MNO

My fellow momma girlfriends and I had an MNO (moms night out) this weekend and it was so much fun.!! We had an amazing dinner at Hondaya in Fullerton and went to karaoke to sing, dance and let loose.  It was so therapeutic to enjoy dinner with great uninterrupted conversation and incredibly stress relieving to belt out songs from way back when and dance like no one was watching.  I absolutely cherish this time with girlfriends that I can lean on, vent to and share this experience of motherhood with.

There was more amazing food but I got too hungry and excited to take more pictures.

Hello blog!  Keeping up with this blog has proven to be challenging in these past few months.  Multitasking as wife, mom and daughter has kept me pretty busy and it's become easier to share daily memories on Facebook and Instagram (my recent fave).  Emily is just shy of 18 months and it's incredibly amazing to watch her blossom into a sassy, funny, strong-willed and smart little person.  I can't get enough of my (not so) little bundle of joy!

We took a recent trip to San Diego and visited Sea World.  It was the first time for both Jason and I and Emily had lots of fun with her Grandma.  Our past few weeks have been spent trying to beat the heat and finding fun things to do to keep Emily engaged and interested with her growing curiosity and independence. 

She knows a handful of words now and clearly expresses what she wants at any given time.  She's also quite the drama queen and can cue those tears at the drop of a hat.  She's still very clingy to me and will often cry when I leave the room, especially if she's tired or hungry.  She LOVES to "play" with the dogs and we are constantly teaching her to be gentle.  They make her laugh so often and my heart explodes with joy every time Emily wholeheartedly laughs at anything. 

16 Months

It's been awhile since I posted an entry.  A lot has been going on and I'm keeping busy chasing Emily around.  She loves being outside, playing with water and has a lot more tantrums than before.  Ah the joys of toddlerhood!  With FB and Instagram, blogging has become a little neglected and honestly hard to keep up, but I'll try my best since I want Emily to look back on this someday. 

Happy Birthday Hubby and Emily is 15 Months

It's Hubby's birthday and we're so lucky to have him.  He's pretty darn amazing.  I love you Hubby <3

Emily turned 15 months on the 24th and had her doctor visit with three shots.  At 15 Months she is 23.6 pounds (79 percentile) and 31 inches (66 percentile).  She says about six or seven words and loves to point at things.  She'll sometimes point at things just to show she's into it.  She gets super excited when she sees any balls, balloons or bubbles and will point and shout "BALL, or BU-BBLE!"

Happy 15 months Baby!

Bathtime

Tonight was Emily's first bath in the actual tub and she wasn't afraid!  She had a blast with all the bubbles.  These little subtle changes may seem insignificant, but to me they're huge indicators that my sweet baby is growing up SO fast.  There is something new literally everyday.  She rarely crawls now and when she does, I suddenly miss my little baby so much.

During open play at Gymboree today she went and laid down for almost a full minute and I thought she was going to take a nap! HA! She just needed to recharge before taking off again :)

The "funny" mirror.  She thought this was the funniest thing, EVER.

Don't grow up too fast my baby

A great meal idea

Emily isn't big on meat so she doesn't enjoy meatballs, especially the homemade turkey ones I made awhile ago.  My fellow mama friend Jane gave me a great meal idea a few weeks ago and they've been a hit!  Small rice patties/balls!  They're perfect bite size and since Emily LOVES rice she gobbles them up so quickly!  After mixing rice with veggies and a little tuna or meat, shape them into bite size balls, dip in egg and cook them in a little olive oil!

I ran out of eggs this morning so for today's lunch I just cooked some rice with frozen veggies and spam and once it cooled off, I rolled them into little bite size balls.  I rolled some in Japanese rice seasoning since she loves seaweed too.  This is such a quick and easy meal and it's always a hit!  I love the organic frozen veggie medley from Costco.  It comes in so handy for a lot of my dishes.  I put the veggies in a food processor to grind them up a bit so they mix better with the rice.

Emily enjoying her lunch of rice balls, tofu and miso soup:

Tuesdays with Grandma

We spend Tuesdays with Grandma and Emily always has the best time ever.  Her face lights up when Grandma walks through the front door!  Today we ran errands and went to walk around the mall.  I got Emily the child safety harness backpack after a 10 second scare I had last week at the mall.  She's not full on running yet but I don't want to take my chances since her growing curiosity means wandering and hiding.  A lot of people have their opinions about the safety harness, most without children or without a scare, and I have to admit I used to think they were silly and felt a little sheepish today but better a safe child than a lost child and frantic parent. 

