Oh Mai Family

Yackity Yack

2010-08-03T22:40:00.000-07:00

We took the kids whale and dolphin watching at Dana Point on Captain Dave's Dolphin Safari. It was something we wanted to do for a while but Taede wasn't old enough. He's still on the young side but what the heck.

Malia was excited and so was Kael. But then he thought about it and changed his mind. He was worried about sharks, pirates and the boat sinking. Or actually, it was pirates causing the boat to sink causing us to be eaten by sharks. I had to reassure him that there were no pirates, and as I reassured him that we weren't going to sink and we wouldn't run into any sharks, the thought did cross my mind that I was playing with Murphy's Law. Something that never works in my favor.

I was solely focused on the kids: I hope we see a whale, I hope there are dolphins, I hope Taede doesn't fall overboard... So I didn't put much thought into myself. Meaning: I wasn't properly drugged up for the trip.

The going out part wasn't so bad. But then we went out over 11 miles to find the gray whale. So it took a while to get there. Then we found the whale so the captain cut the motor. So we drifted along, gently rolling with the waves. Up and down, up and down. Just thinking about it now makes me queasy again. I managed to hold myself together; it's never a good idea to show any kind of weakness in front of the kids. Truong took the older two kids to the front of the boat for a closer look and I planted myself at the back, where there's the least amount of rocking. Luckily Taede was content to hang with me rather than wander the boat. I was so bad off that if my eyes wandered away from the horizon on the left side, I would be in immediate danger of yacking. So to the leftside I stayed. Apparently Lady Luck took pity on me and made sure the whale stayed on the left side of the boat. Because I gotta tell you: if it was on the right side of the boat, I would have been SOL (sh#t out of luck) and would have missed the whale sighting completely. I was. NOT. moving.

Taede was fascinated with the whale. Each time it went under, he'd point and babble to get it to come back up. Interestingly, the dolphins scared him. I thought the dolphins would be cooler because there were more of them and when they leaped out of the water, you could see their whole body, thus identify what they were. The whale was so massive that you could only see the top of it and quite honestly, it could have been the Lochness Monster for all we knew. As I ohh'ed and ahh'ed over the dolphins, I thought Taede fell asleep. But upon closer inspection, he had tucked his head into my neck with his fingers doing the peekaboo screen. I guess the sheer amount of dolphins freaked him out.

After a while I was not able to find the energy to enjoy the sealife. I was too concerned with holding myself together. Truong took the kids to the underwater pod to view the dolphins underwater so I was on deck by myself with Taede. My mouth started watering and I knew the situation suddenly became very dire. I frantically waved Truong over and literally dumped Taede into his arms. I didn't even make it 5 feet, much less the 20 feet it would take to get to the head (bathroom). Luckily for me (and everyone onboard) there was a waste bucket a mere 3 feet away. And I have to tell you: it felt good to let it all go. As luck would have it, everyone was still in front of the boat so no one was there to witness my humiliation. But honestly, it's kind of like giving birth: you don't care who's there to witness, you just want it done. Afterwards, I was still a little shaky but nowhere near the desperation I was at before.

I was never so happy to be back in the car, on solid ground. At least I know one thing for sure: cruises are definitely out in our future vacations.

Enjoy the pictures!

Whale and Dolphin Watching

Backlog of pictures

2010-07-26T15:20:00.000-07:00

I have some new pictures posted. Sure it's a few months late. I've been busy. You keep 3 kids at home all summer and see how much you get done.

Kael's Field Trip - Marine Mammal Center
This was the last big field trip for Kael's class. It took some working and rearranging (grandma took a day off from work) but I finally managed to chaperon one. Kael was so happy. Armed with a couple of ziplock gallon sized barf bags, I was ready to go. Luckily I didn't need it. I did come close on the trip home though as Grace (the other Mom Chaperon) and I spent the entire 40 minutes texting. Sitting on that school bus, wishing for a more supportive bra, brought back some memories. Well... not so much memories of a more supportive bra but certainly of the bouncing around part.

June 20 - Wild Animal Park
We met some cousins at the Wild Animal Park. The weather report stated that it would be cool. Well, it lied. It was HOT. So the kids cooled down at the little water splash park they have in the Heart of Africa. Good news: the kids got to cool down. Bad news: we didn't bring extra clothes. Why - you ask? Well because the weather report said it was going to be cool.

July 19 - Tanaka Farm Watermelon Tour
This is a local farm in Irvine that provides tours of their operations. They stop along various points of the farm and provide farm fresh (literally pulled from the ground) produce for us to eat. The kids had a great time and they sampled a variety of veggies. Kael discovered that he liked raw corn and has been asking to eat it that way. Whether or not corn from the grocery store will taste as good as fresh corn from the farm remains to be seen.

Cousin Connor's Birthday Party
Connor turned 2 and we had a great time at his party. His community has an uber-fun splash park just down the street. Wish we lived closer.

Deciding if he should go in or not...

Swiped Malia's bucket and decided to test out the waters.

He was fixated on these cannons and would get so mad whenever someone fired water at him. Which was like shooting a sitting duck as he tried to collect water in his bucket from said cannons.

Money down the toilet

2010-07-26T15:10:00.001-07:00

That's what buying Kael's shoes is like: flushing money down the toilet.

His feet grew again. He's now a kid size 1.5. This is huge considering most of his friends are still in toddlers' 11-13 (after 13 is when you move into kid size 1+).

We just bought him a pair of 13's a few months ago. "Few" meaning 3 or 4 months, not 6 or 7 months. Luckily it's summer so he's in crocs 99% of the time anyway. I'm not going to buy anything (shoes, school uniforms, dress clothes) until the very last minute. Meaning: school begins August 31 so I'll start looking for shoes and uniforms a few days before. In fact, I'm not even going to buy him uniform pants until it starts raining.

Kael's Experiment

2010-07-24T15:05:00.000-07:00

Way back in March, when Kael first lost his tooth, we introduced the Tooth Fairy (TF). She collects teeth (kind of gross if you ask me) and leaves a present behind. Our TF also leaves behind a note, expounding on the importance of good brushing and flossing habits. For gifts, she leaves the gold Sacajawea coins.

The first time TF wasn't ready for the exchange because what kid in their right mind would purposefully yank out their own teeth? I remember as a kid I wouldn't let my parents come near my loose one until the adult tooth was well in place (hence the need for orthodontia work). I figured my kids would be the same way.

But no, Kael yanked out his first one at 9:30pm. I had no money, no note, no toys... nothing. On top of that, Kael went to Dad and Dad didn't tell me until past 10:00pm. A "Oh, and by the way..." kind of thing.

I scrambled around and after digging through the ashtray in my car where loose change is usually kept, I found 3 gold coins. Zipped out a note and the TF was saved.

A couple of days later, I found Kael at my desk writing a note, right before bedtime. I happened to ask him what he was writing, and thank goodness I did. He revealed to me that he was writing a note to the Tooth Fairy, to say thank you for the gifts. He had a couple of other things there as well, gifts for the TF:

The note reads: "Thanks for the money Tooth Fairy. Look I left something." He gave her a sticky frog and a bug card. Very sweet I thought. I was a little concerned that Kael was starting to see TF as a potential pen pal though.

Fast forward to July and he pulled out another tooth. While at the water park. What the heck am I supposed to do with it?! So I put it in my wallet for safe keeping. And there it sat for a few days because I (I mean -- the Tooth Fairy) couldn't find the time to get to the bank (alone) to get some Sacajawea coins.

We finally found a little mountain of those coins when Truong decided to cash in our 10 gallon jug of coins. In fact, we have enough for all of my kids' teeth!

Anyway, TF did the exchange and all was well. Or at least I thought it was.

This morning Truong mentioned something about Kael waiting to hear from the Tooth Fairy. I thought he meant Kael was missing his note from the TF, the one I saw Taede playing with. Truong said no, that's not the one. It's something else. Kael's waiting for a response to something. I was still in a morning stupor and didn't know what he was talking about so we dropped it.

Later, I got a tickle in my brain and decided to investigate. This is what I found under Kael's pillow:

He had written a note and stuck it under his pillow without telling me. Further, he even told Dad to NOT tell me! Like it was some kind of Tooth Fairy test!!!

Can you believe that?! So of course the Tooth Fairy failed. But I covered her ass by pretending ignorance: "Daddy didn't tell me anything. What are you talking about? I got a weird email from the TF this morning about how sorry she was she couldn't come over last night because a lot of children lost their teeth yesterday. Why was she coming over? Did you lose another tooth?"

I could tell he wasn't as sure of himself. I played dumb really well. I could see the wheels churning around, tossing about this new bit of information.

So my next step is to set up a Tooth Fairy email account, send myself an email from her and let Kael check it out. Maybe this way he can start emailing her instead of hiding messages under his pillow.

Jeez.

Embarrassing picture #3062

2010-07-24T15:02:00.000-07:00

When he's hot, he's really hot.

He loves wearing Malia's princess shoes. Both he and his sister clack around the house all day.

See? I told you.

2010-07-16T22:44:00.001-07:00

Stop touching it, Kael.

Kael. If you keeping playing with it, it's going to fall off.

Please. Stop. Touching. It.

Get your fingers out of there!!

Stop playing with it. You're going to break it.

Would you quit doing that in front of me?

It hurts because you keep playing with it.

Kael: OH MY GOSH MOM!! I BROKE IT!! IS IT BLEEDING?!!

Tooth #2
See? I told you if you kept playing with it, it'd fall off.

Midget Carrots

2010-06-24T19:35:00.001-07:00

This is our first year growing carrots so we have no idea what we're
doing. It looks good from the surface but when you pluck one from the
ground -- it's smaller than Malia's finger. At least that was the size
of our carrots about 3 weeks ago.

Today it was bigger. Maybe a little bigger than Truong's thumb. It's
all relative, right. If I had to guess the growing cycle of regular
sized carrots you see at the store, based on our current experience,
I'd have to say at least a year! So every few weeks I will pluck one
out to see if they are ready. Maybe I bought dwarf carrot seeds or
something.

Malia doesn't care how big it is. As long as it's from our garden,
she'll eat it. Too bad we can't grow a steak bush. Or a chicken vine.
That would be awesome.

- sent from iPhone

All about Taede

2010-06-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

Taede loves Malia and Kael. Loves them. He tries to copy them in everything they do. It's kind of cute seeing him chase after Kael and the neighborhood boys as they run around playing whatever violent shoot 'em game boys that age are into. Given a choice, I of course would prefer that he play a different kind of game but what am I going to do? Isolate him from Kael and the boys during parties? Taede knows how to properly hold a lightsaber and shoot a blaster. If said blaster is too big (as most are) he turns it around on his shoulder and carries it like a bazooka.

During the school year while Kael's in school he spends all his time with Malia. 20% of the time they play together. 80% of the time they fight. Taede is the Master at the Snatch and Run method of playing. Malia will set up all her princess stuff set up in the doll house and you can see Taede lurking in the perimeter, waiting for the perfect moment to swoop in, snatch a Princess and then run to me with Malia hot on his trail, shrieking like a demon from hell. It's kind of funny, actually. I feel bad for Malia and will put him a time-out but honestly, it's really hard not to laugh out loud.

Malia loves to dress up and I'm noticing now that he's pretty good at playing dress up too.

The best part? He can put the shoes on himself and click clack his way around the house without slipping. He just has to make sure he doesn't wear Malia's favorite shoes. See how mad she is in the background?

He's also getting pretty good at putting on make-up. Usually, however, it's pretend make-up. Once in a while I'll put chapstick on him myself (he's never done it himself). Malia loves putting on my chapstick - she slathers on a pretty thick coat before I am able to wrestle the little tube away. And I forget how very observant his is. We had dinner at Malia's BFF Audrey's house last night and the girls were playing with a stamp set. Audrey told me that Taede was putting the stamp on his lips. I look over and noticed that he was using the stamper like lipstick, but the cap was on. Since I was washing dishes, I took note of his action and put in a mental sticky note to tell him "No Mouth" when I finished. A split second after that mental note, he took off the cap and...

I busted a gut laughing (more than a little impressed that he correctly swiped the right part of his face). Linda, true to form, freaked out and ran over to him with Baby Ethan on her hip and then ran back to get a wipe to wipe it off. I yelled NO WAIT!! She stopped and thought maybe I wanted to use water, soap, something stronger than a baby wipe.

But no. I just wanted to get a picture before she cleaned him up.

Ironman

2010-06-21T21:10:00.000-07:00

First day of summer...

We were supposed to go to Splash (a water park with some friends) but it was overcast and pretty cold. So I cancelled that trip and went to Plan B: going to the park with another family who happened to be free that morning. By 10:15am the four Mai's were running around at the park. Sweating. Yes, sweating, because it got hot. In fact, it got so hot that I found myself trying to stand in the shadow of the playground equipment as I watched over Taede. I started feeling bad about canceling the Splash trip -- especially when Kael would say to me every once in a while, with very pointed looks: "Mom, I'm so hot" and "It's really hot here" and "I wish I could find a way to cool myself down." OK OK! I get it -- you're disappointed. As if my guilt-o-meter wasn't already in the red zone.

Then I get a text from Anne, Kael's friend Ella's mom. The family we were supposed to meet at Splash. Her text read something like: The water's warm, not crowded at all and Ella's really disappointed.

Sheesh.

Given the increasingly hostile environment I was in, I decided that since it was only 11am, and if I could hustle, we could make Splash by 12pm, stay until 1:30 or so and sleep the rest of the afternoon. Let me tell you, when I proposed the change of plans, I have never seen my kids haul ass so quickly to get ready or listen so well.

We get to Splash and play until 1:45pm. Taede fell asleep for about 20 minutes there and about 20 minutes home. Basically just enough to take the edge off and not nap the rest of the afternoon. Ugh.

I had to wake Malia up at 4:30pm otherwise her bedtime would be compromised. She didn't stagger out of bed until close to 5:00pm. Taede was running on fumes. Kael was pretty quiet. Not stupor quiet. Just...quiet.

And then I remembered it was Monday. Monday is Kael's swim squad day (his swim strokes class). Where for 35 minutes he swims back and forth across the pool, getting timed.

DOH!

So we started this morning with a 6:30am "Psst, Mom. Do I have school today?" to a park date to Splash to swim squad.

My little Ironman was asleep before the covers were pulled over his head.

Summer has begun!

Payback's a b!tch.

2010-06-19T23:22:00.000-07:00

I took a day off today and left the kids under Truong's complete care. I was home... but I wasn't there. I had a hair appointment at 7:30am and didn't come home until 10:00am. The house was a mess. The kids were doing random things and Truong was (of course) watching golf. I made him turn it off and interact with his children and then went upstairs to clean up as I had to take Kael to a birthday party at 11:00am.

