Friday, November 29, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  
Somehow it didn't feel like Thanksgiving. Perhaps it was because everyone had the sniffles and cough, except for me (knock on wood!).  Bobby said that I was not allowed to get sick!

We couldn't really decide what to do for dinner - go out or cook at home.  Our dishwasher was sort of acting up.  The soap would not dispense during the wash cycle! I thought it was those wash tablets but even the liquid soap didn't work either.  After about 4 washes, we decided to just leave the dispenser open.  Hopefully it was just the way I arranged the dishes that particular time.

In the end, we did decide to have dinner at home. And just like the last few years, it was meatloaf for Thanksgiving dinner!  And corn bread.
Yes, a lot of corn bread!
We didn't have any greens. Corn is a vegetable, right?  Anyhow, Charlie's belly was not 100% so perhaps the idea of edamame (our constant supply in the freezer) wouldn't have been too good for him.  He wouldn't eat his meatloaf but at least he liked the cornbread. He is so insisted sometimes about feeding himself with the spoon or fork. I'm not sure exactly how much of it ends up in his mouth vs. his bib though!
And for dessert, no pumpkin pie but blueberry pie instead.  I have yet to make our favorite pumpkin cheesecake pie. Perhaps this Sunday, when the neighbors come over for tea!

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Charlie is (almost) 16 months old

Ok... not quite 16 months old, but I'm always late in his monthly updates!  Ha! Not this month :-)

Charlie is really starting to comprehend things around him.  He can say quite a few words now including "all done" and "bye" - which he kept saying over and over again during our recent doctor's visit. The doctor was quite impressed! But poor fella is struggling with quite a cough lately.  He has a little dip in his growth chart with his weight now - only in the 10th percentile at 21lbs 10oz. He has started to become quite picky with his food lately. But somehow he manages to tell the difference between chocolate/candy and everything else! As for height, thankfully he's a little bit better at 30 1/2" tall (25th percentile).

As usual, Charlie loves his excavators or "digger" as he calls it:
He's learning to play more. He was quite clever with this stacking toy:
Once he got the first one done, the rest were a lot simpler with the stand up.  Look at that concentration!
And he's started to learn how to ride on the little trucks.  He loves making the "beep, beep" sound when the truck backs up:
Hmm... looks like he was staring at the TV there too, just like this brother!  And oh, Charlie is almost walking now!
He can take about 5 to 6 steps on his own. But gosh, by now I thought he'd be cruising along at 16 months.  I suppose what he lacks in steps he gains intellectually.  Charlie is starting to be quite good with animal noises and playing peek-a-boo too. Too cute!
He loves imitating his big brother Graham.  Hopefully Graham won't teach him too many bad things!

Graham is 3 1/2 years old

Graham is now 3 1/2 years old!  Can't believe it... our little boy is growing up so quickly, although he is barely tipping the scale at 32 lbs and 38" in height.  He's such a talker though - can't get him to stop! We're slowly but surely teaching him how to recognize his alphabets and number, but talk about a short attention span!

Let's see... what does he love doing these days:  Definitely loves to sing - he loves singing to his music CDs while in the car.  He's definitely hooked to the TV!  Even while you're trying to take this photo, as you can see here:
And even while little Charlie is up in the same chair taking a pic, Graham's eyes are still glued to the TV!
He loves to run, jump (especially into rain puddles), dance (we can't find the dancing video!), play pretend - he loves this one, for example: pretending to weed-whack with a waterhose/wand, pretending to be a store clerk "What would you like today, sir?".  Graham has got quite the imagination!

And oh, he is finally potty-trained!  Well, he still wears a pull-up/diaper at night but during the day, he does really well now. He's even actually standing up to pee. "Just like my daddy", he would say :-)

And we had the chalk out today on the driveway and who knew Graham is quite the artist too!  Can you guess what he drew?
You got it!  It's a Happy Squid!  :-D  And then, the Happy Squid got some hair:
Ha! Too funny! I just love his imagination!

Friday, November 22, 2013

More home improvements

Seems like there's always something going on in this house! The kitchen light decided that it didn't want to work anymore.  That was a few weeks ago. I finally had to pick out a new light fixture and fix it before my sister's visit. This was a little tricky because with the light not working, I wasn't sure if the power was still on since the breaker wasn't labeled. So... off to the local home improvement store again! I finally had to figure out how to use one of there multimeters.
Anyhow... here's the before. The fixture was just hanging by now on the wires.
And after.  Seems like LED is the way to go these days! It's amazing how much brighter it is compared to florescent lighting:
By the way, here's our new art display in our living room :-)
Hopefully the boys will not be tempted to pull their artwork down!

Poor Charlie

A few days after returning from Phoenix, poor Charlie started to have really runny diapers.  It was so bad that his school actually called me to pick him up early from school last Thursday.  His poor bum was so red and sore. I was trying to figure out what was wrong with him. Pedialyte didn't seem to work. We figured his system just needed to run its course to get back to normal.
The next day, I read something about "toddler's diarrhea" on the internet. Seems that the too much fluid intake especially juice overwhelms the ability for the toddler to absorb water and electrolytes, resulting in diarrhea. After reading this, I realized that during our trip to Phoenix, while Charlie was at the daycare - he did not eat very well and all he had was water and juice. There we go! That made me even more upset with the sitting agency!... for not being able to find a sitter for us and having the boys at home vs. the daycare.
Reading on more, it seems that we needed more fat and fiber in Charlie's diet. Thankfully Charlie loves his milk so there was so worries about increasing fat intake. It only took a day for his digestive system to get back to normal.  And Charlie was back happy eating again!
Charlie loves to feed himself now and he's so happy when he eats :-)

