Mommy and Aidan day

Daddy worked from home today because I had to take you to your new school in the morning for your j/k observation and then to get your allergy test redone in the afternoon. 

Your j/k observation involved us going into your new junior kindergarten class and observing the senior kindergarten students. It was only a 20 minute session, but it was great as you got to meet your new teacher- Ms Stamkos and see some of the older kids play. You and 4 other kids were observing and it was so funny because you guys all looked deathly scared coming into this new surrounding. One kid, Cole, looked shell-shocked the whole time we were there. We sat in different stations and one kid, TJ, was talking to you the whole time. He was talking about his birthday that was in October and he even invited you to come and have a cupcake. It was so cute! Ms Stamkos came around and saw you stamping your name on a piece of paper. She got TJ and another s/k student- Maya to take you around the class and show you the different stations. They were holding your hand and taking you around. I think you really liked it there. 

Afterwards we went to Shoppers Drug Mart so that I could mail out your Vancouver grandpa's Father's Day gift. You tend to love doing errands with me or daddy.

We went back home to eat lunch and then headed out to get your allergy test redone. I needed to know that you were still allergic to peanuts before you started j/k in September. Unfortunately you still are allergic :-(

Even though it was a long day I decided to take you grocery shopping at No Frills as there were no groceries in the house. You really enjoyed helping mommy pick out all the produce and place it in the bags. I thought that since you didn't nap you would be all cranky, but you were so good.

By the time we got home it was close to 4:30pm. We had dinner and then mommy took you to the part to get you tired out. It turned out to be a beautiful day so the park was busy with lots of kids and parents. While we were playing at the park you kept saying to me, "Mommy, I love you!" It really melted my heart. I know pretty soon I'll be going back to work so I'm trying to cherish these days as much as possible. I'm so sad that I won't spend as much time with you when I go back :'-(

Candyland fiasco

What a tough tough day…

What started off as a promising day turned out into a disaster.

My friend YJ and I decided that we would take our kids to Candyland- an indoor playground that she's been raving about. It was perfect since it was supposed to rain all day. We also decided to invite our other friend, Jenn and her 3 kids. 

We went at 10:30am and right away, I was loving the set-up and how kid-friendly it was. It was also so CLEAN. I thought you would be excited right away because there were so many things to see and to play with, but you were so shy and clung to me. Asher and Austin were running around trying to play with everything, but you were looking so disinterested. I tried to warm you up by introducing you to all the fun things that they had. Eventually you started opening up and getting excited. Then you found the arcade games… There was one video game in particular that you were really attached to- a shooting game. It's weird, but you seem to love shooting games. Even at Canada's Wonderland your favourite ride is Boo Blaster- a ride where you shoot ghosts and haunted things with a gun. I thought you would get tired of playing the shooting game after a while, but once you get in your zone it's hard to get you do anything else. I asked you several times that your friends were playing in the basketball/soccer zone and that you should join them, but you yelled at me that you weren't interested. I was not impressed. I had to go back to the sitting area because I had to feed Kendall. I was hoping you would tire of the game and move onto something else. 

While I was feeding Kendall, YJ told me that it wasn't good that you were only playing that one shooting game. She's also anti-gun. I agreed with her and she told me she would try to get you to play something else (even if it meant she had to be firm with you). Next thing I know, I hear you screaming and crying. I think YJ tried to get you to do something else and you lost it on her. She tried to remove you from the video game and you were screaming/crying while trying to slap her at the same time. You kept crying out, "She a BAD girl!" I was shocked. I know how bad your tantrums are, but this was BAD. I made YJ switch with me while I took you off to a corner to discipline you. You were trying to run back to the video game so I just grabbed you and took you to the sitting area. You were so mad that you screamed out loud in frustration. You actually made several moms (my friend, Jenn included) jump. I was mortified, but I eventually calmed you down. I'm always very firm with you when I talk to you, but I try to eventually sway my tone to a nicer tone because I notice that if I yell at you you yell at me back. Once I start talking to you in a nicer way you come around. 

I thought that was going to be the end of the tantrum fiasco, but it was not meant to be. You had another blowout near the end of the day. You were playing in a play house and an older girl tried to get in and I think you didn't want her coming into the house. I was sitting in the sitting area and all I saw was you hitting the older girl while crying hysterically. The girl wasn't doing anything. She wasn't even hitting you back. I think she was more shocked than anything at your crazy outbursts. I ran over and asked the girl if she was just trying to get in the house and she nodded yes. You were just screaming/crying saying, "She a bad girl!" That's when I lost it. I took you to a corner and started yelling at you. I was so angry that you were trying to blame everyone for your bad behaviour. I think you cried for a good 20 minutes. I think all the parents there were thinking how bad you were. Some of them even gave me a sympathetic look. It was so stressful that I cried in front of YJ. She was trying to tell me that it was ok. She said all I could do was to pray extra hard for you. She also went through (and still is going through) a hard time with her son Asher. I was so appreciative that she didn't judge me because I know how some parents judge the parents if the kid is acting up. I think you felt bad when I started crying because you calmed down a lot. 

