Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Surprise!

Hello to all our blog friends, hope you had a good Thanksgiving and Christmas with family and friends. as you can see, we've been taking a blog break for the holidays. look for weekly Thomas updates starting jan 1. i have also been spending way too much time reading the "twilight" book series, administering my mom's group activities and of course, taking care of thomas. that is between the various holiday/family events and church activities.

william has been really busy with new responsibilities at work, so it has been hard for him to post as well. he can't even find time to check email at work. looking forward to things slowing down in January, like they always do.

In 2009, we're looking forward to seeing what develops as thomas turns 3, the presidential inauguration and the new church that we are joining. We are really blessed and can't wait to share the events with you as they happen. Happy New Year and may you be blessed as well!


thumbs up man... do i look like my daddy or what?

Thomas tempting Fate

This was from our church's summer retreat...

See an earlier blog about how much Thomas likes to hang from bars and this day was no exception except below him was a 6ft drop. I was hustling as fast as I could to get to him in case his grip comes loose....I don't even want to imagine what kind of fall he'd take if he had let go...crazy kid!

Look at the satisfied smile on his face as he "hung" 8ft off the ground in front of him...heart-attack for daddy!

and another cute pic of thomas

ok, now i am really busted b/c i have to go to my niece's 5 year b-day party tomorrow and have stayed up way too late. but here's a cute pic of thomas that was doctored by his auntie jessie. thanks jessie! we think he's cute too :D

so what do i log back in to blog about?

i have tons going on, so busy between my parent's group, church and a family funeral that I can't even keep up with email. so what do i log back into blogger to write about? star trek. yes, crazy. i caught site of one of the bad guys from Heroes done up as spock and he looked so convincing i had to click and read more. here is the story: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20233502,00.html

Can't wait for the movie! due out May 2009.

smilie face

he is such a ham. william got the pic with the big green st. patrick's day hat one morning when they were just goofing around together. thomas dug it out of his toy room and paraded out with it plopped on his head.




these two pics were from the playground a week ago. i love the first pic - that is his super smilie face, that makes all his dimples come out. and the second - he loves to hang from things. when he is on slides, he will always hang from the bar at the top (like many kids) before sliding down. william got this awesome pic of him just being a joyful kid.

he loves hanging from things so much, that i got this set of rings and swing bars from IKEA that we can bolt to a door frame or ceiling. thomas will trip out when he sees it! we will probably have to tie them up every night to keep him from going over to swing on it when he is supposed to be going to sleep. :)

having a kid now, i can understand why there are parents out there that give in to their every whim. it is terrible and the child grows up spoiled and undisciplined, but it can be difficult to resist. as parents, you love making them happy. and of course giving in to him when he asks for things or demands things makes him happy. just seeing the look on his face when i get him a new toy (usually from craigslist), just makes me want to do it every day! but of course, you can't. so even though i know in my head why it is bad, in my heart, i understand now why parents spoil their kids. right now, i am trying to stop giving him new stuff for no reason. i don't want him to think we can just get toys anytime. and then christmas and birthday presents don't hold as much appeal either. but it is really hard. sometimes, i get stuff just b/c i know he will love it. other times, i feel it is educational... and educational toys are ok right?? ha ha... :)

Addicted to Nuttin But Stringz

I started playing the violin at 6. played all through h.s. and for a couple years at UCLA. So I am very critical when it comes to what i see on TV. i was flipping channels last month and happen to catch an audition episode of America's Got Talent. These two black kids came onto the stage carrying violins and i thought, oh great, they are going to be miserable. i was cringing even before they started to make a noise. everyone knows they either chose the best or the WORST to profile when they show auditions on these shows. then they started playing. i tell you, i was mesmerized. these two are the most amazing musicians i have seen for a long time. not only do these brothers from Queens have an electrifying stage presence, they have the chops to back it up. their performance from last week:



so i watch every week now, mostly to watch them. I completely believe that a ton of kids will start taking violin lessons because of them and that they could change the way people look at the classical violin. if you share my interest in cross over classical music, catch them next week in the finals and vote for them! (wed 9/24, nbc, 9pm pst)

btw, the younger brother is an absolute prodigy - he was accepted at Julliard (one of the best music schools in the world) at the age of 10, after taking up the violin for only 2 years. his older brother isn't too shabby, got into julliard shortly after. they write most of their own compositions and got invited to play at the White House for Black Music History month. Julliard got it right with them! if you want to see more of NBS, their audition performance is also on utube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbWRkulvXbE

trip to berkeley

Last Saturday (Sept 6th) we drove into Berkeley for our friend Doris & Darren's baby shower. It had been hot for 4 to 5 days straight with 100F+ temps in Dublin & Pleasanton. It's the last gasp of summer and I hope that was the "Indian" summer for the season.

