We just bought twin-sized beds, mattresses, and linens for the kids. Next weekend we’re going to let the kids choose their sheets.

Earlier this week, Miranda made a strange comment. She said, “I’m not in the toddler class. I’m in preschool. I’m in preschool because I can pee.” It’s certainly true that we moved Eleanor from the toddler class to the preschool class before Miranda, and it is because Eleanor successfully toilet trained first. The strange part is that all this happened six months ago. I’m just surprised she remembered it. I hope this doesn’t mean that it really upset her. Agnes and I are hoping she won’t bring it up again when she’s a teenager.

Eleanor had this response: “You’re not in preschool You’re in Eleanor and Miranda’s house.” There’s our other daughter–being very literal.

The other day at the dinner table, Eleanor put her index fingers on the outside of her eyes and pulled them up to give herself “slit-eyes”. She was smiling and saying “Look at me!” Bernard and I sat there in stunned silence and then, after a moment, Bernard said firmly to Eleanor “Don’t do that!”

She kept doing it until she realized that neither of us were going to respond. I was purposefully ignoring her by trying to distract Miranda. This happened before I knew about the photo of the Spanish Olympic basketball team:

Neither Bernard nor I are particularly political, especially when it comes to Asian American issues, but Eleanor’s imitation of something she learned at school was offensive to both of us. We both immediately thought, “I hope there isn’t some parent at the daycare that taught their kid to do this.”

What bothers me the most is that it makes me feel like this country hasn’t progressed since thirty years ago when I was belittled by kids on the playground speaking “gobbledy-gook Chinese” to me. Every racial minority in America has a moment in their childhood when they realize that they aren’t white and that it’s going to make a difference to their future. I was six years old and just like Pecola Breedlove in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, I wanted blond hair and blue eyes too. I was hoping this wouldn’t be an issue with Eleanor and Miranda, but I guess I was wrong.

While we’ve been writing about our kids for a while, there are a number of things that the readers of our site may not know about our kids, so we decided to post a few of these little known facts.

• Favorite color: blue
• Favorite thing to wear: a blue and purple striped polo shirt–if that’s in the laundry, then anything blue
• Favorite food: french fries, which she wishes she could eat every meal
• Birthmarks: fading Mongolian spot on butt
• Health problems: none, except she’s a really picky eater
• Things that scare her: loud noises, including public toilets, a black neighborhood dog, bugs, Miranda pretending to be a monster, roller coasters
• Handedness: right
• Hair texture: fine and straight
• Hair whorl: clockwise
• Height at 3-year visit: 35″
• Weight at 3 year visit: 25 lbs
• Volume of voice: constantly yelling, parents describe her as “Dora the Explorer”
• Parents’ description on preschool admission paperwork: “bright and enthusiastic”
• Agnes’ description of Eleanor when she’s “had it up to here”: “loud, whiny, and demanding”
• Preschool teacher’s description of Eleanor: “enthusiastic, feisty, knows exactly what she wants”

Eleanor likes to play make-believe by interacting with her stuffed animals. She’s extremely ticklish and very much prefers activities to follow a precise routine.

While we’ve been writing about our kids for a while, there are a number of things that the readers of our site may not know about our kids, so we decided to post a few of these little known facts. We start with Miranda.

• Favorite color: red
• Favorite thing to wear: anything red, especially bright red socks. If no red available, then pink.
• Favorite thing she used to wear: one red sock and one blue sock
• How she scares Eleanor: A deep guttural roar–do it enough times and Eleanor will start crying
• What scares her: not much, except Sponge Bob
• Favorite ride at the Orange County fair: the roller coaster
• Friends at school: all the girls; likes to dance and do hair
• Birthmarks: a cafe-au-lait spot on her thigh and her stomach
• Health problems: mild eczema, mostly one spot on her left arm
• Handedness: left
• Height at 3-year visit: 34 3/4″
• Weight at 3-year visit: 25.5 lbs
• Hair texture: medium and wavy
• Hair care products: adult shampoo and conditioner
• Hair whorl: counter-clockwise
• Volume of voice: very quiet, you can barely hear her
• Parents’ description on her preschool admission paperwork: “quiet and observant”

Miranda also sings to herself spontaneously and she likes making up words, especially words to songs.

We attended a free concert in a park this past weekend and part of the program was a selection from the Sound of Music, and we were dismayed to realize that our kids had never seen it. After we returned home, we pulled out our Sound of Music DVD and played it for the kids.

Eleanor and Miranda are still too young to watch the movie from end to end, but we jumped from song to song, starting with Do-Re-Mi.

The kids watched very quietly and intently. At one point, Miranda said “They’re riding bikes–no helmets”. That was it. Then they asked to watch it again.

They like Do-Re-Mi, The Sound of Music, and So Long, Farewell. They found My Favorite Things too scary, probably because of the thunderstorm.

