Happy Birthday to My Boys!!!

My boys turned 3 today! I can't believe it's been three years already. They've grown so much...sob~ No more little babies.

I had my 39 weeks check up this afternoon. I left early to pick up their birthday cake, and the cake was no where to be found! So they made another one for me right there and then. I was late for my appointment. I called the office to let them know I would be late, and they said it's okay. Thankfully, there weren't many people waiting. I was in and out within half an hour :)

We blew candles and ate cake after dinner. It was a construction site theme with actual toy trucks on the cake. Elias and Micah were thrilled. Micah ate all the whipped cream and only the whipped cream. Both grandma were here, along with my sister, and Mina ah yi and uncle Kelvin. They had fun opening all the presents!

Happy Birthday boys! I LOVE YOU ELIAS! I LOVE YOU MICAH!

Homeschooling Week 9 -13

The past 5 weeks, we learned about the 10 lepers, Jesus feeds 5000, Angel speak to Joseph, and Mary & Joseph go to Bethlehem for Bible Study. The story of Jesus feeding 5000 had become E&M's favorite Bible story, which we read every night on top of the Bible story of the week.

We traced letter A-E :) Elias could sort of write an E, and with a little help, he could write his name! We also did a lot of stickers and pasting. What fun!

For arithmetic, we were working on counting 1-20, which I believed we would be doing that the next couple months. Counting 1-12 was easy for them now though. We took every stairs opportunity we could to count. Micah was very interested in numbers. He would ask what number was on the page are while we read. He seemed to grip the concept pretty well. If we told him that's a "46" and he would point to 47 and say forty-seven! We were amazed!

They're getting better at following instructions at MyGym. Two weeks ago was our last week as it's getting quite hard with the growing belly. I could tell they were having a bit cabin fever already.

Since Advent began, we'd been decorating for Christmas. We put up the Christmas tree, the manger scene, and made paper chains, etc... Trying to make it as festive as we could, and reminding them that Christmas was all about Jesus's birth.

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Elias finally learned to poop in the potty when I had my "day off" a month ago. My sister said it's a man (daddy and son) thing LOL. I was distraught that I missed such a big milestone though. But he reverted as Micah began to potty train.

Micah was getting really good at tell me when he needed to go potty, and keeping dry most of the nap time! He even pooped one or twice since he began potty training!

Selecting Preschool

We visited two different preschools near by our home the past two weeks. I think the boys and I were on the same page as far as which we liked.

Now the decision is really whether I want to enroll them next year, or keep them at home for homeschooling. I ask them whether they want to do school at home with mommy or go to school, they both pick the latter. I guess the worst case is I will lose the non-refundable registration fee when it comes to enrollment in July if I decide to keep them at home for another year. It just seems like they don't cooperate well with me at home. I have to admit, though, that I'm not firm enough on the schedule with them.

Decision, decision, decision...

Birthday Party

Still two more weeks before my babies turn 3. I can't hardly believe that my boys will be 3 already. I survived the first three years raising twins, I should do just fine with the upcoming newborn right? ha...I sure hope so. Those two are getting more demanding each day.

Their birth day reminds me of the labor, haha, but there is more joy than pain. Their birth day reminds me of how tiny they used to be. Now they're talking and running. So much emotions running through my head.

The boys had a birthday party at Little Monkey Bizness today with their twin buddies and some church friends. They had a blast at that place. The place was clean and safe for little kids to play and run around. My only complaint was half an hour was not enough for both food and cake without feeling rushed. But that's just me. For the kids, I was sure that they just want to get back out there to play. Thank you for everyone who came to celebrate with us! :)

Thanksgiving 2010

We drove up to Chilton, WI to Preston's aunt's place for Thanksgiving Day this year. Their colonial log house sits on a 5 arces with horses, chicken, geese, and turkeys. Yes, turkeys! We ate homegrown free range heritage turkey for Thanksgiving. Best turkey EVER!

Aunt Janet had three turkeys. One ran into the wood for the night the night before Thanksgiving and didn't return until the next day. One flew up to a tree and slept there for the night. Thankfully, one made it to the dinner table. LOL~ I guess turkeys were not stupid after all.

The boys finally got to meet the other side of the family. Meeting all the grand aunts and uncles could be overwhelming, but their favorite person that night was Preston's cousin, Caitlin. They called her "the red one"... she was wearing a red shirt that night. Go figure right?!? She took them to see the farm, collect the eggs, and feed the chicken and horses!!! They had a lot of fun :D

Being Thankful

I swear the boys are regressing before the baby even arrives. They've been more difficult, clingy, whiny the past few weeks, and it's absolutely driving me nuts. I'm trying my very best to think positive and be thankful despite on how they behave...especially on this thanksgiving season.

After all, they're behaving what a normal toddler would react to the changes of a new baby. I should be thankful that they're developing where they should be, and that means they're healthy. What more can a mother asks her? They're pushing every boundary and button, and testing my patience every minutes of their waking moment. It's so hard to be thankful with toddlers sometimes, but I should be thankful.

Yes, be thankful!

Homeschooling Week 8

After the '"Elizabeth" incident last week with Elias, it's time for them to learn to spell their whole name. They're tracing the letters in their names this week. We didn't quite make it to the last letter.

As for math, Elias and Micah can count from 1-10 by themselves now...only when they want to though. Toddlers! Anything above 10 is usually 11 or 14. Anticipating that counting up to 20 will take the rest of the year to learn.

The boys are also working on putting their favorite shoes, that is if you count Crocs as shoes, on the correct feet. Elias even attempts to put his sneakers on by himself. They are also really interested in daddy's "string" shoes. Perhaps their next pair of shoes will be laced! Mommy is wearing Crocs or slip-ons right now. Baby #3 doesn't like me bending down.

I have 8 more weeks, technically, before baby#3 arrives. It is time to prepare lessons ahead of time...should have thought of that earlier, plus I'm such a procrastinator. I hope I have enough time.

Follow Him

This week Bible Study is Luke 3:21-22 the Baptism of Jesus.

As I was explaining to Elias and Micah what Baptism was yesterday, Elias told me that "Gougou (that's him) follow Jesus." Aww...I prayed that the seed would continue to grow in his heart.

I asked Micah today after we finished with the Bible story if he's a follower of Jesus, he answered, "No." Then I asked him why not, he told me, '"Micah follow God." Awww...that just made my day even though he had be different this evening.

