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My parental units are still here. Today is the last day of their visit, and as usual my emotions are a little conflicted. The anticipation leading up to their visits are always intense. Since they live many states away, we rarely get to see them and their visits are a always special. However, after spending more than 48 hours with them under the same roof, I’m quickly reminded of the past. A time when I was about, oh…. 15 or 16 years old. Don’t get me wrong. I love my parents, bizarre Chinese superstitions and personality quirks and all (sort of), but sometimes, they can drive me a bit batty.

Here are 13 reasons why I love and not so love having my parents here.
You be the judge…

1) Sandy, do you have a scale? When was the last time you weighed yourself?

2) You need more plants in your house… You need a plant in here… A plant should go right here…Why don’t you plant something here?

3) Are you taking your vitamins? You should take your vitamins Sandy?

4) Why don’t you just quit your job? It’s just not worth it. (I agree)

5) Ella doesn’t look like you AT ALL Sandy.

6) Why is there hair ALL OVER the house? There’s hair everywhere! – my O.C.D dad

7) Gosh Sandy, you really need to clean your car.

8) Go ahead and take a shower, we’ll watch Ella. *Angel choir sings*

9) Dad phones a few relatives (ones I don’t like) and thinks it is all right to divulge how much we paid for our house

10) Your toilets are really loud. Why are they so loud? Did you hear how loud they are?

11) *Mom fills a glass with green slimy substance resembling swamp water*
Here Sandy, drink this. It’s good for you…

12)
Dad: Blah, blah blah in Cantonese.
Toddler: *blank stare*
Dad: Blah, blah blah in Cantonese (louder)
Me: She doesn’t understand Chinese dad.

13) I slept in this morning until 9am and came downstairs to a dog and toddler both fed and happy 🙂

I only hope to have the same opportunity to share some of these torturous moments with Ella in a few years.

It’s been 3 days since our move into our new place, and as expected, we’re still settling in. Our transition from a small, new construction apartment to a 70 year old home with nearly twice the square footage has presented a few adaptive challenges us. Here are a few things I’m still adjusting to.

1) A big kitchen. Sure it may not look huge to you, but I’ve never had a kitchen that afforded more than a 1 person occupancy. The trek from the stove to the fridge (beside me, not in photo) allows me to burn off calories as I prepare our meals. The window treatments and white appliances came with the house (Yes, that is my computer on top of the kitchen table. One day I’ll have a desk. One day).

2) A spooky basement. I grew up in Florida and only heard of basements as a child. For years I related them to the storm shelter Dorothy’s family ran into during the twister scene in the Wizard of Oz. I’m a big, big wuss, and I hate going down there. The stairs creak and the only light fixtures down there are rusted, pull chain light bulbs.

3) Bright wallpaper. Here is a shot of our dining room (we do not have a dining table yet). I actually like this pattern and created my daughters nursery linens with a similar French toile. But standing in this room, surrounded by all of this for more than a few minutes, kind of makes me nauseous. Not good for a space meant for eating.

4) Old door knobs. I love them! They are one of the reasons why I love this house. But the downside now that we live with them is they don’t really work. All of the doors and knobs are original to the home, and they now don’t close or work well. Plus, you can actually see through that keyhole! A bit creepy.
doorknob

5) Old electrical. The sellers did a great job hiding all of these from any prospective buyers. None of these old, non-grounded electrical outlets were exposed during open houses or inspections. These were all hidden behind their large, heavy furniture pieces.
oldoutlet

6) Narrow spaces. The age of this home shows in several places that attempt to maximize even the tiniest spaces. Here is our linen closet, directly beside our staircase. The shelves inside are only as wide as the door (approximately 1 folded towel).

7) Baby proofing-o-rama! The seller had this house baby proofed from floor to ceiling. Sure it’s sort of convenient since we have a toddler, but she’s old enough to know not to wedge her head into the toilet! So most of their leftover baby-proofing is more a nuisance for us. Here’s a shot of the toilet seat in our half bath with a safety guard that swings over the lid whenever it’s closed. In order for it to move, you must press the gray button (hard) with one hand and swing it open with another. A 2-step process just to get access to the can?! Much worse than finding the seat up.

8) Sunroom/Den/Family room/ Misc. room. I’m not 100% sure what’s this room is supposed to be. It is directly off the main living room, and it has access to the backyard. Again, we are lacking furniture for this room, so for now it’s just a toy haven that I can just shut the door and not have to look at the mess. The big downfall is it feels like a meat locker in there during the winter! Therefore, the door is closed tightly at the moment.
sunroom

9) Fireplace. I love the look of our fireplace in the living room. But the sellers never used it, so we will have to get someone to evaluate it before we light it. I’d love to be able to use it now since it’s been below freezing for weeks!
fireplace

10) Having my daughter this far from our bedroom.
hallway

11) Having my daughter wake up screaming because she’s that far from our bedroom.

