Master baker

Last year, I blogged about my first time making a mousse cake.  My "sifu" is my student's mom.  I called her "the Master Baker"!!  I promised her that I would visit her with my babies this summer and I did!  

Mrs. Gu seemed to really enjoy Nate's company.  And who wouldn't?  He flirts with everyone, this boy!

Kevin's attempt in holding my little slippery fish:

We actually went to visit Mrs. Gu twice.  Once with just Nate and the second time with both my kids.  The Gu's really want to meet Ali.  The first time we went there, they made us egg tarts.  Ali really enjoyed them!

The second time they baked us some bread.  Look at them!  Don't they look really professional??  Just like the ones from the bakery!

Ali turning 3 (part 2)

Ali's cold got a bit worse on her actual birthday.  Poor girl has runny nose and runny eyes all day long.  To help with the non-stop Kleenex wiping action, her daddy thought of a trick...and she liked it!  Poor mommy and Nate all got sick after...that explained why this post was a week late!!

Off to the Ali's choo-choo party.  It was a lot of fun.  All the kids (and their parents) really enjoyed the train rides.  I was super happy that Ali was able to enjoy herself too.  On the train with daddy, Kiki, Hayden and Kai baba.

Birthday cake time!  We asked our friend to make us the Thomas cake topping.  Ali LOVED it!  

Nate got Ali a Thomas tee.  The picture is complete!  Thomas cake and a thomas tee at a train party!  Choo-choo!!!

Another train ride with Kai mama and the kai siblings.

Ali just loves the rides.  She took another one with her bff, Yogurt.

In the evening, we went out with my in-laws for dinner.  Ali got a little Miss Sunshine doll.  Lucky girl!  I want to keep it for myself!!

Nate got to sit in a high chair in a restaurant for the very first time.  Can you tell how excited my little guy is?  Yay, high chair!

We had a terrific time!  Thank you to all the friends who came out to celebrate our little girl's birthday with us!  Special thanks to our kai family - the party wouldn't be the same without you!!

Ali turning 3 (part 1)

My baby girl is turning 3.  Can't believe how fast she is growing!  (And how much white hair I am gaining!)  I saw this post on making a rainbow jello and I know right away Ali would really like it.  I made one as a trial and it was surprising easy, but just took bloody forever to do.  Anyhow, she loved it and one of her first comments was to make one for her school friends.  And the best day to do this is her birthday!

Getting ready for the birthday song.

My kids have impeccable timing in terms of getting sick.  They always pick the worse day.  Nate got sick on his "moon yuet" banquet and baptism day.  Ali is miserable when she got up this morning.  Poor girl and her runny nose.  I could tell she was excited about her birthday, but she didn't smile or laugh that much.  My poor poor baby girl.  Her friends, on the other hand, was super thrilled to see my jello of love.  Actually, they were so happy and excited that they started to sing (out of no where).  So hilarious!

Can you tell she is smiling?  I can't.

The boys just loved it.  Quite a few asked for more, but the teachers shot them down right away.  LOL.

Poor Nate didn't get much of the action.  

 

Happy birthday my sweetheart!  I hope you will feel better soon!  Otherwise, you are not going to have too much fun at your actual birthday party tomorrow!  Keeping all my fingers and toes crossed!

Yogurt and Broccoli

My girls are growing up so fast.  I still remember when they were little babies and now they are old enough to make up their own nicknames.  Can you guess who is Yogurt and who is Broccoli?

My crazy Broccoli giving yogurt a ride on her wagon.

The two girls were playing with chalk after dinner and out of nowhere, Yogurt started to write her first "A"!  I wish I took a picture of her mommy!  She was so surprised and so proud!!  :D

The girls having fun picking flowers in the front yard.

The two girls are so cute together!

Hug!

Ali and I are growing peas and tomato plants.  Hopefully we will be able to harvest them soon!

And we finished off the evening with watermelon and some yummy berries.  Thanks Yogurt for coming over for another fun playdate!

 

Teacher appreciation day and last day of JK1

Silly mommy got involved in Ali's school PAC.  One of the things that I signed up for this year was coordinating the "Teacher appreciation tea".  It was not a big deal, but it was a bit tough for me to bring the two kids and carrying 20 gift bags, plus other miscellaneous items.  So I decided to drop off Ali during nap time.  It was kinda cool to get to check out their sleeping arrangements.

