So our kids hate their cribs and been sleeping on the floor for about a month or two now. Mike and I decided it’s time to upgrade. Our cribs don’t exactly convert so we thought about buying new ones. He takes the cribs apart and was in the garage for a long time. I went to see what he’s doing and he decided he’s going to use the parts from the cribs and build toddler beds for the kids for around $30. He explains “the plan” and starts convincing me by saying “we’ll save money” and “it’s temporary until we move and we can buy them new beds/mattresses then” and “I’m off until Wednesday, so I’ll have time to do it”. Sold. I told him it sounds good to me.

Tuesday I went to work while Mike and the kids stayed home. I knew my father in law was coming over to help Mike with his plans, so that made me feel even more secure that this will be done. I decided not to call home to check up on him since he’s busy. I came home not to only find that they have not made much progress, but my children asleep in the living room. One in her pink Pottery Barn Anywhere chair, and the other flat on the carpet, next to the piano, thumb in mouth. What happened here today?!

I process to get the kids dinner and give them a bath. Around 8pm, Mike finally came in and said, “Honey, order the beds. I’m tired and it’s not gonna happen.” Turns out, in the midst of planning, my father in law asked Mike, “How much are these beds anyways.” Mike: “Around $80.” Father-in-law, “$80?!” He pulls a bill from his pants and said, “Here. I paid for one. You cover the rest.” Hahaha.

Total fail! At least they got some bonding time in…

…I wish my children a simple life. I had a simple childhood and I have my parents to thank for it. I remember having a happy childhood…I remember having a childhood…period.

The world we lived in is such a scary place. Gone are the days of riding your bike and coming home before dark for dinner. Nowadays, maybe it’s the internet or the media, something makes us feel we need to keep a close watch on our children at all times. They definitely will not have the same childhood as I did but I hope they have a happy one and that they get the opportunity to stay children for as long as possible. Kids also grow up too fast these days.

I use to work for a national media company and would read the most terrible things about our world. I know the media is skewed to produce this type of “news” but the fact is…it happened. All these horrible things happened for the reporters to report on. It’s not the world I thought I grew up in. Has the world changed or did my parents just do a great job of shielding me from it? I don’t know. And I guess it doesn’t matter. What matters is Mike and I figure out a way to make sure our children are safe, happy, confident, alert and aware.

Just reflecting today.

*WARNING: Serious post*

Just when I thought I knew everything, life has a funny way of reminding me how small I am in this world and how much more there is I need to learn.

I have always been somewhat naive. I grew up very sheltered and I do not blame my parents for this. I thank them. I feel children grow up too fast and I am grateful to have a beautiful childhood. But with that luxury also comes a good amount of ignorance. Ignorance can be dangerous when it comes to foreseeing possible dangerous situations. Now that I am a mother, I don’t want to be ignorant anymore. I want to be smarter…smart enough to keep my kids safe and give them the beautiful childhood my parents gave me.

My heart has been heavy for a couple of days now. The world has changed a little bit for me. There is both good and bad in that. I’m going to try my best to focus on the good. The good involves making sure I am a good parent to my children, a good wife to my husband and a good person who they will always be proud of having in their lives. The good, in that, I had a huge lesson in compassion and forgiveness within an hour conversation with one of my best friends. Through her strength, I learned the little things that I gripe about, are not important. She gave me perspective, which is easily the greatest gift a person can give to another. It keeps us grounded and more importantly, it keeps us grateful for the little things…and when you add up all the little things, it’s everything.

This year my company picnic was at Seaworld. This was awesome since I really wanted to take the kids but was not thrilled about paying $80 a ticket! The event was completely sponsored including parking and a picnic lunch. The kids had a great time. I’ve been prepping them with Youtube videos at home of Seaworld shows. Brooke was obsessed with seeing the dolphins. When we finally made it to the dolphin encounter at the end of the day, we saw the dolphin poo! She said, “Ew. Dolphin poopy.” Hahaha. Kids are awesome. They did not want to go home but Mike and I were exhausted. We left the park at 5pm and once the car started, both kids knocked out!

Other things we did:

• Shamu show: Now called One World. We noticed after that terrible accident in 2010, the trainers no longer go into the water with the killer whales. Good for them in taking these precautionary measures but I have to admit the show is not the same anymore
• Pets Rule – always a crowd pleaser
• The newly opened Turtle Reef
• Shark Encounter – which Brooke really protested to until we were inside
• Penguin Encounter
• Sesame Street: Play at Bay

NKOTBSB 2011: Bao and I in our pretty decent nosebleeds for $34!

Rewind to the beginning of 2011, Bao and I were discussing my birthday, and I told her I’d like to go to this concert. She said, DONE. Looking up ticket prices and just thinking about the logistics of it all, I told her I didn’t want to go anymore. We ended up going to a salon which I loved.

