Cambodia's Ancient Temples

As strange as it sounds, considering we're on a trip of a lifetime in an exotic land, we've adopted a bit of a routine. Our day starts with showers and breakfast. Breakfast has a basic selection of Chinese buffet along with a fresh omelet, plain conjee and, if we're lucky,Cambodian noodle soup. Then, on those days that we are doing day trips, we pile into the van and drive for at least an hour to our morning destination. Some of our most recent activities include a swim in a tropical waterfall, visiting the Angkor temples (which there are many) and an exciting elephant ride up a hill to watch the sunset perched on the top of an ancient temple. Out of our party of 13, only 2 of us have no Cambodian blood and therefore need to pay for admission to the Angkor temples. After our visits, we find some lunch and then go back to the hotel for a nap (parents only) and a swim in the pool. Then if we've got the energy, we do a late afternoon outing before a dinner and early evening bedtime. Our group is a hodgepodge of ages and nationalities with their own agendas during the outings. The older Cambodian members of the group (the oldest being over 80) just like being out and about with a few cute kids to spoil with toys and treats. They don't like doing anything too active and often wait for us at the entrance to each landmark since they have no interest in seeing things for the hundredth time. Then there is my sister-in-law, her husband and their 9-month old (Allison). They would like to see everything but the ball and chain aka Allison decides how much they can do and when they can do it. She's running their show and it's not uncommon for them to opt out of dinners or the occasional outing to let her sleep and eat in the comforts of the hotel. Sophie has decided that as the only 5-year old in the party she doesn't need to push herself as hard as the others. She often opts out of walks around the temples for the welcoming embrace of the older folk. And who can blame her really, visiting some moldy old temples has nothing over being doted on by 5 older family members that buy her anything she wants. That leaves the older two kids, Lo and myself. We are loving exploring the jungles, the ruins and everything else about our Cambodian outings. Our list of bumps and bruises to date include a 24hr case of food poisoning (me), almost falling between some steps to the jungle floor below (Nick), a bumped head on the side of the pool (Nick), a cut knee on the pool steps (Sophie) and a family case of bathroom issues. The only other story of note from the amazing temple visits (we'll have lots of pictures to show everyone) happened when Juliette and I got separated from anyone that could speak Cambodian and tried to exit and re-enter a temple site in the Angkor complex. Entry to the sites for foreigners without tickets is strictly enforced and I'm constantly challenged to show mine at every occasion. On this specific visit though the ticket checkers kept on asking for Juliette's ticket. I told them she was half Khmer (aka Cambodian) but this did not satisfy them. One asked to see her passport, another asked her to speak Khmer. In the end, I couldn't give them an answer that would satisfy them so we just walked passed their protests (with no consequences) even though they were ordering us to stop. That's all from the our Angkor Watt adventures, next stop is Kampong Thom where we are staying in an amazing house, stay tuned.

