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Allison

Disneyland 2008

Disneyland 2008

Katherine asks every other day when we’re going back to Disneyland. And, she’s been asking to bring her autograph book to school. So, it’s reasonable to conclude that she had a great time on spring break. Allison loved it as well, although she was a bit too short for the really fun rides.

I’m posting a handful of my favorite pictures from the trip. You may notice that many of my favorite pictures don’t include Katherine – who developed a nice habit of saying, “Mooommmmm” and then giving me a Grinchy face at Disneyland.

 

Easter Egg Hunts

Easter Egg Hunts

The kids had a great time this weekend, hunting eggs three times. First, they went to Trilogy, then at our house and then at Grandaunt Pat’s house. I consolidated their stashes this morning. And, boy, do they have a LOT of candy!

Perhaps the most memorable moment occurred during the Trilogy egg hunt. Allison was with my mom, while I helped Katherine uncover eggs on the other side of the clubhouse. Unfortunately many of the older kids had scooped up the younger kids’ eggs on the way to the other side of the clubhouse. So, Katherine found 23 eggs – Allison got none. Thanks to some of Grandma’s friends, Allison received a few prized eggs after the hunt. Katherine also let Allison pick several eggs from her bag. You can see Allison checking out her half dozen eggs; she kept opening and closing the eggs looking for more candy and treats.

The next morning the kids raced around the house looking for another round of eggs. Allison looked for one color eggs; Katherine two-toned eggs. Bisco also managed to get some treats after Katherine put her basket down on the floor and left it. During the minute that she was gone, he snarfed around 10-12 chocolate eggs and kisses. Luckily, it wasn’t enough chocolate to make him ill (since he’s a whopping 75 pounds), but Katherine was pretty upset at him. We managed to find replacement candy, and all was well. ๐Ÿ™‚

Katherine was particularly psyched to find one egg with two quarters in it. She exclaimed, “The Easter bunny gave me money to save for college. You won’t have to pay for my college!” Ha!

In the pictures you’ll see the kids riding the Gator at Aunt Pat’s house, Katherine at a Build-A-Bear party, kids with Lolly the clown, dying eggs with Grandma Bush and celebrating Grandma Chang’s birthday last weekend.

Take a Load Off!

Allison’s favorite movie these days is Madagascar. She will say out of the blue, “What a bunch of pansies!!” or “Pansies!!” (Yes, we’ve told her it’s not very nice, but that seems to encourage her!)

Last Friday we had Steve’s parents over for dinner. Katherine raced to answer the door, with Allison right behind her. What did Allison say? Quoting Marty she said, “Come on in – Take a Load Off!”

 

Our Fifth Carnival

Our Fifth Carnival

I can’t believe we went to our fifth Toby School carnival today. To be more accurate, my mom took Katherine to her first carnival while Steve and I played PuzzleHunt. Since then, Steve and I have taken Katherine and then Allison to the little toddler carnival down the road once a year for the last four years. This is largely because Katherine went to Toby School for two years. Now Allison is in her second and final year there as well. (And we went the year in-between kids too!)

It’s remarkable how much stays the same about this event. The kids run around, get their faces painted, decorate masks and bags, ride in little cars and then try to win a cake. For the last three carnivals, we’ve either had (a) really great luck and won right away OR (b) paid a bunch of $ for tickets to play the cake walk over and over. Neither occurred today. Katherine was so bent out of shape, she cried all the way to the car as we left. She had her sights set on a big cake with tons of goopy frosting and candy decorations. It probably didn’t help that I made our requisite cupcakes yesterday afternoon, with Katherine almost drooling over them.

What did we make? Heart shaped cupcakes with pink, purple and yellow frosting and different sprinkle, candy decorations. I made the cupcakes for the cake walk, and let the kids each decorate one extra cupcake for dessert. You can see their final products in these pictures. (Funny enough, Allison didn’t eat hers, claiming it was too “spicy.” So, I frosted another cupcake sans decorations and let her lick the frosting off.) The umbrella on Katherine’s cupcake is from the teriyaki restaurant nearby.

I’m a big girl

Allison continues to show us her independence. She gets really upset when we un/buckle her car seat, open the minivan door, put on her shoes, put on her coat, etc. She’ll say emphatically, “I can do it!! I do it!”

Two nights ago this culminated with her assertion that she wasn’t going to wear a diaper to bed (she’s potty trained, but not dry at night). Steve finally wrestled her into a diaper to her dismay. Last night we had a long discussion. I asked her why she didn’t want to wear a diaper. She replied, “because I’m a big girl…” And, then to every suggestion of mine to show that she could stay dry with a diaper, she would say “No.”

So, we tried it her way last night, and she went to bed without a diaper. I must have done two loads of laundry today. ๐Ÿ™‚

Tonight, Steve, Katherine and I all wrestled Allison to the carpet and put on her diaper. Allison was very upset, but understands that if she stays dry she can wear underwear to bed. Also, she decided that as a reward she’ll get a “book like Kafrine’s with a piano in it.”

You Just Memorized It!

