Teen Creed

The baby is down for a nap and I decide to turn on the TV and watch something that wasn't animated, muppet and/or full of singing. Bonnie Hunt was on and telling about growing up and dealing with teen peer pressure. Apparently, her Mom prepared a little card that she gave the kids whenever they went out (and she made them memorize it):

Teen Creed

Don't let your parents down,They brought you up.
Be humble enough to obey, You may give orders someday.
Choose companions with care, You become what they are.
Guard your thoughts, What you think, you are.
Choose only a date Who would make a good mate.
Be master of your habits, Or they will master you.
Don't be a show off when you drive, Drive with safety and arrive.
Don't let the crowd pressure you, Stand for something-Or you'll fall for anything.

And to finish it off, would always tell them "Treat everyone with love and respect".

I think I'll have to print off some of these for the kids...
(Not that I think they are bad at any/all of these things, but it never hurts to have a reminder)

Delivering

For the past few weeks/months, I've been promising you some pictures. And I knew if I were patient, Jessica would give me a moment when she would acquiesce to having her picture taken.

So without further ado....

(trumpet fanfare)

These are Jessica's glasses. Kind of retro, but with a pattern on the front that reminds me a little of carbon fiber. Also, please note the new hair color and cut. Remember how I posted that she and Richard made up? Well... that lasted for all of 18 hours. She colored her hair black late last week and after the recent (and final) breakup, she went to the hair salon and got a new face-framing cut. (It was all one length before) I think it's much cuter in person than in this picture, but the single tone dye job doesn't reflect the light of the flash very well.

And while I had the camera out, I took some close-up pictures of the sun hat I made for Juliana. I tried to get a picture of her modeling it, but she would have none of it today. First off, the sun wasn't out. And second, she's just getting over a cold and is a bit short on patience.

Here's the front of the hat. It's been through 4 or 5 washings already, so the shape isn't quite as crisp as it was initially.


And here's the underside/lining. It was all neat and formed in the beginning, I promise... it was the washings and the fact that I didn't work on reshaping it right after the most recent wash. (Or any of the washings, for that matter. Shh! Don't tell! ...Oh wait...)


To finish this post on a completely random note...

As a testament to the strange weather we've been having lately... We thought we were done with the freezing temperatures from the holiday storms....

This picture was taken on February 9th on our deck.


She just loves being outdoors. It doesn't matter if it's hot, cold, wet, dark or icy... if she's outside, she's happy. She even ran out on the deck barefoot into the snow in December before we could stop her. She was squealing and laughing the whole time until we caught her and brought her back in. Crazy girl.

One Year Already?

So I was just thinking that I've been doing this blogging thing for a while now, but only now realized that it's been a year since my first post. (Ok... technically a year and a few days - having a cold and taking care of a baby that has a cold, too, can be a bit of a distraction) It doesn't seem like that long ago. But I'm still in denial that my baby is officially a toddler.

She's even reached a milestone this past week. We've started the early stages of potty-trainung, I'm sorry if this out-of-the-blue comment on bodily functions makes some of you a little squeamish. But I promise I will NOT post any pictures of this. Okay? Okay. For the past few weeks, she's been trying to squirm out of her diaper the instant they get a little wet, so I decided to bring out the trainer seat and before every diaper change, I'll sit her on the seat for a minute. And lo and behold! She actually used it. While I don't expect miracles of being done with diapers in the next few weeks, I'm hopeful that we just might be done with diapers before her 2nd birthday.

Some people prescribe to the "let them run around naked" philosophy to training, my conservative Asian upbringing hesitates at this.... and the fact that we have two cats (one elderly), I don't want to give them any ideas of relieving themselves anywhere. For now I'll just follow the cues she's giving me and we'll see how it goes.

In teen drama news, Jessica broke up with her boyfriend the day before Valentine's Day, felt ostracized by their mutual friends the following morning when news went out, had a heart-to-heart talk with him on Valentine's Day and made up with him that day... or evening.... I'm not exactly sure. We still haven't gotten the full details from her as to the reconciliation. But then again, I don't think we were given the full details as to why she broke it off with him. It's all kind of unfolding like those teen shows like Gossip Girl and Degrassi. For those of you with young girls... this is something for you to look forward to.

Now, I don't want you to think that this is something that Jessica did on a whim or took very lightly. From what she did tell us, she had some valid concerns and reasons for ending it, so I'm sure the reconciliation has some valid reasons behind it, too. It's not my place to share the reasons we do know... so don't ask me. It IS my place to document life in this household. And something that affects how much time she spends at home qualifies.

