The Tam Fam

China Pride

2012-02-13T18:23:00.014-04:00

Wandering through the shopping mall during the holiday season a month or so ago, a man at a kiosk hollered out to me, "come check out our scarves and hats--I promise none of them are made in CHINA!" His tone and facial expression held palpable disgust as he referenced China. I laughed back at him, "you picked the wrong line to get my attention--my husband is Chinese." And then I kept walking, pondering. If my child were old enough to understand what that salesperson said, I would not have laughed. Actually, perhaps Lo IS old enough to be affected (kids this age are sponges, with particular deftness in reading emotions), in which case I feel a bit more bothered that I did not inform that man of my intentions to raise my child with a bi cultural personality and ask him to please be more sensitive and stop sabotaging my efforts.

I love to see Lo's growing awareness and excitement over his mixed heritage. Multiple times he has declared, "I see Chinese people," when we pass random Asian strangers. And he always notices Chinese characters, saying things like "I give you this Chinese book," as he hands me one from our bookshelf. He has also noticed that Jerry is the one who can read those types of books best, sometimes showing me a Chinese book and then saying, "Daddy come home, read this Chinese book with me." I wish I could read Chinese better--even my pin yin skills are waning since I've been out of school.

Some of the titles I grabbed at the library lately are purely for my own enjoyment (older reading level than Lo can handle). The Ch'I-Lin Purse, retold by Linda Fang, held such charming ancient stories. I felt my heart warming toward the culture of my husband as I heard these old fables and fairy tales from China. These are stories that most Chinese people have grown up hearing countless times--tales of the collective conscious akin to our "Cinderellas," "Rapunzels," and "Three Little Pigs," etc. Yet none of them were familiar to me, an erudite yet Western-educated gal.

One of the adult nonfiction books I got was written by an outsider. One of the reviews claimed the work to be "a balanced view of China, with all its warts and accomplishments." But the more I read that book, the more depressed I felt. It really seemed to take a negative, unloving stance toward a country that now claims at least some of my loyalty. Yes, China has had a troubling past of corrupt leaders, squandered resources, and current ills--but what country holds purity of past or present?

At a community event for refugees last month, I saw some Iraqi youth query why their nation's flag was not represented among those on display. When told that it simply had not been among the collection, they immediately got to work creating their own huge flag to hang--colored with crayons and cut from the paper table-cloth they found on their dinner table. At the time, I felt genuinely surprised they would feel proud of their country. After all, they are here in America seeking a better life than what Iraq could offer them. But they knew of the beauties of their country; they had witnessed a truth firsthand: Each culture has its share of vices and virtues. I for one prefer to emphasize to myself and my family the GOOD that exists in our heritage. Enough already with the desire some have to sling mud on our founding fathers. I am proud to be an American, land of the free, home of the brave. But I also feel proud to tell my child "You are American and Chinese." I am happy to teach him the culture that produced such tales as The Ch'I-Lin Purse and so forth. Gung Hey Fat Choy!

By the way, The Ch'I-Lin Purse is a story of how kindness begets kindness...a good karma tale. A wealthy girl about to be married notices another bride who has no riches. The wealthy bride shares with the poor bride some of her dowry, a purse with a treasure inside. Eventually, tragedy befalls the wealthy young bride. She ends up seeking help from strangers--who turn out to be the married couple who received the treasure purse years earlier. The tale ends by saying, "If you have a chance to do something good, do it. Happiness will come back to you." Love it! Let's all go out and do some good in the world.

Christmas and New Year

2012-02-02T08:29:00.009-04:00

About a month late, figured I would post a few pics from our holiday celebration. Again, keep in mind the dominant theme of 2011 Christmas and New Year's Eve was the fact that we were moving, but we still had wonderful friends around who made sure we took time for some fun. At the BEST New Year's Eve party ever, we got to release lanterns just like the ones on Rapunzel. They were mesmerizing. And huge. About as tall as an adult person, swirling colors in the sky until the flame ate up the tissue paper. No photos, but see clip art above. =)
Had Christmas Day dinner with a family from my mission. I LOVE these people. Truly they are eternal friends of mine. This is Mr. Lo having just opened almost the entirety of gifts he got to unwrap this Christmas (yes, he really only had a couple gifts, since we saved most of the toys etc. to dole out little at a time during our cross-country drive in January). Note Lo's face looks bored and dull. Really he was just suffering from excruciating herpes simplex lesions in his throat and mouth, only I thought it was thrush at the time. Oops. Have I mentioned he has a tiny mouth and rarely opens wide, so really can't blame myself for guessing wrong on the illness. The doctor forced his mouth open, and then we could see the blistering more clearly...Anyway, I digress.
Our Christmas tree this year was awesome, but didn't get any proper photos taken. Our neighbor let us borrow this tree. Lo undecorated the bottom half quite a few times.

And here is Mr. Lo in the only photo of him with his Christmas jammies. Happened to be 2 weeks before Christmas when my brother Justin was visiting. Note the moving boxes in the background. Ugh. Did I mention this is the second time we moved right at Christmas? 2 years ago, right after Lo was born the company transferred us mid-December. I hope to never move at this time of year again.

I should report that we had a yummy ham dinner Christmas Eve with the same family who hosted our Thanksgiving meal. But we don't have photos from Christmas Eve. It was sort of a less-fun evening only because of Lo's cranky/fussy mood (remember I still hadn't figured out he had the Herpes and in fact on this day we all thought his bad mood and drooling/mouth pain was just due to teething 2 year molars).

We had a great time celebrating Chinese New Year since the move and illness plague had all come to an end. But I'll post more on that holiday once we upload a few photos from it.

Material Possessions

2012-01-29T09:31:00.005-04:00

I want to get back on the ball with my gratitude challenge.

The second step suggested is to list 10 Material Possessions for which I am grateful. This is an intriguing activity at this point in my life because we Tams ended up leaving behind at least 90% of our material possessions when we moved last month. I have alternated between feeling liberated by having less junk, yet on the other hand grieving a variety of losses. I try to keep reminding myself about those pioneer ancestors. Anyway, I still have some few cherished items we shipped/hauled here to Boise, as well as a few items I have acquired since arrival. In no particular order, I am grateful for:
1. A Willowtree Nativity. Sort of embarrassed about this one, because I probably could have spent this money more wisely. But anyway, I bought it yesterday at a yardsale. I showed the man running the sale a whole pile of items and offered $40. The pile included an organizational shelf, a toy ball for Lo, a kitchen scale, a like-new board game (Cranium) and the Willowtree Nativity parts pictured above in their original packaging with all authenticity papers inside. (My dad seemed horrified about how much I had spent, saying, "Haven't you ever been to a yardsale?" so maybe I paid too much?). Please validate my purchase everybody!! I had left behind a couple of Nativities when we moved from Ohio, afterall...and I love the way the Willowtree Nativity can be added to over the years unlike other nativities that must be purchased as a whole.
2. Our car. We have a great car. It is just a basic sedan, nothing fancy and starting to get a bit on the high-mileage side, but it is so reliable. I've had various times in my life without owning a set of wheels or else having to use a car that was less reliable, and so it makes me that much more grateful for the vehicle Jerry and I have right now.
3. Our laptop. Using it with the internet brings me connection to family and friends, and since Jerry and I don't own a TV, the laptop has been our primary way of watching movies for the past few years. So useful and enjoyable.
4. Clothes. Especially since I've been reading accounts of the handcart pioneers, and it still feels relatively chilly outside, I am so grateful to have clothing in general to keep me warm. And I'm thankful in particular for some cute items of clothing that really boost my mood and confidence. ("Grandma Style" shirts, Jerry calls them; what can I say my preference is classic).
5. A bed. My aunt and uncle gave us a queen sized bed when we arrived in Boise. It is really comfortable. And miracle of miracles, Mr. Lo stays out of it. He finally just hit a stage of wanting his own bed...The few times I have put him in the big bed, he protests saying,"Go nap my own baby mattress" which is amazing because there were days Jerry and I asked ourselves Is this kid ever going to sleep in his own bed. Even though it has taken awhile, the transition to him moving out of parental bed proved an easy drama-free event when it finally did happen. Thanks to all who reassured us along the way. =)
6. A calendar. Random, but I just glanced at it and realized how much I rely on a wall-calendar. It helps me remember important events. When we didn't have a calendar for a few weeks right around the New Year, Jerry and I kept stressing about it.
7. My toothbrush. Wouldn't life be horrible without one? Oh, the wonderful feeling of a freshly scrubbed smile.
8. Food. This seems like it should be a category all its own. The countless yummy, healthy, and everything in-between goods that I consume each day. So much food so easily available--how many people in the world lack this possession? I am blessed.
9. Camera. I am a sentimental person, and being able to record life through photos lifts my heart. I am grateful Jerry thinks to whip out the camera at all the right moments, preserving our best memories.
10. Books. Scriptures, easy-reads, board books for Lo, what else. The library at my parents house includes so many beloved books I read as a child and I pause to take note of how these possessions have enriched me. Fuel for the mind. Similar to what I mentioned regarding food, books plentiful and accessible for me--not something all people on earth can say.

I am grateful!

Pioneer lessons

2012-01-26T03:15:00.004-04:00

My relaxation method of choice these days is to chip away at a book I started after we moved here to Boise. The Price We Paid, by Andrew D. Olsen. My normal reading style is to get immersed for a day or two and finish a book in one big gulp. But my conscience declares I have more worthy ways to spend my time these days...*sigh*...so the book remains mostly unread as of today, but I would still recommend it. Wow, how wonderful were our pioneer ancestors.

Pictured above is Mr. Lo riding a wagon in the children's section of the Independence, Missouri LDS Visitor's Center. We stopped there for a diversion on our drive across the country earlier this month.

Cousins

2012-01-19T05:33:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the dearth of posting lately; we are still trying to get settled and accomplish all that a move entails. I did finally commit to start using facebook...am in that awkward stage of not liking it. Much prefer blogging, but maybe I'll come around. Anyway, if you want to be my friend, look me up. =)

One of the aspects of this move that we most looked forward to was getting to see family more. Pictured above: Lo Lo and Ashlyn, first cousins. Ashlyn seemed transfixed by Lo most of the evening recently, staring with perpetual surprise at all the cool things a 2-year-old can do. We love these kids! (although yes, that is a bumbo chair perched on a table...I know, makes me nervous...are we the only ones who have ever done this??)

Tips for traveling with toddlers

2012-01-12T17:46:00.007-04:00

I don't mean to imply any sort of expertise, because honestly we mostly just borrowed ideas from others...but just in case anybody else is looking for help, here is what we did RIGHT in getting our 2-year-old bouncy boy moved from Ohio to Idaho via cramped, overloaded family sedan.
1. Emotional Preparation: THE MAP. I am pretty proud of this one. Months (okay, maybe weeks?) ahead of time, I let Mr. Lo help me create a map from Ohio to Idaho. We used scrapbook paper, stickers, markers, photos of family members, etc. and I haven't scanned it but for your visualization help, see below: We discussed and examined the map on at least a daily basis, so frequently that Lo became able to read it aloud to any friends who came to visit. "My home," he would say, pointing to the house on the far side. "And this GrandMom's home. I move Idaho, live GrandMom home." We especially made sure to pull it out during the trip whenever Lo started pleading to "Please nap my own bed?" rather than a hotel room/carseat/etc. and we'd remind him why we were on the road. He really did seem able to understand and respond positively to the visual of the map.

While driving a few days into our trip, Lo enjoyed using the map to talk about places we'd already seen and activities already done. "What this, Mommy?" he queried, pointing to one spot or another, and I'd tell him what the pictures on the map represented.
2. Special Treats: OUT OF SEASON FRUITS. We tried to keep Lo's candy intake to a normal level, and instead supplemented our roadtrip snacks with special fruits he hasn't had in awhile to delight his palate. He regards fruit as the same category as candy anyway--gets equally if not more excited over watermelon, grapes, and strawberries compared to chocolates or whatnot. The watermelon was something like $6/lb. Yes. Worth every penny.

3. Special Clothing: SLIPPERS. We don't normally allow Lo to wear slippers out and about, but he got this pair for Christmas from a friend and loved them. They became his number one pair of footwear throughout the trip and he seemed to really enjoy wearing them. Simple pleasures to make the car ride more comfy. ps. he was making Nauvoo rope in that photo below, just happened to be the shot that showed his slippered feet. =)

4. Plan to be spontaneous: CHUCK-E-CHEESE. We ended up getting a hotel one night that was located directly across the street from a Chuck E Cheese (sp?). We decided to go there for dinner and it really boosted Lo's mood. On another night, we were musing about dinner plans and then drove past a McDonald's that had a playplace. No hesitation--we had gotten tired of fast food by this point, but knew the playing and running around would be good for that Lo. It is good to leave enough time in the trip schedule for unplanned playtime. When opportunity presents itself, take advantage.

We temporarily lost his slippers at Chuck E Cheese. =)

5. Teach. CARTHAGE JAIL: probably one of my greatest joys of the trip is when Mister Lo absorbed the brotherhood and love between Joseph and Hyrum Smith. He saw this statue, became enthralled, and for days afterward mentioned at random moments in the car,"Hand on arm" (referring to the pose of Joseph and Hyrum). I am glad we had a mindset of teaching our son during this trip because it made us as parents more patient and loving overall--and Lo picked up on our attitude. He was more coachable because he could sense we were intent on coaching.

On one of our other trips a few months ago, an irritable fellow flier on a plane trip with us snapped that we should be using Benadryl to keep our child quiet during the flight (Lo hadn't been crying, but was making loud happy playing noises at the time). The reason we Tams choose to abstain from drugging our child into complacency during trips is because we value teachable moments. And those moments often come unexpectedly. The brain of a child is precious and geared to learn--even on a long cross-country journey.

6. Activities: BUSY BAG EXCHANGE. We stuffed an entire 18 gallon tote full of hundreds of small activities. Some were dollar-store toys, some were more quality Christmas gifts (thanks again for the Aquadoodle, Joanne!), and some were hand-crafted treasures to keep a toddler occupied. I wrangled together a group of Mommy friends and we all made activities, then got together and traded what we had made so we each ended up with a huge pile of different activities. It isn't making sense the way I explained it just now probably, but suffice to say we all got some great ideas and ready-made "boredom busters" from each other. These photo cards were my favorite. My friend Chelsea pasted photos of all the little kids in our group, along with a tidbit of info about each child. There are also stickers on the laminated cards. Endless entertainment for Lo! He loved looking at the photos of all his friends, talking about their likes/hobbies, etc. and sorting the cards.

The item I made to give everyone was a clothes pin color matching game. I only used the colors Red, Yellow, and Blue, thinking to keep it simple for the younger set. But it still seemed a little over the head of our 2-year-old. He needs a lot of help to do this game. Still fun though.

By the end of the trip, we had gone through almost every toy in the box. It seemed like a near-perfect amount. We supplemented by buying a few small toys along the way (bouncy-ball from a vending machine, additional stickers from Wal-Mart, etc.) (By the way, the sticker book and stickers were a huge hit, I think because Lo recently hit that developmental stage of being able to easily manipulate the stickers on his own).

7. Spiritual Preparation: FAST AND PRAY. Both us Tams and others in our extended family/friend group were sending serious supplications heavenward that the journey would go well. I know this effort was heard and rewarded by a loving Heavenly Father.

I think that's about it. We had a fairly happy toddler for the majority of the trip, even with him getting pink-eye a couple days into the journey and coming down with a cough/cold the last day of driving. Seriously, it was a miracle how well the trip went. Best wishes to any others attempting a similar journey.

ps. I should cite this blog post for giving me the original framework of ideas to make traveling with toddlers a positive experience. I love her idea about incorporating literature, and though we didn't choose a specific book to be our theme for the trip, we did read a ton of books about cars/trucks etc. in the months preceding said driving, which made Lo be extra excited to see all the other vehicles on the highway. =)

Safely Arrived

2012-01-09T14:38:00.002-04:00

To anybody who was wondering and didn't know yet...

We had an interesting Christmas/New Year holiday that mostly consisted of being sick and getting ourselves packed and moved out of our Ohio apartment.

Then we spent the past week driving across the country seeing wonderful sites and being pleasantly surprised how well Mr. Lo did in the car for 30+ hours, all things considered (preparation is everything! We win the award for being Most Prepared Parents Ever, for this trip anyway). Still, we were all ready for the driving to end by the time day #6 rolled around.

Last night we arrived in Idaho. We are busy getting settled and will post more later. Thanks again to all who helped us get moved/cleaned out of Ohio. We were blown away by how much support we received.

Nature Center

2011-12-19T05:18:00.003-04:00

We have a free Nature Center just 15 mins. drive from our home. For some reason we never went there until just a few weeks ago, and since then we've returned once more because it was so fun! The Nature Center has a temporary exhibit that includes an indoor play gym--invaluable in this Ohio winter weather.
And a Winter Wonderland backdrop that Lo wouldn't stand still at for a pose no matter how hard I tried. He just kept running around exploring the whole time we were there.
A life-sized game board leads kids through one section of the exhibits. They can roll a dice and move along to various activites on a sort of obstacle course. At this microphone the kids were supposed to chirp "bird calls," so Lo said something like "chirp chirp."
They had lots of tunnels to crawl through as well.
We didn't get photos of much of the outdoor part of the nature center, but it has a lot of animals. A fox that was a cinnamony-chocolate color, so beautiful, a hawk that flew up and grabbed the top of its cage with huge talons, and a teeny tiny owl, to name a few. The animals are all rescue/rehab cases that will soon be released back into the wild.

Cookies Run Away

2011-12-15T23:44:00.001-04:00

We've had some holiday cheer lately. Here we are at the company Christmas party, always worth attending. This year Lo loved the bounce house and inflatable obstacle course the most. But he also really enjoyed Santa! I think it helped that we dressed him as a "mini Santa," and Lo recognized they were matching. He says that word a lot, "matching." I made the mistake of explaining that Santa comes when people are asleep and leaves toys and candy, so now having no comprehension of time, Lo wakes up most mornings asking if Santa came already.

The video clip is from a special event at the library. They read a gingerbread man story to the kids and then everybody hunted around the library for runaway cookies. Lo Lo really got into it! He thought it was fascinating that the cookies were "yay my-ing" (Lei Mai..."hiding") and thoroughly enjoyed decorating his own cookie at the end. Listen for him saying "Cookies run away" on this clip. So cute. We love our Lo.

Taking the challenge

2011-12-09T03:43:00.005-04:00

The First Presidency message for this month is on Gratitude. Perfect since we all have a lot to be grateful for considering Christmas and commemorating the birth of the Savior. At the end of the article is a challenge to write down 100 things for which I am grateful. I did this exercise before in my journal, but it was years ago and I think took weeks for me to accomplish, just jotting down grateful thoughts as they came to me.

I will take on this challenge again. I know it will increase my happiness and help me see how I can use the blessings I have been given to better serve others.

Part I: Ten Physical Abilities for which I am grateful
1. Being allergy-free. I thought of this one last night when I caught a whiff of dust in the air and remembered my husband is severely allergic to dust. Poor guy gets painfully swollen sinuses and congestion while I don't get bothered at all. I need to be more consistent to wash the bedsheets weekly in hot water to help alleviate his allergies. Also recently I found out a few little boys I know are deathly allergic to nuts. How I would miss eating nuts! So I'm just extra thankful to have no allergies that I can think of.
2. Bearing children. It was an exhilarating, sacred experience to feel life growing in me when pregnant with Lo. It was also wonderful to feel the sensations of the birthing time--discomfort included, I'm not kidding! I felt absolutely alive and empowered by the whole deal. And I know not every woman gets that blessing in this life, so I am grateful it came to me.
3. Sight. I have a few close family members with visual impairment, so I have seen first-hand their challenges. I have independence, joys, and ease in life because of my vision. And to think I sometimes complain about having to wear glasses/contacts. In this moment I am just grateful to have access to such tools to enhance my sight when there are some who never get to wear a pair of glasses though they may need it all their lives!
4. Hearing. Yesterday I heard church bells chiming carols. It lifted my heart.
5. Hands. I have fun learning ASL with Lo. And how many other things my hands can do! Picking up my child, stirring dinner on the stove, all the every-day tasks that I often take for granted.
6. Walking. I walk a lot of places, including grocery shopping on a regular basis since Jerry and I share a car. This past week we vacationed in Toronto and got to walk all around that exciting city. Jerry kept wanting to ride the street cars, but I preferred walking.
7. Eating. Yes, this is an ability. I have always enjoyed food. One little boy in our nursery class consumes his calories through a stomach tube, and I have noticed his parents call it "feeding time," rather than "eating time." I am grateful to be among those who can eat.
8. Smiling. Sometimes Jerry and I joke about our smiles. "What if I really smiled like this," Jerry would ask, pulling a goofy face. "Would you still have married me?" We laugh, but really there ARE people who either cannot smile or who choose not to smile or some people who just don't like their smiles. But I am grateful to be able to smile and be truly happy about that toothy part of my face.
9. Talking. I lost my voice over the past week due to some type of cold/respiratory illness. There were some moments that I desperately wanted to speak, even just to comment on Lo's antics, let alone communicate basic needs or wishes. But I could only whisper or make hand motions. Now that my voice is returning (albeit scratchy still) I am conscious of the glory of speaking out loud. It is so helpful in connecting with other people.
10. Sleep. I have suffered from chronic insomnia, so the nights when I sleep without problem are something to cherish. Last night I slept 6 hours straight before I had to wake up to go to the bathroom, and it is amazing how refreshed I felt after that kind of stretch. =) Granted, I could not get myself to fall back asleep again after getting up for that bathroom run, but we'll focus on the positive here. I am pretty talented at being able to nap during the day with Lo when I ever need it.

