My 1st Easter Egg Hunt

We took Caleb for his first Easter Egg hunt.  Caris came along too, but slept the whole time.  This girl likes to sleep. 

IMG_3700

 

Caleb spent a lot of his “hunt” time walking around and…

IMG_3705 

… watching the other toddlers run around picking up eggs.

And yes, that’s a sand bucket that I’m holding ‘cuz Mommy didn’t have enough time to buy one of those cute Easter baskets, and she’s too cheap to ever consider spending $5 on one at the actual event. 

***

Chris and I noticed that events like this bring out this strange side in parents.  Now these parents might normally be easygoing, laidback people.  But when it’s time for their child to find eggs at an Easter Egg Hunt, they certainly aren’t laidback anymore.  Caleb was in the 1-2 year old hunt, and these parents were still yelling and carrying their kid as fast as they could to each egg.  These kids can walk.  I would watch Chris point out an egg to Caleb.  As Caleb’s walking over to get it, another parent carrying their kid runs over and shouts, “Get the egg, get the egg (or some form of this phrase).”  Some of these kids had like 20 eggs.  Caleb got 2.  That’s OK.  He got all those eggs on his own. 

***

Caleb had fun at the egg hunt, but truthfully, he most enjoyed the toddler play area.

IMG_3714

IMG_3717

IMG_3718

IMG_3720

IMG_3723

Happy Anniversary

OK, so I just read Chris’ post on closet dwelling.  That post came about from a conversation I had with him earlier.  I was the one wondering whether or not our closet in Louisville will be big/deep enough to hold a crib. 

There’s some background to this thinking.  Let me share.

For our anniversary, I took Chris (and Caleb) for a 1-night stay at Paradise Pier Hotel at Disneyland.  We had annual passes to Disneyland and they were about to expire, and we had decided to not renew them.  So, I thought this would be a perfect little anniversary gift.  Plus, they had just re-opened “It’s a Small World” in Disneyland.  I really did consider a suite, but it was a whole lot more money than I was willing to spend.  Sorry Chris.  So, we were in a regular hotel room (meaning we had no extra room for Caleb).  We went on a Sunday night.  We decided not to go early in the day since there’s church in the morning.  We didn’t want to miss service.  But we ended up not getting to the hotel until 4PM or so since some friends decided to take Chris out to a hotdog place in west LA for his birthday (which had been a week or so before this particular Sunday).  So, by the time we checked in, it was already getting late.  Chris makes a decision to keep Caleb up past his normal bedtime so that we can go to Disneyland and see It’s a Small World.  It’s busy there that day.  Some 1000+ member chorus was there with John Stamos narrating the Christmas story.  It’s a Small World is really busy.  We ended up not going on the ride.  Caleb didn’t do so well staying up late.  We missed dinner in order to try to get to the ride.  Big mistake.  By the time we got back to the hotel and got fussy, overtired Caleb down to sleep, most restaurants were closed.  Chris walks to the Rainforest Cafe to get us food at 10PM.  he gets back.  Oh where are we to eat?  Most normal people would eat in their hotel room, right?  Not us.  Not when we have our light sleeper son in the crib next to our dresser.  No way are we waking him up.  Now, we didn’t just forget that we had a light sleeper son.  We did try to plan this out.  There was this huge closet in the room.  But not huge enough.  We almost put Caleb in the closet, but we couldn’t since the crib didn’t fit.  So our boy is in our room.  No lights, no TV, no eating dinner in the room.  Argh.  So, what do we do with our Rainforest Cafe to-go anniversary dinner?  What any normal married couple would do…. We ate it sitting on the floor outside our hotel room.  Yup. 

The positive of all this is that Caleb slept until 7AM or so the next day without waking.  Yay.  And, the hotel staff actually surprised us by decorating our bed for our anniversary. 

IMG_3035

Closet Dweller

We’re going to Louisville in May for General Council. We booked a suite for the week, and it was assumed by both Yvonne and I that Caleb would be getting the bedroom and we would be sleeping in the living room.

But why does it have to be that way? Yes, Caleb is a very light sleeper and he is easily disturb. We can’t go walking around in his area of sleep after he’s down. We don’t want to be stuck where we are at (bedroom) after he’s asleep with no access to the bathroom or exit.

Question is… can Caleb sleep in the closet?

Now at first thought, that’s absurd, right? What parents in their right mind would put their son to sleep in the closet? But he gets his dark sleeping area. He won’t get disturbed by light, sounds and movement. He’s much smaller than us, but he still gets his own room. I mean we’ll lose some storage area, but that closet would be put to good use!

So, you choose.

[poll id=”4″]

My 1st Trolley Ride

The city of Monrovia (the city right next to us) has this free trolley that goes through its Old Town district.  Caleb (and Caris) got their first trolley ride.

I parked, and we walked to the trolley stop.  There we waited.

