Good fortune

The other day we let Kai have his very first fortune cookie and his fortune was fit for a toddler. Ai ya, we're in trouble, aren't we?

We had some of our neighbors and Matthew over for burgers today. It feels like it's been ages since we've use our grill (probably because it has been ages). Probably something we should try to do more often, because it was a lot of fun to grill and eat outside with friends.

I'm worried that Sora might end up as a thumb sucker (you can take a pacifier away, but you can't take away the thumb)--today she was looking awfully happy with her hand.

The other day, Kai was hamming it up for the camera the way he use to before he started grabbing for the camera all the time. I miss those days!

Usually I have to take candid shots before he notices the camera a makes a grab for it.

Kai: "This is how you play with duckies, Sora."

Happy belated Easter!

Nik's mom went up to Portland to visit Joe and his family, so once again, we're scrambling for childcare. Yesterday was particularly rough. I sent my mom home after I put Sora to bed, but before I put Kai to bed (BIG MISTAKE). Sora woke up right after my mom left, so I ended up loading both kids in the car and driving them both to sleep. On the bright side, with Nik's mom temporarily away, we have a spare bedroom once again, so we moved Sora into the spare bedroom and are working on some sleep training. She seems to be getting better (fingers crossed!), but she's still nowhere near sleeping through the night.

After Easter and Hakiron's ducky-themed first birthday party, Kai is currently obsessed with plastic eggs and rubber duckies. Much to our amusement, the other day he placed the plastic eggs on Sora's head while exclaiming, "hat!" And yes, I got a picture.. thank goodness.

We had a lot of fun at Hakiron's first birthday party, Kai loved all the ducky-themed paraphernalia and the rubber ducky party favors. Now when we put him to bed at night, he specifically requests that his ducks are in the crib with him. Fortunately, he doesn't mind sharing!

Kai: "If I let Sora borrow my duckies.."

".. I'm sure she won't mind if I borrow her paci."

Sora continues to grow and is getting strong enough to hold herself up somewhat while standing.

We've had fun watching Sora make friends.. or rather, we've had fun posing Sora next to our friends' babies.

And one more picture for good measure.

Party all night

Lately, both of the kids have been sleeping terribly. Our good little sleeper, Kai, now cries and yells whenever we try to put him down at nighttime. And we were so hopeful when Sora slept through the night in Hawaii, but lately she's been horrible. We've been trying to be more consistent with ensuring that she naps adequately throughout the day, because sometimes overtiredness can cause poor nighttime rest. Fingers crossed that it works, because we're exhausted.

Position not sanctioned by AAP, but we're trying whatever works.

Nonetheless, the kids have been progressing forward. Kai now strings together simple sentences and is learning words as quickly as we can say them.

Kai knows the word, "rainbow," and is fascinated by them.

"Ba Ba shoe!"

It's amazing to watch Kai figure things out. The other day, we mentioned Brownie (my mom's pet dog) and he said, "doggie, wo-wo-wo-wo, fish, Po Po, Gung Gung, Matt-Matt," naming all the people and things that he associated with my parents' house.

Action shot at Po Po and Gung Gung's house

He's also (finally) not crying through the entirety of church nursery time and seems to be making friends with some of the kids at church (other than Evelyn).

We've been working on potty training and although it seems unlikely that we'll be able to train him so early, he's peed twice in the potty (sounds like a big whoop, but a big deal in mommy-world).

Sora has a growing awareness of the world around her, although that mostly means that she spends her day watching her big brother who is running around, screaming.

Sora: "I did not sign up for this."

Unfortunately for us, she also seemingly has stranger anxiety, which seems improbable since she's only four months old. That makes things difficult for us since she doesn't usually do well with anybody but me, Nik or Nik's mom holding her.

A rare moment with Gung Gung

We went to Norris' first birthday party this past weekend. It was great seeing friends and catching up. Best of all for Kai, they had a bird show and Kai was absolutely transfixed by the parrots. Kai certainly loves animals. He's also figured out Chubs and Skinnay's names and likes to give them treats, feeding them little bits of hay.

Our burgeoning photographer

Luckily for us, the runny nose and low-grade fever that I mentioned during the last post didn't turn out to be much. By the next day, the fever was just a memory, although not before Sora caught what Kai had had. Sora still has a little bit of a runny nose and cough, though it's nothing like the last virus that had floored us all.

Since everyone's feeling better, some choice daddy-daughter bonding time

One of the big joys of having children is watching them figure out the world. Kai is always figuring out new ways to play, the other day, he was playing with the colander on his head, much to everyone's amusement.

We made the mistake of showing Kai the pictures that we take on the camera and so now whenever Kai sees the camera he says, "cheese!" and tries to grab the camera so he can look at the pictures (he especially likes to see the pictures of turtles and ducks). Nik also taught Kai how to take pictures on the camera and looking at the shots that Kai took, he certainly is taking after his papa, the sensitive artist. :)

With the mild California weather, spring is now upon us and Kai loves picking the flowers and playing with the dandelions.

