have to disagree. But it's still a cute picture.

This is his best friend in class - Bryan. The boys are very cute together and are really good buddies.

A sudden case of the shy's. Or in Kael's case: the stubborn's (he didn't want to take any pictures).

The entire class on the field getting ready for the parade. I was pretty surprised Kael got as far as he did. I was expecting him to be stuck on my leg like white on rice.

The start of the parade. So far so good for Kael. BTW, who thought of this torture for little kids?? A lot of the kids looked lost and didn't seem to have a clue of what was going on.

Uh-oh. He sees me and all of a sudden he becomes a limp noodle. Abort! Abort!

The parade (for Kael) is officially over. He hangs out by me while his class makes the lap and I walk him back to his seat.

Malia in the meantime is happily playing with a ball....

...and getting bugged by Gina.

The class picture which took several threats to Kael to get him to stay put. He kept trying to scurry away.

The kids working on their Halloween craft: a Treat bag.

Hopefully he'll want to wear the helmet that came with his costume tonight, and not the bag.

Kael and Aaron mummifying Rylen.

The aftermath of the Mummy game.

Kael handing out his treats.

Snacktime. Malia eating a cracker and trying to snitch more food off Kael's plate.

Kael trying to get to the garbage without spilling the grapes rolling all over his plate. Another parent and I were watching his slow progress, laughing, until she took pity and took the plate from him.

All the kids were very cute. When it was time for me to leave with Malia, some of the kids asked me to leave her at school so they could play with her. I wonder sometimes if they see her as the class mascot...

Malia, lia, boh, lia... MALIA!

I have that song stuck in my head and I don't even know the title or the real words (me, my, mo mana... according to cousin Lynn). Kael and I have been singing it all day, making up words as we go. Eventually he's going to realize that I can't sing so I'm going to enjoy making up songs while I can.

I thought I'd update you all on Malia since Kael gets the dubious honor of being the star of our blog. An honor he keeps at least until Malia gets older and starts talking real words, not Malia-jibberish. Did I tell you I can't wait for that to happen? When they can BOTH talk? And if they continue on the same track that they are on now, they will both talk at the same time, very loudly as they try to talk over each other. Yes, I can't wait.

So... Malia. Her 18 month well-baby appointment is November 6 so it will be interesting to see how much she's gained. The last appointment I was positive she hefted up some -- but turned out she was only 16 lbs (16 months). I'm trying to convince Truong to come with me so he can witness his little "angel" at the doctor's office. It's no longer possible to get an accurate length check and I don't think they will get a head measurement. She's still wearing 6-12 months clothes and while the waist is still loose, the length is getting short. Luckily short pants on girls are called capris so I don't have to worry about the Erkel effect.

A couple times a week we go visit Mon at the donut shop after we drop Kael off at school. Mon and I spend about 30-45 minutes chatting while Malia roams about the shop, double fisting donuts, making an absolute mess of herself and the shop.

Here she is picking out her donuts. Mon lets her go around back and grab what she wants. I quickly put a stop to that when she would take one bite, give it to Mon then pick out another.

"What...? Is there something on my face?"

On the swimming front, she's doing really good. She jumps in herself and does everything Sara asks her to do. Sara really has to be on her toes as Malia will fearlessly dive in without any prompting.

Malia diving in for her laps.

She hasn't figured out how to kick her legs yet so Sara has to help propel her towards the tower.

Our little Mermaid.

Costco has their Christmas toys out (already) so it's a lot harder now getting through the store. Between Kael needing to get a book to read and Malia wanting the food samples, it's a trip and a half. We have to avoid one aisle in particular...

Malia absolutely LOVES this Jeep. She will not get out and we have to pry her out kicking and screaming. I've since learned to motor around this aisle but sometimes they move the Jeep around so I have to really keep my eyes peeled.

