Too Busy...

Phew, it was a busy weekend.  I'll fill you in later but in the meantime here's some pics to get you by.....

Esme's recently enjoyed wearing hats like mom

Chan's also found the drumsticks and thinks they're great toys

He's also enjoying walking around with Esme's shopping cart.  He's starting to take his first steps!

Seattle Sights

Chan's left upper lateral incisor came through this week and he also had another ear infection, this time a double one.  Sounds like a recipe for disaster but thankfully by the end of the week he was doing much better and has even slept through the night for us a few times!  We're hoping this is a new trend that he keeps up with.  Ha ha!  He loves rubbing his tongue over all 5 of his teeth and his favorite word right now is "bee-duh."  He's sporadically been signing "milk" but otherwise that's it.  He's bound to get a few more teeth in the next few weeks as so many of them are almost poking through his gums right now.

Ms Faye recently told me that Chan's been participating in circle time each day for awhile now.  Ms Faye usually sits against a wall and the children sit in a half circle around her on the carpet.  At the beginning Ms Faye goes around the circle and says hello to each of the children in Mandarin and bows to them.  The children then repeat this greeting and bow back to her.  Apparently whenever it's Chan's turn Esme goes up behind him and pushes his back down to help him bow to Ms Faye.  Little miss bossy!  Esme's been talking a lot more in Mandarin lately which is neat to see.  She's even trying to teach me words.

For the past few weeks we've been using a star/reward chart to help Esme with some things.  One was getting out of bed in the morning.  When she transferred to her big girl bed she used to always call us to come get her out of bed when she woke up.  We put a stuffed animal in her room that lights up when it's "time to wake up" and it's set for 7am so that's when she usually called us.  Well all of a sudden she realized that she could just get out bed by herself whenever she woke up, even if it was 4am!  Yikes!  We decided to use a reward system for her staying in her bed till her light alarm went off.  The other issue was peeing in her bed at school during nap.  She's so stubborn and was refusing to go to the bathroom before nap and so she was going pee about every other day even though she was dry at school for months before that.  It was so frustrating for us because we had to wash her bedding all the time and send it back the next day.  And since we started the reward system she hasn't done it once!

We told her she could get a prize if she collected lots of stars for her chart but she had no clue what that meant and was just happy to get the stars to put on her chart.  Regardless we took a trip to the Space Needle this weekend as part of her reward and also because it's been in some of her books lately and she always like to find it in the Seattle skyline when we're driving around.  The funny thing is that after we got to the top Esme said "I want to go to the Space Needle."  Because we were in it she couldn't see it and so she had no idea where we were.  We could've just gone to Seattle Center to hang out below the Space Needle and she would have been fine.  Sheesh!

Can you find all 5 of his teeth?

Family photo opportunity!

The view from down below

Spring flowers at the Space Needle

Snacks on the observation deck

The view from 520 feet high

It was a little bright for Chan

Running back and forth from the fountain at Seattle Center

Esme's star chart that started it all

Mommy's Mini-Me

At home playing ball with Chan

An Esme action shot

Chan seems to be teething a lot these days cause he can't stop drooling and he's been a little more restless at night.  He's waking up more than normal again which makes for a very sleepy household in the day.  Right now Chan has his 2 top teeth and 2 bottom teeth so the next ones to come through are the top 2 lateral incisors.  We can see them through his gums but they haven't broken through yet.  I just hope it happens soon!  He's getting a lot more independent with foods and loves to eat ANYTHING that we're eating.  And he can chow down too!

Esme's eating habits go up and down all the time.  She still loves making smoothies in the morning and most recently she learned how to use the juicer with mommy.  We made a carrot apple juice that she really liked.  Then she helped mommy use the pulp to make muffins.  She's quite the kitchen helper.  

'

Esme loves her new rose colored glasses

Morning smoothie making 

Making carrot-apple juice

Chan keeping busy while we're making smoothies

Chan's rockin his sister's old car

Hanging out in the Lego box

He didn't even want to get out!

Welcome Spring!

We turned our clocks forward this weekend, the trees around us are blooming and we're hearing the birds chirping in the morning again so it looks like spring is here!  Woohoo!  Along with that comes the rain and so we decided to make the most of it this weekend and go find some puddles to stomp in.  Esme wanted to try out every umbrella she could find :)

Esme's also developing quite the fashion sense ;)  She's adamant about what she wants to wear each morning and comes up with some pretty interesting combinations.  She's been really interested in dresses and tutus for the past few months and that's fine with us as long as she layers them with shirts, tights, etc.  

Legwarmers from when she was an infant

Cardigan, tutu dress, and purple leggings

It's hard to tell but she has 3 pony tails in

Then she decides she'd just rather go naked.  Ha ha!

Chan is doing well and still fine with whatever we dress him in even though he's squirlling all over the place in the process.  It can be a workout to get him dressed in the morning!  Finally he's starting to sleep better at night and waking up about once.  It's slowly getting closer to the morning time so I'm hoping we're getting towards the end of all this.  It's been a long 10 months!

After getting this outfit on him I realized it was too big but didn't want to bother taking it off and trying again with something else cause he's such a wiggle work!

Chan Has Hair!!!

We've got big news everyone!  Chan has hair!  Well it's actually just A hair to be exact ;)  Ha ha!  While playing by the window today I noticed just one little hair about an inch long coming out of the crown of his head.  There's hope for his bald head yet!

Can you see it!?!?!?  Truth is, everyone loves his bald little head and always loves to rub it so it'll be strange one day when he has a full head of hair.  Maybe this sudden hair growth is from all his new foods lately.  Just this past week he's enjoyed potstickers, wonton, rotisserie chicken and salmon.  He loves to eat whatever we're eating.   

Esme still loves making her banana smoothies in the morning.  This past weekend we had some kiwis leftover from a box of home delivered organic fruits and veggies.  I'd never given them to her but as soon as she saw them she said "just like Faye Faye's!"  Apparently she's had them at school (this is one of the many reasons that I LOVE the kids school, they experience all kinds of new things) so she was excited to eat two whole ones as soon as I peeled them for her.  The rest were a new addition to her smoothie that day.  

Reading her morning magazine at the table

Riding in the toy basket with Chan

Getting ready for gymnastics class

Chan got to suck on a rib bone and loved it!

Sporting her new rose colored glasses before school