Second First Day of School!

Lucky little Moses gets two posts in a row!

Just last year, we celebrated Akiko's first day of preschool.

She actually got two first days of preschool when we moved in the middle of her school year and started attending preschool out here.

I never imagined that in just one year, Moses would be old enough to attend preschool, too. Here's why: in Utah, the cutoff is generally August 31 for the school year. Here in the South Bay, at least, the cutoff is November 30. Moses' birthday is early November, so he makes the cutoff though this means that he'll be the youngest in his class. But being the youngest in the class doesn't mean that he's knows any less than the older kids.

Moses already knows most of his shapes, colors and letters and can decipher the difference between a letter and a number (though he doesn't know all his numbers yet). He can carry on a pretty intelligent conversation and uses complex sentences, that is, if you can understand what he's saying. When he started talking, he was using simple sentences right off the bat. So when I found out he was old enough to enroll in preschool, I figured, "Why not?"

So, today he embarked on his educational career.

Here he is all dressed and ready to go.

When we got there, we walked through the familiar gate,

said "Good morning" to Big Bird,

and waited for the classroom doors to open.

 

Moses got signed in, got his nametag,

 

 

and went straight to work coloring.

When I picked him up, I was told he did very well, had a lot of fun and is really smart.

I can't believe I've got two in school already. These kids are growing way too fast. I guess I better get their college savings accounts started this week.

The Fortune Cookie was Correct!

Last night we ordered Chinese food for dinner. Moses was a little grumpy. He had just woken up from a long nap. He didn't really want to eat his food. He really wanted his fortune cookie though. I mean, it was just sitting there in front of him enticing him the whole time.

We kept telling him, "You can eat your cookie after you eat your dinner."

Every time he would whine and reply, "I just want to eat mine cookie!"

This went on for, oh, about fifteen minutes or so.

It was finally decided that perhaps he just wasn't hungry. Perhaps we just gave up because it had been a long tiring day for us too. Joseph and I had driven two hours to Sonoma and back earlier that afternoon, hence the take-out for dinner.

Well, the rest of us had finished eating and we were all eyeing our own fortune cookies. We relented and let Moses have his. It read:

People find it difficult to resist 

your persuasive manner.

We just laughed. Then laughed some more.

You see, we try really hard to not give in to tantrums and the like and we do a pretty good job at it these days. Moses certainly was not throwing anything like a tantrum. He was just tired. A little whiny, perhaps, but nothing terribly stressful. 

He was just our tired, sweet little guy. Very persuasive indeed. 

Besides, how could you say "No" to a face like that?

Asher's Blessing Weekend

Our Labor Day weekend wasn't spent celebrating the last remnants of summer in any traditional way whatsoever (i.e. camping, boating, etc.). It was more focused on the little guy I pushed out during labor two months ago. Asher received his baby blessing!

My dad came out.

My mom came out. (Larry, we missed you! Hope you're feeling better!)

And Joseph's brother, Sam, moved in with us. Sorry, no pic.

But we finally did get a picture of the five of us together. It only took two months.

Special occasions always warrant special dinners so we made gyoza and agedashi tofu. Yum! Chelsie (my brother's wife) sent down some awesome handmade presents for us all. Akiko's was a really super cute apron, which she LOVES! (Moses is holding his marshmallow gun and modeling Asher's hat. Goofy kid!)

She said to me, "I'm so glad Chelsie made this for me. It's so beautiful, I'm going to keep it forever. I'm going to give it to my little girl someday so that she can help me cook just like how I help you!"

Growing up, the rule was: if you don't help wrap gyoza, you don't get to eat any. Being five years old, Akiko is plenty old enough to wrap and, therefore, was schooled in the art of gyoza wrapping. Sam also got a lesson. He was hungry. I mean, it was Fast Sunday.

I showed her once and let her take over. She learns fast! They look great!

Look at that spread!

Yep. Joseph's at the kids' table. Akiko really wanted to sit next to Grandpa Fred.

I love gyoza! We hardly ever eat it. It's very time consuming to make and the frozen ones just gross me out. I was planning on cooking it, but my mom kind of took everything over. For that, I'm grateful because I know they turned out better than if I would have done it. Thanks Mama!

In Hebrew, Asher means "happy."  He is aptly named. He smiles and coos all the time when he is awake. He is so happy in the early morning that we take him in to wake Akiko up for school, which makes her happy (and also makes for a less stressful morning).

We waited a long time and went through a lot of stress and heartbreak before we got this little angel. He was extremely active in utero, which was comforting throughout the entire pregnancy (but a bit uncomfortable at the end). His labor was longer and harder than the other two and things got a bit scary near the end. I'm not going to go into details, but my doctor called in the NICU nurse to be on standby and I came thisclose to having an emergency c-sec. 

I thank Heavenly Father every day for giving us this wonderful little boy. 

I love all my children dearly.

Being their mother is the greatest blessing in the world!

Big Day for Our Big Girl!

Yesterday, was an eventful day. I sat home and compulsively checked Facebook, text messages, email, justin.tv, and IM over and over awaiting news of the newest member of our family. Joseph's little sister, Emma, gave birth to a big baby boy (8 lbs. 10 oz.) named Odin. He controls the weather. Here's the proof:

You see, we had an extreme high pressure system stalled over us for a couple days. It's normally about 80* F in the South Bay this time of year. This is what we had on Tuesday at 6:30 pm:

It was insanely hot and even moreso inside our house. I'd been taking the kids out of the house the last few days. Yesterday we couldn't. I desperately needed to do laundry. There was a warm breeze blowing in my window. Ugh!

Anyway, with the time I had between loads, I kept checking back and forth between applications to see if there was anything new with Emma's progress. Then, just after 3:00 pm PST, which translates to 4:00 pm in UT, a cool breeze suddenly started blowing in through my window. AH! Relief! Then I got news that Odin had finally arrived. He was born at 4:09 pm MST.

That is my proof that Odin controls the weather. Thanks little man!! It's blissfully cool today.

And congratulations to Emma and Bryan!! I've linked their blog and Justin.tv broadcast above if you hadn't noticed.

Odin is Emma and Bryan's first child. Anxiously waiting for the happy news made me reminisce about when I was about to have Akiko and what an exciting adventure that turned out to be.

Akiko at 3 or 4 days old

Five years and four months later we've hit a milestone:

Akiko started Kindergarten today!!

Doesn't she look smart in her uniform? (Yes, that was meant as a double entendre.)

She started the day off with a breakfast made to order. We messed up, though, with the eggs. She asked for eggs that are "white on the outside and yellow in the middle." Turns out she wanted them hard-boiled, not sunnyside-up. She ate the eggs anyway. I made her hard-boiled eggs for an after school snack.

Then we made our way to school. We broadcast it on Justin.tv so that her grandparents could walk to school with her. They got a kick out of that.

Akiko met her teacher. She seems wonderful. I think it'll be a great year. (Sorry I didn't back up enough to get her teacher in the shot.)

Then Akiko was ready to learn!

It was an exciting day for all of us. The kids grow up so fast. Moses starts preschool next month already. It'll be just Asher and me for a few hours a couple days a week pretty soon. And that kid is growing fast, too!

Just this last week, he left the last remnants of his newborn-ness behind. He gets stronger and more alert every day and actively explores the world around him. He'll be 7 weeks old tomorrow.

*Sigh!* Sometimes I wish I could freeze time.

Oh, and guess what? Did you notice the quality of pictures? I got a new camera, finally!! I love it! (But not nearly as much as I love my kids!)

There are actually quite a few adventures that have happened in the last couple weeks, but I really wanted to get Akiko's first day of school up on the day it happened. The next couple posts will take us back in time. Till then...

Long Post About a Long Beach Weekend

Joseph's paternal grandparents moved from Ogden to Long Beach last September, just a month before we made our exodus from Utah to the Bay area. We've been meaning to visit them since we moved, but we ended up having an extremely busy life since then. Well last week was our lucky week. It was also our last chance before Akiko starts kindergarten next week.

We planned on leaving Friday morning. I wanted to leave no later than 10am. Yeah, that didn't happen.

I wasn't able to pack Thursday night. I was busy getting all our laundry done so we'd have clean clothes to wear. Asher was rather fussy all day so I ended up spending the bulk of the day consoling him in addition to doing laundry and making sure the older kids were happy and not getting in trouble or in the way. I gave up on trying to get the house cleaned that day.

So packing and cleaning ended up happening Friday morning. Joseph tackled the cleaning while I did the packing. Oh, and we also had to dress and feed everyone. It took forever to get our short list done. We kept getting interrupted or suddenly remembering other things we needed to do before we could leave. Asher was fussy again. The older kids were doing pretty well staying out of our way and playing with each other while we occasionally checked on them. Then, of course: CRASH! SCREAM!

Here's what happened: Joseph had just checked on the kids. When he left, Moses was sitting on top of the piano bench. Akiko was close by. I think they were both trying to play the piano and started fighting over whose turn it was (remember, I was in the other room trying to pack). We heard the crash and Moses' screaming cry and Akiko repeating, "It was an accident!" Joseph ran in to check while I picked up Asher, who I had just barely calmed down enough to set down, but started crying again because he was startled by the commotion. Joseph found Moses under the bench with a big bump over his eye. Akiko felt really bad, but she was still in trouble. Joseph and I had very little patience to deal with everything, but we eventually got everyone calmed down enough to resume what we were doing.

Here's the bruise. It's a couple days old at this point. There was a huge goose egg on his brow, but that disappeared within the first 24 hours. It ended up being very colorful. Moses thinks it's pretty cool. Boys!

Well, we finally left our house around noon. By that time, the kids were hungry for lunch and wanted McD's. I was pretty flustered, but decided it was best to keep them happy so that I would stay sane, even though it meant I had to make a u-turn and backtrack a few blocks to do so. It actually ended up that I had to do that anyway because Joseph realized we left the tools at home that his grandparents wanted us to bring down. Back home, then McD's, then finally on the road after a quick stop at the mall?

That's what I'd hoped, anyway. Joseph needed an adapter so he could power his Macbook on the road so he could work on the way down to SoCal. The mall, which has a Mac store, was on the way. What's a quick stop to get one?

Well, I parked on the wrong side of the mall, which is huge, so Joseph had to run the whole length of the mall only to find out that they don't sell anything like that, but that they did at Best Buy, then he had to run the whole length of the mall again to get back to us. Luckily, there was a Best Buy across the street. Still, from the time we left our house, that whole process cost us another two hours.

Well, we finally made it on the road and on our way to Long Beach at 2pm. Four. Hours. Late. Ugh!

Thankfully, the drive down was rather uneventful. However, when you're driving half the length of California with 3 small children, the drive ends up a bit longer than the 6.5 hours Google Maps says it takes. Stops for potty breaks. Stops for nursing the baby. Stops for dinner and gas. We finally ended up in Long Beach around 930pm, just in time to say hello and goodnight to Joseph's grandparents and auntie. All in all, we made pretty good time, except for the late start.

Oh! I almost forgot! About halfway there, I realized I'd forgotten to pack the baby some clothes. I packed everything else for him. Just no clothes. We stopped for a potty break. I checked Asher's diaper. He had a blow out. There was baby poop all over him and it ended up also getting smeared on the only pair of pants I own that are comfortable for me to wear. I had planned on wearing those pants all weekend. Thankfully, I had an extra outfit in the diaper bag for Asher to change into. Tragically, I had no other pants to change into. Le sigh!

Oh! There was also a car that was completely engulfed in flames about an hour north of San Fernando. Traffic wasn't terribly heavy so we weren't too backed up. It was cool, scary and sad all at the same time. Joseph broadcast it, but the video is jumpy because the streaming isn't so smooth, but you can watch it here.

So, there's the trip down to Long Beach. Let's talk about the time we spent in Long Beach.

Saturday morning was mostly spent recuperating from the trip down. Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Helen instantly fell in love with Asher. Who can blame them?

Here's Auntie Helen with Asher. Apparently, I neglected to get pictures (yep, still working with my cell phone) with the grandparents with Asher. I think Joseph took some with his phone, though, but I didn't think about that until just now. Drat!

And of course, everyone fell in love with Akiko and Moses all over again!

And here's Grandpa Jack!

Well, since Asher had no clothes for the weekend and I had no clean pants, I decided to go to the store to buy some. I just grabbed Asher a couple cheap outfits. I desperately needed pants that fit me comfortably anyway, even if they're only going to fit me for a few weeks. I'm still losing baby weight. I really dislike this part of post-pregnancy when nothing fits. Yep, another pants rant.

When I got back from the store, I found Akiko and Moses had fallen in love. Auntie Helen has two tiny pet turtles. Their names are Chow Yun Fat and Jet Li. The kids couldn't get enough of them!

So, it's important to note that when I was planning our trip to Long Beach I was careful not to mention "Long Beach." I simply told the kids that we were going to go visit Grandpa and Grandma and Auntie Helen. You see, if I'd mentioned "Long Beach" my kids would automatically assume that we were going to THE beach, which is their favorite place on earth. In fact, when we finally pulled up to the grandparents' house on Friday night, it had been mentioned that we were on our way to Long Beach. Moses became upset that we had stopped at a house and not the beach.

While the grandparents live only a few blocks from the beach, I didn't know if we would be making the trip down to the beach. Then again, how can we be visiting someone who lives so close to the beach and not go? So we went.

I wasn't planning on going to the beach, but I packed the kids' swimsuits so that Joseph could take them. I though I'd do some window shopping somewhere, but I decided to chill at the beach with my family anyway. That's why I'm not dressed for the beach. Besides, my six week post-natal recovery wasn't up so I couldn't swim anyway.

The water in Long Beach is a lot colder than the waters we are used to encountering on Maui, but my kids didn't care. They dove right in. I love that I have beach babies! I wish they were less frightened of the pool.

We can't ever go to the beach and not dig a hole. It's pretty much tradition. I should mention that the dude digging a hole with my little family is Joseph's cousin, Hamad. He's the guy in the background of all the other pictures above, as well.

Here's my contribution to beach play. I couldn't get on my hands and knees to help dig, so I practiced rond de jambes and made circles in the sand. Then Joseph made them into faces. They remind me of Anpanman, who, by the way, Moses will be for Halloween.

Here's what Akiko and Moses ended up looking like by the time we decided to go home. Sand, sand everywhere! Ok, not so much on Moses. He'd already been rinsed. I usually look like this, too. I don't mind much getting sand all over. We love the beach too much to care.

After we went home and washed the sand off, we went out to dinner with Grandpa, Helen and Hamad at the Belmont Brewing Company (BBC) back at the beach. It was tasty. I don't have pictures except the one of Helen with Asher which is posted above.

Sunday was eventful. First thing in the morning, I got to go pick up my sister, Kristen, from the John Wayne airport in Anaheim. She came out to visit us. Yay! I love my sister! 

Then, a couple hours later, Joseph's brothers, Sam and Jake, accompanied by Sam's German girlfriend, Debbie, joined us in Long Beach. They drove down from St. George. Debbie was flying back to Germany from LAX after spending a month in the states. It was fun to meet her in person!

I think she was thinking of taking Asher back home with her. ;)

Since we've moved to California, we gave up the luxury of having family living so close to us. We went down to visit four people and ended up getting to visit with twice as many. We even got to take Kristen home with us for a few days! What a great weekend it ended up being! 

Thank you Grandpa Jack, Grandma Deanne, Auntie Helen and Hamad! Hopefully we'll be able to visit you again soon!

It Must Run in the Family

After I posted yesterday, with the pictures of Moses asleep at the dining table, my sister emailed me these pictures of Akiko. We had to edit them a little to protect her modesty. She was not quite 4 years old at the time and anyone who has a 2-3 year-old knows how hard it is to keep clothes on those little tykes.

Moses' pose looks a lot more comfortable if you ask me.

Sibling Protection Factor - SPF Akiko

We moved one of our couches, the sofa-bed, into what will become the nursery for the time being in order to accommodate our family members as they come to visit us and meet lil' Asher. By doing this, we have a lot of open space in our living room.

The other day, Asher was awake and happy, so we brought him out and laid him on the floor for the older kids to enjoy. They enjoyed each other for a while, but then Akiko suddenly got concerned about Asher's safety.

With such a small baby on such a large expanse of carpet, what if someone was walking along and didn't see him and ended up stepping on and hurting the baby? She quickly came up with a solution: build up something larger, and therefore more visible, around the baby and he will be less likely to be tromped upon.

So, construction began. She grabbed anything she could find within reasonable reach. She ended up with a pack of baby wipes, her stuffed pony Al, a miniature Powerpuff Girls mug, a miniature sequined, feather-topped pen, and wooden building blocks. Asher was pretty excited to look at his new surroundings. He started kicking really hard and almost got his other sock off.

Moses also jumped in to offer his help, though Akiko felt he was more of a hindrance. She felt like she had everything already under control.

I really love how Akiko dotes on Asher. She's been a wonderful helper since he's been part of our family. She wanted a sister, but knew that she might get another brother, and after she met Asher at the hospital, she told me, "I really wanted a sister, but it's okay that I have another brother because he's soooo cute."

And now for something completely different...

So, it seems my video tests worked out alright. I haven't heard any feedback from anyone, but it works on my computer. I mentioned that I had a bunch of videos of the kids falling asleep while eating. We've got about three of Akiko and one of Moses that I can think of off the top of my head. Well, I've got some stills, too. This just happened less than two weeks ago. 

We were all just sitting around the table eating. Moses was part of the conversation and everything. We didn't even notice he'd fallen asleep until we were done and started cleaning up.

It's too cute not to share.