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Surviving Parenthood

On Hiatus

May 12, 2012
by Mother of two

The past few weeks have been very chaotic.  We celebrated our two boys birthdays, moved into our new house which actually still needs some work, and unexpectedly discovered that we will add a new member to our growing family this fall.  All of this in the span of a few short weeks.

The boys have now adjusted to their new home.  We are currently waiting for the weather to warm up so that they can finally enjoy the pool, and the beautiful backyard area.

The moving process has really slowed down.  We are somewhat settled in but we still have a lot of boxes left unpacked in the garage.  We are learning the joys and pain of home ownership for the first time.  But overall, we are excited for our growing family at our new home.

As for Baby Number 3, what is there to say?  This is truly a blessing, a true gift from GOD.  We have family and friends who have tried for years and have even sought help from doctors to little avail.  We have always contemplated a third child but with our growing fatigue and dwindling bank accounts, it really was the last thing that we had in mind.  If we had to plan it, it would probably never have happened.  After getting over the initial shock of the pregnancy, we began to get excited for our growing family.  Maybe it’s a girl.  We can’t wait to find out whether it’s a boy or a girl, but the only thing that is truly important is that we get a happy and healthy baby.  Nothing matters more than that.

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Knott’s Berry Farm

January 31, 2012
by Mother of two

 

My husband's Snoopy soda bottle that exploded on him twice!

We finally took advantage of my husband’s free admission pass to Knott’s Berry Farm.  Knott’s Berry Farm offers an annual Fire and Law Enforcement promotion (usually November thru January), which give you two (2) free passes and heavily discounted additional passes.

Since we have annual passes, we usually visit Disneyland on the weekends, but we wanted to give Knott’s a try before the promotion was over.  So on Saturday we made our first venture into Knott’s Berry Farm.  It wasn’t just my kids first time but my first time too.  I have lived in Southern California for 30+ years and (can you believe it) have never been to Knott’s Berry Farm.  Not even for their famous Halloween event, “Knott’s Scary Farm”.

At the entrance of Camp Snoopy on top of the store.

Knott’s Berry Farm is not as glitzy and glamorous as Disneyland, but it provides younger children with even more fun and entertainment.  Little Lum really loved Camp Snoopy.  The rides there are by far more age appropriate for younger kids.  They were packed closer together so there is less time lost to walking from one ride to the next. Lines were short in general, so it was easy to hop on the same ride multiple times if you wanted to.  Do keep in mind that there is a height requirement (a maximum and a minimum) on some rides.

We spent most of our time in Camp Snoopy since we were there mainly for the boys.  Knott’s Berry Farm does have some fairly new and exciting rides for adults as well, but I think that my husband and I are too old to ride the big roller coasters nowadays.  Just looking at them can make me feel nauseous.

Something worth mentioning is that an annual pass to Knott’s is a pretty good value. On their Gold Pass you have access to their Soak City Parks and it is only about a quarter of the cost of a comparable Disneyland Park Annual Pass.   Disneyland does give you access to California Adventure, but Soak City Parks is still pretty hard to beat during the summer months.

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It’s Tiger!

October 17, 2011
by Mother of two

Tiger

My husband surprised Little Lum this week with Tiger, Kipper’s opinionated best friend.  He arrived in a yellow envelop similar to Kipper, with a custom declaration reading “Tiger, stuff toy”, from across the pond.  If you are not familiar, Kipper The Dog is a book series by Mick Inkpen that turned into a cute cartoon series on Nick Jr.  The cartoons have innocent themes and simple animation making it very appropriate for young children.  We purchased the Kipper Quad pack for our son and he completely loves it.

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Disneyland Annual Pasport

October 5, 2011
by Mother of two

Our New Pass

Our old pass was returned to us, after a hold was punched on the lower right hand corner.

 

We finally renewed our Disneyland Annual Passes.  Our Little Lum has been asking for Disneyland for quite some time now.  The old passes had expired back in April, and because we have been busy with our second baby we have not had a chance to go until now.  My husband purchased the Southern California Resident Annual Passes from his work for $239 each, regular price is $269.  So for starters we saved $60 on both passes!  Now our dilemma was when to go.  We wanted to go the coming Saturday, but all Saturdays were designated as blackout days for our type of pass.

We had heard a rumor that when you activate your pass (the first time you use it) you can get entry into the park on any date, even a blackout date.  Risking being turned away, we took a chance packed the kids and headed down to Anaheim. Lucky for us, we got in!!!!!

