The Wind Up

Today's the day, the last day of the year. A top five countdown of our family's biggest events:


5. New wheels.

4. Hawaii! Need I say more?

3. G in preschool.



2. Drew's new job with the FCC and subsequent move to KCMO.


1. The addition of Z-Boo to our family line-up.

Opening Opportunities

Within the last week, BB has finally figured out how to open doors. I've seen her fiddling with the knob on numerous occasions without success, so it must be that she recently put two and two together as the saying goes.

Turning Over Success

The Monster Under the Fridge

I've had an idea of what lurked under the fridge (via our landlady's dog) ever since the first time I went chasing after some toy, but have always managed to avoid the subject of cleaning underneath there. However, quite a number of marbles have gone to make their home there and we thought it was high time we fished them out, had a look see under the fridge. By the time I snapped this picture, Drew had already put the moderate cat-sized dust bunny in the garbage so that what you see is only a fraction of what it was.

That puts me in mind of the time my mom had most of the carpet on the main floor of her house ripped out to put down pergo – and this is what we found when we pulled out the fridge, the first time in more than 10 years.

Round 6

After dinner this evening, we finally! finished opening presents: a set of paper dolls for BB and a magnetic version for G, both from Aunt Christie; a wine decanter; Tea Party game; and an assortment of Kansas souvenirs for YW, all from Elizabeth and her family.

Mini Round 5

G was complaining of stomach pains this morning, so after we gave her a bit to eat, we let her open a gift, matching ballet slippers (a size too big), to take her mind off things, and it perked her up amazingly. Last night she was on the point of stealing BB's right off her feet in order that she might complete her Cinderella outfit.

It was downright warm today, in the 60s with wind, but I thought we should have a picture of Z wearing her booties, rabbits, I think. And it seems, I'm receiving a pair of ballet slippers of my own for Christmas. The girls will love the fact that we're all the same, except that mine will be fuzzy. :)

Round 4

We had Christmas dinner at E's house, and another bout of gifts for the girls, this one gift bearing the bell away.

Yup, Cinderella dresses, matching, with white glove-lets, which you can kind of see under BB's RH sleeve. Goes beautifully with the ballet slippers. A note about the glove-lets: it seems they were made for slender armed children, unlike mine, cutting off the circulation of my (adorably) ham-armed daughter.

And as an aside, if you're curious to know what we got for E and her family, maybe as future gift ideas, I'll tell you. There was a tote for M and a pocket gadget for her husband; a lacy scarf for Em; an apron (like mine, different fabric) for E; and, the one I'm most proud of, "homemade" gin for the parents. The latter was super easy to make, and I had fun doing it. Though I'm not a gin drinker myself, they said the result was very tasty.

Round 3

In an effort to spread gift opening out, I held off on Aunt Christie's until late-ish afternoon (Christmas day) – but we made it through only one set before we had to declare a stop.


For one thing, G insisted that her punchball critter wasn't supposed to be like that after Drew inflated it, and then she wasn't happy with the one she got, a frog (top), as opposed to BB's elephant. And may I just say, I was a little grossed out by the grease mark that these things left on the wrapping paper, and secretly hoped that they would spring an irreparable leak. (I got my wish not ten minutes later when, I suspect, BB tried to sit on hers, a complete blowout so to speak. One down...) For another thing, and don't think me an ungrateful scrub AC, but these toys were meant for 8-year-olds and up!

I don't think my nerves can handle any more present opening, and all that that implies.

But all was forgotten when Drew brought out his gift: Frigits, the infighting starting all over again, only over this new item. Once we got down to business, however, we accomplished some pretty cool configurations. If only we had a few more pieces and esp the piece for rounding corners.

The Color Green

"Daddy, I don't like this green [Rody]. "
"It's not yours anyway. It's Mei-Mei's."
"Daddy, I want someone [sic] give me a red one."

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"I didn't want this [Rody]. I wanted the ladybug [Wheely Bug], Daddy. I want someone [sic] give me the ladybug. Daddy? Daddy, I want someone [sic] give me the ladybug."

Round 2

Merry Christmas!

AhPoh called yesterday to insist that we take lots of pictures, so two birds with one stone here.

YW AhYee hasn't been feeling well since yesterday afternoon, most likely caught what the girls have/had, still abed, and considering our "wrap" job, we decided to open the biggies as soon as the girls were awake, prevent snooping.




Our gift to BB: the Rody, reminiscent of the hopper ball, except the rider is not so easily unseated as I remember I was as a kid. We had originally been looking to get the Wheely Bug – she loved playing on it at a friend's house –, but since we have mostly carpet, we didn't think it would roll as well.

Though she won't know until she reads this, this is AhPoh's present to the girls.


