All the kids . . .

Tonight Kristen, Jamie and I thought we would do dinner together. But when some older kids took the fun out of McDonalds' playland - we headed to Jamie's backyard. Here you can see all 5 kids.


(Ashleigh - looking away), Calli, Koji, Izumi, (Mari - swinging)

Family Time at the Pool

Today after church, we meet up with some friends at the Skokie Water Playground. They have great areas for little kids, preschoolers, as well as a huge pool and many waterslides. Here is Mari, sitting on the dolphin. It took a while for her to be convinced it wasn't real.




Kristen took Calli down the slides.



All the girls.

Things Mari Loves

~ animals of all kinds: especially seeing dogs, cats, squirrels and birds
~ dancing and/or clapping along to any music with a good beat
~ walking around, trying to keep up with Calli
~ watching DVDs - she points at the T.V. shouting "Deee - vee"
~ cheese
~ raisins (this is a new one, and apparently she swallows them whole)
~ corn on the cob - she got fussy because she couldn't eat it raw as I was getting it ready for dinner

Old Fashioned Ice Cream Social

Today Kristen invited us to an Old Fashioned Ice Cream Social, sponsored by her real estate agency, Rubloff. It was the perfect thing for a beautiful Saturday afternoon. They had popcorn, ice cream, face painting, games, a magician and a live band. It was great to have time to hang out as a family.

Calli got a flower on her cheek that matched her skirt, and Ashleigh became a cat.

Jason and Rich

Jenny & Kristen (thanks Mom for the shirt - I love it!!)

Just like the Movie Stars

Rich loves to read the "They're just like us" section of US magazine. It cracks me up. Every week it has a picture of some celebrity in a hat and sunglasses at the grocery store or something.

Well, today I took the girls to run some errands with me. We made a stop at Trader Joe's - where we learned they no longer carry chocolate chocolate chip pancake mix :( ! Calli loves the store, because they have kid-sized carts, and give out helium balloons. For some reason, she wanted to wear both her sunglasses, and her hat into the store. So with her kid-sized cart, she looked just like the "just like us" pictures!! Don't you think??

Talk to me

While we were at Grandma's house, Calli threw a baseball in the house after I had asked her not to. Nothing broke, but I told her she would need to sit in the "quiet chair" (our name for time-out) because she did not obey. She found a chair and sat down. But being away from home, I didn't have easy access to a timer to set.

I was playing with Mari, and getting ready to go out. So a few minutes went by. Calli was still in the chair, but I had forgotten she was there for a reason. I sat down in front of her, and she said "Mamma, talk to me".

I thought, that is a new request. But maybe she just wants some attention. So I said "Hello Calli, How are you?".

"No" she said. "Say to me 'We do not throw the ball'". I started laughing so hard. I had completely forgot she was still in the quiet chair, but she had my speach all prepared.

Visit to Grandma & Grandpa's House

We spent a couple days this week visiting Grandma and Grandpa. We all had fun! Unfortunately, the girls were a bit under the weather - especially at the beginning of the trip.

Calli, eating popsicles for dinner because she had an upset stomach. Grandma also made her orange jello, and orange salad (which she liked to stir more than she liked to eat).

Mari had to be fed the popsicle bite by bite on a spoon. At first I gave it to her, but she got upset because holding the popsicle was too cold. Then, I got her to hold the stick, but she tried to eat the stick. I had to take it away from her and feed it to her.

But later that night, Mari had some corn on the cob. She loved it. And for only having 6 teeth, she did a great job!



The next day, when Calli was feeling better she got out all the musical instuments, and she and Grandma made a band. She asked to take the whistle home, but I explained that it was so fun to play at Grandma's house ;)

Feeling catty?

Actual conversation from today:

Me: Calli - don't lick your arms.
Calli: Cause only cats do that?
Me: Yeah

No Naps

So first thing this morning, we drove to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a visit. Mari ususally takes a morning nap, but she didn't sleep in the car. Neither girl slept at all when I tried to put them down for an afternoon nap. Finally, I decided we should go for a walk. Both girls passed out.

Password

On our road trip to/from Galena, Rich and I discovered that if we let the girls watch Dora DVDVs (one after the other) we could play Password and have a lot of fun! The basic idea of Password is to give a 1-word clue, and have your partner give 1 response until you get them to say the word on the card.

Here is a good sample (the word was "evict"):

R: throw

J: up

R: people

J: catapult

R: out

J: umpire

R: of

J: orbit

R: house

J: evict

We had a lot of fun and laughed a lot. At one point, we were both laughing and Calli pipes up for the backseat "Hey - Hey - Hey guys, I have to tell you something. You be silly for a few minutes, then you take a little break - okay?" I laughed till I cried :)

Galena

This weekend we took our annual weekend vacation with Jamie, Aogu, Koji & Izumi. We went for our first time to Galena, IL. It was beautiful weather, and we had a lot of fun :)

Calli & Koji are so cool in their shades.

Calli and I on a really fun tree swing. It was positioned on a hill, so that in one direction, you would swing out and be 20-some feet above ground.

Rich and the girls as we get ready to explore downtown Galena.

Calli - enjoying her orange ice cream cone (a.k.a. rainbow sherbet). While Mari says "CHEESE" for the camera.

Calli and Dadda making pizzas - great dinner idea Jamie!

Playing Settlers until past midnight, snacking heavily, and watching Aogu win both games by claiming both longest road AND largest army!

