No, I haven't...

dropped off the face of the earth (yet that is!) I have been thinking about my blog as I am obsessed with looking at other's in hopes that THEY have put a new post especially with pictures up, but do I update mine? Apparently not!! It says my last post was in July. That is horrible. Anyhow, I thought I'd put a little something up now and then (hopefully) download my newer pictures to the computer so I can put them up on here.

Things have been going around here. Jason just finished up with finals today!! Yipee!! School gets out on Thursday until January 7th. My sweet babysitter made sure she scheduled her trip to visit her parents in Shang Hai for the exact days I have off. That way I wouldn't be left without day care. Very thoughtful isn't that? I told her that I would be around so if any of the other families needed someone to help watch their kids if they couldn't find anyone to let me know. Well lo and behold (and I'm so glad she did) she asked me if I would run the day care while she was gone (2 weeks, minus Christmas and New Year's) in exchange for a month's worth of day care for the girls. Wow!!!! I am so grateful for this. Her husband will be there so I won't be left completely alone and there are 3 other little kids(ages almost 3, 2 and 1,none related) there full time and a 4 year old who comes on Mon and Fridays. Their parents are all lovely. When we pick up and drop off we often are there at the same time and get to chat. It is so fun to have some friends to converse with in Chinese. They are great people and I enjoy them alot.

So that is good for now. Maybe more tomorrow.

Pool Party-uh well, not really

Jason's parents came up the weekend after we moved in (June 1-4) and brought the girls a little pool. It can get really hot up here but so far it has mostly been decent. One day when it was hot but not too hot we got the girls in their suits and let them have some fun!

Outside Play

The girls are loving being able to play outside!!! Our garage is chalked full of toys that they can play with outside so it makes it even more enticing to be outdoors.

Emi and Markers

Lazy mom that I am didn't unpack and put away the church bag with the markers in it and Emi got to them and asked to draw. I said of course but when I turned my head she was covered from head to toe, literally.

Me gustan los burritos de carne asade

One of the aides in my class has a brother who owns a restaurant not too far from us. I had gotten Jason a burrito from there and Kaida (who LOVES food, not my kid now is it?!!) of course was begging. (Hey, she knows good stuff!)

Kitchen Play

My parents' next door neighbor Gene gave the girls a little kitchen set which his granddaughter was done with and they were going to pitch (even though it is in mint condition). Luckily he thought of us and asked me if I wanted it! We had it at the old apartment but due to space I left it in the garage. Since we have a lot more space we busted it out and the girls have been cooking ever since!! Breakfast in bed anyone?

It also makes a nice indoor play structure for the girls as Kaida so nicely demonstrates!

Cameron Picnic

One of the school's I work at Cameron (serves children birth to 3 years with varying types of disabilities and 3-5 year olds with speech and language delays) holds an annual Picnic. It is always filled with lots of different families and lots of the staff who work there. There is tons of food as well as games, face painting, etc for the kids. Both girls got their face painted by one of my co-workers' boyfriend who works for Pixar. They saw one of my other co-workers/friend, Shelley Fox they hadn't seen in a long time (or maybe it was the first time, I can't remember!)and were smitten by her(anyways, what's not to love about Shelley?!!!). Now I will need to bug my other friend/co-worker for the pix she took of the girls (which were absolutely stunning!!) Hers are MUCH better than mine!

Darn Bambi

Well this is happened about a month ago but it is kind of funny so....
All four of us had gone up to Arlington Park off of Moeser. Jason took the girls up and I met them there a little later. We had a good time playing and were ready to head home. Jason was a little ahead of me in our "lunchbox" the Scion. I looked up ahead and saw Jason stopped but didn't think anything of it. Next thing I know he is calling me asking me if I had just seen that. I said no...what are you talking about. He said "I got hit", "what you got hit?" Yeah a deer just hit our car. My hearing is not the best and with the girls in the car talking I didn't hear all the details. Later I found out he had told me that a he looked over to the left while driving and was eye to eye with a deer. The deer was trying to jump over the car. (okay what was this deer thinking?) It ended up leaving hoof dent marks on several spots on our car and then knocked out our back window!! It even was nice enough to leave us some fur and skin!!! Jason was super super lucky that that darn Bambi didn't come in his window. Super scary stuff!

