Saturday, January 4, 2014

Simon has received feedback that sometimes his smile is a little bit too “cheezy” so I’ve been having him practice his gentle smile. I think he’s got in down pretty well.

Sibling love.

Simon spent the afternoon with Daddy in Santa Rosa at a Wine Country Reefers event (salt water fish/aquarium related event) so Iris and I went to visit GM Tam in San Ramon. We had lunch and went for a bit of shopping. Iris had some noodles and bread from our lunch and seemed to really enjoy it.

Iris enjoys trying to stand up by herself.

She can move pretty well on the ground these days. She propels herself forward but still on her stomach so is not crawling on all fours quite yet.

Friday, January 3, 2014

So Simon got this Lightning McQueen bed tent from Uncle William for Christmas.

Where is Simon?

So what do you do when you need to take a shower, the baby is awake, and no one else is awake to watch him/her? This morning I decided to put Iris in her baby bathtub with some toys to entertain her. Worked pretty well this morning just so I could take a quick shower. Bath Babysitter!

Mommy and Iris sharing a hug while Daddy is running around in the kitchen making dinner.

Happy brother Simon.

Iris trying on big brother’s hat.

Next time I may try a laundry basket instead of the baby bathtub. She seems pretty comfortable here.

Simon is really starting to show his artistic side. He drew this picture all by himself. It’s a trailer truck, smiling, with a smoke stack, and he drew lines to “connect” the wheels to the truck. I love his drawings. It is an ice cream truck. Later one he even wrote “ICE CREAM” too.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

“Aha! I’ve got Ziggy!” says Iris.

Simon holding on tightly to Ziggy again.

Innocent little girl.

Daddy and Simon playing telephone. Mini Hello Kitty cups are from GM and GP Chung from their last international flight where they flew on the Hello Kitty airplane! I think these tiny cups must have been water cups.

Today Simon learned how to trace his Chinese name using this Crayola dry erase board. You can put a sheet behind the plastic and draw on the plastic screen. So I think we can use this to help him improve his writing and he really seems to enjoy writing and drawing nowadays.

Before he did his Chinese name tracing, he was drawing with Daddy. Here are the cars he drew with wheels, doors, and windows. Looks like he also drew some buses and tried to write some more Chinese words.

Every day, our kids do something that amaze me…

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

To ring in the new year, we went for breakfast at Fat Apple’s.

Pumpkin pancakes.

Their famous cheese puff.

After breakfast, we visited the park nearby our house so Simon could expend his excess energy. Iris experienced her first swing ride with me and seemed to really enjoy it. She kept on looking upwards to the sky and smiled as I swung back and forth and made corresponding sounds.

Amazingly, Simon went up and down this very tall slide a few times. He says he is no longer afraid of “high” slides.

Iris napped a bit while Simon continued to play.

She woke up all smiles. This cute onesie is from Auntie Betty. I can’t believe it is already 2014!

Iris went on the baby swing by herself. At first she didn’t know what to make of it but after a few minutes, she really started to enjoy it. This cute hoodie is from Grandma Tam. Love the little kitty ears on the hood.

A restful day for us. Ron and I have to go back to work tomorrow and Annie will be home with both kids tomorrow. Simon starts school again next Monday so he’ll be at home to help Annie take care of Iris and just enjoy some time at home to play.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

We spent the day at home relaxing and just had plans in the evening for dinner. Iris gave us some more smiles.

Simon practiced writing his own name, “mom”, “dad”, “Iris”, and “yipo”. “Mom” is written twice because he did not like it the first time he wrote it.

We had dinner reservations at Skates on the Bay next to the Berkeley Pier. Reservations were for 5pm, in hopes that we would catch the sunset. By the time we were seated, the sun had pretty much gone down but we still had a nice view.

Iris can sit in high chairs pretty well now.

But tries to touch everything around her and put it in her mouth, including the menu!

But she knows she is super cute and can get away with it.

Simon is a big boy now and can sit in his own chair, most of the time without a booster chair. The tables at Skates were great because they had butcher paper on them so that Simon could draw to his heart’s content.

For dinner appetizers we had the crab cakes and half a dozen oysters on the half shell.


For dinner, I had a cioppino. The broth was delicious and tasted really good soaked up in the garlic bread on the side.

Dinnertime photos.

Simon’s dinner came with a sundae. He loved the chocolate syrup and ice cream but, surprisingly, does not like whipped cream.

I tried the gingerbread bread pudding.

Lovely dinner for the last day of 2013.

On the drive home, Iris fell asleep in her carseat. She looks so comfortable.

But woke up soon after arriving home. I won’t be staying up until midnight to watch fireworks and neither will the kids so wishing everyone a safe celebration and Happy New Year!