What the three-year-olds are really into these days

Goodness gracious, thank you SO MUCH for all the well-wishes and votes on the Scholastic award (voting thru Mar 13) -- your comments made me blush and grin. Now I guess I'll get my butt in gear and finish writing that "Talking about adoption is hard" post since it was the clear winner. In the meantime, here's a little peek at what really floats the girls' boats these days. Colors: They're still lovin' the pink and yellow. Ro's grungy pink MaryJanes and Ree's beloved-but-soiled yellow polka-dot shoes (seen below) have been worn half to death and aren't going to last much longer. I'm keeping my eyes open for some spring/summer replacements and so far am considering Polliwalks, which seem a touch more durable than the suede and cloth shoes they're destroying as I type. This pic was snapped just after skating lessons today. The girls have some pretty wicked helmet hair, but that neat orange wall at the mall practically begged me to dig out the purse camera.
Mini Math: The girls have discovered how much fun it is to add and subtract and they just love figuring out little math problems. I found a cheapo math book at the drugstore and they're having a ball with it. So far they can add and subtract small numbers (they're digitally challenged, aka limited to the number of fingers they have, haha). They can count to 12 (they think they can go higher than that, but trust me, after 12 it's just numeral slaughter). They recognize written numbers up to about 10, and can follow simple verbal directions like "circle eight things on this page" or "count how many hippos there are, then draw a line from the hippos to that number." Cool! Counting Syllables: This is a quirky one, but it amuses us, and that's the important thing, right? Heh. A few weeks ago I flippantly said "Hey girls, do you know how many syllables are in the word watermelon?" Then I sounded the word out slowly while counting on my fingers and said "four!" Well that's all it took, now they think it's the bestest game ever to count how many syllables are in a word or how many syllables are in the words of a book title or whatever. Ro is always right, by the way, and Ree is right when she feels like it. (She'll sometimes give me a little sideways smirk and go all Texan on us drawing out the last syllable and counting it for a few beats.) Cuties. Playing Together: This one hasn't changed since the day we met them. They're best friends and like nothing more than running, jumping, imagining, and pretending together. They're zanily creative and also blissfully rough with each other. You make the call on this pic: is Ree trying to help her sister or shove her off the table? Such a fine line... Climbing: When I end up in the hospital with heart failure, no one will even ask why, right? These daredevils have loved climbing from day one, and have never met a climbing wall, ladder, or piece of playground equipment that's too high for them. I'm going to take them to a real climbing wall next week -- one with ropes and whatnot -- and see if they can finally get some satisfaction. I secretly want to see if they have any limits (while they're safe), but even as I type this, I know what's going to happen. They'll be at the top in seconds and I'll have to beg and bribe to get them down. Singing: Ro and Ree have the loudest voices of any children I've met. Our family and friends will probably wincingly attest to that. Add that to their, uh, interesting vocal styles (think wailing cats) and it's a wonder the neighbors haven't called the police on us yet. We are working on turning down the volume, I promise. But last night, Ro and Ree put on multiple pairs of pajamas, snuck outside, stomped through mudpuddles, climbed the slide so they were closer to the sky, and "sang" Twinkle Twinkle Little Star at the tops of their voices. (In their defense, it was such a clear night that the stars were AMAZING.) Well I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention a whole rash of favorite things, but those are the ones that spring to mind right now. Three years old is really, really fun. Can't wait to see what they do at three and a half!

Hey that's cool

I just got an email from Scholastic (!) saying that I was a finalist for the Scholastic Parent & Child magazine Mommy Blogger Awards. As Ro has been saying lately "Wow weezers!" If you feel like voting for Salsa in China (or any of the other blogs), cast your vote here. It's one-click voting, no sign-ups required or anything like that, and voting is open through March 13. They'll feature the five winners on the Scholastic web site and in the June/July 2009 issue of Parent & Child. To whoever nominated me and whoever votes, I'm sending you a big thank you and some gritty-but-awesome Ro and Ree hugs -- they're playing in the sandbox right now and, since I'm daring to type on the computer instead of refereeing the activity, the amount of sand actually staying in the box is questionable... Cheers! PS: I've got four posts started and hanging out there in my drafts folder just mocking me, so please let me know which one you'd prefer to see next and I'll buckle down and finish it: 1. Chocolate taste-testing results 2. Talking about adoption is hard 3. I'm not a great mom 4. You're watching American Idol, aren't you?

Any suggestions for captions on these "angelic" snapshots? :-)

#1: #2: #3: #4:

A spot of color on a gray, rainy day

Ro and Ree just came back from a grocery trip with daddy and were bubbling over with excitement. They couldn't wait to show me the "chockit, yots of chockit" they bought for me. Little sweeties. I stuffed a morsel of chocolate in my mouth (oh who am I kidding, you all know it was way more than a morsel), then asked if I could take a picture of them in their cute outfits and rainboots. And they started making these funny poses. Dang, they make me laugh. They are always so bright, boisterous, fun, and funny -- just what we need to brighten up a rainy day. (Ro in pink, Ree in green)

An apple a day...

The girls are serious about their fruit. They've never met a fruit they didn't like, and would eat it all day long, to the exclusion of any other food, if we'd let them. We don't. But we're not above using it as an enticing bribe, such as "if you eat that horrible dry, boring chicken your mama attempted to cook you get to have some FRUIT!" Whooee, works every time. This afternoon Ro and Ree were sitting on the arms of the kitchen chairs (am I the only one who can't stand that?!), just chatting away and tearing into some Fuji apples in the fruit bowl. By the way, they like to eat a few bites out of an apple, set it aside, then reach for a new one, and so on and so on until the table is littered with partially nibbled apples. I'm not really fond of that technique, much to their chagrin, and force the poor little darlings to eat one apple at a time. Yeah I'm picky like that. Anyhow, they were sitting at the table munching away, and I took the opportunity to try out the new macro lens on them. I didn't take the time to wipe off (or photoshop off) the days' accumulation of facial dirt, apple bits, and whatnot, but I think that just adds to their charm, right? The first 5 pics are of Ree (who was pretty funny posing between bites), the last 4 are of Ro. Now I kinda have a craving for apple, so I might have to tiptoe downstairs and grab one while everyone else is sleeping. Hope I don't get a pre-nibbled one. PS: If anyone's curious, these pics were taken with Nikon D300, AF-S micro 105mm 2.8 lens, aperture priority, f/5, 1/50s, center-weighted metering.

Hey TubaDad, the good news is that you don't have to give the girls a bath tonight

The bad news is that I was folding laundry today when my Spidey Sense went off. (Do you remember that phrase from the 70s? I know my brother does, we used to watch that show everyday when we were kids.) I glanced up to see that our angelic little girls -- who just seconds before had been sweetly playing with their stuffed animals and babydoll strollers on the lawn -- had found the rain-filled sandbox. And they weren't just looking at it. There was a trail of discarded dress-up shoes and wet clothes all around the sandbox, and the girls were shrieking with glee as they rolled around in the filthy, sandy, tanbark-strewn water. Well the laundry never got finished, and I don't even need to tell you that Ro and Ree thoroughly enjoyed themselves, right? Anyhow, just thought I'd let you know before you came home and wondered why the downstairs shower was full of tanbark.

Can't help but stare

The girls like to dress up, they like to sing, they like to dance. And they obviously do not subscribe to the less-is-more theory in any of these areas. We stare in fascination at their layered ensembles: When they start dancing and wailing (uh, I mean singing), we just sit right down and stare. It's so dang entertaining: TubaDad also draws stares when he's in a hurry and has to get the girls from here to there. I guess he does make a pretty funny sight: Particularly when he utilizes the sack-of-potatoes technique: And finally, there's just something appealing about this shot of Ree staring out the window watching the rain fall: The complete set of pics is here, including more fun memories from Catherine's all-too-short visit (taken with my camera and hers), decorating cupcakes with the California cousins, and playing around with the new macro lens (the macro shots aren't great, but hey I'm learning): (thumbnails, detail, slideshow)

