Bye Bye, BBB

I’ve seen many stores go out of business over the years. I remember when Foley’s closed. My parents purchased many of my piano competition dresses from Foley’s back in the day. My in-laws bought two sets of dining tables and chairs during their closing sale. They gave us one table when we got married and it’s the table we eat off daily. I remember watching Super 1 Foods close as a child. It became Rainbow Foods for a while and then disappeared altogether. I remember when Service Merchandise disappeared. 

The red trim.

In the last 10 years, I remember watching Sears close. My daughter has actually been to a Sears before although she will never remember. I remember going to their store closing sale, pushing her in her stroller when she was less than a year old. We made the mistake of leaving the house without a diaper or wipes - it was one or both. And she happened to have a blow out. We laid a blanket under her bottom in the car seat and then strapped her in to go home and change. I’ve even commemorated this event in one of her baby photo albums. 

Another store is closing now. I’ve loved Bed Bath and Beyond since I was a child. My aunt was the person who introduced this store to me and she knew it was one of my favorites. When I was in high school, we visited my aunt and she took my cousins and my brother and me out shopping. She was going to Bed Bath and Beyond and the boys were going to Target next door to look at electronics and video games. She asked me if I wanted to go with her or the boys. Guess where I chose to go? 

Target. 

Now as an adult and a female, Target sounds very appealing to go wander for any amount of time. However, I didn’t have that appeal as a teenager. Target felt like a grocery store to me. (Yes, I distinguish the difference now, but this was nearly two decades ago.) So why didn’t I go with my aunt? 

I wanted to call a boy and I couldn’t do that next to my aunt. I could easily run away from my cousins and brother, and the truth was, they didn’t care. Alas, it ended up being a terrible decision because I had neither a pleasant phone conversation nor an enjoyable time with the boys. I recounted this whole experience in my first book, and as much as I cringe at my own memories, I am thankful some of them have been written down or else they would be lost in the abyss of history that is my past. 

When we got married, we registered at Bed Bath and Beyond. They were the quintessential wedding registry. We went in store and used the little scanner guns going around the store scanning items. We received a number of gift cards from friends and family which we’ve had no problems using in the last nine years. I hoarded the coupons every time they came in the mail. For the longest time, they let you use expired coupons. The most valuable ones were $5 off a $15 purchase or $10 off a $30 purchase. In my email, I even received coupons that were $20 off $75. There were coupons for all types of purchases, big or small. It was just playing the game of which coupon I had for which purchase I wanted to make. 

Buy Buy Baby was their sister company. I never stepped foot in one until I was pregnant with my first child. Did you guess it? I was hooked. It became my favorite store to walk in as a new parent to buy the random miscellaneous things I thought I needed to survive this new stage of life I was in. They also accepted Bed Bath and Beyond coupons for a while so I could save both and use them interchangeably at the stores. I’ll never forget the giant blown up pictures of babies they put up in their store foyer which were visible from the parking lot. My daughter aptly knew that store as the “baby store” because of those images. 

It definitely feels like the end of an era for me. I had an entire envelope of coupons saved up which I tossed out recently when they stopped accepting coupons. There will never be any more blue and white flyers arriving in my mailbox with a giant 20% on one side. My email inbox will be slightly cleaner due to less subscription emails coming through. Although the store hasn’t officially closed yet, I won’t be stepping foot in one anymore. I went last week for the last time when they bumped up their sale to 60-80% off everything. Most of the store was already cleared out. Only very miscellaneous type items are left in the sizes/styles that are least preferable. 

Bye Bye, BBB.

A Day's Musings

I took my children to the playground this morning. In the mornings the temperature is still bearable, and we had some shade and wind to help. I pushed them over to the park by our house in our double stroller. Another one of our "best used buys" for the second child. 

My youngest is starting to walk. He still looks like a limping grandpa sometimes, but it's really cute to see him waddle around the house walking in circles from room to room. He gets into a lot of trouble. He climbs things he's not supposed to. He'll find nooks and crannies to plop himself down in and sit. 

My oldest is fiercely acting like a teenager. Threenagers are legit, let me tell you. She wants everything a certain way and it has to be done just like that. At the same time, she's great with using words to explain things to me. She has the memory of a dolphin - if I can't find something, I ask her where it is, and she can tell me where to find it. We were almost at a 100% streak but then she started not knowing where a few things were. Eh, gotta still give the kid some credit. Pretty nifty that I can use my three year old to find things for me. Most of the time. She also flips through books by herself while waiting for me or when playing by herself and loves playing my piano. I can already see it, my mini-me following in my footsteps.

At the playground, my son took off climbing up the steps. I followed him, and he went straight for one of the slides. At a previous park adventure this week, he figured out how to turn over onto his belly and slide down slowly. Today, that's all he did for 20-30 minutes straight. Climb up. Turn over, slide down. 

My kids are getting to that age where I don't have to stand next to them every single second. I can let them climb up by themselves and watch from below. Of course I don't go too far, I wasn't browsing my phone, and I was still watching them constantly, but I'm no longer an inch away.

I missed this phase with my daughter. When she just started to walk confidently, I was at home sick. Morning sick. I didn't take her to the playground, we didn't go outside to play. She just ran after her daddy when he wasn't working. That was a sad time for both her and me. 

Somehow the timelines of the last four years have alternated during this time of year. In 2017, I was sick. In 2018, we had a four month old. In 2019, I was sick. In 2020, we had a four month old. It's now 2021. Had I followed the trend, I'd be sick again. But I'm not, and I love it. And next year, we won't have a four month old again, and I'm totally fine with that, too. 

Instead, I get to soak in my baby boy's last waddles before he confidently takes off around the house, outside, and everywhere. 

It's hard being a mom, but I love it. 

One-Up

 I was a formula baby. My brother nursed some (or maybe a year) from what I've been told, but I grew up on formula. Supposedly, my mother said it hurt too much the first time and she didn't want to do it again with me. I don't blame her. It's not the most pleasant feeling. 

Later as I got older, she'd second guess herself and wonder if I would have been taller had I been breastfed. Of course it would not have mattered because the genetics were already in my DNA. Breastmilk wasn't going to change that. I was just destined to be one of the shorter females in my family. 

When my oldest was born, I tried nursing her. I don't think she got very much. She screamed a lot at the hospital. Even the nurses found it a little strange. So they offered alternative feeding options, we asked for formula, and that's what my daughter drank for the first two weeks while my supply was coming in. By about two weeks, I could produce enough to feed her. Unfortunately, I didn't get to nurse her. I tried for a week or so. She would scream and cry and being a new mom, I did not want to deal with that solely for the purpose of nursing. So I exclusively pumped for her. 

