Blue Swings

Sidenote: It's been a long month of not being able to blog and post any stories. I'm working on some, but seeing as I only pull out my computer about once a month to pay bills, typing out a blog unfortunately gets put aside more often than not. I originally meant to post this over a month ago. Oops.

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With the weather cooling down as the infamous Texas summer has ended, I've been taking the two kids out on walks in our neighborhood. It's become a daily ritual for us to talk a walk and look for "blue swings," the quintessential Little-Tikes baby/toddler swing. We have a pink one in our front yard, but my daughter loves to walk around the block and look at our neighbor's blue one.

The quintessential baby swing 

After we found the blue swing, we kept walking down that street and came across a pink tire swing in front of another neighbor's house. This led to a little game where we'd walk around the neighborhood and look for swings.

In addition to looking for swings, we've met some more of our neighbors. One morning, one of our neighbors down the street was out working in her yard and we stopped and said hello. I complimented her beautiful landscaping and started a brief conversation. She was very friendly and we both enjoyed some in-person socially-distanced chit-chat. 

A few days later, we were walking down the street behind us, and a neighbor actually came out of her house and asked if she could see my kids because she hasn't gotten to see her nieces and nephews given the current circumstances. 

Since then I've run into these same two neighbors multiple times. Once, we got candy since Halloween is around the corner. Another time, our neighbor shared her home-grown peppers with us and even cut a blue iris from her garden for us to take home and admire.

Blue irises from our neighbor.

Our neighbors are very friendly and it’s lovely to be able to meet them and say hi. I love being able to walk by someone outside of their house and feel excited to be able to exchange a greeting. But there’s something else that makes running into them almost bittersweet: we could have been neighbors with one of them. I know, we are already neighbors in the sense that we live around each other, but I mean literal next door neighbors. 

You see, one of these neighbors lives in the house next to one we made an offer on five years ago when we were looking to buy. The house next to the neighbor with the beautiful landscaping was one we were particularly upset about losing. It had one owner, clean bathrooms, and a great price. There was some updating needed to bring it up to current aesthetics, but overall, it was a wonderful house. The actual price it sold at was the exact same offer as we’d put in. So why didn’t we get it? We’ll never know. 

The other neighbor actually lives in a house two doors down from one we put in an offer on. It had a sunroom, needed some work, but the price was right. The lady selling it at the time got tired of showings and stopped accepting offers merely 24 to 48 hours after hitting the market. Ours never made it in. 

I’m thankful to live in the neighborhood we do. I enjoy walking to the nearby park and playground, biking on the trails, and saying hi to our neighbors. It’s bittersweet thinking about the houses we didn’t get to call home, especially when they’re right down the street or around the corner from us, but our house is one I’ve enjoyed spending an extra amount of time in this year. 

And we still get to walk around the same neighborhood and look for the blue swings.

The Sixth Empty Coin Slot

My grandfather was a collector. He was the one who introduced the idea of collecting to my brother and me. We each started our own stamp collection from his influence. We'd cut the stamp off the envelope, soak it in water, and then peel away the paper and adhesive, and then wait for it to dry again before storing it in our jars/boxes. 

Besides stamps, he was largely into coin collecting. He was the kind of guy who would see the ads for "special and rare" coins, fill out the form, mail it in, and eagerly await his one-of-a-kind coin to be mailed to him. Every time I went to visit my grandparents at their house, I would go upstairs to his study and look through his shelves of collections and books. One set in particular that he owned was the collection of medals of the US Presidents. My grandfather had a book with short bios of all the presidents up through Ronald Reagan and another binder which housed coins of each president with their name and years of office through Ronald Reagan. On the backs of these coins had various images and phrases, anything from patriotic sayings to the inauguration date of the same president. 

He bought two sets of these - like I said, really into collecting. At one point in my childhood, he had given me one set. I remember talking to him at one point, and he said, we should buy the rest of the presidents (I think Clinton was in office at the time) and add them to the set. There were six empty coin slots on the last page. I asked him, "How do we add their name and years of office?" He told me, "I can write them in." Even in my youth, I remember responding back, or at the very least thinking in my head: but it won't look the same.

Ha, classic type A. I started early.

He gave me one set of the presidential coins and kept the other. Honestly, I'm not sure why. Maybe he gave it to me because I was special, his only granddaughter of six. Maybe he gave it to me because he knew I was interested in them. Maybe he gave it to me because he simply wanted me to have it. It could be a combination of all of the above reasons. 

