Changing of the Guard

There was a time when G was deathly afraid of me when I got angry. She'd go running to the designated time out area, sometimes screaming, scared at what might befall her if she didn't hustle. In some sense, she's still afraid of me, but the fullness of my might has passed. These days, I can better threaten her with a call to Daddy, which will immediately stop any of her lip. Yes, it's come to that.

A Little Frill

at the wrists.

Doorstop

Can't get enough of it, you know.

My mom doesn't remember this, but we used to have a dog, Dusty, whom I know would purposely kick the doorstop on her way downstairs. The reason I knew she kicked it intentionally is because the doorstop was on the far wall in an out of the way spot. If she was taking her time to go down, i.e. not rushing to meet someone at the garage door, she would take the long way. And after she'd kicked it, she would keep on walking, like she was expecting the sound, not surprised at all. I'd seen her do it a few times, but more often than not, I would hear her doing it.

Wings

Taking the better part of the afternoon to make – and dry. From this tutorial.

G: I don't have to use my arms to pretend to fly anymore.

Elusive Glory – In His Own Words

As you know, this is the first year of proud home ownership for us. From the moment we set foot in our new home, the man's had a honey-do list as long as his leg – of close to 100 items. Over the past year, he's managed to whiddle it down to no more than ten or twenty, only to have it grow again. Similarly, at the office, he's been juggling his regular work duties and going to school (for a master's). A few weeks ago, he began to notice how tantalizingly small his office to-do list was getting, and nothing else was being added to his Inbox. "It was a moment as rare as the passage of Halley's comet."

Yesterday, he had finished all his office work; his midterm was postponed for a week with no homework assignment immediately due; and noticing his home to-do list was only four or five items long, he decided to stay up late to finish all but two. For that one brief moment, he could be free of all constraints at home, work and school!

The next morning he awoke early to finish cleaning the basement and to disassemble and clean the garbage disposal switch as his wife had asked him to do. As he was replacing the switch plate, he paused to relish the moment: this is the last project on any of my lists. But his wife, on overhearing his thoughts, or sensing his idle hands, chimed in, "Did you fix the faucet?" It was almost enough to tip him over the edge of sanity. He rushed over to see if he could do a quick fix before getting ready to go to work, but realized it would require the ordering of parts. Frustrated, he shouted, "YOU STOLE MY GLORY, WOMAN!"

Upon his arrival at work, he received a case which would take no less than three months to resolve – and the stress of having to prepare for his midterm re-entered his mind. Yes, it was as if the man were standing on his back porch at night, gazing at the heavens, waiting for a clearing in the clouds to catch a glimpse of the elusive Halley's comet, only to be called inside by his wife to complete some domestic task. When he returned to his post on the back porch, the clouds would have closed, and a moment so rare most people could only hope to see it once in their lifetime would be gone. It seems he'll have to wait another 75 years for his glory, alas.

Lint

Recently, Drew was reminding me of a story I once told him, I had totally forgotten it myself:

When I was in high school, I discovered that the body of my violin contained a neon green piece of lint about the size of a pea. It would just roll around in there, and occasionally one could catch sight of it through the f-holes. Anyway it happened one day, I forget how, that the piece of lint fell out of my violin! I remember holding it in the palm of my hand, thinking, maybe I should throw this away – but then future generations wouldn't believe my lint story. So I shoved it back in there to be preserved.

Kitchen Sink

Call me silly, I have always wanted to bathe one of my babies in the kitchen sink. Up until now, we've had those shallow washing vessels.

But this one's extra deep.

M had a great time, if you consider splashing to your heart's content in your own personal bath tub fun. :)


I had a fair bit of mopping to do afterward.

Pants

I recently bought a thrifted sweatshirt with the intention of making legwarmers of the arms for myself, but decided I didn't really like the tapered look and would prefer sweater material. I knew you could make toddler pants of the torso – and lo, you can also make pants from the sleeves: following this tutorial, which didn't have enough pictures in my opinion, and making some small modifications of my own in regards to the existent seams and the crotch. (There's this other tutorial, but you have to destroy another pair of pants in order to get your pattern?)

So this should have been a quick project, made within the span of nap time, but in my finite sewing wisdom, I decided to pseudo-serge some edges using the smallest zigzag on my machine, not taking into account that my machine has a tendency to drop stitches and make thread nests, so it took me five times as long to unpick the mess. Anyway, that fixed, I think the pants turned out great, very pleased. Unfortunately, my model is in whiny recovery mode (from an ear and upper respiratory infection: we're on antibiotics) so I'll spare you the agony of having to see her displeasure at being photographed.

