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This article
made me laugh. I am an offender of both posting kids pictures AND
dog pictures on Facebook!! Here are some more pics to annoy more
people, ha ha! I guess if you are reading this blog voluntarily,
then you can't be complaining about seeing too many kids and dog
pictures. :-)
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Posted August 27, 2012
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It's
been unbearably hot for the past two weeks in LA, even for us folks who
live a mile from the ocean! Normally, we will have a week of
extremely hot weather by the coast and then we go right back to foggy
and gloomy conditions this time of year. However, this year, the
heat just refuse to break. It's also been very humid which makes
everything sticky and icky. So we've been seeking out water play
quite often. Buzz has water play at school practically every day.
Last weekend, we visited our friends who recently bought a new
house with a community pool in a brand new community in Irvine.
We all had a blast hanging out in the pool, even Ahgoo, sporting
her very first swimsuit! We also let Buzz play in the kiddie
fountain at the local mall! :-) Unfortunately, the heatwave
continues, according to the latest forcast. Can't believe I am
wishing for June gloom! |
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Posted August 26, 2012
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Isn't
this an adorable diaper? I got these from my co-workers when they
threw me a baby shower earlier this year. I couldn't wait for
Ahgoo to be able to use them. But now that she can fit into them,
I find myself holding back from using them all the time because they
are so pretty, too pretty to be used if I know she's going to be
pooping. I also don't use them if she's going to daycare.
So that pretty much leaves only the weekend. Even on the
weekend, I only put them on her right before we go out. :-)
So
as we were going through two weeks of tantrum hell, Ahgoo has been an
angel! She's always been a happy baby. Every morning she
wakes up with a huge smile! She loves to "chat." She loves
her daycare teachers, she is just a joy to have around. This girl
hardly cries, only if she's super tired. Even then, she would
only cry for a few minutes. If it wasn't for her easy-going
nature, our daily routine would never work out.
I can't decide which way is better, having a difficult child
first followed by an easy child or vice versa. With us, Buzz was
so difficult as a baby that Ahgoo seems to be super easy! But
another couple friend of ours' had the opposite, their second child is
the more difficult child. They told us that they were shocked by
how tough it was because they thought that all babies are like their
first child. In any case, I'm sure that things will reverse in
their teenage years, Buzz will be easy and Ahgoo will put us through
the wringer, haha!
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Ahgoo sporting a designer diaper..
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Posted August 16, 2012
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For
the past two weeks, Buzz put us through one of our toughest test as
parents yet. He decided that he wanted to test the boundaries.
He started to through fierce tantrums, even more so than his
normal tantrums. He would defy everything we ask him to do, take
a bath, eat lunch, take his shoes off, etc. He would either ignor
us or just say "no!" He would also hit us if he doesn't like
something we've said to him. Every morning he would wake up
cranky, throwing tantrums about anything and everything from what shirt
he wants to wear to what toys he wanted to play with. He would
come home from daycare and be cranky for dinner. I'm too tired to
describe to you what a tantrum looks like but these women have all
taken the time to document their children's tantrums, all of which Buzz
has pulled.
Tantrums of a two year old boy.
Tantrums of an 18 month old girl.
Tantrums of 18 month old twin boys.
Mr.
BAW and I were at wits' end trying to figure out what to do. We
tried to be nice, we tried to be mean, I tried to channel my inner
Tiger Mom (I'm Chinese after all!) but nothing was working. I
knew he was faking the tantrums and pushing the envelop to see what he
can get away with. But we didn't know how to stop it.
Finally, we were just completely fed up with it all and stopped
acknowledging his tantrums entirely. That doesn't mean we gave in
to his every demand, just the opposite, we ignored his demands.
Getting angry was what he wanted from us. So when we became
indifferent, he knew his act was over! After about two weeks of
tantrums he suddenly stopped and became a wonderful little boy! I
think he was putting us to the test. If we gave in, he would've
become one of those unruly child and we would've lost all control as
parents! Instead, we have all come to a comfortable place where
he is the child and we are the parents. Don't get me wrong, we
still have our moments and struggles, but things are much better now!
