Second Runner Up Summer Pool

The weather once again turned hot so we hauled out the trusty old pool for the kids to splash around in. I was too lazy to go look for a replacement water mat but it looks like I didn't have to worry about it after all. I think my kids would have fun in a puddle, as long as it's wet.


Our bathing beauty.

Sorry for the blurry image but she was walking too fast for even my camera to get a clear shot.

And yes, that's a plastic cup. She likes to walk around with a cup in her hands. You will see several drinking vessels strewn about my house on any given day.




Kael taking a dive into the pool .














I don't think this pool will fit them both next year. However, at Malia's current rate of growth, you never know...




Kael about to make another big splash and Malia has a giddy smile on her face.











Kael is beyond happy to be in the pool. Now why can't he be this ecstatic in the shower?!





The next few shots tell a funny story:


What a sweet smile on Malia!











Oops! She slips.











Gets a face full of water.














And doesn't look too happy. In fact, she's so pissed she vacates the pool.




Finally -- the pool all to myself!

Floam: Toy of the DEVIL

I don't know how people play with this stuff. At first it was fun -- in a "it's fun now but I know I'm going to regret this later" kind of way. And the longer we played with it, the bigger a mess we made. You're supposed to squish it around and the more you squish it, the less sticky it gets. This was not the case for us. It got into and onto everything and it wouldn't clean off! It's like making rice crispy treats with extra extra marshmallows and trying to spread it over your pan with an unbuttered spatula. Impossible, right?

First, let me try to explain what floam is so you understand what I'm talking about. It's little styrofoam-like beads in a gooey, sticky, gel-like.... goo. Like really juicy molding beads. And when you press your hands together then pull it apart, it makes threads that get thinner and thinner as you pull your hands further and further apart before it finally breaks.

Kael kept flailing it around, making threads in the air, saying "Look Mom! I made spiderwebs!" Ack!! So now it's not only all over us, it's all over the house! And the more we tried to clean it off our fingers, the more we got on there. Pretty soon both our hands and fingers - even the backs of our hands - were encased in this stuff. Then somehow it got all over Kael's arm. And my shirt. His shorts. My capris. The floor mats. We tried to wash it off in the bathroom and despite scrubbing and scraping with finger nails, we still had residual goo on our fingers.

I decided to sacrifice a hand towel and rubbed it off (kind of like rubbing semi-dried glue) and then cracked open some molding foam, which is similar to floam but way way less gooey. We were trying to make animals and it was very apparent that floam was not going to do it for us today (if ever). I ran upstairs to get the camera in case we actually succeeded in making something recognizable and needed documentation -- and when I came back downstairs, this is what I found Kael doing:

Do you see the green floam running down his arm?

I don't know what he was doing but I'm guessing that he didn't want his fingers to get gooey again so he used his feet.














Luckily this stuff isn't as sticky as floam.

I really like saying FLOAM. I think it's a fun word to say: floam floam floam floam.








Gotcha!!





























Honest Mom, I wasn't doing anything!

Calgon take me away!

What a rough day. For everyone.
Mom is tired.
Kael is bored.
Malia is... well, there's nothing wrong with Malia unless you count the fact that Mom's tired and Kael's bored so she's easy pickings.

Kael is still asking to go to school. In fact, yesterday he didn't want to go ice-skating and instead he demanded to be taken to school. I told him that school was closed -- and it was actually the TRUTH this time -- but he would have none of that. I finally convinced him to get in the car with the promise that I would call the school to see if they were open. Luckily "no one was there" to open the school so we ended up at ice skating. I signed him up for school starting next week, for two days, and I tell you I'm going to just roll down the window and toss him out at drop-off! Now I fully understand why parents always look at summer break with such trepidation.

This morning he woke up and asked me, with evil eyes and a barely contained eye roll: "Are we going to do something fun today, Mom?" Sheesh. Like I wake up in the morning and think: "muhwahhahaa - another day to bore my prisoner to death!"

Malia is holding her own against Kael. And me. And Dad. If you try to take anything away from her, she will let out a "nononononono!" and yank it back. I can very accurately discern from her yelling what's happening -- if Kael's trying to take something away, if she bonked herself, if she wants something. Her favorite thing to do now is reading. She love loves loves to bring you a book, say "buhk," turn around and then back into your lap for a reading. It's the cutest thing. Kael is also a lover of books and reading so now the kids fight for lap space. It's pretty funny to see Malia get mad when he's there first - she tries to push him off and if that doesn't work then she drops her book on top of his and sits on him. He however doesn't find it remotely funny or cute.

You know how there are times when you want to eat something but can't find anything appealing? Malia's in that funk and it's driving me bonkers. She's got a whole buffet spread out in front of her: spinach and cheese ravioli, mac and cheese, chicken pieces, turkey pieces, cheese, baby food, green beans, cheese quesadilla, peaches. I pretty much empty out my fridge and it's just not the right taste. She'll take one or two bites then she's done. She points to my food, I give it to her, she spits it out. She points to Kael's food, tastes it, spits it out. The most she's eaten this week: mangoes and cold cereal. She's driving me insane. But since she's just over 15lbs at 14 months, I have to keep trying. It's really scary how fast little kids learn to differentiate between "nutritious food eaten at meals" vs "snacks like granola bites and junk like fries" and go for the snacks and junk every time. I'm in a real quandary: do I wait until she wants to eat the healthy stuff even though it's been days or do I give her the so-so, not remotely healthy or organic foods just to fill her up?

