Both daughters wanted streamers to add to their new (used) bicycles.  They discovered streamers by accident when C took them to the toys store.  They were on for $8, for the plastic kind.  Hubby thought they were not-so-pretty and can't justify the cost.  He told the girls, mommy can make you nicer one and for cheap !  C really knows me :-)  I'm all about saving money !

Today our city had a down pour !  It was nice and pleasant all week and just when the weekend rolled around, gray clouds gathered and brought with them the cold rain.  We stayed in today, danced around all morning and all tried to do headstands. I can't believe I can still do it !  Yay me !  Anyways, after lunch the girls reminded me of our outstanding project.  We all went to Michaels to grab ribbons for the streamers.  I also got a whole bunch of new picture frames for another project I have in mind !!

What you will need to make a set of bicycle streamers:

- 3/8" inch ribbon, any color you like
- 2 safety pin (medium size, mine is 1 inch long) or use PAPER CLIPS if your kid likes to pick on the tassels (if they yank on it the pin might break and poke them) 
- scissor

We picked 5 colors, they were 3/8 inch ribbon, each roll was $0.89.  For each color of ribbon, cut 4 X 18" inch strips.  Cut on angle to avoid fraying.  Each tassel will have a total of 10 ribbons, 2 strands of each color.

Tie each strand of ribbon into the safety pin.  When done, push the big top size of the safety pin or the wider end of the paper clips into the pin hole on the handle of the bike.  There you have it !  Super easy right ?  We made 2 sets for $4.98 ($0.89 X 5 X 1.12 (tax)) !  Not too bad right ?  And we still have ribbons over for other projects.

The rain stopped and this little one is out testing the streamers :-)

Bee didn't want to eat her lunch yesterday.  I told her she should try to finish because we shouldn't waste food.  There are people in the world that has little no food, some are starving and some died.  It's hard to think about that, that with all the food waste we throw out here in North America, they can save someone's life.  I get really sad thinking about it.  Why am I here and they ended up over there ?  Why I get to enjoy living in a warm dry house with food in fridge and pantry while others have no home or food.  I feel so blessed to be here and feel sad over why others can't have just the basic life necessities like food and water.  Then I remember something I read, about how we are the arms and legs of Christ.  We are to reach out and share our blessings with others.  I think with all the imbalance in the world, those who have more and those who have little, those who have enough and those who have none, we, those who are considered the "haves" are to share our "haves" with those who have less than us.  We don't sit in our comfy chair and wait for God to do the "balancing" of the world, He put us here for a reason, to be people who do that.

Right now we are collecting money for local women's shelter but once we are done with this I want us to collect money for a cause that our family all want to support.  Bee always say "Mom, I want to help you and help people.  When I grow up I want to be a great helper!".  What a noble idea.  I really want my kids to learn to care for others, other than just immediate family, but others who need assistance.  I desire and pray for them to be kind, to be compassionate, and to feel a sense of responsibility toward others.  We try to talk to them about it, and model kindness to them, but I think a family project that includes them will speak volumes !  I volunteer lots before the kids and we donate regularly, but we forgot to explain to the kids the "why" of it !  Why do we do what we do !!!  We are called to serve others, just like Jesus did.  We don't live just for ourselves.  I think Bee is old enough to understand now.  We can pick a cause we want to help out together this fall.  It will be a great experience for all of us I am sure. 

The peonies are blooming in our garden !!!  Before they all die away, I thought it's high time I cut some and bring them inside !  they are so lovely to look at while I mind the kids.  While out in the garden with some free time before dinner, I had an idea to set up the tee pee !  I've been wanting to do this for a while now.  I even bought the bamboo sticks but just haven't got the time to get to them !  But today, right at this time, I have time :D  If you want to try this, you will need:

- 6 bamboo sticks, $1.19 from Rona (they came in 8 feet high and we got it cut down to around 6 feet to fit into our car)

- 1 flat bed sheet, I used a queen size for mine but I think a king flat sheet will cover better

- 2 strings, 1 to tie the bamboo sticks together (at least 30" long) and 1 for the sheet 

What I did is I gathered all the sticks at the top, tie the string around the sticks then across and around each sticks !!!  Basically just tie them all over so they don't fall or slide out :-)  Then I took each stick and arrange it on the grass so they form a hexagon shape.  Take the bottom end of each stick and push it into into the ground to keep it in position.  Mine barely dug in but they stayed up and kept the shape ok.  

