Weird Sensation

Last night, the strangest thing happened. Strange as in how I remembered it. Around 2 or 3 AM, Asia started crying from a nightmare or something. J didn't wake up at all since we had a box fan going to drown out outside street noise. This is what I recall from being woken from my slumber:

Dreaming... I'm in some kind of warehouse/dorm/circus tent. I hear kids sounds, crying. I figure the employees or enemies have kids in some room far away.
I start walking towards the sound.
It's a girl.
That girl's name is Asia.
She's my daughter.
I have a daughter.
She's crying.
Bad mom is taking a long time for this all to register and go get her daughter.

I finally wake up and get Asia. She wants to come into my room to sleep next to me. I'm too tired to argue.
As I'm laying in bed with Asia snuggled between me and J, I think that for a few minutes there, I had no sense of having kids. While I was half-awake, it didn't hit me that it was my own daughter crying. There was no sense of responsibility. That was a very weird feeling. I don't think I remember having this kind of feeling since Zach was born. The feeling of not having to be responsible of someone else who couldn't take care of him or herself. Though it was only a few minutes, it just seemed so strange.
Then Asia turns in her sleep and flails her little arm around, whacking me in the face.

Success!! so far....

Asia is doing an awesome job in potty training! Several times today, she told me she had to go to the bathroom and then waited til we got there. That is an accomplishment. Not so much telling me, which is a big feat, but holding it til we go to the toilet. I am so proud of her. And then just a few minutes ago, she announced, "I am going to sit on the potty chair." It's one of those blue and white BabyBjorn portable potty chairs. So it's sitting here in the dining room. Yes, sanitary, right? Anyway, it's gotta be near her. We'd never make it upstairs to the bathroom. The plus of having a bathroom on the main floor. So she takes off her pull-up's and cute pink shorts. Sits on the potty. Puts her pink blankie over her legs. Then decides to hold up an open purple umbrella over her so that no one can see her unless she wants them to. Picture that. Privacy at your fingertips.

So here's some of Asia's words that she still says and made up. "Dokdy." A boy. "Dikdy" is a girl. Scribblebidgit is a river, Asia says. But the meaning keeps on changing. Supposedly it's from the CD game, Busy Town (Richard Scarry's characters). So every now and then she'd say, You're a Dokdy. Or if you're a girl, "You're a dikdy."

She also decided her name is Lilly. She said today, "Mommy? What's my name." My simple response, "Asia." "Asia Bria Neill," she corrects. "Call me Lilly," she then states. So I guess I named her incorrectly. Her bear is named Lilly. Her invisible friend is named Lilly. Where she got that name, I'm not sure. She doesn't have any friends or acquaintances named Lilly. All I can think of is Lilly Lavender on one of the Wiggles' episode, the episode that Zach can't stand because of the scary eyes on the door to the Wiggles house.

Asia and Acacia

Asia and Acacia

Party

I'm planning a party for my birthday. I was going to go with a dress-up theme. Since girls love an occasion to dress up, but then I thought about all the husbands and whatnot who'd come and guys don't like to dress up. Especially when it's hot out. So I opted for a Hawaiian luau theme. Lauau. Luau. That word just doesn't look right. Anyway, it's supposed to be a feast, so I was looking into caterers only to be appalled by the prices. I'd have to spend 300-400 dollars on food. I'm trying to figure out if I make everything myself, would it end up being the same price anyway? If I cater, I save myself some headache. I can't decide and I think I'll end up making everything myself and having some people bring stuff. I already spent 200 some dollars on novelties like grass skirts and leis. :) Gotta love that Oriental Trading Company. Still sending the same old stuff. I think this is where dollar stores get their stuff. You can buy it in bulk. I remember as a teenager, buying a bunch of stuff like pencils and keyrings from Oriental Trading Company. I was going to sell it to make money. I don't think I sold even one pencil. I ended up giving them away. And I think I still have some of the pencils.
So far I have about 33 people coming. There's about 10-15 people who haven't RSVP'd yet or dont' have email so I have to give them a physical invite. I sent out my invite using www.evite.com. Very nice cuz everyone can see who is coming when they RSVP. And I can see who viewed the invite and when. Very clever.

