the People of California

We were driving in the car up to San Francisco. Nathan had some work to do in the city so we girls decided to tag along. The girls requested their favorite CD, one of Michael Jackson's, of course and Nathan asked me to read him a newspaper article.

Ari suddenly said: "I pray for the people of California."

(I'm not sure I've ever heard her say the word "California" before, it was fabulous.)

That sortta caught our attention. So we too prayed for the people of California! We bless you Californians!!! Prosper & be in good health. Make wise decisions and live life to the fullest! Do it!!!

Player vs. Rock Star

We three girls were in the checkout line at Target. Ari had been wailing/screaming/throwing-a-fit... you know, doing that thing that makes everyone else in the store say, "somebody needs to shut that kid up." OK. Maybe everyone else in the store doesn't say that, but... YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!!! And although I do hate to admit it, I was a bit stressed. Mateja was lingering at the magazine racks. I was ready to get out of there. So once I paid for everything and shoved it into my cart I jammed for the automatic doors and hollered behind me, "Mateja, let's go!"
I was already around the corner before I looked back to see if she was following me out the door. She was. And in her hands were stacks of different magazines. They all had Michael Jackson on the cover. "Mateja!" (that was stressed-out-Mommy) "Mom, I want to read all of these." "Babe, I am not buying those." "Mom, these are all about Michael Jackson. And I want to read them! He's the best! Anyway, you don't have to buy these. We can take them." "No, Tej. You have to buy them. This isn't the library. It's... just go put them back, please! And LET'S GO." Reluctantly she returned all of the magazines to their racks. I was able to decompress in the meantime. She returned talking about how awesome Michael Jackson is and how much she loves him. I couldn't remove the smirk from my face. It was just too funny.

I pressed about MJ. "Sooo, why did you want those magazines?" "Mom he is the BEST man in the whole world!" "What?!?" I laughed. "Well, what about your Dad?!?" "Well, Mom. I mean that Michael Jackson is the best rock star in the whole world. Daddy is the best Dad and he is the best player too." "Who is the best?" "Daddy is the best Daddy and player." "He's a player?" "Yeah!" "What do you mean, player?" "You know, he is the best player at tickling and playing games and chasing me and Ari. But Michael Jackson is the best rock star ever!"

There's a good chance she'll change her mind. Ya think?

Ari speaks Mandarin with Auntie

MONDAY:

My sister, the girls’ Auntie, currently lives in China. Before she moved to China for work, she lived with us for nine months so she & the girls were pretty close. Because of the wonders of modern technology, we all still get to “see” each other & chat via Skype. This morning we girls spent some time talking with Auntie before she went to bed. It was pretty late her time. She has been working on her Chinese (Mandarin) quite a bit lately and decided to go through a little lesson with the girls by having them repeat some of the words and phrases. I will TRY to duplicate them here, but I neither speak nor write the native languages spoken in China. So forgive me if I’m a bit off, but here goes:

Auntie: “OK Ari. Repeat after me. I’m going to say something and then you say the same thing. OK?”
Ari: “OK Auntie.”
Auntie: “OK. Here we go. ‘zai jian’ now you say, ‘zai jian’”
Ari: “sigh jee”
Auntie: “Good job. Now say: ‘shui, shui’”
Ari: “shoosh”
Auntie: “Good. ‘wo ai nee’”
Ari: “orwannee”
Auntie: That’s “I love you” in Chinese.
Ari: “I love you in Chinese.”
Auntie: (burst out laughing)

Awe. Love making Auntie laugh.

Cute Moment

Picked the girls up from the childcare provided on Wednesday mornings at the church during which time I'm in the Women's Meeting. The care giver told me this story:

During craft time during which the children were making dolls out of yarn, Mateja spoke up, "Teacher, did you know that mom sings at home with her guitar too? And she has the most beautiful voice in the whole world." (I wonder where she heard that. Just like her Daddy!)

Her teacher thought that was the cutest thing. Very noteworthy!