girls' day '07

rupert claims everyday is girls' day ... at least at our house! once again we celebrated hinamatsuri at my parents' house; nothing fancy this year (last year was a bit more elaborate). lunch of tempura and chirashi zushi (no sashimi on ours today), some hina-arare (puffed and sweetened rice cracker) for maya, and pictures in front of the dolls.

usually it's really labor-intensive to set up the hina-ningyou (also known as ohina-sama), especially a set as large as ours. but my mom didn't take the set down from last year. great, right? but it turns out that the later you put the dolls away the later your daughter gets married. which i guess was a bad thing back in the day. so don't be surprised if maya ends up an old spinster with 10 cats.

at what point did this become a crafting blog?

okay, new obsession time :: i'm like a year behind the trend, but i'm discovering the joy (and ease) of freezer paper t-shirt templates. i first read about the templates at the angry chicken and my little mochi blogs last year. but it took forever to find the freezer paper; i checked all my local supermarkets and target but couldn't find it. i jumped for joy when i spotted it a couple of weeks ago at the albertsons near ian's french class.

although i love the samples at angry chicken and my little mochi i needed a good tutorial on how to do it. a quick google search brought up a nicely detailed one at unwindknitting.net. i just followed each step and created this ::

i wanted a subtle design so i placed the stencil along the side of the shirt so a bit of the design shows on the front and back. i drew the branch/leaf design freehand directly on to the paper side of the freezer paper and cut it out with an exacto knife. after ironing the template onto the shirt i applied several heavy coats of white paint on to the shirt with a short-bristled brush. i let it dry for 24 hours, peeled off the stencil and heat set it. i thought using white paint on a dark colored shirt wouldn't be very successful but i'm really happy with the results. the paint dries soft on the shirt and the coverage is pretty good. [please read the tutorial if you plan to make a template because she goes over some things i don't mention here.]

ian is helping me design a shirt for him. it's a king penguin design with "king of them all" on the back. i think the colors are coming out great on his. i did this with a two-step process because i'm using two colors right next to each other. it should dry by tomorrow morning.

the supplies i used :: cotton/poly shirts from michaels by jerzees ($2.50 each on sale), freezer paper by reynolds, 2 oz. fabric paint by plaid. each shirt, in total, costs less than $5 and it's an original. i'm going to paint a few more shirts and some onesies for some friends' new baby girl.

rupert's 31st

my darling husband had his 31st birthday over the weekend :: mounds o' meat and singing without the kids on saturday and dinner with family on sunday. i don't think he was particularly looking forward to turning 31, but i think he had a pretty good birthday. [correct me if i'm wrong, rupert.]

we headed out to manna in koreatown with friends and some of rupert's coworkers. [apologies to the vegetarians out there for the meat picture.] we normally inhale quite a bit of meat (it's all-you-can-eat) but we only finished off two plates. very disappointing. not to place blame, but i think it was because we had two vegetarians at our table.

because the kids were with jiji + baba for the night i knew we would probably head out for some much-needed socializing after dinner. our friend H guided us to orchid, a karaoke place down the street from manna. four hours and $300+ later we emerged hoarse-voiced, slightly buzzed and tuckered out ... except for party-pooper me who had zero drinks and sang zero songs.

rupert satisfied some of his wannabe rock star urges by singing tons o' songs and bouncing around. we had some really good singing going on, including a lovely serenade of "happy birthday sweet sixteen" by the guys for rupert, too many (in my opinion) bon jovi songs, a hilarious pirate-version of "piano man," and rupert's and H's standard, "ebony and ivory."

understatement of the year :: i'm not a multitasker

on top of my laziness i have this thing about not being able to do more than one thing at once. it makes being a mom/housewife difficult sometimes; today should i do the laundry or wash the dishes? i can never do both.

the same is true for my hobbies. i have to be obsessed with just one at all times. for the last year and a half it's been the blogosphere, both reading and posting. i can, and will, sit in front of the laptop for hours on end each day hoping one of the blogs on my blogroll gets updated.

but then, out of the blue, i'll think to myself, "why am i wasting my time everyday reading posts when i can do it every other day?" so i'll switch over to reading real books.

i'll finish a couple of books and then i'll need a break. it's scrapbooking to the rescue! i'll spend a few days or a week struggling with a layout (or two, if i'm productive). you may have noticed that february has mostly been about reading books and scrapbooking.

but the last couple of days have been spent making these :: taggy blankets. i made one for maya and a friend's daughter awhile back, but i decided to make more as gifts and, hopefully, to sell.

i'm not sure what readership is like on this blog, but if possible i'd like some feedback about what people think of the blankets. i'll have more pictures and details at my other blog: sleepyheadpaperdesigns.blogspot.com.

