The Park!

The Wood family has become huge fans of the park. We have a great one in our neighborhood and visit at least twice a week. There are always plenty of kids there for Audrey to play with and we often meet up there with our playgroup friends on weekdays. We were surprised when Audrey took such a liking to it. Just a few months ago she hated everything there, but now she has a blast. Daddy was surprised to see her climbing on all the big equipment, even a rock wall and a curved ladder. She goes down the big slides, likes spinning on the merry-go-round, and can spend an eternity swinging. Whenever we get her dressed to leave the house she starts asking "Park?". She also says "I loooooove park!" and "I loooooove swing!". We typically stay for 1-3 hours at a time and even then we have to drag her home.

Ethan usually catches some zzzzz's while we're there, but this day he was wide awake.

DVD Player for the Odyssey

Using her characteristic foresight, Mommy ordered a portable DVD player for our Honda Odyssey (which is coming next week--Whoo Hoo!). She even found some headphones designed especially for kids. I thought that Audrey would never wear them, but apparently the lure of TV is strong enough to tolerate anything.



We're all ready for Houston!

Ethan Eating Cereal

Ethan turned 5 months old this last Thursday, which we celebrated by feeding him cereal for the first time. He certainly didn't enjoy the experience, but I think he was more confused than unhappy. Though, it's difficult to say for sure.

Well, the pictures speak for themselves.











To be fair, they're not all sad baby pictures. There's some of him grinnin' like a fool also. Personally, I just think the sad baby pictures are funnier.







Audrey tried to help out too, by showing Ethan the food wasn't so bad...



...after which she got hungry herself and needed some cereal of her own.

Sleeping Beauty

From that title you were probably expecting pictures of Audrey, right? Not this time.

This is Ethan asleep on the floor near his swing. I think Mommy was changing his diaper and he just fell asleep.

Day of the Dead

A few weeks ago Amber attended a class to learn how to make sugar skulls for Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Here's an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Day of the Dead:

"The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. The celebration occurs on November 2 in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2). ... Due to occurring shortly after Halloween, the Day of the Dead is sometimes thought to be a similar holiday, although the two actually have little in common. The Day of the Dead is a time of celebration, where partying and eating is common."

(Being a Japanese nerd, I feel compelled to point out that the Japanese celebrate a holiday very similar in spirit called お盆 Bon)

Anyway, Amber had a good time and came home with some neat stuff.

First off, the skull. It looks like styrofoam but is actually sugar. Some are hollow but this one is solid sugar! It should last for years (if the ants don't find it). It's decorated with royal icing, fondant, and painted with gold dust.





(Side view)


(Rear view)


Amber also made some neat cookies, which Daddy promptly ate. Yum. Oops..the one in the middle had a gold grill, but it got smashed :-(

Caleb Visits!

Uncle Adam, Aunt Ericka, and Cousin Caleb came to visit a while back (this post is really old... sorry!). It was amazing to see how big Caleb had gotten! It was also fun watching the kiddos play together.


Audrey and Caleb sharing snacks together in the kitchen.


Caleb (still with a bit of snack debris on this face :) )


Just the boys

Cedar Park Fall Festival

We had a pretty busy Saturday last weekend--one of Audrey's friends, Emma, had a birthday party. Afterwards, we squeezed in a trip to the Cedar Park Fall Festival at the YMCA.

We got there late and only stayed until dusk, but still had a good time. They had a kiddie carnival with a bunch of inflatable bounce houses. Audrey is really starting to enjoy these.

Audrey outlasted every other kid in the bounce house. I was waiting for the attendant to politely ask us to leave.

Audrey's wearing a Halloween shirt that we just got in the mail from Grandma that morning. Thanks, Nana!

Mommy's entourage. Audrey likes to sulk and drag her feet when she doesn't want to be strapped into the stroller. If she's feeling particularly argumentative, she'll even engage the brakes by kicking the red levers on the rear wheels. Ethan is marvelously adept at tuning out her antics :)

Beware of God

Audrey says all sorts of bizarre things, but my current favorite is that she mispronounces "dog" as "god". One of the weird things about this is that when we say "dog" to her she knows what we're talking about. It's as if she means to say "dog" and it just comes out backwards. This little glitch leads to all sorts of bizarre conversations like when we were at a park a few weekends ago:

"Look, Daddy! (Audrey points to a woman jogging with a dog) Silly god"

She also calls horses "neigh". Which, together with the whole "dog" bit, makes reading books about animals pretty entertaining.

Honda Odyssey

I mentioned earlier that we were thinking about buying a new car, well, we're officially buying a Honda Odyssey.

The picture above is the blue color that we like (you can click to enlarge). Once we started looking into it, I was shocked at how well liked the Odyssey is. Every parent I asked said either "OMG I have an Odyssey and it's fantastic", or "OMG I wish I had an Odyssey".

We'll looking at the 2011 model. You can watch videos on the Honda website if you're interested. We've already put down a deposit and are hoping to get it by Thanksgiving (they have to order a blue one for us).

I'm excited but still can't get used to the idea of having a family van. We're going to have to start a family band or solve mysterys on the weekends or something. It has fifteen cup holders. Fifteen! That's 3.75 per person...

