February Round-Up

This month we celebrated Chinese New Year and I registered Justin for kindergarten in the fall (!) Justin's teacher gave him a copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which he's been reading during nap time...it's been crazy trying to keep up with his reading and figuring out what books are appropriate for him. I admit unabashedly that I'm a proud mama on Justin's reading skills. Now if we could just get him to stop talking out of turn at school...

Brandon is at the age where he just wants to do whatever Justin is doing. Luckily Justin doesn't mind so much right now and will oblige Brandon for the most part ;) Brandon's vocabulary is slowly building, but he still calls everything in one category by one word (i.e. "waffle" for any breakfast item; "apple" for any food; "agua" for anything to drink; "spoon" for any utensil)...it makes trying to figure out what he's asking for quite the challenge!

Here are some pics from this month!

Brandon wearing big boy clothes...Mommy finally put some jeans on the kid.

Brandon is wearing the same Chinese vest that Naih-naih bought for Justin when he was about the same age. It was a tight fit, so this is the only year he can wear it!

Cousins

With Naih-naih and Yeh-yeh (Brandon is eating a fortune cookie)

Great grandchildren with Tai-po

At the Williams Sonoma Junior Chef class, decorating Valentine's cookies

What a two-and-a-half hour nap looks like...jealous!

These boys and their boxes...

With the fluffy bean bag chairs I got on clearance...I had to get two of course!

A little fun at the park on President's Day

Holiday Round-Up

Eep! I can't believe I never updated this blog with holiday photos! Oops! I guess it's a testament to how fast the holidays flew by. The holidays are my favorite time of year, so it's probably good that I was enjoying it rather than blogging about it ;) Anyways, here are a few choice pics:

Christmas morning. Brandon has a thing for hats, especially ones that are too small for him. I don't know why.

Somehow Justin ended up with tons of Legos this season. He's totally into it. Uncle Kevin was nice enough to sit with him and teach him how to put them together.

The Christmas bounty. No, these were not all for Justin!

Enjoying Christmas dinner

Photo bomb

Waiting for someone to give him a cookie

Uncle Kevin's birthday. Brandon says "Happy" and then blows.

Yummy ice cream cake

Not sure Brandon liked Uncle Kevin's gifts

This captures my holiday season. Kids running. Me tired.

Lots of holiday birthdays!

Brandon's 18 month check up

Well true to form, we still grow 'em big in this family! I took Brandon in for his 18 month check up and here are his stats:

Weight: 29.3 lbs (94%)

Height: 33.5"(80%)

HC: 19.5" (92%)

For comparison, here's Justin's stats from the same age...eep! And we thought Justin was big for his age!

Weight: 25 lb, 13oz (50%)

Height: 32.5" (58%)

HC: 19.5" (90%)

No wonder my arms and wrists hurt from hauling this kid around! Poor thing got 4 shots today and was pretty cranky so we gave him some Motrin and put him to bed early. I'm sure he'll be all ready for the first of our Christmas celebrations tomorrow!

AGG Christmas

Every year it gets harder and harder to get together with your girlfriends - especially once those pesky kids enter the picture. Three of us managed to get together this year! We did cookie decorating for the kids and had pizza...a long way from our fancy pot lucks, but all we wanted to do was sit and catch up and let the kids run around the house!

Auntie Ako wanted to be Justin's favorite so she gave him a whole cookie!

The mess wasn't too bad :)

 

 

Preschool Winter Program

The Winter Program at the boys' preschool is always a bit of madness, but these are the things that memories are made of. Of course, it does remind me of that cell phone commercial where all the parents are elbow checking each other to get a video/photo of their kid. Sheesh! Luckily Jay came this year and was able to handle videography while I wrangled Brandon. Apparently the Toddlers don't get up and sing, so I had to manage Sir Chubbs a Lot through the whole program.

Luckily I brought some grapes with me:

 

And true to form, Justin got some kind of stage fright and wouldn't sing the songs he's been shouting around the house for the past month:

Cookie Day 2013!

It's only as I get older that I truly appreciate how much work goes into Cookie Day at my mom's house. She has an Excel sheet for how many dozen of each type of cookie she will produce so she can calculate how much ingredients she will need. Dough-making starts early in the week and continues until Saturday - whew! This is one tradition I'm not so sure I can keep up with!

This year was special because my friend Ako came out with her middle daughter who is 6 to be Cookie Elves with me and Justin! Needless to say, it was a bit messier this year than other years, but great fun was had by all. (And cookie making went faster once our little elves decided they'd rather watch Disney Junior downstairs!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Justin actually took this picture for us - not bad!

Gratuitous bathtub shot. Brandon graduated to the big leagues!