Happy Birthday to Princess Sophie

My sweet little princess is turning 3 years old today. So I thought I probably should blog and record what we did today.

We started out the day with a trip to a Japanese dollar store and got some Hello Kitty Items. It's a must for any little girl. I got her some of my childhood favorites, which are Hello Kitty stamps, Pocky in Strawberry flavor, some tracing tools of Hello Kitty and this and that. She was in heaven! Then she asked me " Sushi for lunch?" Well, you can't say no to a cute little thing like that right?

 

Voila! I took my 3 year old to a sushi restaurant, and spoiled her with her favorite rolls. California roll, and shrimp tempura roll. Seriously, how many 3 year olds demand for sushi? I am not complaining, at least someone in the family would go eat sushi with me. It might as well be her, right? Maybe she'll develop her pallet and would have fancy sea food with me someday.  

We stuffed our face! I know she did. Literally!

 

The Sushi owner lady heard it was Sophie's birthday, she offered some mochi ice cream! Sophie was so happy!

 

We had a little celebration during Thanksgiving break with our cousins from Arizona, since we don't see them much or get to do birthdays with them. So, we celebrated Sophie's birthday with the presence of Miss Chloe and Sir Cohen. It was so fun to have cousins and aunt and uncle around for birthdays. We should do this more often. 

The older I get, the more I feel the importance of celebrating birthdays. (Thanks to Steve)

In Steve's words: " Birthdays are important!"

And he is right!! We are celebrating the birth of a new life and a life full of possibilities.

 

We were able to visit one of Sophie's favorite spot in San Diego earlier that day, Sea World! It was so cute to see the girls holding hands and being such good friends. Sophie wanted to do everything Chloe is doing. They even had the same hair (Thanks to auntie Stefie!)

The kids sure had fun seeing all the marine animals, and saw Shamu doing flips.

 

As crazy as gathering with family during holidays can be, I have realized the importance of family and celebrating each other in the family. Family will always be there for you. Your family loves you and accept who you are. Your brothers and sisters will nag you and push your button. At the end of the day, there is love. There is a group of people who love you for who you are, and are ok to be annoyed by you.

Maybe it is the holiday season, but I am all emotional about having an awesome family. My in-laws are great! They spoil us when we come. I have never have what they have given me growing up, and I truly appreciate for all they do. 

Oh my sweet Sophie! You are one lucky girl to have the family you have. You are so loved! Your daddy especially, loves you rotten, he adores you. And I, your adventurous mother... I can not wait to have even more new adventures with you. I can't wait till you are tall enough to go on Splash Mountain and Space Mountain with me! Until then, A Bugs Land and Toontown will do.

Happy Birthday my sweet Sophie. I hope you had a great birthday. I wish you all the good things in this world, and I pray that you will be watched over and be happy. 

My 9lbs 3oz sumo baby!

Go Trojans!

I've been really slacking on this blog thing. I feel like since everyone has Facebook, y'all know what we have been up to anyway. Ok, fine, I am just a lazy blogger as of late.

Steve was accepted to USC Law school, so we related from San Diego to Los Angeles. ( I like San Diego better, and the list of why can go on forever. So I'll stop here). We are super excited that he has got into a ranked law school, and hopefully with more opportunities than Cal Western would have provided. We are happy ! Go Trojans!

I hate moving! I've decided! Then again, we didn't have much notice and preparation for this move. From the time we got the USC acceptance letter to the date we move was less than 4 weeks. Needless to say it was a stressful 4 weeks, and we had a week of the Peterson Beach House the week before we move. Steve did all the lifting, go champ! I hear our other friends move and I am jealous. But they all had jobs that paid for relation fees and moving expenses. So the movers come pack everything for them, load everything unto the truck, and drive he truck to the new location. I would have loved that.

Moving makes me want to throw everything away, but Steve kindly reminded me that we actually don't have that much. All we have, we actually need. " Ok, fine!" I protested.

