Mom, I just love you....

I spent the whole day with Kailin yesterday. Just the two of us. We started out with Cricket (Chinese School). On the way there we were listening to her favorite kids' songs cd. We giggled and laughed as we tried to sing the ABC's really fast and then she giggled harder when I tried to sing it backwards (really fast) and failed miserably. We sang about "This Old Man" and where he was playing knick-knack, clapped and sang along with BINGO, and listened to her all time favorite "Roll Over" ("There were 10 in the bed and the little one said, 'roll over, roll over' so they all rolled over and one fell out; there were 9 in the bed...." you get the picture...) at least 9 times. After Cricket she had a friend's birthday party to attend, so we were off to Mayfair Mall to Build-a-Bear for that. She had a great time and then we enjoyed pizza and cake after the party. I was sure she was going to conk out on the way home, but she stayed awake almost the whole ride. When we got home, she crashed on the couch and we snuggled up to watch Mickey for just a little while. Probably four times randomly throughout the day I heard, "Mom?... I just love you." You know, I just love her, too! It was the best gift she could have given me. She's never short on "I love yous", but it's something special when it's entirely unsolicited.

I'd promised her "dinner out" and we headed off to McDonald's for a fine dining experience. She had a little tantrum in the grocery store over wanting an animal (again), even after I reminded her that she'd just gotten a brand new bear that very afternoon so the Big M supper club was almost a no-go, but she calmed down and that was our only little incident of the day, so I was counting my blessings! I'm so glad we went! Although it took her a little over an hour to eat (I'm sure in part because she was so tired), we had fun with it and toward the end she got herself into a little laughing fit that culminated with tooting and drooling in addition to the laughing - and then I was laughing as well (and glad not to be tooting and drooling!). I tucked her in when we got home and got one more "Mom, I just love you" before she drifted off to sleep.

I made sure to thank God in my prayers last night for blessing me so with such a special little girl. I'm always thankful for her, but I'm doubly thankful for days like yesterday that remind me just how wonderful she is.

Wing Ayound Da Yosey

I realized as I was working on our 2009 scrapbook this week that I didn't blog nearly enough last year. I was trying to remember what Kailin called her walkie talkies right after she got them and I got nothing. I thought I remembered blogging about it and....nope. So I am blogging about this before it, too, is gone from my memory.

Colby's big into singing (and also into figure skating, we learned while watching the Olympics - he wanted to re-create every one of the dances and was particularly enamored with head movements.). These days and his favorites include a variety of songs. "Liang zhi lao hu" (a Chinese song about two tigers) - it should sound like lee-ung gee llll-ow who, but it comes out "young gee wow who, young gee wow who, pow da kwhy (that part's right), pow da kwhy, then he skips the middle section and ends with jen she qwhy (also correct). It's a stitch to hear. He loves "Old McDonald" because he thinks it's a song about visiting Mac and Don's supper club. My all time favorite right now, though, is "Ring Around the Rosey". He still struggles with his L and R sounds, so the song (in his sweet little voice) is "Wing ayound da Yosey..." and that's the only part he knows, so he just sings it over and over. I love that little booger!!!

a little bit sickish...

It's been forever and a day since I posted and that's a. failing my resolution to post more often and b. making it so that I have about 900 posts to make and that's a serious time commitment. We'll start with this one and see where we go.

We have been a little bit sick. We've been blessed not to have had a "round robin" illness in this house, but we were due I guess. Steve had a nasty cold and then Colby got it, Kailin sort of got it, I got it bad (and still have it) and even lost my voice for a day (to the amusement of the kids)and now Steve has it back. YUCK.

Since we like variety around here, last Friday night, Colby took a tumble off of our couch onto the corner of the coffee table and split his head open pretty good. Luckily, we were able to stop the bleeding pretty quickly and according to the on-call nurse that meant we didn't have to take any further action. She said especially given that the wound was deep and not wide, they wouldn't have likely stitched it anyway. ER trip avoided!

But wait, there's more! ....On Saturday around noon Steve bent down to pick up a toy and couldn't stand up again. He thought it was the same sort of pain that he'd had about a year and a half ago when he wasn't stretching after running, but it quickly became apparent that this was far worse. After trying to manage the issue ourselves (himself) for a few hours, I decided that it was time to call someone. After some fits and starts we ended up in the emergency room where they diagnosed it as severe muscle spasms, doped him up on a serious cocktail of drugs and he was able to walk out. He's still recovering, but should be back to his usual self relatively soon. Needless to say, our Valentine's Day/Chinese New Year celebrations this year were really subdued with Mr. HeadWound and Mr. "Help, I've bent over and I can't get up!" in the house.

