I have a doctor friend who swears that her previously tidy, neat handwriting has gone downhill ever since she obtained her medical license. And I cannot — for the life of me — ever remember receiving a prescription that was decipherable.
Perhaps the AMA makes chicken scratch handwriting a requirement? 😛
Via A Cartoon Guide to Becoming a Doctor.
P.S. — For an example of how a doctor’s bad handwriting made me the laughingstock of my then-office, take a look at this post from 4 years ago.
A few of my readers — especially first-time parents — have recently asked me how I manage to find the time to blog.
My answer? Schedule, schedule, schedule!
Don’t get me wrong — I do not have a block of time I set aside every day to blog, because let’s face it: setting and sticking to a schedule is pretty damn difficult when you have a baby (with another on the way).
Instead, I use the “Draft” and “Schedule” functions on WordPress to pump out as many as five posts at once, whenever I have the time. In fact, I am currently writing this post in bed and will be scheduling it to be published the next day.
When I do get some downtime during the day, I check my Google Reader and get caught up on the happenings on the web. This is also the time I take to comment on friends’ blogs.
As reading and commenting takes the majority of my internet time, my
presence on other social media forums have dwindled quite a bit. (image source)
I am proud to say that my commenting has gotten much better since the day I publicly made the commitment. With that in mind, I do find myself at a loss for words more frequently than I would care to admit. One thing I have noticed is that there are certain subjects I thoroughly enjoy reading — travel, food, and fashion to name a few — but these are the ones I find most difficult to leave feedback. Perhaps it’s because these are subjects I am most unfamiliar with…so I feel silly writing the same things over and over again. (ie, I don’t know what else to write in addition to “That looks delicious!” or “What a pretty dress!”)
Or, if I find that a blog already gets tons of comments, usually from a tightly-knit, dedicated group of followers, I feel intimidated and will chicken out of commenting.
If you are a blogger, do you set aside time to write every day?
Do you find it difficult to comment on certain topics as I do? How do you overcome this obstacle?
I remember reading that shows like CSI are doing no favors for the judicial system, because jurors are demanding the highly improbable (and oftentimes quite costly) technological hocus-pocus that is seen on the shows.
I am often left having similar thoughts — “But they did it on ‘House’!” — during hospital visits and stays. 😀
Via Comixed.
Claire loves books. This bibliophile of a mother couldn’t be more proud, as our 11-month-old’s favorite “toys” are books…she “reads” in her stroller, she “reads” in the car, and she even “reads” during bathtime (we have some bath-safe, rubber books).
In fact, I think it’s safe to say that Claire already has more books than her dad! (I am so glad that she got this trait from me, because J really isn’t much of a reader.)
But do you see the problem here? That’s right — Claire can’t read yet. She loves to flip through her books, point things out, babble to herself and wrinkle/rip the pages, but she’s still far to young to read and probably will not be able to read, comprehend, and enjoy books for their actual purpose for another couple of years.
Hence, her favorite books at the moment are the interactive sort.
I’ve decided to compile a short list of Claire’s favorite books, because I strongly believe that instilling the love of books at a young age will help lead to a love of reading. Books have always played such an important role in my life, and I want to help youngsters learn to love to read too.
First up is Dinosaurs: A Mini Magic Color Book:
At 5.4″ x 5.5″, this mini book is the perfect size for Claire’s little hands. But the best part is what’s inside. Every spread features a “Pull” tab, like so:
And when you pull out the tab, the black-and-white image turns into full color!
So not only does this book help learn colors, it also helps Claire practice her pincher grips. The “Pull” tab is pretty small — about 3/4″ long — and it takes a bit of tugging to get the colored tab out, so her hand-eye coordination as well as her dexterity and finger strength come into play.
As soon as Claire understood that pulling out the tabs would reveal the dinosaurs in color, she started to try to pull it out herself…and within just a few days she became successful. Because it is an interactive book, and because she becomes so proud of herself for pulling out each tab (well, that may have to do more with the fact that we praise her whenever she successfully does it 😛 ), she never seems to get sick of this book.
