Eat my dust!

As an early birthday present for her fifth birthday Erin received a bike from Grandma Olia and Grandpa Vova. She's been begging for one for a long time and even learned to ride one without training wheels a couple of weeks earlier. She's been borrowing her friends' bikes the entire month of  May. Her friend Jasmine turned out to be a great teacher!  In just a couple of days Erin went from training wheels to no training wheel and just a little bit wobbly. Going extreemly fast of course!
Finally she does not need to wait for a turn on a frien's bike anymore and is a proud owner of her own set of wheels. The training wheels got removed the next day after the photo was taken. Erin insisted!

By the way after falling off the bike and getting a bump on her forehead, Pook does not argue about wearing her helmet anymore. In fact she came to me after the incident and accused me of not making her wear it. Ha! this four-year-old has a short memory!

Danny adores Erin's new bike and tries to take a spin on it, though those efforts do not go past his attemps to set it upright. After he gives up Littel Moneky jut spins one of the wheels. He is more successful with the trike and the three-wheeled scooter. At this point he is too short to peddle or push hismself, but he surely tries. For now I push him around-he rides like a boss and I get a back ache!

Erin and her friends have races around the block and go way too fast for what should be a legal speed limit for kids their age. Anyhow, biking season is here and is very much enjoyed!

Ta ta for now!

Makeup anyone?

Erin got to my makeup. No need for comments here... The photos are rather self explanatory.

Ta ta for now!

End of the year recital

Today Erin had her dance recital. It was at UVU Regan Theater. Enjoy!

She and her friends got to perform on a real stage with lights and curtains. You do not hear this in the video, but when Erin came on stage, she tried to spot me in the crowd. After not succeeding she just yelled for me, ha ha!

My favorite part of the dance was when all the girls began doing jumping-jacks, though I am pretty sure they were not a part of the original choreography. Erin just did her thing and danced away. She particularly put her heart in the final bow! This was the part she practiced the most at home.

Our little dancer enjoyed the entire experience and we loved watching her. Besides Andrew, Danny and I aunt Theresa came. That made it even more special for Erin. After her dance I got Pooky and she got to see the rest of the show. Surprisingly it was very enjoyable. Though of us all Danny enjoyed it the most! He was very enthusiastic when it came to applauding. He also cheered and I suspect if he knew how, he would whistle.

At the end of the performance Erin got to return to the stage and receive a rose. Funny enough by the time our ballerina came back the poor flower's stem was broken in at least three places. Though what else do you expect when the flower is being twirled like a baton. At home I shortened the stem and it was like new.

Aunt Theresa gifted Erin two dollars for her stellar performance and Erin currently feels very rich. I feel very rich to have my wonderful Pooky ( I know! this was a cheesy thing to say, by deal with it! I feel cheesy, he he!)

Ta ta for now!

Catching up (part II)

Yes! This is my boy sporting yellow cupcake PJs. The exact words that came out of Andrew's mouth when he saw Danny ready for bed were: "I am sorry Danny!" Fortunately our little guy could care less what he sleeps in. Anyhow, I am going to buy him some manly sleepwear.

I guess as I have not posted his 18 month old well visit update from January I might as well do it now before he turns two. He finally began gaining weight and height. He made it into 3,41% for his weight of 21 lb - a great improvement from 0.4% at 12 months. His height was 31,5 inches landing him in 26% , that is from 5% at 12 months. Our little dude is growing. How he is doing it I do not know as he seems to adhere to a strict milk diet. It is his main food on par with pretzels and raisins.

He is still outrageously picky about what he consumes. Naturally, he will never turn down ice cream or chocolate. Occasionally, and I mean once or twice a week, he will eat dinner, the rest of the days he eats breakfast and pecks at his lunch. Despite that I have a hope for this little boy as Erin went through the same stage. Now she eats broccoli, green beans and as of today carrot sticks. One food he usually will not turn down is  mama's fired rice.

Danny slowly inched into the tantrum territory. He loves throwing himself on the floor wailing. My boy gets very offended when I meet this behavior with laughter. This child also began resorting to violence when he feels his rights and wishes are not being respected. As of recently he began biting. It is very rude to sneak behind mom and attempt biting her bottom, very , very rude (yes, you may laugh here). I lost count of how many times Erin has been bitten by this little piranha. He even managed to bite Pooky between her shoulder blades one time. Now that takes some skill! Of course we are working on stopping this naughtiness and I am seeing some progress.

Danny is my little helper in the kitchen. Any time he sees our dishwasher opened he hurries to get the soap from under the sink and bring it to me. Then we fill the soap compartment together. Next I return his closed soap bottle and he puts it back where he found it. To culminate this ceremony we fight over shutting the dishwasher's door. The Little Monkey insists on putting that soap to good use immediately and attempts to shut the door and push the button. I have to literally put my foot down on the door as it is usually not full enough to run it.

He also learned not to get garbage out of the trashcan and even throws away empty baggies, his diapers or spits up his apples. Have I mentioned how he eats apples? He requests one every day. He chews every bite very diligently and afterwards spits it out. He finally began doing it over the garbage can to save me some extra work. Now that it is warm outside I just send him with his apple to the back porch. Danny also knows how to use a vacuum. Though half the time he just vacuums himself. He discovered that he does not like the sensation of having his fingers being sucked into the hose.

Danny got to experience his second ever visit to Great Clips where he lost his beautiful locks. They were just getting too long and I have to admit that around the house I would even put a clip in his hair to keep it out of the eyes. This is what he looks like now. It took three women to get the job done. I held him on my lap, one of the employees was trying to read him a book and the third was doing the cutting. This communal effort finally paid off and my Danny was sheered like a ship. He screamed bloody murder the entire time, but did get a sucker at the end for his suffering.

Danny used to like watching Yo Gabba Gabba, but has recently converted to Sesamie Street. He is an Elmo fan! He says Elmo's name and also mama, dada, Ein, bite (as "another bite of food"), apple, banana, kashka, yukky, cracker, thank you and a lot of gibberish. While I mention his favorite shows, I should also mention the show that terrifies him--Ice Age. Erin and her friends were watching it one afternoon and he just began crying when the tigers attacked the village and tried to get the baby. Poor boy was so distraught.

Speaking of Thank you! Just like Erin at this age he helps me unload the dryer from inside. Danny climbs in and hands me clothes saying thank you every time I take something from him. This boy also likes to be in charge of what he wears. He pulls things out of his dresser and demands I help him put them on. For some reason he always chooses things that are too small or that are PJs.

Danny is definitely his father's son and is into computers and games. He loves to pound away on the keyboard and loves to hold console controllers. He even has his favorite Wii controller. Every time Erin plays something he is right there next to her with his it cheering her on.

So here he is my handsome blondie-sweetness an dterror in one, though way more sweetness than terror!

Ta ta for now!



Catching up (part I)

I haven't posted for a while because too many things in my life are competing for those few hours of peace a day when no one needs anything from me. That time is taken by some client translations or research, plus there are those pesky household chores that must be done, but can't be while two little Tasmanian devils roam the house. Besides there are things, like reading that I want to do in peace in quiet. I've been on a reading binge and went through about 10 books in last two weeks. I've been seriously sleep deprived because of that, by the way, which did not help either.

However, I am blogging again and have posted a few entries from last year and a couple from this one that have been in a draft stage for the longest time. If you have absolutely nothing better to do, than please go ahead and browse 2011 entries, there are a few new ones. I am currently finishing up our Christmas report and last October Disneyland trip (I know, this is pathetic, ha ha).
There are a few news and episodes I can think of worth sharing at the moment though. Number one is that we got Erin into a charter school. She will start Kindergarten in Aristotle Academy, which is a brand new charter in American Fork, just a 5-minute-ride from home. It feels like a good match for Pooky, but we will see how it goes. It will either be a flop or a great place. We are giving it a try. Kindergarten will have just 15 kids in class (that is vs. 35+ in our district elementary school).

Erin is very excited to start school! She even got to sign her name on the school application :). By the way she is starting to read simple words and can write all of her letters. So proud of her! Here is a proof. 

 

I just love the scowl on her face. Isn't it inviting, ha ha! Lately, she's been making mostly funny faces while posing. This is an invitation to her best friends that reads " Erin. Come here later to play the planet game". I helped with spelling, of course. Here is Erin writing her name.

Erin fit on the paper just fine, but she put her S (for Sophia) in the middle of the page and decided to go from right to left. She figured it will be easier to fit it that way. I thought it was pretty funny.

Her other accomplishments are quoting Cat in the Hat pretty far into the poem, causing all sorts of mischief, and making great mud pies.

So about mischief.... I had my first brush with the law. And it was my fault, I will confess from the start and here is the story. Erin and her best friend Aliyah were playing in our backyard when they got bored. I was distracted, so I did not notice that those two made their way down the little hill behind the house onto the sidewalk adjacent to the road. When I went to check on them I discovered them on that sidewalk. I gave them a "you are not supposed to be there, get back there now or else" talk, they told me they will not play there anymore and go get Aliyah's bike and ride it instead. Off they went to fetch the bike. I went upstairs. Next thing I know, someone is ringing the door bell. Assuming it was Erin I opened and looked down expecting to see her. All I saw was a pair of two black boots, I looked up and was shocked to discover a cop. 

"Are you Erin's mom?"

"Yeeeees..."

"We have received several complaints that she and her friend have been running across the street"

I am not sure when they managed to do that, but somehow they did while I was not looking. As I thought about it later, there was an unknown Suburban parked right  across from my back door and some lady was looking at the kids and talking on the phone at the same time. Really? What happened to the days when you tell the kids not to do that and tell their parents? Wow, instead you call cops. I imagine that you've got to be cautious out there now days, and that there are some parents that might stick a shank between your ribs for being pointed out that their offspring was in the road, but I hope I do not look the part (or do I?). I know that that lady saw me. Anyhow, he ran my ID, handed me my child and departed. I bet the lady spent next few weeks telling everyone who would listen how she saved innocent child from a neglectful mother. I was neglectful though.

I felt terrible about the whole situation. This teaches me that bored kids do exactly what they are taught not to do. I had a talk with Erin about this unusual for her move and got two reasons for why they crossed the road. One was that they were pretending that the other side of the road was the Moon ( from Little Planet game, if you know what that is) and the other one was that they were doing service project collecting garbage (facepalm here). Anyhow, one time for her seems to have been enough, and she's been keeping to the assigned boundaries. When will the dang fence be finally built?

Here is my hooligan!

We've been dealing with some violent tantrums by Miss Erin, though I do not want to talk about them in detail. Even thinking about them makes me exhausted, not to mention dealing with them a few times a week.  Erin is a very stubborn little girl, too opinionated for her age, and frequently I feel like I am talking to a sixteen-year-old. I am crossing my fingers here that she will get it all out of her system and turn into a lamb. Until it happens I will keep the fight (though if this goes on for much longer I will consider investing into a football helmet to protect my head when things start flying).

At the same time this little girl is so sweet and lovely. Last week we went grocery shopping and she saw watermelons on sale (and they actually looked ripe and appetizing). This kid loves watermelons! She even hopes for one from the tooth fairy when her first baby tooth comes out (tooth fairy will oblige, by the way). Of course she asked for one (first water melon this season) and I agreed. We chose a good sounding one. You should have seen jubilation in this girl's eyes. "You are the best Mom in the world!!! May I give you a kiss and a hug?" she yelled startling every single soul in the produce department. I have to admit that my ego basked in the rays of adoration in public (especially after the police incident, ha ha). I enjoyed every smile tossed our way from fellow shoppers. 

