Back to school night : 2nd Grade

Talk about feeling heavy, I certainly felt the bricks coming down on my shoulders after being informed on what my child will be learning as 2nd grader, daily, weekly and for the whole school year.

• Reading: 20-30 min, every day through out the whole year. As parents, we are encourage to ask open ended questions about the plot, compare and contrast characters in the book vs. people we know and also asked our child to prediction of how the ending is going to be.
• Writing: All 2nd graders are expected to write grammatically correct sentences with punctuation, and capitalization etc. They also have a journal that they keep to write down their free flowing thoughts, and ideas.
• Spelling: The school has cut down the number of words the kids need to learn on the weekly basis so I’m SO happy about it.

• Math:

1. Number sense
• Place value of whole numbers to 1000
• Addition and subtraction of 2 and 3 digit numbers with regrouping ( not sure what regrouping means)
2. Algebra and functions
3. Measurement ( metric vs. English units of measure for length, volume, area and perimeter)
4. Geometry
5. Statistics
6. Data analysis
7. Probability
8. Problem solving

These kids will be tested weekly on a math fact sheet. 3 min time test with have 36 questions ( i.e. 5 sec/question). One must score 36/36 on the test before one can move on to the next math fact sheet. If the child complete the whole cycle of sheets then they will start the cycle again but the time allowed is reduced down to 2 min ( 3.3 sec/question). This time constraint sounded stressful for the kids and parents. Got to figure out a way to make this fun for her because it’s going to be part of her weekly routine until she stops going to this school.

• Science

1. Earth Science: Rocks, soils, fossils
2. Physical Science: Learning about motion, sound energy and magnetic energy
3. Life Science: Life cycle

These topics are interesting and appropriate for her age and I strongly feel that making the connection of motion and PE may motivate her to like PE more.

• Social Science

1. Government
2. Exploring Family Roots
3. People who supply our needs
4. Cultural difference etc..

• PE: My favorite subject in school but not Danielle’s. School’s expectation are basic: participation and sportsmanship so that to me is the easiest subject out of all. Shows up, give it your best and don’t feel bad if you loose. I plan to work with Danielle on jogging and softball to build some self-confidence out in the field.

After meeting her teacher, I sense that she’s stricter than her 1st grade teacher. I felt her intensity in her sentences, and sternness in rules and expectations . We will have a parent teacher conference in November so we’ll see how it goes. I was sitting with other parents and one mom was trying to console me by saying “ It sounds like a lot but it’s not really that bad. Just wait until she goes to 8th grade.” It’ll be interesting to compare the workload for Secondo 5 years from now. I’m sure the school will provide more testing and homework in this time span.
SERENITY NOW….

Changing to more lighter and funny subject
Last night, for a brief moment, I turned on the TV and Dolly Parton was singing 9-5 while the professionals were dancing on the floor. I noticed how skinny she’s getting and how her small frame accentuate her large breast even more than before. We all went to bed before knowing who got kicked off the show and I had the dream that I had a boob job gone wrong. They were shaped like pyramids and there’s nothing the doctor could do to fix it. I blame Dolly for this wicked dream of mine. I'm happy with what I have and will not get an augmentation even though most of my neighbors have one.

Feeling heavy

For the pass few days, I've been having this heaviness feeling on my chest which required me to purposely taking deep breaths to get rid of this feeling. Have I forgotten how to breath properly?
I recently found a Shiatsu place by work and decided give it a try. My regular Tui-na lady broke her arm so it'll be a while before she's able to work with her hands. I was expecting a Japanese lady for the Shiatsu but she turned out to be Chinese. I told her areas of my aches and pains and she asked if I wanted traditional Shiatsu or Chinese ba-guan mixed with massage. Ba-guan is a technique using suction cups on are of pain and promote circulations. I decided to go with ba-guan because I've had success with that before. She told me that her technique is really call fei-guan (flying cups) because she used light levels of vacuum and flies over the back quickly. Fei-guan felt pretty good. On the lower back area where I felt sore, she left the cups there a little longer. During the massage sessions, she asked me to practice deep breathing. She'll pushes harder on my back as I exhale and she asked me to extend my exhalation as long as possible. It felt as if I was practicing yoga breathing while she's working on my muscles. When I forgot to breath, she'll breath loudly as a reminder so I worked hard breathing while she worked on my back.
She felt too much tension on my shoulder and her advice was to relax and rest.

