Quiet is Good?

This past week has had its shares of ups and downs. At the end of VBS Baby Bear caught a virus (or rather at the beginning of VBS since most viruses/bacteria have at least a 5-day incubation period...I know, nerd). So Saturday and Sunday she spent at home with a fever, poor child. Monday she broke out into a rash, and experienced mothers worldwide (My cousin, who has 4 kids - Friends who live minutes away) said "Oh, she must have roseola." So we stayed home for a couple of days. But she got better, and the rash disappeared.

Then I got sick. Still am. Not too bad, just extra tired. (Sorry haven't called you, Brightlife - have number, will call!)

Baby Bear then decided to kick off her good health to move from immobile child to mobile child. (Not crawling...but massive bouts of rolling)

How I found out: So today she started to cry because I sat down to rest. I heard something fall in the kitchen and went to investigate. After I found the culprit (a pile of clutter had fallen over) I realized Baby Bear had stopped crying and it was quiet. I thought, "ah, quiet is good." Then I stopped and rethought, "Uh oh, quiet is not good." I peeked my head around the corner to find my daughter four feet from where she started and pulling out all the magazines and whatnot that we stored on the shelf under our coffee table. She was happily chomping on a Physical Therapy magazine, and looked up at me with proud eyes that said, "Look, what I did!"

I smiled, of course. (But inside I'm thinking "Man, I have to start childproofing my home?!?!)

Here's a pic of our happy Bear at VBS last week.

The Boys at Church...(By Songwriterlee)

So it's already begun. *Sigh*

This week is VBS (Vacation Bible School). Since I am a volunteer, Baby Bear got to spend her mornings in the nursery with the wonderful volunteers who take great care of her. So instead of being with just one kid, I am with about 140 kids.

After each day at VBS, there is lunch served to the volunteers and their families. The kids eat first, and then while the moms eat (and chat) the kids run around and play. I have been having a blast just observing and watching all the kids, including my own.

Baby Bear isn't quite mobile, so she sits in her stroller and watches all the rest of the kids. Apparently, it doesn't hamper her socilization much. There are always people stopping by to play with her and entertain her. She's so extroverted! I'm not quite sure how two introverts sired an extrovert.

Meanwhile, there is this group of boys around 3-5 years old who constantly come to chat with Baby Bear. They talk to her and then they ask me questions about her.

"Is she your baby?" (Yup)
"Where's her hair?" (I don't know, did I lose it?)
"Is she laughing?" (She thinks you're funny)
"Did she drop her food?" (Yes)
"What is she eating?" (Baby Cereal)
"How old is she?" (7 months)

And then they always end with, "She has cute smile" or "She's cute" or "She smiles good."

Uh oh.

I think it's time for daddy to worry.

Five by Five (by Padawanlee)

Well since I have been tagged... here I go on my very first post.

Five Things in My Freezer

1. Milk for Baby Bear.
2. Edamame in shells.
3. Shu Mai that my grandmother made for us. Yum.
4. Lots of frozen fruits so we can make smoothies with, that we never do.
5. Phyllo dough.

Five Things in My Closet

1. Random stuff.
2. Clothes
3. More stuff
4. Crock pot
5. Water balloon launcher

Five Items in the Car

1. Tennis racquet
2. The only 3 CD’s that I own.
3. Bag of chips in my glove compartment just incase I get the munchies.
4. A bag of trash - Sometimes trash is in the bag, sometimes trash is on the floor. (ah… memoires of college)
5. Lots of AAA maps.

Five Items in My Backpack (I shall rummage though the backpack that I haven’t used in 2 years)

1. Lots of highlighters.
2. Lots of pens.
3. Random papers that I have no idea where they belong.
4. Spare change.
5. Dust and dirt from who knows where.

Five Books on My Nightstand (I have a few books on my nightstand that I do not even know the name of, but here is what I am reading.)

1. Sports Illustrated.
2. ESPN magazine.
3. TIME.
4. Newsweek.
5. NIV Bible.

I tag the one and only jasonisscruffylooking

The Strange Things We Do...

