wanted: halloween candy passer

was it just me or is the spirit of trick-or- treating gone? we went trick-or-treating for a little bit in my sister's neighborhood of west irvine tonight and i would say more than 50% of the houses that we went to had a bowl of candy out. no knocking on the door, no greeting, and no "trick or treat." having a bowl of candy out definitely takes away the fun of trick-or-treating from the kids.

i have to admit, i am guilty of leaving a bowl of candy out for the past several years because we always go to my sister's neighborhood to trick-or-treat. i am sure the houses that we visited had similiar reasons. starting next year i am going to make an effort to stay home and greet trick-or-treaters or hire someone to do it! i think it's a lot of fun seeing all the kids in their costumes, including adults!

here's a picture of aaron as batman (so were his 2 cousins)!

kyle's last minute puppy costume. too cute!

sleep battles

after spending a week in hawaii, i can see some changes in the boys' sleep. aaron, of course, is sleeping later. he doesn't fall asleep until 11ish and the teacher's aide at school told me it's been difficult waking him up after nap time is over. however, he is still ok sleeping in his own bed.

kyle, on the other hand, was a big challenge the other night. when we were in hawaii, i would rock him to sleep before putting him in his crib. he would go to sleep late and would wake up the same time he normally would at home so that's like 3 am - 4 am in hawaii! since i wanted to sleep more i would rock kyle back to sleep and let him sleep with me. unfortunately, kyle got spoiled by that. the other night he woke up at 1 am crying and wanted to be held. i picked him up and was ready to rock him back to sleep. then i thought, no, i shouldn't enforce this habit. so i put him down in his crib and that was when the battle began! he cried for 45 minutes while i sat in his room trying to comfort him without picking him up. he finally stopped crying after he threw his blanket to the floor. i gave back his blanket and he started examining his crib. then he sat down, hugged his blanket, rocked a bit, and his head started to wobble. i thought to myself, "good, he's tired. another half an hour and he should be asleep." well, an hour past and he wasn't sitting anymore. he finally laid his head down, BUT he wasn't asleep. his eyes would close then open, close then open. i think he was checking to make sure i was still there. it was now around 4 am so i moved closer to his bedroom door and he started crying again. so i thought, maybe i should convince him to sleep by talking to him. i asked him where is his bed. he points down to his crib. i asked him where he sleeps. again, he points down to his crib. then i asked, "where does mommy sleep?" he points to the chair i was sitting in. =(

i finally threw in the towel at 5 am because i only had one hour of sleep. gary took over and rocked kyle to sleep!!!! so much for my effort....

HOWEVER, kyle slept through the night last night! from 7:30 pm to 7 am! aaron even woke him up last night around 9ish, but he went back to sleep by himself. so maybe he did learned something from the other night! hehe we will see how he does the next several nights.

aaron's first dentist visit

i finally took aaron to the dentist yesterday. i was getting my teeth cleaned by pish so i decided to take aaron too. aaron did exceptionally well. he let dr. pish count and clean his teeth. then when it was my turn, he waited patiently. he even came to me and stroke my hair and held my hands. he was sooo sweet! he made mommy very proud!

aaron started wheezing today though... =( hope it's not asthma.

fireman aaron and kyle's fiery taste buds

coincidentally this weekend was about fire - that is, fire in a good way. the firemen training facility on jamboree/tustin ranch had an open house this weekend so g took aaron. he had a blast. he got to see all sorts of fire engines and he even saw them put out fire. best part was that he got to hold the fire hose!

the other "fire" event is the discovery of kyle's fiery taste buds. i gave him a little bit of spicy noodles a couple weeks ago and it didn't seem to affect him. i thought maybe the noodle didn't soak up enough of the spicy broth so i didn't think anything of it. then today, we had fried rice and i put in those spicy white peppers. kyle wanted some of my fried rice, so i gave him some of mine. again, he didn't react! he just wanted more! i'm loving this kid more and more cause he has the same taste as his mommy! he likes durian, coconut, longan... but then again, what doesn't he like?! here's a funny pix of kyle eating a popette (small powder donut).

card time

i finally found some time to make some cards. my new customer, joel, requested several cards. here are birthday cards for the many ladies in his life (haha):

here's one for his many god children:

i think i need to stop making new cards and start mass producing the existing cards, christmas cards and not to mention, sherri's announcements and my own christmas cards. busy days ahead of me. i can't believe it's OCTOBER already!!