Blowing nose

I've been trying to teach Austin how to blow his nose since the last time he had a runny nose (I think he's ready to figure out blowing out of his nose and this will hopefully reduce how hard I have to squeeze and wipe his nose when it's runny). He can kind of blow when I tell him to blow his nose, but I can't always tell if he's blowing out of his nose or his mouth.

I tell him, "let's blow your nose." He gets prepared and blows as I blow out of my nose too.

Tonight, I pulled out two pieces of tissue so I could wipe his nose. I left one on the floor next to us and had him blow his nose with the other one. He picked up the extra one so I asked him, "are you going to blow your nose?" He put the tissue up to his nose and blew his nose. Then, he walked out of his room into the hallway and blew his nose again. He blew and wiped his own nose about four times before coming back into his room. Then, I said, "let's throw it away in the kitchen." So we went into the kitchen and he threw the tissues into the trash can.

He talks about "poo-poo" and "potty" every so often. It seems like he knows when he needs to go. Tonight he said it at dinner and by the end of dinner he had a poopy diaper. Now, when he is talking about "poo poo" and "potty," I ask him, "do you need to go poo poo" or "do you want to go to the potty" He smiles and says "no." But, tonight before bedtime, he decided to walk into the bathroom and sit on the potty.

My Return

Over Memorial Day Weekend I played in the Tiger's Tournament (My return to basketball after a 2+ year break). It approached very fast and I was pretty nervous, being out of shape and out of practice. My limited training included a jog last Saturday morning and shooting around in our backyard a couple of times during the week. It wasn't really enough, but it helped a little. The first game was the hardest for me to get going. I was winded pretty quickly and was definitely drained and a little light headed by the end. Afterward, my ankle muscles were very tired and sore. On Sunday, we headed back to Pasadena for game 2. We had to take side streets through downtown to avoid traffic and I made it just in time. Even without time for a warm up, I felt much better moving around and running. I was pretty tired on Monday, but felt better than the first game. We played for championship but took second place. After playing for so many years, it was fundamentally easy to get back in the game, unfortunately, my body isn't always able to keep up with what my mind wants it to do. And, everytime I came out of the game Willis came over and said Austin was calling for me when I was in the game. Austin kept wanting to sit in my lap whenever I came out.

I enjoyed the chance to play again. With my three games in three days over, my sorest muscles are still my ankles. My back, forearms and thighs are only slightly sore.

It was great to see my teammates and the three little kiddies in our cheering section. I'll have to get the picture Willis took of them and post it. (Austin (20 mo), Jalen (11 mo) and Katie (9 mo))

After game 2, we let Austin roam around because I wanted a picture of this funky palm tree at PCC. Here he is throwing his basketball, which I captured in midair.


I wouldn't let Austin step up onto the concrete edge of this stream so he sat down on it instead and spun himself around so he could see the water.

Reusable bottles

Austin loves my new reusable water bottles. We found these colorful bottles at Costco, such a great deal for three (the red, orange and blue ones). They will help me save money and be more green by buying less disposable bottles. I filled all three of them to take to my basketball game and put them on the table. Later, I walked by and said, "Hey, who put these on the floor!" I guess when no one was around Austin decided to check out the bottles and neatly moved all three of them to the floor. I can't hide things on tables to keep them from him anymore. (In the picture above, he brought all of the bottles to this table from another table, all by himself) This morning when I was ready to change his diaper he was pointing to the top of his dresser asking for "bottle" but he didn't want any of the bottles that were up there. I thought he wanted the Arrowhead bottle he was playing with yesterday so I asked him if he wanted the water bottle, he said "yes." We walked out of his room and I said, "okay, show me what bottle." I pointed at the Arrowhead bottles but he reached up on the table instead and, with a big smile, pulled off the red reusable bottle. It wasn't even upright, it had fallen over and my purse was partially on top of it, but he knew it was there. :)



Austin pulled this baggie of crackers out of his bag of snacks. He opened the baggie and decided to transfer some from the package into the baggie. Then, he squeezed the air out of the baggie to try to seal it.

