Monday, August 30, 2010

Gutter mind

Yes, we are not talking about D here. We are talking about me. If you know me, you know that my mind is constantly in the gutter...
I'm sure I've posted before on how tragic baby games can be and what it sounds like when you are commending them on their play. For instance, "Wow, great job D. Put the stick in the hole. Yes! Good job!" Errm...hello...
And now D is picking up almost everything we say. I mean, I say, "Deeelicious!!" every day but does she pick up on that word? Hardly ever. I think she said it once when my friend was over and said it to her.
But, no she is constantly saying "Shut Up!" all day long...I exclaimed that ONCE while out with a friend!
And today, we are in the car and G's driving. Sometimes he jokes around and will have me feel his muscle or look at his pecs or whatever. So today he's in the car and he says, "Honey, feel my forearms!" And I feel them and I say, "Wow, so muscular..." and because I have a gutter mind, I add, "must be from all the jacking off". I said that rather quietly, mind you but NEXT THING YOU KNOW, D's in the back repeating, "Jacking off!" "Jacking off"
To which I replied, "Jacket off, sweetie? You want your jacket off? Okay!"
G and I are totally cracking up and TOTALLY trying to ignore what she just said lest she thinks it's a good phrase to pick up...like "shut up."

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Oh reeaaally...is THAT how it is...

We were riding in the car the other day and D was probably getting a bit tired. That's when she tends to start screaming for food, "Eat! Eat! Eat!" even if she's not really hungry.
Anyhoo...she wanted a snackie so I gave her some snackies in a small container. Just some raisins and some of the airy cheerio type things.
A couple minutes later I turned around and saw that she had dropped some of the cheerios on herself so I said, "Uh-oh, bao bae. Did you make a mess?"
And she replied, "No. No." Shaking her head.
I responded saying, "Yes, you did. You made a mess."
Not two seconds later, she looked straight at me and dumped the rest of the container's contents all over herself and her car seat.
Oh yes, she did. I looked at G and said, "Can you believe that she purposely just dumped all the contents of her snack container b/c I accused her of making a mess? I saw it in her eyes!!"

Thursday, August 26, 2010

In denial

Yesterday as I was walking D back from some play time at the park, randomly a car passes by with two girls in it. The passenger was kicking back with her leg up on the dashboard and the driver looked like she was having fun too and just sipping from a fountain soda...and all of a sudden, I just thought to myself, "Hmm, I remember carefree days. Who ever would have thunk that I would be that woman, walking down the street pushing a stroller..containing my child no less..."
It was a weird moment in my mind.
I guess love makes you do crazy things because I distinctly remember the day I looked at G and thought, "I want to have your child." Meanwhile...having a child never, ever crossed my mind in any years prior. It's no picnic. Sure, she's great and we have so much fun with her and she keeps us laughing....but, she also keeps these bags perpetually under my eyes. And she keeps me from just jetting off and going places. Not being remorseful here, just pondering...thoughtful, if you will...

Friday, August 20, 2010

Cool website alert!

IF you are like me and sometimes find yourself uninspired in the kitchen. I just happened upon this blog the other day and it looks pretty good for nutritious recipes - Daily Diner.
I especially like her description:

I am a certified nutrition educator working as a Healthy Eating Specialist for Whole Foods Market in Arlington, VA.

My family recently relocated to the Washington DC Metro area (from California) and we are in a time of transition.

I love food, and approach nutrition from a love of eating.

We make regular American food, such as hamburgers and french fries, and make them with nutrient dense, real, sustainable ingredients.

Animals eaten are free range or grass fed, or wild caught.

Produce is local and seasonal.

Legumes and grains are dry, soaked and often sprouted.

Food is always "clean" (without funky ingredients and artificial preservatives)

Each week, I meal plan (and post) 4-6 dinners. 4-6 dinners a week seems to be enough to keep a budget down, and not overwhelming.

I mean, what more can you ask for?? A woman after my own heart.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

A couple of things...

One: I think we've sunken to a new low. We've apparently taken D to Costco for dinner...Whaaat?! You might ask? - But Costco only sells pizza, hot dogs and ice cream. Yeah, no. We've taken her around and given her samples for dinner. Yup! That's us. The Vitamix woman was there giving demonstrations so D got a fruit smoothie, a greens smoothie and some strawberry ice cream. Then, it just so happens that they were handing out samples of brown rice and quinoa. Sweet! Grains and protein to round out her meal. Okay, we're off to home and then to bed. :o)

Two: On the subject of smoothies, I think we have our very own Victoria Beckham on our hands. Ooh, I don't mean that I think D is beautiful and smart and will build her own empire one day (though I'm also not saying she won't) but what I mean is - D spends all day saying "moothie! moothie!" This girl is all about her liquid diet. After eating up all those smoothie samples from Costco, she came home and demanded MORE smoothies! So, I gave her the rest of the smoothie I made from this morning and then G made soup for dinner. Ayayay...what have we done?!

Mama, jerk!

Yes, well, I guess I deserved it.
This morning, D asked me to make her a smoothie. So I did. I love making her smoothies. But did she drink it? No. She proceeded to play with it, dipped her fingers in it though I kept saying, "No, sweetie, let's not play with it. You need to drink it."
Then she dipped more of her fingers into it and rubbed it all in her hair and the side of her face, her neck....
At which point, I took it away and poured it down the drain.
Then Daddy comes down and picks her up and she says, "Smoothie. Smoothie"
Daddy asks, "D, you want a smoothie?"
To which I replied, "No, she asked for one earlier. I made it and she just rubbed it all over her hair. She's just being a jerk."
Next thing I know, she's saying, "Mama, jerk. Mama, jerk."
G and I are silently laughing now...I mean, seriously. This girl is smart.
I better watch what I say...

