Sound Asleep

Esmei sound asleep in Lacie's pee paper.  I'm really hoping there isn't pee on it. Sigh.

A new desk.

The stacking drawers aren't working. Kai lays in the drawers and it's getting all twisted. He also takes the others things and moves them around.  Jia waits until the boys are in bed and then retrieves everything from his drawer.  We also are having zero success getting Kai out of Jia's desk.  He doesn't fit so great in Luk's so he zeros in on hers.  Plus he knows it makes her crazy and I think he enjoys that. I've been searching for another school desk for Kai.  I finally found one, it's older and all wood but the chair is attached plus it was only $20.  We went to get it last night and realized immediately that it's bigger than we were expecting so it clearly had to go to Jia.  Eric and I were plotting how to break it to her that she would have to give her desk to Kai.  Assuming that wasn't going to go well.  She totally surprised us.  She was thrilled with the new desk and couldn't wait to move her stuff into it.  Kai was really pleased with his new desk and got right to coloring.  We were joking that he's peed on Jia's desk three times so he's marked it sufficiently enough to claim it as his own.  Wish us luck getting him to stay out of Jia's new desk.  If he pees on her new one she will lose her mind. 

Furniture Swap.

I left the house to take Lili to Chalkboard on Sunday afternoon .  Drove through lightning flashing in front of us, torrential rain, a sudden river on the roads and then big hail.  Came home to discover Luk and Jia had made a camp under the dining room table and Kai had moved everything around in the living room.  Remotes and wires out of baskets and the baskets filled with Duplo.  Every piece of furniture moved.  Rocks taken from a crystal bowl and lined up on the window sill.  All couch cushions taken off and moved.  Seriously everything he could move, he did.  I wasn't gone that long!  Big girl baby sitting thought he was playing with the others.  Then Kai adamantly denied doing the deed and was pointing at the others.  Jia and Luk were pointing at Kai. Ya' I lost it.  All three of them lined up and pointing at each other.  I hate the blame game.  We all know it was Kai.  Sigh.  So, Eric came in when he heard me ranting.  We sent the boys to the toy room.  Took half an hour to put the living room back!  Jia sorted the dining room.  Then I declared that the living room was mine and that was the LAST time Kai was allowed in there.  So we moved the eating area to the sitting room and the sitting room to the sun room and the duplo to the sun room. 

All in an effort to thwart Kai.  He does great when we're with him but the destruction he can do on his own is awesome.  Luk is upset that he can't watch TV in the living room but they have tv in the playroom so I'm not feeling bad for him.  Luk is supposed to tattle when Kai is doing his weird move everything around thing.  The boys played downstairs for a half hour and then it took me an hour to clean up the toy room.  Kai can NOT handle being in there.  It's too much.  He works so hard at moving everything that he breaks a sweat. 

So, in the morning they were all happy that the furniture was moved around.  Jia is thrilled with her new pink chair.  Kai seems pleased to have the duplo near Eric. 

I bought the mine craft Star Wars shirts for the boys right when Kai joined our family.  Jia was upset that she didn't get one.  So, I kept looking in Walmart and they finally had another one there. So they were all thrilled to have matching shirts. Cute.  Then a boy in school told Jia it was a boy shirt so she likely won't wear it again.  Even though she totally knew it came from the boy section. 

I bought Luk some girl pants because they're slimmer.  Stitch picked the bow off and he was good to go.  That wasn't enough to convince Jia that girls can wear boy shirts.  She has a gauzy skirt on today, proving to Carter that she isn't a boy!

  

We Found a Zip Line!

We met Mom and Dad at a park to have an easy pizza dinner and a walk.  The rain held off right up until we were done eating.  We scrapped the walk because it was just too cold. We had to stay long enough to play on the super cool zip line though! 

Jia and I went to Walmart after the boys went to bed. She needed new indoor shoes for school. This is how it's done ;)

Rock the Salish Sea

Jia was in a concert with her school last night.  Musicians came to the school all week and worked with the kids.  Last night they put on a show.  Forced fundraiser.  Had to pay to see them. 

Jia loved it and she was so adorable up there, singing her heart out and having fun with all the actions.

Way too young and uncool for Fei, she opted out.  Eric and I took the boys to watch.  Kai loved it.  Sat mesmerized through the whole thing and grinning.   Luk was bored, tired and ready to go home. 

Jia is to the left, front row, in black, shielding her eyes trying to find us in the audience.

We raced from gymnastics and we were a few mins late, quick picture in the bathroom after getting her changed before she was whisked away by the teachers.  She thought she looked great with rosy cheeks from gymnastics.  

Fei at Quam!

Fei had her first tour of high school.   It's all happening too fast. 

Lili is in leadership so she gave the tour for our group.  She was so funny.  Very expressive.  Her and her friend Maiya were so sweet together.  Fei was very quiet.  She is so ready to move on.

I had fun asking Lili and Maiya tons of questions.  Fei was hanging with her friend. Another Mom said I wouldn't be her favorite and I laughed and said it's ok, she's my kid and she gave me quite the shocked look. 

