Updates

Some personal updates:
-We've had some more visitors come through and it's been so fun! Really, who would've thought so many people would be able to visit. We feel blessed. :) But, we're only here for another few months or so, so book your vacation now. ;) The kids are so used to visitors (they love them, really) that they sometimes ask if anyone is coming. Haha!
-We are finally over our colds. Blech. I thought I had escaped cold season unscathed since it's already the end of March but nope, I caught something really awful just about 2 weeks ago. You know, fevers, aches, chills and general malaise. Thank goodness Kev got it later than me, so we were able to switch off. Praise God the kids got minor sniffles (though they both had some allergies symptoms already). Anyhow, we should be done, right?
-Jana has been going #2 on the potty consistently!!!! I still can't believe it, even as I'm typing. But her willingness to emulate Aidan in every aspect has paid off! :) So, I'm hoping to potty train her soon since she can pee when placed on the potty. How exciting would that be?!?! Sorry if it's TMI! :)
-In other potty training news, Aidan has had a few nights of dry diapers! That is a huge thing b/c he was wet almost every night for a while and would wake us up to change him into underwear. Yeah, it was a bit tiring. But we're hoping this dryness is not a fluke but a sign of a more mature bladder. [That just sounded really weird, eh?]
-We've been watching American Idol almost every Tuesday and I dunno, it's alright. We had liked David A. but it almost seems like he's too young for this competition. We'll see what happens...but, oh, Kimberley Locke was on last night - I really miss her season! When it was down to Reuben, Clay and her, I really couldn't pick. Ah, the memories.
-One of our friends had his cancer return recently and it was just so sad for us. His wife has been updating their blog with his progress, so please pray if you get the chance. Just reading the blog brings me so much encouragement because of how much faith they have in Him during this time. They also have 2 little ones and I don't know how I would be doing if I were her. May God be glorified!!
-We're closer and closer to moving and have started to look for housing online more regularly. Some of our friends have also given us contact info of friends they have in the area. Thanks so much! Please keep that coming - it would be so nice to already have some people to hang with when we move. :)

Floridian boba drink?!

If you're anything like me, you have those moments when you crave some boba drink - aahh, that delicious, chewy drink with the giant straw! [Ok, chewy drink sounded really weird - but you know what I mean. ;)] However, living in the Tampa Bay area, you come to find that places that serve boba are few and far between. So what to do? Welp, where there's a will, there's a way. With visitors from NJ coming every month or so, we've kindly asked them to bring some instant tapioca pearls [think: ready in 5 minutes!!] and concocted our own super easy recipe.

Floridian Boba Drink

1 cup sweetened iced tea [found almost everywhere in the South]
1/2 cup tapioca pearls, prepared according to the pkg
agave nectar or honey, to taste
half-n-half, to taste
giant straw (optional)

After the tapioca pearls have finished cooking, drain and add agave nectar (our fave sweetner of choice lately) or honey and mix well. Set aside. In a fun cup, pour in sweetened ice tea and half-n-half, to taste, and stir til mixed. Add the tapioca pearls and then insert giant straw. Slurp away!

Apple Hack ;)

Nope, it has nothing to do with Macs, sorry! :) But we just wanted to share a new way we discovered to cut apples for the kiddies with little effort and less mess. Basically, you slice around the core, making four large pieces, leaving the core a square-ish log. Then you proceed to cut the four pieces into little strips. We prefer to leave the peel on because our kids have enough molars to chew through them and not gag. But for young kids, feel free to peel the apple first. Alrighty, here's a picture of the final product:



Enjoy! :)

Our kids' recommendations

There are some books, DVDs and CDs that the kiddies have been loving lately, so I thought I would make a list here in case someone was looking for something new to read/listen/watch with their kiddies. And other ppl's recs are always welcome!!

