Rewind

You'd think that since both Kai and Sora are in full-time daycare, I'd have more time to update this blog, but I've been falling behind lately, and somehow I still manage to feel busy and fill my days. We just returned from Kauai, however I'll hold off on posting about Hawaii since I need to write about all things that had happened before.

Matthew moved down to San Diego for school. We had many family gatherings before he left and we even did a video chat with him on David's birthday.

The closest we can get to a decent family portrait

Sora: "Huh?"

We celebrated David's birthday with a big family gathering and Korean BBQ. Kai loved eating the blue frosting, but refused to eat the cake.

My Mom is holding up video chat Matt :)

"I eat blue flower!"

In the evenings after daycare, we still either take the kids out to the school playground across the street..

.. or we go to the library. Presented with the option, Kai (our little nerd) will say, "I go library!" We end up at the library a lot, either reading books, playing with the computers, watching/feeding the ducks and geese, or playing at the library playground.

Kai is actually really good at using a mouse now and can point and click. Sora just hammers away on the keyboard.

Kai usually doesn't participate in storytime, but instead opts to read on his own.

We read a lot of books to the kids. Sometimes they can share Nik or my lap.. but usually they end up getting into each others' space and a pushing war ensues.

A rare peaceful moment

Kai reading a book and Sora looking at the phone..

.. and in the next moment, they're fighting over the phone.

Since the weather has been good, we also have been spending a lot of time in the backyard. Our little daredevil, Sora, loves sliding down the slide and will slide down (with a grown up to catch her) and the excitedly exclaim, "more, more!" and then will proceed to climb back up the ladder for another round. We're also in the process of planting a few vegetables for our garden. I grew a bunch of kabocha squash sprouts and the kids helped with the repotting. Hopefully, we'll have a bumper crop in the summer and fall. Kai is already enjoying our homegrown blueberries. Both of the kids love blowing bubbles and Kai has figured out how to use a bubble wand on his own, although Sora hasn't quite got it down yet.

Playing with "grass money"

Nik has also shown the kids that bubbles are not only for the backyard. The other day they blew bubbles in the bathtub and the kids loved catching the bubbles in their hands.

We made playdough the other day and the kids enjoyed "helping."

My little "helpers"

Nik has been on vacation for the past two weeks so he had a bit of a staycation the week before last. We took that opportunity to take the kids out of daycare for a day. Since I was housesitting that week, we first went over to my parents' house to walk Brownie and feed the fish. Kai had a lot of fun walking Brownie and was surprisingly good at it, although he eventually decided to get a lift in the stroller. We then drove on to Santa Cruz to visit the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. The kids enjoyed the touch pool, and seeing the fish, jellies, and sharks. Then the kids roamed around the aquarium grounds collecting rocks.

"Never mind that giant whale skeleton behind me, get a load of this fistful of rocks!"

Ansel came over with the kids the other day since Yukari was out. Evelyn, Kai and Sora had good time playing together (though Liam was bit grumpy) and we walked with the kids out to the creek. Then we had Hawaiian plate lunch for dinner.

Kai's hair had been getting a bit long.. so Nik gave him a haircut! I needed a bit of convincing since we had only had Kai's hair cut at the kids' salon and although I was skeptical, the unanimous verdict is that Nik did a good job (but I still miss Kai's mop top!).

Gettin' a bit wild

Even though he was watching Thomas and Friends on the phone, Kai hated every second of the haircut.

Before and after

Kai is turning three next week (O_o), so we decided to move him from the church nursery to preschool. So far, Kai is doing well.. he especially enjoys watching the short videos that they play during class. He's still at the same daycare and we don't plan on sending him to preschool until August.

Zombies

Kai loves to be wrapped up like a burrito in his Thomas blanket when he sleeps. Perhaps it subconsciously reminds him of feeling securely swaddled as an infant?

Sora has been doing well and she is now a little parrot who tries to repeat back everything we say to her and babbles out incoherent long sentences. She loves to say, "no-no," in a cute sing-song voice (it's really cute even though it's subversively defiant). Our strong-willed little girl is starting to assert herself and she and Kai butt heads (sometimes literally) more than ever. She was waking up too early in the mornings before we left for Hawaii and since Hawaii, we've had to redo her sleep training. Our first night back home was pretty miserable.. she cried at the top of her lungs for a full hour and a half.

Woke up too early and asleep by lunchtime

Eating out with the kids can be hit or miss, but one thing is for sure: the kids love their desserts!

Boba..

.. halo halo..

.. and soft serve!

Power outage

We lost our power a couple of days ago. I was at work, but Nik and Grandma Udom picked up the kids from daycare and took them to the library, only to return home and find out that we had no power! They improvised by eating dinner outdoors (fortunately we had already cooked dinner), and flashlights and headlamps for story and bedtime.

Nerding it out at the library..

.. only to find that there's no power at home!

Story time by flashlight

We ventured out to visit a new playground recently: new and shiny, and designed to be accessible to all children (I guess that's the trend nowadays), the Rotary PlayGarden has a lot of unique play structures. And but of course, our children gravitated to the sand. :P Eventually, Kai to moved on from the sand and we discovered that he's quite adept at climbing around.

"Lounging in the sand pit? Yeah, that's normal."

After the playground, we had dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. The kids ate wonderfully.. as usual, Sora loved the beans (what a strange taste preference!) and Kai ate the blueberry muffins. Of course, their favorite part was the ice cream dessert.

A couple of days later, Nik and Grandma Udom returned to the Rotary PlayGarden with the kids while I recovered from a night shift. And who should they happen to meet there, but Luna from daycare!

More sand

Hi Luna!

We celebrated Easter by going to church and Nik was on nursery duty. We've been asking Kai to see if he wants to transition over to preschool at church, but I think he enjoys being the "big guy" in the nursery since most of the other toddlers his age have already graduated to preschool. After lunch, we had an impromptu egg hunt at home. The kids had a lot of fun searching for eggs (hidden by the Easter Bunny, of course) and eating the gummies within.

Sora doesn't quite understand the Easter egg concept. 

"Look at what the Easter Bunny gave me!"

All smiles

We also celebrated Hak's second birthday. The kids loved the bounce house and ransacking Hak's toy collection. It was really nice to see and catch up with Rob and Sheila, it's so difficult to meet up with the kids nowadays.

Nik and I have been taking the opportunity to hang out on the afternoons when the kids are at daycare and we're both not working. We saw Batman v. Superman, followed by a romantic lunch at In-N-Out (we liked the movie, it really isn't that bad). We also tried something new and got Caribbean food in San Jose downtown.

Wrong islands, Nik!

The weather's been strange lately. We had a brief, but heavy downpour one day and yesterday felt like the middle of summer. But with the start of April, I think that El Nino may be behind us.

Over 90 degree weather means popsicles!

Sora has been even more vocal lately. She certainly has many opinions, and vocalizes, gestures and mimes to try to get us to understand what she wants. Remarkably, just recently, she's been letting us know when she's pooped in a diaper, gesturing to her bottom and saying "poo poo." The thought that we might be potty training Sora right after we've potty trained Kai is amazing (Kai still wears diaper when he sleeps), but maybe it's just a girl thing? Sora is also very cute these days and she will pick up a book, hand it to you and then plop down in your lap so you can read it to her.

Going over the the school playground across the street from Kai and Sora's daycare after pickup is an almost daily occurrence. The kids love it and can't seem to get enough of playing with their school friends. Although sometimes, our little nerds opt to go to the library instead. Kai and Sora love their books.