Preschool!

This semester we've gotten together with 3 other neighborhood moms to do our own preschool. This is actually a trend in the neighborhood. We bought a curriculum and every Thursday the kids go to a different mom's house for school for 3 hours. For now, we're just doing it once a week.

Elina didn't know what to expect. She just knew that school was going to "be fun," according to me. So we started reading books about school and we took out her backpack and got her a new lunchbox. School had already started while we were in Portland, so we missed the first 3 classes. The class where she started was actually at our own house, which worked out well. Ever since we went to Portland Elina's social skills have regressed. She is more shy again and uses me as her security blanket. It's just because she met so many new people while we were away. I was hoping that once she saw how fun preschool was at our house, she'd be more willing to go to other houses for school.

Here is Elina on the morning of preschool in her "gear" getting ready for everyone to arrive. What a big girl!-

The lesson I taught was about apples. We had lots of fun! Here are the girls coloring in some apples-

Here they are outside during recess enjoying mini apple pies that they made as an activity-

And here is Elina gluing buttons and beads onto her "B"-

It was a great school day and Elina had a blast! She couldn't stop talking about all the activities she did with her friends. I think she's definitely ready to go to other houses for school now. Phew!

The Great Northwest Part VIII: Jetsetter

This is a short video of Elina walking back to the car after we flew back from Portland. She just looks like such a big girl rolling her own bag that I had to take some video footage. She was great about rolling her own carry-on and we're really proud of her.

She was SO excited to come back home. Since the first day we arrived in Portland, she was already saying, "Mommy, I want to go to my home." When we got to our car, her eyes lit up. When we opened her door and she saw her car seat, she was beaming. It was adorable. She was so excited to get her own things back and to return to something familiar and comfortable.

The Great Northwest Part VII: Jamison Square

One of our favorite places in Portland is Jamison Square in the Pearl District. It is such an awesome place to spend a sunny, warm day. For one, the water comes out like little waterfalls rather than fountains (one strong stream of water shooting up from the ground). Last year Elina was into the fountains, but this year they seem to intimidate her a bit. Needless to say, she's always loved Jamison Square.

The other reason I love Jamison Square is its proximity to other things. Within walking distance you can get all kinds of food, strong coffee, delicious ice cream, and yummy cupcakes. There are also great toy stores to stop in. I always love the idea of not having to drive a car to get around. Having a car has its conveniences, but I miss walking around or riding my bike. San Antonio is just not pedestrian or bicycle friendly. It's really too bad. Maybe that's why San Antonio is usually one of the top five fattest cities in the US. Hmmmmm.

Anyway, back to Jamison Square. This time we went with the grandparents and the kids had a wonderful time. Here are some videos of the kids in the water--

The Great Northwest Part VI: First Concert

We were lucky enough to be in Portland at the same time that Elizabeth Mitchell was in town for a concert. She is one of Elina's favorite children's artists. B and I have to admit that we also love her music. It's not the usual kiddie stuff. Her music is folksy and just plain great. Her husband sings backup and plays guitar and her daughter, Storey, does as well. We were also excited to take the kids to their first concert. How cool is that?

We didn't know anything about the group that was putting on the concert. We just knew that there would be some other kid-oriented events along with the concert. We had no idea what we bargained for. The group who sponsored the event is Time-Based Art (TBA). They promote and show contemporary art in the Portland area. That alone should have tipped us off. Modern art + Portland vibe = something strange.

The first thing they put on was a compilation of independent kid films, essentially short movies that kids made. It was neat, but some of it was sort of weird. The first film kinda scared Elina, so I had to stand outside with her for the duration of the films. It seriously seemed like forever. Then after the films, they had this modern dance group come out and do a performance on jealousy. Elina agreed to watch it, but it gave me somewhat of a creepy vibe, too. Then a woman named Anna Oxygen came out to sing and get the kids to move around and dance. I was actually a little excited because it sounded like fun. First of all, I don't know if I would call what she does "singing" and "dancing." Secondly, while she "sang" and "danced," there were these strange videos playing behind her in the background. Nothing sick or violent, but just strange. Like 2 people dressed in 70s workout clothes doing exercise. Huh?? And I felt like some of her songs were inappropriate. She had one where the chorus was, "I don't wanna be your rebound girl." Ummmmm, I really don't want to explain to my 3 year old daughter what a rebound girl is, ya know? Can't I have that talk later??

