Good-bye, Thumb!

J has been known to suck his thumb since he was a baby. Pacifier, you can cut it, toss it, hide it...you can do a lot of things to get rid of it. But, his own thumb. I can't cut it or hide it. It just doesn't go anywhere but his mouth. I have tried covering with a bandage, putting nasty nail polish on, talking him about teeth being pushed and hurt, etc. Nothing worked. But, one day, he decided to stop it. The key was a comment from his friend K, who is 8-year-old and J looks up to.
His comment: "You know J, if you suck your thumb, it'll melt away. Did you know that?"
That's it. J must have believed it and got scared. He has been very conscious about it, and I don't think I have seen him sucking his thumb for at least a few weeks, if not longer.
My son graduated from thumb sucking! Yay!!

Backyard cooking

The other night, I wanted to eat something good, but something easy and quick. Somehow the previous days were all tomato base - grill cheese sandwich and tomato soup, chili and corn bread, chicken gumbo (my sister-in-law's homemade. Ymm!), etc. So, I went through my recipes and pondered.

What do I want to eat???

To get out of my endless struggle of finding menu for the night, I went to my backyard to check my garden for inspiration. And tada! Look at this broccoli!!! I planted way back in the beginning of June. It has been such a small skimpy thing and I didn't even dream that it would produce a head of broccoli. But somehow, I didn't even bother to pull out and just let it stay in his own spot.

Now, look at that!! Just beautiful!!

So, I picked a few other produce from my garden. Oh, I love fresh produce!!!
Then cooked with canned venison meat that my hubby butchered last winter.
I cheated with my sauce - good ol' pre-made stir fry sauce in the freezer.

And tada!

It didn't even take 20 minutes to cook the whole thing (well, after countless minutes of pondering). My tummy and baby were very satisfied after all.

Annual family campout, yes, it was 2 weeks ago...

But, I love this picture. I'm not a photographer, and lighting and stuff is probably not so good. Still, I love this picture. My daughter M and her cousin A. Total 40 people (17 adults, 23 kids, including 4 babies - my hubby's parents, grandma, all of his siblings and their kids) gathered and we had fun. Older kids looked after younger ones, just like the picture below. It was cold, but it was filled with warmth of love - love of family.

I love my OB doctor!!

My OB doctor just called me on my cell phone, on Friday night. He called me to let me know that the last ultrasound showed that my placenta has moved up! I was told I had partial placenta previa last month. I have been worried. But now it's moved up and I am under no restriction! And he called me on Friday night to let me know! What a doctor!! He has been a wonderful doctor for me and kids ever since I started seeing him (I used to work at the hospital and did a lot of research on which doctor to choose). Now, he passed to another level of awesomeness. Oh, what a blessing!!! I love you, Dr. S!

Rainy day entertainment

How are these pictures for a rainy day entertainment?

This image was made possible by generous contribution of my boss - my boss provided these funny nose glasses to everyone one the last day of our co-worker. Thanks, Deanna, we still enjoy them, as you see.

Summer Goodness - fresh produce

From my garden!!

My garden started producing more and more goodies! Those yellow tomatoes are called yellow pear tomatoes. And they are so sweet! After I took this picture, I just ate them all!

And the zucchini had a full life - enjoyed by kids in this phase (I couldn't find the bowl after I pour the zucchini bread batter in pan. Then I found it here.)

And, of course, in this phase.

Mmm Mmm Mmm!

Summer goodness - spray park and local ice cream shop

It's been such a cool summer here this year, but it's been nice and hot this week. So I decided to take kids to a spray park in a city where their cousins live. Their great grandma and their 3 cousins joined us and we had a good time! J has not been a big fan of water in the face. But this time, he was soaked wet from head to toe, going over and under water. Of course, they fell sleep on the way home - it was a good 40 minutes nap for them.
After dinner, we headed out to our favorite local ice cream shop. As part of our local libray Summer Reading Program, every 10 books kid read, they receive rewards. Our (ahem, it's more like my, ahem) favorite is the free coupon for small soft serve.
It was a perfect summer day. I love it.