Jubilation

Princesses That Don't Marry Boys

2012-02-02T13:48:00.000-08:00

Ok - the dreaded day has finally come when I heard the awful words out of my eldest daughter's mouth, that dreaded phrase, "I want to play Cinderella with my friend at school today." Ack!

Me: "How do you play Cinderella?"
Danica: "Well, you have to play Princesses to play Cinderella."

NOOO!!!!! Not the evil "P" word!!! What's next? Barbie? Until now, I've been so proud of the fact that Danica could NOT identify all of the Disney P***es by name and didn't even know who any of them are, and much preferred playing with Legos and cars or painting and play doh. I suppose it couldn't last forever. She's known about Tinkerbell for a while now, and I was ok with that, cause Tink can fly, has magic pixie powers, goes around helping people and is a bit mischievous. But... there is a silver lining our story. Continuing on.

Me: "Hmmm.... So... You have to play Princesses...."
Danica: "Yes. But not the kind that marry boys!"
Me: " Not the kind that marry boys. Then, what kind of Princesses? The kind with magic powers that go around helping people?"
Danica: "Yes! That kind."

Well, I guess I'll just have to temper the definition of what a Princess is/ought to be with those comic book hero influences that I loved as a kid. After all, Wonder Woman was an Amazon Warrior Princess and it was her mission to save the (self-destructive) world of men.

Sitting In Puddles

2012-01-30T22:00:00.000-08:00

On Roxy's daily report form school today, under the "comments" section it said, "Pants were changed due to sitting in a puddle outside."

(Roxana started at Dani's school this month and likes her new class. We'll do a catch up post soon.)

Danica's dance recital

2011-12-17T17:52:00.000-08:00

Danica's ballet & tap class had a recital for the Christmas holidays. Cute doesn't even begin to describe it.

Danica's dance recital from Carl on Vimeo.

Thankful for Roxy

2011-11-26T21:52:00.001-08:00

Danica's preschool has a very nice Giving Tree for collecting our food donations. The tree has leaves on which the children write what they are thankful for. When I asked Danica what she wanted to write on her leaf before we hung it up on the tree, she told me instantly, "I'm thankful for my little sister Roxy."

Just like big sis Daa-a-Ka

2011-11-14T23:00:00.001-08:00

It's been really wonderful watching the relationship between Danica and Roxana grow. They love each other so much; it really is something special.

Dani loves taking care of her little sister, even if little sister doesn't always follow her instructions... Today when I picked Danica up from school, she was playing with one of the baby dolls, tucking it carefully into it's bed. I asked her if it had a name, and she said, "Yes. It's Roxana-lana..."something-or-other - didn't quite catch the full name.

And Roxy really looks up to Danica. She's gotten pretty good at saying her name. It's not perfect, but it is really cute. She calls her "Da-a-Ka" Lately we've made a habbit of sitting Roxy on the toilet before her bath, even though we're not really to the potty training stage. Yesterday, when I was setting the bath, Roxy lifted the toilet cover and indicated she wanted to get up, so I sat her down on the toilet seat. After a few seconds she very demonstratively pointed to herself with both hands and said, "Da-a-Ka! Da-a-Ka!" She was so proud to be sitting on the toilet like Danica. Tonight Roxy had a hard time falling asleep, so Danica had already been asleep for some time before I put Roxy in her crib. I was rocking Roxy in the living room to help her settle down. When she was finally ready to go to sleep she looked at me and said, "Da-a-Ka… Da-a-Ka… Da-a-Ka"and pointed towards their room. Of course once we were in the room, she had to call Danica three or four times before settling in for good, thankfully she didn't wake Dani up.

Walking & Skating

2011-11-13T00:28:00.000-08:00

We went ice skating at the Downtown Plaza's (small) outdoor ice skating rink today. The outing was very successful for both girls, each in their own way.

We've taken Danica ice skating a few times before, and she has absolutely loved it each time. Today she insisted on skating all by herself without any assistance from either of us. She did really well with the double bladed skates and proudly cruised around the rink several times.

Roxy is not quite ready for ice skating yet... Since her 28 steps last weekend, she has been walking a little more each day, but still with large amounts of crawling or insistence on being picked up. At the skating rink today, she decided that her crawling days are over. She had a blast walking all around the sitting area near the ice. She even tried to go out on the ice a few times!

28 steps!

2011-11-06T18:46:00.001-08:00

Roxana is finally deciding it's worth it to begin walking. She set a new record this evening with 28 little steps in a row! We all jumped around and clapped encouragement, Danica included. We originally thought Roxy would walk earlier than Danica did. She seemed more interested in walking than crawling at 8 months. Once she did figure out crawling, though, all walking progress went on hold. She also seemed to get more needy, wanting to be picked up all the time instead of trying to travel on her own. Now at 15 months, she looks like she's finally enjoying the idea of taking steps, progressing a lot in the past week.

Halloween fun

2011-10-29T22:25:00.000-07:00

We all got dressed up in fine Halloween fashion this weekend. Kim made Danica's terrific watermelon fairy costume and embellished her Carmen Miranda one. Roxana was the cutest strawberry ever, and Carl was a scarecrow. We spent Friday evening in costume at the Harvest Festival at Danica's school, and Saturday evening at Fairytale Town's Halloween event. I think we were the best dressed family at both! Here's the photo album.

From Halloween fun

Busy weekend

2011-10-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

We had a busy weekend despite Roxana struggling with another cold and everyone being tired. On Friday, Kim took the girls to the Sacramento Children's Museum. On Saturday after Danica's dance and swim classes, we revisited Dave's Pumpkin Patch. Dani got to ride on Cinnamon (the mini horse) again! On Sunday, we joined in a walk around Land Park raising funds for programs supporting kids with Down Syndrome, with several of Danica's classmates. Here's the photo album.

