bloogs blowing by

i'm back

and what a welcome back it's been!!

we landed back in boston to downpours.  it's currently thundering outside.  and i'm at home, despite honest intentions of going to work today.

tae got a little sick over the weekend, with a fever for a day.  and yesterday, she started complaining about her throat tickling when she ate or drank.  i took her in to the doctor this morning; meaning we were out of the house by 5am PST.  (did you know there's such thing as a 5 minute strep throat test?)  it turns out that she probably has hand, foot and mouth disease, technically, a virus.  what a horrible name.  anyway, she's pretty much fine now, though she still has some sores in her mouth.

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my san diego vacation with E was really great.  i don't know where to begin - where the high points the company?  the food?  meeting my future in-laws? 

though, this was definitely a high point, and a purchase that will keep me quite happy for a while.  [that's me with my new angry little asian girl wristlet - i *almost* screamed when i saw it at the sanrio we happened to go in to looking for things for, ahem, my daughter.  i was also tempted to buy every angry little girl trinket i saw there, but managed to come out relatively intact and with some thoughtful purchases.]

for your reference, here's the description of the wristlet on the angry little girls website:

Alternating gray dots with Kim giving the middle finger in pink and gray dots and darker gray dots with the word angry. This wristlet can be carried on your wrist, perfect for parties and clubs so you can have your hands free to hold a cocktail or dance. The handle is also handy in case you need to whack anyone when you get mad at the end of  a fun night.

what's not to love about a bag like that?  =)

pre-flight

so, E and i are flying out to san diego on friday so that i can meet his parents (and they can meet me).

i told tae that i was going on a trip on friday.... and her first response was, "and where will i be?"  i explained to her that she got to stay with gi-gi and pop-pop, that i would be back on tuesday, and that i would be going away on an airplane.  seemed fine enough.

then, this morning.  the hysterics, the crying, the pleading to go home, for me to stay.  it' had been a while since i had such an emotional drop-off for tae at school.  i felt like i needed a hug by the time i got to the office.  it seemed like about halfway to school, it all kind of clicked in her head, and she started crying about how she didn't want to go to school, didn't want to see her friends.  she wanted to go home, and she wanted me to stay. 

and you know, then there's also the chance that she was just tired from the weekend, and really not enjoying monday morning, just like me.

does anyone out there have any advice about preparing her for the trip?  (5 days)  i've thought about leaving her little surprises, or giving her a stationary set to write to me while i'm away... but i don't know what will be best for her...  part of me thinks that once i'm out of sight, she'll be totally fine... and maybe what i actually need is for her to leave me little surprises to take with me...

countdown

we are still alive...

the countdown is on - we leave on Friday for New York and on Sunday we embark on a seven day cruise to the Bahamas. we're traveling with my family, including my parents and aunt jen. it'll be our first family vacation in the last 8 years.

in the mean time, I am trying to tie up all kinds of loose ends at work. and I have to pack. I am less than excited about the task of packing.

so if anyone out there has packing tips for cruisng with kids - or recommendations for good beach reading material, please let me know!!

our saturday, in pictures

except for the first two pictures, which i took at an awesome park in chinatown, the rest are tae's photos of our saturday together in boston common.

socal

I don't know if I mentioned it, but tae and I are in socal this weekend.

and it is hot. like 90s hot.

and yesterday I spent about two and a half hours on the 10 and the 60 getting out to the g'parents' house.

and it's hot.

but, I did realize that I miss the smell of orange blossoms in the air. and the fact that people of color are everywhere.

a good bad day

yesterday was tae's second day of school.

she had a great day.  mostly.  apparently, she had a great day until she saw me walking up to the playground, at which point she lost it and broke down sobbing in my arms.  and as i held her, we talked about her day, what she did, what i told her we would do in the evening.  and eventually, she said, "mommy came back!"  and i asked her how that made her feel.  and she looked at me and said, "tae happy.  why tae crying?"  (her awesome teacher told her, "sometimes we feel different things all at the same time."

i, on the other hand, had a mostly horrible day - mainly because i locked myself out of my office which had my car keys inside.  no one campus had the key - my boss has a master key, but he was gone for the day.  public safety couldn't open the door (how safe is that?).  the locksmith was at the president's house, so there was no way the locksmith would be coming over to open my lowly door.

so tae and i were stranded.  my spare key friend has a copy of my car key, except that i was driving my dad's car because my car was in the shop.  luckily, my parents are awesome and drove in with the spare keys.

tae conked out in the car because apparently school is so much fun that she doesn't nap.  apparently, she just lies on her cot and reads book after book to herself.

and our good bad day ended when tae fell asleep at 7pm, which a) meant that i didn't get to spend much time with her, but meant that b) i had all evening to clean, pay bills, organize the house do nothing.

weekend recap

we're back.  (kinda.  we're at gi-gi and pop-pop's house tonight.)

we had a whirlwind trip of new york city, spending most of the trip... eating.