So when it was time for Elizabeth Mitchell to come on, we were super-excited. Finally, something normal and familiar. I was tired of feeling awkward and out of place. I mean, we were watching all of this stuff in disbelief, but all the other parents didn't seem that phased. Are we the ones who are strange? I'm all for independent films and modern art, but I think there's a time and a place. When the majority of your audience consists of toddlers and preschoolers, you might want to just cut to the folksy concert. We're lucky that Elina is well-behaved and relatively patient because if she were a typical 3 year old, she would not have made it waiting through all the films and dance.

Luckily, Elizabeth Mitchell and her family put on a wonderful show. They sang a lot of songs we knew. Elina danced, sang, and had a blast. So in the end, the long wait was totally worth it.

Here are some cute videos of Elina enjoying the concert--

The Great Northwest Part V: Hard to Impress

One of my good friends has a son, Q, who is about a year or so older than Elina. The last time we visited Portland Elina met Q, but doesn't quite remember him. Q, on the other hand, remembers Elina quite well. He also looks at our blog, so he was pretty excited to see Elina. Because Elina is so shy initially, it took her a little while to warm up to Q. It was so cute the way Q was trying to get Elina to talk and trying to impress her. When he finally got her to say something, he shouted, "I got her to talk!" And when he even got her to laugh, he ran up to me and said, "I got her to laugh!" It was adorable. Q's mom even told me that Q was telling his friends about "his girlfriend from Texas."

By the end, Elina and Q were talking, playing, and laughing together. While we were out, she even held Q's hand to cross the street. Q was glad to oblige and keep Elina safe. In this cute video, they're about to cross the street and Q is making absolutely sure that there are no cars approaching. Cuties.

The Great Northwest Part IV: Let It Snow...Well, Kinda

When you have little kids, sometimes you have to weigh the pros and cons of driving a long distance to do something fun. Will it really be worth it--all the planning, packing, and cleaning up afterwards? Will the favorite part of your child's trip be something you could've simply done at home? If you've been reading our blog, you know that something like that happened to us when we drove to Austin with the kids.

So while we were in Portland, we didn't know if Elina would truly enjoy an experience in the Columbia Gorge or at Mount Hood. We decided to try out Multnomah Falls (in the Gorge) first since it's closer than Hood. Turns out, Elina loved the experience. She loved walking up the path to the tall waterfall. Then we even did a short hike to Bridal Veil Falls, which is less than a mile. But it's mostly downhill to the falls which means it's uphill back. Surprisingly, Elina was great. She was slow and wanted to stop to pick up every single branch, leaf and pinecone, but we all made it. We even saw 2 caterpillars on the hike, which made it even better.

After that, I told B that Elina was ready to go up to Mt. Hood. She had been pointing out the mountain all week (since you can see it while driving around Portland), so she was definitely excited to go. However, B is not into driving long distances, so he was rather reluctant. After all, it was a 90 minute drive and there was no guarantee that Elina would appreciate the trip. B gave in and we drove up there on a beautiful sunny Saturday morning.

We went up to Timberline Lodge and we even took the chair lift up to 7000 feet so that Elina could see and touch snow. She was in heaven. She was slipping and sliding everywhere in her Converse sneakers, but she didn't care. She could see the peak of Mt. Hood, so she kept saying, "I want to go all the way to the mountain!" She couldn't grasp the concept that we were already on the mountain. It was really cute though. We told her that we wouldn't be able to make it to the top of the mountain and that she should just go by herself. She gazed at the peak and said, "Ok, I'll go," and continued marching up through the snow.

Here is a video of Elina playing on the snow with the grandparents--


In this video, Elina is trying to go to the top of the mountain by herself--


And this short video is just cute because Elina is hugging her Daddy's leg--

She really had such a wonderful time up on the mountain. I'm glad that she's reaching an age where she can appreciate new and different things. It makes it more worth it.

Unfortunately, it all ended on a sour note. Because she had used so much energy slipping, sliding, and walking on the snow, she was pretty tired when we went back down to the lodge. And when little kids start to get tired, they lose the ability to walk properly. They seem to just trip over thin air or their own feet. It also didn't help that the concrete around the lodge was really uneven and cracked. The first time Elina tripped, she rubbed her knees a little and said that she was ok. Then the second time she totally face-planted in front of a wedding party getting their photos taken. She hit the concrete hard and scraped her hands and got a little cut on her knee. She cried hard, but she was calm by the time we started to walk towards the parking lot. When you walk from the lodge to the parking lot, the road is inclined so you have to walk down to the car. I was holding Elina's hand and she tripped (of course). I pulled on her arm trying to save her knees and hands from more scrapes, but because of the incline I had to take one extra step to keep my balance. As I took my extra step, I bashed Elina's cheek with my shin. She started wailing after that. Poor thing. In trying to save her hands and knees, I knocked her in the face. (And I must've hit her hard because the next day there was a bruise on her cheek!)

