Merry Christmas!

Merry (belated) Christmas everyone!  The air is crisp here.  The geese are migrating south which is a sure sign that it's Christmas season here.

Eliana's preschool took a break for Christmas.  On their last day, Eliana's class did a little performance while wearing their reindeer costumes.  Each kid had their nose painted red like Rudolph.

In the days leading up to Christmas  the girls each had an advent calendar.  They opened up the little window corresponding to the day, and a little chocolate treat would be waiting for them.  Nothing like chocolate for breakfast!

Elvin took the girls (with some friends) to a Festival of Lights done every year at the Grotto, which is a Catholic chapel and wooded conference center in Portland.  The lights were pretty, even in the pouring rain.

So the girls each carried an umbrella.  Karina's cap sometimes did not cooperate and ended up blindfolding her.

 The Festival of Lights had a petting zoo, which Eliana and her friends enjoyed.

The smell apparently was not agreeable to her, though.

 We then went into the chapel for a choir performance.

The choir was fun to watch and the acoustics were great.

Overall, we liked the experience and will probably go back next year.  Maybe on a night that is less wet.

Then we set out to get a Christmas tree.  We had a gift card to Home Depot so went there.  After picking out our tree, we were amazed that even though Home Depot carries dozens of varieties of power saws, the Home Depot staff spent 5 minutes with a hand saw trimming off the bottom of the tree.   

 They were helpful in tying up our tree.

 So we began decorating the tree, which Eliana really enjoyed.  She loves putting up the lights, and garland, and ornaments.

Karina, on the other hand, was not so interested in the tree.  Rather, she discovered the little glockenspiel that we brought back from Germany on our honeymoon, put it together, and enjoyed spinning the little fan round and round.  Over and over.

Here Eliana is contemplating which stockings should be hung up on which hook.

And here is Karina playing with the glockenspiel again.  She was fascinated by it and carried it around under her arm for the whole day.

 We then set up Eliana's miniature tree in her room.  She got this tree last year from Grandma.

 Karina helped out a little bit.

 And the next morning, it was time to put the topper on the tree.  Karina had the honor since Eliana has done that the past two years.

She was quite proud of herself.

 Here's little Gabey baby. He didn't really know what was going on, but was enjoying himself anyways.  You can see that the tree in the background is getting filled with presents underneath.

 And then came the long awaited Christmas day!  Eliana woke up early, but had to wait until her siblings were up and also until Grandpa and Grandma came over.

We opened our stockings first.  The girls got Hello Kitty necklaces and bracelets.  They also got Beanie Babies in the shape of "Ni Hao Kai Lan" characters.  This is a show on Nickelodeon that the girls like watching.

Gabriel got a Beanie Baby too, which he promptly tried stuffing into his mouth.

Gabriel also got some books.  They are called "Indestructibles" and made of the same Tyvek stuff that the post office uses in its overnight envelopes.  He loves pulling on it and chewing on it, and the book is designed to withstand all that, and can even go in the washing machine!

 After opening stockings it was time to take a break and eat breakfast.  Eliana had requested that on Christmas morning, our breakfast should consist of cinnamon rolls, hard boiled eggs, and bacon.  So that's what we had.

Everyone enjoyed the food, even the hard boiled eggs.

With breakfast over, the present opening commenced again.  Santa brought Emily a Kindle Fire HD for Christmas.  

 Eliana made Daddy a little present--a frame with a picture of herself in it.

 Gabriel got some foamy toys in the shape of animals, which promptly went into his mouth.

Grandma and Grandpa got framed photos of the kids.

And Karina got, among other things, a little fold-out house with lots of doors and compartments.  She loves playing make believe with little figurines.

 And here is the aftermath of the present opening frenzy.  The kids had a great time.  And that night, we went to Emily's parents house for Christmas dinner.

 A couple of days later, we were supposed to go on a 5-day trip to San Diego, to meet up with Elvin's parents and brother's family.  Unfortunately, all three kids came down with a bug and we ended up cancelling the trip!  Karina's nose ran so much that her lip under her nose got a little raw from all the Kleenex wiping.  She remedied that by putting a band-aid on where it hurt.

 Lots of Tylenol, boxes of Kleenex, long nights, and trips to the pediatrician later, our kids are all feeling much better.  Gabriel ended up getting a double ear infection; he had his ears checked yesterday and the doctor finally declared that the infection is gone.  Then Emily got the cold and is on the tail end of that, too.

 So things are finally getting back to normal in the Yuen household.  We had a low key New Year's Eve and Day.  The highlight was a dusting of snow--to Karina's and Eliana's delight--on New Year's Eve to usher in the new year.

In the Yuen household...

We've had rain pretty much every day here for the past couple of weeks.  So it's a curl-up-on-a-sofa-with-a-book kind of weather.  The girls seems to agree.  One day, they decided to sit on the sofa together and read books. 

 

Or they play board games.  Eliana had never played with Candyland before but saw the box on our shelf and asked for the game "with the stripes on the letters".  She very much recognized the stripes as candy canes are one of her favorite food.  Eliana played with Mommy and was happy that Eliana won twice in a row.  Emily is not looking forward to the day when Eliana has to deal with defeat.

 

Another fun activity is...well, we're not sure what the name for this is.  You hang your feet on the coffee table and make your body as stiff as a board.  Maybe it's more fun than it looks.

When it's snack time, Karina tromps over to the refrigerator for a peek.  She started being able to open the refrigerator doors recently and takes full advantage of her new found skill.  In fact, she'll sometimes have both the refrigerator and freezer doors open, which does wonders for our electricity bill.

A favorite snack in our household is eating spoonfuls of peanut butter.  In this sitting, Karina ate about five spoonfuls.  She loves the stuff.

Then Eliana joined is for some too.  You'll notice that Eliana is holding Mommy's iPhone.  Emily has books on tape that Eliana likes (like the American Girl stories) and Eliana will sit with the phone, listening to the books for hours and hours on end.

 

Also in the kitchen, Karina, our little engineer, likes to figure out how things work. She likes seeing what it looks like when all the drawers are pulled out.

 

 A couple of weeks ago, Karina and Eliana got new pets.  We went to Petsmart and each girl got one cricket as a pet.  For $0.11, they're a lot cheaper than any other pet and also don't take up a lot of space.  Eliana paid for hers using her own money that she saved up doing chores.  We keep them in jars and Karina has named hers "Blue."  We're not sure why, because they're brown.  When Eliana named her cricket "Blue Gabriel,"  we were even more perplexed.

 

 Karina also like to pretend she's a baby every once in a while.  She'll play on Gabriel's mat and suck on the pacifier. 

Gabriel quite likes the mat and especially has a good time when he is sitting up, so he can reach more of the toys.  He is sitting up by himself pretty well, but will fall backwards every once in a while--so he's not reliable yet.

He still gets lots of love and attention from his sisters.  Here he is practicing sitting up by himself on the sofa, with Eliana lending a hand in case he starts to tilt.

But if she gets too close, she better watch out because he loooooves to grab hair and give it a good yank!

 During bath time, Eliana, who can sound out and read simple words now, tries to teach Karina how to read.  It's a tall order, since Karina only recognizes "O" right now and that's about it.



 And during bath, Gabriel patiently waits his turn.  Even when in a fussy mood, putting him down in the bathroom floor usually cheers him up because he knows that his turn will be coming up soon!

6 months old!



Our little Gabriel is 6 months old now!  Time has flown by and he is growing up fast.  He now likes playing with toys and can entertain himself with them for little tidbits of time.  It turns out that one of his favorite chew toys is a silicone spatula.  It is nice and soft and must feel nice on his gums.  It's also too big for him to accidentally shove all the way into his mouth.

 

He also enjoys normal baby toys.



He is a happy baby and if he hasn't seen you in the past minute or two but looks up to see you smiling at him, he'll smile back at you.

As you probably know, everything goes into his mouth.  Some people said that his cheeks actually look smaller than before.  This may be true, because yesterday he went to the pediatrician where he weighed 24 pounds--so did not gain weight as much as before.  But he has grown 1 inch since the last visit, which would explain why last week his 12 month onesies were really tight on him and we had to upgrade him to 18 month onesies.

 

We recently started giving him water to drink.  He won't drink from a baby bottle, but only from a straw cup.  He loves sucking on the straw and also chewing on it, of course.

 

 

We've also tried giving him some baby food.  He swallows some but mostly he sprays it back out.  Yes, the food doesn't just dribble out of his mouth, but he'll spray it all over the counter.

 

His two little bottom teeth which started coming in a few weeks ago are now more than nubs.  You can see them in the picture, where Elvin has pulled his lower lip down.

 

Gabriel still enjoys taking baths.  Even though he gets fussy in the evenings, when he hears the water running in the bathtub, he gets very excited and starts flapping his arms like a bird.  Here he is enjoying the warm water.

His sisters are still very fond of him.  Karina will give him hugs and say, "My Gabiel..."  (She can't say the "r" sound yet.)

 

Here she is showing Gabriel her telephone.  He wants to grab it to stick it into his mouth, of course.

We are happy to announce that he can roll over!  He will roll over from back to front, but only towards his right side.  And when he does this, his right arm gets pinned under his body, which you can see below. 

 

And he is still a big-time thumbsucker.  He'll suck mostly on his left hand and mostly when he is tired.  Pretty much every time he takes a nap, in goes the thumb, until he is asleep.

 

Our Gabriel is a funny baby.  We can't wait to see what the next 6 months holds!

 

 

 

 

 



The theater...

Portland has a theater group that puts on plays just for kids.  Recently, they put on a musical about Pinkalicious, which is a book that Eliana has read.  It's about a girl who eats too much pink stuff and wakes up to find herself turned pink herself.

This seemed like a fun outing, so Elvin took the two girls plus their cousins to see the show.

This was Eliana and Karina's first time seeing a live musical. 

The show is about to begin.  Since it is geared towards kids, the show is only 1 hour long, as opposed to 2 or 3 hours.

 

Here's a picture after the show was over.  Eliana liked the musical and understood the plot.  Karina probably was not following the story, but she said she enjoyed it.

 

Because the storyline involved the main character eating one too many pink cupcakes, the theater partnered with a local cupcake bakey to create "Pinkalicious cupcakes."  Elvin picked up two for the girls as a special treat.  They are big cupcakes, but they really only ate the frosting.