Dodge Ball!

I'm trying out having Vincent go to karate on Mondays and Wednesdays. It's an earlier time of day, I don't have to take Tyler with us one of those days. The drawback to this is our friends. Vincent has made a few "karate friends." He likes them, and was bummed not to have class with them today. And, I have a parent who has sort of become my friend. He used to go to the same gym as us, with his younger child in the daycare, too. And, he's an ex-restaurant cook, like me. It's been fun talking food with him. But, I think this new schedule will work out better for us. I won't be cutting it so close to dinner on one of the nights. We still have to cut it close on Mondays because we have to pick up Tyler right after, but tonight, I was able to get David to start dinner. The other tricky part is that David has been taking karate on Mondays and Wednesdays, too. Yes, he's taking karate! 

This afternoon's karate ended with a game of dodge ball. Cute. Vincent sort of got it. 

Chinese New Year's Eve

Happy New Year! Tomorrow we start the Year of the Dragon! My year. Awesome, awesome animal.  

In celebration, we had a lunch party at our house with other Asian families similar to us (mothers are Chinese, fathers are Caucasian). We didn't actually plan it that way, it's just how it happened...the mixed race families. We did also have our good friends, Paul and Gabi, and their children over as well. We had a Korean taco bar. Others brought noodles, chicken, more noodles, sticky rice, and bbq pork in a bun.

The kids had a fun time playing, but mostly loved the fact that we put on a movie for them to watch. And, since there were more girls to boys in the bunch, I think it made a difference in the level of craziness in playing. What all this means is simply that the parents all got to hang out and talk to each other!! And, eat! And, eat!

This picture makes me giggle.

It was quite the feast.

And, since Tyler skipped his nap, after everyone had left, we had to separate the boys for being a bit too rough on each other, and Tyler fell asleep sitting up. We tried to have him lie down, but he only got angry at us, and continued to sleep sitting up.

After he woke, we all sat down to watch the end of the 49ers/Giants game. We ended up eating dinner in the TV room due to overtime. It was actually pretty funny the set up we had. Go Giants!!

We Survived The Snow

All that is left of the snow are patches of white on the side of roads and on peoples' grasses. There's little to remind us that just a couple of days ago we were practically buried in snow. Luckily, we only spent one full day stuck inside the house. Truthfully, if we really wanted to, we could have taken the boys out to play every one of those snow days. But, we didn't. 

So, just a recap, it started to snow on Sunday. Monday it snowed a tiny bit. Tuesday, no snow. Rain, I think? Wednesday was the big snow day. Schools were cancelled all over town by Tuesday afternoon, in anticipation for the downfall. And, down it did fall. All day long. That didn't stop us from getting out. 


We walked over to the schoolyard to meet our neighbors for a snowball fight. We took the sled with us, which was great for pulling Tyler there. He was walking very slowly, so I just put him in and dragged him over. He got such a kick out of it. And, there are two small ramps at the school, so he was able to do a little sledding. We spent about an hour there and headed home.


When we got home, we decided to stay out a little longer and let the boys sled down our street!

Our Snow Man

Snow continued to fall on Thursday. Lots of it. Maybe this was the bigger snow day. I don't know for sure. But, what I do know is that we were too tired to go outside. Even the kids were content to stay in. I had it in my head to let them watch TV all day, but didn't even have. They mostly just played with their toys. They watched minimal amounts of TV. And, I cooked up a storm. I felt like I ate all day long.

Friday, the rain came, and the snow began to melt. I was done being cooped up in the house. I took the boys on the bus to downtown. I didn't tell them where we were going, just out for a walk. As we were about the turn the corner to the main road where the bus stop is, our bus drove by. I frantically waved my arms, and to my surprise, the driver stopped for us! I told the boys to run, but Tyler fell. Nonetheless, we made it on, and the boys were thrilled!

When we got down there, we went to See's Candies to use a gift certificate I received for Christmas (and eat free samples!). Then, we went into Westlake Center to browse. That's when we realized that Vincent had left his hat (David's Orlando Magic's hat) on the bus. UGH! After a little browsing at Daiso Japan, I decided to take the boys on the light rail to Chinatown. Another exciting surprise for them. They were excited to go to the underground station. Funny thing Vincent said on the way: "Mommy, it smells like metal. I like the smell of metal." Huh?!

We went to Chinatown and had lunch at Samurai Noodles. YUM. We then had to make our way back home. We caught an underground bus back downtown. And, barely waited about a minute for our bus back to Montlake. Nice.

Quick! Let's Get Out Before It Snows Again!!

The forecast today was that there would be some snow fall, but not much. School for Vincent was delayed 2 hours. I was supposed to take Tyler to the gym, but when I called to add Vincent last night, they said there wasn't space. What to do? Luckily, I called again this morning, and she said he could come with us. Super!!

Unfortunately, I didn't really get a workout. I did 15 minutes of weights, then took a much needed shower. When I got back into the daycare, as soon as Tyler saw me, he broke out into tears, sobbing, "I just wanted to play with the blocks!!!" Oh boy. 

I quickly ushered the boys out of there, and took Vincent to school. After that, I took Tyler to the Gymnastics Academy for indoor playtime. He was pretty excited that I was going to be able to go in to the "playground" with him. Usually, he has class, and it's just the kids, but during indoor playtime, caretakers must stay with their kid(s). And, since he's normally so far from me when he's in class, I don't get a good idea of how well he's doing.

Let me tell you, such an improvement from last year. He can now jump down properly, which is forward, rather than just drop on to his bottom. What a relief. And, he can get his feet up to the rings and hang kind of upside down. He can also sit and hold on to the rope swing, which he couldn't do before. He's just getting so coordinated and good at playing on the equipment.

Soon, he had to leave to pick up Vincent. But, first, we grabbed some fried rice at the teriyaki place near Vincent's school. He was super cute and happy to be sharing a dish with me. Our one-on-one time seems to be less and less these days. I love spending them with him, and it's nice to see he enjoys his time with me, too.

Oh, and here's a better pic of our snowman!

Speaking of snow...there was a little bit more snowfall today, but not much. Most of it in our neighborhood has melted, but some areas in town still have a good amount on the ground.

This afternoon, the kids played really well while I got dinner ready. I decided to start a new sticker reward chart for them, because they were so good today that I wanted to do something nice. Although, I think thanking them for playing so well was simply enough. Oh well. 

Vincent had karate tonight. His teacher was finally able to open his new space today! It's so nice, and there's lots of equipment for the students. Plus, there's a lobby area with tables and chairs, so it'll be nicer to hang out with Tyler. 

Dinner tonight was Korean-style steak tacos. YUMMY.

We have been dealing with challenging bedtimes lately. Tyler has a tough time falling asleep. It's quite frustrating, and even though we went through this with Vincent and I know it'll pass, it's still tough. So, I've been waking him up from naps, allowing him about an hour. It seems like that might still be too long for him! Ugh. We started trying out a new thing, with letting them watch TV before bedtime. Today is day 3. We said that they must go to bed when we put them to bed, or there will be no TV. So, last night, Tyler didn't get to watch because he didn't go to bed the night before. He was very, very upset. Last night, at bedtime, he fussed once, but we decided to let him watch tonight. It made him so happy, and when it was time to sleep, no fussing. We did, however, hear someone get up and walk around upstairs, but whoever it was, never came out of the room, or shouted for anything. Hmmmm.

MLK Day

The kids stayed home today due to MLK Day. David was home, too, but had to work. There was going to be a slight chance of snow, but I needed to get the boys outside at some point during the day. For my own sanity. I think they would have like to stay indoors all day. It's weird, they don't like to go out much. Must be the cold.

By 10:45am, I got us ready to go out. Mostly, I needed to get to an ATM. I settled on U Village, which is flat driving all the way there. There was still quite a bit of snow on the ground. Not knowing what the rest of the streets looked like, and with a slight chance of more snow, David put the snow chains on our car. 

I was the only dork on the road with chains on. But, I don't think I would have gotten off our street without them. Nobody on the road seemed too upset with me. I never got honked at for my slow driving.

It did snow, indeed. Not much. We went to the bank, then walked around U Village a little, then ate lunch at Blue C Sushi. All was fine until it took them 20 minutes to make Vincent a Green Bean Roll. Vincent kept asking and asking me about it. I kept asking them about it. And, I got a phone call. This was the kids' queue to start yelling back and forth at each other, with me in the middle. Sheesh! When Vincent's roll finally arrived, Tyler wanted some, too. Vincent, of course, said, "No." I was done and frustrated. I tried to get some tempura for Ty, but missed it, and then there weren't any left. Tyler made a big fuss, even though he did just eat 4 chicken meatballs, two orders of avocado rolls, gyoza, and this tofu rice thing (inari).

We spent the rest of our day in the house. The boys played on their own while I made us pork eggrolls for dinner. Then, David took them outside to play in the snow. They made a snowman. And, Vincent has evil eyes!!

More Snow And The Children's Theater

First thing this morning, Vincent came downstairs and into our room and said, "Daddy, I saw that it's snowing outside, and more than yesterday. That means we can have a real snowball fight!"

A couple minutes later, Tyler came downstairs. First thing he said was, "Hey guys, I need to tell you a question. It's snowing outside. Now we can have a snowball fight!"

Oh boy! David even dragged the kids across the backyard in the sled. There's not much snow here, but it more than doubled by dinner time.

Once we got that all out of our system, we braved the elements and headed downtown to the Seattle Center (yes, again. Third time this week!) for the Seattle Children's Theater's production of "A Year With Frog And Toad."

We weren't sure what it would be like outside, but once on the road, we realized it wasn't so bad. When the show started, there was no snow on the ground in front of the building. But, when we came out of the theater for intermission, we could clearly see a much different scene. Snow was coming down quickly, and the trees were covered with white. By the time the show was over, we knew we couldn't make it to our second plan of the day: driving to Federal Way.

The drive home wasn't terrible, but pretty slow. Along the way, we saw a street car that went off the track and a car that crashed into a poll. We made it up our street, but couldn't get into the driveway. After shoveling most of the snow out fo the way, we still couldn't pull up. David parked on the street, but was later able to go back and get the car into the garage.

The rest of the day was spent indoors. David did take the boys out to the nearby market to pick out desserts (mostly just to get out a little), while I made dinner. Dinner tonight was fish taco. Yum.

Week 2 In Review & Today

Wow, it's hard to remember all that happened in a week, especially a full week ago! I'll do my best...

Sunday, 1/8 - With no plans for the morning, we decided to take the boys to McDonald's in Ballard, because it has a play structure. It felt like such lazy parenting, but the boys were super happy to climb and slide and play with other kids. We were able to let them tell us when they were ready to eat, and then let them play more after they ate. They even took breaks in between to play, then came back to eat more. It was just too easy. David and I should have brought books to read!

Monday, 1/9 - Vincent's check up. Oh, and Tyler went back to Panda. I was so proud of how well he did at drop off. He went right in, didn't complain, or cling to me. He was so cute and sweet.

Tuesday, 1/10 - Vincent had a short day at school. It would have been long if he had gone to the play with his class, but we already had plans to see the play later in the week. The teachers agreed to let him ride the bus downtown with the rest of class, and Tyler and I would pick him up in front of the theater. Tyler and I went to the gym. When Ty saw that we were going to Seattle Center to pick up Vincent he said, "Maybe we can ride the Monorail, or sun-ting." (that's "something" in Ty speak) I had that same idea! We met Vincent, and got to the Monorail just in time to catch the next one. We met David at the other end downtown and had lunch. The boys were thrilled. When David walked up, he said it warmed his heart to see us carrying our food to the table, each with something in hand. We rode the Monorail back to Seattle Center (sans Daddy), went home, and rested. Ooh, and I got to talk to my friend, Jill on the phone, long distance! After naps, Vincent had karate. After dinner, I met friends at Barrio. I had the churros, which were ok. A bit too greasy for me. Le Bete's are better.

Wednesday, 1/11 - Vincent had school. Tyler had gymnastics. Here he is backwards bouncing.

After gymnastics, Tyler and I went home to meet our friends, Sarah and Allison. Sarah is going to have her second baby this upcoming Monday, and Ally is her 2 year old daughter. We made them lunch and they brought us desserts! Tonight, David went out with friends to Naked City Brewery.

Thursday, 1/12 - No school today. We dropped both boys off at a friend of Vincent's house, so that David and I could attend a parent/teacher conference at V's school. This was Tyler's first drop-off play date. We think. He did great! I told him about it yesterday, and he's been excited since. As for how Vincent's doing in school, he's doing well. Seems to be right on track. When we were done, we picked up the boys, then David went home, while the boys and I met Brianna and her kids at Priddy Boys for pizza. They have this video game in the back room that lets you play like 8 different games for FREE! Liam and Vincent spent most of lunch back there. Ahhhh, they're growing up so fast!

Friday, 1/13 - The boys and I went to the gym. While there, I picked our family up a Cuisinart Keurig machine. No, they don't sell them there. One of the daycare ladies' sister demos the machines and sold me a demo for 1/3 of the retail price. Single cup coffees in minutes? Yes, please. **I can't remember the rest of the day.**

Saturday, 1/14 - No Chinese school. I went to Lark for an early shift, 11a-6p. While I worked, David took the boys to the Science Center for the Model Railway Show. Yup, Tyler was in Heaven.

It also snowed for a short while, so there was a snowball.

David and the boys met me at Lark at 5:30pm so that we can have dinner together after I got off work. The boys did fairly well, though they were quite loud. Everyone loved seeing them, though. Tyler's favorite dish was the braised oxtail with ricotta gnudi.

Vincent seemed to like the salami the best. He said he loved the gnudi, but then proceeded to eat it v-e-r-y slowly, like 30 minutes. Maybe more. Oh, and he loved Dinah's Cheese from Kurtwood Farms. I think my favorite dish was the fluke with black lentils, black truffles, and hedgehog mushrooms. We finished our meal with an order of Chocolate Madeleines.

Seriously, these boys eat well.

Vincent's 5 Year Check-Up & Stats

This afternoon, David and I took Vincent to his annual check up. He was a little nervous that he may have to get shots today, but we soon found out that he didn't. Yay! Now, we can get on with the check up with ease.

Here are his stats:

Weight - 36lbs, 6oz (10%); still like a feather

Height - 42.5 in. (50%); sweet.

BMI - 10%; just like Daddy

Blood Pressure - 72/64

Hearing - Passed

Vision - 20/30; uh-oh. I hope his vision doesn't end up like mine.

We had talked his doctor a few days ago about a couple of concerns that we didn't want to bring up in front of Vincent. 

The first was his behavior. I described a little of the challenges we are facing and wondered if it sounds about right for his age. He's also so full of energy, that I wanted to know when doctors start looking at signs of ADD or ADHD. Basically, they don't start to get concerned until middle of their kindergarten year. And, from what I described, his behaviors seem age appropriate. But, these were things for the doctor to keep an eye out for. 

Second, his speech. We talked about it at last year's check up. I was in shock when he brought it up then, but have made a point to help correct him with pronouncing some letters. 

His observation on both of these matters were positive. He said that Vincent did "Great!" today. Better than he has seen with many children his age. I was really impressed with the way Vincent took deep breaths in and out during the exam. That's one of our calming exercises for the boys when they're too wound up or upset. And, as for his speech, he said that he's almost 100% clear, but still has a slight bit of slurring. He'd like for us to get an assessment from a speech therapist to get a better idea of what we should do for him, if anything. 

All-in-all, a good check up. And, he was so cute in his little gown, which he loved. I was only able to convince him to change out of it by saying that he'll get his sticker after he's totally changed.

After we were done, we stopped at Specialty's for a treat. He picked out this chocolate chip cream cheese croissant. Yum.

First Week Of The Year

It was a busy week, getting us all back in the swing of things. I think I got about 2 hours of actual "Anny" time all week. Wednesday afternoon, I got some quiet time while the boys rested, but I was busy filling up our calendar with this appointment and that appointment. I quickly remembered that it doesn't really slow down for us after the holidays are over. Plus, this year, Chinese New Year is a bit on the early side, in January, instead of February. We aren't hardcore on celebrating the holiday, but I do like to do something, and having less time to plan sort of stressed me out. Oh well.

But, the one major good thing about this week is that things are (slowly) settling down for us. I think once I actually put stuff down on the calendar, it doesn't feel so overwhelming. And, Vincent has enjoyed being back on a routine. He seems so happy to be back at school, and mostly, just being a home. 

Tyler's happy, too. He's so verbal these days, and getting a bit bossy. But, definitely happy. Since we've been back, his new thing is making breakfast. He's super into it. I'd even say he's obsessed. He'll announce loudly, "It's time for me to make breakfast! What do you guys want?" After he gets Vincent's order, he'll tell him to go sit down at his seat at the table, and he'll start to work on preparing Vincent's meal. He also helps make ours. It's great! It's also a little dangerous, as he's pretty confident in doing some stuff that we'd rather have him get our help for, such as pouring the scalding hot water into the oatmeal. David caught him in time one morning to help. It's busy enough for us getting everyone fed, dressed, and out the door in the mornings, and now we need to slow down a bit to help Tyler be involved. School can wait an extra 5 minutes, right? Hopefully, he'll get this down by the time Vincent goes to kindergarten and we need to be more on time.

Wednesday, Tyler and I had a really nice morning together. We dropped off Vincent, then went to gymnastics. We actually got there early, not late! He had a great time, and as soon as class was over, he said, "Snack time!" So cute. He loves snack time. We then came home and made chocolate covered Ritz crackers with a touch of sea salt and caramelized sugar bits sprinkled on top. Ooh la la. And, we made lunch: sushi rolls. Tyler just loves helping out in the kitchen.


Here's a picture of him on our way to pick up Vincent.

Friday night David and I had a date. We went to our friend, Joey Veltcamp's, birthday party. So fun. He had it at a cool event space in Capitol Hill called, Sole Repair. I loved how it was simple, yet, elegant. What a nice use of real estate. He had bowls of fun snacks, such as Swedish Fish, around the room, along with a tall rainbow cake, and brightly colored mini cupcakes, and popcorn and pretzels. There were collages of him, through the years, posted up as well. We got to hang out with some of our hippest friends in Seattle, which is always a treat!

