Suburban bliss

Kai's been venturing out to the creek by our house with his rainboots lately. This video that Nik took is exactly what I had envisioned when I decided to buy Kai rainboots in the first place. :)

We went to my parents' house as usual this weekend and Matthew was making lasagna, Kai took a keen interest in the assembly of the lasagna and even helped out a little bit!

One of our church friends mentioned that Living Spaces was a good way to spend a rainy afternoon. Kai's daycare was closed yesterday for the MLK holiday, so we thought, "why not?" Essentially it was a big warehouse filled with furniture.. but with free coffee and a complimentary double occupancy push car for the kids. OK, I guess taking the kids for a ride around a furniture showroom while wired on coffee isn't a bad way to pass time. :)

Oh, suburbia.

Sora is really good at walking these days. This evening she was trying to chase Kai around and it was all laughter and mayhem.. I know that this is just a sneak peek into our near future. Now that she's a walker, I need to remember to have Sora wear shoes when we take her out. She walks well with shoes, though I don't think she's fond of them, she's always trying to peel them off her feet.

"I got this, Mama."

Finding our groove

It's been a relief to have Kai back in daycare. Though we love him, it can be trying to have both him and Sora at home. With El Niño and forecasts of a wet winter, I decided that Kai should have rain boots. He wasn't very enthusiastic about the idea initially and he didn't even want to try them on at first. But once he realized that he could walk through puddles without getting his feet wet, he was sold!

We've been trying to be a little more disciplined with Kai lately. Over time, we've developed bad table habits like reading books to him at the table and letting him play with toys while eating. We've mostly phased out the books and this past week we've been trying to get rid of the toys. But mealtime has been a challenge because our boy is stubborn and easily distracted.

Kai's also been pushing his bedtime later and later. I had thought that it might be because of the daycare holiday, but this past week, he continued to push his bedtime all the way out to 10 pm. This was obviously unacceptable, so we've been trying to set firm boundaries on how long his bedtime routines should last. It's been difficult, because of said stubbornness and the fact he drags his heels all through bedtime. Potty training also derails things.. everything takes a little longer now, because we need to take him to the potty and that is always a bit of a production. Speaking of which, potty training is going smoothly for the most part. He has accidents here and there which is to be expected, but he's doing well with it and doesn't even require M&M incentives all the time anymore.

Kai earned all of these engines while potty training and likes to arrange them in his box. Nik says that Kai has inherited my OCD tendencies. :P

Sora continues to enjoy her newfound mobility and now she's even better at getting into Kai's stuff. She's walking around everywhere and babbles constantly, and she and Kai have little conversations, although she still doesn't have any intelligible words other than "mama".

A rare occasion with Kai and Sora playing nicely with each other

Even though Sora is hitting all her milestones on the dot, she's still a tiny little thing in spite of the fact that she's a great eater. It's a bit of a conundrum to us and we're not really sure where all the calories she's eating are going.

Good to the last drop

And one of Nik's coworkers got Sora a knit hoodie as a birthday/Christmas gift. Sora's such a cutie!

A new year and new beginnings

We're not even a week into 2016, and Kai and Sora have both decided that it's time to move forward in life. In Kai's corner, with Kai's two week daycare closure, Nik and I decided that it was time to potty train. We were encouraged by Jeff and Gloria's assurance that M&M's were the key and the next day, we went to Target to buy big boy underwear and M&M's. The first two days, we questioned our judgement and Kai's readiness, and had a number of accidents. But apparently, M&M's are a great motivator and since then, it's been surprisingly smooth. We still have him wearing a diaper while sleeping, but so far, so good.

In Sora's corner, we're calling it: Sora is now a walker. She's been working on it for at least the past month, taking lunging and unsteady steps forward, but she's now walking halfway across the room. She literally started doing this on New Year's Day. Perhaps this was a New Year's resolution for her? :)

Harsha and Sagar were both in town over the New Year's holiday and we took the opportunity to go on a mini-roadtrip to Davenport with Matthew and our out-of-town friends. Even though it was all gray skies and rain at home, it was surprisingly beautiful at the coast and we enjoyed the clear (but cold) weather and blue skies. Even though the logistics of getting two young children out of the house can be daunting, it was worth it. As exhausted and worn out parents, when we got to the beach, we felt rejuvenated just by enjoying the gorgeous vistas and listening to the sound of the surf. Kai had a blast exploring, playing in the surf, chasing birds and building sand castles. Sora walked on the sand in bare feet for the first time (not sure if she was a fan).

Nik and Kai watching the surf

Chasing birds

As the sun set, we walked up to the cliff overlooking the beach. Although it was a bit nerve-wracking for me to have Kai even remotely close to the edge, there was a beautiful sunset and all in all, it was an awesome day and a great way to cap of 2015.

We took self-portraits before they were called "selfies" :P

Kristin and Rich visited on NYE and although Kai was a bit overwhelmed with Benji and Willy at first, he warmed up to them by the end of the visit. That evening, Nik and I put the kids to bed at their usual time and then stayed up to watch the NYE fireworks livestreaming from SF on our computer. I know, lame.. but as parents, I count it as an achievement that we at least we stayed up until midnight!