We watched it again this morning. I suspect we’ll be hearing a lot of the Sound of Music in the near future.

The girls turned three this month and we just posted the thirty-six month photos.

The favorite word of the month is definitely “baboon”. The kids have an I Spy book with pictures of all sorts of toys, and when they found that one picture was a baboon, they decided it was their favorite picture. Eleanor always turns to that page and points it out and shows it to Miranda.

Miranda’s been experimenting with spelling recently. She’ll recite a series of letters and then ask me what it spells. More often than not, it doesn’t spell anything, but I’ll pronounce it anyway. She also tends to draw things and then step back to take a look at what she produces. She then declares what it is she’s drawn. We’ve been trying to teach the kids about rhyming, but I don’t think it has sunk in yet. One recent example that Miranda came up with was “octopus rhymes with rocks”.

Eleanor has been getting better about eating different things. This month, she was willing to eat penne with tomato sauce (previously, the only pasta she would eat was spaghetti). She has also been fairly open to fruit, and seems to like granny smith apples.

In the last week or two, Eleanor has suddenly decided she wants to include Miranda’s duck stuffed animal in their play. They were playing with some jigsaw puzzles and Eleanor and Miranda each had a puzzle in front of them. The duck was also sitting on the floor and had a puzzle in front of it as well. I’m not sure who was going to do the puzzle for the duck.

The kids had a trial session at their new school this month. We’re planning on moving and the new school wanted to make sure to give Eleanor and Miranda a trial run. They seemed to do okay. I think they were probably quiet and well-behaved because of the new surroundings.

Miranda has been preoccupied with favorite colors recently. She keeps on asking us which our favorite is, when there are different colored options. Agnes has decided to consistently answer “green”. I initially chose “blue”, but that was also Eleanor’s choice. I’ve switched to purple. Miranda always likes red things. I wonder sometimes if it has anything to do with the red car she drove at Autopia at Disneyland.

I did a bit of a quiz with the girls this month to see how many letters or numbers they can recite back to me. They can repeat a sequence of three letters without problems, but the instant I increase it to four, they lose track of them. For a short time, Eleanor was repeating four letters, but then she got distracted again.

This month, we stopped carrying around the Baby Bjorn toilet seat with us when we go out. The kids are fine propping themselves up with their hands when they use a regular toilet, and Agnes and I are always there to make sure they don’t slip and fall in. It’s nice to have one fewer thing to bring with us.

So, the kids are three now. They no longer qualify for free admission to Disneyland. I’m considering stopping how we track how many months old the kids are after this point. It may make sense to switch to “August 2008″ for the next update. We’ll see.

On Saturday, we stopped at South Coast Plaza for lunch. We were originally planning on going to the Rainforest Cafe where the kids have eaten before (it’s often rated highly among kid-friendly restaurants), but we were given a table near the gorillas, and before we were even seated, Eleanor decided the place was too scary. We ended up at the Claim Jumper where the kids enjoyed some pasta and quesadillas.

Afterward, we rode the merry-go-round and then went on to Agnes’ parents’ house so the kids could take a nap. After the nap, we went to Heritage Park in Irvine, where we saw a concert the Pacific Symphony was holding. We went back home again, and while we were convincing the kids to take a bath, Eleanor asked “where’s my froggie?”

We didn’t know. The last we remembered, I had asked Eleanor not to put her frog stuffed animal in the food at the Claim Jumper, but we weren’t sure if we had it later. I called the Claim Jumper, and they said that no one had turned it in.

Later in the evening, I unloaded the pictures from our camera, and found this one.

I had taken the picture after I put our leftovers from Claim Jumper in the car, and ran to meet Agnes and the kids at the merry-go-round. They were walking on the upper level. You’ll notice that Eleanor isn’t holding her frog–that’s a drink in her arm. I checked Agnes’ backpack and didn’t find it there.

That night, I went online and searched for a replacement frog. A friend of our had bought it from Old Navy in March of 2006, and I just couldn’t find it. The Old Navy site was down for maintenance, the Google cache of the site didn’t show anything promising. Ebay showed only frog outfits from Old Navy. I even looked through thirty-three pages of listings at Dirty Butter Plush Animal Shoppe (a place to look for rare replacement stuffed animals), but didn’t find the frog listed.

On Sunday afternoon, while the kids were napping, I called the Claim Jumper again, and this time, they confirmed that they had it! As we were returning home from visiting my parents, we took a detour back to the mall, where I went in and retrieved the frog. Here it is:

Eleanor hadn’t really complained that we didn’t know where her frog was, but I’m glad we recovered it anyway.

We’re at Heritage Park in Irvine to watch a concert by the Pacific Symphony.

Eleanor got too scared at Rainforest Cafe. We went to Claim Jumper instead. Miranda liked the clam chowder there.