Next, I gathered up the mid point of the flat sheet, wrapped it around the area where I tied the bamboo sticks and used another strong string to tie around the fabric to keep it together and that's all there is to it !  There's no specific way to tie the bamboo or sheet, just tie which ever way you need to keep them from falling apart :D  We also decorated the top of the tee pee with ivy vines and flowers and some wild climbing plant we found in our garden !!!  That part was really fun for the girls.  They gathered up all the stuff and I lifted each of them up to throw the vine over the bamboo sticks.  The structure set up took about 7 min. and decoration took another 5 min.!  Not so bad, not so bad at all.

The girls had great time running in and out of the tee pee !  Bee found a huge moth in the tee pee and we shooed it away before she can take hold it !  She got quite upset so for a good chunk of time ! she was pouting and kept saying "mothy mothy" :(  She also got annoyed with me asking her to be still for a second (I try to take a family picture (didn't work)).  I don't like to force my kids to do something they don't enjoy (depending on what of course) so if they showed no interest or annoyance then I scrap it.  Taking pic. with her is getting harder nowadays as she rather play than sit in for family picture.  Totally understandable and expected.  Both her and Love doesn't mind me taking pictures of them while they play though.  I always prefer to take spontaneous pictures of the girls over posing them, because it not only capture the real moment but also doesn't interfere with them enjoying whatever it is they are doing.

It was a fun afternoon for me !  I got to set up the tee pee, decorated it, watched the kids play and managed to capture some of it.   I love taking pictures of the kids !  It makes me happy.  But you already know that with all the posts I posted :) I do really enjoy it.  I have no special technique, pro. knowledge or special skills, other than just take random shots, click click click, and then I surprise myself with whatever I captured :-)  

Here are more pictures without the Adobe action filter (the name is called Afternoon for those who wants to know):

She lost her first tooth so whenever she holds something that can fit that gap, she puts it there :-)

This is what life is for me at the moment !  Constantly wiping milk mustaches and a baby that licks anything that is near.  

I love this picture !  It's captured them perfectly !  one is all cool in the don't-care kind of way while the other does everything over the top and passionately !

Age 3 is a difficult frustrating age.  I noticed Love can say a lot of things, the sentence makes sense but many of time, it's out of context.  She has an older sister whom she learned a lot of words and phrases from, but the comprehension isn't totally there yet.  She gets stressed and frustrated often because she can't fully describe what she is feeling. It doesn't help that sometimes what she's saying doesn't match up with what she's feeling/experiencing.  I have to remind C and Bee to be patience with her, give her lots of time to express herself, watch for clues and ask open ended questions, to help us figure out what's really happening.

Yesterday at Strong Start, we had a community staff stopped by to share with us some tips on parenting.  One tip she shared (re. bad behavior like hitting), is that as parents we should stay curious with our children,   I thought about it, the word "curious" is very fitting.  It means to explore, to ask questions, to want to know, to be inquisitive.  To get to know our kids and to find out what causes the outburst or tantrum, what I have learned with Love is to take time to observe her.  (Bee wasn't so complicated :) we cruise through 3, 4 & 5 with her).  I also ask her short open ended questions.  Open ended questions allow the kids do most of the answering and give us more info. without us imposing our thoughts on them.  Like asking Love "You're upset.  Tell mommy what makes you go Grrrr !!!"(she does that when she's mad) and I always get something out of her.  For the older one, instead of asking "How's school ?" (something I used to ask and it's so general), I now ask something like "Tell me about the lunch time games you played today" and she would tell me about it and always with other tidbits, like the boy who kissed her cheek.

