Another quake!

Wow... can you believe it? Another earthquake last night! This was a 4.6... so kinda like the first one that we experienced early Saturday morning. And on top of that, we were under a tornado warning last night. Thankfully we were clear of any tornadoes touching down!

By the way, we ended up getting 3" of rain during the storm and my rain barrel is completely overfilled! All 70 gallons of it! What are we going to do with all that water! Well, at least we know that the new gutter and downspout is working great :-)

Earthquake in Oklahoma!

We were fast asleep this past Friday night (early Sat actually) when we were abruptly disturbed by a shaking house! Bobby pretty much leaped out of bed - ready to go! Not exactly sure where, but he was ready. I, on the other hand, just told him that it was an earthquake and continued to snuggle under the covers. A few seconds later, the shaking subsided. The next day, we found out that the earthquake was a 4.7 on the Richter scale.
On Saturday night, just as we were going to go to bed, the house started rumbling again! By now, Bobby figured out that it was another earthquake and didn't panic as much as he did the day before. Although, a few seconds later, the vibrations started getting stronger! I propped myself up in bed (and actually panicked a little too!) and told Bobby to go get Graham. Well, Bobby stood ready in the hallway in case the roof did come down. A few more seconds later, it was all over. We found out the next day that this one was a 5.6 on the Richter scale! That's the strongest earthquake recorded in Oklahoma!
Well, as we finally went to bed that night, I asked Bobby where we were going to move to next!

Graham at 17 months

Graham turned 17 months a couple of week ago and looks like I forgot to write about his progress... again! Maybe Daddy does need to buy those cupcakes to celebrate, so that I would remember the occasion a little bit better :-)

Graham is definitely his own little person now. He knows exactly what he wants and what he doesn't want! Still very good with "no, no..." and then, when I show him or give him the incorrect thing, then it's "no... No... NOOO...!" as he shakes his head vigorously!

We continue to practice the concept of sharing with Graham:


And we continue to quiz him on how to say certain words:


Most of the time, I still can't figure out what he's saying! He loves to jibber-jabber, especially when he's in his crib. Right now, here are some of his favorite words:

- "xia yu" for rain in Chinese,
- "back" ~ to put something back at its place
- "walk" ~ when he wants down from your arms so he can walk
- "na na" ~ for his blankie (this one still baffles me!)
- "dark" or more like "dak" ~ when he enters a dark room/place
- "shoe" or more like "shi"
- "cheesestick" or more like "chee-stek"
- "bau bau" ~ when he wants to be picked up, which is his most favorite of all!

During this past week, Graham had his first taste of sidewalk chalk:
Literally!
Graham continues to surprise me at how much he can understand and comprehend. He definitely impresses Mommy and especially Daddy every day!

Another hair cut for Graham

Graham's hair was getting long again so I decided to give him another haircut. This time, I used his booster chair and some tools from the garage to distract him. I think I really need to practice a little bit more.

Graham looks like Moe of The Three Stooges!

Yeah... He's wondering what happened to his hair too!

And then, when he finally figured it out...

"Come any closer and I'm going to kung-fu you!"

By the way, the PJ outfit that Graham was wearing is completely filled with hair now! I put it in the wash thinking that the hair would all come off - WRONG! So now, I'm debating about using a lint brush (that's a lot of rolling!) or just throwing them out :-s

Happy Halloween!

This Halloween, instead of buying an outfit for Graham, I decided to make one. A little more than $7 later, we decided to test-drive the outfit at the local pumpkin patch.

Here it is...

Graham, our little pumpkin!
And,... off he goes!
We were here a couple of weeks ago, so Graham knew exactly where he was going. He loves playing in those big playhouses:
Moving on to the next thing... a Radio Flyer wagon with a pumpkin in it:
But then, back at another playhouse - a bigger one this time:
And another one! Graham loved playing with these shutters:
We tried to take some pictures by the haystack, but Graham just would not sit still!
We did get a nice photo op with Daddy!
Although, this other one didn't work out so well.
So, we let Graham roam around on his own again.
He was having so much fun that we literally had to carry him out of the place!

Looks like the pumpkin outfit was a success! So on Halloween itself, we decided to trick-or-treat at the mall since we had an errand to run there as well. Before leaving, we set out the candy bowl on the front porch.

Graham had first dibs!

"I got one, Mama!"At the mall, it took Graham a while to warm up to the idea of trick-or-treating:

But once he figured it out, he was off!
Graham was our happy little pumpkin and at the end of it all, he was quite pooped!

Good looking deck!

Bobby and I spent the weekend staining our deck. It was stained 2 summers ago but despite the 3-year warranty, it was looking pretty drab! So we decided to stain it again and this time, instead of using a toner, we decided to go with a semi-transparent stain (cedar naturaltone). We also decided to put on two coats of it! Here's the before and after - after the first coat of stain.
Yup, that's me... working hard over there! I was the designated "creaser" - taking care of all the creases. Supposedly I would have to work 6 more years before I could use the stain sponger like Mr. Bobby.

