Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Christmas is around the corner

I'm delighted to present a new member of the family to you, our 4th hamster Cinnamon, I think that's what her name is.. Mom & Dad bought Danielle a new hamster the day hubby and I went to Camp Pendleton for the mud run. She was really happy, and excited about having a new pet to care for. Our laundry room is again filled with the smell of hamster urine in the air. Danielle's solution is to bring her small portable fan with her when she visits Cinnamon.
We spent Thanksgiving with hubby's family on Thursday and drove to Las Vegas on Friday and spent Thanksgiving with my parents. Traffic was horrible and there were so many people on the streets. I had the impression that we were in resession and people barely have enough money to sustain the basic. Hubby and I ate buffet dinner at the Cravings within Mirage and it was a disappointment. For $35/person, Sushi bar was mainly rice with seaweed and kings crabs were tasteless. Luckily, the seabass was edible and they were serving wonton soup. The casinos & shops were full of people and smoke. We stayed at the Mirage and the kids were happy playing in the hotel room. I realized that Vegas isn't the best place to bring kids or hubby and I. We drove back on Saturday and traffic was bad. It took us 6 hours to get back to the OC. We had pho noodle soup at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant Thanh and the whole bill was about $35.00.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Camp Pendelton Mud run 2008

I participated in the10K group Camp Pendleton mud run with 9 others co-workers last Saturday. Yesterday I was so sore that going up and down stairs was a challenge. Today I'm still sore and not planning to go far from my computer. It was fun and tough so I may not do it next year.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Fall post

I'm sorry about not posting anything lately. I went back to school in September to get my "Lean six sigma greenbelt" certification so time is even more precious now than ever. I hope I'll have more time after November when the class is completed.

What happened after my last entry?
  1. Cookie our hamster the third died so Danielle is working hard persuading hubby and I to get her a new one daily & hourly. Hubby came up with a system where Danielle would collect hamster points if she cleans her room and keeps it clean, picks up after her self and sorts her own laundry. When she earns up to 250 Hamster points then we'll bring one home.
  2. Danielle is in 3rd grade and she's learning multiplication tables at the moment. She's also learning to use the computer. From the back to school night meeting, the teachers told us that our kids will be able to use PowerPoint to present their work by the end of school year. She's also envious of her classmates who have laptops in class to use when she had to share with other class mates using the desktop. I won't spend $2000 for a laptop for a 3rd grader. I asked her to save up her money from Christmas and Chinese new year. Hopefully by the time she's in 5th grade, she'll save enough money to get a laptop. Reading wise, she's reading the Beverly Hills Chihuahua and any dog related books.
  3. Secondo started preschool this fall in a new school so drop off was a little difficult the 1st 2 weeks. She loves the fact that I pack her lunch in her princess lunch pail. When I asked her what she did in school, she replied: "I went to chapel, ate lunch, go night night and come home" I guess those were the important milestones in a day of a 3 year old. She only wear dresses to school and the weather is getting cold. She's taking ballet class on Saturdays and is really enjoying it.

Friday, July 25, 2008

July is almost over

We went down to San Diego for our mini family vacation this past week. It's a trial experiment with Secondo considering her potty readiness skill is not 100% reliable yet. We brought the potty with us in case she had to go in the middle of the freeway. This had happened to us during a drive home from my parent's home and we had to frantically find a bathroom in an unknown scary neighborhood by freeway.
We went to Legoland on Monday and it was Secondo's 1st trip there. She enjoyed the helicopter, boat and the safari jeep ride. After lunch we hung around the play area before Danielle and I went on to the aquazone. The line was short so we went on it twice. We left the park around 4PM and checked in to the Carlsbad Holiday Inn by the Sea. The hotel looked nice on the website but did not meet my expectation. A more accurate description would be Carlsbad Holiday Inn by the outlet mall. The sea was not visible from the hotel. We grabbed a bite to eat and visited my friend who lives 2 blocks from the beach.
We were lucky enough to catch the sunset and Danielle unwilling posed for my friend. The kids played in the sand and we sat and enjoyed the view.


We stayed until dark and headed back to our hotel.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Secondo and Dora


This picture was taken the day after her birthday. She loves Dora and loves the camera.

