wake up, feed the girls, take sophia to school, go to work, come home from work, eat dinner, wash dishes, give the girls a bath/bottle of milk/bed, watch a little bit of TV, shower and go to sleep (and  somewhere in between that, yell at phil and sophia).  rinse.  repeat.

 

***

 

I've been so busy with work, it's insane.  There is nothing more thrilling than to find an answer when no one was able to.   Funny part was, the outside designer wanted to hire me for such good work!  But without revealing where/who I work for, I will just say I worked on a NASCAR book.  Next project is on a famous basketball player.  I am so loving what I am doing.  I can see myself working there for the rest of my career.

 

***

 

It's finally December and I am more excited about the company holiday party.  I was told the party is very corporate and "dress to impress" was on the invite.  But I heard they go way out- inviting famous athletes to popular singers to perform at the bash (that I am not impress considering I worked in that particular industry).  The shitty part is, the party is not in NYC.  They do provide bus service, but I might just drag Phil to come with me and drive (we are allow to bring a guest, unlike the cheap-ass music industry).  In addition to yummy food, they give out great swags.  THAT is what I like to hear!  I am so there, Phil or not.

 

***

 

Olivia sported a huge bump on her forehead on Thanksgiving, compliments of my father, who was supposed to be watching her.  The bump just kept getting bigger and bigger and he just stood there for a good ten seconds before getting an ice pack.  I was so pissed.  But the real kicker was, nobody was able to console Olivia. NOBODY BUT ME.  She was passed around like a football and each time she landed in someone's arms, she bawled like mad.  When I finally got her in my arms, she clutched onto me, as if to say, "I'm never letting you go!"  I truly felt a pang going through me, like I am soley responsible for this little person (gulp).  It was a touching, special moment for me.  BTW, O's better now.

 

***

 

O knows how to wave hi/bye.  Sooo cuuuutes!

***

Update on Sophia's classmate who died in a car crash.  The mother is still in the hospital.  I'm not sure if she's conscious or not.  The father and the baby were discharged the following day.  Sam (the little boy who died) hasn't been buried yet.  I guess the family decided to wait until the mother gets better.  And obviously, no shiva yet.  Sophia still thinks Sam is hurt.  She said this to me this morning, while we were in her classroom, "Mommy, Sam has a big band-aid on him." 

 

Sigh.

They say death comes in three's.  Whoever said it, sure hit it on the nail.  It happened to me within two weeks span.  First, Gerald Levert (Elektra artist) died of a heart attack.  Then my friend, Seong, his father passed away of a stroke he never recovered from years ago.  And yesterday, Sophia's classmate, Sam G, died in a tragic car crash in Upstate NY.  He was almost three years old.  (There are two Sam's in the class, so they are also known by their last initial name.)

 

The little boy had a full head of red, curly hair.  When I wasn't working at the time and would pick Sophia up from school, we would see him in the lobby getting ready to leave with his baby brother Nico and mom.  Sophia would always ask me, "Mommy, where is Sam G. going?"  I would reply, "Sophia, I don't know.  I'm not Sam G.  Go ask him."  Sometimes if I got to school early (which is rare), I would see his father and Nico in the hallway, waiting for the classroom door to open.  Sam was so playful, chatty and friendly with me.  And so adorably cute.  I know I will miss seeing his smiling face. 

 

I tried to explain to Sophia that Sam won't be coming back to school anymore.  And he had gotten very hurt.  All she could say is her usual why's.  She pondered for a bit and said in her matter-of-fact voice, "Don't worry Mommy.  Sam G. will get better."  That comment just left a lump in my throat.  How do I explain to a 3.5 year old that Sam died in a car crash?  I don't think I could.  Not at this age.

 

On that note, be thankful for your family and friends this Thanksgiving.  Be thankful for your health.  Give big hugs and extra kisses to your loved ones tonight. 

It turned out I had a bit of TMJ and my primary care doc prescribed me some pills (I feel better already).  The shitty ass dentist office never returned my call.  Figures.  I've been grinding my teeth for a long time.  It would even wake Phil up from his deep sleep (and almost nothing can stir him).  Now I notice Sophia grinds her teeth too!  Ack.  And to make matters worse, I don't wear a mouth guard.  It is so uncomfortable, but I might need to suck it up and wear it.

 

This morning, we bought Miele vacuum cleaner.  HOLY SHIT.  THAT SUCKER IS AWESOME.  Because we have carpet, we are more susceptible to having more dust.  The vacuum cleaner's bag was filled almost to the max.  It was so disgusting!  Our cheap ass Hoover vacuum cleaner never picked up that many things off our carpet.  There is one thing I didn't like.  On the handle you have a tendency to accidentally turn the machine off, there is no "lock" button.  For a vacuum to cost over $1000, I have to admit it is well worth it. 

I woke up super early this morning with a dull ache in the back of my mouth.  I pressed down on my gums and teeth and it's not there.  The ache is coming from somewhere back where my jaw is since it's painful to fully open my mouth.  I'm assuming it's an infection.  I'm thinking I should see a dentist, not my primary care physician 'cuz how is he supposed to know what the problem is if it's in my jaw?  It's not like my PCP has an X-Ray machine hooked up in his office.  Phil thinks I should see the latter.  I don't get that concept.  To make matters worse, Phil dental plan MOTHERFUCKING SUCKS.  I wish I could go see my old dentist (the one I had when I was working at Elektra).  That dentist office rocks.  I never had to make a two months in advance cleaning appointment.  Ridiculous.  Anyhows, I left a message at the shitty ass dentist office in midtown. 

 

My sister Judy and her hubby Rolly are off on another adventure, this time in Mexico.  Read her request:

 

we're heading to mexico for a few weeks during the xmas holidays.  if
you've been, i could use all the help i can get on any advice/tips! we're flying to cancun but i don't plan to spend a single penny on that highly commericalized garbage spot.  sorry cancun lovers...got a little carried away there...  but anyway - first port of call is isla mujeres to visit a cousin, afterwards, i'm debating on whether to go north of or south of cancun.  anyone ever camp out there?  ever rent a car?  

 

Readers- if you have any suggestions, feel free to shoot her an e-mail at jujee5@gmail.com

 

Cheers

I know, I know.  Ever since I started working, I just don't have enough downtime for me, which means, blogging must wait and TV equals Calgon, my haven and place to zone out.  Plus I've been addicted to those silly ass lame Korean drama series on TV once again.  Without furthur ado...

 

I'm kinda like the admin iperson n the department.  I handle invoices, I handle transcripts, I handle the scheduling spreadsheet, I handle research.  What I don't handle is PHONE LINES.  I am NO ONE'S bitch ass assistant, which is sooo relieving.  The shit part is, some of the directors are so unorganized, they can't even keep their deadlines straight.  Therefore, they never seem to have any work for me because they are too busy hunched over their screen typing away.   Oh, and I made a friend in the sandbox- I overheard two guys in my department discussing AC/DC and I chimed in and offered to bring my CD in to share.  And I am sooo looking forward to attending a holiday party!

 

Lately the nanny has had trouble putting Olivia down for a nap.  The kid just doesn't want to nap!  She would fool around in her crib for over an hour and just refuse to doze off.  Sophia was NOTHING like that.  I would give her a pacifier and boom, she would sleep.  This kid will not listen!  Oh boy.  Looks like we're gonna have a handful when she gets older.  I already feel the blood rising through my veins already.

 

She now has four teeth on top, almost three on the bottom (maybe that's why she doesn't want to nap).  Pediatrician says she's in the 90% percentile in the height category, but I just don't see it.  She's got short, stubby lil legs (like the gai bei- chicken leg) that I wanna gnaw on.  As for weight, pediatrician said she's in the 50% percentile, which I also find it shocking.  I think she's chunkier than Sophia was!