Workout, Reading & Food

Hubby took the day off today so I was able to take the 5:30 AM cycling class which I normally couldn't because of the kids. I like the class because it's not crowded and it kicked up my metabolism to face the day. In class I noticed this lady who shrunk so I congratulated her and of course asked her how she lost so much weight. She told me that she went on weight watchers, continued with working out and lost 30 pounds.
Workout log:
Time: 1:08 min. (I kept the monitor on while driving home)
Cal: 496
Ave heart rate: 147 b/min
During class, the instructor announced that she'll be teaching a 3 hour ride next Saturday to raise money for MS. Can I ride for 3 hours? Hypothetically it'll take off 1500 calories from my body but then I'll be dead tired and non-functional for the rest of the day.

I just started reading/listening Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami on my drive in to work. So far I barely know Kafka who time traveled and the story jumped to Mr. Nakata who's taking advice from a cat that speaks a "common language to human". It may be one of those stories where I have to go back and re-read the first couple of chapters to complete the circle.

On with my favorite topic, food

I've been meaning to post this Vietnamese shrimp egg roll that mother in law orders when we have get togethers or birthday parties. It tasted like typical egg roll except the exterior has more crunchy bits and there's a shrimp wrapped in the middle of the fillings.


Above is my version of Pad ke Mow, which I learned to make from my Thai friend #2. It wasn't a big hit at the party because I didn't add any Thai chili. There were lots of left over so I had this dish for a week, got tired of it and have yet give it a 2nd chance. Very similar to Chinese chow-fun plus basil and chili.


This is virgin Mojitos, contribution of Angie. It is tangy and sweet, perfect drink for the hot summer days we've been getting lately. The downer is that I saw how much sugar she added so I had one small glass with lots of ice.

Main ingredients are

1. Lime juice
2. Carbonated water
3. Sugar, lots of sugar.
   
4. Slices of mint leaves
   

Nothing particular

I read other people's blog and they acknowledge and celebrate the birthday of their blog where as I, can't remember when I started blogging. When I looked back, I can't believe I've been blogging for over 3 years. I recalled the day when I emailed Mir and told her how uncomfortable I was sharing my thoughts on cyberspace. I'm too vulnerable! Writing is not my strength and who wants to be judged for creativity, writing style, grammar,& content? Right around that time is when my grandmother from my mom side passed away. Mom and dad went back but I wasn't there for the funeral which made feel guilty. I felt that my time on this earth is quite limited and I wasn't really connecting with my brother who lives up north, my aunt in Indonesia nor my old friends as much as I liked. Back then, I enjoyed reading Bulleye's entries about poker tournaments, Fresno's hot's entries about his gripes on certain products but as time goes by, they stopped blogging yet I continued. I still keep their sites on my favorites hoping one day when I click the link and I'll be surprised by a new entry.
Look back, I've lost some blog sites but met some really cool friends over the years. Some days blogging does feel like a chore when I have other more pressing things on my plate and I'm not sure if anyone out there still interested in reading my stuff.

