dobry den!

i've moved...

2011-04-16T22:53:00.001-07:00

http://dobryden.posterous.com/

just experimenting w/ a different blog site; trying to find one that offers an easier user interface (esp downloading pictures) and has my name available hahaa. come visit me over there =)

bye bye birdie...

2011-03-16T21:15:00.001-07:00

i usually carpool home w/ the hubby. we like to pick up aj (and my nephew) together. sometimes if i need to wrap up some emails, i'll have s drive while i work through the emails on my phone. after we pick up our son and nephew, s gets on the freeway.

after maybe 1/2 a mile, i hear s say, "shoot".
i was looking down at my phone and had no idea what happened but did hear a "thump".
i said, "what did you do?"
s says, "i hit a bird. it was already injured; laying down. i couldn't swerve since there were cars on both sides."

we didn't think much of it until five minutes later we heard another "thump". when we got home, this is what had happened.

the bird completely knocked out my grill and broke my fog light! oh, the black scraps were from an accident several years ago...oops. luckily s has already replaced the grill and fixed the bulb.

kids say the darnest things...

2011-03-07T12:07:00.000-08:00

aj has definitely been more vocal and some of the things he says...s and i have no idea where it comes from!

1 - it started to rain and of course, drivers feel the need to slow down or brake. so as the cars in front of me brakes, i had to brake abruptly. aj says, "be careful mommy"

2 - i needed to speed up to pass a truck to get on the on-ramp. as i'm accelerating aj says, "slow down mommy."

3 - my son likes to play w/ my lip balm; he just finished putting some on his lips.
aj: "you want some daddy?"
s: "no thanks."
aj: "try it!"
of course s has to right? we always encourage aj to try different things.

4 - we created this bad habit of having someone sleep w/ aj at night. s was kissing me good night; aj says, "kiss me daddy!"

5 - aj loves to ask "what are you doing?"
aj: "what are you doing daddy"
s: "picking my nose" (because he really was at that moment)
aj: "oh, i pick my nose," and then takes his finger and shoves it up his nose. turns to me, "mommy, pick your nose."

shop til you drop now

2011-02-22T20:14:00.001-08:00

if there is anything classic that you want or have been eyeing, you should buy it soon!! i'm not sure if the everyday shopper has noticed but apparel prices are going up! since i'm in the retail industry, i feel so intimate w/ the current cotton / labor crisis that has struck the entire industry and is also a macroeconomic issue. prices retailers are being charged they say will jump 20-40% this year. retailers have no choice but to increase prices; some have already admitted the price increases while others are tiptoeing around it. the sad fact though, is that consumers are still very price sensitive and are still waiting for sales.

as much as i love to wear sweaters and boots, i'm soo ready for spring! since weather is definitely not on retailers' side, i think spring product will be backed up and retailers will start to be promotional...if they aren't already. a couple of items i've been eyeing (some of which i couldn't resist but did buy w/ a promotion).

jcrew is by far my favorite retailer (amongst) the specialty retailers you find in malls. the best selling styles are usually the 1st to go when they have their sales but they do occasionally have promotions online.

i'm a sucker for plaid shirts...i love this color combo

my other weakness - stripes! i love how this stripe feels more elevated because it's merino

madewell is a brand under jcrew. their styling is a bit more funky / casual. unfortunately they don't have any stores in the bay area. they did launch their website last year so at least we can buy online!

love love this shirt. should have bought it already...it's sold out now!

ann taylor...i remember as a high schooler, i aspired to shop at ann taylor when i was going to join 'corporate america'. of course, in my industry, it's uber casual so i never need to dress up. i can wear jeans every day! ann taylor has always been perceived as an mature and conservative brand. however, in the last 6 months or so, they've revamped their image and their target customer. even their marketing has been compared to jcrew.

saw this on cameron diaz in people magazine. found a 30% off coupon so i got this stripe sweater!

deals...deals...deals

2011-02-15T20:40:00.000-08:00

so a couple of years ago, my friend started working for a company called gilt group. back then, no one had even heard of gilt. he was one of the 1st few employees and introduced me to the company as an online sample sale. he "invited" me to be a member and i was instantly hooked! they carried some amazing designers at huge discount prices. every morning at 9am PST, they would introduce new brands to the sale. people were obsessed...all the good stuff was already sold out in the 1st ten minutes!! it works perfectly for people in the east coast because it's during their lunch but is sucky for us since it's usually when most of us are already at work!

now, this site along w/ many copycats and deal sites are all the rage. there seems to be an endless no. of new sites popping up offering the latest deals! so these are a couple of my favorites...please let me know if anyone has other sites that they love!

daily deals...
groupon - use this most often
living social - most famous for their amazon gift card the other week (amazon invested millions into this company)
social buy - haven't gotten anything recently; definitely hit or miss on the deals
townhog - use this the least; usually just look at the deal in the subject title

shopping...
gilt groupe - love this site but the best looking things are usually sold out in the 1st 10 minutes! they originally started w/ only women's clothes but now has quite a selection of men's, home and children. i've also started receiving their weekly giltcity and they have some good deals there as well
luckymag - from lucky magazine. very focused...usually has a specific item that is highly discounted for 1-2 days
swirl - from daily candy. some popular brands but nothing i've found to be an amazing deal
one kings lane - similar to gilt group but completely focused on products for the home. i also love that they are based in san francisco =)

happy shopping!!

happy new year!

2011-01-01T22:19:00.001-08:00

i can't believe we are already in a new year. this last year has just blown by so fast and if i reflect back on the year (which looking at past posts have definitely helped)...there have been several highs and some unfortunate lows:

1 - work / life balance. whoever coined this phrase must have been an idealist hahaa. i don't know if this truly exists w/ where i work and what i do. i love my career and what i've done for the last 10+ years. i've built some great professional relationships and have worked hard in building my credibility in retail. i mean, it's certainly not, "oh, this is what i was always meant to do kind of thing like that but it's certainly something i'm good at and can see myself doing for many years to come. i've always been very ambitious in my career and fiercely independent. i don't know if it's just because of being a minority or a female (and w/out being all "i've had to overcome so many obstacles"...), i've always just felt that i wanted to do well professionally so that if i ever had a daughter, i can show her what is truly possible if you set your mind to it. i know, minor technicality...i don't have a daughter.

on the flip side of career ambition is also longevity. your career is a marathon and not a sprint. maybe it's okay to relax a little bit and focus on the family? the next level for me is VP but then what? really, is that what i want to do for the next 20+ years? but as steve says, he doesn't think it's in my dna to put the brakes on.

2 - afterlife. this past year has been trying in the sense that i've had to say goodbye to 2 very very dear people. my maternal grandfather left us in april and my uncle passed in october. if there was something positive that came out of my grandfather's passing, it would be that death is now a slightly more comfortable topic to discuss w/ my parents. not that we always want to discuss death but at least we know what their wishes are when they do pass. i think the other upside was just being w/ family and knowing how important family is despite the language barrier that does exist w/ my mom's side of the family.

my uncle always treated me well. growing up, i lived w/ my aunt and uncle when i was in high school and for a short time after college. he always spoiled me growing up and his daughter used to joke that i was his 'favorite' daughter. even though he was sick for awhile, it was still tough to actually say my final goodbyes.

3 - travel. traveling is somewhat easier now that aaron is slightly more independent. we flew twice this past year...both 1-2 hour trips. aaron is actually really good on flights and since he sleeps w/ us at night, sleeping away from home is no non issue. the boy loves to sleep so napping is never an issue as well. next year, s is actually traveling to europe for a bachelor trip in april and while he is gone, i'm planning on taking aaron on a trip somewhere as well (either hawaii or new york). hopefully, we can also plan another trip in the fall.

4 - marriage. what can i say, i'm very lucky to have such an amazing husband (though i'd like to think he was lucky as well hahaa). we have always appreciated each other's independence yet, he truly does take care of his family.

5 - friends. i consider my sister to be my oldest / dearest friend. i don't really keep in contact w/ my friends from high school (facebook doesn't count). it's really my friends from college and previous gap colleagues that are my dear friends. i think about how long i've known these girls and since i started college in '96, that would make this upcoming year +15 years now!! wow...not many people would voluntarily put up w/ me for that long. family is obligated.

6 - sf giants. i mean how can i not mention the world champion sf giants --- especially since i'm watching a rerun of the parade right now. as someone born and raised in san francisco, to be part of something so special this year, it's just unbelievable. even know, when i wear any of my giants gear, i just get all these happy feelings. =)

i've been a very blessed individual and i have so much to be thankful for in my life and i can't wait to see what 2011 has in store!!

santa is not my friend

2011-01-01T20:51:00.000-08:00

s and i knew aj was not going to like santa...he's just such a shy guy. we tried to prepare him for this visit. we showed aj all his pictures from the last 2 years on santa's lap. we told him that santa would give him cars and trucks. we went to the mall and showed him santa and he was fine w/ it. when we said, let's go say hi to santa, he said "okay". there was a reasonable wait and once it was our turn, he seemed okay. we even got him to hi five and fist pump santa. however, once s picked him up to sit on santa it was not looking good. he wanted to get off immediately. i coaxed him to get back on santa and the photographer was able to get one decent shot of aj before he started crying.

a harmless fist pump - thought it was a nice way to warm up to santa

yeah, i was wrong

ring bearer...

2010-12-03T22:43:00.000-08:00

i love this picture! s' brother got married in october and aj was the ring bearer while our neice was the flower girl. s and i were really nervous that he wasn't going to walk down the aisle since he is so shy around strangers. he actually started out well. as he got half way down the aisle, he saw some familiar faces...my sister and brother. so he stops, calls them out and tries to sit down with them!! it was so cute! they had show him s at the front of the church so he would continue to walk down toward s.

humm baby!

2010-11-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

growing up 5 minutes away from candlestick park naturally lends itself to being a sf giants and sf niners fan. growing up in the 80's, i remember the championship years of the 49ers w/ joe montana, steve young, jerry rice, john taylor, ronnie lot, brent jones...i can just go on and on. w/ the giants, it was roger craig w/ will clark, matt williams, robby thompson, kevim mitchell and rod beck.

as a child, i collected baseball cards. i actually remember mailing a fan letter to will clark w/ his baseball card hoping he would autograph it and send it back to me. how naive huh? i remember watching the world series against the a's in my living room and then experiencing the earthquake.

i remember the disappointing 2002 season...where we completely fell apart and lost the world series. i actually was lucky enough to attend the NLCS series where we hosted the cardinals. that was my 1st experience in attending a postseason game and it was just sooo amazing how different the atmosphere was versus a nomal regular season game.

one of my goals is to attend spring training. i'm very determined to do this...maybe when aj is bit older and can appreciate baseball, we can travel to arizona and hang out for spring training!!

as the giants season started this year, very few expected much from the team, i honestly didn't pay too much attention either. it wasn't until i'd say mid august that i started to pay more attention; as the giants started their hot streak and the padres started collapsing, i REALLY got focused.

needless, to say, we all know how the season ends! we were very very fortunate and blessed to have gone to a game in each of the post season series.

NLDS - giants vs braves

game 1: w 1-0
game 2: l 4-5
game 3: w 3-2
game 4: w 3-2

s got 6 tickets to game 2 of the nlds. unfortunately, that night was also his brother's rehearsal dinner so he was unable to attend. i went to the game w/ my brother, his girlfriend, my sister and brother in law and my dear friend, j. unfortunately, this was the game we lost in the series. though cain pitched a great game, the bullpen had a off night and we lost in extra innings.

j lending me her panda hat!

j & j

my cousins also attended this game. they had box seats - so they came to visit us in the view reserves

NLCS - giants vs phillies

game 1: w 4-3
game 2: l 1-6
game 3: w 3-0
game 4: w 6-5
game 5: l 2-4
game 6: w 3-2

what an awesome series...s was lucky enough to get tickets to the 1st home game which was game 3. it turned out to be a day game which was a bit inconvenient but obviously, not a deal breaker. we went w/ my cousin and his son since they are always so generous in inviting us to 49ers / warriors / giants games. cain pitched an AMAZING game and we left as winners!

probably not very noticable but my cousin and his son are on the jumbotron! they are the bright orange blob on the left side of the screen. hahaa.

