Monthly Archives: August 2010

Boppy support

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Day 162

With support, Simon can stand up pretty straight.

He’s still doesn’t have enough core strength to support himself but he seems to be getting stronger everyday. It’s pretty amazing to see how things can change in such a short period of time.

Simon likes to suck on anything that will fit into his mouth. In this case, the parrot’s beak. *nom*nom*

Since Simon still tips backward easily, we have been using the Boppy pillow to wrap around him so he can’t fall backward as easily. Instead, he still falls forward but at least he can sit up for longer and play.

First taste of summer vegetables

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Day 161

Morning playtime while sitting up. He’s pretty bendy as his legs are out in front… and also very drooly.

Simon wearing his OOTD (Outfit of the Day).

Sitting on Biggie Pooh and reaching for Moo-Moo the cow (not pictured).

Simon pushing up on his arms. Check out those muscles!

Simon giving the evil eye to his meal of summer vegetables…. and he didn’t really like it since it wasn’t as sweet.

Wobbling

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Day 160

Forgot to post this video last night… Simon is playing on the bed (and complaining a bit) and is learning how to push up on his arms. Soon to be crawling? Maybe. He is also talking more and sounds a bit like he is saying “da-da!”. It’s really cute but I don’t think he understands what he is saying.

Simon is starting to recognize his pacifier and will reach toward it. Here is is ready for a nap. We can tell since he is scratching his head which is one of his signals that he is getting sleepy.

Simon trying to hypnotize you with his penetrating stare…

When I got home, I played with Simon and had him practice sitting up. I love how wobbly he is in trying to balance himself but overall he’s doing a pretty good job.

What I didn’t catch is that he fell with a bonk on his forehead shortly after I stopped the video.

Since he tends to fall forward, we found out that letting him sit up on his playmat provides good support for his big head. Check out the video to see how…

Tacolicious

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Day 159

Simon woke up at 7am this morning and I decided to get him and put him into bed with us. He basically relaxed and stayed calm for an hour before he got cranky and wanted to get up to play. Oh well, at least one more hour of rest for me.

Check out his shoes. Thank you to Karla, Brandon, and Miles! They are super cute but Simon’s feet are a bit chubby so were hard to put all the way on. They are pretty ingenious though with the placement of velcro to open the shoe and a cool design. I had to put the shoe on Simon’s foot then make him stand up in order to get his heel to go all the way in. I think it was hard to put on because of Simon’s chubby feet or else he is also still curling his toes.

We spent the morning and afternoon at home. Simon got his first taste of some apple blueberry puree mixed with rice cereal. He made a bit of a pucker-face when he first tasted it and seems confused by the color.

But he still finished his little bowl with little spillage but all around his mouth. He hasn’t figured out how to use his tongue yet.

Simon grinning at us while we are having lunch. He looks a bit mischievous here.

We went out for a walk downtown and when we got back, Simon was itching to get out of the carrier. I set him on the sofa briefly against two pillows and he tilted forward. Just goes to show that babies move fast. Don’t worry, he didn’t fall or anything, just tipped over slowly.

A late afternoon snack of the seasonal blueberry macaron from Bouchon. To the right is a quarter to show the size. The outer cookie was very light on the outside and the inside had creme but some sort of fruit jelly piece. It was yummy.

In the evening, we went to dinner with Virginia and Dan to Tacolicious. Virginia had bought some Groupon-like coupons so we went to try their food and redeem them.

Here are their hot sauces for the tacos, top to bottom: tomatillo, fire roasted, and habanero.

Their “pasion” cocktail. I ordered it because it had passion fruit in it and although it is pretty, it didn’t taste that good. I couldn’t taste the passion fruit at all, just a bit sweet.

Simon had fallen asleep in the car so slept through about half of the dinner.

The plantain appetizer. Very sweet and interesting sauce.

We ordered 10 tacos for $29 plus 2 extra beef tongue tacos (their special for the day) and 2 orders of corn.

Starting from the top left to right: short ribs, carnitas, chicken. Bottom left to right: beef tongue, chorizo, and fish. Our favs were the carnitas and beef tongue.

The corn. It had a bit of tang to it but was itself very sweet.


A pretty good dinner overall. Thank you Virginia for inviting us along! Tacolicious apparently serves lunch at the Ferry Building on Thursdays. That would be more convenient than heading to the Marina but not sure when I’ll get a Thursday afternoon off.

When we got home, we gave Simon another apple-blueberry + rice cereal mixture before giving him a bath and putting him to sleep. Hopefully he’ll have a good night’s rest.

