Andrew’s First Day of Preschool

Andrew had his first “real” day of preschool.  Not too much to say.  Andrew was excited to go.  You drop off / pick up the kids from the car, so it’s pretty easy.  Seth threw an ENORMOUS fit the first day we dropped Andrew off.  Andrew was just grinning and Seth was just screaming.  Andrew was an “angel” according to his teacher and just smiles all the time.  They send home a little sheet each day which says what they played with, the books they read, their snack.  Plus a folder of all their activities.  And Andrew gets a literature bag each week with a stuffed animal and a few books to enjoy.  This week he got Biscuit.  He goes Monday and Tuesday mornings and then we have him all to ourselves the rest of the week.  I think it is a good transition.

Katsu got Andrew a bag of his favorite candy, M&M’s, as a celebration treat, which he has been savoring all week.

Great Forest Park Balloon Race

St Louis has an amazing number of festivals and activities, almost all free, every weekend.  It’s hard to choose and they all sound so fun.  This year, we had to experience the Balloon Race.

We got there several hours early to find a parking space by the Art Museum.  Then, we walked a VERY long way through the park to where the balloons were taking off from.  Andrew promptly feel asleep and probably would have been content to sleep the whole time, but after many tries, we finally woke him up (I swear, that kid has slept though more culture than most kids ever see).

We picked up freebies and balloons at the booths and walked around and saw the Purina dog (we didn’t get to see the show because it was later).  We also picked up our Energizer bunny ears.

Then, we got to get close and see the balloons.  The boys were mostly interested (but I still don’t know if it was worth that walk …. many we won’t do it next year).  The favorites were the popcorn bag and also the Pepsi can one (which Andrew insists is coffee).

We took the long walk back, dropped the stroller off at the car, and went to the Art Museum.  We saw a few works of art, but mostly went to the bathroom, got a drink, and cooled off in the AC.  Then, we met up with some members of WUSPA (Washington University Spouses of Professionals Association ?? maybe) right by there to watch the action.  There was about 2 hours before the balloons started (well, till when they actually started, since they got off late), but the boys had tons of fun, running up and down the hill with the other kids and playing ball.  We were so worn out just chasing them!  If you can’t tell, this is ONE big hill.

Finally, we saw the Energizer bunny balloon peeking its ears over the trees!  This is the lead balloon.  I think it drops something and everyone else tries to drop a bag closest, or something like that.

But then the bunny got stuck in the trees right close to us.  Which was sort of anticlimatic (there wasn’t so much wind, so it wasn’t unexpected, I guess).  But it was good, in a way, since then all the balloons stopped close by.

We were SO worn out after many hours of being outside.  We went out for a little dinner and then home.  A fun evening.  Hopefully, better wind next year!

St Louis Art Fair

The St. Louis Art Fair is just a few blocks from our house.  So, a week ago, we decided to check it out and see how it compares to Ann Arbor’s art fair.  Obviously, it was much smaller, but otherwise pretty similar.  I even recognized some of the same artists!  There also seemed to be a lot more drinking in St. Louis.

One thing that is really special about the St. Louis Art Fair is how many activities there are for kids.  There are crafts for kids at most of the main advertising booths (like the TV & radio stations, etc.) and then there is a whole entire craft section for the kids with like 10 different crafts – they could even throw pots!  There is even a similar albeit smaller section for the adults to make crafts in the evening.   Andrew made a couple crafts, but was mostly interested in the music.  They had a nice African music group playing by the kids craft area that both the kids loved.  We had a hard time dragging them away.  Then, when Andrew saw another stage, we had to wait (even though it was 30 minutes more!) to see them perform.  They were very good, but was most interesting was this hysterical women who was performing just below the stage.  She was a riot and took her dancing very seriously.

We had a lot of fun and I can’t wait to go again next sure.  I am sure Seth will be old enough to get in on the craft action while Andrew watches the performances.

Andrew is 3 yrs 4 months old!

Another month, more adventures.

