kids photos in june!

We've been having a great spring and beginning of summer. It's been hot hot hot these past few days and I'm really enjoying being home with the crazy kids this year. So much work, so much yelling, but so much fun! These are our most recent photos!


Aidan: He will be 6 months old in a week. He's such a happy baby and totally attached to his mama! He smiles a lot and now that he can roll over, he likes being on his tummy for awhile. Then he starts to cry. But here's the happy guy!

See his smile? It's easy to get a smile out of him. He'll smile for anyone. He's just so fun!

Another smile from Aidan - just for mama!

Yet another smile for the camera!

Sisi and Terran go to school only twice a week now so they are at home a lot. And sometimes, when I get organized, we do some painting. I recycled the wrapping paper from some package I received and they went to town on it - first with paint brushes, then with hands.

Here's my Si! She recently got her first salon haircut. I didn't like it much at first but it's better now. She loves this pink dress that she's wearing. We were picking up some diapers at Walmart when she saw this and had to have it. She now wears it, almost everyday.

They have a lot of toys but their favorite by far are big cardboard boxes. They pretend it's a house or a train or a cave or whatever and spend a lot of time hiding and going in and out of them. So when the UPS guy comes to drop off any package for us, they can't wait to empty the boxes and crawl in.

Terran recently "graduated" from preschool and this is from his celebration ceremony. He'll be going to kindergarten in September. Time flies. My baby in Kindergarten. Yay for public education!

Self portrait: Terran loves his camera. He takes a lot of interesting photos. This is the best self portrait I've seen him do.

We were suppose to join a picnic at the park with our friends but Aidan was still sleeping in his room and we totally missed it. So we set up a little picnic in our back yard. They were so happy and they loved it.

I made banana chocolate cream pie because I was craving it. It's really easy. Buy a pre-made pie crust and fill with 1 sliced banana and chocolate pudding in a box. Refrigerate and smother with whipped cream. Sisi loves whipped cream.

And here's my Terran. He also loves whipped cream.

Early in the morning - sometimes, kids get up with Pat and he feeds them while I stay in bed a little longer....

June updates

So far, we've had 3weeks of CSA. We get tons of lettuce! I usually don't eat much lettuce but now I eat it twice a day. Ranch is the best dressing EVER! Buy it in the packet and mix with a cup of mayo and a cup of milk. Soooo good soooo many calories!

I am still at home with the kids. They are fun when they are in a good mood and not grumpy and whiny. They can be a pain in the ass when they are unhappy. They can go from really happy to streams of tears in about 2 seconds. Everyday, I try to keep my sanity.

I made some more yummy stuff over the past month: ham & cheese quiche (so quick and so good), chocolate cream pie (so quick to make, so quick to eat), and killer shrimp from THE killer shrimp.

We've been in NJ for 4.5 years. Even though my days are full and exhausting, I feel like we are on an extended vacation. It's peaceful and beautiful here. I always get to play with my kids and listen to their interesting stories and question. We have great neighbors. I've gotten to know a lot of really nice people. There are fireflies. There are deers. And it's just so different from the life we had in California - the one that I call real life. It's less stress. It's all new. We're remote. We're away from reality - whatever that is.

CSA at Honey Brook Organic Farm

One nice advantage of living here. is the proximity to local produce. We are surrounded by fields where you can pick your own veggies and fruits. This year, we joined the Community Supported Agriculture at Honey Brook Organic Farm in Pennington, NJ - a town about 10 minutes from Lawrenceville where we live.

This week, we got our first batch of produce and here's what we got!
Chard, mint, oregano, bak choi, lettuce, arugula, spinach, strawberries, radishes.



We went to the farm and picked our own strawberries and snap peas. Sisi picked the berries and ate them right there. They were full of flavor - delicious!



