Two peas blog Challenge

You are at the magazine stand, what three magazines are you going to purchase?

Here is my choices:
Creating keepsakes
Home and Garden
ELLE

Weekend agenda

Friday! Weekend is right around the corner.
Pittsburgh RADical Days '06 is here, there are tons of free family activities coming up. What a great oppotunity for us to explore interesting things in town!

Here is our agenda,

9/30 am: Pittsburgh Center for the Arts
9/30 11am: Family Concert by Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra @ Heinz Hall
9/30 pm: Society for Contemporary Craft

10/1 am: National Aviary
10/1 pm: Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

I know the plan is very aggressive. Can we make them all? It all depends on Sophia's mood.
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and Society for Contemporary Craft are places than I'm more interested in. I need inspirations!
Family Concert is the most exiting one. I reserved 3 tickets yesterday, yes, 3. This is the first time Sophia need a ticket to get in something. She didn't need a full fare when we flew back to China; she doesn't need a ticket to get into the zoo, aquarium, amusement park; she eats for free at buffet. That's all because she's not old enough to enjoy the fun of them. Now she need a ticket to sit in a concert, even she's under 2. I'm expecting this concert a lot of fun for her.
We always wanted to get a membership for Children's Museum. Now it's a great chance to check it out if Sophia likes it. I'm looking forwad to it.

开卷有益

昨天下班，接了宁宁以后，顺便去图书馆取我的scrapbooking书和杂志,没想到图书馆里人多得很。看来爱看书的人真不少啊！我光临图书馆的频率差不多是两个星期一次。不上学了,就没有耐心坐下来认真看书了。以后一定要多利用一下图书馆，虽然网上什么都有，上网还是不能取代看书的。
昨天晚上我看了一晚上书，宁宁也看了很多书，当然也撕书，以前宁宁最喜欢的"Bed Bugs"已经被撕得不成样子了，我也就放弃了，任她撕去。现在最喜欢的bed time书是Barney bed time book和Snowman.也开始喜欢一些有教育价值的书了，如 Eric Carle 的"Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?",也开始认识书里的动物了，颜色还不懂。
PS: "Bed bugs" is a great book made by David Carter. I love all the popup books he made. The art work is beautiful, the characters are cute, the paper engineering is sophisticated and the content is educational. I will definitely buy more of his books when Sophia is old enough to know how to take care of books. I'm also gona to try some of his little paper projects, they look fun. Check out his website here.

成长无痕

宁宁十八个月的检查没长多少。在幼儿园同龄孩子里个子最小，矮墩墩的。现在天凉了，去年春天的衣服基本都还可以穿，新买的大一号的秋装都太长，不知道今年还能不能穿，也说不定要等明年了。好愁啊，宁宁吃的不少，个子却不怎么见长，是不是因为我们天天相处，看不出长来？
昨 天晚上，回到家，象每天一样宁宁看DVD，妈妈做饭。因为宁宁非常喜欢 little people DVD,我们每天看little people ，已经两三个月了。为了给宁宁换个口味，决定放 baby einstein，没想到的是，宁宁死活不看，一定要骚扰妈妈做饭。想当初，宁宁多喜欢看baby einstein啊！只好又换了歌谣动画, 这回宁宁一听见音乐就飞奔到自己看电视的小椅子上，专心致志地手舞足蹈起来。妈妈明白了，宁宁不是小 baby 了,baby einstein对于她来说太过boring了。她喜欢有人物，有语言（尽管宁宁不会说话)，有情节的电视节目。
又想起来，周末，我们去饭馆吃 饭，上菜之前，每个人面前先给上了一个漂亮的餐碟，当然，宁宁面前也有一个。餐碟虽然很好看，不过是瓷的，担心宁宁一激动扔 到瓷砖地板上，那就要惊动大家吃饭了，于是爸爸想把餐碟收到宁宁够不到的地方，没想到宁宁坚决不同意，紧紧抓着餐碟不放手，好像在说：凭什么你们有我不能 有？最后爸爸放弃，宁宁很理智地吃完整顿饭，再也没动那个餐碟，一直摆在宁宁面前。我知道了，宁宁要的不是漂亮盘子，宁宁要的是平等。
宁宁就这样慢慢地长大，每天在她身边不怎么觉得。

Birthday weekend

The weekend was short, as always. It's supposed to be a birthday weekend, but I didn't realize until mom told me she was making dumplings at home. It's not because I forgot my birthday, it's because I forgot what day we were at. I'm losing myself, everything is Sophia centered now.

Wzg was going to buy me the local scrapbooking store membership as birthday gift, but the store was closed on the weekend due to some special event. All I got for birthday was a day off. Really wzg was taking care of Sophia on Sat, so that I can have some scrapbooking done. The result? Not as productive as working after Sophia's in bed. I finished a Christmas card, with my favorite Basic Grey paper, which wzg thought it more like a Halloween card. I also finished the air show pictures with a 12x12 layout, I like the color, it looks very pretty in the new frame I bought at Target. We also got this!

Wzg wanted for a while. Now he says it’s for my birthday. It costs more than our budget but looks very nice.

We had dinner at Rose Tea Cafe, ----------->
food was delicious, we are bored of China Star. I enjoyed the 布丁奶茶, Sophia had two pieces of 无锡排骨, if you see the size of the 排骨, you’ll know Sophia ate a lot.

I was trying to do a lot of cleaning on Sunday but didn’t have much done. Good thing is we rearranged the furniture in our family room and I found an inspiration in Pottery Barn catalog which fits our room perfectly. I will work on it in the next few weeks. Bad thing is our vacuum cleaner was broken, missed so many great Dyson deals, now we're in the market looking for a good vacuum cleaner.

Note: When we were moving the furniture, Sophia helped a lot, she gave us a big hand, at least she thought she did. She was very exited to see everything got moved, just like we got a new house. How easy to make a toddler happy!!

Finding Elmo

The top secret "TMX elmo", toy of the year, came to the market last week, soon it became a hard to find toy. It goes more than $60 on Ebay. Many and many threads about finding elmo on all deal forums. However, I kept calm and didn't rush into this. Sure elmo is cute and fun, but it's not much more fun than a $10 dancing dora, not much more fun than a $5 tumble tiger. Sophia couldn't tell the difference, mostly she will have 5 minutes fun, then forget it forever.

I've found a tickle me elmo chair at Target, it looks pretty cool and fun, too. No one ever talked about it. Now you see how powerful the media is.

I didn't buy TMX elmo, but there is one in house. Last night we were watching 超级女声at PPLive, Sophia went crazy about those songs. She danced, jumped, laughed, rolled on the floor, just like a little live TMX elmo. Bad thing is we ran out of tape, otherwise I would had taped her craziness.

Have you gotten a TMX Elmo?

He is so cute, but I resisted, didn't get it.

Wish List

I've spent too much on scrapbooking in the last few weeks. I went to Joann yesterday and got the DCWV fall pack and cardstock pack at 50% off, a pack of basic grey papers, just love BG stuff, can't resist with a 30% off sale, and a craft knife, will put in good use for this tool. And I'm still waiting my basic grey package from Embellish It.
Now I'm thinking of setting a budget each month, so that I can keep my scrapbooking work at a steady speed. I'm setting $30/month for now unless there is a huge sale.
Having basic tools and paper is not satisfied. I always want more and more. The good thing is I know what I want and will definite use them.
Here comes my wish list:
Local scrapbook store membership (may get this for birthday)
circle punch
Corner punch
black and brown pens
Bronze color box
mod podge
3D glue dots
Double sided tapes
Foam stamps
Acrylic paint and brushes
Sewing machine

and lots of ribbon, lots of paper!

All Gone!

