Over the hills and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go!

I have been challenged since the New Year to spend more quality time with my family, especially with EV.  So last week, I started working an alternative work schedule where I front load my hours, so that I can take every other Friday off.  I don't know why I didn't do this earlier, I work overtime most days, and it's nice to have an extra day with the family. 

Last weekend, EV and I went to Jimmy's parent's house without Jimmy for the first time.  Although EV has flown many times before, this was her first flight where she had her own seat.  She was so excited about having her own seat that she didn't care if I fell asleep on the flight.  She was living it up--she had her "kiki" (stuffed monkey), her blanket, books, stickers, flash cards, snack, and juice (which she gets only on special occasions).  When I woke up, she had taken off her shoes and socks, was covered in stickers, and bent her flash cards to make little teepees.  She had the biggest smile on her face and was so proud of herself.  Although we had both been up since 4:00am on the flight up and back down, she was in good spirits and was well-behaved for most of the trip.  She also had a really good time with grandma, grandpa, and uncle Tom.  She even got to see her great grandmother.  Although the trip was short, you can't put a price on quality time.  Next time, we'll be sure to bring pappa bear and to make it a longer trip.

Not only did I have last Friday off, but Monday was a holiday.  So, we went to the aquariaum (we have totally made our season pass worth the money) and watched the dolphin show.  Although the dolphin show was seriously over the top, it was so priceless to see EV's jaw drop when the dolphins starting jumping out of the water twisiting, flipping, and dancing.  She clutched onto Jimmy's arm because there was a part of her that was so scared, but at the same time she couldn't keep her eyes off the water tank.  I wish we were allowed to take pictures, her facial expression was priceless.

I am really looking forward to more time with my family, developing a stronger bond with EV, and being there for the little things. 

"Mom! Wake UP! Right Now!"

Wow--it's been awhile since I've posted.  Well actually, I have "secret" posts that I have written but never published.  But it has been awhile.  As always, I don't know where to start.  Things have been pretty busy lately, I don't do much to help slow it down either.  I don't think I am capable of just sitting and taking things in.

As for EV updates.  Evangeline, you are talking so so much dear.  I was at a retreat Friday night and when I got home after lunch on Saturday, I was pretty tired.  So, that night as appa was giving you your bath, I fell asleep on your bed and as you walk in you yell, "Mom!  Wake UP! Right Now!"  It was quite amusing.  You are constantly repeating everything we say, your vocabulary is growing so quickly and you're just talking all the time, it's quite exponential.  Aside from saying the cutest things (*note to self--get a notebook and jot down all the cute things EV says from now on), you are also becoming more independent and sometimes you just seem so grown up for your age.  Sometimes, I can't believe you are not even 2 yet!  You definitely inherited some OCD qualities, like not liking when things are messy or sorting and re-sorting objects.  You have acquired quite a collection of hairpins and you love to sort them, over and over and over again.  You also love lining up your stuff animals, blocks, and books.  If you walk by your dresser and notice something sticking out, you have to open it up and make sure it gets put into the drawer correctly. You are also starting to sing!  Until now, you have been a little hesitant to sing, you would hum but never sing, but now you are singing along to any song you can follow and repeat.  We went to a birthday party yesterday and today you were singing happy birthday over and over and oh so well!

As for myself, I am trying to figure out how to better balance/integrate my work life with my home life.  This is the first week of starting a new schedule where I front load hours to get one Friday every pay period off.  I am so excited about having more time with EV.  It is becoming more obvious as she gets older that I need to spend more quality time with her.  Over Christmas we were really able to develop a great bond, but I feel like it makes her miss me more when I am at work.

It will be EV's birthday in a month.  I have one month to sew her dress--I chose a dress that will stretch my abilities.  We'll see how that goes--I might be making a quick and frantic trip to the mall if it fails...

This is currently one of EV's favorite thing to do.  Go to Jones Bridge Park and look at all the geese.  This is the first thing we must do before we head over to the playground.  The second thing is to survey the park for doggies.  Then last but not least, we can head over to the playground.

EV has really gotten into playing pretend with her stuff animals.  She loves lining them up, putting hairpins into their hair, and reading to them.  She also loves reading to herself.  We find her even sitting in the dark quietly "reading" in the mornings or when she's supposed to be napping.

EV loves taking pictures of herself.  The moment the camera is on her, she immediately runs towards you to take a picture herself.  No matter how much I have been trying to shelter her from technology, it's so inevitable since we use it so much in our everyday lives.  Without being "taught", she knows how to unlock an iPhone, play music, and take pictures of herself.

