Happy 2nd Birthday Asher!

Asher's disposition has improved SOOO much over the past month. He is actually cracking us up a lot lately. His speech therapist will be glad to hear that he is finally putting two words together on a regular basis. These two-word phrases however, are all the naughty things that he's learned from his brother: "No, baby!" "Baby-brain" "Can't hear you... "(he'll say as he covers both of his ears), or "bare-bum-pincher." He also has his own catch phrase, "Yah do!" as in, Asher, do you want a cookie? "yah do!" I remember being really concerned about Isaac's speech at this age and it was only a matter of months before he was talking up a storm. Boys!

His favorite color is pink, which causes a lot of arguments because we only have one pink Ikea plate and bowl and Juliet has claimed that one to be hers for last 3 years. I think it's fashionable right now to let your son wear pink clothes, tutu's, nail polish or what not but let me be clear, pink dinnerware is where it ends in this house. Period.

Moving on to his favorite toys, he has two: guns or swords (and we allow both in our house). I mean, this kid will eat his peanut butter and honey sandwich into the shape of a gun and shoot at us during lunch time.

He's also started playing more with Isaac. I was worried that he was going to forever be the loner in the family, but lately he thinks his big brother is pretty cool.

Asher also really likes to watch Trent while he's cooking dinner. He pushes a chair over by himself and will stand there for a good 30 minutes if we let him.

We had a little birthday party for him tonight with his friends, Evin, Analena (he calls her Ana), and Carter. Asher was pretty excited to have them come over!

He's come a long way since his 1st birthday and had no problems gobbling up three pieces of pizza and his cupcake.

We tried to let the kids burn up some energy with a streamer free-play activity and then we opened up the gifts from his friends.

When it was just our family, we continued on with opening more presents. Juliet and Isaac are pretty crafty lately and so they made their own gifts for Asher. Juliet made him a paper gun and Isaac gave him paper rocks. (brown circles of paper) It's the thought that counts, right?

Of course, Asher also had gifts from the grandparents...

and Uncle David and Auntie Kimmy...

and then from us. Trent was in charge and he made Asher so happy with dinosaurs, monster trucks, and toy rifles.

Ice Ice Baby

I have been putting off this unit waiting until the weather forecast looked cold enough to warrant an ice theme, but now that we are already into March, I suspect that it's not going to get any colder here in Virginia. I'm not complaining though since I know we'll have our fair share of cold weather days soon enough.

We read the following books:

• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
• Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner

We did the following activities:

• Built igloos out of ice and salt.
• "Ice skated" around the living room with paper plates on our feet.
• Made and ate snow-covered (white chocolate) Chex Mix
• Made a melting chart of the different methods of melting ice.
  
• On the last day, the kids woke up to the news that Bizarro had frozen their superhero friends and so we had to rescue them. I was really hoping that they were going to use what we learned during the week to melt the ice, you know, with warm water or salt. That's not what happened.
  

Washington and Lincoln

This week we learned about a couple of our past presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

We read:

• A Picture Book of George Washington by David A. Adler
  
• Good Night Washington, DC by Adam Gamble
• A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln by David Adler
• Looking at Lincoln by Maira Kalman
• Magic Tree House #47 Abe Lincoln at Last by Mary Pope Osborne
  

About 30 minutes after we finished reading the George Washington book, Isaac told me that he had thought it over and that I was right, he didn't need to grow up or have any more birthday's. This is so strange because whenever I tease the kids about keeping them young by not celebrating any more of their birthdays, Isaac always yells "No!" the loudest. I asked him why he had the change of heart and he said that he didn't want to get old and die like George Washington.

In honor of President Washington:

• We made mini cherry pies and the kids promised to never lie to their parents!
  

• They decorated a picture of George Washington and glued cotton balls on for his hair.

• They memorized a few George Washington Facts: He was the first president. He was called "The Father of our Country."He was the commander of the army. His face is on the quarter and one dollar bill.
  

