Pajama Party

My husband was away on a business trip last week. As a tradition, when that happens, Misha is allowed to have a “pajama party” with me. A party consists of us wearing our pajamas, him watching cartoons, and sleeping in my room. However, I have a new addiction called Mad Men. So, in order to watch 3 episodes in a row, uninterrupted, on Tuesday night I cancelled the “pajama party”.

-That’s NOT fair!!!

Yeah, I know. But Mommy needs to watch Mad Men. You understand, right? He didn’t, he was a “mad man” as he closed the door behind him.

2 episodes later, I was getting pretty tired. I turned off the TV, and tried to fall asleep. Something was missing.

I got up, went into Misha’s room and tried to pick him up. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve done that. The kid got heavy!! Somehow, I managed to get a good grip on him, so I carried him to my room.

I know I will miss this so much in a few years. Him wanting to hang out with me, our “pajama parties”. He smiled at me in the morning, and we were friends again.

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My Baby, the First Grader

It happened. We got up, ate breakfast and went to the bus stop. Misha got on the bus and went to school.

Easy, right? Oh, man. It wasn’t easy. For me. Misha was fine, he was so excited, he’s been waiting for this all summer. He had his new backpack, with a new lunch bag inside it. He didn’t even look back walking up the stairs on that bus.

I was so proud of him. But my heart broke a little. He will be fine, without me. He doesn’t really need me to hold his hand.

One of the neighbors gave me a hug. I must’ve looked like I needed it. It was nice to know that she’s done this bus thing before, and she survived.

First day went good. Misha made a friend, a boy who likes Power Rangers. Perfect! “Can you believe we get pizza for lunch on some days, Mom?!”

It’s bittersweet, this school thing.

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Flashcards

I am sure you used them at school. We all did. They are a great tool for those hard to memorize facts. They are small, convenient, and practical.

But on a flip side (pun intended), I bet you’ve never wondered what a pain they are to create. Unless, maybe you have. Then you need to get a life. And soon. 🙂

So, for the past month, I have been working on creating flashcards. There’re stacks of hundreds of them. There’re many stacks. There’re many, many pages of flashcards. Ask me anything about addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. I can answer in my sleep. I am finishing up this long project, and I am so happy.

Next time you are using flashcards, think of me. Of the labor, of hours and hours spent plugging in those numbers.

Don’t take flashcards for granted, people!

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Sneaky police sneakers

They light up. Do I need to say more? (Yes, they look like a Police car, which is cheesy if you ask me).

We saw these at a store over a year ago, and Misha really wanted them. I answered with something like: “Sure, let’s talk to Dad about it”, and then forgot all about them.

Last night, I asked Misha what he would like for his Birthday. Learned a valuable lesson: Don’t ask a 5-year old what they want unless you are prepared to hear the answer.

“Mom, remember a looong time ago, you promised to get me those Police shoes?”

I did? So, after a frantic search online, I found one pair in his size. Going to the store tomorrow to get them. How DOES he remember things like this, but not the things I ask him to do every day, 20 times a day…

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Who needs daycare?

We had a  thunderstorm scare today. A few places got it pretty bad, and it looked like it was heading our way. I decided not to risk it, and went to get Misha early from his daycare. We got back to my work around 4:00 pm, and I figured he can keep busy with some stuff we have laying around for an hour or so.

I am happy to report that he did well. He played with manipulatives, read a couple of books, and was overall occupied and content. So, why am I paying $$$ every month when I can just bring him to work with me every day? 🙂

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2 boys and a girl

Living with 2 boys is a lot of fun. If you are a boy. If you are a girl, it can be fun, too. You just adjust your sense of humor, ignore the occasional mess here and there, and take a deep breath.

Here’re a few things I learned in the past 5 years and 11 months….

– Boys will boys. Put some food in front of them, turn on the TV, and you got yourself an hour of peace.

– The more helpless you appear, the more help you will get.

– Flattery will get you everywhere with them. So will praise.