Here she is sorting her hairpins...

EV also loves playing with her friends.  It's so much fun to watch her interact with other kids now.  How self play and play along side friend, is now turning into, play with friend.  Here she is with two "unnis" (translation: older sisters), holding hands.

Evangeline, you will be 23 months in a couple of days.  You are such an amazing little kid.  You already make me so proud of you.  I love you so much.

Closing out the year

I cannot believe that this is the last week of 2011.  I feel like a broken record when I say "time flies" but every day seems to go by faster and faster.  We left for Gatlinburg on Christmas to get-away and spend some quality family time.  I love the moments I have to see EV experience new things and also to just spend time with her, but it also makes me sad when it ends.  It makes me wish that I had more time, or that I did more when I did have the time.  We did as much as we could on this trip; I think the highlight of the trip was taking EV ice skating.  First of all, little skates are the cutest things ever!  EV looked at us with uncertainty at first and fell a couple of times when we first put the skates on her, but got the hang of walking on ice skates on the ground.  I wish I could say the same about the ice.  It was fun for us, though poor thing, she was in a pretty bad mood afterwards.  I think it was a combination of falling, frustration, and hunger.

Christmas this year was also a lot of fun.  Since growing up my parents always worked and coming from an immigrant family, we never really had too many Christmas traditions.  I want to create traditions for EV to remember.  So, after Thanksgiving this year we bought a real live tree.  I also participated in an ornament exchange for an advent devotion.  We each were assigned a devotion and we had to create an ornament and make 24 of them.  Then, we exchanged the ornaments, so that we had 24 unique ornaments that went with a devotion leading up to Christmas.  The devotion was nice because it's meant to be done with kids.  Although EV was too young to do most of the activities in the devotion, she had a lot of fun putting up an ornament on her advent tree, and it was a great way to explain to her the true meaning of Christmas.  It was also really nice to go to Christmas Eve together as a family (although we do this every year, for some reason it was particularly special this year).  I think next year I want her to sit with us in service.  Then we came home and I let her open up all her gifts, although she was a little shy about opening up all the wrapping.  As she gets older, I look forward to making gingerbread homes, doing service projects together, and sing Christmas carols.

I can't wait to see what 2012 will bring.  Evangeline, you can be such a mischievous little girl.  You have this look on your face when you're about to cause trouble.  It's the cutest thing ever.  Although when you knock over a box of shoes in the shoe store or run and push a stack of sweaters it's a little annoying, I see so much of myself in you that I can't get too mad.  You challenge me and push me to be a better person.  You teach me patience, love, and compassion.  You are also a little comedian like your pappa.  You know what you want, when you want it, and how you want it.  You don't take "no" for an answer and you are stubborn and persistent.  I love the fact that you now speak in phrases and although sometimes I have no idea what you said, I love how you are persistent and patient with me and how you keep on repeating and show me what you are trying to say.  We are only 2.5 months away from your 2nd birthday.  I don't want to sound like a broken record but time sure does fly!

Terrible Twos

I am so behind with my posts (again).  There is so much to share, remember, and track.  I don't know where to start.  So, I'll just recap the last week, since that's really only how far my memory goes.

Evangeline is now 21 months and although she was having a mild case of the terrible twos a month or two ago, it has now become full fledged, outright, pushing boundaries, always saying "no", testing momma's patience terrible twos.  The thing that drives me absolutely nuts is that she KNOWS that she's pushing my buttons.  For example, I work from home on Monday's, so I was in my office doing my work when I hear little footsteps approaching the room.  She comes into the room and starts pulling things off the bookshelf.  I tell her to stop and to go to pappa.  She smirks and continues to pull things off the shelf.  So, I get up, put some of the folders back on the shelf, and firmly tell her that she needs to stop and go to her dad.  She smirks again and this time puts her hand on the folder, looks up at me, and pulls her hand away just as I'm about to lose it.  She pretends to walk away, as I start working again, she stops and looks at me, I see her out of the corner of my eye and she catches me glancing at her.  So then she approaches the bookshelf and this time just puts her hand towards the folder, pulls it away immediately, and runs out of the room laughing.  I'm annoyed that my 21 month old is mocking me and knowing how to push my buttons.  I work with my door closed the rest of the day, which then I get occasional knocks on the door, and a little loud voice, yelling, "MOM?" knock knock knock, "MOM!!!"  I ignore it and wonder why is her grandmother letting her annoy me while I work?  Those are the "cute" examples of her terrible two behavior.  The not-so-cute versions include kicking, screaming, throwing, and repeatedly swinging her arms around.  And no matter how much we discipline her, all she does is laugh and continues with her poor behavior.  Oh boy, I hope this phase passes soon.

