Just for laughs

Life with a new puppy on top of three kids has been CRAZY. Among the many things neglected has been my blog and the taking of pictures to post on the blog.I just quickly wanted to record a few of the funny things the kids have been saying lately

-A few months ago we took a trip down to Arizona. While there visiting my aunt and uncle, Tavita became OBSESSED with Uncle Rob. He deemed him Uncle Papa because he looks so much like my dad. The first time Tavita saw "Uncle Papa" he thought he was my dad and was pretty disappointed to find out it wasn't. However, after some cool rides in the corvette, scorpion hunting, and an overall good time, Tavita was hooked. It is now a daily routine for Tavita to ask for Uncle Papa, and begs for me to drive him there.

-I took the boys to get their H1N1 vaccines about a month ago. Brayden knew what was coming and was pretty apprehensive. Tavita was relatively clueless and happily volunteered to go first. He jumped when they first pricked him but was fine afterward. Brayden was also pretty tough, cried a little but sat very still for them. In the end they got cool band aids and a sucker. I told Brayden they had to go back for a 2nd shot at Christmas. Brayden looked at me and exclaimed, "But I've been a good boy, why do I get a shot for Christmas."
Tavita was SOLD on the whole shot thing (obviously has a high pain threshold.) He kept asking to back for another shot. In fact I was taking them to Toys R Us to make Christmas lists and Tavita said, "No, I want go get more shot!" It took me over a week to get him to take the band aid off. Even now he'll take my purse and keys and say, "Bye Mommy, I go get shot." STRANGE boy!!!

-While Junior was in Australia we were blessed with a little fury visitor. Poor Tini (Junior's cousin who lives downstairs) is TERRIFIED of rodents and that is were Mr. Mouse decided his home should be. I bought some traps and decided they'd be no problem to set. WRONG! These buggers were sensitive. I tried repeatedly to set them only to have them come snapping down (one time on my finger). Janessa joined the effort to no avail. Every time we'd set one and go to let go Tavita would cringe and shield his eyes "No,no,no, please, no." Finally had to call on our neighbor to set the darn things. One went off after I brought them back home and I was able to set it. It worked though, Mr. Mouse was sent to Mouse Heaven the very next day.
Brayden kept begging to see the mouse. I told him I sent him to a happier place. Brayden replied, "He's happy here, where is there a happier place." Ummmmm....

-Brayden has been learning new songs for his preschool Christmas program. He got in the car one day saying, "Mommy I learned a really funny song today about you kissing Santa." For days after he kept asking me to kiss Santa when we saw him. Finally I said, "I think the song is talking about a mommy kissing Santa because the daddy was dressed up as Santa." His reply, "No Mommy, Daddy is at work, you get to kiss the real Santa!"

-We had a FHE lesson on the different symbols of Christmas. Now every time Brayden says a prayer he has to include, "Thank thee for the star so we can remember the birth of baby Jesus." We can't pass a star without him telling us the start is to remind us of when Jesus was born. It's really cute.

-Janessa helped the boys wrap some Christmas presents for me and Brayden was really excited about the surprise. Tavita was always carrying the presents around begging to open them. Brayden would dutifully take them away and put them back under the tree. One day we wrapped a present in a gift bag for Brayden to take to a birthday party. Soon after we realized one of the presents to me was missing. We were searching everywhere. I went to pick Brayden up from the party and he came running to the door, "Jaxon opened your present." Apparently Tavita had slipped the present into the bag with Jaxon's present. He opened it and kind of stared like, "umm, okay." (it was a figurine for my Christmas village). Apparently Brayden gave him a bit of the what-for for opening my present. He was pretty disappointed the surprise was ruined.

We had a VERY nasty slush storm on Sunday. It was like walking through a Slurpee 2-3 inches deep on the driveway. We were trying to get ready out the door for church, Tavita took one step out the door and said, "Mommy, lets go to Hawaii and go to the pool." Pool is his catch phrase for any sort of swimming. At that moment, I couldn't have agreed with him more.