Cambodia, our home away from home

It's been 4 days since my last post but it feels more like 4 weeks. Everyday in Cambodia is filled with surprise and adventure (both good and bad) but one thing that remains constant is the welcoming feel we've received from the family we never knew we had. When I meet a, new to me relative, they tell me his or her Cambodian name and relation which I invariably forget before they finish their sentence. One day I'll get my wife to sit down and map them all out on a family tree but for now I just nod and smile. They always seem happy to see us, especially Sophie because at 5 she's still cute as a button, and they always give us delicious food to eat. That being said, our initial moments on Cambodian soil did not start well. As we greeted Kung Kung at the airport, our initial excitment quickly wore off as we realized we were waiting for a suitcase that would never arrive. That's right, the airline lost Juliette's suitcase. On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being the best case scenerio), losing Juliette's suitcase is a 3. She's big for a 10 year old but by Cambodian standards she's still adult size. Our initial impressions of Cambodia were from the back of a car/truck stuck in rush hour traffic for over an hour. The road was crawling with hundreds of bikes and mopeds with the odd car/truck thrown into the mix to make things just a little extra scary. Driving in this country is a sport that requires maximum attention at all times to ensure you don't hit a family of 4 on their way home from the market. That night we ate seafood in a nice restaurant. The food was great except the kids had issues taking their own heads off the shrimps and rock lobsters (which looked like giant shrimp). We were also introduced to the darker side of Cambodia when a squad of kids, 4-7 years old, came in to beg for money. They were kept in bare feet wore dirty old clothes and were trained to look sad. When they left, it was by moped, 4 to a seat along with their "guadian". I don't know if they were well treated or where the money they received went to but all I could think of were the child beggards in Slumdog millionaire. The next day we had an amazing breakfast which included Chinese, Cambodian and Western food before taking off in a air conditioned private van for the Northern Hub of Battambang. The highlight of the 5 hour treck was a visit to a country market. The market occupied the space of a football field and contained roughly 200 stalls attended by 1000 people. This wasn't even the biggest market in the province all 3 kids were intimidated by the sheer numbers of stange food (raw and cooked), people and goods for sale down the kilometers of dark and dirty alleys. We later arrived at another family house which was located behind their store that sold alters for homes. Again they fed us and found us a hotel for the night. The kids are getting used to the look and feel of the stores, markets and new family members. When they are in the car, they are either looking out the window or playing games/watching movies on the iTouch. We spent the next day at a family engagement party where two young people (I guess we were related to the girl) were celebrating their upcoming nuptuals with a big family banquet behind their modest house. Considering the length of the event, I was a bid worried by how long the kids would last but then we discovered a fenced off slab of concrete and a thriving rollerblade rental business next door to the party location. What a score! Juliette, Nick and I all tried it for a bit but Nick was the only one that lasted for hours in the heat and the imperfectly fitting over-used blades. Nick was exhausted from the exertion and I'm sure the exercise contributed to his short but scary as hell middle of the night asthma attack. The next day started off badly and quickly got much worse (at least for me). I was incredibly ill (we suspect it was palm juice) and I spent the entire day, weak as a baby, on a bed in an air conditioned room. The kids spent some of their time keeping me company either because they love me or because they loved the air conditioned room I was layed up in (it was the only one in the house). Luckily for everyone in our party, my illness, as bad as it felt, was a 24hr thing and I quickly rebouded for a boat ride on a man made lake filled with water lilies, a ride up a mountain to visit a temple with a killing hole used during the reign of terror by the Kmer Rouge, a trip to a Crocodile farm that contained over three hundred crocs in the space of a hotel swimming pool and trip to a cetury old temple site (a preview to the real deal at Angkor Wat). The kids are taking everything in stride and are being good sports about the boring walks and family visits but truth be told they are enjoying the hotel pool the most.

Spicy Food

When people find out that my wife is Cambodian, invariably they always ask me two questions: "Does she cook Cambodian food" and "Exactly what is Cambodian food?", to which I usually reply "Cambodia is located between Thailand and Vietnam so the food you would eat in a Thai or Vietnamese restaurants in Canada are similar, if not the same, as Cambodian food." Now that I'm in Thailand I can say that I have no Idea what authentic Cambodian food is like but Thai food is crazy spicy. I don't just mean "white people" spicy, I mean too hot for my wife spicy. This is the girl that puts 3 scotch bonnet peppers in a single bowl of soup! Well last night we went to a high end Thai restaurant probably had only ever served a a hand full of white people. The waitress was wearing a Heineken dress which would have been small on Sophie and we were overlooking an outdoor shopping mall that was bustling with families enjoying a national holiday by going out for dinner. I started things off with my own personal pitcher of Heineken (what can I say, I'm a sucker for advertising in the form of a short dress), and we had a few appetizer which were innocent enough in that they were deep fried with a bit of a sweet sauce. Sophie was passed out in her seat because her body was still on a non-Bangkok time zone (not sure which one) and the rest of us were peacefully munching away, oblivious of events to come. Then the main dishes started to come out. To be fair, we did order things from the "spicy" page of the menu and others that didn't have the word "spicy" in it. But when we started eating, it became very clear that not all the dishes we ordered were clearly marked with a "spicy" designator. The first dish, which was a version of the vermicelli salad we love so much, had so many red peppers that I was dying after one bite. Mom even started to die and that was supposed to be a bland dish! After that, everything became a blur, I was dying from hot peppers, excessive hiccups and excessive beer. Nick had been tricked into eating some hot food and was trying anything to get his mouth to stop burning. Juliette and mom were laughing at us and Sophie slept through the entire thing. When we were almost done, a final dish came. It was the spicy shrimp with lime juice. Mom wouldn't touch it because the shrimp was raw (I guess they figured between the hot peppers and the lime, no parasites could survive). I had 2 or three shrimps then threw in the towel. Shortly after we paid the bill of approx $60 CDN (quite high by Thai standards) and went to a gelato place before calling it quits. As painful as it was, it was a night to remember that the kids will talk about for days or until our next mini adventure.