Onto better news.  We got back from New Orleans last week.  I was there for work but Jimmy and EV came along so that I wouldn't be away from EV for so long.  Unfortunately, I did not get to do anything with them and poor Jimmy, he had to be a full-time dad all week (which is not easy with a toddler going through her terrible twos and who is teething).  But, they had a great time regardless (that's because Jimmy is an amazing dad).  They went to the children's museum and EV had a blast in the play supermarket, they went to the aquarium (although I think EV may be a little spoiled by the GA aquarium), they went on a ferry, they took a trolley all around town, and ate lots of yummy Cajun food.  However, this is how Asian EV's taste buds are--after a couple days of Cajun, she wouldn't eat any food and started asking for rice.  We found a Japanese restaurant and she ate as if we starved her for the last couple of days.  When we got home, she inhaled her kimchi, rice, and tofu.

Here are random pics of things that have happened since our last blog:

This girl loves books.  She's always saying "read books!!" This pic just melts my heart :)

Here we are picking out our first Christmas tree.  Hoping we can create holiday traditions and memories.

This little one is such a ham!  She is so goofy and she's constantly cracking us up.

Here she is being goofy again.  She was having so fun wearing this hat.  She just looked silly.

There are moments when she stops being tomboyish and becomes a girly girl.  She has an obsession with putting on and taking off her shoes.  Grandma and grandpa from MD bought these pink shoes from Korea and she has been in love with them since the moment she laid eyes on them.  She is constantly putting them on and wearing them.

These are ornaments I made for an advent devotion ornament exchange.  I'll blog about that more once we finish our devotions and have all the ornaments up on the tree.

One of my co-workers gave me these zebras to give to EV.  She has been loving them since.

I made this bag as a gift and loved how it turned out.  I also recently made my sister a super sized pencil case/toiletry bag.  I just hope these don't fall apart.  That's my biggest worry with making things for other people.

EV made this Christmas tree at our d-group family get together.  I was quite impressed with her patience as she slowly and systematically placed each m&m onto the icing on the cone.

One of the reasons I've been so bad with my blogging is that things have just been super duper busy, but my goal is to blog at least once a week.  I will have tons of things to blog about in the coming weeks--Christmas, road trip with grandparents, and New Years, not to mention all the things EV is doing and saying, and if I have nothing else to say, then I definitely have sewing projects to share.

You win some, you lose some

My my, I have so much catching up to do.  Where do I start.  I guess I can pick up from the last blog.  So, last week we started potty training you and it ended up being a disaster!!  The first few days were great, you picked up on it so quickly and it was clear you understood what you needed to do.  But we were unsure what to do when we sent you to school, since none of the other kids were being potty trained and you were still having a few accidents.  So, we put you back in a diaper and figured one day would not do any harm.  Well, when we went back to potty training, it was as if  you forgot.  You cried "no" when we put you on the toilet and you started getting really anxious.  Then came the worst day of all.  Sunday morning you were great, you even went to the potty on your own and came to me to show off your goods but then it was all downhill from there.  At one point, you started playing in the toilet and I told you firmly that it was dirty and that you shouldn't be playing in it.  You looked at me as if I told you something very shocking.  Soon after I went upstairs to grab something and I heard you crying.  You started peeing in the toilet but for some reason you were shocked by it and started coming to me all the while peeing down the hallway and up the stairs.  Needless to say, I started freaking out.  I grabbed the Lysol and started cleaning and telling you that it is not nice to pee on the carpet.  I think that did you in.  Since that point on, you refuse to even go near the toilet.  You cry when it's time for a bath (I think because it makes you want to go pee) and for a while you were holding your pee until nap time or bedtime.  You would just cry and cry saying that you have to pee but wouldn't/couldn't go, not even in your diaper.  So, you are back in your diaper and I refuse to even mention the word pee or potty to you.  I think the anxiety of it all made you too stressed out.  And I am sorry.  I know that you don't like major change and I should have remembered that.  I got stressed out and ended up rushing you and making you feel scared, anxious, and insecure.  Sweetheart, I don't care if you go to college in diapers, as long as you are healthy and you feel loved.

