Life is perfect at this particular moment because:

1. Jack is fast asleep and will remain that way until 7 a.m. tomorrow , and his toys are all put away in their bins.

2. There is a slow cooker full of hearty (and healthy!) beef stew waiting on the kitchen counter, and because it was cooking all day, the apartment smells yummy.

3. Fresh corn bread is baking in the oven.

4. It’s Thursday night, which means Smallville, The Office, Grey’s Anatomy and the special SNL Weekend Update Thursday. Whee!

5. Tomorrow is Halloween, and Jack and I are going to a costume contest and trick-or-treating festivities at Mattel with Johnny in the morning. Johnny will probably get to come home early with us, and then we’re going to more trick-or-treating at the community center. I can’t wait to get Jack into his costume!

Now, I have to finish up some work, so that when Johnny gets home, we can get on with the evening. And by “get on with the evening,” I mean pig out and be couch potatoes.

Jack’s favorite word of late is “bird.” I’m not sure how he learned this word, but a couple of weeks ago, when we were on a walk, a bird flew by, and Jack said “buh-uh-uh,” with the middle “uh” a little higher in pitch and pointed at the bird. I thought it was a fluke, but no, he says “buh-uh-uh” whenever he sees his little avian friends. I’ve always said the Chinese word for bird to him, but I guess he learned it from Johnny. Or, maybe he wanted to say something similar to his other favorite word, “ball.” Anyway, my mom and I found “buh-uh-uh” so cute that we started saying it even when no birds were around, just to hear him repeat it. I guess I should stop that.

(By the way, the title for this entry is a reference to that Family Guy episode from a couple of weeks ago, where Peter becomes obsessed with the song that goes, “Buh buh buh bird bird bird, bird is the word. Have you heard? Bird is the word!”)

In other developmental news, I have begun Operation Utensil in earnest. It seems like every other toddler in the free world is adept with a spoon and fork. Well, maybe not adept, but is able to shovel food from bowl to mouth. Jack will attempt to spear food with a fork, but more often than not, he takes the food off the tines, or he takes food in his fingers, shoves it onto the tines, then eats with his hands anyway. He likes to turn spoons upside down, and no matter which utensil, it is tossed unceremoniously onto the ground after a few attempts. It’s mostly my fault, because I’m kind of mess-averse. I don’t mind a messy tray or high chair, but I’d rather not have my walls or floors covered in food from tossed utensils. Such is life with a youngster, though, and I think the price is slower uptake on the whole utensil thing. (Oh, and for those of you who ask, “Why don’t you just feed Jack?”, the answers are: 1. He’s refused to be fed since about 12.5 months old; and 2. Mommy needs to eat, too!) I know it shouldn’t matter, but lately I feel like I’ve been seeing endless toddlers — some who are even younger than Jack — using a spoon and/or fork. So this morning, I filled a small bowl with applesauce, gave Jack a spoon, and …

He got it!

Well, I should say, he got the hang of it. He did better than I anticipated — after a few seconds of finger-painting with the applesauce, Jack actually dug in with the toddler spoon and got it to his mouth! He finished the whole bowl. He only got about half his hair smeared with applesauce. Success!

OK, now that I’ve bored you all sufficiently, I’m going to back up and share pictures from the weekend, after the big boy boo-boo. By the way, thanks for everyone’s well wishes and comments on that entry!

After Jack awoke from his nap on Saturday, we went to the Grove for yet another fall festival. We had a lovely lunch at Johnny Rocket’s, then sat down in a pumpkin patch to enjoy a kids’ concert. Jack decided to join the big kids dancing near the band. I guess he felt pretty tough after his injury, ha.

Sunday, our friend (and longtime loyal blog reader) Christina came into town to stay for a couple of days en route to Charleston. Among Christina’s many adventures was a long stint in the Galapagos Islands serving with the Peace Corps. When she offered to cook us a yummy South American dinner on Sunday, we jumped at the offer! She even made fresh tortillas … I’ve never had anyone make me tortillas before! They were amazingly delicious.

