Later On In The Argument...

The argument between Brett and Kira elevated after the fruit was gone and they were both on sugar highs.

Latest Round of Stats

Here is the lastest round of stats on this giant.

Hayden is now 17lbs 10 oz, 26inches long. That puts him at 97th percentile for weight and 90th for height. He can kind of sit tripod style although I am quite convinced that he is not so much sitting as he is being held up by rounds of fat. He is outgrowing all his 6 months clothes and is wearing 9-12 months. He is making lots and lots of funny noises and is showing signs of stranger anxiety. In conclusion, he is leaving blob-hood and entering babyhood.

Kira has been whiny whiny whiny. When she is not, she yaks and yaks. She has also become very animated. Here are a couple of her funny looks.

Here is a tribute to everyone who's help Kira conquer the stairs. Although she still likes to be carried, she is fully capable of climbing all the way to the top.

Finally, a mug shot of Kira. There is something about her eyes. I can't quite put my finger on it, but they are piercing. I don't know. What do you think?

Argument

You can never win an argument with Kira. She is relentless. She always gets the last word. She is loud and finally, she is small and cute. Now just fast forward 15 years or so and imagine the same argument but substitute the words with credit cards, daddy's car and new boyfriend. Oh, I think I need to sit down and take a deep breath.

Happy Belated Easter

Happy Belated Easter!


We've had a pretty action packed Easter weekend despite the fact that it's not a holiday here. Brett's friend, Jeff, came to visit Friday night and stayed with us until Saturday morning. We had a good yummy brunch that Brett single handedly prepared. (and he left the kitchen cleaner than before he started!) Then, his other friend, Damon, came to stay with us on Saturday and Sunday.

While we had company, we went for walks and enjoyed the spring scenery here in SF. We went to Golden Gate park and I was very glad to see cherry blossoms blossoming. I miss the huge cherry blossoms in Vancouver. Spring is my favorite time to drive to UBC because the whole 49th Ave is lined with pink and white cherry blossoms. They are gorgeous. Once, I drove during some pretty strong wind and cherry blossom petals just rained on me for the whole 30 min drive. I had a great day at school that day.


Here is a picture of Kira on a small cherry blossom. I thought she'd freak out but she quite enjoyed it. She kept saying "Kiki sit on a tree."

And here is a picture of Daddy and Kira engaging in some mommy-not-approved activity. I don't remember what it was anymore... probably involved dirt. Look at the smirks on their faces.

It took Kira a little while to warm up to Damon but she eventually did. She woke up Monday morning asking for Damon. I told her Damon went home and she started to repeat the phrases, "Damon Daddy Gai Gai" (Damon and Daddy went out.) "Damon glass" (Damon wears glasses.) "Damon goop on" (Damon puts sunscreen on his face.)

After the GG Park walk, we went to a raw food restaurant. This is my first try and I was pleasantly surprised. I am not saying I'd eat it everyday but I enjoyed it more that I thought I would. This place we went to had a very delicious mint chocolate milkshake. Doesn't sound like much but it is the best mint chocolate shake I've ever had. It's made with fresh mint, coco nibs, and almond milk ice-cream. Emm..... yummmmm..... This picture was taken at the restaurant.

After all the site seeing, I figured we should do something Easter-y for Kira. We didn't celebrate Easter when I was a kid and I didn't really know what to do. We thought she's too young to dye eggs and I thought she'd be hopeless at an egg hunt. So, I just made her these slippers and she hopped around in them for a bit. We'll do a little more each year.

Where was Hayden during all this, you ask? Well, he slept through most of it. When he was awake, he smiled, he read and he got dressed like Kira.

He's getting cuter everyday! Okay, I am biased. I have to think he's cute. It's nature's way of making sure our babies are well taken care of... but... look at him! I can just hug him and kiss him all day long... except when he is crying or pooping...

The competition for pre-schools is fierce in SF. So I've started Hayden on an early reading regiment. He has to chew on... I mean read 2 books a day everyday.

Check out this picture and then compare it to this picture. Kira was 7 months old then and Hayden is 4 months old today. These clothes are a little on the tight side for him...