Chinese Xenophobia vs Racially Mixed Kids

We are having lots of fun on our trip but it's hard work. The kids are having trouble getting used to the time zones as we fly through them at jet speed. A 12 hour stop at the Beijing airport was spent eating at restaurents, showering/"resting" in an hourly hotel-like room and playing the "who can kick their shoe further/higher" game. All of us were a bit of a circus attraction walking around in a culture that is 95% mono-ethnic chinese. An older lady reached out and touched Nick today which scared him a bit but the main attraction is Sophie. She's the cutest and the one that laughs the most. That being said, I received a ton of weird looks walking around the airport alone but I think it was mostly because I was in sandals and shorts in the middle of winter than the fact that I'm white. Sophie sleeps when she wants, where she wants and will be the last to get used to the time change. The Chinese people seem to lack people skills. More than once I got the impression from people that the fact we didn't speak Mandarin made us a burden to deal with (which we were). Sometimes we could overcome the xenophobia because we had racialy hybrid kids like when we had lunch in the Beijing airport and they seated us near the cooking area so that all 5+ servers could just stand and watch us when they weren't serving other people. I don't think I've ever had such a high level of service in my life. Now that we are in Bangkok, we are feeling much more welcome. The communication barriers are still there but there's a reason they call this the land of smiling faces as their body language is much more welcoming. Today we whent into town to see the Royal Grounds. It involved taking an airport shuttle, a high-speed sky train and a crazy cab. The grounds were filled with temples, statues, monuments and tons of people. The kids were exhausted and the high of waking up in a strange land wore off by the time we walked through the front gate. The heat, exaustion and crowds chased us from the palace after only a 2 dozen pictures of half of the grounds. We then took a walk to the river thinking a boat tour would be a good way to cool off. Unfortunately the walk felt more like a marathon and the waves looked a but too rocky for us. Instead we walked through alleyways and started buying food from street vendors. The fact that we could do this in the shade away from the crowds of tourists and it involved one of our favorite activities, eating, made it the highlight of the outing. The kids loved the grilled chicken on a stick and I got smiles for ordering the catfish. Other foods included noodle soups, papaya salad and freshly sliced mangoes. Finding a cab back to the train station was easy but finding a washroom was impossible. It was only thanks to a sympathetic 7-11 worker that we were able to get the access to a toilet the kids so deperately needed. Juliette is at the age now where she wants to prove she's better than everyone else by passing comments like "Why are people in California wearing winter clothes when it's not even cold?" or "This place smells bad" when visiting the street vendors of Bangkok. Hopefully if we can teach these kids anything during the trip is that there are all types of people and cultures in the world and just because we do things a certain way doesn't make us better than them. Right now we're just chilling at our hotel, getting used to the time zone and soaking in the AC. Tomorrow we're off to Cambodia to start our "rockstar" cross country tour to see the sites and more importantly see the family we never knew we had.

California Adventure

Today was day 3 of our vacation and it was the second day of Disney. The highlight of our day today was the Aladdin musical where we got to see a Broadway style show for the price of admission to the park. What a deal! We especially liked the jokes by Genie both the good and the bad (e.g. "You are now the Sultan. If your last name were pepper shaker, you'd be sultan pepper shaker). The fireworks and the world of colour show were a close second as our favorites. The worst thing that happened today was getting stuck on two rides and Nick almost peeing his pants waiting for the workers to let us off the ride. Well, that's all I have energy for now., bye.

