today's to-do list

1. trip to Costco for milk and allergy meds (vacuum?)
2. do something fun with the kids today- chuck e cheese's? lazercity? sky high? pizza parlor/donuts/ice cream?
3. pack for our trip to Santa Cruz tomorrow
4. buy tickets to Alcatraz
5. buy a new vacuum
6. call Canon to have my dSLR repaired
7. give Langston a haircut
8. trip to Target for Easter stuff
9. run 5 miles
10. pay bills
11. take Langston to piano at 3:30
12. take Langston and Elise to swimming

fur elise

I've always wished I could sing or play an instrument. Sadly, I do not have a musical bone in my body. As a kid, I took piano and violin lessons but it was such a struggle. It just didn't come naturally to me. In high school, one of my best friends said I was tone-deaf after hearing me sing. But, my son seems to be showing some aptitude for music. About 6 or 7 months ago, I put him in piano lessons. He did not want to play piano, he wanted to play the guitar.

He wasn't having fun at first. But, Fur Elise changed all that. Langston has loved this song since he heard it on our electronic keyboard a while back. He would play it over and over again. Then after we got our piano a couple months ago, he would ask Daddy to play it for him. He loves watching and listening to Giao play.

About a month or 2 ago, Giao taught Langston how to play the first part of Fur Elise. I've had to listen to Langston play this song about 10 times a day since then. All through the day, when the mood strikes him, he'll sit and play this song. But, who are we kidding, I love it.

I honestly think that his desire to learn the rest of Fur Elise, is keeping him in piano lessons. He knows he has to get better and progress in order to play the entire song like his Dad.

"Puh" and poop

Per Kiefer's request, we went to eat Pho in South Sac with Ong Noi and Ba Noi on Saturday.

This is how the conversation went.

Me: "Kids, what do you guys want to eat for lunch?"

Langston: "Let's go out to eat!" (This kid LOVES to eat out)

Kiefer: "I want Puh."

Daddy: "What are you? Korean?"

Kiefer: "Huh? What you talking about Daddy." (okay, he didn't really say this)

Daddy:"You're supposed to say yes."

Daddy and Me: LOL!

I guess you had to be there or 1. be Korean or 2. be married to a Korean.

Pho is seriously one of five things Kiefer will eat. He is that picky and he just doesn't have much interest in food. So opposite of his mommy, who is always thinking about what her next meal is going to be. :)
While we were eating he started talking to Grandma and Grandpa about one of his favorite subjects. You guessed it! Dinosaurs! "T-Rex has a bad attitude. He eats people!" Ha!

On Sunday, we were at Ong Ba Noi's house when we were treated to this lovely commentary by our little rascal:

"Haha. Poo wut like hot dog! Haha. Hot dog. Tiny poop. Tiny, tiny poop. A pile! Wut! It's going in the hole!"

Sorry if this grosses you out but Grandma and I were thoroughly entertained from the kitchen.

goofball

Last night was Open House at the kids' school. Langston's teacher took a pic of each kid posing with her stuffed pig doll and put them up on display. I think some of the kids thought they were too cool to take a pic with a stuffed pig and took one without it.

Here's Langston, with his fist in the air, happily posing for the camera.

Of the 31 kids in the class, there was only one kid that didn't just stand there and hold the pig. And, of course, it had to be my goofball!

monopoly

I was introduced to the wonderful game of Monopoly by a neighbor of ours when I was probably 7 or 8 years old and now I'm playing with my kids. We've played many times before, with me helping Elise a lot, but now she can read the cards and even count out her money.

Langston, Elise, and I had a good game going from the previous day. Elise had the most properties and houses on her monopoly but very little cash. Langston had a good amount of cash and owned a few properties. After resuming our game yesterday, we discovered that Elise "magically" had a big-ass stack of $500 bills in her pile that wasn't there when we stopped the other day. Langston and I just looked at each other and started cracking up. Elise sat there and tried her best not to look guilty.

We decided to start a new game. But, I had a toothache and a migraine and was in no mood to play. So, I told Langston to go do his homework. Twenty minutes later I hear "Mom, I'm done with my homework! We can play now!" To which I replied "I never said we were going to play Monopoly." I honestly don't remember telling him that I would play with him after he was done with his homework. I think I was secretly hoping he would forget about it. I told him "no" and that I had a headache. He was so disappointed. Then, I remembered back to when I was kid and how I would want to play Monopoly so bad that I would beg and plead with my sister to play with me. And, she would say no. And, I would be crushed. I knew Langston was feeling the same way. So, we set up the game and started over :)

finally

On Wednesday, Kiefer played at the Kindergarten playground at our elementary school.Whenever we drop or pick up his brother and sister from school, he asks if he can play at "Lee-see (Elise) school park."
And, I always tell him "no."
But, on that day, when we went to pick Elise up from her Daisy Scout meeting, he finally got his chance.

i've created a monster

This little boy is way into dinosaurs. You could say he lives and breathes dinosaurs. He takes them to the park and feeds them sand,

he lovingly adorns them with his half-eaten bagels,

and he loves to watch dinosaur videos on youtube. For a long time, Kiefer's favorite videos were the ones with death metal music edited to them. Lately, his favorites are the ones parents have posted of their kids playing with their favorite dinosaur toys. This is how he discovered his love for Spike the Dinosaur. He's seen Spike at Target on many occasions, but it wasn't until he started watching these youtube videos, that he realized he just had to have one. The old me would not have a problem shelling out $120 for a toy but times are tough. So, I looked on ebay and saw that Spike was going for about $80-90. Still too much. One day, after dropping Langston and Elise off at swimming, I took Kiefer to Walmart. I went straight to the garden center where they were keeping all the clearanced toys from Christmas. No luck there. We went to the toy department just to look and lo and behold, there was one green Spike the Dinosaur on the shelf, clearanced at $35.00!

I really think fate brought these two together.

It doesn't end there though. Thanks to youtube, Kiefer discovered that there was a whole collection of Imaginext dinosaur toys out there that we have never seen in the stores. He kept asking me to buy him "Spinosaurus" and showed me the video. Turns out, these dinosaur toys are no longer made and no longer sold in stores. But, thanks to Ebay, I have a very happy boy.

Everyday Kiefer opens the front door to check if another "packages" has been delivered by the mailman and every morning he asks me to "check ebay." My God, what have I done?

a fresh start

So, this is my first post since I accidentally deleted my blog last year. At least I have some printouts of my earlier entries so it wasn't entirely lost. But, it still hurts. Ah well, gotta move on.

Lots of things going on in the Vu household these days and I've documented none of it. Well, only through pics. I started a journal of memories when Langston was born and kept at it for a good while but I stopped sometime last year. I haven't blogged since last year and I haven't scrapbooked since who knows when. All those memories...gone. So, here I am...

Last month, hubby and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on a cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. It's been 10 years since we drove to the Santa Ana courthouse on a whim and got hitched.

(relaxing in St. Thomas)

A couple of weeks ago, my baby boy turned 9! I have a 9-year old son. We celebrated at home with a video game lan party. We had 3 xboxes connected and Langston and his friends played Halo all night long. He was in heaven.

A week later, I turned 33. I can accept the fact that I've been married for 10 years and that I have a 9-year old son but I cannot, for the life of me, wrap my head around the fact that I am actually 33 years old. When did this happen?

I'm determined to keep up with the blogging since it's probably the only way I'm going to get some memories recorded. Until next time!