While I was running around, her teachers decided to free Nate.  I was so grateful for that.  I felt really bad always leaving the poor thing in his car seat.  My poor baby, you have such a terrible mommy!

The teachers and friends enjoying some snacks together.

Isla, on the other hand, doesn't want anything to do with the group picture.  Screw that.  I am enjoying my oatmeal cookie!  I hear ya, little one!

Teacher Sera, Nate and Teacher Milat.

After we snacked, I took over the class (yay, I got to be a preschool teacher for a few minutes!!) for a few songs.  We (more like I) had a lot of fun.  The kids are just too adorable.  I wish I can play with them more often.

Group picture with Ali's class!  

Ali and her cool Teacher Milat.

Ali and her funny Teacher Sera.

Ali and her daycare mommy, Teacher Brenda.

I can't thank the teachers enough for taking care of my girl.  Especially Teacher Brenda, who has been taking care of her for the last two years.  We don't know what we would do without you!  Ali will always remember "Teacher Brenda" and please please keep in touch!

JK1 Recognition day

The second last day of class is the Recognition Day.  Ali's teachers put together a slide show and present certificates for the little ones.  Very sweet.

Ali didn't have school on Wednesdays, so we decided to drop by, just to say hi to the class one last time and   checked out the certificate presentations.  Ali was all dressed up for the event!

We did not want to intrude their snack time, so we brought our own snacks.  The teachers love Ali so much that they gave her some food anyways.  Ali, on the other hand, very eager to share her snacks with her friends.  Can you see that she was holding up two ziploc bags?

If you look closely, you can see there is a small pile of raisins and goldfish on the plates next to Ali.  She basically forced her friend to eat her food.  I don't know how many times she asked her friends, "you want more?"

  

Here is a picture of Ali holding her certificates!  The teachers, being super nice, thought that she would be a young leader.  You know what that translates to...Ms. Bossy! 

Nursing blues

I love nursing my babies, I really do.  Once you got over the first three weeks of pain (and of course you have to get the proper latch), breastfeeding is really enjoyable.  It is something that only I can do and provide for my baby.  How cool is that?  And of course, seeing the little one getting all milk drunk in your arms is just priceless.  And all the better if you have a good eater, seeing them growing bigger and bigger each day just warms your heart.  

So when Nate was not nursing well and I started to have pains, I was so so confused and shocked.  Why? Really?  Okay, his bottom teeth came out when he was 4 months old.  Everything was good.  When he was about 5 months, he started to bite me.  Ouch!  Even then, I got it figured out (although it was a pretty painful experience).  But blood?  Really?  Are you kidding me?  What the heck?!  I went to the doctor and called the nurse line and read everything I can (btw, how did people survive without google back in the days?), I realized that his top teeth might be coming out and he was just so uncomfortable that he was doing a shallow latch.  And that was NOT GOOD.  

I had to change to different nursing positions and it got a bit better, still painful, but I could somewhat tolerate the pain.  Hubby and a few friends suggested to wean him off, but I wasn't ready.  Nate does not like bottles (totally my fault) so how can he survive?  People kept on telling me they would figure it out, but I just couldn't do it to him.  I already felt super guilty not spending as much quality time as I did with his big sister and now, I had to cut him off?  Well, turns out perseverance is the key and when the wounds finally healed and his top teeth finally cut though the gums, things were back to normal again.

And then there is the introduction of solids.  Sigh.  Man, why is feeding have to be so hard?  Nate is not a good eater.  He only nurses the bare minimum.  Seriously, sometimes, just a few gulps and he would call it a day.  He is distracted so so easily.  We tried a few different solids and he was just not too interested.  After fighting with him for over a month, I decided to ask hubby to take over instead.  He is a bit more aggressive (totally an understatement) than I am.  He would shove the spoon in his mouth, turn it 90 degrees to pry it open and then push the food in.  I was horrified, but I was surprised he didn't really cry that much (at least not as much as he was with me and I didn't even push that hard).  After 3 days, he started to enjoy the solids a bit more.  At least he would open up his mouth and not cry bloody murder anymore.

To all the moms out there, hang in there!  The difficult phase will soon pass!