She wouldn't stop crying even after we put her in the car seat, so I gave her a red Starburst to chew on. She put it in her mouth and 2 minutes later, she was passed out with the candy still sitting in her mouth. Both Elina and Eli were completely out for the entire drive home. Talk about tired kids! So when Elina finally woke up, she had pink gooey saliva all over her cheek and lips. Yikes.

So was it all worth it? Definitely.

The Great Northwest Part III: Musical

One morning we decided to head to the Portland Children's Museum. Elina had a good time trying everything out. The only thing she was afraid of was the water section, which is actually the best part for most kids. She didn't want to put on one of those smocks to protect her clothes, so we skipped that exhibit. The things she loved the most were the musical instruments. They set it up on this little stage so the kids could pretend they were performing. It was really cute. I was surprised that Elina really got into it. She played this big xylophone and was totally jammin' out and completely hamming it up. I'm glad I was already videotaping and caught it on camera! We think Elina is pretty musical. Throughout her 3 years, she's never lost an interest in music--well, you know what I mean, from whenever she's shown an interest in anything. No matter where we are, she's always drawn to music and instruments. Check out our little musician in action--

The Great Northwest Part II: Going Backwards

Before we departed for Portland, Eli was on the brink of crawling. He was already pushing up and getting onto his knees. We knew he was close and that he'd probably figure it out while we were on our trip.

For part of our trip we stayed at F's house. F is one of my best friends from graduate school. She and her daugher, K, had come out to visit us earlier this year, so it was great to see them again. F has a lot of hardwood floors in her house. Eli soon discovered how much he liked hardwood floors because it made scooting easier. Many babies start out scooting backwards instead of forwards because they're better at pushing with their arms instead of their feet/knees at first. Well, since the floors were nice and slippery and Eli liked to use his arms to push himself, he ended up sliding great distances. In this video, he's scooting backwards, but to an unfamiliar place--


Eli kept doing this over and over again, no matter how far away we moved him. It was so funny. And here is the video of the "rescue"--


What a great big sister!

A few days after we returned from our trip, Eli started crawling. He can go far if he wants to, but he's pretty lazy about it. You have to really offer him something that he wants for him to crawl far. Usually if you offer him a piece of Elina's puzzles, he'll come crawling!

The Great Northwest Part I: So It Begins

Recently, we went out to Portland, Oregon for a long visit. Because we were gone for so long, we did and saw a lot. We took tons of pictures and videos, so I'll be posting separate entries throughout the next week about the trip. The kids had so much fun going to different parks, seeing waterfalls and mountains, going on their first short hike, touching snow, attending their first concert, meeting new friends, and visiting their grandparents. Eli was a great sport about missing his afternoon naps so that we could go do stuff. So for this post, let's just start from the beginning....

Elina, Eli, and I flew to Portland by ourselves first. (B joined us for the return flight later on.) Initially, I was really nervous about flying with the kids by myself. What would I do if Elina had to go potty? How would I take Eli into the teeny tiny bathroom with us? Would the flight attendant agree to hold Eli for me? (Am I neurotic, or what?)

Since I was so worried and had over-thought, over-processed, and over-planned everything, the kids were wonderful on the flights. Of course. I didn't need half the things I had brought. I didn't need to worry about half the things I had stressed about. Oh well.

I found that fellow passengers really are nice--if your children are well-behaved. Eli is so smiley that he flirted with everyone and made friends everywhere we went. On our second leg, we sat next to this nice woman who kept playing peekaboo with Eli. Then she even asked to hold him to give me a break. How nice! Eli didn't mind her holding him, so I asked if I could sneak to the bathroom real quick. The lady told me to take my time, so I dashed to the back of the plane. Our seats were in the middle of the airplane, but when I was just about to flush the toilet, I could already hear Eli's familiar screams and cries. Oh, man! I ran to my seat and took him into my arms and he immediately stopped crying. Everyone seated around us clapped and smiled, saying, "Ahhhh, Mom is here!" So that was the only time Eli caused a scene. Thank goodness.

So here were some of my observations from the trip:


1. I kind of resent people who take the handicap bathroom stall just for themselves and their one carry-on bag. Seriously. Most of the time when we ran to the restroom, Elina couldn't hold it anymore, so I couldn't wait for the handicap stall. So I would just pick a regular stall, leave our bags and Eli in the stroller outside of the stall, and leave the stall wide open so I could put her on the potty AND hold the stall door open AND watch Eli AND our stuff at the same time. Not cool. Or maybe it's just "not cool" to me now since I have 2 kids in tow.



