Summer Lovin' 2012: The only Children's Museum in L.A.

When I was a little girl, I remember going to the Children's museum.  When my nephew was about 3 I tried to find places to take him and the children's museum was under construction; I was a little bummed then.  Needless to say after I had Christiana I wanted to know what museums were out there for little children and pretty local.  I looked up the Children's Museum of L.A and it's out of commission, but I did find the Zimmer Children's Museum.  This place is absolute kid little kid friendly and on Wednesdays they open an hour early for VIB's (very imporant babies) which are kids 2 & under.  I thought this was awesome!  You know how the big kids can take over everything, leaving the tiny ones with nothing.  Christiana loved it!  The museum has two levels and the 2nd level was like a kid sized town; just perfect for Christiana!

Summer lovin' 2012: Our final trip to Madera

 

Every summer me & daddy Teems take a little road trip up to Madera to visit my Poppu.  Well this year we waited a week to late to visit him.  My Poppu finally went home to be with the Lord.  We all know that our time here on earth is temporary and once we have fullified our God given purpose it's time to go home, but that doesn't make the loss of someone easy.  Poppu was 92 when he passed and he lived a wonderful life. 

 

 

 During our last visit he got to meet Christiana and fell in love with her.  He kept saying how he wished he was able to take long road trips so he could visit with all of us.  With his old age and the ailments that come along with it, his last trip to Los Angeles was for Joy's college graduation (that was 2005) and that was tough for him.  He truly loved his family (we are his only blood grand kids) and wished he could have been around more (especially when we were growing up).  That's what made our trips up north so special, we would catch up and just sit around enjoying each other company.  Oh and I cannot forget about making sure his fridge was stocked with Mountain Dew, candy dish filled with chewy carmels and tootsie rolls & pops, and that we made our trip to Sonic's to get his banana split.  :O) 

 

 

Even in his old age he always kept his sense of humor and never complained about his ailments.  Our last few trips there he moved a little more slowly and I think that's because he finally accepted the fact that he needed to slow down and he talked more about that he was ready to go home when the Lord called him but that he wanted to live to 100 if he could.  I really wanted him to live to 100 but I knew that he wouldn't make it, especially because he wasn't on dialysis with his failing kidney.  I wanted Christiana to remember her Great Grandfather and to say that he lived to be 100!  Again our time here is limited and that we need to appreciate our loved ones while they are here.

3 generations of huffman men

I think what hurt me the most was of course that he died, but that we planned a trip to visit him the week before him passing and we pushed it back so that me and Joy could ride together.  He would have loved to see and hear all about Joy's trips to other countries to persue her Masters degree.  Poppu was so proud of his little "pea picker". I know he would have also gotten a kick out of seeing Christiana walking and talking or even how well she can work the Ipad so well.  He would always talk about how he wanted to learn how to use a computer. 

 

 

 

At his funeral everyone that spoke about him had nothing but great things to say about him.  He was truly a great man that everyone loved.   He will wholeheartedly be missed.  I love you Poppu!

 

The young women will dance for joy, and the men --old and young--will join in the celebration. I will turn their mourning into joy. I will comfort them and exchange their sorrow for rejoicing." Jeremiah 31:13

 

 

Summer Lovin' 2012: Just hangin'

Christiana is my little side kick and I enjoyed spending the extra time with her this summer.  One of our mommy & munchie days I decided to packed a lunch, go to the park to eat our lunch, and then walked to get frozen yogurt.  It was simple yet quality time well spent.  I want to Christiana to grow up knowing that she can have a good time without spending tons of money. 

I remember as a kid packing lunches and having lunch in our front yard  and it was so much fun!  One of the things that I remember most was packing our lunch for our little picnic.  I would even pack lunches with my brother & sister and have a picnic with our neighborhood friends.

This generation of kids don't know how to have fun without spending tons of money and I don't want her to end up like that.  That's not to say that she won't be able to experience the finer things in life, but I want her to appreciate the simple things and that her parents work hard for her to have nice things. 



Oh I dress to match Munchie!  Check out our orange shirts :O)

Gotta love it!

 

Matthew 6:22

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If, then, your eye is simple, your whole body will be bright;

Summer Lovin': Playdate in Long Beach

I just looove playdates!  Playdates gives Christiana an opportunity to hang with her extended family and also gives me a break from being her entertainment.  I know, I know we could have another baby so she could have someone to play with but we aren't ready for that just yet (give us another year or so for that), so right now it's mommy/daddy and playdates.

This time we went to the Long Beach Aquarium and boy did they love it! 

Check out my sister friends and their upcoming bundle of joys. Christiana will have 2 more boy cousins to play with! Yaaay!

Mommy moment: Respect, respect, respect

Today was a semi-rough day at work for in, but it comes with the job so I try not to complain (much).  Between the attitudes, students not wanting to work, the unresponsive parents and students, the furlough days, and the raging hormones it can make my days pretty rough.  Being a middle school teacher is a constant reminder of what I need to do to be the best mommy I can be for/to Christiana.  Don't get me wrong I truly enjoy teaching and think that God put me in this career for a reason; so again I try not to complain often.

