We go to our branch campout every year. I even went last year when I was 7 months pregnant, so this year was no different! I was definitely worried about whether EJ will be ok during the night. My worries were right, he wasn’t ok!! We camp in luxury, so we brought along our air mattress. 🙂 If you’ve ever slept on a air mattress, you’ll know that their surface is not flat like your regular mattress. Ours has big bumps; I wonder why they make them like that. Poor boy, sleeps like he’s being tossed around in a ship on choppy waters. Many times during the night, he’ll flip himself onto his belly, but unlike his nice flat mattress at home, he couldn’t flip himself back! He’ll get stuck in between two bumps, realize he’s stuck, and wake up crying. He woke up enough times to finally realize he wasn’t home, and freaked out and was unconsolable for a while. I felt bad for our neighboring campers, but most of them said they didn’t hear him! Lucky for them!

When he woke up the next morning, it was as if he slept right through! Eric was tired, though. He continued sleeping after EJ and I woke up.

The Pink Bandit (Hannah) and the Green Prince (EJ) as dubbed by Nat.

We had cup noodles for breakfast. Along with pancakes, sweet rolls, zucchini bread, muffins, croissant, fruit… Any time our branch has a get-together, you can always count on having great food!!

All bundled up. It’s summer, but still cold in the Santa Cruz mountains!

Look who fell asleep on our hike! What a nice life.

Ironman Dad, Nat Woo, pushing the stroller on a not easily navigable hiking trail. Power to him!

Loving the slide!

He’s popular with the other kids 🙂

We’ll be back next year!!

Leave a Comment

We took EJ to the Santa Cruz beach at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, and he looooves the sand!! Yay! Must be his daddy’s Aussie blood.

Windy and cloudy day at Santa Cruz

Eric won him a toy. Yay!

Deep fried PB&J and deep fried Twinkie. Eric said the Twinkie wasn’t bad, but the PB&J was gross. Well, just by looking at it, I thought they were both gross!

Having his popcorn chicken lunch by the beach

‘Why are you taking me away?!?!’

It wasn’t easy cleaning out the sand from his little toes. But I’m so glad he loves the beach! We’ll definitely be back!

Leave a Comment

Lately, I’ve been letting him feed himself, and he loves it! I think he actually eats more, too. When we’re in public or I’m in a hurry, I’ll have to feed him so he’s not too messy. I don’t think he likes it as much. He stores all his food in his mouth and takes a long time to chew and swallow! It drives me nuts! He’s like a chipmunk! But at least I have less cleaning up to do.

Leave a Comment

I think I have the friendliest baby on the block! EJ does this thing now where he sticks his hand out like to shake your hand when he meets people. It’s quite a conversation starter!

Last week we went to the library to enjoy some a/c. They have a little play corner with lots of toys. Boy did he have fun! Sad thing was, he would crawl up to other kids to play with them, but every single one of these kids just took the toy they were playing with, said “Mine!”, stood up and walked away. That’s what he gets for wanting to play with other kids. These kids were about 3-4 years old. At least the adults were nice. He crawled into the laps of at least two other moms. I thought this was the age when they start developing stranger anxiety, but I guess not yet for this little one. In a way, it’s real nice for me. Anyone can watch him! 🙂

2 Comments

We did a last walk through, checked the mail for the last time, and turned in our keys to the apartment. So sad!! It was really nostalgic walking through the apartment for the last time. We’d spent four years living in the apartment complex. Two years in a one bedroom, then the last two years in a two bedroom. Eric said that it was like in college, and I said we “graduated” with a baby. Lol! (Yes, I’m funny). We’re definitely going to miss that place.

We moved into the new place two weeks ago, but our lease wasn’t up until the end of the month. The move went so quickly! I only moved two boxes! And that’s two PIZZA boxes! I went out to get lunch for our wonderful friends who helped us moved, and when I came back, they were already done. They’re simply amazing.

There are so many things that I’ll miss. The 5 minute walk to the grocery store, and 10 minute walk to the Chinese supermarket. The granite counter tops. The air conditioning. The 2nd bathroom. The walk-in closet. The pool (which we didn’t even use this year!). The gym. The maintenance people at our beck and call. Change is indeed never easy, but I guess life must go on, right?

I was having serious thoughts about whether we made the right choice to move. We have a wonderful backyard here, but I’ve only been out to the yard twice in these two weeks. I’m not a backyard kinda gal. I’ve never lived in a house, only apartments. The yard takes a little getting used to. The appliances here are older, not like the updated kitchen in the apartment. And I’ve already had several encounters with spiders, ants, and a giant beetle-looking insect (I have no idea what it was, but it was HUGE) in the house. We never had bug problems in the apartment. I guess I’ll have more of that to look forward to since we have a luscious backyard with sweet orange trees!

