A New Strange Addition

Well, a lot has happened to me since I turned three years old...

The biggest news is that I will soon be a big brother! I am going to have twin sisters next March. I must say that I really wanted a brother, but I can always dress them up in my boy clothes and teach them how to play ball and do all the things I love to do. With me around, they won't have time or the desire to play with dolls, ha.

I go to preschool four days a week -- 2 days a week at a fun, interesting preschool down the hill from where I live, so I walk to and from when the weather is nice. Ha, when I walk to school, I explain to people, "I need my exercise."

The other is a Chinese immersion preschool that I honestly don't understand what they are saying...Everyone is smiling and enjoying themselves, but I do feel a bit out of place because I don't understand as much as most of the other kids in my class. But, the food is good, the playground is large and I can count to "20" in Chinese so far...

I am also speaking many words and sentences compared to a year ago at this time. Not sure, but I think my very first sentence was, "Trick or Treat" because it really paid off!

Since then, I can ask for food by name, even though my parents think sometimes my pronunciation is funny or cute. For example, whenever I say the word "hamburger", they think it's funny when I pronounce it "hang-a-bur." But, that is better compared to when I say, "Screw me" for "Excuse me."…I just don't know why that is so funny.

My "Grandpa," whom I pronounce, "Crap-pa" is lots of fun because he puts me on his shoulders and I am the tallest person in the land!

I am making many friends these days--mostly from school, but I did make two friends last night...We went to a college reunion dinner in which there were five of us kids there...Two girls and three of us boys....For some reason, the girls were sitting quietly, well behaved and looked like "breathing rocks" in my opinion. But our boys were having lots of fun -- So much that the table next to us had to tell our parents to make us stop having so much fun. But, since they were pretty old, all they had to do was turn down their hearing aids as far as I was concerned!

The other two boys were much older than I -- more than twice my age and then some. But, I was pretty proud of myself because they listened to me when I gave them directions on "who would play what." For example, I was Batman, the 7 year old would be a policeman and the 8 year old would be a fireman. They did change roles after I suggested they play those characters (one wanted to be Robin and the other the "bad" guy), and it was still fun. We all hugged each other when we left the restaurant.

Also to my credit, I did say "Excuse me" to one of the old people who gave us a "stiff" face as we were having fun, but I think it sounded like "Screw me" instead...Oh well...I can get away with it for my age, so why not be cute?

For Halloween, a pack of us went out all dressed up and got lots of candy (most of which my Mommy ate). I scared lots of people with my Devil outfit because I saw a photo of My Mommy dressing as a devil years ago and it scared me! Today, I don't have to remind Mommy of the scary photo anymore since I became a devil and scared others...What fun!

Today was an exciting day because I got to try out my new Jeep! My parents were so proud of me because I was able to freely share my Jeep with other kids, even though it was my first time driving it. We didn't roll it, crash or fall out! Sharing really can be a lot of fun, even though I don't always feel like sharing.

I look forward to more fun adventures in the future with my friends and little sisters!

DYLAN BY AGE 3:

FAVORITE ACTIVITIES: Playing with cars, trains, 60-piece puzzles, now drawing (fortunately not on the table much anymore). Dylan is a very fast runner and can run for an hour at a time, easily. Loves to play at McDonalds’ play area, then fell in love with “Happy Land” where he can run with a pack of boys (whom he picks out instantly). He no longer uses a stroller and can keep up with us in the dog park walk by about age 2 ½. By three, we have a hard time keeping up with him. Swimming—Dylan is really taking off and making huge improvement each and every swim lesson he takes. At age 3, he began his official swimming class and could swim by himself about 6 feet after his 4^th lesson. He loves it!

FAVORITE SONG: By Dylan’s later 2-year mark, “Old McDonald had a farm” is a repetitious song he enjoys singing many times throughout the day. He is also starting to sing his “ABC’s” with 90 percent accuracy.

FAVORITE VIDEO: Dylan watched the movie “Cars” day after day, for about 8 months until it finally stopped working. He then evolved to Thomas Trains, Little Einstein, Teletubbies, PBS Kids, and various other videos we check out at the library.

SLEEPS: An average of 13 hours a day. A later afternoon 3 hour nap, and goes to bed from approximately 8:30 PM to 6:30 AM. He is pretty good about going down for naps in his later 2-year old era, and very good about going down for bed. He loves his “aquarium” music box that helps him prepare for sleep.

FAVORITE FOODS: Dylan is also known as the “clam monger.” On more than one occasions, he has gobbled down all but a few clams in a large bowl that feeds 4-6 people,—And never got sick! Once he ate all of 4 lbs of clams with the exception of five for others…I believe he could have eaten more. Still eats just about everything, but starting to get picker. Won’t eat left-overs, cranberry sauce, onions, garlic, potatoes, olives or cereal, but will eat brussels sprouts, broccoli, and other good things. Over all, Dylan is a very good, healthy eater.

FAVORITE TOYS: Cars, cars, cars & trains. Dylan LOVES to take all of his toys and create impressive “cities.” Some are quite creative and amazing!

