Journey to binky free for Lexi

So, we weaned off Lexi from her binky months ago, except for sleeping. Then a few weeks after that she stopped using binky at school during naps, but she just couldn't go to sleep without binky at home. So Sunday Dec 28th was the day that i just decided that she shall no longer use the binky.  It was hard, she cried for about 2 hours, on and off, mostly whining and then finally fell asleep around 11:30 pm. Then she woke up again at 12 asking for her binky. And after a brief time out she asked to be put back to her crib and slept until the next morning. But the poor thing came to our bed and asked for the binky from Tony right away. Not getting her way, she cried again, but we were able to distract her with breakfast.  The entire time she cried on Sunday night, brandan didn't go to sleep either. For a moment he was so mad at the whole thing. He asked me to "just give her the binky, she is still a small baby, she needs it". I had to apologize to him and explain that she is now 2 years old and receives gifts from Santa like all the other big kids, so she can't use her binky anymore.  He was very understanding, but then he went to my room to sleep, but when i went back to the room to check on him, he was sitting next to the bathtub and playing with his toy transformer.  

Monday nap time, she asked for binky again, and i wasn't going to give in so i told her that binky's gone bye-bye. She cried for about 5 minutes, then asked for milk and being picked up. That didn't last long, so i gave her a bell that was a part of the Santa Ornament. She held on to that and fell asleep. Night time, after a bath and a long story time, i put her down. At first she asked for milk, i gave to her, she asked to be picked up again, and i let her have her way. But when she just wouldn't lay down, i had to give her a 1 minute time out. After the time out, she went straight to her crib and didn't cry another sound.  But i sat in the room until both of them fell asleep. The entire time, she didn't ask for binky, my mom was amazed, she thought it was going to take a whole week of crying for her to get used to it.

Tuesday morning, she woke up and didn't say anything, but then we praised her for being a big girl who didn't use binky.  She really liked that, and she said "lexi good girl, no binky".  Nap time came, and i told her beforehand to remember that she was a good girl, and a big girl, and there would be no binky. Surprisingly she took it to heart and didn't even ask for it, after a bit of milk, she just went to sleep. No crying or fuss at all.

Tuesday night, it was even more smooth, she did ask for binky, but right after she asked for it she said "lexi big girl, go sleep no binky" i was so happy that she said that. I put her under the cover, kiss-good-nighted to both of them and walked out of the room. They were talking for a few minutes and required for me to stand outside the room to make sure they weren't up playing. But that was like the regular routine on some nights but no binky.  

If tomorrow is still smooth like today, then i think we have succeeded in it. I hope that is it for the binky.  Proud of the little girl for that.

Xmas afterthoughts

It's hard to believe so many days had past before i realized that i hadn't been writing anything down. I guess with all the house painting and xmas madness and 2 kids, time just flew by.

Brandan and Lexi were over joy'd with Christmas, they both got a lot of gifts and they keep coming from the late arrival shipping. Brandan really wanted star war stuff and for a long time he was thinking that he would get 1 gift. And i should probably have kept that idea for him and add a surprise gift.  Now he's got 20 something new toys, he doesn't even know what to do with them. He was very happy, but after a few minutes he moved on to play with one thing, the light saber from star wars.  Lexi wasn't really sure what's going on, but once she saw that Brandan opens the paper and gets a gift, she started to open gifts too. But i had to open some for her, because she stops to play whatever she opens. Their reactions make me feel that they really didn't need all those toys, they would have been happy with fewer things.

The funny thing is that Brandan didn't want to go see Santa until the day before xmas. When we got to the mall, and approached Santa, he was standing there and waiting for Tony to get Lexi settled in. So Santa asked him what he wanted for xmas, and all he said was "a gun". Not sure what to say, Santa looked at Tony in the instance. Tony had to quickly say a "Star War" gun.  Then Santa was very relieved and said yes. Lexi didn't know what to say yet but she was happy to just have a candy cane in her hand. We were able to get a few good pictures of both kids sitting on Santa's lap.

Christmas morning, he didn't even want to come down stairs to check to see if Santa left anything under the tree, he told Tony that he didn't hear Santa nor the reindeer's and he didn't thing there would be any presents under the tree. When he finally came down and saw all the gifts, he tried his very best to hold the smile in. It was so cute, but i couldn't catch it on camera because he had decided to put his hood on. 

He is turning into such a big boy, he remembers things so well. Today was the first time that he had a full conversation with Tony about something happened yesterday.  Sometimes he even talk like an adult. We went to the store to buy some chocolate milk yesterday and he told Tony today that he had bought the c-milk for him and he wanted Tony to share. When Tony asked him to share with who, at first, he answered with each person's name, and then he just said "us" with his finger making a circle of family at the dinner table, it was so cute. Tony said what if he didn't want to share, then Brandan said Tony would have to go time out for not sharing.  

