Just Like A Sponge

I left Kowi to stay at my mom's house for one whole morning. My mom and my brother had the task of keeping her entertained while I indulged in some "me time." When I got back after lunch, I saw my brother and Kowi at the door. The first thing that Kowi said to me was, "Hey, dude!" I was shocked. She has never said hey and dude in the same sentence.

I immediately turned to my brother and asked him what he watched while I was away. He sheepishly said, "Harold and Kumar." I tried to give him my best disapproving look, the one I give to my kids. When Kowi saw this she said, "Cool, dude!" and then went into the room. My brother and I just laughed.

I reminded him that kids this age absorb things pretty quickly, just like a sponge. Anything that he says, shows and does will register in Kowi's mind. And the likelihood of repeating this new info will be high, permanently sealing it in her mind.

Good thing that "hey, dude" and "cool, dude" were the only ones she took away from watching "Harold and Kumar"...or is it? Oh, no! I am dreading to find out.

Not Bad For A Day's Work

I've been in and out of the blogosphere for a while due to several reasons. One of them is organizing my house (the attic in particular) for a yard sale. Yes, it has taken me a loooong time to get things together. It's hard to move around on your own with Kowi in tow. And a few "activities of daily living" prevent me from sorting the Stuff as much as I'd like.

And then there's the difficulty of parting with things. I sometimes catch myself taking back a few items I've already labelled for sale. Some of the Stuff had certain memories attached to them but Kowi reminds me, "We're selling that, mom." The three-year-old voice of reason.

I guess my enthusiam to get rid of Stuff and simplify started to rub off on Kuya and Kowi as well. They started to go through their toys and picked out the ones they didn't like so much. Most of it were stuffed toys and Happy Meal toys.

Our itinerary for the sale was like this: Thursday, make posters with kids. Friday, put up posters around the village (Kowi liked doing this.) Saturday, make breakfast early and haul the Stuff to the garage.

We were in operation by 8am. The kids were excited to see the neighbors/buyers. Kowi even said, "Mom, we're having a garage party!" And by the close of the shop at 3pm, I had over Php 4,000 in profit just from the Stuff we had around the house. Not bad for a day's work.