095

 

And waited…

096

 

And waited…

098

 

Oh, and waited…

099

 

The trolley is supposed to come about every 15 minutes.  When it finally came (30+ minutes later), we found out that only 1 trolley was running for that afternoon.  Caleb was a trooper with all that waiting.  I pointed out every bus, van, & construction vehicle on the road.  We watched birds and airplanes.  We watched ants march underneath the bus bench.  Oh, and Caris was a trooper too.  She slept the whole time on me in the baby carrier.

 

Caleb loved the trolley ride.  He pointed at things and yelled out their names.  He impressed the trolley driver with his vocabulary.  I was impressed with the trolley driver for understanding Caleb.

100 101

102

Caris Pics

OK, so we’re still not doing a great job of taking enough pictures of Caris, but here are some.  Most of them happen to be when she’s sleeping.

 

010

070

103

105

153

159

191

192

 

 

 

Here are a few awake pics:

025

038 

086

087

090

157

My 1st Helmet

Grandma & grandpa are planning to buy Caleb his 1st bike/trike, so I took Caleb to our city public safety office where they sell children helmets for only $5.  The age range for the helmets is 3-9 years, but I figured Caleb has a pretty big head so he should be able to fit into a 3 year old helmet as long as they allow us to buy one.  They didn’t mind at all that Caleb was younger. 

Caleb was so good for the helmet fitting.  They started him with the toddler helmet, but nope it didn’t fit… too small.  Too bad cuz they had cute helmet designs.  Then, Caleb tried on a youth-small helmet.  It also didn’t fit.  What?!  My son is not even 22 months old yet.  Finally, they found one that fit… also a youth size small, but a wider fit.  I started laughing when they put it on (OK, OK, I know I’m not supposed to).  But, the helmet looked so big on him.  It looked like a motorcycle helmet.  Oh well.  At least we found something to protect Caleb’s precious noggin.  Chris still says that our boy’s head contains the cure for cancer.  I guess we better protect it. 

 

198 201 202 203 204

Montezuma’s Revenge

Awh, I thought I had escaped the horrible virus that Caleb picked up last week that wreaked havoc on his intestines, leaving this mommy to wash 10+ loads of laundry in 3 days.  Monday, I couldn’t eat/drink.  I thought it passed cuz I felt so much better on Tuesday.  Felt so good that I enjoyed some Claim Jumpers that my dad bought when he visited.  Big mistake!  My tummy started hurting 3/4 way through the meal.  Then, Chris busts out cheesecake.  Of course, I have to eat some cheesecake too, right?  Argh.  In the middle of the night, the stomach and intestinal cramps started.  And, montezuma’s revenge has hit.  *Sigh*  Toilet and I are friends.  11 times so far since 6:17AM today.   Pray that Caris and Chris don’t pick up this yucky virus.  Pray that this mommy can keep up with 2 munchkins while trying to take care of herself too.

Oh, where did our health go?

Oh my goodness.  Our household has not been completely healthy in quite a while. Poor Caris is still trying to fight off this yucky cold.  This mommy hasn’t been able to fight it off herself yet, thus her little nursing baby girl is struggling a bit too.  Caris has got the cough/gag/hoarse throat that I’ve had.  Caleb was just getting better with his cold (still has the cough and slight congestion).  But now, Caleb has come down with gastroenteritis.  He caught some stomach bug from who knows where.  Last night, he started puking in his crib.  Actually, quite massive puking.  Chris saw him puke while he was watching Caleb in the monitor.  We cleaned him and the crib up.  In the morning, Caleb had puked in his crib again (not very massive though).  This morning, I gave him a light breakfast.  Everything came out…. everywhere.  And that was right after I changed his diaper/clothes from an explosive diarrheal poop that went up his back to his neck and down his legs.  Poor Caleb.

Please pray for Caris (and Chris and me)… that we don’t get this stomach virus.  Pray that health may once again be restored at the Wong household!

Ouchie

For those of you have been to my house, you may have noticed the ugly plants leading to our front door. And if ever get a chance to be around long enough with me around that front door, you’ll know that I HATE those plants along side the path.  I HATE THEM SO MUCH.  They’re ugly.  The leaves on the plants poke you, even through your pants.  They overgrow the path far too often.  I’m came to a point where I just cut off all the leaves just so they stay out of the path and out of my legs.

IMG_3571

Whoever put these plants in made a bad decision.  Or maybe he/she/they didn’t realize how ugly these plants would be.  Or how pokey they are.  Or maybe they just had bad taste.  Whatever the reason, those plants suck.

Caleb likes to run around.  But he still doesn’t have the best of balance yet.  He’s still falling constantly when he’s running.  He was playing around outside this afternoon with mommy, when he came running up to her while she was putting the trash cans away.

He fell.  He fell into the plant.

IMG_3564

IMG_3565

IMG_3570

Those are the spikes sticking out his skin.