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.