Five little piggies

My husband had to attend the inauguration of the new president where he works this morning. Lynette and I planned to take the girls to the Children's Museum (where Troy's side of the family gave us a year's membership; yay!). He left the girls' car seats by the kitchen.

Isabella's been playing make-believe and interacting with others for awhile, now. But, to see her playing with her sister (and not just Henry), the way my husband or I play with either of them just tickles me pink. In this video, Isabella's doing "This little piggy" with Victoria's right hand, and she had already done that twice before I shot the video, once with each of Victoria's feet.



The Children's Museum is a three-story place, and we didn't get past the first floor this time. Thanks again Momma, Poppa, Aaron, Jenny, and Becky for a YEAR'S MEMBERSHIP to The Children's Museum. The girls had so much fun in the shoes-off area of the first floor. The rest of the videos are taken from part of that area.

Before talking about those videos in more detail, I'd like to say that my blog postings aren't ever meant to be these shiny perfect little resumes of what my children do. In fact, I've been careful to point out what I shall refer to as struggles. I don't want parents to stress out about what their children are allegedly failing to do or to let achievements alone define a person. Observing certain strangers react to their children, at the Museum, is a stark reminder to be super careful about not being unrealistic with my children, to expect age appropriate behaviors, and to exude patience whenever possible. One instance that comes to mind was in the midst of the kiddos participating in a craft activity. There was this little boy, not more than Isabella's age, probably somewhere between my two daughters' ages, who was trying to figure out how to use a pair of scissors. His mother kept trying get him to hold the scissors correctly, and we could see the frustration and impatience in the mother's words and physical gestures. She got mad at the boy for putting too many figures in one place. Then she got mad for him cutting with the scissors using two hands. His face looked so broken and sad, and he gave up trying all together. The mom forgot or simply neglected to realize that boys take longer to master fine motor coordination. Besides, so what if the little boy uses two hands to cut paper?

I'll get off my soap box now. Changing my tune a bit towards the positive, it's fun to see my younger one emulating me. Towards the beginning of the video, she announces that she's cooking.




Food or cooking isn't the girls' only fascination. The footage of them sitting and playing with food related items was simply easier to capture, because elsewhere they were constantly moving and climbing. Below is a video where my older daughter was fixing a meal, and she made and set aside three dishes for me (how did she know I was hungry?!).



The last video, below, involves Isabella and Victoria playing in the same space and playing some with each other. It almost ended badly, with Isabella wanting to take the rolling pin from her sister so she could make cookies.

Sick, sick, sick

I don't know what the deal is with sickness in this house, but I had been sick for nearly 3 weeks in a row. Victoria was sick, I think, and she passed it to me and then Isabella. Troy was sick right before he started teaching his 2-week class. Troy got well pretty quickly. The girls didn't take that long to get well, either. Mine lingered and hung around for quite awhile, or I got two colds back to back. I started feeling more like myself yesterday, and yesterday morning, Troy was feeling rotten and barely had a voice. By late afternoon, he thought he felt better again. By this morning, he looked horrible. Stayed in bed until about an hour ago, and my husband's not one to stay in bed when he has a lot of work on his mind.

Knowing that he was likely going to be in bed for awhile and the car would therefore be home and available, I took the girls along for a weekly grocery store run. Three stores later and everything put away, I was surprised that I wasn't drop dead tired and in a horrendous mood.



And caffeine is not responsible for the energy that kept me going; I'm not sure what is. Fed the girls their lunch, read with them, and put them down for nap time (Isabella ended up not sleeping, by the way). Speaking of nap time, part of their more recent routine, whether day or night time sleeping, they've been enjoying rocking with me for about five minutes, until the last day or two. Now they want to rock on their own, without. How come they're growing up so fast?



Whilst they napped, I cooked curry, so we'd have food to eat. In addition to the fried rice I made yesterday.

2010-1-29

Now? I'm tired.

My first attempt at cooking scallops

There's still a part of me that thinks going to culinary school would be so cool. I find cooking fascinating, and I believe it's an art. My mom, from time to time, has said that I should open a restaurant. However flattering that is, I never saw that as exciting, spending large chunks of time in the kitchen. But, the point is, she thinks I have potential as a cook. I cook with my sense of taste and smell. Combine that with the artist within me, and well, the combination can bring about rather interesting results.

