Feels Like Fall

I know it's only the last weekend of September, but it is officially fall.  Which means my favorite time of year is rolling around, and I'm willing the onset of cold weather by putting up our fall decorations.  This year has been especially fun now that Ella is older and able to help and appreciate the crafts I have planned.

Still too young to carve, Ella got to decorate her pumpkin with felt stickers.  She subsequently hid behind it when I asked her to pose for a picture.  She's a silly one, that girl.

A bit too young to craft, G enjoyed watching from his high chair and having a snack.

This girl loves cats.  She decided the purple cat I bought for decoration was now her new best friend.  Then, she was super excited that she got to do a cat craft to go with her cat friend.

Doing some tidying up outside.

We also put our scarecrows out, and it reminded me of how Ella used to love walking around the neighborhood waving to all the ones displayed by our neighbors.  Can't believe how much has changed in a year and how much she has grown.  And now we have Gavin, who is just as delighted to see those scarecrows.  I'm loving all the new traditions we get to start with our family during the holiday season!

preschool?!?!

E with her new backpack and Sebastian the crab (who came along for the ride).

It wasn't supposed to happen until next fall.  But upon touring a preschool, we found out they had an opening left in their lower campus for kids 2-3 years old.  And after seeing Ella light up at all the activities the school had to offer, we decided to enroll her.

So now, I am a parent to a preschooler.  How did we get here so soon?  I'm completely not ready and am pretty emotional about this, despite the fact that it's only twice a week for 2 1/2 hours each day.  But I've never left her in the care of anyone besides our immediate family.  So I'm a wreck about it, but trying to stay upbeat and cheerful so that Ella doesn't pick up on my anxiety.

This post is late in coming because we left for a trip to Seattle the day after her first day.  I decided to stay with her during that day because we would be gone another week before her next class, and I wasn't ready for the tearful separation.  I thought she did pretty well, and started to feel like I could just drop her off next time, until we moved rooms to start other activities and she refused to go without me.  I realized I was going to have to take a different approach, but the idea of her crying for me in the presence of strangers is too hard for me to swallow.  I think I'll have to do a slow ease vs. ripping the bandaid off, but who knows.  I can never say never when it comes to parenting, and a week from now I might be talking about how I walked out the door leaving a bawling child behind.

Parenting sucks sometimes.

But then I think about all the growing she'll do at school, and from being independent from me.  Ella is a timid child and incredibly shy around strangers.  With family and friends she's an outgoing ham.  But she's quiet and an observer--much like I was as a child.  So I sympathize with her.  And I try not to project my insecurities and my childhood struggles onto her.  She is her own person.  She will learn to carve her own way.  She will be okay.

It still doesn't make the prospect of her crying easier for me to digest.  And it hasn't even come to that yet.

While staying with her at school I immediately started to judge the other kids.  I mentally willed her to befriend the "nice" kids, you know, the quieter ones that were like her.  I quickly dismissed the loud little girl who started to climb the bookcase and boss people around.  And the little boy who hissed at other children who came too close to him and stomped around taking things just sent me into mama bear mode.  But I know that while I can fight Ella's battles now, I won't be able to do it later.  It might just be about a plastic cupcake or a tonka truck right now, but eventually the battles with become bigger and more significant.  I know I need to prepare my child for the road ahead and not the road for my child.  For her sake, I need to step back and trust in her.

Again, parenting sucks sometimes.

But tonight at dinner, out of nowhere, E says that she likes preschool.  And I hope she really means it.  Because this is a journey we have committed to.  And this is a journey that will challenge us and change us.  Not to sound melodramatic or anything; it's just that I thought I had another year to come to terms with the fact that my little baby girl really isn't a baby anymore.  Yep, and this is just preschool.  I'm in for quite a ride...

Saying Goodbye

Even though we knew it was coming, we were sad to hear that Ella's good friend, Madelyn, and her family would be moving back to Texas in a few short days.  We got one final play date in before they pack up and leave (and we pack up and take our trip to Hawaii).  I got a little sentimental because these girls have known each other since they were five months old.  Maddie is definitely Ella's first friend and  I always love watching them together.  And I totally think it was serendipitous that Maddie's mom, Melanie, and I both got pregnant around the same time and both had boys.  It made me even more sad because Ella and Maddie just started to really interact and I could see that they could have really grown close as they matured.  Thankfully there's Facebook so that we can keep in touch.  But I will miss our play dates filled with snacks, awkward stares, and interrupted conversation.  :)

foodie

I grew up eating a variety of foods, and I really want Ella to have a well-developed palate, too.  And since her Puo-Puo's love language is basically feeding a person, I felt it especially important that Ella has a taste for Asian foods.  Thankfully, she's willing to try almost anything we offer her (unless she's having a toddler moment and just refuses to put anything in her mouth).  She loves the standard noodles and rice, but I've been trying to expose her to more exotic selections.

We had dim sum with both grandmas and Ella ate everything as usual.  This time she tried coagulated pork blood for the first time, and surprised me by eating four large pieces.  She's much happier than she appears in the picture, though.

E loves dim sum with Puo Puo.

She's tried it before, but she definitely prefers her durian frozen.

While not exotic, Ella had her first taste of boba.  It's definitely a right of passage when growing up in So. California!

Beating the Heat & Independence Day

We've been having some pretty hot summer weather here lately.  And while I'm used to the dry heat, I'm not a fan of the humidity we've been experiencing.  Needless to say, we've spent a lot more time at home (rather than lugging two kids around in the hot sun), and have been looking for ways to keep cool and have fun.  Enter Ella's birthday gift--a flower sprinkler head--that she loves splashing in.  Gavin is just happy to be outside and look at the trees.

Hanging out in the shade, G was all smiles. 

Ella loved filling her buckets with water and trying to splash anyone who got close to her.

Learning to enjoy tummy time more.

If you position him just right, Gavin can sit up on his own for a few seconds.  I'm definitely excited for him to hit this new milestone.

Sometimes, it's just better to have a picnic indoors.

Adam had two days off for the Fourth of July, so we definitely enjoyed the long weekend, just taking it easy at home.  We've had some busy weekends, so we were more than happy to just relax a bit.  On Thursday we had our families over for a casual BBQ.  The rest of the weekend was spent playing in the sprinklers, splashing in the pool, and watching a movie and eating popcorn.

Friday night we had an early dinner followed by a temporary power outage so we decided to make s'mores in our backyard.  It was a perfect summer evening, and Ella got to eat her first s'more (minus the chocolate).  She loved the marshmallow gooeyness and loved doing the hokey pokey as a result of the sugar high.

Gavin also got his first taste of "solids" over the weekend.  He's been expressing a lot of interest in our food, and grabs at anything he can while we eat at the table.  So I decided to give him some multi-grain cereal mixed with breast milk.  He took a few bites and was intrigued by the spoon.  But our biggest challenge was his constant attempts to grab the spoon causing cereal to spill everywhere.  He's had a few more feedings, but he's also been fussier than usual these past few days, so I might put off pursuing solids for a little while longer.

Ella got to watch the Winnie the Pooh movie and Gavin snuck a peak in while I was trying to get a photo of the two of them.

family portraits and ella at two

I commissioned my sister-in-law Kathie again to take pictures of our family with Ella at two-years old.  I had a vision of E playing with balloons, bubbles and sidewalk chalk in our backyard, which I felt captured her interests and personality at this age.  We were only able to successfully photograph two of the three activities, but we did get some good family shots (and shots of Gavin), so I'd say it went well. It's definitely my favorite shoot we've had with Kathie so far, as she was able to translate what I had imagined into print.