Month: April 2010

  • No More Naps

    Yes, folks, it’s the end of an era: Jack has stopped napping. I knew this day would come — I’ve read that the precious nap usually ends at three, and most of Jack’s little friends have stopped napping. Up until a week or two ago, Jack was still sleeping for two hours in the middle of the day. Sure, he’d skip one here or there, but he was reliable for the most part, and also sleeping nearly 12 hours at night. Well, for the past 10 days, he’s been quietly reading in his bed (he gets out of bed and gets books from the bookcase himself) instead of sleeping. Unlike in the past, he doesn’t get crazy in the late afternoon without his nap. His nighttime sleeping is unaffected — still sleeping from 7 p.m. to a little after 6:30 a.m. — so I think all the signs are that Mr. Jack is done with his nap.

    Oh, but Mommy wasn’t done with the nap! Of course, Derek takes two naps a day. After lunch, we’re still enforcing quiet time for Jack, either reading in bed or playing quietly in the playroom.

    It’s hard to believe that naps are a thing of the past for Jack now. For so long, it was such a central part of the routine. Makes me a little sad: Seems like just yesterday, Jack was crawling all over the place, eating baby food, making cute babbling noises, napping. Now he’s a big kid, running everywhere, eating regular food, talking up a storm, and going straight from morning to evening without a nap. Oh, and wearing underwear — that’s a big one, too. Luckily, I still have one infant to cuddle.

    Speaking of babies, our furry child, Atari, was diagnosed with glaucoma in his right eye this week. It’s very sad. His right eye was totally bloodshot, and he kept it tightly closed. It first happened over a week ago, and our regular vet thought maybe he’d sustained some sort of head trauma (like bumping his head into a corner), and prescribed steroid eye ointment to help with the inflammation. That cleared it up, or so it seemed, but this past Monday, Atari was once again closing his eye, and his tail was droopy. Fellow Shiba owners know that when your Shiba’s tail isn’t curled, it means he’s in great distress. Atari also wasn’t eating much. So the next day, I took him into the vet again, where she said it looked like glaucoma. The pressure in his eye was so great that she referred me to a special dog and cat opthalmologist center as an “emergency” case. That afternoon, the ophthalmologist confirmed the diagnosis and performed 45 minutes of examinations on Atari’s eyes, including one where they put a huge glass thing directly ON Atari’s eyeball to look at the eye’s drainage system. They had to repeat that one about six times because his eye is so small, and the glass thing kept getting an air bubble under it. Atari was extremely patient. Now he’s on prescription eye drops, and we’ll see if those work. He seems to be feeling better. The worst-case scenario is blindness — he’s already lost some vision in his right eye.  Atari will be six years old in May, so he’s only middle-aged, but if glaucoma pops up in Shibas, it usually happens between ages 5 and 6. Luckily, Shibas are pretty hardy, so I hope Atari doesn’t suffer any other major problems. He is the world’s mellowest dog. I’m really hoping to preserve his sight as long as possible — we’re putting drops in his left eye preventively, too. June is going to be an optometrist in a year, so maybe we can hit her up for free drops, ha. She did say that glaucoma is extremely painful, it’s just that dogs can’t say it. Atari didn’t even whimper. So sad.

    If these drops don’t work, we’ll try something stronger. The hope is that he won’t exhaust the drop options before his life ends (he probably still has a good six or seven, maybe even more, years left). Otherwise, we’re looking at surgery, which is in the thousands of dollars. There’s an awesome laser surgery option that’s very new that would preserve sight and solve the glaucoma problem altogether (and prevent it from happening in his left eye), but that’s in the range of $5,000 per eye, and, well, we just don’t have that kind of money. And even if we did, it’d be hard to justify dropping $10,000 on a preventive surgery for our dog, as much as we love him. Drops and more traditional surgical options aren’t cheap, either, but they’re more affordable than the laser surgery. Anyway, he’s doing much better now, and we go for a recheck on Monday. Hopefully the ophthalmologist will declare him good with these drops, and we can stop worrying about it for a little while.

  • A New Project

    Johnny recently pointed out that since he’s known me, I’ve always had some major project going on. At first I started to protest because I always struggle whenever anyone asks me what my “hobbies” are. I don’t really collect anything (other than clothes!), I don’t scrapbook, I’m not into taking artsy photographs (although I do enjoy documenting my life with plenty of snapshots). I do like to read, but who doesn’t? Besides, that hardly counts as a “project.” But, Johnny countered that I get bored without something to fill up my spare time, and said my obsession with training Atari, foray into cooking gourmet meals, participation in two half-marathons, and total immersion in all things baby- and parenting-related are all huge projects. I thought about it, and you know, he’s right. Every once in a while, I decide to pick up a new skill or activity, throw myself into it, learn the ins and outs, and for the most part, I then keep it as part of my life (certainly, cooking, Atari and the kids are a permanent fixtures. Running is a semi-regular part of my routine; I don’t get to run as much as I’d like to). Once I get the hang of it, I guess I start looking for a new challenge.

    Anyway, the reason this topic came up is because I’ve been talking to Johnny more and more about gardening — specifically, growing our own vegetable garden — and earlier this week, Johnny goes, “I see that ‘This is a project’ twinkle in your eye!” My first reaction was to scoff, but then I recognized the signs of a Beverly project: long periods of time Googling gardening-related topics, babbling to Johnny about building me a raised bed, scoping out the cute gardening clogs and rolling tool-storage bins at Target (they even come with cupholders and a kneeling pad on top!), wondering aloud if it would be reasonable to ask for an Environcycle tumbling composter for a 30th birthday present, considering creating an account on a gardening message board. Even I had to admit that the diagnosis was clear: I am forging full-steam ahead into my new project.

    I’m a little surprised by this new project, since I’ve never been an outdoorsy person, and a few months back, the subject of gardening would bore me to tears. But, a few weeks ago, I noticed that a hydrangea we planted last summer — that I thought had died over the winter — had come back to life. I love, love, love hydrangea. I’m pretty indifferent toward most yard plants, but oh, hydrangea, how I love thee. So I’ve been giving the hydrangea some TLC, hoping to nurse it back to life. Then I noticed a few other plants in our yard that need some love. It’s like they were challenging me to make them flourish, and I almost never turn down a good challenge. Then, some of the moms in my playgroup were talking about their vegetable gardens. I love the idea of growing some of our own vegetables, but I haven’t wanted to do anything because eventually Johnny and I want to get our backyard professionally landscaped (it’s got a good layout, but the previous owners really let it go to hell). I got to talking to one of the moms, who has the Square Foot Gardening book and followed the straightforward instructions in it to build a self-contained 4×4 vegetable garden bed in her backyard. The book even told her how many of each type of vegetable (depending on size) to plant in each square foot of the bed. It occurred to me that this is something I could do without taking up one of the permanent beds (that might get uprooted in a re-landscaping project). So, anyway, I’m going to order the book, read it, do a little (OK, a lot of) supplemental research online, and next spring, I can build my own veggie garden. In the meantime, there are lots of little projects for me to tackle in our yard.

    Another bonus: If this gardening thing sticks, I have an excuse to get a cute wide-brimmed hat! (Shopping … it is never far from my mind.)

  • Out and About

    Hi, everyone! Sorry I’ve been neglecting Xanga a bit. Now that spring is here, it feels like every weekend is filled with fun activities. Between the boys, home stuff, part-time work and weekend plans, it’s hard to find time to blog, but my goal is to do at least an entry a week. It’s fun to have old entries to look back on.

    Friday night, after the boys were in bed, I went for a girls’ night out with Milena. We were supposed to go to a few places, but ended up not wanting to spend the cab fare (we met up at her place, then called a cab so that no one had to be the designated driver. Neither of us are big drinkers, but better safe than sorry), so we just stayed at the first place we went to, a club called Industry (used to be called Area). I’d love to read a book on the club business and the tactics they use to make a club look exclusive. We arrived at 10:15 p.m., thinking the club would be open, but they weren’t open until 10:30, so we waited in line for 15 minutes. When they did open, some guy (who worked at the club) came down the line and selected only a few girls to go in (Milena and I got to go in). I couldn’t tell what criteria he was using; it was probably just random. Once we were in, we grabbed a drink, and it wasn’t until an hour later that the bouncers at the door started letting more people in. We heard from people who came in at that time that the line was around the corner, and people speculated that the club must be hopping on the inside while they were waiting. In reality, nothing was happening inside; we were just waiting for more people to show up so we could get on the dance floor. So funny. Anyway, the DJ was good so we danced until closing time.

    The bartender took this for us before the club got crowded

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    I was wearing a really cute miniskirt; unfortunately, when I arrived at Milena’s place before we went out, her 130-pound bull mastiff jumped up in excitement to greet me, and ran her paws all the way down my bare legs. It was a friendly gesture, but usually I’m wearing pants or bermudas when I run into Mona (the dog). Have you ever had an animal who outweighs you run its nails down your bare legs? It is not fun. Her nails weren’t exactly short, either, so I had these bloody scratches down my right leg (my left one wasn’t too bad). My skin is sensitive, so immediately the scratches swelled up. Milena didn’t have any rubbing alcohol, so we cleaned out the scratches with soap and lots of water, then I put two packs of frozen peas on them (that’s how many we needed to cover the length of the scratches), and then put lotion all over the area. That was the best we could do! It was a lot better after that, and now the scratches have almost disappeared, but I do have two huge bruises from where she initially landed on me. OUCH! I am dog lover, for sure, but I was a little irritated. This is exactly why we taught Atari not to jump on people. Well, and Atari’s only 30 pounds, not 130. Mona’s a good dog, though. She’s really gentle around Marcus (same age as Jack). Anyway, thank goodness clubs are dark; otherwise, I would have looked really strange.