More dialogue

Austin and his buddy, Brad, having fun in the cars. Without a word, the two simultaneously did what they did in the second pic, then got right back out again. Silly boys!


Austin's class sitting and listening to Ms. Ashlie singing and clapping while they wait for the other teachers to cover the sandbox before heading inside.

I am excited about Austin's language and speech development. We don't understand each other 100% of the time, but at least he can understand most things and he can tell us things now too.

Some of our dialogue on the ride home yesterday:
Austin: Guckk
Me: Do you see a truck?
Austin: Guckk
Me: Truck?
Austin: No, guckk
Me: Ohh, do you want your cloth?
Austin: Yethh! (giggle)

He loves his cloth so much, it brings him comfort and makes him so happy. I usually have one in my bag so when he sees my purse he tries to open it to get a cloth. But, he's pretty good during the day at day care when it is put away but he usually asks for it when I pick him up.

He continues to repeat words, new ones every day, a lot of times he only says the tail end of a word. He still prefers to start words with a consonant, usually "b" or "d." (with the exception of a few words, like "up") He also says "No, mama" when he doesn't want me to do something.

Some new words:
together = geder
tofu = fu

Other words:
Austin = Dastin
outside = zouside
apple = bapple
Abby = Babby
aunty = dante
(he usually says "dante," but tonight he repeated "aunty" four different ways, including a new one, "zassy")

Eye drops

Willis stayed home with Austin again for the morning. He called me at work to see if I moved the eye drop bottle from where he left it. (I heard Austin say "morning" in the background) Willis was giving the eye drops so I didn't even see the bottle. He was looking all over for it. Eventually, he called back and said he found the eye drop bottle... It was tightly hidden in Austin's hand. Apparently, Willis left it on Austin's dresser within reach of the crib and Austin must have nabbed it when he woke up this morning.

It's been a while since the last time he had conjunctivitis and needed eye drops, but it's much harder this time. We have to hold him down and he squeezes his eyes shut as tightly as possible while crying. I went home at lunch so Willis could go to work for a meeting. I got two drops on each eye and just needed him to open his eyes a crack for the drops to go in. I think it worked for the right, but I think the left might have gotten watered down with tears and dripped away. But, at that point it had been the required 24 hours since the start of his eye drops so I was able to take him to see his friends at day care. He was excited. We ate lunch at home and got there just in time for his nap. Unfortunately, he missed water play this morning, but he'll have fun playing with his buddies outside this afternoon.

I just discovered today that Austin is learning to spell his name. When we were in Hawaii I pointed to the label with his name and I asked him what it said, he said, "Dastin." I asked him a couple more times and he answered the same, but I thought it might have been a coincidence. Today I wrote his name on his apple sauce then pointed and said each letter for him. At the end, he said, "Dastin." I thought, "Wow! Does he really know how to read or spell his name?" So, I said, "Let's spell your name" and we spelled it out loud.

Austin: A (He started first)
Me: A
Me: U
Austin: T
Me: S
Austin: S
Me: T
Austin: T
Me: I
Austin: I
Austin: N
Me: N!
Me: Austin
Austin: Dastin

Maybe I should start teaching him his last name.

Bess Yoo

Willis sneezes every so often and Austin has started repeating "bess yoo" (bless you) when I say it. Then he repeats "dank yoo" when Willis says "thank you" and I tell him to say "you're welcome."

Bless you = bess yoo
Thank you = dank yoo
You're welcome = wehcome
Okay dokey = gokey

Austin stayed home today because his day care wanted him to be checked for conjunctivitis. We got him a last minute appointment with his doctor so Willis stayed home with him and took him at 11:30 am. This time it really was conjunctivitis so he has to have eye drops (I'm just glad that his ears are okay since conjunctivitis often goes along with ear infections). I guess it's very mild because I didn't notice his eyes being red and are only minimally crusty, and not even all the time. I'm hoping he won't rub his eyes and spread it. I've been scolding him when he rubs his eyes so now he reaches for his eyes, pauses before touching his eyes and looks at me. I tell him not to rub so he ends up touching his hair or head instead.

