He came out of the playground’s fire truck furious.

Boy: I’ll show you [very loud, almost screaming]

[Then a gesture of spiting, but not exactly spitting]

Mom: I know. Calm down, you are red again from anger. Calm yourself down.

Boy: He started it [with anger but a bit lower voice, just a bit]

Mom: I know, I saw him pushing you before, but you don’t scream or spit. you talk, you tell him not to push or hit.

Well I wish this was just a story, but no, this was my conversation this afternoon in playground with my son.

This is going to be a long one, get yourself a coffee and join me.

My son is very active and highly opinionated. He is living in his little world, in playgrounds he plays like there is no tomorrow and he doesn’t pay that much of an attention to what goes around him. Well being loud is his signature, sometimes I think I gave birth to an amplifier, he is loud in normal situation, and louder when he is angry.

In his little head, he is fare, and being his mom and watching him like a hawk, I can see that he is (most of the times).  He shares well and expects others to share with him. As much as he is very easy going in some matters, he gets angry quickly in some situations, which I think is normal and even healthy. My problem is that when he gets angry, he is very passionate about it, and it takes a while to calm him down. We are actively working on his behaviour when he is angry.

Today I couldn’t believe a mom, I was so surprised of her action that couldn’t think and reason with her properly. This is what happened and I really need your opinion on it. Read the rest of this entry »

We went to Puerto Vallarta two weeks ago, a 4/5 hour flight from Vancouver to there. Flying with two preschoolers is a challenge. The kids were having lots of fun and were very loud. It’s a good thing that airplanes have enough engine sound that doesn’t let the kids voice get far.

I had books, papers and coloring pencils. We draw all of the favourite characters, and read books. We talked and walked. There were other kids around the same age of our kids too, and most of them had some kind of electronic device for entertainment. I didn’t even think about computer games, and was kind of surprised, seeing kids with portable DVD players and DS games. It looks like I’m living in a cave or something right? I guess I am.

We are in a different area; I remember my mom taking us from Iran to States about 25 years ago, there were my 9months, and 9 years old brothers, and 12years old me. It took us about 48 hours to get to US, as we had to layover in Geneva and I don’t remember taking entertainment with us. Now that I have two kids, I’m wondering how my mom did it all by herself. One thing is for sure we were easily entertained; today kids are hard to entertain for sure.

I believe that kids or anyone for that matter, should be able to entertain themselves without the help of electronics, so they don’t feel lost when the electronics are not available.

Until later

Last Friday kids and I had fun spring-cleaning. As soon as dad came home I started emptying, cleaning and reorganizing kitchen cabinets one after the other. After I guess two of the cabinets, my son came and told me he wants to help. He started helping in emptying and wiping the cabinets. My daughter as well asked if she can also clean something, so I gave her a clean wet towel and told her to clean the cabinet doors.  They had a blast helping me and they were proud of themselves telling dad that they are helping mom getting ready for Nowruz.

This lasted only about half and hour, but it was the most enjoyable half an hour of my life. They had a goal, a purpose. We all enjoyed working together. They still like to help but not that excited about it.

This experience reminded me of my mom telling stories of her childhood and Nowruz cleaning (spring cleaning). Unlike now they used to live in big houses with grandparents, uncles and cousins and for Nowruz the kids each, had a section of the house to clean. She always tells the story with such joy, remembering all the fun they had cleaning the house as a family all together.

I hope to create that joy for my kids too. Maybe these memories stay with them a life time.

I have only 8 days left to finish my project. So far so good with organizing, more than half the kitchen is organized. The spice cabinet is done which is the most important and difficult one. But!  Yes, there is a big but, my whole house is upside down due to my son’s birthday party couple of days ago and his sickness the day after.

Until later,

Vancouver winter Olympics ended today and I already feel something is missing. We were so used to watch the games and follow the scores even my children were in the Olympic mood.

What I’m happy about is the effect of Olympic games on my 5 year old son. He was always in to wearing Batman or Spider man costumes and being obsessed with them. For the past two days though, he has been wearing one of his old thermal underwear, looking almost the same as the athlete’s uniforms, running around the house and saying he is wearing his Olympics clothes. He even said that he’s interested to participate in the Olympics when he is older.

I love the positive effect the Olympics had on my son. My job here is to keep him interested in sports, and remind him of Olympics and the athletes. Having Olympics in out city was very exciting and somehow even involved my 3 years old daughter. My only concern for the Olympics was the ads of McDonald and Coca cola.  I know these two where good sponsors and the Olympics needed funding. But do our athlete really feed on big Mc and Coca cola? I thought this would send a mixed message to our children specially teenagers. At the end of the games I can see that the positive effect of Olympics are stronger than the mixed messaged of these advertisements. It is 40 minutes past midnight and people are still celebrating in the streets of down town.

Until later,

It is easy to get caught up in day to day life and forget to attend to small but important stuff. I spend all my time with my children. We are playing, reading or doing some kind of craft. (By the way, I have great ideas for toddler valentine cards, I just have to gather all the pictures and post it. Soon I hope!!) If I’m doing house chores or work they are either playing together or help me and I’m watching and guiding them in their play.

The thing is that I don’t get to spend time with each of them separately. In the mornings when one goes to preschool and I’m with the other, I’m left with very limited time to get ready for lunch, set up everything for when they are together and I’m more in need, that I don’t get to spend maybe as much time as needed with the one at home. Unfortunately, my husband gets home late from work, there is no time there to spare, and weekends are family time.

Yesterday, dad left home early and I had to tag along my son to drop off my daughter at preschool. As I knew this would be our schedule for the day, I asked him the night before what he wants to do on our special time. Of course, he wanted to go and get a toy and then go to the coffee shop with me and have hot chocolate. (We did the coffee shop thing the first day my daughter went to preschool.) Read the rest of this entry »