Maya school photo

Maya is going to kindergarden this September. There're a lot of forms to fill in, basic info, language skills, immunization, dental, food allergy, etc. Two photos are required. Here is the photo I took last night.

Last night we made cupcakes. Maya had been asking for it for a while, but it was hard to find time. Maya is quite an expert in making cupcakes now, mixing the ingredient, filling the paper holders, decorating the cakes. Of course, the biggest reward is to eat one, or maybe even two cupcakes at the end.

Luca fixes his own food

While I'm busy on the phone, calling San Jose water and garbage, Luca stands on a stool and reaches for a bag of bread on the countertop. He takes one slice, throws the bag on the floor, and begins to eat the bread. I'm pretty sure by the time he is 18 months, he'll know how to fix a sandwich for himself, and probably for me, too.

Two nights in a row this week Maya peed on our bed - yes she still comes to our bed around 2 or 3am (sometimes she comes herself, quiet like a butterfly, sometimes she screams until one of us picks her up and brings her over). That's odd because she hasn't had any accident for a long long long time.

Yes, new - I know, they're already one or two months old --photos!

Maya and Luca have so much fun jumping on bubble pouches and making the bubbles pop. 

Maya got a little pink house from Xinran, her godmother.

We need all the help we can get to make the house clean

The Little Dreamer loves to get dirty in the backyard. He really takes pride of his steady steps.

Sometimes it's not fun to be a big sister. When can Luca quit bottles? They're really hard to clean.

Some truth about Grandma: she's simply the best in the world!

Ouch, it hurts to have new teeth!

Decorating the tree with farfar and farmor 

Mommy finally gets a little time to put on something nice for the New Year - Amy, Anders and their two daughters are arriving.

Merry Christmas!

Ludi reading to Maya, Luming and Ansel.

The kitchen doesn't look too bad.

A moving movie between father and son: The music never stopped

There are only two different kinds of people in the world: those with children and those without.

After putting Maya to bed (reading her two stories and singing three songs) I watch the movie, a story of a father and his son with terrible amnesia caused by a brain tumor. It's based on an essay from Dr. Sacks' book An Anthoropologist on Mars. Wonderful music throughout the movie, of course, and what's equally wonderful is the touching relationship between father and son, which makes me think the role I'm playing in my own children's lives, and how much I can influence and shape their personalities and choices in life. Even that Maya and Luca are very small but they have strong personalities already. They're curious, stubborn, and determined. There'll surely be many moments down the road where I don't appreciate their choices in life, but I hope I'll be open-minded and won't force my ideas on them.

some difference

We have a lot of books for both Luca and Maya at home and they each have their own book shelf. One of Luca's favorite pastimes is to take down all the books and make a big mess. He reads too, but has no patience, often grabbing the book from your hand. When he has a book in hand, it's often upside down. When Maya was his age, she loved reading. She liked sitting on our lap, watching the pictures and listening to the stories. She never held the book upside down. 

Luca likes to study things and to learn how it works. Whenever he's in bath, he plays with the faucet for a long while. The kitchen is his playground. He looks at stuff, takes out stuff, puts back stuff, takes out stuff again, testing all the drawers and cabinet doors, sitting inside a drawer to see how steady it is. All the computer gadgets and electronic stuff interest him greatly. He already broke Daddy's Xbox and he almost broke the DVD player -- maybe he already broke it. we'll know that when we watch a movie next time. He never gets tired of turning on and off the TV. You can take him away from the TV 100 times and he'll surely come back to push the button the 101st time. He's that stubborn. 

I ask Maya this morning what she wants to do  in the future. She says she wants to be an art teacher. 

Luca cannot say what he wants to do yet. But I've got an inkling that he'll be some type of engineer.       

This morning...

First of all, congratulations to Daddy for delivering a great presentation at Stanford yesterday!

This morning I drop both Maya and Luca to school (Luca just started to go to Maya's old daycare two days a week so I can get some work done) because I'm meeting Bernice this afternoon. Maya wants to bring a huge lego structure (a space ship she's put together) to the school when we're outside the school. I say no, the school doesn't allow you to bring your own toys and other kids may take it. But she insists. While I try to put the ship back to the car, some parts of it fall off. Maya bursts into tears. She kicks and shouts, mommy, you're bad! you're bad! I feel awful at that moment. She's never said such a thing to me before. So I give in and let her bring part of the ship in. What can you do otherwise? 

 

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.