Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Sick puppies and Genius

Both kids have the cold and they are trying hard to give it to Brett and I. So, the Allen household is full of sick puppies. Hayden was super cranky and poopy this morning. Fortunately, he finally fell asleep. I think he really was tired because he couldn't breath last night and therefore didn't sleep much. Kira is still in good spirits. She is still a mess but is a very playful mess.

Oh, so the genius part... how many 22 month olds do you know can operate a mouse this expertly. I didn't edit the tape at all... she figured it out yesterday watching me use the mouse to browse pictures. Notice what her little finger was doing in relation to what she saw on the screen. She was even narrated for me as she saw the pictures of her friend on the monitor.



I guess Kira takes after Daddy and both Grandpas. She is going to be a computer expert.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Good and Evil

Yesterday started out quite well but it didn't last. After her half hour nap, Kira become inconsolable. She cried and cried and asked for one thing after another and complained about every body part hurting. So, I called her the devil child. Hayden put up with it all and most of the time, with a smile. I called him the angel child.

Doesn't this seem wrong to you? The big kid with a bottle and the little one just lies there, helpless. The bottle was the only thing that stopped Kira from crying for about 10 min.












Then today, the roles reversed. Turns out, Kira was so difficult last night because she was sick. She has an eye infection that is turning into a cold. Apparently, the bacteria can attack whichever body part they like first and then finish their job with a full blown cold. In this case, Kira's eye infection started last Friday (I thought it was pretty harmless and she didn't seem bothered by it so I didn't pay much attention to it.) and by yesterday, she was fully miserable. As a result, we couldn't go to playgroup today. I didn't want to get the other kids sick. I couldn't just stay home either. I'd get way too stir crazy. So I took the two kids to the mall.

Despite her illness, Kira was most cheerful and cooperative. She waited when I had to stop to nurse Hayden and she sat nicely in the women's lounge to enjoy her lunch. She was an angel.

Hmmmm... yummy yummy corn dog.


Hayden on the other hand was a whole different story. He was wrapped up all nice and warm in the stroller and I stopped twice to nurse her and made sure his diaper was changed and he was comfortable but he just wasn't happy. He screamed on top of his lungs the whole time. Our new stroller is a double decker and most people can't see where he is and they always look at Kira like, "how can this big girl make such a baby noise?" Anyway, I had to get out of the mall because of the devil cry.
Why can't they just both be happy all the time?

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Pictures Brett won't approve of

Since Brett is not home today, he probably won't get around to reading the blog. What better time than now to post pictures of things that he won't approve of.

As soon as we found out Kira was a girl (I am talking about 2 years ago, of course) Brett and I decided that she will be locked in an ivory tower until she is at least 30. There will be no boys and she won't be flirting with anyone. Well, first, I got her an internet boyfriend. (Hi Brayden) Then, I take her to playgroups where there are plenty of boys. Finally, I invite some of these boys over to play with her. Here is how they play:

And then during break time, they flirt:












I guess I will leave the locking up and the guarding of the key job to Brett.

Have a good weekend.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Random collection

I've been really scatter-brained lately. I don't seem to be able to finish a thought or remember a thought long enough to process it or have a discussion about it. So, to give you a little taste of what it's like to talk with me these days, here is the progression of my mind in the past 2 min or so:

I wonder if Kira has woken up from her nap yet. Is it going to be a happy wake up?


No, it's probably a sad wake up.














She sure was cute last night when she ran around the house on her own.

But then she threw a fit over nothing!
She is really starting to look like me.
Man, I hate it when she gives me that "I am so cute and you don't have the heart to yell at me" face. I am so weak!
I wonder if Hayden knows I am his mom.
Sometimes he looks so surprised to see me. But he has to know because other times he looks super happy to see me.I wonder if he knows who Kira is:
It was funny the other night when I tried to get pictures of the two kids. First they started out cooperative and even tried to pose for me:

But then I kept hitting the wrong button and telling them to wait a minute and hold on a little longer. Finally, they gave me this look:
Oh, my kids are so funny.

What's for dinner?

