Tomorrow is our big traveling day. Terran, Sierra, and I are going to Japan with my mom. Almost 14 hours of direct flight from Newark to Narita. I am planning on a shopping spree in Japan so one carry-on size suit case and a duffle bag should accommodate the three of us. I did this before with Terran and that was hard so I am expecting a very very long day. Some things we need to pack:
a couple of days worth of diapers and pull-ups and wipes
vitamins for Sisi
vitamins for Terran
vitamins, calcium, and fenugreek for me
tylenol (since I don't know what other drugs I can give them if they get sick)
aquaphor
butt cream
infant tooth paste
day cream, night cream, spf moisturizer and make-up for me (in japan, I need to look immaculate to step out the door at all times)
books for terran
magazines for my friend
clothes of course
infant cereal and couple of cans of soy formula for Sis
Snacks for Terran on the plane
Food for Sis on the plane
OK, maybe I need a bigger bag....
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
zui hao de shi guang
We watched a film by a Taiwanese director, Hou Hsiao Hsien, last week which, despite earlier skepticism, I really enjoyed and thought often about afterwards. The title in English is "Three Times" but the Chinese translates more as "Best of Time". The title was simple enough that even I could read it. Yay!
So when my parents came for a visit a couple of days ago, I asked my dad (a Taiwanese) if he knew of the director (he did), and recommended it for him to watch it. It's a series of three love stories taken place in 1966, 1911, and 2005. The theme of each era is different and the relationships varies according to that era. 1966 shows an innocent youthful love, 1911, an unfulfilled love between a courtesan and her client, and 2005 a seemingly passionate yet somewhat lonely and empty love. As I watched my dad watch this film, I saw a huge grin on his face. So I said do you like it, and he said I can almost feel that time, 1966, when I was in high school. We were like that, he said, referring to the main male character in the movie. Quiet, reserved, cool - then he laughs, hahaha!
I've been to Taiwan numerous times but never quite saw the countryside the beautiful, serene, and romantic way depicted in the movie. To me, it was just hot, sticky, and boring. But to my dad, it seems to have brought back the feelings of his youth. He's 60 now, and a successful executive of a company. Despite his age, accomplishments, and a very business oriented mind, he still has that young boyish laugh, youthful silliness, and energetic attitude towards life. With those characteristics of him combined with a photo that I remember I saw of him from his teen days in Taiwan, I can almost picture him as a young man in that pool hall setting.
Just like my dad's youth was around 1966 and he could "almost feel it", I related closely to the 2005 story. How so many relationships were formed by whim. How body came before heart. How loneliness loomed regardless. I could "almost feel" that one.
Patrick saw the film in a completely different way. The main male and female characters in each story is played by the same actors. So the couple in 1966 is played by the same character as the couple in 1911 and 2005. He saw the film as a series of reincarnations which gives a whole different meaning to the film.
The pace is definitely slow. At the beginning, I thought I wouldn't be able to sit through it. But it turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
Visit website
Monday, May 12, 2008
Growing Up
It seems like my kids suddenly grew up a little bit in the last 2 weeks. Sierra grew 3 teeth. She started eating cheerios and bread and fresh fruit. Now that she knows the texture and flavor of real food, she seems reluctant to eat baby food. She is physically more active. She hold her arms out to be picked up. She grabs my hand and puts it on her waist to be picked up. When she sits, she scoots a bit from here to there by moving her butt and pushing with her arms. She loves to eat so she's getting quite fat!
Terran suddenly started peeing in the toilet today. I told him to tell me if he needs to pee. So I put him in his underwear and all day today, he told me when he needed to pee. No accidents at all today. I've never had success even remotely close to what happened today. Amazing! Hoping for the same result tomorrow!!!
Terran suddenly started peeing in the toilet today. I told him to tell me if he needs to pee. So I put him in his underwear and all day today, he told me when he needed to pee. No accidents at all today. I've never had success even remotely close to what happened today. Amazing! Hoping for the same result tomorrow!!!
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Hooters
I knew that Patrick went there for lunch with his buddies every once in awhile but I've never been. As I was complaining about my allergies and my stuffy nose, Pat suggested the we go to Hooters. He said that it will take care of my problems.... So after we cleaned up the mess from the day, and put the kids to bed, we sneaked off first to get decongestant and half a dozen boxes of tissue paper then to Hooters.
Pat ordered Corona from a pretty lady with nice rack, and I got water to take the decongestant. We sat down with a plate full of spicy wings. And oh was he right! After a couple of bites, my nose was clearing. And as long as I kept eating, I felt so great! This little outing would not have been a great big deal 3 years ago but with 2 kids now, we hardly ever get to do this. Patrick's parents are here for the week and we've been able to go out at night without little ones climbing over us.
Terran while playing with a patch of dirt outside the house. He loves this little corner and gets dirty here everyday. He's grown so much. About 6 months ago, he used alot of baby words, or made up his own words if he could not say the word properly. For example, a garbage truck was "ish-yaya", a blanket was "gingis", and pizza was "didda". These words were so cute that we didn't bother correcting them. But now, quickly, he is pronouncing each word carefully as they really should be said. So when I say "Terran, I thought that was called didda." He gets mad and says "No mama! It's PI-ZZA!"
We have enough outdoor toys to occupy our whole little back yard. We inherited them from Matthew, a friend who moved away, and also from our next door neighbor. Sierra has been loving this little bike that she likes to swing back and forth. Cutest little biker babe.
Terran figured out how to climb on top of the little red car. Sierra is always bewildered by Terran's actions.