Lexi got more baby dolls, just what she needs, she has 20+ dolls now, and she is only 2. If i have to think back to all the toys i had, i only had about 5 dolls in my whole life. She loves each of those dolls dearly though, she changes their diapers, and take them to the bathroom and feed them and wrap them in the blankets and stuff. Like a real mommy, i guess it's all nature for her.  I am so glad that i have a little girl, so i get to play with all the cool dolls and do dress ups too.

December what? Already?

With the house been in such a disarray! Time flies, but not because it's fun!  We are getting the entire interior of the house painted including walls and all the wood build-ins in the house. It's been like a giant construction zone.  We practically had to pack up everything so the painters can get to the slightest details and not to ruin our belongings. We had eaten out for 4 days until today.

We were able to escape to Phoenix for Thanksgiving, but that was too short for anything to really happen, especially we ended up with one of those contractors who would start the job, then move on to work on another job and leave our house in a mess until his guilt kicks in and he comes back to paint more. It's been almost 1 month for this project, and still at least another week to go.  We felt like we were forced to not come home because the inconvinence and the awful smell of the place.  We had done everything after school or on non-school days. Library, mall, backyard, playground...It's almost xmas and we don't have a tree or xmas lights.  I just can't wait for this all be over with.

The kids had a lot of fun in Phoenix. They really enjoyed my uncle's big backyard. He grows organic veggies and brandan loved to see those. one day he was walking outside and then decided to rip off a piece of leaf and just started to munch on it.  It was so cute!  Lexi also enjoyed playing with the girls, but she is still too little to really play "with". It was more like play "along".  When we were at Kepra's house, I realized that brandan has a huge gun-facination. He couldn't wait to get his hands on each single one of those boys Nerf Guns.  But he also learned to shoot at people and dog. :(  So NO nerf guns for xmas yet. Maybe for his 4th birthday.  Lexi got pretty sick there, but recovered in just a few days.  Lexi was a bit confused by all the different language that was going on there. My local dialogue and mandarin and english.  

The drive was ok, we put my PC in the car and watch one movie each way. Except for a few pee-stops, there was no drama at all.

The 3 days after we came back, then my mom came from China. Brandan was so excited to see her, but Lexi is more reserved.  Immediately, Brandan regressed into a little baby, cry for every little thing, wanted my mom to put on his clothes, or ask my mom to fee him.  It's finally better now that after I told him Grandma likes big boys who knows how to do stuff.  But now he wants attention for everything, even after he puts on his socks he wants my mom to look at it and praise him.

Lexi is warming up to my mom now too, she didn't remember her but now she is like her best friend. She also wants PouPou to look at everything she does.  But she won't let my mom wipe her bottom. Funny little girl!  Her Chinese is improving a bit, but not like Brandan's.

I start to feel that Brandan is really smart, but maybe he is just on schedule with his developmental milestones. He can draw every well compare to before, he even attempt to write letters. But every time i offer to help him to write or draw, he backs off and just watch me do it. Maybe we need to give him more practice on his own.  He is the kind of kid who wants to do it on his own, and not to show anyone until he's got something good! Or at least that's how he is now.  His vocabulary is increasing too, but he is not doing enough phonetics as i expected.  We had signed him up for the gymnastics and he had jumped a grade in 3 weeks of class, now he is in Junior Champion with 4-5 years old. Today, was his first class in that level, and the teacher had said in a few weeks, he will be ready to move up to 5 year olds class.  She was amazed that Brandan was only 3 and half, even though he tells everyone he is 4.  I thought the class was determined by age, but the teacher said it's based on how accurate they movements and balancing skills are and how well they listen.   He also tells me very long stories that involves very vivid imagination and good logic.  I hope he keeps on this path. And i am also going to put him in other classes to see how well he does just to give him more exposure to different activities.

Lexi is progress very fast too. She now makes very long sentences such as, "don't touch my baby, she is going to sleep" or "it's my mommy, your mommy's at work" to her friends in the classroom.  She is doing great at potting training, although she stills have accidents but it's reduced from once or twice a week to once in the last 2 weeks.  She's got such a girly thing going on with her, she loves to wear my high heels, but she knows how to protect herself, instead of making big steps, she bends her knees and make small stomps.  She doesn't like her hair to be touched though, maybe because it's tangled up a lot and it hurts her, I need to find a better product for that.  Or maybe just cut her hair really short. She loves her little crib, she always want to go to bed, she actually walked upstairs and asked for me to lay her down a few times. Maybe she just need her beauty sleep! I put a play doll's basinet in her bed, and she puts her baby doll in it, she covers her up really well, and tug the blanket tight around the dolls neck, sometimes she even pulls one of the doll's hand out of the blanket and makes her sleep side ways like how she would do herself.  Next to the baby, is her assortment of binkies. 4 of them different color different style. She test them out once i put her in the crib, and she chooses on and put the rest under the doll baby's blanket.  So cute!

One thing i can't stand is that she likes to take her own diaper off when she goes to sleep. not just that, she undresses herself and dresses herself back up all in the dark too. Talented! But half the time that ends with washing sheets. 

