By Julie

1. Thursday I watched a live webcast of J. K. Rowling at Harvard's commencement. Her speech was so good that when Kevin got home I made him listen to the archived recording with me. He thought Rowling would make a good motivational speaker. I agree.

2. This week I signed up for the drink pouch recycling program at TerraCycle. I designated Alex's school as the beneficiary of the 2 cents per pouch that my efforts will net.

3. Prior to Angie's arrival my only me time consisted of half hour soaks in the jacuzzi tub 2 or 3 times a week - not that I'm complaining, it really was all the me time I needed. But lately I haven't even had that because Angie refuses to be held by anyone else for more than 5 minutes at a time before she starts crying. I miss my soaks. It's not something I can outsource.

4. Legally Blonde: The Musical is looking for their next Elle Woods! Can't wait to watch this show on stage next August at the Pantages.

5. According to this doggy daycare employee, about half of all dogs eat their own poo. Good to know Daisy isn't such a freak after all. Now, if only she weren't incontinent.

6. My 6 week postpartum checkup went well. I'm still carrying 10 extra pounds, but at least my clothes are starting to fit again. I've started exercising to help speed up the process, mainly sit ups and push ups. Here are some desk friendly exercises that I plan to do when I go back to work in September.

7. These awesome travel tips make it seem like anyone can travel with small children. Even so, I don't plan on going anywhere until Angie is a year old.

Labels: books, environment, movies, music, parenting, pets, pregnancy, travel

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By Julie

I can't sneeze. The baby won't let me. I can do the AH-, but instead of finishing with -CHOO, I just wince painfully. Even blowing my nose is difficult because of the abdominal muscles required. I've never experienced this before because both Alex and Ana were born in winter. Something to keep in mind for all of you future moms who suffer from spring-summer-fall allergies like I do.


Yesterday while teaching the kids how to baby proof the living room for their soon-to-be-born baby sister, I told Alex how he used to play with the TV set. He couldn't stop laughing through the whole story.

Back when Alex was a baby, we watched two shows a week religiously: Charmed and Gilmore Girls. Eventually we had to stop watching Charmed once Alex got old enough to be scared of the monsters, but at first all he noticed was the bright light coming out of the box... and the row of buttons immediately underneath.

Alex learned quickly that pressing the On/Off button got Mommy and Daddy's attention right away. When he graduated on to the channel buttons, we bought a plastic shield made for babyproofing the TV. It didn't last a week. Alex figured out how to pull it away from the TV and reach behind it with his nimble little fingers. We ended up have to duct-tape over the buttons and use the remote control exclusively.

I have many other Alex babyproofing stories, but I can't recall any for Ana. Aside from perching precariously on the arm of the sofa I don't remember her doing anything else particularly dangerous or naughty. I wonder if it's because she had an older sibling to occupy her attention. Or maybe they just have different personalities.

Daisy's preoccupation with eating plants is bordering on the pathological. Kevin found several gigantic lumps of regurgitated grass in the backyard. But I think I've found a way to keep my plants out of her reach: container gardening. I've transplanted all the small plants into long, rectangular containers and set them on the patio tables and the corn into large pots set on top of the patio chairs. Thank goodness Daisy has short legs.

Labels: allergies, gardening, kids, pets, pregnancy

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By Julie

The nursery currently looks like this. No flooring yet. At my doctor's appointment yesterday, I was told it's still going to be a little while. I guess the baby is waiting for Daddy to install the flooring in her room.


Meanwhile, here are some seeds that I'm sprouting in my kitchen window: bell peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes, cantaloupe, and corn. They're all growing like crazy, especially the corn. It's as if the seeds can feel spring just outside the window. I'll need to transplant them outside very soon, just not sure where yet. There is no spot safe from Daisy in the backyard. She likes to eat plants, vomit, then lick up the vomit. I wish I were joking.

I would consider planting them in the front yard, but our nosy neighbors (the ones that steal flowers off my rose bushes) have an unhealthy interest in everything we grow in our front yard, and if they see crops growing, I suspect they'll either steal the fruits of my labor or report us to city hall.