chocolate croissants: 2 (one of which we ate the yummy and splendid joyce bakeshop in prospect heights)

dim sum: 2 times (once was vegetarian.  delish!  tae especially enjoys the sticky rice, bao, and don tat)

chinese eggplant dishes: 2

sweet red bean soup: 2 (tae loved it the first time)

bagels and cream cheese: 2

can you tell that we were in nyc for 2 days and that we are very, umm, habit driven?

a big day

so, today was big day.  tae totally rocked her first day of school.

when i got to the school to pick her up, everyone was outside playing.  she saw me, and exclaimed, "mommy came back!" she came to say hello to me through the fence, and then by the time i made it into the playground, she was off running around and playing.  the other kids there were more excited to see me than she was.  they were climbing on me asking me questions and stuff.  tae was off playing with one of the older kids in her class.  she seemed like she was balancing playing on her own (which she tends to do when otehr kids are around) and making some new friends.

i got to catch up with her teacher.  tae didn't nap.  she didn't seem to eat much.  but, she tried the potty.  she played and sang during circle time.  she had lots to talk about when we finally got home.  she tried singing me some new songs she learned.  she told me about painting and doing a project with glue and peppers?  and sprinkles?  something.  clearly, she had a good time.

i'm happy because i know this is the right thing for her.  a little part of me was sad that she didn't jump into my arms when i came back.  but i'm also just glad that the whole experience wasn't as painful as i expected.  (thanks in part to all the love and support *i* received today.)

and, after that big adventure, we're off on the next one. 

we're in brooklyn for the next two days hanging out with tae's great grandma(s).  tae conked out on the way down and woke up right as we were approaching the city.  we looked at the nyc sky line together.  we both enjoyed the lights and the view.  she kept asking m where we were going.  she's so easy going - we go all over together, and she's always game for something new.

we <3 adventures.

worn out

i am worn out from traveling.

tae doesn't ever stop being a ball full of energy - so she's fine.

our trip from california to boston on thursday ended up being a lot longer than i expected.  there were crazy thunderstorms in dallas and lots and lots of flights were delayed or canceled.  i was so nervous that we were going to be stranded in dallas.  we hung out at dfw for 7 hours, had a "picnic," took a nap, walked up and down the terminal about a million times, and visted the play area in the terminal three separate times. 

unfortunately, this meant that tae was wide awake for every minute of both of our plane rides.  all i have to say is thank god for videos.  i may be a strict no-tv-mom when we're on the ground, but at 30,000 feet, the rules are different.  and tae knows this.  she now starts singing the little einsteins song every time we go to the park and go down a slide or a fireperson's pole (they little einsteins do these things in the opening credits).

after our 16 hours day of traveling, we were in boston for about 16 hours before we embarked on a trip to my alma mater.  i had planned on making the 3 hour drive from 9pm to midnight, hoping that tae would sleep.  but, i didn't really think about what the time difference from california to boston would do to this trip.  tae stayed awake for the first 90 minutes of the trip.  after an hour of looking at trucks, and motorcycles, and convertibles, she told me that she wanted to go home.  she even pointed behind us and said, "go this way!" 

i told her that we were going home that we were going to poughkeepsie, and that we'd be staying in a hotel.  then she decided, "i want to go to hotel!"  when she woke up the next morning, she looked at me and asked, "where are we?" 

we wandered around campus, picked up the requisite college t-shirt size 3T, and attended the events that we were supposed to attend.  i'm lucky that tae is so easy going - she's been to so many different kinds of events - conferences, lectures, performances - and she's done pretty well at all of them. 

after a full day of running around, she started looking sleepy, and i packed her into the car to finally head back home for good. 

i made her skip her nap yesterday because she was still on california time.  after a blissful three days of sleeping in until 9:30am, i realized that that would not work when i actually have to get up and go to work in the morning.  so, after a long day involving two trips to the park and countless hours spent in the snadbox looking for "pretend bugs," tae fell asleep at a normal boston time of 8:30pm.

it sounds boring, but i'm so excited for our schedule to be back to normal. 

ready for home

i am so ready for home.

which in this case just means the *right* coast in general.

tae are taking off for a trip down memory lane to poughkeepsie, ny on friday.  because i am completely insane.

please send happy thoughts to the airplane karma gods.

it's amazing how much tae has learned these past few days.  now when she sees a plane in the sky, she says, "who's on it?"  and, every other word out of her mouth is "because?"  asking "why?" would be too average.  she also learned what a palm tree was during this trip.  she tells me that they are yucky, but what i think she means is that they are yucky to eat.  she is also completely obsessed with "little miss" and "mr." books now.  we were reading them on the plane (light, small, entertaining) -
this morning she was naming everything in the room - little miss light, little miss mommy, little miss bed - and just cracking herself up. 

bye southern california.  i will not miss the smog, the traffic, the chains (not even jamba juice), the faux-ness of it all.