Pat ordered Corona from a pretty lady with nice rack, and I got water to take the decongestant. We sat down with a plate full of spicy wings. And oh was he right! After a couple of bites, my nose was clearing. And as long as I kept eating, I felt so great! This little outing would not have been a great big deal 3 years ago but with 2 kids now, we hardly ever get to do this. Patrick's parents are here for the week and we've been able to go out at night without little ones climbing over us.
Terran while playing with a patch of dirt outside the house. He loves this little corner and gets dirty here everyday. He's grown so much. About 6 months ago, he used alot of baby words, or made up his own words if he could not say the word properly. For example, a garbage truck was "ish-yaya", a blanket was "gingis", and pizza was "didda". These words were so cute that we didn't bother correcting them. But now, quickly, he is pronouncing each word carefully as they really should be said. So when I say "Terran, I thought that was called didda." He gets mad and says "No mama! It's PI-ZZA!"
We have enough outdoor toys to occupy our whole little back yard. We inherited them from Matthew, a friend who moved away, and also from our next door neighbor. Sierra has been loving this little bike that she likes to swing back and forth. Cutest little biker babe.
Terran figured out how to climb on top of the little red car. Sierra is always bewildered by Terran's actions.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Hectic day
It's Friday already and Patrick's parents are coming tonight! Since Monday, I promised myself to clean the house and get everything ready but I hadn't done a thing until today. I do have good reasons though. I had terrible allergies this week. I got it a bit last year around this time but this year it's bad. My eyes were blood shot red and my nose is either runny or stuffy. I look and feel groggy. I got some meds and it seemed to have helped a bit but I don't feel normal. I was also stuck absorbed in a series of books this week. I read a review in TIME magazine about Stephanie Meyer and her book, Twilight and its series. It's a Young Adult Fiction. The writing wasn't impressive, the details aren't there, and the romance, although some parts were interesting, was generally yucky. But I couldn't put it down and the 3 books which occupied my time while everything else, including my husband and kids went ignored.... I am glad that I am done with that for now.
To my surprise this week, I finally got a hold of the CD version of Barack Obama's "Audacity of Hope" from the library. I read the book a few months before, when he was introduced on Oprah - yeah, I read some of the books she introduces.... The book was a little too difficult for me to follow at times. Unlike his first book - Dreams from My Father - this one focused more on Washington, politics, media, campaign, elections, government. But when I heard that the audio version won a Grammy, I had to see what that was about. I've never heard a book on CD so I was just curious. I still don't understand what makes an award winning audio book. But I decided that I do like listening to the author read his own book. Barack Obama has become a great companion in the kitchen while I feed Sierra or cook dinner. He's also good to be with while I drive to the grocery store or run errands. But best of all, he really brought Washington to life, making government interesting, humorous, and personal. The message in his book is basically what he is bringing to his campaign trail now and it's good to see that consistency.
Despite my seemingly enthusiastic support for Obama, I am actually a flip flopper. At times, I tell Patrick not to vote in the general election if Hillary Clinton were to win the Democratic Nomination. He tells me that's impossible; that he's a democrat and will vote for a democrat this time no matter who the nominee (whatever...). But then at times, I see her on TV and think that she would make a great president. She may be a bit nasty now, but she is campaigning. At the end of the day, if she were to get the job, I think she will, or at least try very hard to do what she said she will do. I use to wonder why voters couldn't make decisions. Now I understand. And I am not even an American.
I use to think that I would probably never become a citizen of this country. I didn't see the point and to change one's citizenship is a pretty big deal. Not that I am at all patriotic to my own country. In fact, probably quite the opposite. I don't know much about the values of my country, and I probably don't quite fit in nicely to society there. But it's a citizenship that I was born with - wait a minute, on a second though, I was born Chinese, and Japanese is my second citizenship. Anyway, I think that now, there is possibility of switching over. I am more closely tied to this country and the people here than anywhere. Japan is a country of my childhood. I think America may be the country of the rest of my life.
Back to cleaning!
To my surprise this week, I finally got a hold of the CD version of Barack Obama's "Audacity of Hope" from the library. I read the book a few months before, when he was introduced on Oprah - yeah, I read some of the books she introduces.... The book was a little too difficult for me to follow at times. Unlike his first book - Dreams from My Father - this one focused more on Washington, politics, media, campaign, elections, government. But when I heard that the audio version won a Grammy, I had to see what that was about. I've never heard a book on CD so I was just curious. I still don't understand what makes an award winning audio book. But I decided that I do like listening to the author read his own book. Barack Obama has become a great companion in the kitchen while I feed Sierra or cook dinner. He's also good to be with while I drive to the grocery store or run errands. But best of all, he really brought Washington to life, making government interesting, humorous, and personal. The message in his book is basically what he is bringing to his campaign trail now and it's good to see that consistency.
Despite my seemingly enthusiastic support for Obama, I am actually a flip flopper. At times, I tell Patrick not to vote in the general election if Hillary Clinton were to win the Democratic Nomination. He tells me that's impossible; that he's a democrat and will vote for a democrat this time no matter who the nominee (whatever...). But then at times, I see her on TV and think that she would make a great president. She may be a bit nasty now, but she is campaigning. At the end of the day, if she were to get the job, I think she will, or at least try very hard to do what she said she will do. I use to wonder why voters couldn't make decisions. Now I understand. And I am not even an American.
I use to think that I would probably never become a citizen of this country. I didn't see the point and to change one's citizenship is a pretty big deal. Not that I am at all patriotic to my own country. In fact, probably quite the opposite. I don't know much about the values of my country, and I probably don't quite fit in nicely to society there. But it's a citizenship that I was born with - wait a minute, on a second though, I was born Chinese, and Japanese is my second citizenship. Anyway, I think that now, there is possibility of switching over. I am more closely tied to this country and the people here than anywhere. Japan is a country of my childhood. I think America may be the country of the rest of my life.
Back to cleaning!
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