Bouchon, Domaine Chandon, Solage Calistoga

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.

Eating carrots

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Day 157

When Simon wakes up early, sometimes I’m so tired and I get cranky and just want him to go back to sleep but then I remember that I won’t see him all day and want to spend as much time with him as I can. I think Simon can sense that so he’s usually a bit more cheerful. He’s more smiley and that just makes my day a little easier to get through.

Simon had another day of eating carrots. Ron learned from his friend Sabrina that making the puree thicker with rice cereal would make it easier to feed Simon and also for him to keep it in his mouth. A very good tip. Simon has been doing pretty well with the solid foods and learning to swallow more and more. He can tolerate about 2-3 tablespoons of solid food before he gets bored and starts squirming in his seat. He’s still drinking milk and actually a bit more than he normally does in one sitting, he’s up to 160 ml (~5.5 oz) each time and still drinking every 2-3 hours. He’s a growing boy!

We bought a new waterproof bib for feeding since he still does get food on his face and on his front. This bib is easy to wash and we just wipe his face with water after he finishes eating. Time to move on to the next type of food… apples maybe?

Stomach Sleeping

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Day 156

Every book we read and at all of Simon’s doctor visits, it is recommended to put him down to sleep on his back. Well, we do that but eventually he ends up on his stomach. He sometimes is flat on his face and sometimes his head is to the side. By now, his neck is strong enough to move his head around so we figure he should be okay but sometimes we do worry when he has a blanket nearby or one of his stuffed animals. His pacifier is usually in his mouth too so that keeps his airway open.

I hope he grows out of it or at learns to always sleep with his head to the side so we can see his face.

Simon showing us his big eyes. He went to visit grandma Chung again today at the office and play with this Exersaucer there.

Simon had a fun time laughing at himself in the mirror.

Stud = Buts

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Day 155

Ron found a hidden word in Simon’s bib, anyone looking for “Seymour Buts”? (Simpsons anyone?)

Simon went to Ron’s parents office to spend the day. Here he is intently playing his piano.

He got to wear his PJs all day.

Ron fed Simon his evening rice cereal and got him ready for bed. He finally pooped, it’s been almost 4 days! Here he is practicing crawling on the bed in his PJs.

I went to an educational dinner talk at Scala’s Bistro. Our co-worker Julie was the presenter so a bunch of us went to support her. She did a great job with the talk and the food was delicious.

I had the filet of beef with mashed potatoes and spinach. The beef was cooked medium and so tender that we didn’t need steak knives to cut through it. The spinach was a bit garlicky but delicious and the mashed potatoes with gravy rounded out the meal.

For dessert, a bostini cream pie with orange chiffon cake, vanilla cream, and chocolate glaze. Delicious!

I missed Simon’s meal, bathtime, and bedtime tonight. It was a good night out with adults but I enjoy coming home to my little family so was kind of sad to find Simon asleep when I arrived home. Tomorrow night I will be home so look forward to watching Simon try his first vegetable or fruit puree.

But since he went to bed early, I finally had some time to finish updating this blog. I’ve had a hard time keeping up the last two weeks since I’ve had some problems with my computer. I’ve run out of storage space so can’t download the photos from our camera so that I can upload them to our picasa site. But I now have a 1 TB portable external hard drive so have plenty of storage space! Many thanks to Ron for partitioning my hard drive so that I can read it on a PC and with a MAC. Simon has so many pictures, I hope I’ll have time to make a photo book of his first year.

Roboboy

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Day 154

Simon has grown so much from this picture (Day 7):

Today:

Ron went around town with Simon today and in his rush, he spilled his (cold) Starbucks coffee on Simon’s head while he was holding him in the Baby Bjorn. Ron ended up wiping his head down with baby wipes. Poor baby.