Monday, August 16, 2010

It's all in the presentation

D...she's a tough one. Lately, she has learned some new words that she likes to use - pancake, smoothie, milk, water (I mean, she's known milk and water for months now but she's really getting into them now) I mean, now she just likes to throw around "milk" and "water" to get some and then play with them. No thank you very much.

So, today she says she wants a smoothie. Second day in a row! No problem, I make her a kale, tomato, pear, blueberry and yogurt smoothie with some flax seed thrown in. I serve it to her in a bowl b/c lately it seems like if she has it in a cup and there is a bowl nearby, she will pour it into the bowl anyhow. Thought I'd just save her a step.

Nope, not gonna have it. She just looked at the smoothie. What's that? So she takes her smoothie (in a bowl) and pours it into another bowl that she had emptied. Then just sort of stared at it. Okaaay...so I put the smoothie away. Then, when I was giving her water from a mini cup, I decided to put some smoothie into it AND give her a straw! That did it! She was totally into it then. She ended up finishing the entire serving of smoothie.

Crazy how that works.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The Chinese...

Y'know...I don't know what it is about the Chinese...but there is one thing that they do that irritates me when I see it happening.
When a baby is crying, say, mine for instance, my mom or whoever other Chinese is in the room will say, "Aya, bu yao ku. Ni ku chi lai lian jeo how nan kan." Which translates as "ooh, stop crying. Your face is so ugly when you cry..."
I hate that. I have an Asian nanny who comes twice a week for a few hours and today D was out of control crying (possibly b/c she was so distraught over last night's babysitting gig that she was on high alert today) and our nanny was saying that.
I didn't have the heart reprimand her since I know it's kind of a Chinese thing. My mom does it too. But I really dislike when they say that b/c I don't want D to be the type of baby who thinks beauty is all that it's about. Who CARES if their face is ugly when they cry?? Just cry. Do what makes you feel better, darling.
Eh, so anyhow, I didn't reprimand the nanny b/c she only comes two days a week and D is hardly ever crying when she is around. Today was just a fluke.

Bribery 101

We have an amazing babysitter. I just love her because she is so very sweet and you know she is great with kids. We had tried to offer her a nanny position for us, but she had to take a full time job elsewhere so we get our fix by having her babysit. :o)
Last night, we had R come to babysit and here is why she is a great babysitter.
She showed up half an hour before we were due to leave (like we had scheduled) and I walked her through a couple reminders: Bedtime routine, all the stuff for dinner, pajamas, etc. And I gave her a quick rundown of a couple Chinese words D might use and what they mean: "bao-bao" - pick her up and most importantly, "Bing gan" - cookie. But I had to whisper that b/c D has eagle ears and if she had heard she would have bolted the the kitchen and asked for some. And I gave her specific instructions that if D asked for some, she could give her some but only two and that's it. Fine.
So off we go on our merry way. D, these days has been very clingy. So, we said our goodbyes and she was wailing. Fine, we just left. When we got home we asked how the night was and this is what R said:
Well, I had to give D some cookies...
I said, "Oh, she asked for some?"
And R replied, "Well, nooo....I kind of offered them to her...well, she was inconsolable when you guys left and was crying for like five minutes. Then I remembered you mentioned the cookies, what was the word? 'Binban'? So, I said, "Binban?" And she instantly stopped crying and nodded her head."
I just laughed. I loved that story.
Now, what makes R the best babysitter is not the fact that she bribed D, but the fact that she even remembered the word for cookie!!! I LOVE that girl!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Water play in the house?

Yeah...I was kind of having a good day yesterday. Good day meaning I was actually not "seeing red" every time D sat down to eat. Not so much the previous day when she started the day fussing and overturning her entire cup of milk. Which prompted me to just vacuum and mop the floors. Of course, during dinner, she spilled the contents of her soup bowl onto the floor. Sigh...
I try and I try not to get so aggravated but it is such a challenge for me.
Apparently, I have little patience for hmm...my child??
BUT! I am seriously working on it and yesterday was a good day.
She wanted to play with water and I didn't feel like going outside cuz we'd already gotten enough mosquito bites to dot most exposed portions of our skin so I let her play with a bucket of water on the kitchen floor. I gave her specific instructions not to spill. Hah! She started to transfer contents of one pail into her rolling bucket. That was fine until all of a sudden, she slipped in the water and knocked over the whole pail. Whoops.
I didn't even flinch (and surely that's nothing to report probably for most people...but for me, it's a small feat), I just picked up a towel and dried everything off. All the while just speaking at an even tone to D and explaining what I was doing. The key here is that I didn't flinch. Under normal circumstances, I might've gotten mad but not shown it since I knew it wasn't her fault. But I know that's not good enough because oftentimes it's hard for me to suppress my anger. So I felt good about not getting mad at all. It's just water, after all...just as it's just food, it's just milk, it's NO BIG DEAL.
Hard lessons to learn for me.
I went about my merry day all day feeling pretty mellow - with D doing her baby things, dropping food all over the floor and me just happily wiping it up. :oD
I feel pretty good. I hate when I lose it and I really am trying hard to be more patient.