Here's what I planned to do with them:

chard: stir fry with onion and garlic

mint: virgin mojito (I need to nurse my baby so we'll have to skip the rum for now)

oregano: freeze and use later

bak choi: we only got one bok choi! I'll put it in soup.

lettuce: lots of salad; cook chinese style with sesame oil and shiitake - my mom use to do something similar but cooked with dried shrimp. I don't like dried shrimp - what's the point of eating dried shrimp.

arugula: salad with arugula and pears

radishes: I don't usually eat this but Barefoot Contessa on food network said to simply eat them dipped in salt. It's quite good this way.

spinach: my kids LOVE spinach simply blanched and eaten with drizzle of soy sauce

strawberries: Sisi and Terran ate most of them....

snap peas: stir fried with onion and garlic

So when I got all this produce, I was excited, thinking that surely I'd loose lots of weight increasing vegetable consumption. After a night of eating lots of salad along with some pasta, I am starting to think it's not so easy. The next day, I craved junk food and sweets so I went to the market and bought brownies, chips, chocolate chex mix, m&ms, cheese and a few other treats.... Gotta make up for it somehow....

Fatty

Spring is here and my clothes don't fit. I'm still about +20lbs my usual weight and nothing fits. So I went to look for shirts that doesn't show off the tire around my waist and I can pull up easily to nurse my baby.
It was actually kind of hard to find but now I know the shirts that's a little longish and loose at the waistline looks pretty decent and covers my tummy well.

It all started from a conversation that I had with Terran over lunch. He was trying to define us all through shapes. Daddy is long and straight. Terran is also straight. Sisi is small. Aidan is round. And Mama is fat. Wait. What? Fat is not a shape. Then he said, I mean you are curvy. I am? Why do you think I'm fat? Then he grabbed my midsection and said, "see".
"@#*!"
Then he said quietly: "But that OK. I still love you. And I also have a present to make you feel better."
How does he come up with this stuff....

Embarrasing mistake

So I just blogged about being Chinese and how people think all Asians are Chinese. When I say people, I have to admit that includes myself....

A couple of days ago, I was at the "big boy" park with my 3 kids - that's our name for the part of Village Park play area with big slides and big play things, as oppose to the "baby" park with tiny slides. Anyway, at the park I saw a "Chinese" mom and her son. I typically start chatting up with moms at the park and as usual I started talking to this "Chinese" mom about this and that. I also noticed that she was talking to her son in Cantonese - and that's how I knew they were "Chinese".

OK, let me tell you - I know a lot about Cantonese. My husband is Cantonese. My in-laws are Cantonese. I even lived in a Cantonese speaking so-called country, Hong Kong, for 2 years. And I can even speak a few useful words of Cantonese. I'm practically a pro!

So after a while of chatting, I said to the mom:
"You must be Cantonese! I lived in Hong Kong for awhile and my husband is Cantonese!!!"

And to this she replied:
"No, we're Thai."

Ummmm.... Opppps.... Sorry. Who knew that Thai sounded exactly like Cantonese.

Being Chinese

In this country, most of my friends don't consider me as Chinese because I am from Japan. And my first name is Japanese. And my parents live in Japan. And I speak Japanese. But in Japan, growing up, I was probably more defined as Chinese because I have a Chinese last name. And my dad is Chinese.

Last night, I was talking to my Japanese mom, who is now a licensed nursery school teacher/ caregiver in Japan. She's never had a job when we were growing up so even though she only works part time, this is the first job that she's had in a long long time. Anyway, she works at a nursery school in Yokohama Chinatown. In this tiny block of crowded Chinatown is a preK-12 Taiwanese School. For preschool, however, the language and curriculum is primarily in Japanese, with hints of Chinese here and there. Most of the teachers are Japanese. Most of the students are Japanese with some Chinese, Americans, and Europeans here and there.

According to my mom, most teachers in the school don't really like the Chinese kids. Mostly because the kids' moms, the Chinese moms, don't understand Japanese and can't really communicate with the teachers, and because they are different. My mom sees this and complains about it on the phone to me often. So she picks up what's missing, and gives love to the Chinese kids as much as she could. I thought the whole thing was totally messed up. Come on, they are just kids - treat them equally.

Then I started thinking that maybe she sees her own 3 Chinese daughters in these kids that she cares for. My mom told me that she was strict about education and appearance when we were growing up because she didn't want other Japanese to look at us and think negatively of the Chinese in general. Japanese do tend to discriminate and I even felt some of this as a kid (like when my first grade teacher made fun of my last name; and that time when I was spending a night at my friend's place and scooped an over generous bowl of rice for dinner to everyone - my friend's mom commented that her family is not Chinese, and Japanese only serve a small amounts of rice per bowl; no big deal, I know, but I was hurt and it still makes me a little tear thinking about this....)

