My kitchen is my personal runway

I have neglected anything resembling “style” in my life since having children.  This is for several reasons, but it generally comes down to a combination of laziness and the fact that I don’t own much that fits me anymore.  Plus, I like to dress in activity-appropriate clothing, and how stylish can you be when you spend your time at playgrounds or with a baby chewing on your sleeve?

Well, a large portion of my time is also spent in the kitchen (who knew toddlers had to eat so much and so frequently?), and Kristy has pointed me to a wonderful opportunity to actually look stylish while I’m cooking!  I know that very few people will be able to witness this potential stylishness of mine, but it’s a start.  And I do believe that feeling good, even in privacy, goes a long ways toward making you feel good all around.

This opportunity for domestic style is sponsored by “Bringing Lady Back” – a blog dedicated to freeing the world from “insipid insults and protruding panties”.  Personal integrity, dignity, and a sense of propriety are qualities that are in dire need of a revival, so I am in full support of it!  And I’m looking for the male equivalent, which I would call something like “Banishing the Guy” (in favor of the Man).

Now available in 3D

After nearly 7 months of existing primarily in a horizontal plane, Mei-mei is very close to inhabiting vertical space as well (this is just a really geeky way of saying that she’s sitting up)!  Kind of.  She’s still very bendy and she supports herself with her arms, and if her head moves anywhere off of the z-axis she tips over, but it’s a start!

In addition to sitting up, she’s already an expert at rolling over.  She rolls her way around the room pretty quickly (she’s usually got her eye on a toy), so I have to keep tabs on her before she disappears under the couch.

This is starting to feel dangerously close to mobility.  I’m not sure I’m ready for that, and I know Cowboy isn’t.  He’s already got his paws full just trying to stay out of Z’s way!

Friendly reminder: mamarazza is your source for photos!

Chris told me I should put out another reminder about my mamarazza site.  That’s where I post my favorite pictures, so if you don’t see many pictures on this page in awhile it’s probably because they are over there.

If you look on the sidebar of this page, there is a section called mamarazza underneath chatter box.  mamarazza lists the five most recent mamarazza posts, so you can check that to see if it’s been updated since you last visited.  To see the new posts, you can either click on the post title or click on mamarazza (the title of the section).  If you click on mamarazza instead of an individual title, you will get to the main page.  that’s where you can see all of the new posts at once.

I tend to post pictures in batches (I usually do one picture per post), so you will see a whole bunch of new posts show up at once.

With these eyes, I thee own

Introducing: Chatter Box

As I’ve mentioned before, Z likes to talk to himself when he is in his crib.  Actually, he does a running commentary all day long, which makes it easier to keep track of him and stop him before he does something dangerous.  (“Mommy say Zachary no touch outlet…no touch!”  or “Zachary climb…jump!”)  But the crib chatter is the cutest, because he doesn’t know we can hear him (via the monitor) and he uses that time to practice new words or sing songs or reminisce about things.  I don’t want to forget all of the funny things he says but I can’t catch them all on video, so I’m going to start keeping track of as many as I can on this blog.  I’ve added a section to the sidebar called “chatter box”, which is where his latest ponderings will be posted (via Twitter).  Enjoy!

Tinkle Tinkle

Tinkle Tinkle, originally uploaded by Wenmei.

Our budding American Idol finalist (with support from his high-kicking backup dancing sister).

Happy 5th Birthday, Cowboy!

 

 

Happy Chinese New Year Valentine’s Day!

As with many things, the third time is the charm when it comes to taking pictures of the Hillions.

My version of the story

Here are some of my pictures from my fun photo play date with Judith.  Hopefully some of Judith’s wisdom and skill will rub off on me and I can reduce the strange color tones and blurry images that seem to be my forte.  Mei-mei was a very cooperative model until we started putting lots of hats on her (as you can see from her expression in the last picture).  But I think she’s resigned herself to being my photo model, at least until she can say “No” and run away like her big brother does.

Another parenting experiment

In my never-ending quest to figure out the best way to fully, er, appreciate my child’s 2-year-oldness, I tried a new trick yesterday.  When Z plays in his playroom, he turns into a little hurricane and everything ends up on the floor. Note the chaos behind him (coupled with his cute “who me?” fake smile):

Getting him to help me clean up is a bit of a challenge.  He’ll usually help put away a few things (especially if I turn it into a “my turn/your turn” game), but he quickly gets distracted by other toys and forgets what we’re doing.  He’ll pull out the drawer to put away his fire engine and suddenly notice his rocket car sitting there in the drawer.  So the fire engine is put away, the rocket car comes out.

