I'm turning into Fabulous Husband...

This has been a heckuva week. Work is fully ramped up. I was home 1.5 days with sick family members. We've been to the ER and Urgent Care, starring different patients. (everyone's fine. thanks for wondering) I have been barfed on and used as a Kleenex. But, the good balanced the bad as I did get some Grade A time with each of my kids, complete with cuddling, which is extremely rare anymore. But still...a lot thrown at us.

A wise woman at work once told me that the things you learn on maternity leave do translate into your grown-up life too. For example, KB pointed out to me that sometimes 2 kids are crying and you're the only parent around. What do you do? You quickly assess who is crying the loudest, or for the best reason, or some other criteria you make up on the spot and leap into action.

That's exactly what happened this week. Life threw a lot at me, and I focused on the most urgent thing, knowing I wouldn't get to everything. And, instead of feeling guilty about it, I just did the best I could, took care of the 'kid' who needed me most and didn't look back. This is new for me. It felt pretty good.

Fabulous Husband has always been cool as a cucumber under pressure. And, while I'm no cuke, I'm getting better. Thanks, Fabulous Husband, Meena and T-Mobile, for teaching me to always do my best and, instead of feeling guilty, learn from those choices so I do a better "best" next time.

Ask a smart question...

Me: Meena, who is a good listener?

Meena: T-Mobile. (pause) Mommy and T-Mobile.

Chattin' it Up

Meena's ever broadening vocabulary keeps us both on our toes and in stitches. Here are a few of our favorite words, songs and stories...

Words:

• Caterpillar = Caaatapidder
• She refers to herself as "you" instead of "me". For example, "Mommy, hold you"
• Piano = Pianio (pee-yah-nee-oh)
• Line = Lion = Li-yun
• Alligator = Allergader

Songs:

The Farmer in the Dell

The farmer takes some wipes (vs. The farmer takes a wife, which is an outdated line anyway)

ABC's (or ABCD as Meena calls it)

LMNOP is one word

If You're Happy and You Know It...

...Hug your mom (she made this up by herself, I swear)

Random Cuteness:

On Farming: Saturday morning, Meena and I were the only ones up. She got very still, listening to something. "Papa's farming. I hear him. He's really, really loud!" (Grandpa is a farmer about 45 minutes away from us)

On Cookies: Friend ES gave us warm, right out of the oven cookies today (love her!). Meena was part way through hers, looked at it, and said "There's an allergader!" She chomped another bite and exclaimed "Where did it go?"

Favorite Books:

Meena = Olivia and The Big Green Dr. Seuss Book

Taebin = Peek-a-Who

Mom = Duck in the Truck and Llama Llama Red Pajama

Dad = Mike Mulligan and His Steamshovel

Back to Work

I successfully completed my first real week back to work. It went about like you'd expect. I weathered a small project crisis, slogged through 4 months of emails, re-connected with lots of people and projects, and stayed home with a sick kid on Friday. I'm amazed at how much I learned on maternity leave. About me, my kids and life.

1. I am not cut out to be a full-time-stay-at-home-mom. Although, I'm thrilled to have had the good fortune to work for a company that let me take off lots of time to welcome both kids into our family
2. Sometimes, 2 kids are crying at the same time. I'm only 1 person and can only help 1 kid at a time
3. The 2nd kid learns things more quickly than the first, learning for himself and from Big Sister at an astonishing rate
4. BOTH of my kids are troopers
5. Transition is hard on everyone
6. There is always something to worry about
7. My mom and dad still take good care of me (THANKS!)
8. The house will always be dirty, no matter how hard I try. So, I prioritize spending time with my kids over cleaning (this works out well for me. I hate cleaning the house!)
9. My kids are best friends, even when they're irritating each other
10. My family comes first. Everything else comes next

A Correction

One of our friends in Korea commented that T-Mobile's choice of the calculator will help him evaluate wisely risks of choices in the future. Thanks JK! I like this interpretation a lot. Although, I won't mind if he becomes an engineer. :)

Loving Reality

About a week ago, I was listening to "Speaking of Faith" on the radio while driving to my catsitting job. A very wise gentleman was on and I was completely sucked in. I never listen to this show, but I'm so glad I did this time. The take-home-message was "Love reality, and discover God there". I think life throws a lot at us, and it's easy for me to get into a rut of thinking coulda, woulda, shoulda -like thoughts. But, what I want to focus on is REALITY and to find joy in my reality.

So, that is my New Year's resolution: Love Reality.

Which is hard sometimes. For example, yesterday, after being up until 11:30pm on New Year's Eve (yes...I'm officially old), Meena got up at 5:15am and instead of sleeping until 6 or 7 and instead of playing quietly in her room like she does sometimes, she marched right in to wake Fabulous Husband and I up. We invited her into bed with us...hoping like everything she would curl up and fall asleep making for the perfect New Year's morning. No dice. She wriggled around. T-Mobile woke up at 6:00am, and that was that. I was up, exhausted and crabby about it. I was trying hard to appreciate the first few moments of the New Year and trying to love reality, but I was plain old crabby. Until I got a BIG cup of coffee in me. Joy is easier to find when I'm awake. I mean, who wouldn't find joy in these 2?

We interrupt the holidays to bring you a very special birthday...

T-Mobile turned 1! We had a Korean-style birthday party with fabulous food (pickled radishes, rice cakes, bibimbap, bulgogi, kimchi, etc) and LOTS of fruit for longevity. T-Mobile wore his tolbak and looked mighty handsome.

We also played a traditional game called toljabee. Several items were laid out on a small table and T-Mobile chose his favorite...a calculator. From the item he chose, we can predict that he will be good with numbers. And accountant or engineer, perhaps?

Happy birthday, Little Man! Mom is SO proud of you and was thrilled to celebrate this big birthday with you!

And, we have decided to celebrate subsequent birthdays on the 1/2 birthday so that T-Mobile doesn't get cheated out of being the center of attention and friends and family don't have yet another obligation at a very busy time of year. So, don't think we're just lookin' for extra presents when you get an invitation to a birthday party in June!