Second Piano Recital

Elina had her 2nd piano recital this weekend. Again, she was the youngest one there so she started the whole show off. She did an incredible job with her piece, La Donna e Mobile (from the opera, Rigoletto). She only made one mistake and she bounced right back from it. I love that she's still at that age where she doesn't really get stage fright or nervous. She just knows that it's about having fun.

In the picture below, she had just finished her piece and did her curtsy. She was so happy!
We were wary when we first got this recital piece from the piano teacher. B really had his doubts because it's a pretty difficult piece for a 4 1/2 year old. But after we started working with her on it, she improved tremendously with every passing week. After the 1st 2 weeks she already had half of it memorized. It was pretty amazing. The second page was trickier because of all the triplets, but she managed to pick it up quickly. She's had the whole thing memorized for a few weeks now. In the picture on the right, she got her certificate and her goody bag. In all honesty, she was more excited about the chocolate in the goody bag than anything else.

Here she is playing the piece right before we left for the recital (We used the camcorder to tape the real thing and the camera to take pictures during the actual recital, so I thought I'd just post the pre-recital performance.)--


Anyway, we are so proud of her. She always tries her best and practices all the time (because she wants to) and it really shows. She wore a beautiful dress that Ah-Ma bought for her in Taiwan and she looked so grown up. (In the picture to the right, she's with her awesome piano teacher, Ms. Kim.) We're amazed at how much Elina has improved since she first started playing last August. It hasn't even been a year yet. Another piano teacher at the recital told us that Elina really has a talent for the piano because she already reads notes and understands tempo and dynamics. We're so proud. I have to admit that I even got goosebumps when Elina was up there playing her piece...even though I practice it with her almost every day and know the piece inside and out. It's just one of those moments.
Speaking of "knowing" the piece...Eli knows Elina's piece as well. Since Elina played the piece multiple times every day, Eli started to hum it. It's cute when your 2 1/2 year old is humming a piece from an opera! So here's Eli's version--


Elina was also very excited to invite her best friend, L, to the recital this time. (The week before Elina attended L's dance recital, too.) After the recital, we all went out to Elina's favorite restaurant to eat. You guessed it! It's still LUBY'S (to B's dismay)! Elina and L just chatted non-stop and laughed at each other's jokes. It was too cute.
After a fun dinner, we all headed home to put the kids to bed...and this time L was staying over for a sleepover!! (But that needs to be a different post...so stay tuned!)

End of the School Year

The school year has ended for Elina. Even though it was only 2 days a week, it's nice to have a break from waking up early and frantically getting ready to drive to school. (I admit to being a poor planner on most school days.)

Elina's class had their end-of-the-year party at a local park that we love. It has a huge playground and a nice sandbox. (I'm not a real fan of open, public sandboxes because of the gross factor, but the kids love it, so I am forced to love it as well.) It sounds like it would've been a lovely outing for me and the kids. I mean, how can you go wrong when you have friends, food, and a playground? Well, just add in an overtired, non-stop crying baby and it makes for an exhausting morning. That morning Evie didn't get her morning nap, so she was a crab. Then she screamed in the car all the way to the park. By the time we got there she was already exhausted, but she couldn't just go to sleep. So Evie was passed around from person to person for a little while to see if someone could get her to calm down. She had some quiet moments and KT finally got her to nap for a bit in the car seat, but overall, she was just upset. Boo.

Other than the crying baby, the party was fun. The kids played, did little crafts, and had snacks and cake while the parents chatted.

Elina gave each teacher a little potted plant in a pot that she painted. Then the teachers were sweet and gave me and the other room parent a big pot with plants in it. Each kid had used their fingerprints to make a picture on the pot. Elina made a pink flower with her fingerprints. I really loved the gift, but I didn't love that during the drive back home the pot tipped over in the passenger seat footwell and I had potting soil ALL OVER THE FLOOR.

The scene when I got home was a nightmare. Evie cried the whole way home and Eli was falling asleep because it was nap time. So the minute we got home, I took Eli out of the van, ran him upstairs, and threw him in bed. Then I went back to the garage to dust all the sand off of Elina. Then I brought Evie out and put her on the futon (where she continued to bawl), while I went back to the car to scoop up moist potting soil. I scooped up as much as I could and then just left the mess in there because I had to put Evie to bed. I ran in, swaddled Evie, and she immediately fell asleep. After that I didn't have the energy to clean the car, so I left it until the next morning.