Last month of swim lessons

Danielle had a short break and she started up with private swim lesson last Saturday. She did really well with back stroke and her teacher said that Danielle took instructions well and we, the parents should continue to bring her to the pool to practice so that does not regress too much by next summer. She also said that it's good to mix up private lessons and group lessons so the kids can encourage each other and see what they are capable of learning.
I also signed Secondo up for swim lesson for toddlers. She did not like being dunk in the water but she loved playing in the pool. The lesson is more for me on how to encouraged her to kick, moved her arms and blow bubbles in the water.
After swim lessons, we went to my company picnic. They served BBQ chicken, BBQ steak, hotdogs, burgers, & fruit salads. They had raffles with the main prize being Wii and other stuff (toys, gift cards, pillows, etc) that we could put our tickets into if we are interested. Like last year, we did not win anything. The picnic is very much the same as the year before so I'm planning to participate in the planning meeting to change it up a bit for the coming year.
We went to Barnes & Noble after the picnic to check out the new Magic Tree House book "Monday Mad Genius" for Danielle. Danielle read all the other Merlin mission so she was really excited with book # 38 and finished reading the whole book. I didn't get to read much because I was busy putting things on the shelf after Secondo took toys off the shelf. She's not the type that will sit still for 5 minutes on her own to read a book. She would rather explore the book store, play with toys or have me read with her.

Back to School

Today is Danielle's 1st day of school as a 2nd grader. It's exciting for her, new clothes, lunch box, back pack, and school supplies. It was nice to see some familiar faces in her new class and everyone appeared taller and have more front teeth than 3 months ago. Her teacher seemed kind and caring so I hope she doesn't get shuffle around because the principal does re-shuffle students to combination classes based on true attendance. One minor issue I dislike is that her class room is a pre-fab, portables or trailer. It's not that big of a deal, just something she'll get used to. I was there at 7:30 AM and the heat was unbearably hot. The principle provided option for the kids watch cartoon during recess instead of playing outdoor.
I recall that 2nd graders get tested so I'm going to look into it on parent's night next week.

this i believe

One of the CD that was on the shelf of the library was this I believe. I've heard this segment on NPR once in a while and am glad that they've decided to compile the essays into a book so had to borrow and listened.
So far I liked Be cool to the pizza dude essay.

Kids & Reading

This past weekend was nice and low key which is what I've been longing for a while. No commitment to anyone other than Danielle's play date.
Saturday started with my usual upper body weight lifting & boot camp workout followed by Danielle's friends who are sisters, coming over for a play date. Let's call the two girls N who is 7 years old and B who is 8 years old. They've been wanting to come to our house ever since we have our hamster. When they saw the hamster they got excited about man handling our hamster which made me nervous. We don't normally let the hamster run around the house freely unless it's in a rigid plastic ball. After they got bored watching the hamster inside the ball, the girls ran up stairs with the hamster and I thought they were going to put it back in her little cage. While playing with Secondo, downstairs, I started to hear loud thumbs on the ceiling. When I checked on them moments later, they had the hamster running around on Danielle's bed.
Me: "Please keep the hamster in the ball because it poops frequently"
B: "We know, look at how many poops are in the ball!"
N:"He did poop on Danielle's bed so I picked it up and put it in the ball."
Me: "That's it girls, put the hamster back in the cage and go wash your hands. It's time for lunch"
They pointed out to me that they've put pillows on the foot of Danielle's bed to prevent the hamster from hiding under the bed in case the hamster ran away from them.

It was interesting to see that even at the age of 2, Secondo wanted to tag along and be accepted as part of the older girls group. She wanted to tag along in Danielle's room and her older sister didn't want any part of that. She'll say: "Hey guys, come back here!" but girls went on with and left her out. Her friends however,were a little more attentive to Secondo and didn't completely shut her out. During lunch, B sat next to Secondo and when Secondo mentioned that her chicken nugget was hot, B would wrap it with a tissue paper and asked Secondo to hold the tissue instead of direct contact to the nugget. When Secondo ate all her nugget and wanted more, N offered to share half of hers with Secondo. Danielle on the other hand didn't want anything to do with her little sister. I know deep down she loves her little sister but she's not generous with sharing her things with Secondo. She would only give Secondo things that she doesn't really care for.
In Mandarin Chinese there's a word called "rang" which translate to yield in English. As an older sibling, one of the phrase I heard all the time growing up is "Jie-jie rang di-di" which means, Older sister should yield to younger brother in many situations let it be toys, food, or TV shows. Older child has the responsibility to let younger child have his or her ways because little ones can't understand the meaning of yielding. I know Danielle felt resentment towards me because I asked her to rang mie-mei (little sister) often when Secondo acts up and I can't get her to snap out of it.

While they were watching Disney Channel, I went to the library alone to return and borrowed some more books. I was so happy that I found 1001 books you must read before you die at our local library. It's a thick and heavy book with little excerpts of what the book is about. After reading "Never Let me go", I do agree that it's one of the must read book even though the first several chapters seemed boring and irrelevant. It's one of those book that I'm re-reading again to tie the links together to better understand the story. The first set of books that I'm reading will the the ones that are on CD so it's going to be ones written after the year 2000. Within that bracket,there are 69 books to choose from so I'm going to rotate authors between different nationalities. Has anyone read the book "Life of Pi"? I've read mixed reviews about this book and I'm curious about how good it really is. Please let me know your take of the book if you've read it already.
When I got home the girls were getting ready to go swimming and again Secondo felt left out staying home with mom & dad.
After dinner, Danielle and I played Mario party 8 on Wii and we had fun teaming up battling computer characters Yoshi and Toad.

I'm gonna love you.....

Check out this cool video made by my friends Patricia, Greg and her crew . Aren't they creative?

Change in life style

I recently had a physical where they did the routine blood work that showed my blood cholesterol was borderline on the high side. When I discussed the result with hubby and some friends their natural advice were to minimize shrimps and other seafood that have high cholesterol content. I also recalled a conversation with my friend Patricia who’s husband is also working on reducing his blood cholesterol.
Me:"Does it mean that G can’t eat shrimps and crabs anymore?"
P: "Not really. He has to reduce his saturated fat intake."
After researching on the subject of blood cholesterol vs. cholesterol content, I’m happy to report that my friend Patricia was 100 % right. I don’t have to give up eating my favorite food in the world, seafood but I do have to reduce intake of trans fat and saturated fat which if found in food such as coconut milk, butter, cheese, ice cream, red meat. Even though shrimp has high cholesterol content, it doesn't increase blood cholesterol. Such a relief to know that shrimp is not bad for me because I still can eat Tom Yum Kung as long as I don’t add coconut milk in it anymore. I used to cook curry with coconut milk, eat dessert with coconut milk but now I'm going to take it out of my recipes and replace it with skim milk when possible.
I've also started to eat oatmeals for breakfast and that is suppose to lower the LDL/bad cholesterol. Researches showed that oatmeals only lowers it by 2-5% after 2 month so all the advertising on the oatmeals being the sponge for cholesterol is not 100% true.

Food I like to eat

I don't really know what to write today so I'm going to share pictures of food we ate last June to celebrate our My wedding anniversary.
We used our good China for the occasion and it adds mouth watering feature to the Tom Yum Kung which I'm salivating over as I'm writing this post. The difference between this version versus your standard on is that we added coconut milk which gave it a richer taste. My mom likes this version but personally I prefer the traditional version without the coconut milk.
This appetizer shrimp kebob is also my favorite. It's really easy to make and tasty. Marinate the shrimp in chopped up garlic, chili powder, tiny bit of salt and olive oil for 30 min. When you are ready to grill, add a little lime juice give it a little tangy flavor. I apologize for the picture being a bit blurry.
The rice dish is Indonesian Fried Rice/Nasi Goreng. It's very easy to make especially if you have a jar of the Kokita Nasi Goreng Sambal in your pantry. You can find it at 99 Ranch Supermarket off of Jeffery, Irvine. I throw in eggs, mixed veggies, ham and shrimp. The flash is too strong for this picture so may be natural lighting would have been a better.

Here is Pad Thai made by my friend P. It's a low fat version made with egg substitute and if anyone is interested, I'll ask her for the recipe.









This is my mom's creation of soy sauce marinated short ribs with tofu and eggs. Every one loves this dish from adults to kids. I'll post the recipe at another time.

Random Thoughts

1. I'm craving salty food so I've been eating potato chips today.
2. It's that time of the year for the annual OB/GYN check up so I called up my Dr's office for an appt. and the earliest appointment available is in Nov. I hope the mammogram office can give me an appt sooner than Nov. Sigh..
3. I'm starting a new book titled "Never Let Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro and not really into the story after listening for 3 chapters. Everything so far is vague and difficult to relate to so I'm going to give it a break for now or I'll fall asleep driving home. With the Author's name being Kazuo Ishiguro, I thought the story would take place in Japan. It came highly recommended so I'll give it another chance when I'm more alert. I may start listening to "The world is flat" and see how interesting that book is.
   
4. My folks are leaving for Taipei, Taiwan because my friend Jo's Father has colon cancer. The Doctor told her family that he doesn't have much time left. Sigh... He's over 80 and lived an interesting life in China and Taiwan.
5. This week is Danielle's last week of swim lessons for August. I hope she'll remember all her stokes for September.
6. The rebuilt transmission of our Odyssey broke last week and we had to get it fixed again. I hope the newly rebuilt transmission will last at least 3 years.
7. We attended 3 birthday parties last weekend and that was exhausting. First was a Pokemon theme at a park for a 7 year old, 2nd was Cinderella theme for a 2 year old and 3rd was Surfer dude theme for a 2 year old by the pool. I'm glad that next birthday get together is in Sept.
8. Secondo has a tendency to poop at public places.
   
1. We were at the Library on Sunday to borrow some books and she pooped there. 4:30PM
   
2. We were at Target last Saturday, shopping for gifts and she pooped. 11:45AM
   
3. We were at the waterpark and she pooped there too. 6:30 PM

Working out, a love hate relationship.

I usually arrives to my Sunday cycling class 1 hour before the class starts in order to a) to ensure I get a bike and b) upper body weight training. I noticed that other folks who take the same cycling class are doing the same but one person that grabbed my attention is a gray hair older gentlemen who took the class every single week even though he lives far from this gym. He seemed to be older than my dad and he's in really good shape. He usually kept up with what the instructors asked of us and made me realize that there's no racial and age boundaries in sports and I am my one true competitor.
In my working life, there are seniorities or connections people may have with certain individuals that can get them further in their career even if their performance is average or less than average. I rarely observed or experienced occasions where hard work and dedication alone were able to get one self promoted at the reasonable rate.
In cycling, that man can easily beat me or anyone else because his hard work and diligent training. Only if I train harder and smarter, I'll be able to beat him in a race. There's no glass ceilings for women to overcome.
I've ended my 4 am workout after doing it for 2 weeks. Waking up that early was taxing on me and effected my performance as a wife, a mom and a human being in general. I was cranky, resentful, forgetful, wore my gym shorts backward one day and basically functioned as a zombie. It's amazing how hubby is able to continue with his AM workout and he does show fatigue when 8PM rolls around every night.
I still kept up with my lunch time walking and spent more time in the pool to reinforce Danielle's swimming skills. I'm still formulating a better plan that works with the needed beauty sleep I so need.
Last Tuesday, one of the Kickboxing instructor declared that she has been cancer free for 2 years and reminded us how lucky we are that we were healthy enough to workout.
I do appreciate that I'm healthy and able to workout regularly with some minor aches and pains here and there. I'm also proud of hubby who still workout even when his toe hurts like hell due inflammation.

Exciting day

During Bulleye's (my younger brother) last visit, he wanted to surprised Danielle by giving her the Wii console. He wasn't aware of the high demand and short supply scenario for Wii so he went to Best Buy, Target and had no luck finding it. Before he left he promised her that he'll order it and ship it to us. When I told this to Danielle, she was really excited and asked daily as when will her Wii arrive? It finally came on Friday and she was playing Wii with our next door neighbor boy all night. They like shot put game the best out of the Wii play games but it's quite loud. Thanks Bulleye for the game.
We celebrated Hubby and his brother's birthday last Saturday. We held on to the tradition of everyone being late except for my parents and the reason this year is that they all had traffic issues. I've also invited my friend P&G who made a nice little music video for her friend.
I don't remember if I captured the food we served but I did capture people having a blast playing Wii. Dad liked playing golf, and kids liked boxing, bowling and tennis. Wii is a great way to get the observers involved in the games.
On Sunday, when I was going to the gym, I can't open the garage door. Hubby had to manually pushed the door up. When I got back, he showed me the broken spring and had called for a repair man to quote to cost to fix it. It cost us $700 to fix it and it's warranty for life.

Better mood today

Although I didn't really talk to hubby about the situation to get closure with my anger, I felt better yesterday after listening to Danielle played the piano and saw how proud her teacher was of her. She's currently learning the "Entertainer" beginner version and she has mastered half of the song so far. I don't mind being the nagging mom when it comes to practice as long as the result is that she's a good and confident piano player. I've heard from so many folks who wished their mom didn't give up on them when they refused to practice as a child. We have many moments of stress and frustration for both parent and child but I do explained to her right before bed that it's natural to be frustrated on a new piece of music. During Summer break, she has more time on the piano to explore & practice but during the school year, I'm less lenient on her.
As far as swimming, it's amazing how 2 private lessons and lots of encouragement was able to do. I know Danielle is more comfortable in the water because she's tall enough to stand up when she's out of air or sucked in water by accident.
Now we make an effort to go to the pool twice a week to play/ practice in hope that she's able to swim this year.
Secondo will start her group lessons in September. I took her in the pool on Sunday and she was holding on to my bathing suit straps for dear life. I tried teaching her the basics and hopefully she'll learn some basic skills this year also.

My right eye was blood shot since Saturday and today it looks like it's going away. I was feeling pressure on the eye and also on my temples so I hope it'll going away soon as well.

Venting

I'm still in a bad mood that's lingering from yesterdays event at our house. Hubby doesn't help the situation by minimizing my anger towards the situation. There are some people from his side of the family that I can't stand but for the sake of our marriage, I must tolerate, endure their presence.

New Discovery

I've decided to divert my attention from reading food/restaurant review blogs to book review blogs. It is best to balance my exterior fitness level by doing some brain weight lifting as well. Another benefit is that I won't be thinking about food all day.
I just downloaded 1001 must read books before I die from Arukiyomi so that will keep my mind busy working out for the rest of my adult life. Based on the formula from his Excel spread sheet, if I'm 7 years old today, I'll be able to complete the list if I read 14 books a year.
My next book after Memoir of a Geisha is going to be "The world is flat".

Good reading

I've been listening to Memoir of a Geisha on CD and it's a really good book. It made me realize how complex a life of a Geisha really is. I listened to it with Danielle was in the car with me and it put her to sleep. I was told the movie didn't do justice to the book so I'm going to watch it after finishing the book.
Danielle started her private swim lesson yesterday and she chucked down some water when trying to go under water to pick up toys. She asked me why is the pool water salty? Why her hair still smelled like Chlorine after being shampooed? She's starting from scratch again so we'll be going to the pool more often to get her comfortable in the water.
I realized that I've been spending too much time drooling while reading food blogs so I'm going to limit myself to reading them every other day.
I recently discovered Ebisu and they have the best Green tea

What's left of Summer Vacation

I can't believe that in 6 weeks, Danielle will be back to school a 2nd grader. There are still many things we want to do before going back our routine.

1. Swimming lessons
2. Going to the Beach
3. Legoland and may be stay in San Diego for a day
4. Visit my friends in Moorpark and go wine tasting in Santa Barbara

Bulleye came down for a visit on Saturday and he was amazed at how talkative Secondo is compared to Danielle in general. Danielle and Bulleye bonded by playing StarWars together. Bulleye got bored after a while but Danielle kept on playing for hours. Hubby grilled the chicken Sate, I made Thai papaya salad (with the help of my Thai friend) and Mom warmed up stir fried noddles & tofu she brought over. Thai version of the papaya salad has lots of garlic and chili and it was too spicy for mom and dad.

We went to the OC fair on Sunday with my Thai friend's family (4 adults, 2 kids, 2 toddlers and 3 strollers). The kids didn't notice how hot and humid that day was and around 4 PM we felt some sprinkles of rain which didn't last long.
After watching the Hawaiian dancers performed, we checked out the arts & crafts area, looked at the animals ( pigs, sheep, cows, rabbits, chickens, etc..) and headed for food.
We ate grilled corn, hot dogs, chili curly fries, cheese fries, and some sausage dog. The kids had cotton candy, and kettle corn and rode roller coasters. My friend's husband wanted to eat something deep fried.
He said to me "You can get a deep fried Krispie Kreme chicken sandwich there"
Me: "I've never heard of such thing."
Him: "It's a sandwich with doughnut dough as patty instead of bread and deep fried"
Me: "It's doesn't sound appetizing ."
Him: "I want a deep fried Twinkies"
Me: "How about deep fried Orios?"
Him: " They deep fried everything at the fair don't they?"
I felt sick after eating all the fried food and he didn't get deep fried Twinkies after all.
It was fun but tiring event for Sunday.

It's been a long week

One of my neighbors J, gets organically grown vegetables regularly from a local grower and she asked me if I want to split the basket with her because it's way too much for her family alone. I agreed to try and we got our 1st basket yesterday filled with veggies, fruits, herbs and small bundles of flowers. For dinner, I made salad with the lettuce and put the baby carrots in the soy sauce chicken that was already on the stove.
The lettuce and carrots were very tasty. They were more flavorful than the standard ones that I usually get from our local grocery store. It’s my 1st time trying organically grown veggie and I can't wait to experiment with the other veggies that I'm not familiar with tonight.
Before bedtime, in anticipation of my Friday AM workout, I was too lazy to get Secondo her milk prior putting her to bed. Usually hubby would bring it up right before bedtime but he didn't last night and I figured he was as tired and exhausted as I was. The consequence of not going through a set routine was Secondo waking up at 2AM crying "Milk, I want MILK!". I offered her the sippy cup filled with water and that irritated her in to a louder cry.
Still half asleep, I went downstairs, opened the fridge, poured some milk, placed it in the microwave and pushed a button I thought was the 1min button. My plan was to take the milk out when there was 18 sec left on the timer. While waiting, I realized I was thirsty so I went by the sink and got some water. By the time I walked back to the microwave, there were only 2 seconds left on the clock. Naturally the milk was too hot so I had to get ice out of the freezer and made a little ice water bath to cool the milk to an acceptable temperature. By the time I got the bedroom, Secondo was asleep so I woke her up to drink the milk which took quite a bit of effort to fetch. The next thing I remember, Secondo woke up crying again and by now hubby walked in quietly and woke me up for my workout. I looked at my watch and it was bloody 3:30 AM. I got ready and got to the gym by 3:40AM. The lady in red who workout with a trainer arrived at the same time as I did. I discovered that she starts her training sessions at 4:00 AM sharp. I did 30 min of elliptical, 10 min of stair masters, some cables work for my arms. I tried reading while exercising on the elliptical machine but didn't work for me.
My brother will be visiting tomorrow and I'll marinate some chicken tonight so it'll be ready for Sate tomorrow. I can’t remember the last time I saw him. Was it when Secondo was 1?