Thursday, February 18, 2010

Oh the things you can think...

so true...oh the things you can think....when you have the imagination of a three or five year old. These two kids had a blast during the Christmas holidays and not because of the wonderful gifts they received, but because of their own imaginations. They had tons of fun with empty giftbags...they wore out two or three in just a few days. Whatever one had, the other had to have. Ella has quite the imagination and several days she took Isaac on 'hikes' around the house - with the gift bags. One day she was his older sister (true), but other days she said she had adopted him from Korea, or he was the tour guide, it was endless.

Isaac is a very funny boy and I really wish I had the time to keep up this blog...even for myself to remember all the things he does. I know I've said many times, but he sings and dances all the time. He marches around the house. I know I wrote before that he used to do morning exercises everyday and I'm sorry we didn't keep that up. Just today, my mother said they must miss him at the orphanage as he must have kept them all entertained as well. He is very affectionate and loves kissing and hugging us. He makes jokes and loves to laugh. At first he used to say "si ba ba' to us and laugh, sometimes pointing his finger at us. Even Song Li didn't know what he was saying. He can't say his /s/ sounds so it actually sounded like 'HE baba'. Finally, Song li figured it out...it was 'si ba ba' and it means it's dirty and needs to be cleaned. He thinks this is hilarious. After that he started calling us bananas. Now, every morning or anytime, out of the blue, he'll say, "mommy's a banana." "daddy's a banana". He just loves it.

A few more pics. All the girls (myself, mom, Lisa, Donna, Hilary, Emily, and Winnie) had a nice Spa-at-home day and then went out to the Sound Of Music during the holidays. We did the spa thing here and of course, Ella was included. Well, as you can guess, Isaac had to be included as well. Here's a picture of him getting his feet soaked. A picture of Ella and Isaac with a 'glow-in-the-dark-set'. I don't think mom knew it was earrings when she gave it to them. Isaac liked them. The other picture is the two of them in their new sweaters knit by Nanny. Finally, we went skating...or I should say, we put on skates and went to the ice rink, took a picture and came home. Isaac hated the helmet and wouldn't put his feet on the ice. He loved being pushed around on that chair. Ella tried her best, but hated the helmet. And, yes, there were tears.








Christmas







Oh, what fun! Well, the elves...three of them, in fact, had about three hours of fun on Christmas eve putting together the trampoline shown in the following picture (Isaac is on it). It was Santa's gift for Isaac, but Daddy thought we should say it was for both of them. He thought Ella would be upset with Isaac getting this gift. Wrong! Although she enjoys playing on it now, Ella walked right past it on Christmas morning and never gave it a second look...never mind who it was for. Isaac went right for it and played on it for a long time. It was a very chaotic morning to say the least. Once Isaac got the hang of it, he wanted to open all presents. Opening the presents was the most fun. The presents themselves were secondary. He also enjoyed handed out presents. Ella was in awe as usual and loved every minute of it. It was really hard to keep track of who got what and who it was from. Luckily, I knew most things beforehand.

Isaac got the cool hat from Craig and Leigh. Ella loves her fancy shoes from Nanny. They got backpacks from Bruce and Maxine. They were a big hit and they wore them a lot during the holidays, filling them with all kinds of things and going on pretend hikes around the house.

Enjoy the pics.






































































Friday, February 5, 2010

The Gingerbread sleigh

Auntie Lisa has been making a ginger bread creation with Ella since our first Christmas together. This year we had double the fun and double the trouble. I'm not sure who got most of the candy...the sleigh or Isaac!
They also had fun making shortbread with nanny. I really don't know how much fun Nanny had, but the kids sure had lots. See that bowl of flour? It didn't stay there long. In fact, we had to set Isaac up washing dishes so we could actually roll out the dough.








Isaac proves us wrong again

Before we got Isaac and to help Ella adjust to getting a baby brother (instead of a sister), we kept telling her he wouldn't want to play with her princess things. Wrong! He loves dressing up...whatever Jia Jia does, Isaac wants to do.

Cutting the Christmas tree

For the past few years, we have been cutting our Christmas tree at my sister's place. They planted these trees over 20 years ago and they're perfect. Isaac did not like walking through the cedar trees to get to the Christmas trees, but he enjoyed picking out a tree and bringing it home.




























We even let Ella choose a tree for her bedroom. She loved it.
































Happy New Year

Well, it's February already and I haven't updated the blog since Isaac's birthday in November. Now Ella's birthday has just passed we're still asking that age old question...where does the time go? I think I've discovered the answer.....raising kids...that's where the time goes! My time at least (can't help the rest of you). Everyone has been asking for updates and I feel bad about not posting earlier. I really never have time to check email, so I definitely never have time to post to the blog....except today. Isaac has gone to French Fridays at the local Ontario early years with grandma and Ella is lying on the couch...home from school (not feeling well). The birthday celebrations must be catching up with her.

Where to begin... well, today we have a follow up appointment at Sick Kids with the opthamologist. He enjoys wearing his glasses, except for the time he did a face plant on the street, cut his eye, twisted the frames and scratched the lense. We had to send his glasses back for two weeks. He was very excited to get them back. He never takes them off and asks for them when he gets up. Isaac is a big part of my lack of time these days. He is having some sleep issues. I've been liking it to people experiencing culture shock. He was probably in the honeymoon stage when we first got him and even when we first got home. He was a great sleeper. Neil and I couldn't believe our luck. We could actually put him in bed and he's go to sleep...a miracle. Something Ella still can't do.

We went through a few weeks of waking up and crying for someone to stay with him, but by November, he was a great sleeper. It all ended just after Christmas. I guess we've entered the negotiation stage. He now wakes up around 11pm, 1 am, 3 am and then again at 5 am. We were a little weak and started lying in bed with him. O.K. I was weak. I just couldn't keep putting him back in his bed. It was easier for me to get in bed with him. First of all, I get to go back to sleep. Second of all, he is so happy that he hugs and kisses me. How can you say no?! However, it is taking it's toll and I am feeling tired during the day. Then, I started leaving his door open and he would come to our room. Not too bad the first time. However, after that, he didn't want to sleep...at 3 am in the morning....he wanted to play. Soooo, two nights ago, he came to our room and I had Isaac on one side and Gremlin (our cat) on the other side, both vying for my attention. A few nights, he even woke Ella up and we all played music beds.

We know it's a learned behaviour and he will go back to sleep for Neil, but he expects me to get in bed with him now. Therefore, that's where ALL my time will be going in the next couple of weeks....trying to get Isaac to sleep through the night again.


O.K. Now what you've all been waiting for....some pictures.


Here we are at the Santa Claus parade in Toronto where Ella was very excited to see the Barbie and the Three Muskateers float. Isaac was very excited by the marching bands. He actually clapped in time to the music. He loves dancing and singing. Neil thinks he'll be musical in some way...maybe a singer.