Birthday Party at School

We had a little birthday party at Sean's preschool today. My big boy is going to be 4 tomorrow. I am excited for him to be one year older, but I sad that his baby days are truly over. Sometime it feels like he is growing up too fast and sometimes not fast enough - but I know for certain that I am going to miss kissing his soft smooth skin and seeing him stand one third of height next to his Daddy. Thank goodness for this blog and millions of photos I am taking!

Sean's lower lip is very much swollen today but he had no problems eating cake! He was so happy to have a big cake with the writing "happy 4th birthday, Sean" and sing the Happy Birthday song. As you can see in the photos, he was the king today at school. They made him a crown and he wore it all day. We told him that tomorrow is his actual birthday and he said "I need my crown". He'll be excited to know that he'll have another cake tomorrow. (well, this kid is very lucky... one cake for school today, another cake for his birthday tomorrow and the third one for the birthday party we'll have next Sat. -- we had to postpone the party from tomorrow to next Sat due to the kids being sick!)

Sean gets boo boo in the mouth

Sean landed himself at an emergency room last night after hitting his mouth on the arm of the couch. Sean and Aly were running on the couch and with all the excitement, he decided to take a dive at the edge of the couch and hit his chin pretty hard. He bled a lot and the cut looked deep, so I asked Mike to come home and take him to the emergency room. He kept asking for "kami" and I thought he wanted a tissue (kami is a paper in Japanese) and kept offering him a wipe, a napkin and a tissue, but what he was actually saying was "kagami" which is a mirror in Japanese. He wanted to look at the scar. He was pretty sorry for himself but also proud of the bloody cut it seemed.

While I was tending to Sean, Alyson found an open jar of prunes and was busy feeding Saya. I like the idea of helping out BUT she's only two and made a huge mess on her sister's face. So, the evening was a little chaotic. I bathed Saya and Aly together for the first time and Saya was wide-eyed being in a big bath tub with her sis. Sean and Daddy came home at 8 pm very exhausted.

Needless to say we were all tired in the end.

Saya Crawled!

Saya has decided to crawl after all! She's been moving around for a while, I honestly don't know how she moved forward, but tonight I saw her advance forward to get to a toy by crawling! She wiggled her little bottom and was so cute. She crawls pretty fast for a newbie, so we have to be very careful now. I just love those moments when I see my kids achieve something for the first time. I gave her a hug and patted her little back. Way to go, Saya!

New Man Noah

Alyson wanted to wear Mommy's jacket
Saya has cute warm smiles

Do you like my new hair do?

Aly likes to "change diaper"

So, Noah got a haircut on Saturday at Daddy's barber. We'd decided that we cut his hair after he turns two. I was procrastinating it because I loved his long hair, but he recently started to chew on his hair for fun and I've decided to take him in. I took Alyson with me and she was being pretty cute at the barber. There was another little boy getting his haircut and he was crying. She stood in front of the the crying boy and looked really concerned. She was pretty much making rounds making sure everyone's ok then on. All the men thought she was adorable.

Noah did fine. He was wiggly at first and I thought I might have to take him home with one side chopped, but he tolerated it fine. He had this serious look on him the whole time though as if he's one grumpy customer. In the end, we have a little man - won't be mistaken as a girl twin anymore. He's all boy and looks the part!

Miss Saya is clapping consistently now. I ask her to clap her hands and she does it most of the time. She also started to point at things and I like looking at her little chubby fingers making the gesture. I bought this night light from Target that is shaped like a bear and she likes to point at it. In fact she loves it so much, she refuses to nurse and wants to look at it instead. That is the first thing she looks for when we go into our bedroom. Very cute.

Happy Valentine's Day

Alyson wearing an oni mask for setsubun
Sean decorating cupcake at school

Sean with his friend and Miss Nia (on the right)

It's been raining and raining these days and I don't particularly feel like pink hearts, but we had a good Valentine's day.

On Friday, Sean's class had a cupcake decoration party so I went to see him. Apparently, they had a birthday party earlier for a student and Sean thought that I am going to attend the birthday party as well. When I showed up for the cupcake decoration party, he kind of looked mad at me. The teacher and her aids said he was asking about me a lot throughout the day. He came around though and we had a fun time together decorating a cupcake and two cookies. Miss Nia said that Sean's always smiling and does not cause problems at all. I am glad that he is doing well at school. He acts out a lot at home but at least half of a day, he spends time being a very good boy. I ought to remember that and cut him some slacks.

I baked a layered chocolate cake (I am yet to decorate it) for Valentine's Day today. I've decided to make baking my hobby, so I am going to be baking quite a bit from now on. I am also trying to diet at the same time, so I am not sure how this new hobby of mine's going to play out.

Mike is taking tomorrow off because Sean's school is out for a week. We are planning to take him out and have a Sean Day. We don't know where to take him yet but we'll come up with something fun.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Noah and Alyson!

It is not the best-looking cake... but tasted good!
Daddy singing Happy Birthday~

Twins getting ready to blow the candles

Noah playing with the new toy from Nana and Pinky

Saya was in the middle of all actions!

On this typical rainy winter day, my twins Noah and Alyson turned two years old! It's a celebration for the twins, but also for us parents as well. Caring for baby twins were one of the most challenging roles I have ever played. But now they are two and growing up leaps and bounds. I've never ever imagined that I would be a Mom of twins and I am just so glad that I am one.

Twins had a good day today, Noah a little on the cranky side but closed on the high note with a few new toys. Alyson was cheerful as usual and she enjoyed free sampling the cake I baked in the morning. Since twins do not care, I asked Sean what kind of cake he wanted me to bake and his request was "all white". I found an easy recipe online and baked from scratch. With my KitchenAid mixer, it was a piece of cake (literally).

We bought them a big 8 ft trampoline to put in the spare room in the basement and we are waiting on assembling until the remodel project is completed. The twins opened presents from Grandma, Nana and Pinky after eating cake. They got pretty busy playing with the new toys and would not even look up for the photos. They really like all of them and Thank You, Grandma, Pinky and Nana!

We are planning to have a combined birthday party at the end of the month for all my February born kids. I need to send the invitations out very soon!!

Happy 2nd Birthday my lovely Noah and Alyson!!

Cute things kids do these days

Before I forget forever, I wanted to record the cute things the Campbell kids do these days.

SEAN

He loves the movie Wall-E, the story about a robot who is the sole survivor on earth after the humans moved out. One of the characters in the movie says "I don't want to survive, I want to live!" and Sean tells us sometimes "I want to live, Mommy! (or Daddy)".

Yesterday as he sat and ate his snack at the dining room table, he asked me to sing a song. I sang a song from his favorite TV show, Okasan to Issho, and he kept asking for more songs. I kept singing and singing and his eyes started to blink slower and slower and he was falling asleep. It was so cute to know that my singing voice is very soothing for him still, just like when he was a baby.

I bought a Speedo one piece swim suite at Costco the other day. It came on a clear plastic female torso and I had it on the floor in my bedroom. Sean found it and he picked it up, holding up with his two little hands on the breasts and asked Mike and I "What is this?"

Noah

While at speech therapy yesterday, Noah was terrified of this school bus toy the therapist showed him. Even though he was scared of it, he wanted to play with it so badly that he would push it a little and then ran as far away as he can go. He did that several times and then wanted a big hug from me afterwards.

I took the pictures above tonight and showed them to Noah on the preview screen. He pointed at the picture of Saya and then looked at real Saya sitting next to him and was giggling away.

Alyson

She really studies my facial expressions these days. When she does something bad, I just have to look at her with a dead serious face. Sometimes she gets so scared of my serious face, she sticks her lower lip out and starts to cry. I guess it may be mean of me to think that's cute and sometimes I exaggerate to see her reaction. It's really cute. I guess I should not torture her like that!

Saya

She participates in the dinner conversations now. Well, conversation involving "daaa", "whaaa", "mamamama" kind of thing. Sean giggles, Aly joins in and then Saya starts to laugh, too.

She's a Mama's girl. When someone else is holding her, her eyes are fixed on me and when I move her eyes follow. I am so honored to be her favorite person.

She says "mamama" a lot around me. I think she really means me. She says "dada

da", too, to Mike. I think she's going to be ok for speech. Phew!

She's a socks eater. If I don't put slippers on her, she yanks them off right away.

Her scooting motion is the funniest thing I've ever seen. Reminds me of what my friend's puppy used to do to her pillow!

Lastly, Saya falling asleep while nursing is the CUTEST moment of all! She looks so peaceful and we fit perfectly. I hope I remember this feeling for a long long time.

Single Parent Night

I got a text message from Mike this evening.

6:35pm Mike: I'm having drinks

Me: I thought you have appointment with Dr. Chris.

Mike: Cancelled

Well, from then on I realized that I need to take care of all four children tonight all by myself. I was very reluctant, but there was no easy way out. I just had to do it. I fed all four children, bathed two of them, brushed their teeth, read them stories, nursed Saya and bounced her for a bit and tucked all four of them in by myself. It wasn't easy but it's all done now. And the husband of mine who's trying his best to be sweet to me (which makes me even more annoyed) came back at 10 pm.

Kids had fun playing outside after Sean came home. Even Saya sat and watched them play. The weather has been quite warm in recent days. Sean likes to look for mushrooms growing on the lawn. He finds a big one and says that it's Daddy mushroom and the little one is Saya mushroom. Aly was trying to ride the tricycle, but was not able to push the pedals yet. Noah wanted to ride Sean's bike, but Sean wouldn't let him. Sean was riding around his red bicycle and would not let me help him when he gets stuck. He says that he wants to 'fix it' himself and he pushes it and pushes it, grunting. He eventually moves again and he looked so proud of himself.

In the end, I am plainly exhausted! I am proud of myself though that I pulled myself together and did everything (except for dishes and some clean ups which I happily saved for Mike to do). I should go to bed now so that I can have a decent day tomorrow!

New Kids Corner

You can see Aly's favorite pink puffy skirt. She got it messy this evening and I am sure she'll be looking for it tomorrow (it is in the hamper). We've reorganized the family room downstairs and made one corner the kids' area. Took most of the toys upstairs to downstairs, too, so the living room is less cluttered now.

Sean had a bad day today as he was in a bit more irritated mood for some reasons. He was screaming in the library in the morning and I almost got in an argument with a man who made a smug comment about it. I was trying my best to get the heck out of there and calm him down. I know I need to be understanding of others, too, but I just have too much on my plate right now. Well, incidents like this teaches me not to be judgemental of others, I suppose!

Noah is going to see an ABA therapist tomorrow morning. I am going to work with the therapist to come up with a plan to get Noah to make more eye contacts and respond to others. He was referred to us by the ABA doctor we worked with for Sean. Anything and everything that would help my kids, I am right on it. Dr. Uyeno gave me the best advice: be strong. And I will be!

Two little teeth

Saya's second tooth on the bottom has erupted! She's been chewing on anything she can shove in her mouth. She also bites me while nursing sometimes, especially when she had enough and not so serious anymore about feeding! I don't know what I would do when she gets top teeth!?

We are looking at adding a bath downstairs where the laundry is and working with a contractor to get an estimate. We might move the washer and dryer into the garage and build a small laundry room there. That will free up some space for the bath and make plumbing easier. Ed, the contractor, built our deck last summer. His quotes are pretty reasonable and he's an honest and hardworking guy. We are pretty psyched about the whole project.

I also went to take a look at the new YMCA in Coal Creek in the morning. It was clean and big! The nursery and childcare rooms were big and clean, the swimming pool has is kid friendly (also has a water slide!), the group exercise room is huge, and did I mention it's CLEAN? I am pretty excited to start using the facility. It's a tad far, but it's way more fun looking than the one in Bel-Red. I am glad I went there today to check it out~

Saya, the good eater

Miss Saya is a very adventurous eater. She is not satisfied with pureed baby foods anymore, so I give her bread, rice with veggies and meats, broccoli, spinach, baby carrots - the real foods. She grabs anything I put on her tray and start chowing down all by herself. Even Alyson wasn't this easy in terms of food, so I am quite impressed with her. Her grasping skills are very solid. She can manage to put almost anything, however small it is, in her mouth.

Her scooting skill is improving, too, and she can move a little faster now. She really enjoys moving around and when she puts her mind on grabbing a specific toy, she just goes for it. She protests pretty loudly when someone else snatches it from her. She's starting to "talk" with Alyson she really enjoys the interactions with her sister. I think they will be good friends. I am working very hard to teach her clapping and I think she might have done it once or twice. I have seen her wave bye-bye, too. She's getting to be in the age where you see a lot of changes, from a little baby to a bigger fun baby.

Noah had a good day at school today. He likes his teacher, CJ, and I think they are already tight. He came into the kitchen this evening and said "Mama, Mama, Mama" to me and it was really sweet. I think the stimulation he is getting from being away from home is going to help a lot.

Sean's doing better, too, but he does have good days and bad days. I got upset with him today because he pushed Alyson down the stairs. Aly was OK, but it was really disappointing because things were improving in recent days. I am not too excited about the mid term break they are going to have in a couple of weeks. Sean doesn't do too well when his schedules are different.

Aly has a favorite skirt and it's pink and fluffy. She took it out from her room and asked the nanny to put it on her. She's so funny.