WORLD SERIES - giants vs rangers

game 1: w 11-7
game 2: w 9-0
game 3: l 2-4
game 4: w 4-0
game 5: w 3-1

i don't even know where to start w/ this series. again, s worked his magic and got 4 seats to game 1 of the WORLD SERIES! s and i each got to pick one person to go w/ us (to be fair). so s invited our friend that actually during the 2002 NLCS, gave us 4 tickets! i told my sister, brother and brother in law that they had to duke it out for the one available ticket. long story but the lucky winner was my brother in law.

but it gets even better! my cousin's company has season suite tickets and select season ticket holders were offered a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to participate in the pre game ceremonies. she was great enough to sign us up! we had to basically take a day off to get to the park early to practice. volunteers had the chance to hold the american flag during the national anthem or shoot the streamer cannons off the warning track. s, r and i chose the flag and j picked the cannons. it was just unbelievable to be on the same field as the 2 teams playing in the world series. it was just such an unbelievable experience - definitely one of the highlights in my life. we won this 1st game - lincecum wasn't his normal stellar self but the offense was HOT and we just killed it!

practicing before game - s is in the orage cap over

i was that close to both teams AND to john legend who was singing the national anthem

s and i before the game

r and i waiting to practice...

aj turns 2

2010-10-29T22:34:00.001-07:00

i can't even believe next week will be november! i'm even in more disbelief that my son turned 2!! he is just growing up too fast and time is just flying by!!

we had our trip to the pediatrician last week and he's progressing along just as expected.
weight: 31.6 lbs (75-90% percentile)
height: 36 inches (75-90% percentile)

he has so much personality, it's just insane! the things that comes out of his mouth is just surprising at times. unfortunately, his favorite words are: mine and no. he is starting to string some words together but at times it's tough to understand him because he mixes his english w/ his chinese.

he's still so shy. s and i are definitely starting to do some research on preschools. we are ideally looking for an immersion / bilingual daycare (more of my preference than s'). however, we are struggling a bit w/ the location. there are pros and cons to finding one near our house but also can work w/ one in the city. in any case, it will be good for him to have more of a routine and to interact w/ other toddlers.

potty training - we definitely feel like he's ready. he has been telling my mom whenever he pees or poops but usually it's after he's already done it!! there are still so many convenient reasons to keep him in diapers but we do think he's ready so we'll start soon. that will also help because some schools require toddlers to be potty trained.

sleeping - no progress there. he's still sleeping w/ us!!

i love this picture but seriously...his head is as big as mine already!!

san diego zoo

2010-10-29T22:26:00.000-07:00

i think aj actually enjoyed legoland more as he didn't even fall asleep until we got back to the hotel. however, when we went to the zoo, he fell asleep in his stroller right after lunch! he did LOVE the panda bears! when we 1st got there, we took the bus tour and that was awesome. it basically covered 85% of the zoo in an hour on a bus instead of us walking for hours which would have probably!!

legoland

2010-10-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

my sister and i planned a trip to san diego to take the boys to legoland and the san diego zoo. we also wanted to take aj on another free plane ride before he turned 2!
well, the free before he turns 2 didn't exactly turn out as i thought. because we didn't have any proof of aj's birth (and because he looks big), the airline made us pay for his flight! ugh...so not only did i have to pay for his flight, our flight got delayed and we didn't get into san diego until 9pm which meant the boys didn't even get to bed until 10pm.
the next morning, we spent the day at legoland. s and i haven't been there since we were in college and boy is it different! also, because it was the end of september, they already had all their halloween decorations out so that was nice.
aj really enjoyed legoland. however, he was still too scared to ride on most rides. the only rides he would get on are trains and then he slowly warmed up to other rides. in the duplo area, he rode the train like 3-4 times!

aj loves his cousin!

isn't j soo adorable?!!?

j and s rode several rise

fruit vs cake

2010-07-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

unbelievable...we gave aj the option of a piece of chocolate cupcake or peach. he had a slice of peach in his hand and i gave him a small bite of cake. after he swallowed his bite of cake, he didn't even look at the cupcake again! he continued on with the peach in his hand. when he was finished, he wanted more fruit. is this my child?? i guess it's actually really good that he doesn't have a sweet tooth and doesn't really appreciate dessert like his mommy! =) let's see how long this will last.

aj's personality...

2010-07-13T21:55:00.000-07:00

i just wanted to jot down some things that aj says / does that i just think is soo *cute*

- my mom taught aj to say "paw - paw" which is grandma in cantonese. however, he still can't really say "goong - goong" (grandpa) so instead it comes out as "doo - doo" (which means a private part in cantonese hahaa)

- we always read aj a couple of books before bedtime; it's usually good night moon, good night new york city or good night san francisco. i love it when he holds the book up and starts talking like he's reading the book!

- he definitely does not have a problem when i leave him for work. in fact, every morning when i drop him off at my mom's he says "bye bye" and closes the door behind me. so much for missing mommy. =(

- lately, when we ask him to kiss someone, he totally puckers his lips and closes his eyes!

- he loves playing w/ balls. soccer, beach, baseball ... you name it, he loves throwing, kicking or palming the balls.

- he loves his cousins. he totally smothers my 8 month old nephew...he hugs and kisses him all the time. sometimes, he will even try to pick him up! w/ my 3 yr old nephew, aj copies everything that he does! if one is playing w/ a ball, the other one will want one as well. if one is drinking water at the dinner table, the other will want water as well.

- when we are outside, aj will point to his head - indicating that he wants to wear his cap. =) i think he realizes that it helps him block the sun and can see things better.

- when we put on his jacket, he always wants to zip it up. when we get home, he unzips his jacket, takes it off and puts it on the couch. he's also really great about taking off his shoes once he's inside.

petting zoo

2010-07-13T21:03:00.000-07:00

we met up w/ s' siblings in the east bay at tilden park. they have this great free petting zoo...you just have to bring your own celery and lettuce. since aj loves looking at animals in books and puzzles, we thought he would really have fun feeding the animals. first, he was very excited to see all the animals. he loved looking at the pigs and was happy to feed the goats. however, once we got to the cows, i think seeing how big they are and the noises they made scared him. he didn't want to feed them anymore but we finally put him at ease and he was at least comfortable enough to pet them.

after the petting zoo, we went to the play area where he got to have some fun in the play structure. we then sat on the grass and had a nice picnic lunch. it was a beautiful day and we had a great time hanging out w s' family.

he loves to lean his whole body back so we always have someone go down the slide w/ him. i guess i'm paranoid; i just don't want him to hurt his head.

he likes to clap when he proud of something he's done =)

feeding the goat

looking at the pig

mass exodus...

2010-07-10T16:20:00.000-07:00

in the retail industry, i work in a function that has one of the highest turns in a company. there are a couple of reasons:

1 - most people we hire are usually 1-2 years out of college. since the work we do is specific to the retail industry, people don't truly understand our roles in the company and i think are fairly disappointed when they join our group.
2 - we stare at excel spreadsheets all day, crunch numbers and deal w/ the pressures of having to hit our financial numbers. it is definitely not a glamorous job.
3 - competition. this is more of a recent issue. 2 big retailers have moved into the bay area and they are aggressively hiring. i currently have 2 open positions and have no luck filling them.

so, here i am at work on a gorgeous saturday afternoon. w/ 2 open positions and a new person to train, who seriously has time to do their day job? i only have time to write this entry because i'm waiting for my slow computer to print and save my files.

father's day brunch

2010-06-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

my sister and i took our hubbies to brunch at epic roasthouse. after brunch, we walked along the embarcadero and shopped in the ferry building. we couldn't spend too much time in the city as s and i were hosting my family at our place for dinner.

aj's delicous strawberry ricotta pancakes

dungeness crab cake benedict

steak fries w/ roasted garlic

this is the complimentary bread!

almond polenta waffle

mac and cheese

18 months old

2010-06-26T21:51:00.000-07:00

this post is REALLY late considering that aj is now 20 months haahaa. it's just amazing to see how aj has grown these last couple of months. there is definitely a noticeable development in aj's verbal skills as well as his listening / comprehensive skills. he definitely understands more than i give him credit for and his chinese is better than his english. =) my parents are doing a great job teaching him chinese words. i try to speak to him in chinese as much as i can but it's difficult since my chinese isn't that stellar. if anything, i look at it as me improving my cantonese skills as well!

here are his stats:
height: 33.5 inches (75th percentile)
weight: 27.6 lbs (75th percentile)
head circumference: 19 inches (50-75th percentile)

ummm...can you tell which kid has never had a cupcake?

mommy...i'm going to be a drummer!

or maybe a fireman!

i love me some elmo!

portland, oregon

2010-06-26T20:34:00.001-07:00

my sister and i were discussing going on a family trip and we had to keep the location somewhere in the northwest since she would be traveling w/ 2 kids and this would be aj's 1st flight and had no idea how he was going to behave. our choices were seattle, scottsdale or portland. since several of us had been to seattle and scottsdale, we decided to plan a weekend trip to portland.

my sister and i were on the same flight which had us arriving at 10am. my parents, brother and his girlfriend's flight arrived at 12p. even though we had arrived 2 hours earlier, with having to wait at luggage claim, taking a shuttle to the rental car and issues in getting our car seats in the van, we all ended up checking in the hotel at the same time!! since we were renting a van the entire weekend, we decided to bring our own car seats instead of renting them (mostly for sanitary reasons). however, aj's car seat didn't make it on the flight w/ us so we had to use a rental seat for the day until the airline delivered our car seat to the hotel.

surprisingly, aj did very well on our flight to portland. my baby nephew, on the other hand, was a completely different story. poor baby, he was just miserable the entire flight. he was the baby that if you didn't know him, would think he was one of those annoying babies that just cries the entire flight haahaa.

we were staying in downtown portland and decided to have a mellow 1st day just walking around and shopping. it is a no sales tax state so we definitely wanted to take advantage of the "9.5% discount".

we had plans to do several outdoor activities but unfortunately, it was raining all weekend so we had to change some of our plans. on saturday, we went to the OMSI (oregon museum of science and industry). it was okay but most of the exhibits had additional costs and it was too young for the kids. we then spent the afternoon at tillamook cheese factory. sunday morning, we went to multnomah falls. unfortunately, aj fell asleep on the ride to the falls and i stayed in the van w/ him while everyone went to walk to the falls. by the time he woke up, everyone was already on their way back. the flight back was much more successful for the kids. =)

although, the weekend was very exhausting and most of us were sick and it was raining, it was nice to get away for the weekend and have aj experience flying and exploring a different city and culture.
if anything, this encourages us to travel more w/ aj.

the happy parents w/ their napping boys on the flight back to sfo

the famous voodoo donuts...s and j eating their "cock ball" donuts

aaron was not amused w/ the cow at tillamook

the 2 boys at the cheese factory

down memory lane...

2010-05-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

i never really appreciated san luis obispo until after i graduated and moved back to the bay area. maybe it's the food or "slower" pace or just the familiarity of a place where i had such wonderful memories. it is where i met some of my closest girlfriends and my wonderful husband! so s and i do try to go back once a year or so and i learned that some of the other girls were also going down to slo for the weekend. since some of us had been going at different times, we thought it would actually be nice to try to be there the same weekend and maybe meet up w/ some of the girls from southern california. to show support as alums, we also decided to be in slo the weekend of lantern festival. this first year has been successful so hopefully everyone can make it every year! with 6 families and 8 kids, there were moments of craziness and multiple crying kids but we had such a great time!

oh the food was amazing as usual...clam chowder at splash. steak cobb salad w/ seasoned fries at firestone and of course, caramellos from uptown (now known as black horse). the bonus...coffee bean is in pismo beach!! of course, i went there both days and even twice on saturday! yummie

all the chi delts w/ our kiddies (missing 2 kids)

l and j w/ their matching hoodies

at the remodeled uu plaza

playing at the beach

isn't he just so darn cute?

w/the j's

i love this picture of s and l walking towards the water together!

viva las vegas...

2010-05-14T20:31:00.000-07:00

my big sis and i try to meet up once a year to have some quality bonding time...no husbands or kids. just the 2 of us and we can indulge in our shopping, eating and just spending time together to catch up. i think the last time i was in vegas was my four years ago! i know, that's a long time for someone like me. =)
we landed thursday morning and went straight to check in at the palazzo. once we settled in , we grabbed a quick bite and then started gambling. =) we played pai gow for a couple of hours and did a little shopping. it's so convenient (or damaging to my wallet) that barney's is located right downstairs from our hotel! then we got ready for dinner. we made reservations to fleur de lys. we took a cab to mandalay bay and enjoyed a relaxing and wonderful meal!

