sweetisu

Sunday, May 4th, 2008

Overheard exchange

Sebastian: “Fiona, this is how you belch . . .Urrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.”

Fiona giggles, and follows it with a not-so-convincing “Urrrrrrrrrrrrgh“

Friday, April 11th, 2008

Worst Mother

The kids were on my Mac this morning as I slept in a little longer (1). The two of them came to get me later on, and the older one proceeded to tell me “Mama, I forgot I should not draw on your computer.”

Raised eyebrows, groggy puffy eyed, I said “Draw on my computer? Where and why?”

“I forgot I should not!” He pleaded.

Decided it’s no use to argue without seeing the damage.

Minutes later, I’m very upset. The screen has several long RED LINES across it. I tried to remove them with my dry fingers - nothing.

Frustrated. Stew by self. Sit and read emails, eat breakfast.(2) Still frustrated, having to read through the RED LINES on the screen.

Kids on the floor playing with some toys. “Guys, please take it upstairs to play there” is met with silence. Typical. (WHY do kids not hear us / respond when we need them to???)

I lost it. I went down and cupped his face with my hands “DID YOU NOT HEAR ME?(3) TAKE. THIS. UP. STAIRS. TO. PLAY!”

Traits of Worst Mother:
(1) Sleep in while the kids run rampant.
(2) Eat breakfast at the computer instead of eating and talking to them.
(3) Shouting at the kids.

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

Get your signatures now before they get too famous

Cut a few holes in a box, it suddenly becomes a house with windows! And now it’s time to paint them rooms!

My little artists hard at work:

With paints from this selection. After it’s all done and tattered from playing with for days, recycle the boxes.

Friday, March 21st, 2008

Genius

Couple of days ago, out of the blue, he tilts his head and asks me,

“Mama, do you know why birds fly south in the wintertime?”

“Why?”

“Because it’s too far to walk!”

* * *

Our 4.5 yr old loves to read. Although the above is from a riddles book, I’m pretty sure he just told his first real joke with a real punch line!

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008

Sick

We interrupt the string of short posts with another short post.

Late Monday night / early Tuesday morning while I was pounding on the keyboard fervently, inputing data for new products for KangarooBoo, I heard cries for help.

I went to Sebastian, our 4.5 yr old’s room, found him literally burning up and coughing badly, with giant tears streaming down his face. He was shaking / seizing, his limbs were kind of noodle’ish and limpy. Couple of minutes later, the thermometer revealed 103.5F. After a dose of Motrin, he started to cool a little bit. 30 minutes later he cried again. He needed Mama to sleep next to him.

At 5 a.m. Fiona woke up and joined us. She rolled in bed while Sebastian continued to sleep until nearly 7a.m. (unheard of, as he’s also a 5-6a.m. riser) and I stuck in the middle. Fortunately I had the foresight of getting a full-size bed for him.

Tuesday - he stayed home from preschool. Still feverish and still coughing.

Today - both kids have preschool today, but both are home. Sebastian doesn’t seem to be too much better, although the fever is under control with Motrin. Fiona is also having low fever and some coughing.

Tuesday, December 25th, 2007

His jolly self / Quote Tuesdays

Santa made his round at our preschool last week.

The other day I asked the kids if they told Santa what they wanted for Christmas.

Sebastian beamed and said, “YES I did!”

“Did you sit on Santa’s lap?” “Yes,” came the excited reply.

“Fiona, did you sit on Santa’s lap and tell him what you want for Christmas?” “NO, I’m scared of Santa.”

o_0 If I was 2 years old and some dude with long white hair and a big belly wanted to carry me, I’d be scared to death too. Further examples that Santa can be very scary for 2-yr olds: just look here, here, and here. (Also? Remind me to tell you the story of how this guy insisted on giving me a hug so I locked myself in the bathroom for hours until he left)

“Yes he’s kind of scary isn’t he. He has a lot of white hair.”

Sebastian asked, “Why does he have so much hair? On his face too.”

“That’s called a beard. Some people have hair on their faces, like Baba does sometimes. And Santa always have a very long beard.”

