Goodbye 2006 Corolla, Hello 2016 Mazda CX-5
I said goodbye to my 2006 Toyota Corolla today! I had bought my Corolla brand-new after my used Mazda 626 (i think it was a 97?) dropped its oil cap and ruined the engine. So after 10 years, Jeff especially thought it was time for a new car. I really liked my old”practical” car… and funny enough, somehow when i bought it i knew i would have it a while and use it to eventually cart along children — even if when i bought it i was single and had not even met Jeff yet! So it had definitely served its purpose, and had excellent gas mileage (35 mpg) for my somewhat long commute to work. 
We traded the Corolla in and got maybe $2K for it i think. It has some body damage and needed new tires.
I test drove the Hyundai Tucson but liked the Mazda better. We actually test drove in Salinas but they didn’t have the color i wanted. I went home and called Seaside Mazda dealership and they said they didn’t have the blue car i wanted on the lot — but that it was coming on a shipment THAT NIGHT! Sa-weet.
HERE IT IS!
I picked a blue car this time because i was tired of a ‘boring’ silver car! But the bad thing is it does show dirt a lot more than my practical silver car. Wah wah….
The safety features on the car are pretty impressive. There is a back-up camera, blind-spot monitoring, automatic emergency breaking, lane departure warning (don’t use that though) as well as automatic windshield wipers! Luxury items like tinted windows, large wheel rims, leather seats, seat warmers, bluetooth pairing, and bose speakers. And don’t forget we bought the one with All-wheel drive (since we have soooo much snow around here… LOL!)
I had to buy a whole backseat seat cover to put under the kids’ car seats because the kids eat snacks in my car while driving to daycare in the morning. So far i think it is working pretty well. You should have seen the back of my Corolla! Yikes!
I am looking forward to driving the the car and taking it to Costco where i hopefully won’t have to battle with my trunk and shove items in the kids’ carseats!
Christmas Day 2015
For Christmas, my sister decided to fly in for the weekend since my Mom and Dad were in Australia with my other sister Jill to celebrate her graduating from dental school. Christmas crept up on up pretty quickly! The children – as always – got plenty of gifts.
Jeff, Susan and i prepped the christmas gifts the night before. Here is the tree on Christmas Eve. It is so exciting as a parent to get ready for the big day!
On Christmas mornin, Vinny came into our room and i am not sure he remembered it was Christmas because he didn’t ask about presents or go look at the tree or anything. He just hung out with us and took silly selfies:
After we mentioned the whole Christmas thing, we started checking out our stockings and then started slowly opening presents under the tree.
Melanie got Frozen Dolls, a unicorn rocking horse, and a new dollhouse, and a Hello Kitty car.
Vincent got a new bike (!), a remote control car, train tracks/tunnel, and a paw patrol scooter.
My mom got both of the kids marshmallow chairs. Melanie LOVES hers!
My sister Jill bought them an Easel which they played with for a while. Of course they fought over the dry-eraser since it only came with one.
I got Jeff (and the family) a new portrait to remember Butter’s by — set right above the computer.
Pop-pop and Oma came by to check out the festivities too!
I FINALLY made a baby book for melanie! So that was my gift to the grands.
As for me, i got a cool wide-angle and macro lens for my phone! This picture was taken with the wide angle:
Later in the day we went to the in-laws to open more presents and eat lunch. Melanie knew all about opening presents by then!
Vincent is obsessed with marble ball!
Aunty Susan bought Vinny a motorized Paw Patrol scooter, and Melanie a motorized Hello Kitty car. She is pretty good at getting the “Aunty” gifts.
Earlier in the week, Vinny went home sick with the flu. Then Melanie came down with it… Luckily i was home from work by then so could watch the kids. We were wiping Melanie’s nose all day long.
And of course you know what that means… Later on Christmas night i ended up getting super sick with the flu, which put me out a couple of days. Luckily my sister was here to help watch the kids. (Though she accidentally drank my water and got sick too, but after she returned to Hawaii.)I didn’t have my flu shot but the kids did, so i think they didnt get it TOO bad. Jeff was lucky and escaped the sickness …. as he somehow normally does!
Christmas Fun
Getting the tree ready after Thanksgiving. Vinny knew what to do. Melanie is great learner and just copied what everyone else was doing without any other prompting. Smart little girl.
She could not resist touching the ornaments. You’d always find several on the ground!
Vincent had a lot of fun opening his Lego advent calendar each night.
Vinny and i went to a cookie exchange/ugly christmas sweater party with my friends from the gym. My sweater had CATS on it of course!
Here are the cookies! Plenty!
I made peanut butter cookies:
On the way home from the party in Marina, we visited a fun house with lots of christmas decorations and lights!
Every year i make my Chex Mix as presents to my friends.
We keep hiring more people at work so my batch keeps needing to get bigger and bigger!