Other than the delight of seeing my crops growing I have little reason to like spring. Right now I have a giant wad of tissues stopping up my nostrils because they won't stop bleeding, and the reason they're bleeding is because I've been taking Sudafed nonstop, and the reason I've been taking Sudafed is because I can't take Claritin, and the reason I wish I could take Claritin is because my allergies are driving me INSANE.


By the way, here's a picture of the belly. It's not a video, but it's more bare skin than I've shown in a while...


... and here's a picture of Kevin getting some fun in before the baby comes. He didn't get shot until several matches into his day, which is quite good considering this is his first time paintballing.

I'm officially out of the office as of the 24th whether or not the baby comes, and Kevin's starting paternity leave as of the 25th. Yay! That's only 9 more days for me and 10 more days for him!

Labels: allergies, games, gardening, lusers, pets, pregnancy

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By Julie

Last week, Ana discovered during her nightly peek at the aquarium that the fish had died of a disgusting white fuzz that enveloped their entire bodies. Kevin looked it up and learned that it was a fungal infection that took over the gills, i.e. they had been suffocated to death.

I left the room and asked Kevin to scoop out the bodies because my stomach couldn't handle it. In comparison, the kids handled the deaths of their pet fish just fine, until Alex discovered that there was one last fish still alive. When he was told it probably wouldn't make it, he took it very hard. Poor kid.

The snails are still alive and well though, and Ana still visits them every night. In a couple of weeks, once Kevin has gotten a chance to clean the tank, we'll get some more fish. Or who knows, maybe we'll let ourselves be talked into getting a crab or tortoise.


This weekend we invited some friends over. One is expecting a boy only a few weeks after my due date. She was happy to take our old baby boy clothes off our hands, so I spent some time weeding them to make sure nothing inappropriate got passed along. Like this gem of a vest. I don't know about you, but "star warm" sounds way too hot to me. I don't think any baby needs a vest that will keep them THAT warm.

Today was all about me - and Cesar Chavez, I suppose, but mostly me. Kevin and I both had the day off, and he took me out for brunch and shopping. We stopped at the Kiehl's counter at Nordstrom where I embarassed the saleswoman asking if Kiehl's made nipple cream. (They don't.) Then we went to Macy's because I've been so very depressed about my lack of clothing options. Many of my maternity outfits are 10s on the cutesy scale, which was fine back when I didn't need people to take me seriously. But things are different now. So, despite having only 4 more weeks to go, we got me some new shirts all in the name of workplace effectiveness.

Labels: kids, pets, pregnancy, shopping

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By Julie

Busy Saturday. Enjoyed dim sum with my parents and sister's family, then ran a ton of errands, including a stop at Petsmart, where the kids bought some snails and fish. Meanwhile, I picked up literature on Petsmart's doggy day camp. Daisy is a friendly enough dog, but she doesn't socialize with other dogs much. Even though we count several dog owners among our friends, we rarely see each other while with our dogs. Maybe it would be worth 20 bucks to let Daisy enjoy a day among other dogs.


Saturday evening was spent singing ourselves hoarse playing our newest Wii game, American Idol Encore. From left to right, these avatars represent Kevin, Alex, and me. I know the butterfly wings look silly, but the kids like them, so they're staying put for now. I don't think we'll be getting Guitar Hero III or Rock Band anytime soon. I'll concede that the Rock Band drum set holds some merit because it actually teaches kids how to play a real life musical instrument, but the fake guitars just seem silly, especially since we have two real electric guitars. If Alex ever wants to play, we'll sign him up for lessons. Or he can just go over to his friend J's house because J's older brothers have Guitar Hero III.

This afternoon J invited him over to play. He lives in the same tract we do, a stone's throw away. A couple of years ago, when Kevin was over there during J's birthday party, a fellow parent commented on the very bling bling car in the driveway next door, and J's dad said his neighbor was a member of an extremely well-known hip hop group.

