chronicles of ethan

i've been busy spending quite some time with Ethan regarding his character development - and let me tell you, it ain't easy.

one time he crumbled crackers on the table and then spread it all over the floor. as i was cleaning, he could tell my temperature rising. he says "sowwy mommy" - i ask "why are you sorry?" he then answers "i don't know, i don't want mommy angwy." i then spent the next ten minutes about how it's selfish of him to make a mess and expect others to clean, blah, blah, blah. do you think any of them reigstered to my 2 year old - i think not.

i'm beginning to see that he places high value on "intent". he feels that if he didn't intend to break something, he shouldn't be punished for it - though i told him million times that he should not swing the swiffer. his favorite saying right now is "IT'S NOT TWUE!" one time, he ran to the TV and pushed it real hard with his hands. the TV shook and it almost toppled over. in shock, i screamed "Ethan!!! You almost broke the TV!" to which he replied with a serious frown and attitude "NO!!!!!!! IT'S NOT TWUE!!!!!" I guess in his world it wasn't true, since that was NOT his intention. the funniest thing was that Makayla then walked over to me and whispered in my ear "it's true, mommy."

in our household, the only time you don't share your food is when you are sick. one time i overheard....
mak: "ethan, can i have one strawberry?"
ethan: hiding the bowl... "i'm sick!!!" (he was completely healthy.... and he knew it.)

one sunday, he refused to change. when joe tried to force him to change, he screamed bloody murder - "i don't like you - go away!!!" usually, if we simply walk away, he concedes and runs after saying "sowwy, don't go away." but every so often, he doesn't budge. since makayla and i happen to be in the room as well, we all try to counsel him to put on his clothes - to no avail. he then continued to say, "i don't like mommy and daddy. go away." so we told him that it's our house that he should go away and kicked him out of the room. he then says "i like makayla, come on, kayla." makayla then clings to me and says "i want to stay with mommy and daddy." we think at this point, he'll just give in, but NO. he says "okeee." and walks out. we then hear the pitter patter of his feet for the next 10 minutes going up and down the stairs freely, without a care in the world. we were now stuck in our room waiting for Ethan to come back and change..... after some time, makayla goes "can i go get ethan now?" we say "ooooo-kay" makayla then yells "ethan!!!!" ethan runs back to the room and joe sheepishly asks "are you ready to change now?" ethan answers "yesh." now tell me, who's the boss of this house?

one morning, joe make kielbasa to take to work for lunch. he put it in the tupperware with cucumber. he then went upstairs to shower and left ethan downstairs - when he came back, he found this - some INSIDE the rice cooker, INSIDE the coffee pot and on the pan. obviously he got in big trouble - but it was hard to keep a straight face. and ofcouse we took some pictures ;)


another thing with ethan is that he hates kissing. this morning, he wanted a banana so i asked for a kiss - he goes "how about a hug?" when he really wants something, he reluctantly obliges and immediately wipes his mouth and says "dishgushting." nice.

these character issues combined with his charm and killer smile has to be a deadly combination of trouble. any wisdom, counsel or advise is welcome.

when in rome. . .

oh my! it's already becoming end of february???? i gotta fill my quota for this month (not that anyone cares. . . .) so here's my latest list of discovery.

the picture is totally irrelevant - mustache is just "in" in our household right now.

you can tell when you and your kids are becoming european/polish when. . . .

1. your children demand cucumber, baguette and olive oil for snacks.

2. you start to prepare coins to use the restroom

3. you start to think walking with a baby in stroller in freezing weather is a good idea.

4. ordering french fries instead of rice with chinese food becomes normal.

5. when your bread doesn't go moldy in 3 days, you wonder what is going on. (they don't use preservatives here!)

6. you declare charmin toilet paper to be the softest thing on earth and save it only to blow your children's nose.

7. you think lukewarm coke in restaurants is acceptable. what's ice?

8. you automatically think that 11.02.08 means february 11th instead of november.

9. you think 10% tip is MORE than enough for dinners

10. having no leg room in the bathroom doesn't bother you anymore.

many are bathroom or food related, i realized - those are the biggest adjustment issues, right???

valentine's day

hope everyone had a great valentine's day! apparently, it's only recently that people started to celebrate valentine's day here - in fact, i got no notice from mak's school to prepare treats for her class. but being that it's one of her favorite holiday, we couldn't just let it pass. so here is what we made. it's chupa chups attached to a big mustache for boys and big red lips for girls. credit due here.

ethan modeling the mustache. he knew that we were preparing them so as soon as he woke up, he goes "happy valentine's day! where's my wowwipop?" thus lollipop in his pj's and blurry picture.