The New Van

Our first brand new car.  It is hard to get too excited about a people mover.  This one is pretty nice.  All the features we were looking for. It's a 2015 and our neighbor is the manager at the lot so it was fun to buy from him and we're pretty pleased with the deal over all.  I do like that new car smell. Bets on which kid puts the first damage on it? 

Family time.

It's pretty tricky to find time off for all of us together. Eric took time off for a play date.  I got the littles bathed and dressed. When our plans changed we found ourselves with a Sunday afternoon free of agendas, chores and obligations.

We started with lunch at Dog House, then we took back roads to Nanaimo and played at a park until dinner time.  We ended our day with Noodle Box.

Kai has a medical number!

Ok, that was a battle.  Long haul.  16 points of contact.

We thought things were settled on April 5.  Was waiting for the mail and checking daily.  Then received a letter on the 13th asking a bunch more questions.  Really fun ones like asking us to prove guardianship or adoption and asking us why our child doesn't have medical coverage and who is financially responsible for him and why is the child dependent on us.  Seriously.  I wanted to just cry.

But today is another day, so I came in and faxed it all again.

Then I phoned msp and was on hold for 23minutes.  I was planning to stay on hold and have them pass me from person to person until I got Jessa or Eve and then I was planning to grovel.  Nice fellow answered and heard my tale of woe and then told me that Kai has a number, issued as of Feb. 15.  The day we got him.  WILD.  He didn't have a number yesterday.  I don't know what happened.  Since I hadn't actually yet answered the all important question of why was our child dependent on us. 

So, no one will enjoy my answer of 'he's our son and he's 4'.  I resisted adding 'DUH'. 

Back to work. 

New Bikes for the Boys!

Big day!

Boys were shocked and pretty happy about picking out new bikes. I was headed for a BB8 and R2D2 bike but the boys liked different ones.  Once Luk picked his Kai was all over having the same one. So cute. I still think the Star War ones were cuter but we gave them choice. Now I have to head to the dollar store for bells and whistles so we can make them look different.  They did agree to the cute helmets though. You wouldn't have believed the fuss from cutomers and staff when we were lugging the bikes through the store.  The boys were too cute getting their first bikes!

We started the day with some errands.  Went to look at a van I like and found out the rock bottom price we settled on is now the marked sale price. So they dropped it another thousand for us.  Slimy salesmen.  I think we might be getting closer.  Then we stopped to check on Scott and play at a park.

Good day so far.  Picking up the girls now.

Kids got to ride for a bit after a snack and before getting the littles to dance. Surprisingly Luk just took off!! Didn't see that happening. He is completely over joyed.  Jia is so excited that he can ride with her now. Not going so great for Kai yet.  We tried putting Kai on a bigger bike but he was so inept at even getting on them that after some prodding from me and after he fell over a couple times from standing by the bike.  Seriously. Eric finally agreed to the 12" for him too. So he can almost peddle or almost steer. But not together and he can only peddle one rotation then he stops and can't get started again.  Everyone...Eric is my hero in some circumstances.  He just kept walking with Kai and repeating push down, look forward, look where you're going. I would have found a reason to head in and kept him away from the bike for another month.  Then since Luk was doing so great we stopped hovering and he fell and dislocated his thumb!! Eric snapped it back in.  It's bruised but he can move it and he stopped crying as soon as Eric put it back in the right position. Again, he's a hero!  I missed it all while I was with Kai. Eric wasn't going to tell me the details but Jia explained in great detail. I would have bundled him back to emergency. He is so delicate.

Ok. At dance.  Time to watch the cuteness here. Penny and girls are over for dinner. Lili has theater and Fei has dance. Mondays are busy.

He looks unhappy here, he's worried we'll take the bike away.

Misleading, Eric just stepped away ;)

Esmei Outside.

I'm not keen on her going outside but I'm also not keen on litter boxes.  If it was just her it would be manageable but our three indoor/outdoor cats are pretty happy with the indoor plumbing provided for them.

So with it so nice out and the kids in and out the front door I thought we might let her try exploring.  She made it to the porch.  When Fei told me she was outside I came to see her and she ran to me when she saw me.  So that was the end of that. 

Eric is now declaring she should stay indoor.  I'd like to think it's because he thinks she is as sweet as I do but really he's likely protecting us from loosing Eugene's sister. Because that level of crazy would be too much for me and he knows it. 

Looking for baby birds.

Littles and I were at the bird santuary today looking for baby birds.  We saw some tree swallow couples hovering at their boxes but didn't see any babies. We listened carefully. So cute. Jia is keen to go back next week and check again but could we do the trail backwards and three times. 

Big girls declined.  They walked 10k around town with a friend yesterday so they were happy to lounge at home.

I did a big grocery order with the littles. They did pretty good.  Only had to ask Jia 47 times to get off the cart.  Asked Luk 20 times to stop dragging his hands along the shelves.  Kai was a doll.  Hung onto the cart and held his position the whole time.  It's rare for us to take kids shopping. We try to split that up and leave some or all of them at home.  Helps to have built in baby sitters.

Kids are playing outside.  I just put groceries away and passed out snacks. Eric has been in the garage all day building props for the play. 

I'm hoping for some free time to go for a drive in the convertible while it's so sunny out!