Hi everyone! We hope you all had a great Christmas with your families. We spent a busy weekend with Catherine's side of the family. Here are some highlights from the holiday season.
Visiting houses in our area with crazy light displays. One of them even had a snow machine going!
Playing the piano with grandmom.
Posing with grandpa at Thanksgiving:
Learning to give the big thumbs up!
----------------PIMP my RIDE-----------------
with a little help from his auntie helen, thomas turned his spiderman scooter into a ghetto fabulous christmas ride! first test ride... a few more additions with auntie helen supervising
the finished product! -------------------bob's world too------------------------------
another thursday evening spent with grandmom on william's side. they went back to the house with all the lights. they even have their own website! at widmer-world
they have these penguins that start dancing if you make enough noise. thomas was trying his best to make them wake up. it was so cute because he looks like a little baby bear all bundled up. :)
once he got back to our street he tried to elicit the same reaction from the deer in our neighbor's yard. too cute!
it has been several months since thomas' quirky "grouping" behavior has shown itself. i found it was b/c there was nothing new in our house! this week, we let him at a 36 pack of costco teepee and he wasted no time arranging them...
here is the finished product! out little proud artist standing next to his creation: the teepee gates (installed in the Kuo house, lot 5300, 12/11/07).
kind of reminded william and i of another art installation that got attention in New York a few years back...
The Gates, Central Park, New York City, Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
and we also discovered that we are not the only ones that found the gates humorous...
thomas: "hi cuudee. cuutee" mommy: what are you saying thomas? is that "cutie"? thomas: yeshhh mommy: oh why are you saying that? who's cutie? thomas: (pauses...) (pats his chest) bubba!
thomas has many girl _space_ friends and he loves to hold hands with them! :) this is with little 11 month old kaitlyn at a lunch in september...
this is 10 month old lexy from our fall play date. so fashionably coordinated in brown and pink! in picture, it's funny to see the difference b/w the way she is dressed and thomas' blue on blue.
and a pic from a previous post, little 22 month old sara - his "older" girl friend :). apparently that blue on blue is my unconscious favorite, b/c it seems to show up in a lot of pics. now that i am looking at this pic again, it seems thomas is spacing out or distracted by something and sara has taken charge and is leading him forward...
it is so cute to see little people together, whether they are playing, sitting or standing, it is just plain cute.
for the last 2 weeks, i have been a little obsessed with finding the best preschool for thomas, at the most reasonable cost. it has ranged from $150 to well over $1000/month. big range. the best ones so far have been the Christian based ones and city run preschools, good programs for the most reasonable amount of money. i have gone on 4 tours and have another 6 or so scheduled for the next 3 weeks. the tours are really the best way to see how the classrooms and teachers are. plus thomas loves seeing the classrooms too.
the most frustrating thing has been the age cutoff for attendance. many of them follow the public school district, which stipulates that you have to be 5 years old by Dec 2nd that school year in order to attend Kindergarden. i was going to have thomas start a 3 yr old class next sept 08, but a lot of them won't take him until sept 09. at least i have been finding that several of them have toddler programs (2.5 to 3.5 year age group) so that is what i am shooting for now. at first i was really irked and determined to fight it and go through all the red tape/extra hassle to have him skip a grade but i have talked to a lot of people and am now thinking to leave him in his age group. so when he starts kindergarden in Sept 2011, he will be 5 yrs and 8 months old. several of the directors have told me that you really don't know until 3rd grade - that's when students really start to differentiate in terms of ability and intelligence. i am now thinking to wait until then to see what thomas can handle. we'll see...