It honestly doesn’t feel like home 100% yet. But I guess we just need to finish up unpacking! We’re mostly done. We have a couple of boxes here and there. And we still need to get a dining table. I’m sure once we’re completely settled in, it’ll feel like home.

 

EJ enjoying the granite countertops for the last time

 

 

1 Comment

Hello Duplex with a nice yard!

The big move is tomorrow! This past couple of weeks we’ve been moving some little things over almost everyday. I can’t believe how much stuff we have. And to think we both came into this country with just two suitcases. After 9 years, this is what we have! And I don’t know how many trips I’ve made to Good Will already! I try to make several small trips to Good Will so it doesn’t look like we’re “dumping” our trash there!

We got our brand new washer and dryer yesterday. First time owners of a washer/dryer! Woot!

And today Comcast came and setup our Internet. Can’t live without Internet, right? 🙂

Hopefully everything fits in the truck tomorrow. But I guess we’re not officially moved out until the end of the month. We have some more time. I think I might just use the pool and gym before I have to turn in the keys! Gotta make use of these facilities, right? I’ve probably used the pool less than 5 times the whole 4 years we were here. The gym, though, I’ve gotten quite some use out of it, I’m proud to say! (Though not recently!!)

We’re excited to move! I’m looking forward to not having to sit in the car with the little one when he falls asleep in his carseat (like right now; only time I really get to blog!) I can leave him in the car garage! Lol!

Here he is basking in the sunlight of our new place while the Comcast technician sets up our Internet:

He’s now able to go from a lying down position to a sitting position all by himself! And today, he stood up for 2 whole seconds all by himself! Our little boy’s growing up! :,(

4 Comments

So, first of all, EJ’s ultrasound and VCUG procedure results came back negative. Yay! Meaning, he doesn’t have cysts in his kidneys and his urine doesn’t flow back into his kidneys. Good!

We did both procedures on the same day. One after another. We did the ultrasound first. That was the easy part. But he was already unhappy because I had to hold him down while the technician was doing her thing. He doesn’t like to be held down. And he didn’t like the cold gel that they rub on you when you do an ultrasound! He was struggling to get out and was on the brink of tears! I was thinking to myself that if he doesn’t like this, he wasn’t gonna like what’s coming next!

When we did the VCUG, he had to be changed into a hospital gown. Omg so cute! But what came next wasn’t cute. They stuck a catheter in him. The nurse that did it this time wasn’t as good as the nurse that did it the first time. She kept pulling back and stretching his skin. NOT GENTLE AT ALL!! He was screaming his lungs out. While she was doing this, I was holding his arms and another technician was holding his legs down. They were gonna fill his bladder and see (through the x-ray) if there was any reverse flow into his kidneys. But he emptied his bladder before it was completely full. After doing this twice, the whole while with him screaming at the top of his lungs, the doctor called it quits. And said his flow was ok. So we’re good! Hopefully this UTI was just a one time thing. 🙁 Poor baby.

Amidst all of this, we finally found a place to move to! We’re currently living on the second floor of an apartment complex. It’s so inconvenient with the baby AND they’re increasing rent here again! Last year they upped it by $99. This year, by another $105! Too much! We’re out!

We’re moving to a duplex complete with its own garage and backyard. Yippee!! This means no more me sitting in the car with EJ while he’s still fast asleep (like right now!). And it’ll be so much easier to unload groceries. I don’t have to carry a baby and bags and bags of grocery up two flights of stairs, meanwhile juggling with the keys to open the door. Nice! The rent is slightly lower, and the landlord says he almost never raises his rent! The appliances are pretty ancient, but at least they work. Landlord says if we stay long enough, he’ll change out the appliances! Sweet! We’re minus one bathroom, but the overall square footage of the living area is about the same as our current apartment. It’s not as convenient as where we’re living now. Right now, we within walking distance to Luckys, Maccas, and Starbucks, Barnes & Nobles, Chinese supermarket, etc. With the new place, I can walk to the hospital and a park. That’s about it. We’ll have to drive to get to places! Anyhow, we’re very excited to move. This will be my first time living in a house with a yard!

Then of course, moving requires packing! My goodness do we have a lot of stuff!! I’m being really selective and just throwing out lots of things now. Especially books! (We’re donating them to the library). The more I throw out, the less I have to pack and move. It’s a pain packing with this very mobile baby boy! He’s starting to crawl and is just getting into everything! I don’t get much packing done until Eric gets home. I feel like I’m packing the whole day, but looking around the house, it looks like I’ve hardly even made a dent! There’s still so much stuff!!! Anyhow, I take this as spring cleaning too. Throw things out before Eric gets a chance to know what I’m throwing out. He’s the pack-rat! He keeps EVERYTHING!

