Valentines Day!

15 Feb 2013 11:48 pm | Category: Celebrations, Dessert, Eric

On the morning of Valentine’s Day, the doorbell rang. I had ordered some things online, so I figured it was just the delivery man and he could just leave the stuff at the door. I had laundry to wash, dishes to put away, and kids to feed. An hour or so later, I decided to go get my delivery and Lo and behold, instead of a Zulily package (which I was expecting), it was a huge 1800-Flowers box! I specifically told Eric not to get me flowers. I told him I’d rather use the money towards a nice steak meal, but I got the flowers anyway. So sweet…. 🙂 It even came with chocolates.

The chocolates were ok. Nothing real exciting, but not bad. You should see it now, though, one bite out of every piece, except the ones I liked, I ate them. Hehe. Anyway, I’m determined to let my roses live for more than a week!!

I went to Safeway to get some groceries. I’ve never seen that many men coming to the grocery store by themselves during the day. They all left the store with flowers, balloons, and stuffed toys. It was crazy! Valentine’s Day is such a commercial holiday!

After getting what I wanted to get done in the morning, I took EJ out to the park. It was a beautiful day out! We went to the playground and had a picnic lunch.

Silly kid, instead of playing on the play structure, he spent most of the time collecting rocks. I don’t know if it’s just EJ or all boys, but he loves rocks!
Then the 5-6yo kids at the school next to the playground came out to play for their recess. That’s when EJ had fun. He loves playing with other kids. The little kids were talking to him, asking him how old he was, giving him hugs, trying to carry him, helping him down the slide. So cute. I was holding Elsa and the little girls were all oohing and ahhing all over her! “How old is she? Her hands are so small! Her eyes are so tiny! She’s so cute!!” Haha. Those kids are adorable. Makes me miss my teaching days!

EJ waving goodbye to his friends when they had to line up and go back to class.

Eric didn’t get home until 10pm that night. No romantic dinner. EJ and I ate leftovers. But Eric brought home this “fancy” chocolate fondue snack from Intel’s cafeteria. The three of us had a little fun dessert before bedtime.

It came in a takeout box, but just to make it look nicer, I arranged everything onto a plate.

Did you know EJ loves chocolate? Hehe.

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Cars, cars, and more cars!

07 Feb 2013 01:25 am | Category: Ethan

He loves his cars.

Let’s play dress up!

06 Feb 2013 05:11 pm | Category: Elsa

Just too cute not to share. Having a baby girl is like having a little doll!

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Mugshot

06 Feb 2013 04:42 pm | Category: Elsa

Elsa’s passport photo

We went and got Elsa a passport when she was 6 weeks old. We were having some visa uncertainties, thought we might have to leave the country, so we had to hurry up and get her a passport as soon as her Social Security card and her birth cert arrived. It’s all good. We don’t have to leave the country. And thankfully, Elsa cooperated when we got her photo taken. Awake and not crying. Yay!

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Elsa’s Baby Blessing

06 Feb 2013 04:36 pm | Category: Elsa, Ethan

We gave Elsa her baby blessing at church on the first Sunday of the year in 2013. Oh boy, did she cry. I had a feeling she would. I think Eric got a little anxious with her crying because he blessed her to be an example to those around her twice. Haha. Right as she started crying, he blessed her to have calm and patience. Well, I guess it didn’t work during the blessing, but I have to say, she is generally a very calm baby. She just eats and sleeps mostly. Of course she’s still only two months old, and that’s what two months old do, but even when she’s awake, she’s really calm. When she was only a few weeks old, she only had to get up once a night to feed. Since babies are mostly nocturnal when they’re still that young, she’ll be wide awake after feeding and it’ll take about an hour and a half to get her back to sleep. But she’s just lying there, eyes wide open, just staring. I think she’s probably trying to finish pooping. We would sometimes change up to five diapers in an hour because she would poop and cry and want it changed right away. After she’s changed, she’ll stop crying right away. She likes her diaper cleaned, that one. Definitely a girly girl. Easily satisfied, but it can drive you nuts! Then she started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks. Such a blessing. No more middle of the night feedings and diaper change! Yipee! She also doesn’t mind when her brother bothers her. It’s really cute when EJ tries to play with her. Quite unnerving too. I have to always remind him to be gentle. One time, I found him in her crib. He used a stool and climbed into her crib so he could turn the mobile for her. So sweet! But I was so worried he would step on her. Elsa is so blessed to have such a loving older brother. My heart just about melts when I see how anxious EJ gets about Elsa!

