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!

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!