Now, we’re working on pushing the tabs back in. 🙂
I have recently discovered that the Mini Magic Color Book is actually a series of books, which includes: Sea Creatures, Cars, Baby Animals, Pets, as well as a sub-series that revolve around holidays like Santa’s Special Day, Halloween Party, Witch’s Night Out, and The Christmas Story. I am soooo tempted to get all the books, but J says that Claire already has enough books. 🙁 Perhaps I will set aside some extra money from ads and gift them to her for Christmas.
The next book on the list isn’t exactly interactive, per se, but we make it so! It is You Are My Sunshine, a board book by Jimmie Davis and illustrated by Caroline Church:
If you immediately thought of the popular song of the same name, you’re on the right track! Each spread of this book features a cute illustration of a child with his/her stuffed animal, along with exactly one line from the song.
So instead of reading the book to Claire, J and I sing the book to her, turning the pages accordingly, and soon she began to associate the song with the book.
“You Are My Sunshine” is one of Claire’s favorite songs. So whenever she wants to hear the song, she will grab the book and hand it over to one of us. It’s the cutest thing to see her face light up as we begin to sing, and she always claps when the song is done. 🙂 Then, she will grab the book back and flip through the pages, trying her best to sing the song too. (Yes, I know that I must get this on video!)
Next up: What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Ann Schwartz.
Each spread of this book features a different color of the rainbow, with another color being added to the mix with each turn of the page. But the best part of the book is that a ribbon of the corresponding color threads through the pages, with another ribbon getting added until the rainbow is complete! (I know —even adults get amazed when they first see this book!)
To see what I mean, here is what the “blue” spread looks like:
And, with the rainbow is complete, the last spread features a beautiful pop-up rainbow (one side is a bit bent because Claire was trying to figure out how the pop-up worked):
The last on the list is not a single book but a set of books. It is called 뽀롱뽀롱 뽀로로 ㄱㄴㄷ 팝업북 (which loosely translates to “Pororo’s ABC Pop-Up Books”) and it was a gift from my mother.
Pororo the Little Penguin is Korea’s most popular kids’ show. Exported to over 110 countries, it is being touted as being part of the “second Korean wave” and some are even pushing for Pororo to be the official mascot for the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics. In fact, there have even been nationwide concerns that children’s affection for their fathers have been getting replaced by Pororo!
Claire is still too young to fully enjoy Pororo the television show (too much dialogue for her age), but she loves the Pororo music videos I downloaded for her. She dances along when a familiar song comes on, and will point out her favorite characters. As such, the 14-book set — one for each of the vowels in the Korean alphabet — featuring Pororo and his friends was a bit hit from the start.
Each book features different words that begin with the corresponding letter, uses them in a sentence (complete with beautiful illustrations), and as you can see above, the last page of each book is pop-up!
The boxed set was quite expensive at about $45 (we bought it at a local Korean bookstore), but I think it was well worth it. She loves to flip through each book, looking for her favorite characters and favorite illustrations, pointing them out to me while smiling and babbling. Additionally, I know that the books will definitely come in handy when it comes time to teach Claire how to read and write Korean.
I hope this list comes in useful to at least one of my readers! Are there any interactive books for babies you would recommend?
If it isn’t obvious by now, I *heart* Lego. J and I can’t wait until our kids are old enough for us to create Lego masterpieces with them!
I also love creative Lego ads. Whether they are commissioned or unsolicited, the likes of the Shadow Ads and Star Wars Make Your Own Story series never cease to bring a smile to my face.
Today, I happened upon another set that has me nodding and smiling. Created by TBWA of Costa Rica, these ads take the concept of classic words puzzle and puts a Lego twist to them. Needless to say, I am once again in awe.
Via Ads of the World: Tractor, Crocodile, Spaceship.
Isn’t it funny how you resist and even resent your parents growing up, and only when you become an adult — and more so, when you become a parent yourself — that you realize how wonderful they are?
Many of my readers may already be aware that Korea has deep roots in Buddhism. When I was still living in my native country in the early 1980s, it was not unusual for Buddhist monks to go around to neighboring houses to chant prayers, and ask for donations — in the form of money or rice — in return.
(image source)
My mother raised my sister and I in the Christian Church, so I have been a Christian for as long as I can remember. Because Christianity was all I knew — because Christianity was what I felt the most comfortable with — whenever the Buddhist monks would stop by our house, I would look at them in disdain, scornfully turning my back on them.
