Life, Kids, Technology & that move to another continent
A while back, probably just a few years ago, A was in the middle of a tantrum. For reasons only she can explain, M decided the right response was to blast Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. Not only that, she sang along at full volume. Somewhere between the guitar and the operatic breakdown, A’s tantrum fizzled out.
Say what you will about parenting techniques, but apparently Freddie Mercury trumps a tantrum. At least A’s taste in music held strong even then.
It’s A’s birthday tomorrow. She is turning 10. As she was getting ready for bed I said “I am not ready for a 10 year old” to A.
Her response was “you have 12 hours to get ready”. That is my girl. Brutal honest truth!
I was checking with M about when/if the girls were going to put their bikes away. They were in our entry hallway and it was a bit crowded. Her response was that if the girls clean their room they would be able to go biking later when the rain stopped. Thus the bikes were still out and not in the shed. M continued that the girls previously said they cleaned their room. She mentioned she would go check in a bit.
A heard M say that from the other room. A then stops what she’s doing and said “I need to go up to my room for a minute to check on something.” I am pretty sure that was slightly transparent code for let me finish tidying up some books.
Full disclosure I find this funnier since I wrote it circa 2019 and never published it. Still funny though.
The other night (well really 3 years ago since I wrote this and never posted it) I was walking past our living room. I heard the girls playing so I peeked in to see what they were doing. T was lying on the couch with a lamp pointed directed at her face. A is hovering over her holding the 13th doctor’s sonic screwdriver saying now let’s get the tooth out.
I cannot make this stuff up. They continue to be my entertainment budget.
I always maintained that the Weinstein‘s motto was cake is a delivery mechanism for frosting. If I hold that to be true, then this does not compute. We were out the other day and A was slicing frosting off her cake. She insisted that there was in her words too much of it.
I don’t understand. How can there be too much of it? I just wonder where I went wrong as a parent.
Since we got Grogu we have been limiting his access to most of the house. That was the recommendation of many resources on the Internet about introducing a cat to your house. Also we haven’t really gotten the house into a state where every room was clean enough that we don’t have to worry that he would eat something that he shouldn’t.
Geogu started off in just the office. Then we opened him up to the stairs and the hallway on the first floor and then the first floor toilet.
We cleaned A’s Room so he could go in there next. Afterwards A commented that Grogu had unlocked her room. Unlocked in the video game sense. She said that before I could make the similar comment about him levelling up.
While we were cleaning downstairs so he could come down and get into the kitchen and family room she had referenced it again that Grogu was unlocking the kitchen. She beat me to my comment about levelling up again. She is of course my child. 🙂
Grogu was quite enjoying the new larger area of his domain. It is his domain now.
I keep saying it. It keeps happening. I wake up and the girls are so much bigger. They are still adorable little kids. I just now the days of saying that are slowing running out. I attempt to savor each day when they are so cuddly. Today A turns 8.
Due to situations beyond our control we stayed in for the day. M organized a take away Tea setup for lunch. As well as fancy bagels and cake for dinner. Hopefully we can have a semi normal party for A after the term break is over. Only government restrictions and COVID will tell.
Both girls wanted to help peel carrots for dinner tonight. When it was A’s turn she was peeling the carrot and the peel was flinging out onto our counter and side of our microwave. I told her that she should not fling the peels. Her response was “It is ok, I am a kid”
As we left the house today to walk to school, A turned to T and said “our hobby is fighting”. I asked why and her reply was because they do it so often.
I thought that was pretty funny especially since i do not think they excessively fight.
Ever since the girls were very little they had a fascination with transit. I am not really sure how much of that was implements from M and I. I remember before T could talk we would watch videos on YouTube of trains driving by. I would find a video of the TGV or the Bullet train or whatever that someone would stand by the tracks or station and video the train moving by. Either slowing into a station or blasting by at full speed. There were videos where people pieced this footage together for 10 or 20 minutes. T was fascinated with them. It took me way too long to realise why don’t I just show her Thomas the Tank Engine. I thought that would be much more interesting when just train is moving. Oh I was so wrong about that. She insisted in her non speaking way that she wanted the regular videos.
There were other times that I would take either T buy or sell or both kids in the stroller up to the long run railroad station in Forest Hills. We always tried to take them out for a walk even in the winter. With T’s interest in the YouTube videos as well as general fascination when we took the subway I had the idea of going to the railroad station. That consisted of us standing on a platform waiting for trains to go by. Since the station by our house was on the main line not all trains stopped. They got the experience of seeing a train shoot by at full speed. They also got to see the train stop and have the doors open. We stood by the front of the train platform so the motor man or a conductor would inevitably wave and say hi. I don’t know any times or how long we did this for however it felt like several months since I recall doing it in the freezing cold and the heat.
It was at least more than one instance where we decided to take the LIRR from Forest Hills to Penn Station and then just return home so the girls could experience the railroad.
When the girls were slightly older and we moved to London one of the first things they wanted to do was ride at the top of a double-decker bus. As luck would have it one of the local buses with a stop very close to a house was a double-decker bus. M and A were able to do that one day when T was in school shortly after we arrived. We have the picture showing how happy A was on that fateful trip. What’s funny is I think they only travelled about one or two stops. It did not matter since A cup to sit in the front had a panoramic view of the world. T was not at all happy since she wanted to do the same. That meant M again took them a stop at you on the bus. The photo of T on that day shows one happy little kid.
Girls love of sitting on the top preferably on the front of the double-decker bus has not changed in over two years of living here. It almost doesn’t pay sometimes to go to the top for a short ride since you have to get up and down the stairs with little kids. It doesn’t matter the girls insist on being up top.
The Tube trainsbe have a sealed front and back. That means you cannot look out the front or back of the training to look at the tracks. The DLR on the other hand has a class front and back where you can sit since there is no driver typically. The train is usually on full automatic and there is only a conductor. I mentioned this once to the girls and they were eager to check it out. Now whenever we take the TLR they insist on going to the front or back (preferably the front). If they can they sit on the knees looking out for they stand in the middle holding onto the handrail looking out the open glass front/back of the train. It is always adorable to watch and inevitably M or myself take a picture two.
There transit fascinations are not limited to local trains either. Since we do not have a car we have taken several overground trains. As far back as our first big trip to Edinburgh the girls have enjoyed walking around on the big trains exploring. I don’t mind taking them up and down the cars to see what’s going on. It is generally pretty boring with lots of the same looking cars. Every so often you get a different one like a first-class card or a café car. Even if I am not supposed to be in a first-class car if I am not paying for a first-class surprisingly people looked the other way when you’re walking around two adorable children. Actually the don’t look away you get a lot of hellos. I generally do that with the girls on the train since M gets a little motion sick walking around a lot while the train is moving.
With all their love of trains and buses are not that interested about being on an aeroplane. They love to watch planes take off and land especially at one of the lounges in Gatwick that has a perfect view of the runway. Once we get on a plane however all they want to do is sit and use their tablet to watch a video. I don’t blame them since we limit a lot on their screen time except when we got on an aeroplane. Our most recent trip had some promise for about 2 minutes when we took off T wanted to take photos of the lights and city scape before being distracted.
I do hope when they get older they still have some appreciation or curiosity about trains and buses. I know I do even now. That is why it is even more enjoyable to experience it with them.