Baptism Video

Katherine and Caroline were baptized this weekend. Here is a video of the moment, thanks to my friend Laurel. You can hear both girls crying, "No, no, no!" as we bend them over the basin:


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UCLA in the Final Four

Another break from the Lim girls for some photos from San Jose, California, where the UCLA Bruins Men's basketball team completed a 68-55 win over the Kansas Jayhawks in the NCAA Western Regional Finals, to advance to the Final Four in Atlanta -- their second Final Four in two years.

GO BRUINS!

The Bruins take the floor in San Jose

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The Final Score: UCLA 68, Kansas 55.

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Awards ceremony after the game.

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My nephew Jonathan after the game.

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Let's Get Ready to Rumble!!!

A huge developmental step in the life of the Lim Twins this evening. Disturbing, yet huge.

The girls have been pushing each other, and fighing over toys and attention for quite a while now. But up until tonight, the pushing and fighting has been one-sided -- one twin pushing the other, and the other coming to Mommy and Daddy crying about the injustices in life.

Tonight, however, the girls went TOE-TO-TOE in a pushing contest royale. Right in front of me, to boot.

It started innocently enough. Caroline had a toy. Katherine wanted it.

Katherine tried to take it by pushing Caroline.

Up until tonight, the usual response would have been Caroline crying towards me, pleading for intervention.

Not tonight.

When Katherine pushed Caroline, Caroline took a step back but she didn't fall.

She looked Katherine in the eye.

Then she pushed Katherine back.

Katherine didn't fall. She looked Caroline back in the eye, and pushed Caroline even harder.

The girls then locked arms and began to tug and grunt at each other, simulteouly trying to push each other over and grab at the toy.

I sat there, jaw on the ground, less then a foot from each, watching my two angels struggle for possession of the toy.

It was their first fight (that I've witnessed), and I was fascinated, horrified, and amused by it.

All I could think of was that ring announcer at boxing matches, Michael Buffer, and his famous phrase:

"Let's get ready to rummmbbblllllllllllllle!"

Where's Michael Buffer when you need him?

Breaking up the fight was almost as funny as watching the girls get into the fight.

As I do for all resolutions of conflict between the girls, I made them hug each other.

It was the coldest, non-genuine hug I think two 20-month old girls could give to one another. They hugged each other at arm's length, and refused to make eye-contact.

Luckily, any worries I had about hard feelings ended five minutes later when I saw them were pushing each other around on their cars laughing as if they'd been best friends all night.

Let's Get Ready to Rumble!

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A "Time Out" in the Life of Katherine & Caoline . . .

I took a "time out" from being the father of Katherine and Caroline today and went to Sacramento to watch UCLA play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. UCLA happily handled Weber State, 72-40.

I learned that as big a fan of college basketball that I am, FOUR games in one day makes for a LONG day.

Here are some photos from the event:

Fellow Bruin Allison and me outside Arco Arena, Sacramento.

Getting ready to watch FOUR basketball games in one day.

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Allison carrying/wearing the Bruin banner.
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UCLA takes the floor!

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Just like Orel Hershiser

Katherine has started stepping into her throw. She even steps with the proper foot. I don't know how she learned it, but she does it.

It may not seem like a big deal, but for a father who grew up with dreams of pitching for the L.A. Dodgers, it's a big deal.

When Katherine throws, she looks just like Orel Hershiser:

What they're doing this week.

I have to remember to keep tabs of all the new things the girls are learning each week. There are now so many of them, it's hard to keep up.

Some of the milestones the girls have recently hit:

• Numerous words. Coming in bunches now. The big ones this week are "boop" (stands for "poop" -- as in when they've taken a #2), "idoptofo" (stands for "identify yourself" -- a game we play while looking out our back window into the backyard), "hello" (not really new, but now used to greet everyone and everything -- including the moon, the flowers, a bird, etc.)
• Shaking hands. The girls love to shake hands. Katherine will shake your hand a dozen tims on her way to her bath, and say, "bye-bye". It takes her five minutes to work her way into the bathroom. If you've been reading the blog, this is nothing new, but the hand shaking adds a twist.
• Tea time. The girls received a tea set, and now we have good old fashioned tea parties in their room. We didn't teach them how to do it -- they just do it!
• Going down the big slide at the park.
• Pretending to be a cat. The girls have a book that asks them if they can arch their back like a cat. We spend part of each night pretending to be cats. Of course, the arching the back thing is nothing new if you've followed this blog since the beginning.
• Arts and crafts. The girls now color in their coloring books (not inside the lines yet -- we're still working on that), and even made some hats for themselves, as seen below:

Caroline's self-made headgear.

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Katherine's self-made headgear.

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One other thing I just noticed that's worth mentioning. See the photo of Katherine? Notice who's bottom half is in the background?

Yeah, that's me, having just come home from work.

See what I'm carrying? It's a plastic bag. Not even a nice plastic bag. It's one of those bags that you get in the produce section of the grocery store.

I've got my lunch in that bag. I carry my lunch to work every day in a different plastic bag.

You know why?

Because the girls love my lunch bags. They will find them, take them, and hide them. So every morning I can't find my lunch bags, and end up carrying my lunch to work in a plastic grocery-store produce bag.

Yet another thing they don't mention in the parenting books.

A Snotful of Parenthood

Parenthood in a nutshell this morning:

Your child (Caroline in this case) will save her most green, sticky snot for a time when you have absolutely no kleenex, napkins, or newspaper in your car.

Then, your child (i.e., Caroline) will wait until you are halfway across a bridge, so that you will have no place to pull over, stop, or slow down.

Then, and only then, will she (the aforementioned Caroline) sneeze.

She (have I mentioned this is Caroline?) will then proceed to wipe a huge booger on the back of her hand.

She (Caroline!) will then cry loudly until you reach back your hand and take the booger off of her hand and onto your hand.

You will then proceed to drive across the remainder of the bridge with one hand, while holding a handful of snot in the other.

Your girls (Caroline & Katherine) will meanwhile begin happily singing in the back seat of the car.

That is when you, as a parent, don't mind the snot in your hand so much.