The Im Family

this morning mimi while mimi was polishing off some scrambled eggs and sausage for breakfast, i washed some fresh strawberries and set them on the table next to her plate then went off to feed ozzy his rice cereal. mimi says, "Mom? what are these strawberries for?" "i washed them for you," i told her. "oh! well, aren't you sweet," she says to me , like someone's grandmother might speak to a young child. i half expected her to pull out a stale piece of candy from a gigantic purse and pat me on the back of my hand.

since turning 8 months old this week, Ozzy has been doing so many things, all in a matter of a few days! he's been clapping, signing "more" for more baby puffs, has gotten really good at covering and uncovering his face with a blanket to play peek-a-boo with us, making the 'nah nah' sound, and the most exciting thing is that he's recently added 'mama' to his repertoire of babbling sounds. he'll say it when he's cranky, and then when i run over to him, all excited, and say ' mama ' back to him and he looks at me, beams at me with his two tooth grin, looks straight into my eyes and goes, " dada ". " no no no, say 'mama'. maaaaaa maaaaa. mamamamama! " i implore encouragingly, (oh okay, more like demandingly). and he looks at me silently for a second, soundlessly moving his mouth, and then goes, " dada ." after several minutes of this, i know what i must do. like a kubrickian madman i make him ...

this past monday, i was on the phone with my mom and she says in her know it all way, i'll bet ozzy is clapping now, isnt he? no, mom , i say in a voice that is like, geez you dont know anything, he just turned 8 months this week! he probably wont be able to clap until he's like 10 or 11 months! duh! after i got off the phone with her, i was playing on the floor with ozzy and when i cheered at him with a cheery drawn out "YAY!" he cheers back and starts patting the air and then STARTS CLAPPING. yeah, i didnt call my mom back to tell her she was right.

i recently bought some items from a friend's online baby goods store called SweetSassy and just had to blog about how cute everything is. they are two sisters who make loads of goodies for babies and mommies. here's mimi wearing one of the crocheted hats with a satin bow. how cute are these??? i also bought a nursing cover for a friend who was having a baby shower. it's like this one, but in a different print. they have a few different options to choose from on their site. i am going to have to get myself one of these nursing covers, the one i have already is a bit too cumbersome to maneuver. i have a few more people to buy gifts for so i will no doubt be back for more shopping!

ozzy is 8 months old today. heres what he's doing now: *he refuses to lay still for diaper changes, so it's a test of how fast i can change him. sometimes i'll let him go diaperless to air out and let him play in the kitchen so any accidents are easy to clean up since we have carpets in the main living areas. but i have to be on constant watch because he is EVERYWHERE, opening cabinets and drawers, pulling himself up on chairs and walls, and picking up every tiny little thing off the floor to put in his mouth. *he's amped up his crawling and cruising speed. *every now and then i'll catch him standing on his own w/out holding onto anything for 2 seconds. then his middle gets all wobbly and he grabs something to steady himself. *starting to exhibit some separation anxiety. gets very cranky when i am not physically near him, but still within visual range. *has started to 'wave' at people. he puts his hand up in the air and flexes his fingers. he likes to...

this morning as i was trying to get mimi and ozzy ready to leave the house, i found myself repeating myself over and again, mimi put on your socks. mimi, put on your socks. mimi! put on your...i'm getting really irritated with you! mimi looks at me innocently and says, "what's irritated mean?" glaring at her, i grumbed out the meaning to her through tight angry lips and then follow that with more grumbling about how we were going to be late for school again and even as i make my way to the car i'm still grumbling...doing the very thing i always hated that my mom would do. once she decided to be mad about something she carried on and on about it with no end in sight. when i realized i was doing this, i forced myself to snap out of it. got the kids in the car and as we are driving to school, mimi said something to me, which i can't remember now, but i do remembering calling her 'honey' and she got all upset with me and said, "i'm not HONEY!...

i hate that stereotype. there's a video that has been getting forwarded in emails not so long ago of various asian women running into things with their cars and i remember being incensed at being lumped w/those women just because i'm asian and female. then today, it happened to me. luckily there was no one with a camera around to take footage of it or else i'm sure i would have made it onto AFV or some youtube montage. i blame my lack of awareness on the time change (daylight savings). i swear i once read somewhere that the monday following daylight savings is the day there's the most traffic accidents. i was so tired this morning, unable to really adjust to the change in time, finding myself asleep while sitting with Ozzy and snapping awake feeling out of sorts and realizing with consternation that i had lost awareness of where Ozzy was. and then later that day, struggling to make it out the door in under 3 hours... Rob will no doubt be shaking his head when he reads t...

when Mimi watches t.v., she normally watches commercial free stations like Sprout and Noggin, so it's rare that she ever sees any commercials...which is nice because i seldom have to hear the 'gimmie's when we're home and the t.v. is on. recently i started to record some of the movies they play on toon disney, which is fraught with commercials for toys, home products, etc. while watching a movie today, a commercial comes on for the Snuggie. mimi yells out: "mom! i want that! can i get the Snuggie?" "why do you want the Snuggie?" i asked her. "so i can give it to you, mom. that way you dont have to use that old blanket that doesnt have any sleeves. and it's available in THREE COLORS!" she shrieks, in a way that suggests that she just unearthed the greatest discovery of her young life. oh boy. i hope she doesnt catch the ShamWow! commercial.

not 5 minutes after the last guest left from mimi's 4th birthday party, last year, did mimi tell me, "that was so much fun, mom. do you know what i want to do for my five birthday party? a crown craft party." 'a what? what's that?" "everyone gets to make a crown." "hmm. sounds like fun, but do you think the boys will like to do that too?' "sure. everyone will LOVE it, mom." riiiiight...well, i thought, it's still 365 days away from now, maybe she'll change her mind, or so i hoped. the idea of a crown craft party just didnt sound like something i wanted to get into. but she held firm to the idea for 10 months, speaking several times about it like it was a done deal. i kept throwing other ideas at her, but she shot down every one, insisting that her fifth (or as she called it her 'five birthday') birthday should be spent making crowns and that everyone at the school had to be invited. oy! after calling aroun...