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life is good with thomas, he is so cute and fun right now. still kicking myself for not having kids sooner. anyways, he loves to read ABC books, listen to and dance to music, watch other kids and swing at the playground. he is starting to really prefer the little elmo doll over his other plush toys. i finally found the small, soft, Gund Elmo at barnes & noble. we walked in a month ago, and there were elmo's all over the kids section. almost every kid in there was holding one. i knew we wouldn't leave without buying one. luckily it was only $12, not too bad.
his speaking ability has kind of exploded in the last 2 months. he went from 1 word to stringing 2-3 words. plus he talks a lot more in general, copying us word for word and singing random thomas-made-up songs. his pronunciation is so funny and at times unintelligible, but amazing to watch as he processes and advances.
we got this little 1 gig video/mp3 player last month. it is the only one we could find with a small built in speaker. so thomas can easily carry it and listen to the songs on it. william has loaded it up with all of thomas favorite video clips from youtube and sesame street. sometimes he won't let go of it. tonight, he was watching it as he fell asleep. his arms started to get tired, so william thought he was going to fall asleep. but instead, he turned on his side, and propped the player up against another pillow on his bed. so he could just lay there and watch. his little eyes struggling to stay open. so funny! you don't know whether to laugh or squash him.
last month i finally managed to get an uninterrupted, updated clip of Thomas singing the ABC song, indisputably his favorite song right now. it is so hard to get video of him b/c he usually stops whatever funny thing he is doing, and/or runs over to see the playback screen.
we love the way he says "W" and skips over the parts that are too fast for him to say. the same "bubba" he uses for "w" is also the way he says banana and thomas.
daddy's getting goofier and goofier with his little son. they can't get enough of each other. oh and thomas actually says 2 and 3 words together now! some examples:
hi daa-deee
bye bye nigh nigh (mandarin for grandma)
mo nuu-duu (more noodles)
ma-mee up peas (mommy pick me up please)
ma-mee beeg bi (mommy give me a big bite)
boo caa (blue car)
Language is really amazing (and powerful as our friend said) and it is wonderful to watch it unfold. of course it is also constantly entertaining.
can you believe next week is Thanksgiving? wow... and thomas will be 2 years old in under 2 months...
the last time Thomas and I went shopping together, i put him in the puppy backpack and had him wear his sherpa boots with PJ leggings. sorry guys, i know, not very manly, but I got tons of smiles as well as oohs and aahs from ladies. thomas strutted around very proudly and also played peek a boo with almost every woman that would stop to babytalk to him. very flirty... soo cute! he carried his little jamba juice cup around for almost 30 minutes.
on another topic, preschool costs are ridiculous! it is like paying rent on a small apartment, or a really really nice new car, or a top line leather sofa sectional. even the cheaper ones are $500-700/month and that is only for 3 days a week. my mom said that back in the 70's it was $100-200/month. well, i guess that was THIRTY years ago. the only consolation is that it is only for 2 years. after that kindergarten - yay for tax dollars at work. luckily the public schools in dublin are good. they are renovating and upgrading a bunch of stuff at Dublin High School so hopefully by the time Thomas is ready for 9th grade, it will be good as well.
----------------------------------------------------------- a few random pics from October's LA trip. thomas really doesn't look like a baby any more. but i still call him baby. my other names for him are "little monkey", bubba, froggy and "why you little!" for when he is being mischievous.
this is me with our dear pastor's wife from UCLA, Esther Chung. one of the most wonderful and decent women I have ever had the privilege of knowing. I met her my freshman year at UCLA and unarguably she has been one of the biggest and most positive influences in my life. God was so good to put her in my path at a time when I was completely lost and really begging for direction. May God continue to bless her and Pastor Soon in their ministry at UCLA!
thomas' costume is a little ghetto - i had to chop the feet off so that he could wear it outside. added more yarn to the mane but i didn't have brown, so i used dark blue. didn't have time to add yarn to the legs, but i would have liked to have a bunch of yarn hanging down on his little sneakers. i am so glad he didn't mind wearing the hood. usually, he just yanks off sweatshirt hoods, but he somehow understood that this "sweatshirt" was different. ha ha...
thomas had so much fun he had trouble falling asleep that night. the first few houses, william said that thomas just closed his eyes really tight, standing there waiting for the door to open. william would tell him that it was ok to open his eyes and ask him what a lion does. thomas is very good at roaring. :) after the 3rd and 4th house, thomas was much more comfortable and just went right for the candy dish. william said that a couple older ladies that answered doors, just stood there, smiling, watching thomas walk away.
luckily thomas doesn't know what candy is, otherwise we probably would have had some indigestion going on. by next year he will probably want to eat it all the moment he gets home. this year, he had loads of fun transferring the candy from one bowl to another, and back again. simple fun.... and now when he sees a pumpkin in a book, he goes "pee... bum din" (aka pumpkin).
