Vincent - "Mommy, does Stella (our cat) have a pagina?"
Mommy- "Yes."
Vincent - "A little, tiny pagina!"
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Officially Summer 2010
The boys and I are officially on our summer schedule...whatever that means. I guess this is what it means:
Vincent's out of preschool, Mandarin is over, and Tyler's baby class at Seattle Central has wrapped up. I've switched our nanny to coming two mornings a week (until she leaves for her summer trip). We have camping trips planned. We have two other "summer" trips planned. Vincent will be going to a couple weeks of summer camp. I've applied sunscreen on the children, and will start keeping a "summer" bag in the car. And, the biggest change to our schedule is Tyler's napping...
T-man has been showing signs of dropping down to one nap a day, but I have been trying to keep him on two until this week. I have been aggressively trying to get him to take just one a day since Monday. It's been up and down. Monday he took two, though now I can't really remember for sure how it went. Tuesday he took two, but I believe they were shorter than usual. Wednesday was the tough day. He took an hour nap all day. By bedtime, he was overtired and cranky. Thursday I took the boys out first thing and tired them out in the sunshine. He napped from 12:30pm-3:15pm. He went to bed at the same time, falling asleep about 8:45pm, and woke this morning at 6:30am. Not bad. This morning, I took them to the gym 2 hours earlier than normal, and he went down at noon. Vincent fell asleep an hour later.
Speaking of Vincent, he is still taking one afternoon nap on most days. He needs it, otherwise he's cranky by dinnertime. I usually give him is Tag story reader and let him pick out a couple of books to read. This helps wind him down. When he has read for about 20-30 minutes, I have him put it away and I lie down with him and we both rest. Today, he fell asleep almost immediately. He did also wake up at 5:30am with soaked sheets...
Oh, after the gym, I decided to take the kids to McDonalds. Yeah, yeah, yeah. At least I'm admitting it to the world! Vincent declared that he did not want to eat his food in the car ("It would be too messy and I will be mad at you, Mommy."), nor did he want to eat it at home. He wanted to go inside the restaurant to eat. Whew! That was not as simple as I pictured in my head. At 11am, that place was packed! Tourist, apparently. I had staked out a booth for us, pulled up a highchair next to it, but failed to mark it any other way that it was taken. We lost our booth. Shoot! Tyler squirmed in my arms the whole time we waited for our food, and Vincent kept asking where his toy was, or saying, "Hey, Mommy! You forgot to give me my toy." When we did get our food, and find a seat, they had given us fries instead of the apples I ordered. I had to go change that out. BTW, they had to throw away the frieds, that I had not touched, and Happy Meal boxes. I was working up such a sweat just trying to get us started on eating. But, thank goodness I got those apples, cuz that seemed to be the thing the boys were most interested in. Tyler liked dipping his apples in ketchup. Vincent found that funny and decided to try it for himself. When I asked if it was good, he responded with a nod, then tured kind of red and gave a funny face. I guess it wasn't so good. We did have a good laugh of it.
Vincent's out of preschool, Mandarin is over, and Tyler's baby class at Seattle Central has wrapped up. I've switched our nanny to coming two mornings a week (until she leaves for her summer trip). We have camping trips planned. We have two other "summer" trips planned. Vincent will be going to a couple weeks of summer camp. I've applied sunscreen on the children, and will start keeping a "summer" bag in the car. And, the biggest change to our schedule is Tyler's napping...
T-man has been showing signs of dropping down to one nap a day, but I have been trying to keep him on two until this week. I have been aggressively trying to get him to take just one a day since Monday. It's been up and down. Monday he took two, though now I can't really remember for sure how it went. Tuesday he took two, but I believe they were shorter than usual. Wednesday was the tough day. He took an hour nap all day. By bedtime, he was overtired and cranky. Thursday I took the boys out first thing and tired them out in the sunshine. He napped from 12:30pm-3:15pm. He went to bed at the same time, falling asleep about 8:45pm, and woke this morning at 6:30am. Not bad. This morning, I took them to the gym 2 hours earlier than normal, and he went down at noon. Vincent fell asleep an hour later.
Speaking of Vincent, he is still taking one afternoon nap on most days. He needs it, otherwise he's cranky by dinnertime. I usually give him is Tag story reader and let him pick out a couple of books to read. This helps wind him down. When he has read for about 20-30 minutes, I have him put it away and I lie down with him and we both rest. Today, he fell asleep almost immediately. He did also wake up at 5:30am with soaked sheets...
Oh, after the gym, I decided to take the kids to McDonalds. Yeah, yeah, yeah. At least I'm admitting it to the world! Vincent declared that he did not want to eat his food in the car ("It would be too messy and I will be mad at you, Mommy."), nor did he want to eat it at home. He wanted to go inside the restaurant to eat. Whew! That was not as simple as I pictured in my head. At 11am, that place was packed! Tourist, apparently. I had staked out a booth for us, pulled up a highchair next to it, but failed to mark it any other way that it was taken. We lost our booth. Shoot! Tyler squirmed in my arms the whole time we waited for our food, and Vincent kept asking where his toy was, or saying, "Hey, Mommy! You forgot to give me my toy." When we did get our food, and find a seat, they had given us fries instead of the apples I ordered. I had to go change that out. BTW, they had to throw away the frieds, that I had not touched, and Happy Meal boxes. I was working up such a sweat just trying to get us started on eating. But, thank goodness I got those apples, cuz that seemed to be the thing the boys were most interested in. Tyler liked dipping his apples in ketchup. Vincent found that funny and decided to try it for himself. When I asked if it was good, he responded with a nod, then tured kind of red and gave a funny face. I guess it wasn't so good. We did have a good laugh of it.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
3 1/2 Years Old!
Yup, that's the age Vincent turned today. I decided to try out the half-birthday idea today. I really talked it up with Vincent and even gave him a mini celebration.
We started our day with a walk on our street. Vincent rode is "mo-mo" scooter, while I pushed Tyler in the trike. Then, after a morning nap for Tyler, we went to U Village to meet Sheila for lunch. We ate at Sonrisa, which is this fancy Mexican restaurant. It was good, but our salads were a bit spicy. Vincent ate up his quesadilla pretty well, and Tyler did so-so on his meal. He did make a good mess, though.
As a gift from Mommy and Daddy, Vincent received a red envelope with $5 inside! He was told he could pick something out at Kid's Club with his money, but the first thing he said when he saw it was, "One dollar! I'm going to put it in my little bank." Man, $5 doesn't get you much in that store. He found a glow-in-the-dark dinosaur set for under $7. I had a small discount, and I spotted him the rest. He is quite enjoying his dinosaurs, and is sleeping with a brachiosaurus right this moment.
After we paid for his toy, we went to Trophy Cupcakes to get...well, the obvious. He picked out "Peanut Butter & Jelly." Nice choice, kiddo. Tyler and I shared a red velvet. We ate it at table outside next to the water fountain. I came prepared for the water today and let the boys play in it.
After naptime, we went for another ride with the scooter and trike. Then, had a delicious dinner of a whole roasted chicken I made. I tried brining my chicken this time, and it turned good! When we finished dinner, we headed to the old neighborhood and were so lucky to see everyone, minus Ruth. It was such a warm, pleasant evening out, and so good to see old friends.
Check out what Tyler wore this evening. He really wanted to wear those boots.
We started our day with a walk on our street. Vincent rode is "mo-mo" scooter, while I pushed Tyler in the trike. Then, after a morning nap for Tyler, we went to U Village to meet Sheila for lunch. We ate at Sonrisa, which is this fancy Mexican restaurant. It was good, but our salads were a bit spicy. Vincent ate up his quesadilla pretty well, and Tyler did so-so on his meal. He did make a good mess, though.
As a gift from Mommy and Daddy, Vincent received a red envelope with $5 inside! He was told he could pick something out at Kid's Club with his money, but the first thing he said when he saw it was, "One dollar! I'm going to put it in my little bank." Man, $5 doesn't get you much in that store. He found a glow-in-the-dark dinosaur set for under $7. I had a small discount, and I spotted him the rest. He is quite enjoying his dinosaurs, and is sleeping with a brachiosaurus right this moment.
After we paid for his toy, we went to Trophy Cupcakes to get...well, the obvious. He picked out "Peanut Butter & Jelly." Nice choice, kiddo. Tyler and I shared a red velvet. We ate it at table outside next to the water fountain. I came prepared for the water today and let the boys play in it.
After naptime, we went for another ride with the scooter and trike. Then, had a delicious dinner of a whole roasted chicken I made. I tried brining my chicken this time, and it turned good! When we finished dinner, we headed to the old neighborhood and were so lucky to see everyone, minus Ruth. It was such a warm, pleasant evening out, and so good to see old friends.
