Hope you all have a restful Labor Day weekend! Can you believe it's September already?

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Tags: A, holiday

Happy 4th of July!

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Oh, and Happy Canada Day, eh!

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Happy Father's Day!

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It was a nice weekend, to say the least.

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Happy Mother's Day!

Tags: M, A, me, photography, holiday

Over the weekend, we celebrated Earth Day by learning about marine life and preservation. It was chilly around here and even chillier near the water. I think the boys had a good time (they got to touch some fish), and so did we. There's nothing like having children to further remind us of the growing urgency to care for our environment. I know that we could certainly do a better job for our kids, so there is always room for improvement, however small the steps are. We're in a constant state of working-in-progress when it comes to being green. Overflowing landfills and toxic smog levels are obviously not things I want my kids to have to address, especially if we can do things right now to improve them.





On a related note, keep your eyes open for big sales on eco-friendly products. For example, save $20 instantly when you spend $99 or more on select planet-friendly products using code EARTH4O8 at checkout, through April 30, 2008. See site for additional restrictions. Click here for my other shopping deals.

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Beware the pranksters - enjoy your April Fools' Day!

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Just finished sealing up M's Thomas Train Valentine's Day cards for his classmates (we decorated them over the weekend), did a few USMLE Step 2 CK questions (hard on the ego, I tell you) and now it's time to make lunches. Leftover pasta, crackers, cheese, raisins, and yogurt. And milk.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I'll post a photo soon - it's pajama day, woohoo!

Tags: holiday

Posting will be a bit light for the next several days. J's on a tough month (so I'm playing single mommy half the time), and I've got a full plate as well. Here's a semi-recent photo of us watching a miniature train display.

Welcome, Year of the Rat!

Tags: holiday, M, A, me

It's always a shock to me how quickly the holidays come and go. Just last week, homes in the neighborhood had tons of colorful lights (that is not our home, by the way) - today, they are all gone. And everyone is back to the regular grind.

Every time someone says the word tree in our home, A points to the now-empty space in the corner of the living room where our little tree once was, only a week ago. The boys actually helped me take down the tree (which was starting to look pretty worn), and M helped J haul it to the curb, so I think he adjusted pretty well. But I'm sure that these traditions must be weird for young children.

In the back of my head, I'm trying to think about what upcoming "holidays" we might want to celebrate at home. Valentine's Day is an easy excuse for some art projects, but it's not really a holiday we tend to get into. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is coming up (as well as Presidents' Day), so we might talk a little bit about people and politics (as much as we can with a three-year-old). I'm thinking we'll probably reiterate what we always say about being a good person, and how sometimes things are not fair and that it is a good thing to speak up (use your words). This is one of many constant challenges about parenting - it is so dynamic and unpredictable. Just when you think you've overcome something (breastfeeding, diapers), there's plenty more to figure out, and it probably never gets any easier.

Tags: M, A, holiday

There certainly are a lot of engines pulling that train! The drawbridge was a Christmas gift, which was an instant hit. The first thing M said was I'm going to bring it for Share Day!

Tags: M, toys, holiday

My folks visited for a few days over the holidays, and it was fun to spend Christmas together. For some reason, M has adopted two different languages when referring to my folks, calling my mom "gramma" and my dad "gonggong." They (obviously) love seeing the kids, and I think M and A had a good time too. It would be nice if they lived nearby (built-in babysitting), but unfortunately that's not really an option at the moment. We see them about twice or three times yearly.

Tags: M, A, me, grandparents, holiday

Like last year, we celebrated on January 1, after recording the previous night's ball drop on television. In fact, I was the only one awake at midnight of the actual event (J was sick). In any case, we started counting down around 7:30pm, so that we'd have enough time to wind down and start the bedtime routine. A joined us this year, which was great. And M and I had been practicing counting backwards from ten all week. It's funny how challenging it seems - his brain is hard-wired to count up. Anyhow, the ball dropped and we all yelled "Happy New Year!" and toasted with cups of water. And just like last year, M gave me a kiss, which was very cute.

Tags: holiday, M, me, A

To all our friends who are parents of young children,

Don't be surprised if you all get a big box of D, C, AA, AAA, and button-cell batteries for Christmas this year. And stocking stuffers of various sized Philips head screwdrivers. And wire cutters for those impossible-to-undo-in-any-reasonable-amount-of-time before-your-toddler-gets-frustrated twist ties (those toys are really anchored down into their boxes!). It sounds strange, but you'll thank me later.

I'm only half joking too, so don't forget to act surprised!

Here's an older photo of J putting together M's first birthday present.

