So remember how we were planning on throwing a big celebration for Aerin's dol? And how we had even booked a fancy schmancy banquet room for the party? Well, that went out the window...
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Claire’s 2nd Birthday:
We celebrated Claire’s second birthday with a medium-sized bash at our place. The theme of the party? Kai-Lan, of course! And since I don’t have the time to do DIY projects these days, I enlisted the help of the lovely Miriam of LimoncelloSTYLE to create this fantastic banner:
More pictures of the party to come in a future post…stay tuned!
Claire’s favorite birthday present has to be her new toy kitchen, courtesy of her halbeh. She cooks us breakfast every morning and even feeds Aerin pretend food.
Learning/Milestones:
Claire has begun speaking in semi-complex sentences, adding adjectives and even adverbs to her speech. I remember how I was so proud of her when she began speaking Korean in 3-word sentences, and when I told J about it, he replied, “So? She’s been speaking Chinese in 5-word sentences for weeks.” 👿 FINE THEN!
Claire loves fish. I mean, girlfriend has to point out every single one whenever she comes across an aquarium. As such, it came as no surprise that Finding Nemo quickly became one of her favorite movies. But as much as I love the adventurous tale of Marlin and Dory on a journey to find Nemo, I can only watch it so many times. So one day, I decided to pop in Disney's The Little Mermaid to see if this classic could serve as a substitute. At first, Claire seemed a bit bored. Then, as the songs began and I began to sing along and do interpretive dances for her, she got really into the movie and it soon became clear that she was totally digging it! (As for...
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As long-time readers can attest, I was a late bloomer. Bullies who teased me for being different, my extremely awkward teen years, and a mixture of social ineptitude and general naïveté — combined with a first boyfriend who would tell me things like, “You’d be hot if you lost some weight” — led to my having very, very low self-esteem up to my early twenties.
Then came the summer of 2001. I had just broken free of the aforementioned relationship. I joined a gym and toned up. I was finally able to develop my own sense of style and began to favor form-fitting clothes in lieu of the baggy oversized t-shirts which had hidden my figure for the first two decades of my life.
There was a moment that summer, as I looked at my reflection in the mirror, that I finally admitted to myself, “Hey, I’m not so horrible-looking.”
I can still vividly recall the very first time a guy hit on me at a bar. I had earlier noticed the handsome stranger who sat at the table next to mine, and I couldn’t believe my luck when he sauntered over and offered to buy me a drink.
He had chosen me — over all the beautiful, skinny, scantily-clad girls in the room!
I soon partnered with my best friend, who had also recently gotten out of a long-term relationship, and began to visit the bars and clubs in NYC Koreatown — where we knew we would not be carded, as we were still just shy of legal drinking age — more frequently.
Sometimes we would hit the bars 3, 4 times a week. And did I mention that my friend is a gorgeous babe who used to model? (Another reason for my low self-esteem: I have very attractive girlfriends.) I can’t remember a single time we went out — just us two — when we didn’t get approached by guys.
Soon, we grew cocky and even started going out without cash, confident that we’d find guys who would buy our drinks for us. (And we always did.)
New York Asians may remember a Korean club called MK. I’ve been to that place WAY too many times.
I would say that this was the period in my life when I felt the sexiest. I know that feeling sexy shouldn’t depend on attention from the opposite sex, but for me — a quiet, nerdy girl who had just gotten out of her shell — it did.
There's an episode of Ni Hao, Kai-Lan which revolves around Tolee's relationship with his stuffed panda bear, Pandy. In this episode, titled "Pandy's Puddle," Tolee the koala bear is utterly devastated when Pandy falls into a muddy puddle, and as a result must be separated from its owner to take a spin in the washing machine. This is the only episode of Ni Hao, Kai-Lan that Claire cannot watch. To further clarify, this is the only episode that is forbidden from being played at our house. Why, do you ask? It's because Claire relates so much to Tolee and his attachment to Pandy (see: Claire's Lovey) that she, too, gets upset when Tolee begins to miss his inanimate friend. I know that as parents, we shouldn't...
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