My boys might not fully understand what it means to be the follower of Jesus/God yet, but I know God is in their lives. And that's the best thing to know as a parent. We try to explain trinity to them, but this might be a little bit hard for them to understand now. But the time will come. I know :)

Halloween

I didn't grow up celebrating Halloween, so I wasn't planning on taking the boys trick-or-treating. Besides, they didn't need all those extra sugar nor I needed more candies around to attempt me. However, I had a lot of fun dressing them up the pass three Halloween :) This year, they were Nemos!

We went to Preston's parents' house, and let them pass out candies for grandma and grandpa yesterday. They were ecstatic! They saw people from afar, got excited, ran to the candy bowl for candies, and opened the screen door before the trick-or-treaters were on the front porch. Most of the trick-or-treaters were cute and non-threatening. One kid that came by was kinda scary though, and Elias froze. He had a nightmare last night, and it's probably from this. Despite of it, they had a fun day. One little girl even came back to tell me that "[my] boys [were] cute." She must had been no more than 4 years old. It was so funny.

Grandpa Pat even got them new toys! And if you must asked...they were cars. More to their collections. :)

Homeschooling Week 7

Bible Study: We learned about Samuel listening to God's voice. Unfortunately, that didn't encourage Elias to be a better listener. I blamed all the extra sugar he got from potty training. Speaking of potty training, I'm very proud of him. He could pretty much go potty on his own!

Writing: On top of tracing zig zag and loops, Elias and Micah were also very interested in letter E and M respectively...for obvious reason :) Elias even attempted to trace the letter E...without mommy's help. Pretty good eh?

Arithmetic: We also started to work on counting from 1-20.

Uncle Rocky was visiting from Toronto this week, so Elias and Micah didn't do much school work this week. But they had a lot of fun with Rocky KauFu. Good quality time with family was always a plus. We would just have to catch up next week :)

Homeschooling Week 6

This week, we learned about King Solomon's prayer and how he used his wisdom from God to help the mommy who got her baby stolen. We pretended to be kings while learning about King Solomon. Our tracing skills improved each week and we could do loops now. This was our third week to go to our gym class, and we were more comfortable trying new gymnastic moves. Mom continued to help us identified different shapes. We also made sock puppets. Check out the post from earlier.

Sock Puppets

We went to Whole Food Market in Wheaton for a sock puppet class this morning. Miss Rachel told us a story about sock monkeys, and she gave us snacks while we made our sock puppets! Check out the puppets we made :)

Homeschooling Week 5

We're doing 2-3 days of school per school for the past 5 weeks. The boys are getting the hang of it. "Sit down" school time has increased from 5-10 mins to about 20 mins now :)

Phonics/Reading/Writing:

Favorite books this week - Good Night, Owl! by Pat Hutchins & Looking for a Moose by Phyllis Root (That's ALL I read all week long before naptime and bedtime. They love the books.)

Tracing lines - we're moving on to curve lines!

Bible Study (Daniel 6: 1-23), Daniel and the lions, and sequence the story with 3 picture cards. Learn the concept of beginning, middle, and the end.

Alphabets - Trace the first letters in their names.

Arithmetic: counting 1-10

Readiness Skill: finding circle objects around the house.

Physical movement: Gym Class at MyGym

Science/Health: Season of Fall and its colors. Coloring leaves in red, orange and yellow.

Bedtime Comfort

I take comfort at bedtime for the obvious reason. However, I also love it because it's the time we spend together reading story books/Bible, and praying together as a family. They're able to sit more still for prayer time now, and I love to hear them repeating the prayer after us and/or saying the Lord's prayer with us. It's so comforting to know that God is part of their lives. It's a nice closure after a rough day.

EggTart

Micah: "Mom, go Chinatown. Buy dantart."

Last week, he pretended he was on a plane. He said he's flying to Hong Kong. I thought he was thinking about GongGong, but no, he was thinking about dantart.

I think we'll have to make a trip out to Chinatown this week :) As much as I love to go to Hong Kong, it's not happening soon.

Homeschooling Week 4

Last week was a crazy week, so you can imagine school didn't go so well...

We studied the Bible story of Fisher of Men (Luke 5 1-11). The boys had been seeing enough "pictures" of Jesus illustrated in their picture Bible that they thought anything with long beard was God. @_@ For example, the old man from Longevity Brand condensed milk and some weird asian idol looking old man (I had no idea what they were) from H-mart. So there were some explaining to do.

Phonic/Reading/Writing: We continued to do tracing from a Kumon workbook. Teaching them to hold a pencil correctly was more difficult than I thought. They're so set on holding it their way. This should take awhile...

Readiness skill: Introduced the concept of top and bottom to them. Continued to identify anything squares.

Arithmetic: Counting 1-10.

Physical Movetment: MyGym and play at the park. *MyGym at Wheaton is having FREE Two-Week Trial Session.

A Crazy Week

It'd been a long, LONG week.

Potty Training was going really well with Elias the first 5 days, and then it just stopped. He refused to have anything to do with the potty once again. Sigh...he hasn't been on a potty for 3 days now. I think it's time to go back to diaper?!?

They were very very defiance this week, too. They pushed and tested boundaries before, but nothing like this week. It was rough literary from sun up to sun down. It reminded me once again that how much I need God to raise them.

With everything going down hill and being pregnant, my hormones were all over the place. Feeling kinda depressed today. I could only pray for a better day tomorrow. At least I wouldn't be outnumbered ;-)

Things They Said...

The fire alarm went off at 8:30am

Mommy: " Noooooooo."

Elias & Micah excitedly said: "Fire alarm. Firefighter come." " Fire alarm no scare. Firefighter turn off fire alarm."

After bath-

Micah: "Micah a bird (his hooded towel is a duck.) Micah came out of a egg."

Micah: "Chocolate."

Mommy: "No chocolate for you."

Micah: "Sit on the potty chocolate."

Mommy: "Yes, you have to sit on the potty and pee pee or poo poo to get chocolate."

Micah: "Yiyi sit on big potty."

Mommy: "Yes she does."

Micah: "Yiyi get lot of chocolate."