This one is taken with natural light. She has her own idea of striking a pose.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Wii Fit

We hooked up our wii fit on Friday and Danielle and I had so much fun exploring the various games. She likes ski jump the best and I like hula hooping. I got sweaty after hula hooping for 10 mins and I can feel my abs working. Yoga is a little tough and running in place with a wii remote control in your back pocket is not fun at all. I haven't try the strength training exercises yet.
I set a goal to loose 5 lbs in 1 month and Danielle's goal is to gain 3 lbs in 1 month. We tried to input Secondo's in the system but she wasn't able to stand still for some of the body tests.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Summer reading

Since Monday, I have not been listening to any book while driving and I felt empty and lonely during my drive to work. If felt as if my carpool partner who read for me was on vacation and I really missed him/her.
Last night after I picked up Danielle from her summer camp, we went to our local library and sign up for Summer reading programs for both of us. When she reads 20 min/day for 6 days, she'll get some special gift from the library. She checked out several books from Chronicles of Narnia and is reading Prince Caspian at the moment.

Summer reading for adults are a little different, I'm required to reading and review4 books tin order to participate in a drawing for goodies. I checked out 3 audio books so far
  1. Count Karlstein by Phillip Pullman. I really enjoyed Pullmans dark material series and wanted to read his other works.
  2. The Sun Also rises by Earnest Hemingway. This is one of the book on "1001 books you must read before you die" list so I'm reading it.
  3. Purpose driven life (What on earth am I here for?) by Richard Warren. I've seen Richard on PBS while channel surfing and I hope to learn want my purpose on this planet is after listening to this book.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Getting back on track

Since the beginning of June, I gone off track of my eating healthy and exercising. I felt unmotivated and didn't really see the point of all the hard work of working out. I tried to exercise at night and that hasn't work either. I discussed the possibility of taking time off from exercise with my co-worker but the result will be back to square one unless I eat extremely strict. I noticed my weight creeping back up already as I stray from healthy eating for the pass 2 weeks. The main reason for my going off track is that I had set a goal weight for my birthday and I wasn't able deliver my present to my self. Not only that I didn't reach my goal, I gained 3 lbs from my lowest weigh in since January so I was very disappointed.
Yesterday, on my birthday, I almost continued with my negative mind set snow ball effect because I didn't feel like going to the gym. I got up @ 6:30AM and watched movies with the kids. We toyed around the idea of going to the beach but hubby wasn't so eager with the idea so I went to the gym like always. Besides, I was feeling fat so didn't want to be seen in a bathing suit.
At the gym, I practiced jump rope and cycled with a substitute, Mary who used to take the class with me. Jump rope is fun but hard on the knees; however, it's one exercise I could do anywhere. I'm glad that I decided to go to the gym and burn off 600 calories. I felt sore and old after the workout.
We ate leftover for lunch, & I took a short nap to let my aging body recover.
After putting the kids to sleep, I stayed up a little late and watched Dr Oz "You on a Diet" program where he helped obese folks reduce their waist line to 35" for men and 32" for women via eating healthy and exercise. The eye opening part of the show was when, he showed his clients the differences between a healthy heart and an obese heart. Healthy heart was the size of my fist and the valves were rubbery and the plumbings were clean. Obese heart was 3 times the size of the healthy heart and there were fat or cholesterol deposits on the wall of the plumbings. He also showed a cross section of a person's body where fat surrounds our internally vital organs ( liver, intestines, etc) that could result to heart attack/death. On his shows, most of them were like me. They were on track for the 1st 3 months and then they went back to their old ways of eating and didn't see any result. Dr Oz said to them that it's OK to have set backs because we will and the important thing is to get back on track. He used the analogy of a GPS system. If we missed our exit, the GPS doesn't chastise us but says to make a U turn on the next legal opportunity. After the show, I went to bed rediscover why I spend my time exercising and what my goal still is. My goal is to reach and maintain 32" waist line by eating healthy and exercise. It's OK to stray from the program as long as I get right back in the next opportunity I have.
Today, I stop chastising my self and I made a U turn this morning by eating a healthy breakfast and packed healthy snacks and lunch.
Today I'm proud that I weigh less than I did a year a go and I also found a Wii fit.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

I'm changing

Lately, I've been questioning my self of why do I spend the time to exercise on regular basis. If I don't exercise, I will have extra time to do other things with my family.
Last night, I didn't feel like going to the gym but I told hubby that I'm going so I was committed to the task.
The night before going to the gym @ 4:30 AM, I usually don't sleep well. Last night for instance, we got in bed by 9PM and I got up at 11:30 PM to the bath room. I was abruptly woken up by opening of garage door, thinking that I overslept so I checked my watch and it was ~3:00AM. I tried going back to sleep but felt irritated and angry because I should be sleeping through the noise until my alarm goes off. Next thing I remember, my alarm went off @ 4:10 AM so I got up and got ready for my morning exercise. I was scheduled to run 5K but I didn't wear the right bra so I jogged for 10 min and got on the bike for 20 min. I forgot to wear my heart monitor belt so I didn't track how much calories I burned. I did some arm work and walked out of the gym. It was day light and the air felt crisp and fresh on my sweaty face. I took several deep breaths and asked my self if all the apprehension I felt the night before workout was worth it?
It's been 3 months since I started this taxing 4:30 workout regiment and I need a new routine. Next week, Danielle will be out of school, and we don't have home work duty for at least 3 months. I'm going to workout at night twice a week and get a good night sleep.

