Sugar Rush.

Halloween was fun, but I'm glad it's over.

Too much sugar for one little girl.


Jared's is the more interesting Jack-o-lantern.


Princess Hannah. She loved her costume so much, she didn't want to wear a jacket. It's fun to take her trick-or-treating.


And No, we don't usually give Asher candy. He was given a few licks of a sucker and he LOVED it. Of course. Who wouldn't love sugar after a diet of formula and mashed vegetables.

P.S. I am wicked addicted to those small boxes of Nerds you get at Halloween time.

Baby He-Man.

Only 8 months old and he can do a chin-up.

I've never been able to do that.

Keeping Me On My Toes.

I've never been to the ER for an emergency till now.

Early in the day, last Friday, a jar fell out of the refrigerator and broke. I cleaned it up, vacuumed, mopped, and scoured the floor for remains with my hands. After all, I do have little girl bare feet and a crawling baby to think of.

Many hours later. I hear Asher in the kitchen choking on something. I rush to him and pull out a large piece of broken glass and it's bloody. My heart stops and the emergency procedures begin.

I investigate his mouth first to decide whether I take him to the ER, call 911, or wait. I can't see any additional blood coming out and he seems okay. A friend recommended calling his doctor first. The doctor said to take him to the ER immediately. So I do.

3 doctors examine his mouth and don't see anything wrong. Asher is smiling and laughing the whole time. I feel like a fool for coming.

But just in case, they x-ray his chest and throat to see if he swallowed any glass. He didn't. But the doctor said swallowing glass is serious and it was good that I brought him in. That made me feel less foolish.

The blood on the glass was from his finger. Asher got a tiny cut on his thumb. It bled on the glass before he put it in his mouth. And that was the blood I saw when I pulled it out. His mouth and throat are fine.

In the end his thumb didn't even need a band-aid.



It was a bad experience, but a good reminder that you have to watch those snoopy kids carefully. They will find, eat, and choke on anything you overlooked.

I was already a paranoid mother. It's been kicked into high gear and now all toys remotely small enough to fit inside his mouth are being thrown in the trash.

When Hannah figures that out, she won't be happy.

Thank you Liesl for being a fast friend.

Thank you Jessica for watching Hannah and lending me your car.

I feel loved.

When You Can't Go Outside... Journal.

It's been raining for 2 days.
I passed the time with my camera and 2 kids.


Hannah loves to jump in bed.


Asher can usually be found under a chair.


She likes to fill up boxes with random items.


She works hard keeping the box away from Asher.






"I want something" face.


Asher finally catches up to Hannah.


"Melt my heart" face.






She put all her random items in bed.





Hannah is a 30 pound 2 1/2 year old. She controls the mood of the house. If she's happy, then everyone else is happy (I thought it was supposed to be if Mom's happy?)

She is talking, singing, and laughing more than ever. She can sing Twinkle, ABC's, Child of God, and more all by herself. It's so sweet.

She always wants to know where Daddy is. Or Asher. Or Mommy. Even though we're right there. And when Jared goes to school she yells for a kiss and hug and opens her arms wide.

Every day she has a box or bucket that she fills with random items. Her life revolves around this container. She carries it with her everywhere. She is very possessive of it and WILL NOT share any items in the box. We are currently working on sharing her box items with Asher.

She will drag chairs around, stand on them for height, and get into mischief. She likes to "help" me do dishes. She flicks the lights on and off (there goes the electric bill). She just loves to stand on things. Including Asher.

She likes Dora the Explorer, Arthur, Kipper, and Buzz Lightyear (Toy Story). Every time we leave the house she thinks we are going to Chocolate Lake, the Tallest Mountain, Coney Island, or some other location Dora the Explorer has visited.

She's our energetic girl with a spunky personality. We love being around that girl.





Asher is 7 1/2 months old. He army crawls all over the house. He can't sit up yet. He can't pull himself up. But he can move, wiggle, and get where he wants to go.