I will miss the German Choir, the Zoo being 2 min drive from our house, Museums 5 min drive, sea world 15min, Little Italy 10 min. Loads of Palm trees.

I am excited about the museums that LA has to offer. We went to the Natural History Museum yesterday, and it was actually pretty big inside. I think Sophie and I can get lost in there, and have lunch there when Daddy is done with class. The USC law building is just adjacent to the NHM.

alright... i blogged. 

Heimatklang Choir

Yes, I know. This is super random, but I joined a German Choir in the Balboa Park's "House of Germany". Two of my friends from church sings in this choir, and they told me about it for months. I finally went and checked it out.

I've been in choirs since I was a young child, and have participated in the show choirs of my middle school and high school. I did some Acapella Jam shows in college, and musical in local theaters. I have to admit, I miss singing in a choir! I miss singing and performing in general. The feeling you get when all parts of voices come together cohesively just gives me chills and a sense of excitement.

I walked in to the German choir rehearsal, and everyone is speaking German! Of course they are speaking German! It is a German club choir!! It was quite intimidating, but the old ladies are so welcoming, and they were glad to have another singer. Oh, and did I mention that I do not speak any German. ZERO! I can speak English, Chinese, conversational french, I have sang in Spanish, Italian, and Latin. Never had to do anything in German, and therefore I have no concept in the German language. If it was in French, I could probably get most of the pronunciation correctly. Oh my, my first attempt in pronouncing German words... it probably sounded like killing chicken or scratching the blackboard with finger nails to the German native speakers.

Most people in this choir are 40 and above, most of them are in their 50s.

The first song I practiced was daunting, " Ziguenerleben". The first paragraph of the song lyrics:

Im Schatten des Waldes, im Buchengezweig
da regt's sich und raschelt und flüstert zugleich.
Es flackern die Flammen, es gaukelt der Schein
um bunte Gestalten, um Laub und Gestein.

Woa!!! What??!?! The choir director asked us to memorize the lyrics. All I could remember is " Es flackern die Flammen". I got the music down pretty easily, the German part..... 

At this point I started to reconsidering my attempt in joining the German Choir. I don't want to stand out like a sore thumb, especially with my pronunciation. Wait, I already stand out! 

Check this picture below, it is the outfits I will be wearing when I am performing with them. 

I have an aunt whom married an Italian ambassador and lived in Munich for years. So growing up I've had the privilege of having my very own "Dirndl", and bags and bags of German chocolate. I hope I'll still look cute in dirndl. 

Anyway, I am so glad I joined the German choir. It is fun and challenging. I've always want to learn another European language. Now I am a full time mother, it is nice to get away and have some fun. Hopefully by the end of the year I'll pick up more German.  

1L completion in less than 4 weeks

My friends weren't kidding me when they say going through law school with their husbands were hard. I have not updated my blog in the past couple months, because I didn't want to complain on my own blog. No one wants to hear about the hard things a law students wife go though. There are already so many veteran of law students wives before me said enough about the hardships. So, I am going to share about my fun-ship.

Recap for the past couple monthes.

Steve has done exceptionally in his first semester of law school. All the hard work and hours definitely paid off. It is so nice to know that letting my husband do his thing, and sometimes not see him or having him around will one day pay off. He works his tail off for sure, and I am so proud of him! He is a great husband and father. He is my best friend! oh, and he looks nice in his new suit!

When Steve gets busy, Sophie and I now have several new places we go to get lost in time. One of them happen to be my all time favorite place, the happiest place on earth. You've guessed it! It is behold, Disneyland! Ah-Ma ( grandma in Chinese) lives 20 minutes from Disneyland, so we go visit Ah-Ma and we go visit Mickey, Minnie, all the princesses and fairies at Disneyland.

1 stone and many many birds.