Tags: holiday

All my parent friends understand when I say that weekends are often more tiring than weekdays. This was true during the year as well. I always got way more studying done during the week (even just during lunch/pumping breaks at the hospital) than I did on the weekends. And long weekends - well, they're just plain exhausting. And we just had two four-day weekends in a row. Whew. And now it's the weekend again!

Don't get me wrong though. I love having time off from school/work because I get to spend more time with the kids. But I certainly don't get any more rest than usual. In fact, if J is working (he only got 2 extra days off for the holidays) and I am at home with the boys on my own, it actually might be more tiring than usual. A lot more tiring.

But one look at these adorable faces is enough for me to wish the holidays would roll around again really soon.

Tags: holiday, M, A

Tags: holiday, me, M, J, A

2007 went by fast, didn't it?

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We finally got to use these (after a whole year of storage!)

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Tags: holiday, M, A, J, me

Way back before any of the baby chaos arrived, we did fun grown-up stuff, like watch movies, travel, and hang out. In 2003, we were lucky enough to get tickets to some television show tapings, and my sister-in-law K came along as well. One of those tapings was "The Tonight Show." I like Jay Leno's monologue and his headlines always crack me up. I'm never able to catch him on TV anymore (seeing as how I rarely watch television these days). In any case, before the show starts, he picks a few people to come up and take photos with him (rather, someone usually shouts out "Jay, Jay! Can I take a photo with you?!" and that starts the whole mob scene). We happened to be sitting in the front row off to the side, and so I think it was easy enough for him to pick us (although, ahem, I was the only one of my party who had my hand up - no thanks to my shy and reserved companions, you know who you are). He chatted with us and asked where we were from and what we did and a staff member took out a polaroid and took our picture (no cameras are allowed in the studio). He was a very nice, normal guy. Whenever anyone sees this photo, they assume we were guests on the show, which is kind of funny. Pretty cool, eh?

Tags: travel, J, me, holiday

As promised, here they are. I think it's funny that I am wearing the same sweater/jacket and have the same messy hair (sloppy ponytail). You can see how A is motioning towards the globe lights and saying bawwww, bawwwww (see previous post). And M is less apprehensive (but still a bit shy).

Tags: M, me, A, holiday

My original post is here, but this was last year's Santa photo. I think M looks apprehensive and A is thinking about lunch. I'll post this year's later today.

Tags: M, A, me, holiday

A while ago, I joked about A being a meat-eater. Here he is eating his very first breakfast sausage. We don't even usually have these at home (this was at the Breakfast with Santa event we went to recently) but I will probably add these to my grocery list, seeing as how A seems to really enjoy them. This might be one of my favorite photos taken of A so far. He just looks so darn cute stuffing the sausage in his mouth, and going for the orange slices at the same time.

He's also wearing a Pampers Bibster, which was a spontaneous add-on when I placed an order for diapers at Diapers.com. We were pleasantly surprised to find that they are very useful when eating out (we keep them in the car and use them when we forget to bring a washable bib from home). I bought the large size, and even M has used them when he is having a particular messy meal while we're out. They have a waterproof backing as well as a specially-designed collection area that actually stays open to catch food (it's not folded down properly in the photo). More details about Diapers.com and a special coupon code can be found on the Shopping Resources page.

Tags: food, holiday, A, J

Last year, we decided to try to start sending out holiday cards, which has always been difficult for me to do consistently. I usually end up having a stack of unwritten cards around New Year's, and then I give up. I understand why everyone with kids sends photo cards. They grow so much over the year. The only problem for me is that I think nice holiday cards are too expensive, often costing $2-3 per card. Which means spending a small fortune each year (not including postage), depending on how many you need to send.

I had a free sample of 20 cards from Shutterfly last year, so I decided to give them a try. They made beautiful cards - we were very pleased. But they were a bit out of our budget. If I wanted to have nice, professional looking, cardstock-quality cards, I'd totally order from them. I've ordered enlargement prints from them, as well as photo books, and they make good stuff. Shipping adds up though. My pick for prints and enlargements is Costco. They just have amazing prices and a rock-solid guarantee. They have holiday cards too, but they have very limited layout designs, and they are basically photo prints with a designed template on them. And frankly, I wasn't as impressed with their layout choices as I was with those from Shutterfly.

Determined to have a stylish, yet affordable holiday card, I decided to turn to Adobe Photoshop Elements. We've always been fortunate enough to have access to it, and it is a great tool to have for anyone who needs a bit more flexibility with photos and layouts. I created a basic 5x7 layout and pasted our photos on there, and voila - a custom card for a fraction of the cost. Granted, they were still only 5x7 prints and not cards, but it was a good compromise for us. We included a brief update letter (cheesy, but what can you do?). And the price was right - only 39 cents per print and free shipping (or option to pick-up directly at the Costco warehouse).

