Feed Me!!!

Keila is a good natured child and fairly patient especially when I'm particularly busy with Isaac. (please note I did not say 'Mama', I've notice an abundance of speaking in third person which I find annoying in speech and I'm afraid if it appears that often in writing, it's bound to creep out in my speaking) But in the last few weeks, she gets fussy whenever we're eating dinner. She's not hungry since I always feed her first, but she crys alot until we hold her which typically isn't a problem but as of late, it's as if she loses her spine and simply flops forward. Of course I proceed to move her to my shoulder where she turns to look toward the table and contorts her body in such a manner that she'd roll smoother than a bowling ball. Duh, Mama's slow (arggg, that third person thing again!) but she was physically moving closer to the food.

We were hoping to hold off a little longer for fear of allergies, but Keila's determined not to be held back. We succumbed to her wishes tonight and bought her the famed rice cereal. Picture this if you will - once seated in her feeding table she begins wailing like a banshee, the moment the spoon touches her mouth the noise ceases and she's lunges forward to taste the bland, pasty mush. She smiles. I remove the spoon and the darling but extremely loud banshee reappears until the spoon simply touches her bottom lip. I swear it's magic.



The famous first bite.



This is the face of satisfaction.

All behavior indicates she will be just like Mama (did it again, dang it!) and feel that eating is a celebration of life and must be done as frequently as possible!

Christmas 2009

Ahhh ... a sigh of satisfaction as another Christmas day comes to a close. There's something magical that replays annually as the holiday passes through. It's found in crisp cool winter air (yes, Arizona does have this), the beautiful gift wrap torn to shreds lying amid empty boxes, toys played with intense enthusiasm for a full 2 minutes before the next gift is unwrapped with all the wonder of what could be inside. It's found in stomachs burgeoning with rich food and sweets that simply can't be resisted, along with the inevitable slowing of the system until a good dose of tums or fiber is taken. Of course there's the friends and family that are visited, the noisy play of friendships rediscovered. And always near the end of the day there's the grumbling of tired adults and the bickering of overwrought children over toys. But even this wouldn't feel quite like Christmas without it. Somehow I find comfort in all of this. It speaks of home, of family and most of all - of love. That is what Christmas means to me.



Santa at playgroup where Isaac firmly told Santa that all he wanted for Christmas was candy! Wish fulfilled immediately. ;0)


Gingerbread houses with the Bakers where copious amounts of candy were consumed and Isaac 'cemented' his house with layers of icing.

Kent's family Christmas eve party where Kent filled the big man's shoes and all grand kids and grandma got presents.


I was careful to wrap all the presents in this way ... no peeking until Christmas, those are the rules! It worked and you can see the muscles needed to get into the present.


One of our garage sale finds ... he loves it!

Keila with her gift that I lucked out on at Costco. Normally $50, but it was the last one on display that they dropped a foot right before my eyes. Paid $25 - woohoo!!

I call Keila my 'lady bugga-boo', the perfect gift from Santa.

I would be amiss if I did not thank He who made all these beautiful, joyous blessing possible. It is His birth we celebrate without which all else would be wasted. May we always remember it, not just at this season but the whole year long.

Tall Peanuts!

Keila had her 4 month appointment Monday and surprised us with how much she's grown. She 's now 26.5 inchies tall which puts her in the 98 percentile for height and makes 6 month age clothing just the right length. Her weight is at 14 lbs and in the 56 percentile .... she's one tall skinny peanut! Isaac was the same way and to many looks likes he 4 rather than 2. Given my 'Chinese genes' they'll be shorter than the average kid once puberty hits. Better enjoy the height now! Keila holds her head up well so we put her in the high chair to play for the first time. They grow up entirely too fast! Here's my little angel heart so grown up!



If you look at the next pictures you can see her eyes are a funky grey blue. Isaac's were brown pretty early on and we're wondering if the combination of Kent and I might give Keila something a little different.



Any time you take a picture of her you have to take another one immediately. The sound of the camera always gets her giggling. Love that gummy smile!

Thanksgiving with Adopted Family

In desperate need of a holiday, Kent and I opted for my 'adopted American' family in Utah. When my Mom came over from Hong Kong for school, she was sponsored by Fred and Doris Wright. Though her stay with them was brief, it began a friendship that has lasted through the years and into the next generation. My blood related grandparents reside too far away for very many visits, but Grandma and Grandpa Wright were only a 14 hour drive away and so most of my summers growing up were spent there in their home. While I was down at BYU I often visited on holidays and weekends where they gave me a wonderful bed, stored items over the summer for me and loaded me with tons of veggies from Grandpa's garden when it was in season. Many of their children (my aunts) also kept in close contact over the years so it only seemed fitting to drive up and introduce Keila and Isaac to them.