A few weeks ago, a friend of ours was telling us how it's fun to see how short babies arms are. They're arms don't quite reach atop their heads...hee hee. Check this picture out.

Five By Five - Tagged Again!

Tagged again! I don't mind being tagged, I just never know what to write...but I'll do my best. I've been tagged by Nina this time...

Five Things in My Freezer

1. Trader Joe's Mandarin Orange Chicken - Yum yum...easy meal, good taste.
2. Cha Siu Bao - Homemade by Matt's grandma...again, easy meal, good taste.
3. Ice Cube trays fulls of frozen foods for baby bear(peaches, apples, avocados, peas, spinach, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash - and more!)
4. Ground Turkey - I've been trying to cook healthier...Matt's cholesterol, grrr.
5. Pork bits - Perhaps one of these days I'll cook up some kimchee jigae with the random pork bits.

Five Things in My Closet

1. Uh, closet? Am I supposed to put things in the closet? They're doing fine on the floor.

Five Items in the Car

1. Baby Bear's stroller which I found out today is 28 lbs! Uh, I think we need a lighter stroller. Any suggestions?
2. My CD case with some of my favorite cds - when driving, you gotta have the tunes!
3. A travel Bible - Since we forget to usually bring one with us on Sundays to church, so we leave a small one in the car.
4. A bag of trash - Sometimes trash is in the bag, sometimes trash is on the floor.
5. Random stack of papers - I'll have to go through those one day...but I think they're old maps, past church bulletins, Matt's jury summons, or something...

Five Items in My Backpack (Is this for a student? oh well...I'll just use the diaper bag or my purse?)

1. A bottle of water - always, a must! For a thirsty mom and a thirsty baby.
2. A small tupperware full of Veggie and Fruit Puffs for the always hungry Baby Bear.
3. Mini Tinkle Crinkle - Baby Bear's friend when we travel.
4. A Joann's Gift Card that I received for Mother's Day - in case I have to urge to buy crafts.
5. A Picture of Matt and me - A friend took a mini polaroid of us on our wedding day, and I just carry it around.


Five Books on My Nightstand (Okay, so they're not on my nightstand, but they're wherever I usually read when I get a chance)

1. 1001 Women's Healthcare Questions - I don't have questions, I'm just a Bio major and health issues fascinate me. I know, I'm such a nerd.
2. The Poisonwood Bible - The fiction book, I'm currently reading. Wow, does this woman(author=Barbara Kingsolver) have a way with words or what? Plus, she has a graduate degree in Biology...
3. Moral Choices - Tough. It's making my brain mushy.
4. Super Baby Food - Yup, I'm cooking Baby Bear's food. Hey, I figure I might as well try.
5. Real Simple - Okay, so this isn't a book...but I really like the magazine. It makes me feel like one day I can actually organize and simplify things in my life...one day.

Who to tag...who to tag...how about meishichan(since she tagged me last time), mud2clarity and brightlife(only if you would like to - I won't be crushed if you don't), and Matt(only, he doesn't have a blog, nor chooses to write in this blog, but he said I could tag him).

Being a Stay at Home Mom...

I'm terrible at being a stay at home mom.

I can't keep our place clean at all. You can barely walk through our livingroom, there's so much junk piled all over the place. I fear the neighbors will peek inside and think we've been vandalized.

I try to cook for my husband. He claims that I make better food for Baby Bear than I do for him. More often than not, he brings dinner home. Yesterday, I actually cooked, but I pulled a "stupid." I took a pyrex pan out of the oven and unknowingly placed it in a puddle of water on the counter. For any of you who have ever done that...crack! and glass is all over your kitchen. Thank goodness no one was nearby to get hit by the flying glass.

I drag my baby out all the time. I can't stand being home for too long, so I take Baby Bear on random outings to take the edge off the insanity. Well, she doesn't last long, and I end up making her more tired, and that pretty much ruins her nap schedule for the day.

But in spite of all of that, It's so neat to be able to see Baby Bear grow and change each day. It's worth being home if I get to see this toothy grin all the time...