On the day of Elsa’s baby blessing

Both inside the crib

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06 Feb 2013 03:57 pm | Category: Elsa, Ethan, Family, Food, Health

My mom was here for over a month to help me with confinement. That’s one month of no going out and no bathing/washing of hair. Just one month of eating healthy, nourishing traditional Chinese confinement food and sleeping as much as I can. Let’s just say I definitely went out and I definitely bathed and washed my hair! Well, I dressed warm and always blew my hair dry after shower (thus the short hair)! So, I wasn’t so “obedient” in keeping with those rules. But I definitely ate lots of nourishing confinement food! My mom made sure I had lots of “warm” food. Everyday, for a month, she made me ginger chicken soup. That’s grinding the ginger into mince and hand squeezing the juice out, since I didn’t have a juicer. I think next time I should really get a juicer. It takes a long time to make that soup! There was also red date soup. I had those two types of soup every day. There was lots of steamed pork ribs with black pepper sauce, asparagus, mushrooms, black fungus, red bean… Confinement food isn’t exactly very exciting, but it’s good and at least I didn’t have to cook!

While my mom took care of me, and I took care of Elsa. Eric’s parents were here to take care of EJ. They took him out everyday. They would go out to the mall or the playground, take him out to lunch, bring him home to Eric’s grandma’s for nap, feed him dinner, and then bring him back home after that. I hardly saw EJ! It was nice in a way because I got to spend time and bond with baby Elsa. On the other hand, I found that I really really missed him! The first few days were hard for me. Afterall, before Elsa came, EJ and I spent 24/7 together. We were always together, doing everything together. Eating, sleeping, playing, running errands… I always had EJ with me. He was my best bud! For the first few days, EJ was also not too used to having Elsa around. He was really whiney and clingy and would cry easily. He would get upset over the littlest things. I remember one time just crying with him. He was clinging onto me and crying and trying to tell me what he wanted, but he wasn’t making sense. I couldn’t help it (hormones/tired/frustrated) and I just cried with him. In the end he just wanted me to hold him. There were other rare moments where we spent one-on-one time together, and I found myself just tearing up because I realize how much I’d missed spending time with him. Hormones can make me very emotional!

Of course things got better eventually. EJ’s moving on from being a jealous brother to being a very protective brother. He wouldn’t let anyone hold her or change her diaper. He would get so upset and yell out “Meimei! Meimei! Mom! Mom!” We would have to tell him that it’s ok that someone else is holding meimei (little sister). He’s becoming such a sweet and loving brother. He knows how to get Elsa’s pacifier if she’s crying. He’ll pat her and comfort her. Rock her when she’s on the bouncer (sometimes a little to hard and we have to remind him to be gentle). And even try and carry her! I’m excited for her to be a little older so they can play together!

Having the second one around is definitely also life changing. It takes longer to go anywhere and do anything. (Even blogging! This blog has taken me two weeks to type!) But it’s so fun. I love my two little kiddos!

Chilling in our pjs

2012 in a Nutshell

09 Jan 2013 11:26 pm | Category: Baby, Birthday, Celebrations, Cycling, Elsa, Eric, Ethan, Family, Travel, TV, Vacation

1. In January, Eric turned 30! We celebrated with a surprise party and a huge XBOX 360 controller cake.

2. In February, we went to Vegas! As a continuation of Eric’s birthday celebration, we went to Vegas and saw Cirque du Soleil’s “O” and ate ourselves silly at the buffets at the Wynn and Aria hotels. Thanks to Eric’s parents for coming along this trip and helping us babysit!

