Tutu Girl

We made some no sew tutus the other day with some friends and I tried to take some good pictures of Kira running around in them. I didn't end up shooting the ones that I made but I did finally convince Kira to wear the huge orange one that I made for her last Halloween.

Girl Instinct. I gave Kira some left over material to play with and she immediately put it over her head like a veil.


Close up.


Girly shot.

Photo Shoot

I think it's about time we hire a professional to photograph the children. I can either scream "here baby, look here baby" or take the picture. I can't really do both. Brett takes good pictures of the kids but we have to wait for good lighting on the weekend and we usually have a million other things to do so it's hard to schedule a photo shoot. Plus, I want Brett to be in the pictures.

Here is our attempt to stage a photo shoot this past Sunday.

First, Kira introducing Hayden to the photographer (us).


During the shoot, our celebrity girl had to break and take a phone call first.


The two good shots we got.

Teach Him

Kira said she wants to teach the baby to nap. Granted, she is a very good napper herself but how was she going to teach the baby to nap? I was curious so I put the baby in her bed and asked her to show us.

"Nap? It's a trick. There is no way we are going to nap, you gullible mommy."


"Let's sit up and talk about this."


"You see, baby, this is your fat tummy. I think it's time you go on a diet and start an exercising routine."


"Weeeeeee! No nap!!!"


Well, after I fell for the "I'll teach him how to nap" routine, Kira said she wanted to teach the baby how to play. I discovered yesterday that Kira is a really really good teacher. In this video, I have no idea what she is trying to teach the baby. Her game doesn't make any sense to me. But notice how she stops and asks the baby if he understands. That's a big teaching milestone that a lot of student teachers don't even get to. Her instructions are logical, step by step and very clear. I wish I have a video of when she taught the baby this other game and makes perfect sense. For the time being, this video will have to do.

Spend A Day Outside

I went duck hunting and spotted this.


Okay, I didn't go duck hunting. Brett and took the kids and I to the mall and he volunteered to watch the kids while I shopped. There is a kids' play area and they hung out there for quite a while. It was a hot hot day so it was fun to be outside.

Doesn't it look like he's trying to decide whether he is a monkey or a dino? I think in the end, the chose to be a happy dino.


I don't know what these two were talking about but Brett looks surprised and Hayden looks like he got away with something. I think they are conspiring against me...

Monster vs Dino

I made these little softies using my ink jet printer. The process was very simple and to a two year old, the result was good enough. I imagined it to be more fun to play with but really, they are only okay. I guess they are pretty fun to look at and they are a good size to bring on outings.


This was the bag that inspired the softies. The bag was a custom order and I said I'd throw in something extra. I thought a matching dino would be perfect. The applique on the bag is based on the design of the blue dino.

Manly Toys

Kira and Hayden were given a Bob The Builder tool set. Now, neither of them know anything about Bob. I try not to bring any brand names into the house. Kira knows Elmo and Big Bird and I think she picked up Barney from daycare which is most unfortunate because I personally hate that purple dinosaur. Aside from that, she thinks Dora is "that girl with the monkey" and Clifford is, well, just a big red dog.

Anyway, the point is, they now have their first set of manly toys! Kira wanted me to take out the pliers for her and of course as soon as I did, she somehow hurt herself with it and cried. They she gave the pliers to Hayden who then turned towards the entertainment unit (the real thing) and started cutting various wires with the pliers. So, that's gender stereotypes for you.

"Safety first, baby." "But... I can't see!"


"Don't I look professional."


"Yeah! Fun toys for me!"


"Construction is serious work."


"How am I going to fix this?"


"Done with the screwdriver."


"Now pass the wrench please."

Date Night

We had our first date night in 9 long months this past Thursday and it was awesome! Our friends who were staying with us babysat and we went out for 6 long hours. Seriously, that's a BIG deal. Brett and I headed for a nice dinner followed by the Dark Knight. It was super fun. I thought Hayden would have a hard time because he usually doesn't take bottles and I didn't think he knows how to fall asleep without nursing. But according to my friends, he fell asleep quickly and easily. Yeah! Thanks for babysitting, guys! I think you are ready to be parents and you are going to be great at it.

Here is what they taught Kira while we were gone.

Royalty

My kids were treated like royalties last week while my friends were here. They were entertained every single waking minute and served impeccably. I am not sure if they can hack the hard life now that the visit is over.

We toured the Lucus facility one afternoon and met Brett for lunch. Then we saw the Yoda fountain. Here are my friends practicing to juggle two kids.


It's a minor miracle that all four people in this picture looked at the camera at the same time.


"Em.... What should I be when I grow up?"


"I'll be King Kong!"


What I didn't tell my friends at the beginning of the Lucas tour was that we had to walk a mile to the bus stop and hike up a hill to get home. Oh, of course we had the kids with us. What we didn't have were strollers or any other kinds of carriers. So.... yeah.... our arms fell off after the hike. Here was a tranquil moment before the strenuous hike.


I totally took advantage of the help I had while me friends were here. Here is Teresa taking care of both kid on our way to dinner.


Kira was seriously spoiled. This was how dinner was served to her EVERY NIGHT! Take a bite from auntie and then a sip from uncle.


This was Kira's celebrity shot. Doesn't she look like someone famous who's taking a picture with her fans?


