Luke's play date

I watched my friend's kids today. I did babysitting for them before, so I know what I'm getting in to. They are very active and have a lot of energy. Which is good, Luke and I will enjoy playing with them. Their mom brought a lot of fun toys, so we played inside for awhile and on the porch too.

And this is what happen three kids in the house for while. Now time to go outside and fun! I decided to take them to walk around our neighborhood--that was fun, but at the same time it was a big challenge. It was so hard to keep all three kids together. Yes, they were all over the place... getting into the neighbors' yards, bushes, and climbing on fences and rocks... I needed to grab them one by one to get home... Usually it takes 20 min to get home, but today we took over 1 hour! I could tell they had a great time! Only I got a sore muscle -- hahaha

After we (finally) got home, we had lunch and went back outside again!
But this time we stayed around our house.
They found sled. I told them that we need snow to use sled, but of course they didn't care. (There is white spot on the picture--Luke touched camera lens AGAIN... )
This is one of their favorite spot. They sat down and played with sticks and little rocks for long time. And down the hill to explore under our neighbors porch.
I made a "Magic Paste" for them to have fun with. It's just a mix of corn starch and water (2:1). And I put in a few drop of food color. Luke was addicted of this! It's has a very interesting texture -- if you touch it, it's not watery at all, but if you scoop with spoon or hands, it become liquid. You've got try it. It's fun!

Luke had a great time today. So did I, but I really need to go to bed early tonight... these three really wore me out!

Sunny day

We have had wonderful warm weather these days. I almost forget how awful weather was that we had here this winter! Anyway, Luke is eating his lunch outside everyday now -- a little picnic outside the house (^-^)
When Luke was eating his lunch, our neighbors, Amy and Kevin came home with their two dogs. One of them looks like a polar bear -- white and a huge dog! I wanted to take a picture of him some time. He was very interested in Luke's lunch, specially left over roast beef! Hahaha Luke was so nice to share some with him. Maybe we will have lunch on the porch tomorrow!

Hard working Luke!

I mentioned that Luke loves to play with brooms. And today, he found out that he loves vacuuming.


And he is pretty good, isn't he? And I'm so lucky to have someone who will do the vacuuming for me!

My new project

As you know I finished my Palm Tree project, and now I'm thinking a new project. I wanted to make an Alphabet Chart (in both English and Japanese) in Luke's room. So this will be the next project (^v^)
So, today Luke and I discussed this project--hahaha I know he is a good helper!
After the project meeting with Luke, we went to Walmart to get fabric. And we found out that Walmart decided to not sell fabric anymore... we don't have many fabric stores in Boone (those stores sell fabric at about $9.00 for a yard!! Expensive!!!!) I was very sad about the news of Walmart. Now I have to wait to buy fabrics when we visit Paul's parents in Virginia Beach. Oh well, something to looking forward to, right?

Got treats from Japan!

We got a package from my aunt today! A lot of yummy goodies are in the box -- such as Japanese rice, seaweed, furikake (flakes that put on the rice), ochazuke (it's also put on the rice with green tea or hot water), cheese balls, and noodles.

I waited to open this package until Luke woke up from his nap (^-^) He was so excited when he saw the big box and we opened it together. And he immediately found his favorite cheese balls and start eating them...
Thank you for sending us a nice package, Aunt Misako!

Carrot Cupcake

We had a potluck lunch today. Paul and I were thinking "what is a good dessert to bring?" Oh... I forgot to mentioned it was Mexican theme -- for the potluck. And what is a Mexican dessert? I remember a friend of ours back on Guam, she makes an amazing "flan".

I'm not sure flan is a Mexican dessert, but I thought would be close enough. I called her but that was last minute thing, I couldn't get in touch with her, so Paul got a recipe from the Internet for me. Well, long story short, I decided to not make flan this time -- well, there are a few reason, I never made it before, looks very difficult to make and I like Olga's (our friend on Guam) flan! So, instead, I brought carrot cake cupcakes for the potluck dessert this time. Luke loves them, and of course Paul and I enjoyed a few too (^-^).