AHI TUNA TARTARE
Shaved Fennel, Ginger Ponzu, Fennel Seed Tuile
j got this most amazing truffle onion soup (and i don't even like onion soup)!

CHORIZO WRAPPED SUZUKI SEA BASS
Piperade, Barley Risotto, Caramelized Chorizo Sauce
not my favorite - a bit too salty and the sea bass was slightly dry

PRIME FILET MIGNON

Baby Spinach, Wild Mushrooms, Baby Carrots, Red Wine Reduction
omg...so delicous

CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE
too cute...the sugar outline had a fleur de lys but it was crushed when the server poured in the choclate =)

after dinner, we walked down the strip and then played craps for the rest of the night. we slept in friday morning...which is obviously a treat for both of us. after getting a cup of tea from my favorite coffee bean and tea leaf (which was so conveniently located by the hotel elevators). we sat down at a pai gow table and just gambled. ummm...we gambled from 10am until 6pm. seriously, i was not even hungry for lunch. poor j had to put up w/ my sickness. j finally felt a little light headed at 6pm. we grabbed a quick bite and then went out walking to see the new city center. the shopping center is amazing. it's very spacious and airy but just full of super expensive designer stores. while we were in the louis vuitton store, i had my celebrity sighting! j and i saw timbaland! he was just slummin it in some sweat pants and white t-shirt. no one even approached him! we then gampled for several more hours until we both got tired.

sunday morning, after my weekend routine of coffee bean, we spent the last couple of hours at the pai gow table. i had a great run and ended up winning after the entire weekend was said and done!

i was sad to leave vegas and of course to say goodbye to j. however, i missed my 2 boys and it was nice to see them when they picked me up at the airport!

the 2 boys...

2010-04-26T21:36:00.000-07:00

i love these shots...s cut our nephew's hair and he just happened to be wearing a polo shirt that aj had as well. so of course, we said, hey, put the shirt on and take a picture! they'll probably see these pictures when they are older and wonder why my sister and i had matching clothes. trust me, it's not the only matching shirts they have... =)

my dear grandpapa...

2010-04-05T20:40:00.000-07:00

for me to say the last couple of days have been rough would be an understatement.

my grandfather went to the hospital last monday due to significant blood loss. on thursday, my mom was told that he would only have a couple of days to live. the diagnosis was either lung or colon cancer. they ruled out lung cancer w/ some tests; however, because my grandfather was in so much pain, he couldn't get a colonoscopy. in any case, my grandfather had been weak for days before arriving to the hospital and hadn't really eaten anything. he was so exhausted and frail, he weighed less than 70 pounds. he was still somewhat alert the 1st couple of days in the hospital. by thursday, he became incoherent and wasn't really able to speak. on friday, to make him more comfortable, he was given doses of morphin. so, with the morphin, he was just peacefully sleeping. he never woke up again. so then we just waited...

when we were at the hospital, we couldn't cry. we had to be strong for our grandmother and mom. however, once they started, it's game over for the rest of us. my poor grandmother had not left his side. my once jovial and "young" grandmother had been left sullen and devastated. my uncle stayed w/ my grandfather every night as well and he looked like he's lost 10 pounds. during the day, he refused to go home for fear of not being near to say his final goodbye. instead, he sacrificed by sleeping in the car for a couple of hours during the day. every day, my family took turns rotating to and from the hospital since we had to take care of our three boys. every night, we said good bye to our grandfather not knowing if it was the last time.

i said what was now the final goodbye on sunday night. early this morning, i found out that my grandfather had past right before midnight. thankfully, his wife, kids and several grandkids were able to say their final goodbyes. so, now, he looks down on us.

i've been lucky...i've grown up with all 3 of my grandparents (my paternal grandfather died when my father was an infant so i never knew him). i've never had to experience such loss and sadness. we console each other knowing my grandfather lived an absolutely full life... he had a loving wife, 3 devoted children, 9 amazing grandchildren and 11 beautiful great grandchildren. his memories live on in all of us.

his services are this sunday and i know i'm just going to be a mess...

leftovers...

2010-03-25T20:42:00.000-07:00

this is a historical day - i actually brought my lunch to work! i think this might be perhaps the 2nd time in my 4 years at Gymboree that i brought my lunch. there's a couple of reason that i don't bring my lunch:
1 - my husband is a human garbage disposal. there really isn't a lot of food leftover after dinner.
2 - we rarely cook. we normally have take out and we don't order that much more to have leftovers
3 - i don't like leftovers
4 - i'm not planful enough to actually buy lunch food at the grocery store and prepare the night before
5 - heck, we barely make it to the grocery store every week
however, last weekend, we went to my favorite korean market and got a bunch of marinated meat. this was some delicious boneless ribs w/ chard and rice. yummie!

s' handywork...

2010-03-20T15:55:00.000-07:00

s had a couple of weeks off and decided to take on a few house projects. one that i was very excited about was updating our fireplace! what s did:
- stripped off the white paint on the brick and put in some neutral glass tiles
- removed all the white ceramic tiles and replaced w/ grey stone tiles
- took away all the detailed molding / we wanted something w/ clean lines and felt more appropriate w/ the tiles

before

after

c house of prime rib

2010-03-13T22:10:00.000-08:00

every year during football season, there are always side bets w/ some of our friends. this year, my sister and her husband lost and they had to make us dinner! they were kind enough to make us some delicous prime rib and the famous house of prime rib salad. =)

health care...

2010-02-23T22:48:00.000-08:00

i never realized how important and valuable health benefits are until recently (which also seems very appropriate w/ the health care bill that's been such a hot topic)! s' company completely covered our health care 100% - we had no deductions out of his paycheck. it was great; we only had to pay for the copays for my entire pregnancy, delivery and the 1st year of aaron's appointments. we definitely saved thousands of dollars in health bills. however, w/ s' recent company issues (that involves another blog entry), we had to switch back to my company's coverage. we had family coverage with blue shield hmo and that same coverage under my work would be almost $300 a pay period!! health benefits were never a big deal when i was younger and s and i had our individual coverages w/ our companies. however, w/ a family and having so many more appointments and expenses, i never appreciated how much a company covers their employee's health coverage. ummm...as my boss says, "i guess no more new sweaters for you!"

lions, tigers, bears...oh my!

2010-02-19T20:35:00.000-08:00

i took friday off and s and i decided to take aj to the zoo. the weather forecast called for rain but luckily there wasn't any! s took him to the zoo a couple of months ago but now that he's a bit older, he definitely appreciates seeing the animals more. one new experience that didn't go over so well was his ride on the carousel. first, he wouldn't even get on the horse. he finally agreed when i sat down first. we picked a horse that moved up and down and he was not a happy camper. after a couple of rotations, he started yelling, so we sat him on the bench instead. oops. i certainly hope he isn't like mommy and doesn't like roller coasters either! but i do have to admit, that carousel was going fast!! aj really enjoyed the zoo and after 3 hours there, he was knocked out on the drive home!

we had to take him off the horse and seat him on the bench

aj was NOT a fan of the carousel

seriously, once s walked toward the feeding machine, all the sheep crowded around him

aj enjoying the farm

s feeding the goats...

it took a couple of minutes for aj to warm up to the goats

15 months old...

2010-02-14T00:33:00.000-08:00

this past thursday, aj had his 15 month appt. he is now:
height: 32.75 inches (90th percentile)
weight: 26.4 lbs (75th percentile)
head circumference: 19 inches (75th percentile)

i was a bit concerned as he only gained 1.4 pound since his 12 month appt. however, the doctor said it's completely normal; he's more active now and is just getting leaner. lately, s and i have been a bit stressed about his eating habits. he's so consumed w/ trying to feed himself w/ his fork and spoon or w/ his fingers that he hasn't been eating as much. meals are hit and miss w/ him recently so we just try our best but we aren't too concerned since he's at a healthy weight. the pediatrician says it's fairly common and just gave us a list of things to do to encourage aj to eat.

this stage is one that most of my friends mention as one of their favorite as this is when you really see their development progress incredibly fast. things he didn't quite get a week or so ago, he understands now. things we ask him to do or attempt to say or even how he plays w/ his toys, you can just see how things are starting to click in that little brain of his. this is also when you really do see how toddlers can manipulate gullible parents (that would be me)!

a couple of things that he does that i'm just so amazed by. i'm sure these things are part of this stage in any child's growth but you know, when it's your own child, it's just so cute haahaa.

- he knows to grab my iphone, press the button and slide to unlock my screen.
- he loves to go outside. if you ask him for his shoes, he'll look for them and bring them to you to help him put them on. sometimes, he tries really hard to slip his feet into his shoes.
- when you ask him to smile in chinese, he gives you the cutest scrunchy face
- if you ask him to give something to someone, he will. however, it's only to these people and in cantonese (because he sees them at least once a week):
- s and i (of course)
- my parents
- my brother
- my sister, her hubby and her 2 boys
i do want to get a photo album so we can start to have him remember s' side of the family, our extended family and friends
- when he's ready for bed, he'll grab one of our hands and leads us to the bed
- when anyone touches me, he gets very defensive and starts screaming. for example, if s hugs me, he starts yelling at s. when my cousin was pulling out my white hairs, he started yelling at her. it's quite comical.
- he loves my baby nephew (4 months old). whenever he sees him, he starts smiling and waves hi to him. he always just wants to be near him.

for the most part, everything he understands is in cantonese. my parent's speak to him in cantonese and many words are just easier to say in cantonese than english (or it just sounds cuter)!

this pic isn't that recent but i love the boys holding my sister's hand!

aj's new ride...

2010-02-08T20:34:00.000-08:00

s and i couldn't take it anymore...we had to buy a new stroller. it's such a joke how much we spent on our original stroller...which i do love by the way.

some background....so even before i got pregnant, i always knew i wanted a bugaboo stroller. yes, i know, it's not exactly practically priced but s couldn't say no to me since i was pregnant and paying for the stroller myself (key words to our successful marriage *separate accounts*)! i was actually debating between the bugaboo or the orbitz. however, w/ the infant car seat that my sister was letting us use, the orbitz just didn't make sense. we have a couple of friends w/ the bugaboo and they really enjoyed the stroller so we just went for it. we've loved our cameleon. it rides so smooth and the maneuverability is awesome! the bugaboo is also very sturdy. i've thrown it all over the place and it is awesome. that is probably why it's not exactly the lightest stroller. one of the biggest reasons we love the stroller is because when it's upright, you can actually use it if you are at a restaurant and they don't have a high chair. it's extremely useful when you are sitting outside!

the only complaint about the stroller is the weight and the fact that it's in 2 parts and takes up a lot of space. since we switch back and forth quite a bit between my car and s' truck, it was just becoming a hassle to lug the 2 pieces between vehicles. also, we have a couple of trips planned and we wanted a new stroller that is lighter and easier to travel with. so the new winner is...the baby jogger city mini! diapers.com is awesome...no tax, free shipping and i found a coupon for 10% off woohoo. we'll have to see if aj likes his new ride...

our 1st love...the bugaboo cameleon (we have the khaki cover...not red)

our new city mini!

biggest loser...

