Wiggly Piglet and Bouncy Tigger's Playpen

Back to “normal”

wigglypiglet — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:35:02 +0000

Marcus has fully recovered from the trip with his illness and jet lag. Mckayla is almost there, except for the lingering cough. She’s still on the nebulizer but we’re tapering down to once per day. Hopefully, she will be off by this weekend. Marcus has been eating well the last couple days and gaining some weight back. Nanny reported Marcus had four cups of milk today along with breakfast (ham and crackers) and lunch (steamed fish, corn, rice). And in the afternoon, he ate two string cheese and a bunch of strawberries and crackers for snack. For dinner tonight, we started out with pea sprout stir fry, followed by minced pork noodle. Marcus had his fair share and Mckayla asked for seconds. They also each had a bowl of soup that I made with pork and daikon. Then, they ate strawberries while we cleaned up. When they finished strawberries, they wanted more food. I gave them each two handfuls of bunny crackers and they ate everything. They asked for more food but I had to stop since both bellies were bulging. I haven’t weigh them yet this week. But Marcus definitely felt much heavier the past few days. Finally recovering from the weight he lost couple weeks ago.

Inheritance

wigglypiglet — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:17:43 +0000

At the age of four, Mckayla has already claimed my wedding ring. She’s always admiring my ring and telling me it’s pretty. She has repeated told me that if I don’t want to wear my ring anymore, I can just place it in her bag.

The other day, I couldn’t find my badge at work. When I got home, I asked Ted if he had seen them since I remember the kids were fighting over it the night before. I also asked Mckayla if she had seen my badge but not expecting her to tell me anything since she misplaces her own stuff all the time. But to my surprise, she ran to the family room, opened the trunk of her moped. And there it was, sitting in the trunk of her moped.

Bad Influence

wigglypiglet — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:36:14 +0000

Even though, we have all returned home from our trip to Taiwan. Marcus still has influence on LJ. Kids do learn from other kids, good things and bad things. Margaret’s been showing Marcus’ singing ABC video to LJ who enjoys watching it. LJ is making sounds along with Marcus in the video. But at the same he’s also copying Marcus’ hand gestures, hitting his own head.

Look at me, skype, independent vs dependent, video of “Me”

wigglypiglet — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:27:17 +0000

“Look at me!”. That’s Marcus’ favorite phrase at the moment. He think he’s so funny and does silly things all the time. He calls us and wants our attention. Silly things make Mckayla laugh. The harder she laughs the more silly things he does.

Mckayla walked over to the family room with a calculator that has a stand up monitor. She placed it on the TV stand and told Marcus to sit next to her. Next thing I heard was, “let’s skype”. They were both sitting in front of the calculator making silly faces. I asked what they were doing. Marcus just kept repeating “skype”. Mckayla told me she was talking to grandma using Skype.

It’s so funny to see how the two kids are so different sometimes. Every evening after shower, Mckayla complains that she doesn’t know how to get dressed herself and needed our help. But the other night, kids were being naughty in the tub. I gave Mckayla a firm warning to dress herself and be done when I was done with Marcus. Within two minutes, she came running to Marcus’ room and fully dressed herself. When we walk to school in the morning, she complain that her lunch bag was too heavy and she couldn’t carry it herself. On the other hand, Marcus wants to do everything himself. He fights me getting him dressed all the time. To make things easier, we let him zip up the pajamas at night. After he uses the potty, he even tries to wipe himself. When I came home with Mckayla on Friday night, I had a bunch of stuff in my arms. Marcus immediately offered to “help”. He carried my and Mckayla’s lunch bags to the kitchen and placed them on the counter himself.

When we were in Taiwan, LJ loves watching video of himself on the iphone. He giggles and laugh along with himself on the video. Mckayla noticed it was kind of silly when LJ watches himself. Then, she told me that she used to talk to Marcus a lot to teach him how to talk an she wants to do the same for LJ. She commented LJ can only say “MaMa”, “DaDa”, and “A-Ma”, so she wanted to teach how to say “jiejie”. She came up with the idea of me videotaping her talking for LJ. In the video, she said “LJ, look at me. I’m jiejie. Call me jiejie”.

Dinner in the City

wigglypiglet — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:06:56 +0000

We were invited to dinner at our friends Nita and Carl’s home in the city on Saturday evening. We got to their house a bit late due to traffic on 101, but we still beat the De Villiers since they hit the traffic too. Nita and Carl are expecting their first baby this month (due in 10 days!) and their home was not quite child-proof yet for the time being. For the most of the night, we were able to keep the kids out of trouble and did not break anything at their house. We all enjoyed the yummy cheese and cracker appetizer, and the kids had grapes. Once dinner was served, Mckayla quickly ate all the food on her plate and came back for seconds. Marcus couldn’t sit still in the make shift kids table, so he lingered around our dinner table while we fed him. After they finished eating, all four kids were occupied by the electronic gadget that we brought along while we continued to chat and enjoy wine. But as soon as dessert (brownie with ice cream and berries), they immediately gathered around the dinner table. It was a nice evening out for all of us. By nine thirty, all the kids were getting tired and it was time to head home. Marcus quickly failed asleep in the car but Mckayla stayed awake until we got home. She was quiet during the ride but didn’t fall asleep.

