My Girls

2-4-6-8

Who do we think's really great? OBABY! The cheerleader. She is going to try cheering for Pop Warner football this year. Of course, she knows nothing about football and really doesn't care to learn, but she loves the idea of being a cheerleader. And why not? She gets to wear a really cute uniform and have treats at every practice. We'll see what happens when she has to actually practice and be there for the games. Oh, God. That means I have to be there for the games. Football games. Played outside. By little boys. In northern Indiana. Ug. Mommy is sooooo not going to love this. But hey, she does look cute in the uniform!

Where's My Sister?

That's all I'm hearing right now. OBaby is visiting with Grandma and Grandpa for 4 more days, and YBaby is missing her like crazy. (Ok, so Mommy misses her like crazy, too. but YBaby keeps asking, "Where's my sister?") We are ready for her to come home, and I don't think we are going to want her to go away again for a long, long time!

We miss you, O!!!!!!!!!!

More Art By OBaby

The Artist Known as OBaby

Word to the Wise

If you have a spare iron, don't ever store it on the top shelf of a closet. And if you do, make sure the cord is securely wrapped around it so that no one can accidently pull the iron off the shelf and onto one's head. And if that happens, don't ask a 6 year old to look at the injury and tell you what she sees.

"Your hair is all bloody and there is a hole in your head."

I'm just sayin'.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!!!

Have a happy birthday, Grandpa, from your best girls!

See you Saturday!!!

Pomp and Sweetie Face

Tomorrow is OBaby's last day of kindergarten. These pictures were taken at her combination Mothers Day/Graduation ceremony. Yes, she is the shortest kid in the class, and yes, she is the cutest one (sorry Aunt Donna Cake)!

Spring School Pictures

Cause apparently we didn't spend enough $$ on fall school pictures, so they offered us:

My American Girls

Yesterday the girls and I took a trip to Chicago to visit the American Girl Place. It is something of a cross between a doll store and a doll museum. Olivia loved getting to look at all of the historical dolls in their different period clothes with their different accessories. She liked Depression-era Kit with her junior reporter accessories, and WWII-era Molly with the really cool (and expensive!) camping gear. But, her favorite doll turned out to be Julie from the 1970’s. I think she really liked the fact that Julie’s “historical” period happens to be the same time that Mommy was a school girl! Ack – I’m historical!

Ying was more interested in “driving” the stroller around the store than looking at all of the cool dolls – until we hit the “Bitty Baby” section. There she quickly fell in love with the little blue-eyed blond baby who she has named “Essa”(pronounced E-sa, yeah, I don’t know). While most little girls seem to love being able to pick out a doll who looks just like them from the AG line of semi-ethnic looking dolls, both my little Asian beauties went for the blonde dolls. As OBaby so wisely told me, “The baby doesn’t have to look like the Mommy.” Um, no, she doesn’t, does she, baby?

Overall we had a great day, although OBaby could have done without the mile long hike back to the train station. She really was a trooper, never mentioning how tire she was or how bad her feet hurt until we were back at the station. It really was too much for her at the end of a long day, but I’m really proud that she didn’t whine or complain while we were walking. She just kept plugging along – even helping Mommy push the stroller (since either of the HUGE red AG shopping bags weighed too much for her to carry). I promised her I’ll never make her do that again! We could have grabbed a cab! Jeesh, we were in the city. They do have cabs there. Ah, next time I’ll know better.

Tomorrow's American Idols

Ying may well be one of the world’s greatest 3-year-old lip-syncers. It helps that she has a great teacher. Check them out.

Bye Bye Baby Mullet

I finally worked up the nerve to get rid of Ying's baby mullet. It was hard to have her hair cut off, since she'd come to me with so little of it. However, her hair wasn't very pretty. It had grown into a full-blown mullet, and I just couldn't take it any longer. So, after bribing her by allowing her to wear her minnie mouse dress (a previously never-worn Halloween costume), I took YBaby in for the haircut of her life. It was one of my better parenting decisions this week. She looks amazing. Beautiful. Like a princess. See for yourselves:

The new Ying hair cut

Way Back Wednesday

Any idea what year this was?

