Crafty Halloween

Since I'm off again - I thought I'd leave something for both my 3 boys and me to look back to.

Halloween started pretty early this year with a play by Baz's class and trick-or-treating at school. Baz played a "tree" (other kids came as the ocean, grass and there were other trees as well). Ok, other kids played a whale, a shark, an eagle, a bat, a maya bird...) Since Hadrien wanted to wear a jumper to school, we thought he'd go as Bob the Builder, complete with a hard hat and tools!

There was also a (not so great) halloween party here at the condo. The host had this annoying accent and voice to match. I mean, aren't there enough Sophies these days that he counldn't pronounce it right saying "Soupy" instead!At least the kids had a grand time trick-or-treating - alternating between giving treats and making their rounds! This time, they went as an Afgan/Turk and Superman.

Thanks to Raffy who made sure we had a full weekend with the kids! We did several projects this weekend - making the halloween decors for the door (hand-painted bats and giant spider), a house model made from scratch based on Baz's very own floor plans and a halloween sign.

Here's a little something to remember this halloween weekend by.


Untitled from malou.khan on Vimeo.

Conscientious Baz

I've heard from someone that with children, you plant the seeds from age 0-7 and form values between 7 & 12. We TRY to do what we can. We've talked about patience, sharing and love for family. Lately though, Baz (and sometimes Hadrien) has been really keen on "not wasting" - be it water, food and even energy! This translates to them playing with water less, eating the food they have on their plates, and shutting the TV and the lights when they don't need it. Pretty cool, right?!

Come to think of it, even as a toddler, Baz hated it when we told him that we would be throwing the food he didn't eat...

It's funny to hear Baz holler "Mommy, Hadrien is wasting water!" He understands now that what goes to waste now is gone forever. He also knows not to take too much of things he doesn't need as it would only be wasteful and that he may need it at some future time. I see a genuine concern in him about these things - and it makes me hopeful that his generation, if not ours, will take better care of nature and many other things we take for granted.

Artwork and Floor Plans

Seeing my friend's 5 year old triplets confidently scribble away turtles, dinosaurs, fruits, etc, I am reminded that each kid is different. Not only do they have varied interests and talents, but they also develop the same talents and interests at different paces. I put it down not only to genetics but, perhaps more importantly, also conditioning. On both sides, the kids have aunts and uncles and grandfathers who can draw and/or paint quite well. So they must have it in them to churn out awe-inspiring artwork from time to time. But since Raffy and I don't really draw, or paint, or sculpt... I can't really expect a masterpiece, can I?

Here are the kids drawings:

Hadrien actually had several of these lined up to form a mat (so he says!). When I asked him to choose only 1 that I would post on Tootay, he said "There's many artwork. Choose as many as you want!" It's hard to believe how much air of authority he can muster - and he's only 3!


As for Baz, he's not into drawings and artwork. For a while, he was quite fascinated with calendars. Lately, he's been pouring over floor plans and renderings so I wasn't surprised to find him drawing his versions of our hopefully future house :)

Impromptu Concert

It isn't too hard to get Hadrien singing. In fact, we've often heard him burst into song while walking, playing or even mid-sentence. Without a doubt, their Music & Movement class ranks as one of his favorite "subjects" in school.

Baz enjoys jamming with Hadrien too - as long as it's not in a "performance setting". Sometimes, I am able to get him to do his entire repertoire by simply asking him to help me with the lyrics and before long, he has unconsciouly sang a string of songs.

I've been meaning to record their uber-cute performances. Alas, the video camera is rarely charged when I need it. Thank goodness for i-sight and the willingness of one boy to perform in front of the camera/computer :)


Hadrien Sings from malou.khan on Vimeo.

God and Heaven

Thankfully, the boys make sure we pray before meals and before they go to bed. Countless of times, Hadrien would shout "hey, we forgot to pray!" as Raffy and I were on our fourth or so mouthful :) Hands clasped together with eyes closed, our 2 little angels would sing "God is great and God is good. Thank you God for our food. Amen."