2. The Phoenix Airport is very loooooooooong. It took us forever to get to Gate A. I saw these moving walkways on our way there and I thought, "Why would you use the moving walkway when it's so nice to walk after being stuck on a plane?" As I passed the second moving walkway, I realized that it was going to be a long trek to our gate. THAT'S why they have all those moving walkways, silly! So we followed suit and hopped onto the moving walkway along with the other people.



3. A San Antonio TSA agent really impressed me. As I made my way through the metal detector, she approached me carrying my stroller. Then she proceeded to open the stroller up for me. She even went back and got Elina's shoes for her. I was speechless. Thanks so much, TSA lady. (I really should have gotten her name!)



Other than Eli's episode and Elina's near accidents, the flights were pretty uneventful. I don't know if I would choose to fly by myself with the kids again, but now I know I can do it. And now I know that even if I pack a bunch of toys to entertain Eli with, he will only want to play with a flexible straw. Go figure.

A Little Break

We just returned from a long trip to Portland! There are lots of things to be done--laundry, cleaning, and errands. We had tons of fun but it was exhausting. I'll post when things settle down a bit.

A Talking Trash Can

A few weeks ago, our trash can broke. It was one of those stainless steel Simple Human step trash cans. You step on a pedal to make the lid pop up. I didn't consider the step can essential until we had to use our broken trash can for a few days. It is really inconvenient to open the trash can lid manually. It sounds silly, but I hated doing it. First I thought it was kinda unsanitary to be opening the lid with one of my hands. So I found myself constantly washing my hands after throwing something away. Secondly, I often was carrying things over to the trash can with both hands and wouldn't even have a free hand to open the lid. The step can was a convenience that I really missed during those few days.

We did our usual research before purchasing a new trash can. You would think that it would be easy to buy a new trash can, but step trash cans are actually kinda pricey. After looking around for a few days, we decided to try a trash can that opens automatically. The price was comparable, so why not?

So far we really like our new trash can. Initially, Elina was freaked out a little. Now I just tell her to "wave hi" to the trash can to get it to open up. For a few days, she'd just run up to the trash can, wave hi, and then run away before it opened up all the way. I guess she thought it was fun, but scary at the same time. After having the trash can for a few weeks, Elina told us that the trash can "talks." Here is what she thinks the trash can "says"(basically, she is just imitating the sound that it makes when it closes)--

We just thought it was so funny that she had noticed the sound and had decided to copy it. And she really does sound like the trash can.

Hakuna Matata Part II

Here is the latest version of Elina's "Hakuna Matata." It's funny how as time passes the version gets more elaborate...more detailed...and WAY better. In this one, she adds the part where Timon does the "What's the matta with you?" joke. I love it.

Come and Jump With Me

Elina's new favorite activity is jumping on our bed. We don't mind letting her jump on the couch and the bed. I mean, she's a kid and she likes to jump. It's fine to us. The thing is, our bed height is kind of higher than normal. We just worry that she'll fall off. We tried to get her to jump on the guest bed, but she doesn't like it. According to her, "I like jumping on Mommy and Daddy's bed better." I think it's because the guest bed is just one mattress thick because there's no boxspring underneath. That must take away from the "bounciness" of the bed.

We always know when she's getting ready to jump on our bed. She comes up to us and asks, "Is anyone in Mommy and Daddy's room?" I'll say no and she immediately heads for our room and shuts the door behind her. Then she throws our pillows and blankets on the floor to clear some space. Then she proceeds to jump up and down while watching herself in the mirror.


Her newest thing is inviting her friends to jump on our bed. Whenever anyone comes over, she takes them to our room and jumps with them. Since our bed is so high I always supervise when there's more than one kid on there. Here is a clip of Elina and M. Elina is so Asian because when she sees M and herself jumping in the mirror, she says that they look like chopsticks.

And here is a video clip of M and Elina's version of jumping rope. It's cute how they think they're actually jumping rope.

Raspberries for Me!

Eli is now a professional raspberry blower. He blows raspberries all the time. It's really funny to watch because he's very methodical about it. First, he puts his bottom lip on top of his upper lip. Then he places his tongue in between the lips. Then he squints his eyes a little, takes a deep breath, and blows a raspberry. In this video, he has just discovered the joys of blowing raspberries, so he does it after every bite he takes.