From Busy weekend

Autumn activities

2011-10-18T22:29:00.000-07:00

Autumn brings us lots of special activities like apple picking, a trip to the pumpkin patch, and making a scarecrow (although we made ours look like a snowman). We have plenty of pictures here in the album.

From Autumn activities

Various photo albums

2011-10-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

We've been busy and haven't posted much. Roxana is still toying with standing and walking. Her record is eight steps. Danica is getting to do some new projects at her preschool, including making and baking her own loaf of bread last week! Here are some random photo albums from the past couple of months:

Pretzel

2011-09-17T14:35:00.001-07:00

Our girls fit side by side in the Burley Solo single trailer. To both sleep, they had to be creative - and flexible.

New baby mao

2011-08-29T19:08:00.001-07:00

Danica used to call herself baby mao, I think even before she referred to her own name. We used the moniker all the time too, so maybe she just learned it from us.

Now Roxana is learning to drink from a cup, but she does it by leaning over to stick her face in the cup and slurp - like a cat. She's the new baby mao! Danica agrees, and now wants to be called medium
mao instead. No answer for when she'll finally be big mao.

Many monkeys

2011-08-25T19:36:00.001-07:00

We are listening to Asheba's version of "No more monkeys jumping on the bed" for the 12th time in a row. Danica learned how to select the CD track with the remote control, and she has a one track mind. Clearly I will not be counting sheep when I go to bed tonight...

Roxy a la cart

2011-08-19T23:18:00.000-07:00

Crawling is old hat! Cruising in her cozy coupe or walking with her push cart is what Roxana's into now.

Cart walker Roxy from Carl on Vimeo.

Preschoolers and Bullets

2011-08-19T12:06:00.000-07:00

Bullet Martini Shaker

I have this nifty streamlined little martini/cocktail shaker that is shaped like a bullet. This morning it was sitting in the dish drainer, and Danica picked up the top, inspected and said with a little bit of glee, "This looks like a bullet!"

I was taken aback. Who's been teaching my little girl about guns? I'm the parent that has the fascination with armory and weaponry - not Carl, and I certainly haven't been tossing guns around my kids.

I asked, "How do you know what a bullet looks like?"
"Mythbusters of course!" Danica declared. "They're always blowing up something with bullets."

Ah. The Mythbusters - we love them. Well that's ok then - even though they blow up a ridiculous number of things, they demonstrate and teach a healthy respect for dangerous things. Danica does not watch a lot of TV, but Mythbusters is among her top three favorite shows, along side Zoboomafoo and The Wonderpets.
-k

Modern parenting: Explaining electronic media rights to a four year old in the digital era...

2011-08-15T23:23:00.000-07:00

This evening I had music playing in the kitchen off my iPhone as I often do while I am preparing dinner. Dani and Roxy were in the kitchen with me having a snack and playing, so tonight's playlist was random kids music via Pandora. (Oddly enough, Danica had originally asked me which button on the remote made the music come on that wasn't from the phone (also know to us old geezers as radio.) We both agreed that the "non-phone" radio selection wasn't very good, so I plugged the iPhone in. (You'll understand the pickle later on.) The girls were having fun, I was scrambling around doing my thing, and after a while Dani said, "Mommy, I want to listen to that Monkey Song again."
"Uh... Monkey Song?," I said trying to recall the last couple of songs that had played.
"Yeah, the one that just played on your phone."
Ok. Got it. I know which song she is talking about. "Ok -- oh... Ah... Dani, I do know which song you are talking about, but we're listening to it on Pandora." (Dang it... now I have to explain that..."
"But it was on your phone and not the "not from the phone music (radio)"
"Honey, there are two kinds of music on Mommy's phone. Some are like when we buy a book from the book store to keep and own, and ..." then the library analogy didn't really work.
"It's kind of like watching TV, when they only show something...." brick wall - TV as she know it is OnDemand and Netflix. Hummm. Back to a library analogy of sorts.
"Ok. It's like this. Ya know how when we go to storytime at the library, we know that they are going to read a story, but we don't know which one, and sometimes it's a story that we have at some and sometime it isn't. Well, when we are listening to Pandora on the phone it's kinda like that. Some of them might be songs that Mommy already owns and some of them might be songs we do not own. If we do not own them then I can't play it again whenever I want to. If we are listening to music from the iPod on the phone we own those and we can listen to those as many times as you want." In the end, she understood that I wasn't going to be able to play that song again. The rest... well, I'm not sure I understood my own explanation. The only saving grace is that I was very easily able to look up the song/musician in the Pandora history.

Whatever happened to simple questions like, "Why is the sky blue?"
-k

instruction sheep

2011-08-13T19:08:00.000-07:00

Danica has turned our living room into a make-believe museum this evening. It's a museum for kids only. Parents are only allowed if they are dropping off a kid. Then they have to leave again, or maybe they can stay for a little while if they first sign in on the "instruction sheep". It's complicated.

Dani with the instruction sheep.

What, you thought the picture would make it suddenly make sense?

Sunday Lunch

2011-08-07T16:13:00.001-07:00

Enjoying lunch with my girls at the Bread Store.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Roxy's first birthday painting

2011-08-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

It's Roxana's turn to start her big birthday painting! We don't have an empty wall space quite as big as we did when Danica started hers, but Roxana's canvas is still plenty large for her. She had a terrific time painting - mostly on herself, but still some where it was meant to go.

From Roxana's first birthday painting

Weekend getaway

2011-07-26T19:43:00.000-07:00

In part for Roxana's birthday, and in part to restore our sanity, we all took a long weekend away in Tahoe's Kings Beach area. We went for a short hike - Roxy loved bouncing around in the backpack carrier and seemed to be in awe for the first half, then fell asleep for the way back. Danica walked and ran until the turnaround, when she also got tired and rode in a backpack carrier. Luckily she's tiny (and light!) and still fits.