Our lovely chef on the left, and a tortilla in making on the right

Monday morning, Christina babysat Jack while I got some work done, and we hung out in the afternoon. After Christina left on Tuesday, Jack and I met my friend Tomomi and her son Kai, who’s 11 days older than Jack. She had found this place called Giggles N Hugs. It’s an indoor playground with a restaurant that serves healthy, organic kid-friendly dishes, as well as sophisticated adult fare. There are kid-sized utensils and high chairs aplenty, and if your child gets antsy, they can just go into the playground part, thus eliminating the stress from restaurant outings! It’s like a very mild-mannered Chuck E. Cheese for the younger set. I could have done without the nursery rhyme music blasting at top volume, but it was a very cool place, and we had fun. Plus, the food was good. Jack devoured half a bowl of mac and cheese, and I couldn’t pass up the kids’ fare … I got chicken fingers and corn on the cob. It was a meal decidedly void of greens. I figured, Jack gets greens at all other meals, as long as we were out and having fun, no greens necessary!

Jack and Kai playing (half of the playroom was very girly; half was more masculine)

Jack enjoying the play equipment

A shot of part of the playroom, leading to the restaurant, and our food!

Jack actually tried with the fork because Kai was using it. He managed, using his fingers and the fork, to eat half the huge bowl of pasta

That sums up our busy past few days. Tomorrow and Friday will be so much fun! We’re going to our weekly My Gym class in the morning, then after Jack’s nap, we’re meeting up with Milena and Marcus for lunch. Friday is Halloween, of course! Jack and I are going trick-or-treating at Mattel with Johnny in the morning, then Johnny will come home with us and go trick-or-treating at the local community center in the afternoon. Milena and Marcus will meet us for that round of trick-or-treating. I’m getting a haircut on Saturday, and Sunday we’ll be hanging out with my mom, sister and Charles. Fun times! I’ll be sure to share plenty of Halloween pictures! If I don’t get on here before then, have a safe and happy Halloween, everyone!

Well, this was a milestone I was hoping we could avoid for a while, but this morning, Jack got his first big-boy boo-boo that required a trip to the urgent care clinic. Jack was happily running around the living room when he lost his footing, stumbled and fell. He hit the side of the coffee table pretty hard, right near his left eye. The thing is, he wasn’t even near the coffee table, but he twisted when he fell, and that’s where he ended up landing.

When Johnny went to pick him up to comfort him, Jack’s eyes were shut, and all we saw was what looked like a ton of blood. We thought he had poked his eye! Fortunately, once we wiped the blood away, we saw that the cut was pretty small, but deep. We couldn’t really apply pressure because Jack kept either swiping his hand on the cut  or bucking his body so that his back became super-straight and his head lolled back. When we let go of him, Jack began playing again — after his initial crying, he didn’t seem to notice anything was wrong. But, because the cut was deep, and it was still seeping blood slowly, Johnny took him to urgent care. I was too beside myself to pull it together.  I can’t stand the sight of blood, and I was really worried that my baby was bleeding!

In the urgent care clinic waiting room, Jack just played happily. The doctor gave him a special bandage that acts like a stitch and will fall off in two or three days. So far, Jack hasn’t noticed it. Here’s our brave patient, who got a paci, snack and a viewing of Ni Hao, Kai-Lan after he got home:

Now, he’s sleeping soundly for his nap. After he gets up, we’ll go to Johnny Rocket’s for burgers, fries and shakes (nothing like food to reward bravery). We’ll also pick up one of those butt-ugly things that wrap all the way around a coffee table. I never wanted to be one of those parents who wraps every surface, but even though our coffee table has rounded edges, the straight sides are still dangerous! Long ago, we installed protector things on the edges of our dining table, socket covers, and cabinet locks, but it was always our hope that our living room wouldn’t look like baby central. Now that goes out the window! I think we’ll also go ahead and get a bubble to put Jack into. Just kidding.

You know, someone with a son once warned me that as a mother to a son, I would no doubt make several trips to the ER or urgent care clinic for stitches. At the time, I thought that that probably only happens to negligent mothers. Yet another humbling experience in mommyhood … there are many of those!

