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.

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.

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 1^st 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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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..

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.

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.

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
   

Stomach issues

Warning! If you are eating lunch or dinner at the moment or don't have kids, you may not want to read this explicit entry about what mom goes through with their kid's unpredictable multiple bowel movements.
I stayed home with the girls yesterday because both of them had stomach problems. Danielle had stomach ache on Tuesday night right before bed and around 1:30AM, he woke hubby up and told him that it was still hurting. Hubby gave her some medicine, woke me up @ 2:00 AM to let me know what's going on. Early morning Wednesday, she was still hurting so she's staying home for the day.
In the mean time, Secondo had diarrhea since last Sunday. On Wednesday morning, she had 2 big ones before 6:30 AM. Needless to say, she stayed home also and produced more diarrhea through out the day that I've lost count. When ever Secondo ate some food, 2 minutes later, diarrhea attached. When ever I hear someone farted, I said " Who farted?"
Secondo would answer " I farted!"
Me: "Danielle, grocery bag quick! Secondo! let's check your diaper now!"
Danielle ran over with a bag in hand and saw what was in Secondo's diaper "Eeeuuu.. liquid peanut butter.. Stinks!"
Me: "Very much so.."
Secondo: " I have peanut butter in my diaper?"
Me: " No.. your poo poo looks like peanut butter"
Secondo: "Oh.."
She wanted milk badly right before bed and I had to be firm and said NO for at least 50 times. She finally gave up and cried her self to sleep. I did give her some soy milk this morning so I'm sure her baby sitter is suffering the consequences already. I'm so glad we did not start potty training yet or it would have been a big mess.

It's really been a while

Hello... anyone still check out this site? I've been so busy at work, at home that there's just no spare time to blog about the things that I wanted to share before the holiday. Another major reason that I have not been blogging is that at work, our wonderful IT department had blocked out all the blogs so I'm not able to post or read any blog anymore. Sigh... If you are still interested in checking in, I'll be blogging one a week from HOME so you can't stop me from blogging. There's also a way of emailing my blog so I'm going to look into it.
I don't even know where to begin. I took some pictures of the girls and ordered Xmas cards online last night for 2nd day delivery. As long as I send the cards out before Dec 25th, I'm not really that late. I still have a couple of things to get and I'm done with the shopping madness.
Yes, back in November I was trying to read the " English Patient". I really tried to listen and not fall asleep but my brain just can't get into the story. I'm going to rent the movie and watch it and hopefully, that will get excited about reading the book. I also tried to read "Saturday" by Ian Mcewan and can't finish that book either. The one book that I enjoyed and finished reading was "Da Vinci's Code" by Dan Brown. It's a short and exciting book compared to English Patient.
At the moment, I'm reading "Time Traveler's wife" by Audrey Niffenegger and enjoying it from the start. Time travel has always been one of my favorite topic.

What's on my mind

My throat started to get sore yesterday. Hubby, Danielle and Secondo had this cold before I did and I finally got it too. I was hoping to escape the cold by diligently no sharing food from the kids and hand washing. I'm trying Zicam and so far my sore throat went away in 1 day but I don't like the taste of the cherry rapid melts tablet. Hopefully it works and I'll be all better by tomorrow.
Tomorrow night is my company's Christmas party and I don't really feel like going anymore. I've been working long hours and I rather stay home than spend more time with people I work with. Attending seems more like a chore at this point in time so what am I going to wear? Hubby's Christmas party is on a Wednesday Dec 12th and spouses are not invited. My interpretation of the rule is that they don't really want anyone to attend or only single people are welcome.
I took Danielle to their on campus holiday shopping. She picked out one give for my mom and her friend Natalie. She wanted to get Nicole Dora the Explorer ornaments but they were the size of choking hazard so we passed.
I finally finished the book "Life of Pi" and I would recommend this book. Some part of the book shared too much details but from a scientist point of view, Pi is an excellent scientist/zoologist. Now I'm listening to "The English Patient" and so far it's putting me to sleep. I'm not sure if it's because I've been tired lately or the book does not interest me. I'll continue listening for the next 2 CDs and decide.

I've been busy

I can't believe that I have not blogged for the pass 22 days. I believe that's record breaking for being away that long. There are too many commitments in Nov so blogging got neglected as before. Between now and the last time I blogged

1. We celebrated my dad's birthday on the 17th along with 30 to 40 of their friends at my parent's house.
   
2. We celebrated Thanksgiving with hubby's family. I made Vietnamese beef jerky papaya salad. We stopped by my parent's house afterward and give my dad his present.
   
3. The week of thanksgiving, Secondo had fever for 3 nights in a row and now she has cough and cold
4. I've been hooked on Nintendo game "Brain age 2". It's a cool game that calculate your brain age by how fast and accurate you are on answering math questions or remembering numbers. When I got started, my Brain age was 80, after some lengthy training, I was 28. Danielle is very competitive and does not like the fact that my brain age is younger than hers. We both train regularly in hope to open new activities to train with. I've never played Sudoku before and now I'm really into it. I'm on the basic mode where I'm allowed to make 5 mistakes to complete the puzzle.
   
