Merry Christmas post

We're so busy these days that it's hard to find time to write for the blog. Every day, we have a to-do list, which we cannot seem to complete.

We planned to celebrate the Xmas Eve, according to the tradition in Sweden, but since some friends of ours had already had plan for that night, we changed the dinner to 25th. We shopped at Ikea, but didn't find much other than meatballs and herrings. Unfortunately, they carry most of their own brands nowadays, which tend to be of lower quality than their previous counterparts. Mattias made Johnson's Tempetation and meatballs, and also the Swedish Xmas drinks. An and Chong brought ham and salmon. Yu-Ling and Bernice brought beer and wine, Bond dessert, and Christine holiday cookies and mashed potato. Before and after dinner, people chatted around the kitchen island, watching the kids playing in the family room. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

Let's see what Maya and Luca got for Santa.
Maya:
Barbie (fashion designer)
A big Lego City set (a ship and all kinds of equipments)
a pink Lego set (from An) -- I know that Lego is criticised for making products for girls only but I have to say this set is pretty cute.
Clothes (sweater, leggings, pants)
a RC truck
More cars (she surely likes cars)
doll house ( gift exchange at Madison's house)
a dophin bean bag (from Xinran)
puzzle

Luca:
A big lion which he likes to ride on
a music tractor
some kind of push toy that makes a lot of noise
cars

I think Maya's favorites, other than legos, are Barbie and the little car that can fly. As for Luca he likes to play everything for several minutes then he moves on. He's immensely curious. Everything can be a toy for him. House objects, from food containers to cups to pots to faucets, and a leaf or a small rock on the ground are all fun to play with. 

I got an Apple laptop myself! It looks cool, not to mention that the timing is perfect, just when my old laptop is quitting on me.

RE: First hair cut

                             

We gave Luca his first hair cut today. His hair was getting too long and it was time to trim it down.

Tidbits to remember before I forget to write them down

Maya is still in her old school right by our old house. We decided not to move her since it won’t be that long left until kindergarten starts. The drive is long but the bonus is that Maya and I get lots of time to talk to each other going to and from school. We sing, we talk and sometimes we just enjoy listening to music together.

After farmor and farfar was here Maya is making a more concentrated effort of speaking Swedish. She sings, counts etc in Swedish and when I speak Swedish to her she responds with “Jo” for yes and “Naj” for no. 

How do I answer this one?

“Daddy, why did Anakin chose to be Darth Vader?” One of the boys in school are very much into Star Wars….

I have a feeling this tune will change over time:

“Daddy, daddy, can I plllllllllllllleaaaaase do my homework before dinner??? I don’t want to wait!!”

“Daddy, I want you to hug me because I love you SOOOO much….and Luca and mommy and Noa too.”

Mixed post

Farfar and Farmor left last Wednesday. It was sad to see them leave. When it was time to say goodbye, Maya hid behind me and didn't want to hug Farfar and Farmor. Later, her teachers told us that she was quiet the whole day. :( In the evening, she told us that she was sad and asked to sleep on our bed for the night. Of course, we said yes. The following two nights, with the same excuse, she slept on our bed, too.

Luca has always been a big eater. Today, for lunch, he has two bowls of porriage (rice+ground turkey+carrots), one whole milk yogurt, and half of my salmon+avocado sandwich. I used to give him several bottles of milk a day, but Doctor Rosen said that he should get more balanced nutrition from solid food. So he now drinks milk twice a day, eight ounces each, and has plenty of solid food in between and after. His favorite food are sandwiches with avocado, well-cooked broccoli, all kinds of meat, rice and noodles and pasta, yogurt, and ice cream (just like pappa, Maya and farmor). Really, pretty much everything.

Luca is a fast learner. The first time he was put on a slide (four weeks ago), he climbed up the stairs by himself and when he got to the slide, he just turned and went down with legs first, laughing all the way. He had so much fun that day. So did we. Today, I show him how to drink water from straw (I cannot find his sippy cup). It takes him no time to get it right. Actually he really enjoys it. This progress will make my life a little easier--from now on, I don't have to look everywhere for his sippy cup every day.

Maya's first word, other than mama, pappa and their different variations, is Lumpa - lamp in Swedish. Luca's first word/phrase? "Stopit." He has Maya to thank for it.

