Goodbye & HELLO!

I have never been SO done with a year before in my life. I am so ready to give 2009 a steel-toed boot in the ass and tell it get lost! Overall, this year has been a MESS with a few sparkly clean glimpses of what could be through the window.

It has been a year of major change and adjustment, and a year of financial woes. From me being furloughed, E's business slowing a bit and a major adjustment in the dynamic of our relationship with the addition of Cub (see Cub's blog for the year of Cub). I've been an emotional wreck, riding the roller coaster of hormones and guilt.

Small glimpses of sunshine this year: a very relaxing weekend away with my favorite gal pals; an awesome once-in-a-lifetime experience visiting my "home" country with ALL of my sibs, my mom and my super adventurous, bestie, J; and a successful 10 year holiday celebration with the "GRRLS". Wow! What a RIDE!

So, with that said - I'm ready. Ready to wax on-wax off all over 2009 and say HELLO! to 2010. Please don't do me wrong 2010!

Read more...

"It's All About You"

I have no idea how long I've heard this phrase over and over again regarding breastfeeding past the age of one year. Mostly from other moms *I think* and have heard the "tone" or statements implying to stop breastfeeding at a year from medical personnel. I heard it again just recently and although I shrugged it off and did not comment, it got my mind whirling.

What in the heck does this REALLY mean? What's SOOOO magical about the age of ONE that all of a sudden we're supposed to have pacifiers, bottles, formula, boobs, etc. put away? And WHY when breastfeeding your child is BEST when they're born that at the magical age of ONE makes it UNNECESSARY and then it becomes ALL ABOUT YOU????? Again, what does that really mean?

Every person and child is different that there is no way you can determine an absolute cut-off age for everything. C'mon really? Some kids are two years old still needing their "binky". My kid has never really take to a paci or blankey or anything for comfort except nursing with his Mamma. He likes the comfort of snuggling up to me and having his mamma's milk before nite nite or when he wakes up first thing in the morning. He's not quite ready to get up and wants to snuggle and have his morning milk. So why should I take that away? Take away his "comfort"? I don't see you yanking away your kids paci, lovey blankey, bear or what-have-you when your kid is desperately clinging on to have that one comfort!

Tell you what: You yank that paci/lovey blankey/bear/toy or whatever brings your child comfort from him on his first birthday cold turkey and then we'll talk.

Read more...

Vietnam: Arrival - Day 1

We arrived in Vietnam on Tuesday evening. It definitely was a grueling day of travel without showers and there was nothing I wanted more than to shower and rest comfortably. Trying to sleep on the plane is, at best, uncomfortable. Unfortunately, everyone was already irritated/annoyed as there was some miscommunication between my mom, her sister (my Aunt) and the arrival/pick up time. So while we waited, we kept our eyes on our luggage and looked out for pick-pockets as we were warned repeatedly about.

Once our Aunt arrived, we packed into a van and headed to the hotel where she rented us a couple of rooms for the night to drop our stuff and settle in. Excuse the "blurry" photos, but I was so fascinated by the traffic. Motorbikes are the main mode of transportation for everyone and I had to try and capture it.

Notice this guy below as he attempts to cross the street in the middle of traffic.

 

So, after we got to our room we headed back out to get something to eat. It was a place literally right down the street so we walked over there and had our first taste of pho in Vietnam! Notice in this pic, there are no "doors", it literally is a walk up open space. Our cousin is in purple and the "cart" is where the food is stored to make our soup.

Here is everyone sitting down waiting for our order. Notice on the right, the microwave and next to that a small fridge. Yes, that IS the "kitchen".

The stove. Our soup was being warmed up!

Here's a clearer pic of the fridge/microwave, aka "the kitchen". One thing they don't have is a lot of cold storage. Drinks were warm and they provided glasses/cups with ice to accompany your drink. This was also the case for beer. :)

Imagine my shock of the condition of this "restaurant". Me, of spoiled American origin of standards and health codes. I remember looking at my BFF, J - who also gave me the same look - "Uh oh. Should we be scared? Should we be eating here?" In the end, I did of course eat (I think that's all I did this whole trip) because, here I was in VIETNAM and as the saying goes "When in Rome..." right?