5. Hubby made a delicious orange cheesecake on his first attempt. I took pictures but not sure when I'll be able to post it.
   
6. I've been reading " The life of Pi" and can't wait to finish the book. The writing is humorous but Pi has been a castaway for way too long. Some one please find this poor guy and get him to Cananda.
   
7. Hubby put up most of the lights on our house.
8. I've decided to give Danielle and I a break from piano lesson. She has been practicing much and I don't have time to sit with her when she's practicing
   

I'm stressing out at the moment because I have not started X'mas shopping yet and December is right around the corner. The one gift I got so far is Brain Academy for my nephew.

Weekend in Fresno

I was up in Fresno the pass weekend with my parents visiting old friends. Our family had known the family in Fresno date back to when my parents were in high school. They live away from the city in front of a serene lake, semi man made. Hubby and I took the kids out on the paddle boat and explored the other homes. At first, we didn't really know how to steer so the boat would go straight so I let hubby be the Captain. After a while, he figured out the steering mechanism. Hubby didn't have much fun so he got off the boat with Secondo crying for me while Danielle and I took off. The boat was so much lighter with just the 2 of us. I didn't have to paddle as hard and we took turn being the Captain. When we got tired, we floated and let the boat drift where ever it wanted to go. That Friday was also the opening of Big bluff's 3rd restaurant name Sakura Chaya. If you are ever in Fresno, you must visit Sakura Chaya. They have the best Sushi and soft shell crabs. Big bluff was so busy that night that we didn't get to spend much time with him. Hen dog and his wife stopped by and said hello and went to the bar to watch a game. We also saw Big bluff's new baby boy who was 2 months old. He was a quiet baby and slept through our whole teppan dinner experience. Secondo enjoyed watching the teppan chef until he started a large flame. From that point on, Secondo watched chef from behind the chair and told me her face felt hot.
On Saturday, we went to California Wok that belongs to Mr Bond, Big bluff's 2nd brother.for lunch. I had the teriyaki BLT with yam fries and it was delicious. Hubby had chow mein and Danielle had spaghetti with meat ball. His restaurant was also busy and Mr Bond was able to sit down and spent several minutes with us. If you are ever in Fresno, please try out California Wok.
After lunch, we went back to the home by the lake and spent time with his kids. The baby girl is very cute and his boy is kind and gentle. Before dinner, we watched their Taiwan wedding reception video and saw how elaborate it was.

I finished listening/reading Snow flower and the secret fan and I would give it a 3/5 rating. It could be the reader who I'm not so fond of or the story was too predictable half way through the book. I'm glad that she went in to details about foot binding and I can't stand Lily's character in the story. Her character was not believable, felt artificial and may be I don't want to hear again and again that women are "useless branches on a tree" or women's worth is measured by how many sons she's able to produce and how small her feet are.

Now I'm reading the Kite Runner and I'm really enjoying the book. Their writing style is more to my taste and I fell more entwined with the characters than previous book. The kite runner brought back memory of when I was a 7-8 year old kid in Indonesia, my dad used go on the roof top of our house and kite fight. I was his assistant, holding the string spool for him while he cut the other kites or handed him new kite when ours was cut.

Fire in So. Cal

The fire that's closest to our home is the Santiago Fire. We saw it on Sunday on our way back from Tamecula wine country and it's still burning. We are also close to the fire near San Clemente. Air quality is very poor so the kids had been kept in door from Monday through Wednesday. Today, the whole school district is closed and we will know more about school situation for Friday later tonight.
It's so sad to learn that this disaster is caused by an arson. Many homes destroyed and fire fighters injured.

I'm praying for rain. Lots and lots of rain to distinguish all the fires we have in Southern California.

Good for another year

I went for my follow up mammogram yesterday and hubby went with me. I was nervous all morning and finally we face the music together. I felt stronger when he's besides me.
I had a different mammogram technician this time and she warned me that it's going to hurt more because the area where they saw a change in density in the area near my chest and it's not an easy area to squash. Next year, I'm taking some Advils before the torture process.
Tech: "We want to capture a really flat area and hopefully you don't need to do the ultrasound"
Once the Xrays were taken, I went back to my little dressing room, still wearing my little gown and waited for the Dr.'s interpretation of the Xray. I flipped through the travel magazine for a long time and decided that I want to visit Europe and Japan before I leave this earth. I came across a page about San Antonio Tx. It showed a happy couple enjoying the River walk. I've been to San Antonio in August and it was hot, humid, nothing as serene as the picture. Could the pictures about Europe and Japan be misleading also? hm...
After a long ass wait, the mammogram technician told me that the ultrasound technician will come and get me when she's ready.
"Holly crap, that's not a good sign."
After more waiting, the ultrasound technician came, took me to the examining room and started the examination. She said that everything looked normal to her but she took some pictures and let the doctor make the final call.
After more excruciating waiting pain in the room she said that everything is normal and nothing to worry about. I'm good for another year.
When I shared the good news with hubby, I felt the weight came off his shoulder too. He was puzzled why it took me so long where as other ladies came in and out quickly. It's because I had to wait for the Dr to interpret my result on the spot.
I'm so.. thankful that my twins are good for another year. After the test, we celebrated the good news at the South Coast Winery Restaurant in Costa Mesa. I had the seafood pasta and it was creamy and tasty. Plenty of muscles, baby scallops, shrimp and fish. Hubby had a steak sandwich and he said it was OK.