As Kael and I started to leave, I looked over and noticed Truong was watching the younger two kids -- with his eyes closed. I of course yelled him awake and gave him the evil stink eye before we left.

I swear...

A little later right before dinner, he gathered the kids together to pick up their toys. The balls, of course, were scattered to the far corners of the house and under the couch. I could hear Truong swearing away about "damn balls" as he used Kael's lightsaber to fish them out from under the couch.

I had to stifle a giggle or two. I will admit it warmed my heart to see him gather balls. I only wished the kids did a better job of scattering them. I figure a few more days of having him clean up those damn balls and the fate of the ball pit is pretty well sealed.

{rubbing my hands together in anticipation}

Please stop before my head gets too big.

2010-06-17T15:35:00.001-07:00

Me: "So are you looking forward to the end of school?"

Kael: "No, not really. I like school."

Me (a little insulted): "But don't you want to spend time with me and your sister and baby brother??"

Kael (thinking about it, seeming to realize what he said): "Oh, yeah. I guess so Mom. I mean, yes, I want to spend time with you."

Pause.

"But if there's a science camp, I'd like to do that too."

So close

2010-06-02T18:04:00.000-07:00

Two and a half weeks left of school and I finally get a phone call from school. Various friends have broken a variety of bones over the course of the school year and I would have bet the farm that Kael would have fallen in that group as well. But as we neared June 18, I thought he was in the clear.

OK, OK, I admit this isn't bad when compared to a broken bone. But it felt really weird. Usually Kael's head injuries are firm goose eggs. This felt... squishy. Like soft tofu. I actually called the doctor's office for this one, and was told to watch for dizziness and nausea.

So I got the phone call this morning and I had just finished making Taede's lunch. Darn it! Kael is not a graceful ceature so I'm used to head injuries with him (meaning: I'm not completely alarmed). I asked Mrs. Schaeffer:

"Is he bleeding?"
No.

"Is he conscious?"
Yes.

"Is he lucid?"
Yes.

"OK, he's fine. I'll swing by at 11:45 to check him out when I pick up Malia."

It was 10:00am when they called me. That was bad, right? To make him wait almost 2 hours before checking on him? Poor guy. But let it be known, that if there was a broken bone involved, I swear I would have left right away. Really. I swear it.

Btw, he and his friend AJ apparently ran full throttle into each other and both got knocked on the ass.

Ouch!

-- sent by iPhone

I need a beer.

2010-05-25T19:51:00.000-07:00

Too bad I don't drink.

It's almost 8:00pm. The kids are showered and in bed. I'm finally eating dinner. After dinner, I have to clean up the kids' dinner mess, wash dishes and unload the dishwasher. Then sweep the floor of all the weird stuff I'm stepping on (I don't want to know what they are). Then make the kids' school lunches. Then prep dinner for tomorrow (it's another full day so we're crock potting it). Finish laundry. Pick up the stupid damn balls for the stupid damn ball pit. Get swim stuff ready and in the car (I don't want to be that loser mom where I forget their swim gear -- for the 3rd time). Hopefully I'll have time left to work on the computer on my personal projects. Then shower (maybe get a snack if there's time) and get to bed.

Whew!

What are the chances of getting to bed before midnight?

Solo parenting sucks.

Oh yeah...

2010-05-23T17:56:00.001-07:00

"I remember now why you didn't want the ball pit." -- Truong, Clueless Dad

Why I ought to....

-Sent by iPhone

The Budding Artist

2010-05-23T17:21:00.001-07:00

And when he's done, he holds it up and says "Uh! Uh!", waiting for
(expecting) the appropriate sounds of awe from me.

- Sent from iPhone

Oh god. It's back.

2010-05-23T16:32:00.001-07:00

The Ball Pit.

The kids love it.
I hate it.

It was Truong's idea and he swears he will clean up the mess every
night. Which I find hard to believe since (1) he's out of town the
next 2 weeks and (2) the balls do not magically reappear back in the
pit after 3 kids go diving in it. I'll be spending my waking hours
chasing after those damn balls.

I should have known this beast would be resurrected. Afterall, I was
saving the 200 plastic balls in 2 trash bags in the garage. I am my
mother's child. She's still got several jackets that I wore in high
school hanging in the closet. Like her, I just could not bring myself
to get rid of 200 perfectly usable plastic balls.

I do have to say the look of glee on Taede's face makes it worth it.
For now anyway. It's only been up since this morning and we've been
gone all morning until naptime. I'll post an update later this week...
If I'm not too busy secretly sabatoging the ball pit, stealthly
throwing away balls one at a time, so the kids won't notice the ball
level slowly going down. Muwahahaa!

- Sent by iPhone

Helmet Head

2010-05-11T09:38:00.001-07:00

The Good News: she loves wearing her new helmet.

The Bad News: she's in the house.

-- Sent by iPhone

The Karate Kids

2010-05-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

Taede loves karate. He loves watching Kael in class. He loves going to the dojo. He always tries to get on the sparring mat. He even bows when he enters the dojo.

We try to practice with Kael at home whenever we get a chance, and I started noticing Taede copying the moves. Complete with the vocals.

It's so funny.

Kael was practicing his spinning back kick, hence the twirl on Taede's part.

FYI - That little jig that Kael does at the end.... not part of the kata.

The Ball

2010-05-02T18:38:00.000-07:00

Nothing completes a playdate better than a dance set to the right music (from Beauty and the Beast).

I love how Malia admires herself in the handheld mirror.

And this is how I found her one day. Talk about a flash of insight into her tween and teen years...

She's chatting with either Audrey or Gina.

Better than XM Radio

2010-05-02T18:27:00.000-07:00

Taede has his own boom-box. Sure, it plays the same 2 songs and the songs are about 8 seconds long and the volume choices are loud and LOUDER -- but it's his. He used to play the thing constantly. I mean constantly. As in continuously for 30 minutes. My head would getthisclose to exploding. It's a true testament of my mothering skills that I haven't chucked the damn thing in the garbage can. If he didn't look so darned cute dancing, it would have been a goner a long time ago.

Whenever he falls, he rubs his head. Even if he didn't bump his head. He could have bumped his elbow and he'd still rub his head.

Plop, plop...

2010-05-01T23:02:00.000-07:00

Who would have guessed they can bounce??

And survive to bounce another day?!!

Don't blink otherwise you'll miss it: each time I have the little camera out to record, he automatically does a karate move. I got a little bit of a front kick with a kee-ah! It's hilarious.

Kindergarten Musical

2010-04-30T22:26:00.000-07:00

JK and Kindergarten had a musical titled "A Typical Day in Music Class." It was very cute. I only recorded Kael's class (about 16 minutes) out of the hour long program.

FYI - I was not drunk when I recorded the program. Taede was with me and he was a little monkey, climbing all over me. I finally got him set-up with a movie on the iPhone and all was well.

The video is in QuickTime format so you'll need the FREE QuickTime player. If you don't have QuickTime installed, you probably want to do so as most of our movies will now be created on the MacBook, which needs QuickTime to play.

Malia

2010-04-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

Malia is still enjoying dance with her BFFEE (that's Best Friend Forever and Ever and Ever) Audrey. Taede loves dance too as he's constantly running out onto the dance floor whenever he sees the gate open. He likes to copy the girls with their dance moves and loves to twirl with the ribbons. My poor baby. He needs his own Taede class.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of Malia in dance.

And Little Man Taede with his big big eyes.

Lost in translation

2010-04-30T20:59:00.000-07:00

My parents made a surprise visit last week and stayed for a few days. The kids were beyond excited and had a great time with their grandparents, even though I doubt my parents understood a word the kids said.

I had to run a couple of errands on Saturday and my mom wanted to tag along. So there we were in the car, driving to the store. My mom is chatting about nothing in particular. It's almost like I'm driving with one of the kids: whatever catches her eye, is what she talks about. We happened to be behind a sedan, filled with 4 people. In the backseat sat 2 men, one is bald and the other balding. We were at a red light so there was plenty of time to notice the occupants in the car in front of us. My mom made a comment about how different white people (as in Caucasians) look from us.

I peer at her from the side of my eye, thinking: what the hell is she talking about? Of course we look different; we're different ethnicities!

Then she said something like "Look at the bald man. Look at his skin. It's so bare."

Again, I give her another look, checking... for what I'm not sure. But I was just making sure she was OK.

"His skin is so... red. Everywhere. His head, his neck... It's red. Not like us. We're brown, yellow, even. But he's red."

Pause. I wasn't sure if this required a response, so I did the standard response I do with the kids: I said nothing.

And then I hear her muttering "Redneck. Redneck." Like Oh! that's what that means.

I started laughing. And couldn't stop. She of course wanted to know what was so funny but I couldn't tell her. I wanted to tell her because I didn't want her to use "redneck" out of context but I really couldn't tell her. I don't have a strong enough grasp of the Vietnamese language to explain what redneck really means. And clearly, I don't have enough mastery of the English language either to explain it in a way that she would understand.

I toyed with the idea of telling her not say that word but having experience with my children, I worried that it would just open a can of why's. So instead I told her I didn't think Baldy looked that red. He looked more tan. And remember Mom, he's white, so he wouldn't tan like us. Because he's different.

Ugh.

Thank goodness the kids weren't in the car.

They are here.

2010-04-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. The time when Kael anxiously awaits the arrival of his special package from Uncle Thien. He doesn't know what he gets, but he knows it's going to be something cool. The real unknown is: how many legs? I've already established the Golden Rule of NO WINGS. If it flies, it dies. Tragically, an accident, could be by a shoe, or maybe a rolled up newspaper. However the accident happens, it will fly no more. I don't care where it came from, I don't care if it flew a million miles to land on Thien's desk and he sent it to Kael. If it flies, it dies. That is the rule.

Kael opening his long awaited package.

In the past Thien has sent us the silkworms in a box. A box. He plops them in, packs it with leaves and sends them on their way. They eat and eat, and by the time Kael gets them (2 days later) they have grown enough to literally burst out of the box when it's opened. This time Thien got fancy and put them in a container, which baffled Kael.

Prepping their new home.

Transferring the silkworms. Taede is so fascinated. Thanks to Kael, he loves bugs. In fact, "bug" was one of his first words.

Close-up. Why can't my kid be interested in something like.... grass? Or food? Or... or.... or even rocks. Why bugs?!

"What the heck is that?! Is it moving?!!"

Kael and worm, reunited.

All you squeamish people out there, this one's for you.

Taede was trying to grab the silkworms and Truong blocked him. We didn't want squishy worms. That would be very very bad.

But Taede was so insistent on touching one...

Miss Malia holding a silkworm, which I was a little surprised at since she's never wanted to hold them in the past. She's coming along, our little Princess. She let the ginormous Australian Leaf Insect crawl all over her and now she's holding a silkworm. Great -- all 3 kids are comfortable with bugs. Just freaking great.

Taede finally gets to hold one solo. His first time. He's being so careful.

"I told you you can trust me."

I can just see the battle to hold the worms each time we change out the leaves. It's going to be hard keeping him out of the box.

Corona Del Mar

2010-04-12T22:20:00.000-07:00

Wednesday we took my sister and her family to Corona Del Mar. It's our favorite beach for various reasons -- the #1 reason being we can pretty much back up to the beach and not have to go far with all our gear. Well worth the $8 parking fee IMO. It was a perfect day for the beach. Probably the best beach day we've had. All 3 kids thoroughly enjoyed the beach, the weather was not hot and not chilly, I didn't have a crawler to hover over, Kael is an accomplished swimmer, Malia enjoys the sand more... and all that meant I was able to enjoy myself.

Starting the moat.

No beach trip is complete without putting the kids to work digging.

Beautiful picture of my niece heading for a dip. But pictures can be deceiving: the water was freezing!!

Not sure if they dug the moat around Taede or if he decided to squat his territory.

Taede helping with the digging. He moved sand from Spot A to Spot B, which was about 4 inches to the right.

The completed moat. The kids did pretty good. Truong added the architectural features of the towers.

'Allo, mate. Want to put a shrimp on the bar-bee?

Amelie enjoying the moat.

Kael and Amelia playing in the freezing cold water. Brrr!!

Ahh... nothing better than squishy, wet sand.

First Pony Rides

2010-04-11T21:00:00.001-07:00

Sorry my posts are posting backwards in time. I really should do this in chronological order but hell, count your lucky stars I'm posting at all! As Taede gets older, he occupies more of my time (translation: I can't leave him alone for a second or something undesired will happen) and it's very hard finding time to get anything done during the day.

So the moral of the story: no complaints if these posts make no sense in the order of time.

For Spring Break we met my sister and her family in Vegas for 4 days. (A more detailed account of this story will come later along with pictures.) Afterward, they followed us home and spent 3 days at our place before heading back up to Fremont. Day 1, Amelie requested to go pony riding at Irvine Regional Park. Day 2 was spent at Corona Del Mar -- again, to be hashed out later.

Anyway... here are the pictures from the pony rides at Irvine Regional Park.

I love love love the look on Taede's face: "What the hell?! It's moving its head!!"
This was the first time he's ever ridden something alive, not staked through the body with a steel post, going around in circles to Disney music. He refused to hold onto the saddle horn the first lap, and loosened up the last 2 laps to enjoy the ride. At least I think he enjoyed the ride; he wasn't giving that WTF look anymore.

"Why am I on this hairy, smelly beast? Where's the music?! And why does it stink like poo here?!"

Jarod on the bigger trotting pony.

Kael and Amelie are next. Kael has a love/hate relationship with the trot ponies. He gets tossed around which he doesn't like but refuses to ride on the "baby ponies."

Collin on the trot pony.

Malia rode the trot pony for the first time. She felt that she was a big girl and wanted to ride the big ponies. Riders have to be at least 3 years old and of course her age was questioned when it was her turn. I was a little apprehensive that she would get tossed because she's so little but they really cinched her in tight. She bounced like no other and to see her pigtails go to and fro was hi-larious! And when you add Malia chewing and snapping her gum while riding, I got a scary premonition of her in her tween years. Yikes.

The family, minus Malia, waiting for the hay ride. Which I have to say was very uncomfortable. Whoever says hay is suitable to sit on for an extended period of time is a LIAR! That stuff pokes through your clothes and leaves splinters!

Now my kids can say that they've been on a John Deer tractor.

These two are inseparable. They do everything together. It's very sweet.

Taede adores Jarod. Luckily the feeling is mutual because wherever Jarod is, Taede is climbing on him.

My awesome kids.

My sister's kids.

We were so sad when they left. The kids are already asking when can we go up to San Jose for a visit. Luckily for them, it will probably in May since we haven't seen my parents since Christmas. I think this is the longest they've gone without seeing their grandparents. They have been asking to go for months.

The Youth Expo

2010-04-10T16:27:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Mrs. DuClos (Kael's art teacher at school) sent home a note stating that his art work would be displayed at the Youth Expo this weekend. Kael didn't know anything about it and I kept forgetting to ask her what it was all about. At first I thought maybe all the kids had their art displayed. However the note was handwritten to The Mai Family so maybe I have an artist who can draw something other than Pokemon's, Bakugan's and Star Wars battle scenes.

After a late breakfast, we headed over to the Fairgrounds to check it out. Working our way to the right building was complicated by many other distracting exhibits.

The Bug and Reptile Exhibit:

Just like Ms. Crystal's Bubba -- only way bigger.

Some kind of large (and thankfully slow) lizard walking towards Malia.

Taede is not afraid. Worrisome? Yes. Because I really don't want another bug-reptile lover in the house.

The Science Exhibit:

Playing the drums

Directing lightening

Making bubbles. HUGE bubbles.
The kids had the most fun here.

We probably could have made a bubble over Malia. They are that huge (and she's that little).

The Rainbow Bubble over Kael.

Kael, the Bubble Master.

And finally, the reason for our trip: Kael's Collage

Way to go Kael! We are so proud!

Great. Just great.

2010-04-09T21:41:00.000-07:00

HEY!! What do you think you're doing?!

Hmm... This isn't going to work.

Now what?! I'm stuck!
(I love that "Help me!" look on his face.)

Nevermind... I got it.

Just a little more...

Almost there...

Oh yeah, baby!!

Woo-hoo!!

I did it!

Look at this face.

This is just what I needed.

Really. Because I have nothing better to do than follow this kid around the house, trying to prevent broken bones.

Do your ears hang low?

2010-03-08T21:03:00.000-08:00

Everybody who knows me, knows that I believe in extended nursing. Meaning: I nurse my kids well past a year, closer to 2 years. So that means yes, I'm still nursing Taede at age 17 months. He doesn't seem to be interested in changing the scenery any time soon so we're probably headed towards the 2 year mark. Kael nursed until age 18 months and Malia about 21 months. I have a feeling Taede is going to break the family record.

My mom has been on a campaign to end our nursing relationship. Her fear...s (as in multiple fears) are that (1) Taede is not eating enough solids because he's still nursing; (2) I'm making him a mama's boy because he's still nursing; and (3) I'm turning my boobs into deflated week old balloons because he's still nursing. I could explain and refute (1) and (2) but I'm sure you're just interested in hearing about (3).

She is absolutely convinced that I'm destroying my bosom in my determination to allow Taede to self-wean. She wants me to employ various methods to get him off and become an independent man. Like rubbing something sour or bitter on my nipples so the taste would turn him off. My favorite method is painting or coloring my nipples dark. Like an eye. To scare him off nursing.

Yes, an eye. Because who wants to eat while there's an eye staring at you, right?

So anyway along the vein of "sagging boobs," I've noticed that I've started a bad post-nursing habit: I forget to snap my nursing bra back up. I don't notice this until it's shower time, though, right before bedtime. So then I stand there and mentally go over my day: where I've been, who I've run into, who I've chatted with... with my boobs hanging low. Sometimes it's the left one, sometimes it's the right one. And then there are the times when neither are tucked in.

As bad as it sounds, I think I prefer the times when both girls are loose. At least they are level, you know?

The Checklist -- Part 2

2010-02-27T23:15:00.000-08:00

Part 1 pretty much contained all the exciting stuff. This is just a spin-off from what's already happened.

I See Dead People -- CHECK

I didn't know how the whole funeral thing would affect the kids but they seemed to be handling things pretty well. It helped that they spent most the of the time with their cousins, playing. Knowing this, I figured that they knew something was up but didn't know enough to make things scary.

After Ba Co passed away, we met some friends at the park and I happened to eavesdrop on a conversation Kael had with his friend Rachel (age 7).

Kael: Have you ever seen a dead person?

Rachel: WHAT?!

K: You know, a dead person. Have you ever seen one?

R: (Silent with an incredulous look on her face, mouth hanging slightly open.)

Apparently taking her silence as a negative, he continues.

K: I've seen one. My Ba Co -- that's my Grandma's mom -- she died. Like dead. And I saw her.

R: (Still silent but now staring at him like he grew a third eye.)

K: Yeah. So I've seen a dead person. For real.

R: (Still no words, but staring, staring, staring.)

After getting that off his chest, he continued to chug his water before running off to play.

He wasn't bragging or scared. He was very matter-of-fact. I didn't interrupt and really, what was I going to say? He hasn't said anything to me about the events leading up to the funeral aside from that he misses Ba Co so I'm going to let this one... go quietly into the night. Unless he brings it up of course. Coward's way out? For sure. And I've added another couple of dollars in his therapy jar -- just in case.

One Small Bathroom, Two Contractors -- CHECK

Our leaks are fixed and the walls are on their way to being drywalled. We should be close to done, right? Wrong. Our insurance adjuster insisted on sending her contractor out to check the leak, just to make sure. I figured since they were footing the bill, why not? Turns out the contractor found moisture in the walls. Lots of it. And the plumber had already started drywalling the bathroom walls. So Cathy (the adjuster) called a halt to the repairs to allow the contractor to properly dry the walls to prevent mold. Well crap. We don't want mold so I gave the OK. Contractors came in and used this handy dandy camera and detected water in six walls. That's right: SIX walls. So six of my walls all have 2 feet cut out of them to dry. That's in addition to the 2 walls in the laundry room has the wallpaper peeled off but no holes cut out because it's a shear wall. So I guess technically I have 8 wet walls. I've got 2 fans in the kitchen and 2 dehumidifiers in the individual rooms running 24/7. The stupid things are driving me nucking futs. They are so fricking loud and they are blowing crap everywhere. Meanwhile the plumber has been asking when can he come back to finish out the bathroom.

Ugh. What that means is I have the plumber and the contractor both working in my itty bitty bathroom, 2 walls per company. I'm going to let the adjuster referee that one.

The good news is the contractor told me they won't be able to repaint the repairs and have it match so they are going to have to repaint my entire kitchen (oh, rats!). Oh - and, did I want to re-wallpaper the laundry room? The answer to that would be no. When we first moved in to this house, we painted the entire house except the laundry room. I don't know why, I guess we just didn't want to incur that extra cost for a simple laundry room. And now I'm being offered an opportunity to have it painted at no cost to me? Hell yeah, paint the puppy brown!

That we will get the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room repainted at the cost of our insurance (minus the deductible) is probably the only bright spot in this whole mess. I haven't had use of my laundry room in a week and probably won't for a few more weeks is something I don't want to think about. I just focus on: new paint, new paint!

The Checklist

2010-02-24T23:12:00.000-08:00

You know how sometimes life gets so hectic that you need a checklist to keep everything in order lest you forget something important? That's me. I have so much going on that I can't even keep my days straight.

It all started last week on Sunday, February 14: Lunar New Year. We always spend it at Ba Co's place. Ba Co is Vietnamese for Great Grandmother (Truong's grandmother). This was a very special New Year's since it would be Ba Co's last New Year. She was 96, bedridden for over a year and a half, and was on hospice for 9 months. Every day was literally a gift and we knew her time was ending. At 11:45am she took her last breath, surrounded by family members from near and far. It was very sad but at the same time it really was the best way to pass: surrounded by her many children, grandchildren, and (I think) around 12 or 13 great children -- all there to say good bye.

My house was the staging area for all things Orange County (as it pertained to the Mai family, at least). That meant I had 13 people at my place, including my 5. It was fun, tinged with a little bit of madness to keep it from getting boring.

Fast forward to Friday, February 19: Funeral Weekend. Multiple airport pick ups, car shuffling, room moving.... This is where my checklist begins.

Sick Kid -- CHECK

Malia chose that night to get sick. Literally. She threw up at Chevy's during dinner. Yikes! I know. Slight fever, no appetite, sick tummy. My kids aren't sick-thrower-uppers. Aside from Taede's sensitive gag reflex, I can't remember the last time my older two kids threw up. Well, now I do: Friday, February 19, 7:15pm.

Mystery Water in the Kitchen -- CHECK

That's right: mystery water. Discovered Friday afternoon in the kitchen before we headed out to Open House at school. Seeing how Truong and I know plumbing about as much as we know the mating rituals of the woolly mammoth, we did as much as we could. Which pretty much summed up to mopping up the water and hoping for the best. Evidently our best wasn't that good. Coming home from the vomit-at-Chevy's dinner, we discovered more water had invaded our kitchen. It wasn't gushing out by any means but there was definite seepage from under the base boards. Truong was so disgusted with everything that was happening (vomit, crazy crowds at Open House, funeral preparations, airport pickup -- what else can be piled on me?!) that he didn't want to deal with it. Besides it was 9:00pm at night. What plumber would come over now? We ended up once again mopping and laying towels around with the prayer that it would magically go away by Saturday morning. Which surprisingly it did. It was still a little wet but had stopped seeping out. Weird.

Fourteen People in the House -- CHECK

It was round 2 of guests, with a 4 day break. I felt bad for Thien, Maureen and Ronan. They flew into OC Friday evening, spent New Year's here, witnessed the death of Ba Co, flew back to Davis Monday morning, and then had to come back Saturday morning for the funeral. The body count went like this: Trieu and Ingrid from Colorado Friday night (fly). Thien, Maureen and Ronan from Davis (fly). Thao, Robert, Thai and Son from San Diego (drive). And of course my five. We had more people than we had cars. This necessitated in some car seat juggling, car borrowing, and ride sharing.

The Return of the Mystery Water -- CHECK

Remember how the water seepage stopped Saturday morning? The plumber came by that morning and said it happens sometimes and to call him when the water came back. To chase the leak would be pretty hard when there's no water to search. Sunday morning around 1am Trieu stepped into a large puddle of water in the kitchen. It came back and was even more than it was before. Great. The funeral was Monday and Tuesday so clearly this madness had to stop. The plumber came by again and we were literally kicked out of the house Sunday morning as they searched for the leak. Several large holes later, 2 leaks were found. Of course it was under the tiled kitchen floor. Option A: tear out the kitchen floor and fix it. Option B: reroute the line to outside the house. We choose Option B. I did have a couple of seconds where my mind screamed "NEW KITCHEN FLOORING!!!!" but that was a moment of insanity.

One Shower, 14 People -- CHECK
Good news: they found the leak. Bad news: the leak is to the hot water line to my master bathroom so they shut off the hot water line to my bathroom. There was no way in hell I was going to subject myself to a cold shower. So we all (and I mean ALL) took turns in the one remaining shower. It was a lesson in scheduling since we all had to get ready at the same time to head out the to funeral Monday morning. We left the plumbers to do their thing and hoped that when we came home all would be well. Or at least wet and hot.

Two Showers -- CHECK
So they got the hot water back on. Hallelujah! But wait - why is the pressure to crappy? Argh! I have hot water but it's so low pressured that if I pointed the handheld showerhead up, it couldn't even spray any water. Great. So we're back to 14 people sharing the one shower. Again.

4 Sick Kids -- CHECK
I almost forgot about this one. Malia you knew was sick. She got better Saturday. Thai came Saturday morning with a fever. Taede started getting a snotty nose. Ronan had lots of mucous (that's his word, not mine). Malia started getting another fever Sunday afternoon. The Mai Bed and Breakfast turned into a petri dish of all kinds of germs. However, there was no vomiting so at least we didn't pull the exorcist card.

To be continued...

There's more. (Can you believe that there's more?!)
But I'm too tired to type it out now so I'll have to return and finish this tomorrow.

Breath as fresh as...

2010-02-06T13:40:00.001-08:00

To keep the potty fresh in between cleanings, I use the Scrubbing Bubbles gel stamper-thing. It stamps a gel disc on the inside of the bowl and freshens the bowl with every flush. Comes in a few scents and through trial and error, I've discovered that I like the blue ones best.

Anyway, I opened a pack of gum after lunch and Malia says to me: "Mommy, that smells as good as the potty!"

At least she said it in the car. However, I am bracing myself for a public announcement with something along the lines of "Mommy, your breath smells just like our potty!"

Potty Humor

2010-01-20T23:05:00.000-08:00

The stuff he learns from his older siblings.

My Princess Malia

I love his giggle. What kid doesn't love Potty Humor?

Another little step...

2010-01-12T21:09:00.000-08:00

...towards boyhood.

I finally cut Taede's hair. I can't tell you how many people have... strongly encouraged me to do so. I don't know why. I didn't see anything wrong with his hair. I thought it was really cute.

See? Cute, huh?

I've stopped correcting people when they tell me I have a cute little girl. I just say thank you and carry on.

He was very good -- up until the last 10 minutes. Then he started to stand up in the seat and tried to take off the cape.

My cute little man.

Malia's Writing Sample

2010-01-11T17:20:00.000-08:00

Malia is learning to write in preschool and we try to practice at
home. She's tracing pretty well. The last line is Malia all by
herself. I had to put starter dots to show her where to start writing.
Otherwise she tries to squeeze her name in the tiny space in between
the lines.

And the light stripes are from the fluorescent light. Pretty neat the
the iPhone caught it.

- - sent from iPhone

I'm back....

2010-01-10T22:41:00.000-08:00

Whew. That was a long break! We had a very busy December. Insanely busy. After Thanksgiving, I had 3 weeks before we left for our annual weeklong San Jose trip. What did I have to do in three weeks' time? A bunch of stuff! Attend the Nutcracker ballet with the kids and friends. Paparazzi Malia's Ballet Recital. Paparazzi Malia's Sing Along at school. Check out Kael's Sing Along. Room parent Malia's Holiday party. Crash Kael's Holiday party. Drag myself to the mall for gift purchasing. Drag myself back to the mall to return the purchased presents because I decided they were lame when I got home. Nag Truong into wrapping the presents. I totally forgot about our holiday cards so not only did I have a mere 2.5 weeks to make them, but I also had to take pictures of the kids for the card itself. And of course solo parent the kids for 3 days right before packing up the family bus for our trip up north. And did I tell you the kids got sick 2 days before break started? That little bug lasted for 2 weeks! Luckily it was just a cold so it was mostly snot and coughing. I mean lots of snot. Gallons of snot. I think we practically deforested a small nation with the amount of tissue we used.

In San Jose we stayed close to home as the kids were sick the entire week. The kids played with their cousins and the dogs. Meka is my niece's new 10 week old puppy and for about 2 seconds, I thought about giving in to Truong and the kids and saying yes to getting a dog. Luckily Sane Sonya slapped some sense into Stupid Sonya and I didn't utter the word that I may later regret.

Mornings were freezing. It was not unusual to wake up to 54 degrees. In the house. IN THE HOUSE! Remember: they don't like turning on the heat up there. My parents walked around wearing various layers of fleece and sweater and thermal underwear. Oh, and gloves, a scarf and knitted cap. Yes, we're still talking about "in the house." I did my best to prepare my kids for the cold weather, having made several trips to Old Navy to stock up on fleece and long sleeved shirts. However, having lived in Southern California for over 6 years, I will admit my skin has thinned quite a bit. Add on to the fact that when we left here just a week before Christmas, it was somewhere in the 70's.... my skin is so thin, it's see-through. So did I freeze my ass off in Northern California? Why, yes, I sure did. But you do get used to it. I finally broke down and cranked on the heat to 62 degrees Christmas morning. That's not totally unreasonable. In fact, it's lower than what I set the heat at home (64 degrees). I figure it's just enough to take the edge off the chill. However, when you're wearing layer upon layer of clothing, it got pretty hot. Which is kind of funny to say since up until then I had been dreaming of using the heater. I eventually turned it off because everyone started sweating. Ha! What an oxymoron: sweating in a 64 degree house.

Anyway, pictures are few since we mostly stuck around the house.

Malia and Meka.

"What do you mean, I have to go to bed?!"

We literally just arrived in San Jose and were in the middle of unpacking so the kids could go to bed. As you can see, that directive went over well.

Meka is so cute! She would play and play and play for about 30 minutes and then crash hard. Hard like I could pick her up and sling her around and she'd still be asleep. I wish the baby slept like that...

Taede hanging out with Cousin Amelie.

Decorating gingerbread houses. I used a hot glue gun to hold the house together. Interestingly while my sister had 2 glue guns, she didn't have any glue sticks. So we used various tools to melt the little stub of glue that was leftover, stuck in the gun.

As you can see, we ran out of glue stub.

But managed to eke enough to get the roof semi-secured for a couple of happy kids.

Getting anxious...

My niece Jackie. The torturer of dogs. Mathias is wearing a Santa Hat with attached beard. It was very cute. Unfortunately for the other dogs, she had one for each of them.

Taede. And yes, that's a bruise on his cheek. He got it on the first or second morning we were there. Fell while walking around with a water bottle. I swear it was because he had on so many layers that his center of gravity was all screwed up.

The family picture - minus a few people fooling around with all the cameras trying to get all of them on self timers. Every year we have a color theme. Last year was red. This year was white with the Santa hat. I left our hats at home but luckily my sister had plenty. Do I think it's a little scary that she had FIVE extra hats? Sure but I'm not complaining. At one point we almost went with my 7 year old niece Amelie's idea of everyone wearing... green pants. GREEN PANTS!! Where the heck am I supposed to get green pants for adults?! Obviously I was not consulted and thankfully that idea was axed.

My four nephews, ranging in ages 14 to 19. Do you know how hard it was to buy gifts for tweens?! I hate doing the gift card route so I try to find funky, fun stuff. This year I got them all wool hats because they go skiing a lot.

Side view. Luckily, they all loved the hats. Jackie (my 20 year old niece) wanted one too but she got a special gift from us. Mathias had a hospital stay recently and she racked up a considerable bill. Her hours as a swim instructor was drastically reduced so she really needed money. So we gave her $50. In nickels. Man, that was a heavy present. My sister also gave her money: bills all taped together in a single line, trapped inside a puzzle box. We don't believe in easy money.

One of the first presents Malia opened was the pink gown. So of course we had to put everything on: dress, shoes, tiara, purse, necklace, earrings, gloves, rings. I mean everything. And then she opened Linda's gift of a Cinderella gown. Oh boy, was she in a quandary. Too bad she couldn't wear both gowns at the same time.

And so, that was our Christmas. I hope everyone had a great one.

Happy New Year!

The Nutcracker

2009-12-08T23:15:00.000-08:00

Malia has ballet/tap class at a little studio called the Freckled Frog. It's a very cute place, not a big operation at all. Tonight was her much anticipated Nutcracker recital. The girls had been working for months to nail their performance. Sure, it's a 2.5 minute performance but keep in mind that the average age is about 3 years old and they only meet once a week.

I wasn't sure how Malia would do as her first recital in May was spent picking at her scab on her arm. I was pleasantly surprised that she performed this time.

I have to clarify a few things about the video:

1) My favorite part of the video occurs at the very beginning where she hollers out "KAEL!!!" and waves frantically at him.

2) She's looking around... for Audrey. They got separated somehow and she was experiencing separation anxiety from her BFF.

3) Her class consists of 4 girls (herself included) and at the recital they combined with other classes. She was a little confused as to who the heck all the other girls were.

4) My second favorite part of the video occurs at the very end, where all the girls walk off the stage. Except for Malia.

BFF's Audrey and Malia
(sorry the picture was so dark - I was fooling around with the camera)

The class: Malia, Audrey, Savannah and Emma

With Clara (Ms. Kaela)

Practicing her moves before the show.

Pre-show pictures

Great job, girls!

Malia's Sing-Along

2009-12-06T21:10:00.001-08:00

Malia and her classmates have been practicing for their Sing-Along since October. Being the Room Parent, I asked to sneak in to take some pictures of the practice. I was told absolutely not! It was a big hush hush, secret thing the kids were doing. All I knew was that they (Malia's class) were singing 2 songs: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells. What does that mean in the grand scheme of things you ask? It means I've been listening to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells... since October.

We had a fully packed auditorium -- parents, grandparents, siblings. It was wall to wall people. I sent Truong and Taede in early to save a seat and good thing I did. Even sitting in the second row, it was hard to see. Luckily Malia was on the same side where we were sitting so I was able to get a video.

For the last song the lady in front of me decided to stand. I don't know why she did that. She was in the front row.

As in the FIRST row.
As in row #1.
As in if she were any closer to the kids, she might as well be sitting on them.

I was so irritated at how inconsiderate she was. Next year, we're treating this like a Twilight movie and camping out the night before for a middle, front row seat.

The little miss in her Holiday Finery. I had a hard time trying to find something that was "Malia" since we typically don't wear this sort of thing.

The girls. Malia was doing her rendition of a ballerina.

Her buddy Krista. Malia was singing the songs as they were lining up to head over to the auditorium.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

I captured the moment when she first saw us in the audience.

All the P3 preschool classes (meaning the young preschoolers).

The entire preschool class: P4 and P3.

This picture is hilarious. It's of Troy picking at her tights. I noticed Malia showing the boys (Vincent and Troy) her tights earlier -- playing with it.

That's right, honey, get all that out now because there's going to be NO tights picking with guy friends come high school!

Like a squirrel

2009-12-04T19:11:00.001-08:00

He's saving for the winter. Not sure how a piece of apple got stuck to
the back of his head... But you should see the rest of his head.
Definitely a soap and shampoo night.

I also saw him tucking food behind him in the booster. Too bad it's
too cold to hose him off outside.

- Sent from iPhone

Saving it for later

2009-12-03T18:06:00.000-08:00

I don't know how he balanced the Kix on his head but it stayed on for
quite a while.

At least it's dry cereal and not oatmeal. Which has been smeared in
his hair like gel.

FYI - only shampoo will remove that stuff from hair. Trust me. I know.

Mr. Patience

2009-12-01T22:08:00.000-08:00

Taede loves taking a shower. He gets very upset when the bigger kids are in and he's out. Today I solo parented while Truong does the fine dining gig in SF with clients. That meant two kids, two showers and one very unhappy baby. He ran back and forth between the two bathrooms, hollering at the top of his lungs. Then he'd pull the Lassie thing where he'd call "MAMMA! MAMMA!" and then run to the shower when I looked at him. It was so sad and yet oddly funny at the same time.

As I helped big kids with their jammies, I suddenly noticed that it got really quiet. Right after I processed that thought, I heard the bath tub water turn on.

Oh man. Taede is messing with the tub again. I moved a chair there to block him but evidently he found a way through.

And then, I heard a noise that sounded like water running into a cup.

What the...?! I ran over and saw Taede happily playing in the tub. I guess he couldn't wait 10 minutes for his turn.

At least he brings his own container.

The family pets

2009-11-23T22:06:00.000-08:00

Uncle Thien is in town for Thanksgiving so we took this opportunity to show him how well the leaf bugs were doing. He was quite impressed: apparently our bugs are bigger than his bugs.

Malia wanting to hold them.

She's got the smaller one of the two.

Kael's got the bigger one. If you look at her tail, you can see an egg. Yes, she's laying eggs.

Taede checking out the bug. He's not sure what to do with it.

Hmmm.... another bug lover? Great....
Oh, did I mention the little one is filled with eggs too? Soon I'll have 2 egg laying huge bugs in the house. Lucky me.

Malia thinking it's cool to let it crawl on her.

Until it crawls too high and panic starts to creep in. Just a little bit...

I love his "What the heck is it doing?!" look.

Something new everyday

2009-11-23T21:57:00.000-08:00

Taede is my little sponge. He learns something new everyday. 99% of the time it's pretty cool and neat to see him picking up something he saw his brother and sister do. He's certainly learning and doing more at this age than the other two.

Which brings me to the 1% that's not so cool and neat:

I have a feeling he's going to be my first broken bone.

Growth Spurt

2009-11-22T17:42:00.001-08:00

You think??

Innocence lost

2009-11-17T20:48:00.000-08:00

Today we went to Trader Joe's to get a brine turkey for Thanksgiving. I had a lot on my mind (Room Parent activities, the kids' holiday parties, Malia's Sing-A-Long, ballet recital, Thanksgiving with the in-laws, making Christmas cards, naps, dinner -- you get the picture) and I use the car (it's the only place I have that allows me a modicum of personal space) as a place to ruminate over my to do list. Or in my case, my "holy cow, how am I ever going to get everything done?!" list. Malia asked me where we were going and why. I told her we were going to Trader Joe's to get a turkey for Thanksgiving.

You know how you get used to talking a certain way and forget that kids take what you say literally? You're especially vulnerable when you have other things banging around in your head.

(You can imagine what's going to happen next, right?)

Me: "We're going to Trader Joe's to get a turkey for Thanksgiving."

Malia: "Oh, really?!! I can't wait!"
She's very excited. In fact, a little too excited for the simple task of grocery shopping. That familiar danger danger danger warning starts buzzing in my head. And as usual, I ignore it.

Malia: "Mom, where are we going to keep the turkey?"

Oh crap. It dawns on me (finally, because I'm the village idiot) what she's all excited about. Crap crap crap. She thinks we're getting a real turkey. As in "gobble gobble gobble, this is my pet turkey" turkey.

All other thoughts flee from my head as I try to find a way to explain to her the facts of where her chicken nuggets and beloved bacon come from, without traumatizing her off meat. Forever. I can barely cook as it is and to try to accommodate a 3 year old vegetarian? My nightmare of all nightmares.

Me: "We're going to keep the turkey... in the... f-f-fridge."
As is my custom when trapped by my kids, I talk slowly, weighing every word, watching out for any self-made pitfalls.

Malia: "Huh? The fridge? Why, mom? How will it run around?"
Ugh. There's no way around it. I just have to tell her.

Me: "Honey, it's not that kind of turkey. It's a different kind of turkey. It's the kind of turkey that... that... we eat. "

Silence.

Mom: "You know, for Thanksgiving."

More silence. It's making me nervous so I start babbling a little.

Me: "So, we're going to buy it. And then I'm going to...uh... cook it. And then we're going to... uh... going to eat it. For Thanksgiving."

Silence. And then...

Malia: "WE'RE GOING TO EAT THE TURKEY ANIMAL?!!!"
In the most disgusted, offended voice I've ever heard from her.

Malia: "THE TURKEY ANIMAL??!!!"
She said it again, as if she couldn't believe her ears.

I don't say anything. I can't say anything. What the heck can I say?? I can't think that fast on the fly to mitigate the damage. So I use silence as my answer. Luckily we were parking so yes, like a coward, I used that as my excuse to remain silent.

I put Taede in the cart. Malia walks by my side. She's uncharacteristically quiet. I still don't say anything and quite honestly, I'm hoping this all blows away so I don't have to say anything. In my mind, a box of candies would well be worth the money to make it just disappear. We cross the parking lot and I notice her looking around, looking a little apprehensive. I wonder what the heck is she doing? She's looking around the front of the store, eyes darting everywhere. And that's when I realize she's looking for the turkeys. As if they were running around, free range in the Trader Joe's parking lot.

Egads! Say something. Say something, Sonya!

BUT WHAT??!!!

To make matters even worse, as we enter Joe's... they have laid turkey tracks on the floor. TURKEY TRACKS, for crying out loud!!! Leading up to the refrigerated section where the dead bird carcasses lay piled up, waiting to be bought.

Malia: "Mommy!! Look! Turkey tracks!!"

Me: "Oh yeah, honey! I see them..."

I get a sick feeling in my stomach. I really don't know where to go with this so I meekly follow her as she happily hops on each turkey track. Up to the shrink wrapped birds.

She looks at them.

She looks at them again, a little puzzled. I think she was trying to reconcile the image of the feathered turkey of her preschool stories to the plastic wrapped odd shaped thing at the store.

And luckily, thankfully, it didn't compute. She didn't say anything further and I didn't volunteer. Armed with an oddly shaped 16-pound shrink wrapped Thanksgiving Something for me, a carton of graham crackers for Taede, and a box of strawberry mochi ice cream for her, we finally exit the store.

The drama. Oh, the drama!

2009-11-14T19:38:00.000-08:00

Malia is full of emotions these days. Anything can set her off into a crying jag. A serious crying jag, complete with hysterical screaming, the broken Hoover dam of tears, and the heaving gasps. These bouts of hurricane emotions leave me.... perplexed. While I'd like to say that I empathize with her, I honestly can't because I'm... I'm... just confused.

Case in point: our shower incident. What condition are you usually in when you step out of the shower? Wet, right? Mostly your hair. Malia comes out of the shower in the same condition as everyone else in the known universe: wet.

Evidently though, this is unbeknownst to her.

As I'm drying her hair (which is dripping wet) she tells me "Mommy, don't mess up my hair."

What the...?! How in the heck am I supposed to dry her rat's nest of sopping wet hair without "messing it up," I ask you??

Recognizing a trap when I hear one, I tell her "I'm not messing it up; it's wet so I'm just drying it." Do you see what I've done? I acknowledged her fear (messing up her hair), refuted it (I'm not messing it up) and given her a reason to why I'm doing what I'm doing (it's wet, therefore I'm drying it). The best part: I've confessed to nothing! Air tight, right? Yeah, well, I forgot that I'm dealing with a 3 year old.

"Mom! I said, please don't mess up my hair!"

I can tell her stress level is starting to elevate as I pick up the pace in drying her hair. I figure the sooner I get it done, the sooner we can move on past this hair issue.

"MOM!! Are you messing up my hair?!"

Geez. Now what? As far as I'm concerned, this is the precursor to the "Does this outfit make me look fat?" question. There's no right way to answer it and still come out ahead. So I answer her patiently, yet firmly. Because, after all, I am the parent and I know what I'm doing.

"Malia, I'm not messing it up. It's wet from the shower and I'm drying it. As soon as it's dry, I'll put it up in pony tails."

There's a loud horrified gasp: "WHAT?!! You took out my pony tails???"

Oh. Crap.

The reading area

2009-11-04T21:30:00.000-08:00

Some houses have a library where people gather to read. Others have a reading area or a reading room.

Taede? He has a reading ledge.

This is his favorite spot to hang out now. He's managed to climb down a few times, while staying on his feet. Most times though, it's a slow awkward tumble off the edge. I can tell though, that he's experimenting with different methods and routes to try and find the best way to climb down.

The kids are in their room all the time, reading. Kael likes to read to Malia and she likes to listen. When Kael's not home, Malia will pick up a book and look at pictures. They can spend a nice quiet 90 minutes doing that. When Malia is at school and we're upstairs, I sometimes see Taede in their room doing exactly that: reading books. I love it.

He seems to really get the concept. The book is even the right way!

Yes, I know. He needs a haircut. Bad.

The Dancing Fool

2009-11-03T22:30:00.000-08:00

This partially explains all the bonks on his head.

I have a longer video but for whatever annoying reason, it's not loading up on Flickr.

What now?

2009-11-03T10:23:00.000-08:00

This is Taede's latest feat. He is so proud of himself. Unfortunately he only goes in one direction: up. And there he stands, for however long only he knows, calling me to get him down.

Looking a little worried that I haven't made a move to come get him.

The ledge is too narrow for him to turn around and go down feet first. What will probably happen is he'll bonk his head and then tumble off and land in a heap.

This is the bookcase that gave him the shiner. I wrapped up the corners but I'm sure he'll find something to potentially lose an eye on.

Halloween! Halloween! Trick or Treat!

2009-11-01T20:20:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Halloween has come and gone. You know what that means... Pretty soon it will be Turkey Day and then Christmas... and another year will soon be over.

Yikes!

Before I freak myself out, let's talk Halloween first.

I lucked out this year in the costume department. Both my kids wanted to wear what they wore last year. It worked out great because (1) Malia hadn't started school yet so it would be a new school costume and (2) we weren't here last year for Halloween (wedding in Santa Cruz) so it would be a new school costume for Kael as well. This is the one time that I'm glad Malia is so small that she still fit her fairy costume (sized 18m-24m).

Taede was very cute in his skeleton PJ's. Luckily his black eye healed pretty well so he didn't look so ghetto with the long hair and busted up face.

As a Room Parent, I didn't see any of Kael's party. Luckily Truong was able to take the morning off to be there for Kael. Malia had a great time at her party. Her favorite part was the costume parade. Good grief she was so excited to be a part of that. It is unbelievable how different Kael and Malia are. Kael in preschool could not finish the parade. He was maybe 10 feet in before he lost it and refused to go any further. I had to walk him back to his seat. Little Miss Malia? She danced and pranced out there, way ahead of her class. She had no idea where she was going -- and she didn't care! She strutted her stuff and enjoyed her moment in the limelight. At one point I had to call her back because she missed a turn (it was like a track loop but instead of going left, she danced straight ahead). It was hilarious. She twirled and whirled and waved and skipped her way along, just having a ball.

Halloween night the cousins came over for pizza and Trick or Treating. The house was a zoo with 7 kids running crazy. Our 7 was joined by our neighbor's 2 for Trick or Treating, so it was a nice huge group come nightfall. I was left behind to pass out treats and I have to say I was a little sad. I remember running the neighborhood with my friends when we went Trick or Treating and I miss those carefree times.

Or maybe I just miss being able to go out at night.... hmmm....

Anyway I have some pictures posted. Enjoy!

Bakugan

2009-10-25T20:51:00.000-07:00

Last year Kael got bit with the Bakugan bug. Some of the older kids were playing them and Kael got caught up in the wave. He still plays with them and apparently, so does Taede:

It cracks me up that Taede figured it out so quick. He watched Kael for a bit then grabbed a couple of the brawlers and did it himself. Why am I wasting my money with all that Fisher-Price stuff?

Spooktacular

2009-10-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

Last week we went to Disneyland's Spooktacular with some friends. It was our first time so there were some hiccups as we didn't know what to expect.

FYI - The Spooktacular is an event held at California Adventure open to just Spooktacular ticket holders. The park is closed to the general public and everyone is encouraged to dress up and go trick or treating. Depending on when you go, you can come home with obscene amounts of candy.

We decided to go on a Friday.
Pro: there's no school day the next day.
Con: it started at 7:30pm. (Remember my kids' bedtimes are 7:00pm for Taede and 7:30pm for Kael and Malia.)

The kids had a nice time... for about 45 minutes then they started feeling the late night. We went on some rides too which required line waiting so that took time away from actual Trick or Treating. Next time: we're on a mission. No rides until we get all the loot.

I've been told that if we had gone earlier in the month and on a Thursday, the crowds would have been less and we would have gotten more candy. The nice part about Thursday is it starts at 6:30pm. So if I can convince Truong to go again next year, we're definitely going on a Thursday at the beginning of October.

All in all we had a good time. We'll definitely change some things around next year so it's more manageable with the kids.

Here are some pictures:

Malia in her Fairy costume.

Taede is wearing a glow-in-the-dark Skeleton PJ set. Why PJ's, you ask? So it's easy to wrap him later to sleep.

Joey, Riley, Lauren, Kael, Malia and Taede.

Daisy Duck dancing with Malia while Malia kept saying "Trick or Treat!" expecting Daisy to fork over some candy.

The scarecrow was a real guy, hanging out, making funny/rude comments at everyone. He was pretty funny.

Malia and Audrey. Fairies galore!

Here's the whole group with Megan (Batgirl) and Audrey (Pink Fairy)

Malia totally enjoying her lollipop with Cari and Audrey.

See? His PJ's worked out great!

"Oh! I like your purple wings, Muh-Me-ah!"
"Thank you Audrey! I like your pink wings too!"
These girls...

This is what happens when your Daddy's a doctor: he makes you eat apples at a Trick or Treating event. Check out that look of dismay on poor Audrey's face.

And sitting right next to Audrey, rubbing salt on her wounds, her "BFF" licking that lollipop with relish...

The look on Audrey's face. Priceless!

My friend Brooke!

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

We headed out to the Pumpkin Patch this morning, kind of a spur of the moment event. Typically I like to dress the kids in some sort of themed outfit for the season. At least in the right seasonal colors. Not so this morning. We woke up late (8:00am) and had a late breakfast. I'm trying to phase Taede towards one nap since he's been fighting 2 naps so we needed to do something to keep him up. Hence, the unplanned trip to the Patch.

I thought about changing the kids' clothes but that would have put Truong over the edge (he just doesn't get the importance of "dressing for the moment"). Besides I can never get any good pictures of the three of them anyway. Add the craziness of the Pumpkin Patch and it's a foregone conclusion that the pictures will be destined for family viewing, not printing.

Before I post the pictures (this is after all the family blog), I have a few things to clear up:

1) Yes, that is a black-eye Taede is sporting.

2) No, it was not a parent-inflicted black-eye.

3) Nor was it a sibling-inflicted black-eye.

4) Yes, this is in addition to the noggin konk he got the other day. It's the third accident in 2 days for those of you keeping count. (Or the fourth accident if you count the tooth chip.)

5) He fell against the corner of a low lying bookcase in the kids' room. (It still gives me chills to think about how close that came his eye.) I rearranged the room so hopefully this won't happen again. As another precaution, I'm getting the corner pads too.

On to the pictures...

We had to start with the pony ride. Operative words: HAD TO. Malia would have it no other way. The only blip was when she requested her favorite pony Shiloh. We were told Shiloh no longer worked there. My first thought was: oh crap -- glue factory?! Anyway, Shiloh's destination remained unanswered and we told Malia that Shiloh went home. [[ to the glue factory! ]]

Kael gets to trot on the big horse. He's not so sure he likes this because he gets pretty tossed. But as usual, he gets caught up in the moment and forgets that he doesn't like trotting until it's too late and he almost loses a Croc.

There he goes!

Hang on tight.

What is it about little girls and their ponies?! She's in heaven.

Mai Kids.
Take 1.
Stay Taede! STAY!

Rats. He's making a break for it!!

Taede and his shiner. In certain lights, it looks very dark. This picture is not so bad. He's healing incredibly fast. It's already fading.

This is a better picture of the ouchie. I was getting funny looks...
Come on people! If I was abusing my baby do you really think I'd showcase him in public?! Sheesh.

Going through the maze. I have yet to get a nice, normal picture of Kael. Do you understand now why we're doing the school picture re-take??

"Wait up!! Wait for me!!"

This is a decent picture of the kids. If you ignore the Deer-in-the-Headlights look from Taede. He's starting to feel the one nap stupor.

Kael and Malia. The only reason I got this picture was because Kael was dying to get on. He was rushing Malia off.

Taede's face reads: "I. Am. Tired. I want. To go. Home."

School Pictures

2009-10-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

School pictures are always a crap shoot. You send them to school looking good: clothes in perfect order, hair done up nice... with instructions to show a nice smile, don't do anything weird, not too much teeth but don't grimace either. You hope that their teacher will fix up the little things that can go wrong from the time you do the drop-off to the time it's their turn in front of the camera. Like flip down an errant collar, straighten a crooked ponytail, smooth down a cowlick. You hope that the professionals behind the camera know how to guide the kids into looking natural.

The worse part: you don't know what you're going to get until 3 weeks later. And by then it's too late to fix anything.

Luckily this year Malia had a great photo. I was worried. She started doing the Princess Smile thing with the neck and arm deal so I really wasn't sure how her's would turn out.

Pretty nice, huh?

I'm not going to post Kael's. Let's just say he's doing a re-take and we'll leave it at that. As I mentioned before, you would think (hope) that the "professionals" behind the camera would do a good job showing the kids how to smile without looking scary. Evidently, this is not the case. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the re-take.

Last bedtime check.

2009-10-14T22:16:00.000-07:00

We always do a final bedtime check on the big kids before we retire ourselves. Making sure the room is comfortable, turn off (or on) the ceiling fan, straighten out the covers, make sure Kael's not too close to the edge of the bunk bed, fix Malia if she's done something weird like tuck herself into the pillow case, etc.

The natural order of the checking process is Kael first. He's on top so he's in the natural line of vision. For Malia, we have to duck, walk into the room and search for her.

One night a couple of weeks ago, this is what I saw:

Kael's bed. Where the...?!!

Oh.

Well, at least they are both accounted for. That's what's important, right?

I almost never see Malia actually sleeping in her bed. She's always on her pillow. And this is why she never co-slept with us. There's nothing more irritating than waking up to a foot in your face.

Looking for a good crash helmet

2009-10-14T21:06:00.000-07:00

Or maybe a nice rubber one so he'll bounce back up when he makes another face plant.

Ouchie!!

Profile view.

This was after 15 minutes of torturous icing.

My poor little guy. He pulled down the kitchen towel and was dragging it around. I was elbow deep in making dinner so didn't take it away from him soon enough. I heard a huge thud and then crying. Oh man, I felt bad.

An hour later, as the big kids were taking a shower, he walked into a corner of my bedroom door.

[ [ THUD! ] ]

He had a toy in his mouth. There was some bleeding. Turns out he chipped a tooth. Poor guy.

But wait, there's more. This morning he was climbing on the Anywhere Chair and tipped over.

[ [ THUD! ] ]

Face planted exactly on the same spot pictured above. Exactly the same spot. It had hurt pretty bad. Now he's got a ginormous purple bruise on his forehead.

It has not been a good week for Taeder Tot. My poor poor baby. Until this weird black (and blue) cloud over Taede goes away, I'm either getting him a crash helmet or bubble wrapping him.

Bed head

2009-10-04T14:36:00.001-07:00

OK. So maybe it's time for a haircut.

He's wearing a blue and brown football one piece -- and still I got a
"She's so cute!" comment at the donut shop this morning. I don't
bother correcting people anymore. I just say thank you.

Haircut. Maybe this week.

Or maybe not...

-- sent by iPhone

The poor man's soccer

2009-09-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

In this economy with three kids, two in private school, one paycheck... we have to make do with what we've got. That includes improvising on extracurricular activities.

We are being green by reusing the bottles AND saving money. Nifty, eh?

Here's a video of Taede playing with one of his balls. One of these days Shana's going to get a call from me to take me to the ER because I've broken my leg, stepping on one of them darn things in the kitchen.

The Tea Party

2009-09-23T23:19:00.000-07:00

I came upon this picture when I dug around looking for Taede pictures. I don't know why I didn't post it before. I love it.

This was taken during the Tea Party mania, when Malia was hosting hourly tea parties.

It takes a confident Prince to have tea with this Princess.

I love my girl. She cracks me up!

How fast a year goes by.

2009-09-23T23:00:00.000-07:00

Wow. I can't believe my baby is one. It seems like not too long ago that I was still pregnant with who I thought was the most stubborn of my three kids because he refused to vacate the womb until exactly 40 weeks. This year has really gone by fast, even with me purposefully enjoying and savoring every second because I know he's my last.

As I hold him now, I marvel at how much he's grown. I used to feel that I had to wrap my arms around him twice, lest he slip through because he was so tiny. Now I have to wrap my arms around him twice because he's so wiggly that he will slip through and konk his noggin on the floor in his efforts to get down and walk.

I refuse to cut his hair despite getting told constantly that my "little girl" is so cute. Once I cut it, then he'll officially step over into the realm of toddlerhood. And I'm just not ready to let go of my baby yet.

One of my favorite pictures, taken hours after birth. (Thanks Shana!)

Age: 3 months (December 2008)

Age: 6.5 months (April 2009)

Age: 9 months (June 2009)

Age: 12 months (September 2009)

Happy Birthday Taede -- we love you.

My how you've grown!

2009-09-22T12:44:00.001-07:00

It's almost the size of my hand. I'm having a hard time cleaning out
the cage because she's getting so big. Thien swears they don't eat
people but there's always that one mutant bug, right?

-- sent by iPhone

May The Force Be With You

2009-09-20T22:41:00.001-07:00

Kael (and Taede) had their joint birthday party yesterday. It was Star Wars themed so obviously Kael had a lot of input. It was mostly (Ok... all) of Kael's friends and they had a blast. Obi Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper made an appearance and engaged the kids in games and Jedi Training. It was a blazing hot day so I felt really bad for Darth. He was roasting in his outfit but I had to hand it to those guys -- they had 25 kids aged 4 and up completely enthralled.

They tried to bring Kael to the front as it was his special day but he was having none of that. He's very stage shy and refused to be the center of attention. This personality quirk resulted in a couple of very funny moments.

Moment #1:
When Obi Wan first showed up, he asked the kids who was in charge of the group. Immediately a bunch of hands shot up. Obi was looking for Kael but Kael refused to raise his hand, not wanting to be noticed. Obi asked again: "Who's in charge of this group? Who's the reason why we are all gathered here?" Now the kids caught on and they all yelled out Kael's name, pointing at him. Kael, eyes bugged out, started to frantically shake his head "NoNoNoNo!" Obi pointed to him and asked: "Are you in charge of this group?" Kael's response: "No, I'm not in charge. My mom is in charge."

I cracked up. That's my boy!

Moment #2:
Vader made his huge appearance and ominously asked the group something like "Where's Kael?" or "Where's the boy with the strongest Force?" Something that obviously pointed to Kael. Once again, Kael frantically shook his head. Everyone's pointing at Kael, yelling his name. Then I hear a familiar voice, rising above all others, yelling out: "Don't raise your hand Kael! Don't raise your hand!!"

It was Mikayla, watching out for Kael. I about peed in my pants. I love that girl.

It looked like all the kids had a great time, despite pictures of them engaging in all manners of warfare. A party is only as good as the party goers -- and the kids were awesome. I have a ton of pictures posted so take a look. Make sure you read the captions too.

Thank you to everyone for coming and making a special day even more special for my boys.

A picture is worth a 1000 words

2009-09-19T10:39:00.001-07:00

There was a disagreement this morning and Kael got mad at Malia. He drew a picture expressing his feelings.

Can you tell what it says?

-- sent by iPhone

I still have tomorrow.

2009-09-18T22:04:00.000-07:00

I'm supposed to be baking tonight. I have to make 70 cupcakes for Kael's and Taede's birthday party on Sunday.

Seventy cupcakes
7-0

That's a boatload of cupcakes. The plan was to make them tonight then transport them to Linda's because my fridge is packed with fruit and veggie trays. She's coming to the party after church and will bring them for me to keep the frosting from melting (it's supposed to be in the upper 80's, low 90's).

I was all fired up to make them too. Then Linda invited us to the Boiling Crab. Of course I accepted. Anything to get out of making dinner. But it's still good. We'll grab dinner, put the kids to sleep then I'll morph into Betty Crocker and bake. However, I didn't take into account the long wait at the Boiling Crab. Or the good food. Or the smell that's still stuck to my fingers despite a long hot shower and several hand washings.

Now I'm too lazy to bake. So that leaves me tomorrow. Tomorrow is Saturday. The party is Sunday. Truong is going to be doing a Habitat for Humanity gig at the LA County Fairgrounds from 8:30am until about 5:00pm. Pretty much a full workday. Leaving me at home with three kids and a hot oven.

Oh man.

To know her is to love her. Sometimes.

2009-09-17T22:56:00.000-07:00

Malia has been... an interesting child lately. There's something going on in her noggin and I can't figure out what. She's usually a very fun, bright, engaging person to hang out with. I love playing with her and listening to her talk about her princess play. Her imagination is amazing.

That's the way she is usually. The other side of her is dark. So very dark. Very confusing too. Bouts of hysterical crying if looked at the wrong way. Periods of complete and utter mulishness. If I ask her to not do something (i.e. Please walk close to me; we're in the parking lot) she will purposefully go out of her way to do exactly that (i.e. slows her pace and walks waaayyy to the side of me, in the parking lot). I've toyed with saying the exact opposite of what I want so she'd unwittingly do what I want her to do, to see what would happen but she's so unpredictable that there's no way to guessing what she'd do. So it's better to not say anything at all. But come on: I'm a mom, I must say something!

And that's her attitude towards me. I pity poor Kael. She's an absolute witch and a half to him. Unfortunately, she knows she's kind of got a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card where they are concerned. She's being disciplined more but it's usually Kael that I have to talk to. Why? Where's the fairness? you ask. Well, Kael is older and has a better understanding of his moods and reactions. Malia is like a crazy pre-pre-pre-pre PMS psycho person trapped in a 3 year old body. I might as well try to reason with a Tasmanian devil defending a meal.

Case in point: their bedtimes. The past couple of weeks Malia's been a nightmare. Our bedtime routine hasn't changed but for some reason, she's been real antsy, antagonizing poor Kael. Little things like tapping on the wall. Kicking his bed (they have a bunk). Tossing her toys up on his bed. Thumping the side of his bed with a pillow. You all know Kael: he's a pretty routine kind of kid and anything weird will throw him off kilter. A few times I've come out from the shower to see stuff on the floor piled in front of their bedroom door: her pillow, her stuffed animals, random toys.

What the heck??

Sometime later, the door opens again, then quietly closes. I go to investigate. It's Kael. He's the one dumping stuff out. Apparently, he's had to climb down from his bed, confiscate the whatever thing Malia was using to irritate the living snot out of him, and toss it out the room.

Malia's upset, she's trying to pull her loot back into her bed. He's mad at her, telling me what happened. And I feel so bad for Kael. He's tired, he wants to sleep. He's got a full day of school and he's dealing with this crap at 9:30pm. So of course Malia gets in trouble. That results in her crying (and not the usual crying, we're talking the screaming hysterical banshee crying), which makes noise level significantly worse than before.

Oi.

Tonight was such a night. I've stripped her of 2 pillows, Purple Tiger, Mermaid pillow, Pink Horsey (ouch!) and a ball (?? what was that doing in her bed??). There was some protest thumping of the wall -- or maybe it was her bumping against the wall since I took away her pillow bumper -- but it's finally all quiet.

She's probably plotting a midnight raid of her stuff. Sometimes her stuff mysteriously shows up back in her room in the morning....

The Hero

2009-09-17T14:53:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago I asked Kael what he did at school. He responded with a "I helped my friend today."

That was it. No further explanation, no clarification, no details, no hints. Nothing. Typical guy response where every single little detail had to be pried out of him.

So I probed a little. Apparently (and this is his version of what went down) his friend and classmate Viken was playing with a ball. Another kid from another class tried to take away said ball. There was a fight. Viken started crying. Kael and another classmate Michael walked up, broke up the fight and said "Hey! There's no fighting for the ball."

Kael: "My friend Viken was playing with the ball first."

Michael: "You have to get another ball."

Then someone, I'm not sure who because it took a lot of my concentration to follow along with all the words that were torrentially falling out of Kael's mouth, took the ball and gave it back to Viken.

I was hanging on to every word, astounded. "What did the kid do? What did he say? What did Viken do?"

Kael: "The kid said OK then went away to play with another ball. Viken said 'Thanks guys!' "

Wow.

I was so proud of Kael. I asked him how it felt to help out his friend and he said "Good! It made me feel really good."

Being almost 6 years old, I'm not sure if the action really went down that way. I mean, come on, I ask him what he did in class that day as we walk away from the classroom and he tells me he can't remember. We're in the hallway, and he can't remember!

So the next day, I find Viken's dad and ask him if Viken said anything about the incident. Viken hadn't mentioned it at home but his dad went to ask him about what happened. He came back and reported that Viken told him it was Kael who took the ball away from the other kid to give back to Viken.

Again, WOW! I am such a proud mom!

San Diego Spash Park

2009-09-15T20:52:00.000-07:00

We went to San Diego this past weekend for my cousin's husband's birthday. Their community has a very cool splash park that's FREE! It's a perfect place for hosting parties. Huge play structure. Lots of water splash zones. Not crowded at all even with the weather being perfect for a water park kind of day. The people were nice. It was great.

Their son Connor is 15 months old and you can tell that he's an old pro at the park. Taede was a little cautious at first but eventually warmed up. He refused all helping hands and preferred to walk about solo. Kael disappeared, running like a madman, and Malia was hanging out by the water mushrooms.

The kids had a great time so we will have to brave the 90 minute drive for another visit.

You can check out the pictures here.

When the girls go shopping.

2009-09-09T21:57:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago Malia and I took a Mother and Daughter shopping trip. She needed some Fall school clothes and Taede just needed some clothes. I left the boys at home with Truong in charge. Taede was sleeping and Kael was quietly playing with his Legos.

I call home as we get near lunchtime to check in and was told that Taede was awake and that Truong was going to let Kael play in the water. "Oh, how nice!" I think. "It's a hot day so Dad's pulling out the inflatables in the backyard."

Cool. I'll head home, let Malia play for a bit then nap her.

This is what I saw when we pulled up:

Kael and Russell (our neighbors) having a huge water fight with the other neighbor's kids. On our front lawn.

There's Ben and Jacob -- the victims of Kael's demented look above. Ethan running in the back to reload. And yes, that's Taede in the middle of the water warfare. Chewing on, you guessed it, a water pistol. Gotta love it when Dad's in charge.

He's have a great time. So I'll ignore the water gun for now.

Next up: the Slip N Slide.

The boys have a hard time waiting and end up piling on top of each other.

Our front yard. This was what I saw when I pulled up. Well, add 4 more boys running around, that is.

Still chewing away.

Where's Malia? you ask. She was having a picnic in the garage, away from the boys running around like lunatics. It's tough being the only girl around.

It's the first day of (swim) school!

2009-09-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

Taeder Tot was... well, you can see for yourself.

"I can sense something big is happening. What, I'm not sure..."

The kids goofing off. Malia is doing her "Princess Smile": the tilted shoulder, the cocked head, the demure smile. She's such a crack up.

Malia's swim cap. Name the kid wearing it.

Taeder Tot and Sara. No, I'm not cutting his hair. And no, I didn't curl it. It does that on its own.

I can't get a read on his face. Is it saying: "Why aren't you in here with me?" Or is it saying: "What the hell am I doing here?"

And no, I will not reconsider cutting his hair.

Uh-oh.

Awww....

"I don't want to be here... But don't leave me!!!"

He learned to hold his breath pretty quick.

"I hate it here! I want out of here! And I'm taking this toy with me. And that toy too!"

And for your listening pleasure:

He's in the throes of some pretty bad separation anxiety so that doesn't help any. Hopefully he will understand any attempts to thwart swimming lessons via screaming will prove futile and will start enjoying the lessons as his siblings do now, sooner rather than later.

Swim Buddy

2009-09-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

I've been in San Jose the past few days (just came back this morning at 2:30am) so I didn't get a chance to post anything new from last week. The biggest thing being Taede's first swim lesson. Since it's pretty late and I'm pretty tired, I will post Malia's swim lesson. Kael requested that do one of his too so I'll do that tomorrow.

Anyway, Malia is the fish in pink and her BFF Audrey is in blue. They are supposed to have 15 minutes of solo private lessons but Audrey was having a hard time with swim class way back when so we thought having a swim buddy (Malia) would help her. The new swim class would then be 10 minutes solo with Audrey, shared 10 minutes with both girls then 10 minutes solo with Malia.

It worked great. Malia listened better and started trying harder. Audrey stopped crying and started swimming. It was freaking fantastic. Eventually though this swim "buddy" system took on some kind of crazy fierce Olympic competitive feeling. (Notice how I have the word buddy in "quotes.")

The girls now race across from platform to platform. Back and forth, back and forth. Not heeding Sara's (their swim teacher) instructions. We've got girls bumping the other out of the way like it's a roller derby. Cutting the other off at the platform. Pulling feet and grabbing swim suits. It's a dog eat dog lesson out there. They don't even care about form. Sara's trying to get them to use their arms and start doing freestyle but they won't listen. The only thing that matters is who gets across first.

They are so funny. I've never seen them try so hard and I will say: peer pressure works. Linda and I will have to be careful with how we wield this power.

Always ask permission FIRST

2009-08-30T22:29:00.000-07:00

Today was a Dad Day. Truong tries to give me a break on the weekends and shoulders as much of the kid workload as possible. I really appreciate this. I really really do. I also know that he's not going to know everything. (It's common knowledge that Mom's do in fact know everything - so don't waste time questioning us.)

I am with the kids 24/7 so I know all their little quirks and habits. I also know where all the little random stuff are located in the house and why there's a big ass box in the middle of the playroom.

Kael pulled out his big Science Experiment book he got as a birthday gift last year and was thumbing through it. He and Truong decided to do the volcano experiment.

Truong of course modifies a few things and kind of follows the directions while adding a little Truong-panache. It's still all good. It works. The directions say to use wet sand to make the volcano. He decides to use Playdoh. A lot of Playdoh. Little modifications like that.

Kael thinks the whole thing is totally cool and can't wait to show me and Malia. Oh, I forgot to mention that Mom and Malia were out running errands so the boys did this project wholly unsupervised.

I realize this post is about Kael's volcano but you have to check out Malia's scary smile.

A view of the hippie-esque volcano. Truong and Kael used an absurd amount of Playdoh.

Step 1: Pour some baking soda into a container within the volcano.

Step 2: Add vinegar. (Are you checking out the colors? The sheer amount of Playdoh used?)

Watch it... here it comes.

A nice little mushroom top

And there's our overflow.

It was a great science project... except for a couple of minor points:

1) They mixed the Playdoh. As everyone knows, you don't mix Playdoh. You just don't. If Playdoh was meant to be mixed, they'd sell a tub of the stuff labeled "Mixed Playdoh." But they don't, do they?

2) The boys thought ahead to contain the volcano in a lipped tray. Shallow enough for the kids to enjoy the show and lipped enough to contain the "lava flow" of baking soda and vinegar. Hmm... Too bad it was my tea tray. Urgh!

I told Truong the next time I can't find the hammer, I'm using a golf club.

Who has the last laugh now?

2009-08-28T22:20:00.000-07:00

So the long awaited gate is up. Finally! It's so refreshing to have some peace in my heart, not having to worry every 2 minutes that I'm going to hear the thumpity thumps of Taede's little noggin hitting the ground.

I of course documented the grand moment:

"Hey! What the heck is this?!"

If I do my Mom job right, this look won't be repeated when he becomes an adult.

"Hmm... Think, Taede, THINK!"

"Ha! She thinks she's so smart. I'll show her."

"Oh yeah baby! Who's got the last laugh now? Huh? Who's your Daddy now?!!"

Mom: OH SH#T!!

Now there's nothing in that corner. What a stinker. I have to say that look of joy on his face when he discovered his "loophole" is quite funny.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Onto a little side story.....

This is one about loveys. I've been trying to get him to attach to one in the hopes that he'll sleep better at night. Heck, at this point I'll even do a naked chicken dance around a bonfire if it will get him to sleep through the night. But I digress. In the past he's taken an interest in a number of items. One being Malia's Pink Horsey. Which distressed me on a number of levels.
#1: It's Malia's Pink Horsey. 'Nuff said.
#2: It's pink.
#3: I went to hell and beyond to get Pink Horsey 2 and 3 for rotation purposes. I wasn't even going to attempt to locate any more.

But really, the only reason we need to worry about is #1. A while back, Malia told me that Taede could have Pink Horsey. Did you read that? She said Taede could have Pink Horsey. (I didn't believe her for a nanosecond.) And she did give it him. I have to give her credit for that. She allowed Taede to nap with PH. However, come bedtime that night, she was very torn about her decision and I could tell it was causing her extreme anxiety. Finally after an intense internal struggle, she grabbed Horsey back and stated that Horsey needed to be tucked in her Mermaid bed.

And that was the end of Pink Horsey's short lived tenure with Taede.

Other things Taede has shown an interest in were various blankets, a taggie square and Malia's crocheted blanket that her aunt made for her. I asked her if Taede could have that blanket as she's never shown a great interest in it before and there was an immediate NO.

Okaayyy. We won't mention that ever again.

Sadly, his interest has never really stuck on anything for long.

Until now.

Do you notice that plastic corn on the cob that he's got clutched in his hand? It's one piece of a 100 piece tub of food items that's cheaply made in China and probably contains some kind of health harming chemical like lead or/and melamine. That corn cob has been near him, within clutching distance the past week. I've even had to fish it out of the crib a few times after he's fallen asleep, lest he roll over it.

If he ends up with that stupid corn on the cob as his lovey, I'm going to be royally pissed.

I did something right

2009-08-28T18:22:00.001-07:00

Malia eating her "dessert": a bowl full of broccoli.

Slick like oil

2009-08-26T22:24:00.000-07:00

Damn he found a way through.

"What are you doing?!"

Hehehe! I startled him -- that's why he's so blurry.
And then began the mad scramble up.

"If I make it around the corner, I'm golden!"

"Yeah, baby! Freedom!! Gone in 60 seconds, that's me!!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, I hate to burst his bubble, but I have a surprise for him tomorrow morning...
<(insert evil cackle)>

It does disturb me a little to see how many requests I've received for video footage of the big unveiling. That's so wrong, people!

Right?

One day it all clicked.

2009-08-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

He picked it up pretty fast too.

Wonder if I should get a helmet?

Why is it so quiet??

2009-08-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

Every mom has that moment: you're in the middle of doing something, completely absorbed and preoccupied with your task. And then it hits you: why is it so quiet? A flash of pure undiluted panic races through your veins before you methodically start the head count.

Kael - reading a book in the study

Malia - reading a book in her room

Taede - .....

Taede....

TAEDE!!!!

He just came from a shower, hence the slightly fuzzy look.

Oh my god -- is it dead??

2009-08-24T22:59:00.000-07:00

Thien gives Kael these cool bugs but sometimes forgets to tell me important things about them. Things that I should know and when I bring it up in a panic, he always says: "Oh yeah. They do that. I forgot to tell you about that." Ugh!

One morning I came downstairs and saw the leaf insect hanging upside down. My first thought: "Oh sh*t -- it's dead!! How the heck did it die?! I gotta get that thing out of there before Kael sees it!"

I take a closer look and it starts moving. Then I realize it's not dead at all.

It's shedding.

Pretty cool, huh?

Summertime memories

2009-08-22T22:19:00.000-07:00

As a youngster, I remember summertime with the fondest of memories: lazy mornings. Playing with my friends morning to night. Roaming free in the neighborhood. Hours spent at the library reading books. Swimming at the local high school. Bike rides. Skinned knees.

Now as a parent, my memories of summertime are totally different: What can I do with the kids today to keep them from fighting? Where can I go with a 5 year old, a 3 year old and a baby?! How early do we have to leave the house in the morning to enjoy the park before the weather hits roasting temperatures? Is it really that bad to use Target and Toys R Us as an outlet for the kids? How many times can we use the indoor playground at Carl's Jr. and still keep a somewhat healthy diet?

This summer has really kicked my butt. The kids are at such different stages in their lives with very diverging interests that is was hard to stimulate all three.

Kael enjoyed lots of Science Camp this summer - 4 whole weeks! His favorite so far was the Lego Fun-gineering class where they built robots and participated in Robot Games. He started Swim Squad at his swim class, which is basically a strokes class. They have between 4-6 kids swimming in lines for 35-40 minutes straight, working on their strokes. We're talking 25 laps or so. It's crazy -- and best of all, he enjoys it.

Malia has graduated to the next level at her dance studio. She's really enjoying it however it's at a very awkward time so I'm not sure how that's going to pan out once school starts. She's done a couple of weeks of summer camp just to break up the monotony of Mom and Taede, and she's really enjoyed the time away. Hmmm...

Taede is my velcro baby. No Gymboree yet although I keep saying that I will sign him up. He's a shaky napper and class times are right smack dab in the middle of naptime. His naps are kind of a religious experience to me so I do what I can to preserve it. He's taken at couple of steps here and there but won't venture any more than that before he drops down to speed crawl. He's an expert at the stairs though, and I have a feeling he's going to pitch a ginormous fit when the gate finally arrives. He's got his 2 bottom teeth in and one top tooth finally cut through. Poor guy was in agony for weeks, with drool running down his chin and arm. He is still working on the other top tooth - it's a bulging mess up there.

We have lots of good days with all the kids playing well. But we also have some dark days -- and the dark days are oh so dark. Fighting over the silliest things like Kael wanting to wear Malia's tutu (really Kael? You want to wear a purple and pink tutu?!) or Malia getting mad that Kael's storm troopers invaded her Princess Tea Party (they just want some tea, for crying out loud, just give them some tea already!). The best was when Taede crashed Malia's doll's camping trip and destroyed their camp site. It was like a scene out of Godzilla's wet dream: dolls were picked up and chewed on; Princess carriages tossed like a tornado came through; and poor Prince Charming was used like a drum stick, getting head-banged on the back of a pot. The ear shattering shrieks, the desperate attempts by Malia to save her dolls, the scolding and yelling at Taede, Malia trying to drag Taede away but not doing a great job because she's not that much bigger than him. It was hysterical. Unfortunately, she's got a long memory and if he even looks at her doll stuff now, she screams out "NO TAEDE!"

But like all good things, it must come to an end. I managed to talk Truong into coming home early a couple of days last week so we could take the kids to Disneyland to watch of couple of the late night shows. On Tuesday we did Fantasmic. Our family and about half of Orange County. Damn it was crowded. Insanely crowded. But it was a great show. The kids enjoyed it and of course Malia was completely enthralled when the Princesses came out. Their look of wonder makes everything (the huge crowds, the long wait, the lack of personal space) totally worth it. The magic still lives on, you know?

Thursday we ventured back, this time with some friends (Linda, Johnny and Audrey, Malia's BFF) to see the Aladdin Show and the Electrical Parade. My kids love watching live shows and I am going to make more of an effort to take them. Malia was especially wow'ed when Aladdin and Jasmine flew over our heads on their magic carpet. Kael watched them fly overhead, saw the cables, followed the cables up to the moving platform and said "That's how they're flying, huh? With that machine that goes back and forth." It was kind of funny, and I admit, a little sad too. I still want him to believe because he's still my baby, even at almost 6. They had the most fun at the Electrical Parade. We met up with another family (Naomi and her family) and settled down front row seat to watch the parade. The kids (all 5 of them) got along great and Naomi busted out glow bracelets which really helped with keeping them occupied. Malia had such a great time that she pitched a huge fit when it was time to leave. She kept sobbing: "I want to see more light parade! More light parade!" Ugh. It was so sad. I was game for coming back since Sunday was the last day for the parade but Truong just ignored me like I hadn't said anything. Sheesh.

That was kind of our big end of summer event since we canceled our Cancun trip. One more week until school starts so we're going hunker down and enjoy the time we have left.

Some pictures:

Kael's Robots, Gadgets and Gizmos' class. He came home every single day with some random thing he made. It was cool, but damn my counter got crowded!

Kael adding "bling" to his robot. He had so much fun added stuff to his robot that I feared it wouldn't be able to move!

Waiting his turn to Robot Wrestle.

Getting ready to rumble.

Let 'em rip!

The robots were evenly matched. Despite Kael's robot being loaded down with various items like cups, cotton balls and straws.

The Electrical Parade:

From 12 o'clock: Lauren, Audrey, Malia, Megan and Goofy Kael.

Kael, Lauren and Megan. We were literally front row seat. It was pretty awesome. Luckily we shared the space with some super nice people who had another kid the same age and everyone got along fabulously.

Tinkerbelle

Naomi ran in the middle of the street in the middle of the parade to take this shot. If you look closely, you can see me wearing a sleeping Taede in my brand new blue wrap. (Crystal - check it out!)

And no visit to Disneyland is complete without a visit from a Princess. Malia and Megan about peed in their pants when Cinderella waved at them. Luckily Malia doesn't know that there's probably 3-4 Cinderella's running around Disneyland at night working all the shows.

The good news....

2009-08-22T09:03:00.001-07:00

The good news is she can dress herself when she wants to.

The hard part is trying to get her to wear something school appropriate.

Reading time

2009-08-18T11:43:00.001-07:00

I caught the kids in a quiet moment and went to investigate.

Kael was reading Old Hat New Hat to Malia. It was so sweet.

The new diet

2009-08-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

No wonder she's so skinny.

-- sent by iPhone

Determination

2009-08-14T07:52:00.000-07:00

Where there's a will, there's a way.

But hopefully not in this case.

Our semi-custom gates are back-ordered 2-3 weeks. Can we make it a few more weeks???

-- sent from iPhone

Worth the mess

2009-08-12T18:15:00.001-07:00

Taede enjoying his first soft cone at Ruby's.

A day in the life of Taede

2009-08-11T17:40:00.001-07:00

Between big brother's camp drop-off and big sister's dance class, baby brother takes a snooze in the car seat. I can't wait for him to go to one nap. Then our world opens up for actual activities, not just taxi services.

Kael and his legos

2009-08-11T17:32:00.001-07:00

We've been playing a lot of legos lately and the kids are getting pretty good at building things. Here's a picture of a crane and pyramid. He said the pyramid wasn't great because we have the "wrong legos" which I take to mean the non-chokable ones. Ever since his Lego Fun-gineering class he's become a Lego snob.

It was his idea.

2009-07-28T22:04:00.000-07:00

Kael wanted to wear them.

KAEL.

It was not my idea. In fact, I didn't want to put them on him so he went to Dad.

I didn't think Truong would actually do it.

What can I say? My kids like to accessorize with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head stuff.

(Malia likes the wear the Mister's glasses.)

The tomato grub

2009-07-28T21:51:00.000-07:00

Kael's tomatoes are doing exceptionally well. Lots of yellow pears and grape tomatoes. The heirlooms are starting to color. The kids love going back there to make a harvest. Truong and I have been enjoying tomato salads with dinner.

Lately however, I've noticed that some tomatoes have been partially eaten. Some are on the ground still whole as if they were knocked off, others have nibbles on them and still more were chewed while still on the vine.

I think: darn birds. But that's kind of weird because I didn't think birds ate tomatoes.

Yesterday I was feeding Taede (or at least trying to feed Taede) when I saw something in our backyard. I can only assume it's our newest tomato grub. It all makes sense now.

Can you see him in the azalea bush? He was trying to climb up the bird feeder.

See that lime? It used to be on our little lime tree. Our backyard is this little guy's Whole Foods. I haven't checked on Kael's corn yet but now I understand why the sunflowers have all suddenly tipped over.

Backyard Fun

2009-07-28T21:43:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been unbearably hot. Too hot to go anywhere so we pulled out the trusty inflatables and had some fun in the backyard.

Malia's swan dive.

Perfect landing.

Taede loving the water.

Really loving the water. I can still hear his shrieks of joy.

The writing is on the wall.

2009-07-27T22:49:00.000-07:00

Or in this case: the floor.

As anyone who knows my family knows, my kids have eating issues. Kael has texture problems and is somewhat picky. I suppose picky is relative as I know kids who are waayyy pickier. And honestly, it's not so much a texture problem as it is a chewing problem: he doesn't like to eat meat. Chicken is OK. Pork, maybe if cut up small. Steaks? Fuh-get-about-it. "It's too chewy, Mom!"

Malia eats most things but in teeny tiny amounts. She eats to just tide her over but never enough to gain weight. I give her less and less, and still she claims she's too full to finish. She will however power down fruits and veggies. Too bad those things are calorie light.

And then we have Taede. For one so young, he sure has some strong opinions about food. Kael's eating issues didn't pop up until almost 2 years of age. Malia - past a year although I will say that she's always been a light eater even nursing. Taede has had a hate-hate relationship with food from the start. How can he dislike eating solids when he's got nothing to base that dislike on?! Give me a break. The one constant that he will eat is avocados -- and even that's not much.

Have you ever met a kid who rejects Cheerios?? Seriously. Cherrios. That stuff was the staple of Kael's and Malia's diet. If all else failed, a handful of Cheerios would do the trick. So far the only thing Taede has an interest in is his sippy of water. While he doesn't eat the Cheerios, he does have another use for them: gravity checkers.

Since he gags on baby food like I'm feeding him thick glue, I make his food from chicken, veggies, rice and pasta. He's OK with rice. I thought I'd mix things up a bit so he's not so fixated on one item.

He was less than enthused.

While I tricked him into eating it, he still got the last word.

Ok ok ok...

2009-07-22T20:40:00.001-07:00

I get it.

I GET it.

I haven't updated the blog in a while. I've been busy! The first half of July was pretty much a wash between family visits and traveling up north. Then we had camp at the Oak Canyon Nature Center for Kael which was fun for him, but not so fun for Taede because camp drop off was at 9:00am. Can you guess what time is Taede's nap?

If you guessed 9:00am, you'd be wrong. It's actually between 8:00am and 8:30am. So by the time I dropped off Kael and motored my way home, Taede's nap has been pushed back to 9:20am. Remember this is the kid who starts the day at 5:30am. Still. Then pick up for Kael is at 1:00pm. And when is Malia's nap, you ask? It's at 12:30pm. It was hard to see her struggle to stay awake on the ride over to pick up Kael, and even worse: "Momma, I'm really tired; I want to go to sleep!"

Now we have 3 "dead weeks" with no camps, no summer school, no trips. I figured it would be nice to have some family time for the summer. Except for a few minor issues, it's been nice. Issues like: the upper 90's weather that make it impossible to play outside. Or the sucky shortened barely 1 hour naps I'm getting from Taede that stagger his and Malia's naps so I can't get any computer time, much less bathroom time without a kid tattling on the other, or a kid following me into the bathroom wanting to know what I'm doing or wanting to climb on my lap, or just as I'm settle down, I hear a thump then a scream. And my all-time favorite issue: the constant in-fighting between Malia and Kael over the littlest issues. Like fighting over toys that's not even theirs -- it's Taede's! And what are you doing playing with the baby's toys anyway?! Play with your own!!

Ugh. Camp is looking pretty tempting.

So that's been my summer so far. Kael has a few more science camps planned in August and Malia will have her usual pre-school camp to keep her in the swing of school related activities.

Taede is still my little bump. He goes where I go and spends most of the day dropping off or picking up a sibling, slung on me at some store like Costco or Target, or taking a header on the floor because he's trying to walk. He's pulling up and cruising everywhere. He's been standing on his own for a couple of weeks but he's still pretty tippable. And he's extremely single-minded: come hell or high water, he's going up those stairs. Now he knows it's forbidden because the second he hears me coming, he starts scrambling up those stairs like he's got ants in his pants. What a stinker.

Hello again...

2009-07-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

Hey -- my blog still works! I wasn't sure since I haven't been on it for a while. I've had a family marathon the past 2 weeks so it was hard to get on the computer.

My middle sister Anne and her family came down on Thursday. They stayed at our place for a day before heading out to Escondido Friday afternoon. My oldest sister Priscilla, her dog Alfee and my mom also came for a visit (at the same time, separate cars), stayed one night then headed to Vegas. On Saturday I packed up my family and headed to Escondido to the same resort as my sister until Sunday. By then Priscilla, Alfee and Mom were back from Vegas and we hung out at home the rest of the week. Kael was very sick so we couldn't go anywhere anyway. Thankfully my mom and sister were a great help with the kids since Truong was out of town that week. There aren't many things scarier than staying home alone for days with a sick kid, a bored 3 year old, and a turbo-charged baby determined to break his neck climbing the stairs.

My house guests left for San Jose Thursday mid-morning, we followed Thursday night at 9:00pm, and the Escondido crew left Friday morning. We all converged at my parents' house to watch the fireworks show at the country club Friday night.

I know. It's like a finely choreographed dance sequence.

Kael and Malia for the first time actually saw the show. In the years past, the bang of the fireworks have always freaked them out and I would see them huddled under blankets, wrapped around Dad or a cousin or an aunt. It was nice to see them enjoy the show, ohhing and ahhing with the family. The biggest shocker was Taede because (A) he was still up at 9:15pm to see the show and (B) he actually saw the show without crying. His eyes were as wide as dinner plates and I don't think he blinked the entire 30 minutes.

Sometime during the San Jose week Malia ended up getting hit with what Kael had, which he got from Jarod. That meant a high fever of +103 degrees followed by a cough. I had to make a 9:30pm Walmart run to get a thermometer and Tylenol -- and let me tell you: my parents' Walmart is freaking scary at 9:30pm. It's ridiculous how many people (especially kids) were shopping that late.

I ate a ton of my mom's cooking, squeezed in a couple of visits with some high school friends, a trip to the San Francisco Zoo, the Egyptian Museum, ate some more, Truong golfed a day, visited my aunt on her ranch, ate even more, the kids swam (the kids are so tanned that they disappear in the shade) ... all in all it was a great trip. There were a couple of nights where I ate so much that I looked like I was 5 months pregnant. It was absurd. And my mom packed my cooler nice and tight for the trip home so I'm still enjoying Mom's home cooked meals. Yeah baby!

I didn't take a whole lot of pictures. I schlepp my big ass camera around but never use it. It ends up banging poor Taede on the head instead. Here's what little I did take though.

I hope you had a great 4th of July!

Launch Day

2009-06-22T21:43:00.000-07:00

Kael completed his first week of Science Camp - Space and Rocketry. He had a blast (pardon the pun). Made some neat space related stuff like a telescope, a Mars Rover, and a constellation box. The cherry on top was the rocket. And we're not talking about a water fueled rocket. It's a real rocket with wires and keys and caps.

Kael and Mikayla showing off their rockets.

The Launch Pad.

Please blast off. Please blast off!

Loading the rockets on the launchers.

Goofing around with a new friend. They are sitting like POW's because the pads are live and they are not to touch the keys lest they accidentally set off the rockets.

Kael's Rocket, primed and ready!

Turning the key and igniting the rocket.

Blast off!!

Coming back to "Earth"

Safe landing

The pick up.

He's so stoked that his rocket blasted off!

Mikayla's turn.

Working the wires.

Inserting the key.

I love her expression as the rocket blasts off.

Success!

Mutant Tomatoes

2009-06-21T22:43:00.000-07:00

I don't know what we did differently this year but Kael's crop of tomatoes look genetically engineered. The plants are taller than ME and have flopped over due to the abundance of fruits. Or veggies. Whatever they are. They are popping buds and "baby tomatoes" (per Malia) all over and it's truly a testament of her control to not engage in an early harvest.

Actually, she's already done that a few times but I think she's finally getting that she was to wait until they are red.

It looks like we're doing something right as far as growing them but I don't know how farmers get their crops to all ripen at the same time. So far Malia's plucked a few red cherry tomatoes here and there as they ripen - essentially single servings. Definitely not enough for a salad. Certainly not enough to share, according to Malia, the tomato hog.

Kael's mutant tomato... tree? Truong and I just staked it even higher than the original stakes. And that's still not tall enough. The tops of the plants are flopped over onto itself. I don't know how that's going to affect the actual tomatoes as now they are all stacked up and crowded together.

He's got sweet white corn growing in the back.

Malia harvesting a few ripe cherry tomatoes.

Going in for the pluck.

Yellow cherry tomatoes

Heirlooms

Cherry

Kael's favorite: the sunflower

It sucks being the baby sometimes.

2009-06-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

Poor Taede. It was inevitable that the older kids would find ways to use him for their entertainment.

While I put away laundry this morning, Malia dropped Kael's inner tube around Taede. In effect trapping the poor kid. Taede can't get himself out of the tube and ends up crawling around with it stuck on him. Sometimes when there are a lot of toys lying around, he acts like a street sweeper, with various dolls and blocks trapped under him.

I can't tell if he's trying to crawl out of it or trying to crawl away from it. Or just not caring that there's this annoying tube around him and is just crawling for the sake of crawling.

Malia thinks it's hilarious.

"Uh, Mom. A little help here? Please?"

"Seriously. Get this stupid thing off me! It's not funny anymore!"

Trek Women's Triathlon Series

2009-06-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

My friend Christina sent Shana and I an email one day, asking if we would be interested in doing the Disney Duathlon (run-bike-run). I was intrigued but was going to say no for a variety of reasons... the main one being not having the time to train. Between Truong working late hours, going out of town almost weekly, and a breast feeding baby who wakes up 2-3 times per night, I'd have to be insane to say yes. Add on that we'd only have 3 months to train before the race, I'd have to be clinically insane.

Then if you factor in the fact that I just squeezed out a baby 6 months ago (at the time I was debating the race), haven't seen a gym in over a year (if you don't count those 3 times I went before getting pregnant with Taede then it'd be -- holy cow... Davis! -- 7 years ago), was in the most out of shape I've ever been in... to say yes would go beyond clinically insane to just plain stupid.

Well, I said yes. Welcome to peer pressure.

However, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it. For myself. I just had to figure out training times. In the end, I ran at night. Sometimes with Shana, most times solo as my window of opportunity was very narrow. Truong was able to come home early (6:30pm early) a few times and I took that time to squeeze in a bike ride in addition to a run. It wasn't the best training program, but with 2 kids, a baby, a hard working husband, and no babysitter, it was the best I could do.

I didn't tell a whole lot of people about this race as I didn't know how I'd do. My friend Crystal participates in these kinds of races regularly and she'd kick my ass any day of the week. And she's pregnant, for pity's sake. I set off with two main goals: (1) just finishing the race and (2) not throwing up while running through Disneyland. With my luck that photo would be plastered all over the newspaper.

I am happy to say that I finished AND I didn't throw up. The day started at 3:15am (race started at 6:00am, bikes needed to be in the transition area by 5:30am). If I had any doubts about the craziness of my decision, this put it all to rest. Shana and Patrick made the pick up rounds at 4:00am so that meant I had 45 minutes to get ready, get my stuff together, eat, and nurse Taede. Ironically enough, this was the first night that Taede gifted me with sleeping through the night. Meaning from the time I put him down at 7:00pm, he did not wake up once until I woke him to nurse at 3:30am. Talk about sending the poor kid mixed signals.

There were 554 participants in varying shapes, sizes and athletic ability. You can tell the real racers from their cool racing bikes and gear versus the hobbist with their one geared beach cruiser bikes and Cinderella costume. Yes, someone ran in a Cinderella costume (shortened of course) and I even saw an Alice in Wonderland.

We three did great despite some minor issues. My chain fell off going up a hill. Half way up, of course so that meant I had to finish the rest of the up hill with no momentum to carry me forward. Christina ate it at the dismount line and left a part of her elbow and knee at the Happiest Place on Earth. And Shana's bionic leg (she's got a metal plate from where she broke her ankle 2 years ago) was bothering her.

The 1.5 mile run went great. The first 5 mile lap was good (that's when my chain fell off). The second 5 mile lap, went a little slower but I still made decent time trying to catch up to Christina. I finally caught up as we entered the transition area and that's when she took a hit on the bike.

It was the 2 mile run after the bike ride that was a killer. Oh man. My legs were jello. The mind and upper body were willing but the two legs were not. However, Christina and I managed to drag ourselves across the finish with Christina a step ahead.

All in all it was fun and definitely something I would like to do again. Next time I'll be better prepared. Hopefully.

Here are some pictures taken by our pep squad/photographer/coach Patrick.

Busy Little June Bugs

2009-06-12T21:26:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's June. The kids are officially on summer break as of today. What I'm going to do with them -- hell if I know! Kael is registered to attend a Science and Space Workshop/Camp for 3 weeks, maybe 4 (we register by the week). He's extremely excited but unfortunately for both of us, the workshop is only from 9:00am until 12:00pm. I still have the whole rest of the afternoon to entertain 3 kids who are all on very different playing fields. Heck, they aren't even playing in the same stadium: Kael and his Star Wars, Malia and her princesses, and Taede the determined stair climber.

Malia will attend a day camp as needed or whenever she gets bored at home. It's nice that I can send her in that morning if needed, so I can play it by ear.

As for Taede, his life is always enriching. Give him an empty tissue box and he's enthralled for a good 30 minutes. Toss a toy inside, rattle it around, and *voila* the tissue box becomes a tissue box with a toy inside. It's a brand new toy! Actually, if the timing is right, I'd like to do Gymboree with him as I did for the other two kids.

I have my sister and her family visiting for a week starting June 26, then we drive up north for the 4th of July for a week. My sister in law and her family are moving to San Diego July 17 so we'll visit them. And then we have about 3 weeks of no plans. Maybe hit a water park, maybe do summer camp, maybe go camping... Kael has 2 sessions of Science camp (Gizmos and Robots workshop and Fabulous Physics) -- possibly a third session called Powerful Planets -- then school starts beginning of September. Hopefully the kids will have plenty to do and yet have nothing to do so they can relax.

I remember looking forward to summer with all my being as a child. It's a totally different perspective as a parent. How did my parents do it with five kids?!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here are some pictures from the kids' End of Year parties and them relaxing at home.

Anyone out there? Hello?

2009-06-08T20:55:00.000-07:00

I meant to post these pictures last week but we're entering the last week of school and there's much to do. Probably too much to do since I noticed that I'm doing the "stick my head in the sand and hope it all goes away" method of coping.

Anyway Taede is fully mobile and pulling up on everything. He's quite the handful since he's determined to summit the stairs come hell or high water. Unfortunately for me he's very quiet. The other kids kept a constant babble that helped me keep track of them. Not so Taede. However, I can distinguish the noise of his hands hitting the first couple steps from all the other usual noise the kids make.

It's astonishing how much mothers can attune certain senses to certain kids. There's definitely some truth behind the "eyes in the back of her head" motherhood lore.

In the hope that it would keep Taede downstairs, I pulled out some old toys from the Kael years that have been passed around to multiple kids.

The older kids loved the Cube. I don't know why as it's designed for babies 6months and up, but if it gets them to play together nicely -- and most importantly -- keeps Taede downstairs, they can dance on it for all I care.

"Who you looking at?"

He's finally growing into his eyes. If you look closely, you'll see a red bump on his noggin. He wants so badly to walk that he'll just let go and send a prayer that this time, it'll all work out (which it obviously hasn't yet). I'm tempted to get a helmet.

After enduring hourly head bonks, he's finally figured out that just letting go isn't going to do. So he's started to call me when he's pulled upright. When I get there, he holds out his hands but won't hold onto me. He lets go and the inevitable tumble happens when he tries to walk. I've started to grab his wrist since he won't hold on to me. Then he waves me off like I'm some irritating fly buzzing around him.

My newest "leash" is leaving him upright, not coming when he calls for me:

"Hello? Anyone there? Hello!!"

"Hey! You with the camera! I'm stuck!"

hehehe - I'm so evil.

It was a great leash while it lasted. He smarted up real quick and the next day figured out how to let himself down with little to no injury.

Today on the Kael Channel

2009-06-01T21:13:00.000-07:00

Kael was a little goofy today so I decided to whip out my little camera to video tape it all and post on the blog where it can be enjoyed.

Forever.

At least until he's of dating age and I can share it with his girlfriend(s).

Video #1 - My Fly Guy
I have no idea where he got this from. I can only assume school. If it's not school then my other thought would be from Truong and that would be way too scary.

Video #2 - The Karate Kid
I don't know what he was showing me. Something about a Mash Spider Training (??). Maybe it came from his karate instructor who is Korean.

The video is a little distorted because I had to rotate it. But it's still funny as heck.

You can hear Malia yelling at Taede in the background because he was storming her princess castle. It's already starting... I better buy my ear plugs now.

This is the end of the road, Buddy.

2009-06-01T20:58:00.000-07:00

Please watch your step. That first one is a doozy.