BOOKS
Aidan's list lately:
-Joseph Had Little Overcoat by Simms Taback - A very cool book about a guy named Joseph and what happens to his overcoat. I used it to teach about recycling, too. :) The pictures are so neat and I love the cut-outs.
-And to Name Just a Few: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue by Laurie Rosenwald - We love the modern mix-media illustrations and the kids like that there's lots to look at. [FYI: There is a purple monster on the purple page but our kids didn't seemed to be phased by it.] This book really reinforces color names and mixing colors. Fun stuff!
-Patrick Paints a Picture by Saviour Pirotta - Another book about colors and mixing colors but has a guess the color componenet to it. Also takes the color palette from Nature, which is different. Aidan likes to guess the name of the colors and I've started to reinforce the Chinese words for different colors with him using this book.
-Eric Carle's A House for Hermit Crab, Walter the Baker, and Rooster's Off to See the World are some of Aidan's top pics from Mr. Carle. :)
Jana's list lately:
-Curious George and the Bunny by H.A. Rey - Jana is in love with George right and has finally develop the interest to sit through entire books! :) She likes this one because she likes to copy George and role-play what happens. It's really cute.
-Curious George's Opposites by H.A. Rey - She likes books with action so there is some in here that you can do together - even some facial expressions!
-Curious George's ABC by H.A. Rey - great intro of ABCs for Jana since she likes to find George on every page or so! :)
-Curious George: Are You Curious? by H.A. Rey - Jana likes this one because she readily identifies with people and like to explore different facial expressions. Plus, she kinda likes that he gets in trouble sometimes..hehe. ;)
-From Head to Toe by Eric Carle - Maybe's she's really into the copying thing but she loves to do all the actions in the book. :)

DVDs
The Very Hungry Caterpillar and other Stories - They did a great job animating this one!
Mister Rogers' Neighorhood: What Do You Do With the Mad That You Feel - I'll hafta admit the trolley part didn't hold their attention too well but they loved the other parts. Really great for Aidan to help him brainstorm what to do when he's mad.
Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood: A Day at the Circus - Another great one! And yes, I know, I'm so a child of the 80s! :)

MUSIC
(Don't worry - nothing too annoying for adults to like...at least for a while ;))
Putumayo Kids World Playground - I've been trying to expose the kids to international music and this is a great one to start with. Aidan tries to sing along sometimes and it's so cute to hear his interpretation of these non-English and Non-Chinese lyrics! I should really tape him!!
Putumayo Kids Dreamland - This is for the moments when I want to calm them down a bit but still play some music. I have some more Putumayo Kids CDs on hold at our local library - can't wait to check them out. They have music from so many different cultures, it's great!
Under the Shady Tree by Laurie Berkner - Some fun songs that you can't get out of your head sometimes! Don't say I didn't warn ya! :)
Family Tree by Tom Chapin - Really fun songs - kinda folksy and really clever. :)
Veggie Tales: Silly Songs with Larry - Nothing new or profound but we just love it. Aidan is working on memorizing Larry's Lines about his lips in the I Love My Lips Song. :) Haha!

There's more but, phew, that was a whole lot to type out and I'm gonna take a break. :) If you really want more, feel free to check out my older post, here. Enjoy! And I'd love to hear what your kiddies like! :)

Quick update

Looking back on my posts, it's been a while since we've updated on what's happening here. So, wanted to play a bit of catch up. :)

We're thoroughly enjoying our year here in Florida. We've had a bunch of visitors come through and it's even more fun to share some of our favorite spots with them! We're so thankful for the great weather lately, esp for some of the chilly days that remind me of spring. LOL!

On the job front, Kev found a position in the Lehigh Valley area (PA), so we'll be moving there in late June or early July, depending on when we can get everything together. If anyone knows anything about this area or have friends living up there that you would like to introduce to us, send us an email! :) We hope to make a trip up to the Northeast sometime in May to check out housing to rent. Kev is also due to take his oral boards in May (please pray!) so it'll be a busy month for us!

The kids are doing great: Aidan has been doing more and more by himself and getting better at putting on his clothes and even helping Jana out with some things. :) He has still been reading lots and doing some arts and crafts and learning cutting and pasting skills. Jana has been growing lots lately and communicating more with her Chinglish skills. ;)She's also been copying Aidan more and more, even with things like going on the potty. If this keeps up, I might be diaper duty-free for a while. Cool!! Anyhow, they're mostly getting along, aside for those, what I call, "sibling moments". Feel free to check out our online album here.

I have a feeling time will just fly by and before we know it, we'll be back up North. But what a time it's been! It has been truly a "honeymoon" period for us!

What's your story?

Just finished watching the movie "Nine Lives" - I didn't love it but it made me think. Made me think a lot. Made me realize that everyone has a story. Even the person that just cut you off in traffic has a story. Maybe their mom used to criticize their driving, so they drive a bit agressive. [Maybe they're really late for some super important. Thinking about it this way doesn't make it any better that they're driving poorly but it helps me react to them a bit differently - with more compassion, perhaps.]

