The Dinner Game

While we lived in South Africa, Grandma Karen sent us evening entertainment in the form of "The Dinner Game." It's sort of like an "Ungame", with opportunity for each person to push a button and receive a random challenge or icebreaker question to answer, all around the table over a meal. It is a great way to engage each one at the table in a creative way, from the youngest to the oldest. The boys loved it, often wanting to play when we had company. When we left Africa we put it in our shipment, so it was quite a while before we saw it again. We rediscovered fun of The Dinner Game when we found it in our shipment on our Home Assignment and brought it to the Philippines with us.

We've pulled it off the shelf a couple of times, and have enjoyed the sharing and laughter that naturally come with it. One question last week challenged the boys to invent a meal to make in the next week. Without too much consideration they combined two favorites and came up with Mango Pizza. Mommy planned to make a fruit pizza of sorts, and prepared ingredients, also wondering if the boys might forget about it in the meantime. But through the week, they continued to talk about mango pizza and they eagerly anticipated Friday night pizza more than usual.

When Friday afternoon came, Mommy had lots of helpers in the kitchen and the creative wheels began to turn. There was some discussion over whether the pizza should be savory or sweet, so we decided to make half sweet and half savory. For the crust, Mommy had extra pie dough in the refrigerator so we used that instead of traditional pizza dough. Aden made the pizza sauce to spread on the savory half of the base, and we topped it with diced mango, some nice feta cheese we had on hand, and a sprinkling of mozzarella. We weren't sure how that would turn out, but everyone loved it! It may soon become a new 'Filipino Specialty' for our pizza nights. The sweet half of the pizza was basically a fruit pizza using only mango, and Noah had the idea to drizzle chocolate over the top. Again, it was a huge hit!

It was so much fum to work together, to seee the boys' creativity blossom so successfully and to see their pride in their creation - another great memory from our summer.

Overheard (VI)

As we look at our latest installment of kid quotes worth remembering, we're noticing a definite shift in the contributors, passing the baton from our older children to the younger ones. It may also be worth noting that this list covers the span of the last year, so some of these are a bit old (but worth compiling anyway). I've tried to list them from oldest to most recent, as best as I can remember.

Mommy was reading Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day? with Noah. At the end of the book is the question, "What do your mommy and daddy do?" to which Noah responded, "Mommy, you bake, rest, and read books."

N (in heavy traffic in a downpour): Look at that car. It's just dripping wet.

N: Why are you writing on that box?
Mommy: I'm not writing on it. I'm using it for a hard surface under my thank-you note I'm writing.
N: Yeah, that's the hardest puzzle we have. 

N: We have pits everywhere. Eye pits. Hand pits (inside knuckles).

E: Noah, I made (an) A! 
N (correcting her scribble): No, Emma. Here's a real live A.

A (attempting to touch his nose with his tongue): Daddy can do it because his nose is so close to his mouth.  *Actually, it's Mommy who has the acrobatic long tongue. 

E (on seeing Audrey's leaking diaper): Oh no! She spilled it, stinky diaper!


N (choosing a game to play with his sister): Emma do you wanna play this one (chess)?
E: Yeah.
Mommy (cautioning): Emma doesn't understand it.
N: I'll teach her.

E: Pooping.
Mommy: Are you?
E (sing-song): Yeah. It's like, pooping, pooping.

A (licking a candy cane): Look, Wiley. My sins are being washed away. (We had just discussed the history of the candy cane.)

A: When you get a headache its not really fun, but it's kinda fun because Daddy gets headaches. So I just hold my head like Daddy and its like, 'Oh I'm a Daddy.'

W (remembering a handwriting lesson): That was in London Bridge. (*Cambridge)

N (flying a homemade paper kite): I think I need wind as strong as a typhoon to make my kite go.

A (on seeing Mommy's homemade gift for his cousin Madelyn): Aunt Keri will say "Where did Jill learn to sew like this?!?"

