Is There a Squirrel?

I heard Xander call for help today. I was in the middle of helping Venice with something, so yelled up to Xander that he had to wait a few minutes. A few minutes later I walked upstairs and called to Xander. I hear a muffled, "I'm in the closet, Mom." I opened the closet door and asked Xander why he was in there.
"Because, there's a squirrel!" lower lip trembling.
"What?"
"I saw a squirrel."
"Where?"
"It went under the couch!" he says with a touch of panic in his voice.
"Could it have been a mouse?" I ask.
"No! It was a squirrel!"
So, I looked under all the couches in the room, couldn't find anything. And am left wondering, how long do I look after hearing son say, "I saw a squirrel run under the couch."

Boogers

What's worse? A child who picks and eats boogers and can't for the life of them use a kleenex? Or a child who wants to blow their nose into the kleenex, but isn't very talented at it, so uses close to an entire box of kleenex and essentially gets nothing done?

Xander's Sadness

As we we coming home from the stores yesterday, Xander says in his mournful tone, Daddy took my golf stuff away...and then he listed more things that were taken away including his bb
Jiichan and I both said, well, what did you do?
Venice then embarked on a long story...but I asked her if she could wait patiently and let Xander tell the story...
So what we gathered is that he watched tv without permission and when told to stop, got really mad and was breaking the house. He said that mommy had taken his bb away and we couldn't quite get why...couldn't tell if it was tied to the other or a separate incident.

So then Venice added that she told on him when he went upstairs without permission....They both seemed impressed with the 'punishment' Venice recounted that there have been times when she did bad things. She then told us she had stolen $2.00 from you when she was 5 and recently she told you about it and paid you back...

After all these stories and confessions we said that you all have rules and their job is to follow the rules...Xander said yes, again a bit mournful. Venice said of course. We asked if he had a way to earn the things back...he said yes....but Venice said it would take a very long time....

Granny

Why is Xander Sad?

Xander acted sad all morning, the tiniest thing would set him off. Not a good start for the school day. So, when I dropped him off at school, I mentioned to one of his teachers, "We're feeling sad today." At this point, Xander let go of my hand, walked towards the teacher and said, "I'm feeling sad." and his lower lip was puffed out. The teacher gathered Xander up into her lap and asked Xander why he was feeling sad. Tears were streaming down his face as he answered, "Because my Mommy yelled at me."

P.S. I had yelled at him in the morning during breakfast as he scraped his cup along the floor upside down. Guess it ruined the whole morning for him!

Venice's Fears

While putting Xander to sleep tonight, Venice walks into the room, "Mom. I had a thought. What if you were eaten by crocodiles?" and then there were tears.

Xander Gets Homesick

Upon returning home from a short trip to Southern California, I ask, "Xander, what was your favorite part of the trip?" After a brief pause to ponder, his answer, "Coming home."