Bubba

It's crazy to think this time last year I was on bedrest, watching Parenthood.  Once I was done with that show, I would go onto Revenge.  I had never seen both shows and I managed to make the most of a boring time in the hospital by watching my shows, napping, and looking forward to eating breakfast, lunch (normally with Andy or he'd drop off something) and dinner with Jordan and May.  Time flies by so quickly but it isn't until you're at the point of now looking back that it feels super fast.

I'm grateful that I'm going to bed at 11:35 tonight just across the room from my two healthy boys.  I wish I could go back and tell myself a year ago that everything would work out, not to worry, and all that despite the hard road ahead that would be the month Bubba was in the NICU.

Jordan-isms

Jordan is such a fun age... at 35 months, he is just full of things to say and input, and if you're in the car talking to someone - whether it's on the phone or in person, he will say, "I want to talk too!" as he really does want to be part of the conversation.

Lately, he's had some hilarious Jordan-isms.

The other day, he walked over to where I was in the restroom on the toilet (sorry TMI), and said, "Mom, you're beautiful!" and then he proceeded to turn the door inward - since there's a mirror on the outside of it - so that the mirror was facing me - I could see myself on the toilet - not a sight most people want to see, and he said, "see?"  I wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic (too young for sarcasm) but it was hilarious.

Lately, he's picked up his pre-school teacher's tendency to say "that's perfect!'  I'll tell him we're going to have lunch and then go out, and he'll respond with, "Oh mom, that's perfect!"  I love the enthusiasm.  Other times, it's, "Oh!!  That's just perfect!"  So funny to hear him assert himself so positively.  I love it.

He also still doesn't understand that he can be something besides Jordan and a big boy.  We played a game today while perusing through Costco where I'd ask him if he was a burrito?  or a rice cake?  or a sushi?  or a chicken stock?  or a jelly bean?  He would say "No!" loudly to everything except big boy and Jordan.  If I asked if he was a big brother, he would say "No-es" - after realizing Mom had tricked him, but other things like my son - a kid - none of those would get "yes" responses - only, "No!  I'm a big boy!!"  HAHAHA.

He also loves to recap whatever you told him.  He loves repeating what he hears, our Church had a conference this weekend where we watched the broadcast online and he would mimic what he heard, word for word, almost entire sentences.  It was quite impressive.

But of course, as the first born, he's also quite bossy and will tell his baby brother what to do.  But most of the time, he will catch himself now if he's being mean and say, "Oh, I'm sorry Bubba!"  it's so funny to hear him apologize without me prompting him.  A few times he has done the same to me too.

He also loves to say, "that's awesome Mom!" and I think it's cuz we do say it a lot haha.  He is currently a little slow with all his colors and numbers but that's okay, because we're also working on them in Chinese.  We just started having a Chinese tutor who comes once a week and helps me reinforce speaking Chinese with him more (it's always better with someone else)  He seems so much more open speaking it with anyone but me!  Hahaha! We're learning our colors together (me the characters that go with each, him the pronunciation of each) with fun apps (check out Fun Chinese if you have a bilingual Chinese speaking kid) and trying our best to learn some songs too - Chinese and Church because he absolutely loves singing.

That's it.  I just wanted to record some of what is going on as most of my free time (when I have it) has been dedicated towards working on my book.  It's such an arduous process, I've only got 17 pages written so far.  It's going to be a long time before that thing sees the end of the tunnel hahaha.  

Being a Mom

I’ll never forget the time my mom asked me for a bite of my Mickey mouse ice cream on a stick and I refused.  She took the ice cream right out of my hand, took a bite, and proceeded to eat the rest of it while I threw a mighty of all tantrums on the hard wood floor, pounding my fists in revolt and anger, yelling at the top of my lungs and crying out for mercy. 

To this day, I have never forgotten to first offer my mom a bite of anything I am having as long as she is nearby.  Ever.  A little bit out of respect.  A little bit out of fear. 

And now as I am in a similar stage of motherhood, trying my hardest not to yell and scream and demand why my son has decided to poop in his pants when he knows very well how to make his way to the toilet, I wonder in retrospect, why I can’t seem to be a bit more calm.  I wonder why I can’t remember I am damaging a bit of his self esteem with my over zealous yelling and I wonder why I can’t recall the calm composed nature I told myself I’d be when the day started. 

I’ve never been an emotional crying type of mom.  While other moms were basking in the cuteness of their firstborns, I was wondering when I would fall in love with this little wrinkly being that kept crying and pooping.  Motherhood wasn’t natural to me, in fact it was overwhelming, uncomfortable, and suffocating at times.  Instead of feeling sad when my kids cried themselves to sleep, I wondered how long it would take, only seeming to have a bit of compassion when my husband was nearby and even more strict than me.  Instead of crying when my kids got their monthly shots, I logically tried to explain to them that the pain would go away shortly (my oldest never seemed to care, my youngest had his face turn beet red everytime).       

And now that I’m almost three years into it with two kids, I seem to have softened and feel this thing called love a lot more consistently towards my own kids.  But now, now I  have to remind myself to be more patient.  To be more loving.  To be careful when I am teaching with a disapproving taint.  It’s a hard balance between disciplining and loving, establishing rules and principles, enforcing them, and also being the loving mother that I want to be. 