12) Dealing with my daughter all of a sudden saying, “Oh no! Mommy, I saw a ghostses!” since we moved into the house.

13) Still unpacking alone with a toddler. But I’m almost there! Only 15 more boxes to go!

It’s 7:00am Saturday morning as I write this. I nearly forgot all about posting a photohunt today. When I checked the website for the theme, I was stumped . After digging through dozens of folders in my photo library, I let out a big *sigh* and sat defeated in my chair. I peered outside of my kitchen window, and sipped my coffee. The rain trickled down from our roof, and beside our window a temperature gauge read 38F degrees. Ahh, and then I remembered…

For today’s theme “different” I thought I’d share some of the places I miss dearly and long to be whisked away to on this cold and rainy morning.

Up first, the most popular destination in the world, Paris.

In a close second, New York City.

What is so “different” about these places you ask? If you haven’t already noticed, both cities are merely replica hotels in Las Vegas, Nevada. I took these photos 3 years ago before our wedding at the Paris Hotel. I’ve never been to the real Paris, and I believe NYC is nearly the same temperature as it is here today. So I’ll take either of the 2 fake cities today, and Vegas too 😉

I wanted to throw in this picture as well. I snapped this photo during an animal show at the San Diego Zoo in California because of the truly unique and “different” kind of friendship they share.

Apparently the cheetah and the golden retriever have been best friends for years!

How do you find blogs? Do you join social communities? Search? Do you click on blogroll links on your favorite blogs?

I have to admit, I do all of the above. However, with the recent turn of events (see yesterday’s post), I may steer clear of the whole social community setting for a while. There is still the taste of sour apples at the moment. I digress. When I first began blogging a few months ago, I was addicted to clicking other people’s blogroll links.

I have an inherent curiosity to see what other people are reading. By doing so, I’ve found some of my favorite daily reads and love placing them on my blogroll. The only downfall is my blogroll has become a bit of a monster. Some bloggers have designated an entire separate page for their blogroll list, and others are as far-reaching as mine.

On that note, I am revamping the Momisodes blogroll! My personal preference (at the moment) is to have my blogroll on my main page for easy access. I’m lazy. I also hate feeling squeezed for space whenever I want to add one. more. blog to the list. So last night I did a bit of searching for WordPress blogroll plugins and found Better Blogroll. It allows me to display a configurable number of random links from my blogroll on my sidebar.

I currently have it sent to display 10 random links from my blogroll each time the page is loaded. Just refresh if you want to see more. So when visitors arrive at Momisodes, they are not consumed by a monster blogroll on my sidebar anymore. I can now link to as many of your blogs as I like without making my page scroll on forever and ever.

Something magical happens when the worlds of cognition and vocabulary collide. In children, you can almost see the neurons firing in their little heads as they connect objects with names, emotions with words, thoughts into phrases.

Watching the delicate process unfold can be somewhat like the science experiment. Initially, toddlers start off with simple ingredients of basic words. Over time, the words may be mixed together to create potential substances. Then with great trial and error and all of the proper ingredients, eventually a breakthrough meaningful sentence may arise. However, sometimes just a minor alteration or oversight can ruin the finished product and provide misleading false results.

Here is some key evidence to support this theory:

Case #1:

– Me: Sweetheart, please drink that fruit smoothie slowly.

– Toddler: Why?

– Me: Because it’s very cold and you don’t want to drink it fast.

– Toddler: Why?……….*stops drinking from straw and grabs nose*

– Me: See, I told ya.

– Toddler: *grimacing* Mommy, my nose not feel right!

Case #2

– Toddler: I hungree!

– Dadisode: *speeding while driving through a parking lot*
Where do you want to eat lunch after this?

– Toddler: Pissa! Pissa! Chuck-E-Chiss!

– Me: Slow down! There are people crossing the street! Ugh, I’m really not that hungry. Your driving is making me nauseas.

– Toddler: Mommy, what’s wrong?

– Me: Oh nothing. Daddy’s driving is making me want to throw up.

– Toddler: Daaaaaaaadddy! YOU’RE GONNA THROW UP MOMMY!

We finally arrived in North Carolina, and I’m alive!

Not totally coherent,… but alive.

I’ve been anxious about this trip all week. When I booked our flight there was pretty much only 1 flight option available- a flight leaving at the butt-crack of dawn. Anything later in the day would have cost approximately $1000 per ticket. Not an option. So a 4:30am alarm clock woke us this morning, and we barely made our flight.

