Strawberry Festival

Some family time together today. I tried to find a local car show, but I found this strawberry festival nearby instead. It was close and it was free, we like free! We even saw someone we used to have a booth next to when I'd sell my crafts. It's been so long, we used to see them once a week. She talked about her son getting married and we introduced her to NJ. She said, "Ooh, you had a baby!" Ha, ha. I will never get used to that! I said, "Well, I didn't "have" him..." 

"I'm a pizza!"

NJ likes to play with my pizza pouch that I have (it's a pouch that looks like a slice of pizza). He had it in the car with him on the way to our friend's. He started saying, "I'm a pizza! I'm a pizza! I have sausage!" What?! Then he was asking, "Mama, can I get some money? Because I need to pay the pizza." So I pretended to give him money. He says, "Thank you! Now I can pay the pizza!" Strange imagination he has. 

"Is this bathroom water?"

This morning, Dotty escaped our room and was out in the kitchen with us. NJ said: "Dotty, wear slippers!" We've been telling him he has to wear his slippers on the bare concrete until the floor's fixed. I said to him, "Dot Dot doesn't have slippers, she's fine!" 

In the car today he asked for some water. I gave him a bottle and pointing at the packaging he says, "Is this bathroom water?" My response is, "What? No, yuck. It's not bathroom water!" What does that mean anyway? 

"But Why?"

Baba says he looks like a little old man in this photo. Is it the hands in the pants or the way he's standing? He had many questions about the work the "helpers" were doing at our house:

NJ- "Why there's no more X?" (There was one on the back of the sink marking the point of the leak with blue tape)

"They had to take that part off to fix the leak." 

NJ- "But why it's gone?"

"That's where the broken pipe was." 

NJ- "But why?"

"It was wet, so it had to be taken out." 

NJ- "But why?"

He pointed out an ant to me, as well as two squirrels chasing each other. 

This was the first morning we all had together since we had the leak. Feels nice to be at home together again. 

Giggling Boys

Like father, like son... they both giggled like little boys at the eye popping duck toy. 

"I want to pet the turtle!"

Today there was a turtle in the pond/fountain as well as a few koi. 

NJ's favorite is the shark, mine's the big puffer which he's staring at. 

With the house a mess, it's been easier just to take NJ out. He's been pretty good about playing inside his room or ours though. I gave him a choice of places today and of coarse he picks the library!

NJ went around and shared all his snacks with every table. He loves to share, how nice! 

I told NJ to show Baba what he made in class today. Baba immediately says, "Philippine flag!" Ha, ha. It was international day, they learned about India and the Philippines. I guess since there's so many Chinese and Koreans here, that's already been covered! No one would guess that we'd have any connection to the culture, but we do. 

He's been asking everyday to ride his trike or scooter. Finally today I followed him on his scooter to the park. There he played on the playground a little. 

NJ has a habit of tucking his shirt into his underwear after going to the bathroom. Doesn't help that his pants also sag. He's in fashion, I guess. 

Me- "What's that?"

NJ- "It's a doctor's."

Me- "Oh, a stethoscope?" (no idea what it actually is)

NJ- "Yeah, let me listen to you tummy..."

Haven't seen this guy in a while. Made him back in high school I think. Uncle Perry's design. NJ was having fun with him. Yesterday he got a dog stuffed animal and said, "He's choking! Oh no, he's choking! He ate too much rice!" 

I said, "Like Dotty when she eats too much rice?" 

"Yes. You want some treat?" (putting the tag near my face as if to feed me some)

"Thank you, yum!" (I pretend to eat it) 

Sometimes we give Dot Dot some plain rice. When she eats it too fast she chokes on it. When she was younger she used to scarf it down, throw it up, then eat it again. Once she did this three times in a row, gross! 

"Ah-ma is hot pantsing"

NJ's been a good sport about going back and forth between our house and Ah-ma's (grandma). This morning at Ah-ma's, NJ made me laugh with the stuff he was saying. 

He ran into the room to show me the collection of state quarters that my mom has. He opened up the folds and said, "Woaw, that's a lot of money!" My mom cracked up as she told him to go put it away. 

