Lots of Cognitive Leaps, Including a Crib Leap!

Dear Hannah and Nathan, 

This has been a pretty exciting week. My phone was stolen this week, so I lost some of the pictures that I took from earlier this week. But luckily, I had some pics from the camera and then some pictures from today that I took with my new phone. 

Nathan, this week, you have learned to tell "tall tails." Mostly you blame others for something you did. We had a few lessons and talks about telling the truth, but I know this will be a long process because it's kind of a natural thing for kids to do. For example, you will deny it if you hurt Hannah. Another instance happened when you blamed Teddy for a broken hanger, when happened when you were jumping on my bed (with laundry to be sorted) and Teddy was hanging out under the dining table. Did you know I have a super power that allows me to tell when you are not telling me the truth? 

Hannah, this week, you have learned to be more physical, and yes, I'm talking about hitting, pinching, and throwing thing. I understand that most of the time, you do these things because you are frustrated, because I can see you clench your fingers and wave them up and down with frustration, with a look of "I don't know what to do!" on your face right before you go for the whack. We've spent lots of time in time-out and you seem to know that hitting is not OK. I know you don't mean to do it and that it's almost instinct, but we will continue with the time-outs until you can use your words. Big brother is also working on this right now. 

On the flip side, Nathan, you are starting to learn to be more compassionate. For example, one day I passed out Pocky's (cookies) for dessert. There were 7 in the package, so I gave each of you 3 cookies, saving 1 for myself. When you found out that I only had 1, you insisted that I have one of yours so that I could have more. My heart basically melted, and at that moment, if you had asked for anything, I would've granted it. (Which reminds me, you are currently saving up your coins for a race car. You are pretty convinced that you have enough coins to buy one already... actually, you probably have enough for 2 Hot Wheels). Out of the blue, you will also help Hannah, or give her something in your hand that she wants. Now, there are moments, where you both want something, but for the most part, you'll let her have it. 

Hannah's definitely got some strong problem solving skills. You are able to play with almost all the toys that we have in the house now. You find ways to make things the way you want them. You will push step-stools, climb chairs, dressers, cribs, to get something done. 

Nathan has been sleeping in your room for the past few nights and this morning, he woke me up by yelling, "Hannah climbed out of the bed. She fell out, but she's not crying." Both Daddy and I looked at each other, and said, "Uh, oh." I went upstairs, and noticed that you still had your sleep sack on. You climbed out of your crib with a sleep sack! What? Anyways, I asked you to show me how you climbed up and with a smug/proud look on your face, you happily gave me a demonstration. 

 This morning, we went to Chick-fil-a and afterwards, visited the wildflower center. Today's topic was shapes. You guys did a pretty good job completing the tangram puzzles.

 And then various things with patterns were placed on the tables for you guys to examine with hand lenses.

 This afternoon, while I was cleaning out the office, we built bridges and towers. Eventually, we built one high enough for Nathan to walk through without crouching down too much.

A cool and easy craft that I got off of Pinterest that actually was really good: Salt painting. 

It was a good reinforcement of color mixing for you Nathan. Hannah just liked dissolving the salt off of the paper and washing the brush out. 

 This past weekend, I marched/ rolled in a parade with my roller derby friends and while I was putting away my face paint, you guys asked me to paint something on your face. Hannah, you have never gotten your face painted before, so I painted Nathan's face first, and by the time I was finished, you were begging me to paint yours too.

 You wanted a rainbow. And then you said cat. And then you said teeth. So I painted them all on your face.

We have a busy weekend ahead of us. I'm getting LASIK done, so you guys will have lots of time with dad. Then, we have 3 birthday parties, including one family sleep over, which will be super fun. Next week, both of you also start school, so that will be exciting as well.

Well, until next week!

Love,
Mommy

Hannah Turns 2 and rainy fun for days and days and days

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

I think you guys are getting to witness the anti-drought of 2016. It has rained for almost 2 weeks straight. In order to keep you guys from rebelling and going crazy, we've broken out the good stuff. starting out with the Michael Jackson dance experience for the Wii. Both Mommy and Daddy are not the greatest dancers, so we figured that you might as well learn from the best. 

 And then there's good ol' indoor hockey. Roller skating is out right now because Nathan, just wants to knock Hannah down all the time. Gee, I wonder where you learned that?

