Wonderful

Sometimes, they are wonderful together!

Couch Potatoes

We, the whole family, watched the Oscars. We had dinner in front of the TV and Kira was quite excited about that. Baby was totally at ease and was happy that we were all finally at his level. (We sat on the floor and ate.) The results were quite predictable. We thought Benjamin Button won more awards than it really deserved. The Academy can be such suckers. We now have two and a half movies on our to-watch list - Milk, Coraline (not on the Oscar list but we still want to see it) and The Reader. The Reader only counts for half a movie since I really want to see it and Hubby is lukewarm at best.

The best part of the night was for me was when Hayden was released from his booster chair. I thought I was setting him free but I was wrong. He totally loved having a chair and the body language just oozed couch potato!



Seeing him like this totally make me want to sew him a baby couch. I have a pattern that's been lying around forever. I think I may just have to take action!

Here is the girl trying to climb on her jungle gym while the jungle gym was trying to watch TV.

A Quickie

Kira refused to nap one afternoon but patiently waited next to me while I caught a 10 minute shut eye. When I rolled over, she eagerly came over and said she wanted to cook something. I appreciated that she was absolutely quiet during my short nap so I took her into the kitchen and looked for something she could cook. I found a box of instant pudding mix in the bottom of my pantry and voila, we had an afternoon snack.

All I had to do was measure out 3 cups of milk. Then, Kira opened the package and dumped the content in a big bowl. She poured the milk in and stirred with a whisk until she was bored. I had to stir a little in the end to make sure everything's mixed. Kira scooped the pudding into cups while I defrosted some frozen strawberries we had lying around. By the time she scooped out the last bit, I put the strawberries in and topped it with a Graham cracker.


The final product.


The tasting.


The approval.


Talk about instant gratification. The whole process was less than half an hour. The pudding set super fast and she could eat it right away. I don't know if it's what you'd call a nutritious snack but hey, it was fun! I am eating one of the refrigerated cups right now! Yum!

Mine!

My one year old's most spoken word, out of a vocabulary of about 5 words, is "mine!" The second runner up is "more", as in "more food" "more play". Why won't he put his verbal skills to good use and say things like Mama, Dada or yes?

Jamming

We had a jamming session at preschool.

Photography

K: Mommy, I NEEEEEED your camera!
M: Why?
K: Because I NEEEEEEEED it.
M: Are to going to take pictures?
K: Maybe, I just want to try something out.
M: Will you be careful?
K: Of course. Mommy, you are silly. I won't let the baby touch it. Never ever.

So, with those words, I gave her the camera and she took about 20 pictures.

First, she tried some portraits:




Then, still life.





Finally, abstract.




It was pretty great. I turned the camera on for her and she just set off for about half an hour taking these pictures. Then she shut it off and gave it back to me and say, "I am all done now. That was a lot of work!"

Dragon

Kira's new art titled Dragon (think Chinese dragon). What do you think?

Dapper Hairdo

In the words of a good friend, Hayden has a dapper hairdo. Remember back when I asked for advice for Kira's hair and I was in such despair that I contemplated shaving her head? I think he is heading down a similar path.

These are pics from the same day as the video I posted earlier. I didn't realize how crazy his hair was until I blew up the pictures and looked at them carefully.

Funky punky front.


Really messed up back.


Actually, I used to hate combing Kira's hair. It's all tangled up and she won't sit still and she screams and screams. Lately, I've been giving Kira a comb and have her pin the baby down and comb his hair while I do hers. It's very hilarious to watch and surprisingly efficient. She is quite good at combing the baby's hair and he puts up less of a fight than when I try to pin him down. I will try to get hubby to shoot a video some time.

Play

Here are some random play videos from baby gym. The News crew were there that day and we actually ended up on TV for a whole second. Wooohoooo!

I've always find this car ingenious and goofy at the same time.


Baby pressing on.


Fish hugging.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've been very fascinated by paper cuttings. In fact, I got some fabulous paper cutting art for Christmas this year. I will blog about them later.

So, since I am so fascinated, I had to give it a try. Here are a couple of valentines that I made. It's from the same cutting, I just turned it into two project. Can't let anything go to waste, right? I used some scrapbooking paper as the base and pasted the cutout of card stock.

I think this one would look better if put in a frame like the other one. However, I had to put it in the mail so I just used a small, very light weight Ikea frame.


This one is for my valentine.


How's your V-Day?

Goof Ball

Who is that goof ball fooling around while the girl is oh so diligently doing her "homework"?

She Melts My Heart

M: Kiki, we will try to only use happy words.
K: Why?
M: Because if you use angry words all the times, nobody will want to play with you anymore.
K: Why?
M: People don't like angry words or angry girls.
K: I like them.
M: That's silly. Angry words are bad.
K: No mommy. You used angry words when I am bad and I still like you.

Note: Angry words include but are not limited to:
"No!"
"Get away from me!"
" I don't like you!"
"Do it now!"
"MINE!"
"No baby!"
"Stop that!"

Unfortunately, a few items on the list are used by the girl as well as the mommy. Yes, I am also working on not using angry words.

A Kiki? A Daddy?

Baby learnt to say Kiki and Daddy and I was super excited. I guess I over-reacted a bit. He is calling everything Kiki and Daddy now.

Day At The Beach

We spent a gorgeous day at the beach on Tuesday.

You know those vacation posters that show you a quiet beach with a one liner "Rush Hour" on the bottom? You know, the ones that suggest their beach is so quiet that there may only be one or two people there during "rush hour"? I never really understood those posters but this reminds me so much of them. We were at the beach at 11am and we pretty much had this huge stretch of it to ourselves.


"Bundle up, we are going to the beach" is such an oxymoron. Shouldn't people be in their bikinis when they are at the beach??!!


Check out these shades.


She looks like she's been digging in the dirt all day long. Those pants are supposed to be powder blue, not gray.


"Dirt is so yummy." I don't know how much sand this boy ate. All I can tell you is, he's still pooping sand 24 hours later. Oops, did I just share too much?


"Hail to Queen Armidala!"

Princess Day

While my mom was here, Hubby and I took the girl out for a special princess day, ie, she had all our attention for 3 whole hours. We figured since she missed the last dragon dance, we should try it again. We took her to the Asian Art Museum where they had a CNY celebration show.

To make it extra special, we took the bus instead of driving. It's ironic since taking a car ride used to be a special treat when I was a kid.


"What's really inside the lion's head anyway?"


"Can I get under it too?"


"Isn't it silly to put another girl head over my pretty head?"


"Por Por: Thanks for babysitting baby. I had fun with mommy and daddy."

Baby and Por Por

Baby has really bad separation and stranger anxiety. I tried a couple of time leaving him at some kind of childcare and he screamed bloody murder for half and hour each time. Now, I am not sure if he remembers my mom from her November visit but he was very at ease with her. I rarely see him voluntarily climb up to someone other than me but he was very happy climbing on Por Por. Maybe I look like my mom and baby recognizes that. In any case, it was so much fun for me to watch him play. It was like a out of body experience since he usually plays on me and all I can see is his hand on my face.

"Back off! She is mine, all mine."


"This one is immovable."


"I think I tired her out."


"Look at me!"


"No hands! I am standing on my own."

The Girl Made Dinner

"First, let's put some sauce on."


"Then we'll put on some cheese."


"Don't worry mom, I am really good at this. Just go get the toppings."


"Oops, you caught me. I am, eh, just making sure the cheese is still good."


"Ta Ta!"


It was a really yummy pizza. We put mushrooms, red peppers, and really thin potato slices on. It was a craft project and a meal in one. Awesome!