Baby Time

INTRODUCING

Emma Lai-Sin

Born Monday, April 23rd at 7:14 pm

7 lbs 6 oz, 20 inches

Emma gets her first name from a great great grandmother on dad’s side and her middle name (Cantonese for beautiful fairy) from a great grandmother on mom’s side.

Emma is a darling angel baby.  She smiles at Neal.  She is our quietest baby.  She is well loved by her big brother and sister.  She is loving all the attention she is getting from grandma this week.

 

By far the best birthing and recovery experience so far.  Will get back to sharing the details soon, just after I go snuggle princess #2 some more…

The Official 1st Blogiversary

I don’t know what possessed me to start this blog on February 29th, 2008.  It was probably not intentional.  So, while it has been around for a handful of years, now I can officially say, Happy 1st Blogiversary to me!

Seemed like a good time to come out of hibernation. You laugh but I really do hibernate….

So since this only happens once every four years, I’ll give you four updates about each one of us.

LILY:

1. Is pretty much potty trained! Well, 95% but still, hooray! She has the funniest i-need-to-go-potty dance, reminds me of Elvis.
2. She is a talker.  She likes to lay on compliments to others but gets mad when you return the compliment (um, girl?).  She will say to you, “I got to tell you a question” and you say what? and she will say “What is your favorite color?” to which you will reply and most likely you would be wrong, it is always the color you are currently wearing.  She also likes to tell made-up stories, usually involving a pony named Fluttershy who wants someone to play Angry Birds with her.  All the ponies seem to be too busy doing more important stuff like making cupcakes and laughing. Finally Spike the dragon agrees to play Angry Birds with her and saves the day. Hear it for yourself:
   
3. She is almost 2 1/2 yrs old, she knows how to navigate my phone pretty well, she loves Disney Princesses, My Little Ponies, Little “Ein Skeins” (Einsteins), and Dora.  She can read most of the alphabet too, and loves going to the library and kids museum.
4. Still has curly red hair.  And two cowlicks which make styling it all the more difficult.  Her hair is growing out funny in back and a few sections look almost mullet-esque so I think I’m going to have to chop it to even it out.  She has discovered that she likes to play with mom’s hair.  She loves to brush it and put clips in it and try to braid it… It has been funny because Aedan has wanted to get in on the action too and now knows how to braid my hair…

AEDAN:

1. This boy got so many Lego sets at Christmas and of course no sooner than when he finished building them all he starts getting excited about Star Wars and Star Wars Lego stuff.

Aedan in the Robots exhibit, Rockford Children’s Discovery Center Museum.

2. He is a great reader.  He is so funny with his writing and drawing lately.  Apparantly he was fed up with our rules so he made up some of his own:

Rules: 1) never close my door 2) don’t distroy my legos 3) keep hands and feet to self 4) never mess up my bed

3. He plays really well with Lily but knows how to get her to do things he knows she shouldn’t do.  And of course she is just thrilled that he is giving her attention so she happily obliges.  He has accepted the fact that he will have another little sister and tells me he is so excited.  He’s been super helpful.

4. We still have a hard time getting him to eat most meats and foods that are mixed.  He is SO SLOW too.  It doesn’t help that Lily is super fast and eats just about anything, makes him even crabbier.

Aedan fussing about eating his food and Lily’s impression of Aedan fussing about eating his food.

JACKIE:

1. 33 weeks now.  Still a girl.  Baby has been breech for a while now and is VERY active so of course my bladder is loving it.  I sure hope she turns.  Had some contractions yesterday but if she is like my other two, she will be fashionably late.  Is it crazy to say I almost hope I can schedule an induction again?  It is so nice to be able to plan it and I honestly don’t know what I’d do if I went into labor on my own.  Oh well, looking forward to that epidural! Below is me sometime early January. That jade bracelet I put on in my first month of pregnancy and my wrists got swollen quick and could never get it off.  Had to break it off shortly after this picture.
2. I usually get a burst of energy now but sadly it doesn’t seem to be happening.  I’m slowing down, physically and definitely mentally.  My short term memory is shot. I’ve been trying to get things ready despite myself, mostly worried about freezing meals and getting kids ready for Spring and such, not so much about gather baby stuff.  I hate the term nesting.  I’ve also become hateful of undeserving things.
3. Being creative seems to take a lot of brain power but I do have my moments.  Aedan once commented that he wished I could come to his Kindergarten holiday parties so I decided I would find a sitter for Lily and surprise him by coming to his Valentines Party.  I signed up to do a game and thought a VDay game of twister would be silly.  So going for minimum cost and effort, I cut out paper hearts and machine stitched them onto a unused white shower curtain of ours and made a spinner out of cardboard.  It was fun.  I also made Neal a VDay present, again low $/effort, and decorated some recycled jars to make personalized snack containers for his desk at work.  Gotta push my mind somehow people.
4. Things have been busy for me in my church assignments these last few months.  Inspite of my swollen fingers, I decided to play my cello for Christmas Day and it went ok.  It was more for me and my kids, forcing myself to not forget how to play and my kids needed to know that it is ok to be brave and do  things that make you nervous (or maybe in my case, embarassed).  There have been some Sundays where I’ve found myself playing the organ, teaching a Primary class, teaching Sharing Time, and teaching Singing Time, all back to back.  It has been crazy. 

NEAL:

1. He’s been travelling a lot.  He just got back from a trip to Japan, Korea, and China.  He goes to Colorado, Wisconsin, and I think Chicago this month.  We survive without him but barely.  He is so busy with this new position and seems like he is constantly having work added on to him.  But we are so thankful for this position and will be even more thankful once we can cash in on all the flight and hotel rewards racking up….
2. He is busy with doing school part time too.  My mushbrain can’t even comprehend doing all he does now.  He is doing well there too.
3. He’s been spending some good quality time with Aedan these last few months.  Before Christmas he made a goal to build every one of Aedan’s lego sets with Aedan before Christmas came.  That turned out to be a hard goal to meet.  Since Christmas they’ve been busy playing Lego Star Wars together and they’ve started reading Hugo together.  They even got to go on a Daddy/Son outing to see Star Wars I in 3D in the theaters opening day. 
4. He’s had a bit of a break from doing major home improvements these past few months which has been nice.  We are far from done with this place but that is ok for now.  He decided recently that it would be good to refinance our home with rates being so very low now and so we just got an appraisal done.  It feels weird to refinance after only 2 years of being in the home but rates have dropped enough that it was very worth it.  Next on his honey-to-do list is put the crib back together.

Right Now

Right Now the kids are downstairs wrapping Christmas presents for me and Neal.  Aedan’s is apparently something he made at school today (his last day of the year) and Lily just “shops” around the house for things and wraps them.  There is a large assortment of boxed pudding and cake mixes wrapped with “snappy tape” and “oh so beautiful” bows from her under the tree, each carefully labeled by mom for their intended recipient (one even says To: Lily, From: Lily).

Can I just say this is the kindest looking Santa ever? Love Lily’s Santa Phobia. Our little village has a BIG Christmas party.

Right Now the baby is kicking me a lot.  I have to go back for another ultrasound in two weeks because the baby was positioned in such a way that they couldn’t get all their measurements.  We are a bit worried that I am getting a fair amount of swelling at this point in pregnancy, having low iron and such, and I am just hoping and praying I don’t wind up on complete bed rest. 

Neal and Lily on the Holiday Train at the Illinois Railroad Museum

Right Now Lily’s pants are riding low as we have been working on potty training this month and she is out of diapers.  She is not quite 2 1/2 yrs and if I was feeling up for it she might have been trained earlier but my goal was by the end of the year so not too bad.  My limited experience doing potty training has led me to believe that potty training is more training for the parent than the kid.  We just go straight to underwear, no diapers (except overnight) and while there are accidents, it works pretty well and quick.  I am THRILLED to have a handful of months without diapers!

Right Now the house is a mess.  What’s new.

Right Now Neal is working hard so that he can take time off  for the rest of the year (starting tomorrow!).  We are looking forward to a quiet Christmas at home.  I can honestly say I am so thankful to not have to be dealing with the stress, money, time, and more stress of travelling for the holidays.  But we do miss family.

Daddy is good for making the kids smile when they don’t want to.

Right Now I am organizing my to-do list for the weekend.  We have two sets of missionaries here for Christmas Dinner (so much for quiet) and we are trying to figure out menu.  So far Vichyssoise Soup, Beef Wellington, roasted veggies, rolls, salad, homemade applesauce, and maybe some pie. Most can be prepped ahead of time. What are you having for dinner?

The kids perusing the toy catalogs, marking up what they want for Christmas.  We used to do this as kids, it was kind of funny to watch them do it.

Tball

I was a coach.

Yes, it is hard to believe.

I never imagined that statement would come from me.  EVER. I mean I like to play sports but was never any good to actually play on any team outside of church ball.  Besides, being married to Neal who is Mr. UberSportsGuy, I would be more of a bench warmer.

So,…. ya.

I was a coach.

Of Aedan’s Tball team.  Actually co-coach or maybe more of an assistant coach.  Whatever.  Aedan’s friend’s mom roped me into it and I must say it is a very fun/frustrating/exhausting/silly job. 

And I’ve actually learned some things.

It is true.

1) Sometimes it is the ones who throw well that you have to watch out for (as in balls whizzing past my ear)

2) Kids like to eat their gloves.  Gross.

3) 3 innings is an eternity.

4) Kids want to throw the ball with their gloved hand.  Makes no sense.

5) Some kids want to run along ALL of the lines drawn out on the field before going to 1st base. 

6) Being a coach and forgetting to show up for team pics is SUPER lame.

7) In a single run, a kid will hit the ball, run to catch the ball they hit, and then run to 1st base to hand it to the other team’s 1st baseman.

8) Being an outfielder in Tball is a bummer.

9) If you are a baseman it is a job requirement apparently to be chatty with the other team.

10) Even though he is ok at Tball, I think Aedan is in it for the social aspect. 

Oh what fun!  Overall, I am glad I did it and I am having a blast!

I think I was the team cheer leader.

Congrats for making it through buddy!  We are now in soccer season so updates on that later!

work and more work

I’ve done a lot of posts on the kids lately but maybe it is time I update you on Neal and Jackie stuff:

Lovely illusion at our local children’s museum, September 2010. Apparently tricks the camera too.

Neal is coming up on his one year anniversary working at Thermo Fisher Scientific!  He seems to enjoy the people and the set work hours and he doing well with his job duties.  He has been on a couple short trips for work and has another coming up in April to Orlando (jealous).  We feel so blessed to have got this job and to get our foot in the door, especially in today’s hard economic times.  Work is paying for him to take some MBA classes and that keeps him busy but will hopefully be worthwhile.  He currently has classes on Monday nights and Wednesday nights and we try to get him the rest of the time ;). 

Neal didn’t have a church calling for a few months after we moved in which was okay since he was still finishing up the PhD.  He was finally called to be the Melchizedeck Priesthood Group Leader in August (basically Elders Quorem and High Priests were combined and he was called as president) and had to be set apart as a high priest because of it.  Well, a few months later the church changed guidelines and that calling was dissolved.  That was kind of our “DOH!” moment because now that he was a high priest, he couldn’t serve as Elders Quorem President.  However he was called as High Priest group leader so it worked out just swell.  He is still busy with that calling but he doesn’t have to teach nearly as many lessons.  Neal has been in Primary for sooooo long and he loved it and did a great job there but I think it is time for the adults to experience him!  He is great though, I have branch members tell me how thankful they are for him and what he does.  It blesses our family in ways I’m sure I’m not always noticing, but it is there and we are grateful for it.

Me?  Well this week I have been pulling late nights trying to get our living room ready for painting.  It looked SO ghetto with all the patchups and paint samples slapped on the wall.  The previous owners just don’t know how to fix up a wall well.  Nuff said.  But it is getting better and it is primed and almost ready to go.  I am painting it Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray, a color used by Pottery Barn, and I am going to try adding a very slight amount of sheen using silver metallic paint and glaze.  Really slight, like barely there but enough to hopefully make all the difference in the world, right?  In spite of our house in constant construction mode, I feel like we’ve been doing a lot of entertaining lately.  We’ve been inviting a lot of the branch members over for dinner and it has been fun to get to know everyone.  I purchased two Wii dance games that have been a huge hit for these dinner parties (Just Dance 2 and Michael Jackson’s Experience) and my dad gave us Wii Pictionary which is also fun for parties (but I don’t break a sweat doing that!).

So aside from painting and cooking and normal day to day stuff with kids, I keep busy serving in the Primary at church.  I am serving as a counselor in the Primary presidency.  There really is only the president and myself.  I play piano in there too.  And I basically serve as secretary.  It has been awesome.  I am learning so much.  It is hard work but the internet has been such a huge blessing in this calling.  For handouts, for organizing, for lesson helps, everything. I love that others have such awesome ideas and freely share it.  People have commented to me that I am creative but really what it is is that I have gotten good at gathering creative ideas from others, so I can take no credit whatsoever! I wish I could be that creative though but seriously, who has the time these days :) Apparently everybody but me… My faves currently are:

www.sugardoodle.net because they have everything it is overwhelming.  Check out their general conference packets, they are amazing.

scriptures4kids.com because they have some awesome printables

visitingteachingblog.blogspot.com I know not Primary but I am feeling like an awesome VTer with these cute supplements to the lessons.  March’s is particularly cute.

Follow the Prophet

Chorus
Follow the prophet, follow the prophet,
Follow the prophet; don’t go astray.
Follow the prophet, follow the prophet,
Follow the prophet; he knows the way.

This weekend is general conference and it seemed very appropriate that Neal was teaching the kids to sing Follow the Prophet in Primary for the month of March.  We liked the idea of dressing up the kids as the different prophets but thought it would be a hassle to bring a ton of props so I made posters.  To try to make them as church approved as possible, I tried my best to make them look like the pictures suggested in the March Friend magazine (pictured above).  I have a long ways to go with my artistic skills but they turned out to be fun. 

Not to make fun of the prophets or anything but our kids faces suggests certain captions and I’ve included them in quotes and italics so there is no mistaking that this is Jackie speaking and not the church ;)  I’ve also put down the verses of the song to go with the pictures.

 

“There’s nothing like a life-time of back-breaking labor to make a person HAPPY!!”

1. Adam was a prophet, first one that we know.
In a place called Eden, he helped things to grow.
Adam served the Lord by following his ways.
We are his descendants in the latter days.

 

“RIGHTEOUS!!”

2. Enoch was a prophet; he taught what was good.
People in his city did just what they should.
When they were so righteous that there was no sin,
Heav’nly Father took them up to live with him.

 

“Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?!?”

3. Noah was a prophet called to preach the word,
Tried to cry repentance, but nobody heard.
They were busy sinning—Noah preached in vain.
They wished they had listened when they saw the rain.

 

“Who’s your daddy?”

4. Abraham the prophet prayed to have a son,
So the Lord sent Isaac as the chosen one.
Isaac begat Jacob, known as Israel;
Jacob’s sons were twelve tribes, so the Bible tells.

 

“After all we’ve been through, you are worshipping a CALF?!?”

5. Moses was a prophet sent to Israel.
He would lead them to the promised land to dwell.
They were slow to follow, or so it appears.
They were in the wilderness for forty years.

“Peek-a-boo!”

6. Samuel was a prophet chosen as a boy.
Hannah promised God her son would serve with joy.
In the tabernacle, Samuel heard his name;
He was called by God and answered, “Here I am!”

“Did you just see that? What a rush…”

7. Jonah was a prophet, tried to run away,
But he later learned to listen and obey.
When we really try, the Lord won’t let us fail:
That’s what Jonah learned deep down inside the whale.

 

“Yep.  Still here.”

8. Daniel was a prophet. He refused to sin;
So the king threw Daniel in the lion’s den.
Angels calmed the lions, and the king soon saw
Daniel’s pow’r was great, for he obeyed God’s law.

 

“I make this look good!”       

9. Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to return.
He blesses us with prophets who help us to learn.
President Monson humbly leads God’s Church today.
As we heed his words, we’ll walk a righteous way.

Since we last met…

Well hi there!  I know it has been ages since I last posted.  I dunno, lots of stuff happened but not much to report ;)  I’ll eventually get around to an update but today my little Lily reached the 6 month mark and I just now realized that I never wrote out her birth story.  For shame!  I realize birthing stories may not appeal to some or most but just know I need to write this down and you are more than welcome to just view the pretty pictures…. 

You may or may not recall that I was a week overdue with Lily and we set our induction date, planning (not by my design) to wake up at 5am to make a call to ensure there was room for us in the hospital.  There was and we showed up at 6am ready to get things going.  Since this was my second time going in to be induced, I haven’t had the “privilege” of rushing in while in labor so my experience going in is very laid back, I get a good night’s sleep prior to coming in, etc.  Well, things generally go a little slow to start because, hey, what is the rush for them right?I don’t think we got on pitocin until 9am.  That was just 3 hours of sitting and paperwork and, well nothing much.  They got me started on a low dose (hallelujah) and gradually worked me up and meanwhile my water breaks and I finish reading a book that I was meaning to finish before the baby came.  Contractions became more painful once the water broke and I planned on getting an epidural because other than the fact that I am a wimp I knew that with Aedan things didn’t really progress until I caved and got an epidural and then things went faster.  So as soon as I dialated to a 4 I was ready for that epidural. 