We also spent a lot of time reading books. Luckily we had checked out a bunch of books from the library the week before so when we got sick of the books from our own library, we had reinforcements. 

In this picture, we were reading the cheerios book, and after we were finished, Hannah, you asked if she could eat the rest of the cheerios and after I gave you permission, you just shoved the whole container in your face. It's like you were simply giving in after a whole 5 minutes of self control. It was too cute not to snap a pic. 

 On Sunday, our church had a back-to-school special event for all the kids. You guys each got an animal balloon and Nathan, you got your face painted. You were a bit sad, however, that you guys didn't get to do children's church.

 You requested to have your face painted like a clown. On the way to the car, you admitted that you didn't really like the painting and that it didn't really look like a clown. You were nice to not have said it in front of the lady, in order to not hurt her feelings.

 After church, we went to go have some Indian food at one of our family favorite restaurants. We always have to cover up Hannah completely because you are now such a messy eater. You know it too, because you will tell us when your napkin is out of place.


But you love your food, I just found you to be simply adorable while eating some meat off of a huge rib bone. I simply had to grab my phone and take a pic.

 Luckily it didn't rain the the whole day every day it rained. There were a few stretches of time where we could get out, run around, play some bubbles, go take Teddy on a walk, and my new favorite post-rain activity: exploring the creek behind our house. This creek bed is usually dry, so it was nice to be able to go and explore it as it was gushing water from all this rain that we've gotten.

On our way out, we happened to pass by one of our neighbors and we asked them to join us. They happily came with and you guys loved having all the attention that they gave you.

 Hannah, you were fearless, as you crawled through drain pipes to explore and splash around in the water. Nathan, however, was a bit more timid

 But after a lot of coaching and hand holding, we explored and splashed, and got a bit muddy. 

We'll probably go again later this week. 

Hannah, whenever I'm in the kitchen, you just want to come and "help cook." I think you really just like the snacking that you get to do while you cook. (pss...me too!)

On Thursday, I picked up a couple of crabs from the grocery store. figuring that I would probably be the only one eating it. But as soon as I sat down, Hannah, you come pitter pattering and as you are pointing to the delicious crustacian in front of me, you ask, "[What's] that?} I tell you it's crab and I give you a little chunk of meat. Immediately, you exclaim, "MMmmm! More crab!"

I couldn't catch up and before I knew it, you had eaten most of the crab that I had plan to eat myself :( So then I cooked up a batch of shrimp and you ate another 5 shrimps!

Another thing you love is egg. If there are eggs on the table, that is the only thing that you will eat. Of course, when I made boiled eggs, it was so tough for you to stop yourself from eating the eggs as you peeled them. 

And then, there was your birthday, Hannah! I had asked you what type of cake you wanted, and gave you a choice of cookie cake, chocolate cake, cupcakes and all you said was, "Sprinkles!" So I made a sponge cake with whipped cream and let you guys decorate the cakes with sprinkles. 

 But your favorite part of the whole birthday cake deal, was blowing out the candles. After we sung the song the first time, you asked for "more candle" and so we lit it again and sung the song again. And then you exclaimed, "more candle" so this time we just lit it again and had you blow it out. We probably repeated this about 10 times.

 We actually just did a family party the night before your actual birthday because Daddy had a hockey thing the next evening after dinner.

And then you opened your presents

 And after you saw dresses, you immediately insisted to "try" on the "piao piao" (pretty) dresses.

On the day of your actual birthday, we had our usual Chinese storytime group come over and everyone stayed for lunch and cupcakes. 

We didn't do an official big birthday party this year because we have decided that we will be hosting "big" parties when you guys turn odd number ages. Both Mommy and Daddy didn't grow up with having big birthday parties, so we think having one every year is unecessary, and exhausting.

In two weeks both of you officially start a mother's day out program at our church. I'm looking forward to the free time that I'll have in the morning, but until then, we'll still make our trips to the grocery store, and run our errands. In fact, we are kind of a well known at our local sprouts with the little carts. The workers there either think, "oh, here are those two adorable kids who push the carts!" or "Oh no, here come those kids!" Around the produce section, you guys are pretty good, following directions, following me, not picking up too many random thing not on the list. By the time we get to the bulk foods, you guys want to buy everything and touch everything. The dairy aisle is a bit dangerous, because there are so many varieties of yogurt to get, and by the time we get to the meat section, carts start to become abandoned, and random spices start showing up in the cart. Why do they place spices at the bottom of the meat counter?!?!