So there we go! 10 things I am grateful for. I'll do this project in installments over the next month or so.

Refreshing

2011-12-07T04:30:00.003-04:00

A few days ago our church broadcast a Christmas Devotional. Normally Jerry and I would have watched it online that evening, but since we had been visiting friends that day and got home right at Lo's bedtime we decided to just view the archived devotional later.

Still not having watched the devotional, yesterday I went shopping for Christmas gifts and felt an undeniable pressure and anxiety surrounding me. Then, after returning home, I finally got around to reading the online summary of the Christmas devotional. An instant peace filled my heart and pushed away the holiday stress. If there is anybody else needing to refresh their spirits and remember the true joys of the season, check it out.

Optical Illusion

2011-12-03T16:29:00.002-04:00

Since I am a little animal crazy, we ended up getting a couple more fish last month or two even though we are moving soon. Better find new homes for them in the next few weeks...

This betta is the most gorgeous blue color, no? We named him Lan Yu ("Blue Fish" in Chinese). When I snapped this photo, he appeared to be leaping out of the water dolphin-style. But really he is submerged. A mirror halfway under the water makes the illusion happen. Cool!

Rested

2011-11-29T04:35:00.006-04:00

Our Thanksgiving weekend was perfectly what we needed--no travel, sunshiny weather, and time off work for Jerry (though he popped in to his office on Saturday and took Lo Lo with him--cute stories developed around that happening which maybe I'll remember to share later). "The Meal" was eaten with a family in our congregation. Since their kids are all at least a few years older than Lo, he played great with them. Jerry and I got to just eat, chat, and relax without mediating toddler battles. Seriously, it was the most enjoyable few hours I've had in a long while.
I brought to the meal: a cherry-cheese pie--my first time to bake one of these, and it turned out beautiful--; two varieties of sweet potatos--one in the crockpot, which wasn't the favorite of the two, but still worth doing for the convenience and one more traditional sweet potato dish with marshmallow topping and I got to bring home an empty dish from that one, so I felt proud; also I made a wonderful "green and white" salad which recipe my mom had forwarded recently via email--thanks Mom. And Aunt Jennifer, the original source. =)

These photos are from a park ~~near~~ not as near as I wish to our home. It is unbelievably awesome--huge and unique. The sandbox has a 20 foot long dinosaur skeleton embedded in it that kids can unearth; the playhouses "talk," and some of the slides...well, let's just say Jerry and I had as much fun on them as Lo. The first time we went to this park was with playgroup. Lo played for two and a half hours running almost continuously afterwhich he came home and took a three hour nap. These photos are from that day. Since the day after Thanksgiving was so gorgeous, Jerry and I took Lo to this park again. Haven't uploaded photos from this weekend yet, so that's why I'm posting these ones from our earlier visit. This park is a place we could play ALL. DAY. and not get bored. This video clip shows a few views of the park around 2.5-3 mins. which still doesn't adequately explain how amazing this place is. Clearly it is a special place.

Thankful for Faithful Hearts

2011-11-24T05:20:00.003-04:00

A few days ago I was startled to realize a feeling of anxiety--even terror--had entered my heart about the concept of parenting. I had a feeling of being overwhelmed and worried, feeling less than adequate for the task, etc. It wasn't a very pleasant day. But in my New Testament study yesterday morning, I came across these verses in James 1:2-4 that reminded me God is there, even when it seems He is silent. I felt my faith renewed and my patience with myself and my son increased. Those verses alone may not be "magical" at all times and for every person's situation, but for me in that moment of reading them with prayerful heart, the words invited God's spirit to comfort and teach me. I am grateful for the scriptures!
Jerry and I side-by-side watched this new Mormon Message clip--sort of a different one, no? Personal interview style. We were especially touched by the parts where Elder Nelson says to have realistic expectations and to focus on improvement rather than perfection--"perfection comes in the next life." It wasn't as dramatic as Elder Nelson's flight experience, but during our flight home from visiting Hong Kong exactly one year ago, we felt extended turbulence that held everyone's attention. It was disturbing enough that I recall thinking, "Is this going to be how my life will end??" with some real contemplation. My little brother who was on the flight sitting in a different section also said he had similar thoughts. At that moment in a dipping plane ride, I probably didn't have the perfect calm of an apostle, but didn't feel what I would call real fear either. I felt my life was generally in order, because I have always tried to live according to true principles. I am thankful to have a clear knowledge of God's plan of happiness. I am thankful to have been blessed with strong faith to help me through the challenges of life. It is my greatest "possession" to know the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is true!

Hope everybody else out there feels as blessed as me on this Thanksgiving day.

baptism, lies, Chinglish, and patience

2011-11-20T23:58:00.007-04:00

1.Yesterday we attended a baptism. Before going, we reviewed with Lo Lo what baptism means, and showed him pictures of it, etc. At all the prior baptisms Lo has attended at this point, by the time of the actual submerging in water he was out in the hallway for one reason or another. But yesterday for the first time that I can remember, he got to see the ordinance performed. His eyes stared wide and unblinking from his perch at water's edge, and as I guided him back to his seat afterward he said loudly, "I do that baptize!" Then he proceeded to repeat those words to the point that I had to remove his chatty self out to the hallway. He REALLY wants to be baptized and still talks about it. Hope he still feels that way 6 years from now. :)

2.Today during sacrament meeting at church, Lo insisted several times that he needed to be taken out. "Diaper change," he kept requesting. So I took him out and was none too happy with him to find his diaper held not a single drop of wetness. It was clean, dry, and oh so sneaky of him to get out of sacrament meeting. I never knew a kid could be so conniving even this young.

3.We had a few Chinese friends over for dinner tonight. I was proud of Lo's proficient Chinglish communicating with our mixed lingual crowd. He used phrases like, "More Ji," for example, when he wanted the chicken passed to him. (Ji is Chinese for chicken). The one Chinese lady said Lo Lo was a Guai (good boy) (not sure if I butchered that pin yin) because he was sharing his toys. =) He does have his good moments.

4.I need to always make sure to remember the good moments. Focusing on the positive, because today was actually not my favorite overall. At one point during nursery I even told one of the other nursery leaders, "What on earth am I supposed to do?" She smiled serenely and said "learn patience." I am taking her advice to heart. Just thought I'd share my newest goal...

Birthday Celebration

2011-11-14T15:30:00.013-04:00

I know some people don't do parties for children who are very young, and I'm still not sure where I stand on the issue. I do think gifts at toddler parties aren't necessary, IMHO. Kids this age don't expect it. We didn't do more than a family get-together for Lo's first birthday. But he has so many cute friends in this area, and celebrating with them would be exciting for Lo with his social personality. Plus also, I like parties. =) As Jerry kept reminding me, the party is as much for the child in me as it is for our child Lo. I'm ok with that.

For Lo's birthday we intended to do a "Things That Go" party since he loves trains, trucks, airplanes, etc. Months in advance, I started making a helicopter pinata (with the gleeful help of Little Hands Lo of course). Cakes got baked and sat in the freezer for weeks, decorations and party favors piled up in the closet...and then as the time drew near for Lo's birthday I got intimidated. A few reasons for my hesitation: the schedule seemed FULL right around his birthday--Halloween parties and hayrides, and the beginning of November full of church events that couldn't be held later in the month because of Thanksgiving. Furthermore, location stymied me: it happens to be freezing most days in early November, so we couldn't hold the party at a park, renting locations is more expensive than we wanted to spend on a toddler's party, and our apartment is too small to have more than a handful of preschoolers running around. To top it all off, by the time his birthday hit, Lo was about a week into healing from a cough/cold. So we mulled over not doing the party at all. But Lo was kinda asking about that pinata he'd seen sitting on top of our fridge for months...and we had a mountain of Halloween candy to get rid of via said pinata...So we hijacked the weekly church playgroup for Lo's birthday celebration. He'd caught his cold at playgroup to begin with, so I rationalized the other kids wouldn't mind a little additional exposure. ahem. I had a little too much fun doing that train cake. The engine is a pound cake, made from scratch and super delicious if you ignore the gallons of food coloring in its frosting layer. The coal car is actually rather healthy, again made-from-scratch banana nut bread with whole wheat flour. Crushed oreos for the "coal." The third car in the lineup was the most popular for eating; gingerbread with homemade lemon ginger frosting. The kids at the party were jumping up and down with excitement when they saw the train cake. And I had lofty dreams of adding another car or two plus a caboose to this train cake lineup. Thank goodness Jerry convinced me to rein it in, lol.
I am yelling like a crazy woman in that pinata clip because I could envision all too clearly the possibility of some kid getting whacked in the face with the pinata stick. Yes, chaotic. Yes, lots of fun. We'll probably do a pinata for Lo's birthday every year as I cannot imagine a better way to disperse the leftover Halloween candy. At home we kept things simple, singing the Happy Birthday song to Lo myriad times throughout the day in several different languages, opened a gift. Didn't have birthday hats, which Lo kept asking about. He must have learned about birthday hats from watching Signing Time birthday episode. Something to include next year.

Drawing on the Pumpkin

2011-11-11T14:03:00.001-04:00

A tagalong post to the Halloween festivities of last month. We let Lo decorate a pumpkin (or "Puppin" as he called it) with a sharpie marker, and then I carved out the spots he had drawn. It turned out looking like some kind of deeply philosophical modern art. =)

The background talk about "plug your nose" is because Liam's friend Leigha (also 2 years old) tends to throw up when she sees pumpkin guts. Not sure why I think that is funny but there you have it.

National Adoption Month

2011-11-08T07:01:00.003-04:00

The word "entitled" gets tossed around a lot these days. Men and women of the world seem to believe they are entitled to self-seeking lives with such lifestyles sometimes resulting in unwanted pregnancies. Now consider the word "entitled" in this context: according to God's plan, "children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity" (The Family: A Proclamation). I re-read Elder Andersen's talk this morning as part of my gospel study and felt again how important and sacred is the responsibility to raise up children. I applaud any woman who births a baby, especially those women for whom aborting the child might have seemed a tempting or viable option at some point in the pregnancy.

Furthermore, Elder Andersen's talk reminded me how vital for children to be raised in loving, 2-parent homes whenever possible. I am pro-child, pro-adoption. As November is National Adoption month, I want to take the opportunity to again declare that adoption is inherently part of God's plan for happy individuals and families. An individual birthmother may at times receive inspiration to single-parent her child, but in the majority of cases I believe the best interest of the child is to be placed in a loving 2-parent family. I know these thoughts might be offensive to some--but my convictions come from careful study of the scriptures, inspiration from the Lord, and even the latest in child development research, which shows children are much more likely to thrive in homes where they have both a mother and father actively involved in the rearing process.

2011-11-08T06:59:00.002-04:00

Birthday Boy

2011-11-02T23:59:00.109-03:00

Interspersed with darling birthday photos from his 2-year session a couple weeks ago, we present with pride our very own 2-year-old Lo!

Contemplative, content. And cold. :)

Talking: Lo frequently uses 4-5 word sentences in English (a few recent examples: "Daddy, take more photos;" or "Mommy, I have that spider bee." His grammar is a little off most of the time, but pronunciation is more and more clear. We LOVE his talking. Another cute talking he does is to say "um" when he is thinking. Like if I ask him a question that requires choice, he'll say "UM," and pause for a second before answering. My little grown-up Lo.

Jerry claims this was the first time he ever had Lo Lo do the "shoulder ride" on him.

Kindness: Lo often gives spontaneous, appropriate "thank you's," crowing "Thank You Mommy!!" When I hand him a block for example, or give him a snack. And while eating, he often says, "Mommy's turn," and hands me his floaty-filled drink to share. :) We are working on using soft hands with playmates. He is a huggy, loving child, but on occasion intersperses those hugs with hitting for no apparent reason. The pediatrician said it is normal for kids this age to be inappropriately physical, and to just keep lovingly reminding "soft hands." She suggested Lo needs more opportunities to practice playing with other kids his age, maybe adding another play date or two each week. Said maybe the hitting comes from being over-excited at the social opportunity. I'm doing some reading on the subject...oh, how parenting humbles me.

That foot turned to one edge is EXACTLY what Jerry does in photos! Our wedding photographers commented on it. Appears to have some genetic propensity...

Singing: Songs of a toddler melt my heart. Sometimes we have the treat to overhear the soft, happy notes of Lo's made-up songs while he plays by himself. He often imitates our singing/sings along. He sings clearly the words "Happy Birthday" and "Do Re Mi."

Bare feet in the sand feel great!

Counting: A few times I have heard Lo count correctly "1, 2, 3, 4, 5" but more often he just says "One, Two, One, Two..." etc. We trained him to say "Two" when people ask "How old are you," because we didn't want to have to untrain him from saying "One," but now that he is finally REALLY "Two" he only says he is "One." What the heck?? Who taught him to say he is one year old?

Where'd those feet go??

Games: He LOVES hide and seek, using the Chinese term "Lay(4) My(2)" (I am guessing on the pin yin because it is Cantonese). He pronounces it "Yay My" and says it with such glee and delight I cannot help but play the game with him a million times a day.

Is that not the cutest face.

Shapes and Colors: He knows all his colors in Chinese and English, pointing accurately to a request given in English, Mandarin or Chinese. Verbally stating mostly English but sometimes says them in Chinese. Shapes he loves in the shape sorter and seems to recognize the different edges readily, but verbally only says correctly "heart," "star," and calls an octogon "Stop," and a circle "ball" or "O."

We have loved having the beach just minutes away from us...will miss it when we move to Idaho in a couple months.

Another game: Jerry taught Lo to sort his play-plastic foods into "Healthy" and "Bad" piles. Lo is correct most of the time, but sometimes emphatically tries to tell me lettuce is "UNhealthy," for example. He seems to care a little too much about my approval of him getting the answer right or wrong. Tries hard to guess if he isn't sure.

Center of our lives

Feelings: Lo feels at varying times obvious embarrassment, pride, shame, elation, love, anger, confidence, probably so much more emotions than even what I've just thought of off the top of my head. He is such a complex, amazing creation. I guess all kids are. But really, my own seems so much more intense than what I notice in other kids. Lo has a definite dominance to his personality, a sort of aggression that will someday come in handy in life if he can channel it appropriately. :) He is outgoing, social to the max, and never seems to fear new situations. He's the type of kid who will jump into the pool first, follow bigger kids onto paths he is too small to handle, and so forth. Daring, exciting, energetic and yet contemplative with a love of reading, drawing, and gluing noodles to paper. I have great hopes for this combination of talents.

This just might be my favorite pic of Jerry and me to date.

Jerry and I think Lo is a good combination of both our strengths, and we even notice our son showing aptitudes perhaps beyond what he got from his parents. It is a miracle to watch his personality unfold with each passing day. We are so happy to have this great little boy in our family. Happy Birthday Mr. Terrific Two-Year-Old Lo Lo!

The 12 Days of Halloween

2011-11-01T21:25:00.001-03:00

Lo and his favorite friend Claire at the ward Halloween party

For Halloween this year we borrowed 2 tiger costumes from a wonderful woman at church. She said Lo would want one to wear indoors (thinner material) and another one to wear outside (a cozy warm version). Our cute little guy had a great time practicing his tiger roar, one of which is on a video I will have to post later (taking too long to upload right now). We ended up keeping Lo home from trick-or-treating on Monday because he came down with a cold over the weekend and still seemed to be feeling unwell. Thank goodness we'd already had plenty of Halloween fun. After reviewing our calendar, I realized we had done about a dozen Halloween activities throughout the month of October. From a special event at the Children's Museum to Halloween themed storytime at the library and so forth, we partied all month long!

I dressed as Pippi Longstocking for our ward party. Yes, that's my pet monkey hanging on the end of one braid. =) And the dress: made by yours truly, about one hour before the party started. The whole costume was free, just made from things around the house except for a pair of striped leggings ($4). Hilarious. Also note my white witch pumpkin on the table. It won 1st prize in the pumpkin carving contest (it was the only entry).

At the children's museum we opted to dress Lo as an army guy instead of the tiger, since we knew he'd want full mobility to enjoy the activities there. The museum did some special spooky science experiments. For example, Lo got to catch a bubble full of misty stuff. He got to submerge his hands in slime. And he made a skeleton out of glued noodles on paper. We did another version of that craft at home--note to self, great project for this age range!

Lo getting weighed on the pumpkin scale...I think he was around 35lbs, which has been his constant weight for about the past year. Also in the photo is Uncle Mike and my cousins Spencer, Emily, and Audrey. It was so fun to have them visit during the second week of October.

We had a few pumpkins and gourds hanging around our house over the past month. Lo had fun rolling them around, saying "roll, roll." He talks with such clarity these days.

Playing on a pirate ship at the company's Halloween party.

We decorated Halloween cookies to give to the ladies I visit-teach. Lo Lo was so pleased with himself, he kept telling everyone who saw the cookies, "I make that."

Another fun Halloween treat we made is this candy sushi. I figured it was like even the treats were in costume! We brought a couple plates full to the ward party and it was gone within minutes. More fun to look at than to eat, in my opinion.

Lots of fall colors out at the church farm in Hiram. We visited there this month with Uncle Mike and Aunt Jennifer.

Not so much Halloween-y to have beautiful trees, but definitely still a part of why we love the month of October. Good-bye October. Hello November! Did everybody notice today's date is awesome: 11-1-11.

Caterpillar

2011-10-30T14:27:00.009-03:00

My friend Priya took photos of Lo Lo last week (more to come!). We were happy to find a Halloween creepy crawly caterpillar at the park where we did the photo shoot.

He was absolutely PROUD of himself to have this little bug crawl around on his arm.

But all good things must come to an end, and we eventually let the caterpillar loose so it could "go home." When I showed Lo his photos, that's the part he talked about the most, the caterpillar going home.

I looked it up and found out our caterpillar was a wooly bear variety, which will turn into this type of moth, forgot the name, but something like a tiger moth:

Amish opportunist

2011-10-23T23:35:00.000-03:00

Friends

2011-10-12T06:47:00.003-03:00

Lo begs me every day to have friends come over and play. "____play at my home?" he asks sweetly a thousand times. Fill in the blank with any number of friends' names. He says them with such funny pronounciation. Here he is with Leigha. He actually doesn't say Leigha's name that I am aware, but he asks if her sister Emma can come over and I know he means Leigha too. =) Here is how it sounds: "Emma bay my home?" He has to focus and furrow his brow to get out the "h" sound in "home." Oh, I LOVE all the talking these days! Seriously, people say they get tired of how much their kids talk, but I cannot imagine getting to that point. Give me time, I know... It cracks me up how kids this age undress themselves. Here we have Leigha in her diaper, and last Sunday there were 6 kids in nursery with their shoes off by the time class ended. Again, a fun age. :)

Random sampler

2011-10-09T08:34:00.003-03:00

Our apartment has a field of horses adjacent to it. Sometimes we feed them carrots or grain. Also I have nightmares about Lo Lo climbing through that missing slat in the fence sometime when I am not watching and getting kicked in the head...=/ I love how this stage of Lo's development is marked by a desire to help and participate in all projects. Here is our helpful son putting away tables after a church activity a few weeks ago:

At that same activity, there was a woman there who wore a similar tie-dyed shirt to one my mom wore when we were back in Boise this past summer. The two women have similar hair styles/color, and from the back look like twins! Lo Lo kept trying to convince me this woman was his grandma; he has no idea how crazy that would be if his Idaho grandma suddenly appeared at our church event out here in Ohio. After we saw her face, he realized she was not his grandma. That night we asked him, "was grandma at the church today?" And he said with certainty, "No." Kids are so cute.

