Mrs. Apple

A lot of people were affected by the fires that scorched a path through Yorba Linda, Brea and Anaheim Hills last week. We were lucky. Despite being under a mandatory evacuation order and despite having houses burn down the street from us, our house was untouched.

Mrs. Marilyn Apple was not so lucky. She's a secretary at Kael's school. A very warm, kind woman who always takes the time to greet my kids every day. It was a daily ritual last year for Malia to climb onto Mrs. Apple's lap for a hug and a quick chat while dropping off and picking up Kael from class. Mrs. Apple lost her home to the fires. It was a complete loss.

Fairmont Private School declared Friday a Free Dress Day in honor of Mrs. Apple and started a collection to help alleviate some of the financial hardship that she undoubtedly is going through. Kael asked that we help Mrs. Apple and I suggested that he draw a card for her.

This is what he drew:


A new house for her live in.
A large yard with a fish pond, a pool and a flower garden.
He also thought she would like to go on a plane ride and so he drew her a plane.
Lastly, since her name is "Mrs. Apple," he drew her an apple tree.

(BTW, the "Your the best" was part of the card.)

I thought it was such a sweet card I had to share.

The Spare

You know that saying: "The Heir and the Spare"? It applies to our family.

In the Mai Household, it's the Heir, the Princess and the Spare. Poor Taede. I've taken no pictures of him. I've hardly purchased any new clothes. He's got no new toys. He's made to nap on the run, around Kael's schedule first (the Heir) and then Malia's schedule second (the Princess). And if I feel I can squeeze another 30 minutes out of him, I'll do a run to the grocery store or Target.

Knowing that I may have to deal with some resentment from him when he grows up and realizes what a large shaft he was given as a baby, I hauled out my camera and snapped some pictures of our little bug.


Malia loves him so much. I'm pretty sure she knows he's a live person as opposed to a really cool interactive doll.

Pretty sure...


One last shot together before some solo shots of Taede.


OK Malia, Mommy wants to take some pictures of Taede by himself.


Malia is like white on rice with him.


And finally - Taede.

Our Spare.

Name that kid.

All about 8 weeks old.


Kid A


Kid B


Kid C

The Artist

Malia has always loved art. Less for the "creation" part of it, and more for the "messiness" potential. She likes to paint the most but not so much on paper. Unless you consider skin a natural form of paper. She didn't really get crayons and coloring. Not even the Color Wonder stuff. She scribbled some and then asked for paint.

I tried to help her hold the marker correctly but she refused to listen, preferring instead to grad them in her fist, like a butcher knife. Absolutely refused to take any kind of direction, suggestion or even vague hints.

But, while we were in Santa Cruz for the wedding, it **clicked**. Strange but true and pretty neat that I knew the exact moment when Malia realized that coloring books had pictures that were meant to be colored in and not scribbled over. Ever since then she's been holding her crayons and markers the correct way, while diligently coloring within the lines. The look of concentration on her face is so cute, so intent. And she's pretty good at it too!


Look at how focused she is. She would not talk to me or look at me, and I'm not sure she even heard me talking to her.


A close-up of her work. I colored the dude with the green hair. She worked on the mermaid all by herself. She's pretty good for a 2.5 year old.

Even though she's discovered coloring, that's not to say that she still doesn't love art and creating. In fact, her favorite art medium is... urine.

Yes, you read that correctly.
Urine.
Pee.
Piss.

At least it's her own. And before you get totally grossed out, let me explain. She doesn't touch it or stick a paint brush in it or do anything gross that would require sanitizing. She pees in her little potty and when she's done, she stands up and declares what it is:
"Look, Mommy! I made an egg!"
"Look, Mommy! I made a donut!"
"Look, Mommy! I made the letter 'C'!"

My personal favorite:
"Look, Mommy! I made a seahorse!"

And I'll be damned: it REALLY DID look like a seahorse. I should have taken a picture but her masterpiece was starting to converge into one big puddle in the pot.

Ahh, my little Picasso.

San Jose Trip, Part I (October)

I actually had pictures loaded up in Flickr days ago but couldn't find the time to write up the post to go with it. Between getting hit with the stomach flu (which was horrible and I'd rather go through childbirth again than get a repeat of it) and the fires (we were evacuated but obviously still had a home at the end of the day), I'm just now making the official post. Add on the fact that I'm thisclose to calling in for an exorcism of Malia and Taede wanting to nap but can't seem to (maybe the fact that he's screaming his head off has something to do with it?) I feel like I'm living in bizarro-world because no one's life could be this hectic and crazy, and yet strangely manage to accomplish nothing at the end of the day. It's weird.

Anyway, the pictures. My sister had my camera so I had a lot of strange pictures to cull through. Over 100 pictures, actually. And all from the Academy of Sciences (AoS). She went bonkers and I shudder to think what would happen if I had a film camera instead of a digital.

Having 3 kids, it dawned on me on this trip that taking pictures is virtually impossible. Especially with a gigantic DSLR hanging off my neck, banging into Taede, waking him up. This is the reason why I only have pictures of the one day at the Academy (thanks to my trigger happy sister) and none from the wedding in Santa Cruz.

We had a great time at the AoS. The exhibits were truly amazing, especially the Rain Forest with all the birds and butterflies. We got an annual pass so we plan on making a trek to AoS at least once each visit. It's one of those places where there's always something new to look at.

From San Jose we headed to Santa Cruz for my brother-in-law's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding, albiet a wet one. It rained and poured but that only added to the magical feel. The wedding site was in a remote part of the Santa Cruz mountains, with no cell phone reception, no TV, one pay phone and nowhere near a store or restaurant. I have to admit I had (a lot) of concerns heading up there with a newborn but I had nothing to worry about in the end. We stayed in the main house with 5 other families (17 people in all, including 2 newborns and 5 kids between 5 years and 12 months old). Luckily the house was quite large and very cozy. Much nicer that I envisioned. I guess that's the benefit of coming into a situation with a worst case scenario imprinted in my brain: whatever you end up getting is way better than your fears. I'll pull some pictures off other people's sites to share. It really was a beautiful wedding.

The kids had a great time with their family (Pham's and Mai's). We took a chance and drove during the day since Taede seemed to sleep well during the day (at that age anyway -- it's totally different now). Aside from flashing a few truckers while I nursed him, the car ride was pretty uneventful. Taede did great sleeping in his car seat. As for the big kids, all I can say is "Thank god for portable DVD players." I don't know how my parents road tripped with 5 kids every summer. They must be saints.

Or deaf.