He now will do as we say, after only telling him three times as
opposed to yelling and screaming for an hour! :-) Another
thing we did to change the relationship was to get him to ask for
things instead of telling us what he wants. So instead of having
him say, "I want milk." he says, "Can I have milk please?"
This really helps in establishing that we're not catering to his
every want but rather he's asking us for permission to get the things
he want. We'll see how things go in the next few weeks, but I
really think we've turned a corner on the terrible twos...knock on wood!
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Buzz and his favorite toys.
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Posted August 11, 2012
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Latest science news summary:
-If you live in a cave, you may have not heard of a large rover called Curiosity.
-The last space shuttle, Endeavour, is coming to the Science Center in Los Angeles...very excited.
-The passing of Dr. Sally Ride,
the first American woman in space. So sad, she served on the
Board of Directors at my place of employment. I remember reading
about her first space flight in six grade, that's 1983 if you're
wondering.
-Hot weather and Earthquakes,
is there a connection? Having lived in LA most of my life, I
definitely notice a correlation between sudden heat waves and
Earthquakes. But so far no scientific data to suggest the
correlation on a local scale. Due to lack of sleep lately, I've also
not felt the last two quakes everyone has been talking about!
-Lastly,
this has nothing to do with science but I was reading my email the
other day and noticed that I have a lot of emails from myself. I
write myself reminder emails all the time, to write a check, to pack a
lunch, or even to blog about something. Do you email yourself?
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Posted August 8, 2012
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At lunch on Friday I told Mr. BAW that I will blog about how I don't have time to blog anymore.
So that's what I'll blog about today. So many blog-worthy
things have happened that I didn't have time to post! So here
they are in summary:
-A gecko hitched a ride on Toby and ended
up on Ahgoo's play mat. Thankfully I discovered him before I put
Ahgoo into the playpen! So I screamed and threw a tupleware over
it and make Mr. BAW kindly released it back into our backyard. A
stern "Don't bring any more lizards into the house!" to Toby ensued.
-I'm drooling over these gorgeous shoes!!! I will be on the lookout for the sale or a cheaper immitation.
-The
other weekend, we took the kids with us to Babies R Us to buy a bed for
Buzz. He'll be transitioning into another bed in a few months
when Ahgoo will move from the bassinet into his crib. After that
we were driving to the grocery store when suddenly Buzz asked us,
"Where are we going?" I said, "We're going to the store."
He then replied annoyingly, "AGAIN??" Coming from a 2yo,
that just cracked me up!! He sounded like a teenager! How
old IS my kid?!
-We completed yet another bathroom renovation
(that's three major house renovation in three years!) in the kids
bathroom back in June. I didn't even have time to blog about our
master bedroom/bathroom renovation from last year! Anyway, I told
Mr. BAW that there shall be no major renovation in the next two years.
Of course we are still working on painting the third bedroom.
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Posted August 6, 2012
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I can't believe it's August already. Though work is going really well
and I've managed to get everyone to their perspective daily duties
(daycare, school, work,) I'm feeling a bit tired. Work-life balance is
very tricky these days. Before I returned to work full time, I was
really nervous about how we were going to make things work as a family
of 5. So I read up on this series about how women juggle work-life
balance.
Since then, I've lived through two weeks of trying to perform this
juggle act. So I thought I'd share what our typical day looks
like.
Let me start the day off at 4pm in the afternoon,
you'll soon understand why it's easier to start at 4pm. At 4pm, I
get off work and drive over to pick up Ahgoo. I get to her
daycare at around 4:30pm and we both get home at ~5pm. (Rule of
thumb, it takes about 30 minutes to get anywhere in LA if you stay in
your neighborhood and about an hour to get anywhere that requires
taking the freeway.) Once we get home, I quickly put stuff away,
change out of work clothes, and bathe Ahgoo because she's quite dirty
from daycare. Then I get about 15 minutes to play with her and
let Toby out to the backyard before Mr. BAW gets home with Buzz from
his school. Then I prepare a quick dinner for Buzz and he eats at
6pm. Toby also eats his dinner at the same time so he doesn't bug
Buzz. Mr. BAW then makes our dinners while Ahgoo and I sit
with Buzz at the dinner table. At ~6:30pm I bathe Buzz while Mr.
