Boa - Duvet

I love this song by the UK band Boa (and yes, it's not this BoA, the South Korean pop singer). I first heard it when I was junior in college and I admit that I only knew of it because of Serial Experiments Lain, don't judge me (if you read the comments on the video page everyone is poo-pooing people who only knows of this song because of the anime).

Bedtime Prayer: So be it.

I let the Boy do his bed time prayer solo sometimes. Tonight his prayer was:

Heavenly Father,
We pray for bug bites (his sister and I broke out in rash and he thought they were bug bites and was praying that God will heal us). Amen.

I tried to give him ideas on things to pray for:

Why toddlers throw temper tantrums

From CNN: Parenting

Why toddlers throw temper tantrums

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The average tantrum lasts about three minutes, according to Potegal's research
• You can predict a tantrum down to the second
• Kids from about 18 months to 4 years are simply hardwired to misbehave

Lord, help us.

The Challenge of School Pick-Up

I always wondered how people with full time jobs pick up the kids... I guess they go to after school program?

From The Wall Street Journal

The Challenge of School Pick-Up

Adele

I'm subscribed to NPR on Facebook. I love NPR, it introduces me to so many new thoughts and stories that I would never even bother to think about. One of their feed had the title "Adele: Tiny Desk Concert". It was about an artist. I normally don't click on music links; I click on scientific ones, stories, but not music. It's not that I don't love music, but I just prefer to read news, not hear it.

But something about the headline "Tiny Desk Concert" piqued my interest. I don't know, I guess I just wanted to know what that "Tiny Desk Concert" meant (in my head I was envisioning concert with little instruments, a la Zoolander style, hahaha). Boy, oh, boy! Was I ever glad I clicked on the link!

I heard the singer's voice and I was thinking, she sounds familiar, she sounds like the artist that sang the music to one of my favorite "So You Think You Can Dance" performance!

So beautiful, both music and dance!

I google and it was the same artist! I listened to more of her music and all are so good! Definitely buying her music, it's been ages since I've been this excited about an artist.

My Funny Valentine

Our first Papa John's Valentine's Day Special

Procrastinating

So Baby Girl's cheot-dol (means first birthday in Korean) is this Sunday and I'm like 60% done with prepping. With Big Boy's first birthday I hired a balloon artist to decorate the hall and the event being held at a Korean restaurant everything was pretty much done by the restaurant, the prepping of the main table, food container for people to take home. All I had to focus on really was to look good and the display table.

With the Baby Girl, we are holding the Big Event at an Italian restaurant. Yeah, it's weird, but it was way cheaper than doing it at a Korean restaurant and I thought it would be cool. While it is cheaper, I realized I'm spending money on lot of things I didn't have to worry about, like the decorative tower that's traditionally placed will have to be rented and I would have to do the fruit arrangement... It also didn't help that I decided not to spend $300 on the balloon artist this year so that means all the centerpiece and decoration has to be done, and I didn't hire a florist, so I have to do that, and hubby was late in booking the photographer so I have to be mindful of that to. Basically, everything, every little detail will have to be done by me.

So two days 'till the big day and here I am typing away. Typical of me to procrastinate. However, for me there is no other motivation like it.

For the Baby Girl's birthday I decided that a candy buffet would be fun. Seems like it's in vogue and I thought it would be cool. I wanted it kind of fancy-like and I thought macarons would be perfect! I bought the ingredients and everything. Went to Costco and bought 3 dozens of eggs, bought confectioner's sugar and almonds, food coloring. The time came to make it and I lost confidence of whether I could do this. I have history of failing at whipping things. My whipped creams turns to butter, and knowing my tendency to overkill I'm pretty sure my almond powder will become almond butter.

So I looked and looked and I found this:

from Creative Hostess

I think I can do this. I think I can! So I went and bought the sticks, the M&Ms, marshmallows, candy melt and sprinkles. I hope it turns out all right!

Maybe for Big Boy's birthday I'll build up my courage and bake one of these still:

I want to be able to make one of these!

Jill.e Designs Small Leather Camera Bag

I've had my DSLR camera(s) for what, two years? And I finally, finally, got myself a camera bag. Two years ago when I first contemplated getting one, I was set on a "functional" bag, one that I can carry on my back, one that hubs won't mind slinging around. Of course, this was when the Boy was a baby and we were carrying A LOT of things around with us, stroller, diaper bags, cart liner, A LOT of things.

