bloogs blowing by

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...

monday movies

monday movies
Video sent by eliaday

at the boston children's museum, there's a new exhibit about china... tae takes this to mean that you need to speak chinese when you're playing in that section of the museum... here, she tells us that her name is "shou shou."

big kid thoughts

over the past week or so, i've been watching tae through a different lens - through the lens of her being a BIG KID, not a baby.  apparently, she is such a big kid that she goes to the bathroom on the big potty without a kiddie seat on top of it.  she is such a big kid that she tries to help our two year old neighbor cross the street.  she is such a big kid that she cuts her pancakes herself, with a fork in her left hand and her knife in her right, and then switches her fork back to her right hand to eat the pancake.

tonight, as i was snuggling with her at bedtime, she said to me, "let's dream about hearts so we love each other."

SNIFF.

of course, on the flip side, this also means that tae is big enough to have some big kid thoughts that aren't so warm and fuzzy.  we have been reading "the man who walked between the towers" about 3 or 4 times a day for the past week.  this book (which is beautiful!) is about phillipe petit who walked on a tightrope between the two towers of the world trade center in 1974.

tae, being tae, asked me if i could take her there one day.  (she realized that the book was set in NYC, with the statues of liberty and bridges.)  i told her that i couldn't because the buildings weren't there any more.  (why?)  i had to explain to her that they fell because of a fire.  (why?)
  she asked me why they built the buildings if they fell down.  she asked me what was there now. 

i was a little unprepared for all of this. 

then she told me that she thought the buildings were still there, behind the clouds.

it's a little sad to think that this is the world that tae is growing up in.  one in which it is not strange to her to take her shoes off when she goes through airport security. 

SNIFF.

fours (if tae could answer)

4 Jobs I've had in my life:

• i work in my mom's office and do work on the computer.

4 Movies I've watched more than once:

• what's a movie?  like on a youtube?

4 Places I've lived:

• Riverside, CA
• Boston, MA

4 TV Shows I Watch:

• Curious George

4 Places I've Been (But Not Lived):

• Brooklyn, NY
• Washington, DC
• Las Vegas, NV
• Angel Island, (San Francisco)

4 Places I Want to Visit:

• China
• The Eiffel Tower
• California
• anywhere with palm trees.

4 Things you might not know about me:

• I am allergic to peanuts.
• I am 3 and a half.
• I poop and pee in the potty every day.
• I'm named after my great grandma.

4 People who email me regularly:

• what's email?  i prefer texting.

4 of my favorite foods:

• Stonyfield Yogurt Smoothies
• Stonyfield Yogurt Smoothies
• Gorilla Munch Cereal
• Pirate's Booty

4 Places I would rather be right now:

• the Norwegian Spirit
• the Children's Museum
• outside playing with my friends
• Super 88 (our local Asian market)

4 Things I am looking forward to this year:

• turning 4
• Halloween
• Christmas
• having a birthday party

monday movies

 

monday movies
Video sent by eliaday

this is for a friend who had a bad weekend and told me that she missed our videos.

this is tae, impersonating a dog we saw that pretty much had no tail.  the dog wagged its non-existent tail anyway when it was happy - which pretty much looks exactly like what is pictured here.

tae added the sticker to her butt all by herself to enhance the effect.

moms and dads

i haven't talked to tae about the fact that E and i are engaged - mainly because we're not planning on actually getting married until spring/summer of 2010, which for a three year old is like an eternity away, or at least 2/3 of her lifetime away.  which is pretty much like eternity to her.

so, just out of curiosity, i asked tae today what a dad was.  from some of the things she was talking about yesterday, they had made notes at school for father's day.  tae was writing notes to D-A-D, despite the fact that she calls her father "apah" (father in korean) and knows how to spell A-P-A-H and writes him notes all the time too.

tae must have thought i was asking her really weird questions, like duh, mom, you know what a dad is...

me:  hey tae, what does it mean to be a dad?
tae: like mom and dad.
me:  yeah, what does it mean to be a mom and dad?
tae:  mom and dads take care of you!
me:  do you think anyone could have two dads?
tae:  no, just one mom and one dad.
me:  well, what about P?  P has two mommies.
tae:  can you have three mommies?  and three daddies?  and six mommies?
me:  i guess someone could have six mommies.  they would be very lucky to have six mommies.
tae:  i'm not lucky.  i just have one mommy.
me:  but you're very lucky - there are lots of people - like gi-gi and pop-pop, and E - who help to take care of you, and who love you so much.