Catching up with posting

Farfar and Farmo arrived on Nov 7th. It was wonderful to see how Luca got comfortable with them immediately. Maya, of course, was really excited with all the gifts from Sweden, which included a beautiful princess bath towel and many books. Farmor was going to buy clothes for her, but I told her that Maya is very picky with her clothes and it's better to let her pick her own clothes.

Mattias and I went to Anders's 40th bday party on 10th (sorry that we made farfar and farmor work right away). It was a great party. We were picked up by a limo and had dinner at Alexander's Steakhouse in the city. Afterwards the whole group went to Harry Denton's Starlight Room. We didn't get home until 3am. It'd been a long time since we had stayed out so late. Wish the kids would let us sleep in in the morning. Sigh.

Luca started walking about a month ago. He walks pretty well now. We took him to the neighborhood park yesterday and he loved sliding. He climbed up the stairs and turned around (we didn't teach him that and it was his first time) and had tons of fun. We had tons of fun watching him as well. We thought Maya was a daredevil when she was Luca's age. Now, look at Luca.

Luca has his first year checkup today. Everything is good - about average in weight and 20 percentile in height (thanks to daddy and mommy's genes). It's nice for Mattias to see Dr. Rosen after probably two years. Luca has to get six shots. Ouch!

We moved, finally!

We moved on Monday, Nov 19. I thought we didn't have much stuff but it took three movers, who had a big truck, more than ten hours to get the job done. Needless to say that we're way over budget for the moving cost.

The house is still being renovated. But it's looking nice. The kitchen was done two days ago, and the wood flooring was done yesterday. The two chandeliers, one Nelson Bubble Lamp, the other Hundi Lantern, in the dining room and entryway were also installed. They look terrific.

We still haven't figured out where to place the red Chinese cabinet, which is huge. We'd like to make the front room a library. Our current book shelves don't go well with the dark wood floor, so we have to get rid of them and get dark or white book shelves.

The railing between the kitchen and the family room was done yesterday. Wood frame with wrought iron bars. It looks beautiful and matches the railing along the stairs. We have to find a cool wood mantlepiece for the fireplace. It can be costly.

Called the tree service and set up an appt for tomorrow morning. A guy who does pool fences came over to give an estimate this afternoon. He seems good and his price is reasonable.

There's so much to do......



  

Maya 4th birthday

Didn't get a chance to post them until now.

The night before her birthday, she and Pappa made many beautiful pink and blue cupcakes.

Birthday party at school. Pappa and Maya did a nice job with the cupcakes.

Pappa and Maya spent the birthday night building legos. It's amazing how good Maya is with legos.

Maya and Luca

Best friends? Not really. Not yet. But things are improving...

 

 

Mixed photos

Busy, busy, busy...but here are some photos of the kids

For Maya's 4th birthday, she wanted a Cinderella Dress. She got it, of course. But in this photo, she's showing off her tiger tatoo

Maya's best friend is Ethan B. She plays with him at school every day, and she told me that they're married. I asked her why she married him. She said, "He likes me and I like him." Fair enough. I wonder where they're heading in this photo. Escaping from home?

Luca has his best friend too. Her name is Abi. She's three weeks older than him.

Noticing anything different in this photo? Yep, no more training wheels. Of course, it means that daddy needs to be ready to give a hand.

We bought a house!

This news deserves more writing, but for now let's just say that we bought a house in Cambrian Park, between Campell and Los Gatos. We signed off the loan contingency on Monday. We've been busy with all the paperwork and millions of other things (you know what it is like). We'll do some remodeling before moving in, hopefully in mid/late October.  Maya's farfar and farmor will visit us around that time.

Maya turns four tomorrow

Maya will be four years old tomorrow. She's so excited about this because she's going to be a "really really big girl" when she's four. Tonight she makes cupcakes with pappa. There are two flavors, chocolate and vanilla. As for colors, some are pink and others are light blue. With a bit decorations on them, they look so pinkalicious and aqualicious!!!! Tomorrow mama will bring them to school, where there'll be a birthday celebration for her.

She opens her first birthday gift from mama and pappa today. A Hello Kitty notebook, where she can draw or write. There'll be more surprises tomorrow. :)

By the way, the birthday card from farfar and farmor arrive today. It's a big card with a big cake in it.

Luca and Maya

Or if you ask Maya, she'd change the subject to "Maya and Luca" because she likes to be number one. In this case, she undoubtedly is. Sometimes you wonder how much the number two's personality is shaped by the number one -- just look at how Maya jumps around Luca, how she teases him, how she snatches toys from him, how she pushes him (most of the times she does that without knowing), how she wakes him up by screaming right at his ear ( she did that several times when mama or pappa wasn't watching)...if you were Luca, you'd probably want to grow up really really fast so you could get even with your playful yet mischievous big sister.

But Maya and Luca truly love each other 99% of the time, and they play together quite nicely if you're not being too paranoid about scatches and bumps.

Kiss, kiss, kiss, we're each other's best friend

We fight, of course, like all other siblings; the cause can be as big as who gets to sit on Pappa's lap and as small as a mug

When we play together, the game isn't always fair. Sometimes, Luca asks, "Do I have an option?"

Most of the time the older one has the final say. "No, Mama said that you cannot go out!"

As a compromise, we play indoor wrestling and have a lot of fun

All fun aside, there can be some unintended pushes and shoves. "Sorry that I just pushed you. Let's make up. How about some milk?"

Luca is eight months old

Luca turned eight months on 16th, the day after Waigong and Waipo left for Toronto to see Mama's brother and his family.

He can do a lot of things. He can drink from a cup directly (sippy cups are too slow for him), he can feed himself by holding a bottle (mama stopped breastfeeding in mid-July), he can walk by holding on to something, he can say mama, dada, baba, pappa, nainai (milk in Chinese???)...

Ponders

Laughs

Makes a face

Sleeps

Cries

Proud

Surprised

Frustrated

The mess Luca makes (he's just like his big sister)

A lot of catch-up to do

It's one month since the last post. We've been busy busy busy.

We visited UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley on July 6. It was much bigger and more beautiful than we anticipated. It's definitely worth another trip. Afterwards, we stopped at Nordic House. Of course, Pappa had a shopping spree there, having even bought the hot chocolate powder he liked when he was little. What do you say about that? Sentimental, isn't it?

We went to Alcatraz on July 12. It was hard to get the tickets - we had to order online ten days ahead. We left home at 10am but there was so much traffic on 101 and in the city and it was so difficult to find parking that we almost missed our boat (departing at 12:25pm). Pappa dropped the rest of us at the gate first and went to look for parking - all the garages nearby were full. After he finally found parking he had to run like a superman, just in time to catch the boat. When we got to the island, it was very windy. Luckily, Mama had reminded everyone to bring enough clothes. The audio guide took us from room to room. We were on the island for more than two hours. Other than the history and facilities, the wild flowers were also impressive. After the trip, we walked to Ferry Building -- it took forever because Waigong and Waipo stopped often to take photos --where Waigong and Waipo (and Luca) had noodles and dim sum, and Mama, Pappa and Maya had Japanese food at Delica. In the last photo you can see that Waigong was having a good conversation with the restaurant owner who's from Zhuhai, a coastal city in Guangdong Province. Waigong makes friends everywhere he goes.

Maya's new drawing - 3D

Maya comes home with two new drawings she did at school. Both are abstract.

The first one, according to Maya, is set in the evening, with darkness everywhere. The person at the left is Ethan B, her good friend from school. He lives in a tree house (see the tree trunk and top?). Because it's so dark, he has to turn on his lamp. The house in the middle is Maya's house. At the top right is Maya and her tree house. And at the bottom is Teacher Carole and her flashlight.

The second one is Maya's house. Amazingly, it's 3-D. See the roof, the front and the side? There's even a chimney (interesting, it's at the side.) Next to the house, there's a tree and blossoming flowers. As always, the artist's signature is prominent.

At the Oakland Zoo

We visited the Oakland Zoo on Sunday. Maya's favorites were big animals, such as elephants, giraffes, and tigers. We didn't see lions and bears because they were hiding. Before she left the zoo, she climbed the spider web and had a lot of fun with it.

Luca seemed to enjoy the trip too. The only thing that annoyed him was the hat that pappa kept putting on his head. He yanked it off as soon as he got a chance. He didn't fall asleep until the end of the trip.

(See the white hat with a heart? Maya picked that hat herself.)