Temper tantrum for Love doesn't just happen for no reason.  I think when kids misbehave, that behavior is an expression or outcome of an unmet need or an undesirable feeling.  I'm no expert here, just an observation from what I see of my kids.  I also learnt that at 3, kids can only deal with one emotion at a time.  When Love frustrated or upset, she can only deal with that present emotion.  Nothing else mattered to her at that moment.  She needs us to help her to understand that it's OK to feel the way she does, however if she hit or yell or scream, that is not ok and we need to help her learn to express her feeling using worded instead of acting up.

The more I observe and gain more insight into Love's behaviour, I find I can easily pick up when she's in distress, which allow me to calmly ask her how I can help.  I usually say to her "Mommy see you are upset (or frustrated, or angry, or sad, or scare) ?  What can mommy do to help ? " and if she is really upset, she would hit the wall or table and scream louder and I would tell her "Can you talk to me without screaming ?  When you scream I don't understand you so I can't help (show her my sad face) !  Here, tell it to me, in my ear".  I would then lean my ear into her and she would mumble to me the reason for her anger.  Then whatever it is that she's telling me, I would ask her "What should we do ?", she would respond back (more calm, no more yelling) and I would offer, "Do you want mommy to help ?".  I noticed that the more I engage with her, using short questions or comments that she can understand, she can convey her feeling back to me a little better and clearer.  This has been working really well for us.

With Love I always always have to remind myself that she's only 3 :-)  She's so vocal so it's easy to forget sometime, but she's only 3.  She doesn't really have the same comprehension level as her sister and no where near us parents.  Knowing that she can only deal with her present emotion has really helped us in helping her.  Knowing her limit helps me to be more discerning.  I can't completely get rid of tantrum, it's a part of growing and developing for Love.  But I can reduce it by helping her to recognize what she is feeling and helping her with the words to describe it.  I noticed the change in her and me.  I feel I'm more aware of her, more in tune, and can diffuse an outburst pretty fast.  It helps that she trusts me in explaining how she feels.  This makes for faster resolution !!!

I think if we pay attention to our kids, watch them, and listen to them, listen with our ears and eyes, we will have some leading clues on what generally makes them upset or what usually instigate the outburst.  I feel prevention is better than dealing with it and trying to correct them after.  It does take a lot of effort on our part to prevent outburst and to diffuse temper tantrum before it gets out of hand, but we're OK with it.  I rather put in the effort and time than dealing with a kid throwing a full tantrum.  Once they past a certain threshold, it's harder to calm them down and by then everyone is frustrated and unhappy, me included.  Perhaps in a way, it's my lazy approach :D

The more Love can label and communicate how she feels the less frustrated she will be = less opportunity of a melt down.  How good she is with communicating her feeling is dependent on us parents to help her :)

My little boy is now 3 months.  He's onto the next milestone of his life which is to master rolling over.  When he's on his play mat, his bum just automatically go onto one side and with one or two hard kick and he's on his tummy.  Quite amazing to see how he's growing and developing.  Like how do they know how to do that ?  I obviously didn't show him.  His brain and body just do it.  So cool!

Nolan's eye sight are getting more clearer.  I don't think he sees details yet but in his blurry-ness he recognizes us.  When he looks around the room and caught my eyes his mouth will open to a huge grin, showing his bare gums.  And I get really happy too seeing how happy he is to see me. 

Sleep has been good for all of us.  He wakes up once around 3 or 4am for a feed.  He sleeps around 9pm so that's a solid straight 6 or 7 hours of sleep for him.  If I sleep at same time as him I would get that many too :) but I usually sleep at 10:30.  I get a totally of 7 or 8 hours a night so can't complain.

