Lick!

Is it weird that I sometimes have an urge to lick my son? Sometimes when Noah is snuggled up next to me with his head and hair against my cheek trying to fall asleep, I feel an instinctive urge to groom him like a mother cat does to her kitten. I've never owned any pets other than fish and I never particularly liked cats so I find it quite weird that I'm relating to them in this strange way. I don't know, maybe next time instead of telling him "I Love You", I'll just give him a quick lick on his head.

Smack Down

Noah's starting to hit other kids. I think he picked it up from our mommy and me class. The kids in his class are a bit older and every time we'd go, he would get picked on at least once or twice. He always seems confused as to why they would growl at him, push him to the ground, hit him in the head with trucks or throw temper tantrums. In fact, he walked over to a kid on the ground throwing a temper tantrum and bent over to observe her. It's either that or he's just at the age where kids do that naturally. Well, he's been swatting at his cousin Daniel lately. I always say "No, no, Noah", but I always follow it with a little pat on the head and a whispered "Good job". For those of you who don't know I grew up with 2 older brothers and was the recipient of many swats. All I can say is revenge is so sweet. (By the way, sorry Aunt Lydia, I told Noah he can only hit Uncle John's side of Daniel not Aunt Lydia's side.)

Being Your Mom

I woke up tonight from your constant stirring. It's been hot the past 2 days so I awoke feeling unbearably hot. I thought that you might be feeling the same way so I quickly took off your socks - which you dislike wearing when you sleep and your poofy blanket pants. Then I went and laid by your feet so that I'd remember to put on a lighter pair of sweats and to change your diapee because you've been peeing out of your diapers consistently for the past few months. Luckily the poofy blanket pants usually absorbs most of the leakage but without those tonight you definitely need a diaper change before dawn. Sensing that I was by your feet you kept kicking me in the face. After a dozen or so kicks I got up to check if your dad was still awake. It's around 2AM and he's better at wrapping you in your diapers to minimize leaks. He's not, so I'm on my own. In an attempt to wrap you up tightly I constantly check and adjust the diaper which of course wakes you up. I put on your sweats and lay next to you. You look up at me with your big angelic eyes and I couldn't resist but give you a kiss on your green Soothie pacifier. You smile at me behind your paci. I tell you "Swai jao" (Go to sleep). Your paci pops out and being thirsty myself I sit you up and offer you your water. You take two long aggressive sucks of water and I pop your paci back in. There goes the diaper change. You're having a hard time falling back to sleep tonight. You crawl on top of me and lay in the cradle of my arm, you lay on my side using my tummy as your recliner, you lay perpendicular to me on top of your pillow with your head next to mine, you lay in front of me and grasp my cheek and play with my nose. I pretend to sleep in hopes that you'll fall asleep quickly. But of course I can't sleep. I can never sleep when you're still awake. Finally, over and hour later I pull you close to me. With you cradled in my arm I tell you that it's time to sleep. You lay a bit then you started to kick your leg up and down. I tell you to stop moving. You start up again so I tap your leg. You snuggle up next to me with your forehead on my cheek and your hair tickling my eyes. Your left leg on top of mine. Your breathing deepens and in a few minutes you're asleep. You paci falls on my chest and I savor the moment. I love Being Your Mom.

Random Things

I didn't realize how much work it would be keeping up a blog. I find it difficult keeping it interesting. So whether you find it interesting or not I'm going to tell you 15 random things about Noah. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the note going around Facebook. I did mine a couple of days ago (which is listed under Noah's) and thought it would be fun doing one for Noah.

Noah's 15 Random Things
1. He fell out of bed this morning which explains why I'm up at this ungodly hour. Then an hour later while half asleep, he crawled to the end of the bed and looked at where he fell off and went back to sleep.
2. He has 4 teeth on top and 4 on the bottom. They're pretty screwed up. I've never seen such teeth on a child but I'm pretty sure he gets it from me.
3. He doesn't like his feet covered when he sleeps. Everytime I put the covers over him while he's sleeping he'll keep pulling until they're off.
4. He doesn't like fruits or fruit juices. What kid doesn't like sweet juice??
5. His favorite toys are sticks and balls. When we go out shopping I'll give him an orange or spatula to keep him happy.
6. During mealtimes I have Elmo and Mickey videos to keep him distracted. I got the Mickey videos to get him psyched for out upcoming Disneyland trip :)
7. In addition to videos during mealtimes he needs to have something in his hands or he'll get restless. Remote controls, utensils, baby magazines, toys - you name it.
8. He picked nose for the first time yesterday. It was very cute. Since he's sick he got some mucus out and then tried to put it in his mouth! Why do kids do that? Is it instinct??
9. Even though we speak mostly Chinese/Cantonese at home Noah's first words are all English. He hasn't said anything consistently yet but he attempts to say "Open, Bubble and Baby".
10. He falls asleep easily for naps but it takes him 40 minutes to and hour to go to sleep for the night.
11. He started walking on Bryan's birthday.
12. He loves his pacifier. He would suck it all day if he could but we only give it to him when it's time to sleep.
13. He has a problem with constipation. His last poop was the size of a baseball and the consistency of Play-Doh. Poor boy :(
14. He is at 55% for height but less than 10% for weight compared to boys at his age. He doesn't have much fat on him except for a little fat line on his inner thighs. I love that fat line but it's fading a little everyday...sigh
15. When he hears music he'll flap hand up and down. It started when I used to have music on in the house and I would jump around while holding him. That made his free hand flap up and down :)

Jessica's 25 Random Things
1. I generally dislike eating Chinese food when I go out to eat. I eat it all day at home so why would I eat it when I go out too?
2. I broke my left arm, right ankle (where the bone came out of my skin) and fractured my eye orbital when I flipped my mom's car when I was 20 yrs old. I was in a wheelchair for 6 months.
3. I gained 20lbs since high school, 10 of which were leftover from the pregnancy. I think they're here to stay...sigh
4. I sleep with Noah every chance I get which sometimes adds up to 16 hours in one day!
5. After 5 years of marriage we just got our first home phone last year. Before that we just used our cells.
6. I flunked out of CSUF before graduating from UCI.
7. I was on hospitalized bedrest for 7 weeks for preterm labor, shot up with drugs to prevent contractions, given steroids so that Noah would grow faster and gave myself 2 insulin injections daily in my belly because of gestational diabetes.
8. I avoided going to places like Disneyland, Sea World and Zoos for the past 10 years in fear that once I have children I'd be really sick of those places. On a side note, we are taking Noah to Disneyland for my bday this year :)
9. I've had 6 full-time jobs in a span of 8 years. In addition, I also worked part-time for 2 wedding planners on weekends.
10. I am thinking about going back to school for to become an Ultrasound Technician. I found out that my BA is useless in finding a good paying part-time job.
11. I told my friend Jeanine I was pregnant before I told Bryan :) He was on a plane coming back from Kuwait, I couldn't help myself!
12. Bryan and I have been out 3 times without Noah since he was born 15 months ago.
13. I didn't realize that I love cheese until I met someone who hates cheese.
14. I didn't learn to ride a bike until I was 10 years old and I haven't riden one again since I was 13 years old. I didn't gain much confidence in my riding skills so whenever I passed by pedestrians on the sidewalk I'd start to freak out and weave from side to side.
15. I watch all my tv shows on the internet after Noah goes to sleep. My current favorites are Top Chef, Top Design, Project Runway, Hell's Kitchen, Rachel Zoe, America's Best Dance Crew and How I Met Your Mother.
16. I the past 30 years I've lived in 8 different homes within a 5 mile radius.
17. I cannot sing, drink or dance. But with a little alcohol in me I'll dance a bit :)
18. I had a fear of cats and dogs. Now I like little dogs and I tolerate cats but I still fear big dogs.
19. I don't like being in individual competitions because there's always a winner and a loser, and I'm usually the loser.
20. I have a hard time making new friends. I think it's from an irrational fear of rejection.
21. I also have a hard time making "small talk", I feel very fake when I do it and I don't like that feeling at all. See #20.
22. I am proud of the second place ribbon I won for the bean bag throw in the first grade and the Presidential Award in the 6th grade. I also won 3rd place trophies for Poetry in 7th and 8th grade.
23. I won the grand prize laptop at the China Airlines Xmas party. Haven't won anything since.
24. I've never rollerbladed before in my life.
25. I left work without telling my boss so that I could get Aaron Kwok's autograph. I got a photo with him too :) I'm too lazy to scan the photo so you'll just have to believe me on that one.