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

A Good Day in the Allen Household

I think the forces above heard my desperate cry. Following a traumatic morning, I was given pretty much the perfect morning today. First Kira slept until past 8 and woke up with the giggles instead of the sad sad loud crying. Then, Hayden waited until I was all clean and refreshed before demanding his breakfast. Then, they were both playful and happy and waited patiently to go to Ricky's (Kira's friend) birthday party. At the party, Hayden slept peacefully in the Bjorn and Kira sat at the table and ate like a little lady. Yes, my children are perfect. Then we came home and were faced with the napping hour. Well, here is how it went:

I am presented with two doors, one of which I was sure will unleash a screaming monster. Which one should I choose?
I chose door number one and here is what I saw:

Okay, the room is a little messy but the angel child is sleeping. No screaming, no monster. Take a deep breath and check door number two:
Is it possible? Angel child number two is also quietly sleeping! Life is so good!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Cute, happy children

I had a stressful, if not out right traumatizing morning. So, I just want to think happy thoughts. What better than to look at happy pictures of kids.

Happy happy Hayden.












How cute is this boy! Ok, I am probably a little biased.









Kira and her little budding artists friends.















What a fashionable girl. Looks like she is smiling but really she is saying, "mommy, come rescue me. I can't walk in these boots."

Monday, January 21, 2008

Guess what I made?

Happy Monday! First, here is funny picture of Hayden.

Hei hei! I picked up the camera and he gave me this look. What a kid.





I got some sewing time before we went out for a kiddie birthday party on Sunday. I started at 11, took a one hour lunch and finished just before 4. Guess what I made? Here is your first clue:

I think it's pretty obvious from this picture that I made more than one item.



Here is clue number 2:

It took almost an hour to finish the first pair and only 15 min when I got to the last pair. Note to self: Having a crying baby in the background increases productivity by about 300%. At the same time, stress level is increased by about 500%


Here they are! One pair of each style goes on Hayden's feet and the other two pairs will go on sale at Etsy on Wednesday.

Friday, January 18, 2008

30 seconds of my life

This is 30 seconds of what I had to deal with last night:


So, to make me feel better, I went out with a group of moms for dim sum after baby class this morning. The kids were all pretty tired but we wanted food and we were getting food. Kira actually played quite well with Ricky and she ate reasonably well.

The restaurant is literally 5 blocks from our house and she almost fell asleep on the way home. I thought she will certainly take a good nap this afternoon but she is still in her room, crying. It's 3:30pm! At least I have one good kid. Hayden slept through it all. He slept at baby class, and woke up briefly to eat. Then he slept through dim sum and woke up again at the end to eat. I transfered him into his swing and he's been sleeping since we got home around 2. Yeah, right now, he is my favorite kid.


Oh... did I tell you how my day started?

Need I say more?

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Crazy Hair

After all the blogging and other random stuff, I actually managed to sew yesterday. Here's what I made:

I think a couple of them will become birthday gifts and I will try to sell a couple on Etsy.

Kira's hair is completely out of control and I need help. It looks totally normal from the front but the back is worse than a bird's nest. I've tried combing, combing with water, putting a hat on her... nothing seems to work. I think a haircut is in order. If that doesn't work, we may have to resort to the old Chinese tradition of shaving... I know Kira's a little old for that, but what can I do?! I can't let her walk around like this. People are laughing... at me!
Crazy hair from the back.

See how the front is totally normal?

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

My little Buddha and the Mother Load

Kira goes to daycare one day a week and I devote that day to bonding with Hayden, sewing, running errands, paying bills, managing appointments, cleaning, surfing the net, and resting. Em... I think in the end, I don't do any of those things well and I still find myself running around like a headless chicken all the other days of the week. Anyway, today is my "day off" so I thought I'd take some pictures of Hayden (since there's been complaints that I only take pictures of Kira) and do some sewing.
Smile, Hayden. He has been very smiley. For more pictures of him, click here.

Some time last week, I went into my favorite fabric store to get a yard of fabric that I saw on their website... little did I know, the shop owner had just come back from Japan. OMG!!! Japan!! They have the cutest everything. So, 20 min later, I walked out of the store with a giant stack of kiddie fabric and totally forgot about the yard that I went there for originally. But with all my new cute purchase, who needs that one yard of I-don't-even-remember-what.
A spread of the mother load.
So cute and charming.
What I call "fairy tale fabric".
A handful of "boy fabrics".
Hayden staring at my crafts probably thinking, "You are the reason my mommy doesn't spend more time with me!"