2010-02-03T21:01:00.001-08:00

to encourage "wellness" and a healthier lifestyle, my work has been great about setting up a mini gym in our building, ping pong tables in the cafe and hiring yoga instructors to teach classes in our office. we've had wellness fairs w/ external companies to offer home deliveries of organic foods / vegetables, gym discounts and other such things. so the latest activity is our own biggest loser competition. we have 8 weeks and the winner who has the largest percentage weight loss wins 2 round trip tickets to anywhere in us or mexico and 2 free nights in a hotel!!
my entire planning team along w/ several other colleagues on our floor decided to have a side competition as well. none of us are really that large to win the entire competition so we wanted to give ourselves another incentive to participate. we each put in $20 and the biggest loser after the 8 weeks wins the entire pot (which is currently valued at $220). if you actually end up gaining weight after the 8 weeks, you will have to double your entry fee hahaa.
so i'm a pretty competitive person but really, who has time to work out? i'm making better decisions about what i eat and picking healthier alternatives. i do try to take walks during lunch and walks w/ aj in the evenings. i'm definitely a little less lazy about running errands or taking the stairs at work. also, since aj loves going out now and walking around, it's helped me to be a bit more active as well.
so it's been 3 weeks and i've lost 4.6 pounds! i weigh less now than pre pregnancy! woohoo. let's see how long i can keep this up for; temptation is quickly approaching. it is superbowl sunday this weekend and then chinese new year the week after!

michael bauer's top 100 restaurant

2010-01-28T20:28:00.000-08:00

every year i always review michael bauer's top 100 restaurant as a guide for restaurants to try. with so many great restaurants, we rarely go to the same restaurant twice...we always like to try a new place! having a toddler is difficult enough to dine out but going out for a couple of hours to enjoy a nice meal is even more difficult. however, we are very lucky that my parents are very close by and love watching aj so if we do need a break, we have great baby sitters. his new list should be coming out in a couple of months but it's still nice to look through the list and see what i've been to (31 and counting)! one of my favorite restaurant not on this list is andalu and after watching top chef masters, i really want to try hubert keller's fleur de lys

American
Ad Hoc (Yountville)	really want to try this one!! thomas keller, need i say more?
Bix	was there years ago w/ colleagues for dine about town
Buckeye Roadhouse (Mill Valley)	north bay…too far hahaa
Cafe La Haye
Canteen
Chow (S.F., Lafayette, Danville)	great casual restaurant; not sure why it's a top 100 though
Firefly
House of Prime Rib	love…love their prime rib and of course, the salad
One Market	10 yrs ago… 1st month at gap, boss took us here!
Range	great interior…over priced
Town Hall	down the street from my work - it's good
Wood Tavern (Oakland)

Asian
Betelnut	overpriced asian food

Barbecue
Barbers Q (Napa)

Basque
Piperade

California
Coi	really want to try this one
Farmhouse Inn & Restaurant (Forestville)
Flora (Oakland)
Jack Falstaff	closed…victim of the recession
Manresa (Los Gatos)
Martini House	had a beautiful lunch in their outdoor patio
Murray Circle (Sausalito)
Redd (Yountville)
Restaurant at Meadowood (St. Helena)
Terra	love love this rstaurant… so romantic

California-French
Bistro Aix
Jardiniere	when I 1st really appreciated french food
Masa's	enjoyed it…but way too loud!!

California-Italian
Picco/Pizzeria Picco (Larkspur)

California-Japanese
O Chame (Berkeley)

California-Mediterranean
Bar Jules
Bay Wolf (Oakland)
Camino (Oakland)
Chez Panisse (Berkeley)	so delicious and awesome service
Coco500	yummy but again not sure if it's really worthy of top 100
Cortez	closed…victim of the recession
Foreign Cinema	really enjoy this restaurant
The Moss Room
Nopa	1st meal after aj was born w/ my girlfriends!
Rivoli (Berkeley)
Zuni Cafe

Chinese
Koi Palace	duh, I am chinese
Ton Kiang	duh, I am chinese
Yank Sing	duh, I am chinese

Contemporary American
Ame	love this place!
Boulevard	traumatized - found a piece of hair in my crème brulee
Cyrus (Healdsburg)
French Laundry (Yountville)	a gal can always dream?
Gary Danko	FAVORITE restaurant…we used to go every year for my bday!
Madrona Manor (Healdsburg)
Michael Mina
Spruce	overrated

French
Bouchon (Yountville)	LOVED IT…came here the day after our wedding
Chez Papa Resto
The Dining Room	going there in 5 weeks!!
at the Ritz-Carlton
La Folie

French-Seafood
Aqua	it's been years…but really had a nice time

Greek
Kokkari Estiatorio	awesome awesome restaurant

Indian	umm…sorry, not a fan of indian food
Amber India	won't be trying any of these
Dosa
Vik's Chaat Corner (Berkeley)

International
Va de Vi (Walnut Creek)
Willi's Wine Bar (Santa Rosa)

Italian (including pizzerias)
A16	way too loud
Acquerello
Bar Bambino
Beretta
Bistro Don Giovanni (Napa)	awesome desserts! came here a lot when s and I were wedding planning
Bottega Napa Valley (Yountville)	went there last month w/ s… saw michael chiarello =)
Corso Trattoria (Berkeley)
Delfina	heard great things… tough parking area
Dopo (Oakland)
Gialina
Incanto
Marzano (Oakland)
Perbacco	1st meal out w/ friends after I found out I was pregnant… my friend totally busted me bc I didn't order a glass of wine
Pesce
Pizzaiolo (Oakland)
Poggio (Sausalito)
Quince
Rosso Pizzeria & Wine Bar (Santa Rosa)
SPQR

Japanese
Kaygetsu (Menlo Park)
Sushi Ran (Sausalito)
Yoshi's San Francisco	high on my list as well…

Latin American
Fonda (Albany)

Mexican
Nopalito

Moroccan
Aziza

Seafood
Hog Island Oyster Co.	realized that I actually loved oysters!
Nettie's Crab Shack
Nick's Cove (Marshall)
Sea Salt (Berkeley)
Swan Oyster Depot	always so crowded…

Spanish
Bocadillos
Zarzuela

Spanish-French
Gitane

Swiss
The Matterhorn
Swiss Restaurant

Vegetarian
Greens
Ubuntu

Vietnamese
Slanted Door	my vote for best asian fusion flavors…

everyone has an opinion...

2010-01-26T20:40:00.001-08:00

it's interesting how once you are pregnant / have a child...advice and opinions come out of the woodworks! everyone has a point of view about parenting tips ... from feeding to sleeping to discipline. don't get me wrong...i'm open to listening to what people have to say but that's it. i personally don't do any research so i need to know what other people have read...hahaa. i like to be informed because there are tons of information out there but i don't necessarily like to be told that their way of doing something is the only way.

i've also learned that one can not judge another parent at all. i used to think, "oh i would never do this or that w/ my child" but oh, how i've learned. being a parent...you will learn that everyone and everything is different and you do what's best for your child and the situation. for example, i used to hear about kids who slept w/ their parents, how it became this bad habit and how it so tough to retrain your child. for the 1st 9 months, aj was the perfect sleeper. he fell asleep on his own and slept through the night in his own crib. i thought, yes, i'm not one of "those" parents. then at the 10 month mark, he started developing awful sleep routines and started waking up in the middle of the night. both s and i were too tired to soothe him in his room and we didn't want him to cry it out. so, what did we do? he started sleeping w/ us in our bed. it's come to the point now that when it's time for bed, he takes one of our hands and leads us straight to our bed hahaa. it's so cute!

who knows how much longer we'll let him sleep with us or when we'll try to "retrain" him but you know what? we all get a good night of sleep so i'm not complaining. well, okay, so he kicks quite a bit at night and is a bed hog, but i stay in bed all night. =)

my colleague says the opinions get worse as he gets older because then it's about schools or sports or extracurricular activities...great. that and opinions about difference in years between kids and why i'm not pregnant w/ our second child yet. and how many kids to have...it's just never-ending.

first haircut (kind of)...

2010-01-22T21:32:00.001-08:00

aj's hair was getting quite long and out of control. the long hair was not a good look for him; poor kid looked like a total fob. aj's stylist aka daddy gave him his 1st buzzcut! we didn't take a before and after when s cut his hair but you can tell w/ these pictures.

before =(

after =)

my very own chair...

2010-01-22T21:23:00.001-08:00

aj really enjoyed sitting in my nephew's chair so we decided to get one for him. just as a test, we took him to pottery barn kids to see if he would still like it. once he got in the store, he went straight for the chair and sat right down with a big smile! how could we say no then?? of course, s being a huge star wars fan had to get the r2d2 chair. here are some pics of him enjoying his new piece of furniture...

enjoying his bday present from the l family

adventures w/ daddy...

2010-01-22T21:03:00.000-08:00

s had 2 weeks off during the holidays. he was very brave to do daddy daycare and aj had a great time at the zoo and children's museum w/ his pops.

1st trip to san jose children's museum

surprisingly, he was brave and touched the goat at the sf zoo

happy new year!

2010-01-03T15:38:00.000-08:00

i can't believe another year has passed and we are now in a new decade! the holidays have been great w/ aj; his development has just been amazing these last couple of weeks. everyone in my family is already saying he is going to be a very stubborn child and boy does he have some attitude! as my mom so kindly reminds me, i was not the most angelic child growing up so she thinks this is payback.

in the last week or two, i've definitely noticed that he is very decisive about what he wants. he is very good about nodding his head no and is an expert pointer. i am still having some problems w/ what he is pointing to and what it really means. for example, if he points to the refrigerator or microwave, it actually means he wants some milk.

we've definitely noticed some growth spurt really from what he is able to reach now. he can reach all the door knobs and is "exploring" turning and opening doors. he actually opened my sister's front door the other day. he can reach things off our kitchen counters and dining table so we have to be careful about not putting anything close to the edge. he can nicely slide his body off our bed and land on his feet w/out falling on his butt. hahaa.

he loves going out now. he gets very excited when we get his jacket and is very willing to put it on. the cutest thing he does is get his shoes and bring it over to us. he'll then stick his foot out to put his shoe on.

the sweetest thing we've noticed is that he loves his baby nephew. whenever he sees j, he always smiles and makes his mischievous expressions. he probably loves him because he knows he can bully him since he's bigger.

we've been really bad about taking pictures but my sister has all the holiday pictures. i'll post some once i get them from her.

nephew #2

2009-11-15T12:37:00.000-08:00

october 25, 2009
2:13pm
6 lbs 2 oz
18.5 inches

woohoo...my 2nd nephew has arrived! he was 3 weeks early and was actually a decent size for being this early. he was born 5 days after aj's birthday! we will now have joint birthday parties! heehee.

while visiting my sister in the hospital, we realized that her nurse was my nurse from a year ago! she was happy to see aj as she rarely ever sees the babies again once they leave the hospital.

this poor 3rd boy - so neglected. half the time, we forget that there is a newborn in the house! the other day, i went into his nursery to get a diaper for aj and i turned on the lights without even realizing he was sleeping in his crib. oops.

my little peanut turns 1!

2009-11-15T07:43:00.000-08:00

i know, peanut isn't quite appropriate considering he's quite a chunky monkey now! i'm a little late in posting his 1st birthday but it's been insanely busy at work and i've barely had a moment to come up for air.

here are his stats:
height: 31 inches (75%)
weight: 25 lbs (75%)
head circumference: 18.5 inches (50-75%)
still very consistent in his growth. poor guy had 3 shots since we decided to give him the regular flu, H1N1 and hep a shot. he'll have to go back in a couple of months to get his other immunization shots that he didn't get since we gave him both flu shots.

where do i even begin about his recent developments?

personality biggest observation...boy, is he stubborn and fearless. he also throws some major attitude and tantrums. both my sister and my mother have noticed how he has no fear in putting his hands everywhere and climbs up on everything. he is definitely standing up to his nephew now and throws quite a tantrum when my nephew is in his "space". when he doesn't get what he wants, man, is he fierce. my mom says this is what i get for being such a stubborn child myself. other than his stubborn nature, he's still more like his dad. still very laidback and plays well by himself. he does occasionally get clingy, but for the most part adjusts easily w/ different people and surroundings.

nutrition we are very lucky that he eats everything. and lots of it too! he still loves his milk but loves fruits and cheerios and really, any snack we give him. the only issue is he hates wearing his bib. he tries to pull it off every time we put it on.

mobility close to his birthday, he had teased us with taking a couple of steps every now and then. however, last week, he took ten steps and now he is a walking machine. we went to the stanford mall and that was his first time walking around in public. it was great to let him walk in such an open space and not feel like you are in someone's way. he still crawls when we wants to go somewhere fast but he definitely tries to walk everywhere first.

sleep so we regressed a couple of weeks ago. he started waking up in the middle of the night and we just took him to our bed. so, now every night, he falls asleep in his crib but will wake up in the middle of the night. we'll go pick him up and he'll sleep between us until it's time to get up! we need to sleep train him again but we actually really enjoy his smiling face when we wake up.

long overdue update...