I’ve mentioned before in a few posts my extreme fear of airplane rides and heights. The motion on airplanes make me sick to my stomach. It often snowballs emotions of nausea that leads to anxiety, which leads to panic! So you can only imagine the horror when we arrived at our Gate terminal to board this on the tarmac…

That is the tiny, 50-seat aircraft we had to fly on. And yes, we had to walk outside of the airport to climb into the the plane. Here is an example of the seating inside.

The isles consisted of 2 seats side-by-side or 1 seat alone. Since we were the last to board the aircraft, all 3 of us were scattered all over the plane. Thankfully, some very kind passengers were willing to switch seats so that our toddler and Dadisode could sit together. Unfortunately, I had to sit alone a few rows away.

This left me to fend for myself inside my reeling head full of panic. I slumped down into my chair and looked pitifully at the poor woman beside me. She had no idea what kind mess she was sitting next to. With the plane still parked on the ground I began rummaging through the chair in front of me for a barf bag, just in case. There wasn’t one available. *sigh* So I sat back in my chair as the plane crept slowly onto the runway, closed my eyes, and prayed for my drugs sink in.

The engine roared and drowned out all sounds around me. My feet vibrated from the engine build up, and soon….we took off. For the first 20 minutes of any plane ride, it appears that I just. don’t. breathe. Taking off is the part I hate the most. However, surprisingly enough, this tiny aircraft was the smoothest ride I’ve ever had!

One and a half hours later we landed, and I remained in my chair, vomit and sedative free. The only pill I took was a half dosage of Dramamine (over-the-counter drug for motion sickness).

Woohoo!

Except now, I am still quite groggy from the pill and this post is probably incoherent. Maybe it’s for the best since I’ll be meeting my in-laws in a few hours *sigh* (a post for another day).

In the past two years I’ve let a few things go. I have never been one to really fuss about hair. All of my life I would spend maybe 5 minutes on my hair daily. Up until I had my daughter, I highlighted my hair a few times (at home. I do not recommend) only to find that I am way to lazy to keep up with the unsightly roots. Colored hair is far too high maintenance for me. Nevertheless, pre-baby I did make greater efforts looking after my physical appearance.

After I had my daughter a few things changed. Or rather, a few things stopped. Things such as hair brushing, blow drying, wearing makeup daily, getting haircuts, etc. These days, I’m lucky if a comb passes through my coiffure on a daily basis. While juggling work in and outside of the home and caring for my daughter a year ago, I was much better about it all. But now, I’m afraid I’m starting to slip into the mold of the frumpy mom in sweatpants.

Case in point- I brought my daughter to get her first haircut at a kid hair salon yesterday when I realized that it’s been over 9 months since I had my own hair trimmed. And that is a guestimate. I’m not exactly sure when the last time I had a haircut was. But I do remember that I had the length of my hair cut to my chin level. Now my hair is down to the middle of my back. And my only motivation to get a haircut is our upcoming trip this week.

I’m late to post…. again. Sadly, I still don’t have much to say.

It’s just been one of those days. Know what I mean?

Today was April Fool’s, but apparently the only fool was me. The temperature outside was actually above 60F degrees today! Probably the first time since November 2023. Sadly I never had a chance to find out since I spent the entire day inside working.

The photo above was supposed to be my daughter’s breakfast. Yes, apparently my culinary skills have reached new levels of suck. This just pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day. The waffle was merely the tip of the iceberg, and ironically it appears exactly how I feel today- burnt.

Yes, I would like some cheese with my whine (and burnt waffle) please.

Warning: Diary entry drowning in whine.

I’m late again with my post today. I have nothing much to say. It’s just been one of those days; where I’d give anything to be in someone else’s shoes. Switch places for a day. I’m drowning deeper and deeper into stress and work, I can no longer see where the surface lies. Meanwhile somewhere in my living room, my 2-year old daughter sits playing with her Little People dollhouse, ignored as I plug away on my computer. Every 15 minutes or so, she walks up to me and says, “mommy, wanna come pay wif me?” My heart breaks. Every. Single. Time. Sometimes I can break away for a few minutes, but more often I can’t. There just isn’t enough time.

Here’s our recent daily timeline:

6:30am-7:30am- Toddler wakes hubby and I up with screams.

7:30am-8:00am- Hubby showers while I get toddler breakfast.

8:15am- Hubby leaves for work

8:30am-9:00am- Shower WITH the toddler since no one can watch her.

9:00am-10:30am- Read emails from 4 accounts and reply accordingly. Toddler is playing alone.

10:30- snack

10:30am-11:30am- Catch up on blog reading, or continue managing the emails from earlier. Toddler is playing alone.