Mommy: "...No, Yiyi doesn't get chocolate for sitting on the potty. She already learned how to use the potty. (but yes, she sure eats lot of chocolates. Don't you, Janice? keke)

Talking about their playdate at Kidstown before bedtime-

Mommy: "You have a fun day today at Kidstown?"

Micah: "Fun day. Big crane, open side, crane up."

Mommy: "There is also a firehouse and a jail. Should I put you in jail?"

Elias: "No."

Mommy: "Who goes to jail?"

Elias: "God lock up."

Mommy: "???" "God locks up the jail."

Elias: "God lock up jail."

Does he mean God gets lock up in jail or God locks up the jail?

After we prayed, just before we put them down for the night, Elias started whining: "pray. pray." This was the second night in a row. Preston and I told him that but we already prayed. He kept whining. We asked him to use his regular voice so we could understand him. After a couple minutes, he finally used his words.

Elias: "Pray to God." Awww....he wanted to say his own prayer! Hallelujah!

He thanked God for yogurt and apple. Micah jumped in and thanked God for shopping (we went grocery shopping today.) LOL~ so cute!

Homeschooling Week 3

Bible Story: This week Bible study was the story of "Moses and the Red Sea." We had blueberry jello for snack and pretended it was the water. Unlike their daddy, they like jello :)

Phonics/Reading/Writing: We continued to practice tracing lines and hold pencil correctly. This week, we traced lines from top to bottom. The worksheet they had for this exercise had sun, moon, star, and cloud on it, which tied in perfectly with their Sunday School story of Creation. We talked about who made day and night, sun, moon, star and cloud. We also had library story time, and the boys had found their new favorite book this week: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. That's almost all we read. I think I had the book memorized...

Physical movement: This week we had twins playgroup and went to Kidstown. They're still asking me to go everyday since Tuesday! With the nice weather, we also went to the park of course.

Arithmetic: Count 1 - 10. We traced our hands and counted our little fingers!

Readiness Skill: Elias went pee pee on the potty on Friday! He's wearing his big boy underpants most of the day now. He did it again this morning! So proud of him!!! We also took down their crib rails today because they both climbed into the crib today while they were playing in their room. It's about time anyway. This is very exciting for the Kutzner household!

God Made...

We had sort of a discussion of who and what we can thank God for during dinner tonight. The boys ignored me at first, as one ate his dinner and the other one played with his dinner. So I suggested a few things and people who we can thank God for. No respond from them...dinner continued.

A few minutes later...

Elias, as he was drinking water: "God make water."

Mommy: "Yes, God made water."

Micah, as he was sticking his fork into his straw: "God make nei nei (milk)."

Mommy: " Yes, God made nei nei... and moo moo, too."

Micah: "Moo moo drink chocolate nei nei."

Mommy: "......(trying not to laugh and knowing what he's up, too cuz he was asking for chocolate milk earlier) No, moo moo doesn't drink chocolate nei nei."

Homeschooling Week 2

Last week Bible Study was the story of Joshua & walls of Jericho:

We made horns one day, and then marched around the Jericho and blew the horns. Micah didn't care about the marching, and Elias just wanted to knick the wall down. They told me that our "walls/ceiling fall" when we blew the horns.

Phonics/Reading/Writing: We continued to practice tracing lines across and learned the names of different bugs (mommy was not a big fan on this lesson, but oh well.) They loved reading Lulu's Shoes (Lulu was a ladybug.)

Physical movement: We went to PoPo's house and practiced blowing bubbles and threw balls at her backyard, except Micah wanted me to throw the whole time :-/

Arithmetic: We knew how to count from 1-10...even though we liked to skip 4 and 5. We played with the number puzzle and learned to recognize the numbers 0-9.

Readiness Skill: We identified colors, which the boys got no problem doing, and grouped the same colors together.

What works for Elias usually doesn't work for Micah. Have explore and figure out ways Micah learns best.

Shout Out to Hubby!

Thank you hubby for giving up his only sleep-in day to watch the kids, so I can go to the WCMOTC Resale this morning!

There weren't much twins stuff this fall, but I still bought a lot of stuff. It took me three trips to get everything out to the van :P They're mostly toys and a few things for the new baby. I hoped I could control myself from showing them all the "new" toys I got. Birthday and Christmas couldn't come fast enough...okay, maybe not...not ready for the new baby just quite yet.

Homeschooling Week 1 Highlights

Tuesday cooking class was definitely the highlight of the week. We also took Thursday & Friday off :) as mommy's bbf came to town. We had a lot of fun with Auntie Mina (Mina 契媽).

On Thursday, we went to the train station to pick her up, and then we ate brunch together. Elias really really wanted to ride the train, too. Mommy said we would ride the train to Christkindlmarket this year. On Friday, we took a walk and went to buy mooncake in Chinatown! Mommy said we would celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival on the next full moon (Sept 22.) We couldn't wait for the next full moon and had a taste of the mooncake that night. It was really yummy!

Sleeping Nightmares

Nap time has always been a struggle for my boys, and they don't sleep anywhere else but their cribs. Don't get me wrong...I'm very very grateful that they sleep through mostly a 12-hr night at a young age and still do. I get my fair shares of mid-night crying here and there, but there's nothing to complaint about. Nap time, however, it's an on-and-off battle. Some days are better than others. Sleeping during traveling is worst. I'll get to that later.

Several months ago, Preston and I hit a brick wall on how to get them to nap. A pediatrician friend from church, suggested that we try separating them during nap time. So we told the boys that if they couldn't nap in their room together, they would be separeted. Oh, how they hated that idea. We borrowed a playpen from another friend from church, and put it in our room. We usually didn't have to actually put one of them in the playpen. The thought of separation was usually enough to get them quiet for nap time, but occasionally, we did have to physically remove one of them to our room. Nap time had improved ever since.

Last week was the first week after we came back from the long road trip from Canada, and we had no problem sleeping (they're catching up on their sleep.) However, this week they took turn crying during nap time...every day. Well, the playpen was still fold up from the Toronto trip. Being the lazy parents that we were, we just told them that one of them would come to mommy's bed and nap with mommy if they couldn't be quiet and sleep. Well, that backfired... Wednesday, the boys decided they would just go straight to our bed for nap time. Uh...NO. So I put them down in their cribs, and...crying was what I got, lots of crying. Thankfully, it worked again the next day.