I just love this age – Andrew will sure talk your ear off.  He has SO much to say and he absorbs everything like a sponge.  We were watching March of the Penguins on Labor Day and he kept saying, “Is this their nesting ground?”.  I have no idea where most of his vocabulary comes from.  Sometimes, he’ll say something and I’ll think – wow, I say that word like once a year.  He always is saying funny things.  A few examples -

• Last week, I was getting dressed and Andrew came in and said, “Mom, your butt is cute.  I like butts”.  I wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or disturbed.  I can only wait another 12 years … yikes!
• In church, he said in a very loud voice just as everyone quieted down for the meeting to start something about bugs having a certain piece of genitalia.
• The whole time we are at the zoo, “Mom, where is the zebra’s poop?”  “Mom, where is the penguin’s poop”.  Heck, even when we watched March of the Penguins.  The questions won’t stop until the excrement is found – WHY do I have boys???
• Andrew talks over and over about how he is growing and something is making him strong.  He likes to talk about how any kind of exercise is making him strong (“Dancing makes me strong, now”).  He is convinced that all food makes him strong and is full of vitamins (“Mommy, cookies have Vitamin C, right?”… hmmm, we’ll have to work on that.
• We cut his hair on Labor Day and were sweeping up the pieces and Andrew said, “Is that from when I was a girl?”

Speaking of which, Andrew is really trying to figure out gender permanence and where babies come from.  He keeps saying things like “when I was a girl” or “when I’ll be a girl”.  He is not convinced that he will be and always has been a boy.  He is also very interested in breasts and likes to put things under his shirt to pretend that.  He asks me many many times last week about when “me and Seth were in Mommy’s tummy” and wanted to know how they got in there and how they got out.  He seemed to accept the idea that women have eggs (though he wanted to know when he would have eggs).  He was incredulous that I had pushed them out of my body (although after the 4 hours of pushing Andrew, I was pretty incredulous, too).

Andrew is one of the sweetest little guys I know.  He has so much compassion.  He gets the sweetest little smile and loves to tell me and Seth and Katsu how much he loves us and give us hugs and kisses.  I love watching him play with Seth or try to comfort him or call for him (Where’s my buddy?)  or (Sweetie, it’s okay).  So, cute.

Andrew is still really really into music.  I finally bought a new power cord for our piano (they broke the last one), and you should see how excited the boys are to dance to it again.  Andrew takes his dancing VERY seriously.  He throws many fits and gets upset when his music isn’t just so, when people are in his, when his CD starts when he doesn’t want it.  Andrew also makes up these impromptu songs that aren’t terribly musical and just go on and on (and are quite loud).  One last week went on about “We all go to church and take the sacrament” and most of the songs end saying something like “And we are all supposed to love each other.  Yes, we do.  Don’t you know that.  We all love each other”.  He also is really into America’s Got Talent, which sometimes Katsu and he watch together when Andrew takes a late nap and is not ready for bed at a normal bed time.  During the day, he acts out crazy routines in his room for “America Talent” – I think he’s trying to be like the bike guy.

Andrew seems to be in a stage where he is really having a hard time with tantrums and meltdowns.  But he really is trying hard and I can seem him working on self-discipline.  I think that is one of the parenting parts I like best – watching my children work at and master something.  When I tell him “we don’t talk to Mom like that”, he works really hard, even when he is hysterical, to calm down and tell me something in a better voice and ask calmly.

Fun things this month:

• Japanese Festival at the Botanical Gardens.  Huge – tens of thousands of people, seemingly half of whom dressed up like scary anime people.
• Hiking at Bangert Island and walking around St. Charles.  (Andrew is getting so proud of his hiking skills – it was nice and flat half the time and the boys loved running ahead, though we had to make sure Andrew didn’t run straight into the Missouri River … the other half was very sandy and hilly and eventually we had to carry Andrew at the end, but he was very good).
• Getting a new-to-us play kitchen from Freecycle (woo hoo!).  Andrew loves to cook meals for his giraffe, who loves lettuce and also, curiously, Oreos.  All of which need to be play nuked in the microwave.
• All kinds of free meals and snacks for Mom’s birthday (Andrew loved the VERY spicy noodles I got at Noodles and Co.  I didn’t realize they were spicy until Andrew took a VERY big gulp of water after each bite).
• Weekly trips to the zoo and botanical gardens (all the kids are back in school, it’s less crowded, and finally not so hot!).
• New favorite books after Grandma and Grandpa’s house – Magic School Bus.

Andrew’s Visiting Day at Preschool

Yesterday was Andrew’s visiting day at preschool to meet the teachers and figure out the routines.  The whole family came.  In the morning, Andrew wanted us to just drop him off, since that is what we keep talking about.  But, he was a little clingy at first when we got the classroom.  Once he saw all the trucks to play with, he was much more excited.  There are 9 kids in Andrew’s class and 2 teachers!  There are 4 boys and 5 girls within about a 6 month range, with Andrew just barely being the oldest.  They meet for 3 hours on Mondays and Tuesdays.  We are excited to start his first day on Monday.

