1.30.2006

Rainforest Cafe No More...For A Long While.

Yesterday we went to the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney to celebrate Chinese New Years (we celebrate the Eve at a Chinese restaurant). We went with Fiona's parents and Aunt. Let's just say that that was a crash-and-burn experience. This time Jadon just flipped out. The simulated lightening and thunder and the animetronic animals were the culprits. There was a baboon, in particular, that just freaked him out. He turned his head the other way and had tears streaming and he was just bawling. He kept telling that me wanted to go (except that dinner was just about to be served). The girls got into it too. So the whole dinner affair was like that. We literally chugged down our food. It didn't help that my father-in-law initially told Jadon, don't be scared (before he was scared). So I think that just planted a seed in his mind. Plus throughout dinner, he kept telling him that he shouldn't be scared (almost like a lecture). It's probably a safe bet that we won't be going there for a long long long time.

Aside from that little fiasco, everything else is going smoothly. All of the kids' birthdays have come and gone (hopefully the big credit card statements too). Next up: Valentine's and Fiona's big 3-0 birthday! I think she's like Joey on the episode of Friends when Rachel turns 30. Joey's response to turning to 30 "Why God?!? Why?!?"

The kids are doing quite well. Jadon is consistent in his potty training. Now we just gotta train him to pee in the toilet. We're starting the process of his preschool registration enrollment. Natalie is doing well in her developement. Weight wise, she still needs work. She's waving, clapping her hands, crawling, standing, and she'll even roll her hands when you sing the "Pat-A-Cake" song. It's really cute. Vanessa is walking really well. She walks probably 90% of the time. She loses her balance quite often but it doesn't deter her at all. She claps (sort of), rolls her hands, and I think she is starting to point. She looked like she was pointing at a balloon and saying "ba."

1.24.2006

A Bad Day Turned Decent.

It was one of those bad days. Work was all right except there were several hiccups to give me a slight headache. After work I went to see my general physician as a follow up from a couple of weeks ago. Over the past month and a half I have been experiencing jaw pain. It's been on and off and it hurts when I eat and yawn. The doctor thinks it has something to do with my t.m.j. (TemporoMandibular Joint) or jaw joint. He prescribed me some anti-inflammatories and it worked for a little bit but the pain has reoccured. Now he is referring me to an ENT (ear nose throat) doctor. They'll probably do x-rays or something. Then shortly after I got home I got into a tiff with Fiona. My temper has gotten short as of late. I don't know if the finances are stressing me out, or if it's my jaw, or man's version of PMS. That pretty much fouled up my mood. I was not in any kind of frame of mind to play with the kids at all tonight. Top it off I had a huge problem with the memory stick. I had 300 pictures or so on it and now my camera and card reader can read it. I called Sony and they think it's a malfunction. They referred me to a drive retrieval company. They charge a ludicrous amount, $350. I called Sony to see if they could cover it because the stick is new. No such luck. They won't even replace the stick unless it happens again! Damn Sony. My first real incident with them. So I took the memory stick down to a nearby Ritz Camera store. They said they could retrieve it for $50. That was doable. The only thing was they weren't able to do it. Apparently it crashed 2 of their computers, but it looked like they were running Windows 98 OS. It figures. Luckily I ran into my sister-in-law and future brother-in-law. He took the stick and said he would look into it. The guy is Mr. Miracle. He was able to retrieve most of it. What an emotional roller coaster of a day.

1.23.2006

Jadon's Zoo Experience

Well, Saturday went rather well. I got up 7:00am , got dressed, and woke up Jadon. Pretty much almost everything went as planned as stated in my previous post. The snags that we hit were (1) we got lost on the way to the zoo. It side tracked us for about 15 minutes. So instead of showing up at 9:30am, we got there 9:45am. (2) We were at the zoo until at about 1:00pm instead of leaving at 2:00pm (I'll get into that more in a bit). (3) Instead of going to Rain Forest Cafe, we ended up going to the Elephant Bar Restaurant. Jadon got to stay up a later then usual. He got all sorts of cool toys. To name a few, he got this Tonka Sanitation trash truck. It looks real authentic. He also got his first remote control car. He needs a lot of practice. He keeps wanting to move the car by hand (even though he has the remote in hand). He also got some clothes from his Auntie Angeline and Uncle Elliot. This was his response "I want real presents!" Hahahahaha! =) That's my boy.