Sorry for the blurry shots. These were all photos from Jerry's phone that just got uploaded and I figured might as well post them.

Bao Bao

2011-10-07T02:52:00.002-03:00

Stuffed animals have a way of accumulating, don't they. Here is Lo's collection after just the last two years: He kept making his animals give each other hugs, saying "bao bao" in the sweetest little boy voice. Note the puppy Lo is pointing to has arms full of smaller stuffed animals. (I helped him stack that many in the arms). And this is what we do all day while Jerry is at work. :)

Goals old and new

2011-10-05T15:04:00.004-03:00

I have been basking in a spiritual renewal ever since this weekend's General Conference. I feel more motivated than ever to do good things. I am also glad to start again with my daily reading of a General Conference talk. Faithful readers of this blog may recall I had a New Year's resolution to do such a thing, but about 4-5 months in, I realized my reading of the usual monthly Ensign magazine had dwindled as a result of my focus on the General Conference talks. Anyway, since I had already studied all the most recent conference talks, and the ones from the previous conference before, I ended up just halting that goal for the most part as I focused on enjoying the cover-to-cover reading of the Ensign magazine. But now I'm ready to re-start that daily conference talk goal.

I also have another goal after listening to General Conference this latest time around. I want to memorize scripture verses on a regular basis. Still not sure what verses/how many, but I think I'll focus on relearning the seminary scripture mastery verses. Stay tuned. The reason I want to do this goal is because of Elder Richard G. Scott's talk that promised, "a memorized scripture becomes an enduring friend." After all the moving and ups and downs of my life over the past few years, I feel ready to revisit some stalwart friendships with key scripture verses.

Another goal developed from conference: pray for the prophet and general authorities on a regular basis. This one is a family goal. I feel remiss since we normally only found ourselves praying for these church leaders in the few weeks leading up to each semi-annual conference. President Monson gave a plea in the Sunday Morning session: "Remember me and all the general authorities in your prayers." Jerry and I especially are praying for Elder Robert D. Hales after noticing the transformation he has undergone in the past year. Take a look: October 2010:
October 2011:

Let's all pray for him to continue healing. His talk was touching to me as I realized how much of it must have come from recent spiritual lessons in his own life about having patience in mortal affiction.

Anyway, I could go on and on about all my favorite speakers but I'll just quickly report back how it went with Lo Lo and the Conference Sweets Bowls. For the most part we had to be the ones to point out what the speakers were saying. "Look, did you hear him just say 'Jesus' or 'temples'" etc. but ONE time Lo got excited all on his own when a speaker said "Jesus Christ." He pointed ardently to the treat bowl marked by a picture of the Savior, saying "Jesus, Jesus." We happily doled out an M&M. I can see how this project will be good to use as Lo grows through childhood. Lo Lo was also happy to join with saying all the "amens" and watched intently the first two speakers in the priesthood session on Sunday morning. We viewed it as a family because Jerry did not go to the broadcast the night prior.

I hope General Conference was as uplifting and fulfilling for you all as it was for us. Now lets all go and be changed for the better because of what we have heard and learned.

The Sweetness of the Word of God

2011-09-30T07:53:00.009-03:00

How interesting it is that General Conference has become something like a holiday in my mind. I feel excitement as I think about it, akin to anticipating Christmas, summer vacation, birthdays, and such. It seems I see signs on every corner reminding me Conference is coming. I am thinking more and more of how to help that Lo get something out of this great upcoming weekend.

I remember hearing that in Jewish tradition, when a child begins learning from the scriptures they are fed apples and honey, so that an association can begin in the mind about the sweetness of the Word of God.
Enter: General Conference treat bowls. I picked up some M&M's yesterday and also dug out our leftover Nerds (Halloween candy from last year, lol).

Then, I placed a few pictures of important Gospel topics we are trying to help Lo Lo understand. When a speaker mentions one of these topics, we will let that Lo take a piece of candy. He is 1 year old, soon to be 2; we are talking BASIC principles here--Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, and Temples. I figured even delving into "prophets" was a bit abstract, although I plan to print out a Thomas S. Monson coloring sheet for that Lo to use this weekend as well.

I found this awesome idea for the treat bowls from one of my favorite blogs (yes, I am addicted to an adoption blog...my heart has always had a soft spot for the whole process of adoption...and this blog author posts a lot of good stuff on raising kids in a multiracial home, so I think that's what keeps me coming back for more...)

My version doesn't look as pretty as Mrs. R's, but here it is. Thankfully Lo Lo is highly motivated by candy, so I think this activity might actually get him to focus on the speakers for a second or two while we point out that they are saying "Jesus," "Joseph Smith," or "temples."

Any other good ideas out there for helping kids get the most out of General Conference?

Back to School

2011-09-28T06:54:00.007-03:00

We've always known Jerry would further his education. This past summer, he graduated from his company's leadership development program so it felt like a decision was around the corner. We were not feeling great about staying in our current area for a variety of reasons, including wanting to move closer to family. Originally Jerry got the OK to transfer next spring to one of the plant sites on the West Coast, which would have been a better location for us (though still not ideal). About a month ago, we got word that Jerry could no longer transfer to that particular position--just the unpredictable nature of the manufacturing world. We've gotten used to surprises during the past few years with this company...! So Jerry decided to make a break for it and quit his job. He plans to return to full-time schooling for a bit of a career change--afterall in his own words, he's "not getting any younger," and we have decided it is an important goal for him to be able to get employment that is both gainful and personally fulfilling. Thankfully in the time since we graduated from college a few years back, we have been blessed to be able to pay off our student loans and build enough savings that we feel the freedom to make this move. It honestly feels like a miracle and biggest blessing that we have such opportunities and joy in life. My parents have also been a big help in giving us the courage to have Jerry in school full-time, since they are letting us move in with them for the year that Jerry will take to complete his program. Perfect timing since my little brother enters the MTC in December and his bedroom will be available...=) We are happy to let Lo Lo spend at least some of his toddlerhood surrounded by extended family.

Jerry has been accepted to Boise State University, starting classes in January 2012. After one year he will be able to take the CPA exam and ultimately make his career something in the field of accountancy. Hooray for change! After this move to Boise, we will have moved SIX times since our marriage just FOUR years ago, with more than half of those moves being interstate. Life is crazy but good.

African Safari

2011-09-25T06:17:00.004-03:00

For Labor Day we visited an animal park near our home. Though it is called an "African Safari," most of the animals there seemed more of the North American genre. But we did get to feed a giraffe! It stuck its nose right in our window. I'm only uploading the one video because I'm having issues with photo/video upload lately. We got a new camera; not sure if that's the problem. Anyway, enjoy.

2011-09-20T06:47:00.004-03:00

I am making a pinata for Lo's birthday (yes, 2 months ahead of time, a tad excited), and I made the mistake yesterday of explaining to him what a pinata is. We watched a few Youtube videos of kids breaking colorful forms, followed by candy spraying everywhere, finishing up with laughter and joy. Lo talked about it nonstop eversince, even having trouble settling down for his nap because he was so looking forward to "break candy everywhere." (which he pronounces "pk nannee 'where."

So that night for our family home evening activity we made a makeshift pinata (handful of candy wrapped in a piece of tissue paper, tied to a string) so he could whack it open. It was pretty funny to watch him swing a stick around. And disturbing. Because now he says "hit, hit!" and loves hitting stuff, pretending it is a world of pinatas out there. This could be bad. Maybe the pull-string pinatas are more appropriate afterall...

Something about the British Commonwealth

2011-09-16T09:22:00.004-03:00

My younger brother Justin got his mission call yesterday. He will be servingfor the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Canadian Toronto mission, Spanish-speaking. I couldn't easily find a photo of him alone (what DID I do with all those CD's when we moved?) but he's the tall one in the middle here: My other brother Brandon, the one with red hair, served his mission in Australia. My dad served in London. His dad served in Jamaica. My mom's dad served in Canada. I served in Canada (Winnipeg). I'd say we mostly have some kind of British Commonwealth theme going on. So David, the youngest brother, will have to end up going to India or something. We'll see. :) I'm so pleased by my family's wonderful legacy of spreading Jesus Christ's gospel. I look forward to that Lo having so many good examples to look toward.

Finishing up the trip

2011-09-09T14:49:00.015-03:00

I have a random assortment of photos left from our trip last month to Utah/Idaho. I'll just throw them all together and get it over with so I can move on to tell about more recent happenings. We went to the Western Idaho Fair in Boise. Lo rode this mini roller coaster type ride all by himself. Note how all the other riders around him have parental supervision...but we were too cheap to buy a few more tickets to get ourselves on there with him. And he was technically tall enough to go on his own...? See photo below for how sketchy the height measurement was...

Why yes, that is a hand-drawn, scibbled mark at the 32 inch mark to denote that Lo's 34 inches is tall enough.

We went to a butterfly house. Ever since then, Lo can be heard saying on an at least daily basis, "puh-puh" (accompanied by making ASL butterfly sign), followed by tapping his shoulder, followed by the verbalizing the word "Mom" (translation: remember how the butterfly sat on grandma Valerie).

My little brother David (age 16) makes things out of popsicle sticks. This ship he crafted won every prize available at the fair. For scale, to imagine how huge it is, pictured in the background (about one yard away from the boat) is myself, my mom, and bro. Justin.

See the buck in the middle of this frame? He hangs out in my parents' garden all the time. Jerry couldn't get enough of it.

We went to an aquarium in Sandy, Utah. It was a tad mediocre--still new and needing to expand a bit before I'll recommend it.

Crocodile (or alligator...I never remember how to tell them apart).

Also while in Utah, we visited all of Jerry's former host families. Here we are with the beloved Dean and Melody. And their parrot (on Dean's shoulder). Note Lo Lo eating out of an endless bowl of chocolate chips. Ah, good memories.

Lo warmed up to Melody within seconds of meeting her. She has such an angel glow about her, little kids must feel it.

While in Salt Lake City, we had to stop by Jerry's favorite restaurant, Little World. It is a pretty authentic, delicious Hong Kong style eatery.

We hung out with cousins a lot. Here is Lo and his second-cousin Marshal. Riding the airplanes. More amusement park rides all by himself--our little Lo seems so grown up when I think about it!

Traipsing through Liberty Park in SLC. Lo hitched a ride from my little brother Brandon who is starting at BYU this semester. We were so happy to get to spend time with Brandon while we were in Utah!

And here is Lo feeding baby cousin Brit. He LOVED her, stroking her hair, hugging her, etc.

Well, that's it for now on the trip updates. I have a few more photos, but this post feels long enough. We had a really fun time on this vacation, visiting lots of family, friends, etc. and doing a million activities along the way.

Big Trucks

2011-09-03T07:51:00.003-03:00

While in Boise recently, we spent some time with my dad up at Bogus Basin. He used to just work there as a cat driver during his off season from doing hay, but now he does full-time maintenance at the ski resort. And still does the hay harvesting as well, but that's another story. :) Have we mentioned how much Lo Lo is crazy about "Big Trucks!" He kept wanting to "Ride Dat!" and cried when we finally made him exit this big rig.

This machine is actually called a Piston Bully, or a snow cat. It grooms the ski trails.

I love my dad's animated face here. He is so good with the wee ones.

Outside the shop, Lo Lo got a chance to visit up close with the diggers and such. What a cool experience for a little boy. Thanks, Grandpa Dean!

MK Nature Center- Boise

2011-08-30T07:13:00.005-03:00

Personality entails "enduring characteristics," as explained in one of my human development classes. I enjoy watching Lo's personality unfold. Lo's personality seems to show a consistent bent toward sociality: He stood blandly by this fish viewing tank until a few other children walked up, and then he leaped into action, chattering to them about what he was seeing, staring more at the other children than the aquatics.

His personality also seems detail-oriented, though I wonder how much of that characteristic is developmental rather than unique to Lo? I thought he would love seeing these taxidermy critters, and he thought they were okay--but the ROCKS! Wow, the rocks. Lo kept wanting to touch and examine the rocks more than desiring to gaze upon the mighty grizzly and salmon.

I keep finding myself surprised by this child. He is his own person.

Home again, home again

2011-08-14T08:54:00.004-03:00

Yesterday Lo and I flew from Cleveland to Boise. That route has no direct flight, and doesn't even have many options for a one-stop flight. We touched down in Chicago, changed planes in Portland, and all-in-all had a long day. But despite a rough start (Lo had a meltdown when we wouldn't allow him to carry our 40lb. suitcase down our apartment's stairs on our way out the door), the journey was actually overall enjoyable. Lo napped for a couple hours in the middle of the day as usual, and I even got to sleep during part of his nap. We arrived in Boise just in time to play a bit, eat dinner, shower, and go to sleep. I have learned a few tricks to make flying with a baby easier:

Sit by other people who have young children. Firstly, this act makes it less likely those sitting nearby will glare/sigh/resent the noise and activity levels of my own child. Secondly, kids tend to entertain each other, often swapping toys (making our own selection of toys last much longer before boredom sets in) and the socializing offers learning opportunities, which makes me have an attitude of cherishing the time, rather than saying, "oh, I wish it was over already."
Bring a few treats. Normally I recoil from anything akin to "bribery," but giving treats at well-planned moments seems different to me. For example, I knew there was a good chance Lo Lo would protest at least one of our ascensions because there were THREE of them. So I had three packs of fruit snacks. I gave him a pack of fruit snacks as we waited to board, telling him, "We will open it when we are in the air." He kept chewing on the plastic wrapper, begging me to let him eat the fruit snacks, but I just kept reminding him, "when we are in the air you can eat them." That way, he was excited to be in the air again instead of saying something like, "NOOO, I cannot handle another few hours cramped in this little seat!" Also, I had a dum-dum sucker in my purse reserved to avert a tantrum if one threatened to erupt at a particularly bad time. It came in handy, and that's all I'll say about that. =)
Remember others are watching. I was able to keep calm and cheerful with my child because Jerry and I had a good scripture study that morning that reminded me to be a good example for others. In contrast, I witnessed a few totally irrational parents on this trip, mostly mothers who were traveling with children and had obviously been pushed to their limits. One mom snapped at her infant (the baby looked about 7-9 months of age), "Give me a break! Cut it out! I mean it!" I have no idea what the baby was doing--nothing that was obviously "bad behavior" but I felt sorry for her. She probably had no comprehension of why her mom was yelling at her. Nor was the yelling likely to help the situation. Anyway, on to more happy topics.

When we got to my parent's house, there were a couple deer in the garden. Lo was thrilled to walk close to them. Then we spotted a couple blue-belly lizards, and I had a lot of memories come back about catching them as a kid. My cousin Drew was the best lizard-catcher. I tended to grab too slow and just end up with the lizard's tail in my hand (these lizards would make their tails drop off as an escape strategy). The apricot scent was heavy and ripe in the air--Lo plucked an apricot warm from a tree branch and bit it tentatively. My poor city-boy child has no experience eating fruits of the garden. I am glad to have grown up in the beautiful foothills where Nature was such an accessible joy. It is good to be home. Jerry will soon join us--stay tuned for the tales to come.

Trains, Trains, Trains

2011-08-12T02:05:00.006-03:00

I was hoping to have some type of post related to our move, like photos of the new apartment or whatnot. But it is all on Jerry's phone needing uploaded. So I'll take a moment to catch up from activities over the past month or so. Awhile back we visited a train museum (I think we posted on it for the blog?) which was a grand kickoff for Lo's love affair with trains. He recently checked out a DVD from the library which has eductional songs about trains and he gets positively thrilled to point out various parts of it to me while we are watching the show. So we've been visiting all the trains in our neighborhood. The mall in walking distance from us has a train that goes all around the inside of the building, and Lo Lo always requests that we go, "Mall Ride Oo-OOh?" (OO-OOH is his word for "train," spoken in the tone of a train whistle). We rode it once, but it is a little expensive so I am not sure if we'll ride it more than once or twice more in the future. Anyway, we also visited an outdoor outlet mall a ways away which has an outdoor train people can ride. It is pictured above in all its shining glory.

Since the train runs outside, there are real "Railroad Crossing" points where cars and people have to stop to wait for the train to pass. It is pretty charming. And at one portion of this mall, there is a model train set display with several different tracks set up. This circus train was amazing, with all the attention to detail.

Lo Lo was pretty tired when we took him there (note his sleepy eyes and only a few smiles in the video...ok rats, the video did not load correctly; maybe I'll get it done later). Anyway he still seemed to enjoy himself and we were all happy to ride the train.

fyi...lost phone

2011-08-07T13:46:00.002-03:00

Hello. I feel like every time I set something down in this new apartment it gets "lost" because I keep forgetting where our new places are for everything. Kitchen utensils in the opposite side compared to our old apartment, towels in the closet down the hall instead of bathroom closet, etc.

So when I lost my phone yesterday, my first instinct was that it must be somewhere in our apartment. But it isn't. The ringer was on loud and it wasn't making any noises when we called it. And anyway, I had it right as we walked out the door to go to the mall (answered a call on it) and then when we got back from the mall, discovered the phone was missing. So after calling it a few times in hopes a person would pick up and tell us where it was, we just had the phone cancelled.

Sorry if anybody was trying to get a hold of me yesterday or today. Try emailing instead! Or call Jerry's cell if you have that number. Thanks.

we moved

2011-08-02T02:42:00.002-03:00

sorry for the blogging delay. we moved last week. swimming in boxes. also SWIMMING in sweat since AIR conditioning is broken (the reason I can't sleep). Had billions of people help with the move. childcare, cleaning, lending dolly and vehicle, giving boxes and packing paper, physical moving of boxes, assistance organizing new apartment, etc. WE feel LOVED! THANKS TO ALL!

My sister had a baby yesterday. Congrats.

I'll type a real post later when my keyboard starts working. A certain letter won't type. Gess which one. =)

like father, like son

2011-07-23T20:00:00.003-03:00

Lo Lo follows what Daddy does, and sometimes it is so cute to me. Here he is trying to squish in the same chair Jerry was using for a nap: by the way, this photo shows Lo's buzzed hair pretty clearly--his head also looks a little bit square-ish but I think it is just the camera angle?

Jerry often does pushups and situps, lifting hand weights, etc. in the evening and Lo Lo likes to exercise right alongside him. Normally Jerry's form is more straight of course, but he was craning his head around to look at Lo, laughing as I took the photo.

Lo gets his feet up on the couch like that all by himself.

Try to ignore all the toys covering our living room floor in those last two photos. =)

1st 3D and other movie fun

2011-07-20T13:19:00.006-03:00

I saw the new Harry Potter movie a couple days ago and it was my first time to do an actual full-length movie 3D. Those Dementor's cloaks billowed out so real, and the dust came right at my face (ok, sort of a spoiler alert) when you-know-who, erm, you-know-what. Awesome. Totally worth it. Also, I hadn't read the books in awhile so I didn't really recall the smaller details of the plot and I think it helped me appreciate the movie more.

Jerry wasn't interested in seeing that film, so I went with a group of friends. The deal is that Jerry gets to go see Transformers 3 now in 3D. Anybody care to join him? I'll be staying home. :)

Also I hadn't mentioned earlier that when my mom was here she babysat while Jerry and I went to a movie (Super 8). It felt pretty strange--we haven't gone to a movie alone for about 2 years. It was maybe 50% enjoyable, because I was concerned about how Lo did at home with my mom, it being his bedtime and all. But he did fine of course. When I saw the Harry Potter flick two evenings back, I felt something more like 99% relaxed enjoyment because I have more experience leaving Lo with Jerry and know the two of them do fine without me. Babysteps.

Cleveland Children's Museum

2011-07-14T06:15:00.002-03:00

When my mom was here, we visited the Children's Museum. Most of the exhibits seemed perfect for Lo's stage of development.

He always begs us to let him drive our real car, so this jeep was a favorite.

Puppets.

Water table.

Okay, this train table was hands down Lo's choice--if I had let him, he would have spent two hours there. But we have free train tables at our local library. Sorry Lo; I am restricting your agency on this one. :)

Finally I dragged him away from the train table and we played with anatomically correct baby dolls...

Until he looked out the second story window of the make-believe house and saw...