It was wonderful to stay once again in Grandpa's home. Although Grandma has passed on, the house remains almost unchanged from when she was there ... I could even find the pots and pans where she usually kept them so as to give Grandpa a few good meals while we were there. It was a little surreal for Isaac to be playing with the toys I played with and reading the books I had read so many years ago. Much of it is that I still feel alot like a little girl, especially when Grandpa offers me the coveted toffee ice cream bars of my yesteryear's!


Isaac experience playing with snow for the first time. In ten minutes of our arrival there was a huge snow storm and Kent gathered the snow from off our car in the garage to make into snowballs to throw off the balcony. Isaac had a blast!


This chicken is legendary! Every grandchild of the Wrights always made a point of visiting the chicken who was always filled with candy. Grandpa had accidentally broken it once but it was promptly glued back together for the sake of tradition even though by then their grand kids were having kids of their own. From what I understand, this chicken is now visited by neighborhood kids. Long live the chicken! ;0)



Grandpa has the most amazing gift with gardening. His backyard was so beautiful and fun to play in as a child. Even with the winter snow, it still has that feel.



Isaac ADORED Uncle Matt and Aunt Margaret and makes a point to blessing them regularly in his prayers. Uncle Matt is all the playmate a little boy like him wants. We also drove out to Aunt Connie's home for the Thanksgiving meal. It was delicious and I'm positive I regained all my post pregnancy weight from much of that meal.

On the way out to Utah we stopped off to visit Kari and Brian where we stretching our stomachs for the big Thanksgiving meal. They always feed us well we we stop by and Isaac loves to play with Logan and Julia. While staying at Grandpa's we had a small outing each day and then napped and had a lazy afternoon. We went out to the museum at Thanksgiving point and on another day went out to an aquarium to meet up and visit with a friend from college and see her 2 darling kids. It was a very relaxing holiday.


My friend's daughter, and absolute doll!




For the first time Isaac wasn't scared of the dinosaurs, but the shark he was rather dubious of.


Isaac wore himself playing with his friends.

Glimpses

As a mother it becomes so easy to just move from day to day through the routines with the odd tangent/mini-crisis that you move quickly to intervene. And then all of a sudden you simply look at your child and the 'adult' version seems to flash before your eyes. Being the sentimental soul that I am, I lose my rhythm and begin to backpedal to 'memorize' the benchmarks of time's passage. "When did he learn those words? How did he get to be so 'grown-up'? She's holding her head up perfectly still! She'll be eating solids soon!" And for a few hours all I want to do is to just be still, to see them NOW and remember. It happened alot on our Thanksgiving trip to Utah.



This picture is what made me write this post. My Isaac Bubba-love looks like a sixteen year old trampling through the snow. In reality he'd just got done playing with it and tucked his cold little hands into his pocket but you can see in his posture and his clothes a miniature of what he'll be when he gets older. Today he was really helpful with 'helping' to dress Keila and sounded just like an annoyed adult with a fussy child - "Hold on Keila ... quit wiggling!"

Keila amazed Kent and I when I placed her on the carpet for tummy-time and suddenly she was holding her head at the 90 degree angle without a fuss. She normal hates tummy-time and just yesterday I realized I can start her on solids.

They grow so quickly, I wish somehow I could record everything and rewind and play back the amazing growth and development they're capable of. How precious it is to be a mother and witness it so intimately!

Got Style?

All through the years I've really struggled with decorating. My mother had this amazing ability to combine different fabrics and colors that would make a statement in a classy way. I lacked such skills completely. For all the years we were in residency my excuse not to decorate was that we were moving and minimizing would make the process tons easier since we didn't know how often we might have to pack up. In reality I just didn't want to admit I had NO STYLE! A friend of mine (an art major) encouraged me to just go for it! Her belief was that if you liked it, everything would fit together somehow and express you. I've taken her advice to heart and I'm starting to notice things that appeal to me. In time I hope to have my home feel like an artful piece of me.

My first major endeavor was out couch. I bought the fabric for cushions a few days before Keila was born. Now finally after 3 months they're done ... and I rather like them! ;0) Here a picture complete with Christmas decor.

To Binky or Not to Binky ...That is the Question!

One of the many blessings Isaac listed on his turkey was his Pei-Pei (blanket) and his binky. It would devestate him to be without either and we're forever chasing the darn thing because, as fate would have it, his favorite has to be the one that's round. When we had Keila we were determined not to allow the cursed thing near her, but again, fate had a different idea. She began sucking her fingers so raw that a rash was developing on her otherwise darling 'mini-marshmellowy fingers'. In goes the binky - out goes Mama and Papa's plans!



I caught this cute picture right before Isaac's bedtime as the two siblings snuggled under Isaac's favorite blanket.

