I Heart The Asian Market . . .

. . . I really do! There are so many great food finds for so much cheaper than regular grocers. For example, my daughters absolutely LOVE the small packs of preserved bean curd crackers (yes, I said PRESERVED BEAN CURD) that my parent's neighbor (for blogging purposes, we'll call her "K") gives them when they visit. "K" is Japanese and is an amazing cook, so it stands to reason that she keeps a decent assortment of interesting Asian foods around her home. As I said, my daughters love these crackers and "K" told me that she actually gets them at the local Asian market, Choi's. We live fairly close to that store and have stopped in to check it out on occasion (mostly for bulgogi marinade, which I also highly recommend), so we stopped by on the way home to see if we could score more crackers for the kids. Did we ever! For mere $1.89 per box, we found not only the bean curd crackers, but also coconut flavor Silang crackers in boxes of 16 packs each (5 crackers per pack - the perfect snack size). So for $3.78, I have two huge packs of snacks and two VERY happy girls! Happy girls, happy mommy - not bad, huh?

Oh btw - if anyone is feeling thirsty the next time they are in the their local Asian market, we also recommend trying Calpico drinks in the Peach and Mango flavors. So good!

Pink Floyd . . . A Tired Mommy's Miracle

. . . I kid you not. I have three children - two girls and a boy - each as different as can be. They all had one thing in common - gas. Bad gas. Two I wondered if they weren't even borderline colic - though the pediatrician didn't think that was the case. Enter Pink Floyd. One exhausting night about 5 years ago, DH and I had had enough. Our daughter was crying out in pain and we knew that if she would just relax and sleep, she could pass the gas much easier. SO we put her in the car seat and went for a drive - it wasn't working. Finally, DH couldn't take the crying and put on some music - Pink Floyd's Division Bell was in the player - and a most amazing thing happened - she stopped almost instantly! Within mere minutes she was sleeping peacefully! Thinking it was a fluke, we tried it again the next time and didn't expect it to work. To our surprise, it did! We have since played the CD every time our three children needed calming down, with amazing results. In fact, as I type this, my baby son has just come off of a 45 minute crying spell by listening to Division Bell - he is now sleeping peacefully. I love you, Pink Floyd!