the blankets measure approximately 18"x18" and have tags (satiny, grosgrain, velvety ribbons) running down the center and all the way around. the tags are different colors and textures to make it a fun, tactile and colorful blankie for babies to play with and be comforted by.

the back is fleece and the front has two panels each of flannel and chenille so it's very soft. i use the different fabrics to add even more texture to the blanket.

i'd like to sell each blanket for $16 + shipping. i'm wondering if people would be interested in purchasing something like this at that price. they make great baby shower gifts. i find that babies around 7~9 months really start showing an interest in the blanket, but the size is great for newborns and toddlers.

depending on the feedback i'd really like to concentrate on creating things to sell (over at etsy); besides the taggy blankets i'm hoping to get back into card making, custom scrapbooks, and baby items (like onesies and bibs). wish me luck!

click together

patterned paper: ek success (floral), treehouse designs (stars), sandylion (dots)
letter stickers: sei ("s"), ki memories ("lick"), ek success ("pals," "fun")
phrase stickers: ek success
letter stamps: fontwerks
stamp: jenni bowlin ("date")
other: photo corners, acrylic stars, rhinestones, ribbon, date stamp, mini index card, foam tape, decorative scissors

i was going to scrap these pictures anyway but i decided to do this week's dare (#58) over at the dares site. i used to have a ton of decorative scissors but i pared it down to the essentials -- pinking, scallop, deckle -- which are quite useful.

the journaling is on the mini index card (which i got in japan) and it reads: you know how some people just "click"? that's chloe and ian. they don't see each other for months but when they do they're inseperable. they were meant to be friends!

afro

patterned paper: american crafts
letter stickers: ki memories ("f"), american crafts ("o")
foam letter stickers: american crafts
epoxy phrase stickers: k&co
label: target
bracket stamps: technique tuesday, autumn leaves (with lines)
letter stamps: purple onion designs ("'fro"), provo craft
stamp: jenni bowlin (dotted line)
other: dymo label maker, date stamp, foam tape

m & i

there was definitely something missing from the original layout (see below) so i thought about it and came up with a few embellishments. i think the addition of the embellishments makes the layout more textured, complete, and trendy. "trendy" 'cause i'm using some popular techniques like the faux-silk flowers in maya's hair (a la elsie flannigan) and the stapled transparency (a la kristina contes) with the rhinestones.

patterned paper: my mind's eye
letter stickers: sei
stamps: fun expressions (ampersand), purple onion (everything else
date stamp: heidi swapp

this one definitely doesn't feel complete to me. i feel like i could do a bit more in the lavender area on the bottom right. maybe do a stitch stamp across horizontally, overlapping the photo and the cardstock?

and as long as we're talking about love ...

because i *love* brownies ...

and i *love* the edge pieces ...

someone who *loves* me should get me this ...

and then i would *love* them forever!

love day

happy valentine's day!

to be truthful i'm not particularly fond of this holiday ... but come to think of it there are very few holidays i actually am fond of. i know, i'm a party-pooper.

anyway, it's not that this holiday isn't special to me and rupert. in fact, this time of year is significant to us in many ways.

13 years ago we started "dating" on february 12. this is actually a date we chose after the fact, rather arbitrarily, because we never started our relationship formally. we just sort of transitioned into it effortlessly from our friendship.

exactly a year later rupert unofficially proposed to me with a promise ring in his dorm room at cornell, tom waits playing in the background.

five years later, right around this time, we conceived ian ... on accident.

and five years after that maya was conceived ... on purpose. (i'm sorry, was that more information than you needed?) but i don't know what we were thinking with that one!

so it really is a special time of year for us. valentine's day kinda heightens the mood because everywhere around you are hearts and reminders of love. but we never do anything on v-day because every restaurant is crowded, flowers are overpriced (i insisted to rupert that he not buy me flowers because of the outrageous cost; i mean, really, imagine all i could buy for myself with that money!), and the 12th is more important to me.

this year, rupert surprised me and got me this, which he loaded with a bunch of songs. i totally love it! it is amazingly tiny: 1"x1.5" and only a quarter inch thick. it holds just enough songs for me and i can hide it away so maya doesn't grab for it. i'm listening to it right now, in fact. thanks honey!

and what did i get rupert, you ask? a $6.99 pair of slippers from cvs. romantic, huh?