 

Olivia has been holding onto anything and standing on her own for about a few seconds before falling to the ground (or bed).  I have a funny feeling she will learn how to walk around her 1st birthday.  Again, unlike Sophia, who didn't learn until she was about 15 months old.  Amazing how different these two are.

 

We still don't know why she's not better.  Infact, this past weekend, her voice changed and it sounded like she was losing her voice.  Phil and I are pretty much convinced it's the weather that's making her sick because fall season hasn't been much of fall weather.  She's off the nebulizer, but now taking Zyrtec and Nasonex.  I still see no changes.  Let's hope when the weather gets below 50 degrees, this mysterious ailment will disappear.  We're also looking to purchasing a toddler bed.  Maybe it's our carpet.  Maybe it's the futon she's sleeping on.  We just don't know. 

 

Phil and I attended a public school workshop earlier this week.  The NYC public school officials discussed this new application procedure for the gifted and talented classes for the incoming kindergarteners and it's causing many parents to freak the fuck out.  The test is based on two-thirds of one-on-one with the child and proctor, who will test the child with problem solving, puzzles, patterns and various cognitive skills.  The other one-third is based on the child's teacher review in their nursery/daycare school.  Now, if your child is home-schooled, you basically can't write a biased report on them, so you're kinda fucked.  Officials aren't really sure how they will substitute the one-third for the home-schooled children, which is so fucked up.  I'm really glad we went to the meeting considering it doesn't apply to us yet. 

 

We are looking into putting Sophia in pre-k public schools versus paying for it.  The actual application process won't happen until March, but we have some idea of where we would like her to go.  And it's important to find the school we/she likes for pre-k because that way we have a spot for her when she is in K.  I'm not too worried about getting her in the gifted and talented class.  She makes it in, great.  She doesn't, she doesn't.  No big deal. 

 

Oh, and our vacuum cleaner totally wiped out.  Anyone have an account with Consumer Reports that I can borrow to see which vacuum cleaners they reviewed?  We're looking to purchase the canister ones, so it can reach underneath our bed and couch.

After talking to my friend May and her daughter's allergies, I felt somewhat better but still frustrated by Sophia's health problems (THANK YOU FOR THE CALL MAY!).  Right now, we're eliminating all the foods she's allergic to and slowly test each and every single one to see if she has a bad reaction to them.  We also have to be extra diligent about reading the food labels which is really annoying- half of the stuff that's in the product is hard to understand! 

 

I never realized soy is in almost every food product- hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP), lecithin, miso, mono-diglyceride, MSG, soy oil, soy protein, soy sauce (we're Asian, how do we exclude this from our meals!), tofu, vegetable oil (yes, it says veggie, but it's a generic term for soy oil or blends), vegetable protein (same as oil), vitamin E.  SO WHAT THE FUCK DO I FEED HER???  Matzoh crackers?

 

In addition to cutting out the foods she's allergic to, she's decided to go on strike and not eat pork, chicken and Chinese veggies.  I have to constantly scream, yell, punish and threaten her to eat every frickin' meal.  It's ridiculous!  Every meal is a frickin' battle.  Even breakfast is a bloody chore.  It takes her at least an hour to finish drinking her 8oz milk!

 

 

We're attending a workshop next week- they'll be discussing the admission process on the gifted classes.  And we have another school tour to attend.  And probably in a few months, she will be interviewed to see if she qualifies for the gifted program.  So many choices nowadays.  I remember as a kid, we were plonked at our zone school.  There were no options.

 

Everything is so complicated these days.

Yesterday, Sophia and I went back to her allergist doctor.  Guess what?  In addition to being allergic to cacao, soy, lobster, salmon, fish mix, almond, she is ALSO allergic to cherry, coconut, eggs, mustard, oat, pineapple AND watermelon.  HOLY FUCKING MOTHER OF...argh.  It's just unbelievable.  She'll have to get a blood test to double check to see if she's allergic to all of the above AND milk.  On a brighter note, at least now we know what's causing the problem with her stomach problems, post nasal drip AND coughing.  And at least it's not life threatening like peanuts. 