Stylin'

Isaac has reached that point in his life where choices=freedom and he wants to exercise that right as often as possible. Sometimes I have to laugh because as he does so, I really begin to see the personality in his little soul. I've decided he has a quirky,European sense of style. We caught him the other day wearing knitted baby hat I made 2 years ago. Somehow combined with his camera and green pants, he looked like a European backpacker seeing the sights.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

Isaac is just fascinating to listen to. He carries on a running commentary as he plays and amazes us with the words he's picked up. Here are some of our favorite conversations:

Kent: Check out those thunder thighs!
Isaac: Nah, these are my muscles!

After consuming a peach pie for FHE
Kent: How many stomachs do you have? 1, 2, 3?
Isaac: (giving Kent a 'you're so silly look') No, just one, Baba has one and Mama has a big one!

After reading a book from the library by Donald Crew entitled Freight Train.
Isaac: There's a hopper car, a box car, cattle car ... (pointing to Mama) and you have a caboose!
Flo: I do?!
Isaac: Yep, a big caboose!

While Isaac is sleepwalking
Isaac: Baba?
Kent: What's wrong son?
Isaac: I want pancakes!
Kent: What?!! It's 3 am. Go back to sleep.
Isaac: (sad little voice) Ooooookay.

After a FHE lesson about Thanksgiving and creating our turkeys with our blessings written on the tail feathers
Kent: So Isaac, what are you thankful for?
Isaac: My turkey.
Flo: What what does your turkey say you're thankful for?
Isaac: Gobble, gobble!

Sale-ling, Sale-ling ...

Sale-ling, Sale-ling around the neighborhood,
Buy something here, buy something there
In our neighborhood!

Kent and I went garage sale-ling Saturday and we had a great time. So many odd treasures that people have that giving an intimate glimpse at their lives. Being the minimalist that I am, I hate to accumulate 'stuff', but we did find great deals on some toys for Isaac. Christmas shopping for the little tyke is done and only costed up $5.25. If only it could always be this cheap! ;0)

Sibling Love

I love the cool weather we're finally getting here in AZ. It affords the opportunity to take some nice pictures while we're outside when the planets align and the 2 little ones are both awake and happy. They've both grown so much and Isaac has become such a loving brother, taking care to cover Keila with his favorite blanket, informing me when she's crying and unhappy (just in case Mama couldn't hear that!) and sharing toys (which really means he neatly piles them on her). He has such a tender heart. Keila is a little wary sometimes of his not so gentle affection, but otherwise loves to watch Isaac play. His chattering often has her bubbling her own language back. I'm sure it won't be always this way, especially once Keila is moving and playing with 'his' toys, but I hope they will always be dear friends when things really count.

Super Why, No - Fireman, No- Dinosaur ..... AHHHH!

I've decided that a 2 year old cannot be relied on for a definite answer as to their preference for a Halloween costume. Weeks prior I kept asking Isaac what he wanted to be. The answer varied from day to day until he hit upon the show Super Why - about a boy name Wyatt who turns into Super Why with the power to read and save the day. It seemed I finally had the definite answer and since it's not what you call a common costume, I decided to try and make it out of leftover material. He loved his cape and green tights and would wear it every time the show was on. Two days before Halloween he informed me he didn't like his green shirt - the costume was out! Needless to say, I was miffed but it really wasn't a battle I wanted to take on so he didn't wear anything for the playgroup party and wore an old costume for his playschool party. We got him into it for the big night when we agreed to dress up too, so our poorly put together costumes of a 'Big Baby' (if only I could really be that in life!) and a pirate were donned just a half hour before the Trunk or Treat. Ahhh, the things we do for our kids!

Rolling with the Pumpkins!

It seems like you get things running smoothly with your little one. Then an enormous speed hump hits you, and you've been knocked out to no-man's land. That's how it's been as of late with Isaac, but unlike last time I'm learning to take it in stride. I understand his need to exercise his growing freedoms and his desire to push against boundaries ... at least I think I do! ;0) This has my energy a little sapped, and I have little desire to do anything 'extra'. Thankfully despite that, we went out for a Halloween outing last Monday night. It was fun for everyone, the lighting was perfect for pictures, plenty of space for an active boy to run and explore, and some time for Mama and Papa to enjoy one another's company. What was a difficult day ended happily and peacefully!

It's amazing sometimes what make for a good picture. In this case it was the background of the vibrant green. Isaac has always been rather photogenic, but we were surprised at just how this one turned out.





Little boys love their toys!






Isaac could have rolled pumpkins around all night.



Keila was a little tired that night, this was one of the few happy shots. For whatever reason, the sound of the camera clicking made her giggle.



Isaac loved racing around with papa!



A few nature shots, one of mine, while running through a corn maze trying to keep up with an active boy. The last 2 are Kent's. We sure do love our camera!

Housebound

What do you do when you're housebound with a two year old with Swine Flu .... an impromptu photo session for a darling little girl. Having Isaac has made it harder to take the time to record things about Keila, so while Isaac was deep in Sleepland, Keila and I had fun taking pictures.



This one is my favorite! She's just so beautiful!



She had the giggles that day which only made it more fun!