Deep in thought, Sebastian asked, “Why does he have so much hair?”

Nanoseconds later, “WHERE is his mouth, and HOW does he eat?”

Good questions son. He eats when no one is looking, consuming mostly cookies and milk and then rushes away to other faraway places in his sleigh.

x x x x x

Merry Christmas everyone. May you always believe in the magic, even if Santa isn’t part of it.

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

Sleeping beauty

Even today she still sleeps with froggy-legged sometimes.

I may be biased, but she is the prettiest 2-year old on earth.

June 2006

July 2007

Thursday, December 6th, 2007

If I had a penny for every time they don’t finish their meals

I probably would be a millionaire by now, or close to it, if I got a penny for every time our kids don’t finish their meals. I would be sufficiently wealthy if they finish even just half of what I put in front of them.

We have one Very Picky Eater, and one Semi-Picky Eater. Almost every meal I have to repeatedly say phrases such as sit down please, eat your food please, NO JUMPING on your chair, please DON’T BOTHER YOUR sister/brother, eating time is not playing time, don’t play with your food….

Not much luck at all.

Although they are not malnourished (and you can see they are not, from the Halloween pictures a couple of posts below this one), they aren’t getting all the basic food groups into their bodies most meals.

Many people have told me that when they were younger, their parents used to tell them something along the lines of “there are little children starving in China / Africa, you’re lucky to have food on the table,” and that usually worked to get them to straighten up.

I haven’t tried that yet, even so, I’m pretty sure they will just giggle and look at me like I’m a crazy mama.

When I was growing up (in rural China), having enough food on the table was a problem. So needless to say, we devoured any and all foods during mealtime without any persuasion from our parents.

Do (did) you have a picky eater or eaters at your home? How do you get them to eat without bribing them? Or is the adage that, they’ll eat what they need…?

Wednesday, December 5th, 2007

Halloween picures - better late than never

I’ve been busy. Will be busy for a long while, which is a good thing!

Before they go into the Digital Black Hole which is the iPhoto* archives, here are the Halloween pictures from this year. Seb was a doctor (he was a doctor last year, too), and Fiona was a Tigger (Seb’s costume from 2 years ago). What that meant was, NO costume shopping or sewing was needed. Yay!

My happy cheery models:

Seb even checks our ears, eyes, and heart, and then “writes” prescriptions for us. He’s a great doctor!

Fiona loves showing off her tail. She requests this pants frequently even weeks after Halloween is over. It is difficult to refuse when she’s having so much fun, and the giggles that ensues makes it impossible to resist.

* I LOVE my Mac. LOVE love it.

** It seems digitizing pictures have become a way of shoving everything into some byte form and not many makes it into print. Do your pictures get printed out often? How do you manage 2 gazillion+ pictures.. ?

Saturday, December 1st, 2007

Belgian Coconut Waffle at 5:35 a.m.

In true and typical early riser to night owl parents fashion, the kids are up at 5:20a.m. this morning. Actually I think the older one, 4+ yr old, woke up even prior to that.

So I drag myself to the kitchen to make breakfast. Today we made waffle. It’s one of the best waffles I’ve had, it likely has something to do with the fact that I’m a little nuts about coconuts.

I just mixed everything in the mixing bowl all at once. Then cook the waffle until the little green light comes on. If you’d like, you can follow the recipe directions below. Recipe from here. You’ll need a Belgian waffle maker. Ours cost about $20 or so.

* 1 and 1/2 cups unbleached flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 cup shredded coconut
* 2 tablespoons maple syrup
* 2 tablespoons honey
* 3/4 to 1 cup reduced fat milk
* 6 egg whites
* 1/2 cup fat-free-egg-substitute
* 4 tablespoons canola oil

***I used 3 eggs, and no fat-free-egg-substitute (what is that?!)***

Preheat your waffle iron. In a large bowl, whish the flour, baking powder and coconut. In a small bowl, whisk together the syrup, honey and egg substitute. Stir in the oil and milk.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Make a hole in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the liquid mixture into the hole. Gently fold the whites into the batter. Bake in the waffle iron until golden brown. 6 to 8 minutes.

