Birth Day Cake

To help the girls adjust to having a new baby in the house, we decided to bake a cake to celebrate the birth of Gabriel...a birth day cake.  Our naked chef wanted to help...  Eliana (not really naked, if you count the necklace and underwear), helped by mixing the ingredients around.

Then we mixed them together.  The mixer is too heavy for her to use but enjoyed posing with it turned off. 

She said the batter smelled good.

Eliana helped spatula the batter into the pan.

Licking the mixer blades was very fun and tasty.

Then both girls helped spread icing on the cake.

And they helped spread sprinkles on it.

And voila, here is the finished product!

And after dinner, we sang Gabriel happy birth day.

Eliana, with her sweet tooth, had two pieces of cake and would have had more if we had let her.  Karina, on the other, doesn't have the same need for sugar and wouldn't touch her cake.  But when we whipped out a small bowl of cheese puffs for her, she was all over it.

Happy Birth Day, Gabriel!

One week old...

Gabriel is one week old and developing a routine at home.  He is a very good eater and a good sleeper as well.  Since he's a bigger boy, he's almost outgrown all his newborn clothes.

Part of being a third child means that he has to tolerate being manhandled by his big sisters.  Right now their favorite activity is holding on their laps.  They take turns doing this and Gabriel usually sleeps right through the whole thing.

The girls also pat him on the head, kiss him, tuck him in (one has to make sure Karina doesn't cover his face with a blanket), and otherwise smother him with little kid attention.  Gabriel is very sleepy during the day and sleeps through most of that.

 During the day, Gabriel sleeps in the living room, which also happens to be where the girls spend most of their time--running around, yelling/screaming, and otherwise making lots of noise.  Sometimes it seems that the noisier they are, the better he sleeps! 

Gabriel is here!

Gabriel Cheng-Yi (承義) Yuen is here!  He was born on Wednesday, June 6, 2012 at 8:24 pm.  He was 9 pounds 3 oz, and 22 inches long!  Karina had been the bigger baby so far and Gabriel beat her by a pound.  He's also 2 inches longer as well.  His middle name (i.e. Chinese name) means "receiving justice or righteousness". 

While Emily and Gabriel were at the hospital, Emily's parents stayed at home with the girls and Elvin shuttled back and forth.  Since the delivery went so smoothly, mom and baby were able to come home by Friday.  We are now all home and developing a new routine.  Gabriel is eating well and besides a mild case of jaundice, is doing great.

The girls have adjusted well to having a new baby in the house.  While Eliana loves her new baby brother, she also has alot of emotions going on inside of her that is making her a little more sensitive than usual.  Karina is also fascinated with the baby but doesn't understand why sometimes mommy is holding the baby instead of her.  But overall, they love their baby brother and are very doting big sisters.

Another week...

Another week has gone by.  We are done preparing the nursery and organizing the house; we are ready for the baby to come!

And so is Eliana.  She keeps asking when he will arrive and we tell her that we don't know...  But she does talk to him (or rather Emily's belly) every day and kisses him goodnight in the evenings.  Karina has since picked up the same habit, and every night kisses Emily's tummy and says "Bye, baby".  Eliana announced that she also has a baby and took her baby out with us when we when out for dinner last friday.

A while ago, Eliana got special sandals from Brazil called "Havaianas."  They were her favorite footwear even though they would sometimes make her trip when she ran and tan bark would get in on the play ground.  No matter--style over comfort of course.  But her old pair kept breaking and broke one too many times to be super glued back together.  So we ordered another pair for her...

Of course, she picked out the pink, flowery ones...

There's a preschool educational website called ABCMouse.com.  Eliana absolutely loves it.  As you do activities, you earn points, which you can spend buying pretend things.  For example, there is a virtual fish tank and Eliana has bought extra fish and decorations for the tank.  It has been interesting watching her hand-eye coordination develop.  She still does not understand that if you are trying to get the cursor to a certain spot on the screen, but that the mouse is bumping against something on the table, you can pick up the mouse and move it over.