I remember the last time we moved, Eric was in London. I pretty much packed up everything myself. I told him last time that he has to do all the packing the next time we move! Well, this is it. He still has yet to fill his first box!! 😛 I know, I know. He’s busy at work while I’m home the whole day… At least he’s moving the boxes. He also said if he packs, he won’t throw anything away. Well, that just won’t do. We need to declutter!

We’ll have pics of the new place soon!

9 Comments

I don’t want to drive up to the pearly
Gates in a shiny sports car, wearing
Beautifully tailored clothes, my
Hair expertly coiffed, and with long
Perfectly manicured fingernails.
I want to drive in a station wagon that
Has mud on the wheels from taking
Kids to scout camp.
I want to be there with grass stains
On my shoes from mowing Sister
Schenk’s lawn.
I want to be there with a smudge of
Peanut butter on my shirt from making
Sandwiches for a sick neighbor’s children.
I want to be there with children’s sticky
Kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a
Friend on my shoulder.

I want the Lord to know that I was really here
And that I really lived.

Leave a Comment

Diarrhea and yeast infection. That’s from the antibiotics that EJ’s taking for his UTI. We’re ok on the yeast infection. Luckily. But not so much on the diarrhea! The first day on the antibiotics, he was like a newborn again. Going every few hours! And very watery! At least that let up after the second day. But we’re still having very diarrhea-like bowel movements.

Funny story. We were out for dinner tonight. I was holding him and I felt vibrations. I said, “I feel vibrations!”. Rie thought I meant earthquake vibrations! Lol! Oh no, this was vibrations from EJ’s pants!! And it wasn’t contained in his pants. He got it on his pants, on his sweater, on his onesie, AND on MY sweater!! My WHITE Zara sweater that I bought in Paris!!!! 🙁 Lucky I got the stain out. Otherwise, I’ll be so sad. I know, just a sweater, right? I guess. But I love clothes 🙂

This wasn’t the first time this week. A few days ago, when we were out looking at apartments, I could hear his vibrations going in the back seat. Super loud! So I stopped in a parking lot to change him. This one was really everywhere! All up his back. All the way to his shoulders. Yep. It was gross. I tried getting the stains out. There’s still a tinge of yellow…. He ruined an outfit with his poopoo!!

Anyway…. He’s definitely a lot better though. We still have to finish his 10 days course of antibiotics. Doc says 7 days should be fine. But he keeps spitting out his medicine. I think we better do 10 days.

Opps! He blinked. His hands are clenching on the toilet paper rolls. He was holding onto them pretty tight. I think he likes the crinkling sound made by the plastic. I like to think he’s helping his mama out with the shopping! 🙂

He’s fine enough to sit and chill in the seat of a shopping cart.

And fine enough to play with jam packets at Carrows.

We’re good.

His ultrasound and catheter is next week. Hopefully they come back negative and this UTI is just a one time thing. Crossing our fingers and praying hard.

2 Comments

And the week is not over!

Last Friday (5/20) we (EJ and I) went to Rie’s to help out with preparations for their daughter’s first month celebration. That morning, EJ had been kinda whiney. He didn’t want to be put down. We ran some errands in the morning, and would always cry when I put him back into his car seat. I thought it was odd. Mornings were usually his best times, and he was never really whiney then. When I was at the Woo’s, Nat’s mom was playing with EJ and commented that he didn’t seem to be himself. He’s a very happy, bubbly baby. But that day, he was all out of sorts. I thought it was just one of those days, but I realized that maybe I should check his temperature. And sure enough, our first bout of fever 🙁 Poor little guy. We called the hospital, but they just told us to give him tylenol and try to keep him cool. If it gets worse, or lasts longer than three days, call back.

Well, that night, we also sold our dining table! I posted it on Craigslist two days ago, not expecting anything, but sure enough, someone came, liked it, and bought it. Now we eat on our coffee table in front of the TV. (Not that we’re not guilty of that when we had our dining table either :)) A little nostalgic. It was our first piece of furniture when we moved to San Jose.

That night, also the first time trying to comfort and sooth a sick baby to sleep. We put him to bed and usual. And he slept really well, until 2am. That was when we were about to go to sleep too (I know, we shouldn’t have stayed up so late, but I was apartment hunting!) And he was just unconsolable all night. I held him until 5am. By that time my arms were tired and I was exhausted. I handed him over to Eric. Eric took over until 8. I got a little sleep, then got up to make curry! Yes! Singapore curry!

Saturday, 5/21 was supposed to be the big day for Baby Hannah! I was commissioned to make the curry for the one month celebration! A little bit stressful especially since I know the rest of the food (made by Nat’s parents) will be so AWESOME!! But after very little sleep that night, I was just glad the chicken and potatoes in the curry was cooked!! We were so sad we couldn’t make it to the party 🙁 I was looking forward to all that SINGAPORE food!! I’m so glad they brought leftovers over for us. There was just no way we could bring poor sick EJ over. His fever had gotten worse overnight. And he continued to be fussy.

