Parental Fail : Forgetting Picture Day

Apparently it was picture day at school sometime ago. We vaguely remember a notice about it after receiving the proofs.

Never mind that we sent her to school in mis-matched pink T-shirt under an orange/white striped dress.. and a lopsided-braid. At least she got photos. Liam on the otherhand, missed picture day all together! No school photos for him this year.

2014 Holiday Edition: The Year's Highlights

2014 was a year of typical daily life, but filled with lots of kiddie shenanigans. The kids are at a great age where it doesn't matter where we are or what we do, they can find fun and laughter in just about anything with their wild imaginations. (Something we can learn from them!) It is good since we didn't really go much anywhere or do much anything! =) The consistency of routine helped make life manageable between juggling our work loads, Connie's intensive PT/rehab, and the kids' schedules. We still have our challenges, especially with time management, but it was a great year where being routine was monumental in slowing down the hectic feel of life with kids and allowed for all of us to have both, individual and family growth.

Liam transitioned from being a toddler to a little boy. He said good-bye to his toddler days, moving out of his crib and into a big-boy bed. Growing up is hard to do at times, and he had to part ways with the binkie. Preschool turned out to be an easy transition, despite his initial hesitation. The hustle and bustle of all the kids at school can be overwhelming, but luckily Liam has an independent nature like his parents, and he does not mind doing his own thing. Just like dad, Liam loves any kind of motorized vehicle as they bonded watching motorcycle races at Laguna Seca and checking out mini-motos.

Emilia has always had a natural big sis tendency towards Liam, but this year, she realized he makes a great partner in crime. The two combined have become the "Double Trouble", scheming up imaginary adventures to share together. They fight as hard and as much as they play wild together. In fact, the parental units are thinking of sending them to jujitsu so they learn to "wrestle out" their arguments. Emilia is a veteran at school now, showing Liam the ropes. She loves going to school and has a group of close girl friends. She loves princesses, as do the rest of her gal pals, but we also project our influences, so she and Liam are fans of Ninja Warrior, especially Kacy Cantazaro. They play obstacle games and run races together, and many times Emilia will do them in her princess dresses.

Connie, 2014 was a year of recovery, with a main focus on ACL rehab with a goal of running the Spartan Beast around the 1 year post-ACL surgery mark. Obsessive personality is a positive attribute in this area as it fueled the discipline needed to consistently do physical therapy rehab on top of strength and endurance training. Life was defined only by 3 aspects - juggling time with kids & Ryan, work, and multitude of gym memberships. Knee has recovered, but the injury left imbalances that indirectly causes other minor injuries. All in all though, improvements are made. Maybe 2015 will be the injury-free year!

Ryan maintains being the rock of the family - helping Liam, Emilia, or Connie with whatever comes up. There is always a list of home improvement projects to do, with priorities that jump up due to circumstances, like setting up obstacles for Connie to practice on pre-race and hopefully not injure anything else, or when the raccoons came to terrorize the backyard... Ryan was set on a mission to deter them (in a safe way) from hanging around - setting up motion sensing automatic sprinkler and metal tree guards to prevent them climbing up. There were nights he would go on stake-outs for raccoons and try to scare them off. Ryan is non-stop in keeping our home organized and our lives organized. This year he manages to fit rock climbing in regularly, and we are slowly making it a new family routine.

2014 was consistent busy-ness that helped to form good foundation of solid habits for all of us. One of the traits of highly successful people is that they develop good habits - make their beds, clean up right away, make lists/plans for their day/week/month/year and work on it regularly, becoming a habit of progress. Working out became like brushing one's teeth... just do it without thinking. The kids naturally gravitate towards organization and clean up.. as much as kids can. =) All in all, we are very grateful for the year we have had in 2014. We sympathize with friends and family that we have seen go through hardships this year and those that will be continuing hardships. Keep pushing forward, one step, one day at a time.

Wishing you happiness and laughter all the days in 2015!

Where'd November go?

November was busy... I think.. It's all a blur now. Where'd November go??!

We had both sets of grand-parents here helping out in alternating, consecutive weeks. During that time frame, it allowed us to focus on working with Liam to get him on a consistent schedule of feeding time, active time combined with awake time, and sleep time. He has naturally adapted to a 4 hour interval schedule. The nights have been still hard with less sleep than optimal for Ryan and I. Liam has been good though, and has gone as long as 6.5 hour interval between feedings, but that's not consistent yet. The hardest time interval is still the 4am feeding.

While this period has been exhausting, it has also been quite fun getting to know the little dude. He is mellow and chill, quite different than Emilia was at this stage. Emilia naturally takes on a big sister role with him - sharing with him and asking for his whereabouts when she does not know where he is. She has tried to play with him too. In fact, the other day she tried to play horsie ride with him and sat on his back while we were not looking. Ah.. the fun of watching (or not watching) two kids!

Here are some random November photos of the kiddies:

Resemblances...

My Mom dug up this old baby picture of me (no comments on the hat, please)...


Not sure if I see any resemblance, but I'll leave it open to interpretation...