Gingerbread House

Junior is the 11 year-old scout leader at church and one of the many blessings of this calling is we get hit up for A LOT of fundraisers. Through one of the fundraisers we wound up with a gingerbread house kit. Last night for Family Home Evening we decided to put it to use. The boys had been begging for MONTHS to make one and were so excited we finally did it. The initial start was not a pretty sight. We had burned pieces that were breaking off as we took them off the cookie sheet. I figured since they were to hard for anyone to want to eat anyway, we might as well take a hot glue gun to the sucker. We used hot glue to put the house together then used frosting to make it look pretty and stick all the candy and what not on. In the end we had a great result and the boys love it. They wanted to dig in to it right away, actually they didn't wait for it to be completed. There was a lot of licking of frosting and sneaking of candy going on during construction.
The initial construction with the hot glue

Brayden deciding what he wants to put on top of his peppermint stick. He help frost half the house, Tavita the other then they did the yard.

The final product

The boys with their masterpiece and me sneezing

Snow and more

Much to Brayden's great delight we finally got a real snowstorm from Sun-Tues. It snowed A LOT and Brayden couldn't have been happier, he was so worried there'd be no snow for Christmas. Thanks to FREEZING single digit temps the snow has been here all week and the boys have been loving being able to play in it. Their favorite game is for me to stick them in the tobogan and race around our street (which is now a nice sheet of ice/snow). The boys would do it all day but I poop out after awhile, it hurts to run in the cold).
Here are a few pics of the boys when the snow was first falling
Farmer Brayden. This kid LOVES the snow. We got home and he was wearing a checkered shirt. He decided that coupled with the snow bibs made him look like a farmer. He stuck on his "Farmers Hat" and just sat out there letting the snow fall on him forever.

Janessa teaching Tavita how to make snow angels with the help of Bowzer

Again, Brayden just laying in the snow enjoying it. Man are we opposites

We are all set for Christmas. The only picture I have of us decorating is us putting the star on the tree. We went and got the tree for Family Night but by the time we got home it was too late to decorate. The boys had been so excited to put the star up we decided to do that before bed then finished decorating the next day.

Bowzer and Kalie are the BEST of friends. Wherever she is, he is usually curled up at her feet, between her legs or something of that sort.


I love this picture of Kalei having a "conversation" with her Daddy

I gave Bowzer a bath the other day which he HATED. The boys felt so sorry for him they covered him with their special blankets and Tavita even contributed his binky. Look closely he is there under all the blankets.

The blueberry queen!

B is for Bowzer

I have so many things to be playing catch up on but thought I'd post about this first. Santa came early to the Shum house this year and dropped off a new member of our family. "Bowzer", lovingly named by Brayden is a little 8 week black lab that we're all quickly falling in love with.
We've been looking at getting the kids a dog for Christmas but I came across Bowzer online and couldn't pass him up. Rather than try to hide him for 8 weeks and deprive him of attention and valuable training time we decided that it'd be best if Santa made a special trip to our house.
The boys woke up Saturday morning to Bowzer sitting at the bottom of the stairs with a big bow around his neck. Santa had helped himself to some cookies and milk and left a note explaining he had gotten the boys letters (in which they had asked for a puppy). Santa told him he was so excited to get the letters because he had a puppy up at the North Pole that he knew the boys would love. The puppy was so excited to join the family, he couldn't wait for Christmas. Santa made a special trip all the way from the North Pole just so the puppy could join our family.
When the boys came downstairs they were beside themselves with excitement. The kept laughing and running around. After a little bit the novelty kind of wore off. Bowzer was pretty overwhelmed by all the newness and kids so was acting up quite a bit and nipping (in a playful way) and the boys were disappointed that he didn't know how to fetch and kept biting at their ankles. After everyone, including Bowzer, took a long nap and a lot of work on training, things went much more smoothly. I explained to the boys that Bowzer was just a baby and needed to learn things. I told them it was important to teach Bowzer they were the boss and work with him and soon they'll be best buddies. The rest of the day Brayden went around telling everyone, "This is Bowzer, he was kind of mean but now we're best buddies." Both Brayden and Tavita love walking around the yard with him on a leash and playing with him (until Bowzer get too wound up and starts using his teeth to play). Kalei and Bowzer are way too cute to watch. It's interesting to see how much more gentle he is with her than the boys. If she's in the room he always wants to be near her and Kalei just sits there and babbles and laughs at him. They can entertain each other for a long time.
We've only had him for two days but he already knows that he's only allowed on the middle floor (where there is no carpet) and won't go up or down the stairs. If we go, he just sits there and stares at us with his big puppy eyes. He rings a bell whenever he needs to go out to use the bathroom. He's getting good at sitting, waiting til we tell him to eat, taking food gently, and staying. For a puppy he doesn't chew too bad and is always quick to stop when we reprimand him and give him one of his chewies. He's getting better at not biting while he plays but we still need to work on it. He rarely will nip at Junior and I. He nips at the boys quite a bit when they start chasing and wrestling but he's improving fast. For some reason he has it out for Janessa and is ALWAYS nipping at her, even if she's just walking by. It's always in play but funny how he guns for her.
We're loving having him and are adjusting more and more. Junior may say differently since he's on potty duty at night every 2-3 hours. I've offered to trade him but he doesn't think he's able to nurse Kalei for some reason. We're just so excited to watch him grow with our kids.