E:  Traffic!  I like traffic!

E, moaning in back the backseat ...
Mommy: Use your words, Emma.
E (spoken very clearly): No, I don't want to use my words.

N: How did you know it was an Indian? Did it have feathers?
A: Not all Indians have feathers.
N: Some Indians can be human beings.

E (entering the kitchen, visibly upset about something, with a few tears): I need chocolate!  *She was barely 2 1/2!!

E (wanting Mommy to pat her back as she fell asleep): Burp me.

E (folding clothes, carrying excitement in her voice): Is this mine?
Mommy: No, it's Audrey's.
Emma, without hesitation: Audrey's going to share it with me. (And so it begins . . .)

E: Can you open my cow poop? ('cow pie' chocolate candy)

E: More flamingo, please. (*mango)

Making Fun

I've often been thankful for our children's ability to entertain themselves. They have great imaginations, and the things they can come up with amaze me sometimes. When Aden came to me this week and asked for something to do, I responded with my usual list of the housework begging to be done. Not surprisingly, he chose to invent his own fun instead. Inspired by a series he's been reading lately, he came up with his own restaurant, named Aden's Pirate Ship. He spent quite a long time making signs and creating themed menus. Then he gathered a stack of plates and cups and set up tables and chairs in the boys' room. When all was ready, he announced the Grand Opening, the moment his brothers and Emma had been waiting for. The best part for them may have been that every child who came to the restaurant was given a toy car. We placed our orders, and I was a little worried that Emma might expect a real serving of macaroni and cheese, but she did just fine with the pretend fare. Aden was beaming as he took orders and filled them, proud to have his restaurant operating and every table filled. And I was thrilled to see the children spend their time playing together in a creative way. I celebrated the success by paying Aden a gold coin (chocolate) and gave one to each of the other customers as well.

Two days later, Aden's 'business' was the "Daily Report" newspaper, chronicling the highlights of news in our household. Perhaps that will provide the inspiration for a few posts on the blog . . . or perhaps Aden is setting himself up as a future contributor.

Emma's Epic Potty Training Adventure

Since all the boys took a turn on the blog with a day in potty training limelight, this one is just too good not to post. Emma's first day was an Epic Adventure.

Apparently our little two year old has a bladder of steel and really has the mind-over-matter thing mastered. When we tried to train her after Audrey was born, she would poop in the potty every time, but stand next to it and pee. So we were certain it was a battle of wills. And, if we want her/ask her to do something, and she doesn't want to do it, she usually comes around in her own time, maybe on her own terms. We had told her Friday (two weeks ago) that soon she wouldn't wear diapers anymore. We kept reminding her, getting her excited about Monday. When Monday came, we put her in underwear as promised. She peed in the potty once that morning. In the afternoon she peed once on the floor. She held it after that. She did very well sitting on the actual toilet, not the little 'trainer potty' we have (which she calls the 'baby potty'). And she can be quite funny about it.  Through the day at various points she would shout, "I'm peeing in my underwear!" Mommy would come running, take her to the bathroom, get her underwear off, and it would be bone dry. But she was definitely aware when she needed to go, or was about to. And, as already mentioned, most of those times she didn't end up going in the potty.

Where it really got interesting was late afternoon. We needed to buy paint so the painter could start in the living room on Tuesday. The plan was to go to the hardware store around 3:30 or so after Daddy came home early from work. But he wasn't able to get away as early as we hoped, so it was 4:30 when we were finally moving toward the door and 4:45 by the time we left the house. In the rush of getting out the door, realizing it was rush hour and wanting to move quickly we made several mistakes. First, we did not grab the potty chair. Second, we did not think about what this would mean for our evening in reality. Third, Mommy did not grab the diapers (after all, we were only going on a quick errand to get paint and get home for dinner, right?).  Then, she grabbed a bilum that did not have hand sanitizer, and also - equally or maybe more importantly - did not have tissues. So, we left the house with a girl on her first day in underwear who had not peed in at least two hours, and we were pretty much empty-handed to help her.