Potty Training

We haven't started potty training, per se. But whenever Audrey shows an interest we try to encourage it.

We'd bought her a little potty chair early so she could get comfortable sitting on it, but we quickly found out that she would only sit on it if she removed the insert (that holds chair's, ahem, "contents") and threw it across the room first. That could be a problem.

Mommy came across a fancy toilet seat than contains a flip-up kiddo seat and bought that too. This one has been much more successful. Audrey loves being a big girl and sitting on the big potty.



Audrey loves to "tag along" to the bathroom with both of us. In fact, sometimes she tries to push you off the potty saying "turn!" (meaning "my turn"), then climbs on when you get off. She also says "bye-bye, poop" when we flush and calls Mommy's underwear a diaper.

But the most exciting part is that Audrey's actually used the potty! Mommy spent a lot of time with Audrey practicing during the day, sitting on the floor and reading her books for about 30 minutes at a time and she never went. Then Daddy came home and hung out with her for 3 minutes and she did it. Mommy missed it. She was mad :)

Audrey's 2-year Pedi Visit

Here's just a quick note with the highlights.

Weight - 29.5 lb; 75% percentile.
Height - 36"; 95% percentile
Head circumference - 48.75cm; 75% percentile

Her weight actually went down since the last visit. She was sick awhile back and lost a little from that. Doctor says that's normal and ok.

The doctor says Audrey can now eat anything she wants... well, maybe not anything. Peanut butter, nuts, shellfish, etc. are all ok now.

Audrey's switching from whole to 2% milk.

The doctor strongly recommended 1-2 days per week of Mothers' Day Out for socialization and development, even though Amber stays at home. We started looking around a little at programs and may enroll her in something next year.

Other than that the trip was uneventful. Well almost. Audrey had a meltdown in the waiting room after they kept her waiting a full hour. I don't count this too much against her, as I may have done the same thing and I'm 33.

Sweet Berry Farm

Amber and Naomi arranged an outing to Sweet Berry Farm last Monday. I went ahead and took a day off work so I could tag along.

The farm was about a 45 minute drive from our house, making this the longest family road trip to date. We decided to use this experience as a 'test drive' for what coming to Houston over Christmas would be like.

About 10 minutes from the farm, Audrey puked. A lot. She was pretty much covered in it. We made a pit stop at Walmart to buy her a new outfit and clean her off. She seemed fine, and we were so close to the farm that we decided to press on. That ended up being the right decision, as she was in good spirits the rest of the day and didn't have any more episodes.

It was *really* hot at the farm, but we all had a good time nonetheless. Audrey, Jace, and Kaedon went through a corn maze, painted pumpkins, saw some goats (Audrey preferred just observing, not touching or feeding), rode in tractor trailer, and picked some wildflowers. Ethan slept through most of the visit. Overall we had a great time and I think we'll be back.

On the way back, Amber and I decided to start looking at new cars. Cramming two adults and two children along with all the accompanying accoutrements into our Matrix for over an hour made is realize how cramped it really is. Even though our cars are getting on in age, they're both in good shape so we'd been reluctant to buy a new car, but now I think it really would make us more comfortable. I'll keep you p to date on what we decide, but currently, we're leaning towards the Honda Odyssey.














Audrey painting her pumpkin.


Daddy and Ethan hot and tired :)


Audrey drinking water like a big girl :)

Ring Around the Rosie

Both Kylie and Audrey know how to play "ring around the rosie", so in a stroke of genius, we got them to play with each other.



As an adult, ring around the rosie is surprisingly exhausting after the 900th time. Especially the 'all fall down' part. Mommy does a streamlined version that omits this step.

Incidentally, wikipedia says the theory that this rhyme is based on the Black Death is discounted by modern folklore scholars. Guess it was an old wives' tale after all.

Audrey's 2nd B-Day

Audrey's 2nd birthday was this past Saturday. We really appreciated all the gifts and well-wishes, and especially all the family who made the long trek from Houston. Audrey had a great time.


The party was Kai-Lan themed, after Audrey's favorite TV show, "Ni Hao, Kai-Lan". We decorated with Kai-Lan party goods and had Chinese food--orange chicken, egg rolls, pot stickers and lo mein. Mommy also made chocolate-dipped fortune cookies with sprinkles.


The centerpiece of the spread was a beautiful cake Mommy and Christy made.


Audrey couldn't quite figure out how to blow out her candle this year. Mommy had to do it instead. I hope she remembered to make a wish.


I'd never seen toddlers devour a cake so quickly. I think this is the only time Amber's made a cake and there hasn't been leftovers. Daddy barely got a piece.


Mommy made Audrey a special plate to eat her birthday cake on every year. Last year's got damaged, so Mommy had to re-make it this year.


Mommy also made Audrey a shirt for the special day. She ordered a custom iron-on online with Kai-Lan, Audrey's name, and a big number two.


There were so many gifts opened so quickly that we could hardly keep track! Audrey is stocked up on toys for quite some time :) Thank you so much!!


Daddy got her this swan palace.


..and Mommy got her an etch-a-sketch. Mommy even drew on it ahead of time :)


The B-day girl hangin' with her friends.


It was really fun to see Kylie and Audrey together again.


Parties are so exhausting! I felt the same way when it was all over.