in the middle of the worse raging fires (both wild and arson related) that southern california has ever experienced, we drove down to LA last weekend. we had been planning the trip for a couple months and didn't want to cancel. thomas was just recovering from croup, i was getting over a cold and william was on the verge of getting the same cold.... but we went anyways. sadly, it kept us from meeting the newest member of the Kim family (our friend's joanna & johhny), but we'll make sure to catch you guys next year!! don't want to be responsible for getting any new babies sick. scary thing was that the fire was only 5 miles away from their home at one point. thankfully, it moved in a different direction or they might have had to evacuate as well.
anyways, it was a little smoky on friday, but the winds shifted a little and by saturday evening the air was not bad at all.
thankfully, thomas did really well on with the drive. we only stopped twice on the way down, and once on the way up. really amazing for a little guy to sit strapped down for that long. we were really glad that we didn't end up having to stop every hour like we expected.
we walked around campus on Friday. it was the first time i had been back since 1998! so much has changed on the perimeter, i really didn't recognize much. luckily, the center of campus, the main quad and bruin walk haven't changed too much. the top pic is a shot of thomas peering at a large group of middle school kids that are getting a tour of campus.
we stayed in this little motel right in westwood, easy walking distance from campus and our old church. our room had a little fridge in it that became thomas' FAVORITE play thing ever. open close open close, take something out, put it back in, take milk out, take one sip, put it back in, repeat. several times. just because he could. at home the fridge door is too heavy for him to open.
snack time on the hotel bed :) ha ha...
on sat evening and sunday at church, we got to spend time with many old and long time friends. it was so nice to see everyone and to see all the kids! at the dinner on sat they had childcare, so i was able to actually talk & relax without having to worry about thomas. the hard thing was that there was not enough time to talk to everyone. i tried to make sure i had good conversations with at least a few people. just not enough time! but it was so nice to see everyone and to catch up with Pastor Soon and Esther. I still can't believe that their oldest, Faith, is 15!! amazing that that much time has gone by. our college church is blessed with some truly talented worship leaders, who made the worship/song time a really wonderful blessing for william and I. they are such amazing singers, i felt like i could have just sat and listened to them sing for hours. they do have a CD, but the CD really doesn't do them justice.
it is always nice to know that there are friendships that don't change and no matter how long it has been since the last meeting, you slip into them again like a pair of comfy shoes. thank God for comfy shoes :)
also in october, i gave in and decided to let him start using crayons and markers. i was a little averse to giving him items that could potentially cause permanent damage. funny thing is, he doesn't really want to draw. but he will sit there for 20 minutes and count them all.
to back track a little, on 10/13, thomas went to his first pumpkin patch. there were some goats and a small piglet there. he was very excited to get to touch them. incidentally, this first pic is almost exactly like a picture of me with my dad at around that age. and the goat's butt is even facing the same way. i'll have to post that pic when i find it.
we had a lot of fun examining all the pumpkins. they had varietal gourds as well. for some reason, thomas was intent on getting this one over his head.
this was a small patch in pleasanton. pumpkins are not cheap! we ended up taking 2 smallish ones (like the one behind william) and 1 mini one home. the bigger ones are $20-40!
he doesn't have a safety blanket or "lovey" item yet, but one thing he has always liked to do is put his hand up our shirt sleeves while drinking milk. once in awhile, he will sit in our laps (infant nursing style) and drink, but he mostly likes to sit on his own when he drinks. however, it we're not sitting next to him, he will follow one of us around, motioning to his arm, until he can drag us over to his chosen sitting spot for the evening. this is to ensure a shirt sleeve to fiddle with. sometimes he sticks his whole hand in and reaches around for some unknown sweet spot, sometimes he likes to just feel the edge of the cloth b/w his thumb and fingers, and other times, he just sticks his hand in and lets it sit there. it is actually one of our favorite things to watch him do because he is growing up so fast, and when he does this, it feels like he is still a baby.
