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Archive for April, 2008

Our traditional night time routine went smoothly.  I’ve got Baby Mochi trained so well that even if we finish everything early, she still demands to be put to bed as soon as her final bottle is gone (and her teeth are brushed), which is the last activity of her evening.  G fought that it was still too bright outside, but she still happily went to bed without complaint and was snoring soundly shortly after.  With Big Mochi, we ate dinner, bathed, played, winded down, had a snack, and then read 2 books (a big one for her, a small one for Bunny), and then she went to bed with a reminder that she needed to stay in her bed all night and she agreed.  Sometimes she gets into the habit of sneaking into our bed in the middle of the night and G just helps her in because he’s too lazy to take her back to hers.    I put her to bed, she came out a couple of times, realized how upset I was getting, and then never came back out. 

Then I was attempting to figure out our diminishing finances for hours while watching the Ya-Ya Sisterhood movie (wasn’t really impressed), and without really figuring anything out, i turned off the lights and was heading to bed… and nearly stepped on a good-sized 4-year old snoring body shaped like a Big Mochi who, in an effort to be near us but NOT get scolded for being out of bed, hid out in the little hallway that connects her room to where we were, and fell asleep with her bunny and a pillow.  Right there, sprawled out on the floor.  Poor baby!

12) There will be times when you will go out of your way to do something and feel totally unappreciated for your efforts.  Just grit your teeth and do it anyway because IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO. 

As a kid, my mom always bought Log Cabin syrup to eat with our waffles and pancakes.  I never understood why she never got Mrs. Butterworth’s because it tasted so much better.  It was thicker.  I mean, come on!  It ALREADY had the butter in it!  How cool is that?  So now as an adult, I buy the good stuff.  It doesn’t come in a glass bottle anymore, but unbreakable plastic in the same form, which I guess is just as good. 

As a kid, when you ordered a fountain drink, it was prepared for you.  Now you get your own cup and you can have whatever blend of mixed drinks you want!  So now as an adult, I always throw in a splash of something else – just cuz I can.  My favorite so far is fruit punch, a splash of water because it’s always too sweet, Sprite and sometimes a splash of lemonade! 

My mom also always had hard sticks of butter that would destroy toast and rolls, so for a long time I bought tubs of margarine and enjoyed the nice even way it spread, but the little crumbs that fall in that tub really annoy me.  Since we bake and cook with the butter sticks, it’s been a while since I got a tub of anything easily spreadable, but I’m thinking some King’s Hawaiian Sweet Bread would be magnificent with my cup of hot cocoa here. 

My point is… there are things that I do now that is slightly off-track from the way it was done for me as a kid.  Little things, but these little decisions are what I think of every so often and make me go You see?  I actually >>>AM<<< an adult!  Because for the most part, I still feel like I haven’t grown up yet.

11) There are very few things that can’t be made better without adding some sparkles to it. 

Today was the first day of tumbling class for Baby Mochi and the first gymnastics class for Big Mochi.  That gymnastics class is truly amazing.  It’s a bunch of 4-5 year olds following this energized teacher do super fun things and they actually are engaged the entire time!  I was so proud of her!  As for Baby Mochi’s tumbling class, they start at 18-months so basically it’s a bunch of babies going amok with all this play gym equipment.  Circle time is a 5-minute powwow for babies and parents to get used to being instructed for a few minutes to prepare them for the big kids class.  Every single kid sat there and followed circle time with wide-eyed attention doing what they were told – with the exception of mine.  She stood up, walked in the center of the circle and started dancing.  The music got her going, I guess.  Oh wait a second.  There WAS NO MUSIC!  When I got her to sit down, she flopped back and squirmed out of reach and ran to a nearby ball to throw or a wedge to climb.  I chatted briefly with other parents later about their cute obedient kids, only to find out that they had “just made 18 months.”  Then they try to help by saying, “She/he has an older brother/sister to copy.”  Uhh yeah, so does she, thanks.  G is not worried.  But again, he never is.  Whatever the case, both mochis are way fun to watch in these classes.  I’ll attach a picture tomorrow.  My camera’s in my car and frankly, I’m too comfortable on this couch to get up right now.  Even for you. 