Our family trip around the world

Day 1 of our trip was a day of travel. As most days of travel, this involved waiting in lines at airports for security, for baggage, for shuttle buses, for rental cars and more... Highlights of the day were waking up in the morning, dinner with family and finally crashing in our hotel room. Lowlights included the lines, the landing in LAX and the family sleeping in the hotel lobby for half an hour (problems with check due to a missplaced purse). The parents still haven't been able to agree on how much ipod touch play time the kids are allowed but I think that will all change when we get to Cambodia. Tomorrow is Disney :-)

Letter to Juliette

Juliette has been on a role lately. Her first big compliment was from her soccer coach after a soccer game when she was called "truly inspiring". Then this came in the mail from her teacher she had last year. Needless to say were are very proud and even though we will always think of our kids as being very special, it's nice to hear it confirmed from an independent source. Along with the letter came a small notebook.

Most Popular Color in the World

Nick and Sophie came to me the other day and asked me a random question. Nick asked me what the most popular color in the world was. When I responded that there wasn't a "most popular color", he turned to his sister and said "Ha, I told you so". I had no I idea that I was taking sides in an argument and quickly asked what was going on. Apparently Sophie had stated that pink was the most popular color in the world and, if you have ever seen her wardrobe, I'm not that surprised she came to this conclusion. I explained to her that among little girls, pink and purple seem to be the most popular colors but that as girls get older they tend to prefer other colors instead. Sophie then responded that "When I grow up, I'm always going to love pink". I guess we'll see what happens.

As it turns out blue seems to be the "most popular color" and the preference towards pink for young girls is being claimed by women's groups as being market driven and not biological. Based solely on observations, little girls seem to go through a "pink and purple" phase independent of their exposure to marketing, so I think it's biological, but that's just my opinion.

The Terminator

Juliette made the roster of a competitive soccer team. I couldn't be happier. Last year, she was one of the best players on a house league team and I thought that her chances of making a competitive team this year would be a very high. As it turns out, her style of play and her passive disposition towards aggressive girls resulted in a horrible try-out experience. The try-outs were mostly drills and skills. Juliette's strengths are size and power. So when I got the call that she made the team over 6 other girls, I was shocked. I guess they figure that you can't teach size. Needless to say both daughter and father were ecstatic. We both had high hopes for the season.

In her first game of the season Juliette came out nervous and passive. She didn't have the aggressiveness of her teammates which made he a bit of a liability. After the game, I asked her what was wrong and she explained that she didn't want to hurt anyone out there. So I told her that it's not up to the players to decide what is within the rules and what is illegal, that's the job of the ref. There are three things a ref can do in a game to tell a player that they are crossing the line; awarding a free kick, giving a yellow card or giving a red card. I explained that in all the years of soccer, Juliette hadn't ever received a card (yellow or red) or a free kick. She also told me that she didn't want to use anger to fuel her aggression so I asked her to try and kick the air out of the ball. I figured being aggressive towards an inanimate object could provide her with the excuse of trying hard without her worrying about the wellbeing of others. I also added that the reason she made this competitive team was for her size and strength and that if she continued to play passively, she would be a liability on the team. That last comment was a bit close to the line of "crazy soccer dad" but I stand behind the statement as being the truth even if it wasn't very politically correct.

Since the first game she's been playing great. She even came home one day after practice and told me that her coach had given her the nickname the Terminator. Then she asked me who the terminator was. I couldn't be prouder of her. She is starting to really own her part of the field and takes balls away from opponents and knocks them down all the while never receiving cards or even a free kick against her. I'm so happy about her success to date and I look forward to watching her improve even more as the season goes on. Who knows, maybe she will even score a goal this year.

The Brains of Babes

Sophie, Nick and my wife were in the car together and a discussion ensued between the kids. Sophie was being asked by Nick why she refused to take swimming lessons and why she was so afraid of the water. Nick has been swimming in the deep end without any assistance now for probably a year and a half. He loves swimming and so does Juliette. To help Nick understand her dislike for swimming she provided an analogy. “Swimming without floaties to me is like bicycling on two wheels for you.” She tells her brother. Nick has had a tough time taking the training wheels off and Sophie has just recently discovered biking with training wheels at age 4 and loves it. The both of them continued to try and convince the other that swimming and biking was fun but in the end they agreed to disagree.

