Toddler Days

My morning date with Crosby was to good ol' U Village. He rode on a butterfly, then on an unicorn, pushed around a twirly flower thingy, did a little hammering, ate a blueberry muffin, spit out warm milk (I guess he doesn't like it warmed), helped me buy some groceries, and charmed 2 senior ladies (a mother/daughter duo). These are the kind of toddler moments I cherish. They help balance out those screamy, trantrum moments.

Our 18 Month Old, Crosby

We have quite the toddler among us. At 18 months old, Crosby a spunky little guy, who enjoys screaming, dancing, snuggles, kisses, exploring everything, and animals.

Budding Artist

Summer's Chugging Right Along

It's Blue Angels/Seafair weekend in Seattle. I feel like this is the height of summer. I love the Blue Angels. They are so amazing.

For me, though, it seems like after this weekend is over, summer is starting to come to a close. Of course, there are still 4 weeks left before Seattle schools are back in session. But, in many other cities around the country, they start heading back in August. I start seeing Facebook posts about this kid's and that kid's first day of school, etc. Soon, I will be the one posting the pictures of my kids heading off with backpacks & lunch boxes. 

For now, I am going to continue taking in this fabulous summer we are having. Both the Seattle weather and our family adventures have been warming to my core. Sure, it hasn't been without stress, or anger, or sadness. That wouldn't be real life. But, our positive moments surpass the negatives, and I feel so grateful, and blessed for my sweet family. 

Beyond the five of us, our extended family and our friends are also amazing. We were so fortunate to see some last week, while in Cleveland and Boston, that we haven't seen in a few years. Seeing them, and knowing they love and support us is truly comforting. 

July this year was jammed pack with adventures, traffic, travel, sunshine, junk food, playing in water, giggles, ice cream, boredom, too much screen time, baby eczema, Aquafor, organic vegetables, camps, Orange Is The New Black, lazy afternoons, a couple of scheduled activities, eating out, and memories galore. I hope I can report back soon about how awesome August has been.

I leave you with this picture of mini felt cats my sister made me for my birthday (oh yeah, I had one of those in July). Cute overload!

Tyler's Big Week and Vincent's Nickname

Our little TyTy had a big week!

First of all, he started t-ball on Wednesday!

Then, he had his preschool end-of-the-year picnic, where the "graduating" kids were recognized with little paper caps and certificates.

And, finally, his last day of school was today. So bittersweet. I took him out for a treat, his choice. He chose to have a donut.

 

Look at these pictures. One from today, and one from April 2011.

 

We ended our evening with the annual Montlake Elementary carnival down at the community center. Vincent has made himself a few new friends this year. He seems to be pretty tight with them. They found each other at the carnival and got all excited. Or, at least, he seemed excited to see them. I think they were, too. Twice tonight, I overheard 2 different friends call Vincent by some nickname he's been telling us about this year. I didn't realize it was kind of a normal thing. "Vicer," or something like that.

Here they are, putting disappearing ink into their water pistols. Sigh. Even the girls were getting into this, so I can't just say, "oh boys..."

The Walkers And The Runner

What is that clipped to Crosby's back? Yesterday, Vincent thought it would be funny to track Crosby's steps. Yup, that is a pedometer. It's pretty cute to see him romping around the house with it on. He sort of doesn't realize it is there. And, he only wears it for about an hour or so, but he sure gets in a lot of steps. Today, over 2000 steps! Imagine if we tracked his whole day. I guess we'd get that many in too, if we had such short legs. Heehee.

The other walkers today were David and Tyler. Tyler asked if he could walk to school several months ago. Since this is the last week of school, we finally got our act together and figured out a day for him to do it. He and David walked Vincent to school, then walked up the hill to Tyler's school. He made it before 9am.

And, finally, our runner, Vincent. He has been participating in Montlake Milers since the start of 2014. Early on, he said he wanted to reach a goal of walking enough miles to total a marathon. He has been working pretty hard at it, but with rain, a busy household, and just plain not feeling up to it, it looks like he will fall short of his goal. BUT, today, he passed 20 miles! AWESOME!

Oh, and I walked/ran on the treadmill today. Looks like we all did our part to stay fit today.