We had another earthquake today, a 3.9 magnitude, centered not far from our house near the same location as the last earthquake.

Shark Summer Preview

We went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach last night for the member's only Shark Summer Preview night. This is the first member event we attended and we really enjoyed it. It was much less crowded than the average weekend day and there was live music. There were also craft activities and movies, but those were better suited for older kids.

We made it there early and Austin watched the fishes swim around in the holding area. Once they let us in the aquarium, we headed straight for the cafe for dinner. We made it just in time to beat the crowd. It's so nice that we can order food for Austin at a restaurant instead of having to take his whole meal with us. I'm still usually carrying a cooler bag around though since I still like to take his whole milk.

After dinner we headed outside to the shark lagoon. Austin went straight for the boat in the play area and played there for a little while. We looked at the sharks and rays in the tanks. Austin watched the sharks swim around, but was more excited to go back to the boat. All of the kids wanted to play with the steering wheel and the bigger kids mostly pushed him to the side. He waited patiently for his opportunity to spin the wheel.

The little girl in the picture above was steering for quite a while and kept talking to Austin. After a while she put her arm around him to push him toward the dials, I heard her say something about pushing it for an elevator. I think she was trying to get him to stop reaching for the wheel. Austin never got upset, he had a blast watching all the bigger kids play and run around. At one point a boy picked up something from the ground and tossed it out of the boat, Austin then mimicked him by doing the same thing with an imaginary object. Such a funny guy. When the steering wheel was finally available, Austin got a couple of good spins before he moved on. I guess he just wanted his turn to try it out.

We walked through some exhibits inside and Austin danced to the live music. Before we left, the shark mascot came by to see the kids but Austin was shy and hid his face in my shoulder.

Puffins and an eel with the fishes.

On our way out we stopped at the gift shop. We were looking at t-shirts and I was wondering why the ground felt like it was shaking. Then, all of a sudden the building started shaking. It was an earthquake! I immediately looked for somewhere safe but the ground stopped moving. Half of the people in the shop left right away. The walls of windows surrounding the gift shop made me a little nervous.

Austin playing with the truck he picked out at the gift shop.

It turns out the earthquake was a 4.7 magnitude centered within miles of our house. No damage at our house except for a little bit of debris on the floor from the ceiling. There were a number of aftershocks and we may have felt one, but they were all very light.

2009 MPCC Bazaar

It was a hot, sunny day at the annual MPCC Bazaar yesterday. We spent the day there and Willis and I worked our regular shifts in the Teriyaki booth. There were a few changes to the set-up, it changes a little every year due to the inspections and new regulations. This year, I like the new screened tent around the teriyaki booth, the nicer signs, the eating tables outdoors (although the tables were still too close together) and the stage outdoors so it's easier to see the performances. Austin enjoyed all of the good food and ate almost a whole spam musubi all by himself. He took it from me and kept taking bites out of it.

In the photo above, Austin is watching a boy play the basketball shooting game. (He looks so little watching all the big kids. He is a little too young for the games this year but he had fun walking up and down the ramp and watching. Someone who was leaving gave us their leftover prize tickets so Austin got a couple of prizes.)

20 months

Austin is 20 months old! He's growing so quickly, getting heavier and is very active. He can now run, kick a ball, jump (actually getting both feet off the ground) walk up and down stairs without holding on, and throw a ball (one hand, two hands or overhand). He's able to communicate what he wants pretty clearly and is saying new words every day. I can see now that even though he couldn't tell us before, he's been listening. It was such a benefit that he learned sign language early on and has probably reduced a lot of frustration between him and us. He seems to really enjoy talking and continues to slowly drop his sign language for speaking the words instead. He's pretty good at understanding when he can't have something. It occasionally results in crying, especially if he's tired, but I explain it to him and sometimes have to leave him by himself for him to calm down. He makes me very proud by what a good listener he is and how well he can follow directions. :)

An evening out

We had a fun family evening out last night. We had delicious Peruvian food at El Pollo Inka where we dined to live music, then we went to take a walk at Hermosa Beach Pier. Willis found awesome parking really close to the pier, unexpected for a Friday night. It was nice getting to take an evening stroll in the cool beachy breeze to the sound of the ocean. I feel very lucky to live where we live. And I enjoyed slowing things down after a busy week and spending time as a family.