It's not a glamorous job when you exclusively pump and stay at home with your child. I remember coming home from playing piano for my dad's choir, feeding her with a bottle because she was hungry, pumping because I needed to, and feeling starved because I was hungry and there were too many things to do and not enough time or hands to do it. On another occasion, I had scheduled two lessons with merely a 30 minute break in-between. During that 30 minutes, I had my pump on the kitchen counter and cooked dinner simultaneously because I hadn't had time earlier in the day. This was not something I ever wanted to have to re-live. 

It's a huge sacrifice to choose to exclusively pump when you can't or choose not to nurse. 

I fed my daughter expressed milk until about two weeks before her first birthday. That was when I ran out. We went back to formula for the remainder of the days before she turned one and switched to cow's milk. 

When my youngest was born, I tried nursing him. He seemed fine. He slept a lot at the hospital. It was quiet. He would just nurse for 5 minutes and fall asleep. I wasn't sure if he was getting enough, but he seemed to be okay. About 4-5 days after he was born, I started getting nervous at how yellow he looked. It wasn't extreme and the pediatrician even told me he wasn't worried, but it was past my comfort level. So I started to pump again and bottle feed. He could drink 3 oz in a bottle no problem so I knew he wasn't getting enough nursing. That's when I again, reluctantly, chose to exclusively pump for my second child. 

I produced about twice as much milk with my second child than with my first. It was a wonderful problem, but it took up a lot of our freezer space. I had practically an entire chest freezer and garage refrigerator freezer dedicated to storing milk. Truly, a wonderful problem. I didn't have to pump while cooking dinner, and for the most part, I was able to keep my hunger at bay when I needed to without reaching famished levels. It was a much better pumping experience overall. 

I stopped pumping shortly after 2021 started. I had taken on more students in my teaching schedule, my husband's work was getting busier, and I was ready to get my life back. I had more than enough milk to feed my son until his first birthday so I was willing to stop early. He turned one a few weeks ago, and we still have a couple months worth of saved milk to go through.

I'm glad my son got to be exclusively breastfed for an entire year. He's the second child, and oftentimes he is treated like the second child, so I'm glad I was able to do this for him. And I didn't want to have the same doubts my mother did, so I tried my hardest to make sure I'd never second guess myself in the future. That's why I kept pumping for as long as I did. And I understand breast pumps were not readily available or covered by insurance 30 years ago. Would that have made a difference in my mother's decisions? Maybe, but I'll never know for sure. And it doesn't matter. I'm not angry with her and I don't resent her decisions regarding how she fed me for the first year. 

But I did one-up her. And I think she would be okay with that. 💕

Cut Your Lotion Tubes

 I'd seen a few vidoes circulating around the internet about how you should cut your lotion tubes to get every last bit, especially for those more expensive lotions. I'd always thought I was someone who tried very hard to squeeze every last bit out of the tube before tossing it. So how useful was it to actually cut the tube?

I did an experiment and found out for myself. 

Both my children had and my son still has infantile eczema. It's super annoying and we constantly have to remember to keep him lotioned and lathered or else these red patches start appearing on his arms and legs. Because of this, I've bought a lot of baby eczema lotion. It's not off-the-charts expensive, but it's not cheap either. It retails at approximately $8.00 for a 5 oz tube.

With my daughter, I would squeeze the tube from every direction to try and maximize what I could squeeze out before tossing the tube. I'd even pull the cap off and try to squeeze some more. Was that good enough? 

No, it really wasn't.

We got a food scale last year so it measures items down to the gram. Super helpful for baking with precise accuracy or just nerding out and weighing all sorts of random things. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see how accurate the weights were on the package from manufacturers. 

I had three tubes of the same lotion for this experiment. One was completely new. One was completely empty after I cut it and finished what was left inside. One was empty to the squeeze and what I would normally deem as empty and toss if I didn't cut the tube.

The completely new bottle was 162g. The labeled weight of the product is 141g on the package. This meant that if accurate, the packaging itself was 21g.

The completely empty bottle I'd cut and used was actually 20g which meant the manufacturer's label was very accurate. 

Then I weighed the tube which was empty to the squeeze: 50g! Unbelievable. This meant there was 30g of lotion in there I couldn't squeeze out unless I cut open the tube. 

Guys, that means if I had just thrown the tube away (which I had many times) and didn't cut it open, I would be throwing away $1.70 worth of lotion every time. 😱

This is how much lotion was left inside
after I cut it open to have a look.

So here it is. We all need to be cutting open our plastic tubes to get every last bit out because there is a baffling amount left inside, even if it is empty to the squeeze. Someone needs to invent a better way to squeeze lotions...

When did you start cutting your lotion tubes?

Two Zero Two Zero Resolved

At the beginning of 2020, I set out with three goals for the year. You can read my original post here. It also explains why I don't do resolutions anymore, but I intentionally think about some mental goals to ground myself for the year.

Here were my three goals for 2020:

1. Finish my cross stitch.

2. Find a new work life balance.

3. Keep my sanity.

Did I accomplish all three? I did, actually. It wasn't always easy, and this year certainly wasn't a straightforward one, but I did accomplish the goals I'd set for myself.

1. I finished my cross stitch.

I won't go into detail about it here as I already wrote a post on it back in June when I finished it for my mid-year check in. So that was a great accomplishment considering I'd finished it after having two kids to look after. Now my next goal is to get it framed and hang it up in my son's room as I had originally intended. That should be a goal for 2021.

2. I did find a new work life balance.

Covid really did me a huge favor on this one. After having my son, the world took a big pause and quarantined/locked-down for about 6 weeks, and even after that, life has taken on a different pace. I did cut my maternity leave very short and returned back to teaching when he was merely 6 weeks old, but it was teaching online without needing to clean the house to be presentable for students. For the first 5-6 weeks after returning to work, I was teaching 7 students a week. It was great. I felt like I had the mommy routine and teacher routine down. In June, I added a few more. It was still doable. Then in August when the new school year began, I added some more, and next year, I'll be adding a few more and considering my studio full once again.

At the beginning of the year I had huge fears about how I was going to breastfeed my baby (assuming my body cooperated) and have my work schedule as well as watching two children. Because of the way this year panned out, I was able to exclusively pump, have an ample supply to feed him and freeze a stash, and have surplus to share. 

3. I did (for the most part) keep my sanity.

To be honest, staying at home and refraining from social gatherings did not affect me too much because I'm an introvert to begin with. I don't really enjoy large groups or crowds so being at home was doing what I enjoyed, for the most part.

It wasn't until about August when I started to really feel the "blues" of being at home all the time. There were just days when I wasn't motivated, didn't want to do anything, and lacked drive. Part of it was not having places to go as a motivator to get my day started. 

One of the outlets I was able to use as a "pick me up" was organization. Like everyone else, I watched The Home Edit, and although not inclined to organize my bookshelves by color or rolling my scarves, it made me want to organize our house.

