Chinese New Year of the Ox 2009

We had a feastive Chinese dinner on January 25th in celebration of Chinese New Year. It began the year of the Ox. I cooked dumplings, long noodles, and bau bau (pink and white buns). I also gave Peter and Natalie the opportunity to try out their beginners chopsticks, which they were very excited about using. Having just watched Kung Fu Panda (and loving it), Peter was interested in playing with the bau bau with his chopsticks.

He finally did attempt to eat his noodles with his chopsticks and did a good job!

Natalie also had good form!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Finally! Child lock installation becomes worthwhile

THIS is the child I was waiting for when I installed child locks on my kitchen cabinets 4 years ago:

What baths do to Elaine's hair

(Side note: I hope you've enjoyed my Blog-a-palooza as I'm trying to catch up on over 2 months of busy times!)

For whatever genetic reason, ever since Elaine was born, a funny thing happens to Elaine's hair after it gets wet - it gets like this:



Yes, the child that has my dark Asian hair color is the only one with naturally curly hair (not your typical characteristic of Asian hair). Whereas both Peter and Natalie have auburn-ish hair color (sort of like Sam's) but is straight, like mine. I guess it's God's way of making sure there's a little bit of both Sam and me in each child!

Natalie going potty!

Low and behold...Natalie is starting to use the potty more consistently!

WOO-HOO!

For the past month, she has said the golden phrase:

"I gotta go potty!"

and proceeded to make good on her alarm!

She also has "all of a sudden" been able to put on her own diaper and pants. All this time I thought she was still too young. I need to keep reminding myself she is not THAT much younger than Peter and IS almost three years old!

With much hope, she'll be well into potty training by the spring/summer and be ready for preschool in August! I can now go put down that $100 non-refundable deposit for her application with confidence!

Peter's reading!

Thank you to all those who sent books as gifts...and to Sesame Street, Leap Frog (Letter & Talking Words Factory), Super Why, & Word World...it's made great progress in Peter!

Peter has been reading lately more than ever, trying his best in word recognition and sounding the letters out. It all started when I would hear him in the back of the van reading signs along the road like "Stop", "Open House", and "Blue Moon" (No, we don't serve alcohol to minors; we were parked outside of The Vine and the glowing blue sign was eye-catching). Even then, we were amazed and impressed.

NOW, he's blowing our minds with this:

He surely has a gift and we hope that his love to read will continue for years to come!
He even has good influence on his younger sister Natalie!

Elaine's milestones update

The beginning of December was a busy time for Elaine hitting some milestones!

Just when unleaded gas was down to $1.59 a gallon, we started purchasing another expensive form of liquid: baby formula. We made the switch to formula for Elaine and she took it very well, maybe too well. She never looked back on breastfeeding...made Mommy feel like chop liver, but that's ok. She started to take longer naps and sleep through the night, which was warmly welcomed by Mommy.

Peter has even managed to be a helpful big brother and feed her a bottle.

Also, she started to sit up. It was a wobbly start, but 2 months later, she's doing really well at sitting on her own. I'd say she's about 90% there!

Another minor milestone (at least in this household) was that Elaine was able to grab and pull on the Exersaucer toys to make music. It's always sweet music to hear when you realize she made it happen all by herself!


Next, she found those stinky little toes! Started off with left hand grabbing her right foot (vice versa) and now, she's all over them! Just the other day, I think I spotted her trying to eat them! I guess that formula isn't enough!

If formula and stinky toes weren't enough, we started her on solid foods early January. She seems to like oatmeal just fine as well as applesauce and squash. She was not a fan of banana at first as the taste made one of her eyes twitch involuntarily. Kind of freaky but a sign that we'll wait on bananas a little longer!

First teeth came on January 8, 2009 while at a photo session at Sears. I just looked at her and saw the little teethers coming through.


Since then, this is often what you'll see Elaine doing:

As if all these changes over the past month or so wasn't enough, this week she started to show signs of crawling!!! Here I was able to capture her first crawling attempts. She's really working hard to get that bottom of hers off the ground!

Our baby girl has been growing up so fast...she needs to slow down and let us enjoy her baby phase before it's over!

Things I hear from the kids - Part 4

Natalie:

But Mommy, it's not going hurt (while she indeed is doing something to inflict pain, like hanging off my neck from behind)

Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what...you had for breakfast! (an unexpected twist to her normal bedtime song)

Peter:

Mommy, do you know something? (typically followed up by some random thought he's having)

Smarsh-schmellow (aka Marshmellow)

Elaine:

(no translation needed)