Peter wishing to be bigger

While in the kitchen yesterday, I heard Peter talking from our bedroom. I knew he had been reading in our bed earlier, but it didn't sound like him reading. So, I went to check on him. Turns out he heard kids playing basketball at a distant house. He apparently was watching them, longing to play too. Now, mind you, these kids were probably in their teens and playing a little rough b-ball. I gently told Peter that those kids were a little too big for him to play with. He was not pleased with that answer:

But he still was intrigued by their playing...

He seemed okay to know that he'll one day be big enough to play too!

Logic o' Natalie

Natalie has been drumming up interesting logic.

A common determination is something like this:

"It's dark outside because I gotta go to sleep"

We'll need to adjust that logic as daylight savings is today and those long summer days are (hopefully) just around the corner.

We don't understand how she came up with this one:

A couple times before, we noticed whenever the word "expensive" came up in our conversation, Natalie would stop us and say "Don't say that word!" I guess she's borrowing from our lessons of certain words not to say, but how she ever decided that "expensive" was bad, I will never know! However, in these bad economic times, everyone should agree that "expensive" is a bad word. Natalie's logic, in this case, may be spot on!

Natalie, our little star

Natalie has found a calling - a performer. She's been putting on little impromptu perfomances. She will set up a stage - pretty much anywhere that has a foot of space - and begin her show.

Here - I think - is a rendition of Humpty Dumpty. She adds a twist to the end, which sounds like audience participation. It seems that when she squats down, "it's [our] turn", but when she jumps up, "it's [her] turn"...haven't figured that out yet, but I love it.

Oh! But the show isn't over! I praised her on the performance, and by my surprised, she had this in store:

What a gracious performer!

Elaine summed up in a cartoon

It's been a rough week, and it's only Thursday!

Elaine has been recovering from her double ear infection, cough, and a stuffy/runny nose for the past week. Her appetite came back, which is great. However, I would have preferred it not to return with screaming vengeance at 3am! For the past couple nights, Elaine has been waking up through the night, hungry as ever. I've been unable to get her back to sleep easily. She and I have had lots of early mornings. Today, my morning started at 4:40am.

HOW appropriate is this cartoon which was in yesterday's paper that I just got to read this morning:

I'm convinced Elaine has connections with the cartoonist!

Elaine turns 8 months old

Before we knew it, Elaine turned 8 months this past week!

Elaine has been bonding with big sister Natalie,

dishing out sweet smiles,

and having fun from head to her toes!

However, soon after she turned 8 months, she was inflicted with a double ear infection. :( She's feeling better after getting some antibiotics, but we hope she gets her appetite back soon!

Elaine is a "progress in motion"

On Valentine's Day, I was afflicted with strep throat, which took me down fast and kept me in bed for almost 48 hours. When I emerged from my "quarantine", I just watched the kids as I hadn't seen much of them in 2 days. I clearly noticed that Elaine is growing quickly!

Just in the past weekend, I feel like she's done so well on the crawling! She's really getting her booty (sorry, that's what I call them) up in the air and lifting her tummy off the ground. She's starting to rock back on forth on her hands and knees like she's gearing up to take off!

She's also completely mastered the sitting up thing.

She hasn't figured out how to get into the sitting position herself but surely that's not far down the road. Sam and I saw her try to pull herself up in her crib today. We're certain we'll walk in one morning only to find her her sitting up in her crib one day. The same thing happened with Peter (maybe even Natalie) - missed the big moment when they figure out how to sit up on their own.

Oh, how we parents live for these milestones!

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!