One hour later at 6:35a.m., we’ve measured and mixed and poured, and eaten all the waffles. Even pictures are taken, post written.

Delicious!

Now what do I do to stay awake..?!

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

Snow anyone?

We had the first snow of the season!!! It started snowing early in the morning around 8 or 9 a.m. And it did not stop until at least 5 p.m. I took this picture around 2p.m.

Guess what the kids did all day long? We have a trail of snow pants, gloves, hats, snow boots etc all lying around the kitchen floor. I’m too lazy tired to put them away, as they will probably be out playing in the snow again tomorrow. Yep, I win both the Housewife and Mama Awards.

Monday, November 19th, 2007

Crazy 8

I put a lot of thought into this and took at least 2 hours to complete it. Very crazy.

I was recently tagged by the beautiful Sandy at momisodes AND the gorgeous Michelle at Fabricated Goddess to do the Crazy 8. It’s been DAYS.. wait, maybe even more than a week.. Yikes. So I better get on with it. So here goes the crazies. Thanks for the tags.

8 things I’m passionate about.
1. My kids. I love them to bits and pieces and will do anything and everything to keep them safe. And I know Karate, mama style, and beyatch style. So don’t mess with me.

2. My husband. He carried me through the toughest times of my life: fighting my cancer alongside me just 10 weeks after our wedding, and picked me up and pieced me together for the second time 4 years later, after we lost our 2nd baby. He deserves Husband of the Century Award.

3. My family. Some are too nice and some not so nice, some makes me run the other way and pretend I don’t know them. But I do, and I still love them all the same.

4. Our business. This KangarooBoo is consuming my days and nights and nearly every waking moment I have.

5. Food. I LOVE to eat. If I were to list my favorite foods, it would take an entire page, and more. But at the top would be sushi and dimsum — both unfortunately cost an arm and two legs for ONE meal. There’s no dimsum here anyway..

6. My friends. I know a lot of people, but I have very few good friends. I could probably count my very good friends with one hand and still have spots left. But the ones that I do have, I love them dearly. I live far away from all of them. But if we did not talk for months or even years, we’d pick up where we left off and no one would feel one bit awkward. And they wouldn’t mind that I listed them after “food”..

7. Cancer research / charity. In a retelling of the Aesop fable of the Lion and the Mouse by Mark White, at the end there is a line where the mouse says to the lion, “You didn’t think I could help you, but an act of kindness is never wasted.” There is no amount that is too small when it comes to charity. It might be small to you, but it is not for the one you helped.

8. My computer/internet. It connects me to (way too many) things and people that I would otherwise not able to. Like you yourself! Did you know it also connected me to my husband?

8 Things I want to do before I die…
1. Travel the world with my husband. By flight, by sea, by train. The list is very long, and I hope we will have the funds and energy to do it all. The type of travel we want to do is self-guided. No tours, no cruises. Well maybe a cruise just once to see what the big wah-hoo is about.

2. See all the Great Wonders. I would be happy if I only saw half.

3. See my kids have kids, and possibly grandkids. I was practically raised by my great-grandmother, who passed away when she was 92. I want to experience that, having great grandkids. Probably not carrying them on my back like my great-grandmother did though We didn’t have strollers.

4. Learn how to swim. I know! Can you believe I don’t know how to swim!

5. Live in another state/country.

6. Learn to speed read. I read very slow. My brain doesn’t seem to want to cooperate and translate the data, so I have to read things 2 or 3 times. Sometimes more. It’s a wonder I get anything done, and this is precisely the reason why I don’t comment much on blogs or read that many blogs or read any books. Also if/when I read books, I need to know what happened at the end, RIGHT NOW. So I read as many pages as I can in one sitting..

7. Learn how to be a better public speaker. Sure I can talk for hours and hours and hours… (just ask my friends who had to endure it over the phone with me!) but put me in front of a few people, I freeze.

