Rookie

For the past two months, I've had to learn a kind of 'mothering' I haven't been accustomed to for the past two years. The kind that doesn't rely on other people to raise my child while I spend 8 hours at work 5 days a week. The kind that strives to find the balance between being the good cop and the bad cop while daddy is away. The kind that fights for every ounce of patience after a long day of pleasing, nurturing, entertaining, teaching, and disciplining...

....quite a bit of the disciplining part lately.....

Must be what everyone calls the "terrible 2's".

It's a tough gig, but I think I'm getting the hang of it...

Poser

Borrowed Times: The beach

For the past couple of months, it seems like we are living on borrowed time. Being away from my husband, the uncertainty of how long we'll be apart, having to quit my job, and taking my son from everything he ever knew and moving him across the country to live with people he barely recognized -- well, you can say my life has somewhat felt like a whirlwind. Some good, some bad.

Then there are those borrowed times when nothing else matters, because we get to act like we're on this never-ending vacation... where the biggest worries are ridiculously over-inflated parking fees, finding a spot on a crowded stretch of the beach and keeping the sandcrabs from climbing up our shorts.

'Streets': Downtown Washington DC

April Goals

So my blog is titled This is my life... and yet, any other person would probably agree it'd be more appropriate to rename it This is Ethan's Life since I rarely get to share very much of me -- that is outside of the domain of being a momma. Don't get me wrong. Being a mother is my proudest accomplishment. But truthfully, if I had even an inkling of a life outside of Ethan, it's quite uneventful. How can you be bored?, my sister always asks like I have some magical answer. I have a job that keeps me busy and a family that keeps me on my toes. Apparently, that means I don't have time to be bored. But I do sometimes get bored, though I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing. What is boredome after all but the absence of challenge?

Sadly, one of my most gratifying hobbies right now is completing a purchase at CVS using as many coupons as I can get away with and paying as little as possible. It was a hoot in the beginning, and I can assure you the instant gratification of getting something for free can be quite exhilirating especially for a cheapskate like me, that is until you become consumed by it and/or you eventually run out of room to put stuff in... or both.

I had a real hobby once, I think. At some point, I loved to take pictures. Until I fell victim to the promising impression of extra cash, it quickly became a job and the fun got sucked right out of it. But it's something I've been seriously thinking of picking up again... though I'm not just talking about photographing Ethan... but other things too. It is Spring, after all, the possibilities should be endless.

And then there's the matter of getting back into shape, more specifically getting back to a size I would be more comfortable in. Tonight, at dinner, Mike made a comment about some girl who "didn't look like she has a kid". And although I know he didn't mean it as an insult to me, I did take it pretty hard and have spent the past 3 hours moping about it. I really shouldn't be offended. I have, after all, overextended my pass to use the "I just had a baby" excuse. Surprisingly, I've also recently learned that having to buy bigger clothes annuls the very notion of fun in buying anything new. I always said the day I get discouraged to shop is the day I should be worried.

This cry for change may be short-lived, who knows. I don't think I'm really calling for any substantial change -- just a revival of something I used to enjoy and hopefully get back in those skinny jeans again. Anything's possible, right? :)

April Goal 1: Get back into taking more photos. Task: Post a new (non-Ethan) photo every week.

April Goal 2: Get back into shape. Task: Do some kind of workout at least 2x a week.

The Gap Affair

I'm usually pretty loyal to The Children's Place when it comes to dressing up Ethan. But for this year's Easter, I just wasn't impressed with anything I hadn't already seen before. Same shirts. Same hats. Same sweater vests. So I mosied on over across the hall and had my affair with the Gap. Maybe next year, I'll opt for the more traditional suit and tie, but for now, I was happy with the outfit minus the checkered vest.

He can read!

Ok... so he's not exactly reading like this girl... but if we can start with word recognition, I'm a proud momma.

He loves books, and he loves story time. One of these days, when I find the time, I would love to make him his own book... the story of Ethan. But for now, he'll settle with pretty much anything, including daddy's textbook where he found pictures of molecular structures fascinating.

