Earth

Nick's school celebrated Earth Week last week. Everyday he'd come home with some new, random bit of information. The one night out of nowhere he came out with "we need to save the earth...teacher said". I starting telling him all the ways we're trying to save the earth (recycling, turning lights off when we're not using them, not wasting water). Then we tried to head upstairs to bed, except he was yelling "THE LIGHT! YOU LEFT THE LIGHT ON AND AREN'T USING IT!" Sigh. This from the kid who used to make us leave all the hall lights on when he went to sleep.

The other one he came up with (and which took me several times to understand what he was saying - beems? beans?) was "We're all beings. People are beings". This from the kid who tried to kill worms last weekend.

One Year Ago...

So one year ago last week, Nick, Mary and I were off for our adventure in Hong Kong! And that's when Hong Kong Heather and all the other craziness started. Have to say, our stories from Chicago aren't as exciting. But boy do I prefer my life here! Thought I'd bring up everyone's favorite blog from the HK trip ...


Nail salon. My pedicure was chipping last weekend so I ventured for my first manicure/pedicure since I’ve been in HK. I pass a respectable looking place near our house each day and decided to call for an appointment. The phone call went well and I was scheduled to go in that afternoon. Well, when I walked in, they seemed surprised that I actually showed up to get my nails done. A girl checked me in, called out to someone in the back, shuffled around for about 10 minutes and eventually sat down to do my nails. It took her ages to gather all of her tools, as if she’d never done a pedicure before. Another girl came out of the back a while later. About 20 minutes into it, a guy walks in the front door and looks all nervous. He mumbles something about “5 minutes”. The girls say something else to him and then he hurriedly leaves. They giggle as he leaves. I assume it’s just a guy who’s a little embarrassed to be getting his nails done. But something isn’t sitting well with me. The girl helping me had tons of silver bangles on her wrist that are clanging with every movement. And had long, talon-like nails with gems all over them. My experience with nail technicians is that they don’t wear nail polish because it just gets removed when they go to remove the clients polish. And jewelry just gets in the way. Ok. So is this a front of sorts? Yes, that’s it! Drugs are my immediate thought. I leave the salon with presentable nails and don’t think much of it…Until the next day when I run into the nail gal at the 7-11. Wearing the same short shorts and tummy bearing shirt from the previous day. Wheels start clicking in my head. Nervous guy. Nail technician with talons. Skin-bearing outfit. Confusion over setting up the pedicure station. Wait a minute! They’re not dealing drugs. They’re ladies of the night! Or women of the 5 minute something. Gag.

Priceless

Nick and I hit the grocery store after soccer this weekend. Bad move. The kid was starving and grabbing everything in site. I've turned into one of those people who opens packages in the store and lets the kid chow down. Don't worry - I pay for it. He picked out one of those Luncheable packets. You know, the ones where you get crackers, cheese, ham slices, a snack and a drink for a ridiculous amount of money. Total rip. But we got home and he pulled it out of the fridge the next day for lunch. And he was so excited! And he ate it all! (A big feat for bird boy). Worth every penny.

Not Your Kid

When Nick gets angry with one of us he'll say "You're not my friend". I got smart (or so I thought) and starting using the comeback of "That's fine, but I'll always be your Mommy". (Just what every parent should be doing, eh? Thinking of good comebacks). Anyway, Nick countered that last night with "Well I'm not your kid. I'm Dad's kid". Sigh.

Worms

Nick loves the rain. It means that he can wear his dinasour rainboots and raincoat. A woman at a store yesterday was complimenting him on his alligator coat. He made a point to correct her. The rain also brought out all the worms. Nick was amazed at watching them move. He went from "Run! It's coming to get us!" to "Give me your umbrella so I can poke it". Boys.

Baby Girl

So we thought we had a girl name picked out, but after using it around the house for a few weeks, we're starting to think we might need a few more. We asked Nick what his choice of girl names was and he came up with a great one - Mommy! We'll keep that one in our back pocket. Guarantee she'll be the only "Mommy" in her class.

Tiger

Nick was practicing his numbers the other night, when he started to draw on his hands. I told him not to and then moved onto washing my face. I came back in to find him totally coloring his hands. Then he lifted his sleeves and said "Look, I'm a tiger!" Several minutes of scrubbing barely took the blue away. When we went to take his shirt off (which had gotten wet from the scrub) it revealed tiger stripes on the belly too.