Insomniac musings: work; hiking; ironic deaths

This "low data allotment/no photos" bit is killing off my blogging desire almost completely. I am watching my baby on the video monitor right now. She is talking cutely in her sleep, "Dada," while laying face down in her crib. I am awake after trying to go to bed early last night (7:30pm) following which, Jerry came home from work sometime around midnight and inadvertently woke me up. I tried to fall back asleep for a whole hour. Finally I got up and unloaded the dishwasher, studied the scriptures, and am now currently wasting time online. There is something about the husband working 80-ish hours per week that unsettles the whole household. It is almost like he is out of town, gone, except worse. Did I mention he averaged 80 hours/week for more than the month of January, even having to work a whole month of weekends. Then, he started a different client the second week of February which is a longer commute but slightly better hours. Trade-offs. And yet, despite the unpleasantness of his work hours, I have felt mostly content. Now and then I freak out and have a (minor?) breakdown but overall am feeling happy. Perspective matters. Yesterday a few friends (three other moms and our collective 10 kids) went on a "hike." It was the sort of trail that readily accepts bikes and strollers. We had glorious, spring-time weather--even summery--and I don't know what everyone elsewhere in the nation has been saying about a cold winter?? It has never been winter for one single moment here in the Bay Area. Yes I am gloating. Though I missed having snow for about 2 seconds on Christmas morning. We saw lots of cool wildlife on our hike including: a coyote (50 yds away); several hawks (30 yards away on the ground, one of them, and it was picking at a kill in its talons); plentiful butterflies (even a bright blue one!); and baby goats. Okay, the latter wasn't wildlife per se but we had lunch at a farm and there were all kinds of cute animals there. Baby Ro is totally an animal person. She was fussing for the majority of the hike (teething? has a cold? uncomfortable jeans? I don't know???) but at the farmyard, she brightened right up and kept pointing, laughing, etc. at the chickens and pigs especially. The pigs were just laying motionless, so I'm not sure why she loved them so. But I'm glad she likes animals, because Liam as never had any particular interest in them except for dinosaurs and I need at least one of our kids to be an animal person with me. We have a tank of fish. At first, it was beautiful. Then one of the goldfish, the hulking 4 inch long giant bully of the bunch, tried eating the catfish. I say "tried," because he only got the poor baby catfish halfway down his gullet before it got stuck in transit. He had a catfish tail poking perpetually out his mouth. The fish looked absolutely disgusting, swimming pathetically with ever slower pace as he gradually starved himself to death due to his gluttony. After a few days of watching him, agonizing over what I should do, Liam and I finally released him into the pond near our home where I hoped he would be quickly eaten and put out of his misery. Liam asked me, "Why are you being mean to the goldfish? Now he will be cold in the pond." I tried explaining the dilemma and principle of my kindness, being that a quicker death might be more merciful to the goldfish than a slow starvation in our tank at home. This is why we have pets. It raises all kinds of great topics to discuss with innocent children. Ugh. Sort of wishing we could have a dog or something less brainless than a goldfish.

Books I have recently read

My mom asked me yesterday, "Remind me again which book were you telling me about?" and I honestly couldn't remember which book I might have been sharing with her, because I have been reading quite a few good ones lately. All genres as usual. I just finished The Persian Pickle Club, by Sandra Dallas. Historical fiction, Great Depression in Kansas/women's quilting group/friendship/murder mystery with BEST twist ending ever! Also, Liam just got a cute book from his Sunbeam teacher titled, Rhyming Dust Bunnies, by Jan Thomas. Children's literature at its best. You will laugh out loud every time! Lastly, Jerry and I are reading together a parenting book titled The Whole Brain Child, by Daniel J. Siegel, Tina Payne Bryson. You know it's a good one when Jerry gets excited about reading it. He got it on e-book format and is listening to it audio while he multi-tasks. It has a lot of fun "comic book" inserts and other unique formatting points that appeal to multiple learning styles.

Happy Birthday to Mr. LO! And the saga of 4 Disney Cars Cakes.

