Week of Sunday, November 27th

We survived Thanksgiving and the 30+ people in my house. I've almost gotten my kitchen back to normal and am sitting here thinking about how unproductive I have been this weekend. I did not start to potty train Tony, it took me two days to find the motivation to clean the kitchen and I spent the majority of the day yesterday reading a book (The Help). Sigh. We did finish most of our Christmas shopping and have a stack of wrapped presents sitting in our bedroom to prove it (figured they wouldn't be able to peek on them this way). But now my "to do" list for the day includes doing the bills to figure out how to pay for it. Sigh.

I'm having a hard time with Christmas this year, particularly with Katya. Alex took her Black Friday shopping with him and said that in the course of the conversation Katya brought up all the things she got last year that she didn't like. I'm afraid that if she says this to me that I will take that stack of presents in our room for her down to the community center and donate them to a kid that would really appreciate them. No kidding. I'm actually very sad because I think about how she came from having nothing to having way too much stuff that she has no value for and I know this is our fault. We turned her into a typical American kid that thinks they are entitled rather than privileged. So, here I sit trying to think of a way that I can remind her how lucky she is. I am toying with the idea of making her earn $20 to buy a present for a kid on the giving tree. I could tell her that we are all going to buy one present. But, is there something wrong with forcing someone to do charity? My next idea is to find a service activity to involve her in that lets her see that there are actually kids out there in this country that live like people in the Ukraine - kids that don't have nice clothes or cell phones or iPods (that they ultimately loose because they think they will just get another one) or food. I think I will look online to see if we can go and volunteer at the food bank or the homeless shelter.

On a lighter note, Tony was sure fun to buy for! In fact, he has so many presents that we keep having to come up with more for Katya so that they have an equal number of presents under the tree.

Katya:
Katya had a major learning opportunity this week (at least I hope that she learned something from it). It all started last Thursday. Katya went to Classic Skating with her friend, Shelly. Alex didn't like Shelly already and will usually come up with any excuse possible to make it so Katya doesn't hang out with her. Her house is too far to walk to after school, we are busy doing something else that night, don't you want to do this to tonight? We are smart enough to know that the minute we say that we don't like her that she will become Katya's instant best friend. So we try to be very delicate but when Katya asked if she could go to Classic Skating with her for Shelly's birthday and that Shelly's dad was going to take the and pick them up, I said yes. Alex would have come up with an excuse and in retrospect I wish that I had too. If you are going to read on I need you to be able swear this next part to secrecy even upon torture and imminent death! (If you aren't willing to accept these terms then please don't read on). Katya is using Alex's old iPhone. The iPhone has this really cool feature where you can use the GPS to look and see where the phone user is. Alex, considering Katya's current company, decided to check and see if she really was where she was supposed to be. You can probably guess that when he pulled up her coordinates, she was very close to the Classic Skating but not in Classic Skating and her location peg was moving very slowly suggesting that she was walking around outside. He grabs his car keys to go and find her and I get a phone call about twenty minutes later. "Guess what I found at the abandoned Lowe's parking lot in front of Classic Skating?" he says. Alex and I are for the most part pretty laid back parents and take things in stride because what's done is done and can't really be changed so I calmly reply, "What?". "Two cop cars, six kids - four of which were in handcuffs.". Of course Katya was one of those six kids (luckily one not in handcuffs). The scoop as Alex knew it at the time after a brief talk with one of the cops was that there had been a call about a fight at Classic Skating and that these kids were being questioned. The cop asked Alex how he knew his daughter was there and seemed to be impressed by the answer and the fact that he came looking for her. Alex told the cop that he would prefer that Katya not know about the paren't-friendly feature of the iPhone to which the cop agreed (apparently when Katya asked how the cop knew her dad, the cop replied, "We have our ways."). It turns out, after a confession by Katya in response to a very firm "you tell the cops the truth the first time they ask" from Alex, that the incident occurred as follows:
Katya and the two girl friends that she is with decide that it is a good idea to leave the classic skating with three guys they don't know (cringe) and walk around a deserted parking lot (cringe). They apparently had nothing to do with the fight but when they saw the cops they ran (cringe). The cops caught up to them and Shelly had a Chinese star in her bra (which is weapon, hence the handcuffs) and the three boys had knives (cringe cringe!). Alex is really good at giving long-winded lectures so I am actually really glad that he had a fifteen minute radio-less car ride to just let her have it. He did an excellent job of telling her about all the things that could have happened, such as her getting assaulted (or killed) by a boy with a knife or her getting shot by a cop because she ran. I have now decided that I too don't like Shelly and despite the gravity of the situation, I still find it slightly humorous and really do hope that Katya learned something from it. Sigh.

Tony:
Two year olds say they funniest things. I have the worst memory, though, so something that is so funny that you think you will remember it forever I or course don't remember. So I am writing down the ones I can remember right now.

Tony is obsessed with super heros. His favorites are Batman and Superman but he has a plethora of superhero names in his vocabulary. He has started asking us to take his shirt off and run around the house and pretend he is the incredible hulk, which is pretty funny to watch him flex his little muscles. The other day my mom took him to Arctic Circle. He was playing with another little boy and the little boy asks him what his name is. Tony replied, seriously of course, "Tony the hulk". My mom said that the boy just gave Tony this blank stare. Apparently he isn't a superhero fan.

Tony likes to play the Xbox kinect with Alex. It sucks because on some of the games be ause he is so short, the game thinks he is kneeling. But on this particular day Alex and him were playing a demo of Once Upon A Monster. It has this game where there are bunnies in the shower and then it gives you this monster shape that you are supposed to arrange your body parts to make. Alex complained about being sore after playing it because you have to crouch down and hold the position for a while.Tony told me later that night, after I asked him what he was going to dream about, that he was going to dream about bunnies in the shower and monsters. (hopefully that worked out for him). This particular day, I was sitting on the couch watching them and Alex was having a hard time getting the game to respond to him. He is standing there waving his arms and says, "what the hell!" and there is Tony standing next to him, also waving his arms, with a "what the hell!" to go right along with Alex's. How can you not laugh? (and then just ignore it so that Tony doesn't think, it is something he should say again).