Monday, June 02, 2008

Go Shoppin'

May 28, 2008

Aaron Lee is exactly 23-mth-old.

We were both lying down for a siesta. I could hear regular breathing and thought he was already asleep when all of a sudden he jumped up and then the following conversation took place:

ACL: Mommy git up. Mommy git uuup!

Mom/slave: (huh?)

ACL: Go outside.

Mom/slave: Outside? Come on, please dude, now let's just stay in here and nap, alright?

ACL: Go outside. Aaron drive car. Ah yi's car.

Mom/slave: (jaw dropped) Uh, oh, drive car? But it's nap time! Where would you like to go?

ACL: (pause) Go shoppin.

Mom/slave: (??) What would you like to buy?

ACL: Oranges.

Mom/slave: (??) How many oranges?

ACL: Buy shop oranges.

Mom/slave: (deep sigh and still perplexed at what's taking place) Aaron, let's nap first and when we wake up, we'll check whether or not we need to buy more oranges.


He popped that cursed sour binky back into his mouth, blurted out a distorted 'okay' and promptly returned back to his pillow and drifted to sleep.

Mom/slave was in shock for the next two days.

He's talkin' alright.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

North American standard of 110-120 volts at 60 Hz

Last weekend I peed into an electric socket.

Hold off the praise for creativity, I must give credit to the bladder which was then full and lacking control. Let's not forget the properly functioning urinary tract for the powerful projectile stream.

Usually after baths I have one big session of pee after the diaper is in place. This time I managed to slither around naked longer than usual. When Mommy paused to catch her breath from chasing after me, I couldn't hold back this sudden pressure within. So when a man's gotta go, a man's gotta go. Maybe the electromagnetic field directed where I happened to aim. Fortunately I was standing on carpeted floor. During the release session, I placed my hand to catch the stream, and apparently that helped break the contact from the electric current which could've traveled up highly conductive liquid and roasted some nuts. In any case, Daddy was yelling while Mommy watched in fascination. When it was over, there was such commotion between them two grown-ups flaring at each other why I didn't have diaper on or why didn't Mommy toss me to the bathroom right away (and spray the stream everywhere within two yards?). I heard hissing and sparkling in the socket, resembling the sound of cold garlic chicken breast in contact with hot foreman grill.

The saddest part of it all? Daddy got zapped while cleaning the puddle.

So much drama for an otherwise simple pee routine.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Momma's entry - The Pooperstar

This morning in my sleep I faintly heard Aaron repeatedly saying 'chou chou', the chinese word for 'smelly' he uses to refer to poop. With eyes still shut, the maternal instinct made my body leaned over, buried my nose on his diaper-clad bottom and took a whiff. After a confirmed negative for solid biohazard materials, I flopped back onto my warm pillow and swiftly resumed previous state of consciousness.

During the next few minutes I could feel his deep eyes staring at me, flailing one hand in the air while the other clutching the expanded jumbo stuffed diaper he was wearing. I heard the exasperated 'Chou chou! Chou chou!' like someone yelling 'Fire!'. Refusing to leave my dreamy state I decided that his voice was too sweet to cause any alarm. He poked, turned me over, tried to gain my attention, and failed.

In my defense, you see, this happens every morning. He is my natural alarm clock, but it doesn't matter what time he rings it's always just a few minutes before 'he's supposed to'. Y'know what I mean? As he babbles away to his heart's content and rolling around in bed, I normally ignore his gibberish in order to catch those precious imaginary few more minutes of rest until I absolutely have to admit defeat to duty calls. In retrospect, I should have noticed that today it wasn't his usual incessant prattle, but a serious warning of an incoming storm.

So there was a sigh as he gave up, and then silence.

Anyone who has young children knows that if them kiddos aren't otherwise sleeping, silence means trouble. I took a stealthy peek and saw him frowning in deep concentration. Since he remained stationary, it was safe to leave him alone to his train of thoughts. A few 'nnngghh' sounds later, I finally stirred and turned to him. He promptly took my hand and placed a 'gift' from his morning activity while seriously gagging. In the dark I felt a tiny fleck of something sticky dropped into my palm. Visions of bug, rice, booger, hair, flashed before me. Unsure, I got up and found the both of us casualties parked in the battlefield of a war that was already over.

Son sitting in overflowing poop, that's okay, it's not unusual for him.

Organic cotton bedsheet in poop, ABSOLUTELY NOT okay. (Yeah, what motivation).

In a flash he was transported from the bed to the bathtub. Lights on, clothes off, toddler whining, action.

I keep a record of his heaviest diaper: 1.6 lbs to date (sick, right?). This round would've outscored the previous but was already destroyed beyond recognition. Too much substance has escaped that it wouldn't be an accurate reading anyway. Plus the weighing scale might suffocate from odious fume inhalation.