2009-10-08T10:28:00.000-07:00

while i'm stuck at home sick, i might as well update the blog since i've been such a slacker. =)

i can't believe my little man is turning 1 yr old in a couple of weeks. the time has flown by so fast. since the last post, he's grown so much!

teeth: after his 1st 2 bottom teeth came in when he was 6 months old, there was no progress until he was 10 months old. at 10 months, his front 4 teeth came in all at the same time! poor kiddo. just this week, another bottom tooth cut through. so now he has 7 teeth!

standing: i can proudly say that a started standing on his own a week ago or so. at first, he was distracted by playing w/ something w/ both hands and didn't realize he was standing on his lone. however, last week, he was aware of what he was doing and was clapping and so proud of himself!!

walking: my mom claims that he made his 1st step this past week. he made one step twice! i have yet to see this milestone so until i've witnessed it...it's not true haahaa.

a is an expert at clapping. he's so proud of himself when he's clapping! he's also gotten really good at waving hi and goodbye and giving kisses!

i've been sick this week and a has been staying w/ my parents so i don't infect him. so maybe he's made even more progress! =)

deflated...

2009-10-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

i had a pretty unlucky car experience this past week. when i went to get my car out of the work garage, i noticed i had a flat tire. luckily the car attendant and building maintenance changed my tire in like 5 minutes! this is the 2nd flat tire for me. luckily both times, it was a slow leak and it wasn't while i was driving on the road. that same day, the engine malfunction light came on in my car. this is the 2nd time the light has gone off. s took it to our mechanic and got it fixed on monday. i'm still driving w/ the full spare but have to get it replaced this weekend!

my poor car...last month, i got into a fender bender when someone rear ended me. it caused a couple of scratches on the back bumper. bo currently has 108k miles and has to hold up for a couple more years!! s won't let me get a new car until his truck is completely paid off. i don't know why it matters since we pay out of our separate accounts anyway. something about being fiscally responsible?!?!

growing up fast...

2009-07-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

this month has 2 growth milestones...aj turned 9 months and my nephew had his 2nd birthday!!

as aj reached the 9 month mark, it's just so fascinating to see how he's developing! he started crawling a couple of weeks ago and is making his way around the house. he's still not crawling the right way, he's definitely a fan of the army crawl. he does transition really well from crawling to sitting up. however, he still gets a bit over excited and sometimes while sitting, will fall back and hit his head on the floor. =( oops.

s actually taught him how to grab puffs and feed himself. at first, you had to be really precise and put the puff between his thumb and index finger. now, he's great at picking up food off the table and putting it in his mouth. next...i'm trying to transition him to a sippy cup.

as he's really starting to master pulling himself up, we had to lower the crib mattress as he definitely loves to lean against the crib.

so with these new developments, getting him to sleep has definitely been a huge struggle. i knew it was going to catch up to us at some point! every night for the last week, we have struggled to get him to sleep. he just keeps standing up in his crib and staring at us or at the door for us. and his bedtime has been getting later. he used to be asleep by 7:30pm but now it fluctuates between 8:30-9pm. yep, that's right, he's been crying in his crib for almost an hour!! i wouldn't mind the later bedtime if he actually got up later but he still wakes up at 6am!! my poor baby needs his sleep!!

he's physical development is consistent with his last checkup so we are happy about that!
head circumference: 17 3/4 inches 50% percentile
height: 29 inches 75% percentile
weight: 20 lbs 4 oz 50% percentile

some recent adventures...

2009-07-21T19:44:00.001-07:00

it's been an adventurous last couple of weeks for aj. as he is getting a bit older and starting to be aware of his surroundings, we are trying to explore new things with him. i think he's still pretty clueless of where we take him and he doesn't fully appreciate it but that's okay. s and i are having some great quality time together!

oakland zoo
2 weeks ago, we took aj and my nephew to the zoo! this was the 1st trip to the oakland zoo for all of us actually. we also met up with s' sister and our neice which was nice. my nephew was definitely more aware of the animals and this new adventure. aj was just staring at everything haha.

siblings w/ their kids!

where are the monkeys?

lake tahoe
we had our annual family trip to tahoe. it was nice to just get away for a couple of days and hang out with the family! of course, it was also nice to go gambling! this was our first trip to tahoe with aj so it was definitely interesting to balance baby duty with gambling time! =) this was the first time for aj swinging at the playground and at the beach / lake.

there was actually 2 sad parts to the weekend:
1) most of my family stayed in tahoe through monday but i went home on sunday since i had to be at work the next day. being home on sunday night was just so depressing! it wasn't my 1st time away from aj but usually i'm with my friends! so i'm not in bed thinking about how alone i am...
2) tahoe has definitely taken a hit in this recession. 2 casinos have eliminated all their table games so you really only have 3 places to go casino hopping. also, with the recent opening of an indian casino in folsom, tahoe has definitely lost a lot more visitors. all the dealers were saying that during the week, it's just a ghost town and even though the weekends are busy, it's nowhere near where it needs to be...so sad.

i love the beach!

i also love to swing!

j practicing for his soon to be new role as a father of 2 boys!

f with his 2 favorite nephews

san luis obispo
s' colleague actually grew up in pismo beach and had his wedding in san luis obispo this past weekend. the ceremony and reception took place at a fruit ranch. i have to say that for not knowing anyone, this was one of the best weddings we've been to. best in the sense that it was just so casual, personal, intimate and non traditional. the fruit ranch was also such a great place where all the kids ran around and had a great time. every out of town guest had this awesome goodie bag. it was filled with some great essentials like water, sunscreen and kleenex but also had local made treats, maps and guide to central coast.

this was aj's 2nd trip to slo but his first wedding. i just have to say, he was just such a trooper! there were tons of kids there and all the parents were just so amazed that aj was so well behaved. in an example of what a small world it is, i actually did know another guest!! one of our chi delt alums went to junior high with the groom.

adorable centerpiece appropriate for a fruit ranch. great treats for each guest...cds, swedish fish, goodie bags and bubbles for the kids

father and son

hat's a little small but isn't he just so dashing?! hahaa.

what a precious flower girl. when she got down the hill and saw all the guests, she totally froze. then when her petals fell out of her basket, she started picking them all up!

kudos to my father...

2009-06-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

who has officially retired today! after 35+ devoted years of working for the city of san francisco, he has finally decided to hang up his "mop".

my father is the typical immigrant story. he came to america over 40 years ago to provide a better future for his family. with minimal english skills, he fell into a job as a janitor. although he was a blue collar worker, he always loved what he did and still does to this day. also, it was literally "blue collar" as his uniform shirt was blue hahaa. although it wasn't the most glamourous job, my dad always worked hard and really did enjoy working for the city. also, the health benefits were always great for our family and he has a really good retirement plan now. that's actually one reason why he can retire a bit earlier than his 65th birthday.

it always amazes me to think how my parents were able to raise three kids, while owning 2 homes in san francisco and working pretty low income jobs. there obviously wasn't any extravagant things that we had or did while growing up but we were also never really deprived. somehow my parents learned to make things work!

sometimes i do wonder (and s wonders ALL the time) how i possibly grew up with so little and somewhere along the way my tastes / preferences changed. when did i start to want all the nice things and why does it matter so much? how did i get these horrible spending habits when my parents tried to instill such a frugal mentality? s always says i act like money grows on trees. i really don't and try not to spend recklessly but sometimes i do get a bit out of control. =(

date night / day

2009-06-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

this past weekend, s and i went to dinner at gary danko with my sister, her husband, our cousin and his wife. we dropped off aj and my nephew at my parent's house...and stayed out a bit late. by the time we got back to my parent's house, it was already well past 10p. both boys were peacefully sleeping in their cribs. my mom suggested that we just leave the boys at their place and enjoy sleeping in the next morning. s and i were a bit hesitant at first but realized that this was the best decision for aj as we didn't want to wake him up.

although i felt terrible that aj might wake up my parents in the middle of the night or make them get up early in the morning, i was looking forward to sleeping in. i have NEVER slept in since aj was born because i'm on morning shift since i'm the one nursing aj. i guess my body was just used to getting up early as i woke up at 6:30a for no reason. however, i fell back asleep and woke up at 8am! i felt so guilty for sleeping so well just thinking about how my parents had an infant and toddler to take care of overnight. s and i decided to try to get to my parents house early to pick aj up. when we got to my parents house, they had plans to take the boys out to dim sum with our other relatives. my parents also told me that not only did aj sleep through the night, he didn't even get up until 7:30am! i mean, gees, that's better than when he's at home!! he was actually napping when we got there so we didn't even get to hang out with him. we stayed at home until he finally woke up and then hung out with him for a bit. while my parents took the boys out to chinatown, s and i hung out in the city. it felt SO STRANGE to walk around, just the 2 of us without our child! it felt so weird to do these things that were so normal to us a year ago.

s and i agreed that it was a nice break to have some quality time together and we are so thankful that we have such understanding parents who are so willing to take care of our son! here are some pictures of him hanging out at my parents house.

my dad was using a pillow to try to swat a fly out of the house...aj could not stop laughing at my dad!

so proud that he's sitting up...trying to eat the book

work / life imbalance

2009-06-05T20:35:00.000-07:00

gosh, i didn't realize how long it had been since my last entry. where does the time go?

where do i even begin? most days i struggle...frantically trying to find the balance with work, aj and s. needless to say, i'm pretty much flunking.

every morning, i'm rushing out of the house before 7am to get to work early; usually between 7:30-7:45a. i spend the majority of the day in meetings or working with my team so i never get to actually sit at my desk to do my work. i'm then rushing out of work to get home. my goal is to leave work by 5:30 but that rarely ever happens. i don't even get home until 6:30-6:45p. then s and i are rushing to cook and eat bc we have to start aj's bath routine at 7ish and put him down by 7:30p. then i get back online and work until 10ish.

i have absolutely no time to do anything. i even stopped pumping a couple of weeks ago because i just really needed that time to work or do something else. it totally sucks. i'm all over the place like a chicken running around with her head cut off. i'm not giving my all when it comes to work and i'm certainly not mom of the year. people say it gets easier and you just learn to let things go or prioritize but i just don't see how!!?! okay, just had to get that off my chest. enough about me; what fun am i haha. let's move on to my precious son!

aaron has grown and changed so much these last couple of weeks. it's just amazing how he can struggle for weeks trying to do something and then one day...he just does it like it was no big deal. it's incredible to see how engaged he is with what he sees or hears and how he interacts with the people. he definitely loves to people watch; especially when they are speaking or eating!

for the most part, he definitely has his daddy's temperament. he's a pretty laidback and low maintenance child. he seriously cries only when he's hungry or sleeping. just like dad, he eats anything!! and he can never get enough of whatever it is we are feeding him. although, he definitely has a preference for fresh fruit that i've just mashed for him.

sleep has definitely been a bit on the tough side. he started teething last weekend so he's been pretty fussy with sleeping all week. normally, he just peacefully goes down for the evening. however, every night this week, he's cried for almost an hour each night!! poor kiddo.

i haven't been good with taking too many pictures but here are some recent pics...

his favorite activity - jumping around his saucer

look ma, my teeth!

this is probably one of the best picture of his dimple

6 months old...

