****UPDATE ON CHEF POST!****

The week of Christmas I posted this post about how if little asian baby becomes a star chef, it would have been all because of me. Her mother. Here is an update on how she can now crack an egg, ONE HANDED no less, and all by herself!!

(all those who are disgusted and appalled my by my shameless and totally obnoxious baby bragging need not look on.)

- little asian girl

Gymboree Crew 2.0

When little asian baby was born, I decided that I would try and give her every opportunity to get ahead in life from day 1.

So that meant she would be breastfed until 21 (which oddly is currently her favorite number. Whenever some one asks her a question that needs a numerical answer she just says "21") I also made her homemade, organic baby food until she turned 1.5, which is the age in which she decided french fries, pizza and ice cream would be the only things she would eat. I tried to limit the amount of TV she watched, but Mickey and Minnie convinced me that without the Disney Junior Channel and the "Clubhouse" little asian baby would die. And I even tried extra curricular activities such as music class, gymnastics, and various mommy & me classes. 

It's safe to say that little asian baby has had a lot of opportunities to get a "jump start" on life so far in her short 2 yrs. 

(I am starting to realize that this post so far has nothing to do with the title of the post....my bad~)

Anyways, so the reason why I entitled this post "Gymboree Crew 2.0" is that at one of the mommy & me classes 1.5 years ago, I met a group of ladies with whom I am still friends with today. All of our daughters are the same age and since we live (relatively) close we have kept in touch and still have play dates once in a while. 

So here are some photos of the girls from the time we met until now. (which is about 1.5 yrs.)

Summer 2012 

Right before the girls turned 1. 

Little O is the blonde. Baby M is the brunette. Little asian baby is...well...the little asian baby.

Halloween 2012

By this time all the kids knew how to walk so taking a picture of all of them "together" was challenging. 

(I also do not know why little asian baby has no shoes on and is reaching her hands out. 

She might be asking for her shoes..who knows.)

Fall 2012 at the pumpkin patch this time. 

Little asian baby (again) has no shoe on, but at least she's wearing socks this time.

Baby M's 1st birthday party. 

Little asian baby & Little O pose for their future album cover. 

Baby M is busy being a great party hostess and entertaining guests.

Winter 2012. Play date at Little O's house. 

The kids were popping bubbles, which is what little asian baby is doing. Little O is enjoying a beverage.

The girls TODAY!!!! 

2013~

Walking, talking, acknowledging each other and even holding hands! 

(And Little O is still enjoying her beverage!)

Baby M and Little Asian Baby "playing nicely" together. 

(The reason why little asian baby looks annoyed is that Baby M was playing CORRECTLY with the toy, but just not how little asian baby wanted. Luckily, Asia didn't declare war on America and the girls continued to play nicely for the rest of the play date.) 

I can't believe how time has passed by so quickly, and the little bundles of joy we would just plop down here and there for pictures are now full fledged toddlers who we couldn't even TIE down to take pictures if we wanted. 

What a lucky little asian baby she is to still have such good friends!

-little asian girl

"We have already established that you inherited that from your father....."

FINALLY!! I'VE BEEN VINDICATED!!!!

Ok, I admit. Little asian baby did inherit A LOT of her personality traits from me.

She's picky, high maintenance, indecisive, high energy with a low tolerance for stupidity (ok, so asian baby doesn't know what "stupid" is, but she does know when people aren't doing what they're suppose to and SHE DOESN'T LIKE THAT!)

and I just realized I only listed things that me look like a cross between Mariah Carey and Anna Wintour....
so I'll list some good traits now.

She is also like me in that she's upbeat, determined, organized (she ALWAYS has to put things back in their original state..sometimes I think she has "issues") and doesn't like to hear the word "No.".... and asian husband always says it's the "korean" in her and everything that's zen, smart, lovely, and socially acceptable is the "chinese" in her. (if you haven't already figured out, I'm the korean one and hubby is the chinese one.)

Anyway, so during the Christmas break we were getting ready to go to yet another family get together, and liittle asian baby was just being a little ole' grump. She gets into these "moods" and as she was brooding from room to room as we were getting ready, asian husband uttered the sweet, sweet words that was all the Christmas I needed...

"Hey, you're naturally grumpy like papa!"

"YES! HA! YEAH!" was my natural response and reaction.

so now whenever little asian baby is grumpy and moody and asian husband tries to imply that she got that lovely trait from me, I QUICKLY and SWIFTLY say:

"We have already established that you inherited that from your father."

and we move on.

-little asian girl

" I want my daddy to help me."

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUUUUUUUUUTE!!!!!

Today little asian baby and I were painting while asian husband was relaxing on the couch. Like usual, asian baby got paint everywhere under the sun and subsequently had paint on her hands and fingers. As I grabbed a wet paper towel to start the massive 5 hours cleanup in which I would end up wearing the paint as well, she pulled away from me.

"What? What's wrong?" said I.

" I want my daddy to help me." asian baby replied with a shy but mischievous smile.

"AAAAWWWWWW!!!" asian husband and I said.

After 2 years 4 months and 25 days little asian baby FINALLY loves her daddy more than me!!

You would think that this fact would make feel a little sad.....

BUT IT DOESN'T!!

WHOO HOO! YAY!

-little asian girl

some thoughts from me! (little asian baby)

*siGh* another outing with mom.....wonder where she's taking me this time....
hope it's not to the doctor's office. I hate that place....
hope we're going some place fun.
Target?
The mall?
Papa's office?
Some place with pizza or pretzels I hope. I'm kind of getting hungry and all mamma gave me are these lame veggie chips in a plastic bag.
What's up with that?!
oh well...whatever..I think I have to potty...should I say something?
nahh..mamma will find out eventually.

-little asian baby

"Nothing bad ever happened to a man who listened to his wife!"

I thought I would start my first post of 2014 with wise words from my dear beloved grandmother.

So I haven't written about my lovely, witty, and no filter grandma in a long while. She's still the same fiery spirit she always has been and she still CONSTANTLY asks me about little asian baby #2 (not happening g-ma!) and is APPALLED....APPALLED I TELL YOU that I'm still breastfeeding!

But I love her dearly and since my grandfather passed recently, I do worry about her more than I used too.

HOWEVER.....

She does still have a lot of years left in her and she recently gave me a jewel of wisdom that reminded me once again how wonderful (and helpful) she really is to me!

I was chatting with her on the phone the other day and telling her that asian husband caught a cold and before I could say anything else she said:

"It's because he goes out wearing nothing! Tell him to put some more clothes on!"

Now asian husband is not a stripper nor does he have a fabric allergy of any kind. He just always is "hot" and usually just wears a t-shirt and jeans unless it's 32 degrees outside....then he'll throw a dress shirt over the t-shirt. woo-hoo.

So I said to my grandma:

" Grandma! I always tell him to wear more clothes, but he doesn't listen!"

And that's when she dropped this little gem.

"Nothing bad ever happened to a man who listened to his wife! Tell him that!"

PREACH IT GRANDMA!! LOVE YOU!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

-little asian girl

"MMMOOOOOMMM I HAVVEEE TOOO POOOTTTY!!!!!!"

The 5 sweet words that every mother of a toddler wants to hear.

Forget about Christmas and birthdays, the day your 2 yr old tells you BEFORE (that's important: BEFORE) they pee/poop (yes I said poop!) in their pants, on the floor, on the couch..... is the BEST day of a mother's life!!

I've been trying to potty train little asian baby since she turned 2 four months ago. I tried every method from lollipops to time-outs with no success. I've done countless hours of research, reading, and basically asked every person who already has a potty trained child about tips and tricks.

BUUUUTTTTT.....what I've come to realize is this:

" THEY'LL DO IT ON THEIR OWN WHEN THEY'RE READY!!!!!! "

Now, I know the above phrase is not true about EVERY parenting experience, but it is true about the potty training experience.

As I mentioned I've been trying to potty train little asian baby for about 4 months now. Sure, I haven't always been "on top" of the whole situation, but who & what mother of a crazy toddler has the mental capacity to take their child to the "potty" every hour just in case they have to go? Plus, I'm not a mind reader, how was I suppose to know that after sitting for 5 minutes on the potty with it "not working" (that's what asian baby says when she doesn't have to go. "It's not working mom") you would then proceed to potty on the floor the minute you hit the living room? So basically I became a quitter and gave up. However, I realized that little asian baby probably shouldn't wear diapers for all of her childhood.. PLUS another mother at my church whose son is not yet 2 yrs. already potty trained him, so to save face & not fall behind in the "mom race" I gave it another go.

