excerpts from insanity, the chronicle of the poons

a kreyving

2011-06-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

kreyv-ing this:

http://tocrave.blogspot.com/2011/06/kids-week-giveaway.html?showComment=1308579200468#c6732143147350488081

i like kreyv and find a lot of inspiration for my budding design ideas there. but i am "kreyving" the print give away! if you follow my blog, i guess i like you enough to let you have a go at it, too, so check it out!

what have we been up to?

2011-06-12T19:16:00.000-07:00

well, i'm glad you asked. it's been a while since i've checked in and a lot has been going on. so here's the run down:

1. craftiness. i've been doing a lot of that lately. if you want to check it out, go to my other blog here. i have a couple of others that haven't posted, but you get the idea.

2. traveling! we have a friend from college who was getting married, so we made a road trip around to visit some friends from the "good ol' days" on our way to and from. first, we stopped in louisville (pronounced loo-i-vull...like your mouth is full of marbles. don't argue. just go with it.) to see our friends amy and clay and their beautiful family. amy is one of those people who make the rest of us look lazy, regardless of how much we get done during the day. and she makes it look relatively easy (as easy as one can make it look with three little kids and a baby on the way!). if she weren't so nice and funny, i'd hate her. we visited a really cool place called henry's ark with them and got to feed all kinds of animals: deer, ostrich, emu, goats, donkey's, peacocks, chickens, and i don't remember what else! the zebra and llama were inaccessible while we were there, but it was still pretty darn neat.

next, we headed to my friend shannon's in lexington (you are free to pronounce this one as it looks). her daughter amina was having her birthday party while we were there and my kids were so happy to get to join. they love amina and every time i say we're going to kentucky (where quite a bit of my family live, btw), they are certain that we must be going to visit amina.

we got to see a lot of old friends at the wedding, too, and got some dancing and cake in, too! afterwards, we went back to our friends heng and lara's house. we just kicked back and relaxed there and got to catch up while our kids played together (some advice: if four little children are suddenly quiet for longer than two minutes, worry. it probably involves perfume). we made it back home through the big storm later that night (that was the night a tornado ripped through joplin, and someone also threw a cantaloupe sized object off the overpass onto our van. scary. we called the police and they said that it was a popular spot for trouble, apparently. luckily there was no damage. buick just went up in my opinion) to a very hot house. we thought the HVAC system was broken, but after two days realized it was just a loose connection in the thermostat where we'd replaced the battery. the poor dog was stuck in that hot house the entire time we were gone, though!

for pics of these adventures, you'll have to check in with fai on facebook. i have no intention of waiting for blogger to upload that many photos. sorry!

3. hosting. after we invaded so many other people's houses, we had friends invade ours!! it's only fair. chava, who was in grad school with fai, came to visit with her husband mike and three kids. we haven't seen them in forever! it was fun to catch up. we went to the zoo together, then i sent them to the magic house and rec center pool. the kids loved having a sleep over, but it doesn't encourage actual sleeping, so we did have to separate them after the first night.

4. planning of the reunion. my family hasn't had a real reunion since i was a very little kid. i remember it. there was a pool and i had a blue bathing suit with a rainbow of sequins on the front. elementary school, people. so i thought it was about time we had another. because i suggested it, it was decided that i would plan it. it's going to be fun, people.

i think that's it. i bought a couch, painted a room, and i've done some yard work, but i won't bore you with those details. listing it all out has made me tired all over again. i'm out.

how hard could it be?

2011-05-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

so i've started a blog. yes, i realize that you already know i blog...obviously. i guess i wasn't doing such a good job of keeping that a secret, huh? no, i started another blog. one with an actual purpose and theme to it. talk about ambition, right?

most of you know that i'm not very crafty. and by crafty, i mean i'm unable to make, design, or really organize anything that isn't a meal or a kid's appointment. that fact really never even bothered me. on occasion i have been known to venture into the world of craftiness, but it's never a successful trip and it always tends to end early.

lately, however, i've begun to realize that i've lived in my house for about 3 years...and i still hadn't decorated it. heck, we didn't even have pictures on the wall with the exception of the one fai hung just to have a picture on the wall. it was a gift. and it's ugly. i hate it. oh, i always had plans for projects to make my house look more like a home, but the execution was always lacking. probably because my ideas were rather vague and...largely un-doable. with some "encouragement" from my friends (you know who you are and you know why there are "'s around the word encouragement), i dipped a toe into the interior decorating pool. it was still rather frigid. so i got some help. now, i have a beautiful gallery wall.

after that, the flood gates just burst open! now i want more things on my walls and in my rooms! i've started changing furniture, contemplating repainting my walls, and adding, yes, more pictures! it's amazing, really, what i think i can do these days. but....

do you know how much it costs to decorate?! it's insane! and have you met my husband? fai and price tags do not get along. so i would look longingly at the things i wanted online without any real hope of getting them. but then i took another look. and i'd frown thoughtfully and take another look. and then i got crazy. i started to think about how these things were actually made and how much less it would cost if i made it...myself. crazy, i know, but have you ever looked at something that seemed so simple (like a pillow or the way a room in a magazine is set up) and thought: i bet i can do that. how hard could it be?

so here you can follow the craft challenged as we attempt to make good on the boasting from our egotistical imaginations and tackle some simple, some difficult projects for the home and family to see what really is doable for our skill level, and what really should be left to the professionals.

How Hard Could It Be?

my one year old!

2011-04-27T11:53:00.001-07:00

eme and i made it through the year! there were times when i had my doubts! she turned one on the 26th. at 12:05 pm to be exact. daddy took the day off and we went to the zoo, then to p.f. changs for dinner. eme REALLY likes cake. then today, we had playgroup at our house so our friends could celebrate with us with cupcakes. eme really dug into it. i didn't get my camera out, but karma did and her camera is much nicer than mine! when she gets me the pics, i'll post them up. just know that at times, i wasn't sure how she was able to breathe with all that icing up her nose!

a few days before her birthday, eme finally started walking. at first, i had to bribe her (i mean i encouraged her with positive reinforcement), but now she's really taking off.

eme has also begun showing some real personality lately. she's kind of shy around others, so i thought i'd share some with you from some of our family moments:

a complete turn around

2011-04-03T11:37:00.000-07:00

so most of you know that eme has never been what i could call an easy baby. she had colic and, i'm pretty sure, reflux (even though the doctor decided that she was not in need of medication for it unless she was losing weight) for several months. after that seemed to be over, she was still very clingy, only accepting mommy to comfort her, and usually only wanting to be nursed in comfort. she didn't sleep well at night or during the day unless she was being held, and not for very long even then. she was extremely fussy for about 90% of her waking hours, and i just established that that was most of her day and night.

i learned to deal with it, as we have to, relatively well, managing to get about 80% of my housework and errands done each week with a baby on my hip and some screaming in my ear. then she started to change a bit. she started wanting to cuddle and play with me. she was such a sweet little girl...for me. still a nightmare for anyone else. then she decided daddy was okay, as long as mommy wasn't around. i started to worry that no one was ever going to see what a sweet little baby she really was because it was only in the privacy of our own home! i felt bad that she was developing a reputation as "the nightmare baby" that no one would want to be around. she was "that" baby.

but a few weeks ago, we experienced a complete turn around. eme now lets me leave the room without screaming. she plays with her sisters. she actually squirms to get away from me to explore. the other day, she started doing "knock knock" jokes with us at the table! she wants to play on the slide at mcd's. and friday, a real breakthrough: we were at a friend's house and she not only let me put her down, but she played quite happily on her own for HOURS there. she didn't even have to be right beside me. she came to me to get food and to go to sleep (which she did there)! then she slept through the night! suddenly, she is taking good naps and is just, overall, a happy baby! believe it people! this is a happy baby!

the difference? i think it is sleep. i tried cry it out a few times with her without significant success, but i decided to try it again with a few tweaks, and TA DAH!

apparently, she was cranky because she was as tired as i was! now that she's sleeping, she usually in a very good mood! so, say what you want against CIO, people, but it made for a much happier baby here!

another fancy nancy

2011-03-28T11:48:00.000-07:00

if your little girl loves fancy nancy as much as my two do, then you'll want to get on top of this:

http://icandyhandmade.blogspot.com/2011/03/tutorial-giveaway-fancy-nancy-dress.html

it's a tutorial on how to make a fancy nancy dress...and it looks like i could do it. maybe. with help? possibly with a miracle? but that's just me. you can probably follow along with a lot more success!

in addition to that, they talk about a giveaway from Childrensbookstore.com on this site for a free fancy nancy pack! (if you enter and win by reading this post, i expect a kickback. perhaps one of the books....).

dear monday morning...i think we got off on the wrong foot.

2011-03-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

oh, the joys of parenting. they are alive and well today, let me tell you! (that was sarcasm. did you hear it?) the moment i got up this morning, my older two had my blood pressure through the roof. it has just been one of those days where you have to learn to laugh or you'll cry. or punch something. or have a nervous breakdown. or all three. so i thought i'd blog about it. i'm not quite ready to laugh yet, but i thought maybe if a few others did, then it would help lighten my mood.

so eme has been teething. the poor baby has two coming in that i can tell, and she's not handling it well. so she was up last night quite a bit (on top of the two or three times she still wakes up on a normal night...*sigh*). in addition, or perhaps because of the teething, she has a cold, so her little nose is stuffy. this makes pacifiers rather useless unless that pacifier is...well...me. *sigh* so this morning, i took her into my own bed hoping to nurse her to sleep and get some more sleep myself. well, part of that happened. after much fussing and fighting, she finally gave up and hit the pillow for some much needed shut eye. but before i could reap any benefits from my hard fought victory, the other two are up. because eme is finally asleep, i don't want to wake her up by moving her, and i can't leave her alone on the bed because she can fall off (at what age do they learn this kind of fear?). so when noe and mali come into my room asking for food, i tell them to get an apple. "be sure to wash them" i tell them, feeling very responsible for remembering to remind them of this important detail. well, that was the mistake that started it all.

the girls can only wash their own apples in the upstairs bathroom because they can reach the faucet and it's one that is a simple turn rather than pull. this, of course, leads them to the bright idea of filling the sink so their apples can take a bath. but this is taking too long, so they leave it to fill while they go back to their room to look for toys. while in their toy box, they look out the window. oooo, snow! you know what would be fun? a snowball fight! so they skate down the stairs to the back deck and start playing in the snow. without shoes or coats or anything other than their pj's. realizing after a moment that this is rather cold, they head back upstairs for a couple of towels to bring the snow in on (an indoor snowball fight is the best of both worlds, right? what could possibly be wrong with that?!). getting their towels, they remember the sink, which has now, of course, overflowed to an astonishing degree. they sacrifice one towel to try and sop of the water on the floor in front of the sink, turn off the water, and head back downstairs to get their snow. the towels catch some paper on the counter and it comes floating down to catch their attention. it's pink. of course! this is the slip of paper that mommy said was very important and not to play with. but she didn't say we couldn't tear it up, right? it would look so pretty as confetti. she couldn't possibly be angry about confetti! well, now that we have confetti, we should get that snow and make our winter wonderland. in the kitchen. on a monday morning. after mom has been up too much over night with the teething baby. yes. that's a great idea.

so here is what i find when i get up. first, i go to the bathroom to get eme a tissue for her runny nose (lovely). the sink has drained (nice of them), but the towel is completely soaked and there is still a large puddle of water that runs from the sink to the bath tub, behind the toilet and, oh yes, in the drawers and cabinet below the sink. the worse part: the portable heater that we use during their bath time so they aren't so cold when they get out...plugged in and sitting in the puddle. (believe we had a rather lengthy discussion about the dangers of electrocution). i have to put a crying eme (crying possibly because she got scared as i yelled at the other two girls) in their bedroom with them while i took care of the mess, which required throwing out quite a bit of the stuff stored in the drawers and cabinet, crawling on my hands and knees to get behind the toilet (unflushed, btw), and taking the whole sopping mess of towels to the laundry. then i go back to get eme and tell the girls to come downstairs so we can eat. this is where i find the pink confetti. the temple slip for a relative my grandma had asked me to take to the temple with me. the pounding in my head is demanding that i beat them. but i don't. i do, again, give another lengthy lecture and explain that it will make granny very sad and that that makes me very angry, etc. so i clean it up. in the process, i notice two towels by the back door...and several small footprints in the snow on the deck. there is a big rule in our house about how they are not allowed to go outside without me saying they can. and here, obviously, they have done just that. i am out of lengthy discussions at this point and send them to their room for the rest of the day before i give in to the desire to beat them. i call them back down for lunch later, then send them back up. the rest of my day consisted of cleaning, laundry, caring for the crying baby, and yelling at my girls to stop whatever it is they're doing to make so much noise (including by not limited to noe sitting on the toy box lid...which she has placed on mali's head).

oh, WHY don't they think things through before they do them? they know the rules, can recite them to me along with their reasons and consequences. and yet...they do it anyway! then they get so upset when those consequences are placed upon them. i am happy to report that no children were hurt in the making of this blog post. however, all privileges were taken away and i'm sure they are sick of hearing me lecture (there were about 4 today before i lost my voice for a while). that was a punishment on us all.

Fancy Nancy

2011-01-20T12:14:00.000-08:00

notice, readers, that the title is uncharacteristically capitalized. i save that distinction for only the really important things in life, and Fancy Nancy has earned that honor. much respect to the author jane o'connor and illustrator robin preiss glasser.

for those without the privilege of an introduction to Nancy yet, allow me to elucidate: Fancy Nancy is a children's book about a girl (named nancy, if you hadn't guessed) who wants everything to be...you guessed it, fancy. my daughters, 4 and 3, absolutely love this book. in fact, i'm pretty sure that nancy and noe are soul mates or, at the very least, best friends. as much as a fictional girl and her reader can be best friends.... anyway, for those who don't know this about me, i usually have...issues, we'll say, with characters in my children's books. or movies. or in books and movies in general, i guess. they are usually selfish, stupid, disrespectful, weak, unrealistic, or just plain annoying. but don't judge this book by its cover. literally. because reading about a young girl who walks around acting french all the time was not exactly high on my list of good reads for my kids. i have trouble enough already getting my oldest to wear anything other than her play dress-up clothes (which are not school, church, grocery store, or playground appropriate), so giving her a character to relate to who is even more extreme gave me a headache. but a friend got the book for her for her birthday with the assurance that it was a great book and that i would not have any trouble reading it to her over and over again. and that is what we have done. over and over and over and over and over again. any time my kids want to read Fancy Nancy, the answer is yes. and why? because of the wonderful story? the character development? the beautiful lesson or moral of the story? nah. i mean, it's alright, but let's not get that carried away. no, ladies and gentlemen, this book is a simple read with rather one dimensional peeps. it is a children's book, after all.

Fancy Nancy, however, does offer two very important things: vocabulary and creative problem solving. nancy loves big words, so she tries to find one for everything. example: she writes her name with a pen with a plume (that's a fancy word for feather), and her idea is stupendous (that's a fancy word for great), and she dresses her family up to look posh (that's a fancy word for fancy). it's refreshing to have a book that makes vocabulary fun for my kids and encourages them to use their spoken language the correct way. synonyms are wonderful tools for kids and will help them throughout their life, though most in writing of essays or trying to vocalize their thoughts effectively. i dream of the day when the teenagers of america learn to use something other than vulgar and base language, find some other way of vocalizing than cussing. personally, i think that kind of language makes the one using it sound asinine or cretinous (those are fancy words for stupid). my daughter asked santa for a pen with a plume for christmas. i know adults who aren't sure what that is. sad, but true. i am hoping that this book, which is now a series, will inspire the rising generation to speak more intelligently and be able to express their ideas and feelings more coherently. i certainly expect my kids to do so, and nancy is totally on board. she's the next jane austin!

as for the problem solving, it's a bit simplistic, but definitely something to build on. nancy, while making everything fancy, does so with things she has around the house rather than getting them from the store. for example: her bed started as a simple twin sized bed. she built a canopy for it using a broom, mop, sheets, ribbon, and i don't know what else. genius! she uses gift bows on her shoes or in her hair to make them fancy. she uses scarves and stickers and anything else she can find to decorate herself, her room, her notebooks, and her family. it's great. and my kids notice that it's stuff that they, too, can use. we've made hair bows out of scraps of tulle. we've decorated shoes that they thought were too plain. we've made fancy nancy skirts. when they find something that, before, had no real value to them, they think of ways to use it like nancy did. granted, it's only for decorating purposes now, but someday they could expand that to other problems and be able to solve them by thinking outside the proverbial box.

perhaps i am expecting too much from one children's book. and, of course, retailers have gone against what fancy nancy is all about and have started selling her shoes and skirts and bedroom set and whatever else for rather high prices. but the idea and the foundation is there for parents to build their little darlings on. now, i have to go get the girls ready for their fancy nancy tea party.

my inner fashionista

2010-11-04T13:17:00.000-07:00

i used to look nice. it's true! back before i got married, i used to dress myself in cute little outfits, wear make up, do my hair, and even accessorize! i was never really a hottie or anything, but i looked nice. sometimes i even looked pretty darn good. it was fun to dress in the mornings (or the afternoons, evenings, etc.). then i graduated a married woman and started working, which meant different kinds of clothes. it was a hard transition for me, going from young and "hip" to office drone and i rebelled as much as i could against it with my clothes. we won't go there, though. we'll jump forward to now: stay at home mom to three. the uniform became jeans and t-shirts that were stained and likely smelled of spit up. sometimes i didn't even make it out of my pj's. run to the store in my sweats? sure! my husband's basketball shorts? why not?! what sort of time did i have to spend dressing up, and, honestly, for what?! where did i go that it mattered how i looked? walmart? there's a whole website dedicated to pictures of people who look absolutely ridiculous there, and i was never bad enough to make it on their radar, so was there any real worry?

the past few months, however, i have begun to re-evaluate. perhaps i should be more mindful of what i look like. i even have a whole list of reasons:
1. so my husband doesn't see me as "letting myself go" and lose interest (lets be honest, no one wants to make out with a frump and there could be a cute young thing who does look nice at work who even gets in a shower more than every three days).
2. so my kids aren't embarrassed by me when i pick them up/drop them off (that scene from "hope floats" where she shows up at her daughter's school looking so dreadful that her daughter pretends she doesn't know her makes me cringe).
3. to teach my kids that it is important to present yourself well. it is. we are all judged by the way we look. as much as you want to avoid giving the wrong impression, you want to give the right one as well. and it's especially important that they see me dress well without being immodest so that they know that they can do it, too.
4. to boost my own self esteem. when we dress nicer, we feel better, more capable and ready to face the world.
5. because i miss it. why should i have to give up that part of my life simply because i've aged and had children? it doesn't interfere with parenting my kids properly or getting things done.

there are more, but these were my top few. so, anyway, a few months ago i took on a personal challenge to start dressing nicer. and i have been shocked how easy it really is! it used to take much more time and effort to do it when i was younger. now i can accomplish the look i want in about 30 minutes. it might take more if i have to deal with difficult hair, but luckily messy ponytails and buns are in, as are fun hats. and if i dedicate time to straighten hair once, it lasts about four days, making it even easier. so here is my fashion formula these days:
1. skinny jeans. i resisted these for a while, but finally gave in when a friend pointed out that they are great to wear with boots. i have a shoe fetish and so own about 6 pairs of really cute boots. most of my pants before covered the best parts about them or would be uncomfortable when tucked into the boots. the skinny jeans are a life saver now. they are no more difficult to pull on then any other piece of clothing but look a lot better and give me the option to pull on boots or flats with them.
2. leggings. oh, how i love my leggings. they are the most comfortable thing i think i've ever worn! they are my fall back piece now to be worn with skirts or dresses or tunics and boots or flats and keep my legs looking nice. i can even sleep in them and then wear them to drop noe off at school the next morning! time saved!
3. long t's. they come fitted or flowing and have lots of cute prints or embellishments. great look for comfort, casual, yet still fun. and they cover any body flaws that the tight pants may show....hey, i've had three kids.
4. fabulous jackets. i've always loved jackets. now, they can be used to make an outfit mor age appropriate (blazer or sleek leather), stylish (over very plain), classy, or casual.
5. boots and flats. so easy to make an outfit stylish with the right shoes. i have some pink ballet flats with a black ribbon at the toe that add fun flare to otherwise drab outfits. i have a pair of brown suede ones and black ones that suit any other. and i already told you about my boots. ah, shoes....
6. a wish list piece: the fashion scarf.

any way, these thing are so easy to find, comfy to wear, versatile, and fashion acceptable. so i've gone from plain and frump to feeling good. a necessary change for everyone? no. but a fun one, so why not?

the aged

2010-10-28T20:08:00.000-07:00

so i am turning 31 tomorrow. in just a few short hours, really. that officially puts me into the "thirty something" category. before, i was just 30. now i'm 30 and then some. while i really don't feel like i'm old enough to be considered "aging", i felt the need to compare what i remember as a kid to the way things are today to see how old i really am:
1. tight jeans, often ripped on purpose, with big shirts and leg warmers. these were really big in the 80's, i think. i remember feeling like i would kill for a pair of these jeans with paint splatters on them and the matching jean jacket. they would have gone really well with the neon colored socks and jelly bracelets we wore. now, of course, things have changed a bit. the fashion has come full circle, only the jeans are now called "skinny jeans" rather than tapered leg and the paint splatters are replaced with wiskering and fading on the thigh and butt. the bracelets are now in the shapes of animals or movie characters or something (my kids love these...but i'm not sure why) and the socks and warmers...well, the socks are now to be mismatched (something we did, but not necessarily on purpose) and the warmers are pretty much the same. i'm old because fashions don't generally repeat themselves in short time spans.

2. disney movies that i grew up with are being released from the disney vault. for some reason, it's a huge deal for beauty and the beast to be on disc again. didn't it already have it's release day? i'm just sayin'.... is it really fair to get the "new release" kind of treatment a decade later? kind of reminds me of that obnoxious show on mtv, "sweet sixteen". really, i think it would have been better to leave some, or most, of these in that vault so i could remember them fondly with the eyes of my childhood. instead, i'm forced to see them through the eyes of a parent and see how horrible these characters are as role models for young girls. like my young girls. my favorite as a kid was "the little mermaid". now i just wish she would have been turned into the sea kelp by ursella and the sea would have been under the witch's rule for a long horrible time. at least then the little brat may have learned a lesson.

3. my music. there is an oldies station programmed on my radio that has been playing songs i grew up to. journey, chicago, billy joel. oh, how i love the! but i'd rather not hear you there. what's really depressing is hearing kids not too much younger than me...ok, about half my age...saying that they don't know who these bands are. but they know a whole bunch of crap songs that litter my car should i dare to turn it on rather than listening to disney soundtracks! really, who comes up with this stuff?!

4. my need to make the bed before i can sleep in it. who does that as a kid? i remember saying "why bother, i'm just going to mess it up again when i sleep in it." now it really bugs me if it's not made and made correctly. bless my hubby, he occasionally tries to do it for me if i don't get to it during the day, but he can't seem to get it right. the sheet or blanket may be upside down. of sideways. it may be lopsided. the fitted sheet may not be tightened at the corners. etc. i try not to say anything or make it obvious that i have to fix it, but it does have to be fixed before a restful sleep can be achieved. however, when my kids ask me why the beds have to be made...i really have no answer for them.