Now back to Jadon's zoo experience. I got him totally psyched up for it. All through the road trip, he kept on saying "Jadon go to the zoo!" We saw flamingos, all sorts of monkeys, orrangutans, birds, gazelles, zebras, bulls, hogs, pigs, polar bears (they were sleeping so I don't think Jadon really saw them), koala bears, other bears, giraffes, elephants, lions, snakes, camels, goats, storks, ducks, and a whole bunch of other exotic animals. I tried to take a pictures of Jadon with most of the animals but trying to take pictures of a toddler is a real challenge. For one thing, Jadon hates taking pictures in general. So each time I try to take a picture, I took Fiona's method. I would ask him if the flash works or not. It worked like a charm (thank God for digital cameras, I can't imagine using 35mm film). Plus I think trying to take a picture every couple of minutes probably took away from his overall zoo experience. He didn't seem as interested as I though he would. I think part of that was due to the fact that he could not spot the animals because they were hiding in the trees or not moving. After lunch he was more occupied with the box of raisins he got with his lunch then the animals. I had to take it away and tell him that he could have it back when we go back to the car. So for the next hour he kept on telling me he wanted to go to the car. *smacked my forehead a couple of times* (That was one of the reasons why we left the zoo earlier then anticipated) So we went around looking for any shows but all of them seemed to have midmorning show times and afternoon times. Before we left, we went to the children's petting zoo. He got to pet some goats and lambs. He really enjoyed that, his response was "I want to see more real animals!" *rolled my eyes and shook my head and laughed* I guess if kids can't touch it, it's not real.

You know you're becoming an old fart when you get really tired from these excursions. We were only at the zoo for a little more than 3 hours and I was pooped. It's going to be dreading when we take all three kids to Disneyland or something like that.

1.20.2006

Jadon's B-Day Plans.

Tomorrow will be Jadon's 3rd birthday! Yea! I will be taking him to the San Diego Zoo. I figure that he is overdue for a visit. He knows a lot of animals. He'll name animals that he's never seen before. Unfortunately Fiona and the girls won't be going along with us. We figured that it (1) it would really screw up their nap schedule which is a no-no and (2) it's not worth it to endure their incessant whining on the road trip (almost 3 hours round trip). The girls' (especially Natalie) can drive me up the wall with their neverending crying. Vanessa can actually, at times, be quiet and fall asleep but Natalie keeps going. Sometimes I feel like shooting myself. She acts like a newborn sometimes. Anyways I have sparingly told Jadon of the plans. The first time he got so excited that he gave a thank-you-hug to his soon to be uncle (he should be hugging me!).

-He's been sensitive (cryful) lately so I haven't made mention of the zoo plans in the past couple of days. He's been tearing up for really mediocre reasons. A few nights ago his grandma calls up and asks him if he wanted to go the airport and pick up his great aunt the next day? He wanted to go that night and he began to cry when he couldn't go right then and there. Last night we went to Macy's at Main Place Mall. Fiona found a shirt for him and he really wanted to hold it. The thing was Fiona had to give it to the cashier for a price check and then to pay for it. The little guy started to tear up. -

Back to the rest of the b-day plans. So we'll be trekking to the zoo and hopefully show up there after 9:00am (meaning I got to get my ass ouf of bed early in the morning). I am shooting to get back by 3:00pm and put Jadon for his afternoon nap. Then the whole family will head over to Downtown Disney and have dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe. Afterwards, if all goes well, we'll head back home for a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake (yum!) and presents opening.

Then after that I expect myself to just conk out for exhaustion. (I just realized that with the links that I have, I should get paid for advertising)

1.16.2006

To Answer Or To Not Answer....

It's been a year now since Jadon has been nonstop talking, asking, blabbing. Sure it's great that he has speech and can communicate (at times) his needs and wants but there are times when the kid just won't keep quiet. We try to not impede his communicativeness (is that a word?) but there are those times when we'll say "Enough!", "Be quiet!", and once in a while (when times are trying) "Shut up!" Lately though I have noticed Fiona answering Jadon's questions in adult conversation. So I decided to give it a try. Yesterday I was outside playing with Jadon. He was looking a the curb and there was some residual water that was nearly dried out. Here's how our conversation went:

Jadon: "Where did the water go?"
Me: "The water evaporated into the air because the weather has been warm."
Jadon: "Yeah." (as if he knew what I was talking about)

Sometimes he'll repeat some of the big words that we say. So I guess answering him like we would answer an adult is better then ignoring him or telling to be quiet.

1.14.2006

Stranger Dadda.....

Tonight, I decided to take my contacts out early because they were getting really dry on me. So I donned my glasses and decided to surf the web. Vanessa walks out from Jadon's room (where she was playing). As soon as she sees me, she stops frozen. She begins to bawl. She didn't recognize me! I told her that it was dadda and that she didn't need to cry. I took off my glasses and soon enough she stopped crying. Then I put the glasses back on and she began to cry again. I just laughed. Silly girl. So I picked her up and let her look at my glasses. Now she's fine with it. The only time that I wear glasses around the girls is on the weekends when I am giving them their 5:00a.m. feedings. But they're too tired to see what I look like with glasses. I guess Fiona should wear her glasses around the girls too so they don't think that momma is a stranger either.

Girls 1st Birthday Highlights.

