Enjoying Lenka's Video Now, Remembering Sesame Videos of the Past

By KEVIN DING

Sedona and Maven have transitioned pretty completely from little-kid music to enjoying some more modern fare, with Taylor Swift showing her mighty crossover power by being their main source of pop content.

When we got hooked on Lenka's song "The Show," the kids ran with it -- and enjoyed a few times when I found the music video online to watch. I recorded a couple of times through with Maven below, but talking about it reminds me of the long-ago days when I would kill some time with them watching some Sesame Street song videos on my laptop. There were some that we watched a lot -- and laid the groundwork for them even today wanting to watch videos while I cut their nails -- and I'm going to post a couple of those old Sesame Street videos here because I miss them!

Brings back memories of how hard I worked on getting all the lyrics to "Rubbie Duckie" correct and in the proper sequence for as many occasions as I had to practice it with Sedona.

Here's one more blast from the past, which I swear helped them get potty-trained (even though we don't speak Japanese) ...

More Sled Ding (and Other) Videos

By KEVIN DING

As I said in a previous post, I loved sledding with the family and Maggie's parents in the Mount Charleston area near Las Vegas over Thanksgiving, and I can't resist posting all these videos of us on the hill.

There's one from just before we went featuring the kids playing with my parents, one of us entering the Cosmopolitan hotel room, one of the Bellagio fountains from the hotel balcony -- then one at the end of us talking before our nontraditional Thanksgiving dinner at Bouchon's in Vegas (when Maggie and I realized from the salad that we love beets).

"Cosmopolitan" Thanksgiving

By KEVIN DING

We were in Las Vegas over Thanksgiving with the NBA still in its lockout, staying at the Cosmopolitan hotel on the Strip. The NBA players and owners forged an agreement on our last day there, so it wound up being a sort of last hurrah for family time before I went back to work.

My personal highlight was the sledding in Mount Charleston, even though there was barely enough snow for us to do it. Maven and I did countless runs down the hill, and the video of the sledding is one of my favorites.

Halloween Treats

By MAGGIE DING

Because of our cruise, Sedona missed out on her Kindergarten Halloween party, but Maven's preschool class celebrated on Halloween Day, so she got to be there.

Maven and her current best bud from class, Ryann, were princesses while Kaitlyn was Jessie from the Toy Story movies.

The event was unique, because the kids got to go down the block to the Skechers offices, where the employees couldn't wait to load the kids up with goodies. Kevin had to carry Maven's bag, because it got so heavy -- and you can see the action via video and the treasure via photo below. We took much of it and supported a great cause put on by Sedona's Hermosa View elementary school to send candy out to U.S. troops.

Not too shabby! It ended up being more than they got combined in the house-to-house walking later.

In keeping with another tradition, we went trick-or-treating with Riley, this time in her new Redondo Beach neighborhood.  

Disney Cruise Video Collection

By KEVIN DING

Here's a sampling of activity from our fun-filled Disney Wonder cruise in YouTube form ...

Disney Cruise: Day 6 ... Guess Who Fell Asleep Again?

By MAGGIE WANG

Our day at sea heading home got spiced up by the good fortune (and hard work that went into it) of being called to enjoy a Disney Tea Party. You have to register for this honor right when you get on. We didn't know about it, so I proceed to beg my way up through the wait list! It happened, and the girls loved it! 

Oh, and by dinner time, guess who was sleeping at the table again! Well, it was quite a trip for the little one.

Disney Cruise: Day 5 ... Fair Trade Fireworks

By MAGGIE WANG

Day 5 meant we stopped in Cabo San Lucas ... without a plan. So we ended up with this: Off the boat to shore, took a taxi boat over to the beaches, found a nice resort where we could chill out and just enjoyed the area (while trying our best to avoid being scammed -- fun stuff). 

There is our cruise boat! 

Maven and I played in the water. 

Beautiful and relaxing! 

Sedona and Kevin refused to go in the water! Crazy people. So they hung out at the chairs. They ended up having what Kevin said was a most interesting conversation that made the time fly by: As an extension of the notion of "fair trades" that he had them working on when they wanted to trade their Halloween candy, Sedona kept coming up with ideas and ideas about what constituted fair trades in her mind -- much to Kevin's entertainment.

The girls got their hair done with feathers and thread. 

Guess who fell asleep again from too much fun ... but still got her hair done. 

Everyone got their second wind after we get back on the boat, cleaned up and caught a 3D movie: "Cars 2."

The movie was ho-hum. More impressive in non-3-D were the fireworks later from the boat! Fantastic. 

Disney Cruise: Day 4 ... Kissed by a Dolphin

By MAGGIE WANG

Our cruise first stop was Puerto Vallarta, where we planned an excursion: swimming with dolphins. All of us Ding girls are kind of dolphin lovers (which makes Hermosa View School's dolphin mascot very appropriate), so we decided to bring the girls to swim with dolphins at a fun water park. 

I didn't get to touch or swim with dolphins until I was 22. At ages 3 and 5, I think they are a bit spoiled!

OK, maybe 3 is too young to appreciate fully the closeness of a dolphin.

After all the interaction with Fina the Dolphin, we then stayed to enjoy the show -- and Sedona and Maven got pulled out of the crowd and were asked to be part of the performance. Too cute!

When we got back on the boat, the girls got to get dressed up for trick or treating and got a good haul.

Someone was pooped at dinner from a very fun day and fell asleep right there! So we made fun of her ...

Maven woke up enough to get Minnie Mouse's autograph later, though.