It feels so long since I have to burp him to avoid spit up.  Now I just feed him and off he goes onto his play mat for playing or into his crib for sleeping.  Talk about sleeping, he's great at putting himself to sleep.  I don't have to rock him like Bee or snuggle with him like Love.  It's a catch 20 because I love those quiet times together.  With Peanut, when he rubs his eyes and head, a sign of "I'm sleepy", I would lay him in his crib and he would have this short nudging kind of cries then less than 5 min. he's out.  If he's tired, he's out the moment I put him in the crib.  Sometime he would sleep on the play mat.  All in all a very easy going baby.  

As for me, postpartum is taking its usual course.  I am loosing lots of hair, which is always sad and I hope they do grow back.  The dark line on my tummy is still very vivid.  I remember it went away quite quickly with the girls but this one is a stubborn one.  I gained a lot of weight with this pregnancy.  I am down 30lbs already, thanks to breastfeeding.  I have another 10 more to loose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight but these looks like they will stay -) Not many of my clothes fit right now, at least the way it supposed to fit.  It was discouraging getting dressed when we go out but I fixed that by buying some new clothes, in bigger size.  I am kind to me because I did pop out 3 kids after all.  They oughta take a toll on my body and that's good that they left marks !!!  Once things are settled I will will try to get back into shape, just because I don't want to waste all the old clothes I got :)  Right now I love joggers and loose t-shirt !  I am an owner of a few sets :) they are so comfortable !

As for my abdominal muscles, they haven't  gotten back together yet.  How do I know ?  By laying flat on floor, with a finger poking down in my belly and holding it there, I would try to do a sit up.  I can feel my muscles pulling in and gripping slightly on my finger but there's still a little gap.  I can't do any ab workout just yet.  I might take up running !  I need more energy to keep up with all these kids.  

Day to day, I am quite busy with taking Love to Strong Start half day in the morning, then picking up Bee after lunch and let them burn their energy at the playground for an hour. Then prepping dinner and eating dinner and our evening ends with C entertaining the kids indoor or outdoor while I clear up and clean up.  C would get the girls ready for bath time and book time while I get Peanut ready for bed, and that pretty much concluded our day.  

My day activities repeat itself every morning.  Might sound boring but I like schedule, I like predictable, make it easy to plan for other things.  The fun elements are there each day, watching the kids play and fight and laugh and cry !  Watching Peanut smiles, goo goo gah gah, and rolling over then getting frustrated like a fish on dry land.  It's eventful in a way.  Never a dull moment.  

At lunch, everyday, C would call home and we'll chat about things he saw and read and encountered.  I will tell him about the kids so he's not missing out.  When I feel down, because sometime mommies do, when I feel like I didn't accomplish anything worthy, he would affirm me and tell me how great I am and how important I am to our family.  Talking with him always lift up my spirit because sometime it's hard to see things clearly when you're in the gutter.  Everything is taking their due courses and soon summer will come knocking.  By then both girls will be home everyday and I will have 3 kids to hug and hold and to complain about !  

We almost made it !  It was so close.  6:30 ish, I was woken up by the feeling of wetness in my waist area.  I thought Peanut's diaper leaked so I reached over to check on him.  He's sleeping away on his waterproof sheet, all warm and dry.  I puzzled then turned to the other side of me.  My eyes rested on set of sorry sad eyes piercing into mine.  She's on the brink of tears.  Lovebug wet the bed.  I look down on the bed and the darkened area was huge, all around her, 1/4 of our queen bed.  I must have forgotten to ask her to go to the washroom before bed.  Another half an hour and we might have avoided this.  I think.  Maybe.  Lovebug's usually wake up at 7am and rush off to the washroom.  Not today.  She haven't wet the bed for a few months now.

