Kona and Mia, Best Buds

Kona is alive and well. I realize that I've failed to write about my beloved first baby. She's still the sweetest thing around, always curling up by me for a snuggle or pet. Mia always asks if Kona can come when we are about to go somewhere or when we will walk Kona, but I can't say she is always loving towards Kona. She uses Kona as a distraction tool when she's in trouble.

Kona had an accident in the house a couple of weeks ago (rare occurrence) and when Mia gets into trouble, she will say, "Kona house pee pee NO!" How did this girl learn how to deflect like this? I feel badly that she is scolding Kona about accidentally peeing in the house as we are trying to potty train Mia. I hate for her to think that it's bad for her to pee in the house. My response is always something like, Kona made a mistake, she had an accident, it's okay. Then I try to explain that dogs do their business outside and that people do it in the toilet or little ones do it in their diapers. Hope it sinks in.

Since I'm usually at home, I take Mia with me everywhere and she is quite an astute observer and little consumer. She likes to play shopping with all the empty food boxes I've given her to load in her Little Tikes shopping cart. When she asks to eat something and my response is, "We don't have any today," Mia will say, "Mama buy some" or "Mama go Whole Foods". She never says, "Mama go Safeway!" where we do shop quite often.

Poo-Poo in Potty!

Mia has pooped in the potty about five times now, but some days she chooses to use her diaper or take a dump in the diaper right after we take her off the potty. We are excited at the prospect of getting her fully toilet trained, but it does take some patience as we've had to sit by her for some time. Mia likes to have company, this is a habit we have to nip in the bud as it isn't a cultural norm I'm aware of. The interesting thing is that she does not pee on the potty yet.

The sheer volume of a toddler's poop really surprises us. It's pretty much just as much and just as big in diameter as an adult's poop. One does not really appreciate the amount of poop when it's flattened in a diaper. Ken took a picture of Mia's most recent poop to send to his best buds as they are always talking poop and gross stuff. Boys! If you want to see it, just email me. You'll be amazed.

Reluctant Ballerina

Mia is not a complete girly girl, nor did I ever want her to be one. I've tried to avoid pink clothes though it is inevitable. She loves cars and trains and enjoys being active, but when a Saturday Gymnastics class was full, I was left with little option, but a pre-ballet class called, Me and My Shadow. The description said, dance attire and shoes required. So off we went to buy her a ballet outfit! I did not go for a super girly outfit though I must admit they are darling. The really cute ones with tutus or skirts attached to the leotard ran nearly forty dollars! I went for warmth and bought her a long-sleeved pink leotard that was a bargain at twenty dollars. I bought a 4-6 because the 2-3 fit Mia just right, she has a long torso I guess. The 4-6 is loose around the shoulder and the sleeves are long (get to that later) Mia herself picked out the nude colored ballet shoes over the white ones. Below is Mia doing a plie with her Papa's help.

During the class, which is Ken's thing to do with Mia, she just wanted me to be with her since it was a new environment, so I've been banned from future classes. Anyway, during the class, Mia did not seem very interested in doing the dance activities without prompting, but then again she was very distracted by her long sleeves which she kept pulling on to cover her hands. Then she would laugh and say, "funny!" I think she's going to get into lots of trouble in school for goofing off.

Only in Silicon Valley

Today I was walking Kona at one of Sunnyvale's lovely parks, Las Palmas. Mia was with our sit-and-play group (four moms, two stay, two go away for two hours to do whatever) so I took the opportunity to give Kona a much deserved LONG walk after days of shortened walks due to the wet weather.

Kona had a ball sniffing out where other dogs had been and being able to walk unhindered by a toddler's curiosity and short legs. Halfway through our walk, we came upon a homeless man sitting at a picnic table. I saw him from afar with his two shopping carts and the figure of a man clothed in many layers despite the 55 degree weather. I thought he was reading a magazine, but as we got closer, I saw that he was on a LAPTOP! It was hooked up to what looked like a small generator and some wireless cable contraption. I was amused.

For those interested it was an Acer laptop, not as expensive as others, still it must have taken a lot of change for the man to save up for that one. I was curious about what he was surfing, but could not get up the courage to walk behind him as the paved path was in front of him.

I'll have to go back to Las Palmas and see if he's there again.

Resolutions of 2008

My original top resolution was to wean Mia in order to help our chances of getting knocked up in 2008. But what I thought would be a major drama has been, well, less traumatic than I envisioned. Mia has not been that much of a diva in her demands for bu bu nai nai or mama nai nai. If she asks she understands the words, a little bit or yi dian dian. It helps that she is healthy for once and Ken was around to distract her. And with the help of Claritin and peppermint tea, I'm not feeling that uncomfortable. But I am sad, I feel like this is truly the end of an era. I am done nursing my first child. I want her to stay my baby forever as I have written about countless times in the past, but I really need to let her move on. Confirmation has come during meal times that weaning was the right thing to do though I often vacillated about it. My girl has been eating pretty well the last few days. Still not into the cow's milk (which was made for cows you know, but that's okay, I gotta get over it), but she has been eating more cheese and yogurt than she has in the past. The girl has not touched cheddar, which I love, in about 6 months, but she has recently been eating it. So now that my top resolution is pretty much taking care of itself, I was left with no goals for 2008.

I struggled with forming some meaningful resolutions. I would like to come up with resolutions that have lasting effects upon my life from this year forward. Is that possible? At first my list included mundane items including read more, watch less TV, diminish my yarn stash, worry less, organize the closets in the house (all dumping grounds for junk), put away Mia's old clothes and toys, organize photos (20 months of Mia photos sit in stacks), and other lame tasks. Not terribly deep, but I kept lingering on them and saw a theme emerge.

