Dear Santa, in case you read blogs...

Here are the wish lists of two very cute children who really, really hope you'll come down their chimney in a few weeks. For help decoding, we've provided a special app called the Mama Translator.

June would like a Zhu Zhu pet, a baby high chair, a key necklace, a jewelry set, purple jellybeans, a jellyfish lamp and a candy cane.

Kean would like a Thomas umbrella, a Thomas belt and a jellyfish lamp.

Please, if anyone besides Santa happens to read this, can you pretend you haven't when you talk to Kean and June? They don't know that Mama shared their lists.

Count your blessings

We did, on our little tree. We're thankful for croco and ice cream, Thomas and Halloween, and playing in the leaves. We're thankful for our health and our little stuffed penguin. But most of all, we're thankful for each other. Happy Thanksgiving -

Who needs toys...

when there are piles of leaving lying around?

Ready, set...

(I love June's look of determination)

THROW!

Happy birthday, old man.

Pardon the interruption of your 12-hour nap, but you are now eligible to collect Social Security.

Generous June

June is such a giving person. I've never met anyone, no matter how old, who shares so willingly. She doesn't even have to be asked. I still remember when she was around 16 months old and fed a Cheerio to a little boy her age. His mom and I were stunned. She even shares good stuff. Once I gave her a small bag of M&Ms after school. As soon as she pulled out the first one - a blue one - she held it up in the back seat and asked if Kean was old enough to have one. When I said yes, she told me that she would give it to him when we got to the babysitter's house. I was amazed that, 15 minutes later at the babysitter's house, she still had it in her hot little hand.

Sharing milk with Kean, September 2010

Yes, she went to school like this.

Sparkly shoes, striped knee socks, striped leg warmers, shorts and a T-shirt. With a sparkly headband, natch. She made everyone smile.

My heart leaps up…title of a poem by William Wordsworth…now I know the ‘meaning’ of the poem…

Daddy gets to sleep in once in a while and, during one of those ‘whiles’ June had been up an hour or so popping up to our room trying delicately to wake my tired ass up. First she tried her funny face succinctly followed by jumping on me which was not kindly received. I’m squinting so I can see the action without letting on. She disappears, and then comes up sometime later, now armed with a thumb piano to gently wake me up….this ‘fails’ but is fondly remembered by me. She disappears, and then comes back. This time my eyes are closed but prepared for cymbals, pile driver, harmonica, something big when she gently kisses me on the forehead. My heart leaps up…

We are at the local pool we belong to and me and Chooky -Kean are hanging out at the baby pool, while mama and june go to the big pool. At some point while playing with Chooky, I pretend to cry-I do this with the kids periodically, especially when they are crying, as it makes them wonder “what the hell is he crying about?” and they inevitably stop. This time my crying immediately invokes Chooky to come right over to me and kiss me on the cheek! My heart leaps up…I tell mama and June when they get back and they immediately start to fake cry and they receive an instant, selfless kiss/hug combo!

For the record, I don't wear make-up.

June: Mama, I want to paint up here (points to her eyelids).

Mama: Oh really. What color?

June: Blue. And I want to wear it to school.

Can we continue this conversation later, like in 13 years?

I love you, sweetie. Now go to sleep.

One of the nicest outcomes of having a Chinese babysitter is that the kids learn a bit of Mandarin. One of Kean's favorite lines is "Wo ai ni" (pronounced woe-I-knee), which means I love you in Chinese. His favorite time to say it is at bedtime, after he's climbed into his crib and we're about to call it a night. Thing is, after he says it, he expects us to say it, then he repeats it back and expects us to repeat it back, and the circular conversation goes on and on and on. After a few "wo ai ni"'s back and forth, I inch toward the door to sneak away. Sometimes this works. But every now and then, as I head downstairs, he'll start screaming, "MAAAAAAMA, SAY WO AI NI!! SAY WO AI NI!!' Which, when you translate it, sounds very funny.

June's favorite things, August 2010

Rainbows, hearts and all things purple (could you write this about any 4-year-old girl?)

Kid gum (aka Starburst)

Sharing kid gum - "just a teensy bit, Mama, don't worry" - with her brother

Drawing pictures of our house. This one shows me in my office in the attic. She's in the window on the left. Kean is the other face (she forgot to draw a window around him) and Daddy is outside. The square at the bottom is Pepper's "dog door." She saw a pet door at our friend's house and obviously thinks we need one too.

Watching cooking shows (Giada is her favorite)

Asking me to make the food she sees on the cooking shows

Pretending to make the food she sees on the cooking shows ("...then you sprinkle a little salt on the tomato and top it with fresh cheese. Awesome!!!")

Wearing mismatched flip-flops

Braiding her hair (unless I'm doing it)

Successfully tricking her brother into giving up a toy by pretending that there's something even better for him someplace else ("Kean, don't you want that cool choo-choo train over there?")

And doing funny, silly things all day long!

Update: June just heard this list and told me I forgot some:

Making funny faces at her brother

Going to swim lessons (this from a girl who wouldn't go near the water when a boy lifeguard was her teacher for three weeks. All is well in the world now that she has a girl lifeguard.)

Making beautiful pictures for her mom

Listening to Itsy, Teeny, Weeny, Yellow Polka-dot Bikini

Helping mama do her chores

Happiness is...

Happiness is...

an icy popsicle on a hot, hot day.

Happiness is....

having a sister who shares her popsicle when yours is gone.

Happiness is...

finger painting outside.

Happiness is...

swim goggles that make you crabby.

Happiness is...

letting someone else drive.

Mama, mama, I have something to tell you.

I have to write these down before they escape my brain. A few comments from June this week (and it's only Tuesday).

I dead-ed it. I grin every time she says this, which is pretty often because there are plenty of ants to smoosh on our patio.

Jessica V. has fallen in love with me. Platonic love, mind you, but she gushes and blushes when she says it. Today she told me that she's fallen in love with Anna and Laura, but shhh, don't tell Jessica. Apparently, she's the jealous type.

Mama, this dress isn't big. Translation: This dress doesn't twirl as wide as the dress her auntie gave her for her birthday, the dress she'd wear daily if it didn't mysteriously disappear into the wash for days.

Froggy

A special shout-out to Linda for giving us this game. It's a big hit! (Click on the "four arrow" button under the video. It's on the bottom right. It makes the video full-screen.)

Let's learn time another day.

Location: My bed.

My wish: Five minutes of rest.

June's wish: Zero minutes of rest.

Time on digital clock: 1:19 p.m.

June: Mama, how long are you going to rest?

Mama: Five minutes, honey.

June: Okay.

(She peers at the digital clock)

June: Okay, until the clock says five-two-eight.

(Big smile on Mama's face)

Mama: That's right, honey. Sounds great.

So, what's new?

Actually, quite a lot.

New American. Kean was finally welcomed to the USA with a ceremony that had as much pomp and circumstance as a trip to the DMV to get your license renewed. Seriously, Regis and Kelly was on the freakin' TV next to the flag! We were the only ones celebrating in red, white and blue, but maybe we brightened everyone else's day a bit. The balloons that arrived at our house later that day put us all in a festive mood.

New pet. We found caterpillars on our playset in the yard about four weeks ago. We started with four, then three, then these two little critters who ate through endless oak leaves (I was about to steal some from the neighbor's tree) before finally (finally!) cocooning last week. We're praying for monarchs, but are setting expectations low, low, low because moths are more likely. (For a peek of our daily life, look at all the junk on the counter. Sheesh.)

New bed. I'm embarrassed to admit how long she's been sleeping on a mattress on the floor. She picked out her bed set, which fits her to a tee.

New season. Yay for warm weather and cute shorts and ice cream sandwiches and doing grass angels on our front lawn.

Still the most cute, mischievous, giggly, lovable kids on Earth.

Daddy, can we go play in the mines now?

We'll be careful, promise.

I lost count of how many times June changed her shoes today.

7:10 am: purple butterfly shirt, flowery skort, pink socks
7:15 am: purple butterfly shirt, flowery skort, turquoise striped legwarmers because she's cold, pink socks
9:45 am: purple butterfly shirt, flowery skort, brown butterfly fleece pants underneath skort, pink socks, red converses
9:50: removes flowery skort because it's bunched up under fleece pants
later that morning: takes off underwear and puts on the bottoms of her swimsuit instead
11 am: whips off socks and sneakers to try on new purple sandals bought at the store
11:10 am: puts socks back on for that unique european look of socks and sandals
11:15 am: takes off socks again. Clomp around in her rain boots just because.
12:50 pm: puts on red converses to ride her bike
12:55 pm: too hot to ride. puts on sandals again
1:30 pm: replaces brown butterfly fleece pants with pink fleece pants instead.
1:35 pm: takes off sandals and puts on white sparkly shoes
1:35 pm: -- 2:30 pm: 55 minutes of the same clothes!
2:35 pm: gives the euro look another try with white socks and purple sandals
2:36 pm: still hates it. flings the sandals and practices somersaults on the grass in her white socks
3 pm: takes off pink fleece pants, bathing suit bottom and walks around half naked for the next 15 minutes.
3:20 pm: puts on her nike sweatpants. comfy!

at last look, she was still wearing the sweatpants, her white sparkly shoes (now happily dirty for a hard day of play) and amazingly, the purple butterfly shirt that stayed on ALL DAY.

Chookie Monster

Somewhere along the line, maybe five or six months ago, June started calling Kean "Chookabunder." The adults in the house have no idea why, but so it is. Lately, because she's in such a hurry to getherwordsoutfast, she abbreviates it to Chookie or Chooks. Which should come as no surprise coming from a girl who says hung for hungry and gram for graham cracker. When she says Chooks, she sorta sounds like Peppermint Patty calling for Chuck. Yep, she's Peppermint Patty, Kean is Charlie Brown, Pepper is Snoopy and Masala Papa and I sound like wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.

Kean doesn't speak English.

He speaks Keanlish. Some recent entries:

Tar = star
Do-dive = screwdriver
Dune = June
NOOOOOO = snow
Baboon = balloon
Muh-MAID = mermaid. An explanation: June got a mermaid Barbie for Christmas and Kean has a crush on her. Every time he sees a picture of a Barbie or Disney princess, he calls her mermaid. He's also very into fish. June says he's going to marry a mermaid. Look carefully at the picture: That's a fishing rod and a plastic fish in his hands.

Who needs toys?

Anyone who has been to our house knows there's no shortage of toys. You can't walk far without tripping over a plastic fish, a pom-pom, or some other little people junk. For the record, we do clean, but it's hard to keep up with our two little destroyers.

Which makes June's inventions that much more interesting. Several months ago, she glued buttons on a flat piece of wood to make a bed for her little bear. She used a napkin for the pillow. Forgot to take a picture of it, so you'll have to believe me when I say it was pretty cool. And it kept her busy for nearly an hour, which is a record in our house.

More recently, she hounded me to buy pie tins, not because she wanted pie (although if asked, she probably would have said yes), but because she wanted to make a tambourine. Mind you, we have a bin full of musical instruments. Finally, I got around to it and bought her a couple tins. It was like she hit the lottery. She grabbed the tins, found some mini M&M's, and much to my surprise, used them for her tambourine instead of stuffing them in her mouth. She taped the tins together, and presto!, a tambourine. Here she is with it, before it got dismantled during naptime one afternoon when she remembered what was inside it.

I'm not sure if she got her own joke.

Mama: June, stop chewing Daddy's phone.

June: Why? It's a blackberry.

Tonight's Dinner Conversation

June: Mama, who is Barack Obamana?

Mama: He's our president. He's the leader of America.

June: So he gets to do everything first?

Mama: Yeah, I guess so. He lives in a big house called the White House with his family.

June: Does it have a bathroom?

Mama: Um, yes, lots of them.

June: This many? (two fingers go up).

Mama: No, more than that. (game continues until she has 10 fingers up.) There are even more than 10 bathrooms.

June: I'd like to live there because it has so many bathrooms.

Three years ago today, we got the call about our little Junebug. Three years later, conversations like this one. Life is good.