Headbands

How is it possible that just putting on headbands makes them look so old!

Moral Maturity?

As Calli matures, I am starting to try and teach her not only how we behave, but also why. Today in the park, we shared our ball with another boy. That much we have done before. But as we were leaving, his caregiver took it away from him, and gave it back to us. I thought, we have a lot of balls - I don't think he has many. And he really liked ours. So I pulled Calli aside and asked her if we could give the ball to him. I reminded her we had lots of balls at home, and encouraged her that sometimes it is good to give things to other people. At first she said "no", but then agreed we could give it to him - for a present. (She did ask me if it was his birthday :) ) But she gave away her ball, without crying or fussing. I am so proud of her!

Also today, I looked in on her and Mari, and found Mari on the floor crying. I asked Calli if she had pushed Mari. Calli didn't answer. I asked her again. She has never lied, and I don't think she understands the concept yet. Her reply: "Mamma, I don't want to talk to you right now. Please go away."

So we are on our way - but still have a ways to go :)

Museum

Today I decided to take the girls to the Kohl Children's Museum. I usually don't go in the winter, but since it was raining I thought it would be a good idea. So did a LOT of other people!

Mari, coloring her face.

Calli, as she says "making a silly face".

Mari, loving a baby doll. She loves to see babies, say "baby", and also to poke their nose and say "beep, beep".

Calli loved gathering all the dishes, stacking them on the tray, carrying them to the sink, and washing them.

Bump & Bruised

So after the picnic, I decided it was a perfect chance to get some pictures of the girls and I. So we sat on the bench and Rich started snapping shots. One or two minutes into this, and Calli starts fussing. So I start trying to tickle her and make her laugh. But Mari decided to use the opportunity of my attention being diverted to dive - face first - into the pavement. The significance of this picture is not that it is the best shot we got (though it may be), but that it is the last shot of my Mari before she got this huge ugly wound on her head.

This is how she looked after the dive :( Poor Mariella!

Sunday Picnic

Today after church, we went with some friends for a picnic in the park.

Calli is very into babies at the moment, and wanted to hold John Mark.

Adam with his water balloon.

Calli, doing a water balloon toss with Rich.


Calli, squealing as a water balloon pops on the ground in front of her. She dropped those things many times before they actually popped!

Rich holding Lily.

Kim holding Mari.

Calli Chronicles

Just had to throw in some funny Calli stories from today:

Twice this morning, Calli used "for" and "got" seperately, meaning "forgot".
"Mamma, we for almost got to close the curtain" as in, we almost forgot to close the curtain.

Calli loves helping Dadda get the mail. Today she saw a letter with the Evanston Athletic Club logo on it and said "Look - it's from Kids Club", refering to the childcare area of our gym. So add the EAC logo to Starbucks and McDonalds (or "Old McDonald's" as Calli calls it) as ones recognized by our 3 year old :)

Silly Pirate

Today was our friend Nicholas' birthday party. It was a pirate party - complete with a silly pirate the kids threw water balloons at.
Here is Calli - sitting with Lucas and Dillon to enjoy some cupcakes.

Party of 14

We wanted to take advantage of every minute we could spend with our friends, Jim, Megan and their son Joshua. So today we got a big group and headed to Walker Brothers for breakfast. We had 8 adults and 6 kids - yikes! The kids did well, and we enjoyed yummy pancakes, and great "fellowship" as Jim loves to say.

Jim & Joshua

Megan & Jenny

Mari & Izumi

Aogu & Jamie

Koji & Calli

Rich & Ivan

Shanel & Audrey

Everybody!!!

Bedtime Stories

Our friends Jim & Megan and their son Joshua, were in town visiting this week. In their honor, we got together with a group of people for dinner to spend some time catching up and hanging out.

We decided to try and put all the kids to bed, to enjoy some real conversation. And more or less, we managed to get 4 out of the 5 kids to sleep fairly easily - Izumi held out a little longer than most ;) Before bed, Koji and Calli were each reading aloud to themselves - so sweet!

Once the kids were finally quiet - we had to take advantage of the rare oppertunity. So we all stayed up until 1am playing Settlers of Catan! (Except Megan, who wisely opted to get some extra sleep.)

*If you miss Jim too, check out his blog.

Wrestle Mania

One thing that Dadda is better at, and definitely enjoys more than I do is rough-housing. So both girls "jumped" on this chance to wrestle.

Silly Cup

Today during lunch I got a phone call. Calli seized the moment as a great opportunity to start gargling and blowing bubbles in her milk. (I told you she was clever). I took the milk away, and after the phone call, talked to her about it. But then I thought, blowing bubbles in your drink seems like a fun, kid thing to do - and I got this idea.

I went to the kitchen and got a plastic Chicago Cubs cup we don't use often. I told her this was the silly cup. With water in the silly cup you could be silly - make funny noises or blow bubbles. This way, she gets to be silly (which she did - she proceeded to blow bubbles for the next 10 minutes or so) but I don't have to worry about her doing it at other people's houses, or restaurants. Fun - but contained.



What do you think? Did I pull a good compromise out of thin air - or is there a fatal flaw in my plan?? Advice please . . .

Playing Together

It isn't often that the girls are able to play together. Today at the park, they both liked this roller slide, and went down it together over and over and over.



False Alarm - Calli wasn't ready



1 - 2 - 3 . . .



GO!