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Archive for the ‘Advice’ Category

I just remembered I used to sleep over at Lisa’s house a lot.  We lived 15 miles apart, which is really really far when you live in Hawaii.  And Lisa used to sleep over my house a lot.  And when we were at my house, we spent a lot of time eating and watching late-night tv.  When we were at Lisa’s house, we spent a lot of time swimming and playing backgammon.  We spent the summer between 8th and 9th grade at the beach every single day floating in the ocean.  And waiting for the bus to take us to one home or the other.  Sometimes we went around the island on the bus.  It was always just the 2 of us.  Those were different times, of course.  Safer times.  We were good girls.  We never did anything bad.  We didn’t have cell phones.  Awesome times.  My poor little mochis will never have that kind of freedom.  No way would I let either of them venture off with just a friend.  It saddens me, but then I wonder – What the hell were our moms thinking!??!?! 

15) When it comes to something that you REALLY want that isn’t a necessity, wait 7 days.  If you still REALLY want it after 7 days, go get it.  That will get rid of buyer’s remorse.  And sometimes it’ll be on sale.  If it’s gone, it just wasn’t meant to be.

This is one of Big Mochi’s Bunnies.  There is a long history behind Bunny, but for now, we’ll leave this history lesson behind and be content with knowing that this is one of her many Bunnies.  I just loved that she had the creativity and imagination to one day dress him up with Baby Mochi’s bib for a cape and one of her stretched out hair rubberbands that she turned into a belt.  There were other Super Bunnies who had bracelets and capes, but this one was first and it was awesome.  Sadly, Super Bunny is not a graceful superhero who swoops through the air with finesse and purpose.  He depends more on fate of Big Mochi’s flinging, which sometimes lands him careening through the livingroom while skimming off the white flaky texture from the ceiling.  All in all, though, he lives quite the exciting life.

14) Whatever you do, do it to the best of your abilities.  That way if it doesn’t work out, you can never say with regret that you could’ve done better.

Poor boys.  May 5th used to be Boys’ Day in Japan and then it got turned into Children’s Day.  Yet March 3rd remains Girls’ Day.  What a jip. gyp?  jip?  Whatever… you get my meaning.  Anyway, too much work to put up the one big koi on my roof since I got pink mochis.  Hahahahaha.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just celebrate your Cinco de Mayo and move on.  I’m feeling loopy.

You know, I sometimes have to answer my boss’ phone calls so I can only use one earphone when I listen to my itunes at work.  And every time I answer the phone, I always wonder if the guy on the phone can hear my music through my head.

13) You will hear hurtful things your entire life.  Learn to respect the freedom of speech in which we were given to express ourselves freely, and then remind yourself that not everyone was raised like you were – with CLASS. 

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. 

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!!

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 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.

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.

I have been loading old cds that we own onto my new nano.  It’s been a lot of fun revisiting the songs we used to listen to, but at the same time, I listen to the lyrics of some of them and wonder what I could’ve been thinking.  I also was shocked to realize that I still know all the words to Air Supply’s greatest hits.  How’s that for embarrassing?  I also have something like 5 Phil Collins cds and 4 Yannis and way too many Hawaiian ones.  There are a bunch I should have but have no idea where there’ve gone.  One of these days my little mochis are going to get ahold of these songs and destroy my collection, for fear of their own reputation by association. 

4) Use the good stuff.  Bust out the fine China for macaroni and cheese by candlelight.  Wear sparkly shoes to Denny’s.   Have a picnic wearing a tiara.  The good stuff does no good stored away.

Every single morning, I get woken up by my Baby Mochi’s voice calling, “Mommy” very softly in her low rumbly voice.  When I get to her, she’s standing up in her crib smiling at me and hands me her blanket and lifts her arm up for me to lift her out.  I pick her up and we giggle.  

By this time, Big Mochi has usually changed into her clothes that she’s going to wear that day and has drawn 2 pictures for her best friend Princess S, has decided on what she’d like for her morning snack, played a couple of video games on G’s computer, and is patiently asking for her morning cup of milk. 

No matter what happens today, it couldn’t have gotten off to a better start. 

3) Start every morning with a stretch and a smile.  Then go hug someone.

We took the mochis to see the Wiggles in concert yesterday.  It was unbelievably awesome!  What an absolutely great show.  The Nokia theater holds 7,100, I think, and it looked as though the venue was sold out.  Sam Wiggle did a great job as a Greg replacement.  I had my doubts, but I was pleasantly surprised.  Big Mochi had the best time dancing and jumping and singing.  Baby Mochi was fascinated for the first 4 minutes, then decided that munching on chips and popcorn and drinking water from a straw was a much better way to pass the time.  She did dance and jump for a bit, but for the most part, she was watching the big screen tvs and eating.  If she could have found a way to dive into the popcorn bucket, she totally would’ve.  Big Mochi made a friend and the two danced in the aisles for the 2nd half of the show.  By the end, she was sweating and was all flushed with red cheeks.  The best was when they turned the lights down and had everyone hold up their cell phones and blinking toys to illuminate the place while they sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  Oh, and they added a giant disco ball so there were more stars floating around.  Even G thought it was a great show, and that’s saying a lot since he’s difficult to impress.

This has nothing to do with my post, but since I bought new sneakers yesterday, I wanted to add another thing to add to my list of things to tell my kids. 

2) There is a correct way to tie your shoelaces.  You thread from the inside out.  I guess you don’t HAVE to, but my job is to make your life as simple and hassle-free as possible so you can concentrate on more important things. 

You’d think it would be common sense, yet there are so many times where I’ve tried on new shoes and I’ve had to relace them because they’ve been laced dumb.

I remember giving birth both times.  Someone put this naked baby on my chest and I stared down and the three words that sang out loud and clear in my head were, “Big.  So big.”  She was an 8 pound baby born 3 days after her “scheduled” due date (and I got all my stretch marks on those last 3 days, thanks).  She had a full head of hair and her eyes were wide open for hours looking around and blinking at everyone and licking her lips looking for food.  You heard me; she was born hungry.  She had hairy ears and furry shoulders and a blue butt and honked like a goose for the first few weeks of her life.  She was heavy and floppy and even though I had been pushing for the past hour, I kind of didn’t get that this was My New Baby.  Even a few months later, I would still look at her and couldn’t quite comprehend the fact that I was a mommy. 

The second time around, I knew more or less what to expect.  This time my epidural went much better and I actually didn’t get sick afterwords or have any issues.  Not me, anyway.  She did, but she pulled through just fine.  She came out within a few minutes, it seemed, also with a full head of hair and a blue butt, but my first thoughts were, “Not as big…”  She was born 7 pounds 9 ounces, and let me tell you, those 7 ounces sure made a huge difference between the 2 sisters.  She seemed so tiny and fragile.  Even though I was induced early that morning, she held out until after midnight to come out on her dad’s 34th birthday.

If you do the math, her Sweet 16 is her dad’s 50th birthday.  THAT will be one huge party!

After my first mochi was born, I started thinking about all the things I’d like to pass on to my kids.  Some motherly advice that might help them to grow into respectful adults.  I will start here and add my thoughts daily and compile them until they’re old enough to understand. 

1) I have a motto that I strive to live by when conflicts arise: Take a step back.  Ask yourself, “In 5 years, who’s gonna care?”  If the answer is YOU, then do something about it.  Otherwise, let it go.  There are more important things to worry about.