Is It Okay, Mom?

 

When it rains, it pours, they said. It seemed like this was the case of the chaos in our life-with-children yesterday. All we, Carl and I, could do was look at each other and laugh of disbelief. "straight from a comic script" Carl said "yes, except that I am not laughing" I agreed.

It was supposed to be a happy and pleasant dinner time as usual. Actually, no, our usual dinner time is full of giggling, silly kids, on days when stars are perfectly aligned, or full of tattering, bickering, whining and complaining when the clock strikes five in the afternoon as it certainly does everyday. It was one of those days when a kid hurriedly runs to the bathroom with food in her mouth to do her business, baby throwing food on the floor and painting her head with what's supposed to be on her plate, never ending "Mom, my sister  is (insert anything here ordinary like looking or not looking) at me that for a four-year old reasoning is an unforgivable insult that results into an extremely high pitched repetitive sound that can only be resolved by sending the source upstairs - which may result into a very loud wailing sound accompanied by an elephant like manner of walking, whew! 

To continue, it was one of those days, plus a kid that refuses to eat what's on her plate and think that any food that is not on her plate sounds good only to think otherwise once it is in front of her. And when we thought we had it all, bang! a bowl of food splattered all over the floor. There goes the laugh out of disbelief followed by a quiet sigh. Mikelle then innocently asked "is it okay, mom?" Normally, I would say "It's okay, that happens. We can clean it up." I didn't this time. "No, it's not" I answered. "But what if Rianne cleans it up?" Those words hit me in the head like a gong reminding me of what is most important, that is teaching my girls that we all do make mistakes and that we can always do something to fix it and mom and dad will always be ready to help them with it.

"Yes, of course, it's okay. Rianne get the brush and the dust pan and clean it up." "Are you going to help me, mom?" "Yes, I will." Rianne swept and I swept. The floor was clean again after a few minutes. The dinner resumed. New bowl of food was served to the offending child. Everybody was happy again, for two minutes or so, at least.

"Is it okay, mom?" Haven't we all asked that same question many times? ""Is it okay, Father?" When we fall short of our responsibilities, when our weaknesses win, when we choose unwisely, when we sin. We wonder if there is hope for us, if we can be cleaned again, if forgiveness for the hundredth time is still available to us, if there is a way back. No matter how many times we make a mess out of our lives, God is ever ready to answer "Yes, it's okay my child. Now go and clean it up". "Are you going to help me, Father?" Yes, He always does.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16)

Christ already paid for our sins, all we have to do is get our brooms and dust pans and clean up our own messes, the rest has already been taken cared of along time ago by our loving Heavenly Father through His only begotten son Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer.

Bad Dreams

Our bedroom door creaked open at around two in the morning and a scared little girl in a whispering crying voice asking for help. I got up and went to Mikelle's bedroom and she told me that the dark closet is scaring her. I suggested to close the door and she agreed. I was not even close to dreaming when the same girl girl peeked in again scared of a man walking around with a sword. I was too tired and sleepy but feeling bad for her, I walked her back to her bedroom, sat her on my lap and held her close to me. She agreed to pray about it and I sat right next to her bed for a little while while waited for her to snooze off. I hoped that she took comfort from the prayer and was convinced that she indeed have a power to make anything scary silly. She nodded when I said that she can turn the sword into flowers.

Walking up in the middle of the night for some reason keeps me awake for hours. It take hours for me to get back to sleep and that's what happened last night, not with a great reward though. Mikelle sweetly expressed her gratitude at breakfast time by saying, in her exact words, "thank you mom for making waffles and for helping me when I was having a hard time last night". Now, who will not feel loved with those words? It made my day and made me grateful that I woke up and did why I did last night. That was one of those moments that makes my heart swell with love and joy and feel grateful that I am a mother. Thank you so much Mikelle for being so sweet and sincere. I love you!

The Littlest Book

Mikelle was very excited to show me the book that she made for me when I picked her up after school. It was the littlest book I have ever seen. She made some drawing on a page of paper, cut them into little rectangles and put a sticky tape on them to put them together. She asked me to fix the sticky tapes that hold the pages together.

Here are the rest of the pages:

 

On a separate note, Mikelle is resourceful. She wanted to draw a bear and so she found her stuffed toy bear and came up with this drawing.

