Vacation Complete

Vacation time is over. In 3 weeks, we went to Goshen, Chicago, Streamwood, Greenback, Memphis, Mesquite, and Austin with two additional stops at hotels along the way. I forgot the names of those cities. The kids got to see their cousins Lizy, Christian, Justin, Brian, Shauna, Andrew. And earlier at their cousin Faith's wedding in Canada, they got to see cousins Jesse, Nathan, Mary, and Henna - in addition to Christian, Lizy, and Brian. They also got to visit their grandparents on both sides this summer. Zach and Asia love their cousins. Doesn't matter that there's such an age difference. Lizy is the next youngest above Z & A and she's already in what..6th grade, I believe.





Can't visit Chicago without getting some Mario's Italian Ice!

Here's a picture of Zach and Asia riding Shauna's horses in Tennessee. Looks like they're riding on their own, right? Actually Shauna and Cora (Christian's girlfriend) were leading the horses. :)

When the kids weren't swimming at Aunt Mary's house, they were on the trampoline.

Sea World at San Antonio with Gong-Gong and Nai-Nai. John even had fun at the water park with Zach.



We also went to a street fair in San Antonio. It was so hot though, that we spent most of our time in this restaurant. Like the decor?

Whirlwind Vacation

We're on vacation. Have been. Well, more like John and the kids have been on vacation. Mine started tonight. Two weeks ago on Wednesday, I believe, John picked Lizy up from Cleveland and brought her home to play with the kids. I can barely remember all my days, which is why I'm trying to write this in my blog before it all gets jumbled up. So the kids had a ball playing with Lizy. One of those days, the kids and John went to the Science Museum and a thunderstorm rolled in. It rained so much that a small town called Millvale flooded. We usually drive through Millvale to get to the zoo. But maybe 20 minutes or 1/2 hour after John left the Science Museum, a tornado cloud was sighted and blew in a bunch of the windows at the Science Museum! At home, the lights flickered, but stayed on, only the internet and Comcast digital cable went out. At some point, I called John to make sure he was okay, he didn't pick up, so I turned on the TV to see what was going on with the weather. Just after I turned it on, the news was showing the Science Museum and the blown out windows! I then called John again to see where he was. Traffic was pretty bad getting home since roads were closed due to flooding.
Anyway, Friday night, we drove to Lizy's house in Goshen. We got there around 1 AM. Then the kids again had a ball with Lizy. One night, Lizy and Zach stayed up really late (past Tom & JaeHi and Asia) playing a game called Pick 4 or Pick 2 or something. You pick these cards and see if you can move these sticks into that shape, but you can only move one stick each turn. The only way I could get the two to go to sleep was to say they could play in the morning. Then on Sunday, we drove to Chicago and stayed at Tom & JaeHi's old house that is up for sale. Henna and Seth are still living there, but we never saw Seth the whole time. I saw Henna the next morning when she was leaving for work. We also didn't get in right away because no one left the door unlocked and no one was home when we got there. Luckily, Christian and Justin drove up with the key while John and Zach took the train to Millenium Park for a Poster Children concert. John ended up being late to the concert because the train isn't as great as it used to be- construction and whatnot. The train line stopped at some point due to construction and buses were taking people along the train stops.
So Justin and Christian made these great French Bread pizza's for me and Asia. Asia was having a ball seeing her cousins. She was talking up a storm. Then we all drove downtown to pick up Christian's girlfriend Cora from work and met up with John and Zach. We drove over to Justin, Tim Broberg and Carter Sims' place. Oh before all this, we stopped in Chicago for some food on Taylor Street. We parked on Bishop&Laflin area and were walking down Laflin to Taylor for a food festival. Then Joyce Eizenga came out of her apartment there cuz she saw us! We left the kids with her while we went to get some food to eat at her place. It was great to see her by coincidence! Then we also had dinner at Joy Y's at Halstead. That area is really getting nice. And again, while we were first heading to Jamba Juice and then decided to go to Joy Yee's or whatever, we ran into Susanna Johnston and Jubilee! That was neat! So back to Justin's place - we saw Katrina and Tim Broberg there. John was introduced to the game of bags. you throw these bean bags in these holes in a piece of wood. Two teams against each other and some rules for how to score points. As you can tell, I didn't actually play. Otherwise, I'd know the rules better.
Monday - I worked in the corporate office in Merchandise Mart. Then we checked into the HOliday Inn at Merchandise Mart. John and the kids got to use the pool. I eventually got time to use the exercise room. I worked from Merch Mart again on Tuesday, then from the hotel Wed morning. In between that, we had dinner at Pompei with Amy & Andrew Nelson and their two kids, Caleb & Audrey. Joyce also joined us. Then Marissa and Laura took the kids Wed morning to the NElsons to play as well as to Laura's condo. John eventually met up with them. I worked. :) Then we drove to Streamwood where I worked some more from John's dad's house. Crazy, right? Very crazy week. From Streamwood, we drove on Thursday to Tennessee. It was an uneventful drive except that the DVD player in the car decided to stop working during the beginning of the drive to TN. Then John got pulled over for speeding in Kentucky. The police officer told us that John's license had been suspended in Illinois! Boy were we shocked! So I had to drive the rest of the way to TN. John called today and the Illinois office said that the EPA suspended the license thinking we were still living there and that the car hadn't passed state emissions. It's supposed to be unsuspended within a week. Hopefully in time for the drive to Texas. I was not looking forward to 14 hour drive. Of course, we'll probably have to still pay some outrageous speeding fine, but that's better than what could have happened when driving on a suspended license.
So now we're in Tennessee. I worked during the day. Put in 50 hours this week. Nice vacation. Oh well. It's tough because I'm also transitioning to a new team in Allscripts - support. Still doing same thing but not billable and training more people.
Okay, my battery is about to die. I'll have to write more later. For now, just know that I'm in Tennesse enjoying time with Paul & Mary, Brian, Shauna, and Justin Stevens. Cora and Christian are also here. The kids are having a ball!!! They love their cousins. Too bad that there are cats around though. I had to put Asia on antihistamine pills. Her face is starting to puff up. Christian and Cora are also allergic to cats. Zach hasn't been too bad yet.

Too much computer?

Here is a good indicator that your daughter has been playing on the computer too much in one day. We're in Asia's room reading some books before bedtime, then she decides to play a game.
"Mom, do you want to play a game?" Asia asks.
"Sure," I answer.
"Click here to start the game. Then drag your mouse over my pink blankie to move it. If you want to play dress-up, click on my jewelry box. Click here and select me for instructions." Asia answers.

Color of Compromise

Asia asked me an interesting question today while we were painting pictures. Our conversation went something like this:
"Mom?"
"Yes?"
"What's the color of compromise?"
Stunned, I did what any parent would do, I turned the question back on the child. "Well, what do you think the color of compromise is?"
Asia's answer was, "I think the color of compromise is orangish-brownish-greenish-pinkish."

Is that an amazing answer or what? Is that not what compromise is? All colors with some ish in between?

Summer times

Tomorrow is Zach's last day of Kindergarten. He's been reading like a fiend. Three new books each night. He has his small lamp on his bed and he reads to himself three new books from the library. Then he turns out the light and goes to sleep.
Today was Asia's first day of cheerleading. Yes, cheerleading. It's supposed to boost her confidence. She has two friends in the class - Taylor and Chloe. Taylor was in her Hiland preschool class this year. Chloe was in Asia's St. Paul's preschool class last year. Asia and Chloe did not recognize each other, but it's nice for them to see each other again. There are maybe 20 kids in this cheerleading class. All girls. The teachers are college students. They said they've been cheerleading for 7-14 years. Cheerleading captains and whatnot. The main thing is that girls seem to be having fun. Asia's also in gymnastics - started last week. Acacia and her other friend Joey are in the Koala Bears class together. I'll have to take some pictures.

D Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow is Asia's first dance recital for West View Dance. She and her friend Acacia are doing the Bunny Rabbit Blues. Their outfits are so cute. Almost like a playboy bunny. Don't you think?

The dress rehearsal was Wednesday. That was torture. We had to be there at 4:30 PM. Then there was about 1/2 hour just to get people situated, another 1/2 hour for a slide show of pictures taken throughout the year (cool if you're older, but not when you're in preschool with the attention span of a minute). Next, they practiced the finale of the show. That's going to be interested. Trying to time it just right so that about 60 girls all come out in different groups to do a few moves, wave, and exit the stage to music. At least it provides a good laugh. Then each group practiced in the order of the concert. Asia's group is something like 17 or 19 - after the intermission. Asia did pretty well, though, sitting and waiting her turn. I brought along her V-smile game, so she played a little bit. But actually one of her bunny friends played it most of the time. I had the sound turned off so I guess Asia got bored of it. She likes it when her friends like her things anyway.

I'll try to get another picture tomorrow. She doesn't like having her picture taken. She likes attention but not photo attention. It's interesting.