So we did. We bought all sorts of products and organized our pantry, a built-in cabinet, kitchen drawers, bathroom drawers, and our closet. No, we didn't pay anyone $250 an hour to come do it for us. Yes, I bought a lot of clear storage containers. Yes, it was still expensive. 

Was it worth it? Yup. 

I grew up with a super frugal (and potentially incorrect) mentality that spending money on something to put what you already bought with money into is useless. Well, now that I'm officially in the 30s age range, it's finally clicked that organization is worth it because it changes your perspective and mindset.

That's for another blog. 

Here's a sneak peek at one of my favorite
drawers, newly organized this year.

I hope you were able to reflect on your year and find some silver linings through all the "unprecendented-ness."

Bye 2020. ✌

Household Tricks: Part 3

This is the third part in my household tricks series. If you want to catch up on part 1 or part 2, feel free to do that first!

Today's tips include some more laundry tricks that I've discovered over the years. I really thought most of this was common knowledge and I was just discovering it on my own, but after talking to some friends, it's actually not. Who knew. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’m not the most eco-friendly person who ever walked the earth, but I do value reusing, repurposing, and salvaging when possible  

 1. Air dry new clothes after the first wash after washing in cold water.

We all know washing in cold water prevents shrinking. But air drying after the first wash does too! I discovered this when we washed out baby clothes for our first baby. I'd buy it in one size, wash it, and then feel like she was outgrowing it already. It was also obvious when I looked at hand-me-down clothing vs new clothing we'd air dried after the first wash in the same size. The ones we'd air dried really looked an entire size larger. By air drying my kids’ clothes after the first wash, they keep their original size and we can wear them for much longer. This sounds like a lot of extra work, but the key is to remember it only applies after the first wash. Once you wear it and wash it again, you can feel free to chunk it into the dryer willy nilly without having to pick out each specific item to air dry. 

For clothes we’ve bought new and carefully air dried, I’ve been able to keep my kids in them for two sizes! (My 18 pound 8 month old baby boy can still wear size 6 month clothes, but he can also fit in size 12 month clothes hand me downs which have shrunk.)

2. Air dry clothes with stains after washing just in case the stain did not come out.

I used to just give up after one wash if a stain didn't come out and either throw the piece away or live with it stained. Then I realized if I didn't dry the clothing after, it would give me another chance to remove the stain. If I've washed it twice following careful instructions and it still doesn't come out, then I count my losses and move on. 

Pretty sure these had stains and were air drying after a wash. Some pieces are going through a second hurrah with us right now with little brother 🤗

3. Separate stained or new clothes into a laundry washing bag.

There's a lot to remember if you have to pull out specific pieces from the washing machine to keep them from being tossed in the dryer. A trick I use to make my life easier is to throw them into a laundry washing bag before going into the washer. Then, when it's time to dry, I pick out the bags and toss everything else into the dryer. This way, I'm not trying to filter through each wet, entangled piece of clothing to make sure I've found all my pieces to hang dry. 

This may seem like a lot of work to go through, but to me, if it means I get more use out of the same clothing, I’ll take it! 

Stay tuned for the final part of my household tricks series. 

Momma's Boy

 When I found out I was pregnant the second time around, I was actually hoping for a girl. The practical and efficient side of me thought: How great would it be if I could reuse all of the old clothes again and not need to buy anything new!

Their due dates were 5 days apart, although my first was 6 days late, so due date for #2 was actually the day before #1's birthday. My morning sickness was just as bad if not worse than the first time. The seasons of my pregnancies were going to be identical so no need for new maternity clothes. How perfect was this? 

Well, as all things go, you can only plan so much. I ended up buying some maternity clothes anyway because I didn't buy a single maternity shirt the first time and stretched out a few of my regular shirts...sad day. Unfortunately, I can't wear those now anymore without looking a little too boxy. And, of course, we were having a boy instead of another girl.

I wasn't disappointed when I found out. Surprised, maybe, cause with all the pukey feelings and food aversions, I really thought it'd be another girl. But we were having a little boy. It actually brought a new excitement to this pregnancy. If I really didn't need to buy new clothes for this baby, we would have essentially spent $0 on baby things (not counting diapers) for our second. Not a bad thing to save money, but it takes the fun out of it. 

So last Thanksgiving and Christmas, I got to do some online shopping to purchase clothes and stock up on the basics. A few months later, we said hello to our little boy and bunkered down for a few months as the epidemic began. It's a good thing this wasn't our first baby. We did a lot of last-minute shopping for baby things with our first, so we had more than enough this time. 

I'll never know if it was because he was a boy, or he was our second child, or simply his temperament is much easier, but he's been an absolute dream from the beginning: started sleeping through the night around 2 months old, eats on a fairly predictable schedule, falls asleep on his own without needing to be rocked or held, and doesn't have a spit up problem. We'd been trained by one of the neediest babies ever, so it seemed, so when I experienced the feeling of laying a baby down in a crib, walking away, and finding him asleep 5 minutes later, it was like a miracle had happened right before my eyes!

But that's not even my favorite part.

Sometime between 2-3 months old, he started to do a happy squirm wiggle giggle whenever he'd see me after a prolonged period of time. This would happen if I went in to get him after he woke up from sleeping or if I walked away for a little bit and came back and looked at him. I don't ever remember my daughter doing this, and it is absolutely the cutest thing ever. 

My daughter is still the needier child, but she will always be special to me for some very personal reasons, and I'm thankful to have a daughter. But I'm also thankful to have a little boy whose face lights up in delight when he sees me. 

This is not how his face lights up when he sees me...but
this is one of the very few pictures we have together.

Mamalogues: Happy Birthday, Mommy

Today would have been my mother's 66th birthday. Sadly, she didn't even get to turn 50. 

We often look at age as a curse - we think of it as getting older. We think of it as our life getting shorter and our days being numbered. None of this is wrong, but it's definitely looking at it with the glass half empty. Age means you've lived longer. You've learned more. And most importantly, you get to experience and witness more out of life. 

Raising kids without my mother is probably the most difficult thing I've ever had to do and may ever have to do in my lifetime. I love looking at pictures of my babies and watching them change over the months and years and grow up. I love watching the way their faces and expressions change, and I've even purposely captured pictures of their screaming faces. Because I simply want to remember someday when the sleep deprivation and repeating myself 100 times a day stops. But at the same time that I love looking at photos of my children and the memories we're making together, I'll forever know that my mother will never be in them. Not one photo of my children will ever include her. 

