Rent-A-Brother

During Open House week, we had an unexpected addition to our family.

Zachy with "Eleanor of Aquitaine"

My 11 yr-old nephew, Zachary (he's 7 months older than Hannah), came to stay with us for the week since there was no one at home to care for him.  His mother was away with his middle brother's Washington DC trip; his oldest brother was at a school missions trip in Mexico and his Dad was transitioning to a new position at work.

Dinner with E-Jeung

You see, his school was on Spring Break when his brothers' school was not. With mom and brothers away and dad working 12 hour days, he was going to be shipped off to Goong Goong and Popo's house (his grandparents) for the week.

Nothing against my parents but it's not very fun to hang out with your grandparents 24/7 especially when the grandparents watch and listen to Chinese radio and TV and grandpa goes to Ti-chi and grandma goes to tutor at Kumon every day.

So being the loving and generous auntie that I am, I offered to take Zachy in for the week even though my girls still had school to attend. From 8am-3pm it was just me and my rental son.

I wanted him to feel at home and to have fun. It was his Spring Break! So every day I took him out to lunch to eat his favorite foods. (Dragon BBQ deep fried chicken, McDonalds, Ohana BBQ, Costco pizza) In turn, he followed me everywhere I went: my weekly grocery shopping to Safeway, Marina, Target and Costco (went to Costco twice that week actually). He followed me around the school and waited as I went to my meetings. He even waited patiently for an hour when I got a pedicure.(I got him a new Nintendo game for his early birthday present so he was happy.)

At home with me, he watched one DVD a day (Rise of the Guardians, Epic, Tinker Bell-Pirate Fairy) and played his Nintendo. Once the girls came home, he was much more alert and entertained. He watched all sorts of cartoons with the girls, Arthur, Martha Speaks and made crafts, iron on pearl bead shapes,  and played school with Hannah and her stuffed animals. He was a very good guest teacher. He even watched YouTube music videos and sang along with the girls. One of their favorites was "Happy". He adjusted to 'sisterhood' quite easily which was quite impressive if you only lived your whole life with two bossy big brothers.

Denny's lunch

On his last day with us, Good Friday, I took him and the girls out to watch Rio2 and ate lunch at Denny's before I dropped him off at his Dad's work. He didn't seem to miss his parents nor brothers and was happy to hear that his brother was bringing him gifts from DC.

It was a true pleasure having a 'son' in the family. He was very helpful: unloaded and carried groceries without me even asking (my sister trained him well); he never complained; but he ate like a bird. Seriously, my girls (who really don't eat that much) ate more than him. He is an extremely picky eater by choice. Rice and seaweed are his main staples and I stocked up on seaweed packs before he came. I know my sister cooks up a storm every day and buys a ton of groceries. I have learned that it is not for Zachary that she is cooking and buying for. (It's the 'Big Man' aka Daniel #1 brother).

Unfortunately he acclimated to 'our family' schedule quite quickly. My sister says he's an early riser (7:30am) and early to bed (8:30pm). Well.. at our house he woke up later and later each day (on his last morning with us it was 9:30am) and slept later and later (one night it was already 11pm and he was falling asleep on the couch watching TV and he didn't even take a shower yet. He eventually got to bed at midnight that night).

Let's just say my sister wasn't happy with 'that' schedule and that type of care but you get what you pay for right?