He has been deemed Jersey

We finally found a name.. after going through Burly, Guffy, Skeet, Kelsey, Kelton - I thought that was funny. Kelton is supposed to mean veal payment. Hee hee. Anyway, just a bunch of names I got off of a pet internet site. I did this with Zach and Asia, too. I wrote down a bunch of names and John and I would mull over them, add some more, put little x's next to some we didn't like but not necessarily crossing them out since we might like them a week later. Finally narrowing down to one or two that we would say over and over til it sounded right. So now, we finally weaned it down to... Jersey. After New Jersey. Zach wants to make it sure you know it's not after the name of T-shirts.
So we gave Jersey his first bath (from us) today. He needed a bath because this morning he woke up with some dried poop on his bottom. I think he tried to hold it when he was in his crate. Anyway, I gave him a bath in the sink. He was so good about it! No whimpering. He did stand up on all two's when I took out the plug to let the old water out. It makes a loud sound when all the water suddenly goes down. But the second time it did that, he was fine.
Now he's all clean. And I didn't get too wet. Very nice. The shampoo is coconut-scented too. We'll see how long that lasts.

New Addition

Well, we did it. We finally got a dog. Yes, a dog. I always thought of myself as a cat person. When Zach was born, we had Dizzy. He was a good cat. But when Asia was born, I had Susan take Dizzy back to Columbus because I felt he was getting ignored. He was probably happy going in and out of the house and doing whatever he wanted, but I didn't think it was too healthy for him. Well turns out that Zach and Asia are allergic to cats anyway. So no cats for us.

John had been hinting about getting a dog for quite some time. So I finally decided to research dogs. If we're going to get a dog, I want a good breed that I can rely on. One that is good with little kids, small, not yippy. The last thing I want is a dog that is constantly barking whenever someone goes by or the neighbor's dog is out, etc. Not when I work at home and am on the phone a lot. So I narrowed the dog search down to two breeds - Havanese and Coton de Tulear. I had John check them out to make sure he was okay with these two breeds. What he wanted at first was the typical dog - Labrador Retriever. They're beautiful puppies, but they're only like that for a few months. Then they're a mass of muscle and energy. Sure, if we were an energetic young couple or with older kids who could help out, that kind of dog would be great. But I knew I wouldn't have energy for such a big dog. So eventually John was fine with the two breeds I picked out.

The next step was further research on the breeds to see the pitfalls. Then find breeders nearby. For the Cotons, they were all about 5 hours away in all directions. They're a rarer breed. I emailed one to find out the cost. The breeder emailed me back that the show-potential puppies went for $3000 and the non-show for $2000!!!! So I went for the Havanese. I found two breeders who were in West Virginia - an hour away. One was actually out of town so I never made contact with her. The other breeder was actually babysitting the first breeders dogs - they were friends! That seemed weird since I'd think they'd be competing, but the breeder (Laura) said that they don't compete. The dogs are just available at different times. Anyway, Laura and I emailed for quite some time and then set a date for my family to come up and see the two dogs she had left to show.

When the kids saw the two dogs, they were a little apprehensive at first. John got attached to the male pup right away, then Zach. Asia hid behind me at first. Mostly because she was afraid of the girl pup who kept barking. The girl pup was more excited and liked to bark to talk to you. Zach and Asia kept putting their hands over their ears. Laura, the handler/breeder, started to hold the girl pup after that to keep her quiet. Then Asia and Zach were all over the boy pup. Asia kept saying she loved him. They would throw a ball and he would go running after it. They were both like, "Mom, I just love this dog! I love him!" So I was sold. We brought the little guy home. He was so good in the pet carrier! And then coming into the house, he was really good. And he's sleeping in his crate right now. We'll see how tomorrow goes. And we have to figure out a name for him. The kids were calling him Fluffy at the kennel. John's not for that name. So we tried a couple of other suggestions - Max, Sidney, Crosby (yes Penguin players), Fleurry, Custard, Sam, Sammy. Still haven't agreed on anything yet.

Asia's First Day of Soccer

Last Saturday was Asia's first day of soccer. She, Zach, and Ethan are all in the same team plus some girls from Zach and Ethan's Kindergarten class - Summer, Addison and Jessica. But at the beginning of practice, all the teams that are 6 yrs and under are together learning drills. So Zach and Asia's friend Emme is also in the same soccer league. Asia was all excited about being in soccer. She got to pick out her own soccer ball - a pink one, of course. But when the actual practice happened, she got all intimidated. That's natural of course. She's never been in any organized sports. I don't think she was expecting so many kids around her. At first, it seemed like maybe Asia would participate.

She looks like she's listening right? But then as the coaches were telling the kids what to do, she spent most of the time like this:

Her hands in her pocket, just standing next to her ball and guarding it. She'd look around and see what others were doing. The coaches were pretty good about it. They'd try to help her out or explain things to her. I could tell that she liked the coaches though because she would talk to them.

It was tough for me not to run out there and hold her hand and show her how much fun the other kids were having. All the other parents were talking to each other or enjoying watching their kids play. My daughter was the only one out there standing there. I had to practically tie myself to my chair. John said that in the past years, they'd even have kids out there crying. I guess that made me feel better.

I kept telling Zach to go over to Asia and help her out since this was his 3rd season in soccer. He would but she wouldn't respond too much. She spent quite some time in this position too:

Finger in her mouth. But again, she is listening. And she's not crying. And she's not sitting in the sidelines next to me or wanting me to hold her hand. She's out there, observing, getting comfortable. The coaches were pretty good too. They had some neat games to help the kids practice dribbling and stopping the ball. In one, they were dogs and some of the kids were dogcatchers. The dog catchers had tshirts that they would use to tag someone (a dog). Then the coach made Asia the ultimate dog catcher. She ran around with another coach and if they caught you, they got to take your ball. That really warmed her up. I thought at first that she'd freak out when the coach pointed her out and everyone was looking at her as the special dog catcher. But the coach was wise. Asia wanted the attention.

The last few minutes, two teams would actually play against each other. That's what Asia was waiting for. She had a blast. And Zach scored quite a few goals. As did Ethan's classmate, Jessica. This last picture is the end of the soccer practice. The kids love snack time. Usually, they get a ticket that they take to the snack stand for a drink and chips.

interesting year

It's been an interesting year for my family. My grandfather (Dad's dad) died in February. My dad's aunt died shortly after that. Today was the memorial service for my Uncle Noel (my mom's brother). My Uncle Noel found out he had cancer in December/January. Most of his liver was removed in January but he never got strong enough to start chemotherapy. The cancer spread and other infections. He passed away last Wednesday. The memorial service was very sweet.
I was a little worried about the kids going to the funeral/viewing/memorial service and just approaching the subject of death. A few days ago, for example, Asia told me she didn't want me to die... ever. I tried to explain to her that everyone dies. She said she would be very sad if I died. She said she'd rather die. But then I told her that would make me very sad. So we agreed that we both wanted to live forever.
Asia also asked me another difficult question this week. She asked me if God was bigger than Jesus. Tough question eh? I tried to explain a little about Jesus coming to the earth as God's Son and then returning back to be with God when He died. And then tried to say that they were now the same and then quickly changed the subject. I wasn't ready to try and explain this subject to a four year old.

Zach and Asia Go Shopping

Today, Zach and Asia had their first real shopping lesson. Or maybe it would be the second. I think the first was actually two summers ago when I gave Zach and Asia some coins to spend at a garage sale. Asia got two Barbie dolls and a magic wand. I believe Zach lost his money rummaging through stuff. John got him some books though. So Zach failed that first lesson. This time, they had to finish lunch and then help clean up the living room. It was quite a job. They both took quite a few trips up to their rooms to put toys away. Then they both had a blast operating the vacuum cleaner. First Zach did some vacuuming while Asia held the cord. I told her it was her job to not let Zach vacuum over the cord or trip on it. Zach's vacuuming strategy was to go around in circles. That left lots of dust left for Asia to vacuum up. It was pretty funny watching her try to push the vacuum. I don't think she knew how heavy it was. Her eyes got all big the first time she tried to push it by herself. Once she got the hang of it, I tried to show her the right way to vacuum - up and down along the rug. I figured she may as well learn how to operate a vacuum cleaner correctly more than Zach since it seems that it's something moms and wives and sisters do more than their male counterparts. Why is that? Giving you a Y chromosome means you don't have to vacuum or do the dishes? I rant...
So the kids did a great job on cleaning and as a reward, they got to spend some of their birthday money. Isn't that a great idea? They get to spend their own money. Anyway, they both have these piggy banks that they got when we moved here. Asia's actually gone through two piggy banks. Her first was a glass one. Then I moved her and Zach's money to these plastic ones I got from PNC bank. Well, it was the plastic one that broke. So now her money is back in the glass one. The glass one that has no way to open it. So I think John used a knife to pry some money out if it today.
You'd think that I would have started small - like let's all spend five dollars each! But what can you get with that? I guess if we went to the dollar store... I didn't think about that. I was thinking more that all you can buy with five dollars is candy. So Zach and I agreed to spend 20 dollars or less at Toys R Us. I figured they'd definitely find something they lucked for under twenty dollars. And boy, was I right. First Asia picked out this megablocks Disney princess set that was for 1 year old and up. It was 19.99. Then as we went through the store, Zach kept picking things that were too expensive. Even one Lego set that was 20.99. I explained, he only had 20 dollars and how to look at the price tags. Then Asia decided she wanted a fairy dancing princess Barbie (after going through some other things that were over budget). The Barbie was 9.99. So she had 10 dollars left to spend. Both kids took a detour in the bike department trying out new bikes. Zach almost spent his 20 dollars on a bike helmet. I asked him if he really wanted to buy a bike helmet instead of a toy. He agreed he really wanted a toy. He already had a bike helmet at home.
I pointed Zach towards the cars and trucks aisle and told him to find something there. Then Asia found a princess Dora for 6 dollars and then a Barbie princess ball for four dollars. She was set. Zach found two race car sets, each 9.99. Then he saw a power ranger sword and decided he wanted that instead of one of the racing sets. So then we went to pay for the toys. When the receipt was printed, I balked at the price. Seemed a little high with the tax and all. Then I realized that one of Zach's racing sets was actually 19.99. So we returned it and went shopping again. Zach decided he didn't want a race set. It took some time, but Zach finally decided he wanted 3 toys like Asia, so he had to get something under ten dollars so he'd have some left over for something else. He ended up getting a tow truck that was on sale and then a Marvel heroes ball. All in all, the kids did good with their purchases. Thanks to the people who gave the kids money. :)

Like Father Like Son

The picture says it all.

