Phoenix Open

Golfing was never my thing; it was a miracle that I never hit anyone's head with the club or, worse yet, fling it into the fake volcano and the hideous windmill when we used to go mini golfing on dates before the bug was born.  But watching professionals golf is a completely different ball game.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the Phoenix open on Monday.  It had finally stopped raining after almost three days of downpour and it was simply beautiful on the course.

The most scandalous event of the day was when we were waiting for our car at the valet, a server offered me a drink that was "high in vitamins and minerals".  The drink tasted like orange soda and man was it good.  Now let me just tell you that I rarely drink soda (maybe half a dozen times a year), and I don't drink caffeinated soda.  After consuming 10% of the drink the lady offered me, I was speaking 50% faster and my voice was one whole octave higher.  Then six o'clock hit and I suddenly felt as tired as an eight-week pregnant lady.  And man, the headache!  The headache!!  I vow here and now to never ever consume any "high in vitamin and mineral" drinks.

Shadow Puppets

We decided to do some hand shadow puppets last night before we put Ethan to bed.  Jake and I are horrible at it.  Somehow everything we made looked like they had been zombie-ized but that's okay because I was mostly just happy that my two boys were laying right next to me.  Who knew a simple game like this could be so memorable?

An evil- and tamagotchi-looking duck.

This is our newest family portrait called The Shadows of Our Feet.

A Saturday on Our Driveway

Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday.  We clean the house, and we shop at the store so we don't have to work until Monday...  That Primary song kept going through my head as we pulled weeds out and cleaned up our front yard this past Saturday.  Ethan had a great time playing on our driveway and front yard under intense supervision.  And even so, he managed to fall a few times with one of them being a face-plant on the gravel.  Ouch would be the right word.  It was rather painful to watch, but he ran around like nothing had happened three seconds after the incident.  Our work day was tiring but productive; and it ended with E smooshing blueberries in between his bum and the stroller seat.  He is now a proud owner of a pair of khakis with a rather large blue stain on the buttock area.

EE's Layover

EE (which means Aunt in Cantonese) came to visit us last week because she had a layover at Phoenix.  We brought her home, hung out with her for a little while, fed her leftover casserole and fresh sushi, then sent her on her way again.  Ethan was over the moon.

Ethan + Floss

There has been a lot going through my mind lately and sometimes when that happens my brain gets jammed.  I need time to process it all before I can make them into proper thoughts and then construct sentences to tell you about it.  Meanwhile, enjoy this silly child and his piece of floss.  I think he thought it yummy with the minty flavor.

Currently Reading

The daddy bear is currently reading...

Ya, daddy bear likes to keep his reading list pretty short.

The mommy bear is reading...

I'm enjoying Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, and have concluded that it's one of those books you have to own.  On my nook, I have The Wednesday Wars and it's frankly quite awesome so far.  

And finally, the baby bear...

These are the books that we read at least once per day.  Ethan is obsessed with Good Night, Gorilla.  I personally find it very challenging to read this book to him because, well, there are just so few words.  My estimation is that we read this book at least half a dozen times a day.  He is also loving the Llama Llama books which I find adorable.

Favorite Christmas Present

One of the Christmas presents I got from Jake this year was this recipe organizer app called Paprika.  I love it.  I've only been using it for a couple weeks but it has already made my life so much easier.  One of my favorite things is how easy this app has made it for me to share my recipes.  All I have to do is click "share" and then "email" and it formats the recipe nicely in an email for me.  The lame thing is you have to pay for the iMac version, the iPhone version, AND the iPad version if you want the app on all your devices.  As you can see below, I've entered 114 recipes so far and I still have about 300 more to go...  So I better get to work.

Here are a couple more screenshots:

Happy cooking!

Ethan the Weight Lifter

One of Ethan's 2013 resolutions is to get an impressive six-pack.  To achieve this, he turned to mama's newly purchased bag of red potatoes and he lugged it around all morning long.  I couldn't pry it from his hands.  It was almost like Charlie Brown and his blanket except for that bag of potatoes weighed three pounds.  After about a dozen drops, the bag broke open and the potatoes fell all over the floor.  He lovingly picked them up one by one, carefully put them back into the bag, and was back to business with the weight lifting.  That milk belly of his is going to be gone in no time.

An Accidental Prank

I pulled my first and worst prank ever last week without really meaning to.  Remember how I was sick last week?  Well, I was getting ready for bed one night and while I was changing out of my daytime pajamas into my nighttime pajamas, I looked down at my legs and to my horror found that they had turned a blueish purple.  How did that happen?  For a split second I thought that my sickness had somehow taken a dive and turned into something horrible but then I saw that my slippers had turned a bluish purple too!  It didn't take me long to realize that it was because of the the new leggings I wore underneath my sweats.  They bled.  The new leggings were purchased by my mom.  She got both Leah and me some.  So I took a picture of my legs and sent it to both my mom and Leah.  To my mom, with the intention of tricking her to think that I have somehow froze my legs in AZ; to Leah, with the intention of warning her so that she doesn't get the same bluish purple legs.  I didn't even think about tricking Leah because I knew she would be hard to fool with her medical background and all so I just sent her the picture.

I cropped the original image to minimize skin exposure.

To my absolute delight, my mom believed me.  She was so worried about my legs she sent me a string of texts instructing me exactly what to do to warm them back up.  I was feeling pretty good about the joke that I pulled on her so I told her the truth soon after.  We both had a good laugh.  Leah never texted me back that night so I went to bed early with a stuffed nose without thinking too much of it.

When I woke up in the morning, I found several missed calls from Leah and a few texts from both her and my mom.  Apparently Leah didn't get my text until late that night.  After looking at the picture with no explanation, she thought that I had dislocated my knees.  She FREAKED OUT.  Since she couldn't get me or Jake on the phone, she called my mom.  My mom said that Leah was already crying when she answered.  Poor Leah let her imagination run wild.  She first thought that maybe I had fell and hurt my knees and when I didn't answer my phone she thought I had gotten abducted.  I have no idea how she went from dislocated knees to abduction but one thing I do know is that my sister loves me.

During the aftermath, Leah went into a very logical explanation as to why she thought my knees were dislocated.  Her husband, who is also pre-med, agreed that my knees looked deformed.  The final diagnosis: Congenital Ugly Knee Syndrome.

The end.

Bah-baye Mama

I had always been the one to put Ethan to bed ever since he was born until about a month ago when we decided it was time to stop co-sleeping with the bug.  Jake is the one who puts him to bed now.  When we first started changing things up, E screamed and kicked and cried at the top of his lungs when daddy came pulling him away from mommy, but he doesn't do that anymore.  He willingly went to daddy after snuggling with me on the couch, waved to me while he said "bah baye", blew me a kiss, and that's it.  I watched Jake carry him into his nursery.  There was no screaming, no kicking, no crying.  I should be happy, and I am glad that he's not sad, but there was an ache in my chest.  I feel like he doesn't need me the way he used to need me anymore and that makes me just a little bit sad.  I'm sure I'm just walking along the road of young motherhood like so many have walked before me.  It's sometimes good to know that I'm not alone in this, that my mom, my mom's mom, and so many other moms out there have all felt what I'm feeling tonight.  

Sick on New Years + Quinoa Fried Rice

Being sick on new years day wasn't half as horrible as it sounds.  If I had to rate this cold from 1 to 10 with 10 being the worst cold I have ever had, this would be a three.  Yup, it's pretty meh.  I thought for sure that I would be kicking the dead germs' butts and getting back to my normal self by now (this cold started a few days after Christmas), but I'm still not completely over it yet.  I've finally proved my mom's truthfulness when she told me as a child that I had to rest to get better.  I was a very obedient child, though she might not agree completely, and therefore I had never had the chance to prove her words wrong until now.  A mama gets no rest with a one-year-old running wild in the house and on the walls and over her hair.  It's real comfort, though, that my child hasn't caught what I have.  But then it really isn't that bad when your husband gives you the royal treatment while he's home with dinner in bed and the frequent head-pokes through the door just to check on me while blocking the King of all wild things from entering the bedroom.

Anyhow, I made dinner the other night which was a rather ordinary action in itself, but the fruit of my work was quite delicious if I do say so myself.  I made quinoa fried rice or perhaps you'd rather call it fried quinoa, like Jake, since there's really no rice in this dish at all.

{ Quinoa Fried Rice }

Adapted from Damn Delicious

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 head broccoli, cut into florets
2/3 cup frozen corn
2/3 cup frozen peas
2 carrots, peeled and grated
3 cups cooked quinoa
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
3 tablespoons soy sauce
Salt to taste
Chicken powder
2 green onions, sliced
Sriracha, for serving

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic and onion, and cook, stirring often, until onions become translucent, about 4-5 minutes.

Add mushrooms and broccoli. Cook, stirring constantly, until vegetables are tender, about 3-4 minutes. Add corn, peas, carrots and quinoa. Cook, stirring constantly, until heated through, about 1-2 minutes.

Add ginger, soy sauce, a pinch of salt and some chicken powder. Gently toss to combine. Cook, stirring constantly, until heated through, about 2 minutes. Stir in green onions.

Serve immediately, drizzled with Sriracha, if desired.