Kitchen finally all done!

The kitchen is finally all repainted and knobs and handles all installed.  What a project!

Hopefully the paint will stay clean at least for a little while.  There are bits and pieces of paint on the bottom cabinets that have already been chipped off.  Kids, I tell you!

I was finally able to use my fancy brackets.  I bought them years ago and could never figure out where to use them, thinking I would put a shelf up somewhere. They were sort of an off/antique-white but I just sprayed it a rustic brown like the rest of the kitchen cabinet hinges.  I think it works quite well for under the countertop - just in case the boys have any ideas of hanging off the countertop.

Looks like my off-season is almost coming to an end.  Now if the weather would just get a little warmer so I can start practicing!  I suppose I could actually start getting back in shape first.  I can't believe it's already the end of February.  If I only spent that much time working out and practicing my golf as I did painting!  It's probably no wonder why I'm not on the LPGA yet :-s

Charlie is 19 months old

Charlie is becoming a little boy!

He loves to draw (or scribble, really):

And he's definitely talking a lot more:

When he agrees with you, he'll nod his head and say "uh huh!".  Too cute!  But most of the time when he does want something, he will just say "uh, uh, uh, uh..." and point. And then it's just a guessing game and you'll need to hurry before he starts to get frustrated and yells and cries! Little stinker!

Graham is now 3 years and 9 months old

Can't believe my baby is going to be 4 years old in less than 3 months!!! Look at that handsome boy :-)

Haircuts now are quite traumatic, even with lollipops.  I suppose I have myself to blame since I did nick him a few times with the clippers.

Graham is now able to write the letter "G".  G for Graham, as he would say!

And it gets even more impressive. Ha!

He tells me it's a snake.  As you can tell, Graham has quite the imagination.  He would build something with his legos or toys and would name it something or rather-merator... or something like that :-)

Graham loves to sing:

In case you have trouble understanding him, he's saying... "Let's clap our hands with love, we are a family, the circus we will go."

And sometimes, he'll even play the piano!

And I know my little boy is growing up when he'd rather wear his boxer briefs instead of his regular underwear!

Graham is silly and funny and cute at the same time without even trying very hard.

What a character!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  This year, we decided to (or perhaps I decided to have everyone) stay home for dinner.  I think there's just less drama that way especially when we can never predict if both boys are going to behave well at the table!  Plus, Bobby had been traveling all week and had just returned home on Thursday.

This year, we were surprised with flowers from the boys:

By the way, Graham and Charlie want to say "thank you" to Grandma for making the arrangements :-)

And then, of course - cards and gifts:

And Valentine's will never be valentine's these days without chocolate-covered strawberries!

And you wonder where the other strawberries went???

The boys loved them!  A lot more of the chocolate part than the strawberries, perhaps :-)

And today was the end of Chinese New Year (CNY lasts for 15 days), so we took the opportunity to see a lion dance performance and a kung fu exhibition:

Charlie really enjoyed the lion dance:

Graham was not a happy camper.  He was actually quite terrified during his first lion dance experience last year and this year, it was the same.

Poor fella.  Doesn't like dumplings, afraid of fireworks and lion dances, and wants to put cheese on rice. How are we ever going to live in Malaysia!  Maybe if daddy/Bobby was part of the lion dance, perhaps then Graham might warm up to the idea.  Uhhh... no.  At least not today.

By the way, I found a new Chinese resource at the university where the lion dance was held today. Looking forward to checking it out and improving everyone's Chinese, including mine! 

More organization around the house

I guess I got really really tired of having toys all over the floor, so it was off to the store to buy more storage bins!  I had an extra table in the guest room so that seemed to work quite well downstairs instead.

Ahhh... so many toys! It's like a little parking lot. Hmm... just thought of an idea. Maybe I need to draw some lines on the floor to indicate the toys' spot in the room - so it will be like a little game the boys can play :-)

I did have a little shelf which worked out to display some of the boys' little cars and trucks.

