44 month olds

Dear Elle,

Chritmas had passed and yet the first thing you woke up in the morning was jumping out of the bed and checking if Santa left any MORE presents under the Christmas tree for you. Everytime you'd came back with a pity look on your face moaning, "Nothing under the tree AGAIN!".
You insisted mama wearing a red hooded jacket just like you. We put on our hoods pretending to be little red riding hoods carrying our baskets to pick apples (balls) in your playroom.

One day you told mama, "When i grow up, i want to go to college.". Mama asked, "Why?". You said, "..so that i can paint a picture.. just like Steve...". Mama asked, "Who's Steve?". "Steve in the Blue Dog's cartoon.".
客人来 was one of the Chinese song we had taught you a while back. All of a sudden, you changed the lyric and started singing like this: "妈妈不在家..mama wake up and go out of the door.. baby crying ask papa where's my mama.. baby want mama...baby miss mama.. baby miss mama..". When mama asked you how about the papa's version, you went like this: "爸爸不在家.. baby crying ask mama where's my papa.. baby says GOOD BYE..... and GOOD LUCK!!".
You love books about mysteries, especially the Scooby-Dobby series. Whenever we couldn't find something, take sunglasses for an example, you'd said, "It's a mystery. Let's go for a sunglasses hunt!".

That night we lied on the bed playing with the flashlight, giggling over all sort of animals and monsters shadows we made on the wall.

Playing hide-and-seek at nighttime with a flashlight is one of your favorite games. It is a no brainer searhing for you as silly you always hide under the blankie on the bed, or on the couch. When you found mama hiding behind the curtain, you'd point the flashlight towards my legs giggly and said, "Hmmm.. I can't see mama. Where's mama?".

Oh, even pooping and reading magazines/books go hand in hand for you. Hearing you reading aloud through the wall is hilarious. You yell "Stuff up your nose!" when we pop into the bathroom.
We're so proud of you knowing how to write your chinese name. You'd write a mixup of alphabets under the animal you colored and say that's the name of the animal which you have no idea how to pronounce.

Love,
Mama

Happy New Year 2011

A wish bone for a new year.

Snow day ~ The Good

This was THE GOOD one among "The good, the bad and the ugly" snowdays in the winter. Snow crystals glittered under the perfect sunny blue sky. The nature was frosted with snow confetti, so smooth and calm.

Walking under the shades of overhanging trees, as the breeze blew through the snow swirled softly from the branches and landed onto the hair, shoulder, and ground. Chin up with open arms, mersmerizing the beauty of these magical moments.

Huckleberry Railroad Holiday Magic

The day after Christmas, we had an awesome ride on the steam engine caboose taking us through a delightful holiday light display. Completely swept away by the blast of the whistle and puffing steam hissing out of the engine, we sit back and felt the magic.

Merry X'mas

It's hard not to feel the Christmas sprit when the little one started singing "Jingle Bell" and "We wish you a Merry Christmas" since weeks before Christmas. She always ended the "Jingle Bell" song with a powerful tone of "HEY", so loud that it almost burst our eardrum. But hey, that's how the Christmas spirit hit you, well I meant us, at home.
Elle woke up to a magical Christmas morning, escatic about Santa left more presents for her while she was asleep. After breakfast, she rushed to the tree couldn't wait opening all the presents. With Oohs and Aahs admist the sounds of tearing papers, she was over the moon for all the toys Santa gave her.
She couldn't wait changing into her princess outfit, swirling her magic wand in the air turning papa into a beast and mama into a princess just like her.
The sushi cooking set seemed to bring out the best in humor. Hin chuckled, "WHAT! SUSHI!" when seeing it unfolded. Elle was a great iron chef praticing cutting the sushi with a giant chop knife.
Elle was so excited about our neighbor across the street gave her a Christmas gift. It's a gumball machine which she called it as "My Trophy". She scurried around finding her money box so that she could put coin inside her "trophy" getting the candies out.
Our little princess chef cooking up a storm in her tinkerbell kitchen. She prepared a whole spread of yummilicious for the pinic.

Holiday Season Frenzy

There had been a lot of baking going on in our home during the holiday season. On top of baking, we had fun making Christmas decorations, putting up our Christmas trees and sprucing them up with ornaments.
These two little girls got together making some yummy cookies. Well, they were more interested in playing together though. After a little while, they fled off and left the moms doing most of the baking. When the cookies came out of the oven, they kept popping into the kitchen snatching the cookies off the table.
Making gingerbread house with graham crackers! Man, it's a pain to have all the pieces held together while decorating it. The house kept collapsing. Lesson learned: "Glue" all pieces together and let it set a day before decorating. Our little decorator couldn't resist squeezing icing into her mouth!
Our gingerbread man family. How sweet of Elle asking mama to make one for her pink bear too.
Elle invited her friends over celebrating Christmas together. Before the party, I put the presents under the tree during her nap time. It took her a while to discover the presents after waking up from her nap. The moment she took a glimpse of the tree, she jumped on her feet pointing her finger at the tree and shrilled in joy, "Mama! See! There's something under the tree!". "Santa left the present for me and my friends when I was asleep.", she said.