January 2007

Bejeweled

Zach and I share a new pasttime. It's an internet game called Bejeweled.. Actually Bejeweled 2. And Zach calls it Bejewels. I know, the last thing a mom wants is a six year old getting hooked on video games. That will come soon enough. But I can justify it... ummm... he's learning to match up his patterns! You have to get at least 3 gems in a row to get points and have more jewels cascade down. And I could say that it's fostering our relationship. Whatever. The fun thing is that we'll play it together. It's not a game that two people can play at once, but we'll sit side by side, one watching the other play. Sometimes, the player will get in a hard spot, and the one watching will help out with hints or point to some gems that could be moved to be three in a row. One day, I had both Asia and Zach trying to help me. Asia would say, move the green one and the white one. There's lots of green and white ones, Asia, which ones in particular? Or they'd both be pointing to the screen so that I couldn't even see what I was playing. But again, I was treasuring sharing something with my two kids. I figure each moment counts because when they're teenagers, they probably won't want to share anything with their outdated mom.

Another thing we share is loving to go to the mall. Of course, I'd love to actually go to the mall to shop for stuff for me, but the kids usually can't stand waiting for me to try on clothes or something. I took Zach once to buy a coat for him and some other things, and when we were going through the women's section, he kept asking, "Mom, why do we keep stopping?" He didn't get why I stopped at practically every aisle. He tried to be patient, but he was the one pushing the shopping cart and wasn't appreciating not getting too far. Anyway, today we went to the mall. The goal was to get a birthday present for Zach's friend, Steven. The other goal was just to kill some time without exhausting myself.

A few days ago, Zach had the stomach flu - hit him around 11 PM. So that night was sleepless for John and myself. Luckily it was something like a 6 hour flu. Zach was fine in the morning. Asia slept through the whole thing. I'm not sure I'd be able to sleep to the sounds of the person in the bunkbed above me, puking away every 1/2 hour.

The mall here has a great little play area for young kids. It has all these rubber slides. Rubber! So they're really slippery yet if you fall, you won't get hurt. So all these little kids are running around them. Asia and Zach love playing chase, catching each other and pulling each other down the slide. I try not to watch in case they accidentally roll over some little one year old or younger who's crawling around the play area. We also always do two things when we're at the mall. Stop at the food court for ice cream or frozen yogurt and stop by the toy store - in this case, Kaybee toy store which supposedly is moving out of the mall. So today everything was 20% off. And after visiting the Disney store and coming out of there without purchasing anything, I thought KB toys was very cheap. So Zach and I haggled over a few things til we both agreed on some toys for Steven. Then I told Zach to choose one thing under 5 dollars. A nice young worker there pointed out that everything was on sale, so he could get something nice. So Zach learned how to read price tags as well as picked out a nice sword and shield. Asia picked out a fairy doll that was actually over five dollars originally, but I think with the sale, it neared five dollars. There was no use reasoning with her, I took what I could get. She was eyeing all these other dolls that were 20 dollars and up. So when she found one that was something like seven dollars, I took it. She really liked this Dora toy that you push the buttons and she reads them off, but she already has something similar at home. Luckily she didn't put up much of a fuss when I said we weren't going to get it. I had let her play with it at the store for at least 20 minutes while Zach was trying to figure out what he wanted to get. Again, I am so lucky that Zach is so reasonable. Both my kids could have laid on the ground and cried and made a fuss. I worry that I spoil them because I can afford the things they want. I feel like they have way more toys than I ever had. But then I wonder if that's true. I had my Barbie dolls. I might not have had the Barbie Corvette or Barbie's horse, but I did have my dolls - at least 2 or 3 of them. I remember my brother had a Nintendo system that he then upgraded to a Sega system. So again, it's not like we didn't have toys. I don't know how my parents did it. I never felt poor, but looking back, I don't think we were ever financially strong. I guess John and I both have our parents to thank as to why we raise our children to be the same - to not be spoiled, selfish, thankless and instead to be grateful for what we have or what we get. At least we try.

CandyLand

One of Asia's favorite games is Candyland - her version, so maybe it should be called AsiaLand. She picks the cards for you and moves you to where she thinks you go. And she always gets Queen Frostine. Sometimes you get the Queen Frostine card too, but only after she got the card and is much farther ahead. Sometimes you get the Goose, which means you get stuck in the Gooseberry swamp or something. You lose a turn. Most times I get sent back to the beginning, but I always say that way I get more gumdrops. Plus the game lasts only a few minutes because after Asia gets Queen Frostine, she only needs maybe 3 more cards and the game is over.

Winter Cometh

It is now officially winter.

Birthday Party at Chuck E Cheese

You just gotta love having a small birthday party during the middle of the week at Chuck E Cheese. There were hardly any cars in the parking lot, almost leading me to believe that the place was closed for some reason - electrical failure, pizza oven fire, something.

Zach invited a few friends from school - Sean, Nick, and Steven A. Then other friends he invited - Zach F, Ethan, and Emme. And of course, Asia was there, holding her own amongst all the Kindergardeners. :)

The Chuck E Cheese host, Will, was awesome. He was the young guy, maybe college age? He had all this time and energy for our little party. Another good thing about booking during a weekday night. We were the only party there. And there were maybe 2 other tables filled in the entire place. That left the kids to run around without worrying about bothering too many other people or waiting for the games. Anyway, here's a link to a video of the kids dancing, led by fearless leader Will.

Happy Birthday

My son is now six years old. Six! My little boy is six. I can't believe it. I have a six year old. That just sounds old. :) You can still pretend to be a young mother when your kid is like pre-elementary age, or like 5 and under. Once you have a six year old, you're just lumped together with older couples. Even if you're still in your twenties, which I'm not.
Anyway, we're celebrating Zach's birthday on Wednesday at good ol' Chuck E Cheese. Zach invited a few of his friends to the party. We've heard from all but one so far. So we have Sean, Emme, Ethan, and Steven.
We still had a small family celebration today. Asia made Zach a card. She wrote on it, "Dear Zach. Asia." That's alot of words for her to write already. Zach, in turn, made Asia a card. It said, "To Asia. Yoor cool." I love his phonetic spelling. It's so cute. I hate correcting him but he needs to learn to spell the right way. I haven't figured out yet how to encourage his initiative yet not discourage him when I try to correct him. Anyway, I digress as usual....
I bought a bunch of toys at ToysRUs. Half are for Christmas and Asia's birthday. I figured I'd just buy them all at once. I also made a stop at the dollar store. Spent 1.50 on a blue gift bag. Stuck a Power Ranger outfit in it and two shirts (Power Rangers again and Incredibles). I don't know why I bothered with the gift bag. Zach doesn't care about the wrapping. He put that Power Ranger outfit on right away. Then he proceeded to zoom around the house and wore it til bathtime. The kid is so easy to please. Luckily. After dinner, we also had a little fudge cake that Asia and I had made. I put some Cool Whip on it and then stuck a candle in it. We sang Happy Birthday and Asia told Zach to make a wish. For the next 10 minutes, Asia and Zach re-enacted the blowing out of the candle, switching off on who would be the birthday kid and who would turn on and off the lights when the candle was blown.
I'm lucky that these kids are easy to please. I was fretting about what to buy Zach. A few days ago, I took Zach to Target with me and had him go aisle by aisle down the toy section and tell me what he wanted. He liked the remote control cars and planes, the puzzles, the pirate swords, and the Power Ranger outfit. I told him that I would surprise him with one of those. The Power Ranger outfit at Target was a fancier muscle suit that cost like 35 dollars. I found a simple one at ToysRUs for 10 bucks. I am so lucky that Zach didn't care that I got a cheaper one. I don't think he totally knows who Power Rangers are anyway, he doesn't watch the show. He's just one cool kid.

