Wednesday, July 28, 2010
"What Would You Do?"
In one of the situations, there were three guys beating up another guy, a Latino. A few people called the police, but the majority of the people witnessing the beating simply walked by, ignoring what they were seeing. Only a handful of people actually stopped and intervened.
As I thought about what I would do, I was embarrassed to come up to the conclusion that I would call the police but would probably not intervene. I would not only be scared for my own life, but also for putting my family in a situation where they would have to live without a mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister – not that it’s a justifiable excuse.
And then something happened. As I continued to watch people’s reactions to this beating, a car stop and a 5 ft 2 woman step out. She put herself between the aggressors and the man and told them to stop and leave him alone. I was so impressed with her courage, selflessness, and willingness to put herself in danger to save this man’s life.
It inspired and motivated me to be the best person I can be, to always put others above myself and their needs above mine, and to help those around me whether they are friends or complete strangers. I recommend anyone who hasn’t watched this show to watch it – it will change your perspective on how you can make a difference in others’ lives.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
You do what you're best at, and I'll do what I'm best at
Me: Honey, I am so glad you’re home! I had to deal with the grossest thing ever today!
Billy: What’s that?
Me: So I was in our bedroom, picking up clothes off the floor, when I saw this thing that looked like a small stick. It looked like a brown cylinder that was close to an inch long. So I leaned over to take a closer look and, I’m not very good at naming bugs, but it was like a worm but with lots of legs.
Billy: (He probably wanted to roll his eyes at that point, but he was really trying to be supportive.) Ohh.
Me: So I ran to the bathroom to pick up a few sheets of toilet paper, ran back to the bedroom, and picked the thing up. But I was afraid it would get out and crawl over me, so I squeezed it between the toilet paper sheets, and it made this really crunchy sound. It was so disgusting that I literally got chills all over my body and my stomach made a 180 twist. And then I flushed it down the toilet. Yuck!
Billy: I’m sorry you had such a tough day, honey. You wanna hear about mine?
Me: (So I’m thinking that it can’t be too bad since he’s doing a family medicine rotation.) Yeah, okay.
Billy: So this girl - in her early 20s or something - came in. I asked her what brought her in, and she said that earlier that day, she was sitting at work, wearing the same mini-skirt that she was wearing then, and no underwear, and all of a sudden, she felt something on her inner-thigh, so she looked down, in between her legs, and saw a worm coming out of her vagina.
Not only did I get chills all over my body, but my stomach made another 180 twist, AND I literally got nauseous visualizing what Billy was telling me. I definitely do not have the stomach to deal with this type of stuff. I think I’ll stay home and be the best mom I can be while Billy goes to work and becomes the best doctor he can be.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Feeding Taylor update
We used to take Taylor to our family doctor, but she was not very helpful. This is how our conversations went:
Me: I am very concerned about Taylor not gaining weight. What can I do to help him?
Dr X: You could try to feed him more formula.
Me: I’ve tried that, but if I try to get him to eat more than he wants, he just gets upset or throws up.
Dr X: You could try to feed him more often, like 6 to 7 times a day.
Me: I’ve tried that, too, but he doesn’t eat anymore that he normally would. He just eats smaller portions.
Dr X: Well let’s try that again and see how it goes.
(Me: So basically you are no idea what to do and you are setting me up for failure.)
Since then we have transferred Taylor to a pediatrician. He was so much more helpful from the first visit:
Me: I am very concerned about Taylor not gaining weight. What can I do to help him?
Dr Y: Have you tried to add calories to what you are already giving him? You could add a tablespoon of heavy cream in his formula or cook foods with lots of oil and butter. And if you are still concerned I could refer you to a feeding specialist.
So this week I took Taylor to a feeding specialist while Billy watched Logan.
During the evaluation, the therapist noticed that Taylor did a great job on:
- eating hard crunchy solids
- trying and eating a pancake (which he hasn’t done since)
- showed a good acceptance of the highchair and mealtime
- drank from the straw easily
- touched a variety of foods
In the next couple of weeks, she would like him to:
- eat larger amounts of food to help with growth
- eat more textures and purees without needing distractions
- accept purees off the spoon by leaning in
- become stronger at his mouth to increase his confidence with many food textures
So what I need to do is:
- offer hard meltables (crunchy foods) to target chewing and tongue strength
- offer him a spoon dipped in the puree for him to “play with”
- jazz up his foods with spices/seasonings or change the temperature
I believe there are two reasons for Taylor’s refusal to eat from a spoon, (1) he wants to be more independent and, (2) I sometimes encouraged him to eat more than he wanted.
