Have you let your toddler play with the Elmo Live at a toy store or retail store?  Baby Koala jumped backward.  Daddy encouraged her to touch it once again.  She did and took a step backward then asked Daddy to carry her.

One of the few times Baby Koala jumped!  A milestone?

If you plan to get an Elmo Live for a toddler or younger, re-consider again.  =)

Pretty cool! I found this on a Cafemom member’s page (you may have to view the post if you can’t view it on the HOME page):

Hahaha… Sorry, I know it’s late to say “Happy Thanksgiving” but considering my previous post and my rare family week, please forgive me for being late.  =)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Besides food and all, Thanksgiving day is definitely a day to think about things to be thankful for.  We actually should do this every day but who has the time?  Still, I try my best to think of things to be thankful for every day and to really appreciate my present moment, Baby Koala, my husband, my parents and sister, my relatives and friends, and the stuff that we have.

This year is truly a wonderful year.  Despite all my “bad luck”, this year is actually my happiest year that I remember.  I get to be a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) to watch Baby Koala grow by the minute.  My spousal relationship healed in weeks of time.  Although I never mentioned it, our relationship was near divorce end of last year.  For my hubby and I to regain each other appreciation was simply priceless.

I have to thank everyone, including Baby Koala, Hubby, my boss, my company, my other relatives for being so supportive of me being a SAHM.  Everyone was worried about our financial situation at one time or another.  We did pull through our first year with extra savings!  The stock market cut my investment in half but as long as I don’t sell my CMG, I should be okay in the long run.

This year I met some wonderful, life-long mommy friends.  They are very supportive and very good at listening to my complaints.  LOL.

I’m very excited that I will be an aunt in a few months!  Baby Koala will have 2 cousins!  One cousin will actually live less than an hour drive away.  She will get to see, meet, and know a baby!  Maybe she will realize that she is no longer a baby?

Our Thanksgiving dinner went really well.  As you know already, from the previous post, we ate a Roasted Turkey from Bristol Farm instead of a Chinese BBQ place.  The turkey from Bristol Farm was good… still too dry for my preference.  The mashed potato and stuffings from boxes from Trader Joe’s tasted pretty good. but a little too salty.  Next time, I will try three-quarter of the spice/flavoring package instead of the whole package.  The pumpkin pie from Trader Joe’s was awesome and watching Baby Koala eating it was priceless.  The sparkling cider (2 bottles: apple and cranberry) was addicting.

Needless to say, I am still eating the Thanksgiving dinner for breakfast and lunch… likely for a few more days.  Hubby and Baby Koala are no help at all.

What’s the coolest thing about this year’s Thanksgiving Day?  Our guests were a 7-year old girl and her mom.  Baby Koala played with a playmate without my supervision!  They just danced and ran around the apartment.  Pushed stroller and tricycle around.  The girl trying to be a baby again and Baby Koala trying to be a 7-yr old.  The 7-yr-old loved carrying Baby Koala in-and-out of high-chair, glider, and stuff, and since Baby Koala didn’t seem to mind, I let them be.  They don’t even speak the same language!  How they manage to play with each other was beyond me.

The funniest thing?  My husband trying to keep the girls from destroying his beloved laptops and cameras while I chatted with the girl’s mom.  To give you a better picture: my husband is the type that can’t stand even a finger print on the laptop screen or camera lens.  Imagine him hopping up and down inside while staying cheerful on the outside.

Memories?  For once, I was glad my hubby was lazy and just took video of the dinner (and a few pictures).  The video showed Baby Koala’s every facial expression during dinner and told us that the girls actually sat for 20 min!  What memory is most fresh in my mind?  Baby Koala and her friend eating pumpkin pie together.  They look like sisters and they treat each other like sisters.

Yup, I got food poisoning in the middle of the night Monday morning.  Oh, before that, I started having a cold Sunday morning.  I’m so glad that the lunar month of October ended on Thanksgiving Day.