Today is Saturday.  We don’t work on Saturdays, but today, G is working.    I did our usual Saturday morning routine.  I’m not sure why but Big Mochi always asks for the same thing on the weekend.  Oatmeal and sausages - vienna, that is.  And Baby Mochi gets a blueberry eggo which makes her dance, and some fruit.  We were playing until late last night so I just wiped them down and planned to bathe them this morning, which I did.  I then threw Baby Mochi in her crib for a super short morning nap while I got ready to go.  Today’s big adventure was going to take Baby Mochi to get a haircut since her bangs are getting into her eyes.  It took me and someone else to hold her down while another woman cut her bangs.  The rest was okay, but when someone fidgets in front of her face, she gets mad.  Let me rephrase that.  She gets MAD!!!!  But in the end, she got it done and looks fabulous now.  I noticed that today was neighborhood garage sale day so every third house or so had their stuff laid out on the lawn.  I had the brilliant idea to take the mochis on the sit n stand and stroll on and see what they got, but it was around noon, scorching hot, and so everyone packed up their stuff except for about 3 houses.  We hit them, but nearly melted so we came home.  Had grilled cheese sandwiches and a side of peas for lunch and now my entire household is asleep.  Even G came home and fell asleep.  I think I’ll join them.  Then when everyone wakes, we’ll go to Target, the supermarket, Sam’s Club maybe, and probably end up chillin’ at Starbucks just to take advantage of everyone else’s A/C!  G’s friend is supposed to stop by – but seeing as how there is clean folded laundry covering our entire play area, perhaps we’ll go out and meet them somewhere instead.  Too hard to put away clothes quietly while everyone’s asleep in the same room 4 feet away.

We just got DirecTV and it comes with DVR.  I love scrolling through the premium cable stations and making it record stuff that I won’t be up at 2:30 am to watch.  Or I can record the entire SERIES of a show and never have to worry about missing it or accidentally forgetting to set the VCR!  Grey’s Anatomy is back so I can watch it commercial free whenever I want!  Bummer they took out Big Shots, though.  I loved that show.  Now when is Heroes coming back?!?! 

Anyway, all this is totally great if you have the time to watch everything you record in the first place, which I don’t – so kinda pointless.  Plus, I’m still a Netflix member and even watching a movie a night is difficult sometimes when all you want to do is sleep…  zzzzzz

I should record the entire series of Oswalds and just run a marathon one day for Big Mochi.  Cuz seriously, who doesn’t love Fred Savage as the voice of a blue octopus with a hot dog for a pet.  It’s much better than Caillou – cute show, but his whining drives me bananas.  Don’t even get me started on everything that is wrong with Little Bear… we’ll save that for another wonderful day.

Haha!  She executed a 5-10* split and I have her totally awesome strike on video, baby!!!  What can I say?  The girl is amazing!

Can I just comment on how nice Southern California weather gets?  Blue skies, scattered clouds, nice cool breezes… these are the days when we rush through dinner and baths and then pack the girls up in the sit n stand stroller and take a walk around the neighborhood.  There is a 7-11 and an It’s A Grind right around the corner that we usually get to.  Big Mochi chitters the entire way and back – and always picks out some sort of lollipop that she throws away after about 10 minutes, and Baby Mochi is just happy to be out and sits there happily.  I usually get a super lotto quick pick (because we ARE going to hit one day) and a pack of red vines – although I’m cutting back on the red vines since it’s so bad for my teeth.  G usually picks out a drink, or nothing at all.  Sometimes we go to  It’s A Grind, but we are die-hard Starbucks fans so the menu options are difficult for us.   I love these evening stroll days!!!

*5-10 is the middle pin and the one in the back right corner (for all you people too cool to bowl)

Such a nice day to return to work.  I was gone for a weekend and 2 days and there are 68 emails, 3 invoices to input, 2 to print, 3 reports to run, 1 letter to finalize, 5 separate travel arrangements to be made, and the list goes on and on.  It made the day fly by, which was nice.  I even had time to go out to a nice admin’s day lunch with the bosses who remembered.  I am utterly and completely exhausted.

The mochis are happy to be home and are trying to settle back into their normal routine.  Baby Mochi got up 3 times last night and fought with me when I put her back in her crib.  It’s always so hard, but she eventually had a good night’s sleep and woke up all smiles.  Big Mochi slept in a little and then played hard to Aunty’s house.  She came home all tan and happy. 

Had breakfast at the famous Omelet House.  We walked in as the Mayor was leaving, so it MUST be good, right?  TOTAL awesomeness! 

Oh, did I mention that Ethel M’s discontinued my favorite milk chocolate covered apricots?  Was very very sad to discover. 

Spent the whole day on the road driving home, making a few pit stops here and there to stretch our legs.   Games we played in the car consisted of: I Spy, Guess Which Song I’m Humming and my personal favorite, Who Can Be Quiet the Longest.  Soooooooooo happy to be home!  I know you guys need to see pictures so I’ll download and post them as soon as I can!

The answer: Sand!

Circus Circus was today’s stop for the mochis followed by my brilliant suggestion of going bowling.  It would’ve been fine had Baby Mochi taken a nap, but she didn’t.  Big Mochi did very well!  She hit a few strikes and completed a 6-10 split, which is very rare for anyone, much less for a 4-year old.  She’s amazing, isn’t she?  TOTALLY!

Stayed in for a barbecued steak dinner among other things.  This has been a great trip so far.  Lots of excitement… like when Baby Mochi climbs up on furniture and utters her dreaded whisper: watch!  That means you have a half second lead before she jumps!

I made pancakes for breakfast, we checked into a hotel, took the mochis swimming in the jacuzzi because while the weather was nice, it was too windy to swim in the pool.  We weren’t there for very long, but they both had a great time.  Later that night while G and I were at a casino, the ATM dispensed all but 2 of our $20 bills.  We could see it in there, but it was stuck and wouldn’t come out.  Eventually the machine ended our transaction without giving it to us.  That set the evening for the next hour of devastating financial drainage.  We couldn’t find a blackjack table with 2 seats next to each other, so we circled and circled the pit before G decided he’d like to try craps while we waited.  The most unbelievable thing happened.  A guy rolled, hit a point (so everyone puts their money on the table), and then rolled a 7.  The next guy, same thing.  The next guy, same thing again.  3 times in a row the same thing happened.  G would’ve been the next roller, but we left.  It was the fastest losing streak he’s ever seen.  Then we laughed and headed for a blackjack table where we both lost in 1 chute.  At that point we laughed again and headed home to our sleeping mochis. 

My brother said it best by telling me it’s pretty sad when you go to Vegas and lose money in the ATM.

I’d just like to add that I had to restrain myself from typing “ATM machine.”  That’s one of G’s pet peeves, because ATM stands for what?  Automated Teller Machine. 

I didn’t get a chance to pack last night so I ended up packing in the morning.  By the time we bathed the girls, fed them, packed and left home, it was probably about 9:30 already.  We stopped in Baker and ate at a food court, and ended up at Tutu’s house at mid-afternoon.  I took a nice nap, the mochis played in Tutu and Papa’s HUGE back yard, and then we headed out to Casa Don Juan for some unbelievable Mexican food!!!  The service was spectacular, the food was to die for, and they had the best margaritas we’ve ever had.  Bill Clinton was there a couple of months ago, too!  Definitely a MUST GO!

That night, G and I went to see the the Forbidden Kingdom (new Jet Li/Jackie Chan flick), hung out a bit, and went back to the house to sleep.  Kinda typical, but good.  Was very proud of Big Mochi, who slept through the entire night in a strange house without waking up and freaking out.  Baby Mochi got up halfway and actually DID freak out so I took her out of her pack n play and she slept between G and I on the bed.  It was very sweet, but kinda like sleeping next to a tornado.

