Trick or treat! (10/29/09)

The area here is not trick or treating friendly, so we found a nice substitute. One of the local malls hosted a trick or treat even on Oct. 29th, so we dressed up everyone and went. They had a lot of fun!

Thing 2 is a princess, Thing 1 is a witch and Curious George is a pirate king. Curious George has planned out his costume months in advance, so it was only a matter of finding one he was happy about. On a side note, he has actually planned out costumes for the next 2-3 halloweens. The girls' costumes were a matter of convenience. The weekend before, we went out to the stores and happen to find these 2 at BabiesRUs at 50% off. That makes momma happy! It may not be so obvious, but they are a little small though. They are both sized 36 months. They really need 48 months, but such is the circumstance when you shop late.

Oh, I almost forgot. While shopping for swords that go with Curious George's pirate costume, he had to buy 2 extra ones for his sisters. It may be a tradition starting from Halloween of 2008, when even as fairies, Curious George had to have his sisters hold glowing swords.

We invaded the first bath of stores and the girls were busy planning on eating the candies already. Thank goodness for some candies without milk!
(Thing 1 has a hat with this costume, but she refused to wear it.)

Family picture! (Notice my already huge belly. I guess that's what happens the 3rd time around. I am only 16 weeks on this picture!)

Soccer 10/10/09

I have tons of pictures and been too unorganized to post them. Some of the pictures are still on the camera, some on an external hard drive that isn't currently connected to my laptop, and some on Daddy's computer. I want to post them in order, but that just means I'm going to fall further and further behind. So without any more hoo haas, here are some of them.

This is the soccer on a rainy October day. It was fairly dry in the beginning but the rain came down hard in the middle. These little troopers of 4 and 5 year olds just kept on going without complaints.

The cheer leading team - (Thing 1 in pink, Thing 2 in white)

Big girls! Thing 2 is filling up because she eats like she's a bottomless pit, and Thing 1 is slowing down. Daddy and I now have to take a couple of seconds to tell them apart sometimes.

The little man of the hour during a pre-game drill.

The rain starts pouring, the team keeps going. Notice the thumbs up I got. :)

Being goofy! Being a defender (near the goalie) means he was told not to leave the area.


Curious George scores a goal!

random pictures

As big as she has gotten (around 75th percentile for both height and weight), Thing 2 insists on putting herself in the smallest box she can find.

In the meantime, Thing 1 has perfected this "What the heck is wrong with you?" look.

This is Curious George's Lego collection. He has progressed "helping" daddy put them together, to putting some parts of it himself, to completely assembling them. Lately, he has taken them apart and make his very own designs. He has since bought a few more small once since this picture was taken. He is asking for big expensive ones for Christmas.

a trail of marshmallows

Curious George is in our room doing some coloring activities and does not want to be disturbed. His sister, Thing 1, wants to be with him. I call Thing 1 out of the room, but she wants to stay. Curious George said, "Mommy, put marshmallow down and let her eat them on the floor and then shut the door when she gets outside." I glared at him, "your sister is not an animal!" Curious George looked up at me and laughed.

Devious.

EDIT: I think this whole idea of leaving food around started a year ago here.

Upward Soccer

Curious George is back in soccer again. This time through Upward (upward.org), which is a christian sports program through the local church. The uniforms are much nicer than in the YMCA, and seems to be more organized.

Bright and early at 8:30 today, we were on a mad rush to get out of the house. In Curious George's group are 4 and 5 year olds. They practice for 30 minutes and play for the next 30 minutes. For the first time, Curious George learned about the different positions. He was a left full back on the first game and was told that he and another boy must stay around the goalie to help. He took the coach's instruction to heart and only kicked the ball when it came to him. :-) The coach told him a few times that he could move a little bit. On the next game, he got to be the center forward.

Pre-game drills.

Playing in the front.

The team tries to score!

Cheerleader Thing 1 refuses the camera.

Cheerleader Thing 2 adores the camera!

Thing 1 finally warmed up. :)

It must be said that I'm not the kind of mom who watches quietly. If you go to any game, you'll see and hear me yelling, "Go Matthew! Get the ball! Go go go! Good job!!" The kids need to be cheered and given positive phrase! Besides, at this age, kids are only as enthusiastic as their parents. :-)

It's too early yet, but I can say with certainty that I won't be a parent who will argue will referees.

hubby's family reunion

My mother-in-law's family has an annual reunion near Cherokee, NC. This is the first time we've made it.

The kids and I bring 'color' to this family. :)

We enjoyed seeing some of the family members again, and some for the first time, though we were told that there were a lot of family members who didn't make it this year.

I anticipated that there may not be a lot for the kids to do, so Daddy and I packed the DVD player and blankets. Good thing too. It provided the kids with some rest and probably averted some meltdowns.

Curious George was pretty good. Though it helps that one of his cousins came with us.

By late afternoon, the twins had it. Thankfully, we found a recliner that happened to be in the kitchen. A few furious rocks adn the girls fell asleep. This show was after Thing 2 had already woken up and gone to find her Daddy.

update on the 3 silly ducklings

Curious George:

He is going to pre-k 3 days a week in preparation for kindergarten. His mood continues to be dependent on the amount of sleep he gets. He is a Lego fiend at the moment asking for small Legos whenever we go to the store. For a period of 2 weeks, he kept a Lego catalog close to him at all times "reading" it whenever he finds a second and plans his future with it. "I want this for Christmas, and this one for my birthday, and the next Christmas..."

He continually amazes as with he says everyday. For instance, during past conversations I've told him that when we look for a new house it may have to be a house without stairs because Mommy's knees hurt. Then several days later, he told me out of the blue that it should be OK to have small stairs and that he, his sisters and Daddy would sleep upstairs and I stay downstairs so that I don't have to hurt my knees using the stairs.

Yesterday, Daddy and I attended a 5-week hr-long parenting class. Daddy and I were quite excited about what we learned and having an animated discussion about it. Curious George thought we were fighting and told us to stop. I explained that we weren't fighting, but instead discussing what we learned in class. He asked what we learned, so I told him it was all about what we could do so that we are not always yelling and getting mad at him. His response was, "I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THAT ALL MY LIFE!!" Daddy and I burst out laughing.


THING 1:

Thing 1 is a sassy little thing who seems to be always at odds with me. Daddy says she's just like me...stubborn. I've said a few times that Thing 1 is Daddy's girl, but she does come to me when she's sick. ;p She is a rough and tumble girl, it seems. During a period of a couple of weeks when Thing 2 was sick, Thing 1 and Curious George played a lot with each other. Curious George throws his weight around and surprisingly, Thing 1 kept up with him. Even now, she and Curious George wrestles with each other. Thing 1 sometimes protests but usually all smiles and giggles.

Thing 1 has also developed a love for her big brother's shirt. She demands that whatever shirt she is wearing be taken off and then she grabs whatever shirt she could find of Curious George's. Sometimes she grabs a PJ he takes off as soon as he takes them off.

Her language explosion was a few weeks behind Thing 2's but they are both very good talkers. She loves to watch Dora The Explorer and Diego and eagerly responds when asked to join on their adventures.

We have noticed several months back that Thing 1 seems to favor left-handedness but it was too early to be sure then. Nowadays, it is becoming more obvious that she is left-handed. All of us have noticed a few instances where she tries to do something with her right hand only to find it very awkward so she just switches hands immediately.


Thing 2:

Thing 2 continues to be a few pounds behind Thing 1. She has been sick a lot this past month, battling strep throat for a few weeks. But after only being well for 1 week, she contracted the flu. It was a mild flu, but the body soreness she experienced for a few days was unmistakable. The illnesses caused her to lose about 5 lbs.

She talks very clearly and can tell on both her sister and big brother. She loves cuddles and would rather be on our lap when the other 2 are rough-housing.

She hates buildings that look like a doctor's office. We went to the Department of Social Services one day and she let go of my hand and headed for the parking lot as soon as she could see in after I opened the door. Thank goodness she didn't take off on a run!

She loves to ask for things using a very small cute voice. "Mom, can I have milk?", she asks in the morning. Recently, she's also mastered the art of begging. She asks for something and when I don't move fast enough, she holds her hands together and puts them under her chin, closing her eyes, and says "pease, pease! [please]"

She loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! If I can't think of anything to feed her, I could never go wrong with PBJ. She also loves any kind of cereal, much to her brother's annoyance. Curious George absolutely hates any kind of cereal and would run the opposite way from it.

Thing 2 loves to pretend to read. She grabs paper with print on it and "reads" proudly, "A, F, I, B!"