Now, with 3 kids and one of the few Asian families around, I feel the sight lines from strangers around us. We're a bit like a circus when we go out - just because of our color and our number. And now I'm starting to think like my mom. I do have to really pay attention to my kids - they do need to do well in school and they do need to look clean - as do I. I feel a bit responsible too keep up the reputation for the rest of the Chinese population - which, in this area includes all Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Philippinos, Malaysians, and Indians. What heavy burden on my shoulders. I better go loose some lbs, brush my teeth, and go shopping.

My goal this year: Healthify and localize my family

One of the first things that I say to Pat when he gets home from work these days is: "I saw on Oprah today about..." So I watch a lot day time TV now. haha!
So, I saw on Oprah the other day about Food Inc., the documentary that came out in 2009. We finally saw it streaming on Netflix last night and I was unable to sleep after that. It's about the food industry and how the animals are raised and treated to give us meat. It also talks about what's actually in our food, and also about seeds. I've read some about these topics before: Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. But books are books; whatever images come out from them are what I make up based on words - and the images that I come up with are kinda vague at best. But this documentary had a lot of very sad and graphic images that was too real. It made me feel really disgusted about the food that we eat, mainly meats and vegetables. So last night, I decided to make a few change:

1. Starting this year, my family is going to be part of the Community Supported Agriculture at a nearby Honey Brook Organic Farm. It's quite simple. We just pay the farmer a determined amount and every week for 20 weeks of the growing season here in NJ, we get a supply of fresh organic fruits and vegetables from the farm. This farm is 7 miles from where we live so instead of driving to the market, we would just drive to the farm to pick up the box of veggies and at the same time, pick some additional items straight from the land. How wonderful, amazing, and local. It comes out to be about $25 a week which is probably about what I would spend for produce in a given week.

2. Farmers' Market is starting again in Lawrenceville in May. We can walk to the farmer's market from our house. There, they have fresh locally raised chicken from a farm just outside of Princeton - Griggstown Quail Farm. I can get our weekly supply of chicken there. From what I remember, a whole chicken there is about $15, which is way more than what I usually pay. I've gotten a whole chicken for about $4 at the grocery store. But maybe that's the price of a real chicken raised outside on grass and bugs.

3. There's another farm about 2 miles from our house - Cherry Grove Farm (on the way to Pat's work), where they sell beef and pork raised on that farm. We often see cows hanging out near the fence, chilling or eating grass. I guess those happy cows become the beef that they sell. I've actually never been on that farm but I think I will go soon. They also have farm eggs and they also make their own cheese. Yum.

4. We will continue to buy our apples and apple cider and other fruits from Terhune Orchard, just 5 minutes away.

5. We will continue to buy our milk from the Halo Farm, a micro-dairy in Lawrenceville. Their milk is only $1.19 a 1/2 gallon. It's local without antibiotics and hormones. They also make amazing ice cream with lots of flavors for less than $2 a pint. And really really good.

So even though we miss living in California cities, these are the advantages of living in Central NJ. We are surrounded by farms and if we try, we could eat very locally for half of the year. I will keep posting my progress.

I am very optimistic about this!
But I will not give up packaged junk food and sweets that I love so much.
And I will not give up Trader Joe's that just opened in Princeton!!!
I tried to go whole wheat on Pasta but that didn't go so well.
I tried to go brown rice but that didn't go so well at all.

I like staying at home

It's been a few weeks since my mom left to go back to Japan. Now, 3 days out of the week, I am at home with 3 kids. And this is going to go on for awhile since I decided not to go back to work. At first, I was a bit afraid of what this is going to be. Me vs. the 3 kids. At times, there's chaos. And at times, I break down. There are lots of yelling involved. But at times, it could be very satisfying and pleasant.

My kids have all these ideas of what they want to do. Spring is coming and Terran wanted to grow things. So I looked up online the simple things we could start growing that day. We decided to sprout the left over black beans by soaking them over night then putting some into a plastic bag with wet towel until we saw some sprouts. Then, we transferred them into our little pots and the kids are now watering and waiting. We are also watching carrots and celery grow their green tops. What fun!

The other day, Terran decided that he's going to draw lots of people. He can now draw a representation of a person and it actually looks like a person. He did a drawing of me which made me cry and smile.

