We can't write about Feburary without talking about Valentine's Day. David got us this Valentine's balloon. It has been our family's favorite gift on Valentine's Day. Every member of our family loved it! We had the heart shaped pancakes for breakfast. Emily spent the morning to make a love heart out of the red paper and the pink paper. We made the paste out of the flour. Emily cut the paper, brushed the paste and sprinkled the paper onto the heart shaped paste. Then Emily and I drew on the patio with the chalks. In the afternoon we made the chocoloate covered cheerio treats. Emily could hardly wait to have them when David came home. My favorite part of this Valentine's Day was the "How can I love you better?" talk. I was so blessed to have a humble loving husband who strives to be a better lover in his daily walk with Christ. That alone is better than any gift I can receive. I surely pray that Andy will be like that when he grows up. I also look forward to the day when Emily and Andy are old enough to do some serving projects together for others on Valentine's day.
The second famous day in Febrary probably was the President's Day. Emily and I read the story of "George Washington and the Cherry Tree" and colored the picture together. David and I thought it was very timely because we recently found Emily made up things to say a couple of times in order to answer our questions (when she didn't know how to answer). Although it was totally innocent. Maybe it's the stage that she is in right now since she loves playing make-believe. But it's never too early to teach her that she doesn't have to give us a good answer to please us.
Speaking of make-believe, you can tell how Emily loves it from these pictures. She is playing with little people, animals, cars, teapot, ... every day and multiple times a day. It warms my heart to listen to her sweet caring talks with every character she encounters:
One highlight this month was our friends Darren and Brian's visit. Emily loved them. Can you tell from the picture how much she loved Darren?
Another highlight was Chloe's birthday. We all went to Austin to celebrate Chloe's and Kendall's birthday. Unfortunately we didn't have any picture of it. We are look forward to seeing the pictures from Amy and Dad. Dad stopped by on the way back home. Emily couldn't get enough time with Grandpa. Here's her sitting on Grandpa's lap watching Winnie The Pooh.
Now let me give some updates on the kids. Emily is very proud of herself being a "Big girl". She moved from the crib to the toddler bed without any problem. She loves her new bed. Luckily we don't have to put on the child-prove device on the door knob since she is doing great both at night times and naps. She did get up a few times at night but she went right to sleep after we put her back in bed. No struggles so far! She loves singing (she made up songs for everything she does with familiar tunes) and watching videos (probably more than I wanted her to); climbing and sliding; jumping and running; spinning and dancing; giving her teddy bear or baby a stroller walk along with me and Andy (that puts a smile on every driver who saw us in the neighborhood); playing with the doll houses; imitating Andy and teaching Andy; going to Bible classes ... Oh, did I mention that she has asked to be baptized twice already? She asked me the first time after a baptism at church "Mommy, I want to be baptized". The lady in front of us said, "it's never too early to talk about it." She asked again at bedtime after David read the books (her favorite bedtime story recently is David and Goliath. She always asked to read it again and again). David told her "you can when you grow up." Being the first child who is only 18 months older than her baby brother, Emily radiates her maturity and sweetness daily in our life. Almost every Sunday her Bible class teacher would tell us how sweet, precious and amazing she was. The most amazing character that we see from her is that she really cares about other people's feelings and thoughts. She asked many times when I sat across her:" Mommy, what are you thinking?" or "Mommy, do you like it?" We began to jot down daily what she said and did in a binder along with our family verses. We just don't ever want to forget how blessed we are to be her parents.
Our Andy is as sweet and precious as his sister. David said "I can see one day our Andy will be like Christopher Robin (the character in Winnie The Pooh)". Andy admires and adores his sister every moment. He's eager to catch up with her. Here are some things that make Andy Andy: He is friendly and easy-going; he likes to drink water from a glass or a straw bottle and hates drinking from a sippy cup; he seldom (almost never, except puffs, his blanket, and a couple of stuffed animals) puts things in his mouth; he is very determined to reach his toys; he doesn't like his mouth or face to be wiped or touched (except brushing his gums and teeth); he is more mobile than Emily; and he is pickier in food than Emily. In his nine months old checkup, his weight was 80 percentile, height 97 percentile, head 100 percentile - He is Big. Now he wants to put almost all his energy practicing walking. At this rate, he may be another candidate who skips crawling before walking. Here are some pictures of him:
Emily is helping out to vacuum the play area:
Emily wants to walk like Andy (she can imitate Andy's every movement - that just cracked David up):
Emily is playing with Andy:
As far as David and I, we finished up the foundation repairs. Then we installed a whole house water filter system (wished we had done that earlier) and shopped for the insurance company. David also worked on the dryer and other house projects. For the last two weeks, we've been dealing with the hospital bills (from Andy's birth) and FSA. Based on what FSA told us, the hospital over-charged us and it won't be covered by FSA. It was no surprise because Emily's hospital over-charged us also. In addition to that, we didn't do a good job estimating the health care expense. So we are losing quite some money. Lesson learned: don't pre-pay the hospital until you receive the actual bills and have the modest estimate if you don't know how much to plan for.
It will be a whole year since I quit my job to stay at home on March 5th. What a year! There were times when stresses were high and the hands were few; but I wouldn't trade one minute for anything else. I love catching every milestones of my kids and recording them; I love listening to my kids laughing and giggling; I love watching them acting like a little adults; ... how fast time travels! The only thing I wished was that I had read enough parenting books before the kids were born so that I would have both practical and theoretical early childhood education applications along the way. But it's never too late. I'm setting out for another great year with my lovely kids!
Here are some additional pictures:
Emily is showing Andy how to crawl:
Emily is showing Andy how to crawl:
Emily is helping out to vacuum the play area:
Emily wants to walk like Andy (she can imitate Andy's every movement - that just cracked David up):
Emily is playing with Andy:
