Another Item for the Freezer

We went grocery shopping with the kids over the weekend. This is something that we really enjoy doing as a family. For the kids, they love lining up for samples given out at the market. It's nice to see them wanting to try new things.

One of the items we sampled were these frozen dumplings that you cook on your stove top. You add a little water and oil, cover with a lid and steam them. When the water has evaporated, the dumplings are done - idiot proof and fast (a little over 10 minutes). The kids loved the teeny, tiny morsels that were given out as samples. For us, if the kids like the samples, our question to the person doing the demo is "can we get a discount if we buy bulk?" Besides, doesn't the picture on the bag look yummy?

Well, tonight we cooked the dumblings for Andrew and Caleb as a little snack just before bed time as they both were a little hungry. When we cooked the dumplings, they turned out a little soggy (probably added a bit too much water). Isn't it funny how at the demo at the market, the samples always come out perfectly? We figured, "No problem, just a little extra water... more juicy, right?" We put the dumplings in front of Andrew who looked at them and said "you've got to be kidding!" We encouraged him to try it, and after putting one in his mouth, he spat it out and had this look of utter disgust on his face. Caleb spat his out too and refused to eat them, just like his big brother.

Well, we thought about the best approach to get them to eat the dumplings and realized that our options included 1) lecture them on how difficult it is to make money to buy these expensive dumplings, 2) tell them how there are poor people in the world who don't get to eat even one meal a day, or 3) remind them that they were the ones that wanted to buy these damn things in the first place. Eventually we decided on the tried and tested method for getting kids to eat Chinese food.....add more soy sauce and beg them to eat.

After much pleading and numerous threats, we managed to get them to finish a few more dumplings. We promised that we would make it better the next time. Andrew immediately retorted, "Better next time? I don't ever want to eat this stuff again!"

The dumplings are now stacked nicely away in the freezer and in about six months when we do our semi annual freezer purge, the remaining 11 bags will be rediscovered and tossed into the garbage can.

Why I Like School

I asked Andrew the other day what it is about school that he really likes. Do you like P.E. the best? What do you enjoy about music or reading time? He says that he likes to hang around his friends and they are all fun to be with. One of his best friends is Olivia. At home he refers to her as O-L-I-V-I-A. He literally spells her name out. They were in the same class last year, but were assigned to different classes this year.

Aza is his other good friend. He comes home some days and tells us, "Aza did this and Aza did that. She is soooooo cool!" At this age, he's having the time of his life and is not worried about global warming, the collapse of US housing market, inflation and all the other things that we adults think about. All Andrew is concerned about is whether he has to finish his Mandarin homework by the weekend so he can watch TV.

The Little One

Caleb is really an amazing individual. As Andrew's little brother, he gets taken advantage of (see last blog) by him, but he takes it all in stride. It's a nice reminder to us that life can be quite comical if you don't get stressed out over the little things.

He has just started going to day-care, twice a week. I think part of the novelty for Caleb is that in the morning, Andrew is going somewhere and he wants to be part of it. Caleb just loves day-care and has created a nice bond with "Auntie Edith". She is very caring and is great with kids. He has played with one of the kids already there (from church), so the transition was quite easy for him.

The Big Brother

It is quite amazing watching the two of them interact. Almost everything that Andrew does, Caleb wants to do the same. Over the weekend, Andrew gave Caleb a hat to wear. Because his older brother was wearing it backwards, Caleb had to do the same.

At times though, the relationship between the two of them just cracks me up. We had told Andrew to clean up his room. A few minutes later we hear the sound of toys being put away. Much to our surprise, Andrew had gotten Caleb to clean up his room for him while Andrew sat reading a book. In Andrew's words, "I'm learning to supervise and I'm teaching Caleb to be obedient."

Here we go

We're now into cybering and we have now set up a blog.

We're not sure where this will lead, or how many entries we will add, but we were inspired by Yetta's blog and how wonderful it is to read about the activities of someone's daily life.

Check her blog out at:
http://www.langlangcreations.blogspot.com/

The stars of our show....Andrew and Caleb.