Here are a couple of observations I have on the above interaction. Sophie, at age 4 uses an analogy at age 4?!? Really? What does that mean? I don’t think I was using analogies until I was 16. It sounds like she might make a great psychologist, or counsellor. I’m very impressed to say the least. Another observation is that swimming for Sophie and Cycling for Nicholas is just another item on the list of things that my kids don’t do well and that the parents (especially my wife) guiltily blame themselves for. This is on top of the fact that Nick & Sophie are still wearing pull-ups at night when allot of kids are out of them by age 2. That Nick burst into tears every time his feelings are hurt. That all the kids are picking up their parents bad eating habits which is that every meal is treated like an all-you-can eat buffet. That Juliette will burst into tears anytime a large amount of homework needs to be done. Every time this conversation comes up though I remind my wife about all the amazing things our kids can do including how well they play together and lookout for each other, how good Nicholas and Juliette are at soccer, how respectful they are to everyone, how much laughter they have everyday, what a great artist Juliette is, how smart Nick is and how much fire and life Sophie brings into a room. At the end of the day, all parents are equally proud of our children’s accomplishments and worried about their perceived weaknesses but this is what parenting is all about and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Fish Heaven

After I butchered the cleaning the fish tank job, 2 of the 5 fish started having problems. They did some creative swimming but ended up sinking to the bottom of the tank where they remained motionless. As fish go, these guys were very small, only slightly larger than a grain of cooked rice. The 3 orange fish seemed to survive fine but the two stripped fished called “Stripy” and his brother needed to be fished out of the tank with a net 30 minutes after the cleaning.

I informed the kids that Stripy and his brother had died and we needed to have a funeral for them. So we all went upstairs to the main washroom and I said a few words of “prayer”. I said something like…”Stripy and his brother were good fish (actually Stripy was evil, he always chased the other fish in the tank and tried to bite them, that’s why he’s the only fish with a name) and that it was a sad thing that they were now dead but now they’re swimming in fish heaven (at least Stripy’s brother is…). Then we flushed them away.

Juliette and Sophie took the funeral rather well but Nicholas started to tear up. When Juliette called him on it, he laughed at himself for being so silly (i.e. crying at a fish funeral) and kind of hid his face. Let’s face it; Nicholas is a sensitive kid that will cry easily. One day he’ll grow out of it but until then he can take solace that this trait, along with his frequently bleeding nose, he inherited directly from his old man.

Teaching Rhythm

Recently, we went to Niagara Falls for a 4-day family vacation. This involved driving from 7 – 11 AM in the morning, settling in at a fabulous indoor water park/hotel called the Great Wolf Lodge and proceeding to go down every slide we were tall enough to ride. Juliette is tall and brave enough to go down everything. Nicholas is tall enough to go on half the rides and has just enough nerve to follow through with it while Sophie is too short for every ride and even the pools/slides built for 2 year olds are way too scary for her. Sophie’s favorite form of entertainment is playing in the kids’ hot tub and dumping water on Daddy’s head as I pretend to complain. Even mommy got into the act by going down some “scary” slides with her big girl.
The second evening of our trip was spent drinking at the Keg and attending a Vegas style magic show with Tigers. It was while we were waiting for the show to begin that the kids were bored silly and looking for some distraction. We happen to have some small dinosaurs on hand and there was some dance music playing in the background so I proceeded to teach the kids the concept of rhythm. At this point, you’re probably thinking what do I know about rhythm and what do dinosaurs have to do with teaching it? The key is making your dinosaur dance. I demonstrated how the dinosaur needed to hop from side to side in time with the music and then asked the kids to give it a try. As it turns out, rhythm is a learned skill, and my kids haven’t completed acquired it yet. The rhythm lesson was just a mildly entertaining time waster for myself but it apparently melted my wife’s heart so I thought I’d capture here for us to read when we are old and gray.