But still I would like to try to make flan sometime! -- Olga, I will call you again and this time I will get your recipe!!!

While I was baking, Luke was playing on the balcony with one of his favorite toys... the broom. He loves to sweep and carrying around the big broom. But whenever he hears cars coming up the hill, birds playing in the bushes, or a dog barking he gets excited, so he runs up to the rail and watches them go by.

It was a gorgeous day today, warm and beautiful sunshine! I feel like spring is coming!

He likes to do...

Luke amazes us everyday! Here are the some words that he recently started saying: car, ball, bird, clock, Baba (Japanese for "grandma"), Nana, Papa, Dada, Mama. I speak to him in Japanese, so he understand everything I say, but he's not yet speaking Japanese words. I will be so excited when I hear the first Japanese word in future, but for now just so cute when he says any word (^-^)

And here are somethings that he likes to do:

• likes to dance (Paul is teaching him "Head, and Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" move) and turn around.
• to stand against the wall with his hands behind his back, especially with Dada! It is so cute and funny to see two of them standing against the wall. Too bad, I don't have a picture.
• point "Winnie-the-Pooh "Piglet" "Mickey Mouse" on his blanket.
• likes to wear Dada's shoes and Mama's slippers
• likes to read books
• play with Q-Tips, hand cream, and tooth brush.
• turn on/off the printer and play with it, and bring printed paper to us
• LOVES computer... too much!
• likes to video chat with Baba (we video chat with my Mom three or four times a week)
• to watch birds, cars, and find dogs from his bedroom window
• play with a ball, and hit the floor with a baseball bat (a plastic one, of course!)

What else? He is learning everyday. It is so happy to see he is growing strong and building his own personality.

Here are some videos that I took lately:


Luke listens to Japanese children's music CD sometime. And today, he felt like dancing!


He took off his socks and slippers and he wanted mine...

He made is own toy! Put a few plastic rings on his baseball bat, and he started hitting the floor. Here is my little caveman -- hahaha

My Little Helper

This is my little helper.

Luke and I worked very hard today outside. We are having heavy snow all day long almost everyday. I have to get snow off of our car and clear off snow from our parking area everyday -- well, I'm not going anywhere in this snow without snow tires, but if you have active young kid, you want to make sure the car is ready to go on emergency, right? Anyway, we went outside to see how bad it is. It was very bad...

Last night we got 4 to 6 inches, but it was blizzard and very icy... so the snow was very VERY hard to shovel with a plastic shovel... It took so much more time than usual, but thanks to my little helper! He was working hard to clear off snow of our car (^-^)

We spent a few hours outside today. We both got sweaty after the hard work, but our hands and face were getting so red by the cold icy air. But Luke always enjoys being outside, it's difficult for him to come inside. What a great boy!

Thanks buddy! Let's do it again tomorrow, shall we?

Palm Tree in the House!

Finally my Palm Tree project it done! This week, I had a few sleepless nights... but it was so fun, and I'm glad I can decorate the tree in Luke's room.

Here is the pictures of what it looks like when it was finished:
And here is the picture of it on the wall in Luke's room:
And also I put some clips on leafs, so we can decorate cards, pictures and other fun stuff on it.
I'm planning to make felt birds, coconuts crabs, and maybe a little monkey that Luke can put on the tree. We are having a very cold winter this year, but now we can feel warm and relaxed in Luke's tropical room (^V^)

Lovely Surprise

I got a beautiful Valentine's day flower from him... When Paul called me from India the other day, he asked me if I received any delivery. I didn't expect flower or lovely card with it! I thought he order some books or computer stuff for him. It was a lovely surprise (^-^)
It makes me miss him more, but he will come home sometime this week (^-^) -- depends of how much snow we are having this week... I will make some special dessert for him when he comes home!