Happy Thanksgiving

The mornings usually start with Asia coming into our room, climbing over me and plopping herself down on my pillow with her pink blankie. Then she'll rub her eyes and say, "Mom, I want to watch TV." I'll scooch over because she's practically laying on me and because most of the time, she prefers to lay on the covers instead of under the covers. I predict this every morning, so once she gets into bed or onto the bed, that is, I'll hold on tight to my side of the covers as she preceds to kick herself out of the covers, if she ever got in them. Once the TV is on, within 15 minutes, Zach's up and in our bed. The next few minutes depends on whether Asia is in a good mood or bad mood. If she's in a good mood, then she'll let Zach lay in between her and John. If she's in a bad mood, she'll complain that he's squishing her or that he's got all the covers or that she wanted to be next to dad or that his leg is touching her or anything related to his existence. At that point of time, I have to get out of the bed since I'm going to fall out anyway. This gives Asia room to move over and take my spot and give her brother some peace.

This Thanksgiving for some reason, the kids are all excited. Yesterday, both kids kept asking if it was Thanksgiving. Then this morning, Asia asked if it was Thanksgiving and when she found it was, she was really happy. Zach came in to our room this morning with a big smile on his face and said, "It's Thanksgiving! And then it'll be my birthday!"

Another funny thing that happened this morning. Asia is recovering from a cold so her nose is a little stuffy. She announced, "I have a booger." I hurriedly gave her a tissue so she could put her treasure in there. She then said, "I'm going to put it in here to save for later. Then I'm going to put it back in my nose." At breakfast time, Zach asked Asia if she put that booger back in her nose. Hilarious!

those darn preschool starter memories

Every now and then, I get a flashback of Zach's first day of preschool in Chicago. Especially when I look at his old preschool pictures. I see the first day when I sat with him in class. I snuck outside for a little bit to see how he would be without me. For a few minutes it was fine. Then the teacher put on a record of Bert & Ernie on a safari hunt. Suddenly, I heard Zach screaming. I looked in and saw Zach in the middle of the floor with his hands over his ears, crying and screaming. The teacher and kids were marching around him. It was like some cannibals in the jungle, marching around their captured prey, getting ready for dinner. I'm sure it wasn't really like that. I know the kids were following the teacher and doing actions according to the record - look a tiger! Shoot the tiger! But at that time, Zach had a fear of unknown noises - as in where is that noise coming from. You have to explain to him that the sound is coming from the record player. What also amazes me is why one of the two teachers didn't try to comfort him. I know they want him to be more independant, but come on! This is the first day of preschool! I compare that to his first few days at day care at Taylor Tots. He would cry, and the teachers would pick him and hold him, hug him. That's comforting to the parents.
Then I picture the 2nd day of preschool at Children of Peace. I drop Zach off and to try and make it less painful, I exit right away and run into the car. I look out the window and see his little head popping up and down trying to look out the window. I see him crying.
On another day, I drop him off and he's lying on the floor crying.
So then I compare that to his first day at preschool hear in Pittsburgh. Yes, he's older. But he basically went willingly and ran right into the kids and I'm not even sure he looked back. Asia was basically the same.
It really makes a difference with how the school looks like - brightly painted walls, etc. And even more, the teachers. All of the teachers so far for Zach and Asia here have been so smiley. That's a big thing. Zach's montessori teacher at Children of Peace - I'm not sure I saw her smile once. She wasn't mean, just strict. And this was her first time teaching this age. I heard she was a kindergarten teacher or something. The previous teacher at Children of Peace went on maternity leave and decided not to come back. Maybe it was also the curriculum - Montessori. I think it taught Zach some good practices for his studies, but it just wasn't something he looked forward to going to at his age. On top of that, Children of Peace was a Catholic school. So that probably added another strictness or gray factor.
Anyway, I am so glad that I haven't had to go through that same experience again of the screaming and tears. It's been what... two years? And I still have those bad memories. Thank goodness my little boy wasn't traumatized. Just his mom.

First Tooth

Yes, usually you see a blog post saying - baby got his first tooth! Well, now it's - Baby lost his first tooth! Zach's bottom two adult front teeth are already growing in. You'd think they'd wait til the old baby ones were out. Anyway, the first baby tooth came out today. John had to pull it out since Zach was having difficulty eating pizza with his tooth twisting everywhere. So anyway, big day today! I wonder if this has anything to do with all the Halloween candy he ate yesterday... :) I'll talk about that tomorrow if I get to blogging it. The little tooth and the pizza slice the little guy was trying to eat, as well as the pliers John tried to use to pull the tooth, are all on John's nightstand right now. Would make a great picture. Yuck.

Kindergarten?

Or is it kindergarden... a garden of kinder kids? Anyway, John and I am thinking of putting Asia in Kindergarten next year, if we can get her in. I'm sure it'll be a lot of red tape and whatnot. The question is whether she's ready.. as in ready for first grade the year after. She can write her name, though her S's are backwards. She can also write the letters F, T, M, O (she can write out the word MOM). Today, she counted on her own to 29. Then after that, it was 20-10. :)

zach's shaker

The other day, Zach was watching TV. There was a small segment on a craft that you can do with your children. Well, Zach needed no prompting. And I'm not sure if he saw this TV segment several times or not. If not, then this boy's a genius. I was in the bathroom getting ready and he yelled, "Mom, I'm going to make a shaker!" So he found an empty toilet paper tube. I'm not sure he found it. I have a stash I keep for church crafts, but it's in a plastic bag covered by other plastic bags in the linen closet. Or maybe there just happened to be an empty one in the trash. Anyway, somehow he found this toilet paper tube and then put a napkin over it. Then he wanted a rubber band. I told him to look in the drawer next to the silver ware. He shouted out joyously, "Mom, you're right! There are some here!" See, mom does know some things and is often right. So he wound up a rubber band around the napkin. Then I'm sure the TV show said to put rice or beans or sand or little pebbles in the tube or oatmeal carton. My son goes outside, probably doesn't see any little rocks or sand (that's dry) and comes back in with his hands full of cedar mulch. I'm not sure cedar mulch is supposed to make lots of sound in a shaker, especially after it rained. Anyway, in goes the mulch. Then we had to leave, so I told him we'd finish the shaker another day.
True to my word, we finish the shaker at lunch time. I suggested he put some rice in his shaker. Zach agreed that this was a good idea and proceeded to dump some rice in his little shaker, the rest went on the floor. He and his friend Daniel spent the next 20 minutes picking up kernel upon kernel of rice and trying to put it back in the rice bag. I saw Daniel picking up one little kernel at a time! It didn't dawn on me what they were doing until after Daniel and his parents left. I was cleaning up and noticed all this rice on the floor. So easy to sweep up, but must have been quite a task when using little fingers to pick up each kernel.

So here's a picture of Zach's shaker. I offered to trim the napkins around it so it would look nicer, but he said that if I did that, all the rice would fall out. He proceeded to show me how the rice was falling out. It didn't matter that it was because the rubber bands weren't on tight enough. He was convinced that it was because the napkins weren't covering the entire tube. Also, he was shaking the tube so roughly that half of it was already caved in. But the thing I like is that he took the initiative to create this shaker. There are some good things about TV. :)

taking over my desk

Asia is slowly taking over my office desk. She likes to use my laptop, which is why I'm probably on my 3rd laptop. The keys fall off. The hard-drive went bad over the summer, but luckily the data was all recovered. A year's worth of pictures! And yet, I still haven't backed up recently.
Anyway, enough of that. I wanted to show the little things I find on my desk from Asia.

Ballet, Hockey, Soccer, TaekwonDo....what else can we add?

Look at these! Asia's first ballet slippers! She starts dance at the elementary school tomorrow. She was all excited about getting these. Of course, she wanted the pink ones, but I told her that the teacher said she had to get white. Luckily, the shoe store still had her size. There were maybe 5 boxes of white shoes left and a gazillion boxes of pink and blacks. I put in two pictures - one to show her shoe size. I think these ballet slipper sizes run big.

So this is going to be a very busy year. We've got Zach in tae kwon do on Tues, Thurs, and Saturday - two classes, one being a weapons class. Then he's got soccer on Saturday. And just started hockey (deck hockey) today. We'll see if he can stay in hockey or not since Mondays is not a good day for him to be playing. I've got band practice. Then on Tuesdays, we also have Asia starting up her dance class. Then I've got pottery on Thursdays. We also have a family vacation in Gettysburg this weekend, a family wedding to go to at the end of the month. Another family get together and Zach's birthday in November. Fun fun fun! I think we'll take a break in May.

Loving kids

Aren't these two adorable? I'm going to love showing this to them when they're like 12 and 14. "Mom, get that picture out of my face!" "But look how loving you two were! Why don't you two hug again for me?" That'd be me begging. You only have your kids once. Once they're grown, they're grown. Yeah, that's a duh statement but it hits when you remember your babies taking their first steps, first words, all of a sudden they're not hugging you all the time any more. They don't need you to tell them what to do, what to wear. So I gotta get what I can now. :)

Starting school again

Zach started Kindergarten last week. No problems so far. No crying. Nothing. No overjoyous moments either. No coming home and saying,"Mom, look what we did!" so we'll ask him to empty his backpack and show us his crafts. I'll ask him what he ate for lunch, knowing already what he ate by looking at the menu. His answer is usually PBJ (not on the menu) or one time he said shrimp (which was dinner the night before). He seems to like it. I say this because he doesn't fight to not go to school.
Asia started preschool today. Just a one-hour session with parents. She seemed to like it, though she was all clingy to me. That's why I have to have John take her to school. I'd love to be able to drop her off and see her run off with her friends to play. But she'd drag me in with her. With John, it might be more like, "see ya!".
We're considering having her go to Kindergarten next year instead of waiting another year. We'll see how this year goes and how Zach is in Kindergarten. I think Asia would be fine if she went half-day. She'd be 1/2 year younger than her friends in class, but she was like that last year and was fine. As long as we work with her on her letters. She can already write the letter A for her name. Then I 'll write the rest of the letters in dots so she can connect them.

