Quick update

Oh, it's been over two months since I last blogged. I have been updating my status on Facebook daily, so there's really nothing to blog about here. Something exciting is happening in my life. I'm pregnant for the second time. I'm having a more difficult time than the last. I felt so good during my last pregnancy, I wish I could be pregnant all the time. But this time, I'm having a bad case of morning sickness. No throwing up, just nausea, which to me is the worst. Many people said that means it's a girl this time, we will see. I don't have a preference on the sex of the baby. Just like last time, I just want a healthy and happy baby. I have had a few names picked out, but I'm not telling. I noticed that my belly is showing sooner this time. I already look like I'm 6 months pregnant. Oh boy, I don't like the look of that. Carpal tunnel is also coming back slowly. I will try my best to watch my diet this time. You would think with my nausea, I wouldn't have an appetite. In fact, I'm eating just as much. I'm a food addict. Well, that's it for now. Have a happy new year everyone.

Day care week one

It's the first week of day care for Eli. The first day I took him there, he couldn't wait to get down and play. He didn't even look twice at me. Then the second day, he was hesitated at first, but as soon as he saw the other kids and the toys, he couldn't let go of me any faster. The third day, I had to sit down with him for a while. He just woke up from a nap, and he wasn't sure about the kids and staffs that day. When he started playing, I left the room quietly, but he noticed and ran to the door. I waited behind the door, there wasn't crying, but there were a lot of banging on the door. Husband said every time he picked Eli up from the day care, he would run right to him and had his arms up ready for pick up. I'm not sure if it's because his nap schedule has been interrupted these days because of day care, he seems more irritated. He usually naps from between two and four in the afternoon, and that's the time he goes to day care now. Today, he stayed home with me since it's my day off. He was a happy camper, and we had a good day. After husband got off from work. we decided to go to the Y. Eli sometimes cries a little when we dropped him off at the child care at the Y, but today, he started crying when we left the house. He settled down some in the car, but as soon as we took him to the child care room, he screamed and screamed. We left and waited outside the room. Finally we couldn't stand the sound of our son's scream, it broke our hearts. I'm not sure what's going on. I guess he's not loving this whole day care thing as much as we thought. I hope we will be better next week.

Brownie fail

With Eli's eggs, milk, peanuts allergies, he's really missing out a lot of delicious food in life, brownies is one of them. So you I was delighted to see this.

I was so excited. Finally Eli can have a brownie, and here's what happened...

FAIL! Major FAIL. The brownie turned out so mushy, you can't even cut it into pieces. What on earth happened here?!

We fed Eli the brownie mush with a spoon. He had a couple bites and was done. Arrgh, now we have no brownies, a messy kitchen and an angry mom.

Speaking of Eli

Being a mom means constant worry. Eli is still not talking yet. At our last check up, about a month ago, the doctor asked if Eli has spoken twenty words yet. When I said no, he said if he's still not talking at 2, we may want to take him in to evaluate. Some people had a puzzle or surprised look when I told them about this. Eli certainly understands things. We can tell him to do certain things, and he will do it. The problem is he's the only child, and his mom and dad aren't always at home at the same time to speak to each other. He rare hangs out kids his age. We read to him, and lately, we have been making an effort to teach him to say what he wants. I don't know what to think or to do. So should I be worried?

we ♥ panda and we ♥ spinning

zoo nightmare

We thought we would enjoy a nice cool day at the zoo this morning, WRONG! Last time we took Eli to the zoo, we ended up never leaving the petting zoo area, and when we were leaving, Eli made a big scene. You would think that we have learned our lesson, WRONG again! It was worse this time. Since we started at the barn animals area last time, we didn't have a chance to show Eli the really cool animals like lions, tigers, and giraffes. So I thought we would go to the Africa section first this time. I don't know what's wrong with this kid, he was throwing a fit when we went to see the giraffes. No appreciation of these beautiful creatures whatsoever. He threw himself on the ground, and the worst of all, there were people around. I have dealt with him crying and kicking, but this? I didn't know what to do, and Peter certainly wasn't helping either. We were both standing there looking at him, while others passing us by. Seriously, the giraffes may as well be dinosaurs, and he still would not care. He wasn't happy until we were back at the petting area. New rule, no more zoo trip for Eli until he can actually name the animals.