I know that all this illness/injury will surely make us appreciate our good health when we have it back!!

The other reason for this post is to make sure I document "ish". I'm not sure where/when she picked it up, but Kailin's been adding "ish" to most words lately. It's really kind of cute. For instance, last night when they were in the bath (and I was down the hall for a second) I heard "Moooommmmm....we're kind of bored-ish in here!" Or we might hear "that's kind of a pink-ish heart on that card." "I'm a little bit sad-ish" (or "mad-ish") is common around here as well. I'll have to remember to jot down the funniest of them as she says them because some of them are true gollywhoppers!!

A couple of cuties

I just found the notes for this post (sometimes I just jot down what I want to say if I don't actually have time to blog - so that I don't forget what I wanted to say) and realized that I never posted it. It's too cute not to post, so here it is....

Kailin came running up to me with a quizzical look in her eye and asked if baby ducks are called "ducklets". I smiled all the way through and told her that they aren't but that I fully believe that they ought to be!

Within a couple of days, Colby was having another of his (frequent this winter) coughing fits and dutifully told me he should cough into his eh-bow so that he doesn't spread his "jomes". I was previously unaware of the danger "jomes" posed, so I was pleased that he was making efforts to contain them.

Will you be my Valentine?

Kailin brought home an Eskimo today. There's a little wheel so you can make his face change emotion. Kailin was most excited to show me that she knew about the "worried" one. I told her that Steve would be really excited to see it, so I wasn't paying particular attention when she excitedly said, "Daddy, you have to see this!" I figured it was the Eskimo. It turned out to be a paper heart that her best bud, Andrew gave her. I figured they were cutting out hearts at school and he gave her the remnants. I inquired as to whether or not he also gave one to Peyton - the third of their little group. She said no, he'd only given one to her. I asked if he made it at school and she said that he made it at home and asked his mom if he could give it to her and then gave it to her on the bus. HEAVEN HELP US!!!! She promptly asked if she could cut out a heart to give to Andrew. I said she could and asked which color paper she'd like to use. "I think red" was the answer. We're in some deep, deep trouble, I think!!

...cut it off....

Colby's sick. I'm a little bit happy to say that. I know, sounds strange. We had an "incident" on Friday where he decided to play around instead of gathering his beloved kiki for nap. I told him he had one last chance to get it or he would be sleeping without it. Well my stubborn little ox held his ground and his stubborn mama did the same. He went to bed without the kiki. Note I didn't mention that he went to sleep. It was a LONG while and a LOT of screaming before he finally went to sleep.

Fast forward to 11:30 Friday night. A very hoarse voice is screaming for mama from the room next door. I went in (without my glasses) expecting to grab a bink or find the kiki and get back to bed. I was thinking to myself that I felt bad that something I did caused him to be so hoarse. As soon as I got in the room and he started barking at me, I knew I was in the clear. Then I picked him up and figured out that he had a fever. He and I spent an hour rocking in the rocking chair, him coughing uncontrollably from time to time and shaking like a leaf from the chills. Poor boy! At one point, I had a little "throat clear" cough and my dear, sweet, tender boy croaked out "you okay, mommy?" It is in moments like those that I am humbled by how blessed I am to have this boy in my life. They are also nice to stash away for times that aren't so sweet or tender - and they number many these days...

On Saturday night we had pasta which is one of Colby's favorites. However, midway through dinner he started whining and fussing. I asked him what was wrong and got a chorus of "my fing-er huwting!" I said, "What do you want me to do about it?" expecting a request for a kiss or maybe a bandaid. Instead came a pause and then a very froggy sounding "...cut it off...." We all burst out laughing! Upon further inspection, he had a hangnail and wanted me to clip it with the clippers. That boy....

I couldn't resist posting this picture of him posing as a rock star (maybe rapper) with the other Wonder Twin. They keep me on my toes, but they are beyond adorable to make up for it!

Christmas morning crying...

Bet "The Twelfth Day of Christmas" looked like my last post about Christmas this year, didn't it? Not so much. This should be the last one, though. I was capturing video of the kids singing Christmas carols the other night (long after Christmas as grabbing the camera was somehow out of reach on my big list of things to do before Christmas) and it made me remember that I wanted to blog about the Christmas gift Kailin made me at school.

I was expecting some sort of popsicle stick treasure similar to the Christmas tree ornaments I had all of the kids craft with sequins and painted popsicle sticks this year. What I got as I carefully loosened the tape on the hand stamped wrapping paper was an emotional (and tearful) reminder of just how quickly my little girl is growing up. It's something I will treasure for a long, long time to come, but I wanted to blog it here in the case, as oftentimes happens in our house, an awful fate befalls this little piece of art.