Since we are at home so much more than before, the house is a just a mess. But this also means that I am having so much more time with them and it's just fun, satisfying, and entertaining to watch and listen to them learn, grow, and do their weird things. It could be difficult, but I didn't think I'd love it this much.


At home with Sisi. She likes to push around her little stroller for her dolls. And she likes to wear her backpack with misc stuff in it.

Terran decided to collect branches and make a shelter for a worm that he found.

Aidan and Pat hanging out. Aidan is becoming a chubby little guy.

This is what Terran drew for me the other day. It's a drawing of me when I was pregnant with Aidan.

Oh Potty Potty

Potty training toddlers have been a pretty big part of my life. Just like eating has been a pretty big part of my life.

My wonderful first born sort of figured it out at 18 months. We'd put him on the toilet and he'd release himself. We thought he was really smart. But that's only a tiny part of the whole saga. He only partially figured it out then and it took another 2 years for him to COMPLETELY figure it out. We didn't think he was all that potty smart by then. And let's just say that at 4 yo, he wakes up in the morning with occasional accidents, and if he gets too excited or too busy... he forgets.

The second born on the other hand was clueless about peeing in a designated spot at 18 months. She was clueless at 20 months or 24 months. She was clueless last week. But suddenly, 3 days ago, it hit her and she got it. So since Monday, she has been going in her potty 100%, when, on Sunday, it was just a place for her to sit with her pants down.

Some things that may have helped her:

1. I bought her some training pants with her favorite character, Dora. I tell her that Dora doesn't like to be wet.

2. I give her a temporary tattoo of Dora every time she goes in the potty. I bought the tattoos on ebay and they're really good. The ones from Monday are still on her arm prefectly. So now, she's covered in tattoo.

3. She didn't seem to understand the word "pee". So I told her to go make some water in her potty. And she understood that.

I am hoping that she is done with her diapering phase. With the third born in diapers, I don't want to be paying for 2 sets of them.

sleepy mommy sleepy baby

I discovered that if I refrain from eating chocolate and drinking coffee after 3pm, Aidan sleeps so much better at night. Babies don't like caffine....

Now, this is really hard for me. I take my coffee black in the morning, but at night, when the house is quiet, I crave hot creamy sweet coffee. While I make this yummy drink, I go through the kitchen cabinets in search of a side kick. And of course, I see the box of chocolate covered pretzels that Pat and the kids got for me for valentines. This pair is divine and now, I have to resist all this. The comforts of chocolate and coffee at the end of the day.... But then, when I think about the dark hours of night, dealing with cranky bright eyed baby, wiggling and crying, it's not so hard. I kill my sweet craving by drinking apple cider and eating yogurt. And then, I drink decaf green tea that I just got from the store. (Don't every buy lipton's decaf green tea; although it's suppose to be green tea, it tastes so much like the regular distinct flavor of lipton tea.... strange....)

So now, Aidan sleeps about 3 to 3.5 hours before waking up for a quick meal. Then he goes right back to sleep for another 3 hour or so. Then, I nurse him again, but this time, I just bring him back to bed with me and Pat and we all snore until the day begins again. It's such a sweet time.

Milk tea pudding recipe

Yum!



My mom brought us a dessert cookbook from Japan. My fridge was devoid of all sweets when I got home from the hospital after giving birth. So my sister, Reyko got to work making milk tea pudding.

1 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
2.5 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp tea
1/2 tbsp water
1 tbsp (package) gelatin

Heat milk and cream. Turn off heat before boiling. Add loose black tea leavesand steep for 5 minutes.
I had just run out of tea and as I was digging in my cabinet, found a can of Orange Pekoe (who knows how old that was) so I used that.
Add sugar and add gelatin dissolved in water. Stir.
Prepare ice water and strain into a bowl over ice water. Stir until thickens.
Pour into 4 cups. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Top with whipped cream!

Simple. The gelatin set a little too hard. I would make this again with a little less gelatin. Otherwise yummy and it reminded us of desserts that we've had long ago.

Tragedy in Haiti

I have a lot of time to watch TV at night while I nurse my 11 day old son. I've experienced earthquakes to a certain level by living in Japan for half of my life, though I've never experienced any disaster. The images on the screen are graphic and the emotions are raw. I sense pain and irony, as I hold my baby close in our warm room on our cozy chair, while Haitian moms worry about the well being of their babies on the street. Many babies died. Many babies are injured. And many moms just keep their babies close, like I would, but in despair, without shelter. It hurts to watch this catastrophe, and at the same time, I am thankful for the basics; our home, our food and water, and our healthy kids. Or maybe these are not so basic after all....