3. In March, we finally upgraded from our 32 inch TV to a 55 inch 3D LED HDTV.

4. In April, we found out we’re expecting baby #2! Also in April, EJ had his first Easter Egg Hunt and discovered the amazing world of CHOCOLATE!

5. In May, EJ graduated from his infant car seat to a toddler car seat. Our baby is growing up so fast!

6. In June, my sister, Sarah, returned from her mission (Salt Lake City, Temple Square Mission) ! Also in June, Eric completed his first Century bike ride in Logan, Utah.

7. In July, we had our very first garage sale.

8. From July to August, we spent one whole month in Singapore visiting my family. Also in August, EJ eats sand for the first time.

9. October was quite eventful. Eric completes another bike race. This time a 50 mile in San Luis Obispo, California. Eric is also officially promoted to the position of manager, that’s 5 years of hard work for EY! We celebrate EJ’s 2nd birthday. And EJ (and me) goes door-to-door Trick-or-Treating for the first time!

11. In November, Eric passed one of the hardest exams he had ever taken, the CISSP. Almost 6 hours of testing. Good job, Eric! And of course, in November we welcomed baby Elsa into our lives.

12. In December, my mom was here to help me with the new baby. Because I was home for the whole month (confinement) I was able to bake and bake and bake. This year we had butterscotch cookies, potato chip cookies, snickerdoodles, oatmeal raisin cookies, cranberry white chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, scottish shortbread, cranberry walnut bread, banana nut bread, strawberry squares, and festive popcorn balls. We celebrated Christmas as a family of four!

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Welcome Baby Elsa!

11 Dec 2012 07:37 pm | Category: Baby, Elsa

They tell you that your second delivery goes a lot quicker. No kidding. I’m glad I made it to the hospital!

I was actually scheduled for an induction for Saturday night (11/24). My OB was on-call at the Labor and Delivery unit on Sunday morning, she wanted to be there to deliver Elsa. I had a feeling that if I were to be induced Saturday night, Elsa wouldn’t wait until Sunday morning to be born. She’ll be born right in the middle of the night. And I guess she didn’t want to be born in the middle of the night, so she decided to come earlier on Saturday! The Thanksgiving dinner and all the walking around on Black Friday shopping definitely paid off.

I started feeling contractions around 4am early Saturday morning. They hurt enough to wake me up every time it happened. Eric went to pick up our friends at the airport at around 8am, I didn’t tell him I was having contractions because I didn’t think they’d last. I decided to time them anyway. By the time he came back at around 10, my contractions were about 10min apart. Quite regular. She was coming! This is new for me. With EJ, my water broke and contractions didn’t come on their own. I had to be induced.

Anyway, I spent the morning packing up my hospital bag while Eric went out with EJ to run some errands. We planned to go to Target to get a skirt for our Christmas tree. I figured I still had time and contractions weren’t that painful. By the time Eric came back around noon, contractions were 5mins apart. Ok. Better not go to Target. So, I stayed home and finished watching Batman Begins and waited out the contractions. I started the movie the night before and only had an hour left to finish watching. I was watching it on the laptop. The laptop was on the couch and I was kneeling down in front of it. Good position to watch my movie while having contractions. Haha. The whole time I was watching the movie, contractions kept coming every five minutes. I got my 5-1-1 by the end of the movie. I figured I still had some time, contractions were still bearable. So, I jumped in the shower. That was about 1:00 p.m.