So back to our Canadia (what Preston called Canada) trip. It was awful the first two night this time around. The past two times we went up to Canada, we borrowed a playpen from Aunt Wandy's neighbor and one from Christina's cousin. This time, because we already borrowed one from a friend here, we just brought it up with us, and expected aunt Wandy could borrow her neighbor's one for us like we always had. Well, never assumed anything. Her neighbor's grandchild had grew out of it, and she gave the playpen away. Instead, we had a toddler mattress. Being the insecure little toddlers that my boys were, they refused to go to sleep. Finally by mid-night, they finally lied down with the condition that we left the light on. Whatever right? as long as they would sleep. Well, the light kept Elias up all night long. He woke up crying 3 times, and kept Preston up all night (thank God I'm not a light sleeper.) And they woke up at 6:30am. O_0

The second night, either of them would sleep on the mattress. After trying out every idea that we could think of, we desperately called up my cousin, Rocky, to see if Christina could borrow the playpen from her cousin. They dropped it off at around 11pm, and we were able to get both of them to sleep with the light off! Christina, you were the life saver!!! Thank you! oh, and thanks for changing their diapers that day :P Couldn't imagine Rocky on diaper duty??? It would be a nightmare...I think.

Well, the boys are pretty much at a point where they're too long for playpens. Next time we travel, which is up in the air now after this trip, is on late October. It's time to train them to sleep in beds/mattresses. But I'm not ready the sleepless nights that I know I'll get :P

Day 3: Counting 1-5

not very successful yesterday on the counting lesson...will have to try again today.

Day 2: Preschooler Cooking Class

We went to a preschooler cooking class with our twin group in the morning! We colored and listened to a story about a moose eating all the muffins (oh no!) And then we got to make our own muffins!!! We all took turns helping the teacher put and mixed ingredients. Best of all, we got to taste the muffins. Yummy!

After cooking class, we had social time with our friends at a park. It was a lot of fun hanging out with other twins.

We learned about squares at our normal school time after our nap. Mommy gave us many different colors and sizes of squares to glue on our papers. We love glue sticks!!!

It was a fun-filled day!

School In Session!

Finally, we're starting "school" once again after a loooong vacation. This time around, they seems to grasp the concept more than earlier this year. After all, they're getting close to 3.

After breakfast, they picked a big people chair to sit on around the dining room table. We drew straight line with our fingers, learned about different kinds of ball (baseball, basketball, etc.), attempted to draw straight lines with crayons, and coloring the pictures of course. They did a pretty good job! Then we recited the Bible verses from Sunday school and the Homeschool curriculum. They got to pick a sticker for their charts. Stickers really seemed to excite them and encourage them to say the verses, especially for Micah. All that lasted about 10 minutes, and they had enough of school time. They put all the paperwork into their folders, which we recycled the library reading-to-me program as their school folders. Love recycling!

Even though it was only 10mins, it felt as if we accomplished something great together! Elias said it was fun, too!

Looking forward to tomorrow :) We're having a field trip to Whole Food for a cooking class tomorrow! That should be fun.

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend in Toronto is awesome! We were surrounded by friends, family, and food! Couldn't beat that :)

They were a bit overwhelmed by eating out almost every meal. By the second day, they're already screaming "no eat, no eat!" every time we pull into a parking lot. LOL~

The long ride back was a bit hashed for Elias. He was tired and his "pat pat tong tong" (butt hurt) from sitting too long in the van.

After a few days of rest at home, I think we're finally recoup from the trip. Time for school to start. I hope they'll cooperate with me. Nowadays, all I get is "NO" from them for EVERYTHING!!!

*Thank you very much for all my family for making time to come out to see us and to eat with us. Especially Rocky :) I know how busy you were, and you took a day off to spend time with your nephews and to have dinner with us were beyond kind. EM love you, Rocky KauFu!!!

v3.0

As Preston puts it in software versioning...

He and I = v.1.0

Elias and Micah = v2.0a and v2.0b

Baby#3 = v3.0

v3.0 is a boy! Yes, it's another boy! So much testosterone in the Kutzners household :) I hope there will be enough of me to go around.

We're very excited about the new additional to the family, who is due Dec 30, 2010, even though Preston and I are praying for a little girl. However, we believe that God knows what's best for us. We pray that he, too, will be a health little boy like his brothers!

New School Year

District 203 starts again on this Wed. I'm hoping to start the homeschooling schedule with the boys, too....or should I wait til after we come back from Toronto? I would like to start some sort of formal school time with them this fall. Looking at the curriculum again this time, I think I have to adjust the lessons a bit. They have learned quite a few things the past 8 months :) Hope I can challenge them!

Go Where?

We have a broken fridge AGAIN. I'll spare you all the details here because I can go on whining about it forever. Anyway, I have to go over to my parents this morning to get milk for the boys. This cute little conversation takes place during diaper change:

Micah: "Go church!"

Me: "Church is tomorrow."

Micah: "Downtown!"

Me: "We're going to popo's house to get your milk. Why do you want to go to downtown?"

Micah: "Dan taat!" (egg tart)

Me: "Ooh...you want to go to Chinatown!"

Micah: "Go Chinatown!"

Elias and Micah really love their "dan taat." That's my boys :) Embrace your Hong Kong heritage!!!

Bowling!

First bowling experience! Thanks to the library summer reading program, we got a coupon for two free games at a local bowling aisle. They had a lot of fun :) We even for a real-size bowling pin for participating on National Bowling Record Day.

a nice lady teaching Micah how to bowl

the bowling team :)

A Day at the Mall

Mom and I took the boys to the outlet today to do some shopping. They behaved very well dispite all the distractions (rides in the mall and toys in the stores.) We got some shoes and clothes for fall. Before leaving, we had dippin'dots. I never had it before, and it was surprisingly good and refreshing. Elias and Micah liked it, too...well, it's ice cream right? what's not to like? :)

How could we pass looking at the red car on display!

They even carried their own bags. They love their crocs :)

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It was a tiring day for them. Nap time got pushed back, and I had to wake them up before they were done napping so they would sleep when bedtime came. Oh my...was Micah a cranky boy (he NEEDS his sleep like his mommy. :P) Every little thing triggered him, and when he refused to give yi yi a goodbye kiss, he cried hysterically after she had left. I finally got him to settle down by calling my sister to let him say goodbye to her. Afterward, Micah told me that, "Micah sad yi yi no kiss." awww...he's still so cute :)

Transitioning

Elias still wants his underpants today, but not interested in sitting on the potty. I let him wear his underpants, but I put a diaper back on at nap time, and we're back to square one again. Oh well, at least he's this much more interested than last time right? All is well.

