Kai calls the little creek adjacent to the main road "my creek," but with the hot summer weather, the creek completely dried up. The other day when Nik was working, I took the kids our for a walk and we stopped by the creek. I was surprised to find that after only the little bit of rain that we had gotten, the creek had returned! The kids loved it and proceeded to throw in stick after stick.
With the return of the creek, it's nice to have another diversion for the kids. It's a struggle to come up with ways to entertain the kids when one of us is in single parent mode (or even when there's two of us!).
There's playdough..
.. crafts..
.. the library..
.. even watching the squirrels scrambling in the rain can be a welcome diversion..
.. and when all else fails: frozen yogurt.
Kai is quite proficient with his letters and numbers, and can correctly identify them most of the time. He is an eager learner and requests that we "test him" during his storytime: he'll spell out words or count out objects in pictures.
Basically everything that Kai does, Sora also wants to do. If Kai's drinking without a lid, Sora also wants to drink without a lid. If Kai's playing a tackle game with Baba, Sora wants to play the same game with Mama. If Kai goes for a trolley ride (basically a piggy back ride), Sora also wants go for a trolley ride.. I could go on and on. The only thing that hasn't quite caught on is the potty training. Although Sora will sporadically go on the potty, she doesn't do it consistently and I'm concerned that it will eventually become a contest of the wills with our stubborn and smart little girl (my sense is that she knows how to do it, but she simply doesn't want to).
Kai: "That's not how you wear underpants!"
In spite of her stubborn streak, she has her moments.. and Nik and I have a hard time resisting her (a dangerous combination!).
Sora figured out how to say her name perhaps, two months ago? But she wasn't able to enunciate the two syllables, so it came out as "Sra." Today she started saying "Sora." Little milestone. <3
You'd think that after our crazy August, we would have slowed things down a bit in September. However, it was full speed ahead as we started September and welcomed Grandma Udom back from Portland. We then celebrated my Dad's birthday with meat and family at Texas Roadhouse.
In lieu of a camping trip, this year we opted for a low-key hangout with the Valley Crew in Sacramento. We spent a day at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center, enjoying the water and sunshine. We took the kids on a brief ride on a paddle boat, but that was short-lived and the kids preferred playing in the shallow, rocky beach. In the evening, we celebrated Denise and Nik's September birthdays, with the help of four eager toddlers. Since we travel with the kids so frequently, people often ask us how our kids sleep and usually it goes really well. Kai immediately fell asleep that night, but for some reason, Sora did not want to sleep and after babbling, singing, and running around, she fell asleep around midnight. The next morning, we met for brunch and after a brief visit to a nearby park, we headed home.
Nik had a bunch of time off in the middle of September, so the kids and I enjoyed having him at home during that time. The following weekend, we went to our annual church retreat. On our way there, we stopped for a brief visit to Santa Cruz and as usual, the kids loved playing in the sand and surf.
Their favorite beach game: running away from the water
During retreat, we shared a room with the Shaws; it was chaotic, but fun. Everyone sleeping together in one room wasn't as nearly horrible as I had feared, although each morning we were up at the crack of dawn with the kids. Nap time was a struggle and Kai passed out during one of the dinners. The kids did well during childcare, though on the first night, I tried to drop Kai off at preschool and Sora (my sassy girl) decided that she wanted to stay with Kai and the big kids. She said, "bye-bye Mama," and literally pushed me out the door. Kai and Sora had fun spending lots of time with their church friends and Nik and I enjoyed having a moment for more thoughtful reflection.
Four toddlers, one room.
Just chillin'
"Li-am!"
Passed out at the dinner table
Since Nik had time off, we ventured up to SF to meet Kristin for a food truck lunch and then walked around Dolores Park with ice cream from Bi-Rite.
We celebrated Nik's actual birthday by visiting the Taj Mahal.. just kidding! We went to a local Indian buffet for lunch. In the evening, we had blueberry cake with sprinkles (as per Kai's request) and David, Chris, and April joined us for an evening of board games.
Happy birthday, Nik!
Blueberry cake with sprinkles
At the end of the month, Grandma Udom headed back up to Portland, though we'll see her again in a few weeks.
We had a bout of pink eye at the end of the month, beginning with Sora and then spreading to Kai. The kids weren't terribly bothered, although giving them eye drops and having them miss daycare and preschool was a pain. Though in a way, it was nice to spend some time with each kid individually.. after having to care for two most of the time, having only one was a relative piece of cake!
With Kai at home and Nik post-night shift, a trip to the library is warranted
"My eye red, so I can't go school."
Time for a haircut!
Helping Mama make banana bread
With the hoards of kids, our large small group was becoming difficult to manage, so our group split and we are now in an actual small group which feels like a derivative of our old Sunnyvale large small group.
We celebrated Caleb and Evelyn's birthdays with a birthday party in the park. The kids loved running around together in the playground and the cake. The kids played tug-o-war and musical chairs. Kai didn't quite understand tug-o-war. But I was surprised that Kai and Sora both understood and played musical chairs. It was fun at first, but when Kai got eliminated he had a musical chair meltdown. Poor Kai-Kai!
A good shot for the future wedding slideshow ;)
Everyone is intently listening to the rules of the game
Time to play!
We had the Rongs over for a play date and dinner, and the week afterwards we had the Shaws over as well.
Last weekend, we met up with Ngoc, Yvonne, and Liyun (and their respective families) for dinner. We haven't seen any of these friends for almost two years so it was a much-needed time to catch up and hang out. The kids enjoyed exploring Ngoc's house, and especially loved the sand pit, fish tanks.. and did I mention they have a media room? :) Yvonne's cupcakes were a big hit.
Cupcake vs. camera.. cupcake wins
While the kids still love visiting the library and books, we don't go to the library as frequently as we used to. We usually have the kids blow off steam at Ruskin after we pick them up, although with the days getting shorter and colder, it's hit or miss whether we see our Bright Star friends or not; today was a good day and we saw both Leo and Luna. Usually once the kids get to the playground, they immediately want to shed their socks and shoes, and climb up the corkscrew slide. Literally following in her brother's footsteps, Sora's surprisingly agile and can climb up on her own.
Baba's getting in on the action
Crazy kids
Sora is as feisty as ever and has a surprisingly large vocabulary, stringing together simple two to three word sentences (i.e., "Sit down, Mama."). She speaks Mandarin and we hear "tsi guh", "mei yo", "hai yao", and "bu yao" all the time. Sora is very opinionated and doesn't hesitate to make those opinions known. She loves devices (don't they all?) and was holding on to Nik's phone the other day; she started taking pictures and videos.. the result was amusing. Sora can also play on her own pretty well these days.. right now she really enjoys puzzles. For now, the kids have a clear preference as to which parent they prefer: Kai prefers Nik, and Sora prefers me. If the kids wake up cranky in the morning, they'll usually cry out for their parent of choice and if the wrong parent shows up, they throw a fit.
"Cheese!"
Kai is doing well at Agape and is working on his letters, numbers, and tracings. They take pictures of the kids while at school and he looks pretty happy to me. :D Tonight, I was surprised to see that his drawing skills have vastly improved (he basically just scribbled before) since he started preschool. He refers to Bright Star as "my old school" and his old classmates as "Sora's friends." Nowadays he wants us to make up stories during bedtime instead of us just reading books out loud to him saying, "You tell story like I tell story." Although I'm in favor of nurturing his creativity, it can sometimes be exhausting.
From left to right: Kai, Mama, Baba, and upside-down Sora (Kai's in the process of drawing Grandma Udom)
The kids sometimes play well together, but a lot of time they're usually fighting over the same toy. Just the same, they have their moments. We still bathe Kai and Sora together, which is fun, but more trouble than it used to be because of the fighting. The
kids usually begin their bedtime routines in Kai's room and sit together
on the rocking chair, until we move Sora over to her own room. The kids each have a favorite stuffed friend: Kai has baby doggie and Sora has sheep.
Quick, take a picture before the moment is over!
Pretending they're on a train
A calm moment, aided by cookies..
.. because usually, it's more like this.
Everyone's doing it, so it must be a good idea.
And one more video of the kids bowling in the backyard. Clearly, they don't quite get it.
Okay, I've finally caught up on my updates! I'll try to keep on top of it this time around, but no guarantees since the holiday season is coming our way.
