Week 146 and Week 59.5 - Sherry and Larry

Sherry and Larry left us on Tuesday morning.  Larry is playing in a golf tournament in Kuala Lumpur.  Best of luck to him!

I said goodbye to Doris - so sad to see her going back to America!  And Jisun had her son Jacob last week too!

I forgot to mention that Charlotte watched Daddy play hockey for the first time last week (Sherry and Larry came too).  For the first period she was miserable - I covered her ears the whole time as the sound of the puck being hit was too loud for her.  Then I bought her an ice cream to distract her and that seemed to work.  We made it down to where Matt was playing and Char was excited to see him in uniform.  I tried to point him out on the ice and I am not sure if she saw him.  Later she said she liked it!  She is always miserable in new situations.

I took Char to get her bangs cut and the rest of her hair trimmed.  She wanted to cut her hair super short!  I think my first memory was being about 2 and asking my mom if I was a boy or a girl because of my silly bowl haircut - and that is what Char wanted!  I convinced her to keep it long...

Charlotte has a bit of a tummy virus - I feel sorry for the teacher who had to clean out her underwear yesterday.  Back to school tomorrow after a day off today...

I met up with Kristin B - my new photography buddy.  She has inspired me to shoot in manual - most of the shots are in M mode this week...

We saw Rob White this weekend - it was great to see him.  Our whole world has changed over the past year but our old and trusty friendships remain the same...

A supercute video of Sophia singing to Old Macdonald with Charlotte dancing in the background:

And another cute video of Sophia dismounts from Charlotte's bed (the end when she claps is the payoff):

Charlotte loves Astrid!

Leo and I:

 Jisun, Doris, and I:

Hockey shots:

Second haircut:

Sophia in her batik dress that Daddy bought in Surabaya:

Serious Anna:

Yaya and Sophia:

Lovely Sherry:

Eyelashes:

Alex's curls:

Christobal?  Odilon?

Sophia in the sandbox:

And elsewhere in the playground:

And Charlotte in the park:

Sophia does not like matching outfits!

Sherry and Char:

Brunch:

Rob and Christian:

Sisters:

I like this pic of Char:

And Sophia:

More sister shots:

Here is an older picture with Charlotte's camera (note she would never smile this naturally if I was taking her picture- this is a Yaya shot).  She is all grown up (sniff):

Week 145 and Week 58.5

Life has been busy 'round these parts.  Sherry and Larry have come to town which means friends!  Fun! We have put Sophia and Char in the same room and... they get along very well.  We put Sophia to sleep first and then let Char sleep in our room and then transfer to hers.  It has been remarkably noneventful.

Charlotte accidentally rolled our bedroom door over the floor tonight.  After wailing in pain, Sophia walked over and wailed in sisterly solidarity.  It was very funny (maybe you had to be there).

Sophia is saying 'yea' and nodding her head yes at the same time.  So tonight I asked her if she wanted to see Dada and she said 'yea' and then walked to the door towards daddy's room.  Not sure if she really understood but it was cute nonetheless.

Charlotte today talked about her son - actually her brother's son.  This I think she got from Imee...

Last week a couple of friends asked about the green smoothie recipe - at the moment it is 8-9 oz of spinach, romaine, kai lan and maybe broccoli stems (around 2-3 oz each) with a banana, orange, apple, grapes, and raspberries with flax seed with a cup of water.  I use a high speed blender.  I would use less fruit if it was just me but if I feed it to others (particularly Sophia) I try to make it sweeter.  I make it the night before so my morning goes more smoothly.  Matt had a taste yesterday and even said it wasn't awful (a high compliment from him, really).

By the way - Leo Saldana came over for dinner on Sunday - I had not seen that guy for probably ten years!  He is just as cool as he always was...


Park shots:








Lovely Marie:


Sweaty baby:






Char busy in the sandbox:


Cutie pie:

Week 144 and Week 57.5 - 13 months and a dance class

Without much pomp or circumstance Sophia is now 13 months old, a pro walker, and still breastfed.  It seems rather effortless at this point so why stop?  I never thought I would say that a year ago or even ever.

I have started to feed Sophia my green smoothie - it makes her poop a ton so I am starting only 3 times a week (and barely a third of a cup if that).  So she, Imee, and Bucky have it.  But not Matt and Charlotte.  I tried to bribe Charlotte with these Chinese New Year love letter cookies - she can only have one if she tries the green smoothie.  We will see how that goes.  Man she is so willful these days.  Yesterday I was pushing her along as she was dilly dallying on the walk back to the car after our grocery run (and it is grocery runs where I swear to myself I will try not to take her anyway) and she says to me "Stop being bossy to me!" (we say this to her a lot).  So I told I get to be bossy because I am the mom.  Terrible twos it is.  I look forward to three (said with some trepidation).

As Charlotte loves to dance I took her to a trial ballet class.  Wow this was a disaster!  I forget that ballet is a pretty formalized thing - and Char is no where close to being formalized.  I could feel the heat of embarrassment inching up my neck as I was anxiously awaiting the 45 minutes to end.  The teacher was a Russian girl who just stopped acknowledging Charlotte and her melancholy uncooperative ways half way through the class (she sat like a brick just observing for most of the class).  I really did not care for her anyway (is it self-indulgent that I want all my kid's early teachers to be extraordinarily nice?).  She suggests in six months but now I think that Char is really not a ballet kind of girl.  I think she would be better suited for jazz or even hip-hop - something where the moves are a bit more exaggerated.  She looked miserable in the class but I tried to remain neutral/positive andasked her if she liked it and she said she did and wants to go back!   Wow!  Two!

Charlotte has an imaginary friend these days - she says it is her brother!  i ask her what her brother's name is and she ignores the question - though sometimes she walks out of the room to talk to him on her imaginary phone.  She also sometimes calls daddy on her imaginary phone and then passes it to Sophia to talk to too!

Sunday Matt had an office blessing for his new office and we brought the kids.  They slept like champs later as the office was sweltering.

Matt is in Macau for the early part of this week.

Post nap smile:

What is this?  

The girls stand in daddy's new office:

Sophia chases a bubble:

Charlotte likes to bring Dora to the park:

The girls get ready for bed (pardon the ugly rental curtains):

Park slide fun:

Chasing bubbles:

Char skates (pardon the picture, I was holding Sophia while taking it!):

Char does not point her toes in ballet class!

With her friend Marie - Charlotte makes cupcakes on a rainy day:

 

Photos of the week:

And the videos - the girls and their friends dance to Gangnam Style in the park:

And Sophia and Marie with their cupcakes (thanks Grandpa Bob and Grandma Shirley for the cupcake mix!)