I've been quite horrible at updating the blog. While I love synthesizing and writing my thoughts and memories out, sleep (or time-wasting) often trumps blogging and I haven't felt up to it lately. There are a few recent milestones that I want to make note of: Jad finally has more than eight teeth. His molars popped out first in the back, and right now he has a gap between his front teeth and said molars. I see the start of more teeth coming in to fill in the gaps so yay more teeth. But in consequence, less sleep for me. He's been waking up up to two times in the middle of the night, and I've been nursing his back to sleep.
I deliberately decided not to wean Jad before our Hawaii trip; post-Hawaii, I think that was a prudent decision. I was planning to wean Jad once he started daycare. He started at Bright Star in the beginning of March. I was feeling a bit of mom guilt when he started, so I kept on nursing him and within two weeks of starting daycare, he had a protracted stomach illness. Poor little guy was vomiting and had diarrhea for nearly a week. By the end of the illness, my skinny little boy was even skinnier. He's doing great now and now he has an appetite unlike I've ever seen with him before, so my little guy is starting to bulk up again. But now with all the teeth coming up, I'm not sure when I'll be able to wean him completely. I'm only nursing him at bedtime and when he wakes up in the middle of the night.
Successful pick up after his first day of daycare..
.. but got sick after less than two weeks. Even though he's a cuddlebug, he never sleeps in our arms
Also, Jad is officially speaking: his first word is probably "Mama", he babbles a lot so we took a long time to give him credit for having a first word since it didn't seem like the sounds he was making were directed at anything specific. But I can say with certainty now, that he says "Mama", "Baba", and "ball". Undoubtedly, he will soon try to say "Kai-Kai" and "Sora" since they're his favorite people in the world. :)
Kai started soccer last week so I am now officially a soccer mom. He had his first game this past weekend. In Kai's division, they play 5-on-5 on a smaller field, there are no set positions and they don't keep score, but even with these relaxed rules, playing a game is different from practice scrimmages, so Kai's team was steamrolled this past Saturday. As the other team scored goal after goal, you could see Kai's enthusiasm for the game waning: his shoulders were slumped and his heart just wasn't in it. When I asked him how he felt about the game, he replied that he felt "in between bad and okay."
Juggling extracurriculars has been a challenge, especially since jiu jitsu and soccer practices are back-to-back on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but Kai has been taking it in stride and on those days, we have him take a nap in the afternoon after school and it seems to carry him through until the evening. He's very good knowing that he should sleep when he's tired.. unlike some of my other children...
Kai's first jiu jitsu tournament was a few weeks ago. He had a rough match, where his face was pressed into the mat by his opponent and they had to stop. Kai ended up in tears and his coaches consoled him on the sidelines, but I was so proud of him when he kept going. He went on to win his next two matches and Nik and I were surprised that all the kids in his division ended up placing--three kids placed second, including Kai! It was good positive affirmation for continuing BJJ and Kai is looking forward to the next tournament
Looking sporty at his first soccer practice
We've officially enrolled Sora in TK for next fall. It's hard to believe that our bright and precocious little girl will have to wait another year until she starts kindergarten, but she is physically tiny, so perhaps it's not altogether a bad thing? And after years of wanting to grow out her hair to be "like Rapunzel," she finally said that she wanted to trim her hair a few inches. We went to the Kid's Salon a few weeks ago and they cut off about three inches; it literally took five minutes, but since it was her very first haircut, I wanted it to be special. :P
And just yesterday, Sora started riding a bike! She had been doing really well with the balance bike, but when we tried to get her to ride a regular bike, the pedals threw her off and she freaked out. So we back pedaled (pun intended.. hehe) and had her try out a bike with training wheels to get used to the pedaling motion. Yesterday, she was using the bike with training wheels and asked to use the balance bike, and I decided to ask if she wanted to try out the regular bike instead. She was initially freaked out, but then Kristy suggested using the driveway slope to help get her started. It was pretty amazing, after an initial positive experience, you could literally see her confidence building and building. By the afternoon, she was biking all the way down the street on her own!
This Friday, Nik and I managed to go out for a rare lunch date. We went out to a nearby ramen place. Decent, though not extraordinary; honestly, we're not willing to drive out just for better food these days. Time is precious, so having a decent ramen place nearby is awesome. Jad is a funny baby. He's always trying to emulate Kai and Sora, and sometimes he refuses to eat unless he's using a utensil (which means he doesn't eat since he doesn't have fine motor control yet -_-).