How does one live with out having regrets? Lately, Danielle would say, I wish I had done this or I should have done X instead of Y.

Juliet,
If you are reading this blog, I hope I could be added to your list of reader. I miss reading how your boys are doing.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

June Entry

It felt as if I just blogged last week but in reality a month has passed and now we are in June.

I. Secondo

Since my last entry, we celebrated Secondo’s 3rd birthday at my parent’s house on 5/17/08 with friends and family. Mom and mother in-law contributed lots of food for the party and I did not remember to take pictures of such festivities. Dad made his special almond pudding dessert which was a hit every time. I took some pictures but they have yet to be downloaded for posting. I rented the jump house for the little ones to bounce off the wall. It was scorching hot that day , the kids could not stand bouncing on the hot vinyl for more than 5 minutes. Some of the brave souls sang Karaoke while the older kids played video games upstairs in mom & dad’s room. One of my friends who lives in Santa Clarita Valley didn’t make it down so I was a little disappointed. One monumental thing Secondo did on her birthday was that she pooped in the potty with out being asked. After she finished her business and announced to the world “ I poo poo in the potty!”. Everyone in the house clapped their hands and cheered as if gasoline price has gone back down to $1.25/ gallon. To side tracked a little; I paid $ 4.45/gallon today at Costco. I’m looking into the possibility of taking the train to work. Back to the story: From that point forward, it was one step forward, two steps back on her being proactive. She would poop in her underwear if she was too involved in a task or when we didn’t pay attention. When we see her eyes get watery, hubby or I would sit her down on the potty. Last weekend, she had been pooping in the potty and I’m so hoping that this is it. She’s finally getting it and no more cleaning after this child. The potty training journey has been long and painful and I’m beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel. She started in the 3 year old class this month and she’s not used to it since all her friends are still in the two year old class.

II. Reading

I’m currently listening/reading the dark material trilogy of Phillip Pullman. I saw the movie Golden Compass prior to reading the book and the book goes into more details about Lyra’s journeys, her deamon and her enemies. I like the material and not sure if Danielle would be interested in the book. I’m listening to Subtle Knife , 2nd book of the series and she’s traveling to different world looking for scholars to help her find “dust”. I looked up the movie version of Subtle Knife and it’s coming out in 2009. One movie that I can’t wait to see is “Time traveler’s wife”. It’s suppose to be out in 2008 and I haven’t heard any buzz about it at all.

III. Danielle

Danielle is into Webkinz now. Webkinz sell stuff animal that can also be a virtual pet that she feeds and takes care of on line. Polar plunge is her favorite game and candy bash 2 is mine. I helped her earn kinzcash by playing games and joining tournaments. Next Wednesday will be the end of the school year and she’s looking forward to getting her report cards. She earns cash if she does well in school and she’s ready to buy more webkinz. She gets bored easily now and doesn't draw as much as she used to when she was younger.

IV. Workout

On the workout front, I’ve been running less after I injured my left ankle while learning to jump rope 3 weeks ago. It looked easy for the instructor to jump and land on her heel but when I did it I twisted something. I went back on the treadmill this morning after resting for 3 weeks and it felt OK. I’m planning to do a 5K charity run on July 4th around our area and my time is 13 min/mile. I tried to get Danielle to run 1K with other kids and she said no. I’m tired of my workout music that I have so if any of you has any motivating song list, please post them on comment section. I still exercise 4 times a week and 4:00AM morning calls are easier to get up to and it makes the week go by faster.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Mother's Day & Pre-school week 4