Pat works for a large pharmaceutical company, 5 min from our home. He told me last night that on top of donating essential medications to Haiti, they've also made some monetary contributions. What I thought was really great was that they are also doing a 2 to 1 match on donations made by employees to major organizations like Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders with no maximum limit. Pharmaceutical companies have bad reps but its nice that they can help out at much needed time like this.

The Miracle Drug and Labor

My third baby, Aidan Dean Chow was born on January 5. Today, he is 1o days old and we are both doing really well.
This labor was so different from the others in a very pleasant way due to the help of epidural, the miracle drug. When we got to the hospital at 10:30am, I had already been in labor and in a lot of pain for 7 hours. As soon as the nurses took me into the delivery room, I said, "may I have some drugs, please". It took about an hour for the anesthesiologist to give me the necessary ingredient. At one point, the nurse thought it would be better for me to just do without it, in which I said, "noooo, I'd really like it if at all possible...." whine whine.
After he shot me up through my spinal cord, the relief came in second, and I really mean seconds. The contraction immediately after the injection, I felt nothing. Pat, looking at the fetal monitor, said "you're going through a pretty big contraction" to which I said "oh really?"
I stayed in bed like that and Pat and I chatted, and took a nap and let a few hours go by. It was so nice. This was really the first time that the epidural actually worked for me. With Terran, I did get it but it didn't work at all. With Sisi, there was no time. And now, here I was, all comfy and restful when I was suppose to be screaming and cursing. I didn't feel bad at all. I felt like I deserved a cozy for my third child.
There's no escape from pain of delivery at the end. The nurses decreased the amount of miracle drug flowing through me so that I could feel pain and the urge to push. I gradually regained all the sensations and Aidan was born at 3:19pm. He looked a lot like Sisi when she was born. They passed him to me, all bloody and gooey. He was beautiful.


Pat and Aidan immediately after birth!

Thinking about sweet mung bean pudding

A couple of months ago, we were invited to a dinner at Pat's colleague's home. They are Vietnamese and made us amazing spring rolls, pho, and mung bean dessert. We loved and devoured everything.
The holidays are over and I have no left over pastries, desserts, or cakes in the fridge. They all turned into lbs on my body somewhere. I really wanted something sweet and thought of the mung bean pudding from that evening.

It was made like a pudding - mung beans were pureed smooth, cooled in the fridge, and we ate it with some coconut milk. Yum. Here's the quick version that I found repeatedly online. I have no patience now for it to cool so it's a warm version and it was delicious. Best of all, I can make it while I clean the kitchen and it's done when I'm ready for dessert!

Warm sweet mung bean pudding - 3 servings:

2 cups of water
1/2 cup of split mung beans (they are small yellow beans)
1 cup of water
1/4 cup of tapioca starch
1/4 cup of sugar

to pour on top:
1/3 cup of coconut milk
pinch of salt.

Boil mung beans in 2 cups of water for about 20 minutes or until tender. Start with high heat and lower - otherwise the water will evaporate before 20 minutes. Dissolve tapioca starch in 1 cup of water and add to the beans in low heat; stir constantly. Add sugar. The consistency should be like gravy. Add more water to thin or add more starch to make it thicker.

Put cocnut milk and salt in another bowl and microwave for 10 seconds- just enough to warm it up. Pour warm coconut milk on the beans and enjoy.

This is also really cheap to make:
A bag of mung beans $0.99
A bag of tapioca starch $0.99
A can of coconut milk $1.19
plus sugar, salt and water from my kitchen.

Happy New Year 2010: potato and leek frittata/ pasta with ham and peas

Happy New Year! I can't believe it's 2010 already.

Pat and I spent the past week, mostly at home, taking care of 2 sick and moody children, while awaiting the arrival of our baby. I've been exhausted and sleepy this week. And my protruding belly is becoming rather large.

We've also been hit with snow and temperature and windchill in the teens and the 20s. So it's been keeping us inside the house with TV.