It was seriously a rough morning out. I think Evie functions better when we go out after she's had a solid morning nap. We had gone out to Elina's gymnastics class at 11am the day before and Evie was quiet and alert because she had gotten her morning nap in. The difference between the 2 outings was amazing. Consider this lesson learned.

Anyway, Elina had a great year at Pre-K. She made good friends and learned new things. Elina's favorite classes were Motor Skills (like P.E. or Gym) and Music. Her favorite classroom job was being the Messenger because she got to go to the office and get a stamp on her hand each time she went. (It's funny because most of the kids loved being the Messenger so they could leave the classroom...but Elina's classroom happened to be right next to the office, so it wasn't even that long of a walk!) Elina claims that there wasn't anything she didn't like about school. I love when kids are little and school is so much fun. Elina can't wait to return in the fall for Kindergarten. Can you believe Elina's going to be 5 years old and going to Kindergarten every day? It's really flown by. And even though I have my hands full right now, I'm going to miss having Elina at home with me. She really is a HUGE help around the house, a great playmate for Eli, and an enthusiastic commentator on everything that happens in the house. What is Eli going to do when Elina's gone? Poor guy. What am I going to do when Elina's gone? But I guess they all have to grow up some time. I know that I will shed some tears when I drop Elina off for her first day of Kindergarten...but we'll get to that in a few months. For now, I'll just enjoy this wonderful summer that I have with her.
Above is a cute picture of Elina with her teacher, Mrs. B (on the left), and her teacher's assistant, Ms. L (on the right).

All of Us Are Crying

How can you NOT love this face?

Lately, things have been pretty busy over here. Unfortunately, Evie is a big crier (long live the family tradition). When she's not sleeping or nursing, she's pretty much crying. She has some quiet moments (that we love), but they die off quickly. If we have family over, we all pass the baby around trying to soothe her. Sometimes things works, sometimes they don't. Here are a few things that she likes--the sound of bathroom fans, bouncing on the exercise ball, being swaddled. These things work in combination, but not always the same combination...and sometimes they don't work at all. Currently, her all-time favorite thing is being rocked with an up and down movement (basically, you hold her while doing squats and lunges). This is exhausting. We all work up a sweat doing this move around the house just so she'll calm down. Of course, the only person who can continuously do this is B, since he is in better shape than anyone else in the family. But even B has been saying that his legs are getting sore because he doesn't get any recovery time. To make himself feel better though, he always says, "My legs are going to be ripped!" Anything to make us feel better, right? But look at how calm Evie is when B does his squats--


When I'm by myself though, I can't constantly hold Evie, even if she's crying. I just don't have the time. I have to eat...the kids have to eat...we have to get ready to leave...Eli needs to go down for a nap...the list goes on and on. So nowadays, Evie gets to lay on the couch and cry her heart out for at least 30 minutes at a time. Her crying used to bother me, but I'm slowly learning to tune it out--for survival reasons. The only up-side to letting her cry is that she usually takes an AWESOME nap after the next feeding. These days, she takes a 2 hour nap while Eli takes his nap...which works out beautifully. You'd think I could get a lot done during this time, but honestly, the time is devoted to housework on most days. This gives me enough time to unload the dishwasher, do the morning dishes, clean up the morning mess, and get a head start on dinner. And just like that--BAM!--2 hours are over and Evie's crying again.

Evie is also not a fan of the car. For some reason, we can never have babies who just fall asleep in the car. I've heard rumors about the existence of babies who love being lulled by the car, but they don't exist in our family. So Evie usually screams the entire car ride to and from wherever we need to go. I used to get worked up about it...I'd be sweating bullets while I drove the car. It's painful to listen to your baby cry in the car and not be able to do anything about it. But now I'm getting used to it...slowly, but surely. Elina has had practice getting used to a baby's crazy cry in the car, but this is all new to Eli. Sometimes he gets upset and says, "Get out! Get out!" as he's trying to get out of his car seat. Poor boy.

I took Evie to the pediatrician and she thinks that the baby might have reflux. She prescribed Zantac and we tried it for over a week but to no avail. So now Evie's on Prevacid and we're crossing our fingers that it'll work. I heard from other moms who were in the same situation that if it works, the difference is night and day. We barely gave Evie her first dose of it last night, so now we're just waiting.