OBaby's First Christmas Program - Really Bad Video

You can just sort of see the top of O's head (she has a bow in her hair) on the far right, second row. But if you listen to the end, you'll hear Ying-a-Bing demanding her Jie Jie!

OBaby's First Christmas Program

Last Weekend at Wal-mart . . .

they were taking free pictures with Santa. Obviously not the best photographers or the best background (notice the fold line!), but hey, the kids are cute.

Breakfast with Santa

The girls had breakfast with Santa on Saturday. Since only 8 kids were there this year, they got to spend a lot of quality time with Santa. (Poor Santa!) Here are a few highlights from the morning.

Happy Holidays!

All I Want for Christmas . . .

. . . is my two front teeth! That's what OBaby will soon be singing. Tooth #1 came out yesterday while eating an apple, and #2 is just about ready drop any second now (I expect it to go before the weekend!). She is proudly exclaiming, "I'm toothless!" (That's the tooth in its little fairy bag, ready to go under the pillow and await the arrival of the toothfairy who kindly left TWO dollars - one for the tooth and one for being a big girl who lost her first tooth with no tears!.) Yeah! Exciting times, I'm tellin' ya!

5 Years

Five years ago today I got the phone call that changed my life. "You have a daughter." Guangdong Province. 9 1/2 months old. Beautiful. "Peaceful Spring".

My daughter.

My baby.

My O.

Wo ai ni, Ah-An.

Feeling Very BLUE Today!

And I mean that in a good way.

Before Tuesday, I had voted in 6 presidential elections. As a blue voter living in red states, my vote has NEVER counted - until now. For the first time, the electoral votes of my state actually went to the candidate I voted for. It's an amazing feeling. And, it's the reason why I think we need to do away with the electoral college and allow the president to be elected by popular vote. Every vote should carry the same weight, and what state you live in should not determine whether or not it does. Ok, that's my political rant for the year.

Oh, and because this is a blog about my girls, let me just add that OBaby was thrilled to hear (at 2 am on Wednesday when she woke up long enough to ask, "Did he win, Mama?") that Ba-Rock had won. "The boy", as she has called him since the days he was running against "the girl", was her favorite candidate. We went to Chicago yesterday and stopped to buy some copies of the Sun Times (yeah, the Trib was sold out by 9 am), and O wanted to buy her own copy (which she purchased herself then proudly carried to the train station all by herself - dang that girl is independent. Don't know where that comes from!).

O also got a haircut in Chicago. I'll have to try to get a picture of her tonight. I was too tired to think about it last night! (4 hours of sleep and a day in the city - I'm too old for this . . . stuff.) Ying-a-Bing did NOT get her haircut as she firmly insisted NO CUT MY HAIR several times while sister was getting hers done. Really, I didn't feel like fighting with her. It's just hair. We'll cut it when she's ready.

Trick or Treat

Kindergarten Party

Kindergarten Friends.



The popcorn hand (yeah, I have no idea)


Gabriella Montez and her popstar pal, Hannah Montana


Gabriella eating pizza - note the curls (or what's left of them)



And even though she wasn't at the party, here's little miss playing with a water cooler (I'm not gonna pull the lever, Mommy, really.) in her hand-me-down pumpkin shirt

Halloween is coming - be afraid, be very afraid

The girls have decided on costumes. O has to be Gabriella of HSM fame. And Y, well, Y is maybe going to be Minnie Mouse. Or Sharpay. Or Troy - but not the boy Troy, the girl (aka Gabriella). I think we won't know for sure until we walk out the door.

Meanwhile, enjoy the pumpkin patch pictures. They had fun, really. Not that you can tell from the pictures, but they had fun!

Yeah, I go pee-pee in the potty, what's it to ya?