CJ and Thomas

If you have met CJ, you know that he is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends.  Our friend Emi started us on this odyssey when she handed down a huge tub of engines and tracks to CJ.

CJ LOVES Thomas.  We have take along trains, lead along trains (CJ made up that name for the trains that go on the wooden tracks) and battery-powered trains.  We have a huge collection of tracks, as well as books and DVDs.

It turns out that YouTube has a gigantic collection of Thomas movies as well.  On most nights, we let CJ watch a few Thomas movies that have been uploaded by Thomas fans.  There are real episodes (surely illegal), and homemade movies using CGI and real Thomas trains and tracks.  It's obvious that adults and kids alike have gotten into the game of creating their own Thomas episodes.  Some episodes are less than a minute, while some are 8-10 minutes long and quite extravagant in their plot and effects.

Now CJ wants to make his own Thomas movie and "watch it on TV."  Stay tuned for a Thomas movie by CJ and mommy.

Happy Birthday, Matrix Group!

Last Friday night, Matrix Group celebrated the company's 9th anniversary at Continental, a pool hall in Rosslyn, VA. Matrix Group turned 9 back in May, but we were too swamped to celebrate, so we waited until after the end of our fiscal year to celebrate.

What a fun time! We had the purple room (fitting, no?), which had a (blue) pool table and a Wii. We had between 30-40 people at various times and it was great to hang out with staff and their SOs (significant others). I had never seen Andrew and Deb so relaxed, and it was fun to socialize with my siblings (Alex and Patricia) and hubbie.

One downside: the bar was super smoky. I was overwhelmed by the smoke when we walked in, then grew accustomed to it, but four hours in a smoky bar with bad ventilation was sure to catch up with me. All weekend, I felt like I had smoke a pack of cigarettes. Ick. My chest feels awful. And today, I have a cough. New rule: all company events that I sign the check for are going to be in non-smoking establishments.

The highlight of the evening was the pool tournament. Who knew that Matrix Group had so many pool sharks? James, Ben and Trevor are excellent players, and Elyse, Maggie, Alex and Brad were very good, as well. James even stopped drinking while playing coz he was in the finals! I played with Alex and didn't sink one ball. Oh well, my goal was to just hit balls. Patricia and James won the tournament, each taking home a purple iPod shuffle with www.matrixgroup.net engraved on the back.

Emi even ordered a birthday cake for Matrix and we sang Happy Birthday to Matrix Group around 9:00pm. Nice touch.

We had a bar tab minimum of $1,000, which we were not close to reaching by 8pm (the party started at 6pm and was supposed to end at 9pm), so I asked everyone to order expensive drinks. Tanya was drinking Kettel One cosmopolitans, and Dianne's sweetie was drinking Grey Goose martinis. Thank goodness Patricia sweet talked the manager into giving until 11, without charging us extra for the room. That gave us plenty of time to finish the pool tournament, meet our bar tab minimum, and let everyone sober up before going home. I even made sure we had DDs (designated drivers) for those drinking the most. Fun times!

Happy Birthday CJ!

CJ celebrated a very happy birthday yesterday.  My older sister and brother are in town so he got extra attention from a doting aunt and uncle.

He woke up to kisses from mommy and daddy, then was given the green light to open some presents.  Big surprise, he got some new Thomas trains (Rusty, James, Henry), a Thomas poetry book, and some chocolate.

At lunchtime, CJ celebrated with kids from the neighborhood.  My nanny called around 12:30 to say there were 7 nannies and 9 kids visiting our house.  I'm sure CJ was in heaven.

For dinner, CJ wanted sushi so that is what he got.  He actually woke up that morning saying, "Mama, I have a little cough.  Sushi will make it go away."  Hilarious.  He wolfed down 11 pieces of salmon sushi so I guess despite the pizza at lunch time, he was ravenous for sushi.  He also had a bit of shrimp tempura and some edamame (he calls it adamama).

Here is a video of CJ introducing his collection of battery-powered trains.

My favorite part of the day was when CJ woke up asking for kisses.  For months, he had been saying, "no kisses until my birthday" and thank goodness he didn't really mean it.  Yesterday morning, he snuggled up to me and said, "I want kisses for my birthday."  When I planted a few kisses on his check, he said, "more kisses, please" then promptly asked Maki for kisses.  Moments you live for as a mom.

Another Great Waterslide Party

CJ, Maki and I attended a birthday party for CJ's buddy, Chase.  Chase's mom and dad went out all out with a waterslide and moon bounce.  The kids were in heaven and CJ loved playing with Chase, Beckett and Peyton.

