Halloween 2011

This year, we decided to go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. The evening began with a potluck at Tammy & Evan's house (our neighbor 2 houses over). While mingling at the potluck, Linh meets a guy who coincidentally also works at Capital Group (same building that I'm in, different floor). Turns out, he also previously worked for Deloitte...what a small world!

As soon as it got dark, the fun began for both the kids and Linh. Nathan had a great time trick-or-treating with the neighborhood kids and Linh had a great time drinking with the neighborhood adults. Too bad I didn't get a picture of Evan pulling around a cooler filled with beer.

For more pictures, below is a link to my Picasa album. 

Picasa Album - Halloween 2011
 

 Rockin the suspenders.

Fire hydrant to complete the costume.

Matching costumes...who wore it better?

Ryan with his godparents.

Can't contain his excitement.

Why is he taking candy from his own house? LOL

Hello? Anybody home?

Nathan and his friend Hayden.

Pumpkin carving 2011

While Linh played ball on Saturday morning, I carved pumpkins with Denny. We tried to get Nathan to scoop out the pumpkin seeds with his hands, but he hated the slimy feeling. I thought all kids liked to get their hands dirty, but apparently not Nathan. 

When it came to actually carving the pumpkins, I was debating between angry birds, jack skeleton, UCLA logo, McQueen and/or Mater. Ultimately, I settled on McQueen and Mater since they are two of Nathan's favorite Cars characters.

Impatiently waiting to carve pumpkins.

Making uncle Denny do all the dirty work.

Look of disgust on his face when we made him scoop the seeds with his hands.

Mater by uncle Denny.

McQueen by me.

The finished product!

Tanaka Farms - October 2011

We met up with the Lams today at Tanaka Farms and the kids had a blast climbing on pumpkins and running in the corn maze. They sure gave me a workout trying to run in front of them so I could take their pictures.

 It wasn't easy getting both kids to cooperate for this picture since Nathan fell asleep on the way there and was a little grumpy.

The middle scarecrow looks awfully lifelike.

Nathan and his godparents.

Air Nathan!

Having lots of fun with Aidan.

So excited to pose for pictures, LOL,

 

So heavy!

I could not keep up with these guys! I kept having to tell them to run in slow motion, LOL.

Peekaboo!

 

Cute picture of the boys.

For some reason, I really like this picture of Nathan.

Taking a break.

The horn is too loud!

Awkward!

Two really awkward Nathan moments that I wanted to capture so I don't forget several months from now.

10/1/2011:

Nathan wakes up from his nap and just stands there, still groggy and holding his wee wee.

Me: "Nathan, why are you holding your wee wee? Do you need to go to the bathroom?"

Nathan: "No, my wee wee is sticking out."

Me: "Oh" (what am I supposed to say?)

Nathan (w/ his hands now inside his pants): "Wanna feel it?"

Me (quickly): "No! Take your hands out of your pants!"

Needless to say, his wee wee went down pretty quickly when he started to cry b/c he thought Linh was laughing at him. Haha, I was so not prepared for that conversation! 

7/10/2011:

Deanna and Wilson took Nathan to the LA Zoo for her company party. Before heading back home, Wilson takes Nathan to the bathroom to go pee. In the bathroom, Nathan tells Wilson that he needs to take off his shoes, pants and underwear completely before he can go pee. Since this was Wilson's first time taking Nathan to the restroom, he didn't know any better and did what Nathan told him. I think Nathan was messing around with Wilson because when Linh or I take him to the bathroom, we just pull down his pants/underwear, not take it off completely.

Anyways, when Nathan finishes peeing, he puts both palms against the stall door, leans forward and says to Wilson.

Nathan: "Spank my booty."

According to Wilson, the whole bathroom goes quiet. Wilson is mortified and sternly says (for everyone to hear).

Wilson: "No Nathan, I'm not going to spank your booty."

I'm not sure how many times Nathan says "spank my booty", but according to Wilson, they raced out of the bathroom as fast as possible. So fast that, rather than put Nathan's shoes back on, he just carried Nathan out. LOL, I don't blame him!

iPhone photo dump

Some random iPhone pictures of Nathan that we forgot existed...

8/7/2011: He fought naptime the whole afternoon. As I'm feeding Ryan, I look over and see Nathan alsleep like this. LOL, how is this even possible?

4/24/2011: So proud of his car collection. Looking at the way he lines up his cars, I think he gets his OCD from me.

4/8/2011: Not sure what kind of fashion statement he's trying to make here.

8/22/2010: Einstein's bed doubles as a comfortable reading chair.

Ryan's 4 month check-up

Today, we took Ryan to the pediatrician for his 4 month check-up and Nathan for his flu shot. Ryan weighed in at 15 lbs 7 oz and 24.5 inches long. Below are some videos of the kids before our appointment.

Nathan after getting yelled at by Linh. Notice how he looks into the family room to see Linh's reaction but becomes infuriated when he sees me filming him.

Nathan (repeatedly): "Daddy don't love me"

Ryan's laughter captured on video for the first time.

Kobayashi of seaweed eating. Maybe we should have given him breakfast before going to the doctors.

Nathan's singing voice

No intro needed, just listen for yourself...

 9/12/2011: In desperate need of guitar lessons, LOL.

9/5/2011: Giving Ryan a lullaby concert.

9/22/2011: Rocking "froggy baby" to sleep. Nathan loves this stuffed frog and sleeps with it.

Quail egg in disguise

For dinner today, I made sup mang cua (a.k.a. asparagus/crab soup) with quail eggs. Nathan declined the soup and ate rice with thit ga kho gung (a.k.a. ginger chicken) instead. 

