The Nearest Future

Double Feature

Is there anything more decadent to parents of a baby than going to a double feature?

Before E. was born N. and I would occasionally (maybe twice a year) go to a double feature on a Saturday if there were a couple of movies we wanted to especially see. There’s something slightly surreal and decadent about entering the plush air-conditioned atmosphere of a movie theater in the bright afternoon and then emerging four hours later into the hot dark summer night. Now factor in not having gone on a date sans bébé in months and the whole experience reeks of decadence.

Last night N. and I went and saw Hellboy 2 and Wall E. There are quite a few movies out right now that we want to see but haven’t been able to since we haven’t found a regular babysitter yet. (Many, MANY thanks go to Miranda for watching E. for us last night!)

Anyway, I enjoyed both movies. I’ve always like Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comics and Guillermo Toro is a great director (I loved Pan’s Labyrinth and it’s going to be interesting to see what del Toro does with the two Hobbit movies he’s going to direct.) He definitely has a unique visual style that I really like; the creatures in Hellboy 2 had a similar look to those in Pan’s Labyrinth. The art direction was great. Bits of the plot felt a little formulaic, but overall the movie was great. (Aside: How the heck is it that Selma Blair keeps getting younger and younger? She’s 36, for crying out loud, but looks like she’s in her early-20s in the movie. It’s a little weird.)

Wall E was also a lot of fun. The animation was impressive (but always felt organic to the story) and the robot characters were so personable. I recommend seeing both movies, preferably in a double feature if you can manage!

Fine Feathered Friends

Some of you may remember Robin Watch ’08 and it’s unfortunate end. I’ve always had a fondness for birds. There’s something so delicate and wild about them and it’s softly thrilling when I see a bird up close.

Last week I noticed a hummingbird flying around the tree just outside our front door. When I would open the front door it would fly right up to the screen door and look at me. A neighbor came to the door and after she got buzzed by the hummingbird she suggested that maybe it had a nest in the tree. I looked and looked but couldn’t find anything for a long time. But then I saw this:

The nest is TINY, smaller than an egg. I read online that hummingbirds make their nests out of moss, plant fibers, and spider webs. In the photo you can see the spider webs covering the outside of the nest. The webs remind me of the story of Thumbelina – I like to picture the hummingbird going to the spiders and bartering for some spider silk (because I’m a nerd like that). More likely than not the hummingbird probably just ate the spiders and then tore away their webs.

The nest is surprisingly close to our front door. Can you see it in the photo below?

I did some online research on hummingbirds and bought a hummingbird feeder and set it up outside. (Hummingbird PSA: apparently if you have a hummingbird feeder you shouldn’t add red dye to the food and you should clean and refill the feeder at least once a week.) I haven’t noticed the hummingbird using the feeder yet, but if she starts using it hopefully I can get some more pictures.

Recipe and ENT Follow-Up

Last night we had dinner with some friends. It was a lot of fun (Thanks for having us over, B. and E!) We brought along a dessert which was a sort of ice cream cake. I had seen an episode of Rachel Ray’s show and got the idea from her. I thought of it as a sort of frozen strawberry shortcake. There were only 3 ingredients: pound cake from Costco (yum!), strawberry ice cream, and some sliced strawberries for a garnish. Like Rachel Ray’s receipe, I used a pyrex meat loaf pan.

First we lined the pan with plastic wrap, making sure there was plenty of extra hanging over.
Then we sliced some strawberries and arranged them in an overlapping pattern on the bottom of the pan. (Note: they will freeze solid and so make sure to cut them thinly or else they may be a little too chunky like ours were.)
Spoon in some ice cream and spread it out evenly into about an 3/4″ layer.
Slice the pound cake horizontally into about 3/4″ layers. Lay a slice of pound cake over the ice cream and cut smaller pieces of pound cake to fill in any gaps.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 up to the top of the pan, ending with a cake layer.
Then wrap the extra plastic wrap over the top of the pan and press down on the whole thing a little. The ice cream should be a little soft so it mushes around and fills in any gaps.
Pop it in the freezer for at least 2 hours.
To unmold, dip the pan in a hot water bath for a half a minute to loosen everything up a bit. Then turn the pan upside down and wriggle it out of the pan by tugging on the extra plastic wrap. Discard plastic wrap.
Slice the cake vertically and serve. (Note: It doesn’t look that great when it comes straight out of the pan, but once you slice it into pieces, it looks pretty good. The end pieces don’t look as nice though, so either slice off a skinny piece from the end and discard it or give the end piece to your husband/roommate/boyfriend/child/dog to eat. You made it, so you should get a pretty piece!)

This morning I took E. back to the ear/nose/throat doctor today for his two-week follow-up appointment. The good news is that E.’s ears are all cleared up! The bad news is that E.’s was still a bit of a pill over the weekend. If his ears aren’t bothering him, I’m not sure why he’s been fussier than normal. Maybe he’s finally decide to teethe? He doesn’t have a single tooth yet. *shrug* Who knows.

What I do know is that my monthly report for work is due tomorrow and I still need to put in a lot of work on it. E. just went down for a nap and so I’ve got to get busy.