8. Build an orphanage. Or a few. One summer day when I was a young child, I was at the river doing some washings with my aunt. A box floated by.. my aunt brought it closer to see what was inside. She opened it and saw… a dead infant girl. I saw it too. She said a prayer and sent the box away. I was no more than 6 years old and that memory has haunted me since.

8 Things I say often….
1. Oh shit.

2. You guys, Stop it! What can I say, the kids get on each other’s nerves. They like to play with each other but they both have strong personalities and the result is, mama ends up shouting.

3. What happened? Again, kids-related.

4. What did you do? Yep, you guessed it.

5. What are you doing? OK this is getting old.

6. What’s for dinner? Hubby now cooks some of the meals and I’m not very good with surprise food.

7. Good job!

8. I love you.

8 Books I’ve read recently…
1. Mr. Doodle had a poodle.

2. The Lion and the Mouse

3. Tell Me Why (a science sort of book, toddler level, in Chinese)

4. Chicka Chicka ABC

5. Down by the Station

6. Parents Magazine (does that count??)

7. The Bisquits Collection

8. Fiona’s Magic Fairytale.

* After I finished this and the previous section, I realize just how rooted the kids are in everyday things, in everything.

8 Songs I could listen to over and over…
I’m going to be the only person who will leave this blank. I prefer silence. There aren’t any songs in the world that I could listen to over and over and over. None. Zilch.

Whew. That was the easiest one.

8 Things that attract me to my best friends….
1. Reliability. This has to be the most important thing for me. If I can’t rely on you when I need you, then fergettabout it. Sadly (fortunately depending on how you look at it), my traumatic experiences has shown me which ones I couldn’t rely on.

2. Honesty. If I’m being a jerk, tell me. If I’m making your day, tell me, too.

3. Common interests. If we don’t like to do anything together, then fergettabout it too.

4. Humor. Everything is better when there’s laughter.

5. Rich. (just kidding! I was testing if you’re still awake)

6. Kind.

7. Love/big heart.

8. Shared viewpoints / morals / “Same wavelength” about things.

8 People who should do this Crazy Eights meme:
1. Amie

2. Andie

3. Lisa

4. Elaine

5. Mary Mia

6. Lotus

7. Mumsgather

8. Aimee.

Saturday, November 10th, 2007

One of our autumn traditions

It was the year after Seb was born that we started this tradition. Here are some glimpses of this years Apple Orchard / Pumpkin Patch visit.

Enjoying the apples freshly picked from the tree.

Big brother pulling little sister on the wagon.

“My turn to pull you” she says, “Ughh……”

“Let me help you” he says, and proceeds to put one leg out and guiding the wagon forward.

Friday, November 2nd, 2007

Before the frost arrived

We used to live in the state that prides itself to be “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” We used to take the lakes for granted, driving on the frozen surface with our vehicle (OK I drove while everyone else in the vehicle freaked out), treating it as a nuisance at times because by golly that’s where the bazillion mosquitoes breed their gatrillion offspring!

Well, we don’t have that problem now. In this new city, there are very very few bodies of water. There are some, but seems to me quite a few are man-made. It’s just not the same.

One never realize what one has until it is gone.

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

Halloween

Seb and Fiona were very excited to go to school today, more excited than usual! Today they got to wear their costumes to preschool!!!

Seb wore a Doctor’s costume (from last year - it still fits and that’s what he wanted) and Fiona wore a Tigger outfit from when Seb was younger. I took pictures of them this morning. I’ll put it here once I get them downloaded.

I had this great idea of giving them cool looking animal masks (paper / cardboard type) and then giving them each a cape. But they didn’t want to have anything to do with those. I think they take it after their mom and don’t like anything on their faces. Plus Fiona was so tickled that she got to have a “tail” on her Tigger pants that I just couldn’t resist.

Happy Halloween everyone. The scary part has yet to come — I’m participating in NaBloPomo. So you’ll see a post here every single day for the next 30 days. Well, that’s the idea anyway. Whether I actually follow through is another story (I did complete it last year!)