Sometimes, my sister and I would take it a step further by loudly insulting them.
Then one day, our mother caught us throwing insults at the monks. After hushing us, she went to the kitchen, returned with a large bag of rice, and presented it to the monks.
In fact, this wasn’t the first time she gave the monks rice. My mother donated rice every time they stopped by, despite the fact that our family was pretty poor back then, nevermind her not even being Buddhist.
My mother turned to us after the monks left that day, and told us that she was disappointed. She said that just because someone is a different religion from us does not give us the right to look down on them — if anything, they should be treated with greater respect and love so that they could see the love of Jesus through our actions.
I was only 4 or 5 years old at the time, but I will never forget those words.
My mother was also the one who taught me about the importance of love. When I was younger and couldn’t quite grasp the concept of love — ‘Isn’t it just a stronger form of like?’ I believed — I asked her for clarification, and she answered:
Love is something you give away. When you give one love away, you get back two. When you give two loves away, you get back four. You can never give too much love away, because the more you give, the more you will receive in return.
Granted, only now I can see the flaw in this theory…but this is only because as humans, we are only capable of imperfect love. Real, perfect love conforms completely to this message, no?
I have stated before that I do not have many mommy friends, as most of my girlfriends are not yet married and still enjoying the single life. But ever since I became a mother myself, I have grown close to my own mom…and despite the disagreements all mothers and daughters are bound to run into, I am eternally grateful to have her in my life, and to have the opportunity to thank her for everything she’s done for me.
Today I woke up and remembered how a decade ago, I saw smoke rising from lower Manhattan as I drove along the New Jersey Turnpike. I remembered how I, along with other drivers, stopped our cars and turned our radios on full blast while we stared in horror at another plane crashing into the second tower.
I had been on my way into Manhattan at that moment. I had been on my way to Chinatown, which meant that I would have passed Ground Zero on the way to my destination.
For once I could not feel more relieved that I had been running late.
Needless to say I did not make it into New York City that morning. But I will never forget watching the Twin Towers burn and collapse as I watched from across the river. I will never forget how I sat on edge as I waited to hear from my loved ones, how everyone seemed to stay glued to the television for the next few days, and how the entire nation was brought together by such a tragic event.
This is not a sad post. It is one of hope. Because as Jon Stewart said, “The reason I don’t worry about society is, nineteen people knocked down two buildings and killed thousands. Hundreds of people ran into those buildings to save them. I’ll take those odds every fucking day.”
And my biggest source of hope today?
My 11-month-old daughter Claire.
How she learned to throw objects into the toilet this morning. (I stopped her after she threw the third item in. And as much as I feel like I should be mad at her, J and I couldn’t stop cracking up.)
How during the few hours we left her with my mother, she tore a picture of me out of the calendar I had made for my parents…and how she wouldn’t stop smiling as she looked at the picture of me, pointing it out to her grandma, and kept kissing it.
And how despite her tantrums, stubbornness, and “ohmigosh she’s going to drive me insane” moments (like yesterday…yesterday was a BAD day), J and I lie in bed every night and wonder what we have done to deserve such an amazing daughter.
Again, I need to thank my SIL for this picture. I really
need to step it up with my picture-taking these days.
I feel like such a cheeseball writing this, but it is true what they say — parents place so much hope in their children.
So thank you, Claire, for giving your mommy renewed hope every day.
And thank you, BebeDeux, for reinforcing that hope by (literally) kicking me around every hour.
May you guys never experience the sort of horror that occurred ten years ago today.
Remember StoryCorps? The good folks behind that tearjerker of a video Danny and Annie? Well, they have been recording touching stories from the families of 9/11 victims, and transformed three especially heartbreaking tales into animated shorts.
You might want to have some tissues handy…
In this tenth anniversary of what remains one of the most tragic events in recent history, let us remember…and learn to appreciate all that we have.
I like books, gadgets, spicy food, and art. I dislike shopping, hot weather, and the laws of entropy. Although I am a self-proclaimed computer nerd, I still have a love for handbags and makeup... and I am always teetering on high heels. To learn more about me, visit the "About" page.
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