From Long weekend in Tahoe

We also took them out on a bike ride from Tahoe City up to the Squaw Valley grounds. Two kids in a trailer is hard slogging, even when they're pipsqueaks! Roxy loved sitting in it beside Danica until both started falling asleep - then every bump made Roxy whimper until she finished with a full wail.

From Long weekend in Tahoe

Danica also enjoyed some time in the man-made sandy beach, and we made frequent use of the swimming pool at our lodge - Dani is much more brave in the water than the last time I swam with her.

From Long weekend in Tahoe

Pictures from Roxy's birthday

2011-07-25T19:53:00.000-07:00

Roxana tears through a cupcake and the wrapping on a big present on her birthday, then she tears into a big birthday cake on the weekend.

From Roxana turns one!

B-rown

2011-07-21T11:03:00.000-07:00

Danica loves colors. She loves separating things by color, she loves matching colors, and she's obsessed with asking about color mixes. First (over a year ago) it was the simple primary colors. "What's red and blue make?" Lately, though, she keeps asking about mixing the other colors. "What's orange and blue make? What's purple and green make? What's red and green make?" The trouble is, the answer now is always "Brown!" She keeps asking anyways, just to make us say "Brown" one more time. She even gets tricky with "What does brown and black make?"

This morning Danica decided to wear two different-colored headbands to preschool, and I had to ask her about them via text to Kim's phone... "What's orange and green make?"

"B-rown."

Roxy is 1!!!

2011-07-19T10:13:00.000-07:00

Happy first birthday to Roxana today! From our house this morning:

Good morning Roxy. Guess what? You're one! Yay! Happy birthday!
Danica, help me sing it to her before I leave for work.
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthd... eww, she's all wet. Leaky diaper.
Eww, I'm all wet. Oh, man, I just ironed this shirt.
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Roxy,
Happy birthday to you.
Maybe I can just dab it with a wet towel and still wear it.
Maybe I'll smell like baby pee all day...

The Story of Wonder Mouse

2011-07-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

This morning on the way to preschool, Danica told me about Wonder Mouse (mice?).

Apparently when Wonder Mouse is really scared and being chased down by a much larger animal, Wonder Mouse throws cheese at it as a defensive tactic. Wonder Mouse also really likes to eat cheese. (Danica did a bit of character research for her story by asking me, "Mommy, what else do mice eat?") She said something about a baby Wonder Mouse too, but I missed the details on that because I was exiting the highway. I'll have to find out more about the adventures and exploits of Wonder Mouse and report back. This may be worthy of some illustrations.

Meetups

2011-07-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

We've had some fun meetups with friends over the past two weekends, after being self-quarantined for the previous two weeks with various illnesses running through the whole family.

First there was Danica's classmate Sean's birthday party at the ice skating rink, Skatetown in Roseville. Danica was ecstatic to go skating in the middle of summer! She cruised around pushing a stack of buckets for a full half-hour before getting tired. Only Sean got to ride the Zamboni. Carl was jealous.

From Sean's birthday at Skatetown

The kids got a holiday with Kim on Friday, which they spent at the Sacramento Zoo. Two of Danica's classmates happened to be there, too, so they may have done more running after each other than watching animals, but it was all fun.

From Meetup with Iris and Robyn at The Fountains

Next we joined Iris and Robyn and family at The Fountains shopping plaza, also in Roseville. We were there less for the shopping than for the kids' play area, in particular the water fountains that are perfect for tykes just bigger than toddlers.

From Meetup with Iris and Robyn at The Fountains

On July 4th, we stayed at home and used our wading pool and squirt guns to combat the extremely hot weather. Josh and Sammy from next door joined in to help douse all the parents. After a back alley picnic, we lit a few sparklers and then the kids hid under the table for the only-slightly-bigger other fireworks.

From Driveway party for July 4th

Wearing watermelon

2011-07-03T21:13:00.000-07:00

In response to cousin Liesl's oatmeal exploits, here's Roxana wholeheartedly enjoying some watermelon:

Roxy and watermelon from Carl on Vimeo.

Da da for Father's Day

2011-06-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

Roxana wished Happy Father's Day this week in her own special way - she started saying "Da da" directly at/to me (Carl) for the first time! Thanks, Roxy!

Roxana can climb stairs

2011-06-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

More baby-proofing is in order at our house. No longer content to just crawl on flat ground, Roxana can now climb a full flight of stairs, huffing and puffing. Witness:

Roxy climbs stairs from Carl on Vimeo.

Uh oh, Roxy says

2011-06-12T17:54:00.000-07:00

Roxana is beginning to understand more language. She's had the sign for milk down for a while, and whenever anyone says "Hi!" she starts waving her hands. Yesterday she gave another sign for "all done". Today she kept saying "uh oh" as she dropped things off of her high chair repeatedly. There were better examples before I turned on the camera, but here's a quick clip:

Roxy learns uh oh from Carl on Vimeo.

White Rock pictures

2011-06-05T15:13:00.000-07:00

Lots more in this album...

From Avery-Mah party in White Rock

Dani and Seb trike

2011-06-01T22:20:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful week long vacation up in White Rock, British Columbia where Carl's parents now live. Brianna and her family were there too, so it was a grand Avery gathering. Actually it was an even grander Mah gathering for a weekend as many of the extended relatives were visiting nearby as well!

Danica and Sebastian picked up right where they'd left off, following each other and gabbing continuously for the entire visit. Roxana and Liesl also got acquainted - Liesl now has so much to look forward to in a month or two after watching Roxy's newly minted crawling abilities! We managed far fewer activities than in previous Avery family vacations with all the little tykes around, but we can safely say that all the adults were exhausted by week's end.