AhGong's present which arrived some weeks earlier. The UPS guy was kind enough to stealth it into the garage for me since it didn't come with secretive packaging.


Aunt Christie's gift to Z – and the drool mark that Z left on its face.

Our gift to G since she loves to draw and paint.


It's hard to say which is the more popular, but certainly there's been arguing and crying all day: the sounds of Christmas.

This afternoon we'll have at least one more round including some unopened items from Aunt Christie, and dinner at Elizabeth AhYee's house.

Round 1

Drew says it was a tradition in his house as a kid to open a present on Christmas eve, partially so that he and his older siblings would have something to play with while waiting to attend midnight mass. So it continues with us, though this year we opted to go to the evening vigil at 5pm. Unfortunately, we ended up in the cry room, which I despise and try never to go to, but because of the number of C&Es, it was the easiest place to find a seat. However, I think because of the cry room being enclosed like that the girls didn't really act like they should and normally do in mass – it didn't feel like we were in mass. G actually complained a couple of times that she didn't like that room and that she'd rather sit in front, i.e. out in the chapel, where there was light and the feeling of happiness. So coming back from receiving communion, we took advantage of a whole row of C&Es doing the shuffle to sit with everyone else, even if only for a few minutes. Immediately, the girls pulled out a couple of missals and looked like they were doing a decent job of following along, behaving much better.

After a hasty late taco dinner, the girls wait patiently for YW AhYee to come join us in opening a present.

This is a Littlest Pet Shop toy G received from a classmate. I have no idea what pet it's supposed to be, or its name for that matter, but it came with a fortune cookie! All plastic, not edible.

I had to get her "started", but BB was quickly getting the hang of things. I remember G's first Christmas, she seemed reluctant to rip the paper, but after we reinforced the skill on her birthday, she developed a piratical gleam in her eye whenever she saw wrapping paper, wanted to open everything, even if it wasn't meant for her.

The scarf we bought for YW AhYee. And on the right you can see the bags holding the gifts that she bought for G and BB.

BB's present finally opened: ballet slippers, one size too big. And in her hand, the crocheted booties, also one size too big, that YW got for Z, who incidentally fell asleep some hours earlier, that's how late it was.


The stuffed animals, an elephant (right) and lion, that YW AhYee bought for the girls.

I rather think they look like they're bullying the poor things, but BB and G were riding on them.

A Christmas Resurrection Story

I kid you not: Last night I was looking at our brood of ladybugs, and for the last couple of weeks, I've been contemplating throwing out the dead one, hasn't moved for as many weeks. Ladybugs keep a different schedule, and either I'd forget to dispose of the body until they were all active or there'd be other ladybugs bedded down on the same leaf as the dead one so that I wouldn't want to disturb them. This morning I'd just put the girls out to play in the half inch of snow, thinking I'd have my chance, I glanced in the box to see all four of them doing their thing!

Christmas Princess

Isn't that a great dress? I've been hoarding it for a year now. Drew brought it back from OKC (and Target!) last year for BB, but it was already too small. Of course, it was too pretty and too far to return, and now it's just perfect for Z!

The Next Generation

Though they don't correlate in terms of birth order, seeing my girls together made me think of this picture of my aunts, my mom's younger sisters.

An Early Christmas

Yesterday evening a parcel came for YW from her mom in Taiwan. It included, among other things, some of her cold weather gear, some cloth for me, workbooks for the girls, tasty things and these plastic guns that I remember having as a kid, though I'd long ago lost the pink bubble part (see the green and pink item in BB's hands). Unfortunately, there was also *one* pink tutu outfit, which YW said was hers. BB was already enamored of the apron, but I'm sure if we let G put the tutu on, there'd be trouble. So for now, I continue to tell them that the tutu is a gift to Z and no one wears it – maybe until I can find another tutu.

Some Holiday Baking

See Hadgi Badah: we rate them 4 1/2 (out of 5) stars. And while I'm at it, I think these Kleeja look really good.

Snowzilla

I never got to see this monstrosity in person, but now I kind of wish I had.

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Anchorage officials put an end to Snowzilla

Giant snowman deemed a public nuisance, safety hazard

Alaska's famous giant snowman, Snowzilla, finally met its match.

It wasn't the weather. It wasn't angry neighbors bearing shovels and pick axes.

It turns out Snowzilla's biggest foe -- the one who felled the controversial but much-loved giant -- was a notice-bearing city code enforcement officer.

That's right, Snowzilla was abated.

It was just a few years ago that 16-foot-tall Snowzilla arose in a residential yard in Airport Heights, launching an annual procession of local gawkers and an international media blitz.

Camera crews came from Russia and Japan.