11:30-12:30pm- Make lunch and eat.

1:00pm- Pray to the nap gods that toddler will fall asleep and stay asleep for at least 2 hours.

1:30pm-3pm- Work on ConnectingMoms (newsletters, interviews, product reviews, content, etc)

2:30pm-3pm – Toddler usually wakes up from nap and must be held for a good 15 minutes while begging to see “daddy.”

3pm-5pm- Work more on ConnectingMoms and job #2. Message online with contacts from job #2. Continue to answer and send emails that come arrive during the day. Toddler is still playing alone.

5:00-6:00pm- Make and eat dinner.

6:00-6:30pm- Clean the heaping pile of dishes in the kitchen to regain access to the sink. Toddler is coloring at the table or reading a book.

6:30pm-8:00pm- Work on job #2 a bit more, answer more emails, reply to some blog comments. Toddler is still playing alone.

8:00-9:00pm- Storytime with toddler. Brush teeth. Bedtime routine.

9:00pm-10:00pm- Wait outside toddler bedroom as she begs to have me sleep next to her (she’s still adjusting to her new room, and not having daddy home at night).

10:00pm-midnight- Run to the computer and finish up with ConnectingMoms, job #2, reading and commenting on blogs, and if time allows, create a new Momisodes post.

10:30pm-11:30pm- Hubby arrives home from work and goes to bed.

Midnight-1:00am- Get myself ready for bed. Shut down the house.
Lie down beside sleeping husband. Fall asleep around 1:30-ish to 2am

Start all over again at 7:00am for the next 7 days.

Nowhere on this timeline, did I actually have any dialogue with an adult, see another adult, and most importantly, my daughter sat alone most of the day without speaking to anyone either.

Being a work-at-home mom isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. At least, not when you’re alone. We cannot afford daycare at the moment, and we’re on 4 waiting lists for preschool.

I think I’m going to have to give up job #2. There just aren’t enough hours in the day. There’s just too much on my plate. There’s a child, marriage and new home being neglected on a daily basis. None of which I can put a price tag. Just reading this timeline myself makes me so ashamed and guilt-ridden I feel like a complete failure on so many levels. I just can’t do this anymore. I’m walking away with my tail between my legs. I cry uncle.

If you’re a regular reader here then you’ve probably noticed my sluggish posts lately. I usually post my next day’s entry late in the evening before I go to bed, but I’ve been drowning in a heap of work and just life at the moment (will have to post more on that soon). In case you’re new, I recently moved and have been unpacking with a 2-year old and cramming in 2 work-at-home jobs without childcare. SO, that may explain my recent late entries and today’s short Project Support Beauty in Nature post (project created by Lotus challenging bloggers to help preserve Mother Nature), I hope you”ll forgive me. You can check out my first PSBN installment here.

Since moving into our house this month, it has allowed us to make 2 green(er) changes for our family.

1) We can now recycle at our curbside! Yay! No more lugging papers, bottles, milk cartons, etc to recycling centers. Now we keep all of our recyclables sorted throughout the week. Then I forget all about them over the weekend. Then suddenly as I hear the trash truck down the block on Monday morning, I run outside in my pajamas and un-brushed hair dragging my recycle bin to the front of my house. Ah, the joys of being a homeowner.

2) My 2- year old was doing SO WELL with potty training! And then one day, it stopped. Out of the blue. No more potty. We were down to 1 diaper a day, and then a massive relapse occurred. We were still living in an apartment, and she suddenly became terrified of the potty and wanted nothing to do with it. So I decided to hold off on pushing the envelope until all of the dust from the moving settled (and we had non-carpeted floors). Thankfully she still poops on the potty, but business “numero uno,” not so much. So in order to reduce our ridiculous costs for Pull-Ups, and the insane waste it throws into the environment, we’re giving these a try.

These are cloth training pants made by Gerber. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THEM! Or these.

These are the matching vinyl covers so the cloth training pants won’t leak. These suck even more!

Why you ask? Here’s a list of why you should not waste your money on these (and trust me, they’re not very cheap).

1) The cloth diapers do not fit snug, and there is not nearly enough material in the crotch area.

2) The cloth diaper absorbs NOTHING! I know they’re training pants and a child should feel some wetness, but these are as thin as a T-shirt! Leaving her bare-bummed in her regular pants may be more effective.

3) The vinyl cover will sort of contain the mess, but you’ll have a little puddle inside that is nearly impossible to remove from a toddler without it spilling all over the floor.

4) The vinyl cover is essentially a shower cap worn as bloomers. They’re not comfortable, and you can seriously hear your child walking for MILES!