I think things like this are why my parents never let me date in High School (outside of school dances). But my parents must have been worn down by the time my sister was a senior in high school, though, since she got herself a boyfriend when I was off in college.

So.... back to the original topic. One year of blogging and I'm still at it. Who knew I had it in me to even make it this far... I should figure out some way to celebrate. Any suggestions?

1981 Time capsule

While I was down in San Diego, Pau-Pau and I came across these two pieces of paper in a pile of photos. Correspondence between my brother and I from a Christmas back in 1981:


I'd tell you how old we were, but then you could figure out our ages. :P
If you have kids you might be able to guess from the handwriting. I was still printing and he was already writing in cursive.

Oh... and the whole bit about him calling me "Iby". That was because our Grandma couldn't pronounce V's (no phonetic equivalent in the Chinese language), so it always came out "I-Be" whenever she would try to pronounce it. Normally, she would just call me by my chinese name.

Photo Catch-up

This past Christmas, we spent Christmas Eve at my sister's home (Sahm-Yi). We, in this case, is Derek, Juliana and I. Jessica was invited to have Christmas Eve dinner with her boyfriend's family. So, don't be spreading any rumors that she wasn't invited. She was. She just chose her boyfriend over us.... *sniff* Okay, okay... while we did miss her, we weren't in tears over this, and she promised to spend Christmas day with us.

Juliana showed off her mad gaming skills:


She loves the life-size penguin doll from her Kou-Fu (seen in the background):

(It's almost as tall as she is)

On Christmas morning, she got a sweater from Oma (German for Grandma = Derek's Mom), which she insisted on wearing as soon as it was unwrapped. She kept it on most of the morning.

I don't know who did the buttoning of the sweater, but someone needs practice lining them up.

Sahm-Yi gave her another blinged out ornament (sorry... no picture). Last year it was a "Blingle Bell" and this year, it was a snowflake set with crystals.

Uncle Wes gave her these really neat rolling turtles. It's a ball (shell) set upon the body (and rests in contact with the feet), so that when you slide your hand across the tops of the "shell", the turtle rolls across the table.

The blue dress you see draped over the back of the sofa in the background was the dress I made for her. I also made a sun hat for her, which you'll see in a later photo.

Jessica got a dvd player from her friends, Mamma Mia! on DVD, a handful of gift cards for music/books and two purses, which she alternates using every day. And, in typical Jessica form, she wouldn't let me take any pictures of her. She even yelled and shrieked if the camera was pointed anywhere in her direction.

For Chinese New Year, PauPau flew Juliana and myself down to San Diego. Unfortunately, Derek's work schedule and Jessica's week of finals prevented them from joining us.

While we were down there, Juliana met up with her cousin Jaden. He is 9 months older than her, and yet she promptly tackled him while trying to give him a hug. For the rest of the trip, Jaden tried to keep his distance from her, and broke into tears a few times. The only time he would interact with her was to give her hugs goodbye. According to his mom, he's the same way at preschool where the girls just want to hug him there, too.



A tearful Jaden being held by his grandpa (my uncle):


While we were down there, Juliana had fun playing the piano.



And discovered Pau-Pau's shoes.

I love how she's looking down the line of the shoe. I told her that she really needs to play with her Sahm-Yi's shoe collection... (ha ha ha ha) If you knew my sister, you would understand how funny that would be... unless you were my sister.

We also got together with the Nelsons and took a trip to Legoland.



And what is a Lego theme park without Lego people and Lego food

There was also an area called MiniLand where they built small-scale buildings from around the world. There was the Eiffel Tower, the Las Vegas strip, Rural America, etc. In the Washington, D.C. exhibit, they had the inauguration set up on the Capitol Building steps. There was even a motorcade set up outside of this photo frame.
Zooming in you can see Michelle Obama holding the bible for her husband as he takes the Oath of Office.
They even had Aretha Franklin set up off to the side, complete with the infamous hat.
Juliana also had her first trips to the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park:
See the hat? That's the one I made her for Christmas.

At the Zoo, it was feeding time for a lot of the animals.

I think this Panda was having his afternoon siesta.
At the Wild Animal Park, we took the tram tour and saw lions....

Rhinos... (including this two month old baby with his Momma)
Giraffes....
Gazelles... (Antelope? I can never keep these straight)
Buffalo....
And the wildest animal of all:

SPONGEBOB!