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...

sleeping baby

i got this picture a few weeks ago during that hot spell. he fell asleep on my bed. it was so hot in there b/c our room faces the sun all day - even with only a diaper on, he was still soaked in sweat when he woke. but he sure is cute when he is sleeping. i couldn't sleep for awhile cause i was just looking at him :).

here are some new thomas'isms:

"oooo wa dat?" (oh what's that?)
"hi-ee mo-meee, wa do doo-ding?" (hi mommy, what are you doing?)
"oh dat my-ee fa-bor-it!" (oh that's my favorite!)
"oh noooo, bat-tre dea" (oh no, the battery is dead)
"bubba ea-ting zu-key-me!" (thomas is eating zucchini.)
"oh wats ha-pa-ning?" (oh what's happening?)
"to to chu chu bi red ca, ride aaaa day-ee lon!!" (toot toot chugga chugga big red car, gonna ride all day long!)
"dad-dee, hind yuu!!" ("daddy, march behind me!" he has a little you/me confusion :)
"nummee nummee" (yummy yummy)

he did a lot of babbling and one word exclamations until he turned 2. william and i both agree that since january, his language use has exploded. it is amazing hearing all the new things he says weekly.

oh - some more firsts: a week ago, he got mad at william's parents and I, for laughing at him when he tripped running too fast. and just 3 days ago, he saw a small scab on my hand, kissed it and said "oh feeel bed-der mommy, feeel bedder", and patted my arm. every day since then he checks the scab (i think he is observing it getting smaller), and pats my arm to make me "feel better"... and it sure does :)

Thomas @ Alvin & Chipmunks

Last Friday, i drove all the way, aaaaallll the way down to milpitas for a mall-promotion of alvin & the chipmunks. the chipmunks did a 15 minute song/dance routine, came out and met the kids and I got this pic of him jammin. made the ridiculous drive in traffic (4PM), on an unseasonably warm day all worth it! as an added bonus, they gave me the file on a free 1gig keycard. they were passing those things out like candy. i didn't know they had gotten that cheap!

he stood up against a big green screen all by himself, held that little guitar and even smiled. he was so happy to be holding that little guitar that i gave in and bought a toy guitar from KB Toys. for a few weeks now, he has been dancing around the house, holding a ping pong paddle like a guitar. i buy most of his toys off craigslist but i couldn't resist this. of course, 5 minutes after examining the guitar, he want back to using the ping pong paddle for a mock guitar. of course...

Spring activities

we've been really busy this last month. and it is no joke when they say toddlers change every day. he does new things and says new things almost every day. i wish i could document them all but i just don't get on the computer often enough. i got these first 2 pics b/c he said "come mommy come" and then snuggled himself on his bed, next to his stuffed animals and said "take picter, picter." i said, "well the camera is downstairs so i have to go get it." he actually sat there waiting for me to go get the camera, and then proceeded to give me BIG oLE poser smiles when i came back with the camera. definitely understands the concept of getting his pic taken. what a ham!


-----------love is in the air----------------

in March, we also went to the lovely spring wedding at wente vineyards of our friends Ray & Jessie. jessie's the tall one in the middle. i am actually relieved for the groom that it is over b/c he was more stressed about it than she was. don't see that very often! :)


here's william with ray - as usual, william drank more than his quota of wine, so he was ready to to ham it up for the camera, flowers and all...


-----------------easter sunday dedication------------------------

we got the chance to have Thomas dedicated on Easter Sunday. Thanks to my sister, Anita's family, my dad, our friends Cheyene/Alex, Regina/Vijay, Amy/Leewei and Brian for visiting that Sunday. we are very glad to have God as our guide in the adventure of parenting!

that same week, we also got a wonderful visit from the ikeda family. they are long-time, dear friends of ours from our UCLA church. still can't believe their oldest is 5! we remember him visiting when he was just a little guy of less than 2 and soooo cute! well, both he and his little brother are super cute and makes me think thomas will still be cute at 5. :) still not wanting him to grow up so fast. ugh!


