Watch out Red Lobster!

This past summer we took a short and sweet trip up to Tahoe to close out our summer.  We met Nginngin and Yehyeh and Auntie Suzie and Uncle Bentley Au up there as well.  Although it was a bit smoky because of the fires, we managed to get out to the beach for one day and Harrison caught a cray fish/crawdad/mini lobster in the crayfish trap with our left over fried chicken bones.  The cray fish was a tiny dude but Harrison asked to bring it home and eat it.  After Yehyeh\"s extravagant steaks for dinner, he boiled Harrison\"s one-clawed cray fish, topped it with some garlic butter, and even plated it with a little flair! I peeled it for Harrison and he got to eat all of the one-bite of meat that tiny tail held.  Harrison gave it a 10/10 and seemed pretty happy.  Red Lobster could never compete with us!!

2021 Update - Reviving this blog!

Caroline here!  I have decided to try to revive this blog.  Katherine and I just started our Junior year at Hillsdale High but I know we only have about 2 years left before we leave for college so I want to save some memories.  That said, I don\"t know if I\"ll be able to match Dad\"s wit and humorous posts from when we were young.  Wish me luck ;)  Here's a picture from a recent-ish trip to the zoo with the whole family and a simply irresistible photo-op with the gorilla.

"Fight Bad Guy!" and Fashion 101

Harrison is not the first 3 year-old to discover the joy of playing "Good Guy v. Bad Guy".  The majority of his time is spent playing "Good Guy, Bad Guy" and running around with pretend swords and guns, while throwing various kung-fu moves and making attacking noises.

But over the past two weeks, he's taken his fight versus the good and evil into the fashion world.  Harrison will now only wear selected shirts that, as he describes them, "fights bad guys."

That means his Mickey Mouse shirts are out.  (Who knew?  I thought Mickey would fight bad guys.)

Plain color shirts?  Forget it.

In fact, there are currently only three shirts in his drawer that "fight bad buys."  They are:  A Los Angeles Kings t-shirt with a cartoon hockey player on it, a power rangers shirt ( a hand-me down from the thrift shop), and this one:

As you can see, Harrison takes his bad guy fighting seriously, and he looks great doing it!

Click on any photo for a larger view.

Little People

Harrison loves to play with Little People.  What kid doesn't?  

He inherited quite an impressive set from his sisters, but he really likes to play with one figure in particular, who he calls his "Wheew, Wheew!"  That's his sound of a fire engine, and of course, his favorite figure is the firefighter: 

Of course, you can't have a hero without a villian.  And of the dozens of Little People figures that he has in the collection, this is who Harrison chose to be the "Bad Guy":  

I mean, it makes sense, right?  Clowns are scary!   

Happy?

Harrison continues to learn works at an incredible clip.  One of his favorite words right now is "happy."

Watching a TV show with us, he will announce, "I happy!"  

Eating dinner, "I happy!"

Playing a game with his sisters, "I happy?"

Harrison even uses the word to check in on our state of mind:  "Daddy happy?"  "Day-Day happy?"

("Day-Day" is the Chinese word for "sister," which is what he calls both Katherine and Caroline. 

With Harrison around, we sure are one "Happy" familly!  

Review of 2015

  It can't really be the end of 2015!!  Although it's going to be a new year I really can't believe 2015 is over.  We did a lot this past year. 

         In March, the girls did their school play of the Gold Rush. The play was called Gold Dust or Bust!!

              This spring break we went to Orlando, Florida.  Nginngin and Yehyeh came with us although Nginngin had just gotten back from a ten day trip in Cuba the day before, so she was tired a lot.  Caroline and Katherine got to experience the wizarding world of Harry Potter, Universal studios down in Orlando, and the famous Walt Disney World!!  

                In July, Harrison ( now three years old ) started preschool at our the girls' old preschool with Ms. Grace.  Harrison comes home daily with many stories about bad guys, good guys, and other things about pewpewing!! 

          We also went to San Clemente for the Lim family vacation. Daddy and Caroling went on a half day fishing boat and Yehyeh caught a yellow tail! Caroline caught a good sized bonita, Daddy caught a bonita as well, and Mommy, Harrison, and Katherine stayed home due to sea sickness!! We went to the beach or the pool almost every day. We were also lucky enough to get a  trip to lego land while we were down there.