We went for sushi one night while Brett was relieved of his duties for one night. Hayden loved it! He actually at some.

Play Together

"Hey kids, look at mommy!"


Can there be two of them? I wish.



Sometimes, they play very well together.

A Rough Day

It started fine. Then, out of nowhere, Kira threw up all over her brand spanking new car seat. I don't know about you but vomit smells worse than skunk to me. So, I put her under the supervision of the friend we met up with and ran into the store to buy her a new outfit. She was seriously all soaked. This was not one of those times when you can just wait until you get home to clean up.

Then we headed for lunch and all was going well until Hayden suddenly jumped out of his high chair and dashed for my spaghetti and meat sauce. He knocked it off the table and half of it landed on my jeans and the other half landed like fireworks on the floor. I have NEVER worn that much food mess, not even when I was a baby.

In any case, I calmly cleaned it up and said, "Bad baby, no ice-cream for you. You get a time out." Really, I had meant that for Kira to hear so she knows it's not funny to knock food off the table. Then her friend knocked over some water and I said, on auto pilot, "Bad boy, no ice-cream for you." Needless to say, the boy got quite upset at me and looked to his mom for reassurance that "auntie" has no authority to take away his ice-cream.

We made it to the ice-cream portion of the meal and I thought I was home free when Hayden, again out of nowhere, threw up all over himself. Luckily, he was wearing a bib. His pants were wet but it was manageable mess.

Should I even go on to the rest of the story?

I am going to... we headed to get groceries and the baby pooped in his diaper. So, I changed him in the car and threw the soiled diaper in the garbage bag that I thought had Kira's vomit napkins. Then I went to throw out the whole bag. As soon as that bag hit the bottom of a public garbage bin, I realized the bag contained Hayden's soiled diaper and parts of the carseat that I took out to launder when I get home. So, I had to reach in, with my bare hand, pretty deep, into the garbage while Hayden was strapped onto me in the baby Bjorn to retrieve the bag and deal with the mess.

Kira was quite curious as to why mommy was swearing so profusely at the garbage yet she went back again and again to fish out the original bag of garbage. I've always told her to never touch garbage. Consequently, my daughter kept saying, "mommy jo jo (dirty), don't touch, time out, no ice-cream for you. You got garbage all over town."

Yeah... so that's what happed to us before 3:00pm today. How was your day?

Doesn't Hayden look patriotic? Really, he's just Kira's official sticker book.


Kira has that evil sister look on her face while Hayden has that "I am so innocent you can do anything to me" look.

Royal Genius

Here is a picture of my baby looking like a genius. I think he started scooting backwards yesterday but I can't be sure. I will keep an eye on him these coming days.


And a video of Kira getting the royal treatment. Oh... and she knows the whole Mr Brown story by heart.

The Alphabet as Kira Knows It

Some of these are very obvious and others are more cryptic. We spent 2 hours working on it this morning. It is of course limited by my drawing abilities. Think you can decipher it?

Who needs school when I can learn like this at home?


A better picture of the alphabets.

In Sickness and In Health

The kids, that is. Kira is sick and Hayden is healthy. I am also a little under the weather so today in 24 hours lock down day. We've spent most of the day just taking it easy. It's amazing how much the kids are letting me do. I did laundry; I took pictures; I talked to various people on the phone; I cut out some patterns and got them ready to sew; I sketched out some applique designs; I made a real lunch; and now I am blogging.

Anyhoo, here are some silly pictures I took earlier today. As you can see, Hayden is still in his pjs. Oh well, we'll do more tomorrow.

Kira looks happy and Hayden looks dopey.


Kira and her peeps. They were "napping" together in the living room.


Such good friends.


Smile!


A hard to understand rendition of Old McDonald. Although she is not very musical, she sings with all her heart.


Hayden the jumping bean.

Playhouse

We went to this playhouse yesterday and it was crazy fun, for me. Kira and Hayden had fun too, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I had. It's a kids activity so I usually just follow them around and help them up and down play structures and feed them food when they are hungry. Really, there isn't much in it for me except maybe to get out of the house and talk to other adults.

This place has a huge play structure that even big people can play in. I am not sure it's designed for big people to play in but I played while "helping" Kira. Here are a couple typical exchanges:

Scenario 1 -
Me: Kira, do you want to go into the bouncy room?
Kira: No mommy, I am too scared.
Me: I'll go with you and show you how fun it is.
(we go into the room and I jump like mad while Kira whines: stop mommy, that's too high)

Scenario 2 -
Me: Kira, do you want to go on the crazy slide again?
Kira: No mommy, I am too scared.
Me: Okay, you wait here, I will go with baby.
(baby looks a little concerned while being carried over to the crazy slide)
Me: weeeeeeee!
Baby: aaaaaaaah!!!

You get the idea. I didn't take too many pictures because the entire thing was indoor and the light wasn't very good for pictures. Here are a few.

Kira preferred the more "grounded" activities such as this awesome drum set.


We were already pretty high and she wanted to go even higher. Of course this was the first time we climbed the structure and she didn't know the only way down was by going on the scary slide.


Hayden stayed in the ball pit quite a bit.


Remember his invisible kicks? Here are his invisible punches.


Finally, a little video of the crazy slide. I really don't think the video does it justice. It was dark and my camera couldn't keep up with the auto focus. You just have to try it yourself.