So, I'm at my brother and sister-in-law's house, and I've just put the kids to bed. Surprisingly, it didn't quite resemble the mother-of-all-tantrums I was expecting it to be, what with Melissa and Michael deciding early on being put to bed = medieval torture. Post-bath -- and it was not easy getting them out of the bath in the first place -- Melissa was throwing a wobbly about her Pull-ups being on backwards. And she was blubbering on about fish....?? I said, "How could they be backwards?? Minnie Mouse is waving goodbye on the back! That's the way it's supposed to go!" That, of course, was a mistake, since ANYTHING I said was up for argument. (Plus, I didn't really want to argue with her since I've got this major bias against the Disney Corporation. Minnie Mouse shouldn't be on Pull-ups, or anything, for that matter.) For example, if I had said it was night-time, Melissa would immediately say, "No, it's
not night-time!!" See, it's all about language at age 3. They've suddenly turned into prosecuting attorneys, and
everything is turned into a question. I should be SO PROUD that Melissa knows how to argue with linguistic acumen at such a tender age, but when you're tired and you're putting a screaming child to bed, their budding linguistic skills are the last thing on your mind.
This is what a tantrum looks like.
I had a bit of a nap this afternoon, but it was broken up into 5 minute increments between times when someone passed by and told the kids to stop jumping on me. Overall, I was fairly oblivious, but REM state was elusive. Nonetheless, I did play a whole lot of hide-and-go-seek, but the kids always hid in the same places, so I used it as an excuse to reinforce counting. And count they did.... I counted, I made them count, we counted together... both kids can count to 10 no problem! I took photos of the relatives and showed them on Dad's TV, showed them my photos of San Francisco, ate copious amounts of food all day long... it was a typical Filipino gathering.
Edwin boys
