3 1/4

Today, Vincent is 3 years and 3 months old. What's he like these days?

-Can count from 1-20 in English and Mandarin. I honestly don't know if he can count further in Engligh or not, but I suspect that he may. He can also count 10-1 (backwards). Usually proceeding, "Ignition! Blast off!"

-Almost pottytrained. Still has accidents from time to time, usually because something is different, like he's getting a cold. Does wear a diaper for naps and bedtime.

-Loves preschool.

-Still loves music. He's a good singer and can get lyrics to songs pretty well. When I sing to him at night, sometimes he will sing with me.

-Enjoys dancing & has a bit of groove in him.

-Is learning about saying prayers.

-Will sometimes say "sorry" when he has done something he shouldn't have without having to be prompted, and sounds like he's truly sorry.

-Is imaginative. Vincent loves to pretend to be someone else. He changes his character often, and when he does, the whole family changes with him. It's hard to keep up with who he is at any given time, and when someone does not call him by the correct name of the moment, he gets very hurt & sad. Characters include Lightning McQueen, Kai Lan, Bob the Builder, Wallace (& Grommit), just to name a few.

-Has two chores; feeding the cats 2 times a day (if he remembers; otherwise, we do it) & taking his dishes to the counter or sink when he is done eating at each meal.

-Is starting to draw & color, rather than just scribble. He can do circles (sort of) & he is able to color specific items on a page, even if he goes outside the lines.

-Still loves books. He will sit and look at them on his own, but enjoys being read to.

-Claims to love his brother, though he doesn't always act like it.

-Has so much energy sometimes, it so hard to keep up with him. When he's happy or excited, he tends to get crazy wild (and a little clumsy). Somedays I feel like the story, Where The Wild Things Are, was written about him.

-But, with all his wildness, Vincent is incredibly sweet, loving, and caring. He tells us all the time that he loves us. When one of us goes away, even just leaving his room at bedtime, he says, "I'm going to miss you. I'm going to think about you." Sometimes when he hears a crashing noise coming from the kitchen & he's in another room, he'll run in and ask whoever is in the kitchen if they're okay. He loves to give us kisses, and will give me gentle ones when we're snuggling up. Speaking of snuggling, he's a super snuggler, always has been. And, every so often, he will try to stroke my hair very softly.

I feel like I could go on and on about our big boy. Not all is shiney & happy all the time, but we feel so blessed to have such a wonderful kid (two of them, actually!).

Our Weekend & Anti What????

It sure was a nice weekend. We were a busy bunch. We kept those boys so busy that Tyler slept through the night twice (though he didn't last night, and David had to go back to work today...oh well).

It all started on Friday morning. I took the boys to the gym, where they play a the daycare there & I do light exercise. After the gym, we went to meet our friends Kari & Sasha at Vios for lunch (more playing). They took a shorter-than-usual nap that afternoon. We headed over to JMs for dinner, where David met us later. More playing. Head home past their bedtimes...Konk out.

Saturday morning was beautiful. We decided to take the boys to the Japanese Garden in the arboretum. In 7.5 years, that was my first visit. I forgot to take pictures, even though a bunch of people were shootin' up a storm. My attention was on making sure Vincent didn't fall into the water. Next stop was to pick up our meat order from Thundering Hooves. The house we picked up from is close to the cheap pizza-by-the-slice place we like & a nice playground, so that's where we headed once we got our goods. Little impromptu picnic in the park.

I love to watch my boys play, even if they aren't actually playing together. This play ground has a big sandbox. And, a rocking firetruck!

Saturday night, we had our friends, Scott & Corrie, over for dinner. I cooked sausage pasta, roasted broccolette, and made a salad. More playing for the boys!

Sunday...Costco! Need I say more? When we got back from Costco, the rain had let up. Vincent said, "It's beautiful today. I'd like to stay outside and play for a little bit, please." Well, if you put it that way, Kiddo, sure! I had just cleaned up the water table the day before, so that's what the boys played with. There was so lawn mowin', too.

The sun didn't stay out long, and wet little Tyler was starting to get chilly, just in time for his nap. He did not want to stop playing, though. He protested as I carried him into the house. The whole time I was undressing & changing him for his nap, he threw his first big temper tantrum. Stomping feet, falling down to the floor...oh boy. Is it bad that I still thought he was so cute & wanted to laugh?

We let Vincent skip his nap. He stayed up watching "Ponyo" & loved every moment of it. When Tyler woke from his nap, in a much better mood, we decided to eat dinner out. I had a coupon for BOGO-free from Tutta Bella Pizza...yum. Even better, a street car stop is across the street from it. We took the boys for a ride on the street car before dinner & got to the restaurant in time to beat the crowd. While at dinner, I made myself seem like the worlds biggest Cheap-O. Not only did I come with a coupon, I questioned the server on why she would want to charge us for 3 individual scoops of ice cream instead of the 3 scoops (they charge by 1, 2, or 3 scoops) because we needed our 3 scoops split up. We would've got them all in one bowl & shared that way, but I knew Vincent would want to pick his own flavor & have it in his own bowl. I wanted a nutty flavor, which Tyler can't have. So, that meant we needed to have our 3 scoops split up. I completely understand that I was being difficult, but do you get what I mean? In the end, I apologized to the server for my cheapness & told her to charge us whatever she needs to, and she did it my way, even though she's not supposed to.

Here's Vincent enjoying his ride on the street car.

And, finally...Anti Monkey Butt Powder. Real ad from Rite-Aid.

A Nice Sunday

It's gotta be a nice day when you start it out with Top Pot Doughnuts, right? Geez, look at the size of this thing!

Of course, Vincent ate all the icing off the top of his donut and was done. Oh, wait, he made sure to scrape the chocolate out of the middle with his finger, too.