The boys coming down the stairs

Tavita's first interaction

Brayden's first interaction

Family Picture

Yes, he is actually eating the food. For the first half of Saturday, I was constantly chasing him away from the food dish, taking bones out of his mouth etc. He kept saying, "No Mommy, I'm a woof"

The new "Best Buddies"

6-months and all is well...

Here's a shout out to little Miss Lei has made it through the first half of her first year of life. To start with here are her stats:

Weight: 17 lbs 2 oz (75-90%)
Height: 27 3/8 in (95%)
Head: 16.4 cm (off the charts, yep she's a Shum alright!)

A few facts about Kalei:
-She sits completely unassisted and loves to reach around as she does so
-She can steamroll/scoot to whatever she has her mind set on
-Her favorite food is frozen blueberries (I put them in those netted teether things). If she's ever upset, put those in her hand and she's instantly content
-Other foods she's had: poi, rice, applesauce, banana, green bean, mango, cream of wheat, carrots, potato, mixed cereal). Still haven't given her any real baby food, just not much a fan of them.
- She has a heart-melting laugh and no one can make her laugh harder than Brayden. He can get her absolutely rolling.
-She loves to ride around in her sling so she can watch everything I do.
-She's very social and does not like to feel left out of ANYTHING
-At one point she was an incredible sleeper, went down at 7 and slept until 5:30. Now she wakes up A LOT but we'll give her the benefit of having a minor ear infection and Daddy being gone. It'll be interesting to see how she's doing in a few days when Junior gets back and the anitbiotics do their thing.
It truly has been such a joy to have Kalei in our lives. She is a VERY smiley and happy baby. It doesn't take much to get a huge grin from this little girl. She loves life and loves to explore the world around her. I just love this stage when they have this wide-eyed wonderment at everything they come in contact with.
We love you Lei Lei!!!

