more love from daddy and new toy!

Thomas likes to play hard to get sometimes when we want his hugs and kisses. This was him last week when william was trying to get a goodbye kiss, "no no i don't want to give daddy a goodbye kiss" so william got a big hug & giggles instead :)


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this drum set was william's birthday present to thomas. :) we finally got something up on youtube of thomas playing. we found these on craigslist from a dad in berkeley that had his kids outgrow the set. it is this great little full drum set that is scaled down for little guys. of course, the instant thomas saw it, he was enthralled and we couldn't leave without buying it. and since then, he has practiced almost everyday and gotten more and more intricate in his jam sessions with william. and this is without any lessons or instruction from william. he just sits in there, in the middle of his drum castle and bangs away with a big smile on his face.

More pics from December

Here is another one of thomas and william. we were at Blackhawk shopping center, the one with all the ducks. they had this big christmas display setup. since we were too cheap to pay for photos with santa, we opted to take our own photos in front of the display :)


This picture has my mom in middle, my sister on the right, thomas and his two cousins, joshua and ariana. This is a rare photo because my mom is VERY VERY camera shy, so it was pure luck that William managed to snap this shot before she moved away, not wanting to have her picture taken. Amazing that the kids all sat still as well!


and here is thomas' favorite drink - bubble tea, or sweetened milk tea with tapioca balls inside. this was at Quickly cafe near our house. the photo below is from November, with one of his favorite little friends, Ariel *wink & hugs* :). this was the first time i let thomas have some boba and as you can see, he was very VERY intent on getting those tapioca bubbles up the straw.
fast forward to last week, when i was just driving by the cafe on the way to trader joe's, he says to me, "mommy, i think i would like some bubble tea. now." yeah who can resist that??
oh and both thomas and ariel are koreanese babies - half korean half chinese. i have to say, a great combination :)


---------------getting in the kisses while i can----------------------

toddlers generally don't like to be interrupted when they are in the middle of something. william caught me trying to squish thomas, who was not very successfully fending me off, so he very sweetly (and hammy for the camera) gave in to my hug attack. i figure i have to get it in now, while he is small and defenseless. by the time he is 10-11, he will probably be taller than me and not wanting kisses!

a few pics from Christmas

this is thomas with his $3 guitar find from the goodwill store in dublin. william walked in there with him and thomas quickly honed in on this little beat up guitar (even though he has 2-3 at home already... just like daddy.) and of course, since William has a penchant for collecting, he bought it for thomas.


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and this one was playing in one of his favorite stores in the mall, pottery barn kids. we go in there a few times a month just to play with all the toys in there, and occassionally buy something we don't need. he makes himself right at home there, as you can see.

vanilla ice cream milkshake

yummm.... amazing how fast and cleanly they eat when they want to get it into their bellies. no mess, no "accidental" spilling from playing with food, no keeping food in the mouth until it is partially liquified. :)

helping me with our 1st crockpot recipe

Here's the money shot - thomas' million dollar smile. what a ham!

first, i put all the ingredients for the crockpot BBQ sauce in a bowl and thomas helped me stir it. he was very good about not whipping it around too fast, so all the bbq sauce actually stayed in the bowl!

i stuck the chicken in the bottom of the crockpot and he helped spoon all the sauce over the top. fun! :)


all the sauce is in, and we are ready to push start. unfortunately i did not take a picture of the end product. our friend, Stella, said that evening that we haaad to get a picture of the finished product. she was right and I forgot. But it was a little on the dry side. So we'll try it again next week, maybe tweak the sauce some more, and take a picture then :)

Look - matching outfits! :)

So cute, but it makes him look so much more grown up and i hate that! i wish he would stay small and crushably cute for just a few more years. the occasion was for my Dad's ordination ceremony as a pastor. He is finally done! Congratulations to my dad!




below is my new favorite photo of william and thomas. thomas is performing and william is looking on, so many other emotions in his face, mostly proud of his little boy, but also happiness, amusement, joy, and a little chagrin like "oh my what is this little guy going to do next??"


and one last funny photo. this was a cold morning and william had just asked thomas to play like murray. of course, thomas will always say yes to that one.

Thomas turned 3! and our christmas tree is finally down

what a crazy hammy ham thomas is :). here are some more pictures of him clowning around with william's parents. as stoic as they are, even they can't resist laughing at him! and from certain angles, when he smiles a certain way, he lookes a LOT like his grandpa. you can see it in the second pic below, just their smiles and eyes look SO similar.


such fierce concentration!

we have never let him have such a HUGE popcicle - look how stoked he is!


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william finally managed to convince thomas that it was time to take the tree down. we did it in phases, first all the trim around the house, then the tree ornaments, and finally the tree itself today. not too bad considering we've had it up since mid-october :)

we've been trying to potty train him, but in the meantime, he is still in diapers. lately he has not been telling us when he has gone poop. so this evening william was scolding thomas quite loudly as he carried him to the changing table. all of a sudden thomas interupts william's tirade saying,
"daddy, you spit on my face."
william, "what?" (really pissed off sounding too)
thomas, "you s-pit on myee face"
william, "well i don't care because i am really upset at you right now"

of course, i was silently cracking up downstairs. i couldn't even hold it in :)

new year, many new things coming out of thomas' mouth

happy new year to all of you! thomas has changed quite a bit in the last three months. for starters, he throws fits much more when he doesn't get enough warning about a change in activity or if we take something away unexpectedly. an average of about one a day. funny too b/c they happen so suddenly. one minute he is all fine, the next minute, he is crying like the WHOLE WORLD IS GOING TO END! however, if we give him a count down so he knows when to expect something to end, he is usually pretty good. sometimes we have to ask him if he is going to stop, or if we need to physically pull him away. (when given 2 choices, he always picks the option to do things himself).

he also is really getting the hang of talking and puts together some surprising zingers. now we totally get why our friend, Andy is always posting funny things that his kids say. they say the darnest things!

Mommy: "thomas why don't you try eating some of this omlet? it is SO yummy, so delicious!"

Thomas: "then you eat it!"
(he spears the two chunks with his fork and dumps it on my plate.)

Another favorite of his is to walk over to another child that has something he wants and he says "SHARE!" and "You're supposed to take turns" (translation: give it to me!)

On the good side, he continues to be completely enthralled with music and our house is filled with him singing and trying to play various instruments. while the guitar is his favorite, he also will pretend to play the piano, his little flute, the drums and occasionally a little violin or cello. Of course, his no 1 priority is learning new songs from the Wiggles. Here is his current favorite on youtube - the Shimmey Shake. sorry it is kind of loud - he doesn't really sing softly.

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...