kids are getting smarter

It's been one of those weeks.  You know, the kind where I start questioning my parenting skills.  The kind of week where one of your kids gets sent the principal's office for throwing his lunch bag 10 feet in the air and it lands on another kid and makes him cry.  The kind of week where the same kid, while we are swimming at the pool, plays with the pay phone even though his mom told him not to and then 15 minutes later a cop shows up and asked if anyone dialed 911 (in this kid's defense, he didn't think it would work without putting money in).  I could go on.  Some of these things crack me up and I grab my camera and want to remember them always.  Some of these things make me want to climb into bed. And some of these things I know most would not share but I am kind of looking for some sympathy, here.   I start thinking... do we not give him enough attention?  Do we give him too much attention?  Do we spoil him?  Are we too rigid?  Are we too chaotic?  Do we have too many consequences?  And I go back and forth like that for a while.  

The fact is.  The kids are getting smarter.  The problem is, they seem to be getting smarter at a faster rate than my parenting skills seem to be growing.  Seldom do they do something and I think, "Oh, I know how to deal with this in the correct, best, most meaningful way."   

He is obsessed with money.  Counts it, finds it, earns it, talks about it...  The cool stuff that we brought back from Mongolia?  He wants to know if he can exchange it for US dollars to add to his stash.  Nice.  Sometimes he will ask me how much money I have and is always unimpressed by how much cash I have. 

I don't mind this money obsession.  For about two dollars I got a ton of house work done.  We're talking bathrooms, floors, baseboards, laundry... 

I learned that when he wants to earn a quarter, it takes him about 3 minutes to sort the laundry.  When his doing it because it is his job, it takes about 45 minutes.  Funny how that works.

 This photo is a little less industrious and a little more Luke Dunphy but he is doing that floating hotdog trick.  You can't graduate from recess unless you know this trick.  Oh, and there is  a gecko on the carpet.  

Eva is getting older too.  She is starting to think more.  Which means she questions my stuff more.  Which is supposed to be good but it doesn't make me feel good.  So, then I feel extra bad that I really don't appreciate something that is actually good.  

Here is crafty grown up Eva making leis for her grandparents.  

The way we were taught, you use your toes.  Awesome, huh?  Maybe only awesome if you have cute toes, though.

Even Baby Maximus has decided to outsmart me.  Like, he used to sign, "more" when he wanted something.  It was adorable and I was always happy to oblige.  But lately he realized that it's less work for him to just kind of fake whine until he gets what he wants.  Smart, right?  Whining is in the universal language for babies to get what they want.  He whines, we rush to please him, he smiles.   Or, he whines, I try and sign back and emphasize using his words, he whines, I give him what he wants, he smiles.  

He likes to have a spoon in each hand.  Guess how I know.  He whined it to me.

 But in general he is such a happy kid that I hate to make drama over spoons.  You know?  Or don't you.

 That kid is so confident.  He is so pleased with his eating skills.

 And as a random side note, if you know where I am from then you know that I am very grateful that Baby can be eating on the lanai (deck) with no shirt on.  

 Just how many pictures of a kid eating can one person post?  I held back.  There are more.  I loved them all. Just like my kids.  It was hard to pick my favorite.   

So, the kids are getting older.  And they are getting smarter.  Well, except for the dialing 911 thing, and the lunch box thing, and the...  Okay, for the most part they are getting smarter.  And I am having a hard time keeping up.  The thing is, before I had kids, I swear I knew so much more.  Hehehe. 

Tonight, after finding two sets of dirty clothes on the floor for what seems to be the hundredth time (and I never ever ever exaggerate) I told them that I am going to start charging them for the clothes they leave on the floor.  Husband said to start low.  So I set it at a quarter.  And this is how Eva replies,

"Well, I have forty four dollars and that will be about two dollars a week.  So..."

She seriously decided it was worth it for her to leave her clothes on the floor!  And since when do kids have forty four dollars?  

My mom always tells me that parents can raise kids because the parents are still young.  But I'm feeling quite old these days.  See?  I just said, "these days."  That is an old people thing to say.  And so, I send it out to the universe... 

May my parenting skills improve faster than the rate that my kids get smarter.  

Cheers.