Eli praying

We have started doing family devotion, and we try to include Eli. We haven't had any success, he likes to run around the house and make loud noises during devotion. We didn't think he was getting any of it, but tonight, we found him doing this...

I don't usually like to brag about my child, but this is too cute.

Potty training 3, 4, 5...

Not sure what we are doing. I'm not sure if Eli can't quite control his bladder to pee voluntarily, or he still doesn't get it. He will say "pee-pee" when he has a wet diaper. He will take off his wet diaper sometimes and bring it to me, so I guess we are kinda on the right track?

About the baby in my belly, he's doing well. He kicks a lot and is giving me a lot of heart burn. I'm hoping that means he's going to be an easy baby, since he's giving his mom such a hard time now. We found out we are having another boy last week. I'm looking forward to having anotherboy. They drive me nuts, but they are lot of fun.

Potty training day 3

Wanting to give up...

Potty training day 2

Day 2 feels like day 1. Nothing accomplished here. I would say the little advancement we have today is that Eli can take off his pull-up and throw it acorss the room when he's told to "pee-pee". We are still doing a lot of sitting on the toilet, but no result. He does get really excited when I ask him to go potty, but I'm wondering if he thinks this is a game.

Potty training day 1

Today is the first "official" potty train day for us. We have decided we need to start potty training Eli whether he's ready or not. We got the pull-ups and paper towels ready. Turned out Eli wanted to potty train himself. He didn't want me to help him get into position. We stood in front of the toilet, I pulled his pull-up down, and he went up the step and sat on the seat backward. I learned this from a friend at work. We waited and waited, he never produced anything. Then he got down the step, tip-toed next to the toilet, and pull his you know what up over the seat. He's trying to do it like a man, but there's still nothing. I was happy to see at least he knew what he's supposed to do. I went into the kitchen and called my husband with the good news, then there it was Eli standing in front of the kitchen with his naked butt and started peeing all over the floor.  

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.