Sure enough, when we got to the hardware store, it was after five already, traffic had been pretty bad, and it all took longer than expected (I'm not sure why we expected things to be quick, in Manila, at that hour). And sure enough, while we were there, Emma had to pee. On our way into the bathroom Emma said, "Did you remember that I'm on the potty train?" (Her first of many classic one-liners.) Thankfully, this place amazingly had really nice bathrooms, done up in their finest interior decorating hardware, etc. That meant nice sinks, well lit, full toilet, etc. . . . But no toilet paper. Mommy just prayed that she would not catch anything lingering there on the seat, and had Emma hold onto her while she held on to Emma. Of course in those circumstances Emma couldn't go. She didn't seem too upset by it, mostly just sang at the top of her voice, listening to her echo. When they walked out, they washed hands at the beautiful sinks with soap and everything. We left the store with paint (and even a light fixture) in hand, and Emma still had dry underwear. And we realized that since it was already after 6:30, we would have to eat out.

We ended up driving to a mall, and discovered a new Subway restaurant . . . And of course, after dinner, Emma was still holding it, but a bit more ready to let go. Mommy had already gone on to the grocery store (with Audrey) to grab a few things, so Daddy had attempted on his own in the men's restroom. But there was no seat, so he had to try to just hold her there and as soon as she was up there she was done and wanted down. They found Mommy in the grocery and related what had happened, and amazingly, Emma was still dry. So, as we were walking through the grocery store picking up the last couple of items, we (and most of the other customers) heard things like, "I need to pee!" and "The pee is coming!" in full voice. And, perhaps the favorite of the day, singing at full volume as she went down the aisles, "Don't pee on the floor . . . " over and over. Even to Tagalog-trained ears, those words were pretty clear and we got some interesting looks. There was pretty much nothing we could do but laugh. 

By the time we were done in the grocery store, it was definitely time for another attempt. This time Mommy took her, as she had now acquired napkins from Subway to use for t.p. But by the time she realized that she was still holding Audrey and should have passed her off to Daddy, it was too late. She didn't even have the baby carrier to free up her hands, even if it would have been awkwardly close quarters. So she just hoped that the women's restroom was not quite as bad as the men's. It was. No seat, no t.p. Mommy was putting two Subway napkins over the rim, when she saw Emma sitting down on the floor to take off her shoes. Yuk. But it got worse. Mommy set her on the rim, she held on to the napkins, and it looked like we were going to make it. Then Emma tried to shift around, which is not a good idea when you are sitting on a rim. She fell in. And cried. Mommy wiped her with a third napkin, and pulled out the last two napkins. Emma sat for only a second holding on, but she was (understandably) done by then. They went to wash hands. No soap. And, it was one of those faucets where the water only comes out while you are pushing down on the knob. It did no good since Mommy was still holding Audrey with one hand and only had one hand free. She gave two attempts to pushing and quickly getting that same hand under the drip, but it didn't work and would've only been a water rinse anyway so they went on. Emma was still dry, but we weren't sure how much longer she could hold out.

However, we were already at a place where we wanted to shop for curtains and didn't want to have to make the drive again so we kept shopping. Poor Emma was walking through the department store talking about her pee, while we picked out curtains for her bedroom. We were finally checking out as the mall was closing at 9, and Mommy said to Emma, "Ok, Emma, let's go." The clerk said, "Bye, Emma," to which Emma responded (in her 'roaring' voice), "Bye! I'm going to the bathroom!" We nearly lost it. And we couldn't believe it when we got home and she was STILL dry. Needless to say, she went almost immediately when we helped her get on the potty at home. And you can bet that we washed our hands very thoroughly when she was done.

You would think that with all our unpreparedness and mishaps and the things we put her through, that maybe it was our first time to potty train someone, too. Emma is one tough cookie, and in this case that was a very good thing.