This time, however, I was better prepared. Plus I had a secret weapon.
Panties.
More specially though, Dora panties.

One of the moms I consulted told me that when I'm ready to potty train little asian baby, to buy her cute panties she could wear. She told me to pick panties with a character or picture that little asian baby would like and make a big deal like "LOOOOOOK!!! YOU HAVE BIG GIRL PANTIES NOW!!! ISN'T IT SOO CUTE!!!! DON'T YOU WANT TO WEAR THEM LIKE MOM!!! AND NO MORE DIAPER!!!! YOU'RE A BIG GIRL NOW RIGHT????!!!!!!" (and yes, yes, imagine me saying all this with an overly enthusiastic, drawling, kind of annoying, child enticing tone)  so I did that. I asked little asian baby what kind of panties she would like to wear and she said "Dora panties mom". So off to the big red bullet store we went and bought "dora panties"

Now I don't know if it was the dora panties or the fact that really little asian baby was just ready. BUT IT WORKED!!!! SUCCESS!!! FANFARE AND TICKER TAPE PARADE PLEASE!!! So now at home anyways, because I'm not yet ready to venture out into the world with a diaper-less toddler I can PROUDLY say that little asian baby is potty trained. Although we did have 3 small accidents (pee only! not poop...well one poop.....) little asian baby has only pottied in the potty for about 2 weeks now.

So I'm glad and thankful that we've begun to make some progress on the potty training front. The road was definitely frustrating, messy and I did give up a few times, but what I am constantly reminded of with every adventurous parenting experience is that all kids will eventually "get there" when they're ready.

Oh, and you need A LOT of Clorox Greenworks cleaner, Lysol & paper towels handy too.

-little asian girl

" AAhhh....that's just 1st world problems."

I have a dear, dear friend of mine who is also a "little asian girl". Every once in a while you meet someone that you just "get" you know what I mean? My friend and I have a deep and dear understanding of who the other person is and I feel like other than my mother & asian husband, this friend is the only other person who really "gets" me.

And recently she helped me gain A LOT of perspective on my life and how really truly fortunate I am. It helped me get through a grumpy patch in the road and it's times like that when I truly value and appreciate her friendship.

Maybe because I live in Southern California or maybe because I live in a city with running water and waste management, but sometimes I start to feel like I'm not "keeping up with the Jones" as well as I should. I look around at my friends in their upstairs/downstairs houses and watch them buy gazillion dollar purses and think..."WHY ISN'T MY LIFE LIKE THAT???!!!"

Now. I want to be ABSOLUTELY CLEAR here. I am NOT saying that asian husband isn't a good provider by any means at all. He definitely isn't sitting on the couch, drinking a 40 while waiting for his unemployment check to come... and it's not like I'm standing on the street corner while people drive by wondering what a little asian girl is doing there.....(anymore...)

PLUS we DO own our little abode and I am fortunate enough not to have to actually go to a job everyday, because asian husband goes for us............

but I wanted to complain anyway.

So I called my friend up and started complaining.

This is basically what I said:
"OH MY LIFE IS SOO SAD! MY BANK ACCOUNT IS SAD! MY PURSE IS SAD! MY HOUSE IS SAD...LOOKING..."

This is what my friend said:
"Your life is not sad! You just have 1st world problems!"

This is what I said next:
"HUH?!"

Then she proceeded to explain. My friend is actually Cambodian. She grew up with two very hard working parents and still visits Cambodia, Thailand and other countries like that. She told me that when you visit countries like those, where plumbing is a luxury and markets are on dirt roads, fancy clothes, nice cars and houses with insulation are things that people over there can't even imagine let alone have as an everyday necessity. So she told me that complaining about "things" that I didn't have and not appreciating all that I do have is like complaining about "1st world" problems compared to how people live in 3rd world countries.

SOOOOO....I realized that I was being a spoiled, ungrateful little asian girl by complaining about everything that I didn't even need and she totally helped be turn my frown upside down! (as you can see I am also very proficient in rhyme)

Thanks friend!! Love you!

-little asian girl