Anyways, I continue to love spending time with you guys (looking forward to a little break though) and I hope we can get some more outdoor time now that the rain has stopped for now and the weather is a bit cooler.

"Self" and "Privacy" needs of an almost 2 Year Old

Dear Hannah,
I can't believe that in 2 days, you will be 2 years old! Right now, you are wanting to do everything by your "self." I remember disliking this stage when Nathan went through it, but this time around, I know better and I just give ourselves a bit more time to do everything because in the end, it'll just be quicker to let you do things yourself. Soon, the novelty will pass and you will be throwing tantrums because I'm asking you to buckle yourself in.

Another thing that you've picked up from Nathan is asking for "privacy" when using the potty. At first, I had no idea what you were talking about. "Bessy" is what you would say while you were sitting on the potty one day. As you pointed your hand to the door and swiped it across, I realized that you were mimicing Nathan's request for privacy earlier. So now, it's become a thing.

I was gone for another training last week, so I skipped an entry. Everytime I come home after being gone for a week, it seems like your vocabulary just multiplies twofold each time. It's amazing how much you are picking up. The things you say like "over there" or "oh no, it's stuck." or "broken" are really cute.

Well, here's a recap off the past two weeks. Before I left for my trip, we attended one of our neighbor friend's birthday party. In a sea of boys, you were able to hang pretty well with the group. Running and playing super heroes; driving cars off of cliffs;

 and eating birthday cake just as well as the big kids.

 Your favorite food right now must be watermellon. You are pretty good at saying it in chinese and you point it out everytime you see it. In fact you point and jump up and down exclaiming "Xi gua, Xi gua!"

 Your big brother, Nathan likes it too, but not as much as making silly faces in front of the camera!

 You like to eat watermelon slices (big pieces) as well as cut the watermelon into bite size pieces by your "self" .


On Saturday, grandma and grandpa came to visit. On Sunday, we went to the Bob Bullock museum where they had a special kid event going on. It was pretty fun.

 While I was a away, Grandma said that you guys were pretty good. We finished up our last week of swim lessons and on the last day, tried Hannah again with Coach Rachel. Let's just say, Nathan ended up completing the lesson. A few times you have randomly said, "Rachel, coo- coo" which means "cry" in chinese. Not sure what you have against that sweet lady, but you are simply terrified of her.

We are not going to have a big party like we did when you turned one. We are simply doing a small family celebration, and don't worry, sprinkles will be involved.

Dear Nathan,
You've been a pretty good big brother lately, although there are moments where I can tell that you are purposely trying to get under Hannah's skin. I guess this is pretty normal, because I remember doing that to your Auntie Momo, but I never realized just how annoying that was. When I returned back from Houston, I brought back some crazy fruits that I thought you guys might want to try. You were hesitant at first, but after seeing Hannah taste the foods with excitement, you decided to try them and you actually ended up liking the rambutan. Jackfruit is another story, and lichi is still in the air, however, you decided to plant a lichi seed with daddy.

 I've noticed that you guys are able to play together more often. Hannah really does look up to you and wants to mimic you in whatever you do. She doesn't trust you completely, as she is very cautious around you, but I'm sure it'll change as she gets older and physically stronger.

 You watched Cars 2 for the first time this week and you enjoyed it. You think that the first Cars movie is a bit better than the second one, but you still enjoyed the second one.

We've introduced another game "Labrynth" which is a game that you've picked up pretty quickly.

This week, we got a shelf for behind the couch and I was working on painting it in the garage. You were not allowed to use the adult paint, but you were allowed to paint your own shelf that we made together out of popsicle sticks. You are pretty proud of the final product as you colored in everything yourself. 

It's been raining the past 4 days so we've been indoors for the most part. During the rain breaks, we sometimes go out to look for puddles to splash in. It's a lot of fun and you guys don't complain about the walking at all. Texas is so nice when it's not 100 degrees outside. We'll take it for now, even if it comes with buckets and buckets of rain. 

Until next week, 

Love, 

Mommy