我小时候很早就会说话了，妈妈说，我不到一岁就会整句整句地说话了。这一点宁宁可不随我。现在都二十个月了，眼瞅就两岁了，会说的词还屈指可数，我这个当妈妈的很着急呀。
着 急归着急，我觉得宁宁也挺不容易的，因为要应付双语环境。白天在daycare用英文和老师和小朋友交流，晚上我们都是中文，包括看电视，看书也是两搀 的，两种语言都有。我觉得非常 amazing 的是，宁宁两种语言都听得懂，想想我们考托福时练听力，觉得宁宁能听得懂也挺了不起的。有人问我，教宁宁说话是用的中文还是英文。我的回答是：哪个简单教 哪个，原则上我教她说话是遵循我平时说话的习惯。
几天前，我们在吃东西，吃完了，我就说了一句“All Gone"。从此宁宁就学会了。她不仅学会了发音，也领会了这句话的意思。吃完饭，她说“All Gone"，洗完澡，她说“All Gone"，书看到最后一页，她说“All Gone"，电视节目完了，出现字幕，她说“All Gone"，电视机被妈妈关了，她说“All Gone"。昨天，宁宁拉完臭臭，从小马桶上站起来说“All Gone"。说得真贴切呀！

How much is too much?

为人父母，没有不爱自己的孩子的，这爱是超越一切的。没有做父母的人是无论如何也不能理解的。但是，爱得太多可能就会成为压力。
昨 天妈妈给我讲了很多年前一个真实的故事。这对父母是大姨的邻居，他们和自己的儿 子，儿媳妇住得很近。一天早上发现儿子，儿媳妇煤气中毒了，昏迷不醒，于是赶紧叫救护车。开救护车的人糊涂，来救两个人只带了一个氧气瓶。父母毫不犹豫地 将氧气瓶给了自己的儿子。后来，儿子救活了，儿媳妇却丧了命。从此，儿子便不认他的父母，再也不理他们了。如果，当时是儿媳妇的父母先发现他们煤气中毒， 恐怕就是相反的结果了。
如果换了我，我也会作同样的选择。当然，遇到这种极端的情况的机率太小了。
我爱我的孩子，我希望她知道我有多爱她，但是，当这爱让她觉得压力了，我就应该把这爱收藏起来，让她轻松，快乐。

Wonderful weekend

After a full week of raining and cloudy weather, we had wonderful sunny weekend. I also have a lot of stuff done.

First thing first, scrapbooking. I finally finished "Sophia's hair" mini album. Click here to see the whole album. I made everything from scratch, may not do such thing again, the binding was painful. Overall it turned out terrific. Wzg likes it, too. I know there are sth in there not so perfect, there is still space to improve. It's one of the motivations for me to do more. I had some shopping, too. I got the famous heidi swapp kit for $20, also got a two pack leather album, beat the walmart price, some album refills, which is offering $5 instant MFR rebate, some cute office supply and ribbons at Target. I'm satisfied for now, but still need the fall pack from Joann, will buy this weekend when they are on sale.

Continue working in the house cleaning. I cleaned the floor, finished laundry, and reorganized my scrap room. I should have cut Sophia's hair, will do it this week. I bought the new product from Tide, the simple pleasures with vanilla and lavender scent. Used it for sheets and towel, the scent isn't so strong as I expected, but sleeping in the fresh smell was truly pleasant.

Our Nissan Xterra is cleaned and ready for sale. We bought it 3 years ago on Labor day. I felt great after making the last mortgage payment two weeks ago. But now it's ready to go. I'm sure we'll miss it when snow season comes.

For some reason, Sophia didn't feel like to play at the playground, both indoor and outdoor. So we played shopping. I went to Costco with her. As soon as she saw those new fancy toys (I think Costco already has Christmas toys sale now), she refused sitting in the shopping cart. I let her play a little bit. She soon fell in love in a wood pushing cart. Then she pushed with me, no matter where I pushed my shopping cart, she pushed the little toy cart right behind me, I turned right, she turned right, I turned left, she turned left, I backed up, she backed up. How fun! It was such a fun shopping experience for Sophia and me.
The most exiting thing of this weekend? 超级女声 is back! We haven’t watched for a couple months. It’s such a long show! Anyway, Sophia enjoys it so much. She loves all the songs, she shakes her head, tabs her feet, and even makes some noises while watching the girls singing. She claps and jumps at the beginning and the end of each song. When the fans cheer in TV, she cheers, too! She may want mommy to pay to vote her favorite 超级女声 when she grows up.

Sneak Peek

I had a couple hours last night and tonight to do some pages for Sophia's mini album. Made some progress, not too much. But my scrap room is getting messy now.

Take a look the page I finished last night. I will show the whole thing when I'm done.