God is lucky

Gotta love kids' quotes:

"God is the luckiest because He has everything. But not candy. Because if He ate all the candy then His skeleton would get a tummyache."

Zach Neill
5-26-06

Three year old's and Tulips don't mix

Why do I say that three year old's and tulips don't mix? Well, the tulips don't stand a chance. As soon as the tulips sprung up and flowered, my daughter has been breaking off the flower heads and bringing them to me.

"Look, Mom! A flower for you!" Asia says, holding out the top of a tulip with about 3 inches of stem.
Gasping and then eking out a smile, I say, "Thanks dear! It's beautiful! Let's not pick any more, okay?"
I'll then try to put the flower in a bowl of water, nevermind a vase. With only a few inches of stem, the flowers barely peek out of salsa jar. One day, I did have a pretty nice centerpiece from this small clay pot I had thrown and glazed in a pottery class and then five or six tulip heads. Again, I say heads due to the lack of the stem. The kids had fun taking the tulips out of the water and putting them back in, squashing some of the tulips down into the water. Tulip petals dropping everywhere.
I'm just glad someone's enjoying those flowers. Maybe not the people driving by the house or neighbors looking at our backyard. Besides yourself, that's who the flowers and general landscaping is for, right? Otherwise, we'd all have dirt or crabgrass in the front or maybe our own personal jungles. No mowing required.
I just remember early November, desperately burying all those bulbs. Luckily I got Zach to help out. He'd dig a hole, or make a dent in the dirt, that is. I'd dig deeper. He'd put the bulb in and help me cover it up. It was so cold and dark that night, but we had fun planting. Zach would run inside to warm up and then come back out to help me some more. At the end, I had no idea what I was planting, I just wanted to get those bulbs buried.

Asia's 2nd professional haircut

Asia and I went to get our haircut yesterday. I had a coupon for a free child hair cut with a full pay adult haircut. I was in the mood for a change in hairstyle anyway. My bangs are growing out and part of it likes to hang near my eyes, rubbing against my face. It's that annoying piece that you can feel is there and won't go away unless you mousse or spray it or put a silly barrette in. And then the weather has been so dry, that my hair is all staticy and that little part of growing out bang clings to my face even worse. On Asia's side, her bangs are getting into her eyes and the length of her hair over all is getting unmanageable - getting into her food, her mouth, etc. I could easily trim it, but it would be nice for her bangs to be straight once in awhile. This was also my idea of mommy and daughter time. Yes, let's get our hair done! I see us doing this as a tradition - mom and daughter getting their hair done, nails done, pedicures. Sounds so typical right? Dad and son spend time fishing or hunting. Mom and daughter spend time beautifying themselves. Oh well. It's like when I was pregnant and said my daughter wouldn't be wearing pink all the time. Well, she's not wearing pink ALL the time, but she has her pink blanket, her pink sippy cup, her pink bear....
So back to the haircut. I coaxed Asia into the hair salon with promises of chocolate. "Where's chocolate?" Asia would ask in the car. "I'll give it to you when we get there." Then we get to the hair salon, "Where's chocolate?" "You'll get it when you're getting your hair cut." "Will it hurt?" Asia asks. I think she's remember when I brush her hair. Yank, Ouch! Sorry, your hair is full of knots. Amongst other things - dough, paint, whatever.
So luckily we got the manager who is good with kids. I told her the one thing Asia really doesn't like is being sprayed with the water bottle. Back in Chicago when she got her hair cut, she would bawl when they sprayed her hair because it would never fail that the residual mist (which would be cold, I 'm sure) would waft into her face. So the manager, Gwen, would spray her comb and then comb Asia's hair to wet it down. Very smart. I stood next to Asia the whole time, feeding her M & M's, showing her that her doll Belle was sitting there watching. Gwen would ask Asia about her brother Zach and Asia wouldn't talk back but would nod or hold up her fingers to show how old she was. Eventually she loosened up more which meant she was curious enough to look around now. Not the easiest way to cut hair. But no crying happened. We went through one small bag of M&M's and one mini Twix bar. She then got a balloon which occupied her while I was getting my hair cut.
The bummer is that my coupon didn't take. It was a coupon for Great Clips that I got off of a cereal box. We were at Supercuts. Ha! Oh well.