4 of us taking a 4-hour road trip for 4 days to Las Vegas.  This is the list I made, with the help of Big Mochi, so I wouldn’t forget anything:

• Clothes
• Bathing suits/beach towels
• Sunscreen
• Medicine bag & lotion
• Bath soap/shampoo
• Toothbrushes/toothpaste
• Nebulizer, mask and medicine
• Singulair
• Pack and play w/ sheets
• Baby Mochi’s blanket
• Big Mochi’s bunny
• Sit n stand Stroller
• Red thing (high chair and shopping cart cover – we have the old hideous red fabric one that they don’t make anymore)
• Yellow thing (tiny diner – ours is yellow, obviously)
• Bottles and cups
• Dawn dishwashing liquid
• Camera
• Batteries for camera
• Hair rubberbands
• Brush
• Diapers/wipes
• Socks!
• Shoes and slippers
• Snacks
• 1 book
• 1 toy
• Sleeping bag
• Crayons
• Bowling bags
• Fruits and spoons

There are more, but this is my necessity list so far.  Time to fold laundry!  I know I owe you a story about the history of Bunny.  That will have to wait for another day.  I’m not sure if I’ll be able to blog during the trip so see you in 4 days!!!

Every day when the mochis get home, the first thing Big Mochi does is ask us to turn on the computer.  She will then click on G’s profile, open up Internet Explorer, click open the list of favorites, and then pick one of her icons.  That is Orisinal,* Noggin or PBS Sprout.  She knows how to do everything on her own without supervision (relax, she’s only 4).  Once in a while she’ll ask us to read the directions for her, but basically, she’s a pro.  She even knows how to shut everything down and shut the computer off when she’s done.  Then dinner is prepared and she’s all business. 

The first thing Baby Mochi does when she gets home is find her pink blanket.  She throws it over her head and walks around crashing into things and falling over things because umm, she can’t see anything with a blanket over her head. 

10) You will have bad days.  Those are the best days to perform a random act of kindness.  ‘Nuff said.

*She scored over 134,000 on Winterbells today!  Beat that!!

Does anyone know where to find these guys?  They’re mini kokeshi doll bead charm things, probably about three quarters of an inch long (the wooden bead).  You can find them on Japanese ear cleaners, or on mini coin purses as zipper pulls, or keychains.  I haven’t seen them in years.  I remember getting a bunch for like a dime each, and now they’re completely gone.  If anyone knows, PLEASE let me know.  I’ve been searching forever.  They don’t even have them on ebay, if you can believe that!  Yeah, I’m all about ebay.  I’ve gotten so many bunnies off there.

Remind me to tell you about Bunny tomorrow.  I’ll have to find a pic, and then post later on.  Right now I’m way too sleepy.

Nigh nigh!

Baby Mochi decided to get up on the couch next to me, stand up, rev herself up, and dive headfirst down on to her blanket on the ground.  I caught her mid-air since I was next to her.  I would’ve screamed if I had time to fill my lungs with air.  I yelled to Big Mochi, “Your little sister is trying to give Mommy a heart attack!”  And Baby Mochi claps her hands and with the biggest grin yells, “ATTACK!!!”  Then the wretched little thing had the nerve to giggle, scramble back up on the couch and try to do it AGAIN! 

Aunty tells me that she’s going through a phase – yet I don’t remember Big Mochi ever going through a suicidal phase!

Today is April 14th, the day before the income tax deadline.  Therefore, guess what I’m doing at 11:00 pm!

My phone doesn’t have a camera.  I don’t have texting capabilities, nor do I have internet access of any kind.  They don’t sell the earphones that go with it because it’s obselete.  It doesn’t even flip open.  What it DOES have, is the cool option that records whatever you want, and you can use that as your own personal ringtone.  Big Mochi’s hearty laugh as a 5-month old infant is forever immortalized on this phone I refuse to give up.  However, there are times where I do wish I had a camera phone with me, just for kicks.  