Whatever those stories are, they shape you, drive you, hold you back, make you laugh, make you cry. I also got thinking that my story affects so much of who I am today, esp those negative issues that I have not yet dealt with. I guess people call that baggage, huh? And, nope, I do not want to be carrying all that around for the rest of my life. And it's so true that hurt people hurt people - I want to stop the cycle with me. Thank God that I have found Him - the one who has brought healing to my innermost being. And the good stories? Those are the ones that I relive sometimes, that I draw encouragement from, that make me stronger. Thank God for those! :)So, what's your story?

The blog entry that really made me think..

...is posted right here. Sometimes Kev and I will have this one discussion over and over, usually after midnight after we have both gone to bed: (and it goes something like this)

Me: "Honey, how did we end up going to bed after MIDNIGHT again?"
Hubby: "I'm not even sure. Time sure flies when you're on the web."
Me: "We should really cut back more on our web-surfing time, huh?"
Hubby: "Yeah, we say that a lot, huh?"
Me: "Yeah, we do, a bit too often..."

Anyhow, there's just so much on the internet these days. You wanna buy something? There' the forums to find out what is the best fit. Then there are the coupons to find to make it cheaper. But then you end up finding another great coupon and wonder if that store carries something similar. And on it goes. Then there are all these ways you can get in touch with old friends and keep in touch with them. [Plus, who doesn't like looking at pictures!! :)] There's really just so much information, that sometimes I feel like it drowns me. I find out about things I should be doing with the kiddies. Places I should visit. Things I should be doing to better my person, home management skills or to be even more "green" (AKA environmentally-conscious), etc. It really just never ends. Anyhow, all this to say, I really need to take a break and pray about what I really should be doing with my time. Because time is so precious and I can never get it back, esp. my time with the kids.

Our journey with congenital ptosis...

Aidan was born with congenital ptosis, which caused us to seek medical advice, prayers and more informal information as soon as we found out it would be a problem. But as we researched, we couldn't find much information, even on the web, so we thought we would blog a bit about our experience with it - in hopes of helping someone else. :)

Congenital ptosis simply means a droopy eyelid, usually present at birth. The pediatrician thought it might have been due to the way he was positioned in the womb and that the droopiness would correct itself. But unforunately, it did not. So, we started consulting with a pediatric ophthalmologist, who recommended that we start patching his good eye at 3 months to prevent lazy eye and to help his brain develop connections to his "little eye". So, this poor kid was patched several hours a day almost every day started at 3 month til about a week ago. The patching was helpful and there was normal development of the "little eye" but his vision wasn't 20/20. The ophthalmologist started to be concerned about his vision and recommended surgery as soon as possible.

We then searched for a pediatric ophthalmologist who still performed ptosis surgery (ours didn't) and found one that came highly recommended and was in our insurance network. This surgeon recommended a levator resection, which basically means to shorten the eyelid muscle (the levator) by removing a section of the muscle so the lid would open higher. This surgery was completed shortly before Aidan turned one. Unfortunately, this did not raise the lid high enough and we had to continue with the patching and close monitoring by the other ophthalmologist.

After Aidan turned 2, the ophthalmologist was more concerned about Aidan's eyesight after diagnosing him with astigmatism, which she feels was caused by the increased pressure of the lid on the eye. She then recommended a 2nd operation. We had wanted to put off any further surgery because after a certain age, this type of operation can be done using local anesthesia vs. general anesthesia. But as we continued to watch Aidan have more difficulty seeing things (having to lift his chin to help him see or look to the side for more clarity), we decided to go ahead with another surgery, sooner rather than later.

By the time we decided on another surgery, we had already moved down to FL and we really questioned if we would be able to find a great surgeon, since we heard most of the eye specialists were concentrated in the Northeast. However, we finally found a surgeon who did fellowships in Ophthalmology, Pediatrics, and Plastics - making him the perfect candidate to be the surgeon for our son - Dr. Steven Gross in Palm Harbor, FL! Praise the Lord!! AND, he was also in-network. We felt so relieved! Anyhow, last Wednesday was the date of the 2nd surgery and it went really well. This time around, Aidan had the frontalis transposition done. This procedure basically takes the eyelid muscle and attaches it to his eye brow muscle so that he can lift the eyelid with his brow more effectively, while still allowing him to close his eyes when he wants to. [Another resection might have lifted his lid more but might have prevented him from closing his eyes, thereby causing dry eye issues.] He recovered quickly the day of the surgery - yay! [Getting a new train from the Thomas the Tank brand also helped.] The hardest part was preventing him from his usual antics (playing with this head on the ground, rolling around, etc) and not taking him to the playground (so he wouldn't get dirt in his incision). We've also had to patch his eye during naps and nighttime sleep to prevent him from touch the incision area. But Aidan was a real trooper - I'm so proud of him! :) We didn't take any pics the day of but took some Post-op Day #3 when we finally took him out of the house - you can see pic here. We're now praying for a quick and complete healing!