I figure all the "resolutions" that I initially penned on paper were probably a result of my subconscious or being married to Ken for nearly eight years. The man throws away stuff as if his life depends on it. There is still the dispute of where a lovely dress and red bathing suit of mine went after one of his cleaning frenzies early in our marriage. Ken's idea of cleaning is really about filling up a large trash bag, not about getting out the gloves and Pine Sol. But he has managed to accept that he cannot throw away my stuff and it has managed to keep the peace except on a few occasions when he was falsely accused of throwing away something I just had to find at that moment. So you see, he really is a patient man because he's married to a pack rat who misplaces things and falsely accuses him of crimes he did not commit, except for that one incident when he thought the items in a bag were trash, when in actuality the bag contained a dress and bathing suit that needed to be washed. Bygones. I should not bear grudges, but that's another resolution for another year. Maybe 2009.

So I will offer a global resolution of living simply in 2008. But what are the practical applications, I was after all an external evaluator at one time. What does living simply really mean? What are the actionable items? How will living simply be measured? Can it be measured? There's living simply on a very practical level, then there's living simply as a way of life. How does one score a way of life?

Well, I've already cleaned out my closet. Satisfactory. Parted with age old articles of clothing that I could not even part with six months ago while packing to leave Seattle. Exemplary for giving up the sentimental? I do believe Americans have way too much stuff, myself included. There are people who live with the clothes on their backs, children who have never had their own clothes, only hand-me downs, and how many rolls of Christmas wrap do I really need? I was at Target today--yes, I just wrote about living simply, yet I was shopping--and I saw that Christmas items are now 90% off. I can't resist such a bargain, but you see, I turned a new leaf and remembered the six unopened rolls of wrap that I bought the previous week. Nevermind that those were only 50% off and these are 90% off, I had plenty at home, so I steered the cart away from the Christmas section. Exemplary for just saying no?

You see, I had already given myself a talk before entering Target with Mia. I said, to myself we are only there to get tools to better organize our family room and Mia's garments that could clothe an orphanage in China. So we bought a four drawer plastic rolling cart for Mia's toys (we have an art drawer, a puzzle drawer, a music related drawer, and a miscellaneous drawer), but the 70 quart plastic tubs (also on sale this week, because Target knows how to appeal to the likes of us who love a new year to kick our butts into getting organized or making the motion of getting organized, seriously, i wonder how many plastic tubs and organization tools will be collecting dust and housing clutter in the months to come) would not fit into the shopping cart along with the drawer thing and Mia. At first, I planned on going back to get the tubs later this week, but now I'm rethinking that. Do I really need to store two 70 quart containers (yes, 140 quarts of consumerism) of Mia's toys and clothes? Dare I part with them? But they are so cute, many items were gifts, I love to picture Mia when she was wearing them or playing with them, what if I have another girl?

I realize that it's not possible to measure if one has truly lived simply in this lifetime. It's something that goes beyond a superficial action and is between you and God. So in trying to live simply in 2008, I hope to be more than superficial. This resolution won't be as easy as weaning Mia.

Of course, I can't help but to have some other minor resolutions that are well, quantifiable.

1. Read at least one book a month. Easy given that I am in a book club, but sometimes I go without having finished the book.
2. Make Mia at least one knitted item by June 2008, eyeing a pattern for a ballerina sweater since she is starting a pre-ballet class.
3. Try to read at least one book of the Bible each month. I'm not ambitious enough to commit to the whole Bible.
4. Waste less food, a subset of living simply I suppose. Eat what we have in the fridge and try not to throw away produce.
5. Go for a family hike at least once a month.
6. Walk to the farmer's market on Saturdays instead of driving, if weather permits.
7. Learn more Mandarin as I've probably taught Mia everything I know already.
8. Write at least one blog entry a week.

I think I'll end it there for now.

And the Lies Begin

We are all born with sinful nature, but I did not expect to see that in my daughter so soon. We made a foam ornament together at a church event, Mia took it off the tree and was playing with it. No big deal, the tree was not off limits to her. She managed to break the arms glued onto the Polar Bear. Again, no big deal. She did not mean to break it.

But I casually asked her, "Mia did you break the ornament?" This is the rest of the conversation.

Mia: No, no, no
Mama: Are you sure? Did you break the bear?
Mia: Kona break it
Mama: No, Kona did not break it
Mia: Papa break it
Mama: No, Papa did not break it. Mia broke it!
Mia: Xiong Xiong break it?
Mama: No, Mia! It's okay that you broke it, just tell me.

Then we were done and she was off to something else.

I kept thinking back to how she learned to lie. I believe it was because a couple of days prior to the aforementioned incident, I got mad at her for throwing down her water bottle and breaking the cover of the spout. She threw the bottle down because she was mad and did not want to get into the car. But I focused on the result: the broken bottle, not her action of throwing the bottle. I told her she broke it and that she was not being good. She kept saying through tears "Mama xiu" then moving to English, "Mama fig it" (Mama fix it). So thats how she learned that Mama is not happy when she breaks things.

The other thing Mia has been doing that irks me is she tells me, "Mama Bye!" and she does not mean bye in the traditional sense. She says this emphatically when I tell her to do something she does not want to do, so basically, she wants me to disappear so that she can continue on her merry way. But as with typical toddlers, if I really leave, she will say, "More mama." But those words to not make me feel better. I wish she would always want me around, but these are pointless desires as she grows older. I need to come to terms teaching her how to be a positive member of this world so that she can leave me to participate in it.