Fast forward two years later, yes, I have a new baby, but I've also chilled a lot and I realized I don't need to carry all those fandangled baby things any more. Really? Do we need to carry the table liners? Can't I just use the little paper place mats they give you at the restaurant?

I'm also demanding little bit of myself back. With the first child my all was the baby. I was on baby high and I never felt fatigue, even if I did, I embraced it. But now I'm slowing down. I miss my old self who used to have time to do things just because it was fun, it didn't have to be meaningful, I did it just because I could.

So two years later when it was time to decide on a camera bag I decided I wanted something stylish and it was OK if hubs didn't want to carry it. I take most of the pictures anyway. I saw the Jill-e camera bag on Amazon.com and the reviews were pretty good. I debated with myself if it was really worth the money... and I even saw the same bag listed on Craigslist, but it was too far for pickup and in the end I ended up buying it.

So far I like it. The small pouch is not plain white as it's shown in the ad picture, and I do see that there are some parts that seems little "cheap" but overall, the padding is good, fits equipments pretty well:

• 1 Nikon D200 with short lens
• 1 Nikon D80 with long lens
• SB600 with diffuser
• battery charger
• small pouch with memory cards and extra batteries
• shoulder strap 

Jill-e Designs Small Leather Camera Bag (Black)

Some parts look "cheap". You can see the rough white thread finishing around the zipper.

Able to fit: 1 Nikon D200 with short lens, 1 Nikon D80 with long lens, SB600 with diffuser, battery charger, small pouch with memory cards and extra batteries, and shoulder strap

Small pouch not plain white as depicted in the sale picture.

Pockets for miscellaneous things.

Madeline: Something is not right... with my head and the book.

After two years with house full of boys (hubs and The Boy), I was glad to be able to finally splurge on girly things when my Baby Girl arrived. So while my baby girl was only six months old I was debating whether I should let her play with Barbies or not. Yes, I CAN be that kind of a mom.

Though I'm tough-ish I really enjoyed playing with fashion dolls as a child. I liked playing with the hair, making clothes for it, accessorizing it, rearranging the furniture. Boy! Did I love my Barbie's Dream House (the pink and yellow A frame house, it was so awesome). But now that I am older I don't like the way Barbie looks. Too plasticky, too... grownup looking. What to do?! I wondered. Surely, creating your fantasy world is awesome for children, surely, using your skills to make your own clothes, pretending, managing, is good for children, but... Barbie?! Yuck.

So I contemplated Cabbage Patch dolls (and I'm really, really sorry to say and I may offend some people, but they are just so ugly!) and then I remembered Madeline and Friends dolls. I vaguely remember seeing them long, long time ago in stores, but I found them online on eBay. It was so cute, and so wholesome looking that I had to bid on it. And I won, for $.99!

Baby Girl triumphantly holding her "new" Nicole doll.

She looks like a bunny, doesn't she?

Then I thought, well, she can't have just one doll, she'll need friends! What if Baby Girl invites friends and there no extra dolls to play with?!

Nicole is joined by her friends:
(L-R) Nicole, Madeline, Danielle, Pepito/Pepita, Chloe

...Then I thought, well... she needs accessories, because Barbie's things won't be compatible since these dolls are 8" tall...

Madeline and Friends and "an old house in Paris that was covered in vine".
See the long haired blondie cooking in the kitchen on the bottom left? Yeah, that's Nona (don't worry, I did not pay that much).

So in the storage just waiting for Baby Girl to be ready is a collection of Madeline and Friends. I hope she loves it.

Through my crazy Madeline and Friends phase the Boy learned to love Madeline too, so I bought some Madeline DVDs and he loves the sweet cartoon and sings the theme song: I'm Madeline, I'm Madeline~. Hubs cringes whenever he hears the Boy singing that song.

We also have every Madeline books, but every time I read Madeline I always wonder:

Something is not right. Why are there twelve little girls after Madeline's appendix surgery?!

Why such an oversight?

Also, who is this man that appears four times through out the book?

What is the significance of this man?

Sometimes I hypothesize that he is:

• the local town drunkard
• the author, himself