Epiphanies

I jumped the gun and fed J organic whole grain rice cereal by earth’s best. Pediatricians say not to feed babies solids before 6 months but I don’t really know if I believe in that. I held off until 5 1/2 but that’s ok.

B had his munchkin performance in the The Land of Oz at school on friday the 15th. I couldn’t go because they don’t allow kids under 4. My in-laws took C to see B in it. It was chaos the night before though. B was all upset that he didn’t have the required jazz shoes so he and I ran all over Spectrum looking for jazz shoes. Miss L threatened the kids by telling them they wouldn’t be in the play if they didn’t have all the elements of their costume. She’s a real piece of work. Anyway, no one knew what jazz shoes were (including me). I figured they were really just ballet shoes for men but I wasn’t sure. Anyway, B thought they looked most like these Kenneth Cole dress shoes. I knew he was probably wrong but he was so insistent so I bought them ($54 – ouch). Needless to say, he didn’t use them in the performance. She allowed him to use black socks. I returned them to Nordstrom’s and they took it back soooo easily. I love these higher end stores.

Dh returned from his London business trip on the evening of the 16th. I was so happy to see him back. It’s pretty lonely without him. The in laws were great while he was away. They came over every day to cook dinner for us. That’s really key when you have an infant that won’t let you put him down for long. Anything I cook has to be prepped within 5 minutes or less. I think that’s the most difficult part of this third kid. I don’t remember having this problem with the other two.

We had an uneventful Father’s day. B made Dh a framed clay portrait. C made Dh a personalized cup and a painted tool belt (we did this at the park with my mom’s club friends). Then we took everyone, including my in laws, to IHOP (their suggestion). Guess they’re sick of the long lines for yum cha. Afterwards we headed to Spectrum and hung out there. We played Great States for family fun night. Was kind of too simple. I think we have to modify how we play this game. For Dh and I we didn’t look but it still was too simple. I think B needs more challenge. For C we just made him do the ‘Find’ cards. I will have to think on how to make this game more fun. It’s definitely more educational but I think it won’t be useful unless we make it more fun. Anyway, my MIL left for a wedding in NY on monday and monday night I went to hang out with my girlfriends.

We went to Roman Cucina. It was pretty good and the host was really charming and cute. It was just 4 of us that night. I split a fettucini primavera with Bh. Delish. It also happened to be martini night. Can’t get better than that. $5 martinis with an entree. I got a white chocolate martini, K got blue ice, and M and Bh both got key lime. We went into ConRev later (sex shop). Didn’t know they existed in OC.

Today, we went to see B perform in his 3rd grade play “Alien Geography”. His line was “Salem Oregon”. It was a cute production. Much more enjoyable than his ACE productions although my in laws said this year it was much better. I guess part of why I felt better was that you felt that all the parts were evenly spread out and to qualified people and NOT nepotism.

We ended tonight at Maizuru. It was pretty good and filling. I didn’t like the sashimi though. It was too cold, like it was just thawed out. That part wasn’t that enjoyable. I also had the fried oysters. I could only eat two and gave the rest away. Dh said it was the nature of the beast. After a few oysters, you just kind of don’t want to eat anymore. We reminisced a lot with the kids today. We realized B has been through a lot of strange things. Some of them:

1. Fell when he was 10 days old (ER)
2. Jaundice (ER)
3. Tylenol scare (ER)
4. Tick latched onto his scalp (via petting a wild dog in Italy).
5. Injured his toe playing baseball with his auntie
6. Ran into a fence and injured a corner of his eye at the Spectrum (ER)
7. Bitten in the back by a neighbor’s dog

C has only been through one trauma: he broke his leg jumping off a box when he was less than 2.

On another note, think I’m losing my milk so it’s just as well that I quit around now.  J is biting and he now has two teeth on his lower front.  Hurts like hell.

The kids went camping to Catalina with Dh this past weekend.  Dh was passing on the torch as the chief of their little Indian guide arapaho tribe.  Think they do kayaking, bow and arrow, and other “manly” things.  I like that the kids have these opportunities to be boys.  I bought the boys “The Dangerous Book for Boys” which brings  back all the cool stuff kids used to do before technology destroyed all that.  I regret that lost time where kids could just be kids.  I had a great childhood and I know my kids would miss out if we aren’t proactive about it.

I stayed home with J.  It wasn’t too bad.  I called Mary and we had a long talk to catch up.  I feel like I haven’t talked to her in ages.  It’s hard connecting with friends.  So much is going on in our lives.  You think of your friends but you don’t necessarily have time to call them all the time.  She reminded me though of the value of good friendship.  Our connection is still there and that was really cool.  I asked about her dad’s lawsuit.  Seems like they’re still in discovery.  Her deposition is coming up.  She said Jimmy had his recently and he was crying a lot of the time through it.  She said she might have a hard time because she never had any closure with her dad.  She wasn’t able to attend his funeral because she had just given birth.  It’s a chinese supersition type thing.  After I spoke to her, I tried calling my parents but I haven’t been able to get in touch with them.  They’re in Taiwan for my grandmother’s funeral but I don’t have any idea of when they will be back.  It made me afraid but I try not to think about it too much.  The parents of many of my friends seem to be passing away and it just makes me very sad for them and scared for myself.

