End of Year Review

A small sampling of the things I've been grateful for this year. We have so much!

Really nice people. Family. Kids.  Friends. Health! Gratitude. White coffee. Target Red card. A functioning laundry machine. A functioning dishwasher. Sun. Running. Kids getting along. Lee lee sharing and being a great big brother. Compression socks. Vitamix. Being able to buy a house. Nice patients who are easy to work on. Grandparents. Vacations. Nanny's flexibility. White wine. $1 lattes at the new west Richland roasters. The gym. Leelee's drawings. FaceTime with family. Cousins. Christmas music. A king sized bed. Hummus. Amazing Race. Date night. Sushi. NPR and Fresh Air. Working. Having money to buy groceries. Flip or Flop. Being able to walk, see, hear, smell, touch with no problem. House cleaners! Church. Heating and air conditioning. The free car vacuum at Mister Wash. Candles at dinner. Kids running to greet me when I pick them up. Good deals. Catchphrase. Full moons. Kids saying "moo-ey!". Nordstrom Rack. Leelee's adding numbers. Olin's singing. Dae being home for dinner most nights. Korean food. Home haircuts. Reading to the kids. Pillsbury crescent rolls. Mandarin House. Shellacking. iPad Apps and movies. Kids' sonicares. Boys eating well. Small group. We have enough food. Clean sheets. Hamburgers + jalapeño + cheese. New iphone cases. Brussel sprouts. The sunrises and sunsets here. Dae's job. A car that works and takes me wherever I want. No parking or traffic hassles. No health woes. Remodeling. The Keurig. The kids' shared bedroom. Hiring a lawn mower. Family, Family, Family.

The list could go on indefinitely!

Happy New Year!!!

Development

1) Olin still is a man of few words, but he's progressing. He can point to some letters of the alphabet (O, A, P, K) which surprises me. Then I realized it's because of this App called Endless Alphabet. So my iPad guilt is lessening!

2) When I ask him to point to something in a book, he still takes forever, won't give up, and moves his finger around and around the page like he's really thinking. He does this even when I know for certain he has no idea what it is. ha!

3) I can't wait to get Olin into music. The guy is a real dancer, singer, and player of instruments. Dae's the tiniest bit worried (along the same worry lines as when he would check in on Christian at daycare and he'd be playing with dolls!), but both of us like how he enjoys music and beats. His interpretive dancing is hilarious.

4) Leelee shows a really nice big-brother side of him, most of the time. At the trampoline park the other day Leelee would help Olin out of the foam pit or out of any other bind. He also asks him very nicely "Olin, would you like to share?" or "Olin, share please". Leelee cleans the house when I ask him and rarely complains that Olin does absolutely nothing.

5) We told Leelee last weekend that there was a garbage princess who flies around at night collecting all the toys that have been left out. I forgot about it until today, when Leelee asked me about the garbage princess and asked if she was going to come to our house. He then proceeded to tell me "Sometimes, I don't really close my eyes when I sleep" and "I'm really good at staying awake!" It seems like he's put a lot of thought into the garbage princess (and some alternative solutions to the most obvious one - cleaning up the house)!

Digitally Enhanced Christmas, 2013

Our morning's photos turned out pretty ho-hum so I enhanced the color on all of the following with my new App :)

Christmas Eve and stockings. The kids really liked their new train whistles from "Santa", who came early to fill the stockings. Leelee observantly asked why all the stockings were filled except mine. We told him that Santa called Dae and asked him to fill mine yesterday because he ran out of time. haha. Dae comes out looking like the hero rather than the last-minute shopper.

Christmas morning

Stamps and a stamp pad

Caillou action figure. 

Go Big Red!

Can't even express my excitement over this label maker. Perhaps my favorite gift in recent memory!

It's a real beauty. I've been fiendishly labeling... Dae asked if I was going to label the TV and the coffee maker.

DIY chalkboard craft

Our day was pretty low-key. Hoot 'n Annie for breakfast, naps, turkey dinner and now watching Planes from Redbox. We're going to dip into the pumpkin pie soon and I will definitely be loosening up the belt notch!

Good Day

8:00am The house was strewn with toys and I had had it, so I commanded the kids to clean up. Leelee proceeded to clean up everything - family room, kids' room, office, and kitchen - free of all toys. I was so happy with him I promised him 'something special' (to be determined. haha)

9:30am Hit the gym and shower

11:30am Drop off paperwork at the church and pick up another large mound of paperwork to sort through. I like that it's a thoughtless task. Right about within my current brain capacity :)

12:00pm Take the kids to Costa Vida for lunch. It's a healthy Mexican place that just opened on Gage Boulevard.