But Snowzilla attracted a lot of naysayers too.

Not everybody in the neighborhood liked all the cars and visitors.

So, city officials have deemed Snowzilla a public nuisance and safety hazard.

A few weeks ago, city code enforcers left three red signs at Snowzilla's bottom body ball telling its builders to cease and desist.

The city also tacked a public notice on the door of the Powers family home at 1556 Columbine St. The Powers family and some of their neighbors have been building Snowzilla in the Powers' front yard since 2005.

When the notices went up, Snowzilla still didn't have a full torso or head.

"The kids had spent hours and hours of work on it," Billy Powers said on Sunday.

City officials involved in the cease-and-desist order could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

But on Dec. 11, the city notified the Airport Heights community council about its decision to abate Snowzilla, telling council members that the two-story snowman caused increased traffic to the point of endangerment and that the structure itself was unsafe.

The city also asked council members to watch out for continued construction and to consider weighing in on Snowzilla at an upcoming, council members said.

At last Thursday's community council meeting, no one offered a Snowzilla-related motion. "We're not really a policing agency," said Becky Kurtz, the council president.

Now, Snowzilla is just a big pile of snow rubble.

Powers said he doesn't plan to rebuild.

He can't.

Under the city's nuisance abatement order, if he tries, he could get arrested.

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Bonus pictorial material: Winter in Alaska.

Another Thing Coming

And if YW AhYee thought it was going to be a "quiet" Christmas vacation, she can just put that notion to rest. As soon as she was known to be awake, G and BB have been haunting her room, a hotbed of talk and giggling. I'm almost lonely upstairs. :)

So It Begins

All week we've been anticipating Yee-Wen AhYee's arrival: she's spending her Christmas break away from NYC with us. G's talked about her, a cousin on my mom's side, with much excitement as someone who we can speak Chinese with, etc., even said she remembered YW AhYee from the last time we saw her, which was not long after BB was born (left). On Friday, when YW AhYee was supposed to arrive, when her flight was canceled by a snow storm covering the entirety of NY state, G even reminded me on several occasions that we were going to go to the airport later to pick her up. When we finally did pick YW up this evening, G wouldn't say anything to her, I don't know whether out of shyness or tired crankiness: it was getting passed their bedtimes. BB was just starting to warm up to YW with little smiles when we all bowled back into the car – it's single digits here not counting the wind chill! – to go home, the older two falling asleep along the way.

Baby Shakedown

G had very strong legs even before she could walk. Where neither BB nor Z could stand for more than half a minute at about six months, I could prop G against a chair and she'd stay standing for a couple of minutes, which might explain her being able to walk at such an early age. Of course since she's my first born, I could neither tell if this was normal nor common. But I remember of an evening, I would lean G on her ottoman and we'd play Baby Shakedown, a game of our own. The way she was situated, she would remind you of a suspect up against the hood of a police car being checked for illegal drugs, weapons, evidence. I'll freely admit that it was just an excuse to squeeze baby fat, but she also enjoyed the view from "up there". And Drew made up some pretty funny commentary on the subject, e.g. "What have you got in the diaper? ...Nevermind, I don't want to know." Maybe you had to be there.

Mirror Mirror Up Above

Some would say that babies are narcissistic, but in staring at themselves in the mirror they're making associations between moving that muscle and getting, say, their tongue to stick out. Before I thought I needed a little mirror at their eye-level, but then I was inspired to use the one in our room: G and BB can't run off with it, and theoretically it wouldn't fall on Z either. I've kept her occupied for ten and fifteen minutes like this.

Blue Angel

Tonight was supposed to be the night of the school's Christmas program, but since there's sleet in the forecast, they decided to postpone until early next month when we return from Christmas break. I'm not sure what the preschoolers were going to perform, but their "costume" included angel wings that they get to keep. At first I was going to laugh at Christmas carols after Christmas, but upon mature consideration on the drive home, I remembered that by rights, there's also the twelve days *after* the 25th! Which most people, and at one time I was one of them, think that the song refers to the twelve days *before*. Anyway don't look forward to any video of G in her Christmas show because I highly doubt that she'll end up getting on stage at all: we'll go merely as spectators.

The Force

Z had her first purposeful taste – as opposed to furtive sampling from the dinner table – of non-breastmilk food at lunch today. Our first food of choice: plain yogurt. Traditionally, we've done banana diluted with some breastmilk or soupy rice cereal, but neither were on hand. The reaction? The usual puckered face, get-this-off-my-tongue gagging. Except I've noticed that Z's gag reflex is particularly strong, in comparison with G or BB, so it's lucky that I tried the yogurt on an empty stomach.

