This morning I gave the kids each a 红包 (red envelope) after instructing them to say 恭喜發财 (gong xi fa cai / wishing you prosperity) and 新年快樂 (xin nian kuai le / happy new year). At daycare Ana’s teacher gave her a 红包 and me another one to pass on to Alex. For dessert tonight I got us a few goodies from the Chinese bakery.

All day today my throat hurt and I kept coughing up loogies. This is probably not the best way to welcome the new year, but it couldn’t be helped. First Kevin got sick. Then Ana caught it. After a couple of nights of her crawling into our bed and disrupting my sleep, I came down with it as well. Sigh.

At least it happened right at the same time as my monthly baby checkup. Today I was able to confirm with my doctor that I could take all the good stuff: Sudafed, Robitussin DM, Tylenol, etc. But I also got a stern lecture for asking whether I could skip the 3-hour glucose tolerance test. (Because I tested negative the last two pregnancies!!!) Oh well. It’s not my fault the paperwork they sent me via USPS 2 weeks ago never arrived though. I picked up a copy today and made the appointment for next week.

Hopefully this weekend my cold will get better and we’ll have time to go to 99 Ranch for some 年糕 (nian gao / new year cake).

Categories: chinese, food, pregnancy
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I started teaching the kids (and Kevin) Chinese over the weekend. They were such good students. We worked on numbers. I taught them 一 through 十二, then extrapolated from there. Here are a couple of the worksheets they completed:

This isn’t among my new year’s resolutions, but when I went back to work last week, I confessed to a friend that I desperately needed exercise after lazing around so much during winter break. Right then we made a pact to take regular breaks and go for walks together. It’s been great. So far she’s reminded me more often than I’ve reminded her.

Then suddenly over the weekend I had a horrific leg cramp. When I mentioned it during my OB appointment today, he said it’s probably because I’m over-exerting myself and that I needed to take it easy. Um… okay.

Right now I’m at 24 weeks + 1 day. The baby is about a pound. I haven’t weighed myself since the week after Christmas when I was at +10 lb. I’ve also been eating a lot of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Coincidence? Haha.

Categories: chinese, food, pregnancy
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We rang in the new year quietly this year. Last new year we went to a Flaming Lips/Gnarls Barkley concert, and the year before that we drove down to San Diego to see Matisyahu. This year we had considered going to New York to enjoy the chaos in Times Square, but we changed our minds and opted for a quiet evening at home in our pajamas instead.

The latter actually fits in with one of my new year’s resolutions. (No, it’s not to Be More Boring, harhar.) Last year I dubbed one of my resolutions the PJ Resolution. Here’s how I described it: “I’ve decided to spend as many of my waking hours during 2007 as possible wearing pajamas.” The real goal being to get more sleep, of course.

I want to believe that I got more sleep in 2007 than I did in past years. At the least, wearing pajamas made me painfully aware of when I should have been in bed when I wasn’t, so I’ll count the PJ Resolution a partial success.

In anticipation of needing a lot of rest with baby #3 on the way, I’ve decided to keep this resolution for 2008. This adorable bathrobe Kevin gave me for Christmas should help with my resolve. It’s very cozy, and I was told it’s the same robe Brad Pitt wore in Fight Club. I haven’t seen the movie or read the book though. Does anyone die in it?

Other goals for 2008:

• Parenting
  
• Teach the kids Chinese. I’ve bought the workbooks. Now all I need to do is schedule the time to work with them. Easier said than done.
• Finances
  
• Pay off as much of the bathroom as possible. We didn’t go anywhere near the limit on our HELOC, but it’s going to take a bit of work to pay off what we did spend.
• Home Improvement
• Finish the floors and kitchen. We already have all the flooring, just need to buy the moulding. Also need to buy the rest of the kitchen cabinets and countertops.
• Philosophy
• Strive towards a simpler life.

* Getting Things Done

Categories: chinese, famous people, home improvement, music
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Hope you all enjoyed the holidays! This year we went over to my cousin Lynn and her hubby’s house for Christmas potluck. I made green bean casserole and freshly baked rolls, Kevin made bow tie pasta with sausage, and the kids made chocolate cupcakes with green frosting and red/green sprinkles.

Here they are on Christmas Eve, each sampling a cupcake to make sure it tasted all right before taking them to the potluck the next day.

On Christmas morning we opened presents at home first. Kevin won Dad of the Year award with this gift for Alex, a Legend of Zelda edition gold Nintendo DS. Alex is being super careful with it and will be buying a protective case with his allowance soon.

Then we went over to Lynn’s house. During Christmas dinner, Lynn offered me a beer. Kevin and I both gaped at her for a beat before she realized what she’d done.

“I totally forgot!” she laughed. “You’re so small you don’t even look pregnant.”

Other than Kevin’s daily reassurances, that was the nicest thing anyone has said to me since the start of this pregnancy. At the time I was 22 weeks and +9 lbs. I don’t even want to know how much I weigh now.

The day after Christmas we hit a few after-Christmas sales. Got some cards, wrapping paper, and lights. We also stopped at Beard Papa’s to enjoy their delicious cream puffs. Kevin had the chocolate, and I had the vanilla. Mmmm, good.

I was so inspired that a couple of days later I tried making cream puffs from scratch. Opened up Joy of Cooking and was delighted to find a recipe that didn’t look too hard. The result was ugly but *dangerously* tasty. Kevin and I ended up devouring two whole batches by ourselves.

Let’s see, other things we’ve been doing… Cleaned the house a bit. Donated several bags of clothes to get in the last tax deduction of the year. Most of the clothes were mine. I’ve held on to all of Alex and Ana’s old baby clothes for obvious reasons. Now that I know we’re having a girl, I’m waiting to see if my sister is having a boy before giving all of Alex’s old clothes to my friend T, who’s having a baby boy a few weeks after me. (Can you tell I can’t wait to give them away? The amount of baby clothes clogging up our garage is just overwhelming.)

ADDED 01/02/08: Check out this NYT article, Tackling Clutter to Improve Your Health!

I’ll blog about our day trip to Olvera Street/Chinatown and our new year’s resolutions later.

* FYI, #2 comes on February 7th this year. It’s going to be the Year of the Rat!

Categories: chinese, food, kids and parenting, pregnancy, toys
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Lately Ana’s two favorite activities have been playing with an educational math game that a well-meaning person got for Alex (he’s never shown any interest in it) and cutting and gluing paper. Tonight, as I cut pictures of tomatoes, avocados, and cans of chili out of a grocery store ad for her, I idly wondered whether there was a more boring job than the poor graphic designer who had to find the right clip art for each week’s specials, unless it’s the poor photographer that had to make the clip art in the first place.

As Kevin got ready to take Daisy out for an evening walk, I reminded him to take a golf club.

Kevin: I think I should take a Mag Lite instead.

Me: Why?

K: Last night this woman crossed the street when she saw me coming with the golf club in one hand and the dog in the other. I look TOO well armed.

Me: Well, that’s not a bad thing. Forearmed is forewarned… or something like that.

Alex told Kevin that he wanted to be able to take fried rice for lunch like his friend Leo, so we bought him an insulated lunch bag and some plastic containers to make it happen. I can’t believe it wasn’t that long ago when fried rice would have been the last thing I wanted to take for lunch because all the other kids would have pointed and said, “Eew, what’s THAT???” It’s not weird to be Chinese anymore, not at Alex’s school anyway.

Update: Alex’s friend Leo isn’t Chinese. Fascinating.

Categories: chinese, kids and parenting, pets
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