Vive...rie...ama

Live...laugh...love Life in our busy household of shrieks and giggles, bippity-boppities and bulldozers. If you'd like to see our trip to pick up Tonito, go to mid-March 2008 through April 12.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Zooooooooo


We had a beautiful fall day at the zoo, enjoying the meerkats, giraffes, and bats. We only had a little while to walk around, but everyone had a fun time looking at the animals.

In one of the buildings, there was a glass tunnel through the piranha tank- very cool!

Watching the otters diving and swimming...

Friday, November 13, 2009

Another picnic


The past couple of weeks I have been hearing the same comments over and over.
"Wow. You have your hands full!"
Do they mean I look frazzled, tired, unshowered and overwhelmed with 3 little ones? Are my kids too loud and wild in the supermarket and the person can't imagine having to round them up while buying a week's worth of food? I can see them looking from face to face wondering who is related to whom, noting that my genes are either recessive or nonexistant.
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"Wow, you must be busy!" Maybe they are impressed at my bravery for taking three active little ones out in public without leashes, who are moderately well-behaved and who listen most of the time. Maybe they see the evidence of paint and markers and playdough on their hands and clothes, and hear the laughing and shrieking at private jokes that outsiders would not understand. Maybe they watch as I hold Maya while I juggle my grocery list, remember to get the donation of 3 boxes of cereal bars, instruct Tonito to grab the lowest box of Cheerios, and move Vivi closer to the cart, which I am pushing with my hip to allow the woman on the cell phone to pass us without running over toes. Maybe they wonder if they would have the patience, strength, and sense of humor needed to deal with preschoolers.
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Or maybe they are just bored and wish they could have as much fun as we do, get as many hugs as we do, and feel as proud as we do.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Some recent funnies


Yes, that is Maya pulling herself up onto the table to get some cucumbers and carrots with picarico (ie tajin chile/lime powder).

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Vivi: Can I have another horsie kiss? (hershey kiss)

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Our trip to search for Mexican antiques ended when Maya fell (or was pushed) onto the cement floor and got her first fat lip. I think her screaming and the blood all over my shirt scared away quite a few customers!


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I went to pay our water bill and the kids wanted to know what I was doing. I explained how we all use water, and so we have to pay for it with money. Vivi told me she is saving all of her pennies in her piggy bank for me to buy things with! ;)


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Vivi, making up the end of the story how she would like it to end: "And when they got away, the gingerbread boy and gingerbread girl sailed in a gingerbread boat to Madagascar, and played with gingerbread lemurs!"

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Maya had her 2 year old portrait taken, and I was trying to get her to practice to smile, telling her she looked like a princess in her dress, etc. While walking into Sears we followed 2 women in saris, and Maya got very excited and almost star-struck: "Mommy. Princess just like Maya!"


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I sent the kids upstairs, challenging them to get ready for bed using only their flashlights. 30 minutes later they were laughing hysterically and had not yet reappeared. When I called them down to read books, Tonito asked "Can we get ready again??"


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Just FYI: when a 2 year old eats (chews and swallows) a whole pack of gum piece by piece, while unsupervised, it does NOT take 7 years to digest. Note to self: watch Maya more carefully while packing for our trip to Chicago.


Friday, November 6, 2009

A warm day at the park



We spent a great day at the museum, followed by a very warm picnic at the park- I am amazed that it is November! People are starting to plant what they call "winter color" (the annuals that I used to plant in April or May in Chicago). I am not planting anything this winter because I am still trying to learn what to do when. When we moved in, someone told us to take a "pool school" class from the local pool supply store. So you pay to have one of their guys to come to your house and they teach you everything about your pool and its maintenance. It was extremely helpful, and we finally understand the basic chemistry of keeping it clear. Now I want the same class, but a "garden school"-- I love the palms I see everywhere and the tropical plants and fruits, I just need to learn how to take care of them!:) So far all I know is that if you hear it will get down to freezing at night, we should cover certain plants with old sheets. I just have to figure out which plants...

Anyway- great park, lots of hills to run up and down (training my future cross-country runners:).

Love to play at the park!

Monday, November 2, 2009

I'm a supermodel!

Check out our little models!:)

http://www.blissfulseed.com/children.html

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!

After making it home, we scrambled costumes together for Halloween. Fortunately the girls have lots of princess dress-up clothes, and Tonito got the perfect pirate costume from my mom for his birthday. Here's Maya as Little Mermaid:

Vivi as pink Jasmine:
And Tonito as a "scary" pirate (notice the face)-

Tonio's last minute costume was pj's and mine was running clothes.

We got invited to a Halloween party in our neighborhood, and randomly, each of the kids knew one of the kids there from school! Vivi had her little friend Anna (the pink supergirl) there from preschool, and Tonito had Tyler (the green cucumber) from speech class.

They live on a culdesac that ends in a green belt, so the kids were safe and could run wild for dinner.

We carved pumpkins, had had dinner and dessert (because the candy wouldn't be enough:).

And at dusk we formed a huge parade consisting of a fireman, a banana, several princeses, a cucumber, a tomato, a policeman, a football player, pirate, and more. Our neighborhood doesn't have that many kids so the people handing out the candy were always pleasantly surprised at the huge group! It was a very fun party, and I am so glad it spontaneously worked out!

Friday, October 30, 2009

The looooooong drive home


We started the LOOOONG drive home on Wednesday the 28th. When I say "we," I mean me- by myself- accompanied by 3 little ones strapped in car seats. There are 2 kiddos that are happy with snacks, Disney music, (obviously) DVDs, and an occasional potty and running around break. There is one little one in particular who is quite demanding of the two hands that should be steering the wheel: "me das (can I have) crackers? cheese? play with mommy's hair? mommy hold my hand? my tray fall down!!!! otra musica, 'nother book, 'nother book, 'nother book, my shoe, my sock, cargame! (carry me), po-po, Maya color, abajo (down) mommy, and the ubiquitous "no see my window To-to!!!!" (ie don't look out my window)... I think the 2.5 years of me working and commuting with Vivi was the vital car-survival-training that Maya missed out on.
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Anyway, I drove all the way to south-eastern Missouri to stay with our friends Kim and Scott (and Drew- Tonito's buddy from Urumqi). It was awesome. Not the drive- the getting there and letting the kids run around and be crazy with their friend. We had so much fun playing and having a "sleepover" with Drew! We went to the same Chinese restaurant that we had visited on the way down. Fan, the gracious owner, is from China, is one of Kim's friends, and has kids around the same age. The kids were wild already, and then she blew up a bunch of balloons and the true mayhem began: balloon volleyball over the tables and around customers, the occasional balloon popping and subsequent crying until another balloon of the same color and size could be provided to the victim, and just plain running and jumping and expelling of energy. After dinner we went back to Drew's house and the kids all played until well past bedtime- we miss you so much Drew!
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Day two was supposed to be the "easy" day, but fate had other ideas. We left around 11, and I had supposedly 6 hours to get to Little Rock to pick up Tonio at the airport at 5. The trip was supposed to only take 4 hours, so I could check into the hotel and relax before picking up Tonio. Ha. Relax. That's funny. The radar on the weather channel was right- the line of thunderstorms and tornado producing weather fronts started exactly at our location and ran all the way to Houston. Not only did I have to drive through rains so hard my fastest wiper speed couldn't keep up, but this same storm system ended up delaying Tonio until 9pm.
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Most of the drive from rural Missouri to Little Rock was on two lane farms roads, flanked on both sides by flooded rice paddies, or even one lane bridges, where you should wait for the only other lone car on miles of highway to cross. (this I did not know until I saw their headlights on the same little bridge as I was breaking and hydroplaning to avoid a head-on collision). Back to the paddies- did you even know that Arkansas grew rice!?? I didn't. Side note: they also grow a lot of cotton, and I pulled over and picked a pod bursting with white, fuzzy cotton (on an emergency bathroom break). Vivi and Tonito saw it and said "a cotton ball!" On the way up to Chicago I had explained how people use this cotton to make tshirts, and the kids demanded that Tonio make them a tshirt right there to show them.
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So we finally made it to Little Rock and randomly found the Children's Museum, which was open for one more hour! I first had to take the dogs out (oh, you forgot I also had two 50 pound dogs in the car?). This was a little difficult since 1) forgot the leashes at Kim's, 2) it was pouring and Boo is terrified of storms, and 3) we were parked on a in the busy museum district. I had the kids stand next to a dumpster under this mini-roof, and opened the back door of the van and begged the dogs to do their business in the tiny patch of grass littered with garbage I found (right next tot he kids, don't worry). I guess holding their bladders for 6 hours made them hurry. Dogs locked up, we ran down the street to the museum and played there from 4-5. Whew.
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Tonio called by now, and told me he had good news and bad news. The bad news was the plane delay, but the good news was that he was sitting next to RICK BAYLESS!!! I gave him a list of comments and questions and raving reviews to relay to Rick, and told him to call me back when he knew more details about his flight. The kids and I found the nearest restaurant, which happened to be fish, and took some great pictures while trying to waste a couple of hours:

Maya's favorite activity, twirling mommy's hair.



