Taking Pictures

It's always an adventure taking the kids to get their photos taken. Yvonne loads up her bag with treats, bribes, toys, and anything else that might get that magical combination of four kids smiling at the same time. There's always the obligatory pleading and bargaining that goes on before the shoot as well. Even after all the photos are taken, there's the painful task of trying to decide on which photo(s) to purchase while trying to keep the four kids occupied.

This time around, the occasion was for the twins turning 3 and Joel hitting the 9 month mark. All in all, we were pretty happy with the end product:

Operation "Will Breaker"

We are sometimes asked if the twins have their own language or if they have some form of communication that only they understand. Personally, I don't think so but I do know they certainly "get" each other and know how to push each other's buttons and sometimes...work together for a common goal.

Yesterday, all three boys missed their naps. We were waiting for the nuclear meltdown to take place during dinner but things didn't turn out too bad. Little did we know, the boys were just holding out. Long story short, about half an hour after the grown-ups entered into blissful REM sleep, the twins took turns waking up, crying hysterically, and asking for a variety of mundane things (water, nighttime prayer, songs, etc). Once one was down, the other would wait about 20 minutes and wake up to repeat above steps (while the other slept through the entire tirade). Why bother wreaking havoc all at once when you can stretch it out over the course of a night right? It finally ended after each got a LATE midnight snack around 3 in the morning.

After replaying the night's events in my head today. I was struck by Nathan's demeanor during his late night snack. Daniel was genuinely upset and had to be calmed down. He didn't really eat at dinner so he was probably starving from all the screaming going on. Nathan, on the other hand, started crying after Daniel came back from his snack. He started mimicking everything Daniel was complaining about but when I got him into the kitchen, he was totally fine, stopped crying completely, and was just enjoying his snack. Judging by the expression on his face, it would not have surprised me if he started asking me about the weather or my thoughts on the global economic crisis (all while happily snacking on Cheerios and milk).

I couldn't help but wonder what kind of planning might have taken place in their room last night:

[Parents walk out of room, say good night]
Daniel: Psssst...hey bro, you asleep?
Nathan: Nope...good to go
Daniel: Should we start by throwing everything out of the crib or just scream at the top of our lungs until they come?
Nathan: Patience young one....let's let them fall asleep first
[20 minutes pass...]
Daniel: OK...let's do this
Nathan: Ok, commence Operation Will Breaker....
[For the next few hours, the twins take their parents on a journey fit for boot camp or Survivor]

[Daniel returns from his late night snack...]
Daniel: Hmmm...yum. Check it out, cry hard enough and mom and dad will take you downstairs and hook you up with some Cheerios.
Nathan: Really? Should I scream about my foot being stuck in the crib or go "low key" with the incessant whine?
Daniel: Go with the whine. It drives mom and dad absolutely nuts. I try not to overuse it but hey, it works
Nathan: Sounds good. You want me to bring you anything from downstairs?
Daniel: Nah [burp]....I'm good. I'm gonna get some sleep. I'm exhausted.

Show Me Your Teeth!

Mark the date. We knew this was going to happen one day....just not this soon.

We were going through the nightly washup routine and I was chasing (literally) the twins around the house trying to brush their teeth. Two year olds have uncanny acceleration, great traction on turns from their low center of gravity, and a pretty high end top speed. I finally cornered Daniel with toothbrush in hand. He had basically "turtled up" as we say in law enforcement: back turned to me, hunched forward, clenched hands in front of him, and refusing to obey my lawful and dutiful commands to "show me your teeth". ...and then it happened:

Me: Daniel, turn around...it's time to brush your teeth
Daniel: No
Me: Come on Daniel, be a good boy
Daniel: NO! It's Nathan's turn
Me: No, it's your turn
Daniel: Nathan first!
Me: [holding him down now] Ok come on, it's your turn
Daniel: NO!! I'm NATHAN!!!
Me: ???
Me: You're Daniel
Daniel: No, I'm Nathan!
Me: [flipping him around...examining his face]
Me: No, you're Daniel...open wide

I have to admit...he had me for a few seconds.

Perspective...

Earlier this week we were out running errands with ALL of the kids when Yvonne and I spontaneously decided to throw caution to the wind and try to go out to a restaurant for dinner. We picked Red Robin's because they are pretty kid friendly (free balloons, crayons, etc.) and their mushroom & swiss burger is to die for. We didn't realize it until we sat down that this was our first outing as a family of SIX. The greeter wisely gave us our own section in the corner of the restaurant and the kids started off great with the balloons and crayons. In the span of the next 20 minutes, we did three diaper changes and one trip to the bathroom. In addition, the balloons had to be rescued from the ceiling, fought over, and tied just right. The crayons went everywhere and the kids seemed to be doing their own version of musical chairs.