The TRAIN TABLE! He abruptly dropped his baby doll playtime in favor of running back to the trains. Um, really, we can just play with the ones at the library anytime, Lo. Moving on...

A moon buggy car to drive!

Spacemen use treadmills. This was cute because we are always trying to keep Lo off the treadmill at home, but he loved to be just like Mommy & Daddy, exercising on this fake one.

A real astronaut suit. Lo was excited to wear it once he saw other kids trying them on. He is sitting at a control desk, which had an intercom, and some other fun buttons.

Launching a rocket.

Building a rocket...or um, throwing the blocks that could be used to build a rocket.

Lo Lo loves putting coins into those little devices that funnel the coins to a center hole.

This climbing platform is supposed to mimic the water cycle, and you can pretend to be water molecules going up into the clouds and then raining down. It is meant for kids a few years older, but Lo didn't know that and we had scary moments of him getting stuck trying to climb around.

Hope we can return again soon!

Oh, and one more shot: His face looked lit up, coupled with squeals of delight, every time we entered a new corner of the museum. But most of the photos show just little smiles because he was busy concentrating on serious play.

Columbus Temple - The Smart Way

2011-07-07T15:37:00.012-03:00

Sorry I've been slow getting back into blogging, even though it has been nearly a week since my mom left. I sort of felt dismally uninterested in life over the past few days--not sure what triggered the funk, but maybe because we have missed Grandma so much! Even though she thanked us graciously for giving her a fun vacation, it was really a vacation for ME because my mom did so much cleaning and playing with that Lo while she was here. Lo even got a bunch of inside jokes with Grandma and she had to start translating for me to understand my own son. Also, he called her "mom" because that is what Jerry and I called her. Oops. =) Anyway, hopefully I'll get our fun times documented here little by little. Normally when we visit the temple, it is a LONG day with about 6 hours in the carseat for that Lo, and his mid-day nap turning out terrible attempted on the temple grounds. So this time, since my mom was here visiting and volunteered to babysit while Jerry and I made a date out of attending the temple together, we splurged a bit. We got a hotel for the night, and timed our journey to and from Columbus to coincide with Lo's daily nap so he slept nicely for most of the driving. Totally worth it.

And we joined a group from our ward who also went down to the temple that weekend. What fun! Several in this group are recent converts who were visiting the temple for the first time to perform proxy baptisms for their deceased ancestors.

While Jerry helped with the baptisms, my mom and I played with that Lo outside the temple. See the pretty spire? And see Lo? See him running around there on the grass? It was a million degrees humidity and sunshiney-hot, but he LOVED being outside.

Here we are instructing on why leaves cannot be thrown into the stream as efficiently as rocks.

My mom was going to attend an endowment session while Jerry was doing the baptisms, and we planned that I would just stay outside the temple with that Lo for a couple hours. But I had killer insomnia that night in the hotel (honestly--way worse than even "normal" insomnia--this kind left me feeling zombi-like until I got a nap Saturday). So my mom volunteered to watch Lo while I napped and while Jerry was doing the baptisms. I LOVE MY MOM!

Grandma ("MOM") and Lo, best friends forever. Thanks again for being such a lifesaver, Mom and helping Jerry and me have a great visit to the temple. Oh, and thanks again for rescuing my glasses when the lens popped out into the stream. Good memories.

Grandma and the Beach

2011-06-26T23:21:00.010-03:00

My mom has been visiting for the past week (and we are so lucky to get her for a whole nother week still!). Today we took her down to the beach that is just a couple minutes away from our house. We wondered if it was a Sabbath appropriate activity--akin to a Sunday afternoon walk perhaps? Enjoying nature but not recreating too much? We left our toys at home and kept the visit brief. Anyway... Throwing rocks into the water. A new favorite, since Lo did it all Saturday on the temple grounds stream (more about that on a different post).

Couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather.

We found a couple good pieces of driftwood to entertain our new pet. Yes! Another animal (or two) to add to the Tam Fam. No, we didn't get it at the beach but instead adopted it from some friends of ours who were feeling all petted out lately. This little terrarium houses our new hermit crab. Lo Lo enjoys watching the crab climb around and I get a kick out of rearranging the crab's landscape every day. We named it "Hai Hai," which is "crab" in Chinese. Always trying to reinforce those language skills...Oh, and the second new pet we got is a snail (named "Snail" or "Nail" as Lo Lo calls it) to clean our fish bowl because I was getting lazy about scraping the algae off: A Golden Mystery Snail. These babies are AWESOME. Better than any other type of snail (do a google search if you want to know details). But I digress. Back to the beach.

Lo Lo has been such the happiest kid with Grandma around. He really basks in all the attention she gives him, and I love to get a bit of a holiday myself with my mom taking care of that Lo so much. We are keeping ourselves busy, but hopefully I'll make time to post more on the blog than I did last week, since I am quickly falling behind. eek.

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-18T23:16:00.002-03:00

Jerry has shoulders made perfectly for nestling.

The research is pretty clear that kids are more likely to thrive and reach their fullest potential when they have active fathers in their lives. And Lo Lo is blessed to have a daddy who takes his role seriously. Who else but a daddy could think up 101 uses for vinyl--like this homemade road map.

And who better than a daddy to teach boys that reading good books is a manly pastime?

And when a little person spills rice and it ends up getting tracked all over the house, that little person needs a dad--because a dad just might have the presence of mind to take a photo of those neverending rice grains stuck to a little person's feet. Really, Jerry is the one who makes sure our myriad candid moments get caught on camera--I am so grateful he is such a doting dad.

Jerry is the kind of dad who tries to watch a DVD with his son, only to end up rarely looking at the screen. Instead he seems to have utmost delight in watching his son watch a show.

Jerry is one of those fathers who is pleased to let little hands "help" with projects.

And of course, we could not honor Jerry in his fatherhood without mentioning the man who first showed him what it means to be a dad. We love you Ye Ye!

We don't have as many photos of my father with Lo Lo, but here is one I love because it shows the first moment they met.

And here is Lo Lo with his Great Grandpa Clark (my mom's dad):

As a mother, I recognize my great influence in the life of our child. But I am also the first to point out my limitations--and because I cannot be everything all the time for my Lo, he needs all these fathers in his life. Thank you to Jerry, Ye Ye, Grandpa Dean, and Grandpa Clark for being such good examples of fatherhood. Hope you have a great day and feel loved! And thanks to the fathers of past and future as well--we have such an eternal perspective of family ties in our faith, so it seems recognizing fatherhood today in a timeless sense is most appropriate.

gymnastics

2011-06-17T13:46:00.004-03:00

Okay, here's the video I was trying to upload earlier:

Lately Lo Lo seems to enjoy pushing the boundaries of his physical abilities. He frequently asks us to help him do somersaults, and on his own tries headstands/handstands. We have a video which I will have to post later since it is giving me error messages trying to upload right now...

Cleaning up, Clearing out

2011-06-12T17:49:00.003-03:00

We are moving next month and decided most of our household goods are not really worth taking along, since we will be packing and moving ourselves instead of having the company do it.

I put a bunch of stuff for sale on Craig's List. Even though it feels like a breath of fresh air to have more free space in our apartment, a lot of these items have sentimental value. Like our famous free couch, for example. We sold it a couple weeks ago for ten bucks. I know, I know, selling an item we got for free?? But it takes some time and trouble to get rid of an item, especially dealing with less than reliable buyers through Craigslist, so the few dollars we asked just covered our bases. And I felt truly sad to see the couch go.

When the items were being taken from our home, Lo Lo seemed really startled. He kept running back and forth, as though not sure if he should try to stop them or what. But finally he decided the best course of action would be helping move the couches out. Pictured above is Lo Lo helping move out our ugly red/gold loveseat cushions we got in our student days at BYU. I wasn't quite as sad to see this item of furniture depart. But still, it holds so much memory! Ah, passage of time. Moving on.

Coin Dropping

2011-06-09T22:10:00.003-03:00

Our apartment complex playground has a platform with holes. Here is Lo's recipe for fun: drop a coin through a hole. Then, climb backwards down the jungle gym stairs to sift through the bark/dirt surface below; finally ask Mommy to find dropped coin. Repeat multiple times. Oh, and holler "Dime! Dime!" repeatedly throughout process.

milkteeth

2011-06-03T07:41:00.007-03:00

In that last post, I mentioned not having much drama with Lo's molars starting to come in. Well, a few days and at least 8 molars later, I would like to officially revise that statement: he is being bothered by teething. He still has lots of happy times each day, but expresses an overall mood of being needy. He seems to seek nursing for comfort, asking for "Nai Nai" almost as much as a newborn feeding schedule. And he hasn't slept through his nighttime nursings like normal, instead having a fitful cry or sometimes even full-fledged waking that needs my help to get him back to sleep.

I feel grateful to still have breastfeeding as a comfort tool during this time. I know it soothes Lo's physical pain to have my good warm milk washing over his sore gums, and it calms both of us emotionally to have hugs and snuggling while breastfeeding. The first set of teeth on a person is sometimes referred to as the "milkteeth," with it being the natural biological time for continued breastfeeding.

I am just about done reading a book on nursing toddlers, and it has helped me feel validated during this phase when I sometimes have a feeling of being "weird" or "different" from everybody else because of breastfeeding a toddler. It isn't normal in our country to exclusively breastfeed even the recommended 6 months, let alone keep nursing past the time a kid starts walking and talking.

Here are some of the interesting points I've come across in my reading on nursing toddlers:

large mammals typically nurse until the young have nearly quadrupled their birth weight (Lo is still a few pounds away from that marker).

primates typically wean when their young achieve about 1/3 the adult weight, with males nursing a little longer than females (since males will have a larger adult weight).

many mammals nurse about as long as their gestation lasts, which would put humans at around 10 months expected nursing on that scale--except that large primates typically nurse more than six times the length of gestation.

eruption of first permanent molars is also predictive of weaning in some mammals. Humans get their first permanent teeth around age 5.

in cultures that are generally supportive of breastfeeding, nursing into toddlerhood is typical.

But I don't live in a culture that supports breastfeeding. Thus, unsurprisingly, breastfeeding is not the norm. We have 10 kids in nursery at church, and seven of them weaned by age six months or earlier. Actually, there is one of the children I'm unsure of in that number. Of the remaining three children who breastfed beyond their first year of life, one was weaned (mother-directed) before she turned two, and the other one has a younger sibling now so I assume he no longer breastfeeds though I haven't asked his mom. Anyway, it appears Lo is the only one in nursery who still breastfeeds. I don't document these details to make anyone feel guilty who weans earlier than the recommended time frames, but rather to point out that while Lo and I are socially outside the curve, we follow Nature's norm. And that is a comforting thought when breastfeeding gets challenging.

18 month photos and other related milestone news

2011-05-29T22:50:00.006-03:00

Yesterday while I served at a church event, Lo Lo had some fun one-on-one Daddy time. Among other activities, Jerry took Lo Lo to get 18 month photos during their time together. Mixing plaids, stripes, and every hue of blue. We'll take it. Lo loves wearing sunglasses, though he currently doesn't own a pair of his own. This beach scene is the free 8x10 collage we ordered which we can pick up in a couple weeks. We didn't actually purchase any photos...probably they are starting to roll their eyes every time we go to this Sears place since we get a lot of Lo's milestones covered through just using the coupons and not really buying much. Oh well.

This was another cute photo from yesterday that nonetheless BUGS me because we seem to be unable to catch his upper teeth. Seriously, we have ZERO photos of his upper front teeth, and I have only seen glimpses of them a handful of times in real life, like when he laughs hard and/or I am tipping him upside-down or am standing below him on the playground, etc.

On this particular smile, Lo was saying the word "keys!" because Jerry offered his keychain to try to get Lo to look at the camera. This kid LOVES keys, and has gotten pretty good at opening our mailbox lock and starting the ignition in the car. He pronounces keys "dees." Another funny word he just started saying is "cool." He pronounces it "dooOOL!" With lots of inflection. It cracks me up. These are the things he has called "cool" in the past couple days: potato salad, green salad, his new mini table/chairs set, and a lot more stuff I don't recall at the moment.

I forgot to mention this during his 18 month post, but Lo Lo only had 10 teeth total when he hit 18 months old; 6 on top (4 front plus 2 canines) and 4 front bottom teeth. Over the past couple weeks Lo Lo has gotten in several molars, so that is exciting. He had just one night of restless sleep that seemed to be disrupted by teething, but it has been otherwise a non-eventful process getting these molars. I'm interested to see if he eats more solids now that he has molars in his mouth.

mini bowling

2011-05-27T05:23:00.003-03:00

We have pretty much a lifetime supply of vinyl kicking around our house, so sometimes we get creative about how to use it. Using some of the yellow vinyl (wish we had wood grain color!) Jerry made a mini bowling alley for our Family Home Evening activity. These cute tiny bowling balls/pins were just $1, and we had a surprisingly hilarious, exciting time perfecting our skills. We each got a strike or two, and Jerry ended up winning by a couple points when scores were tallied from our three games.

Cleaning

2011-05-24T09:03:00.000-03:00

We helped get the outside of our church building all spruced up for the springtime a little while back. We had some cute little helping hands. Lo Lo picked dandelions again to give to the ladies.

He swept the sidewalk.

And raked the parking lot. Didn't you know a parking lot benefits from the occasional raking? :)

And he placed dry leaves (one at a time) into the trash barrel. We love our Lo.

Roads and Walking the Line

2011-05-17T13:30:00.004-03:00

I had been wanting to find an "external" educational philosophy that matched what Jerry and I already believe and practice with raising our Lo Lo. Though I had heard of Montessori before, it was only in brief snippets of info, and I did not fully realize how wonderful it was until just a few weeks ago when I began chatting with a Montessori teacher. Since then I have slowly been planning and implementing Montessori techniques at home, and hope to get Lo in a Montessori preschool before long. I plan to do a whole big ol' blog post on it soon, but for now, here is one of the Montessori ideas implemented in our home: walking on a line.

For some reason we don't have many good photos illustrating it, but here is Lo Lo on the road Jerry created out of vinyl. Yes, Lo Lo also has donned a pair of Jerry's running shorts around the neck. How else could one properly perform exercises unless thus attired.

And here is the totally not age-appropriate/not Montessori appropriate RC truck the boys have been enjoying on the road. LOL. I say "boys" plural because Jerry gets more playtime out of this truck than Lo.

When he saw the STOP sign, Lo said "Stop Stop Stop!"..."Go Go Go!" Along with the corresponding ASL signs. Smartypants. =)

Arbor Day

2011-05-14T06:49:00.006-03:00

I think it was Arbor Day a little while back, or at least some sort of observance that caused our local arboretum to have free admission. So we headed there for an afternoon jaunt. It sort of melts my heart when Lo Lo sits down on little ledges, curbs, etc. because it just reminds me how short his legs are. And I think I will miss it when he someday is tall enough to lower himself naturally onto a bench instead of clambering up there with such cute awkwardness. Jerry is severely allergic to Maple tree pollen and most varieties of grass, so perhaps an arboretum wasn't the best place for him to visit. He kept rubbing and holding his nose because it was bothering him with the allergies, and then we noticed Lo Lo was copying:

Isn't this such a lovely scenic place. We wanted a family photo on this bench (below). But there were no people around to take a shot of the three of us. So here is Jerry's initial photo of Lo and me:

...and here is the shot of Jerry using the timer:

Okay, round two went a little better. :)

And in case you were wondering what red colored object Lo Lo has in his hands for those previous couple photos, here is a closeup of his watermelon popsicle. It was made of 100% fruit, and tasted a little odd to me. Frozen watermelon has a strange texture I suppose, and I am looking forward to those days of summer--coming soon!--when the grocers produce section starts overflowing with juicy fresh watermelons.

I suppose since it is an arboretum, we should get a shot of a tree or two. Here is a tree big enough to eat Lo in one bite:

But the favorite pastime of the day had to be picking dandelions. Lo Lo thinks they are glorious floral finds, and delights in doling them out to all the ladies in our neighborhood.

Here he is doing the ASL sign for "flower" as he holds his dandelion:

And I thought his shirt was fitting for the day's journey through the gardens. The shirt says "Exploring Adventure" and is a top Lo Lo picked out all for himself. I've started to let him choose the shirts he wears each day by giving him an option of two different shirts. Usually he grabs for whichever t-shirt has a car or truck printed on it.

The video shows Lo Lo as he noticed a dead fish in the pond. He says "mu mu" which is his lazy way to say the "blub blub" noise of a bubbling fish sound we taught him. Also toward the end of the clip he makes a "buzzing" noise of a bumble bee which is pretty funny.

Pao Bu Shorts

2011-05-10T15:13:00.002-03:00

This morning, Lo Lo dug into the laundry basket and found Jerry's running shorts. Yelling, "pao bu, pao bu, Daddy pao bu!" Lo kept trying to wear the shorts. Finally Jerry helped him put them on: And the happy kid ran through the hallway.

He was super proud of himself.

Let's go fly a kite!

2011-05-09T09:18:00.010-03:00

First, a side note that we had a nice mother's day yesterday. I started the day by doing a scripture study on motherhood, and ended up being really touched when I read yet again The Family: A Proclamation to the World. Our ward was thoughtful and gave something besides wilting pansies to all the women; they gave us a luncheon and opportunity to chat with each other for the last half hour of Relief Society. Jerry, Liam and I made cards for the mothers/grandmothers in our family but didn't get them sent out in time to arrive by Mother's Day...a phone card yet again saved the day. I guess that'[s what my mom is getting. We are still trying to get our webcam up and running again. We had some neighbors over for dinner yesterday too, which was fun.

Anyway, the springtime weather has brought some strong winds, so a week or two ago we headed down to the beach to fly our kite. Driftwood logs--this one was huge and had such a big hollowed-out middle Lo Lo could have crawled through it if we let him (but we didn't let him...too many creepy critters inside).

Lo Lo's Chinese name written out in the sand. See it?

Shaggy hair. We gave him a hair cut right after these shots were taken. We'll have to post the new 'do soon.

Here is Lo's reaction when we first began flying the kite. He kept saying "Woah!" or "Yeah!" and seemed to love the way the wind whipped the kite all around. Then when some beach cleaning machinery drove by, he lost all interest in the kite in order to watch the "che che" (Chinese word for cars).

Drawing in the sand, and getting sand out of Lo Lo's eyes.

18 Months

2011-05-03T13:47:00.014-03:00

Okay, even though I've felt like he has been 18 months for awhile now, now he is that age "officially," so here are my thoughts on our toddler at 18 months. He's a happy kid most of the time! The photo below was from his 18-month doctor's appointment.We let him run around the hallway in this getup while waiting for the doctor to make his rounds. lol.: Lo Lo is growing in abilities every day. He regularly talks in sentences ("Daddy Pao Bu," or "No No No Mommy, More!" for example when I put away the candy ...hooray, "No" is a favorite word). He can walk up and down stairs if he is holding my hand. He tosses a ball every way imaginable and catches it, which we have got to get on film because I know y'all don't believe me. =) He naps a good 2 hours or so in the middle of the day. I'm not sure what else to say, because he has had such an explosion of changes in the past few months, it is overwhelming to take stock of it all and try to summarize. I suppose I'll give a few of his favorite things...

Favorite toys: Little People sets (he has started doing pretend play pretty regularly and now loves the Little People sets Aunt Jennifer gave us last year); shape sorter (he does this one all by himself finally); Mommy's keys (he hasn't lost them yet, knock on wood); magnets; and coins. The latter three objects Lo Lo enjoys putting into slots, like he shoves magnets through the slatted furnace room door, puts coins down the cracks of his basketball hoop base (losing them forever), etc. Are we tempting fate that he might one day choke on a coin? Perhaps. But he really doesn't seem to be one of those "mouthy" kids, so maybe that's why I feel relaxed about it.

Favorite thing to do: help with chores. Seriously, if I don't let him have his own garbage bag to drag out to the dumpster when I take out the trash, he protests vehemently. He also likes to "help" crack eggs into the pan each morning (again, I cater to him).

Favorite words: Woah! or Wow; Mut Mut (sock in Cantonese); and Dime (he calls all coins dimes and frequently throughout the day asks me to give him a "Dime? Dime? Dime?" to play with). He still signs a lot too, picking up new signs every day when we watch the Signing Time DVD.

Favorite person: Daddy. Even though I'm in nursery with Lo Lo, he spends a good portion of each Sunday knocking on the nursery room door asking to leave so we can go find Daddy. Lo still loves me of course too, and sometimes cries pretty sad if I leave to go somewhere which I don't do often.

