who has officially retired today! after 35+ devoted years of working for the city of san francisco, he has finally decided to hang up his "mop". my father is the typical immigrant story. he came to america over 40 years ago to provide a better future for his family. with minimal english skills, he fell into a job as a janitor. although he was a blue collar worker, he always loved what he did and still does to this day. also, it was literally "blue collar" as his uniform shirt was blue hahaa. although it wasn't the most glamourous job, my dad always worked hard and really did enjoy working for the city. also, the health benefits were always great for our family and he has a really good retirement plan now. that's actually one reason why he can retire a bit earlier than his 65th birthday. it always amazes me to think how my parents were able to raise three kids, while owning 2 homes in san francisco and working pretty low income jobs. there obviously wasn't any extravagant things that we had or did while growing up but we were also never really deprived. somehow my parents learned to make things work! sometimes i do wonder (and s wonders ALL the time) how i possibly grew up with so little and somewhere along the way my tastes / preferences changed. when did i start to want all the nice things and why does it matter so much? how did i get these horrible spending habits when my parents tried to instill such a frugal mentality? s always says i act like money grows on trees. i really don't and try not to spend recklessly but sometimes i do get a bit out of control. =(
this past weekend, s and i went to dinner at gary danko with my sister, her husband, our cousin and his wife. we dropped off aj and my nephew at my parent's house...and stayed out a bit late. by the time we got back to my parent's house, it was already well past 10p. both boys were peacefully sleeping in their cribs. my mom suggested that we just leave the boys at their place and enjoy sleeping in the next morning. s and i were a bit hesitant at first but realized that this was the best decision for aj as we didn't want to wake him up.
although i felt terrible that aj might wake up my parents in the middle of the night or make them get up early in the morning, i was looking forward to sleeping in. i have NEVER slept in since aj was born because i'm on morning shift since i'm the one nursing aj. i guess my body was just used to getting up early as i woke up at 6:30a for no reason. however, i fell back asleep and woke up at 8am! i felt so guilty for sleeping so well just thinking about how my parents had an infant and toddler to take care of overnight. s and i decided to try to get to my parents house early to pick aj up. when we got to my parents house, they had plans to take the boys out to dim sum with our other relatives. my parents also told me that not only did aj sleep through the night, he didn't even get up until 7:30am! i mean, gees, that's better than when he's at home!! he was actually napping when we got there so we didn't even get to hang out with him. we stayed at home until he finally woke up and then hung out with him for a bit. while my parents took the boys out to chinatown, s and i hung out in the city. it felt SO STRANGE to walk around, just the 2 of us without our child! it felt so weird to do these things that were so normal to us a year ago.
s and i agreed that it was a nice break to have some quality time together and we are so thankful that we have such understanding parents who are so willing to take care of our son! here are some pictures of him hanging out at my parents house.
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my dad was using a pillow to try to swat a fly out of the house...aj could not stop laughing at my dad!
so proud that he's sitting up...trying to eat the book
gosh, i didn't realize how long it had been since my last entry. where does the time go?
where do i even begin? most days i struggle...frantically trying to find the balance with work, aj and s. needless to say, i'm pretty much flunking.
every morning, i'm rushing out of the house before 7am to get to work early; usually between 7:30-7:45a. i spend the majority of the day in meetings or working with my team so i never get to actually sit at my desk to do my work. i'm then rushing out of work to get home. my goal is to leave work by 5:30 but that rarely ever happens. i don't even get home until 6:30-6:45p. then s and i are rushing to cook and eat bc we have to start aj's bath routine at 7ish and put him down by 7:30p. then i get back online and work until 10ish.
i have absolutely no time to do anything. i even stopped pumping a couple of weeks ago because i just really needed that time to work or do something else. it totally sucks. i'm all over the place like a chicken running around with her head cut off. i'm not giving my all when it comes to work and i'm certainly not mom of the year. people say it gets easier and you just learn to let things go or prioritize but i just don't see how!!?! okay, just had to get that off my chest. enough about me; what fun am i haha. let's move on to my precious son!
aaron has grown and changed so much these last couple of weeks. it's just amazing how he can struggle for weeks trying to do something and then one day...he just does it like it was no big deal. it's incredible to see how engaged he is with what he sees or hears and how he interacts with the people. he definitely loves to people watch; especially when they are speaking or eating!
for the most part, he definitely has his daddy's temperament. he's a pretty laidback and low maintenance child. he seriously cries only when he's hungry or sleeping. just like dad, he eats anything!! and he can never get enough of whatever it is we are feeding him. although, he definitely has a preference for fresh fruit that i've just mashed for him.
sleep has definitely been a bit on the tough side. he started teething last weekend so he's been pretty fussy with sleeping all week. normally, he just peacefully goes down for the evening. however, every night this week, he's cried for almost an hour each night!! poor kiddo.
i haven't been good with taking too many pictures but here are some recent pics...
his favorite activity - jumping around his saucer
look ma, my teeth!
this is probably one of the best picture of his dimple
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