Saturday was just as warm so even though we were next to the bay in Berkeley, it was still mid 80's.

Here's a picture of Thomas standing next to some flowers outside Andronico's grocery market in El Cerrito. Catherine was down the street at a store gathering baby shower presents.

Andronico's coffee selection was amazing ompared to Dublin's Safeway or Lucky's. Prices are perfect too...must be the gourmet coffee drinking population in Berkeley. The same 8oz package of Lavazza espresso coffee was $12 in Walnut Creek's Italian grocery shop and it was $7 here... Makes me want to binge drink espresso coffee...but I have to wait until the weather cools off.

Anyhow, Thomas was rummaging through the store and I tried to keep tabs on him. I lost sight of him for about 5 seconds and he rounded the coffee aisle. I heard his little feet picking up pace so I started after him. I quickly checked the entire small store down each aisle my heart starting get panic-ky as each aisle turned up blank of little Thomas.

I kept hearing his little footsteps and but couldn't seen him. Turns out he took the 1st aisle next to the coffee aisle where I was and I had completely missed that first one (thinking he'd ran further down.) So finally he popped out and looked at me frantically running back towards where he was wondering what took me so long to figure out where he was. "What r u doing daddy?" He asks...my heart rate was now back to normal rate....

Crazy kid! So fast...amazing what little feet can do when no hampered by adult common sense...they sure pick up speed fast. Since we were late for the baby shower...Thomas and I took a lot of free bread samples for a small pre-lunch....(seen in the picture in his little hands)

-William

personality differences

thomas has love-hate relationships only with certain friends, not all. for some reason, he just fights more with certain ones. this is chad. they are only 2 weeks apart and they fight all the time!!! i managed to catch this one relatively peaceful moment where both of them where enjoying their lollipops. of course, this is after thomas stole chad's lollipop. one of my friends actually caught him in he act in the top pic :) such a funny picture!
he was casing out the situation with chad, waiting until chad was relaxed, then struck like a predator. grabbed the lollipop and ran off with it. as thomas ran to the kitchen, he looked up at me excitedly, while running to me, "look mommee, i have a yellow lollipop!" of course, by this time chad was hot on his heels, so i quickly said " that's very nice thomas, but i think chad wants his lollipop back. i have a new one for you." i quickly pulled it out of thomas' hand, gave it back to chad who was now crying uncontrollably. chad stopped crying and i handed thomas his own lollipop. chad was happy, thomas was happy and all was well. they walked back to the living room together and sat down next to each other to enjoy their respective treats.



this is my favorite group of moms from my mom's group. i know it is bad of me to have a preference, but can't help it. this one particular group really clicks. this was our last meeting for the summer and we had a baby shower for one that is pregnant. as you can see, we got really creative making little boy outfits out of just tissue paper and tape. fun!
starting this week, 3 of them have their kids in preschool, all on slightly different schedules, so the likelihood of us all getting together again is pretty slim. we'll still meet for playdates, just not with all 8 of us...

favorite photos from our retreat

thomas and dylan posing outside our cabin. and below, i asked thomas to go between the two baby girls and put his arms around them. he just didn't want to do it! really funny that he is starting to not want to hug babies. instead he ran over, gave us this super cheesy smile and then ran off as soon as the picture was taken.

personally, this was one of the best retreats i have ever been too. i think it has been 7-8 years since i have been to a retreat where i left feeling spiritually challenged and renewed. Pastor Loren Chong came as a guest speaker and none of us were expecting the amazing workshops and sermons that he gave us. I'll have to post more later, but it was awesome and reminded me of the reason God came into my life, and what I can do to be better, just when I was starting to get really burnt out and emotionally downhearted. God is always walking beside us, even when we are not spiritually in tune enough to feel Him there. That's an awsome security blanket!


