Just as Good as a Tissue

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I was really hoping to do some damage so I planned my outfit in order to accommodate the large intake of food on turkey day. We first took my mother in law out for lunch at a Korean BBQ place (Shik-Do-Rak). Then we were stuck in traffic forever trying to get to my cousin's. Typical SoCal traffic--it took two hours to get from point A to point B even though it should have only been an hour. It all worked out because it gave us time to digest. My cousin and his wife really went all out, ham, turkey, and all the delicious sides. Of course, what Thanksgiving meal would be complete without kalbi jjim, kimchee and other Korean sides. I ate everything--twice. Yum yum!

We hung out at my mom's for the rest of the weekend and ate some more. It was a great weekend for me as I slept a lot, ate my mom's cooking a lot, and sang karaoke a lot. We know we are extremely blessed and we are so grateful to God--happy Thanksgiving!

But back to the reason why I entitled this post, "just as good as a tissue." The girls learned how to play "Go Fish" with their cousins this weekend so when we got home, the girls wanted to play again. We were sitting on the ground playing and Sam was weaving around us playing with his toys.

Achoo! Sam turned to me and said, "nose!" I looked at him and he has this five inch booger string hanging from his nose which was smashed horizontally against his cheek. He started to move towards me and turned his head down like a rodeo bull ready to bump the tossed rider. He grabbed me by the shoulders and went in for the kill. As he got closer to my shirt, he started to turn his cheek so that he could begin the booger transfer. I was trapped. His full 30-something pound frame on was me. I tried to break free but he just wrestled me to the ground and kept trying to wipe that snotvine on me. I finally managed to pry his grip off my shoulders and I quickly jumped up.

When he knew he lost me for good, he decided to go to his plan B. He wiped the booger string with his fingers and mashed it into his hair.

The funny thing is when his nose is running, he usually grabs the bottom of his shirt and wipes his nose. I usually do this for him when we are out and I don't have a tissue handy. And there may have been one or two times when I've done this at home and I'm just too lazy to get up and get a tissue. Recently, he realized that he can wipe his nose on his shirt by himself, which is great because when he does it in public, I feign disgust.

Tonight though, he must have been inspired by Calvin and Hobbes or his dad paid him five bucks because he was determined to wipe that snot trail on me.

Who me? Dear, sweet, innocent me?

Who Knew It was Cool to be Bad?

I read the recent Time Magazine article on "The Case Against Over-Parenting." It basically made me feel better about my "under-parenting" (kids are watching TV while I type--I really should be making dinner but I just don't feel like it right now). But I guess there is a backlash against the helicopter parents and now people are bragging about what bad parents they are. Hmph, I thought I was being cool and original by being such a crazy mom. Turns out, I am part of a new generation of parents that aren't gunning to be moms of the year.

I don't know if I would let my kid ride a NY subway by himself at age nine, but I don't feel it is necessary to screen the parents before I dump my kid on them for a playdate. My only fear in having my kids be around other moms too much is that my kids will realize what a bum deal they got for a mom.

Alright, I should go reheat those McDonald's nuggets for dinner. Just kidding. Seriously. Organic greens and filet mignon are on the menu for dinner...At least that is what I am having delivered. Just kidding. I am making it all from scratch from my organic garden. Just kidding. (sorry, I got inspired by Judy Grimes from SNL).

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Duet

Here's another video clip of Sam playing his guitar but this time he is accompanied by someone who is wearing the same outfit as him. Yes, it was on purpose. Yes, the big one dressed the little one and I had nothing to do with it. Yes, I make fun of the big one whenever he does it (like every week), but I secretly think it is adorable.



When Sam raises his fist after jamming on the guitar, he is looking for a standing ovation. Since Chang was too busy getting his groove on, Sam got annoyed and threw his guitar (now you can see why my lip got busted).

Happy 2nd Birthday Sam!

Sam is turning two! I can't believe my baby is two. There is a part of me that wants to keep him at this age forever because he is so adorable right now (but then again, I could eat him with a spoon since birth).