Tagged?

Wha! Meishichan tagged me...Let's see if I can do this...

I am thinking about what tomorrow will be like and what I should pack in Baby Bear's diaper bag to deal with tomorrow.

I said "poopy" more times than I should have today.

I want a piece of peach pie.

I wish the weekends were longer to spend with my family.

I miss my students. I don't miss their complaining about doing work.

I hear silence. Awwww.....

I wonder why our neighbors are so loud.

I regret not exercising more before baby bear was born.

I am mostly Korean, but partly Japanese.

I dance when I'm happy.

I sing for a lot of weddings.

I cry when I'm frustrated.

I am not Chinese.

I write songs when I feel the need to create.

I confuse restaurant names. There's a restaurant called "Bamboo Song" and for some reason I keep calling it "Morning Wood." Yuck.

I need to go to sleep earlier at night.

I should go to sleep earlier at night.

I finish all the chores that I should have done earlier in the day at night instead of going to sleep earlier.

I tag anyone who wants to be.

Ick! Part 2

As an addendum to my last post...here's Baby Bear actually spitting out the peaches.

Ick!

Here's my Baby Bear eating her lunch today.

Usually when I feed her something new, she makes this face. If she isn't too sure about the taste, she lets it dribble out of her mouth. After a couple more feedings of the same stuff, she tends to accept it as food and includes it in her repertoire.

Today she actually spat the food out. I saw a chunk of it fly towards me.

What did I feed her?

Peaches. Go figure. A couple more tries and she continued to spray out food like I had given her a bad tasting medicine.

Oh well. I guess our little "foodie" can't like it all. She was much better after I cleansed her palate with a spoonful of peas.

Where Did This Come From?

Today we left Baby Bear in the church nursery for the first time. She seemed fine when I left her there and she seemed fine when Matt went to pick her up. Although, later when we were leaving to go to lunch, I was playing a simple game of peek-a-boo with her when she made this strange face. She apparently was smiling...but it wasn't her normal smile. And every time thereafter when she smiled, she made this face. Sometime between this morning and lunchtime, she changed the way she smiles...did she pick something up from the nursery?

We're still bewildered about the new smile, but just for fun we thought we would try it, too.

I don't know, I don't think she got it from us.

Happy Fourth!

Tonight we went to watch the fireworks at the park. Actually, we intended to leave before the fireworks because I thought Baby Bear would scream through all the noise, but we ended up staying.

So I prepared to comfort a scared baby. I held her tight, gave her a pacifier, a sippy cup, prepared to cover her ears and warned her that the fireworks would be loud. To my surprise, she was fascinated by all the lights in the sky. She was still a little scared, but she sat still and watched intently...so intently, that she tired herself out and fell asleep half way through.

Here she is sleeping but still clutching onto her sippy cup for dear life. She finally let it go after the fireworks were over.

Hmmph!

Our baby certainly has personality. Padawanlee thinks it's the "Korean" in her. I wonder what he means by that...

Baby Bear

College Memories...

A couple of nights ago, I got to have dinner with some friends from college. It was different because this time around there was a baby to tote around, but despite extra baggage (stroller, booster seat, diaper bag...), it was good to hang out with some familiar faces and try to achieve some semblance of normalcy again (whatever normal is...).

I got to thinking about how much fun we used to have in college. I'm not saying that life isn't "fun" now, but it's different. "Fun" these days refer to enjoying our silly little girl when she busts up laughing at absolutely nothing. Our college "fun" consisted of many zany acts and random endeavors that were created from spontaneity and adventure.

Perhaps one day I will regale the tales to my children (or grandchildren) of 3 am burrito runs, all-night non-study sessions, Vegas trips that lasted 4 hours, car rallies, bonfires, 21st birthdays and other adventures that were not as tame. One day.

My mom once told me that the friends that I gain in college will be the friends that I will have for life. I truly hope so.

Chores...

