Paid to Play

This morning:

Ari to her older sister, "Teja will you play with me?"
"No."
Ari pleaded, "Pleeeeease."
"Uh-Uh."
Ari bargained, "I'll give you a dollar."

And just like that, her sister was persuaded. Playing together ensued.


I'm still processing this one.

Our FOUR year old!

Well we are the proud parents of a four year old. Happy Birthday Arielle! Now you are FOUR!!!! We had a small, FUN birthday party for her the Saturday before the actual big day. There were six girls total (2 of which belong to us) which was totally manageable. They all had parents here too. Even more doable! Bathing suits, sun block, squirt guns, dress ups, cup cakes, nail polish, piggy-back rides (correction: it was a buffalo, a bull and a horse that the girls were riding upon), a dance off, water colors, and presents including a new bike from Mom & Dad!

It was a full day and a fantastic celebration! It was actually the easiest birthday party we’ve ever thrown. I think it’s because I’m pregnant and I sort of boycotted another birthday party this year unless we only invited a few children and Nathan was responsible for almost everything… I’ll have to remember to do it this way again. My grandmother says you should only invite as many children as the age of the child being celebrated. In this case because Ari is turning four so we should only invite four children. I like that advice. I guess we did it “right” this time!

Mateja was a bit disappointed that Daddy didn’t buy her a bike for her birthday back in February. Looks like she will be getting a bike too now (probably this weekend) & we'll have to get helmets of course & then Nathan & I will have to get bikes too in order to keep up with them! It’s going to be a fun summer!

Here are a few photos of the celebration as well as the day of her birthday and a few other things we did to celebrate the girl. Enjoy!

What's Jail Mateja?

Today Mateja educated Ari on what happens to someone when they break the law.

Mateja to Ari: When people don't obey the law, the get put in jail. You don't want to go to jail do you?

Ari: No, Mateja...

Mateja: OK. Then you need to put your seat belt on because that is disobeying the law.

Ari: What's jail, Mateja?

Mateja: Jail is a stinky place. And the pillows are hard like rocks. And they give you blankets that are hard like rocks too. You don't EVER want to go to jail.

Me: Have you ever been to a jail?

Mateja: No and I don't ever want to go.

Me: How do you know they are stinky if you have never been to one before?

Mateja: I don't know. I just know they are.

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!!!

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.