MJ Loves Electronic Devices

I guess it's inevitable that MJ loves electronic devices. Just loves them! He likes to play with remote controls, phones,  and iPads.

We try to trick him with toy versions or non-working versions but somehow, he can sense that a particular is not as interesting as the real thing and he figures out what's real and therefore valuable.

We got him toy remotes, iPod and phone. He's entertained for a few minutes and then he tosses it aside.

Maki's dad gave MJ a real, Japanese cell phone that beeps, takes pictures and clicks when you press numbers, but it's not activated so MJ can't make real calls. He's not fooled, he was interested for about 5 minutes and then asked for my phone. Hilarious.

Earlier this week, he shocked me by turning on the iPad, unlockign the slider, navigation to Netflix (he recognizes the red logo) and then navigating to Blue's Clues (it's always in the Recently Viewed grouping). The entire time he's doing this, he's saying, "blue, blue." C'mon, the kid is 22 months old and he's already figure out how to watch his favorite show on the iPad!

CJ's Tae Kwon Do Party for His 8th Birthday

For his 8th birthday, CJ asked for a tae kwon do party. He just recently started taking tae kwon do classes so we asked the owner if he did parties and he said yes. OMG, this had to be the best party ever!

The kids laughed and screamed the entire time as they kicked, tumbled and jumped through the warm ups, exercises and activities. Master Yun was amazing with the kids. He was super fun but he was also pretty strict with them, reminding them that martial artists are kind to each other, respectful and well behaved. I got super fun photos and videos of the kids. Even the girls had a great time, as I predicted.

Amazingly enough, Harris Teeter had a martial arts cake!

MJ enjoyed watching from the sidelines for most of the party, until it got too noisy!

The kids started the party with stretches and warm-ups.

There was a lot of kicking at this party.

CJ with his buddies during a water break.

Look at the height of this jump! The kids were in awe.

The kids jumped on a trampoline and then did tumbling. Super fun!

Maki demonstrated to the kids how to break a board.

Each of the kids was successful at breaking a board!

Every birthday party has to have a cake!

 Isn't this a great photo of CJ with his teacher?

Adventures in Eating - My Boys are Foodies

Thank goodness MJ is turning into a good eater, just like his brother. In fact, I think MJ may be an even better eater than CJ. MJ is certainly more adventurous when it comes to food and he likes all kinds of vegetables.

MJ eats everything, just everything. When we go out to a restaurant, I don't bother to bring him any food from home. I just figure he'll eat what we're eating. For Maki's birthday, we went to a BBQ restaurant and MJ happily ate pulled pork, ribs, and collard greens. Tonight, he ate broiled salmon with pine nut couscous. He likes to gnaw on celery and carrots. He absolutely adores fruit of all kinds. Nearly every evening, he'll have half a pear, a bunch of grapefruit slices, a kiwi, a nectarine, or most of an apple.

CJ is still not a great vegetable eater, although he loves broccoli and cauliflower, and he'll eat spinach if it's in lasagna or stuffed shells. He'll eat carrots if they're soft. Otherwise, he's an amazing eater. He eats chicken, beef, fish and shellfish. He loves, loves, loves sushi and all kinds of fish.

MJ loves fruit. He eats fruit with nearly every meal and he likes to feed himself.

MJ loves yogurt. In this photo, he turned into a yogurt face after eating some greek yogurt and doing a great job at feeding himself!

Can't remember what he's eating, but here again is a photo of MJ on his own. Note that he's not in his high chair, which he mostly refuses to sit in these days. He likes to sit at the kitchen island with the rest of the family.

Here's MJ trying to feed himself some Singapore noodles. He managed to twirl some noodles and put them in his mouth, but it proved too challenging, so he resorted to using his hands to grab big handfuls of noodles and stuffing them in his mouth. Singapore noodles ultimately prove too spicy for him.

Celebrate Fairfax Was a Lot of Fun

I love county fairs so when my sister asked me if the boys and I wanted to join her and her daughter Jessie at Celebrate Fairfax, I jumped at the chance.

Celebrate Fairfax is a giant, giant county fair. There' something for everyone and it's super fun. Knowing the government parking structure nearby would fill up fast, CJ, MJ and I left the house as early as we could, which was 10:00am. We got there close to 11:00am but we still got parking. Phew!