Just a little side note: The pho was ok. My mom makes a MUCH MUCH better pot/bowl of pho.

Stay tuned for the next post: Our hotel room...

Read more...

The Holidays are Upon Us!

Yes, indeedy! Unfortunately, I don't feel much in the holidays spirit this year. I'm feeling more like Scrooge BEFORE he went to sleep. Ha! But the one thing I do LOVE to do is gift exchanges. I love it when they're organized and anonymous (to the giftee) so you never know what you'll get! I am friends with some awesome Mamas from the BabyCenter and this is the second exchange we've done. This time, it's between us ladies (not the kiddos) and we were to send our favorite winter things to the person we were assigned. So the person who got me, sent me her favorite winterish things which were these:

A cool Starbuck's mug, can of Dulce de Leche Hot Chocolate, four votive holiday scented candles (Home for Christmas & Holiday Cinnamon) from the Yankee Candle Company and a stick of Burt's Bees Lip Balm! How awesome is that?!?!

Read more...

Snow in Sacramento?

UNHEARD OF!!! But yes, it's true. Monday, we got SNOW in Sacramento. We had a small spattering of snow on our lawn and it was SUPER COLD. It really made me stop and reflect on the wonders of nature and put me a little in the holiday spirit :) Here is the snow on my backyard lawn:

Check out It's a Cub's World... for his adventure with the snow.

Read more...

Vietnam: Traveling - Day 1 (Partial)

After a small nudge from one of my Twitter peeps, I thought I'd at least start/try to blog a little about my Vietnam trip although I have 2GB worth of photos/video to go through. We were scheduled to leave Sunday evening and head down to SFO to catch our red-eye (midnight-ish) flight to Honk Kong. It's a direct flight (thank goodness for that!) but FOURTEEN hours on a plane is not my idea of fun. Especially since my mom was in RARE form even before we LEFT the house on Sunday.

I don't want to get into the nasty drama that ensued but thankfully, we were all on our merry way a half hour behind schedule (no biggie as we planned in some extra time). Our travel to SFO and our flight was very uneventful. I had bought and brought a new manual breast pump & my nursing cover with me. As most of you may know, I had not weaned the little Cub (although we were trying) and I didn't want to NOT have milk upon my return just in case. So that was partially my entertainment as well as my very own individual screen to watch movies, play video games or listen to music! They also fed us a couple of times on the flight and they had cup o' noodles for a snack in case we got hungry during the loooong flight.

Once we arrived in Hong Kong, we had a 7 hour layover. Umm, yeah. Not so fun - but at least the airport was HUMONGOUS and they had a STARBUCK'S?!!! This would be the last I saw of one until our return trip. They also had free wi-fi (thank goodness my bro brought his iPhone) AND we discovered a bit late unfortunately, that they had computer terminals available also. No pics prior to us leaving, but here are a couple of shots during our layover in Hong Kong:

Have no idea why I was SURPRISED they had a Disney Store, but I was and had a pic of me and my BFF, J taken in front of it. See how dorky we look? Touristy for sure, yes?

Not only did they have a Starbuck's, they had a Popeye's Chicken! Now, there's only one that I know of near where I live and I don't think they're THAT great to also have one in Hong Kong? Really?

See what's on the menu? And check out those prices!! But that's in HK Dollars. I didn't realize that Hong Kong has their own money and the exchange rate was $1 USD to $7ish HKDs.

The first thing we did once we figured out where we needed to be was to EAT! We found a place serving up dim sum and after this, I was totally DONE with seafood. Almost every dish we ordered (don't know why) had shrimp or tasted shrimpy. This here's my bro, D - Sis, L & Mom

This one is of my Oldest Sis, A and bro, D. Obviously we were hungry and waiting patiently for our food. Bro on his iPhone, texting away to someone.

Stay tuned for my next post: our arrival in Vietnam...

Read more...