Have I mentioned yet how my birthday, my son's birthday, my daughter's birthday, and Halloween all occur within a 2 wk. time frame. It is ridiculous. We have GOT to figure out a system for managing this traffic jam of celebrations. Also, it drives me crazy to do this post without photos. But as aforementioned, I cannot upload photos with our current internet situation. I do what I can. Anyway, in order to space the birthdays somewhat, we had Lo's party a whole month before his actual birthday. This was an experiment we shall not repeat. It just made him think he needed another party by the time his actual birthday rolled around. Which we sort of ended up doing, though Jerry and I refused to call it a "party." We just had a few families over for a special lunch in which we served Lo's favorite foods (orange chicken and wontons). And we gave party favors and cupcakes. And they all gave Lo gifts even though we told people they didn't need to. Okay, it was a second party. He was even going to get a THIRD party, thanks to the fact that I recently happened to find an extra Disney Cars cake in my possession. Read on. The story of The Cakes: The first cake, I was all set to try my hand at a Wilton Lightning McQueen form pan. But Lo insisted he didn't want a cake that looked like a car; he wanted a cake that had loads of TOY cars on top of it. Toys he could keep and play with forevermore. So that is what we made for his first party. It was a cute cake, three layers high with a race track and plenty of sprinkles, etc. plus a handful of microdrifter cars racing around on it. Lo helped me with pretty much every step of the cake-making process (the kid is great with a hand mixer!) and I'm happy with how it turned out. For the second party, er, non-party luncheon we just did cupcakes. Still Disney Cars themed, with racing flags topping some, and even one red-frosted cupcake with a yellow lightning bolt logo on it. Then, I signed up to make a Disney Cars cake for a charity I've gotten involved with. It is called Cake4Kids, and delivers birthday cakes to kids who otherwise wouldn't have a birthday (children in foster care mainly). I feel great getting to do some fun baking, and brightening lives in the process. Plus, I wanted a service opportunity that my kids could get involved in alongside me, and delivering a Cars cake to some little boy has Mr. Lo so excited! So a few days ago I made the Wilton Disney Cars cake. One of the ladies in my ward was a Wilton instructor, so she came over to my house for THREE hours and gave an awesome personalized lesson. I got myself the Wilton basics kit with some of my birthday money, and I'm feeling thrilled to learn this new skill. But anyway, I'm being a perfectionist about this cake for charity. The Cars cake we did a couple days ago just wasn't good enough to give away. :) So I was going to bring it to park group on Friday where my son would have yet another birthday party, eating cake with all his friends in the glorious Fall California weather. But then Mr. Lo got the stomach flu, missed park day, and we ended up throwing the cake in the trash because nobody wanted to eat it. I spent about 6 hours making that cake. It hurt a little to throw it away, but I guess the point of it was to practice and learn so the cake I deliver this week to the boy in Cake4Kids will be the best! Including the cupcakes from Lo's 2nd party, this charity cake will be my fourth attempt at a Disney Cars cake within the past month. I'd say I'm getting to be a tad expert at this category.

Happy Birthday to ME!

I recently celebrated my 30th birthday. I didn't expect it to feel like a big deal--normally I don't care about getting older, and especially since my kids' birthdays both fall within about a 2 week time span of mine, I expected to focus most of our celebrating efforts on them. But my sweet husband and kids did a couple of cute things I want to always remember. First, they made dinner. Jerry sent me out of the house and when I came home, there was fresh-baked bread in the oven, Salmon (my favorite), creamy pasta, and a green salad for dinner. He did all that with both kids "helping" him! Then, they gave me a homemade "coupon" for a free massage. It was adorable, colored and crafted and whatnot by Lo Lo. I redeemed the coupon right away. I sat in the rocking chair with my feet on the ottoman, and Jerry massaged my neck/shoulders while the kids massaged my feet. I could not stop laughing, because Baby Ro joined the massage party all of her own volition. She likes to copy what she sees others doing. She stood there grabbing my foot, and every time I closed my eyes to "relax," I felt her sharp baby teeth chomp down on my big toe. It was a perfect birthday. A few days before my birthday, I also had thoughtful packages/cards come in the mail from family members. I feel very blessed. My birthday gift to myself was a membership to the YMCA. I've not had a good consistent exercise routine for several years (basically, not since having children) and I think the nurturing, supportive programs at the Y will help me get the habit back.

If you love 'em, eat 'em.

Today in Sunbeams, my son was learning about animals. "How do we show love to our pets?" the teacher asked. One girl raised her hand. "We feed them." Another child raised a hand. "We can pet them." And then my child raised his hand. "We can eat them." Totally a CHINESE sort of answer. I think he was remembering the time we played with some live crabs we got from the asian market...and then we ate them later that day.

ramblings of the nomad.

