Why do you love me?

We were up at the grandparent's house in Pasadena for the weekend.  Saturday evening I was giving both kids a bath together.  I got Edyn out first and gave her to Daddy to dress. Came back in and got Sylas.  As I brought him out of the bath tub, he says "I love you Mommy". I was so touched, "I love you too Sylas", I said.  I proceeded to ask him, "Why do you love me?".  He thinks about it for a few seconds and says "because...".  I said "Yes, why do you love me?".  His response, "because I love you and you love me", in his non-enunciating voice.  I have never heard him use the word because, I didn't even know he knew the word because.  I love SCUMC Preschool, they have taught my son soooooo much. I thank them and all the teachers for PRICELESS moments like these.

Kha's new thing

Kha has been staying home with Ba Noi, paternal Grandma, for a while now when he's not at school. And Grandma isn't that attentive to the things that he does. He's been pooping on his own and wiping on his own after he poos. Thank God, she checks to make sure that he does wipe himself clean. This past weekend, Kha did the same thing, goes poo and wipes on his own. Saturday he went and I heard him flush. I come in to make sure it's clean and he raises his hand to my face and says yucky. It stinks, there is poop on his finger somewhere. So we wash his hands 3 times.
Last night, hubby is sleeping and Kha and I were trying to fall asleep. He turns to me and says, "I wanna go poo-poo." So I take him in and stand outside by the door. After a few minutes I hear him flush. Oh no...I go in and ask if he is all done. He says yes and I make him bend over to wipe. I asked him if there's poop on his fingers and he says no. I grab his hand and smell it, it stinks, and then I made him smell his own fingers. He made a yucky face. His butt stinks, his hand stinks, his back stinks. I take everything off and give him a bath. Then I made him smell his own fingers to make sure it didn't stink.
I dress him and he runs out to lay next to Daddy. He turns to Daddy and says, "Kha poo-poo. Disgusting!" I just laugh and Kha kinda laughs too. What a funny kid, I just tell him "You're silly, Kha-Kha."

Down the Drain

I've been debating all week whether or not to post this story. But a little encouragement from my Mom to write it down somewhere has nudge me to write this post.

So Sunday night Sylas gets his usual bath. 2 minutes to soap, a quick rinse and then about a 10 minutes bath time to play. So he's been in there for about five minutes and I tell him, "Ok, 5 more minutes ok? " As I looked at him, he was in the squatting position, which he usually never is while in the bathtub, but at that time I did not think any thing of it. I leave the bathroom and about two minutes later I hear him yell,

"Mommy all done."

It's always a fight to get him out, so I was surprised to see that he's matured enough to know that playing in the water too long isn't good for you. So I go in and see him at the drain end of the bathtub watching the water go down. And he says,

"Mommy, poo-poo all gone" as he is pointing down the drain.

I give him a look of disbelief and said, "Whhhhaaaattt?"

He replies, "All gone" and smiles, as if he was showing off to me that he pooped and cleaned all by himself. He expected me to be proud of him for accomplishing that.

"Show me!"

He comes trotting over to the other end of the tub, turns around, and bends over to show me his clean butt, not a trace of poop left. I quickly shower him AGAIN.


All I could say was "Kha, poo-poo in toilet, not in the bathtub." as I pointed to the toilet.

I bring him out and tell him, "Go tell Daddy what you did."

He runs out and yells "Daddy, poo-poo all gone!" in the most excited voice.

Daddy looks at me and says, "What? In the bathtub?" I just simply nod and say, "Yes...in the bathtub."

Kha was so proud of himself of what he accomplished and I didn't realized that at first until I told my friend the story. A 3-year-old's sense of accomplishment may be the same feeling as an adult's sense of accomplishment, but all for probably 2 completely different accomplishments. I do feel proud of him and hope that he is able to tell me everything. I don't want him to feel fearful of my judgement/punishment when he does tell me things, whether it's something good or bad. 

Mommy, Bye Mommy, Bye!

Those were the last words uttered by my 3-year old son Kha-kha Sunday night as he waved good-bye. We debated all week about whether or not to leave him in Pasadena with the Grandparents and he, undoubtedly, decided for himself.
We ate dinner at Thien An with some family and transferring cars to go back to San Diego. Kha decides to hop onto the Camry (grandparent’s car) and we’re just thinking he wants to “pha”, play in the car. We bring Ha-ha’s carseat over to the Camry and he says, “khong phai, ghe cua Kha-kha”, translation “that’s not right, my carseat”. He wanted us to bring his carseat over. We asked him, “are you sure you want to stay with grandma and grandpa?” His response, “ghe cua Kha-kha”. We grab his clothes, diapers, and milk to put into the Camry. Daddy gets him into the carseat as I put his belongings into the trunk. “Mommy, mommy!” Kha yells out from the backseat. I go to the backseat and say, “Yes Kha?” And there were those words, he says to me as he waves his hand in my face, making sure I see and hear him, “Mommy, bye mommy, bye!”
I was quite devastated, he has always wanted to go with us, never has he decided on his own to leave us. Maybe he thought it was a temporary separation of being free from our scolding, time-outs, and constant nagging of “do you want to go pee?” However, it’s going to be 5 days of no Mommy and Daddy, whether or not he realizes it.
We called home after getting home to San Diego. And of course he was playing with grandpa and could care less about talking to us. We were not at all surprised…
Monday, we called Kha around 6pm. He just woke up from his nap and ate a banana. He was in very good spirits and gibberish talk. We chit chat for a while and I told him I had to go, “Bye Kha”. “Mommy? Mommy…” We chit chat for a little while longer and all of a sudden he says, “Bye Mommy, bye”. And it happens again, he has decided he is now done talking to us and wants to go do his own thing.
Bye Mommy will come sooner or later. It will be his first day of school, it will be summer camp, it will be college, it will be a new job in a different state, or it will be marriage. Those words will be uttered infinitesimally to me, to us, so I best get use to it.