15 months.

maya @ 15 months :: february 4, 2007

• new tooth: 01.22.07, bottom right molar
• mid-month she figured out she could push her red folding chair to the couch and climb onto the couch. so i took the red chair away. then she discovered her legs are now long enough to get on to the stools we have around the coffee table for ian (before she would always try to get on them but couldn't quite get her foot up). and if she can get on the stool, then of course she can get onto the coffee table. before i could take the stools (and the coffee table away), she realized that if she's tall enough to get on to the stools unassisted, she can climb on to the couch without the red chair. i warned her that if she gets up there unsupervised she could fall down and get hurt. sure enough she fell off the couch the first day and cried. but she's been more careful since then and hasn't fallen off; she can slowly slide herself off the couch. and i've been more careful by putting floor cushions on the floor to break her fall.
• she jumps on the couch. well, not really jumps, but she tries to jump by gaining momentum from the springiness of the couch cushions.
• because she's still quite skinny she can wriggle out of lap belts (it doesn't help that a lot of our baby stuff was ian's and they don't have shoulder harnesses). she fell out of her stroller while walking home from the park because she likes to stand up in her stroller. i predict the next thing she'll fall out of is her high chair.
• eats anything and everything, especially if it comes from our plate. lately i've been making dishes ian isn't too fond of (like korean bibimbap) but maya will eat it all up.
• kinda gross but here's a funny story: she ate some shimeji mushrooms and as i was changing her diaper i noticed one had gone through undigested (and unchewed). unfortunately, she hadn't completely passed it and only the cap was sticking out of her tush. i had to pull the rest of it out!
• understands more japanese. i can ask her, "mou gochisousama?" (are you all done eating?) and she'll either smile (yes) or shake her head and keep eating. i think i've finally gotten her to stop eating on my lap; i insist she eat in her high chair and she must be sitting before i'll give her her food ("osuwari shitechoudai"). of course, she sits so i'll put food in her mouth but then she stands right back up.
• she waves hello and good-bye at people and dogs.
• she rubs her nose and blows out a lot when her nose is stuffed up. it seems like she'd be good at actually blowing her nose into a kleenex, something ian couldn't do forever.
• scared of the vacuum.
• can go down the big slide at the park.
• really started walking on 02.01.2007 at my parents' house ... the carpet does seem to help.
• 02.02.2007: discovered another tooth on the bottom left, between her front teeth and her newish molar.
• when she sits with me at the computer she likes to try to type on the keyboard.
• she's learned to say, "uh oh" at pretty much the appropriate times, like when she drops stuff.
• part of her bedtime routine is a bottle. she and rupert microwave the bottle and do a countdown. when the microwave beeps she automatically says, "nai-nai" (night-night). she's also gotten super good at slamming the microwave door shut.
• she is definitely a part of our tv-watching family, bad as that is. she likes sesame street, blue's clues, wonder pets, the backyardigans ... she doesn't watch the entire episode but if there's music playing she'll pay attention for a bit.
• i'm starting to let her feed herself (it's more of a neatness, control issue for me than anything else): i'll skewer a piece of food on her baby fork and hand it to her to eat.
• as a sign of her generosity she often offers the other babies in her rie class toys ... except that she often insists that the toy should go in their mouths. baby A has gotten used to her shoving balls into his mouth; he just opens his mouth when she goes near him.

the funniest thing i read today ...

even though i do have kids and i probably should be able to figure it out, i don't get it 100%. but it still made me laugh out loud ... what molly chicken's mum said to her and her six siblings when they were young:

you bloody kids give my ass a headache.

then scroll down to the bottom two pictures and maybe you'll crack up as much as i did.

the 8 nights of hanukkah

patterned paper: cactus pink (red), anna griffin (gifts),
punches: ek success (tag), fiskars (arrow), marvy uchida (circle)
stamps: purple onion, paper source, psx, fontwerks, ek success, cavallini, hero arts, fun expressions, catslife press, inkadinkadoo, all night media, kodomo no kao, 7 gypsies, date stamps
letter stickers: making memories (small), ki memories ("h")
rubons: heidi swapp, 7 gypsies
other: brads, eyelets, rhinestone, mini clip, various japanese stickers, photo corner, digital swirl element

this one was time-consuming and i will probably not attempt to repeat the endeavor again. each of the date squares are pockets that hold tags with what we received as gifts written on them. sorry about the poor scan.

you know you're getting older when ...

what's your favorite food? it's one of those questions you get asked a lot, even as a little kid. and your answer changes, right? but one of my answers has never changed, ever since i could utter the words in english: fried chicken. i absolutely looooooooove fried chicken.

but when i hit 30 something unimagineable happened. my stomach started rejecting the greasy, crunchy glory that is fried chicken. i could enjoy a few pieces but, without fail, 12 hours later i would get an upset stomach. at first i brushed it off but i can deny it no longer -- i'm getting too old for fried chicken.

last night ian and i bought fried chicken because rupert was out for the evening (he's not too fond of the stuff). we took it over to my parents' house to eat. i managed two pieces before i had to admit it wasn't as tasty as the (homemade) leftovers my parents were eating. honestly, i was in shock. i had supreme confidence in my ability to love -- above all else -- and eat fried chicken until the day i die, but i'm not so sure anymore. adding insult to injury, i had to curse my stomach when it disagreed with the chicken the next morning.

and that's why it sucks to get old.