Fast-forward to Monday, July 4th. I was just laying in bed checking all my apps and I launched Groupon. Nothing interesting was on sale in Orange County so on a bored whim, I checked Los Angeles. “NKOTBSB Concert at the Honda Center for $34″. Hmm, it’s this Wednesday. That’s a good deal. So I forwarded the deal to Bao with a short message, “Wanna go?” Within a few minutes, I got back YES! And the rest is teeny bopper history.

We had a great time but decided (1) it’s way too loud and (2) bands need to hire more enthusiastic people to sell their merchandise. I’ve been listening to old NKOTB songs for two days now. Can’t wait until the next tour! We’re going to try to make this a sister tradition.

Today I was leaving for work while Aidan & Brooke were eating their breakfast. I said, “Goodbye! Have a good day at school.” and Aidan said, “I want to kiss Mommy.” Of course, I went back so he can give me a big kiss on the cheek (awe) then Brooke followed with, “I want to kiss Mommy too!” So I went over where I got another big kiss. Then we all said good bye again and I left for work. Great start to my day!

Someone told me my kids don’t look like toddlers anymore, they look like kids now! So funny, but I got so sad by this statement. What happened to my babies?! It’s only been two years!

So yesterday, while Aidan was working on his potty training, I was sitting at him and staring at his face. Trying to take in everything about his little face at that moment. I was thinking, “am I going to remember this face when he’s 16 years old?”, “Will he still have this same innocent smile when he’s 30.”, “How much longer will he let me stare at him like this.”

And then I heard it, “Mommy? Mommy?” I snapped out of it, looked at Aidan and we both just started laughing. Sorry Mommy was being a creeper, honey…

I definitely am!

Around February, Jackie sent me an instant message at work and asked me if I would do the following with this: http://www.gladiatorrocknrun.com/. My reply was, “You don’t know me at all! Why would you think I’d be interested in such a thing!” and she rebuttal with “Look at the obstacles though.” So I did and changed my thinking to, “Oh, this looks like fun.” Long story short, I signed up and got Mike and Tina to as well and there we were, a team of 4 we like to call, “Mikey’s Angels”.

After I paid my registration, I immediately had buyer’s remorse. I was so nervous that I felt the need to somehow take control of the situation. “I know, I’m going to start training.”

I haven’t ran since high school, so no better time than now than since I still have a couple months to get ready. I talked to Van, the family runner, then I looked up “How to Train for your First 5K Race” online and found a great program. I started jogging/walking and by a couple of weeks before the race, I went from walking 4 minutes then jogging 1 minute to jogging 2 miles straight. According to Van, I was ready. Then I got this cough and wasn’t able to run the 2 weeks before the race! DOH!

Teamwork

Down the mudslide

The day of the race came and we had so much fun! The first half was a lot of running and tires, tires and MORE tires. After the first real obstacle in my opinion, the mud slide, things really picked up. We had to climb walls, crawl through mud, jump into mud pits, jump over fire and so much more. It was so much fun doing it with Mike. He was definitely our anchor. He helped us guys over the big wheels and any hurdles we weren’t able to do ourselves. The teamwork was awesome. Jackie would wait for me (the weakest link on the team, btw) and take pictures of all of us. The photos are hilarious and so worth it!

Dirty, but we did it!

We rewarded ourselves (we finished the race in 54 minutes) with some Shik Do Rak, now deemed the “Meal of Gladiators”, celebrated and thanked our cheerleaders (Khoa & Bao) for coming out to support us and take pictures.

I have a feeling we will be doing this again. Can’t wait until next year!

Good job, Team!

I think my views on parenting will change the longer I do it, but the kids are a little over 2 years old now and sometimes I find myself alone in my car panicking. I’m thinking to myself, “I have no idea what I’m doing.” Usually followed by, “I’m totally going to screw them up.” And here’s the thing, Mike and I don’t plan on having any more children, so this is it…if we screw them up, we won’t even get a chance to redeem ourselves!

I never wanted to be that neurotic parent. Before I had kids, I said to myself numerous times, “I’m going to relax and just let nature take it’s course.” I definitely am not as relaxed as I thought I’d be. Sometimes, we can be our worst enemy…we want something so bad and want it to be perfect so badly, that we end up messing it up. I guess if parenting was easy, there would be no psychiatrists. :)

I wish kids just came with a manual. Just my vent for today.

I’ve always love children and had a soft spot for them, but after having children of my own, that spot just got softer if possible. We added CHOC to one of the organizations we will be donating annually to. Not sure if I ever blogged about this but Mike and I donate to 4 organizations annually around the holidays. We just pick 4 we’d like to contribute to and CHOC was never one of them before now. It’s hard to choose because everybody has a good cause, but this one touches home. Not because our kids were ever patients at CHOC, but heaven forbid of they are, we know they will be in good hands. Plus, walking this walk reminds me how lucky I am my kids are healthy and happy and we did not have to go through some of the tragedies these families we walk among did with their children.