1:00pm Pick up a Starbucks and take the kids to Maui's apple for frozen yogurt. I have been piling the treats on them in the Spirit of the Season, or so I tell myself. I will have to put them on a stricter diet come the new year!

2:00pm Put Olin down for a nap. He falls asleep and I step outside his room to find Leelee like this.

Poor little fella has had an on/off fever since last night

Sleep, oh sleep. The only time he's calm.

Dinner last night. Kids ate exact opposite: Olin ate only broccoli and carrots, Leelee ate only cauliflower. Together they had a balanced vegetable intake, and neither of them touched the lasagna that we've had about 6 meals in a row now :) 

No Sleep

We never get good sleep with these tykes. Last night was no different. Christian came over to our room at an all-time early (10:45pm). So early, in fact, that Dae and I were still out relaxing watching TV.

Olin then came over and begged for milk around 11? 12? I have no idea. All I know is I was tired of him asking for milk and wasn't about to give him any. So I put him in a time out and back into his room. I then retreated to the guest bedroom to hibernate. The kids don't really know to look for me there so I slept somewhat blissfully until 7:30 this morning.

Meanwhile, when I went in to check up on Dae this morning he was a zombie. Apparently Olin lasted about 20 minutes in his own room where he then woke up and sought Dae, who also put him in a time out (I feel kind of guilty about the time outs in the middle of the night) and then back into his room. Repeat Olin coming back out. Dae said he lost track of the number of times Olin cried, but Dae also got a nice call from the hospital in the middle of the night.

Anyway, the kids burst into the guest bedroom and sniffed me out this morning. Leelee and I took some selfies :)

 

Finally, Leelee's normal smile! He normally does this cheesy smile with all cheeks, and I wish I could get him to do this natural smile more often. It's so nice.

Ev mentioned that perhaps these Hanna Andersson PJ's were discounted because the trees are upside down. I of course hadn't even noticed. I was probably blinded by the deal :)

Popcorn

We happened to win this Popcorn maker at my office's Christmas party raffle. Dae was the lucky grand prize winner. They assured us our kids were going to love it, and sure enough, they were all excited when I pulled it out yesterday. Well that lasted all of about 10 minutes until we realized we didn't have the right type of popcorn so I had to haul those guys to Yoke's to buy the proper popping corn (I had been told I could use microwave popcorn but our microwave popcorn had chunks of butter on it and the directions were very specific about not putting any butter in the kettle due to burn risk!).

So we made it back home with two jars of the right stuff. We followed the instructions, boiled the oil and then placed 1/3 cup of popcorn in the kettle. As soon as the popcorn started coming out of the kettle, Leelee started panicking and was quite scared. Baby didn't really know what was going on but as soon as he saw a scared Leelee he got a little bit hesitant about the whole popcorn maker too. So the popcorn maker has found a nice home in the closet for now :)

In all fairness, it wasn't all fear...they were equal parts really excited when the popcorn came out and equal parts really scared. haha. Here are some photos of the excited phase:

Olin's upper lip makes me laugh...

Mandarin House after Leelee's Christmas program today. Baby loves egg flower soup. 

Beautiful sunsets. I never get tired of the pinks around here.

Had to throw this in...a classy Tuesday date night comprised of dinner and Cinnabon at the mall! Oh, and we also hit the Gap after Cinnabon and got in on some 40% off deals. hehe.

Leelee's Christmas program this morning. They sang around 6-7 songs. He looked pretty cute in this little cap. I don't know if the guy next to him was genuinely huge or if his seat was higher, but he looked HUGE. Also, there are two little boys, Indian, who both have bowl cuts and are seriously adorable. One of them is in the dead center of this photo with the glasses.

Admit Calendar

Every morning, Leelee asks when we can do the "Admit Calendar".

We've been doing an Advent activity every day, some successfully and some not so much! These are the latest...

1) Forts & Flashlights. I couldn't find working flashlights so we used these St. Patty's day glowsticks I had saved up from last year.

Isn't this the funniest smile? Baby has fallen down about 4 times on his lips in the past week. His upper two front incisors are now both kind of wiggly, but I keep checking them and they seem to be tightening up. #F is still a little discolored.

Finally, I snapped a photo of the holy socks! These little guys were peeking out of the fort. I am so surprised Leelee doesn't protest when he puts on these socks.

2) Gingerbread house decorating. Dae and I pretty much oversaw (made) the entire project. Leelee and Olin were masters at placing candy on the rooftops and eating the majority of the remainder. As you can see, the quality of craftsmanship on the house on the right (mine) is far superior to the house on the left (Dae).

Olin, eatin'

Precise surgery going on here...lives are at stake!