oh well.  she doesn't seem to have any angst around the issues of mommies and daddies.  which hopefully is because she knows that she is loved by a LOT of other people in her life.

we're going to red sox nation!!

there's something amusing about tae's fondness for the red sox - namely that she's never watched a real baseball game in her life.  (though she loves to watch kids play down at the park, maybe that should count.)  anyways, she really has no idea what red sox nation is.  but like a good bostonian, she donned her red sox hat, and got excited about eating popcorn (she read this in a book somewhere - about popcorn at ball parks).

so today, when we went to fenway park for my university's family day at fenway, i think neither of us really knew what to expect.  except that we were going to red sox nation, and tae was excited.

i think tae expected there to be people playing baseball.  if there were people playing baseball, we missed it while standing on line for air brushed tattoos.  but we had a fun time exploring fenway - talking about how the person inside the wally the green monster costume got out (tae thought there was a zipper somewhere), eating ate ice cream out of a pretend baseball hat - because as tae noted - it would be too messy to eat out of a real hat.

i enjoy getting out in to boston, and exploring together with tae.  it was my first time at fenway park too.

fours

i'm resorting to memes.

4 Jobs I've had in my life:

• gymnastics teacher
• shoe sales person
• math homework grader
• infant researcher

4 Movies I've watched more than once:

• the wedding singer
• 10 things i hate about you
• amelie
• the whale rider

4 Places I've lived:

• Poughkeepsie, NY
• Baltimore, MD
• Riverside, CA
• Boston, MA

4 TV Shows I Watch:

• Heroes
• Grey's Anatomy

4 Places I've Been (But Not Lived):

• Paris, France
• Manzanar, CA
• Las Vegas, NV
• Angel Island, (San Francisco)

4 Places I Want to Visit:

• China
• A beach on the Mediterranean
• Somewhere where there is zero gravity
• Somewhere where the toilet water spins in the other direction

4 Things you might not know about me:

• I don't have pierced ears.
• I snore.  Loudly.
• I lived in Johnson City, TN for 9 months when I was a baby
• my middle name is my mother's last name

4 People who email me regularly:

• my fiance
• my parents
• my bank
• barack obama & his campaign people

4 of my favorite foods:

• rice
• kimchi jigae
• dumplings
• popcorn

4 Places I would rather be right now:

• the Norwegian Spirit
• asleep in my bed with my entire house clean
• on a beach
• hanging out with other grown ups

4 Things I am looking forward to this year:

• turning 30
• not having a "new" job
• having a fiance
• not having to buy any more diapers this year

my last post about poop, or other exciting things that happened on the cruise

so there was another exciting [to me] thing that happened on the cruise.

there were no diapers.  tae has been peeing in a diaper since thanksgiving, and pooping in diapers.  it was a team effort trying to get tae to poop in the potty - with her teachers, grandparents and everyone supporting my efforts.  there were poop charts, ice cream incentives, and other cool things.

and then, on the boat, there were NO DIAPERS!  and guess what, she pooped in the potty.  everytime.  and, once we got off the boat too.  woo-hoo!!

and, i think this my last post about tae's poop.  because she's getting big, and i don't want to be writing about my kindergartener's poop.

but wait, how am i supposed to clean out her big kid potty after she poops?

where to begin...

i don't even know where to begin with this one.... do i talk about the cruise?  the major pooping developments?  is it appropriate to announce this on my blog?

that's why i haven't posted anything.  because i don't know where to begin.

so i give up.  at first i was worried that maybe it was inappropriate to share this news on my blog, for my friends to learn about this one facebook... but then i realized that a) this is 2008.  i learn more from my feed reader than i do from any other news source.  b) there's nothing wrong with connecting through blogs and facebook.  heck, that's my lifeline of connection to many many people.

so here goes.

one week ago, while on a cruise to the bahamas with my parents, tae, my sister, her boyfriend, and my boyfriend, i got engaged.

here are some reactions i've gotten so far:

1. i didn't know you were in love!
2. welcome to the club.  it ain't fun.
3. are you engaged?
4. are you engaged to E?

here are my responses:

1. yes, i'm in love.
2. i've been in the club before, and i know that it is work.
3. yes, i'm engaged.  that's what i meant when i said the cruise was engaging. =)
4. yes, i'm engaged to E.

the next question is usually... how.  so here's the whole story.  after the jump.  if you want to hear the story in person, please let me know.  and stop reading right here. =P