The Darn Things Kids Say

I don't know when it happened but all of a sudden, Jalen is starting to say grown up sounding things:

• [after I made him waffle for breakfast] "Thank you for making me waffles mommy, they are the best waffles I've ever tasted!"
• [after I put on makeup to go out, he looks at me] "Your eyes look beautiful!"
• [on Christmas] Gracie says "I got the Cars 2 DVD from grandma!", Jalen says "yeah, we have the BLU-RAY!"
• [after I took a picture of the "birthday cake" he made me] "Thank you mommy for taking a picture of the cake so I can remember to make it for you every year".
  

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year with Jalen as a fireman and Max as an adorable monkey. Jalen was nice and warm in his fireman gear and went out into the neighborhood with his cousins.

October Pictures

One day, I went to pick up Max at daycare and found him wearing this tutu. His teacher said that the kids love the texture and they usually try to take them off the boys before the parents pick up. I just had to snap some photos -- for future black mail purposes.

Here is Max striking a pose when I whipped out my phone. He is with his best bud Cordell. Cordell doesn't look amused however.

September Pictures

Here is Jalen at American Eagle Outfitters. He styled himself by picking out this tie, glasses and both watches.

Jalen and Grace spent all afternoon on the beach at Newcastle Beach Park playing with sand. I think if we let them, they could have played there all day.


Here we are at the Olive Garden to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. It was the never-ending pasta and salad bowls special!

Sharing is caring

Jalen has been a great big brother to Max including sharing his favorite things like desserts. Here they are eating a fudge pop and making a big mess of their faces. It's also been nice to be able to hang out on the deck after dinner while the weather is nice. Our house is west facing and usually the kids love being outside because it's much cooler.

Oldie but goodies

I was cleaning up my laptop and found these great old videos of Jalen and Max. It's hard to remember how little Jalen was and how he sounded as a baby. They really grow up so fast.


Here's a video of Jalen at 23 months. He was really into a lot of pop songs at that age. Some of his favorites were Low by Flo Rida, Right Now by Akon and (Like a cop car) Mrs. Office by Lil Wayne. Here Rick is trying to get Jalen to sing Like a Cop Car and Jalen wasn't having it.



This is the morning after Max was born and Jalen meeting his little brother for the first time. Apparently, Grandma had a hard time seeing that Max's tiny newborn eyes were wide open for the occasion.



Max is almost 3 months here cooing away and Jalen marveling at his baby brother finally being able to interact with us. This was the beginning of my two boys bonding and becoming playmates.

Max's growing vocabulary

Max is really starting to jabber a lot. Rick guessed that he has at least 10 words so we tried to count them on our hands:

1. mama
2. dada
   
3. gaga = cracker
4. nai nai = milk (in Chinese)
5. shoos = shoes
6. book
7. car
8. ball
9. hi
10. bye
11. mum mum = food
12. juice
13. MINE

"Mine" is the word he says with the most enthusiasm. He screams this whether Jalen takes something away from him. Max is quite possessive. Once we were having dinner and we parked the stroller next to our table. Jalen decided to sit in it for a second and Max screamed "mine! mine!" like the seagulls in Finding Nemo. Max wasn't even sitting in it! He definitely is the second child who knows that he has to stake his territory.

Jalen and Max goofing off

I just love it when the boys get along and play together. Here is Max babbling away and being silly with Jalen.

Max is 1.5 years old!

Max turned 18 months old last Monday on August 1 and we took him to his check up on Tuesday. He is now 24lb 12oz (25 - 50%) and 33.5" (75-90%). We're very excited that he's catching up on weight now since he had been at 25th percentile since 12 months old. Max is at an adorable age right now, babbling all the time and waddling all over the place. He is really coming into his own little person. I can't wait to get to know him more as he learns to communicate with us in new ways.

Best buds

Since I am an only child, I've always looked forward to the day that my boys would grow up into playmates. Jalen has been such a great big brother to Max. If I need to leave Max in his crib for a few minutes, Jalen will gladly climb in and keep him company. They love to jump in the crib and play peek a boo with their baby blankets. Now that Max is little older, he is starting to be pretty particular about which of Jalen's toys that he wants to play with. Sometimes, the boys do fight over the same toy. But for the most part they're happier when they're together.

Day out with Thomas

A few weeks ago we took Jalen to visit his favorite character, Thomas the Tank Engine. Jalen actually wasn't as excited about the real life Thomas as we had expected. He was wondering where all Thomas' friends were. Nevertheless, it was a cute train ride where we got to see a great view of the Snoqualmie Falls. Jalen had a lot of fun with his two best buds Katelyn and Trenton.

4th of July Weekend

We had a full and fun long weekend. My parents came to visit and spent time with the kids. We hosted a BBQ on Saturday and went to a BBQ on Sunday and Monday. For the 4th, we went to the annual Newport Hills celebration where Katelyn and Jalen had a great time playing together. Jalen was too tired for the fireworks so Rick and I watched the shows on TV. We actually have a peek a boo view of the Lake Union fireworks from our house! It was funny watching it happen then again 7 seconds later on "live" TV.

Max's baby steps

We were very excited when we heard Max started walking when we were away in Vegas at the end of May. However, his whole medical ordeal really put a halt to his progress. Just last week, he started taking tentative steps again. I love the way babies put up their arms like a zombie when they first learn to walk. It's too cute.

Max's Medical Ordeal

On the Sunday before Memorial Day Max woke up from his nap with a fever. We gave him some Tylenol and hoped that he would recover before the long weekend was over. Unfortunately, his fever didn't go away. The Tuesday after the holiday was my first day at my new job so Rick decided to stay home. He took Max to the pediatrician and we were told to keep an eye on his fever and bring him back in if the fever doesn't go away after a couple of days. We kept him home on Wednesday and by Thursday I took him to the doctor again since his fever still hasn't broken. This time, the doctor did a strep culture and checked his ears again for a possible ear infection. Both were negative. That weekend we took our trip to Vancouver and Max had a high fever on both days. I was especially worried on Sunday when his fever was high all day. During this whole time, Max was really sluggish and had low appetite. It just broke my heart to see him not eating and losing weight. We took Max to the pediatrician again and this time they took blood work. The results showed an elevated white cell count which could be the result of either viral or bacterial infection. The pediatrician requested that we get a chest x-ray for Max to rule out pneumonia. The chest x-ray turned out to be negative. The next day, Rick took Max to the pediatrician to get a urine sample. The poor child was dehydrated so they couldn't get any liquid out of him. Rick was really upset about spending 2 hours at the doctor's office and not getting anywhere closer as to why Max has had a fever for 10 days. We were in a holding pattern for the next 2 days and by Friday, I really wanted to get Max checked out again before the weekend so I took him in one more time. The doctor was still stumped and did all the routine exams again. She urged that we take Max to the ER at Children's hospital to get more tests. I really didn't want to spend a night at the ER but I was also feeling really uneasy about Max being sick for so long. So Ricky's parents watched Jalen while the two of us took Max to Children's hospital. They examined him, did blood work, took urine sample and swabs. After all that, we were no closer to knowing why he's had a fever for almost 2 weeks but at least the doctor didn't raise any alarms that there might be something really serious going on. We spent another day waiting for results and on Sunday, we took him into the office again and this time, it seemed like he has developed an ear infection. The doctor finally prescribed some antibiotics. His fever finally subsided Sunday night and he was fever free for 24 hours for the first time on Monday. During this entire ordeal Ricky's parents helped us by watching Max at our house. We were so grateful that they did this because we don't know what we would've done instead. Especially with me at my new job, I would have really been in a bind. So after all was said and done, here's the tally:

• number of days with fever over 101: 14
• number of visits to the pediatrician: 5
  
• number of hours spent at the ER: 3.5
  
• number of doctors seen: 4
  
• number of failed urine test attempts: 4
• number of blood tests: 2

Max was actually very sweet and good at the ER. We kept him busy with crackers and we watched the Lion King on TV.

A happy side effect of Max being sick was that he was super cuddly. He just wanted to be hugged and held all the time.

Trip to Vancouver

We had been so busy that we hadn't visited Vancouver for about 6 months! On the first weekend of June, I decided last minute that we should go to Vancouver because the Vancouver Canucks made it to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1994. Game 2 was Saturday June 3 and I knew the atmosphere was going to be amazing. My parents kindly took care of the kids while Rick and I went to down town and enjoyed the game with our friends. It was so much fun. It almost made up for us missing the 2010 Olympics because it was right around the time that I gave birth to Max.



Here are all my boys together. It was hard to get all of them to smile and look at the camera at the same time but still all adorable!

Max's first steps

As I mentioned in an earlier post, 90% of 15 months old toddlers are walking. Max was not one of them. We encourage him to walk all the time and he seems to have the strength and balance to do it but he won't. So last Tuesday, me and Rick took a last minute trip before I started my new job. We called home to speak to Jalen and the first thing he said to us was "Max is walking." We were like what?! Apparently, when Rick's parents picked Max his teachers at daycare said he started walking. And sure enough, he took a few steps towards Rick's mom at pick up. I was bummed that we missed that but with Max being in full time day care since before 1 year old, I figured I was going to miss some firsts. When we got home on May 26, he did take a few steps towards us back and forth. Since then, the child has kind of regressed. He won't stay up even though he can stand on his own. Anyway, 99% of 18 months olds are walking and let's hope Max is not that last 1%.

Jalen is 4 years old!

It feels like we were celebrating Jalen's 4th birthday for over a week. On May 7th, we had a joint birthday party for Jalen and Trenton. This is the first year I completely outsourced the birthday party and it was the best thing ever! We had the party at a bouncy house called Kidz Bounce and they basically took care of everything. They even provided place settings and balloon bouquets at each table. We had about 20 kids at the party and they all had a fantastic time. Jalen was very happy to have quite a few of his preschool friends at the party.

Then on his birthday, we had a play date at our house with his two best friends, Trenton and Katelyn. The kids had a screamin' good time, literally. I don't know what it was but the kids were constantly screaming in excitement while playing. Afterwards, we went to the new Disney Store at Bellevue Square and let him build his own custom Disney Cars character. He chose a custom Mater. Then we went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner where he enjoyed a birthday sundae.

On Monday, the day after his birthday, I brought some ice cream sandwiches as treats for his friends at preschool. Jalen got a birthday crown and his friends sang happy birthday to him. Phew... What a lucky kid.

Today, I took him to his 4th birthday checkup. Jalen has grown like a champ. He is 40lb 6oz (50-75%) and 42" (90-95%). Yes, I'm a proud mommy and I'd like to take credit for his excellent growth rate. :)

Max is 15 months old!

Our lives have been so hectic that I've been pretty behind in my blog posts. In fact, I feel quite guilty that I didn't take pictures of Max on his month birthdays. For his 15 month milestone, I took him to his wellness checkup. Max is now 22lb 9oz (25%) and 31.25" (50% - 75%). He is following the 25th percentile curve quite consistently since his 12 months checkup after having been at the 50th percentile curve for his first year. Our pediatrician says not to worry too much about his weight gain. Many toddlers are quite picky with food. I'm just not used to it because Jalen was always and still is a great eater. Max is still not walking whereas 90% of 15 month olds are walking. The doctor says not to worry unless he is still not walking by 18 months. My friend Dorothy's daughter didn't walk until 19 months and she's doing great now. I just keep telling myself not to worry, he will walk when he's ready.

Max is doing much better at daycare now. He is eating better, at least according to his daily report card. He still wakes up once in the middle of the night a few times a week. Luckily, he goes back to sleep fairly quickly such that it doesn't interrupt my sleep for too long. On the nights that he does sleep through, I wake up so refreshed it seems like I've been sleeping for 10 hours when it's only like 6. I can't wait until both kids are both sleeping through consistently so I can finally get good sleep at night.

Max's hot and cold appetite

One of the biggest reasons why this year has been so stressful so far is that Max is turning out to be a challenging kid to feed. He ate great when he was just eating baby food but when we transitioned to table food he became very unpredictable. I started experimenting with different things that I thought he would like: scrambled eggs with cheese (nope), instant oatmeal (yes!), yogurt (sometimes), avocado (his favorite), fish (maybe)... The most frustrating part is that sometimes he will eat a full meal of say, salmon, and the next day if I offer him the same thing, he won't eat it. Mornings are the hardest when I try to get him dressed and fed and still get out the door at an reasonable hour. Some mornings I'll offer him up to 3 different things and he won't eat any of it. Nowadays, I discovered that he likes instant oatmeal so I've been feeding it to him everyday. Luckily, I can prepare it pretty quickly. Dinners are harder because I can't exactly give him the same thing everyday. My first attempt is always to give him what we're eating but cut up in small pieces. When he rejects that, I'll perhaps heat up some left overs that he showed interest in the night before. When he pushes that away too, I might go to the old stand by of avocado. Sometimes, I think he purposely holds out for him favorite. The reason I say that is because after I give in and offer his favorite, he'll eat some of the other things that he rejected earlier! So infuriating!

Staying above water

2011 has been kicking my butt. Since the beginning of the year, I feel like I've been struggling to find some balance and routine in my life. Every time I think I'm barely getting the hang of it, something happens to change things. After a while, I'm really just forced to roll with the punches and expect the unexpected.

This week is a great example. On Tuesday, I had a dentist appointment in the morning. I decided to work from home since I had no meetings. Around 2pm, I get a call from the kids' school that Max is sick. He threw up and has a temperature of 101. I decide to pick him up earlier than normal but didn't end up getting him until around 5:30pm. Luckily, he was in a good mood. But coming home with a fever means that he can't go to school the next day. So I call around for reinforcements since Wednesday is a meeting filled day for me. I managed to find morning and afternoon coverage between Rick and his parents. Tonight, Max still had a slight fever of 100 before bed. I have to hope and pray that he wakes up without fever so that he can go to school and hope he doesn't get sent home again.

Lately, my routine has been a bit like this:

2am - 6:30am - Max will wake up any time in this range. I give him a bottle. I really should try to soothe him without it but I'm too sleepy and don't want to wake up Jalen. So I take the easy route and give him the milk.

7am - I get up and get myself ready for work

8am - I wake up Max and get him ready for school. Sometimes he wakes up earlier, around 7:30am. I just let him cry/whine in his crib.

8:30am - I leave and take the bus to work. Rick gets Jalen ready and drops both kids off to school.

9:30am - 5:30pm - work at the office

5:30pm - 6:30pm - commute home by bus, pick up Jalen and Max from school

6:30pm - 8:30pm - cook dinner, feed the kids, and get them to bed. lately, Rick has been working late, so 2 -3 nights out of the week I'm on my own. This part of the day gets pretty tough.

8:30pm - 12am - wash dishes, catch up on chores, then more work. We'll faithfully watch Glee on Tuesday nights but other than that, we're both just hammering away at the lap top.

rinse and repeat.

Max's one year photo shoot

I finally got around to scheduling Max's one year photo shoot. He got his very first haircut a couple of weeks ago in preparation for this event. His hair was standing up straight for a long time until it got so long that it started laying down flat. So we thought it was finally time to cut it. Here are some of my favorite shots.



Jalen was a great helper at the photo shoot, propping Max up in the group shots. He was a real ham, just having a great time and laughing up a storm. He looks so mature in these photos, you couldn't tell that he's not even 4 years old yet. He looks so grown up and handsome!


These shots of Max and Jalen together are my absolute favorites. These images feel like sweet rewards of all the hard work we've put into raising our kids.