Well today was one of those days where I had to come home and give Christiana a big hug and kiss (not that she doesn't receive these on a daily basis). &nbsp Let me just say that today was one of those middle school raging hormone days! After I scream and tell them that they are not to sit together anymore in my room, I explained to the young lady that she needs to respect herself and told the boy that he should respect her and himself as well.  I go on to tell them that they aren't the entertainment for the class and shouldn't put their business out there for everyone to see and actually that they shouldn't be doing that in the first place.  After that I spoke to the both of them about respecting each other and demanding respect and what would their parents or guardians think about what they are doing. MAN, I don't think I will ever get used to the raging hormone stage; I know it happens but that doesn't make me feel any better about it (I sound like an old lady huh).  I think what adds to the fire is that it happened inside of the classroom.   

After the shock wore off, I immediately thought about what I would have done if a teacher would have called me saying what that her hormones were on fire in the classroom in front of her peers.  First of all I'd be embarrassed then upset.  I know kids will be kids, but I don't think I'll ever be ready for that.  MAN oh MAN!  I know I won't be able to shield her from all the pressures of life, but I want to instill in her the importance of respecting herself and not let some knuckle head disrespect her because she feels the need to fit in and be liked.  That's why I had to come home and give her extra, extra special hugs and kisses.

 1 Corinthians 6:20 ESV

For you were bought with a price.

So glorify God in your body.

Mommy moments: My journey through weaning-hood

My plan to stop breastfeeding was when Christiana turned 1, well it didn't turn out that way.  I knew weaning would be hard, but not this hard.  After my plan to stop when she was 1, I did some online research and found that 18 months would be easier so that was my new plan.  Right now Christiana is 18 months and boy oh boy it seems like she never wants to stop!  I mean why should she want to stop? I'm basically her living pacifer and source of warm milk when she wants to go to sleep.  So what's a mommy to do?  

I will say that I don't nurse her as much during the night.  There was a time when she would LITERALLY wake up every 2 hours to nurse AND this was after she turned 1!  Now some nights there's about a 4-5 hour gap. 
Here's her semi-bedtime routine:

• 7:30/8 bath
• 8/8:30 hair gets combed for the next day (gotta help daddy Teems out, he'll have her going to daycare with her hair all over the place)
• 9/9:30 nursing her to bed (she usually gets up a few times to hang out with daddy Teems)

I have tried putting her to bed without being nursed but she cries & pulls at my shirt. Daddy Teems has even tried putting her down, but she just cries for me (so that put an end to that). It's not a pretty site, she's pretty assertive when she wants something. For the most part I can deal with the crying, it's daddy Teems that can't deal with it. I know this process would be rough & tough, but Jeesh! I don't always give in, but it's hard.

Once she's down she's usually down like I said for at least 4 hours, then she wakes up for her living pacifier. My research says that by 18 months toddlers understand what "no" & "later" means so I tell her that the "ne-ne" is away or no "ne-ne" right now or come lay with mommy (with a pillow covering me up). Some nights this works while other nights she cries, sometimes for at least 30 minutes! You can imagine how tired I am for work the next day. Oh by the way this happens every night around 2am. She falls asleep either from crying or laying next to me. Then she wakes up again around 4:30/5; this is when I nurse her again so that she'll stay sleep for the next few hours AND so I can get my last few hours of sleep before I have to get ready for work. If she does happen to get up while I'm getting ready for work, I'll give her a little "ne-ne" to put her back down.

Again what's a mommy to do? I don't want to be like the lady on Time magazine and I want her to be able to fall asleep without the "ne-ne". I mean she does it everywhere else, why not with me? I'll keep writing/venting about my weaning-hood.  Pointers? Can you relate?

Summer Lovin' 2012: Our little budding artist

I have finally set some time aside to catch up on updating Chrisitana's blog. Yaaay! 

This past summer I wanted to do activities with Munchie that was either free or super low cost; lucky for us Toys R Us had a sale on Crayola items!  I ended up buying a pack of washable finger paints and 2 packs of markers, I didn't need to pick up any paper since I already had a finger paint paper pad.  Needless to say BOOM a super low cost fun day for us!!  Yaaay!
In case you didn't know this summer has been extremely hot, so I decided it was best for us to have our fun paint day early in the day so we wouldn't be outside burning up.  I put Christiana in an old halloween outfit and a pair of her old converse, packed our bag of supplies and headed downstairs to set up her "art station".  Despite the look on her face in the pictures she had a good time painting (that's her I'm concentrating on my masterpiece face), so much she started painting her clothes & shoes.  It's a good thing her shoes were old, because by the time she finished "jazzing" them up they looked like another pair of shoes!  :o)  After about an hour of painting we got 2 paintings and a "new" pair of shoes. 

Her masterpiece is hanging up on our wall and I'm looking forward to adding many more of her works of art in our place.

Matthew 5:14-16          

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven