Three&#39;s company

We're a bit worse for wear, but we managed to make it through the holiday season. Kai and Sora both had Christmas parties at their respective preschool sites. The kids both did a wonderful job performing a repertoire of holiday songs. We were proud that Kai was the only boy in his class that sang loudly enough to be heard; it may have been peer-pressure since he was sandwiched between Naomi and Julie who were both enthusiastic singers. At Sora's Christmas party, there was a gaggle of parents along with grandparents. Ever the performer, Sora did great and was hamming it up at the end by sticking out her tongue throughout the remainder of the performance.

Christmas Day marked the end of Nik's paternity leave and his return to work with an 11 hour call center shift. But he had had over eight weeks off from work to help me at home, so I'm really not complaining. Since Nik was working Christmas, we celebrated on Christmas Eve with family and lots of food. We also welcomed Grandma Udom back from Portland.

Nik's down with the tweens

Two grandmas!

Since Nik was working on Christmas Day, Grace offered to take Kai off of our hands for a few hours for Kai's first ever "on-his-own playdate" with Micah. Kai enthusiastically ran into Micah's house without even looking back when Nik dropped him off. Sora was disappointed at being left behind, so we had some quality girl time at home and used the nail polish that she got for Christmas. We're so grateful for the Ngs' thoughtfulness and having Kai out of the house for a little while certainly helped ease Nik back into work.

So. Much. Fun.

A little TV time..

.. meanwhile, at home, Sora shows off her rainbow nails.

We had wanted to go to Christmas in the Park, but rather than trying to shoehorn it in last minute during the Christmas rush, we decided to go the day after Christmas. The kids don't care/notice anyway and it was a lot less crowded than it would've been otherwise.

Sora wanted to go on the Ferris wheel, but was too short, so we settled on the water guns. When it's only Kai and Sora competing, one of them is guaranteed a prize :P

Party of Five

Harsha visited us briefly during the holidays. With the kids on break from preschool, we appreciated having our NYC manny around.

With the kids on holiday, we took Kai out to get a much-needed haircut. I think I raised the bar by always taking Kai to a kids' hair cutting salon, so when Nik tried to take him to his nearby barber, Kai adamantly refused saying that he wanted to sit in a special chair, watch TV, and eat a lollypop while getting his hair cut. While we were in the neighborhood, we stopped at our favorite Korean restaurant for lunch.

Oh Yummy Tofu, how we miss you!

With no church on New Year's Eve we decided to hang out with the Shaws. We walked to Dickie's BBQ for lunch (can't beat kids eat free on Sundays!) and then let the kids run around in the backyard.

Sora and Evelyn were adorably holding hands and skipping while walking together <3

In the evening, we went over to my parents' house for dinner. My Mom was away on a girls' trip to Taiwan while Matthew was back home from school. We Skyped with my Mom and Auntie Lil from Taiwan and rang in the New Year with a fake NYE countdown that Nik found on Youtube. Nik and I were in bed by 11:30 pm that night. :P

Hello from Taiwan!

.. and on our end

Unsurprisingly, managing three kids has been a challenge. Grandma Udom has been able to help by watching the kids and holding Jad, but evenings without Nik are particularly difficult. We're trying to avoid our previous parenting pitfalls with Jad. We had had a bad experience with weaning Kai off of the swing as an infant and resisted using a swing with Sora, but we relented with Jad after a difficult evening that included him crying for over half an hour while being held. Sora had refused to take a bottle, so we are trying to work on Jad's bottle feeding skills as much as possible (although he refused a bottle last time, so we may already be in trouble). We are also trying to avoid co-sleeping and be vigilant about staying on top of his sleep/wake cycles, but that can be hard (especially since he got his two month vaccinations this week). Both Kai and Sora are good sleepers now, but they didn't sleep through the night until at least 10 months and cry it out sleep training, so I'm not deluding myself into thinking the other night's six hour stretch is anything more than a fluke (spoiler alert: it was).

Sadly, Jad doesn't usually relax enough to fall asleep in the swing, but it gives me a few minutes of quiet time if I need to do something with Kai and Sora

Bottle #1 was a success! #2, not so much -_-

Many nights, Jad ends up nursing in bed with me and I'm just too exhausted to move him

Kai continues to do well in preschool. We've been trying to have him learn to hold his pencil and utensils correctly. He has an amazing memory; he's constantly bringing up things which happened over a year ago and then Nik or I will have to rack our brains to remember what had happened. Sadly (and ironically), I don't have an example off hand because I've forgotten already. Kai is easier to coerce these days since he has more reasoning ability and understanding of consequences, and feeding him is definitely not as difficult as it used to be, though he's still growing at a frustratingly slow rate. We had a brief spell of him being too hyper and simply not listening, but I think that it's improved recently.

Me and the boys..

Sora is also doing well in preschool, in fact her teachers say that she is so far ahead of her classmates that she may be getting bored and distracted. She's perhaps too smart for her own good and lately we've had problems with her being defiant.. she usually furrows her brow, pouts her lips, and says, "I don't want it!" This bodes poorly for us when she hits her tweens. Eating has been a especially frutrating and Sora will literally eat two bites of her food and announce that she is "all done."

.. while Sora is on the timeout chair in the corner -_-

Lately, fighting has been a problem between Kai and Sora. They like to antagonize one another by singing each others' names (i.e., hark the herald, Sora, Sora or vice versa), or simply taking each others' toys. For some reason, they always seem to want to play with the same toy or near one another, even though we have so many toys and so much space. There are the rare occasions when they play well together, and Kai will step up as a big brother and help Sora. The fighting should go away in time.. the sooner, the better!

Since Christmas, they now have a full set of the Poli rescue team

Playing dentist. Remember the sunglasses?

Action pose!

On the swing Kai said, "We need more kinetic energy!" I suppose he is learning something from watching Blaze

As Jad continues to develop, we'll see how he fits into the picture. For now, he charms everyone, including Kai and Sora, with his smiles and giggles. I had jokingly told David to take Jad home the other day, to which Sora replied, "No, that's our baby!" It definitely hasn't been easy and there are days when Nik and I ask ourselves what were we thinking when we decided to have three kids. But we never regret our decision and we continue to try to appreciate the present and the kids as they are since the cliche of "it goes by fast" is certainly true.