Christmas at the Mall

We took the kids to see Santa Clause, or Kinkle Cause as Cameron calls him, last Saturday. This meant a trip to the mall, something we haven't really done with the kids before...or at least not since they became walkers. And to add to the excitement, we forgot the stroller in our other car that was in the shop at the time. Look out Stonetown Mall, we come the Ko kids!

We got there early to try and avoid long lines but did have a little bit of a wait, about 30 mins. I forgot how slow Santa lines move...I guess each child has to go through their whole list plus pictures. But as always, I had snacks handy and then Daddy took turns with the kids going up and down the escalators!

Despite their excitement over seeing Santa, and they were very excited to look at him from a far, they absolutely did not want to be close to him in any way, much less sit on his lap. So we only have this one family picture of our Santa 2009.

We cruised around the mall for a while to let the kids run off some energy, down escelators again and looking at all the Christmas trees. These were in Nordstoms and the kids loved the birds and birdhouses on them.

I did a quick wardrobe change on the kids (didn't want to mess up their Christmas clothes) and had a fun lunch at Olive Garden. I think the kids are going through a major growth spurt right now...Timo ate almost a whole kids plate of ravioli and Cameron at almost all of her Daddy pasta! I've never seen them eat so much. I was planning on them spitting the ravioli but Timo ate so much of it that Young had to give up some of his pasta!

I think the kids enjoyed their first "mall at Christmas" trip! Maybe by next year they will have warmed up to Santa a little more...

Refrigerator Art

I know this is a lame post but I couldn't help myself...the kids first art project we put on the fridge. They made these Christmas Trees in co-op last week! The leader said Cameron sat at the table the longest working on hers...Can you tell which one is hers???

Gadgets!

Timo loves gadgets almost as much as his Daddy does. Cell phones, of course, are his favorite...as with most toddlers. But I haven't met a child that loves them as much as Timo does. Most lose interest after several minuets but not Timo. And if a phone is accidentally left out where he can see it, he spots in instantly when he walks in the room and runs over to pick it up. So it's really hard to use our phones or ipods around him without a total melt down on his part. I've gotten to where I don't really talk on the phone anymore just because it's so painful. And no toy phone or broken phone will pacify him either.

Well, here comes Daddy to the rescue. He set our our ipod with a typewriter/keyboard on the screen and let Timo play with it. I think he would have sat there all day in his diaper and played with the ipod.

Monday Morning Walk

It had rained all day on Sunday which dampened our plans to go to the park Monday morning. The kids were super restless so I decided to go out for a little walk around the neighborhood WITHOUT the stroller to practice our stopping when mommy says stop, holding hands to cross the street and stopping at street corners...all skills every city kid has to learn early. And since the twins aren't in any type of preschool, I try to work fun lessons/learning into a lot of what we do each day.

Today's lesson, other than following simple instructions, was to pick out shapes as we walked. We saw wheels on cars that were circles, street signs that were square and triangle, the ever entertaining "stop sign" octagon and of course rectangle doors on all the houses we passed. They even noticed shapes I wasn't pointing out....we came up to a Korean newspaper stand and Cameron pointed out the circles in the writing on the outside and Timo noticed the sidewalk was divided into squares. (They both found sticks and carried them all the way home)

The kids were doing so good walking I decided to take them one extra block down to the local Starbucks and get them some hot chocolate...it was really cold outside and they were being so good following instructions. I ordered one and an extra cup to split it between the two b/c sometime they don't like things that are too sweet.

They both sucked it down in no time and were asking for more. Ugh, I had to give them some of my peppermint hot chocolate, again, thinking they might not like it. Wrong! Once all the hot chocolate was gone, Cameron was not happy....she threw a temper tantrum right in the middle of the sidewalk. She was done walking at that point and I had to carry her.

All in all it was a good walk. Cameron really struggles with holding hands crossing the street and Timo had trouble stopping when he is told. I also think it was a bit too far for them, they both were asking to be held the last two blocks...uphill! I had to carry them both at the same time because of all the drama but we made it home...a good work for mommy. But the best part, for me, was they napped for almost 3 hours! The previous few days they had not been napping very well at all, so I felt like they worked out lots of energy and were fully stimulated! I see more, shorter neighborhood walks in our future.

Hair By Granny

Even thought this picture doesn't show it, Cameron sure did love sitting in Granny's lap everyday getting her hair done. I think because Granny used "spray spray" (hair spray) on her hair. Mom even gave her a hair cut one day while we were out. Cameron would sit so still while my mom brushed and put her hair up...she never sits still that long for anything! And notice the necklace...I think I'm gonna have a prissy girl on my hands...unlike the tom boy I was...

Days of Box Fun

How much fun can two kids really have with a box....endless amounts if you are the Ko Kids! We received something in this flat shaped box and the kids went nuts over a new shape. The first afternoon was spent sitting in the box and trying to hide. This is Timo popping up and saying "BOO!"

The next night they practiced and practiced stepping off their stools and on to the box. Over and over again until they could step off and not need to help holding mommy hand.

And then by day 3, the box had little life left in it, the kids decided to just lay down and pretend "night-night"....complete with fake snoring and all. (sorry, no video for the sound effect)
Oh, the simple fun of a 2year old...who knew a box could bring so much joy to two little kids...

Candy Making With Granny

My mom has been in town visiting for the past week and she took some time out to make some of my favorite holiday candies. I guess she thought she needed to pass down the tradition because I walked in the kitchen and saw her holding Cameron, teaching her how to make them. Like mother, like daughter, like granddaughter...