To kick off the new year, I made food to clean up left overs from the holiday season of 2009: Potato and leek frittata and pasta with bacon and peas


Pasta with bacon and peas adapted from steamykitchen.com:


Usually, I make pasta with ham and peas. I just dice the ham, and heat it up with store bought alfredo sauce. And the add frozen peas. Everyone likes this and it's easy. But not having gone to the grocery store in awhile due to bad whether and groggy children, I didn't have ham or alfredo sauce. But I did have bacon! We love bacon! I thought this recipe was delicious.

- cook pasta in salted water
- whisk together (this is the sauce)
2 egg yolks
3 tbsp grated Parmesan
3 tbsp half and half
1/2 lemon zest
- chop up 4 slices of bacons to 1/2" pieces and cook- retain bacon oil
- in the pan with bacon oil cook 1/2 onion chopped and 3 cloves of garlic for 4 minutes
- lower heat and add yolk mixture, then quickly add pasta, bacon, and some frozen peas. mix for about 3 minutes and also add salt and pepper.
- done

This was really good. I loved the lemon in it. I think I messed up a bit when adding the yolk mixture because the eggs scrambled. I don't think it was suppose to do that. Next time, I am just going to make my original with ham and peas with store bought alfredo sauce -except, I will add lemon zest to it.

Potato and leek frittata:

Frittata is good for getting rid of things in the fridge. Just like fried rice is good for getting rid of things in the fridge. I had potatoes left over from making mashed potatoes, and leek from making lobster bisque. So here it is.

2 potatoes - slice and cook in boiling water
2 leek - slice white and slight green part and cook in butter
7 eggs
half and half (or milk or heavy cream)
salt and pepper
1.5 cups of shredded cheese (I used a combo of cheddar and Parmesan)

Preheat oven 400 degrees.
Add cooked potatoes with cooked leek in an iron skillet and mix them around with salt and pepper. In a bowl, combine eggs, splash of half and half, salt, pepper and cheese. Pour over the vegetables and mix everything around for awhile over medium heat. Let the egg at the bottom settle. Add extra cheese on top and stick it in the oven for about 10 minutes until done.

Pat liked the frittata. Next time, I want more eggs, more cheese, and less vegetables. Maybe I will just make a cheese frittata.

Did I already write somewhere that I gained 5lbs this holiday week? I've got to get my eating under control!

New Year's Eve

It's been a rough week with 2 sick kids. Initially, I was going to send the kids to school part time and take some time to myself, just to relax - but that didn't really happen. One or both of the kids were at home the whole week. That's OK. I just want them to get better before the baby's arrival.

My last day of work before maternity leave was Christmas Eve. My sister and Mel came over on that day and stayed for 2 days with us during Christmas. I was exhausted and was not much of any use but Reyko and Mel really helped with the cooking and all.

Our Christmas Eve dinner:
Clam Chowder - Rachael Ray's recipe - easy and yummo.
Spaghetti with tomatoes and artichoke

Our Christmas dinner:
Lobster bisque (in a crockpot) - this turned out easy and great.
Lobster - I did no work on this since Pat took the meat out of its shell for me.
Steelhead Trout
mashed potatoes with cranberry sauce - Terran's favorite
asparagus
dinner rolls (that we forgot to make)
pumpkin cheese cake - Reyko made it and I ate most of it. I saw her using 3 blocks of cream cheese....

Oh so yummy and happy but Sisi was sick and threw up on the floor during dinner - lovely....

Kids got endless amount of presents from everyone we can think of. They were happy but this was also overwhelming for me at the same time.

On Monday after Christmas, I had my weekly ObGyn appointment and the nurse told me that I had gained 5 lbs in 1 week. Pat's eyes popped out of the sockets. I just explained that I had a lot of holiday spirit.... At this same appointment, the doc told me that I am now 2.5cm dilated and everything feels very loose down there. She gave me a "labor warning" - meaning it could happen any time now. I told my doc that we want the baby to be born on January 12 - a couple of days after my mom gets here. She just kind of laughed as if saying, yeah, I don't think you can hold out that long....

So now, it's new year's eve. I've been sleeping a lot. Terran seems quite sick. Sisi is a little better. They are in bed now and Pat and I are quietly hanging out, enjoying the last couple of hours of the year.