Jack had a playdate with his friend Marcus today. Marcus is only a week older than Jack. His mom, Milena, painted his room a lovely blue color, and recently bought him a set of table and chairs from Ikea. The set was so cute — I love the vibrant colors and the animal cutouts on the back of the chairs, and Milena tied these adorable frog-shaped seat cushions on the chairs. Anyway, Jack and Marcus just sat at the table nicely, drawing! It lasted for quite a while (in toddler-speak, that translates to a few minutes ). Look at them! (Marcus was shirtless because the boys were munching on watermelon before sitting down.)

So cute, huh? Makes me want to run to Ikea! I love how their feet don’t even touch the ground. Milena and I actually sat in the living room (right outside Marcus’ room), drinking coffee and chatting while the boys colored and played! It was a miracle in mommyland.

Happy Monday, everyone! We had a fun weekend of “fall” activities. I have to use quotes whenever I refer to autumn or fall because it was at least 80 degrees over the weekend … not very autumnal weather!

The bummer about the weekend was that Johnny had to work both days. It’s Mattel’s toy fair, where they present toys that are launching in 2009 to buyers from Target, Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, various catalogs and other retail establishments. I hate it when Johnny works on weekends (which doesn’t happen too often, thank goodness), because Jack really enjoys time with his daddy … and I enjoy time with Johnny, too! Besides, when Johnny doesn’t have a weekend, I don’t have one either. That being said, I did manage to have a pretty good (if tiring) weekend.

It started Friday with a music and me class. I recently enrolled Jack. My friend Milena and her son Marcus, who’s only a week older than Jack, are also in it. They basically play music and hand out little instruments to the babies to try. There’s a lot of singing and dancing, although sometimes it looks like the parents are the only ones singing and dancing.  It’s just for fun, and a way to pass the long afternoon! They were running a special of seven classes for $100, which is really cheap for these types of things. Anyway, Johnny got to leave work in time to join us. It was amazing to see how Jack just blossomed when Johnny came into the room. He became much more animated and was eager to try all the instruments. This supports my theory that to Jack, Johnny = fun, while I = chopped liver. Ha.

Do you see how Jack is looking at Daddy with such adoration in the picture with the bongos?

Saturday, Jack and I met up with my mom and June at the Grove and Farmer’s Market for the Farmer’s Market fall festival. I was excited to have Jack play in the pumpkin patch and go to his first petting zoo. It seemed that many of my friends who have babies around Jack’s age reported a successful first outing to the petting zoo. Well, our trip was not exactly successful, but it was entertaining! When we first set foot in the petting zoo, Jack was delighted and expressed this with giggles and squeals. However, soon the animals crowded around him in search of food. The little goats were at Jack’s face level, and Jack freaked out at the animals being so close to him. One of the goats grazed Jack’s little face (no serious injury resulted), and thereafter Jack would only be carried in my arms, and looked extremely traumatized.

Jack, before he became goat food

Jack, after he became goat food. Here he is clinging to me while I try to reassure him, to no avail

Meanwhile, June had bought a cone of animal feed and was happily feeding the llamas and goats and pigs out of her hand. It was all going so well for her until …

Llama attack!

That’s right, folks! A baby llama came up to June and decided to eat her shirt. He started at the bottom of her shirt, and gnawed his way up. My mom was finally able to pull her shirt away. Her shirt was covered in llama spit. After June wiped it off, she discovered that her new shirt was now peppered with little holes, courtesy of the llama’s teeth!!!! Oh, I laughed so hard. At all this commotion, and at my raucous laughter, though, Jack became even more frightened, so we exited the petting zoo. We’ll try again next year! I really thought Jack would love it — I mean, he loves Atari. But, whenever we get Jack into a new situation, he becomes very shy, and I suppose having tons of strange animals trying to eat you would be a scary experience if you’re only 32 inches tall.

Next, we tried a more sedate activity … taking pictures amidst the fall scenery set-ups at the Farmers Market. Jack wasn’t in a smiley mood and needed his paci to take the edge off from the petting zoo fiasco, but we got a few shots anyway!

Jack with me, and then Jack with my mom

Next, we crossed the street to the pumpkin patch. By this time, it was unbearably hot. However, Jack enjoyed the pumpkin patch — success! I guess piles of inanimate pumpkins are more his scene right now.