I. Mother's day
Belated Happy Mother's Day to my dearest readers who are hard working moms. I like Kate's quote from "Jon & Kate plus 8 " "I love mother's day and we should celebrate it one a month." When ever I watched that show, I fell blessed with having only 2 kids instead of 8. On mother's day, she got breakfast in bed, and went to the spa. For my mother's day, I went to the gym as usual and when I got home, Secondo yelled "Surprise!". Hubby got me some purple and yellow tulips and a bird house for our backyard garden. Danielle gave me recipe book she made from school. She had a melt down because Secondo colored all over the Mother's day card that she was making for me. She told me that she wished that she was the only child. Ever since, Secondo discovered markers, she loved to color everything she got her hands on. She colored my binder cover, books, papers, bills, & Danielle's homework. After lunching on some left overs, I went for a nap while hubby played with Secondo. I enjoy a relaxing and low key Mother's day where I didn't do too many chores.
On Saturday, we had a potluck lunch with hubby side of the family. It was supposed to start @ 12PM but we were running late getting there so we didn't eat until 2 PM. After a big lunch, I played Mario Kart on Wii with the kids and it was entertaining in a stressful way. I drove too fast and fell of the cliff a couple of times and I felt tired and sweaty after a couple of races.
Around 6PM, we went to my parent's house, hung out a bit before taking my mom & dad out for Thai Dinner. We went to Thai BBQ & Noodles in Cypress for the 1st time and we really liked it. The best dish we enjoyed were their Panang Beef and generous portion of Beef Sate. Pad Thai was a little too sweet and the kids loved the fried rice. After dinner, we went home and Secondo had 2 melts down on the freeway. First, the bow on the back of her dress was bothering her so we had to stop at Mickie D and take her dress off. After we got back on the freeway, she had to go pee pee. She was wearing pull up so I told her that it's OK to pee pee in her pull up because there's no potty on the freeway. She refused to do so and cried " I got to go pee pee!" until we stopped at a book store near Irvine. After she peed, we had a peaceful ride home with both kids sleeping in the car.
II. Secondo
As far as pre-school goes, Secondo is making progress with not crying during drop off. I sit with her for 5 min while she's eating her breakfast and she's more comfortable when some of her two year olds friends are there. Mondays and Fridays are tough because the 2 year old teacher doesn't get there until 8:30AM. Secondo likes the 2 year old teacher and showed more independent when she's around. When we get home she liked to do reverse roll play where I was Secondo and she was Mommy.
S: " OK Secondo, I have to go to work now so don't cry when I say bye and make mommy sad"
M: " But mom, I don't like this class room. I want to go to Ms G's class room."
S: " I'll stay for 5 more minutes and I'll have to leave for work."
M: "OK mom. I'm not going to cry"
She is wearing underwear to school now because she's able to tell her teacher when she has to do #1. Unfortunately, #2 is still difficult to for her to let us know before the fact. I hope to god that she'll get #2 under control before Summer is over.
I'll be busy preparing for her birthday party this coming weekend. I made the her a Dora banner and she really liked it.
III. On Exercise
I decided to participate in the Camp Pendleton Mud run in October with some co-workers from work. It's a 10K run in mud, hills and etc. I consulted my friend Carolyn who runs all the time and she gave me a program to train with. Today, I did the tempo run on the tread mill where I warmed up 5 min on the treadmill and then run @ 6.0 pace for 1 min and slowly work it up to 0.25 miles with an incline of 1.0. I covered 2.7 miles in less than 30 min. Before the mud run commitment, I used to do intervals @ 5.0 incline & walk @ 4.0 pace for a song and run @ 5.0 incline & run @ 5.2 pace for a song. I was able to complete 3.1 miles in 40 min. My goal is to complete the race in 75 min or less.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Transition to pre-school

This week is Secondo's 1st week at pre-school. She's with the older two's who are being potty trained. 1st day, the drop off was easy. I said good bye and she was busy playing with new toys. 2nd day, she didn't want me to leave so I sat with her for 10 minutes or so and had to leave her crying. By the time I dropped of Danielle, it was about 7:30AM. Today, I dropped of Danielle 1st so she won't be late for school when Secondo had separation anxiety issue. After dropping of Danielle, Secondo said "Mom, I don't want to go to school. I want to go to Amanda's house. I don't like my school anymore!"
Me: "We'll visit Amanda on weekends. Your new teacher will miss you if you don't go to school today."
Secondo: " I don't want to go to school. I want to go to Amanda house."
I didn't say much and drove her to school and she refused to go in to the building. When we got in to the class room she hugged me, cried and did not want to let me go.
Secondo: " I don't want to be in this classroom. I want the other class room."
Luckily, the two's teacher showed up so all the little ones were moved to the two classroom. I sat with her while she ate her apple and told her that I had to go to work in 5 min. When the time comes to leave, she cried and followed me out so I had to hand her over to her teacher and left feeling guilty for abandoning my child. I do recall having drop off issue with Danielle too and I would sit with her until circle time and sneaked out while they are singing.
When I called the school to check on her, the teacher said that she's doing fine.
I hope she'll do better next week during drop off.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Spring Break 2008