socks

patterned paper: sei
letter stamps: ek success ("exhibit" "fig."), paper source ("A" "B"), provo craft ("hippity" "hop"), purple onion ("no"), cavallini ("1")
date stamp: jenni bowlin
rectangle stamp: fontwerks
dotted line stamp: purple onion
letter stickers: ki memories, sei, american crafts, daisy hill
bunny stickers: source unknown, bought in japan
other: white pen (american crafts), dymo label maker, eyelets, copper wire, foam tape
punches: square label (mcgill), tag (ek success)

today

patterned paper: fontwerks
stamps: fontwerks (lines), psx (small letters), office depot (date), decorative frame (purple onion designs)
transparency: hambly
letter stickers: making memories
other: photo corners, cardboard, acrylic paint, "today" letters printed by computer

so many good things.

[warning :: this post is long and completely scrapbook-related]

i took another class at scrapbook oasis last night down in irvine. my in-laws were nice enough to get the kids in the afternoon so i could leave before traffic got too bad. (thanks b+d!)

since i had a bit of time before the class i headed to paper source's new store at south coast plaza. the selection was basically the same as the beverly hills store but it was 10-times better because i was there alone and could take my time looking around.

n-e-way, the reason i was taking another class at scrapbook oasis is because kristina contes was teaching the class; she's one of 'em organic, free-stylin' scrapbookers (like maria grace, whose class i took last time at sb oasis). i think i mentioned before that i am not one of 'em organic, free-stylin' scrapbookers. but i am really warming to this style and trying to learn to just go with the flow with my creativity. not to sweat the small stuff. to enjoy the process.

it doesn't seem possible that i could learn to be like that; it's so counter to my ocd/type-a scrapbooking personality. but, cheesy at it sounds, watching others scrap and just being exposed to their enthusiasm for this art form is inspiration enough to take my scrapbooking to a different level; not just documenting the special times in our lives, but the ordinary and not-so-special times, too. to be more real, i guess.

the class project was to document an ordinary part of someone's life. i chose to talk about my tea-drinking during the winter. it seems like such a mundane topic and not something most non-scrapbookers would think is important enough to document. but, in the end, aren't these the kind of things that define us? i think a lot of scrapbookers are moving in this direction, instead of focusing on event-specific layouts (although there's nothing wrong with that either).

kristina's version is a 12x12 and she actually journals about the things going on in her life today (a specific date). i made mine a 8.5x11 size so it would fit into my album. for specifics on materials, click here.

after the class there was a crop until midnight. because i wasn't chosen to have a layout created during maria grace's class, i was determined to have kristina create something for me; when i saw she was making stuff i asked her to make me a layout. honestly, i didn't care if the other students thought i was too forward. i wanted to have something in my hands that was made in a free form style. kristina didn't disappoint. she accidently cut the patterned paper the wrong size (no thanks to me telling her where to cut -- oops!) but that didn't stop her from tearing it and using it anyway. she made an adorable layout of maya while we chatted about new york (where's she from). thanks, kristina, i totally love it!

(link to the store's posting about the night.)

i really wish i had taken kristina's thursday night class, right now mini album. i've never made a mini album but they're so cute and a quick, creative way to document a single subject. kristina's was a great way, i thought, to get into documenting the everyday, her favorite things right now. but i also wish i'd taken the class because kristina was really fun to be around. this weekend was her first time teaching a class but she has great projects, techniques, and energy. i guess part of that's the "lawn-guylander" in her! listening to her accent was endearing and brought back memories of my days in new york. she also brought some of her recent layouts from the effer site and i particularly liked seeing the simple layout from dare #55. she brought the adorable "otto the owl" stamp by rubber soul to class, and it was really popular among the students.



although it'll be a good while before i could ever scrap like kristina (if ever), i'm embracing the imperfections of creating. i kinda screwed up on the layout i worked on during the crop (posted here) but that's okay, i salvaged it and kept chugging away instead of getting frustrated about it. and i hope that'll cross over into my everyday living so i can accept the crappy days and not dwell on the negative so much.

other highlights of the evening: i got 3 compliments on my threadless shirt, the dares were there in support of kristina, i won a typesetter letter stamp set by fontwerks in a drawing, kristina liked my (incomplete) hanukkah layout enough to take a picture of it, shimelle laine (from england!) was taking the class, one of the other students was surprised that i had two kids -- she thought ian was my little brother and i was still a student(!), and we got some free purple onion stamps. all in all, not a bad evening. not bad at all.

unsolicited plug: kristina's husband is owner/chef of mosaic restaurant in st. james, ny -- check it out if you're in the area.

link round-up :: 01.2007

just cleaning out my sidebar ...


stuff that intrigues me ::

wee wonderfuls make-a-long story

tim gunn bobblehead

scrapped, the movie

good eats fan page

the sultan's elephant

ashes and snow

kitty craft

oh joy!

