We lost my Aunt Joy this week, the first death in the family since the kids arrived home. We had long emotional discussions about death, heaven, funerals, etc. The kids decided they could write notes (actually little books) to their parents in heaven and have Aunt Joy deliver the notes to their parents. The notes are adorable and heartbreaking. We want to keep them for the kids 'lifebooks', but we are afraid they will feel betrayed if they later learn we did not put the letters in Aunt Joy's coffin for delivery to heaven.
Here is Emmy's:
Dear Mom and Dad. I miss you. I was crying cause you died. I will miss you. I wish I could celebrate your birthday. I love you. I hope you like heaven (drawing of heaven). You will be in my heart always (drawing of heart). I have wonderful cousins and uncles and aunts that love me (drawing of peace). My favorite things is math (drawing of Emmy in school). Love Emmy and Emnet
Here is Marin's:
Dear Mom and Dad. I miss you and I love you. My favorite sports are soccer and basketball (drawing of two balls labelled soccer and basketball). My favorite food is injera and fruit (drawing of injera and fruit). My favorite subject is math and reading (drawing of two schoolbooks labelled math and reading). My favorite teacher was Mrs. Cohen (drawing of Marin and Mrs. Cohen). I have good parents in America. I have a good family in America and a new baby cousin (drawing of family). Here are my new parents and me and Emmy (photo of us pasted in). Love Marin and Meron
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
April Fools Day
So proud of Marin. She has been planning this elaborate trick for weeks and pulled it off like a champ today. About 4 weeks ago, while driving in the car............... Marin: Daddy, when is April Fools Day Me: About a month, why? Marin: I know what I want to do for a trick and I need you to help me, but you have to promise not tell anybody. Me: OK, what Marin: I want to break my leg. Just pretend, though. I need you to get me some crutches. So I make a few phone calls, find a leftover pair of kids crutches, and I dug up one of my leg immobilizers from when I used to be a jock. Voila. April Fools trick. So Marin hobbles into day care this morning (schools were closed for snow) and starts hamming it up. I knew she got the caretakers because they suddenly started arguing over who would get to stay inside with Marin while all the other kids went out to play in the snow. Marin looked at me in disbelief at how easy it was to trick people. She had a grin a mile wide. Finally, Marin holds the crutches up in the air and yells "April Fools!!!". Then one teacher said "No, it isn't. You have a temporary cast. You can't just go get one of those anywhere" She still believed!! Marin face expression was "Crap, now what do I do. This dumb teacher doesn't even believe that I tricked her."
Tooth Fairy
Emmy lost her first tooth. And she demanded compensation. This created a little rift in the children's bedrrom because, you might remember, Marin had written the tooth fairy a letter asking him (her, whatever) never to visit because Marin did not want strangers walking around her bed at night while she sleeps. Emmy solved that by assuring Marin the tooth fairy would enter and exit via the window on Emmy's side of the room. Problem solved. Next morning Emmy is describing the tooth fairy. The fairy is a her. And the tooth fairy is so small, only about the size of Emmy's thumb, that she could not lift the money out of her purse. So the fairy woke Emmy up and asked Emmy to help her. Then they shared a girl scout cookie together and exchanged email addresses. (toothfairy@yahoo.com if you're interested) Marin just sits there listening, nodding her head, and finally says "Emmy, I don't believe you. Because if you really helped the tooth fairy lift the money out of her purse you would have taken all the money, not just a quarter."
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
For Christ's Sake
Can I rant a little here?
I am not a religious person. I am spiritual in that I believe there is a greater purpose, there is karma, I embrace the core virtues of most faiths, I believe in justice and I try to live a righteous life. On the other hand, I am a sporadic church goer and I am dismissive of attack dogs who insist their religion is the only acceptable religion.
Because of all the questions and anxiety our children have around death, afterlife, and heaven, we recently started to re-establish a family church going habit. We picked a small UCC church in our hometown that has a good music program and some kids that our kids go to school with.
It's only been a few weeks, but so far so good. The people are nice, the church does interesting missions, and our kids are enjoying the Sunday School. I actually like the Sunday School lessons. For example, Marin's lesson last week was about Noah having to budget, count money, and make change when buying food for the animals on the ark. So it combines bible stories with practical skills. A nice balance that even an agnostic could appreciate.
Fast forward to this morning as we are driving to school.
Emmy: Me and Delana were talking about Sunday School.
Marin: When?
Emmy: Yesterday on the playground.
Marin: You can't do that Emmy. It's against the rules.
Emmy: No it's not.
Marin. Yes. My teacher said. No talking about Christians in school. It's against the law and you will get sent to the Principals office. Right Daddy?
Me: thinking (What the eff? Now what are these knuckleheads talking about?)
Marin: Daddy. Tell Emmy it's against the law. I know it is. All my teachers told me that. And Brady got a red card for talking about Christmas because maybe some kids don't have Christmas.
As if my kids don't have enough 'fitting in' issues to stress about, now they think it's against the law to talk about what they do on Sunday mornings and the can't talk about Christmas.
So it's OK for the Islamic women to wear their full headress at the airport, in the bank teller line, and other places where being incognito presents genuine safety risks - but kids are frightened to talk about Sunday School on the playground and the school goes to DEFCON 5 if someone mentions Christmas.
I have half a mind to phone this in to Rush and Beck.
I am not a religious person. I am spiritual in that I believe there is a greater purpose, there is karma, I embrace the core virtues of most faiths, I believe in justice and I try to live a righteous life. On the other hand, I am a sporadic church goer and I am dismissive of attack dogs who insist their religion is the only acceptable religion.
Because of all the questions and anxiety our children have around death, afterlife, and heaven, we recently started to re-establish a family church going habit. We picked a small UCC church in our hometown that has a good music program and some kids that our kids go to school with.
It's only been a few weeks, but so far so good. The people are nice, the church does interesting missions, and our kids are enjoying the Sunday School. I actually like the Sunday School lessons. For example, Marin's lesson last week was about Noah having to budget, count money, and make change when buying food for the animals on the ark. So it combines bible stories with practical skills. A nice balance that even an agnostic could appreciate.
Fast forward to this morning as we are driving to school.
Emmy: Me and Delana were talking about Sunday School.
Marin: When?
Emmy: Yesterday on the playground.
Marin: You can't do that Emmy. It's against the rules.
Emmy: No it's not.
Marin. Yes. My teacher said. No talking about Christians in school. It's against the law and you will get sent to the Principals office. Right Daddy?
Me: thinking (What the eff? Now what are these knuckleheads talking about?)
Marin: Daddy. Tell Emmy it's against the law. I know it is. All my teachers told me that. And Brady got a red card for talking about Christmas because maybe some kids don't have Christmas.
As if my kids don't have enough 'fitting in' issues to stress about, now they think it's against the law to talk about what they do on Sunday mornings and the can't talk about Christmas.
So it's OK for the Islamic women to wear their full headress at the airport, in the bank teller line, and other places where being incognito presents genuine safety risks - but kids are frightened to talk about Sunday School on the playground and the school goes to DEFCON 5 if someone mentions Christmas.
I have half a mind to phone this in to Rush and Beck.
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