Snow Slide

At midday of G's first grand snow day (see previous post), I put her and BB out to play in the backyard. They only wanted to play on the porch at first, but later decided they wanted to see the rest of the snow so I gave them a lift over the gate, which keeps them from easily going up and down by themselves. As I was going through the toys in their room (in preparation for Christmas), I kept hearing a thumping noise, like G might be throwing something at the deck. Occasionally, I'd also hear her yelling something, but I thought maybe she was talking to BB. When I finally took a peek outside, G looked quite delighted about something, and turns out, she'd discovered that if she bumped, or in this case tossed a plastic mug onto the appropriate spot of the stair banisters, it would cause all the snow on the banister to slide off, like a mini avalanche. She was trying to communicate this to me through the closed window.

Snow Day

It's not what I would call "blizzard" outside, but most schools in the area have canceled today, which is a load off G's mind.

Road Trip: Springfield, MO

Drew was in Springfield all last week on business, and being that Springfield is only about three hours away, I thought it might be fun to drive the girls down on Thursday after G got out of school and stay the night, return together. But before making the decision to go down I had to wonder, what's to do in Springfield. The city has a pretty decent visitors' website with a Kid Friendly category. Some attractions that caught my eye: Crystal Cave, the zoo, the Discovery Center, Fantastic Caverns, Jump Mania, and the Wonders of Wildlife Museum and Aquarium. I don't know if I ever told you my interesting Missouri discovery. Aside from being the Show-Me state, it's also noted for its sheer number of caves, esp in the Ozarks area and south; indeed it's the Cave State, a spelunker's paradise. But I wasn't sure I could keep the girls under control by myself during the 60- and 90-minute tours that some of these caves have. Fantastic Caverns is large enough that they actually drive tourists through, an amusement ride, but following that with the long car ride home wouldn't seem humane. Certainly, a tiring activity would be ideal and Jump Mania seemed like our best bet.

I timed the drive down to coincide with BB's midday nap, and overall it went rather smoothly. I made sure to bring along our valuable portable DVD player – the designers of the Toyota Siena very mercifully put a power plug in the back –, and at the suggestion of some friends, I packed our potty, which turned out to be a blessing. We arrived at Drew's hotel on the south side just as he was finishing for the day and decided to have dinner at Hemingway's Blue Water Cafe (good clam chowder, excellent blackened catfish: I can recommend it) in the Bass Pro Shop. The latter is quite literally huge-ungous, the "Grand Daddy", maybe even larger than the biggest Cabela's, whom we feel a certain loyalty of sorts to because Drew's mom grew up with the Cabela brothers in Nebraska when their family owned only a furniture store in town. On this particular night BPS was doing free photos with Santa, which we didn't stop for because I had a feeling that only one of our girls wouldn't be crying.

This was the Christmas tree in the main lobby of BPS. I, and maybe several other bystanders, secretly envied the girls being able to lay on the floor like that without exciting comment.



But the real highlight of the girls' evening, nay, the whole day was going for a swim in the hotel pool. BB saw me packing the swim diapers (at home) and insisted on wearing a pair at that moment – I snuck the swimsuits into the luggage without being detected. G, for her part, insisted that there should be sand included in her swimming experience, which I had to make her understand that we weren't going to the beach and that there wasn't a beach to be had for goodness knows how many miles. They were so excited to be wearing their swimsuits once again, like winter had never come in the first place. The above video was taken after most of the excitement had subsided.

Even after we'd rinsed them off and put them in clean clothes for the night, they wanted to keep wearing the other swimsuits I'd brought. But I took this picture in particular because it reminded me of myself: like mother, like daughter.

I had no trouble finding Jump Mania the next morning, which was just north of Drew's hotel a few miles, and it was better than I dared hope for. To give you an idea, the inflatables were exactly like the ones you see at carnivals, esp in size, but 100 times cleaner; they charged me for only G's admission; there were exersaucers available for even Z to sit in, which I utilized when both G and BB got stuck in the same inflatable; and they had a system of wristbands, which they actually checked as we were leaving, to keep kids and parents paired together. We were there for just over an hour, though G was "bored" and ready to go home within 45 minutes. BB was exhausted physically from climbing, but I think she got the most thrill out of the slides that go fast.

The drive home was pretty uneventful. (Drew had to make a work-related stop elsewhere so he'd gone on ahead in the morning.) There were a string of cars parked along the side of the highway with big signs that read "Pecans", which made me think that they're in season and farmers are selling them. If I had some cash, I might have stopped. And we stopped for lunch in a town called Nevada, where I was most notably cheated out of 30 cents per gallon at the gas pump: I still had a quarter of a tank, but just to be safe I filled up; and in the very next town, the gas was 30 cents cheaper!