Weird Sensation

Last night, the strangest thing happened. Strange as in how I remembered it. Around 2 or 3 AM, Asia started crying from a nightmare or something. J didn't wake up at all since we had a box fan going to drown out outside street noise. This is what I recall from being woken from my slumber:

Dreaming... I'm in some kind of warehouse/dorm/circus tent. I hear kids sounds, crying. I figure the employees or enemies have kids in some room far away.
I start walking towards the sound.
It's a girl.
That girl's name is Asia.
She's my daughter.
I have a daughter.
She's crying.
Bad mom is taking a long time for this all to register and go get her daughter.

I finally wake up and get Asia. She wants to come into my room to sleep next to me. I'm too tired to argue.
As I'm laying in bed with Asia snuggled between me and J, I think that for a few minutes there, I had no sense of having kids. While I was half-awake, it didn't hit me that it was my own daughter crying. There was no sense of responsibility. That was a very weird feeling. I don't think I remember having this kind of feeling since Zach was born. The feeling of not having to be responsible of someone else who couldn't take care of him or herself. Though it was only a few minutes, it just seemed so strange.
Then Asia turns in her sleep and flails her little arm around, whacking me in the face.

Success!! so far....

Asia is doing an awesome job in potty training! Several times today, she told me she had to go to the bathroom and then waited til we got there. That is an accomplishment. Not so much telling me, which is a big feat, but holding it til we go to the toilet. I am so proud of her. And then just a few minutes ago, she announced, "I am going to sit on the potty chair." It's one of those blue and white BabyBjorn portable potty chairs. So it's sitting here in the dining room. Yes, sanitary, right? Anyway, it's gotta be near her. We'd never make it upstairs to the bathroom. The plus of having a bathroom on the main floor. So she takes off her pull-up's and cute pink shorts. Sits on the potty. Puts her pink blankie over her legs. Then decides to hold up an open purple umbrella over her so that no one can see her unless she wants them to. Picture that. Privacy at your fingertips.

So here's some of Asia's words that she still says and made up. "Dokdy." A boy. "Dikdy" is a girl. Scribblebidgit is a river, Asia says. But the meaning keeps on changing. Supposedly it's from the CD game, Busy Town (Richard Scarry's characters). So every now and then she'd say, You're a Dokdy. Or if you're a girl, "You're a dikdy."

She also decided her name is Lilly. She said today, "Mommy? What's my name." My simple response, "Asia." "Asia Bria Neill," she corrects. "Call me Lilly," she then states. So I guess I named her incorrectly. Her bear is named Lilly. Her invisible friend is named Lilly. Where she got that name, I'm not sure. She doesn't have any friends or acquaintances named Lilly. All I can think of is Lilly Lavender on one of the Wiggles' episode, the episode that Zach can't stand because of the scary eyes on the door to the Wiggles house.

Asia and Acacia

Asia and Acacia

Party

I'm planning a party for my birthday. I was going to go with a dress-up theme. Since girls love an occasion to dress up, but then I thought about all the husbands and whatnot who'd come and guys don't like to dress up. Especially when it's hot out. So I opted for a Hawaiian luau theme. Lauau. Luau. That word just doesn't look right. Anyway, it's supposed to be a feast, so I was looking into caterers only to be appalled by the prices. I'd have to spend 300-400 dollars on food. I'm trying to figure out if I make everything myself, would it end up being the same price anyway? If I cater, I save myself some headache. I can't decide and I think I'll end up making everything myself and having some people bring stuff. I already spent 200 some dollars on novelties like grass skirts and leis. :) Gotta love that Oriental Trading Company. Still sending the same old stuff. I think this is where dollar stores get their stuff. You can buy it in bulk. I remember as a teenager, buying a bunch of stuff like pencils and keyrings from Oriental Trading Company. I was going to sell it to make money. I don't think I sold even one pencil. I ended up giving them away. And I think I still have some of the pencils.
So far I have about 33 people coming. There's about 10-15 people who haven't RSVP'd yet or dont' have email so I have to give them a physical invite. I sent out my invite using www.evite.com. Very nice cuz everyone can see who is coming when they RSVP. And I can see who viewed the invite and when. Very clever.

God is lucky

Gotta love kids' quotes:

"God is the luckiest because He has everything. But not candy. Because if He ate all the candy then His skeleton would get a tummyache."

Zach Neill
5-26-06

Three year old's and Tulips don't mix

Why do I say that three year old's and tulips don't mix? Well, the tulips don't stand a chance. As soon as the tulips sprung up and flowered, my daughter has been breaking off the flower heads and bringing them to me.

"Look, Mom! A flower for you!" Asia says, holding out the top of a tulip with about 3 inches of stem.
Gasping and then eking out a smile, I say, "Thanks dear! It's beautiful! Let's not pick any more, okay?"
I'll then try to put the flower in a bowl of water, nevermind a vase. With only a few inches of stem, the flowers barely peek out of salsa jar. One day, I did have a pretty nice centerpiece from this small clay pot I had thrown and glazed in a pottery class and then five or six tulip heads. Again, I say heads due to the lack of the stem. The kids had fun taking the tulips out of the water and putting them back in, squashing some of the tulips down into the water. Tulip petals dropping everywhere.
I'm just glad someone's enjoying those flowers. Maybe not the people driving by the house or neighbors looking at our backyard. Besides yourself, that's who the flowers and general landscaping is for, right? Otherwise, we'd all have dirt or crabgrass in the front or maybe our own personal jungles. No mowing required.
I just remember early November, desperately burying all those bulbs. Luckily I got Zach to help out. He'd dig a hole, or make a dent in the dirt, that is. I'd dig deeper. He'd put the bulb in and help me cover it up. It was so cold and dark that night, but we had fun planting. Zach would run inside to warm up and then come back out to help me some more. At the end, I had no idea what I was planting, I just wanted to get those bulbs buried.

Asia's 2nd professional haircut

Asia and I went to get our haircut yesterday. I had a coupon for a free child hair cut with a full pay adult haircut. I was in the mood for a change in hairstyle anyway. My bangs are growing out and part of it likes to hang near my eyes, rubbing against my face. It's that annoying piece that you can feel is there and won't go away unless you mousse or spray it or put a silly barrette in. And then the weather has been so dry, that my hair is all staticy and that little part of growing out bang clings to my face even worse. On Asia's side, her bangs are getting into her eyes and the length of her hair over all is getting unmanageable - getting into her food, her mouth, etc. I could easily trim it, but it would be nice for her bangs to be straight once in awhile. This was also my idea of mommy and daughter time. Yes, let's get our hair done! I see us doing this as a tradition - mom and daughter getting their hair done, nails done, pedicures. Sounds so typical right? Dad and son spend time fishing or hunting. Mom and daughter spend time beautifying themselves. Oh well. It's like when I was pregnant and said my daughter wouldn't be wearing pink all the time. Well, she's not wearing pink ALL the time, but she has her pink blanket, her pink sippy cup, her pink bear....
So back to the haircut. I coaxed Asia into the hair salon with promises of chocolate. "Where's chocolate?" Asia would ask in the car. "I'll give it to you when we get there." Then we get to the hair salon, "Where's chocolate?" "You'll get it when you're getting your hair cut." "Will it hurt?" Asia asks. I think she's remember when I brush her hair. Yank, Ouch! Sorry, your hair is full of knots. Amongst other things - dough, paint, whatever.
So luckily we got the manager who is good with kids. I told her the one thing Asia really doesn't like is being sprayed with the water bottle. Back in Chicago when she got her hair cut, she would bawl when they sprayed her hair because it would never fail that the residual mist (which would be cold, I 'm sure) would waft into her face. So the manager, Gwen, would spray her comb and then comb Asia's hair to wet it down. Very smart. I stood next to Asia the whole time, feeding her M & M's, showing her that her doll Belle was sitting there watching. Gwen would ask Asia about her brother Zach and Asia wouldn't talk back but would nod or hold up her fingers to show how old she was. Eventually she loosened up more which meant she was curious enough to look around now. Not the easiest way to cut hair. But no crying happened. We went through one small bag of M&M's and one mini Twix bar. She then got a balloon which occupied her while I was getting my hair cut.
The bummer is that my coupon didn't take. It was a coupon for Great Clips that I got off of a cereal box. We were at Supercuts. Ha! Oh well.