Labor Day – Japanese Festival

For Labor Day weekend, we visited the Japanese Festival at the Botanical Garden.  This is a huge festival with like 25,000 people coming.  It was a little pricey in my mind, I guess cause I am used to going to the gardens for free.  It reminded me of the teeny tiny one that Ann Arbor does but much bigger and in a much bigger space.  Anyways, Japanese shops and booths.  Bonsai trees (nothing to compare with the ones we saw in Japan, of course).  Ikebana.  Martial arts.  Ice sculpting.  A summer festival parade.  Taiko.  Singing.  All those weird people dressed up like anime and manga and video game characters.  Lots of ceremonial (ha ha ha) sake drinking.  Banraku (?) puppet shows.  Origami and calligraphy.  Overpriced Japanese food, mostly yakisoba, okinomiyaki, sushi, and barley tea.  Water yo-yos.  Candy making.  And, believe or not, sumo!  It was a long day and both the boys fell asleep on the way home.  My favorite part – the procession and the sumo, of course.

First, Seth in his normal state – squatting.  He can do this FOREVER.  He is truly Asian.

The procession:

Other pictures:

Visit to Texas and Wedding

I didn’t think we had any pictures from our trip to Texas, but lo and behold, when I got pictures off our camera, there they were.  Not many and not great ones.  So, here is a shout-out to everyone (you know who you are) to send me copies of your pictures from the trip to Texas so I can do our scrapbooks, thanks!

We had fun in Texas, though it was SO SO SO hot and the boys had to stay inside, which is a tricky business in a place that is not totally baby/kid proofed.  We went on some fun outings – Chuck E. Cheese, the Aquarium, the park, shopping, the wedding, eating lots of pizza.  Seth only threw up once from the heat.  Andrew loved feeding the ducks every morning – he wants to feed the geese here now, but thankfully, I haven’t seen them in a while.  The wedding and reception were very lovely.  Katsu missed the wedding so he could watch super separation anxiety Seth, but I enjoyed it.  We had great great fun spending time with all our relatives.  I miss them all.  Hopefully, we can visit Utah in not too long.

Without further ado, a few pictures:

Of course, the real point of this post – send me your pictures!!!!

Seth is 14 months old (a few days ago …)

Another goes by and I can’t believe how old Seth is getting.

Boy, Seth is really starting to be a handful.  This has been a tough month for him.  I think going to Texas was a bit traumatic for him, or something.  He is deep in the throes of separation anxiety and being in Texas was the worst.  Until Katsu got there, Seth refused to leave my side (and usually didn’t want to be away from my arms).  Trying to take a shower was shear torture and involved my mom holding him while he screamed bloody murder or standing on the shower curtain the whole time, so Seth can’t pull it away and he still cries the entire time!  Once, my mom held him when he didn’t want it and he bit her on the shoulder, hard, with tooth marks still the next day!  Based on that behavior, I missed out on Sarah’s endowment and Katsu also missed the wedding to watch Seth so I could attend.  Seth even cries at church when Katsu takes him so I can teach my Sunday School lesson.

Seth is pretty intense about what he wants.  He does the cry and not breathing thing, but he will start breathing again just at the last minute and only sort of pass out.  He did it once or twice while we were in Texas.  He does it at home when I take away something of his sometimes.  He has been throwing tantrums pretty regularly since he turned 1 – flailing his arms and legs and refusing to be held.  He gets upset when you don’t do what he wants (like going outside or letting him play with chalk or crayons) or you take away something he is playing with.

Seth has really started hitting a lot.  When he started doing it I had to bite my tongue not to laugh because it looked so cute.  He hits me and Andrew and Joe and whoever he can get to.  I am trying to nip it in the bud, but he is pretty determined.  I even saw him hitting in his sleep during a nap before, which I thought was pretty hilarious.

Seth’s greatest thrill in life (besides climbing as high as possible or rolling/falling down from some big height) is getting people to laugh.  He loves to be silly and funny and make us laugh.  He also loves to dance.  When we are watching something on TV and music comes on, Seth will instantly start dancing.  He does some pretty cute dances. 

Seth is also a very fast runner and I am always chasing him around everywhere.  I thought I had lost him in the mall several times the last time we went shopping.  But he is a master wriggler and I can only hold him for so long before I lose my grip.  This is a big challenge in church – I try to make it through the sacrament, and even that is a challenge.  Church, actually, in general is challenging.  Seth can open the doors going outside at church (!!!!!) and so he will run down the hallway and then open the door and go outside (!!!!).  Like, how is this possible for a 14 month old child!!!!  That is why Katsu usually takes him to Elders Quorum where they tolerate children running around better.