That's it. I hope you found it "interesting". If not, I'm sorry I wasted your time. That was one long post!

Innocent Flirtation?

What do you do when the love of your life flirts with someone right in front of you? What I did was grinned and bore it and came home to vent in my blog. I know what you're thinking, "Bryan? He doesn't seem like the type to do something like that!" Well, you're absolutely right! It was Noah!! Tonight we were at my parents house and Noah was playing ball with his cousins. Aunt Lydia (names have been changed to protect the innocent) came downstairs and sat next to me on the couch while I held her cute little baby. Noah approached us and at first we thought he was a little jealous until I noticed he was actually approaching Aunt Lydia. He proceeded to walk back and forth between playing ball and Aunt Lydia and at times even presented her the ball he had so difficultly acquired from his older cousins. While at play he would also sneak glances over at Aunt Lydia as if to see if she was watching his great athletic prowess. When Aunt Lydia brought her sleepy baby upstairs, he stopped playing ball and tried to follow her upstairs. Noah is 14.5 months old! How could this start so early?!? I thought I would have a few more years as the apple of his eyes as he is mine. I spend day and night catering to his every want and he has fallen in love with another woman. Sigh...all I can say is my heart is broken into a million pieces and can never be mended.

USA vs. China

January 12, 2009 marks 30 years since I first step foot in America. I immigrated here at the age of 3 so I have no memories of Taiwan before that. Though I visited every 2 years or so I didn't really have a deep connection with the country. That is until I was in Taiwan during the big earthquake on 9/21/99. Buildings collapsed, people trapped, thousands died, rescuers arrived from all over the world and everywhere on the streets people were banded together helping and supporting one another. That's when I had an overwhelming feeling of "Wow, these are my people". Corny eh? Well, since then, tragedy over, people healed, life went on and Taiwan is thousands of ocean miles away. The connection slowly fades away. Bryan on the other hand came to America when he was 16 years old. He tells me that he could never live in Hong Kong again. He's used to living in larger homes, driving to work and non-humid weather. But that doesn't change his deep connection to his roots. It was never so prevalent until we watched the Olympics together and I realized we were rooting for different teams! That brings on a slew of introspective questions of why I consider myself first a Chinese and second an American, but I still hope that the Chinese gymnastics team gets eliminated for having underaged athletes. Could it be because I was conditioned at an early age to pledge my allegience to the American flag every day at school? Too many questions to be discussed in this blog. But it does make me wonder, "At what age do you become connected to your country?"

CLICK!

A new strategy...

I just figured out how to check how much money I made so far from Adsense. A whole $1.31! That's 4 total clicks! Adsense pays every time you reach $100 in earnings. At this point, I won't be paid until Noah graduates from college! Come on people, Bryan's about to shut down my blog. He didn't like me talking about my small and saggies in the last post. Click if you like the post, click if you're bored, click if "you threw up a little in your mouth". Doesn't matter, just CLICK! By the way, I'm not allowed to "encourage" anyone to do this under their terms and conditions so I'm not encouraging you. I'm TELLING you. GO DO IT!