Praying Mantis
Aspen found this guy waiting on our front steps for her after school. We decided to keep him for a while to show Kirin.
Isn't he so brave! So glad I have a son!!
Letting him go was hard
Broken English
Aspen and I were sitting in the waiting area for her chest X ray.Me: You will have to get undressed and put on a rope.Aspen: What? Completely naked?Me: No, you're gonna have a rope.Aspen looking bewildered and exclaimed: I don't want people to see me naked!!!Me: You won't be, you will have a rope on.Aspen: (pause) You mean... a ROBE, with a b?Me: Yes,that's what I mean, a robe. Oh... you mean, you thought you were gonna be naked and wearing a rope?Aspen and I looked at each other and both were cracking up in the waiting room.After a few minutes of such silliness.Aspen: Shhh Mom, you are embarrassing me.Aspen: Maybe there is a camera in the waiting room, and they are gonna come and arrest you for laughing so loud.PS: Aspen wanted to defend my honor by letting you all know that I did say robe, it only sounded like rope because of "my Chinese accent"
Funny Kids
I was one of the lunch aid at my children's elementary school. Initially, I had agreed to work till the end of the October. After only 2 weeks of school, I am falling apart because the lunch hour chopped my day up right in the middle, leaving me no time for anything else.
Me: I've spoken with the school principle, and I will not be the lunch aid for too much longer.
Aspen: Oh, so you FINALLY clean the house.
Kirin: Oh, so you can FINALLY buy me the rest of the Harry Potter books and movie.
Sage: NO. NO. So...you can FINALLY buy me Barbie fashion movie, and Barbie pretty princess movie, and Barbie dress up movie.
Kirin was using something of Aspen's.
Aspen shouts: Wash your hands- you have cooties!
Kirin: I am in third grade. I don't have cooties anymore. I HAVE GERMS!!
Jade was graphing for science homework.
Sage:Ohhh, you are making dot to dot...I LOVE dot to dot, they make me feel enchanted.
Me: What do you want to wear today?
Sage: I want to wear my "dreams do come true" shirt, it makes me feel like a princess.
Kirin has been wanting a baby brother.
Kirin: Mom, can you have another baby.
Me:NO. Besides, it might not be a boy.
Kirin: Then I will panic. And have a heart-attack.
Aspen was in the bedroom with Jade when she asked me to turn on the hall light.
Me: You don't need the hall light on, your sister is with you.
Aspen:She just called me a creeper, do you think I am comfortable with her right now?
Sage and I were snuggling on my bed.
Sage: Can you move over, I have no room here except for a banana.
Jade: Oooh! Brain freeze!
Kirin: Oh really? How do you spell it?
Jade:b-r - oh, wait! i-t
Kirin:Ok, What's 12x1?
Jade:12
Kirin: See, you don't have a brain freeze.
The following conversation occurred in Chinese. I don't know how funny it will be now I am translating it into English.
For someone who've slept in, in English, you'd probably say: "You've slept for a long time!" or just "You've slept in!"
But in Chinese, you could use the word "full" in conjunction to "sleep", like eating until full. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
Anyway, Sage slept in one morning through all the foot stomping and food microwaving. When she finally woke up at 10 in the morning.
Me: You slept full!!
Sage who never heard such an expression, contemplating for only a second replied: I. Slept full....but, I didn't eat.
Jade: I have a chest pain.
I think I am going to die soon.
Good bye, family members.
Fun Times
These are some of the stuff our family did this summer (2011). They are just your normal family activities, BUT. to a mother, the moment that counts are the moments when your kids are happy.
The combination of Kirin and Sage in our household can be lethal, what makes it worse, is neither of them would budge. So when I caught them like this, you better believe I am going to freeze the moment.
Kirin taught Sage how to play chess. Sage dressed like Christmas morning, of course.
Cunningham Falls
Baltimore Aquarium
This street performer asked for an volunteer from the audience, Sage shot up her hand. Here she is as the center of the attention!!
Her awesome ribbon twirling.
Everyone applaud for her excellent performance.
Outside the aquarium.
One of my favorite buildings by the harbor.
Doesn't it look like they are dancing?
Upside down jellies. (They look like they might make a good salad, with the right seasoning. In fact, I really had jellyfish salad growing up, they are delicious!)
One fin (or flipper) turtle.