Yet, the funny thing was Yvonne and I just sat back, enjoyed our burger and fries, and laughed about how hard we used to think life was when we first had Rachel. I guess the pattern here would seem to indicate that the more kids you have, the easier parenting seems to be....yeah right. The truth of the matter is, I think we've just reached a point where we intuitively know what things are worth stressing over and what things are simply out of our control.

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring a camera to memorialize the event. However, here's a recent photo of our kids playing three-way tug of war with baby Joel:

Boys Will Be Boys - Part 2

A sequel to the original "Boys will be boys" video, this is some video of our daily pre-nap ritual. If you can translate the toddler talk, the central theme to their singing and dancing are snippets from the Wiggles show.

Yvonne and I find it rather interesting that the boys are pretty synchronized in a lot of their jumps and flips.

Joel Christopher Hsiung

Well, the big day snuck up on us. The due date was supposed to be Nov. 4th but Yvonne had been having some pretty consistent contractions since Tuesday night. After getting Rachel off to school and dropping the boys off at the grandparent's house, we checked into the hospital to be told that today would be the big day.

Although we were pretty experienced at this whole thing, having 3 other kids to logistically deal with made things quite different. When the twins were born Rachel was 3 years old and gladly spent the night at either grandparent's house. This time, we had to account for her getting to and from kindergarten as well as factoring the twins nap times, play times, and getting all three kids fed and down for bed.

All in all, things went very smoothly. The delivery (c-section) was relatively quick with no big surprises and the hospital procedures had not changed at all since the last two times we'd been there. We knew where to go, what to do, and how long everything would take. It was pretty interesting that some of the nurses even stopped us in the hallway and remembered us from two years ago when the twins were born.

Rachel, Nathan, and Daniel were incredibly excited to meet their new brother. Each wanted to hold him and stare at him (while taking turns chomping on ice from the ice machine).

For now, Yvonne gets a few days of much deserved rest before the real fun begins at home....

For more pictures from the day click here.

Those Crazy Kids

Priceless...

Distressed - Part II

Evidently, when I wrote my last post on distressed wood a couple weeks ago, I wasn't aware that Daniel had additional wood working talents. On top of being a cosmetic wood designer, Daniel also has incredible wood staining abilities. Take a look:

So here's the rest of the story:

Yvonne was out running errands and I was home with the boys. I had a 10am conference call to make so I set up my laptop on the kitchen counter, had my hands free bluetooth headset on, and got the boys busy with some stickers and a TV show. What could possibly go wrong? I was about ten minutes into the conference call when I heard the words most feared in the Hsiung household, "Uh Oh Daddy".

I turned around to see Daniel holding a black PERMANENT Sharpie pen and the new artwork on the kitchen table....oh boy. I stayed calm, relied on my years of training to work in critical incident environments, and summed up all of my life experience to figure out the best thing to do for the moment: I licked my finger and tried to rub off the marker....no luck...not even a smudge.

With the conference call in one ear and Daniel in the background "Look Daddy...I draw!" my other cell phone rings and it's Yvonne. "...Hey Hon, you're not going to believe this one..." I kid you not, when I told her what had happened she just laughed and wasn't the least bit startled. Here I am...trying to sound calm on the conference call while frantically doing a Google search on "Permanent marker removal tips" and supermom on the other line is laughing. She hangs up to let me deal with the situation and after finding some tips, I find out the situation isn't as bad as I first thought. Turns out permanent markers aren't that permanent after all. A pencil eraser actually does a pretty good job removing the ink from smooth surfaces.

I called Yvonne a few minutes later all proud saying that the pencil eraser trick (as if I thought of it by myself) was working but would take time because the eraser was so small. Yvonne then suggests I use the "magic eraser" under the kitchen sink and walks me through how to use it. The instructions are probably second nature to moms everywhere but this was all new to me. I listened carefully and had her repeat it just to make sure I didn't miss anything: 1) get the sponge wet and 2) wipe up the ink. Lo and behold, it worked like a charm. According to Yvonne, she uses this thing all the time to get ink and crayon marks off the walls and stuff. Like I said...supermom.

The Spare Tire

Rachel's at that really fun age where she does a lot of talking and pretty much says things like she sees it. Sometimes it's funny...sometimes it's not. Sometimes when you don't acknowledge her right away she keeps repeating until you do.

In the car the other day:

Rachel: Hey Dad, look at that car (pointing at an SUV with a spare tire on the back)
Me: What is it?
Rachel: It's a car and it has a spare tire...
Me: Oh really? That's nice...
Rachel: Hey Dad...
Me: Yeah?
Rachel: You have a spare tire too!
Me: . . . . .
Rachel: I said, you have a spare tire too!
Me: uh...yeah...ha ha
Rachel: What's so funny?
Me: . . Nevermind
Rachel: If you say so...

Apparently, after a few more follow up questions I found out she was referring to the spare tire that was kept in the trunk of my work car. Phew...

Distressed

When buying furniture, some people opt to pay a little more and go for a "distressed pine" finish. Knowing what I know now, I don't think we'd ever pay more for "distressed pine" again. It turns out a 2 year old with a fork can produce the EXACT same results on any wood finish. Somewhere out there, there's a factory full of beautiful furniture traveling past an assembly line of toddlers with forks.

If you look closely around our house we have "distressed" walls, floors, tables, and parents. We even have a very "distressed" window pane in our living room that was on the receiving end of a split fingered fastball (the investigation is ongoing to determine who the suspect was...we have two candidates and one possible "person of interest" in mind).

You be the judge...one photo is the real thing and the other was "custom made" at home:


If you are interested, the Hsiung Kids distressed pine services can be contracted out at a very reasonable price. Forks not included. Disclaimer: Customer understands that this is a "use at your own risk" service. Not responsible for damage to other items in household.

Wagon King Part II

We shot this video last January where we got a good laugh watching Daniel pushing Nathan around in a red wagon. Well, 8 months later, it looks like some things haven't changed. Nathan is still sitting in the wagon like a king and Daniel is still providing the horsepower...

If you're gonna be the king...you gotta have the cool "bling bling" shades to complete the look:

Got Rice?

We love these shirts...

Feeding the Kids

This photo of the inside of our fridge says a lot. For starters, this is not our primary refrigerator. This is our backup storage refrigerator we keep in the garage. The main one in the kitchen has yet another gallon of milk, a couple gallons of different juices, a few tubs of ice cream (for those long days) and all the other essentials.

We bought this refrigerator from our neighbor last year when they were moving. Little did we know it would get so much use so soon. Pictured here is FIVE gallons of milk, two cartons of OJ, and two Costco 3 packs of soy milk. The really scary part is that all of the milk and most of the juice and soy milk will be gone within a week. The really REALLY scary part is this is only the beginning. Within a few years we'll have one more boy to add to the pack of hungry hyenas to feed. I don't even want to think about the teenage years.

If any of you have connections, I'm in the market for a few cows. Grazing in our front and back yards may present an issue but I'll cross that bridge later.

I probably should have taken a photo of our backup pantry too. It's in the garage next to our backup fridge and it could pass for a Costco snack food aisle.

#4

Yvonne volunteered to be a 4D ultrasound model and we got our first detailed look at baby boy #4. In case you're wondering, that's the baby's right foot sticking out next to his head. We were pretty impressed with the resolution and detail. When we had the twins we had ultrasounds every two weeks and some of those were 3D (but they still ended up looking like Area 51 aliens). This scan actually looks pretty human.

The Zoo

This past week we took another trip to the San Francisco Zoo. We like it because it's close and it's a place where our little animals get to check out other animals. You'd think the cages, fencing and walls are there to protect the us from the animals but I think it's the other way around. If you had to wake up every day to hundreds of screaming little kids, you'd want some form of protection from all of their cooties.

Child Labor

Today we continued our project of converting the office into Rachel's bedroom. As part of that project we bought Rachel a new "princess" bed that was incredibly heavy (I guess because it was made of solid wood) and came in four boxes. Each box came with extra cardboard, padding, and wrapping just to take up space. All three kids were fascinated with all of the boxes and packaging (Rachel especially because she knew this was going to be her new bed). After getting all of the boxes upstairs, I unpacked everything and thought it would be a pain getting rid of all of the packaging.

In a burst of inspiration I looked up and saw three willing faces staring back at me so I put them to work. They eagerly took every scrap of cardboard and wrapping and helped throw them over the banister to the first floor (screaming "bye bye!" along the way). Not wanting to miss out on the action, I joined in by throwing the larger pieces overboard as well.

When we got to done unpacking everything the kids ran downstairs and went back and forth to the side yard with pieces of cardboard. I was surprised at how fast all of the trash disappeared with all these kids around....this can really come in handy (sinister laugh).

