Baseball fever

Russell likes baseball almost to the point of obsession! In a way, his liking for baseball is somewhat influenced by us (daddy and mommy). Ever since we moved to US a couple of years ago, we started watching baseball game, every game without fail during the baseball season played by the Astro team (houston team). We only watch, we don’t play (heeheee that’s about as much sport as we do, just watching baseball games).

This year Russell began to imitate what he saw on the baseball game. He would pretend to pitch or catch an imaginary ball. He would use a rolled-up magazine as baseball bat and hit an imaginary ball. Then he would run round and round because he said he hit a ‘home-run’. Like all doting parents, we started buying him baseball stuffs, T-balls, bat, glove and even an Astro cap (daddy really knows how to spoil him). Daddy also brought him to the Minute Maid park to watch baseball games. This escalates his interest even further, whether it’s morning, noon or evening, he kept asking me to pitch the ball to him so he can hit a home-run! Just yesterday, he refused to change out of his pj long pants because he said the baseball players also wear them so they can slide and touch the base!

Oh well, since baseball is a healthy sport, I won’t try to discourage him from liking it. Maybe he’ll outgrow this obsession soon or maybe ….just maybe…one day he might be playing in the major league.  

Activity on shapes

Matetrials: Shapes cut-outs, glue stick and drawing paper

First, I draw some small shapes on a piece of drawing paper. Russell is familiar with most of the shapes drawn, like triangle, square, rectangle, circle, star and heart. But he is still not too sure when comes to shapes like octagon, pentagon and hexagon, so I included a few of these for him to find as well. All he need to do is to look for the corresponding paper cut-outs and stick on the shapes drawn on the paper. He likes this activity very much because he can do it with little help from me.   

why, why, tell me why

Couple of months ago, Russell started to question everything. He will punctuate every of your sentence with ‘Why?’ And reply your answers to his questions with more WHYS. There is no end to his whys. Sometimes his questions can spark an interesting discussion, but other times it can be quite annoying.

Conversation 1:

“Why is the roof leaking, mama?”

“Because there is a crack.”

“Why is there a crack in the roof? Who broke it?”

“Nobody broke it. It just crack by itself.”

“Nobody broke it. Oh….did the lightning break it?”

“No, Russell, the lightning did not break it, it just cracked on its own.”

“Why” (no answer from me)

“Why mama, why?”

Scratch my head, “I don’t know why.”

Conversation 2:

He saw our neighbor mowing his yard. Even though he knew exactly what he’s doing, still he had to ask, “What is he doing?”

“You tell me what he’s doing.”

“He’s mowing. Why, why is he mowing? For what?”

“Why do you think he’s mowing?”

“Because  the grass is long.”

“That’s right, Russell.”

Just when I thought that’s the end of his questions, then came…..

“Why is the grass long?”

“Eh…..it gets long because it is growing!”

“Orh…okay.”

Phew…..finally he’s happy with the answer, otherwise I think I will have difficulty explaining why living things grow to the 3 year old.

punishment or reward?

It’s the third day of school and Russell was not liking it. Most of the kids in his class look happy to be in school, he is among the few who cries when mommy leaves. On the first day, he cried a little but settled down soon after I was out of sight. On the second day, he started crying even before we stepped into the classroom, and according to his teacher, he cried for half an hour.

Today, he started getting teary when he was taking his breakfast at home! “I want mama. I want mama…..” I kept explaining to him and assuring him, but he wouldn’t stop saying, “I want mama.” I know I should just sit down with him and continue to assure him, but my mind was just too preoccupied with worries for my little one. She hasn’t been well for 4 days now and for the past 24 hours she barely drank 4 oz of milk. She was fussy most of the night, therefore both my hubby and I were totally exhausted. The state of mind we were in just didn’t leave us with much patience to handle Russell’s unrelentless whining. So when he started getting uncooperative, we just couldn’t keep our cool anymore. To cut the long story short, he was grounded. We didn’t take him to school, he was not allowed to play with his toys, watch TV, play with computer ans no crafts.

At first he was a little upset that he couldn’t touch his toys. But as the day went by, he started to find ways to enteratain himself. He read books and sing to himself. In fact, he was so cheerful and happy that we think we have rewarded him by not letting go to school since he didn’t like to go there in the first place. Maybe it was not that wise a decision. Well, if he didn’t learn his lesson, we sure learnt ours.

When the going gets tough….

….the tough mommy gets going.

Sleepness nights, endless rocking and pacing around in the room. That pretty much sums up what has been going on for the past 2 nights.

First Russell was not well since Saturday, he has runny nose and has been more whiny than usual. Just as he got better, meimei (younger sister) started having runny nose as well. She has been fussy, not drinking much milk and not sleeping much during the day. Last night I only managed to catch 3 hours of sleep. Russell is in school and meimei is asleep right now, I shoudl I go catch some zzzs, but I am so physically tired that I just can’t fall asleep! 

Hopefully she’ll get better today and sleep well tonight and gives mommy her much needed rest.