Quick stop at the Changs

Tesshin and I drove Aoyama Baachan to the airport on Monday. On the way there, Tesshin said "Mommy, I gotta go pee pee". So rather than parking the car, we dropped her off and I immediately called Debbie to ask if we could stop by and use her bathroom. Luckily she lives real close to the airport. And more importantly, we were lucky that she was home so I hurried over there. Austin had gone to the potty before Tesshin so he was eager to point out his "Cars" potty seat. The boys got to play with each other for a little while, playing with Austin's trains and beach ball and football. It was great. We don't get to see each other that often but they played like they just saw each other yesterday. They were both chatting away and having fun. It was nice for me to catch up with Debbie, too. We had to get home to see Daddy so we didn't get to stay too long. As we were driving away, Tesshin says "Mommy...can we come back and bring Austin a cake and play?" Sounds good to me.

Hide and Seek

When the Moraitis' came down to Long Beach last month, their daughter Ali introduced Tesshin to "Hide and Seek". I was hoping that he wouldn't want to participate but he LOVED it. Of course, he would hold my hand and tell me to help him find Ali. He also wanted me to squeeze my big butt in the small nook and crannies that he would hide in. Now, for some reason, I hate playing Hide and Seek. I never liked it as a kid. I still don't like it as an adult. I'm sure hours of therapy will help me figure out why I hate it and it can tell me what happened in my childhood to traumatize me this badly. But regardless of that, it brings such joy to Tesshin to play it so I would never deny him that because of my own psychological issues. And it brings me pure happiness to see him having so much fun and laughing. His favorite place to hide is under the crib (at home and at my mom's). His favorite place for me to hide is under the crib. I love it when he tells me where to hide, sneaks away into the hall and counts to 10. He'll shout out "Ready or not, here I come!" He'll come to where I'm hiding and he'll play along and say out loud "Is Mommy under the blanket? No. Is Mommy behind the door? No. Mommy, you're under the crib!!!" Or when it's his turn to hide, I'll shout "Ready or not, here I come!" and he'll shout back "Ok Mommy, I'm under the crib." My heart melts all over again. I'll never tell him that I won't play Hide and Seek but hiding in a dark closet...well, that's where I draw the line.