as you with kids know, toddlers change really fast. it seems as though new traits and behaviors pop up almost every day. it is hard to remember every single one, but the most significant one that has surfaced in the last month is that he clearly understands and has remorse when he upsets us now. before, he would just look at us with this puzzled look on his face, or sometimes bark back at me what i just said, "Thomas look what you did!!" in Thomas speak "Aaaaa AAAA AAAAAA!!!" and look with curious anticipation to see what i would do next. very irritating but very funny in the back of your head too. now when i act upset with him, he clearly shows a change in demeanor as well as a "prolonged period of droopy, puppy-eyed expression", followed by no movement. ie. this afternoon, i got irritated with him b/c he would not let me finish clipping his nails. so i smacked his rear as he squirmed away for the 10th time, and said "fine. ok FINE." he lay very still and watched me walk away. when i passed the den a minute later, he was still laying there; just his eyes followed me as i walked by. i came back a full 5 minutes later, and he was sitting very still in his froggy/buddha position, hands in his lap, eyes terribly downcast, wounded look on his face. the pic below is the closest i have captured to it - but this afternoon, the corners of his mouth were much more pouty, and his chin was more downward, allowing him to capitalize on the puppy-dog droopy eye look. i'm not sure if it was my imagination or not, but his eyes looked a little red too, like he was almost about to cry.
so i cupped his little face in my hands, and said that i shouldn't have gotten mad at such a small thing, but that sometimes, mommy needs him to sit still, even when he doesn't want to. when i reach down further to hug him, he reach up and got into my arms. we just hugged for a few moments, and all was forgiven. oh and as eric and timothy's dad, Andy, says, snuggling in bed with them at this age is the best thing ever. thomas actually wants to snuggle now and doesn't try to wiggle away. he fits so nicely under my chin, right up against my chest. he lays on his side, but every moment or two, he looks up into my eyes, touches some part of my face, then turns to his side again. sometimes we both giggle from the eye contact. i love how his head smells, even when he is a little sweaty :)
yesterday we went to Cheyene and Alex's baby shower. they are due around thanksgiving and Cheyene looks beautifully, glowingly expectant! they had lots of yummy food and thomas had lots of fun playing in the ice chest with his friend sara. look at them gettin busy in there! i think she just nudged him out with her head :)
william got this CUTE pic as they walked with sara's dad down the hallway. (sorry vijay - i had to cut you out of the picture when i cropped it and saw how cute it was with just the 2 of them! ha ha :)
--------------winter clothes-------------------- i got to make a trip up to H&M clothing store in walnut creek on Friday. picked up some clothes for me as well as some of the coolest booties for thomas :). just in time for cold weather!
that is dad's doing by the way: sweatshirt, onesie, booties, no pants. william comes up with some funny combinations of winter layering for thomas. below - hey look at my cool new slippers! and yes, he still drinks his milk out of a bottle. i'll probably let that go until the end of the year and then start figuring out a way to wean him off the bottle.
--------------bad mommy!!--------------------
early last week, it was dinner time and i hadn't put anything together for thomas yet. he was hungry and opened the cabinet and starting pointed to the cereal boxes. he got a little whiny and cried a little. but i told him to please wait and that dinner was coming soon. he walked away and starting looking at his toys. i was zoning out as i cooked and realized suddenly that thomas was awfully quiet. i turned around and didn't see him anywhere in the room. i walked up to the island and peered over. thomas was on the ground behind the island. it was sooooo SOOO sad - he was sitting in this little froggy position, feet together, munching on some stale cereal he had found. i felt like such a bad mommy for starving him! heartbreaking! i had left the camera in the kitchen and managed to catch the pure pathetic-ness of his posture and situation... look at the dejected bent in his neck. like he realizes that he's getting to the last one.
it was so sad for me to see this little creature sitting so quietly and intently eating the few little o's he had found. actually, sad doesn't quite describe what i was feeling. but it was this funny aching feeling in my heart. i went over, hugged him, and told him i was sorry for making him wait. as he reached up and hugged me back, it almost felt like he was saying "it's ok mommy." silly, i know...
today was thomas' first real experience in the rain. we got fully suited up, raincoat and boots, and we went to the library... in the pouring rain. he loved it as you can see :)
a few more additions with auntie helen supervising
the finished product!