Here's a picture of Zach's class during Halloween. Zach is the fireman in the back. The pink fairy is Emme. The princess in the yellow wig is Julia. The black caterpillar is Lance. The cowboy next to Zach is Gary. The green Grinch is Josh. The scarecrow is Briar. Princess Leia is actually Riley. The purple fairy is Carly. Belle is Rachel. Batman is Anthony. The power ranger is Luke.

Here's the kids in the backyard with their Auntie Es and her dog Corey and me in the early Fall 2005.

Karate Zach

Okay, not really karate. It's taekwondo. Zach graduated today from the first belt - white - to orange belt! He had to earn 6 black stripes on his white belt and then test into the next level. Of course, that also meant forking over 50 dollars for the test fee and belt. I was told there is a certificate, but I didn't see that. Anyway, the main thing is that it's an outlet for Zach's energy. He's really enjoying it, getting to know some of the kids in his class. I think it's a confidence booster. But mainly, I enjoy seeing him stick with it over these past months and going to class with enthusiasm. The teachers are pretty good. They keep the little kids in this class interested. The class is called Tiny Tigers. I don't remember what the age limit is, but it's like 4 years to 7 or 8 or 6? There are some really little kids in it. They're so cute to watch. Some of them seem like they're not even tall enough to jump over some of the barricades the teachers put up for an obstacle course. All the kids get the white shirt and pants for free and those outifts are pretty much one size. So a lot of the little kids are swimming in these outfits. One mom hemmed the pants for her son and pointed out that she hemmed one leg shorter than the other. :) I keep forgetting to at least fold up Zach's sleeves. Today, I wanted to walk into the classroom to fix Zach's shirt. We were in a hurry, as usual, to get to class so he had his coat on before I had his belt on. I had him lift his coat up so I can tie on his belt. I didn't find out til he took off his coat and went to class that I had only tied in half of shirt in the back. The rest was hanging out all sloppy. When Zach was trying to do his test with his teacher, he kept having to pull his shirt down because it was falling off. Luckily he didn't care, he was having too much fun.

Back in Chicago

J, the kids and I am back in Chicago for the week. I'm teaching a training class in our downtown office in Merch. Mart. We're staying in the Holiday Inn connected to the Mart. The view is beautiful from the 21st floor. We can see the trains going by, all the cars and traffic going across the bridges, and where the two rivers intersect. I was walking to the training class in the morning and going past the train station turnstiles and elevators and it felt great to be with all these people going to work. It made me miss a big city environment. People well-dressed going to work. It just felt neat to be part of a big group like that.
Anyway, the kids seem to be having a ball seeing their old babysitters and cousins and whatnot. Ellen, Katie, Justin, Lizzy, Seth, Rron and his parents. I miss the restaurants here too! Great food at high prices. ha! So I don't miss the cost of everything, but the thing is that in most of the restaurants, you're not only paying for awesome food, but for awesome service and often great ambience.

My beautiful kids in our dining room window.

Zach is taking taekwando classes now. Today was his second class and he got his free uniform. It's so cute! All white with a white belt. He has to get six stripes to get to the next belt - orange. His first stripe is after he memorizes this greeting about mind, body, etc. John said he takes it very seriously in class. When I took him for his first day, he ran right in there for his intro class which was a one-on-one with the instructor. The instructor was a high school student who said he only teaches on Saturday since he has marching band in the weekday evenings. Zach said his teacher was really cool. I am so glad he's enjoying it.