He never stop

Little empathy

I'm tired, yes, I'm tired. It's 2:54 in the morning, and I know I'm going to regret this tomorrow. I decided to used my last once of energy to tell you how wonderful my 19 months old is. He has started to show empathy lately. Today, he headbutted my nose, nothing new, and it hurt. I covered my face and was moaning. Eli looked at me for a minute, then he started kissing me, as if his kisses will make it all better. Well, they did. Later in the afternoon, his dad came home with a sore back. He appeared to be in a lot of pain. Dad was lying on the floor and moaning even louder than I did earlier. Eli went over to dad and gave him hugs and kisses. Aww... I thought I would share this with you.

Hair ball

I thought I would scare you with this...

I cut some layers and got tons of hair off. My hair is still the same length, just thinner. I have to tell you though it was the softest hair ball I have ever felt.

Julie & Julia

Just saw Julie & Julia tonight. It was very delightful. I'm not sure which one I'm more in love with, Julia Child or Meryl Streep. I knew I was going to like it before I even saw it. Have you felt that before? I thought even if the story sucked or everything else fell short, I knew I was going to enjoy watching Streep playing Child. Fortunately, this was an overall well directed piece. My favorite scene was the onion shopping scene. I hope you will go see it too.

I forgot to mention I have never seen so many seniors in the theater before. More than half of the audiences were probably over 60. Most of the old ladies came with their girlfriends or family. It was very cute. It was nice too because nobody was making stupid comments or noises.

love/hate cherry

I have a love-hate relationship with cherries. I love them because they are delicious when they are good. I also hate them because they are hit and miss more than I'd like them to. When I used to live in Traverse City, I was able to enjoy more good cherries more often than anywhere I have been. It is indeed the cherry capital. Tonight, I had some cherries I bought some the grocery store, and it was another disappointment. I'm heart broken looking at a big bowl of good looking cherries and not being able to truly enjoy them.

elevator etiquette

I just read an article on professional etiquette on msn, here's the part about elevator.

"Waiting for the elevator...

Don't push the Up button when elevator doors are about to close just so you can make everyone wait while you squeeze in.

Do hold the elevator doors open if someone's only a few seconds behind you.

In the elevator ...

Don't stand uncomfortably close to someone, especially if there is plenty of space. Forcing yourself onto a packed elevator, thereby smooshing yourself up against someone, is just as bad.

Do cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. (Not just in elevators, but anywhere, really.) You might think this one is obvious, but no ... it's not."

Okay, this is one of my biggest pet peeves ever, bad elevator etiquette. I have encountered so many at the hospital, and I'd like to add a few of my own.

Do hold the door open when you are the last person leaving the elevator and there are other people trying to get on after you.

Do hold the door open if you are the first to get in and there are other people coming in after you. I don't enjoy being squooshed by the elevator door. In other words, don't just go to the back of the elevator and ignore the safety of others you selfish person.

Don't yell out "wait" or "hold the door" no matter how far or close you are, especially if you are unable to run.

Don't try to make small talk. It's already uncomfortable enough to be in a small space full of strangers.

Don't talk to other people's small children. I don't care, it's just weird.

I think that's all I have for now.

grogery shopping

I have finally realized why it's such a bad idea to grogery shopping with Eli. Number one, he doesn't like shopping carts. He used to cry through the whole shopping trip. He's getting better at it though. Our last trip to Costco and Hy-vee was not as sad as before. He started to realize that it's okay to be sitting backward in a shopping cart. Second, it's a bad idea to be around food when Eli can't have any, at least not until we pay for them. Everything we put in the cart, he wanted to eat it right away. He was really upset at the guy that was bagging our grogeries when he put the bananas and apples in the bag. Yeah, I know, life is difficult for this little guy right?

vietnamese patient

I had this patient yesterday who only speaks vietnamese. His family speak adequate english, unfortunately, they didn't stay with him. He had a hip replacement. To make sure his pain was controlled, we asked him to rate his pain. Since he doesn't speak any english, that's hard to do. He would only say "hurt". I finally found this scale chart with different language translation on it. I showed him the scale and asked him to show me which number represented his pain level. He seemed to understand what I meant at first, but then he started counting on the scale, "1,2,3...". He thought I asked him to count. So then it got worse for this poor man. I had to straight cath him. He wasn't able to urinate on his own, and it's been a long time since he last urinated. He had over 900ml of urine inside. I called his family many times trying to get someone to explain to him what I was able to do. When no one answered their freaking phones, I called the translator, and she explained to him over the phone; at least I hope she did. This guy was so tense, I couldn't even get the catheter in at first. When I was pushing the catheter through, his thing was squeezing the catheter because its so tensed up. I ended up only draining half of the amount out. After it's all done, he asked "When home?". That's the most english I heard him say all day. I told him he would go home in three days. Then his family came right after, of course.

grandma and grandpa

My other grandma, dad's mom, passed away few days ago. Now I don't have any grandparents. The grandma that I was closest to passed away few months ago. We went back to Hong Kong for a couple weeks to ger funeral and to visit the grandma's that's in mainland China. We knew that would be our last time seeing her. She hadn't been well since last year. There were couple times when my dad and her doctor thought she couldn't make it, but she pulled through. I'm so glad we got to see her one more time recently. She was almost completely blind. She had to put her hands on my face in order to "see" me. That was the closest we had ever been. She had always lived in mainland, and we hardly ever went back. Because she spoke mandarin, which I was not fluent in, there weren't many conversations between us. I'm sure if we had more chances to chat, I would find out many interesting and amazing things about her. Her husband died really early. I was told he passed away before my dad was even born. My dad has as little memory as I have. My grandma had to raise both of her sons on her own, and they both turned out to be wonderful men.

The only picture I have of my grandma.

My dad sent me this today. I had never seen any picture of my grandpa before. I didn't know he was so charming looking. 爺爺好有型.

time out

We started implementing time out yesterday. When I said we, I meant I did. P was supposed to help me, and he did okay. I seriously think that our little 18 months old was a devil lately. He threw a tantrum only our parents have seen before. They'd like to say how we were just as bad when we were little, but there's no way anyone could be that bad. Having never to raise a devil, sorry I mean child before, we were ready to pull our hair out. Yesterday morning was the worst morning. He was very whinny and inconsolable. I said to myself, this has to stop. So I took him to the corner and sat him down. He was crying hysterically. At first he tried to get up, and I put him right back. I sat in the chair with my back to him. I made sure not to make eye contact. Couple times he tried to scooch away, I took one look at him, and he would scooch back to the corner with fear. Fear is a good thing in parenting. After 5 minutes of screaming and crying, we finally calmed down. I took him out of time out and he was good as new.

We had to do time out one more time yesterday afternoon. This time was longer and louder, because dad was home. Eli is very attached to his dad, so it was harder with dad sitting nearby. All in all, I think we did fine.

spank or not to spank

• Prov 13:24: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes (diligently)."
• Prov 19:18: "Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying."
• Prov 22:15: "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him."
• Prov 23:13: "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die."
• Prov 23:14: "Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell (Shoel)."
• Prov 29:15: "The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame."
• Hebrews 12:6-7: "...the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?"

The bible speaks for itself.

zoo but mostly just goats

We went to the zoo today. It's his second time, but it's his real first time. Last time he was here, he was only few months old. He didn't know the difference between a monkey and his dad. He was really excited, too excited. He didn't want to be sitting in the stroller or carried by his dad. He just wanted to explore everything himself. We paid $20 to get, but we couldn't get past the petting zoo. Eli went crazy over the goats. We were pretty much done after that.

justice

So we were on our way to a dinner thing with friends, there was this woman tailgating us. We were already driving five over the speed limit, but fine, whatever. When she finally had a chance to pass us, she flipped us off as she was passing by us. She got in front of us, and Peter waved to her. The best part was she got pulled over right after she passed us haha... I love it when justice is served. 

Nurse Jackie, don't think so

So finally there's a show about nurses. Showtime has a new series called "Nurse Jackie". I was excited to hear about the main character being an ER nurse. But wait, to make her more exciting, as if being a nurse isn't exciting enough, they have to make her a drug addict. You must be kidding me right? I don't want to go into details about the show because I'm not going to watch it. It's bad enough that the media always protray nurses are insignificant part of health care. When they finally think that maybe they can make a show out of a nurse's life, they have to make her a troubled one.

