Halloween Festivities

This last couple of weekends have been a whirlwind of activity.

There was a parade at his preschool... here's part of the class picture...


Here he is with his best friend-- cute!


We had a Halloween play date at his best friend's house...


Terence's Totoro pumpkin...


Dinner with John and Amy-- Boo loves seaweed!


Jason's 3rd bday party at Chuck E. Cheese, which apparently has turned into a Las Vegas for kids....

Fun at the PreSchool Family Fun Day...





Fun at the Junior Museum and Zoo, then onto the Palo Alto Menlo Park Parents' Club Halloween party...



Finally, trick or treating in our new neighborhood. Boo made me be a witch. Terence didn't dress up because he refused to humor Boo, who wanted him to be a mermaid).

Milestones?

Today, Boo did something he never did before-- he made his stuffed Mickey Mouse talk! It was a little weird hearing that falsetto come out of Boo's already very high pitched voice. I must admit, I was both strangely pleased that he'd make his stuffy talk (how creative!), but also kind of creeped out by that voice you only hear in horror movies. But instead of saying something like "I'm coming for you," he said something reassuring like "I want to lay down and cuddle next to Gavin on his bed," or something similarly unremarkable. Whew!

In other news, Gavin is really growing more social at preschool. He has no separation issues whatsoever, and seems to talk to both adults and the other kids there. Sometimes he plays with them, too, but mostly, he's just happy to explore. Even when it's my day to work there, he doesn't play with me. I used to worry that he'd have separation issues since I've pretty much spent almost every moment with him for the last 2.75 years, but thankfully, he's blossoming into a little independent person... who uses the potty consistently, no less!

The reason there are no pics on this posting is because I just spent the last hour waiting for a video to upload, only to have it crash on me. The video was awesome-- it was a video of Boo reading a book he's never read before. He reads at approximately a 1st grade level, as I discovered when we were at the library the other day, and all these tall willowy first graders were haltingly reading books aloud that Boo's already read on his own. Even though I'm proud that my 2 year old can read like someone who's 6 or 7, I'm generally very hesitant to admit that he can read to other parents that have kids a similar age, since they either wonder if I'm the stereotypical crazy Asian mom who forces their poor babies to do math for hours while kneeling on abacuses, or even worse, come to the realization that kids really don't start out equal and that maybe their previously brilliant kid isn't really THAT smart. Or, worst of all they start questioning their parenting style. While Boo is naturally smart, I know that he's also extraordinarily lazy, and we all know that it's not how smart you are, but how hard you work.

Weekend in Napa

Terence had to go to an old friend's wedding in Napa last weekend, so Gavin and I had a mommy date! It was fun.

Here is a pic of us dropping off Terence at the wedding shuttle venue (they had shuttle service to the ceremony, which was in a winery). Gavin was quite sad to leave Daddy, who is "the best" as you can see.

Ever the diplomat, Gavin also thinks I'm the best (in response to the question "who's the best?" he'll often say "you (i.e. daddy) and mommy are the best." We had fun at Playground Fantastico in Napa.

Then, we went shopping and dog hunting/petting at the outlets, where I bought his Halloween and Xmas outfits. Gavin loves little and medium sized doggies that don't lick. Doesn't it look like he's walking them here?

Then, we checked into Avia, our hotel that we booked last minute. Gavin also loves hotels and elevators. He's looking sad here because I forced him to take a pic, when he wanted to go explore the room.

After that, we walked around downtown Napa and had a dinner date at Pearl Restaurant, which had a really delicious cheesy polenta and pork chop. Gavin especially enjoyed their olive spread.

The next day, we had brunch with the wedding couple at their villa in St. Helena. It was very pretty, and Gavin loved playing with Luke (the couple's child). They were instant buddies, although they've played together in the past.

Here is a pic of Terence and Gavin at the villa (their grapevines are still relatively young).

Here is a picture of Matty-Matt (the groom), Terence, and Boo. Aren't they cute?

We stopped by the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone on the way home because we couldn't resist. Terence and I dropped in on an awesome demo class on making panna cotta and almond tuille there a long time ago. Here is a pic of our chef in the making.

Pumpkin Patching

Today we went to the pumpkin patch in Ardenwood Farms for some fun before a long, long day looking at plumbing fixtures. Here are some pics.

Gavin loved the Indian corn best, and didn't want a pumpkin after finding them. We were able to escape the pumpkin patch only one dollar poorer!

Climbing the hay bale tower with dada.

The bale maze, Gavin's favorite part. He must have run the maze about 10 times before we forced him to leave.

Our trip to Meowi (Maui)

As a last hurrah before Terence starts working for good, we took a 2 week long vacation to Meowi. Every day was basically the same: Wake up, beach for 4 hours, lunch, nap, pool for a couple of hours, then dinner and sleep. Gavin loves Hawaii, probably because he loves being in water so much. Here are some Meowi pics from our first week, which we spent at Wailea at a hotel.

"What time is it?"
Boo: "Hawaii time!"

Beachy lounging...


"Mommy, I'm cold; can I have a towel pweesh?"


Look what they made! Just kidding.


Swimming at Wailea Beach, the best beach ever.


Boo: "Mommy, don't smile. I SAID don't smile!"
Me: "Fine, I won't smile when you take my picture if you smile if I take yours."
Boo: "Okay!"

Here's the result:



Another picture courtesy of Boo at Coconuts, a fish taco place.


More time on Wailea beach...



Pics from around our hotel...



Taken by Boo...


More Hawaii pics to follow from our 2nd week, coming soon!

Battle of the Gavins

Today was Boo's first day of preschool in the 2's class of Preschool Family, a parent participation preschool. He's the oldest child in the class, missing the cut off into the 3's class by 10 days or so. He's not the biggest, though. Anyway, Boo really enjoys his play based school, and looks forward to going to preschool. It's obvious this year that he's one of the older boys, as his language skills and dexterity are better than the younger people in the 2's class.

There's this child, also named Gavin, who is in Boo's class this year. At first, when I learned that fact, I kind of hoped they'd be friends, but it was quickly apparent that it wasn't going to happen. Gavin #2 is a bully of a child; the type that pushes and shoves when he doesn't get his way. It wasn't long before Gavin #2 decided he wanted a ping pong ball that my Gavin was holding. Gavin #2 tried snatching the ball from Boo. Boo said "no!" Gavin #2 tried again. Boo again held his ground. Then, Gavin #2 shoved my poor Boo in the chest. At this point, Boo was so mad that he started crying. He stood up, got right in Gavin #2's face and said "NOOO!!!!" Nonplussed, Gavin #2 shoved Gavin even harder so that Gavin landed on his butt. Gavin was so mad at this point that he started shaking. He again got up right into Gavin #2's face and screamed "NOOOO!!!!!" as loud as he could. Then, of course, he ran into my arms.

The teacher was sort of an avoidant type, and just kept telling Gavin #2 that my Gavin was sad (without giving any reasons why he was sad or making Gavin #2 get Boo a tissue). Later during circle time, another mom confided in me that Gavin #2 had been shoving the other children all day, and that it was good that Gavin actually had the confidence to stand up for himself. Poor Boo!

Reading!

A few days ago, we headed to the public library, where I checked out a bunch of picture books for Boo, threw them by the backseat near his car seat, and then pretty much forgot about them. During our drives since that day, he's taken to picking up a book and "reading" it. Today, he asked me to get the book, Wag!, from the car for story time. Then, he read the WHOLE 40 pages to me, including the silly words like "mooch," "fwip, fwip, fwip," and "snowflakes!"

Apparently, this whole time he's actually been reading in the backseat, not just pretending to. Yay!