Lexi's birthday

Yesterday was Lexi's birthday! She turned two already!

We had a little birthday thing at her school for her and got Brandan and Kyle over from their classroom. I baked pound cake cup cakes for the class and i was afraid they wouldn't eat it. Turned out, they gobbled all of them down and some kids even asked for seconds.  Lexi knew it was her birthday too, she had a paper crown on her head and she was walking around in the classroom with breeze and a smile on her face.  However when the candles were lit on the cupcake, she didn't want to blow it out and everyone else had to help her to blow the candles off.  I guess we didn't teach her enough on that part.  After that we opened gifts at home, she didn't want to have anything to do with those wrapped up boxes either, excited Brandan opened almost every gift for her.  Out of all gifts, she loved the baby doll the most as we expected. Brandan was happy about that, because she left the tub toys alone and he loved it, he played with it way more than Lexi did.  

After doing gifts at home, we went to Ruby's to meet up with Kyle's family, we all had yummy foods and the boys had fun together. Lexi got even more gifts from Irene. Somehow she knew Lexi would like Tinkerbell, and she got her lots of Tinkerbell gifts for her even got her a little pair of tinkerbell heels.  Of course no birthday is celebrated without a cake for her and she again, didn't want to blow off the candles, without Brandan and Kyle we would have to blow them off ourselves.  The cake was yummy, but had too much leftover that will feed our sweetooth for the coming week.

Can't believe how fast time had past, and believe it or not, I already have plans for her next birthday.

Lexi talks too much

Lexi is starting to talk in real long sentences now, sometimes i am amazed as to how much she talks. I guess i shouldn't be surprised considering how much i talk on the phone with my friends. She had told me today that "Ge-ge cry, he fell down, he no good boy, but he got ouchies and no touching it" all at one shot! I was just in complete disbelieve.

I went to pick her up from school today and i was kneeling down to tie her shoes on and the other girl sat next to her said Mommy. I guess she was trying to say "she is your mommy" but Lexi took it as if she was trying to claim me to be her mom not lexi's mom.  Lexi instantly said "MY mommy, not yours, your mom go work" She then emphasize it with "MY mommy" again with her head tilted and a little frown on her forehead. The other girl now took it serious and finally said "ok" and walked away. 

She has been doing well with potty training, she's had more accidents at home then she did outside or in school. Maybe she gets too comfortable at home and just forget to go. She is going to take a free class of Gymnastics and hope she will like it. 

Brandan took his first lesson and he loves it, except that he tries to do the stun he learned at home and didn't go well with the hard flooring.  I think i will sign both of them up, just once a week, will probably benefit them a great deal. Especially with clumsy Brandan.

Brandan's memory starts to be more mature too. He saw a picture of him and Marsha playing on the beach a few weeks ago, he told me "Marsha is a very nice girl, she is my mimi".  The way he said it was so cute, i wish i had recorded it.  He kept talking about playing with Toneo and going snow boarding with Toneo later.  I think it's about time to set up some more play dates.

chocolate cow?

Brandan is soooo into chocolate milk these days. I try to get him the non fat, low sugar ones, he can't tell the difference and still loves it.  We finished one carton and he wanted another one when we were in Trader Joe's.  When i explained to him that he could only have chocolate milk or jelly beans. He picked choco milk. Later on he told me, mommy, chocolate cows drink chocolate milk and then he gives us more chocolate milk.  So i told him, baby, cows eat grass and give us milk.  Pauses for a few second, he told me the cows eat chocolate grass, so we have chocolate milk. And the cows love it and the ate lots and lots of chocolate grass everyday like bunny rabbits. 

being an attorney everyday.

It must be more frustrating to be a lawyer, but being a parent is sometimes more frustrating then being an actual lawyer.  It's a 24 hour debate with your kids, you spent 14 hours to debate and 10 hours to sleep, but you are actually spending the time thinking about how and what you can say to make your point across with the most authorities and the simplest logic to get the least amount of talk backs.

Tony went bike riding, and he was so tired.  He came home and told me that he just "hit the wall" when going uphill.  Brandan over heard it and said, Daddy, you got ouchy? Don't hit the wall, go around it.

Trying to get brandan to read more, the text on the books reads "Sam said to his car...." (from transformers) I pointed to each word and ask him to "repeat after me", so he said, "repeat after me, sam said to his car".  Then he asked me why is Sam sad? His car is not nice, makes him sad. --left me speechless.

Brandan saw his toy in the container inside the garage. He wanted to play with it, so i told him that George is painting our house and when he is done, we can bring his toy inside.  So George came and finished as much as he could but still got weeks worth of work to do. When he left, Brandan asked "are you done?" So George said "yes".  The minute he walks out of the door, Brandan asked for his toy.  When i said yes, he said "you told me, mommy, you told me when George finish, i can play with my toy" He's got a good point so i had to give in.

i was cleaning up toys for them. When i was throwing a few items into the box, they fell out. So i asked Brandan to help me pick them up and put them into the box. He tells me the same way i talk to him "mommy, i told you don't throw your toys, i told you don't drop them, i have to help you again and again and again. Sigh--!"  All i could say was "sorry!"

