the age of innocence

as i was driving to the airport post office last night (which, by the way, is the place to be on a friday night) i passed by the strip club near lax. it reminded me of the last time i drove by, on our way home from hawaii. ian says, "look, that store is a 'nude and alcohol shop'. i wonder what that means." the sign in front of the club actually says "nude and xxx shop" but ian thought the triple-x meant alcohol, the way old time cartoons mark jugs of beer/moonshine. i couldn't help but laugh and give ian some lame reason for the name. and it got me thinking that he's getting to that age when he'll start asking me what's up with the nude shop and why people talk about having sex. oy, yet another hurdle in parenthood. for now, i'll relish the fact that he's more concerned with the "alcohol" portion of the sign rather than the "nude" part.

[btw, some of you la people may be familiar with this strip club -- not because you've gone to it ... or maybe you have -- but because it's the place where they were missing letters from their billboard for awhile and in big orange and yellow letters it said "nud nudes." that always made me crack up. why, i don't know. but i was bummed when they got new letters.]

did you watch it?

the scripps national spelling bee, of course. how could you not?! ian and i watched it until the end, and while i'm not surprised the homeschooled genius boy won, i was hoping nate gartke, the canadian boy, would outspell them all.

i was so pleased to see ian trying to spell each of the words, and even though he's not particularly interested in competing in a spelling bee, at least he wanted to watch the whole show. it was a great way for me to show him how helpful language lessons are in figuring out the spelling of words. many of the words were french in etymology, which made it easier for ian to understand how those words were spelled. i don't think i'll forget the spelling of fauchard for a long time to come. (or the meaning of vituline.)

i miss it already ...

we spent a few days on oahu for my sister A's graduation. it was lovely. super-duper lovely. so hard to come home and get back into the swing of things. especially since i'm still incredibly busy as i mentioned a couple posts back ... i am overwhelmed, which means i procrastinate even more. you know what i'm talking about. you do it too.

anyway, i'd rather talk about the fabulous time we had in the four short days we were there. it was a mini-family reunion of sorts :: my step-sister D came and totally surprised A, my auntie + uncle came from japan, and it just so happened that my step-cousin E's family was on oahu too.

the first full day we spent with family :: breakfast at zippy's with my step-cousin's family, D and her boyfriend T; kailua beach with E, his wife SA, and their son K (who is only four days older than ian); and dinner with my folks, auntie + uncle, and D + T @ island's (in ala moana mall) where my sister works. (we made A wait on us!)

we hadn't actually been to kailua before; we usually drive a tad bit farther down to lanikai. both are gorgeous white sand beaches with very small waves. it's windy but when the sun's beating down on you the breeze is a welcome relief from the heat. kailua is nice because there's a parking lot and bathrooms you can use, which is helpful when you have a kid who refuses to pee in the ocean (that would be ian).

ian and K played like crazy on the beach. ian's not much of a swimmer so SA gently took him out to get used to the waves. he ventured out farther than he normally would, but he spent most of his time on the sand. rupert got some great shots of the kids jumping into the huge whole E dug. maya chased the waves as they receded and ran away when they came up the sand. she chased pigeons and got in the way of the boys. it was totally fun and relaxing.

the second morning we drove the short distance to see the african black-footed penguins at the hilton hawaiian village because both the kids love penguins (maya probably only loves them because ian does). we made it just in time for the morning feeding and ian got to pet one of them. well worth the $7 we spent on parking!

afterwards we headed to moanalua gardens to meet myra of my little mochi and her family. as i expected she was so nice and sweet (she brought bentos for us) and much more soft-spoken than i imagined. her son and ian got along quite well. they spent most of the time running around, playing ball, flying a kite, and looking at fish. oh yeah, and ian got stung by a bee.

i'm not even sure ian noticed the ginormous monkey pod trees the park is known for. the largest tree in the park is used by hitachi for their tv commercial and most japanese people can at least hum the tune of the song that goes along with the commercial. basically, the tree and song are synonymous with hitachi. so, not surprisingly, while we were there bus loads of japanese tourists came to see the tree and take pictures. when i mentioned to my mom and auntie + uncle we had seen the tree they got incredibly excited. seriously excited it was weird. my uncle wanted to see it more than he wanted to see pearl harbor!

anyway, enough about the tree. myra and her husband were so generous with their time; i'm sure they had better things to do than meet with strangers from the blogosphere! and myra sent us home with tons of hawaiian treats to enjoy. thanks myra!

sunday was graduation. it was a beautiful day for mother's day and the graduation of the centennial class of the university of hawaii at manoa. one thing rupert and i noticed (and it made us feel old) was the amount of cellphone-ing and text-ing going on among the graduates. i'm not sure they were listening at all to the speakers. but i'm getting ahead of myself. before the graduation began the hawaiian students did a chant, which was really cool and so distinct. definitely not something you would encounter at graduations on the mainland. the other exciting thing (well, not exciting per se) was that one of the graduates stripped down to his birthday suit after receiving his diploma! he walked out of the stadium with nothing on except his cap. that sure got a laugh out of the audience ... and i'm sure some gasps and maybe some tears from his mom. happy mother's day!

after the ceremony the graduates headed outside for pictures with family and friends. everyone was carrying leis (no surprise there) but some people were also carrying innertubes. i'm not sure what the significance of it is, but they were wearing them like leis. as you can imagine some of the graduates looked like they had no neck because of the sheer volume of flowers (and innertubes) around their neck.

before dinner the boys headed to manoa falls with D+T for a short hike. i'd done it before with my mom on my last trip to oahu so i took maya to the mall to meet up with my parents and A. as much as i like spending time with them, i really should've taken that opportunity to go to fabric mart for my mother's day shopping spree. in the end i didn't get a chance to go so i came home empty-handed. boo.

i think that was the only bad thing about the trip and it's not that bad. i take it back; the other bad thing about the trip was that it was too short! half the fun was definitely being there with my extended family. i really enjoyed that ... although we kept saying that it's crazy we have to go across the pacific to see each other when most of us live within an hour's drive from each other. go figure.

aloha! (and mahalo for reading this incredibly long blow-by-blow account of our trip.)

18 months (i.e., 1.5 years old!)

maya @ 18 months :: may 4, 2007

• some new favorite foods: kiwi, milk shakes, raw bean sprouts (ew!)
• weaned her off the nighttime and morning bottle; she's not getting as much milk as before so we're giving her more yogurt and cheese.
• maybe because of the weaning she was really cranky in the morning for awhile.
• new favorite toys: finger cymbals, plastic easter eggs, dragging around half-deflated balloons from trader joe's as if they were dogs on a leash, superballs (which she will throw with an "ungh!")
• opening drawers and cabinets so we had to empty out the ones in the living room (she was pulling out ian's books, rupert's cds, and all kinds of other stuff).
• likes bracelets and anklets. my mother-in-law gave her a charm bracelet from the charlotte's web dvd and she knew right away to put it around her wrist. in rie class she takes the plastic bracelets and tries to get them around her ankles.
• was actually interested in seeing the animals at our last trip to the zoo. before she just sat in the stroller but this time she insisted on being picked up to look at the animals. her favorites: lions, seals, giraffs, gazelle-like animals.
• first bike ride :: april 15 with rupert. no surprise she hated the helmet and spent most of the bikeride trying to take it off.
• loves it when you make monkey noises. she pulls out her animal book, points at the monkeys and looks at you expectantly. she'll do it too. maybe it's related or maybe not, but she likes the curious george cartoon on pbs.
• will always put stickers from the local markets on the bottoms of her feet. she doesn't like socks or shoes but she'll "wear" stickers. go figure.
• turns the lightswitch on and off.
• likes to ride around in the push-trike that used to be ian's. it's been sitting outside for five years so it's seen better times but she doesn't care.
• she continues to love all living things (dogs, cats, birds, fish, monkeys, babies).

when it rains it pours

i've been mia for the last few weeks. i don't know what happened but all of a sudden i got busy. busy with work. yes, you heard me right :: paid work.

i started tutoring last month, which is not a huge time-taker-upper but it doesn't pay that well either. i've heard that credentialed teachers who tutor can ask as much as $50 per hour. i'm not credentialed, but i have enough experience to know how to teach certain things, like reading (all that open court training paid off). and i'm bilingual (which is a skill i use because my student just moved here from japan six months ago). so, at the very least i should get paid $25 per hour, in my opinion. but right now i'm only getting paid $20 per hour. but when you consider the commuting and prepping and finding a babysitter for the kids, it just may not be worth it to keep this job.

on the more creative side, i've been making tagE*blankEs. some of my (very generous) friends are helping me with this fledgling business by buying them. it helps that people go gaga over baby stuff and they loosen their purse strings a bit. they've also been kind enough to spread the word so i've had enough orders to keep me busy.

i've also been playing with paper :: working on a couple of wedding invitation orders and creating welcome invitations for our friends' new baby. it's fun, but it could be funner if everything didn't happen at once! you know me, i'm not the multitasking type.

consequently, my crafting area is a huge mess. even messier than usual. i'm losing things left and right. stacks are tumbling down. receipts are piling up. rupert's tripping over everything. crazy clutter going on here. it's a bit annoying when i can't even find an empty space to put down my cup of tea, but at the same time it gives me happy pimples to think that i'm surrounded by all of my creating stuff. love it. inspired by it.

but i do need to clean up a bit so i don't make rupert angry. ;)

i knew i was worth something around here ...

salary.com came out with the 2007 figure of how much moms would earn if you tallied up all they do during the week :: $138,095. that's a heck of a lot of money. i wonder what life would be like if mother were an "actual job" and the government (or some entity) paid a salary?? i'm sure more moms would stay at home. and dads too. but would the productivity of the nation, and therefore the economy, go down? but if moms had more spending power that would boost the economy, wouldn't it? interesting ...

i know moms (working moms and stay-at-home moms) who definitely are worth the $138,095 mom salary + regular job salary. they put me to shame. i can't really say that i do enough to earn much money. i know that i do stuff around here to keep things chugging along but compared to other moms i'm not very productive. i would, in fact, probably get fired from the job of sahm. thank goodness i'm the boss around here!

p.s. you can personalize the mom salary to see how much you would get paid by using the mom salary wizard. i plugged in numbers for the number of hours i think i do stuff around the house, my zip code, and voila! apparently i could earn $143,354 as a mom in my area. okay, okay, i might've fibbed a bit on how many hours i work as the janitor at home ...

readathon wrap-up

519 pages.

that's the end result of ian's second readathon. he reached his goal, and i'm so thrilled for him. he accomplished his goal by reading at a leisurely pace and making sure to balance reading time with play-outside-time and veg-in-front-of-the-tv-time. he also branched out and read different material, like non-fiction, chapter books, and good ol' i spy books.

and, thanks to our very generous friends and family (and if my math is right), he raised close to $700! (it may be closer to $800 if our friend B's company will match his donation. isn't that fantastic?) i'm just so overwhelmed with the support ian received from everyone ... i hope they know we'll be counting on them next year too. ;)

thank you so much!

[edited 05.03.07 :: ian is the top earner in the whole school -- of the $4600 or so raised in this fundraiser ian's contribution was $800! he earned his class a pizza party, his teacher a $50 spending spree at the book fair, and himself a gift certificate to borders. yay ian!]