I had Eric continue timing my contractions while I was in the shower. They started hurting more and were happening every two minutes! It went from five minutes to two minutes just like that. And now they were starting to really really hurt. I would start screaming in pain and Eric would ask if he should start timing now. Well, yah duh! I wouldn’t be screaming if it wasn’t a contraction! I spent a good half hour in the shower, the hot water definitely helped soothe the painful contractions. I didn’t want to come out of the shower! But I knew I better get myself to the hospital soon. I didn’t want to have my baby in the bath tub! After I came out of the shower, I debated whether to blow dry my hair or not. Better not, contractions were really really REALLY painful by then. I surprised myself when I was screaming in pain in Chinese. Lol. Eric called L&D and told them we were coming. That was about 1:30 p.m.

Luckily we live across the street from the hospital. I wouldn’t have survived a longer car ride. Eric couldn’t go too fast though, I kept yelling at him, “No bumps! No bumps!” While we were waiting at the lights to turn into the hospital, I was aware of the guy in the red truck next to us who was just staring at me in the passenger seat, squirming in pain. Awkward moment, but whatever, I was in pain! When we turned into the parking lot, we didn’t see any available spots right away. Eric had to go all the way to the back and I said to him “You don’t expect me to walk this far, do you?!?!!!” Well, in actuality, because of the one-ways in the parking lot, he had to go all the way to the end, turn around and go back to the front where there were spots for mothers in labor. We took the last spot. Poor parking lot design! We should be able to turn in and park right away! Anyway, when we got to the hospital, it was almost 1:45 p.m.

I had another contraction as I was getting out of the car, and almost about keeled over in pain. Again, awkward moment of another person getting into their car next to me and staring at this crazy pregnant woman screaming in pain. Then I had a little break between contractions and was able to walk calmly into the lobby of the hospital. Once in the lobby, I had another contraction and screamed out loud in pain. “Can we help you?” asked the hospital volunteers. Yes! Fastest way to Labor and Delivery! I made it across the ridiculously large lobby, a few steps down the hallway, with a volunteer pushing a wheelchair next to me. I couldn’t sit! It was too painful to sit, I bet she felt a little silly pushing an empty wheelchair. I was just thinking to myself, I’m not gonna make it all the way down the hallway, up to the third floor, down another hallway to L&D. Not with me stopping every few minutes with a contraction. As I was thinking this, another contraction hit me, and I felt her head. Imagine me, standing there, screaming, “I can feel her head!!” A doctor from the radiology department popped his head out, staring at us, a little shocked, and told us to turn around and go to the ER. And that’s what we did. The moment we pushed open the double doors to the ER, another contraction hit, and I screamed “She’s coming! She’s coming!!!” Yes, I was screaming at the top of my lungs. Of course everyone turned and stared in horror. I felt so embarrassed, so I apologized. I screamed out a “Sorry!!!” Then I looked up and saw people in white coats running at me. They whisked me into the first triage room. It was a frenzy in there. I hopped onto the bed, with no stirrups. The ER doctor told me I was at 10cm and +3, a couple more pushes and she’ll be out.

The OB and her resident came down soon and coached me. Told me to slow down. I remember screaming “Come out! Come out!” Well, she came out really fast. Elsa was officially born at 1:58pm. Although, someone asked, “What time was her birth?” And someone replied, “Not sure, no one was looking at the clock.” To that, someone else said “Let’s just say 1358 hours.” Ok. A 15 minute delivery is pretty awesome.

Holding Elsa for the first time. I’m still in my street clothes and my hair is still wet.

Elsa popped out so fast, her face was all bruised. She couldn’t open that eye for the first day. Even now she sometimes likes to go Popeye on us.

EJ being a loving older brother. She was crying and he wanted to hold her. My heart just melts. Aww…

Eric and Popeye Elsa

Me and my babies. Feeling so blessed.