 

Also, on Friday we went to see the ENT (ears, nose and throat) specialist doctor.  She said Sophia could also be having a reflux.  So now she's taking a total of three medications, Zantac for the reflux, Nasonex for her post nasal drip and Pulmicort Respules (an inhaler used through a nebulizer).  This is just fucking insane!

 

I think the next step is to see a pediatric gastroenterologist because I just did a search on google on reflux/allergy and I came up with this medical term called eosinophilic esophagitis.  She does have many of the symptoms (excluding diarrhea and vomiting).  Hmm, I wonder if she does fall into this catergory.  Well, I won't know until I make an appointment. 

 

Sigh.  It's no wonder I'm stressed out to the max.

 

Oh, on a side note: 

 

Today in the office, I had nothing to do.  So I was messing around with my iMac and turned on iTunes.  I can't help it.  After working in the music biz for so long, I need to listen to music while working.  The guy who sits in front of me in the cubicle asks if the music was coming from my computer and I replied yes.  I asked if he would like me to lower the volume (IT WASN'T EVEN LOUD) and he answered if I would please do so.  I complied.  In my head, I was thinking he has no taste in music since I was listening to Radiohead.  And do you know what he did a half hour later?  He was tossing a FUCKING FOOTBALL over my head to another guy in the office.  What a dickhead.

Last night, a small group of EEG'ers (Dave, Sherry, Brian, John, Jonathan, Camille, Joey) gathered to toast Sam and to his new life.  It was held at the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden in Astoria.  Brian had thrown an EEG reunion party a few years back, so I knew how to get there by car (also, Phil and I are frequent eaters at Uncle Geoge's restaurant).  Despite being stuck in traffic (on a Friday night nonetheless) for 45 minutes, I managed to catch up with everyone and had a fabulous time.  Those kielbasas were hot damn delicious!

 

This one is my favorite stories of Sam:

 

Sam stuck teeny tiny stickers onto Jeff's monitor (they were officemates).  Jeff had no idea who had done it, but assumed it was me.  For months, Jeff left on the monitor thinking I put them up there and one day out of the blue, he asked me about it and I vehemently denied it was me.  Jeff figured it out it was Sam being cute and all.  The next day, the stickers came down.

 

Weird note:

When I got there, there was a security person handling the guest list.  He insisted on going by my first name even though it was alphabetized by last name (oh, and before he took my name, he was constantly grabbing his crotch, gross, reminded me of someone at EEG, was he in a costume???).

Since 1996, Phil has ran the NY Marathon four times.  That is a total of almost 105 miles, not including training.  Admirable, but I call that insane.  Yet every year he tries to convince me to run it with him.  I can only manage no more than five miles!

 

Anyhows, last year he was scheduled to run, but had to give up his number because of an illness from work.  He went to the marathon expo to check out the latest running gear and gadgets.  He came back with a shitload of free goods!  I wanted to take a peek too, so this year I decided to go with him since I needed new running gears for myself. 

 

It was held at the Jacob Javits Center on 34th Street and 11th Avenue.  The marathon expo was great!  So many freebies.  So many new gadgets to play with.  So many coupons (which will lead us to free eats this weekend).  So many power drinks to taste (they even had a Coors Lite stand set up!).  Best part is, I love seeing so many international faces.  It just gives me goosebumps that so many different nationalities will all be in NYC, partying it up. 

 

Lots of luck to those who will be running.  Maybe next year Phil will be healthy enough to be back on track so we can all root 26.2 miles with him.

 

Incase you haven't noticed I added a new page, check it out.  It's located on the left sidebar of my homepage called "What Is In Sophia's Bento Box Today?".