I have been watching Hell's Kitchen, and before that, Kitchen Nightmares, with intense interest. Hell's Kitchen would have scallops on its menu from time to time. It's been awhile since I've had scallops, and I've never tried my hand at cooking them. Well, Sunflower Farmer's Market, one of my weekly shopping joints, put them on sale; I saw that as one of my opportune chances to try. I was really afraid of overcooking them or cooking them in such a way that they weren't all that tasty; neither happened. Look at the picture below, how juicy they still were after cooking!

2010-1-26

For details on how I prepared this creation of mine, go here.

P.S. I decided to try something different, with the pasta. I wanted to avoid the carb coma I sometimes get after consuming wheat-based pasta. Although more expensive, on a whim (not in accordance with my strict budget), decided to try rice pasta. Not just any rice pasta, brown rice pasta. Healthy, healthy (well, all except for the 1 tbsp butter).

The girls singing "Part of Your World"

Isabella and Victoria both sing what they refer to as Ariel's song, a.k.a. "Part of Your World," from The Little Mermaid. Isabella can certainly sing the song in its entirety, but usually her attention wanes towards the end, to something else. Victoria, who's 20 months old, also 20 months younger than her sister, can sing most of the song as well, but she gets a bit gun shy in front of the video camera. Here she is, singing part of the song . . .

And here's both of them, singing the song in collaboration. Perhaps I'm a bit biased, but this tickles me pink and I believe it's pure sweetness.

New furniture, new beginnings

Since Troy and I got married, the only new furniture we've had is our bed (which my parents gave as a wedding gift) and dressers (I didn't have any dressers before we were married, and stuffing stocks and underwear on shelves was getting old). Well, that's not altogether true, when Isabella joined us, she got a decked out crib and dresser. But, we haven't gotten any non-pint-sized furniture. Well, this past July, we got our first house, and we wanted to use some of Uncle Obama's bucks towards getting new living room furniture. Don't get me wrong, we have no qualms about used furniture. We got a lovely dining room table and chairs used, after all. Just wanted to enjoy something new.

WELL, the love seat and chair, that we ordered in November, arrived today. Today. I am so excited. I like the way it looks in our living room. Don't you?!

2010-1-26

Isabella asking Victoria about eating blueberries during snack time

It's really neat seeing Isabella carry on conversations, not only with her beloved Henry

Shrimp and Chicken Jambalaya I made today

I made some Shrimp and Chicken Jambalaya today, and I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

All eyes on Jesus

2010-1-19

Yesterday, the girls and I were playing with the nativity set that Grandma and Grandpa (Nunley) gave the girls for Christmas. We spent time having the kids (in the nativity scenes) dialogue with the animals and Sesame Street characters (which did not come with the nativity scenes). We then lined up all of them, facing baby Jesus, and Isabella decided that Snow White (her next favorite companion these days, next to Henry, of course) and Henry needed to face Jesus as well. Today, Isabella asked me to line up the animals and little children to face baby Jesus.

Jesus Loves Me

Have a blessed Sunday, everyone.

An enthusiastic prayer from Victoria

Been missing Troy a lot this weekend, while he's been gone to take part in Jeff Wittung's funeral, especially today. Saturday's usually designated family date time. And given our crazy schedules, that's super important to us. Troy and I have been passing ships in the night since we've been married, because we juggle too many things at once. I've been telling the girls that after work yesterday, Daddy had to hop on a plane to go say 'goodbye' to a friend. Today, I tried to take the girls out as much as possible, not only to wear them out (dude, I was totally worn out when all was said and done), but also to give them a chance to stretch their legs and play outside our home and interact elsewhere. A total of two outings for the day, we were finally in for the day.

When we've been praying before meals, Victoria's contribution is usually a very enthusiastic "amen," without any other words. It appears she's been listening carefully to what Isabella and I have been saying. Until tonight. Before dinner tonight, she kept saying the before-meal prayers over and over again, without any prompting. It's something to the effect of "Jesus, thank you for giving us our food. Thank you for our home/family. In Jesus's name, we lift up our prayers. Amen." Her prayer is hardly intelligible to anyone, even those who can understand Chinese, except for me. Only Isabella and I, alone, know what Victoria's saying. And our Lord as well. But, it's still so cute and sweet. Isabella's great at praying before meals, too.