Winter Be-Gone

Unofficially, Spring hasn't really sprung yet. The days are longer and my allergies are kicking in. We had one good day this week, while the rest were gloomy desperately hanging on to winter. Speaking of which, I realized I hadn't posted the one and only time Ethan got to play with some snow this season. It wasn't much. In fact, we only had a couple of hours before it melted... but Ethan had a blast.

I made the mistake of asking him what snow tastes like... he couldn't stop eating it!



The realization of the snow angel...

The Egg Hunt Part 2

I had originally planned to take Ethan to Toys R Us today for the Easter egg hunt, but we found out the rehab center across the street was having a community egg hunt this afternoon... and well, gas isn't getting any cheaper, so we just couldn't pass it up.

The ground was a little soggy from yesterday's showers but it wasn't anything that bothered the kids. They split the crowd into two groups - they put the 4 year old kids on one side, and the older kids on the other. Ethan actually enjoyed it this year... it was fun to see him *compete* to fill his basket quicker than the other kids. Mike and I restrained to pick up any eggs ourselves, so the full credit to the 30 plastic eggs all goes to Ethan.

The Egg Hunt

There's a New Toy in Town

Thanks to Grandma and Papi, we needed to do a little rearranging in Ethan's room to accomodate the new, big, bad train set. Forget the cheapo trainset I got him for Christmas -- the one that just goes around in circles -- this bad boy comes fully equipped with remote controlled trains, a train station, clock tower, a bridge... and a full array of passengers ranging from the diva to construction worker to nerd. It's so cool it even hauls Ethan's cheerios.

PS. This was taken about a week and a half ago... just before Ethan's cast came off (I'm just a little slow with posting). But his arm's doing well... they took another round of x-rays and said his bone healed just fine. Hopefully, it'll be a while before the next one....

Sleepless Nights

It's officially one minute into Tuesday... and yet I'm wide awake. I've spent the last 2 hours loading photos onto Facebook -- geez, another MySpace? -- my eyes feel heavy, I'm beginning to develop a nasty headache, and my brain is rotting as we speak. I feel like Hillary Clinton on the night before the most important day of her political endeavor...

It's frankly been like this for a couple of weeks now. I hate to resort to pills, but long nights like these make my days awfully dreadful. Maybe the stresses from work is finally catching up... I'm just finally getting settled in, and already I have to start thinking about getting a new one. Can we say pressure?

Really, it's about that time to start thinking about the "big move". The timeline's still a little blurry, but we figure we should probably be back to California by end of Spring... which in *my mind* isn't a whole lot of time to do a whole lot of stuff.

First step, submit application.

I'll have to remember to do that tomorrow inbetween my power naps.


Now, where's that ambien.....

Where I've Been

I ran into this neat little app and it got me reminiscing about the good ol' days.

I love to travel. Seeing new places and meeting new people; exploring areas I have never explored; braving unknown food; getting lost in the tourist traps; figuring out the local transportation; SHOPPING; taking photographs; getting away with things I wouldn't do in the "real life".....

Of course, traveling was far much easier before we had Ethan, but I'm a firm believer that our traveling days should NOT be over!!

If I had all the money in the world, my next stop would be... THAILAND. At least we can dream, right?

LINKIN PARK ROCKS!!!!!

So every once in a blue moon, Mike and I get to pretend we're rock stars and we do stupid crap like swim with stingrays or jump out of airplanes... but it's been a while since we've been to a concert -- last time was actually nearing 4 years ago when we first got back from Bosnia (it was Linkin Park, KORN and Snoop Dogg). Luckily for us, our individual tastes in music don't vary that much.. although he still makes fun of me sometimes for being a veteran NSYNC junkie. :)

Anyway, we figured we were way overdue for one, so for a romantic post-Valentine date, we decided to spontaneously wisk ourselves to Detroit -- thank you Mr Asian guy from Craigslist who sold us the floor tickets for face value -- and saw Linkin Park (it was a 3rd for me and I think the 4th for Mike). We coulda care less about the opening acts - Coheed and Cambria - though they actually didn't turn out so bad.

