3/28/2010 Goodbye and Hello

Farewell to JULIA-isms and Hello to the new Merry Moys blog!

March 26, 2010 Playdate at the Park- New Friends! And playing 3 little Pigs with Mommy

We went to Turner Park today after school for our first playdate with Christine and Julian's play group. Really nice group of ladies and you hit it off with one of the few girls - You two rode all over the tennis court and ended up playing the rocket launcher over and over. You were very good at keeping your temper - especially since some kids were not waiting their turn, but I could see you slowly reaching your toddler limit- you ended up coming to mommy's picnic blanket, plopping down and asking for a snack (after "hiding" a rocket under mommy's chair). Today you said that riding your little ride-on around the courts with your new friend was your favorite part of the day.

Well.. you were in your element before dinner singing songs on your ukelele with mommy and Stella as your audience. You sang about loving "rainbows" and "Hearts" and loving daddy, mommy, and baby Stella. Today you let me put you to bed, but not till after running all over the place, brushing your bear's teeth, pooping, then playing and taking turns with mommy in re-enacting the three little pigs. You were so cute.

3/25/2010 Wising up that daddy leaves after you fall asleep? Newest artwork! I want to be a Baby Doctor.

Hmmm, last night after you fell asleep at 7:35pm, you woke up a few times calling for me and I or Mommy had to go into the bedroom to sooth you back to sleep. Hmmm, are you realizing that we always go back out to do other things in the house after you drift off???

Here is a picture of your art work from school today - "house with attached garage, shingled roof, chimney, fence, grass, flower and your name and Mommy's name written on the paper." Pretty complete and impressive for a 3 3/4 year old!

These days when we ask what you want to be when you grow up, your answer is " A baby doctor, so I can help babies with their tummy aches." How sweet - because you see your baby sister Stella suffer from gerd, now you want to be a pediatrician!

Wed. March 24, 2010 Mosaic Craft and The End and Rebirth...

Today you did your first mosaic craft that Mommy got from Hobby Lobby. You loved it as it was two of your favorite things - hearts and rainbow! When I got home from work you were done and presented it to me! It's beautiful and I will bring it to work and display it proudly! When it was time for sleep and we were laying down to read books and have our ritual chat "What was your favorite part of today? What will we play or talk about in the car tomorrow on the way to school? Etc" You told me "Don't forget to bring my craft to your office and show all your work friends!" What a proud artist you are!

Okay, it's been decided that maintaining a blog for Stella and a blog for Julia is a bit too time consuming and that our family's lives are so intertwined...so at the end of this month the two individual blogs will come to an end and birth will be given to the Merry Moys blog!
Stay tuned for that...

Tues. March 23, 2010 Writing JULIA and MEME, Answering the phone, When I'm Bigger...

For the past few weeks you have been writing your and Mommy's name on almost everything you draw and all your work from Undercroft. It's so sweet...too bad you don't remember how to spell Daddy's and Stella's names yet...but in time ;0)

Also this week since we got home from Chicago Mommy has been letting you answer our home phone (usually it's me or Auntie Frances that is calling). It's so sweet to hear you say "Hello" and chat like a big girl for a few minutes with me before you hand the phone over to Mommy!

This morning on the way to school you said "When I and Stella are bigger, we can wear Mommy's clothes, shoes, jewelry and purses!" Wow, someone has their eyes set on a lot of stuff!

Mon. March 22, 2010 "Mommy tells me not to move"

Tonight Mommy was going to get you to bed and Daddy was going to spend some time with Stella...but you didn't want Mommy to get you to bed - you wanted Daddy. When we asked why, you started to cry a little bit and stated "Because Mommy tells me not to move." Awwwwe - I usually just say "No talking, no playing, no singing, close your eyes and go to sleep." I guess Mommy's "Don't Move" is too harsh for you! So Mommy said she wouldn't say that to you anymore and all was fine, she got you to sleep and caught a cat nap herself! Geez!

March 20, 2010 - White Knuckled drive home - good girl gets new toy!