Who’s the culprit for my food poisoning: a $50 Cabazon fish!  It was around $13 per pound.  Obviously, once knowing my husband cooked the fish, I wanted to try it out right away.  I ate 3 times as much as my husband did and I vomited 3 times as much as my husband did.

The funny, or not-so-funny, thing is my friend, whoisbaby, and I were just chatting about emergency neighbors/friends Sunday evening.  Talk about coincidence…  After vomiting for an hour, my husband and I decided that I should go to the Emergency Room (ER).  We dragged Baby Koala out of bed and we spent 3 hours at the ER.  Fortunately, we went at a “good time”.  There was no one waiting at the lobby.  Still, with paperwork, waiting for the doctor and the nurse, I waited an hour (vomitted twice) before getting my IV: a dose of anti-nausea drug and sodium chloride (IV fluid).

After getting a “bag” of IV fluid, I had to wait 30 min. to get my second bag because there was a true emergency case going on.  I told them to just take the IV out of me, 1 bag was enough, and let me go home!  Two of the three nurses were like, “you will have to wait for the doctor to discharge you any way.  So, ‘drink up!’”  One of them didn’t even check if the IV was dripping…  At least, the other one was nice enough to tell me why it wasn’t dripping (my arm was bent).

Of course, the nice (and pretty) nurse who agreed that 1 bag was enough was the one busy attending to the “true emergency”.  She was also the one who inserted my IV with the utmost professionalism: no bruise afterward!  When she took out my IV, I apologized for “disturbing” the nurses for help and stated that I completely understood there was a “true emergency” and that I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t forgotten and in case any one has a little spare time to look at me.  She was even kind enough to apologize back for taking so long. Too bad I didn’t get her name so that I can mention her in, likely, a upcoming survey being mailed to me as I’m writing.

What happened to my hubby and Baby Koala?  Hubby saw that they took me inside the ER and he signed in to ER himself as well since he vomitted too and he thought it was going to be serious.  Once he found out that I was just getting a dose of drug and fluid then he decided that he wanted to be discharged right away.  That would work for him because at least he can stomach-down water but for me, I couldn’t even stomach down a sip of water.  Anything that tried to go in, came right back out (with full force).  Of course, my husband would still have to pay $50 as co-pay for signing into ER.  He spent 3 hours holding Baby Koala in his arm hoping Baby Koala will fall back asleep.  She did sleep for maybe 30 min. after watching TV in the lobby.

Why was hubby carrying Baby Koala?  Because we forgot to bring her shoes so she couldn’t walk around.  Hubby, being super-protective, would not let Baby Koala walk around any way worrying about germs and needles; but the shoes could have kept her feet warm.  We had an extra pair of socks for her in the car but hubby didn’t know about it.  So I think he used some “clothings” to cover her feet to make sure they stayed warm.

What did we bring to ER with us if we forgot Baby Koala’s shoes?  A few plastic bags for vomitting and a roll of toilet paper for blowing my nose AND of course, my insurance card and credit card.  The speed of processing payment was definitey faster than the speed of attending to me medically.

Although we knew who was the culprit, we still threw away all the food that my husband and I ate, but Baby Koala didn’t, on Sunday.  That included the Roasted Duck we bought from the Chinese BBQ place that we ordered (and paid for) our Roasted Turkey.  My over-cautious husband decided not to pick up that turkey and we ordered another Turkey on Monday through Bristol Farm.  Yup, another $50 went to waste.

Cost of food poisoning: $12 Roasted Duck, $50 Cabazon fish, $50 Roasted Turkey (Chinese BBQ), $50 co-pay for Julia’s ER, $50 co-pay for Hubby’s ER, very confused Baby Koala with cold feet, 2 hours of vomitting for Julia and Hubby.

Well, at least our car didn’t run out of battery nor did the tires blew on our way to ER or on our way back home.  It could be worse.

