February 23, 2010

• Fun with balls

  There, that made you want to read this entry, didn't it?

  This past weekend was jam-packed but fun. Our friend Christina drove down from San Luis Obispo on Friday to spend a couple of days with us. She works with kids (up to age 3) who have developmental delays, so she brought some really awesome toys for the boys to play with during her visit. Plus Christina's a natural with children anyway, so Jack and Derek took to her right away. We were all sad to see her leave on Sunday!

  Among other things, Christina brought this expanding and collapsing ball. When it's collapsed, it's just the size of a regular ball. When it expands, it's big enough to fit Jack into!

  

  Derek loved Auntie Stina, too

  

  Saturday night, Zach and Sandi came over. We decided to try out this tabletop teppanyaki grill that my Uncle Scott had given us years ago, but that we'd never found an occasion to use. Christina and I went shopping at the Korean market on Saturday morning and got marinated chicken breasts and thinly sliced beef, along with some veggies. We picked up some frozen beef, pork and veggie dumplings at the Korean noodle house we went to for lunch. So for dinner, we set out the raw meat, parboiled corn and mushrooms, and green peppers to grill. I made white rice and boiled up the dumplings as side dishes, and also set out dipping sauces in ramekins. Johnny had bought some beer, and Zach and Sandi brought over some wine.

  The setup

  

  I was a little nervous about how it would turn out -- what if the meats grilled really slowly and everyone was hungry while waiting for their food to cook? -- but it was really awesome! The grill had a wide range of temperature settings, and everything cooked up really well. The beef took only a few minutes, and the chicken just a bit longer than that. It had already been pounded thin, and once I put the lid over the grill, it cooked even more quickly. Everyone speared some veggies to cook alongside the meats, too. It was really fun. The only downside was that it resulted in a lot of smoke! We turned on the hood over our stove and opened all the windows, and that helped some. Next time we'll also set up some fans around the table to blow the smoke away. So, anyway, now that we know this works, future guests to the O'Neal residence can expect to have a meal grilled tableside (thanks to Christina, Zach and Sandi for being our guinea pigs!).

  After dinner and dessert, we moved into the playroom (which is the farthest from the sleeping boys' rooms) to hang out. I'm not sure how this started, but Johnny and Zach decided to play Twister on the alphabet/numbers mat. Christina was able to look up "rolls" online. It resulted in some ... funny positions. Here's the only semi-appropriate one I can post:

  

  Next, we moved on to playing with the expanding ball that Christina brought. Zach thought it would be fun to put it on his head and take a "jumping photo." So he put it over his head (it kind of just surrounded his face), jumped and this is what happened:

  The ball expanded!

  

  This caught all of us -- including Zach -- by surprise, and I almost peed in my pants because I was laughing so hard. If you click on the picture above, you can see the hilarious expression on Zach's face. Once we found out that the jumping motion caused the ball to expand, we all had to take turns jumping with it.

  Johnny and Christina's jumps

  

  A more successful attempt by Zach, and my own jump (after several failed tries)

  

  Sandi did not jump with the ball over her head, but she did do a really cool kung-fu jump.

  

  And of course, I have to show you several outtakes from my attempts at this (I've mentioned before that I'm severely lacking in physical coordination, right?):

  It took me a while just to figure out how to go about the business of jumping

  

  The first try ended up in me flat on my back on the floor; the second attempt was OK, but Johnny's photography made it look like I had no legs! (All the good photos of the jumps are courtesy of Zach and Sandi's superior photography skills)

   

  And finally, we put Zach and Johnny's heads into the ball:

  We should have asked them to jump together!

   

  What a fun evening! Now you know what parents do once kids are asleep.

  Sunday morning, Chris, Victoria and Maddy came over for brunch. It was great to see them and to hang out for a bit. In all our bustling around, I forgot to take pictures that morning. Boo. But, I do have some random pics of the boys to share. Here goes.

  Every afternoon, Derek and I go get Jack when he wakes up from his nap, and both boys love to cuddle together on Jack's bed before we go about our business

   

  Derek's hair is growing in fast! His head is already covered with short black fuzz. And he's full of smiles these days. Look!

  

  We're taking it easy this week to rest up for another busy weekend. Late Friday night, I'll be meeting up with fellow Xangans Wa and Yue for drinks. Saturday morning, we have a playdate with a family who used to live in our old neighborhood, and Saturday night we're going on a double date with one of Johnny's work friends and his fiancee. Sunday morning, Milena and Marcus are coming over for a playdate, and then we'll be heading to Home Depot to buy some new sprinkler valves (glam, I know). This week I'll just be catching up on work (and trying to hold down the fort and keep the boys fed, of course). Hope everyone's having a good week!

  • 12:50 pm
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