Moments later, as the cleaned little guy zoomed from wall to wall wagging his tail feeling light and liberated (you pup owners know what I mean), I gathered forensic evidence from this morning's natural disaster. To my delight, it was not too bad! The only unharmed survivors were the quilt blanket and Moses, Aaron's beloved puppy (they crossed the Red Sea together, get it?). The other seven victims suffered relatively minor injuries. They were promptly treated in the outpatient clinic under running tap water and soap (not anti-bacterial, please...) and promptly transported to recuperate in the washer and dryer.

Now I'm sitting here deluging in memory of gooeyness and brown battlefield, still trying to figure out the moral of the story. Maybe he's ready to be potty-trained (yess!! the mommy bragging rights!). Maybe I shouldn't have let him eat that third bowl of soba for dinner. Faintly: maybe Mommy should've responded sooner, doh. Ah, heck, let's not overthink it, it was simply another lovely refreshing morning I looked forward to spend with bubelah. As of this morning, my pride and joy has rightfully and effortlessly, outdoing his very own old man, earned the crown title of Pooperstar.

I remember singing while tending to the victims' wounds: "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine...."

Have a good weekend y'all!

Monday, September 10, 2007

Catching up!



My last post was back in dinosaur era. I'm 14.5-mth-old now. So what's happened the past three months?

- Daddy completed grad school. Woohoo!
- We moved. Ah, mommy's favorite subject. Mention this to her and you'll regret doing so. She was serious when she said that if Daddy can't find us stable residence or make us move again and again, she's leaving. Like it's Daddy's fault... On a good note, we got a much much nicer place where I can roam around happily.
- Washer and dryer in the house! Mighty liberation for my SuperDaddy! Hooray for EnergyStar appliances, caring for mother nature (and water bills). Also there is a dishwasher which we use sparingly. A note on dishwasher: either get a REALLY good one, or don't use it at all. Re-washing dishes that came out of it still dirty not only wastes time but also water and detergent.
- I started daycare at 11-months in the one-year-old class and ever since had only been runny-nose-free for about eight days total. The first two months included one URI, two ear infections, one of which lasted through three weeks.
- I got my parents sick a few times. Mommy exhausted her sick leave and vacation faster than she can accrue.
- I turned ONE YEAR OLD! Nothing much happened that day.
- I'm walking, skipping, tumbling, climbing up the stairs, dancing, drummin, drinking from a cup, spoon-feed myself, all done like a pro.
- Got my first haircut, going for the baldie-shiny look.
- Daddy's my expert super-shuttle from daycare, weaving his way through traffic to get us home. I don't mind so much the traffic since I get to nap. The worse the traffic the more sleep I get!
- After I got over my dinner-table favorite words of 'nooo' and 'moooh', I'm more willing to cooperate either by stuffing unwanted food into my diaper or calling out for the food: 'nyanya' (banana), 'bleeh' (bread), 'woah' (water), 'kah' (kix which implies dry cereal in general), 'mih' (milk), 'jus' (smoothies), etc.
- Spinach smoothies aren't bad. The spring mix smoothies are. Good thing mommy learned this quick and exclude those potent radicchios, that helped some.
- Swimming is fun, but not when I’m restricted in a big boring donut floatie. How about plunging into 60˚ algae-ridden water when the weather is a sunny 95˚? Not so much my style either. I do enjoy performing my flirtatious acts when the 15-feet hot babes radar beeps.

Yeah, so much has happened. Check out photos and videos on my online album.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Happy Birthday, Mommy! And Grandma.

April 11 was Mommy's birthday. April 12 was Grandma's. We went out to Mi Colombia for Chinese dinner with Uncle Sam. Just kiddin', of course it was Columbian food. Everyone was delighted with the experience. The food was home-goodness satisfying, fairly priced, and I was most happy to finally sit at the grown-up table.

Mommy said the food reminded her a lot of some of her favorite Indonesian food. Check out the feast we had, not including the various appetizers that disappeared quickly! Mommy had shredded beef steak, like rendang. Daddy had a giant tamale, which is like lontong but made with corn and yuca. As we were leaving, Uncle Sam said he was stuffed, that's because he had stuffed chicken breast for entrée.



We had two 'birthday cakes', one for Mommy and one for Grandma Ita. Tres leches and caramel flan. Sweet and gooey just like them.

I gave Mommy two presents exactly on her birthday: my first tooth emerged and I learned to clap my hands.






Cheers!

Friday, March 23, 2007

Sleep first or eat first?

Momma would say eat first. Sleeping can be done simulateously, because she eats a lot in her sleep, or rather in her dreams. She said that since she became pregnant with me she hasn't dreamed of food as much as before. How can she when her belly was full of me??

This is me refusing to nap before dinner, so I was dozing off towards the end of my meal. A typical active boy, momma says. At least I still ate. Won't wanna miss out on yummy tofu and kale!



There is a second part to this video on youtube. Tag: aaronclee.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Sippy cup

gulp, gulp, gulp.... aaahhhhh

*burp*


My birthday suit





I like my birthday suit best! teehehe...