Lastly (and sadly), my prediction for the water mat proved true. I let the kids play on it after lunch today and after 20 minutes of jumping and splashing and falling on it, the mat is now kaputt. There's a huge hole where Kael landed on a whale and popped it. It was so sad. The water jets were barely spraying and Malia kept tapping it, wondering what happened. At $20 a pop plus a week wait time for the on-line order, I'm back to scouring Toys R Us for the not-so-perfect-but-cheaper-and-quicker-to-get summer aquatic toy.

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The Baby Mop
No comment.

Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin

I took Kael to visit his new preschool so he can get the lay of the land, so to speak, before he starts his new year. I plan on enrolling him in summer camps there so he has something fun to do for a few hours in the morning and get him used to the new campus. He was so excited and wanted to start school that day, at that visit. I told him he can go next week and while he's wasn't thrilled at the prospect of leaving, he was OK with coming back "later, after my nap."

You have to love a kid's perspective of time.

Uncle Trieu came for a visit and Kael was beyond thrilled (I seriously think he's so over spending time with me and Malia). It's always such a fun treat to watch a single, kidless uncle play with your child. All the interesting things young children learn from their uncles...

Kael has been listening to a CD burned by Ms Jackie (his former preschool teacher) of the class favorites and his current song is a rock rendition of The Three Little Pigs set to the song "Bad to the Bones" by George Thorogood and the Destroyers (you know: "B-B-B-Bad... B-B-B-Bad to the bones"). Anyway Kael's been building his house all week and last night he got out all his tools so he and his uncle can build a sturdy house to keep the wolf out.

First you have to put up the walls by screwing in screws with the drill. In case you're wondering, the monkey cups help with the drilling. I missed that portion of the tutorial on building a wolf-proof house as I was getting the camera but that's what Kael told Trieu.

Next you saw the wood. Kael tells Trieu to be careful with the saw.













Then you hammer in some nails. Trieu takes over the sawing duties and asks Kael if he can "saw off Kael's arm." Kael says "NO!" and then Trieu tells him "Come on, we need to saw off your arms. We can use your arms to hold up the walls." (Do you see where Trieu is trying to saw off Kael's arms?)

After last night's construction, I'm now on the look out for Kael sawing off or hammering nails into his sister. Thanks, Trieu.

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Everyone who meets Malia think she's just the cutest little baby, such a sweet little angel. And don't get me wrong, she really is cute. But here's proof of what she's really like.

Kael gets a rinse every morning because he's a sweaty sleeper. And every morning it's a balancing act to get one kid out of the shower while keeping the other out.

Here she is trying to get in. I've already taken her away a couple of times. The door is open because I need to rinse down the walls and re-stick Kael's dinosaurs to the glass. All while Kael is running amuck in my bedroom naked as a jay bird.









Malia: "I'm getting in that shower whether you like it or not!"

















And here she is trying again. She's obviously an obedient child.

















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The Ear Wax Camera+Cleaner
For the obsessive clean freak, this neat little device allows you to see your built-up ear wax as you clean your ear... by scooping out the wax.

We have a winner!

Summer is not complete without the multiple purchases of plastic backyard water activity toys. I was on a quest for the perfect one -- and I can happily say that I have found it!

There is a science to finding the right pool that will not only keep the preschooler entertained but also keep the baby safe. You can't really utilize a pool for all it's worth due to fear of drowning for the baby. Or you can just not fill it up as much but then what fun is ankle deep water for a daredevil 3.5 year old?

I found a water mat that combines a shallow area for great splash-ability and little holes all around for water sprinkling. When Truong took it out of the box, we couldn't figure out how the thing worked. Do you blow it up? Where do you put the pump? How big is it? So we decided to hook it up and check it out. It was late afternoon (5pm) and the weather, while still warm, was in no way hot enough to take the chill out of hose water. We figured our pampered kids wouldn't want to venture in. But just in case, we specifically told Kael and Malia: "DO NOT GO IN!"

And let me tell you: our kids don't listen to us worth a damn.

The instant Truong turned his back to adjust the water pressure, the kids dove right in. Fully clothed. And laid there. They looked so utterly delighted at the new pool that we didn't have the heart to haul them out.

Can Malia look any happier?











Malia is trying to catch the water with her mouth.











If the kids could sleep in water, I think they would be totally happy.









Big splash!


















My wet happy boy.






She had a really odd look on her face and I couldn't figure out why. She was in this position for several seconds. I thought something was wrong.




Then I saw why: one of the water sprinklers was shooting up in her ear.











Full facial














Ohh, that's a lot of water.
















Alright - I'm outta here. Me and my 60 pound diaper.










The way the kids were jumping around in there, I hope the pool will resist popping and last the rest of the summer. I think I'm going to order another one -- just in case!

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The Cruzin Cooler
For the dedicated picnic'er. The nice part about it is it's environmentally friendly: it can be either gas or electric powered. Just another way to help save the environment without losing out on any fun.