Wednesday, March 30, 2011

off to the botanical garden

We finally had our first outing here in TX during the spring break. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the beautiful flowers and fairy castles. K, J and Little M also had their first bus ride. There were so many people at the botanical garden we had to park 4 blocks away and had to be shuttled in.
It was a little windy.

The sun came out so everyone put on their squinty face. Little M loves the feel of the grass in his hands.
(K in pink, J in yellow)

J & K in the Little Mermaid's castle.
The do love each other...sometimes.

In Alladin's Castle.
Beauty & The Beast's Castle
Being silly.

As we were about to leave, Big M found a butterfly struggling in a bird's mouth. He chased the birds away  and the bird dropped the injured butterfly. The butterfly's wings were so damaged it couldn't fly anymore. Big M took it and set it down on the grass to talk and comfort it.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

goodbye, training wheels!



I learned to bike at a ripe old age of 14. The fear of getting hurt prevented me from learning a few years prior. But a week before I was to leave the Philippines to reside in America, I decided I must learn. And I did. At 6 years old, Big M is already older than when most kids learn to bike, so we had to start soon! I certainly didn't want him to learn when I did.

When Big M turned 6 weeks ago, I thought it's as good a time as any to use the bike without training wheels. We had to buy a new one that day (his bike prior is a motorcycle-looking one that was too heavy and too tall). I tried to get a Walmart employee to take the training wheels off but they said I had leave the bike and someone will call me when it was done. Screw that! I brought it home and took them off my self. Then Big M and I, and Little M went to the park.

I looked for a spot on the trail with a very tiny decline, set Little M's stroller to the side and gave Big M a tiny push. To my surprise he stared pedaling and he was off! He panicked when he thought he was going to fall in a ditch so he tried to hop off the bike. He hit his stomach on the handle, which couldn't have felt good. But we and I were so excited, he brushed it off. After that, every push was a success. Forty minutes into our session and he was able to start without my help and was biking a very long distance. At this time I was running after him while pushing Little M. I must have looked like a fool chasing a 6yr old on a bike. :)

Big M said the "rocket bike" (the work rocket is printed on the bike) made him learn very fast. I told him, "No, Buddy. It was all you!"

Sunday, March 27, 2011

stay-cation is in!

Museum of Natural Science

"Run for your lives!!"
Drama class is paying off.

A moment with Daddy - Daddy teaches them about poop.

Zipping through the course with a square-wheeled trike!
(K)


Monkey Puzzle
(J)

The 2 kids in the middle were trying to put the puzzles together and was going nowhere until Big M stepped in. He looked at the picture and in 1 minute grabbed 2 pieces, put them together and was on his way to finishing.


Little M is pretty proud of himself balancing on a Mammoth's tusk.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

toothy grin



The weaning process has begun! He is definitely allergic to milk so we've gone straight to soy milk. It took a sip everyday from a cop to get him used to it and now he is. He doesn't drink much, only a couple of ounces total for a day. He holds his cup but do not tilt his head so we must hold it for him (even his sisters and brother).

His first 2 teeth finally came in at 10 months. The pictures above are only a week and half old. Today his upper teeth are very swollen with teeth just waiting to come out. There are 2 peaks already.

Little M is great at self-feeding! He likes cheerios, Gerber stars, bread, rice, carrots, meat sticks. I must admit that at this age, J and K only ate baby food when we go out, so I am actually not doing so well in this department. I've been buying baby food for the sake of convenience. I want to get him to self-feed because if his sisters were any indication, he would be a great eater as he gets older because of it.

good behavior

February was full of good news in regards to Big M. After a few days of completing a recommendation to the program in which Daddy and I scoured the blog for proof of Big M's giftedness, and after Big M endured several tests, he was accepted into the school's Gifted program. Daddy and I were very excited and very proud of him. From a very young age, we knew he was pretty smart. He always thought outside the box.

Then later in the month, he was chosen as his class' Citizen of the Month. Each month the school focuses on a special trait. For each class in each grade level, one student is chosen who exemplifies that trait. The month's trait was compassion. In fact, just a week before the announcement, Big M's teacher said that everyone likes him because he is always nice. As a Citizens of the Month, the school provides a special breakfast to honor the students. The Rotary Club gives each student a special coin. I missed the breakfast, though because it's a day that the girls' weren't in school.

As you can imagine, Daddy and I were beaming. We must have done something right. Right?

Friday, March 25, 2011

don't go grocery shopping when you're hungry

After driving the 3 older kids to school, Little M and I decided to make a quick trip to the grocery store. I was surprised at his reaction when we went to the the baby food section. He threw a fit and started signing "more" and "eat" immediately. What is a mom to do but to pull out her camera phone and start video taping?



What is amazing is that I've only been teaching him sign language for less than a month. He has gotten the "more" and "eat" very quickly, and I've even caught him signing "mama" the other day.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

my daughters

A couple of weeks ago a little girl in the K and J's Sunday class wasn't having a great day. His dad tried his hardest to make her stop moping and participate in class, but the girl wouldn't have it. She put both her hands over her face and sobbed quietly. Her dad finally stopped hovering and went to the back of the class room, probably thinking that she might quiet down that way. She didn't.

I positioned myself between my girls and the crying girl and hunched over. I talked to her quietly to get her to stop crying. I tried on and off, but she wouldn't quiet down for me either.

K saw what I was doing and she looked at me. With a look that said I was silly, she said, "Mommy, she's not your daughter!" "That's Ok. I was just trying to help her not be sad."

"You're silly, Mommy!" K said.

Welcome!

The kids were the three silly ducklings on blogspot, then we moved to wordpress and became the stubborn monkeys. Now we're back on blogspot! Get it? Got it? Good!

Let me start this post by going back to February. Daddy and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary by hiring a babysitter for all four kids! The preparation took many days before the event by pumping milk for Little M. He doesn't drink from a bottle but I thought since it's Mommy's milk, surely he'll take it.

We were gone from 5pm to 12am. Seven whole hours without any kids! The poor babysitter. Daddy and I had a leisurely dinner and then we went to see Cirque Du Soleil's Ovo. The evening started out with jittery nerves not 10 minutes away from the house. I experienced kid-withrawal. I mainly worried about Little M. It was the first time I have ever left him for this long. Fortunately the babysitter was excellent. I called her a couple of times and then she started texting me. Yeah! I got tons of updates!

Daddy and I had a lot of fun and talked about doing this sort of things once in a while. The older 3 are self-sufficient enough that they can survive with a babysitter without a worry. The only problem was they started fighting over the babysitter! It wasn't as much of a playtime as they'd hope because of Mikey. Mikey had trouble sleeping, he didn't want to take the bottle and so he was clingy. Thankfully he ate baby food so it didn't starve.

This was a memorable anniversary all around. :)