Here's a glimpse of our 2009:
Feb: I left my family for the first time and went back to CA. I spent time in LA and SF. I took the CSE in CA to get my architect's license.
Feb: Sisi at 18 months finally stopped nursing.
Feb: My mom was here in NJ for a couple of weeks to take my place while I was in CA. That was really nice.
April: Got a letter from CAB saying that I failed my exam. This letter energized me to try to get a license in NY.
April: Found out I was pregnant for the 3rd time!
May: My mom was here searching for my sister Wako. After they found her in LA, they all came over to the east coast. Mom, Reyko, and Wako spend some time with us in NJ. It was stressful. Nothing really came out of this.
June: Went on a mini vacation to DC. Lots of fun.
July: Terran turned 4.
July: Got licensed as an architect in NY.
August: Went on a mini beach vacation to Ocean City, NJ. Absolute indulgence for the kids.
August: Sisi turned 2.
Sept: Dad got an email from Wako saying she's coming back to Japan. And now, she's
there - doing great.
November: Junko turned a year older and noticed herself lying about her age....
November: Getting H1N1 shots was a big deal. After going through numerous calls, I finally found a shot for myself through our township health department. Soon after, Terran and Sisi were able to get them through their doc. Pat had to get his nasal spray from my Ob.
November: Terran got really sick for a week while Pat's parents were in town. It was the first time he was in bed for 2 days with high fever and vomit. We were worried sick and sad....
Dec: Here we are. Awaiting the birth of our new baby. Looking forward to the new year that's going to bring us lots of joy and lots of work!


Terran loves to build. He's quite creative and often makes interesting structures with blocks, rails, lego pieces. He can be focused for a long time on this. I'm trying to find other building toys for him. Sisi likes to destroy....

School photo 2009: Sisi doesn't have an individual shot because she refused to sit by herself. So Terran sat and kissed her while she has a little tear drop from her eye.

My husband: Can you see why I love him so much?

Photos

I've been lazy and haven't really posted photos recently. It takes a while to upload so that's my excuse. But here are some very recent photos. Some from just this afternoon when the kids and Pat braved the snow storm outside and had lots of fun while I watched from the kitchen window. Hey, I'm knocked up and I don't need to be doing anything unnecessary like going into snow on a Saturday.

Talking about being pregnant, I officially have less than 4 weeks to go until my due date. I'm feeling that this little guy may come out earlier than that. As usual, Pat has been nagging about my going to work. Every morning, he asks why I'm going to work. Aghhh.... This is America, sweetie. Women work until we pop, and go right back after we drop off the baby that still looks like a chicken. But, that has not been the case with me. Pat makes me take off from work 3 weeks before due date, and I don't go back for a year. My colleague even asked me what century do you think you live in.... hmmmm.... And I also got a comment from my company officially stating that if I don't come back in 12 weeks, my position is definitely not guaranteed. OK. All that said, being a stay at home mom of 3 is going to be a challenge. The kids drive me crazy, I get so annoyed, but they are the funniest people I know. And they are full of surprises. And they are always my babies.


I think the temperature stayed in the 20s today. So we made a fire. I'm not really sure how well the fire place works. But it made the room pretty and cozy. We also have this awesome heater under that green rug. It just plugs into the wall and it warms the room and our butts. It's excellent for my kids who are always on the floor.


Terran in snow this afternoon. We had to open one of the Christmas presents early today; kids' new waterproof snow mittens, so that they could go outside and play in snow.


Sisi in snow this afternoon.


Here's me and my 3rd child, a couple of weeks ago. I feel as tall as I am wide. Terran and Sisi talks about the baby as if he is already here. When they play with his toys, they announces that they are just borrowing the baby's toys. Terran tells me that he is no longer the bad boy in the house. He points to my tummy and claims that the bad boy is in there! They also refer to the baby by his name. Pat and I were throwing out ideas, but one in particular stuck with the kids. And so they basically decided for us....


Here's Sisi helping me make chocolate banana bread. She only helped because she had access to a bag of chocolate chips as we did this.

Crockpot creamy mac and cheese

Oh goodness. This stuff is good. I thought I'd never say that about mac and cheese. Having grown up in Japan, mac and cheese is not one of my comfort foods. In fact, looking at the yellow messy glob is not appealing to me at all.