Celebrate Fairfax has kiddie games and rides, adult games and rides, crafts, jewelry, petting zoo, live performances, and all kinds of fair food. We stayed in the kid alley, which has kid-friendly rides and food.

CJ and Jessie rode the train, the roller coaster, etc. Since Dina doesn't do spinny rides, I rode an octopus with Jessie.

Unfortunately, Jessie got sick right after lunch. She got really dizzy and threw up and couldn't recover, so Dina and Jessie went home. I hung out with the boys for a little bit longer and CJ went to a disco ride, we watched kids ride a mechanical bull, etc.

The highlight for CJ was winning a goldfish at a ring toss game. For $3, he got to toss ping pong balls into cups. One of the ping pong balls went in, so he got a 0.50 goldfish, which then cost us $84 because Maki and CJ went to Petsmart to get a tank, food, plastic plant, plastic rock, water conditioner, yada, yada.

CJ decided to be funny and sit in MJ's stroller, so MJ decided to try and push him.

I love this cute photo of the boys sharing a slushie!

MJ is Signing!

As with CJ, Maki, yaya and I started signing to MJ pretty early. Starting when MJ was about six months old, we were signing milk, change, more, mommy, daddy, grandma, grandpa, dog, bird, eat, drink.

In late January, I started letting MJ watch the two baby signing videos that we own: First Signs by Baby Einstein and My Baby Can Talk. I didn't do it earlier because we're trying to avoid getting MJ hooked on TV. In this case, I figured a little TV would be fine and it was for a good cause.

The videos really helped because by February, MJ started signing! He started signing around the time he started walking, which I don't think is a coincidence. I think a bunch of things just clicked for him: walking, signing, a few recognizable sounds.

What I realized this time around with MJ is that his signs are incredibly imprecise. With the exception of milk and more, I have to use my imagination to recognize some of his signs, but it's clear he's signing because he's consistent about making the same sign for the same thing. For example, the sign for water is the three middle fingers tapping the chin. MJ takes his index finger and taps the side of his mouth. My guess is that CJ was signing a whole lot more than we gave him credit for but we didn't know it because his hand and finger movements were imprecise.

These days, MJ is signing:

• Milk
• More
• Mommy
• Daddy
• Cat
• Water
• Eat
• Walk
• Dog
• Up
• Change
• All done
• Please 
• Thank you

It's so amazingly useful for MJ to be signing. When he wants more of something, he signs more and we give him more.

He signs please appropriately, as in, he signs please when he wants to play with CJ's Nintendo DS and CJ does not want to let him touch it.

When I remind him to say thank you, he signs thank you by putting his palm to his mouth.

When he's done eating, he signs all done and beckons me to pick him up by raising his arms way up.

Whenever he sees a dog outside, in a book or on TV, he signs dog and tries to say dog (do).

Imagine that, he's actually communicating with us even though he can't really talk yet. It's clear he understand what we are saying to him and signing is a way for him to "talk" back to us.

I Hope I'm Raising Readers

I love to read. Maki loves to read. My brother Alex is a voracious reader. My whole family loves to read.

Which is why I'm hoping that my boys will be avid readers. To me, there's nothing like lounging on the couch and immersing myself in a great story. I remember spending an entire weekend on the couch (pre-babies, of course!) reading Harry Potter books!

Reading is an important activity in our house. We have bookshelves and books in nearly every room of the house, we read at any time of day, and we always, always read before going to bed at night. I will often read MJ 2 or 3 of his books, then CJ and I will read a chapter or two from one of his books. Currently, CJ and I are reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I figure he'll be in high school by the time we get to book 7 at the rate we're going, but we're both enjoying reading the story out loud to one another.

Here are some great photos of the boys on CJ's bed one evening. I didn't pose them; they just picked up books on their own and lifted their legs up naturally. Hilarious and adorable!

More Funny CJ Sayings

Whenever possible, CJ and I say our prayers at night before bedtime. I often ask him what he is grateful for  because I read that people who are grateful are happier. So I asked CJ recently what he is grateful for and he said:

*  Nice parents
*  A nice house
*  Nice friends
*  Great school
*  A baby brother who is usually nice but sometimes he's annoying

Ah, the perspective of a big brother....