On New Year's day we entertained a number of visitors. Jeff and Gloria visited, along with some of my old high school friends. Ethan and Jared loved the chins.

On Saturday, the Shaws came over for a playdate and although it took Kai and Evelyn a little while to warm up to each other initially, eventually they were back at it.

Frenemies

Our little collection of bookworms

Our social calendar has calmed down in recent days and now it's just back to the daily grind/joy. Although it's been fun to have Kai at home, since we're potty training him, we've been home bound with the kids for the past few days. That can be a bit rough.. there's been a lot of fighting. Sora loves Kai and will always try to give him toys, either Kai will say, (on rare occasions) "thank you, Sora," or (more frequently) "I don't want it," and then toss the toy to the wayside. Poor Sora!

Under her brother's watchful supervision

Snack time!

Happy 2016, everyone! :)

Star Wars

In my rush to publish and post yesterday's post, I forgot to mention that Nik and I snuck out last week to catch a late-night showing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Nik had been paranoid that he would inevitably get spoiled if he didn't see the movie within the first week of its release. Unfortunately, Nik was a bit underwhelmed and although I was entertained at the time, in retrospect I have to agree with him. We're hopeful that the series will get better as it progresses. We were surprised when randomly ran into a group of guys from our church catching the exact same showing of Star Wars. Thanks to Chris for hanging out with our sleeping kiddos at home!

Blue Steel. Nik's still got it.

I also forgot to post these two pictures of Kai yesterday. Kai loves playing with his friends from church.

We lock the toddlers up when they misbehave at church. J/K!!

When we send Kai off to daycare in the morning he usually has to take a toy with him, sometimes it's cars or trains. The other day, it was a stuffed panda and Kai insisted that "panda buckle," so Nik strapped it into Sora's infant carseat.

This afternoon, Nik took Kai out to explore the creek near our house. Last week, we had had a lot of rain and it had become quite the torrent, but this week, it's back to being a quiet little creek.

This evening, we saw my Auntie Loretta and Uncle Graham visiting from Canada. Sora had never met them before but took to Uncle Graham almost immediately.

And one bonus picture from the LSCC's Christmas party "photo booth". Sora is such a cutie! (my husband ain't too bad, either :P)

The holiday hangover

There really hasn't been much of a lull between Christmas and New Year's for us. We hosted Joe and his family over the Christmas holiday and welcomed Grandma Udom back, and Harsha came to visit us for a couple of days as well. Nik has been working every day since Christmas and with daycare closed, that means a lot of babysitting for me and Grandma Udom.

It was fun to have Joe, Michelle and Ryan over for a couple of days. Ryan enjoyed having a little follower and Kai enjoyed trying to do everything that Ryan did. There was a lot of running around and running amok. Of course this led to Kai getting a bloody nose and torn frenulum (the little bit of tissue between the upper lip and gum line).. we were a little taken aback by the bleeding at first, but this is where having an ER doctor as a papa comes in handy. Then Kai got a big bruise and bump on his forehead. I guess he can't quite hang with the four/five year old's yet.

Kai: "Kai-Kai chasing!"

Even Sora wanted to join in on the fun: Kai would chase Ryan and then Sora would try to crawl to follow the boys. Not quite there yet, little girl.. give it a year. Fortunately, there was a lot of injury-free play as well and the kids seemed to genuinely enjoy seeing each other.

If you look closely, you can see Kai's bloody nose :P

Sora exploring Ryan's couch cushion fort

And of course there were quiet moments watching Peppa Pig and Thomas and Friends on TV.

Kai has also really enjoyed having Uncle Harsha over and Harsha has been trying to indoctrinate Kai on the virtues of being a "yes man". Hopefully this will have an effect on our contrarian toddler!

You know you've been accepted into the fold when Kai insists you sit in the backseat with him.

On Christmas morning, Kai and Sora both enjoyed tearing into their gifts. Sora has already figured out wrapping paper and was tearing the paper off with gusto. Kai really loves the trains and tracks he received, and he also got a pair of Thomas pajamas from Popo. He loves the pajamas, but the only problem is that now he doesn't want to change clothes in the morning! And since Christmas, Kai keeps asking about presents when he wakes up in the morning. My parents hosted Christmas dinner and it was fun to have all the family gathered together.

Sora continues to love feeding herself. She's pretty good at using a spoon and will demand that we give her one if we don't give it to her initially. I'm starting to wish that she learns to speak soon, because her ear-piercing screams are just too much.

"What're you lookin' at?"

Lately when we've visited my parents' house, Sora has gravitated towards the piano. We've always known that she loves music, but she seems to be genuinely interested in the piano. Of course, Kai will see her and then try to shove her out of the way. Nik even took a couple of pictures of her looking like a miniature virtuoso. In spite of my memories of hating piano practice as a tween and teenager (it was still fun when I was a kid), I'm sorely tempted to see if Sora takes to piano/music lessons.

I have to say that I feel like the kids are beginning to get better at playing together independently. The other day they were coloring together (although there was a lot of crying over stolen crayons) and thumbing through books together.

We still try to avoid having the kids watch TV, but the other day, I was at my parents' and I was so exhausted that I gave up and just let the kids watch Thomas and Friends.

We're pretty exhausted with all the holiday activities and no daycare. Are the holidays over yet?