Coffeephoria – Page 20 – Family stories.

Events

Happy New Year 2009!!

I recall attending a party one year where everyone was counting down to the start of a new year, and the festivities were extravagant, with dancing, cheering, and just a whole lot of fun. I was bringing down the house with all my fancy dance moves with all my friends cheering on as we celebrated the arrival of the new year. I didn’t have any champagne because I didn’t need alcohol to have a great time, and, well, I was also… 10 at the time so it was either Martinelli or Sprite. Okay, okay, so maybe there wasn’t any fancy dance move either, just a weak version of the Running Man or the Moonwalk, as others laughed on, I’m sure. It is surprising, though, how much of our childhoods we carry with us. To this day the arrival of a new year seems incomplete to me unless a crowd of people celebrating, so we invited a few people over…

Here were some of the family and friends moments after New Year…

and some Happyfish brothers and sisters…

And a video to the countdown…

Along with a new year, it is also time to set some New Year’s Resolutions. Some of you may have thought my last year’s resolutions were somewhat weak, so hopefully this year’s will be slightly better.

James Lee’s New Year’s Resolution for 2009:

I will be a good daddy to Lia and give her gifts that she would want, such as XBOX 360. For the record, just because Lia didn’t want me to have one doesn’t mean she doesn’t want one for herself!
I will eat healthy and limit fast food, such as KFC, to five times a week.
I will try not to scare Lia with the Little Drummer Tigger.
I will prevent my house from looking like a Tornado has hit, and keep my yard from resembling the second Amazon Rain Forest. Hmm… how old does Lia have to be before she can help mow the lawn?
I will not jump off Chargers bandwagon even if they start off 4-8, and I will try not to grimace at the thought of the Mariners.
I will continue to help Earth (and my wallet) by taking the bus to work everyday, and I will try driving Karen’s car at least once a week so we don’t need to jump it every time Karen needs to go out.
I will be a good husband and invest in a Blu-Ray player, such as the PS3, so that we can have quality TV picture for our at-home movie nights.
I will start our weekly family devotionals, even if we need to strap Lia to her high-chair to do so.
I will have better time management and not be more than 3 hours late to any event.
I will post at least one blog a week, even if I have to bore all my faithful readers to death with my stream-of-consciousness babbling about nothing.

And thus starts the year 2009. Happy New Year!!

Kids

Lia Learns One

Lia is starting to pick up what one is! Check it out…

Kids

Vitamin D Supplement

With the incessant rain and the daylight hours of 1pm to 3pm in Winter Seattle, Lia doesn’t get much sun these days. Babies need Vitamin D for strong bone growth, so we added Vitamin D supplement to Lia’s gourmet diet, in the company of bland steamed broccoli and flavorless hard-boiled chicken. Many people have noted how difficult it may be to offer these supplements to babies and suggested adding it to food instead, but we decided to see Lia’s response of raw vitamin D (and A, C in this case). This was the clip of our first attempt at what was portrayed as an insurmountable feat…

Looks like we’ve underestimated Lia!

Sports

Chargers in the Playoffs!

Posted on December 28, 2008December 28, 2008
by James
Comment on Chargers in the Playoffs!

So I admit I was a man of little faith. When Chargers went to 4-8, I thought the season was over, but they were not mathematically eliminated. Now they just beat the #1 team in our division Denver (where my bro-in-law, who must be waving his hands in disgusted, resides) by 21-52, and they’re in the playoffs!!

The Chargers won four in a row and they’re really hot. Next week against Indy will be a tough game, but it will be an exciting one! GOOOOO CHARGERS!!!

Time to get Lia a baby Charger outfit, probably to the chagrin of my lovely, fashion-conscious wife. 🙂

Health

Biodegradable Household Products

Posted on December 27, 2008January 23, 2009
by James
3 Comments on Biodegradable Household Products

Babies typically like to touch everything and then stick their hands in their mouths. As a super-protective father, I need to live up to my reputation by eliminating nasty chemicals such as bleach from my house. Hence, I started my quest of banishing products with chemical agents.

First, I needed a cleaner for typical everyday cleaning, and GreenWorks Natural All-Purpose Cleaner seems to fit the bill. The packaging claims 99.93% natural, biodegradable ingredients, which seems much better than my old cleaner which was probably 99.93% chlorine bleach. So far I haven’t put it to any heavy-duty use, such as cleaning the back of the fridge where alien life-forms take refuge, but it sure feels better to have Lia touch a surface cleaned by this product than the 409.

The next product we looked to make the switch was dishwashing liquid. Karen brought home some organic detergent in the past, but the apple-scented fume from that product overloaded my senses and so nauseated me that I refused to do dishes. Okay, okay, I admit that part of it wasn’t motivated by the nausea and it was a perfect excuse, but the fragrance was undeniably overpowering. Recently we made the switch to GreenWorks Natural Dishwashing Detergent, which is 99% biodegradable, and emitted a more soothing aroma.

Now some of you may have been cajoled by the older generation into believing that the dishwasher is a dish storage device, but for the enlightened ones who realized that the dishwasher was invented for a reason other than racking dishes, dishwasher detergent is an essential part of the household. For a while I used Cascade, but the chlorine bleach in that product made me urgently look for an alternative, and that was when I came across Trader Joe’s Next To Godliness Automatic Dishwashing Detergent, the powder version. It contains no chlorine or phosphate and seems to work just as well as the Cascade. Note that while I haven’t tried the liquid version, I heard it has an undesirable air de-freshener side-effect and doesn’t work as well.

Another surface that we grace our skin on daily is the Throne. Not sure if you enjoy sitting in a puddle of bleach, but for myself, I prefer sitting in biodegradable material. Well, I suppose there are biodegradable materials in the bathroom that I’d rather not sit on, but at least it won’t burn a hole in my pants or kill a million fish with one drop in the gutter. Anyway, GreenWorks seems to have the GreenWorks natural toilet bowl cleaner which contains none of the toxic stuff. Woot!

So I’m becoming greener everyday, and it’s all in the name of being a protective parent. This is only the beginning. As I encounter more ways of reducing toxic materials from the household, I will let you know!

Kids