["reprinted" from our reading blog :: 365books.blogspot.com]

i'd do anything for crafting ...

even iron.

measure twice, cut once ...

i'm getting better at not screwing up the cutting part, but the "oh, it'll only take me a few hours to make that" time allotment part is not something i'm good at.

i decided to make these things for our friends' daughter's first birthday. neither item is very big so i gave myself about three hours to make both of them. in the end i think it took me at least six hours to sew the baggy and doggy. but they came out pretty cute, i think. you can't tell from the pictures but the inside of the bag is lined with a floral print cotton.

the patterns are from the handmade zakka series. doggy pattern :: handmade zakka tobikiri kawaii wo tsukurou and the baggy pattern :: handmade zakka nonbiri kibun de tsukuritaimono.

i hope baby L likes them. :)

goofy grin

ian lost his fourth tooth, right in the front. it was already loose when he missed a flyball (which he threw himself) that smacked him in the mouth and knocked out the tooth!

he looks ridiculous and goofy and endearing. it reminded me of when i lost my front tooth eating a chicken leg; i swallowed the tooth and never saw it again. (i've never confirmed this story with my mother. it's possible that i made it all up.)

sadly, the tooth fairy (i.e., mom) forgot to bring ian some cash that night (oopsy!). hopefully she (i.e., i) won't forget tonight.

read ian, read!

ian's school's pta has a readathon during spring break each year to raise funds for school supplies. this is my favorite fundraiser (besides the book fair i organize) because it encourages reading.

last year ian was the top reader in his class and the top earner in kindergarten (thanks to our many friends and family who sponsored him). this year we're not really aiming to "win" but to read everyday during spring break. ian is challenging himself to read lots of chapter books and read at least 500 pages.

so, until the 16th i'll be chronicling his daily progress at our reading blog :: 365books.blogspot.com. if you'd like to sponsor ian or you have any suggestions for books to read, please leave a comment here. thank you!

17 months.

maya @ 17 months :: april 4, 2007

• her vocabulary is definitely growing. towards the beginning of the month she started saying "tankoo" (thank you) to me when i handed her things. other new words: "shees" (shoes), "dish" (this), "ce-eal" (cereal), "m-k" (milk) and then she moos, "o [something something mumble mumble]" (outside), "cacker" (cracker), "ball," "go go." the sad thing is that she hasn't really said anything in japanese yet ... although i think she said something akin to "hana" (nose) and "alé" (that).
• it cracks us up when she mimics us, like when she repeated rupert's "unbelievable!" as "un-be-abo!" during a basketball game.
• she liked watching "march madness" with ian and rupert. she claps and says "go go!" when the crowds cheer.
• she is definitely more physical and confident than ian was at the same age. she's fearless on the big kid slides at the park, and while she figures out her limits she does always try to climb on park equipment and furniture at least once.
• she's a tricky little thing. for example, when i limited her crayon use to her high chair she started throwing the crayons on the floor and then asked to be put down so she could go pick them up and walk away. she's using my laziness against me, knowing full well that i don't always pick things up off the floor right away!
• new toys: little people figures (especially the princess carriage), slinky
• it makes me cringe but she likes to pull off the flaps on her books. sometimes she is so gentle with books and other times i can hear rrrrrrips from across the room. thankfully, she hasn't ripped too many actual pages out of books. her other favorite tearing activity is pulling out the subscription postcards from magazines.
• like a lot of babies she likes chapstick. one day i let her play with my mini maglight flashlight. she kept pulling at the top so i tried to teach her that you had to turn the top to turn the flashlight on. but she just kept pulling on it and then she started rubbing the flashlight on her lips ... like chapstick.
• i had to take her to my doctor's appointment with me and she was not happy when she saw where we were. it took a bit to convince her it wasn't shot time for her!
• drinking from a regular kid cup; most of the time she doesn't spill too much.
• wraps herself around your leg
• dora the explorer is becoming a favorite, even though we don't watch the show. we have rupert to thank for that; he bought some dora yogurt and started singing the theme song so now maya likes to say, "d-d-doa" and point her out (because she's everywhere!).
• i'm thrilled that she liked watching "tonari no totoro" (my neighbor totoro) in japanese.
• she is on litter patrol when she goes for walks. i have started carrying around garbage bags because i end up having to hold all of the garbage until we find a trash can.
• escaping from her rear-facing carseat is her new goal on our drives.
• nods her head "yes" but won't say it. "no," on the other hand, is like her favorite word.
• apparently she waves "bye bye" to the shishi (pee) when rupert flushes the toilet. i haven't seen this because she usually doesn't come with me when i go to the bathroom.
• maya and ian were taking a bath and rupert noticed she was in her unchi (poopy) position. he swiftly picked her up and tried to get her over the toilet but was a split-second too late and she ended up pooping mid-air onto the toilet seat and floor. glad i missed that!
• she plays outside a lot, especially if ian is in the yard. sometimes i'll leave the two of them outside while i wash dishes and she's completely content to explore on her own.
• i would almost consider her quick walking to be running, but maybe not quite.
• her balance is getting better so that she's almost able to get up little steps without holding on to anything. she's also starting to go up stairs on her feet instead of on her knees, but she still has to put her hands on the step above. at the bookstore the other day i turned around and found her climbing up the stairs of the "employees only" metal rolling ladder.
• likes to push her bellybutton and say "bin-bong." at first she said it while pointing at her crotch so we had to reteach her a more appropriate place to push.
• knows facial parts in japanese.
• she drools and sort of spits on purpose when she's frustrated or happy.
• is good at, and loves to, pull out the subscription postcards from magazines ... even at the bookstore.