               Caroline also joined AYSO ( American Youth Soccer Organization ), for the first time and her team made it very far!! Her team was undefeated the entire regular season in San Mateo and they won the championship.  They then went to play cities nearbye like Foster City, Redwood City, and Belmont. The made it through that tournament undefeated as well! They won the championship again!! Finally, they went on to play places farther away. Fortunately, the tournament was hosted right there in Foster city, the neighboring city of San Mateo.  Unfortunately, they tied against San Bruno then lost against South Lake Tahoe in the Semi-finals.  Still, Caroline's team enjoyed going on to many tournaments.  Caroline also got lucky and got invited to the winter select team.  Out of 26 teams of girls in San Mateo only about 10 make it to the winter select team.  You must get invited then you have to try out. Each team was about 9 girls.  Caroline was very lucky because it was, again, her first year. 

              Monkeyson remained being loved by Caroline, and he also had a very good year.  He traveled every where with Caroline.  He also loved Caroline just as much as Caroline loved him!!

                Katherine remained doing swim team and advanced to silver shortly after Caroline and our friend China.  

                 Katherine and Caroline also started fifth grade wich meant that they started doing instruments in school. Katherine is one of the two girls that chose trumpet as their instrument.  Caroline chose to join a couple of other friends in choir. 

                  Mommy had a busy time of just taking care of all the kids.  

                  Daddy remains busy with his city counsil and as of last year he was vice mayor.  

                   Mommy and Daddy remain with their jobs as pharmacist and prosecuter.

                   Within the last month we've been having rain!! Finally!! Lots of snow up in Tahoe was also accounted for.  If this keeps up all winter we should make quite and impact on this long lasting and severe drought. We'll keep our fingers crossed!!

                   This year the new Star Wars #7 : The Force Awakens, came out Daddy, Caroline, and Katherine went to go see it in 3D.  They got cool BB8 glasses as souviniers too. 

                   Also last night we had our big New Years Eve party.  It was lots of fun especially when Caroline hooked up the wii!!   Katherine had some of our friends, Anika and Andi, over and Caroline had some of her soccer friends, Athena and Maddie, over for the big celebration!! 

              Overall it's been a great 2015 for the Lim family.  

               Finally, like I said it's been a very quick 2015 for us... Quick but busy!! Every body is still in perfect health and everybody is still on there toes!! 

               Luckily this coming 2016 is going to be year of the monkey so this should mean luck!!:) 

Mickey Backpack for the 3rd Child

One of Harrison's favorite items in his life right now is his "Mickey backpack."  He takes it EVERYWHERE.  To the library, to preschool, on trips.  He fills it with his favorite books, stuffed animals, and assorted toys.

Here's a photo of the "Mickey backpack":  

Notice anything unusual about Mickey? 

Yep.  It's not Mickey.  It's Minnie Mouse.  

Quite obviously Minnie Mouse.  

This is what I like to call "3rd Child Immagination."  

You see, like all good 3rd children, Harrison gets a lot of hand-me-downs.  

(Okay, just about everything he gets is a hand-me-down.) 

And in this case, Harrison was invited to pick a backpack out of a box containing backpacks previously used by his sisters. 

He immediately gravitated to this backpack.  But from day one, he called it his "Mickey backpack."  Even though he watches "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and clearly knows the difference between Mickey and Minnie, he insists on calling this his "Mickey backpack!"  

That is "3rd Child Immagination" hard at work.  "Of course we bought this Mickey backpack just for you, kid!"  Dream on 3rd child, dream on!  

The Beautiful Game

Soccer is often referred to as "The Beautiful Game."  And this Fall, the Beautiful Game gave a lot of joy to the Lim household.

This summer, after taking in the U.S. Women's National Team friendly against Ireland down in San Jose, Caroline expressed a desire to play soccer. 

Not ever have played soccer, I immediately researched the myriad soccer leagues in the Bay Area, and signed Caroline up for AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organziation).  

To say Caroline had a good time is an understatement.  

Turns out she is pretty good at soccer, and she ended up on a team of sweet girls who all got along well together.  And they all played some pretty good soccer along the way.  Or as we call it now, "Football."  

Caroline's team ended up going undefeated (10-0) in the U10 girls division for San Mateo.  

They then won the league tournament (4-0) and qualififed for the Area Tournament against seven other cities. 