wee wonderfuls pattern booklet

haba toys

2006 reads ::

the secret supper by javier sierra

the little gentleman by philippa pearce

the anybodies by n.e. bode

math and the mona lisa by bulent atalay

the complete maus: a survivor's tale by art spiegelman

the year of magical thinking by joan didion

like water for chocolate by laura esquivel

what the numbers say: a field guide to mastering our numerical world by derrick niederman & david boyum

people by peter spier

the glass books of the dream eaters by gordon dahlquist

the wright 3 by blue balliett

odd boy out by don brown

the sisters grimm: the fairy-tale detectives (book 1) by michael buckley

princess academy by shannon hale

the sisters grimm: the unusual suspects (book 2) by michael buckley

the nobodies by n.e. bode

the golden compass by philip pullman

the best american travel writing 2005 (parts of it)

walking the bible by bruce feiler

the penderwicks by jeanne birdsall

chew on this by eric schlosser and charles wilson

this little piggy went to prada by amy allen

diy: design it yourself edited by ellen lupton

happy greeting card book -- pooka style

what i listen to ::

tim gunn "project runway" podcast

npr :: this american life and fresh air

yo la tengo

death cab for cutie

weezer

greenday

i {heart} the library

one of my new year's resolution is "spend less, save more" (i'm not sharing the rest of my resolutions because then i'll be held accountable) and one of the areas i intend to spend less money on is books.

that doesn't mean i'm going to read less. quite the contrary, i intend to read more. (and i don't think it would even be possible for me to read less than i did last year. as i mentioned before, i only read 13 books last year. how pathetic is that?)

i love books. i like to read, but i actually think i love having books around me even more than i like reading them. it brings me great joy to be surrounded by books; no surprise i love hanging out at bookstores and buying books. also no surprise that i enjoy and admire my bookshelves, even though they're full of books i haven't read ... books i've owned for years and years. so it seems like kind of a waste of money to keep buying books if i'm not going to read them.

instead, i plan to use my public library more. lucky for me our library is half a block away; i walk by it everyday on my way to drop ian off at school. it's a small branch of the county library system but they have a pretty good selection. and what i can't get at this branch i get by ordering online from a different branch.

i was totally thrilled today when i came home with eight books i've wanted to read, most of them new releases. had i bought them all i would've had to spend $100 on hardbacks or wait months for the paperback to come out. but now i get to read them for free and they won't take up space in my house. yay "free"!

do you mochi?

we japanese eat a lot of mochi around the new year. my parents have a mochi-making machine (not the same kind as shown in the picture in the wiki entry) and they make a lot of mochi at the end of the year, for eating and for decoarting. for some people (like rupert) mochi is an aquired taste, probably because it doesn't really have a lot of taste on its own and it's very glutinous. but it can be very tasty if you eat it with "toppings," which can range from sweet (red bean) to savory (shoyu, soy sauce, and nori, seaweed). also, if you grill it the mochi aquires a very toasty, fragrant crust that's delicious even without any toppings.
we were invited to a mochi-tsuki taikai (mochi pounding ceremony) today by a japanese friend. well, actually, she's the wife of rupert's boss ... but a potential future friend. ian's familiar with the machine-made mochi but he's never seen the traditional way of making mochi, which uses something similar to a mortar and mallet. special mochi rice is steamed and placed in the mortar (usu) and pounded with the mallet (kine). ian even got to pound some rice with a mini kine.

you have to be very careful when eating mochi because it can easily get lodged in your throat if you take too big of a bite or don't chew it thoroughly. every year people die from choking on mochi. so we were cautious when feeding maya the mochi, but she liked it enough to eat it with red bean (azuki) and (kinako).

ian prefered his mochi with a sugar and ground black sesame mixture.

new toy

it took two weeks but we finally replaced the laptop in the house. rupert was kind enough to quickly purchase a laptop so i could get back to emailing and blogging. usually it takes him forever to decide on a (high-price) purchase; not only does he research various options, but once you think he knows what he wants to get, he usually changes his mind and comes home with something else ... after like two hours at the store. but this time we looked through the sunday ads, chose a laptop, he went out and came home pretty promptly with the one we chose. so, thank you, dear. (fyi, i usually do not call my husband, "dear" because i am not a dutiful, nice wife.)

we have a decent desktop in the "office," which is actually half of the garage. but i've found that having the laptop in the house is so much more convenient. i can quickly check my email or write part of my blog posts throughout the day while keeping an eye on the kids, laundry, and food cooking on the stove. it felt weird going for days without checking my email or typing something. my fingers are a little rusty and my mind has wandered away from blog-mode so it may take me a few days to get back into the swing of things.

new project

i'm starting a new blog with ian called 365books. his goal is to read 365 books this year. i would also like to read more books in 2007 (i finished a measly 13 chapter books last year ... 13!), so i'll also be documenting the books i read too.

i don't think we'll be writing full-on book reviews -- just documenting the title, author, illustrator, and, if we have time, if it was good or not. maybe we'll try to come up with a rating system ...

anyway, if you have any recommendations, please let us know by leaving comments for us. (ian is probably at about a second or third grade reading level, but he also enjoys picture books and non-fiction reference-type books.)

