Sunday, April 27, 2008

A couple of Preston stories:

Preston was throwing a ball into the air as high as he could, and he remarked that he was doing it so "Jesus can catch it."

He carried a pet ant around the house between his fingers (without killing it, mind you) and he put its head next to mommies arm and said "It's kissing you! It loves you!"


The most awesome sad face ever.


Franklin in a hat


Fun with dandelions


A pet snail that followed us around all day.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

The right motivation

Some random tidbits:

Preston is stubborn. I can't imagine where he got it from. I mean, no one on my and Mutti's side of the family is stubborn. With the right motivation, though... Normally getting him dressed is a painful experience that involves kicking and screaming, but this morning he remembered that his backpack (full of the most random stuff) was outside in the car. He asked us to take him to go get it, but we were busy and in order to stall we told him that he needed to get some clothes on. He said OK, and then disappeared, only to reappear amazingly quickly, fully dressed, shoes on the wrong feet and all.

Also, in a very "Calvin and Hobbes" moment, Preston was refusing to eat his dinner, until he saw a shrimp, and decided it was a bug, which he was then happy to eat.

I've been signing the letters when I sing the ABC's to Preston, but I didn't know how much he was picking them up until one day he was watching a cartoon and then suddenly turned around and looked at me with an expression of utmost seriousness, "Ba-ba, it's X (at which point he crossed is pointer fingers to make an X) not X (at which point he did the ASL for X)". So now I'm no longer allowed to sign the ASL version of X, just Preston's version. As a side note, he'll also cross his forearms and say "Big X!"

Another thing Preston has been doing is experimenting with names, so he calls me "Da-wei" (chinese for david) or mom, and calls Ya-ping Ba-ba, just to see our reactions. He also can tell when his mom is getting frustrated and about to raise her voice, so whenever he sees that now he tells her "Shh! the baby's sleeping."

Ya-ping is so cute- when she gets focused on something, nothing in the world can stop her. A couple of examples: On the day before easter we went to the egg hunt at the zoo, and were running a little late- Ya-ping has the stroller and I had Preston and we were caught in massive crowds at the entrance, so she told me to go ahead because I could maneuver easier without the stroller. In the end, though, she beat me, stroller and all. By a lot. Another example is that we've been looking for a crib, and didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars. Ya-ping has been searching to the point of losing sleep, but when all is said and done, we got a crib for $15 at a yard sale, a free mattress from a friend of a friend, sheets and stuff from several other sources, and amazingly, it all came together beautifully, and even has a Winnie-the-pooh theme. Ya-ping is to these kinds of things what I am to computers.


Preston reading his mom's Book of Mormon to his brother (it included a section on time out and standing in the corner). He's started talking a lot about how "Jesus loves you" and is "up in the sky," and he loves his scriptures. It's really funny.


Preston feeding his brother. I'm so sad that he's frowning in the picture, he was helping me feed while I thawed the rest of the milk while mommy was out, and he was so cute about it, but didn't want me to take his picture, hence the frown.


Darth Vader, or "Dun-dun" (like Vader's theme music) as he's known in our house, is very popular.


Preston's pretty happy to have warmer weather where he can run around with more freedom


Franklin fell asleep next to his mom in bed, and when Ya-ping got up, Franklin looked just like a tiny adult with the way he slept.