-------------------------on another note...-----------------------------------
Labels. one of thomas' other obsessions. he loves to put labels on everything, including himself. sometimes, he'll run around pointing to everything he wants a label on and the entire house will have stickies everywhere. so funny!


yesterday as william was leaving for work, he said "hey thomas don't grow up so fast. we want you to stay small ok?" we often say this to each other when thomas is asleep, but on a whim, william said it to him directly that morning.
thomas quickly replied, "no i want to grow biig like daddee and mommee!"

we usually pray for him, that God would help him to grow strong and tall, among other things. also, when we try to get him to eat meat, william always says "don't you want to grow tall like mommy and daddy? if you eat this yummy chicken, you'll grow big and strong!" of course, he has learned that growing big is desired. haha... it was from us. and some day soon, he'll be 5 feet tall and realize that i'm pretty darn short. :p

practicing mandarin

couldn't resist posting this one! his grandparents have gotten more involved in trying to teach him to speak mandarin. last week they brought a few cute books, flashcards and DVD's. One of them has some basic characters along with the tones. thomas actually likes to watch it, but doesn't go along with what he is supposed to say. he just kind of makes up his own sounds for the character he is looking at. pretty hilarious!!






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thomas with the gang

this was outside the Lindsey Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek. It was a great museum for toddlers! the animal exhibits are very close up so the kids really get to see the birds and some of them (esp the eagles and owls) are very big! they also have a toddler playroom (almost like a preschool room) that is great for 2-5 yrs old and a nice park outside where we had lunch and took this pic. the thing i love about the playground is that it had an area with structures just for 1-3 yr olds! thomas had a blast!

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here is the latest Wiggles dance that thomas is working on perfecting. something about the side to side and leg slaps makes it SOOO funny. william and i always crack up when thomas starts dancing this one :)

dog pile

thomas learned how to dog pile someone last week! we were at a playdate with some moms from my group and the mom on the bottom, Polene, is our resident "fun mom." all of our kids love her b/c she is so animated and playful. she was trying to teach the boys how to dog pile her, but look at that one, chad, in orange. he is just loving on her!!

some updates:
- loves to say "no i do it" (whenever we try to do something for him that he wants to do himself)
- "No it's MIiiiiNE" really loud
- says his own prayers now :) super cute
- has a fascinatingly good memory (really annoyingly accurate sometimes)
- tries to stall bedtime all the time
- getting really good at bargaining (thomas you have 5 more minutes. "no 10 more minutes!" thomas you can have 2 more. "no 3, no 5 more!")
- learning the concept of "maybe" (Thomas do you want to go out? "um yes, no, yes, maybe...")
- finally watching something other than the Wiggles! "Harold & the Purple Crayon"
- weighs a little over 28 pounds and still a little under 34 inches
- when he knows i am mad with something he has done and am coming to get him for a time out, he gets frantic and starts saying anything he can think of to get out of it. i.e. " i be ok mommy", "no i stop", "no no no", "no mommy, i happy now" etc...

Thomas meets Cliford and can't keep his hands off him!

we went to the Pleasanton Main St. Fair wednesday evening, and our booth was right next to Carden West School. They had a person in a stuffed Clifford suit and Thomas couldn't get enough of him. at first, he just stood there with his mouth open. then he went up for a hug. after the initial shock of seeing Clifford, live and in person wore off, thomas just kept going back for more. he couldn't keep his hands of him! repeatedly touching his paws, poking his belly, petting him all over, touching his knee, touching his snout, going for more hugs. it was so cute and funny. we got some video i will try to post up later. thomas has only watched Clifford a few times, so i was surprised the response was so positive. funny little guy...

What do you do when they say "sorry"

Cute pic from today's playdate with Betty & Trinity, friends we met at the library last year:



Climbing the daddy tree. thomas loves to pretend william is a tree and climb as high as he can. only, his feet are kind of sticky, and when his little toes dig into your muscle/bone, it actually hurts! the look on william's face is not really a smile, it is a grimace :p


"sorry mommy. sorry mommy. are you ok now?"

In the last couple months, thomas has started saying "sorry mommy sorry mommy" when he knows he has upset me. this month, he started asking "are you mad?"
if i say, "no i'm not mad." then he asks "are you nno-yed?" his way of saying "annoyed" (ha ha, yeah, in the back of my head i am laughing too).