宁宁的房间

一直都没有真正给宁宁装修她的房间,所以零零碎碎的,最近买了一个小床,还是很可爱的.顺便就拍拍她房间的各个角落吧.

较量

第一回合：九点左右
昨天晚上，给宁宁洗了澡，擦了香香，换了睡衣，放到大床上睡觉,妈妈开始收拾刚洗完的衣服。宁宁不从，哼哼叽叽，妈妈给宁宁拿了宁宁最喜欢的Baby bop bed time book,而且爬上大床陪宁宁一起看书,宁宁才开始乖乖看书.
第二回合：十分钟后
宁宁看够了，开始骚扰妈妈，妈妈只好给宁宁讲故事。故事讲完了，宁宁还是不满足，一定要看 puzzle book.妈妈没办法，降了。宁宁很笨，拼图拼不上，又开始闹，无奈，妈妈又只好降了，帮助宁宁拼。拼好了妈妈劝宁宁躺下，闭眼，然后妈妈拍拍，宁宁终于老实了。
第三回合：将近十点
妈 妈等待着宁宁均匀的呼吸声，因为那样就证明宁宁真的睡着了。没想到，宁宁突然爬起来，冲妈妈笑嘻嘻的，如果她会讲话一定会说，“我赢了”。就这样，又一 轮骚扰开始了。宁宁看上了妈妈的scrapbooking杂志，给什么都不行。妈妈可不敢给她，因为晚上宁宁刚刚撕坏了一本新杂志。于是斗争进入白热化。 妈妈暗下决心，决不让步。宁宁也是一样，开始撒泼，不停地哭。
第四回合：十点多
考虑到晚饭有点咸，妈妈决定给宁宁喝点水，安慰一下。宁宁见到水，象是刚从上甘岭下来的，眨眼间，半杯入肚。另外半杯就又吐了一身，妈妈无奈，只好赶紧给宁宁换衣服，宁宁露出了胜利的微笑。
第五回合：十点半
喝 水没有分散宁宁的注意力，还是惦记着妈妈的杂志，妈妈决定誓死保卫最后一块阵地，坚决不给，坚决不搭理宁宁，看她能嚎多久。宁开始声音特别大，每哭两三 分钟就休息半分钟。苦了不到一刻钟的工夫终于睡着了。这一刻钟，妈妈过得象半年，既想抱起宁宁哄一哄，又气得想骂她几句，但是妈妈知道，这两种办法都只能 让她更晚睡着，所以只好忍着。

斗争并没有就此结束，十一点宁宁又醒了一次，不过拍了两下就睡了。十一点半，妈妈把宁宁移到小床，宁宁睡得 很好。半夜，宁宁醒了，开始大哭，哭得不长，两 三声就没动静了，妈妈想，宁宁可能是做梦了，所以也没理她。过了一会， 宁宁又开始大哭，然后哭两三声就又没动静了，就这样反复了几次，妈妈就象那个相声，“扔靴子”，总等着，看宁宁还哭不哭，好了没，痛苦死了，最后只好将宁 宁抱回大床一起睡。斗争结束了。

