Home today

So yesterday, I put in a request for time off (for today) so that DW could go to the doctor for the thumbs up or thumbs down.  The baby is gone, so it's thumbs down on that one.  It's all about Mommy now.  Thumbs up (the physical part is over, the emotional healing can begin) or thumbs down (more medical intervention).

I decided to take the whole day off (not just a 1/2 day) so that I could get some errands run and take care of a few things while LG goes to daycare.  Wrong.  LG has pink-eye.  No day-care.  Just Daddy.  

LG also has a(nother) cold with lots of congestion and green snot.  Lovely.  Daddy has it too now.  So today is based on aspirator, cloth diaper for nose wiping (LG can't stand the paper tissues), antibiotic eye drops, Motrin, and Contraband (Decon. stuff - before they pull it).  

Finally grieving?

LG has been part of our family for 5 months (to the day). The transition to bonding and attachment was seemingly pretty easy. She's so easy going and friendly, our main concern was trying to isloate her from family for help facilitate our primary attachment. She never expressed a grieving period when we were in China.
The last 3 nights, LG has been sound asleep , as she usually is, but wakes every 2 hours and cries. She sometimes can put herself back to sleep if we let her wail, but we like to comfort her and let her know that we are still here for her. Mostly she just likes to be held and falls asleep in my arms. Sometimes she'll lay in her crib and just hold our hands through the bars until she falls asleep again. But for the last 4.5 months, she's always slept through the night (except for certain circumstances like a cold or gassy foods). I wonder if she's grieving now...

drafting posts

I was drafting post about a positive prenancy test, nausea and sickness, but never published them because: 2 weeks after the postive test - pregnant no more.

the hows and whys of the whole thing are too much to make sense of at this time...

Looks like a Duck to me

Saw this story about Yul Kwon if SF Gate. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/22/BALOUJ5PM.DTL (I know there's a way to post the hyperlink, I'll edit it in later).

Basically, the story is that Yul Kwon is not able to open his Red Mango yogurt shop in North Beath because the franchise is now deemed a chain (by having 11 stores nationwide now).

If you know San Francisco, you know that North Beach is an older Italian community, and the neighborhood is directly adjacent to Chinatown. I will say it this way: North Beach residents and shop owners probably feel that a store called Red Mango belongs in Chinatown, or maybe the Clement street area, not North Beach.

Or you could dance around the issue and say that a gelato shop belongs in North Beach more than a yogurt shop. Or that the North Beach character is merely trying to be maintained (a bunch of Asians hanging out in North beach, what's next, a Tapioca Tea Shop? a Dim Sum restaurant? Why can't these people stay in their own part of town) They are taking over the whole City!

Quacks like a Duck.



Smells like a Duck, too.



edit: Oh, and I'm not saying it's wrong, or that the store should open, because if I wanted to get an affogato in a cafe in North Beach, then I'll go to North Beach. If I want to get some Asian-style flavored dessert, I'd go to one of those areas (Chinatown or Clement St. - or over to Mitchell's for some jackfruit ice cream!)

It's called Rickshaw Font

And I hate seeing it on Chinese restaurants. Well, let me clarify. It's usually not used on quality or authentic Chinese restaurants. Most of the time it would be used on a Chinese-American take-out type place. Where things like chop suey are served (what is chop suey anyway?)

At any rate, I think it's lame to see it on Adopting from China blogs. Sometimes you see it with Japanese images as well. Uh, that's not Chinese culture. I guess it's supposed to "look" like a Chinese person used an ancient Chinese calligraphy brush and 'wrote' English words and numbers with it in a sort of Chinese-way? Or that the Japanese images look Asian, and Chinese kids are Asian, so therefore it's OK?

But then again, my sister has mistakenly bought Japanese chopsticks, thinking they were decorative Chinese chopsticks! (there's alot of history there, but I'm getting into it now)

Categories

We learn how to group into categories in kindergarten, or even before. It amazes me how my daughter, 2 months after coming home from the orphanage, would toddle over to a pile of my shoes, pick one out and then find the match to the pair to bring over to me. I don’t think her process of selection was based on 1) I have a left shoe. 2) the left shoe is brown. 3) therefore I need a right shoe that is brown to match this one 4) of all of the right shoes, only 3 are brown 4) I have a 1 in chance of picking the correct shoe.

Rather she selects 2 of the ‘same’ and doesn’t even know the difference between left and right.

Sorting apples from oranges and bananas is a common activity that teaches sorting. It also starts sometime in school based on ‘girls on this side’ and ‘boys on this side.’ ‘Line up, tallest to shortest.’ Whites over there, blacks over there. What?!!!

I don’t think it gets verbally expressed that much these days, but people do THINK it. How about this one? My wife asked me if my daughter is a fob or abc. Fob is what abc’s call F.O.B.s (Fresh Off the Boat(s)). And abcs are American Born Chinese. There is a difference. I replied, well, technically, she CAN’T be an abc, so therefore she must be a fob. Even though as a very young immigrant, she will be raised almost entirely as an abc, by abc parents.

There are some ABCs who are striving to be up-to-date on Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong culture, so these are called Fob-a-bees (a FOB wanna-be).

Where do you line up? Oh, and if you aren’t Asian or Asian American, you shouldn’t go up to an Asian-looking stranger and ask them if they are a fob.