One of those moments

Yesterday I had one of those moments all mothers face, my child is growing up way to quickly and I wasn't ready for it. Earlier in the morning Vai and Tata were playing around and Vai had bitten onto Tata's shorts. Tata asked him to stop biting but his teeth were too strong. Finally Tata pushed Vai off his pants and Vai started to cry.

"You hurt my teeth." Vai said.
"Well, you should have let go when I asked you to!" Tata replied. "Besides, I didn't even push you hard, you are just being a baby."

Upon inspection of the mouth we found a tooth in the very front that was now a little wiggly. We concluded that it was because he was biting too hard on the shorts when Tata pushed get him off. It didn't occur to us that he was reaching the age when he will begin to loose his teeth.

So at church Vai was proudly showing off his new loose tooth, when one of the teachers asked him if he could take it out. Apparently he has successfully removed several teeth for the other primary children. I told him it wasn't one of those teeth ready to fall out and relayed what happened earlier. To which he responded by instructing me that Vai had a tooth growing in his mouth behind this loose tooth. What? My almost 6 year old is starting to loose his teeth? No... No... No!!! I am not ready for this; he is still the little baby that I used to take to work and rock under my desk. Now is he going into kindergarten with missing teeth? I do have to admit that I am a little anxious for this tooth to fall out. Mostly because I had great teeth growing up but ended up having braces for one little tooth that didn't come in right. The rest of my mouth was beautifully straight. I don't want him to fall in my footsteps. So we gave him apples to eat yesterday and asked him to show everyone we met his tooth only so he would keep wiggling it. I almost had him eat a Sugar Daddy. He informed me that the tooth fairy leaves toys under the pillow. Really? I only got a quarter, but then again I am old, I do have a child who is loosing their teeth.

Proud to be an American?

Many of you may or may not know that my husband is from another country. I appreciate this diverse aspect of our relationship. He has helped me to become less of an isolationist and opened my eyes to the world that was out there. I knew they were there but never really thought about it. He recently decided that he wanted to become an American citizen. Not because he felt any duty to this country, (The only difference between a permanent US resident and a citizen is the right to vote. Although he has strong feelings about voting, he still exercised that right in his native Fiji so it didn't bother him that he couldn't vote here.) but only reason why he decided to become a US citizen is so he could sponsor his family and bring them here. His own mother has been denied a simple tourist visa on several occasions and was told she would most likely never get one. (I will leave my own commentary on our immigration system for another post). So in order to provide a better life for his family he is in the process of becoming a citizen. Part of this process is to take a test on the basic system of our government. They gave us a guide to study from while preparing for the test. I was quite impressed with my husband when I first quizzed him, and he hadn't even looked over anything yet. Out of the 96 questions they gave him he only missed 4! Simply amazing especially for someone who wasn't raised with the same type of government as us.

So this left me wondering...How many questions could you get right? I have heard that most Americans wouldn't be able to pass this test if it was immediately given to them. They would need to study it. I have given this test to a few of my friends and my husband knocked their socks off with his score. Pretty sad. Here is the link to the Citizenship and Immigration website. Take the quiz and let me know how you did!

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/Flashcard_questions.pdf

Our Tata is the best

As I was sitting in church today listening to a teenager speak about all the things her dad does for her I couldn't help but look over at my husband and think how lucky I am that he is the father of my children. I realized that I couldn't have chosen a better partner in life and a better person to parent these sweet little ones with. I felt a rush of emotion as I realized how much I love him and especially how much he loves his children. He has told me on several occasions that he loves it when he comes home from work and I go and hide myself in the bedroom. He takes care of the kids, so I can have a "break". He will give them their baths and he will sit in the bathroom playing is Ukulele singing songs to them. I sometimes feel bad for breaking up the "concert" when the water is cold but he would sing to them all night. Even though he has a horrible commute to work he always wants to play with our kids and doesn't complain about being tired! Check them out learning how to dance like Fijian warriors.

There are countless things I could list that make him such an amazing dad. But to put it simply our little family wouldn't be the same with out him. He brings peace, balance and a lot of laughter to our home!

Random Ramblings

I've recently had the opportunity to take care of my mother as she had major surgery. I am not one for medical terms but basically they opened up her chest to remove a tumor (that was not cancerous) and her thymus. Now both my parents have "zipper" scars down the middle of their chests. My dad has one from his quadruple by-pass 2 years ago. It has meant a lot to me that my hubby has been so supportive of me spending so much time at the hospital and also staying at my parents home to help take care of mom. I have been thinking a lot about what some people describe as the role reversal when children begin to care for their parents. Although both my parents for the most part are generally helathy taking care of mom for past week has really meant a lot to me. In some ways I feel I am "repaying" her for all she has done for me. Then I realize that I will never be able to "repay" her.

Today is the first day of summer break for us. No school for 3 months (give or take a couple of weeks). I feel bad about saying this but I have to admit I am wishing it was August already. I would really love to home school my children but just don't feel it is the best thing for my children right now. With juggling work and three little ones plus a husband who has a very demanding career the thought of homeschooling overwhelms me. But I am determined to make this summer a fun one for all of us. I think the keyword for us this summer will be schedule, schedule, schedule. In order to minimize the chaos I need to set a daily schedule. Anyone have any ideas?