Sam is 75% in height and 90% in weight and 100% in attitude! These days he continues to amaze us with his talking. He still loves his guitars and singing and dancing. He received some boy toys for his birthday and I never realized how much he loves Thomas the tank engine. He was deprived for boy toys all this time because we were too cheap to buy anything for him. So all those times I joke about him playing with his sisters' princess stuff? It's because he had nothing else to play with...now he wants me to read to him his new truck book, set up his "choo-choo" stuff daily, and his race cars. Who knew that gender-appropriate toys were so important?

Sam, we love you so much. You have completed our family. We love your goofiness--when you laugh, we all delight in your joy. We marvel at your love for music and enjoy your daily serenades. I love it that you still cuddle with your mommy and are generous with your kisses and hugs. I love that you are independent and determined to do things for yourself. You are so sweet, smart and silly and are so grateful to God for giving you to us!

Sam was annoyed with me because I kept trying to take his picture while he was enjoying his chocolate buttercream frosting.

Enjoying his birthday cake again, but this time being polite.

I didn't think that Sam would know about blowing out candles or that we were celebrating his birthday but he did!

Parent Teacher Conferences for Fall 2009

We went through another round of parent teacher conferences for the girls. It is interesting to hear their teachers' perspectives, especially as the girls get older. I see how their personalities are becoming more defined. And of course, because I like to overanalyze everything, I think about what this means for their future in terms of academics, social development, sibling dynamics, etc. (This post is boring but I want to remember what the teachers said and my reflections of the girls upon hearing the teachers' observations--sorry!)

Joey has been doing really well in kindergarten. It took her a while to get comfortable with the other kids. Her teacher said that for the first few weeks, she wouldn't go outside and interact with the other kids. She would come back into the classroom and ask to help her teacher. I was very eager to help her make friends so I organized a playdate with a girl who Joey mentioned was nice to her. Suddenly, I had other girls' moms asking for playdates with Joey and now Joey has her group of friends. Yay! The teacher also mentioned that Joey is well liked by her classmates and gets along with them.

The teacher gave us a list of skills that kindergarteners need to master by the end of the year. Out of the list of 21 skills, Joey has two that she hasn't mastered. She couldn't read 5 of the 54 "sight words" and she needs to improve in her spelling when writing. The teacher was saying that she was hoping that Joey would take on a leadership role in the class but Joey is hesitant to be in the spotlight. That sounds about right. Even when Joey was two years old, she always hated being the center of attention in a large group setting. Among friends and family, she's comfortable--but bring in just one or two strangers, forget it. That's like me now, but I think as a kid, I was a lot more outgoing.

I'm really happy that we decided to start her off in kindergarten. The kids learn a lot of the culture, work ethics, and teacher expectations in kindergarten. While Joey would probably have fared decently in first grade, we are on a much more gradual learning curve. I've been supplementing her homework since it is so basic which has been forcing me to become more involved in their academic development. Darn--I guess I could only hold off for so long. And I guess that nerd gene is alive and well in me too. One thing I am loving is Joey's piano lessons. I am learning how to read music which I never learned to do in my 20 years of piano lessons.

Elysha is so different from Joey. They are both smart. But Joey has this innate desire to please others. Elysha could not care less. This is her teacher's observation. This is the same preschool teacher that Joey had so she was also marveling at how different the two girls are.

What cracks me up about Elysha is that she doesn't seem engaged while a teacher or parent is speaking (okay, cracks me up when it is someone else, really irritates me when it is me that she is rolling her eyes at). She doesn't appear to listen to you when she is talking but she gets it. She's definitely not a teacher's pet, but thankfully, she isn't a problem student either. She's going to be one of those kids who doodles on her notes in class and listens to music while studying but will perform just as well as the student who takes copious notes. She won't be gunning for extra credit, though, that is for sure.