It didn't take long for the mess to come back but at least it was a lot quicker to clean up!

Cleaner house makes Mommy a happy person.  Eventually, the boys will learn to do it by themselves. Eventually... right???  I suppose there is no cleaning up now that we have a couch potato!

Laundry room overhaul

Well, it's not quite an entire overhaul but I did get tired of the bright yellow in the laundry room.  So... as usual, here's the before:

I know, right?  What was I thinking about that yellow!  Probably one of, if not my worst decision in color choices.  Anyway, here's the after. Tada!

Ahhh... much calmer color :-)

And then, the cabinets had to be painted and contents in the cabinets reorganized.  So, off with the cabinet doors:

And after that - bye-bye yucky yellow tinge cabinets!

And just like on those home improvement TV shows, organized bins with labels. Ha! :-)

Ok, time to put the cabinet doors back on.  I'm so glad it was a nice day out to paint!

And oh, while I was outside, the city finally came by to pick up our tree debris from the previous ice storm. It's too bad the boys weren't around to see it. They would have loved the grabber!

Anyhow... here we go! Finally, nice and clean looking:

I even bought some new knobs. I'm glad I figured out how to line up those cabinets:

And finally... a little humor:

I wasn't sure if I liked it very much, so decided to change it up:

I still can't figure out if I like it or not.  Thankfully it's an easy fix.  I used Graham's washable markers that comes off really easily with a wet rag.  Unfortunately, the tip of the marker has worn down quite a bit because of the rough texture on the walls.  So I won't be changing anything anytime soon until I buy a new marker!  If anything, Graham already knows how to read it. Smartie pants!

As for the shoes, I ended up buying a hanging shoe organizer.  

The tension rod was a rather good idea for the extra shoes as well as for the golf caps until of course, everything came tumbling down. The rod just could not hold up all that weight.  So... back to the drawing board and I came up with the idea of just hanging it from the ceiling.

The hook in the ceiling can hold up to 60lbs, just in case the boys get any crazy ideas to hang from it.  The chain doubles as a place holder for Graham and Charlie's artwork too!

I still haven't figured out if those recycling bins are going back into the laundry room yet. I wish we had a bigger room! Anyway, just installed a coat hook on one wall and waiting for a couple of accordion-style coat/hat hangers for the other wall. And then, we should be done! Hooray!

Charlie is 18 months old

Here's our little man! Well, maybe not so little anymore.  He's now 31" tall (10% percentile - ok, maybe not so tall) but in the 75% percentile in weight at 23lbs 15oz. No wonder he's getting so heavy to carry around!

Charlie is still crying when I drop him off at school but at least now he doesn't cry when I pick him up. Here's a little project from school the other day. His crooked-eyed little penguin. Too cute!  "Waddle, waddle, waddle" as he would (try) to say.

Charlie loves raiding the pantry for his mac-n-cheese:

And if the boys could have apple sauce every hour, they would do it!  I love how they sit together for their little snack:

We continue to bring Charlie to his soccer class:

Some days are easier than others:

If anything, he loves parachute time:

By the way, here's Charlie's new lunch bag:

We normally dig into it after school while big brother Graham is playing at the school playground. No wonder Charlie is in the 75% percentile in weight!

Happy Chinese New Year!

The Year of the Horse started this past Friday.  That meant dumplings, of course!

Bobby and I truly enjoy the meal as for me, it reminds me of home/Malaysia and family.

It was Charlie's first time eating dumplings and thankfully he loved it!  He probably had about 5 of them, just the meat/filling.  As for Graham, he really struggled (not the first time with dumplings!).  He said that he taken one little bite of the meat and didn't like it. So he just ended up eating the dumpling wrapper.
With all the tears shed, that was enough for the "surprise" - the traditional "ang pow" or red packets with money in it.

This obviously did not mean too much to Charlie, but Graham knew exactly that he could buy new toys at the store with the money.  Who is so smart!