I still have this set today. When we moved to our house, this set of coins was one of the items I brought over from my dad's house. There are still six empty coin slots on the last page. After Reagan, there was George H. W. Bush with one term, Bill Clinton with two terms, George W. Bush with two terms, Barack Obama with two terms, and so far, Donald Trump and his one term. Although they started making separate coins for each president's second term, my binder only includes one coin per president with the total years of office labeled beneath. My grandfather passed away during George W. Bush's second term so he hasn't been alive for our last two presidents.

I've always wanted to complete the set, maybe even buy another page to add to this binder. The bronze medals, which are the ones in the collection, are actually not expensive. They're $6.95 each with a flat $4.95 shipping. Not bad at all. Of course, I'd wait until the next six coins are all out and buy them all to maximize the shipping cost, but this is something I would more than gladly spend money on, especially because I would be able to continue a collection started by my grandfather. 

We know who will fill at least five out of the six empty coin slots on the last page. This year is a pretty pivotal year for many reasons. There's a lot of people out there who don't want to see another four years of the same president. There's also a lot of people out there who want to keep him in office for a second term. 

I'm not here to get political. 

As of right now, the U.S. Mint has only made the coins through the 44th president. Trump will be 45th, and the last slot will be for the 46th president. I don't know what their schedule is like or when they produce these coins, but it'll be years before I'll get to actually finish out the binder and get my hands on the actual coins. If Trump gets reelected this year, I'll have to wait another 4 years to find out whose face will fill the last slot. If he doesn't, we will know this year.

I hope we all know this year.

Gee-ko

 I have fond memories from last summer of watching geckos with my daughter. At the time, her bedtime was close to 10pm or later on some nights. I have no idea how she could sleep so late. She was waking up around 8 in the morning and napping for 2-3 hours, but she still wouldn't sleep before 9 pm at the earliest if that. Even now, my daughter sleeps 11 hours at night max.

With this late bedtime, we were able to watch the geckos come out after the sun went down. She was very amused to see little lizards crawling on our windows. Small geckos would somehow find their way into our house. My husband would catch them and let them out again. He's not afraid of picking them up. I'm grateful for this. One time, he caught the gecko and put it on her leg while I videoed her reaction. She was more afraid of the skittering movements than the gecko itself. 

She called them"gee-kos" with a long E, so we all started saying gee-ko.

Her bedtime has since normalized and she's in bed by 8:30 (although asleep is a different story). We haven't gotten to watch geckos together this summer. But last night after putting her to bed, I walked over to our window and took a look myself instead of continuing the rest of my usual nighttime routine.

I had noticed more geckos than usual hanging around the window as well as a good number of moths flying around or hanging around the window. I stood there for a while, watching, and then hubby came by and joined me. We stood by our window and watched the moths fly around and the geckos circle cautiously.

The predators.

The (un?)suspecting prey.

We stood and watched for a few minutes. I really wanted to watch a gecko eat a moth. And we did! But I didn't catch a picture of it because by the time I pulled out my phone to get a picture, he had devoured 95% of that moth. So we stood there a while longer to see if another one would get eaten. Sure enough, another moth was caught and this time I was ready!

Stuck!

This moth really tried to wriggle free. Unfortunately, he did not.

After watching for what seemed like about 10-15 minutes, we resumed our normal nightly routine, but I felt a strange sense of satisfaction being able to witness some geckos eating their fill for the evening. I would still never touch one with my hands, but watching behind a sheet of glass works great for me! We don't get to have a lot of "fun" these days between parenting a toddler and a baby and staying safe from the virus, but this was actually a lot of fun.

What I've Learned from Teaching Online

I've been teaching online for four months now. Minus the blips in technology, it's been rather effective when students have set up the camera correctly as I've requested. Teaching core subjects such as English math, science, or history, are a little different than learning an instrument, but the general techniques still apply. These are just some of my general observations/takeaways so far from what I've experienced and learned.

1. Specific Instructions

The instructions I give have to be a lot more specific than if I were teaching in person. When my students come to my studio, usually, I'll say something along the lines of, "Look at the top of the page here" while I proceed to use my finger and point to the top of the page. The student can merely follow my finger and know where I am and what I'm referring to. For all I know, they haven't even actively listened to me say, "Look at the top of the page here." It's one of the advantages of teaching one-on-one. 

When teaching online, the directions have to be more specific. "Look at the top of page 2, line 3, measure 4 with the note G." Which leads me to my next point.