Bounce

M likes bouncing in her saucer so much – see her tongue sticking out? –, I half considered getting her one of those jumpers that hang in the door. However, it's just another thing and probably not near as noisy.

Peekaboo

Though G and BB had been playing peek-a-boo with M from around doorways and under the table for months, the first time she ever had a cloth on her head was during our last Parents as Teachers visit – and she did not like it! But a couple months changed her mind. At one point, before the camera started rolling, she even tried to put the cloth on her own head, but her arms are too wonderfully short.

Crawling

For the while, M was rolling everywhere she wanted to go, which you can imagine is a bit frustrating since you lose sight of what you're aiming for during transit. Now it's on to the next form of self-transport: commando crawl.

Bubbles

Bluey's not a big eater: should I be worried? Recently, I read that Bettas blow bubble nests when they're happy, and only within the last week, since our last water change, have I started to see bubbles rimming the tank. Maybe he'll be happier if I can manage to get our Betta bulb, an actual plant (not the plastic greenery that's in there now), to sprout.

Did I Win?

M fell asleep on the floor yesterday evening after playing with some nearby toys. When I went to move her to her crib, I noticed her pacifier was in her mouth. I know I didn't put it there, or at least it wasn't there when she was awake, so does this mean I've successfully usurped the thumb? It could be said that, on occasion, she's used her thumb to taunt me – she's hungry and she knows I'll come running –, otherwise, come to think on it, it's been a long while since the last time I saw her thumb in her mouth...

L6

One night recently the carbon monoxide detector started beeping, waking Drew, M and me. While I was busy trying to get the baby back to sleep, Drew agonized over whether or not he should wake the whole family and get out of the house. Of course, a person's not thinking too clearly at 1AM, but the detector wasn't exactly screaming for us to get out of the house either. So Drew went down to the kitchen and checked the internet for advice (rather than dig through our file of manuals). Turns out, this particular model of detector has a habit of beeping whenever its batteries run low, or "Lb", which seems an oddity since ours is plugged into the wall outlet.

Sally

More of a snow mound than a snowman, but maybe you can make out the face indentations.

Shoveling

It started yesterday afternoon and dumped a whole bunch before nightfall. 

I don't know how much came down in the night, but it looked to be just as much as the day before: total accumulation ~8 inches. Or in Drew's words, "Four hours' worth of shoveling." The whole neighborhood turned out to get in their time. (I saw the snow plow on our street at 4AM, so a lot of people were also digging out their driveways.) G and BB went out first thing after breakfast, but BB didn't last long, i.e. no pictures of her: she said it was too cold.

Drew doing the Daddy-thing – because Mommy's not going to do it – and etching a sled run.

Can you appreciate how clean my windows are? I took these last three pictures from the dining room window.

Temper

I get so annoyed with M at night. First, she tosses and turns, which maybe the other girls did it too at this age, the difference being, when M bumps into one of the side railings, be it her head or her feet, she'll scream bloody murder and/or start crying. Now maybe the other girls did it too at this age, the difference being, they would have their little cry and have done with it, instead of carrying on as M does, where she'll have her cry, bump back into the railing, and start crying all over again – only to bump back into the railing and continue crying. It's enough to drive a person over the edge. One night I let her cry it out and she soldiered on for over an hour. A couple times I thought she'd cried herself to sleep, but then again with the rolling and the bumping and the crying. If I try to put her pacifier in, she'll only bat at my hands (and she has pretty good aim) and cry harder. She really likes being pat on the back, but I can't be doing that every time she wakes herself up.

Meanwhile, the other three are learning to sleep through anything.

Fishy

We've had it on our to-do list for months to give the girls, and particularly Z, fish oil supplements – no supply of fresh Alaskan salmon here – on recommendation from Dr H, the developmental specialist. The first dose was at the very end of December and what to my wondering eyes! Z's even more alert and responsive, more like a 2-year-old (not on meds). It's simply fascinating to me why this would be – I wish I could somehow know what she's experiencing. I Googled Topamax and fish oil, and there's only a couple of mentions of people using them together and having similar good results. One person stated that the fish oil helped with the tingling and numbness in their extremities. Could that be something Z's dealing with? Because she recently started going up the stairs using just the hand railing (and not crawling like she's been).

What will it be like for her when we take her off the Rx?