Nobody likes to fail.  I sure don’t.  I’m pretty sure my son doesn’t either.  And yet as I think back to that moment tonight when I was just so angry, yelling, questioning him about why he had decided to poop a nasty diarrhea consistency blob of a poop in his undies (which also transferred to his pants and all over the bathroom floor as he made his way out of his clothes), all I can see is my anger and his sadness.  I’ve read all the articles about how to control your anger with kids, how to commit beforehand not to get upset and plan for how you’ll react.  But you know what?  Easier said than done.  Because in the moment as I was scrubbing away stinky poop and telling him he should not be doing this, I couldn’t for the life of me fathom how to lovingly help him and be more nurturing and positively reinforce his potty training abilities.  All I could do was err in anger and apologize later, tell him I’m sorry and hope he’ll forgive me and not remember his mother as the scary demon who would put on her angel halo after all the steam had cleared.  And the other part of me is wondering if I should have just stuck to my guns and been the mean mom to help him remember it more. 

I’m not quite sure. 

Motherhood is so incredibly hard sometimes.  Tonight seems to be one of those nights.  As soon as I cleaned the poop up… my other son peed all over the carpet for the millisecond he was naked between diapers, and then proceeded to poop right after (his third poop of the day).  Someone please tell me, when is this poopy stage of motherhood over?  And why does it all have to happen the one night my husband is working late?! 

He Makes Me Do Things!

Disclaimer: Sappy post to follow

I'm not a huge fan of bucket lists.  At the same time, I am so excited about doing so many new things in my 30's and most of the reason for that is my perfect husband.  Okay, so he's not really perfect but his mom might disagree and I might as well.  HAHA.  He inspires me to be better, to do new things, he's patient and positive and absolutely the best life coach one could have.

When I was a kid, I wasn't always allowed to go hang out with my friends on the weekdays.  The rare times I was allowed to go hang out, I was always a crappy roller blader.  A bad bicyclist.  A horrible basketball player.  Kids can be inadvertently cruel with their not always harmless teasing and joking around, but no positive impact was ever had.  I just got more insecure and wanted less to do with those things that I sucked at.  Instead, I devoted my time to reading a lot and doing my homework.  I was pretty good at those things.

At 28, I went snorkeling and camping for the first time.  At 31, I learned how to ski.  With skiing, it's mostly because Andy pushed me - I would have been fine giving up after the first time (and I only fell a few times too...) but I'm glad he made me stick with it because this past weekend, I got to ski alongside Jordan and it was the best ever.  No more fear of falling off the ski lift getting on or off, no more falling, and it was actually exhilarating and awesome!  With camping, I'd probably be okay never going again - I'm not a huge camping enthusiast, but it's also not enough of a deal breaker that I can't just go along and try to have some fun.  And some fun I have had, it's especially fun with lots of family members who bring amazing food and stuff.  With snorkeling, I was beyond scared to go - but glad I tried it and am not afraid anymore.  And it was pretty neat seeing all the different fish in the water.  I'd do it again.  Sure!

And because I haven't posted about our awesome vacation to the Bahamas yet.. here's just a few photos.  I want to go back!!!

Help a Brother Out!

To be precise, my brother.  Little brother that is.

Growing up, my brother LOVED comic books.  Everytime we went to the book store (which was about once a week), he would come out with a comic book.  He poured over those things.  We have literally cases upon cases of heavy big boxes with comic books in them.  So it only makes sense that he took his passion and created a comic book!

As a NYU grad in film, writing by day and tutoring random kids by afternoon, Ray has been working on this project for the last two years and it is so exciting to see it come to life!  But to get it started, he needs EVERYONE's HELP!  So please please check out his page, spread the word, and if possible - donate $1!  Every dollar counts.  And everyone has a dollar to spare, right?

I am quite impressed with the artwork.  I can't even wait to read the story.

Ray is on the right - that's my brother.  Please support!  Find out more here.  

Question on Book Titles...

Which book title intrigues you the most?

Yellow is a Color Too

Somewhere Between FOB and Tiger Mom

Memoirs of an ABC

Growing Up ABC


I'm currently devoting some time to that book I've been meaning to write since 2004.  Ten years is quite a bit of time, so in commemoration of my upcoming ten year college reunion in May, I'm making it a goal to finish the book I intended to write way back when I graduated college.  It was actually my senior thesis that prompted this, but I never got around to doing anything about it, and now with how easy it is to self-publish your own book on Amazon, I think that is the way to go!

So here we go!

Reflections of Ourselves

The other day a friend posted a video of her son frustrated - at the age of 3, it was absolutely adorable, but the description below the video made fun of the fact that kids are really just reflections of ourselves sometimes - eerily so, especially those of us who stay home with our kids all day.

So I got to thinking... and here's what I realized....

Jordan is exceptionally bossy.
Jordan has too much energy.
Jordan is quite loquacious.
Jordan likes to always be doing something, is easily distracted and focuses on things he loves.
Jordan over exaggerates his emotions, just for kicks (e.g. he will say he's really sad but it's almost a natural reaction rather than the truth).
Jordan is happy (outside of the emotional "I'm sad Mom" or "I'm sick Mom")
Jordan is silly.
Jordan tries to be funny and sometimes actually is.

Jordan is very much like his mom.

As for his talented side - the part where he's a pretty quick learner and athletic side - that's from his daddy.  And as for his disdain for sleeping and eating - yes, I actually remember quite vividly my parents forcing me to take another bite of this or that, of laying in bed listening to the sound of television outside at 9 PM (after we watched America's Funniest Home Videos and Simpsons on Sunday night... and I was sent to bed)... which in my later years would just be me reading at night while my parents slept ... until odd hours of the night to finish a book (not every night, but if I had a good book, then yes...) and how food eventually found its way to my heart and made a place for itself.  Things I liked... egg tarts and chicken feet at dim sum or chicken nuggets and spaghetti and cabbage or any greens for that matter - I ate a LOT of.  Everything else?  Not so much.

I wonder what Bubba will be like.