This is not the only person we know of in the entertainment industry that lives in suburbia. There's the movie producer that lives up the hill on a horse property, the drummer we met at a friend's dinner party who still calls the suburbs of San Diego home despite using L.A. as his official address, and the notorious rapper who lives about a mile from our babysitter's house in the next city over.

Not too long ago, the rapper came up in conversation with a friend of ours, who refused to believe that a guy with such an urban musical persona could possibly live in the suburbs. Her doubt was so contagious that we ended up fact-checking ourselves. Since then Kevin has confirmed that not only did this guy coach his son's football team, he even started his own league. (Plus the police recently came to his house... but we really don't need to go there.)

Today it occurred to me that perhaps the suburbs might be the best place for famous people to hide live. The public expects celebrities to live in places like the Hollywood Hills or Malibu, and they even take tour buses that drive them around so they can ogle these houses, but I doubt they would make the 40 minute trek out to Walnut to stare at nondescript tract homes, where the only way you could possibly stand out is if you didn't maintain your front yard according to city code.

As for the neighbors of famous people, what's their incentive for guarding these celebs' privacy? Well, I for one wouldn't want tour buses unloading camera-wielding groupies on to my lawn. I think that's incentive enough :)

Labels: famous people, kids, pets

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By Julie

This weekend was Ana's birthday party. Friday night when we went to Costco to pick up her birthday cake, we stopped at a Taiwanese cafe called 三年２班 (Class 302) in Rowland Heights for dinner. It's an adorable little place decorated with school paraphernalia, down to the desks and chairs. One of the dishes we ordered even came in a stackable tin lunch box that I recognized from having spent some of my elementary school years in Taiwan. The food, though not the cheapest, was pretty good, but I didn't like sitting in those awkward wooden chairs. Maybe we can go back when I'm not so uncomfortably pregnant.


This year we rented facilities for both of the kids' birthdays because I got tired of worrying about it raining on their winter parties and because I'm too big and tired to host them at home. There are some downsides: the limited menus, the strict time limits, the restrictions on the number of guests, and related to that, the uncertainty over whether the people we do invite will come. I was utterly thrilled about the turnout at Ana's party though, especially when Peg brought Ashlyn and Summer!!! It's been ages since we've hung out with them, and I really appreciated them making the drive up from the OC.

Now we can relax until next year. With baby number 3 slated to show in late April, I wonder if we should have a joint birthday party at home for all three of them next spring, when the chance of rain is next to nil here in So Cal. We'll see...


Here's a picture of Kevin giving Daisy a bath. Being a straight haired dog, Daisy always looks pretty good even when she hasn't had a bath in *mumble mumble* months. What most people don't realize is how much basset hounds shed. Back in the day I used to be the main producer of the hairy tumbleweeds that we find around the house, but ever since Daisy joined the family, she's got me beat. We'd been wondering if she's been shedding even more due to lack of baths, but she proved that theory wrong. Immediately after her bath she shed enough hair to fill a Swiffer Cloth just by doing a few laps around the dining table.

So I'm now 31 weeks pregnant and +18 lbs. Only 9 weeks left, but it feels like an eternity. The bad: I've been sleeping very, very poorly. It's supposed to be normal during the 3rd trimester, but the last two times it didn't start this early. I'm also constantly congested, and my taste buds seem to have a mind of their own. Everything tastes off. The good: I've been keeping the horrid leg cramps at bay just by standing up regularly. Also, at my checkup last week I learned that my 3-hour glucose tolerance test came back negative. Hooray, I'm not diabetic!

Labels: chinese, food, kids, parenting, pets, pregnancy

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By Julie

So, what I was saying is this. Any third world mutt given a dinner of leftover chicken meat (sans bones even!) to complement some boring dry dog food would be totally happy, not to mention healthy. What does our purebred first world dog go and do? Have another heaving attack of diarrhea, all over the dining room.

Here's where I share my trick for deoderizing a room: microwave popcorn. The stuff is amazing, better than Lysol. Just pop a bag and wave it around. It will mask the foulest odors.

