kids | Leonie

Posts Tagged ‘ kids ’

Cars

This afternoon, I was driving the car with Eva and Michelle in the back, when they started talking about wanting to drive themselves. ‘I’m going to drive when I’m a mother’ said Eva. ‘You have to be eighteen before you’re allowed to drive, you’ll have to wait a little bit, with having kids as well with driving!’. She seemed quite ok with the answer. ‘Ok, then I’ll just bike instead!’

Then Michelle spoke up: ‘But I want to drive when I’m six!’ ‘But you’ll be too small, your feet won’t even reach the clutch and break’, I said. It was quiet for a while and than with a very determined voice Michelle answered: ‘Well, then I’ll just become a car myself!’

I often wonder how her little brain works. Is it because her eyes were rather squinted in her early years that she has such a peculiar view on life?

It’s number gazillion in the row of things that she wants to be when she grows up: Ranging from Superman to nurse, kangaroo to school teacher, mother of course and on and on. Even if Michelle pursues only a few items on her to-be list, her life is going to absolutely fascinating. And now she’s turning material!

Pretty perplexed I asked her how that would be possible. Then she answered: ‘Oh, I’ll just get a car suit with wheels and all, that should work!’

Who knows!

2010: 03/14
CATEGORY: kids
life
parenting
TAGS: cars
growing up
kids
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Mythbusters

My kids love to watch Mythbusters. In this program all sorts of myths about technology and science are tested and proved wrong or right. We love it when some great inventions turn out to be absolutely rubbish when made and tested. Or when seemingly rubbish ideas turn out to work great! There are always some common thoughts that prove to be absolutely false. For example, a car will never explode when it is hit by bullets, whatever you may have seen in movies or the A-team, it is definitely impossible. However, a car will explode when shot through the gas tank with tracer rounds though. Other very interesting facts: Christmas trees cannot catch fire because of an overload of lamps and a person cannot be blown away when hit by a bullet.

I’m not sure if my kids subconsciously are inspired by this program, but they have for sure been testing a few myths as well! A few nights ago, the boys decided that they wanted to sleep in our big bed, on top of tons of pillows. I was looking for my nail clipper and remembered that it was still under my pillow, the one on the bottom. Well, why not test their royal blood as well, I thought. But as you can see, nothing happened…

Today, the kids found 4 little frogs in the garden. They played with them, tried to train them, cuddled them and of course, kissed them! I was surprised how tame they actually are. They really seemed to enjoy it quite a bit as well. The fun came to a tragic end though. At a certain point Michelle walked in sobbing because she had lost the frog. She had dug a hole in the sandpit and buried him alive. I tried to rescue him, but was not able to dig our little green friend up. Poor thing… But guess what, Gerco just saw him happily jumping around in the garage. Michelle is going to be so excited tomorrow!

Anyway, Aaron and Julian are not princes and the frogs didn’t turn into one either. So either I’m am scientifically wrong or these myths are busted. Or maybe my snobbish assumptions of having at least a little drop of blue blood are wrong, so it never would have worked anyway.

But we will have one more go. This is what I found on the side of our house later in the afternoon.

Fortunately Jack and the Beanstalk have nothing to do with kings and queens. Now what if Julian walks in with a chicken tomorrow morning, that should be a sign, don’t you think?

2009: 08/10
CATEGORY: kids
life
Photos
TAGS: fairy tails
frogs
kids
mythbusters
Queen Beatrix
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Chewing gum

It helps to concentrate, keeps your breath fresh and if you get the right one, cleans your teeth. Chewing gum! Besides all those things, for children it’s definitely by far the most exciting and fascinating thing they can chew on. I realized that for the first time when I was 22 and babysitting a friend’s four year old. She had had a very great day, been to birthday parties, seen lots of friends, etc. etc. When I asked her what the best thing that day was, she said: “When I got a piece of gum”. And my kids are not different. It’s my driving force to get them in the car in the morning and buckled up. It works.

I do end up in sticky situations. A few days ago, Michelle took the gum out of her mouth and created a sort of spiderweb between the car seat, her hair and fingers. It took quite a lot of fuss to unravel her, and I had to cut some out of her hair. Besides that, they often swallow the gum and I’m still waiting for all the threats of constipation to come true.

