Last Weekend

Fei wore this pink dress to pre-school.  It was a bit short on Missy.

Princess Lili

Princess Fei

Opps, wrong end baby.

How hillarious is that?!

It's already Friday and I still haven't posted anything from last weekend.  Yikes.  Life is getting away from me.  I'm trying to catch up.  I put in an order with Wal-Mart photos today, from the China trip and everything since we've been home it was $360...gasp.   I'm pleased to have another task I've been dreading off my list. 

Eric's younger sister and family moved in for a few days last week and now they're in their RV at our place.  The first week was crazy busy with five kids and three dogs in the house.  Now that they have their own space and we have ours it's getting better.  I have no idea how long they'll be there.  While they're there we're getting our front retaining wall done with rocks.  They have an excavator.  The old wooden wall was pushed out by our neighbor and it's now dangerously close to falling over into the other neighbors front yard.  Not a job I'm excited about and not one I like paying for but it's got to be done.

The girls had two B-day parties to go to last weekend, one was bowling for Meili and Jia thought that was pretty cool.  She didn't bowl but she wanted to!  When we were leaving the lanes had switched to Rock and Glow and the girls have been bugging me to go to Rock and Glow so we have five girls going tonight.  Then on Sunday we went to Deanna's party at Lizzie Lee and Me.  Awesome.  The girls both really enjoyed the Princess theme.  Jia will SOOO have a party there one day.

This weekend kicks off our Chinese New Year celebrations.  Busy, busy days.  We decorated this week and filled our red envelopes, 85 of them this year.  While I had the girls working so diligently last night on the red envelopes I snuck in valentines too.  They got it all done!   All in bags ready to go to their classrooms. 

Jia is changing so much.  She is full on walking now and is starting to run.  I have to chase her occassionally!  She has learned that 'dis' is the thing in your hand and 'dat' is the thing you are pointing at.  She's added some more words, hot, shhhh, baby, Bel (for Isabel) and the cutest one is 'paweejsh' (please).  She still won't say 'no' but she shakes her head no now.  She is soooo busy.  She's still eating everything in sight and it's still common for her to sit and eat for a whole hour.  She loves her high chair and rarely fusses when she is sitting there.  She's moved into size 4 pampers.  Lili and Fei never moved out of 3's.  Yesterday Lili reminded me of a tlc show we watched with the worlds tallest girl and she was genuinely concerned that this is what was going to happen to Jia.  Funny.  I was happy to reassure her that Jia wouldn't get that tall.  It's hard to explain that their 12mo. old sister who is 90% on the chart is likely a few months older and really only 25% on the chart, so possibly a small girl. 

We've been working with an interventionist with Fei for a few weeks now.  Lisa comes on Tuesdays.  We had our doubts but she has totally pinpointed the areas that Fei needs help with and does games, stories and strategies designed to help.  I'm impressed and feeling hopeful.

Plans are underway for Fei's 8th Birthday.  We took some great photos of her with a bunch of polar bears to use on her invite.  We do have fun times around our place.

Now to figure out how to get the traditional hair cuts done on this busy weekend.  Oh, and we have to color our Kitchen Gods still.  The girls are really into the celebrations and traditions this year.  That does make it so much more fun.

Miss Fei lost another tooth, that's two in the last week.  Oh and the big girls babysat Grandma's dogs and got paid.  They spent their money right away.  Lili bought a webkinz wolf.  Not because she wanted a webkinz, she just wanted a wolf.  Fei bought a webkinz hamster.  She was loving him like crazy until Isabel took him and now apparently the hamster 'Cheeky' smells like Isabel's mouth and she won't touch him.  I did give him a wash but I'm going to have to really bathe Cheeky this weekend apparently.

Lili and Eric's cabin

Lili is learning about building/structures at school so she decided she wanted to build something.  We bought the popsicle sticks she wanted on Friday and yesterday after school her and Eric sat down and got to it.  They made a cabin in the woods.  You know Eric made it with her versus me because it's got stick frame, trusses and facia boards!  Too cute.  Lili is very proud of it and claims she's keeping it forever.  She took it to school this morning for show and tell. 

Chinatown and a wood floor revealed.

Saturday we went to Chinatown and got our supplies for Chinese New Year.  Jia was in the chest carrier for the first time in a long time and she quite liked it.  She especially loved shopping in the Chinese grocery.  Our first Chinese New Years party is on the 29th, another on the 30th, then the 3rd, 5th and 6th.  Plus my B-day on the 4th.  Phew.  It will be whirlwind.  I had hoped to decorate the living room yesterday but just didn't get to it.  Eric was home (he rode Sat.) so he managed to lift the carpet/underlay and subfloor out of Jia's room.  Miss Lacie has  been peeing in there and we give up trying to keep it clean.  So, it is always with much dread and crossed fingers that we start these projects in the 101 year old house.  To our delight and surprise, there is decent wood floor underneath!  Phew.  It needs to be refinished but for now, it looks ok and it's clean.