In other news, I started sewing.  I recently started getting into a line of clothes called Matilda Jane and after noticing how expensive the clothes were, I asked a friend who makes beautiful dresses if she could make one for EV.  After seeing her work, I was inspired.  I thought, maybe I can do some of this.  So, I asked my mom if I could borrow her sewing machine, bought some fabric, looked up tons of tutorials online and starting making my own clothes for EV.  Now I am totally addicted!!  I want to sew all the time.  It's also been a very nice outlet for me.  Work has been stressful and sewing actually helps me temporarily forget about all that's going on around me.

I realized the other day that EV is now 20 months old!  Sometimes I feel like she's 3 or 4 years old--the way she bosses me around.  Haha!  Today, she said, "Book!! Book!! Read Momma!!"  I love the fact that she loves to read but sometimes it drives me crazy because she wants me to read to her ALL the time.  Evangeline, you are our sunshine.  The moment you wake up, you are ready to start the day.  You call out to all your stuff animals as if you are waking them up with you and you demand for us to read you a book--the moment we walk in the door!!  You are so fun to talk to and your personality is so much like mine, it's a little scary.  You are strong and stubborn, you want things your way, and you let us know when you are unhappy.  But there are moments, when I see your pappa in you--when you are in a new surrounding, you quietly take it all in, observing everything, everyone in the room.  You have a strong sense of "fairness".  If you give me a kiss, you have to give pappa a kiss--everything has to be shared equally.  Lately, you have been really happy.  Not just smiling happy but belly laugh out loud, uncontrollable laughter happy.  It's also really sweet to see you interact with friends, giving them hugs, sharing toys, and talking in your own language.  EV you are growing up so fast.  I know that we have moments when we don't handle situations right but there is not a single moment that passes by where we do not have unsurpassing love for you and such joy and gratitude for every moment with you.

Peepee in the Potty

Evangeline, this past week you have been showing more and more interest in the potty.  Anytime anyone goes to the bathroom, you insist that you sit on the toilet yourself.  So, I will rush you to the bathroom, take your diaper off and let you sit there until you ask for a piece of toilet paper, throw it into the toilet, and say you're all done.  Up until this evening, it was all about the process but no results.  Well, that all changed this evening.  As I was getting ready to give you a bath, I told you that I had to go peepee.  Afterwards, I hear you peeing in the bathtub, so I asked if you would like to pee in your toilet.  You nodded, so I quickly plop you onto your toilet, and you finish up peeing.  You proceed to ask for a piece of toilet paper, which you throw into the seat behind you.  After your bath, you say that you have to peepee again.  So, I plop you back on your toilet and you proceed to pee a second time!!  I was so proud of you and after giving you tons of high fives and accolades, you look at me and say "more."  So, I told you that it doesn't work like that and that we can go to the potty next time you have to pee again.  I don't know if this was a one time deal but it's amazing how much joy I got seeing you pee in a toilet.

So considerate!

My mom told me that when I was 2 or 3 that I had a very big problem with sharing.  It did not matter if it was mine or not, I would proclaim that everything I touch was mine.  Apparently, we went to one of my parents' friends house one day and as I was playing with their kids who were much older than I, my parents had to drag me out of the room as I kicked and scream, it's mine, all mine.  So naturally, I had a fear that EV would have this genetic disorder.  And to affirm this fear, as EV started talking more and more, she started saying "Mine" with such emphsis and clarity.  And to our surprise, when we went to go visit sweet baby Naomi, EV said, "No! Mine!" when we told her to give back Naomi her stuffed animals.  I also noticed that sometimes she would test me, she would come over to me, and take whatever I had in my hand and ever so slying take it and say in a very smooth way, "mine".  As if to say, "what are you going to do about it, momma?" 

So naturally, I started putting heavy emphasis on sharing and importantly, I made sure that I never said the word "mine".  When EV comes over and takes something from me, I just say, "EV that wasn't very nice, momma was using that" or "EV, you have to ask first."  When she challenges me with her sly, "mine."  I say to her, "can you share?"  When she claims that someone elses toy is hers I tell her that it is not hers and that she has to give it back.  So what's the result?  EV is now overly considerate.  I am not complaining but now if she gives a kiss to momma, she has to give a kiss to papa.  If she shares a melon with momma, then papa must have a melon as well.  If momma wants a bite of EV's food, I can't just go in there and take a bite or she gets very upset, I have to ask her first.  Not only is she super considerate but she is an equal opportunist. 

It's pretty amazing how much these little ones are like a sponge.  It makes me realize how important it is that I am careful with my words and even more careful with my actions.  They watch us and imitate us.  What a huge responsibility!  But I am so grateful that I have the opportunity for this responsibility.  How humbling and privileged that we have such an opportnity to shape someones life so closely.  Thank you, Lord!