------------the oakland zoo----------------

finally, we got Thomas to his first zoo trip. he was semi-amused by the monkeys and turtles. he was most thrilled by his first train ride (around the zoo), and his first car/carnival ride. he picked a purple car and rode in it all by himself. we could tell he felt like a big boy, smiling at me every time he "drove" past me, even steering with one hand and waving with the other. he LOVED that.

after lunch, he watched the tigers lay around, and fell asleep by 1pm in front of the lion enclosure. so, we'll wait another 6 months before trying the zoo again. it was probably more fun for william and i :)

Happy Easter!

Easter blessings & prayers to our friends and family!

Thomas had an exciting morning. We went to the massive egg hunt at a large, local church (Valley Christian Center) and he had a blast. Here are some pics. He got his first ever ride on a donkey and he was a pro. he held on tight the entire time and was repeating "donkey, donkey" softly as he rode. very cute!

also of course, the egg hunt. 80,000+ eggs split over 4 egg hunts, capped at 500 per hunt. amazingly, 20,000 plastic eggs don't go very far when you have 500 excited kids. they were all picked up in around 10 minutes!

he also go a pic with their big dog mascot. he wasn't completely thrilled (as you can see), but as soon as he saw a bigger kid jump in for a pic, he wanted to go back for another picture. funny little guy.

------------------music in da house-----------------------------

like many kids, thomas loves music, so there's lots of it in the house. we listen to it, dance and play/sing it every day. thomas has become quite the showman - he puts his little beads and Mr. Potato glasses on and just boogies around. sometimes he will go grab something to use as a stage(like a stool or chair). total ham!

more random fun

thomas loves loves swinging from anything. look how little he looks squatting in this toy bin. even if i hold him in a bed sheet and swing him, he loves it.

--------------------------time's flying on by-----------------------------------

looking through some old pics and WOW. william and i have aged in the last 9 years. these were taken in 1999 when we first moved into the house. double wow... we look really young! i mean, 9 years IS almost a decade, but still, you don't think of it as that dramatic until you see what you looked like when you were 29 (i think that was my first non-clunky cellphone i was showing off there). and that was scsi as a tender teen of 9 months. plus i think thomas has aged me 5 years in the last two.

william looks even funnier b/c he was trying to be kooky in this pic. he looks like a kid! and look at that bush on his head... man hubby you need a haircut and a shave. :)

toe jam and favorite foods

his newest preoccupation - picking the toe jam out from between his toes. if you think about it, it is actually great practice for hand eye coordination... he has to use both hands to keep his toes pried open, use his index finger to scrap fuzz out, and move from toe to toe, while using his other leg as balance to make sure he doesn't tip over. :)



-------------------YUMM-------------------------

here are some of his favorite foods right now: peas, carrots, meatballs, "ABC" and "O" noodles from Trader Joe's. He also likes mini snack pizzas (in the frozen TJ's section), waffles, TJ's veggies fries, grapes, apples, cutie oranges, sucking on lemon slices, and of course, he still likes any "o" shaped cereal. He likes cereal as a snack so that makes it easy to be healthy - Chex, Fruit Cheerios, kix, and granola. We also started letting him have ritz, fish crackers & jello (occasional treat) when he turned 2.
He knows salty is yummy so when we eat out, he will scarf down most stuff that is easy to chew and salty, mac&cheese, chicken fingers, fries... ooohhh fries. he asks for french fries by name now. funny kids. how do they know! it seems they all love fries.


I found out that he thinks any food with pudding like consistency is for babies. last week, i tried to give him some yogurt, he took a TINY TEENY taste, then said "no." i asked him to try it again and he quickly took the spoon i offered and tried to feed it to his elmo doll. then he said "ba-beee." ha ha... i just mix the yogurt in with his milk. at least he doesn't mind drinking it!

something fun to do indoors

grab bored toddler and any suitable receptacles that can be found around the house. add 50 cents dry rice, add toddler and viola! instant, cheap fun! easier than sand, and completely non-toxic :)


reuse the rice for future play too. unless it gets eaten. as you can see, some unfortunate grains did not survive the experience...