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Claire, Cute, Funny, Motherhood, Personal

A Compilation of Claire’s Recent Funnies

Mar 23. 2012

The Nail Clipper:

Claire hates, hates, HATES getting her toenails clipped. She’s okay with us clipping her fingernails, but she has a strong aversion to our clipping her toenails…she’ll even start crying when she sees us clipping Aerin’s toenails! (I’ve tried clipping my own in front of her, making it seem like it was THE most fun and exciting thing in the world, but she still hates it. If anyone has any advice on this front, I’d love to hear it.)

The other day, I noticed that a few of her toenails were getting too long so I knew that we needed to take care of them. As expected, Claire bawled her eyes out and continued to sniff long after I was done. Since I was busy trying to cheer her up after the event, I failed to put away the nail clipper properly…and as soon as Claire felt better she got ahold of it. And before I could get it back from her, she began to shove the clipper between the couch cushions! The little booger was trying to hide it away so that I wouldn’t be able to use it in the future!

Her Stuffed Giraffe:

Earlier this week I caught Claire taking our Baby Bjorn (being small for her age, Aerin is not quite big enough to comfortably fit in the Pognae yet) out of its usual resting place. Curious to see what she would do with it, I sat back and left her alone. She struggled with it for quite some time, and only when she began to drag it to the full-length mirror in her room, picking up her giraffe on the way, did I realize that she was trying to wear her giraffe with the Baby Bjorn just as she sees me do with Aerin!

And yesterday, she placed her giraffe on the bouncer and insisted that we strap it in, just as we do with Aerin. Once it was securely strapped in, she turned on the music and vibration — once again, just like we do with Aerin.

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Parenting, Personal, Relationships

Stay-In Date Nights

Mar 19. 2012

A couple of months ago, I was making conversation with a nice, elderly lady at church. And typical of mothers who do not know each other well, we defaulted to the topic of our children.

“Just thirteen months apart? That must be tough!” she exclaimed when I told her about Claire and Aerin.

“Yes, but everyone tells me that these first couple of years will be tough, but that it will be soooo worth it after that,” I replied. “How about you? How many children do you have?”

“Four. And they were all born right after the other, which was not uncommon back in those days. At one point, we had four under five!”

My eyes bulged out from their sockets. And here I was, thinking I had it rough!

“Any tips for a new mother?” I asked.

“Just take it one day at a time. But other than that, I’m afraid I don’t have much advice. Those early years were so hard that I seemed to have blocked a big chunk of it from my memory.”

I nodded understandably. My mother too, has trouble recalling the most difficult parts of her life. She calls it biological amnesia.

“Oh! But I do like to offer up a piece of advice to all married couples!” the lady continued. “Always put your marriage first, because without it, your kids wouldn’t even exist. Take periodic breaks from your children and just enjoy each other. Be sure to have regular date nights.”

“My husband and I used to have monthly date nights. But now, even that is difficult…” I responded.

“No, that’s not good enough. In the forty years of our marriage, my husband and I had date nights every Friday night. And we’ve only missed it six times.“

And that’s when my jaw dropped.

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Comang, Personal

Goodbye, Comang

Mar 16. 2012

This is one of the most difficult posts I have ever written… 🙁

After much consideration and thought, we have decided to give away Comang, our beloved shih-tzu.

When I first became pregnant with Claire, I swore to myself that I would never become “one of those people” that give away their dogs after having children. I consider dogs — all pets, actually — part of one’s family and I still consider Comang to be J and my first child. And while it was difficult at times, we managed to successfully take care of both a baby and a dog after Claire was born. We would walk Comang with Claire in a stroller or in a carrier. We would devote our full attention to Comang once Claire was asleep. And while he would seem jealous and even a bit sad at times, we believed that this adjustment period would be temporary, and that Claire and Comang would grow up to be great friends.

Then I unexpectedly got pregnant with Aerin just 3 months after Claire was born. I had an extremely difficult pregnancy with Aerin, so Comang was forced to take the back seat more and more frequently. He began to get moody. He gained weight. And I knew that he was not nearly as happy as he was before.

Comang has been spending the majority of the time at my parents’ house since Aerin was born. And while they are glad to help take care of him, they are away from home 14 hours a day and he — a dog who loves and craves attention and interaction — became even more surly. I wanted to take him back full-time, but I can barely take care of both girls as it is…there was no way that we could add a third “child” into the mix without my going completely bonkers.

We also had to consider the fact that Aerin has extremely sensitive skin — although shih-tzus are generally hypoallergenic, all dogs carry small amounts of allergens or can pick up allergens from outside in their fur, and each specific dog within a breed may cause different allergic responses. We have never gone as far as to actually rub Comang up against Aerin, but I did notice that every time that I held her after having had some contact with him, she seemed more itchy and her eczema would flare up.

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Aerin, Claire, Parenting, Personal

1 to 2 Transition: Things We’re Doing Differently

Mar 14. 2012

Having a second child is not just twice the work. For me, and other mothers of multiple children I have spoken to, two children are triple, sometimes even quadruple the work of one kid!

With my in-laws having returned to Hong Kong, I am finally on my own in being the caretaker of a 4-month-old and a 17-month-old. Things are actually better than I had feared, but at the same time, I am completely drained by the end of each day and I tell all my friends to wait at least 2 years to have a second child if they could help it.

(For those who are wondering if we decided to get help with the kids, we want to see first if I could handle it by myself, with some help from my parents and my sister. Child care is so expensive these days and I would rather tough it out for these first few years so that we can save money for the kids’ education, starting with a good preschool for Claire which is only a year away!)

There are some things that come as a no-brainer when transitioning from one child to two. But every situation is different, and in ours, these are the changes we have made, or found ourselves making, to make our lives a bit easier.

1. Run the dishwasher.

Believe it or not, we used to barely use the dishwasher because of my OCD tendencies. This habit continued even after Claire was born, but now that time is even more limited and the extra 20 minutes washing the dishes by hand could honestly could be spent doing other things (even just sprawled out on the couch, zoning out in front of the TV), I have given in and decided that the machine will have to do.

We still wash all the baby bottles by hand, though. I haven’t quite let go on this front. 😉

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Geek in Heels
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Motherhood, Parenting, Personal

That Bastard Second Wind…

Mar 12. 2012

Any idiot can tell you that being a parent is tiring. Sometimes, I am so drained by the end of the day that every bone in my body seems to ache, every muscle sore, and I actually feel nauseous from the physical exhaustion. And at these moments, all that gets me through the next minute and all subsequent units of ever-stretching time is knowing that soon, I will be able to rest my wearied body. But once both kids are fed, bathed, and down for the night...

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