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope your weekend is full of love, laughter, and chocolate. I know ours will be. Ro (in pink) and Ree (in red) were all psyched up this morning and ready to rock at their preschool V-Day party: After naptime, I played around with the awesome macro lens TubaDad gave me for a birthday gift, and got some neat V-Day Eve pics of the girls. These pics are all straight out of the camera, no cropping, photoshopping, or any adjustments. First to get up from her nap was Ree, so she got to be the guinea pig: Then Ro woke up and sleepily took Ree's place in the spotlight: After our extreme close-up photoshoot, TubaDad volunteered to watch the twinadoes so Catherine and I could go out for little girl time. I gave Catherine the choice of getting a fancy schmancy dinner or grabbing food at the mall and shopping all night. Um, you know she didn't even blink before choosing the mall, right? A few more V-Day Eve pics are here (thumbnails, detail, slideshow), including one where I give Catherine the infamous ladybug suitcase, pics of our freaky hailstorms today (we've had 3 so far), and the girls' wildly different styles in inspecting their school party loot and choosing one piece to eat (Ree dumped the whole bag out while Ro carefully inspected each item then placed it in a single line). Have a wonderful Valentine's Day tomorrow!

Ro and Ree's bookshelves

The girls love books, maybe even as much as they love their mangy stuffed snowmen. Well, maybe. Anyhow it's been a real kick this week to introduce Catherine to Ro and Ree's favorite books, so I thought it might be interesting to capture their current faves in a blog post. Click, Clack, Moo by Doreen Cronin. The newest fave (introduced to us by fellow booklovers H2 and S2). This book is hilarious, I giggled the first time I heard it and still crack up each time I read it to the girls. Get this book right now -- seriously -- you'll love it. Oh, and make sure you have the kids say "Moo" each time you say "Click, Clack." That's how H2 and S2 do it, and they'll be happy to know that's how Ro and Ree's whole preschool did it when they brought the book in today. The rest of the books, in no particular order other than the sporadic way I slapped them on the floor for this pic: Grandpa's Mask by Jing Jing Guo and Di Wu. A beautifully illustrated story that we got in Australia on our babymoon (the trip we took days after receiving our referral for the girls). Cool story about a girl and her Grandpa from China who really dig Peking Opera. The girls think it's tops. Froggy Bakes a Cake by Jonathan London. The girls love the entire Froggy series. Going to the Dentist, a DK First Steps book. We got this book to help the girls get ready to go to the dentist, and, sadly, still haven't taken them. (Will remedy that very soon, I promise.) Anyhow, they think the book is just fascinating. Every Year on Your Birthday by Rose Lewis. Great story, the girls love every word and so do we. Food for Thought by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers. These guys make some amazing things out of food. Fascinating. My Visit to the Aquarium by Aliki. We picked this one up at the Monterey Aquarium and the girls just have a ball poring over the pages and saying "We saw dis! We see dis too!" Neat book, especially if you've ever taken the kids to an aquarium. Chicks and Salsa by Aaron Reynolds. Hilarious. Really. And quite clever. The Eentsy, Weentsy, Spider by Joanna Cole and Stephanie Calmenson. If you're like me and can never think of any songs when the kids demand one, this book is for you. It has all the good "hand motion" ones. The Best Nest by P.D. Eastman. Has been a fave for two years now and still going strong. DW's Guide to Preschool by Marc Brown. When the girls were going to start preschool we scoured the bookstores looking for a nice, friendly way to prep them. This book was the best. It was Ree's hands-down favorite book for almost a year and gave nice, concrete examples of what they could expect at preschool. (We're big on prep around here.) The Berenstain Bears Go to School by Stan and Jan Berenstain. Good story to introduce the idea of school. Mother Goose Rhymes by Platt and Munk Publishers. This was one of my books when I was a kid, so it's (ahem) four decades old. I Love You Like Crazy Cakes by Rose Lewis. The girls love this book because it tells the story of a baby who was adopted from China. But I have to say we have never read the words as printed. The story is told in first person, which is confusing for the girls, and we don't love exactly what it says, so we flip through the pictures and tell our own story to accompany the images (sorry Miss Lewis!). The Dancing Dragon by Marcia Vaughan. Great pictures and a great flip book for Chinese New Year. It folds out to read. The Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood. This one was a fave when they were babies and they still like to hear it. It's a short one. A Quilt of Wishes by Teresa Orem Werner. The girls are fascinated by this story of a mother who makes a good wishes quilt for her baby in China. Wonderfully informative story, but make sure you read it the first few times by yourself because you will not get through it without crying. Trust me. Dim Sum for Everyone by Grace Lin. Ro and Ree especially like to read this book before or after they've gone for dim sum. Bear Wants More and Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson. I just love these books and could read them over and over. Thank goodness, because they consistently get picked for bedtime. Fun stories, vibrant writing, and beautiful illustrations. Wet Pet, Dry Pet, Your Pet, My Pet by Dr. Suess. A good one for younger kids. Our girls still love the interactive stuff on each page. It's short. Olivia and the Missing Toy. Love all the Olivia books. Brain Quest by Smart Start. Have you seen these little fan-like Q&A books? Awesome learning materials. And the girls are utterly captivated by them. They beg "Can we do questions mama?" Applemouse. Another book from when I was a kid. Great story, I'll bet I've read it a thousand times in my lifetime. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess. Another vintage book from the 1960s. I actually can't stand to read this book, but the girls keep finding it (gee I don't know who keeps hiding it) and begging for it so I suck it up and do it. Well those are the books I grabbed in a quick pass through the playroom. What other ones should we add to Ro and Ree's bookshelves? Please share your favorites!

