An amazing thing just happened

I woke up in the middle of the night, like I do most nights. As I usually am I was hungry. I went on the other room to get the chocolate almonds, my preferred late night snack. I brought them back into the bedroom and was reading my iPhone and eating some almonds. Nicie woke up, which he doesn't do as much anymore. Het got up, said, "I have to pee." He went and used the potty and then went back and got in bed, all of this without me doing anything other then responding, "Ok." Amazing. I was sure I was going to have to go lie down next to him, but I waited rather then getting back in bed (I was still hungry) and he got back under the covers and went back to sleep. My little boys are growing up! Proud mama!

Taj

Sent from my iPad

Numbers!

Both boys have been showing a lot of interest in numbers of late, starting before Christmas. I have been stocking up on "math" and "number" stuff to have around the house. Applying my "laissez faire" approach to most things parenting I have this stuff around and I pull different parts occassionally and play with them and engage the boys if they are interested.

The other night I pulled out these Cuisenaire rods and made a cool pattern. I am not sure we learned anything about numbers that evening but I certainly had fun!

The other cool thing is that the boys are now able to read a digital clock. They don't really understand what the numbers mean but they can read it, and Nic insists upon reading it every night before he goes to bed. He reads it and then says, "Is that so late?" LOL

Also, the other day we went to a doctor's office (for Nic's allergies). I initially went to the wrong office and I was trying to figure out what I had done wrong. The boys read all of the office numbers and floor numbers to me!

Extended BF

On the subject of graduating from things, Nic and I ended our extended BF relationship a few months ago. It ended when I went to London to visit Alexis, Chris and Cooper in November (2011) for a week (I had miles that were expiring). Right before I left for the trip we were all sick and I ended up taking antibiotics for a sinus infection. When I got back my "boo boo eh" was nearly gone but also "tasted bad" according to Nic. I told him that I had taken the medicine while I was gone and that perhaps this had caused my "boo boos" to taste badly. He tried 3 or 4 times to have "boo boos" after that but every time said it tasted bad and stopped after a few seconds. That first time he tried when I got back he cried really hard and was very sad. The second time he also cried pretty hard but the next 2 times he was only a little bit upset and then after that he stopped asking about it and was happy to have his "Atole" that Grandma makes for him from a bottle (that he had been having for months before I left).

The moral of this story to me is that my "laissez faire" style of parenting can work. I waited to "make the break" until I was sure that he was ready for the break. It broke my heart to do it. Extended BF was a blessing and a curse. I attribute at least some part of the strength of Nicie's and my relationship to the amount of "close" time that we spent together. I loved that time most of the time, but there were times that I just wanted him "off" me. I am guessing that all Mom's that BF at all have that same feeling in alternating waves, probably every time that they are BFing.

I miss the closeness that we had, at least in the BF way, but I enjoy the freedom it allows me to go to sleep while he is still awake and not have to lay down all the time when he wants to go to sleep!

The reason I decided to write this is I saw an extended BF Mom at the mall today. We were in the play area at the mall and she had a boy who was either an old three or a four year old. She was BFing him. He pulled down her shirt and she fed him. Clearly for comfort, she only fed him for a few seconds only. The interesting thing to me was that I was compelled to watch. I am not sure why. Maybe because it is so rare to see anyone breastfeeding in public past maybe a year old, and I feel like I hardly see it here in LA past maybe six months. In Boulder it wasn't unusual to see women BFing toddlers but in LA (at least where we go) it is rare. I was so happy to see her feeding him. They both looked so comfortable and happy it was a joy. I am glad Nic and I were able to keep our relationship going until we didn't need it anymore. There were a few times where I almost "lost the faith" and gave up early, but I am very glad I didn't!

Fun visit with Leah

Our best friends in Boulder are Bob and Leslie, and their daughters Leah and Minh-Thy.

We have missed them so much since we moved back to LA (although I don't think we miss much else, except a few other friends and the clean air)!

Leah came to visit and she and I went to the People's Choice awards. I have never been to an awards show nor have I ever watched them on TV but I have to say I really enjoyed it. It was hosted the by the actress from a funny geek show that I like (and so does Nama) and it was funny! It was great fun to go with Leah and hear her perspective!

We had a chance to go to the park with her and she and the boys had a great time playing with her at the park on the slides!



On Friday the boys and I drove her up to Santa Barbara to her Grandmother's house and we had a chance to spend a few hours at Hendry's Beach before we dropped her off.



The boys had a great time at the beach. They are turning into real "beach babies." Good thing we live in So Cal now!

"I graduated"

In our family we use the term "graduated" to mean that one of the boys has "graduated" to doing something new that they either didn't want to, weren't able to, or didn't like before.

For example, Nicie loves shrimp! Really loves them, but from the beginning of this love affair he was not willing to eat the tails. I am not referring to the part of the tail that you are not supposed to eat, but the end part of the body of the shrimp that people generally eat. When Nicie started eating the tails he said, "Hey, I've graduated to eating tails!"

We use "I've graduated" for all kinds of things that the boys have either learned to do or decided they like when they didn't use to.

Here are some things they have each graduated to lately.

Jac has graduated to letting Nicie into the bathroom after he has finished using the potty. He used to only let me or Daddy in but not Nic.

Nic has graduated to being able to sit on a big potty, frontwards all by himself. He decided to demonstrate this to me at the restaurant potty at dinner tonight! He did it by turning himself around from his usual back of the potty squat to forward facing, all while on the potty! LOL

The funny thing about these "graduations" is that the boys both announce them. For example, you will offer to cut the tails off Nicie's shrimp and he will announce that you don't need to do that because he has graduated!

Nic looking cool in his sunglasses and helmet

...via MobileMonet

Taj

Sent from my iPad

Nice day at the park

We have a very nice local park, a good part of the reason we decided to move to this condo. Walking with the boys it takes about five minutes to walk there.

The boys love to Strider there and we go there frequently.

Today we went there on Striders (with Daddy on Strida and Mommy walking).

Daddy launched our Solar Airship (that Mommy bought for the boys in London) for the second time, this time with a camera attached! It's quite a video!

There are more pics on Flickr!

Sweet boys

We had a nice day today. Daddy decided to take the day off of work and we spent the afternoon with Ama and Akon and Uncle Ken.

Nic fell asleep on the way home from Ama and Akon's house and was out on the couch in spite of his brother playing extremely loudly and literally banging pots and pans next to him. Nicie finally started to rouse and we were hoping he might eat some dinner but it quickly became clear that was not going to happen and I carries him upstairs to the bedroom. Jac was not quite ready for bed so there was still quite a bit of goings on which sleepy Nicie was none too happy about.

Nicie wanted this drink and Jac helped relay messages too Daddy and also tried to figure out my instructions for how to close and open the bedroom door quietly.

The really sweet parts were. Nic didn't want me to go ask Daddy about his drink but I needed to. He said, "Jac, will you stay with me?" and Jac said, "Yes." This may not seem like much but this was Jav acknowledging his brother's need not to be alone and being willing to help him.

Right before they fell asleep I asked Nic if he needed to potty and he said yes and asked me to come with him. Jac was very close to falling asleep and also wanted me with him. I asked Nicie if he could potty without me there as Jac wanted me to stay with him (which he is fully capable of, he just likes me there). Nic started to fuss that he needed me, and Jac quickly said, "That's fine. You can go with Nicie." Again, it doesn't seem like much, but it was Jac prioritizing Nic's need over his own and making it easier for me to balance them.

My sweet boys

Sent from my iPhone

Apple Store Pasadena - Dec. 26 2011

Holey Kamoley Apple gift card. The store was packed with people with Apple gift cards. I could barely even get in!

Go Uncle Ken!

There is always one favorite toy, and I wondered which one it would be this year. I should have known it would be Uncle Ken's! Oh man! The boys were so excited playing with the Cars 2 Tokyo Spinout game that he and Iris brought for them! It is probably going to break tomorrow but it made it through Christmas day!

Merry Christmas

I sent this letter out to my family today so I thought I would include it here!


(If you click on the photo it will take you to Flickr where you can see more Christmas photos)

Dear Family,

Oh man!

This was our first Christmas hosting and the first ones that the boys had "present" expectations for and the first one we explained and played up Santa! A lot of firsts in one year and I am worn out!

The boys and Daddy are currently playing Legos - which I forgot to give them earlier!

We had a very nice Christmas Day with Ama and Akon, Uncle Ken and Auntie Iris, Uncle Wayne and Auntie Charmy and Nama.

We had a good, if eclectic Christmas meal that I hope I was enjoyed by all!

On the schooling front, we are also homeschooling. The boys are still four and three so wouldn't be going to Kindergarten yet but we are not sending them to preschool either. We are what would be called eclectic homeschoolers feeling our way through the education of our boys with open minds and a willingness to look at all of the options. 

I am at home with the boys most of the time and with Grandma Silvia's help the house keeps running and I stay "fairly" sane. I am "restarting" my Computer Wizard business. I have clients from the "old" days that I still help and I will be looking to recruit some new ones in the new year. I enjoy helping people with their computers as long as they are Macs! I am going to advertise myself as a Mac and iOS expert and work on those fronts. 

Joseph is still working for Idealab/Ubermedia on the Chime.in website. He is of course working very hard, as per usual.

We hope to see all of you in the new year.

We miss Grandfather terribly but we did have him with us, and always in our hearts.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night (and hope they sleep!)

My new favorite picture of the boys Stridering

The boys and I walked to the park with Nama the other day and I brought along the big camera. I took this picture which is one of my new favorites.



The boys are wearing their new Soft Star Shoes. The picked out their own shoe colors again. Light and dark green for Jac and red and black for Nic.

Cute picture of Mommy and Jac at Target

Skate park

We have been spending a lot time with our friends, Max, Fritz and Nicole lately. Max really likes to go to the skate park (where he rides his skate board and scooter) and the boys and I have been going and they have been riding their Strider bikes there. We try to go earlier in the day before the "big" kids get out of school so it is just the four boys playing.

Jac and Nic have both been getting pretty brave in the park and have started going "sideways" on the ramps. Man, skate parks are a great place to practice gross motor skills! I highly recommend them to anyone with a kid that they want to encourage to try some new things and who has a sense of what they can and can't do!

Dinsosaurs

About six months back I bought a bunch of "flash" cards in the $1 section of Target. We have about 4 sets, of which one is dinosaurs. Maybe six weeks ago I pulled the dinosaur cards out and started reading them and the boys quickly joined in. Pretty quickly Jac decided that he is a T-Rex and Nicie decided that he is a Tuojiangosaurus (go figure!).

Ever since then they love to talk about dinosaurs and learn more about them. I have bought them a couple of great apps for the iPad about dinosaurs. One called "Dinopedia" and another called "March of the Dinosaurs."

The iPad is such a game changer. I sit with the boys and play iPad games and read books and watch videos. I just can't imagine what it would have been like as a three or four year old to be able to watch simulated videos of dinosaurs and watch an interactive story about the lives of dinosaurs all while being able to interact with the images and watch the videos. It is just AMAZING. I am rarely awed by technology since I spend so much time with it and follow it pretty closely but when I watch my "little" boys interact with the iPad so naturally it just amazes me.

Just as an example. Nic knows how to go to the App Store and look for a new game (which he constantly wants!). He knows how to delete apps that are either mine (using his space!) or that he doesn't like, either because they are too hard or they are not fun! He can literally press the icons to make them jiggle and then press the "X" to delete the app and respond to the resulting dialog to actually delete the app. I bet there are a huge percentage of adults that can't do that! The amazing thing about it is not that he is so smart but just that because he does not know a world without an iPad it seems normal to him. The boys think their videos should play on their iPads where ever they are. Why? Because they play on Mommy's phone, why shouldn't they play on the iPad!

Memory

Jac amazes me with his memory. Sometimes I can't believe the things that he remembers. The other day he said that he had made pizza. I said that we had not made pizza and he said, "We made pizza at Denise's house with Nama." Which is true. It was a few weeks before he reminded me of it.

The amazing thing to me was not so much that he remembered that he had made the pizza but that he was able to tell me that he made it at "Denise's house." He knows Denise. She is my chiropractor and a friend of Nama's so he has met her multiple times but this was his first time at her house and something we had not talked about since the evening that the boys made the pizza. Jac reminds me of things like this frequently that happened weeks and months earlier. Kids! Amazing!

"Put my iPad where only Mommy can reach it"

We have been playing a lot of iPad lately!

The boys each have their own iPad. Nic has Grandfather's old iPad (kindly given to us by Aunt Jennifer when I launched our old one off the top our car - accidentally!), and Jac has one that I bought after the iPad 2 came out the iPad 1's were easy to find used).

They use them to play a ton of games and to watch videos. Lately the only videos they watch are Diego! Oh man! Netflix has I think four season of Diego and I think they are going to have watched ever episode 3 or 4 times before they tire of Diego! We shall see! We are in the middle of the Diego fad. One good thing to come out of it is that they are learning some words in Spanish and asking what others are. Unfortunately, my three years of high school Spanish have evaporated from my mind for the most part. Fortunately they can ask Grandma! and sometimes Daddy!

Lately the routine has been to play iPad before bed. We play some games, and they watch some Diego, and then Mommy sets a timer for bath and teeth and then we read paper books, and then iPhone books and then we sleep! It all works out pretty well.

The boys carry their iPads around the house and sometimes want to bring them to the dining table, which they are not allowed to do at meal time.

One day Nic wanted to bring his to the table and I told him that he couldn't. He handed his iPad to Daddy and said, "Could you please put my iPad where only Mommy can reach it." The idea was that I would know when he could have his iPad back and so it was best if only I could reach it to give it back to him! Oh man! They grow up so fast!

"That's fantastic"

Nic is playing Angry Birds on the iPad and has discovered that he can use the Mighty Eagle over and over again on the same level. His response was, "That's fantastic." I kid you not!

Sent from my iPhone

Germination

Jac's first words to me this morning. "Mommy, a plant will germinate if it gets just enough water." Whoa!

Taj

Sent from my iPhone

Thanksgiving in Las Vegas

We are spending Thanksgiving in Las Vegas visiting with my Mom's family. My mother's sister Aunt Patricia lives here as does her youngest daughter, Kelly with her husband and three sons.

 We came to Las Vegas with Nama, leaving Daddy behind in Los Angeles to enjoy a little quiet time at home. We drove out on Tuesday and the traffic was fairly minimal, due mostly to road cleaning and other silliness.

 We spent the day Wednesday doing pretty much nothing!

 We spent today (Thanksgiving) getting ready and then going to Cousin Kelly's house for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a very nice at their house. Kelly's three sons are great, and the boys had a particularly nice time playing with her youngest son who is seven and also named Jack (with a k) and we call him Jack 1 to differentiate from our Jac who is Jac 2. Her slightly older son Harry was also really great and helped the younger kids with all of the iPads and iPhones we used to keep them busy.

Jac and Daddy at the LA Auto Show

Nic sitting on the coyote statue in Old Town

Jac sitting on the coyote statue in Old Town

Halloween 2011

Two years ago, right after we moved back from Colorado, we celebrated Halloween. We dressed Jac and Nic up as "Made Men" with mohawks. It was pretty cute since neither of them had much hair. Neither of them had much idea what was going on. We had a nice time walking around Old Town Pasadena with Nama, Grandfather and Ama and Akon. The boys didn't understand about the candy then! Last year we really didn't do anything at all. This year we went out with Max, Fritz and Nicole and Jimmy (Nicole's husband). We went to a Halloween festival at the park in Monrovia which was nice. The boys had a great time playing soccer and watching the Karate. They even got in on the Karate and broke a board! We saw Ama and Akon and Nama joined us also. Then we went over to Nicole's Dad's house, John. I haven't seem him in probably more than 20 years. Whoa! It was nice to see him and his wife, who I apparently met but don't remember. We had dinner and then went out trick-or-treating. Nic slept all the way through dinner but woke up for the trick-or-treating. Jac went up to two house and Nic wasn't up for it all. We had a nice time though and then went home (and Jac fell asleep in the car and slept all night!)

I miss you Dad

I was showing Nicole some old pictures today and I came across some photos of my Dad (taken by Joseph) when they went to the LA Car Show together. (We now love to go to the car show and are looking forward to it this year).

CAUTION

We went to the San Diego Zoo this weekend our boys and with Max, Fritz and their parents.

At the lions exhibit, as I was looking at the male lion eating his meal, Jac tried to get my attention and asked me a question that I couldn't hear clearly.  I asked him to repeat his question and he said: "What is the caution sign telling you?"

It took me a moment to register, and then I noticed the  sign*:

I asked him how he knew it said caution, and he said it was because he saw that word before so he knew it.

I was very impressed that Jac recognized the word without contextual help!  He just recognized the word!


* Photo Credit: Wesley Fryer - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/4453291082/

New friends

We have new friends. Well not so new for me but fairly new for the boys.

Nicole and I were friends when we were little. I honestly don't remember when our friendship began or ended but after high school we lost track of each other .

Fast forward nearly 20 years and we found each other on Facebook.

We started hanging out a bit some months ago but in the last few weeks we have started hanging out a lot.

She has two sons, Max who is 6 months older than Jac and Fritz who is 6 months younger than Nic.

We have been having a lot of fun together. Today we took their car and went to the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum down by the Coliseum. It was pretty wild as there was a USC Football game going on and there SO MANY USC Football fans tailgating!

We had a nice time and I even got a nice iPhone photo of all four boys in age order.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:E Glenarm St,Pasadena,United States

Punctuation

Jac has started noticing punctuation in books when we are reading. He has asked me what question marks, exclamation points and commas are for. He is not trying to read at all and has actually slowed down asking about letters although he is able to recognize the at least the "J" and "A" in his name and was able to play a "Who shares letters" game with me when I wrote out our names and Nicole's children's names at the Arboretum.

Leaps!

My boys are growing up - obviously. Sometimes it seems like they "grow up" in big steps in a small period of time and sometimes things feel stagnant.

Last week, with Cousin Cooper and Auntie Alexis still in town, they both made some big leaps.



We spent a lot of time in the jacuzzi while Auntie Alexis and Cooper were visiting. It seemed we were in there everyday. Last Saturday we left the boys with Nama and Auntie all day (I had a conference and Daddy had to work). When I picked them up in the evening Nama told me that Jac had put his head under the water and held his breath. He had NEVER done this before! He was not only putting his head under water but doing it with multiple different people including Auntie Jessica and Auntie Denise. Wow! This is something I can't imagine him doing if I was around (the going with different people part). The next day we were back at Nama's and he put his head under the water, and held his breath, for remarkably long periods of time, again and again! Amazing!



That was a big step for Jac. Nic had been putting his head under the water for a month or so, he did it without much trepidation and it was sort of a non-issue when he did it. When Jac did it it was a big deal because he had made it so clear that he wasn't ready to do it before, and then all of a sudden he did it, all the way!

Both boys also made another big step that same weekend. After getting out of the jacuzzi they went over to play on the jungle gym that Uncle Matthew and Daddy and Auntie built at Easter. They climbed up to the top and they were up there with Cooper having fun and playing a game of "fetch" with Lou and me. All of a sudden Jac is down on the ground. I realize that they only way he could have gotten down that fast is he slid down, so I asked him if he had slid, and he had! First time!

Then down comes Nicie, and they slid for the next 30 minutes until it became clear the "skeeters" were going to eat us all for dinner if we stayed out any longer!



Having Cooper around made it clear how much my boys have grown, since seeing Cooper is like looking back in time. Also, having Cooper around seems to inspire the boys to do new things. Cooper is pretty fearless and will try new things pretty easily (seemingly). I think that inspires my boys to try also! Yeah!



Sadly, we will not get to see Cooper and Auntie Alexis (and Uncle Chris and the new baby) until the new baby is born in January (and we visit in February.) We are all looking forward to the visit and seeing London and the Marsh family + their new baby!

Counting

Jac has started counting in earnest. He is counting his fingers. My fingers. Objects in iPad games. Cars on TV and out the car window.

He can count to ten very consistently and is starting to be able to get that 9 is bigger than 2.

He is asking me what is "5 + 2" and what is "5 + 8".

Last night while I was getting myself ready for bed he pulled down our "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" book and "read" it to Nic. He knows that the books goes from five monkeys to one monkey jumping on the bed and he was able to count the monkeys on each page and he knows the rest of the pattern of the words so he "read" the book to Nicie!

Nicie is 3!

So our youngest is three! Hard to believe. The older the boys get the harder I find it to write these blog posts. My mind becomes clogged and confused with all of the things that happen on a daily basis and I find it hard to separate them out and make them into something coherent.

I am going to shoot from the hip here and do my best to "explain" who our Nicie is at the tender age of three.

Nicie continues to nurse. When asked when he is going to stop his response is, "When I'm your size." He does tell me that when he is my size I am going to be small and he will carry me around like I carry him now and that he will take care of me!

"Is that good manners?" - We have been working on table manners. Since we moved into Glenarm we have had a dining room table and we have been eating most of our meals sitting down together there. It has been really great for all of us. I am enjoying cooking more and the boys are learning to have table manners, and better manners in general. Grandfather was a real stickler for table manners and I have inherited a strong desire for my boys to have good table manners, ones that Grandfather would have approved of. tear :(

Nicie has taken to the "manners" ideas quite well and will say, very nicely, "May I have some more corn please." He will follow that up with, "Was that good manners?" and give the most adorable sweet and grown up smile and cock his head to one side to acknowledge that he knows he is being extra cute!

I am going to end this post and start on some new ones. My boys change so much each day that I just can't keep up!

We took this video on Nicie's birthday (his party was the next day). We went to a small rocket launch held at a local dam area. Nic wanted to go play at the playground and I took this video while the boys were playing.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:E Glenarm St,Pasadena,United States

Nicie's 3rd Birthday Party

We had a very nice birthday party for Nic. Like all of the parties we have had for the boys since we moved back to California, we had it at my parents' house (I just can't bring myself to call it my Mom's house).

We had friends and family and it was very nice. All of the kids were able to go in the pool as it was nice and warm.

Nicie picked an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins with Lightining McQueen on it (he IS Lightning McQueen!). It had strawberry ice cream and white cake, his favorites!

There were lots of presents that he and Jac opened together (just like Jac's party).