• Bird #1- When we leave, Steve has the whole house to himself. Quiet place to study, so he doesn't have to be in the library all day. No distractions at home
• Bird #2 - I love Disneyland, I used to work there as ______ ( not gonna ruin the magic for you :)
• Bird #3 - It's a safe place for Sophie to expel her unlimited (seems that way) energy
• Bird #4 - I go visit my spontaneous mother, and she makes awesome food, AND she takes us out to eat the real Chinese food. None of those none sense Americanized over fried orange chickens.No offense to Panda Express
• Bird #5 - Sophie picks up more Chinese at my mom's house, because that's all we speak. She counted to 19 in Chinese all by herself after we visited my mom last time. Now she can count up to 25.

I think I started to like California Adventure more than Disneyland, because it's always less crowded. Lines are always shorter, rides are newer, and Sophie actually gets to spend time with her favorite characters, AKA Phineas and Ferb. Oh, just to throw in there, I rode the Little Mermaid ride back-to-back 4 times with Sophie within 20 minutes. We had to stop because the ride actually closed, else Sophie would keep on going. In 3 days, we were on that ride more than 15 times.

my little tea cup spinner.

Watching the Stage Aladdin show with my baby girl

Sophie is trained to raise her arms and scream when we are on rides now.

I've been taking more pictures for a friend, and helping her edit some of her photos. It helps me sharpen the things I've learned about photo editing and photography in general. It is fun, and gives me new challenges to take on.  I wouldn't call myself a professional photographer, or even an anmature photographer. How about just a mom with a passion to capture beautiful images?
These are my favorite shots.

This is my friend Stephanie, isn't she one of the most beautiful moms? I am obsessed with her eye make up!

I was going to have more recaps, but I think I'll stop here and say... I look forward to the last day of Steve's first year of law school. I am grateful that he has made it manageable for me.

People always ask me on FB if I am just playing every day, because they see my photos at the Zoo, Sea World and at Disneyland. People, I do what works for me. I need to keep myself happy and sane to go through law school with my husband. My outlet, Disneyland. The zoo is literally 2 minute drive from my house; its like the park down the street for you, except I've got cool animals in mine, and it's  slightly larger park than usual.

What I don't post is the boring stuff like laundry, dishes, crying emotional Sophie,  popcorn being stomped to tiny pieces by Sophie, upset mommy, Sophie caught HFMD from church, REALLY pissed off mommy because she caught HFMD from church nursery too and felt like sh!t and totally in pain, stressed out Steve with bloodshot eyes. No one wants to read about these boring stuff, but they do exist, I promise.

I finally figured out how to make chevron pattern on my illustrator tonight! I felt like a champ! Hopefully I'll photograph more, design more, read more and whatever more that makes me sane and happy.

ta da.

Midterm and teaching bilingual kids

We have survived the first month of law school. I think we are doing well so far, even though there are many changes, and many adjustments for all of us. Steve is about to have his midterm for his first semester at law school, and I can feel the stress coming onto him. By 9pm, he usually has glossy eyes and look like a zombie.

At the mean time, Sophie and I have many adventures together while daddy is at school. My main goals are:

1. keep Sophie happy
2. keep Sophie in one piece
3. Teach her something new every day (i.e. words in both English and Chinese, new tricks like yoga poses, how to draw circles and curly lines...etc)
4. Experience something new every day (i.e. touch a rabbit, eat in a restaurant with mommy, ride the Skifary, go to new stores and touch the cool things... etc)
5. Be happy myself, and be the best mommy I can be for Sophie

Sophie and I hang out everyday, I hope she is not tired of me. But how can she? We go to the zoo like... all the time. Since it is listerally 5 min from our house. 

The zoo keeper lets Sophie touch the bunny

We watch how the mama flamingo feed the baby flamingo

We go say hi to the goat, and learn to be gentle with the animals --- still working on the gentle part. Poor goat. 

 

Free Tuesdays for residences are always awesome - We go to a different museum every Tuesday

Sometimes in a spare of the moment, I will be brave enough to take Sophie to the beach by myself. And we bring Chicken nuggets for lunch :) We have SOO much fun playing in the ocean.

We go see Dr. Zoolittle show at the zoo and learn about different species of animals.