currently, say he does something bad. i say "thomas what did i just say?!? i told you not to do that!" very exasperated tone. he says " sorry mommy, sorry mommy" very hard to resist. then in the next beat "Are you ok now? mommy are you ok now?" btw, this also happens after i give him a timeout for something he does purposefully. he will actually say sorry to try to get out of the time out, cries, then when the TO is over, "mommy i be ok now. are you ok?" (I know, so sweet...)
this has been hard for me, b/c depending on the mood i am in (or how little sleep i have had the night before :o), i am either ready to forgive him right away, or i want him to know i am still mad, even though he gives me a genuine, contrite sounding apology. part of me always wants to give him a hug right away and tell him, it is ok now. but every once in awhile, i just want to stay a little mad at him for making extra work for me (and a few times i have even shot him an evil eye look to let him know i am still mad). i know, i know.... he is just a toddler!! but is it ok to stay mad at your kids even when they've given you an apology? what do you do when that sad little face is looking at you so expectantly to see if everything is ok? my most frequest response is, "i am not happy right now with what you just did, but I still love you very much. But no, I am not happy. " etc etc... ugh...

Cool oven - it chills and cooks!

I love my home magazine cause i get great ideas from it that I can try converting from platinum ($$$$) to ATM ($) or to check out new products. This new oven has a pretty cool feature: tmio oven

You call it from your cell and it will go from chilling what you put in it that am, and start cooking. Dinner ready when you walk in the door! And goes to keep warm when the cooking time is done. Also has a timer you can use if you know exactly what time you want it to start cooking. Pretty nifty... except that it costs almost $4k, but who knows, in 10 years they might have a $500 model available :)

Oh this one is just for Dylan's mommy, Naomi, who keeps her facial creams in the kitchen refrigerator: a refrigerated vanity medicine cabinet, that has a cooler built-in to protect all of your expensive facial creams and serums from heat during the summer. Also supposed to be a benefit to your skin to have refreshingly cold cream applied. what will they think of next!

check out your sunscreen

if you haven't seen it already, click here for a comprehensive list of sunscreens and how effective as well as chemically safe they are for you: cosmetics database

Great for finding out if the sunscreen you use is effective AND safe. also rates lots of popular cosmetics brands. my Aveeno SPF70 is actually bad (effective but chemically toxic) but my Oil of Olay sensitive skin SPF 15 passes the test. sucks b/c i slather the Aveeno all over thomas' little face and body... thinking that it was baby safe. stupid me for falling for their marketing!

June-July

he did this all by himself!

it has been a flurry of playdates with my many mom friends, both personal friends, and ex-coworker friends as well as through my mom's group. i realized in july that i was neglecting my personal friends and decided to invite them to start a regular playdate rotation. i know regina, sara's mommy has said the same thing of her involvement with her church mom's group (that i attend during the school year). it can definitely be very absorbing, being active in a mom's group. i feel like that is all i do these days!
there are so many great pics from playdates it is hard to pic the best... i like this one because little lindsey looks so knowing, as she stares into the camera.

a group shot from a playdate at "Just Your Party" in san ramon. it was so crazy trying to get all the kids to sit in one spot :) there were 25 of them that day!

thomas and little alexya, both hamming it up for the camera. these two love the camera!

thomas did not want to share any of his frozen yogurt with lindsey. but it was so cute to see how intently she was looking on as he ate. poor lindsey!

little sara playing house with thomas. i actually have several pictures of them playing in toy houses together. that seems to be their thing :)

thomas and ethan have a love hate relationship... hmmm.... maybe it is taking after their dads. did i just say that?? wait, ha ha, just kidding... they actually sat together and colored on the same paper for a good 10 minutes! these two either play together nicely, or are involved in a flappy hand fight over some toy that they both want at the same time. it was awesome to watch them color together!


one big change in the last month is that we have all noticed that they actually play together, in a coordinated way. 3 weeks ago, sara, ethan and thomas actually played ball together, by batting a large exercise ball back and forth between each other, using these little bowling pins to whack it. we have no idea how they communicated this to each other, just that they were actually playing all together, in the same manner. it was awesome to watch that developmental step.

also, thomas is starting to change in personality as well. he is becoming a little boy and it is sad to see the infant toddler growing up so fast. i can't believe it has already been 2.5 years. a very wise mentor once told me to treasure the first 5 years b/c that is the only time in your children's lives that you truly have them to yourself. once they start school, things change. so william and i only have 2.5 more years before we have to let thomas go into the world of full-time school...

Kuo Extended Family Dinner

i have been too tired lately to log in - sorry for the lack of updates/photos, esp to relatives! apologies as well to all of our friends who blog, for not visiting your blogs lately.

here is a pic from Sunday's family dinner with most of the Bay Area Kuo clan in attendance. Thomas looks so much like someone... i just can't quite put my finger on it yet, but give me another day or so. his face is definitely changing. so much has happened in the last month, i will try to catch up at some point, just for records sake. william has promised to help me in this! right william??