Lexi sat on the potty, and tried to move her hand over into the toilet to play with the "water", then i told her NO, caught on the spot, she was shocked, and dropped her little toy into the toilet.  When i put my tool in to get the toy out, Lexi said "No mommy, no touching, go time out"

November already.

There are always so much going on everyday! 

We had started seriously potty training Lexi, and she has been without diapers except for sleeping for 4 days and only had 2 accidents.  She is doing great, she loves to go sit on the little potty that brandan hardly ever used. Brandan loved the adult size ones ever since he could sit up. But lexi is more into sitting next to Brandan in her own potty. Two kids potting together side by side is so cute.  It definitely won't be long until they are out of the stage and want to be on their own due to their gender.

Brandan gets really fed up with Lexi sometimes. He doesn't like Lexi talking too much, he will just ignore her sometimes.  He sometimes say "Lexi is not my friend, she is too bad!"  Lexi does take his toys away, hurt him, cry and scream and usually puts him in timeout because he hits back. But sometimes they get along so well.  I took them out for a walk to the store today, he loved it so much that Lexi was just holding on to his hands and relying on him to make the right steps in the dark.  Later Brandan told me Lexi was his favorite baby, and he loved her. They even hugged each other in the middle of the road.

Lexi can be a big pain in the butt for sure. She is pretty smart too, we let her cry it out twice and she went to sleep all on her own after that. But at times she will call us into her room multiple times before really laying down to sleep.  She has even totally took off her pjs and her diaper and peed in bed and then called us.  It always pisses Tony off, but we just had to quickly change the sheets and tell her to go to sleep and threat her with time out.

Lexi fell

So walking out of the day care towards the car, i was holding lexi in one hand and their lunch boxes the other. Brandan followed us right after.  For some reason, lexi all of sudden let go of her hand from my and fell face down flat on the rough floor.  A mild scream kind of cry came out after about 2 seconds of dead silence.  Consoled her and put her in the car seat, then i had a chance to look at what part of her head got hurt.  Her forehead and side of her nose had mild crap. Not to bad, but she's got dirty all over her mouth and face.  

So i said to her "poor little girl, what happened to your pretty little face". Unable to defend herself at age 2, big brother brandan stepped in to speak for her "Lexi didn't want to hold hand anymore, so she fell, and her pretty little face fell off, it's in the parking lot and a big truck with a big wheel go over it. Now her face is gone, she has only skeleton. Like halloween." Looking at Lexi's sad face, i was thinking, only if she'd known what he had said, there would have been a huge fight...

That's my little drama on the way home.

my cuties

This is the way Brandan counts. 1, 2, 3....10, eleventeen, twelevteen, thirteen...

He was in a store with me the other day, and he heard one of the clerk speaks Spanish, and then when i asked for something from the clerk, i spoke in english.  Then Brandan corrected me saying "mommy, you say Hola first ok?  It was so cute, if the clerk could give him a slap of meat, he probably would have.

He also likes to call people Mr. Chin. not sure why. 

Lexi is very clear on what she wants now, if you ask "do you want this?" and she would nod really big and say in a firm voice. "Un-hum, yes!"

escaping thoughts

it's crazy how i think of so many things to write down and at the night, i can't remember any of it. Ok, here i have to think through them.

Well, Brandan is so grown lately.  He imagines him to be the monster of anything. he puts his shoes on his hands and be the shoe monster.  he also has Tony's spatanouse outburst. It's more pronouced now than ever. After dinner tonight, he just wanted to scream out of his lungs, because he was happy that he ate some of my spicy noodles.

Lexi is becoming very bossy, which could be my fault. She tells me exactly what she want in my tone of voice.  After i tucked her in bed, and wanted to walk out of the room, she tells me "no no no, mommy, lay down and sleep" She didn't want me to leave her room. Sometimes she even says "No more talking, or go time out."

Sigh! that's all there is left in my mind...

Pulling Hair Day

I just want to pull my hair out and scream until i lose my voice tonight. Brandan was talking back on everything i asked him to do. He was doing opposite what what he should be doing on purpose.  Something is up. I have spend so much time with them today, taking them to the park to ride the carosul and played water at the spectrum.  I thought they would be tired and just follow the routine to go to sleep.  

I finally had to raise my voice and yell at Brandan for him to eat dinner, pick up his toys and behaving like a good kid.  And i had to hit lexi's hand for her to stop touching EVERYTHING.  At bed time, Brandan was threatened for timeout 3 times before he finally went to bed, but then i caught him getting up in the dark to bring toys to his bed to play.  Lexi was even worse, she cried for almost a whole hour in bed, she ket asking for binkies but she already had one in her mouth and another on in her hand.  At 10:30, i just got fed up and i turned her room light on and took her out the crib and asked her to go get whatever she wanted. she walked around the room, went to the bathroom, then finally picked up a blanket on the bed and didn't refuse for me to put her in bed.  