Kai's become quite the little boss, and he will direct me, Nik or grandma to sit next to him by looking at us, patting the seat while saying, "ch-chair?" and nodding his head. Also, whenever he sees Sora drooling, he'll point at her and say, "wa-ter!" until one of us wipes her chin clean (he figured out how to say water during our Hawaii trip, I honestly was a little sad that some of his baby talk, like "wa wa", seems to be going away).

Kai's vocabulary and language comprehension continues to grow and grow.. he's starting to string together words into simple phrases like, "bye bye bay-be!" or "baba shoe".

Kai continues to be the doting older brother, insisting that we put Sora down in her chair so he can see or touch her, hugging her (watching a toddler hug an infant can be scary), wiping her face (also scary), giving his toys to her and now, wanting to hold her. The other day, Kai saw Nik holding Sora and said, "hold?" and then Kai held Sora while sitting in Nik's lap.

Tiger mama says, "All good Asian kids must play piano!" j/k :P

I took Sora to her four month well child pedi visit yesterday. I can't believe our little girl is already four months old! Sora's hitting her milestones, pushing up while on her tummy and grabbing for objects, though we still haven't got her sleep quite figured out. Some nights are better than others, but last night definitely wasn't one of those nights. I'm hoping that she'll get better when she gets over the virus, but we'll see.

"What're you lookin' at?"

"Hehe.. I kept my parents up all night."

Uh oh!

Right now, one Kai's favorite things to say is, "uh oh!" If he drops something or if he sees something fall down, he immediately says, "uh oh!" And guess who else likes to say "uh oh"? Of course.. his favorite gal pal, Evelyn. Kai had a mall play date with Evelyn a couple of weeks back and I forgot to post this pic. He was super-excited when he got to hold her hand and he was gripping her hand so tightly that she eventually pulled her hand away (rejected!).

Nik and I had a "sorta" date night, after we put Kai to sleep, we left him at home with grandma and took Sora with us in the new car (we got a Mazda 6!) to see a movie at the drive-in. Definitely an interesting experience that we want to try again when the kids are older.

We met up with a number of Sora's future BFF's this past week, I'm looking forward to when Kayla and Zadie get bigger, so everyone can play together. :)

The weather was beautiful on Saturday and we ventured up the peninsula for the 1st birthday party of our friend's daughter. So many kids running around; Kai loved the bulgogi and had three (!) cake pops. We then drove up to SF to meet Yvonne, Justin and Zadie at Golden Gate Park. Walking around takes a long time with a toddler in tow, but Kai had a blast and loved picking flowers and watching the birds and dogs.

Kai loves his sister and watching them interact is such a joy, although Kai still doesn't quite understand the concept of being gentle.

Sora: "Parents, why are you letting him sit in my chair?"

Our little Sora is quite the socialite and conversationalist. She's always cooing and squealing, and she's content and happy at large social gatherings. We've also observed this odd phenomena where she'll cry when she's in the house and will immediately quiet down as soon as we take her outside. We're working on regimenting Sora's sleep patterns.. though sleeping through the night at this point in time seems like an impossible dream.

Anyway, after an awesome week of everyone being well and Kai being cheerful and energetic, guess who had a slight fever and runny nose this morning? That's right.. Kai! Uh oh! It feels like Kai has been continually sick this entire winter. As tempting as it is to hunker down and not let Kai out at all, I know it's impossible and I tell myself that this will bolster up his immune system so he won't get sick as much in the future.

Sick yet again (anyone noticing a pattern here?)

Sorry for the long silence. Right after returning from Hawaii, Kai, Sora and I were sick yet again. As it has been, it all started off with Kai getting a cough and fever, then it progressed to Sora, then me, and lastly Nik's mom. But needless to say, this past while has been stressful and miserable as Kai and Sora (and I) have been sick and extra cranky. Poor Nik! Everyone is finally starting to feel better and Kai is returning to his cheerful and easy-to-feed self.

Feeling sick and out of it

Having Nik's mom around has been great. Sometimes we just need an extra pair of arms to hold Sora or an extra playmate for Kai. Since these past few days have been particularly tough, we've been especially grateful for her help. We've moved Sora back into our room since Nik's mom is now sleeping in the office. We haven't quite figured out the logistics of how the kids will sleep in the same room, but that's the eventual goal; unfortunately, some of the kids' normal sleep routines had been disrupted by this bout of illness, so we also have to work on training them back.

Kai's vocabulary continues to grow and surprise us.. the other day he pointed to the refrigerator and said, "ma-net!" Sometimes it's difficult to interpret "Kai-speak", but I think we've now reached the stage where we need to be cautious about what we say around him since you never know what he may hear and repeat back to us.

Sora smiles more than ever these days, she now grasps at objects and can hold up her head during tummy time (though she still hates it).

Kai loves hanging out with Sora and will sometimes try to swat us away if we get too close to him and his sister.

Bonus picture from our Hawaii trip :)