5 grains of Sand

On Saturday, I got the unwanted letter from the imaging center asking me to make a follow up appointment for further testing on my right breast (mammogram and ultrasound). Even though the technician had prepared me for this possibility, getting it still made me worry. Logically, I know worrying isn't going to help the situation so I tried to distract my self by keeping busy with the kids and reading.
The fact that October is breast cancer awareness month, I'm reminded of the test, when I'm at the store, in the gym, and can't escape from reality.
On Sunday, I was picking up some milk and as I was checking out, the cashier asked if I want to make a donation for breast cancer research.
Me: “ Sure. I just had my mammogram done last week and I’m hope these scientists find a cure soon.”
Checker: “ I’m going in every 6 months. They found calcium build up in my breasts and @#$!%^&$$ tumor @#%*%$%. Early detection is the key.”
Me: “Definetely!”
After she mentioned "calcium built up", I felt like Charlie brown and stopped registering what she came out of her mouth . My mind wondered off to my own uncertainty, what would be come of me? Will I be in her shoes?
I shared this calcium built up conversation with hubby and he tried to keep things in perspective and reminded me that we are lucky to have the imaging center that has the high-resolution digital X-ray system. It's better to know now than later.
On Monday, I talked to one lady to make sure our insurance covers the cost of 2nd mammogram and she shared her breast cancer experience with me. I'm share with you my dear reader because it’s important for us to understand the significance of mammogram.
A while a go, S went in for her annual mammogram and they found five tiny cancer cells the size of a grain of sand. She had the option

1. Get a lumpectomy to remove areas where these cells were found but there’s still 30% chance that the cancer will return.
2. Remove the whole breast and 0% chance that cancer will return.
   

She chose the brave and safe path and removed her whole breast. When the cancer was autopsied, it was 11 days old. She was very grateful for early detection and able to take care of it. We are ask to do self-examination regularly; however, there's no way in hell I would be able to detect 5 grains of sands. By the time it becomes a lump, who know how old the cancer cell is then?
After I got the letter, I did some more research on the subject and found this informative website that shows the differences in Xray between calcification and cancer cells. The Xrays are toward the bottom of the page.

Let's hope this episode of my life is much ado about nothing.

Time test part II

Danielle's teacher emailed me and her reply wasn't so helpful. Her solution to my inquiry is this one summary page in her homework binder that shows hints on how to help our kids with math for the whole year. As far as time test 1 & 2, she said the concept is counting on. So for counting on we get a line liner explanation on that paper, not enough details so I know what I'm suppose to do at home. She also mentioned that the time test should not be a high pressure and I should not worry and assure her she will eventually pass. I guess she could take the same test 10 times, statistically, you will eventually.
My goal is to pin point the concept she's not learning so we're more efficient with time instead of going over the things she already know.
I emailed her back confirming what she was referring to as far as counting on.
Me: " You mean addition of X+1 or +2 or +3 where X can be any number from 0 to 21?"
Teach: " I don't have the binder in front of me so ask Danielle to bring her binder to me tomorrow and I'll go over it with her"
That was a surprising reply when I was expecting "counting on" is being taught in class at the moment and she would give me several ideas off the top of her head on how to review the same concepts at home.
That same night, I forgot to give Danielle instructions to bring the binder to her teacher so as expected, the teacher did not initiate to show Danielle the page she was referring to in her email.

Last night, I was preparing dinner in the kitchen and I asked Danielle

Me: "How was school today?"
D: "Good."
Me: "Did anything exciting happened in class?"
D: "Not really.."
Me: "Was there any tests going on?"
D: " YES, we had our math time test and I think I know what I did wrong. I made the mistake of 7+? =.... Hmm. I can't remember it now.."
I was all excited about her revelation which could be a false alarm
Me: "Did you pass?"
D: "I don't know, we didn't get our test back yet."
Me: "Ms. B didn't have time to grade them?"
D: "No. Parent volunteers grade them, not Ms. B"

That's one of the missing puzzle piece to solve my riddle. It explains the vague reply I got when I asked her for the specifics. She didn't grade the tests so she has no idea what concept my child is or isn't learning. We're going to have lots to talk about during our next parent teacher conference. It's not easy being a teacher so I'll help as much as I can.