Fighting off illness

Kai and Sora have had a lingering stuffy nose and cough, but this past week it turned into a full blown illness. Kai had a fever on Friday, so we had to keep him out of daycare. I took the opportunity to take the kids to the library. There, we got a big book of Rev. Awdry's original Thomas the Tank Engine stories. I've already read a couple to Kai and he seems genuinely interested in the stories in spite of the lack of pictures.

Kai still loves Thomas and it's, "Thomas, this. Thomas, that." All. The. Time. We're impressed that he's memorized a lot of the books verbatim and knows the lyrics to a lot of the songs. Though recently, he's taken a liking to the Dinotrux (they're dinosaurs, but they're also trucks!).

Staying at home can sometimes be more difficult than going out, so I also took Kai out to the library on Saturday so Nik could rest at home. At the duck pond, a nice family gave Kai some bread to feed to the ducks.

Afterward, we went inside the library where they were doing storytime. Kai wasn't interested at first, but once the librarian started playing music and singing songs, he made a beeline for the crowd of kids. He's usually too shy to participate, but this time, he held his own and even wanted to get closer when the librarian started reading a book. Afterward, he got a sticker as a reward.

Sora started getting more ill by the weekend. She had a fever and horrible coughing fits which kept her (and us) up at night. When our kids are sick, they just want to curl up next to you and fall asleep. Even though Sora loves to cuddle, she never falls asleep in our arms, so we knew she was feeling pretty crummy.

We thought Kai was better by Monday and sent him off to daycare as usual. But he must've had some lingering illness, because he got sent home from daycare on Wednesday for having a slightly elevated temperature and acting lethargic. I took him home and he literally passed out in the middle of the living room floor and then slept for the next 3.5 hours.

And of course, I got sick in the midst of this.. Nik, with his iron-clad immune system (tempered by the ER), was the only one who escaped unscathed. I think the kids are finally feeling better although their appetites are not back to 100%. This morning, they were up to their usual antics at breakfast.

In the meanwhile, we went on a lunchtime date and discovered a new (to us) restaurant in our neighborhood. Sora was our chaperon.

"No funny business on my watch, kiddos."

My mom also acquired a miniature rabbit which will supposedly never grow over 2 pounds. Her name is Bebe and Kai loves her.

We went to the library again this evening and as usual, Sora headed for the computers immediately. She always gravitates towards screens and is surprisingly proficient at operating a touch screen. And today I was surprised to see that she's even figured out how to move a mouse! She's actually better than Kai in this respect, since Kai always wants to treat the monitor and mouse like a touch screen (21st century kids!).

Kai and Sora always seem to want to play with the same toy at the same time and are constantly getting into fights over toys even though the living room is littered with toys. Somehow Kai has assigned yellow as Sora's color (he's done this since she was a baby) and whenever we ask Kai to share a toy with Sora, he will almost invariably give Sora the yellow version of that toy. Nik and I are convinced that Sora will subconsciously hate the color yellow in the future.

Kai: "Yellow engine for Sor-ra!"

Sora is talking more, though we haven't been able to keep track of each individual word like we had Kai. Recognizable words are: Mama, Baba, Kai-Kai, more, ball and wa-wa (for water). But she clearly has a lot of opinions and is constantly babbling (or shrieking) to make herself heard.

Catch up, snow trip and Valentine's Day (Year 9!)

I realize it's been a while since I last posted. I blame it on being out of town, sick and just busy overall. So let's rewind it back a couple of weeks...

Life at home has been good, albeit exhausting lately since the kids had had back-to-back illnesses these past couple of weeks. Recently, Kai really likes to sing "Let It Go" which he must have learned from daycare. Every morning, Nik asks Kai what he dreamed about when he wakes up. Now we're not sure if Kai actually understands the concept of dreaming, but lately he says that he dreamed about the diesel engine characters from Thomas and Friends. And for the sake of our own sanity, we've been trying to be better about not begging Kai to eat. In fact, I'm reading a book called "Give Peas a Chance".

Chicken nuggets: usually a winner.

Kai can be pretty good at playing quietly on his own, and sometimes we find that he's meticulously lined up all of his engines. That's when Nik will say to me, "Look at what your child has done."

Is OCD inherited?

Since the days are getting longer again, we've been taking Kai over to the school playground across the street from his daycare in the evenings. He really enjoys playing with Athena, one his friends from daycare.

Of course that doesn't mean that Kai's forgotten about his favorite gal pal, Evelyn. They were having a great time running around during LSL this past Sunday.

Sora's continues to be our good little eater, although she's starting to develop a little bit of sass and now likes to drop food on the ground. Nik and I are beginning to worry.