(Austin liked the live music. The musicians were playing next to the entrance, you can just barely see the guy with the guitar at the top of the pic)


Captivated by skateboarders


Austin's elephant impression


Fun in Daddy's slippers. Austin pointed to the slippers and said, "Daddy." Then he put them on and decided to follow me around as I was putting things away. It was too cute so I couldn't tell him to take them off. At one point they were on the correct feet, but they came off and he put them back on like that. Too bad Daddy didn't get to see it.

Bike to Work Day

Today is LA County's annual Bike to Work Day. Willis is doing his part by riding his bike to work. Since Austin doesn't like to wear his helmet he can't ride on the bike, which means I get the pleasure of taking and picking up Austin today. (Which actually isn't so bad, as a result I got into work earlier and I could leave earlier)

Lucky for me, Austin woke up early so he was ready to leave earlier than usual. He got to spend a good 10 minutes playing in the baby room before breakfast. (That baby room gets pretty crowded in the morning.) I put Austin's things away and peeked at him as he bounced on the animal seats with Dylan. When I finished, I looked again and he had moved over to the baby swing and was playing gently with Kami, Brad's 5-month old little sister. When he looked up from Kami he saw that Annie just arrived and he rushed over to say "hi" to her. According to one teacher, Rosie, this is a normal morning for him. She also said when they're ready to go back to the Gold Fish room he takes Sophia's (new to the Gold Fish room) hand to lead her over and she's the only one he does that to. What a ladies' man!

It was nice to get a little glimpse into Austin's morning. Here's a pic of the kiddies lining up at the gate. (It looks like there are a lot of boys in his class, but those are the only four. There are twice as many girls but some took longer to get to the gate or hadn't gotten to day care yet) Austin took a little while to get to the gate, once he got there he saw me and smiled, but, when his teacher opened the gate he started crying when he realized he wasn't coming with me.

Side note: I think Rosie is one of Austin's favorite teachers (I like her a lot too). He seems to get the most excited when he sees her and she takes a real interest in him. She calls him "Austi" and tells me fun stories about him whenever I see her. She said he was waving real big at her and saying "Rosie" real loud yesterday. She's one of the reasons I got the Rosie train for him (the other reason was cuz I wanted a girl train. :) Hee hee.)

Potty Training... The signs

I saw the first signs of possible potty training readiness last night. After dinner, Austin was standing at a chair looking at his train book. He was there a couple of minutes and I could tell he was trying to poop. Then, he walked over to the coffee table to read and more pushing. He turned around to face me and said, "poo-poo." I was pretty surprised because we haven't really talked to him about pooping, poo-poo or pee-pee. We just recently started talking to him about sitting on his potty when we got the potty seat. I asked him, "Do you have to go poo-poo?" He said, "Yeah." I asked him if he wanted to go to the potty and he picked up his book and started walking toward the bathroom. He followed me as I stopped to put something away in the kitchen then I said, "Okay, come on." He said, "..-mon." When we got to the bathroom, I lifted the cover of his potty seat and he sat down and looked at his book for about a minute. That was about it, he stood up, put the cover down and I took him to change his diaper.

Tonight, another sign. I was standing near Austin when he turned to me and said, "poo-poo" a couple of times before I realized it... Then I smelled it.

Austin's Serenade

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com
filmed on 5/4/2009

Happy Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday. We had an unfortunate fridge/freezer breakdown this weekend so once my sister arrived at our house we went to Costco to pick up a mini fridge for temporary food storage. Then, we headed to McCormick & Schmick's for Mother's Day Brunch. (It is apparently also Auntie's Day, according to my sis & Jen) The food was delicious and we had a whole room pretty much to ourselves!