We also had a great birthday party for Zach on Tuesday. Some of his friends from school came: Ryley, Emme, Briar, Lance, Gary, and Joshua. Then Ethan, Aletheia, Acacia, Sydney, and Travis. Everyone had a great time. My parents and Es were also there. Asia has been asking for her Nai-Nai and Auntie Es ever since.

For Thanksgiving, my Aunt and Uncle from Stow, OH, came to visit along with my cousins Wayne and George. It was fun listening to my mom and my uncle talk about old times in Taiwan.

no cats for us

At my suggestion, John took Zach and Asia to an animal shelter to play with
some kittens. We suspected Zach might be allergic to cats, though his
reactions weren't consistent. John said that one time he and Zach spent the
night at a friend's house who had cats and the next morning, Zach was
complaining that it was hard to breathe. As soon as they left the house,
Zach was fine. I've never seen this happen myself. Another time though, we
were at John's sister's house in TN and after playing with some barn cats,
Zach complained that his eye was hurting. It was all red, but he was also
really tired and ended up taking a long nap after that. Anyway, so this
time, they were playing with the cats and John said Zach started sneezing
and felt his neck was kind of itchy. John himself felt itchy. But it was
Asia who had the worst reaction of them all. Driving home, she started
sneezing. Then when John brought her in, her eyes were almost swollen shut!
My poor baby! I gave her some Benadryl so we'll see how she does. Anyway,
unfortunately, no cats for us at least for a few more years.

Lesson Failed

Over the summer, I tried to teach Zach his first lesson in money - how to spend it, what it's worth. There was a neighborhood yard sale a block away, so John and I decided to take the kids there to check it out - the neighbors, their junk, and just have a nice time outside in the summer sun. I gave Zach and Asia each a quarter and said that they could use it to buy something at the yard sale. Both put their money in their pockets for safe-keeping. In the meantime, Zach managed to find two dimes laying around the house and added them to his stash.
We drove to the yard sale since we were going to explore more of Pittsburgh downtown after the yard sale. The first yard we looked at didn't have any kids things. Mostly hunting things and a really expensive old trunk. I thought it could be a good toy chest, but it cost something like 20 dollars or more. I couldn't see what was so special with that trunk. The next few houses had lots of kids things. Asia and I stayed at those houses for awhile, looking at the dolls and books. Zach and John went ahead to another house down the street. Asia managed to get a magic wand and two Barbie dolls for 20 cents. I also bought some half-used workbooks for Zach. A little girl ran into her house showing the money she made- about a dollar. I could hear her brother telling her she had to share the money. They were really excited about earning that dollar. Meanwhile, Asia had succeeded in her first money lesson.
Zach, on the other hand, had lost all his money! The dimes had slipped out of his pockets or hands or something. I think I even found one of the dimes in the toy box where Asia and I had bought the dolls. I gave it to the little girl who was selling her stuff. Zach lost his quarter because he found this big plastic car and thought it was a ride! He put his quarter in a hole in the car. We shook the car and could hear the quarter clunking around inside. So Zach failed his lesson. Asia shared her magic wand with him, so he was happy. He also said that we could go home at any time and get more money. He didn't think it was a big deal. A miserable failure there. Oh well.
But I wonder, is he too young to grasp the concept of money or is it that he sees how loose we are with money and thinks it's readily available to use or lose whenever he wants? Maybe I'm just being paranoid and overanalyzing. That's what Mom's do, you know.

Asia starts preschool

Asia started at St. Paul's preschool yesterday. Her program is on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 11:30 AM. Far cry from last year when she went to Taylor Tots every day from 9 AM to 4 PM. Zach's progam is also shorter - Mon thru Thurs 12:30 - 3 PM. Definitely not designed for families where both parents work. There wasn't enough interest at St. Paul's to have a full week program or even for Asia's group to have a 3 day program! Crazy. That shows you the lifestyle here in Pittsburgh - or actually West View. Much more laid back than Chicago. We are truly in a suburb.