Yesterday he barely helped at all.  While I was putting things away, he happily played with his garbage truck and Mr. Potato Head.  When I was done, I said, “Well look, I cleaned up all by myself!  Time to put the gate up.”  Z and I left the play room and I put the baby gate up – locking him OUT instead of in.  I stepped over the gate and sat in the middle of the play room floor with a book.  Z stood at the gate looking in, obviously confused.  He said, “Play music bus!” and I said, “Oh, but the music bus is in here, in the play room I cleaned up all by myself!  I’m enjoying the clean play room since I worked so hard on it.”  He said, “Play music player!  Listen Jai Ho!” and I said, “Oh, but the music player is in here too.”  He said, “Play violin?” and I said, “Oh that’s a fun toy to play with.  But it’s in here too.”

Z stood there and watched me for a few minutes, clearly figuring something out in his head.  Then he ran to the living room and opened up the drawer full of his little knick-knacks.  He took them all out and put them on the floor.  He grabbed some plastic containers from the kitchen and put them on the floor too.  Then he announced, “Zachary clean up!” and put the knick-knacks and plastic containers away.

Another reason why I love that boy.

Photo play date

Mei-mei and I had a fun photo play date with the always fabulous Judith and her wonderful helper Annie this week.  Judith has three children and her photography business, and she still got her pictures posted before I've even had a chance to go through all of mine.  I think this means that I need to work on getting my act together...

Anyway, here is a link to her blog showing some pictures from our play date.  I'll post some of my pictures soon, and I'm sure you'll be equally as confused about why it appears that my pictures were taken in a different room with different light and an impossibly fast-moving baby (that explains the blur, right?).  Of course, there's a reason we always go to Judith when we want great pictures!

JFP Photo Play Date

Kimochi Mommy

Z has a Kimochi Cloud toy that we've been using to help him identify and verbalize his emotions.  He's got a collection of pillows with various emotions written on them and he can put one of them into a pocket on Kimochi Cloud's belly.  When I am sad because Z tried to hit or kick me, I talk to Kimochi Cloud and put the "Sad" pillow in his pocket (while Z watches).  When Z is throwing a fit, I tell Kimochi Cloud about it while putting the "Mad" pillow in his pocket.  Z's favorite pillow is "Happy", although he does get "Sad" out when he's hurt himself.

This afternoon, we went to Mosaic to meet up with some friends in the playroom.  Z was extremely easy the entire afternoon, staying away from the doors like I asked and playing nicely with the toys and the other kids.  As we were getting ready to leave, I thanked him for making it such a nice afternoon and I told him how happy I was.  He ran over to the toys to pick out a round plastic sunshine toy with a big smiley face.  He came back to me and dropped it down the front of my shirt, announcing, "Mommy HAPPY!"  Apparently, I'm his Kimochi Mommy.

Half-y Birthday!

Dear Mei-mei,

I can't believe you're already six months old!  You have been such a joy to get to know these past months, and I can't wait to learn even more about how you think and feel in the coming years.  Since the day we met you, you've been such a calm, contented baby, happily watching your brother or catching our eye to give us a huge grin.  Even though you still nurse like a pit bull, you have been a sweet and patient girl in every other regard.  You watch us with those startling blue eyes which are so full of curiosity, innocence, and sometimes, steel (you can make it VERY clear when you think I'm being ridiculous).  When I hold you, you grab onto my face, neck, hair, fingers -- whatever you can reach -- and snuggle in.  You coo and babble and you laugh if you see one of us laughing (especially your brother).  You rarely complain and can be consoled with a cuddle or a song when you are unhappy.  You put everything into your mouth, although it seems that your favorite thing to chew on is cloth (a blanket, towel, your cloth dolls, your clothing, my clothing).  When you are tired, you suck on your thumb and curl your fingers around your nose, then cover up your eyes with your other hand.  When you are excited, you kick your legs and screech happily.  I keep trying to take pictures of the top or back of your head so that I can remember your bald spot and fuzzy little noggin, but you always crane your neck around so that you can see me.  So instead, I'll remember how you always want to see what's going on and make eye contact.

I am so proud to be your mother and I am honored that I get to help you grow into a fabulous and strong woman (although my more immediate focus is to help you grow into a fabulous and strong sitter-upper -- you're still a folder-in-halfer when it comes to sitting up by yourself).  Thank you for joining our family and for being my sweet girl.

Love,
Mama

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, originally uploaded by Wenmei.

Z loves to have books read to him (especially Dr. Seuss books). More and more often though, he'll say, "Read self!" and read his book out loud to us. And he's quite good.

Now I get it

It’s interesting how some things start to make more sense to me as I go through the various learning stages of being a parent.  I used to think that Smuckers’ Goober (peanut butter and jelly in one jar) was ridiculous.  I mean, is it really that hard to open up TWO jars to make a sandwich?  But now that I have a 2 year old whose idea of eating half of a sandwich means eating the half with the jelly on it and leaving an open-faced peanut butter sandwich behind, I totally get it.  Mixing the peanut butter and jelly together makes it impossible for children to pick out only the jelly.  I make my own Goober by mixing the peanut butter and jelly in a bowl before I spread it on the bread, and that’s been working out really well for us.

Another thing I get is why parents so often leave their shopping cart bound toddlers in the middle of the aisles at grocery stores.  That’s the only place where the toddler can’t reach the shelves on either side.  As long as said toddler is buckled into the seat, that is.  Otherwise, all bets are off.

A-mah says

A-mah Says, originally uploaded by Wenmei.

Zachary likes to talk to himself when he's in his crib, and we like to listen to him over the monitor. Tonight, he was apparently thinking about the fan we put in the guest room when his A-mah and Opa stayed with us for Sophia's birth. He really wanted to play with the fan (it has lights and buttons and moving parts!) but of course, he wasn't allowed to. He would sneak into the room when he thought no one was watching, but A-mah usually caught him and would say "Bu shin!" ("No, don't touch!") before he could push any buttons.

What's a little unnerving to us about this is that he is reciting something that he remembers from last July, which is before he really started talking. In a similar way, he'll suddenly sing a song we haven't sung to him since before he was talking. Or he'll recite a book we haven't read to him in months. We have no idea what he has stored in that brain of his, and we're a little concerned about when and where it will come out...

Slumber party

It’s been busy around here for the past week, as Papa and Grandma Hill have been in town visiting.  I’ll try to update pictures and this blog soon, but I had to do a quick post to announce that Mei-mei slept for 14 hours straight last night!  Of course, now that I’ve mentioned it she’ll never do it again.  But it gives me hope that someday I will be able to sleep for more than 4 hours per night.
Z, on the other hand, has been having a really rough time with sleep.  He’s always been a great sleeper (13 hours at night plus a 2 hour nap), but in the last several weeks, his night sleep has gotten terrible.  It started out with him simply being exhausted during the day (rubbing his eyes and asking to go “night night” at 10:30 in the morning), and we assumed it was because he was having to deal with his sister screaming in the middle of the night.  So we moved her out of their room temporarily, in order to help him catch up on his sleep.  Now she’s sleeping well, but he’s having trouble falling asleep and he’s getting up earlier and earlier in the morning.  During the day, it’s clear that he’s completely sleep-deprived (red-rimmed eyes, on the edge of a meltdown all day, wanting to take his nap or go to bed really early, falling asleep in his car seat or on the couch) but we can’t figure out how to get him well-rested again.  We’ve been putting him down for his nap and bedtime earlier, but he talks and kicks in his crib for a good hour before he finally falls asleep.  He’s not sick and we can’t see any molars coming in, so we’re at a loss.  We just hope that eventually he’ll get back on track.

Roll with it baby

Roll with it baby, originally uploaded by Wenmei.

Redefining normalcy

This morning, Z said, "Kiss Mei-mei" and leaned over to kiss the top of her head.  He does that frequently, but this time it was special because he was bare-bottomed while sitting on the big boy potty.  And I was sitting on the bathroom floor, holding Mei-mei.  And Mei-mei was nursing.  This is not a scene I could have ever have imagined before having children.

mamarazza returns

After a 2-year hiatus, my photo blog mamarazza is back and better than ever!  At least I hope it's better.

I started mamarazza in 2007 as a place to post my favorite pictures of Z, but I didn't keep up with it.  However, I'm newly motivated to refocus* on it.  This weekend I did an overhaul of the UI (well, as much as I could within the limitations of the existing template) and created a new banner, and I've started loading some recent photos.

I added a link to mamarazza on the sidebar under "pictures".  Check it out and let me know what you think!

*pun fully intended