What a day - about 15 hours to get home to Tulsa - with 80-85% of the time we were driving in snow, rain or sleet/hail. It was a mess and scary at sometimes with hardly any visibility, 18 wheelers on the road, etc. During the calm period of the drive with no snow or rain or sleet, we had lunch at Qdoba in the heart of St. Louis.

During the last few hours of the drive when the visibility was the worst, no highway lights, etc you were such a good girl because you were super bored, tired and wanted to play or talk. Mommy gave you the iPod Touch and we told you that Daddy really needed to concentrate on the roads and needed silence and if you could be quiet the rest of the way home we'd give you a new toy...bribery worked and the reward was so well deserved by you. We finally got home around 10:30pm and was never so happy to be in a house in Tulsa! Your reward was a battery operated dog that you named "rainbow".

March 19, 2010 Part II - Pictures

Fri. March 19, 2010 Ai-Ye Flo's Playdate and Stella's dinner

We all went to Flo's condo and you jumped right into playing with her twins, Allison and Jessica - dress up, Hello Kitty tent, etc. Mommy and Daddy got to catch up with Ai-Ye Flo and we all had lunch together. Around 2pm Auntie Frances showed up with Damian and Jonathan. When the "boys" arrived it was so funny to see Allison and Jessica run to Damian and want him to go play dress up right away and for him to be the "prince". He wasn't interested...too aggressive for him? You just did your own thing since Damian is your old buddy. You both enjoyed taking turns playing with Allison and Jessica's toy violin!

We left around 3:30pm to head home and get changed for Stella's delayed 1 month/100 day dinner party. We all went to Uncle Leland's first and the to House of Fortune after 6pm. It was a great evening with family and friends, you enjoyed playing with Mia, Damian and your cousins again.

It was a late night - getting home around 10pm and then packing and putting everything in the van for our early departure to "hit the road" back to Tulsa tomorrow!

Thurs. March 18, 2010 Mall with Grandparents - playdate dinner @ Mia's

Daddy went downtown again today and you enjoyed a trip to Lincolnwood Town Center with Yie-yie and Ah-mah...getting attention from their friends, riding some of the rides in the mall and today Ah-mah let you pick out a sterling silver necklace for an early bday gift. You picked a peace sign pendant and was so happy to have a new special necklace that you picked yourself!

In the afternoon we all went to Tita Jean and Tito Marks house so you could play with Mia and Dhara. We had super yummy sushi for dinner and all hung out from 4-8pm. It was a very enjoyable day for all of us!

I've also included some pictures of you and Stella - playful, happy and sleeping!

Wed. March 17, 2010 Tita Horte's and the Grecos

We had carry out Indian food at Tita Horte's for lunch today and you got to see and play with Sebastian again. You napped in the car so we took a drive to Old Orchard so you can run around outdoors a little bit after your nap and Mommy and Daddy could get some minor shopping done. We had an Auntie Ann's pretzel and lemonade as a treat!

Dinner at Yie-yie and Ah-Mah's house and then we went to see our old neighbors, the Grecos. We got a journal book from Claire's for Isabella and Ah-Mah gave her a paper/origami's basket filled with lollipops and you insisted on carrying the gifts. Once we got there we were greeted so warmly by Benny, Cyndi and Isabella - you loved the familiar faces and played with Isabella right away and was such a happy chatter box! We were served home made apple pie and decaf cappuccinos for the adults - milk for the girls. You loved chasing their cat, Jumping Jacks too and Isabella let you choose some books that she outgrew as a 10 year old - you selected two - a Dora book and an Arthur book. It was a nice visit and it was so cool to see you instantly comfortable and so happy to visit "big" Isabella (not "small" Isabella in your tot group)!

MOMMY's NOTE: Cindy said that Isabella was still talking about everything Julia said that night when she was being tucked in to bed. I can't wait to meet up again with the Grecos in the summer!

