To deal with the picky eater, I am on the track to be trained to be a good chef as you see on TV. Surprisingly I find myself enjoy cooking much more than before. Look what I cooked today.
The sweet potato fritter. Alex made the hat and tree ones. He ate probably five of those fritters. That made me really happy.
Yesterday is Dave’s Birthday. To save money, we decide not to buy birthday gifts for each other from now on. The cake is the least thing I can do. Happy Birthday, Honey! Alex and I decorated that cake together. He sang the birthday song to Daddy. Very sweet.
This morning Alex ate really well. One egg, one piece of cheese, a whole bowl of oatmeal, and some bread. He was hungry because he ate very little the night before. Another important reason is he ate with his brother! They both sat quietly at the table, looked at each other, and ate. I was so pleased.
I made an egg sandwich for Alex this morning. Alex usually only eats egg or cheese and leaves bread untouched. If you have a picky eater at home, what you do is always thinking and finding a way to make eating fun enough to trick them to eat. So this morning, I said to Alex:”Hey, Alex, do you know you can make a hole in the bread with your teeth?” His eyes opened bigger and took a small bite at the center of the folded bread. Then I unfolded the bread and showed him the hole. He became excited and kept biting so that he can make a bigger hole, which can sit on the head.
Alex:”Mommy, I have ELVI on my head.”
Mommy:” Let me kiss it away” … (big kiss)… “Now how do you feel?”
Alex:” The ELVI go away.”
Alex doesn’t use the word “pain”. Instead, he calls every pain “ELVI”. Don’t know why and forget when he started it. Since he uses it for quite a while, I start to say something like “ouch, the pot is so hot. I have ELVI on my finger. It hurts.”
Alex doesn’t realize yet ELVI is the word only used in our house, but he knows the word “BUBY” is just for fun and not existing. In Chinese, we call father “Ba Ba”. So sometimes Alex calls Dave “Ba Ba”. Sometimes he calls “Daddy”. One day Alex didn’t switch from Chinese to English completely and said:” Buby”. I didn’t correct him. Alex thinks it is funny, so every time he wants to tease Daddy, he will say “Buby-”. Of course, Daddy doesn’t like it.
Last weekend, we re-used the 5-dollar pass and went back to the tide pool with Alex. It was planned to go with Nicky together, but it would ruin his feeding and sleeping schedule. So we have to take Nicky there when he gets older.
天天又沒去成海外，主要是怕影響他的睡覺時間。今后的機會多得很呢。
上禮拜有風，易峰穿著姥姥姥爺買的外套。易峰管那個外套叫“雨衣”，因為經常下雨的時候穿。
The weather was quite cold and windy. Alex has to put on his rain jacket his grandparents got for him from China. This trip proves again Alex is such an amazing hiker. Some hill area is very steep. He climbed up and down 90% on his own.
This video was recorded with my cell phone. The quality is not very good. Alex was singing a Chines song, “Ni Wa Wa” ( Mud Baby). My parents need to hear it.
Today I had a meeting with the president and CEO of a phone distribution company. Before we jumped into any serious business discussion, we chatted a little about the baseball. I naturally brought up the name of Baseball Prospectus (BP). The CEO of that company said immediately:” Oh, I know that website. It’s really good.” Then I am very proud to tell him that my dear husband is managing BP. Then the meeting went extremely well
Alex has twenty teeth already. We have been wondering when Nicky will have his first tooth. Today is the day! ：））
Alex used to like to say,” Di Di has not teeth yet.” and shook his head. Today he announced to the family,”Di Di has one tooth.” So cute. I wish I could take a picture of that tiny bit tooth so that everybody can see. I will continue to try.
During the last two weeks we have been exploring new places in San Diego. We went to the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center at Balboa Park. We went to the Cabrillo National Monument to see the tide pool and the lighthouse. I was fascinated by all the hands-on activities at Science Center. Climbing up the lighthouse and seeing how the life of people who lived there 150 years ago worked was awesome. I loved to play water in the ocean with my babies. Next time I will try not to get so wet.
易峰看着海水，沙子在脚趾间来去，笑了。
Alex was a little afraid of cold ocean water at first. Soon he loved to see water and sand come and go between his toes. Can you see his smile?
We went to the tide pool with our good friends Yingbin, Jared, Kyla, and Yingbin’s parents. Doesn’t Yingbin’s mom look like a movie star with sunglasses on?
Ｙingbin的妈妈。
Nai Nai (Grandma in Chinese) was telling Kyla and Yifeng stories about the animals and plants in the ocean. Nai Nai used to live close to the ocean and used algae to make delicious buns. No wonder Nai Nai is so healthy.
Alex have been in the Amazing Athletes program for months. His coach said he is doing a great, great job. Very good at following instructions. He is a favorite student in the class. What I have noticed is Alex runs pretty good with amazing stamina. One day he ran back and forth from our house to the Vons nearby. I was very impressed by his speed.
易峰近来跑步进步很快，跑得很快，耐力惊人，真不知道，人老先生什么都不吃，哪来的力气跑呢？
Alex climbed the stairs and the ladder in the lighthouse all on his own. 易峰自己爬灯塔。
The best part of the trip to lighthouse and tide pool is the $5 pass is good for one week. Maybe we will go back to see the ocean this weekend.
We took Nicky to see Dr. Grayson for his 9-month check up on Monday. The doctor assured us it is quite normal for a 9-month-old to have no teeth. The nurse took a small amount of blood from Nicky’s foot to check the iron level in his blood. The test result confirms that Nicky has no anemia. The measurement shows Nicky is a tall boy. No wonder most of his pajamas have holes in the toes. All 9-month clothes are too small for him. I have been shopping around to buy 12-month pajamas with feet for Nicky.
Nicky is also an excellent eater. He loves the puree I make with oats, buttermilk squash, egg yolk, and sweet potato. Sometimes I add a little peas or corn.
Alex and I had an interesting conversation this morning.
Me: “Honey, can you eat more bagel?”
Alex: “I am not your honey.”
Me: “Who is Mommy’s honey?”
Alex: “Daddy”
Me: “Who is Daddy’s honey?”
Alex: “Mommy.”
Me: “Then who is your honey?”
Alex: (paused for two seconds and exclaimed) “Grandma is my honey!” —LOL
Alex always has tons of fun every time he visits Grandma and Grandpa. It is not hard to understand Grandma becomes Alex’s honey
In my opinion, Tiantian talks quite early. He must be inspired by his brother. Months ago, Alex seemed to just mimic what Dave and I said. Recently, he has started to say long sentences with words sometimes I don’t know. Quite impressive. I have stayed in the States for ten years. But I am too lazy to work hard to expand my vocabulary. Little kids have incomparable memories. There is a fish in the fish tank in Alex’s school. Alex can say its name after Dave told him a couple of times. But Dave has told me hundreds of times but I just cannot remember it. Everyday I have to ask Alex,”What’s that?”
Alex loves reading. Dropping him off at school suddenly became so easy about two months ago. He always can find the book he likes to read. You can tell he has a lot of his own thoughts and logic when he talks. Conversation with Alex becomes more and more fun.