My “illness” was so bad that Baby Koala thought I put on sunscreen lotion because I was so pale.  (When we put on sunscreen lotion, we made sure we are covered with the white paste.)  I had sweats and tears down my face involuntarily.  I responded to Baby Koala, “Yup, Mommy put on Sunscreen Lotion.  You are so observative!”

Believe it or not, I actually had a worse case of food poisoning a few years ago.  At that time, I was prescribed antibiotic and I ended up with permanent (minor) stomach problems… likely from those bacteria that won’t leave!  My stomach was known as stomach-of-steel before that incident.  Since then, I definitely lost the title and was a lot more careful about what I eat.  One other memorable, yet minor, food poisoning was when my hubby cooked me moldy noodle.  Yup, it was my husband’s cooking again.  I’m not complaining about his cooking because he actually cooks most of the time any way.  It just “happened” that his better-than-20/20-eyes didn’t spot those mold on the noodle until after-the-fact.  That incident proved to me that eating moldy noodle is actually okay… until I drink something cold (like a green tea smoothie).

What good came out of this?  My hubby took Monday off and we had a 5-day straight Family Time!!!  Of course, I slept when Baby Koala slept and I slept a little even when Baby Koala was not sleeping.  Hubby put Baby Koala to sleep at night.  He’s horrible at it and usually takes him 1.5-2 hours to put her to sleep.  At least, I got a break from putting her to sleep at night.  Putting her to nap for me is a breeze.  =P

To sum it up, October 2008 lunar month: 1 car went out of battery, 2 cars had tires blew, 2 people got a cold (Baby Koala and me), 2 people got food poisoned (Hubby and Me)

What are you all doing for Thanksgiving?  What are you having for Thanksgiving Feast?

We are having our traditional Thanksgiving dinner at home.  It is a tradition that we started ever since Baby Koala was born.  Not only does this help us to avoid traveling with a toddler, we also want to start a special tradition that will last until Baby Koala has her own babies and wants to start her own special tradition.  I sure hope I will be welcomed to her home!

We invited close family members and relatives who live within 7-hour drive (1-hour flight).  Today, I even invited our neighbor!  Our daughters are becoming childhood friends and neighborhood-sisters.  They don’t speak the same language but they talk about each other endlessly.  They even differ by 5 years!

What are we having for Thanksgiving Feast?  Well… being the terrible cook that I’m and having a toddler at home, I buy and reheat all the dishes:

$50 Roasted Turkey from a Chinese BBQ place - they tend to have juicier turkeys

Beef Fried Rice - it comes along with the turkey for free

Cranberry Sauce from Trader Joe’s (yeah, it was a tough choice between this and the Cranberry/Orange relish)

Garlic Mashed Potato in a box from Trader Joe’s (my first time having Mashed Potato in a box)

All Natural Turkey Gravy from Trader Joe’s (it’s not even refrigerated!)

Stuffings from Trader Joe’s (should be in the refrigerated section; need to add butter, milk, and water; I will add raisin to it too)

Pumpkin Pie from Trader Joe’s ($4.99!  Even if they run out on Wednesday, I can get a pumpkin pie any where in my neighborhood)

Sparkling Apple/Promegranate Cider from Trader Joe’s

And maybe the Spiced Apple Cider from Trader Joe’s as well…. We will see…

So, as you can see, it will just be a 2-stop shopping for the dinner.  We will likely buy all the stuff at Trader Joe’s on Wednesday.  I actually already bought the Cranberry Sauce, Gravy, and one box of Mashed Potato.  I will likely need to buy another box of Mashed Potato, just in case one box is not enough.