I don't watch any of the medical dramas anyway, because they are overdramatic and not entertaining. I like watching Scrubs because it's light hearted humor without being so full of it. You know most of the jokes on those medical shows are probably from nurses. They are the ones that spend majority of the time with the patients. Doctors usually come in and out, you think they will have time to crack jokes with you? If you want to hear funny stories, ask a  nurse. And I hate how they make hospital look like a sex pool of single gorgeous people. In real life, if anyone get caught doing half of the things they do on those shows, they will get their ass fired. That's all I have to say, from a nurse's prespective.  

baby bird

In our backyard

having one of those lazy days

what make me smile

it's hard to talk about money

I'm back at zero again. I have done a lot of good things but also plenty of bad things in my life. The one thing that has been holding me back was my spending habit. I may look like an adult, but I was acting like a child. That's what got us into the situation we are in right now. After out trip to Hong Kong, we were financially ruinned. I had tried to change many times before, but this time is for real. I pray that God will give me strength and wisdom to get us back to a financially comfortable state.  

bomb pop

we love the park

He didn't like the sand getting into his shoes. 

Wasn't sure about the swing at first. 

Wee~

We really like it now. 

Haha... I'm sorry baby, but this is too funny. 

speaking of funny

big boy

My little guy is growing up to be a big boy really fast, too fast. 

in the park

Like father like son. We are going to have a lot of closed eyes photos in this family. 

Eli is a little worried in his crazy dad's hands. 

He's my kung fu baby

He can chop your head off with the stick. 

So don't mess with him. 

an apple a day

missing home

It's weekend again. I'm still trying to adjust after the trip to Hong Kong. I always get depressed for a while after visiting Hong Kong. It is my home afterall. After this visit, I have a strong desire to move back there. The living condition may not be as comfortable as it is here, less space, pollution, hot and humid weather. I think I will be happier there. At least that's how I feel right now. When I was younger, I thought I loved living in Hong Kong because I loved big cities. That's the life style I knew. Now I'm older and have a family of my own, I realized that has little to do with being a city girl. I miss my family and friends. Sometimes I wish I was from here, at least I wouldn't know what I was missing. Peter had been telling me how much he wanted to move to Hong Kong. I didn't think that was possible. That was because I wasn't seriously considering it. So our plan now is to move back to Hong Kong in few years. There are so much to consider, but hopefully now we can start moving toward our goal. 

trip to mainland China

We just got back from a five days trip to mainland China this morning. It could have been shorter in my opinion. We took a 12 hours train to Longyan, Fujian (my parents' hometown). We visited my grandma and some extended families. I was glad to see my grandma. She's 88-year-old, and not in the best health. This may be our last time seeing her. Her vision has deterioated so much that I had to get up close for her to see me. Then we took a 2 hours bus to Xiamen to visit some more friends and families. Xiamen is right by the ocean and much more modern than Longyan. It seems like a nice place to live. Peter really likes it there. Then we took a 16 hours train with another 30 minutes connecting train ride back to Hong Kong. I'm so exhausted. I can't even think about the long flight coming up in a couple days. I wish we could have more time in Hong Kong. Although I'm not looking forward to the flight back, I'm so excited about my brother-in-law's wedding in a week. More family time and eating. Here are some photos I stole from my brother.

Train joy

No surprise

Peking duck is my favorite.

American superman vs. Japanese superman

Those are the typical halmet they use. I think they are plastic.

Five bucks per ride. We gave ours extra becase we were too heavy.

Eli's new toy.



This lucky chicken gets to wake up to this beautiful scene every morning

Typical feasts we had while we were in China. This one is extra special. My parents' friends took us deep into the mountain to have this meal. All of the ingredients are grown and raised locally.




I wonder if there are any hobbits down there.

Tips on traveling to China:

1. Most of the places in China don't have air-conditioning. Even if they have, the air isn't very cool. So if you can't stand the heat and humidity, go during fall or winter.

2. Bring plenty of toliet paper and kleenex. Almost all of the public bathrooms don't have any toliet paper. Of course you will have much better bathroom setting in a hotel.

3. Another thing about public bathroom, be prepare to squat. Most of the public bathroom in mainland China are just a hole in the ground. Oh, and try to hold your breath if you can when you are in a public bathroom.

4.Foot wear: don't wear any sandals or open toes shoes, espeically again, in a public bathroom. You don't want to get your toes or feet wet by yours or other people's body fluid.

5. Don't give any money to beggers unless you can stupid.

6. Don't be afraid to eat local dishes. They are probably better for you than McDonalds. Yes, there are McDonalds and KFC all over China, so you won't starve to death.