Flowers are gross?

I play this game with my son where I will say a category "something in the garage" and he will give me the answer.  Here's how our game went today:

Me: Something gross
Him: Flowers!
Me: Flowers are not gross!
Him: [laughing] Oh, I thought you said 'grows'!

:)

Parent Teacher Interview

Keith had his first parent teacher interview today.  Not so coincidentally, it was also my first parent/teacher interview.  Unexpectedly, I was slightly nervous walking into the classroom.  Perhaps it's the realization that my son is growing up and that this is the first of many parent/teacher interviews i will attend as a parent.  Or maybe because I was nervous about what the teacher will say about Keith.  or maybe because I'm not familiar with how to interact with a teacher as a parent.  Should I be friendly, should I be concerned, should I have been prepared with a list of questions to ask the teacher?

It turned out that there was nothing to worry about.  Keith is doing just fine at school.  The teacher is really pleased with his progress in all areas.  She showed me some examples of his work - his drawings and writing.  He drew a picture of 6 stick figures and he wrote something like this as his caption: ON FML D W M HS.  Which was his way of writing "On Family Day, we went to mama's house."  The teacher explained that he is starting to sound out words and he wrote all the letters by himself, which is a huge accomplishment for his age, especially considering he couldn't even hold a pen properly at the beginning of the school year.

Loblaw's highest ROI activity

Loblaws has a really smart and effective strategy to drive store traffic - they offer a free cookie to each kid 12 and under.  Whenever I ask my 4-year old son if he wants to go to Loblaws with me, he usually replies with an enthusiastic "yes!".  Of course, when I go with him to get the free cookie, I usually end up with a shopping cart full of groceries that I would not have bought had I not gone to Loblaws that day.  Who would have thought that a cookie would be one of their highest ROI marketing activities?

Hair cut

My son has come a long way when it comes to getting his hair cut.  When we took him for his first few hair cuts, he would cry like we were torturing him.  He is now 4 years old and today, I took him for a hair cut and I was so proud of him.  He told the hair dresser he wanted "#2 on the top and #1 around the edges".  He even made small talk with the hair dresser.  Here's how the conversation went:

Keith: You know, when I was a baby, I used to cry when I got my hair cut
Hairdresser: Oh, how long ago was that?  2 years?
Keith: Ummm, no.  I think it was 21 years ago.

My little boy is becoming a big boy.  It's incredible.

"Trick or Treating!"

I took my son trick or treating for the first time last night.  In previous years, we have always been busy with organizing the Halloween alternative program at church so we never have been able to go.  Last night, my husband handed out packages of candy + gospel tracts to trick-or-treaters while I took my son (dressed up as a pirate) and daughter (as a fairy) around our block.  The tracts are my way of justifying our participation in this pagan festival, but I digress.

At the first few doors, instead of ringing the doorbell and saying "trick or treat!", my son rang the door bell and said "trick or treating!".  I had to correct him a few times before he got it right.  That was kind of funny.  It reminded me of how much I have to teach him as he encounters new situations as he grows up.

Even though only about half of the houses on our street gave out candy, we came home with a bag full of loot.  Now I don't know what to do with all the candy because I don't want my son to eat it and I don't want to eat it either.  I wonder if we can save it for next year's Halloween?

Chinese School

As a child, I attended Chinese school begrudgingly until I was in highschool.  I swore I would never put my children through the same torture.  But now, as a parent, I am choosing to do just that.  This past week, my son started Mandarin class in an after school program at his school.  My rationale for wanting him to learn Mandarin:
- I believe that learning a second language, any second language, helps a person to be more creative and intelligent because they learn that there is more than one way to solve problems and express themselves.
- I want my children to learn Chinese because that's their heritage.
- I want my children to learn Mandarin even though I speak Cantonese because everyone says Mandarin may become a dominant language globally in the future.

When I first dropped him off into the Mandarin class, I felt a bit nervous because it was a huge class of about 20 JK/SK kids.  I think my nervousness rubbed off and my son was also hesitant as he walked into the class and I could see that he was on the verge of tears.  But he was a very brave boy and sat down on the carpet to join the other kids.  I felt better when there were other kids there who were from his JK/SK class at school who were calling out his name which gave him encouragement to join them.  After class, I went to pick him up and he was in good spirits.  I was relieved that my son seemed to have a good time.  I was so proud of him when he learned how to say "yi" and "er" (one and two).  He even brought home a workbook where he learned to write "yi" and "er".  I was so impressed!  If he keeps his up, he will learn over 50 charaters by the end of this school year.  I'm happy with that.