Accident happened.  I moved Peanut over to dry land !  He nor his sheet are wet.  He happily sleeps away.  Lovebug whispered to me, "Pee go in toilet mommy.  I didn't mean to!".  I patted her arm reassuringly, "I know honey, I know.  It happened sometime.  Let's get you and me cleaned up" I said then bent down to pick her up and headed to the bathroom.  "Sorry mommy.  I didn't mean to!" she repeated.  She feels bad, that I know but also I feel uneasy that she's so apologetic.  I don't want her to be too hard on herself.  She's only 3.  I assured her it's completely ok and sometime I have accident too (not same like this :)  It's good to acknowledge our mistakes but we must also be kind to ourselves.

She asked me to change her after.  She usually likes to dress herself so I asked her "Are you sure ?  You like to pick your clothes".  "I like you to change me sometime mommy.  Can you pick for me please", she said with a happy grin.  I picked out another Pj for her and as we shuffle back into bed she asked, "can you hold me to sleep mommy?".  I was so sleepy, and holding here means rocking her back to sleep.  Lovebug has always been very independent.  She prefers to do everything on her own, or in her words "by self".  Whenever she asked me to dress her or feed her or hold her to sleep, I jumped at the chance.  Mind you, I try to force my motherly way on her sometime, like rocking her to sleep and she would tell me to please put her down so she can sleep.  At least I try :) some times she'll let me, some day she would ask me, and I am eager to complied.

I love to baby her.  I feel she grew up so fast and became so independent from me so young.  I still remember her refusing my breast at 10 months. She was ready to live off solid food.  I didn't have to wean her.  It's great but I also feel a loss.  A catch 20 for me.

This morning I get to change and rock this baby to sleep.  I feel great.  I like holding her in the quietness of morning.  Feeling her tiny hand in my hand.  I am tired and wanted to sleep some more but that can wait.  I get to hold this girl !  No matter how independent she is, how grown she is, how she's capable of many things, she is still my baby and forever my baby she will be.

Growing up in Vietnam, we don't have the yellow lemon like here in the west.  Our lemon is the green lime and we got plenty of them.  There's at least one house on every street that has a lime tree.  When summer comes knocking, limeade is our drink of choice.  Cheap and easy to make.  There's also no packaged juice avail. then !!!  You either make your own drink or you have to go to a restaurant or food stall for them.

I love limeade !  the smell of cut limes brings back so many memories for me.  Our 264 Le Loi house, my grandma waiting for me coming home from school, and my mom with a pitcher of limeade.  My grandma would hug me and I can feel her cool soft skin on my cheeks when her face touches mine.  I miss her so much.  I know she's up there in heaven with the Lord and one day we will get to see each other again.  It's comforting knowing our relationship doesn't end with her passing, we're just apart from each other for a while !

Anyways, this drink is very easy to make.  You'll need lime or lemon, or a mix of both, cane sugar or honey (or white sugar) and water.  I used a mix of both lime and lemon because the lime we get here doesn't yield too much juice :-(  3 limes and I barely get half of a cup.

INGREDIENTS
Serving size:  8 cups

4 medium size limes (if using key lime, you'll need about 6-8 of them)
2 lemons
(all should yield about 1 to a cup of juice)
1 cup of cane sugar (more or less according to your taste, you can use white sugar if you like)
2 table spoon of honey (can be omitted, just add more sugar)
1 cup of boiling water
7 cups of cold water

Juice the limes and lemons into a bowl.  Strain out seeds and pulps and put juice into a pitcher.  Boil water then pour 1 cup of the boiling water into a bowl.  Add the sugar and honey to the boiled water and stir until completely dissolved.  Add the sugar water into the pitcher and mix.  Add the 7 cups of water, stir around then taste.  Add more sugar if you want it sweeter.  Chill in the fridge.

If you don't have time to chill the drink in the fridge, make the drink a bit more sweet then add 2 or 3 cups of ice.

Garnish with thinly sliced up left over rinds or slices of lime and lemon.

To make the limeade lemonade pink, I add 2 table spoons of crushed frozen raspberries !

I added the juice of 1 orange to make the drink orange in color (kid requested)

We drink our limeade in tea cup !  this is how we roll :-)