We hosted our weekly rotating playdate this morning, and shortly after all the kids and moms left (a little after noon), our doorbell rang. I looked through the pane of glass on our door and saw that it was a normal-looking woman in her 40s, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and holding her car keys. I didn’t recognize her, but I thought maybe she lived on our street and had some of our mail misdelivered to her or something. So, I opened the door a crack and said, “Can I help you?”

She replied, “I’m sorry, but can I use your bathroom?” No explanation as to why, and less than two blocks away, there’s a Volvo dealership, and next to it, an El Pollo Loco — both places with public restrooms. Plus, she had a car — couldn’t she drive to any of the dozens of shopping centers within a few minutes of us? I felt a little bad, but I smiled and said, “No, you cannot. Sorry! There are public restrooms in a restaurant one block down to your left.” As I was closing the door, I heard her say, “I can’t?” But I didn’t wait to hear more, I closed the door, locked it and bolted it.

We live in a nice neighborhood — I’m not aware of any crimes here in the recent past, and I also grew up around here and don’t remember any theft or crimes. We don’t get random people at our door — the closest to that are real estate agents or people from fast food restaurants coming to deposit advertisements near the front door. I’m sure chances are that she just really needed to go right then, but she really caught me off-guard. No explanation as to why she needed a bathroom so urgently that she had to knock on a stranger’s door, plus she was looking around behind me (thank goodness we have a long entry hallway, so she couldn’t see inside to where the boys were). I’m not a paranoid person, but I am home alone with two little kids (and a dog, but Atari, despite sounding fierce when he barks, wouldn’t hurt a flea), and who knows if she was scoping out houses so she (or someone she works for) could come back and rob us later? Or worse.

Perhaps I’ll go out of my way to do a good deed later this afternoon to make up for the fact that I possibly denied someone who genuinely needed help. That ought to restore the karmic balance!

Bear with me — I’m going to talk about the SFG yet again. By far the most exciting development this week (in terms of gardening) is that the spinach has sprouted!

Look closely: There’s a tiny seedling (with its seed leaves visible) in the upper part of the photograph (near the center of the pic), and one just starting to poke through the soil in the lower right hand corner

According to the book, you can plant nine spinach per square foot. So I’m still waiting for six of the seeds to sprout.  They might not all sprout, but I’m hopeful. I just saw the first seedling yesterday, and today two more followed. So perhaps I’ll get a few more in the next couple of days. I’m still waiting for the sugar snap peas, but I’ve read that it can take 10-15 days for the seedlings to poke through the surface.

Meanwhile, my broccoli plants are doing really well. They’ve grown a lot in the last week and are getting taller every day.

I also planted onion and shallot sets over the weekend. Those were really simple to do. This upcoming weekend, I’ll put in the baby carrot seeds. Johnny has also hung up the nylon netting for the trellis, so we’re in full swing!

I also wanted to share a picture of my strawberries (which are in the hanging planter, not in the SFG). They’re coming out of dormancy. If last fall was any indication, these berries will be very flavorful.

OK, enough about gardening; moving on to the family. This past weekend was the last one that my in-laws spent at our house (for this year). Saturday night, all for of us adults went to dinner at a fusion tapas place (Orris) in West LA. My in-laws generously paid for our sitter and for dinner. Gotta love parents!

Unfortunately, I spilled half a glass of red wine on this gray sweater dress. It’s at the cleaner’s — I hope they can get all the stains out!

We also spent lots of time goofing around with the boys. They love giggling together on Jack’s bed.

And Mr. Derek loves to ham it up for the camera. I was looking at pictures on the camera at the end of dinner one night, and when he saw the camera, he said “CHEESE!” and wouldn’t stop until we took his picture.