We cancelled our internet to save money but before you all start gasping, I'll just explain that we do have limited use through a jetpack (I just can't upload photos or watch videos or anything that takes much data transfer). Anyway, having no photos to post hasn't helped my motivation to blog. But here I am determined to simply type. Today at a music & movement class, Baby Ro started climbing on a bigger (3 yr old) girl. Mr. Lo explained with a shrug of apology, "That is just my baby sister. She doesn't even know what she is doing." We have practiced that phrase a lot lately; "She is just a baby. Babies don't even know what they are DOING! They are so SILLY/FUNNY/LOVEABLE/etc." We say all these sentences in delighted tones and laugh a lot. Lo has mostly done well adopting this happy attitude toward his sister. He is very forgiving. Our kids also just reached the stage of being able to really wrestle together, which I love because then I get less pleadings from Mr. Lo for me to roughhouse with him. We moved one month ago. Yup, could not keep our New Year's Resolution to live in one location for at least 12 months. Even though our new place is an upgrade in every way imaginable, somehow I still felt moderately depressed with all the changes. Now that I've found the new storytime we like to attend, some good parks in the area, introduced ourselves to a few neighbors, checked out all the closest grocery stores, figured out preschool/gymnastics complications, and got a church calling (the nursery leader--for the 4th time!) I am feeling better. We signed a 12 month lease on this place. Here's hoping we really do stay here for at least one full year. It feels like a blissful, unlikely dream to ever put down roots somewhere.

Random update

My brother and his wife visited us last month.  Here he is at the Mystery Spot.  We have all KINDS of cool sites to see.  We welcome visitors!  We have a futon in the living room that is semi-sleepable and a few air mattresses...seriously, come visit.  See the sites.  And see us.  :)

As it feels impossible to catch up with all the blogging, here is a random assortment of happenings spewed onto the page in no particular order:

Babe Ro is furniture walking and getting into all kinds of mischief .

Mr. Lo has been begging for months now: "Please let my sister sleep with me!  I'll just wake you up if she needs anything in the night."  OH how we WISH it were possible--but no, they don't even share a room.  We just do pretend "sleepovers" in Lo's bed during the day at his request. 

These two get along well most of the time.  Baby adores her big brother and fixates her stare on him above all other human beings.  "Brother Bear," as he calls himself, often screeches when she comes crashing onto his carefully arranged play areas--but still seems to really like having her around. 

We had a cute thing happen a few days ago. The kids were playing in a fort/tent, and Miss Ro behaved like SUCH the grown-up, clambering all by herself through each room and tunnel we had built. Then, the two kids started laughing at each other through a mesh "window" of the tent. I cannot express enough how JOYFUL it feels to have my kids enjoying each others' company and playing together. It is a dream come true. Most of the time they need a little more supervision, but there were a good 10 minutes or so there in the tent when they were just adorable to watch, no parental interjections needed. My camera has been needing the batteries charged for a week or so, so no new photos. But anyway, figured I would give this blog a little update. Make sure to check out our Youtube channel if you haven't already. That is where we put most of our good videos.

6, er 7 months

She likes books and gets read to pretty much every day, but often she is just "read to" by virtue of sitting on my lap while I read to Mr. Lo.  I have a goal to read to her individually as well, but those sessions usually turn into book EATING rather than READING. 

Poor neglected non-firstborn child.  Miss Ro had her entire 6 month post get left out!  But at least I took her to the doctor on schedule for her 6 month well-baby visit last month.  Now don't ask me where I put those stats.  All I recall is that she was something like 16-17 lbs. and in high percentiles for height/weight but she seems to have only moderate amounts of chub.  Nothing excessive.  :)  

Almost to the day, as soon as she turned 6 months she could magically sit up.  We did the pillow cushion for awhile, as shown in this photo.  Though of course now in month 7 she is done needing those pillows.  She can currently CRAWL, people.  Which has wrecked havoc on her relationship with her older brother.  ;)

She mostly has a lot of Blue in her life.  She plays with her brother's toys because we are too frugal to buy her proper baby toys (though I've started scanning Craigslist again and just today scored a good buy on a baby toy). She also sticks out her tongue a lot (as shown in the photo).  So cute!