Lili got a makeover!

She willingly let Fei do a makeover on her!!

Jia loved playing Twister!

Yay!!  I win!!

Fun with Isabel

Typing

Eric brought Jia to see me at work yesterday.  She is nuts about technology and buttons of any kind, so the typewriter was a big hit.  Lots of drool happening while she played with it. 

Our new Samsung plasma TV lost the picture, so Eric came to the office to get the receipt so he could return it.  He traded it in for a Toshiba LED. 

We're not techy people at all.  The new TV and Wii were more than enough for us, but I figured since we were doing so well with the new stuff I bought an I-robot roomba.  Yup, our first robot.  Love him!  He actually vacuums up Isabel fur.  We've named him Rusty and he scoots around the main floor every day now.   Anyone with pets might want to consider getting one for sure.  He does require some supervision.  He gets stuck occasionally.  Jia follows him around and turns him off and on.  We're working on trying to stop her.  Isabel does the puppy crouch in front of it and tries to get it to play with her :)  Everyone else just steps out of his way. 

Snow Day!

This is how you make the snowsuit fit.

No little boots, so yes, she's out in little bear slippers.

Well, the snow came all night.  We got about a foot and a half.  The power went out at 2am and this old house gets cold really fast, so Eric got up and lit a fire.  Not sure what happened but the whole house was filled with smoke.  Ug.  Poor Eric.  He wasn't too thrilled.  Trying to heat the house with windows and doors open.  When we put the wood stove in, we had this brilliant idea that we'd put a vent from the fireplace to our bathroom upstairs for extra warmth.  Ya', that idea works too well.  It was sweltering up there last night.  The smell of smoke is still strong here, especially in the living room.  Thankfully it wasn't black and billowy, just grey and foggy.  Lili mentioned this morning that she woke up and smelled smoke...and didn't say anything.  So, there were long talks today about fire safety and she's clear she should wake us up when she smells anything.  Needless to say, it was a long night with very little sleep.  Then I got a call early this morning telling me I could stay home with the kids for a snow day!  Yay.  I don't think I've ever had a 'snow day' as a adult.  The kids were jumping around and screaming they were so excited that we'd all be here to play together.

Then came a plea for help from another FCC family.  They were stuck on Riverbottom and needed to get to the airport by 12.  So, Eric trudged out and got them there.  I was worried about Eric heading out and it was a tense morning until we heard that he had them and managed to get them there with 40 minutes to spare.  He was home here for a late lunch.

The girls weren't happy about Eric not being here, they wanted him to build their slide like he does every snowfall.  They use the back stairs to climb up and he packs all the snow off of both decks against the big rock.  They ended up heading out before breakfast and played for two hours! They were in and out getting new mittens. I thought it was because they were wet, nope, it was because Isabel kept taking theirs right off their hands!  Jia and I stayed warm inside. She went down for her first nap just as the big girls came inside and we had brunch.


So our snow day didn't go as planned but we eventually all made it outside together to play after lunch.  The girls had made their slide themselves.  Eric had shoveled the snow during the night, but it wasn't packed.  The slide was lumpy and they were getting air and there was risk of sliding into the trampoline at the bottom but they were having fun with it.  Eric made some quick adjustments and then it was even better.  Jia and I were really only out there long enough for a couple pictures.  She was happy to come in and now she's down for nap #2.  It's all good. 

The snowsuit she is wearing is the one that both Lili and Fei wore at two and it's too small for Jia.  She is really tall.  The Dr. appt. yesterday went well.  Jia took that in stride too.  She was really more curious than miffed at the poking and prodding.  Her mongolian mark is documented.  She is healthy.  The Dr. agreed to do all of the tests we asked for.  She is 75" long and 23lbs.  She's gained 3lbs since we've been home.  I'm not sure where that is on the chart.  I'm just so thrilled she's on the chart!  Such a different experience.  Oh, and the Dr. agrees that she is clearly older.  Not sure yet if we'll bother with the testing.  I'm inclined to not bother.

Lastly, I have a ganglion cyst on my right hand, it showed up in July during the height of referral drama.  Likely caused by too much time on the computer.  I've had one before, that went away on it's own.  Anyway, it's still here and the new family Dr. wants it looked at so she put a surgury consult application in.  I was a bit shocked by that and Lili is devastated about the idea of me having any surgury.  So, we've had to go over and over again with her about how simple it will be.  

Ok, the girlies want to bake cookies and that sounds good to me, so I'm off.

Out for dinner

First time putting a hat on her that wasn't attached to the coat.  She kept it on!

One teenager on the phone, the other showing the girls what it can do, guess what Lili and Fei want now.

We went out for dinner with family to celebrate my nephew turning 13.  Wild.  He was just a little kid the other day.  His older sister is 15 and the math was done that when Jia is 15 she'll be 30.  Hard to even wrap my mind around that.  We were there for two hours and Jia managed most of that in a high chair.  She's such an easy going baby.  It started snowing yesterday afternoon and was starting to stick by dinner.  We were all trying to guess if it would keep coming or not.  The girls were hard to get to bed, they were totally revved up about the idea of a snow day.  Odd, because normally they just don't care that much for snow.  They kept asking about when we were kids what we did on snow days, I told them my Mom used to have the dryer going all day. 

Much needed quiet weekend.

How cute is that?!  Meilings little robe after a bath with her sisters.

Jia loves climbing anything, padded and soft made it even better.

This little guy is 23mo.   They played together for a while, it was really sweet.

We haven't had much down time since we got home with Jia.  So, this weekend we found ourselves without any plans with anyone!  Wild.  Rare.  We had a lazy morning, the three girls had a great long bath and Jia had a good long nap while the big girls played Wii, then we took off for the day.  Played in some stores, let the girls poke around and shop for new books.  Then went to Jumpin' Jimminies (sp?).  Jia thought the toddler section was pretty cool and she played in there for almost two hours.  Mostly by herself, occassionly her sisters came and checked in with her.  There were some other babies there but they weren't as interested in socializing as she was.  The amazing part is that she was happy to stay in her area and didn't insist on following the big girls to the big kid section!  We had dinner out and got home in time for Jia to head to bed.

Sunday Eric tried to ride but he came home early claiming his toes were too cold.  I think he was very graciously coming home early so that I could take the big girls to the matinee.  We're out for dinner tonight for my nephews 13th Birthday (Happy Birthdy Ty Man!) and after they're planning to go to the movie but it will be too late for the girls so I wanted them to go Sunday so they wouldn't feel left out.  Anyways, we saw 'Little Fockers' and although they thought it was funny, I have to say the content was a bit more adult than I was expecting. 

We're all feeling better, the colds are under control.  We all have the occassional cough but thankfully we're mostly back to normal.  Lili seems to be going through more growing pains.  My brother used to get them.  I never did and Eric can't remember them.  She is complaining a lot.  We think her right knee is actually about 1/2" higher than her left?  Does that happen?  I should go read up, perhaps she'd feel better if we could tell her it was normal.

This afternoon is Jia's 1st Doctors appointment since we've been home.  Hopefully she takes that in stride as she does everything else.  She'll need to do a blood draw, but we'll do that another day when Fei isn't with us.  Fei is totally freaked about Jia having to go through that. 
 

Well into the New Year.

Lined up and ready for the countdown!

The only one being carried in the parade :)  Notice E has tissue in his ears!

Jia loves being apart of the Wii games, it's quite funny, she'll do anything to get her hands on the remotes!

This is a very rare sight.  Jia hasn't been much for napping at home unless she is in her crib.

We celebrated the New Year at home with a few friends.  Fun times.  There were 10 kids there so it was pretty darn loud, especially when we did the music parade!  I wasn't sure the big kids would go along with the parade this year but they did, and they looked like they were having some fun too!  Jia thought it was great fun, she had a drum and was actually hitting it!  She is soooo cute.  We did the early countdown at 8 and then the big kids stayed up until 12 for the real countdown.  The next day they were already asking about when Chinese New Years is :)  Too funny.  Never ready for the party to stop.

I have a cold, I've had it since just before Jia's Birthday.  I'm ready for it to be done!  Jia has had it and Eric got it last night.  I think Lili and Fei are showing signs of it too.  Thankfully it's just a cold.  Although Eric has a mancold versus the regular cold I have so it's much worse. 

The kids are back to school and our routines are back in place.  The holidays were great but there is something oddly comforting about the routines too.

I just booked a Disneyland holiday for Lili and I for her 9th Birthday in March.  Eric and I have been talking for years about doing this for the girls.  Lili and I are both pretty excited.  Fei seems ok with the plan, she is clear that she'll get to do this next year and for now she's still happy to plan her party.  Jia has no clue.  

Wonder what surprises 2011 will bring us?!