Little troublemaker

I love how her creative play is starting to blossom

More ice cream!! Grandma never says no

On sale???

Developing her love for shoes early :)

She got upset that we walked past the cars without taking a ride so we took a picture instead

She thinks it's funny when her shadow waves back at her haha

Not diggin' the restriction...

We've been spending a lot of time at the dojang lately and Emily LOVES it.  She can walk around and she loves playing with the older kids and trying to participate in class.  She says hi to all the kids and squeals with laughter when they're training.  We want her to start classes as soon as she seems ready, probably around two and a half years old.

 

Being out and about and running errands with a walking toddler is new territory for me so I'm still practicing everyday.  She rarely wants to stay in the cart or her stroller so I have to strategically plan errands at places where she can walk around without getting into too much trouble and I can easily scratch a few things off my to-do list without feeling overwhelmed.  I think I might have to get a child backpack restraint but we'll see.

Loves stickers these days

Insomnia rarely visits these days but tonight, it's gotten comfortable.  Maybe since my mind has been go, go, go since Emily woke up this morning, this is my brain's way of giving me some "me" time, at 1AM (I'll pay for it in about five hours or so).  I've been browsing food blogs for the past hour, one of my favorite things to do, and making mental notes of dishes I'd like to try.  I came across this blog just now and I'm enjoying looking through the recipes. 

Korean Bapsang

Fashion, makeup and impeccable style come so naturally to a lot of my girlfriends but for me, it does not.  For me, cooking and food hold my interests longer.  I'd much rather work with ingredients to create a dish than fashion pieces to create an outfit.  Similarly, I'm more excited about adding a coveted "piece" to my kitchen than to my closet lately.  I'm sure watching my mom take such joy and pride in her home cooking as I grew up is a huge factor in why cooking is one of my comfort zones.  As busy as my working mom was during our childhood, we rarely ate takeout.  She also packed our lunches well into the beginning of high school and as much as I cringed everyday at how uncool I was for bringing a dorky lunch in junior high, I'd do anything for one of those lunches right now!


This would be a pretty amazing view while cooking.  A girl can dream...

LOVE

I took Emily to story time at the Diamond Bar library this afternoon and I think I will wait until she's a little older to go back.  She kept getting up and walking away to touch things screaming, "appa" most of the time.  We took a little break by the kid friendly computers and then when craft time started, I was hoping she'd be interested in the materials but she tried to suck on a sharpie and got really mad when I took it away, haha sorry baby!! 

Now that's she's getting the hang of getting up and walking to do/touch whatever she wants, I'm getting plenty exercise chasing after her.  I better start doing some cardio when she's mastered full on running!  Baby proofing with a walking toddler is on another level.  Mommy is tired!!

This looks funny, Mommy!!

Emily is finally napping and it's been one heck of a morning.  She fell and got a booboo on her forehead, had a major, MAJOR meltdown at her usual noon naptime and refused all three things I cooked for her lunch.  She ended up having a banana and milk.  I also went for a walk this morning with the dogs but couldn't stay out long because everytime a dog barked, I got freaked out and had flashbacks from the traumatic pit bull incident. 

Enjoying homemade popsicle

I came across this picture on Pinterest yesterday and fell in love.  How clever and cute?!  Lunch is a struggle for me since I'm too busy trying to feed Emily so I end up eating something fast (not healthy) or eating her leftovers, which leaves me hungry by dinnertime thus contributing to poor meal choices.  I think I might try this out on Sunday and prepare yummy salads for the week.

Another current obsession of mine is a Le Creuset French Oven.  Aren't the teal and orange absolutely beautiful??  It's amazing how cookware brings me such joy these days.  I'm obsessed with soups, stews, slow cooked meals and I really want to invest in one of these.  If I can bring myself to save and splurge on one of these, it will definitely be an heirloom piece I will pass down to whichever child loves cooking as much as I do.  I sometimes see them at TJ Maxx or Homegoods but I read that they're usually mismatched pieces, meaning the lids don't properly fit and they don't take enough care to package them properly for shipping.  I'll still keep my eyes open though when I'm bargain shopping and maybe I'll get super lucky. 
 

 

booboo :(