What have I done in the past?  One time, we ordered a Turkey Feast from Ralph’s that comes with mashed potato, cranberry sauce, stuffing, pumpkin pie.  Quite delicious… but still turkey was a little dry for our preference.  Another time, we ordered a Turkey from a Chinese Super Market (99 Ranch) and the turkey was okay but their other dishes were quite terrible especially the pumpkin pie!  I also didn’t like Taiwan’s version of sticky rice.  I still like Hong Kong’s version of Fried-Sticky-Rice a lot better.  (note: yes, I’m very, very picky about sticky rice as it was one of my favorite childhood dishes.)  I don’t think we will order from them ever again.

Yes, I’m very picky about the turkey.  It’s only once a year!  (or is it twice?  Christmas too?)  I really want a good tasting one!

When I asked my friends for recommendations on where to get a cooked turkey, all of the responses were “we cook our own turkey” except for one: Bristol Farm.  Another co-worker told me about www.gobblegobble.com too a few months ago (or was it last year?  Has it been that long?)

So, if our turkey this year fails our expectation, then here are our options for next year:

Bristol Farm ($5.29/lb… cheaper than ours this year!)

GobbleGobble ($27.50 to $65.57 + shipping [approx. $8-$14 for a 10-lb turkey])

HoneyBaked Ham ($59 to $60)

Joey’s Smoking BBQ (last year was $55 for a turkey or ham OR $85 for a turkey or ham feast)

I will likely continue to not make my own turkey until Baby Koala is able to help me out.  It would be fun to have our family of three (or maybe four, five by then…) to cook in the kitchen all at once.  =)  I can’t wait…

I’m actually not talking about the board game, which is very fun, by the way.  The game is quite realistic is portraying life.

My last Monday and Tuesday were awesome.  The best days I have had for awhile.  Unfortunately, it kind of went downhill from there.  So, Wednesday, I was curious to see next year: which 4 Chinese Zodiacs will supposedly have bad luck?  Guess what?  Me again!  Not just me though, Baby Koala as well.  I was quite depressed for a few hours.

Then I went to look at the table again, the year after next year, it’s hubby’s turn.  Then in the rabbit year, we are all finally saved.  Being an engineer, I really didn’t need to work out the math to realize: we have 3 people in the family and there are 4 zodiacs bound to have bad luck each year.  What is the probability that one of us will have bad luck in any particular year?  Pretty high.

Looking at the table, I feel like it’s a game board.  Each year, we (or should I say God?) go mini-mine-moe to pick which Chinese Zodiac is supposed to have bad luck just so that the other Chinese Zodiac looks good.  I thought: “If this is just a game, I guess I will just play along.”  Then my attitude brighten up.  =D

I knew life is a game but at times of negative thinking, it’s hard to remember it.  At times, even if I remember that it’s just a game, I feel that it’s an unfair game.  I have to admit that I have a pretty good share of “fair game” though.  So: just play along.

I play games with Baby Koala ALL the time.  These are usually not very fair games: convincing Baby Koala to go potty, eat, or sleep (the list goes on…)  Come on!  These are the most basic stuff in life and I actually have to convince someone to do these stuff?  I’m sure most parents get to play these “games” as well.  What can we do?  Just play along.

Mom: time to go potty!

Toddler: no!  read book.

Mom: of course, bring the book along with you.

Toddler: okay.

Mom: eat your dinner (please)

Toddler: no dinner!

Mom: don’t you want to grow up soon?  eat your dinner and you will grow up more quickly then you can do a bunch of stuff that you can’t do right now.

Toddler: no dinner!

Mom: that’s okay.  then I will just put it away so that it won’t go bad.

Toddler: I want dinner!

Really, if I sulk at every seemingly “unfair” game, I will be sulking all day long.  =)

Yup, playing along is definitely the way to handle life.  It’s like most board games.  There is a dice.  Unless you know how to cheat, you never know what the dice will show.  I don’t know who had the scoresheet on the Game of Life (is any one keeping score?)  Still, I feel like I am winning overall.  =P  With Baby Koala and Hubby in my life, I got the best in the world; how can I loose?

