LA Trip: Day Two

Since D&L were busy with K and baby N, we took some leisure tours around L.A. I have to confess that even though I lived in L.A for eight years, there are so many places that I haven't visited. It's actually nice to visit L.A. as a "tourist". :)

Day Two- The weather was perfect! In the morning we took DD to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. DD was awed by the many giant fish tanks. He got to touch the stingrays, small sharks, and star fish. He even chased some Lorikeet birds against the warning of the workers. :)

DD and I took a long nap in the hotel in afternoon, then we all hang out in the hotel. In the evening we then picked up Hawaiian BBQ and brought them to D&L's place. And yes, we met baby N!!! He is cute and such an easy baby. He even fell asleep when I was holding him!

(This is an interesting picture of DD watching the diver and giant eel)


(Proud grandma)

(N with his proud mommy and big cousin)

More pictures

Trip to LA: Day One (March 26)

Excited to meet the newest member of the Lim clan, baby N, S's parents and we booked our tickets to fly to L.A. on March 26 and stay until March 30 in mid March. Then last Thursday, we learned that our niece K was sick from an undetermined "virus". After much consideration, we still decided to travel to L.A. anyway, since K seemed to be doing better after taking the medicines that the pediatrician has prescribed.

Little did we know that on the day we arrived, K would have been hospitalized and diagnosed with something that was more "rare" than we could have imagined, Kawasaki's disease. The lucky star was with our little K, she responded to the treatment and was released home on Sunday so we also got a spend some time with her. http://limbylim.blogspot.com/2009/03/back-in-hospital.html

This certainly changed our initial plan, but our utter most concern was that K got better and the new parents were not too stressed out from all these unexpected circumstances and about entertaining us. We decided to play by ears and just hang out and see the family when possible.

(DD helping daddy put together his "Gogo Kidz Travelmate." We loved the wheels!)

(DD was also excited to see the "real" airplanes!)

(DD pushing his own carseat)

(Taking a snack break)

(We could fit DD's carseat into his flight seat with the "Gogo Kidz Travelmate" still attached.)

Daddy is home!!

Daddy will be home for 3 weeks!! Yeepeee!!!

DD was so happy to see daddy today that he didn't even call mommy!:) It's amazing that he didn't forget daddy after ten long weeks.

DD was also excited to show daddy the cherry "bobosom" tree in front of our house.:)

Hina Matsuri (Japanese Girl's Day)

Both DD and I have almost recovered from the flu. It was raining on and off this weekend, but luckily the weather was perfect on Sunday morning so that we could have fun attending Hina Matsuri-the traditional Japanese "Girl's Day" festival right here at Fairytale Town. There were lots of boys there enjoying themselves, so DD was not the only boy attending "Girl's Day" festival.. :) Since my sister in law is of Japanese descendant, I think she and DD's cousin K will really enjoy this festival. Hope we will have a chance to take them there in the future. In addition to running around the park ground, we also got to enjoy the following activities:

1. Taiko Drumming (my camera ran out of battery, so here's a Youtube version) 2. Japanese folk dancing (Cherry Blossom dance). 3. an exhibition of beautiful Hina Dolls and breathtaking Ikebana floral arrangements, along with an engaging oral history presentation. 4. a beginning lesson in the fundamentals of Origami paper folding techniques, and 5. a special recital of the stringed Koto.

DD was totally into the Taiko drumming. He sat through the whole 20-minute presentation without moving! Too bad my camera ran out of battery! Attending this festival actually reminds me the importance of showing DD more other cultural events. Of course, we can't learn much in one morning, but it opens one's mind and pique one's interest to learn more about other people's ways of life and cultural heritage. My friend and fellow Taiwanese adoptive mom, T, is so lucky to have lived in S. Korea with her husband and kids and soon they will move to Germany. They plan to travel around Europe while living in Germany! That is what I call a "dream" life. :)~

(DD didn't want to ride inside the "pumpkin", so I guess he is not into Cinderella story.)

(Make a wish!)

(DD was a little leery about climbing the stairs....

...but he made it to the top and slide down!)

(DD loved playing gardener.)

(Loved the choo-choo train, too)

(Exhibition of beautiful Hina Dolls)

(Some girls came dressed in their beautiful kimono.)

When can I get a break from the telemarketers???

I have been sick for a week, but didn't take any sick day offs due to urgent reporting needs at work. Then, I barely got any sleep since Wednesday due to my stuffy nose and constant cough. Feeling completely exhausted on Saturday, I dropped DD off at a temp child care in the morning, then tried to take a nap so that I don't drop dead before S comes home in a week.

Just when I almost dozed off... the phone rang. Picked up the phone, then a Chinese voice came up "May I speak to Miss Jackie....," recognizing that it's the same telemarketer who has been trying to get to me for a few days and just wouldn't take "not interest" for an answer, I hung up and tried to go back to sleep... the phone rang again... "May I speak to Miss Jackie..." I was so exhausted and annoyed that I shouted with very ounce of energy that is left in my body "SHUT UP!!!! DO NOT CALL MY HOUSE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" This is the mean and nasty side of J that only comes out occasionally under extreme stress. This poor telemarketer was just trying to do her job, but she really caught the dragon lady at the worst possible time. She totally ruined my day, because I couldn't fall asleep again after that. Hope my shouting didn't ruin her day, though.

Spain

I went to Spain last weekend for 3 nights last week. It was amazing! Weather was perfect and it was sunny, warm and beautiful.

