Motivations

Sibling rivalry is going full steam in the Leven household. There is always only one toy out of hundreds that both kids want. Both kids want to be the first on doing anything. They even copy each other's speaking so that the words could be shared.

This morning when Jackson was brushing his teeth, Norah started to play with the popper. As soon as Jackson came out of the bathroom, he wanted to play.

He asked for it. No is her answer.
He threatened for it. No is her answer.
He fought for it. Holding on and tears is her answer.
He pleaded for it. No is still her answer.

I whispered to her ear : That will make Jackson happy.
She smiled and immediately handed the popper to Jackson.

Make us happy is a powerful motivation for Norah. She always make sure: Are you happy with me?

Another Jackson milestone

Jackson asked for no pull-ups in the night a few months ago. And Will setup a goal that if he kept his pull-up dry seven nights in a row, he could go pull-up free.

He had gone 3-nights or 5-nights consecutively dry in the past. This morning marked his first seven-nights dry pull-up period and he is going completely pull-up free!

I read that night time training is very different from day time potty training. Kids have to recognize the need ahead of time and wake themselves up from deep sleep. We are happy that he reached his goal with determination, patience and discipline. 

Update: 6/20/2018
Jackson was not able to keep his bed dry for the first three nights and asked to go back to pull-ups.  We'll try again when he's ready...

Update: 7/15/2018
After another 7-day streak of keeping his nighttime pull-up dry, Jackson wanted to try again.  Both nights since, he's kept dry.  Finger's crossed he's done with pull-ups!

Mac'n'Cheese (or Makin' Cheese)

On Fridays, the kids have to bring a box lunch to school.  They love getting it ready to go!

Third generation TIer

Building a circuit

I took Jackson the first time to TI participating "Take your daughter and son to work day". He was so excited that he couldn't sleep well last night. He loved getting the candies at the different station. And after the event, I asked him if he wanted to be a TIer when he grew up. He said: Yes! I would like to have my kids to get candies too.

A wonderful vacation

We headed to Sunny LA on this Memorial day weekend. Jacek and Celia moved in to their house last November and invited us over. We had such a wonderful time that Jackson asked to be left at LA. He told me when Jacek and Celia came to visit us in Dallas, he could come with them to see us too.

The trip actually started on a frustrating note. When we landed in LAX, one of our car seats were missing. After waiting for a while, Will noticed the text message from AA that our car seat was coming in a different flight. Without knowing which flight it would come in with, we headed towards our rental car company Budget.

Our jaw dropped when we saw about 100 people waiting for their rental cars. I got our number in line 840 when they were calling 750. It worked out with our car seat situation. Will found out our car seat arrived 10 minutes behind us and picked it up. We were still waiting half way through when he and Jackson came back.

When it's finally my turn after about two hours, the rental agent kept on pestering me about upgrading to a bigger car. She brought it up five to six times on how the car we chose was not big enough for a family of four. I stood my ground and said no no no. (It was an intermediate car just my car's size) Then she added insurance on the contract. I explained that we planned to use our car insurance to cover the rental car. She said firmly that was not allowed and buying the insurance was mandatory. I got confused and thought I remembered wrong of my past experiences.

Will noticed the insurance charge on the contract and asked why I got it. At that point, I was disappointed with LA. It's crowded and the only people I interacted tired to rip me off. Our rental car looked all scratched up and traffic was bad in the middle of Saturday. I called Budget and inquired about this "mandatory" insurance. After the first lady hung up on me, the second agent said it was not mandatory and would put it back.

Lesson learned here is not flying into LAX next time. And if LAX it is, don't rent a car. If rent a car, not Budget. It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to drive from Westlake Village on Wednesday morning to LAX. It was too nerve wrecking to experience LA traffic on a fly day.

We drove into Jacek and Celia's neighborhood late Saturday afternoon. It had flowers everywhere and weather was sunny and beautiful. We forgot about the busy LA streets and felt like we stepped into a movie set of the ideal American suburbs. I found out they had a lemon tree in their backyard and literally jumped up with joy. I have always dreamed of owning a lemon tree. I picked my first lemon and my feeling towards LA was forever changed.

We went on a walk in the neighborhood. There was a green belt just a few houses down. It extended and forked to a few different destinations. We chose the path to playgrounds. On the way there, we walked pass a mulberry tree. The branches were heavy with purple fruits within our reach. I immediately started to munch on them. Jackson was so happy to have this picking experience. Soon all three toddlers/preschoolers had purple faces and purple hands. We ate the mulberries all to our hearts' desire. Jackson loved it so much that he made sure we made a stop at the mulberry tree every day while we were at LA. After some times at the playground, we headed back for dinner and sleep.