Sometimes when daddy is not too busy, he'll go to the Air and Space Museum with us between classes.

It's always so nice to have daddy with us on our adventures.

Sophie loves hippos, so we go see hippo every time we go to the zoo.

We go to the park for play group and learning about taking turns and how to share -- But Miss Sophie thinks everything is hers. She says " Mine! Mine! Mine !"

oh, and feeding giraffe was super fun. They have purple tongues, and super long.  Thanks grandpa!!

 Some days, we'll have movie day because mommy is not feeling well. Which is ok and very fun for Sophie.

I think Sophie is super awesome. She is smart, she is funny, she is kind, she is loving, and she gives hugs and blow kisses. We recently learned about bees, the sound bee makes, and what bees do with their butt. Now Sophie would walk around the house and go "nnnnnnnnnnnnnn...sting" instead of "bzzzzzzz". She play the sting game with her daddy for 20 min.

Teaching a bilingual child is a lot of work, it takes time and diligence to keep on going with 2 languages. It is so much easier if I just kept it in 1 language, but I know it'll be beneficial to Sophie in the future, and it will help activate many brain connections for future learning. The challenging part for me as a mom is seeing other kids saying more words in the same age, then I have to remind myself that Sophie doesn't know any less words, she just knows all of the words in BOTH English AND Chinese. That is doubled of what most kids says. Although she hasn't been able to express as much as other kids, she does understand commands in both English and Chinese. I can't wait till Sophie can speak in fluent in both languages. Maybe in the future, she'll be a little translator for her Peterson grandparents.

Sometimes the people who are suppose to love you the most, for some odd reason always put you down no matter what you do. I've learned to try to ignore all the negative comments, and focus on my present situation, and be grateful for what I have. I pity those who put me down, because they'll never know how to be happy on their own without putting others down. They'll never experience true love, true gratitude, true gratification and true satisfaction in everyday life.  

I am happy to say that I find joy when Sophie learns a new word, and when she simply just hold my face with her two little hands, looked at me in the eye, and give me a kiss. It is the simple things like little kiss, big hugs, and when Sophie finally calls me mama ( After a whole year when she only says dada) makes all the sacrifices worth it. 

I love being a mommy to my Sophie, and I am very lucky to be able to do so. I am grateful for my husband who is very supportive in my roll as a SAHM (stay at home mom), and I am grateful for my in-laws who believes and values the importance of a SAHM. 

Just a shout out to my boop, I think you are awesome! Thank you for working so hard! I love you!

 

School Commenced!

Our law school journey began this week, Steve started school, and i am officially a stay-at-home-mom. This title comes with many responsibilities, my days are full and very busy. The moms know how busy we are in the house.

first day of school

There are quite a few girls in my ward that went through law school with their husband, one girl in particular said to me " oh, it is very hard! (being a law student's wife)" she taught a lesson on sunday about keeping the sabbath day holy, and how her husband would not do home work on Sundays, and it is her favorite day, because she gets to see her husband. Wow!! I came into this new adventure knowing that I will not see my husband much when he is at school, but we made an effort that he treats law school like a full time job. He gets everything done at school, and when he comes home, he is our favorite daddy and husband.

Monday night is family night, so we went to the zoo to visit some of our favorite animal friends. We quite enjoy the Sky-fari at the zoo, it takes us way up high and you can see the San Diego city and the whole entire zoo.

Sophie thought something was super funny when Steve snapped the shot. I love Sophie's facial expression here.

Sophie doesn't care much about the real life animals, she is not scared of the ones that are moving around. However, she is terrified of animal statues. When we were going to take the photo, she was totally fine, until she popped up from the hole and saw the seal statue. Steve then snapped this photo below. Disclaimer, we didn't force her to take the photo. If i had know how scared she was, I wouldn't have done it.

The first two days of school, I had to take Steve to school, because his bike hasn't shown up yet.
So we went to pick up daddy, and waited for him by the school library.