I've shown pictures of her to my daughter. We went through a phase where she'd look through photo albums while eating her meals as a way to bribe her for bites. I pulled out some of my old family photo albums and showed them to her. She could pick out my dad and refer to him with no problem. But of course, she didn't recognize the other woman who appeared in the photos. I didn't go into detail now as she won't understand nor am I ready to explain to her. But one day, she will ask. Or I will choose to share with her. And that's going to be a hard day. She's going to look at this stranger and think to herself, "I don't know who this person is." And I'll have to tell her: "She's the grandmother you never got a chance to meet. 

***

After my daughter was born, I really missed my mother. My daughter was quite the handful of a baby. We were tired. And most of the time, we were just guessing at what we were supposed to do as new parents. I wondered what it would have been like to have my mother there. Chances are, in all honesty, illness aside, if my mother were alive when we had kids, she would have probably given me a little too much advice, done things in ways I didn't appreciate, and gotten on my nerves a little bit. And that would have been totally normal. But knowing what I do now, wishing that I could see her holding my babies would make those annoying moments worth it. 

Since having my son, I've wondered what having my mother around would have been like. It's hard to envision because she was so sick the last few years of her life, I don't remember my mother doing normal day-to-day activities. I don't remember her cooking. I don't remember her cleaning. I don't remember her sitting down and having a conversation with me. 

What do I remember? I remember administering her shots. I remember helping her drain fluid from her lungs and cleaning the area where the tube was inserted and re-bandaging it up in a way that was comfortable. I remember being careful which way to coil the tube so she'd feel it the least. I remember her saying she liked it best when I did it rather than when other people did it. I remember watching her take packets of pills everyday and swallowing them with food rather than water, because if she took a sip of water with every pill, she'd fill up and never want to eat anything. 

You know what else I remember? I remember the days when I was selfish, and I didn't want to help her. I didn't want to spend the 20 minutes it took to drain the fluids and re-bandage the area. I wanted to get on the computer and talk to my friends. I wanted to watch my show on television. 

I was 11 or 12. 

***

My mother and I weren't close. I didn't have deep, meaningful conversation with her. In the 9 years I had with her as a healthy person and the 4 years I had with her while she was sick, I remember my mother as the person who took care of the house. The person who picked us up from school. The person who washed my hair. The person who cooked. The person who disciplined me. The person who took care of us when we were sick. 

There's lots of things about my mother which I believe she did wrong as a mother. A lot of my parenting philosophies were based on things I didn't want to do because I was the product of them. My mother's personality is still within me, and there are moments when I feel myself become her as I parent my children. But I'd like to think I removed the parts of her which scarred me and took all the best parts of her and made them better. I hope my kids do see me as the person who takes care of the house, the person who picks them up from school, the person who washes their hair, the person who cooks, the person who disciplines, the person who takes care of them when they're sick. But more than that, I want them to see me as the person who loves them and cherishes them and supports them. 

Regretfully, I don't have many good memories with my mother. And because she was sick, the last memories I do have with her are tainted. But that doesn't change the fact that we loved each other as a mother and daughter do. 

Happy birthday. I miss you. 

Mid Year Check-In

At the beginning of the new year, I wrote a post with a few goals I wanted to accomplish. It's my version of a "New Year's Resolution." Well, Unfortunately for most people, 2020 has turned out to be one terrible year. You can read about my take on the terrible twos here, more for comedic relief than real talk. 

A whole six months has gone by. I can't tell you half of what I did in these six months, But I know the time has gone by because:

• I'm not pregnant anymore
• I have a second child
• There are more gray hairs on my head (I think...I'm not really counting...)

I started the year with three general "goals" I wanted to accomplish. 

1. Finish my cross-stitch
2. Find a new work-life balance
3. Keep my sanity

1. Finish My Cross-Stitch

I did! I finished my cross-stitch. I put in extra hours early this year, stitching at night, but I didn’t finish it before he was born. Somehow, after my son was born, I found time here and there to finish! It took me about three and a half years, but I finished it on June 28, 2020. This is my second large-scale cross-stitch that I've finished. Once again, the irony is that when I purchased this cross-stitch, I was living in China and single. When I finished it, I was living in the USA, married, with two kids two and under.

Originally, I bought this cross-stitch with a goal of finishing it before we had kids. That didn't happen. So then, I wanted to finish it before we were done having kids. That didn't happen either...but to my own credit, I only missed that goal by about three months.

Here it is!

Something often overlooked about cross-stitches is actually the back. If you enter a cross-stitch into a county fair or contest, they actually judge you more on the back than the front. Why is that? The back tells about the journey. Anyone can come up with a nice looking design on the front, but it takes dedication and patience to have a beautiful cross-stitch back.

So what is it about this journey that's so important? 

1. No Knots - cross stitching doesn't involve tying any knots. The ends of each thread are secured by looping your stitches on top of the ends. Every time you start a new thread, it must be secured in this way. 
2. Reaching over vs. starting new - I don't know if there's a technical term for this. If anyone's savvy enough in cross-stitch terminology, please let me know! But this is where instead of cutting the thread and starting in a new location, you take your thread from your last ending point and reach across the canvas to start it in a new location, therefore resulting in a very long piece of thread traveling on the back. It makes the back look messy and sloppy.
3. Consistency - The Xs on the front need to be crossed the exact same way in order to appear consistent and neat. This means if you stitch the bottom left to top right first, it has to be stitched first on every single X. When done correctly, the stitches on the back will all appear to be in the same direction instead of alternating vertical and horizontal stitches. 

Is it obvious to tell if someone's taken their time and cross-stitched the correct way? Yes. If you know what you're looking for, it's extremely obvious. One of the most telling signs is that the back of your cross-stitch should look exactly like the front.

Here's my back:

I have to say, I did a really nice job on this cross-stitch. I've been sloppy on previous ones in the past and learned the hard way, hence how I've been able to come up with my mental list of "what it takes to have a good cross-stitch." The design itself is not a difficult one, especially not compared to the last one I finished, but it fits perfectly for why I wanted to finish it: it's for my children. 

2. Find a New Work-Life Balance. 

I have been able to find a new work-life balance. In doing so, I've cut my students in half, I limit the hours I work, and I'm only teaching online right now. For most of this, I have to thank coronavirus actually. If the virus didn't exist, I would have pressured myself into taking all my students back which would be 12+ hours of teaching a week in five days. Add that onto taking care of my kids during the day while my husband was working as well as breastfeeding, or attempting to breastfeed my son, and that results in one crazy mom. 

I'll never forget the day I put my pump on the kitchen counter and pumped during my 30 minute break in between two lessons while cooking spaghetti on the stove for dinner at the same time after my daughter was born. I don't even know where she was. I think my husband was watching her. 

I'll be eternally grateful for coronavirus that I will not have to do that with my son this time around. But that's pretty much the only reason why I'm grateful for this virus. For everything else, it's ruined a lot of plans, trips, outings, and life in general. 