2. Active Listening

As a continuation of number 1, students need to actively listen to my instructions in order to follow along in my lesson. Let's take the same example: 

Look at the top of page 2, line 3, measure 4 with the note G.

Students then need to find the top of page 2, understand what a line is referring to, go to the third line, understand what a measure is, go to the fourth measure, know how to read notes, and find the note G. I am constantly surprised as how difficult it is for students to follow this, not necessarily because they don't understand the terminology, but because they're simply not listening.

I've seen students who appear to be listening, only to ask me to repeat myself because they've gotten lost staring at the page instead of listening to what I'm actually saying or asking. 

3. Colors

Colors have always been a part of my teaching. I color code dynamics. I color code notes. I color code patterns. I color code anything I want to bring special attention to, and sometimes I have even drawn a key for my colors so the student knows what each one is referring to. 

When music is printed with black and white notes on a black and white staff, notes written in pencil often get lost to beginner learners or learners who don't pay close attention. My teacher used the entire rainbow in my music to write notes and comment (including a blue glitter crayon at one point!), and I've followed suit because it is a method that I know works to a certain extent. I know you can't overload the page, but you need something to catch the eye, because everything gets lost in a sea of black and white otherwise.

In addition to color coding the music, I've learned that when pointing out things over a digital screen, my pointer needs to be obvious. Hence, I've started to paint my nails again. I've gotten good use lately out of my bold red and pink polishes. A painted nail makes a great pointer on the screen. Unfortunately, for all my male colleagues and teachers in various fields, this one may not work for you....unless you're willing to go above and beyond in strange ways!

4. Taking Notes

Having virtual lessons has brought out the sad reality that the state of our learning is passive. Students are not taught to take their learning into their own hands or to do more for themselves about their learning. Part of it may be my mistake. I've always written down notes in their music for them with regards to their homework and assignments. In retrospect, it may be more worthwhile to have the students do it themselves. I've simply always done it as a way of efficiency. Asking them to write their own assignments in our short 30 minute lessons may take up to five minutes or more. That's a lot of time to be spent writing things down when I can do it in seconds and use the extra time to teach. 

Sometimes, I ask them to repeat their assignments back to me verbally so I can register if it went into their head. Of course, if it escapes again, that is not within my control. This may be a system I'll have to improve on in the future and continue to work through. 

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In summary, I don't mind teaching online really. The students who thrived during in-person lessons have thrived during online ones. The students who have struggled in person are still struggling online. I don't think either success or struggle is due solely to virtual reasons. I agree there are still shortfalls. But if parents are wondering why online learning has been difficult, I'd take a look at some of these factors and see if there are any skills they can specifically help their students with, unrelated to the material itself.

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.

Plastic Bags

For the first time since I can remember, we're running low on plastic bags in our house. We've always had quite a collection from grocery runs and I've had to go from tying them into a knot to folding them neatly like little football triangles so we can fit them all in our pantry. (Who else out there knows what I'm talking about?)

First, let me explain why we don't use reusable shopping bags at the grocery store. I've never made a priority to bring my own bags because we actually use the plastic bags stores give you to bag groceries for other uses. All of our trash bags in the bathrooms and kitchen are lined with grocery store plastic bags. We do not purchase specific plastic bags for the trash* cans. Why buy something and use it once when you can get something and give it at least two uses in its lifetime? Even if grocery stores started charging a nickel or a dime for each bag, I might still pay occasionally for the bags because I know I get other uses out of them. 

*We buy one pack of the tall trash bags for our 13 gallon trash can and it lasts us at least four years because we only use that trash can for large objects or when we throw parties or large gatherings. In fact, we purchase plastic trash bags so infrequently that when Walmart changed their packaging from 50 bags to 45 bags, I actually noticed. Consumers beware: inflation doesn't solely come in higher prices. They get sneaky and keep the price the same and drop the quantity. Trash bag quantities are not the only item I've noticed had this happen.

I asked my husband one day why plastic shopping bags at the grocery stores were seen as such a "problem" when the plastic trash bags you can purchase and use at the grocery store are not. We came to the conclusion that the majority of people do not reuse plastic grocery bags. Our guess is they end up being littered or thrown away after arriving home without any second thought. 

I actually prefer the smaller 4 gallon wastebaskets for trash and t-shirt bags from grocery stores or takeout fit perfectly in them. We fill it up about once every 2 days, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, depending on what I'm cooking. If we used a large 13 gallon trash can in our kitchen, I think it would smell sooner than it would fill. This makes a huge difference any time I'm cooking fresh meat or shrimp. You want to bag the packaging up and take it out ASAP.

