kissing

I taught Terran how to kiss today. I would kiss him, then put my cheek to his lips and asked him to kiss me. Repeating this over and over again, he finally got the point and started kissing back. He kisses by blowing bubbles from his mouth, so we end up with his saliva running down our cheeks. But it's so cute that we would ask him to do it over and over again!
I am starting to see that he is capable of observing and learning now. It's amazing that babies are able to comprehend so much just 5 months since birth. One of his toys has plastic pages, like a book. He didn't know what to do with it but I showed him how to flip these pages. He quickly learned and now I see him flipping with ease.
When we go out, I am starting to notice that he is very interested in little kids. He made eye contact with a little boy sitting with his mom on the table and he started jumping up and down on my lap with his arms flying everywhere. In another restaurant, a little girl came up to us and started playing and hugging Terran. He was so interested. I am starting to think that he might enjoy spending some time away from me and with other kids. Maybe it is not too early to ease into daycare. Maybe a few hours a week....

crafting

There's been much talk about crafting these days. Martha Stewart, one of my favorite entrepreneurs, is the queen on all crafts. I loved to make things when I was younger. In middle school, I took dress making classes, where I was able to choose fabric and make my own clothes. In an art class, I recreated a mundane pair of pumps into an art piece shoes with wings and jewels. I also continued making clothes, just for fun. After graduating from college, I spend weeks, making my portfolio, organizing images, figuring out a good layout, and tediously binding them.
Recently, I haven't done any sort of crafting and starting to miss it. I like to make things that eventually get used. This probably ties into my excitment in being part of architecture. The final product will be used, abused, and hopefully loved by the occupants. The tedious and meticulous process of working on construction documents is satisfying. It's the mother of all crafts.
If I decide not to go back to work, I need an outlet for crafting. I should consider this and come up with ideas....

a warm day

I never understood when my friend living in Chicago, or when my sister living in New York, tells me "It was a warm day in the 40s". It only gets that cold in LA maybe once or twice a year. That would call for pulling out my warmest sweaters, putting on some thick socks, drinking warm coffee, and eating nice chocolate, curled up on my couch with a blanket and a book.
A couple of days ago, for the first time, I understood the mean a warm day in the 40s. On the previous night, the rain came down and melted most of the snow. In the morning, I woke up to see that the grass was still green underneath all that whiteness! Although the lake remained frozen, the ducks came out to hang out on the ice. The sun was out and when couragously stepped out of the door, it was nice and crisp and quit warm. This is in comparison to the 20s and the teens the temperature has been since we arrived.
I immediately bundled up my little Terran, put him in his carrier, and went for a nice stroll. We both needed that exposure to fresh air. We have both been craving it. The sun was bright and warm, outdoor air was the best in days, and we just had a nice warm day.

house hunting

We began and (hopefully) completed our house hunting in 3 days. We looked at several properties in Robbinsville, NJ on the first day. We were optimistic because the prices were so much lower than those of LA. Robbinsville is a newly developed town where most of the homes were built in the last 10 years. We chose our favorite house for the day; it was 6 years young, 3 bed, 2.5 bath, beautiful townhouse with hardwood floor, granite, kitchen countertop,view of woods in the back, nicely finished basement and more for only $350,000. The only comment that Patrick had at the end of the day was "you do realize that it's a house farm?" Yes.... It's a typical image of suburbia. Nothing but thousands of homes that look identical. But the interior was so beautiful and it felt good.

Next day, we looked in Lawrenceville. It seems that the town is split into two distict areas. One is newly developed area with new condos, big malls, big grocery stores, etc. The other part has a historic feel with farms, cows, small fire station, a small bakery, and a quaint main street. The town is located less than 10 minutes from Princeton, and less than 5 minutes from Patrick's work. The place we saw was in the quaint area of town. It's also a townhouse, 23 years old, 3 bed, 2.5 bath, hardwood floor, fireplace, small patio in the back facing the woods for just under $300,000. It felt cozy and we both knew that this was it. Patrick is optimistic about running to work, and I am happy that big malls and stores are minutes away while we live in a quiet, country like setting. Princeton is also a beautiful town and it reminded us of Berkeley with books and coffee.

