Big Daily Dose

I was really hoping to write a longer entry this afternoon, but here is the scene at my house . . . Zander is running around with one shoe and potentially a dirty diaper, climbing on the coffee table and trying to steal his sister's toys . . . Charley is trying to be the bossy older sister, following Zander around micro-managing his playing, while simultaneously acting like she might have to go to the bathroom . . . Brian is on his way home . . . living room looks like a tornado has run through it, there are clean dishes to be put away in the kitchen, and a huge load of laundry is sitting at the bottom of the stairs . . . so I'm going to do an abbreviated post, but longer than a normal daily dose. Here goes:

1. Zander has decided that he is ready to learn the alphabet . . . one might call him "obsessed" with letters already. So far he knows A, B, L, S, U, and W pretty well. We are thinking he might be training to be a linguist?

2. Charley is almost potty trained. Once in awhile we have an accident (especially if she is busy playing with friends), but we are almost there. Thank goodness, one kid down, one to go.

3. Charley taught Zander how to say "poo poo." Thanks Charley.

4. Brian's mom, Bev, and her husband, Dick, are coming to Hawaii for a three week visit starting on Tuesday. Yea, we might actually get some beach time and a break from all these projects we've been working on. And we might get to go on a date. Wow.

5. Our last Baby Hui meeting is on Tuesday. So sad. :(

6. We are officially taking a trip to Michigan this summer. Brian's sister, Jen, is graduating from college, so we are heading out there for two weeks at the end of June. Mainland here we come!

7. I am going on a "girls' trip" to Montana in February, where I'm going to meet up with as many girlfriends (and family) as I can in a week. Brian will be at home with the kids. Woo hoo!

8. Brian is going on a boys' ski trip sometime in March, most likely to the Lake Tahoe area.

9. Brian's new grass seems to be growing great, and a couple days ago he installed a small gate to keep the dog and kids from going up the new stairs in our back yard.

10. Brian's new project: the front yard. Some of that nasty grass we had in the back yard has snuck into the front yard, so he wants to kill it off and replace it with the right grass. He also wants to do some minor landscaping, getting rid of this nasty ground cover that houses tons of rodents, and replace it with some simple bushes, flowers, and rocks.

11. Weekend plans: maybe go to the zoo, clean the house, grocery shop, have some friends over for dinner, and watch a movie.

12. Movies recently watched that we enjoyed: Bourne Ultimatum (Matt Damon) and A Mighty Heart (the Daniel Pearl story starring Angelina Jolie).

I guess that about covers it for now. Hope everyone has a good weekend!