This pumpkin is just my size!

Pumpkins galore!

Jack also loved being inside this hollowed-out pumpkin house:

Jack, June and I outside the pumpkin house

Jack tried to pick up all the big pumpkins

After the pumpkin patch, we were all thirsty, so we stopped at a Starbucks for Pinkberry-flavored sorbettos. Yummy!

Here I am with June, aka Llama Girl

We walked around the mall some more, then headed back home.

Here I am, using Jack’s monkey backpack harness/leash as we walk through the mall

In front of the pretty fountain at the Grove

Jack took an hour and a half nap after we got home. Whew!

Sunday, Jack and I went to Donna and Scott’s place in Mission Viejo for a get-together. Their new apartment is beautiful, and we enjoyed some yummy food. In the afternoon, I was so exhausted, so we just went to the park, and when Johnny got home, I relinquished all child-care duties to him so I could organize Jack’s closet. He has so many clothes, and already I have five cartons of his outgrown clothing. I really want a daughter next, but if I do get a baby girl, she’s going to be dressed in boy’s clothes until she’s five. I need someone living close to me to have a boy, so I can hand over all of Jack’s clothes!

This week, Johnny will be working until 9 p.m. a few nights. Yuck! Tomorrow is one of those nights, so Jack and I will be spending the day at my mom’s tomorrow. That way I can get a little work done. Have a great week, everyone!

We had our 15-month appointment yesterday. Jack got two shots (he goes back in a month for two more; the pediatrician split them up). He was very brave and only cried for a minute. Once I pulled out the cut-up grapes in his Snack Trap cup, he forgot about the shots completely. Mommy was not so brave — I got a flu shot in my arm, and I swear it still hurts today!

Anyway, Jack’s been busy growing. He’s measuring in at:

Height: 32 inches (75th percentile; growth of half an inch since his 12-month visit)
Weight: 23.5 pounds (25th to 50th percentile, but closer to 50th; growth of two pounds since his 12-month visit)

No changes in the percentiles; Jack is still a slim but relatively tall baby. Lately his tummy has rounded out more, which I guess are those two pounds since three months ago. I kind of expected that his weight may have exceeded the 50th percentile, but I guess not!

Jack is changing rapidly, sometimes by the minute. Although he doesn’t say many more words than he did a few months ago, he definitely understands more. When I say the Mandarin word for “light,” he looks up at the nearest light. Sometimes he’ll say it. He also knows “button” (as in, the elevator button), and he always remembers where I put a snack or his paci.

Not all the changes are quite so fun … right now, we’re struggling with what I’ll politely call a naptime transition. For the longest time, Jack’s been napping at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., for an hour each time. Last week, though, he would not nap at 9 a.m. So, for the past three days, we’ve been going down anywhere between noon and 1 p.m. (right after lunch). He’s fallen asleep immediately, but as soon as he hears even the faintest footsteps or slight noise, he wakes up. This is very unusual, and it’s resulted in three straight days of only half an hour of sleep during the daytime. Ack! It hasn’t really affected his nighttime sleep — he’s still going for 12 hours straight — but it does mean really cranky daytimes. Today was more of the same. He did sleep for an hour mid-day today and is currently sitting quietly in his crib. I’m leaving him there in hopes that he falls asleep again. Or, maybe he just doesn’t need more than an hour of sleep for the entire day??? Please, tell me that’s not so! There goes my getting work (real work, not blogging ) done time.

Anyway, I’m off to try to map out a new routine for our days. One plus of this new naptime schedule is that we can get more done each day — fit in one more outing, maybe, now that the day isn’t broken up by two naps. Whee!

We definitely had an oceanic weekend around here. Saturday was Jack’s first trip to the aquarium, and Sunday, we pigged out on seafood! I’ll start with the aquarium trip.

The trip was actually Amy‘s idea. Those of you who read Amy’s blog know that she and Han recently moved to Long Beach (yay!), and now that they’re all settled into their apartment, they invited me, Johnny and Jack to come over, see their place, have lunch and then go to the aquarium. There was so much to be excited for about this day with Amy and Han — of course, getting to spend time with them, but also meeting their Shiba, Miso, their cat, Toastie, and taking Jack to the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific for the first time!

