Monday, January 29, 2007

The Flu

Secondo caught the flu on Thursday the 25th. She can't keep any food down, even a teaspoon of water or one small piece of ice chip caused her to vomit. We didn't give her anything other than water and ice chips. She cried for milk and water before going to bed and all I could do was hold her and let her cry until exaustion. She woke up several times in the middle of the night asking for milk.
On Friday morning, she said "Aqua.. aqua.. milk... milk.." We gave her a teaspoon of water and after the 1st sip, she wanted more and was annoyed that she couldn't just gulped down as much water to quench her thirst and hunger. Hubby stayed home with her incase she threw up again. After several hours, she was able to keep the food down but then she started to have a fever.
Saturday and Sunday were the worst may be because I broke down and gave her milk. She kept having exposive diarrhea episodes that leaked out of the diapers which means I had to wash her down many times. I got a head ache from smelling her poopy diapers and can't stand it anymore. We started giving her soy milk so I hope the diarrhea stops soon.
Mom and dad came and stayed with us this weekend and spoiled Danielle with littlest pet shop toys.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Lice?

Yesterday, I got a letter from Danielle's school saying that some kids were sent home because they found lice in their heads so all parents are encouraged to check our kids head daily and treat it incase it happens. When I washed Danielle's hair last night, I said that may be the warm water will kill the lice. She said these lice likes warm condition and that's why they like to stay on the warm scalp.
Danielle is learning the value of money. We went to Target over the weekend and she brought her own money to buy her toys. She's looking forward to Chinese New Year and is practicing her "gong xi fa chai" greeting so she'll get nice fat red envelopes from the grand parents. We're going to open a saving account for her and hopefully she'll save more than she spend.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Home cooking and movie review

Since I've been sick for the pass few days, all I want to eat is hot steamy soup with chilli to clear my nasal passages. This pass weekend, I've made
  1. Wonton noodle soup
  2. Indonesian style chicken with veggie soup
  3. Indonesian beef stew/Rawon
I spent lots of time in the kitchen but it was rewarding when my recipes comes out tasty and the family enjoy the fruit of my labor. Hubby commented how tasty my wonton soup was; however, he didn't care for the chicken and veggie soup. Secondo liked the wontons I made. She ate 3 of them in one sitting. I'll have to remember to make some for her lunch tomorrrow.

I didn't get a chance to get on the computer to type the tom yum recipe so Juliette, please be patience with me.
I was upset that I didn't get to spin on Sunday. I was there 15 min before class and all the bike was taken. I got on a stationary bike for 20 min but I didn't burn as much calories if I was on the spin bikes so I decided to get on the tredmill and jog/walk for 30 min. I truly believe Jogging is a form of suffering that has it's purpose but It's not for me.

We saw the DVD House of Flying Dagger and I really enjoyed it. I've always favors movies where the leading women kicks serious butt instead of being weak and helpless. I like the last song on the sound track and hopefully I can get it from itune.

Friday, January 19, 2007

20 months old

Secondo 1 day old
Her face looked puffy right after birth.

Secondo 20 months old
She's watching TV and eating dry banana

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Miserable night.

Secondo has been sick since Monday and I got what she has yesterday. Sore throat, stuffy nose and I didn’t sleep well at all last night. Reason A= my cold, Reason B= my restless child. I've decided that it's time for Secondo to sleep on her own because I don't sleep well with her anymore as she gets older. I've probably blogged before, She has to sleep against me cheek to cheek. I would move to the left to make room for my self and she'll roll over and take up the free space. Sometimes she'll roll over twice and ended up on top of me. If you could imagine that we started at 0 degree, by the next morning, we ended up 90 to 180 degree from where we started.
The challenge is to figure out how to get her to sleep alone.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Something missing in the air

It was weird not having Jaime Jack and Stench, local radio personalities on the air on my 1st morning drive to work in January. At first, I thought they were still on vacation because they were playing old episodes on the 1st week. This morning Lisa Foxx was on and sounds like that's her new time slot which is disappointing. This is the 2nd time Clear channel made changes with their radio morning program with out pre-warning their listeners. They've failed the 1st time trying to kick off JJS and copied Jack FM yet still didn't really learned much from that incident. Just like any living creature, we appriciate warnings prior to any changes. After listening to Jaime for over 5 years, I fell as if she's a friend who I can turn on in the morning and catch up to the latest drama in her life.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Gas molecules