Visiting Santa 2015
We went to the mall early on a Sunday to catch our Santa picture.
It was a cold rainy day! Vincent did pretty well but melanie really freaked out hence, my having to be in the photo!
They got some really cute plates afterwards for santa cookies.
We played a bit at the mall indoor playground and checked out the coin rides/games.
Christmas Portraits 2015
Here is our annual family christmas card:
The family photo was taken when we had to take a company/family photo for my work’s holiday card.
Here is the letter i wrote to family and friends:
I took the portraits of the kids later since they did not look too smiley in the group shot!
They were kind of hard to take photos of, i had to tell Vinny jokes and Melanie – though usually eager to pose the for camera, decided she did not want to that day (of course).
Some additional favorite shots:
To get a genuine smile, i have to tell him a joke or do something extra silly.
This is Melanie telling me “NO!!!!” LOL
If only Vincent were staring at Melanie instead of into space…
Her ears are glowing!
Great smile!
Vinny had fun pulling his sister in the wagon.
I truly tried to get a good shot of them together… but just impossible. This one they’re both over it i guess!
This picture got a lot of “likes” on facebook!
Thanksgiving 2015
We went over to Pop-pop and Oma’s house for a not-too-formal dinner. We got some pretty good portraits for the day!
The kids love going to their house.
Earlier in the day we baked ginger bread cookies but i overbaked them so they didnt taste too good.
I made a batch once long before i had kids and it was like the best gingerbread cookies i ever had … and … i lost the recipe! So sad.
Vincent’s First Soccer Season
We signed up Vinny for the YMCA Soccer league. He was on a team of 10 kids aged 3-5. He had a few really good players on his team. Vinny scored a goal during his first game! Too bad, it was for the other team!
In general, he did not really follow the game very well. He was usually in his own world, and would maybe follow the ball if it happen to cross paths with him. He liked to just play with is shirt (which was way too big for him), stare at birds, and run real funny. His favorite part of the game was at the end when the parents made a human tunnel for the kids to run through. Then of course snack time!
Trophy at the end of the season.
Tunnel time!
Melanie was cute, she wanted to have her own ball and practice on the sidelines.
Here are the snacks i did up when it was our turn. Customized bags, yes! Look at that YMCA Logo on the Lions shirt. I mean that’s just professional right there.
Halloween 2015 – Catboy and Unicorn
Disney channel has a new kids show called PJ Masks that debuted in September. Vincent really wanted to be Catboy. Etsy (for the mask), Amazon (blue suit) and Joanns (blue duct tape) helped put this costume together. So much fun when it’s not store bought!
Melanie LOVES her unicorn Beanie Boo! So when I found this costume I knew she would love it.
Daddy carved the pumpkin. Kids were very interested in the candle.
Trying to get a photo of both of them is so hard. This one will do i guess.
See what i mean — they were chasing each other in circles. Early in the day we went to Downtown to Trick-or-treat. Since i had to teach earlier we couldn’t make it until a few hours after it started, so most businesses ran out of candy. But we still got enough.
Jeff and I recycled our Disney costumes from two years ago.
Vinny strikes a pose!
Charlotte and her family went with us too.
For “real” trick-or-treating, we went around our neighborhood in the red wagon done up with glowsticks.
Melanie really liked the decorations like the light-up pumpkins.
Vinny was pretty much a pro at trick-or-treating ==- he was being funny asking where the doorbell was at each house. (” you have to look for it Vinny!”!), and Melanie learned the ropes of trick-or-treating super quick!
She was trying to say “trick or treat” and was saying Thank you. Such a sweetie. Halloween is so much fun with these kids. Melanie discovered she LOVES M&Ms! Only bad part is she drools chocolate while eating it! Vincent was beyond excited for his mask to come in the mail (made it here 10/30) and be his favorite super hero.
Disneyland 2015
For work i had to attend a conference in LA (Adobe MAX – which was super fun BTW!), so since i was going to be down there, and my parents were flying up to help with the kids while i was gone for 4 days we decided to go to Disneyland. And heck, might as well invite the in-laws too!
Highlights from the trip:
– Super duper hot – like 105 degrees hot. ZOMG. But actually wasn’t as terrible as i thought it would be. we were prepared.
– Vincent had a knack for needing to go potty right before we were loading up on the ride. Like, we wait 1/2 an hour in the line… so the idea of leaving at that point is like almost out of the question! But luckily he held it for us! LOL.
– Melanie behaved nicely depsite fears of Manic Melanie from Hawaii coming back during this vacation
– My mom and dad watched the kids a couple of nights so that Jeff and I could ride adult rides! Yay!
Melanie loved this waterfall.
She was playing peekabo with her new Minnie hat.
This silly Caterpillar ride was the only one the whole crew went on.
Funny look at everyone’s hats. They are matching sorta.
Vinny really liked the bumper cars.