Elysha doesn't challenge herself and would be happy to draw all day. But when her teacher asks her to do something, she is compliant. Elysha's reading has improved dramatically within the last two weeks. Things finally clicked for her and she is able to read the BOB books with no problem. She's at that stage where she is trying to read everything around her.

Elysha has no problems being the leader and speaking in front of the class. Now that she is one of the older children at her preschool, she has taken on a leadership role--she likes to help the younger kids but also likes to keep up with the kindergarteners. I don't know that she "competes" with Joey so much as she uses Joey as a pacemaker. She wants to keep up--Elysha gets upset when she can't do things as well as Joey--but we just keep reminding her that when Joey was her age, she could not do x,y,z either. Elysha used to get really upset but I think she is understanding better that it is a process.

We talked about Sam entering preschool next summer. He just seems so young compared to the girls at his age. I wonder how much of it is gender/personality vs. me coddling him. I wonder if he will be ready next summer and as excited as I am to finally be able to pee without Sam playing with his cars along the bathtub, I really wonder if I will be ready next summer to let him go. You would think that I would be singing from the rooftops "Freedom!" But a part of me thinks that I will be crying while I am getting a pedicure (because I will be finally taking care of myself after almost seven years of letting myself go to pot).

Explicit Pics--Don't look if you don't have the stomach

Okay, this doesn't have to do with my lip. No more pus, but the broken blood vessels turned into a canker sore. Now it is interfering with eating so I am really annoyed...

We bought a camera for Joey for Christmas 2007. It is one of those Kid Tuff cameras and it is great. It really does withstand all sorts of drops and falls but the picture quality isn't that great. Plus, the kids end up taking 50 pictures of their toes or heads are cropped out. So it is not just the camera that is causing low picture quality, if you get what I mean...

Anyhow, Joey has been bugging me to upload the photos onto the computer because the memory card was full. I finally downloaded all 774 pictures and went through each and every one of them. I deleted all the blurry pics, headless photos, pics of my boobs when I was breastfeeding Sam--but then I found this photo journal which I thought was hilarious:




The picture before the empty toilet shot is of Elysha's butt. Joey probably took these photos when she was four years old. Aren't kids so funny?

They Really Do Like Me!

I threw out my back on Tuesday night. It was so bad that I drove myself to the ER at midnight (three kids at home sleeping so Chang couldn't take me). I was doing lamaze breathing while driving to help manage the pain. When I got to the hospital, the triage nurses asked me what my pain level was on a scale from 1 to 10. After experiencing what it feels like to push a baby out of me without drugs, nothing will ever come close to a 10. So I said 7, but on a really weighted scale. I guess by the look on my face, they wrote a 10 anyway.

At 3 am (diagnosis was just a back spasm/strain), I was at a 24 hour pharmacy (thank God that we live in a big city), getting my prescriptions filled so that Chang would only have to worry about getting the kids ready for school later that morning. I would be on a nice drug high and good for the day. The pain was still excruciating but all the meds made me so drowsy that I kept passing out. I think I slept 20 of the 24 hours. The kids watched A LOT of TV that day...

Today, I woke up stiff but feeling much better. A friend came by and stretched me out. Sam was upset that I stopped our jam session short so he threw his guitar at me. I have the nastiest fat lip you have ever seen. But of course, I can't be mad at my cuddle bunny.

I felt so good (minus the bleeding fat lip) that I went to both of the girls' schools. Both of the teachers were telling me how worried the girls were about me. How sweet! Despite all my ranting and raving, they really do love me. I'm so lucky (minus the gross lip--I'd post a picture but it is a little too discovery channel).

Future Jimmy Page

I caught Sam in the middle of his many daily jam sessions. But this time, he was watching himself in the reflection of the dishwasher...

A Penny Saved...

My friend passed on some Diego pull-up diapers that her dad accidentally bought for her daughter. She also gave me about a dozen Dora pull-ups with the intent for me to pass them on to someone who could use them. Well, I figured that no one sees the pull-ups anyway, right?