"C" for curious & "T" for trouble

Did I really say the word "trouble"? oh yes......

Thur the camera lens, Kiharu is such a cute little one. But in real person, her curiosity is BLOOMING to a level of explosion (in simple words- she is a trouble maker!!) She is now at the "climbing stage". She would climb up the sofa, the highchair, dining chair, bed....wherever her two legs can reach. We would tell Yoshi to put his LEGO toys on the dining table, but then very soon, Kiharu would discover it and tried to reach up high by climbing the chair.

If she would just sit on the chairs after climbing, that's fine. But she would crawl on the dining table, or walk around the sofa (like tightrope walking). I'm just physically tired putting her down every time. I tried giving her my (angry) "look", which used to work with Yoshi, now she learns to avoid my eye contact.

I know this is all because of curiosity. Hopefully it's only a stage, and we just have to learn to "deal" with each other. At the end of the day, her cute little smile and hug cover up all her little naughty (dangerous) moves..... xoxoxo.

Happy 4th birthday Yoshi.

Looking at Yoshi, can't believe 4 years have gone by so fast. I still remember when I was pregnant with him.....

At 4 years old, he truely enjoys the birthday excitement. At the last day of school (last week), Yoshi was given a birthday hat. It was very special to him, he had to have it by bedside every night. Since then, he kept mentioning about his birthday party. He was just excited to have all his great friends over, and ate birthday cake (I think it's more about singing the birthday song instead).

Yoshi knew today is his birthday. With the bad weather and him recovering from a minor cold, we didn't go anywhere. But Nori came home early to have dinner together, then followed by cake and presents, Yoshi definitely felt very special. He was very appreciative of everything. He's such a great kid. We are so happy for him.

Happy birthday Yoshi!! xoxoxo

Curious little sister

Unpredictable weather

Lately, the weather is so unpredictable. One minute it could be sunny outside, then very soon followed by thunderstorm and tornado warning. Last night, while having dinner, our electricity power went out. With the black clouds coming in, for precaution, I took the kids down to the basement with a flash light. I immediately transformed myself into supermom, pretending it's fun to hide out (in the dark, with spider net around...yikes...).

We were down there not too long, but Yoshi wouldn't want to go back upstairs, knowing we have no power, and security alarm was beeping. He had no choice but to follow me later on. Our power didn't come back till 1a.m. Everyone is fine, just without power, it really left us nothing to do in the darkness. I think Nori cannot stand a minute without his favorite TV....^_^ My poor breadmachine, it was in the middle of preparing dough (& bread baking) while power shut down. We end up getting a loaf of bread in store...

Well, compare to people who suffered in other states with all these bad weather (or those during Japanese earthquake), our power outrage is NOTHING. It did gave me a glimse of the scary feeling during the disaster. Hope things will get better for everyone else......

It's PARTY time!

More photos can be viewed at http://photobucket.com/yoshi4thbirthdayparty

Birthday party

Yoshi had been long waiting for this day, it finally came. His birthday is actually this coming Thursday, but we had his party today. Not only did he wake up early, but he even brought his party hat into our bedroom right after he woke up. He was just so excited to have all his friends over.......

More photos to be posted.....

Being outside

After a long night, the clock is about to strike midnight. Although my brain is already in sleep(y) mode, but at least I want to post photos of the kids.

It was a beautiful day, after few days of cold weather, sun is back. We went to the park after lunch, then did gardening work with Yoshi. But the highlight for them, must be the rare shopping after dinner. Since Nori ate out tonight, so I took the kids to the store, walked around the toys dept. They loved pushing those buttons on toys that makes sounds, light and movement....almost as if we all got some retail therapy (window shopping) before bedtime. Sweet dream tonight.....Zzzzzz

P.s- last night, we heard Yoshi struggling in bed, he must be having some sort of nightmare. He said few times "da-me" ("No...No.." in Japanese). So I told Nori "Since Yoshi was saying in Japanese, OBVIOUSLY, it wasn't me that create his stressful dream...wonder who that might be?!" ^_^

Who need toys, just containers are ok.

A for Aspargus

Last Friday, we went to the aspargus farm. This was our first time doing it. At the first glance, I didn't see the aspargus on the ground, till a closer look. Yoshi had fun pulling it, except the long aspargus became very short, because he was pulling from the top part. I was just enjoying taking photos under the hot sunny day. Look at Yoshi's harvest....& look at Kiharu's face, I guess she wasn't so sure about group photos...These past few meals, we had aspargus as ingredient. Perhaps because it was hand picked by Yoshi, he was very willing to eat those green vegetables. Perhaps we should visit more other farms nearby.

Side note- at this farm, not only is it "pick your own aspargus", but also "be your own cashier". Basically, after picking the aspargus, you went into this little hut, weigh the aspargus on the scale, then put the money inside this brown box. If you need change, help yourself. This will never exist anywhere else........... (US$2 per LB)

It's weekend

A week gone by so fast, every night, the little time left after kids went to bed, seems to be contributing to leftover housework or preparing the birthday party. So glad another weekend is here again. For me, it means extra help in the house, extra muscles to carry heavy grocery, quality family time.....For Kiharu, it probably means extra person to follow around & hugs..... For Yoshi, it DEFINITELY means GOLF with Otousan!!

Have a good weekend.

Peanut allergy

One week after the emergency doctor visit, blood test result confirmed Yoshi has high peanut allergy. (the test also revealed his has moderate allergy to cats, which shouldn't be any big problem)

For precaution, now I have to carry Epi-pen with me everywhere, including leaving one at school. Basically, this is a medicine to be injected under emergency situation, related to allergy issue.
All our lives (including Nori's), we never have any allergy issue, to this is a whole new education for us. The biggest challenge right now, is the need to remind myself to check on the labels or menus. I need to remember doing that.

Since Yoshi was born, I haven't given him much peanut or peanut butter related food before. Even we did, there wasn't any noticable reaction. So this new incident was a complete shock to us. I've just realized luckily the peanut oil that most restaurant used are fully refined- meaning the protein which could trigger allergic reaction was being removed. No wonder Yoshi is totally fine with his favorite chicken nuggets.

Right now, at least I know Yoshi is not allergic to hazelnut, because he's fine with Nutella chocolate spread which doesn't contain peanut.

He will be visiting allergist very soon, so we will find out more information later. Maybe more test will be needed in the future.

Despite this new problem, he's totally fine. Life as usual, laugh, play, eat and sleep well. we are very lucky that last week incident happened at home, when Nori was in town, when the doctor was still available, and I took the Reese Cup chocolate away immediately after his first stolen bite (instead of letting him finishing it).

The most funny part about this- I have been trying to teach Yoshi to say "I cannot eat peanut, it will make me sick" in both English & Cantonese. And I'm also role playing with him that if he got offered a snack, he needs to check with me before eating. He completely understands "that food" makes him sick and he cannot eat "that", but he kept repeating "I cannot eat CHOCOLATE,.......". In his mind, it's the stolen "chocolate" that made him sick, regardless of what's the content.....^_^ I did have to correct him, so be sure he understand it's more about the peanut. ^_^

Wonder if this fish was being cooked with peanut oil? ^_^

The simple joy

It's been raining a lot lately, so we stayed at home quite often during the afternoon. Most of the time, Yoshi & Kiharu can play well together, as long as "she" doesn't attack "his" precious train depot. Not that I encourage any territorial ownership, I would prefer preaching the concept of "sharing". But to a 1.5 yr old, it's hard to play by the rules. Besides that, they truely enjoy having each other as company. They would do silly things together, copying each other's behavior.... sometimes it's not what toys they have, but what creativeness they can come up together.....

Picture perfect Saturday

What comes along when the sun is out? of course CAMERA!! After the long winter staying indoor, it's about time to be outside again. I love being able to capture the precious moments, kids grow too fast, only photos can bring back those sweet memories.