btw, i KNEW i had to put a disclaimer for the stockings picture in the last post!!! thank you all for commenting on how good my legs looked. i'll make sure never to expose them again in fear of incurring your envy and jealousy. anyhow, poor jin, ms. poor circulation, i will try to find a pair for you, my friend, though the winter is almost over. . . .

also, i wanted to include a shoutout to GOOGLE READER for things i'm loving these days. you guys all need to sign up! you can basically get updates from every website you visit on a regular basis. it made my life so much easier now that i don't have to track all my craft blogs by visiting each sites - but it doesn't work for blogs that are locked or private. enjoy!

loving. . . .

currently loving. . . .

sipahh straws - i first encountered them when we went to McDonald's here. when we ordered chocolate milk, we were given regular milk and this straw that magically (not magic) transforms regular milk into - chocolate, strawberry, banana, caramel milk!!! how great is that??? the thing is, it's not as sweet as the ready made ones so it's popular with me, not so popular with the kids.

ok, milka chocolate. the best thing that has happened to cheap chocolate. believe me, i've tried my share of gourmet and handmade chocolates but i was still hershey's kisses girl. i don't like anything added to my chocolate, no nuts, no rice thingies, no fruit, no alcohol, no thank you. i just like smooth milk chocolate - so i've stuck with my hersheys until i met this guy. wow, this is the BEST cheap milk chocolate around. i think it's only available in europe, so i will have to bring a stash to prove it to my fellow cheap chocoholic - namely, sooj.

this winter hasn't been all that bad but there was one important discovery here in poland. fleece lined tights! when i went to the market across from joe's work to buy some black stockings, i discovered this gem. it's super elastic like regular tights but has super warm fleece linings! perfect for winter! no need for ugly long john's - just cleverly hidden stylish tights! if you want a pair, i'll be taking orders via email. (just kidding, please don't email me.)

oh, and not so currently loving. . . . pain of setting up shop. i've been looking into developing my children's jewelry line and the reason that there's a lack of handmade children's jewelry is fear of liability! i should've guessed. the realities of doing business in the States sucks. i'm hoping that my lawyer friends, especially the one who is folding laundry with her law degree framed in her laundry room will help me out when it comes time :P

anyways, girls earrings are all packaged and ready to be sent out to my pierced little friends! hope they like them!

amsterdam

amsterdam was a week long play for the kids and no vacation for me and joe at all. when you have two little kids, forget doing anything really interesting. forget museums. forget nice restaurants. forget walking around just browsing. everyone also came home with a cold and makayla's been out of school for the last two days because of a high fever. nice. anyways, here's some pictures to recap fun our kids had.

fun #1: while i was out doing quick shopping, ethan managed to burn his hair in the kerosene lamp you see in the middle. i came back to the restaurant to smell the burn and look at his singed hair. thank the Lord nothing serious happened. he was apparently trying to reach for something on Makayla's plate when joe's sister noticed funny smell. poor auntie was all frazzled - trying to put out the fire by hitting on ethan's head. thank you!

fun#2: gigantic underground play area in amsterdam. we went to this place twice in one week. kids loved it so much, they were sweating in middle of the winter.

fun #3: rotterdam zoo. there was a rainstorm on that day - the parking lot was EMPTY! we got the closest parking space in the whole lot. okay, i guess that doesn't mean anything when there was no one there. . . . but we RAN to the aquarium area and had fun nevertheless. we didn't get to see a single real animal - but lots of fish.

and apple pie and ice cream.

i'm not sure if it was before or after the zoo but ethan and makayla started to communicate each other with a growl. when they don't like something that each other are doing, they immediately break into some kind of a bark or a growl. it's very alarming and quite frankly disturbing. as you guys know, makayla and ethan can squeak pretty loudly so it's no pretty sight.

here he is again, growling. my lionboy.

these are shark eggs - neat, huh?

fun #4: another big indoor playground near joe's parents place. it had this HUGE slide. it was even scary for me to go up and come down. it was four stories high. they loved it.

okay, enough about the kids. fun #5: shopping and eating for me! got some new fabric and browsed through my favorite street in amsterdam - lots of cool design stores! cheese from the market - brought back a bunch and managed to stink up the whole suitcase. yum.
decadent chocolates.fun #6: chinese food - it deserves it's own catergory b/c it was just too good. the first dim sum and dinner we had, i was in heaven. i don't have a picture of it b/c i was too busy eating. so much fresh seafood! this picture is the lobster we had in amsterdam. makayla wouldn't stop eating peking duck and demanded more pancakes. in fact, joe's parents had to take her out last night of our stay to get more peking duck since she wouldn't stop talking about it.
thank you mama and yeye! (ethan is clutching his lucky money envelope that he just got from them) makayla also insisted on carrying her own money and asked even at the airport where her money was. she doesn't seem to trust that we'll put it in her college fund. . . . i guess we can no longer spend it on new gadgets for ourselves- she is too aware.