CJ has become more confident on the waterslide.  He is jumping onto the slide and is climbing really fast. CJ loves the waterslide and adores splashing in the water.  CJ and I are the water lovers in the family, unlike Maki, who I think was a cat in a former life.

Here's a video of CJ going down the slide facedown.  The quality of these videos is not terrific, but it is so convenient taking these little mpeg videos with my digital Sony camera.  Speaking of cameras, my Sony is over four years old and I think I'm due for a new one.  We got the camera right before CJ was born and I've taken over 16,000 photos and videos with it.  Talk about a workhorse camera.

Do I really need this book? Did I ever?

Maki and I are getting serious about de-cluttering our house.  We have too many magazines, too many books, too much mail lying around.  We have canceled our subscription to Wired magazine (yeah, I know, this is serious) and Parents magazine.  I went through a week's worth of mail, and I trashed dozens of catalogs.

You know it's serious when I start going through my book collection.  Let's see, I got rid of Women and Family in Rural Taiwan, to name just a few of the dozens of books I have decided I no longer want or need.  I don't even remember where or how I got that book.  Was it a poli sci class from college, a women's culture class, something I picked up at a used bookstore?  I have never read it and don't plan to (no offense to the women of rural Taiwan).  I even got rid of a bunch of nuclear disarmament books from a poli sci class over 20 years ago. 

Maki is going to see if the library wants any of the books, then I guess we'll trash or recycle the rest.

Funny Questions

Here are the latest funny questions from CJ.

Mama, if we put water on the cat, will she grow?

CJ: Mama, what color balloon is your favorite?

Mama: Purple

CJ: Why don't you like blue?

Mama: I do like blue, but my favorite is purple.

CJ: Why don't you like white?

Mama, if we plant a cat in the ground, will she grow?

Mama, can I have chocolate for breakfast? 

The funny things he says - more

Mom friends beseech me to write down the cute things that CJ says, so here you go:

Mom, why do you have to go to work? (Answer: so I can make money to buy you trains. CJ: Oh.)

Mama, here's a cat kiss. (kiss, meow)

Mama, I collect trains, you collect boxes, and dada collects batteries and computers. (Because Maki has a collection of batteries for CJ's various toys and is always replacing batteries in something.)

Edward is still Edwin.

Look still sounds like wook.

And sincerely is sinsincerely.

Mama, tell me a story about Thomas and (fill in the blank. Recent stories have been about the ceiling fan, the window, the pigeon, the nothing, the bad engine, the good engine, and the cat.)

Mama, is dada at the data center again?

Mama, I want to send you an e-mail.

Mama, what's your phone number? (picking up his toy cell phone)

I supposed to do that. (yes, the am disappears, this is a HUGE favorite these days)

Mama, I want Apple TV. (because there are endless Thomas episodes on Apple TV)

Mama, you're always late.

Mama, I'm frustrated. (Auntie Dayna taught him the word)

Mama, I'm starving. What does starving mean again?

CJ and the big boy Thomas bike

Check out CJ on his new, big boy Thomas bike.  His old tricycle from Jessie was getting too small, so this is his birthday present from mama and dada.  CJ was a natural; he even biked around in the store since the bike was too cumbersome to carry.  Thank goodness it fit in my trunk.

The Toys R Us man recommended a size 14 bike, but CJ felt really unsteady on the larger bike, AND, perhaps most importantly, the Thomas bike only went up to size 12.  So, for $59, I made my son happy.  I can always get a new bike next year.

Here is a video of CJ on his new bike!

There's No One Quite Like Emily

CJ loves to sing.  The Emily song is his current favorite; he sings it a lot.  I think he learned it from YouTube, of all places!

Hooray for Potty Training

CJ is now fully potty trained.  Actually, he was mostly potty trained last November when we went to Japan, and we put him full-time in underwear this past February.

Wow, no more buying diapers or pull-ups, although I do always bring a change of clothes, just in case we have an accident.  Gosh, anything can happen.  Last weekend, CJ got carsick in the car and then splashed a bunch of soy sauce on the replacement shirt.

He has become very good at telling me when he has to go potty and holding it if the bathroom is not nearby.  I do still have to always remind him to use the potty before we go anywhere, when we get home, before going to bed.

CJ can now feed himself, use the computer, go potty, and even dress himself.  Life has changed!

CJ on his Bike

CJ just loves riding the bike that Jessie gave him.  It's getting too small for him and he is ready for a big boy bike and helmet.  Here is a video of CJ riding around on our street on a beautiful July evening.