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Arizona Women's Open

I was determined to play well this time around after a not-so-good final round at my last event (the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia).  To add to the challenge, I had to find a daycare at the last minute to make sure the boys were taken care of while I was golfing.  The sitter agency failed to notify me about the inability to find a sitter until the day before the tournament - on a Sunday! So first thing Monday morning, I started down my list of places to check out for the boys. Luckily the first place I visited (at 6am!) was able to accept both boys.  Charlie cried as usual but I was really surprised with Graham.  He was a little hesitant, perhaps nervous by the large number of kids.  Graham normally only has about 10 kids in his classroom. There were more than 20 in this room! Well, needless to say, by day 2 and day 3, it was "I don't want to go to school" and "I want to go home!".  I felt so bad for Graham, which made me even more angry with the sitting agency!

As for the tournament (Dec 4-6), I played well enough to earn my entry fee back. I shot 73, 73, and 72 to finish tied 20th place. It was nice to be able to put three consistent rounds together. Too bad it was my last event of the year - would have been nice to bring that momentum to the next event!

Thankfully once the tournament was over, the weather continued to stay nice.  The boys and I went to the Phoenix zoo and the boys enjoyed just playing in the backyard with all the construction toys:



And Graham loved to practice his golf too in the backyard:
It's only a matter of time before little brother Charlie figures it out!


Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Butterflies!

During our trip to Phoenix last week, we decided to check out Butterfly Wonderland.
No, the photo isn't blurry.  It was actually that misty walking into the atrium. I guess butterflies love humidity!
There were butterflies everywhere:
There was a lot of pointing. Butterfly here...
Butterfly  there...
Butterfly on daddy...
Butterflies everywhere!
I guess the butterflies really liked daddy.  Bobby was very proud of his little new friend:
 Ooohhhh.... little friend getting a little adventurous:
Hmm... trying to get a kiss???  Bobby is definitely starting to squirm!
Nope, no kiss but the butterfly actually decided to check out Bobby's nose instead!  Bobby was obviously felt disgusted (and violated!) by now!
Well, if anything it was at least a really pretty blue butterfly:
After a while, the boys were more interested in the fish pond:
And after a while, all of us started to really sweat. So it was time to go.
The butterfly emergence gallery was kind of cool:
We did see one butterfly cocoon wiggling a little, but no butterflies emerged while we were there.
The place was fun and exciting for the first few minutes, but after a while there really wasn't too much to see. There were some fish tanks and an an active bee hive that you could see through glass inside the building as well, but for the price, we thought there would be a lot more to see.  Needless to say, we were a little bit disappointed so I think we are sticking to the zoo!

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Graham singing at church

We're not regular church-goers, but Graham's school is associated to one and since he was singing during service last week, we decided to check it out.
When we arrived, we headed towards the gym as this was where all the kids were gathered. Once there, we decided to just stay (and skip service :-) and wait until it was time to sing. Graham was busy rehearsing with his friends:
And Charlie was busy eating, as usual:
And then, it was time!  He was definitely excited to be up on stage:
Graham did much better during rehearsal but nonetheless, it was good to see him on stage and to see him enjoy himself. We especially loved how he was bowing to the crowd at the end!

Charlie is 15 months old

Charlie turned 15 months old a week ago.  And he's still not walking!  He did take my hand the other night and started walking or more like "wobbling" around:
And Charlie has a lot more teeth now.  When we were in Malaysia early October, I didn't even realize that his upper first molars (#4s) were out!
And now, his bottom first molars are out too.  I think his lower cuspids (#3s) are starting to cut too. He definitely doesn't have any problems chomping on his food these days!

And what else can I say about this boy... he loves his trucks and tractors!
That, and airplanes! Just like his big brother Graham!

Friday, November 1, 2013

Trick-or-treat!

Happy Halloween!  Thankfully, the weather last night was not too cold.  The boys were able to wear their outfits without having to cover it up with a sweater!
For whatever reason - for the last few weeks/months, Graham kept saying he wanted to be Spiderman this Halloween. I wonder if it had anything to do with his new Spiderman flip-flops that I bought for him this past summer! Thankfully I found a Spiderman pajama outfit just this past Sunday.  It came with little footsies so I just snipped those off.  He was so happy when he put on his outfit!
Here are the superheroes for the night:  Spiderboy with obvious empty trick-or-treat bucket, Batkid with original black cape, and Super(wo)man with red Hilti shirt/cape :-)
We practiced trick-or-treating with Daddy (dressed as "golfer) at the door before heading out and Charlie was so happy with his first pack of candy!
Here we go! Graham was so excited about ringing the doorbells, he barely waited for us.  As you can see, he's already at the door!
Halfway through and Graham is showing off his bucket of candy and Charlie is still hanging onto his packet of candy (showing me that he wants to eat it)!
Finally home and going through the stash of candy with Daddy:
The boys sure love their candy and chocolate, especially Charlie!

And as for school earlier that day, I put the boys in "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" shirts. That was actually the original plan - bright red outfits with blue hair, but Graham REALLY wanted to be Spiderman!
Anyway, Graham had to be in a black or orange shirt for school so I opted for black (since he didn't have an orange one!).  I went cheap and found some scrap fabric in my sewing box and with a handy-dandy permanent marker, I went to work :-)
Ta da!
The side of the fabric was a little fray so I used my glitter nail polish from last year's halloween witch accessory.  It actually worked quite well!
So here's Thing 1:
And Thing 2:
I couldn't get a picture of both boys together and Thing 2 was not cooperating very well.  He really wanted his ba-na-na!