(Eating the popcorn after using it for this purpose is totally optional. I know I couldn't bring myself to do it.)

In other potty news, Ana is done using her little potty chair, yay! Now we can pack it away in the garage until number three is ready to use it.

And speaking of number three, I'm now at week 19. Within the last two weeks I gained a disconcerting 4 pounds for a total weight gain of 5 pounds. While putting on a sweater with a geometric design, I had a full on panic attack, complete with a self diagnosis of gestational diabetes.

"I look like a FAT ABSTRACT PAINTING!!!" I wailed.

Then Kevin reminded me that I went through similar growth spurts when I was pregnant with Ana. He wondered if it had something to do with the girly hormones, because my weight gain with Alex had been much more steady. I'm just glad that one of us remembers stuff like this. Hopefully my glucose test next month confirms it.

My belly is huge now. Not wearing a maternity belt is no longer an option. For weeks I tried and failed to find my old belt, and I was despairing at the thought of having to brave holiday crowds at the mall just to get a replacement when I finally found it in the last box of baby stuff, huzzah!

I've also started wearing nursing bras. Yeah, real sexy :P but none of my normal bras fit anymore, and I'm too cheap to buy new bras in a bigger cup size only to have to give them away in five months.



Here I've recruited Alex and Ana to my cause of cultivating plants that Mommy isn't allergic to. Costco apples come in these plastic packages perfect for sprouting seeds, sunflower seeds in this case. The kids are spooning potting soil on top of the seeds. Now the trays will sit in the garden window in my kitchen, where it's all snug and warm, until the seedlings get a few inches tall, and then we'll plant them in the back yard.

Recently Kevin wore a dark red sweater over a button down shirt.

Ana: Daddy, you look funny!

Me: Ana, that's not a nice thing to say!

Ana: (in a stage whisper) But mommy, he looks like a TEACHER.

Labels: allergies, food, gardening, kids, pets

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By Julie

Yesterday the dog had a bad case of diarrhea. It stunk up the house and took half a roll of paper towels and a ton of Simple Green to clean up. We're not sure what she found in the backyard that gave her such a major case of the runs. What we do know is that she has a tendency to do the same dumb things over and over again, so we're steering ourselves for another attack before long.

Tonight at dinner I told Ana that if she would eat half of her tuna fish sandwich, she could feed the other half to Daisy. When Ana finally put the last bite in her mouth, Kevin dropped the other half into Daisy's bowl. He was about to add his own leftover grilled cheese sandwich when I reminded him of our little incident from yesterday. A little tuna wasn't likely to re-irritate our dog's delicate gut, but cheese? And butter?

So Kevin extracted the grilled cheese sandwich from the bowl and dropped it in the trash instead. I hated to see the waste, but it beats cleaning up watery poo. Sometimes I think about all the things we're not allowed to feed our dog because it might 1) make her fat, 2) give her indigestion, or 3) choke her to death, and I have to believe that if third world dogs ever met her, they would think she's a complete nincompoop.

Labels: food, nablopomo, pets

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By Julie

Lately Ana's two favorite activities have been playing with an educational math game that a well-meaning person got for Alex (he's never shown any interest in it) and cutting and gluing paper. Tonight, as I cut pictures of tomatoes, avocados, and cans of chili out of a grocery store ad for her, I idly wondered whether there was a more boring job than the poor graphic designer who had to find the right clip art for each week's specials, unless it's the poor photographer that had to make the clip art in the first place.

As Kevin got ready to take Daisy out for an evening walk, I reminded him to take a golf club.

Kevin: I think I should take a Mag Lite instead.

Me: Why?

K: Last night this woman crossed the street when she saw me coming with the golf club in one hand and the dog in the other. I look TOO well armed.

Me: Well, that's not a bad thing. Forearmed is forewarned... or something like that.