• We attempted to build a log cabin with edible Lincoln Logs (pretzel rods), but that activity quickly turned into a sword fight of sorts, and then it turned into just plain old snack time.
  

• We memorized some Abraham Lincoln Facts too: He was the sixteenth president. He lived in a log cabin and grew up very poor. He kept important papers in his hat. He is on the five dollar bill. He was killed while watching a play.

A Tuesday Tip

Here's my tip for a fun game for the whole family. It's called Sleeping Queens and Isaac loves it as much as Juliet because there are kings, knights and dragons as well as queens . It even keeps Trent and I entertained enough that we don't mind playing it with them EVERY single day. And, the whole game only lasts about 7 minutes. Perfect!

Happy 6 Years!

We celebrated our six year wedding anniversary at Mala Tang Sichuan Hot Pot Restaurant. I had been wanting to try it out and it did not disappoint! We ate for two hours without any interruption from little people and it was just like that night six years ago... kinda.

I love nights out when it's just the two of us. I also love looking in on our three babies and thinking about because of them, the last six years zoomed by in the blink of an eye. I hope the years will start slowing down now.



ps. Juliet was sleep walking and ended up in Isaac's bed!

45 Months Old

This was a good month for Isaac. He charmed us with his cuteness and affection. He tells me "I love you" or "You're the best" multiple times throughout the day. He has been doing this since he could talk and I don't know why I'm surprised that he hasn't outgrown this, but I'm glad that he hasn't. Although, he is my first child to tell me that he "hates" me!

He loves to "read" Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? and I'm proud of him for memorizing the book so quickly. He pretends to read his superhero books while he's in bed at night. He also likes to sing funny little rhyming songs and make up stories.

He's generally pretty sweet to Asher and will even tell him that he's the "best brother ever" to which Asher will usually respond by yelling "NO!" and then hitting Isaac.

It's not uncommon for me to shout at Isaac to "protect your teeth" throughout the day. He doesn't listen though and now has a brown front tooth to prove it. He has knocked his teeth on his bunk bed, our dining room table, a little girl's head, chairs, slides, the bathroom faucet...

Isaac told me he doesn't want to move to Russia because he doesn't want to learn another language. I told him that he didn't have to learn Russian, we could just speak English and Chinese in our house and he started whining, "I just want to speak the language that I am right now!"

He does keep us laughing with his Eeyore impressions though and my favorite is when he said, "If there one thing I hate, it's smashed bananas." Funny little guy.

Colors + Shapes = Art!

This week we focused on shapes & colors.

We read the following books:

• Round is a Mooncake by Roseanne Thong
• Stories by Philip Yenawine
• Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
• I Spy Shapes in Art by Lucy Micklethwait
• Come Look With me: Enjoying Art with Children by Gladys Blizzard
• Come Look With me: Animals in Art by Gladys Blizzard

We did the following activities:

Took a walk through the townhouse and pointed out as many shapes as possible. The kids got one gold coin for each shape they spotted.

Drew a picture using as many shapes as possible.

Found out what happens when you cut up broken crayons and melt them in the oven. Viola! A large multicolored crayon.

Finger painted with colored pudding. (no after pictures on this activity, I was overwhelmed with the clean-up process!)

Ate our way through the rainbow of fruit flavors with Skittles.

как дела? (How Are Things?)

People have been asking how my Russian classes are going... I should respond with ничего (not bad/okay), but usually I just pull at my hair and let out a little scream! The first three weeks were stressful. I learned the alphabet and how to introduce myself. Now I can also introduce my friend and family, including a sister that I don't have.

Since this is the express class, I self study all week and then I call in to speak to my teacher for 30 minutes on Thursday afternoons. She is strict, so sometimes I feel like I'm 7 years old again trying to learn how to read Chinese with my dad.

My friend lent me some Disney movies that are in Russian so this weekend I will have some tough choices to make-- Alice in Wonderland, Robin Hood, Cars 2, or Gossip Girl, Glee, and Downton Abbey that are on our Tivo.

In other Moscow-related-ish news, we've taken full advantage of all the winter sales and have purchased all of our coats, boots, wool socks, long underwear, gloves, hats, snowsuits, and everything else that you can think of that will keep us warm next winter. Only five more months in DC!

Happy Valentine's Day

Trent and I finally broke it to Juliet and Isaac that they can't marry each other. As soon as we told them, they both shouted, "yes we can!" No tears this time around though, just a lot of confusion. Not sure that Trent's explanation of "it's against the law" was that helpful, but I did overhear Juliet repeating it to Isaac in the car today.

I love how close these two kids are and I worry about what sending Juliet to kindergarten next year will do to their relationship. I'm hoping that it will improve Isaac and Asher's friendship, but unless Asher gets a new attitude, I'm doubtful.

We started Valentine's Day off with a note and box a chocolates for each kid from their current favorite baby (Happy Feet for Juliet, Puppy for Isaac, and Black Bear for Asher.) This sort of backfired on me because instead of putting the candy in their room, I took their babies and lined them up in the stairwell. So, Juliet came into our room crying because she couldn't find Happy Feet at 2am and then Isaac did the same thing at 5am.

It was a good thing that the Grandmas loaded the kids up with candy because the co-op Valentine exchange produced a lot of non-edible trinkets (think: tattoos, stickers, play-doh...) I'm not really complaining, but it was nothing like how Valentine's was when I was a kid!

We watched three different Charlie Brown Valentine shows over the past several days and it was fun to watch the kids crack up over Snoopy's antics.

This afternoon I channeled Michele's baking skills and knocked out 6 dozen sugar cookies and some chocolate covered pretzel rods for the neighbors. Trent asked me why I was making all this and I told him that I had no choice! I want to eat treats on Valentine's Day and who else was going to make them for me?! Oh man, holidays especially make me miss living near Michele!!

Trent cooked an awesome Thai curry dish for dinner and now I'm about to spend an hour or so studying Russian. How romantic, I know, but since our anniversary is just around the corner, we usually just celebrate then.

White Belt

The kids have been in Tae Kwon Do for a month now and they both love it! They practice almost every day at home so we were really excited when Master Park said Juliet could test for her white belt. If I were to compare Isaac's skills with some of the other white belts at the dojo, he probably could have been eligible to test too, but his attention span is short and his self confidence needs improvement so I can understand why Master Park didn't feel like he was ready yet. He'll just have to wait another couple of months for the next test date.

Just minutes before Juliet was going to test, I asked her if she was nervous and she said, "No, I am ready!"

This little "no belt" wasn't kidding. She was ready and she passed with flying colors.

She was also the first name called to receive her new belt and then she had to wait patiently (I don't think Isaac could have managed this) until everyone else was awarded their belt.

In addition, she received a medal for Best Technique and then she and another 5 year old little girl got to demonstrate a short form in front of everyone.

This is where the light bulb went on for me and I remembered when I took karate how I beat out so many of the boys for so many years. And then, right around age 13, I started getting my butt kicked by those same boys who out-powered me! I guess girls are generally just more coordinated early on.

For fun, here's an old picture of me cutting a watermelon in half with a sword.

60 Months Old

Would you believe that this little princess is really awesome at Tae Kwon Do? Since I am not shy about bragging about her on the blog, I will tell you that it's not uncommon for Master Park to give her 1st place (bragging rights) during class. She is so tough!

She also has a silly streak in her that is contagious (at least to her brothers) and is usually very sweet and helpful. But don't get me wrong, she is still sassy when she doesn't get her way and recently told me, "If I were you I would do it your way, but I'm NOT you!"

The last two times I've picked her up from her co-op class she has been playing by herself. I finally asked her why she wasn't sitting at the table with all of the other five year old little girls and she told me that they were talking about pee-pee and poo-poo and that she would rather play alone than join in that kind of talk. I can't blame her, potty humor is just not our style!

Stats:

Weight= 42.5 lbs, 81st percentile
Height= 45", 90th percentile