Last week was Danielle’s spring break so she spent a day at work with me while she still thinks going to work with mom is fun and cool. After work, I took her in for her annual check up and her height and weight are in the 40 percentile. The Dr. asked her if she eats veggies and she said “I like carrots and corn.” which isn’t sufficient amount of veggies in her diet. She had been complaining about the arch of her foot hurting so I mentioned it to the Dr. Her pediatrician’s recommendation is to wear shoes with arch support such as New Balance instead of the vans shoes that she normally wears. Danielle was happy that she didn’t get any shots but she may need to have her cholesterol checked. I took her to Nordstrom on Sunday to shop for shoes and the store had only 1 pair of boy New Balance. Most of the girl shoes had no arch support except for 1 pair of Asics. She wore her new shoes today to school and I hope it alleviates some of the pain she had.

We went to Disney California Adventure last Friday with my parents and it was record breaking HOT day. First, we went on Soarin’ while hubby hung out with Secondo because she’s too short for the ride. Not knowing what to expect, everyone really enjoyed the ride and it felt as if I was flying on a hang glider. After we were done, I got 2 fast passes so Hubby can go on the ride later in the day. We went on Monster’s Inc. next and Secondo enjoyed that ride as much as Danielle. Afterwards, we saw the Aladdin Musical sitting on the very last row in the theater while mom and dad took a short nap. The Genie was the funniest character of them all with all his contemporary jokes that Danielle really liked. After the show, we walked over to fisherman’s Warf and had lunch. The line was long and not enough seating area with sufficient shade. After 40 minutes of waiting in line, we had clam chowder in sour dough bowl and Chinese chicken salads. As expected the meals were pricey and not tasty at all. I can’t wait to go back to SF and get the real clam chowder. After lunch, it was time for hubby to Soar with Danielle while the rest of us hung out by the bug’s land. We saw the 3D “It’s tough to be a bug” show and Secondo was terrified the whole time. When the spiders came down to the audience, she cried “Mommy, I want to get out of here now!” so we waited outside until the show was over. We got some strawberry lemonade sherbet and waited to reconnect with hubby and Danielle in the bumper cars area. We went on 2 more kiddy rides and Secondo was ready to go home. Mom and dad went home 1st while we walked around Downtown Disney looking for the Lego store. We made it as far as the pretzel shop, got a pretzel and a cold drink for the girls and headed back to my parent’s house for diner. Next time, we'll go at night when it's cool and hopefully less crowded.

With Secondo’s potty training, she’s able to pee on command ( every 2 hours) but if it’s up to her, she typically informed us after the fact. I bought the “Once upon a potty” DVD and she seemed interested in wearing underwear and being a big girl but can’t communicate the need to go until it’s too late. I’m taking her out of the home day care and will put her in a preschool so she’ll be with her peers who are also potty training. Her sitter is sad to let her go but it’s time for her to move on and learn to socialize with her peers.

As far as my workout, I’m still working out 4 days a week and sticking with it. It makes the weeks go by faster and I feel the improvement in my shrinking waist line. I’ve been watching the biggest looser to motivate me and when I’m running out of steam, I hear Jillian or Bob telling me that it’s my “last chance workout and don’t give up!”. I’m not intimidated by a 5K jog anymore and I’m able to run/walk 5K in less than 40 min. What motivated me the most was having an IPod with my favorite songs that keeps me going when I can’t go any more. I like sweating because it’s an indication that my body is working hard and it needs sweat to cool me off. I do need to find some good jogging bras with lots of support for the twins. For me, learning to eat healthy takes more discipline than working out. Making the right choice is still one of my biggest challenges but now I’m reading labels and aware of what goes in the pie hole. Staying in shape is a continuous process so mind as well enjoy the ride.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was hot as if we skipped Spring and jumped right into Summer weather. Hubby worked on Saturday, Danielle went to Legoland with her cousin and I took Secondo to the Cerritos Library to cool off. Secondo is more dramatic and loud than Danielle when she speaks and it was difficult for her to keep her voice low in the library. She acts differently when her big sis isn't around. She's more independent and complains less.
She's a rebel and refused to go on the potty when I asked her to do so. We have not made any significant progress since the journey began. She's going to turn 3 in May and I so hope that she'll be potty trained by then.
We went to the beach on Sunday and it was packed. We had to park on the side of the road instead of the parking lot and the best part is that Secondo is old enough to walk and I was able to carry beach gear while holding her hand. The water was too cold for me to go in but others were having a great time playing in the waves. I'm reading "The notebook" so I was able to read a good chunk of it under the beach umbrella while Secondo played in the sand. It's a touching love story that exists only in romance novels. One of my friend's parents are going through the same deal as the couple in the story and he's After the notebook I'll continue reading "The choice". After that, it's going to be "Angels and Demons" and "Prey" by Michael Crichton. My friend Andrea who takes the cycling class recommended "No time for good bye" by Linwood Barclay so I'm adding it to my list also.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Sick kids