Nuts about the Wiggles

when we went to visit our old church in LA last year, pastor Soon and Esther gave us 5 old VHS tapes of the Wiggles. For months they sat gathering more dust when we finally decided to see what they were like. this was end of january. little did we know that we were about to embark on the beginning of the Wiggles mania in Thomas' little life. it pretty much revolves around the Wiggles and their songs now. we found out they write and play all of the songs too, which is pretty cool because they have some really, obnoxiously catchy tunes that i find myself singing at random times during the day. 3 of them graduated in early childhood education and the 4th, the one asian guy was a friend that played the keyboard.



here is thomas in hyper Wiggles mode, just going nuts b/c we just got this new DVD of one of their live shows, with a medley of almost all his favorite wiggles songs in one shot. he just about went crazy trying to dance to all of them...

cherry picking and beyond

a few more good pics from our Tahoe trip. my favorite one of thomas and william, and one of thomas - still performing even up in the mountains. that's william coming up from behind, because it looked like thomas was going to dance himself right off the small boulder he'd selected as a "stage."

also, during one of our boring days, we went into Harrah's casino and played in the toddler play area for the morning. it was nice b/c summer is slow so we had the entire play structure to ourselves. the attendant only charged us $5 for the day, rather than $5 per hour.
since there was no one else, I begrudgingly went into the ball pit with thomas, after he begged and begged. it was fun, but in the back of my mind, i am thinking about all the gross things that could be in that ball pit with us. yeeuck... ball pits are really grody germ pits and if you think about it, there is really no way to clean all those balls. no way. so you are playing in the spit, drool, lost diapers, lost shoes, toe jam, and boogers of all the kids that have played in it before.... but we had fun :)

here's another funny pic - i was trying to clean some crud off thomas' face and he was trying to get me back very vigorously with his little thumb. or maybe he was trying to swat at me, can't remember. :) he really dislikes it now when i rub anywhere near his mouth. no matter what i use (my hand, a towel, a wipe, a napkin) he really hates it and will re-wipe his mouth with his sleeve as soon as i let him.


i have to say two year olds are a TON of fun. i can't think of a day that hasn't gone by without laughs of some kind, along with lots of playing and new games made up on the spot. sometimes, they are really really silly games too. yesterday, i started singing "Head Shoulders Knees & Toes", and thomas was whining, "Stop" so i froze and stared at him. he started to giggle and yelled "GO!" so i started singing the song again. he yelled stop and go at least 10 more times during the short song and we both erupted into giggles at the end. of course, when the song ended, thomas immediately said "sing again mommee sing again!!"

some pics from his first time cherry/strawberry picking. he liked picking the cherries off, but the strawberries were the big hit. his belly was full of unwashed strawberries by the time we left. :)

Thomas and 1st Snow

what a treat - we woke up friday morning to a winter wonderland! not just a little, but almost 2 inches! it was a great way to end our trip and funny to watch thomas as he discovered snow.




of course, as always, it is so nice to be home...

Greetings from Lake Tahoe!

We are in beautiful Lake Tahoe this week. it is really amazing up here right now - the weather has been perfect b/c we came right during a heat wave in San Francisco, so we got temps right in the 78-82 degree range. we're leaving just in time too... by Friday, they say the high for the day will be only 42. cold!!

this was thomas' first time on a sand beach. he really didn't want to touch the sand at first. it was hilarious. william and i couldn't stop laughing. he finally decided it was ok and had a great time.

more musical mania...

here's a funny one from today. he's just doing his thing, diapers and nothing else :)



another pic of him after he raided my jewelry box. he piled it all on, stuck the bucket on his head and started singing away...

thomas the little rock guitar guy

I caught this clip yesterday morning. I finally let him watch American Idol with me and all the contestants had to sing broadway songs. Thomas really liked the flashy Jesus Christ Superstar song and asked for a repeat several times. check out those moves!



we have no idea where he got it, but somewhere, somehow he has picked up on the "moves" you make when you play guitar. i swear william does not go around playing guitar like an 80's rock star! most of the time he is just sitting on the ground letting thomas dance around him. maybe it is the Wiggles, or perhaps one of the sketches on sesame street?? who knows...
upon closer examination, i have concluded it is The Wiggles. the red guy, murray, plays the guitar in a lot of their songs and he is copying him. so funny...