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I couldn't remember when nor how they started sleeping with "tents" (a blanket over the side reel of their crib.) Micah usually pulled it down after we put them to bed. Elias however, would wake up crying in the middle of the night sometimes if his "tent" fell off. Preston and I both had been thinking that it's time to get rid of the tents, but just didn't want to deal with it knowing how much Elias would fuss about it. After explaining to them last night, especially to Elias, they went to bed without it and slept through the night :)

He cried hard tonight, but only lasted about half an hour, which was really good.

God is so good to me!

Happy Day

Elias asked to sit on the potty after breakfast and to put on his big boy underpants! He patiently sat on the potty and waited as many of the small increments of pee pee came. He seemed very proud of himself, and so did I :) I took a picture of him and his pee. (Yes...I did.) I would keep the picture to myself and spared you all who read the blog from looking at it. LOL. He improved a lot this time by staying dry for a longer period of time.

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Elias and Micah wanted to go to the water park (=splash pad, we hadn't make it to a real water park yet,) which is rare. I suggested many times that we should go throughout the summer, and Micah usually changed his mind about going after his nap. So out we went despite that Elias was wearing his underpants. Brave or just crazy? I put a diaper on his car seat just in case, but he kept dry both ways!!! The one in Woodridge was closed due to the storm from the weekend I believed, and we had to go to the one in Glen Ellyn. They had a blast and didn't want to go home.

I was supposed to meet my mom and my sister at IKEA afterward for dinner because they needed to look at furniture and I needed to return something, but they didn't make it from the other store. Oh well, that didn't spoil the trip because Elias and Micah liked IKEA and usually ate well there anyway.

Elias was such a chatter box the moment we got home, telling daddy all about his day. He just went on and on about everything after that. He got so excited about Christmas tree, making snow angels, and even remembered mommy pulling them on the sled. Definitely a December baby :) I was kind of surprise that he remembered so much.

It's time for me to accept the fact that my baby had become a little boy...so sad, yet happy.

Molar Molar Go Away

The boys woke up not looking well, and soon they were throwing up. Micah's general condition seemed better than Elias. I got a blanket out for all of us to lay on while we watching TV. I made some congee and they were able to eat some, but Elias threw most of it out.

They seemed to be feeling better and had their appetite back after they napped. But drama was about to happen! They wanted bagel with jam, but started screaming bagel "tong tong" (hurt) as they were eating. I was just about to cry with them as I had no idea was going on and couldn't help them. It was good to have someone else's opinion, aka their daddy, who's not here and were definitely not panicking like me. We switched the bagels to bread, and that seemed to solve the problem.

I looked at their gums. No molar in sight, but gums looked swollen. I guess they're teething after all.

The Lord's Prayer

We have been saying the Lord's Prayer with Elias and Micah at night before bedtime for several months now. They've been trying to follow from time to time. Yesterday, they were saying the whole prayer after us! With a little help from us, they can recite the whole prayer by themselves now...okay, it's not very clear but you can make out most of it :)

Preston and I are so proud!

A Productive Day

We went to the library this morning, and spent about 40 mins reading books. After that was time for the boys to "claim" their prizes for the reading program. They couldn't wait to put the wooden beads into the Bead Box. They could drop a bead into the box for every book they read. And then they got to pick 4 C prizes, which if you asked me it's junk toys, but you also got the option to pick a Toys for Tots token to donate in place of picking a prize. The boys were thrilled to drop anything into any boxes, so that's what we did instead. It made all of us happy!

Next stop was IKEA with Yi Yi (what they called my sister). Yi Yi was late as usual :P, but the boys behaved well while waiting. We had lunch at the restaurant, and they boys picked their own lunch and ate well on their own. Mommy was very happy because I actually got to enjoy my lunch when I didn't have to feed them :) They had a blast playing at Children's IKEA. They were cooking at the kitchen, crawling the tunnel between tents, and sleeping from toddler bed to toddler bed while Yi Yi did her shopping. They did well for not getting their nap in, but it got rough toward the end. Elias was throwing a fit as we were about to leave and lost his ice cream privilege. Oh well, all was fair. It was probably an embarrassing moment, but it was least of my concern at the moment.

They napped for an hour after we got home. Drew on the new easel we bought at IKEA and watched a DVD after nap. Could you guess what was it about? That's right, TRUCKS! After dinner, we read more truck books borrowed from the library, and drew some more on the easel before bath time.

Sound like a fun and productive day, right? Right, it was, but it was also very rough because they were not very good listeners today. Yet I was in a good mood.

Praise the Lord!

Missing Percy Found!

Last December, I bought the boys some characters from Thomas & Friends for their birthday and Christmas. Thomas and Percy went missing fairly soon. Took me awhile to find Thomas, but Percy had been missing for months and months that I almost forgot that we had him. Today, while the boys were watching their Thomas video, they asked for Percy. I had look everywhere in this house, the only place that I hadn't look was inside the diaper champ. Yes, the diaper champ! Thankfully, I hadn't use it for awhile now, and it had been sitting in the corner of their room behind the glider. So I opened the diaper champ, and sure enough, there he was. Poor Percy~

Mirror Confusion

I was washing Elias' hands after snack time.

Elias(pointing at the mirror): "two mommy! Micah."
I asked him again who's in the mirror.
Elias: "Micah."
So I pointed at him and asked him, "who are you?"
Elias: "Elias."

I was not the only one who got them confused in the mirror. LOL

Venturing Out

Went to Chinatown today with the Howards today. It was a great time with friends and good food to say the least. I was so proud of the boys as they tried many new things like sesame ball (micah), baby octopus (elias), shrimp dumpling (both), sui mei (elias), lotus bun (both), and rice dumpling wrapped in lotus leaf (both.) They liked some and not the others, but the fact that they will put all these things in their mouth was awesome! Usually, all they eat were BBQ pork bun minus the BBQ pork and sauce. They would not touch it if they saw the red BBQ sauce on the bun.

We walked and looked around Chinatown. The Howards tried their very first Joy Yee's famous bubble tea/drink! Micah and Elias shared the mango freeze with daddy, who hardly drank any of it. One of these days, I would let them try it with bubbles.

Family Fun Day

Took the kids to grandparents' house for Railroad Days Parade. Watched the World Cup Final. Grilled out for dinner. Fun, fun, fun! Elias and Micah loved all the firetrucks, police cars, tractors, and all the fun stuff at the parade. They helped picked up the candies, but they just handed them to us to put away. Yay! Really don't want them to eat candy yet. They each got a toy cars from General Mills float, which kept them very happy for the rest of the evening :) Hooray to toy cars!

Tired tired day for everyone!!!

I'm calling it a night and heading to bed. Pictures later :)

Back to Normal Life

Potty went awful on Wednesday. If all three of us were in tears, it was not worthy, and it just told me that they're not as ready as I thought they were. So I decided it was time to call it off for now.

Life was back to normal. Took the kids out the past two days and enjoyed the weather-library, shopping at Target, splash pad, and visited laoma, popo, and yiyi. Glad we went out because it will be a wet weekend.

Potty Training - Day 2

Day 2 definitely went better than the first day. Micah just didn't care...Elias was catching on. He made it to the potty twice today :) YAY!!!! I was so proud of him! I seriously got teary eyes when he first peed in the potty But he tended to pee a little bit at a time, so once he started to pee, he peed again within every 5-15 mins for 4-6x, which makes it very difficult to know when to get him to the potty. That's why I ran out of underpants by the late afternoon. As soon as I thought he's done and changed him, he peed again...and again and again. I almost went bonkers.

Actually he could of made it three times with poo poo. He asked to go potty right after he had pee in the potty this morning, and he kept saying 'potty, gummy.' so I thought he just wanted to get another gummy bear. So I told him he can sit on his potty again later. Sure enough, he peed in his pants and all over the carpet soon after...as I changed him, I also discovered another surprise! I felt so bad though. Mommy should listen anyway. Sorry buddy! He forgave me though :P


Maybe I should just focus on Elias and deal with Micah later.

May Potty Training Begin...

Day 1

Elias and Micah like their underpants, but won't sit on the potties every hour. I tell them that I'll give them a gummy bear if they sit on the potties, 2 gummies if they pee in it, and 3 gummies if they poo in it. They look at me, say NO, and keep right on playing. I don't want to force them and scare them, so by the time I successfully get them to sit, it's about 1.5 hrs. They'll set down for a second, stand up and tell me that they're done. Of course, they pee in their pants right before or after I get them to sit on their potties.

What a day! I'm just praying for a better tomorrow and they won't be as whiney as today. Hope they sleep well tonight.

Go Hong Kong!

My family travels back to Hong Kong frequently. So whenever someone has gone for awhile, Elias and Micah think they went to Hong Kong.

Today, Elias was driving his ride-on car.

Elias: (as he was steering away) Bye bye!

Me: Where are you going?

Elias: Gor Gor (older brother) go Hong Kong.

Me smile :)

I later asked him if he would like to go to Hong Kong with grandpa this coming Sunday. Without even thinking about it, he said no.

hehe~

Drink Tea

Elias feeds hippo tea! so Micah follows and feeds tiger some tea, too.

The boys like tea. Not sure if it's okay for little boys to drink something with caffeine, but everytime my dad makes Chinese tea, they want some, too.

Dirt for Dinner

The boys has been sick since last Tuesday. After fevers, hives, and loss of appetite, they're on the way to recovery with runny noses and coughs.

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I made curry tonight for Preston and I. Micah saw the curry and told me "don't like it," "dirt."

Yum, mommy and daddy are having dirt for dinner :)

Meeting New Friends

Took the boys to to the library, and then the park this morning before lunch. They woke up an hour early and I wanted to make sure they would nap in the afternoon. Sure enough they had a whooping 3 hours nap this afternoon without a fuss!!! I was very lucky today because sometimes they're more wired then they are tired after playing at the park. Only if it happens every time I took them :P

They had a lot of fun at the park, even though Micah absolutely refused to go down a slide. They made some friends, and so did I (he's almost 2! haha~ and his nana.) Micah got himself a fan/girlfriend who followed him everywhere he went, and hugged him every now and then. LOL~ so cute! That little girl tried real hard to get Micah down the slide, too, but he just wouldn't go.

One Good Day

We read a lot of books this morning. We even did a little bit of spelling :)

We continued to work on their counting skill. It's funny that they were counting just fine couple weeks ago, and now they're skipping numbers. one, two, three, six, seven,...

Nap time was must better today, too. After half an hour of chatting and sitting with their legs hanging out the cribs, it was time to separate them for the second day. The first day was awful and they only slept for 40 mins after a long long cry. Today, they cried for about 5 mins and slept for 2 hrs :) Yay!

After a good nap, we went to a playgroup. They had fun and got to watch some very interesting Japanese TV. hehe~

Sleep tight and sweet dreams my sons!

EM's First Car Wash

Took the boys to visit their yiyi at Niles yesterday. We ate lunch at H-mart, and went through their first car wash! Two boys, two reactions!

Nap or No Nap?

Elias: no nap!

Micah: nap!

Elias[cries]

Micah[attempt to sleep]

Two toddlers with difference wills in the same room.

Why does nap time always involve tears? I think I'm going to cry, too...I think I hate nap time as much as Elias now >.<

How on earth do I get that kid to nap without struggling for an hour and a half each day?!?

Insanity

Mornings are usually good because the boys are well rested from the night before. However, afternoons...are usually rough. Today...rough doesn't even begin to describe my afternoon!

We struggled for almost 2 hours before Elias finally decided to quiet down and napped. 30 mins later, Elias was up. Of course with hardly any rest time, the rest of the afternoon was whining, whining, and more whining.