We waited another 2 hours in the Little Rock Airport parking lot, watching more DVD's. My dad kept us updated on the flight patterns and the red massive storm on the radar directly over Little Rock. Somehow Tonio landed, we drove the 45 minutes to the hotel (that's why I didn't check in! The only hotel that had rooms and accepted dogs was way out of town)...
At least someone had fun:)---
Day 3, Tonio drove the whole way from Little Rock to Houston. Aaaah, just in time for Halloween!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Dance Party

Our last night at Grandma and Grandpa's we had a little dance party! Everyime we would turn on this African children's music CD, Maya would imediately stop what she was doing and dance. It was so funny we had to tape it! Watch for Tonito's hilarious wiggle dance, and check out Vivi's amazing latin rhythm...


Monday, October 26, 2009

Cousins! One last time...


One last playdate with our cousins!!! We miss you guys so much!!! It's so fun to see the boys grow up and get their little personalities- Sam as Mr. Active, so musical, and such a kind soul. Nate as Mr. Cuddler (as you can see in the picture!), who seems to be a ball of hugs and love. Sam reminds me a lot of curious Vivi and Nate of cuddly Maya. Happy-go-lucky Tonito plays with both!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Early Trick-or-Treating

There was an early trick-or-treating opportunity, and of course we took it! We had brought Maya's Mermaid costume because she wears it all the time, then Tia Didi randomly gave Vivi a Jasmine costume for her (pre) birthday, so we just had to scramble for something for Tonito (thank you so much Sue!!!). Sensei Tonito looked great and LOVED his karate master duds, even with the 6 inch cuffs at his wrists and ankles:).

The kids didn't really remember Halloween from last year, but they caught on VERy quickly: go up to the guy with the big bowl of candy, say trick-or-treat and smile, get candy. It is so weird that this holiday involves kids dressing up (in sometimes terribly bloody or age-inappropriate costumes) and then asking strangers for candy. But anytime my girls can dress as princesses with REAL make-up, combined with eating candy that they are never allowed to eat- well, how can they pass that up!?

Mermaid Maya, who uses the word "mermaid" to mean any princess.

Kung-fu Tonito, who doesn't exactly know what martial arts are yet, but loves the idea of them!

Princess Vivi, who was so excited to get this *pink* version of Jasmine!

The kids had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa!!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Leaves! Leaves! Leaves!

It is time to go outside, shake off the cabin fever, and jump in some leaves!

BUD, To-to, Zhu-Zhu


SQUIRTY, Vivs, Sweet Pea

BOOSIE, Punkin, Munchkin


It was a golden lit, crunchy leaved, cross country racing, fleece-wearing, cool and damp, trail running, branch shaking, sweet smelling, jewel-toned, dogs barking, wet-jeaned, tarp swinging, leaf jumping, worm-finding, heavy raking, fire burning, chilly handed, screaming, laughing, sunny day.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

As Vivi would say, "Fwends!"

More fun with "fwends"! Yummy nachos for dinner with Becks and Ewan and of course Doshi!



And for dessert (after the caramel apples)- wrestling on "big grey"- the squishiest couch ever!


We wuv you Ewan!!!

Family:)

Visiting with more cousins!!!

It is so fun to watch our family grow!!!:)

Our (non) sleepover at Tio Timo and Auntie Colleen's house! Only a non-sleep-over because the kids woke up at 3:30 and never went back to sleep! But sleep or no sleep, it was FUN going to the park, the supermarket, making homemade tortillas, dancing ballet, and goofing around. I really miss coming here and am so glad this time we got to sleepover! In the morning we watched Totoro- a great Japanese anime film for kids about a friendly monster. I've never seen anything like it, but loved it! We can't wait to meet our new cousin

Monday, October 19, 2009

Putzing around...

Still recovering! Playing board games (Maya learned how to play color bingo!)

Mingo participated in playing "house"-

Also reading lots of books, watching more DVDs than ever, coloring, cars, listening to music, board games, and books on CDs... We're getting a little cabin fever:).

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Celebrating un-birthdays!


Un-birthdays, because when you live far away, it's hard to celebrate birthdays without family! So we did a kid and fall birthday party that included my mom and Auntie Colleen- complete with scrumptious cakes from Whole Foods that all could enjoy (egg-free and gluten-free: thank you Colleen!!!!:) It feels so at home cooking and eating with everyone, I forgot that we don't live here anymore!


Emily dressing up her in Pocahontas costume along with Little Mermaid and Jasmine. Look at our growing family!! Fun fiestas!!!

Pretty soon there will be one more grandchild to squeeze in:).

Pirate aaargh...

Tim and Colleen.

Christy let the kids borrow her camera, and so they were setting up photo shoots of their stuffed animals (obviously lemur was first in line)-

Tall Tio Timo.

Saying good-bye to Tio Co before he goes back to college. Nico we miss you! Come visit!!!:)