peekie wu!

I love giving gifts.  I think I definitely inherited the habit from my Mom, who's a big giver in general.  When she can't give objects, she gives her love in the form of her time, home-cooked food, and heart.  Giving gifts is definitely one of her dominant love languages.  I don't think receiving gifts is one of mine, but I definitely enjoy giving gifts.  There's something about dwelling on the person you're trying to find the perfect gift for, and trying to think about what is something that they need or appreciate in their lives that they wouldn't buy for themselves.  To me, it goes beyond just the act of buying and giving the gift.  I enjoy reminiscing about all the good times I've spent with that person because I'm thinking back on what we've done together to try to discern what a perfect gift might be.  As I peruse through about a dozen gift guides from blogs or youtube, I get excited when I find something that reminds me of someone.  Then, I im

I'm usually not a fan of Halloween at all just like how I'm not a fan of scary movies.  But, after making Ethan's last-minute costume with Lucas last night, I realized that it can be fun.  I came up with a ghost idea because how much simpler can you get for a diy costume, right?  I asked for one of Lucas' old white tshirts, and started digging around in my craft drawers.  I found some googly eyes and black foam sheets.  We opted for the black foam so that we could make the ghost eyes bigger.  As Lucas was cutting up the bottom of the shirt into jagged triangles, he made me think of Pacman ghosts.  I temporarily got excited to make  a Pacman ghost costume, but Lucas brought me back down to earth by saying it might not be clear since we were using a white tshirt.  Oh well, maybe next year we can all be Pacman ghosts, hehe.  Now, if we could only get him to wear the tshirt ghost costume!  He's been getting picky about what he's willing to wear these days because he

Thank you for the lovely notes and cards of comfort and warmth yesterday.  To be honest, I was a bit surprised to hear from some of you, but it's nice to know there are a few people actually reading this blog.  I feel a lot better today because of you guys.  *virtual hugs*  Time also has a way of lessening the deepness of the sadness.  I'm sure there will be days ahead that will be difficult again, like when I actually see my mom in person for the first time, but I'll cross that bridge then. In the meantime, I'd like to continue doing regular things to further distance the sad feelings and memories.  I wish I blogged more regularly so that I wouldn't start forgetting things, but c'est la vie.  Ethan has gotten used to his new shoes now, and doesn't protest putting them on as much anymore.  We did go to Little Gym in our area, and Ethan was curiously terrified.  He wouldn't let go of Lucas, and refused to be put down.  Even his legs and feet were strong

Cancer and death seems to surround me lately.  I used to think cancer was something only the few got in their lives, and that if you made healthy choices in life, you could avoid it.  But, I'm not so sure anymore.  Two of my coworkers' moms passed away recently, and my boss just let us know that he found out he has cancer.  He has young kids, and so much life left to live, so here's hoping he can fight it.  Then, the hardest hit happened this morning.  My grandma passed away.  We only recently found out she had stage 4 lung cancer.  My mom is taking it pretty hard, and I don't know what to say to her.  I've never heard her so sad before.  It makes me very sad to hear her mourn the loss. The only light in my life right now is Ethan.  He's growing so fast and learning so much every day.  He is the reason why I try so hard.  He makes my little family unit whole.

Things have been changing quite a lot lately.  We finally got our new closet installed at the end of July. There's still a mirror, drawer front, and hamper that needs to be installed/fixed, but it came together rather quickly.  I need to get my life organized now, no excuses. When Jenny and her mom came to visit recently, we took them to Ethan's daycare's open house.  All of my pictures from that day are on my dslr, so I still have to upload those.  It was a good time though.  They had little farm animals and a pony outside to pet and ride.  Ethan was both scared and fascinated with the pony because he has a thing for horses lately and can pronounce "HORSE" very well.  He didn't want to touch any of the animals actually, which I guess is a good thing in terms of hygiene.  He's more of a look from afar kinda guy. I started a new workout series called 21 day fix, which is a part of the beach body franchise.  I haven't been follow

Recent wedding pic from Shannon's bridal suite on her wedding day: 4/26 Oops, my weekly updates seem to have fallen by the wayside.  I think we got busy on the weekends, and then things just snowballed away, as they do.  Here goes a more general update though: - New House Stuff The new house to do list has gone way down, almost to the point that there are really only maybe 2 more things that we need to address.  We also still need to tackle putting things in their right place and deconstructing the boxes that are being stored in our "dining/play room."  Alas, the devil's in the details, right? - Ethan Updates Ethan is about to move onto his next classroom: The Elephants!  This will be his very first transition to a new class besides the obvious one due to our move.  This will likely be very difficult for him since he seems to get attached to teachers.  Perhaps it's because he has started developing attachments to everything lately including his &qu

Lucas' push gift, when baby E was born, is a reminder of the amazing things love can create I'd have to say, after I became a mom, one of the biggest changes for me is - what I used to call, becoming a big sucker/weakling/weak sauce for stories about babies or kids at peril.  I hate hearing or reading about babies who can't survive due to any circumstance.  I hate it so much because I almost get a physiological response to the story as if a dagger just got thrusted into my gut.  One of the first instances of this was on my drive to pick up baby E from daycare back in Cali.  I was listening to NPR on the radio like usual, and they ran a story about babies in NICU because of drug addict moms.  Hearing the little cries of strong withdrawal pains from a newborn still hurts me to the core right now - and I'm just recalling this story from memory.  It almost spurs me to action, to want to vote for whatever bill it was they wanted to pass to convict drug addict moms fo

