Hodgepodge

Here are some random thoughts:

My latest work is pictured below. I have not done patchwork in a long time. Quilting is how I started sewing and I haven't done any quilting since Kira was born. It's just too chaotic having to lay out lots of tiny pieces of fabric and I couldn't find a long enough stretch of time to finish the patch work in one session. I have pretty much given up on it. Then I rediscovered the wonders of patch work through Sew Mama and I tried out this clever little idea called the "disappearing nine patch". I love how it turned out. I am also testing the colour palette to see if I like this combination of fabrics. I am planning to make a patch work bag in these exact fabrics, include the middle stencil. Can you actually tell what the stencil is? It's really really obvious to me but I don't know if other people can tell. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think it is.

Not very long ago, Kira was only interested in knocking down blocks. Now, she is actually stacking them. Ah, how quickly they grow up!

We went to the Children's Museum again today and discovered lots of cool exhibits. That place surprises me every time we go. Did I mention a wild fawn jumped out in front of our car the last time we went? It crossed the street and headed for the Marin Headlands. It happened on Chinese New Year day. That's gotta be good omen for the rest of the year.

Back in grad school, Brett thought he's gotta be the only person in the department without an ipod. They gave those things out for free left and right. Often, you go to a talk and they raffle off a few of them. Somehow, Brett never won one and we didn't really see the need to buy one. It's just odd that he doesn't have one. Well, we finally got him one. We didn't get the new spiffy slim model that plays a million songs and play movies and sings and dances and makes you dinner. Instead, we got a super deluxe, extra large model that plays only two tracks: "Waaaah Waaah!" and "Goo Goo Ga Ga...". This one uses biofuels and is quite energy efficient. We love it... him... it...

Robot Love

Happy Valentine's Day! I know, I know, I am a day late but yesterday I blogged about the day before so today I have to blog about yesterday.

Every few months, I go through phases of obsession. In the past, I've been totally in love with turtles, pigs, owls and panda bears to name a few. These things usually end up in one form or another in my crafts and I've learnt to not start collecting based on my current obsessions. They all pass and my crafts are good outlets for my love for these things. My current obsession is robots. Not real life working robots but cute retro looking robots. So, for Valentine's day, Brett and I gave each other robot gifts.

Brett found this "tofu robot" for me. It's really cute and funny. I still don't know what it's supposed to do, if anything, because I refuse to take it out of the packaging. Why I refuse to take it out of the packaging can be a whole other post... let's just say I am weird.
I made this pillow case for Brett. It totally took way longer than I expected but I love the result. I am proud to say I designed and embroidered and sew the thing together... well, the sewing is trivial but I am still proud of myself. Yes, very very inflated ego.

Aside from the small gifts, we just hung out at home and enjoyed a yummy dinner and super dessert. It's probably one of the more mellow Valentine's day for us but it was very nice. The grand finale was watching Lost. Man, that show is going to ruin my life. I think about it way too much.

Rewinding a little bit to earlier in the day... I babysat Kyra for our friends Amy and Steve. Yep, I had two Ki/yras in the house. It was fun. Here is a picture of them right after their naps. It was a minor miracle that I got all three kids to nap at the same time. The Ki/yras woke up after about an hour and a half and Hayden slept until 5. What a good little baby! Aren't the Ki/yras cute?
Here are a couple of videos of the getting up process. First Kira tried to "panini" Kyra. "Panini" is a cuter way for saying "body slam". It's a long story. Next time you see Kira, I'll have her demonstrate it for you if you've never seen her in action. Sorry, Amy and Steve.


Here are the girls actually getting up:


Rewinding a little more to the day before... here are a couple more pictures of Hayden that I somehow missed when I posted yesterday. Yeah... I was watching Lost when I posted last night so I was distracted. That's how I missed these two pictures.












Alright, I am all caught up now. Hope you all enjoyed a romantic, sweet Valentine's day.

Day of Hayden

Yesterday was Hayden's day since Kira went to daycare. So I took a LOT of pictures of him. Here are some of them. The poor boy has very sensitive skin so he has all kinds of rashes everywhere. I was going to fix the pictures (airbrush them) before I put them on but there are just too many. So, here are pictures of Hayden with blemishes, smiles, drools and everything else...

Blaire Witch?

If you are a fan of the Blaire Witch Project, this is the video for you:

Happy New Year

I finally got some pictures of the kids in their Chinese New Year outfits. Chinese New Year celebrations were simple in the Allen house. We went for Dim Sum one day, went for lunch at daddy's work another day, and hit the mall and the playground when we had time to spare.

Here are pictures of our dim sum outing. This is Hayden's second trip to the dim sum restaurant. He was very well behaved both times. Kira was a whole other story.

Hayden with Por Por:



















Hayden with mom:


Kira trying to tell us how she feels about having to stay in her seat and eat like a lady:


After dim sum, on the way to the Blockbuster: (Kira didn't want to sit in the stroller nor did she want to hold my hand. So we let her "walk the stroller".)


Kira is working on her gross motor skills... I think that's what the books and our pediatrician call it. Well, she is learning to jump.


China doll outfit:



















After we took Por Por to the airport, we went to the mall. There is a turtle pond inside with lots of turtles and fish. Kira is seen here chilling and checking out the animals:


Here is why I don't have more pictures of Hayden. He is often in the Bjorn and I am often the one carrying him. It's quite awkward to take a picture when I can't even see his face half the time. Since Brett carried him on this fine day, I took a quick snap. What an adorable little guy!

Catch Up

I've been slacking with the posts so there is much catch up to do.

Kira playing with finger paint. She was first quite concerned about the mess and the staining of her fingers but then she really got into it.

















Kira modeling one of the scarves I made before Christmas. It just took me this long to get it completely finished and sent out.

















Picture taken outside the Randall Museum. The view of the city was gorgeous.

This is one of the activities inside the Randall Museum. It's a movable table that simulates earthquakes. Kids can build what they think are good and sturdy buildings and test to see if it can be shaken down during an earthquake.

















We went to the Bay Area Discovery Museum on Chinese New Year. This is Hayden's Chinese outfit. Kira had a very nice coat on as well but she won't stand still and let me take a picture of it. I will try again.











When are you going to get up and play with me???














Wish you all a great year of the Rat.

Oh, and while I am at it, one more video of the kids playing together... well, more like Hayden chilling and Kira invading his personal space.

Super Kira Ball

Have you ever played the video game Super Monkey Ball? Well, here is a Kira version:



And if you don't know what Monkey Ball is, here is a link to a video you can check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deWSP2c2jjk&feature=related

Play nice

I finally managed to take some decent pictures of the kids TOGETHER. They were playing together so wonderfully I just had to grab the camera.

Kiss the baby:
Huggsies!
"Hi baby!" says Kira. "Get her off of me!" says Hayden.
"Why won't you look at me?" asks Kira. "'cause you are invading my personal space." answers Hayden.
And here are my latest finished products. A little scarf and a pair of mittens for Kira in preparation of our upcoming trip.

My daughter the genius part 2

It won't be fair if Kira only takes after the men in our family. So, she decided to give chemistry a try last night. In the end, I think she still favoured math more. I guess calculus and statistics are quite interesting but in my mind, chemistry is the best.

If you don't have time to download the video, these two pictures will give you a pretty good idea of Kira's choice of literature:












This video shows how Kira took the time to educate her baby. It's a slightly long video and I was shaking quite a bit from laughing. Sorry about the quality.