At bedtime too, the routine starts with "it's prayer time!" :) The boys would always make sure that both Raffy and I were there with them. Their usual prayer goes "Dear Jesus, thank you for our blessings today. Please always watch over us and help us to be good boys. Thank you Jesus. We love you. Good night." After the typhoon which caused the sinking of the Princess of the Seas, they'd always add "please help the people in the typhoon". Obviously, the kids now understand that they are in a conversation with Jesus and have from time to time added a prayer to address their special needs like "please help us go to UPB tomorrow", "please help Hadrien's asthma go away"...

One time, I started the prayer saying "Dear God" instead of "Dear Jesus" and then corrected myself (since they were used to saying "Dear Jesus"). Hadrien being Hadrien, picked up on that right away.

H: Is Jesus God?

M: Yes, Jesus is God.

H: Is God Jesus?

M: Yes. (Thinking of introducing the concept of the Holy Trinity)

H: Is Jesus different from God?

M: There are 3 persons in one God (not even sure if I explained it correctly, besides whether he would get it). There's God the Father and Jesus.

H: Who's the third one - Amen?

_______

I should have known. Raffy's wisdom tooth is coming out only now at age _8 :) Anyway, he had to have it extracted as it was growing sideways and showed it to the kids. Yuck! After explaining what happened, Hadrien ran to the bathroom "I want to brush my teeth, Daddy!"

Baz, concerned about his dad's missing tooth, goes "I know! You can go to heaven and buy another tooth!" At 5, he now has a concept of everything originating from heaven. Don't ask me though why he thinks he can buy tooth in heaven!

A sister?

Lately we've been kidding Baz and Hadrien about having a sister, since the house we're planning will have three kids' rooms. Initially Baz was against having a sister, insisting that two of the rooms should be his. Lately, though, he's coming around, asking, "What will a sister do to me?" (Subtext: Will she be another kind of Hadrien?), or, "Will a sister obey me?" (Subtext: Hadrien doesn't, so will she?) He's also been asking, "Where will a sister come from?" (From God, we said, hence the prayer the other night for God to give him a sister.)

Tonight he asked me, given that there were six billion people, how many would it make if we had a sister. The only logical answer I could give, of course, was "Six billion and one."

Tractors, tractors!

On my way home Friday night, I saw they were digging up the lower lane of the Meralco flyover yet again. Normally a cause for consternation because of the associated traffic, tonight it was an opportunity to make a toy become real.

Because lo and behold, in full and glorious operation underneath the klieg lights was a "CAT company payloader" - one of Baz's favorite construction toys. I got the boys dressed as soon as I got home, and after making a 20 minute detour to get back to the same place (toldja it caused bad traffic), we were on the street just a few feet away from this plaything writ large.



Officially, it's the Caterpillar 428E Center Pivot Backhoe Loader. But Baz and I have taken to calling it a payloader (which is a front loading vehicle). It looked exactly like the Megablok-CAT Company toy (which Baz is holding in the picture below). Coincidentally, Baz had pleaded on going to Toys R' Us last weekend after noticing in the catalog that this was a new kind of loader that he didn't have yet (they already have have the "Articulated Dump Truck").



The toy was accurate right down to the support struts that extend out when the backhoe is in operation. I wanted to ask the driver's permission to take a look inside the cab, but he was, of course, busy, and I know better than to come up close to someone operating heavy equipment.



The upside was that the boys saw the machine in operation: it was scooping out a trench, probably to lay pipe in. It would use the bucket to crack the asphalt road surface, then scoop out this fine grey sand and dump it on the side of the road. The team of workers doing the job seemed amused by our interest in their contraption.

If ever they open a theme park dedicated to construction, the two boys and I will be there. But only if they allow guests to operate the equipment.