Lilo pictures

Lilo had a 'Tea date' with one of our professional photographer friends.
If you are looking for a good photographer, check her out. I love her work.
Click here for pictures.

An 8-Year old's advice on men...

Lilo just said, "Teddy bears are better than men because they don't snore."

stitch kicking @#4 in a wii tournament

This was very impressive and entertaining.

Learning to ride a bike

When Lilo was about 5, she taught herself how to ride a bike. We followed the "european model" which we learned from our friends. There, they take the pedals and the training wheels off, and lower the seat so the kid can straddle the bike and "scoot along". (Hence, there is a wooden bike at REI that has no pedals or training wheels called the "SKOOT" which teaches a kid to bike".
Anyway, after a few weeks of skooting around, Lilo was able to balance herself and start biking. I felt like a bad dad because I never helped her to learn to bike..
Fast forward to today:
For months, we have been telling Stitch he should take the training wheels and pedals off to learn to ride. "But what if I hurt myself? what if I fall and hurt myself?" was his response. He would throw a bit of a trantrum. So, we left him alone.
Last week, he came up to me and asked to take the pedals and training wheels off. I said, "are you sure? Are you sure you want to do that? won't you get hurt?"
He responded, "My friends W and C are riding bikes now, I want to ride too." So I took them off.
Less than 24 hours later he came over to me and said, "put the pedals back on, I can ride now".
I didn't believe him. I said, "are you sure? I don't think so" and went back to work.
A few minute later, he pestered me again. So I asked him to show me.
I came outside, gave him a quick push...and he was off!! Not only was he able to coast with his feet up, but he actually put his feet on the arms of the crank where the pedals would be...and started pedalling. I was shocked. He learned to bike in one day!
I've come to realize that the two of them have different learning styles and motivations. Lilo will focus on something until she masters it. J just watches and does nothing. Finally, one day, he'll get the motivation, and that's the end of it! He will be the challenging one to continue to learn how to motivate!

BawackObama

The other day, Stitch, who was looking at the cover of the latest issue of time magazine, and said, "I know who this is! It's Bawackobama's wife!"

I had no idea who the president was at age 5, let alone who his wife was. In fact, I still can't recall who was the wife of the president when I was 5. I suppose her last name was Roosevelt, but... :)

School Pics

Here are some shots of Stitch at work at school this school year. (Last year of preschool)

Mystery time warp

About five years ago, when we were still living in LA, and long before this blog or Number 3 existed, our friend's the Wolfkill's came to visit us. Right before they were about to leave, they discovered that they had lost their cell phone. The phone was right on the carpet minutes before, and we spent about a perplexed hour turning the house upside down, looking for the cell phone. At that time, Stitch was just under 2 years of age, and we thought he may have taken the phone, so we spent a great deal of time trying to coax the location out of him. Unfortunately, we never found it, and our friend got a new phone.
Just this weekend, we found number 3 playing with a cellular phone in the car. Both the GC and I wondered where this phone came from, but didn't get a chance to look at it carefully. Stitch said #3 found it in the car. Perplexed, it sat in the back of my mind until today, when it suddenly occurred to me that it must belong to our friend. I took a picture and emailed them, and believe it or not, after 5 years, moving 4 times, hundreds of car washes and searches through the car for random stuff, the phone is found. I still think some strange time warp happened, since we have been through all the stuff in the house and in the car multiple times in the last 5 years. And it just appears in the hands of number 3.