We have hundreds of pictures to sort through before posting a few, but here's a brief video of Dani and Seb playing around on trikes and other apparatus at an open kids' gym session.

Dani and Seb trike from Carl on Vimeo.

Roxy's first tooth

2011-05-31T19:03:00.001-07:00

We are overjoyed that Roxana has officially sprouted her first tooth. It started appearing about a week ago just as a small ridge and now has finally broken through. At 10 months, it's maybe later than average but about the same age as when Danica had her first one.

It coincides with Roxy's increased eagerness at finger foods - she now wants to have Cheerios every time we feed her dinner. We started also getting some of her purées and turning them into gelatin cubes that she can pick up herself. She seems to really like the idea!

Swim and crawl

2011-05-15T11:16:00.000-07:00

New video! Danica and Roxana both have swim class, and do more shivering than swimming. Later, back at home, Roxy shows off her new crawling skills following after Dani.

Swim and Crawl from Carl on Vimeo.

Scene at our dinner table

2011-05-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

Roxana tries her hand at feeding herself, while Danica tells us about her day:

Dinner stories from Carl on Vimeo.

Egg hunting

2011-04-24T19:52:00.000-07:00

Danica and her friend Jasmine joined in a Saturday Easter egg hunt at Southside Park. The park was crazy with kids lined all around the 0-5 age egg zone. They had to tape off the area, and when it was time for the tape to fall, it sounded like a gigantic flock of turkeys and chickens. All eggs disappeared in a flurry of about 30 seconds. Dani picked up a couple and then just ran around in circles. We threw a couple extra right in front of her, afraid she'd be disappointed, but she seemed happy though dazed by the chaos.

We held a special egg hunt just for Danica on Sunday morning at home, where she had much more time to investigate. Roxana also discovered that plastic eggs with treats inside them make great rattles.

From Easter egg hunt

Roxy's Easter egg from Carl on Vimeo.

Overheard

2011-04-23T20:41:00.001-07:00

Kim: No, I've never heard that word before, Danica. Did you make it up?

Danica: Yeah. It was an extinct word.

Danica's architecture

2011-04-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

Danica is making grander structures with blocks and Legos this year. She pays a lot of attention to organizing colors and creating symmetry. She's produced some pretty interesting architecture:

From Random pics from March/April

Characteristics of Furniture

2011-04-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

Danica is 4 years old now and I love seeing (...er in reality hearing) how her little mind tries to make sense of the world and categorize the traits of things around her. It's usually something along the lines of "People do/have X, but dogs don't." This week her subject seems to be furniture. The other day she said, "Mommy, people don't eat furniture. Right?" Um... right. Then this morning, she said, "All people have gums." Yep, they hold your teeth in. After a moment she said, "Furniture doesn't have gums -- right???" Yes, furniture does not generally have gums. Then I told her that cats have gums too. "What!??! Animals have gums?!!! All animals?" Yep to hold their teeth just like us. She was astounded. "Cars don't really talk..."
-k

Tunnelling

2011-04-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

From Random pics from March/April

Roxana inched her way under and through her exersaucer today, totally happy until she tried to emerge out the other side and bonked her head. She's mobile and crafty enough now that we're having to keep eyes in the back of our heads. Danica is also getting some tough lessons about not leaving stuff lying around that Roxy might try to eat.

Just Desserts

2011-04-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

I didn't hear the negotiations in the kitchen after dinner and bath about dessert, but Danica just came out with a piece of ice cream cake AND ice cream. Apparently Carl lost.

Inchworm Roxy

2011-03-28T23:16:00.000-07:00

After scooting backwards and spinning around in circles for a couple of months Roxy has finally figured out how to move forward! She had been practicing getting up on her hands and knees for about the past three weeks, but so far she has chosen the inchworm technique of locomotion.

First Baby Signs

2011-03-28T23:14:00.000-07:00

As with Danica, I have been using a few simple Baby Signs like "milk", "eat", "more", "all gone" with Roxana. This weekend Roxy quite clearly started using the sign for "milk". She seemed to be quite excited that she had figured out how to communicate "milk" to me. After she first started signing "milk" (I fed her of course) she would take two sips, and then stop drinking, sign milk, and then drink a little more, stop and sign milk again. She did this about half a dozen times.

Danica's first soccer game

2011-03-26T18:20:00.000-07:00

Danica's been in a biddy soccer class at the Y this month. This week they played a little game for the first time - Dani got in all of one kick on the ball. :) She still had fun and said it was her favorite part of today's class. Here's a video clip:

Danica's first soccer game from Carl on Vimeo.

Another year of Danica's painting

2011-03-12T20:11:00.000-08:00

We didn't get to it until a month after her birthday this year, but Danica did get to add more paint to her big canvas again. She got to use slightly better paint and nicer brushes this time. There's not much more blank space - from now on it'll be about layers.

From The birthday painting

SPAC no L

2011-03-06T20:10:00.000-08:00

Roxy has tried enough individual foods now that we're able to start making larger batches of mixed purees. As with the homemade food we made for Danica, these creations all get nicknames based on their contents. We fondly remember the acronym BEECSWABL that we served Dani, although we can't remember everything it stood for. Right now Roxana is getting chicken, sweet potato and apple. We call it SPAC. I really wish we'd added some lentils. Then it'd be SPACL. That would be so fitting to how it looks! I'm tempted to add some now, just for the name.

P.S. Bri, thanks so much for the immersion blender! It works like a dream for this stuff.