Elias also flooded the bathroom at bath time. I was washing their hair and wasn't paying attention to what they were doing. Elias took his bucket, filled it up with bath water, and poured it out of the tub. The water even got to the hall carpet! I screamed and then I went speechless. After cleaning up the bathroom while giving Elias a lecture, he went ahead and did it again. This time, I saw what he was going to do...but was I fast enough to stop him? NO...It was like slow motion. When I finally got my arms out to stop him, it was already too late. I was at the verge of crying at the point. I was very upset with him, but at the same time I felt like I couldn't blame him because I wasn't watching him close enough to not let it happened. Needless to say, bath time was over then. I took him out of the tub, wrapped him in his green frog hoodie towel, looked him into his eyes, told him that he was wrong and he's not getting his bucket for bath time tomorrow. And what he did??? He gave me this cute look with a half smile half grin. Arg....>.<

Finally put them to bed at 7pm. It's been 3 hours since they're asleep. Me still very stressed out. Maybe I need to go to bed myself. Crossing my fingers that it will be a better day tomorrow.

Today, self control (of my emotions)-out the window, patience-out the window as well...mommy's grade for the day: F

sigh...

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"School" time- tracing letters with fingers, counting up to ten, shapes and reading

Like vs. Dislike

Yesterday Lunch: Watercress and rice noodles in soup.
Elias ate only the noodles; Micah ate only the watercress. Strange kids...

They can and will tell you if they don't like something now. Elias is more picky with his food and tends not to try new things offered to him like her yi yi. Micah is more easy going when it comes to food. It's fun to watch these two have such opposite ends of like and dislike yet sometimes they're so in sync :)

Love Love Love

Will I ever love you enough?

I love I love I love you boys!!!

Two Girls

No, I'm not pregnant with twin girls...though I kinda wish I will in the near future. LOL~ Anyway, Two Girls is a brand in Hong Kong since 1898! I love their Living Rose Cream (雪花膏). It's the same cream that my dad and his siblings used when they were kids.

Micah's eczema was really bad the past two days. I tried eczema cream, Aveeno Baby Soothing Relief Moisture Cream, and Aquaphor, but none of them worked. My mom suggested the Living Rose Cream that my dad bought me last winter. I'd only apply it on the boys' face thus far. So after bath last night, I covered him with the cream, and he was so much better this morning!!! Significantly!

Love you Two Girls!

Great Grandma

My grandma was here to visit last week. Other than the boys' sleeping time, we were pretty much over at my parents house with her.

What a blessing to have great grandma around! They're still looking for her after she left on Monday. How sweet is that!?!

Easter

After service was Easter Egg Hunt! This was their first egg hunt! They're all ready with their baskets; Elias could hardly wait for uncle Vic to say 'Go.' They 'hunted' quite a few. I didn't know what they'll do with all the candies inside. Thankfully, they're more interested in the plastic eggs than candies. I wondered how many more times we can get away with that :P




















































I also prepared Easter baskets for them at home. Instead of candies, I filled the eggs with different kinds of cereal and crackers. Well, I did put chocolate bunny, ladybug, and bee in their baskets. But they didn't know what chocolate was yet, so instead of eating them, they were playing hide and seek with the ladybugs and bees. The bunnies got squished...

Gamma and Gampa (Hubby's parents) and Yiyi were here, and we had a nice quiet afternoon. After dinner, hubby left for his business trip. The boys didn't care too much. To them, daddy was just going to work. Well, they were right...sorta. Being his first time away since the boys were born, it was very hard for me. Some of twin mommy friends whose husbands go on business trips all the time. I felt for them. It's not an easy thing! But just like any other things in life, you just do it!

Life with Twins

I have a request that I should take pictures of the boys' reflections. They just look like themselves today :P Maybe next time Mim Mim.

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Life with Twins (Here is one Twin Mom's "Top 15" list of questions. I get these questions all the time, I am still amazed by people. )
I stole this from a fellow twin mom who stole it from another twin mom :) I added some comments :P

15. "I could never do it."
Oh really. What would you do? Would you put them on the curb with signs around their necks that say, "Free to a good home. My mom can't do it."?

14. "Do they have different personalities?"
No. They are the same human being divided into several parts.

13. Said by a stranger, "They're identical, right?" Mom answers, "No. They're fraternal." Stranger response, "They are NOT!"
OK. You're right. I have no idea what I'm talking about. These are not my children. I thought it would be fun to borrow them from a mom down at Baby Gap. It's been more than an hour. I guess I should return them.
(Elias and Micah are identical btw)

12. "Are they 'paternal' twins?"
Yes. They have a father. There was only one virgin birth.

11. "Just wait till they're older. It only gets harder."
Thank you. I woke up this morning hoping I'd receive a word of discouragement while pushing a cart of preschoolers down the cereal aisle.
(I actually heard the other way around)

10. "When one cries, does he wake the others?"
No. Multiples cannot hear each other's cries because they all communicate with their special telepathic language only.

9. From a perfect stranger: "Were they in the same sac?"
Hello. Nice to meet you, too. Will you be sharing your gynecological history with me as well?

8. "Are they developmentally behind?"
Well, let's see. They're 2 years old and thus far, all their graduate school applications have been denied. We'll get back with you on that.

7. "How do you do it?"
Haven't you seen the Nike commercials?
(This is SO true.)

6. "Are they natural?"
Nope, their arms and legs are made of silicone.

5. "You must be SO busy."
Are you volunteering to clean my house?

4. "Did you take drugs?"
Well, there was this one time in college.... (does claritin count?)

3. "What do you do when they all cry at the same time?"
Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I go to Starbucks.

2. Said to a mom of boy/girl twins: "Are they identical?"
Uh. Not exactly.

And No. 1. Drum roll please. . . .

1. After a stranger had been informed that the toddler boys were twins, she asked a simple question:

"Are they brothers?"
Enough said.

Who Are You?

Elias and Micah have always looked different me to the moment they are born even thought they are supposed to be 'identical.' I have to say that some days, they look more alike. Other days, they look less alike. Today, I happen to mess them up a lot in front of the bathroom mirror when I wash their hands...and they have different shirts on. They look like each other and not themselves in the mirror. Do you know what I mean? So Elias looks like Micah and not like himself, and Micah looks like Elias and not like himself! Crazy huh?!?! I blame the coffee that I didn't get to drink this morning.

To those of you who still can't tell them apart til this very day, don't I make you feel better today? LOL~

Hmm...could they be mirrored twins?!?

Good Picky Eaters

Toddlers are known to be picky eaters.

Today's lunch menu included organic hot dogs pieces, brown rice pasta with Parmesan cheese and lima beans. Guess what they ate the most?!?

LIMA BEANS! O_o who would've thought?

They had fun with their food, too, pretending they're ladybugs.