Busy bee


Since New Year I haven't had time to blog because I've been keeping M&D extra busy by been achieving many milestones:
crawling - fast and furious (and far)
climbing
standing up - yes, on my feet
attemp nose-diving from the couch, bed, anything that is high above the ground
drinking out of sippy cup on my own (Mommy's most excited about this)
holding my own bottle when drinking milk
pulled hair #497 off Mommy's balding head - still counting
multi-tasking, usually involves going after my binky with one hand while the other is doing sumtin else
putting bits of cheerios into my mouth - most of them land on the floor or my hair
put on a face that makes Mommy share her food with me
show off my acts to cousin Su En live over webcam
celebrate my first Chinese New Year (ang pao galore!)
tipped Mommy's bowl of soup - after that she doesn't eat while holding me anymore
hit the shrieking note only Sarah Brightman can without being annoying
spit my binky two yards away - Mommy plans to enroll me in watermelon-seed-spitting contest
throw my spoon eight feet away - done with gusto and style
etc.

See, so much work yet so little time. I don't understand why Mommy's so tired everyday, more and more so lately. She doesn't have energy to talk to me as much as before after she comes home from work. Daddy's been exhausted too. Some days he's gone for ten, eleven hours at a time. He must be enjoying school very much.

I gotta sleep now. Need to recharge to charge again tomorrow!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

My First Airplane Trip

As you can see, I haven't posted anything in a while. That's because I've been busy crawling and exploring. Here's a post from my trip to Los Angeles, CA.

I went on my first plane ride over winter break! I got to visit LA for the very first time and I had so much fun! We went to Laguna Beach, Huntington Library, San Diego, Downtown Disney, South Coast Plaza, and a bunch of other places. It was really fun driving around because instead of the Ford Focus that Daddy reserved, they gave us a convertible red Ford Mustang! which would be great if the backseat wasn't so cramped. Daddy spent 30 minutes trying to install my car seat and was sweating like a loofah afterwards. I also started crawling for the first time because there was so much room to play, unlike our crowded apartment in Austin. I'm a pretty fast crawler now, except I can only go backwards. Overall, it was a really fun week and I hope we do this again soon!



Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Another Fun Day

From Wks 26-30 (12...
I've been having more fun going out lately, it must be because the semester's over and Daddy's more free, which makes Mommy happy, and thus all is well!
Here is a kodak moment with Mommy: sunset at Town Lake. If you click on it, you'll see more photos on my online album.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Fun Day

Yesterday Daddy and I went to the nice trail by the lake near where we live. The weather was beautiful that it's hard to believe it's winter.

I was in such a good mood that I showed my parents that I can roll over back and forth, even in my blanket to make a sushi roll! Now they have to pay extra attention that I don't roll down the bed or couch, which almost happened a few times in the past.

At night, Mommy and Daddy went to a dinner party (where Daddy stuffed himself silly with fajitas), so I get to play with Oma and Opa Dieballs. Mommy packed three diapers and she thought it would be enough for two hours, but Oma changed me three times because I wet it three times! So she sent Opa on a rescue mission to the store to buy 'diapers that has carebears on them', because the ones I have don't say what size or brand. How I love them!

Overall, I had such a fun day I slept very well at night.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

New exersaucer

My parents finally bought this cool exersaucer. It's extra special because it goes along with the safari/animal theme from my crib bedding to the baby shower. I get the best (or only) seat in the house and reign over these animals!

Aaron and Moses



This is Moses my cuddly puppy. He is Mommmy-approved because he doesn't shed and is machine-washable.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Hats hats

Over my bare head... keep me warm please.

Monday, November 06, 2006

My first poem

This is one of my buddies,
He is a rubber duckie.
His name is Blue,
Because he is blue.

He makes me laugh til I squeak,
Because when he jokes he quacks.
When we play together,
We say 'the more the merrier'!

We splash together in the tub,
We wrestle on the couch.
Sometimes I think he'll make a good grub,
Then he runs away and says 'ouch!'

This is Blue,
My buddy rubber duckie.

~ ACL's mama

My friend Calvin

My new friend Calvin Perry and his parents came to visit. He is just one day older than me and we had a great time. Yay!

Loooong weekend

Here are some photos of me: in my new favorite football shirt, with daddy and my (girly) doggy overalls, my new bath style, sleepyhead, happy to be out for a walk, with Moses the fluffy gund puppy, with Momma, with my blue bebek, and another winter outfit that makes me wonder 'hmm, all i need now is to make my room snow since i'm all dressed up for it'.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Our First Family Portraits

This past weekend was our first family portrait and what a crazy adventure that was! We drove pretty far because Daddy said that mall is not as busy as the mall down the street from us, so the wait shouldn't be very long. However, there was some crazy construction on the way and the trip ended up taking an hour. Daddy was upset because we left pretty late to begin with and when we finally got there, they told us to come back tomorrow! Boy, you could see the steam coming out from Daddy's head; I bet you could warm my bottle up real good on that blown gasket. After leaving the studio, we tried going to another studio in the mall and it was a miracle, the studio was pretty empty! So we got to take pictures and it was really fun! Here's me from last week practicing my smiling poses. How do I look?

From ACL Wks 16-20