Seth is still not a big eater and would prefer to live on eggs, meat, chicken nuggets, peaches, bananas, rice and noodles.  I am starting to get a little worried that he isn’t gaining weight (he still weighs around 20 lbs), so I am going to try and stock up on all the kinds of food he likes and fatten him up.  Alright, that plan probably won’t work.  At least he doesn’t gag himself as often as he used to.

Seth is talking some.  His regular words – mom, dad, hot, cat, done, po (for peach), ba (for banana and also for playing Japanese peek-a-boo), tru (truck and maybe also train), car, ball.  He uses all those words a lot though.   Hot seems to refer to both food being hot (or the oven) but also everything related to food and cooking.  He says it over and over when he sees me cooking (and he loves to stand and watch the entire time).  He also says done a lot, not just when he is done eating.  The cutest, is when he wakes up in the morning.  He will walk around the room and wait by the door to see if Dad will come and get him.  If he gets bored or impatient, he will come and sit on top of me and say “Done, done” and motion to the door. 

Routine is very important to Seth.  He gets very distraught if anything at night is out of order, like if we eat before Katsu gets home (very rare), or he doesn’t immediately take his bath after dinner.

Seth loves playing with Andrew, running around, playing on big-kid (i.e. the age 5-12 kind) playgrounds, giving kisses, playing with Joe, watching me cook, doing his shape sorter, driving cars around, drawing with chalk, running around outside, coloring with and eating crayons, dancing to music, reading stories (together and with us), looking at photos and photo albums, and being with Mom (and Dad).

Andrew turned another month old!

I am a little late on this post because we spent all last week in Texas for my little sister's wedding. Boy - taking care of the kids all week by myself in a house not our own was exhausting!

Anyways, Andrew has really been talking up a storm the last month. The "why's" and other various questions have really descended on our home. He is talking almost non-stop. People on both our flights and in the airport commented on how much Andrew talks, how many questions he must ask, etc. etc. On the way to Dallas, we were waiting on the plane for awhile and Andrew said, "When are we going to leave" quite lot - there was a lot of affirmative queries as well. Andrew asks questions about everything. Sometimes you wonder where he gets them, like "Why can't we spoke at Grandma's house?" ... (I think he is fascinated by the no smoking sign on the airplane.

He also is pretty imaginative and this makes for all kind of interesting conversations. The most popular ones are about his potty training (like, Mom, my poop is afraid of you so you better leave so I can use the bathroom or Mom, my poop likes you now and is smiling on you, or today, Mom my pee says that it is very sorry because he is alive and knows your name). BTW, the accidents mostly feel by the wayside when his TV time was taken away when he had an accident. Andrew also likes talking about being naked. Or us being naked, etc. etc.

Andrew also tells great stories about the monsters in his life - Yamamba, the Japanese one who will eat(?) him if he isn't in bed, and the Gunny Monster, who will take his toys away if he doesn't pick them up. Not only does he believe they are real (despite my many protests), he makes up elaborate stories about them, tells me what they look like, and even wants to grow up to be big and strong like yamamba. They are very very real to him.

I think Andrew is really starting to process the idea of gender, although you would never guess from his solely masculine pronoun use. He is starting to identify more with his dad and wants to do "boy" things. He doesn't like me to play the piano - that is "girl" music, but wants to put it on a beat ("boy" music, I guess).

He also is starting to identify with being Japanese. We went to a Japanese picnic a few weeks ago and he told me I couldn't go because I am not Japanese. Then, at the picnic, he told me to go away and he followed around a Japanese woman and tried to get her to do things for him. Today, he was talking nonsense and was telling me it was Japanese. He usually refuses for me to read him Japanese books, too, even though I have been reading them to him since he was a baby.

Andrew is very bossy. He is always spending the whole time trying to command me and Seth what to do. At the wedding, he was ordering everyone around the dance floor so he could do his own moves. He likes Seth as long as Seth doesn't get in his way or play with his things. Andrew's form of sharing is either 1) you give him something of yours or 2) he had about 50 toys and he chooses the 1 you get to play with, even if all the toys were yours to begin with.