I guess life got the best of me. I really meant to post almost every day.

Let’s see, highlights of the past few weeks:

1) B did “Take your kid to work day” and missed school.

2) We registered C for kindergarten (gosh he’s growing so fast!!). The process was a bit tedious because noobies didn’t fill out papers correctly. (It’s not rocket science, not sure why they couldn’t fill it out correctly). Bumped into a bunch of people there (Julia who had kids in swimming too), (Lisa, Stanley’s mom), (Evan’s mom – don’t remember her name), (Mahtab – Niloo’s mom), (Bunnee).

3) C went to Julianna’s bday at Chucky Cheese.

4) We went to Spring family picnic. Al did the strawberry pie eating contest. B did the sack race. B and C did egg hunt and bounce house and some crafts. I met Wendy there, Kirsi and Carol. Also met Windy’s hubby and Sandi’s hubby. Was pretty funny. We ate at California Fish Grill and bumped into someone from Indian guides (forgot name).

5) Went to Tustin to check out Cream Pan. Overrated. It’s good but not a place I would go out of my way to go to because I absolutely craved it.

6) Played Mousetrap for Family Night. It was pretty fun building it. The kids had fun (I think). We also played Littlest Pet Shop Game. That was really up C’s speed and fun also.

7) Dh went to K1 speed with his work buddies. He says he had fun.

8) My grandmother (Dad’s mom) died on May 4th. Supposedly their old caregiver left and they hired a new one and she was feeding her milk, but because she didn’t know what she was doing, my grandmother choked? and died. She was 97 I think. The only thing I can really remember about her was that she would spit out these Binlan aka Betel Nuts onto the floor, leaving all this disgusting red stuff on the floor. It used to scare me when I was a child because I thought it was blood. By the time I met her again later when I was in my twenties, she just didn’t engage me in anyway or even attempt to. I feel sorry for my dad but as for myself, I can’t really say I knew her.

9) We went to Kidspace Museum which turned out to be much cooler than I expected. We took advantage of the free museum admissions on BOA May promotion. I want to take my nephews there when they visit California again. This time we’ll be more prepared and do a picnic at the park afterwards.

10) Zoo Tycoon Complete Collection addiction. I’m addicted – this game rocks so much more than I thought it would. The kids have fun with it too as well as Dh. Fun for the whole family. It’s fun building a zoo and trying to figure out how to draw people, how to redirect traffic so that one area isn’t so congested, how to keep animals happy, what habitats are suitable for them, how best to layout the zoo. It really is challenging.

C: Mommy can you help build some homes for some animals when I’m at school?

Me: Sure. Which ones?

C: Kangaroos, rhinoceros, and cantelopes.

Me: Cantelopes?

C: Yes, cantelopes, the ones that look like deers.

Me: Oh ok, sure. (adorable).

11) Tried out swimming with J at the pool up on the hill. Think the pool is called Valley View. Can’t quite remember. We put him in the Body Glove Infant Water Carrier. It worked great in that it was the right height for the water. J wasn’t happy though. Think he was too cold and he kept crying. Maybe we’ll try it again when we go to Hawaii. Saw Cathy and Duc and the kids there. She told me the am teacher for K is strict. Oh no. Hope C has a good K year. Also met Taras and his mom Julia there. Taras took tennis with B before. We planned for a playdate.

12) Took J for his 4 month check up. He’s about 15 lbs – wow. He’s healthy so no worries so far. He had to get his second set of shots. The few days after that was hellish because he had a fever and was really cranky. I was quite worried. We gave him infant tylenol but it’s still worrisome. Dh went out to dinner too that very night so it was kind of hard.

13) Finally got out of our TKD contract (5/9 – last day) at a monetary loss too but what can we do. It’s the breaks.

14) Fisher Price Kid-Tough Digicam for Boys lasted all of a few hours. Sucked. Just wouldn’t power on. Tried to call Fisher Price but it’s difficult to troubleshoot because J has been cranky cause of the shots. Think they’re going to have me reformat the camera. Hope that works.

15) Went out with my gfs. We ate at Corner Bakery because it was a friday night and the Spectrum was packed as usual. Wasn’t too bad. I had some kind of chicken pesto sandwich. Bought some kind of pitching toy for C and B to practice baseball at Target. C recced it. Hope it works.

16) Met up with Dh to go to the post office to get a passport for J. We needed expedited service (an extra $60) but it’s a 10 week wait now because of the unusually high volume of passports apps this year. She was out to lunch though so we went to eat at Champagne’s Market, near where we used to live at Newport Bluffs. We split our sandwiches. Dh had a salmon one and I had a chicken grilled one. He had it on some kind of squaw bread. In the words of Dora – Delicioso!! Mmmmmh, just thinking of it now make my mouth water.

