Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas All!

This is Honor's first Christmas outside the womb. Lucky girl got her first bite of cookie with Mr and Mrs Claus and joined her family for her first holiday carriage ride.

Noble and Poem both performed in their school Christmas Program. 

Poem sang carols with her class and Noble played the part of Joseph in the Kindergarten nativity play. 

The kids gave an impromptu encore performance at home, 

captured on video below. 

To all a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Happy Little Honor

Honor is a sweet and happy baby. She laughs a lot and enjoys joining in on anything fun. For example, I carefully tiptoed into her bedroom the other day to see if she had fallen asleep for her afternoon nap. When I rounded the corner and startled her, she burst out laughing, falling to her crib and crawling about in circles.  She is very vocal - still the most vocal of all our babes so far - and loves to squeal, make "mmm" sounds while eating, and is also good at telling you when something is not quite right! Her first word was "mum mum" (approximating "yum yum" - drink in Cantonese). 

Noble and Poem are wonderful big siblings. Noble takes to playing with her and Poem takes to caring for her; they are good helpers. Below are some pics of our happy little Honor. Hope you enjoy!

 She loves to eat and generally prefers to feed herself - no mushy stuff, please.

  Honor pumps her legs and wiggles when excited. Here's a funny video of Honor and Poem wiggling together.

Honor kisses ("sek sek" in Cantonese) with a nice smacking sound. She gives hugs and leans in to receive hugs and kisses as well. She is quite snuggly and takes to anything soft and fluffy. Here's a video of her loving on a pink piggy.

She's a good climber and seems to be putting a leg up on anything she can manage these days. She's scaling the walls walking, working her way to independent steps - will let you know when that happens! She's also a wee bit curious. I had to take a break from writing this blog entry to check on her and sure enough - she had made a beeline to the bathroom and I assume from the water on the walls and wet toilet paper that she'd be playing in the toilet bowl (yes, ew!). Busy little bee, she is.

Pics in the Park

We captured some smiles on camera at a favorite local park. Here are the kids looking summery and cheery - Honor just shy of 8 months old and Noble and Poem 5 1/2 and 3 1/2.

October Update

Honor turned 8 months old on the 9th. She is sweet, affectionate and playful - squealing in delight at her own and her siblings' antics. Noble enjoys entertaining her and Poem often helps with basic baby care like grabbing a fresh bib and feeding her foods. Honor looooves to eat - making sounds as she does and grabbing (almost) everything to feed herself. Her favorite treat is bananas and coconut oil - yum. She is getting around quite well, keeping us busy as we've caught her teetering on the thresholds of the front and back doors a few times. She is also talkative, currently practicing her syllables "m-m" and "d-d" among others.

Noble and Poem are enjoying Kindergarten and Preschool and are learning all sorts of things both at school and at home. Noble found a hammer in the garage and has been smashing open rocks on our back patio as continuation of a science unit at school. He has discovered some pretty nice crystal-like formations in some otherwise ordinary looking rocks! Noble's also been enjoying his second season of soccer and he learned to ride a bike this Fall - no training wheels! Poem joins in on almost anything Noble is up to. I affectionately call them "Thing One and Thing Two" with Honor as the fish in the pot (reference Cat in the Hat). Poem's favorite activity is still snuggling; if she's not playing, she's hiding away on a cozy rug or soft bed somewhere in the house with her favorite blankie. Her other "favorites" are eating sweets like candy and chocolate. She says she wants to be a cake decorator when she grows up!

We went on a short getaway this week to Hilton Head, SC. The beach is beautiful and the weather neither too cool nor too warm. While Noble and Poem were busy building sandcastles, Honor got a taste of the sand (literally) while crawling among the shallow tides. We all had a nice time. 

May 2011. Wing-See's brother and his lovely wife got married on the beach in Northern California. At 3 months old Honor took her first plane ride and Noble and Poem got to be ring bearer and flower girl in the ceremony. Months later we realized that Poem thought it was actually her and Noble's wedding day (how cute!). We stayed at a loft above an art studio in Pacifica, visited Stanford (Wing-See's alma mater) and the City of course, and enjoyed seeing lots of out of town relatives. Congrats to Kerri and Doug - the lovely bridge and groom.

Baby Honor Arrives

Baby Honor arrived on a snowy night. She weighed in at 7 lb 11 oz. Thank God for a smooth labor. We delivered shortly after arriving at the hospital; our midwife rushed to the delivery room and instructed the nurses to step aside as the baby was coming. Baby came safely and we were happy but surprised parents when she announced, "It's a girl!" (We had guessed wrong all along.)  Honor is beautiful, bright-eyed, and beloved.

Playing in the Snow and Otherwise

Poem sings Happy Birthday (early 2010)

Silly girl Poem practices "Happy Birthday" for Noble in a moonsand cake. She just turned two.

A Look Back at the rest of 2010

Spring 2010

Noble and Poem meet their future auntie.

Noble gets his first shave - er- taste of some homemade loh-mai-chi. 

Poem shows off her spaghetti nest and play-doh eggs - pink, of course! Her favorite colors are pink and purple.

Play-doh has so many uses . . . 

Summer 2010. We road tripped down to Hollywood, FL to visit Grandpa Charlie (Brian's dad). The kids did great on the ride; Noble didn't even want to get out of the car once we arrived. It was their first time down and the kids enjoyed seeing their Grandpa, playing on the beach, and looking wildlife.

Yikes, mom - those are alligators!

Fall 2010. We spent a lot of time outside in the Fall - because of the good weather, and because our hardwoods were being entirely replaced. We cooked on the front porch, ate and played outside, retreated to the grandparents' house when the flooring nailer was too loud, and decorated the flooring paper (see below).

 Burts Pumpkin Farm. Look at those pumpkins (the kids and the gourds).

 Winter 2010. Posing for the Christmas Photo. We got lots of good shots. Here are our top picks.

Birthday Celebration (early 2010)

I'm trying to bring our blog up to date. I'm only two years behind, after all. What can I say? Time reaaaallly flies when you're having fun! So here goes - a blast to the past . . . 

A Richard Scarry Storybook Party

Noble turned Four and Poem turned Two. We celebrated with a Richard Scarry Themed Party, featuring face painting and fun foods like Talking Bread Sandwiches, Bananas Gorilla Banana Pudding, and Pickles - of course! We hope all had a good time! We also enjoyed playing in the wonderfully thick snow this season.