I try to use any (clean) plastic bag which enters into our home at least twice if possible. In some cases, you really can't, although my toddler really likes to play with the bubble wrap plastic packaging from some packages for a few days, so I count that as a second life. Some companies even ship their products in plastic bags with a second sticky seal on it in case you need to use it as a return package or use it for something else altogether. I have definitely found second uses for these types of plastic bags.

An example of a reused bag with a second sticky seal which I used.
Anyone want to take a guess what's in this bag?
Hint: It's not a package to be sent out and it's not something I'm keeping.

Bags that can't find second uses in our home (any bag that has ventilation holes in it, any bag that's torn or ripped, or any bag that is an usual shape and can't be reused, etc) will end up in a recycling pile to be taken back to a store to be recycled.

I'm all for using resources wisely and reusing/recycling instead of trashing. If you don't believe me, ask me what we do with the cold water from our bathroom while we wait for the shower to heat up. We also reuse our old laundry detergent containers as well as cooking wine bottles just to name a few. If there's a way to reuse something, I've probably done it or have thought about it. 

So, for now, we're running low on our plastic bags. It might mean we need to go on another grocery store run (that isn't Costco), or, it might mean we need to pull out the big trash can for a while. 

Happy Six Years!

Today is our six-year anniversary. In these six years of marriage, we’ve broken six glasses, five bowls, and one cutting board. I wish I could blame it on the kids, but they’ve actually had no part in our broken kitchenware. Yet. There will be plenty of time for that. 

Our wedding day. Taken by Victoria Liu

It’s been a fun six years. Things haven’t always been rainbows and butterflies, and we’ve had our fair share of disagreements and conflicts, but we have a lot of fun. These are six ways we've been able to enjoy each other's company and continue to have fun with each other. 

1. Be goofy together. 

We have lots of inside jokes together such as flying juice boxes, "cheers" popsicles, and pregnant belly dance moves. These are what make the classic stories to pass down to generations to come.

2. Don't fight over chores. 

It's really silly to fight over something that takes 5-10 minutes to do. We don't do 50/50 in our house. I have both cooked and washed the dishes on many occasions. My husband has also cooked and cleaned, mostly during the months when I had morning sickness, which has now happened twice. Fighting about not wanting to do it would probably cost us up to an hour or more. Not fighting about it and just doing it would probably save us 30-45 minutes at least.

3. Go on adventures.

Adventures don't have to be glamorous trips involving flying across the world to visit exotic places.  We've had many adventures consisting of driving to Walmart and browsing the clearance section for 30 minutes. Unfortunately with the current health concerns, we may never view these adventures the same or be able to do them, but we thoroughly enjoyed them, especially during our pre-kids years. Hopefully someday, the art of shopping in stores can become a leisurely past time again instead of a necessity for food. 

4. Eat good food.

Whether it be going out for takeout or cooking at home, good food can't be beat. It's so satisfying to be able to enjoy a good meal together. 

5. Look at each other. Really. 

Take some time every now and then to look at each other. We see each other all the time, but how often are you intentionally looking at each other? 

6. Hold hands

We don't get to hold hands much anymore. Between pushing strollers, holding children, and carrying bags, there are no free hands left to hold unless they belong to tiny people. When we actually do get to hold hands now, it possesses a newness to it that's almost strange. It doesn't happen often. If you're not someone who likes to hold hands, then...don't, I guess.

I've really enjoyed this extra time during quarantine/staying at home that we've had with each other. Most of the time it just involves doing more of the everyday things together: cooking, cleaning, watching the kids, eating meals, etc.

And now, I'll leave you with six more fun facts about us/our relationship.

1. When J was younger, he wishfully wanted to marry someone who had a grand piano. This indeed came true!

2. J says I was somehow able to traverse the friend zone. I hope he's glad I did. 

3. I grew up with a last name of 3 letters. It got shorter after we got married.

4.  J liked penguins. I liked teddy bears. Now we both like penguins.

5.  I thought I'd leave Dallas after college, and I did for a year. But, I found a reason to come back and stay. 

6.  We both joke that we definitely wouldn't have dated each other if we had met earlier or grew up together.

Happy Anniversary to my favorite person.❤️

Two babies and many extra pounds later, we still fit our wedding attire!