17) Played Risk for Family Night. 3 letters – UGH.

18) I think we’re going thru some bad karma the last few months. Things have not worked, or are damaged, we’ve gotten hit with a bunch of fees, we’re losing money here and there. Must think of something to get us out of our slump.

19) B walked the dog and he went for a long time so I had to run out there and see what was keeping him. (That’s the overly protective side of me). He was hanging out with the blond kid who lives right by the park. B told me they got bullied by some older kids (12 yo) on bikes. They were taunting the other kid calling him a scaredy cat when he ran away from their bike. They tried to taunt B too but Sammy barked at them and so they left him alone. They were trying to “run them over” according to B. His friend was on a scooter. One of the bullies was brown and one was white, says B. I’m definitely going to say something to them if I ever see them. B says they live in the neighborhood. Anyway, B tried to tell them off about not bullying kids younger than them. He asked them “Do you want someone trying to run you over?” They replied “Yes!” B said they answered like that because they were embarrassed at their behavior. I’m glad B can stand up for himself.

20) Met a new mom Yumi (her kid’s name is Takumi). He’s on second grader in Liam’s class. She seems nice. She also has another son who is 4 but going to turn 5 in Dec so she’s going to hold him back.

Anyway, those are the highlights. Back to your regularly scheduled program…

I’m sold.  It couldn’t get any easier.  Cut up a pot roast into smaller pieces, salt and peppered it and threw it into the slow cooker and wala – dinner.  Well, I had to do the rice cooker too but still, it was an easy breezy way to cook meat.

Practiced multiplication with B.  I almost fell asleep during one of the sessions.  I broke it up so that I could keep B’s attention a bit longer and mine too.  Talk about boring stuff.

J had stinky poop today – I think it’s a residual formula poop from the other days.  Makes me want to nurse him for longer if it means I could avoid changing the stinky diaper.  Boy was it nasty.  Forgotten how foul it could smell.

Forgot to mention C did diving in the outside pool again yesterday.  Well, more like belly flopped in but he’s still cute doing it.  I should have filmed it.  B came along since he’s on spring break.  I made him write a book report on one of those Deltora books that he’s reading.  P and I chatted about her new movie which is going to be shown this friday but unfortunately I can’t make it because Dh has a poker game with his buds and I have to take care of the kids.  I mentioned that I heard her neighbor is selling her house (which has a lake front view) for $1.1.  It’s tempting but she said it wasn’t worth it.  I already knew that but it’s still tempting.

B went to the batting cage with Dh the other day but I think he took out his frustration (couldn’t  hit a lot of the balls) on DD and DD had a  nervous breakdown (haha).  Poor Dh.

We played Candyland – Dora the Explorer.  B won so he was happy.  Think he’s been a bit perturbed by his losing streak so this was good.  I really want the kids to be laid back about losing at games.  It’s all just a game – nothing to get huffy about.

Hung out with W and C last night at Fashion Island in Newport Beach.  W says she’s never been.  Was fun.  We ate at PF. Chang’s and boy were all the restaurants packed.  We got there early around 6-ish and we still had to wait at least 45 minutes.  We ended up ordering a bunch of appetizers (lettuce wraps, 2 dumpling dishes,  crab wontons), and one pan fried noodle dish – I think it was the dan dan?  I also got an Orient Express martini which was pretty good.  Then we shared a delicious dessert Banana Spring Rolls.  We chatted a lot about everything under the sun.  Was pretty cool getting to know them and although we do happen to have dinner every month anyway, this dinner seemed a little more personal which was cool.  Then W drove us over to Diedrich Coffee on Campus Drive.  We were trying to find a coffee house that stayed open past 10 – no mean feat.  We scored – it closed at 11pm.  Something Dh and I should keep in mind when we’re looking for something still open.

Then today Dh and I went to “The Lab” for our “date”.  I read this is supposed to be the anti-mall.  It was cute and if I was still a teenie bopper I suppose it would be cool.  It’s way smaller than I thought it would be and parking is a b*tch.  It however is anti-OC as I know it so for that I give it points.  Dh bought some pants at Urban Outfitters.  He does love their pants – I think because the pants are slim which is what he needs.  Anyway, the whole reason we went there was to eat at  “Habana” for some non authentic cuban food.  I went there with my gal pals M, M and K before so I wanted to take Dh there.  Service there is great.  We had chicken empanadas and I had a really good crab cake sandwich.  Dh got a classic cuban sandwich with plantanos.   Yum.  We must go back again.  Then we hopped across the street to shop at South Coast.  Didn’t really buy anything but it was nice being able to shop without kids in tow.  We then checked out Laguna Hills mall (nothing much there and it was closing down at 7pm wth).  All in all a good day.