Category Archives: Daily Fun

Thanksgiving 2011

Posted on by
Reply

This year we celebrated a little differently than in previous years. We added 15 more people! You would think this would add a lot of stress to the preparations, but actually it made everything much easier.

Pam's Pumpkin Pies

We decided to do pot-luck. Not only did this drastically reduce the amount of hours my mom and I slaved in front of the stove, but it added another great surprise. People all have their special dishes that they do really well. We got the best of the best. My mother’s cranberry chutney and sweet potato casserole. Cindy’s stuffing and famous cookies. Pam’s white chocolate pumpkin pie. Bubbie’s apple pie.

I’m hoping it was more fun for the adults. I know the kids had a blast. At one point Adam decided it was time to use the piñata that his mother’s gave us for Halloween. All the kids left with another bag full of candy. In fact, I don’t think Ben ate anything last night besides candy and cookies!

Kiddie Table

Adam also gave a touching speech about how it’s all about friends and family in life. I was amazed how coherent it was considering he once again woke up that morning at 3am to go to the office and worked a 12 hour day before coming home to a house full of screaming, running, laughing kids.

I know lots of you reading aren’t living in America, but for those who are American or living here, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving.

Pin It

Pregnancy Update – Week 15

Posted on by
Reply

Had another appointment with my ob/gyn this week.

I weighed in at 139 pounds. That’s about 20 pounds weight gain so far.

My heart rate was good – 106/54.

The babies must be getting big because this time she was able to hear both heart rates without using the ultrasound machine.

Secretly I was disappointed. My mom is in town and I was hoping she could see them on the screen.

But the most important thing is that the heart rates are completely normal.

In two weeks I have to go back for a blood draw for the United Screening Approach. Hopefully it will put our mind at ease in regards to Chromosone 21 (Down’s Syndrome).

In five weeks we have our twenty week ultrasound. That ultrasound can tell us the sex of the babies, but don’t get too excited. We don’t plan to find out in advance. It was scheduled in another office. Apparently it takes a long time to do with twins and they don’t want to jam up the ultrasound machine in their office.

Pin It

Musical Beds

Posted on by
Reply

You ever have those moments as a parents where there is a situation in your house that you know is completely wrong but you lack the will power or knowledge to fix it?

My husband has been working long hours lately. He always works long hours, so when I am actually saying it’s long, it’s long. Last night was the earliest he’s been home in a at least a week. He got home at 10pm. It was only because he needed to get some sleep in before his 3am call with the UK.

But that is not the situation that needs fixing. I mean, I think he has a situation that obviously needs fixing at work but that’s not the situation that I’m talking about.

Here is my problem. Look at my schedule last night.

10 pm – Go to bed.

12:30 am  – Ben cries. Go into his room and fall asleep on the couch until…

1:30 am – Go back to my own bed.

2:15 am – Adam’s alarm goes off and he gets up to go to work.

3:30 am – Jack wanders into our room. I walk him back to his room and fall asleep in his bed.

4:30 am – I wake up in Jack’s room and go back to my own room.

5:15 am – Ben cries again. Back to his room and onto the couch again until he falls asleep.

6:00am – Jack finds me in Ben’s room and we are up for the morning.

First of all, you should not have a schedule at night!

Second of all, well, second of all… I’m just too tired to think of a second of all. But I’m sure it has something to do with me being weak to the crying or not giving in to just letting them sleep in our bed. Perhaps I’m just hoping when we bunk the boys together to make room for the twins it will work itself out somehow.

Ha ha ha. I’m laughing at myself even as I write this!

Okay. Ben is napping now and I think I’m going to do the same. I’m just going to pull a Scarlet O’hara on this problem and think about it tomorrow…

Pin It

Opart Thai

Posted on by
Reply

As I mentioned yesterday, since I moved to Chicago back in 2004, I’ve been on a quest for real, authentic Thai food. I’ve been Arun\’s (tasty, but too fancy), Spoon (just okay), Star of Siam (not as authentic as I’d like, but I do love how you can get brown rice and almost everything can be made vegan), PS Bangkok (not memorable). I’ve tried Thai dishes at places like Shine, a place that we frequent for sushi but the thai food was too Americanized.

I’ve complained of this problem often to many people. No one had any good suggestions. I just could not believe Chicago, a food lover’s dream destination, did not have a single place with good, authentic Thai food!

Recently I got a recommendation about Opart. After so many disappointments I was weary. But my determination won in the end. We checked it out.

Yummy! Best Thai food I’ve had since I moved back to the states. I always order my favorite dish as a base line, the Pad Kra Praow. It is ground meat of your choice (I do chicken) sauteed with basil and hot peppers. It was by far the most authentic I’ve tasted outside of Asia. If you’re craving Thai food, you should check it out!

