Sisterly Love

Ashley and Laney fight ALL the time. Seriously, every waking moment they are bickering. It is truly exhausting and we are getting creative with trying to handle this in our household.

The other day we were all sitting on the porch as it was warm. All the neighborhood kids were out. And then they started..."Don't touch me, Don't look at me, I am NOT going to be your best friend, I am not going to play with you..." and so on and so on. Enough is enough. I looked at them and pulled one of my favorite mom tricks. "You two will sit on the porch swing together, holding hands and not talking until I say get up." Oh were they ever embarrassed at first, looking down, glaring at me, their friends outside were looking and laughing, and then it worked, they both started laughing and they were allowed to get up.

Don't worry though. The next morning before even getting dressed they started again. By they time we were in the car heading to daycare I said, "No talking. You two are not allowed to talk for 7 minutes." Adam Jr., TJ and I had a lovely start to our drive. Then I said, "You can apologize to each other and to me and then you two can talk again." No sooner do I say that then I hear, "No I am going first" "No I want to talk first!" "You are mean" etc etc. I just replied, "No talking the rest of the car ride." I know that this might not deter them from fighting again soon, but it sure did make my ride to daycare a bit more peaceful, and at that point, that was enough for me!

Diversity Lessons Needed...all the colors of the rainbow

So we have started a new activity at the Ruschman household, we have international dinner night. Each child gets to have a turn picking a country and we make dinner from there and then we get to do activities or look up and learn about that country. Our first was Thailand.

After eating our Thai chicken curry roles, we put TJ to bed. Adam Sr. was at class, so the kids and I hit the internet. We learned how their names would each look printed in Thai and then they asked questions (good ones too)
What kind of games do kids play in Thailand?
What are their holidays?
What do they make there?

and so on.

I pulled up a picture of some Thai children celebrating a holiday. Ashley looks and informs me that the international child that recently started at their daycare (she was adopted by a couple here) is Thai. I was truly impressed. I said, "Does she look like these children?" Ashley replied, "Yes, she's black." I answered, "Ashley these children are not black, they are Thai, that is different. Many black children have family that came from Africa a long time ago, and that is a whole different country than Thailand." She replied, "Well she's not WHITE so I just thought she was BLACK." We have so much to learn. I think we are doing Brazil and Korea next, this should be interesting!

Home Sweeet Home

I had to go to Atlanta for work for four days. When I returned home it was 8pm Sunday night and we were all tired. I got in my suitcase to find the trinkets I had brought home for the kids. Honestly I never got out of the conference, so the trinkets were a calendar and puzzle with my institutions logo on them that we were giving away at our vendor booth. They opened their gifts and exclaimed, "Awesome!...Cool!...Jen you are the best EVER!" So easy to please, so sweet, and so kind. Boy did I miss home.

Then I was tucking them in for the night. Adam Jr. looks at me and says, "Don't forget in the morning, we usually do cuddles right when I wake up." As if in my four days away, I would have forgotten our morning special time. Home truly is where the heart is!