Here's a picture of Zach's class during Halloween. Zach is the fireman in the back. The pink fairy is Emme. The princess in the yellow wig is Julia. The black caterpillar is Lance. The cowboy next to Zach is Gary. The green Grinch is Josh. The scarecrow is Briar. Princess Leia is actually Riley. The purple fairy is Carly. Belle is Rachel. Batman is Anthony. The power ranger is Luke.

Here's the kids in the backyard with their Auntie Es and her dog Corey and me in the early Fall 2005.

Karate Zach

Okay, not really karate. It's taekwondo. Zach graduated today from the first belt - white - to orange belt! He had to earn 6 black stripes on his white belt and then test into the next level. Of course, that also meant forking over 50 dollars for the test fee and belt. I was told there is a certificate, but I didn't see that. Anyway, the main thing is that it's an outlet for Zach's energy. He's really enjoying it, getting to know some of the kids in his class. I think it's a confidence booster. But mainly, I enjoy seeing him stick with it over these past months and going to class with enthusiasm. The teachers are pretty good. They keep the little kids in this class interested. The class is called Tiny Tigers. I don't remember what the age limit is, but it's like 4 years to 7 or 8 or 6? There are some really little kids in it. They're so cute to watch. Some of them seem like they're not even tall enough to jump over some of the barricades the teachers put up for an obstacle course. All the kids get the white shirt and pants for free and those outifts are pretty much one size. So a lot of the little kids are swimming in these outfits. One mom hemmed the pants for her son and pointed out that she hemmed one leg shorter than the other. :) I keep forgetting to at least fold up Zach's sleeves. Today, I wanted to walk into the classroom to fix Zach's shirt. We were in a hurry, as usual, to get to class so he had his coat on before I had his belt on. I had him lift his coat up so I can tie on his belt. I didn't find out til he took off his coat and went to class that I had only tied in half of shirt in the back. The rest was hanging out all sloppy. When Zach was trying to do his test with his teacher, he kept having to pull his shirt down because it was falling off. Luckily he didn't care, he was having too much fun.

Back in Chicago

J, the kids and I am back in Chicago for the week. I'm teaching a training class in our downtown office in Merch. Mart. We're staying in the Holiday Inn connected to the Mart. The view is beautiful from the 21st floor. We can see the trains going by, all the cars and traffic going across the bridges, and where the two rivers intersect. I was walking to the training class in the morning and going past the train station turnstiles and elevators and it felt great to be with all these people going to work. It made me miss a big city environment. People well-dressed going to work. It just felt neat to be part of a big group like that.
Anyway, the kids seem to be having a ball seeing their old babysitters and cousins and whatnot. Ellen, Katie, Justin, Lizzy, Seth, Rron and his parents. I miss the restaurants here too! Great food at high prices. ha! So I don't miss the cost of everything, but the thing is that in most of the restaurants, you're not only paying for awesome food, but for awesome service and often great ambience.

My beautiful kids in our dining room window.

Zach is taking taekwando classes now. Today was his second class and he got his free uniform. It's so cute! All white with a white belt. He has to get six stripes to get to the next belt - orange. His first stripe is after he memorizes this greeting about mind, body, etc. John said he takes it very seriously in class. When I took him for his first day, he ran right in there for his intro class which was a one-on-one with the instructor. The instructor was a high school student who said he only teaches on Saturday since he has marching band in the weekday evenings. Zach said his teacher was really cool. I am so glad he's enjoying it.

We also had a great birthday party for Zach on Tuesday. Some of his friends from school came: Ryley, Emme, Briar, Lance, Gary, and Joshua. Then Ethan, Aletheia, Acacia, Sydney, and Travis. Everyone had a great time. My parents and Es were also there. Asia has been asking for her Nai-Nai and Auntie Es ever since.

For Thanksgiving, my Aunt and Uncle from Stow, OH, came to visit along with my cousins Wayne and George. It was fun listening to my mom and my uncle talk about old times in Taiwan.

no cats for us

At my suggestion, John took Zach and Asia to an animal shelter to play with
some kittens. We suspected Zach might be allergic to cats, though his
reactions weren't consistent. John said that one time he and Zach spent the
night at a friend's house who had cats and the next morning, Zach was
complaining that it was hard to breathe. As soon as they left the house,
Zach was fine. I've never seen this happen myself. Another time though, we
were at John's sister's house in TN and after playing with some barn cats,
Zach complained that his eye was hurting. It was all red, but he was also
really tired and ended up taking a long nap after that. Anyway, so this
time, they were playing with the cats and John said Zach started sneezing
and felt his neck was kind of itchy. John himself felt itchy. But it was
Asia who had the worst reaction of them all. Driving home, she started
sneezing. Then when John brought her in, her eyes were almost swollen shut!
My poor baby! I gave her some Benadryl so we'll see how she does. Anyway,
unfortunately, no cats for us at least for a few more years.

Lesson Failed

Over the summer, I tried to teach Zach his first lesson in money - how to spend it, what it's worth. There was a neighborhood yard sale a block away, so John and I decided to take the kids there to check it out - the neighbors, their junk, and just have a nice time outside in the summer sun. I gave Zach and Asia each a quarter and said that they could use it to buy something at the yard sale. Both put their money in their pockets for safe-keeping. In the meantime, Zach managed to find two dimes laying around the house and added them to his stash.
We drove to the yard sale since we were going to explore more of Pittsburgh downtown after the yard sale. The first yard we looked at didn't have any kids things. Mostly hunting things and a really expensive old trunk. I thought it could be a good toy chest, but it cost something like 20 dollars or more. I couldn't see what was so special with that trunk. The next few houses had lots of kids things. Asia and I stayed at those houses for awhile, looking at the dolls and books. Zach and John went ahead to another house down the street. Asia managed to get a magic wand and two Barbie dolls for 20 cents. I also bought some half-used workbooks for Zach. A little girl ran into her house showing the money she made- about a dollar. I could hear her brother telling her she had to share the money. They were really excited about earning that dollar. Meanwhile, Asia had succeeded in her first money lesson.
Zach, on the other hand, had lost all his money! The dimes had slipped out of his pockets or hands or something. I think I even found one of the dimes in the toy box where Asia and I had bought the dolls. I gave it to the little girl who was selling her stuff. Zach lost his quarter because he found this big plastic car and thought it was a ride! He put his quarter in a hole in the car. We shook the car and could hear the quarter clunking around inside. So Zach failed his lesson. Asia shared her magic wand with him, so he was happy. He also said that we could go home at any time and get more money. He didn't think it was a big deal. A miserable failure there. Oh well.
But I wonder, is he too young to grasp the concept of money or is it that he sees how loose we are with money and thinks it's readily available to use or lose whenever he wants? Maybe I'm just being paranoid and overanalyzing. That's what Mom's do, you know.

Asia starts preschool

Asia started at St. Paul's preschool yesterday. Her program is on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 11:30 AM. Far cry from last year when she went to Taylor Tots every day from 9 AM to 4 PM. Zach's progam is also shorter - Mon thru Thurs 12:30 - 3 PM. Definitely not designed for families where both parents work. There wasn't enough interest at St. Paul's to have a full week program or even for Asia's group to have a 3 day program! Crazy. That shows you the lifestyle here in Pittsburgh - or actually West View. Much more laid back than Chicago. We are truly in a suburb.

So anyway, Asia was so good in class! She didn't cry at all when I dropped her off and she didn't want to leave when I picked her up. The first day was only an hour and fifteen minutes. Her class was split into two for the first day so the teachers can get to know the class better.
There were 3 girls in her group and I think 4 boys. The two other girls names are Grace and Dakota.

Becoming a home

The new house is slowly becoming our home. We haven't done anything yet like paint the walls, but I have hung up some pictures. Most of the major furniture is in. A/C is in! A big plus. I'm holding off on doing too much planting since I don't have that much time and am not sure on what the soil and weather is like. I do want to eventually redo the front yard. It's a great front yard space that right now isn't being used too much. Since we're on such a busy street, I don't want the kids to play in the front yard, so there really isn't much reason to have so much grass. It could be great for landscaping!
John put in new French doors to my office - a little sunroom to the side of the house. Lots of windows - which is great for me since I like to look out the windows. The negative is that it's the hottest room in the house. And that isn't good late in the afternoon when I find myself looking out the windows, daydreaming, when I should be working. :)

moving

We're moving! Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, here we come! It'll be a big difference from Chicago. I'm going to miss the big city. The beautiful downtown and lakefront. Just as I was starting to get to know the city on my own. Taking art classes at Gallery 37. Learning the art of taking the Blue
Line to Clark and Lake and the Brown Line to Merchandise Mart and then the Purple Line back during rush hour. We finally have a Target at Roosevelt and Clark that's easy to park in and nice to shop in. A Kohl's just opened that we'll never get to try out. Good-bye Marshall Field's where we bought our furniture in the gently used furniture area and where we bought our rugs after having a nice Indian man bring down rug after rug for us to figure out if it'll go with our flowered futon cover. No, Chicago isn't all about shopping. I'll miss the restaurants on Taylor St. The ethnic restaurants in China Town and Korea Town. I wonder if I can have someone send me some good kimchee. :)