You’d have to ask Neal but I feel like I did better pre-epidural this go ‘round.  Sure I was in labor for a shorter period (got the epidural 12:30ish) of time before getting it and I knew what to expect.  But can I say I LOVED the epidural just as much. I would have been a terrible pioneer lady.  I’m okay with that. ;)

Well, here is the crazy part about her birth story.  Neal was on the phone with his mom giving updates and since I was still a 4 and just got the epidural and just got checked by a nurse who said it’ll be a while before things start happening, Neal was relaying the message that it looks like we’ll be in labor for a while longer.

My OB told me to turn and lay on my side to see if that helps things move along.  So I turned once and while Neal was still on the phone I had one contraction and my jaw just dropped.  Even with the epidural it felt HUGE.  I told Neal that I thought something odd just happened and whoa nelly my comfort level dropped a ton.  Our nurse came in with another nurse who was there to do who knows what and she just happened to need to check me and she was shocked that I went from dialated at a 4 to a 10 in one contraction! It is insane to think that my body could do something like that so quickly and it was the weirdest sensation. 

Well seeing as the OB was just there and thought we had a while left, she went off to do a C-Section.  So I had to wait and they had to tell her to hurry up and she finally came and three pushes later and we had our little baby, 2:30 pm.  The delivery experience was so much better as the epidural wasn’t too strong so that I wasn’t completely numb like I was with Aedan.  Absolutely wonderful! 

That little Lily was so bright eyed and a beautiful sight to see!  She was such a lamb and wow, I still can’t believe that she was able to smile a couple times before we even left the hospital.  That was surely a sign of what was to come because she really is a happy baby and is quick to smile for us.   We love our little Lily and are loving each passing moment we have with her!   

Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Chinese New Year!!

 

Some might wonder if I’m giving up blogging.  Others might wonder if we’ve skipped off of the face of the earth.  Then there are those who might wonder if Twinkies are better deep fried.

Don’t worry, they are.

Well in answer to the first two questions: not giving up blogging, and we are still here but barely.  Here’s how Jan-early Feb went down:

Team Kitchen fought a tough game last month.  The opposition, team X, came on full force with RSV and pneumonia but fell behind at half time.  So they brought in the “reserve” team players: pink eye and stomach flu and the game went into a double overtime.

It wasn’t pretty.

It seems every time we would set foot outside the home we would pick up something else and then share it with the family.  Arrgghh.  I feel like life this past month (I guess technically past two months) has been put in slow motion and I don’t know if I really accomplished much.  Now that we are finally back to good health I am having trouble getting back into a normal groove.  I suppose so many things have changed in the last month making that goal nearly impossible to accomplish.

For instance, Aedan, has grown up so much.  Not just in size, although I am finding him at an awkward toddler/boy in between stage in his clothes right now.  He has really taken an interest in reading and writing lately and I am just scrambling to try to keep up.  He can read some words either out of familiarity or out of earnestly trying and sounding out letters.  He is finding the patience to actually write now. He wanted to write his name on his own Valentines but could only handle so much for so long.  So for a few cards a day over a handful of days we made it.

His vocabulary and sentence structure has improved but I wonder if it wouldn’t be much more advanced if it weren’t for me holding him back.  You see, when he says certain things that aren’t right but they sound cute, I don’t want to correct him.  Things like…

“Mom, I want to go to Old McDonald’s" (McDonalds)

“Oh look! There is the angel Ramoni” (Moroni)

“Squidward Testicle Pants” (supposed to be Tentacle and yes this is from Spongebob) 

Okay, that last one I set to correcting lightening fast. In hind sight, tentacle isn’t a whole lot better.  He’s a squid people.  Hhmmm.  Moving on…

Lily is a happy girl.  She has taken to squealing.  And she gets frustrated like a girl.  I don’t know how to explain it but I can tell I’m in for trouble already.

She discovered her feet shortly getting out of the hospital and a week ago today she rolled over, twice, although as it happens I was the only one who witnessed it, thus no one believes me.  She has not done it since  and really I’m not sure if she has the motivation to do so but we’ll see.

And here I am, a happy mommy of a babe with no teeth yet.   I’m  dreading the nursing-while-teething stage although she has become very drooling this last month so who knows. 

Well have a happy Valentine’s Day or Chinese New Year, whichever you prefer!  Who knows maybe I’ll get around to taking off the Christmas blog decor soon too…