Money Crazy

I didn't think we were going to have this conversation with Kira until she is a teenager. Here we are, discussing the topic of who's money it is.


On a completely unrelated note - I heard Angelina Jolie is having twins. I told Brett we need to keep up with our family expanding plans too. Brett got scared and ran away. I had to take matters into my own hands. So, here is my temporary adoptive family.

On another completely unrelated note - I have a vacuuming problem. I am obsessed. If I have a minute to sit down and scan the living room, the first thought that comes to mind is usually, I need to vacuum. So, my kids are starting to pick up on it. When I walk near the vacuum, Kira either gets really excited because she will get to help me clean or she will think, "this again" and walk away and do her own thing. Today was a self amusing kind of day. Here she is acting out the scenes in her book.

Hayden at the tender age of 4 months also figured that vacuum noise means mommy is not going to care even if he cries his lungs out. So, he amuses himself with a robot. Oh, and he is wearing those new robot pants that I made last week.

The answer to Wednesday's post: Click on each picture to enlarge and you should see the file name on top of the window. It should become obvious once you've clicked. Or, you can hover your mouse over the picture and the file name should pop up somewhere. If not: HKHHHKKHKKHK. How did you do?

Do you want to play?

Which kid is which? Care to guess? Stay tuned for answers at the end of the week.

Earthquake

Watch out, it's the next big one in SF! Kira was obviously quite concerned... even though she really single handedly caused the big earthquake. You do need to be a little patient with this one. I think her reactions at the end was pretty funny but you have to sit through the initial moments of the quake.

Kira hasn't been holding still for me to take a lashy picture in a while. Here she is, concentrating on fixing the big earthquake of 2008.

This picture is just funny. Ricky is so happy, and Kira so distressed. What a drama queen. They actually played very nicely together today. This was just one of those moments.

Guilt

Both kids are sick and I still insist that they nap when I want them to. Naturally, there are lots of tears involved. Hayden needs to sleep upright so he can breath so I put him in his swing.

Kira plays in her crib for a long time and I have to put her in the pack and play in the end. She cries more but eventually falls asleep. She looks so much like a little hurt animal in a cage that my heart aches looking at her.

So, I decide to be extra fun and entertaining when they wake up. What can I do to be extra fun and entertaining? Well, the answer is simple. Hire a professional entertainer!

Bad Day

It's not even 3pm yet and I have two screaming babies who won't nap. One, the older, screamed for about 30 min, fell asleep for maybe 10 min and woke up and screamed again for 10-20 min during which time the other one pooped all over town and screamed in the bath. I don't know why he doesn't seem to like baths anymore. Yes, that's a lot of screaming. Where did I go wrong?

Here is a video of 24 blissful seconds we had yesterday. Hayden is starting to push his head up! I am surprised to realize, upon looking at some of Kira's 3 month old pictures, that Hayden is actually not as strong and mobile as Kira was at this point. Who knew!


And a happy picture of Hayden playing on his activity mat:

I actually have another video that is more interesting and it is shot from Hayden's point of view. Maybe I will put it up tomorrow. Gotta go regroup before I let both monsters, I mean angels, out of their rooms. Am I the only mom who feels guilty after speaking ill of her children? Or am I the only mom who speaks ill of her children?

Oh... the t-shirt pants I made yesterday came from this tutorial. The bib was my own pattern. It's not really much of a pattern. I just cut out 2 layers of t-shirt in the shape of a bib we already own. Sew them together, turn, sew on Velcro and voila.

Sewn in One Day

I had an incredible sewing day. I can't imagine how fast I worked. In the morning, Hayden was a little grumpy so I didn't want to start anything that required too much brain power. So, I decided to do a little more refashioning. Here a picture of the shirt before I ripped it apart. Actually, there's already been some ripping but I wanted a before shot.

From this one shirt, I made a bib and a pair of pants. It took exactly two hours. I am especially proud of the robot stencil that I made impromtu. I starting "drawing" on the bib with thread and I liked the way the robot looks so I quickly made a stencil for the pants with just a file folder. The fabric paint is a metallic silver so it's very fitting.

I also found one of the bibs that I mentioned in yesterday's post. I still don't know what Kira did with the other one. So, here is Hayden modeling the bib:

And here is picture of the final products with their respective humble beginnings... well... what's left of them anyway.

I think there is still life in the blue shirt. I will have to think of something for it.

After the morning sewing session, I hung out with Hayden a bit and started thinking about my afternoon sewing. I wanted to get Kira's birthday outfit going but the skirt I had in mind is a pattern I had never sewn before and it's in Japanese. I thought it'd take me forever. Then, I got into a Project Runway mind state and told myself it's do or die. I have to finish it in 3 hours, which is usually how long Hayden naps in the afternoon. I took out the pattern, did a bunch of guess work and here is what I made:

This is not a very good picture of it and it's actually way too big for Kira. Since it was a Japanese pattern, I decided to make it one size bigger but I guess Kira is not as huge as I thought she is. Now that I know how the pattern works, I can make her another one that fits better when I can find another pocket of time to sew. In the end, this only took me two hours, which was how long Hayden's nap was. So, everything worked perfectly and I even had time to make dinner. What a productive sewing day!

Recycle, Refashion

First, a video of the making of the gingerbread house. I somehow forgot to include it in the last post.


The latest trend in the DIY/craft world is to recycle and refashion. As much as I love working with beautiful fabrics (I really really love it), it is silly to think that I buy a huge piece of fabric only to chop it up into bits and then resew it back together to make a quilt. Isn't the idea of making a quilt to use small pieces of whatever you have on hand? So, I tried to join the refashion movement and recycled some of Brett's old t-shirts to make other useful items. This past weekend, I cut up one of those t-shirts and made 2 huge bibs. Hayden's been drooling like mad! I don't have a picture of the final products because Kira hid one and Hayden is sleeping with the other. I will put them up when I have a chance.

Before Hayden was born, I took one of Kira's old onesie and embellished it with a dinosaur applique. I thought it will be quite a while before it fits Hayden but he's been wearing it and I think he is even outgrowing it.


Even further back, I made Kira a pair of pants from one of my old t-shirts. That picture is here. Making things from old things can be a lot of fun. First, I don't have to worry about making a mistake and ruining expensive fabric. I can wing it and make things up as I go. Second, I really let the kids "wear" the clothes a lot more. I let them wear my other creations too but I tend to cringe when they roll in the mud or spill juice on them. Anyway, I have a few other ideas to reuse old t-shirts and old jeans... so if your name is Brett's old t-shirt and you know you either don't fit him well or don't look so good then watch out! I am going to turn you into something that will involve mopping up after my children.

Hey, Kira is quiet... maybe she is finally asleep? She'd cried for an hour and a half today. :-( I wonder if daylight saving is messing up her nap schedule. Finally, an artistic picture taken by Kira. I gave her the camera and said, "make art!" and this is what she did. Any guess as to what it is?

Bizzaro Day

Yesterday, March 08, 2008 was a very weird day.

This is the view that greeted me when I opened the curtains to see the sun and the blue sky.

Already, I knew the day would be exceptional. We got dressed and decided to head to IHOP for breakfast. This is the poster that was at the entrance.

Naturally, I had to order Green Eggs and Ham, Who Cakes and Beezlenut Splash. This was Hayden's reaction after I told him what we were ordering:

This is what actually came. Pretty close to the poster.

Then I took a bite:

It actually was not bad. I was just surprised. Then Kira wanted some of that action.

This is what she looked like after her bite.

Yeah... if you think my order of food was weird, look at what Kira wanted to eat with her pancakes:

After our strange, yet satisfying meal, we headed to the Presidio so Brett can do some work and I can run around with the kids a little. I took this picture while Kira was stuck in a sea of ground covers. You'd see why a child her size would think those ground covers were there to eat her.

The finale of the day was our decision to do this:

We wanted to Kira to help as much as possible. So I gave her some icing to mix up. When she was done, she decided to put some peas in it... and then she decided to eat the concoction.

This is her face when she was done.

Why we decided to build a ginger bread house in March is still a mystery to me but this is the final product. We'll get better next year.

When we were all done, Kira was in charge of cleaning up. Our kitchen is so lucky.

Don't you think it was a weird day????