What I won't miss is the traffic, the cost, the projects. Our "ghetto" Jewel. Feeling unsafe when I stop by Jim's to get a good hot dog along I-90. But I will miss the coolness of having something like Maxwell Street market. Bringing Zach to the Sherwood Music Conservatory for his drum
lesson and then afterwards, going to Jamba Juice for a chocolate milk shake and then going to Barbara's Bookstore to look at kids books. I know with our move that we'll make new memories and have our new adventures. The tough thing is something John mentioned the other day, "Asia will grow up with hardly any recollection of Chicago." Our kids will really miss out in the
chance to grow up in Chicago. All the opportunities. But I may not have to worry about trying to get Zach and Asia into a really good elementary school, jr. high, and high school. There's not that much choice where we're going, and luckily, the choices are good schools. I was wondering how we were going to have to prep Zach for testing into a good kindergarten. I mean, come on! Now I don't have to worry about that as much. So there we have it. As of tomorrow, good bye Chicago! Hello Pittsburgh!

big hugs

Zach and Asia are in that age where they can be so loving and a few minutes later, be hitting each other and fighting. Zach likes to tease Asia. He knows exactly how to push her buttons! All he has to do is say a few words to her and get her upset. Like he'll say, "Green Bear." That's
it! And Asia will cry, "No, MY GREEN BEAR!!" Of course, Green Bear has to be in the room. Then Zach will see Asia put down something that was in her hands. He'll quickly pick it up and either say, "Asia, look what I have." Or he'll say, "Where did ____ go?" That gets Asia upset too.

On the other hand, both kids will play so well with each other. There latest is going into the pantry and grabbing whatever they can reach. Then they'll bring it outside in the balcony and set up a grocery store or a tower. I have to remember at the end of the day to check the balcony for perishables or electronics in case it rains.

Another thing that the kids do is they'll come up to me and hug me and say, "You're my best friend." So sweet.

Oooey Gooey!

Asia's picture.

My painters. Notice how Zach likes to paint - with his hands, lots of colors, using all the paint. Asia, on the other hand, likes to use a paint brush and dab a little paint here and there. But she's quickly picking up her brother's method.

Asia wearing the hat I got from Malaysia in 1998. It fits her better than it ever fit me.

Zach's first note home from school

Well, it happened. Zach had a note from his teacher in his folder regarding behavior problems. The teacher said that Zach was having problems listening during play time, work time, and line time. That sounds like all the time. He brings home a little report card every day that will have a stamp on it to indicate his behavior that day - a smiley face, a sad face, an okay face. Sometimes he'll get a star on it and a Wow! under the happy face. Other times, it'll be a sad face with a box around it saying he didn't listen. Last week was pretty bad. Lots of didn't listens and sad faces. Then this week has been sad faces so far. I'm not sure what's up. He's been eating well and getting enough sleep. The only other thing is our getting ready to sell the house. There are boxes everywhere and J's been working on the house a lot. So maybe this is unsettling him. Or maybe he's just bored with school now that it's toward the end of the year. How can you tell with a 4-year old?
On the other hand, Zach's eating habits have greatly improved. Along with his fear of the dark and being alone. He'll venture downstairs or upstairs at least once by himself, then he might ask one of us or Asia to go with him the second time. I also found out the kid likes hard-boiled eggs! And raw carrot sticks! That and his usual love of noodles with parmesan cheese (don't you dare put any sauce on it!), meat on the bone (chicken legs or ribs), rice (but has to be sticky), and chicken.

Disney

Today is day three of our Disney World trip in Orlando, Florida. I won the trip in a drawing at work. You get your name put in the drawing when you provide a good work experience for a client or co-worker. So far, 3 out of the 4 drawings winners have been from my interface team. The prize includes 3 nights stay, 3 day park hopper pass to all parks, and airfare. We didn't decide until beginning of February that we wanted to go to Florida during John's spring break. Not the greatest time to go since that's when everyone else in the world goes, right? Oh well. I had to use the tickets in a year and I had won them in September or October. Well, I didn't tell our company travel agent until beginning of February that we wanted to go Mid-March, so she wasn't able to find us a hotel on the Disney property. So instead we're staying at Homewood Suites (Hilton chain) on International Drive. A two bedroom suite - one bedroom has two double beds and the other has a king-size bed. Then it has a common room with sofa, arm chair, dining table with 2 chairs, stove, dishwasher, microwave, sink, and cabinets. Plus all the plates/cups/silverware that you'd need. Very nice.
We took Southwest and arrived around noon on Monday 3/21. Got to the hotel around 2 PM. Then to Disney MGM Studios around 4. The kids loved it even though it poured buckets. I had bought the kids and John and myself rain poncho's - a tip from some Disney and travel websites. We also brought our double stroller that has canopies over each seat. The kids were pretty dry except for their feet (soaked from the run from the car to the parking tram). Parking is pretty convenient because there's a tram train that drives up and takes you to the park. The only inconvenient thing is folding up the double stroller to stick in the tram.
So at MGM Studios, we saw a Little Mermaid show - very cool. It was part laser show, movie, and actors. The beginning had actors all dressed in black holding puppets of fish and Sebastien the lobster. There must have been black lighting or something because you couldn't see the people unless you squinted and stared really hard. We had seats in the 2nd row too. The line also wasn't too long because it was raining and probably less people at the park. There was no line at all to get in to Playhouse Disney's show. We saw Bear in the Big Blue House, Stanley, Roley Poley Olie, and best of all, Pooh Bear. Asia really got excited when Pooh Bear and his friends came out on stage to sing. They were mostly all puppets. Very neat. Also both shows had special effects like bubbles coming down on to the audience. And none of it was scary for Zach. I thought he might get scared when lights went out or in Little Mermaid when the scary Octopus witch comes out. He was fine the whole time.
Wednesday, we went to Epcot. It was a beautiful day. It was supposed to have thunderstorms, but that ended up not hitting til way past bedtime. It was so hot! John paid ten dollars for sun screen. Again, the kids has a good time. We were there from about 11 AM til 3 PM. A little too long for the kids since they started to get too wild and grumpy. There was still so much to see at Epcot. We went into one exhibit that was all about fire safety, TV, and video games. Then we went to World Showcase for lunch. We were pretty hungry so we didn't see most of the different countries and made a beeline for Germany. We ate at a great buffet restaurant that had live German dancing and music. Outside was a model train station that Zach and Asia didn't want to leave. While I was with the kids watching the trains go around (and little lizards jumping around), Zach accosted a curly headed boy and gave him a tour of the train yard. He kept his arm at the kids back and was telling him, "And look at this train there! And this one little one!" It was pretty funny. The little boy's mom and I laughed. Good thing she laughed, too. Wouldn't want her to wonder why this strange boy won't take his hand off of her son's back.
Then we visited the China exhibit and got some paper masks. Also a bus of Disney characters was driving around the park so the kids got to see Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy, etc. Zach said he didn't like the character's costumes, but at the same time, he was intrigued. Asia kept wanting to see Goofy and Mickey. We got back to the hotel around 3 and then went swimming in the hotel pool. The water was freezing! We still had fun. They also had a jacuzzi, so the kids stayed in that most of the time. After about 1 1/2 hours, we went back to our room where Asia took a long nap - maybe another 1 1/2 hours. Ordered out at the restaurant near the hotel, called Bahama Breeze. Then by the time dinner was over, it was already 8 PM. Too late to go to the parks for the kids (Magic Kindom was open til midnight, the rest of the parks closed around9). So we went for a walk down International Drive to a nearby mall. The mall courtyard had a fountain that you could run in - Zach did that and played with another little boy at the park. Then I went shopping at one of the stores and bought myself 2 shirts and Asia one shirt - all for 25 dollars! The kids were pretty tired and we returned home around 10 PM. What a day!

Stomach bug hits again

Poor Asia caught a stomach bug, a bad one too. It's funny, she's fine and then without warning, she starts throwing up. She threw up every 3 hours or so. In addition, she had diarrhea. The vomiting lasted for a day, then disappeared for almost a full day, then returned again for another day. The diarrhea lasted almost a week. The poor girl didn't keep anything down or eat anything for 2 1/2 days. But as soon as her appetite returned and she could keep things down, she ate humongous amounts of food - even if it was only Cheerio's, bread, bananas, and other bland soft stuff.
Oh yeah, the day Asia got sick, an hour later, I got it. Just nausea and diarrhea. Then John got it - just mostly nausea. I kept spraying Lysol everywhere, washing sheets and towels constantly, and had to keep telling Zach to stay away from me and Asia. After a day, I missed holding him and kissing him. Zach kept asking when we were going to be not sick. Luckily, he didn't catch the bug. Amazing.