9) Take lots of pictures.  It’s fun to look back in 10 years at stuff.  Also, while there are times you think you’ll never forget, it’s nothing like having it immortalized.

Big Mochi watched an episode of *Caillou once where he was taken to a strawberry patch to pick his own berries.  Ever since then, she’s been wanting to go.  She never ASKS to go, mind you.  Instead, she says, “I really wish I could go pick strawberries at the strawberry patch one day.”  Her technique worked, and we took the mochis to a local strawberry farm to pick their own organic strawberries.  It was 9:30 in the morning and probably around 92 degrees, but we had a great time.   I just wish I could’ve found their hats.  Poor little things got fried.  Thank goodness for sunscreen, boy!  They take you on a wagon ride to tour the entire farm, where they grow organic vegetables, and you get to sample them!  Then you end up in the middle of the fields where you can pick your own berries and eat as much as you like before heading back.  Baby Mochi got a little crabby whenever the wagon stopped, but once it got going, she was good.  Big Mochi thought everything was great, seeing as how she finally got to do it on her own.  At this farm during the summer, they grow watermelons and in the fall, they have pumpkins and a petting zoo and a corn maze and stuff.  Pumpkins in the fall, okay, but the watermelons in the scorching heat?  I’ll pass.

*He doesn’t have cancer, he’s just bald.

Okay, so I looked it up because I tend to obsess when I think I’m right.  He did have chamomile tea at the end.  Turns out my version of The Tale of Peter Rabbit was like crazy-edited.  It was actually a pretty long book that included tons of details that I am guessing modern child psychologists disclosed to be potentially damaging to the fragile minds of our youth today.  But thanks to Wikipedia, I was able to read the original version in its entirety and learned more than anyone cares.  Like how Mr. Rabbit died, or rabbit-tobacco and how Mrs. Rabbit supported her family.  Whatever, I was right!!!

Is it me or did Peter Rabbit make chamomile tea popular?  Doesn’t anyone else remember that he ended his near-death experience with his mom, who was not-so-cleverly named Mrs. Rabbit, serving him some chamomile tea at the end of the day?  I just bought a copy of the Tale of Peter Rabbit from the Target dollar bins and no chamomile tea mentioned in that book!  Sure, it was just a buck, but didn’t anyone notice that it was taken out?!  I may not agree with censorship in ordinary terms, but in this case, it’s tea???? 

Big Mochi used to walk around telling people that her mommy doesn’t cook, she microwaves.  And while that is primarily true, I actually can find my way around a kitchen.  I can’t do certain things like fry bacon* or bake a potato, but I can definitely do other things well. 

However, there are a ton of perfectly nutritious microwaveable meals at Costco that are absolutely delicious.  Steam a pot of rice and open a bag of salad and voila!  Dinner!  Tri tip in 7 1/2 minutes, juicy roasted chicken, even appetizers!  Even Trader Joe’s has wonderful pre-made meals using no preservatives that are amazing.  They have kal bi (Korean barbecued short ribs), orange chicken (oven baked, not microwaved), and the Mochis’ favorite, Chicken shu mai!  Yummy!!! 

As I was saying, I actually can cook.  I learned from the best –> my mom.  The only thing about learning from mom is that she gives me directions like, “Oh, just put some of this and a little bit of that,” or my favorite, “add some of this to taste.”  What is that?  To taste?!?!  If I knew, I wouldn’t need a recipe!!!  After a bunch of trials and errors, I got a bunch of no-fail easy recipes to pass down to the mochis.  I am in the process of creating a recipe book for them so that when I’m not around, they can just pick up the book and make a simple meals that hopefully remind them of home.  Smilebox has incredible recipe templates that are simple and beautiful!  Check them out! 

8) Take care of your teeth.  They make your smile.  You only get one permanent set, and like most things, no one will notice them until they’re gone.

