The Adventures of Baby Arthur

The Bragger Parent: GUILTY as hell. How many posts have I put up about how proud I am of Arthur by now?

The Whiner Parent: Mildly guilty. I've definitely posted about some tough times, but I don't think those posts were too whiny and I wrote them in case they might help anyone else out there going through the same thing. I can't speak for the other parents on my FB list though. ;-)

The Cool Parent: Hell no. According to Elina, the Cool Parent is the one who still hits the town and brags about it on FB. Since I was never cool to begin with, I am innocent of this one.

The Obsessed Parent: I may not have given up my FB identity to my offspring, but I have this blog. Guilty As Charged. Again, I can't speak for other parents on my FB list!!

The Zen Parent: The "life is great, parenting is a joy" parent? Since I normally get yelled at by Liz for writing anything remotely negative, I guess I may come across as a Zen parent. But I may be one of the least Zen people I know. I teem with frustration and rage!!! AARRGHH!!

Now that I've gotten through the five most annoying types of parents, I'm really not sure what kind of parent is left. I'm a combination of almost all five. That either makes me uber-annoying or this post is just like a fortune cookie with a message that applies to just about EVERYONE. But you know what, I don't really care if I'm annoying anyway. This blog is my microphone so you have to listen to me!!! :-)

Labels: miscellaneous

Wrong. There's actually plenty to do for Halloween for kids! Here's what I saw:


2. Block Parties: Various single blocks around the island were closed off and the local residents and homeowners decorated the street, setup tables, had food and made it fun for everyone.






Arthur was not digging the outfit but he was definitely really cute! It was reported to me that he was completely awestruck by the life sized T-Rex skeleton and stopped in his tracks for several minutes. He had an awesome time.

Labels: arthur, miscellaneous, nyc

by Lincoln

It recently became known to me that September 13, 2009 was Grandparent's Day. The existence of this day was unbeknownst to me, as I spent the entire day watching football. Shame on me! Had I known, I would have saved that post for a different day.

Grandparent's day isn't quite a hallmark holiday yet but it is one I could get behind. Where would we be without our parents? Thanks to my parents and Liz's mom, our childcare situation has been completely taken care of. We haven't had to use any local daycare, find a nanny on sites like Nannies4hire.com, Care.com, or Sittercity.com, or employ any kind of outside help. Not only has it been a tremendous savings financially, it's been a great relief to have trusted family members oversee Arthur's well-being and development. There's no doubt that the excitement of the first grandchild on both sides of the family has added to the enthusiasm and attention that Arthur has gotten. But, knowing these grandparents, it wouldn't have mattered if he was the first or the tenth grandchild. All would be loved just the same!

On our last post about Sleep Training, Liz briefly mentioned that we very recently had an extremely difficult night with sleep. For some reason or another, Arthur began waking up at 3am that Saturday morning. Despite our attempts to calm him down and get him back to sleep, he wouldn't stay asleep. The loud party noise emanating from the building behind us and the stupid *expletive* drunk people ringing our door buzzer from downstairs did not help, as they would wake up Arthur just when he was about to fall back asleep! By 4am, I flew downstairs in a fit of rage and chased the drunkards away. By 5am, we had given up trying to get him to sleep in his crib and brought him into bed with us. By 6am, Arthur was stepping on my face because he wanted to go the living room and play. By 7am, I trudged out to McDonald's to pick up a pick-me-up with some breakfast and coffee. By 8am, Liz and I were out of gas and trying to keep up!

By 9am, Liz's Mom came to the rescue by showing up unexpectedly and unannounced. Liz and I manage a 2 hour life-saving nap!

We have many similar stories where our parents have helped us out tremendously. I've said it once and I'll say it again: I've never loved my parents in the way that I do today, now that I have my own child. And I've never loved Liz's Mom before either! Three cheers to Arthur's grandparents and all grandparents around the world. We'd be lost without you!

Labels: family, miscellaneous

by Lincoln

After writing the post about Paco the Fish, I felt a little guilty... maybe I was being a bit insensitive about Paco. OK, so maybe I felt guilty for about 30 seconds. After I came across an blog post on ParentDish about a school that was planning to slaughter a pet lamb to sell the meat, I found myself in full fledged meat activist mode! I love to eat all kinds of meat and I am not ashamed to admit it. (Sorry PETA!)

As a proud meat eater, it would be easy to write off these PETA types as having too much time on their hands. However, I can respect their views because I believe our disagreement is largely cultural. We live in a "I'll take my meat only if it's wrapped in cellophane with nary a thought of where it comes from" type of society. Yes, this may be the same society that I was born and raised in, but with immigrant parents, I've spent many summers in the 3rd world and witnessed enough chicken slaughtering, whole pig roasting, fish cleaning, snake gutting and frog skinning to recognize good food while it's still alive! Actually, you can see all of that for yourself in Chinatown too. (Well, maybe not the snakes.)

It's not like I can't relate with the poor children who are about to have their pet lamb for dinner. When I was about 8 years old, my aunt bought two cute little duck chicks. All of the kids thought they were pets and we all treated them as such. The elders never discouraged our attachment either. As time passed, the ducks grew bigger and the elders finally unveiled their sinister plans to roast the ducks for dinner. All of the kids were livid and no amount of begging had any effect! In the end, we all refused to eat a single bite.