Favorite foods: breastmilk (he still nurses a lot); regular milk from the fridge (he uses the same word for it as when he wants to nurse--"Nai" which is the Chinese word for "milk"); crackers; cheese--esp. Sharp Cheddar or Cottage Cheese; any kind of fruit. Oh, and the photo below is a classic olives-on-the-fingers shot:

Favorite books: The Angry Moon, by William Sleator. I think he likes the moon's scary face? Anything with cars, trucks, etc. though we have a "big book of animals" Lo Lo likes to look at. He "reads" books to himself pretty often now, which is adorable. The interesting thing about reading is that I have found we do less of it since he has become more active in playing over the past few months. I need to stay conscientious about implementing at least a half hour of reading time into each day.

Least favorite things: his high chair (I think we are almost completely done with it...at mealtimes he just sits on his knees on a chair at the table with us now or on Mommy/Daddy's lap...we've got to get him his own little mini table and chair); spending a "long time" strapped in his stroller, carseat, a shopping cart etc. (20 mins. or so is his limit at which time he starts to get predictably restless).

Overall this age is the most fun part of parenting yet, but I do feel a need to revamp my daily routine with Lo. He has changed so much, and I can't keep up. I am starting to learn some Montessori principles to apply in our home, so hopefully that will help add structure and learning to our days.

I know the video picture quality isn't the best, but he yells a couple times "pao bu," which is precious for us to have recorded. It means "run" in Chinese which is another of Lo's favorite words.

Easter Part Two: Egg Hunts

2011-04-29T13:16:00.008-03:00

Last year we attended the temple on Easter weekend and the result was that Lo didn't participate in any cute egg hunt (he didn't know the difference anyway). But this year we made up for whatever last year lacked by attending three egg hunts in the weeks preceding Easter. At our church egg hunt, we began with a spiritual message, and it was precious-- the speaker knelt in front of all the kids and talked about how we search for the eggs, and then get rewarded with something sweet, just like how we can search for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and find the sweet reward of Eternal Life. The event organizers had requested all the kids sit down on the curb in the parking lot, but Jerry and I were sort of slow bringing Lo Lo over that direction. So by the time we got there, all the other kids were seated. I wasn't too concerned about getting Lo to sit down and listen to the message, and figured I would just let him stand by Jerry and me since the curb was about full of kids already anyway. But Lo had other plans! I could see his brain working as he stared at all the other children, and then he toddled over to the curb, picked out a section, and sat right down where he listened quietly. I felt proud of how he wanted to join the group and did so all on his own. He's really growing up before my eyes!

And he is making friends with the other kids in church. This little girl is just a few months older than Lo, and they tend to gravitate toward each other at nursery...Her mom takes the most beautiful photos, so many thanks to Priya for the huggy shot above and also the next two photos below:

Lo Lo's Easter basket is a "basket"ball. He LOVES it. While egg hunting, he wore the strap of the basket over his shoulder like a lady would don a purse.

This candy business is serious stuff. Lo Lo learned to say "candy" over Easter weekend. He pronounces it "nan-ee" though usually just uses the ASL sign for it, which is a pointer finger twisting on one cheek. It's pretty cute, except when he asks for candy All. Day. Long.
Yay, he opened another egg to find...yet more CANDY! He really understood what egg hunts were about from the first moment, I think because lately we have checked out a lot of books about Easter from the local library.
And here he is at egg hunt #2. It was our apartment complex hunt, and held indoors because of rain. Again, I was pleased to note how Lo Lo observed all the other children, and just joined them. I didn't even have to hold him back before the hunt started--he saw that the other kids were waiting to pick up eggs, so he just followed their examples. He was the littlest one there. Pretty cute. He found some eggs hidden inside a kleenex box. I think indoor hunts are more fun because there are more hiding places...outdoor hunts just tend to have eggs strewn all over the grass in plain sight, as seen below:

This egg hunt was put on by our local YMCA, and we met one of the other kids in Lo's gym swim class while we were there, so that was fun to see a familiar face.

While we waited in line to see the Easter Bunny, Lo Lo got so excited I could hardly hang onto him. Again, I think because of the library books we've been reading, he recognized the bunny as something great. He made his "bunny noise," which is sticking his front teeth out and nuffling or whatever you'd call that noise. :) And then finally it was his turn to sit on the bunny's lap...! He ran excitedly over to the rabbit, only to be picked up and held for a minute by the bunnie's assistant. Lo was a bit thrown off guard by that strange lady picking him up, so I didn't get a good smile of him on the bunny's lap. But really, he was happy to be there. Awesome.

At this egg hunt, I felt self-conscious about helping Lo Lo put eggs in his basket, so I just took some photos of him picking up the eggs. But at the end, I noticed all the other little toddlers must have had parents helping them, because their baskets were overflowing, while Lo had a more modest collection. haha.

We had a really fun Easter and look forward to years to come as Lo grows up and figures out even more the joys of holiday celebration. Life is good.

Easter Part One

2011-04-25T11:31:00.011-03:00

I do love a good holiday. Jerry got Good Friday off work even, so the long weekend was especially good with him around more. What is it about Easter Eggs that just gladden the heart? Plastic and hard boiled alike!

That Lo got to decorate eggs for the first time. I put him in his craft-project tee shirt, and Jerry had slapped protective vinyl over the carpet, so the mess stayed mostly contained...

On the ground there is a crushed hard-boiled egg. That Lo Lo kept getting so tempted to squeeze them in his fist while he was putting decorations on them. We also ate a fair amount of eggs during the project.

And even though I love the secular fun parts of Easter, our family is trying to make the holiday more Christ-centered overall. So we took this idea from a friend: in the week/days leading up to Easter Day, discuss the final week in Christ's mortal life. We did this with the Gospel Art picture kit we have at home. One of the pictures shows Christ riding the donkey into Jerusalem, and Lo Lo listened so intently as we told him the story. Then, all of a sudden he jumped up and ran to get his little deer that he rides on. After talking about the gospel pictures, we put them up sort of haphazardly on our dining room wall and that was pretty much the extent of our Easter decorations.

It actually really did help me to keep my thoughts on the Savior to see all those depictions of His life. We also used the picture wall for an activity with friends on Easter Day. We hosted an Easter dinner at our house yesterday, and after people had finished eating, we played a little game trying to put the pictures in chronological order. The meal was yummy, and we cooked our first ham. Sometimes it feels difficult to live far away from family when the holidays roll around, but getting together with a group of friends really brightens the mood, and we had a great Easter!

ps. also note in that photo above, I hung Easter Eggs from the chandelier. I know it isn't that creative or original of a decoration, but I was proud of it because Lo Lo cheered and commented on it quite a bit. Holidays are so much more fun now that we have a kid. :)

What I want in a pediatrician

2011-04-22T15:08:00.011-03:00

With the chaos of switching insurance and doctors for 2011, and somehow several mishaps getting his records faxed over, we ended up doing Lo's 15 month "well-baby visit" late. Then we did his 18 month checkup early (he hits 18 months next month), so I'll just report on both visits in this one post.

For his 15 month visit, we noticed our new doctor's office did things differently than the former one we'd been using. It made me realize how much I liked the old office, so we ended up going back there for the 18 month visit and we will stay there now even though only one doctor in the practice takes our insurance. Here is my list of pros and cons and why we are happy with our current pediatrician:

Original doctor office (the one we used for pretty much all Lo's visits over the first year of his life and who we decided to keep after temporarily leaving):

Treats Lo like a little celebrity. Since the office is a family practice office, they don't get a ton of babies in there and hence really appreciate it when an adorable kid comes in for a checkup. The nurses, front desk ladies, other patients in the waiting area, doctor, etc. all make cute smiles and chatting with our Lo. Which puts him (Jerry and me too) in a good mood.

Weigh him standing up on "the big boy scale." They have done it ever since his 9 month appointment I believe? Since he was old enough to stand anyway.

Weigh him in his diaper rather than nude. They have done it ever since he got big enough that a few ounces of diaper weight would obviously not affect the overall numbers (maybe since he hit 20 lbs or so?) .

Measure height and head while he is standing, again having done this ever since he appeared to be happier standing than laying down.

Have nurses who are happy to accommodate my wish to do vaccine shots while I hold and/or breastfeed my child.

While they are often running late in this office, the staff take time to listen and accommodate our questions, concerns, and requests which makes the wait worth it.

The doctor seemed intent on keeping our child happy, even encouraging a nervous Lo Lo to be playful through the procedures--for example, asking Lo Lo to hold the stethoscope on Mommy's chest, then let Lo Lo hold it on his own chest, etc.

Calm and respectful about Lo's slightly "off" vaccination schedule--have normal dialogue with me about my thoughts on the matter.

Lo ends up being happy/relaxed about 90% of the visit, and stressed about 10% of the visit (pretty much unhappy only during procedures like shots but recovers quickly).

Now then. The doctor's office we attempted to switch to (the one we ended up only using for Lo's 15 month visit):

Insisted Lo get weighed and head circumference checked all while he was laying down on the infant scale (He is a toddler, not an infant, thank you very much). He was NOT happy about being forced to lay down. Nor was I, because I had told them he could be weighed standing up and they responded, "No, we don't do it that way."

Insisted Lo get weighed completely nude (again, I asked if he could keep his diaper on because he was showing obvious signs of anxiety about getting undressed, but was told "we don't do weighing in diapers here.") Afterward, allowed Lo to put a diaper back on, but as I had left my diaper bag in the car, the nurse handed me a diaper which was two sizes too small because it was all they had available.

When the nurse found out Lo was one set behind on his vacs ( I had declined them in the first 2 months of Lo's life because I wasn't finished reading on the subject but then decided to pretty much just follow the recommended routine), she acted uptight about it, telling me I would need to bring him in for a special appointment just to get the additional make-up shots.

When she saw me holding Lo (nursing him) when it was time for his vaccination, she said firmly, "I won't do it that way." I told her all of his vaccinations had been given in the past while I was holding him, but she said they would need him to lay down on the table because "that's how we do it here"and she seemed really concerned he might move around. She even had a specific spot on the table where she wanted him to lay. To me it seems more likely he would thrash around being forced to lay on a table rather than while being held in his mother's arms, but apparently I don't know much. I asked the nurse to please get someone else who would do the vaccinations the way I prefer and she left the room, obviously annoyed. I stayed calm, but my heart was pounding. Most unpleasant. :(

The doctor came in a few minutes later (he asked, "Is there a problem?") and I explained how I had seen the research that shows both sucking and sugar (two elements of breastfeeding) can be significant for pain management/calming a child during procedures. The doctor said "Yeah, but..." and in our conversation I got the idea he only thought those studies were relevant pertaining to newborns in the NICU who were given binkies dipped in sugar water. When I told him "OK, I'll just go back to the office who does vacs our way," he responded that he was required to have me sign a waiver. The waiver was horrible--I felt like it was agreeing that I didn't care about my child, because the waiver said things like, "I agree that I am endangering my child's life." And in retrospect, I don't think I was required to sign any type of waiver anyway since I have refused vaccinations for Lo at four other occasions with four other pediatricians in the past, including the ones at the hospitals where he was birthed, in the NICU, and then the pedi we saw in Massachusetts and our first Ohio doc. and I don't recall them having me sign anything. I think because I wasn't outright refusing vaccinations at the time...just saying I needed some time about it? Anyway I think having me sign the waiver was meant to guilt me into accepting the vaccinations because it gives the doctor's office better percentages. But I guess that makes me sound a little conspiracy-theorist to say such a thing. Anyway...

The doctor did not attempt to make the visit enjoyable for Lo, instead forcing the baby through the procedures rather quickly and telling me, "at this age they just hate the doctor's office and there is nothing you can do about it."

On the plus side, this office had virtually no waiting time, and seemed awfully efficient and professional. A little TOO business-like for my taste, apparently.

Lo Lo was unhappy 90% of the time in this doctor's office, and content only about 10% of the time (most of the latter time period being in the waiting office before all the unpleasantness began).

So there it is. To sum it up, here's what I want in a pediatrician: treat us as the quirky individuals we are, and be humane whenever possible.

Oh, and in case anybody cares, that Lo's statistics are still off the charts (above 99%) for height and weight, and head circumference is above 90%. Nice to see his head catching up with the rest of him...Must be all that smartness he's been gaining lately. :) And his iron levels, which had been borderline low at his 12 month checkup, are now back up where we want to see them. I wondered since I still can't get him to eat iron-fortified cereal and breastmilk is the majority of his diet still. But apparently whatever we are doing is working fine.

100 Words

2011-04-20T15:00:00.008-03:00

Here is a video of Lo Lo signing "shoe" and doing his trademark scream of frustration. =) I have gotten to where I recognize that distinctive cry and even if I hear it from clear across the house, I know that Lo is trying to attempt something and feeling frustrated with the task. It makes me laugh, if mainly because I know he will stop using it when he is more able to use words to express himself. We're working on it!

I had sort of lost track of that Lo's words for a few months, and ended up having several scraps of paper, a post-it note, and a computer file all containing lists of the words he had learned. I wrote them down as I noticed him using them, and didn't include words he merely mimicked--instead I counted a word "learned" when Lo reproduced it in the appropriate context and I was sure he was aware of what he was saying.

A few days ago I added up all the different small lists we'd compiled, and felt pretty amazed! That Lo has learned to say a lot in the past couple months! And really, it only was a few months since he started to be a talker. It is common for kids raised bilingual to be a little slower to talk, but once they do start talking, to leap into a bigger vocabulary than monolinguists. Also, I'd resisted doing much ASL (baby signs) with him since I wanted to focus on Chinese. But once we checked out our first Baby Signing Time DVD from the library, all my resistance melted away. Because I saw how much that Lo LOVED doing baby signs, I just embraced it. And it has been good for his English speaking skills to have the signs reinforcing the words. I wish there was a Chinese equivalent. We really have limited Chinese language learning materials.

Anyway, here are the words he knows so far! Oh, and one more note on the Chinese words, he has started putting "ah" at the end of some words, so I consider that a Chinese-language thing. Anybody familiar with Chinese would understand. =) Oh, and also I should note that a few of his signs are pretty different from the ASL version--he made up his own and that's ok for now!

LoLo’s English Words:
1. Daddy
2. Mommy
3. Boob Boob (it is what it sounds like—haha; this is his first real word aside from Mommy/Daddy)
4. Water (wawa)
5. Doggy
6. Hot (hah-hah)
7. Ball
8. Hi
9. More
10. Ohm ( food )
11. Clock (tat)
12. Done
13. Bird
14. Peekaboo (boo)
15. Eye
16. On (He wants lights to turn on)
17. Pooping
18. Stop
19. Go
20. Tyson (“Dai Dai”- Ty Ty)
21. Claire (Dare)
22. No
23. Amen
24. Moon
25. Night Night
26. Beam (sunbeam, as in the song "Jesus Wants Me For a SunBEAM)
27. Egg
28. Uh-Oh
29. Ice
30. Knock knock
31. Book
32. Swish (ball in hoop)
33. Bee (bugs in general)
34. Deer (dee)
35. MuMu (bubble – sometimes pronounces it more correct, but usually MuMu)
36. Bib
37. Ball
38. Binky (bee)
39. DVD (D-D)
40. Spider
41. Glasses (Dai)
42. Please (peese)
43. Down
44. Bike
45. Bite
46. Peas
47. Dance
48. Boat (boh)
49. Bellybutton (bee bee)
50. Dip dip (“doot doot” dip food in a cup of water)
51. Jump (du with guttural stop)
52. Dinosaur (daradadaaahaha….)
53. Ow
54. Me
55. Juice (doo)
56. Banana (nana)
57. Yeah
58. Bum
59. Battery (ba-ee) (he loves to play with batteries...great)

LoLo’s Signs
1. Please
2. More
3. Food
4. All Done
5. Hi
6. Bye
7. I’m Afraid
8. Bib
9. Apple
10. Stop
11. Go
12. Spider
13. Shoe
14. Ball
15. Doll
16. Wash my hands
17. Coat
18. Baby
19. Be Nice
20. Down
21. Rain
22. Pray
23. Me
24. Signing (as in, the Baby Signing Time theme)
25. Time (same as above)
26. Cold
27. Balloon
28. Banana
29. Wind
30. Outside
31. Dirty

Lo’s Chinese
1. Bei Bei (Nose-Cantonese)
2. Pao Bu (Run)
3. Nai Nai (milk)
4. Deng Deng (light – Cantonese)
5. Mao (cat)
6. Mao Yi (ant-Cantonese)
7. Bao Bao (hug)
8. Mian (noodle)
9. Daddy-ah
10. Mommy-ah
11. Da Bo (play ball – Cantonese)

In addition to speaking these words, Lo Lo seems to understand most of what we say to him in English, Cantonese, or Mandarin. He can point to objects in a book or parts of the body in English and Chinese. It is so exciting. I really feel hope that he can be multilingual--it seems to be working so far, even though he is obviously really English-dominant.

April Fool Fun

2011-04-17T23:16:00.004-03:00

Ok, so it was a couple weeks ago, but I wanted to share what we did for April Fool's Day this year. I don't like pranks that are cruel in the slightest, but do try to set up at least one or two good-natured tricks to celebrate the fun of this holiday. I found a gummy worm that looked exactly like a real worm. After slitting a hole in the banana with a knife, I slid the worm inside and shuddered--even knowing the worm was fake, I don't know if I could have eaten the banana. I gave it to the ladies I visit-teach. Haha.

I made this tricky breakfast to greet Jerry on the morning of April 1st. I set up our grill and then put down on it these candy eggs and bacon. Yep--candy. The "eggs" are melted white chocolate with a yellow M&M in the middle, and the "bacon" is a fun-sized Snickers candy bar sliced length-wise. When I was making the M&M eggs, that Lo kept pointing at them saying "egg!" so I knew the trick was working already.

I have a few more ideas that I'd like to do for next year but if anybody else has ideas to share, please do--I will need to keep adding to my repertoire of tricks or they will start to get old!

Missing friends

2011-04-12T14:17:00.008-03:00

Lo Lo recently had his little friend Tyson move away. Which means Jerry and I had friends move away too (Tyson's parents). Tried to get a group shot at the last playgroup before the move--sorry for a few cut off heads). Here are the two little boys, Lo and Tyson, squishing together on a lap. (The Lap belongs to Chelsea who got her degree in early childhood education which apparently all little kids instinctively sense and love her for it). Chelsea and her husband and baby have been out of town so we are missing them too.

We babysat Tyson while his mom finished packing, and Jerry did a little filming. The video got longish, so don't feel like you need to watch it all unless you happen to be a doting grandparent, in which case knock yerself out. But my favorite is the part right in the middle when the two boys run into each other, bounce off each others' heads and crash on the ground. I laugh every time. (nobody was hurt...it's ok to laugh)...oops, I guess I uploaded a different video. Well, this one is the goodbye hug. That Lo is really huggy!

Gym & Swim

2011-04-11T00:02:00.001-03:00

Oh what do you do in the wintertime, when Ohio has no Spring?

Do you find a warm pool, and floaty noodle...

Is that what you do? So do I!

The local YMCA has a fun gym/swim group for parents and toddlers, and we enrolled with our friends Kristen and Claire. That Lo enjoyed himself more than the pictures show--a lot of times he wasn't very smiley at class because he was extremely focused or observant, but I could tell he was enthralled by all his peers and the activities.

Note he is still hanging onto that huge ball even while teeter-tottering.

And I wondered why he gets sick so often. Balls aren't just for bouncing--they make great teether toys. BTW, that Lo has a couple more new teeth on top that sprouted up over the past couple weeks. =D

I liked learning all the cute little rhymes and songs from our instructors. Hopefully I can keep doing them at home even when our course comes to an end.

After a few classes, that Lo got better at accepting the routine and structure of the activity.

He actually really does love the parachute type of activities (we do it in nursery at church as well)...I'm not sure why the somber face in this photo, unless maybe it was because we were trying to fold up the parachute to put it away and he felt sad about it.

Our two babies just held hands on their own as we walked through the parking lot.

Tee hee. Such cuteness I cannot even stand it! And yes, that is our children bundled so heavily just last week. But I think springtime might actually be here as of current posting time.

The Problem with Praise

2011-04-10T22:40:00.008-03:00

Sorry for the gap in posting...not sure why I lost my bloggy momentum there for a week or so, but hopefully I can get back into it--the grandparents have been clamoring for more photos of Lo!

