While Joseph was at school, Paul went to "work" with me — we attended the media preview for the "Terracotta Warriors" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. He got to see some ancient clay figures, eat a flaky pastry (we both looove free food) and take the bus home. It's a good thing Paul doesn't talk yet, otherwise Joseph would be beside himself if he found out we went without him. My review of the "Terracotta Warriors" exhibit is on ParentMap here. A general. An armored officer. Trying to puzzle together fragments of a warrior's head. An immersive experience with painted replicas.

I went to IKEA for some new cups for the kids and found the cutest baby-size glasses! Chris gave me a look: those are actually shot glasses... Guess I don't spend enough time around grown-ups. A review of the new Renton IKEA on ParentMap here.

Getting paid to write about art and children — it's my dream come true. My story about the new Jacob Lawrence show at the Seattle Art Museum is on ParentMap. Jasper Pope, 7, of Shoreline, looks through a book about Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series at the Seattle Art Museum. Panel 3, from Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series. The caption reads: “From every southern town migrants left by the hundreds to travel north” Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series on view at the Seattle Art Museum.

Happy Year of the Rooster! Chris and I are both roosters, so this year we may or may not be turning 36 and 24, respectively. 😉 I wrote a guide for ParentMap about to lunar New Year celebrations in the Seattle area. What's your pick? The most authentic experience, the most comfortable for young families or the nicest place to spend the day? If you're really ambitious, you could even make it to all three. Joseph and Paul look so cute in their New Year's clothes from Taiwan. Paul can grow into his -- it's not meant to be a ground-grazing gown. Paul's showing me his right ear... And the other one. So exciting when you can find your ears! Paul kept looking at the ground -- I think he was intrigued he couldn't see his feet. He ran all the way across the big field and it was his anxious big brother who chased after him and guided him back. Joseph is so good about looking out for Paul. Pictures from last year here, and the year before that when we had just one little boy!

Family date night to the Seattle Children's Theatre, where we got to see one of our favorite books performed on stage. "The Snowy Day and Other Stories by Ezra Jack Keats" did not disappoint, with its winsome characters and playful puppetry. I wrote up a review of the production for ParentMap.  

My love for art museums is right up there behind my love for my children and good food. Navigating museums with little kids is an adventure, though. I wrote up tips and freebies at Seattle-area museums for this ParentMap story.  

We're in this month's issue of Seattle's Child! I wrote about making salt dough ornaments with kids, aka a lazy mom's take on Christmas. Here's a link to the story online. I also wrote a profile about a family in our neighborhood with an incredible Christmas light display (it's the column on the right). To get their yard looking that good, it takes a big commitment, some serious storage space... and a domestic dispute. Here's a link to that story online.

I was patting myself on the back, thinking I'd done a pretty good job getting my first kid ready for kindergarten. He can read, he can write, and he loves math above all else. We visited the school, practiced opening his lunch box, and purchased everything on his school supply list. But in this first month of kindergarten, I realized I'd missed a very important lesson: conformity. Color inside the lines. Every parent does what they think is best for their kid, and for me, I never wanted my kid to color inside the lines. Literally. My son never saw a coloring book, but he went through reams and reams of blank copy paper. Then in kindergarten, there are suddenly formal rules about coloring (really, it's outlined on a chart). Color in the lines. Use a color that makes sense. Color in all the spaces. Yesterday, my son brought home a sheaf of coloring pages he'd been assigned at school. I know girls in his class who are coloring geniuses, and it broke my heart to see his haphazard, stray marks. Cue coloring books. Max out screentime. None of us had computers in kindergarten, because they didn't exist. On Monday afternoons, my son goes to his technology special and sits down at a Mac in the computer lab. Up until now, we've been an intentionally screen-free house. This kid doesn't even know what a TV does, much less browsers and URLs. I get a mouse and sit him down at pbskids.org. Teach to the test. My 5-year-old has never taken a test before. Now hand him a test booklet and a number 2 pencil. Even if he knows the information stone cold, he won't know to fill in the answer bubble. A, B or C? This is October of kindergarten, and my son is schedule for his first exam next week. I order practice tests from Amazon.

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Six hours a day, that's 30 hours a week my kindergartener is away from me. It feels like a very long time, and I'm always worrying, is he cold? Is he hungry? Does he need to poop? I hope he is doing okay, because kindergarten is where he belongs. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of the teacher and the school. But I'm feeling very lucky I graduated from kindergarten in 1987. I remember loving kindergarten, because back then, all we did was play.

The key to a stress-free holiday season is to set the bar low. Really, really low. Growing up, Christmas was never a big deal in our immigrant household. In Taiwan, Christmas is barely a retail blip and the real festivities don’t kick in until lunar New Year. The one year we had a tree, it was only because my ever-practical mom got it for free through her English class. The tree overwhelmed our apartment’s living room, completely bare of any lights or decor, until my mom got tired of the shedding needles and threw it out. I’m not a Scrooge, but I did inherit some of that practical minimalism when it comes to holiday cheer. The one holiday craft I manage to pull off with my boys is the easiest art project ever. Flour. Salt. Water. If you have those three things in your kitchen (plus a tolerance for a mess), you are ready to make salt dough ornaments. Let’s get a little more specific: 4 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt and 1.5 cups of hot water. Mix everything together, and add a little more water until you get a good dough consistency. Roll out the dough, punch out shapes with cookie cutters, and poke a hole with a straw at the top so you can hang it. Ornaments can air dry if you have that kind of patience, or bake them in the oven at 325 degrees for an hour. Cool, then decorate. Markers and stickers work well for little kids; bigger kids can get fancier with paint and glitter (if you dare). I love a shiny, Pinterest-ready tree as much as anyone. But fragile ornaments? Precious heirlooms? Christmas is for kids, not for perfection. Last year’s creations held up over their hibernation, but salt dough ornaments aren’t meant to last forever. The fun is in making them, not hoarding them. We made a bunch of extra ornaments to give friends. Each time my son handed one out, I told the adult, “It can go in the compost when you’re done.” Less stuff plus lower standards equals happier holidays.