A Day in the Life: Pizza and Geckos (but not together)

I made pizza with my children this morning. Both kids stood in the learning tower and my oldest helps me dump the ingredients into the bowl. We count the number of cups and spoons that go in, but she has no idea what she’s counting. I’m the one doing mental math to convert 1 1/2 cups into 3 half cups. To save on dishes later, you know.

She used to do this by herself with me while he napped, but today, it worked out to where he was awake. He did not help much, but every now and then he’d grab the sheet pan or pat the dough or peer down the side of the bowl to see what was inside. Every time he saw his sister drop a spoonful of powdery material into the bowl he’d giggle. I make it sound a lot more relaxing and enjoyable from the parent perspective, but trust me, there was a lot of panic and anxiety, too. 

When we were putting on the sauce and toppings, all he wanted to do was grab the cheese and eat it. So that’s what he did. 

Once the pizzas were in the oven baking, I started to clean up a bit and that’s when it hit me. 

I forgot the yeast. 

When I was rolling the dough I noticed it felt stiffer, less workable. I remember thinking to myself, wow, I thought this recipe normally needed more flour, now I feel like I put the right amount and I need more water. Well, unfortunately for me, it was already all rolled out, topped, and in the oven baking when I realized. So we ate some unleavened pizza.

In the evening during our bedtime routine, I saw two geckos by our front door. I told my husband in Chinese to get them and he later walked in holding both geckos. I'm impressed by his ever increasing Chinese comprehension! 

Strangely cute.

And that's how a typical day in our household goes. Not mentioned: the insanely messy kitchen, books strewn across the floor, scattered toys, and the number of times I had to bribe my kids to eat a bite of food.

Happy Tuesday!

Adult Toys

For Father's Day this year, we bought a new vacuum. For the last five years, we've been using a Shark Navigator Lift-Away. We bought it on sale and have enjoyed using it. Recently, the brush roll stopped working which has hindered the entire vacuum's efficiency. Something we learned early on in our marriage was good tools make undesirable chores more enjoyable. If you don't enjoy your vacuum, you're not going to want to vacuum. Losing the brush rolling feature on our vacuum greatly hindered our desire to vacuum and clean the house. Therefore, it was time to get a new one. Rather than purchase the part and continue putting money into fixing it (we already paid to have a new motor shipped a few years ago), we decided to purchase a new vacuum. We did some research, watched online review videos, and eventually settled on an LG Cordless stick vacuum. 

Old vacuum.

The two vacuums are not in the same tiers so to compare them side-by-side probably isn't fair. At first, I was really excited. Who doesn't love new toys, even when adulting? And then after the initial hype faded, I started to see some flaws I didn't like. 

Now that it's been a solid month of using it, I've compiled a few thoughts overall.

New vacuum!

1. I love cordless and being able to move from one room to the next. I never thought unplugging and replugging in the vacuum to clean different rooms in the house was that big of a deal. And honestly, it's not. But once you've experienced the freedom of a cordless vacuum and being able to just push it from room to room, it's really hard to go back.

2. Brush rolls which don't trap hair are a must. Some are called self-cleaning. Some are just brush rolls that don't wrap hair. Our old vacuum didn't have this, and cleaning hair off of the brush roll was a nightmare. I think I've pulled one hair off the brush roll in the last month. It's a game changer. All vacuums should have this feature. I don't think they should be allowed to make one that doesn't.

3. This vacuum has three power modes. Most of the time I use the second power mode. The first one isn't very powerful. Will it clean? Yes. But for most of my cleaning needs, I'm in the second power mode. Our old vacuum didn't have modes and was always very powerful. Being that this is a cordless vacuum, your battery run time matters so it can't run on high all the time if you want it to last more than a few minutes.

4. The dust cup is rather small. Keep in mind, this is a cordless stick vacuum. They can only make the dust cup so large. The vacuum itself is already top-heavy. With that, I almost have to empty it after every use. This sometimes means emptying it after I vacuum one room (because I pulled out the vacuum to clean one room.)

5. It's so much more convenient to use. At less than 6 pounds, I grab the vacuum to clean the kitchen after a messy meal with my kids. Or if I feel I'm stepping on a lot of crummies. I would never do this with a broom or even our old vacuum. Mentally, just knowing I'm grabbing a light little vacuum to quickly pick up some things makes a huge difference. And because it's only 6 pounds, you bet I'm going to teach my children to vacuum when they can safely hold it up....age 5? The pole length is also adjustable so I bet at the shortest setting, it will fit them perfectly. 😉 After all, it's never too late to start teaching children how to be competent members of a family. 

In conclusion, I'm happy with our switch to a cordless stick vacuum. If suction power is your top priority, it's probably not the best vacuum for you. When factoring in a lot of other considerations, I definitely think we made the right choice. 

A Day's Musings

I took my children to the playground this morning. In the mornings the temperature is still bearable, and we had some shade and wind to help. I pushed them over to the park by our house in our double stroller. Another one of our "best used buys" for the second child. 

My youngest is starting to walk. He still looks like a limping grandpa sometimes, but it's really cute to see him waddle around the house walking in circles from room to room. He gets into a lot of trouble. He climbs things he's not supposed to. He'll find nooks and crannies to plop himself down in and sit. 

My oldest is fiercely acting like a teenager. Threenagers are legit, let me tell you. She wants everything a certain way and it has to be done just like that. At the same time, she's great with using words to explain things to me. She has the memory of a dolphin - if I can't find something, I ask her where it is, and she can tell me where to find it. We were almost at a 100% streak but then she started not knowing where a few things were. Eh, gotta still give the kid some credit. Pretty nifty that I can use my three year old to find things for me. Most of the time. She also flips through books by herself while waiting for me or when playing by herself and loves playing my piano. I can already see it, my mini-me following in my footsteps.

At the playground, my son took off climbing up the steps. I followed him, and he went straight for one of the slides. At a previous park adventure this week, he figured out how to turn over onto his belly and slide down slowly. Today, that's all he did for 20-30 minutes straight. Climb up. Turn over, slide down. 

My kids are getting to that age where I don't have to stand next to them every single second. I can let them climb up by themselves and watch from below. Of course I don't go too far, I wasn't browsing my phone, and I was still watching them constantly, but I'm no longer an inch away.

I missed this phase with my daughter. When she just started to walk confidently, I was at home sick. Morning sick. I didn't take her to the playground, we didn't go outside to play. She just ran after her daddy when he wasn't working. That was a sad time for both her and me. 

Somehow the timelines of the last four years have alternated during this time of year. In 2017, I was sick. In 2018, we had a four month old. In 2019, I was sick. In 2020, we had a four month old. It's now 2021. Had I followed the trend, I'd be sick again. But I'm not, and I love it. And next year, we won't have a four month old again, and I'm totally fine with that, too. 

Instead, I get to soak in my baby boy's last waddles before he confidently takes off around the house, outside, and everywhere. 

It's hard being a mom, but I love it.