03/30/04
Lily had a Bad Dream :-(
This morning, I was wakened up by Lily's sobbing.
"Lily, why are you crying? You had a bad dream?"
"My umbrella is going away! I can't find my umbrella. :-(
woo woo . . .
Raining, and cold . . .
My umbrella flew away!
I go . . . and Inna (her teacher) going away. woo woo. . .
My friends love me. And my umbrella's gone! . . . "
:-(
She's probably feeling cold right now, since she is dreaming of rain. Anyway, no use telling her dream is not real. It makes her feel sad still.
"Lily, do you want to come under Mommy's cover? We get up soon and go to school to find Inna and friends, ok? We go find the umbrella, ok?"
What should I say to her? I don't have any good idea at this moment. And what should I say when she is hurt by real life in the future?
Why did she have a bad dream?
03/27/04
"I am Sick."
It is Saturday. Around noon, Lily came to me and said: "Mommy, I am sick."
"Really? Why are you sick?"
"Because, I want yogurt to make me better."
:-)
Sculpture
03/24/04
Lily has always been a self-content person, though she always welcome a playmate. I try to play with her as much as I could. But I have so much to take care of, that I don't think I would ever play enough with her. So, I try my best to be creative, giving her something new to do from time to time, keeping her busy and happy, at least.
These days I spend a lot of time on computer, trying to finish few projects before the trip to China.
After dinner, I sat down in front of computer again. Few minutes after I stared working, a thought came to me:
She should be happy to do some sculpturing at this age, especially, she have seen enough from the TV ('Art Alive' from Noggin). But how can I give her something to do that? Somehow, I don't like those material from the store. She is too young for that.
But... Hey, a dough would be good. It cost nothing, and it can be easily cleaned up. The only reason I never thought of that, is because we are so used to treat it as food, and food is not for playing. But I still remember how happy I was, at age of five, anytime when Mom makes dumpling, she would give me a piece of dough to play with (so I won't go mess up her stuff) ;-).
So I got up, and said to Lily: "Come on, let's do some sculpturing." She seems to be excited, and followed me to the kitchen. I am not sure if she knew exactly what we were about to do.
I took a spoonful of flour, mixed with some water, and made a dough as big as an egg. When give it to her, she was so excited, opened up her eyes and said: "Oh, Scu..ulp..ture!"
After settling her down (She wanted to sit on the bed) and gave her a tray to play sculpture on, I went back to my computer.
There was half-hour waiting time once in a while, and I would use that to play with Lily or do things around the home.
When I came to play with Lily, I could see her sculpture is going no where. So I said to her: "Lily, let's play together. Mommy show you how to make it." So I took half of the dough, and gave her the other half.
Two seconds later, she reach out and took the dough from my hand and trying to say something. I can see her hesitation, so I asked:
"Lily, you don't want Mommy to help you?"
"... "
"You don't want Mommy to play with you?"
"Mommy..." She was trying very hard. Then she pointed at my desk: "Can you be busy in computer?"
Ha ha...
So I left her alone.
Chocolate
03/22/04
I am not a candy eater, and I could never know how attractive a piece of chocolate could be. Since I don't like the idea for kids to eat much sweet, I always try to let Lily have them as little as possible.
I notice that whenever Lily is hungry, the first thing she would think of is ice-cream, chocolate or candy. So I set a rule with her, that she can only have sweets AFTER meal. Almost always, after dinner, she doesn't care much for sweets any more, and I was never honest enough to remind her of our deal.
Tonight, right before bed time, Lily said that she was hungry.
“I want a BIG chocolate Mommy. And I don't want to eat dinner.”
“Ok, Lilyko, I will give you a little...”
“I want BIG chocolate...”
“Ok, Lily. I will give you a little milk... and a piece of cookie.”
“I want chocolate Mommy.”
“No cookie?”
“No cookie!”
“But you will have just this one. Ok?”
“Ok!”
“No more?”
“No more!”
“Alright then, go to the table and sit down.” I said. So she went.
I usually would put her chocolate in a little container so that she wouldn’t make a mess around (doesn’t always work though). But tonight, as I looked around, I saw her little green bowl was on the table right next to her. So I gave her half cup of milk, handed the chocolate to her, and pushed the green bowl towards her. She doesn’t always “remember” her promise, and on occasion, she could even “forget” twice and keep begging for more.
Sure enough, after much fun and mess, after sucking every single figure of hers, I heard: “Mommy, I want more...”
I turned to her and said: “Lily... :-(” I wasn’t going to give in easily. She knew what I was going to say next, so she looked away. I went back to what I was doing.
“Mommy, you forgot to put the chocolate in the bowl!”
I was quite surprised and amused. I turned to her and trying to think of something to say.
She picked up the Green Bowl from the table and waved at me. “You forgot to put the chocolate in the bowl. You have to put the chocolate in the bowl, you know.” She said, with a very serious look on her face.
Well, who wants to knowingly break the rule... :-)
*********** ******
Sometimes I really wonder: Are kids really so smart? Or I am just imagining all this?
