fancy tricks a la Elise

I knew it would be coming soon, but I wasn't sure how soon.  Elise's desire to be a big girl had to outweigh her extreme fear of falling and injuring herself and today was the day.  I came home to a very happy Elise that had figured out how to ride her bike in a matter of minutes. (and all by herself)  She was pretty excited to hear that all new bike riders get to go out for ice cream (she is my only kid who hasn't known about that in their efforts to learn how to ride), but it made for a sad Lilly.  I was told *at least* ten times tonight that she actually learned how to ride her bike when she was three, but she is pretending that she doesn't know how to...."Now do I get ice cream??"

Kangling Year in Review

{Chloe (9), Hannah (8), Rachel (13), Lilly (3), Autumn (11), and Elise (5)}

This year has been a very eventful one for the Kanglings full of crazy trips and sport seasons.

So here is the girls' year in review:

Rachel: Rachel lives for Starfish and is going back in February to spend a month there with her grandma. She played forward this year in soccer and had a lot of fun. She also played Unified Sports this year for soccer and basketball and really enjoyed that. Her biggest accomplishment this year was completing her Personal Progress award for church (similar to the eagle scout).

Autumn: Autumn got to go to South Korea this year and really enjoyed it. She is progressing in photography and takes amazing pictures (lots of them). She played defense in soccer and had a fun year with her team (your worst nightmares). She is still the comedian of the family and always makes us laugh. She loves reading and when she has a book you won't be seeing her until she finishes the whole thing. She also found a recent love for Shakespeare.

Chloe: Chloe plays the piano like crazy and is now playing hymns and primary songs. We constantly find her picking out songs from all of Rachel's books. She played soccer this year with Chris as her coach. She played forward and was one of the top scorers on her team. Chloe's been doing a lot of sewing and knitting and made a lot of cute things to put in fair this year.

Hannah: Hannah turned 8 this year and was baptized. She still loves horses and has been reading books about them like crazy. We've found her reading out of a horse encyclopedia and she knows about every type of horse there is. :) She started book 2 in piano this year. She had a fun soccer season and was her team's goalie. When schedules didn't conflict she played for Chris' team.

Elise: Elise believes she is the queen of the family. She loves making pies with her "pie maker (Rachel)". She started reading this year and always is excited when she can pick out a word. She's learning piano really quickly now and is learning songs every week. She loves posing for the camera and listening to her sisters read aloud classics to her. (a Kangling first)

Lilly: Lilly is our cuddle-bug and loves to give hugs and kisses. She loves Hello Kitty and is always pretending to be a little kitty and goes around on her hands and knees, meowing. She loves when people read her books and always comes to you with a pile of about 10 books at a time and has to have you read them all, unless you can distract her.

Lilly was being a little silly during our family pictures this year

and in every picture she was making a face similar to this.

Elise-isms

Elise, you smart little cookie. How does a three year old get what she wants?

Elise: Dad, put your hand up. Ok. Now say "I will make Elise popcorn and I will watch Dog Whisperer with her." Say it, dad.

Pretty smart, right? I was impressed even if she was a little disappointed that her little master plan failed so miserably.

Keys, wherefore art thou?

ok. it is really way past my bedtime, but I am going to post a super cute funny from my day to make up for the intense neglect that my blog has been suffering.

I am trying to leave to take Rachel to her first night of YW's and cannot find my keys anywhere. We searched high and low for a good 10 minutes when I finally went to the car (where kids were waiting, nicely buckled and all.) and asked if Hannah or Chloe had seen my keys. Elise pipes up from the backseat that she had and that I should look in the coloring drawer. Since most of you have probably not seen my coloring drawer, let's suffice it to say that this clue was only slightly helpful. (It is actually a cabinet and let's just say that its cup overfloweth.) After looking with little success, I had Elise unbuckle and come show me herself. She ran in the house, reached her arm back in the cabinet and immediately returned with the keys. (She is actually pretty lucky that something wasn't lurking in there, waiting to bite off her tasty fingers. Yes. The coloring drawer IS that bad.) While she was doing this, I was grabbing a handful of Hot Tamales and little Elise pipes up. "Can I have candy for finding the keys?" Why, yes, Elise. I always give out treats to kids who hide keys and subsequently find keys. No, really. I do. Or at least I did. If they are missing again tomorrow, I guess I will pull out the Hot Tamales to reinforce Bad Parenting Lesson #1543.

Side Note: This just reminded me of the time I lost my keys when Elise was barely 2. She was learning her body parts in Korean at the time and when I finally turned to her and said "Elise, have you seen my keys?????", she pointed to her ears and said "Keys here!" (Ears in Korean is more of a Gwey, but she did find those for me!) And we did find the keys...in the trash can. (which she was probably also responsible for.)

quote of the day

Elise: Oreo pooped on the table! (a minute later) Oh. It's pie.