3. Keep my Sanity

As mentioned above, this virus has helped me to keep my sanity in certain ways. In others? Not so much. It's been a new learning curve to figure out how to plan grocery trips now and be intentional about what I buy. I've had to train my daughter into a daily routine/schedule that doesn't involve going on playdates or wandering stores for fun. But we've found other things that she has enjoyed during these last three months of staying at home and staying out of public places, which has also kept us from going crazy ourselves: going on bike rides in the bike trailer, swinging in our front lawn and "blasting off", swinging in our hammock, watching our neighbors mow and trim their lawns, going swimming in our neighbor's pool, watching bunnies and squirrels, digging in our flower beds which don't have flowers, and learning how to be a big sister, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. 

Overall, I think the transition to having two kids while maintaining both of our jobs and general lifestyle has been pretty smooth. The kids have kept me busy during all this staying at home, and to be honest, it's been nice. I wonder to myself what quarantine with no kids would have been like. I think I would have had a lot more time to do the things I wanted to do and no will to do them. Chances are, I would have sat at home, watched a lot of TV, or spent a lot of money shopping online, neither of which I have time to do now.

I hope despite all the terribleness this year has brought for many of us, you've been able to find some silver linings to reach some goals or discover something new for yourself. 

Here's to the second half of 2020. 

"Terrible" Twos

My daughter is two. Are the twos as terrible as they're infamously named? In some ways, totally. She, on occasion, wakes up from her naps screaming hysterically, and we don't know how to calm her down. Sometimes this lasts for 15-20 minutes. 

She likes to play the "I don't actually know what I want" game. Not familiar with it? It goes something like this:

S: I want ice [in my water]!

Me: Ok. *adds ice in water*

S: No. No. No ice.

Me: 🤦🏻‍♀️ *Takes away bottle. Dumps out - refills water only. Hands back bottle*

S: Ice! Ice! Ice!

Me: Are you kidding me?! 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

She likes to sleep with her door open, but if it's not open enough, she'll scream at you to open it more. 

She needs all her stuffed animals lined up in a particular place and way under the blanket and if they move even the slightest bit (even if she moved/kicked them around), she'll start crying for you to come back and fix it.

Are you exhausted yet? That's just the start.

**

On the flip hand, she amazes me at how helpful and capable she already is at just two years old. She can help me unload the clean clothes from the dryer into the basket, and sometimes, she'll even drag the basket to the living room for me to fold if she's feeling extra cooperative. She can help me bring bags of light items from the grocery store into the kitchen for me to put away. She can turn on and off light switches when asked to. She can retrieve items for me when requested. 

So is she really that terrible as a two year old? 

Sometimes. The answer is sometimes. 

**

It's the year 2020. We've only had a handful of years with two 2s so far: 2020, 2012, 2002, 1922. Unfortunately, many people started the year with high hopes, only to have them be squashed. Some would say it's been a terrible year. It has indeed been a year filled with uncertainty and unrest.

Valid Concern

My Chinese has never been very good, but by some miracle, I've been able to keep most of my speaking fluency and some of my reading abilities.

After my husband and I found out we were expecting two and a half years ago, I made a mental note that I would speak solely in Chinese to my child(ren). I knew early on that my children would only be as good as or worse at Chinese than I was, so I was going to have to work really hard to pass on as much as I could.

Now, there was a second factor into this situation: my husband! Unfortunately, his Chinese skills when we got married were not very good. When people asked about his language skills, I'd have to explain to them that his parents were fluent in too many languages, and because of that, he never got to really focus on anything other than English. It's also just really hard to pay attention in Chinese school as a kid growing up: I'm guilty of that myself. 

One day in the car, this conversation popped up, and it was noteworthy (and funny) enough for me to share it with his permission:

Two years later, I have to say, teaching my daughter Chinese hasn't felt like very much teaching at all because complete immersion is the best way to learn, and she has been completely immersed since she was born. I also have to say I've never actually pushed my husband to learn Chinese from me. Sure, I've joked with him about it here and there, but I've never sat him down and told him straight up: you will learn Chinese and I will teach you. We maybe had one evening when I taught him colors. :) 

Our daughter really started talking and took off with her language skills around 18 months. I will never forget the day I was laying in bed one morning, pregnant with my son, and I see my daughter come walking through our bedroom door to my side of the bed. She came up to me and said very clearly, "妈妈起来.” Mommy, get up. And with that, I was wide awake, getting up, and amazed at how fast my daughter was growing up right before my eyes. 

When she started speaking more, I noticed my husband would ask me what certain words meant as I said them. I would tell him and he'd say it a few times. I'd correct him if it was way off in pronunciation, but for the most part he was close. 

Slowly, he picked up phrases and started saying them more: 洗澡， 吃饭， 睡觉， 过来。

And now he's saying even more phrases and even getting close to using complete sentences: 最后两口， 躺好换尿布， 你的 (object) 在哪里,  穿衣服。

Toddlers learn language so quickly at their young age - it's absolutely amazing. My daughter will say words or phrases during the day and I'll ask my husband, "Where'd she learn that from?" 

And he usually always replies, "I don't even know what that means so she didn't learn it from me!" 

Of course, she learned it from me, but I didn't realize she could remember so much of what she had heard me say. 

There was one day I was speaking to my daughter in Chinese and then I turned to my husband to ask him a question. I almost asked him in Chinese, not having completely switched languages in my head, but I caught myself. 

Unfortunately for him, her language skills will surpass his - they probably already have - and chances are, they will be better than his for her entire life. She's got the advantage of time on her side. However, I am very proud of him for learning as much of the language as he has in the last year two years. However valid my concern was two years ago, I am not concerned anymore. One of these days, I may not have to catch myself to switch languages, and he may even be able to reply (in Chinese!)

A Pot of Curry

I went grocery shopping for the first time today in about seven weeks. Things have changed. There's plexiglass at cash registers. People are wearing masks and gloves. There's a designated person wiping carts at the entrance. Entrances and exits are marked separately. There's tape on the floor marking six foot distances. Traffic on the roads was a lot lighter as well as people shopping overall. (Granted, I did go at 8:30 in the morning...which is early even without our current situation.)

The lady who normally checks me out at the register was working. I wasn't sure if she'd recognize me without my daughter and with a mask on, but she did. We chatted for a bit since nobody was in line waiting to check out behind me. I told her I had two kids now. She didn't believe me. I showed her a picture. She said she couldn't wait to see both of them again. Mentally, I thought about how many more months it would be before I would ever venture outside with my two young kids.

Upon arriving home, I completely changed everything I had worn out and threw them directly into the washing machine. Times have changed. Sadly, they're never going to go back to the way they were. Masks and gloves in public may be a part of our new normal. Social distancing may always be on our minds. But life will eventually go on.

In some ways, I've been grateful for this virus. It forced me to stay home in a time when I would have stayed home anyway. Convenient, right? I've known women who are at the mall or taking their baby out DAYS after giving birth. That is not me. My body has proven to me that it takes time, sometimes longer than normal, to put itself back together. With the quarantine this year, I've appreciated being able to accept that without feeling like I'm depriving myself of anything.

I've appreciated the time at home with my family. My husband was blessed to have six weeks paternity leave from his company. This was a drastic change from two years ago when our daughter was born and he was given one week paternity and took one week of PTO. Looking back, watching one baby at two weeks old by myself at home would have been a piece of cake. Part of me is still anxious and terrified about him having to return to work (at home) and being "left alone"with a six week old and a two year old.

In other ways, it's been a huge pain. We've been to the grocery store two times since having a new baby. I miss using fresh ingredients to cook. Normally, I almost never buy frozen or canned vegetables. I don't really know what to do with them. The texture is different, and sometimes, so is the taste. We've been eating a lot of prepared frozen foods, which, back in my childhood/teenage days, I may have loved. But being an adult now, it gets old pretty fast.

We haven't been able to have as much help as I had thought. My in-laws didn't come. My dad hasn't come over. Friends have dropped off food occasionally, which has been really nice, but I miss seeing people. I was texting a friend and telling her, "T loves to be held. I wish I could give other people the privilege!" He was quite tiny when he was born, not even 7 pounds, and he went down to almost 6 pounds at his lowest, but he is shaping out to be quite the chunky baby. At one month, he was just under 10 pounds, and I'm pretty sure by 5 weeks he went comfortably over that. (Yes, I know, this is small compared to other people's standards, but when he weighs 8.4% of my postpartum weight, not even my normal, that's pretty significant!)

Lastly, it has impacted my work. I am self-employed and run my own business so I knew by taking a maternity leave I was going to be giving up 2-3 months of income. Not a problem.

So where's the problem?

My substitute was an older lady, and when this virus came about, it was decided she would not teach students inside her home. Also, being a substitute who wasn't familiar with my students, online lessons were not likely and my students did not wish to take online with someone who wasn't their normal teacher. Originally, I had been thrilled over half my students wanted to take lessons with the substitute this year - significantly higher than two years ago. I was also very excited to have her as my substitute as well. Unfortunately, none of it panned out.

As a result, my teacher instincts and concern for my students decided to shorten my maternity leave by a month. So instead of starting the second week of June like I had intended, I am now starting the second week of May. I am teaching a lighter load of about 6-8 students, but it means adding the slightest bit of work to my already busy daily routine. You also have to understand though that the longer my students go without lessons - whomever the teacher may be - the more difficult my job is to teach them again when they return. It's a catch-22. Yes, it is my personal decision to do this, but no, it was not the original plan.

When my daughter was born, I went back to work when she was 8 weeks old, and that was planned. I told myself it was too soon and I would need more time with my son. Well...that isn't happening. He will be 7 weeks old when I start teaching again. So, if we have a third child, does that mean I'll go back to work when he/she is 6 weeks old?! Ha...

As nice as it's been to humor my homebody introverted self for the last month and a half, life will eventually need to resume. We can't stay home forever in fear of getting the virus. But we will also never leave our house with the same carefree mindset we used to. Shopping trips will need to be meticulously planned, and stopping by two or three different stores at once to snag the best deals is probably a thing of the past (at least for me.)

Tonight, we'll get to eat our pot of curry with fresh vegetables and chicken.

Stay smart, even if the state is reopening.

All Diapers Are Not Created Equal

In the middle of this quarantine, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, hand soap, paper towels, disinfecting wipes, and disinfecting spray are just some of the items which fly off shelves and are nowhere to be found. Not so high on the list because the population who needs them is smaller would be diapers, baby wipes, and formula.

We got lucky and stocked up on diapers with no intention of being in quarantine for 1+ months after our son was born. How did this happen? Last September, I bought a Groupon for a Costco membership which included extra perks of coupons. One of the coupons was a $25 off $250 purchase online only. I didn't intend to use the coupon because when was I going to spend $250 in a single transaction online at Costco? The coupons didn't expire until the end of February 2020, so I held onto all of them including that one, but didn't think much of making an online purchase.

Fast forward to early February. That flyer included a sale on Huggies diapers. I finally had an epiphany that I could use my coupon towards buying diapers since that was an impending need for the next year or more of our lives, and we were going to be buying diapers for two for an unspecified amount of time as well. So we front-loaded our diaper purchase and were able to use my coupon.

A week after he was born, I came across a Facebook Marketplace post for free diapers of assorted sizes, and the seller was located a mere 10 minutes from us. My husband went out to pick up these diapers and they sat in our garage untouched for about 3-4 days to let any virus/bacteria presence die off, hopefully, if there was any.

One morning, I went out and sifted through the diapers, sorting by size and brand so we could organize them to use in an orderly fashion. I used empty diaper plastic sleeves which I had saved (that's another story...) and lined up the diapers to form essentially an entire box of diapers = probably over 100. The majority were size 1 with a little bit of newborn and size 3. We were able to use the size 3 for my daughter, and my son used up all the newborn and we're currently using up the size 1.

Now, if you don't already know, diapers come in a wide variety of brands and price points. The inexpensive diapers are inexpensive for a reason and typically aren't the ones you want to buy. My favorite brands for the budget would be Huggies and Kirkland diapers. Both can be found at Costco, but I'm not trying to advertise.

The diapers we got for free did not include either of these brands, but included a wide variety of other brands. Here is a photo I took of all the different brands placed side by side.

These are seven different brands of diapers (I think) with seven different styles/cuts. I took a second photo with three very distinct diapers and various differences in shape/style.

As you can see, the diaper on the left is shorter compared to the two on the right. I actually compared it to a different brand of newborn diapers and they were almost identical in size. The two diapers on the right are approximately the same in height, but the width is visibly different and one is skinnier than the other. 

I could go into much more detail about the elastics on each one, and which ones have pockets, but that's a conversation we should have privately if you ever want to discuss different diaper brands and which ones I think are better.

Remember:

- a cheap diaper is not worth it if it causes leaks 

- an expensive diaper is not the best just because it costs the most
- fancy brand names with big reputations don't mean anything

Main Takeaway: If you're having a baby for the first time and don't know what brand of diaper to get, or are curious what brand of diaper to get, consult someone who has used diapers before, or read blogs online to see what other moms have preferred. Don't simply find what's on sale and stock up or trust a big brand. DO experiment yourself with various brands if you have the luxury to be able to do so.

Happy changing!