While this may have been an upsetting experience for me at the time, one of the memories that has stuck with me throughout the years is the golden, crispy looking skin and the succulent aroma that floated out of the oven when I stole a peak in. As the elders ate, they only half heartedly asked if I would try some because the roast duck they were eating was probably the best roast duck EVER!!

Yes, I agree that the Lydd Primary School teachers could have been more sensitive and not encouraged the children to treat the lamb like a pet. However, at the end of the day, people come first and we homo-sapiens are happily on top of the food chain. Meat comes from animals.

I believe we can respect life on this earth while also doing what we need to do, like eat!

PS: That's a link to the complete of works of James Herriott, which I really enjoyed. It's a story about a country veterinarian in England. Animals, both farm and pet, are respected within the cycle of life.

Labels: miscellaneous

OK, guilty as charged. I never took a picture of Paco the Fighting Fish before his demise.

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Liz Says: Fun-loving Aunt Wilma buys Arthur a fish on this 1st birthday as a present!
Lincoln Says: Annoying sister buys us a PET without consulting first! GRRRR!

Liz Says: Yes, Lincoln refuses to take care of Paco, therefore it defaults to Liz's responsibility, which I took seriously....
Lincoln Says: Hell no, I'm not taking care of this fish. I'm leaving this to Liz. Hmm.. has she ever had a fish before? This should be fun.

Liz Says: However, I neglected to replenish the de-cholorination conditioner (oops).
Lincoln Says: My money is on that she never bothered to buy more de-chlorination conditioner.

Liz Says: I notice Paco to be "sleepy" lately. Finally, poor Paco passes on.
Lincoln Says: You know, even Arthur plotted Paco's demise and nearly succeeded on several occasions. I'm just glad we have a mop.

Liz Says: I tell Arthur he is sleeping but Lincoln screams from the next room, He's not sleeping, he's DEAD! Point taken, I back track and say, Paco has moved on, he's gone, he's left the building.
Lincoln Says: Are we STILL talking about Paco??

Liz Says: We have a private funeral service in the Yue-Song bathroom.
Lincoln Says: In typical female fashion, Liz instructs me to dispose the carcass. Of course I forget, leaving the dirty deed to Liz's Mom the next day, who unceremoniously flushes Paco down the toilet while we are at work.

Liz Says: Arthur notices the empty tank and he points to it and screams - AHHH!
Lincoln Says: What kind of name is Paco anyway? It's not like it matters anyway, since Arthur doesn't even know it's a fish.

Liz Says: Paco is in fish heaven!
Lincoln Says: Paco is dead.

Aunt Wilma Says:

Paco touched our lives on Arthur's 1st bday...It was a grey, stormy, rainy day. Through all the water changes, random feedings and Arthur's failed attempts to knock Paco out of his tank, Paco brought smiles and laughter to all those who knew him. May he always live in our hearts and memories.........We love you Paco.

Dear Paco, if you are somewhere out there in fish heaven listening, I will play in the football pool this year in honor of your memory...please give me lots of luck and I promise to donate a part of the winnings to a huge a$$ bottle of dechlorination fluid.

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PS: We are not cruel inhumane people. I swear! Arthur - it's important to value life on this planet.

Your favorite dish to date is also steamed flounder on white rice.

Labels: miscellaneous

by Liz

Soon after we rolled out of bed Saturday morning, we thought it'd be nice to walk around the neighborhood and get some breakfast on such a nice sunny day. We settled into the restaurant, glad that another shrieking baby was on the premises to keep the heat off of us! That shrieking baby turned out to be the daughter of a stylishly dressed (in a low-key way) and amazingly fit Jessica Alba. We only noticed them as they were leaving and we're assuming that the baby was Honor Marie, who according to this 'the Insider' article, is less than 3 weeks older than our own Arthur. We naturally researched all of this as soon as we got home of course. We also confirmed that Jessica Alba IS currently in town according to the tabloids, but Lincoln won't let me post any gossip links on this blog aside from that one article!

Anyway, I couldn't help but notice a few things that were mentioned in the Insider article. The natural birth (Lincoln says I'd kick her butt!) and proximity of birthdays between Arthur and Honor are where our similarities end. Sadly, not only do we not have a hilltop LA estate, I was not allowed a "soul food diet" during pregnancy either! My OB/GYN, Dr. Anna, was a stern looking and strict woman with the kind of piercing eyes that cut through you if you did anything wrong. She basically prescribed me the Atkins diet - no carbs, no juice, no sugar. She also told me to control the quantities I ate, that I should not listen to any of those "eating for two" cliches and that being pregnant is not a green light to gain 55 lbs!

Well, I didn't listen to her completely, but I did manage to only gain 18 lbs (21 in total) after 8 months. At our visit that month, Lincoln and I were both concerned that the baby was not gaining enough weight. Dr. Anna quickly dismissed those concerns after her checkup and estimated that Arthur weighed 6.5 lbs already. She then slanted her eyes and said, "You've been drinking juice haven't you?!". *GULP*, Guilty As Charged!

Anyway, I guess we can't all be Jessica Alba. And by the way, the "I lost my tummy by breast feeding" is complete BULL!!

Labels: health, miscellaneous, pregnancy