Eat Real and Art Walk

Tonight was Montlake's Eat Real and Art Walk event at the school. I was supposed to make a salad, which I prepared for, but the lettuce did not make it. Instead, I got to socialize & enjoy some food. 'Lola' brought a mezze plate with 2 dips and dolmas, with pita that was outstanding.

David and I left the younger boys with Pei Ying until 7pm. I went back to put Cros to bed, and David took Vincent back, along with Tyler.

Nodding And Mandarin

A couple months ago, Crosby learned to nod his head for yes. He has since been doing it more and more, mostly in regards to eating. He nods at me when he wants to breast feed, and if you ask him if he wants something to eat. The best part of it is that he is responding to questions asked in Mandarin. He has also in the last week started to say, "no," in Mandarin. Or, that's what I think he is saying. He will turn his head and go, "Bu."

Tea Set

One of Crosby's favorite toys these days is this tea set.

Happy 1st Birthday, Crosby!

I cannot believe that my little baby, Crosby, is a year old. It's amazing how fast this past year went. Amazing.

 

My mom came to visit us, kind of last minute, to help celebrate the occasion. Most of his day was pretty typical. His brothers went to school, and my mom and I hung out with him. After Tyler came home from school, I blew some bubbles for the boys to play with. They loved it.

After Vincent came home, Mom stayed home with Crosby, and I dragged the two older boys all over U Village to pick up stuff for Crosby's birthday celebration. They were really good sports about it.

We stopped at Din Tai Fung to order dinner, then QFC to get Crosby a balloon, Bartell Drug store to let them look for Lego mystery packs (sadly, they were all gone), Trophy to pick up cupcakes, and back to Din Tai Fung to get our food.

Here are the photo highlights.

Crosby with his first balloon.

Eating his Din Tai Fung "long life" noodles.

Of the items we put around him, Crosby chose the abacus. Looks like we have a future business on our hands.

Vanilla, vanilla cupcake, with just a little bit of sugar sprinkles.

Oh yes, baby liked his cake.

A-ma and her grandsons.

All his presents were opened, with help from his big bros.

 

 

And, the biggest highlight of this first birthday, was that Crosby has started walking! Actually, he took his first (real) steps last week, just 6 days shy of his birthday. Each day since then, he has gotten better. He still scrambles to a stable source (like adult legs, or sofa) to pull himself up and balance before making a move, but he's definitely walking! Darn Blogger...I can't upload the video. Will have to try YouTube, if I have time...

I've said it once, I've said it twice, and I'll say it again...and probably again, and again...I am SO happy David and I decided to have a 3rd baby. Three awesome boys is one crazy LOUD house. I long for quiet moments throughout my days, but I wouldn't want it to be all the time. The screeches, bickering, laughing, jumping, flopping around, dancing, wrestling, running, tumbling, dirty, torn up pants, crotch grabbing, pee on the floor...all worth it. I adore our little teddy bear of a baby boy, Crosby. He, with his big brothers, are all amazing.

Baby Food

I made some farro this week. So good. I also made it into baby food, with sauteed onions and orange bellpepper. Crosby loved it.

 

First steps

Ok, it was a little accidental, but Crosby did take about 3 tiny steps this morning, nonetheless.

Self-feeding

Crosby has been feeding himself for a few months now, but just with his hands. Today, we gave him a bowl with a spoon and some rice, and he actually scooped a couple of bites into his mouth. Of course, like most things with babies, by the time you think to grab your camera, they stopped doing the awesome thing they were doing, and you don't catch it on film. Oh well.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

It was a busy day for Vincent. I guess, all of us, actually.

Vincent's day: 9am - 12pm, Chinese school; rush home, grab a quick bite to eat, then off to 1pm birthday party; the birthday celebration included a trip downtown to see "Mr. Peabody & Sherman". This was his first movie without either David or I; 5pm, pick up from party and go to dinner; 7pm, home.

Tyler's day: 9am - 12pm, Chinese school; rush home to get Vincent to party; eat lunch; watched "Despicable Me," skipping nap; hung out with Mama, reviewing piano stuff, reading Matilda, then took a bath; 5pm, pick up Vincent and go to dinner; 7pm, home.

David's day: taxes, cleared junk for removal truck to pick up, took Vincent to party, got a flat tire, got flat changed, shower, back out to get Vincent, and go to dinner, put kids to bed.

