Minglun's Happy Times and Sad Times

Minglun's answer to a school assignment -

Happy times: 1. When I go asleep.

2. When my dad snores like a baby.

3. When my little brother does NOT play with me.

4. When I go to store with my mom.

Sad times: 1. When my brother Arthur screams at me.

2. When I cannot go to grandma's house.

3. When I get timeout in school.

4. When I cannot watch Star Wars.

A Serious Talk with Arthur

Arthur is almost three and half now, but he can still get into toddler mood sometimes and make some big noise in the house, such as the roars, "DON'T TOUCH MY BIKE." "This is MY toy!"

Last Saturday morning, after he screamed at Minglun, I found myself start talking to him like this, "Arthur, you have to try to control your temper." At the back of my mind, I was thinking, "Does he know the word control or what it means?" Arthur looked at me quite unhappily and said, "I cannot, because I am too little."

Since he answered, I felt that I need to keep the conversation, "You need to change." Arthur looked even unhappier, and said, "I don't want to."

Minglun had been listening carefully since our conversation started, and now he threw himself to the couch and hit his head against it repeatedly in frustration, "Arthur is never going to change. Arthur is never going to change."

Where does Chocolate Milk Come From?

"From what type of cows?" - questioned by Minglun.

Arthur and Wrinkles

This summer, we played a lot in water. Minglun is five and half and Arthur is three and half and I finally can take both of them to the pool all by myself. The only difficult part was to get them out from the pool. Arthur is the more difficult one and he wouldn't listen sometimes. I tried different things and the one worked really well was telling Arthur that he got many wrinkles on his hands and he cannot stay in water any longer. Arthur will talk in his baby voice, slowly but clearly, "Oh my gosh. I got so many wrinkles. Hurry, hurry, we have to go wash my wrinkles away."

I think I played this too much. Then later Arthur wouldn't like to go to the pool any more. He would say, "I do not want to go swimming because I will get wrinkles." And I found myself talking to him, "Arthur, you are only three years old. You don't need to worry about WRINKLES..." So we still go to the pool but now I have to be careful not to mention wrinkles to Arthur any more.