Shocking Princess Disappearance

The disappearance of Sleeping Beauty and subsequent shock from same caused quite a stir in the household and environs today. Distress included loss of bladder control and swamping of certain sections of house. Red pants, currently in vogue among the ruling classes, were required to replace the red pants that were rendered 'soaking wet' during the incident. All in all a stunning look at how such catastrophes can affect so many. The princess is still missing despite a large scale search and rescue effort that was called off in mid-afternoon due to impending lunch and nap time.

A-chan has been wearing panties for about 1.5 weeks now, except at nap time. And as long as she's wearing them she's incredibly good about going to the potty. Today was the first ever accident. I'm not sure if she was truly surprised at having found her Sleeping Beauty missing or if we took too long searching for her.

I win the game!

A-chan's gotten two kids games lately that we've been playing this past month. One, Wheels on the Bus, was a birthday present which she loved from the start. The other, Hungry Hungry Hippos, came from Santa and was absolutely adored from the first time that she played it with M, F & E. Any chance to play either game is met with great excitement and some whooping and hollaring.



We've really been enjoying this new way of interacting too. I wasn't expecting to find games for 3 year olds to be fun, but they are. Especially because they make her so happy. But at the same time, I worry about the competition aspect. This afternoon A-chan went around the house going, "I win the game!" for no apparent reason at all. Was she just expressing her happiness over playing the Bus game last night, I wondered? Or is she starting to get too hyped up about actually winning? And is this even something that I should worry about right now?


I would prefer that she be focused more on the fun of playing the game and not concentrate on who wins. But that is pretty much my own philosophy of game-play, to enjoy the actual playing and the companionship of friends without being concerned over winning. Is it wrong for me to try and instill my own value of gaming in my daughter? Or is that being an overbearing parent? I'm sure that one day as she grows up and become interested in doing something competetive even more questions will arise. But I think for now I will try, somehow, to keep her interested more in the game itself than in being a 'winner'.


The picture above was taken on the Big Red Bus Tour of Dubai. A-chan does love buses!

Bribery

Tonight was the monumental setting of a Bad Precedent. Indeed, we willingly and knowingly bribed our daughter to eat at a restaurant with the promise of cake. *sigh* We are such bad parents. But...it was late. And I was tired and didn't want to cook. And we'd already driven way out there. And, and, and...

I have to admit that I really got a kick out of being a vegetarian parent as we sat at the restaurant tonight. Even after having bribed A-chan with cake. Cause parents across the aisle were trying every trick in the book to get their children to eat some veggies. But my little girl had zucchini and squash and black beans and was happy about it! I will, in fact, be very smug (imagine the smug parent grin on my face...) because my little girl likes broccoli. Not only likes it, but asks for it on her own. Ahh, what a lovely feeling. She is still suspicious of spinach and asparagus, though.

You got it wrong!

One of A-chan's newest and favorite things to say! She's really started relishing whenever she can catch us doing something wrong. It's so cute!!! I'm sure that about a month from now it'll start to be more annoying than cute, but right now it's really cute.

Her Grandma got her these neat Brain Quest flash cards for x-mas that we weren't so sure she'd like. Apparently they are the greatest thing ever, though. She loves to play the 'flashcard' game with me. I've been very surprised at how many she can answer correctly. One thing that I love about them is how they have given me ideas on where I need to focus for her education. Things like money - we've not even tried to tell her that coins have values, etc. And we've not been doing much about rhyming words yet either. So I'm very excited about the new flashcards too!

We are sooo spoiled.

It's too cold! Way, way too cold! Problem is, I remember when I was a youngin' and we'd get snow and ice and really cold weather. But we haven't had any in such a long time and we've gotten complacent and spoiled rotten with our nice warm 70 degree winters.

Our heater doesn't work very well when the temp goes below 32F, so we're all bundled up all the time and it's actually a relief to find somewhere else to go so we can get warm! Luckily tomorrow we're supposed to get a return of the 60 degree days and 40 degree nights.

A-chan has it the best, though - she gets to sleep in a fuzzy fleece footie suit. Why don't they make those for adults???

Nice, warm, yellow sleepysuit

Nice, warm, yellow sleepysuit

I want a yellow sleepysuit

So I can be warm too!

(We did get an electric blanket from my mother during the holidays and that's been making things so much better. Our bedroom is the absolute coldest place in the house. A-chan's room is usually the warmest though.)

New Year's Cleaning Spree

Our end of the year preparations included a Mata-daughter shopping trip up to Super H Mart in Gwinnett because the local market that carries Mochi was closed until Jan. 3rd. We picked up a ton of yummy asian groceries while we were there and had a very nice drive. A-chan had a lot of trouble sleeping the night before and so we had a very late start, not enough time to do more than drive, shop and then drive home. But it was worth it. We had a lovely Melon bread snack with A-chan's favorite drink - apple juice. And we procured lots and lots of lovely Mochi for the evening party!

We munched on even more delights from Japan for breakfast this morning and then tried cooking Japanese Curry Rice for the first time at lunch today. It was so absolutely yum!!!!! Dinner was a scottish flat pie, so we rounded out the day with potatoes, onions and more potatoes and onions, lol. But more mochi for dessert, of course.

A-chan's toys got some organization to them today after a few months of being scattered to and fro across the house. It feels really good to get her train table usable again and set up her castle set all in one place so that she can have more use of it all. Best of all we used some of our old Playmobile landscapes to fill up her train table so that maybe the cats won't use it as a bed anymore.