But Terran likes it. And his friend was coming over for dinner. So I made it.
It came out so right. There are certain dishes that I can make now that makes me feel oh so American. Apple pie, chicken pot pie, cupcakes for kids' parties, and now, mac and cheese. Yay!

Crockpot creamy mac and cheese: adapted from Paula Deen's recipe.

2.5 cups elbow macaroni - cook for 6-7 minutes only
1/2 stick of butter - melt in microwave
8oz block of sharp cheddar cheese - shred
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp pepper
1 can Campbell condensed cheddar cheese soup

While mac is cooking in the pot, turn on the crockpot to low and throw in shredded cheese, melted butter, sour cream, milk, pepper, and canned soup. Mix all. Add macaroni that has been cooked for 6-7 minutes. The mac will still be hard but it's going to continue cooking in the crockpot so that's OK. Mix everything.
Cook on low. Mine was ready to eat in 1 hour - the macaroni still had a bit of bite to it. After 1.5 hours, the macaroni was pretty tender. I wouldn't cook more than 1.5 hours in my crockpot.

I can only eat a few spoonful of this stuff but it was still really good. Sisi has never liked mac and cheese but she actually wanted to try it so I gave her one macaroni and she said "oh yummy, yummy." And she ended up eating 2 bowls of it.

Terran got a little sick tonight. And his friend was a little sick, too, so the dinner was canceled. Terran would have liked this but he just didn't want to eat tonight. There's still lots left over so maybe tomorrow.

7th Anniversary

Dec 6 was the 7th year anniversary of our wedding in Hawaii. We had both completely forgotten about it. I was cleaning out Terran's closet to make space for our baby due in January. I was going through Pat's old race T-shirts. Those shirts are really annoying. He probably has 20-30 of them. They take up most of the space in his dresser, And he doesn't like to throw them away. He wears some over and over again. After awhile, he decides to ignore them and they get stuck in the back of a closet - worn and faded. When I tell him that I am getting rid of them, he freaks out and desperately stops me. This time, I told him that we can't keep so many of his nasty shirts and we needed to make space for the baby. So he let me throw out some. As I was going through the old T-shirt stash, I came across the yellow tank top he wore during the Honolulu marathon 7 years ago. He ran with the AIDS marathon team and they require the runners to write their name on the front of the shirt so the cheerleaders can personalize the cheers by saying "Go Patrick Go!". And so Pat had his name on the front, and on the back, he wrote "Just married - December 6, 2002".

I saw that date and I said,
"Pat, look, today is our anniversary."
To which he said
"really?"
And to which Terran asked,
"What's anniversary"
And I said
"That's when Dada and I got married."
And Terran responded,
"Oh, I remember that!"

Then we celebrated the rest of the afternoon by remembering the days we spent in Honolulu, just the 2 of us.
And now, 7 years later, here we are. We will soon be the 5 of us. There's not a quiet moment, not really a time to fully relax. But definitely so much more....

Creamy Chicken: pretty yummy and really cheap crockpot recipe

I usually prepare dinner the night before. Just doing simple preparation saves a lot of effort when I come home with 2 kids after work. With crockpot, I would preassemble everything at night and plug it in in the morning. With fish, I salt and pepper and oil it, put it on a pan, and cover it with a wrap and stick it in the fridge so I just pop it in the oven the next day.

Last night, I was exhausted - and this is what I always do when I'm exhausted - it turns out to be really yummy and really really cheap.

Creamy Chicken over rice:

5 chicken drumsticks ($1.80)
1 can cream of mushroom soup ($0.79)
1 bag frozen vegetables (about $2.00)
3 cups of cooked rice (i'm guessing $0.50)

Put frozen chicken, frozen veg, and cream of mushroom in the crockpot. Mix it all up and cook on low for 8 hours. When you get home before eating, take out the chicken and remove skin. The meat will also fall off the bone so get rid of the bones as well. Put the meat back in the pot, mix everything, serve over rice. The chicken and the cream of mushroom gives enough flavor to the dish that I don't salt or pepper it.

This will serve 4. The total cost of meal is about $5.00. That's pretty amazing. It feeds the 4 of us at night and gives Pat and I some lunch for the next day. It will probably cost less using fresh vegetables. But again, this is for absolutely exhausted nights so frozen veg is a must! No chopping required and no dirty dishes left after assembly. Yay!