Anyhow, here's the deck after 2 coats of stain. I think it looks pretty awesome! Especially after all that hard work!

Oh, and by the way, here's our new little gutter and downspout that runs into the new rain barrel:
Can't wait for it to rain! There's a 50% chance of rain this Wednesday. I might be out there with an umbrella checking up on it :-)

And Bobby is so happy on his new grass seeds. They are actually sprouting!
Hopefully they will grow a little more before the winter frost comes. We also put in some more flowers/Mums out front and also a new Juniper (Blue Star). Hopefully it will survive next Summer!

Tulsa Run - Another run for Daddy!

Bobby ran in another 5K this past weekend. There were a lot more people in this run compared to the Zoo Run last month. And gosh, it was a lot colder too!
Just before the race, it was getting quite crowded.
Daddy had his game-face on for his race!
Graham was able to keep his mittens and hat on for a while but eventually, he wanted them off. I was at least able to wrap a blanket around his shoulders and he didn't mind that too much.
Unfortunately, the trip to the Hyatt nearby for a diaper change took too long and we missed Daddy at the finish line (again!).
Bobby did post a time quicker than last - 33:21... and looks like I now owe him a "double-crusted" apple pie!

Graham's new language

Graham started to talk in some funny language about a week ago. Bobby is accusing me of trying to teach him German. Ha ha!


It's funny how he makes those guttural noises! And since watching a lot of the Disney channel lately, Graham has learned the crocodile motion from one of the music videos. Too cute!

We're also trying to teach Graham some Chinese as well. "Xia yu" actually means "it's raining". He started saying that in the car last Saturday when it was pouring down rain and it was actually hailing! We had to park under the roof at a bank's ATM machine while the storm rolled through!

We haven't done too much lately. We have been fixing up the yard for the most part - pulling out dead plants (from this past summer), planting new ones - more rose bushes by the back deck, and Mommy finally got her rain barrel! We are doing some work to the side of the house today. A couple of the siding is rotting out and hopefully the damage does not go any further than that! Anyhow, we are putting in a small new gutter and downspout. It's too bad that winter is coming. I'll just have to wait till next Spring to watch my rain barrel in action!
It was a little tricky to try and level out the ground. Hopefully I did a good job and when the barrel is full, hopefully it won't tip over! But look at that, it's like the barrel was meant to fit in that little corner all this time! Yes, Daddy... it was meant to be :-)

Cushion + Cover for wagon

Since the base of Graham's new wagon is metal, we figured it would be more comfortable for Graham if he had a cushion. So, it was another new sewing project for Mommy!
Thankfully, the foams were on sale. I didn't realize how expensive it was to begin with! I probably could have gone with a 2" foam but went with the 3" instead. The store did not have any outdoor fabric but there was this other fancy baby fabric that's waterproof and breathable too - perfect for the cushion cover! It was also my first attempt at a zipper. I think I did okay!
So happy that Graham now has a soft and comfy cushy for his tushy! It should be a great time at the zoo later this week :-)

New garden bench

I got the idea of a garden bench while watching HGTV this past weekend. It was actually in a yard that they were going to tear up! Anyhow, when I saw the bench, I figured... "I can do that"! And I did have all the materials available to me in the backyard. Daddy was worried that I'd be spending more money on my projects again!

Planks of wood from under the deck: $0

Logs from the "to-burn" pile: $0
Hand-saw and chain-saw from the garage: $0
Happy Mommy and Graham: Priceless!

I still have to powerspray the wood to clean it up a little and stain it. Bobby said that I will probably start spending some money on it once I decide to put rhinestones on it. Haha...! Not a bad idea! :-)

"Yes", "No", and more..!

Graham caught me by surprise when he imitated what I said!


He's such a cheeky little fella!

It's been so difficult to keep Graham still. I was on the phone with Bobby's mom the other day and he wanted to grab the phone. So I decided to distract him by taking a picture of him while I was talking to Grandma.

He didn't know what was going on at first...
But by the second shot, he figured out how to smile!
And then, for whatever reason, he would shut his eyes while smiling!
My camera aim wasn't very good, but check out those teeth!

Graham surprises me every day. Just the other day, I told him to put his teddy bear on the window sill and he actually understood what I said!
And then I told him to read his book to teddy bear and here's what he did:
He put teddy's head on the book! I guess it's reading by osmosis :-)

More sewing projects

I decided to stitch a few more designs on some onesies for my sister's little boy. The "C" is for Caden and the pattern for the dinosaur was actually taken from one of Graham's bib.
It looked quite plain with just the dinosaur so Bobby suggested putting a sun on the onesie as well. The design of the sun was actually his idea as well. I guess Bobby is sort of my "design consultant"!

I also made a cloth plastic bag holder/dispenser. I hope it will work out okay as it was my first attempt at it!
And if the fabric looks familiar, it's actually the leftover fabric from our summer family shorts. I was able to sew together almost all of the scrap fabric to put the bag together.