In the Area Tournament, they advanced to the finals where they upset a very strong Redwood City team, 2-0! 

They then advanced to the Section Tournament against seven other teams from the greater Northern California Area.  They lost in the semi's to South Lake Tahoe 1-0, but bounced back to win the consolation game against Prunedale (Monterey County), 3-0 to take thirld place. 

More importantly, Caroline made great new friends, and developed what I hope will be a lifelong love of football!  

Fall soccer has now given way to Winter soccer, as Caroline tried out for and was selected to the AYSO Winter Team, which is quite a feather in her cap for a first-year player!  

Congrats to Caroline! 

Do You Like My Hat? Nope.

One of the joys of having a toddler is to watch for those magic moments.  

First steps.  First words.  You get the idea. 

Often overlooked but no less exciting is that magic moment of -- First Book. 

By "First Book" I mean that moment where a child takes ownership of their first book that they REALLY, REALLY LIKE.  I mean they will have you read that thing to them a hundred times, then one more time just for good measure. 

They will memorize that book until they believe they ARE reading it.  

Dozens of new words get learned through the magic of this "First Book." 

For Harrison, that moment arrived two weeks ago, with the discovery of "Go Dog.  Go!" 

Harrison LOVES this book.  He giggles at the sight of "Big dogs going up."  (The roller coaster)

He loves the photo of the angry dog umpire.  

Best of all, he like the "Hello!  Do you like my hat?"   In the book, the other dog answers, "No.  I do not like that hat."  But Harrison loves to answer with a short, crisp, "Nope".   He also loves to drawl out the "Hello!" into a nice long "Helloooo!"  

Of course, the thrilling ending of the book is the all exciting DOG PARTY at the top of the tree.  Harrison enjoys laughing and pointing at all the dogs at the dog party, and will sit at the end of the book pointing out the yellow dog, blue dog, green dog, etc. and laughing at their antics. 

The First Book is magical.  And Harrison has his First Book! 

After all, who doesn't love a good Dog Party? 

Good Guys, Bad Guys

Harrison is your typical 3 year-old boy.  Despite not pushing gun toys or other violent toys on him, as soon as he started pre-school and hanging out with "older" boys, he came home and EVERYTHING became a gun or sword to him.

Broom?  "Pew-Pew!"   

Plastic bat?  "Pew-Pew!"

Remote control?  "Pew-Pew!" 

So I finally broke down and over Thanksgiving at my parent's house, dug out my old "Han Solo Blaster" circa 1977.  It was my cherished toy as a child, and I admit it was pretty neat to see Harrison's face light up when he saw it.  He loves it. 

His newest game is to play "bad guys".  To be clear, Harrison is NEVER the "bad guy."  He is always the "good guy."  He designates his sisters, mommy, or daddy to play the role of "bad guy."  Your job is than to let him chase you around while he shoots/stabs/wrestles you into submission.  He can play it for hours!

Here is a photo of Harrison "Han Solo"! 

Halloween 2015 (For Display Only- Do Not Touch, Mickey's Hands, Caroline Hearts Monkeys)

This year's kids costumes were a labor of love.

Katherine knew early on that she wanted to be Wall-E a few months before Halloween.  David helped her spray paint her body and make her eyes.  She painted the pictures on the front herself.  

Every Halloween at their school, they have a parade which allows the students to see each other's costumes.  It can get very chaotic as they students line up and parade around the school. This year as Katherine was turning her head to look at something, when we turned back around, another student was turning the rows on her Rubik cube.  She had to tell the student to stop since that it wasn't a toy, it was a prop for her costume!

Harrison loves Mickey Mouse so I made his costume this year.  He loved it although the hands made it very difficult for him to pick up candy from the candy bowls on Halloween without it looking like he was grabbing an entire handful.  In reality, he could barely pick up even one candy with the gloves.  We ended up taking them off early on and he was much happier.

 If you know Caroline, you know that she LOVES monkeys so it was no surprise when she said that she wanted to be a monkey for Halloween.  Caroline wanted to make the costume herself so we went to Joann fabrics multiple times to complete her costume.  She cut out the pattern and sewed the majority of it.  Some people didn't guess correctly what she was, but all who know Caroline well, knew that she was monkey fashioned after her favorite monkey. 