Realization

Yesterday was just one of those days that every parent with a 2-year old goes through. There was hardly a minute where I wasn't ready to hang him out in a tree for a little while. The day started at 4:30 (yes, as in am). Tavita woke from a nightmare, can't blame the poor kid for that, but once he calmed down rather than going back to sleep he wanted to read books, eat cereal, and play. The ENTIRE day consisted of him getting into stuff, tearing stuff apart, throwing fits (I'm one of those mean moms that won't let him have candy for breakfast, a 3rd orange in 2 hrs, run out in the 30 degree weather with nothing but his underwear on). Long story short, I was exhausted by the end of the day. I put the kids to bed (my favorite time of day by the way) and set to the task of cleaning a torn apart house. I had just finished cleaning, cut myself a big slice of pumpkin roll (if I really was a single mom, I'd weigh 300lbs. Every night Junior has been gone, I eat some treat at the end of the day to destress), had the heating pad all warmed to relax my siatic nerve, and was one step away from that moment of euphoria when I can sit down and say, "Ahh, the day is done." I gathered my treat and was about to head to the couch when I heard a dreaded "thump." Not dreaded in that I thought someone was hurt but in that I knew someone was still awake.
I head upstairs and there's Tavita sitting at the top of the stairs draped in floss with trails of floss everywhere. I go in his bedroom to find deodorant all over the place, books strewn around, the entire contents of an almost full bottle of fish food in with "Soopy" the fish, and just an overall minor disaster. I looked at him and glared. He jsut gave me a grin and said, "Hi, Mommy." While trying to keep my voice down (both to keep my cool and to keep from waking his two sleeping siblings) very firmly told him to get in bed NOW! He responded with a very innocent, "Okay Mommy." I was trying to clean the mess up and asked him where his binky was. He told me he didn't know then got a big grin and ran up to me, while pointing to his ear said, "Here, check here." We always play a game with him when he can't find his binky that it's is stuck in his ear and we pull it out, it's one his favorite games. I grumbled that it wasn't the time for it and what he did was very naughty. Again he gets and innocent look of "Why I naughty, I feed fishy." I was not in the mood to discuss anything, I simply told him that once he's put to bed it's not okay to get out. I cleaned the mess, put him to bed, shut the door, and went downstairs.
As I sat and thought more about it, I realized he probably didn't think what he did was all to naughty. Sure it's wrong for him to get out of bed, but other than that the resulting mess was simply him exploring the world around him. The fish was hungry, so he figured he'd feed it. Wanted to read books so he did. The deodorant smelled good, and you can't really see it so he was just helping the room smell better. The floss was very interesting, it just kept coming and coming from this tiny little box. I realized that I need to take more time to think on a 2-year old's level before flying off the handle, or in this case just ignoring them all together. The world looks and functions compltetly different in their eyes. I might be a lot more relaxed and happy in life if I took the time to realize how facinating floss really can be.

Random sidenote: Brayden was eating an apple today. I overheard him, while giving his apple a good examination, "You're going down apple bah ha ha"

The 3 P's

And these three p's would be: Prayer, Political Correctness, and Pyrex

Prayers:
Tavita is finally getting to the point where he wants to say prayers. Before whenever we'd try to help him say a prayer he'd just say, "No". Anyway, yesterday he asked to say the prayer at lunch. I was helping him along and he was doing great. Prayer went something like this:
He'd generally repeat everything I said but where there's a parantheses he inserted himself.
Thank Thee for the food, Thank Thee for our house, Thank Thee for "pumpkins".....Please bless Daddy in "Auntie" (I giggled and repeated "in")"Mommy" in "Bray"....
I was trying to say "Please bless Daddy in Australlia" He thought I was saying "and" and he kept trying to figure out who else we were thankful for.

Politically Correct:
Brayden has a slight fetish with UPS/Fed-ex/any type of delivery driver. He fondly calls them "Boxmen". He loves a visit from them because more times than not they come bearing goodies from familiy. We see their trucks often because the guy across the street from us owns some sort of online business and is constantly sending and recieving thing.
Janessa has gotten a seasonal job as a "Delivery assistant" with UPS. We went to drop her off for orientation and as we were pulling through to go back out Brayden saw the endless lines of UPS trucks...
B: "Ohhh, so this is where all the Boxmen come from."
M: "Yep, now Auntie is going to be a Boxman."
B(with HUGE awe-struck eyes): "Wow, cool...wait, you mean she's gonna be a BoxWOMAN."
M: "Sorry, you're right she'll be a Boxwoman."
We went to go pick her up and I told him to keep an eye out for her.
B:"Is she wearing boxman, I mean woman, clothes."
M: "No, just regular clothes, she'll wear her boxwoman clothes when she drives on the truck."
The second Janessa got in the car.
B:"Auntie let me see your clothes. This is so cool!!!"

Pyrex:
I've heard a lot of stories about how Pyrex sold their copyrights to some company in China. They changed the make up of the glass in order to produce it at lower cost. However, the new components cause the glass to spontaneously explode. I didn't think it all too common until last night. I pulled some funeral potatoes out of the oven and was about to set them down with the other end of the glass just burst. I hadn't set it down on anything hot, hadn't knocked it, nothing. It just exploded in my hands. Luckily it was the other end and I didn't get cut. However, it's happened to me a good handful of other people I know. I'm now in the market for a new set of non-pyrex bakeware.