Eliana's preschool recently took a field trip to the local fire department and Elvin accompanied as the helping parent that day.  Elvin had never been to a fire station before (that he can remember) and so thoroughly enjoyed the trip, probably  more than the kids.

He especially thought all the equipment on the fire truck was amazing.

Eliana has really, really enjoyed her preschool class.  The last day of school was this past week and there was a small performance for the parents to watch.

The kids dressed up as insects and sang insect songs...

We've had some hot days mixed in with our rainy days.  Also, the girl's room faces the west and gets the setting sun.  As a result, the room can get a little warm.  Being a Pacific Northwest kid, Eliana is not used to that and here she is trying to cope...

We moved Karina into Eliana's room about a month ago.  Karina was VERY excited to get her own bed.  The transition has been smoother than we expected and amazingly enough, Karina tends to sleep better and more soundly sharing a room with Eliana compared to in the crib in the nursery.

And when putting her down to sleep, especially if she is already pretty sleepy, she will crawl to her pillow, lay down her head and fall asleep without any protest!  This is a big change from Ellie...

Here is Karina one morning with crazy hair.

She continues to be a voracious eater.  She will eat most things and anything within reach.  Karina will be eating constantly for 30 minutes straight even while the rest of the family is done.  And she is not opposed to trying new things, such as the artichoke leaves she is munching on in the picture below.

Karina is also learning how to cut with scissors.  She can make single cuts now, with a special pair that's easier to use.

She is definetely expressing more independence.  In the mornings, Karina picks out her own clothes now, which leads to some pretty interesting combinations.  She also wants to push her tricycle herself sometimes, instead of being pushed all the time. 

And she likes putting on chapstick.  This, she picked up from her big sister.  She will put it on her lips, and cheeks, and also chin before putting the cap back on.  Here, if you look closely, you will see she actually has TWO tubes of chapstick open in her hand at once. 

Karina is still not using a whole lot of consonant sounds but we can usually understand what she is saying if she signs along with her words.  She is definetely becoming a little person!

Sisters

Eliana and Karina probably don't remember what life was like when they didn't have each other and neither do we.  They are constantly seeking out each other.  If one is playing upstairs, then the other follows.  Even though Karina copies her big sister a lot, more often than not, Eliana will go and join Karina is a certain activity. 

They love each other's company and here's a little video dedicated to that...

Sprinklers!

We had a spell of hot weather and so it was time to turn on the sprinklers again, Eliana said.  She remembered when we did that last year.
After putting on her swimsuit (a little bit too small for her, but she refuses to wear her new swimsuit because "it doesn't have a skirt") and flip-flops, she was all ready....  And off she went!

Apparently its fun to get squirted in the face.  That's curious for a girl who doesn't like to dip her face into the water in the swimming pool.

At the end, she washed the grass off of her feet and flip-flops by rinsing them in the sprinkler.

Karina wasn't so sure about the whole thing.  At first she watched from the sidelines.

She decided to go out there, but can't move very fast on the grass and doesn't know how to get away from the water if it's getting her in the face.

But she wanted to join in on the action and had Elvin carry her.  Here's a video of Eliana, Karina, and Daddy running around.

In the end, we THINK Karina enjoyed it.

Happy Mother's Day!

We had a very low key Mother's Day...  trying to finish up last minute preparations before baby comes. 

Eliana made a very sweet card (with help from a babysitter) for her mom and here it is.

On the front cover, it says: "TO MOMMA" (Eliana writes in all CAPS only.  She refuses to learn the small letters, for some reason.)  And she decorated it with jewel stickers.

On the inside, it says: "HAPPY MOTHERS DAY" and then below "U LOVE YOU".  We think she meant to write "I love you."  The person she drew is a girl, with a mustache and beard, she says.  The drawing below is open to interpretation.  Eliana says that it's a drawing of our family.  Karina is the short one all the way to the right.  Emily is on the left--the circle around the belly shows the fact that she's pregnant.

And "FROM ELIANA" on the back.

Hope you had a good Mother's Day as well!