Exausted

This pass weekend was so busy with events centering around kids and families that I didn't get to do any of my chores.
Saturday morning, I took an hour of boot camp at the gym. Instructor is 4 months pregnant so she had to keep her heart rate at a certain level but still goes pretty hard. "I want you to be exausted after my class!!!" She was tough and merciless similar to Jillian of the biggest looser.
After class, Secondo and I went to our last swim lesson. She was paddling with her hands and doing some kicking but not consistently. She's more used to being dunk under water but still doesn't like floating on her back. I decided to stop the lesson and start again next summer. She's getting really tan and I have sufficient training to teach her my self at this point. Primero is the one who should take lesson so I'm going to put it on the list. Their cousins came by in the afternoon so Primero went to the pool again while I stayed home with Secondo. She napped for 30 min and said "ma ma.. ma ma" That was the end of my hope to get more chores done.
When they got back from the pool, everyone was hungry except for my pregnant sister in-law who had been having terrible morning sickness. She had to hide upstairs where the smell food isn’t so overwhelming for her.
I cooked for 6 adults. The menu was soy sauce simmered baby back ribs, shrimp with ketchup and wine sauce (which I learned from Ang Lee long time ago watching an interview on TV), and baby bak choi stir fried in garlic sauce. I have not cooked for anyone since Secondo was born so it felt good when people liked my food and said how delicious they were.
After dinner I play cards with the kids, the guess left and we all went to bed exhausted.

The next day, I woke up with a sore body. My legs were the worst when going up and down stairs. (They are sore still today) We got ready and went to one of mom's cousin's daughter's 1st Bday party. When we got there, lots of girls in Primero's age group was running around playing. They have a dog fluffy who loved Secondo and the other kids but Secondo was afraid of it.
After that party, we went to visit my friend Steve who lived in that neighborhood so our kids can play together. We had pho for dinner and play badminton. It was really fun.

15 month old

We took the kids to "Build a bear workshop" and Secondo was ruffling in to all the different outfits for the bears. She's 15 months old now and she has mastered walking and is trying to run and jump. Itsy bitsy spider is her favorite song and I'm so tired of singing it for the 20th time. She's also a thumb sucker like her cie-cie (Elder sister) but she's more hard core and her thumb has blister already at this age. Secondo has higher pain level too. Sometimes she'll have a bloody broken toe nail and it doesn't phase her at all.
Here Primero at her cousin, E's house building their cookie and popcorn shop.

3 Iron

I traveled for business last week and due to the terrorist findings in the UK, I was forced to check my bag with my toiletries and be at the airport 3 hours before departure. My out going flight was @ 7:20AM so I was scheduled to wake up @ 3AM and be at the airport by 4:20 AM. Secondo had too much excitement that night so she was not able to sleep soundly. She woke up many times and I wasn't able to sleep until about 1 AM. Airport was a zoo even @ 4 AM but I checked in and went through security within 40 min so I was roaming around the airport waiting for Starbuck to open and get some coffee. It finally opened around 5:30AM so I was able to get some breakfast. The flight was uneventfull but I'm not used to waiting around for baggage claim etc..
While traveling, I didn't have to attend to anyone. I ate when ever I'm hungry and go as I please. It felt as if I was single again, freedom.. but it wasn't the same. There was something missing in my life during those days, my family. This one restaurant that I highly recommend is Paesanos. They have the best Italian food I have ever had. I heard that Pachanga Casino area has the same restaurant so I'm going to convince hubby to go to Pachanga sometime this year.
Returning flight was about the same and I was really glad to be home and see my kids.
This pass weekend, we rented a Korean movie "3 Iron". It's an interesting movie that didn't have much dialog between the main characters so it works well for a foreign movie. I would recommended this movie for everyone.
Secondo can say "ma ma" now but the thing is she says it to both me and hubby.

No longer a polluter

Last Saturday, hubby took the Accord for a tune up and CAT (Car talk for Catalytic converter) change and the Accord passed smog test! Hallelujah!! Now I can drive the car with out feeling guilty when I see the smog in the air.
Primero went to Boomers for the 1st time yesterday and she can't stop talking about it.
P: "Mom, can we go to Boomer this weekend? Can we, can we?"
Hub: "What ride was your favorite?"
P:"Oh.. all of them"
Last night, Secondo was really whiney so I scolded her and said "No more whining!" in the mad motherly tone. Next thing I heard was this loud cry. She was in the master bathroom so the crying was magnified by the echos our empty bath room was able to generate. Big mistake.. so I told her I was sorry and held her but she was still cranky the whole night

Swim lesson

This weekend, Primero was hanging out with her cousin, hubby was at work and I took Secondo for her 1st swim lesson. I decided to get there early considering I got to stroll her from parking lot to the pool and in general it takes an extra 10 minutes to do anything involving a toddler. When I got to the pool, there's a message on the gate "Swim Lesson is moved to another pool due to contamination" I was stressing out because I don't know where the other pool was. While panicing, I noticed that they had direction to the backup pool on the gate so I got there shortly. I knew I was at the right place because all the crying and laughing of children in the Air.
We all finally got into the water with our toddler and the lesson began.
Since a toddler can't comprehend what's going on, the swim lesson was more for the parent than for the child.
1. I sang the wheel on the bus and went round and round with the baby, up and down, swish,swish swish while dipping the child side to side so they get used to getting wet ears.
2. I got a floating toy and threw it to a distance and encaurage the kid to kick while getting the toy.
3. I helped the baby use their arm to make the paddling motion while singing row row row your boat.
4. The instructor springkled water on Secondo's head while singing it's raining it's pouring.
5. I helped the baby float on their back while they lay on my shoulder.
It was fun and short so we'll do it again next week.

Old Car

My accord is due for smog so hubby took it in for a test and it FAILED! Here goes the journey of making the car pass smog. 1st we went to a mechanic and he said to flush the ERG which didn't work. Now we think it's the catalytic converter so that's what we're going to do next

Wanting what I don't have

I borrowed another audio book on meditation by Jack Kornfield called "Meditation for beginners". It was the request of Primero because she enjoyed one meditation audio book I borrowed one time. This one however is different. It explains about the intent of meditation and how to manage when many thoughts are running in your mind and the "what if" or "if only" energy enters the mind. Bottom line is that meditation is a form of acceptance of one self with all the inperfections.
Another interesting quote I learned is "The greatest diappointment in life is not getting what you want and getting what you want" This ring alot of truth for me in many ways and I'm happy to say that I've learned to accept my self more as I'm older and wiser
Here's an example of what I did to meet a certain want.
In my younger years, I was never satisfied with my feet. They were wide and have bunions on both sides which made it difficult for me to wear cute or fashionable shoes. My friend who had similar bunions problem had them removed and she was so happy with the result. I saw how happy she was wear heels and trendy shoes so I decided to remove the bunion from one foot and once it recovered, I'll do the other one. Recovery for that surgery was true suffering. I had to crawl around for 2 weeks and hubby washed my hair for me since I couldn't really shower. After the foot healed, I was disappointed that my toes were shorter than before. I didn't realized that my toes would get shorter. I was not satisfied before or after the surgery so the quote is so true. Over time I learned to love both my feet as they are and buy shoes that fit my feet.