Sometimes i almost feel like a bad mom, if i don't raise my voice, they won't listen. What is up with that.  I need to get a book or ask someone about this.  I can't take it much longer.

Whatever

So Brandan didn't take a nap today, from 1 to 2:30, he was just playing in his bed, i caught him a few times, even time out against the wall didn't get him to nap. So he finally just told me, "mommy, i am just not sleepy" so we played computer games, watched veggies for dinner, played outside until 4:30 when Lexi woke up. She never slept that much for nap, maybe she is sleeping for Brandan too.

Karen came to visit today, and Brandan so wanted to talk in Chinese with her, but all he would say was "i don't know" in English.  I walked outside for a bit and he was talking up a storm with Karen in Chinese, then there is no stop. He had so much to say to Karen, I couldn't have a conversation with her at all. He would say "mommy, Karen is my friend, don't talk to her many more, cuz she want to talk to me. BUT! You can talk to her later"  it was so cute. He shared every toy with her, and even tugged her in in his little bed. 

Lexi didn't care so much for Karen today, she was in her little own zone sing the song "it's a small world afterall" over and over again. I tried to video tape it but every time I bring out the cam, she stops and runs to me saying "let me see, let me see, share mommy, share!"

Brandan is so ready for Halloween. He had is outfit picked out already, and every since i bought him a pumpkin, he fell in love it. He rolled it next to the couch so he could watch TV with it. He pretended to eat it and then cleaned it up with a cloth.  He even asked me to put the pumpkin in to his bed for him tonight. But i told him the pumpkin needs to stay downstairs to keep the house safe.  The pictures showing are the pumpkin city trip off El Toro over the weekend. Dylan tagged along.  He moved to Texas with his family the next day, so it was precious that they got to spend some time together and had some good pictures for memory's sake.

Lexi's first day of school and others

So Lexi started school. She didn't cry at all even after i left.  The teachers say she only cried for about 2 minutes after she woke up from her nap and realized she wasn't home.

She is the bomb at her class, all the boys are all over her, they try to hold her hands and sit next to her during snack and art times.  (maybe only for a while since she is the new girl)

She has learned a lot already even with just 2 days of school, she came home dancing and singing on her own and she is better at cleaning up after herself.  She doesn't really eat much lunch though, i hope she gets used to that soon.  It's hard to see lunches come back at the end of the day, makes me wonder what she had at school, but it's great that she eats more at dinner and sleep through longer. Maybe all the playing and stimulation tires her out a lot more than just playing around at home with me. She quickly found Kyle and Brandan the first day of school and almost refused to go into her own classroom. The teachers just adore her, and they said she hadn't been hitting any one at all. Phewww! What a relief, for now.

Mean while Brandan had his first dental appointment. They cleaned his teeth and examed him, there is no cavities but the doctor want us to help him floss his molars.  It's been a challenge! He liked it though, the doctor's office had video games, fish tanks, movies and all sorts of toys. Every one gets to go home with a gift bag with more toys and teeth related things in it.  It's funny he kept asking me when he could go see the dentist again.

Our neighbour is moving to Texas, their boy Dylan is Brandan's age.  I feel so bad, B is going loss a great friend on the same street. I told him that Dylan is going to Texas and i showed him where it is.  Then B told me "mommy, it's far, you have to take an airplane to Texas, i am going tomorrow, i am going to stay with Dylan's grandma".  So innocent, not realizing what it really means to walk over this their house and not see them anymore.

Brandan had decided to be spiderman for this Halloween, we got his costum today, and he is so excited. Except for the mask part. He really wants to go to Disneyland for Halloween, but it's just too pricey. 85 per adult is just too much, and since we will have the kids with us, we won't be able to get on any rides at all. (And no more "it's a small world" ride for us either)   Maybe i will take him there for my birthday for the xmas decors, i can get in for free on my birthday this year, which will be a Wednesday!

It's Saturday night, and it doesn't feel like the weekend at all. Tony is up in NYC to visit his grandma and then will be going straight to work in SF.  Too much travel on his part, we might as well just go back to China!

Catching up on my memories

I better pick this blogging thin up again if i want to remember what's been happening to me and my family.

It's just very sad to me that my grandpa is still in the coma, and doesn't seem like he will be out it at all.  Right now, he is just on life support and even the doctors can't tell how many more days he has left.  If he passes, I'd want to go back but not sure how is it going to work out with the kids and Tony's traveling.  I watched the movie yesterday, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, I started it without knowing what the movie really is about. But turned out to be a great movie, but it deeply reminded me of my grandpa's condition, could he have he locked-in syndrome or if his brain had been damaged badly to minimize his suffering?!