The other night, hubby and I were watching a movie on TV with a married couple friend and the husband got up to get some food from the kitchen and with a jerky torso movement, he accidentally cut a loud but odorless one 2 feet away from me. I was glad that it wasn't the silent but deadly version or I would have had to say something.
I looked over to his wife to check on her reaction to what just happened. She was 10 feet away from me so she may not have heard it. We all carried on as if nothing had happened when he and I knew that he just farted. At what level of friendship, do we fell comfortable or brave enough to joke and laugh about farts like we did when we were kids? Thinking back, I could have said " Danielle really likes this book titled The gas we pass? It's an interesting read"

Monday, January 15, 2007

Territorial

Lately, I've noticed Danielle is more territorial than ever. She would close her bedroom door so Secondo won't have access to her toys or play in her so called nest consist of pillows and blankets. Danielle said that anyone entering her room must say the right password and I told her Secondo has limited vocabularies let alone comprehending the concept of a password. Danielle appeared unsympathetic and replied that she'll create easy passwords so mei-mei can say it. I'm afraid this will cause more frustration on her part and she'll learn to share things with her little sister. She also not happy that Secondo plays with her toys with out asking 1st. I told Danielle to be patient and when Secondo turns 3 years, she'll be able play by her older sister's rules. I can't remember if I was like Danielle with my little brother at her because our age gap is about the same.
Danielle started to play Lego STARWARS video game with her neighbor friend. She can play for hours and doesn't want to quit. It's a really cute game so I may get it for her as a birthday present.
I've recently learned how to make Tom Yum Kung from my Thai friend and I made the soup again last weekend to share with her family on Saturday night. Her husband tasted it and said that my Tom yum kung was as good as what he gets at a Thai restaurant which quite an ego boost. Mom likes her version of Green Curry but it's made with tons of coconut milk which isn't a dish that we can eat on regular basis.

On Sunday, we went to sister inlaw's baby shower brunch. They served tiny ham and cheese rolls, salads and egg casseroles. We gave her a bath kit and as she open her gifts, two other gifts were bath kits too. I've included the gift receipt so I hope they will exchange it for something else on their registry. One game we played was to guess the numbers of mini M&Ms that were in this tiny bottle. It had over 300 M&Ms and I was way off by guessing 50.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

New blog features to get used to

Since I moved to www2. blogger.com, I have not had the time to add all my favorite blogs on the appropriate spot on the page yet so don't feel rejected or sad. When I have time this weekend, I will put everyone back on. I need uninterupted chunk of time to look at HTML code since I'm not an expert at it. It's a pain for me too that I can't just click on the link to see what everyone is up to.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Baby showers


I attended a baby shower yesterday and all of the guests were women. I'm lucky that when I had my 1st baby shower at work, guys from my department attended the shower too. They didn't want to find out the sex of the baby so most of the clothes and towels were green or yellow. I'm glad that I have the option to find out the gender of my babies. With the 2nd child, I didn't want to know the gender at first but as the pregnancy progressed, I had to decide if I should keep Danielle's clothes and toys or give them away to make room for boy clothes and toys. It worked out fine that Secondo is able to use most of the things Danielle had.
While we ate, we all shared our pregnancy, morning sickness and craving stories. From this get together, I learned that on the show gray anatomies, one female character was blessed with 2 uteruses or uteri? and she had relations with 2 different men while she was ovulating (I assume from 2 sets of ovaries) so her twins were 6 weeks apart with different fathers. Too dramatic to be realistic.
I have another shower scheduled for this weekend so more baby shopping before the event.
I've been thinking about the goals I want to set for 2007 and they are
  1. Increase upper body and core strength
  2. Organize kid pictures and be creative with the out put
  3. Volunteer more in Danielle's class

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Xmas cookies tradition


My friend P who loves to cook and bake always make Xmas cookies ever since I've known her. This year we got together after Xmas and she asked Danielle to pick the cookies she liked from a recipe book and they made cookies.


Daniell picked out green wreath and she decorated them all by her self.