For such a big day, I dressed Jack in his most hipster outfit ever. It’s a birthday present from Aunt Kathy, and Johnny commented that he looked better than his parents, ha. Check out his cool Guess shirt, cargo pants, belt, and his checkered Vans (those were courtesy of June, who has a matching pair).

Amy and Han’s apartment is beautiful and well-organized. If you know them, though, that is no surprise. Jack loved Miso and Toastie, who were really cute and patient with Jack.

Jack wanted nothing more than to play with Toastie, who hid out on the piano; Jack shares a moment with Miso

Amy with Miso. See, Miso is the appropriate size for a Shiba. Atari is giant!

After spending some time at Amy and Han’s place, we went to lunch at this amazing creperie. Oh, I so want to go back and sample all the crepes on the menu! Amy and Han treated us, which was so sweet. After lunch, it was time for the aquarium. Jack enjoyed looking at the fish, but as it was slightly past his naptime, he soon became tired and wanted nothing more than to push his stroller, and became irate whenever we tried to pick him up. Luckily, Amy and Han were very understanding, and despite spending less than an hour at the aquarium after paying $10 per ticket, they left with us when Jack became, uh, less than pleasant. Amy even bought Jack a really cute otter and baby otter stuffed animal when we left. I felt very bad that they only got such a short time at the aquarium, but they were such gracious hosts! Thank you, Amy and Han! Next time we’ll do an adults-only double date so that there are no temper tantrums.

Even considering the naptime fiasco, Jack had a good time, and it was really fun to watch him react to the fish and the lorikeets. However, I think this experience has confirmed that we really need to wait to do Disneyland or any bigger parks. It was fine when he threw a fit at the aquarium, where adult tickets were only $10 (and his was free), but I can’t imagine driving all the way to Disneyland, paying $50 for a ticket, and dealing with a nap-related tantrum! I know plenty of parents do it, but I think we’ll be waiting for at least a few more months, and probably until next year. Anyway, here are the pictures!

See Johnny using Jack’s monkey leash in the second picture?

Jack loved the lorikeets! In the pic with Amy and Han, look at Johnny and Jack’s hilarious expressions!

After that delightful day, Jack was definitely very tired but also wound up. Luckily, we relaxed him with a bath and storytime.

I know this will really embarrass Jack in the future, but I had to share the naked picture. The fact that he’s so happy and holding his sippy cup while naked was really funny!

We spent yesterday with my mom, June and Charles, and our sea-themed weekend continued, with Boiling Crab for dinner. We feasted on a couple pounds of shrimp, a pound of crawfish, and three pounds of king crab legs. Mmm! As usual, we had a great time, especially Jack — he gets very spoiled at Grandma’s!

My mom gave Jack his first fudgesicle! He loved it! After they were done, he kept going back to the same spot in the kitchen and sitting there, waiting for another one!

Jack also played piano and later played with the barking stuffed dog with my mom

And here’s a video of Jack playing piano!

I, however, was not so lucky, and instead typed up some lecture notes for June  But, for the record, I did volunteer to do it, because she has so much else to do for school, and because it’s just straight transcription from the recorded lecture — something I actually enjoy doing!

So that was our weekend. Today is Jack’s 15-month appointment. I will update with those stats later!

We’ve had an action-packed weekend! Johnny’s parents are in town, so we got a rare opportunity to gather both sets of grandparents on Saturday (minus my dad, who’s working away in Taiwan … BOO!). I haven’t downloaded pics from our camera yet, but lately, my mom has turned into quite the technology wizard, and I often find that she’s sent me photos before I’ve even had a chance to go through mine. What is the world coming to?

We all met up for dim sum, which was delicious. Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bill came along, too, which was fun. Jack enjoyed all the dishes, including chicken feet! We peeled the skin off the bones for him, and he gobbled them up, along with bites of tofu, barbecue pork buns, lotus-wrapped sticky rice and lots of shrimp-based dishes. A while ago, we cautiously introduced Jack to shrimp. The pediatrician had OK’d the slow introduction of shellfish, given that neither side of the family has food allergies. What do you know, Jack loves shrimp. Anyway, Jack’s redeemed himself for his dislike of rice with his love of dim sum.