Slowly But Surely

This summer I have two goals: to get in shape and to organize my house. So far I’m making slow progress on both. It took me about a week, but I finally finished this project:

It’s a corner bookcase for my office/sewing room. It’s made up of Billy bookshelves from IKEA: 2 narrow units and 1 wide unit that each have height extensions. They’re held together by the corner bracket that IKEA sells.

The process of covering the back of the bookshelves was the same as the bookshelf I put in our bedroom, but this project upped the ante. To begin with, there were 3 shelves and 3 height extenders, so there were 6 pieces to cover in fabric. Stretching the fabric, stapling it around the edges, and smoothing down the excess fabric with spray adhesive (lesson learned: use it outdoors, not in your dining room!) got a little old after the 4th piece. Also, I had ambiously (foolishly) chosen a print with bold horizontal and vertical lines so it was a little difficult to line up both axes to make sure they were straight. Also, attaching the height extensions to the top of the shelves was a bit of a fiasco because of the low ceiling but N. was very sweet and helpful and came up with a solution to the problem. So, it all worked out well in the end (phew!)

Now I just need to organize my books on the shelves and sort out the rest of the room. Once the rest of the room is presentable, I’ll post some pictures.

A Whiter Shade of Pale

Even though I’ve half-Korean, my skin is pretty pale. My mom has fair skin for a Korean and I inherited her skin tone so my skin is pale with yellow undertones. Normally I try and rock the pale look: I apply sunscreen everyday and try to avoid spending too much time in the blistering Utah sun. I want to do what I can to avoid skin cancer (and I have to admit that I’m not in any hurry to get wrinkles either).

BUT, I also wear a skirt at least once a week and dislike pantyhose. And my legs are naturally a shade of fish-belly white so bright they practially glow. So I thought I’d try using one of the self-tanning body lotions that have cropped up lately. (See? It’s not an actual tanner, it’s just body lotion that gives you a hint of color. *Sigh.* I am such a sucker/hypocrite.) Anyway, I went with Aveeno’s Active Naturals Continuous Radiance for fair skin tones.

I have pretty sensitive skin (I’m afraid that E. inherited his from me) but Aveeno products are in general pretty good for sensitive skin. (Their baby products are what E.’s pediatrician recommended when his eczema flared up.) The lotion has a light scent to it, but it wasn’t chemical-y or bothersome. The lotion goes on and feels like it’s really moisturizing. You’re supposed to wait until it dries to put on clothes, but it seems to dry in just a few minutes. I’ve never had a problem with it rubbing off on my clothes.

(But what’s that, you say? You want to know how it actually works?) Well, it works pretty well. After a few days I started to see some color. There were a few small patches that were a teeny bit uneven (mostly around my ankles), but after a little over a week they evened out. The color looks natural and it’s not orange at all. I’ve been using it for about two weeks now and the color seems to have stabilized at a very light golden shade. It’s enough color for me, but unless you have super pale skin you might want to use the shade for medium skin tones.

Letter: Month Eight

Dear E,

The months keep flying by. June was a busy month, mostly because of happenings with your dad’s family. At the beginning of the month we went on a family vacation with all of your dad’s family to Yachats, a town on the Oregon coast. You seemed to enjoy your dad carrying you around on his chest in the Baby Bjorn. He would take you exploring along the beach to look at tide pools.

It was fun to see you with your cousins. Your big cousin E. in particular seemed quite taken with you and would try all sorts of things to entertain you.

After we got back from the coast there was only a week left before your dad’s parents had to leave for Korea. They’re going to spend the next 3 years serving a mission for our church there. I know they’re going to miss you and all of the other grandkids, but they’re excited about this opportunity.

With everything going on, June was a crazy month. Some where in between everything that happened you got pretty good at sitting up by yourself. You seem to be more curious about the things around you and love crinkling up paper or trying to fit the remote control in your mouth. In short, you’re a lot of fun.

Love,

Mama

What’s that you say?

The colonies have declared their independence? By George!

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope you have a lovely holiday. I think we’re going to putter around the house and then see some friends (and hopefully fireworks) in the evening.

I forgot to post about our trip to the ENT on Monday. Our pediatrician’s office had gotten us a 3:45 appointment but the doctor was really behind and we were stuck waiting for almost 2 hours. E. held it together pretty well for the first hour, but then started falling apart. So I put him in his stroller and walked laps around the hallway. It was good for him because he quieted down and fell asleep and it was good for me because I hadn’t had time to exercise that morning. We ended up walking around for 45 minutes!

Lateness aside, I really liked the doctor. He had a very competent and deliberate manner about him. After he checked E.’s ears the doctor said that they look like they’re in the process of draining. He said that the pressure is more painful to E. now that his ears are draining than when they were totally plugged up. He didn’t think it would be worth it to jump the gun and put tubes in when the problem may resolve itself. We have a follow up appointment to check E.’s progress in 2 weeks (thankfully it’s the first appointment of the day and so there won’t be a horrendous wait). So tubes are still a possibility, but they’re a slim one.