It was BY FAR, THE BEST concert I've ever been to... and I'd been to quite a few in my pre-mommy years. It was definitely the closest I've been to the stage. Granted I almost passed out from all the weed, not to mention the mosh pit...

Of course, STUPID ME, I forgot the digital camera in the car and didn't realize it until we got to the floor. Hence, the overly pathetic shots taken by my 1.2 megapixel Razor which will NEVER do this experience justice... but no use in moping about it now.

This video was taken from last night's concert by someone in the front row... it was a KICK ASS show.

Linkin Park - Given up LIVE - Projekt Revolution Tour Detroit 2008

Young Love

When I first took these photos back in December, I knew they would make the perfect Valentines Day cards. Of course, I never got around to actually getting them printed and sent out -- bad mommy. Allie's been one of Ethan's friends since they were in the infant room at daycare.. and they are sooooo adorable together, we couldn't help to *coerce* them to hold hands.

Valentines are for Married Couples Too

It was killing me that I couldn't figure out what Mike had gotten me for Valentines Day so I convinced him to exchange "gifts" a day ahead of time. My best guess was jewelry... but it wasn't even close. In fact, I never would have guessed in a million years that this is what he's been working on for God knows how long --

SWEET can only begin to describe it. Doesn't seem to fair well with the shiatsu massage chair I got him, but he seems to like it anyhow. I got him one of those cheesy coupon books too.. seemed like a good idea at the time. I didn't realize until later that I should've written up some kind of clause to go along with it -- Only 1 coupon can be redeemed at one time.

When I got to work, I was surprised yet again when I got called by security to pick up a delivery downstairs... the nice arrangement of daisies and peonies made me the envy of the floor again.

This weekend, we'll be dropping Ethan off to the inlaws and spending some time *alone* in Detroit. Romantic couple of days away... romantic hotel... romantic dinners... romantic stroll through the city of Brotherly Love... oh ya, and a not-so-romantic Linkin Park concert. :)

What does it take?

Ethan's First Broken Bone

Ethan's new friend Boo Boo Bear

My supermom powers were shattered when mommy's kisses couldn't make his hand feel better after falling down the steps last night. Not a kiss, not a hug, not even a bribe to put Blues Clues on made him feel better.

It was the worst feeling in the world... knowing exactly what's wrong and not being able to comfort him.

So we got in the car and drove to the ER, a place I'd grown quite familiar with. The nurses thought he was an angel -- an exception to the rule -- the only calm kid in the emergency room, visibly in pain while he clutches his left arm, but cheery enough to say hi to everyone and skip around as if he were there on a field trip. The nurse came in and prodded and pushed and wiggled his arm around and he didn't even make a sound. If you asked him where it hurts, he points to the same spot and says in the cutest way "right there!". After the xrays came back, we were told that he has a buckle fracture (which we learned later meant a partial break common in little kids). We left with a splint covered in ace bandage and we were told to call the orthopedic doctor first thing this morning. As we were walking out the door, we could still hear the nurses musing about how they need "more kids like him".

So he got his cast this morning and we were told to come back in 3 weeks. 3 weeks!!!!

I think I looked visibly upset when they told me that because the doctor suddenly changed his tone and tried to reassure me that this is normal in little boys... especially in active little boys like mine and that I had nothing to worry about.

Sigh. How can kid run and jump and dance and climb and act all sorts of crazy, all while laughing and giggling, when he has a 10 lb cast on?

Birthday Boy

A certain litle one in our house turned the big T-W-O recently. I had imagined a much bigger 2nd birthday, but we instead opted for a low-key celebration at home with home-baked cake and a visit to Chuck E Cheese (pretty much the only heated place around here a toddler would appreciate).

Being so close to Christmas, we were dry for fresh ideas on what to give Ethan for his birthday. Those who know me would probably agree that Ethan is no stranger to the front of the camera... but since he realized he could hold a camera and push the button himself, his interest has been diverted more towards TAKING the pictures. So... we did what every reasonable, non-spoiling parents would do. We spent $70 on a "kid tough" digital camera for a 2 year old! :)

Cheese!