Emi's boyfriend

Next door to my parents lives a handsome little guy Darin whom Emi calls 哥 哥 "ge ge" meaning older brother. She often runs from the car straight up to their house, knocks on the door and invites herself in. His mom is very sweet and always lets her in to play. Occasionally on Sundays when 哥 哥 ge ge's dad is home he lets Darin take Emi out for a ride on his motorcycle. The 2 of them think they are hot stuff. Oh great we're starting young!

Spring Break-Trip to L.A.

We had this past week off for Spring Break so we decided to surprise Jason's family and take a trip down to visit. We left on Tuesday and had a very very smooth ride down. The girls were as good as gold. Couldn't have asked for a better trip. We stayed until Friday afternoon.



One day we met up with cousin Jen and Kiyomi and took a trip to Griffith Park. On the way there I got sick (and of course it was when I was driving) and had to throw up. Poor little Emi's beloved princess backpack given to her by her sitter "A yi" 阿姨 was the only suitable container and not only ended up with LOTS of puke (all of lunch and then some) but had to be left on the side of the freeway.



I pulled over to the right but wasn't able to make it all the way to the far right shoulder so I ended up in that middle area where there is the slow lane and then cars that are entering the freeway. And there was hardly any room to open the door without getting decapitated so there I was trying to puke with my door open as little as possible and Jason yelling at me to pull off the exit. (No way that was happening!!!) Then poor Emi was traumatized about her backpack being left on the side of the road. She is still commenting and asking about it. Luckily she blames daddy saying "baba you na de" 爸 爸有 拿 的!!!



So once we got to the park (after taking the wrong freeway) we rode horses and ponies(two times each), took a train ride, had fun running around picking up branches and debris from fallen trees and having some fun treats. We had to wait for the wind to settle down so we could ride the train but we had a fun time!!!



Emi rode one time with Kaida on the ponies that are hooked up to a walker and then once all by HERSELF on a pony around a track. She thought she was hot stuff. The guy where Kaida was riding let her ride for a SUPER LONG time. She was the only one on and was having a ball. She sat all by herself and would rock back and forth trying to get them to go faster(actually who knows why!!)

As for the snacks, we got a SpongeBob ice cream and some popcorn. Emi really liked her "Bobby" and Kaida of course liked everything.



Kaida got ticked off when it was getting too messy and we had to take it away.










Kaida then settled for popcorn. In one of the pix you will see her really enjoying the popcorn a little later in the day!!!Don't forget to click on the pix to see them better!!















I was searching everywhere for Kaida's ticket to ride while Jason quietly took this picture of the attendant pointing to the ticket in my pocket.

Easter Pix

The girls were not hot on having their pictures taken so many of these photos are me on the run after them!! There is one pix of Kaida asleep with her ears on. On Saturday Emi wore rabbit ears and Kaida had lamb ears. Mind you they don't typically like things on their heads but on Saturday they wore them all day!

Yes its been a year!!

Okay finally I have gotten off my butt and decided to update this thing!! Emi is now 26 months and fully potty trained. She has quite a vocabulary and unless you speak Chinese, you are, well... pretty much screwed! Emi loves her 企鵝 ( qǐ é-meaning penguin) blanket and all things penguin. She also loves to be on the computer and have her dad make her water balloons. (the pic of Emi dressed up is an outfit from Guatemala which was handmade for her by some friends of ours, it is their Indigenous people's native clothing) Kaida is now 15 months old and hysterical. She has over 30 words, yes in Chinese as well. She looks just like daddy! My mom calls her little miss big. She is tiny but mighty! She likes to do EVERYTHING Emi does. She has learned to say no and likes to say it especially when it is appropriate! Jason and I are both staying busy by working 2 jobs and going to school (Jason has a full load and I take one class).