3) Barracuda coffee and Random Act of kindness: Just like last year, took the kids to Barracuda and left some money with the cashier to pay for the person behind us. Then we sat close by and watched. It was pretty fun. This year, the man who came in behind us seemed pretty confused when told his coffee was paid for, but he said "Ok, well then I'll pay for the next person!" That was really nice. So then the next guy, a younger guy, comes in and is told that the man sitting down had paid for his coffee. He also seemed really confused, and was like "that guy?" I was trying not to laugh, and hoping that the 2nd guy didn't think it was some kind of pick-up from the first guy! haha!

Ham and cheese croissants and hot chocolate

5) Non-advent related: We had a couple of holiday activities this weekend and one was an ugly sweater party. So I went to Goodwill last minute and picked up this green sweatshirt and blue turtleneck for Dae. Without me even asking, he paired it with this red leather jacket that has been the butt of many a joke around here. He refuses to let me Goodwill the thing and probably still thinks it's the height of fashion - it is not. 

(I was kind of disappointed that he didn't look that bad. We'll have to get him something really hideous next year!)

 

Yakima River Freeze

The Yakima River freezes over, superficially, when it gets bone-chilling cold over here. It has been really cold the last week and the river has looked like this, which I find really pretty.

(There were quite a few cars pulled over taking photos throughout the day so I guess even Tri-Citians don't tire of the frozen river's appeal!)

2T

By the way, that green Columbia outercoat that Leelee has worn all winter is a size 2T and this is the third winter season he has worn it. I guess I should be alarmed, but somehow I am not.

Tri-City Americans

We took the kids to the Tri-City Americans (minor league hockey) game last night for the ongoing Advent Calendar. It's a far cry from the NHL, but at $26 for 4 tickets the price was certainly right!

Love the hat Ev made me

The kids really enjoyed the game. Olin was dancing in the aisles and holding onto the railing, peering over to get a good view. Leelee was holding onto these pucks we had purchased (as a fundraiser) for dear life. We purchased them for $2 and the idea is you try to throw them into a hot tub placed on the ice between second and third quarters. Whoever makes it is in a drawing for a gift certificate. So we were suckered into staying for at least two long quarters. Leelee forced himself to stay awake during the game for the puck toss and then promptly fell asleep the minute he got into the car.

Puck #49. Unfortunately not a winner

Fun with Christian, playing 'airplane'. My beloved LL Bean slippers.

Olin writing his O's

Cards for Leelee's teachers. He spells some letters backwards, like the P in Prashanthi. I love his handwriting!

This little tag is hilarious. Prashanthi is on three separate lines. Then he started his own name and finished it above where he started. So anyone who can read this tag should be a hieroglyphics decoder!

S'mores

We roasted S'mores yesterday (urban s'mores - over our stove top) as part of our Advent Calendar activities. Olin had marked up his face earlier with some markers so disregard the mess on his cheek!

Evaluating the quality of his final product.

We stopped in at Beaver Bark on Sunday afternoon and picked up our sparse little Charlie Brown tree. Low-needle-shedding, just like we like it! Below are a couple of gorgeous photos I took...

Didi and Olin like to hang out whenever the kids are all together. Here is Olin copying Didi's handstand.

(Sidenote: Olin loves Caillou and asks for it constantly. He doesn't like too many other shows, but he will tolerate Blues Clues. Leelee likes Ni Hao Kai Lan these days)

Christmas in Seattle

My mom hosted her 5th Annual Christmas in Seattle for my family, Ev's family and Stacey and Wilson's family. The weather was crystal clear in Seattle (in December?!), as was Snoqualmie Pass, so the drive over was beautiful and uneventful, thankfully.

My mom went all out again and got gifts for the kids, necklaces for the me, Ev and Stacey and treated us to lunch at sushi and all sorts of treats and snacks, as well as plenty of adult beverages of course! The kids got along great and even with Olin crying and wailing off and on throughout the weekend, it was a
great time together with family. Definitely makes me appreciate family time!

Olin joined us on morning #2 walk. The hills came alive with that extra weight!

Lunch at Haiku Sushi Buffet

Leelee squeezed into the Robertson family annual PJ photo

Mal's quite the professional poser these days

Craft-time. Making a Memory game that has family's photos on it, courtesy of Ev

Legos at lunch with Tyson

The next series of photos I like to call the "Naughtiness of Olin". He has been so naughty, especially when he's not plopped in front of an iPad or iPhone. Therefore, as you can see, he is normally plopped in front of an iPad or an iPhone!

iPhoning at lunch

iPading at home. Face is illuminated by the iPad

Ruling the roost on the iPad

This photo is horrible. I cannot believe he is already shooting. I sure as heck did not teach him that.

Squeezing me over on the piano.

Blinded by the antlers.

Fun with Didi