It's New Year Eve

It's Chinese New Years Eve...a time to celebrate the year of the Ox. It's a day of no housework (isn't that great!), new haircuts and new shoes. The kids got their LaiSees (red envelopes with money in them). With all these great treats you can't help but enjoy this time. We'll be celebrating at a friend's house where there will be plenty of good food and good company. Wishing you all a Happy New Year.

Washable Markers

A favorite past time for the boys is to roll out some craft paper on the floor or table and bring out the markers. And it sure is some safe fun since they now have those fabulous non-toxic washable markers. Mom, Dad no worries, it washes off the wall, floor, couch, cat?? Of course we try to keep it contained, but every once in awhile they slip right past us with a marker in hand.



Another no bells and whistles simple fun that will entertain for long periods of time....and when it loses it's fun just whip out the stickers and let them go. You just bought yourself another 1/2 hour (at least) of entertainment.

Mommy Midnight Checklist

This mommy's midnight checklist goes somthing like this....

hubby's lunch packed (if there's leftovers) - check
dishwasher loaded - check
washer and dryer going - check
cats fed - check
toys picked up - check
children tucked in - check
important mail sorted - check
house lights off - check
night lights on - check
doors locked - check
can I finally relax - check
start that craft project or book you've been wanting to read for weeks - zzzzzz.

The funny thing is, I don't think I'm alone with this. OK Mommies if you're out there and this check list rings true to you too, give a holler! And those other mommies out there with the fantastic art blogs, and fabulous baking, etc. etc. please give us some pointers because I just don't know how it's done.

"Daddycated"

We've got a new word in the house:
Daddycated
pronunciation: da-de-kay-ted
function: transitive verb
etymology: a Max-ism, circa 2009 daddy + dedicated
definition: to commit to a role as daddy, as a way of life, a daddy who does it all, bathtime, bedtime, cleanup time, fills out forms (ie school applications and loan applications) and drags out the garbage.
sentence - The boys and their mommy love Max (daddy) because he has daddycated himself to our household.

max's sentence _ "I am daddycated"

I have to say the boys adore their daddy. It warms my heart to see this but I do have to admit sometimes it leaves me feeling a bit green. Especially during those moments when one of the boys is in need of a cuddle and I come running over and they say "I want daddy" One day, I just might find myself in therapy working out this rejection, for now I remind myself, they love their mommy too.

It's Official

After some discussion with the twins daycare operator ,Rocio, we have agreed to start potty training. The twins attend daycare 2 days a weeks. Rocio and I agreed on a toileting schedule that would work for daycare and at home. So it's official, today was their first day of toilet training and truthfully, it didn't go so well. They were interested in the pottys and had fun sitting on them. Soon the novelty wore out and they were ready to go on to some new activity. I stuck to the schedule but was unsuccessful in getting either one of them to actually use it. Tomorrow's another day...am strongly considering a reward system with this, hmmmm.

Zingo

The current struggle in our home is finding the perfect board game. It's hard to find a board game for a 4 yr old and 2 yr olds. Aidan has a new found interest in playing board games...but it's really hard playing a board game with your 4 yr old and having 2 yr old twins wanting in on the fun but still unable to really participate. It will be great once the twins get a bit older and all 3 can play a board game together. Until then, we have Zingo. Aidan absolutely loves this game, it's an educational form of bingo, teaches shape and pattern recognition and requires attention/observation skills. The perfect part is we can give a playing card to Miles and Liam and they can feel like they're part of the game too, with a little help from mom and dad.

Holiday Vacation Comes To An End - Daddy Cooks Dinner, Mommy Bakes

It's the end of our holiday vacation, Max goes back to work tomorrow, Aidan goes back to preschool and Mommy is back to full time duty taking care of the kids and household. As of this morning, Aidan had begun to let us know that he was sad vacation was over and he did not want to go back to school. I decided to try to make the end of vacation fun with a little bit of a treat. We baked chocolate chip cookies together using a yummy recipe out of Martha Stewarts Living Cookbook, the new classics edition.


And Daddy decided to make us dinner. He made a fabulous rosemary pork loin roast with parmasean risotto, and broccoli with panko crumbs.



So although we are all very sad that vacation has come to an end, it is a bittersweet ending with a fabulous meal and yummy dessert.

Balloons

It's important to remember some of the simplest items are so much fun. It was late morning and the boys were already starting to show the tell tale signs of boredom, i.e. whining, throwing toys around, fighting. I remembered we had a bag of left over balloons in the back pantry, so out of desperation for entertainment, I blew up 4 balloons. I tossed these balloon out towards the boys and the smiles and giggles began. They batted them around, giggling and playing for a good 45 minutes, then it was time for lunch. Later in the afternoon they returned to playing with the balloons. Of course, there were a few squables over who gets what color but over all they were a big hit. With a house full of new toys from Santa still the simple balloons were the most fun ever...and I was amazed.

Hot Pot Night

So glad we planned for hot pot tonight with good company. The boys love when there Uncle Jimmy and Auntie Conny come over. Aidan especially thrives from all the special attention he gets from Auntie Conny. I really enjoy seeing my boys have a good time, and seeing them have postive interactions with our friends.

It was a chilly night tonight, the perfect kind of night for hot pot. Fabulous meal of crab, shrimp, pork, beef, tofu , taro, daikon, and other greens all ready to be dunked in a delicious warm broth accompanied with a spectacular bottle of sake to warm us up. Hot pot is such a fun social meal that I think the kids actually enjoy themselves at the table as well. Even though they don't get to participate in the actual hot pot activity (or the sake drinking!) I think they really benefit from the positive energy surrounding the table.

Happy New Year - 2009 a new start

Ok so I really blew my blog...yeah august was so long ago. No better time than now to start fresh. Max and I put the boys down for bed early on new years eve and stayed up to ring in the new year. We had dinner by ourselves and wondered why don't we do this more often. It was nice to sit and have dinner without any disturbance, no flying food, yelling, requests for milk etc. We decided our motto for 2009 would be "Health and Wealth" We would try to be healthier and try to save more so that we can take a big family trip in 2010, so that's our goal. But I also got to thinking what would I like to accomplish with the boys and myself personally this 2009 and here's a list I came up with:
with the boys
1. Do more arts and crafts with the boys
2. Visit the library regularly
3. Less TV (even if it is only educational dvd's they watch, I still feel it's gotten out of hand.
4. Have the boys work on clean up every night before bedtime
5. Speak Spanish more often
6. take more walks

myself
1. explore more artistic activities for myself
2. focus more time on my etsy shop
3. shop less
4. declutter our home
5. eat healthier, eat less meat
6. stay in touch more often with friends and family
7. stop letting the mail pile up ( a huge source of stress for me, I know it sounds crazy)
8. and of course keep up with my blog :)
I'm thinking these goals should all be pretty easy to accomplish, time will tell. Good night.