Still On Christmas

I've a bit of catching up to do:

The day after we drove down to Pasadena to show the kids snow, we went to Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga to have a look at their 40-ft tall Christmas tree. This being Southern California, it warmed up enough for us to need some ice-cream to cool off.

The day after that saw a special event going on at the Claremont train station, just five minutes away from us. We saw a specially decorated Christmas train, replete with Christmas lights, (fake) reindeer, Santa and Mrs Claus, a snowman and some pirates. We brought some new toys to donate to the toy drive that they were running.

K's very busy with school - it is crunch time; he has presentations and projects and exams in the next couple of weeks. We've had to entertain ourselves somehow. Colouring is the activity of choice nowadays, especially for E. She loves it. I got them a big Diego colouring book and lots of crayons, so that's been fun for them.


In other news, K and I had Prima Taste's mee goreng for dinner tonight. So far this has been the least authentic, although that isn't to say that we didn't enjoy it. We welcomed the spicy-ness of it, especially since today's been a cold day - it's been raining all day. It hardly rains in Southern California (I think today's the third day that we've seen rain in all our months here), so when it does, it's a bit of a shock to the system.

A Snowball Fight

We made a special drive down to Pasadena this evening for the tree-lighting ceremony in Old Pasadena. There was also one street closed off to traffic so that they could put snow on the ground for kids to play in. It is actually already snowing in parts of the US, but Southern California is quite deprived in this respect.

All bundled up in the car, ready to go.

So, it was J and E's introduction to snow. And here are a few things J learnt today:

• Snow is like ice.
• Snow is very cold.
• No matter how much he tells Mom and Dad to make the snow warm, there's nothing they can do to help.

After his initial hesitation, he really got into the whole snowball fight thing, hurling whatever handfuls of snow he could, in whichever direction he could. One in particular came hurtling toward me, and cut my lip! J was all "I got you, Mom!", although he was also suitably apologetic when he heard that I cut my lip.

E was a little bewildered; she did not like the slipping and sliding on the ice, and wanted to be carried most of the time.

There were a couple of stressed-looking reindeer.

The Christmas tree, after it had been lit.

Black Friday

Today is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, so named because all the sales that are going on can push retailers' balance books back into the black.

So Target, which is one of our favourite shops, is having a rare sale today and tomorrow, and they opened up this morning at 6am. I was there at 6.05am, and by the time I walked in, there weren't any shopping trolleys left! Singaporeans aren't the only ones who are kiasu. I walked past one man who said that he had started queuing up at 4.30am - he had a 37" LCD TV screen in his trolley, which was going for US$549, I think. It was a very popular item, I saw it in many a trolley.

Anyway, I managed to shop some in Target, get groceries at the grocery store, then pick up breakfast, before I got back home, climbed into bed and dozed a little. All this before the kids woke up! Very nice.

Fish Eggs

We continue to be amazed by E's tastes. She is usually quite a picky eater - she'd rather not eat at all than deign to eat mashed potatoes or pasta. Then there are things that we are sure she'd hate, but she surprises us by eating them. Case in point: salmon eggs, those big orange balls that go on top of ikura sushi. See here. The mess was spectacular.


E is also becoming increasingly adept at eating corn off the cob, with bite marks that are evenly placed along the length of each corn cob. Very neat. K had actually skewered smaller chunks of the cob for her, but she wouldn't have it!

Legoland

Legoland is located about half an hour north of San Diego, so it was on the way as we made our way home yesterday. There is, obviously, a Lego theme running throughout the theme park. It's great for kids around J's age, but not so much for E; she was too little for most of the rides, the ones that look most fun, at least.

This was one of J's favourites! Driving round the track at the Volvo Junior Driving School.

New York in Lego

Legoland's quite fun. We'll probably try to go back within the next three months. Because it's low season now, we each got free tickets to return by the end of February.

San Diego Model Railroad Museum

Even though we've been to Balboa Park each time we've visited San Diego, this was the first time we brought J and E to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum located on the grounds of Balboa Park itself. It's not just for kids, there are adults that take this very seriously! It's like any other hobby for them.


There are exhibits that are set up to resemble the actual topography of California with the train lines running through. No touching allowed!

Peep & Wubbzy

J has two favourite shows now: Peep and the Big Wide World (which shows on The Learning Channel and sneakily teaches science concepts) and Wow Wow Wubbzy (which is just amusing). He laughs uproariously each time he watches them. It's funny for us to watch him.

They're kinda like Everybody Loves Raymond for preschoolers.

The Animals We Met

We couldn't let November go by without a trip anywhere, so San Diego it was. The kids got to meet animals out close that they hadn't before, both at SeaWorld and the San Diego Zoo.

The tortoise had to be held back for us to take this picture - it was in a hurry to trot off, it moved surprisingly fast for a tortoise!

