Florida Pics, Videos and Random Ramblings

It's been awhile since I've posted. Life gets in the way. Actually, a 4 year old gets in the way. As I speak he is eating bacon, fruit snacks and an orange for breakfast. It is better than the candy and left-over french fries that he wanted. He is also drinking purple milk. For St. Patrick's Day he was introduced to green milk at school so away we went to the grocery store for all of the joys of food coloring. Yellow milk looks pretty gross.

Everest is talking non-stop. The only Mandarin word he still says is Faijie (airplane). Now all the kids at school also refer to airplanes as faijie. Winning over the world one pre-schooler at a time.

Florida was amazing. The kid is definitely a warm-weather lover like his mom and dad. He loves to be outdoors. Loved the beach, what kid doesn't? Loved the pool, again what kid doesn't? First thing he did when he got there was put on his sandals and went outside to the porch. It was good to get away for awhile and it was great to see how much Everest enjoyed it. And this time he loved the plane. We were a little worried about it but we prepped him like crazy. For weeks beforehand, we were talking about "ba-cation and faijies." During landing in Atlanta for our layover, Everest didn't want to get off the plane. We had to have words because of our sheer annoyance level at the overwhelming amount of whining Everest partook in while waiting for our flight to Sarasota. "I wanna go back on faijie, no restaurant." Rewind and repeat. Rewind and repeat. Rewind and repeat. You get the point.

I think Everest is going to be a pilot. He loves all things with wings whether it is a faijie, helicopter (aka helidoctor) or spaceship. He is talking about them right now.

He's been a little under the weather lately. It seems like he has been plugged up since we met him with bouts of sinus infections thrown in for good measure. He cannot seem to break free of the boogers. The kid has the largest boogers I've ever seen in my life. I'd gag if I were not so mesmerized by the sheer magnitude of these monstrosities. I actuallyl took a picture of one and sent it to Ryan at work because it should have been submitted to the Guiness Book of World Records. Gross.

Everest now knows his ABCs and 123s and can write them all as well. I am amazed. He is already academically at the same level of his peers and in many cases has surpassed them. He is ready for Kindergarten but his birthday is 4 days after the cut-off so we'll need to wait another year.

It's hard being first time parents of a four year old. We have no idea if he is eating enough, eating too much, eating healthy enough, drinking enough water, drinking too much milk and the list goes on. I'd like to think we are doing a good job. Everest seems happy. We've had some spontaneous outbreaks of tears in the past two weeks but I almost think it is because he hasn't been feeling well, not because he is grieving for a past he left behind.

Things are still sometimes a struggle for me. Sometimes I even grieve for the past that I left behind. He brings us so much laughter and joy though that our past is mostly a fleeting thought and we focus a majority of time on thoughts of our future.

Everest is wise beyond his years and I think we'll be in trouble one of these days. When talking back becomes the norm and when parents just are not cool to hang with. Everest is quite the flirt and winks and points at much older high school girls in too short of skirts. Yes, trouble.

Everest has a little faux leather jacket and is getting a ton of compliments on it. In less than an hour one afternoon we had no less than 5 comments on his style. One man said, "Man, that homeboy has style." After he walked away Everest whined, "Mommy I no wanna go home."

The other day I asked Everest what he did at school. He said, "I color, I read, I slide on big slide and dats enough." After laughing I asked him what he ate at school. "I ate-a da rolls, I eat-a da chicken, I drank-a da milk-a and dats enough."

On Tuesday I got together with two of my girlfriends who are pregnant. I brought over some presents and told Everest they were for momma's friend's babies. We got to the house and he said, "Where da babies? I see no babies." I said, "They are in Momma's friend's belly." He looked at me like I was crazy. I said, "No really, they are." He said, "Ahhh leta me see." My friend showed him her stomach. She is not showing yet. He said, "I no see no baby in dare. Dare is no baby in da belly."

And for now, "dats enough..."