Here are a few pics from around town. I spent the first day going around Madrid and doing all the touristy stuff. The second day I went to Segovia, which is a small town a short bus ride north of Madrid. The last day I had a nice relaxing day having a 3 hour lunch and then doing window shopping.

I'll post more pics later.

Great News!!

DD's dentist confirmed that the"bumped" tooth was pushed into the gum, but it did not break. In addition it did not damage the root of the permanent tooth when it was pushed up...(phew~~) It also means that we might not need a surgery right away!

Looking forward to March

We have finally recovered from a cold that lasted almost one month!! To make matter worse, DD had a freak accident in his crib and (sort of) lost his first tooth. I would have never thought that the safest place, his crib, could be the most dangerous place! He bump his upper front tooth against the railing and the tooth is now stuck in the gum. Now that the swelling in gone, the dentist should be able to better diagnose the damage and decide if DD needs a surgery to extract the tooth.

Other than the sickness and accident, life goes on pretty much as usual. Recently, I had been pleasantly surprised by DD's progress. He has come a long way from the early onset of the terrible-two stage (starting at 18 months:) to this mature-thoughtful-little-boy stage. The other day while I was video taping him doing this 46-piece puzzles and was just amazed by his patience, independence and problem solving skills. Of course, he still has his moments of thrwoing temper tantrums and being hyper active, but those moments are just as precious to me.

A big shock came the other day when the day care director told me that she will start moving DD to the preschool class from the two's room. :( I told her I was NOT ready for him to go to the preschool class yet, but she just laughed and said that HE is ready regardless!! He is getting bored in the two's room and I finally noticed that he is now the biggest kid in the two's room... :(

This is part I of a loooong video of DD working patiently on his puzzles.



Part II of a loooong video of DD finishing up his puzzles

Raising your quarter-million dollar baby

Children are priceless, but raising them is probably the most expensive thing you'll ever do. Here are some strategies and tips that may help.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/CollegeandFamily/Raisekids/P37245.asp

From corner office to sweeping floors in Starbucks

Having had the job of mopping the floor at Burger King for a few months, I can't honestly say that mopping floor is the most satisfying job, but his man's new outlook on life does resonate with me. :)

Probably can't give up my corporate job anytime soon, but I totally LOVE a story like this!

---------------------------------
CNN reported a segment this morning on Michael Gates Gill, a former ad exec and self-described "Master of the Universe," who lost his job and is now working at a Starbucks in New York. Life, according to Gill, couldn't be more blissful. Once married to his career, he now enjoys the easy banter with customers while sweeping floors and re-filling the milk.
Life is what you make of it, is Gill's lesson, and it will soon be coming to theaters in a movie being developed by Good Will Hunting and Milk director, Gus Van Sant. Tom Hanks is said to star. The movie will be based on Gill's memoir, How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else. As my French friend, who's currently in New York, said after watching Gill on CNN, "Only in America, that's what makes this country so great."

Embedded video from CNN Video

Update

DD and I are settling into our new life now. We have been sick for two weeks, but over all we are doing ok on our own.

Here's our daily routine (for daddy's leisure reading):
1) DD wakes mommy up at 6:00AM for his bottle, then falls back to sleep while listening to the "The Ugly Duckling" (醜小鴨) story on Chinese CD. It's so cute to hear him "reciting" the story with his broken Chinese through the baby monitor. I think he already knows more Chinese than I give him credit for! :) He wakes up again at 7:30 and we get ready to go to his daycare.
2) DD goes to day care from 8:00AM to 6:00PM. He is now very aware of what is going on at the daycare and would try to "tell" me what he learned during the day with his broken English.:) I am just so excited that he is learning and talking more that I am not too concerned about hearing perfect Chinese or English pronunciations right now~
3) After we get home, DD would happily eat the dinner that mommy prepares for him. DD can tell mommy's cooking is not as good as A-ma's with this confused look, but he eats it anyway (never been a picky eater.)
4) After dinner, we play together. Recently, DD started getting into puzzles... Not the difficult/tiny puzzles that mommy can't do at all. One of his Christmas gift from uncle D was a 24-piece "Dora the Explorer" puzzles (super easy for mommy:). DD was hooked, so mommy bought some more of the 12-piece wooden ones through Amazon. Now he loves them all!
5) After DD eats his fruits at 7:10PM mommy gives him a bath. DD loves playing his trains and cars in the bath for a good 20 minutes.
6) After his bath and all ready for bed, DD likes to snuggle with mommy for 5 minutes while drinking his bottle of milk, then Mommy will put him into his crib with his Elmo. Usually he asks for the Ugly Duckling" CD, but mommy prefers to playing the mono-tone Buddhist chanting for him. The boring chanting puts him to sleep in 5 minutes, so he is usually asleep by 8:00PM.
7) Sometimes DD wakes up for another bottle at 1:00Am, and mommy happily obliges, because he is growing and needs all the nutrient that he can get! :)
8) On the weekends, we do more activities such as attending the Kinder music classes, watching an hour of Elmo or Thomas, and going to the park. I am trying to start taking DD to some play dates, but weekends are usually not good play-dates time for other family. We will work on that.

The old me would have thought this routine life is so boring, but now I really enjoy watching my baby grow and be here for him when he needs me the most. I have heard that nowadays boys stops hanging out with their mommy as young as age 5!

Here are videos of DD putting together his puzzles. He looks like a serious old man when he does his puzzles, but he is so cute!!

(Dora the Explorer puzzles)

(On-the-Go wooden puzzle)