Oh... I've been told to put bigger pictures on here. Did you know you can click on the pictures once to enlarge them? Try it with the Hayden vs Sewing picture and you can see that hatred in his eyes.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Playgroup

I rely heavily on playgroups to preserve my sanity. I like talking to the other moms and hearing their stories and to know that I am not alone when my kid won't sleep/eat/poo/smile/talk/climb/etc. Then, today, we had an especially busy playgroup and I asked myself, "how is this keeping me sane?" The noise, the chaos, the crying, the fighting were anything but sane. I guess somehow, I've acclimated and learnt to tune out the things that are stressful and just focus on the fact that I am out of the house and talking to adults.
Here is a short video of playgroup at a friend's house today:


Hayden "participated" for the first time at playgroup and made his first baby friend.














Kira trying to commit suicide with a power tool?????

No... she is just that girly. She turned a power tool into a beauty product - a curling iron.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Little things that's happening

We don't have anything crazy exciting going on here so I am just going to blog about the little things.

Last week in the crazy rain, we discovered the Randall Museum in the city. It's a small children's museum that's funded by the city so admission is free. It is much smaller than the one we go to in Sausalito but it's a cool space just the same. There is a maze that the kids can explore and when they get to the middle of it, there is a collection of other smaller hand held maze puzzles. There is also an animal exhibit that the kids can get really up close and personal with.



Kira explaining to me what the birds are doing in the cage.




Kira trying to convince the turtle to come out of its hiding place.





The past weekend was fun. Saturday was a complete blur to me. I think we just ran errands... library, groceries, Blockbuster, laundry... things like that. Sunday was a little more exciting. Brett invited 12 Magic players to our house for a draft. One of the players came with his wife and baby, also named Kyra, as well. It was quite a gathering. Kira and Kyra had a great time playing together while Hayden slept the WHOLE day, literally. We put him down at 10am and I had to wake him up at 4:30pm to make sure he gets some food.

This picture was not taken on Sunday but on Saturday night but I thought it fits nicely here. Hayden is really starting to sleep well for us. What a good boy.

We went out for sushi after the games and the kids came home and crashed and they BOTH slept through the night! That is a minor miracle in this house.
Hope you all had a good weekend.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Class in session

Baby class / toddler open gym started again after the winter break and I went with Kira and Hayden for the first time today. It's been about 5 weeks since we were last there and I was surprised at how much more Kira can do now. She is usually slow to warm up when joining a big group of kids but she went into the gym and went straight to her favorite ride on toy. We'll get to that in a minute. She played very well and even tried to defend her toys when other kids tried to take them away. Again, that's a first for her. Instead of just crying and running to me, she tried to say no to the other kids and run away from them. Another new skill that she somehow developed during the 5 week break is climbing up the slides and sliding down on her own. I never knew she could do that.
The most surprising thing was her interest in a climbing structure. Kira was never very good at the physical stuff but she tried to climb up this thing today. Granted... she never made it pass the bottom rung...
The other fun thing Kira did today was playing with the ride on toys. She finally figured out how to get in and out of the cars on her own. Today, she had a choice between a fire truck, a dump truck, a pickup truck, a police car, a taxi, a sports car, a pink Barbie car, an Elmo car, a Winnie the Pooh car, a motor cycle, a bus and a number of other animal type ride ons and she consistently chose the police car. I had no idea she was so interested in upholding the law. I mean she yells "stop" when other kids are running or driving too fast and says "pick up" when they dropped food on the floor...
oh, and her favorite thing to do while riding the police car was to try and run me over. She had a very maniacal laugh when she bumps into me and I yell "ouch". What does that say about her being a cop?







So, while Kira was having fun, what did Hayden do? You guessed it, he rode on mommy and slept.




He woke up just before the end and I thought he should try a ride on toy too. Of course he was way too small for any of the cars, so I thought I'd let him ride in another baby's carseat. (of course I know that other baby... I didn't just put him in some stranger's carseat...) Looked like he enjoyed it.
So, all in all, we had a fun outing this morning. Yeah for city sponsored baby classes!