First, a mention of General Conference. It took about a week to finish my first-time viewing of the speakers since I napped, took care of Lo Lo, etc. during some of the sessions and had to catch up. Every time we listen to conference, I come with a specific concern/question in mind. And EVERY time it gets answered. =)

I had been wondering about praise, and how to implement it in parenting. First, I'd read a few books that cautioned against the potential dangers of praise (Deci's Why We Do What We Do, and Kohn's Unconditional Parenting), and their arguments made sense when I considered my own experiences and education. Then, I read in my nursery manual that we should praise the children--but it didn't give much explanation of how/when. So I still wondered how to implement that counsel. I won't go into all the points here on this blog entry, but just say Jerry and I are trying to raise our Lo to do things for the right reasons, and hope he grows into an adult who feels joy in following his heart and freedom from worrying what others think of him. We want him to avoid doing things just to please others but still nurture in him a desire to please God of course. I felt unsure of how to guide our toddler's actions, because it can seem so effective in the short term to use rewards and punishments but the research indicates people generally perform less effectively over time when praised for a particular action. Furthermore, rewards can train children to act primarily for external and/or selfish motivations--forming a "what's in it for me" mentality. Ugh, I feel like I'm not explaining very well. I am really out of practice at academic writing.

Anyway, the talk by Elder Lynn G. Robbins turned out to be "the one" for me this conference. I liked how he pointed out parents should praise "being" more than "doing," like saying, "You really showed diligence when you worked on that homework assignment." Instead of saying, "Good job getting your homework done." And also he indicated it works best to complement character traits, i.e. "I'm happy you have such a willing heart to serve around the house," rather than "I'm happy you are cleaning up your toys." And of course, parents should teach and talk about Christlike attributes like patience, kindness, and charity in helping their children become like our Savior. In so doing, parents themselves learn to follow and become more like the Savior as well. A beautiful example of how the teacher often learns more than the student. I feel really grateful for the blessings I receive in parenting our sweet little Lo. I have the concrete help I'd been seeking--at least for the next little while. I love General Conference!

March, the Month of Misfortune and now happy to be Moving ON

2011-04-02T05:44:00.003-03:00

Welp, it's that time of the month where I reflect yet again on how the New Year Resolutions are going... And I have to just sum it up: March was not my favorite. We almost doubled our monthly spending on irregular expenses, like car repairs and doctor/dentist bills, had persistent winter weather and more sickness than I care to admit (seriously, why do I feel ashamed about getting sick? like I should have more life skills than to allow something like illness to strike me/my family?) I don't want to dwell on negatives or sound whiny, but feel compelled to give some sort of explanation to myself about why I fell off the bandwagon in a few key areas of my goals. Indexing: tried to happen but computer died followed by brand new laptop getting water dumped on it. Daily routine: fell apart as sickness after sickness graced our home (at one point, that Lo was so fed up with his stomach flu, he just reverted to subsisting on wholly breastmilk for about a week straight and I didn't realize when his diarrhea subsided because when he got over his sickness, his poops had already turned into that liquid newborn type poop) (tmi?); we did institute more social time by signing up for library story time and YMCA gym/swim but because of aforementioned sickness even getting out for that socializing was sporadic. Scripture study: was just ok...missed a few days and again blaming the persistent illnesses. No refined sugar at home...um, actually I cannot recall messing up too much on this one, though I did bring home a pack of Hershey bars when they were on sale (50 cents for 6 regular sized Hershey Bars?!) and Husby and me made chocolate covered strawberries with them. And shared with the neighbors so we didn't eat excessive amounts. Strength Training twice weekly: um, see above notes on sickness. Exercise didn't happen much. Attend Temple Quarterly: we made it!! YEAH!! It was a huge ordeal as usual, involving that poor Lo screaming in his carseat on the drive home for about a half hour straight. But it was a revelatory experience to spend time worshipping in the House of the Lord. Totally worth putting our baby through a day of compromised sleep routine. Daily talk from GC: did ok. Missed a few days, but still, this one is my favorite goal and it feels like a TREAT most times I pick up that conference Ensign. So maybe March wasn't so bad. But I'm still looking forward to getting on to a new month. Hooray for April. And hooray for General Conference which is TODAY and TOMORROW! Hope you all tune in.

New Pet!

2011-03-29T16:05:00.005-03:00

We are still apartment dwellers, so of course our first pet is pretty simple... We liked this fish bowl because it is more space efficient: it hangs on the wall above our dining room table (is it gross to try to eat while staring at a fish scuttling around above your head?) The name of our pretty rainbow betta: Yu Yu. Yeah, creative (it is the Chinese word for "fish.") Lo Lo calls him "mu mu" which is his sound for a fish, done by moving his lips in a fishy type of bubble blowing way.

Lo and I stare at the fish a hundred times a day, and he always begs to feed it by signing "food" then saying "mu mu" followed by frantic pointing at the fish food/fish/table that he wants to stand on.

The evening we brought home our fish, Lo Lo had a friend over and was SO ECSTATIC to show his friend the new addition to our home. Pretty cute. I have always been a big believer in pets and the joy they can add to a family.

Water water everywhere

2011-03-28T14:37:00.002-03:00

Sorry for lack of posting/no comment posting/minimal emailing lately. Joint effort of me and that Lo recently resulted in a bottle of water tipping onto our new laptop. So now I get to type on a remote keyboard/use a remote mouse. Awesome. I think about a week ago we had a warm day and that Lo went outside in his shorts. Lovely pasty Ohio winter legs seeing sun for the first time in months. And yes I know his socks look trendy. Lucky kid gets a mother who knows more about...well, anything else pretty much...compared to fashion. Anyway, that Lo really enjoyed watching the melting snow water run down the street drains.

And yes, the snow is probably now gone for reals. There are a few "parking lot mountains" remaining where the snow plows piled it up, but I'm hopeful the sunshine will do its job. This morning we went on a walk and it was still cold enough to make our mittened hands freeze, but that was just wind chill.

I feel like I talk about the weather a lot lately on this blog. Sorry if it is getting boring. There are better pics/videos to come, but they need to get uploaded and sorted. Stay tuned.

Crazy Weather

2011-03-24T16:13:00.003-03:00

It has not escaped my notice that the first day of Spring officially already happened a few days ago. However, today is frigid with whiteness on the earth, yesterday we had freezing rain and hail, and the photo above was taken less than 2 weeks ago. I'd say March in Northern Ohio is more Winter than Spring.

Maple Sugaring

2011-03-21T04:18:00.006-03:00

When I was in elementary school, I remember loving the books Miracle on Maple Hill and whichever Laura Ingalls Wilder edition that tells about the kids making maple candy by pouring fresh syrup into shapes on a pan of snow. It has been on my bucket list (pun just realized) ever since then to experience the thrill of maple sugaring for myself. And now our family is blessed to live in the ONLY region on earth to have the particular tree variety and weather that allows maple sugaring to happen. About a week ago we visited our local farmpark to see how the process works.

First, pound a hollow nail into the trunk of a maple tree (or a stand of maple trees, as the case may be as in the photo above). Then, drape a bucket over the nail. When the weather gets to that days have melting snow, but nights drop back below freezing again, then the sap will run.

It comes out of the tree as a clear, thin liquid. It looks just like water.

This liquid then gets boiled down to a thicker syrup. Pictured above is a "backyard" type of boiling process, but we also saw a larger, more industrial vat as well.

We got to ride the tracter-pulled wagon which that Lo loved. He smiled and waved to it as it pulled up.

It also happened to be a big quilt show that weekend, and this was our favorite one.

Don't the horses look just like that quilt? This horse-drawn wagon is the alternative to the tractor-pulled cart we were in. Lo seems to enjoy the tractors more than the horses. Which I do not understand myself, but whatever.

This was our last visit to the farmpark before our membership expired. Sad. But we will probably still go a few times in the upcoming year as a couple other families we know have memberships with guest passes. Let the mooching begin!

The horses in this video were pulling a load of freshly gathered sap.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T22:55:00.003-03:00

Sorry no cute green pictures to post, though I did make that Lo wear his army pants when we went on a walk today so he fit into the neighborhood of green-attired children out playing in the lovely springy sunshine.

We have tried to incorporate a little Irish into our lives this month, so I bought our favorite imported Irish butter (from grass-fed cows no less--and so expensive we've only had it one other time since we got married), and throughout the past couple weeks at various occasions we ate green jello, soda bread, and more potatos than usual...including a tasty Irish Cottage Pie baked today. Hooray for holidays.

Drive-by Shopping

2011-03-15T13:29:00.003-03:00

One of our local supermarkets has this car cart. Needless to say, Lo Lo enjoys driving his way through the isles. But MAN is that thing hard to steer. It is HUGE! Twice as long as a normal shopping cart. lol.

Of quaking countries and hearts

2011-03-12T04:25:00.007-04:00

After hearing of the Japan quake yesterday, and also due to my recent reading of the Afghan history-based novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, I found myself mourning the state of the earth. Then I did my daily reading of a General Conference talk. As I recently finished all the talks in the October 2010 General Conference, Jerry suggested I read the talks from conference a year ago. The one I read after feeling my heart go out to all the suffering in the world is President Boyd K. Packer's talk entitled "The Power of the Priesthood." This paragraph in it seemed to jump out at me:

We live in a day of “wars [and] rumors of wars, and earthquakes in divers places.” As prophesied, “the whole earth [is] in commotion” and “Satan is abroad in the land.” He seeks to destroy all that is good and righteous. He is Lucifer, who was cast out of the presence of God. Against all of that, we have very positive feelings about what lies ahead.

Positive feelings! Against all the suffering on earth? I felt instant warming of my heart that I did not have to feel down about the Japan quake, or Afghan tragedies, or any other aspect of life's challenges. God is fully aware of the suffering on earth, and yet He doesn't go around with his head hanging. Heavenly Father is joyful because He knows the end result is tears will be wiped from all faces.

I think it is also interesting that recently General Authorities visited the Pacific saints and those in Japan and Korea. To me, the timing of their visits and messages are evidence of their prophetic calling. I remember while I was serving as a full time missionary in Canada, Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of the United States. One man we tracted into said, "If you have prophets on the earth today, why didn't they warn the people about Hurricane Katrina?" Of course, the testimony I gave seemed not to have swayed that man to believe our message, since he was in a contentious mood...but I have since then thought a lot about how much preparation the prophets do give us, the entire world, for help to overcome any challenges that arise if we will only listen and apply their teachings.

We are now less than one month away from another worldwide General Conference, in which living prophets and apostles will speak the words God wants all people to hear. I hope everyone will begin now to prepare their ears and hearts for that conference and make it a priority to listen. I promise as you do, the turmoil of the world will have no power to take peace from your heart.

Friends and Germs

2011-03-09T03:21:00.004-04:00

I am feeling myself musing yet again on that parenting issue of how to deal with childhood illnesses. That Lo has a cough. I chose to keep him home from swim/gym yesterday. But am sort of thinking to go to playgroup tomorrow...and realizing now why some parents become casual about letting their sick children go out and about--because more often than not, children seem to have some sort of sickness and I am going crazy trying to decide what socializing to expose him to or not. We cannot stay quarantined for 100% of the times in question. I am starting to regard illness by degrees. Is he low-level sick? Extremely ill? etc. And his friends who are potential share-ers of disease: are they low level or highly contagious? And do I care if that Lo catches what they've got? aaaaah! I feel consternation yet again. This thing called parenting leaves me frequently humbled by how often I have to say "hmmm...I'm not sure what I think." I did a hypnobabies fear release session while falling asleep last night (Jerry actually loves that track and listens to it almost every night). I tried to release fears related to doing "the right thing" for parenting. I think it helped. Though obviously I still have insomnia, as evidenced by the fact that I am blogging this post in the middle of the night. But anyway I'm feeling more peaceful now. Because really that Lo is basically healthy, and we live in a part of the world with good access to medical care, and life has challenges like sickness and pain...but we can gain from experiences both good and bad. So I'll just try to go back to sleep now.

p.s. That photo above is a recent playdate Lo had with some neighbor boys. They have this little tent which Lo Lo loved so much, he kept going into their bedroom to sit in the tent all by himself. (the rest of us were playing in the living room). So we brought the tent out to the living room after that and Lo squished in it with the other two boys. All three of them stuffed their cheeks with snacks, huddled together in this tiniest tent, and it was a darling moment.

love life and "learing"

2011-03-05T15:11:00.001-04:00

I guess I'm about due for another blog post, but sorry I don't have any photos readily available since we are in the process of switching computers. (the old one started having major crashing/monitor dying problems).

Anyway, here's a quick write about some fun I had today. A little bit like a journal entry perhaps, but hope that's ok. Just sharing a joyful time. Lots of laughters. I am so blessed to be part of this most huge, important women's organization called Relief Society. We primarily exist to serve others, but have a lot of learning and fun times along the way. There was a retreat last night for Relief Society, and I had intended to just stay the evening and then sleep at my own house the rest of the night since Lo still nurses at night. But then I didn't go to the first part of the retreat at all. Friday had been one of those ultra-busy days that seemed never to end, and as the evening wore down and it grew near the time for me to leave to the retreat, I found myself telling Jerry, "I don't need to go tonight...I'll just make a showing in the morning." And the climate in our home suddenly felt so relieved and fun. I'm glad I stayed home for the evening.

Then, this morning I almost didn't even go to the retreat still. I felt awkward making such a late showing. But of course I was glad I kicked myself out the door; when I got there, my lack of makeup and undone hair totally fit in, and suddenly I found myself truly loving life. I learned to make a candy lei (something I've always wanted to learn how to make ever since I saw other kids wearing them at my high school graduation). And I probably won't explain it well, but here's one of the things we giggled about:

The hostess had strung a banner across her mantle that was supposed to say "love life and learning," only she accidentally left out an "n" so it said "learing." We were making eyes at one of the babies there, and the baby was acting shy, so someone said,"Well, who can blame her for being shy--we are leering at her, afterall." And we all cracked up. I'm sure it is one of those stories where ya had to be there to get the laugh out of it, but I still smile remembering.

This has been a rambling one, probably more the sort of post that would have gone into my personal journal except that I happened to be on the computer. Thanks for reading anyway. Just wanted to say I am loving life right now and hoping you all take a minute to find something to smile about on this lovely Saturday afternoon.

Goal Update

2011-03-01T13:32:00.002-04:00

I really like this new idea for me to do a public checkup on a regular (monthly) basis for my 2011 New Year's resolutions. I think it is helping me stay motivated whereas in years past my goals got forgotten more easily.

1. Daily Routine: not doing as much structure now as we did the first month or two. I think the different activities just started to get boring to me. Maybe we need some new ideas to try? We did start a gym/swim class per the suggestion by readers (thanks so much) and it is definitely a weekly highlight. I'm thinking of introducing an art time for each day, since we haven't yet tried playdough or a few other "crafty" things I think that Lo could handle.

2. Indexing: after that initial struggle in January, I was all set to ditch this goal in favor of other genealogical pursuits (such as scanning all the hard copy ancestral photos my mom has sitting around in shoe boxes and file cabinets). But then just a few days ago at church, our stake president requested we each make a goal to index half an hour per week. *sigh* So that's my new goal. Guess I'll have to figure out this indexing thang afterall.

3. Reading the New Testament: I am still enjoying it, though starting to think of using a study guide. Now that I'm through with Matthew and a good portion of Mark, it is starting to sound redundant. So study guide might help me keep a lively interest.

4. Daily Book of Mormon study: too often over the past month my only BoM study was the regular daily study with Jerry. I need a way to incorporate the BoM more into my personal study, rather than just random topic studies. Hmmm...

5. Spiritual Journal: going great. Missed just one day out of all of February.

6. Journal Weekly: yep. Did a few extra entries too.

7. Attend Temple quarterly: we tried to go in February, but Lo's ear infection kept us up all night the day before the stake bus trip we'd signed up for. We have scheduled a temple trip down into March--cross our fingers and pray it happens this time!

8. No refined sugar at home: ugh. I have such issues with this one. Sugar is just connected to the fun times too much. I made valentine cookies to hand out to some of our visiting/home teachees and church classes and neighbors, and of course I ended up eating my fair share of the cookie dough in the process. BUT I am doing better now having made this goal than I used to be a few months ago, so any progress is something to celebrate.

9. Daily talk from most recent GC: I still love this one, but missed a few days in February. I have noticed it makes me less likely to read the current issue of the Ensign, so maybe I'll try making Sundays be Ensign day, and the rest of the week be GC talk days.

10. Adding a goal to do strength exercises twice per week. At our latest wellness check, my numbers were good but the doctor said I could probably stand to increase my muscle tone. =) But Lo Lo SO enjoyed squishing my tummy fat. Now what will he do to entertain himself when my abs get hard?

15 months

2011-02-27T04:40:00.008-04:00

We are being slow to get that Lo's records transferred to his new pediatrician (ah the headache of changing healthcare providers), so he has yet to get a 15 month well-baby visit. But he'll be turning 16 months next week, so we wanted to document a few of the 15 month fun facts before they get too out of date. When he visited urgent care last week for his ear infection, he weighed in at 31 lbs, but that is the only stat I know for him right now. He still seems biggish for his age, though slimming down. One of the main changes I've noticed with this age is that our baby is more conscious of us trying to direct him and I often observe his desire to please us. I don't know a better way to explain. But here's a story to illustrate: Jerry wrapped this towl around our baby in a "Buddhist monk fashion," and the old Lo would have shaken off the towl in order to more easily gleefully run around nekked. But the New & Improved 15-month Lo seemed to understand that we were attempting to pose him and just went along with it.

Which is also a useful trait when we try to get professional photos. Here's one of his 15 month photos. For this milestone we just did the coupon cheapie kind of pics at Sears, but there were a few that turned out adorable enough. As the photo may suggest, that Lo still loves his basketball, and still uses his trademark word for it, "Dome." He knows how to speak about 30 words so far, (I was writing them all down but got behind so I'm not sure of the final count), though he often says a word for just a few days and then it seems he gets bored with it and moves on to practice another word or two, at a time etc. And he often still just communicates with emphatic babbling or facial expressions/gestures. He says a few words regularly in Chinese: "Nai Nai" for milk, "Deng Deng" for light (a flashlight is his favorite toy), and hmm...it seems like there were more but I'm not thinking of them at the moment. Rats. Wish I'd done better recording. Here is one of my favorites of his new English words: "Knock Knock." He says this phrase while rapping his knuckles on a book to make a knocking noise, and he pronounces it so clearly and cutely. We'll have to try to get it on camera, though I'm not hopeful since he is notorious for noticing and foiling our efforts when we are trying to catch him on film.

This month he became an official "stacker," and as the video shows, he doesn't just like stacking blocks; he was stacking his cups at mealtime. He has even tried stacking the shampoo bottles in the bathtub. Oh, and he is getting better and better at spooning food into his mouth independently. He still makes a mess most of the time, but I'm impressed by how much food actually makes it into his mouth.
He imitates us big time. Obviously Jerry and I have been exercising regularly ;) as evidenced by the way Lo knows how to use the treadmill from watching our efforts.

We sort of dropped off on doing baby signing, I suppose because I am trying to focus more on Chinese. But that Lo still uses the old signs quite a bit, especially "food," "more," "please," and "done." He also picks up signs all on his own, either just from watching his friends or from reading a library book. For instance, he started doing the sign for "bib" consistently after seeing that one once in a book, and it isn't a sign I would have ever cared to teach him just because it seems not very useful, but oh well. And he does the sign for "stars" a lot now after watching other kids do it at nursery while we sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." The cutest new baby sign he started doing this month is one to express "Where did it go?" He made up a game where he hides an object, then asks "Where did it go?" holding his hands palm up out to his sides--shrugging. Anyway, he makes this quizzical sound at the same time, and then abruptly produces with a flourish the "missing" object. He even uses this sign to ask where people are, like after Jerry leaves for work, Lo Lo asks me "where did he go?" with his sign and question noise.

He loves to pray, and folds his arms all by himself sometimes even before we ask. He knows the routine when we sit down to eat! It is amazing to see him grow and learn. What a joy to have this child in our home.

He also loves reading books. One day I decided to count the books we read. But I lost count around 17. Anyway, it was a lot. Somewhere around 40 total is my guess. We read All. Day. Long. It feels like I don't know what else to do with him sometimes, so we just read a book. Some recent favorite titles of that Lo: The Napping House, (he makes all kinds of cute noises, like fake screams as the people fly through the air as he points out various details in the illustrations) and The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear. He gets so delighted about this one, laughing out loud at the mouse's scared face.