After brunch I was allowed to do whatever I wanted, so I had myself a relaxing nap while Willis did some house cleaning and my sister watched Austin. What a great day! :)

My big boy going down stairs without holding onto anything.

A 5k and a wedding reception

We went to the Revlon Run/Walk 5k yesterday. By the time we got there it was way too crowded to check out the booths so we just ate breakfast, took a bathroom break at the Coliseum then headed to the starting line. Austin fell asleep in the jogging stroller not long after we started as Willis and I did our usual weave through the walkers. It was warm but cloudy so it wasn't too bad but it felt more crowded than I remember from past years. We were pretty happy with our time as we approached the end and run/walked passed the Taiko drummers to enter the Coliseum.



Austin woke up just as we entered the Coliseum and we let him roam the grass for a few minutes after getting our snacks. We then headed through the USC campus back to the car to rush home, get cleaned up and dressed, then off to the Newport Beach Marriott for Willis' friend Lily's wedding reception.



(We walked past the Rose Garden in full bloom)


(Austin laughing at me running to catch up after stopping to take pictures of a fountain on campus)

There was a little traffic on the way to Newport Beach but we made it just as the reception doors were opening. The decorations were beautiful and we each had a Dean & Deluca candy bar at our place setting. Mmm! Austin was a trooper, even though it was much later than his usual lunch and nap times. After we ate lunch the music started and I eventually rocked him to sleep dancing to the music. He slept like a log while we were in the room with the loud music, but as soon as we walked into the much quieter hallway to go home his head popped up and he stayed awake the whole way home.


(I want to take Austin to Sea World this summer so I picked up this brochure on our way out of the hotel. He stared at this page for at least five minutes straight before finally turning to another page, but kept coming back to look at this page. He is going to love the Sesame Street Bay of Play! )


(Having fun with his train after we got home)

Austin didn't eat too much at lunch so he was pretty hungry at dinnertime. We let Willis have a nap since he drove all day. I whipped up some dinner and Austin and I sat down to eat together. I put his bowls of food in front of him with his utensils and he pretty much ate all of his dinner all by himself!

More growing up

Today was the first day Austin walked out of his classroom and all the way to the car on his own. He usually gets upset if I try to have him walk instead of me carrying him out of the classroom (if he doesn't cry for me to pick him up as soon as he sees me). I was wondering when he would walk out on his own like some of his other classmates. After I gathered his things, I asked him if we should go and he took my finger and led me out. (I love when he holds my hand/finger. Most of the time now he wants to walk on his own) When he saw the fish tank on the way out he ran to say bye to the fish then made another stop outside for a few seconds to touch the net fencing around the bigger playground before we got the car. He even climbed into the car on his own when I opened the door!

Johnny Rockets Fundraiser

Tonight we went to dinner at Johnny Rockets for Austin's day care's fundraiser. We ran into a couple of teachers and a bunch of other families from Beach Babies all doing the same. We ordered the slider burgers for Austin, but he ate mostly the bun. He didn't really care for the burger part. But I'm pretty happy with the 6 oz of milk he had with dinner. (He's been drinking lots of milk at meals since we were on vacation). After the other families left, Austin had a good time smiling, laughing and waving at a lady sitting at the next table.

Austin is getting pretty strong and is getting better at going up and down steps without holding on to anything. He can go up and down our little staircase pretty fast.

Back to day care

According to Austin's teacher, his first day back from vacation was just fine. He had no problems. Every time someone asked him "How was Hawaii?" his response was "water." And they did water play today so he must have had a great time. On our way home his response to any of my questions were either "doggy" or "water."

He's definitely getting more firm when saying "no." I try to find ways to distract him and so far I think it's helping lessen the "no" tantrums.

Highlights of Austin on Vacation

We had such a wonderful vacation in Hawaii over the past week and a half. Our trip started off with my Grandmother's funeral services in Hilo and Honolulu. My Aunty Pat did a great job planning everything, both services were really nice. It was so good to see relatives and family friends that we hadn't seen in a long time, in addition to meeting old friends of my Grandmother.