So now he wants to be independent and feed himself, which is okay, but the only foods he will eat are crunchy and low in calories, which is not okay. I don’t think I’m a control-freak, but when it comes to feeding Taylor, I have had a really hard time letting go of my control over what and how much he eats during feedings. Hopefully by continuing to place foods high in calories on his tray, he will eventually touch them, play with them, bring them to his lips, and eat them.
I wish I could go back to when I first introduced solids. If I hadn’t encouraged him to eat just 5 more spoonfuls, maybe now he wouldn’t have such a dislike for anything coming from a spoon. If I hadn’t distracted him with toys so that he would eat, maybe now he would feel in control even when I’m the one holding the spoon to his mouth. All I can do now is try to reintroduce a new way to eat solids, where he decides whether he wants to eat and how much he wants to eat.
In the next few weeks, I hope that Taylor will be okay eating from a spoon again, with a sense of control over whether and how much he eats, and without a need to have toys as distractions. I also hope that he will be willing to try out new foods that will help him to gain the pounds that he needs to put on. And finally I hope that mealtimes will become more pleasurable for him and for me.
This little guys is so dang cute that he makes it all worth it!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Peek-A-Boo
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Third time's a charm!
Friday, July 9, 2010
Creating our own family traditions
Those who know me well know that I am an orgaized freak. Just like I keep a to-do list, I also keep a traditions list.
New Year:
We'll rent a cabin and go snowmobiling/snowshoeing/skiing/sledding.
When we get back home, we'll take the Christmas tree down.
Super Bowls:
We'll watch the game while eating some not-so-healthy-food, maybe pizza or burgers.
Chinese New Year:
We'll have Chinese decorations.
We'll have an Asian dinner.
Valentine's Day:
We'll have decorations.
We'll bake sugar cookies and decorate them with pink, red, and white frosting.
We'll get a babysitter and go do something nice.
Easter:
We'll have Easter decorations.
The kids will get Easter baskets.
We'll paint and decorate eggs.
We'll have an Easter egg hunt.
We'll read the story of Christ's resurrection.
Conference weekend:
We'll go out for breakfast on Saturday morning.
We'll have a nice breakfast home on Sunday morning.
Anniversary:
We'll get a babysitter and go on a nice trip, just Billy and I.
Mother's Day:
Mommy gets breakfast in bed and gets spoiled all day.
Father's Day:
Daddy gets breakfast in bed and getes spoiled all day.
4th of July:
We'll have patriotic decorations.
We'll decorate sugar cookies with red, blue, and white frosting.
We'll have a BBQ.
We'll go watch fireworks or have our own.
Labor Day:
We'll rent a boat and go waterskiing/fishing/sunbathing.
Conference weekend:
We'll go out for breakfast on Saturday morning.
We'll have a nice breakfast home on Sunday morning.
Halloween:
We'll have Halloween decorations.
We'll decorate sugar cookies with black, purple, and orange frosting.
We'll go to a pumpkin patch and pick out pumpkins for everyone.
We'll go home and carve the pumpkins.
We'll go trick-or-treating in costumes.
We'll go to a corn maze (and later a haunted house).
We'll rent a Halloween movie (not too scary for the kiddos).
Thanksgiving:
We'll have Thanksgiving decorations.
We'll cook dinner together and invite a few people, maybe even the missionaries.
The guys will play football in the morning, then we'll go inside and watch the games on tv.
We'll go pick out a Christmas tree as a family.
We'll decorate the tree.
We'll go Christmas shopping on Black Friday.
Christmas Eve:
For the "25 days of Christmas," we'll do an act of service every day for a family in need.
We'll decorate sugar cookies with green, red, and white frosting.
We'll cook a nice and fancy dinner, with several courses.
We'll open our stockings at midnight.
We'll leave cookies and milk for Santa.
Christmas:
We'll open presents early in the morning, when the kiddos wake up.
We'll play with the presents.
We'll read the story of Christ's birth.
We'll watch a Christmas movie.
We'll cook another nice and fancy dinner, with several courses.
We'll do our final service project, which will be spectacular, according to the family's needs.
New Year's Eve:
We'll have some people over for a nice party.