Sick Kids and Dora

It's been awhile since the kids have been sick until now. It started out with Zach and then went to John and now with Asia. I'm probably next. This flu or whatever seems to hit more at night time - when laying down. Coughing, congestion, and fever. Zach was out of it for quite a few days - no appetite, no energy. He slept 1/2 a day and the two days before that, hardly ate anything. And the kid doesn't eat much in general. So hardly eating anything means maybe a bite for breakfast, a bite for lunch, a bite for dinner. Asia didn't really lose her appetite, just really tired and fever. Both kids had a few episodes where they coughed alot at night and then threw up. Zach missed 3 days of school. Asia missed 2 days of day care. The tough thing with Asia's age is that she doesn't really know how to blow her nose to relieve the congestion. So you have to use that nose unplugger thing, the syringe. The dreaded syringe. Who likes a rubber tube going up your nose and sucking the life out of you? Both Asia and Zach would just see that syringe and Dad coming and start screaming and covering their nose. And it takes two to hold them down.
Anyway, Zach's fully recovered. He's been eating like a storm. He ate green beans yesterday! I called them green sticks. I'd hand him one out of the pan. Asia didn't go for them, but she ate everything else.
So what's with the title of this blog? Well, while the kids were sick, they watched a lot of Dora the Explorer on my computer, which can play DVD's. Or they watched a lot of Dora on video. Or read books about Dora. It was Dora all the time, with a little of Thomas or Bob the Builder or others mingled in.

Cinderbrella

The exposure to all things girly has begun. I used to tell myself before Asia was born that I wouldn't have my girl all in pink and playing with dolls and doing the girly thing. The problem is, pink looks good on Asia. And everything's pink. And doll stuff really is everywhere.
Like her pull-up's. They have Belle from Beauty & the Beast, Cinderella, and Jasmine on them. Disney versions, of course. Then I got her some play-doh that has a Cinderella stamper on it. So of course, I want to get the video and books so she can find out who Cinderella, Belle, and Jasmine are. And for her pull-up's, she only likes the ones that have the three girls on them - Belle, Cinderella, and Jasmine. The pack of pull-up's comes with two designs - one with the three girls on them and one with just Cinderella in a blue dress. Oh, and Asia says, "Cinderbrella," as like an umbrella. "Where's Cinderbrella, Mommy?"

Not Quite There

So Asia's not quite getting the potty thing. She doesn't mind sitting on the potty chair once in awhile, but she just sits there and talks and plays. It's like it's a game or something. Then you put her diaper back on her (or usually a new one because the old one's soiled) and within 5 or 10 minutes, she's pooped or peed in the diaper. Sometimes, she looks like she's about to poop in her diaper so I'll rush her over to the potty chair, but it'll either be too late or she changes her mind. We go through the routine of sitting on the chair, nothing happens. I put a diaper on her, and wham, she poops.
I've tried treats too. "Asia, what do you get when you go potty in the potty chair?" Asia's response, "An M&M!" Or more like "ANEMNEM." Or since we're here in Austin, TX, for a few weeks while my mom recovers from surgery, the reward is going to get ice cream with "Gong-Gong" (my dad). Unfortunately, this doesn't work though. She doesn't seem to get the concept of reward. On top of that, she's not that crazy about candy. For example, if I gave a small lollipop (usually one of those dum dum types) to both Asia and Zach, within 2 seconds, Zach's lollipop will be gone, he'll be gone, and nothing's left but a chewed up lollipop stick on the floor. Asia, on the other hand, will play with the lollipop, lick it a few times, get it in her hair, put it back in her mouth, then demand that John or I lick her lollipop (which, of course, we can't refuse because she's learning to share). If I leave her alone with the lollipop and then return a few minutes later, she's gone and either the lollipop is sitting on the table, Zach's eaten it, or it's stuck in her shirt sleeve.
Anyway, no hurry. It'd be nice to get the whole diaper thing out of our house. Not meaning the kids. I mean the diapers, the smell, the soiled diaper container. Yuck. But our kids are only young once.

Another vacation in the Dells

We went to the Dells again - the Wisconsin Dells, that is. Another short family vacation, since both kids' were off on Friday due to their teachers being in a conference. Since it's winter, we looked at staying at a place with a good indoor water park, but not too expensive. John chose the Treasure Island Waterpark and Hotel. The room was a nice size, had two queens plus a sofa bed, plus fridge and microwave. The first night, we had Asia and Zach sleep in the same bed. Some time in the night, Zach woke up with a nightmare or something so John laid next to him. A little while later, Asia started crying. I woke up and found her on the floor, sleeping on a pillow. Zach was in her place and John next to him. I don't know how Asia ended up on the floor without crying when she first landed on the floor. So for the rest of the vacation, Asia slept in the sofabed. She did fall off the sofabed on her last night. There wasn't much we could do there. She's too big for the portable crib yet doesn't know to stay on the bed. Even Zach still falls off the bed occasionally.
Treasure Island has a pretty nice indoor water park, but we were pretty much done with it after a day and a half. The kids aren't old enough to really enjoy the faster water slides. John and Zach went down one of the big water slides many times. Zach is great in the water. He doesn't mind if he gets splashed or goes under for a few seconds. He'll go down the kiddie slides by himself as long as we're there at the bottom for some of the faster kiddie slides that have a big splash at the end. If he sees that we're okay, then he's okay.
Asia, on the other hand, isn't ready for all that. She doesn't like getting splashed, water on her face or head. Zach was like that, too, so I assume she will grow out of the fear. Asia did like just being in the water park and walking around. She also liked the regular pool and this other wave pool where I could hold her. There was also a small part of the main park that had a "river." You would sit in a large inner tube shaped more like a two-hole doughnut. Then just follow the current around. Some parts were a little scary for Asia because when the river flowed under a water slide, you'd get splashed. So Asia would bury her face in my chest. Also, getting in and out of the inner tube wasn't too easy at first when Asia would be clinging to me. Eventually, she'd be okay with me telling her to sit on the steps until I got on the inner tube. And thank goodness for the water park attendants. For the most part, they'd help you in and out or watch you when you come back around the river to see if you wanted out.
There were lifeguards everywhere. They would rotate from station to station. Zach took a liking to one of the lifeguards and at one point, he only wanted to stand next to the lifeguard instead of swimming when Asia and I were in the wave pool.
I also brought my computer so the kids could watch DVD's when there wasn't anything good on cable. There really isn't much on cable for Zach and Asia's age. Besides the ones that the kids like - Dora, Thomas, Bob, Blues Clues - the rest are somewhat vulgar.

Asia and the potty

Asia went potty in the potty chair! This happened last week. I didn't even know she went. Zach was sitting on the toilet before his bath, so I put Asia on the potty chair and told her to do what her brother was doing. That's a little tough during times when he's standing up to go potty. She's tried that before and doesn't understand why she can't always go the way Zach goes. And Zach will ask the same thing - I go potty standing up, why can't Asia? Or he'll sit on the toilet and say, "Now I'm going pee pee and poo poo just like Asia - sitting down!" The other day in the bath, Asia was putting soap on Zach, patting him on the back. Eventually, she was playing with his "wee wee" wondering what it was. Oh the joy of explaining the human anatomy to a 2 or 4 year old.
So anyway, back to the potty thing. Zach got into the bathtub first. Then when I picked up Asia to put her in the potty, there it was! A little bit of pee! And she did it again the next day, but in the big toilet with a different kind of potty chair on top of it.

Asia holding her big care bear ("Wish Bear") that she got from her cousin Lizzy. She's also holding a police car that her baby sitter Joyce gave Zach.

Asia eating cake and ice cream. She's still getting the hang of using utensils.

Zach after eating ice cream.

Asia Subdued

And here is Asia all subdued when 20 some people are all around her singing Happy Birthday. She got so serious and wouldn't blow out the candles, or didn't really know what to do. Lizzy and I helped her instead.

Here's Asia while I was lighting the cake.

Asia and Audrey sharing a chair.

The cake.

Asia's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Asia's 2nd birthday today - a day early. Her birthday is tomorrow but on Wednesday, I fly out to New Orleans for a company trip until Saturday, so I figured it would be better to celebrate now when I'm not in a hurry packing and finishing up last minute projects. We had around 20 people over for dinner. I ordered a few party trays from Jewel (a real time-saver) - chicken wings, cheese tray, vegie tray, and shrimp cocktail. Marissa made a strawberry birthday cake. Joe A made a great spinach alfredo pasta dish. And Sue C brought some cookies. I also ordered a pizza from Pompeii and baked BBQ chicken. We had plenty of food! Asia had a ball with all her babysitters (past and present) there, plus cousins galore. Here's a picture of Asia with our neighbor and former babysitter, Ellen.

Little Bob, Lizzy in Aunt Shirley's jacket, and Wendy, and Big Bob.

Asia in her cat outfit. As you can see, it's a little big. And by the end of the day, she had a lollipop stuck in the furry part of her sleeve. I found it days later before I put the outfit into the wash. And she wouldn't let me draw the rest of the whiskers on her face. But boy, did she enjoy trick or treating. She'd take the candy from people's outstretched hands and say "Thank you!".

Zach at pre-school. Next to him is Hailin as a lion and Ryan as Thomas the Tank Engine.

Zach in his Bob the Builder Halloween costume. Okay, so it's store bought from Jewel. He liked it and his friends liked it. As soon as he walked into the school and all his friends saw him, they yelled, "It's Bob the Builder!"

And here's my new closet.

I haven't put in pictures and all the furniture yet. But here's the office with new track lighting, window border, paint job, chair rail, and heater. Check out the "Blue Flame" in the corner.

Closet just before its makeover.

Home office just before major makeover. 12/04