5. bed time. i never really had one that i remember. i don't have one now. but the difference is, i want one! back in the day, i could stay up all night and feel no effects. now, i'm always so tired! i NEED a decent night's rest in order to function the next day. my kids seem to have acquired the energy i used to have and my own reserves have depleted. the two may be connected.

anyway, there's more, of course (ie, my reflection, language, rules, priorities, transportation etc.), but the really problem is not so much each point i listed. it's this:
I JUST DON"T GET IT!

i find myself shaking my head a lot these days with that phrase flashing through my mind. i don't get the styles, the music, or a large list of other things that are considered "cool" these days. i have become, quite possibly, a grown up. and that just makes me feel old.

so much for those eyes in the back of a mom's head!

2010-08-12T12:15:00.000-07:00

so i spent part of my afternoon today at walmart with the girls. we were there, as always, a little longer than i expected and ran into eme's nap time. unlike the older two girls, she is a little more difficult to soothe when she's tired. i tried bribing her with candy and toys, but she wasn't interested. so as we are headed home, i am desperately trying to get her to quiet down (baby cries are "designed" to instill a sense of urgency and, boy, was i urgently trying to calm her!). i manage, while reaching an arm behind my seat, to locate her rejected paci under her leg and am attempting to put it back in her wide open mouth (at the same time, i'm watching the road, dodging a few pot holes, and moving over so a cop with his lights on can get by, then getting back over before i lose my place in line. but the more i try, the louder she's crying and jerking her head around to get away from me! why won't this paci go in?! and then i realize, as i'm pulling up to the stop light that will give me a bit of a break in the multi-tasking i've been attempting. her cries aren't sounding the least bit muffled as they should if i was getting the paci in the right spot.... so i twist around to see exactly where it is that i'm poking her. the poor thing had been putting up with me stabbing her in the eye with her paci for at least three miles!

i actually found this amusing, despite the crying (or perhaps the crying just finally snapped something in my brain and i've gone a bit insane). i kept thinking of all the jokes that could be used here:
1. stop crying or i'll give you something to cry about (my personal favorite)
2. it's all fun and games...until someone loses an eye
3. stop playing with that or you'll poke your eye out

those are the top three. now i must go because she's fussing again while i try to finish up. the paci is useless (though i do have it in the right place this time).

things that i'd forgotten

2010-08-10T20:25:00.000-07:00

1. how to shop with only one child: fai took the older girls to the pool yesterday so that i could run a couple of quick errands (and by "quick" i mean a couple hours). i took eme with me, obviously, because i'm the food source (the cow, if you will). seeing as i had gotten so used to have all three kids with me when i run errands, i figured just one (the one that doesn't talk or grab things, or throw tantrums over not getting something, or run up and down the aisles) would be a breeze! so i took her in without the sling to carry her, intending to simply grab my purchase, swipe my card, and be out in ten minutes. instead, i had to juggle her from arm to arm as she squirmed around (she's reached THAT age) while i dug through the shelves for what i wanted, comparing and evaluating. then i stood in a line longer than the mississippi doing the baby bounce to keep her entertained while i made small talk with the customers around me about her. then i saw a couple of toys that would be perfect for the girls' special gift to keep them occupied on the long drive to and from florida this weekend and had to engineer a way to transport them from the shelf into my hands, which were both full (one with the baby and the other with my new set of sheets). hmm....that was a tough one. but not as tough as getting my wallet out, swiping my card, and signing that stupid credit card slip that the pregnant lady behind the counter didn't see fit to hold for me until after i'd already finished signing it. all while holding a squirming, and now stinky and cranky, infant! all of these things would have been made much simpler if she had been able to walk, talk and carry things; or if i had simply remembered what it was really like to shop with one and been smart enough to bring the sling.

2. how much babies love long hair: i remember now, painfully. but there's nothing i can do to keep it away from her! i need a hair cut, but i can't get away from her long enough to get it since she's nursing every two hours or so. so i just keep having to pry her little fingers out of my hair, losing several strands each time in the process. soon, i won't need a hair cut. i'll have no hair.

3. how much i depended on a good night's sleep: that's just out the window, so i might as well not torture myself with the memories.

4. what spit up smells like at the end of the day: what's that stench? oh, yes. it's me.

5. how to calm a screaming baby: well, either i've forgotten or she doesn't know how to be soothed. seriously, what's wrong with her?

6. how much i'm capable of loving my children: but i remember now.

my church talk

2010-08-08T20:23:00.000-07:00

i hate public speaking. i get nervous and sick every time. and yet, they keep asking me to do it! well, i was up stressing about this talk until about 3am, so i figured it was worth more than the ten minutes it took me to give it in church this morning. so i'm going to post it here to stretch its usefulness a bit. as you read it, just imagine that it's being delivered with the proper emotional inflection in the appropriate parts and a clear and confident voice in the rest.

Good morning, Brothers and Sisters. I have to admit that I am usually rather reluctant to be up here and always feel as though I may faint at the mere idea of it. But as I sat here today, I realized that it's a lot quieter without my kids next to me. It's kind of like a vacation. I may stay. Actually, I love my kids and it is for their benefit that I address you today.

My topic today is Teaching the Children. Brothers and Sisters, look around you, at the children sitting beside you, in front of or behind you, maybe ON you. Look at their beautiful faces, hear their happy or cranky chatter, feel that sweet spirit they bring and know - don't think - know that they need you. These are Heavenly Father's special souls. They are innocent and completely dependent. Cheryll Lant, in her talk "That Our Children Might See the Face of the Savior" (http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=178fde009da38210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD) said it nicely: "We are the angels that Heavenly Father has sent today to bless the children....It is our responsibility as parents and leaders of this rising generation of children to bring them to the Savior."

Notice how she said "parents and leaders", not just parents. These children are not merely the Shirk's, the Poon's, or the LaPlant's (although we do seem to make up a large part of this rising generation). No, the children are the children of the Church. Their education in the gospel principles is the responsibility of all of those here, all of those in the Church. So look again and remind yourself, "they need you." Elder Anderson says in his talk "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus" (http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=3140de009da38210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD): "We hold in our arms the rising generation. They come to this earth with important responsibilities and great spiritual capacities. We can not be casual in how we prepare them." So how do we prepare them? How do we take on such a responsibility and teach the children?

Now, I am not what anyone could call a natural when it comes to teaching. Regardless of my experience with babysitting my young cousins and the time I spent with my nephew from when he was a newborn till now, as a teenager, I was always uncomfortable around kids. Young children, especially, terrified me. My own two year old still does on occasion. So this question of how to teach them something so weighty and important as this was particularly daunting to me. I did not grow up in a home where the Church standards and principles were taught or followed, so I felt unqualified to advise others on it. But as I pondered it over the past week or so, I felt inspired. I saw it in the way my three-year-old crossed her arms and threatened to count to three when her sister took her toy; in the way my two-year-old negotiated with me over bed time by starting with "Okay, now here's the deal,"; in the way my three-month-old smiled at me when I smiled at her and stuck her tongue out at me when I did it, too (the drooling, however, is not from me). They were copying me, following my example. This is the most effective teaching tool we have. As much as we'd prefer to use the "Do as I say, not as I do" method, it just won't work.

We naturally tend to imitate the example of our parents, our leaders, our peers. The prophet Brigham Young said: "We should never permit ourselves to do anything that we are not willing to see our children do. We should set them an example that we wish them to imitate." As a parent, however, I remind you that we can not do it alone. It is not my example alone that my own children are following. Even at their young ages, I see them patterning themselves after things and people around them. My oldest, who turns a tender four in a couple months, saw a music video that I thought was harmless. The language was fine, the theme was safe. I saw nothing wrong in it. The next day, Noe started pulling the sleeves of her dress down over her shoulders. When I asked why, she said she wanted to look like the girl in the video. With that in mind, I urge you, though you may think that what you do bears no great effect on children who aren't yours, to remember what President Monson said in his talk "Examples of Righteousness": "Always remember that people are looking to you for leadership and you are influencing the lives of individuals either for good or for bad, which influence will be felt for generations to come."

Brothers and Sisters, we have been given a great and awesome blessing with these children, whether in our homes or in our classrooms or scout packs or just in the aisles that they may run up and down or hallways where they may be crying. Heavenly Father has entrusted us with their care. He believes in us and, with that, has great expectations. President Monson explains that "ours is the task to be fitting examples." We must ask ourselves if we are worthy to be role models, whether we intend to be role models or not. Ask yourself: are my hands clean? is my heart pure? am I a worthy servant of the Lord? In that, are we studying our scriptures and practicing the principles we learn there? Are we actively searching for the right path, the straight and narrow, that will lead us back to our Heavenly Father and eternal family? For we have to know the way in order to show it to the children. Cheryl Lant poses we ask: "What do the children see when they look at my face? Do they see the image of the Savior in my countenance because of how I live my life?" We see it in the countenance of the children so often that to lose that would be a heavy burden indeed.

I will be one of the first to admit that it can be hard, that the task and responsibility can weigh you down at some very crucial moments. To be a perfect example when we are not perfect. To feel like you're failing in this most important calling. But do not lose hope. President Monson tells us "we are strengthened by the truth that the greatest force in the world today is the power of God as it works through man. If we are on the Lord's errand, we are entitled to the Lord's help." What greater errand to be on than in the raising of His children? To be a good example for them to follow? Elder Anderson stated that "our challenge as parents and teachers is not to create a spiritual core in their souls but rather to fan the flame of their spiritual core already aglow with the fire of their premortal faith." The children want to learn and are looking to you to teach them. If you find your example is unworthy, than let God help you change for the betterment of the children. Let us aspire to be great teachers and guides to these special spirits. As President Monson teaches us, "the effectiveness of an inspired bishop, adviser, or teacher has very little to do with the outward trappings of power or an abundance of this world's goods. The leaders who have the most influence are usually those who set hearts afire with devotion to the truth, who make obedience to duty seem the essence of manhood, who transform some ordinary routine occurrence so that it becomes a vista where we see the person we aspire to be." Let this be our example. Let us show the children through our obedience that nothing will bring greater joy and success than to live according to the teachings of the gospel.

Let those currently without young children in the home not be deterred from partaking in this great responsibility and, thereby, great blessing. President Monson reminds us that "even an exemplary family, with diligent and faithful father and mother can use all the supportive help they can get from good [people] who genuinely care. There is also the [child] whose [parents] are not currently providing the type of example needed. For that [child], the Lord has provided a network of helpers within the Church - bishops, advisers, teachers...[YOU]. When the Lord's program is in effect and properly working, no child in the Church should be without the influence of good [people] in its life."

Brothers and Sisters, we have come to this earth in troubled times, "with society in general routinely disregarding and breaking the laws of God. The adversary is using every means possible to ensnare our youth in his web of deceit" (Monson, "Examples..."). So let us be aware of our children, of their innocence and their needs. Let us teach them the goodness of the gospel, the love of the Savior and Heavenly Father. Look into those eyes again, know that they need you, and answer proudly we are here for them.

gratuitous cuteness

2010-08-08T17:50:00.000-07:00

as you can see, our house is just full of photo ops! that is all.

ah, romance...

2010-07-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

when fai and i first started dating, it was pretty common to find us in the clubs on the weekends dancing the night away. we would get all dressed up and gather with a fun group of friends, and hit the town...well, as much as one can hit the town in lexington. we would be out until two in the morning sometimes and not think anything of it. it was great!

fast forward to nine and a half years later....

i can't seem to make it past 11:30 without feeling completely wrung and date night seems to come along every three months or so and involves finding a sitter, not bothering to dress up beyond throwing on some clothes that don't have baby spit on them and pulling my messy hair back. clubbing? ha! unless you count ordering a club sandwich at subway, clubbing is no longer a part of our scene. i'm too old and my poor head wouldn't be able to handle the chest vibrating kind of music they play after spending all day with screaming kids. we would be "that couple" who everyone knows is too old to be there and must simply be making a pathetic attempt to regain the good ol' days of their youth. gosh, i'm old.

romance these days consists of the occasional rented movie and some pop after the kids are in bed and the house is cleaned up for the third time of the day. it is the meaningful stroke on my back as he drops his dirty lunch dishes off in the kitchen where i'm trying to bounce the baby and cook dinner at the same time. it's when he offers to clean the kitchen or make the dinner or, lord willing, take the baby himself so that i can do these things in peace. it's the sweet little messages he sends through email while he's at work or posts on my wall on facebook.

as for dancing, we haven't quite given it up. a few nights ago, as the kids were all sleeping and the house was quiet, he plays a song on youtube and coaxes me onto the living room dance floor. we suddenly found it amusing in the middle of "hero" that this is what our love lives had come to: youtube in the living room where the baby was sleeping on the couch, trying not to step on the creaky spots on the floor that may wake her up. the music was cheesy and our clothes were rather unflattering, and yet there we were, swaying to it and feeling lucky to have that moment. i guess what's funnier than that is that i was perfectly happy. in fact, i think i'd take those nights over the college clubbing any day. because, really, what is more romantic? bouncing around to obnoxious music in a sweaty crowd of strangers? or the fact that your husband worked to make the moment special, the sweet sway to soft strains in the comfort of the home you've built together?

what they did this summer

2010-07-19T12:15:00.000-07:00

this summer, fai's mom taught the girls to swim. it was really hard for noe at first because she was so scared when it came to getting her head underwater, but by the time nai nai left (that's fai's mom), she was able to swim from one side of the pool to the other without any help! we're so proud of her!

on the other hand, mali started out strong, taking to swimming like a fish to water. but as soon as nai nai and yei yei (fai's dad) left, she suddenly got lazy! she'll jump in and float...but not kick any more. she used to be able to swim almost from one end to the other, but now thinks it's more fun to simply float on her face.

i tried to post a video of the little fish, but blogger isn't letting me for some reason. guess you'll just have to come see for yourselves!

four days in

2010-07-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

so the in-laws left on saturday and i have to admit i was a bit nervous about taking on all three girls full time by myself. the thought of the crying baby, trouble making two year old and melodramatic three year old (i do love them, but i don't own a pair of rose colored lenses!); as well as a house that would be constantly getting messy, meals that needed planned, prepared, cooked and served; appointments to keep; groceries to buy; and everything else that a stay at home mom does was giving me a headache. the word "dread" came to mind a few times. my mantra has become "people do it." they do. my mom, aunts, grandmother. my friends. neighbors. fai's coworders' wives. almost all the women in utah. some even do it with more kids than i have (what are they, nuts?). so with those words replaying over and over again in my head, i confronted my life again. and wouldn't you know it....

i was right! the baby cries and needs to be carried the majority of the day. the older two are constantly getting into things and getting into minor skirmishes. the toys and books are constantly strewn about in rooms that i seem to have just cleaned. these same kids get hungry several times a day and expect me to feed them (kids these days, huh?). the laundry piles up at an alarming rate, and the time i have to do these things keeps slipping away faster than you could think possible (even encroaching on my nap time, if you can believe the nerve!). and with all of that -

things are going really well! i manage to keep everyone happy (as long as rules are being followed), healthy (i even make the girls eat some veggies twice a day) and relatively well-groomed (noe keeps changing her clothes at least twice a day from what i put on her in the morning). i would like to credit my own awesomeness in the roll of mom, or pat myself on the back for teaching my kids to behave so well as to make it easier for me. unfortunately, i can't take all the credit. i have to throw some to my hubby for the help albeit indirect. i'm four days in and my house is not only standing, but pretty well kept. my laundry stays done. i've been to play group and the grocery store without incident. and all because of a book title fai mentioned he wanted to read and suggested i do the same. i haven't read the book yet (and don't know if i will actually make the time to do so since it doesn't sound all that entertaining), but it's about how to get things done (i don't even remember the name of it). when i asked for more detail about it, he explained that it said things like "if something is only going to take you a few extra minutes, go ahead and do it rather than putting it off until later" or something like that. well, what a concept! i interpret it into this: if i am going to sit on the couch in the living room, then i should go ahead and straighten up the couch and the various toys on the floor. if i'm going to be sitting, i can fold laundry while i'm there. if i'm going to be by the computer (let's be honest, i'm going to be on facebook), then why not research my primary lesson and talk, check on the finances, etc. if i'm going to be in my room with the baby, why not go ahead and make the bed and put away the laundry? if i'm going to be in the girls' room, why not put away laundry there? chances are, i'm going to need to be in every room of the house at least five times each day and there are several things that i need to do in those rooms, so why not do it as i pass through rather than make an extra trip? i'm walking by the bathroom, why not stop in the bathroom to grab the trash? well, i'm not explaining it well, but it makes enough sense to me that i feel pretty darn good about things at the end of the day. my house isn't a disaster, and i don't feel like i've been running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get my checklist done.

anyway, bottom line is, all is well in the poon family. in fact, it's so easy that maybe we'll go ahead and add another...? then again, maybe we'll wait a little while to make sure i've gotten it perfected.

eme's blog debut

2010-07-07T22:03:00.001-07:00

so here is the newest addition to the poon chaos. adorable, isn't she? meet emelina wing mei poon, eme (pronounced emma) for short. born april 26th at 12:02 pm, 5lbs 14oz (our biggest one yet!).

things in the poon family are going well. fai's parents have been here for a few months to help out after the baby was born. they are leaving on the 10th, so we're heading to chicago with them to do the tourist thing for a couple days before seeing them off at the air port.

fai and i both have new callings at church for those who don't follow us on facebook. fai is the elders' quorum first councilor and i am the second councilor in the primary. noe has started gynnastics and really loves it (and, of course, is just the greatest little natural athlete!). mali and noe are both pretty good with the baby. eme, herself, has been so far the most difficult infant i've had, but the past couple weeks has seemed to be coming out of her colicky stage and constant fountain of spit up stage. she still poops on me through her diaper and clothes at least once a week (i'll have some funny stories about it if you want to ask me later...i may even post some because, really, if we can't laugh about it, we shouldn't be mothers!). she's growing really fast so, while she looked like a dead ringer for noe when she was born, i think is going to have the same sort of build as mali. she eats like her at any rate! she's a really good sleeper now and easily sleeps from about 10:30 to 5 or 6 in the morning. then she eats and goes back to sleep.

i haven't had to actually be a stay at home mother to three yet, since i've had the in laws here to help. i'm a little nervous about it, to be honest. i may never get a shower again!

you know what they say about first impressions....(from the group theme blog)

2010-07-07T21:55:00.001-07:00

this is a well known story among friends and family. i'm pretty sure that if you've spoken to me informally at least four times in your life, i've told you this story. in fact, i have told it to congregations in each "introductory talk" i've had to give in church since it happened. i even put in on our wedding invitation (a graphic cd we sent rather than paper ones) for everyone to read to a very lovely song playing in the background for anyone who may have missed it.

i married a wonderful man. he's smart, really funny (sometimes he even means to be), good with kids and helps out around the house. he is practical when i am too frivolous. i am serene where he is agitated. we really do balance each other out. being so well matched as we are, one would think that it was a hit from the start. well, one would be wrong. in fact, one would be WAY WAY WAY off base. we didn't really like each other for a while. he thought i was a witch (or rather a word that rhyme with witch). i thought he was immature and ridiculous. oh, and gay. which is my favorite part of the story.

we met the summer i was subletting a room in a house with some friends. one of the guys who was supposed to move in after the summer moved in a couple weeks early and, one day after i had returned from work, had some friends over and they were making some noise downstairs. being a rather social and curious person, i went down to see what they were up to. to my shock and dismay (i still gasp at the memory...that's sarcasm. but i do roll my eyes), i found brad (the room mate) and a couple of his friends filling super soaker water guns in the kitchen sink. you see, it was rush week, which meant hundreds of sorority girls in white were blanketing the campus. the guys (should i really admit that they were friends or even acquaintances of mine?) were going to drive around and shoot these unsuspecting saps with their water guns. this is where i got the "ridiculous and immature" portion of my impression of my husband. it's amazing that we got together at all. especially when you lump the next part on top of it.

fai was in the bathroom when i happened upon the gun slingers and was returning to the fun as i was chiding them for their night's plans (hence the witch impression from him...i think. i suppose there are many instances where that could have come from....). so brad then introduced him separate from the other two friends, and simply called him "the gay asian". this would not sell me on the fact that he was actually homosexual because...well, they are college guys and tend to razz on each other a lot. but fai did not deny it, as most college guys would do if there weren't, indeed, of that persuasion. helped along by the fact that 1) i was dating someone else at the time so wasn't really concerned with his affiliation enough to dig deeper, and 2) he and one of their other friends tended to act as though they were a couple. it was difficult to tell, really, if they were kidding sometimes or not. they would pretend so often and were always sitting next to each other when i would see them out. what reason did i have to doubt it? TWO YEARS almost went by before i thought that brad may have been joking. and it wasn't because of anything fai did to contradict it, but rather the partner in crime who suddenly had a girl friend. still, fai did wear some questionable colors for a straight dude....so it was even later, when i heard him tell tale of his poor heart being crushed on the basketball court...by "caroline" that i realized that he may be straight.

now, after seven years of marriage and three children, i can say with an almost certainty that he is NOT gay. at least, i don't think so....no, definitely not. although...he still hasn't denied it even when i tell the story over and over. but a gay man would care more about his wardrobe and be less of a pervert. so, yes, i'm sure i've caught myself a good one!

second attempt at last post

2010-02-25T20:58:00.001-08:00

proof that i do occassionally wear make up and do my hair!

2010-02-24T08:04:00.000-08:00

the lady had potential...

2010-02-21T18:20:00.000-08:00

i have never been known to be, or have really striven to be, environmentally friendly. really, the environment and i could hardly even be called acquaintances. we're more like those people who see each other a couple times a year at a mutual friend's house where we make polite small talk before the awkward silence drives us to opposite sides of the room until the next party. i guess that makes me...what?...environmentally social? i use tons of plastic bags. i refuse to spend the extra money on locally grown or organic veggies or fruits. i use the environmentally friendly light bulbs only if they happen to be on sale when i need them. i am too lazy to recycle (lets be honest, i have the girls throwing the trash away for me half the time). i go through a forest of paper towels in a month, i'm sure. i don't even know what else i'm doing that hurts my "acquaintance", but i'm sure there is more. no wonder it doesn't seek me out at the party!

however, i have, in the past year, made a friend who (at least by the standards here) is (and i didn't coin the term, but here it is) "granola" or "crunchy". as a sort of nod to her, i have made some feeble attempts to improve my relationship with the environment. i have cut down on my paper towel usage (mostly because i'm either at her house where they are scarce, or she's at mine and i care not to draw her wrath). instead, i have been using more towels to clean up messes. then i even spent the money to buy those reusable grocery bags. the other day, i even made sure to give my kids the few pieces of recycled paper i had (i don't even know where i got it) to draw on.

but, alas, i fear that my relationship with the environment will be unimproved by the next party. unfortunately, it does not feel the intentions, but merely the results, and here i have been somewhat lacking. you see, while i do try to use more towels than paper towels, i find that this increases the amount of laundry i have, and that is the chore that i hate most in my SAHM world. so i tend to cheat (really, does it help that much, since increasing the laundry load takes more precious energy to run the machines, which is a precious commodity, is it not?). i haven't remembered to use my reusable grocery bags in several months...and that's about how long ago i bought them, and i have to say that i sometimes leave them at home on purpose in favor of getting more plastic bags to use in my trash cans. and worse, ever since i started potty training my two year old, i have been flushing quite a few "unflushable" wipes down my toilets. all in all, i think the best i can say of my relationship with the environment is that i don't litter. in fact, my kids tend to pick things up off the ground on a regular basis. then they are forced to throw it in the nearest trash bin...where the non-degradable wipe i use to hastily clean their hands afterward soon follows.

the problem with thumbsucking

2009-12-15T13:17:00.000-08:00

so we have been trying to get noe to stop sucking her thumb for almost a month now with varying degrees of success. she usually only did it to go to sleep or when she was really upset about something. at first, most nights and some naps she would go without the treasured philange pacifier. so she was rewarded for it. but then she started doing it as soon as she woke up. i'd catch her doing it while she watched a movie or played with a doll. sometimes she does it just to be funny. so we started threatening to wrap her hand up or take away privileges. so she started doing it at night again. so here we are, mixing rewards and punishments and showing no real sign of improvement. so this morning, she came downstairs to report that she hadn't sucked her thumb all night. this i knew to be a lie since she had it in her mouth when i checked on her at 1:30am and because her thumb was wet again when she came to me. so i gasped and looked down at her thumb really close and pointed to a half ring of chapped skin at the base of her thumb and said, "oh, my goodness, honey! look at your thumb!" of course, she did so with a three year old's version of worry...curiosity. i said, "do you see this? your thumb is breaking!" now i had her attention, so i continued. "you really have to stop sucking your thumb, noe, or it's going to break off!" she came back with, "you'll have to buy me another one?" so after explaining as simply as possible that she couldn't have another thumb (after all, daddy isn't made of money), i thought that i had properly scared her enough to keep her from committing the much complained about habit the rest of the day at least. if all else fails, scare the little buggers, right? well, it didn't work quite as well as i'd hoped. she was back at it for nap time (during which she did not take a nap, by the way). i have fears now, though, that she's going to wake up screaming tonight about a runaway thumb.

christmas getting to know you

2009-12-04T11:59:00.000-08:00

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? paper. it's more fun for the kids.

2. Real tree or Artificial? artificial. so much easier and saves money
3. When do you put up the tree? as soon after thanksgiving as i can manage
4. When do you take the tree down? hm...when people start making comments about it being up to long.

5. Do you like eggnog? yes
6. Favorite gift received as a child? hm...i don't know. i always had a favorite every year.
7. Hardest person to buy for? my husband or my grandma
8. Easiest person to buy for? the girls and alec
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? i don't tend to do either. i never get around to it.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? a little indian princess in a canoe...a coworker said it reminded her of me and thought i might like it....?

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? miracle on 34th street, the grinch
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? in december

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? no, but i'm not necessarily opposed to the idea

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? pie and chex mix

16. Lights on the tree? Yes, white lights

17. Favorite Christmas Song? baby, it's cold outside and o'holy night

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? usually we travel, but we're staying home this year

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? yes

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? angel. it's my favorite part of the tree

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? christmas eve for one gift and then the rest in the morning

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? crowds and lines

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? i like my pink and gold, but i can't say i really have a favorite

24. Favorite thing to do this time of season? looking at the lights and the parties
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? i'm getting a new dining set

I would love to learn about you and what Christmas is to you, so blog or email.

Merry Christmas

for those of you who don't have facebook....

2009-12-03T14:37:00.000-08:00

baby poon #3 is another little girl! names will be announced at a later date.

walking, walking, and some more walking

2009-11-06T06:30:00.000-08:00

another fact i have learned in hong kong: i am REALLY out of shape! there are three ways to get around here. you take the bus, the subway, or you walk. even if you take the bus or subway, however, you still have a lot of walking to do to the pick up area and from the drop off to your destination. this is really why chinese people are so skinny, not the diet. they eat a lot! but after hoofing it everywhere lately, fai and i have decided that we will have to train before our next visit! fai's sixty something year old partents are in better shape than we are. not only do they walk everywhere, but they do it carrying our kids for us. i'm such a wimp.

tomorrow we head to the ocean front. next week we go to disney and then to china to shop and visit more family. at some point, we'll go to karoke (i'm very excited about that) and more shopping around hong kong. all of this involves A LOT of WALKING. so i will either be in really good shape when we get back, or really tired and sick of walking. in fact, i may not do any more walking other than the necessary around the house for a month after we get home.

the other side of the world

2009-11-03T21:54:00.000-08:00

well, it's happened. i resisted as long as i could, but it's finally happened: i turned 30. oh, yeah, and we have taken the kids on the longest trip ever and are in hong kong for the month. but really, which one of those is more important?

the girls actually did really well on the flights here. we were expecting much worse and i'm still expecting it on the way home. really, you can never let your guard down with them else the make liars and shrews of you! they took a while to adjust to the time difference, but i think we finally forced them to sleep at the right times. last night, they were in bed by 9pm and mali only got up once during the night, then not again until after the sun came up (a big step up from the previous days, i assure you, so i don't actually care what time the sun came up). they haven't fared as badly with the food, either, as i thought they would. i guess it's true what they say about kids being more resiliant and adjustable than adults (especially we really old ones at 30 and above...but i'm not bitter). they really like the family here. mali has latched onto yei yei much like noe did when they came over a couple years ago. she is completely spoiled now and will be useless when we get home! noe loves to play with her cousins and go to the millions of playgrounds around. daddy, of course, is in hog heaven.

as for myself, i am in my second trimester now and still feel like i'm in my first. i sleep a lot (which is nice since i have other adults around willing to watch the kids), have trouble with food textures and amounts, get breathless and exhausted, and have been having ligament pain for a while now. my friend Karma assures me that this just means that this is a very healthy pregnancy....i have to say, though, that's lost quite a bit of its luster every time i lose my lunch, so to speak. fai's family has been great to help me out, though, and actually won't let me do much of anything. they get really worried if i lift anything, walk too much, don't sleep enough, don't eat a ton, drink or eat something they don't think i should, or anything else. so really, all i do is follow along behind the line of people carrying my kids and my things sort of twiddling my thumbs until snack or nap time.

well, i've learned a couple of really important things since i've arrived. one, noe is small by any culture's standard, not just america's. i hear several times each day (at least fai says i hear it, and i have to take his word for it) from more than just his family (though that's the majority) about how she's too small. the "she's chinese" line doesn't fly around here. and i really need to get her to stop sucking her thumb before they visit next year or they may insist fai divorce me so they can work on her without me there to interfere! this is almost as much of a problem for them as her size! the only other complaint they seem to have is that i don't put enough clothes on her and mali. let me clarify, it's in the 70's and 80's here. they are in jeans and t-shirts, i brought jackets and even a couple of long sleeved t-shirts. fai and i have been sweating, but his mom keeps wanting to bundle them up! the other fact i've learned is that mali is big...by any culture's standard. of the four children, she apparently is the biggest (by height and weight ratio)...even though she is the youngest. she could take her cousins in a wrestling match, i'm pretty sure. everyone talks about her big belly! if it weren't for the fact that everyone also coos over how pretty she is, i'd worry that she is going to develope a complex!

well, that's it for now. i'll try to get pics up soon.

mali's father's day photos

2009-07-15T12:12:00.000-07:00

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today's post is all about the bug. not that noe hasn't been doing some really cute things lately, but because mali has been taking up a lot more of my time!! lately, mali's "potty training" has been going really well. i say this with a somewhat reluctant smile because i don't really want to start her training when i know she's too young...or is she? this morning, she told me she needed to potty. so i took her and sat her down, preparing myself for a long ten minutes of books and toys and songs, etc. instead, she simply pooped on the potty and said she was done! five minutes later, she asked to go again, this time to pee...and did just that. no coaxing, no games, no waiting period. just in and out. now, i don't mean to say that she's staying dry. i still change her diaper several times a day...but this is a really good start!

my baby has also started imaginary play early so that she can play with noe. she plays with the ponies or princesses as though she's in their make believe world. she brings me imaginary food to eat. she "swims" like a mermaid in the bath or on the living room floor. all kinds of things like that. it's really funny to see.

her communication has grown even more, which is impressive as it was pretty good before. unfortunately, this makes it impossible to pretend i don't know what she wants.

her temper is really growing, too.... she has really bad tantrums and a really short fuse. her first choice when things don't go her way is to hit. her second is to pull hair. and she does not respond to time out as well as her sister.

she slept in a toddler bed the other night and actually did very well. she stayed in bed, waking up once to stand up and cry because she wasn't sure where she was, but quickly went back to sleep. in the morning, she didn't wake her sister up, but just came out of the room on her own (letting noe sleep until almost 7:30), and was in a really good mood all morning. so now we're looking or a bed to give her. my baby is growing up!

a trying day, but a very sweet redemption

2009-07-06T18:27:00.000-07:00

today was one of those days where i would have rather been doing laundry than the fun stuff we planned. yesterday, noe had a hard day. she woke up with a fever (the fever that mali had for two days before her). then she ran hard into the corner of a door jam, giving her a really nasty bump on her forehead. then she managed to scratch herself (i don't know why she did this) on the cheek during church badly enough to give herself a bruise there, too. we left church early because her fever got worse and she didn't feel well. so she slept for a few hours, then was whiny and ill the rest of the night. she crawled into bed with me at 5:30am and squirmed and whined (though her fever was gone before she went to bed and didn't come back), which ruined any chance of me getting much sleep after that (and it wasn't like i was getting much before that since the clock read 3 when mali woke up crying). so when she finally gets to sleep, i attemtp to doze a bit myself...and wake up to the knocking of landen's mom on the front door. not the best way to start the day. landen is hungry, having not eaten since 7pm the night before, and required a bottle even before his mom had left. this threw off our regular routine with getting the girls situated with their juice and a movie on the couch before his bottle, so the whining insued. the plan was to go to the zoo before 9am so we could get into the children's zoo for free. with the whining and forgettfulness that plagued our morning, we didn't leave the house until about 8:45am. we did not get to the zoo in time. oh, well. plenty to see without the children's zoo to keep up busy. ordinarily, it wouldn't have been a problem. but lately, mali has been rather defiant. it's weird, though, with the way she disobeys. she does it with a smile and laugh, then tells you she loves you and gives you a hug...before throwing an absolute tantrum when she doesn't get what she wants. this happened several times today. noe, too, was very cranky because she wasn't allowed to run free the whole time. then, when i let her walk, she begged to be carried. we went through a few melt downs per kid before we got back to the car four and a half hours later. this is when i realize that we stayed longer than i had anticipated and landen was due to eat...and i didn't have a bottle made. he reminded me of this loudly all the way to an exit where i was able to pull in and get some water to make him his lunch. by this time, however, that wasn't enough. he required cooing, consoling, rocking, begging and bribing before finally calming down enough to settle back into his car seat. then he continued screaming until we were almost home. i got him taken care of quickly upon arrival, but once he had quieted and cheered, the girls got back into the game of fighting and crying and whining. by this point, i was done. as soon as fai walked in the door, i informed him that they were his for the rest of the night. i cleaned the kitchen and we ate dinner and had some watermellon on the deck before ushering them into the tub and were quickly trying to get them into bed. at this point, right after wrestling with mali to get her dressed, noe comes over to sit on my lap and asked "you have baby in your belly?" i told her that i don't, but that i hopefully will soon. to which she replied, "then i will take care of you." and there you have it: bad day forgotten. i love my kids. even on days when i wonder why, i still love them.

on a different note, we did manage to save mali's father's day photos. i will post them soon.

RIP

2009-07-05T19:01:00.001-07:00

for father's day, i dressed the girls in daddy's clothes and took pics. noe's wearing daddy's shirt and tie. mali wore his uk jersey and hat. then i put them in pretty dresses and took pics that way, too. you'll also see a pic from the gangster tour in chicago and a few random pics from every day life here at the poon house.

these will be the last pics you see from me in a while. while enjoying a lovely day at the pool, my camera took a dip in the water (helped by a munchkin who will go unnamed). a few days before, i had downloaded half of the father's day pics before the battery died. we may be able to save the others (such as mali's father's day photos), but i can't take any more for a while. fai says he's not buying another one since we'd just gotten this on earlier this year. it's our second in as many years. so enjoy these lovely pics. they'll have to last you for a while.

untitled

2009-06-12T05:21:00.000-07:00

mali has decided it's time that she started potty training. let me remind you that she is only 17 mo. old. i didn't start noe until she was 18 mo. and had to stop and start several times after that. (on a side note, noe is done potty training. she wakes up during nap time to go potty rather than pee in her pants, and she's completely dry in the morning). anyway, several times a day, mali tells me that she has to potty ("i pee" or "i poop" or "need potty") and leads me to the bathroom. i got some pull ups for her to wear on occassion so she can pretend to potty like her sister. so far, she doesn't actually do anything on the potty but pretend to wipe and want candy. we've had somewhat of a breakthrough, though...of sorts. she gets upset about pooping in her diaper, actually cries to me when she does it because she wants to go on the potty (though she won't actually sit on the potty at those times). so i have to comfort her until she's done, then she wants to run away before i can change her. but it's a step, right? also, from watching her sister on the potty, she realizes that she's supposed to poop in the water (she hears the splash and sees water in the potty). this realization could be seen as a step forward...or not. depending on who's bathing her. every time lately that fai has bathed the girls, mali has pooped in the tub, resulting in a cry for help from a grown man, the draining and cleaning and refilling of the tub, screaming of two little girls who have been rudely interrupted during their bath, and the happiness of the dog who has been left with the leftover food in the kitchen while the chaos swirls above stairs. you can see why i am not very thrilled about mali's notion to potty train so early?

noe is my soft hearted baby...excepting, of course, if she's the one guilty of offense. she cries and protests when someone is upsetting her sister or a stranger. we went to lunch at mcd's yesterday and there was a little boy in the tunnels on the play ground who was crying. he'd hit his head or something. noe went up trying to find him to help him come out because his brother wasn't bothering to do what their mother was telling him to. once he got out, she refused to go back up in the tunnels to play, insteady standing by him while his mom calmed him down. it wasn't until he had stopped crying and was ready to play again himself that she resumed her activity, but still insisted on helping him through the tunnel at least once. and last night, while mali cried in the tub while daddy tried to clean up her poop (noe was sitting on the potty because she had poopy water on her feet and wasn't allowed to run around), noe cried and demanded that mali be allowed out. "don't make my sister cry" she sobbed. it was heart wrenching stuff. only hours before, however, they were playing in the storage cabinet downstairs and she had smashed mali's fingers in the door. she told her quickly and several times that she was sorry while mali screamed, then shut her in the cabinet and ran away. there are also the times when she runs away from her friends who want to play with her toys, opens the basement door and chucks the item of preferrence down the stairs, and slams the door shut again, turning the lock so that no one can play with it. not much sympathy or empathy there.

mali loves babies. she's facinated with them, and poor little landen may not live through it! she will litteraly love him to death! she crawls on top of him to give hugs, grabs his head in a death grip to give him kisses, tries to calm him down by practically smothering him against her cheek or chest, scratches him on the head when she's attempting to "pet" him like she sees mommy doing, and tries to share her food and juice with him. landen is not even 4 months yet and can't have these things, of course. so they end up on his clothes and in his hair.

we're going to hong kong for a few weeks at the end of october (on my birthday, to be exact...oh, joy to spend a full day on a plane with two little kids on my 30th b-day when i should be wallowing in self pity and cake). ever since we told noe that we're going, she's talked of little else. she says we have to stop the plane to get yei yei and nai nai. she cries to go to hong kong. she tells daddy that she's going to hong kong when he comes home. she's pretty excited. i'm hoping she's going to stay this excited on the 22 hr. flight.

well, that's it for now, so for lack of a better closing, 'till next time.

my swimmer, girls' trip, and generalness

2009-06-10T18:44:00.000-07:00

so i have neglected you all again, but fully expect your pardon because...well, because i'm arrogant, i guess.

today was a good day. i've pretty much gotten the hang of taking care of three kids under the age of three, i think. most days are pretty good. yesterday, we had play group then went to lunch with friends. then i dropped noe and mali off at a friend's house and took landen to the grocery store (i'm not brave enough to try to shop with three little kids). today, i took them to story time at the library, then home for lunch and naps, then to the pool right across the street. everyone was good and happy for the most part, and we all had a great time. after landen went home, the girls and i played and ate dinner before bath time, then they cleaned their room and went to bed. tomorrow, i'm taking them to a movie, and i'm not the least bit nervous about it. either i'm crazy, or this really isn't that bad! there are times when i think it's the former, but most times, it's the latter.

mali has proven to be quite the little swimmer. she loves to jump into the water and could care less if i am ready to catch her or not (or even if i'm there to catch her, i think). she loves to ride on the boogie board while we pull her through the water. she likes me to hold her arms and swing her around the water on her back. she doesn't mind daddy bouncing her to where she gets her face into the water. and today, she took a boy's floatie (heaven forbid she be happy with her own that has a harness in it and is made to prevent her from tipping or rolling) and immediately laid on her belly, arms gripping the floatie, and started kicking. she swam around the kiddie pool like that, with no fear, for about twenty minutes before i finally convinced her to let the boy have the floatie back to try it for himself! noe refuses to jump into the water without help, prefers to just sit in her floatie and won't put her face anywhere near the water!

i went to chicago with some girl friends for the weekend. it's the first time i've left the girls over night with the exception of when i gave birth to mali and was in the hospital for two days. we had a really good time. we ate chicago deep dish pizza, visited the art museum (my first), took a 10 mile bike ride through the city, spent a couple hours in china town and took a ganster tour.

while i was gone, fai took the girls out to the zoo, to lunch with their first bites of sushi (unappreciated, of course), then to the pool and mcd's for dinner. the were so tired, they were easy to put to bed, and he wasn't home enough with them to make a mess, so he didn't have to clean. smart man.

again, i'm going to put off pictures because i'm lazy. maybe once i've caught up on all the updates and housework, i'll post pictures and try to write a funnier post.

a new game...

2009-05-15T20:34:00.001-07:00

The first five people to comment on this post will get something made by me. My choice. For you.

Here's the deal:

I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
What I make will be just for you.
It'll be done this year.
You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. I may sew, stitch, bake, or paint something. Who knows?
Anyone can comment (as long as I know you), it doesn't matter how far away you are.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your own blog and offer the same deal to 5 of your own lucky blog readers.

So, the first 5 people to leave a comment telling me they are in, win a homemade gift by me!

A blessing, a heartbreak, another blessing, and TAG!

2009-05-12T06:30:00.000-07:00

well, i suppose i've put off blogging as long as i could. you owe today's post to my friend alisha who tagged me on her blog! i'll get to that in a minute. but first, the "what's been going on" part of our program.

A blessing:
some of you knew, most of you didn't. i got pregnant! yes, again. yes, we do know what causes that. no, it wasn't planned, but it was still a very happy surprise.

A heartbreak:
some of you knew this as well. we lost the baby. i had a miscarriage at about 8 weeks, just after our first ultrasound where we got to see the little peanut and hear a heartbeat. we are extremely saddened, but we're working through it as best we can.

Another blessing:
we've had a lot of support and concern and understanding from our wonderful friends. thanks to all of those who have helped me out these couple of weeks. we love you guys! also, my girls have really helped us to not simply sit in bed all day and cry. i couldn't even sleep in if i wanted to, and each day, their smiles and shining personalities and sloppy kisses and sticky hugs make it worth getting up. i am able now to see that we were bessed to have had the chance to meet the baby we lost on the ultrasound and love him (we have decided it was a boy), even if it was only for a short time. we feel confident that the Lord will bless us with more children in the future and can only look forward to loving them as well.

also, i've begun babysitting a baby boy named landen during the days. he's only 11 weeks old right now, but he's a very good baby. he smiles a lot when he's awake. he likes to cuddle and dance. the girls like to "pet" him and feed him (though mali is really just teasing him...she gives him the bottle then takes it away).

mother's day came and went in kind of a blur. we went to church with noe complaining of a belly ache. i thought she was just being whiny (she often tells me she has a fever so she can have medicine and get babied when she's jealous), but soon learned otherwise when she threw up all over her pretty dress. then she said she felt better and was ready to play...so i cleaned her up and to church we went (we thought it was probably her sinuses draining that upset her stomach. she threw up mucus, and i know that happens to me when my sinuses get bad). she and mali are both in nursery now, so we were child free for our meetings. the men all took over the women's callings so we could go to sunday school and relief society, where they served us cookies and candy and beverages. at the end, we all got a rose. then the girls gave me the cards they'd made in nursery and we went home where we all got to take a nap. daddy made dinner and we put the girls to bed a little early so we could watch a movie and eat cookies.

yesterday, noe woke up with a belly ache again and threw up. then she had diarrhea all day. landen came in the morning with his nose all stuffy and congested, making him miserabe and unable to sleep. so while i'm trying to keep the two sickies comfortable, mali is running around making a mess of everything she can possibly get to. i folded the same load of laundry probably eight times, cleaned up the water and flower petals from the rose she got hold of and tore apart, mopped up the water from the dog's bowl she dumped and stomped in, chased her to get the trash she'd dug out of the trash can, and who knows what else. finally, having lost much of my saint-like patience, i called for back up. a friend came over to help me out for most of the day and i actually managed to get my kitchen cleaned up as well as have the kids cared for! noe seemed much better before dinner time, so i figured it was all over and we were in the clear.

not so. she got up this morning at 5am with her stomach upset again. not throwing up so far, though, but she's had diarrhea twice (on the potty, thank goodness). she hasn't had a fever though this, so i'm hoping it's just something she ate. everyone else in the house seems fine.

now, the tag:

Okay so here are the rules of this whole blogger tag game...
1) Mention the person who tagged you and be sure to link to them (see above)
2) Post your list of 8's
3) Tag 8 bloggers and don't forget to tell them!

8 of My Favorite Foods
1. fried chicken

2. Steak

3. fried potatoes

4. mashed potatoes

5. tempura

6. chips

7. terriyaki

8. pigeon

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To
1. getting my house decorated

2. chicago trip

3. the girls starting primary to they can be in the programs on stage

4. christmas

5. having more children

6. dates

7. finale of bones

8. the pool opening

8 Things I Did Yesterday
1. cleaned poop

2. cleaned vomit

3. cooked

4. laundry

5. cuddled landen

6. cuddled noe

7. tried to explain the purpose of "time out" to mali

8. fell asleep on the couch

8 Shows I Watch
1. bones

2. coupling

3. alias

8.

8 Ways in Which I Kill Time
1. Play on the computer

2. Read

3. write

4. watch movies

5. sleep

6. blog

7. play with the girls' toys with them

8. picture days with kids

Lucky Girls Getting Tagged!!!!

1. Cynthia
2. Karma
3. Jennifer
4. Brandi
5. mom
6. Bethany
7. Trinity
8. Amy

well, i guess that's it. i have a lot of pictures to show from the zoo, science center, mother's day, and just funny things from random days, but you all know how long it takes to upload so many and this post is already pretty long. i'll get the pics up on their own tomorrow, maybe.

out of touch and out of my mind

2009-04-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

i haven't gotten to blog lately as things just keep piling up to take up my time. first, mali's foot (previous post will explain). then both kids got sick with fevers and coughs that made them throw up. then i had to prepare a talk to give in church (and we all know how much i love that....). new missionaries moved in (which meant extra cleaning and organizing duty beforehand...thank you, rebekah, for helping me out!). and, of course, the search for a family mobile. so, now that i have a moment to put my feet up for more than a couple minutes, i will give you the quick version of our lives the past week or so.

1. kids are better now, with only the cough and a runny nose left.
2. mali's foot is healing very well.
3. i gave my talk this morning (or afternoon, if you're abby and being picky) and, obviously, survived.
4. the new missionaries have arrived and are very nice and hard working.
5. fai and i got to have a date sans kids yesterday.
6. we bought a minivan.

that's really it for now. with sick kids, there's not a whole lot else i can get done that's worth reporting. i will get some more pics this week (we're going to the zoo) and get those up. until then, i'm going to rest. for doing nothing, i'm really worn out from it!

urgent care adventure #3: the foot and the false figuring

2009-04-17T05:55:00.000-07:00

i'm the worst mom. yesterday, after the girls had had so much fun at their friend's house and then at mcd's (yes, again) with more friends, i had to go and ruin it. after mali's nap, i was carrying her down the stairs and slipped. i fell a few feet with mali's leg still wrapped around one side, and ended up landing with her foot trapped between my back and the stairs. the next two hours were full of me trying to get her to walk...unsuccessfully. she was fine, laughing and playing, as long as she wasn't putting any weight on her left foot. she even let me poke and prode at her leg and foot without a fuss. unsure of the extent of her injury, fai and i decided to take her to urgent care. we gave noe to a friend and took mali in together. as i'm explaining that she won't even stand up, she stands up...and walks. she was limping, but didn't seem to be in real pain. the doctor looked at the foot, took an x-ray, and pronounced that there was no fracture. he sent us home, saying that if the radiologist saw anything different, he'd call. we left at 8:15pm and picked up noe, getting home at about 8:50pm. we saw a missed call from 8:30pm from urgent care saying to call back because there is, indeed, a fracture and she needs to see someone in orthopedics for a splint. they closed, at 8, however, so we couldn't get them to answer the phone. this morning, i called and got an appointment with the orthopedist.

***UPDATE:
mali's break is one that heals in two weeks and is okay to walk on. since she is walking and stays with me rather than goes to daycare, they didn't even put a cast on (though they said to come back on monday if she complains a lot over the weekend). she is in really good spirits and is as active as ever right now, so things are looking good! i'm so relieved!

the easter bunny part two and three, wang cai's goodies, and some cuteness to share

2009-04-14T12:24:00.000-07:00

well, the easter bunny is a hit...from afar. twice, we took the girls to see the easter bunny for pictures, and twice both girls refused to give him a chance other than the distant wave goodbye. however, they were both very appreciative of his efforts with their baskets. noe talks a lot about what the easter bunny gave to her and i'm still finding his eggs all over the house. they won't let me put them away.

when we left off, i'd taken the girls to an easter event for a puppet show. the day after that, we went to the library's easter egg hunt and craft activity. noe, now a pro at the hunting, really raced through that. mali had fun, too, but preferred the opening of the eggs. we ran into some friends there and the girls really had a good time. they got to make bunny ears and eat chocolate. what's not to like?

the day after that, we went to kellie's for easter egg coloring. mommy forgot to bring the camera, however, so there are no pictures...because wang cai later ate them. but that's a later part of the story. that night, the girls spent a fun filled night of ribs, ice cream and dancing with daddy at home (lots of good pics and video, but there were too many to post this time...maybe next time) while mommy went to church for the jewelry class. i discovered that i am not very good at making earrings. sorry, granny, you can just put them in a drawer somewhere and pretend you liked them.

saturday was pretty uneventful. daddy came home early from his last day of class (yeah!), but left for a couple of meetings at church. he got home in time for mali to throw up her dinner and help bathe the princesses. after the girls were in bed, mommy filled baskets with:
dyed eggs, hershey kisses, peeps, reeces pieces carrots, a book each, three pony eggs each, snickers eggs, and the bubble bucket to share. they were placed with the big stuffed bunny on the coffee table before we went to bed.

in the morning, we discovered (thankfully before the girls came down) that the dog was also very appreciative of the easter bunny. he raided the baskets and ate 5 dyed eggs (shell and all), about 3/4 bag of hershey kisses (with the foil), 4 peeps, and half a bag of mini marshmellows (mommy's snack that got left on the end table). he spent the remainder of the holiday outside. he would be there still if it hadn't started raining.

after refilling the baskets the best i could, the girls enjoyed their new discovery. then we ate breakfast (which was supposed to be the eggs that they colored, but obviously we had to settle for scrambled with toast). then mommy napped a bit. when the girls had eaten lunch and were napping, i hid the plastic eggs around the house for the egg hunt, which kicked off after their naps. then we dressed them up in their pretty dresses and took pictures, which i have shared the cutest of, and went to dinner at a friend's house (very yummy, cynthia!). the girls really enjoyed their holiday, and that made it all the better for mommy and daddy. now, if i could just get them to give up the plastic eggs....

so now it's time to start preparing for the next holiday, one that happens to be a favorite of mine: mother's day.

as a random update: mali has gotten out of her crib. we lowered the mattress, but i don't think it will hold her for long. i took the girls to mcd's for lunch with cynthia and olivia today and the girls got really worn out. noe has started going down the slides there on her own finally. she hasn't had an accident in her underpants in about two weeks. the night time training starts this weekend.

mali wants to be like her big sister...and so refuses now to sit in her high chair. i find her in the regular chairs periodically throughout the day.

ah, the easter loot.

not a bug today...a bunny

easter bunny's got nothin' on my girls.

noe sped through the library easter egg hunt.

neither girl would go very close to the easter bunny, so this is the best pic i could get. noe wouldn't even go with daddy.

severe senior citizens, vacillating van vixen , missing missionaries, and the easter bunny part one

2009-04-08T18:02:00.000-07:00

a lot has been happening the past few days. luckily for you, it all fits into a nice alliterative title. unfortunately, in order to keep a nice flow, the title has the events out of order. it may take a little more effort, but i think we can keep it all straight.

so, as you know if you've read the previous post, we're looking for another vehicle. i found one on craigslist that seemed promising. it was only two years old, less than 100K miles, deluxe edition that was within our price range. better yet, it's privately owned so i don't have to deal with tiresome dealers. so i email the lady who posted it to make sure it was still available and she said that it was and to call her that night (yesterday) if we wanted to see it. so fai called. she said she'd have to ask her husband and call us back. then the internet went out, so the number we gave her wouldn't have worked (skype). so after dinner, fai fixed it and called her back (45 min later) to see if she'd gotten hold of her husband. she says no and wants to know why our number shows up funny on caller id. fai explained how skype works that way. she hedges a little, saying she out of town and her hubby's not answering...and then says abruptly that she's not comfortable dealing with someone who doesn't show up on caller id, and hangs up on him!! what?! are you kidding me?! then she immediately sends me an email to tell me that the vehicle is no longer for sale. we were so mad! so fai emails her to tell her to take the ad off of craigslist b/c it's wasting our time. then we decided to go to a dealership instead. well, we get back (the dealership was closed), she had emailed me again to say: "we were thinking of keeping the vehicle...my husband hasn't decided yet. sorry for your inconvenience. if you're still interested, contact me via email before saturday and we'll set something up." um....no. so i replied to ensure her that we were no longer interested in dealing with someone who can't decide 1) if their car is for sale, and 2) which voice in their crazy head to listen to. i said it with a great deal of tact.

as most of you know, we have been houseing the missionaries for a couple of months. depsite my concerns at the start, it seemed to be working really well. we enjoyed it, really, and really liked the sisters. well, the powers that be decided that our sisters were needed elsewhere and transferred them both out of our ward. they left early this morning. we're really bummed about it! it was so strange going into their rooms to clean and organize. hopefully they will keep in touch and the next missionaries (due in two weeks...and will only be staying with us for a few weeks) will be as cool as they were.

after the missionaries left, a friend called to invite the girls and i to go to an easter event with them. it was pretty nice for the kids. they had a story, a puppet show (with care bears and the care cousins...am i old because i remember those so fondly?...don't answer that), a bunny for the kids to pet, the easter bunny for them to sit on for photos, a craft, candy, and all housed in a really neat victorian house. niether of my girls would go near the easter bunny, but i got pics of other stuff to share.

after leaving that event, we went to lunch at mcd's (of course...it's only the third time this week). this was the worst mcd's i've ever been to, though! it was clean and the counter people friendly, but the customers left something to be desired, and it was the most un-kid friendly mcd's! there is nowhere really for kids to sit, so we let skyla and noe sit at the counter on those "tall spinny chairs" as they called them. then preston and mali sat in high chairs. but there was nowhere to put the high chairs where they wouldn't be blocking an aisle. there, of course, was no play area, either. so the two older girls, in order to keep themselves entertained, start swinging in their chairs (obviously...who wouldn't?). the sides would knock against the counter with a satisfying thud. karma (skyla and preston's mom, for those who don't know) had already told them to tone it down, and they really had. but about half way through lunch, this older "gentleman" at the table behind us, says to her: "do they have to do that? there are senior citizens over here and it's driving them crazy." and he doesn't say it in a nice way. how horrible! they really weren't being that loud, and surely these people remember what it's like to have little kids?! granted, they may have trouble remember yesterday, but most remember their younger years quite well! then i see him giving our kids glares the rest of the time he's there, even though there was nothing he could complain about! okay, there was the time preston thew some food at him, but it missed and he really did deserve it.

when i got back home, i started cleaning and organizing the house. with sister ram gone (much as i will miss her), i have my basement play room back and wanted to make use of it as soon as possible, which requires sorting through the toys in the living, family and bed rooms to shift them down there. this, of course, led to the cleaning of the house as i rearranged. somewhere in there, i did laundry (washed, folded and put away, thank you), played with kids, talked to a friend who stopped by, cooked dinner and fed the girls, bathed them and had them in bed half an hour early. i would say i am going to start making this a habit because i'm so impressed with myself...but i'm so pooped that i think it would kill me to do it more than once a week. tomorrow, i'll pace myself again.

enjoying the nice weather...you'd never know it snowed two days ago

she has her daddy's smile

taste test #138

"what's wrong, mommy? what's wrong with bird?"

she wouldn't got near the "real" easter bunny, so this is the best we could do.

making her easter bag

"the bunny's okay...but you're really freaking me out."

noe's version of taking turns...to let others pet the bunny at the same time as her.

pretty impressive, preston.

mali slept in the van, stayed sleeping being carried from the van into the house and through story time, through me handing her to karma, until the clapping started for the song. why doesn't she sleep that well at night?

watching the care bears with skyla

i'm pretty sure that's not safe...crazy women drivers.

"i think i hit something"

"picture me rollin'"

update and photos

2009-04-04T08:18:00.000-07:00

i have been neglecting my blog lately in favor of facebook. i really think i need to cut back, but i just can't seem to help it. so here is what you have been missing with some photos to ooo and ah over at the end:

mali is our little dare devil. she has no fear! she jumps off the bed now that she's figured out how to jump. she slide down random things (make shift slides, i guess) head first! she climbs on everything! she's also speaking a lot now. she's repeating everything i say to her, which is great. she's gotten really good with please and thank you. unfortunately, she's also gotten to the stage where she can show me exactly what she wants and i can no longer pretend i don't understand. oh, well. you give and you get, i suppose.

noe has become a little social butterfly. she has a list of her favorite people to hang out with and talks about them all the time! she starts skipping and says it's "like brenton" or she wants to play "with lee", etc. where's my friends, mommy? they're at their house, honey. but why? and if she doesn't like the answer, she asks over and over again. i think i need to start having more play dates set up. you can see some pics below of her hanging out with brenton and ethan the other day.

we're shopping for a mini van now. we are so cool, i know. what's really bad..is that i'm really excited about it. i've been checking for good deals online every chance i get. we're not in a big hurry, but i can't wait now! i'm such a geek.

i've been doing a lot of yard work lately. the front of the house is nearly done along with the sides. i haven't started the back yet. i've been tearing out plants that i don't like and weeds, trimming bushes, raking, etc. i was going to take out those big holly bushes/trees on either side of the front door, but there appears to be a dove nesting in one. she's sittin on her eggs and looks so sweet that i don't want to disturb her. so that will have to wait. soon, though, i'm going to just have people over to take whatever plants they want that i don't. then i'll replace some with something that i like or just let the grass take over.

it all looks so innocent, doesn't it? (notice in this how far apart and the position of noe and brenton.)notice where they are now? noe kept scooting closer. brenton kept scooting away, until this is where they ended up.

he apparently didn't really mind, though, because this was taken after he'd gotten up to get more pop corn...and slipped right back into the seat he had before he got up when there was a whole empty couch to take instead.

ethan is facinated with the dog here, but still unsure. he warmed up fast, though, and mali showed him how to properly pound on him and grab his tongue and tail.

this is really why the dog was allowed to live inside again...he's a wonderful vaccum.

demonstrating the proper way to eat popcorn.

the gang at the start of the movie. this lasted all of ten minutes.

showing off for granny.

on the way to granny's, i let the girls keep their pj's on. then i told noe to get her shoes. she insisted on wearing her dress shoes, and this is the resulting fashion flub. daddy looks ok, though.

mali vs. the scree door. "what sort of deviousness is this?!"

watching my family and loving it!

one of our many trips to mcdonalds. that's all mali's food right there.

why do they always want to go up the slide instead of the stairs?

"noe, did you get into the cupcakes?"..."no, mommy."

this is a common view of mali.

a creative mind, a loud mouth, and a new addiction

2009-03-23T20:14:00.000-07:00

i have been quite proud of the fact that noe seems to have inherited her mommy's love of reading and imagination. for a long while now, she has been playing make believe and pretending to read stories and act them out, etc. this shows that she has a very active imagination, which is one thing that could not possibly come from daddy because he's a scientist. ha! finally snuck a couple of genes past those dominate asian ones! well, now i'm not so sure it's a good thing. lately, she has begun to let her creative mind run away with her. she makes up stories all on her own...and not the nice fairy stories or princess tales. no, she tells people that she's being abused. i often hear her say "daddy hit me," or "daddy beats me". the latest was "daddy pushed me down the stairs." now, i'm not saying he hasn't been tempted to beat her (she's two, after all), but i can say with absolute certainty that he has never laid a hand on her in a harmful manner. i have also seen her trip or pretend to fall and insist that "mali pushed me". the child is out of control! that on top of her mongolia marks on her bottom are going to get us arrested! i need to find a way to harness this creative talent to be used for good rather than evil. until then, you may all need to be put on stand by in case i need witnesses to testify that i do not actually beat my child...yet.

mali has begun using short sentences...loudly. while at granny's last week, she added "get up" to her vocabulary. she ran over to the couch where i was attempting to nap and slapped her hands on the cushion right in front of me and yelled "mamma, get up!" several times. everything she says now she says in this manner. i guess she realizes that she has to really speak up to be heard around here. other favorites include: big dog, wee, i want, mine, potty, and kitty.

i have a new addiction. all my friends have been on face book for a while, including fai. apparently i was missing out. so i broke down and did it yesterday, intending to use it every so often to keep up. well, it's been about 24 hours and i've been on at least once every hour, more at times. i've even started adding flair.

well, i don't have many pics from granny's because our battery died the first day there and i forgot to bring the charger. i have others to show you, but we're still charging the battery now, so it'll have to wait. until then...you can catch me on face book!

2009-03-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

well, lately i have been getting so much done! i feel like i should feel busier, but i really don't. tired? always. but unusually busy during the day? not so much. in the past month, i have:
reupholstered my kitchen chairs
made noe a duvet
made noe and mali pillow cases
made a bracelet (thanks, brandi)
written a lot for my book
cleaned a lot
taken the girls out
had a play group at my house
thrown a small birthday party
edited a manuscript for someone else's book
cleaned
upholstered the girls' toy box
cleaned my car
exercised
cleaned
cleaned
cleaned

and then did everything else i try to do during the week such as grocery shopping, laundry, and bathing. i've been feeling pretty productive.

we're headed to granny's tomorrow morning, so i should have some good pictures when i get back to share. i have some i could put up now...but since i've been so productive with everything else lately, i think i'm going to be lazy now and read a book instead.

the love bug and the ham and the other mama

2009-03-04T10:45:00.000-08:00

there's love in the air today! i think noe is teaching her sister some bad habits. mali has always been a very out going and affectionate baby (hence the nick name "love bug"), but today, she started doling out kisses to the little boys at play group like they were candy. while she shared her snack with ethan and preston, she would lean over and give them kisses. it was cute, yes, and i did get pictures (see below), but this is the same behavior i'm trying to discourage in noe. quite a few times during play group, i had to stop noe from kissing brenton. to be fair, brenton was trying to kiss her, too. these two are keeping kellie (brenton's mom) and i on our toes! they gave lots of hugs and even snuck a few pecks on the cheek before i finally got her out the door. at one point, she turned around and held her hands out to stop him, saying, "i'm going home to have pizza now." on another love note, noe has started throwing herself into my arms, hugging me and saying "I LOVE YOU, MOMMY". and since mali sees sissy doing it, she does it, too. now that kind of love i can handle!

also at play group, mali found herself another "mama". now, while she is a social kid, she doesn't generally warm up enough to want to climb on people's laps or give them them hugs unless she's known them for a while. but today, she climbed away from me, across karma (preston's mom), and demanded that "mama" take her. "mama", however, was not me. she was calling jennifer erickson (issac's mom) mama, and continued to do so the entire morning we were there. she was perfectly happy to sit on her lap, talk to her, play with her, etc. and ignored me for quite a while. even after she finally came back (to get a cookie), she frequently returned to her new mama. i told jen that maybe this is a sign that she's either pregnant or will be soon. fingers crossed!

noe has become quite the little ham. she loves having her picture taken, which is quite a change from last year and the year before. i'm really glad, because i've been getting some really cute photos of her lately. i'm going to have start printing them and hanging them up.

the birthday party for sister ram when well. we didn't invite a lot of people, but it was a full house! we just tried to keep it down to the people close by. we had a good time, though, and i got a lot of pictures, but most of them were blurry from all the movement, so i didn't post them.

here are the other pics, though. enjoy!

kissing preston (he makes that face when he sees a camera, but he didn't actually mind the kiss)

ethan, on the other hand, got this horrified expression after she kissed him the first two times, but got used to it by the third and fourth (the fourth is pictured here)

i tried to get the horrified expression, but he got over it too fast and focused on the food

i opened the snack and suddenly i became the most popular mom there

"I'm so cute"

"What you doin'?"

"Make sure to get my best side"

*winking*

"even my tongue is cute"

lots and lots of cheese

*fish face*

*puffing out my cheeks*

just being a ham

this started as her showing me where her nose is...but then she almost lost her finger in there.

no permanent damage, though

"i'm a morning person...mommy says i get it from my daddy"

trying to get a close up

dress up

notice she's hanging upside down...in a cabinet. you'd think this was a surprise...but not really

sharing is fun

"not my best side"

i think she likes feeding mali and mali definitely likes being fed

she likes to hold the banana, but doesn't really eat it.

a little news and some more cuteness

2009-03-01T20:59:00.000-08:00

**UPDATE: mali has eczema on her face, back and belly. she has been prescribed a steroid cream and special lotion. she also has a yeast infection that also has gotten so bad that it requires a steroid cream. on top of that, she has a special bath soak for both rashes. whew! crazy stuff!

so, we closed on the house in florida (doing my happy dance). not much else has been happening, though. mali is going to the doctor tomorrow for her rash(es). hopefully it's nothing bad, but i've given up treating it at home. i guess i just need someone to tell me i'm either doing it wrong or right. otherwise, after two weeks, i tend to get a bit nervous. while i'm getting a professional opinion, noe gets to spend time with brenton and ethan (thanks, kellie!). they're going to a PAT event at the school and then back to their house until mommy gets back. then we'll hit the library and clean the house before FHE. tuesday is sister ram's birthday and we're going to make her a cake...well, when i say make, i mean mix the contents of a box and toss it in the oven. i might get fancy and cut up some strawberries to put on top. we'll see how ambitious i'm feeling tomorrow.

any way, enjoy the pics and the video. i was going to put more videos up, but they take so long to upload, and it's already late.

cuddle time with mommy!

my future heart breaker

she hated this when she was a baby...but now that it's mali's, she suddenly can't live without it.

"welcome home, father poon!"

must keep that smile dazzling.

riding on sister waite.

who needs a pony? i'm telling you, i may not let the missionaries leave!

story time at the library...she's enthralled, can you tell?

the book is the other way, honey

mali passed out on the floor in the living room...she does this a lot lately.

just some pictures

2009-02-23T11:51:00.000-08:00

we've had a little excitement lately. we took noe to urgent care saturday night (why are they always sick after regular doctor hours?), but it turned out just to be a cold (whew!). mali has a couple new bumps on her head from playing with the storage cabinet and wrestling with the coffee table. she's also decided that sleep is no longer a necessity and refuses to sleep through the night even though there's nothing wrong with her. noe has discovered that putting people in time out is pretty fun. and we've had fun just fooling around. enjoy the pictures.

the tinker bell look is so in this year

"i do it myself!"

the cuteness needs no real caption

she found the lampshade herself and decided it worked well as a hat...i'm sure this is foreshadowing for a very eventful college career

my happy baby!

if you ignore the green candy in her teeth, this is a really cute pic of her

such chubby cheeks!

"howdy"

the shirt and hat are both mommy's, but she doesn't look nearly as cute in them!

the cuteness runs in the family

petting the dog with sister waite

noe helping sister ram unload the dishwasher

putting sister waite in time out. this was hilarious! she got the chair for her and ran in the other room to tell her "time out for hitting mei mei"...which, of course, never happened! then she told her to stop talking in time out. my future dictator

here, the girls are in time out at the same time. mali hit noe, noe pushed mali. mommy got the camera

they REALLY didn't want to say sorry.

2009-02-19T15:24:00.000-08:00

here are yet some more pictures of our beautiful babies. at the bottom, you can also find, finally, a picture of our new house and a video tour for those who haven't seen it.

the past few weeks or so, every time i take the girls out somewhere, there's always at least one person who asks if they are twins. now, i knew that it would eventually because they're so close in age (and, lets face it, all asians tend to look alike!! jk), but i figured it would be when they were around five. or even four. that way, you see, they would both have long hair and their coordination would be about the same, as well as their speech. now, however, that is not the case. while they are both completey adorable, they look and act absolutely nothing alike! noe is walking, running, talking, jumping, and everything else (she even started dribbling today...woohoo!). mali, on the other hand, still stumbles a lot when she walks, has much shorter hair, lots of baby fat (noe has none), says very few words clearly, and has six teeth. so i'm really shocked each time someone asks me if they're twins! check out the photos and tell me if you think they could be twins!

chillin' with a cookie

playing with mommy's tummy

this cookie tastes better by the window

twins? really?

the rules apply to everyone, sister waite

"sorry for what? sorry for throwing whipped cream on the wall."

daddy's little thugs

mali really liked the big mouse

no wonder the girls are so cute...with genes like this, how could they not be?

valentine's day

they look so sweet, don't they? you'd never know they gave us so much trouble going to bed that night.

"I don't understand...we just keep going around in a circle? and you just keep taking a pic of me every time?"

"get used to it, sis..."

"when we get older, don't expect me to actually drive you around"

noe thought she wanted to meet chuck e cheese, but she changed her mind

they really liked the pizza

this is the end of her third slice!

"not in public, mom...."

"there's something funny about that mouse...."
the new house

what you've been waiting for

2009-02-18T18:30:00.000-08:00

i know you've all been waiting for pictures the past few months, not really reading the blog. it's kind of the opposite of "i only read it for the articles". anyway, here they are, your cuteness fix for a while. we have more that i haven't gotten up yet, so you have to keep coming back.

what we've been up to:
we had mali's birthday party, at last. it was a lot of fun for the kids and me. we also took the girls to chuck e cheese for valentine's day. you wouldn't believe how packed that place was! on valentine's day! i went to a couple of movies with some girl friends. "he's just not that into you" was fantastic! the best movie i've seen in a long time. "confessions of a shopaholic" was cute, too, though not nearly as great as the books (obviously...what movie is?). the missionaries have been a welcome addition to our family. we've had absolutely no problems with them and have actually enjoyed the company.

something very upsetting:
yesterday, i went to lunch with cynthia (a friend from church) and her daughter, olivia. we took the kids to mcdonalds to play on their playground. after a while, noe starts crying up in the tunnels. she stops after a minute and i see her move to another area. then she starts crying again. i see her move to another area. she starts crying again and yelling for mommy. olivia goes up to get her, but says that she won't follow her down, so i climb up to get her (that stair case is not made for people my size). i get there, and two little boys (one a few months younger than noe and the other probably about a year older) have her trapped in part of the tunnel, one boy behind her pulling her hair, the other in front of her, blocking her way to the stairs. i am livid! i move the upstarts and save my little girl. cynthia tells the grandmother of the boy who pulled noe's hair about what he'd done and she made him apologize, but i'm still so angry about it! the more i think about it, the angrier i get! she's two! she shouldn't have to worry about that sort of behavior! i had to teach her, when we got home, to tell people who hurt her "no, don't touch me!" as loudly as she could and then yell for help. the fact that she should have to learn that really pains my heart. it only reinforces my insistence that she and her sister (and all future siblings) take martial arts from three until they graduate high school. if i could start her earlier, i really would.

anyway, here are the pictures. enjoy!

my future pool hustler

"it all depends on how you look at it"

"Rrrrrrrrruh" (mali with sister ram)

"waltz?"

her first flower. i think she could get used to this

"hut, hut!" (we still have a little work to do with her sports understanding)

"Smile!"

a much prettier smile

"Wwwwwuh" (mali and sister waite)

"it's finally time for my party! let me pinch you to make sure i'm not dreaming!"

she devoured most of it before we could get a picture, but there was a whole cup cake there.

playing in the back yard for the first time!

the b-day party spread

getting ready for her party

saving the world one cup cake at a time (this is at a friend's super hero themed b-day party)

it's the simple things in life....

look at those pouty lips!

Her hair was all pretty and fixed in a clip, but it didn't survive the "fun".

Noe and her movie star "scarf" posing

she may not like my cooking, but she does love me!

showing mali how to eat pudding properly

"i'm not sure what i'm eating...but i look good doing it!"

expanding the family

2009-02-05T13:36:00.000-08:00

yep, it's official. fai and i are expecting two additions to our household. while we were considering when to have our third baby, we decided grown ups are much easier, so while the pregnancy test was negative, our new additions will be joining us on friday. two healthy girls who already sleep through the night and feed themselves, who already use the potty on their own, and who can clean up after themselves! we don't get to name them, though, which is a real bummer. that's half the fun of having kids. but these two come with their names already printed on their name tags: sister ram and sister waite.

while the idea of housing the missionaries stressed me out at first (i won't lie...it still does), i can't really deny the blessings we've already seen, and they haven't even moved in yet! when we were approached about it, we got an offer on our house in florida. when we said yes, we sold the house in florida, fai got a check for something we hadn't thought about in a long time, and i got a really interesting offer to do some editing on a science fiction manuscript. all good things. if this keeps up, i may not let them leave!

the terrible twos

2009-02-02T07:20:00.000-08:00

i think i've figured out what makes the twos so terrible, why they're so whiny and prone to melt downs: it's lack of sleep. i figure this because it's definitely what's causing me to feel whiny and be prone to melt downs. my oldest daughter, while i love her dearly, is about to drive me insane with this whole sleeping thing. she used to be so good at it. when it came to naps and bed time there was never a debate or argument about it. it was just accepted that it needed to happen so we made the best of it. we read a few books, played with some toys, sang danced around...then she would very quietly crawl into bed and went to sleep. the past couple of weeks, noe has been skipping naps, staying up too late (not because i let her but because she refuses to stay in bed), and getting up earlier and earlier. last night, she finally went to sleep at 10pm. she got up this morning while daddy was getting ready for work, which had to have been around 7. usually, she would get up between 8 and 8:30, take a two hour nap after lunch, and be in bed at 8:30pm. this system has worked well for a long time, and it's one that her sister has adopted as well. this new system...well, it's not going to work out for me. and it's definitely made me whiny and capable of frustrated melt downs.

SOOO not a toy

2009-01-31T07:58:00.001-08:00

okay, as most people can tell you, when you move, especially more than once in a short period of time (ie. a year), things tend to get displaced. boxes are spilled in other boxes, items end up in the wrong box marked for a different room than where the item should be, etc. so i'm not so shocked that this particular item was somehow accessible to little fingers. now, on with the story.

in effort to keep my independence testing toddler from feeling too restricted, i try to give her choices about things (picking her own socks, choosing from a "menu" for breakfast and lunch, etc.). one of the things i allow her to do is to choose her toys for nap time and to put in the diaper bag when we go out. so, the other day, she puts some things in the diaper bag and off we go. i get to church and start digging for her quiet toys and find a tampon. and it's open (so i know for a fact that it's not a left over from my stash last month). and this is the toy she keeps trying to pull out of the bag. no, no. that just won't do. i can't really have my kids playing with that on the pew during sacrament. people will talk...and rightly so! i hide the item at the bottom of the bag and figure she will forget about it. well, yesterday i'm cleaning up the breakfast dishes and hear mali and noe fighting over something. i come in to find them pulling back and forth on, you guessed it, that same tampon (i checked the diaper bag to make sure it's the same one and that they don't have a stash somewhere). they have taken the applicator apart, taken out the actual tampon, and have made a game out of putting the applicator back together over and over again. okay, we're in the privacy of our home and i'm trying to clean the kitchen, so i decide to let them keep playing with it, instructing them to share and take turns before returning to my kitchen mess. a few minutes later, mali comes strolling into the kitchen carrying the tampon by the string, waving it around and squealing like this is the greatest fun she's had in a long time (i guess i need to rethink our daily activities....). again, i figure there's no harm in it.

did i mention that my daughter eats EVERYTHING?

yes, i look back at her when i have the dishwasher loaded and she has cotton or whatever it's made of, hanging out of her mouth. she's just taking bites like it's corn on the cob. ew. perhaps there is a problem with them playing with a tampon. i guess the bottom line here is that there's a reason you don't see kids plaing with these in pews at church. this story is quite funny when i tell it to family now, but i can see this being an awkward issue that they will likely have to discuss in therapy when my girls become little women. "well, honey, you remember that toy you had when you were younger....?"

on a different note, mali has begun feeding herself. i've been easing her into it for a while, filling her spoon for her and then letting her put it in her mouth, then helping her load her own spoon. the next stage was supposed to be giving her a spoon to use with me holding the bowl and another spoon to feed her while she tries to feed herself with her spoon, too. this stage took several months with noe before she took over completely. mali, however, is advanced in everything food, so this morning, she insisted on doing it all herself. i wasn't even allowed to hold the bowl. if i tried to help in any way, she screamed and threw her spoon down, hitting the bowl and my spoon with her hands, refusing to let me put anything in her mouth. so i let her go at it with some rice pudding. while i expected her to become frustrated and want me to help before too long, she actually did quite well for her first time and managed to get through half without much interference. then, rather than let me help her with the rest, she decided she'd rather get down and leave the food (a big deal for her, i'll tell you). i've decided that when people say that the chunky babies will slim up when they start walking around and such are only half right. they slim up at this point, but more because they don't get as much to eat, due to their own stubborn independence. pride is a great diet aide.

noe is peeing on the potty almost every time she has to pee now. the motivation of choice? marshmellows. still no improvement on the pooping, though, but i guess that's only once a day whereas the peeing is many many times.

the big oh-one

2009-01-27T07:06:00.000-08:00

happy birthday little bug! my love bug has turned one today. and what a year it's been! with her, the time has just flown by. with noe, that first year seemed to go really slow, but mali's has come and gone with a few blinks! in honor of her first year passing, here is a list of some of our favorite memories of her:

-pooping at daddy shortly after we brought her home. both of our girls have done that, so i guess we could call it a tradition!
-noe "holding" her little sister
-falling asleep in the swing at the playground (she just looked so sweet! i have a pic of it on one of the posts)
-meeting the dog...and loving the dog
-easy smiles. this one is so easy to get a smile out of, and we've enjoyed each one.
-her giggles
-her appetite! she loves to eat!
-her chunkiness! she was born small, but she filled out fast!
-becoming a daddy's girl. she just lights up when daddy comes home
-peekaboo
-patty-cake with noe...while she slept.
-learning to walk
-singing. she's started to sing when she hears a song.
-bed time. i love it when she snuggles and hugs me and her elephant before i lay her down.
-her belly. she loves to show her belly and it's really funny when she and noe do it together...mali's huge belly next to her sister's showing ribs!
-bath time. she loves to take a bath and now expects it to include bubbles, which she will demand if you don't break them out immediately.
-dancing. we dance around the house at least once a day for some exercise and fun and mali has really taken to it.

there's a lot more, but i'm sure you all have other things to do this week, so i'll not list them all. our plans for today had been quite grand. of course, things did not go as planned. mali was in the hospital, so i post-poned the party for a few weeks (i still haven't even given out the invitations). so we planned to just have something small today with her pressents. the weather this morning, however, has possibly ruined even that since i had planned to get her gifts while i was out today and the roads don't look nice enough to go out today. i don't even have a cup cake for her right now! hopefully the snow will let up and melt away enough for me to go out this afternoon. otherwise, the best she'll get today is hearing happy birthday in two languages and a home made card from her sister...who may decide she'd rather keep it.

mali doesn't seem to mind, though. if we could all take a page from the book of a mellow one year old, we'd probably be a lot happier and less stressed!

actually, it's a bird

2009-01-26T07:26:00.000-08:00

it's not what you say, really, but how you say it. my husband is ridiculously tired of hearing those words from me, i'm sure, but it's very important. i am determined to teach my kids early the importance of this concept, and my resolve was strengthened this morning. as we were eating cinnamon rolls for breakfast (noe's reward for using the potty last night after she brushed her teeth), the girls decided that they wanted a side order of cheerios as well. so i put a little on each of on their tray/plate. mali starts it all by calling the cereal bubbles. well, sure...they're round and clear in the middle. i see where she gets that. then noe gets into the game and says that hers are bubbles, too. because she's older and can understand better, i explain "no, honey, they aren't really bubbles. that's cereal." so she looks at me down her little nose and uses this haughty tone that i have no idea where she picked up, and informs me, "actually, it's a bird." she then proceeds to make tweeting noises and makes it fly about. then she bites half of it off and says to me again, "no, it's a bird." poor bird. first, i'm impressed that she can say "actually" and get it right in the context. second, i'm not oblivious to the fact that i have just been insulted by my two year old. no, it's not what she said. it's how she said it. i will not, of course, look to closely at how she picked up the tone she used...though i'm sure daddy has a few ideas, since i'm sure he's heard it several times.

finally, some real success

2009-01-25T20:33:00.000-08:00

so, for some reason, noe has decided that peeing on the potty is a good thing to do! today, she peed on the potty six times! and i only had to remind her twice! her training pants were dry almost the entire day! woo hoo! ladies and gentlemen, it just doesn't get much better than this at the poon house! we have never been so excited about excrement. yes, i used a bigger word than necessary. why? because i've been saying "pee" and "pee pee" and potty all day every day for the past several months! i will use my grown up words when i have the chance! otherwise, i may forget them, and then my still-in-progress book would seriously suffer (although it may help with the comedic factor, but probably not in the way i want).

the bad news (of course, there's always some bad news that comes with these little bits of good) is that she has decided that pooping in the potty is not a necessity. i'm not sure why, but she has refused to go to the potty to poop for a while (it used to be the only thing she'd do on the potty). hm...to be honest, i guess i'd rather she pooped on the potty than peed if i had to choose. think about it...what kind of diaper would you rather change? now think about what kind of accident in underpants would you rather clean up? granted, we don't pee on tinker bell, but i don't think i explained that it would be even more rude to poop on her.

a total kodak moment...

2009-01-23T06:25:00.000-08:00

and i missed it! that is, i didn't catch it on camera. but the mental picture will keep me laughing long enough to embarrass her when she's older.

now that mali is walking so well, i've started putting shoes and socks on her when we go out. this morning, she was doing her usual exploring of the house and brought me one of noe's mittens (fuchsia and pink) and held out her foot. so i put it on her foot like a sock. happy that she got what she wanted, she wandered off again. she returned shortly with a dress shoe and, again, held her foot out. it was for the other foot than the one with the "sock". so she laughs and takes off again. now she's running all over the place with a bright mitten on one foot, the thumb of the mitten wagging about the top of her foot, a brown and pink dress shoe on the other foot, white sweat pants with pink and green cartoon characters all over them, a pink sweater, wild curly hair and, now, her sisters cut of juice. i swear, if i didn't know any better i would think she was a drunk!! a cute one, though. i'd beter go get her now. she's found her daddy's contac case and is headed this way. i really hope she doesn't expect me to put THOSE on her!

breathing easy

2009-01-19T18:52:00.000-08:00

the past week, the poon family has been hit with a cold. one by one, we've all fallen into about a three and a half day misery of congestion, coughing, sneezing and headache. this is not unusual, of course. we have kids who hang out with other kids. germs are brought and shared with none of the fuss you see with sharing toys. normally, we endure with orange juice, tissues, and, recently, a vaporizer. so i am a veteran when it comes to dealing with the cold virus in my children, not to mention myself. well, the other day, i noticed that mali sounded a little different than the normal congestion rattle the rest of us got. she was acting fine, still playing and walking around, but she just sounded...off. i hesitated to use the word wheezing when describing it because a doctor explained to me the difference when she was a baby and, paranoid, i had taken her in for what turned out to be nothing. after the first day of this, i decided that i was not paranoid and i wanted her seen. it was a saturday, so rather than call our doctor (who isn't with the practice any more anyway, so i really don't know who they've assigned to us now), we took her to the urgent care clinic (not the ER...just in case i really am just being paranoid). well, lo and behold, a mother does have certain instincts. the child had pneumonia. so they sent us to the ER at St. Anthony's. so fai dropped noe and me (i, too, was sick with a headache and fever), and took mali in for some treatment. he called around 5 to say they had done some breathing treatments and a steroid, but that it didn't seem to be working for her, so they were sending her to cardinal glennon to be admitted for 24 to 48 hours. i felt so bad! here was my little baby so sick and i had waited a day to do anything about it and now she was going to have to stay in the hospital. and i wasn't even with her! so i called our friend cynthia and asked her to take noe overnight and give me a ride to the hospital (the other car's battery was dead) so that i could be with my baby. thanks, cynthia!

so here's the run down: mali has pneumonia and tested positive for RSV. she was put on isolation, so she couldn't even walk around the halls or go to the play area like the other kids. she was hooked up to a monitor and oxygen, so she couldn't really even walk around her room. she had to have an IV, which she managed to tear out twice. each time she had to have it replaced, i cried with her! the third time, i made fai go in with them while they did it and i stood out in the hallway with the animal cracker reward...and cried. she had to have lung percussions several times a day, which i am continuing at home. she's also on antibiotics, which she continues at home. her oxygen stats kept dropping into the mid-eighties, so they kept having to wake her up to try and bring it back up into the nineties. the first night, she didn't get more than a couple of hours of sleep total, and it was not all at once. the second day, she dipped down even when she was awake at times. the doctor, at this point, said that we should expect her to be in the hospital for a few days more and tit was probably going to be a few weeks before she was completely well again. she said they wouldn't let her go home until she was off the oxygen completely rather than just when she was sleeping, which didn't seem likely any time soon since they kept having to increase the amount of oxygen she was getting. last night, she finally went to sleep around 5, waking up only a few times for short periods, and then sleeping through the night. at some point, she managed to tear her oxygen out again, but her oxygen stats were holding steady in the nineties, so the nurse decided to leave it off. this morning, she started to get her appetite back and they unplugged her monitor for a little while to let her walk around. when they checked her again later, and even though she was a bit breathless from the exercise, her states were steady and good. so they decided to let her go this afternoon! the doctor was surprised to say that she was rebounding quickly and should do just fine at home. so we're back home, she's happy and sleeping, mommy's going to go to bed early tonight after a nice hot shower, then we're going to hole ourselves up in the house for a few days to recover.

i want to thank all of those who prayed for our daughter and offered their services and brought us dinners. it's so great to have such a wonderful support system around, especially when we don't have family close by to help out. thank you all and bless you.

and then man made fire...and it was good

2009-01-16T07:52:00.000-08:00

UPDATE** i am now stent and stone free! life is good.

i know i haven't posted any pictures of our new house yet, of which i am reminded on a monthly basis by various family and friends, but picture now, if you will....a room with a fire place. yes, folks, i have arrived. i have always wanted a house with a fire place. it was a symbol of warmth (and i hate non-warmth) and coziness. the whole thing about "hearth and home" can't possibly work without an actual hearth, right? well, i have one now. it's a nice looking fire place, too, even if it is, as i have been informed lately, rather small (who knew they came in different sizes?). anyway, here we are, in this lovely house with our fire place and the cold elements outside. so the logical thing to do? start a fire and roast some marshmellows, right? ah, apparently that is easier said than done...which, come to think of it, applies to almost anything. seriously, what is easier done than said? moving on....

so we got some fire wood to test it out (it apparently had never been used even though the house is over thirty years old) and since we had never built a fire before. at least, not on purpose. fai got some andirons and some of those starter chip things and some of those long lighters, and we were off to a good start. and then we had to add lots of paper, which quickly burnt out, leaving the logs virtually unharmed. then we put in more starters. and then more. and more paper. and more logs. at one point, we thought the logs had finally caught. we were wrong. a few times. finally, last night when the girls went to bed, we had a real fire, one that came clung to the logs and everything! and it only took about 48 hours!! maybe that's why this fire place had never been used? nah...i'm pretty sure it's just us.

this morning, noe has helped me realize what else having a fire place means: mess. daddy, man that he is (oh, sure, he can make fire....but can he clean up after his fire? no!) left a box with the logs in it and the poker out where the girls promptly discovered them as new toys. noe comes into the kitchen where i am cleaning up after breakfast to tell me that there's a mess in the family room. what's new there, right? well, this one was new. they had gotten ash and soot all over the carpet. it's funny, really. last night, as i sat smugly in front of my fire place staring into the miracle of our flames, i was reciting part of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" in my head. the part that says: "Ah, distinctly i remember, it was in the bleak december, and each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor." at the time, i was thinking how beautiful that was and reveled in the reality of it in my own house. this morning, however, it has take a new meaning as those ghosts have been wrought upon my carpet. no longer beautiful. oh, well. the memory is nice, though.

mali's best friend

2009-01-14T07:10:00.000-08:00

wherever mali goes, whether by walk, crawl or carry, she has a faithful follower...of the four legged variety. i've watched her all morning as she wanders the main floor and it's really quite cute to see her leading her buddy around. wang cai has attached himself to our youngest and is determined to stay that way as long as she continues to spill breakfast on her clothes, have sticky candy residue on her fingers (which she continues to shove happily into his mouth) and finds it amusing to throw him tid bits of food. he endures quite a bit of torture to keep his position as her friend. she pulls his fur, pokes him in the eye, slobers on him, crawls on him, pounds on him, kicks him, picks at his paws, and tries to catch a ride on his tail. i would feel sorry for him, but you must see, he really brings it on himself. and i can't feel too bad for him because since this little gang formed, he's had the worst gas that he shows no qualms about torturing ME with all night. he's lucky she's the only one torturing him.

what you doin'?

2009-01-13T21:00:00.000-08:00

ah, the questions. i was wondering when they would start. i was really prepared for the phase of endless "why" (a good name for a children's book, right?). but, no, not my little mini-me. instead, she's begun with the less annoying "what you doin'?" line. it is still annoying to have it repeated twenty times when i'm trying to use the bathroom, but it's a lot more amusing than "why?" when used at the dinner table. example: a couple night ago, we were eating dinner and noe wanted fai to eat something from her plate. at first, he said no because he wanted her to eat it herself and stop looking for ways to get away with wasting her food. but she insisted...over and over and over again (another charming habit we've been introduced to...everything is repeated at least ten times). so, finally, he stuck it with his fork and shoved it in his mouth. he starts chewing and noe puts her hands on the table and looks at him with her eyes kind of squinted and mouth pursed in what i'm guessing is her attempt to mimic mommy's cross look or curious look (i'm not sure which...it could go either way, really) and says quite seriously, "daddy, what you doin'?" we, of course, laughed. it's so hard not to sometimes. now, she says it first thing when she enters a room, or when someone else enters the room she's in. that and "mommy, i pooping" are generally the first words i'm greeted with in the morning these days (she comes in my room and wakes me up regardless of whether it's actually time to get up or not...funny how that works). the pooping one, by the way, is usually followed almost immediately with "already pooped in diaper" and a demand for a sucker. she's still working on the concept of potty and reward. namely that you go to the POTTY to get the reward.

note: i was trying to figure out where she picked up the "what you doing" line, as i don't use it much. but as i wrote the first part of my blog post, fai yells from the other room, "honey, whatcha' doing?". ironic and not a little amusing.

so what are the poons doing this fine new year? well, the usual. fai is starting back to school. he has one more year to finish his MBA. we're still settling into our house. mali's birthday is coming up soon, so i'm preparing for a party. i'm going to sign noe up for gymnastics and put the girls back in the PAT program. i'm also hoping to start babysitting a couple more kids during the day. and, my resolution, i will be working harder to actually finish my book so that i can get rejected by the big publishing houses before finding one that's willing to pay me an obscene amount of money for it and i can become rich and worriless. that's about it. so...what are you doing?

more on the holiday

2008-12-30T10:59:00.001-08:00

well, i was right. mom did beat me to the pictures. it probably helps that they were on her camera, as i left ours at home. you can head over to her blog (notesfromnanashouse.blogspot.com) or to the christmas blog page (christmasinkingsley2008.blogspot.com) to check some of them out. she's making them into scrapbook pages, so she'll continue to update the christmas page as she finishes the pics. they're pretty good, too, so i suggest you check them out.

the accident i mentioned in my previous blog left no injuries to anyone but the poor car. the road was completely covered in snow, making it impossible to see the lines that divided the lanes. on top of that, everything around us was white and blended in together, and then there was the heavy snow falling that obstructed our view. so when the interstate split, we didn't know which lane we were in, therefore it was rather late when we realized we were in the wrong one. fai started to get over, but we didn't see the snow bank until we were a foot away which, of course, is much to late to veer when you're on a slick road surrounded by other cars. so we plowed into the snow that was about up to my window that sat in the middle of the dividing lanes and spun to a stop, stuck. snow had sprayed up onto the windshield, so we couldn't see if we were in the middle of a lane that would have cars in it (which was the most worrisome since we drive a white car and would likely blend into the rest of the scenery), nor did we know if we would be hit from behind, as there were cars spliting off that way, too. luckily, a trooper found us before too long and called for a tow truck to pull us out and back onto the road. overal, it probaly took us about an hour. we were a little shaken, but no lasting damage. the car, unfortunately, did not fare as well. we have duck tape holding the bumper in a few places and will need to be replaced. there goes the money we saved by driving instead of flying or taking the train. oh, well. at least we were all unharmed.

for those who know me well, you know what it was that i wanted for christmas and was convinced i wasn't getting. well, i got it! i am now the owner of a pair of brand new naughty monkey shoes! i'll be modeling them on sunday for those who care to see.

also, mali has really taken off with her walking. she's getting six steps or more in at a time, plus she's started doing it without me on the other side waiting for her. that paired with noe's new habit of coming out of her room and into mommy's very early in the morning (and, even more fun, sneaking out of the guest room where she takes her nap and into the girls' room where mali is napping to play and get her sister up) has mommy a bit tired and cranky the past couple days. don't get me wrong, i love that mali's walking and that she's so proud of the fact, but it's making it difficult for mommy to get any rest while i chase after her. or she'll hang onto my leg while she's trying to walk and i'm forced to go with her wherever she wants to go. little is getting done at the poons' at the moment.

hey...there are snow balls here....

2008-12-28T18:12:00.001-08:00

for those who don't know, michigan is very cold. despite that, i have decided that kingsley, or rather the weather that goes with it in the winter, is as close as i've ever been to the devil's real estate. so when people say that you have a snow ball's chance, you should take that very seriously.

our holiday travels started out less than promising. the weather was really bad the closer we got to my mom's. what should have been a nine and a half hour drive turned into sixteen hours of slow going, treacherous driving through blizards, ice and snowbanks. we had one minor accident that was really scary around eleven o'clock. after that, we didn't break 35mph. the roads were completely covered in snow and ice, there was a lot of snow coming down, and there were very few other cars crazy enough to be out in it. by the time we got to my mom's, it was six o'clock and the girls were ready to get up. they did really well on the trip, though, i must say. the accident shook them for a few minutes, but we were able to calm them down and they went back to sleep soon after we got back on the road.

the days following were filled with more snow, so we didn't go outside. instead, we made gingerbread men/women, played with toys, watched tv, and let the girls get to know their nana better. the christmas tree was insane! there were too many pressents to fit underneath. we decorated stockings for santa to fill and tat was fun. we all got the things on our lists and, overall, i think it was one of the best christmases yet. it was nice to have my mom and kids play together. they don't get to see their nana very much. and noe really loves playing with her cousin. she continues to talk about him for a long time after he's gone each time she's seen him. this year, however, she has also started talking about his friends. i really have to check her love of boys soon or she'll become the most outrageous flirt!

i'll try and get some pictures of our trip up soon (though i'm betting mom will get them up before i do and i can just direct you there). merry christmas!

no, mommy...don't touch it.

2008-12-16T13:50:00.000-08:00

having a two year old is, at most moments, one of the most entertaining things i have yet encountered. i realize that there are times when this age is rather...trying. i think i've escaped, so far, the worst of that, however, because my two year old is still sweet, loving and, sometimes, obedient and helpful. she's also extremely observant. she picks up on everything from my words (obviously) to my tone, gestures, body language, etc. she practices her mothering on her sister and the dog, and she's pretty good for her age. she sounds exactly like me. and, from listening to her, i realize something that my husband has probably known for years: i'm really bossy!

i'm used to the usual things, such as her looking at me with her head tilted to the side and a bit forward to say "be patient" or "it's mine." but lately, she's getting bolder. i was on the phone with my mom the other day when she comes up to me in the kitchen and informs me that she wants her horse (a toy, of course). i told her i don't know where it is. she helpfully points to the door and tells me it's "in the car". i was on the phone, so i obviously wasn't going to drop everything and go out to get it. it was cold! so i told her i was busy and she would have to be patient (not a toddler's strong point, but it was worth a try). she then put on her serious mommy face and said quite clearly "no mommy, don't touch the chair." i looked at her, mouth agape, and said "excuse me?" so she repeated: "no mommy, don't touch the chair." then added, "go get it." in other words, get out of the chair (thereby not touching it) and get your bottom out to the car to get my toy! i should have explained that it was rude to talk like that to mommy, but i was too busy laughing. it was just too funny. bossy little girl, yes, but quite bright. i have since heard the same variation of that when i'm using the computer, reading a book, cooking dinner, and cleaning. the last two i am perfectly happy to abandon for her, i might add, because that's just the sort of loving mother i am.

on top of this, i have also been put into time out by the little shrew for "taking from jie jie (big sister in chinese)" when i have to relieve her of some inappropriate item, for "hitting jie jie" when i have to peel her hair off of her sucker sticky cheeks, for "pushing jie jie" when i try to hurry her on when we're late, and for "screaming at jie jie" when i'm telling her for the tenth time not to color on my walls (yes, the newly painted walls). all of these are worded in the "no, mommy, no taking, hitting, pushing, screaming, etc." formate. then she demands that i give her an apology for each one. she does this with mali and wang cai, too, so i don't feel too bad. after all, at least i didn't chew up diapers, so i'm not really the most naughty...though i do tend to end up in time out more often than mali....

first steps, steps back, final straw

2008-12-12T07:45:00.000-08:00

well, we're in for it now. mali, as i predicted a couple months ago, has decided it's time to walk. she's been walking with assistance for a little while now, but today she's ready for the real thing. she's taken a few steps toward mommy all on her own a few times this morning and seems to really relish the independence. while i'm, of course, very proud of my baby, i'm a little worried about it. see, i was already having a time trying to keep up with the two of these wiggles since mali got the hand of "speed crawling". she was the easier of the two, though, since she wasn't actually walking. now, however, i fear that she's going to be neck and neck with her sister. i can only hope that when they decide to run away from me, they'll at least run in the same direction.

while mali is moving forward, i realize that the old saying about "one step forward, two steps back" does not always apply to the same person. mali, here, is taking her steps forward. noe, however, is stepping back. we've had a major drawback with the potty training this week. on monday, i had to go to the urologist. while there, noe said she needed to go potty. so i took her to the restroom where the toilet has the automatic flush action. well, noe is pretty small, so it didn't register that she was still there when she moved a little on the seat and it flushed. she got so scared that she did her best to crawl over my shoulder to get away from it. ever since, she refuses to sit on the potty at home or in public. she hides to poop or just throws a fit if i suggest she goes to the potty. even the little potty is not an option. *sigh* now that monster thing is going to come back to bite me..so to speak.

a few weeks ago, i had a major kidney stone movement that made me sick and had me out of commission for a couple days. well, that was the final straw for me with this kidney stone. so finally went to the urologist. i got a nice x-ray of a pea sized stone that has no chance of passing without help and an order for surgery. so on thursday the 18th, i will be reporting to st. johns to have my stone broken up and pulled out. with any luck, that will be the last of that. i gotta tell you, i won't be missing the pea even though i've been carrying it longer than i carried either of my kids. the maternal instinct simply doesn't extend to stones or vegetables.

i finished the girls' christmas shopping from mommy, daddy and santa. i even bought fai's, though i'm almost certain he'll return it. i'll have mom and granny's by the weekend. just a few more left and i'll be done earlier this year than any of the previous years! well...maybe. i think my nephew is going to be difficult, which means we'll probably get him stock (fai's wish, of course). my brother, too, is in danger of the practical gift for lack of something better on his list. guess they'd better hope santa gets them something good.

getting to know the christmas me

2008-12-02T05:54:00.000-08:00

Christmas Questions

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper. it's more fun to tear into
2. Real tree or Artificial? i am a recent convert to the artificial. less mess and looks better with no bald spots

3. When do you put up the tree? hm...guess i should do that soon

4. When do you take the tree down? sometime in january...or february....
5. Do you like eggnog? yes

6. Favorite gift received as a child? my stuffed mouse. i still have him

7. Hardest person to buy for? fai. it's maddening

8. Easiest person to buy for? me

9. Do you have a nativity scene? no, but apparently i should

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? i don't prefer one over the other

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? a coworker a long time ago once gave me an indian in a canoe because it looked like something i'd like....why?
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? miracle on 34th st.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? whenever i can get fai to watch the girls
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? no
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? junk food. my mom makes tons
16. Lights on the tree? would anyone say no to this?
17. Favorite Christmas Song? away in a manger and baby, it's cold outside
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? travel
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? yes

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? angel
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? one on christmas eve, the rest on christmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? the shopping lines and snow
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? i like the white lights and have pink and golds on the tree

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? shoes and set of bones (the tv series) on dvd

I would love to learn about you and what Christmas is to you, so blog or email.

conquering monsters, the cow that peed, and farewell to the hairy beast

2008-11-30T18:49:00.000-08:00

for the past few weeks, noe had begun to have problems with monsters. they were everywhere! one day, she had never seen on in her life, the next, she swore they were in the cabinets, the bathroom, the living room, the car, etc. and, of course, she was scared of them. i tried explaining that there's no such thing as monsters, but those of you who have been through this with a two year old before know that that is really pointless. a few days ago, however, we had a breakthrough, and because it's rather amusing, i'll share it with you! noe and mali had gotten some kind of stomach virus for a few days, so i was giving them some gatorade to restore electrolites and keep them hydrated. they love gatorade, so this was not a problem. anyway, noe says it's her blue juice (kind of like orange juice, but a different color....). so we're sitting at the table and she's drinking her blue juice when she suddenly sets it down and turns to me to say "monsters in juice". interesting. they've never been in her juice before. but now she won't pick up her juice, which means she must really be scared. so i remained calm, picked up her cup and looked inside and said "wow, you have monsters in your juice?" to which she replied in a small pitiful voice, "yes". so i gave her back her cup and said "well you'd better drink them. monsters taste good." surprise! it worked. she said "okay" and took a big drink and smacked her lips and said "ah". "is it good?" i asked. she grinned and said "yeah. drinking monsters." so we drank monsters for a little while, then she decided that there were monsters in her lunch, so she had to eat the monsters. this was followed by growling at all the monsters in their various places (china cabinet, chairs, dishes, walls, etc.). as if this was not amusing enough, later, she found another place the monsters reside: the potty. the answer to this problem? peeing on the monsters! that'll teach 'em, huh? so now we like to pee on the potty monsters and then flush them down the toilet. i would definitely not want to be a monster at this point.

as i got the girls ready for a bath the other day, noe starts saying "pee! no, no pee in bath tub!". i thought that meant that she had to go to the potty. when i asked her, though, she said no. so i thought maybe mali had peed, but she hadn't (i hadn't started the water in the tub yet, so it would have been obvious). no, it was neither of the girls. it was their toy cow that sits in the tub while they bathe. it was sitting the space for body wash in the wall of the tub and had chosen that moment to release some water that had probably been in it for months. it upset noe enough that he was peeing in the tub she was about to take a bath in that i had to "rinse" the tub before we could begin cleaning the bodies.

if you couldn't tell from the rest of the title of this blog, the hairy beast is referring to the dingbat dog we've been housing for far too long. he was a very pretty animal with his long red fur, but he shed like no other! we would sweep at least once a day, usually twice, and there would be tumbleweeds of wang cai fur dancing across th floor only moments later. there was no getting rid of it. as you know, we have been searching for a new home for him for a while now, too, and because he was in trouble, until we found him one, he was banished to the outside cold except at night when i was nice enough to put him in the basement with a blanket and some food and water. it was pitiful, though. he would sit almost all day at the back patio door and cry to get in (stupid since he always wanted to go out when he was an inside dog). but we started to feel bad for him because he got no human interaction. so we took pity and decided to let him back in. yes, i know. you thought from the title that i had gotten rid of him. i have not yet been so lucky. but in order for him to rejoin the family, we decided that he had to be shaven. i have a baby crawling around that puts everything, including dog fur, into her mouth. fai is also somewhat allergic to the fur, so we got some clippers and away we went. wang cai is no longer a hairy beast. in fact, he has many bald spots. hey, i'm not a professional and to have gotten done right he would have had to have been drugged, so lets not blame the groomer! he looks really bad! it's pretty funny. when he goes out to use the bathroom once it starts really snowing (we had some flurries today), he'll have to wear a sweater! anyway, we let the idiot back in...and would you like to guess what he did the second night he was in? that's right, he got into the diapers again. and now i doubt anyone will take him because he looks so funny. i really will just have to kill him. hey, christmas is coming soon, and they say dog meat is actually very good....

yesterday, i was supposed to go to the temple. i haven't been for over two years because of motherhood and nursing. i was finally able to schedule the time and i was going with the sister missionaries, one of whom is leaving very soon to go home. well, it was not to be. at 2:30am, i woke up to put mali back down and realized that my kidney stone was on the move again. it wasn't too bad, so i went back to bed hoping that i could get to sleep and not have to worry about it. at 6:30am, i finally gave up on that and took some medicine. fai had to get up with the girls and i kept trying to sleep. at 11am, i gave up on sleep and went down stairs to eat lunch. then i though maybe a shower would help. i did feel a little better and thought i was on the mend again and could go ahead and keep my appointment, so i left to meet the sisters. unfortunately, my pill had begun to wear off at this point (i forgot to watch the clock for this and didn't have my pills on me). we thought there would be some pills at the temple (lets face it, there are several old people there who more than likely are carrying!) and so we continued towards our destination. to be honest, my thought was that if i could get to the temple, it would all be okay. well, we didn't make it. in fact, i made it only about two minutes up the interstate before realizing that i was going to be sick. so we pulled over and i made it to a bathroom before losing some of my left overs. then one of the sisters had to drive back while the other called fai to tell him to meet me at the urgent care center. the pain this time had gotten worse than it was in january when i thought i was in labor. long story short, i threw up three times, got an x-ray and a lecture from the doctor, a vicadin and a shot (painful) of phengrin and sent home with orders to call the specialist about getting the stone taken care of. i will be calling tomorrow.

i have pics of thanksgiving to share (the first thanksgiving dinner i have every had to cook) and some funny wang cai pics. i will try to get them up later. for now, i'm going to sit back and relax with the hubby and a bowl of popcorn and bottle of water (pop is off the menu for a while due to the kidney stone...although, it appears to be made of calcium, so the pop isn't the cause!).

why god made suckers

2008-11-25T07:58:00.000-08:00

this morning, noe asked to pee on the potty while she was wearing a diaper (usually she only says she wants to pee if she's completely bare bottom or, occassionally, wearing underpants). so i put her on her potty and she peed, without a fuss, and a really good amount (rather than the usual dribble she gives up as she cries). then she said she wanted to wear underpants. so we got her some underpants and i asked "what does it mean when we wear underpants?" to which she replied "pee in potty". so i cleaned up her potty and went about cleaning. a few minutes later, i went upstairs to change mali and put her down for a quick morning nap. usually noe stays downstairs while i do this (probably afraid she'll be made to nap if she goes up). but today, while i changed mali's diaper, noe comes in and says she needs to potty. i told her to go wait for me in the hall thinking she was just trying to get my attention away from her sister (she tends to do that a lot) and i continued putting mali down. then i joined noe and we went downstairs where she insisted again that she had to poop. so we went to the potty again and she promptly pooped (again, without fuss and without needing to hug me during). yay! so we put her underpants back on and cleaned up again, after which i told her how proud and happy i was that she used the potty again. she grinned and said "sucker for potty". ah, yes. the catch. oh, well. i'm willing to bribe and clean up the stickiness from her face and hair and hands and, most likely, my couch and own clothes, if it means she's willing to go to the potty!

the best bad movie since buffy

2008-11-22T20:22:00.000-08:00

buffy the vampire slayer, for those of you who don't know, was a movie way before it was a tv show. it was sometime in the nineties, i think, staring luke perry, donald sutherland, kristy swanson, and the guy who used to be pee wee herman. it was a really bad movie, but one that established a cult following because of it's amusing one-liners and badly written yet strangely appealing script. i find that it is a very rare phenomenon for a film that most everyone would agree is bad to do so well and i figured that this film, in that vein, could not easily be topped.

i was wrong (it has been known to happen, but not often). last night, i was lucky enough to see buffy knocked from her throne with a very loud thud as she hit the ground. at least, i think it would have been a thud, but i couldn't hear it properly over the awkward growls of a "teenage" vampire and the even louder laughter from the audience at a line or scene that was not intended to be comedic.

**warning: the following does contain spoilers for the movie, so if you haven't seen it and don't want to know any real details, please stop reading. if you continue, please do not leave me a comment or email complaining that i have ruined the movie for you since i have, as you see, left a warning.

i joined several other low-expectation-yet-still-curiously-excited women from church to see the highly anticipated movie twilight. i've read three of the books (which i started mainly because every other mormon woman i've met in person or online seemed to talked about them) and, though they are not my favorite books ever written and i find the main character (in whom's mind you are in as the book is written in first person) extremely annoying and melodramatic, i can't say that i didn't enjoy them (though i am having a problem talking myself into reading the last one...it's just way too far out there in concept). i actually really like the character of edward most of the time. when i heard they were making a movie, i was looking forward to it. but then i saw the trailer. you know how the studio usually is able to make any movie seem interesting and wonderful in the trailer? well, it seemed obvious to me that someone had really dropped the ball on this one. i have to amend that impression now, however, because now that i've seen what they had to work with, i understand that they did the best they could and there was just really no saving it.

the movie was bad. really bad. we all expect that they can't stay completely faithful to the book. i am a firm believer that you have to appreciate a movie as a movie and a book as a book and try not to mix your opinions based on one or the other about it. i like the harry potter movies, but they are nothing to the books. i decided that's the attitude i would have to take with twilight, to keep my thoughts of it separate from those i have about the book. so it's not as though i feel jaded about the adaptation not living up to the expectations. no, it was just a bad movie all on its own.

i will not even get into the choices in actors for the two main characters, just suffice it to say that they are not whom i would have chosen. however, the acting for the most part was just plain horrible. it was awkward and stilted; exaggerated and repressed; amateur performances from actors who are not ameteurs. the dialogue at times became laughable. seriously, would edward actually call bella "spider monkey"? would any boy in love call his woman "spider monkey"? as "pet" names go, it's a really poor choice! conversations between edward and bella were strained and emotionless, and we're supposed to believe they're hopelessly in love? they couldn't even handle lying on the grass in a meadow together without looking awkward and forced. edward, in that scene, looked like he was lying on a bed of sharp rocks or had been dropped from several stories above and broken his arms and legs (which would be the only way to explain the unnatural angles his limbs were in). one friend observed that it looked like they should be replaced with chalk outlines. and what was up with jasper?! everything about the man was stiff and creepy!

lets move on to the special effects. we say special here the same way we say special about the short bus. top of the list is edward's running when he's carrying bella on his back.he's on his tip toes, not even touching the ground, and they don't actually change the angle when going uphill. it's like an old video game on atari or the first nintendo. i assume they had better equpment to work with than that, but i suppose i could be wrong. and the jumping? i'm pretty sure that the longer you're in the air, you start to decline (you arc quickly and then start a desent, right?). but no, not the magnificient edward. for some reason he was able to go up near the end of his jump. then there's the glitter effect when edward's in the sun. several of my friends opined that it looked like he was just sweating. i thought it looked like body glitter (available at your local walmart for $.99 for those who wish to recreate it) such as the kind mariah carrey wears. then there were the piles of dirt space evenly apart for victoria to conveniently leave footprints on for the trackers to follow. and jacob's teeth? that had to have been an effect added after the fact, because there is no way his teeth could be that white. they glowed brighter than edward in the sun. and let's not leave out the fact that bella seems completely unharmed from the major head injury that left her with a concussion and stitches. she's sitting pretty in her hospital bed with her hair all done and her arm bandaged, her leg hanging out from under the blanket. no bruises, though. no hair cut away for stiches. no scrapes from her encounter with james (who was one of the few actors who did a really good job).

now lets talk about the actually theatre experience. not being a huge fan of robert pattinson, i admit that i was not so enthralled with his appearance that i would sigh in lust and thump my chest like a cartoon character, but i can see, i guess, why some young girls might. however, i can not understand why this would happen EVERY TIME he got some face time (which was a lot). there were several groups of teens who would gasp and sigh every time he made an appearance, and they happened to be sitting right behind me. really, girls? don't get out much, do you? the movie was quite entertaining, at least, though not in the way i'm sure it was intended, so i did enjoy the experience for the most part. i was taken by surprise, though, at the number of people who actually applauded when it was over as though this were...well, something to be applauded. really? you clapped? yes it was funny, but it wasn't meant to be, so i think it may have been inappropriate to clap. or maybe they really thought it was good. i suppose that's a possibility. afterall, these are the same people who were audibly in love with pattinson. still....really?

anyway, here are my top ten scenes or lines from the movie that make it worth seeing, even if they weren't supposed to make me feel that way:
1. charlie and his shot gun. the part where he's cleaning his gun and bella brings him a second beer (not what i would call responsible...i mean, he's playing with a firearm and getting ready to meet your boyfriend whom he is suspicious of. alcohol at this point may be a bad idea) and charlie snaps the shot gun shut and tells her to bring edward in. classic daddy moment.

2. when edward first smells bella. the fan with the ribbons is great fun as it then blows her hair about and she goes into slow motion to do the movie star toss of her head. and then edward almost pukes. that's hilarious.

3. the little drive by scene with jacob and his dad in the truck and edward in his little hatchback volvo. big bad vampire all cramped up in the little two seater trying to look intimidating. he just looks uncomfortable.

4. jessica. she's perfect in the role of superficial, two faced high school stereotype.

5. the baseball scene. this one really is good.

6. when james has bella near the end. james does a really awesome job. i guess they blew their luck and budget on him.

7. the end of the baseball scene when the cullens "race" to protect bella. the hissing and crouching is done in such slow creeping motions that i don't see how james couldn't have simply walked over and killed bella before any of them got over there. seriously, aren't vampires supposed to be really fast? and yet they weren't even walking at regular speed to get between the opposing coven and their human mascott.

8. the dinner scene when bella discovers that edward can read minds. the part when edward is telling her what different people are thinking: money...sex...money...sex...money...cat.

9. bella's beautiful articulation when edward tells her to go to jacksonville. it consisted of "what? wh- but- wh- wh- no- no-no- what- no- wh- no!" you get the point.

10. the best thing about the movie was actually the spoof trailer on youtube. check it out. it's funny because it's supposed to be.

3am elmo

2008-11-21T01:05:00.000-08:00

for those of you who might be wondering whether a movie about a three year old red monster with a passion for singing and baby blankets is more interesting in the pre-dawn hours and are tempted to find out on their own, allow me to save you the trouble: it's not.

noe woke up at 2 throwing up. she has done it twice in the past hour and can't seem to get back to sleep (perhaps it's the smell...that's what bothers me about it!). so i brought her downstairs to cuddle up on the couch and watch "elmo in grouchland", which she's seen about four hundred million times. i have the lights off and her pillow and bear with us, a nice blanket to keep us warm, and the most comfy part of the couch in hopes that she will get relaxed enough by the strangely hypnotizing theatrics of the tickle prone monster that she'll go to sleep with enough time for me to get some shut eye before fai has to get up for work, which always seems to wake up mali.

adjusting

2008-11-19T14:34:00.000-08:00

well, we finally moved! our official move date was the 15th and i'm so happy to be in our house! no, i don't have any pics of it to share yet. there are none online and my camera is broken...still. we may have to make that an early christmas gift..for fai. i still want shoes.

anyway, we all have a bit of adjusting to do now that we're in the house. the girls are sharing a room now. i expected noe to have a problem with that because she's been in her own room for two years. well, i was wrong. noe has been great. she loves having mali in there when she wakes up so that she can play with her. when i go in there in the morning it's to the sound of them laughing rather than crying because noe has climbed into the crib with mali and they're giving each other kisses or playing peek-a-boo. it's great. unfortunately, while noe has made an easy transition in that respect, mali has not. it hadn't occured to me that she may have a problem sharing since she's only had her own room for a few months. but mali does not like having her big sister in there when she's trying to go to sleep. even though noe doesn't generally make noise at bed time, mali won't stand her being in there. she just stands in her crib and screams! this went on for the first couple nights we had them together and it was driving me crazy. even after i would finally get her to sleep (after an hour, people!), she would wake up several times over night and start again! i thought it would bother noe to have the screaming, but she just slept right through it. luckily, i got some advice from a friend (thanks, kellie!) to try putting them to bed at different times. so i put mali down first and let noe stay up for a few minutes extra. then, after about five minutes, i put noe in bed. this worked wonders!

the next adjustment is the mess. we haven't gotten everything...not even close to everything...very far from everything...unpacked yet. so we have a state of chaos in the house. i can't get much done during the day right now because the girls want to "help". i had planned on putting them down in the play room in the basement while i got things done, but mali has started climbing up stairs and then falling down them (has fallen about four times, now) and i don't have a working baby gate (it got broken at the town house). so we've been using two pans, styrofoam bowls and plastic spoons for all our meals, one bottle for mali, one cup for noe, and a rice cooker.

noe, while she likes the new house, is not quite used to it yet. she plays in it all day, but around 5, she keeps telling me it's time to go "home". tell her that we are home, and she says "go home, mommy", as though she doesn't believe me. what else can i do? i had her name painted on her bedroom wall, but apparently it's not enough to convince her!

fai has a longer drive to work now, so he gets home later, which i think the girls are noticing. i've been letting them stay up a little longer each night to get to spend some more time with him, so hopefully that won't be a problem.

the dog probaly has the biggest adjustment of all. he is now an outside dog until we find him another home (yes, people, i'm still mad!). now, he used to want to go outside all the time and had a ball whenever i was able to take him out for more than just potty time. you would think he would then enjoy his nice new fenced in yard to the fullest. instead, however, he spends about 90% of his day sitting outside the door begging to come back in!

that's it for my side. however, i would also like to mention that a couple of friends of ours have made a big adjustment of their own. last night, i understand, yen and mike had twin girls!

a VERY good suggestion

2008-11-13T06:30:00.000-08:00

so i hate my dog right now. yes, it happened over 24 hours ago, but i can really hold a grudge and i'm given a very smelly reminder every time i change a dirty diaper...about three times a day. so it generally takes a few weeks for me to completely get over it. a friend of mine, trinity, left a comment on it with a really great suggestion, though: to get some poor sap to take him while i'm on spring break. yes, we realize that i am no longer in college and able to go on the typical spring break, but we know that this method is particularly successful to the satisfaction of...most...involved. the reason we know this is because that is how i unloaded my brother's cat...onto trinity.

also, i've been tagged again, but for a different subject which i have chosen to alter a bit. here are 7 things i've learned about being a stay at home mom of 2:

1. someone is always hungry, sleepy, cranky, whiny, bored and/or uncooperative. if both girls seem to be happy, then it must be me.

2. "no" can be the only word i say for an entire 24 hour period.

3. the second is never easier because you learned with the first because they are completely different, which i'm pretty sure they do simply to make me crazy.

4. "no" can be the only word spoken by a two year old in an entire 24 hour period.

5. "time out" is as much a punishment for a child as it is a blessed moment of semi-freedom for the parent.

6. there are not actually, as most believe, 24 hours in a day. there are about 6. 2 hours when the girls are napping, 1 for dinner, 1 for bath time, and 1 for family time before bed, and then that blessed hour after the girls are in bed that i can put my feet up and update my blog. the rest is realy just a blur of crying, screaming, time out and wishful thinking.

7. working full time was much MUCH easier than staying home...but much MUCH less rewarding.

i tag:
amy (also a stay at home mom of 2)
mom (for a perspective of the previous generation and a grandmother...and also because that seems to be the only way i can get her to update her blog)

not for lack of trying

2008-11-12T07:00:00.001-08:00

for those who don't know, i have a dog. a big golden retriever who is just over three years old. he is completely trained and puts up with the kids with amazing patience. for those of you who do know about him, you know he's a good dog overall and that i worked really hard to get him that way. well, i still have the dog, though through no fault of my own.

the dog has not run away, been poisoned, been given away or sold; though that's not for lack of trying. the problem with wang cai is that he's developed an affinity for dirty diapers. we keep him locked up when we're not around for just that reason, because i have been driven crazy with cleaning up digusting piles of his "fun". it started because he was jealous of me taking the kids out so much and leaving him home. then he just decided he liked it and nothing i have tried has helped break him of it. it's become a major problem for more reasons than that, though. the diapers are toxic. he's made himself sick a few times. also, the girls like to stick their fingers in his mouth and let him lick their feet. mali is crawling, and i hate to let her crawl now on the floors even after i've cleaned them because you just never know if you might have missed something and everything goes into her mouth! and then there's the issue of his breath! ew! and so, i've decided that the dog has to go. but then we couldn't find anyone to take him. edpsite his getting sick from the diapers, they have yet to actually kill him. and this morning, i was so angry with him that i beat him, tossed him outside (no small feat considering he's 70lbs), and closed the door. i looked out the window to see him happily running in the opposite direction of the town house. "good", i thought and turned to the business of cleaning up his latest mess. well, when i opened the door a little while later to put the trash out, the idiot dog was waiting to come in for more beating. feeling generous, i obliged him, and then locked him back up in the kitchen where he's perfectly happy to rest after his walk. i will have to be more creative in my ideas to get rid of him.

shouting at shadows

2008-11-09T20:03:00.000-08:00

no, there are no pictures to show you today. i left the camera (which doesn't take very good pictures anyway because it's older and we've been spoiled by our other one which is now broken) at the house for taking before, during and after pictures. so far, i've taken a during picture of people eating pizza.

the past couple nights, noe has been afraid to sleep in her room. i've already told you that she's become afraid of everything, but suddenly she's decided that there are shadows, or a particular shadow, in her room that will hurt her. i'm not sure where this came from unless she had a nightmare or something about it. yesterday morning, she just woke up and started crying for me to come get her because "shadow hurt you". i've tried to explain that shadows can't hurt you, but i didn't really get through. then, for nap time, she threw an absolute fit about going in her room, which is really unusual. she never gives me problems with that when we're at home. i thought it was just because she had been off schedule so much lately that she thought she didn't have to take a nap any more, so we put her in there and just let her cry it out thinking she was just trying to get out of napping (and she REALLY needed a nap). well, last night it happened at bed time. she just cried and clung to me, insistingt that the "shadow hurt you". she wouldn't let go of me. if i got her calmed down enough by singing to her and rocking her, she would start to doze off, but then start all over again when i would try to lay her down. this is really strange for her. most nights, she is perfectly willing to go to bed, even kicking us out early sometimes. finally, after about ten minutes of this, i finally let her sleep in my bed. then, when fai and i were ready to go to bed, we carried her, still sleeping, back into her room. this morning, it happened again with the shadows. at nap time, however, it didn't because she was already asleep when we got home from church so she wasn't awake enough to complain when i laid her down. she woke up from her nap that way, though. and tonight, again, she's sleeping in my room. she doesn't mind playing in her room, but she won't sleep in her bed.

so, tonight, after their bath, we tried to ease her fears about shadows. it was actually quite amusing watching daddy convince her that the shadows weren't scary by kissing his shadow, hugging it, making shadow puppets and everything else we could think of. we played peek-a-boo with them, gave them high five, and even mali played with her shadow. noe started recognizing that we all have a shadow that looks like us and would point to them and name them, even her own. we thought that we had this solved, but then when it came time to sleep again, she was scared to get in bed, pointing at the wall and crying "shadow". here's the strange thing, though: there were no shadows where she's been pointing. it's always the same area that she points to, but we can't see anything there even though she's insisting it is. it's really weird. i'm not sure what else to try. the good thing, i guess, is that it's only for a week. then we move and she will have a new room, so hopefully it won't be an issue. if you have any suggestions, however, i would welcome them. i hate seeing her like that and we're pretty much out of ideas.

the bane that is wallpaper

2008-11-07T06:42:00.000-08:00

***Update: noe has been REALLY good with the potty training today. i don't know why, but she has suddenly decided that she wants to wear her underpants as much as possible. i explained that when she's wearing her underpants, she can't pee. she has to tell me when she needs to pee so that she can pee on the potty (the rule is: we don't pee on tinker bell...it's just rude). so far, this is working. she has peed on the potty (the full amount, too, rather than a few dribbles here and there which is her usual MO) five times today! and she pooped on the potty, too! without a fuss each time! i am so proud of my baby! she had an accident twice today (once at katie's while she was playing because i think she was just too busy playing or she didn't want to tell anyone but mommy that she has to go; and once on the way home in the car or just when i got her out of the car because she had fallen asleep....hey, we all have days like that, right?), but considering her usual potty behavior, this is a real red letter day; and in noe's mind that red letter is an "M" and on a little piece of candy coated chocolate.

should anyone reading this happen to be contemplating the use of wallpaper or certain borders in their home, DON'T DO IT! before deciding to take that step, consider all the angles. it's more difficult, more expensive, more time consuming and less ascetically pleasing (when you add in the rest of decorations you wish to put into the room) than paint. consider how much easier it is to change paint than wallpaper when you're ready to redecorate. and if all of that doen't convince you, then please consider we poor fools who end up buying your house later and have to tear it all down! it takes forever, and my fingers are sore from it! i was at the house from 9am to 5pm and then back at 6:30pm until 8:30pm yesterday working on it. for the first several hours, i had help the help of three other ladies. we all worked very hard and diligently and only managed to finish one room with full paper and 3/4 of a room with just a border. it's rediculous! it shouldn't be this difficult to prepare to paint. i even did all the things they tell you to do to make i simple: i scored the paper, got a good garden sprayer, and a bottle of DIF. i don't know if this was some sort of super resilient wallpaper or something, but it resisted all my attempts to remove it form it's "throne". we ended up having to tear off the top layer that has the color, and then wet the paper underneath. then we could peel it off easily enough...but then i had to go back and get the glue that was stubbornly clinging with more DIF and a putty knife. it turned out, however, that some of that glue was taking some of the drywall with it, so i had to finally give up on that. and may i also point out that when we started yesterday, half of the kitchen had already been done by fai and i the week before? did i already say rediculous!?

i'm headed back today to get some painting started. the girls will spend the day with katie (thanks, katie!) where, hopefully, they'll nap today. they had trouble napping yesterday at the house without a real bed and were really really cranky by the time we left (sorry, rebecca). and then they were so exhausted that noe past out almost immediately when we got in the car (about 5:15, i believe) and slept through the night, skipping dinner. she woke up briefly when daddy changed her diaper and put some pj's on her, but went right back to sleep without a fuss. she woke up this morning at about 7:00 and has been in such a good mood that she peed on the potty without a fuss and is prancing around in her tinker bell underpants.

mile stones

2008-11-05T21:20:00.000-08:00

every time i've written lately, i've forgotten to update you on mali's speech development. she's added a few words to her bag in the past week or so. she says "dog" with quite a bit of flourish. she loves wang cai, so i suppose it wasn't too surprising that it came so quickly. at least she said "mama" before "dog", unlike her sister. she's also saying "hi" with a really cute wave.

recently, i've had to try to explain to noe that we do not kiss people who aren't family. it's not a conversation i was prepared to have quite yet, but it became necessary when she tried to kiss one of her friends, a little boy named brenton. his parents are friends of our from church and had dropped by to see the new house while we were tearing down wallpaper. brenton is in nursery with her and at the play groups every other week. so while we were standing around talking, i notice she's facing him, her face uplifted, and he's backing away, hiding around his mom. i, of course, called her back over to me to tell her to keep her lips to herself. it was funny, but in more of an "uh oh" kind of way. daddy is in denial, of course, saying that he didn't see anything and that she was just being friendly. well, yes...but i'd rather she showed her friendliness through sharing her toys. i'll have to keep a closer eye on her.

the myth of the extra hour

2008-11-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

i used to really look forward to the time change in the fall. i liked the idea of getting that extra hour of sleep, and it gave me a good excuse to be late for whatever i didn't want to do the day after the change. ah, yes, life was good. i couldn't understand why other countries didn't follow this wonderful plan, make a holiday of it. i never got why people argued that it was stupid and pointless to keep doing it here or why the government was considering doing away with it. what was everyone's problem with getting an extra hour of sleep? well, now i know. apparently the dissenters are, like i have become, parents to very young children. it seems that a two year old and a nine month old don't quite grasp the concept of daylight savings, and their lack of understanding and cooperation translates into my lack of sleep. not just the extra hour of sleep, either. my regular sleep has been disrupted and i now see the error of my ways as a follower and supporter of the daylight savings plan.

it started out so well. we all got a good night's rest on saturday night after working at the new house for a few hours. we were tired enough to hit the sack according to the new time without a second thought. the girls went down pretty easily and we parents spent the extra time allotted watching episodes of "chuck" on the computer, thinking we would get that extra hour, so it wouldn't be a problem. we went to bed around 12 or 12:3o, which felt more like 11 or 11:30 because of the change. and it worked just fine. we were up and ready for church on time without a hitch. but it was just a tease. i would discover later that it would not be so easy an adjustment as we had thought.

last night, we went to bed, again, around midnight. the girls had been pretty easy, again, to put to bed, so i had no reason to believe there would be a problem. but then i was rudely jerked from my peaceful slumber by a crying mali. i let her go for about four minutes thinking she would be able to put herself back to sleep as she usually does (she has been sleeping through the night consistently for weeks now). i was wrong. the fussing turned to crying, turned to yelling and kicking. so i climbed out of bed and spent a few minutes calming her down and put her back down. a while later, i am interrupted from a wonderful dream involving a beach and spies by the sound of a wailing mali. again, i wait to see if she is going to soothe herself, but am disappointed that i, again, have to intervene. again, i slide back into bed and am not even able to drift back to sleep before it happens a third time. then, a while later, while i am sleeping only fitfully, i am awakened a fourth time. i don't know what time it was, but the sun was beginning to peek through my windows when i returned to the bed. then, at 7am, she is awake again. this time, she is not going back to sleep. and, as an added bonus, she has woken up her sister. now, ordinarily, both the girls sleep until around 8 to 8:30. but because they do not understand the time change issue, they are unwilling to reason and go back to bed. so we were up and about at 7:36am.

now, not only was the night a disaster on the slumbering side, but the day didn't fare my better. recall that mali generally takes three naps during the day: 30 min. at 10am, 2 hrs. at 1pm, and 30 min. at 5 or 5:30 pm. noe takes her 2 hr. nap at 1 pm, as well. so i can usually nap during that two hours if i need the extra rest, as i needed it today. well, because mali was up so much last night, she took her 2 hours at 10, waking up just in time for lunch and to watch me put noe down for her nap. then, when she stayed up while her sister slept, not going back down for a very short nap until just after 5, at which point her sister was up and running around again. so i did not get to make up the sleep from last night.

let's recap: before daylight "savings", i was getting a full night's sleep of about 8 hours then a possible extra 2 hours during the day. after "falling back" to get an extra hour of sleep, i got about 5 hours last night (and not a very good 5 hours) and no nap during the day. so rather than gaining an hour, i've somehow managed to lose 5. and tonight is not looking any better. it's only 11:30 and i've already been in mali's room twice. had we stuck with the old clock time, which was working just fine, by the way, i would be well rested and happy. i think, perhaps, the presidential candidates should address this issue, and maybe then i would pay a bit more attention to the election.

trick or treat today, tomorrow...every day!!

2008-11-02T18:34:00.000-08:00

halloween was a success for the girls. noe really enjoyed getting to dress up again and, of course, both girls looked as adorable as they have the past several days in their costumes. and, despite our opinion about the neighborhood here at the mardi gras house (only for a few more weeks!), it was actually a really good place for them to trick or treat.

every time we knocked on a door, noe would try to go inside. i guess house hunting has really taken it's toll on her! i'll have to really break that habit soon. we would rehearse before each house so she would know what to say, she'd say it really well, and then clam up for the first few houses. after she saw how it worked, however, she said it with flair, even jumping up and down as she said it. or course, she had a real problem with letting the candy go into the bag...and leaving it there. especially if she happened to see a sucker in the mix. forget the rest of the houses, mom, i want that sucker! eventually, i did give in and let her have one, thinking it would last her the rest of the night while we treked our way up the street...but i was wrong. that girl really went through suckers . she figured out pretty fast that if you bite into it, there might be something fun inside.

we didn't stay out long, though. since we weren't even sure what time trick or treat started, we went ahead and had dinner at our regular time before getting the girls into their gear. then we really only went about half way up the street, and didn't even make all the houses on the way back (in fact, we skipped the two door right next to us). oh, well. they got plenty. noe actually said she was ready to go home, which means she must REALLY be tired, or she was ready to start sorting through the stash. mali had a little bag, too, which we had to empty into noe's bigger bag a couple times, because people kept giving them so much! one house would give them each two treat bags!

when we got back, we played with some spraklers that we had left over from july 4th. the girls were transfixed while daddy worked his "magic". sorry, i didn't get any pics of that. then we hosed the kiddos off (they were pretty filthy) and sent them off to bed an hour late before lazing on the couch ourselves. i "sorted through" the candy myself (i'm so dedicated) and then headed off to bed. the next day, i asked noe what she wanted to do when she got up, and she replied that she was "trick or treating". we weren't of course, but it was funny. then, last night, she repeated her request when i asked what she wanted to eat. when i got her shoes on her, she reiterated her suggestion. this morning, as we got ready for church, she thought we were putting on costumes to go trick or treating. when she left with daddy and saw him knock on a neighbor's door, she though HE was trick or treating and got really upset that she was being left out. she thought she was trick or treating in nursery at church. hopefully, this phase will wear off in time for christmas. now, if we could have christmas every day, i'd be okay with that.

these are some neighbors down the road from us. she is expecting her second child in 6 months.

mali is very excited for her first halloween. see her little pumpkin bag?

okay, honey...a dragon and a ballerina? those aren't my genes...we really need to talk.

"beauty and the beast"
it doesn't get any better than this people. they both stood still, looked at mommy, and the camera actually worked!

the beauty and the beast

2008-10-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

halloween has started early around the mardi gras house. i've decided that this town house is the perfect setting for a halloween theme. i didn't decorate or anything...but the horrible colors that are already on the walls make it scary enough.

on monday, we took the girls to boo nights at the zoo. it was too cold for noe to be a ballerina, so i borrowed a costume from a friend at church and she went as a dragon. it was really adorable and noe loves dragons (i don't really know why, though). both of the girls really liked the petting area (indoors) where they got to pet a chincilla, guinea pigs and noe even pet a snake (ew), and they really loved the little show they put on in the children's zoo, too. so much so that both of them tried to get on the stage several times and threw tantrums when we wouldn't allow it.

tuesday night was the PAT fall festival. it was indoors, so noe got to be the ballerina and mali was a dragon. fai pointed out that they were Beauty and the Beast, which was really quite fitting if you think about it. although, they are both quite beautiful. it was so funny, though, to see mali crawling around as the dragon! they did the same for play group at church on wednesday. tonight, we went to the library for the kids' halloween craft night. tomorrow is the trick or treating at the library (the scooby doo marathon comes first...very excited about that). then the real trick or treating is tomorrow night. i haven't checked the weather for that yet, but it's been really nice the past couple nights, so hopefully it'll stay that way.

we closed on our house this morning. we are now the proud owners of one house, the not so proud owners of another house, and the even less proud renters of the mardi gras house. we start working on the house on saturday. we'll do things as we can little by little until the big push on the 22nd of november.

here's the cuteness you all tune in for. sorry, i don't have pics from the boo nights at the zoo to share. they're all on a disposable camera we had to buy since our other camera broke and mommy forgot to bring the older one.

getting tips from hannah montanna and the talking tree (i know, an unlikely pair)

hmm...do dragons eat laundry? well...mali does!

so proud! (daddy or mali?)

the kitty later met with an untimely end...RIP (rested in pieces)

"no, daddy, you can't have it."