Here are some photos from our lunch (and immediately afterward).

Johnny with his parents

Jack with three of his four grandparents. He had a lot to say about this — complete with gestures

A nice passerby took a photo of all of us! Do you like my $9 skirt, $10 shirt and $5 tights, all from Target? I love that place! Also, I am wearing the slouchy boots Charles bought me for my birthday. Those were decidedly not from Target … they are very fancy (thank you, Charles!). Also, how cute is June’s outfit?

Hmmm, the sky looks much closer than it usually does!

Yesterday, we looked at houses in the South Bay area with my in-laws. It was a very educational experience, which was good for everyone. We were encouraged by the fact that it looks like we can indeed buy a house next year; somewhat sobered by the reality that for an amount of money which would get us ultimate luxury almost anywhere else in this country, we’ll get the bare basics (hopefully in a functioning condition) here. However, it is our choice to live here, and we also consciously decided for me to work part-time from home to maximize time with Jack, so we can’t really complain. I just have to share this, though — the first house we saw had obvious foundation damage; leaks in the roof; rips in the window screens; a weird “master bedroom” with dark wood paneling, no closet and a strange resemblance to a hunting lodge; a kitchen circa 1953; and a bathroom with floors that moved with every motion you made. Oh, and it’s been abandoned for several years. How much is it “worth”? The asking price is $599,999! Now, I am positive that it will sell for far less than that, but I can also tell you there’s no way it would sell for less than $300,000. I would personally price that shack (I mean, literally, that’s what it was) at less than $50,000. But hey, some realtor saw fit to list it at $599,999. Sigh. Where do I live??

However, on the upside (you know there always has to be an upside with me!), the place we buy will be at least several clicks above the shack, and however humbly we start out when we become homeowners, the place will be ours. We’ll give it several fresh coats of paint, install a new washer/dryer (YES! No more coin laundry machines!) and, over the years, make it our own with renovations and new appliances. We can make it our dream place, and it will be all ours, and Jack and Atari will have a backyard (albeit small) to run around in. In the meantime, our stainless steel fridge with built-in TV can continue to be our material pride and joy. We may not be able to fill it with food for a while, but perhaps that’s when Atari’s mouse-hunting skills will come in (just kidding!).

Hope you all had great weekends, too!

Yesterday, Johnny left for a “team-building” retreat with his department at work. They’re at a resort in Palm Springs. Upon arrival, the agenda consisted of lunch, relaxing poolside, watching the vice presidential debates, dinner and drinks, followed by a luxuriously long night of sleep. After getting up at 8:30 this morning (unbelievably late for a parent of a toddler), Johnny had breakfast with his colleagues on “the patio,” then headed off for his four-hands massage, followed by a “celestial shower,” an event in which he showered (alone! Not with a masseuse ) in an open-roof stall. While he gazed at the blue sky above, Johnny was surrounded by 12 nozzles of water, one giant showerhead, and two waterfalls. Lovely, right?

Well, I am not jealous. I don’t need a resort in Palm Springs! Here at the Resort O’Neal, I’ve engaged in these activities over the last 18 hours:

• Fed, bathed and put Jack down for bed (very peaceful and relaxing)
• Desperately cleaned the apartment in order to achieve some resemblance of order in anticipation of my in-laws’ arrival this afternoon (Mom and Dad, I know you’ll say I didn’t need to do it, but believe me, I really did)
• Wasted horrendous amounts of time on Facebook before bedtime
• Awoke to the dulcet tones of a screaming toddler at 4 a.m. Upon determining that nothing was wrong with said toddler, went back to bed and stared tensely at the ceiling until mysterious screaming subsided five minutes later
• Awoke for good at 6:15 a.m., a good 45 minutes before his usual wake-up time, to yells of “Mama!” coming from the nursery
• Endured whining for the five long minutes it took to assemble breakfast of champions
• Shared breakfast of cinnamon toast Eggo, banana slices and milk with Jack
• Felt heart melt when Jack toddled into our bedroom, saying, “Baba?” (Mandarin for “Daddy”) as he headed to Johnny’s side of the bed
• Briefly panicked as Jack cried upon realizing his baba’s absence. Subsequent sobbing and wailing of “Baba!” unstoppable despite my outstanding performance with all components of the Bee Bop Band toy. Jack’s heartbreak was only soothed by the Disney Channel (note to Johnny: Just so you know, you and the Wiggles are interchangeable)
• Bought and lugged two carts’ worth of groceries up to apartment, with Jack in tow
• Put Jack down for a nap and headed cheerfully to take my own celestial shower
• Realized with much dismay that the apartment doesn’t have hot water … again. Go to call manager and find out that hot water should be restored “at some point” today
• Made mango smoothie as a post-nap snack for Jack. Served Jack smoothie in straw sippy cup, decided to drink rest of it myself. Unfortunately, spilled smoothie all over self
• Received Johnny’s text about wonders of celestial shower
• Briefly felt sorry for myself until Jack came over in a fit of giggles, looking for a hug. That beat all the sleeping in and celestial showers in the world! (Still, it would be nice to get hot water back.)

Now, I’ll leave you with pictures from Jack’s My Gym class yesterday:

Fuzzy, squishy balls! (Heh, heh)

Standing at the top of the foam ramp

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

I think motherhood has made me a more relaxed person, in some ways. I know it’s hard to believe — after all, I am the girl who, from her 35th to 40th weeks of pregnancy, crawled on her hands and knees for half an hour each day, lay upside-down on a tilted ironing board, and did handstands in the pool, all in the name of trying to turn her breech baby (to no avail, alas). I also had two medical professionals tell me that my muscles were so tense, Jack couldn’t turn even if he wanted to, and that I should relax — to which I replied, “I AM RELAXED!” Haha. But, even if I’m still relatively high-strung, many of my views toward parenting relaxed quite a bit when faced with reality. Here, a sampling of Old vs. New attitudes, from Jack’s birth to now:

Old: No pumping until I return to work!
New: Day 1 — Breastfeeding is a breeze! Day 2 — Hmm, a bit of soreness. Day 3 — Can I time nursing sessions to when I’m supposed to take painkillers for my incision? Day 4 — A thousand needles are pricking my nipples! Is that blood?? Good thing my mom sterilized the pump parts after I returned from the hospital!

Old: My baby will never even know what a pacifier is!
New: Good Lord, how long will my four-day-old keep screaming holy murder? Paci, please! 

Old: No ice cream or any sweets until preschool.
New: Sorry, I’m too busy feeding Jack ice cream and cake to type out my new attitude.

Old: No TV until Jack is two, and even then, only 10 minutes at a time.
New: “Jack, why don’t you watch some Ni Hao, Kai-Lan or Mickey Mouse Playhouse so that Mommy can send a work email or go to the bathroom? Here are some grapes, too. That should keep you busy for 15 minutes.” (On a side note, I love Ni Hao, Kai-Lan! It’s so cute, and it reinforces the Mandarin that I’m speaking to Jack. I know we can watch it in Nick Jr., but I bought a DVD with four episodes at Target, too. And now I have the song stuck in my head.)

OK, lest you all think I’m a terrible mother, I don’t give Jack ice cream on a regular basis, and he doesn’t watch TV every day. But, I do think some treats once in a while are OK (especially when he sees me eating ice cream on special occasions … OK, who am I kidding? I eat ice cream every day, but usually after Jack’s in bed for the night), and let’s face it, the TV is a nice distraction when you just need a few minutes to get something done urgently. There are still some views I haven’t let go of — for example, I am definitely going to try for a VBAC for baby #2, unless there’s some medical reason I shouldn’t. I don’t care what anyone says, I’m going to get my chance at a natural birth!  We’ll give “direct” breastfeeding (as in, not via the pump) another go, too, and also the homemade baby food (I do stand firm on no added sugars before one year old). But next time, I will not set any unrealistic rules for myself about paci use, ice cream and TV!