Let's just say I didn't stay much longer after that. By the time we got home I was so exhausted from all the yelling. I told daddy all about what happened and he was quite shocked. Well, I thought that was the end of that, but again, you did something bad. You called Kendall S-T-U-P-I-D when daddy was changing her diaper. I don't even know where you learned that word, but you are starting to curse now. Daddy was so angry that you said that word to her so he started yelling at you. You had another tantrum bout. Daddy was so angry that he decided to put you to bed- at 6:30pm. You fell asleep crying. I seriously don't know what to do with you. I'm so sad because you are so bad when you are bad. Is it something we are doing that is causing you to not listen to us? Are we bad parents???

Candyland. The owner is actually Korean and goes to our church.

You were so happy when we first entered, but it was all downhill from there…

Kendall- she was soooooo good.

The sitting area where the moms hung out.

The Choi boys were going wild trying to play with everything.

Anti-social Aidan at the beginning :-/

Kendall was happy riding all the cars that they had.

They had tons and tons of stuff to play with.

You playing.

Kendall in her princess car.

I took this video below of you in the morning when you were in a better mood.

Too tired to function

Saturday is always a tiring day for the whole family. You go to Korean school from 10am to 2:30pm (with no nap time) which means we have to drop you off and kill time until we pick you up. Your Korean school is pretty far from our house so sometimes it makes no sense to go home after we drop you off.

Today, we decided to do a little shopping after we dropped you off (you needed new shoes and we also had to buy Father's Day gifts for your grandfathers). After shopping we took your Toronto grandparents out for lunch since daddy didn't see them in a long time.

By the time we picked you up at 2:30pm we were all so tired. Kendall crashed right away on the way home and you were so close to passing out, but I forced you to stay awake so that you could nap at home. I find that when you do a power nap in the car you never nap at home. Kendall must have been so tired because she fell asleep before her thumb could make it into her mouth. She usually sleeps sucking her left thumb. Haha.

Kendall in her birthday suit…

…I meant in your hanbok, not your actual 'birthday suit'.

I was trying on your beautiful hanbok (Korean traditional dress) that your Toronto grandparents bought for you while they were in Korea this past Winter. I wanted to make sure it fit you for your upcoming birthday in July. I was trying to get you to stay still so I could take some snapshots, but it wasn't meant to be. You were throwing your head garb down and trying to eat your hanbok. Sigh.

You look so cute in your head gear, but you kept taking it off. I have a feeling you won't be
happy when we put you in it on your birthday party.

I managed to put on the top half of the hanbok, but I couldn't get any good photos of you.

This is the best I could do.

Covered in bandaids

Currently you are covered in bandaids. I guess it has to do with the fact that you are a boy and boys play pretty rough. Every time you come home you have a scrape somewhere on your body. I hate it because you already have so many scars from before. You have scars on both sides of your face by your eyes where some kid from daycare bit you. I don't want any more scars to be on your body.

You love having bandaids on because they have different graphics on them. These happen
to be Transformers ones.

More on your legs. I have some Toy Story bandaids on here. 

Like my new bathing suit?

Last Sunday after church we went to an outlet in Mississauga, near the house of one of our small group members. We bought you and Aidan a few summer outfits as well as bathing suits. I thought I would take some pictures of you wearing it today while daddy was out playing soccer. I'm also loving this sun hat I got you a month ago. Every time you wear it you get so many compliments from total strangers how cute you are.

The bathing suit is from H&M. I'm really loving the baby clothes at H&M. 

Total model pose!

…except a model can't have rolls as much as you have!

I'm so in love with you.

Aidan was trying to get in the photo by wearing your sunhat.
He's not jealous of you, but sometimes I feel like he wants my attention. Every time I say to you,
"Kendall-shi, you're so cute!" He always says to me, "What about Aidan-shi?"

You're mommy's little princess.

Your skin is so fair.

Aidan was trying to put your hat back on your head, but he was struggling. Look how much
taller he is compared to you. My baby boy is so big!

Still struggling to get it on your head…

Sneak peek of what's to come

The renovations were supposed to finish yesterday, but the contractor wasn't able to finish as there was so much work to be done. I dropped by after church to see the progress and to help my mom style the shelves. We bought a ton of stuff for the store yesterday.

I took you with me so that daddy wouldn't have 2 monsters (you and Kendall) with him. You were pretty excited to come with me to their store. Although the workers were still working away you were sitting quietly on your own while you watched mommy decorate.

The floors are completely new. Aren't they pretty?
The walls are also now a neutral gray. A 1000% better than what it was before.
We bought Ikea shelves and had the contractors put it up on this wall. I was in the midst of
styling the shelves, but I was having difficulty with the shelf on the right. It needed something
else so I ended up going to Target with you to pick out a few more stuff.
The clock is also new. We bought that at Target. Much better than the clock that was there before.

I'm happy with how this turned out. All the accessories on the top shelf is from Chapters Indigo
and the bottom shelf has the plants and planters from Ikea and the candles from Target.

Here's another view.

This shelf is still a working progress. I put a frame that I worked on on Friday with my handmade
paper medallions because I thought a frame would work nicely here. I bought a frame at Target
to use in this space. The frame you see here with the medallions is actually supposed to go on the
opposite wall with 3 other frames.

And here's the frames I worked on for the feature wall. I wasn't able to take a picture of it
hung because the contractor was having a hard time putting it up. I was getting so annoyed
because I can do it in 10 minutes!

And here's a close-up. I stayed up until 1:30am working on it on Friday. I think it turned out
nicely. I made an extra one to hang in my basement washroom.
These medallions are actually decorations I'm going to have for Kendall's 1-year birthday party.