Oh, and Sophie doesn't like to drink water out her her cups. She likes to turn on the bathroom facet and do this.

At least  she looks happy right? I hope the water is clean enough to drink.

This week is pretty good so far, except I got a cold. I hope it goes away soon.

New Chapter - San Diego!

I am just going to jump to the funny part. I saw my gay neighbor's butt!!  He was trying to decide where to put his new tattoo, and he decided to show his full smooth butt. I thought it was hilarious, and a humorous way to get to know my neighbor. Another neighbor living on the other side of us offered to make us cookies with pot in it. What a wonderful neighborhood?!! Over all, I love it here!

Okay, I'll back up for a moment here. For those of you who don't know, we have just moved to San Diego. Steve will be attending law school here in just couple weeks, we are all really excited for this new adventure, and excited for what the future has offer.

I have quit my job--again ( I miss my Nu Skin friends), to be a stay at home mom with Sophie. The world famous San Diego zoo is just 3 min driving time from my house; We already got a zoo pass, and we've been there twice this week. It's so nice to know that I can go there with Steve and Sophie anytime, and I am not pressured to stay all day.

We found the elephants! Check off our list!

Steve found fishies on the ground near the elephant, then he realized that Sophie was throwing her fishies to feed the elephants. I guess the elephant came and picked some up and ate it.

she is terrified of large birds

The beach is only 15 minutes away. Sophie wasn't so sure about the sand at first, needless to say that she doesn't like dirty things. She would pick her nose, and give her daddy the treasure that she has discovered inside of her little nose. It's quite humorous seeing a little baby who is only 1 1/2 years old not liking dirty things. Such a girly girl.

She loved the water, and wanted to go into the deeper end of the ocean all the time. If I did't hold her hands, she'd totally dive in.

Thanks Tina for the beach toys!!

About the new place:

The neighborhood we live in is totally different than the demographic that we had in Provo. Most people here are single, and no kids. Sophie is the only kid on this block. Instead of having kids, people have dogs. Every day people walk their little poodles or chihuahua sized dog around the block, and I walk my baby in the stroller. Oh, and most people in this neighborhood is gay. I told my mom about that aspect about my new neighborhood, and she gave me a "ew", and I was really offended by it!! My gay neighbors are way nicer than any of my Mormon neighbors in Provo, they dress nice, they have manners, they seem to be well educated, they drive BMW or Mercedes(on my block), they have great sense of fashion, they have great taste in furniture and decorations. Most important of all, they are themselves, instead of faking who they are not. I have had many gay friends, and I love them for who they are, regardless of their sexual orientation. I just don't want to know too much detail about how things work, if you know what I mean.

One morning I walked to Sprouts, it's about a mile away. The walk was hard!! who knew walking could be so hard and strenuous?!? The roads around my house is almost as hilly as the famous San Francisco Lombard Street, hence pushing a stroller up hill to the grocery store makes a sweaty mommy.

On the walk, I show Sophie different kinds of plants and try to teach her the names of them in both English and Chinese. She just remembers whatever is the easiest for her to say. There were so many cute little pots of plants, herbs and fruits.

About the Russians:

There is a huge complex on our walk to Sprouts, and I noticed that there were many old people just hangout out in the common area. I thought they were just old and couldn't speak clearly, but it's not till later when I witness a Bourn Identity moment. One man was yelling in Russian to another man parking behind him, he was throwing his arms and appeared to be irate. This man is about 6 feet tall, salt and black pepper hair, strong eye brow bones, rough tan skin, curly chest hair (cuz he was wearing a hawaiian shirt and didn't button up the top 4 buttons), and he seems like he might have a gun. Then I realized I was walking in front of a Russian church, it was pretty close to the huge Russian old people's apartment complex.

ok, it's late and i am tired. Sorry for the rambling. Those old Russian ladies were happy to see a little cute baby like Sophie saying hi and blowing kisses to them. Maybe I'll befriend them next time I pass by, maybe i'll get some awesome Russian cabbage soup recipe!

Le fin.