Got to practice my parenting skills (or lack thereof) with Ji
(pronounced Gee) and Ra today. (My 3 year and 10 month old nephews.) My sister Ju
fixed a plate for Ji with 2 varieties of hummus-- (one with beet & one with
basil), veggies and multicolored chips. "Umm, pink hummus, my favorite!"
said Ji. Ju laughed. "It's not funny," he scolded. He asked if he could
sit on the floor to eat, and I let him. There were too many exciting
things to do, so he only ate a few bites here and there. At lunch he
wanted a roll with cheese, and got very upset with me for spreading
hummus on half of the roll. So I ate that half, and was going to eat the
rest of his hummus, but he protested about that too. He did finish it.
Ra let me try out
babywearing (yes, it's a thing) for a few
minutes at a time, then he'd lean as far over as he could to let me know
that he wanted to roam free on the floor. I need to sweep before I
babysit him again. He was very good at batting my hand away when I tried
to see what he had in his mouth. He also has a habit of chewing on his
tongue, so it's hard to know when he has something else in his mouth. He
was very disappointed when I closed all the doors along the hallway, he stopped at each one to check that it was closed.
One of the favorite activities of the morning was playing with large
styrofoam pieces from electronics packaging that Uncle Paul was getting
rid of. Ji built things with it, while Ra banged two pieces around.
Although I spent most of my time playing with the boys, I did manage to
make some vegetable stock and scald and cut up many preaches to freeze.
I also managed to clean up after the boys and leave the house slightly
cleaner than before. Ji did manage to get red marker all over his hands,
and I didn't notice until he was using the toilet and I was trying to
figure out where the pink marks on the toilet were from. As I cleaned
off his hands best as I could, he asked "What bird is red?"
"Cardinals
are red. They have a pointy tuft of feathers on the back of their heads.
There are lots of cardinals where Grandma and Grandpa Z live."
"I'm a
cardinal," he informed me. "Do they have red hands?" He asked.
Later I realized that Ra's pants were wet because I had sat him down on
the bath mat which was wet. Luckily he was wearing a onesie, so I just
took his pants off. He had already repeatedly kicked his sandals off.
I was glad to see N when she came to pick up the boys, and I hurried to
get a to work for the afternoon. But I am looking forward to having
them again next week. As I told N, it was fun but a little exhausting.
She knew just what I meant :)