Tony has been traveling alot lately, mostly to SF and other places when duty calls. I am back to my normal 24/7 mommy job. No one is helping now.  Good thing is that my mom will go apply for her visa when we can get some time to put the paper work together, i can't wait to have her here again.  Let me not to think about it too much, don't want to jinx her visa process. 

The economy is scaring me now. So far, there has been 3 foreclosed homes on the same block as us. Mall has lots of sales, but don't see OC moms with bunch of bags that even the strollers can't carry anymore. Lots of stores, franchise chains or small businesses are closing their doors.  How low can we go? Good thing i had always believed in savings, so I hope we are going to be fine through this tough time.  Just pray that Tony's job continues to be stable.

Lexi is staring school tomorrow at the same montessori as Brandan, i couldn't wait for her to do that, but i also just want to keep her home with me sometimes.  She grew up so fast, too fast, feels like i didn't really get to enjoy that much of her babyhood.  I hope she will be ok at school, since she has been there a million times to drop B off with me. I wonder if she would cry as hard as Brandan started before.  Her terrible twos are not as terrible as B's, but she is a hitter, she likes to hit people, either for playing or to fight for toys.  Maybe the school will help me correct that about her.  She is such a little drama queen, every little thing can tick her off, or if even just a slightest lint on her shirt, would make her want to change clothes.  She loves pjs and it's always a struggle to get her into day clothes. She says a lot of things now even long sentences like "mommy, Brandan don't want it, he go time out" or "Daddy where are you, daddy at work, daddy sleepy" and then she imitate his snores, or use the sign language to express how HARD daddy works.  Her Chinese is improving a lot too. But not as much as when she was in China. I guess I will just have to take her back for her to learn like Brandan did.

Brandan still talks about China, he asks for Puo puo all the time. He keeps telling that "婆婆明天就來了，她來我帶她去legoland". He also loves to tell stories, i can tell his imagination is wild. He will play with his action figures and make up a whole action movie type of story and tell him someone fell off the horse and needed to get a gun to protect the good people.  He is now completely good with basic colors and daily English.  He is learning letters and numbers everyday.  He can count to 24 the max.  But sometimes he gets the quantity confused with the actual number. He can recognize B for brandan, L for lexi, M for mommy, but D is still in process.  He really remembers T and O, he said T looks like daddy's razor, and he uses it to "shave" his face in the bath sometimes.  He knows O because it stands for Ocean (which is a book about all the animals that live in the Ocean).  Playdough is his favorite, but i can't let him play too much of that at home, because Lexi puts it right into her mouth.  He is still hooked on Altraman, but spidie is get back onto the top of his list slowly.  He loves toys, and he now associate toys and buying.  When he sees a toy on TV, he always says he wants that. But when i ask him if he has money, he used to tell me that he will work and he will get money.  But now he just tell me that Santa will bring him toys, and he will go work later when he is big like mommy.

Sometimes i ask Brandan if he wants me to go to work. The response is always a quick no. I guess it would be too hard that he doesn't get to see Tony that much, and if he doesn't get to see me most of the day, he will probably be devastated.  The 3 day school day schedule will work out, I found the local library offers reading sessions and craft shops for kids on Monday and Tuesdays, i can always do that with them and go out to play on Fridays. 

I so need to lose 5 pounds, the 10 pounds i gained in China still got some leftover on me. But it has been so hot lately to go exercise outside.  Everyday gets up to 95 ish and the sun is just stinging hot, even the kids don't want to play outside. They both tell me "too hot outside".

Long time no write

After I arrived in China, I had no luck to access my own blog, either due to the network or the government had blocked it and i had to write my blog on MSN Spaces.

Here is the link to the blog entries. Sorry that most of them are all in one paragraph. Being Apple is their top competitor, they had sure made it hard for Apple users to utilize microsoft apps.

http://xtbear.spaces.live.com/

Journey Back to Kunming

The journey Coming back to china has always been the hardest part of the trip, and this time is no exception. Not just because I have 2 kids with me, but also China has changed, again.

The plane ride was very pleasant after a 3 hours of delay due to a fuel leaking problem. When we finally took off at 5 am, the kids had all fallen asleep on the floor at the airport on top of the blankets. Thanks to the good seats, the kids were able to lay down to sleep most of the way. When we got to Beijing, more complication starts. We had to catch a bus ride from the "gate" to the baggage claim. And among the elevator rides, rain rides, bus rides and finally to the baggage claim, I had come to the conclusion that the new Beijing airport is too complicated for the upcoming Olympics. The worst part is that after I got my 4 hug luggage, I couldn't find anyone at the airport that was willing to help me push my carts out through the custom while I push my 2 kids on the stroller. Some people working at the airport just plainly ignored me when I asked for help to move the cart. When I finally did find someone to help me, it was like a warm welcoming help, it was like "how much will you pay me" type of help. That was a total culture shock to me, what happened to the friendly nation that I had remembered?

