reading the pictures

Every night, after we read him bedtime stories, this little boy goes to his bed, turns on his flashlight and "reads" in the dark. He looks through all the pages of the books and inspects all of the pictures. Some of his favorite books are by Richard Scarry - books that include trains, cars, and airplanes. In the last 6 months, we've gone through about 4 different flashlights and many many AA batteries. I've been working with him on reading simple words, but we haven't been seriously doing it. And his preschool class is working on letter sounds and writing, but no concentration on reading just yet.

This boy is so ready to read. I will need to get some tools and resources to help him out soon. I've been researching Hooked on Phonics and already know that he is beyond his age level. This boy is a smart one! He will definitely surpass his Daddy's collection of books. Sadly, he'll probably be as blind as a bat by the time he gets to his 20's just like his Mama.

The background music is the same music he's been listening since he was born. We have a few different CD's but Daddy and I could only tolerate a few when he was co-sleeping with us. This music plays on a loop non-stop. Aside from going through flashlights and batteries, we'll probably go through many CD players.

Incidentally, the above flashlight may have died tonight. I changed the batteries and not 30 minutes later, I hear a scream about the flashlight being broken.

WIC and milk allergy don't go together

We had our WIC appointment yesterday and after a total of 2 hours, we finally made it out. The appointment itself didn't take long, it's just the normal government agency slowness at work. No one is ever in a hurry. I am also glad that hubby was able to come. Had I been alone with the 3 kids, I would have brought our side-by-side stroller to contain the twins, and that my friends, wouldn't have been able to fit in the tiny waiting room filled with chairs. The paper work was also not as bad as it could have been. Since the kids have been approved for Medicaid, WIC didn't have to verify income.

Once we were called in and the girls saw the scale, they started screaming. These two are scarred for life from their RSV shot days. And the screaming just got worse after their fingers were pricked to check blood levels for anemia. After all that was done, we were ushered to the next room by the so called nutritionist. She explained that the boy is big for his age and asked what he ate. I told her he actually doesn't eat that much. He only eats cheese, PBJ, fruits, chicken and dairy products. Then she said that WIC will cover milk, eggs, cheese, cereal, beans. At this point, I told her the girls have milk allergy, to which she replied, "well, as an alternative we have lactose free milk and powdered milk." I had to stop my gut reaction of slapping my forehead, rolling my eyes, and pulling my hair out. But instead, I said, "they can't have those because they still contain milk proteins" and they need to be on soy. She said they don't cover soy unfortunately, so I just let it be.

We were given WIC checks to cover two months for the three kids. The checks of course cover milk for each of the girls. Since they can't consume milk and milk products, we'll have plenty of milk for hubby, me and Curious George. We won't need to worry about who will eat the cheese since Curious George can consume his weight in cheese. The WIC checks also include 1 lb bag of dried beans. I have never used dried beans and don't really know what to do with that. I will either not buy them, or buy them and probably donate them to our church or hold on to them until I can figure out how to cook them.

I got to use one of the checks today, which covered a total of $20 worth: 2 gallons of milk, 1 lb of cheese, 36 oz of dry cereal, 2 cans of frozen juice (this one is new for us too). I just used one of the kids' check since each check include milk. My husband and I and the little man can't possibly consume that much milk in a week.

Anyway, we are completely thankful for this aid. Twenty dollars worth of staples that we don't have to worry about is a lot of help. I just wish they cover soy milk. If WIC lowers the amount of milk gallons approved for the twins to cover soy milk (soy milk is more expensive), we'll be happy. But they don't make concessions for special cases, sadly.

The information packet we received says WIC covers peanut butter, but none of the kids' WIC checks include peanut butter. Perhaps this because my kids are too healthy? Hmmm. Also, I doubt the so-called nutritionist is a nutritionist at all. Why else would she offer other milk-containing substitutes after I said my kids have milk allergy? Ladies and gents, there is a big difference between milk allergy and milk intolerance. The latter gives people diahhrea and doesn't cause people to carry epinephrine pens. Consuming anything with milk and milk derivatives causes my twins hives around their mouths within minutes of consuming them and causes them to sneeze, watery eyes and raspiness.

I have to thank a fella mama of twins at diagnosis:urine for sharing her WIC experience with me. Based on my online research of WIC, I didn't think we'd qualify, but this kind woman shared what she knew and so I went for it.

balance bike - a bike without a pedal

A few months ago, we've decided to get Curious George a balance bike for his birthday. Balance bikes are bikes without pedals in order to teach little ones to balance. A bike with training wheels doesn't really do much to teach kids. Balance bikes run anywhere from $100 to upwards of $300. But since our family is now in the poor house, we have to do it the cheap way. We bought a $35 12-inch bike at Wal-Mart and Daddy removed the pedal. Actually, arriving at what size bike to get Curious George ruined the surprise. We measured his stance and went to the store, but that didn't quite work so we had to bring him in. And of course we couldn't get him out of the store without one. So with much negotiation, we finally just broke down and gave him an early present. Which then ruined one more thing - the pedal. He loved pedaling around the store, that when Daddy surprised him the next day with the bike with missing pedal and training wheels, all hell broke lose. And the fact that he didn't sleep well the night before made the 'hell' even worse.

But after the nap, we were able to convince him to try the bike without the pedal with the promise that Daddy would put the pedal and training wheels back on if he just but try first.

Here is what happened:

As a balance bike, he should be able to put both feet flat on the ground, so this is just a tad too high. But Daddy couldn't make it any lower. Still, he did very well. We are very proud of Curious George. This video includes me screaming with excitement about his little run of balancing so I had to cover it up with pretty music. :0) After about half an hour, Daddy finally put the pedal and training wheels back on, at which point, Curious George became a speed-demon.

Unfortunately, it rained the next day so we had to occupy Curious George another way. Here is Daddy and son bonding over Lego.

kissy kissy

I gave the girls color wonder markers today to play with and here is what happened. This is also a good look at the "twin talk" - twins talking in their own language. It's a long video at 4 minutes, but if you stay for the whole thing, you'll see these 2 kissing at about 3 minutes in. (Thing 1 is in blue, Thing 2 is in green)

(Do watch it in High Quality to see their cute facial expressions. )

the advertures of Macaroni Machupichu

Like most mornings when Curious George wakes up first (which happens 95% of the time), he crawls into our bed and 'wakes' us up. By 7am, Daddy and I finally woke up. We cuddle/wrestle/tickle with Curious George until we all finally make it downstairs for breakfast. The girls sometimes joins us.

This morning, I decided to make up a story and asked what name we'd like our hero to be. Daddy said "Machupichu" (from some of my Filipino relatives' pronunciation of Matthew - ma-chu), and Curious George suggested "Marcaroni".

Macaroni Machupichu is a seemingly normal little boy who goes on wild adventures. Today, he was called on by the fairy people to save their Fairy Princess who was kidnapped by the tribe of Farting Frogs (thanks to Daddy for this villainous frogs who use toxic gas to fight their enemies) in the jungles of Mexico. To make the long story short, Machupichu rescued the Princess, who then granted him one wish as token of appreciation. Thanks to Curious George's contribution to the story, Machupichu happily ate/swam in the giant bowl of orange icecream.

Curious George wanted another story, so it was Daddy's turn to make one up. Daddy brought Macaroni Machupichu in space where he had to rescue his whole family from an evil empire. After braving through bad guys and obstacles, Machupichu Skywalker (as Macaroni was also known in space) was able to free his mother, and his two sisters, Kitty Wan Kinobi and Jojo Binx. But his father was nowhere to be found. In the end, Machupichu battled with Darth Vader (I can't quite remember if this is the evil dude's name that Daddy used) and defeated him. Of course, Darth Vader confessed that he is Machupichu's father. (By this time, Curious George had a very sad face and was about to cry.) But then Daddy turned the story around at the last minute and Darth and Machupichu ended up happily together with the rest of the family.

Oh where will Macaroni Machupichu end up next.

the kids, TV and mommy

Thing 1 in pink, Thing 2 in purple.

This is what TV does to kids. It's not all bad though, it provides the mommies out there with some needed quiet time.

One thing with all three, they all like looking at themselves on the camera!

I'm having fun experimenting with the girls' growing hair. And loving it!

a long lost brother?

A few days ago, I took a nap with Curious George. When he woke up, he sat up on the bed and started talking to me.

CG: A long time ago, I had a baby brother.

Me: Huh?

CG: I had a baby brother and he was this small (gesturing with his hands) and I love him.

Me: Matty, you don't have a brother.

CG: I do, a long time ago! And he was small and then he died. (sad face) And he turned into...um.. what do you call it again?

Me: An angel?

CG: Oh yeah! My little brother died and became angel and I never saw him again. Ever.

Me: Matty, you don't have a brother. You only have sisters.

CG: I do! He's turns into an angel with my grandfathers and now he's watching over you!


I don't know about you, but now I'm scared.