Crosby and I took the older boys to Chinese school, then I took him to Bellevue Square and he played in the play area for the first time. This was his 3rd indoor playground this week. He was elated. It is such a treat to watch your children experience a new and exciting place. I remember the first time taking Vincent and Tyler there. Ty was still too small to know any better, but Vincent ran around there like he was on cloud nine. I vaguely remember that Ty was sort of happy to be there checking things out, too, actually. The remainder of our day was much like Tyler's, only Crosby took a nap instead of all the other things before dinner.

We got the boys to bed right when we got home. Now, I'm ready, too...goodnight.

Happy 5th Birthday, Tyler!

Seriously, 5 years old?! I have a 7 year old and a 5 year old now. Whoah.

I would say that Tyler had a pretty good birthday. It started off much like any other morning. He picked what he wanted to eat for breakfast. We normally do sweet-free Fridays, but today, we let him have jam on his waffles. He then opened his presents. We got him Beyblade stuff and Despicable Me on DVD. While I put Crosby down for his morning nap, Tyler got to watch some PBS Kids, which he quite enjoys. Then, we headed out to his gymnastics class.

After class, he shared some cookies with the other boys in his class. I picked the lunch spot today: Uneeda Burger. Yum. We over ordered.

This afternoon, he took his nap, then played with Vincent until it was time to go to dinner. His choice restaurant was Lark. Unfortunately, Crosby wasn't doing too well there (read: fussy), so we had to cut dinner short and pick up dessert at the little market near home. It didn't seem to bother Tyler. We didn't even sing the birthday song (it's been sung several times this week already).

Before bedtime, we let him play Skylanders on the XBOX. 

I'm glad he had a nice day. I hope that age 5 will be a great one for Tyler.

FINALLY! Vincent's Beyblade Tournament Birthday Party

After much planning, postponing, and anticipation, we successfully threw Vincent his birthday party. All, but 1, boy made it. Everyone got along, made lots of ruckus, and had fun. Crosby even napped through most of it!

The cake: Vincent picked out a ready-made red velvet cake at QFC this morning. We reused the toppers from the first cake we bought, that we only ate half of, and I wrote the message with melted chocolate.

 

The brackets. Well, sort of. I didn't get a good shot of the whole thing.

 

 

 

 

 

Our happy 7 year old and his buddy.

Tyler got in on the action, too.

My spread. The towels on the chairs were to protect them from sticky boy hands. Very cheese forward snacks. Cheetos Puff, Doritos, cheddar slices, pretzel crackers, strawberries, raisins, and applesauce squeezers.

The party animals.

 

Happy 2014

Good day today. Lots of cooking. We had our friends, The Hidebrandt family, over for lunch. I made bratwurst sliders, kale salad, and broccoli for the kids. It was all so tasty, except, I misjudged the sliders & didn't make enough. But, this forced the adults to eat lots if greens, and saved us room for dessert!

The boys have been so excited about the new Lego sets they got for Christmas and have been playing and building a lot. Their Nana got a free box for them to fill with loose bricks, so I took them yesterday to the Lego store to fill it. When we got home, they ran right upstairs to see what they could make from them. Mind you, this was a very small box. Nonetheless, they were excited, and, of course, they already have many. That was also part of their day today.

Last night, for New Year's Eve, the older boys were invited to another family's house from 5p-7p. They have two boys the same ages, and two other brothers were also invited. David and I took Crosby to our neighborhood Italian restaurant, Cafe Lago, for a delicious meal. We tried to let the boys watch an east coast broadcast of NYE with Times Square, but the broadcast was tape delayed. Lame. David and I could not stay awake for midnight. I don't even think I got a kiss goodnight, since he was asleep before I got in bed.

The rest of today was nothing spectacular. I cooked a meal from Blue Apron, which was nice to not have to think up what to make. We ate cupcakes for dessert. Tyler and I did a mini piano lesson, then, I read the first three chapters of Charlotte's Web to the kids. I put Crosby to bed while David did a toy battle with the older boys. Like I said, nothing spectacular, but it was a good day. And, another baby was born into our lives yesterday. Not a bad way to end 2013 and start 2014. Happy New Year!