We looked a bit more on the 3rd day but we decided to go for the Lawrenceville townhouse. Does it seem rushed? Maybe. But we loved the area, we loved the townhouse, and the price was unbelievable. The contract is signed and we are waiting for it to go through 3 day attorney review before it is finalized that the place is ours! I think it's a perfect starter home, and can't wait to start furnishing it.... given we have some money left for that.... probably not....

Two Thousand Five

I can only think of very few other years that were as intense and life-altering, as this one. One of them is definitely 1987 when I first came to the US. That was the first time for me to gain independence by living away from my family. But more importantly, that's when I learned how to read, write, speak, and even start thinking in a new language; English. This opened up a new world for me. I gain the opportunity to meet and converse with wider range of people, I was introduced to new culture, and through it all, I was able to develop my own mind and identity that I have today. Without that year, 1987, and all the opportunties that became available to me, I would be far different from the person I am today.

This year, 2005, was definitely another one of those year. On January 3, 2005, I found out that I was 10 weeks pregnant. This was just 2 weeks after I started a new job, and one day after Patrick and I came back from a holiday with my family in Japan (pregnancy was originally planned for 2008). On July 9, 3 weeks earlier than expected, Terran was born. I am proud to say that I worked and partied til the night before he decided to come into our world. The following week, Patrick was invited for a job interview in Princeton, New Jersey. Since he still had some time before his graduation, he considered this interview as a trial run for more interviews to follow (Patrick's graduation was originally planned for June 2006). However, 3 weeks later, he accepted their offer and decided that it would be a good push for him to complete his dissertation. He worked very hard for the following 4 months. On November 14, he presented his oral defense in front of his committee members and peers and successfully completed his long academic career with a PhD in Biomedical Physics. The three of us left Los Angeles on December 8 and relocated to Lawrenceville, New Jersey. To add to this long list of major events, on December 12, we put in an offer to buy a townhouse in Lawrenceville. We are about to become first time home owners.

If I had put any thought into what was to happen in 2005, I would have been frightened with the amount of stuff that needed to be done. But luckily, there was no time to think about anything. We just tackled each task, and it feels like everything turned out alright.

I think 2006 will be a quiet year where we get to enjoy all the newness around us. New place, new people, new house, new job, and the new member in our family.

How a place welcomes me

I remember my first day in Los Angeles; I was stuck on the 10, sitting in traffic and shivering with impatience. That’s a classic Los Angeles afternoon that I got so accustomed to over the years.

Now, I just experienced my first day in New Jersey. I got out of bed at 5am and saw snow, coming down hard. In the morning, I realized that our temporary apartment is situated in front of a frozen lake. From the apartment heated nicely at 70 degrees, I looked outside and wonder if I’m every going to step out…. All I saw were other buildings with white roof, cars buried in white snow, continuing snow, and the big frozen lake. We don’t have any food because we haven’t gone shopping yet. Our white rental car is somewhere in the snow and we don’t have a shovel. Neither of us know how to drive in this kind of condition. I am so hungry but we are totally stuck.

We haven’t been set up with a proper internet connection yet but we tap into an available signal of some unknown neighbor. I console myself by googling “how to remove car from snow”.

I crawled back into bed and dreamt about our old place in Los Angeles. Terran and I spent so much time outside in the playground, surrounded by palm trees, and embraced by sunlight. When I needed to pick up some groceries, we would walk to Vons, just 5 minutes away. How am I going to take Terran outside in this kind of weather? The whole place seems lonely, with very few cars, and very few people. I think I will just stay inside and look out the windows….

to work or not to work

There's a big dilemma about whether I should go back to work or not. Patrick doesn't seem to really mind either way so I am just trying to figure this out on my own. Previously being pretty career minded, I predicted that I would be anxious to get back to work after 3 months of baby talk. I thought that I would just find any daycare, good or not, since Terran wouldn't understand a thing anyway. I wanted to work full time, and be a part-time mom. Now it's going on 5 months and I'm sure I can't leave Terran by himself in strangers' arms.
But looking back, I spent so much time in developing myself for my career. I used to like what I did, and usually had pride in my work. There is also some negativity towards stay-at-home moms in this highly capitalistic country. Am I going to allow myself to become the image of domesticity rather than that of modernity? And most importantly, what would be the best for Terran? Will my choice impact his development????