Poking at the ramen ≠ eating ramen
This Saturday, Nik and I were both at home with the kids, we considered going out, it just never happened. I ended up taking Sora out to the creek to play during Jad's morning nap (for some reason Kai did not want to go, and it's impossible to convince him otherwise once he has an idea in his head).
Making sure her skirt doesn't get wet!
And during Jad's afternoon nap, the kids helped the Chells clear out branches as they trimmed a tree in their front yard. The kids were actually able to be helpful and it was an awesome afternoon diversion. In the evening we went to a Lunar New Year celebration at the Milpitas Community Center. It wasn't nearly as entertaining as I had hoped (way too much talking).
On Sunday, I took the kids over to my parents' and as I was driving over, there was a beautiful rainbow arching through the sky. The kids asked me to "take a picture so we can remember this forever." I did.. though it definitely wasn't the safe thing to do.
Don't try this at home, kids
It had been raining a lot last week, so we didn't expect to catch the lunar eclipse last night. But we were fortunate enough to have a break in the rain just as the eclipse reached totality. My camera phone picture obviously didn't do it any justice, but it was amazing to see and we feel lucky to have caught it. The kids were already asleep, so they didn't get to see it either, but I'm sure there will be other eclipses.
Kai was off of school today for MLK. Though Sora's preschool was not closed today, it's difficult to take her to school when Kai didn't have to go, so we ended up keeping her at home with us. This afternoon we went to Happy Hollow with the Ngs. The park was so crowded because of the MLK holiday (we're used to visiting on random weekdays), but the kids enjoyed running around and playing with each other, and it was great to hang out and catch up.
Each night at bedtime, we ask the kids what their prayer requests are so we can pray together before bed. The kids' typical request is no bad dreams. Tonight after asking Kai for his prayer requests, I told him that my request is to be a better parent, to which Kai replied, "You're already a good a parent as you should be."
My heart felt like it was going to burst.
These are the moments that I need to imprint upon my heart to get me through the times when they're driving me up the wall.
So on to my resolve of updating this blog more frequently! (I also have a bunch of catch up to do on 2018)
Sora was so upset that she had to go to school for one day while Kai was at home.. it's difficult when the kids' schedules aren't in sync, and since Kai and Sora are so close in age, Sora doesn't always see the difference between him and her. In the evening, we met up with Viet and family for dinner. It was chaotic going out to a restaurant with five kids in tow and our spoiled kids didn't enjoy the s'mores crepe nearly as much as they should've. :P
We were gearing up to go to the snow retreat the next day and that evening, disaster struck. I slipped on a stair and tore my ACL (I had had a partial tear which is now completely torn). We missed a day of the snow retreat so I could see the doctor and get worked up, but the MRI confirmed what we had already suspected.
Given the choice of having me try to take it easy at home on our own or take it easy at Tahoe with our friends, we opted to drive up to Tahoe nonetheless and make the most of the weekend. There was hardly any snow on Friday, so the kids were delighted when it started snowing on Saturday afternoon. The drive home was a bit hairy, as almost everyone decided to leave at 7 am to beat the traffic and snow storm, and then one of the families in our group got into a relatively serious car accident (though no one was injured), but going on this trip was the right choice, it's always easier to parent in community
An amazingly nice family picture (thx, Peggy!)
Kai's makin' a move ;)
"Uh, Dad? I'm not sure how I feel about this.."
".. I like snow much better from inside."
Jaddy's popular with the ladies
Fortunately my knee is recovering, so it's been easier for me to get around, though since I now have a complete tear, I'm going to have to have a surgery.. hopefully in April if I can time it correctly. It's been a challenging since Nik's been working quite a bit and I've had to care for the kids on my own in the mornings, but we've also had a lot of help from the Halls these past few days as well. Luckily, my little social butterfly doesn't mind hanging out with Isaac and Owen.
Jad is such a joy, and Nik and I like to say that he lives up to his name (Jad means "benevolent" in Arabic). He's a cheerful, easygoing baby and loves people--he's happy as a clam as long as people are around and paying attention to him. He loves Kai and Sora, and will try to jump into the fray if he sees them doing something fun. With two older siblings, he's pretty assertive and he doesn't let himself get bossed around by older kids. He likes ride on vehicles and throwing balls.. his seventh and eighth teeth finally popped out (he's had six teeth for a long time now) and he's started taking his first steps about a week ago!
"Don't leave me out!"