He went once with Dad and once with Mom. He was so funny when he bumped into anyone he would say very sincerely “oops, i’m sorry!”
We rode on the train that went all the way around the park. Vincent actaully wanted to go on the monorail he could see from outside the park, but this seemed to satisfy him. I had never been on it and its kind of old, but you can see a dinosaur theme and other things within the tunnels. Vinny got scared, even though he is like obsessed with tunnels.
Jeff said he had fun on this ride. Used my new camera’s burst mode to try to get clear pics!
Fireworks show every night!
We could watch from our hotel room since we splurged on the expensive room with view. Worth it!
Merry go-round. Melanie was “having fun!” according to Vinny.
Star Tours 3-D. Vinny loved it!
My dad hurt his leg so had to rent a wheelchair.
Melanie loved the little water feature in Bugs land. This little boy wanted to hug her! She was like no, get away from me.
Tower of Terror was a 90 minute wait, but we waited and got in just before the park closed. It wasn’t as scary as the first time but still fun!
Rollercoaster was so fun! Got in just before they closed it for the World of Color show.
This is Vinny’s face when he just wants to go on the Radiator Springs Racer ride! (we had just got to the park, and he saw the Youtube video of the ride — its all he could think about!)
Haha, professional photo op. We’re pretty good actors.
Couple-y – photos. Laughs.
Melanie is 19 months old
Melanie has grown by leaps and bounds since my last update at 1 year. She can now walk on her own and is quickening up her pace! Once she started being confident enough to take those first steps at 15 months, she was off! Just check out the video in my previous blog post.
Other quick updates….
LOVES TO SAY:
- up
- car
- apple
- phone
- wa-wa (water)
- juice
- ba-ba (bottle)
- Mommy, daddy
- Men-nee, Vin-nee
- all done
- mine!
- “no, no, no” (+finger wave)
- cheeeese! (take my picture)
She can also say some animal names (duck, rabbit, pig), animal sounds (woof, baa, meow).
LOVES TO EAT & DRINK:
- chips
- cake
- orange juice
- pancakes
- stinky snacks (arare/japanese rice crackers)
- Gerber yogurt melts
- asian noodles
- protein bars
- milk from a bottle
LOVES TO PLAY & MOVE:
- Telephone
- String / headphones
- Pens / stylus
- Bubbles
- clapping
- Music / sing songs (Baa Baa Black sheep, Twinkle Twinkle, Hoky Poky, ABC, One Little Finger)
- Hide and seek / chase with Brother
- Brushing teeth
- play with brooms
- Dress up / wear bibs/ jackets / hats/sunglasses
- Balloons
- Jumping on the couch
- Taking Selfies
HER PERSONALITY
After our trip to Hawaii, Melanie was a changed person. LOL. Actually, our trip disrupted her daily routine a bit too much i think, and she got really clingy. She also may have been suffering from heat stroke/effects from her vaccinations. Anyway, more on that in the Hawaii post, but basically she refused to bathe or eat like a normal child. This lead me to look up some parenting books, and i came across one called “The Child Whisperer” – it identifies children with their personality type and explains what methods are effective at parenting that type. Melanie is definitely an “Sensitive” child. (more emotional, needs time to think things through and ask questions). Vincent is a “Determined” child (very physical, once he sets his mind to something, it needs to be achieved, cannot wait). Could they be any more opposite?! LOL.
GROWING WELL?
At her 18 month check up, Melanie was only at 10% growth. 21.5 lbs. Small for her age. She doesnt really eat much so i am not surprised. The doc said to give her pediasure, which we did, and she hated and then started refusing any milk, which freaked us out. Now she is back to drinking milk from a bottle, so we’re just letting it go. Better than no milk at all!
She has lots of teeth now! 6 upper and 6 lower for 12 teeth total. So she has her first set of molars. She didnt have any trouble teething, but still drooling a bit. But less than before, so sometimes we can manage without a bib!
HER FAVORITE THINGS:
- Her Beanie Boo named “Kitty” stuffed animal (its actually a unicorn that we refer to the unikitty)
- Her blankie – we keep it mostly for naps and bedtime but occasionally it will make its way out into the rest of the house
- Her paci (same note as above)
AND… THINGS SHE HATES:
- Baths
- Seeing Mommy leave
- When Mommy doesn’t pick up her/carry her
- When she doesn’t get something that was given to Brother (i.e., snack/water, maybe a toy)
PHOTO DUMP BELOW:
Eating stinky snacks:
Hiking at Jacks Peak:
Still loves her bottle:
Daddy dressed her up!
Playing with earphones:
Someone spilled pringles:
Still taking a good afternoon nap for a couple hours (This was in Hawaii, in the crib I slept in when a baby!):
This was before she feared water (aka, the good ole days):
Walking with her brother to daycare in her first pair of shoes:
