Kids These Days...

Lily wanted to email her cousin, so I set her up with a Gmail account the other day. I added a few addresses to her contacts list, showed her which button to click to write a new message, explained where the subject should be typed, and where to type the text. That's it. Then I walked away to cook dinner.

By the time I checked back with her 5-7 minutes later, she had already sent an email to my address. And not just any email.

She had figured out how to add emoticons, and change the font color to pink.


I know she's learned how to use a computer at school, but wow. They're not kidding when they say that this generation of kids is incredibly tech-savvy.

Birthday Present From Milo

Tonight, Milo totally surprised us by singing a new song, after hearing everyone else sing it.



In case you can't hear what he's singing, it's the "Happy Birthday" song...in Milo-speak, of course. :)

4th of July at the All-East Long Beach Tennis Club

Our annual 4th of July tennis tournament and party was fun (at least, until James dislocated his elbow). Marat Safin (aka John Penner Jr.) won the tournament, while Raul Ramirez (aka John Penner Sr.) took 2nd place.

We had a good draw again this year, and the matches on our backyard grass court ran from 1pm until about 7pm.


Much fun was had by the children as well - they played some tennis, splashed in the kiddie pool, played in the house, played with fireworks, and watched a movie on our new inflatable movie screen.

I meant to take photos of the movie screen, too, but that plan was foiled by our unexpected trip to the E.R. I'm pretty sure we're going to break it out again this summer, however, since the kids absolutely love it.

James, James, James...

In the evening on the 4th of July, James was playing around with his cousins in our backyard when all of a sudden, I heard him screaming in pain. I ran to him, and he told me that his arm hurt and that he couldn't move it. We rushed him to the E.R. (thank goodness my dad's a Kaiser doctor and we got the "fast track" treatment) and found out it was "only" dislocated. They popped it back in, took a few x-rays just to be safe, and sent us home. Amazingly, after it was popped back in, James acted like nothing had happened. In fact, since we made it back home in time for fireworks, he played some more with his cousins.

He's going to be the death of me.

Let's add this to the list...at 4.5 years old, James has the following on his record book (and these are just the major injuries - not counting the thousands of minor scrapes and bruises):

1. While bouncing on our bed with the sheet over his head, he fell on his mouth and shoved the front 2 teeth up into his gums, and knocked the ones next to them loose.
2. He burned himself on a motorcycle tailpipe.
3. After jumping off a bench at the Aquarium of the Pacific, he somehow landed on his face - giving himself a rugburn under his nose and making his teeth bleed.
4. He got stitches in his chin after boogie-boarding down our front steps.
5. Dislocated his elbow while horsing around with his cousins.
   

Oh. And did I mention that on the night of July 3, he hit his teeth on Lily's head while playing in a jumper?

Milo's New Trick

We've been busy around here - tennis camp for Lily, school for James, swimming for both of them, plus gymnastics, and summer playdates. Somewhere in the middle of it all, Milo learned to count!!! I can't take much credit, he learned most of it from Dora the Explorer, I think. :)

Thinking Outside the Box

I witnessed the following scene tonight in the changing area of the pool we take swimming lessons at:

Two brothers were fighting over who would go first at their lesson. The dad immediately (he must have to do this a lot) said, "rock, paper, scissors," and the two boys started playing. After a couple very normal rounds, the younger boy said, "Rock.......paper.......TORNADO!!!!!!!"

That kid gets beaucoup points for creativity in my book.

It's the Thought That Counts

Tonight I watched Milo trot into the kitchen, pull a dish towel down, and start to wipe his shoe.

It was then I realized that his shoe was completely muddy. He had left a little trail of mud from the back door, through the living room, and into the kitchen - not to mention the state of the dish towel.

But I really appreciated the thought. =)