Spring Again

Winter came back for a few days over the weekend. I was excited that it's nice and warm out today. I took Elias and Micah to my mother's house this afternoon, hoping they would play in her yard for a little bit or we stroll in the neighborhood, and what did they do? They ran right to the van and wanted to 'drive.' So instead of playing in the grass, we were in the van... 'driving.' I had the window down, and the boys climbed right to the driver and passenger seats. They took turn driving and touched every nobs and bottons they could get their hands on on the dashboard. Well...as long as they were having fun, right?!?

Arithmatic: Counting

One of many stereotype of Asian is that they're good at math. Being half Asian, Elias and Micah seem to be doing well in the math department as far as I'm concerned. I honestly don't know what's the standard for two years old, and really, all children learn at their own speed. As a mother, however, I'm proud whenever they can do something that I wasn't expecting :P

So when I learned that Micah can count to up to four, I was ecstatic. Naturally, I was even more excited when Elias counted up to eight this morning! Well, okay, he still needed a little help. He could count up to four all on his own without help, got stuck at five, able to pick up from five and count up to eight after I helped, and jump right to eleven. hahaha~

Field Trips

After months of winter, spring has finally arrived as my allergy clearly announced its arrival. My eyes have been so itchy that I can't wear my contact lenses. Despite the allergy, I welcome the nice cool weather that I can take the kids outside. So we took field trips to the Wheaton DMV so mommy can renew her driver's license and Cosley Zoo.

Nice thing about the DMV in Wheaton is that it isn't a full service DMV hence not many people! I can just see the kids going nuts at the Naperville DMV. In addition to the relax atmosphere, the employers are actually nice! To top it off, it is right across the train station, so the boys enjoyed the view of many 'choo-choos' passing by as they waited in their stroller seats. I showed them my new license afterward and told them that they can't drive without one. (They have to climbing to the driver seat to 'drive' while I strap the other one down.)

After the DMV, we head over to Cosley Zoo. We had lunch there at the picnic area before visiting the animals. As excited as they were about the animals, they kept a safe distance with them. We also ran into an old Parkwooder and her children while we were there :)

"Cookie Track"

Elias and Micah's pretend play

One Two Three Four

Just because they don't say it doesn't mean they can't say it. I usually count with Elias and Micah whenever we walk the stairs. This morning, I walk the kids up the stairs when we were out, as usual I was counting as they walk up. After one flight of stairs, Micah decided he wants to be carried instead. So as I was carrying Micah in one arm and holding Elias' hand in another, Micah softly yet clearly counted one two three four as we walked up the final flight. I was so proud.

Apparently, Elias and Micah can say chicken, too. I heard them when they were playing kitchen at the church nursery when auntie Sandy asked them what are they making. They answered 'chicken' together. so cute!

What Is This?

One of Elias and Micah's favorite read is The Big Red Barn. This is what happened one night last week just before bedtime as we're reading it:

E&M (pointing at the cows' udder, wanting to know what it's called.)
K: udder.
E&M: udda
K: only mommy moo moo has udder
E&M: mommy udda
K: no, mommy don't have udder... mommy cow has udder.
P: LOL as he rolled onto the floor.
E&M: mommy udda
K: mommy COW has udder
E&M: mommy moo moo udda.
K: yes, good job boys (I was dying inside...it's too funny LOL)

carpeting cleaning day

Does the title of this entry sound misleading?!? hm...

I've two 2-year old in the house...plus a cat, carpeting cleaning usually means there's a mess on the carpet. Sad. It was kitty barf on three different spots first thing in the morning, and then it was chocolate nutripals on the carpet in the evening....oh, and how I did forget >.< milk on the couch in the afternoon, too. I'm glad that they're peacefully asleep now :P

I would really like to find a natural carpet cleaner because Resolve smells so toxic to me. Please let me know if you have heard of such a thing.

First Month of Homeschooling

Homeschool started 4 weeks ago, but the boys had fevers (low 100F/hi 103.8F) on and off the 2nd/3rd week, and school resumed on the last (4th) week. Getting them back on a normal routine has been tough, but I think we're getting there. They don't like to sit down to do stuff though. Maybe they're not quite ready for that kind of schooling yet. However, that doesn't stop them from learning!

Elias and Micah has been learning colors, shapes, tracing and counting :) They are also learning to memorize their very first Bible verse - a very short version of Acts 5:29 - "Obey God." It started out just "'bey," then "'bey God[with a British accent,]" to "Obey God." I couldn't be more proud. haha~ However, obedience is definitely a tough lesson for two years old. As for me, my lesson is to learn to be patience...May God help me.

tracing and coloring

Bible story of obedience (Jonah and the Big Fish)

shape and colors


Valentines


Preston and I also took them to the library for the first time on President's Day. They loved it and didn't want to leave after spending an hour there. They both found a book that they want to take home with them. What book?!? Cars, of course! Well, trucks and school buses to be exact, and the librarian practically had to pull the books out of their hands in order to scan them at check out.

They have turned 26th month today~ and we're starting a new unit this week.

oh, a question to all the moms out there with toddlers: did your kid(s) dislike bath time all of a sudden? It used to be they didn't want to get out of the tub, and just one day three week ago, they decided they will kick and scream getting in!

Skip to My Lou

Micah Goes to Work

Let's Begin

The homeschooling curriculum arrived about 10 days ago. I finally started the 'first day of school.' Micah seems to enjoy it more so than Elias so far. We'll see how it goes by the end of this week.

Homeschooling

Exciting news! I finally ordered the curriculum for homeschooling last night. Can't wait to start school with the boys.

They're Big Boys Now.

Elias 2008 Christmas

Elias 2009 Christmas


Micah 2008 Christmas

Micah 2009 Christmas

I sing, they dance.

New Year's morning, the boys already picked up 3 new words within half an hour after they got up and they're enjoying their new interest in music and dance.
The Cantonese Apple Song and Dance
Enjoy~

Family Tradition?!?

After the kids were born, it's time to establish some family tradition of our own...

Thanksgiving Day 2008 - Elias, Micah and I woke up with something horrible that made us vomit all day long.

Christmas Day 2009 - Elias woke up with a stomach flu, I think, and vomited half the day. Took a nap and woke up like he was never sick that morning.

I wonder which holiday in 2010 will be this family next 'vomit' day LOL~