Claire's Drawing: A Mommy & Baby Bird

Claire is also getting better and better at drawing and coloring.  Here are her two latest pieces of art.  Too bad it's on the magna doodle.  I'd probably frame it otherwise.  :) 

The amazing thing to me is that she keeps trying.  The first picture is the one with her holding it proudly.  It's a mommy bird giving a baby bird a worm.  It's stick people style. The birds have stick bodies and heads with beaks.  You can see the squiggly worm going from beak to beak.  She had to re-draw the first time because it got erased. She started to cry while trying to re-do it because it was hard, but I convinced her to keep trying and not give up.  She was able to dry her tears and finish the drawing.  She did it pretty close to what she had done the first time. 

We were both so happy and proud!  It may have been a learning moment for her, too, that you can do hard things if you keep trying. 

And every time she gets a little better.  The next day, her stick birds got bodies and the tree had more branches. 

I think it's really a great lesson for all of us - applicable to developing new talents, acquiring skills, habits, or attributes.  And perhaps it brings God joy, too, in an even greater way than I had with my daughter.  Pretty cool lessons we get to learn in our families.

Watch Out for Anson

Twice yesterday I thought Anson was happily playing by himself with toys.  Nope! 

First I heard the banging of the toilet lid and realized he wasn't in his room any more.  I found this:

And not only that, the toilet seat and his onesie were soaked with toilet water.  Are Lysol wipes safe to use on babies?  This was one instance where I thought it was appropriate.

Attention all residents & house guests:  We have now entered the stage of closing the toilet lids and bathroom doors behind us at all times.

Then it was this:

You'll notice in the background my wallet was the first thing to come out of the purse.  The wallet is open, too.  He's already good at rifling through my purse for the most important things:  keys, credit card, and cell phone.  I have to find a new place to drop my purse...

Saying Goodbye to Banner Drive

In many ways, Christy & Keoki (Blake's parents) have been our best friends here in San Jose, and their home on Banner has been our second home.  In fact, we lived with them for a year right after college until we saved up enough to buy our condo.  But even after that we would go over to their house several times a week - never less than once a week for Sunday dinner.  We would go when our upstairs condo was too hot - for BBQ dinner and dips in the pool.  We would go sometimes just for Christy's extravagant Saturday morning breakfasts.   We would host parties and dinners - I can count on one hand the parties/dinners we have NOT held at the their home on one hand.  We'd go on walks, work on projects, music, movies, you-name-it.  Claire's room was the one with the red bed.  She called it, "my red room with the shells" (not sure where the shell thing came from).  I had a spot where I always dropped my purse & shoes & misc belongings.  I knew the kitchen as well as my own. 

Yesterday they drove away with their 24' moving truck PACKED tight.  They are retiring out-of-state.   We are really sad to be separated from our good friends, our kids' Grammy & Papa, but at the same time we know that the move is right for them and so glad that they will be with everyone else in the family, and we know that we'll be seeing them regularly.

But the house is another story.  There's going to be another family - ironically, a young family with a daughter about Claire's age and a baby boy who will have their grandparents living with them.  We won't be regulars in the house any more.  I think we're mourning the loss of the house.  And I'm just the daughter-in-law.  That's the house where Blake and his siblings were raised for 25 years.  I'm sure it's harder for him and them than me.

The night we said goodbye for now to Grammy & Papa we had been next door having a bite of dinner at 9:30 at night after packing all day and the kids were melting down.  I didn't get my last longing look at the house and I didn't get to formally explain to Claire that the move was now.  I knew the termite tent would be on by 2PM the next day so we ate lunch and ran over at 12:20 PM to say goodbye to the house.  The tent was already on.  Claire and I were pretty sad.  We parked across the street and stayed in the car.  Claire said "Goodbye house.  I hope you have a happy..." (she couldn't think of a good word here so she then said, " I hope you have a nice family living there."  Good job sweetheart.  That's a great way to look at the situation.  So in my attempt for some closure, I've gone through some pictures to post here.

Anson's 1 year old birthday party in the backyard, where we also had our wedding reception in 2002.  

Below that, both of my baby showers were there.  We've had so many friends join us so many times - Can you see Beth and Dee, Penny, Kim...?

 

 We'll miss lazy Sunday afternoons, especially while Daddy & Grammy were off talking about music for Zion or at rehearsals.

We all love playing Grammy's grand piano.  Blake.  Me.  Even Claire & Anson enjoy banging on the keys.  We'll need to find another piano to get our piano fixes.

So, Goodbye Banner Drive.  We've loved our moments, our years there.  We hope you have a nice new family, too.

Down Time & Anson's New Words

I'm not sure how we had down time as a family, but one night Claire got her play camera and had us pretend like we were using the self timer.  We had so much fun we decided to get our real camera out and let her push the timer button.   Just in case you thought we were always serious take a peek.

In other news, Anson's working on two new words:  "Amen" and "Diaper".  It might seem like a funny combination but it made me realize we say both of those words consistently and about the same amount of times per day.  So, son, well done on picking those up!

Father's Day 2011

We he'd a really nice Father's Day. Well, at least I did and I hope it was great for Blake, too. The day started off like this:

And with a card with this message from the kids (as dictated by Claire):

To Daddy,

Thank you for reading stories, big hugs, tickles, snuggles, big kisses (mmmoo-wah!), going to the park & library, smelling flowers, playing & jumping high, singing songs, playing dress-up, and playing ball. We love you very much!

Love,
Claire & Anson


We hope all you fathers out there had a happy Father's Day, too!

Anson's First Birthday!

We had a fun first birthday party for Anson.  Yakitori (marinated Japanese chicken kabobs) on the BBQ, potluck sides, creamsicle cupcakes, and a pinata decisively not filled with candy (we filled it with organic fruit snacks, 100% fruit roll-ups, crayons, and mini bubbles).

Happy 1st Birthday, Anson!

Here are some pictures of Anson at 1 year.

Our washing machine gives rides during the spin cycle.  The knobs are fairly kid-safe and Anson loves buttons!  He gets to play while I'm doing laundry.

Anson loves music.  He'll conduct music or dance or clap (almost in rhythm) when he hears it.  If the guitar is out he's all over it.  If he's at the piano with you his hands are the only ones allowed on the keys.  We bought him a little toddler electric piano for his birthday

Pre-hair cut.  His hair was in his eyes and he had knappy hair after every nap in the back.

And, of course, didn't hold still....  I make no attempts to consider myself skilled in the hair cut area.

Baths are pretty much his favorite thing to do.  If you say or sign "bath" he'll drop any toy or any food, gets to the bathtub as soon as he can and squeals with delight!

And when Jiichan comes over with his laundry basket the poor grandfather doesn't get a break from pulling the kids around.

Kidisms

I'm trying to simplify my life. One of my methods that I uninstalled Facebook from my iPod. It's working well but when Claire says something amusing I crave sharing it. So I've decided to record them here. This is supposed to be my family journal anyway, right?

Now, for the Claire-ism that prompted this post...
Claire was jumping around practically singing, "I'm a happy girl!"
Me: I'm so happy when you're happy!
Claire: Me, too. We share!

It's true.  We share our joys & our sorrows in families, don't we?

More:
6-07-2011: Something made her giggle and she said, "It's tickling the feelings in my heart!"
06-07-2011:  The "Zeezle" moved something from it's put-away place.