Being Linh's son, Nathan loves eggs, so he asked for some quail eggs with his rice. I gave Nathan all of the eggs in my soup bowl (3 total). Linh didn't want to sacrifice his quail eggs, so he gave Nathan a piece of asparagus instead and told Nathan it was a quail egg. 

He ate it and kept asking for more, LOL! I was giggling under my breath the whole time. Asparagus looks and tastes nothing like egg. Nathan kept saying how the quail egg was yummy. When Linh pretended to try and take back a piece of asparagus, he told Linh "Don't take things from kids!"

Note to self, if you want Nathan to eat something new, just call it an egg. 

Injury prone & exhibitionist

If you asked me how Nathan's weekend was, two words come to mind: exhibitionist & injury-prone. I don't know if it's a part of growing up, but he is definitely getting more scrapes, bruises and bumps.  

Saturday (9/17) morning:

Every Saturday morning, I take a tennis class at IVC. To occupy the kids, Linh took Nathan, Ryan and Einstein for a walk. Nathan decided to ride his bike rather than walk. Less than a minute into their walk, Nathan tips his bike and falls into the gutter. He is now covered in muddy gutter water. Poor Nathan had to ride around the neighborhood and Tustin Ranch Road covered in gutter water. 

Saturday (9/17) afternoon: 

Linh and I are in the front yard putting up our UCLA Bruins flag. Nathan disappears into the house and is gone for awhile. As I'm adjusting the flag, Linh yells "Hong". I look up to see Nathan standing butt-naked from the waist down in front of the garage.

Me: "Nathan, why are you naked?!?"

Nathan: "Because I pooped! Mommy, are you proud?" 

Who knows how long he was standing there. Luckily, no one was walking their dog or driving by at the time! 

Sunday (9/18) morning: 

Linh is washing the cars and lets Nathan help spray the water. Of course, Nathan goes a little overboard and sprays water into the garage. This makes the epoxied garage floors extra slippery, so when he runs into the house, slips on the water, falls backward and hits his head on the cement. Poor Nathan comes into the house, crying with a huge bump on the back of his head. I ask Linh to give Nathan something to ice his bump and what does he give him? A Tina's burrito, of course.

Growing up

My boys are growing up so fast!

Nathan - For the very first time, Nathan got mad at me...very mad. Nathan was playing with Ryan a little too roughly, so I told him "Nathan, please stop. You're being too rough with your brother." What I didn't expect was for him to storm off into the living room. When I tried talking to him, he stomped up the stairs and gave me the silent treatment. It took a bit of coaxing to finally get him to talk to me. Gone are the days when I could do no wrong in his eyes (sigh).

Ryan - At almost 15 weeks old, Ryan has recently discovered his hands and his voice. He constantly stares at his little hands and tries to aim them towards his mouth. At first, he would miss alot and end up with a fist in his eyes, nose, cheeks...anywhere but his mouth. He's mastered his aim now and every chance he gets, he's sucking on his hand. 
 

Ryan's also much more talkative and loves when people talk to him, especially in a high frequency voice. Below is a video clip of Ryan cooing.

New addition

When we sold the BMW (my very first car), we decided to get the Oddysey first (b/c of the kids) and I would get my "luxury" car when the Accord died. Well, it looks like I'm going to get my luxury car sooner than expected! We decided to buy the Mercedes from Linh's mom rather than try to sell it. Nathan is in LOVE with this car, so we broke the news to him yesterday on the way home from Kindercare.

Nathan: "We have two small cars (referring to the Accord & Mercedes) and one big car."

Linh: "Nathan, did you know we are going to buy Ba Noi's car?"

Nathan: "Yay!"

Me: "We took money out of your piggy bank to buy the car. Is that ok?"

Nathan: "Some of the money?"

Me: "No, all of it."

Nathan (trying not to, but starting to cry): "But I need the money."

LOL...I felt so bad. I didn't realize he was so attached to the money in his piggy bank.

 

Surfing around

Nathan having fun surfing around after his swim lesson. He makes this look so much easier than it actually is. Pics and video courtesy of Thong.

Car fetish

If you hang around Nathan enough, you know he loves his cars. It doesn't matter if it's Cars movie-themed cars, Hotwheels or no-brand plastic cars from the $0.99 store. But, his weakness for cars doesn't just end with toy cars.

We've had Linh's mom's Mercedes E-class parked in our garage (b/c Linh is trying to sell it for her). As Nathan and I are getting ready to go to Henry's supermarket...

Nathan: "Mommy, can we take this car?" (referring to the Mercedes)

Me: "No, it's not our car. It's Ba Noi's car."

Nathan: "But I want you to drive the black car."

Me: "We can't, your car seat is not in it."

Nathan: "Aww, I want to take this car"

On Wednesday...

Linh took the car to work to show to a potential buyer and Nathan was so excited to be in the car. He was very quiet on the way to daycare, just enjoying the ride.

Nathan: "Daddy, this car has a camera. Your car doesn't have a camera." (referring to the Accord)

Yesterday...

Linh: "Ba Noi is selling her car. She said we can buy it for $40,000. That's alot of money."

Nathan: "I have money in my piggy bank. I have $500."

I guess we better start saving for his car now!

iphone photos/video

Photo/video dump from my iphone...

9/6/2011: This is what happens when you give Nathan too much sweets before bedtime and free reign to dress himself.

 

9/4/2011: The next Al Bundy? He actually had both hands in there, but I wasn't able to get my phone fast enough.
 

 

5/8/2011: Another sleep position.

 

9/6/2011: Blowing bubbles. Notice the drenched shirt!

 

 

Give Phong some gel, a comb and a blowdryer and this is what you get...the next castmember of Jersey Shore.