[edited 01.14.2006: give me a few days to get 365books in order. i'm still trying to decide how to "rate" the books and, although it's a sell-out concept, i've decided to join the amazon affiliates program and include a product link to each post.]

happy 2007!

just a quick note to say happy new year! wishing you much joy and fulfillment in 2007!


unfortunately, i ended 2006 with a dying dead laptop so i won't be able to post as often until i get that replaced. which is not necessarily a bad thing ... maybe i can convince rupert to get us a new mac! yeah, right!

we spent new year's eve at home playing 1313 deadend drive and guitar hero 2 while drinking some sparkly. rupert and i even managed to stay up until midnight, but we missed the ball drop in times square because we were watching something else!

there are new pictures of rupert's and ian's trip to montana at my flickr site. enjoy!

14 months.

maya @ 14 months :: january 4, 2007

• some new foods: japanese-style egg porridge, matzoh ball soup, pancakes, ikura (salmon roe), mochi (pounded rice cake), tangerines
• wants to play lego star wars 2 with the boys; rupert had to give her an old controller because she kept bothering them. she totally perks up and claps when she hears the theme song.
• went to knott's berry farm.
• likes to swat at bubbles.
• continues to be very musically oriented.
• first playdate with grandpa (alone!): december 15.
• likes to look at christmas lights.
• not really waking up at night. it's highly possible that our extremely loud front lawn sprinkler system wakes her up at 4:30am.
• current favorite toy: mini pink plastic flashlight (with no batteries) --> she uses it as a microphone. but she's also getting into playing with dolls, feeding and hugging them, tickling their tummies, dragging them along, making them dance.
• took 15 steps while nene and ian were watching her during my doctor's appointment: december 18. since then she's preferred to walk by pushing around her red chair.
• loves any kind of blanket. she doesn't have a favorite "blankie" yet.
• she's getting really good at accurately throwing small balls.
• she was great while rupert and ian were gone. she slept like you wouldn't believe; three hour naps, no waking up in the middle of the night! she was also super friendly and playful with all the family members and new people she met during the holidays.
• new tooth on the bottom left; she's been eating like a mad woman, perhaps to ease the teething pain?
• making more sounds that resemble babbling conversation.
• favorite books: lift a rock, find a bug (which she has managed to totally rip up); a blue's clues chanukah
• push walking her little red folding chair. she stashes a snack and a buddy (a stuffed animal or doll) in the seat and pushes the chair around the living room. occasionally she stops for a snack. she takes steps here and there but generally prefers her monkey crawl.
• plays a game with ian in the car: she says, "boo!" (sometimes is sounds like "buh!") and expects you to say it back to her. this goes back and forth, faster and faster, until she starts laughing hysterically.
• got a sesame street music toy for christmas and she loves to dance along to the songs.
• loves to take baths.
• wants to sit in our lap to eat.
• definitely has a short fuse --> easily frustrated (gee, i wonder where she gets that from?) and throws fits, pounding, throwing stuff, hitting and crying.
• she imitates "ha ha" laughs, especially when she hears the emperor laugh on lego star wars 2 and cookie monster laughs on her aforementioned sesame street toy.
• new tooth discovered (probably came out earlier) on 01.01.07: bottom left molar
• she actually enjoyes going to bed at night: rupert warms a bottle for her (they do the timer countdown together and he tickles her belly when it beeps) and they say good night (oyasumi) before going to her room.

super duper huge oops

so, if all had gone according to plan, we should've been driving from bozeman to big sky, montana right now. clearly, i'm not posting this from a car. which means we didn't get to bozeman. which means our 5-day winter vacation is not off to a good start.

our flight was supposed to leave at 6am this morning. we got to the airport at 5 but apparently that was not early enough. when we tried to check in the computer said we were too late to check baggage and, therefore, too late to get on the darn plane (which is where my father- and brother-in-law were waiting for us).

we got the typical run around from the airline, tried to find an alternate route to montana, and were not successful. when i broke the news to ian that we missed our flight and it looked like the next available flight wasn't until friday (the day we were supposed to come back) he started to cry. he was so disappointed and it crushed our hearts that because we didn't get to the airport early enough we had ruined christmas for our son.

my mom picked us up from the airport and drove us home. we lugged our heavy baggage back into the house and sat down on the couch completely deflated. rupert and i only got 2 hours of sleep because we spent hours packing and preparing for the trip after celebrating an early christmas with my folks. the family vacation we had planned for months was not going to happen; no skiing for ian, no first snow for maya, no walk in the snowy woods for me and rupert. rupert's aunt had also supplied us with wonderful ski jackets and pants, gloves, etc. and they were all for naught.

but rupert was determined to go somewhere cold and snowy. in the end we decided that he and ian would make the trip by flying into missoula (where rupert grew up) and then driving (in the snow) for four hours to big sky. not to be a party-pooper or anything, but i was just not willing to go through all of that with maya. so she and i will stay home.

frankly, it sucks that we won't be together for five days of this winter vacation, but there was no way we could disappoint ian by not delivering on what we had promised him: snow.

hopefully rupert will take some wonderful photos and video of them in montana. and hopefully maya won't drive me crazy for five days. it'll be quite the winter vacation, no?

[the one good thing that came out of this: the man who took one of our seats from the lax --> denver leg of our flight had been on stand-by since the 21st. at least he was able to get home for christmas.]

breaking with tradition

for the last six christmas eves our friends have gathered at a bar in hermosa beach called the poop deck. and for six christmas eves we have turned down their invitation to join them. it was our tradition to not attend their tradition.

but we finally broke with our tradition and joined them for the seventh annual poop deck christmas eve. a couple of hours of child-free socializing was definitely something i could've used. needless to say, it was great to hang with friends -- merry christmas!

p.s. the three people on the left are our closest friends and they were super generous with their gifts for maya and ian: check out my flickr pics of the kids opening their presents. thanks guys!

merry chanumas!

[knott's berry farm :: december 16, 2006]

happy holidays to my friends and family!

the month since thanksgiving just flew by and before i could get my lazy butt off the couch it's now the last day of chanukah and we're four days away from christmas. where indeed did the days go? our holiday card will be going out in the mail this afternoon -- god willing -- but no end-of-the-year-recap-letter will be included. that's what this blog post is for.

looking back on 2006, single days seemed uneventful and slow. but the year as a whole passed more quickly than any year in recent memory. i blame it on chasing after two kids, hitting 30, and poor time management. i have many a new year's resolution to prevent 2007 from being a repeat of '06 ... but we all know what happens with new year's resolutions.

i am happy to report that ian is doing quite well in first grade despite some initial emotional adjustments that had to be made (tweaking still in progress). he reads like a maniac (chapter books and non-fiction reference books), obsessed over geography the first half of the year, and is now quite enamored with lego star wars. he continues to make dad proud with his espn-watching, sports stats reciting, and ball playing. he had a great soccer season and i'm sure he'll enjoy his second year of t-ball in the spring.

maya continues to terrorize us daily with her tantrums, demands, and mood swings. however, being with her 24 hours a day has desensitized me and i've gotten used to it; most days she seems fine to me. not quite so with rupert. being the smart, manipulative type, maya quickly figured out that daddy has "sucker" tattooed across his forehead and she can get him to do almost anything. poor rupert is exhausted and a slave to maya's whims while mama is off in her own world ignoring her children and husband. so far maya has only taken a few steps; she doesn't seem ready or willing to walk yet. i'm in no hurry to have to chase her around so i don't care about her progress in that front. the one thing i'm making an effort with is speaking japanese to her. as a result, she doesn't talk as much as other babies (it takes longer for babies to process two languages in their head before actually speaking), but she clearly understands what we say in both languages. and a positive side effect has been that ian is showing more interest in japanese.

rupert, when he's not being the devoted father that he is, goes to work diligently everyday. he works longer hours than he did at ucla and we all wish he would come home earlier. i secretly think he goes to work earlier and stays longer so he doesn't have to deal with us! i would like to tell you what he does as a career, but i'm not quite sure. his title is educational research analyst for los angeles unified school district, but beyond that you'll have to ask him directly for more details. while he seems to be content (for the most part) at work, he applied to the phd program at ucla's school of education for next fall; we'll find out in the spring if he'll be a student again. at night, after the kids have gone to bed, rupert watches an inordinate amount of television thanks to the cable his mom signed us up for as part of his birthday present this year. other than that he constantly (and unsuccessfully) battles the weeds in our yard, refereed some games for ian's soccer team, escaped for five days in the spring to a conference/training at northwestern university, and deals with the biggest pains in the butt (me and maya) on a daily basis. for that i am grateful.

as for me, i'm at home with the kids. i don't seem to accomplish much on a daily basis but i'm as content as i'm gonna be. after all, i get to watch every minute of my kids growing up and changing. to this day i can't believe they are my children, my flesh and blood, that they came out of my body. it continues to be surreal. when i'm not being a "good enough" mother and wife i'm usually sitting at the computer checking out the blogosphere, scrapbooking, reading or trying to get some much needed sleep. i've also been a bit more adventurous in the kitchen, trying out new (super simple) recipes so i can expand my culinary repertoire. i've become totally established in my stay-at-home mom capacity that i'm not sure i could ever go back to work. but if rupert is accepted into the phd program i'll have to start working to help pay the mortgage. but what could i do? if you have any ideas, please let me know. (seriously.) right now my interests lean towards books; i've considered getting a retail job at a bookstore, becoming a librarian, or getting my masters in children's literature. sadly, all of these things require a level of commitment and work i'm just not accustomed to.

for awhile there i thought family life was pretty static. turns out i was wrong. while it seems like things never change, families are constantly evolving (albeit at a snail's pace). i hope that 2007 brings some changes that i'm capable of dealing with. there are so many things i am looking forward to: ian's continued development and progress socially and academically, maya walking and talking, rupert fulfilling his professional and academic goals, and my vacation to argentina!

and, of course, i wish for peace, health and happiness to my family and yours. eat, drink & be merry, hug the ones you love, do something a bit daring and crazy, and drop me a line when you get a chance. here's to a fantastic 2007 -- cheers!

y

in memoriam :: tomiko kawamoto & tadamasa fujita

making me smile

• argyle socks
• matzoh ball soup
• labeling stuff
• sweet sesame paste on toast
• brown all-star shoes
• being a borders rewards member
• tea with turbinado sugar & lots of half-and-half
• spending money

he is his mother's son

how do you console a kid who's upset about his straight-a (okay, one a-), mostly outstanding effort report card? i was hoping, hoping, hoping ian would be okay with his report card. but the second he saw that, despite the a in reading, there were areas he could work on, he started to cry.

now, i know this is his initial gut reaction to most things he perceives as negative. in fact, it's an area we're working on at school because he has the occasional teary breakdown in class. given time he usually gets over it and it'll cease to bother him. so i went on and on about his excellent report card, effort is what matters, there's always room for improvement, blah, blah, blah.

but what he said after my spiel made me cringe because it was like listening to my inner self 20+ years ago:

me: so why are you sad?

ian: because it wasn't perfect ...

i've gotten to the point where i really don't care what his grades are; i'm much more concerned about his emotional state. when he's 30 years old it won't matter one iota what his grades were in first grade. but you can't convince my 6-year old that grades aren't the most important thing in the world (much less that it's hardly that important at all), and that i want him to have other things in his life that bring him happiness.

south bay == rep*re*sent!

just had to mention last night's "the hungry detective" episode about los angeles. i already knew which restaurants chris was going to go to but it was so great to see only south bay restaurants featured. our area is always neglected; reviewers and diners seem to focus on the westside/eastside/downtown and then apparently, there's nothing until you get down to the oc. granted, there aren't a lot of high-end eateries in the south bay worth going to, but you can't discredit all of the mom and pop places that serve good food cheap.

needless to say, i was happy for all of the restaurants chris featured. how wonderful to be recognized and acknowledged in such a vast area like los angeles. i hadn't been to any of them, but all of them except for san pedro fish market are near stores i frequent so i'm excited to try them. and, in case you're wondering, here are my recommendations for similar fare: el gaucho market (corner of inglewood and manhattan beach boulevard) for carne asada (no taco stand, though); beach hut (just north of the corner of rosecrans and highland in manhattan beach) for hawaiian; valentino's pizza in manhattan beach and el segundo (you can order a heart-shaped pizza for your amore!).

13 months.

maya @ 13 months :: december 4, 2006

• some of the many new foods she's had this month: broccoli, freeze dried fruit (apples, strawberries), osekihan (red sticky rice), persimmon, rice crispies, bean sprouts
• dislikes jarred baby food? she won't finish her pureed food anymore. loves loves loves yogurt (yobaby) and cheese (and the ice cream bar my mom let her lick), fish, rice. she's kinda picky about the texture of her food.
• will wear her booty shoes (i.e., soft-soled moccasin-like shoes).
• can almost take a few steps by herself. also, when she feels like it she'll grab on to our hands and take a few steps. took three steps at my parents' house (where they have carpet) on november 12.
• instead of calling everything "mama" she started saying "bebe?" (yes, with the questioning inflection), but that only lasted a few days. she's still not saying much but she somehow gets her point across very well. she definitely likes to communicate with rupert and ian ("bye da-ee" and "hi een").
• most days she only has one nap in the morning and then we try to put her down early in the evening. unfortunately, she gets hungry (or is conditioned to get hungry) and wakes up pretty darn early in the morning.
• finally starting to show some interest in books but will hardly sit still for a whole story. we're still at the point at pictures stage before she closes the book on your finger.
• learned to pillow fight watching her dad and brother.
• does a fake wail when she's not happy about something. it's not her usual ear-splitting cry and there are no tears so she's just expressing her discontent.
• she likes to identify and point at birds ("bir") and dogs ("run run" -- a hybrid of "wan wan," the japanese way dogs bark, and "ruff ruff").