Music for Kids

It's not everyday that I identify with a 2 year old the way I did this week. Sophie's caregiver this year is a young aunt and as a result, she's been exposed to stuff that not all 2 year olds get exposed to.

I was preparing dinner for the kids when I turned on the radio to Hot 89.9 for some background music when my favorite song started playing. The song is Low as performed by FloRida featuring T-pain (click the title of this blog for a link to the video). Within seconds of the first notes hitting the speakers, Sophie and I turned to each other and said with excitement "This is my favorite song!”. I then proceeded to crank up the volume and we danced with reckless abandon. Sophie's dance style right now is more interpretive while mine is 80s/90s white boy compilation. Nicholas joined in with his own version of break dancing (I think he'll enjoy his break dancing courses starting this Saturday).

It was a special moment that I'm sure the kids have already forgot, but it's something I'll remember for a while.

Sophie and Christmas of 2007

Sophie really wanted a dog or cat this year. She convinced her siblings that it was a great idea and asked for one every chance she got. We did our best to convince both sets of grandparents that the house was busy enough without adding a pet to the mix (which mom is allergic tow). This was not an easy thing considering how cute Sophie is at this age. In fact the single cutest thing I’ve ever seen was when Sophie took a Santa Clause hat, but it on Nicholas’ head and sat on his lap to request a minou from him (French slang for cat). It’s a scene that surprised us all and one that is permanently imprinted in my brain even now (3 months later). In the end Sophie received a furreal cat which drinks from a bottle and purs as well as a toy dog which barks, sits, drinks real watter and pees on command.

Backyard Water park

I remember like is was yesterday watching movies like the Goonies or the last Starfighter as a kid and thinking that it was so cool that these movies showed that kids could accomplish anything limited only by their imagination as opposed to financial resources, technical no-how or even the laws of physics. This spirit of leaves us all as we become adults when we are faced with the real world limitations. On Saturday Juliette and Nicholas had a stroke of genius when they decided to turn the slide from the backyard play structure into a water slide. The first key to success was to make sure the parents were out of the picture. Mission accomplished, both parents (and Sophie) were down for afternoon naps after a tiring morning at the Glebe Garage Sale. Next they changed into their bathing suits, moved the hose to the top of the slide and it voila, a home made water park. The key differences in this water park were more water, and unlike most water slides which end in a pool, this one ended in 9 metric tons of sand. By the time we caught them in the action, the sand box was more of a mud pit and our kids were covered head to toe. For adult reasons, we had to end their fun but secretly I was very impressed with their ingenuity more than a bit jealous that I didn’t get a turn (OK, the real story is that mom caught them in act, I probably would have gone down at least a couple of times before stopping the fun).

Fairies, Bunnies and Kids 4 life

Life is amazing. My kids are great and supply me with never-ending entertainment. So many things have happened since my last post I won’t even try to capture them all. Some of the low/high-lights include:
- Nicholas hitting Juliette’s hand with a hammer then hiding in the garage for a few hours in freezing weather while his grandfather and uncle searched frantically the house, yard, neighborhood and were seconds away from calling the police when someone found him.
- Having the Tooth Fairy (Juliette’s first, the last in her class, and it cost $2) and the Easter Bunny visit on subsequent nights.
- Sophie going on her second ever plane trip with mom to Halifax to visit family
- Playing Magic cards with daddy. Juliette not wanting any of her creatures to get killed while Nicholas didn’t care as long as both kids were attacking Daddy.
- Sophie refusing to take off here aristocats pajamas for the entire day (and almost everything else she says and does, this age is soooo cute)

One final thought on the difference between mom and dad.We got home from work yesterday and Nicholas came running to us requesting a hug and a kiss. Mom, without a 2nd thought picked him up and gave him the hug and kiss. Dad, picked him up and asked him “Why did you ask for a hug and a punch” and proceeded to hug and playfully punch him in the chest a couple times before Nicholas clarified in between peals of laughter “I said kiss not punch”. I gave him a kiss and sent him on his way. At this point my wife turned to me and said “Not in a million year would I ever have thought to give him anything but a hug and a kiss but you automatically switch to play mode whenever the kids are around”. I guess it’s true; our family really has 4 kids not 3. And that is the true reason I’ve always wanted kids, it’s because I’ve always wanted to have people to play with.

Jan 2007 update

It’s been quite a while since my last post. What can I say? If there was anyone that was reading this thing on a regular basis, I’m sure they aren’t any more. For those of you tuning in here is a quick update of recent goings on in our very busy family.

Juliette came home last night and informed us that she beat her entire class at a race in gym class that had a noise somehow involved. I turned to my wife and wondered allowed if she was talking about the dreaded “beep” test. To which she responded “No way, Juliette gets to tired to walk after 5 minutes of shopping, she’s not going to be able to beat other kids her age in one of the most punishing endurance tests known to man”. In fact, just last week, my wife was wondering if there was something wrong with Juliette considering how quickly she tires out during your average shopping trip. After a bit more discussion, I confirmed that Juliette did in fact beat her class at the “beep” test. She beat out the tallest kid in her class (Juliette is the 2nd tallest), and complained that afterwards she had trouble catching her breath. Yah no kidding, the “beep” test is a killer, neither my wife or I came even close to finishing in the top 5 of our classes “beep” tests. I informed Juliette of this and she was quite proud. So the verdict is in, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Juliette’s endurance, all that is required is a bit of motivation and competitive fire.

Nicholas finally did it. He punched Juliette and slammed his door multiple times. Past tantrums involved crying screaming and throwing the odd toy but now he’s graduated to doing damage the objects and sisters nearby. This most recent behavior will not be tolerated and will be punished early and often. In other news, he started indoor soccer and scored 3 goals. As usual, he can tell you the number of goals he’s scored even days after he played. At school, he’s still playing with his best friend Erin (a girl) and they love to play pony (Nicholas is the pony and Erin rides him). I guess the variation of the game these days is that Nicholas tries to throw Erin off like in a rodeo.

Sophie is talking (or at least trying hard). Yesterday in the car her siblings would say a random word in one of three languages and Sophie would do her best to repeat them. She has trouble with anything that has an S or T sound. She does Mommy, Daddy, Je-Je and Gau-Gau very well though. She’s still a bit of a disaster but at least she goes to bed now without even one tear being shed. Let that be a lesson for you new parents out there. If you want to put your kids to bed a certain way and they cry for over an hour after you put them in their bed. Stick to your guns, put them down, let them cry, don’t go to them and then after a couple of months your child will accept that it’s a lot easier to put themselves to sleep without all the waterworks and they will follow the program. Of course this was a lot easier to do considering she’s the third and we just didn’t have the time to cater to her demands.

December 2006

Juliette
Juliette is in grade one and is being challenged by the school system to acquire some spelling, reading and math skills. I’m happy to say that she has risen to the challenge. It is true that we’ve tried to teach her some of these basic skills before she had to learn them at school and for the most part failed miserably. We are very proud of her hard work she’s demonstrated both at school and at home (doing homework). It wasn’t always easy though. Her first dictée involved a ton of tears. But ever since then she’s become way more comfortable. It also helps that her writing skills seem to improve every week. Dictée is done with daddy, for whatever reasons mommy refused to do it. Other activities include lecture and singing.

Juliette is convinced that she has a loose tooth. This is somewhat wishful thinking and somewhat fact. At least two weeks ago Juliette claimed to have a loose tooth. Considering almost everyone her age has already lost a few teeth, we weren’t all that surprised. So for Juliette she was extremely excited for the first couple of days and would tell us every hour or so that she had a loose tooth. I tried to move it and it was slightly loose (I think). The next time you see her, ask her about it and I’m sure she’ll talk your ear off.