Ymmm....

weekend in review

In a small exercise of letting go, not everything got done but the most important things did get done. Yesterday was Elise's 3rd birthday and with her being the queen bee of the Kang house, we were all buzzing around her making sure everything went her way. (within limits, of course) Elise helped me decorate her cupcakes which, in the name of simplicity, included blue sprinkles with Thomas rings stuck in the middle. She named each ring as she deliberated over which cupcake they would end up in. Our friends crafted some amazing wooden train and boat toys for her, we Yudu-ed some girly Thomas shirts for her and added a new Skippy Jon Jones book to her collection. (which is why she has been singing "Gitchy, Gitchy Gumba. Dinoes do the rumba!", complete with some very cute 3 year old shakin') In the midst of the birthday chaos, I was...too lazy (gosh, I really didn't want to type that) to get my camera out. In a true act of letting go, I let Autumn take pictures with her point and shoot of the whole thing. I will take some pictures of her in her Thomas shirt tomorrow for my little piece in it all, but Autumn's documentation will have to suffice.
Elise's most recent cuteness? When I lectured Autumn about hurrying to get ready on Sunday morning, Elise turned to me and said "Be nice to Autumn, mom!" Sometimes, I need a three year old to tell me like it is. To cap off the day, we sat down with Elise and looked through her scrapbook. Ah...I was *this* close to crying. Not that she isn't sweet now, but to see her so tiny just made me get all teary eyed. How dare they grow up on us??? What was funny was looking at her expressions, even as a newborn. They really haven't changed much. Her thinking face has always (and still does) look like a very mean glare. Elise, I love you!

Pictures as promised...

Pictures, as promised.  Note that these were taking while nursing (on the right side, which took extra skillz with all of the camera buttons being on that same side) a 10 month old girly who loves to pull on the camera strap every time I try to click.  But they are proof that we did celebrate Autumn's birthday, which is the important part.  Butterfly cupcakes, her new (and very annoying, but not quite as annoying as a real dog) fur real puppy and her birthday shirt.  Birthday fun, all the way.

Bonus Picture:

This is Elise, doing her new trick, compliments of Autumn.  Winking has become the new trend at the Kang house.  Autumn winks at you about 10 times per conversation.  I am not sure if she thinks it will get her out of trouble or what, but it is pretty cute.  Since Autumn is the sweet teacher to her little sisters, Elise has taken up winking too.  Unfortunately, it is a little much for a 2 year old.  Luckily, her hand is willing to help her as she says "Wink!"  Pretty cute stuff.  

The case of the missing toothbrush

As you all know by now, Elise is head over heels obsessed with a certain little blue train. (no, not the engine that could.)  If you want to be on her good side, as Jacob learned, you bring a train and talk tracks with her.  Because Lilly has been accepted into her world, she is either called Lilly Poop (it was supposed to be Lilly Lu) or Baby Thomas.  We have Thomas "panties" that are always worn backwards because why on earth would any true Thomas fan want the big picture of Thomas on their rear where they can't see it?  We have accepted a Train Table as our new coffee table because her trains get played with so much.  Tonight when she went to bed, a freak out about her lost owl pj's quickly came to an end when she saw a Thomas shirt to wear instead.  My impossible to photograph daughter will sit in front of the camera forever (albeit in her diaper) if she is getting her pictures taken with her train friends.  When she colors or needs to refer to a color, she uses the trains for reference.  This is great if you know all of the trains and their names, but otherwise you might be a little lost in the beginning.  Let's have a little test in honor of the lack of formal schooling that occurred in the Kang house this week.

Rules: No googling.  Post your answers in the comments and I will give you the key on Monday.

1. Elise's favorite goat at Grandma's was Diesel goat.  What color is he?    

2. Elise was angry at Hannah for sitting on her Percy stool.  What color was the stool that caused this mid morning meltdown?

3. Mommy saved the day by suggesting that she sit on the Toby stool instead.  What color was the stool that restored peace at Grandma's?

4. Chris keeps complaining that his toothbrush disappears on a daily basis.  Elise came to me today and said with much irritation, "Daddy took my Thomas toothbrush!"  What color is Chris' toothbrush?

5.  What color of toothbrush can we buy him that won't be connected to some Thomas character, thus preventing anymore thievery on Elise's part?

I had it coming

I am reluctant to even post this because it shows you just where 6 kids can take you.  I am sure that there will be many a first time mom that reads this post and shudders "Yuck!".  On the other hand, it was so stinking hilarious that I have to share. (And it was obviously a slow blog day since this is all I can come up with!)

Elise has always hated me cleaning her face, yet she seems to get her face dirty faster than any of the other girls did at this age.  Everytime I would clean her face, I would then have to listen to her cry for the next 10 minutes while swatting at her face.  A little while ago, I discovered that Mommy Dog could clean her face, even though I couldn't.  Or maybe it is that baby dog doesn't mind having her face clean as much as Elise does. (Although lately she has been branching out to baby birdy, baby joey, baby cow, etc.)  Here is the gross part.  Being that I have adapted to convenient mothering, this normally is done by simply licking my fingers and wiping her face.  As long as I say "Oh, baby dog, we need to clean your face" or something of the like, she is happy to oblige.  Tonight, as I was tucking her in, mommy dog realized that baby dog had a little speck of something on her cheek that needed cleaning.  Mommy dog did her duty (at least I don't just lick her face, right?  That would be REALLY gross!) and suddenly, Elise licked her fingers and cleaned mommy dog's face right back.  This was somehow much grosser than mommy dog cleaning baby dog's face.  Yet, it seems to me that I am fortunate that she hasn't done this sooner.  