This is what we sent out last year:


It actually doubled as a nice photo for me to carry around in my white coat pocket to glance at from time to time during the day while I was on the wards.

I am putting the finishing touches on the card for this year, which will be a similar style, but blue. Hopefully I will have them mailed out by the end of the week. I'll post it later this month.

For those of you who'd like to try it out, Shutterfly has two promotions going on right now:

20% off calendars and photo books. Coupon code 33AF-CLBK (expires 1-3-2008)

20% off $40. Coupon code 32AF-11DR (expires 12-04-07)

Tags: holiday, Costco

To kick off the holiday season, we went to our community Breakfast with Santa. The boys made cute little Santa hats, as you can see.

This marker isn't working right, Mommy.


Is that an extra googly eye for Santa?


We all had a pretty good time, and we did take a photo with Santa, which I will post soon. I've got to dig up the old Santa photos for comparison (I've posted about them before). It was the first year that M wasn't scared of the guy (with the exception of the first Christmas, where he was really little).

A was scared, but seemed to do okay as long as I was holding him. Then he was content to look and point at the big globe lights on the ceiling and say ball, ball (his first real word). Well, it really sounded more like bawwww, bawwwww.

I love this time of year. We just picked up a tree as well, and we decided to go low-budget and compact this time. In previous years, we've gotten bigger trees and they've been a pain to set up and take down. We wanted to preserve some living room space, so we opted to get a 4-ft Noble fir (Home Depot, $14). It's very cute and the price was right. More details (and photos) to come soon.

Tags: A, M, holiday

I can't believe how time flies. Or how much the boys grow in a year. Here's M wearing a hat I picked up during a conference in Toronto (Go Canada!). I love this photo - he looks like he's ready for a hike.

I love doing these flashback posts. Not only are they relatively quick and easy, but I have a chance to look back at all the great photos of the boys, and see how much they've grown in such a short time. If you're only used to being around adults, you don't really notice how quickly times passes, at least not in the sense that you see it in the way people age. But if you have any friends or family with kids, you'll know what I mean when I say that every time I see a new photo of someone else's children, it's almost as if they are completely different people. They grow so much in such short intervals, that it almost makes it tough to recognize them.

This is particularly true during this time of year, when we get lots of holiday cards with new family photos. The parents generally look the same, but the kids have grown several inches (or more). It's crazy how fast time flies.



I hope you all have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving!

Tags: M, A, J, holiday

Tags: A, holiday

Like last year, Halloween was a fun event. I know it's already over, but we are just now downloading the photos off the camera from the past week (two full memory cards). And with the DSLR, they can take a while to process (we shoot in RAW, then convert to JPG after backing up all the original photos).

M was adorable in his firefighter costume (which he loved) and A seemed to enjoy waddling around in his shark costume (the tail even swayed from side to side when he walked). M quickly got the hang of treat-or-treating, and A had a blast picking up candy or stickers and then dropping them in M's bucket (he loves transferring from one container to another right now - I should have him reorganize the kitchen for me). A had an early nap at daycare that day, and the excitement really tired him out, so he dozed off near the end of our route. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Tags: M, A, me, holiday, cute

Tags: A, holiday

I'm in a rush this morning, so I'll have to leave you with just a photo of the cake we had for M's third birthday. We celebrated at home, just the four of us. More to come soon.

Tags: food, holiday

I've noticed that costumes have been popping up in stores recently - isn't it too early to be thinking about Halloween? With the exception of M's first Halloween (he was only a few weeks old), we've dressed up the boys and walked around the neighborhood or the local mall, depending on where we were living at the time.

When M was one, we dressed him up as a shark. I bought the costume at Babystyle, and boy, was it a hit. We pretty much got stopped everywhere we went, with people wondering where we got it. It's still available now, along with lots of other very cute costumes (I also like the octopus). To get some mileage out of the costume, A can be a shark this year (I hope he doesn't mind).

Old Navy has started selling really cute costumes in recent years, and we went with one from there last year. M wore the monkey costume, which I thought was pretty cute. It was a very popular item last year, and sold out quickly. This year, it's being offered again - the retail price is $22.50, which in my opinion is a bit pricey for a Halloween costume, but not so much for what you are actually buying. It's very well thought out and complete, as costumes go, and is pretty warm, which is nice if you live in a colder climate. I like the details of the removable mittens and "feet" that cover regular shoes.



Right now, all the Old Navy costumes are on sale (25% off), which makes them pretty reasonable. This year, M wants to be a fireman (big surprise), so I am thinking about getting the one from Old Navy, since it's made of fleece and is only about $17. I think the chicken and penguin costumes are cute too. There is an additional promotion on all Baby, Kids, and Maternity wear (save up to 25% extra) with free shipping over $50 with the coupon KIDBABYMAT. I've ordered several things in several sizes (for all members of the family) from them (there are many things that are only found in their online store), with plans to return ill-fitting items back to the store. They have great children's stuff too, although I think the sizes run large. Right now, I have 9 separates (tops or bottoms), 16 pairs of socks, and the fireman costume in my shopping cart, and the total is only $80, before coupons.

A was a cow last year (he still has that newborn look to him, doesn't he?), courtesy of a bargain costume ($4) I found at The Children's Place. They are also currently having a Fall sale until September 19, with new fall clothes up to 40% off.



Okay, I hope that wasn't too much shopping talk, but it's a good time to think about costumes if you need to get them. Closer to Halloween, the prices go up (until the day or two before, but then it may be too late). Don't forget to check the day after Halloween - you can get a great deal for next year.

Tags: holiday, clothing, M, A

I was just an innocent bystander, trying to high-five A, and I got a huge sneeze in return.



He forgot about the high-five (though I guess he sort of inadvertently did so during the sneeze) and left me hanging afterwards - too cool for mom already!



Happy Labor Day!

Tags: me, A, holiday

M's latest. See them all here. Happy Fourth of July!

Tags: M, photography, J, holiday

Tags: J, holiday, A, M

Tags: holiday, me, M, A

Okay, so I am a bit behind with the photos. We take so many (hundreds each week) that I have a hard time sifting through them all. The great thing about digital cameras is that you can take multiple shots under different settings to see which one turns out best, but that means there are a lot of duplicate images to go through and compare afterwards. Hopefully, once we gain some more experience with manual mode on the SLR, we can take more winners with fewer tries.

I already posted a photo of M in his bunny ears, but we also participated in a school-sponsored egg hunt as well. "Hunt" is a bit of an exaggeration as you can see from the photo below (it was for the three-and-under crowd). That's one of the many perks about having an active graduate student organization here - there are many events that we can participate in if we don't have time to plan a party of our own. A, in typical A fashion, slept through much of it, but was able to catch a glimpse of the excitement before he dozed off.

Tags: holiday, M, J, A

Tags: holiday, M

Okay, so this is long overdue as well - I am pretty behind in just about everything I am working on these days. Luckily, I only have a few more days on this rotation and then I have a little study break (meaning, time to study).

We went to a community Valentine's Day party last month, where we frosted cookies, played games and enjoyed some balloon animals. M even got this wild balloon hat, which he had a good time with. A seems to think it is quite interesting as well.

Tags: holiday, M, A, me

We went to the zoo today for a special Chinese New Year celebration, complete with lion dance and acrobat (there was only one). It was very difficult to see anything and was quite crowded so it wasn't nearly as exciting as it could have been. I grew up in the middle of a very culturally diverse city, and my memories of Chinese New Year are much more festive (although I guess it might have seemed bigger because I was a lot younger then). It seemed like the whole city would be involved. In any case, I think M enjoyed the animals (he especially liked watching the ostriches run), and A enjoyed being strapped to my hip for most of the time. For me, it was just nice to be outside on a cold (but sunny) day. We don't usually do anything big for Chinese New Year (or any New Year, for that matter), but every now and then try to preserve some (albeit minimal) ties to our distant Chinese heritage.

Tags: holiday

We wanted to include M in the New Year festivities this year, but it would be impossible for him to be awake at midnight for a little celebration. So we recorded the Times Square ball drop and countdown and replayed it 5 minutes before M's bedtime (7pm) the next day. After his bath and dinner, we brushed his teeth and poured water to "toast" and then waited for the countdown (we had practiced counting backwards from 10 all week long). When the ball finally dropped (how tacky and irritating was it to have "Discover Card" plastered along the bottom of the countdown in lights?), we clinked our cups of water and took a sip. Then I gave him a kiss and he kissed me back. M loved it and immediately afterwards, pointed at the TV and said "more, more!" I explained to him that we only do it once a year and that we could do it again "next time," which he was satisfied with. In any case, here' s a shot of one of my best New Year's kisses so far. (A slept right through it, and it didn't seem right to wake him). We'll probably be doing this for a few years, or at least until they are old enough to try and stay up until midnight.

Tags: holiday, M

What a crazy Christmas wedding weekend we had. Now that it's several weeks out, I can finally look back at it with some perspective. It was the first road trip we've taken since A was born. There were a few things that made life easier:

1. Driving at night. Even though we were both pretty tired afterwards, it really helped to be able to concentrate on driving to get there as soon as possible without worrying about the kids screaming in their car seats. We left around 9pm each time and arrived around 3am. Yikes! (but it was worth it). Coffee helped a bit.
2. Packing things that helped the kids feel comfortable: the Euro tub, a big container of toys and books (including a few new ones), favorite blankets, lots of