Academy of Science

Cameron has a particular obsession with fish or any type of sea life....octopus, turtles, starfish, etc. So we thought it would be fun to take the kids to the aquarium at the Academy of Science. We've been there before but just hit the toddler play area because the kids were a bit younger. But now they can handle being out of their stroller and know to mostly stay next to Mommy and Daddy. Young took the day before Thanksgiving off and we headed over with the kids. (we are so lucky to live within walking distance)

Absolute heaven is the only way to describe how excited the kids were to see all the fish up close. They still use the sign for "more" when they want more of something and Timo was walking around signing "more" saying "more fish" as he moved from tank to tank. Cameron just sat down at the floor to ceiling fish tank and watched everything....she stayed there so long, I finally had to pick her up so we could go see some other exhibits.

Needless to say, we were so busy taking the kids all around, chasing them down and just sharing in their excitement of everything they were seeing....we didn't get that many pictures. Here is what we took but I'm so sad we didn't get any pictures of feeding time at the penguin tank. We had a front row seat for that and Cameron was in awe of them diving into the water.


We did take a little time out to hit the toddler area....Timo was attacked by Daddy's puppets and Cameron took a break on the bed in the pirate ship!

The weather was so amazing we decided to stay a while long and have lunch at the outdoor cafe. I have to say the food was very tasty and all kid friendly.

We had such a great time and the kids we completely overwhelmed by the everything they saw, we decided to get a membership so we could go back over and over. It's so close to our house I can walk the kids over any day of the week and there was still SO much we didn't even get to experience. I can' wait till we get to go again!

'Tis the Season

We've hit a few Christmas tree lighting around the city the past week or so. It started out with the Embarcadaro Center lighting and skating rink opening. I headed down there with the kids and Young was meeting us when he got off work...see the lighting and grab some dinner while we were out. That was the plan...but Young got held up at work and couldn't make it so I was on my own with the twins in a very bustling crowd. We made it through all the activities and Timo even got a Mater hat...he was very excited about his truck hat.
After all the excitement, we needed to to find something to eat. The crowds were so thick that I ended up walking a few blocks away from everyone to this kid friendly pasta place. Good news is they were kid friendly...bad news it they were out of high chairs. I waited about 20min hoping some would open up but no luck. I had to risk it and hope the kids would behave and stay seated in their seats...with nothing strapping them in! Even better news, the kids were awesome! Luckily the tables were covered in paper so the kids just "colored" with a pen and a pencil I had in the diaper bag. Then fireworks went off as the skating rink opened and we had a birds eye view of the show. Our table overlooked the rink and we saw all the fireworks. Cameron kept saying "wow!", "whoa!" really loud and cracking up the tables around us. I was beaming with pride as different people stopped to say what good little children I have. (first time for everything!)I think they were so well behaved because they were so hungry. It was well past their normal supper time and they practically inhaled their spaghetti.


Then a few days later we headed down to Fisherman's Warf for their Christmas Tree lighting. Again, super large crowds, but we managed to see the lighting. We actually took the kids out of the stroller and let them walk around themselves until they no longer wanted to hold our hands. We had "those kids" when we tried to put them back in the stroller...kicking and screaming. They put on one good show for the crowd! Ugh! But we had a nice evening up to that point. It's worth it just to see the wonder and surprise in the kids eyes when the saw the tree all lite up!

Sisterly Love

It's been a long time since the kids have shared a crib...but Cameron felt like reminiscing last week. For some reason she only wanted to sleep with her brother. They played a little longer than normal before falling alseep but eventually they went right out. Being almost 2, they are way too big to sleep together all night so we would move her back to her crib later in the evening. I just didn't want someone waking up at 3am crying because they got a kick in the eye. I sensed a habit forming after the 4th night and we thought it best if she went to sleep in her own crib....she was not happy about that. Sorry Cameron, I know you love your brother dearly, so maybe once you are out of the small crib you and your brother can share a bed again.

We have fudged a little and let her get in her brother's crib when they wake up from their naps...but sometimes Timo just needs a little mommy snuggle time.

Singing

I know I've mentioned that Cameron likes to sing...but she is getting a little out of control. She is constantly singing now...always singing, singing, singing.

This is after a bowl of yogurt...playing drums and singing...


And this is kinda like whistling while you work...

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our day was one full of friends, food and giving thanks. We had the joy of sharing the day with dear friends of ours, the Evan's and Busbees. Claudia did our lovely center piece (the grapes and oranges didn't last long once the kids spotted them), I did most of the cooking and Young carved up the juicy turkey after spending the day volunteering at our church feeding the homeless. And we were all thankful for Alexis who stayed busy playing with all the kids and keeping them entertained with crafts.

The big Thanksgiving photo...but where is Timo??...oh, over there playing with the crafts...we couldn't get him away from the coloring and sticker picture frames I got for the kids to put together.

After eating way to much...it was time for dessert! (I was super happy with my apple tart tatain) Johnathan decided on the pecan pie after he found out it was chocolate pecan pie.

A little ice cream for the kids and back to crafts with Alexis.

End of a long day...all ready to snuggle up and watch our traditional Thanksgiving movie...Family Man. The kids didn't last very long...they had a great Thanksgiving.

Box Fun

We still get hours of fun out of big boxes...


you can hear Timo saying "turn, turn" meaning it's his turn and then trying to hide and saying "where are you, where are you" just like his daddy has been saying.

Timo and His Trains

We have this little travel train set that I keep put away for our travels...so he wouldn't get board with it and not play with it on trips. I don't know why I ever thought he could get board with trains..silly me. So I broke it out a few weeks ago and it's basically all he plays with. I started out assembling the track in the classic figure 8 but he would quickly take it apart and build his own track. Now he takes his trains all over the house, building tracks, playing, taking them apart and building in another area...

Here are a few of his masterpieces...even one while sitting in a box!