Amazing

2011-03-04T22:23:00.000-08:00

"It's amazzzzing..." – Danica

Had a great day with Danica and Roxana at the Crocker. Naturally the large digital art projections that are in the stairwell caught Danica's eye. She ran part way up the first flight of stairs near the entrance to gaze at a projection of swaying digital flowers that filled the entire wall. When she got right up to it she stared and said, "It's amazing..." I had Roxy in the stroller and was trying to figure how out how to get her upstairs (I had planned on all of us taking the elevator up together) and still allow Danica to check out the art in the stairway. I picked up the stroller with Roxy in it and hoisted it up the stairs. Then Danica saw the painting that was up the next flight up stairs, ran off and cried, "Mommy! Mommy -- come up here!!" Ok... Here we go... This continued all the way to the third floor. Thank goodness the Crocker doesn't have six floors! We entered the third level and when Danica saw the elevator, she said "Mommy! I want to go down in the elevator!" Really? Couldn't she have noticed that before I lugged a stroller and baby up three flights of stairs? Nevertheless, it was a wonderful day with my girls.

So close!

2011-03-04T16:44:00.000-08:00

Roxana is so close to crawling! She swivels and scoots, and now she's able to get her bum up in the air and wiggle a bit on all fours. It won't be long now!

Roxana almost crawls from Carl on Vimeo.

Wannabe mobile

2011-02-21T21:28:00.001-08:00

Roxana is desperately eager to start crawling so that she can catch up to her toys and to her big sis. She's been lifting her bum in the air and trying to push off.

On the hardwood floor, she still goes backwards and hasn't learned to dig in her toes. But at 7 months, it's clear that she'll be crawling much earlier than Danica did.

Pike to Eel!

2011-02-19T22:09:00.000-08:00

After enjoying several months of swimming lessons at the Y in the beginning Pike Class, Danica has finally graduated to the next level swim class -- Eel Class! She wants to do "Biddy Soccer" again, so we'll take a month off of swimming for Biddy Soccer -- maybe she'll actually kick the ball this time :)

Bedtime ritual

2011-02-18T21:40:00.001-08:00

We've pared back several of the bedtime rituals that Danica demands. Each one began as a desperate ploy to get her to go to bed, but morphed into yet one more way for her to delay actual sleep.

Now that she's settled into a regular sleep pattern, she doesn't need more than a goodnight story and a hug. One other simple habit hangs on, though.

I started saying "good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite" to signal that I was leaving and turning off the light. The next night I used a different creature instead of bedbugs. Another new one followed.

A year and at least 300 different creatures later, it's getting tough to think up new animals every night! I'm going to need a taxonomy book. Plus, with the creature choices getting steadily more unusual, now Dani asks for a description of each one before I leave. We might have to cut short the bedtime story...

Where, How, Why?

2011-02-11T12:09:00.000-08:00

Danica has been asking all sorts of questions about the world since she could talk. Now, as she comprehends more, it is really interesting to see how she figures things out and puts things together in her head. Yesterday, I gave her an electronic pen that "reads" Chinese with special books. I thought she would be excited by it and want to play with it. Well -- she was, but before we could really get to using the talking pen, she kept asking "how can the pen read?" "how does it know what to say?" I had to explain to her how the pen is programmed to play back the sound (the way an iPod does) when the sensor sees special dots on the paper. Once she more or less understood it, then did she start to play with it. At dinner she asked us where the first people came from. Hmmm... Carl and I took a minute to think about how distill evolution into a dinner table explanation suitable for a 4 year old. I really enjoy when she throws out these questions. We always try to answer her questions truthfully, although naturally some answers need to be simplified. (I can't stand it when adults lie and tell children babies come from storks, because they don't want to talk about human procreation.) It makes me slow down and appreciate everything that she is discovering. On the other front, Roxy has happily discovered her toes and continues to enjoy new foods.

Veggie delight

2011-01-19T16:32:00.000-08:00

We started adding mushed vegetables to Roxana's diet a week or two ago. She loves the peas so far, and now prefers her oatmeal cereal to have some peas mixed in. She just turned six months old today, and will be rewarded in tonight's dinner with... mushed carrots. Mmm.

Scooterish

2011-01-19T16:24:00.000-08:00

This was Danica the day after Christmas, trying out the little scooter that Yuna & family gave her. She was tentative, but I was happy that she was at least willing to get on it.

Composing

2011-01-14T21:13:00.000-08:00

Here's Danica doing a little improvisation with the new little harp she got for her birthday from her grandparents.

Bath singer

2011-01-07T21:06:00.001-08:00

Right now, as I take the decorations down off the tree and put them away, I hear Danica singing/screaming, over and over again, "you'll go down in history!!!" as loud as she can from the bathtub. I guess she's not ready for the caroling season to be over quite yet.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Rice Cereal

2011-01-06T00:15:00.000-08:00

Roxy is 5 months old now and at the stage where there are lots of "firsts." Over Christmas she got to try her first rice cereal. She really enjoyed it. Roxy figured out that rice cereal is yummy and good for facials too! She has done quite well with the cereal over the past couple of weeks, but she hasn't been as "regular"...maybe we need to introduce some prunes.

Holiday Portrait Session

2011-01-01T21:08:00.001-08:00

I usually prefer more unusual and candid photos, but this year I wanted to get a nice traditional portrait of our two girls together during the holidays. Rather than scheduling with a photographer and hoping that both girls would be awake and in a good mood at the appointed time, I decided to take the portrait myself at home. I hauled out my studio lights and set up a makeshift (and very cramped) photo studio in my office. Carl was in charge of kid wrangling and making silly faces. I didn't do a lot of (or any) preparation, and we did everything at the last minute on Christmas eve. After everything was done, we got just one decent shot. All things considered, I guess my goal was accomplished, but it would have been nice to have a few more good shots. It's quite a challenge to get both a three year old and a five month old to smile and look the same direction at the same time. When Danica would do a great job holding a beautiful smile, Roxy would pout or get distracted and look the wrong way. Whenever Roxy would actually look at the camera and smile, Danica would make a goofy face. Here are some more picts that are fun but didn't quite make the portrait cut.