Pin It

Japo!

Posted on by
1

Japo arrived late Friday night (I say late, it was 9:45, past my normal bedtime!) from Florida.

She came bearing, among other things, her famous Cranberry Chutney for Thanksgiving and my all time favorite Christmas cookie.

Two Snuggle Bunnies

She wasted no time snuggling up to the kids.

I wasted no time trying to figure out which restaurant Adam and I were going to eat at while we had all this free babysitting in town!

For a long time now I have been on a quest for real, authentic Thai food. I very excited to say – I think I’ve found it. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog…

Pin It

A Thin Air Play Date

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday I picked Jack up from school and he asked me, “Can we have a play date this afternoon?”

“Jack,” I answered, “Play dates don’t just appear out of thin air. You have to plan them. It’s too late to get a play date now.”

So we went home. Put on Cars 2. A few minutes later, the door bell rang. It was my friend Jennifer with her three kids!

“Can we come over and play?” She asked. “We had a play date down the street but it was cancelled.”

I stand corrected. I guess play dates do appear out of thin air.

Pin It

Top Five Chicago Must Sees for Tourists

Posted on by
Reply

Last week I posted some winter, kid friendly stuff to do in Chicago on Hidden Little Gems. It’s a facebook app which provides lists to “discover places to eat, drink, stay & play from your friends”. Hidden Little Gems was started by an old friend of mine from my days in Asia.

As a result, a few of my old buddies saw the list and contacted me. I guess I never realized that, even though I moved out of that life and started a new one, most of them stayed there and still see each other.

A lot of them now have kids, so I’m hopeful that my list will be useful to them. But not all. So, I decided a needed to post a few more lists to represent the lone Chicagoan of the group!

This next post, Uniquely Chicago Experiences. If you are looking for touristy stuff to do when people are in town, these five things are a must.

Pin It

Pregnancy Update – 14 Weeks

Posted on by
Reply

Not much to report this week. Next week I have another check up with the doctor but this week I’m basically sitting around incubating.

When you are pregnant the question you get asked most often is, “How are you feeling?”

My response for the past three months has been, “I’m much more tired this pregnancy. I think it’s the extra hormones from having twins.”

Then, this past weekend, I went to New York. Same hormones, but no kids waking me up screaming in the middle of the night. No responding to kiddie requests every 5 seconds. No carrying, no chores, no cooking.

You know what? I wasn’t tired once.

Pin It

New York, New York

Posted on by
Reply

Nobu TriBeCa

I spent this past weekend staying at the W Hotel with a man who was not my husband. My good friend from my days in Hong Kong, Tom Chu, was there training for his new job as head of Asia for Cole Haan. Tom is also gay, so don’t worry, the weekend was completely approved by my husband.

It was everything a pregnant mom on her weekend off could hope for and more.

We ate and ate and ate. We ate so much I thought I might be growing a third baby right there. Tom treated us all to dinner at Nobu Friday night. I can still taste the miso cod. Heavenly. Then my friend from high school, Kate Fortunato, headed out with Tom and I for a day of shopping and to Barney’s for lunch the next day. We also stopped by Kate’s husband’s restaurant, Extra Virgin, where Kate treated us to some afternoon drinks and dessert. The place was packed even though it was 4pm! He recently got featured on Food Network’s “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” for his Sunday night Spaghetti and Meatballs. Finally another buddy of Tom and I from Hong Kong, Greg Tan, who now lives in New York had us over for dinner at his place. Back in the day, Tom, Greg and I were like the three stooges. He wanted to order in but there was a delicious spread of leftovers from his kids dinner including Chinese Duck. We happily ate that instead!

In the evening I got a massage from Spa Belles off Bleeker with Evin. Kate recommended him. He was so good I wanted to pack him in the suitcase and bring him home with me.

And there was shopping. Tom treated me with his discount at Cole Haan. I bought a much needed new pair of boots, and got Adam a couple of pairs as well. With the Nike Technology inside, they are super comfortable.

There was also star sightings everywhere we went. We sat across from Chase Crawford from Gossip Girl. Tom asked me if I recognized him. To which I replied – I’m not twelve. At Barney’s, Steve Martin. On the street we walked past Ed Burns with his kid.

Best of all, I didn’t get woken up in the middle of the night from crying kids.

Sadly, I did not get to see Greg’s wife, Margie. In an unbelievably cruel twist of fate, their third son, Ollie was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of Leukemia. He has been in the hospital for 4 months now. He is scheduled for his fourth round of chemo. This weekend he suffered from a high fever all weekend and Margie was not able to leave his side. Because he was in isolation, we could not go to them. If you are reading this and live in New York, they are still looking for a donor for type B+ blood for him…

 

Pin It