Season Of Illness

The kids have had their fair share of illnesses this year, which is to be expected since they're in daycare.  And they've always bounced back without anything major but this wasn't the case last week.  Esme stayed out of school all week with fevers up to 103 degrees and a cough.  I originally thought she just had the flu since she had no other complaints but on a random visit to my office I noticed she had an ear infection.  Then later that weekend Chan spiked a fever on top of his already thick runny nose and so I checked his ears just to make sure and of course, they were infected too.  So now both kids are slurping up their Amoxicillin antibiotics twice a day and we're hoping to get rid of these bugs for good!

When Esme was really sick we ended up pulling her into bed with us because she kept waking up at night.  That meant Chan got booted from our room (he usually wakes a few times at night so for the past month or so we put him in the pack n play in our room because we got tired of always walking to his room to get him/feed him) and back to his crib in his room.  Well turns out he sleeps better in there and has been waking much less since that happened.  I'm super excited about that!  I'm hoping this trend will continue and he'll be sleeping through the night by the time he's a year old.  It's crazy to say that since Esme slept through at 8 weeks!  We were so spoiled last time.

This is Chan cheezing it up like his sister used to do

Watching the front loading washer and dryer

Esme loves wearing my glasses at night

Just getting a carseat snooze in

This was Esme at her worst when she was sick :(

This was the day she popped into my office and I checked her ears

Lots Of Love

We've had quite a few celebrations this past week!  Last weekend was the Chinese New Year's celebration at school.  Nana bought Esme a special jacket to wear but she wanted to wear her tutu and butterfly wings instead so Chan got to wear it, even if it was a little big.  We got to hang out with the other parents and kids, do some art work together and eat some yummy Chinese food.  Welcome year of the horse!  Most surprising was the snow we were greeted with when we left that night.  It continued to the next day so Mimi, Chan and I made a ton of "racetracks" in the backyard while Allen was at work.

Getting ready for Chinese New Year

Chan Chan got a red envelope!

Making tracks

Venturing out in the snow

 



Chan also turned 9 months old on February 10th!  Time really is flying by.  He had a check up with Dr. Hiegel at my office and he was 20lbs 6oz and 29 1/4in long.  He gained less than a pound since his 6 month check up which dropped him down to the 55th percentile for weight but he stayed steady with his height in the 85th percentile.  Just this week he's given up his army crawl and only gets around on hands and knees now.  He's also pulling up on anything and everything.  He's even getting adventurous and doing some couch surfing.  Esme has learned that if she wants to keep things away from Chan she has to put them up and out of his reach because now he can go for whatever he wants!

Esme and Chan also celebrated Valentine's Day at school.  Throughout the week they came home with all kinds of goodies from their friends (many kids are part time so they'd bring stuff in whenever they could).  Faye asked for no candy gifts so it was fun to see what other families came up with.  The kids got crayons, pencils, funny sunglasses, strawberry plants, rattles, bracelets, spinning tops, and other fun trinkets.  Esme took some rambutan from Hawaii to share with her friends and she was very proud to show it to them.

Eating her rambutan

Wearing their sunglasses on Valentine's night

Then of course our last celebration was just yesterday, Esme's third birthday!  She woke up to a table of presents and balloons and was so excited for the day to begin.  She got through two presents and then lost interest so she helped me make her birthday cake - homemade carrot cake with lots of goodies inside like pineapple, coconut and of course, grated carrot.  She also got to wear the new apron that we got her.  Later in the afternoon Esme had a small birthday party with her friend Addy and cousin Tabby.  The little girls had a blast together!  It's hard to believe our baby girl is 3 years old now!  Her big birthday gift this year was a big girl bike with training wheels.  We actually got it while we were in Portland a few weeks ago but she knew it was for her birthday.

Birthday morning surprise

Helping with her cake in her new apron

Esme got hot so she was only wearing her tutu and her apron :)

Decorating her cake and eating some cream cheese frosting

By the end of the party she was hot again so she lost her dress :)

Esme, Addy and Tabby in dress-up princess shoes

 

Riding her new bike at the school nearby

 

The birthday weekend celebration continued with a trip to the Seattle Aquarium today.  Esme was so much more interested than the last time we went when she was about two years old.  She liked touching the starfish and watching the jellyfish.  However the thick aquarium glass kept throwing her perception off and she kept getting confused on how close she could get to it.

Fun times at the Seattle Aquarium



Up And Down

Chan tries to find anything possible to climb up on these days.  He doesn't go very far once he gets up but he loves going up and down, up and down, up and down.  So far he hasn't realized that he can do this in his crib too.  All his new foods must be making him stronger.  All of a sudden he's trying some chunkier foods or really soft fruits and veggies.  Chan and I made a last minute long weekend trip to the Big Island last week and he got to eat papaya straight from the source without mashing it up.  He also got to run his teeth along apple bananas and scrape off what he wanted.  He LOVED that!  He gets very demanding now when he sees food in front of him.  He'd much rather have the solids than the purees.  At daycare they even said he's not as into his bottles because he'd rather eat real food.  This is such a change from before cause they were always telling me that he kept demanding more milk.

Pulling up on the kitchen table chairs.

Chan got his upper right central incisor while we were in Hawaii.

After we got off the plane he was so excited to stretch his legs.  Looks like little pigs feet, right???

Quality time with Uncle Sterling

Hanging out with cousin Mahina who's about 6 weeks younger.

Cool dude with Uncle Sterling's hat

Hiding from the rain with Aunty B and Nana

 Esme got to stay in WA with Allen while Chan and I were gone.  They had lots of fun adventures including her very first gymnastics classes, trips to Costco and Trader Joes, and even the Children's Museum.  Before I left we had a mother daughter pedicure day with Aunty Marina and Addy though.  The girls got to pick out their own colors and were fascinated with the whole process.

I had to change her hair to match Addy's

Playing with their M&M cups from the little candy machine

Silly girls!

All done!