Favorite thing, least favorite thing

Some thoughts

Every night after pajamas, potty, teeth brushing, story, and prayer, I ask my daughter two questions.  I’m sure that I could converse about something more thoughtful but this seems to work for now.  I ask her what her favorite thing about the day was and her least favorite thing about the day.  When she’s in a good mood and things have gone well she seeks to impress me by naming 5 or 6 things that were good about the day and then replies that there was nothing bad about it.  That is pretty fun.  But sometimes it is the reverse.  Corban has gotten into the game too (he sleeps with Ariana in the double bed since he at one time, he slept better that way.  (Now there is a lot of kicking and shifting in the bed that he wakes me up at night to tell me about.  I can’t say that I really blame him for seeking help when his older sister is completely sideways with her feet across his pillow.)  Anyhow, Corban’s answers are usually interesting.  Today for both questions he answered “batman.” 

Anyhow, sometimes I think about how I would answer those questions.   Here are some of those answers. 

My favorite part of the day is at night when I’ve already done all my nighttime routine.  Now if I start falling asleep at my laptop I can just lay down and wake up in the morning. 

My least favorite part of the day is when I am falling asleep at my laptop at night and I still have to go brush my teeth.  Arghh!  And somehow when only 5 minutes prior I was all ready to go to sleep early , somehow brushing my teeth has given me super energy and I end up staying awake past 1am.  (Not a pretty sight to see a tired pregnant women get woken up by her kids at 6 something the next morning)

My favorite thing that I bought this week was the compression thigh high stockings that I got to help my poor pregnancy legs. 

My least favorite thing was putting on those compression stockings and also taking them off.  Add a full 360 seconds to my routines and also about put me into labor. 

My favorite thing was seeing Ariana write her Chinese name and remember it when she was writing her name for a letter to Santa.  It’s pretty awesome seeing a 4 year old remember how to write complicated Chinese characters!!!

My least favorite thing was disappointing the kids when I expected to see Santa arrive at the church Christmas party and apparently he was never invited.  Guess we got to send her letter to the North Pole or find Santa at the mall. 

My favorite thing was finally getting all the Christmas decorations up.  I did it in stages and it looks pretty good.  But it still takes forever, and taking an extra trip to Costco to get one more strand of garland makes all the difference for my balcony. 

My least favorite thing is when that guy in the Mercedes waits for my parking spot  before I have even fully arrived at my car.  So it’s me, a pregnant lady, who has to  unpile all the stuff that I got at costco (of course in addition to the primary purpose in shopping there), buckle up my toddler, and return the cart.  Again, the stress of it all almost puts me into labor.  Really though, doesn’t he know better?  I know that there are never any parking spots at Costco but really, can’t you find someone who’s not pregnant and panting to wait for?

My favorite thing- kids saying impromptu  “I love yous”

Least favorite thing-the toddler tackling down the preschooler on the way to school.  Maybe he’s a future football star?

Favorite thing- the 2 year old can put on his own clothes

Least favorite thing- the 2 year old wants to have a say about what he wears.  What!?  I thought that I might get out of this having a boy, or at least get to wait until he was 3!  So yes, he wears star wars T-shirts to both Reuben’s 15 year high school reunion and also to church the next day.  Thank goodness for sweaters!

Favorite thing- husband coming home

Least favorite thing- husband coming home just to make business calls until 10 at night when I am too tired to do anything. 

Favorite thing- sleep.   Good night everyone!

Giving up the Saturdays

We are definently more established in our new home.  Over the past month I have felt like I really needed to finish up this project, get our house to a nice comfortable homelike state, and get ready for the holidays and the craziness of a third child.  I guess that I'm doing some nesting.  Anyhow, it's been taking quite awhile since our house is twice as big as our old townhouse while not maintaining the same type colors and themes as the old place either.  Hence, I have a lot of black photo frames, modern style rugs, and too small of wall hangings to fit this new place.  I guess that this place could be described as spanish or mediterranian and a bit rustic.  There is absolutely no carpet in the whole house.  None unless you count a measley shoe closet next to the garage.  That means that we need rugs.  Now, I understand not wanting carpet- it's not as classy plus it harbors dust and small insects.  But at some point a person is tired of cold hard floors.  So lately, it seems like every week, I go out and find another rug for another room.  So far I've bought and installed 4.  Two are in the mail to be delivered at some point, and then we really only have one left!  But a bigger issue is curtains.  Why am I so intimidated to get curtains?  My goal is to get them and put them up before thanksgiving!  I still have 6 large windows to cover.  That's about 20 panels that I need to buy!!!  The thing is, why do all the insulated curtains look to plain and boring?  And why are curtains almost always of just two varieties- plain and boring or extra fancy gaudy??