BAW watches Ahgoo. Then Buzz gets to watch about 15 minutes of TV
at ~7pm while Mr. BAW and I eat dinner. Sometimes Ahgoo will play
by herself in her playpen, other times I eat with one hand while
holding her in the other. Then at 7:15, Buzz goes to bed.
Mr. BAW then hangs out with Ahgoo while I clean the kitchen (this
includes preparing for bottles for baby and packing the breastpump and
milk bottles for the next day.) By 8-8:30pm, Ahgoo is ready for bed and
I hop into the shower. At 9-9:30pm, Toby gets his last bathroom
run in the backyard and we all get to bed. At ~9:30-10pm I try to
do a little watch TV, do some computer stuff (check email, pay online
bills, read/write blogs, etc,) and check my meeting times for the
next workday. Then it's sleep for me at around 10:30pm. At
~1am Ahgoo wakes for a feeding, she goes right back to sleep 15 minutes
later. At ~3:30am she wakes for another feeding. This time
she's usually perky and I have to entertain her for about an hour.
By ~4:30am she goes back to sleep. At 6am my alarm goes off
and I get ready for work. At ~620am I get out of the bathroom and
Mr. BAW gets ready for work. I prepare breakfast for Buzz and eat
something quick for breakfast. At 6:45am I get Buzz ready for
school (diaper change, get dressed, and eat breakfast.) If Ahgoo
is up, then she'll sit with us in her bouncer while Buzz eats
breakfast. During that time, Mr. BAW takes care of Toby (let him
out and feed him breakfast.) and eats a quick breakfast himeself.
By ~7am, Mr. BAW and Buzz heads off to school and work.
Right after they leave I nurse Ahgoo and get her ready for
daycare. By 7:15am we're out the door. At ~7:30am I drop
off Ahgoo at daycare and by 8am I'm at work. This has been our
routine since I started work again and I've managed to get to work no
later than 8:15am everyday, even with tantrums and traffic.
Weekends
are reserved for bigger chores like laundry, shopping, bathing the dog,
giving Buzz a haircut, everyone getting their nails trimmed, organizing
the house, etc. We have a cleaning lady come twice a month for
the big stuff like vaccuming the whole house and cleaning all the
bathrooms and kitchen. Quality time with the kids are mixed into
the daily chores. I read to Buzz when we eat breakfast. We
talk about his day when we bathe. On days when Mr. BAW can get
off work a little early, he'll take Toby and Buzz to a park just down
the street from our house for a little play time before dinner.
Weekends of course we spend as a family. As for adult time
and couple time, thankfully, Mr. BAW and I work at the same place even
though we don't work at the same company, so we get to eat lunch
together almost daily, barring any meetings. We also eat dinner
together every night.
This
is our life in a few paragraphs for now. Things of course will be
different in a few months when Ahgoo can sleep through the night.
I can't wait for that!! :-) |
Mr. BAW and Buzz at the top of the rocket at the park.
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Posted August 5, 2012
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When my BIL and his family visited us from Chicago last month we took them on a little tour of Downtown LA.
They have never been to LA's downtown so I was happy to share
with them my little city. Though I've posted many pictures of
Downtown LA before, these pics show some more hidden places of Downtown.
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Top of California Plaza.
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Angels Flight ticket office.
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Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Courtyard.
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MOCA Courtyard.
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Reflection of city hall from the Los Angeles Police Department.
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Mission at Olvera Street.
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Fountain at Olvera Street.
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MOCA.
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Posted August 4, 2012
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