The Perfect Day
If you know Andrew for longer than 10 minutes, you will soon discover that he is a man who doesn't need to speak much to prove himself. If you know him longer than say, 3 years, you will find out that when he does speak at length, it always means that he has done extensive research on the subject, which makes him well-versed, and the topic which he speaks on is likely to be the most unusual sort, like: fish oil, mono-unsaturated fat, tomatoes, garlic, and most recently, sustainable fishing, in particularly: sardines. (He does bring up non-food related subjects, but my simple mind doesn't retain that information for longer than the time it takes to enter my ears... a bit sad, really.)
One of the results of our discussion of this topic of fish was our discovery of a hidden gem, right here in our beloved capitol city of the US. An outdoor fish market!
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I felt like I had come home to my childhood - any market that comes with those distinct sights and smells makes me feel completely at ease. I enjoyed being reminded at times that not all things should be bought from Safeway.
There were all sorts of seafood, more than you can imagine, sold straight from the fishermen. I am talking about REAL FISH too, with heads, scales, gills intact, and eyes staring right back at you . Most of them not gutted or scaled.
I walked around with glee, admiring the fish, many of which I couldn't name. And my children walked from stall to stall, pointing at random weird sea creatures, and occasionally pinching their noses.
In the end, I settled on a big red snapper, a few croakers which were new to me, and some smelts (oh, if you never had them, you are missing out on their goodness). I also bought Pompano which I also had never tried before.
The vendors don't clean fish for you, but there was an establishment close by that charge by the pound to scale and gut the fish. I imagine they de-head and fillet them for you as well. I was too cheap to pay for that and opted to clean the fish at home. It turned out to be not as bad as I remembered. The key is to keep it contained!
After cleaning off the red snapper, I scored the meat on both sides and put sliced lemon and ginger inside the scored flesh, as well as inside the cleaned and emptied gills. We baked the fish with head and tail on. The result: Success!
The croakers and the smelts I deep fried. The croakers I didn't fall in love with, but the smelts were as amazing as I remember my mama made them. Oh, and I made these for breakfast, served with a mounting plate of rice!! ha ha!
Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of the fish I mentioned above, but all of them turned out so beautiful. The Pompano was the only fish I remembered to take a picture of before we devoured it to the bone. Here is what the pompano looked like pan seared.
If you haven't tried pompano, you must. It is SO buttery, and tender, with a mild but delicious flavor. The plus side is that the scale on this fish so fine, so you can cook it and eat it too.
Another thing we saw at the fish market - these Maryland blue crabs! There are just barrels and barrels of them, and being steamed all day long.
Another thing we saw at the fish market - these Maryland blue crabs! There are just barrels and barrels of them, and being steamed all day long.
We ended up buying some blue crabs, but sometimes I am not sure if it's worth all the work. I think actual crabbing is more fun than eating crabs.
(Our kids were tired of waiting on us to finished the crabs, so they climbed the trees instead)
Can you imagine any more of a perfect day for me than this: Eating Good Food all day?
We did remembered to educate our children in between meals by filling their impressionable minds with tours of the Smithsonian museums, which also helped to walk off the extra calories we consumed.
We checked out the animals, the Hope diamond, and other glistening stones at the Natural History Museum. We also spotted this, the very costume worn by Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter.
We walked around the sculpture garden, and of course, visited the National Archives to see the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence, and we admired the grand Capitol building. (The building in the picture is the National Archive - home to the Declaration of Independence, to name a few)
To top everything off, I knew more good food was yet to come since we had plans to eat at a place in DC for dinner. I can not tell you the joy it brings me to anticipate the deliciousness that was surely going to end up in my mouth. There are only a few things in life that can top that feeling. VERY, very few. In fact, I can't think of any right now.
For dinner, we stopped by and ate at a place called Oohh's & Aahh's where Guy Feri on Food Network ate on an episode of his show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Everything we ordered was tasty, but the most incredible item of the dinner was the shrimp and grits, loaded completely with butter and cream. So you get the idea - HOLY YUM!
Sometimes I am envious of the job of the food critics who get to eat at all these great restaurants and their job is write about their dining experiences; these people get to eat the tastiest food, and get paid to say what's great and not great about what they ate. Sometimes I wonder also if they aren't a bit snobbish to critique something someone else obviously does better than them. I wonder at times if too much good food might actually be bad for building one's character, for example, it appear that my kids have much more elevated taste buds than other kids, which I feel isn't so good for them, after all, life isn't about pursuing that perfect morsel. Though...I must say, it is truly one of my biggest weaknesses. (sigh)
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