*In my defense, I had the splatter guard sitting on the pan and let it fry just a little too long before checking on it.  I have been successful since then.

Go ahead, I dare you.  See how long it takes you to beat Big Mochi’s high score of 83,320  (as of yesterday morning) on Winterbells(it’s the 2nd one on the top row with the big bell on it).  She got 4 owls.  Haha!  My 4-year-old can beat you!

I think I like all but 2 of the games on www.orisinal.com.  They’re very cute, nice music, and with the exception of the one samurai one, nothing is even close to being offensive.

Incidentally, she’s right.  They are owls.  I asked her how she knew they were owls and she replied, “Only owls fly at night.”   

7)  Be considerate to others around you.  Consideration is overlooked often in our society and it’s sad.  Don’t contribute to its ultimate demise.  For instance, don’t slam doors, say excuse me when you sneeze and cough, tell people if they have something in their teeth, be quiet when others are asleep, don’t say rude things to people even if they deserve it (unless your reaction can save someone from harm, then by all means, go for it).

In my house, if you need to adjust the volume, you actually have to walk up to the receiver to do so.  The remote control was thrown away about a year ago when Baby Mochi learned how to put things in bigger things.  When things are missing, they end up in places like her airplane seat, in the tupperware cupboard, in the utensil drawer.  Smaller items are found in shoes,  in her ball popper toy, etc.  This morning I lost my shoe.  After searching, I decided to wear another pair.  Then as I was putting on Baby Mochi’s shoes, I couldn’t find one of those.  Care to guess where they were?  a) the bathtub, b) under the couch, c) all of the above. 

Laundry… how is it that two tiny bodies can produce so much laundry?  It’s unbelievable how many loads my small household generates in a week.  And don’t even get me started on the socks.  Everyone knows socks go in to the dryer and never come out.  Baby-sized socks are even worse.  They don’t seem to make it in the washing machine sometimes.  I give up.  To me, socks might as well be disposable. 

6) It doesn’t matter too much if you don’t cook, just as long as you know how.  It’s a great skill and gives you options.  Also learn how to bake the basics: cupcakes, blueberry muffins, and standard oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

I saw this on the headlines last week: Adam Sandler Breaks Ankle.  The article stated that he was playing basketball with some buds, broke his ankle, and that he’s fine now.  Production on his new film will not stop.  I’m sorry, but how is that news?!  Like today’s header?  I went to DSW and bought a new pair of Rykas with a 30% off coupon that my friend gave me.  I was with Big Mochi while G and Baby Mochi slept in the car.  Since Big Mochi was so good in the shoestore, I let her ride the little 75¢ horse ride outside.  Is that news?  NO, but I don’t go around publishing it as news!!!!!!!

On a completely different subject that is also not important to anyone, I was stuck in morning traffic and happened to glance over at the guy in the big rig next to me as he ate his breakfast.  He took a bite out of the whole bagel in his hand, then took a bite out of the block of cream cheese he had peeled like a banana in his other hand.  Umm, yeah.  I was thinking about leaving that visual with you and ending this post here, but instead, I’ll leave you with another one of Big Mochi’s magnificent masterpieces.  This one is a picture of 3 girls hanging on to balloons, who have managed to float up high into the sky, clearly denoted by the blue background on the top and bottom of the sheet. 

It just occurred to me that I had used Wallhoo the other night when I was very tired, and you probably thought I was just a really bad speller.  Actually, it comes from a joke that Big Mochi made up the other day.  She has embarked on the voyage of word puns and while she doesn’t fully grasp the whole concept, once in a while she surprises herself (and me) and makes up a pretty good one. 

Knock knock – Who’s there? – Wall – Wall who? - Wahoo!  Whatcha so happy about?

Okay, not that great, but come on, she’s four!  Lisa, master punner of the universe, is no doubt pretty proud of that one starting so early.

5)  Learn how to do things that you can enjoy by yourself.  You’ll find that you spend a lot of time waiting, and it helps pass the time.