Halloween Playdate with Friends

Didn't realize we had a packed schedule this Halloween.  Mike drove down to Tukwila to pick up the kids' much anticipated bunk bed in the morning and worked on assembling the bed.  I woke up, took care of the kids and baked gluten free apple cupcakes to take to the Halloween playdate at Tom and Liz's house.  By the time the cupcakes were cooling off, it was time to make some lunch!  I quickly made miso soup and stir-fried veggie beef dish and prepared kids lunches.  After lunch, I helped kids get dressed in their costumes and realized I am still wearing my pj and robe.  I showered quickly and on the spur of the moment, decided to dress up as a 80s lady for the playdate.  I had about three minutes to pick the outfit and what I chose were my black running tights, slouchy white socks, black undershirt, black and white striped over-sized off shoulder T-shirt and a wide bright pink hair band to complete the look.  The hair band is actually from 80s.  My Mom sent me all my hair accessories from my childhood out of blue a couple of years ago.  And of course, I had to wear heavy shadows and cheek make-up.  Flash Dance tune playing in my head, I almost forgot we had to leave in 10 minutes. 

We had a lot of fun at the playdate.  Ruby's family was there and so was big Noah's.  Andy was EMT, Charlie was a police officer, Finn was a shark, big Noah was Ninja, Karina was a princess and their friend Emery was a snow white.  We had a good variety of costumes out there.  I had to make sure people knew I am wearing a "costume" in case they are wondering about my fashion sense.  They thought mine was pretty good so they said. Tina and Eric were ketchup and mustard.  Maybe Mike and I will actually put more planning and thought into wearing something fun together next year.

The playdate was success and kids were officially exhausted by the time we got home.  I picked up our favorite take out of the moment, dumplings and shao long bao at Yang's  Dumpling House.  We are so lucky to have such good friends who are not only nice but someone to look up to.  I feel blessed!

Halloween Zoo Trip

Waiting for pizza to arrive. 

Aly at trick or treating event.  We forgot to take a bag so we all shoved the harvest in Mommy's purse!

Aly posing for the camera.  She was the only one willing to be in the picture.

So... where is the bear?

Aly said, Komodo Dragon is cute!  Really?!

Kaoru and the kids.  Kaoru is six month pregnant with her second child. 

At the penguin exhibit. 

The girls having their supper.  Their home was beautiful like the homes in magazines!  A completely renovated 1902 gem!

On Saturday, Aly, Saya and I went to the Woodland Zoo Park with Kai, Aly's little friend from school and his Mom, Kaoru.  It was Aly's second time and Saya's first time at the zoo.  We had a quick lunch first at the food court and ventured out to see the animals afterwards.  They had a Halloween trick or treating event and the kids had fun collecting candies.  They fed pumpkins to the animals and some were devouring the treat where as others left it on the ground.   It was hard to keep up with Aly and Saya as they dash towards anything shiny (anything interesting to their eyes).   Kai was Handy Manny.  He looked cute in an over-sized cap carrying a tool box. 

After the zoo, Kaoru invited us to their beautiful home in Queen Ann.  I met her husband, Tom, whose primary language is Japanese.  He is an American citizen, but he was born and raised in Japan.   Interesting upbringing!   They are both very nice people and fed us dinner and desert as well!  The girls were super happy (a little too happy) and didn't want to leave Kai's house.  The only hiccup was getting lost on the way home, but we had a perfect Saturday. 

The boys played hard at the new rock climbing gym and they were as equally tired as the girl team.

A fun day!

Building Downtowns

I am not sure which city this was.

This must have been downtown Osaka. 

If you meet Sean now, his current obsession is "downtown".  He is fascinated by its tall buildings and towers like Space Needle.  Honestly, I am sick of answering his questions like "Is downtown Bellevue bigger than downtown Redmond?", "How come downtown Issaquah doesn't have tall buildings?", "Where is downtown Japan" (he knows very well there is no "downtown Japan") etc...  He knows answers to most of the questions he asks and that is why it gets old on my part. 

He expresses his interest in "downtown" by building one every day with foam blocks.   He has built, downtown Bellevue, Osaka and Seattle so far.  His creations are extremely unstable and when he or the other children often knocks some down, he throws a big tantrum.  I was being careful not to let the other kids touch his blocks, but then realized this is a very good opportunity for him to get used to accepting when something doesn't go his way and problem solve calmly.  He still gets very upset every time someone knocks the stacked blocks down, but he is also seeing how easy it is to putting it back up again.  Baby steps...

Enjoying Fall

Poor Noah was exhausted from a long day at school and theapies.

Sean likes to ride bike at the park.  I think he is ready for the training wheel to come off.  Maybe next time.

Aly looks too big for her bike already.  Santa might buy her a bigger one!?

It's fun to think, we may be able to have a dodge ball game together.

Noah enjoys swinging.  That is the first thing he wants to do when we go to a park.

Saya loves to swing, too!

While our half decade-old Japanese maple tree is holding onto the greens, many trees around town are changing their color to pretty red and yellow. The girls like to point out the colors of the leaves when we go for a drive in the minivan. The fall weather in the Pacific Northwest is unpredictable and changes drastically through out the day. Picking the right jacket in the morning is like a placing a bet and requires a little time studying the weather map in the morning!

Last weekend, we took the kids on the bike ride at Marymoor park again since it was dry. I pushed Noah and Saya in the double stroller and Aly, Sean and Mike rode their bikes. There was a bike race going on at the park and model airplane enthusiasts were flying their prized, surprisingly large remote controlled airplanes, too. Saya and Noah enjoyed looking at them as we walked by. We played at the playground afterwards and the kids were running around having a good time.

Mike joined a new local rock climbing gym, so he has been taking the kids there to climb. Sean, Aly and Noah enjoy climbing at the kiddy section. It's one place they can climb their heats out without being in trouble. I have a feeling, Noah will be a good climber since he likes to climb anything climbable in the house. I am not much into climbing, but I will go check it out one of these days.

Sean is excited for Halloween and the excitement is making him a little jittery. He has been having harder time falling asleep at night and I am not sure if it is because he is a little scared of monsters. Our neighbor up the street has a very realistic zombie, skeletons laying around near fake grave yards, and a mannequin hanged from their roof, which may be a little too scary for little children. Everyone near our house has to pass their house in order to get to school. Sean is OK, but Alyson is a little afraid of the zombies. She is only 3 after all.

Kokoro Chan, the green caterpillar

Whenever I take Aly's picture, Saya marches right in and demand to have her photo taken!  Funny girl!

Aly was very excited to take care of a little caterpillar!

As I was cleaning up my garden, Aly spotted a green caterpillar on my kale plant.  I thought she was going to scream and run away, but she was admiring him (we decided it's a boy) as if he is a fluffy bunny.  Since I cut the leaf the caterpillar was resting on, I asked Aly if she wants to take him home and watch him grow.  Aly was so excited and helped me build his new home.  She said his name is "Kokoro Chan" meaning something like "good caring nature of a person".  I don't know where she heard it, but I thought it's a nice name.  I washed a glass jar that had salsa in it and Aly helped me put the additional leaves of kale in there.  She was excited to have her own pet and carried him everywhere, although I told her not to disturb him so much.  However, her enthusiasm had done him harm and I think Kokoro-chan died.  I haven't told her yet, but his skin is changing its color to blackish green...  Hmmm or maybe it's something to do with the jar had spicy salsa in it even though I wash it with soap?  Who knows...  I feel bad for the little caterpillar, but a little girl really liked you... 

Mushroom Season

The other day, Aly said to me "Mommy, look I found mushrooms!!" as I drove into our drive way.  I didn't think she could spot small mushrooms from the car, so assumed she saw something else.  One day, I walked out with Aly to see them since she kept insisting she saw some.  Sure enough, there were huge mushrooms on the front lawn.   They were so huge to the point they looked grotesque.  I explained to the kids that we shouldn't touch them since we don't know if they carry poison or not.  At first we saw two large ones but soon enough realized that there are colonies of mushrooms everywhere around.  I felt like we are being invaded by alien mushrooms.  The children like them, even though I don't.  I've never seen mushrooms like them before in our yard.  I've spotted several on the nearby trails, but never on my own turf.  When Jason mowed the lawn the other day, he pulled them out and left them on the side.  Sean was upset at first since he thought Jason had bulldozed the poor mushrooms.  He was delighted to see them laying on the side instead of torn to pieces.  I looked them up on the web, but not sure which kind they are.  They look innocent enough but never know.  We go out on sunny days to find more mushrooms and I have a feeling it's going to make it to the top five fun things to do in fall!

iPad2!!

Saya was playing a matching game.  She actually completed a challenge and I was impressed!!

My broken laptop was the cause of my lack of blogging action and iPad2 joined our ever growing electronic family.  I wasn't sure at first if we made the right decision to splurge $500 plus on an equipment before Christmas.  However, I am so glad I did.  I can email and do surfing on my iPhone, however it is a bit small to do what I want efficiently.  iPad is big enough to see and small enough to fit in my purse.  Mike got me a keyboard which I can type just like a laptop and I am getting used to the size issue as well.  Best of all, my kids like using iPad and they are getting so good at it.  They can play matching game, read books, make a movie and more.  It is my best helper when we are at the doctor's office waiting.  Some of my friends thought it's a waste of money, but not in my house.  Thank you Steve Jobs!  It's making my life much easier for sure.

Noah goes to a birthday party

Noah received an invitation to attend his classmate's birthday party on last Sunday, so off we went to the bouncy place in Bellevue.  I knew one parent, however I've never met the other parents whose children also attend Phantom Lake Integrated Preschool.  The little boy turned four and he seemed very happy to see all his friends celebrating his birthday.  Noah was happy because he loves to jump.  He was so busy trying out different equipments and never was still.  He liked the big slide the most.  He was being very OCD, however, in what he does once he climbed up the stairs.   First, he sat at the top of the slide as if he is going to go down. Second, gets up and go to the other end to touch the wall.  Third, he walks back to the slide again and finally goes down. He did that every time and I thought that was pretty funny. 

I was able to chat with other Moms and got to know them.  They were very nice and it was good to know there are other parents out there with similar challenges.  Most of all, I was glad I had a chance to spend one on one time with Noah.  I've decided that Noah needs a Mommy and Me day every month so that he gets much needed full attention from Mommy.  I am sure other children need one also, but Noah even more so.  I do feel that he is opening up more in recent months and now is the chance to squeeze into his mind.  I miss my little boy who was so engaging as a baby.  I know you are going to come back someday, Noah, but I sure do miss you...

We like to draw!

Sean discovered that drawing is a lot of fun and he really enjoys putting his vision on a piece of paper more than ever.  Actually, he had trouble drawing before.  He needed a lot of step by step assistance to draw anything.  His OT had worked hard on it and I am sure that has something to do with his new found hobby.  I do believe though that Sean is starting to do more "regular" kid stuff ever since he started his kindergarten.  I can see it in the work he does at the classroom.  It seemed that the preschool teacher was struggling to have Sean finish his writing exercise.  Now, he brings home more labor intensive exercise pages, most of them completed, without much help from the teacher. 

When Sean draws, Saya and Aly draw as well.  Three of them can be seen sitting side by side, creating similar artwork on their paper (Aly copies everything Sean does and Saya to Aly).  I feel pretty happy seeing them sitting together quietly.  Sean is a perfectionist, therefore he will work on his art until he feels it is perfect.  I am so glad he enjoys drawing now.  Sean is surprising me everyday and I love seeing him learn and take up new interests like this!

Noah is not into drawing yet, but I have a feeling he is going to be a great artist.  That kid has a super tactile senses.  When he touches you, you know he is not just touching.  It is hard to explain, but it feels as if he is getting a lot more information than what's obvious.   Watch out for little Noah! 

Pumpkin Patch

It's theat time of the year again, when the Campbell's head out to Redmond's ranch 47 near Woodinville.  We had a decently dry weekend last week even though the mornings were a bit cold.  We were lucky to get a beautiful sunshine when we headed out to the farm.  We parked very close to the entrance, too, so we definitely had a good karma that day!

We did the usual animal petting first and then played around the maze.  The children really liked the maze and raced each other to the exit.  Sean said he wanted to go on the hay ride and that took most of our time.  I took Alyson, Sean and Saya on the hay ride while Noah stayed with Daddy.  We enjoyed the ride through their massive farm enjoying the scenery.  Saya sat on my lap and kept her promise not to stand up.  The other kids behaved, too. 

We were so tired towards the end, we forgot to take pictures with the pumpkins.  Oh well, we'll survive! 

We enjoyed the beautiful day out with my family at the farm.  Looking forward to the next one in a year!

Halloween Decoration

Our neighbor Megan, who is into dressing her house for the occasion, wore bright orange sweatshirt and orange ribbon on her hair one weekend and turned her house into a spider palace with green spider webs on her plants and several giant spiders on her windows.  Watching the transformation across the street, Sean was quick to suggest we should decorate our house, too, for Halloween.  So, I pulled out our orange tub from the shed and we all got busy putting up spider webs and fake spiders around the house.  We put orange, purple and white ghost lights around the windows, too,  and the kids like to look at them at night.  Aly and Saya were scared of the plastic spiders on the cotton web at first, but they are used to them now.  Sean, who is walking the steady path of becoming an arachnophobia, doesn't mind the plastic ones at all.  The kids really enjoying decorating and I will be sure to grab more Halloween decoration for next year when they go on sale in November! 

Saya and Chopsticks

Little Saya has been wanting to use what she calls "hasami" (scissors in Japanese) at meals.  She asked for hasami" several times and I didn't understand why she was asking for scissors during dinner time.  I finally got it when I saw Aly using it and it does look like a pair of scissors since it's a training chopsticks and the top portion is connected.  I wasn't sure if she was ready, but I let her use one to see how she does.  To my surprise, she did great!  She ate an entire dinner with her chopsticks.  At first she was frustrated, but she learned very quickly.  It's so cute to see Saya concentrating so hard, using her chubby little hands to scoop up food from her plate.  I would say using chopsticks are excellent fine motor skills exercise for little children!  

Walkathon at Spiritridge

Sean walking in rain.  He did a god job!

He was so happy to see Mommy and Saya.

Waiting for others to gather.

We went to pick up Aly at her Japanese school after the walkathon.

So in most American public schools, the better schools have stronger PTA support. Spiritride Elementary has a reputation for highly organized PTA and more parents willing to volunteer in whatever needed done at school. If I didn't have younger kids to take care of, I would have jumped to join the spirit. I am contemplating though to use 30 minutes out of my short free time I have on Friday mornings.

On early October, the school held an annual walkathon to raise money for school programs.  Since Saya and I were in between pick -ups, we decided to go cheer Sean.  The children were walking around field in light rain.  When Saya and I arrived, we spotted Sean's green jacket immediately.  He was very much concentrated and marching along with other students.  He walked around the field 7 times and successfully completed the targeted distance.  He was very proud of himself and I was glad I could show him support in the little time that I had.  In the very short time I observed, he was following directions from the teachers fine and was interacting with other children.  When his kindergarten classed lined up and walked towards his classroom, he kept looking back at Saya and I, waving good bye until he couldn't see any more.  He is doing great and I cannot be more proud of our big boy!!

It's been a while...

Kids like to run on loops around the kitchen and living room.  Sean is the fastest, but everyone is a winner!

It's blurry, but I love this photo of Saya!  She is always in the middle of the action!

Saya's hands and arms.  They are plump and soft.

There was an unseasonably warm day in late Sept and we enjoyed one last day of summer.

Aly before bedtime, cuddling with Grace.

My friend Miki's baby.  He is seven month old and holding him reminded me of my babies who grew up too fast.

As I was taking picture of the baby, Saya walks in demanding her piece of attention!

The siblings at Seattle Center.

Sean was so happy that day to be able to visit the Space Needle again.

Alyson is everyone's friend.  She joins fun in very good spirit!

Sean with downtown Seattle in the background.  He was fascinated by locations and directions of things.

Aly was slightly too short to look at the views on the deck.

We were taking a break inside.  Even then, Sean wouldn't sit still because he didn't want to miss anything.

Aly finally graduated her crib mattress!  She looks so small in a twin bed, but now she can comfortably move around without her feet sticking out. 

Hello everyone!  It's been a long time since I updated this blog.  My laptop's motherboard died and I lost my main computer, which I was so accustomed to using is now gone.   In replacement, Mike got me an iPad2 in a Sunday afternoon impulsive gotta-have-it rush.  He literally took off around 3:30 pm and went to the Apple Store in the mall.  I like my iPad2.  But I haven't figured out how to upload the photos I took onto it yet and the typing on a little keyboard is like running in water.  It will take a while for me to get used to my new toy and I thought I would save my consciousness and update my blog using Mike's computer tonight. 

Where do I begin?  Well, I realize that the climate has changed to cool since my last post.  We wear long sleeved shirts and a jacket, and it feels cold even so in the mornings.  The children seem to be always warm since they run around a lot, but I am finding myself bundling up so that I would actually feel like moving and doing something. 

Sean is doing fine at school it seems.  I don't have much chance to chat with the teacher but in the very little conversations we had, she said even though it's hard to get him to pay attention sometimes, he is trying really hard and doing well.  He has a weekly assignment which is due on Fridays and we do all of it on Tuesdays every week.  He complains at first but he does it every week, usually more motivated to finish from the middle part of the homework.  I am proud of him for working so hard and doing well in a class three times bigger than his preschool class last year.  I knew he can do it and I am so pleased with his progress!

His current obsession is "downtown" and directions (like north, south, west, east).  For some reasons, he loves downtown.  Everywhere we drive, he asks where downtown Seattle and Bellevue is.  I am tired of answering his repetitive questions, so I ask him where does he think it is.  He knows exactly which direction they are at, so he swiftly answers me.  I have to count how many time he asks "which way is xxxxxx?" in a day.  I can handle it after my morning coffee, but he could drive me insane.   He enjoys going to high places so that he can see the mountains and ocean.  Mike took Aly and Sean to Space Needle three weeks ago and Sean was the happiest kid looking at the panoramic views from the top.  The following weekend, I took Sean and Aly to see the historic Smith Tower, but the parking was crazy in the area due to the Seahawk's home game.  So, I took them again to Space Needle.  Sean wanted to spend a long time there pointing out certain things and asking questions about it.  It must be fascinating to little kids to see so many buildings, the ocean and mountains stretched out so far.   I can understand why he had many questions then.  The world is so big!

Alyson and Saya are adorable together. Saya copies everything, good and bad, and they look happy being each other's playmate.  Aly said the other day that her best friend is Saya.  That just made my day.  All the hard work of having kids close in age is paying off, I thought.  She is getting very good with coloring and writing.  Saya is getting cuter everyday!  She is getting more independent and she insists on doing things by herself.  For example, if I carried her out of the car, she exclaims "no, I want to do it myself!" and goes back in the car and jumps out by herself.  She is a funny girl.  She still has a baby look on her face though and I am so glad.  I am giving her lots of cuddles and hugs while she still fits in my arms side way.

Noah is a Mr. Mischief.  He earned the title on Monday, officially.  He decided that it would be fun to pull the red plastic lever on the wall at his therapy center and made everyone drop what they were doing and go outside.  Yep, he pulled the fire alarm.   The children at the center are very noise sensitive and they do not like unexpected events.  The therapists were soothing them and doing their best not to upset them further.  I was in disbelief and apologized to everyone around.  We stood in the rain until the fire truck came and the fire fighter gave us the permission to go back inside.  Just as we began to settle down, he pulled it again while his therapist was holding him.  We looked at each other wide-eyed and our jaws dropped, we shrunk a few inches that moment while Noah looked pleased with his amazing reach.  At home, he can now open doors and he can be seen getting into things everywhere.  Oh boy... what to do with  this little boy who found a new freedom and tripled his curiosity?

I have a lot to write obviously, but I think I will stop here.

Thanks for reading and I will promise I will come back and update soon.