Since starting to attend Nursery, that Lo has gotten really into finger plays. He does the actions to "Itsby bitsy (eensy weensy?) Spider" and also really enjoys "Along Comes the Crocodile/No More Monkeys Swinging in the Tree" song/actions.

Another thing Lo Lo enjoys: undressing himself. He pulls off his socks as fast as I can put them on, and has even removed his pants and/or diaper on occasion.

He also identifies body parts. When asked to find his tou fa (hair) he grabs his hair and holds it up. When asked to find his bi ze (nose) he grabs MY nose. And he says the word "eye" while poking himself in the eye. Also knows du qi (belly button). Probably there are a few more I should be listing; he really seems to understand most of what we say to him in both English and Chinese. But this post is getting long enough, so I'll quit now...

Anyway, to sum it up, 15 months is a fun age. Looking forward to more fun times to come. =)

Comfort

2011-02-22T06:04:00.008-04:00

Over the weekend, that Lo had his first ear infection. I am so thankful Jerry had a holiday Monday and was thus more available to provide support through the nights preceding. The antibiotics appear to be doing their job, and last night went a lot better than the previous few. We probably should have gone to the doctor sooner, but I've had too many instances of them just saying either "nope, he is fine," or "well it is just a viral thing, so we can't do anything," that's what I half expected them to say this time around I guess.

Anyway, seeing Lo so miserable gave me flashbacks to when he was born. He was diagnosed with some type of infection (they never did conclude exactly what was wrong) and we all ended up staying in the NICU for his first week of life. Since I was rather overwhelmed at the time, I didn't journal much. I'd like to take the opportunity now to record a memory or two from that week that has resurfaced with the health issues of the past few days.

I remember in the NICU: one day I sat in our little hospital storage unit/bedroom breastfeeding that Lo. A nurse came in busily organizing some supplies, or cleaning or something. We chatted. In the course of our conversation, the nurse told me, "He's been breastfeeding really long on that side; he is just using you for comfort now." In my sleep deprived state of mind I heard this advice. The nurse stood before me in her uniform, a symbol of medical authority. And I sat hunched before her in my pathetic, unshowered, sweatpants-wearing state. I nodded and said "thanks." And continued to breastfeed. At the moment, I acted purely on instinct, having no presence of mind to think rationally about what might be "correct." Since then, I have evaluated my actions.

Here are my thoughts: My newborn had an IV line in his head. He had to give several vials of blood for some [unnecessary, I now realize] thyroid tests. He had been woken from naps by the malfunctioning beepings of hypersensitive monitoring machines. If he was "just using me for comfort," he was more than welcome to it! What else is a mother for, at her child's most difficult times, than to give comfort? It reminds me of something I heard once about a pacifier (binky) doing the mother's job rather than the other way around. Not that I'm anti-binkies, btw. I just think it is an interesting concept to ponder.

As we were at the doctor's office yesterday, I was a bit saddened to see that Lo is not as able to use breastfeeding for comfort now that he is growing older. He wailed when the nurse held his hand in the pulse oximeter, and even though I tried to distract him with a breast in his face, his toddler-levels of awareness just couldn't get past the fact that he was frightened of his surroundings, and what the strangers might do to him. He still received comfort in my arms, and in Jerry's soothing voice and hugs as well. But the breastfeeding comfort just wasn't as powerful as it used to be. Even though weaning is likely months away, I can tell we are transitioning to new stages in the breastfeeding journey.

Another memory from the NICU: A nurse was shuffling some supplies underneath that Lo's bassinet. I lay on the cot next to them. The nurse turned to me and said, "He is a bright little boy!" I asked her what she meant, and she described how his black shining newborn eyes had watched her. "They normally aren't that aware of people at this age, but he moved his eyes to see me." I glowed with that irrational pride that only a new parent knows. Yes, he is a bright, wonderful child. We love our little Lo. It was such a relief last night to see him getting back to normal. We have missed his energy and antics.

Warm Winter Walks

2011-02-19T14:57:00.002-04:00

This past week has warmed up some. There is still some snow of course (it probably won't fully disappear until April or so), and that Lo still gets plenty bundled before we head out, but it is not so cold anymore that we get frozen eyelashes and nose tips within minutes of being outdoors, so that's a plus. That Lo likes to play with the neighbors' yard ornaments. Hope they don't mind.

I like how the snowbanks on either side of the sidewalk make a bumper/wall of sorts, so that Lo cannot run anywhere but on the sidewalk. Helps me keep an eye on him. And once when we went walking, we brought a ball to kick along the sidewalk. The "snow bumpers" kept the ball from getting kicked too far out of range.

Christmas decorations up in mid-February? Sure! Our neighbors across the street still have a lighted Christmas tree up on their porch too. I noticed this phenomenon in Canada as well; in climates where snow persists for months after Christmas, people tend to keep their lights and holiday decor up longer--I suppose because we all need something to cheer us up amid all the whiteness.

Nursery

2011-02-18T12:43:00.005-04:00

Here is a video of that Lo playing in the hall at church last Sunday. Lucky Jerry got to take care of that Lo all three hours while I escaped to nursery. And maybe we should have just kept Lo home from church, as you may be thinking after reading this post. I guess it was one of those borderline cases...

One of my first callings (responsibilities) at church was to be a nursery leader. I felt at first as though I'd become doomed to spend every Sunday babysitting a handful of rugrats while all the other grown people at church got to enjoy uplifting classes and learn wonderful gospel knowlege. After a couple weeks I came crying to my mom about my sad situation. And she completely helped me have an attitude adjustment. Good ol moms.

She helped me come up with some goals and a schedule to give structure and meaning to each day at nursery. The goals were simple:

Each child would love coming to church (and look forward to nursery instead of crying when their parents dropped them off).

The children and me would feel the Spirit of God through a meaningful lesson each week.

There were a few sub-goals that helped achieve these ends, but overall we just kept a simple routine in the classroom, having some freeplay, snacks, music, lesson, activity, and story time. I ended up developing a deep love for those toddlers in nursery, and they truly did blossom while I served them. My testimony of the importance of nursery grew even more when I attended a stake leadership meeting where the speaker talked about how readily young children learn of Christ, but how easy it is for them to fall away during their teen years if they have not already learned to have a testimony of their own by then. It became my personal mission to help each of my nursery kids get their own testimonies of the reality of Jesus Christ and His power in their lives. I have an (appropriate) sort of pride when I think back on magnifying that calling.

When my Lo became an avid walker at 9 months of age, I soon found myself thinking, "this kid is too old for sitting through my 'grown up' classes each Sunday." And waiting until he was 18 months old to send him to nursery seemed an impossible eternity away. During the last General Conference, I prayerfully listened for inspiration on what to do to help Lo Lo have more meaningful times at church. It wasn't just me wanting to get more out of my own classes; I wanted HIM to get more out of church than just a feeling of frustration that he had to have three straight hours of quiet stationary play. I wanted him to have those same goals that I'd developed for my nursery kids a few years back: a love of church, and feeling the Holy Spirit at church.

During General Conference, I had the inspiration to order the most current nursery manual for myself. I decided that I would begin studying it and see what I could do to implement some of the ideas in it for our church times. But God had something better in store...He asked me to work in the nursery! And I get to bring that Lo! Even though my sweet baby has a few months to go before he is technically "nursery aged," he has benefited a lot from getting to come to nursery each Sunday. And I have been having honestly the most fun ever serving in this calling. I love preparing the lessons and practicing on that Lo during the week, and reviewing with him after Sunday has passed. I love getting to know the other kids and parents, and truly I do feel the Holy Spirit each Sunday at church.

I tried to edit out one of the faces because I wasn't sure how that girl's parents felt about her photo being online. The other kids all appear on their family public blogs using real names & places, so I am hoping it is ok to post. By the way, this isn't even our whole nursery. If everybody attends, there are eight kids, and in another few months, we'll have one more graduating into the 18 mo. or older club, so that will make nine! Keeps us on our toes sometimes, but they are all really sweet kids. =)

Last Sunday, that Lo had diarrhea right before we went to church. The nursery rule is that kids should stay out if they have any type of illness symptoms, unless the parents are certain the symptoms are due to allergies or teething, etc. I wasn't sure if Lo's diarrhea was due to teething, since he had been drooling/chomping his hand a lot lately. But to be safe, I had Jerry take that Lo during church while I stayed in nursery. When they found out why I had not allowed Lo to come to nursery that day, a couple of the parents of other nursery kids said, "Oh, we never pay much attention to those rules." I was horrified. I said awkwardly, "well, I do hope you'll try." But wow, now I feel nervous about Lo Lo coming to nursery. It is sort of the germiest place in the church, come to think of it. We wash the kids' hands before they eat, and sanitize their table, but cannot possibly police all the toys that go in mouths, etc.

So here is my plea to parents everywhere: do NOT bring your sick child to nursery. As difficult as it may be to take a toddler to an adult class, or hang out with your kid in the hallway while everybody else in the church gets to learn great stuff, just do what you need to do to be a good citizen. And consider getting yourself a copy of the nursery manual, so maybe you could do a lesson or two with your child on your own while they are sick home from nursery. I promise you will BOTH feel the Spirit of God and be edified.

Valentine Report

2011-02-15T06:05:00.006-04:00

We had a special Valentine's Day even while keeping a modest budget! The Saturday before Valentine's Day, we went to a fundraiser dinner for the Young Men/Young Women's camp fund, and enjoyed sitting at a table filled with friends. Great entertainment from our server for the evening, though I'm sure most of the time it was unintentional entertainment on his part. lol. The church provided a nursery, and I was happy to see that Lo settled right down to play. He seemed to recognize the nursery room since he has been going there for a few weeks now with me. Jerry and I had talked earlier about how we would need to leave the dinner by 7pm so we could get that Lo home for bed, but then the dinner was served a bit late, and we ended up staying until 7:40 at which time the nursery leader had to come get us because that Lo started to have a meltdown from being overtired. Rats. I hate to compromise his sleep. Holidays and travel are the two tempting times to push our baby beyond his usual schedule...but he was happy enough on the car ride home when we shared our cheesecake with him.

For his Valentine shirt, I tried to make a cute craft one using vinyl, bleach, and a red t-shirt. It was going to be awesome. But then it wasn't that awesome afterall. So here is the shirt he wore for Valentine's Day: "We steal heart not money." Chinglish; gotta love it. (we bought this shirt in HK).

On actual Valentine's Day, Jerry ended up feeling sick in the morningtime, so he came home to work from home for the day--but as soon as he got home, he felt just fine! Seriously, he wasn't faking it. But it worked out well for us, and it was nice spending extra time with him. We didn't spend much on gifts--chocolates, a balloon, and homemade cards and decorations.

In my home growing up, I remember feeling really excited to drag out the decorations each time a holiday rolled around. We did not have exorbitant amounts of decor for any one holiday, but for most of the major holidays we had some memorable favorites--the same decorations that appeared year after year. For instance, at Halloween there were stuffed pumpkins, plush and adorable with black button eyes, and equally squeezable stuffed rabbits at Easter. These stuffed bunnies were made out of white ribbed stockings, I believe, and sat in a basket lined with yucky fake moss material. I don't recall any Valentine decorations that made a regular appearance, but my mom was always good about putting our Elementary school artwork projects up on the kitchen bulletin board. And I was the kind of kid who spent hours upon hours getting my Valentines ready to pass out at school, even choosing thoughtfully the particular conversation hearts each individual friend would receive. So when Jerry and I got married, he started to see this worrisome trend of me wanting to go all out on holiday decorations. Since we were still students with limited budget, and limited space, he asked me to try to hold off on acquiring holiday "junk" until we have a home of our own. I admire his minimalist attitude, and I readily agreed to these terms--for the most part. But I still found ways to compromise, since we need to enjoy a little holiday festivities even while still in our apartment-dwelling newlywed days. So, to explain a bit about our smallish Valentine decor, I'll start with the photo shown above. It is a dollar store plastic box. Jerry got it for me last year as part of a group date scavenger hunt. Jerry knows I like containers. But I mulled over throwing it away (gasp!) because it sat around our house for a whole year and I realized I still wasn't sure what to use it for. But then I decided to institute a new Valentine tradition for us Tams. The love box now has pink notebook paper inside it, as well as a few heart-shaped stickers and a pen. We can have ready access to this box for writing love notes in the weeks preceding Valentine's Day! I set the box on our kitchen counter and sure enough, it encouraged me to write a few love notes to my sweetheart during the lead-up to Valentine's Day. Jerry didn't catch on to this tradition yet, but I'm sure over the years he and our kids will all share my vision. ;)

Next in our space-efficient decoration lineup: the True Love banner. It folds down into a flat little bundle when storage time comes, so Jerry has allowed it. :) My friend Nicole made this for me. Adorable; it makes me think of a box of chocolates. I also redid our mantle to contain photos from our wedding, the temple we were sealed in, and a picture of us in Hong Kong during a sort of wedding celebratory meal to fit more with the Valentine theme.

Heart Wreath; the only reason this decoration is space efficient is because I am using it for multiple holidays. My grandparents had sent money for Christmas (thanks again!) and we used some of it to purchase a collection of Christmas tree ornament bulbs at the after-Christmas sales. I strung a few dozen of these ornaments--the more Valentinesy colors of course--on a wire hanger that I had shaped into a heart. My instructions are never that easy to follow, so just google a tutorial for this project if you like the looks of it. I didn't glue my bulbs, so I might just un-string them to reuse someday on a Christmas tree.

And that Lo really likes playing with the remainder. They are the shatterproof kind of ornament, and we've really put them to the test as Lo Lo throws them down the stairs, steps on them, bites them, etc. He truly believes they are his toys, his wonderful bunch of colorful balls. So these Christmas decorations may never get put away.

p.s. one more Valentine tradition I have started doing is reading a book on strengthening marriage. This year's book is called Your Man is Wonderful, by Noelle C. Nelson. I remember learning about some type of therapy in my therapy theories class that teaches "the miracle you want to have happen is already in the process of happening," and this book reminds me of that principle. It is really positive and a good read, and though I haven't finished it yet, I'd recommend it.

Year of the Rabbit

2011-02-09T05:04:00.004-04:00

Happy Chinese New Year...last week. I wanted to upload a photo or two before posting about this holiday, so finally here we go.

First, a few musings on Chinese holidays. When I was a kid, I remember looking enviously at my peers who came from multicultural homes. There was my friend Graciela whose family all spoke Spanish at home, and then there were the Kurdish refugees in our junior high school (I had a crush on one dashing Kurd boy for awhile)...And that's about as multicultural as my life got, for I grew up in the rather WASPish state of Idaho.

But now I get the joys (and sometimes consternation) of having my own multi-cultural family. I am starting to realize that marrying a Chinese man makes not just our children Asian-American, but all of us get to be "Asian American" in some aspects. Parts of both cultures touch our everyday lives, from the ordinary to the holidays.

Enter Chinese New Year. It follows a lunar calendar, so the date changes on our western calendar each year. There are twelve animals on the Chinese Zodiac, and as tradition goes, each has its strengths and weaknesses. I was born in year of the boar; Jerry, year of the monkey; LoLo, year of the ox. And guess who is having a little Rabbit baby...! No, not Jerry & me. ;) My sister Jessica and her husby Matthew are expecting a baby around the end of July. We are so excited that Lo will have a cousin!

Aren't they a beautiful couple. I've been pondering what their baby will look like: blue eyes are a must, and probably a light brown hair that looks reddish in the sunshine. I'm sure their kid will have a cheery disposition, because both my sister and her husby have inately happy, fun loving personalities. And the Chinese would say a rabbit symbolizes calmness, peace, and harmony. So I predict they will be blessed to have a really easy baby, and this child will be the peacemaker in their home. I'm not really superstitious, but think a little positive thinking never hurts. =)

And what characteristics does our Lo have, being an Ox? The main traits are strength and determination--seems to fit our big boy so far. He was so determined to hold the camera while I tried to get a shot of him posing with his red pocket, that finally I just let him hold the camera while I took the photo. So it ended up being a photo of his foot with the red pocket.

Red Pockets are a fun part of the New Year celebration. People give them to children to symbolize good luck, and the envelopes contain money. We delivered some to the children in our neighborhood. It is cute to see how Jerry gets really excited about this and other Chinese traditions, since he has a lot of childhood memories associated with them--sort of how I feel excited about Santa Claus or the Easter bunny visiting because of how it brings me back to my youth.

I remember in my adolescent development class learning how the highest achieving, most well-adjusted kids were those who identified themselves as bi-cultural as opposed to those who only connect with the mainstream culture, or on the other hand, those who primarily associate themselves with a minority culture. I realize now that even though I grew up simply "American," my parents made an effort to connect us kids to our ethnic background of English/Scottish ancestry. We learned about our heritage and it felt like a strength to know we had unique traditions and cultures in our past generations. Also, Mormonism is considered a significant subculture in the United States, so any observant Mormon families can consider themselves bicultural, in my opinion. I am happy our Lo will grow up having the benefits of multiple worldviews.

Smorgasbord

2011-02-07T05:51:00.003-04:00

I've been feeling like I had too many random photos that I just wasn't getting around to blogging, so here are a handful just thrown in all at once. Just so I can feel like I've checked something off the list.

Painting. This is one of the fine-motor skills we've done lately, and Lo seems to enjoy it (though we probably need to work on the way he grabs the paint brush). It is one of those magic books that has colors appear when plain water is brushed on it. So we have no mess, but plenty of fun. =)

Sometimes I get bored of making the same menu items for our family all the time. For dinner, we often have foods like curry, fried rice, stir fry, homemade pizza, spaghetti, or some type of crock pot soup or roast. But one night I decided to break from routine and we ate a dinner of appetizers. Pictured above: cheddar/chives/sour cream potato skins; pecan ham pineapple cream cheese tortilla squares (yeah, I just made than one up, but it tastes wonderful); deviled eggs; lettuce wraps (we didn't have the right kind of lettuce handy, but they worked alright); peppered cheese tomato slices. It felt festive and interesting to do this type of "appetizer meal" for a change.

I will probably have to stop doing bum shots entirely once Lo gets a bit older (how old is too old? NieNie still does it for her boys!) Anyway, I think we had just gotten him out of the bath and he ran down the hall to shoot a few hoops before bedtime. He seems so skinny to me these days. Seriously, when I compare bum shots to what he was a few months ago, the difference is striking. Not sure what he weighs--I should be having his 15 month well-baby doctor's visit stats soon to post.

We have had a lot of snow here lately. This is the view from our window a few days ago. That Lo likes to look out the window and cheer for the snow plows and children trudging home from school each afternoon.

One of the couch cushion towers Lo Lo climbed in our living room. He loves this past-time more than any other, I think. He often tries to drag the cushions off the couches all by himself (which he cannot yet do, thank goodness). Oh dear what have I taught him. That's the webcam in the bottom of the photo.

Lo hugging the camera. He really does love his grandparents, though he doesn't get to see them often.

Life is very good. I will try to post more, but it is about priority number 15 on my daily to-do list most days, so we shall see.

Goal Checkup

2011-02-02T15:12:00.003-04:00

Here are a few thoughts on how my goals have gone, now that we are a month into the new year.

1. That Lo and me are doing okay with our routine. Observe smiley kid in photo above, having plenty of fort-building playtime. But we need more socializing. Once a week playgroup isn't cutting it. Especially when Lo naps long (like today) and we end up missing playgroup (which is happening this very minute...boo).

2. I indexed 50 names so far, but that is only according to the counter device on the computer. Actually, I think I only indexed 1o names. And then had a bunch of blank spots. I am feeling a lot of worry about this indexing game, sort of like I might be making a ton of mistakes without realizing it. I have only the faintest idea how to index, even after taking the online tutorial. Lost, lost, lost. Scared, scared, scared. Where is the Spirit of Elijah when I need it.

3. Reading the New Testament is a delight. I had forgotten how much I love these first-hand accounts of the Savior's walk through mortal life. Beautiful. After getting a calling in the nursery a few weeks ago (hooray!) I ditched the Sunday School schedule, so now I have been reading a chapter of the New Testament each day, just going straight through. Currently on Matthew ch. 16. I read it online because the lds.org site helps me look up more of the footnotes and they have been adding a lot to my study.

4. Daily Book of Mormon study is happening, though some days it has only been a short few verses with that Lo. On my better days, I've used this scripture study time to do topic studies on whatever I feel needs work in my life.