For the pass few days, Danielle had been coughing and complained about her throat being sore. Last night, she came in to my room @ 1AM letting me know that she couldn't sleep. I gave her some cough medicine and laid with her for 30 min. but she still couldn't sleep. Next thing I heard was Secondo crying "Mommy... Mommy!" so I went to her room. Her diaper was full so I changed her diaper and laid with her until she fell asleep and went back to check on Danielle who was still awake and said her throat was sore. I gave her some acetaminophen around 2 AM and hubby woke up and got ready to hit the gym. I fell asleep for 2 hrs and got up to go to the gym also @ 4:30 am. I was so hungry during my cardio workout and didn't have much energy. I only used up 332 calories using the Elliptical machine + some cable work. In short, none of us got much sleep last night except for Secondo. They are home with hubby today considering Secondo also has a cold.
At Danielle's school, she was supposed to wear black to show their lack of support on the budget cut proposed our governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. If the budget gets approved, class size will increase and there will be lay offs.
This week, I start to see some result from my hard work for the pass 6 weeks. I can fit in to my pre-pregnancy pants again. It's still a little tight, so loosing one more inch on the waist will make wearing those pants more comfortable. I've lost 3 pounds and % fat had gone down 1%. 0.5 lb/ week is slow compared to what biggest looser were able to loose weekly. It's amazing how the guys could drop 5-10 lbs / week and the black team ladies dropped 0-5 lbs/ week. Is it because the guys have so much more to loose or is it because Bob is a better trainer than Jillian?

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

March entry

Life has been more hectic at work and at home. In February, I started 4:30AM workout every Tuesday and Thursday so hubby would go @ 3:30AM on those two days. We've been going to bed by 8:30PM so we eat small dinner, homework, bath and bed. Our goals are to get 32 inch waist and hubby's waist line is already 31.5" from 33". He exercises 7 days a week and eats very strict diet. After 1 month, I'm not yet at 32 so I'm eating strict in March in hope to see some waist line shrinkage. I can't have larger waist than hubby. Strict means eat 5 small meals consist of lots of veggies and protein with small amount of good fat. I don't sleep well these days, I get up at least 3 times a night.

Yesterday I had a tough day. I craved for something sweet and really wanted coffee frappachino so instead, I had half of a sweet potato. I brought mango and gum today in case I wanted something sweet again. I noticed that I'm more hungry on the days that I hit the gym.

Danielle's birthday party was a success. 6 of her friends came over and they almost tore the house down. They played DDR, Wii, DS and made some dogs to take home. Secondo was possessive of one of the DDR pad and got stumped on several time while the girls were challenging each other. The girls wanted to play with our new dwarf hamster Cookie but Cookie is too aggressive to handle. She bit hubby's finger when hubby placed some food in the hamster maze. We did not invite our next door neighbor over for the party so it felt a bit awkward. Ever since we've started our healthy eating, we have not gotten together and share our meals. When we did get together, I was eating too much starch and larger portions.

Secondo's potty training is a two step forward one step back experience. On a good day, she'll go but when she's in a bad mood, she'll just go in her pull ups. As far as #2, she prefers to do it in the diaper. Pull ups are less absorbent than diapers and it doesn't bother her.
On a happier note, Secondo learned to sing the song "The way I am " from Ingrid Michaelson and portion of "No body's perfect" by Hannah Montana.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Good news and bad news

The good news since my last entry is that Danielle's best friend Nat is coming to her birthday party after all. Thanks to the hot weather we've been having lately so all the snow on out local mountains had melted and Nat's parents' ski trip got canceled. Some other parents called on Sunday so we're expecting 6 girls to show up and celebrate her birthday with her.
We had fun Sunday shopping for her party supplies until I had to go in to work for several hours.
The bad news is that our hamster died on Monday. She didn't look good Sunday night when I checked on her before bed and when I tried to hold her she gave the sign language of "Don't touch me and leave me alone." Her breathing was rapid and we don't know what happened. Naturally, Danielle was devastated when she discovered her hamster was not breathing. She said she didn't want her hamster to die. Our pet hamster almost had her 1 year anniversary this coming March but she didn't quite make the milestone.
It's so sad to see the empty cage in our laundry room last night and I don't want any more pets for a while.