Alex told Kevin that he wanted to be able to take fried rice for lunch like his friend Leo, so we bought him an insulated lunch bag and some plastic containers to make it happen. I can't believe it wasn't that long ago when fried rice would have been the last thing I wanted to take for lunch because all the other kids would have pointed and said, "Eew, what's THAT???" It's not weird to be Chinese anymore, not at Alex's school anyway.

Update: Alex's friend Leo isn't Chinese. Fascinating.

Labels: chinese, kids, nablopomo, pets

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By Julie

Is age 3 too young to experience unrequited love? Today Ana burst into tears because Daisy refused to come when called. She sobbed uncontrollably into my shoulder until I made her laugh, I don't even remember how, just one of those things that desperate parents do when they see their child unhappy.

Later Ana played with Daisy while I kept watch, occasionally glaring at the dog, daring her to break Ana's heart again, not that Daisy would even notice my glaring as something out of the ordinary. She already sees me as The Enforcer and tries to stay out of my way, except when I'm cooking. Then she can't help herself but come sniffing around my ankles, looking hopeful.

Other than making Ana cry, Daisy's second day home was uneventful. Kevin took her out for a couple of short walks, and she seems to be reacting well to them. If you've watched The Dog Whisperer or read any of Cesar's books you'd know that taking your dog for regular walks is his prescription for just about everything. During the morning walk Kevin was accompanied by Ana. During the evening walk he was accompanied by Alex, who took along a golf club at my insistence. Alex got a big kick out of that.

Today I did five loads of laundry. At one point I asked Kevin to hang up the stuff that needed to be line dried, and I went back inside to put away some clothes. I found a stray hanger and asked Ana to take it to Kevin.

Ana: Daddy, I have something for you!

Kevin: Oh yeah? What is it?

Ana: (holding up hanger) It's a hooker!

I also cooked a ton of chicken today, with enough garlic to drive away vampires from the entire neighborhood. This family is NOT getting sick this winter.

Labels: books, food, kids, nablopomo, parenting, pets

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By Julie

Around 11:50 p.m. last night I realized I still hadn't posted the entry for the day, but I was so tired I didn't want to get out of bed, and so breaks my Nablopomo blogging streak. Ah well, I'll be a good sport and try to finish out the month anyway.

Yesterday morning Kevin rented a jackhammer. It's his second time renting this piece of equipment; the first time was over a year ago. The rentals were necessitated by several hundred square feet of really hideous cream and brown tile installed by the previous owner of our house. They didn't use ordinary thinset like they should have. Instead they had used some crazy substance called wet set mortar, which is why the tiles refused to come off with ordinary hammering and chiseling.

The first jackhammer rental was made after a lot of web research and second guessing. Kevin brought the thing home, put on a pair of eye goggles (after I reminded him to), crossed his fingers, and turned the thing on. It worked brilliantly -- one by one the tiles broke into pieces -- but man it was hard work. By day's end, all the tile in the kitchen and dining room was gone, but Kevin's shoulders and back were KILLING him.

Part two of tile removal took place yesterday, thanks to a LOT of help from Kevin's brother. Now all the tile in the entry and hallway is gone. There's a few more demolition projects in our future, but this one was by far the most backbreaking. I'm really thankful that Brian was willing to help us out. I feel like this huge weight has been lifted from our shoulders.

Now that the bathroom construction, bedroom improvements, and noisy tile removal are over, we're able to bring Daisy back home. She'd been living with my parents since the latter part of summer. Man, I'd forgotten how much stuff it takes to care for a dog. We filled up the entire back of the van with her dog crate, the wheeled 30 gallon plastic bin containing her dry food, and four big shopping bags filled with chew toys, blankets, and other accessories.

The drive home was noisy. She wouldn't stop whining, but at least she didn't freak out like she usually does. The secret? Half a dose of Benadryl. Once we got home she seemed relaxed. She had caught fleas from the mangy cats that my parents' crazy neighbors won't stop harboring, but Kevin's found a good flea treatment and got most if not all out of her hair. In a few days I'll take her to the vet to bring her shots up to date.

Labels: home improvement, meds, nablopomo, pets

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