Polar bears - real and otherwise

Each time we go to San Diego, E gets a little bit more aware of the things that are around us. J has always been really keen on the cable cars at the zoo, and this time E was too. When we asked if they wanted to go up on the cable cars, she nodded her head vigorously, and said, "Car-ber-car". She was delighted to be up on it.

Joshua and Emma's Debut

So while I'm at bible study on Thursdays, J has been learning bible stories and songs. Their worship time is led by the worship pastor, no less. Today was J's debut at church, as part of a bigger group of preschoolers and toddlers. He seemed a bit befuddled at the first service, like he just didn't get what they were supposed to be doing, but he warmed up by the time they sang at the second service.

Getting a drink in between performances, so that we have a clear voice!

Lining up before going into the sanctuary.

E was in her own Sunday School during the first service, so she missed out on J's performance. But she was with us during the second service and she saw her Kor-kor go on up to the front of the sanctuary. She started to make a fuss because I was holding her and she couldn't join him! So I let her go, and she toddled up to stand right beside J throughout the whole thing. In front of everyone! Completely unrehearsed! And she made it through the two songs!

This is such a milestone. We are very proud of them.

Check out our recording of their performance below!

Jesus Loves Me/Father Abraham

It's About Time

Ta-dah! E finally has enough hair to use a hairclip! I am very proud. And she is very cute. E was actually quite taken with the hairclip after I let her look at herself in the mirror: she actually wanted it back in her hair after I took it out!

In other fashion news, E has taken to modelling the "coat" that J made in church when he was learning about Joseph.

Silver Bells...

... was playing on the radio today. We're already listening to Christmas songs on the radio and in shops and restaurants.

This is further up on the road that we live on. The colours of the trees are changing, and we pulled over to the side of the road after picking J up from school to take this picture.

We're defrosting a turkey now! In a bucket. Our church here is having a big thanksgiving dinner on Sunday, and we volunteered to contribute a turkey. Oh, we don't have to cook it, just contribute one!

E doing as Daddy does.
She clambered into her high-chair by herself, grabbed Kor-kor's computer and started typing away. She takes it really seriously: she'll get really upset if the computer doesn't turn on properly!

Just to be sure that she wasn't missing out on anything, E wanted to check out the newspapers as I was reading.

Mom Overture

I love this!

Happy birthday, Godma!

Our Day Out With Thomas

We went to the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris today, about a 45-minute drive away. This trip was long in the making; I had come across, some time ago, an event called Day Out with Thomas, where basically the Thomas the Tank Engine theme is brought to an existing train museum. The Orange Empire Railway Museum was the nearest one to us that had this event.

The kids got to sit in a train pulled by Thomas himself! But the highlight, for J at least, was the Imagination Station, where tables are laden with wooden train tracks and the floor is covered with plastic train tracks - just so you have a choice. How he has missed this.


Lest you think E was bored, you can see how busy she kept herself. The kids also got to check out model railways, clamber on vintage trains, and bounce in a bounce house.

A Box, A Fireplace and Satay

K's been pretty busy with mid-terms and papers so we've kept a low profile over the past couple of weeks. Still we have to entertain ourselves somehow.

So who needs a new toy when you have a box to play with? Not E.


It was either walking around with the box literally on top of her, or climbing in and out, and in and out again.

We had a warm day today, but it's been cold enough the past week for us to light a fire in our fireplace. We're enjoying the cooler weather, especially when it's also sunny out. But it's also a lot more work getting the kids ready to go out. Jackets or sweaters, socks and long pants are now de rigeur.


Satay for dinner last night! It tasted pretty good, even though the meat lacked the charred bits of properly grilled satay.

Here's J enjoying kway teow soup. He liked it so much he insisted I take a picture of him eating it.

Relax

E was making a fuss at lunch today because Daddy was feeding her instead of Mummy, who was busy in the kitchen. She fussed and cried, and dumped the food on her spoon on the table or the floor instead of putting it into her mouth. Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common occurence at mealtimes nowadays, which makes for difficult scenes when we go out to eat.

But today, even J had had enough. In a moment that lightened our moods considerably, he said in a world-weary tone, "Re-lax, re-lax, re-lax, Mei-mei".

Then later on, when Daddy was sounding a bit stressed because E was messing up his school papers, J repeated, "Re-lax, Dad".

Busy Saturday

The kids got to go to a birthday party at a park in Rancho Cucamonga on Saturday. Cupcakes, playing in the sand, climbing on the playground structures, and general mad running around. Lots of fun for the kids.

Still Enamoured

Notwithstanding the distractions that cars, planes and monster trucks have provided, J is still enamoured with his first love!

A trip out to the Travel Town Museum today. J was suitably excited, and even remembered to bring along his toy trains so that he could use the train table laid out there.