Katherine is maturing quite a bit. She works hard at arts and crafts and her biking. Tonight she used a bunch of materials to create wrapping paper for a gift and a birthday card for my mom. We also spent 30 minutes in drizzling rain biking on the driveway this afternoon. Katherine can now get around pretty well on her 16″ bike without training wheels. The only hitch is getting her going, so we have to balance her for a couple seconds before she starts pushing the pedals.

She also likes to read to Allison, which can cause a commotion at times. Just for context, after hearing a book two or three times, Allison can memorize the words. This becomes a problem because Allison will sometimes finish sentences for Katherine when she’s trying reading the book out loud. Then, we’ll hear Katherine complain loudly, “Allison…you’re just memorizing the words. You’re Not Reading!”

Allison is turning into a speed demon on Katherine’s old bike. Since Steve adjusted the training wheels, Allison has gotten really, really fast. She wiped out the other day, tearing around the corner in our development going full speed and yanking on the handlebars. I was running next to Katherine and Steve next to Allison. I looked back just in time to see Allison come careening around the corner, tip the bike so hard that it fell over on its side. Allison went sprawling to the pavement. Steve caught up and scooped her up. Thirty seconds later, she was back on her bike trying to catch her big sister.

 

Roller Queens

Roller Queens

Since it is winter break, Patty took the kids skating while I had my violin lesson and worked on school stuff. Allison wore the smallest skates they had, and Katherine wore her new purple and pink roller skates. The kids had a blast, both skating by themselves. Allison apparently clomped around the rink occasionally falling down, and shook her booty to the music. Katherine says she only fell, “Four Times…but Allison fell a hundred times!” Patty had to peel the kids out of the rink. Needless to say, they were exhausted tonight. Katherine’s new favorite place is Skate King; she just adores it.

The Plan

Katherine decided this weekend to plan out our day. I’ll decipher the phonetic writing that she taped to the wall: “First, we will watch the weather forecast. If the forecast is rain, we’ll build a fort. Then Allison will take a nap. Then we’ll go swimming.”

We get lots of little pieces of paper with scribbles on them. For Valentine’s day, we received lots of “I Love You Dad and Mom” pieces of scrap paper.

 

Funny Moments

Funny Moments

We get a lot of them these days. This morning, I found Allison in the TV room with Steve. I asked her to join me for breakfast downstairs. Her reply was hysterical, “I have stinky feet.” No reason or explanation given. But she felt strongly about it and reiterated it downstairs.

The kids and I made potstickers a couple weeks ago…really wontons since I didn’t have round wrappers. They were so excited to stir the filling. Allison must have dumped a ton of sesame oil in the filling, which I fished out. And, they each got their own tray with water bowls and a little filling to wrap. Katherine finally got the hang of it, as you can see. Allison made one correctly, thanks to coaching from Katherine and I. She was very imaginative with the rest. “Look Mama, I made a double double.” or “Look…I made a burrito!!”

This morning Katherine asked me in the car, “Mom, what’s a fault?” I guessed that this had to do with an earthquake reference (Busytown?). So, I asked her if she had heard of earthquakes. She launched into a whole explanation, “We put our hands on our heads and wait for the safety lady to hold up a sign….” Then upon being asked again, she said…”That’s when astronauts in space shake the earth!” My explanation of plates moving against one another probably didn’t sink in. But, she was very interested in my story of Loma Prieta.

Sunday with an E

Or, is it Sunda-e? Katherine went to a birthday party yesterday at Build-A-Bear, and it was just the bees knees. She picked the $10 bear, which allowed her to pick an outfit for the bear. I heard her ask the employee, “How much do I have left on my tag?” I told her later as we shopped, “Remember Katherine, you only have $10 to spend!” The reply was priceless, “Yes, Mama, I know…”

Swimming Picture

I have to include it in the blog because its just priceless. When Allison does ready-downs and swims in the water, she keeps her eyes open. The person to whom she’s swimming sees Allison bug-eyed coming up for air, often with a big smile on her mouth. You can see her in the ready-down position, where I’m about to let her go to swim to Steve. ๐Ÿ™‚

 

Basket Ramens

Basket Ramens

Allison had her Eton interview on Friday, and it went really well. We dropped off Katherine that morning, made a quick trip to Safeway and then took Allison back to Eton for her interview. She separated without any issues to spend 5 minutes with the admissions director, who asked her to try several works. Allison talked animatedly about the fruit puzzle, identifying them and saying that “Grapes!” were her favorite. She then stacked pegs on the board, noting that there weren’t enough pegs to fill the board. For the last work, Allison choose to use tweezers to move small objects from one bowl to another. She had such a great time, she wanted to stay in the interview room! We convinced her to go to the main building and meet with the school director. We all chatted for half an hour, with Allison flipping thru books and checking out toys. We were very proud!

That afternoon, Katherine climbed in the car and asked, “how did the interview go??” Allison responded, “We saw two jets!” I told the kids that for a special treat we’d go to Baskin Robbins to get ice cream. Allison’s pronounciation was hysterically funny – “Basket Ramens.” Guess what flavor they picked to take home for dessert? Bubble Gum!