Friday, February 08, 2008

Danielle's up coming Birthday

Two days ago, she came home and told me that her best friend Nat isn't coming to her birthday party because she's going skiing. She had teary eye when she said this.
D: "Only Sonia is coming to my party!"
Me: "Well, remember how your class mate A also has her ice skating party on the same day? That's why some of your friends can't attend both parties"
D while crying: "But I want Nat to celebrate my birthday with me!"
Me: "Unfortunately, your birthday is on a long weekend so people make other plans to go out of town. I'm sure she rather come to your party than go ski."
D: "Has any one called you yet?"
Me: "Not yet. I asked them to call by the 8th"
She started to cry hard and I asked her why?
D: "I'm sad because no one likes me."
Me: "That's not true. It's really a timing issue and so don't think that no one loves you"
She cried in my lap and after a good cry she felt better and went on with her routine stuff.
As of now, no one has called to say that they are coming to her dog party so I'm not sure what I'm going to do.
Sigh..

Monday, February 04, 2008

Potty training- Stage 2

Since my January entry, I’ve inform Secondo's baby sitter, A about potty training strategy, target date, her daily goals and rewards. When I picked Secondo after work I would asked about her daily progress.
A: “I sat her on the potty 3 times and she didn’t pee. When she busy playing, she forgets to let me know when she has to pee.”
Me: “ Can you asked her to go on a scheduled time?”
A: “ I do but she didn’t go.”
I was puzzled and disappointed by A’s lack of excitement and effort every night when I picked up Secondo after work. At home, when Secondo was asked to sit on the potty, she peed 70% of the times. After one week of getting the same song and dance, I stopped asking for progress report and decided to observe A’s potty training routine. A would sit Secondo on the potty for 30 seconds and if she did not pee, then she would dress her and took her out of the bath room. I explained to A that Secondo needed to sit on the potty for at least 3 minutes to give her a chance to go. I was so disappointed with not getting the support from this lady and didn’t really know what to do. I know she has other kids to tend to so I’m still working on a solution that help both of us to reach the ultimate goal. Sigh…
At home we have better success rate. I potty trained her after work, on the weekends and I’m praying to all the gods ruling the universe that the training she got from home is enough reinforcement to carry through the days when she’s at the sitter.
Last weekend, we got her Dora the explorer underwear and she got so excited and wanted to wear it. I told her when she’s wearing her underwear, she had to pee in the potty so Dora won’t get wet. She said “OK”. I went to the kitchen to cook dinner while Secondo was watching TV on the couch next to hubby. Not even 5 minutes went by hubby said “ She is peeing on the couch! Help!” After cleaning up everything, I told her that she’s not ready for Dora underwear yet so she went back to diaper and pull ups. She said “ Alright mama..” in her sad tone of voice.
This pass weekend we were home so she used the potty 90% of the time mostly with me reminding her to go. One time she told me that she had to pee so I sat her down on the potty and went back to the kitchen. Several minutes later she said “ I poo pooed mama! I poo pooed in the potty!” Both Danielle and I ran to the bathroom to see if it was true. We got all excited and praised her left and right. She was so proud of her accomplishment and attempted to take her potty out to the family room to show her dad but we stopped her and asked hubby to meet us in the bathroom instead. This is her 2nd time pooping in the potty so big achievement on her part.
Two step forward one step back is still making baby step progress. It’s not easy to explain to a 2.5 year old child the feeling you get before you have to go. It going to take time for my little one to master bladder control and communication. It’s mostly trial and error. My stretched goal is for her to be fully potty trained by June so she’s able to start preschool in the Summer and make new friends before September. Ultimate goal is to be trained by August so my camp out effort was not wasted. I’ll write about my camping out another day.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Potty Training – The beginning stage