Needless to say, we spend our days and nights passing the baby around trying to calm her down. It's a rough start, but it'll pass...one day...hopefully soon. I just have to keep reminding myself that this is temporary. Here is the "temporary" cry (if you dare listen to it)--

Straight Shot--From the Side

The Poop Monster strikes again! But in my defense, this time it shot out from the side of her diaper. It had nothing to do with me leaving the diaper off for too long...it had everything to do with the consistency of breastmilk.

Shorter Hair

Lately, Elina's hair has become difficult to manage. Nowadays she likes to wear her hair down all the time because she's under the impression that fancy hair has to be hair that is down. The problems are that (1) she gets excessively sweaty because of the warmer weather and (2) her vision is hindered because her hair gets all in her face. The combination of these 2 things makes for a messy, dirty-looking little girl.

Every once in awhile I'll ask Elina if she wants to have short hair. The typical response is, "No, because long hair is fancier." Then, a few days ago, she surprised me by agreeing to get a shorter hair 'do. (I told her that if her hair were shorter, then she could wear it down all the time.) I jumped at the chance, so I had J take her to get her haircut.

Doesn't it look adorable? It actually makes her fine hair look thicker. Now she gets to wear her hair down and I don't have to constantly brush the hair out of her face--a win-win situation!

Open House

This past Friday Elina's school held their annual Open House. At this event each class gets up on stage and sings 2 songs. Elina had been practicing her songs at home for a few weeks now, so she was excited for us to see her perform on a stage.

Her class sang "El Chorrito" and "Colors of the Rainbow." For the first song, the kids did hand gestures and some body movement while they sang. For the second song, they each had a colored ribbon and when the name of their color was said during the song, they had to lift up their ribbon. Elina was very excited to be orange.


The thing that stood out to me the most was how short Elina is. She was one whole head shorter than the kids standing to her left and to her right (the friend on her right was actually D). I know Elina's small for her age, but it was just so pronounced when I saw her and her friends all lined up on stage. That's ok though...story of my life, too.
It was a fun evening out and Elina really enjoyed being the center of our attention. She did a great job on stage!

Mother's Day 2010

Mother's Day this year was pretty low-key because of the new baby. My family was in town so the big event of the day was going to a Mother's Day brunch at a nice restaurant on the Riverwalk. It was a brunch buffet at a restaurant called Zocca, located inside the Westin. It was really nice, the food was great, and, best of all, Evie didn't scream her head off. (In the picture to the right, she is enjoying being rocked in Ah-Gong's lap.)

Of all the places to go for Mother's Day, we decided on Zocca for two reasons--

1. Speed: Since it was a buffet the meal would last as long or as short as wanted it to last. This would facilitate a quick getaway in case Evie got cranky.

2. Cost: Kids under 5 ate for free. There were a lot of restaurants that were charging a decent amount for kids to eat, so Zocca immediately caught my eye. If my kids ate a lot of food I wouldn't feel bad about forking over the money for the pricey kids' meals, but Elina eats like a bird so it would not be worth it at all.
Every mother at the restaurant also received long-stemmed roses. Every mother...and Eli. He worked his magic charm and the hostess couldn't help but give him a rose, too.

Earlier in the week, Elina's school had Muffins for Mom. For half an hour before school began, the school provided yummy muffins and juice for moms and their kids to share. Since my parents were in town, I was lucky enough to go with Elina without any other kids. So we had a nice little date before her day started at school.

I hope that everyone had a great Mother's Day, too!

Dad N Me Campout

Last weekend Elina's school had their annual Dad N Me Campout. It took place all-day Saturday and half of the day on Sunday. Lots of fun activities were planned--swimming, canoeing, hiking, s'mores, and a campfire. Elina was so excited, but she thought it would be more fun if the whole family went together. She was so sweet because she asked me, "Why can't Eli go? It's going to be really fun." She even wanted Evie to go, too! It's funny because even though Elina likes spending some alone time with me and B (like on our dates), she still would rather share experiences as a whole family.
Not a lot of Elina's classmates attended the campout, but D (pictured above) and his dad were there. In case you don't remember, D is one of Elina's close friends from school. Elina and D spent the day playing together on Saturday (D and his dad opted not to campout at night). I love the picture of D and Elina sitting on the bench watching the campfire together. Cute!
Elina's favorite activity was swimming, but she said she liked everything else, too. She thought the s'mores by the fire were delicious, but she said the fire was too hot for her to roast the marshmallows herself. (Obviously, from the picture above, you can tell that funny faces were a theme for the weekend. Now we can see why Elina is so good at making funny faces.) Elina was so excited to be outside in he dark with just the campfire and flashlights. She and B even walked around in the woods with just their flashlights. But after a little while, Elina got a little scared and they went back to the campfire.
When it was time for bed, B fell asleep before Elina. He has no idea what Elina was doing or saying because he just fell asleep. (This is understandable since we've both been having broken sleep with the new baby.) All I know is that when she got home the next day, she looked genuinely tired, but happy.
Elina can't wait to go camping again and I hope we can all go as a family next time...but that day is still a little far off for now (unless we can pack an exercise ball and a bathroom fan to soothe little Evie).