– When in doubt, buy ice cream.

– Boys, big and small, turn into giant babies when they are sick.

– They really like to see you all dressed up, and their compliments are usually genuine. Unless the TV is on.

– The whole toilet thing. Don’t get me started…

– They don’t like to be critisized.

– They like to be useful.

– They are actually a lot of fun to be around.

And I love them very much!!!

–

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Reflections

I mentioned before that I believe in every child’s individuality. That being said, how much do our kids reflect our personalities, soak up our emotions, and therefore adjust their own perceptions to better fit in with ours? We try so hard to pass on only the best personality traits onto them, hoping that they would get only the  “good” genes and none of the bad ones.

Can an overprotective mother have a free-spirited and adventurous child? Maybe. But not in my case. I was “over-protected” myself, grew up extremely cautious and now raising my son with the same parenting style…

Can children sense our fears and anxieties? Absolutely. I think they are WAY smarter than they are being given credit for – and that in itself is pure genius. We are the best example of how to be an adult they have, so how’s that for constant pressure to be perfect. Here’s the point I am trying to make (mostly to myself) – kids see and hear everything, and even if they don’t understand it completely, they reflect it back, like little mirrors of our soul. Whoa, that was DEEP…

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Mario’s Hair

Remember Mario? I promised a post about his hair, so here you go. Mario had really nice hair. Long, Italian hair. The child was the definition of style. Skinny jeans, nice dressy shirts with sleeves rolled up, ties, funky sneakers. Mario was COOL.

I’ve been taking Misha to Kid Snips since he was 2. He is a regular, and we always go to the same lady, Karen. We used to go every month, and get the same short boy haircut. Then I saw Mario.

It’s been 5 months since our last haircut appointment. Yes, I know what you are thinking. I know you are judging, I would judge you, too. We are about 3 months away from achieving Mario-length hair, and I don’t know if we’ll get there, with summer coming up. It will be tough. Everyone thinks I am crazy. Well, maybe they have a point…

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No chicken

Some days I wish I had this kid’s willpower. To sit in front of a plate of mac and cheese, and not eat it. Or mashed potatoes, or ravioli… Can you tell I am carb-deprived? This child’s menu literally consists of 3 things, and that’s including milk and cereal. He used to be a good eater, and a chubby adorable baby and toddler. There was also a time when we weren’t accepted to a certain Karate studio because of his “baby fat”.

My Mom can feed him anything. I say feed, beause that’s exactly what she does. She will follow him around the house with the spoon, talk like a mouse, stand on her head, etc. I don’t have that kind of time or patience.

So, lately, he’s been avoiding meat. Especially chicken. I don’t know what poor chicken did to deserve such hate, but I’ve been told many, many times that he HATES chicken. We were visiting our friends over the weekend. At one point, their two sons were eating soup, and my friend offered some to Misha. Peer pressure is a beautiful thing. For the first time in about a year, I saw him eat soup that had, you guessed it, CHICKEN in it. This kid will rule the world, he already outsmarted and outmanipulated me and my husband. And that was before his 3rd Birthday.

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Russian Hat Game

I have proof that with a little creativity and reverse psychology, you could get your kid to do almost anything. I say “almost”, because no amount of reverse psychology will get him to eat broccoli.

I wish I could take credit for this cool idea, but it was actually suggested to me by my boss. I mentioned to him how Misha never wants to speak Russian anymore, and he said: “What if you wore a special hat, and while wearing it, you would only speak Russian.”

So, we gave it a try today. I busted out THE Russian hat, and we played the game. I put on the hat first and started speaking Russian. He had to make me to slip up and say smth in English, which would make me lose. We kept score. After I said an English word, it was his turn to wear the hat. We spent about 20 minutes playing the game, and it was the longest I heard him speak Russian in about a year. He actually forgot some simple words already, but overall, he could carry on the conversation.

So, thanks for an awesome idea! Now, how do I get him to eat more vegetables?

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