We didn’t go to church on Sunday either. Eric came home after his branch presidency meetings. EJ’s fever continued to be high. And being the 3rd day of his fever, we were really worried, so we went in to see the doctor.

With a fever that high in infants, they checked for everything. One of them was hand/foot/mouth disease. And another: Urinary Tract Infection. (Luckily no HFM. One thing at a time, please!) With that, they had to use a catheter. Not fun. He was held down while the nurses stuck a catheter in, and it took a long time for him to pee! He just laid that screaming his lungs out!!! It was really hard to see 🙁 We went home with a huge bottle of antibiotics, which he has to take 3x a day for 10 days. (Of which, I knocked over a third of the bottle while trying to feed EJ the medicine!!)

Sunday night, yet another rough night for EJ. He would only sleep if we held him and we were sitting up. All night long……… Luckily, on Monday 5/23 his fever subsided. BUT now we have an outbreak of rash. I was afraid he had an allergic reaction to his medication, so again we went in to the Docs.

That’s when we found out that his urine analysis came back positive for UTI. He would have to have more tests done. An ultrasound to check the kidneys and another catheter. His rash, luckily, is not an allergic reaction to the antibiotics. Doc’s not sure. Doesn’t seem like roseola. So, he said it’s just viral. Great. If you’ve ever had UTI, you know it burns to pee. I don’t know. I’ve never had it. But I can see that he’s in pain. He has been less fussy after his fever. He would be able to sit and play by himself. But he would start crying all of a sudden, then stop and be fine the next minute. We figure it’s because he’s peeing, and it hurts, that’s why he’s crying 🙁 What’s a mother to do????!!!!

Amidst all of this, we’re apartment hunting. That’s why we sold our dining table. With me not working, we need to make some lifestyle adjustments. And one big adjustment is to move from this money-sucking apartment! They raise the rent by about $100 every year! We’ve been here 4 years. It’s just too much already! We just have to move. Plus we’re on the second floor. It’s such a hassle with the stroller!! We need a ground floor apartment.

Every night since last week, I would get on the internet, check the new listings on craigslist and then go to every single apartment the next day to look at the neighborhood. An average of 6 places everyday, for the last 7 days. That’s 30 places this week!! I’m getting to know San Jose West very well 🙂 Luckily gas prices have gone down!! Apartment hunting is a headache!! I really hate lugging around the baby, especially since he’s sick 🙁

In a nutshell, it’s been a stressful week. And like I said, the week is still not over!! We still haven’t found a place we like. EJ still has a rash and he still has to take those tests. And then there’s everything else that needs to be done…… laundry, dishes, mess, church………….

Ok. I can come down from my soapbox now. Thanks for listening 🙂

 

5 Comments

← Previous Page — Next Page →

• Our Monkey Business

  Monkeying around in our lives
  
• You laugh because I'm different. I laugh because I farted.

• 249 posts and 224 comments.

• Archives

  • April 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • May 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • January 2010
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • May 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007

  Categories

  • About
  • Baby
  • Birthday
  • California
  • car
  • Celebrations
  • Church
  • Cleaning
  • Cycling
  • Dentists
  • Dessert
  • Earthquake
  • Easter
  • Elsa
  • Eric
  • Ethan
  • Family
  • Food
  • Friends
  • Halloween
  • handmade
  • Health
  • Home
  • Housing
  • Japan
  • Language
  • Life
  • Movies
  • Music
  • OCD
  • Potty
  • School
  • Sharn
  • Shopping
  • sick
  • Sports
  • Stupid
  • Style
  • Tech
  • Travel
  • TV
  • Uncategorized
  • Vacation
  • Weather
  • Work

  Links

  • Blogroll

    • Amias Lum
    • Andrew and Laura Wan
    • Andrew and Liew Tang
    • Andy and Tanya Sio
    • Candice and Timothy Andrus
    • Chris and Katrina Nye
    • Clarissa Chen
    • Crystal and Tim Huang
    • Dave Luis
    • Fernando Mladineo
    • Holly and Evan Young
    • Ieli and Steve
    • Jessica and Shane
    • Joanne and Daniel
    • Keesh
    • Kelii and Evelyn Wunder
    • Ken and Flora
    • Kualana and Nicole
    • Kyle and Tiffany Larsen
    • Leroy Thong
    • Lindsey Lim
    • Rachel Tan
    • Rendy Marican
    • Sarah and Jay Tyau
    • Sarah Woo
    • Su Chong
    • Tim and Lynn Chang
    • Vera Chan
    • Yap Zijia
    • Yu Hsuan and Steven Workman
    • Zhenle, Linting, Sarah

  • Just for Fun

    • Crunchy Roll
    • Facebook

  • Our Site

    • History of Creativity Project
    • Our Monkey Business…Gallery

  Admin

  • Log in
  • XHTML