Where are my rain boots!?

2010-12-29T18:54:00.000-08:00

We're all off on Christmas holiday and we've been relishing the fact that we don't have to get up early to go to work or drop Danica off to preschool... so naturally last night (...er actually early this morning) at 4:45 a.m. I was awakened by the sound of Danica crying and screaming, I stumbled down the stairs to see what the problem was. "What's wrong?" I asked. "I CAN'T FIND MY RAIN BOOTS!! WHERE ARE MY RAIN BOOTS?!?!? I CAN'T FIND THEM!!!" answered a frantic Danica. Huh? She was sitting in the middle of the hallway in the same spot where she had left her boots earlier that evening, and of course I had put them away. So, I retrieved her rain boots from the shoe cubby and gave them to her. With a big smile she put her boots on, marched back to her room and sat down in her chair. "Are you ready to go back to bed now?" I asked. "No. I'm not sleepy. I just want to wear my boots," she replied. Ok. Well, I was sleepy, so I went back to bed and left her sitting in the dark wearing her rain boots.

Danica's holiday programs

2010-12-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

Danica's gymnastics class and her preschool class each put on holiday performances. Here's the video:

Danica's holiday programs 2010 from Carl on Vimeo.

Splish splash

2010-12-20T15:17:00.001-08:00

Puddle jumper:

Andie and the Eddies

2010-12-14T00:20:00.001-08:00

Danica has never really taken to dolls. She's been given a couple of them and mostly they sit on the sidelines and don't get played with very much. Instead, when she wants to play make-believe, she uses a few small stuffed turtles that have been around since one of her birthday parties. They're named Andy and the Eddies. Two Eddies who are boys, and one Andy, who apparently is a girl so it may be Andie. She feeds them, she puts them to bed, she takes them to swimming lessons, and she drives them to school. Most recently, when she was sick and Kim had to call into her school to tell them that she wasn't going to be coming in, Danica had to call into Andie's school and tell them that Andie was sick and wasn't going to be coming into school either. It was very important, and required finding a special phone. We all wish Andie a speedy recovery.

Christmas Tree Wagon

2010-12-12T13:36:00.000-08:00

This year instead of trucking up to an Apple Hill tree farm for our Christmas tree, we walked to a Midtown tree vendor just a few blocks from our house and brought the tree home in the Radio Flyer.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Roxy rolls over!

2010-12-04T13:44:00.000-08:00

Roxy rolled over for the first time!

She was playing on her tummy and leaned over quite a bit on one side. I rolled her a little more onto her back and then put her back on her belly. Then, she rolled over all by herself. She did this three or four more times.

Thanksgiving chez Liang

2010-11-26T19:19:00.000-08:00

Yan and Hu prepared a fancy "Chinese Laundry" Thanksgiving menu and invited us over. Yuna and Danica renewed their friendship and sibling-like rivalry, while Gemma and Roxana eagerly watched each other and the rest of the action.

From Thanksgiving chez Liang

Raspberries

2010-11-23T09:48:00.001-08:00

Roxana is now blowing non-stop raspberries, which is cute except for the rivers of drool that accompany them. Time for bibs.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Big bonk

2010-11-21T19:39:00.000-08:00

Danica got a big bonk on her forehead today. It's a doozy. It looks like an embedded golf ball. Oddly, she did not get it while we were ice skating at the seasonal ice rink in downtown Sacramento. Nope, it happened afterwards when she was running on dry land and tripped head first into a pillar. Thank goodness she didn't give herself a concussion. Here's some pictures of the happier part of the day, on the ice.

From At the downtown ice rink

Road trip down the Cali coast

2010-11-04T20:14:00.000-07:00

We all piled in the car for a week and a half road trip down the California coast. Danica and Roxana were great troopers, for the most part. We enjoyed stops in Monterey (and the Aquarium), Santa Barbara on the way down, and San Luis Obispo on the way back, with a bit more than a week in Carlsbad near San Diego. The weather gave us a couple of nice days at the beach, we had a great visit to the Wild Animal Park, and Danica loved two days at LegoLand including their Brick or Treat night for Halloween.

From SoCal road trip

Roxy's First Cold

2010-10-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

Roxy will turn 3 months tomorrow! She has just about doubled her birth weight and weighs in at 12 and a half pounds. Unfortunately we're all celebrating with a cold that big sis Danica brought home from preschool... I have to admit that her little coughs and sniffles are really cute.

Danica's class visits a pumpkin patch

2010-10-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

Danica's school visited a pumpkin patch this morning. Danica and her friend Jasmine ran around at full tilt all over the place. The two are inseparable during play time; they combine for much greater courage (and volume!) when they're together. It also means they copy each other's faults - so much begging and cajoling to get them to finish their lunches!

From Danica's class visits a pumpkin patch

Cooing on video

2010-10-03T23:14:00.000-07:00

Finally got a long enough video clip of Roxana's cooing sounds:

Roxana coos from Carl on Vimeo.

Fancy dress for a Friday

2010-10-02T20:17:00.000-07:00

Danica decided to dress up for preschool last Friday.

From October 2010

Roxana and Danica's September

2010-10-02T19:21:00.000-07:00

September was a busy month, filled with a lot of little things. It's funny how just keeping two little ones fed and bathed and rested and occasionally entertained can feel so hectic. We also had a great visit from the Avery set of grandparents, a week after the Lee set returned back home. There's a big album of pictures over here on picasaweb.

From Roxana & Danica's September

Cooing

2010-09-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

Roxana started making slight cooing noises this week. Of course it's adorable. We have yet to catch it on video, but we'll post it shamelessly once we do.