Our little family of 4.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

25 Nov 2012 03:23 pm | Category: Celebrations, Family, Food, Shopping

Thanksgiving is one day before my due date. I was telling baby girl not to come on Thanksgiving or Black Friday so I can eat and shop!! She’s good. She heard me. I bought everything I needed for Thanksgiving dinner on Monday and was prepared to make it through to Thursday without going into labor. I took it easy. It was a nice relaxing day. I took my time preparing all the food. Cooking is so fun and relaxing for me. And cooking a big meal is just very satisfying! I made the turkey, sweet potato gratin, green bean casserole, mash potatoes, stuffing, and gravy. Everything turned out great! We had dinner with our neighbors, the Ko’s, and they made a delicious ham! It was soooo juicy and yummy. For dessert there was pumpkin pie and apple pie. I’m usually picky about my pumpkin pie, but Costco’s one is actually really good! We burnt the rim of our apple pie, though. But it’s all good, we already had one apple pie that Katrina bought from her school, Harker, as well as a sweet potato pie earlier in the week. We still had another apple pie in the freezer. And Chris is gonna make an apple pie and bring it to the hospital when I deliver meimei.

All the food.

The men carving out the turkey and ham.

Green bean casserole. Everyone loves green bean casserole.

And instead of candied yams, I made sweet potato gratin. So, instead of marshmallows, it was a gratin topping with oatmeal and walnuts. It was my mom’s favorite dish.

After a wonderful meal, we went to Target for Black Friday shopping! Target opened at 9pm this year. We got there at about 9:30, there was a line to get in.

Not too bad though. We got some things and got in line to pay and got out of there by 11:30. I got some new Corelle dishes. Eric got two sweaters and pj pants. We also got some DVDs, a waffle maker (only $8) and a Christmas tree! Our very first Christmas tree. We headed home after that, pretty satisfied with our purchase.

That night we looked at other stores and what was on sale and planned where to go the next day. I had my 40 weeks doctor’s appointment at 9:45am, so I was determined to get my shopping done before then. We headed out at 6am and went to Bed Bath and Beyond (only got their 20% off entire purchase coupon), Fry’s (nothing), Toys R Us (got MORE toys for EJ), JC Penney’s (nothing), Walmart (nothing), Target (again, haha, but just got hand sanitizers), and Costco (32inch TV for the church and their free cookbook). And we were done! I even had time to go home and bathe before heading out to my doc’s appointment. The sales weren’t terrific this year, I guess. Shopping wasn’t that crazy. Target did a good job on crowd control. Good thing we went the night before cos there was nothing much left on Friday morning. After my doctor’s appointment, I took my mom to BBB and got some things there.

Eat, eat, and eat. Then shop, shop, and shop. Still had no sign of baby! At my doc’s appointment, she striped my membrane and scheduled me for an induction for Saturday night. The eating and shopping, plus the membrane stripping probably helped after all, cos meimei came before my scheduled induction. Oh what a story to tell!

Date Night!

25 Nov 2012 11:48 am | Category: Celebrations, Food, Life, Movies

Still no signs of labor two days before my due date, and my mom was here. So date night it is!! Speaking of my mom, we almost didn’t go pick her up from the airport! Stupid time difference, made me all confused! My mom left Singapore on Monday night 8pm in Singapore, which was about 4am Monday morning our time. Her transition in HK left on Tuesday just past midnight, so naturally I thought she would arrive here on Tuesday night. But I kept thinking about it and it just didn’t make sense that she would be traveling for more than 24 hours! I was just talking to my sis about it around 8pm, and I figured out the time, she should be arriving on Monday night! Even though she left HK on TUESDAY, she gains a day and arrives here on MONDAY! Yeah. Her flight arrives at 9pm, so luckily I still had time to go pick her up and not leave her stranded at the airport!

Anyway, with mom here, Eric and I went out for a movie! And the only movie worth watching now was Skyfall, the new James Bond movie. It did not disappoint at all! After the movie, just because we can, we went to Denny’s for a late night supper. Ever since EJ was born, we hadn’t stayed out past midnight unless we had someone stay over. We also would have to rush back by 9ish to pick him up and put him to sleep. So, it was nice to take our time and enjoy a little before #2 came.