Saturday, Vincent's Chinese school started up again. We are SO bad at getting him there on time! I think his teacher is always a little annoyed when she sees us walk in late. While there, I volunteered my time to help put together this Chinese New Year paper dragon. It's huge! And, it's the sort of disorganized chaos that makes my head spin. The woman in charge had the "deer-in-headlights" look as she tried her best to keep order. I think her stress made it seem busier and more hectic than it needed to be. Oh well. I just did what I could to help, at a pace that I felt comfortable with, so to get the job done correctly. When it was time to pick up Vincent, he said to me, "Mommy, I had a bad day in school today." I tried to figure out what all happened, but came to the sad realization that maybe this isn't working out for him. **Sigh**

In the evening, I went to work for the first time in a month. It was BUSY. Okay, maybe not super busy at service, but the prep cooked is sick, then the dishwasher called out. I had a constant stream of prep. The other guy who came in to help prep jumped on to the dish pit to wash. And, then at one point, I think the dishwasher got clogged. Oh boy. At the end of the day, stuff got done, guests were fed, and we went home.

At home, David and I were chatting about our night apart when he spotted a raccoon outside the back door. Wait, it's two. No, three!

Tyler's Play Date & We Are Back In Session

Vincent went back to preschool this morning. He seemed happy to be back. He went right in, and barely looked back to say, "good-bye" to me.

Tyler and I went to Pro Club. After we were done, we brought Eva home with us, so that her mom and dad could work on moving them into their new house. Both kids were super excited for their play date. They did really well playing together, and had a great lunch. I really enjoyed their company. 

And, this afternoon, Vincent had karate, again. He looked forward to going back, and seemed so proud. He did pretty well. Great, actually, considering he took a whole month off.

And, you have to check out this video:http://youtu.be/R4PoVCo_Q_0

I Lied

I said I was only going to post once a week, and here I am, posting, again, the day after I made my resolution. It's not a bad thing. Just the fact that I've taken the pressure off myself is what counts.

Today was our last official day of winter break. David had the day off, and both boys' care centers were closed. David and Tyler went to Costco, while Vincent and I stayed home for a play date with Henry. The boys played very well together. In fact, the first half hour, they sat on the futon and read Vincent's new Tag books. Then, we all went upstairs. The boys played with Legos for about a good hour, while I sat nearby with my computer. The spent about 50 minutes quietly setting up, and in about 10 minutes there were Legos all over the floor and lots of commotion. I guess the battle had begun.

Both boys took a good afternoon nap today. Vincent was so cute. He laid on the futon, on his belly, with no covers. It actually looked sad, but cute. When he got up, he got to play on the iPad while David and Stella snuggled next to him.

This evening, we had dinner out at Quinn's in Capitol Hill. Ouch! That was spendy. But, oh so good. Vincent and Tyler shared fish and chips, which were okay. They both ate some of it, but Vincent loved my burger. It's a tasty burger for sure. We also had their version of poutine, though that's not what they call it.

With our new family budgeting strategy, this'll make the rest of the week tight. But, I'm always up for a good challenge when it comes to saving some $$$. 

Hello, 2012!!

If you'll take a brief moment to take a look to the right of this page for our New Year's Resolutions...

My first one is to "simplify a bit." I'm not entirely sure how I plan to do that, but for one, I won't continue to blog everyday. C'mon, we all know I didn't exactly do that in 2011, even if I did have a post for everyday. So, to take the pressure off, I'm going to make it a goal to post once a week. Let's say, on Sundays. That's today! We'll see how I do.

Speaking of Sunday, it's become the day of the week that we let ourselves take it easy, when possible. With no plans for the day, and our late night yesterday, when Vincent woke first, David let him take the iPad into the other room and play to his heart's content. About an hour later, Tyler woke. Wow, that was a long sleep for him. He joined Vincent. What did we, lazy, tired parents do? Slept, of course. 

Eventually, Tyler got hungry or something. He started yelling, and yelling, this and that. We got up. 

After breakfast, we decided to take the boys to the movie theater. We made it in time to catch "Alvin and the Chipmunks." Vincent loved it, Tyler said he didn't like it, and David and I are probably neutral. Well, I'll admit that I thought it was pretty cute. He didn't really comment. At the theater, they had these fun statues of the chipmunks.

We wish you all a wonderful new year. If you made resolutions this year, may you stick to them, or meet your goals.