"Chocolate samples at Costco? Yes, please."

Fresh ramen at Ramen Taka..

.. instant ramen at home. Truly, her father's child.

When I do the laundry, I like to have Sora help put clothes in the dryer and hilariously, as she puts each item of clothing into the dryer, she likes to make an emphatic grunt. She also grunts like this when she throws balls (she's become quite proficient lately).

Sora really enjoys playing with these toy golf clubs that we acquired from a neighbor. Our clever little girl even knows to hit balls with the clubs! Amazingly, she has not yet injured herself with them.

We've also decided to start Sora in daycare in March. To help her adjust, we've been taking her with us when we drop Kai off or pick him up. Although Sora is a whole head shorter than most of the kids, she really seems to enjoy playing with them and they all dote on her and surround her saying, "mei mei, mei mei" when she's there.

We've been trying to get out with the kids more. Especially since we have the creek, a great natural resource, practically in our backyard. Kai loves throwing rocks in the water and though we love the warm weather we've been having lately, we're not sure how long the creek will last if it doesn't rain again soon.

Though we try to not have the kids watch too much TV, sometimes the situation calls for it. The other day, we were exhausted and there was not much else we could do.

We continue to have our weekly routines of going to small group and church. Kai and Sora look forward to getting breakfast goodies at church in the morning and sometimes it's the only way we can entice them to get out the door.

"Disheveled, but at least I made it in time to get a donut!"

Putting the toddlers to work

I also take the kids to Po Po and Gung Gung's house weekly. Matthew is usually there when we visit and is always great with the kids. Recently, Po Po introduced the kids to Bambi (Matthew's favorite movie as a child). Kai was enraptured at the beginning of the movie, but then lost interest after Bambi grew up. The kids love playing with Po Po and Gung Gung's souvenir magnets, in fact, they've broken a couple of them and now we put the breakable ones well out of reach.

Story time with Uncle Matt

Little TV zombies

I also took the kids over to my parents' for CNY/Super Bowl Sunday. Nik had to work that afternoon but fortunately, all was quiet in the ER. The kids received red envelopes from Po Po and Gung Gung, and my Mom even got Kai to say, "gong xi." Kai kept asking me, "where my money?" after I had put it away (smart boy). The kids weren't really into the game, but were transfixed by the halftime show: Kai was dancing and jumping along to Coldplay and Sora loved Beyonce.

"A rice paddle is definitely the best utensil to eat tortilla chips with."

We also had a number of birthday celebrations recently. The kids got birthday cupcake cones to celebrate Isaac's birthday. The kids loved them.

I really wish that this picture wasn't blurry!

We went to the Connicks' house to celebrate Elysia's birthday and Kai enjoyed "fishing" for toys.

Then we went to Pump It Up to celebrate Evelyn and Everest's birthdays. Sora loved playing in the toy cars and Kai had fun bouncing around with Uncle Dave.

It really is impossible to get so many kids to sit still for a group photo.

Our annual snow trip with the Valley Crew was a couple of weeks ago. We were blessed with fresh snow for the first time in years, although only a few from our group actually went out to the slopes. The rest of us contented ourselves to hanging out, eating and playing in the snow near our cabin. Kai was a bit hesitant about the snow at first and initially, he didn't even want to touch it. But once he found out he could throw it at Uncle Wei and Uncle Mukesh, he quickly warmed up to it. Amusingly, Sora loved the massage chair at the cabin. We had a great time and are so grateful that we've been able to keep up this annual tradition over the years (even with the littles!).

"Oh yeah..."

We celebrated Valentine's Day/our 9th year dating anniversary with a trip to Sweet Tomatoes followed by a quick run to Trader Joe's. No getaway weekend this year, but it was wonderful nonetheless and as a bonus, the kids ate great that night! Kai and Sora especially loved the sample cookies they were giving out at Trader Joe's.

Happy 9th! :D

Sora: "These chocolate covered cookies are pretty awesome!"

Since Kai's daycare was closed for the President's Day holiday, we decided to take the kids out on a day trip to Monterey. We went to Dennis the Menace Park, Kai enjoyed playing with the sand and running through the tunnels and Sora befriended with a nice family who was kind enough to share their picnic lunch with us.

Sora: "Can I have your food?"

"Eat, Mama!"

We then got a quick dinner on Cannery Row and played at the beach. Kai got soaked when a big wave caught him off guard.

"I'm not having fun anymore!"

We then wandered out to the coastal lookout off of Cannery Row. It was exactly where Nik and I had taken our engagement photos so many years ago.

From this..

.. to this. Oh, how times change!

Okay, this is the last time I procrastinate.. there's just too many awesome pictures and this blog post took forever!