We'll go watch fireworks.
Birthdays:
We'll have a friends' party on a Saturday.
We'll have a family party on the actual birthday.
We'll have a cake in the shape of something the birthday boy/girl enjoys.
We'll have a pinata for spring
We'll watch the game wand summer birthdays and...
something else for fall and winter birthdays.
Sundays:
We'll have Mexican food for dinner, and every one can be in charge of something.
We'll have discussions about what we all learned in Church.
We might even have FHE on Sundays, depending on Billy's schedule.
Someone will lead FHE,
someone will say the opening prayer,
someone will lead the music,
someone will teach the lesson,
someone will say the closing prayer,
someone will plan the game/activity,
and someone will bake a treat.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Home Splash Pads
Taylor LOVES to take baths! He just keeps on splashing and splashing and splashing the whole time that he is in there. In the meantime, Logan and I sit outside the tub, getting wet, and watching him in amusement.
Soon I think I'll put Logan in there as well, in the big-boy tub. It will save me at least 15 minutes to bathe them together. Hopefully Taylor doesn't scare Logan with his wild movements and loud screams.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
New chairs and 4th of July
I started looking on Craig's List and found these 2 high chairs for $40. I was lucky to find matching ones. I actually didn't even know they were the same until I picked up the 2nd one. It was a much needed upgrade. The boys love them and I don't even mind cleaning them.
This 4th of July was definitely not the best one yet. I don't even have any cool pictures because... we didn't do anything cool! We went to a "Street Party" in Valley Junction, got some gyros, walked around, and left. We probably could have gone to a parade, but we figured it was too hot and the boys are too little to even care. And then that night, most fireworks got cancelled because of the rain. I'm not even sure we would have gone, anyway, because the boys go to sleep between 7:45 and 8:00 and the fireworks were scheduled between 9:30 and 10:00. Logan and Taylor are too little to stay up this late and too big to have their schedule messed aournd with. Plus they are so loud... I didn't want the boys to get scared. So that was our 4th of July. I'm sure next year we can make it a little more fun with the boys being more flexible and more into the holiday. Maybe they'll even understand, somewhat, what the 4th of July is about... maybe.
That night I was feeling so lame, being inside, watching a movie, while listening to people having their own fireworks party, that I decided to have some ice cream, the "Cold Stone" way. My favorite is banana ice cream with strawberries and brownie pieces, or strawberry ice cream with banana slices and brownie pieces. I wasn't gonna go to the store on Sunday, so I got the next best thing - I got vanilla ice cream out of the freezer and mixed in banana slices and brownie pieces. I was soooo good! Who needs Cold Stone ice cream for $5 when you can make your own for less than $2? Friday, July 2, 2010
Twilight obsession
By the way, thumbs up to all the girls who were able to bring their boyfriends/husbands to the movie. Impressive! There were quite a few guys in there. This was Billy's response when I asked him if he would come watch the movie with me, "I would rather eat my own poop!" Haha! But seriously, I think I could bring him in there, I would just have to compromise big time. Like I would probably have to rub his feet for 1 hour each day for the next year. Sorry! That is not going to happen.

Book and movie #1 (Twilight): Team Edward. I thought that if Bella was in love with him, then that's who she should be with, even if no one else wanted them to be together, and even if that meant she would have to change for him and disappear from her friends and family forever. Of course I liked Jacob, but I knew that Bella's feelings would always be stronger for Edward, as long as he was around.
Book and movie #2 (New Moon): I started wondering if maybe I should be on Team Jacob. Every reason he gave Bella to be with him totally made sense. And every time he and Bella got close, I found myself wanting them to kiss and be together, wanting her to love Jacob the way she loved Edward. I thought that eventually Jacob could help Bella to move on and forget about Edward, as long as he stayed far away.
Book and movie #3 (Eclipse): Team Jacob. I was so psyched when he and Bella kissed, and then so sad when she chose Edward over him. (Maybe it had something to do with Jacob being so freakin' HOT!) Even Edward knew that Jacob would be better for Bella. She would not have to change and disappear from her friends and family for him.
Book and movie #4-5 (Breaking Dawn): Team Edward. I was so excited (and a little creeped out) when Jacob imprinted on Edward and Bella's little girl. That meant Edward and Bella could be together, and Jacob could move on from Bella and be happy with someone else, while still being in Bella's life. Happily ever after. The end.