Mamalogues: Strange Times

We live in strange times right now. It's been even stranger to have a baby during these times. Nobody could come visit us at the hospital. Our own daughter wasn't even able to come visit. We haven't had anyone over at the house to see the baby since he was born including our own family. We don't go to the grocery store if we can help it and mostly live off pantry staples and frozen foods. Some people have come to drop off some groceries or meals here and there, but we haven't asked anyone for anything because we don't want others to risk going out on our behalf.

Our daughter decided to rebel after we picked her up to come home with us after baby brother was born. Every day since has included tears and tantrums of some degree and her sensitivity right now is off the charts. I can't even open the cereal box for her if she wants to open it herself without a crying fit ensuing. We're lucky the second child is rather calm and likes to sleep. We joke that our daughter was a handful as a baby, and now that there's a new baby, she is STILL the handful.

I can feel the postpartum depression creep in at times. The foods I couldn't eat when pregnant, I now still can't eat because of to-go only rules and closed restaurants. Let's face it - sushi is not a to-go kind of food. And even though Asian cultural confinement says you shouldn't go outside for a month after delivery, it's still depressing to think that after my month is up, I still can't go out anywhere as I please. On the bright side, it means I don't have to worry about loading up two kids in the car by myself to go out.

I remember after my daughter was born, I struggled with the same kind of emotions in a different way. After my husband went back to work, I was left alone at home with a new baby whom I barely understood how to take care of. I still felt like I was crawling in the dark, feeling my way around, desperately trying to read nonverbal cues. Music was what helped me get through it. I'd go and play piano for a bit while she slept, and lucky for me, it didn't wake her up.

I would do the same now, but a needy toddler doesn't appreciate it when you don't pay attention to her for more than five minutes. When I've tried to play for a bit, she will actually come up to me and say, "Mama, nano [sic] all done." Clearly she dictates my world as well.

Being sleep-deprived and listening to a whiny toddler is not a good combination. Although my body is used to running on less sleep than the days pre-kids, sleeping two cycles of 2-3 hours and then being up and running for 13+ hours is exhausting. Factor that in with a defiant two year old and you have a recipe for disaster. It's an understatement to say that life at home is tough right now.

I miss my students. I stopped teaching a week and a half earlier than I anticipated because of the virus. I also caught a minor cold the week before I delivered 😬. My substitute plans fell through because of the virus. Part of me feels obligated to start teaching (online) earlier than I originally planned instead of leaving my students hanging for two and a half months. Part of me wants to start teaching when I originally planned. A tiny, tiny part of me thinks I should use the virus and the fact that I now have two kids two and under to stop teaching for a while. But I really don't want to do that.

My daughter's birthday was last week. There were no presents. There was no party. But we celebrated in our own small ways. I looked up a cake recipe without milk or eggs because we need to ration the supplies 😂 and she helped me make it. Then I made a homemade frosting.

I let her mix the batter.

...and then I had to grab a second fork and help her mix.

She was more interested in the candle flames than the cake itself and only had like two bites. Oh well. I’d like to say she’s not that interested in sugary treats, but if we had the chocolate cake from Costco, she’d probably be eating it up by the mouthful...

And of course, in To family fashion, we made her a homemade birthday card. I told myself before her first birthday that I’d hand make her a card every year for her birthday. So now she has two. 

I was filling out my son's baby book. There's a spot for world leaders, the price of gas, the price of a house, and popular movies. But there's no spot for world events, no spot for me to write "Coronavirus" or "Covid-19". Both my children will inevitably learn about this in their history books. But I'll tell them: we lived through this. 

Home

“So, can you see yourself being quarantined here?” That's the joke for what realtors ask you when looking at houses now.

We haven’t officially owned our house for five years, but at the time we bought it, the answer would have been a firm “No.” I had actually completely forgotten the depths of how much I disliked the aesthetics of our house until I came across some photos while cleaning my phone. 

Cue rabbit trail. 

As another child is forever entering our lives, I need to massively figure out a way to clean our my phone. My phone is always running out of storage and reminds me almost daily.  I’d always go to my storage usage and check it, and I’d be so confused as to why the memory in my Messages took up more space than the memory in my Photos. I would delete text threads that weren’t important and clear as many photos and videos off of chat threads I could without killing my love of sentimentality. 

Well, today I found the culprit; all along, it has been my text message thread with my husband. Somehow amidst all the cleaning, I never thought to look at the attachments and photos in our chat. It was over 900 photos and dated all the way back to photos of engagement rings we had looked at before getting engaged! Talk about outdated...

So now, in my free time, I will hopefully be clearing out enough space so I can successfully take photos of our newest addition without being told my phone has insufficient storage space to take another photo. 

End rabbit trail. 

While cleaning out these outdated photos from the last six years, I came across some renovation photos of our house, what our kitchen used to look like, the color of tile that used to be in our master bathroom, etc. And to be completely honest, I had really forgotten most of it. We haven’t done any major interior changes in the last two years because any task is much harder to complete when you have a tiny human running around at will who may or may not listen to your instructions. But there’s not really much left to do on the inside. 

During this time of being an extreme introvert, which I really don’t mind, I’d have to say I have not minded being home all day. I don’t get tired of looking at the walls.  The paint colors don’t bother me. And I have no problems with our countertops or shower tile or bathtubs. Sure, it’s not the top of the line luxury, but I’m ok with that, because it feels like home. Even with the blocks scattered all over the floor, the books pulled off the shelves, and random stuffed animals lying around the couch. 

Yup, that’s home. 

Valentine's Day 2020

We don’t do big celebrations for Valentine’s Day normally. In the past, we’ve gotten BOGO Cane’s for dinner, a gift here and there, but mostly just spending time together. We’re not really the couple who “has to get the other something for Valentine’s Day.”

I went grocery shopping this morning with my daughter. As we were checking out in the self check out section, I got some glances at the customer behind me as I loaded our bags one by one from the bagging area to my cart. He had scanned a card, a small box of chocolates, and a small plush toy. They were all sweet gestures and I’m sure his significant other is going to find them adorably cute and be happy to receive them, but that’s not what our Valentine’s look like for the most part.

After five and a half years of marriage and one (nearly two) kids, there’s hardly time to make a dedicated trip to the store to buy a card, chocolate, and a plush. Most of the time, I can’t even leave the store with everything I need anymore unless I write down a full list AND remember to bring it with me. (Yes, you won’t believe how many times I make the list and then fail to bring the list.) Also, between the two of us, we have a giant stash of plush already and really don’t need or have the space for more. Here's a few glimpses of what our plushies do on a day-to-day basis.

They make great sound proofing for door crevices because all parents know how desperate we are for our children to sleep so we can get stuff done, rest, or simply have some coveted silence in the house for a bit. This was my attempt at practicing piano without waking her. 

Back in the day when our little munchkin fit right in with the plushies. 