 

 

First Book Written: Daddy Bee's Adventure

Once upon a time, there was a daddy bee who was trying to zigzag around the fishes to go to his family.



 He went to the snake's house to ask the jumping snakes if they knew where his family is. They said that his family is over the mountain. They told him to be careful of the lion (red) but the lion is scared of the orange bee.

 

Daddy bee went to the mountains and found his family and the three baby bees. Everybody needs to pass through the traps to get t their mama waiting at their hive. Whoever made it through needs to ring the bell to let everybody knows that they are safe.

 

Everybody got tired and hungry from flying and so they started walking to look for food. They were so happy when they found it.

 

They were so happy when they finally made it home to mama.

 

The family of bee went to watch Mikelle sing and dance on the stage. They loved it and they lived happily ever after.

 



Artist With A Big Heart

Mikelle is a very thoughtful artist. She loves making something for her family. I once in a while draw something on a post it notes and put it in her lunch box as a surprise and she immediately started doing the same, drawing for her family. She even made a very little book for me, that I have yet to take picture of. It was a four paged 1x 2 inches book and I thought that was very sweet.

 

Mikelle can be easily attached to her stuff. She likes making cards for people but  normally has trouble letting go of it. She has yet to give somebody the card that she makes. I would say that Mikelle is a talented artist. She had  good imagination even at a young age. The Penguin below, for example. I thought she did a pretty good job of it. 

 

Mikelle said she wanted to draw a penguin one day and asked me what colors are its beak and feet. I showed her a clip art from the internet and added the orange beak and feet to her drawing. 

 We went to the beach a week ago and she saw a lot of birds flying above us, pelican especially. She then got some crayons and paper as soon as we got home and draw this one. Rianne and Mikelle were below, the blue and green part is the water and the pelican is flying above them.

I asked Mikelle and Rianne to paint on a canvas when I was decorating their bedroom and I hanged them on their side of the room.

 Mikelle and Rianne's bedroom. Mikelle now has a lot of drawing up on her wall.



I'll Wait For My Sister

Watching show for an hour is part of their routine. Some of the TV shows that they like to watch includes Dora, Diego, Wonder Pets and Blue's Clues. They normally have a little snack after school, book reading and watching.

Rianne and Mikelle were waiting for the show to start when I heard them fighting and saw Rianne hitting Mikelle. As a rule, Rianne had to be sent upstairs for hitting. She cried yelling that she want to watch. Mikelle was concerned that I will start the show without her sister and she thoughtfully told me that she wanted to wait for her sister.

Rianne eventually was allowed to come down and they watched the show together. They do fight a lot, part of learning social relationships, I'm sure, but they certainly do love each other.

July 4th In paper and Crayons

Mikelle standing right next to mom. Dad (not very clear) in yellow is holding Talia's bottle who is standing right next to him. Rianne is at the right most of the picture.

Ms. Liz, Mikelle's VPK teacher, told me that she drew and wrote a beautiful story when I picked her up after school. I found this picture and note from her teacher in her folder.

She drew the first time we took all three of them to watch the July 4th fireworks show at Downtown St Petersburg after we celebrated their 4th birthday with some of our Filipino friends at Raquel's house. She was so happy and excited that night

I remember hearing thunder and seeing lightning in the sky while we wait for the fireworks to start. She was a little worried that we will get wet and suggested that we take a shelter under a big tree right behind us. She ran around with Rianne while waiting for dad to join us after dropping us off and finding a place to park somewhere else. The fireworks started without dad and he finally join us after a little bit. The fireworks was beautiful and it lasted for about 15 minutes. All girls were amazed by it. Mikelle remembered the event and place well in her mind that she mentioned of it and recognized the exact place when we passed it almost two months later  while walking around downtown.

First Attempt to Write Names

 

Mikelle had recently been very interested in writing letters. She can write some few letters by herself like capital M, E, L, J, T and others and cute that she still write some of them backwards. Last Sunday, (August 24) she asked me to write names of our family on her paper during the Sacrament and copied them. She did pretty good. She didn't have enough time to write Rianne's and planned to include her when she got home but she forgot about it. She is a very thoughtful sister and made sure that everybody is included when she draws our family  picture. Oh, sweet Mikelle.