Check out what Tyler wore this evening. He really wanted to wear those boots.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
I'm Cold
It's the middle of June, and I'm cold. I'm finding that I'm still bundling up the kids to go out. And, as I'm sitting here, online "window" shopping, I'm looking at clothes to keep me warm. I saw some sweaters on sale and imagined how cozy I would feel in one of them. I saw t-shirts on sale, too, and sort of shivered. That's sad.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Sponge, Panacea, and iPad
Yesterday, the boys finished up Mandarin classes at Sponge. It was Tyler's first year, and Vincent's 3rd. This may actually be Vincent's last class ever at Sponge. We're not entirely sure, yet. It seems like just yesterday when Vincent was finishing his first year. They've downplayed the "graduation" since Vincent's first year, but it was still fun. Here are the boys looking at their diplomas.
We were so fortunate to have Wen Xing as their teacher this year. She's great & is always so nice to us. Vincent quite loves her.
We were so fortunate to have Wen Xing as their teacher this year. She's great & is always so nice to us. Vincent quite loves her.
We've been so fortunate to be getting dinner made for us on Mondays. A couple of my friends started a business called Panacea. They make the dinners, we pick them up, reheat (if necessary), and eat it up. Last night's dinner was this Asian noodle soup. It was such a fun meal, and the broth was amazing. Check out the boys enjoying.
Father's Day came early this year. I had planned a major surprise to give David and iPad, but it was foiled by the FedEx guy when he showed up at the door, asking for a signature, before David headed out to work one morning. If he had only been 10 minutes later...Oh well, D was still surprised with the gift and has been happily playing with it since. Ooh, and Vincent's pretty excited, too.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Kindie Rock
There was a free music festival in Seattle today. It was called Share The Music and it was put on by a group of musicians who call themselves Kindiependent. Check out their webpage at www.kindiependent.com, or click on the link from the previous sentence. We think this is pretty great. Indie music for kids and parents to enjoy. "Kindie rock" will probably one of those names, like "Foodie," that'll annoy some people that such a name exists, but we are into it. It's clever and it totally fits.
On a whim, we decided to go to this mini-music festival. We packed up some provisions and got the boys on a bus headed downtown. It was great. We even had to transfer busses. We stopped at M Street Grocery for lunch items to take with us. To make our lives easier, we got both boys a corn dog each.
David sent his mom a picture of Ty and his corndog, and she guessed he would eat the whole thing. He didn't! Neither of them did, but Vin ate more than Ty.
We made it home in time for naps, and then headed back out to Vincent's preschool class' end of the year potluck. Tyler wanted to get right in with the big kids, but stayed on the sideline shoveling dirt instead. Vincent ran around with a couple of bigger boys, too. Later, once everyone else had left (somehow we're always the last to leave), Vincent played with the twins whose house we were at. They were all have so much fun, Vincent peed in his pants, and Rhys, the boy, didn't want to go inside to pee, when it was clear he really had to go. So funny how bodily functions are secondary to toddlers.
Lastly, it's been over a week since the boys started sharing a room. Evenings are better. Vincent ends up getting to bed pretty late, like 9pm. Tyler has been waking earlier in the mornings. Most days he wakes Vincent, too. The other day, both boys got up, but definitely needed more sleep. David successfully got them both, and us, back to sleep. Seems that was a one-hit wonder.
On a whim, we decided to go to this mini-music festival. We packed up some provisions and got the boys on a bus headed downtown. It was great. We even had to transfer busses. We stopped at M Street Grocery for lunch items to take with us. To make our lives easier, we got both boys a corn dog each.
David sent his mom a picture of Ty and his corndog, and she guessed he would eat the whole thing. He didn't! Neither of them did, but Vin ate more than Ty. We made it home in time for naps, and then headed back out to Vincent's preschool class' end of the year potluck. Tyler wanted to get right in with the big kids, but stayed on the sideline shoveling dirt instead. Vincent ran around with a couple of bigger boys, too. Later, once everyone else had left (somehow we're always the last to leave), Vincent played with the twins whose house we were at. They were all have so much fun, Vincent peed in his pants, and Rhys, the boy, didn't want to go inside to pee, when it was clear he really had to go. So funny how bodily functions are secondary to toddlers.
Lastly, it's been over a week since the boys started sharing a room. Evenings are better. Vincent ends up getting to bed pretty late, like 9pm. Tyler has been waking earlier in the mornings. Most days he wakes Vincent, too. The other day, both boys got up, but definitely needed more sleep. David successfully got them both, and us, back to sleep. Seems that was a one-hit wonder.
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