I picked out the jam filled star ones here.

Friday, January 05, 2007

Getting back on track

I'm glad Friday is here. First week of school was quite a challenge for everyone in the household except for Secondo. During the break, Danielle made friends with one of the neighbor kid and all she talks about is this child and wanting to play with her when she gets home from school. She goes to private school and doesn't get any homework where as Danielle has homework everyday. I had to be the bad cop and told both of them that they can only play on the weekends. We really must stay with the schedule or one of us could have a melt down.
I had given Danielle a break on piano during the holidays and it was a struggle to get her to practicing her music on regular basis. From this point forward, she will be practicing continuously so it's not such a struggle getting back on track. She asked if we can change her lesson day from Monday to Thursday because Thursday is less hectic than Monday. We'll talk with her teacher and see if that's even possible. She'll have her 1st piano recital on Feb 9th and it will be interesting to see how she performs infront of strangers.
This Saturday, mom and dad are bringing aunt Lee over for a visit. I'll be making chicken sate (skewers) and gado gado (Indonesian salad with peanut sauce). We've also invited one of our neighbor for lunch.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Lesson in friendship

When I moved back to OC several years ago, one of my goal was to hang out more with my old roommates and friends since we are only 20 minutes away. When we did get together, we realized that as time goes by, we don't have that much in common anymore.
It's been over a year since I've seen my friend S. I would leave her messages and she didn't call me back. I feel that we made more of an effort when I lived 70 miles away from her.
With my other friend H, we invited her family over for lunch 3 years ago hoping that our kids could play together etc.. and we have not talked to each other since.
The only friend that I see regularly is my friend P, we've been friends for over 20 years and we make the effort to see each other at least 3 times a year and we live hours from each other. With friends who are far away, we stay in touch via emails and blogs.
I learned that distance is not really the barrier to stay in touch with any of friends. Taking the time to call and say hello is all it takes.

Side note:
If you recall I blogged about fighting with insurance company on Oct 30th, I got a call from Secondo's Doctor's office yesterday saying that they still have not gotten paid for one particular shot. I resorted to have our HR deal with the issue.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Stay at home mom

Hubby and Danielle went back on their schedule yesterday where as I had the day off so I was a stayed home mom yesterday. I dropped off the kids like usual and went to the gym for the core central class where we worked on strengthening our abdomens. Those who had been pregnant multiple times know how difficult it is to tighten and strengthen the abs area after having kids. I got to the gym 10 min early and the class was packed with mostly women. My guess is that they were all stay home moms which made me feel out of place since everyone seemed to know each other and were having a great old time sharing their New Year eve and kid stories.
There were no free hand weights available so I resorted to the disk weights used for weight lifting. I liked the routine from that class and if I’m discipline enough I could do the same workout at home on the step. After the core workout, I continued with the cycle class. At the end of cycling, I burned off ~ 800 calories. I watched the biggest looser marathon the night before so I was pumped up to get into a better shape.
After I showered and ate a quick lunch, I headed to Danielle’s school to meet and help her new teacher. She was a bit lost as of what I could help her with but the kids suggested that I listened and helped individual kid read. It was eye opening for me to witness the large spectrum of readers when I spent time with 5 kids. One kid was trying hard to sound out words such as “slow, laugh” and one kid was reading proficiently a book containing the word “execution, and cement”. Danielle wanted to read with me so we read her Junie B Jones the sneaky peaky spying during recess. One thing I don’t like about the book is that Junie B does not use the correct pass tense. I guess it’s a good opportunity for me to discuss with Danielle that past tense of think is not thinked but thought.
After recess, I help her teacher out with Physical Education. They stretched as a group then I handed out jump ropes to the kids who wants to jump individually. Danielle didn't care for jump rope so she played with her friends. I spent time with older kids turning rope while they jumped. I had fun jumping too but it’s easier to turn the rope than jump at my age. Her teacher was appreciative that I was there to help her and I had fun learning what PE is all about.
When we got home, Danielle ate some snack, did her homework while I washed the dishes and made Yang-Chow fried rice for dinner with our neighbor who smoked some yummy ribs. She cracked up when she read that Junie B got a great idea out of thin hair.
It was non-stop until it was time for bed but I enjoyed every moment of it.