Sisterly bath

2010-09-01T22:13:00.001-07:00

Roxana and Danica got to take a bath together this evening. Dani enjoyed helping Roxy wash, but couldn't understand why we didn't use more soap!

From Sisterly bath

No news, just pics

2010-08-29T21:45:00.000-07:00

Since the Lee grandparents have left, we've had just enough energy to keep everybody fed, and not much more. Roxana is sometimes sleeping as much as four and a half hours, which is actually pretty good, but combined with work and Danica's schedule it still leaves us a bit ragged. We made a run out to The Fountains shopping plaza in Roseville today. Danica had fun in their kids play areas. After seeing the results of one picture of her jumping off a big ladybug, she had to do it again... 30 times more. Of course every attempt had to be photographed.

Roxana is growing well. We don't know her official weight right now, but she's definitely gained a few pounds. You can see the chubbiness she's gained all over.

From Leaping like a lemur

Nice weekend

2010-08-08T16:15:00.000-07:00

Danica and Daddy enjoyed the nice weekend weather with a bike ride to Funderland, joined by the rest of the crew a little later on. Danica was much more brave than the last time we tried the little kids' amusement park - now she's willing to try some rides by herself, with a huge grin.

From Danica at Funderland

Grandpa Jim arrived on Sunday to enjoy a bit of Roxana's company, too.

From Roxana week 3

Danica and Stinky Face

2010-08-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

No, Stinky Face is not the new nickname for Roxana. Thank goodness. After seeing herself on video reading the other book, Danica wanted to do it again. We picked "I Love You, Stinky Face" this time.

Danica reading Stinky Face from Carl on Vimeo.

First bath!

2010-08-05T20:32:00.000-07:00

Roxana was super calm for her first bath a few days ago, with expert help from her Popo!

Chicka Chicka ABC

2010-08-04T21:02:00.000-07:00

In response to cousin Sebastian's wonderful recitation of "Toot Toot Beep Beep!", here's Danica with "Chicka Chicka ABC".

Chicka Chicka ABC from Carl on Vimeo.

Many faces of Roxana

2010-07-31T17:19:00.000-07:00

Wow, we're almost through week 2 with Roxana! She's doing very well. She's starting to grow a belly after a week of frequent feeding. We've stolen a bunch of snapshots of her facial expressions during her awake moments:

From Roxana week 2

Mommy, Can I See Your Paper Clips?

2010-07-28T20:38:00.000-07:00

Some of you may already know that baby Roxana's birth was by an elective C-section. We decided on this based on the difficulties I had with Danica's birth which ended up in an emergency C-section. I hoped that she would come early on her own, but alas no. In the end the C-section ended up being a wise choice, because when the doctor delivered her, she found that Roxana was facing the wrong way (forward instead of back) and tangled up in the cord a bit. My recuperation has been going as well as can be expected thanks to all of Mom's help at home and superdaddy Carl.

It's been hard to NOT pick Danica up to give her a hug and play with her. We have to keep reminding her that I still can't do certain things yet, because of the owie on my tummy. The other day I showed her the wound on my belly that still had staples in it, so she would understand why I couldn't bend over very well. The next day I was sitting on the sofa watching Danica play and she came up to me and asked, "Mommy, can I see your paper clips?" Paper clips? Huh? I replied, "I don't have any paper clips honey. Would you like me to get one for you?" Then she said, "The ones on your belly. Can I see those?" Oh.... "Do you mean the staples on my belly?" "Yes." She asked about my paper clips again today. I think she was a little disappointed when I showed her they had been removed and that I just had lots of little band-aids now.

More Roxy first week pics

2010-07-23T20:32:00.000-07:00

See the homecoming album here.

Busy home

2010-07-23T19:34:00.000-07:00

Kim and Roxana came home from the hospital on Thursday. Poor Felix the cat now has nowhere to hide in our busy home. Roxana has started to regain weight after having a few initial issues latching and feeding. She's also gained her full-throated voice, moving on from the warbling cries of the first couple of nights at the hospital. Now she's loud. Kim is healing well, and is mostly able to be up and around - have to remind her to take it slow.

Her first three nights, Roxana slept a lot and Kim had to wake her up to feed. On her first night home, she kept us awake almost all night in constant hunger. I am definitely not good at getting my sleep in 1 hour chunks, but it was expected. Roxana is a bit jaundiced today, so we have an extra medical visit to do over the weekend and we're getting her out in the sun a few minutes a day.

Danica alternates between being the sweetest big sister around and being starved for attention. She is enthusiastic about helping out, and is usually eager to hold Roxana and kiss her forehead. She has certainly noticed that we don't have much time to play with her, though.

The mediumest

2010-07-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

Danica has been making a lot of comparisons lately: biggest vs. smallest, first vs. last, youngest vs. oldest, fastest vs. slowest, etc. With the arrival of Roxana, she started inserting extra grades for the second fastest, next biggest, and the one I especially love: the mediumest.

"Who's the smallest?"

"Roxana."

"Who's the biggest?"

"Daddy."

"Who's the mediumest?"

"Danica!"

Roxana's first full day

2010-07-20T21:53:00.000-07:00

Roxana's first full day has been a good one. Lots of normal events, dutifully recorded on the chart provided us by the nurses. No abnormal events. Kim's recovering nicely, and has been able to stand and walk a bit. Roxana's getting more vocal about being hungry after mostly sleeping for the first 24 hours.

It's been a bit of a juggle trying to keep Danica on her usual pace of preschool and activities - today it was swim class again at the Y. Danica had a great moment later in the hospital, holding Roxana in her arms and studying her intently. Then Dani got a little too rambunctious and we had to leave to allow for some rest and quiet.

From Roxana day one

Roxana!