Tomorrow is Halloween so I'll post our pumpkin pictures along with the kids in their Halloween finery. Malia's tutu is still a recognizable tutu so I'm debating on whether or not to dress her up for Kael's school parade. I feel like that tutu has only 9 lives and I've used most of them trying to get her used to wearing it in the weeks prior. It would be just my dumb luck to have the thing shed all its layers just hours before we go trick or treating.

Great. Did I just jinx myself or what?!

Worm Post, Part II

I should be happy that people are reading my blog. And I am. I really am.

But come on, people!! I'm not a bad mom because I played a role in facilitating the quick demise of Kael's silk worms. Do you not understand that we're talking about thousands of eggs?!! And if they hatched then I would have had thousands of silk worms crawling in my house?!! Ugh -- just thinking about it is making my skin crawl. The entire time we fostered those worms I did not touch them once. I physically could not do it. If Truong was out of town, then the worm box remained full of worm poop because not even with a full bio-hazard suit would I have been able to touch them. I do remember one time I had to clean it and had to instruct Kael to do all the manual labor. From 2 feet away.

I should have gotten an idea of how he felt about them after one fatality. (Getting "hate mail" from the last post does wonders for jogging my memory.) Anyway, I remember one night Kael was goofing with his magnifying glass to get a close-up look of one of the worms when he accidentally squashed it: the magnifying glass fell on the worm and caused severe internal injuries resulting in juices being squirted out. I don't remember the exact words said, but it was something to the effect of "Oh no! You hurt the worm! I think you killed it/it's going to die... but it's OK. It was an accident."

I remember the look on his face. It was one of absolute horror and shock. So Truong and I immediately back-pedaled and told Kael that we were mistaken and the worm actually looks OK. But maybe we should put him back in the box so he can rest and get better. Kael immediately said: "Yeah, he's [the worm] OK. I didn't hurt it. He'll be OK. Let's just let him rest." And he kept repeating it: "I didn't hurt him... he'll be OK."

Of course, the next morning, the worm is curled up in a tight little ball, as dead as dead can be. Truong threw it away and we swore the death to secrecy, never to be spoken of in front of Kael. When Kael asked about the worm, we just pointed out a healthy one and said "Look, there he is! He's all better now!"

Did I feel guilty about lying to my child? Sure.
Do I regret it? No way!

(It has crossed my mind that perhaps Truong and I should start prepping ourselves for the S-E-X talk since we've been so ill-prepared for all the important talks thus far.)


P.S. Yes, I've been getting "hate mail" letting me know that it was I who killed my son's silk worms by tossing them in the trash. Apparently these persons did not like that I glossed over the real reason why the worms were no longer on this Earth and wanted a public confession.

Even my own flesh and blood family is demanding that I get Kael more worms.

I can't believe I've written how many blog entries and I get the most response over the dead silk worms?!

The Sound of Death Understood

Have you ever wondered what Understanding Death sounds like? I heard it last night so allow me to describe it.

It’s the sound of your child trying to be brave when he’s really sad and then not being able to contain his feelings and little sobbing sighs and hiccups leak out as he hugs you super tight with his face pressed against your neck. It's the sound of sadness in his little voice as he tells you the thing that made him so happy is gone forever.

It was awful. Really really awful.

Kael is Student of the Week so we made an All About Me board to share with his class. We selected pictures and pasted them with little captions describing what they mean to Kael. I have Kael’s board broken down into three sections: My Family & Friends, Places I’ve Visited, and My Favorite Things. Under Favorite Things I pasted on one of my favorite pictures of Kael:



I love this picture! His mile-wide smile, the look of joy on his face and all the creepy crawlies in his hand – it’s one of those “a picture is worth a thousand words” pictures. Plus he talked about those worms forever. So of course I had to put it on his board.

Last night Truong was helping Kael put the finishing touches on his board and I guess Kael got really sad when he saw this picture. When I came downstairs, Truong told Kael to tell me what he said. Kael looked at me and said: “Mom, I really miss them” in a soft, tiny voice, with his chin tucked into his chest. I wasn't sure if I heard correctly so I asked him to repeat it.