He eats an impressive amount of food every 3 hours. I would be worried about that, but he's not fat so I allow it. The doctor said he's big for his age. Meaning, he looks like a 9 or 10 month old.

He already weighs 20 lbs. He watches us eat like a hawk. He thinks he's ready for hamburgers. It's kinda hard to eat when a baby is staring hard at you.

He is getting much better at sleeping at night now that we are letting him cry-it-out. He still takes 4 or 5 naps a day. Wahoo for Mommy.

He DOES NOT snuggle. Tear for Mommy. He likes to play with you, touch you, laugh with you, but he will not snuggle ever. Even when he's tired or drinking a bottle. It breaks my heart into a thousand-million pieces.

But he loves to be picked up and carried around, not held. There's a difference.

He is so happy. It's easy to get him to smile and laugh. It's the greatest sound in the world. He is curious about everything and tries to play with it all. He spends much of his time crawling after Hannah and the toy she just took away from him.

For fun, we all get on the bed and roll around. He always tries to dive off the bed. It's a good time and everyone is laughing... even Asher.


Every mom and dad think their kids are the cutest people ever. We are no exception. I think that's the way it's supposed to be.

I See. Therefore I Eat.

I have a hobby.

I like to try new recipes. It's an addiction really.

I see a picture of a dish, something snaps in my brain, and I just gotta make it. At times I can't get it out of my head until I do.

It started with this picture 5 years ago. I saw it in a library, snapped, and copied the recipe. I thought about it for years until I made it once I had the right tools. Chocolate Sinkholes are now a favorite of ours.


(It's as good as it looks)

Then, I saw this salad and didn't sleep well until I went back to the store and got the recipe. Psycho? Maybe.



This week I saw a picture of spring rolls wrapped with rice paper. I just had to try it. I went all the way to China Town to get the paper! Jared liked them, but I was fighting the gag reflex every time I took a bite. NOT a fan of how the paper feels in my mouth. The leftovers are still sitting in the fridge.


(Don't they look good?)

Sometimes my ridiculous obsessions don't always work out.

Jared, thanks for not thinking I'm crazy... or at least saying it out loud. It's better than my plant phase right?

Every Mom Has A Story... Now I Have Mine.

Jared is designing an exhibit for the Chicago Children's Museum. His team wanted to try some ideas out on Hannah. So I took her downtown to his school.

We rode the bus.



On the bus, she was quiet. She's never quiet on the bus. I didn't want to jinx it so I said nothing. But that little voice inside me said something is wrong, get ready.

I asked Hannah if she was going to barf. One second later a fountain of vomit spewed all over her, me, and the bus. Did I mention there were 20 people around us? Ya... all 20 got off at the next stop except the lady I begged for help. I was holding barf in my cupped hands, Hannah was crying, and the bus driver was giving me the stink eye.

Not my finest moment in life.

Well... we went to Jared's school smelling quite bad, but Hannah did a wonderful job giving them feed back on their toys.

You would think the story ends here. It doesn't.

I was not going to ride the bus home, so we took the the train. I was so busy keeping Hannah happy on the train that I missed our stop. We were whisked over 50 streets farther south (gotta love those express trains). It took us an hour to get back to our stop.

Oh, and Hannah was screaming for candy the whole time.

After days like that, you kiss your kids goodnight, sit on the couch, and eat some chocolate.

My friend's bus story.

Guilty Mom Syndrome.

I spend the entire day with my kids.



Sometimes it feels like I didn't spend any time with them. We do activities here and there, but not a significant block of time.

I feel guilty.

We go to the park and play groups regularly. But it's the one-on-one time with mom that gets lost.

I keep them busy at home so I can do dishes, clean, cook, laundry...etc. By the time they go to bed I can't think of anything important I did with them.

A friend suggested to set a timer for 20 minutes once or twice a day. During these 20 minutes I only play with my kids. I give total attention to them. We all love it.

Picture Of The Month - October

(Our back door view)

Outside our window is our neighbor's gardern.

She does all the work, but we get to enjoy it the most.

The first floor rocks.