These past two weeks have been nice with Lucas' mom in town to help us with baby E.  It served as another reminder of how nice it would be to live close to grandparents, and family in general.  She's now off to Taiwan to spend time with her mom and siblings.  Family is the best.   Current movie: We were able to take advantage of having family in town by going out to the movies for the first time since we've made the move.  We saw Insurgent because I'm a massive fan of the whole Divergent trilogy.  I liked the movie, and the movie experience.  I could understand the compromises they had to make in order to make the movie quicker and more exciting. Current Ethanism: He's learned to start throwing things onto the floor.  I'm guessing he picked this up from Dad because he used to hand him the rocks in our backyard, and Lucas would toss it back onto the ground.  He likes to take any random two objects into his hands, clap them together, and, with great gusto, thr

Current podcast: NPR Invisibilia - Fearless  Current tune: Jamie Cullum - Interlude - Interlude Current book I'm reading: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg Current snack: a frozen (formerly fresh) jackfruit piece Current fav Ethan toy: his first radio flyer wagon Current fav house accomplishment: installing Ethan's new crown light in his bedroom Current hours of sleep at night: ~6, getting better! Current pic on iPhone roll: 

Say what?  It is the Fear Of Missing Out.  I never knew this was a thing, but after watching Ingrid's video on it, I felt so validated.  Not in the sense that I was all better from the feelings I had before, but there's something about being able to identify what it is that bothers you that gives you a sense of clarity. Ingrid's video: https://youtu.be/GvTYGsHbDy8 A brief TED talk on the same topic: https://youtu.be/1mZAQC9djPE If you don't have the chance to watch her video, it's the feeling that you don't want to miss out on creating memories with others, but at the same time either weren't invited to participate or didn't want to participate in the event. In particular, the year of 2014 was a big FOMO experience for me.  I'm sure, in part was because I had just become a new mom.  I had good reason to feel a bit detached from my previous life since it literally became a completely new life.  My close friends were getting married, and

Current mood: grateful for a great escape from my everyday by experiencing meaningful and engaging relationships with new and old friendships Current dislike: United airlines for constantly delaying my flights, switching airplanes, and being overall, a big poopy experience Current yearning: squeezing my little love, and massaging his little fat rolls Current sleep avg: 3/4 hours, it's really not a wonder why I'm still sick ;-(

Those nikes I had mentioned in my last post: My little boy's feet be gettin bigger!  Also, I always enjoy recounting to myself how Nike means victory in Greek ;-)

I want to attempt to start blogging on a more regular basis to try to keep in touch with the few that read this, and as a way of documenting my life better.  So, I'm going to start this series I'm calling, "the weekly currents" in the sense that I'll be listing my current project, favorite food, Ethanism...do you remember back in the old days of friendster and myspace?  Didn't they have a status asking what your current mood was?  Or your current music that you're listening to?  So, something like that.  Also, the unofficial writer from within likes that currents could also refer to water currents as in waves in the ocean.  It's like these are all just temporary things in life that pass.  Some moods or trends pass sooner than others, and some will remain for a season of life. So, first one, here we go: Current love: Ethan's first nike shoes Current podcast: NPR's TED's Radio Hour: Just a little nicer Current book I'm reading: The

Some of the things I've been using lately have been life-changing or mind-blowing.  OK, that sounds a bit dramatic, but it's almost not really an exaggeration!  Lemme explain... First and foremost, is the Eve Lom cleansing balm with muslin cloth product.  I've heard about cleansing balms for quite some time now from Fleur, a British youtuber / blogger since the beginning of 2013 (here are her first & second blog posts on the subject).  Unfortunately, cleansing balms have yet to really take off in the states.  I finally got a sample of the eve lom one by using my points from sephora, and was immediately hooked.  The cleanser has a good consistency of a bit of grittiness, but still remaining very gentle.  It has just enough oils to get all my waterproof makeup off, and leave my skin happy.  However, the real star of the show is that simple, unassuming muslin cloth.  It gives me such a great cleanse that I no longer use my clarisonic brush, feel the need to do any cla

Sometimes, when you're stuck, you may just be asking the wrong questions. Inspired from the prez himself:

Life is full of beginnings and ends.  It's a cycle of learning, failures, and triumph.  At the start of 2015, my family is at the beginning of building a new life, in a new city.  As I reflect back on 2014, I am mostly glad to have left it as it seems most people are, according to my YouTube feed.  This move has been the single most challenging and trying obstacle in my life...ever, even more than childbirth.  There are bits of joy sprinkled in there though, like the surprise farewell girl's day that Kelly arranged.  I'm truly touched when someone speaks my love language to me. Last moments at school before departure It was a bittersweet farewell when we left baby E's school too.  Seeing baby E grow into toddler E over the past year has been rewarding and in no small part due to his teachers' encouragement and love.  From celebrating his ability to lift his head to standing and walking by himself now, has been rewarding.  His temper tantrums are not fun, b