A Popsicle and A Blowout

Ok, so right after I posted about Evie pooping on me, she really let me have it! I was home by myself and she had a total blowout while sitting in the swing. (FYI, a blowout occurs when poop explodes from a diaper because it can no longer be contained.) I took Evie to the bathroom, laid her down, and opened up her onesie (a one-piece that has snaps on the bottom) to assess the damage. There was poop running all the way up her back. There was so much poop that it had gone through her onesie and gotten on the blanket that she was wrapped in. I realized that there was no way I could take off her onesie without getting poop all in her hair since the only way to take off a onesie is by pulling it over a baby's head. I wasn't really thinking and the only thing I could come up with was getting a pair of scissors and cutting the onesie open in the front so I could take off the onesie like a jacket. I know it sounds wasteful, but the only reason I did it was because this was just a plain ol' white onesie leftover from Elina (4 years ago), so I wasn't too sad to see it go. If it had a print on it or was brand new, then maybe I would've been more reluctant. Anyway, I gave Evie a bath and changed her clothes, but I left the blowout on the counter so that my mom could look at all the poop when she got home. I know that sounds nasty, but when you've just cut open a onesie, you kinda want someone else to take a look at the situation and reassure you that you did the right thing.

My mom (who has been helping me for the past 2 weeks) came home from the grocery store and I showed her what had happened. She couldn't believe I had destroyed a perfectly good onesie. She said she would've found a way to get that onesie off without getting the poop in Evie's hair (although I don't really see how). Anyway, the reason I'm mentioning my mom is because while she was looking at all the poop, she just happened to be eating a popsicle. After she saw that I had left the big blowout on the counter, she immediately grabbed the onesie and tossed it out (hence, no pictures for the blog). Then she grabbed the blanket, got some liquid detergent, and proceeded to stain treat the blanket in the sink with one hand--while she was still holding the popsicle in the other hand and eating it! It doesn't sound sanitary, but my point is that this woman does not get grossed out at all. Bodily fluids don't phase her...that's why we always told my mom she would've made a great nurse. I just thought it was funny that she was still eating the popsicle the entire time. Way to go, Mom!

1 Month Old

Can you believe Evie is now a 1 month old baby? Time really flies when you're tired and always do the same thing every day. We celebrated with a homemade 3-layer strawberry cake that I made with the fresh-picked strawberries that my parents, J, Elina, and Eli picked at Marburger Orchard last week. Yum! Of course, she slept through the whole "event," but that was expected.
So, what can Evie do now? Not much, besides eat, poop, sleep, and cry. Actually, she smiles randomly. It's not a social smile yet..probably just gas, but it's still pretty cute.

She can hold her head up a little, but she isn't a fan of tummy time.

Her belly is huge because she has some air trapped in there...so the poor thing has big crying fits at times. She loves to be bounced on the exercise ball and she loves the sound of the bathroom fan. Elina and Eli both loved these things, too.

She loves to pee on people and she's really great at spitting up. The spit up always seems to end up in her hair, so she takes lots of baths. Luckily, she loves baths. During her first bath she cried a little, but now she enjoys the bath like a spa treatment.

Evie is really sweet when she's awake and calm, which usually occurs earlier in the day. Unfortunately, she seems to enjoy crying a good portion of the day, especially in the evenings.

She loves the attention she gets from her siblings. It's strange because when they hover around her, she seems to calm down. She must feel a connection with them.
Most nights Evie wakes up once during the night, but she still gives us a run for the money on some other nights when she decides to wake up 2 times. I am a complete wreck the next day. On the nights where she wakes up once, I can get in 2 chunks of 3 hour sleep, which is heaven. On the nights where she wakes up twice, I get 3 chunks of 1-2 hours of sleep, which is so painful. It's amazing what one extra hour in a row can do for your sanity. But I know that it could be WAY worse, so I can't complain too much.

All in all, it's been a great (but tiring) first month with our new, little baby!