E. has been fussier these last couple of weeks than he has ever been. Luckily, it’s still not too bad. However, I’ve been spoiled by his previous mellowness and so this new behavior kind of wears me out. He has taken to shrieking in a super-high pitch at the drop of a hat. Hopefully the shrieking is related to his ear pain and only temporary rather than being a new hobby he has decided to explore. Because I have to admit that I am not a big fan.

Did you know I enjoy FILM?

Me: So my first DVD from Netflix arrived today.

N: What DVD did you get?

Me: Well, uh, I wasn’t really paying attention to the order of the DVDs in my queue…

N: Your very first movie pick says a lot about you as a person. Did you get a foreign film? Or a documentary so you can learn something about an interesting subject?

Me: Well, one of the reasons I signed up for Netflix was to have movies to watch when I’m excerising during the day, so I tried to pick movies that I don’t think you’re really interested in watching.

N: What did you rent? I bet you rented a Criterion Collection release! What’s the movie that you’ve been dying to see?

Me: Um, I rented Enchanted. Yes, Enchanted! Leave me alone!!!

N: Ha-ha!

And then we watched it together.

Next up, Park Chan-Wook’s brutal masterpiece, Oldboy. I know, I know–there is very little method to the madness of my Netflix queue. (Note to readers: I know who most of you are and I know that you are lovely people but that you would NOT like Oldboy. Do not watch it!)

What movies would you recommend? I added movies that I’ve always intended on seeing like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Chinatown to my queue, but I’d love to hear suggestions if you have any.

Mr. Sandman part 2 and E.

I think our float turned out pretty well. Mr. Sandman lost one of the shells from his mouth during the trip to the parade grounds, but other than that he survived unscathed. Now he’s sitting in my living room but I’m afraid he doesn’t quite fit the decor. I don’t know what to do with him other than prying off the sunglasses I glued to his head and chucking him into the trash. I have to admit that I got a little *sniff* attached to the guy. If anyone here in Utah can think of a good use for him, they can have him, sunglasses and all.

Since we got back from Oregon things have been pretty hectic with N.’s parents leaving for Korea, my helping with the parade float, and E.’s double ear infection. Yep, E. has a bad double ear infection. I didn’t mention it before because I was hoping it would clear up and I’m sure that everyone is sick of hearing about E.’s various ailments. But it hasn’t cleared up yet (and so you get to hear about it. Try to contain your excitement!)

It started with the cold that E. and I caught back at the end of May. E. developed a double ear infection from the cold and before we went to Oregon he took a round of oral antibiotics. His recovery didn’t seem quite as dramatic as the doctor said it would, but he did seem to be feeling better and so I didn’t take him back in for a check up before we left (foolish, foolish, Faith!) I thought the problem was fixed.

E. was really good on the drive to Oregon (even over the mountain passes) and for the first few days. But by the end of the week he was waking up 3 or 4 times a night crying and generally feeling worn out. But he was still really good on the drive back.

I took him back in to the doctor the Monday after we got home (the 16th) and his ears were infected pretty badly. So that week he had three shots of rocephin, which is pretty much the strongest antibiotic that the pediatrician uses. The shots were pretty painful.

Fast forward to last Monday when I took him back for a follow-up. The rocephin hadn’t worked and his ears are still really infected. Our doctor referred us to an ear/nose/throat doctor that we’re going to go see today. I’m a little worried about him having to have tubes in his ears. He just seems too little to be put under general anesthesia but everyone I’ve talked to that have had it done says it solves the problem. This is E.’s first persistent ear infection though, so I don’t know if it’s warrented. N.’s taking off from work a little early so he can go to the appointment too. I guess we’ll just have to see what our options are.

Mr. Sandman

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here before, but I’m on the activities committee at church. We plan parties and events for the ward (or congregation). Living in a small town in Utah with a predominately LDS population is interesting in many ways. One of them is in how closely the church is involved in civic matters. Most towns in Utah have a big festival/fair every summer with parades, carnival rides, contests, and rodeos. All of the wards in our town are encouraged to decorate floats for the parade.

The part of me that loves diners and drive-in movie theaters, and lemonade stands (or rather the idea of diners, drive-in movie theaters, and lemonade stands) loves the idea of these festivals. (So charmingly small-town! So summery and soaked in Americana!) So I was thoroughly charmed when I found out I was going to be helping on our ward’s float for the parade. (A float! In a real rodeo parade!) Our float’s theme is “Santa’s Traditional Summer,” mostly because the parade theme is something about Tall Tales and Traditions and the committee really wanted to do something that called for one of the committee members, a somewhat large guy, to dress as Santa Claus in an old-timey bathing suit.

So my assignment was to make a snowman that appeared to be made out of sand. I had no clue how to go about it, but I but some paper mache mix and balloons and spray paint. I think the head turned out fairly well:

But I have to admit that I am dubious about the structural strength of the other two spheres. I hope the whole thing can support itself. I guess we’ll find out later today – the parade’s at 3pm. Well, I’m off to finished Mr. Sandman. A boatload of hot glue can stick anything together, right?