4 Paones

We love you!

What a day! The good news is that after attending my little girl’s open house at school, I found out that besides enjoying her school and trying her best to get all “E’s”, she’s quite a friendly little things and has made friends of most of her classmates. That was nice! The “not so nice” side of things is that I found out I don’t have all the paperwork I needed, so V may end up having to sit out of school for a few days to a week until everything gets sorted out. Ah, well… I was close to tears trying to sort all this out and making multiple trips to V’s doctor, only to find that there is a lot of red tape involved with the paperwork I need. Justin saved the day with his sensible solutions and level headed… “It’s not the end of the world” encouragement. Lesson learned (of do your research). Live and learn — Arg!

With all the news you hear about obesity these days, one of my big concerns with V starting school has been that she will be exposed to a lot of unhealthy eating habits and sugary foods and drinks in particular. While the school breakfast menu does leave something to be desired. (they served pop tarts the first day and apple pie the next) I took a peek at their lunch menu today. I was pleasantly surprised to see to that most plates involved whole wheat products (pizza, hamburger buns, pasta). It turns out our school is one of ten in the area that are participating in a special nutrition program. Anyways, that was good news and it makes me happy that something is being done on the school level to help children eat healthier and be educated about healthy eating. Now… if they started having PE 5 days a week, I would be even happier.

I get home a few days back after being gone for a few weeks and what do you know… my two year has learned to argue! Of course, I should have expected that sooner rather than later being as being Paones, it was just a matter of time before they started to partake of the family tradition of huge debates at every family barbeque or gathering. So I’m putting my kids to bed and my daughter ticked her brother off somehow.  His response?

Him: “I’m going to break your clothes!”

Her: “If you do that, I’m going to lock you out of the room and rip up ALL your clothes!”

Him: If you do that, I’m going to hit you with my bat!”

Her: Then I’ll hit you with the light saber”

Him: “But my light sabre is lost.”

Her: “Then I’ll hit you with the piggy bank”

Him: “Then I will poop on you.”

This is when I realized this was just going to go down hill and corrected them for being mean to each other. Anyways… so much to look forward to.

My 2 year old is going through that phase where he revels in anything that gives him a little more power over everyone else. Right now that just happens to be door locks. He will run ahead of you into a room and quickly lock the door. He’ll sit on the other side and “play” while we try every trick in the book to get him to open up. While visiting family in Austin last week, he pulls his lock trick just as we’re packing up and trying to get on the road. Justin and I tried everything we could think of for about 10 minutes. The only thing that worked was when I call out to his sister… “You want to watch a video?” He immediately threw open the door not wanting to miss out. My daughter just cracked up that the technique worked and kept going on about how smart I was… heh. (Yes, I’m enjoying it while it lasts)

Anyways, so fast forward a few weeks. My mom now how a litter of newborn puppies which she’s keeping in her room for safe keeping. Well, what do you know, Jude decides to lock himself into her room to play with the puppies. Justin and my mom are freaking out, again trying everything. My 5 year old strolls up and offers to try. She call out… “I think I’m going to go eat all the Cheerios!” Sure enough, the door flies open within a few seconds. My smart little girl. We’ll see how long this tactic lasts.

Our little girl loves ice cream. Last night’s birthday the ice cream was definitely the highlight of her evening. At the end though, as we’re getting ready to head home, she decides to save the last little bit of ice cream for her little brother who hadn’t come along. I figured once she realized it was all melted, she’d realize saving ice cream wasn’t really doable. Well, her little brother was asleep when we got home, so I didn’t think much more about it. First thing this morning, our daughter comes into the room all sleepy eyed and tells her brother “I saved you some ice cream.” Sure enough, there was her little white cup on the shelf with about half an inch of melted ice cream in it. Jude was thrilled and gave her his most enthusiastic “thank you” “thank you, sister!” as he carefully ate the melted ice cream, or “hot chocolate” as he called it. — I’m going to miss these days.

So the world is falling apart through earthquakes, tsunamis, wars and such. I am starting to avoid checking the news so much as I cry every time I read stories of missing loved ones, lost children, lost parents. .. ugh! Too much sadness. I want to fix it all.

In other, happier news, my baby girl is turning 5 in a matter of days. As I was working with her on her reading tonight, I thought back to when she was just a helpless little thing and how I couldn’t envision her any bigger or more capable than she was at the time. But here she is, full of thoughts, opinions, plans, jokes, hugs, ambitions, dreams, stories and best of all, all that unconditional love. She amazes me every day and I can’t imagine life without her beautiful smiles and cheery voice as she wakes me up with her trademark — “good morning, sleeping beauty.”  I am blessed! (and a beautiful sleeper?)

We’re still here. A little too busy, perhaps, but alive and well and enjoying Houston in the spring time. (which I think is really the only time you can actually say you enjoy Houston weather). We live right next door to a beautiful park with biking and walking trails, so we’ve been heading over for bike rides and picnics every chance we get now that the kids have figured out bicycles and tricycles.

Violet’s right around the corner from turning 5. My little girl is so inquisitive about everything and has developed a real love for um… planning special events? I have no clue where she gets that from. Ahem! She’s also developing a burning desire for school time. She’s learning to read and my quiet little girl is learning how to be bolder, braver and how to make real Taek Wan Do shouts.

Jude is growing twice as fast as she is, has five times as much to say at ten times the volume. He is just as determined as his older sister to get his school time, although his school is more along the lines of Feed My Lambs (since the box looks just like his sister’s Hooked on Phonics box). Of course, he’s also learning his shapes and flash cards. We are not big pushers for too much school at an early age, so he’s mostly playing and learning as he goes.

As for Justin and me? Well, let’s just say we’re following Steve Job’s final advice in his Stanford Commencement speech to “Stay hungry and stay foolish.” We’re doing a lot of reading, working and discovering what it is we love to do. With a little help from friends and the Lord’s direction, I think we just may find it.