Later he ran in to tell me that Ah-ma was doing something hot with her pants. He does a motion with his hands and says, "Ah-ma's doing like that to her pants." 

"Like what?"

"Like that (more motion) with the hot pants. She's hot pants."

"She's hot pants-ing?"

"Yeah! Ah-ma is hot pants-ing. Like that, like that, like that! I show you..." (he took my hand). She showed up by then and I guessed right that she was ironing her pants in the other room. 

Downstairs, Ah-ma turns on the tv for him to watch some "program". He calls it, "Ama-bay-la". Ah-ma says, "Ama-day-lo". I say, "Armadillo?" No, the cartoon starts and it's called "Little Amadeus (Mozart)"! What? "It's Ama-day-us!" NJ: "Ama-bel-a!" Ah-ma: "Ama-day-o!" Oh dear.  

At home, he kept asking if we could go outside to weed. I said that it's too hot right now! His response, "But I like to weed. There's so many on that side!" It's true, there's a part of the yard that I haven't finished yet in the back. He also wanted to ride his scooter and tricycle, but it was too hot for that too. 

On the way to dinner NJ also had to a lot to say: 

"Are the helpers coming back to our house?" (He's so interested in what's going on with the house) 

And, "Bye, bye broccoli truck!" (Grocery truck passed with broccoli on it)

Then, "We need to give the cards!" (He loves when we make cards for people, we did one today)

I told him the post office was closed, we missed it, we have to mail it tomorrow. He says, "But we need to go. I want to give the cards. Try another one, another post opice is open." Nope, they all close at the same time. 

"Chick-fer-a with Auntie Ma-cole?"

A belated birthday dinner for Auntie Nicole. I'm not sure who loves Chick Fil A more, Auntie or NJ! Well, no one enjoys ice cream the way NJ does, that's for sure! We traded his kid's toy for a small cone. I actually ate about half of it because I didn't want him to have that much sugar. Plus it was melting fast and he would've eaten it all if he could. We had a good laugh as I recorded him enjoying his treat. Let's do it again soon, Auntie!

Centennial Farm

Class field trip #4. Centennial Farm on the OC Fair Grounds. In NJ's words, "I saw cows, milk cow, and cow, and more cow, and pig, and chicken, and sheep, and goat, and baby cow, and more cow..." There was a cow milking demonstration (or "milk cow") that we watched. It was hot though, which made me extra tired walking around. He had a great time seeing all the farm animals and vegetation growing. When he saw the strawberries he said, "I want to eat it!" 

After the field trip we stopped by the house to water plants and check out the work. Yikes, getting worse before it gets better! 

My sleeping boy

I hardly ever get to see him sleeping any more (except when he falls asleep in the car). He looks like such a big boy. It makes me think of when he was a baby and would fall asleep on me or Baba all the time. I could just watch him sweetly sleep, feel his heavy breathe, feel his sweaty head, stare at his chubby cheeks, and feel his soft hands. I miss it! Where did my baby go? 

"Just take one, I need it!"

He got a couple pieces of happiness from Auntie Becca.

At the end of lunch NJ drank the rest of his water and used the cup to pretend he had fries in it. He offered some to each of us, but we said no thank you. Then he changed it to carrot sticks and we all said yes, took one and pretended to eat it (since it was a healthy choice). Baba said, "Ooh, I'll take three!" NJ's response, "Just take one, don't take three! Aww, but I need more. Don't take all of them!" Auntie Evin had a good laugh at that one. 

NJ and Auntie Evin in line at a yummy Taiwanese bakery for some treats. A last stop before the airport where we had to say goodbye. Thanks for visiting Auntie, we had such a great time with you! Hope to see you soon to meet Uncle too! We miss you already. :)

Hangin' out in our bedroom, the only somewhat livable room we have right now! We laid around in bed, watched a little muppets (Muppets take Manhattan), and NJ played with his cars on the floor and on the bed. We're so blessed with such an easy going kid to be stuck in a little room with us for hours! Dotty has been very patient too.