Let the solids begin!  I waited until the week she turned 6 months, and ever since then have haphazardly handed her most of what I eat.  I know, risky for the allergens watch.  I need to slow down and pace myself on new food introductions.  But that requires organization and planning...And isn't it interesting about the new AAP recommendations? 

She gets about 5 baths per day, once after each time she eats, and another one at bedtime with her brother in the big tub.  Still need to get a photo of that latter charming event, but usually I'm too busy keeping her from drowning.  And did I mention I do bedtime routines by myself these days.  I basically feel like supermom most of the time, but the real story is that I have to let this baby cry sometimes while I focus on keeping her brother's bedtime on track.  I hate it.  And so I am inconsistent with the "let cry" approach.  Which is a recipe for disaster.  My son is the most well-adjusted sleeper, even waking at night to go potty and takes himself right back to bed.  I attribute his great sleeping to the fact that I was consistent; I consistently nursed him to sleep.  For years.  At age 2 he started sleeping in his own bed with a happy attitude, and at age 2.5 years he started sleeping in his own room with only minor protests, but a baby monitor camera helped reassure him we were watching over him and he adjusted fine.  I am pretty thoroughly happy with what happened with his sleep situation, though there were bumps in the road along the way.  Mainly those were confidence issues more than anything.

But I worry about this poor little Miss Ro.  Her naps are often "on the run," in her carseat or stroller while I go places for her older sibling's benefit.  She acts tired a lot.  If only I could force my personality to match my circumstances.  I don't think I was ever cut out to be any variation of a "single mom."  It has been a game-changer sometimes when I can stay home with my napping baby while Jerry takes Mr. Lo to preschool.  Those are great days.  But they don't happen often.  Anyway, here's a tribute to Ro Ro, the darling of the Tams.  She gets doted on by all the neighborhood.  They are Spanish-speaking people, and call her, "Bonita (Bonito?) and Gordita (isn't that a taco bell menu item?)...I know next-to-nothing in Spanish.  But I love that these people love my baby.  They all want to cuddle her and kiss her all day long.  The kids knock on the door asking to play with Mr. Lo, but really they just want an excuse to get to see the baby. 

JELIC Education

I always intended to do Montessori-type activities with my child at home, and every once in awhile hit gold. But I have a feeling it will take a formal school setting to get my child to achieve his highest learning potential. I have a few good friends who have loved homeschooling. But it sort of seems like I don't have the personality for it. Anyway, we have plowed forward with preschool plans for this wonderful 3-yr-old to supplement whatever good activities I can come up with for the homefront.

Uncooked Spaghetti Strands + Cheerios + playdough base = Intensely Focused, Happy Child

Last week Mr. Lo switched preschools (his other one ended for the summer, so we have him enrolled in one that continues through the summer).  The current preschool is a Mandarin/English bilingual Christian JELIC-based education system.  JELIC is sort of like Montessori I think??  I'm pretty happy with it. Lo goes just 2 half-days per week.  Anyway, I adore the head teacher, and she sent us a sweet update after Lo's first day.

Dear Jerry and Courtney:
 
Your son has a great start today!
He is such an independent, obedient, helpful and joyful boy!  What amazed me the most was when he poured a good-sized jar of milk into the small cup I gave to him!  he did it a few times with great confidence : )   I admire the way you train him and you really trained him well : )
He did a very good job in JELIC, too!  The box of this hands-on brain-development curriculum was a bit challenging for him at the beginning, yet he was very patient in following instructions.  In the end, he was more and more confident and finished that box really well!!  You would be very proud of him if you were here : )
It was a joy to have him in our class today and I am very much looking forward to having him again this Thursday!
Good night and God bless,

Esther
Yes, We are proud parents. What a great little boy God has given us. And I think Jerry and I have parenting styles and philosophies that complement each other well--we are a good mix. We have imperfect moments every day, but overall we Tams are a happy family. And I am thankful to God for making us this way.

Camera Hog

Recently we tried to get some spontaneous shots of this little Ro:Only to have the camera hijacked by this Mr. Lo:

And that was a couple weeks ago.  Ever since, he has been addicted to self-portraits.  He gets a turn with the camera almost every time I bring it out these days.  I'm looking forward to having another cameraman in the house.  :)