mind + body out of commission

hi folks ... sorry about the lack of posts lately. i've been preoccupied with some projects and i'm dealing with a weird cough (as is ian). not quite a cold, but really annoying.

hopefully i'll be back to blogging within the next couple of weeks.

toodles!

[update: not a cold. confirmed by the nurse practitioner that it's allergies.]

maya's a real piece of work

yesterday was one of those days i wish didn't happen ... at least, i wish it had happened differently. it started off like any other saturday. but then maya woke up from her nap screaming her head off, which, admittedly, isn't that different from some other days.

the difference was that she was inconsolable for over an hour. and, at the same time, she was kinda lethargic. she was flopped over in our arms but tossing and turning because it seemed like she couldn't get comfortable. she refused liquid and food, and that got us really worried because we can always convince her to eat a snack.

after lots of rocking, dozing off in our arms (another thing she never does), walks outside and a lukewarm bath, on the "advice" of a pediatric nurse hotline, we headed to a clinic that's open on saturday. of course, they wouldn't take our insurance so we had to go to the emergency room. this is where i wish our decision making skills had steered us in a different direction. specifically, the direction of home.

no surprise the emergency room was crowded and it took four hours to get from waiting room to triage to registration to the treatment room. within that span of four excruciatingly annoying and boring hours maya was miraculously cured of her symptoms.

we spent the most time waiting for the doctor in the treatment room. it's difficult to remain patient when you see the doctor right there and you still have to wait close to two hours to see her.

and it's also difficult because the daughter you thought was sick is now happily walking around the emergency room, eating and playing. by the time we finally see the doctor all she can tell us is to go home and keep an eye on maya to make sure her symptoms don't reappear and get worse. gee, thanks for telling us what we already know. and that diagnosis of "irritability resolved"? so not true; maya continues to be quite irritable ... and irritating!

