Lights!

 The boys putting up the Christmas lights

 The cute Christmas lights supervisor

 All smiles...

Hard at work

This afternoon's project was to put up some Christmas lights on the front stairway.  As you can see, everyone got in on the action.  

Happy 7th Birthday Xena!

Happy 7th Birthday to Xena!!  Alex and I made her traditional carrot and peanut butter cake and she loved it as always.  Life is very different for her all these years later, since she isn't an only child, but at least there is more room and somewhere to get away from the chaos.  Ha!

Thanksgiving Prep

Hey Xena, the butter isn't for you....

 A little love during the butter making 

Happy little butter maker

Hey, is it butter yet?

Carefully applying the glue

Putting a leaf from the maple tree on

Practicing writing his letters

What Julia did as her "project"

We did a few things to get ready for Thanksgiving today.  Gotta love the holidays!  We made cookies last night and delivered them today.  They will be distributed to hospital staff and patients at Children's Hospital Oakland on Thanksgiving.  We worked on placecards for our dinner tomorrow.  Alex practiced his letters and we used leaves from our Japanese maple in the front yard for decoration.  He did a very nice job!  Then tonight, we made butter.  I've been wanting to do this with him for quite a while now and finally got around to it tonight.  I remember making butter when I was maybe in Kindergarten.  I just remember that it was cool to see.  We tried it tonight and after 10 minutes or so of shaking, voila!  butter!  Alex thought it was pretty cool.  We added a little salt and had some on bread and he confirmed that it was, indeed, butter and it tasted good.  He also wanted to try the buttermilk and he told me that it tasted like soy milk.  Not a bad description, as it definitely should be lighter than the whole milk which he normally drinks.  Lots more cooking to do tomorrow!  Enjoy your Thanksgiving!

Big Boy at Mandarin Class

Alex started a Mandarin class through Orinda Community Education a few weeks ago and he has really enjoyed it thus far.  It is a low-key, fun class and we lucked out in the fact that there is only one other student in the class.  As a supplement, I downloaded a Learning Chinese with Miss Panda series from Amazon, and he enjoys listening to that while we play in the playroom sometimes.  I can hardly believe how big he looks in these photos.  Crazy!

Upside-down Inchworm Girl

Alex and I were working on a Thanksgiving project this afternoon and before starting I put Julia on her "gym", (in the back of the picture with the bars....please excuse all of the other junk everywhere...the messy desk, the huge mess under the sewing table).  Within about 10 minutes this is where she ended up, using her "scooch on your back" method.  She's a funny little upside down inchworm.  I think she wanted to work on the project too, because making paper turkeys is fun, you know.  She came up on her back and started squawking in her little parrot imitation.  Too cute!

Randoms

 Look how tall I am getting to be!

 All three kiddos playing with Legos this weekend.

Julia in the backyard today

Wet and Cold

Let's make some challah bread!

Morning Adventure

Eating in his cave while on an adventure.

Fun with Bunny Bear

I took some pictures of Julia today and decided to use Bunny Bear as a prop, to get some photos like the ones we took of Alex way back when.  In these photos, Julia is just over five months and Alex was just over 4 months old when we took the pictures of him.  Both happy kiddos!  Julia is much more into "lovies" and stuffed animals than Alex ever was, so it was harder to get a picture of her face without Bunny Bear right there.  I love my cuties!!

The Adventurer

We're taking a trip to Asia from Chinatown.  It's not too far.  Clues, maps, and tickets.  We're ready to go!  (You'd never know that we watch The Amazing Race together, would you?)  :-)

More Quotes to Remember

Here are some more fabulous quotes from Alex.  I don't have dates on all of them, so they are in somewhat random order.  Enjoy!

What are you going to do with your work friends today, Daddy?

We do open heart surgery for dogs here, only on Saturdays.

Mommy, can we set up the Christmas tree?  (September, 8, 2011)

Mei Mei, you're "cute-i-ful".

I covered my mouth and nose, otherwise everyone would say, "what's that taste?  It tastes like sneeze!"  (when we were cooking dinner one night)

A:  I slept good last night, right Mommy?  M:  Yes Alex, you did.  A:  I think I should get my toolbox back.  (after having his toolbox taken away for some reason the day prior).

(After watching Project Runway with me one afternoon.)  I'm going to make a design....maybe a sweater and a jacket and then I'll see which one I like.  Maybe a jacket that looks like a dinosaur.  (He then proceeded to go and get my fabric tape measure and measure Xena, and then drew on some paper and used his scissors to cut out his pattern.)

I hope you see a dinosaur at your work, Daddy!

In a conversation about where meat comes from...."how does the meat come out?"  Ugh.

(When it was full-on spider season and there were spiders everywhere around here.  HUGE spiders, I might add.)  We could make a spider vacuum, that can crawl and it looks like a pretend spider.  It could suck up the other spiders.  The body would be the bag that you can change.  Next idea:  We could make a roller with handles that you can use to crush the spiders.  (You can see the theme here...killing the spiders.  I know that spiders are helpful and if they are outside, I really don't care.  When they come inside, I'm not a fan.  Having been bitten a couple of times and ending up in the ER once with a poison line running up my arm, I do not tolerate them in the house.  I know that they are not all poisonous and it may be irrational, but I'm not taking a chance that one of them may bite one of the kiddos.  Alex and David are very careful in saying "sorry spider" every time they kill one.

September 29, 2011  God made the whole world.  He made cookies.

October 1, 2011  I was dreaming about being nice.

You can call me "Nonsense Boy".

October 3, 2011  My brain said, "nonsense" and then I said back to my brain, "no nonsense".

October 6, 2011  On the way home from school I asked Alex what they did at school that day.  His reply was, "I'm hot, hungry and tired, Mommy.  That is why I can't tell you what we did today."

October 6, 2011  What smelling good in here?  That's why my tummy is hungry, because it smells like it is done.

November 5, 2011  Why do you always say "hold your horses, Daddy?  I don't have any horses."

October 29, 2011  (When changing after coming in from playing in the sand outside)  My underwear are clean as a whistle!

October 31, 2011  Let me open it, quick as a flashlight.

November 2, 2011  My nose is like a gutter, you know why?  Because I have so many boogers in it.

November 6, 2011  My monkey's name is Monkey Mamua.  (We didn't know the monkey had a name before this.)

November 7, 2011  If Xena ate a brachiosaurus, I think that she would become as large as Clifford (the Big Red Dog).

Post which was started way back in July....

Karen Quest--Cowgirl

Alex dancing with Julia while taking a break from being a firefighter (hence the bike pump and the cell phone...both tools of the firefighter.)

I feel like my posts have been very heavy on the photos lately and I never get a chance to actually write anything.  

Some quotes from Alex over the past month or so:

"Don't worry Mei Mei, Bro Bro to the rescue!"

"Prawns look like 6's."

"Toothbrushes are like street sweepers for your teeth."

After explaining that naptime was coming up after lunch, Alex replied:  "No, I want it to be cancelled."

While observing me breastfeed Julia:  "Mommy, you are kind of like a cow."

"You are a good sock putter-on-er Mommy."

While reading a book about carnivorous plants, I explained the difference between carnivores, herbivores and omnivores.  Carnivorous means that the plant/animal eats only meat, herbivorous means that they only eat plants and omnivorous means that they eat both.  "Mommy, I think that these plants are "bug-ivorous.  They only eat bugs."  I guess in the mind of a three year old, bugs are not meat.  And good English lesson as a side benefit.  

I have been collecting all of the clever Alex quotes in a little notebook and have a whole bunch more to share.  If I get a chance I'll type them up this week.

Debate...He's Good

Conversation from this morning.

A:  Mommy, I want to watch something.

M:  No, not this morning.  Remember yesterday when we were at the noodle restaurant and you weren't being nice with the chopsticks, so I said, "no watching anything tomorrow."

A:  But it isn't tomorrow, this is today.

M:  (thinking to myself....why exactly do I quote my exact words from yesterday and confuse the issue?)  

Luckily, I was able to explain my way out of this one and there was indeed nothing watched and surprisingly no further debate.  Note to self, just simplify explanations in the future.

Dinner by Alex

Here he was saying "fish sauce", although I don't think he meant the ingredient "fish sauce", but perhaps sauce for the fish.

Tonight Alex made quite the dinner for Julia and me.  There wasn't much that was missing from this meal!

Alex's Signature

Alex has been working on his signature and this is how he signed a letter which we wrote today.  I was impressed and so proud!  Good job, Alex!!

I Like Avocados!

Julia's first encounter with avocados.  Much better than that rice cereal!

Happy Girl

I'm about to tip over in my seat, but I'm still happy!

My First Food!

 Hmmm...I guess that first bite was okay, I'll try some more.

 Hi!  I'm waving at you!

Rice cereal not too bad, but nothing too special.

Julia had her first rice cereal last night and overall, it seems as though she didn't mind it.  She wasn't overly enthusiastic about it, but she wasn't refusing it.  She has been very interested in food as of late.  Every time I am eating, she is intently looking at the food and trying to grab it.  She almost grabbed a little Kit Kat bar from my hand on Halloween.  She was so close to getting it out of my hand!  Lots of cool food adventures ahead for our little Mimi.

The Exersaucer Lives On!

 Mimi enjoying the Exersaucer for the first time.

 Yep, I can grab this. 

 Not quite happy that she cannot just pull the toy out and put into her mouth

Really not happy...time to stop taking photos

Trick or Treat!

 Trick or treating in the neighborhood

Checking out the jack-o-lanterns

Okay, I promise, this is the last Halloween post for this year.  There were just so many Halloween events, I couldn't leave any out.  Last night we went out trick or treating around the neighborhood, which was a new concept for Alex.  In our old neighborhood there really wasn't much in the way of trick or treating.  In our new neighborhood there is alot of action, especially down the hill from us.  We took Alex and Julia out and stopped at quite a few neighbors' homes.   We had not met some of the neighbors so it was also a good chance to get out and meet people.  Alex was very good about saying "trick or treat" and "thank you", something which we had practiced before we left.  He said it nice and loud and explained his costume if asked, which is a big step for him, as he is often pretty shy.  He was really excited yesterday afternoon, when he was realizing what Halloween entails.  He said to me, "isn't Halloween EXCITING, Mommy?"  As for the candy, it is up on a high shelf and no mention has been made of it.  We told him he can have one piece a day, so we'll see if he mentions it today.  Hope that you all had a fun Halloween!

The Pteranodon and the Butterfly

 Smiley like the jack-o-lanterns

 Hi!

Chilin' 

 Little Miss Butterfly

 My cuties

 Julia was intrigued with the ribbon

 Fly

 Trying out the wings

Alex painting the pteranodon head

When I asked Alex what he wanted to be for Halloween, he originally said that he could be a bee and Mei Mei could be a flower, but then he decided that he really wanted to be a pteranodon like the ones on Dinosaur Train (a kid's show on PBS).  He stuck with the pteranodon idea and helped me to papier mache a head over his bike helmet and then did a nice job painting it as well.  We took a little field trip on BART to the fabric store (since Julia's not a car fan and the fabric store is not nearby), and we found some cool shiny reptile type fabric for the wings.  He's been able to wear the costume quite a few times in the past week or so and has really enjoyed being Don the Pteranodon.  Someone asked what a pteranodon was the other day and I said "it's like a flying dinosaur".  I was then corrected by Alex who said that it was not a flying dinosaur, it was actually a flying reptile.  He is technically correct, as that is what one of his dinosaur books does say.  There is some distinction between dinosaurs and other reptiles, the details of which I am at present unclear on.  Anyway, he takes his dinosaurs and reptiles very seriously.  

We ended up deciding that Julia could be a butterfly, so we bought some felt and found a pattern on Martha Stewart for some butterfly wings.  This was after I unsuccessfully tried to bend wire to make wings and then didn't like how some cardboard painted wings were turning out.  I made a few changes on adding embellishments, changed up the colors and added ribbon instead of elastic for the attachment.  We added antennae to one of her little hats and she was ready to go!  She seemed completely unaware that she was dressed up, other than the fact that she loved to chew on the ribbon.