So instead of focusing on gifts, chocolate, flowers, or stuffed animals, my favorite part of holidays is the card. I don’t remember when it started, but I began making holiday/special occasion cards for my husband by hand probably 2-3 years ago. I’ve always had a creative crafting side beneath the rest of my academia focus, and certain people make fun of me for my (liberal [arts) and crafts] degree. Of course there have been exceptions when I’ve gone out and bought cards because it was the easier and faster choice, but I actually have a lot of fun making them as well. It has gotten exponentially harder to find time to sit and make a card that involves paper, cutting, and gluing without a toddler wanting to touch and be a part of everything.

This Valentine’s Day was the first time where our card making actually coincided with each other. I was putting mine together while hubby put our daughter to sleep. I didn’t hear him leave her room so the next thing I know he’s walking through my studio and I’m frantically hoping he hasn’t seen the design of the card. We both had a good laugh about it and then discussed our plan to continue working in two separate rooms of the house while sharing access to the craft closet to gather supplies as needed. We both finished our cards and then went to sleep for the night.

I’ve made some extravagant cards for him in the past which I am very proud of, but I have to say, he has outdone me this holiday.

I'm glad jokes from our dating days have weaved their way into our marriage.

Dinner was not romantic this year. We ordered takeout pizza (which was delicious!) and ate it listening to our needy toddler and appeasing her needs (translated to English for ease of understanding here)

Pizza! Eat pizza!

No pizza. Don't want pizza.

Bread! *eats a few bites of a bagel*

Don't want bread. Give mommy bread. 

Cheese! Cheese! 

*we give her a cheese stick* *she starts crying*

No cheese. Don't want cheese. *crying profusely until we take the cheese away*

*Crawls up the counter stools to sit between us and crawls into my lap*

Pizza! Pizza! *grabs at plates and knives and cups on the counter* *eats a few bites of pizza*

End dinner. I don't think there was much exchange of any other dialogue.

Now that she's asleep, perhaps hubby and I can get some much needed alone time and sit in bed, eat some chips and salsa/guac, and watch some TV.

That sounds like a lovely way to end this evening. :)

”Tradition”

We have some strange “traditions” in our family it seems. In December of 2017, before our daughter was born, we discovered a leak in the bathroom we renovated two years prior. Luckily, we could go through the wall from behind to take a look at the pipes instead of having to tear down the tile from the front. We could only conclude that the pipe to the shower head was not screwed on tightly or had somehow come loose. That was the end of that leak and after a few days of repatching the drywall and retexturing, life resumed.

“Turns white when dry” isn’t just for
elementary gluesticks!

This DIY fix was easily completed by my husband as we did not have to monitor a toddler on the move and keep her from touching the construction materials or getting paint on her clothes.

Two days before she was born, which also happened to be Easter Sunday, we found a leak in our water heater. We did not DIY the water heater. Paying for installation was well worth the cost because a.) it had to be done fast. Like within two days fast. And b.) our water heater sits in a closet in our garage about 3 feet up from the ground. Hoisting a 50 gallon water heater up into the closet and properly connecting the gas line, AND with drainage up to code under a time constraint was just too much to process mentally when a new baby was coming.

In the last two years, things around the house have been quiet when it came to construction. We replaced some windows here and there but no unplanned home maintenance to undertake.



We call it “tradition” because lo and behold, the same bathroom leaked again recently, and what do you know...we have another little one coming soon. But this time we did not DIY it. We called a plumber and he came out three hours later, and another three hours after that, the leak was gone, and our valve was straightened. That was not part of the leak but it was a nice positive benefit.

That evening my husband had replaced the drywall and the next day he started to mud.

Thankfully, besides the cost of the plumber, no extra repair costs were incurred because over the last five years, we’ve done enough construction to accrue a good selection of wood scraps, drywall pieces, plumbing supplies, tools, and paint to cover a good number of household maintenance around here. Great hint for keeping drywall mud from drying out: put plastic wrap directly on top of the mud, touching the top layer, before putting the lid back on. 

After this repair gets wrapped up and put behind us, we’ll have to start thinking about putting together a bedroom for our second child. Oh, and did I mention all this leak-fixing was in his future room? Yea, poor kid. The stories we will tell him later...

Here’s to hoping “tradition” doesn’t hold up too true and our water heater doesn’t die again in a few months. But it is under warranty this time!

Or we need to be done having babies. 😝

For the Love of Penguins

Friends celebrated its 25th anniversary last summer and there was huge hype over a reunion. They made a special Central Perk Lego set to commemorate this milestone and had an orange couch tour across the world. No, I didn't go visit the orange couch, but yes, I did buy the Lego set.

It really wasn't a bad price for genuine Legos with that many pieces.

The Friends anniversary didn't mean much to me because I'm not the biggest fan out there, but all the hype and video clips being circulated online made me curious to look up some facts about each of the six main actors in real life. A couple facts I learned:

1. Lisa Kudrow is the only actor to be married and stay married to the same person.
2. Lisa Kudrow was actually pregnant when her character was pregnant.
3. Courteney Cox was pregnant in the end of the last season but it was not written into the script.
4. They served really good food on set.

Coincidentally, I've proved an aspect of Friends to be accurate to real life, which most of the show is not in all honesty. 

In season 9, Joey's beloved penguin, Hugsy, makes his appearance again when Emma finds him and enjoys playing with him. Joey becomes jealous and wants his penguin back. He buys a second Hugsy in an attempt to give the newer penguin to Emma and take his original one back. Emma doesn't want the new Hugsy and Joey is left disappointedly taking the new Hugsy.

Hugsy

If you've watched the show or just simply read the quick synopsis, you might have wondered, can children really tell the difference between two identical stuffed animals?

The answer is yes. I've proved it. 

After my brother got married, he returned from his honeymoon and gifted me a stuffed penguin. It was a very cute stuffed penguin and he has received lots of love from me over the last 6 years. 

Meet Chilly Willy!

After my daughter was born, and even when we were preparing for kids and her arrival, I knew there were special stuffed animals I didn't want my children to mess with because they were special to me and I wanted them to last as long as they possibly could. If you know children and stuffed animals, there's a lot of abuse to be had: drool, food residue, puke, dirt, and overall abusive love. It's just simply how they play with them. I did not want Chilly Willy to experience any of this, so he stayed out of reach on our bed or hidden under the blankets.

Well...babies grow up and become mobile and get smart, and before you knew it she could climb onto our bed and locate Chilly Willy. So I did the best thing I could. I went online, located an identical version of my penguin, and bought it.

She was pretty excited when we got Chilly Billy...but I think I was more excited.

She definitely likes her penguin and holds onto him tightly. But you know what? If she ever catches a glimpse of Chilly Willy, she wants him. Put the two side by side? Chilly Billy is left behind every time.

I'm not sure why this is, but they know. Oh, they know.