Variation

While I was pinning the first scarf, I was noticing the effect of the pleats when fastened at two points instead of three, if that makes any sense, and thought it'd be worth a go on this second scarf. What do you think? Couldn't resist another set of flowers, since I had the extra flower bits anyway.

Arrangements

We were discussing the lifespan of fish over dinner and how long Bluey could potentially live (two to three years from what I've been reading), when G asked, "What would we do with [the body]?"
Me: Well we'd flush him down the toilet. Just like in the movie (Finding Nemo).
My answer didn't seem to quite satisfy G, so I said, "Or we could dig a hole in the backyard and bury him there. Would you like that?" G's face lit up.
Me: Daddy, could we dig a hole in the backyard and bury Bluey there?
Drew: Man, this is a bad sign, you're already planning Bluey's funeral?

Literal

So there are still some noses to be wiped towards the end of this bout of runny noses and coughs – thankfully nothing worse to report, like stomach flu(!), which has been going around school. G brought our attention to one sniffer over lunch: "M's got a drooling booger." While not entirely accurate, I couldn't help laughing at the crude translation from Chinese. And without missing a beat Drew says, "I hope you don't expect to name my wine 'Drooling Booger'." He conceded, however, that it would be a good name for a beer, if anyone wants to use that.

The Lion and the Tiger: 7 Months

Note: She didn't get up there by herself. Soon enough though, I'm sure.

Redo

Upon closer inspection of the fabric flower tutorial and seeing that my strips were too wide, I decided to redo the one on my pleated scarf – and got two.

And here's a "blueberry" Playdoh girl that G made.

Departure

AhPoh's gone again. We enjoyed having her visit. Hopefully she'll be back in March for G's birthday.

Snow

Unfortunately, G was the only one with a bill of health clean enough to go outside in our fresh blanket of snow earlier this week. She had to wait until Daddy got home from work – to shovel the driveway – because I wasn't going to go out in those frigid temps.

Pleats

Just finished up this pleated knit scarf. My knit fabric is not as thin as hers, so I decided to pleat just one layer to recoup some of the drape. And I added a fabric rose (following the bit towards the end of this tutorial) for the heck of it: I've always wanted to make one.

Merryweather

As we were watching BB's birthday movie selection, Sleeping Beauty, I pondered two questions:

1. Before Maleficent's appearance, what gift do you think Merryweather was going to give to the infant princess?
2. And if the three good fairies had waited but one extra day, i.e. to return Aurora to her parents the day after her birthday, would the curse have been obsolete and therefore ruin the entire point of the story?

Afterward, we continued the celebration by eating two pieces of chocolate cake (with blueberries, a special request by the birthday girl) per person for dinner.

Our gift to BB: a set of Cinderella finger puppets.

Bloom

Look what opened up this morning – after nearly three months' growth! And there should be a second bloom within another couple of days.

Ka-Bluey

For BB's birthday, AhPoh bought her a Betta fish, whom they named Bluey.

"Mile"

One afternoon, I overheard Z talking to herself, "Mile... Mile... Mile." When I rounded the corner, I found her fingering my camera, pointing it at some imaginary subject and saying, "[S]Mile."

Below are the few non-blurry selections, which are dated 24 November 1911, from G's camera.

Power-Phrase

Weaaring their new Christmas pajamas

I'm sure Z learned it from BB (in one form or another): "Jiaow Mama! Gie-Gie da woh." Or, "I'm telling Mom! Gie-Gie hit me." She uses it so often, and sometimes with a twinkle of mischief in her eye, it's almost become a joke. Even no one's around she'll yell, "Gong tsai (just now), Gie-Gie da woh!" I'll feign concern, and then we'll share a smile.

Baby

M loves Z's Christmas baby doll, I think smacking it in the face is supposed to get the baby doll to play with her. Look how they're practically the same size!

Santa

As it happens, the girls opened their big Santa gift on new year's eve.

Z got a Hispanic baby doll, which looks more like the girls than the corresponding Asian baby doll.

G's already quite the little photographer. The nice thing about this camera is the shutter response time when you push the button, something I could wish for my digi cam.

Drew let BB ride around the man cave on her new wheels, and had a ridiculous smile on her face the whole time.

M got those leg warmers I made and a third pair I whipped up the week before Christmas – and a new tooth.

Bottled

Erica and Jack – we visited with them in October – were in town for a new year's eve wedding and spent new year's day with us before heading back to Baton Rouge.

They helped us to bottle Drew's first batch of wine.

We're saving this bottle that Erica corked for the next time we meet.

Even my mom and G corked a bottle each.