The rest of our trip was busy but lots of fun. We visited with my Mom, other Grandmother, sister, Chun cousins, Willis' parents and friends. And I took TONS of pictures, as usual. I still have to download and go through them, which will take me a while.

Austin seems to have grown and matured by leaps and bounds during the week and a half that we were on vacation. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to spend so much time with him. We saw big improvements in his language, vocabulary, height, weight, motor skills. He's dropped a lot of his sign language to use words instead, except he still uses the "please," "thank you," "finished" and "sorry" signs. At the beginning of the trip he was calling water "wa wa," by the end of the trip he was saying "wadoo". He can say "yes" (which he says while nodding his head) but has started saying "yeah" a lot and he's starting to use "mine!" He's getting better at putting words together (i.e. "bye, dante" (Auntie) or "bye, nanny" (Granny) or "yes, mama" and he said "I nah bebe" a lot). He's also starting to understand possession (i.e. He points to my toes and says "mama" then points to his toes and says "Dastin" (Austin) or like yesterday he passed a cardboard tube to Bob and said "Bop" (Bob) and held up another tube and said "Dastin" as they played making noises in the tubes.)

I can squirt soap into his hands and he will rub them together to wash and rinse his hands. He still likes to suck the water off of his fingers before I can dry his hands. When I'm putting lotion on him after his bath he gets upset if I don't let him have some. He likes to help put lotion on his hands, arms, feet and chest too.

We finally turned his carseat around so he faces forward. He is enjoying the new view and kept saying "weee" for the first few rides facing forward. He likes to call out the buses, cars, trucks and other things that he sees. According to the scale at my Grandmother's house, Austin is now just over 21 lbs.

Austin discovered his belly button and likes to pull up his shirt, hold it under his chin, point at his belly button and say "beh buttin." One day, when I was hanging clothes on the line outside, he was walking around near me poking his belly button. He tripped, fell down on the sidewalk and got his first skinned knee. It didn't concern him too much though, after only a few seconds of sadness he had forgotten about his belly button, but was off and walking around again.

I gave Austin some new toys at the beginning of our trip. He loved his new Thomas and Rosie trains ("Mah-met" and "Woosie") and asked for them frequently. Although, after a while I usually had to put them away because he would started throwing or dropping them on the floor. He gets upset, but telling him to say "bye Thomas" and "bye Rosie" seems to distract him enough. He had his own carry-on bag this trip, I filled the new Elmo backpack that his Auntie Allison got for him with toys and books to keep him occupied. He didn't actually carry the bag though, we carried it for him. He got lots of zipper practice with that backpack. And this was the first trip that we gate checked our own stroller instead of borrowing at our destination. Before checking luggage, the Ergo Carrier is much more convenient, leaving my hands free, but afterwards the stroller was pretty useful. After we landed at LAX Austin wanted to take my bags out of the stroller and get in it instead of being carried.

I was a little worried about the time difference and throwing Austin back into our regular schedule. He had slept about 4 1/2 hours of our 5 1/2 hour flight, then devoured the portion of my sandwich I saved for him. Around 6pm (3pm Hawaii time, only a couple of hours after he ate on the plane) he started to say "eat." I was surprised but relieved since that's his usual dinner time. Now that I think about it, I think he may have struggled with his mealtimes being off while we were in Hawaii. I was wondering why he was always saying "eat," even when he had just eaten.

Last night, we put him to bed around the regular time here at home and he went to sleep as usual as if we hadn't gone on vacation. He woke up a few times during the night, each time he had rolled away from his cloth and couldn't find it. I put it back in his hands he was fine. This morning, he was already starting to wake up when I went to get him ready for day care and he was smiling and happy. As we were trying to get his jacket on he wanted to play with his toys so I asked him if he wanted to go see his friends at day care, he said, "yea!" and put on his jacket. I'm looking forward to picking him up and seeing how his day went.