One of the goals we set as a family for 2008 is to potty train Coconut a.k.a. Secondo. She’s 2.5 years old now and that was the age we started potty training Danielle. Back in 2002, as a first time mom, I didn’t know how to go about it and the suggestion that I liked best back then was to going from diaper to underwear. Pull ups are great but the child don’t feel any wetness so the process takes longer. Danielle got the hang of it within 2-3 weeks with major support of her pre-school teachers. I remember packing 5 sets of clothes for school in anticipation of many accidents and on the 1st day, I called and checked in on her during the day and the teacher told me that she was doing well. When I picked her up that afternoon, I found out that she did not pee all day when the teachers sat her on the potty. Before I picked her up, she had a big river type accident.
We are not as brave 2nd time around by going direct from diaper to underwear for the following reasons
1. Coconut’s care taker isn’t fully on board with my proposal
2. Coconut’s personality is very different than Danielle so the time it takes her to get the hang of it may be longer
3. It was stressful when we had so many accidents (#1 & 2) that I’m traumatized and don’t want to go there again
With Coconut, she had her first success this pass Sunday. She told me that she pooped so I checked her diaper and it was clean so I sat her on the potty and she took a dump on her little potty. We cheered, celebrated by giving her a candy & sticker. I said “ I’m so proud of you Coconut” She said “I’m so proud of you mama!” I also gave candy to Danielle and she said “ Why are you giving me candy? I didn’t poo in the potty?” I said “ You’ve been helping Coconut potty training so you deserve a candy too.” She seemed happy and proud and she has been prompting her sister to go potty every since.
This week, coconut has peed in the potty when we asked her to do so at home but still goes in the diaper at the sitter.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Happy New Year!

This picture was taken in October of 2007 at a beautiful wedding of one of my 2nd cousin's wedding down in Laguna Beach. They were a young religious couple who have bright and promising future ahead of them. I felt like posting something pretty on the blog while I home.
We spent New Year's Eve with our local neighbors/ friends. Our Thai neighbor wanted Chinese Food and requested ma-po tofu. I made it for the first time and it turned out OK. It could be a little spicier. I also made Vietnamese papaya salad with beef jerky, My neighbor made Egg foo -young and garlic shrimp. It took him a while to make the Egg foo-young because he was anal about the shape of the omelet. It had to be perfectly circular so he used miniature cheesecake pan to bake the omelet individually and then brown them on the pan. I'm not a big fan of Egg foo-young if there's no real crab meat in it so it seemed like a lot of wasted time and effort for a dish that is simple and quick. Garlic shrimp was not that tasty. May be they forgot an ingredient. After we ate dinner, we headed over to our other neighbor E&K's house to spread more cheers. There were a total of 8 kids in that house when we got there and they were having a blast having a dance party. Secondo (who from now on will be known as coconut) joined in with the older kids and had a great time. Later on, we went back to Thai neighbor's house and played poker while we waited for the count down. Danielle was playing Lego Star wars and Coconut was falling asleep. Others were drinking wine and I was drinking coffee to stay awake. After the count down, we all went home, I put the kids to sleep and I wasn't able to sleep until 2 AM.
During my time off, I played dance dance revolution (Xmas present from Bullseye. Thanks Bro!) with Danielle, read "Time Traveler's Wife" which I loved and visited friends that I have not seen for a long while. My friends P&G came over and I made Pad Kee Mow Noodles, Thai Green Curry and also Tom Yum Kung. Our traditional way of spending Xmas were to go out for Thai food. In 2007, I was able to cook all my favorite dishes and they said they were tasty.
We went to the Grove by Beverly Hills to see my friend A and her dog Cooper who is super cute.
From this picture, can you tell that Danielle was in love with the dog. We learned from my friend that having a dog is as much work as a child. Shots, hair cuts, check ups and etc.. etc.. I don't think we'll have a dog until Danielle is on her own. She's working on a dog painting at the moment so when it's done, I'll post her artwork on the blog. We ate at the farmer's market food court and the food was average and pricey. Next time I'm going to eat at the restaurant across from the American Girl store.
I went back to see my old dentist, Dr Chu and he still remembered me and Dad after not seeing him for over 10 years. He said that Dad helped him once at the airport and he really appreciated. From the check up, he found 2 cavities under 2 of my resin fillings and I was really shocked. One filling is at least 10 years old so I wonder when the cavity started to form? He was able to drill out the cavities with out any shots. He also has this green indicator that will turn the dentin green if there's still decay on the area. This is a great tool because they usually drilled away the brown decay and stopped in the beige area of the tooth. I have to go back again to take care of some other issues I can't ignore anymore. I'm so glad I found Dr. Chu again because he's a good ethical Dentist
Today is monumental milestone because Coconut actually pooped in the potty! We've read "Everyone poops" many many times and she finally did it. We praised her, I gave her some nerds candy as reward. Hopefully she'll do it again tomorrow. I got to let the sitter give her some candy for reward if she poops in the potty.
I did workout during the holidays but it must not be hard enough because today I'm really sore. Both my legs hurts when I go up and down stairs. My new year resolutions for 2008 are
  1. Walk 30 minutes a day for 3 days a week
  2. Lower body fat by 5% via healthy eating
  3. Continue reading
Danielle's new year resolutions are
  1. Play more brain age 2
  2. Paint more pictures
  3. Take care of her hamster more