Andrew has been taking a swimming class this summer and seems to be mostly enjoying it. He always tells me that he can't do everything and seems a bit concerned about it. He still loves nursery, and makes us go, even if we are visiting a new ward. He is always concerned that he doesn't know everyone's name, but he must be learning some of their names, because I wore a skirt the other day and he told me I looked like Sister X, his nursery leader (I don't even know her name!). He is a little nervous about starting preschool next month, because he wants me and Seth to come with him. He says "What if I want you there?". But it's just 2 days a week and I think he will really like it. I am excited!

Andrew loved visiting Grandma and Grandpa. For the whole two days before, he didn't even want to play, but just went around saying "I'm so excited. I'm so excited to see Grandpa and Grandma". He kept telling them how excited he was when he got there, too. For as much as he talked about reading all their books, we didn't read that much there, but he did look playing with their little people and feeding the ducks. He also loved showing off his dance moves (which are actually looking pretty good, he does all this fancy footwork, lots of galloping, and likes to really shake his legs and everything starts off with him running around and saying, "I'm warming up"). He liked eating at all the restaurants, too. When he finally met his new uncle Danny, he kept protesting that "you're not the real Danny", which was pretty funny. He was completely enamored with his aunt Meghan, although he seemed to call both Michael and Meghan by that name, so its hard to tell which one he loved more.

Favorite things this month: Visiting Grandma and Grandpa. Playing with Sarah, Danny, Michael, and Meghan. Going to Chuck E. Cheese with the whole family. Going to the Dallas Aquarium with the whole family. Having tons of relatives to dote on him and give him treats. Visiting splash parks. Going to the Botanical Gardens and the zoo. Going on a roadtrip. Seeing the Nauvoo brass band. Seeing the Nauvoo pagaent. Seeing Carthage jail. Enacting Joseph's Smith death or mob scenes with Little People or plungers. Visiting friends in the wards' homes and playing in their yards. Doing his first zip line. Doing it again and again (though he wouldn't let go!). Visiting the children's play area in a local mall. Practicing his dance moves. Watching Berenstein bears. Pretending to be a penguin or other animal in Seth's crib while surrounded by futons and blankets and pillows. Fun story time things.

Bad Neighbors

We have not had great luck here in St Louis.  We have one fabulous neighbor directly below us who showers the kids with love, our surrogate grandma.  But the rest … not so much.

The first month we lived here, we had a couple incidents.  One day, a man who lived in the condo complex across the street from us marched over to our house at 8 am and informed us that he was going through his complex’s trash and found a letter that had been addressed to us and we were NEVER to put any trash in their dumpster or he would report us to the police.  Heaven forbid.  I had just been sitting in the car the day before going through the mail while the kids were sleeping and just tossed some of the junk mail in there.  Seriously, he was kind of creepy and now I am much more careful about throwing anything away.  It gave me a bad vibe about the people here … and I had confrontation, but surely it was just a one-time thing.

Then, when my parents visited in Spring Break, they parked in our parking space.  A side note, we have a very tiny assigned parking space behind the condo complex with huge concrete pillars between every two spots, so we park directly next to one person, but they don’t actually live next to us in the building.  So, the girl who we park next to came and complained that my parents weren’t parked well and we needed to move the car immediately.  Hard to put my finger on it, but the way she said it was definitely rude.

Fine, but then a few months later she leaves a very rude condescending note on our car “Please, please, please park on your side”, which is perplexing to us since we are always on our half and never on hers and are very careful.  So, we talk to her and she says, “Well, sometimes it’s hard to park, blah blah blah”, but I felt like she was just trying to intimidate us to keep us from parking there.  Whatever.  We were even more careful (and I was not liking the people here just a little bit more).

Now, we get to Sunday morning.  Katsu goes out to go to early church meetings and someone has parked behind our car so we can’t leave.  It’s her family.  Basically, she had bought a new car a couple weeks ago.  And it has a scratch on it.  And so it must be our fault.  So, get his now …. SHE HAS CALLED THE COPS AT 8 AM ON A SUNDAY MORNING to come get us because we scratched her car.

Except, that, you see, we didn’t.  On the “days in question”, I had not even driven the car.  And Katsu hadn’t come close to her car when he drove.  And since she bought her new car, I haven’t even parked next to it and parked on the street instead because she hasn’t parked close enough to her side and I don’t want to mess with it.

So, we had the delightful experience of being interviewed by the cops bright and early Sunday morning.  And of course, the scratches on her car don’t match ours, because we didn’t do it.

But seriously – what will be next?  More cop calls?  A small-claims case?  We just aren’t parking in our spot anymore.  It’s not worth the pain.

I hate St. Louis.