2010-07-19T22:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a wonderful day! With much less stress this time around because the C-section was expected and scheduled, we welcomed our second baby girl into the world! Roxana Lee Avery was born today, Monday July 19th 2010, at 1:53pm. Everything went smoothly. We're still awed at how little she is. I mean, Danica is still a tiny thing, but she's grown up so much compared to this! Roxana weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces, and measured 18 inches long - a little smaller than Danica, which surprised us a bit, although Danica was born a couple of weeks later into pregnancy. Mom and baby are doing well but staying over a couple of nights at the hospital. Kim's mom is here helping us keep home a bit in order, thankfully!

Danica is still very excited about having a sister, but you can tell she's a bit confused about it all now. She had things worked out when the baby was something invisible inside Mommy's big belly, but the idea that Roxana's now out but can't play with her or join her for dinner is puzzling. I think she'll be jockeying for attention for a while.

Some of our first pictures are here in an album.

From July 19 2010 - Baby Roxana is born

Big Sister to be

2010-07-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

Danica has been very excited about her her new baby sister to come. Over the past couple of months she has already fully accepted the idea of the unborn baby being part of the family. On many occasions such as sharing toys or snacks she has told me, "Mommy this one is for me, this one is for you and this one is for the baby. " Or, she has told me, "I'm gonna show the baby how to..." Not to mention the talking to my belly. Very soon, she'll get to tell all of her thoughts to the little one herself.

She's her own canvas

2010-07-03T17:16:00.000-07:00

Danica's doing some creative work during the July 4th weekend:

From July 4th weekend

Toys in My Tummy

2010-06-28T22:14:00.000-07:00

We've got three more weeks until baby number two is due, and Danica is very excited about becoming a big sister. She talks to her and gives my belly a hug before going to sleep. She talks about all of these things that she is going to show the baby how to do (like how to climb the ladder up to the top bunk of her bed...).

Back several months ago when we first told Danica that she was going to have a little sister and that there was a baby growing in mommy's tummy, the first thing she asked was, "Is there a baby in MY tummy too?"
"Uh... No there is NOT a baby in your tummy," we replied immediately after a little chuckle. (And there had better not be one for at least another 20 years.) "Oh," she said sounding somewhat disappointed. Then her face lit up and she declared, "I have toys in my tummy! I have toys for the baby in my tummy!" Ever since then, from time to time she will repeat the declaration that she has toys in her tummy. I don't really want to think about how the toys are going to come out of her tummy, so maybe I'll take her shopping instead and let her pick out a new toy to give to her little sister.

What do belugas do?

2010-06-28T22:07:00.000-07:00

For a while now, Danica has been pretending to be different animals. She'll meow like a cat, roar like a dinosaur or snap like a crocodile. Naturally it has extended to Mommy and Daddy being the various animals too. This morning during breakfast she told me, "I'm the baby beluga, you're the mommy beluga and Daddy is the daddy beluga. ... Mommy -- What do belugas do?"

Good day for swimming

2010-06-27T18:32:00.000-07:00

It reached 100 degrees this weekend, so it was a good day to get out to the swimming pool. Hundreds of other people had the same idea. It was crowded, but Danica found enough space to wriggle in the water like a tadpole and jump off the side into deeper water.

Sensitivity training

2010-06-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

Danica is usually happy enough, but she has sudden bouts of oversensitivity, especially when she's hungry and/or tired. Sometimes a tantrum is so ridiculously over the top that we can't help but laugh. This evening she was happy right up until I helped her brush her teeth. She rinsed and spit, and then I poured out the rest of the cup of water just as she said she wanted to drink some of it. Instant tears! Refilling it was no good. All I could do was giggle at the sniveling lump of little girl at my feet. So silly.

Ham and edamame sandwich

2010-06-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

Danica's own creation: ham wrap with edamame filling. We're just happy when she eats foods together without meticulous separation...

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T14:58:00.000-07:00

Food and Fairytale Town make for a fun Father's Day. After a breakfast of waffles and fresh fruit, we followed Danica around Fairytale Town for the late morning, then had lunch at Dad's Kitchen.

From Father's Day at Fairytale Town

Sesame Street Live

2010-06-12T18:52:00.000-07:00

Danica had been looking forward to today for several weeks - we had tickets to go see Sesame Street Live. "We get to see real Elmo!" The show lived up to her hopes - all her favorites were on stage singing and dancing, and she was enthralled. She stared in wonder for the first act, and bounced and danced through the second with a huge grin. We had floor seats up front, so Elmo and Grover and Cookie came right up close.

From Sesame Street Live

More pictures are in the album here.

Purple hearts

2010-05-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

Danica is showing off two hearts - one on her cheek, freshly painted by some folks at the Pacific Rim Festival, and one on her chin, courtesy of a tumble off of the piano bench. Only one rubbed off at the end of the day...

Sunday walk and the Tour of California

2010-05-16T17:01:00.001-07:00

On Sunday morning, we all walked to the farmer's market and the playground. Danica, as she often does, spent a good amount of time digging in the sandbox. After lunch & nap, we caught the three finishing laps of stage one of the Tour of California bike race - unbelievable how fast they zip by and how much wind they generate when they're just three feet away!

From Sunday morning walk

Swimming progress

2010-05-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

After several lessons at the local YMCA, Danica is doing a lot better in the swimming pool. She's comfortable kicking and paddling on her own with the floaties on, and likes putting her head back in the water much more than she used to. Here's a video from one of her swim classes this past week:

Danica in swim class from Carl on Vimeo.

Hanging out at the mall

2010-04-25T14:48:00.001-07:00

It was Sunday, and we wanted to get out for the day. Kim's allergies have been bad enough that the usual outdoor haunts weren't attractive. To the mall for some bright, filtered air! Danica had fun even before we visited the kids' play area at the Roseville Galleria. A few pics:

From Hanging out at the mall