Yeah, he probably knows he’s cute! Oh, and he’s mastered eating with a spoon (apologies if you’ve already seen this on Facebook):

This week will be a hectic one. Derek has a cold and a little stomach bug (he’s recovering nicely, but it still sucks when your toddler is sick!), Johnny’s gone to New York for work (will be back late Thursday night; he’s also sick, by the way), and I start Saturday morning tutoring this weekend. I recently finished up with two weeknight clients — one took his SAT, and the other had a crazy mom who started making insane/unethical demands — and accepted a job tutoring on Saturday mornings at a local tutoring agency. The pay is good, and the owner of the agency is really nice. She’s lining up private sessions back-to-back for me, so that I only have to go up there once. I’ll probably be there from 9 to noon, or maybe 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., each Saturday during the school year. Of course giving up a Saturday morning is a drawback, but it’s better than going out at 7 p.m. every evening, after a 12-hour day with the kids. Now I’ll get to stay home on weeknights, and I won’t have to pay a sitter when I tutor (Johnny doesn’t get home on weekdays until close to 9 p.m., so I was paying a sitter $10/hour while I went out to tutor). Small price to pay for a few hours on the weekend, plus it’ll give Johnny the opportunity to spend quality time with the boys, which he’s looking forward to. And, during school breaks and in the summer, we’ll have our whole weekend back. Not bad! Anyway, after this week we get a bit of a respite, where we don’t have much going on, and then Johnny goes back to New York (for New York Toy Fair) from Feb 11 – Feb 16. Yuck. Luckily, Michelle’s going to come visit me for a few days during that time — something to look forward to! Honestly, I don’t know how you military spouses do it. A separation of that long would be unbearable!

I know it’s probably a sign of impending doom, but it’s been unseasonably warm (even for CA) the last couple of days. Yesterday, I had to dig into one of my summer clothing boxes and whip out a sundress. Crazy! Today I’m wearing a lightweight skirt. I admit, I love it. I try not to think about the global warming aspect while enjoying this sunny spell.

I took advantage of the great weather on Friday to put the first transplants and seeds into my SFG. So far, we’ve got three squares of broccoli transplants, two of which are visible in the pic below (I bought those as seedlings instead of starting from scratch), and we’ve got one square of spinach seeds (lower left corner; not visible in pic, but you can’t see anything right now anyway) and one square of sugar snap peas (upper left corner).

Jack loves to water the garden, and he’s gotten good at not watering the plants, but rather the soil around them.

Funny side note: Yesterday, he asked to eat some sugar snap peas that I was washing, and as he crunched into one, he paused and said, “Wait, these growed from the garden already?” He looked so full of wonder. It was adorable that he even thought that would be possible. I hated having to tell him no. But, he wasn’t too crushed, since I reminded him that one day we would indeed get to harvest peas just like the ones he’s eating from the garden.

While Jack and I tend to the garden, Derek’s been enjoying some outside fun, too. It’s good to see, because earlier this week, he was miserable from a double ear infection. Now he’s all better.

Waving as he “mows” the lawn

He’s been having a word explosion lately. He had a few words down already (like mama, daddy, the names he calls his grandparents, night-night, dog, bye, ball), but now he also says “hot,” “hat,” “hello,” “I love you,” “Jack,” “oh man,” “fruit,” “blueberry,” and a bunch of others.  So cute! I feel like he’s on the cusp of a major leap forward in terms of communication, and I can’t wait to hear him actually talking.

Yesterday we had company over for dinner, so I dressed up a little. For Christmas, Charles gave me a cute dress from Express’ spring line, and I thought I’d have to wait a few months to wear it, but it was warm enough to don yesterday.

It’s even cuter without the little jacket, but this was taken in the evening, when it’d cooled down a bit.

And just because these are few and far between, a pic of just me and Johnny.

Tonight, we’ve hired a babysitter, because all four of us adults (Johnny and I, plus my in-laws) are heading to Pasadena for Victoria’s mom’s birthday dinner party. As I type, I’m waiting for four toenails to dry. Yes, I said four … I’m wearing peep-toe heels that show the first two toes on each foot, so, in a new nadir of laziness, I’ve only painted the exposed toes. Let’s hope I don’t need to take off my shoes for any reason!

Last spring, one of the ladies in our playgroup built and cultivated a Square Foot Garden. In her 4′x4′ garden, she was able to successfully grow tomatoes, peppers, basil, a sunflower, peas, eggplant, nasturtium and some other stuff. I was impressed! I asked her about it and then got the book for my birthday. I loved the book, which describes how many of each crop you can put into each 1-foot square (you can grow a different type of crop in each square, which means you could have up to 16 different types of fruits, veggies or flowers in that small space), and it gets around the issue of poor soil quality (which is a problem in most residential areas).