总结：
（一）不要夸孩子。昨天刚刚夸宁宁最近特别乖，宁宁就现原形了。
（二）当爹妈需要极大的耐心。

My new hobby: Scrapbooking

As you can see from my blog, I have a new hobby: scrapbooking.
I learend about it from some mom message board. Someone posted her altered items, lunch boxes, receipt boxes, composition books etc. I just loved them and thought those people are so handy and so creative. I would never be so artistic to make such beautiful things. Then I started to pay attention on scrapbooking section while shopping at Target. One day I happened to see a pack of beautiful pattern paper was on clearence and thought I can just play around for that price. That was my first scrapbooking purchase, back in Feburary. At that time I wasn't sure if I could do it with a toddler running around and a full time job.
In July I started to chat at a message board of Creating Keepsakes Magzine. It is such a wonderful message board, and so many super nice women, they kindly answered all my dummy questions. I go to that message board almost everyday, viewing galleries at CK and two peas. It became my routine. With all the encourages I got from these scrapholic I felt more confident in myself. I started to shop my startup pack. I bought a 12" paper trimmer at ebay, got some paper and adhensive at Joann, a couple of albums at Target, some embellishments here and there. I soon started my first page. It's about Sophia got up early on a Sunday morning and helped daddy with gardening. She was wearing the favorite green bunny hoodie. I wanted to put all the pictures into one layout, because they are all so beautiful. I ended with 4 of them in one. I'm very happy with the result and uploaded it to CK gallery on August 9th.
Since then, I can't stop. I just love the process of creating. The outcome? Some are good, some are not so good, but I'm making progress. Now I have half album full, and I'm in the middle of a mini album of Sophia's hair.
At the beginning, I like scrapbooking because it's such a great way to preserve memories. I will be thrilled if my mom shows me a book of my stories when I was little. Since I have Sophia, I have sth exiting happening almost everyday. I don't want to let them go. I wanted to save them, keep them. After reading stories of other scrapers, I realized scrapbooking is not only preserving memories and creating albums. It makes me pay more attention to my life, I listen more carefully, look more closer, think deeper, and write more.
For the creativity aspect, I'm ready to take the challenge. I love drawing when I was a kid. I still do. Scrapbooking is a comprehensive art, it can be a collection of all kinds of creativities. Drawing, sewing, photography, papercrafts, writing, and more, use your imagination.

老毛病刚除新毛病又来了

自从买了新的小床，宁宁一直不肯睡，这几个星期一直和我们挤在大床上，非常痛苦。自从去了Baltimore回来，宁宁开始老老实实睡小床了，而且每天不到十点就睡觉，非常之让人高兴，我这个当妈妈的也看到了一丝曙光。
可是老毛病刚除新毛病又来了。不知道为什么，宁宁最近两天吃东西的时候总甩头，不是一般的甩，是象舞台上那些摇滚歌星扮酷，还乐此不疲，象是吃了摇头丸。 另外一个毛病就很让人生气了。每天晚上一上床睡觉宁宁就要水喝，如果你给她，她就一边喝一边吐，直到衣服和床都湿了。所以每天晚上都要换好几次衣服。

重新做人

昨天反省了以后，决定重新做人。
晚饭作了四个菜，不仅一家三口吃饱饱，今天的早饭午饭也都解决了。整理了我们的房间和宁宁的房间，洗了两锅衣服，完成了两页mini album。收了宁宁穿小的衣服，给wzg拿了冬天的衣服出来,如果我天天这么勤劳，估计活很快就能干完了。

Messy life

It has been three days since we were back from Baltimore. It wasn't a long trip, only two days, but I felt very lazy/tired after the trip. I don't have mood to do anything. Everything is messy in the house, only Sophia is still clean and shine. There are piles of dirty clothes in the laundry and our bedroom, piles of dirty dishes in the kitchen sink. I haven't done any cleaning after we were back except cleaning Sophia everyday. Scrapbooking? I meant to do 3 layouts a week. But only made a card for "Sophia's Hair" mini album, I think there will be a long time to finish the whole mini album (12 pages), and will never start a layout until I finish the album. I have so much to do, I need to upload tons of pictures from the trip, I need to clean everything before Christine comes, I have to take out all winter clothes (I don't want everyone catch cold), and tuck away summer clothes, We need some grocery, wzg is bored of vegies in the garden. I have pages and pages to-do list. Such a messy life.

Now, the good thing.
Sophia got some compliments on her outfit this morning. Today is picture day, I dressed her with white long sleeve shirt, white tights, pink gymboree dress and pink shoes. She looks adorable. Hopefully she still looks that way when I pick up her tonight.
I'm quite happy with the card I made in "Sophia's Hair" mini album, wzg even said "display it on the book shelf".
We made a trip to library even I felt lazy. Sophia showed great interest in the fish tank, is that an effect from the Baltimore Aquarium trip? Anyway, she played a little bit there, and read a couple new books. I got my scrapbooking books, read them everyday now.

