Goodbye Carden West, Grandpa Visit, and Dance

The focus seems to be still on Renee, who is having constant activities like swimming, dancing, field trip. We start with saying goodbye to our favorite school, Carden West. The details are pretty painful and it is still going as we speak, but the bottom line is that Renee has to say goodbye to her friends one way or another. The good news is that she is adjusting well in the new place and is making friends.

On Sunday, I sometimes go out for a run with Renee biking on my side. We go from 2 miles to 4 miles. Sometimes I will take both kids out. Max loves hang out with his sister. He just follows her everywhere.

This is Renee helping one of her best buddies, Lily, putting on the cover sheet for nap time. Even after we took our kids out to Carden West and into separate school, we managed to have a play date so that the two friends get to hang out.

As far as the environment goes, Carden West remains forever as our favorite place. Renee learned very well there. I have tons of pictures of her learning, playing, laughing.

"Spider Web Park" is also our favorite park. We carry the bikes there. Renee and Max will ride around the park. Then they will climb the web. Here is Renee pretending that she found something interesting, and Max really trying to figure out what is that her sister looking at.

Renee had a dancing rehearsal. I took quite a few video taps.

We went to visit grandpa in Mountain View, hung around in the farmers' market, had some dim-sum.

Last but not the least, some dancing moves for your enjoyment (or amusement)

Cold Season, again

We started our year with pretty healthy family, and that didn't last too long. Max got cold for several weeks now. He is more cranky. What is worse, he has got the rest of us sick, or so we think. It seems that the mom and the daughter are the strongest, as they have covered pretty quickly. The dad and the son are still struggling through the day.
Through some turmoil at Carden West with their financial status and poor way of handling it, we ended up switching school for Renee. So she is starting at another school. The new school is not as well equipped but we hope the short period would not hurt. We are also hoping with Renee in this place, we can find a chance to get Max enrolled as well. He has been more and more spoiled staying home, and I think it is time to kick him out during the day to see the big world.

With me getting busier at school, I don't get to take the kids out to the part that often any more. I always have a good time whenever I do it.

Renee and Max are able to play along a lot better now. Although Renee is still pretty physical with her little brother, she would hit him or kick him when she is upset with Max. We talked to the teacher at school and apparently this behavior only exists at home. Go figure.

Renee and her class did a show about self control (haha from last picture). She was able to recite the whole thing, which was pretty cool.

Here is another trip that I don't get to go with them because I am in school. I do miss them. Anyway, I ask her mom to take lots of pictures whenever she gets a chance.

Here is a picture with the cousin from the mom's side. We start noticing the "camera smile" that Renee has now, which is very similar to that of the daughter of my cousin.

Winter Break

Despite the lack of snow this winter, we visited Tahoe twice. The kids didn't know any better to mind the frozen snow, and they still had a great time.

The nice thing about frozen snow is that they are frozen and you don't have to worry about getting your socks wet. The kids learned to walk on them carefully. During this visit though, both Renee and Max got frustrated with the slippery surface at one point and start whining. Again, it was a lot easier to calm down Max than Renee.

We made a 'snowman' to our best capability.

Teeth brush ritual has become much easier these days. Max is even interested in the process such that he insists on putting on the toothpaste and brush a bit before letting me take over.

The grandparents bought a princess bike for Renee. We live in a hilly area. After learning about how the brake works on this bike, I caught Renee. She learned it pretty quickly and was able to bike 3.7 miles with me jogging on her side one Sunday afternoon. I think that will become our weekend routine now.

Renee is really getting a hang of puzzles. Here is another puzzle that she got as holiday present. It contains three parts with different sizes of blocks. She could really focus and finish them one by one. She is not even frustrated by the smallest size anymore. One thing makes me happy now is that she is aware of time to go to bathroom now.

During the last week of the year, we rented a house with three other families and stayed somewhere around homewood for three nights. Due to the lack of snow, I didn't get to snowboard. I wanted to take the kids to snow parks anyway.

Here is Renee playing king of the hill. Max was also able to climb with his sister half way up.