Erin and I went on a spontaneous mother-daughter date on Saturday. We got haircuts, ate lunch at Costa Vida, went shoe shopping and visited Yogurt Bliss. I loved every minute of it. Of course Erin proclaimed that the girl team had a great time! Erin started referring to us as a "girl team" and Andrew and Danny - a "boy team". I think it is cute. Next time we'll hit a nail salon....maybe. I love having a daughter! (and a son of course, but you know what I mean). At Payless Shoes my little rascal planted a kiss on every mirror in sight. Now that was gross! When not busy by smooching mirrors she helped me shop. I have to say our tastes are rather different. She is more of a sparkly shoes girl. She thought that some shiny sandals would look great at the play ground. I begged to differ and walked away with a pair of teal sandals. Eventually we went home.

This entire post is all about Erin. The second part of catching up will be about Danny. So tune in tomorrow for that.

Ta ta for now!

Easter

I love Easter! To me it is a celebration of new beginnings, growth and joy! Christmas is a day to celebrate Christ's birth, this is a day to celebrate his life! So celebrate we did!

Erin and I dyed some eggs. We used dry onion skins, as is traditional for back home (google it if you are curious about how it is done). Funny thing about Easter eggs is that most of them get thrown away. There are only that many eggs that a person can eat (especially if that person gets no help from her little monkeys and the other responsible adult of the household). Before Erin and Danny went to bed they left some carrots for the Easter Bunny and their baskets for him to fill.

Bunny is not that generous in this house as Easter is not about his gifts. Our fuzzy guest left each kid a coloring book, a bath toy and a chocolate bunny. He also scattered a bunch of eggs filled with chocolates around the house and a few in the back yard. The baskets got emptied as soon as Erin got up, but the egg hunt had to wait till we came back from church. As an egg hunt veteran, Erin roamed the house on her own and Danny got some help from Papa. However, he caught on pretty fast on what to do and pull a few eggs from some surprising places.

Our egg huntress

Danny was not willing to stay still for a shot, so this is the best I've got.

Here Danny escaped, so as Erin would put it this is a girl's team. 

To wrap the day up we had a lovely dinner, that the kids decided not to eat, but Andrew and I quite enjoyed! All in all, this was a lovely Easter Sunday!

Happy Easter!

Ta ta for now!

0:3

Monday. Danny whacked his nose on the bottom garage step. Blood everywhere! Danny:0-step:1.

There was so much blood everywhere and poor Monkey would not let me clean him up nor put a cold washcloth on his nose. First we drenched with blood the guest bathroom, then, after realizing that there was nothing of a washcloth nature to be had there we headed upstairs, smearing both of our coats in his blood on the way. We got into my bathroom and began our blood stopping/cleaning fight. Danny screamed at the top of his lungs, which as you might imagine, made things worse. I finally let him go, he calmed down and so did his nose. I was scrubbing away the multiple blood splatters in the bathroom and thinking that it is no wonder murderers get caught. Not that hard to overlook a tiny (or not so tiny) splatter on some baseboard behind the toilet. Good grieve! My kid had just a bloody nose and I am sure traces of the event will remain in some obscure corner of this bathroom for quite some time.

Thursday. Danny grabbed a "just-out-of-the-oven" cookie sheet with rolls. Danny:0-hot cookie sheet:1.

This is pretty self explanatory. Poor Danny was in terrible agony for next half hour, in just agony for the rest of the evening, whimpering and sporting a couple blisters for the next day. I declare this to have been the accident week of the year 2012! I hope we are now for some smooth sailing from now on!

This whole week. Erin's got an infection that was making her burst into tears. After one Monday of screaming and crying while going potty we went to see the doctor. Erin:0-bacteria:1.

Antibiotics. Abused by many, but also appreciated by many! Because of you there will be no kidney and anything-else-connected-to-them complications, no more pain and tears. Erin is back to normal and life is good! As a good little trooper Pooky takes her teaspoon of white goo at the end of the day, eventually swallows it and gets a popsicle to make life sweeter (no chasing her with a dosing syringe around the house anymore like when she had the ear infection). By the way she is 44 inches tall and 35 lb. Still not heavy enough for a backless booster seat, but oh well. When we were at the doctor's office and she had to produce (ehem!) a sample she just tossed her hands into the air and exclaimed: "Pee into a cup! Mom, you've got to be kidding me!" That's my girl!

Here you go! This was our medical week in short!

Ta ta for now!