Just like last year, I plan to take a picture of Baby Koala or our family and put it on a Photo Greeting Card to send out.  Likely I will use Costco since I already did price comparison last year.  This year is $1 cheaper: $14.99 for a set of 50 and $5.99 for additional set of 25.

That will work for me.  Now… I just need to take a picture.  Hmm…

BTW, Sam’s Club is $10.50 for a set of 30; $14.50 for a set of 50; and $25 for a set of 100.

Here are the links to my last year’s posts about Holiday Greeting Cards:

Holiday Photo Cards truth
Holiday Cards Comparison
Kodak Gallery 9% Rebate!

I liked the Born Free sippy cups quite a lot.  It’s BPA free and it looks cool.  Most important of all, Baby Koala likes it.  The bad thing about it is it has a bad smell.  Both the cup and the spout have bad smell.  The spout smell worse.  Over time, the spout is cracked and discolored.  I finally couldn’t stand the smell of the spout any more and thought may be it’s just old.  So, I bought the new spouts at Whole Food.

Just like a Cafemom member warned me, just like her toddler girl, Baby Koala didn’t like the new spout.  Without the crack, it’s harder to get the water or milk out.  Oh well, money down the drain…

We just made sure we rinsed the cups well before serving the milk.  For the water one, we tried to rinse and wash it well every night before bed.  During the day, Baby Koala drinks from a regular cup or from a Kirkland Mini Water Bottle*.

I finally found the solution to our problem when I read my friend’s post about Foogo Sippy Cup.  After I read the post, on my next trip to Target, I tried looking for the cup in the baby section.  I couldn’t find it thinking that maybe THAT Target doesn’t carry it.  Then the next time I went to Target, I called them ahead of time to ask if they had it in stock.  They told me yes and they were in the Sporting Goods section.  I got the pink one for Baby Koala.  Did we get an approval from her?  Yup.  Baby Koala loves the sippy cup.  We got rid of the valve system, just like we did for Born Free.  We couldn’t get rid of the handles.  It was okay, Baby Koala likes to grab on the handle.  Without the valve system, the water pour out pretty easily and is no longer leak-proof.  That is okay because we only use it at home on our night stand any way.  Too bad it doesn’t have a lid though.  I like cups with lids because I don’t like how the water gets contaminated by the air.  I am quite picky about water.  I did try the water overnight from the Foogo Sippy Cup and the water tasted OKAY… non-contaminated.  I will have to test it again though.  For now, we are happy with the Foogo Sippy Cup.  Many thanks to WhoisBaby for introducing it to us!

We went to Target again after that and tried to find another one for milk.  It was out of stock.  Oh well.  I didn’t leave empty-handed though!  I bought a thermos bottle for myself.  It can hold 2 cups of liquid.  I always wanted a thermos bottle so that I can bring homemade soup with me to work.  Drinking water all day at work is kind of bland.  I end up eating snacks.  Now, I have hot soup!  No more snacking for me.  =)

The Thermos is really cool!  It’s kind of my first time using one.  I never believed that it could keep the liquid HOT.  I re-boiled the soup at home and poured it into the Thermos.  After a few hours, the soup was still nearly boiling hot!  I couldn’t drink it right away.  I had to let it cool down a little first.

At home, we try to have soup every day.  When I work nights and stuff, then I will miss my soup.  =(  Now, with my Thermos, I can bring 2 cups of soup with me.  Hee… hee…  I should lend it to my husband when he goes to work.  Some days, he works 8 hours then goes to night school for 6 hours!  He often misses his soup.  What a waste of the soup!  It will sit in the fridge for days because we usually make a big pot!

* Kirkland Mini Water Bottles can be purchased at Costco.  The Bottled Water contains artificial chemicals to enhance the flavor of the water.  (???  Why does any one need to enhance the flavor of the water???)  I don’t like artificial chemicals.  I pour out those water and add-in Briter-filtered tap water for Baby Koala.  Note: Our pediatrician told us that Briter-filter doesn’t filter out fluoride.  Baby Koala still gets her fluoride from her water daily.  =)  Still no fluride toothpaste for her yet!