Being home, I seem to have a lot more chores. I think before I used to just ignore them (hee hee). I guess being home all the time puts me smack dab in the midst of the mess, so I have more reason to tackle it...Out of all chores, I like washing dishes. On the other hand, my least favorite is to vacuum. I realize that when I clean, I like to see a clear result or something visible to my work. Vacuuming just never did that for me. I couldn't really see a difference. Yes, sometimes the vacuum bag would fill up and after vacuuming the house was a little less dusty smelling...but the carpet still looked the same. It didn't look any cleaner to me.

After padawanlee and I got married we invested in a Dyson vacuum. More expensive, but it has actually made me more excited about vacuuming. Call me crazy, but I like the fact that you can actually see what you pick up from the carpet. It makes me feel like I'm actually cleaning something up. I mean, yeah, it's really gross, but hey, the science teacher in me is fascinated how just the 3 of us can produce so much dust (yum, yum, dead skin cells). Go, cyclonic action!

It Only Takes a Week...

I have been thoroughly amazed at how fast Baby Bear changes. Take the first week of June, for example. She suddenly got her two front teeth, was able to sit up without much assistance and started rolling everywhere! All in the same week!

It just reminds me how I better enjoy every moment this week, because it will all be different next week (And I mean this beyond the scope of Baby Bear as well).

Congrats (Not-so)Little Brother!

Today is my brother's high school graduation. *sniff*

Time sure flies by fast. I still remember his munchkin days when it was my responsibility to pick him up from after-school day care at the tender age of five. Now he's 6 feet tall and going off to college.

Congratulations, Dylpyl!

Just Some Things...

Here are some things that I've wanted to post:

(1) The nicest thing padawanlee ever said to me (which happened this week) was "it's my day off therefore, it's your day off, too." He then took Baby Bear out on his own for a while. I didn't know what to do with myself for those 3 hours, but it was nice.

(2) I officially quit my job yesterday. I am no longer a high school science teacher. Tough decision, but it's the best thing to do right now. I would feel torn leaving Baby Bear, and also not being able to give my best to my students. For those of you who think that anyone can teach and it's an easy job because you only work 9 months out of the year...I hope you go into teaching one day :).

(3) My baby has a "man face." Today at the Japanese market, Baby Bear and I met a family (mom, dad, daughter, son) in the senbei aisle. They were talking to Baby Bear when the mother turned to me and said, "he's such a big boy...and he's got that serious man face, just like my son." What could I do? I didn't want to embarrass this woman by telling her that my "man faced" baby was in fact a girl. But sheesh...I know she's got the boy hair, but a man face?

(4) I hate the two cats that live upstairs. They have been keeping me up every night lately. Just when I'm about to drift off into la-la land, their horrible cries come resounding through our bedroom window. Last night, padawanlee had to shoo them away. Plus, they have given our home the gift of fleas. Fortunately, the fleas don't bite Baby Bear and padawanlee, but I'm being eaten alive.

(5) So, we're going to move. Soon. I hope very soon.

Bang! Bang! Buzz!

Bang! Bang! Buzz! Buzz! Screech! Screech! Boom! Rattle!

That's what I currently hear upstairs. They're doing some construction in the bathroom in the upstairs apartment(remember the leak?).

So since the leak, we have had this water stain in our bedroom ceiling. The handyman finally came to repair it, but I'm a little concerned. All he did was paint over it. Is that normal procedure for a large water stain?

Not Sleeping Well...

From the title, you're probably guessing that I'm going to write about how Baby Bear isn't sleeping...well, no. She's been doing great. It's her mom that isn't sleeping well.

Apparently, I'm not alone. Check out this Newsweek article.

Padawanlee doesn't really understand why I can't sleep. I explained to him that my head is so full of mental checklists, to-do lists, and what-ifs that I can't sleep. He told me, "Well, can't you just stop thinking?" Ha! If I could, I'm sure I'd be sleeping. Then again, the moment he hits his head to the pillow he is snoring away(How does he do that?!?!). Meanwhile a couple of hours rolls by while I listen to his rhythmic snoring.

So somehow, I have to learn not to think.