Side Note: On Super Nanny, she suggested making this cute little towel puppet to clean your child's face with.  When I saw this, I remember thinking "Yes, I guess that might work, too.  Way less gross." but in all reality, my fingers are always with me and when would the towel puppet be? Probably never.

Side Note #2: I still remember when Rachel was officially not my baby.  I went to "clean" her face and she jumped away, shrieking in disgust.  

Side Note #3: I just want you guys to know how hesitant I am to even post this.  I am going to quickly push publish before I change my mind. :)

Thank you, Lilly

I feel so blessed right now.  My sweet little Lilly Lu.  Let me start by saying that I love nursing my babies.  It is wonderful in so many forms, but the thing I don't like is that my babies never let me just rock them to sleep.  If I am holding them when they are tired, they want food.  Tonight, for the 2nd time this week, Lilly has slowly drifted to sleep in my arms without nursing and I must say it is different.  I don't know why (maybe because it is so rare), it was such a sweet moment.  Sitting in the quiet glow of the Christmas tree, with Lilly stroking my face (she loves this), slowly closing her eyes.  This moment was priceless.  I felt time slow and I sucked every bit out of this moment that might never happen again.  Thank you, my oh so sweet Lilly Lu.  As if she isn't the sweetest thing ever when she is up and at 'em (and boy is she-standing by herself, crawling all over the place!), she is 20 times cuter when she is drifting off to dreamland.  Now I am extra jealous of Chris, who has always gotten to experience this with all of the girls and extra sad for him as he can't experience it with Lilly.  I cried right along side him after his stroke as he lamented his not being able to hold his daughters, but I feel it even more right now.  Feeling that extreme joy tonight reminded me just how much it must hurt him to not be able to rock her to sleep.  Lilly, you are such a blessing to us. 

 

Today, I might have started something bad.  We'll have to see how it plays out.  Elise is always either playing in Thomas land or pretending to be a doggy.  We can get her to do many things that she would not do otherwise if we start playing doggy with her, so today I used it to my advantage a few times.  To get her dressed, I talked about getting the baby doggy dressed in her pants and shirt.  To wash her face, I pretended like I was a mommy doggy, cleaning her baby. (No, I did NOT lick her face)  To get her OUT of the room with the sleeping Lilly (yes, Lilly actually slept today!), I got on my knees and called baby doggy to follow me.  Yes, all well and good.  Except that now Elise expects me to crawl on my hands and knees at times that I don't need any specific behavior to be her mommy doggy.  You see, the joy of having 6 kids is that this is normally something that the big sisters do with her.  They are sort of her play friends that are always at her disposal.    I have now been drawn into that category and, as much fun as it was, she expects me to jump in and join her no matter what task is at hand. (nursing, cooking, etc)  Once again, it was lots of fun, but once I start getting holes in the knees of all of my pants, will it still be fun?  Luckily, Lilly is quite the crawler, so we try to get her to follow Mommy Doggy, too.  If you come to our house and see my crawling through the house, you will know that baby doggy wanted me to come out and play.

Silly boys! Trains are for girls!

Yeah!  I just finished Elise's Christmas present and unlike all of my other projects that I want to show you, I can actually post this one.  I don't think my sweet Elise will be lurking on my blog (Unlike the rest of my family) to find out what she is getting under the tree.  Elise loves Thomas.  This all started on a trip to Lia's house, hanging out with her cousin, James, who is one train obsessed kid.  Little did I know that she would soon pass him up on the Train Maniac scale.  Thomas is the coolest thing since sliced bread to little Elise and we can pretty much get her to do anything if we tie Thomas into it.  (Or Percy, or Harold....)  The problem comes up when we try to find Thomas gear that it all is very masculine.  I am alright with buying trains galore, but potty training would be a lot easier if I could get my hands on some Thomas panties. After coming across some Thomas material at Goodwill, I decided to embark on making her a cute little messenger bag and matching zippered pouch to tote all of her Thomas gear in.  Oh, and of course to make it a little girlier than the typical Thomas bags.  Here it is!  Now I just need to make 9 more presents.  How many days until Christmas again?  Uh oh....

The bad news today?  Chloe was looking on Pottery Barn Kids today with me and when she saw the kitchen set, she said "We don't need one of those.  We have one out in the garage that Grandma got when she was here!"  Yep, you guessed it.  I had tried to plan ahead on a group item from a very jolly feller.  Now I am in a little bit of a jam.  Yikes.  At least she said something because I would have hated for her to find out (if you know what I mean) quite this early.  The rush to fix this one should be interesting.  And in the mean time, what do I do with this other...item?  We give our girls 2 gifts for Christmas: the predicatable matching pj's and one other small handmade item.  I hate to ruin that by throwing this bigger item out there since I can no longer "help" a certain feller with his delivery.  Hmmmm.  Do you like my code?

On a side note, I think I need to stop blogging so late.  It makes for crazy talk.