Why Toddlers Don’t Do What They’re Told

Though none of them belong to me, there are a fairly large number of people under 3 years of age in my life. This article shed some light on their behavior in ways I never imagined. Unlike some scientific studies of why we do the things we do, this one really made sense to me. It was actually quite enlightening.

The gist of the article is that toddlers lack the capacity to plan for the future, but that doesn’t mean they forget the past. The article gives the example of telling a toddler to wear a jacket before going outside when its cold. The child lacks the capacity to connect the idea of wearing a jacket to fend of the cold, but once the child is in a cold situation, has the ability to recall that a jacket would be helpful. Fascinating…

For those of you out there with kids, especially toddlers, hopefully this will clear things up for you as well.  Enjoy!

Watch Out: Brown Eggs

My friend Andrew sent me this article on a voluntary product recall for some brown eggs:
http://www.hometownstation.com/local-news/egg-recall-clarita-2009-03-25-11-12.html

Generally speaking, brown eggs and white eggs have the same nutritional value, but in this case it sounds like you’ll get a little something extra if/when you buy the brown ones.  I guess it would behoove all of us to watch out for these. I’m going to check my fridge right now.

Menu for the Week

Charlene will be doing most of the cooking this week as I get back into the swing of things. Praise God for a wonderful wife!

Here’s what we’ll be eating this week:

Monday: Rice Ovalettes with Stir Fried Chicken and Vegetables
Tuesday: Curry Chicken
Wednesday: Fried Rice with Orange Chicken (getting back to our Panda Express roots :-P)
Thursday: Poppyseed Chicken
Friday: Tacos

Mmm…can’t wait.  I get hungry just thinking about it.

Last day of vacation :-(

Today is the last day of the longest vacation I’ve taken since being a student (granted I had periods of medical leave and unemployment, but I wouldn’t exactly call those “vacations”). It’s somewhat bittersweet. I’ve really enjoyed my time on vacation, spending time in the Bahamas with my new bride, cleaning up the new apartment, running errands, doing laundry, and generally trying to be a good house husband by making breakfast, lunch, and dinner for Charlene.

A large part of this vacation has made me feel like I was a student again, taking an extended spring break, or an early summer vacation.  It’s been fun to stay up late and wake up late the next morning. I’ve enjoyed reading in bed until I felt ready to get up, and generally having time to waste on Facebook, and catch up on a mountain of e-mail (Would you believe that for the duration of my honeymoon I received somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 e-mails, not including the deluge of Facebook notifications that people had messaged me or posted on my wall?)

But there is a part of me that is definitely looking forward to getting back to work. That’s “real life” in the “real world.” Unfortunately, vacation isn’t the reality, it is but a temporal part of our existence.

One funny little anecdoete: On our last day in the Bahamas, I commented to Charlene that I was looking forward to getting back to “real life.” She agreed and said she was really looking forward to getting back to our community–that is our friends at church, our families, and the people we work with.  I agreed and said, “Yeah, I’m getting sick of you too.”  I was joking of course, and she knew it.  But I think the truth of the matter is that even though God has joined us together, He didn’t join us together at the exclusion of others in our life. He joined us together in marriage, that it would enhance not only the sense of fellowship and belonging between us, but that it would enhance the fellowship and belonging with us as well.

Our hope as a couple is to be a blessing to those around us, and to be more effective at that as a couple than we would be as two singles. To borrow the ridiculously overused consulting term: we should be creating “synergies” from our relationship. The combination should be greater than the sum of the parts. And we can only do that if we continue to live life in the “real world.” Vacations and honeymoons are good for a time, but that’s not all we were designed for.

As Tilden pointed out in his message at our wedding, we are to rest, work, and be broken. And it is really only within the context of our community that we are really able to work.

All that to say it’s bittersweet that I’m going back to work tomorrow.

Sorry for the length of this post. I had originally intended it to be a short note that I was going back to work tomorrow. Instead, it has turned into this rather lengthy dissertation on a plethora of topics. Then again, I suppose that’s why I’ve chosen to post it under the category of “Randoms/Musings.” Consider this a rather long musing from a married man on the verge of going back to work.  I may or may not be posting as much in the next few days or weeks, especially as I get back into the swing of work.  But I’ll do my best.  Until then…Peace.

More Wedding Photos

We had a second shooter, Derek Tang, at our wedding, courtesy of Lynn and his connections. He’s got a photo blog as well, and he posted a plethora of photos as well. Take a look when you get a chance. He’s got some commentary of the photos as well:
http://www.xanga.com/dtangphoto/695902351/charlene–brian–wedding/

Derek came over the morning of our wedding to shoot the guys while Lynn and Joanna were at Amy Cheng’s place with Charlene.  Consequently, Derek got some cool shots of the guys that Lynn didn’t get. I’m glad he was there to capture the moment.

Don’t Kick the Cutting Board

Yesterday, I spent most of the day moving boxes around the house, unpacking stuff, and generally cleaning up the place. In the process, I managed to majorly stub my toe. Note to self: the bamboo cutting board is very heavy and it’s a bad idea to kick it.

My wife, the physical therapist, says it’s not broken, but it’s suffering from some pretty severe bruising and it’s kinda swollen.

Now, I was never a big fan of feet and toes to begin with, but now mine are certainly ugly. For your viewing pleasure:

toes1toes2

Tower of Bed Bath and Beyond

Until Sunday, Charlene and I had a veritable Tower of Bed Bath and Beyond in our living room.
Tower of Bed Bath and Beyondimg_0598
We’ve had so many packages delivered to our apartment, it’s a bit ridiculous. But we are grateful to all our friends and family who gave so many generous gifts to us for our wedding.

As you can see from these pictures, we had boxes stacked floor to ceiling in the apartment.  Fortunately, we were able to go through all of them and open everything. Yay! Thank you to everyone who graciously gave presents to our wedding, even in the midst of this horrendous economic turmoil.

Menu for the week

menu

I had every intention of making this post earlier this week, but didn’t get around to it until today. Charlene has work this week, but I was fortunate enough to get the time off.  In my attempt to be a loving house-husband , I told her I’d make breakfast, lunch and dinner for her every day.

So here’s our menu for the week:

Monday: Blackbean Chicken and Broccoli
Tuesday: Macadamia Crusted Mahi Mahi and Roasted Cauliflower
Wednesday: Cream of Broccoli Soup with Turkey and Provolone Panini
Thursday: Spaghetti (hey, every meal doesn’t have to sound gourmet around here :-))
Friday: Chicken Divan

It’s my goal to post all the recipes this week, but we’ll see whether or not that happens.

In the meantime, I’m really excited about dinner tonight.  Not just because I like cream of broccoli, but because I get to play with our new stick blender.

Stick Blender

And we’re using our panini press again. Frankly, the best part about all this cooking is that I get to use all the kitchen gadgets we got for our wedding. Yesterday, I got to open our toaster. Sunday we got to use our griddle/panini maker. Tomorrow should be pretty low key since it’s just spaghetti, but I’m looking forward to using our Corning Ware on Friday when I make chicken divan.

Charlene totally married a lover of kitchen gadgets and cooking.  Can’t wait…

Teaser Photos

Our wedding photographer, Lynn-Kai Chao e-mailed us a few teaser photos while we were on our honeymoon.

These are definitely good pics, and certainly a teaser of what’s to come.  I can’t wait to see the rest of them.

img_8236-editimg_8135-editimg_8372-edit

In case you’re wondering these pictures were all taken before the ceremony.  The first two were at Stanford, and the last one was taken near the pool at my cabana.

Updated 5/21/2009: Updated links to Lynn’s new blog.