Dessert trail, occupied phone line

wigglypiglet — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:44:50 +0000

Last night, downtown had a Valentine’s Day event. Many shops remained open to serve free treats. The goal was to collect stickers at each of them. Once three stickers were collected, they get a cookie. And if eight stickers were collected, they can enter for a drawing. Mckayla had a fun time collecting stickers and Marcus followed along. Getting the treats were “extras” for them and most of them went into my pocket. Mckayla asked for stickers nicely and said her thank you’s. Marcus did the abbreviated version, asking “sticker, please” and “thank you” when prompted. In the end, we collected more than ten stickers for each before we turned them in for their prizes. The cookies went in my pocket again and we filled in the forms for the drawing. We concluded the evening with a quick stop for ice cream. Ted had a scoop and the kids shared one. When we got home, kids were on their sugar high. Since my mom called while we were out, I returned her call. Then the kids took over the phone line chatting with grandma on the phone themselves. Marcus first request for grandma was to buy him cars. Two cars specifically because he declined when my mim offered him three. Twenty minutes later, they got off the line because my mom had to leave. Then, we called Ted’s mom. I didn’t get a chance to say before they took over the line again. Marcus lasted about five minutes this time and handed the phone back to me. But Mckayla continued to chat. In the end, Ted had to take away the phone half an hour later which resulted in lots of crying.

Marcus singing ABC

wigglypiglet — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:47:35 +0000

Here’s Marcus singing the ABC (on the potty again). The marks on his face are from the stamps. And for some reason, he thinks it’s funny when he hits his head. He couldn’t stop laughing when I showed him the video afterwards upon his request.

Naughty

wigglypiglet — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:42:05 +0000

I guess a sign that the kids are well is when they’re naughty. It was the case today. Thanks to nanny, she watched both kids this morning while I napped. After I got up, both kids were running around the house playing. They were chasing each other and having fun. After I got ready, I took Mckayla out to lunch as I promised her. She wanted to eat pasta in downtown Los Altos. We enjoyed a great lunch while we chatted. She told me she misses everyone in Taiwan and can’t wait to back again. She wanted auntie Margaret and uncle Leong to bring LJ to visit us. After lunch, we went home for her nap. While they napped, I went back to Kaiser to get my PPD test read and picked up some grocery. I came home when Marcus was already up from his nap. We went to wake Mckayla up from her nap. She was still groggy but happy to see us. Once she was up, they started chasing each other around again. I quickly prepped dinner and let nanny home early. By then, they were riding their scooters up and down the hallway. In attempt to calm them down, I took out stamps for them to play in the kitchen. I stepped out for a minute to grab their pj since Ted was out for the evening and I wanted everything ready for their bath. When I came back, Marcus was stamping his face while Mckayla laughed. He’s the comedian and wants to be the funny guy all the time. The harder Mckayla laughs the more silly things he does. I cleaned them up and got them seated for dinner. We had chicken and broccoli for dinner. Both kids’ appetite are back. They each had two drumsticks and two bowls of broccoli, followed by a box of strawberries (they were kind enough to save four strawberries for Ted). After dinner, they resumed chasing each other around while I cleaned up. Then, it was bath time. They were throwing dirty socks at each other while they were on the potty. Then, once they got in the tub, they splashed water each other, then on the floor when I turned my back to them. Then, they started diving into the water while I was cleaning the floor and splashing more water in the floor. The only way to stop the chaos was to get them out of water. I scooped both out and sent Mckayla to her room to get dressed herself. They couldn’t stop giggling the whole time even when I was flossing and brushing their teeth. A side note, Marcus’ #18 (bottom right second molar) came out. Maybe that’s the reason for the crank nights. Finally, Ted came home at eight thirty to two kids running in circles in the family room. They acted like they were on sugar high but they didn’t have any. But it’s a sure sign they have recovered. Mckayla will finally go back to school tomorrow and back to work for me. Hope this is the end of illness for this flu season.

Streak of bad luck

wigglypiglet — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:17:14 +0000

Marcus had a rough night on Monday. He’s severely jet lagged. Mckayla slept til five then refused to go back to sleep til seven. We spent the morning at home then I took Mckayla out to grab lunch and pick up a few things at the store. On our way home, I backed unto another car pulling out from the parking space. Luckily, I only released the brake and the damage was small. Ted’s car bumper got a few scratches in the bumper. The other party’s car had a dent in the bumper about five inches in diameter. I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon calling the insurance company to report the incident while the kids napped. Without taking a nap, I didn’t get to sleep most if the night because Marcus had another rough night. He screamed and cried from eleven at night til six the next morning.

Appointments

wigglypiglet — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:42:08 +0000

Ted left for his first day of work on Monday morning. When he left, I was sleeping with Marcus in his room while Mckayla was sleeping on our bed by herself. I got up around eight thirty to get myself ready. In the mean time, Marcus woke up and was happy to see his nanny. Mckayla didn’t wake up until we were about to leave for Marcus’ appointment. After a short wait, Marcus was seen by his pedi. Everything checked out good. He had no rales, no crackles, and no wheezing. He had good bowel sound. He was to continue his ten day course of antibiotics. His pedi thinks that he probably had a bad viral infection that caused all the problems. I informed her about Mckayla’s appointment with her in the afternoon since she’s had high fever for more than three days now. I took Marcus home and handed him over to nanny. Mckayla was playing with her toys and dress up. I quickly fed her lunch and sent her to bed for nao. While they napped, I ran to the store to pick up some grocery and back to KP again to get my PPD test. When I got back, both kids were still asleep. I promptly woke Mckayla up to get her ready. I was relieved she was fever free by then but was breathing very fast. The ma checked her temperature, weight (36lb), height (finally, 40″!), and O2 sat. After we were roomed, she informed us a nurse will come by now to see her. She checked her breathing and examined her chest. She was then immediately started on albuterol nebulizer. She continued her treatment until her pedi came. After a quick exam, she suspects Mckayla had viral infection that caused her respiratory problem. She swabbed her nose to run a few tests (pertussis, influenza, and RSV) and ordered chest X-ray. She also upped her steroid dose via nebulizer. We were told to keep her home until at least Thursday. We went and got the X-ray done and picked up the prescription before we headed home. She was exhausted by then. Not fun having two sick kids at home.