PAT fall festival

"hey, this is easy!"
the bean bag "toss"...i don't think she actually grasped the concept

this one is actually kind of disturbing...like she's trying to climb out of his mouth...

what a scary dragon! grrr.

you would think this was the end of the festival...but this is actually the start. it got much more exciting from here.

a two year old's birthday is irony in tantrum form

2008-10-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

so noe turned two on saturday. i do have a few pictures of this momentous occasion, but my camera is broken now and i'm not sure how to fix it. moving on....

because we spent the majority of her birthday traveling, noe didn't get her birthday cake until sunday after church. i bought it on saturday on the way to the fall festival, though, so that we'd be prepared. i thought i had gotten the milky way cheese cake, and it was beautiful. mmmm. anyway, after the festival, we got caught up in doing everything that needed to be done to get the sleepy girls into bed and then quickly followed suit ourselves. i realized at about 4am that i had left the cheese cake out. here i am having a nightmare about melted chocolate cheese cake that's quickly spoiling on my kitchen table. so i got up and checked on a crying mali, calmed her down, tucked her back in, and crawled back into bed...again forgetting the cheese cake. we got up at 8:30 and i recalled the probable mess again. so i got the girls up, got them changed and dressed and beautified myself, found fai's belt (no, honey, the black one, not the brown one), packed the diaper bag (without the wipes, apparently), let the dog out, put the stinky litter box out, and headed out the door late for sacrement....yes, again forgetting the cheese cake. *sigh* i'm completely off my game this week. anyway, noe has been talking about her birthday cake for two days at this point (even telling the other passengers on the planes about it), so i'm feeling really guilty at this point and could only hope that it was cold enough in our house to prevent it from becoming unedible.

hm...it looks okay from the outside. the chocolate hasn't all melted away. that's a good sign, right? so we send noe into the living room after lunch (which she wouldn't eat anyway) so that we could get the candles ready and video her first sight of it as she came into the room. this part went quite well. she was excited, though i think it was more for the candles than the cake. so after we took a video and realized the camera was broken and out of focus, we cut into the cake. surprise! not a cheese cake. on the one hand, good because it's not spoiled. on the other, bad because..well, we wanted cheese cake!! anyway, after two days of begging for her birthday cake, my close call with losing the said cake, and our preparation of the cake, then the relief at the state of the cake...noe won't eat it.

let me first explain that noe loves chocolate (i don't know where she gets that...). anything chocolate is good in her book. it's one of the words she pronouces the clearest. it's what i give her to get her to use the potty. the girl LOVES chocolate. so i got her a cake that has tons of chocolate in it. she first pushes the slice in front of her away. then she throws a tantrum for reasons we still have yet to figure out. after i calmed her down, she went back and started picking the chocolate discs that lined the outer edge of the cake off and giving them to her sister with a look of "ew" on her deceptively cherubic face. then she systematically dipped the used candles in and out of her cake until it resembled...well, chocolate cake that has been systematically punched with candles until it's mush. she then held up her finger with a chocolate crumb on it and demanded that the offensive item be removed. finally, she takes one bite of nothing but icing and a chunk of candy bar, announces she's done, and jumps down with the excuse that she has to poop...which she doesn't. and so went the birthday cake that she was so excited about. on the other hand, mali really enjoyed it.

later that night, during dinner, she spies the left over cake sitting on the counter. she's eating chicken, rice and broccoli at this point (three of her absolute favorites) and declares that she wants the birthday cake that she refused to eat just a few hours earlier. and so started another tantrum. after she ate dinner, i offered her some cake...and was rewarded with a grin, a polite "no" and a view of her bare behind as she streaked away to the living room. i think this may be the last birthday we have for her.

florida, birthday, and tag

2008-10-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

it's been a week since i blogged, but i have a really good excuse this time that has nothing to do with the camera! i've been in florida, where the weather is warm, the water is clear, and the friends are single womb-ly populating the earth!!

fai had to take a class for his MBA in tampa, so the girls and i were on our own for the days. on monday, we pretty much rested from the day before (by the way, the girls were REALLY GOOD on the plane, so fai says they've earned the right to take a trip anywhere...the story, however, about all the troubles we had getting on the plane will wait for another day) and then had dinner with nate and bethany and mike and yen. nate and bethany had their little man a few months after we had our not so little lady. in fact, fai blames them for the fact that we have a second little lady because we were "racing" to see who could get pregnant first. i had a moment of madness...what can i say? little did i know that i was so fertile that even the thought of getting pregnant again was enough! i've been very careful about those wild thoughts ever since!! anyway, austin (the little man) is, of course, adorable. it's really funny. he looks like his mommy so much...until he smiles. then he is a copy of his daddy! which means that either i'm crazy, or his parents look too much alike.... then there's mike and yen who are due in december. now their situation is funny to me, as well, because yen wasn't sure she wanted to have a baby the last time i'd been there. she had resigned to it, however, because "it has to happen". also, she had referred to the babies i carried as parasites (in the nicest way possible) and talked about how the belly was growing. now, yen is having twins! and, no offense meant, but she still has two months to go...and she's bigger than i was with both of mine put together! okay, i'm exaggerating for the comedic effect. she actually looks really good (and i'm not just saying that because i don't even think she reads the blog).

on tuesday, i went to lunch with liz, a woman i used to work with, which was fun. hi, liz! thanks again for lunch and for the fish! then, on wednesday, i took the girls to the beach with another fertile friend, ari. she has a daughter, mackenzie, who is a couple months older than mali and just the sweetest little girl! she gave me hugs and kisses, and she shared with mali without even needing a prompt! the girls really liked the beach and got a nice little tan...again. then they slept for three hours! thursday we went with ari and mackenzie again to the aquariam, which noe really loved. she really wanted to see the dolphins, but i think her favorite part was the fish and turtles. that night, we went to their house for dinner (thanks, guys!). friday, i had plans, but they all fell through. we were going to go to lunch with yen, but she got really busy at work. then we were going to go to the goblin gathering festival with ari, but mommy had a visit from the kidney stone (ugh, this has really got to stop). oh, well.

we got back saturday around 4, came home and showered, then headed to church for the fall festival. it was noe's 2nd birthday, so we high jacked the festival as her party. she got to do the trunk or treat and get lots of candy. then we came home and bathed them and called family to let them sing her happy birthday. then she went to bed an hour late...and then daddy and mommy went to bed (9:36pm) and slept until almost 9 this morning (interrupted twice by mali needing fed and a diaper change). whew! it's been a busy week! and this week is pretty full, too.

now, apparently, i've also been tagged (wow...i used to be so good at this game and so fast that i rarely got tagged...guess i'm getting old!). so here are 7 random/weird things about me:

1. i have a strange "ritual" that i do with my mouth before i go to sleep...i really can't help it, and the more that fai points it out and laughs about it, the more i end up doing it!

2. i can wiggle my three middle toes on my right foot back and forth (double jointed or whatever they call it).

3. i am hawaiian but have never lived in hawaii.

4. i hate onions in my food...but i love onion rings. probably because they're deep fried, which just makes everything better.

5. i am a stay at home mom, but i am one of the most least domestic people i know!!

6. i write stories but won't let anyone read them (when i'm published, i'll have to be under a pen name).

7. if i don't get my afternoon nap, i'm crankier than the girls.

okay, that's me in a nutshell. now i get to pick people to tag:

jennifer erickson
mom (hehe, now you HAVE to write something on your blog)
amy

that's it. i'll catch you up on more next time! time to eat!!

my little geniuses!

2008-10-17T11:08:00.001-07:00

mary, our PAT rep, came over last night to evaluate the girls and, lo and behold, they are brilliant! you see, being biased doesn't make it any less true! noe is WAY ahead in her language skills and most other things. the few things she wasn't surpassing her age level in she was right on target. mali, only being 8 months, didn't have much to prove, but she, too, is really good for her age, already cruising and using a lot of sounds. she also stood without any support for a couple seconds for the first time while Mary was here! how exciting. it's nice to have your beliefs confirmed by an actual professional. you see, i AM supermom!!

unfortunately, the girls are not faring so well today healthwise. mali was up a lot last night and has been tired and cranky all day. she is all stuffy and i'm pretty sure she's cutting another tooth. noe has been stuffy for a few days and coughing. i think they have been passing the same cold back and forth for weeks now. i'm surprised i haven't caught it...yet. of course, i probably will. that would make our trip really great, wouldn't it?

well, i hear mali still fussing, so i'm going to see if i can get her back to sleep.

terrible twos and pooh poohs

2008-10-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

where has my little angel gone?! i catch glimpses of her on and off throughout the day, but the rest of the time, she's been replaced with an unreasonable, stubborn and disobedient child! she screams at me that she wants help, but won't tell me what she wants help doing, and starts throwing things and kicking and screaming when she doesn't get my help on whatever it is she wants!! yesterday, she peed on the floor twice just out of spite! i know this because she'd been using the potty all morning until she wanted candy without doing anything, then she squatted on the floor and promptly peed. well, she doesn't get candy for peeing on the floor, so i told her no again. so she did it again. if it weren't for the fact that i'm trying not to spank, that little girl would have been mighty sore yesterday. on the other hand, she's really sweet and lovely other times, like when she just wants to give me hugs and kisses and she wants to take care of mali. if the whole next year is going to be like this, i don't know if both of us will make it through!

on a high note, though, we've had major progress with the potty training. i know she's still probably too young to expect her to be completely done any time soon, but i'm pretty optimistic about it anyway. she tells me when she needs to poop so she can poop on the potty. in the mornings, when i let her go without a diaper, she pees on the potty (unless she's mad at me, of course). when she wakes up in the morning, she's almost completely dry. nap time diapers, though, aren't as lucky. oh, well. i'm just happy we're moving forward at all! i told a friend yesterday that motherhood is so glamerous...i have never been so excited about poop as i have the last few days. i can only hope that it gets better than poop from here. i don't know what could be worse on the excitement scale!

today, i'm going to the eye doctor (that'll be fun for the girls...) so hopefully i'll be able to see while i'm in florida. then we'll probably spend the rest of the day at home getting things ready for the trip (i have a housesitter, so i have to make sure everything is cleaned and squared away), get packed, make dinner, etc. then our parents as teachers representative is coming to evaluate the girls tonight during dinner. so fai will feed one kid while i'm with the other getting evaluated, then i'll send her on into the kitchen to eat while the other one gets a turn. she said it will take about an hour and a half, so there won't really be much time left to do anything tonight before they go to bed. then i have some writing and sewing and laundry to do so i won't have to do so much on saturday before we leave sunday morning.

the weather is getting cooler here and i have to admit that i've missed the fall while we lived in florida. it's beautiful. the leaves raining down in colorful waves, the fun crunching under our shoes, the fun activities they hold in the park this time of year. it's really nice. i'm glad we moved here so that the girls get to experience it. the winter, however, i still hate.

pictures and more

2008-10-14T11:23:00.001-07:00

okay, i've finally gotten some more pictures on, but you'll have to wait until the end of the post to see them!! no videos, though, because they take too long and the girls will probably be up soon.

we're getting close to closing day on the house and we're getting pretty anxious. i'm so ready to be out of the mardi gras house, however i'm kind of going to miss it. not because i've enjoyed the depressing color scheme or that the lack of space and yard and the "wonderful" neighborhood have begun to grow on me, but because it's been good for comedic stories to my friends and family. when i'm in a normal house, what will i talk about? actually, i have two small children, so i'm sure i will be at no lack for inspiration!

mali has just taken off in the past 24 hours with her talking. she's getting louder and has picked up three more sounds. i'm so impressed! i thought she was going to be behind on her language skills, but she's really caught up now!

funny story: yesterday, while i was talking to mom on skype, noe wanted to hold mali. so i put mali in her lap and the baby basically tackles noe and proceeds to give her big sloppy kisses all over her face and neck! noe starts squealing and laughing, mali giggles along between smooches, and, of course, i had to crack up, too. mom, who can't even see it, starts laughing along with us until we're all pretty much in tears! it was so great! unfortunately i couldn't get it on camera because we were on the couch and i didn't want to walk away and risk mali falling off...again. they did it again later, just before bed time, so daddy could see, but, again, i had no camera! i'll try and get it tonight on film if i get the chance. it's the cutest thing, ever!!

okay, that's all i'll make you sit through this time. enjoy the cuteness to follow.

"geez, dad...not in front of the other kids!"

our little cliff hanger

mali chillin' with mommy

noe insisted on feeding mei mei...from her tray

pretty girl...pretty messy!

if it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face!

the last clean moment of the day..that's paint she's dipping into

who knew a pool full of beans could be so much fun?

definitely looks just like her mommy

on second thought...there might be a bit of her daddy in there, too!

a day of celebration

2008-10-13T13:24:00.000-07:00

yes, i have another celebration to blog, but this one can't possibly backfire on us.

today, both of the girls have really made mommy proud. this morning, noe used the potty three times!! last night, she also poopped in the potty. she's back in her diaper right now from her nap and doesn't want to take it off, so i'm letting her go, but this is a major step forward!!

mali has started saying "dada" today. and she's pulling up on everything and starting to cruise. it's actually really funny because she doesn't crawl much. she moves a bit and sits down and moves a it and sits down. it takes her a while to get across the floor when she's crawling. but she really loves the cruising thing, so i think she's going to give up the crawling gig soon! not too soon, i hope, but i give her about a month, two at the most. she's also trying to share her paci and some toys with me.

we're headed to florida for a week on sunday. i'm pretty excited, but kind of dreading it at the same time. we've never had both kids on a plane before. this could get a bit hectic trying to keep them quiet and happy on our laps for so long. and poor noe is going to spend half of her birthday on a plane, so i don't know how much she's going to feel like doing anything (or how much mommy and daddy will) afterwards.

anyway, that's it for now. we're off to the grocery store this afternoon and then maybe the park (if it doesn't rain).

busy days are better days!

2008-10-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

*okay, i had pictures to share, i swear, but i can't find the cord for the camera. they are really cute, though!

anyway, the past couple days have been crazy! on tuesday, it was raining, so our walking group met at the mall instead of the park. then we let the kids play at the play town area there while we had our adult mom time. i really enjoy this group because it's fun for the girls and me and it gets us out of the house for half of the day, which is always more fun. after lunch with cynthia and olivia, we headed home for nap time. it was still raining out when the girls woke up, so i let them play on their own and got some cleaning done. after a while, it cleared up enough to take them to the play ground. here, i discovered that it's not a good idea to take them to the play ground after school lets out. there was a group of middle schoolers there goofing off. first, noe finds some of their gum (i know it was theirs because i'd seen them chewing it, the same bright green, over by the monkey bars, which is where she found it). someone had stretched it out and wrapped it around one of the poles, which is where she found it. she got it all over her hands, hair, and shoes before i could get to her (she's one fast kid!). then those kids start playing tag (aren't they a little old for that?) and almost knock her over a few times. so i take her over to the other side of the play ground. but they spread out. and then they start yelling at each other while they're playing, using words that i really don't want noe using...and she started repeating them (of course). they weren't cuss words, thank goodness, or i would have had no problem saying something to them about it. but they were calling each other "stupid" and "idiot" and whatnot, which i still don't want noe saying. so we left. guess we'll find some other activity for the later part of the day from now on. the rest of the day was taken up by the usual chaos of dinner, bath and bed time.

wednesday was noe's first PAT activity where she got to do crafts and play with paints and such. she really enjoyed playing in the kiddie pool full of beans. she got to use glue and play dough and paint for the first time, which she really enjoyed. she learned about different smells and textures (this is rough, this is smooth), and she made a couple of friends. then, as we're getting ready to leave, she tells me she has to potty...and then she did! on the potty in public! this is really great since i could never get her to sit on the potty without her potty seat on it, and she hasn't really been succeeding on the potty lately at home, either. break through! woo hoo! so we went home and had a big lunch of ravioli and made up a new game...get noe to eat. it's very messy and silly, but, hey, it works! i have pictures of just how messy it got that i will eventually share with you! after nap time (which took a lot longer than usual because noe was still so excited from the activity, i think), i was going to take them and wang cai to the dog park, but it got to be too late and daddy needed an early dinner so he could get to church on time for the young men's activity. then, because daddy was going to be gone and we'd finished dinner so early, the girls and i decided we needed ice cream! hey, any excuse, right? then it was the usual bath and bed time for the girls and i got the house cleaned before daddy got home so we could just relax together.

today, we went walking again, at the park this time, and the girls played on the play ground until lunch time. noe was really whiney all day, so i almost decided not to take them out this morning, but then thought it would be better out of the house where she could get some energy burnt and be distracted from whatever it is that has her so whiney rather than be holed up in the house with her like that all morning! it's better for all if we go! we got home and had lunch, then the girls played in their room for a while so mommy could get a shower. i've started doing this in the middle of the day and it's really gone well. they like that time to play before nap time, and i like having my showing in the afternoons after walking rather than waiting until just before bed. i'll shut the bed room door and leave the bathroom door open so i can hear them. well, about ten minutes into my shower, with shampoo sudsed up in my hair, little finger pull back the curtain and noe sticks her head in and says "hi!". surprise, surprise! those little fingers have figured out how to turn the door knob!! i'm so glad she's able to do so much now, but couldn't that part have waited a few more years? will i ever get a peaceful shower again? and how long until she starts doing it at night, showing up in my bedroom at whatever hour pleases her? anyway, then we napped (we all needed it because mali was up three times last night and noe had played pretty hard this morning). after a solid, uninterrupted two hours (very rare. even the dog didn't bark!), we went to the library to pick up some things i had put holds on and then took wang cai to the dog park. fun was had by all! then we ate dinner at long johns (mmmm) and it was time for mali's first PAT activity. daddy came and took noe to the play group and mommy stayed with mali for the baby exercise class. while most of the exercises were to prepare the babies for things that mali could generally all ready do, it wasn't very helpful, but she did get to hang out with babies her own age, which she never gets to do at the other play group which has kids mostly noe's age or older. she had a good time, though. and noe was having so much fun in the play group that we had to litterally drag her away to come home. even the bribe of ice cream didn't work! we had it anyway, though, and then wiped the girls down (skipped bath because it was already so late) and put them to bed. daddy went to bed, too, because he's been having some allergic reaction all day that has his top lip swollen to about four times its regular size, so he took some benedryl and is now sleeping like a baby...well, probably better than a baby, since mali is a baby and has woken up a couple times to protest crib captivity.

tomorrow is going to be another busy day. in the morning, the girls are going to another PAT activity. noe will be in play group and mali is doing a class called "up, down and all around" that uses parachutes, bean bags, slides, balls and who knows what else. i'm pretty excited about this one, myself! then i will probably take them out somewhere to burn some more energy after their nap so that daddy will have no problem with bed time tomorrow night since i'll be at the writers group. i usually don't get home from there until midnight, so i'm going to be pretty tired, myself!

my new strategy is to take the kids out as much as possible during the day. that way, they have fun, get tired, and sleep really well for naps and at night; and also because my house stays a lot cleaner!! this will be a lot easier once we move because we'll be right across from the play ground and we'll have a fenced in yard that they can run in as much as they want! i've been employing this strategy for about a week and have to say that we're all pretty happy with it. the girls are in good moods and seem to be learning a lot from it (social skills and more). noe is really picking up on a lot and has started telling me that clouds or shapes in the grass or something resemble other things, like dolphins or horses. it's amazing.

mali update: she's pulling up on everything and standing really well now. walking is not far off. i thought she'd be a lot later because she's so much bigger than noe was at this age (noe was walking by 9 months...mali is 8 1/2 months now), but apparently she won't be much later.

noe update: she's becoming afraid of everything!! her new thing is that "shadow hurt you" or "water hurt you" or even "light hurt you". it's kind of sad, actually, because she was really afraid of her shadow the other day and it's not like i can get rid of it for her like i can a bug! this took some major soothing and distraction until she was okay again. i read that this is due to her developing imagination (which is also why she will occassionally have nightmares) but there's really nothing i can do about it other than reassure her and comfort her. i can't just say "bugs won't hurt you" because that's not always true. there are some bugs that can hurt her (bees, for example, which is what she was pointing to). i can't tell her that water can't hurt her because some water can (deep water, hot water, etc.). i did tell her that shadows and light can't hurt her, but it didn't help anyway. apparently, she's just going to have to learn how this will all work on her own?

another long update because i really suck at this

2008-10-06T12:03:00.000-07:00

okay, i know it's been a while. i honestly didn't think i was that busy until i get to the end of another week and haven't finished half of what i wanted to do. a lot has happened, however, that i have wanted to put on the blog to keep everyone updated, but i just haven't had time (in other words, sleep ranked higher on my priority list). so, once again, here it is:

mali is really crawling now, and just a minute ago, i went to get her out of her crib to feed her and she was standing there waiting for me! not already!! my babies keep growing up! before long, i'll have to have another! when i say "before long", i mean a few more years. i'd like to not be pregnant for a while.

noe will be turning two soon...and it shows. she throws horrible tantrums, throwing herself on the floor, hitting, screaming. i am...we'll say bemused. other times, however, she's an angel!! she helps feed mali, she likes to play with her before nap (while mommy takes a shower) and before bed, and insists on getting her up in the morning with me, running in to her room, climbing up on the side of the crib, and shouting "hi, mei mei!!". i've also noticed that she's starting to get a bit manipulative. if mommy tells her no about something, she tries to get it from daddy. or she finds some other sneaky approach to getting what she wants. overall, though, it's great to watch her really growing up. she's climbing a lot (making mommy so nervous that some of the other moms have had to tell me to relax and let her go), she knows her friends by name, and she starts every day by asking to go to the playground. she's been really busy, lately, with play dates and library time and just running errands with mommy, so she's starting to really get familiar with things. she's speaking with more enunciation and catching on to more chinese now, which is just amazing to see. we're still working on the potty trainig, though.

we have a contract on another house which, just last week, past inspection!! there're a few things that need fixing, but nothing big and nowhere near as expensive as the $20K we would have had to spend on the last one! fingers crossed, though. i'm not even going to pick out paint colors until after closing this time!

we bought noe a power wheels jeep for her birthday (only $20 at baby mania on saturday) and will be spending some time "pimping her ride" before the big day. we're trying to decide on what colors and stickers we should put on it. i, of course, want girly stuff, but daddy is resisting!! noe is all about driving these days, so i hope this one will be a big hit!

i've finally gotten registered to begin the parents as teachers program (after being on te waiting list for several months). i'm pretty excited about it. the events start this week for both girls and they look like a lot of fun! it's really just play dates and fun stuff for the girls, a day out for us all (keeps the house clean), and it also gives ideas to the moms about how to help the kids advance through each milestone. i'll keep you posted about how it's going.

noe hurt her thumb last night and it's swollen and bruised (not broken, though). i had to give her tylonel last night to help her sleep because she couldn't hug her bear without it bothering her, and noe does not sleep without the bear. today, i am trying to keep her distracted from it so that she's not so miserable. it worked pretty well this morning. i took them to the library for story time and crafts, then to the store where she got to drive the race cart (those thing are life savers!), then to walmart where she got to sit in the fron of the cart and i pushed her fast through the aisles. we went to lunch becase i was out way past lunch time in between the store and walmart. then we came home, though, and i put them down for their naps...and noe can't sleep. her finger hurts again and i hear her still up there telling her bear about it. it's been almost an hour, and noe never has problems sleeping during nap time. after they get up, i'm thinking of taking them to the play groung to burn some energy before dinner. family home evening is tonight, too, so we can have ice cream, so all in all, they'd have had a pretty good day! hopefully that will help her sleep pretty well tonight. we have a busy week starting tomorrow, and i'd hate for her to miss out on it due to injury or crankiness (from lack of sleep).

well, i'm off to try and convince her to sleep again. i have pics to post, but will have to wait until later. until then...!

happy birthday, mom...and other stuff

2008-09-16T11:02:00.000-07:00

today, my mom gets old...-er. i keep wondering when she's going to stop that, since she complains about the aging thing so much, but each year, she does it again! i guess she's just a glutton for punishment. it's a good thing our senses of humor are the same, or she may not take kindly to that. it wouldn't stop me from saying it, but maybe i wouldn't have posted it for everyone else to see. then again, maybe i would have. anyway, happy birthday old woman! see, this is also how i check to see that she's reading my blog!

i've been to the library already twice this month and am making a return trip today to pick up an item i have on hold that just came in. i like the library here, it has a really nice kids' section and is arranged in a way that makes a lot more sense than the one in sarasota. most of the girls at the front desk recognize me to the point that they rarely need to ask my name when i pick something up and, if i'm ever without the girls, they inquire after them (perhaps to make sure i didn't just leave them in the car?). yesterday, though, ther was a woman who really irked me. at first, i thought i was going to get along with her just as well as the other ladies because she saw me standing a the end of a rather long line to check out with the girls in their stroller making noise because mali wanted to play with noe's seat back and noe, of course, didn't want her to. i didn't think they were really being that loud or obnoxious and was perfecly willing to continue waiting, but then this woman (who had been visiting with some friends off to the side) called me over to her station to check out. sometimes, it really pays to bring the kids! anyway, noe was wanting to "help" me by putting the books and movies into the bag after they'd been scanned. this makes the process run a little longer, but, again, it wasn't really bad, and there was no one else behind me. but i notice the woman is giving her friends (who were not much younger than myself and one of whom happened to have a child at home) a look that, to me, said "oh, brother. you see what i have to put up with?". while noe continued to make progress, i told the woman i also had some things on hold and she turned around to go get them. at this point, noe finishd her task and decided to start pointing out everything on the woman's desk. when the woman returns, noe points to some things and tells her what they are and, as per her usual manner, smiles and claps. the woman does not so much as crack a smile in return. then noe wanted to play with some of the items for customers to take (fliers, magnets, etc.). to keep her from taking them all, i gave her a flier and one magnet. then i started putting the hold items into the bag myself, not realizing that noe was close enough to the edge of the desk to get a couple more magnets. how could she resist? she only got two more, as they were stuck together and sitting apart from the others. let me remind you that these items are free for the customers, that noe wasn't hurting them (only looking at them), no one ever takes any, and she had a total of three. this woman acted as though she had committed a really horrible crime! sje reached over the desk and took all the magnets back, and the flier! then noe, who ordinarily would have thrown a fit about this, only said quite pitifully, "more please." so i took another magnet from the pile and gave it to her. the woman then says to her friends, "this is why i just need to retire"! what was this lady's deal?! i have to go back today. if she's there again, perhaps i'll ask when the happy day is so i can throw a going away party...the day after.

mali is doing the army crawl. she's not great at it yet, still going backwards when she means to go forward about half the time, but she gets to where she's going. if she sees noe set something on the floor that she wants, you'll be amazed at how fast that chubby belly can get across the floor!

well, that's it for now. i'll check back in again soon.