Bouchon, Domaine Chandon, Solage Calistoga

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Day 158

We headed to wine country for Ron’s cousin’s wedding. Since the wedding was in the late afternoon, we decided to go to Napa for lunch. There was more traffic than we anticipated so we were almost 30 minutes late for our 12:15pm reservation at Bouchon. I had made the reservation on OpenTable yesterday and when we were running late, I gave them a call to tell them we were going to be there around 12:30pm instead. When we got there around 12:40pm, I was pleasantly surprised to see they still had our table reserved, equipped with a high chair to put Simon’s car seat. I had specified in our reservation that it was 2 adults and 1 baby so I’m glad they did this for us.

The service was excellent as usual. Their bread was so delicious and the rest of the meal was also fantastic. We tried their special appetizer/soup of the day, a lobster bisque with a crab and lobster beignet also with sweet corn and small tomatoes in the broth. Yum!

Simon was a little fussy so he spent time out of the car seat while we were waiting for our main courses. Check out his cute overalls. Thank you to Auntie Elaine and Uncle Edgar.

Pan seared roast duck with duck gizzard sausage and braised field greens and sweet corn. The duck had a nice crispy skin and it was a beautiful presentation.

Ron ordered the special entree of the day, a lamb shank. Very tender, fall off the bone tender, but still a bit of gamey taste. Although the vegetables countered that and surprisingly tasted very good soaked in the juices.

After the great lunch, we headed across the way to the bakery to buy some goodies for home. Then we had time for one winery before heading to Calistoga for the wedding. We ended up at Domaine Chandon as I was in the mood for some sparkling wine. They have a nice tasting room that is open to the lawn area but the service left sometime to be desired. You have to crowd around this bar to get your tastings and the servers seemed to be attentive only to certain crowds.

This was probably the fourth or fifth time we’ve visited Domaine Chandon and the service is usually better and the sparkling wine they serve are now different. We ordered the $25 Prestige tasting which were pretty tasty but not ones we would likely buy. We miss our Mumm Napa Valley sparkling wine club and their tasting service is must more personal. It’s table service and they come to explain the wines to you and serve complimentary delicious cheese crackers. I’m not sure if they still do this but this was the standard 2-3 years ago.

Anyways, Simon fell asleep during our tasting but thought we’d take a photo.

He woke up briefly to take this photo in front of the mushroom garden, our favorite spot at Domaine Chandon. One of the staff helped us to take this photo and even got Simon to smile a bit. Thank you anonymous lady!

After this, we drove over to Solage Calistoga where the wedding was to be held. The staff there was very friendly and helpful. First we asked for a place to change and they guided us to their pool changing room. Then Ron realized he forgot his cuff links and someone there let him borrow his! We were always greeted with a “hello” or “how are you?”. I’d want to go back just to check out their spa. Seems like they would have great service.

The ceremony started a bit late and they had some technical problems (microphone kept on cutting out) but it was short and sweet and led to a nice cocktail and appetizer hour. Simon had been awake for quite a while and had been pretty calm for most of the time. I was waiting for him to start getting cranky and tell us that he wanted to nap. Instead, as Ron was holding him, I noticed he started nodding off while facing forward. Had a bit too much to drink baby?

When we were invited into the dining room, the first thing I noticed was the candy bar. So pretty and so yummy. I found out later that the marshmallows were home made! Creative.

Everyone got a take out box of candy to take home.

Simon and I waiting for dinner to start.

The meal was simple but delicious. These are shrimp lettuce wraps, shrimp were really fresh and the cups also had some rice noodles and a tangy sauce.

A green salad with sweet corn, tomatoes, and a bit of grated cheese.

Roasted chicken with green beans and fingerling potatoes. A big portion and very moist. Ron and I were surprised the chicken was so moist and wonder how they did it.

A vanilla panna cotta with melon soup. I could just drink the melon soup… so refreshing. I liked the panna cotta but some people did not. It had a bit of tanginess and was very smooth. I enjoyed the panna cotta more than their white wedding cake with fresh berries.

Simon took little naps throughout the dinner. I brought along Winnie the Pooh to help him sleep. I think it did help him remember that he was supposed to fall asleep. He got woken up a few times though because of the noise and being too warm.

We ended up getting home late and Simon was konked out. We transferred him from the car seat straight to the bed. We didn’t want to wake him by changing his clothes so let him sleep in his outfit.

Here are our Bouchon Bakery goodies. French macarons (blueberry, caramel, hazelnut, raspberry, and pistachio) $3 each and huge!

To show how great Bouchon restaurant was, we asked to take our small piece of bread home since it was so delicious and they went to get us a box and filled it to the brim of bread! The bread has a great crust and is chewy on the inside. Those are the vine looking things inside this box. We transferred it into this box with the rest of our pastries. Also in here are a almond & chocolate croissant and brioche.

Delicious looking citrus tarts… can’t wait to dig in to these.

Can’t wait to dig in to all of them….

It was a good day overall, beautiful weather and a beautiful wedding. Congratulations to Eugenia and Michael!

We took a photo with the bride and groom but not with our camera (it ran out of memory!) so hopefully will post it here later on.