Kael: “Mom, they’re all gone.”
His voice starts to quiver a little and he refused to look at me in the eyes.

Me: “It’s OK honey. We can get some more.”
Truong and I share a look, not really sure of what we should do because clearly Kael is upset but trying to be brave.

Kael: “I really miss them, Mom!”
And he climbs into my lap and presses his face against my neck. This is when I realize that he’s really upset and he starts to cry softly.

Me: “It’s OK, baby. It’s OK to be sad. That’s what silk moths do: they grow into worms, make cocoons, turn into moths, lay eggs and then die. But we can get more.”
As I say this I wonder/worry if he will interpret this into human terms by equating this to people having a baby and then dying. I mentally grimace and cross my fingers that that won’t be the case.

Kael: “No, Mom. My silk worms… They're not ever coming back... They’re gone… FOREVER.”
And he cries harder.

Oh geez. I don’t know what to say at this point, so I just hug him and tell him it’s OK to be sad. All the while I’m (1) cursing Shana for ever giving him those damn silk worms; (2) thinking I’m going to have to ask her for more worms as it looks like we’re going to have to foster another 300 of these suckers; and (3) thinking to myself: this is the reason why I don’t want to have a dog. If he’s this emotional over a bunch of worms that in fact died and not went home as I (falsely) told him, he’s going to completely fall apart when he loses a dog.

After that conversation where Ryan told Kael that his worms died, Kael hardly ever talked about his worms. I wondered why because he used to talk about them all the time and I wondered if he got that they died. I guess he did understand but didn't want to talk about it. What a tough lesson to learn.

Disneyland IS the Happiest Place on Earth!

But only early in the mornings.

Today we decided to brave the Gates of Disneyland. It opened at 8:00am and we were determined to get there early with the hopes of beating the crowds. We left the house at 8:10am and hit the pavement of Main Street at 8:42am. Not bad at all! I was quite impressed with the Mai's for hustling our butts this morning. We weren't alone by any means but we definitely cruised up the lines at a fast pace. It was freaking fantastic, compared to our last two failed attempts at visiting the Magic Kingdom. We still haven't been able to do the Nemo ride though -- it was already an hour+ wait and barely 9:00am. I hope by Spring 2008 the newness will wear off and we'll get to see what all the hoopla is about.

We did the Buzz ride first and from there we rode 7 additional rides by 11:00am. Pretty cool if I do say so myself!
1- Buzz LightYear (aka Astro Blasters)
2- The Orbitor - I'm never going on this one again
3- Dumbo
4- Tea Cups
5- The Carousel - Malia had to be pried off, kicking and screaming when the ride ended
6- The Haunted Mansion - we had to wrestle Kael in to see this one
7- Jungle Cruise
8- Tiki Room - Malia was dancing in the aisle, it was really cute

It was only 11:00am and we could have gone on more rides (MORE!! I was on a "short line" high) but Kael said he was hungry and Truong had a tee time at 1:20pm. So we ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe (just beat the crowd, thank goodness) where the kids scarfed their food. Truong and I were amazed. We couldn't believe these were our children. Who are these kids and why are they eating our food?!

All in all it was a great Sunday.


Despite Kael's look of fear, he really enjoys this ride.



Malia waving to me on the Orbitor. I hate this ride. I'm never going on it again. Just thinking about it makes me want to heave.



Spinning on the Tea Cups. Riding this wasn't one of my better ideas, especially so soon after the Orbitor. Malia looks like she agrees with me.



She loves this ride now. She won't even let you hold her on the horse. She'll fling your hands off so she can ride solo. I know what she's going to want when she turns 5...



The Mai's. Minus Mom. I'm like Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster: people talk about me but you never see me in pictures.



Malia on the ride home, giddy on cotton candy (that's what all that crud is on her face).



Kael is going through this phase where he likes to make funny faces whenever I try to take his picture. I haven't decided if it's cute or irritating. Right now it's 70-30, favoring cute but quickly sliding to irritating.