March 16, 2010 - Playdate @ Kaia's and Dinner with Cousins

Kaia's parents hosted a play date luncheon and Julia was able to see some of her old toddler friends - Kaia, Caiden, Isabella, Niko and Ritesh. It was a nice afternoon and here are a couple of pictures - no they were not beating you up at the bottom of the stairs - it was a big group hug!

In the late afternoon Mommy went to dinner with Auntie Miyoung while you and I (Baby Stella napping in the Baby Bjorn) blew bubbles on the stoop, took a walk around the neighborhood and visited with our old neighbor, Renee, for a few minutes. Then in the evening Auntie Sunny came for dinner with Grace and Sarah - you had fun playing with her cousins after dinner.

Mommy was home by 9pm and Tita Pagan came over with a special delivery of her mom's home made puerto rican rice - YUMMY! We all visited and hung out for a while in the basement - you liked playing pretend surprise gift with Tita Pagan, re-wrapping up a rubber duck in a silk scarf. It was a late night for you with no nap today...oh well - vacation time.

3/15/2010 Schaumburg & Sleepy Hallow

Yesterday we meet Tita Hortencia, Pagan and Patty for Vietnamese food for dinner. You were so excited to see Sebastian and hold his hand so he could walk. It was great seeing our favorite Latinas!

Today Daddy went downtown on the Metra to meet up with my old friends. You, Mommy and Stella met Ai-Ye Hsiu-Mei at Woodfield Mall for lunch and some shopping and then back to her house where we all met up along with the Shooks and had Chinese carry out for dinner.

You loved running around with Skye and Jacob and trying to play with the cats...but now we know you are kind of allergic to cats as well - since Skye and Jacob were climbing and sitting on the cat's climber/steps/scratching post you were right there with them. Next thing we knew, you touched your face and had rashes under your eyes and around your lip...so Daddy had to make a special trip to Walgreen's and get you some kid's Benadryl and calamine lotion. Worked like a charm and now we know not to let you play with cat infested stuff!

The drive home wasn't fun - Stella was crying from being in the car seat and you were thirsty and we didn't have anything to give you to drink until we got to the oasis and I got gas, water and milk. Long day for us all!

MOMMY's NOTE: We had a lot of fun at Woodfield Mall with Ah-I Hsiu Mei - you had your favorite stuff at the japanese buffet (california roll and some chocolate crepes for dessert!) and we went to H and M to get you a new Hello Kitty ballerina leotard/tutu - you were so happy "Thank you mommy!!" - A-I HsiuMei brought you to the play=area at the mall so that mommy can get herself some socks :)

3/12/2010 Gigantic Buildings!

We drove "home" to Chicago today - left Tulsa around 7:15am and arrived at Grandparents Moy's house at 8:30pm - thankfully welcomed by a home cooked meal! It was a long day on the road with two stops for gas and lunch stop at McDonald's with a Playland. As we entered the downtown skyline, Julia said "Look Daddy - all the tall buildings. They are gigantic!"

We were all so happy to be home - Julia felt so comfortable at Yie-yie and Ah-mah's house. It was Stella's first visit to Chicago out of the belly!

The very next day - Saturday 3/13/2010 we had dim sum - it was soooo good! Uncle Panda aka Leland spent some time with us and then both girls were pooped mid day and napped in the car. Meme and I were tired too, but running on the happiness of being in Chicago with family and friends! We had family dinner at my parents and Aunt Sunny came with Cousins Grace and Sarah.

MOMMY's NOTE: You had so much fun playing with Gracie and Sarah - somehow it ended up where you were the "leader" and telling them how to march around... someone took off the top of the sit n' spin and doing a "treasure hunt" to find it. :)

3/11/2010 EARLY wake-ups! 1st Grader Jr. Achievement!