I’m writing all this, because I’m still in child memory mood and was thinking about the fact that when I was young, I never got gum. I don’t know why, I guess my parents just don’t like it. I’ve never seen them chew (on gum, my father does chew on chicken bones) So I had to find alternative ways. I’ll start with the illegal one. Only one time, I must have been about 8 years old, I snatched a pack from the supermarket counter. I remember two things. First, how easy it was. Second, how guilty I felt! I made sure to chew outside, so my mother wouldn’t notice. Funny enough, one day she called me and asked if there was anything that I needed to tell her. Feeling caught on the spot, I confessed my sin immediately. Now I wonder if this was the thing that my mother had on her mind, perhaps she just wanted to have a motherly talk!

So what I then ended up doing is very disgusting. I just picked used gum from the street! If you chew for a while, the sand goes off and it tastes just the same as new. Fortunately, I had enough pocket money to just buy my own when I learned about bacteria and such. And I have to say, I’ve always been very healthy, so it must have built some resistance!

I can be so grossed out by my own children. But I do see where it comes from!

2008: 12/05
CATEGORY: food
kids
life
Photos
TAGS: chewing gum
kids
life
nostalgy
theft
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Parenthood

That I have enough stretch marks to play backgammon on my stomach doesn’t bother me very much. Nor did labour, breastfeeding, the sleepless nights and all the other uncomfortable things that come along with having babies. Looking back at those days, I can say that they were very hectic, but that I did enjoy them quite a lot. Seeing a human being developing from a helpless 2 kilo baby into a walking and laughing child is such a great experience. Just as sensing a love inside you that you never knew before.

Now that all four are out of diapers and outspoken little individuals, parenting is a completely different cup of tea. It doesn’t take as much from you physically, but on the other side… There are just so many more decisions to make. Can they have sugar coated cornflakes, or do I force feed porridge? Watch Pokemon or not? What is an acceptable amount of time behind the computer? Which schools should they go to, are they old enough to do the dishes, how much pocket money should I give them? And then there are so many other considerations that need to be taken into account. What also strikes me is how much my behaviour influences theirs. As soon as I’m grumpy, they turn into little monsters! And when I’m happy, they’re fine. I find that a bit troublesome. And then there’s always the burden of keeping them happy, healthy, well fed and behaved and properly dressed.

Especially when I haven’t slept enough and distracted with other things, it can just be too much. It feels like something in my head is about to snap and the only way out would be getting on a plane to Iceland to join the rest of world’s overestimated responsible people. And see the hot springs of course. Thankfully, those moments never last too long. And there are always simple, wonderful times with the children that completely make up for it. Like when I drove them to school last Tuesday:

The boys really like math and they were challenging each other with problems. It started out with the simple 15 plus 2 type of questions, only to get really difficult after a while. Julian asked: What is 100 times 1000 times 3 times google? All were thinking for a while and then Eva answered “4”. “Oh, that was close!”, said Julian. Then I asked Aaron how much 87 plus 69 was. He took his time, counting on his fingers, saying some numbers out loud and when I was about to help him he said “I can do it, it’s 156!” I felt this pang of pride going through my spine. And such a relief that at least I wasn’t responsible for his education but could just enjoy him developing into such a smart boy. Then Julian came up with the last question. “What is toilet times toilet?” This time, even I was thinking. Was the answer 2 toilets, and what is a toilet in the power of two? None of us knew! But Julian said: “It’s toilet, because 1 times 1 is 1, so toilet times toilet is toilet!”. They all burst into laughing. I was just thinking that I should have paid better attention with applied maths.

I can’t really think of a one liner when it comes to parenthood. Just that I never want to stop enjoying it. And that I’ll do my best to seize all the moments that make it so special.

2008: 11/27
CATEGORY: kids
life
TAGS: kids
math
parenting
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How to attract Sinterklaas’ horse

Sinterklaas is in The Netherlands! Every year he comes to celebrate his birthday on the 5th of December and before that he visits all the children and leaves them a present. His helpers, Black Peters, come through the chimney to leave their gifts in the children’s shoes. The children leave something special for Sinterklaas and his white horse. Ok, it’s a bit complicated to explain it all, but it’s a big thing! There is even a daily item on on national television with the latest news of the Sint and his helpers. I would say it is the never ending fraud of the ages, but as a parent it is just so much fun to watch the children get excited about it all.

They want to leave their shoes in front of the heater (will do in houses without a chimney) every night. And that can be the cause of some disappointment and confusion. Because they do expect a gift every time. But of course, we don’t want to spoil them too much! So after an evening without a gift, Julian thought that the horse might not really like all the carrots that he had been getting. So he tried some different things. Here they come:

First night: