Yoshi's little library

I have been noticing Yoshi has grown from his stage of "tearing books" to "flipping books". That tells me he's starting to show interest in flipping/reading. And there are times we would sit down together and he would pull books for us to read to him. So the other day, I reorganized our cabinet and gave Yoshi his little library space. Though it seems dangerous to allow him opening the glass door frequently, but we are teaching him that's only a library spot, not playing cars with doors opened. There are times he would just stand by his library, flipping his train books, or searching for the next reading materials. It's a good start I guess.

I have a feeling that eventually, the whole cabinet will be full of Yoshi's stuff only.....

The Pink Lady

Today we had invited few friends came over for lunch and some fun play time with Yoshi. After lunch, we played with the new water snake in the backyard Charis, u were really cute. I just can't help to laugh each time when I see photos of u from today. How could I not put "pink lady" as my blog title of the day?! U are so perfectly matching color. That sunglass.....oh my....it's the highlight. Just like your mom said, u are such a girly girl... Charis, wait a minute, I think u had your sunglass wearing upside down......u were really hilarious. Hey big brother Elias, did u have fun? Ethan, I like this photo of u, very handsome looking.

Boys oh boys....they were having so much fun.

Got wet..

Thanks to Auntie Patty for the fun water snake, we opened it for Yoshi to play yesterday. And what a great way to water our yard as well. ^_^The packaging photo shows the water supposed to rise as high as the kids' head, but I think our water pressure isn't strong enough to do so. Still, Yoshi has tons of fun, and I'm sure we will be having more friends and neighbours over and play together this summer.

The other birthday toy that we opened for Yoshi is the handheld bubble machine. He was a bit hesitate to open the doggie's mouth, but after few tries, he wouldn't let go at all. He kept saying "bubbles.....bubbles". Thanks Mitch & Blake for the thoughtful gift. Wish u could be here to enjoy the fun together.

Our first garage sale- fun fun fun.

The place where we are living has a "community garage sale" once a year. Basically, whoever wanted to participate would just set up their own sale in their garage/yard. After debating back and forth, we decided to have our first one ever. Part of the reason is because I wanted to get rid of few big items which had been moved from apartment to our old house to our basement right now, all they did were just collecting dust. And I thought it would be a fun family event. There is always a saying "Someone's junk might be someone else's treasures", so I was thinking, why not.

Friday evening was supposed to be a non-advertised preview night within the community. I had everything set up during Yoshi's nap time and gave it a try right after our early dinner. Initially I was worry that I might not be able to keep my eyes on Yoshi during the sale by myself (Nori was still at work), but luckily it was a very quiet night. Not many people came by (perhaps because Friday wasn't an official sale day). And guess what, actually Yoshi was busy doing his business preparation..........................

Yoshi was very busy making phone calls to his buddies and conducting market pricing research...(see below video for detail phone conversation)

He was also busy guarding our "money tin"(side note: this is Yoshi's new sandles for this summer)

The official garage sale is today (Saturday), all of us woke up very early in the morning to get our business opened by 9a.m There was already tons of customers drove by. (today was perfect weather for outdoor activities. And there are 5 communities nearby having the garage sale on the same day, what a popular event)

This dining set was our biggest selling item(s). This was left behind from Nori's parents 12 years ago when they moved back to Japan. we used this at our previous house till we moved here. (Obaa-chan, Ojii-chan, do u recognize this?) So guess what, after a long day of work (sitting around, cleaning garage while waiting, playing with the tricycle, keep marking down the item prices ^_^), we did pretty good. First of all, the customers turn out was great, huge crowded (both window shopping and actual buyers). We were lucky that we had lots of neighbours on the same street having sale also, so it gained some attention. Anyway, within 6 hrs, we made a total sale of $82 (US), with 27 items sold, including the dining set above which were sold for $30 to the lucky buyer. We were very happy for the result. Actually, I think we enjoyed the idea of getting rid of things we don't need in exchange for some spare cash. And having many customers came by, this already made the normal Saturday so much more interesting and fun. Overall, everyone were very nice & friendly. Some of them would bargain here and there, which was fine. The only lady that I didn't care much- she was interested in an item marked $3, and she said with an unfriendly demanding tone: "I'm only going to give u $1!!"....well, customer first, right?! It was a fun day.

Anyway, out of the total $82, we made a profit of $78.50, why? Well, after having a good business day, it's time to reward our hard working employee- Yoshi. Despite my worry of keeping Yoshi within sight, in fact, he was always by our side. I believe he was the one who enjoy the most out of the day. He was definitely the best "greeter", everytime, yes it's EVERYTIME when someone came by, he would wave his hand and said "HI". Not once, but twice or more. (wished I had taped it, but didn't want to scare our customers away). So, what's his compensation?

Here is the video of Yoshi making his serious businiess phone calls the night before the sale. He was probably collecting some market pricing information, and also advertising our sale to his buddies....

Daddy's previlages

Nori always says Yoshi is mommy's boy, because Yoshi always gives me hugs and kisses and calls "mama...mama". But I always say to him "that's because I'm the only human being around the house for most of the day". And u know what, after a weekend observation, "daddy" totally enjoys TONS of special previlages that mom would never have received.....

Evidences:

- first thing in the weekend morning, Yoshi would run out the bedroom door straight to our room, and looking for Nori. If he's there, a BIG BIG smile follows.

- daddy's diaper change shows no sign of resistence, perfectly laying on the floor, full cooperation

- daddy's car seat experience is smooth like charm with no signs of monkey running inside the car, refusing to sit down.

- daddy's shower time is easy like a ______ (couldn't think of a word ^_^), every instructions were being well heard and followed.

- walking up and down the stairs with daddy is fast like a bullet train, what happen to all those hide and seek or feet dragging scene?!

Nori, now u know how special u are to little Yoshi. And how we both look forward to weekend family time...xoxoxo. I lOVE crepes. But only dessert type- banana/strawberries with whipping cream and chocolate syrup. That's how most Asians like too. But around restaurants here, they either serve the crepes with meat/vegetable, or if it's dessert with fruits, it's always too sweet with heavy berries syrup....so I prefer to make it on my own at home. Yesterday, I have decided to make some for our tea time. For Yoshi's portion, I only put fruit without cream/syrup. I rolled it up and cut into pieces.At first, Yoshi ate all his cookies. Then he nippled on the crepe skin. He stopped. So I just left the plate on the table for the rest of the afternoon. By 5:30p.m., I realized the plate was empty. I guess someone likes his new tea time snack.

Way too H-O-T....

I know I complaint about any weather. Too cold, too hot, too much rain....but u know, when u have a 2 year old at home, weather determines all your activities. After making few stops at the stores, I have decided to take Yoshi to the park and have lunch.

Yoshi's recent signature "cheesy" smile

How do u know he's two?

As we are always with Yoshi, sometimes little things changed might not be noticable. But this Saturday, we definitely realized Yoshi has turned into a 2 yr old toodler, not a baby anymore. We took him to the mini water splash area in the Sharonwood park, he had SO MUCH fun!!! Just a year ago, we were still holding his hand, walking side by side with him in between the splashes. But this past Saturday, he's RUNNING on his own.....

For the past x times of haircut, to keep Yoshi stay still, we would need plenty of toys in the bathroom, while Nori did his haircut duty. But this Saturday evening, after few mins of panic, he was fine with the buzzing noise around his head. All he needed was my laps so he can hold on for comfort. I think very soon, he will be able to sit on the chair for haircut like everyone else. And as usual, Nori did a great job for Yoshi's summer look.

Little Yoshi has caught a cold again. This is like the 4th times in the past 3 months. Don't know where or how he got it, but he's doing fine, just running nose like crazy. Maybe it happen too often recently, both of us are more or less used to it. Wiping his nose seems a much easier and acceptable task. Hope he will recover soon....... today's lunch, I have decided to try something new for him- soup dumpling and mini seaweed rice sandwiches (2 seaweeds with tuna rice in between, then cut up into small bites) (Left is Yoshi's lunch; Right is mine)

To my suprise- Yoshi loves the mini sandwich and ate ALL...