Children's Discovery Museum

We went to the San Jose Children's Discovery Museum today. Yvonne and Rachel went last week for a private function but this was the first trip for me and the boys. In a nutshell, it's a place where kids can touch, throw, poke, bend, and drop just about anything. They strategically put chairs everywhere so parents just sit and let their kids run hog-wild. We did pretty good. We only lost Rachel once and the twins a couple times each.

Walking the Dog

We try to get out as often as possible...for our benefit and especially for our dog, Kilo. The kids love walking him and he doesn't seem to mind.
I really like this photo below. It almost looks like Kilo and the boys are doing a dignitary protection detail; forming a protective diamond around their VIP. Come near our sister and you'll have to deal with us...

San Diego

In lieu of throwing a birthday party for our boys, we decided to take the family to San Diego for a LegoLand/Sea World/Hang out at the pool vacation. Irony of ironies, the day we spent driving down I-5 was also our 12th wedding anniversary. It's ironic because we celebrated our 10th anniversary in the hospital maternity ward having just welcomed the boys into the world a few days earlier. We always thought we'd celebrate the big "10" with a trip to Europe or Asia or something exotic...yeah right. What did we do for our 11th anniversary? I have no idea. Before you assume I'm just another guy who doesn't remember details about anniversaries and celebrations, I just asked Yvonne and she couldn't remember either. During that time we were still on the 2-3 hours sleep per night routine and have absolutely no memory of most of that year. I suppose I could convince Yvonne that we actually did take an extravagant trip to Europe or something and she'd just have to take my word for it....but I digress....

And now...the vacation:

I wish I could say the entire trip down south was this pleasant. We had to make a few stops when the kids got antsy but all in all, it wasn't too bad. You can't tell from the photo but our minivan is stocked like a survivalist compound. Yvonne does quite an incredible job moving our pantry, fridge, and toy boxes into the van for these trips.

One pit stop was the Wendy's in Santa Nella (Hwy 152 @ Interstate 5). This was a really relaxing stop because all of the kids just sat there and ate. There was no food spitting, drink throwing, or running around/under/over tables. Yvonne and I just looked at each other and thought..."We finally made it...the kids are self sufficient (well, sort of)"

Our first day was spent at Sea World. The kids really liked the killer whale and dolphin shows. Another highlight was the Sesame Street playground area. Here's Nathan and Daniel doing their best Chinese martial arts Kung-Fu flying impersonations.

Rachel got a kick out of the gigantic bounce house and obstacle course. You may notice the kids are all wearing the same bright colored shirt. This made it A LOT easier finding them when they took off in three directions.

No trip to an amusement park would be complete without COTTON CANDY. Yes, that's cotton candy on Rachel's eyebrow.

On the second day, we purposely kept a very open and relaxed agenda. We started off at a local park and spent the majority of the day kicking back in and around the hotel pool.

Day 3 brought us to LegoLand where we hooked up with some friends. We were a little disappointed because the vast majority of rides were for kids over 42 inches. This meant the boys got to watch Rachel ride but didn't get to go on any themselves. We ended up leaving a little early to hit the outlets nearby.


On the last day we returned to Sea World where we started off the day at breakfast with Elmo and Friends. As you can see, the boys wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with Big Bird and spent most of breakfast trying to hide from all of the characters.

All in all it was a great vacation.

2 Years!

The boys turned 2 today. Time seems to have zipped by and yet it also seems to go excruciatingly slow at times. It's hard to believe we survived those first 16 months on 2-3 hours of sleep per night. Yet, with the help of friends and family, we've pulled through. We're richly rewarded now as both boys talk non-stop and are able to communicate their needs and wants (thereby cutting down on the whining and temper tantrums). Potty training is going well and we're hoping to have that all done by the time the baby comes in late October/early November.


To celebrate their birthday, we started off the day at the Oakland Zoo. We were told by friends that it was quite "hilly" and that description was pretty accurate. The weather was great and the kids had a great time checking out all the animals and exhibits.


After the zoo we took a short break at home and decided to celebrate the boy's birthday dinner at a place that was kid friendly, with fast service, and a menu that the kids really liked:

McDonalds

After a nutritious dinner of french fries, chicken nuggets, and chocolate milk (hey, it's their birthday), we headed to Cold Stone to cash in on free ice cream/birthday coupons for the boys.

And finally, in order to keep the "sugar high" going after the ice cream and chocolate milk, we headed home to enjoy two homemade M&M covered chocolate cakes that Yvonne made for the guys.