Kid Updates

Perhaps only Sevak and my parents will find this interesting, but here's a little update for family history's sake.

Rose. Where do I begin? She is definitely a big girl now, surprising us left and right with her big girl sayings and big girl doings.  She is in an all-girl playgroup this year.  It's great, because in the past all of her friends have pretty much been boys (including her brother).  That was great, too, and it definitely helped bring out some important skills, but now she is able to play a little differently and do more pretending/imaginative stuff.  As you can see, she and the girls really get into this kind of thing:

Even though she loves girly activities, she is also very active and loves to do things outdoors.  The other day playgroup was at her friends' house.  The mom said that at one point she (Rose) wanted to play outside, but the other girls wanted to keep doing dress-up.  She (the mom) ended up going out with her alone and bouncing a ball back and forth. :)  Rose also really likes to run and insisted on running with Sevak and me the other day as we were pushing the kids in the double stroller.  Needless to say, we had a very leisurely run, but she never wanted to get back in the stroller!

She also enjoys dancing and tumbling.  The other day she put on some hand-me-down pants from a friend and informed me that they looked like zumba pants, so she had me turn on the tunes so she could dance. 

I just signed her up for gymnastics because she has been pestering me to do it for a while now.  I figured that because of her persistence, it would be an activity that she would really stick with.  She LOVES it.  She can barely wait a full week to go to her next class.

Moving on to food.  My kids definitely have their picky moments, but sometimes they totally surprise me with their food choices. Yesterday we had pizza at Costco and when we were done, Rose said she wanted some grapes. I said I didn't have any, so a wise-cracking man said I should get her ice cream. She heard this comment but didn't relent; she just said she wanted strawberries. :) She also recently discovered that she loves okra.  I had made some fasulia, an Armenian meat/bean/tomato stew.  I put some okra in it and she couldn't get enough--she mostly loved the texture of the little "balls" (seeds) inside.  Ever since, she has been asking for okra all the time.  I made some again yesterday, and Simon also really got into it.  Simon also adores meat and often asks for "beet." :)

I think a big thing that has helped my kids get interested in vegetables has been our little garden.  Here's a picture from a month or so ago, when it was a jungle outside: 

The corn stalks have since turned brown and have been disposed of, although we enjoyed the mutant cobs that they provided us with for a while:

The tomato plants are finally producing some small-ish romas.  There is far less a quantity than there should be for plants of their size, but we're not complaining.  This has kind of been an experiment.  The kids love harvesting fruit from the earth.  I have mentioned before that they love seeing what's ripe on their grandparents' fruit trees when we go down south.  A couple of months ago there were also some wild plum trees producing fruit in our green belt, and they loved to gather plums with Papik and Tatik (who showed us that there was something growing out there).  It's an awesome feeling to get back to one's hunter/gatherer roots and just gather food from the "wild." :) Also, a couple of months ago at a birthday party, Rose discovered an orange tree in the host's backyard and apparently picked some oranges. :)

Let's move on to little buddy.  Simon is getting more and more talkative lately, but usually only I can interpret what he's saying. :) He is going through a bit of a tantrum-throwing stage; he'll whine for things even when there is no way for me to possibly fulfill his wishes, or it's very inconvenient or impractical.  Here's an example from when we were at a Vietnamese pho restaurant with my parents in SoCal: The kids love the "beef balls" that come in a certain variation of the soup, so we ordered them a beef ball soup to share.  After finishing all the meatballs and some of my dad's, Simon kept whining for more "meat balls."  There was plenty of other food on the table and we kept offering it to him, but he would not give up.  I finally had to take him out of the restaurant while my dad ordered another side of meat balls. 

He's really a joy the majority of the time, though. :) He likes to do whatever his big sister is doing. Today he threw another tantrum when we dropped Rose off at gymnastics because he also wanted to stay.  This morning he was copying all of her gymnastics moves. He's not too bad, actually...I might have to think about signing him up! He also repeats lots of what Rose says (including her phrase from this morning, "I like zumba music.") :)

Simon really likes dogs, the antithesis of Rose's preferred creature: cats.  He also loves to eat.  Oftentimes I find myself asking Rose if she wants to eat (because she didn't eat earlier with her brother), and Simon is the one running up and saying, "yeah!"  Umm, that question was not directed at you, buddy! ;)  The other day at the pool he discovered a new game: he would close his mouth and put his head in until the water was just below his nose, then he'd jump out and say "roar!"  He seems to have a good balance of caution and adventure around the water. :)

I love my little sweetie boy.  Sometimes I feel a little like he is getting the short end of the stick because most of the activities in our schedule are Rose-centric.  However, he is learning from his big sister and certainly benefits from the playgroups we hold at our house and the occasions when we get to work at Rose's "Mom's Morning Out" in Walnut Creek.  Not to mention church nursery and kids' club at the gym.  Next year when Rose is in preschool I hope to get him into some activities he can call his very own.  For now, I love having some one-on-one time with him while Rose is at her various events. :)