We held the girls' birthday over at my in-laws' house. Since they moved into a bigger house in the past year, we felt that we should break it in. -Kind of weird, all the kids move out and they buy a bigger house.- Anyhoo the party was marginally succesful. All three kids cried now and then throughout the party. Jadon cried because there was another kid (smaller and younger than him of course). What a scaredy cat. The girls cried because there were so many new faces. That was understandable. But as the party went on, they got more confortable. A mixture of Hawaiian BBQ with chow mein noodles was the main course. The only thing that didn't go as plan was that we forgot to give our guests the party favors. Fiona and I practically slaved over those. We took a bunch of stage 1 Gerber food jars and filled them up with pink, white, and purple M&Ms. Then for the lid we cut out some pink circular fabric and glued them on along with a ribboned bow. It was cute and nice parting gift. So now we're stuck with a bunch of them. Oiy! So now everyone is pooped and sure glad it's over.

Next up: Jadon's birthday (no party this time).......

1.13.2006

14 Times In A Row And Counting....

Being a father has it's proud moments. Jadon has poo-ed in the potty 14 times in a row! Woohoo! I thought this day would never come. With Jadon, when he hits his major milestones, it's quick. So I shouldn't be surprise that all of sudden he would just want to poopoo in the potty. Anyways after he went poopoo he says to me while raising his right hand "five high!" Cute.

On another note, Jadon had his second professional hair cut yesterday. The last time he had it done at the shop was his first time, 2 and a half years ago. We have been shaving his head ever since. This time we decided to let his hair grow out but he was getting shaggy. Suffice to say he acted the same way he did his first time. He bawled like a little baby. When we entered the shop, I stated "We have a 4:15 appointment for Jadon." Jadon says "Dadda, there's no appointment for Jadon? Is the appointment for you dadda?" He looks much better with a clean cut plus he looks younger.

Tomorrow is the girls birthday and we have lot of prep work to do. So the next time I blog, I'll give all the details.

1.06.2006

Potty Pooping Consistency

Jadon is on a roll as far as potty training goes. The past four times he has gone poop has been on the toilet. The first three times of of potty training, Fiona and I would put the idea into his head "Jadon wanna go poo-poo on the potty?" Initially he'll say "no" but in a few minutes he'll change his mind. Yesterday, without us reminding him, he asked to be put on the potty. The kid is making me proud =~) *sniff* To the normal human being, this might be trivial but to me it's a huge thing. Typically kids are potty trained around 2-2 1/2 years (Jadon is two weeks away from turning 3). Then of course we read or hear how some kids are trained when they are around 1 or so and that tends to apply some level of pressure on us as parents. I can't wait until the day comes when we no longer have to buy diapers or better yet having to change diapers. That will probably be one of my best days of my life (probably up there with my wedding day =) ) .

1.04.2006

New Year Beginning.

The New Year has begun and it's starting off relatively well (except yesterday where the girls were exhibiting what it will be like when they actually have PMS. Vanessa was on a hunger strike and Natalie was just constantly whining. Fiona had an extremely hard day from them.).

Jadon has behaving himself well as of late. He doesn't cry anymore at night (we changed his bath routine so that he takes a bath after his sisters). He is starting to pick up the potty training concept. Hopefully it's not just a phase. His motivation now is make us happy. He'll tell us "Make momma/dadda happy." Also he has been really affectionate. He'll come up to us and give us a hug and a kiss and tell us "Jadon love momma/dadda." He'll even hug and kiss his sisters too (then a few minutes later say "no like baby sisters" because they are playing with his toys). Last week, we were at the mall (in a Macy's I think). Fiona was shopping for a dress and I was with the kids. Jadon (in public) asks "You going poo-poo dadda?" He caught me off guard with that one. And a few minutes later he has a finger up his nose and says "I have boogar!"

Natalie eats a lot. She is eating more than Jadon when he was at her age. The thing though is she craps like crazy so she's not gaining any weight. Sometimes I wonder if she has any type of mechanism that will tell her that she is full because the girl is just a little piglet. She is crawling really well now and she is getting on her knees now. Hopefully she'll start standing soon. I don't want her to get too far behind in her developement compared to her sister. On a side note, when it comes to hair, Natalie is a wild beast. When she sees her sister crawl closely by or when Fiona or I lie down on the floor, her facial expression changes. Her eyes brighten up and she exclaims in delight with a squeal. She crawl real fast and start pulling on hair. She can be extremely brutal, especially to Vanessa. Vanessa will be crawling along and Natalie will just grab her hair and drag her hair and head down (like when a matador pulls the bulls horn and drag it down). Sometimes Vanessa will tolerate it and sometimes she'll just yelp and begin to cry. This will be a sign of things tom come when it comes to sisterly cat fights.

Vanessa is really picking up the walking. She goes from a crawl to a stand without anything to help prop her. Then she'll take up to 9 steps. I think she's ahead of Jadon when he was the same age. She is just a curious little bug getting into everything. Her and her sister are like Thelma & Louise (or Bonny & Clyde). When things are a little too quiet, you know they are up to no good. They'll get into a closet or dump over a trashcan and play with the trash. When they get in trouble they're usually together. My guess is it's Vanessa is the the ring leader and Natalie just follows behind. When I catch them, they just look up at me. Vanessa just gives a big smile and Natalie has a look of "Who me? She [Vanessa] made me."

Well that's all for the updates. Gotta actually work now.