5. Record daily entry in spiritual journal. Yes! This one has been going so much better than last year, and it really does add to my scripture study to look for personal revelation to put in the journal. I've done entries 25 days so far this year...not perfect, but doing fine.

6. Journal weekly: I've averaged at least an entry per week, but one time during the past month went 9 days without writing. Room to improve. I've heard it is harder to do weekly goals than daily, because weekly is more easily forgotten. True, true. But anyway, I'm sticking with the weekly goal and will just try to at least journal every Sunday night to help me remember it in the schedule.

7. Attend temple quarterly. We signed up to go on the stake bus trip to the temple in a couple weeks. I feel a bit nervous how it will go because of the long day traveling, and not having as much control over our stopping schedule--what to do when that Lo needs a break...but I'm having faith it will be a good experience overall.

8. No refined sugar at home: well, could be doing better. I made the mistake of hanging onto some Christmas candy instead of throwing it away, and then during my moments of weakness it was too accessible. And one time we forgot the goal while grocery shopping, with Jerry buying hot chocolate, and me tossing a new kind of candy bar into the cart. But anyway, I'm doing better than before I had the goal, so that is moving in the right direction.

9. Adding a goal of studying one talk each day from the latest General Conference. I've done it pretty consistently over the past couple weeks and have felt a real boost in my spirituality. Interesting to note how often the conference talk of the day seems to complement so perfectly whichever chapter I'm reading out of the New Testament. I always feel like the Lord is trying to tell me something.

Life is good. I love goals.

Looking forward to February!

precious moment

2011-01-31T12:44:00.002-04:00

Just a quick story about that Lo:

Last week I attended a health fair put on by Jerry's work (and I won a door prize from it! woo hoo!). Anyway, the health fair had a masseuse booth, so while Jerry entertained that Lo, I stretched out on the table for a free 5 min. back massage. Jerry said for the first minute or so that I was laying down, Lo Lo got a concerned look on his face. Then, as our sweet baby noticed me continuing to lay there motionless, he erupted into sobs. The biggest, roundest rolling tears poured out of his terrified eyes. Needless to say, I ended my massage early, reassuring him that I was okay. I think he just couldn't figure out what the masseuse was doing to me, and I guess it is sort of an awkward pose for someone to lay face down like that--normally people would only lay face down if they were dead or something, and it seemed like Lo instinctively knew that fact. It really melted my heart to see him so frightened. Cute and sad all at the same time.

Cutest Baby Shower

2011-01-28T16:26:00.007-04:00

Well, it was a few weeks ago, but I am just now getting around to posting about a darling baby shower I helped put together for a friend out here. I kept waiting to post about it because I wanted to include a tutorial for making the best kind of diaper cake ever. Observe how glorious to behold: But I misplaced the photos I'd taken of the assembly process. And what's a tutorial without photos. But anyway, this diaper cake is my favorite variety since it has smooth sides and hidden gifts in the center, and I had trouble figuring out how to make it since if you google "diaper cake instructions" or the like, it doesn't pull up this variety in any of the top hits. But anyway, I figured it out partly by memory (this was the type of diaper cake given to me in Lo's shower last year). And I am delighted how cute it turned out. Here are us mommy friends at the baby shower; Lindsay, Courtney, Chelsea, and Kristen. We all live in the same apartment complex, are in the same church congregation, our husbies all work in the same program/for the same company, and we all have babies around the same age. It feels like such a natural friendship.

Since we ended up last-minute not doing a birthday party with that Lo's friends a few months ago, I had a couple dozen chinese takeout boxes sitting around unused. Kristen, one of the girls who co-hosted this shower, is the type of person who adds instant cuteness to anything she touches. Sort of like a Midas touch, only a crafty version. So she had the idea to pop some flower power cupcakes into all those chinese takeout boxes, add ribbon and tag, and voila, the perfect take-home thanks for guests at the baby shower. Seriously, I felt really impressed by how adorable the whole shower turned out. Welcome to mommyhood, Chelsea!

**this is sort of an incomplete record of the shower, since I didn't even talk about the games we played (all the best ones of course), foods (themed!), and gifts (plentiful)...but for some reason I feel silly about this post being so long after the fact, that I just hit a few main points and left it at that. meh.

Reviews

2011-01-26T06:25:00.009-04:00

Book Review:

When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead Jerry is making a concerted effort to read more often purely for pleasure. He picked up this short chapter book in our local library's Newberry section, and then after reading a few pages of it, asked me to take a look at it to explain something in it to him. Although I was in the middle of two other books already, I got hooked on this one and couldn't read anything else until I'd finished it!

A mixture of light science fiction (time travel) with coming-of-age themes and characters who are heart-breakingly realistic and fun. I loved this book. There is one description of violence that left me a little sick feeling, so I am not sure how I feel about recommending it for pre-teen...but anybody older than that, make sure to add it to your lists and enjoy!

Restaurant Review:

McDonald's

The dentist suggested Jerry eat only liquids and soft foods for a couple days (root canal--poor Jerry). So we treated ourselves to trying the newish McDonald's triple thick milkshakes. I hadn't had a McDonald's milkshake in years, and only remember them as sickly syrupy concoctions that were about as thick as my spit. Yeah, not so good. Well, the new ones (part of the McCafe lineup) are totally worth their price tag of two-something dollars. We shared a strawberry one the first time we went, and then a few days later could not resist going back to share a chocolate one. The strawberry seemed more authentic, though I'm usually a die-hard chocolate lover. So I'd recommend going fruity if you want to try these milkshakes.

Event Review:

Winter Carnival (City of Painesville)

Single-digit weather made for a chilly walk around the park when we first arrived at this "winter carnival." It seemed deserted--less than twenty people total, including the lone man carving an ice sculpture and one teenage girl spray-painting a knee-high snow fort she appeared to have just created moments earlier. We also noticed moments after arrival that Lo's shoe had fallen off and he had been walking around in icy mud puddles with nothing but his SOCK on his frozen toes. No wonder he seemed fussy...Anyway, we headed back to the car thinking it was a bust.

Until a newspaper photographer asked us to get out of the car to pose for a photo. We reluctantly complied.

Then the newspaper man mentioned the chili eating contest across the street. We trudged our way through the snow to get to it, and sure enough, THERE was the carnival! All free events (yay!) included caricature artists, winter crafts, chili sampling (I ate enough to amount to two regular sized bowls--very full), and useful freeby handouts like car window scrapers. We spent about two hours there and enjoyed ourselves. Jerry especially settled into the chili sampling, because he truly has the heart of a chef and likes trying to guess ingredients in new foods. One of the chilis had chocolate in it (I voted for this one), another had venison (we voted for this one also, because it was made by a girl scout troop and we wanted to see them win), and one had Black Mamba, which was an ingredient Jerry guessed right away and the restauranters who made the chili confirmed he was correct. There were both professional (restaurant) and amateur categories. Who knows, maybe next year we'll enter our own batch of chili!

Thanks Painesville for the worthwhile family event. We'll be back in a couple months for their Easter Egg Hunt.

Product Review:
Monkey Do Cloth Diapers

I've wanted to try cloth diapering ever since before that Lo was born. Finally, for Christmas a month ago Santa gave me a small starter set from this cute home-based business. Since it is headed by my awesome college friend Morgan, she gave me a good deal on the diapers and soakers, as well as customized my order (made sure the measurements would fit that Lo's chunky legs & tummy).

Still haven't used them enough to determine my full opinion, but here are some pros and cons.
Hooray: adorable, quickly repay themselves when used for just a matter of weeks (I've been getting so sick of buying disposables especially since Lo got to the bigger sizes that give less diapers in a pack), give Lo more immediate notification he has gone potty (should help with the imminent potty training days), adjustible for smaller babies with the comfortable cord lock system (I'll definitely be re-using these with future Tam babies).
Bummer: takes a bit more work to get them strapped on that Lo because of the lack of elastic (it is crucial for him to be centered on the diaper or it won't fit comfortably), and as he is in the wiggliest phase right now, I've sometimes given up using a cloth diaper at one time or another just because it was quicker to snap a disposable on his squirmy bum! Also, poopy toddler diapers are pretty much the worst thing ever. The first time I had to deal with him pooping in the cloth, I wished so much I could just throw away the soaker pad. But I swished it in the toilet, then threw it in the washer, and it came out perfectly clean so no harm done. Still, horrible, nasty, worst thing ever to me as I'm the type of person who tosses whole outfits in the trash if Lo has a blowout.

Movie Review:

The Business of Being Born

No secret to anybody who knows me: I have a passion for advocating "beautiful" births. Even though I personally found natural birth to be the ideal for me, I have gradually come to accept that for some people, their most beautiful "ideal" birth would be highly medicalized. I'm okay with the fact that I'm more eccentric than mainstream America. But I do wish more women would explore the evidence (or lack of evidence, i.e. tradition) behind what their doctors are doing to them.

At first this movie seemed like one that would make me nod my head a lot in agreement, but I was somewhat disappointed as I found myself cringing at the profanity, negativity, and emotionally charged angles (I suppose all documentaries have their agendas to promote)...though most of all, I just wished there had been more showing of moms in labor having peaceful, emotional control. Because the peacefulness is what I appreciate most about Hypnobabies. I wasn't perfect, but can say Jerry and I stayed a totally united team, where I would have ordinarily been inclined to get snappy with him. In future births, I hope to also show more of the Hypnobabies ideal of being peaceful with my midwife as well, since I said a few rude things to her that I regret now.

But I digress. Back to the movie at hand. I recommend anyone with even a moderate interest in birth give the movie consideration, because it will probably be eye-opening to anybody, including those who already think they know a lot about natural births. For example, I was surprised to learn homebirths comprise less than 1% of total births in the United States. I know so many women who have done homebirths, that it feels more common to me in my head. And I actually did not fully realize the horrors of "the twilight sleep era" until seeing the visual portrayals. Ugh. So glad I did not live in the 1920's...!

This movie has been out for more than a year now, but I just finally watched it a couple days ago because we got a Netflix subscription for Jerry to have films to entertain him while he runs on the treadmill.

**and after this blog has been posted for a whole day, it dawned on me some people might not like to watch graphic births, so I should retract my recommendation of this film to any who fall into that category! Sorry; it isn't obscene nudity, but there is plenty of nudity.

The Daily Routine

2011-01-21T12:36:00.004-04:00

When I posted about New Year's resolutions a few weeks back, I said we were working on getting some type of daily routine implemented. I'm still open to finding new ideas for how to best use my time with that Lo, but for now, here is the loose "schedule" of each day:

Approx. 7:00-8:00 AM~Lo wakes up. Often he nurses upon waking, but sometimes not, especially if Jerry is still at home in which case Lo Lo gets excited to jump out of bed to go play with Daddy. Lo Lo is such a morning person, always his most cheerful and alert when he just wakes up for the day.

When Jerry is gone, that Lo and me read together. The order of reading starts with scriptures (Book of Mormon children's reader--about a page's worth, and the actual Book of Mormon or Bible--about one verse). To get Lo ready for scripture reading, I sing the Primary Children's song "Book of Mormon Stories" and he has gotten quick at recognizing it; he sometimes even brings me the reader when I start to sing. After scriptures we read at least one Chinese book and a few other books from the shelf--whichever ones Lo picks out. Then we eat. That Lo is able to spoon-feed himself with some accuracy. This photo shows how his shirt stayed mostly clean, and he had eaten a whole half jar of blueberry applesauce all by himself by bringing the spoon to his mouth! Some mornings he eats relatively alot--a few bites of eggs, cheese, a piece of bread, yogurt, cold cereal from my bowl, etc. are all common breakfast foods for him right now. But some mornings he doesn't seem hungry at all and I wonder about it since I'm not sure how much milk he gets at night during nursing sessions. But I really avoid forcing him on any food issue.

Oh, and his face could be a little cleaner during self-feedings, I suppose. He is going through a phase where he gets bothered by messes. If he sees a drip of food landing on his hand or the table, etc. he often points to it until I wipe it up. But apparently messes on his face don't bother him because they aren't visible to his own eyes. lol.

After eating, we do some chores. Usually this entails unloading the dishwasher and folding laundry. Lo likes to "help" with both.

Then we have some playtime. It seems a bit arbitrary, but I decided to make pre-nap playtime be all about Gross Motor Skills, and post-nap playtime focus more on Fine Motor Skills. This just helps me feel more purposeful and brainstorm ideas of what we should do, but I don't restrict Lo if he wants to switch up the activities. Here are the pre-nap activities I have been instigating: rolling balls back and forth to each other, throwing/catching balls (Lo is on the cusp of catching the ball but not quite there yet), playing tag/chase, playing hide and seek, making forts (as seen above in photo--he actually was loving it more than his face shows, but when the camera comes out he stops smiling in order to concentrate on what I'm doing all of a sudden), climbing (we pile all the couch cushions into a puffy mountain and he seems to enjoy trying to scale it), dancing to music (Raffi on Pandora is a favorite) and going on walks outside.

This outdoors time is something I'd like to do every day right before naptime. It has been such an ordeal getting bundled and sometimes much too cold to stay out very long that I am having a hard time making us do it every day. But the days we have gone out, I haven't regretted it.

We walk out to the mailbox to drop letters, or we take out the trash. Often we see people walking their dogs, and Lo has really developed a love for "dog-dogs," as he calls them. Sometimes we even walk to the grocery store, dollar store, or hardware store. Yes, even in the winter. I always feel a bit crazy and pioneer-ish as the wind whips my hair and burns tears into my eyes, but that Lo keeps warm enough if I wear him snuggled up next to my heart in the mei tai.

11:00 AM ~ I put Lo down for a nap. He is pretty consistent at going down near this time, which is a huge relief for me to be able to count on and make plans accordingly. He is totally a "one nap per day" kid now, and naps for about 2.5-3 hours. Though sometimes he cries halfway through and I nurse him back to sleep before he can become fully awakened.

After that Lo wakes up, we eat lunch. Common lunch foods for that Lo include whatever I am eating (dinner leftovers from the day before most likely). He tends to refuse eating anything that resembles baby food. Though he likes the Gerber finger foods a little too much. (since they are processed I am trying to limit his puffs, graham cookies, etc.).

Fine Motor Activities we have been doing: magna doodle, coloring with crayons and markers (brave of me, I know--heavily supervised and I've got a Magic Erase sponge handy). Once he accidentally drew on his hand with a dry erase marker and he was entirely distraught about it until I scrubbed the mark off in soapy water. We also do Legos (the big kind, and he only pulls them apart, does not put them together yet). Blocks are another favorite, but like the Legos, he tends to just knock down the towers I make rather than building up his own towers. Must not have hit that block stacking developmental stage yet...He does like putting the shapes into the shape sorter, and I'm impressed how well he does at that activity. Needs some scaffolding on it still, but totally gets the idea. We also have a puzzle we've played with a bit, but it is still out of his age range really.

I forgot to mention that sometime in the day by now we normally have a shower. The time varies, but usually I do it pre-nap. Lo showers with me, playing with toys at my feet but sometimes he likes to be held/nursed while the water runs over him and that's okay with me too. Sometimes our showers are pretty long.

Anyway, around 3-4:00pm I start dinner. Often that Lo plays in the kitchen at my feet while I cook/chop veggies, etc. but if he starts to get clingy, I do one of two things: wear him in the mei tai or put on a Chinese DVD for him to watch. I know it is bad to use TV as a babysitter, but the Chinese movies we have are totally educational! And I try to still talk to him and interact with him while he's watching since the laptop in the living room is near enough to the kitchen. Here's an example of one of our favorite Chinese DVDs:

Another thing I encourage Lo to do while I finish dinner is to go watch out the window at all the cars driving by. He imitates their engine noises, and often "talks" to me about what he sees out the window.

6:00 PM ~ Jerry gets home from work. Actually, lately he's been getting home later than this. =( But we normally wait to eat dinner once he arrives. After eating dinner, Jerry and Lo play a bit if there is time. If we are short on time, we go straight to Lo's bath. Jerry is primarily the baby bather, and it is their prime bonding time of the day. Often I leave them to themselves, letting talk Chinese together in the bathroom, while I clean up from dinner.

7-8:00 PM ~ Lo asleep. Some days if he is fussy, I put him down as early as 6PM, which he has especially been needing over the past few weeks as he transitioned from 2 naps/day to 1 nap/day. Occasionally, if we try to go to a quick run for groceries or something after dinner, we can push Lo's bedtime to a bit after 8. But I really hate more than anything to mess with his sleep times, so I am pretty much a Nazi about putting him to bed at the same time frame each day. I nurse him to sleep. If I'm gone to a Relief Society activity or book club, Jerry puts Lo to bed by soothing activities. It is a lot of work, or so I hear. So perhaps the nursing has become a crutch. I stopped caring about it after reading one of my sleep books.

Anyway, there's the Lo Routine. We still have moments during the day where I shrug and say "Now what do we do?" But having the simple commitment to work on Gross Motor Skills & Fine Motor Skills at varying times of the day has seemed to really help me stay motivated and Lo seems happier than he's ever been. He notices that I am more excited about how we spend our time. And I am loving my days for the most part. Motherhood is a blessing, giving me more joy than I ever thought I could have. And that Lo is the most special, wonderful little boy! A lot of times when he is sleeping, Jerry and I say to each other, "we miss him!" But we like our time alone from him as well. ;)

Wow, this got really long. Thanks to anybody who stuck with me.

Eating and Drinking in Labor

2011-01-20T02:52:00.007-04:00

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night bugged by something, and my thoughts swirl all around and make it hard to fall back asleep. Writing down the thoughts can help, and granted, publishing such thoughts isn't necessary, but I figured in this case it might be helpful to others. So here are my insomniac-producing musings:

I ate--a lot--while in labor with that Lo. I think without food, my body would have never had the strength to press on through the two+ days active labor spanned. Yes, I vomited during transition. But I wasn't worried about it at the time, since I had read that experts don't really know why women sometimes vomit in labor and it happens with equal frequency for women who eat in labor and those who do not eat in labor. Vomiting at transition is suspected by some to be a way of preparing the diaphragm for the pushing phase. I recalled that factoid at the time I threw up and actually felt thrilled to be throwing up. I did not throw up due to pain, btw, because I certainly would not describe transition as painful. It was intense rushing, swirling, shuddering feelings all over in my blood stream, kind of like every cell had a mind of its own all of a sudden. A good loopy feeling, now that I think about it. Closest thing this happy Mormon girl will ever feel to being high? =) But I digress.

Back to the food issue. My friend Chelsea is being induced in a matter of hours. Not sure if she'll read this blog entry before then. But at any rate, I'm not writing for her, just mentioning her since her situation is relevant to my insomnia thoughts. She seems like the kind of person who would just let the doctors and nurses do their thing anyway, regardless of anything I put on this blog.

I learned yesterday afternoon that Chelsea is looking forward to having that dreaded intrapartum diet of nothing but ice chips. I truly believe it might take a decade or two to see change, but eventually that policy will be viewed as laughably archaic by the whole world. For a few years now already, the official stance in the United States has been to let laboring women at least have clear liquids like chicken broth, fruit juice, etc. And in other countries the position is more and more to allow laboring women to have simple foods like yogurt, bread, and so forth. Most interesting to me was this article I just came across that discusses the psychological effects of women eating while in labor.

Remembering my own experience, I totally agree that food boosted my mood a lot during a basically wonderful birth that nonetheless had some difficult moments. For example, one of my fondest memories of Lo's birth is being dilated to 8 cm. while lounging in a hot tub, licking ice cream, and surrounded by beaming nurses, my doula, and husband who I think were all also eating ice cream. And somewhere in the background was a scowling midwife, but we won't dwell on her for now. lol. I recall this as such a regal moment--and the vanilla ice cream was an important part of why I felt so celebratory. Then, later in the birth I used food to bring comfort. I ordered beef stew from the hospital cafeteria, and though it tasted nasty and bland per hospital food standards, just the thought of getting to eat it conjured a psychological warmth that combated the emotional struggle I'd been having with my midwife. Lastly, during the pushing phase, when I felt a bit sad at how the midwife had rather rudely taken the reins and had me pushing in the lithotomy position, I used my food choices to once again restore some emotional health. I told Jerry "I want cranberry juice now," and then, a few minutes later asked him to switch to water, and kept alternating between the two beverages thereby retaining some element of my own autonomy.

To sum it up, I am a big fan of evidence-based health care. Hospitals and doctors evidently have some delay in implementing the most updated policies. And that is unfortunate. Because laboring women and their babies benefit from having more options.