And as you can see, there aren't a whole lot of articles for parents of kids with ptosis that we could find. A lot of articles were comparing procedures or describing them but most of them were written using medical jargon. We hope reading our experience was helpful for someone else. If you need more info, feel free to email me - mama4jc@gmail.com! :)

***UPDATED POST HERE. :)

How I got a free bag of Kettle Corn...

So, Saturday was Touch-A-Truck Day at the local park and we decided to bring the kids, though it was only 3 days after Aidan's surgery (more on that later). But since he bounced back to his normal "tiggerish" self shortly after his surgery and his eyelid looked pretty good, we thought we'd go for it. Plus, what other chance would kids have to be able to climb into all these different vehicles and push all the buttons and touch everything?! But I digress. Besides all the vehicles parked on the premises for this event, there were also vendors with their wares and edible items for sale. We had given the kids Kettle Corn before and they LOVED it! So, as soon as Aidan got whiff of it, he started asking for some. We are trying to cut down on expenses, so we buy it for them once in a while and we decided not to buy it this time around. We were able to distract him by pointing in the direction of some trucks, so he stopped pestering us. :) After a good half hour of immense fun, we started to hear whirring above. A helicopter was arriving for this event and they were flying it directly across the park for dramatic effect...though they definitely forgot about all the vendors below because things started flying every which way from the winds produced by the blades and the dirt was getting all stirred up, getting into everyone's faces. As the helicopter drew close, some vendors lost the umbrellas and tents that once had covered their stands. One umbrella-on-the-loose started towards Jana and I and I sidestepped that one no problem. I turned around to look at it, thinking to myself that I was so quick....then BAM! something hit me on the leg...hard enough that it knocked me to the ground. I deftly tried to fall on my hip so Jana (who is still in my arms) wouldn't get hurt. I turned around and saw the tent for the Kettle Corn stand that had just hit us head for more people. Doh! Anyhow, both Jana and I are OK. We survived unscathed, save for a humongorus bruise that was already developing on my thigh and a tender hip area. People who saw this incident immediately rushed over to check on us, including the guy who owned the Kettle Corn stand. He also rushed over with the biggest bag of Kettle Corn he had and said, "Here, take this. This is the least I can do." I managed to mumble a thank you, though I was still a bit dazed. Anyhow, I later rejoined Kev and Aidan and handed Aidan this huge bag of Kettle Corn. "Here you go," I said, "uhhh, I got you a bag of Kettle Corn." Anyhow, after I told the story to Kev and a few of our friends that were with us, we all had a good laugh. And don't worry, I'm fine - after several applications of Arnica gel (love this stuff!) and lots of prayer, I'm pretty much back to normal. The moral of the story: Always keep your eyes peeled for flying objects. :) Enjoy!

German board games after the kids go to bed?

Who would have thought that we would be playing German board games after the kids go to bed at night? Kev and I had been doing the ol' watch TV or watch a movie or surf the net after the kids go to sleep routine but it was getting a bit boring. Plus, we felt like we weren't interacting very much during these activities. So, to solve that problem, we thought "let's play some games together!". We looked at our sad assortment - Cranium, Hoopla, Apples to Apples and Boggle - and realized with just the 2 of us, we can only play Boggle. Then after a while, we were all "boggled-out", so I started to research boardgames online. [Yay, I love to do research online. Hehe.] Anyhow, long story short, I picked out some German boardgames for us to try. [I think my H.S. German teacher would be proud! :)] So far, we've purchased: Lost Cities, Carcassonne, and Battle Line. We've played the first two and found them very interesting. Lost Cities is easy to figure out and the more we play it, the more we want to play it, which is what makes a good game in our eyes. We've only played Carcassone once, but found the game concept really interesting. Anything that causes us to have to strategize and think (though not TOO hard late at night) makes it a good game, in my opinion. :) Anyhow, just about to play Battle Line, so will have to report back on that soon. How exciting!

And as with almost anything I've researched, I've found forums on this subject matter. The most active one that I've found thus far is called Boardgamegeek and they offer forums on game strategies, advice on which game to get, where to get them, and even offer pictures on what the games look like when setup. Oh, how I love forums (AKA real user advice). :) Anyhow, I'm off to a game!