Though, she had quite the fussy day today. Didn’t want to nap or take the bottle. She probably didn’t want to sleep because she slept a lot last night. After Chuck E. Cheese’s, we got home late so she didn’t get to bed until late so was really tired. She slept 6 hours and 40 minutes! Woke up for 20 minutes to nurse and went back to sleep for 2 hours and 30 minutes. But she was still groggy so a bit cranky.
Simon was super energetic today which was perfect for all of his activities today. He went to Lowe’s this morning to build the Pizza Planet Truck from Toy Story. He actually hit in most of the nails himself (looking closely, you can see the dents from the hammer). He was so proud.
Then we went to Pump It Up in San Francisco for Joshua’s 5th birthday party. He had a good time crawling, jumping, and sliding around with the other kids. Here is Simon (in brown) and Ron (in orange) going down the inflatable slide (on the right).
Then we had dinner with Grandpa Chung, Uncle Henry, and Auntie Betty at Ramen Parlor in San Mateo. We had a bit of a wait, maybe 20 minutes. Iris slept and Simon enjoyed hanging out with Auntie Betty.
Dinner was pretty good. Noodles had a nice chew and broth was very flavorful. I had the spicy crab miso ramen. I wish I ordered another soft shell crab, so delicious!
Ron had the pork tan tan noodles. Beautiful boiled egg on top.
We are all super exhausted after a long day. Both kids fell asleep in the car and both were easily transferred to their beds without a fuss. I am looking forward to a peaceful slumber like Iris.
Been too tired in the evenings to blog the last few days so here is the make-up post.
TUESDAY June 25:
I had my post partum checkup today and everything is a-OK. I’ve lost 26 lbs so far and looking to lose 15-20 lbs more. Losing weight starts with healthy eating so I picked up some delicious organic strawberries at the Kaiser Farmers Market. So sweet and delicious! Kaiser Walnut Creek has a small Farmers Market every Tuesday from 10am-2pm.
I took Simon to his swim class which he loves. Although he sometimes doesn’t listen to the teacher, he seems to be learning bit by bit like “Thumbs up! Wave goodbye! Pinky in the water!” (Backstroke) Here he is just splashing at the edge of the pool before the lesson.
Happy after a shower after swim class.
Little Iris. She has a small scab above her nose from scratching herself in her sleep. Mommy hasn’t been doing a great job on trimming her nails often enough.
WEDNESDAY June 26:
Iris after waking up in the morning.
Simon after opening some packages from Barnes and Noble. He loves books! We’ve discovered he really likes “The Cat in the Hat Learning Series” which have the cat explaining different topics like dinosaurs, money, bugs, etc. These new books are about sharks and whales.
THURSDAY June 27:
Last day for this session of camp! Spider-Simon! I think we are going to sign him up for another session as he seems to be enjoying it more.
Smiling Iris. She’s been smiling a lot more and occasional cooing. I love “talking” with her, she makes the cutest sounds and they change every few days.
Grandpa Chung came for a visit and Simon got comfortable reclining in the new car.
FRIDAY June 28:
Little lady in yellow.
Lifting her head a little during tummy time.
Out to dinner tonight. Yummy sashimi!
Simon trying a salmon skin handroll (which ended up being terrible and in edible). I didn’t taste it but Ron said it tasted burnt and made up of chopped up salmon skin. Simon didn’t like it after the first bite so we returned it. The service was a bit off-putting as well. We felt like they were trying to rush us out of there because the food came so quickly and they cleared our table so fast. We ate at Miraku in Walnut Creek. But I have to say they have really good sashimi!
Time just flew by this week. Now on to the weekend fun. It’s going to be HOT!
We went out to dinner at a Korean BBQ Plus! in Concord and Simon dug right in to the chap jae appetizer.
Delicious ban chan (side dishes).
Steaming hot kalbi.
Simon ate a lot of rice with some of the soup from the soon tofu jigae. We were pretty amazed that he didn’t mind the spiciness.
Then tasting some seaweed.
He ate quite a bit. He especially liked the rice mixed with the soup broth. Their tofu soup was the best thing we had. Their side dishes were delicious too and aplenty. Next door is their grocery store where we’ve bought the marinated meat and side dishes. We plan on going back again when we’re out that way (it’s on the way to Costco and where I fuel my NGV).
7.2.2011 Happy 16 months!
Simon enjoyed playing in our front yard this morning. It was warm weather and so was the water. He is wearing Ron’s visor since he insisted.
We had a date with our friend Tiffany to see Avenue Q in San Jose so we dropped Simon off at Grandpa Chung’s for babysitting. Simon cried when we left and apparently cried for another 45 minutes after we left. We are still learning how best to leave so that he won’t have this type of reaction again in the future. We think we left too abruptly but we had done it before and he was fine. He’s older now though so probably understands a bit more but is also afraid that we won’t come back. My poor baby. I felt bad but I knew he would be well taken care of.
We were running a bit late and the original place we wanted to go to for dinner was packed so we looked on Yelp and ended up at Mama Chen’s in Santa Clara for some Taiwanese cuisine.
Ba wan. Good amount of meat and large slices of bamboo shoots plus it was a large sized ba wan itself.
Their special beef noodle soup. The noodles were nice and chewy but the beef itself was a little tough. The broth is light in taste, dark in color. Next time I would skip this.
Shrimp pancake. Loved the chewy gooey texture and the crispy thin layer outside.
Of course we tried the stinky tofu, yum yum!
Green onion pancake with egg. Hard to describe but if you like egg and green onions, I think you’ll like this.
It has a thick layer of egg and was well cooked so the entire thing was flaky.
After dinner, we made it to the show a little bit late but they let us in to sit on the side seats until intermission. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a riot. It really is like muppets for adults. It’s a little bit raunchy but that’s what makes it hilarious. Long live the bad idea bears!
We picked up Simon around 11:30pm and he was fast asleep. Apparently he waited up for us until 10:30pm. Poor little guy. At least he’ll have all day with us tomorrow.
7.3.2011
We explored the Walnut Creek Farmer’s Market this morning then took a walk around downtown. Of course once we saw this fountain, we had to stop.
Our boy loves water features.
7.4.2011
We went to visit my parents’ house for a late afternoon BBQ. They bought Simon an inflatable pool and a new swim outfit. He was really excited.
My mom also bought this turtle sprinkler that Simon enjoyed splashing around with.
Simon showed off what he learned in swimming class. His frog kick! This was my first time seeing him swim, I’m so proud of our little guy!
Thank you Grandma Tam! I love my pool!
Simon not only had fun splashing in the pool, he also had fun experimenting with buoyancy.
In between Simon’s playing, we had a late lunch. Kalbi, asparagus, crackers and crab dip, corn, and ribs (cooked by Tim).
Simon played in the pool all afternoon, in for one hour, out for 15 minutes to eat, in for one hour, out for 15 minutes to eat, and repeat for 4-5 hours total.
We didn’t get to see fireworks though except from the freeway on the way home. Simon couldn’t stay up that long and it was pretty crowded everywhere.