 

Actually, it wasn’t luck at all.  According to Disneyland policy, you can purchase a single day ticket and go into Disneyland, and visit the Disney City Hall to upgrade your ticket into an Annual Pass.  So technically it is legitimate.  Luck had nothing to do with it. To speed up the registration process, we brought our old passes so we skipped the long line to take a new picture. The new passes are thicker and do not have your pictures on the back.  When you scan the card, your picture appears on the check in screen for the screener.  The new cards also have a Disney Photo Pass bar code on the back, so you don’t have to carry 2 cards.

Little Lum had a fantastic day at (what I like to call) Dland & Ca Adventure.  He told Daddy the he “LOVES Disneyland!”.

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Reading

September 5, 2011
by Mother of two

I started to read to Little Lum when he was only 7 months old.  My friends and our pediatrician all recommended reading to him earlier on, but at the time I thought that they were all crazy!  When I finally started, I used a picture book called, “Can You See What I See? Trucks And Cars”, by Walter Wick and began incorporating it into his daily bedtime routine.  I chose the book because it was a very simple eye catching book.  By the time he turned 10 to 11 months, my son began to display some real interest, and started to show an attachment to his books. To some more than others but he clearly had preferences even at that young age.

When I buy books for him, I like simple well illustrated books that are not too wordy.  Overly wordy books are hard for young children to read, since they have a shorter attention span.  For my own entertainment, I prefer books that rhyme, which makes for a more entertaining reading.

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Adventure in Home Ownership

June 9, 2011
by Mother of two

Buyers Beware!  What is the definition of a bedroom? The past week has been an emotional roller coaster of ups and downs as we attempted to buy our very first home.  As listed, the place was a quaint lovely home, recently renovated with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and a surprisingly large pool located in a quiet safe neighborhood with a great public school district.

As we entered escrow, I became increasingly concerned about the 3rd Bedroom in the house.  I was not sure that the 3rd Bedroom was a Bedroom at all.  Our realtor kept assuring us, but I kept asking.  Even our home inspector was confident, but I still did not feel right about it.  I kept inquiring, “Why didn’t the bedroom have an exterior window?”

After a few days of uncertainty, I finally got the answer from our local county assessor’s office.  The man at the county office cited the specific county construction codes that defined a bedroom.  In it, it stated that a bedroom needs to have a window or door leading to the exterior of the house as a fire exit to qualify as a Bedroom.  What we had was a Den.

The downgrade of the home from a Three-Bedroom home to a Two-Bedroom plus a Den would severely reduce the resale value of the home in the future, making it a very bad business decision so we withdrew our offer.

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Counting our blessings

May 22, 2011
by Mother of two

I got the best present ever this Mother’s Day, we (all four of us) walked away from a multiple lane, multiple vehicle collision unscathed.  We were on our way to San Diego to celebrate Mother’s Day when we go rear ended.  The Mini Van  was totaled. Whenever something that big occurs and everyone and all parties involved can walk away with no injuries, you count your blessings because the big guy way up there is watching out for you.  I know that we are.

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Baby Number Two

May 16, 2011
by Mother of two

I am glad to announce the arrival of our second baby boy Little Wing Wing. Little Wing Wing was so eager to make his debut this February that we barely managed to reach the hospital on time for his delivery. Any delays that night would have certainly forced my husband to play the role of delivery doctor while racing down the highway that night. Fortunately for us it was pretty close but we somehow managed to get there on time.

The road to parenthood is never an easy one to say the least, but as the seasoned parents of a two year old we were much better prepared then the first time around. Juggling between a toddler and a newborn is exhausting and always a great challenge. You must maintain full vigil, while surviving on a steady diet of half hour naps throughout the night. Individually the boys are easy, but together it is a whole different story. There is synergy to the added chaos. Not to sound too cliché, but children do grow up so fast. In just the three short months since the Little Wing’s arrival, he has grown so much and thankfully become easier with each passing day.

Big brother Lum Lum took his time to warm up to his younger brother. For two months he would take every opportunity to take his baby brother’s things and hit him for absolutely no reason (okay, maybe he was just a little jealous for the shared attention). After awhile it became very frustrating, to send him to his corner for timeouts for acting up all the time.

It is now nearly three months, and Lum Lum has really warmed up to Wing Wing. It was trying at times, but Lum Lum has come a long way and demonstrated some maturing along the way. He will now casually pat gently, and be willing to hug or kiss his brother. Even occasionally giving him one of his toys. Although he has improved the Lum Lum will still ask us to abandon his baby brother at the local Costco so we still have some work to do. I’m sure that in due time, they will become an inseparable pair, but until then we will just have to wait.

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