  

Grandma Knows Best

David's grandmother used to make a special Chinese soup whenever he had a canker sore.  It was known as the "yeat hay" (Chinese for canker sore) soup.  Caroline got a canker sore and asked David to make her some so he made her a pot the other night. As she was drinking it tonight from the Chinese rice bowl and Chinese soup spoon, she said "Hey Mom, do you know that this spoon says Hao?" which means good in Mandarin.  I told her, "Your Chinese is paying off!"  

I find this funny in a two ways. 

1). We have had that Chinese spoon for as long as David and I have been together.  That's almost 15 years.  I never noticed that there was a Chinese character on the spoon.  

2).  Katherine and Caroline have been taking Mandarin on Sunday mornings for three years now.  They complain every Sunday about getting up to go to Chinese school but they enjoy it once they are there. They can understand some Mandarin (about 2nd grade level) and about 200 characters.  They get frustrated when they feel like they will never be proficient at it but tonight's discovery reinforced that she is picking things the language. 

Grandma's soup did double duty tonight- not only as a remedy to quickly heal Caroline's canker sore; it was also an indirect Chinese lesson! 很 好 which means very good!

Die, Daddy! Die!!!

Not to worry, Harrison is NOT a murdering psychopath.

Like many kids learning to talk, Harrison has trouble pronouncing certain sounds.

The "B" sound has been particularly troubling for him.

This has resulted in the humorous yet awkward situation where when Harrison says "Bye" to you, it comes out sounding like, "DIE".

To compound the awkwardness, Harrison LOVES to say "Bye" to people.

He will run to our front window and yell out the open window "DIE!" to me, Terri, the girls --- whoever happens to be leaving our house.

If you are at the mall and you are walking into the Apple Store while he is heading to Build-A-Bear, he will cheerfully scream "DIE!" to you as you walk off.

So if you come to our house or get a phone call from Harrison, do not be alarmed if he tells you to "DIE!"

He's not saying what you think he's saying!

Click on any photo for a larger view.

Life's A Happy Song

Katherine and Caroline performed in their school's annual talent show a few weeks ago.  They have performed each year since Kindergarten except for the one year when the school didn't have one.  

In the past, they have performed song and dance routines to popular artists such as Katy Perry and One Direction.  This year they sang "Life's A Happy Song" from the Muppets with their four close friends.  The girls and their friends have always choreographed their performances with no help from the parents.   Each year I am amazed by what they come up with. This year was no exception. The song and dance routine was well rehearsed and entertaining.  When I asked the girls who came up with the song and dance moves, Katherine said that Caroline chose the song and most of choreography.  Caroline said that she wanted to select a song that the parents in the audience would know.  While I am proud of their performance and hard work, I am just as pleased that she put so much thought into picking a song that would appeal to both the adults and youth in the audience.  This line from the song says it all "Life's a Happy Song when there's someone by my side to sing along."  Here's to many more years of happy singing!

"Harry" Potter Lim and a quick recap

Haven't had the time to blog as much about the kids as I would like.  Here's a quick recap of what this year has brought:

Katherine got a retainer.

The girls joined the Bulldogs swim team. 

Harrison learned how to take "selfies" at 2 years old.

We celebrated Grandma's birthday with one of my homemade fruit tarts.  

Caroline and Harrison at Lemos farm.  Katherine went to LA with David to watch a UCLA game.  

My little man and I at Great America.  He loves the merry go round.

Don't the glasses look familiar?

Saturday Mornings

Like a typical kid on a Saturday morning, Harrison woke up early similar to his usual weekday routine. Today he woke at 6am. We watched TV (Barney and Thomas),ate breakfast, and played but he was starting to get cranky. I knew he wanted to go out and play. By the time we finally got out of the house and on our way to the park, the poor kid fell asleep. At least Katherine and Caroline are enjoying the park!

The Boy Loves the Camera

Harrison loves the camera. He will smile at the camera and loves to watch videos of his sisters and himself. 

I was taking a photo of Caroline with her hand crocheted lei and flowers after she earned her medals in both her violin and piano.  Harrison was eagerly waiting for me to take his photo too.  What a ham!

Hawaii Spring Break 2014

This April we took the kids to Oahu for the first time with David's parents. We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and had a great time swimming in the lagoon, pool and ocean. We searched for the best shaved ice on the island - Wailoa won the vote!  Here are some photos from out trip