Arm all better!

After four weeks in a cast, Karina went back to the hospital for a check-up.  She would get her cast off and then go for X-rays.

Then the doctor would decide whether her arm was healed enough or if she needed to be in a cast for another two weeks.  She REALLY wanted the cast to be gone, but we warned her that it was up to the  doctor!

They took the cast off in order to get a good x-ray.

The doctor decided that her arm was healed up enough so she came home without a cast!  It was a little stiff after being in the cast for a long time.  Also, there was lots of dead skin sloughing off, but Karina was very happy to finally be free!

R.I.P. Swishy

Elvin and the three older kids went away for the weekend on a backpacking trip.

When they came back, they came home to the news that there was a casualty in the aquarium.  Swishy, the white betta fish, unfortunately expired that morning.  There he was laying on his side, lifeless, at the bottom of the tank.

In retrospect, in the past couple of weeks, he has looked more and more sluggish, often resting on the bottom of the tank.  Overall, Eliana took the news fairly well.

So someone needed to scoop up the fish and bury it.  The task fell to Karina because Eliana was too grossed out.  Karina made sure to put on a latex glove for this job.

Eliana did dig a little hole in her raised bed in the backyard.  Karina solemnly placed the fish in there.  And then Xiao Yu helped to pile the earth back on.

Rest in peace, Swishy!

More new family members! Lots of them!

Eliana has a love for animals.  In March, she started researching fish and learning about how to set up and maintain an aquarium.  She also has built up some funds from a babysitting gig she does, so after a bit of planning, off to PetSmart we went.

She ended up getting a 5.5 gallon tank.  She bought the gravel and also several underwater plants.

This tank was made "official" with a filter, themometer and heater for her tropical fish that were soon to come.

It is now all set up!  It just needs several days to rest, according to Eliana, so that the water can get conditioned properly.  

We then headed off to Petco.  However, once we got there, they were ALL sold out of fish.  (And also birds, rodents, reptiles, ferrets--everything!  Apparently we were not the only ones looking for new pets during quarantine.)

She then called Petsmart and found out when their shipments usually came in (Thursday.)  And so on that day, off we went again.  She ended up getting a betta fish and also three little shrimp, called ghost shrimp.

The betta has a pinkish color but is mostly all white.  His name was, at first, Zoomy, because he zoomed around the tank when he was first put in.  And maybe also because the kids have to do Zoom calls for school and they have "zoom" in their brains.  But then they started calling his Swishy...which is the name of the previous fish they had.

The ghost shrimp are really cute and fun to watch.  They hang around the bottom and try to find scraps of food that the fish didn't get.  They are also hard to spot as they are almost the same color as the gravel and are only 1/2 an inch long.

And Eliana also got three fish called zebra danios.  They are tiny little things, about an inch long and dart around like crazy.

Getting to feed the fish is a treat for everyone and many times, the kids can be found doing this...fish watching.

Shelter in Place Life Part II

Although the kids every once in a while ask to go places, such as the bowling alley or Chuck-E-Cheese, we've mostly gotten accustomed to the shelter-in-place life.

We've certainly played more games than usual, including such scintillating card games such as Slap Jack.


Gabe likes to play Stratego.  Somehow, he usually beats Elvin.

Emily has her old American Doll things stored away on a high shelf, and it has been there untouched for years.  Karina spotted it and asked to get it down.  She was very happy to go through it and admire all the little trinkets.

Gabe continues to love sports and begged Elvin to take him out to play tennis.  Elvin finally relented and took him to a local park.  The tennis courts were still padlocked, so instead we hit the ball against the practice wall.

Elvin has spent quite a bit more time on his garden this year compared to other years.  Here Karina is helping him saw a piece of wood to use as a stake.

The artichokes are growing like crazy this year...

And already bearing some artichokes.

As the weather has been warming up, the kids have been enjoying the watermelon that is back in season.

The boys also got a hold of the water guns.  Watch out!  (For the mermaid wearing goggles.)

And while the kids have been in the backyard, they spotted our backyard neighbor host an illicit gathering of people.  They are very aware of the rules and did NOT approve of this activity.  Eliana even grabbed the step stool and binoculars to spy on them and reported that they were not social distancing.  Tsk tsk!

More time at home means more activities as home, such as a "hand salon" complete with a hand massage and finger nail painting.

Xiao Yu was also giving out foot massages.

Elvin got a sourdough starter from someone at church.  Karina was interested in starting some as well.

With it, she decided to make some homemade crackers.

You had to roll out the dough really thinly.

And then slice them into squares, brush them with oil, and then salt them.  They were really tasty!

We've been eating more homemade bread.

Elvin made a whole wheat sourdough loaf of bread the other day.  It was pretty good!

School has been at home.  Karina once a week has "class" with her teacher.  She always goes outside to do it, with her bunnies keeping her company.

Xiao Yu also has class online sometimes.  He is doing well, working on reading and writing, and math.

In his spare time, he enjoys building things out of cardboard boxes, such as this "dog house" as he calls it.  (Elvin helped out.)

And more time as home means more time to do chores.  The kids are now assigned to help with doing the dishes.  They don't like touching slimy things, so they wear super fashionable rubber gloves.  Which look especially lovely when one goes shirtless.