So anyway, Asia was so good in class! She didn't cry at all when I dropped her off and she didn't want to leave when I picked her up. The first day was only an hour and fifteen minutes. Her class was split into two for the first day so the teachers can get to know the class better.
There were 3 girls in her group and I think 4 boys. The two other girls names are Grace and Dakota.

Becoming a home

The new house is slowly becoming our home. We haven't done anything yet like paint the walls, but I have hung up some pictures. Most of the major furniture is in. A/C is in! A big plus. I'm holding off on doing too much planting since I don't have that much time and am not sure on what the soil and weather is like. I do want to eventually redo the front yard. It's a great front yard space that right now isn't being used too much. Since we're on such a busy street, I don't want the kids to play in the front yard, so there really isn't much reason to have so much grass. It could be great for landscaping!
John put in new French doors to my office - a little sunroom to the side of the house. Lots of windows - which is great for me since I like to look out the windows. The negative is that it's the hottest room in the house. And that isn't good late in the afternoon when I find myself looking out the windows, daydreaming, when I should be working. :)

moving

We're moving! Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, here we come! It'll be a big difference from Chicago. I'm going to miss the big city. The beautiful downtown and lakefront. Just as I was starting to get to know the city on my own. Taking art classes at Gallery 37. Learning the art of taking the Blue
Line to Clark and Lake and the Brown Line to Merchandise Mart and then the Purple Line back during rush hour. We finally have a Target at Roosevelt and Clark that's easy to park in and nice to shop in. A Kohl's just opened that we'll never get to try out. Good-bye Marshall Field's where we bought our furniture in the gently used furniture area and where we bought our rugs after having a nice Indian man bring down rug after rug for us to figure out if it'll go with our flowered futon cover. No, Chicago isn't all about shopping. I'll miss the restaurants on Taylor St. The ethnic restaurants in China Town and Korea Town. I wonder if I can have someone send me some good kimchee. :)

What I won't miss is the traffic, the cost, the projects. Our "ghetto" Jewel. Feeling unsafe when I stop by Jim's to get a good hot dog along I-90. But I will miss the coolness of having something like Maxwell Street market. Bringing Zach to the Sherwood Music Conservatory for his drum
lesson and then afterwards, going to Jamba Juice for a chocolate milk shake and then going to Barbara's Bookstore to look at kids books. I know with our move that we'll make new memories and have our new adventures. The tough thing is something John mentioned the other day, "Asia will grow up with hardly any recollection of Chicago." Our kids will really miss out in the
chance to grow up in Chicago. All the opportunities. But I may not have to worry about trying to get Zach and Asia into a really good elementary school, jr. high, and high school. There's not that much choice where we're going, and luckily, the choices are good schools. I was wondering how we were going to have to prep Zach for testing into a good kindergarten. I mean, come on! Now I don't have to worry about that as much. So there we have it. As of tomorrow, good bye Chicago! Hello Pittsburgh!

big hugs

Zach and Asia are in that age where they can be so loving and a few minutes later, be hitting each other and fighting. Zach likes to tease Asia. He knows exactly how to push her buttons! All he has to do is say a few words to her and get her upset. Like he'll say, "Green Bear." That's
it! And Asia will cry, "No, MY GREEN BEAR!!" Of course, Green Bear has to be in the room. Then Zach will see Asia put down something that was in her hands. He'll quickly pick it up and either say, "Asia, look what I have." Or he'll say, "Where did ____ go?" That gets Asia upset too.

On the other hand, both kids will play so well with each other. There latest is going into the pantry and grabbing whatever they can reach. Then they'll bring it outside in the balcony and set up a grocery store or a tower. I have to remember at the end of the day to check the balcony for perishables or electronics in case it rains.

Another thing that the kids do is they'll come up to me and hug me and say, "You're my best friend." So sweet.

Oooey Gooey!