My favorite sound is Baby Koala’s laughter.  Have you ever heard a baby or a toddler laugh?  It’s the most innocent laughter ever.  Okay, some, if not most, babies start laughing like a witch or a devil, but you know those laughters are still innocent while they are still practicing laughing in a “prettier” way.

Their laughters are so beautiful and contagious.  I remember when I first discovered YouTube, I found some videos of babies/toddlers laughing and I couldn’t stop myself from just repeatingly watch those videos.

I try my best to capture Baby Koala’s laughter on video ever since she started laughing as a baby.  It’s so hard!  I bumped in to so many obstacles: new phones couldn’t capture sound, new phone couldn’t capture video with sound when it’s on vibrate mode, Baby Koala stopped laughing, or Baby Koala grabbed at the phone.  For many months, I just had to review the laughter in my own brain memory.

Okay, it may sound like I’ve been complaining for the longest time…  but can you believe it?  The Buick tire blew last night!  Hubby was driving home from work and the tire blew!  He changed the tire by himself (why not call AAA?  I have no idea…  we did pay AAA already.  guys…)  Then he took the Buick to Costco to get 2 tires changed out.  Costco has a 3 year warranty on their tires so we got the new tire at a pro-rated discount.  To make sure the tires are balanced, hubby had the other front tire changed out as well.  It only took Costco an hour.  Then hubby drove by EZ lube and saw no line so he took the car to get oil change as well.

This whole week, our family hasn’t had a family meal together at the table.  =(

Oh, also, our kitchen sink broke on Tuesday.  The smell from the sink/water back-up was unbearable.  Baby Koala and I went out for breakfast.  Then we headed to Farmer’s Market to get some fruits.  Headed back home and the sink was still broken.  Heated up some chicken for Baby Koala and we were about to nap when our Apartment manager came in to fix our sink.  I was like, “Hmm.. we are going to go back in to take our nap now.  Take your time.”  After our nap, the sink was fixed.  The smell was still unbearable so I waited for hubby to come home and scrubbed the sink.  He had to scrub the sink and do all the dishes while Baby Koala and I ate our dinner.  So, that’s why we didn’t get to eat dinner together at the table.  I insisted that we go out to eat but hubby often worried that restaurant food is not healthy.  I agree but at least we get to eat together as a family!  Oh well…

When hubby is all done with night school….  can’t wait.

Guess what?  I also found out last night that my hubby has been putting synthetic oil in that Buick!!!  That means $80 oil change.  Why?  Because the Buick leaks engine oil.  Since synthetic oil is more viscous, it will leak less oil.  So we have to use synthetic oil.  Our Honda Civic Hybrid uses synthetic oil too but we only change oil on Honda every 10,000 miles unlike the Buick: every 3000 miles.

Don’t get me wrong.  I really like the Buick.  It has many, many features that I like.  This is also the reason why it needs fixes all the time.  The more functions a car has the more opportunities for something to break down.  One feature I love is the automatic headlight and daylight.  I don’t need to remember to turn on or off the headlight ever.  For Honda, a few times, I drove home at night forgetting to turn on the headlights.  Of course… a few times, my dad, my husband, and I have all one time or another forgot to turn off the headlights.  We made our AAA memembership worthwhile because we likely called them more than 10 times for the past 2-3 years!

Buick has also left us many memories considering that we have over 100,000 miles on it.  But it is time for it to go.  Not the memory, but the car.  Yup.  Remember that Honda Odyssey I have been eyeing?  We are still hoping to buy it in a year or two…

Oh yeah, there is no electricity at our apartment right now.  It’s only like 90F and we can’t turn on the AC…  go figure…

Okay… I promise a happier post next time!