Interestingly enough, with the whole Zoom craze, Gabe and Karina have started to Zoom with some of their friends.  What do two 7-year old boys talk about during a Zoom call?  Well, they don't exactly have a back and forth conversation, as you might imagine.  Instead they run off screen to grab toys to show the other person, or they make faces at each other, or they make funny noises at each other...


And Gabe started to get really crazy quarantine hair.  His bangs were getting so long, it was way past his eyes and annoying even him.  So Elvin watched a few YouTube videos and went at it...

Not to bad huh?  Hope you're staying safe and doing well!

First cast

A couple of weeks ago, Karina fell off the swing in our backyard.  As she landed, the put her right arm out behind her and hurt it.

After noticing that Karina wasn't willing to bend her arm after a certain point, we took her in to the doctor, who thought it was just a sprain but got an x-ray done anyways.  When it came back, they told us there was a fracture.  So this is the first broken bone in our family!

We are lucky that Portland has Shriner's hospital, which specializes in orthopedics for kids.  Here she is getting examined there.

And here she is with her new cast!  Pink of course.  We were told that she would need to have it on for 4-6 weeks.

The kids signed it.

She is bummed that she can't ride her bike, or do other things like knitting, drawing, or crocheting.  On the flip side, she can no longer do much of her schoolwork, practice the piano, or violin, or do some chores like washing dishes.  So at least she go out of that!


After a week, we took her in for a follow-up visit, to make sure the bone was healing ok.  She got another x-ray done.

Because the swelling in her arm had gone down, her arm was wiggling in there now.  They decided to remove the old one and put a new one on, that fit more snuggly.

Here is the new one, with a stripe!

Karina has learned to be more ambidextrous.  She can write (slowly) with her left hand now.

And does other stuff, like brush her teeth and eat meals, with her left hand too.  

Get well soon, Karina!

No training wheels!

Gabriel decided a couple of weeks ago that he wanted to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels.  We tried it several months back and it was not successful.  Now with quarantine and nothing better to do, we tried again.

We went to a local middle school with a rubberized track, and you can watch the results...

As you can see, it was successful!  Karina came along as moral support.


When we went back the following weekend, he was riding with just one hand!  Good job Gabe!

Shelter-in-Place Life

What strange times we live in.  The kids are aware of what's going on, but also don't seem to be overly concerned about things.  Just for fun, Karina made herself a mask using toilet paper and yarn.  She's our craftsy kid.

Home schooling the three older kids continues like normal.  Things haven't changed for them...except for the 6 or 7 weekly activities they used to go to!  No more gymnastics, dance, karate, PE class, calligraphy class....

Xiao Yu, of course, is learning at home, now, as well.  We are impressed with his writing and drawing skills.  He wrote about our family's trip to Sunriver a couple of months ago.


Because the library is closed, the books that are ready-to-be-returned are accumulating and growing in number.  We're not sure what we'll do when the kids run out of books to read.  That might be when the shelter-in-place rubber meets the road for our family.

Here is our bookworm reading a book.  Do you read books while perched on the back of a sofa?

Gabe has also been passing time by drawing mazes.  This one is kind of tough.

There are some extra curricular activities still going on....through Zoom.  We would've never thought it possible, but Karina and Gabe decided to take up violin just before the quarantine hit, and they are actually able to learn somewhat through Zoom classes.  Karina likes it more than Gabe.

Emily is trying to keep things varied and fun. On same days of the week, there is something special for the kids.  For example, on Friday's they get to eat lunch from some fast food restaurant of their choice.  Last week it was Sonic.  That drink that Gabe is drinking is a grape soda chock full of purple food coloring.

Before they closed down the parks, we went out to a local beach along the Columbia River.  The kids enjoyed playing in the sand.

Elvin enjoyed throwing a line out...while catching up on the latest news about Covid.

With the weather being nicer, we've also started to play soccer in the backyard again.  It's an attempt at replacing the soccer season that Gabe and Karina are missing out on.  (Yes, Gabe is playing shirtless and in his PJs.)

The two middle kids have also enjoyed playing on the structure and swing.

And they've taken up jump roping.  The current challenge is trying to jump together, in sync.  Not easy!

Xiao Yu continues to display massive core body strength by doing stuff like this.  He can lift his legs up and over his head just like a gymnast.

And with less activities, it's meant that Elvin's had time to do some grafting of his fruit trees again.  He added a couple of grafts to his Asian pear tree.

Karina really enjoys riding her bicycle so she enjoys going around the block.  Sometimes we do a larger circuit through the neighborhood.

One time, when coming back home from a bike ride, we saw a couple of large birds flying around.  When they landed on a roof, we realized that they were turkey vultures, which are native to this area.

Sometimes the whole family goes out.


Like many people across the country, we've started baking more.  The kids enjoy making their own pizzas.

Here is how the first set turned out.  Too much cheese--it melted off of the pizza and took some of the pepperoni with it!

And a fun activity that Emily taught the kids is to make sidewalk chalk art, but if you use masking tape first and color various panes, different colors, then it looks like a stained glass window.  Karina drew a Easter egg first, and then worked on another one.

She's almost done with her cross.

Xiao Yu worked on a star.


This is Elvin's...a leaf; while Eliana was working on a mermaid one.

Hope you are staying healthy and well!