Sunday morning we went to Point Mugu beach. It was a busy beach since it was a holiday weekend. Jackson chose this one because it is the northern most beach around Malibu and hoped for a smaller crowd. The weather was beautiful for a beach day. Kids really loved digging sand, jumping waves. And they all had a good nap on the drive back home. In the afternoon when we were getting ready to go to playground and mulberry tree, Jackson asked us: Am I dreaming or today is real? He told us it's so good that he thought he was dreaming.

Jackson's version of a lemon tree. We ran out of yellow pen so the lemons were all green

Discovered a tree fruit looked like a monster mouth

Norah's favorite bumpy slide

We decided to avoid the crowd on Memorial Monday and went to the pool instead. All had a good nap on their beds and ready for their afternoon activities. Jacek and Celia live in the city called Westlake Village. And West Lake is a man-made lake and was designed to maximize the lake front properties. When we got there, West Lake yacht club was having an open house with free drinks and food and boat rides. We took a boat ride and checked out those expensive house sitting at the water edge.

After the boat ride, it was already 5pm. We planned to hike after the lake stop but the boat ride took longer than we expected. Jacek still wanted to show us the hiking trail nearby. When we parked, he pointed to the hill top and said we would hike there. I chuckled and thought he was joking. It looked a bit intimidating for a group with 5 months, 1.5, 2.5, 4.5 years old at this late of time. And he was not joking...

Jackson insisted on being the line leader. He was doing great going up. The trail was not a well maintained one and some places were very steep. He managed to use all fours to climb up some slick rocks. He also kept on checking on his team mates' well beings. It got a bit tricky when we were going down. The loose rocks on steep trail made descent difficult. I fell twice and Will fell once. Jackson at one point was falling every step he took. I was nervous he would gave up and how could we get him off the mountain if that happened.

Apple girls on top of the hill

Jackson persevered. He refused help several times and only took Jacek's hand for the most steep parts. He showed tremendous pride for his age. We were so proud of him.

Tuesday we tried a popular beach El Matador State Beach. We had the beach all to us in the morning. Beach was cloudy and there were rock formations near the water. It looked very different from the first beach we went. Jackson again had so much fun at the beach that he didn't want to leave. He spent hours digging a tunnel in the sand but Kate sat on it and collapsed it. He was in such good spirit and he just started digging again.

Kids napped when we drove towards Malibu pier. After their nap, we took a hike in Malibu Lagoon with the kids and ended up at the beach again. Jackson chased the birds while some of them continued to come back hoping to steal some food from Norah.

We had dinner at an outdoor pizza restaurant near their house. Weather there was consistently great for outdoor dining. We had a happy meal and stopped at the mulberry tree for after meal desert.

Wednesday we woke up early and headed towards the airport. We had to take the scenic route as 101 was super jammed. We said goodbye to the million dollar ghettos and went home.

It seemed that Jackson started to get the essence of vacationing from this trip. :-)

Calling his shot

Every soccer practice begins with the boys racing to a nearby fence and back, a distance of about 200m.  One time earlier in the season, Jackson told me he won the race but I explained he was disqualified (by me, the coach didn't say anything) since he turned back before actually making the fence.  To Jackson's credit, he has not short-cut the run since.

At the second to last practice, he won the race after the coach disqualified half the team, including several of the fastest runners, for not going all the way to the fence.  This time the coach made the short-cutters re-run the warm-up. 

Driving to the last practice, Jackson told me he was going to win the race -- something he has never done against a full field of his teammates.  Hoping to head-off disappointment, I told him that trying his hardest was what was important and the result would be what the result would be (besides, it's currently en vogue in parenting literature to praise the effort rather than the result). 

I watch intently as the coach sends the boys off on their warm-up run.  Jackson doesn't have a good starting position, but by 1/4 way he is in the lead.  He's first to reach the fence.  At about the 3/4 mark, one of his challengers stumbles and falls.  It's a two man race at that point and Jackson has a sizable lead, but you can see he is tiring and his teammate is gaining.  But Jackson keeps his feet and keeps going and crosses the finish line several strides ahead.

On the car ride home from practice, I casually asked Jackson what he liked about the practice, and he started gushing about winning the race.  After he finished, I told him how proud I was of his effort in the race and that good things often happen when we try hard.

Jackson's response:  "so...can I get an extra cookie after dinner?"

My response:  (chuckle) "good timing, but, no, I think winning the race was reward enough"

Surprise visitors

Last Tuesday, we came home to see peacocks eating all mommy's tomatoes!

Jackson shooed them away

Herding them back to their street