Oh Jules...lately you have been waking up before the alarm clock...unless you go to bed really late (like past 8:30pm - where I have to wake you up around 7:15am and you get to complain about being tired the entire time I am getting you dressed and ready for school). When Mommy and Daddy don't get to bed till midnight on and you are "awake" at 6:30-6:45 and won't go back to sleep...it feels torturous - LOL. Today was another one of those days...so I surrendered and got up with you and we had a hot breakfast for a change. Eggs and toast for both of us! The drive to school was a quiet one...you were tired from getting up at 6:30am! Oh well, tomorrow we are all up early and hitting the road to CHICAGO!!! We are all so excited...although there's not much room at Grandparents Moy's house for the 4 of us to sleep....but we will figure something out ;0)

On another note, as Daddy has been a volunteer for 1st grade classes with Junior Achievement, I've had extra materials and brought some home to do with you. We both enjoyed the activities and I was so proud of you being able to comprehend and complete the activities of a 1st grader!!! You are my smarty pants big girl!

3/9/2010 Last family lunch before full days of school!

With Julia going into full days of school (8am-3:30pm) the week after Spring Break we won't have the chance for family lunch and visits to Daddy's office very often (which she loves), so we planned for today and had lunch at Mimi's Cafe. Jackie Haisley has been telling us they have the best grilled cheese and I think their French Quarter Burger is the best I've ever had! So Mimi's it was - here's a few pics from lunch and the most recent family drawing by our own Julia! Can you tell which picture was taken by Julia as the photographer???

FYI from Julia on the colors of the family drawing - "Mommy is pink because she is a lady, Daddy's favorite color is red, but there was no red marker, so Daddy is blue because he is a man, while Stella and I are yellow because yellow is my favorite color." Spoken by the artist herself!

3/7/2010 Big Girl Toothpaste!

We had a nice family Sunday...starting with you waking Daddy up at 7am...so we had oatmeal and I did laundry while Mommy and Stella slept in. Then we all went to brunch at El Caballo - it was just okay, but we had fun and you enjoyed making your "special sandwich" of tortilla chip, Spanish rice and scrambled egg!

After brunch we went to Target, but both you and Stella were asleep, so Mommy went in to the store and one of the things she got was your "big girl" toothpaste.

Mommy had a bad headache and was exhausted, so she took a nap while you "helped" me pack for our trip to Chicago - selected your books to bring, your teddy bear, tissue, our vitamins and a few other things. During dinner we played a new guessing game - we took turns describing something and the other person had to guess what it is. I told you "It's big, inside is red and sometimes it has seeds and sometimes it doesn't" and you guessed correctly - WATERMELON. Then here was one of yours - "It's kind of circles, small and some are green and some are yellow" I guessed lemon and limes - WRONG, it's PEAS and CORN! It was fun and when Mommy woke up from her nap, she joined in on our game too!

You used your new "big girl" toothpaste tonight and was so happy and proud - you came running to the kitchen to tell me "Daddy, I used big girl toothpaste - I didn't swallow it, it wasn't spicy, smell my breath!" You are too cute and smart!

3/6/2010 1st time you woke up from a nap to pee and play date with Pelle!

It was a great Saturday! You went to Weight Watchers with Daddy, followed by a trip to the grocery store and library and after lunch Stella rolled over by herself for the first time. We took a nap around 3pm and you woke up on your own because you had to go pee! Daddy was very glad...since you were sleeping on me as your personal mattress and didn't pee on me and the bed!

We met your friend Pelle and his mom Pats at the park on 41st and Riverside. It was really cool with modern/European type playground equipment - not the traditional stuff we are use to. You two had fun, Stella enjoyed being outside and facing out from the Bjorn and Mommy and Pats got to chat a bit. As it was breezy out we were only at the park for about 45 minutes and then continued the playdate at our house with yummy pizza from Brothers Pizza and triple chocolate cookies from Immaculate Baking Co. Surprisingly you and Pelle finished the whole small cheese pizza and the entire plate of small cookies Daddy baked. Wow, all 3 parents were very surprised, but happy to see the good appetites!

3/4/2010 Hopscotch and Dessert or Desert

It's warming up in Tulsa!!! Nice sunny afternoon in the upper 50's/low 60's so Julia got to play with chalk in the front of the house and after seeing so many video clips on hopscotch on Nick Jr. Mommy drew a hopscotch pad for Julia to play on! Julia also got to ride on her princess scooter too...but Mommy being the nervous person she is had to sit in the middle of our driveway to make sure she could see Julia at all times and make sure she didn't get too close to the street.

I picked up a special treat for all of us at Reasor's - peanut butter cup cookie for Meme and me and a green sprinkle clover leaf cookie for Julia. It was a special treat surprise for after dinner...so Julia ate her rice and beef stew that mommy made and as we were talking about the surprise special dessert, Julia started to pant and say it's so hot! Meme and I laughed - it's so cool to see her make the connections between DESSERT and DESERT! We all enjoyed our treats!

Tonight Julia wanted Mommy to hold her hand to sleep...but we couldn't find Julia's Hello Kitty doll. As I was holding Stella around the house and putting things away I found the play food piece from yesterday and the Hello Kitty doll...I went to the bedroom to let Meme and Julia know and was thanked and told "Daddy, you are the best finder!"

3/3/2010 - Tears and Big Time Crying

The day was fine, but ended with a big cry before bed...why...because Julia didn't listen to Daddy when he told her to put her toys away, find the missing piece to her toy food set she was playing with and stop running around the house. It's already hectic enough with two pretty good girls, but one of Daddy's pet peeves is missing a piece of a set of something and not taking care of your stuff (toys) by keeping it in its place and putting things away when we are done using/playing with it. So when I was at my wits end and told Julia she was being yiae yiae (bad/naughty in Cantonese) that cracked her and the tears started rolling as she knows I say yiae-yiae kids get nothing. So Mommy and Daddy had to calm her down and then she wanted Mommy to put her to bed and then after I told her I loved her and will always love her, but she needs to listen to what I say and take care of her toys she wanted me to put her to bed...after she finally drifted off around 8:40pm I had to help Meme with gerd girl...This is all real life parenting! The good and bad, thankfully much much more good than bad ;o)

3/2/2010 Deep Sleep and The Nest

Well, little miss Julia was TIRED last night and insisted on sleeping in mommy and daddy's big bed...so here she is in deep sleep just after midnight...slept through (from about 8pm) the night until I had to wake her up around 7:15am.

Then as we were going to the CRV in the garage, we heard the bird chirping and captured this photo this morning...however, it looks like a dove pigeon to me and I swear we saw a robin in the nest this weekend...oh no, I hope we don't have a squatters and won't have to deal with bird nest wars at our front entry way! Time will tell...Julia is just happy to see "our" bird and Meme wants to get a bird feeder now...which we can use our house warming Lowe's gift card from our dear friend Susan Linker to buy! Yippee!

3/1/2010 Birds, Q Tips and Weight Watchers!

We recently discovered we have a bird's nest in front of our house and this past weekend while Julia and I were having breakfast I heard the chirping and went to look...the Mommy bird was in the nest, so I called Julia over to see and she was so delighted! Big happy smile! I asked her to think of a name for the bird outside our house...today she said she wants to call it "Flowers" because flowers are beautiful and so if our bird!

In Julia's class at Undercroft Montessori the letter of the week is Q...when I picked her up at school today and asked her what was for snack she replied "Q-tip". Really??? Yes, she said it was a pretzel stick with marshmallows on the ends - it was yummy and she really likes the marshmallows! Wow - Meme and I were very impressed with the guide or parent that made snacks to go along with the letter Q!

Then after the 3-5 seconds after getting Julia buckled in, closing her car door and getting back into the drivers seat, Julia asked me "What is Weight Watchers?" I replied it's a program to lose weight and be healthy. Julia said "No it's not, it's your school and I go with you sometimes and we listen to your teacher."...and then I hear the commercial is actually playing on the XM radio in the car and realize Julia heard the commercial and remembers going to WW with me some Saturdays! Wow - her memory and picking up on everything is superb!

Lastly when we got home and the bird was not in the nest, Julia says "Maybe the mommy bird is out getting worms for her entire family." Yes, I say probably!