Anyhow, as our life is finally coming together in this new place, the kids have finally starting calming down.  NEWS ALERT!  This last Sunday, for the first time ever in Redondo Beach, our kids did not need to be taken out during Sacrament meeting.  Over the past few months the average has been 3 times in less than an hour. (I say less than an hour because we are usually late!)  This last Sunday, Corban happily walked into nursery without any cunning, bribery, or being held down!!  I think that this good behavior is good evidence that the kids are finally adjusted to our new home and have decided to no longer wreck havoc!  (Though this week of begging for their halloween candy has not been so fun either.)

All of this is to show you that I think that I am finally ready to let Ariana take a ballet class.  I'm now willing to make that committment.  And that means that gymnastics will move to Saturday.  And that means that we are one step closer to joining the forces of those many moms and dads out there that can no longer do anything social with us on Saturdays because they are completely booked driving their kids around from one scheduled lesson or game to another.  Yes, it is happening.  And we only have one child taking any sort of lessons!!!

The casualities of potty training

So, I think that Corban is pretty much potty trained.  He also has an amazing bladder, unlike his sister.  He wakes up dry from naps (the sometimes three hour variety included) and also sometimes his 10-12 hour nighttime sleep.  Amazing!!

However, the casualities and failures of potty training have not been few.  These don't necessarily mean the wet pants variety. 

• Todays casuality- my dignity!  After Ariana's ballet class I decided we should use the public restroom (though he could have probably waited the 6 minute car ride home!)    Unfortunately- he is so independent now that he locks me out of the stall before my pregnant body can catch up and stop him.  Also, my pregnant body cannot fit under the stall to unlock.  After too long, I made my 4 year old climb under the stall to unlock it and what I found was a poo covered toilet seat and a poo covered boy.  Thank goodness for wipes!!  (And thank goodness for skinny four year old helpers!)  Though he was mostly successful, the wiping step proved difficult.  Guess next time I gotta waddle faster to the bathroom before he beats me to the stall!
• Multiple clogged toilets- one that flooded the bathroom.  This one caused all three of us in the house (me and the kids) to all require a full clothes change and one of us (Corban) and full bath.  This was, of course, after painstakingly dressing in a hurry on our way out to a lesson. 
• Lots of backyard peeing after seeing a neighborhood dog be the example.  More recently the wilderness peeing including actual aiming and missing wetting the pants at the same time.
• More inappropriate touching than I would appreciate (now that he doesn't have to wear a velcro diaper all the time).  All I can say is that raising a little boy has been a lot different than raising a little girl!
• Lots of toilet paper- it seems like I'm always changing our "triple roll, double ply" toilet paper.  It should really be like, a third as often.  Our little boy is sure having fun with that stuff.  I think that's the reason for casuality number two up there- the multiple clogged toilets.
• I'm sure a lot of wildness to come!

Halloween

So this whole month of October seemed like a big party.  The whole month long we celebrated birthdays and Halloween.  In fact, on Halloween morning I had got to a office store and saw a cashier dressed up and in my mind I wondered why they were dressed up.  Hasn't Halloween already passed?  Nope, we had another full day of celebrating.

By the time Halloween night came, Ariana was already in about her fifth costume.  She kept on coming up with new costumes.  Some were less creative than others and I totally shot down.  Come on!  I bought two real costumes this year and she was wearing dress up clothes and church clothes (one white dress in particular she loves and claimed was Ariel's wedding dress.  Not falling for that one.)  From Sept 30 to October 31 we were able to make it a disneyland trick or treat, a little pumpkin patch, work party church party, school party, friend party, and last of all, Halloween night itself.  Here are some pictures. 

Our Anniversary

This October we have been fortunate to have my parents staying with us this week. Grandpa taking the kids for walks or bike rides every day plus reading lots of stories and playing ipad games, Grandma has been cooking dinner, cleaning, discipling and helping out with the kids- Besides all of those amazing things, we have also benefitted greatly because for the first time since we had kids, we were able to stay someone else overnight for our anniversary.  Really, something like that hasn't happened often, once in Saint Paul while our friends watched the kids, once when we had a Corban in the hospital, and that's it for the last 4 1/2 years!!! 

For our anniversary this year, we stayed at the hotel where we had our reception and our wedding night.  Because of overall wedding craziness during the planning of our honeymoon, for some reason we had booked an early flight out of LA to Hawaii for our honeymoon.  That means that we had to leave around 6 am the morning after the long reception, a night that many people don't get much sleep anyways.  So we really kinda missed seeing the hotel, eating a leisurely breakfast, enjoying the amenities, etc.  I wanted to make up for it.  The hotel had changed names, now it's the Langham Pasadena and it was very pretty.  I wanted to stay in the same room that we had originally stayed in, but since I couldn't remember the room number or even where it was, we ended up staying in a different cottage suite that was very similar but with a different layout.  It was pretty cool.  Here are some pictures. 

At the LA Observatory, near the Hollywood sign

The great LA night view after the planetarium show

Happy Anniversary!

Waiting for the valet

These last two pictures are in Monterey Park, a nearby town from Pasadena. It's basically a Chinatown and we got some great hot pot and barbeque.  Really fun. 

Well, I'm glad that we were able to spend some time away, especially as we won't be able to do anything like this again after February (when the baby comes) for a long long while! 

Thanks for the opportunity Mom and Dad!

China and Taiwan pictures

Here are a few pictures of the trip.  Not too detailed, sorry. 

At the Terra Cotta Warriors in Xi'an China

The Forbidden city in Beijing

With some of the church friends from Reuben's mission in Taichung Taiwan

More church friends, Reuben's golden family on his mission,  the Liao Family in Taichung, Taiwan

Our little empress and drooly emperor

A funny sign in front of some very large rocks (but I wouldn't call them "perilous hills") at the forbidden city in Beijing

With the golden lions in the forbidden city

A very expensive plate.  Abalone (the mushroom like object), sea cucumber (the turdlike object) and some other something. 

After a long day in Xi'an.

The Melting Pot

Reuben and my first time to the Melting Pot.  A fun and filling experience and so great to go out without the kids!  A three hour meal with them would have driven us crazy!

Summer update

So, I've been delaying my updates because I haven't downloaded the pictures off the camera.  I'm sure that in the near future I'll have a couple of picture posts to document the many new experiences in our lives.  But for now, I have a lot of thoughts. 

This summer has been a whirlwind.  We bought our house, owned two houses for a little while and then finally closed on our Minnesota house today!  Hurray!  Just in time to avoid the winter.  I was really nervous about having a house in Minnesota because the weather is so bad.  Also, we no longer have to pay two sets of electricity bills, water bills, home insurance bills, etc.  It's a relief.  We didn't go to the closing.  I thought about it, but I would rather go visit friends when we aren't so busy starting a new job, a new school, and getting used to the time zone again.  Maybe we'll see you in a few months Minnesota friends (or maybe the spring???)

In other news, we are finally not using folding tables and chair to eat off of!  We ordered our new furniture the week that we moved in the house and we finally some of it last weekend!  It is so nice going to kitchen and thinking about all the wonderful places to sit.  Should I sit on the bar stool or at the table?  Or should I choose the one and only lazyboy in our great room?  Now the lazyboy looks lost.  Still waiting for our couch and bedroom set.  But on the good side, Corban has well adjusted to sleeping on his crib mattress on the floor of Ariana's room.  I, however, have not.  The other day, I, a pregnant lady, slept a full two hours next to him while trying to get him to sleep past 5am.  The uncomfortableness paid off, and he slept in until 8:30, making us late for preschool.  Well, at any rate, he is back to him normal schedule and they seem to be making up for the weeks of not sleeping while on vacation.  (We got as much sleep as the kids.  Why is it that kids need less sleep and adults need more on vacation?  Kids lose weight while adults still continue to gain weight on vacation?) 

Taiwan and China was a great vacation but I feel like either this second trimester isn't what it's hyped up to be (aren't i supposed to have great bursts of energy compared to the first trimester???) or I am still recovering a week and a half later.  I keep on falling asleep putting the kids to bed at 8-9pm and staying asleep until the morning.  My husband is probably getting bored and anxious to watch Vampire Diaries and the Netflix rentals that are deemed "together time."  Well, we have a date tonight- my first time to the melting pot- and maybe all that extra adrenaline away from the kids will finally propel me to staying up past 10- or maybe the extra cheese and chocolate will put in an extra deep sleep tonight, how knows?

In other news, I am 18 weeks along and at my last ultrasound, there was some spotting of some possible boy parts, but we'll know for sure in less than one week at our official ultrasound.  Maybe we should have waited an extra week before painting that extra bedroom.  (Just finished yesterday. . . )  Don't worry, the baby has a bright yellow baby/guest room all ready.  I don't even need to change the paint from the previous owners. 

Babies. . .they are cute and loveable and cry a lot but they have no choice but to get buckled in their seat belts when i want them to, to let me do their hair when i want them to and to get dressed and their diapers changed when I want them to.  As you can see, I'm excited to be the boss again.   Yeah right, everyone knows that the screaming infant is the one in control of the family.  Anyhow, it's nice to think about it as a way to get me excited for even more chaos in the family.  I'm thinking that 3 might be the limit in this family.  I guess that I used to think that when the kids go to school, things will be easier, but all I can see from families that have older children is that things only get more complicated because then you have to drive them even more places and start doing hours of homework each night. And the older Ariana gets, the more arguing we have every day.  Why does getting her dressed always involve an argument or a compromise?

I guess that it's funny that when we were on vacation in some fabulous exotic places in Asia, I kept seeing pictures of everyone's kid's first day of school on facebook or blogs and I got a bit jealous.  It's funny, but I was really craving some time away from the kids.  We didn't even have a nap time break most days because of our vacation schedule.  But the time has finally come this week.  I've been so  excited to share my kid's first day of school too and join the crowd!  But pictures will have to come later. 

My kids are in bed for their nap, their glorious potentially three hour nap, and it's time for me to join them.  I am a very weak pregnant lady and just can't resist.  (Plus, I have to energize to stay up to watched some quality tv with the hunny instead of falling asleep early) So all those pictures (China, Taiwan, new house, new furniture, Family reunion, first day of school, etc) will have to wait. 

China and Taiwan

So I am here in Taiwan finishing up our trip quickly.  We've had a lot of great experiences, out seeing some of the wonders of the world and Chinese culture.  Here are some tidbits of our trip.

• Eating lots of Chinese food.  Some quite expensive and crazy (sea cucumbers, shark fin, abalone, and the sort) and some so unbelievably inexpensive.  Wow, can we really eat at a restaurant and get a great bowl of noodles for less than 3 dollars?
• I learned, once again, that no matter how much you might like a certain country's food, after a week while being pregnant you will tire of it.  I really like Chinese food, but man, I just sometimes crave mashed potatoes and anything with cheese, especially mexican food!  I wish that my pregant belly could handle new foods better!
• Lots of squatter's experiences.  Ariana is a big fan of any new so she always opts for the squatter toilets (think a hole in the ground that you squat over)  It's fine for me, I'm used to it and if you don't miss and splash on your feet, it's actually more hygenic.  It's just been interesting how to help a potty training little boy how to pee into a squatter.  Especially interesting to pee into a squatter in a moving vehicle- yesterday on our train ride.  I think that I had one of my most embarrassing bathroom experiences on the squatter.  Ariana was using the stall next to mine in a busy location, and in an effort to hurry and be done before she would exit in that tourist area, I must have forgotten to lock the door. Someone walked in on me and saw my perfect moon, I reacted, and the bag around my shoulder crashed into the garbage can spilling half of the non-flushable contents into the toilet hole, then my bag finished the experience by flushing the toilet, all while embarrassingly being half naked with the door open.  Wow, I must look like a really stupid foreigner. . . Fortunately the contents were all successfully flushed and I didn't have to deal with a plugged squatter to top it off!
• Kids throwing up in the car.  It seems to always happen on vacation.  Glad that it's not me doing the vomiting!  Kids are more resilient- they throw up and if you change their clothes and give them candy or a sports drink afterwards, they are all better!  (that is, car sick kids- not as much for flu sick kids)
• Shopping, shopping, shopping.  Man, the american dollar is really losing some power though, poor exchange rates mean that we don't really buy any clothes or things that we can get in the United States.  Anyone up for watching 50 DVD's of Sesame street in Chinese!  We are!
• Getting really sick of the kids.  They don't seem to sleep any more than we do on vacation, which means that we put them to bed and then put ourselves to bed, and they still wake us up in the morning!  No time away from their nagging.
• Ariana is a constant packer.  Is it just her age of something?  She is constantly taking the free stuff in the hotel and packing it up in more and more bags.  How did we get some much random stuff?

Secret Message

So I feel bad that I haven't written in my blog for the last couple of months.  We've been busy packing, moving, somewhat vacationing (The kids moved beds 5 times over the last crazy weeks!) going to Hawaii, and getting resettled in our new place.  We have been busy, things are calming down, sort of - though I have a feeling our crazy life is going to continue to be crazy. 

But over the last few months, I wonder, does anyone even read my blog any more?  I've included my journal entry from today with a secret message in one of the paragraphs in the last half.  See if you can find the secret!

31 july 2011

Well, I don’t think that I’ve written a single day of July.  Fortunately I think that Reuben has so if you need to go back and see what happened, refer to his journal! 

So I was looking at the date- one month ago we moved.  It was a stressful process like it is for everyone.  There is so much to do.  Now there is also a lot to do but It’s been more pleasant on this side of things!  Now that we are out of the saint paul place, we are in really what is my dreamhouse. 

Nobody has asked me if the house is everything that I had hoped it would be, but I feel like maybe that would be personal, as it would be asking someone who recently got married if they are glad that they went through with it.  I guess that buying a house, especially an expensive big one like this, is sorta like getting married.  It’s a big commitment for real, and it’s also something that we have to put time and energy into.  Also, once you actually start living in the house, you realize the houses faults, what is a big deal and what isn’t a big deal.  For instance, for this house I realized that it really does have a lot of storage space just like I thought that it did, but for all of the kitchen storage and drawers and shelves, the shelves aren’t as deep as the ones in my old place, and the drawers are also not as deep.  Some of the stuff that I used to fit in the shelves doesn’t fit anymore and I can’t seem to manage to squeeze a ladle into a single drawer.  Also, it is big, and so it takes longer to transverse the area in the kitchen, I end up walking more!  Corban’s bedroom is smaller than I imagined, it barely has enough room for a bed.  What will happen when we have another child!  Will another boy even fit in that room?  Some of the painting needs work and some of the tiles are cracked.  We are still trying to figure a lot of things out- how to use the pool heating system, the yard lights.  The gardener is still trying to figure out what to do with all the plants!  I guess that that garden was much like the house itself, too much stuff!  We are cutting out an entire tree itself- it’s just ugly and doesn’t have nice flowers!  The a/c system that was installed is nice, but really, I think that opening the windows would have worked too!  Maybe we didn’t have to go through the trouble, but when it gets hot, it’s nice to cool it off fast. 

But really, this is the best house ever.  I find myself hoping that nothing will happen to it, that it will stay safe, just like I do for my kids and my husband.  I wonder how I can improve it and best take care of it.  It has so much room and the floor is so easy to take care of.  Oh how I love the stone!  I don’t miss wood floor in my kitchen at all.  Finally, I can walk barefooted in my own house without leaving toeprints everywhere!  We haven’t had a barbeque yet or used that yet.  In fact, I haven’t been in the mood for cooking since we got here.  Perhaps it’s because everything that I start out cooking eventually sounds kinda gross in the end- you gotta love pregnancy!  I’ve made spaghetti twice so far and we’ve eaten lots of fruit.  We have already filled up our pantry and I love having a big pantry so much- a little organization and I can fit it more than twice as much as right now.  We’ve also broken a glass on the floor.  It shattered in a million pieces.  The floor is just so hard! 

We bought all of our furniture last week.  I’m so excited for it to come.  Corban really really needs a good bed.  He has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor and still wakes up about twice a night at least for something.  The other night, both kids woke me up about 3-4 times each between 1-4am.  I was moody in the morning.  I fall asleep every night either with them, or fall asleep right after they fall asleep.  I’m just so tired all the time!  But then again, here I am in the morning, kids still asleep, and I’m up and active already.  Really, I blame Corban, as he woke me up at 6:50 and I couldn’t get back to sleep though I got him back asleep.  Thank goodness, because we have church at 11:30- right when he would have wanted to fall asleep.  I may wake up early, but it’s just because I expect a nap later on.  And also, because it’s nice to not have to be up in the morning feeding and disciplining kids, especially on a Sunday when we have all of our Sunday activities to focus on.  And also, because as part of our marriage agreement (perhaps an informal oral contract), I let Reuben sleep in on those Saturdays and Sundays when he can, and in turn he allows me a very essential thing for my happiness, a Sunday nap.

I tell everyone that naps are the best thing ever, and I want one every day for the rest of my life.  It doesn’t have to be something big actually, but a 15 min nap in the afternoon often saves me from a 3 hour headache.  Yes, I think that I am physically addicted to sleep- as I show withdrawal symptoms if I do not get it. 

So, it’s been about 12 weeks, and I think that I can start telling people.  This third time around I feel a lot more used to the whole process and less excited than I think that I should be, but that’s because my kids are crazy and consequently I think that I am  crazy for thinking that I am capable for having another.  But yes, I am pregnant, and I have been lucky with only minimal morning sickness.  The worst of it when I was packing up the house.  But my sickness has always been mostly stress induced.  So while I haven’t been sick, my pants have really got tighter very fast.  I think that I was going to have twins at first- I got so big so fast, but fortunately the weight gain has slowed down, and Reuben ended up gaining more weight during the past little while than I have (caused by a 75% decrease in exercise over the past few weeks. ) But he is a boy and once he saw that he gained 10 pounds, he started exercising every day, eating less, and within a week, he’s back to normal.  Whereas, I will somewhat triple his 10 pound weight gain over the next 6 months- it’s only a uphill climb for me!  After having a 2 year break, I realize how nice not breastfeeding and not being pregnant was.  Also, I realize how nice not having a little baby can be.  Sure, my kids fight and destroy and totally annoy me sometimes, but if I put a bunch of appetizing food in front of them they eat it themselves and then go run outside and play and I can do the dishes for maybe the next five minutes in somewhat peace.  But then I have so many cute nieces and nephews and I do wonder what the next one will look like.  I also have a big house now, with a open bedroom that we need to fill up with children.  I only hope that I can manage to keep my kids from being the very worst behaved children in Sacrament meeting for a few weeks in a row so I can regain just a little bit of confidence in my mothering skills.  Another test run today! 

Our adventures in Harry Potter Land

While in Florida, we went to Universal Studios.  I felt a bit bad because we were going there for us and not for the kid's sake and because we wanted to see the Harry Potter area.  It did not disappoint.  It was incredible!  I wanted to reread all the books again!!!!  Even the Butterbear was incredible.  The Harry Potter ride was the most intesting I've even been on, and though it made me sick, I would do it again! 

Here are some pictures of our adventures. 

The castle.  It was amazing, far better than any Disney castle-and fully stocked with moving pictures (e.g. the "fat lady").  You basically took a castle tour on the way to the ride- The best line I've even been in!

Inside the castle in line

By fortune, Corban grew to 36 inches right in time for this trip and was able to go on a ton of rides (it was actually a great place, even for small kids.)  This ride, "the flight of the hippogryph" was one of the scariest rides either kid has even gone on.  It was awesome and the kids loved it!  We went twice in a row!

Butterbeer in an overpriced souveneir glass

Hogwarts express



Dancing Kids

Our kids loved the cruise.   Ariana is an extrovert and she really can’t get enough of being out of the house and having fun.  (Her first questions every day are where we are going and who we are going to see.)   Corban is in a destructive phase so anything that can use up his energy is good. That’s a great thing about a cruise- you are only really in your room to sleep and bathe- so we are always out having fun.  The kids loved dancing and we tried to dance a bit every day.  Here are some of our pictures. 

Strike a pose!

Too fast to capture!

Cute crazies!