我们变老了吗？

我们变老了吗？不知道该如何回答这个问题，一下子想起了许多, maybe memories can answer this question。

6 years ago, we, 4 of us, drove the beloved Corolla wagon to Canada, everything is just like yesterday, memories are still very clear to everyone of us. Lgk still remembers the missed dinner due to our Casino loss (or due to me) and I'm sure he will carry his memory to the next generation. I still remember we couldn't afford parking, eventually we took turns to stay with the car while others gambling in the Casino, I remember yql asked me how women could bear the bad smell of men when lgk kindly offered his stinky pillow to yql. Now yql can answer this question better than me. I remember we ran to the bank for cash when we found out only had coins after a dinner in a restaurant, I remember we ate so many 荔枝 that I don't think I had ever ate that many again, I remember we were so nervous at the custom check point with whole trunk of 荔枝. I remember yql stayed awake to entertain the driver (of course lgk) by feeding him 瓜子, isn't that sweet? I remember we woke up in dark in nowhere and found out driver (lgk) got lost. When I pull out the pictures of that trip, none were good enough to go to my scrapbook, since I used a disposable camera.

Our best ever trip was the 2000 Christmas to Florida. That was a blast. We drove 20 hours from state college to Florida, from snowy cold college to sunny warm Florida. We got our Disney tickets at gas station for a lower price, we stretch our limit by running two Disney parks in one day. (Now? 3 of us worn out after 3 hours walk in a zoo, lgk was the only strong man.) None of us was brave enough to ride the coolest roller coaster in Islands of adventure, we may have to when our kids grow up and need accompany. We upgraded to digital camera and saved every happy moment of that trip. My little Sophia even recognized daddy from that stash of pictures. Yes, he didn't change, still the same weight. We (not 4 of us, only lgk and wzg, the drivers) did speed very much but were caught speeding when drove less than 50mph at a road of 45mph speed limit. (Now? lgk confessed turning too sharp when there is baby on board, I didn't even noticed the turn. lgk will be a model daddy-to-be.) Maybe someday, when our kids are old enough to remember things, we'll go there again, but never drive 20+ hours again.

The trip to white face mountain wasn't so long as Florida trip but was as much as fun. We drove a fire red ford Mustang rental, it was powerful yet tiny. I don't know if we, 4, can still squeeze in it with those adding fat over the years, but I'm sure we are not going to fit in all the caves that we crawled at "lost river", not sure of the name, correct me if I'm wrong. But that hiking trail was the most fun and most challenge one I've ever been to and will definitely go again! Do you guys still have the pictures of the pingpong ball rain? That was the most bazaar weather, it was cool, no one could believe it if he/she doesn't see it in person. I remember we had a free ride from the bottom of a mountain to top, from a beautiful colorful fall to a cold snowy winter in a few minutes. I remember the romantic B&B stay. Everything in that fall was perfectly beautiful.

Last, not least, we got together again this weekend at Baltimore to celebrate the reunion of lgk and yql, I'm really happy for you guys to get together after such a long time being apart. Congratulations on your new addition, VW wagon, to memorize the be loved Corolla wagon. We had a great success in crab hunting and a lot of fun at the zoo. Many years have passed; people are still the same people.

Sweet kisses ( from my darling daughter Sophia)

I think I should write down these meomeres in case I let them go in a couple of years.
Last night I was playing with Sophia, she was so bored with her "Toy's R Us", she required me playing instead of toys. So I decided to make a phone call to my mom and let her "talk" a little bit. I let the speaker on, so it was pretty much three women chatting, but really was me and my mom talking, Sophia wanted to be part of it from time to time. She grabbed the phone even she can hear everything from the speaker, since that looked more like mommy on the phone, she "talked" just like everyone can understand. To me her langruage is more like Japanese, because she nodded her head constantly, and her tone was so soft, mommy and grandma were both melted by her sweet talk even we didn't know what she was talking about. She got off the phone when she needed a book to read, when she wanted mommy to hug, when she needed sth to drink, after a while, she felt like talking again. She put the phone onto her ear again, when gradma requested a kiss, she gave it without any hesitation, then she couldn't stop kissing, kissing the phone, grandma. Then I kissed her, she kissed back, she then kissed grandma, we kissed each other.
When we were done with the phone call, she said bye bye to grandma and of course a numerous fly kisses.

All those sweet kisses made my day, and made my life so meaningful and grateful.
There is nothing can stop me loving my darling daughter just because all those sweet kisses she gave. I love you, my baby.