My in-laws are staying with us until next weekend, so Johnny asked his dad to help him with the construction of the garden. The two of them went to Home Depot and Lowe’s, and my father-in-law generously insisted on paying for everything, even though that was definitely not our intent, and then they built it in just a couple of hours, with Jack’s “help.” They even built me a sturdy steel trellis at the north end of the garden. The nylon netting for it arrived yesterday; my father-in-law’s going to hang it up on the trellis frame when he fills in the remainder of the Mel’s Mix (a special organic mix of 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 compost and 1/3 vermiculite. I guess SFG is doing so well that now they sell the mix pre-made, so you don’t have to purchase all the different stuff and mix it yourself). Jack was delighted to be out with the men. I hate to perpetuate gender stereotypes, but I have zero interest in tools and construction stuff, and Johnny does like it. Jack has to pick it up from somewhere! I’m not raising a man who isn’t handy … but I sure as heck won’t be the one teaching him those skills. My handiness begins and ends at changing a light bulb. There’s got to be something I’m not good at, right? Just kidding.

He learned how to use a tape measure, a drill and a hacksaw! Johnny told me that Jack actually cut the steel for the trellis frame.

Ta-da!!!! The garden and frame.

I’m SO grateful that the garden is built. (Thank you, Dad!) Since our climate is so mild, the last spring frost is actually in mid-February, which means that some of the earliest spring crops need to start going in now. To that end, I purchased broccoli seedlings yesterday. I also got some sugar snap pea seeds and spinach seeds. Those will go in over the weekend. In addition to those, over the course of the spring/summer, I plan to grow baby carrots, onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, okra, cucumber and basil. I feel like there was something else, but it’s slipping my mind at the moment. Anyway, there are 16 squares to fill, but I’ll leave some blank (or plant some wildflowers in them) — don’t want to bite off more than I can chew! I also still have my hanging tomato planter, which I’ll use to grow cherry tomatoes this year (big ones will be in the SFG), and my strawberries are doing well in their planter, too. I’m excited and will be posting regular updates here and on Facebook. Gardening is something I’ve been slow to warm up to, but now that Derek’s getting a little older, I need something to “baby,” and I suppose it might as well be home-grown vegetables! We do eat a lot of veggies, and it’ll be fun for the kids to participate in growing them.

Not much else to report. Jack and Derek are having great fun with Nana and Papa. Jack was introduced to football by my in-laws (Johnny’s not much of a sports watcher, and neither am I). Jack’s now requesting “football, please” on a regular basis. I don’t think he likes watching it as much as he likes being with all the guys on the couch, though:

My father-in-law and Johnny with the boys

Also, all the adults in the family are on a weight-loss campaign. I really let myself go from Thanksgiving on, and gained what I feel like is an unacceptable amount of weight. Now that I’m 30, I really feel like the weight is slower in coming off. It used to be that I could just eat whatever and not pay the price! Since I’m Asian, and given the small frames in my family, it’s never going to get too bad, but still, there’s a personal standard I have for myself, and over the holidays, I went way past it! Anyway, my whole point is that calorie counting and staying on track is much easier when everyone’s doing it! We’re all holding each other accountable and come up with strategies to enjoy meals (and not binge on weekends) while still staying within our calorie budgets. So far, Johnny has lost five pounds, and I’ve lost 4.5. We only started at the beginning of last week, so yay, go us. I’ll be happy to lose 10 pounds total. I think 15 is impossible, but we’ll see. Thanks to my in-laws being here, I’ve also been able to go to two or three Bar Method classes each week, instead of just on the weekend. In addition, I’ve still been running three times a week with the boys, so that’s five days of exercise each week. We’ll see how I do on the exercise front after they leave. Running is easy with the double jogger, but I really love the Bar Method classes for toning, and for the fast results (but you have to keep it up). I will happily do aerobic exercise, but strength training and toning is something I’m really bad at when I’m by myself.

OK, off to start prepping dinner! Hope everyone’s having a great 2011 so far.