Sora is ever the little diva. She is so smart and clever, even though she has a late birthday and will be in T-K next year, she definitely could go to kindergarten. She is a complete girly girl, and loves pink, princesses, and ponies.. dance class suits her well. She is also stubborn as a mule, and will pout or stamp her feet if she doesn't get what she wants (no idea where she picked that up from). Perhaps it's also a bit of middle child syndrome, but she also doesn't like being ignored and will scream if you talk over her.
Our tiny dancer
Kai's been doing well in kindergarten, though there have been a few notes to home ("the biting incident" and "the chalk incident"). His best friend at school is Abhai. He has a competitive streak and loves to get rewards or recognition. After winning Reader of the Month in October, he set his sights on winning Reader of the Year for the school year. Though Kai likes to read anyway, we've been impressed with his commitment to achieving his goal. His bookworm tendencies are starting to pay off and can now read whole books on his own. He is still going to jiu jitsu and has earned two stripes (they award stripes according to attendance in Kai's class). Kai can be a bit of a goofball and occasionally has problems focusing; Nik is constantly telling Kai to "pay attention to what you're doing," and sometimes he will literally start spinning around in circles for no reason in particular.
October Reader of the Month! :)
Testing out the umbrella and rain boots
I'll try to keep up with the blog so things don't get too overwhelming for me in the future. Closing this post off with a surprisingly decent picture of the three kiddos. :)
Wonders! They look and smile at the camera these days!
.. and our family ornament arrived! (the tree is already packed away, but late is better than never, right?)
Now, with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season behind me, I can finally sit down and write about it. Not wanting to miss out on the holiday cheer, I set up the tree the day after Thanksgiving. The kids enjoyed decorating and made a fairly quick work of it (thank goodness for unbreakable ornaments).
After they were done decorating, they wanted to take a picture. Not really one for the holiday cards, but a good actual representation of our kids. :P
After spending Thanksgiving in Paradise doing relief work to help fire victims, Matt was back in the Bay Area for some family time. With Matthew at home, we decided that this was the ideal time to have Kai and Sora to try an overnight stay at Po Po and Gung Gung's house. The kids were excited to discover the bed sheet and pillow fort that Uncle Matt had built for them to sleep in and we were quickly shooed away to have dinner together with our adorable third wheel, Jad. :P Dinner was calm with only one kid to mind and everything was oddly quiet when we got home. Meanwhile at the grandparents': the kids made cookies and did not sleep in the fort as planned, but they had an awesome time and did not want to go back with Nik when he arrived to pick them up in the morning.
Having dinner out with just one kid is cause for celebration!
With Jad turning one, we knew we wouldn't be able to have another birthday party for Sora so close to his, so we opted for a joint birthday celebration with Liam in December. Laziness prevailed, and since we knew we had Sora and Liam's joint birthday celebration in the pipeline, we left the birthday decorations up all through November until Sora and Liam's party. The theme of the party was donuts and dinosaurs, the donut half of the theme was chosen by Sora. :P
Birthday donuts instead of cake were a hit!
The huge donuts were courtesy of a bakery near the Shaws
We were fortunate enough to see the Valley Crew a number of times during the month of December. The first time was celebrating Viet's birthday with lunchtime karaoke. The second time was a celebration of Ray and Michelle's marriage. We met at the Ferry Building and loaded up into a party bus stocked with snacks and refreshments. We drove up to an overlook of the Golden Gate to take in the view and then drove on to Viansa Sonoma. After a little bit of wine and cheese, we drove back and took a ferry back into the City. Jad was not a fan of the bus and on the ride back to the ferry, he cried nearly nonstop.. fortunately, everyone on the bus was understanding.
This is really different from the party bus I took in my 20's :P
With the newlyweds
Posing with her hands on her hips.. this girl.
Since Nik and I don't take it easy, right after the party bus excursion, we decided to meet some of our LSCC friends at a very elaborate Christmas play. The amount of manpower that it probably takes to put on such an event is amazing: there were live animals and a fire twirler.. there was also a corresponding crush of people. Unfortunately, our church friends ended up not being able to make it, though we enjoyed the show and free hot chocolate. :)
Our friend, Dani, played the innkeeper's wife..
.. and the kids got to pet her goats!
In the middle of December, we hosted Chris for a few days. The kids enjoyed spending time with their uncle and we were able to round everyone up for a board game night, just like the good old days.
Since Chris was in town (and so was Matt) they got to check out Sora's Christmas recital. Our little performer was in the front and center, and did great!
Showin' off some of that Sora 'tude
Extra uncle love!
Kai also had a Christmas recital, though it was much more difficult to get a good view with parents from three kindergarten classroom and while managing Sora and Jad.
He can be a bit of a goofball, but the boy cleans up pretty well :)
After binge watching seasons of the Great British Bake Off, I've been wanting to up my baking game. So I finally ponied up and bought a proper rolling pin. I made sugar cookies with the kids, though it was too difficult to take pictures while directing and managing the kiddos. Fortunately, we later made sugar cookies (again) with the Connicks and this time, I had plenty of photo ops.
Honestly, making cookies with the Connicks was a lot more fun since I'm too much of a control-freak. You have to just let them make a mess and clean it up later
That's a lot of sugar and M&M's
During the Christmas season, the kids like to "drive around the circle".. that is, drive around our little neighborhood to check out who has lights and decorations up. Though we visited a "famous" house nearby that has a pretty elaborate light setup, I still wanted to take the kids out to Christmas in the Park for the season.. it's kind of a tradition, since we only missed it the year that Sora was born.
"Yeah. These are our parents. Totally not embarrassing."
Gingerbread houses at the Fairmont
Nik worked on Christmas Eve, so when Mia offered to have the kids over for a play date, I gladly accepted. As always, the kids had a great time together, but eventually it was time for me to take Jad home for a nap, I was ready to pack up all three kids, but then Mia suggested that I leave Kai and Sora behind since everyone was playing so well together. I decided to just try it out, but told Mia that she could text me at any time to abort. The kids stayed at the Rong house for 4 HOURS without me. It was wonderful. Jad napped, I napped, when he woke up, I played with him.. it was AMAZING.
Maybe it was the excitement of playing at Ethan's house all day or the anticipation of Christmas morning.. but bedtime for Sora was a horror on Christmas Eve. And when Sora starts misbehaving, she just doubles down and keeps digging the hole deeper and deeper. Anyway, it resulted in her not being able to open the presents that we bought her on Christmas morning. I did, however, let her have her gift from "Santa" as a small consolation.
As a side note: this is the first year we did "Santa". It's probably since Kai is now at a secular public school with kids who have different backgrounds.. Agape is Christian so I don't know if Santa was ever discussed. In years before, when the kids would ask about Santa, Nik and I would evasively reply that it's a story that some people believe in, but this year, they were insistent that he exists and even wrote letters to him, so we figured that we'd just go with it. Kai asked for a Spirograph and Sora asked for a walking, musical unicorn.. after looking at some horrifying options on Amazon, we opted for just a plush unicorn and blamed it on Santa. :P
On Christmas morning, the kids were pretty pleased with their presents and Sora eventually earned back her Christmas presents over the course of the day.
I love that Nik and Jad are mirroring Sora <3
Jad's napping, which means it's time to play with Legos!
We met my Uncles George and Wilson for dim sum lunch on Christmas day. I joke that Jad loves old men, because he couldn't stop smiling at my uncles. Dinner was low-key and spent at my parents'.
Everyone knows that the only place open on Christmas Day are Chinese places, so dim sum was packed
Nik's work schedule was relatively light during the holidays and we spent a lot time hanging out with friends who also had kids who were out of school: we met with the Ngs for a hot pot dinner, we met Mia and her kids at the Tech Museum, and had a Chuck E. Cheese's play date with the Shaws.
Princess Sora is not pleased that Kai is getting more attention :P
Quite happy with the butterfly on her head
We had been talking about doing a movie night with the neighborhood kiddos for a while now, and it finally happened on NYE. We all brought a little something to share and the kids ate together at the kids' table. Eventually the kids settled in to eat popcorn and watch How to Train Your Dragon 2, which TBH, was a little scary for our kids. But, we had some adult time, which is a rare and precious commodity. We rang in 2019 by going to bed: our kids were in bed by 8:30 pm, and Nik and I went to sleep before midnight.
Not a lot of actual "eating" going on at the kids' table
In the midst of this holiday craziness, we also celebrated Dustin and Ethan's birthdays. Just after the New Year, I hurt my knee and we went to LSCC's snow retreat, but I'm going to save all of that for another post. I've been looking at some of my old posts and I really liked it when I updated the blog weekly. I'm going to try to write in here more often in 2019.. it helps augment my horrible mommy-brain memory which forgets all the little details of the day-to-day.
Closing this post out with our holiday card. Quite happy with how they turned out this year. :)
