Yoshi

2 months ago, Yoshi was the only child. He's just like a typical 2 year old, having fun, enjoying his innocent childhood. But since Kiharu was born, Yoshi seems to have grown up so much more overnight. I know he is actually the same, just that the arrival of Kiharu has brought out the best of him....(and allow us to see that as well)

- "Mama, 抱妹妹, 妹妹喊" (hold little sister, she is crying)
- "妹妹笑" (everytime when he sees Kiharu smile, he would tell us to look at her)
- he always wants to hold her, very gently
- When I'm feeding Kiharu, he would sit next to me watching TV or let me read a book to him. He would patiently wait for us to finish before doing anything else.
- Now that he's in the potty training process, few times when we were out in restaurants or stores, I would take him to bathroom. No more diaper changing station needed....
- In the stores, he would want to help pushing Kiharu's stroller or walk side by side with us.

Thanks Yoshi, very proud of you....
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Recently, Yoshi's favorite transportation is:

***"校巴" (school bus). Thanks to Uncle Henry for your toy, everytime when Yoshi sees this on the road, he gets VERY excited. And every morning, while he's having breakfast with grandparents, they would be starring at the window, waiting for the schoolbus to come by this neighbourhood. Maybe someday he will be in one of them.....

"妹妹笑" (little sister is smiling)

(lately, there has been problem playing the video here on blog, google is trying to fix it. if u can't see, let me know)

3:30a.m

Last night (Nori was out of town), at 3:30a.m., while I was feeding Kiharu, here came Yoshi walking down the hallway into our bedroom, carrying his pillow, which was almost 3/4 of his height. I noticed he probably needed to go to bathroom, so I had to stop feeding Kiharu and followed him. I then asked if he needed to poop (please excuse the language), he said yes, so I waited......and waited.....and waited....very soon, Kiharu lost her patience waiting as well. So what did I do?.............well, at almost 4a.m., all 3 of us were looking at each other in the small bathroom, waiting for Yoshi to finish his "business"....luckily it was a false alarm, otherwise, I don't know if I can handle the smell that early in the morning. Today we took little Kiharu out to the mall for the first time. Yoshi picked out 2 red dresses and said "俾妹妹" (for little sister), then he showed to Kiharu, perhaps hoping to see if she liked those or not....^_^

2 kids

Day and night, there were many little moments that set the reality of having 2 kids.....
- while I was holding Kiharu in my arms, suddenly Yoshi needed to run to the bathroom, I had to put the baby down somewhere quick before Yoshi wet his pants...

- at 3a.m., while feeding Kiharu, Yoshi came into our bedroom with his pillow. So I ended up sleeping in between the kids (the crib is right next to us)

- while I was trying to encourage Yoshi to finish his bowl of rice at dinner time, Kiharu was crying for her meal time at the background....

- on the road, the baby crying sound at the back seat row came back after 2 years....

- trying to give Kiharu her bath in tub, big brother decided to splash water everywhere....

- after one kid caught a cold, another followed, sneezing everywhere....

.................well, at least I have grandparents here to help right now. Next month.....who knows...

(Uncle Henry took these photos a while ago thru Skype chatting with the computer)

Chinese new year

Last weekend, my cousin Marlon and his family came to visit us from Toronto and spend Chinese new year festival together. Yoshi had lots of fun with his cousin Kenneth. Perhaps because he had not been out for a few days with his cold, so when he had someone to play with, he almost can't stop running left and right chasing each other. Thanks everyone for coming to visit us and bringing those yummy bakery.

Chinese nursery rhymes

Grandparents have been here 1.5 months, Yoshi has learnt so much Cantonese from them. One of the funniest one is the nursery rhymes which I'm amazed how much he can memorize......

Happy Chinese New Year

Happy (Chinese) New Year to everyone. It's been a while since the last update. The days gone by so fast, especially when half of the people in this house are sick. It started with Yoshi catching a cold earlier last week, probably from just few minutes being outside playing with the snow. His nose & cheeks had been turning so red, almost like the Anpanman cartoon character. And for the first time, we got to experience the siblings effect....Kiharu got the cold too. Poor her, she has a bit of stuffy nose. Luckily, she was able to sleep well at night. The kids are almost recover. Unfortunately, grandpa got the cold symptoms too after hanging out with his buddy grandson. He has been getting lot of rest these past 2 days, hopefully, he will soon be back to his magic show performance for Yoshi (& everyone)... Stay warm everyone.....

"Mama, where's the blog update?"

snow, snow, and more snow.....

Same big box

- Same big box from the previous craft project - $0

- Performance tools (baby blanket + dinosaurs toy)- $0 (Thanks Wendy...sorry grandpa had chosen your lovely blanket as the magic tool...^_^)

- All the laughs and fun- PRICELESS

We have to give full credit to grandpa's super creativity. One day, he came up with the magic show idea. He even made me and grandma did rehersal while Yoshi was napping. (?!) Well, I guess after being home for many days, everyone has learnt to push our creative skills into highest level....it's another snowy day here.... enjoy the video.

Today, Kiharu is 1 month old. We have little dinner celebration at home, will post some photos later.

Another cold week...

It's another cold week...

will write more next time.........Zzzzzz....(another long night after finally calming down a fuzzy baby who seems to have a habbit of cluster feeding- every night, from 7-10p.m......hope this is just a temporary thing)

Potty training progress

INTENSIVE potty training has started since 2 weeks ago, here are the progress:
- official instructors: grandparents
- orange toilet seat: airmail from Hong Kong per grandpa's request
- Anpanman training pants: supplied by grandma & Aunt Junko (lifesavers in many times)
- Star reward chart: rewards all pees & poops without any wet pants. (also a good way for numerical counting)
- diapers: only limited to night time & going out (that will be next step, which we stayed home a lot recently)
- best training material: Shimajiro cartoon video sent by grandma from Japan.

Few potty training conversations:
- "Yoshi, do u have pee pee / poop poop?"............."NOPE!!!!!"

- "Yoshi, ok, we will let u watch a cartoon or play with u, if u go to bathroom first" ........(less resistance force recently)

- "Yoshi, let's play the trains here (3 steps away from the bathroom, if grandpa senses bathroom time is up soon....)

........let's just say, I think everytime when Yoshi stands (hides) at the corner of the room, or when he has strange facial expression, grandpa would turn into ALERT mode!! (and Yoshi would turn into defensive mode) Rumor about grandpa having few sleepless nights, thinking about potty training tactics has spread around town too...... ^_^..... anyway, everyone is doing a great job in this training mission, including little Yoshi......

TV appearance

Another winter project...

My original idea was just to make a TV for Yoshi's first appearance, but grandpa had added some technical features- channel switching + remote control. ^_^

Mother of two (kids)

It's 11p.m., just finished catching up with Nori briefly, hope to update the blog before bed (though I'm half asleep). These past 3 weeks, as I had recovered from the delivery and slowly back to some sort of routine, I started to get a sense of being a mother of two (kids).

I can't be thankful enough to have my parents here, they have made the transition seems much easier to handle. They are keeping Yoshi fully entertained during this long winter time, and made the sibling jealousy issue seems less obvious. They have also made the chaotic housework almost invisible.... there are many times I kept wondering, what would happen if they aren't here with us, how are me and Nori be able to do all these on our own?!

In the past, it's all about Yoshi, then took what's left over for ourselves. But now, Kiharu is constantly in need that I'm almost leaving Yoshi behind with grandparents & Nori. The feeling of Yoshi no longer being the highest priority wasn't an easy (or any expected) feeling to me. I haven't sing the goodnight Twinkle twinkle little star song to him for a while, as I'm busy feeding (& feeding) little sister who seems never satisfy with her appetite before bedtime. Many quality time that we used to spend together had to be put on hold. Tonight, as I was telling Yoshi I need to go upstairs feeding Kiharu, he grabbed onto my hand and not letting me go while using his other hand to keep eating his dinner. I felt bad as I know he's trying to tell me he needs my attention. Sometimes, it's little things that remind me I need to do a better job with Yoshi. Just like any new position, I need to give myself time to figure things out. Even though I have heard about the words "mother of two" or "siblings"....but not till I'm now going thru all these that I understand what those means.

However, despite my own little thoughts, me and Nori are truely enjoying every moments of having Yoshi & Kiharu with us. No matter how tiring we are, holding each of them in our hands/ arms, hearing them calling our names or just seeing their smiles, those are what made us realize how lucky we are.