Saturday, February 8, 2014

In the late afternoon, Simon’s school had their lunar new year celebration but we still had a whole morning to hang out and prepare. We had a leisurely morning of eating breakfast (yogurt for Iris):

Then Iris had a nap with Annie’s arms.

Simon and I made our dessert for the potluck for the evening’s celebration: paper wrapped cake (zhǐ bāo dàngāo 紙包蛋糕). Simon helped me to sift and stir the ingredients together. The last time I made these was before Simon was born. Literally, a few days before he was born, I baked these but only ate one before I went into labor. By the time we got home from the hospital, they already went bad. So I was excited to try them again because I remember them being very yummy.

We made 1 dozen in a large muffin pan instead of the traditional tall cup tins.

They smelled delicious and ended up tasting pretty good too. Iris really liked them.

It was raining and very foggy by the time we made it to the celebration but we got there safely and the kid’s had practice on the stage. Here they are lining up in their cute outfits.

We also dressed up for the occasion. Iris’ cute outfit is from Grandma Tam.

In between the performances, there was a big raffle and our pharmacies donated and so did our friends at Contra Costa Dentistry (Thanks Tiffany & Alex!). Here are our gift baskets on display.

Here is a video of Simon’s class’ performance. It was so fun and I loved it! Simon appears about 4 minutes into the video and there is a group song at the end. I think Simon was the only kid to grab the microphone in the beginning, too much karaoke?

Afterwards, everyone was eager to remove their traditional wear and just stretch out and play for the rest of the evening.

Friday, February 7, 2014

This is Simon’s tracing tablet where he wrote his name and drew a truck and practiced writing “S”. He sometimes gets the direction reversed and writes “2”.

Yesterday at school they made some Valentine’s Day cards. The envelope has Simon, Daddy, and Mommy. The hearts are for us as well. The one with the truck is for Simon. The bottom card is our house.

Simon’s lunch of veggie chips, chicken tacos, strawberries, and pears. Our boy has been eating up a storm lately and complaining of being tired even after a full night’s rest. We think he must be growing.

It’s been getting chilly so Simon likes to wrap himself in this silk blanket/pillow. He also likes to hide under it for peek-a-boo.

For some reason, Iris really likes this plush banana. She can get a good grip on it and swings it around like she’s going to club you with it so you better watch out!

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Simon’s lunch of ròusōng (肉鬆) sushi, apples, and a clementine.

Iris playing with her activity cube. This girl loves to try to stand up on everything.

Simon playing peek-a-boo underneath the curtain of our nanny’s door. Iris got a kick out of Simon popping underneath.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Iris is starting to be interested in books. She likes to grab them off the shelves and sometimes chew on them but usually she just likes to take them off the shelf and drop them on the ground.

Simon’s lunch of mini sausages, carrots, apples, raspberries, and strawberries. I used little cutters on the sausages and they are supposed to be fish and turtles but I can’t seem to get them to turn out well. I also burned the sausages a little because I wasn’t paying that close attention so had to cut off the black parts. But he still ate all his lunch.

Hello!

The kiddos were playing with their play kitchen today. Iris and Simon were making eggs.

I think Iris wanted to fry up her eggs. Sunny side up anyone?

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Today I sent 110 bags of frozen milk to Mother’s Milk Bank (MMB) in San Jose. Last month I had to go through a phone interview, release my medical records to MMB, have a blood test done at Quest, and they sent me this cooler and I just had to fill it and schedule a pick up by Fedex. When I donated before, they used to have a nurse who would drive to you and draw your blood and pick up the milk from you but they said they no longer had the resources to do that. It was much more convenient previously but this way works too. In this cooler is about 1/3 of my freezer supply, each bag is filled with 100-300ml of milk. I can’t believe I had this much! I’m going to donate another 100 bags probably and keep 100 for Iris since lately I’ve been defrosting at least one bag a day for her to drink. It’s been easier keeping my supply up this time around. I guess my body was ready for it the second time.

Simon’s lunch of BBQ chicken bites, rice, strawberries, raspberries, carrots, and a cookie. Surprisingly, he did not eat the cookie!

At school, the kids were supposed to wear their Lunar New Year outfits so here is Simon all dressed up for school.

Iris saying “Good Morning!” to Daddy.

Iris eating her breakfast of Fage Greek yogurt with pureed fruit. She seems to really like the Fage yogurt over the whole milk plain yogurt I got her last time.

Simon thinks his Chinese New Year outfit is cool but he prefers to relax in shorts and a tank top.