16 months.

maya @ 16 months :: march 4, 2007

• pretty much walks everywhere she needs to get to. most days we walk home from dropping ian off at school. it's a good half a city block so it's pretty far. when we get to the corner of our block she knows where to turn into our driveway. if she wakes up from her nap in time we'll walk to pick ian up too. she's gotten very popular on these walks because she waves at everyone. she's not running yet but she can get around pretty quickly. she also likes to pick dandelions on our walks.
• stairs don't bother her either; she's crawling up and down them with no problem.
• tries to get down from her high chair by throwing one leg over the edge of the seat. she also thinks she can pull herself up into the highchair; she'll hang from the tray, grunting and groaning with the effort.
• loves to play with and point out balls. anything round or spherical is "bah," like the large red concrete spheres in front of the entrance to target.
• doesn't particularly like butterflies; she shakes her head "no" when i point them out to her.
• some of her new words: "dog," "book," "banana" (all three syllables), and the big one: "no"
• imitates sounds really well; she's clearly listening and processing sounds in her mind and trying to recreate the sounds with her own vocal chords. for example, ian was throwing himself on the couch saying, "1-2-3-jump!" maya was watching him and she did the same thing, without the actual words but with the same intonation and rhythmic sing-songiness of ian's voice. she even made four sounds, one for each word ian said, before throwing herself onto the couch cushions too. she continues to laugh the emperor laugh from lego star wars 2.
• down to one 2-hour nap around lunch time.
• she's always had gi problems and bowel movements have been very painful for her. lately, when she has gas pains she rubs her belly and gives us the saddest pathetic face because it hurts her so much.
• she pretends to pick off the moles on my face and pop them into her mouth. at first i was like "eww" and "stop!" because i'm so self-conscious about them (and hate that about myself), but after awhile i had to laugh because she doesn't mean any harm by it and thinks it's funny.
• pretends to read books, turning pages and making sounds. about a quarter of the time the books are upside down.
• when she hears the star wars theme and the imperial march her ears perk up and she moves her arms like she's conducting.
• helps put things like her toys away: "nai nai" (not to be mistaken with the night-night "nai nai"). she is in fact pretty good about placing things back where she thinks they go, like the remote control and my mom's purse and eraser. she'll also help throw things away: "poi poi".
• she plays basketball in the backyard with her baby hoop while ian plays bball on his big boy hoop.
• other fun stuff: she says "honk honk" and pushes your nose (she always ends with a rather painful pinch of the nose). i also started pushing her belly button while saying "pin pon" (japanese door bell ring), which she says as "buh-pon." at ian's french class they have a large blue bird painted on the wall so i showed her quacking/chirping movements with my hands. she picked that up really quick and likes to do it when she sees pictures of ducks and birds.
• likes to listen to my ipod shuffle with me. she pulls one of the earphone buds out of my ear and puts it up to her ear and grooves to the music.
• some of her favorite toys are little star wars figurines that belong to ian. not surprising that she often goes for the emperor figure. she also uses crayons to mark up paper (before she would just carry them around). she has been very good about only drawing on paper we put in front of her. hope she keeps that up!
• obeys simple requests like, "bring the blanket to mommy" and "take ___ to daddy."
• this is actually not something new but she likes to put things on her head with both hands. it could be a scrap of paper, a piece of cloth, a toy, whatever. she holds it, raises her hands and holds it on top of her head and gives you a big smile.

proof of my obsessive personality

i hate to admit it but i started another hobby :: carving rubber stamps. i bought a speedy-stamp kit by speedball (which they don't even sell anymore) three or four years ago and i just opened it the other day. and now i can't stop carving stamps. i'm totally hooked!

along with not opening my kit, i bought a stamp carving book by keiko koma more than a year ago that i could only admire until now. i used her adorable illustrations to trace my images for the stamps i carved (12 of them in two days). i also carved 3 other designs :: one of a bird (i used the image from a newspaper clipping about doorbell plates by flopping fish) and two little girl faces for my "brand," sleepyhead paper designs.

that's the original reason why i pulled out the stamp carving kit in the first place. i wanted to stamp my logo on the items i'm creating. i plan to stamp one of the tags on my tagE*blankEs (that's what i've decided to call them) with my logo and the inside of the onesies i'm painting. i'm slowly but surely starting to think seriously about my craft as a small source of income.

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)