Life as a Mother

my nephew Xavier:

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

i should be asleep now but wanted to share this vid of Kay using a brush as a flip-phone. Enjoy! :D

( i guess, i should just say 'my weekend' then )

hope everyone else's Thanksgiving was eventful in some way, and just a note to y'all that i'll be mailing out my Christmas cards next week! ^_^

( first time using a glycerin suppository )

now that Kay and i are pretty much over whatever ailed us in the beginning of the month, i've been taking her out more and staying out longer. although, not too long since i still have one more case to finish. its deadline is on the 23rd, so i've got about 5-6 more days to edit and tweak things before i officially have to hand it in. i finished translating the whole thing the day before yesterday and finished the first draft yesterday, so i decided to take a break today. it also helps me with my editing; i can find more mistakes if i leave it be for a day and then come back to it.

anyway, i went to run errands for hubby today, and since the place that i had to go to was near the Breeze Center, i decided to take Kay there for a bit of browsing and maybe get a few things myself. i can't remember the last time i went there, so i wasn't that surprised to find a lot of the department store had changed. i was kinda disappointed to find a couple of my fave stores had been replaced with cafes and the remaining stores that i liked had all taken out the things i liked getting there, i.e. stationery and scrapbooking stuff. :( however, i did get a head start on my Christmas shopping, so i didn't leave empty handed. :) i was actually wondering what to get hubby 'cause i just really can't shop for guys, but i found something that he might like...or not :/ usually with us, if i like it, he doesn't and vise versa. i think last year, we ended up giving each other chocolates or something edible... :P then again, he's not really into giving gifts because of some certain occasion. he prefers random acts of kindness :) i think at this rate, i'll be able to mail everything out in the beginning of December.

i was going to say "going home" but Virginia doesn't seem like home as much anymore...

i've been so busy translating (got two cases that i SHOULD be working on right now...), taking care of a feverish sick Kay, and trying to keep myself from getting sick that it totally slipped my mind: we are THINKING about making a trip back to old VA :)

note: i said THINKING and not planning, because it's just a little too early for planning right now.

our idea is to go back sometime in Spring. dunno if it's gonna be next year or the year after, but we want to come back during that time. we'll probably do what we did when we went down south to visit my sister and my nephew: split up. so i'll be taking Kay with me first and staying there for X amount of days, and then hubby'll be coming later and staying for a week.

as far as things he wants to see, he's not much for the touristy types of places. he's more into the local stuff like the library, supermarkets, etc. i personally want to go to Busch Gardens, but dunno if that'll happen with at toddler in tow.

i might be going with my sister as well, 'cause she plans on taking little Xavier back to see his grandparents, but dunno when that will be either.

so, those are all the ideas that we've thought about right now. i'll keep everyone updated as things develop.

( halloween 2009 )

( belated rabbit rabbit )

( getting sick )

and now, pics and videos...that is if you haven't already seen them on my facebook :)

( wanna know what i do almost every day? )

the series of books i've decided to get into after Harry Potter, even if it's nowhere near as good. :P

i think i left off on posting about Saturday and since we didn't get back to Taipei until Monday, ( here are the remaining two days and the rest of the week )

if you haven't been following up on facebook, here are the videos from our trip :) i'll post a link to the photos later when i have more time :)

the day started with an early breakfast and a trip to the pediatrician for baby Xavier's shots. Kay and i tagged along and were really impressed with my sister's clinic. even if it was a small clinic, it had great furnishings with rainbow benches, huge pastel lego blocks decorating the outside of the reception desk, and a big clock the wall that plays music like the sogo clock. :) we were lucky enough to see it chime at 11:00. Kay and i didn't go back with my sister and family to see Xavier get his shot, but i heard he was a brave trooper :) then it was back for lunch with her in-laws and a sleepy afternoon. apparently, everyone here takes long siestas... :P i think it might be the weather, but even i dozed off while giving her a nap...

Xavier is a very gassy baby as we found out and i've taught sis how to give him a massage to let him pass all that gas out. so far, it's working and he doesn't fuss as much, but with today's shots, he has been a bit more fussy than usual. :( poor baby...

today is my sister's mother in-law's birthday, and all of my brother in-law's relatives are going to a big party. my sister and brother in-law don't have to go, so it's just gonna be pizza and DVDs for us tonight :)

a week ago, hubby turns to me and wants to know what my sister and her family were doing for the Double Ten holiday this weekend. after i asked, she said that she didn't have any plans. he then suggested that the three of us (hubby, Kay and i) go down to visit her and see baby Xavier. i was thrilled to hear that he wanted to come along as well since he's been too busy to do any real family outings. so, after a week of planning and mediating between our family and my sister's. we finally started our trip today :)

( going separate ways is how we do things )

since mid-autumn festival (aka BBQ day)fell on a Saturday this year, a lot of people seemed to forget it even existed. also, with Taiwan trying to cut down on its CO2 levels, people are trying to be more environmentally friendly and quit the barbecuing tradition. well, some people that is...

( what an eventful and fuuuulll day... )

so today, i decided to stay home and get some rest for the both of us. mostly because both of us have gotten a wee bit sick. hopefully, the orange juice and staying in will help with that.

( this was suppose to go up on the 27th last month )

was pretty short for a trip out, but i really enjoyed it. i think i enjoyed the family time out more than i did the actual sites... :) it's funny how it's not the same feeling when you have family time at home. anyway, here's the slideshow of pics from that night :)

that is all i have time for right now...

after fiddling around with my LJ friend settings, i came across Lj's nudge a friend option. it shows how long the people on your friends list haven't posted, and it makes me wonder if LJ is just getting out of date, or is everyone just too busy to post here because facebook/twitter/personal blogs/etc. is just more convenient?

i would be one of those users listed as "last posted X weeks ago". after i joined lang-8 and started posting broken Japanese entries there, i've found myself deviating from here as well. i also don't have an hour or two to spare sometimes to post an actual entry. my days are also pretty monotonous now, so it's not like anything new is happening. although, there are some times when i'm out with Kay that i wished that i had some sort of gadget that could record my thoughts down so i wouldn't forget them. it would be awesome to have a working quick-quotes quill now, wouldn't it...? not just some replica that The Wizarding World of Harry Potter will eventually spit out as merchandise...

maybe i should start bringing a notepad with me when i go out...

anyway, this month has probably been a record low for me in posts, so maybe the notepad idea will help next month... gahh.. where did my September go...??

i don't have much time during the week to go online to do anything except check my e-mail now, but i've been trying to compose Japanese entries on my lang-8 blog. i've also been making more language exchange partners on there, so keeping up with their posts, correcting them, and trying to find a time to practice my Japanese with them on skype has been taking up most of my free time. i'll have to admit that the stuff i learned when i went to a Japanese cram school here really sunk in (yay! so i DIDN'T waste my money after all!), but i'm still pretty lost with the language. i also got a taste of talking to a real Japanese person (opposed to a student or teacher) and the pace of their Japanese was just too fast for me. sigh, guess my listening needs to really improve if i'm going to keep up. :(

Kay is also improving her Japanese through my hubby reading her books. she's recently favored a kid's song called 「むすんで、ひらいで」. it's a song that goes along with a hands and fingers game :)

( finally got time to post! )

is it even worth it to say rabbit rabbit anymore? i didn't even have time to post it on facebook :(

( mommy daycare and worries )
so, i have homework to do now:
1. figure out some way to learn Japanese well enough to function in society or at least pass the JLPT 1 to get some sort of certification...

2. figure out what i can do as a foreigner in Japan other than teach English, because i have no idea if i can even compete with other "gaijin" there...

busy much? yea... then again, not as busy as my hubby though. he's been translating non-stop for the past three days and won't be slowing down until maybe tomorrow... :( i've been keeping Kay out of the apt so that he can meet his deadlines, so it's been quite eventful indeed...

( i'm an aunt! )

( outings with Kay )

and now i end August with a pic of Kay as "Princess Dora" ^_^ he he, it's my new wallpaper now.