After breakfast & a brief nap for Tyler, we took the boys to the playground. It was sunny & slightly warm. We had a small lunch on a picnic table.

Before heading home, we stopped at an open house that one of our old neighbors was putting on. I sure do miss her. I hope the new owners of our house will enjoy our neighbors as much as we did.

While the kids were napping this afternoon (well, Tyler) some guy fell in front of our kitchen door. Then, he got up and walked away with a pair of David's shoes. Our (new) neighbor had seen him lurking around the outside of our house & called the police. He was definitely drunk, stunk of cigarette smoke, and probably high on something. She told him to drop the shoes, which he did, and he stumbled off down the street. Weird.

Dinner tonight was lamb burgers. I made them, David cooked them. Yum.

What Have We Been Up To?

Since we've been back from L.A. we've been pretty busy...

There was one day when Vincent didn't have school, so I took the boys to Miller Community Center. It had been a long time since Vincent was last there. I was really impressed with how well he played there and took turns with the smaller children. Tyler loved the lawn mower. It was one of Vincent's favorites once upon a time, too. He was still crawling the last time I took him, so it was fun to see Tyler able to stand up and push the mower. He was so pleased with himself. Tyler discovered how to doodle. I'm so proud!

Tyler has been practicing with his utensils. He, of course, always ends in a big mess. This is nothing.

Here's a picture of Vincent eating, too.

At Tyler's 1 year appointment, he weighed in at 20.05 pounds, which means he can now ride forward facing in the car! Here's the first ride with both boys facing forward when David and I decided to take them out for dessert last night to celebrate...our house being SOLD! Yup, escrow closed on Thursday, March 11. We are officially non-homeowners again.

Some other things that I'm including, just so I can remember them one day...no big deal, feel free to stop reading now...

*Vincent has been scared of the slide at REI since as long as we have been taking him there. Once, maybe twice, he has gotten daring and gone down, but quickly realized it was not for him. I've even gone down with him & it was still too scary. But, last week when we were there, things changed. He was up in the tree house with a slightly bigger boy, who was not going down the slide, either. A little girl who Vincent was flirting with came up the tree & asked the boys why they weren't sliding. The bigger boy said because he was a little afraid, and Vincent just stood there. She shrugged & then went down the slide. That did it for Vincent. He followed her down & found out that it was SUPER fun! This week, when we went back there, he happily said to me in the parking garage on the way in, "I'm going to go down the slide & I'm not going to be scared!"

*I scored on some used Geotrax stuff this week to add on to the small set we already had. David said to me, "I feel like I got the train set I've been wanting for the boys." Ahhh, what a compliment.

*I've been trying to work on meal planning for us & trying to save on our grocery bill. I'm not sure I'm doing a good job. The problem is that I suck at keeping track of the savings & of getting motivated to cook. Yes, I know, my cooking background, etc...I'm working on it, though. To hear about some of the meals I've made recently, visit my food blog - http://ourfamilymeal.blogspot.com/.

Happy 1st Birthday, Tyler!

We're back from L.A. On the last evening there, we celebrated Tyler's 1st birthday with a party. There were 5 children (including my boys), about 15 adults, lots of delicious food, and one giant cake. Of course, we had to have long-life noodles.

Tyler destroyed his piece cake!

After cake, the kids ran back and forth down my parents' hallway. Tyler kept up with the big kids, even though they knocked him down a few times.

View all the photos from our trip at http://picasaweb.google.com/annyhunt/LAFeb2010#

Los Angeles

We're in L.A. this week. Been here since last Saturday & go back to Seattle on Monday. We came down to celebrate Tyler's 1st birthday with my family...and because we haven't been here since last August. It's the cheapest option for a little sunshine in February, though it hasn't been very warm. We did make it to the beach yesterday. I will post pictures when we get back to Seattle. I couldn't upload on David's computer this morning and didn't want to mess anything up.

Here's what we've done so far:

Saturday - Flew to L.A. - dinner at Yoshinoya (fancy, huh?) then slept
Sunday - Visited my mom's Chinese school, watched lion dancers perform. Dinner at Road to Souel, Korean bbq.
Monday - hung out in Hacienda Heights. David and I went to see Avatar while kids napped.
Tuesday - South Orange County for the day to visit my friend.
Wednesday - KidSpace Children's Museum in Pasadena & Speed Zone.
Thursday - Santa Monica Beach and pier.

The plan for today, Friday, is nothing. Saturday we will take Vincent to Disneyland, while Tyler stays home with my parents. Sunday is Tyler's birthday party. And, we go home Monday.

FUNshine! & A Piece of Mommy For Everyone

There are 6 living beings in our household...half of them don't want me to cook food, they would prefer I pay attention to them instead. One of them couldn't care less, as long as there's food in his dish at all times. One of them appreciates it when I cook food & happily eats it up. The last one IS the cook. That's me. I usually want to cook, but only on my terms, which is all by myself in the kitchen, making as big of a ruckus as I please. That rarely happens. Can you guess who the other five are? And, just so you know, I just tried prepping for dinner, and finally gave up because a certain female cat got right in front of me as I was chopping mushrooms. She rubbed her head against my hand as it was holding the top of a shitake while the other hand held a sharp knife...the same sharp knife that sliced my finger open this morning.

But, it's sunny today and the boys and I got outside for a little wheels action! Check out Tyler's moves - thumb sucking while triking!

Tyler fits into Vincent's old Teva sandals. I love hand-me-downs, especially when they get handed down more than once. Vincent had on matching Tevas, too. Also a hand-me-down. What a coincidence!

And, as I sat down to write this post, Stella was on my lap like butter on toast the moment my booty touched down. At least I know that I would win the popularity contest in this household.