    Saturday night, after the boys went to sleep, Johnny and I met up with Karthika, Peter, Courtney and Brendan for dinner at Cafe Santorini, a rooftop Mediterranean restaurant in Pasadena. The service was crappy, but the food was excellent, and the company was great, of course.

    The ladies

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    I love this picture of me and Johnny

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    Then, we just enjoyed a lazy Sunday and didn’t do much. Somehow it’s Monday already, boo! I hope everyone had great weekends, too.

  • The Difference Between Jack and Derek

    People often ask me if Jack and Derek have different personalities, and the answer is a resounding yes. Obviously, Derek’s personality isn’t as formed as Jack’s is, but already you can tell that they have fundamentally different temperaments. They’re both happy children, but Jack is loud and wants to be the center of attention, while Derek is more reserved. He expresses his happiness by smiling and wriggling and all that, but it’s hard to get him to giggle, even when he’s obviously delighted by something. He’s also very polite in expressing his displeasure.

    But, why explain this in words, when you guys can see for yourselves? This picture illustrates what I’m trying to say perfectly:

    Notice how Jack’s got the crazy hat and big grin on his face, and is trying to ride Derek, who just looks a little concerned.
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    There’s also this hilarious video to illuminate the difference in personalities (make sure you have your volume on):

    We’ll see how this pans out as they get older!

  • My Big Baby

    Derek turned nine months old this past Monday. Wow! We had his well-check yesterday, and he measured in at:

    Weight: 19 lbs, 6 oz (90th percentile)
    Length: 30.5 inches (almost 90th percentile)

    By comparison, at this age, Jack was a pound heavier, but an inch shorter. The pediatrician (a different one than our usual doctor, who was on vacation) asked if Johnny was really big, given Derek’s size. I said no, he’s 5’10″ and about 175 pounds. She shrugged and said, “Well, whatever you’re doing, keep it up because he’s growing really well!” But you never know — babies really slow down in their growth after the first year, anyway. Jack grew like a week and was always in the 75th to 90th percentiles, but nowadays he’s just 40th percentile in weight, and 60th in height. We’ll see!

    Anyway, Derek’s doing really well. He’s army crawling and dragging his stomach on the ground when he moves, so we’re waiting for “true” crawling to happen any day now. My mom jokes that we should attach a Swiffer cloth to Derek’s belly and just have him clean the floors. Ha! He’s also very smiley, and he can sometimes wave on command. I really do love the 9- to 12-month age range. Babies are so easily delighted by everything during these months, they’re sleeping well (usually), they’ll eat anything you put into their mouths (Derek’s happy to eat everything I puree for him) and they haven’t yet learned to say “no.”

    Speaking of saying no, Jack is the master. It gets really frustrating sometimes to hear “No, no, no” as a reply to everything, even when he means yes. I know it’s just a phase. We’re trying hard to be consistent and to give him realistic choices between two options where appropriate, so he feels in control. I can see that Jack’s struggling with his growing independence, too, in the way he shifts between being his usual sweet self and being The Terror From Toddler Hell. He’s slowly learning that words can hurt people’s feelings, and what the appropriate responses are when he’s feeling bad. But, frustrating moments aside, Jack’s still making us laugh and doing some pretty delightful things. These days he’s very into learning, and he’s always asking what something is (“What’s after twenty-nine?” “What’s this called?”, etc.). We also recently watched his first movie with him — we put on Toy Story after Derek went to bed one night, snuggled on the couch and ate popcorn. He was a little scared by the scenes in Sid’s room, but he paid attention throughout and seemed to get the plotline. Another plus is that Jack is really good about telling us when he needs to go pee now. He’s been good on the #2 for a while, but the pee was a bit unreliable. Now, he’ll tell us almost every time, instead of us having to remind him. He’s extremely reliable on outings, so I no longer worry when we’re at the grocery store or the mall. Yay!

    Anyway, here are some recent pictures. They’re mostly from Easter brunch at Chris and Victoria’s house. A bunch of you have probably seen them on Facebook already, but I know there are those of you on here who haven’t added me on Facebook (and why not? You should! ), so here goes.

    I baked some mini cheesecake cupcakes that I decorated with chocolate eggs and colored sugar

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    Maddy had this little gun that shoots out bubbles. She and Jack had fun with it. Look at Jack’s stealth expression on that second photo!

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    Victoria and I in the yard; the Easter brunch table setup and the kids’ Easter baskets

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    Derek’s too young for a basket, so we just got him an Easter bib and called it a day

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    Cute cousins!

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    Chris hid plastic eggs filled with little crackers around the yard, and Maddy and Jack had so much fun hunting for them!

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    Derek was delighted just to witness the festivities

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    We tried unsuccessfully to get a group kids shot, but the attempts were pretty cute anyway

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    I hope everyone had a great weekend!