I finally met up with my mom outside the custom and then realized we had to take another bus ride from terminal 3 to terminal 2. After getting all the bags and kids/stroller onto the bus, we were on there for a good 30 minutes. But at least the rest of the way was much easier. I have lost a bag or two every time I traveled back to China, but I guess I had too much drama just to get to Beijing, God let me have it easy that all my luggage's appeared on the baggage claim belt all at once. THAT amazed me!

Brandan and lexi both adapted to the people and things here pretty quick. Brandan still remembered my mom and it only took him 2 seconds to warm up to her again. It was sweet to hear him say to my mom "Grandma, I missed you!", but my mom had no clue what he had said. But Brandan gets to be dead spoiled again, and I just know it. Lexi has always been friendly so she warmed up quickly to everyone.

We slept ok last night and were able to have lunch at 11:30 and nap from 12 - 2:30ish. Maybe the kids have switched their time zone already.

We went to a very stylish strip mall today, it had very nice boutique, jewelry store and a very prestige movie theater with Narnia and Ironman as blockbuster. We headed to a book store and helped the kids to pick out a bunch of books. They really enjoyed shopping at the strip mall, so outdoor-ish and the whole area had cool architectural designs and modern colored structures.

After dinner, we headed over to the community park on foot. Only 2 minutes of walk we arrived at this huge park with a small manmade koi pound and bunch of built in metal structures that assembles a gym. Kids and adults were all on those things doing their moon walks and other exercises. No one didn't stop what they were doing to check out Brandan and Lexi, some even followed us for a while. Just to say hi to them!

So I am now officially tired after a descent first day in China. I am going to put the kids to bed and snuggle up with Rachel and have a good night of sleep.

The pictures above. 1 (upper left) view outside of my window. 2 (upper right) Lexi and Poupou goes to the park. 3. (lower) Brandan and Gong-gong goes to the park.

Getting Ready for China

So just another day before we depart! Feels a bit sad, even Lexi is sensing the changes and becoming very clingy to Tony. She cried for 3o minutes this morning after she found out Tony wasn't home.  She ran into my room and ran to Tony side of the bed and didn't see him, not too disappointed yet, she ran to the bathroom (go figures!) and didn't see Tony there either, and called out Daddy for a few times before she just started wailing! Brandan is being a good big brother though, he told her a few times that "Daddy went to work!" 

I hope they will be OK being in china with our their Daddy, we will try to use web cam and other ways to stay in touch. 

Brandan is getting ready for the trip too, he watched us packing up and he decided he was going to sit in the suit case and also dragged Lexi into it, he asked Tony to zip them up, but we told him that we are going to get on the airplane instead.  When we were eating fruit at night, Tony asked him if he was ready for China, he quickly stuffed all the grapes into his mouth and then told me he is ready, on top of that he also told me "China is far, let's hurry up!"

We had a BBQ on Sunday, lots of friends came over and I hope they all had a good time like we did. I am going to miss having get-togethers in the summer. The food was great, we had Tony's ribs, burgers and yummy sides, dessert part was my favorite. Carrie brought over Pinkberry's and Beibei brought a cheese cake! The poker after the BBQ is always a good way to end the party.  But as a spectator, I could only sigh when Li Wei took everyone else's chips as the game went along! He was winning every hand, even on the river! He was the grand champion for the night, but i guess his "Everything Happens To Me" cap somehow had helped him.

One more day of packing and organizing then I will be on the road.  Brandan has a small request that we are going to fulfill for him tonight! He wanted to go have Sushi!  He has such a sophisticated taste when it comes to food. He love sushi, loves truffle salted almonds, hummus, stone roasted seaweed...  He hardly ever asks for burgers and hot dogs, pizza remains a favorite but he had chosen sushi over pizza this time.

  Tony and I were thinking maybe he will be a famous chef some day and prepare the banquet for Lexi's wedding. Tony's thoughts stopped at Lexi's wedding and thought Brandan might be better off be something else!

Busy week!

First of all, I am so thrilled about the Lakers' blow out yesterday against the Spurs! I am so excited that the Lakers is finally doing well again, after we had the season tickets for 4 years! However, if they do end up in the Championship, I would be missing the entire series, since I am leaving to go back to China on the 28th.  Not to worry though! I have bought my team outfit to wear to watch the live broadcast from my couch in China!

The first western conference game was the best game I've seen in this whole playoff. Lakers were down by 20 points at the 3rd quarter but eventually won the game by 4 points after Kobe took over the court! Sitting there watching the game was more like an experience of multiple heart attacks with an eventual survival! Not to mention that Tony flew down from SF just to go to the game and then flew back to work on a red eye!

I pretty much spent the rest of the week making list of things to do and to pack for the trip! It was fun to have met up with different friends for lunch though. The weather was crazy! Monday was too hot to even wear a tanktop and Thursday it was raining and freezing.  Had lunch with Uwe at the China Garden for dim sum and met up with the FNF gang on Thursday at Habanas, and what's a better way to end the week by having sushi for lunch on Friday for Terry's birthday and happy hour for dinner at the Elephant Bar. It's just my favorite restaurants one after another! Feels like I gained 10 pounds in 3 days.

It was also very interesting to see how Lexi was interacting with Aidan! Two little friends, too cute!

Random Thoughts

Brandan is a good boy! I took him to the mall to buy gifts for his friends' birthday party. He really wanted to have new toys, but I told him that he has lots of toys at home already and can't have another one for a while. He was upset, he was a little down, but I can tell his mind is working.  After a few minutes, he asked me if he could just have a little toy, not a big one. And he kept on saying "I don't want nothing"! at first, i thought he didn't want anything, but after a little while, I realized, he meant he wanted something. Not getting a toy is "nothing" and he doesn't want to Not Getting a Toy!  I couldn't resist and bought him a little power ranger sound switch!  

He starts to act like Tony a lot lately, can't have others tell him what to do, or what's wrong, had to go figure it out himself the hard way! Tony always shakes his head and sigh when Brandan starst to really act like him. But I can see he has a sense of pride in that as well! Man and their ego! Probably started in the belly!

Lexi is the fearless one out of the 2 for sure! We went to the lake for the hot Sunday afternoon per Brandan's request. "I want to go play water at the big park!" He calls it!  After we got there, only took Lexi a couple minutes to not be shy anymore with the water! She was in the water with her arm floaties and the foam noodles just playing, swimming and kicking the water like the bigger kids. She wasn't afraid that she couldn't feel the bottom of the lake, unlike Brandan.  But Brandan got better now too! He kicks the water and tries to swim a lot more than before! It's good that he is more "risk-adverse" better than being reckless.

We are finally starting to get ready for the trip to China, I start to tell him what we are going to do. How we are going to fly to Beijing and Grandma is coming to pick us up and then take him to KM to see animals, go fishing!  Not sure if he gets it, but he tells me about it too! He would say "Grandma on the airplane already? Where is Beijing? We go now? We go later? After I take a nap?"

I think it would be a great experience for him and he remembers so much of what my mom told him about China, it's amazing!  People always say kids don't remember anything until they are 7, 8 years old, but Brandan remembers a lot. He might forget later, but he can have a conversation with me about his babyhood. He would say "last time when i was a baby, a bug bit me"  "Before, Baby Brandan was in mommy's belly and made mommy ouchy" "Remember? When Grandma was here, she said she takes me to see animals!"

Thursday home with Lexi

Lexi has becoming such a cute little girl! She is no longer a baby. She is a down right drama queen already, it's scary!  Yesterday, we were playing outside the backyard and she saw a piece of leave being hit repeatedly by the water, she thought that was just the funnies thing. She laughed, but not a out right laugh. She laughed with her shoulder shrugged and had covered her mouth with her both hands. She as laughing so hard, she was bending down front and backward, still has her hands on her mouth.  Gosh! It's funny to see her do something so mature looking!

She is talking a lot lately, mostly in English. Today, she closed the kitchen door and said to me "i closed the door" This is a very long sentence for a 18 month old.  She also says a lot of other things "baby", "yummie juice", "that's mine!", etc. Mostly learned from Brandan.

She really likes to spend time with me at home on Thursdays without Brandan, she is all over the place, touching Brandan's toys that she normally doesn't get to mess with, getting into the cabinet and climb to get cookies. Her facial expression is also very animated! She would stretch her face long and stare at something looking surprised, but immediately change to a grim and a smile.

Brandan is a big boy now, he no longer has the toddler look, the way he walks, talks and acts make him a grown boy!  He loves to wear his jeans and crocs and always walking around with a drink in hand. (don't know if that's a good thing, but at least i know what's in it for now) He still loves to eat, as always. But I think it's a good thing that he loves fruit, crunchy carrots more than candy bars and popsicles. He also loves to tell story, he will make up some story and tell me about it for a good 15 minutes. Today on the way to school, he just told me that a lizard was going some where, and then lighting came, and a dianosaur was stomping and the lizard was soooo scared and the tree was moving, and then the robot came and the lizard was tired and wanted to go to sleep...

I can't wait for him to be more articulate and able to really tell stories, that would be so fun, then i just need for him to tell stories in Chinese as good as he does in English!

He has turned to a caring brother from the old jealousy toddler who is obsessed with everything around him.  He still fights with Lexi, but there are plenty of times that he would tell me to put down lexi so she can walk on her own, because she is a big girl now.  He would also ask her if she wants to drink or eat something or wants her binky, then if Lexi nods, he would run for life to me and tell me what Lexi needs.  Lexi is lucky to have a brother who watch out for her now.  Brandan really enjoys to talk with Lexi, many times, he has asked me "can lexi talk?" At first i didn't know what to answer, but now i just tell Brandan to talk to Lexi. He will ask him how her day was at school, and if she needed more snacks or tell her she shouldn't be doing something...it's so cute.