Happy Birthday, M3!

Today was M3's birthday, so I (TubaDad) am going to be a guest blogger for the evening. The big day started with the little girls giving her hugs in bed and singing Happy Birthday. A little later in the morning Catherine took a great birthday picture of M3 and the girls: After dropping the girls off at preschool, Catherine took M3 to the nail salon to get a pedicure. I heard that one of the girls said "Dose yook preddy, Mama!" M3 took a couple of pictures with the new 105mm macro lens she got for her birthday. We actually got it while we were up in Oregon, with the expert advice of good friend and avid photographer D2. It was a good choice. It's great for taking close-up pictures of things like newly painted toes, and has a nice soft bokeh. For the non-photographers, that's an adaptation of a Japanese word that means blurred or fuzzy and refers to the out of focus background - it's a nice effect! Taking a picture of the nearest cat seems to be a universal test of any new piece of photographic gear. Maybe it's because they don't move as much as one of the twinadoes! The girls took a bunch of stuff into the bathroom to pretend like they were on an airplane going to see H2 and S2. (notice the famous ladybug suitcase that went to China with us in 2006, it has now been gifted to poor Catherine). This time the fisheye lens went on the camera, and M3 got a shot of the whole bathroom (nice step stool, M3!). These girls have active and creative imaginations! M3 and I got to go out to dinner by ourselves tonight, and Catherine was kind enough to babysit the girls while we were gone. I don't think the girls even noticed we were gone, and she even gave them a bath. She's brave, and very good with the girls. Thanks, Catherine! We of course had gifts and more singing when we got home from dinner, and Wela had brought over some very tasty cupcakes to compliment the awesome chocolate cake she made for yesterday. The little girls did another stellar decorating job, and loved helping open the presents. They have the process of opening a present pretty much nailed. Happy birthday, sweetie. I hope you had a great day, and we have another fun year ahead of us! For those of you who are curious, the Mac has gone back to the Apple store where it will soon find another happy home. M3 tried to like it, but it was just wasn't making her happy (which of course means I'm not happy, either). The 15" MacBook Pro wasn't the right ergonomic fit for her, and the new 13" model doesn't have firewire for our video camera. The white 13" Macbook does have firewire, but doesn't have the good LED screen. Bummer. We might check out an iMac sometime in the future - until then we'll try not to curse at the Windows machines in front of the kids.