Nicholas
The boy has some temper issues. From discussions with other parents there are two schools of thoughts on this. One is to let the freak out but to provide him with an outlet that is more suitable than crying, kicking and screaming at the top of his lungs. This would involve punching a pillow or smashing a pile of shaving cream. The other treatment is to make it clear that the behaviour is unacceptable and to punish him for it. I think we’ve decided to do the later of the two punishments. The boy is going to have to control his temper in life (we all do), and the sooner the better. He’s also demonstrated that if we threaten him with a punishment severe enough like forbidding him to play video games, he will find a way to bottle up his temper tantrum. It’s obvious to anyone watching that this takes a Herculean effort for him but I think it’s the only way to deal with this issue. The reason I feel so strongly about controlling your temper is because during a casual conversation with grandparent at a child’s B-day I attended recently I mentioned to him that Nicholas had trouble controlling his temper. The grandfather mentioned that he had an adult son like that who ended up as an adult who lost his temper a bit too often with the law and had spent some time in jail as a result. Yikes!

Sophie
The disaster that is Sophie has made our daily life incredibly entertaining and busy. She loves her siblings and worships the ground they walk on. She knows what she wants and still isn’t afraid to yell for it. Her latest tricks include repeating every word you say (with a thick baby accent) and pretending that she can pee like a boy (standing up). Sophie’s favourite game is called “who’s the baby”. If you ask her, she answers “MEEE”. Again like everything she does, it’s very cute.

Sports and leisure
Juliette does tap class. She doesn’t have much rhythm but her heart is in it and as usual, he listens very well to the teacher. Much like ballet, I’m not sure if Juliette’s going to continue with dance but it seems to have entertained her for a couple of months.

All three are doing swimming. Sophie loves the water and is the best in her class at floating on her back. She doesn’t like the songs much though because they usually involve her being thrown up in the air and landing in a big splash. It’s the splash she doesn’t like so as soon as we start singing “Grand old Duke of York”, or “Stick you right hand out” she clings to you like your life depends on it. Nicholas likes to swim. His class is perfect for him since it’s full of energetic boys just like him. If you ask him what his favourite part is about swimming, it will be the fact that the class is all boys. Juliette is swimming laps now. It’s the first time for most of the kids in class and she’s doing OK with it. We are very proud of her for handling it so well. Other activities include gymnastics for Juliette & Nicholas and the odd Video game session for me in the boy at the outlaws house.

Master Blaster

As most people know, I love to play with my kids, usually the more physical the better. One game that has been popular of late is an all out fistfight between Sophie vs. Nicholas and Juliette combined. Sophie is an unstoppable force of nature, throwing kicks and punches at her to older siblings while they run away screaming and laughing. One might ask, how can a toddler that ways less than half of Nicholas handle both of her siblings at the same time? All right, you caught me, she's cheating and no it's not in a steroid abuse kind of way, it's more like a helping hand from daddy. To prepare for a fight, I pick her up in one arm and run around the house using my other arm to swing her arm/leg so that she is punching/kicking Juliette and Nicholas. We're like a modified version of master-blaster, except I provide the brains and the bronze. One thing about this game is that invariably, I get tired of it way quicker than Sophie does, but it's fun for the whole family while it lasts.

Hot Peppers

It was an average Thursday night and we were settling down for some sa-la-ma-ju (sour soup), and bok-choi with beef stir-fry. As usual the soup is split up into three bowls: a bland bowl for the kids, an extra-sour bowl for dad and a very-spicy bowl for mom. Juliette and Nicholas we feeling a bit adventuresome and asked to add some extra sour mix to their soup (which I did). Then Nicholas started playing with the tine hot red peppers that mom uses to spice up her soup. Their small cute and red so I understand the attraction but mom warned the boy a few times to put the pepper down before he got some extract in his eyes or in his mouth. Well the thing is, by all accounts Nicholas is an intelligent little boy. The only thing with intelligence usually comes curiosity. So eventually he got tired of playing with the pepper and decided to take a bite of it. After all, how hot can it really be (he must of asked himself). Well he found out in a hurry. There was a bit of a delay then he started reacting. He spit out his food, threw up a bit more and cried, and cried and cried some more. Water doesn’t help, it just makes it worse, so I tried yogurt. Half a liter of yogurt later he was still crying so we tried cheese. The cheese seemed to work and he promised that he wouldn’t be doing that again any time soon and we all believed him. During the entire affair Juliette was laughing her but off and Sophie was just trying to figure out what was going on.