VOCABULARY: After a class and some 1-1 speech therapy, Dylan’s speech seemed to erupt from saying about 10 words by his 2^nd birthday to 3and even 4 word sentences about three quarters of the year after his 2^nd birthday. It is fun to listen to his thoughts, as he is very inquisitive. Dylan also notices a lot of detail…If things are “missing” off balance, or not working properly, he will say something like, “This piece missing - Where go?” One of Dylan’s first long sentences ever was, “More nuts please” and “Go back home.”

HEIGHT  WEIGHT: 38.5” tall and 35lbs. Above average in weight (but Dylan has a LOT of muscle and is definitely not fat) and about average in height.

HAIR EYE & SKIN COLOR: Medium brown hair, green mixed with some blue in the eyes, beautiful olive skin tone.

POTTY TRAINING: Dylan was “school ready” about two months before he turned three years old, although we still put a diaper on him during naps and night time. His biggest motivation (well, only motivation, really) was to be potty trained so that he could go to the “Big Kids’” school. With the help of Teacher Gillian, Dylan was invited to watch the children go potty and be their official “toilet flusher” so that he got the idea that if he wanted to go to this fun school, he also had to use their potty…This technique was very, very successful with Dylan, and I am proud to say that he will be starting the “Big Kids’ School” July 6^th, 2009 half days, three days a week.

TEMPERMENT: Amazingly happy little guy! Dylan has a “sunny” personality, is gentle, sensitive and very sociable.

CUTE TIDBITS:

--Just after his 3^rd birthday, Dylan was playing at “Happy Land” when a bully kid started to hit him for no reason. The bully’s’ Mom did nothing but tell her child to stop. Mama got up to take care of the problem, but by then Dylan has shied away and it was over. Mama then said to Dylan, “Never start a fight, but if someone hits you, then hit them back.” Within minutes, Dylan marched up to the little bully and started hitting him while saying, “Look Mama, I hitting him” with a big smile on his face. Needless to say, Mama was very embarrassed J

--Another day at McDonalds’ Land, a pack of older kids were running around in which Dylan followed. One little boy said, “Does anyone want to be the monster?” Dylan quickly volunteered say, “I monster, I monster” over and over again. Unfortunately, the older boy did not notice Dylan’s desire to be elected “monster.” However, the group quickly broke up anyway and every body went their separate ways so Dylan did not seem upset.

--Because Dylan was so very, very good at puzzles and putting 25, 30, 40 & 50 piece puzzles together with ease, I decided to challenge him one day by buying a 100 piece puzzle of a cat cartoon that quite frankly was not easy for adults to put together. After about 5 minutes of pondering, Dylan suddenly said, “This puzzle hard!”

--Dylan loves his dog and likes to run after him and play.

We perceive his reaction as being a calm and optimistic little guy…

We went down for a "talent review" yesterday at the modeling agency he worked for. After many attempts to shoot his photo and get his attention, Dylan chose to play with a toy truck instead...

At least the owner was honest and straight forward. She said that because Dylan could not take her instruction well and could not sit still long enough to be a good candidate for a photographer/client.

After telling us that this was the worst year in her 20 years of business, she did say that Dylan’s behavior was typical for kids his age. But, we know that his previous interviews were similar to this experience, thus photographs taken in his auditions must have looked like a blur. She did invite us to check back with her if Dylan can follow instructions down the road...But by then, I'm sure our boy may start another business, who knows?

To ease the painful truth and sudden lay off, we looked for entertainment at a good price. Therefore, we set out to Costco. One can play with its merchandise for hours and nobody cares. The perfect "play-date" without messing up anyone's home or dealing with kids not willing to share :)

After he enjoyed Costco's mini-motorized car and rocking horses, Dylan worked up an appetite. He then enjoyed the hard, chocolate-covered biscotti that nearly broke my tooth (but at least he will have more teeth later on), yet snubbed his nose at the tortilla soup (can't blame him after trying it). Nonetheless, he will feast on the delicious, roasted chicken all week long.

In this tough economic time, even the youngest workers are getting laid off...Count your blessings if you have a job--or better yet if you don't need one!

话说这个周末苹果一身橙色打扮，一踏进safeway，迎面一个lady就是一句: what a cute girl! How old is she? 于是乎俺一脸尴尬地说：he is a boy and almost 2。接着轮到她尴尬了。。。这已是第5、6次苹果大哥被当作苹果小妞了，俺也终于狠下心来决定在他过了2岁生日就削发！

因为各种各样的原因，已经很久很久没有更新娃娃的博克了。九到我都不好意思更新了。。。像许许多多其他的娃娃一样，我们家的娃娃这些日子也在茁壮成长着，长肉肉，长身高，长心计，长脾气。。。不好意思的是，22个月的娃娃说话的本领没见长，迄今只会说hot, up, 和balloon，算是个落后分子吧。。。

话说这个周末带着娃娃出去遛狗狗，巧遇一个和娃娃同龄的小lady，见到娃娃后如同恶虎扑食一般，毫不吝惜地就对嫩娃上下其手，摸了头发摸脸蛋儿，摸了脸蛋儿捏胳膊，捏了胳膊拽小手，拽了小手搜娃身，搜完了身开始脱娃衣。。。整个“骚扰”过程让娃娃妈全程摄下，以备日后举证之用J