2009-04-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

where does the time go? i've been back at work for about a month and a half and i just can't believe aj is 6 months old now! talking about my transition back to work is another entry in itself so i'm going to stick with writing about aj for now!

it's amazing how much has changed in the last 2 months! aj's personality and physical development just keeps evolving and i'm always surprised at how he's changed on a daily / weekly basis.

his physical developments:

rolling over - about 2 weeks ago, he made his first roll at my parent's house (tummy to back)! he rolled for his po-po in the afternoon and showed me his new trick when i went to pick him up in the evening. when we got home, he was too shy to show dad but was more than happy to exhibit his new trick to dad the next day! it took another week or so before he was able to roll from his tummy to back. he is rarely on his back now because he wants to roll over right away. however, it's like he forgot how to roll from his tummy to back because it doesn't happen too often.

sitting up - not so advanced. hahaa. when we try to get him to sit up, he goes straight for his toes and just lands head first on the couch! he is great with the bumbo but tends to slouch quite a bit in his booster seat.

standing up - he loves to bounce! if you hold him up or put him in his saucer, he is a jumping machine.

crawling - ummm not even close! however, when he's on his tummy, he loves to squirm his way around and stick his butt up in the air! that's really it though =)

to my other "favorite" topics: eat, sleep, drink...

eat - we started aj on solids about 2 weeks ago. at first it was just rice cereal but it made him constipated so i moved onto veggies, starting with green beans. he loves them! i started with 2 1-ounce servings a day. however, the doctor said i can probably increase it to 2 2-ounce servings a day. next we moved onto sweet potatoes. umm..can we say pooping machine! one day, he pooped 4 times! and then the poop was exactly the sweet potatoes! it was as if he didn't digest or process any of it and it just went straight to his diapers. so now we are banning sweet potatoes for awhile. i'm back to green beans and we will try apples and avocadoes this week. =)

sleep - oh, so inconsistent (but i guess that's not new and what everyone tells you)! for the last 2 weeks, he would wake up every morning at 4 or 5am!! it got better for a few days but usually he'll wake up once. recently because he can roll over, he's been rolling onto his tummy. however, he doesn't remember how to roll back to his back and then starts crying. last night, he woke up at 3am...i went to roll him back onto his back and guess what? he peed through his diaper and all over his clothes and bed! poor baby! =(

drink - even with the 4 ounces of solids, he's still drinking the same amount of milk. dr. m said we can start decreasing as he takes more solids but so far he still wants all the milk! i haven't been as diligent with pumping at work. i just get so easily distracted and caught up in my work. my supply has definitely decreased. i actually can't meet his supply on a daily basis now. i've had to use my reserves just to give him enough milk. i don't really have much reserve left so looks like we'll be adding formula soon.

so when we went his 6 month check up, these were the original stats: 16 lbs (25%) , 26 inches long and 17 inches in head circumference. when dr. m saw the stats, he was alarmed and said he wanted to remeasure because he wasn't happy with the results. when i got home, i can see why. the original stats had him only gaining 1/4 inch in his head, 1/4 inch in height and 1lb 8 ounces in weight! shhh, i would be alarmed as well!!! i felt so guilty that i was not giving him enough milk!! so dr. m remeasured and his height was 26.5 inches which keeps him in the 75th percentile. his weight did drop off a little as he was in the 50th percentile previously. but dr. m wasn't too worried. it was just so hard because he was spitting up milk so i thought he was full and gave him slightly less milk every feeding. however, everytime he was done with his bottle, he would cry. i just thought he wanted to suck on something but i guess maybe he really was still hungry.

what is daddy putting in my mouth?

yumm...i like sweet potatoes (too bad mommy and daddy don't)!

oh, i think i like green beans!

going for a walk to farmer's market

i like gymboree outfit!

why no one ever told me...

2009-03-20T21:19:00.000-07:00

these things happen after you have a baby...

1) you get so happy that you don't have your period while your pregnant but it's more than made up for when you have it for the six weeks following delivery.

2) breastfeeding is (so far) THE hardest part of pregnancy/delivery/motherhood

3) how much hair you lose!! oh my gosh, the amount of hair that i have to clean in the bathroom is insane! sure i know i barely lost any during pregnancy but seriously, my hair sheds everywhere!!!

4) what pressure/tension it puts on a relationship. gosh, there is just so much more to discuss/argue, one better have a rock SOLID relationship before they have a baby! at least s and i can laugh at how "bossy" i am (personally, i think any new mother is bossy to the hubby).

5) there is just this indescribable overflowing of love for your baby =)

these are the things that people say but i didn't really believe but now i've jumped on the bandwagon:

1) you really do forgot about any pregnancy or delivery issues. there is just so much more to deal with in motherhood that pregnancy and/or delivery issues are a walk in the park.

2) you do forget things! and become more absent minded. the whole baby brain thing is SO true.

3) priorities do change...my work attitude is totally different. however, i do have to say i enjoy going back to work. i don't enjoy leaving my son but when i'm at work, i'm in a zone and it feels good.

4) you can't help but talk about your child all the time. they take up soo much of your life and time.

5) everyone is a critic. everyone, even strangers, tell you what you should or shouldn't do in raising your child.

yuck, yuck, yuck

2009-03-03T19:22:00.000-08:00

first, it was the toilet in our bathroom. it was clogged and would not flush. then i heard the water bubbling in the hallway toilet. i went back to our bathroom and saw water coming out of our shower pan. i knew this was not looking good. i called roto rooter and someone was coming within the hour. s called the belmont water department and apparently other residents called to complain about water flow issues as well. i looked outside of my house and saw 3 trucks working on the pipes down the street. i canceled the roto rooter and went back into our bathroom. umm...that was when i noticed that the water coming out of the shower pan was flowing out of the bathroom and onto our carpet!!! i hurriedly grabbed some old towels to prevent more water from flowing onto the carpet. i grabbed more old towels and started absorbing the water from the carpet. (note, this is where i am thankful that s takes souvenir towels from hotels). as i went back to the linen closet to see if i have any other towels, i went to check on the other bathroom. more yuck. there was brown water in the tub! we keep aj's tub in that tub and it was floating in the disgusting brown water! i immediately took aj's tub out and rinsed it. finally, the water drained back into the pipes and there was no more water leaking out! i wiped all the water from the bathroom floor and decided that was enough cleaning for me! thankfully, aj was napping during all this mess!!

s came home a couple of hours early and he cleaned the tub, shower and floor of the infected areas! then, he rented at steam cleaner and cleaned the carpet. luckily the water that came out of bedroom bathroom was clear so the carpet wasn't discolored. not exactly the way that i wanted to spend my last day at home with aj...

4 months old...

2009-02-24T16:06:00.000-08:00

i just can't believe aj is 4 months old!

i am happy to report that i am finally getting some good night sleep again!! i started sleep training about 2 weeks ago to prepare us for when i go back to work. i have discovered that we have to put aj to bed at 7ish and no later than 7:30. this early bedtime is tough because s doesn't even get home until 6:30 so he only gets half an hour with aj!! that's probably the same time that i'll get when i go back to work as well. so sad...but i've tried putting him to sleep at 8pm but he wakes up quite a bit in the middle of the night.

it was rough for several nights as i just had to let aj cry. he would wake up at 1ish, cry for a couple of minutes and then go back to sleep. it was the 3am wake up that was tough. he would cry for 20-30 minutes. 30 minutes was the most he would cry or that i could handle and then i'd go and soothe him or put the pacifier in his mouth. i know, i know...30 minutes isn't really that bad. we did this for 3 days and then we had 2 days of no night wakings!! 12 straight hours of sleeping for aj! i don't sleep as early as him so i got maybe 8 hours. then we had a couple of nights where he would cry in the middle of the night but he was able to soothe himself after crying for maybe 10 minutes. this week, we've had 2 straight nights of no night wakings!

he's also been really good about the time that he wakes up. it's usually between 6:30 and 7am. this is perfect because it's the right time when i go back to work! so i can get ready for work, feed him and then go off to work. =( i'm just praying that he continues this routine!!!

at his doctor's visit, aj was very cooperative. he was very chatty with dr. m and showed him all his neck and leg strength!

a couple of minor concerns:
1) aj has a pretty dry scalp so dr. m told us to put baby oil on a daily basis
2) his neck has some redness so dr. m said we should put aquaphor before it turns into a rash
3) his belly button is still a bit dirty so we have to clean it once a week with hydrogen peroxide
4) he has poor blood circulation. his hands and feet are always cold and blue-purplish. dr. m said it's fine and not to worry

his growth is still consistent with his last checkup. aj is still in the 50% percentile in both weight (14 lbs 8 oz) and head circumference (16.75 inches) and 75% percentile in height (25.75 inches).

dr. m mentioned that we might be in for some trying times when aj is almost 6 months old. that's when aj might go through some stranger anxiety, separation anxiety and start developing object permanence. having object permanence will cause him to wake up in the middle of the night again. he said the key is to let him cry and do not feed him! if i start feeding him, he'll want to eat in the middle of the night and not eat during the day!! yeah, i don't want that to happen...

on a sad note, i have to go back to work next wednesday. =( i can't believe i've been away from work for 5 months!!

just hanging out in his rocker / swing

stretching his legs

he's really starting to suck his thumb...

practicing sitting up on the couch

he loves putting everything in his mouth now

seriously, he just turned his body and fell asleep in the living room!

smiley boy...

2009-02-13T16:00:00.000-08:00

it's amazing how a couple of weeks can change so much! aj is such a responsive baby now and i'm really starting to see his personality!

he's really starting to grab at things. when i'm nursing, he grabs my necklace or shirt. when s feeds him, he grabs his fingers. when he wants more milk, he moves his hands to push the bottle back into his mouth! along with grabbing, he will put anything in his mouth. his favorites for now are his hands, taggies and of course, my clothes. he actually has not been a fan of the mirror / his reflection. only yesterday did i finally see him crack a smile at himself in the mirror.

now to my favorite topics:

sleeping - just starting this week, he is sleeping much earlier. his bedtime is usually 7pm or no later than 8p, depending on when his last nap is. it's a guarantee that he wakes up at 3ish. sometimes he can soothe himself back to sleep but so far i've only been able to handle 30 minutes of crying. after 30 minutes, i check on him and give him the pacifier. then he'll wake up between 5-6am for his feeding and then he'll usually wake up at 8:30-9am. occasionally, he'll wake himself up at midnight or 1am but he can usually soothe himself; i just don't understand why he can't do it at 3am!! he doesn't really nap for very long during the day so i don't really get much done in this downtime. he averages probably 45-60 minutes per nap with normally 2 naps.

feeding - for the last 2 weeks, it's been a pretty consistent feeding schedule. he'll have his first feeding at 5-6am and then it's 10am, 2pm, 5-6pm and finally his bottle before he goes to bed! there has actually been twice when he slept through his 5-6am and woke up at 8am! i don't really like that because then he'll only get 4 feedings a day which just doesn't feel like enough milk! ideally, i'd like him to wake up between 6-7am for his feeding when i go back to work but i won't be picky. the pain has pretty much gone away and it feels pretty "normal" to breastfeed i guess you can say. now, it's just about building a good milk supply.

what he likes (as pictured below):
1) morning greeting! the mornings are my favorite. when i go to get him in the morning, i say "good morning" and he has the biggest smile for me!! oh, i'm going to miss that when i go back to work =(
2) after a feeding - he loves a full stomach
3) mommy being a dork. he loves it when i sing the abc's or kiss his tummy and toes

"how ya doin?"

after a feeding...hence the drool

boys will be boys...

2009-02-13T11:35:00.000-08:00

so after the initial adoration that my nephew has for aj, it now has turned into bullying! my nephew sees how we play and touch aj and he loves him so wants to do the same. however, he doesn't realize how gentle we are versus how "strong" he is. don't get me wrong, my nephew still showers his cousin with kisses whenever he sees him but he also slaps, scratches and pulls at aj. =( and my poor defenseless kid just takes it all (for now). heehee

yip...pulling his ear

my nephew thinks he's big enough to carry aj =)

tried to sit up ...

2009-01-28T21:49:00.000-08:00

so i'm working with aj to practice sitting up...here's our progress. =)

first on the bumbo: hmm...he's only fascinated with his right foot

let's switch to the left foot

good, good. sit next to your giants bear

and then quickly tumbled after a second...hehee.

happy chinese new year

2009-01-28T21:36:00.000-08:00

wow, i can't believe chinese new year crept up on me so quickly! since i'm still on maternity leave, i went and hung out with my parents and went to visit our relatives. it was weird to get red envelopes again. aj received a fairly generous number of red envelopes from all my relatives!

umm...my mom got this chinese outfit for my nephew. unfortunately (or fortunately), they didn't make them in 3 months for aj!

hey, you owe me some red envelopes!

okay, do you want them back?

must wear our red outfits!

3 months old

2009-01-20T15:45:00.000-08:00

i can't believe aj is 3 months old today (ha, i think i say this every month)! this last month has definitely flown by; probably due to the holidays. so let's recap how my sweetie has changed...

weight - he's definitely getting bigger! i'm not sure how much he weighs but he definitely feels heavier heehee. he actually started wearing 3-6 months clothes a couple of weeks ago; more really for his length though.

sleep - it was rough for a bit. he was waking up a couple of times a night. not for a feeding but he just wanted to be soothed. so i'd wake up at 2ish, comfort him and then have to get up at 4ish to feed him. well, just this past weekend, he started waking up at 4 to be soothed and didn't get back up until 7 or 8 for a feeding! i'm actually getting at least 5 or 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep! i won't hold my breathe - we'll see when he regresses! his naps are going well. putting him down is relatively painless, it's getting him to take long naps! he'll usually wake up after 30 - 45 min but needs to be soothed to sleep for another hour or so. since his bedtime is still 10p; he usually takes four naps a day. i'm trying to adjust and get him into bed earlier but it doesn't really work out with his feeding schedule.

feeding - what a good transition into his feeding. i've survived another month!! i can honestly say that breast feeding is actually going okay! my breasts are still quite sensitive and i don't think they'll ever look the same again. my only issue is that since he's going longer without a feeding, my breasts are quite engorged. i actually look forward to feedings at times so that i can get rid of the milk! i just want to survive another month and then i have to think about going back to work and pumping - yuck!!

personality - i'm happy to report that his temperament isn't as serious anymore. he's definitely a more happier baby. he's not really into looking at himself in the mirror. he's most happiest early in the morning and after each feeding. he loves to see new faces and loves having people talk to him. he also really likes being on his changing pad. he has this panda bear that he adores and these hand puppets that can entertain him for hours.

smiling on his changing pad

"oh interesting, these are called toes?"

"why is mommy making me do tummy time?"

"i love sleeping on daddy!"

sleep is over rated...

2009-01-14T15:57:00.000-08:00

or at least that's what i try to convince myself! aj is almost 3 months old and i'm trying to start some good sleeping / napping habits. for the first 2 months of his life, i took aj everywhere with me and he just slept a lot. at night, i only got up once for a feeding, usually at 4-5 am. so overall, i didn't really have much to worry about. i thought, wow, aj is such a great baby. =)

ummm...spoke too soon! 2 weeks ago, he started waking up at 2-3 am. he wasn't hungry but just needed to be soothed. this continued for days and i figured i better start reading those sleeping books!! so in the baby whisperer book, she recommends this "easy" schedule. well, it's not easy!! haahaa. she mentioned that you should stop swaddling after 6 weeks as the baby starts to discover his hands and can use them to self soothe. so i thought, easy enough! maybe he'll soothe himself at the 2-3 am waking. i don't know if he wasn't used to his free body but then he woke up every 2 hours instead!! he obviously didn't know how to self soothe so i had to get up and calm him down. sometimes it was quick and only took five minutes but other times it took almost an hour!

so then i bought another book, healthy sleep habits, healthy child and tried to utilize some of his tips. he emphasized the importance of napping and "window of wakefulness". so i decided to not go out for a couple of days and see if i can observe aj's napping tendencies without the distractions of going out and having the car seat or stroller alter his schedule. if he had great naps during the day, it would set him up for success at night. he also emphasized putting your child to bed earlier. he also dissed the baby whisperer at times; for example, dismissing the claim that sleeping has nothing to do with your stomach and "tanking" doesn't work.

well, i just have to say, i have no idea what parents write these testimonials about the effectiveness of these sleeping books because it is NOT a miracle worker for me and aj!! this whole putting your child down while he's still awake but drowsy and not overtired is not always that easy!! i do think it's good that i try to understand aj's sleeping patterns but then i end up stressing about his naps being too short or long or too few or many!

i think i'm just putting too much pressure on myself and certainly aj to try to get a structured routine now in preparation of going back to work in a month in a half or so. whatever...

aj's first christmas

2009-01-01T20:07:00.001-08:00

since s and i were both not working the week of christmas, we felt that we were up to hosting christmas. also, with this being aj's first christmas, it was nice to have both families together. the only missing person was s' sister, who unfortunately, had to work on christmas. this was the first time that we've hosted a dinner with aj and it was interesting to say the least. prep time definitely slowed down due to having to break to breast feed or entertaining him when he was feeling lonely. we also made all the dishes from scratch and it took a bit more time that we thought. i actually ended up not making a salad because we had more than enough veggies and i ran out of time!

aj had a great first christmas with his grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins! he was very grateful for all the generous gifts and can't wait to play with all his new toys!

our christmas dinner

j always making sure everyone is liquored up!

busy eating...

m with c

g and f enjoying dinner...

j trying to give c food - c saying 'don't touch me with that thing'

j givng aj the stare down

j wants aj off of him while...

c just wants to get away from both of them!

my family minus the hubbies...

s' family minus the h's

paw paw and gung gung with their 2 favorite grandson

aj with paw paw

christmas eve

2009-01-01T19:56:00.001-08:00

my wonderful cousin invited us over on christmas eve. since we no longer spend christmas with their family, it was nice to see them and have the kids play together. aj was on his best behavior for his first christmas eve...

matching red shirts with denim pants

aj's 1st present

with auntie j

with uncle f

j pushing m along in the truck

they're stuck...looking at the truck to see what's wrong!

2 months old...

2008-12-22T11:12:00.000-08:00

i can't believe aj is another month older! we had his 2 month wellness check up today and he did very well! you know, other than the loud crying when he got his 3 shots. =( he's progressing along well...he's pretty proportioned in terms of his percentile. he now weighs 12 lbs 2 oz and his head circumference is 15.75 inches (both of which are in the 50% percentile). he is 23.5 inches tall which puts him cusping the 75% percentile.

so what has changed since last month? i think the biggest development is that he is so engaged now. he loves to socialize and hang out with friends and family. he loves to make eye contact and follow people's movements. he doesn't have any problems being carried by different people and being passed along moving from one set of arms to another. he is very active. somehow, while being swaddled in his sleep, he moves his body ninety degrees and is in a completely different position than how we had put him down.

i had been feeding aj every 3 hours and would sometimes have to wake him up to feed him. the pediatrician said i no longer have to do that since he's at a good weight. in the evenings, he does tend to eat sooner than 3 hours. the doctor said it's probably because i don't have as much milk in the evenings as i don't get the rest that i properly need during the day and also because he's 'storing' some milk to get him through the night. i never really thought babies knew to do that! and speaking of feeding, i am happy to report that breastfeeding is definitely better now. it's still not pain free but i've survived another month!

s and i have noticed that aj has a very serious demeanor. we don't know why but he has this look like he's stressed out about something. he does smile and laugh but it does take him a while to warm up; he normally just stares. our college friends say that must be from his parents and our 'deadly' stares from our fraternity / sorority days.

i do have somewhat of a routine with aj. i take him out everyday. we try to venture out at least twice - working around his feeding schedule of course. i usually try to do one trip shopping; alternating between burlingame, hillsdale, stanford and target. then we'll usually make a 2nd trip out on a walk around the neighborhood. i definitely try to do 2 trips out now before it starts to get too wet and cold outside. it's also a good way for me to get some 'exercise'.

here are some pics of aj with some friends: coincidentally, the 3 infants below were all born in september!

r and aj scoping each other out

ummm...despite the age difference...uncle m and aj have the same hairstyle going...

aj was too busy sleeping to hang out with k

x and aj were actuallly due a week from one another but x came 4 weeks earlier than expected

i guess this is how infants 'hang out'?

work update...

2008-12-17T14:46:00.000-08:00

aj and i made a trip to work to drop off some christmas gifts for my team and boss. i was so proud of aj because he was on his best behavior! he was asleep when i first got to work but when he woke up, he was making eye contact with everyone and cooing! i got a lot of grief for not dressing him in any gymboree clothes. as i told everyone at work...he wears whatever is handed down to him. unfortunately, that means no gymboree clothes!

the timing to visit work was quite appropriate as i had to chat with my boss about a press release from monday. it is definitely a different approach as most companies would just lay-off employees. as expected, it was received with mixed feelings. in a very instinctual reaction, people would naturally be pissed. i can understand that perspective but from a more holistic view, i accept this without any resentment. (not saying i won't miss the money that i'm losing because we can all use money)! the economy is just soo tough right now and we should all be very grateful for our jobs. to have even more people looking for jobs now would just be so awful. if a paycut can prevent us from laying people off, i completely support that. however, s believes that laying off people would "eliminate the fat". however, we are a very lean company and we don't have any "fat" to trim. or last least i don't work with anyone who i would consider "fat". so not exactly the best "christmas gift" from work but you go with the flow right?

other than this "bad" news, it was nice to be back at work. it was great to see everyone and they were so excited to meet aj. i do have to admit, it made me *miss* work. i told my boss that i'd be back end of february / early march and my boss said, "it's up to you; when you are ready." it's nice that he is flexible.

oh, christmas tree...

2008-12-11T17:14:00.001-08:00

this past weekend, we went out to get aj's first christmas tree! i just love the smell of a fresh christmas tree!! we wanted to get the tree up earlier as we had to take pictures for our christmas cards. s and i didn't want to be in the picture so we had to be a bit creative in getting aj in front of the tree by himself. the final picture we selected wasn't perfect but it'll do for a 7 week old baby! i've always loved christmas but now it means so much more with aj!

i also went to the mall with my mom, aj and my nephew to take their pictures with santa. of course, aj was totally oblivious so he was fine. we just have a problem getting him to look at the camera! my poor nephew, on the other hand, was completely frightened by santa. he wouldn't even get near him! even with aj on santa's lap, my nephew would not warm up to santa. hopefully, my sister will have better luck when she tries to take him to see santa again!

our finished tree

my 2 favorite baby boys!

my cutest nephew

20 lbs lighter...

2008-12-03T20:02:00.000-08:00

but 15 more to go! =( i had my 6 week check up with my ob doc and everything is okay. i didn't really have a specific number of pounds that i was hoping to lose but i guess it's a step in the right direction that it was slightly more than half the pregnancy weight gain.

i also have what feels like this nasty bruise that i wanted to make sure was just a clogged duct and luckily it is. it's slowly getting better but still hurts quite a bit.

yesterday, i had what hopefully was my final appointment with the lactation consultant! although i'm not quite loving breast feeding, at least i'm not dreading it anymore. it still hurts as i have some painful letdowns but at least it's getting better!

aj hit the 6 week mark earlier this week and is now at 10 lbs 3 oz! he definitely is more engaging; looking and starting at people. he loves to stick his tongue out and pucker his lips (though, not at the same time). he LOVES to stretch - whenever we remove his swaddling blanket, is done feeding, or changing his diaper, he stretches out his arms and legs!

to vacation or not?

2008-12-02T20:47:00.000-08:00

s' office is shut down for 2 weeks during the week of christmas and new year's. rarely do we have 2 weeks off so i REALLY want to take advantage of this and travel somewhere. however, we don't know whether to take aj with us or not. and if we do or don't, we don't know where to go. normally, the easy answer is vegas but that would definitely be a aj-less trip and i'm not sure if i'm ready to do that. it is very tempting - i haven't been to vegas in 3 years and it's so cheap now!!!!
help? any advice or suggestions are definitely welcomed!!

just chillin

2008-11-25T09:03:00.000-08:00

this is just such an adorable picture of my nephew...

we were just eating dinner and all of a sudden, we turn and see him with this pose!

1 month old...

2008-11-20T10:58:00.000-08:00

wow, i can't believe aj is already 1 month old! as i reflect back on this last month...

1) life changes...
it's amazing how life has changed! (no shit i know huh?) s and i are obviously a family of 3 and aj is our number one priority.
- most of our conversations revolve around our child and his pooping / eating / sleeping habits
- eating is no longer enjoyable as it's a race to finish before aj starts crying or getting fussy
- anywhere we go revolves around his feeding schedule (well, not like i've really gone anywhere but more on that below...)
- sleep will never be the same. =( i no longer use my mouthpiece at night because i'm not asleep long enough to get into a deep sleep and start grinding my teeth
- i'm the most paranoid person now when it comes to how aj is doing and making sure he's okay

2) "doing the one month"
there is a VERY traditional chinese ritual of having the mother / child stay home for a month after the birth of their child. it really revolves around replenishing the mother's body after birth with warmth and heat. if followed, this will keep a woman in better health condition as she gets older. in true old fashion tradition, one is not suppose to shower or wash their hair for an entire month. you also can not leave the house. one must be well covered as to not catch any chills or have your skin exposed to the wind / cold air. there is a very strict diet - no cold drinks or food. your diet revolves around ginger, chicken and soup. so...yes, i actually followed this tradition...to a certain degree. i didn't shower for almost a week and didn't wash my hair for 2 weeks. i didn't leave the house for a month except for doctor appointments and for an entire month, only ate gingered chicken and eggs, rice, chicken soup and hot water. surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. i think it was harder for s as he had to go out and run all our errands.

3) emotional roller coaster
i think i cried more in aj's first 2 weeks than the last 10 years! i haven't cried this much since we had drama in our sorority. 95% of the crying came from breast feeding. i was so much more sensitive to issues / problems that i was experiencing.

4) breast feeding
wow, if there was a more humbling experience - it would be breast feeding. i've always been one to strive for the best and do all the necessary research to be good at something but when it's completely out of your control, it's such a helpless and frustrating feeling. after reading everything possible online and in brochures and seeing various lactation consultants, i've done all i can to help aj latch on correctly. although it has gotten slightly (as in a minuscule amount) better than a couple of weeks ago, it's still very painful (in the sense of sore and throbbing pain). aj's mouth is opening bigger and he is using his tongue at times but it's still not this pain-free, wonderful bonding experience that everyone keeps referring to.
on top of that, i do have a slight over supply problem on one side (i know, better than low supply). however, it is very painful and having hard areolas doesn't help the situation as that makes it harder for aj to latch on well.
since breast feeding is still quite painful, i only do it during the day and pump twice at night. i also only give one breast at each feeding and my body has not adjusted to this schedule yet.

5) "deep conversations" with hubby
even though having a child is an incredibly amazing bonding experience with the hubby, there were also some heart - to - heart conversations that we had and would obviously never have had if it weren't for having a baby.

timing was bad with s' work. he had a launch the week after he went back to work so he was VERY busy at work and had to occasionally work on weekends and evenings. i felt that he was choosing work as the priority over our baby and that was extremely frustrating for me. obviously, he wasn't but i, of course, was overly sensitive and perceived it that way. the funny thing is how ironic is it for me to think that? i have always been the workaholic and willingly spend more time working on weekends and evenings than s. for me to say this to him, man, things are different! it actually makes me wonder what my state of mind will be when i go back to work!?

s and i also don't agree on the issue of aj's crying. s believes in tough love and will let aj cry for almost an hour. i've tried to tell s that at this early stage in his life, he's just trying to communicate to us and wants to be held. there is no such thing as spoiling a baby. also, when aj's arms are shaking and his face is completely red, it's pretty tough for me to ignore that. i mean, i can for five or ten minutes...but times five and that's definitely a no-no for me.

6) unconditional love
even though i've listed these 5 reflections that might not appear to be very encouraging, i have to say it's all worth it. aj is just so precious. i swear i can stare at him all day. well, unless he's crying but even then he has this most adorable pout right before he starts crying. hahaa. i can also spend all day kissing his cheeks. i also love seeing how s holds and talks to aj - it brings me such warm fuzzies!

aj ready to go out for a walk with daddy
(apparently, everyone says he's a spitting image of s)

my 2 favorite boys...

2008-11-09T08:35:00.001-08:00

nap time for father and son

aj's superman pose

2 week check up

2008-11-03T17:06:00.000-08:00

today, s and i took aj to his 2 week pediatric appointment. great news...he is well above his birth weight! he now weighs 7 lbs 8.5 oz and grew an inch to 21 inches now! jaundice is gone, his umbilical stump fell off mid last week and he's peeing and pooping like crazy!

i haven't really mentioned much about his sleeping pattern and our adjustment to parenthood. overall, i do have to say that s and i are very blessed with a fairly mellow newborn (let's hope this isn't a jinx). he sleeps quite a bit - at night, he sleeps at least 3-hour or 4-hour intervals. he wakes up to get his diaper changed and fed and we just put him back to sleep. i mean, it's still tough since we do get up every couple of hours but we aren't up for very long. well, unless he has an explosion and then s will have to change his entire outfit which is a bit tough when you are half awake.

since i am still having breastfeeding issues, i do pump in the middle of the night and s gives him the bottle. i do feel bad for s since he is back at work but i just can't get up to change, pump and feed him. i do try to give him a break if i'm breastfeeding but that's usually in the morning and he's already up getting ready for work so he only gets to "sleep in" on the weekends.

i'm still trying to figure out the right balance of pumping and breastfeeding. i know i need to breastfeed more to "toughen" up my nipples / breasts and to get aj to be a better nurser. however, he just made one of my nipples bleed again; so i'm trying to give it a break because it just gets worse each time he goes on the breast since he still isn't latching on correctly. so i'm still trying to get aj to latch on correctly. he still pinches a bit but i'm just trying to hang on until it gets better (that's what keeps me going is the assumption that it WILL get better).

happy halloween...

2008-10-31T16:53:00.000-07:00

my little cow on his 1st halloween

my precious pumpkin nephew

cow + pumpkin

chapter 4 : 1st pediatric appointment / breast milk jaundice

2008-10-29T19:36:00.000-07:00

last friday, we had aj's first doctor's appointment and there were a couple of concerns:

1 - drop off in weight - aj was born 7 lbs and when he left the hospital 2 days later, he was at 6 lbs 9 oz. at the doctor's, he weighted in at 6 lbs 2.5 oz. technically, still a reasonable weight loss (average newborn loses 10% of their original weight) but ...

2 - hint of yellow in skin - aj was looking a bit jaundice. his bilirubin level at the hospital was only 8 but his current skin tone was quite yellow. bilirubin is a yellow fluid that forms when red blood cells break down. so, aj had to take a blood test that day to see what his bilirubin levels are and go back to the doctor's for a weight check the next day. so it was recommended that we supplement with formula to get his weight up and have him pee and poop more to get the bilirubin out. so our goal that evening was to fatten our little peanut! i breast fed and supplemented with formula every 2 hours. later that evening we got the bilirubin results back at 17. 17 is quite a jump from the 8 at the hospital but not a high enough level to have aj in phototherapy.

so the next day, saturday, we went back to the doctor for our weight check and he was 6 lbs 8 oz! he had gained almost 6 ounces in less than a day! however, the doctor wanted us to go and get another blood test as he still looked quite yellow. the results from that day was a bilirubin of 18. so again, the doctor wanted us to continue to feed him and have him in indirect sunlight.

on sunday, we went back for another round of blood test (this, if you haven't been keeping track is 3 days in a row now of having little aj's foot pricked)! the level increased another point to 19. the doctor deduced that aj had breastmilk jaundice. the other thing i didn't mention is that aj and i have different blood types. i am o+ while aj is a+. so my red blood cells are breaking down his red blood cells. so the doctor suggested that i stop breastfeeding for 24-48 hours!!! i can continue to pump to ensure adequate milk supply but we had to give aj formula and then return for another blood test the next day to see if the level decreases. so every 2-3 hours, s would feed with formula while a pumped. it's very very exhausting having to clean the pump equipment every 2 hours.

so after a 4th straight day of blood work (which i have to proudly say, he doesn't cry when getting pricked), we were relieved to hear that after he stopped drinking breast milk, his level dropped to 17.3. so the doctor recommended that we continue with formula for another day and if his level drops to less than 15 the next day, i can resume breast feeding. it was actually a blessing in disguise as my breasts were so sore and cracked; it was a nice break to let my breasts heal. however, i was very paranoid about having aj go 2 straight days on the bottle. i had scheduled a private session with a lactation consultant on monday but had to reschedule for wednesday morning.

so, FINALLY, tuesday was the final day of aj getting his blood drawn. thankfully, his bilirubin level came in at 14.9!!! just barely passed! we were so relieved because we didn't want to have to continue to go to the hospital to draw his blood or have photherapy! once we got the wonderful news that he was cleared to drink my breast milk that evening, s fed him breast milk through a bottle as i didn't want to continue to have him latch incorrectly. i decided that since my appointment with the lc was the next morning --- i would have aj back on my breasts then!

one week old...

2008-10-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

here's my little peanut at one week old =)

chapter 3 : recovery / breastfeeding

2008-10-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

can i just start off by saying...wow, if anyone ever needs a topic to test one's mental and physical state of mind - breastfeeding is the perfect subject. needless to say, breastfeeding is certainly my worst enemy right now. when i first got out of the hospital, i thought my recovery was going to be painful. sitting and lying down was painful due to my hemorrhoids. i was dreading my first bowel movement because i didn't want to strain and tear my stitches (even though everyone says that's almost impossible). my back was sore from the epidural. before i was fat and pregnant - now i was just fat! and of course, with a vaginal delivery, you are swollen and have to put due diligence to clean the area as to not develop any infections. so with all of that and having this newborn to take care of, you can see how one can be physically and mentally drained and overwhelmed. everyone tells me you forget the pain...but seriously, how can you? even though i am SO blessed to see my precious peanut and amazed at the fact that he is all mine (and s' of course), the pain is just so fresh (yes, obviously it is since it's only been a week).

however, everything is relative. now my recovery is a walk in the park compared to my battle with breastfeeding. i don't think aj ever latched on correctly. although i was getting colostrum and my milk was coming in, it was a very painful process. aj was pinching my breast which of course is wrong and once i got home, i slowly started to feel a lot of soreness and saw my cracked breasts. however, i know aj was getting the milk because he was swallowing. not only was i experiencing sore and cracked breasts, i was getting engorged by the end of the week. it was very painful and i decided to make an appointment for a lactation consultant but they weren't available on weekends so i had to make an appointment for monday.

chapter 2 : delivery

2008-10-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

the nurse said we were going to start pushing at 4pm and some women push for only 20 minutes while some push for well over 2 hours. i had to push for 3 intervals of 10 seconds with every contraction. due to the epidural, i really didn't feel like i was pushing very hard. however, the nurse and doctor said i was doing a good job so i guess i was pushing pretty hard. what i find amazing is that in between the contractions, the doctor and nurse was having a conversation about philosophies on vaccinations and people / parents who are against vaccinations. i was thinking...hello, shouldn't we be focused on me here? after an hour of pushing, we were informed that they were unsure of whether the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck. because of this, they had to prepare to vacuum pull out the baby. they then called for more nurses into our room just in case there was going to be complications from the umbilical cord. s was great - counting for me at times when the nurse and doctor were preparing the table of equipment. i was actually surprised that s was so engaged and actually looked down at where the baby was coming out of! so after another half an hour of pushing, my dear sweet angel got suctioned out and s cut the umbilical cord!

so my experience of labor was somewhat different than what i had imagined. after watching all those episodes of baby story on tlc, i really thought i'd have this sweaty and emotional labor but it really wasn't. pushing wasn't that difficult and i certainly wasn't sweating. once i saw my sweet angel, i really thought i'd be overwhelmed with emotions and start crying but no such luck. i mean, don't get me wrong, it was definitely an amazing feeling of seeing this little being that has been growing inside of me for the last 9 months and the anticipation of meeting him but i just didn't cry.

we were in the labor room for another hour or so before we were finally transfered to our recovery room. i was still in minimal pain since the epidural hadn't worn off yet. once we settled into our recovery room, we ordered dinner since we hadn't eaten all day! we also decided to have aj in the nursery overnight. as much as i'd love to have our newborn in our room, we had been up since 2am so we knew it was best for us to try to get some sleep and utilize the help of the nurses while we were in the hospital. i was also starting to feel some pain so the nurses gave me a dosage of motrin. i decided not to take the vicodin because the pain was not that bad but did decide to keep the catheter in overnight as i didn't want to deal with having to get up to use the restroom.

chapter 1: 1 am wake up call...

2008-10-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

prepare yourselves...this is quite a long story through my roller coaster of emotions during my entire delivery process...i'll probably break it down into "chapters" since i probably won't have time to write everything in one session but i definitely want to try to journal my experience before it all becomes discombobulated in my mind.

so after a relaxing weekend, i woke up sunday night at 1:45am to go to the bathroom and saw some blood. it wasn't a huge amount but enough for me to be concerned and decided to call my doctor. she mentioned that it was probably just the softening of my cervix and wasn't anything to be too concerned about. however, if the baby isn't moving much, i can go to the hospital and monitor the baby if i'm really worried. baby l is usually very active in the middle of the night so when he wasn't really moving much i woke s up and decided to go to the hospital. at the same time, when i was going to the bathroom, i was having some strange fluid releases. i really didn't think my water had broken as it wasn't uncontrollable and it wasn't trickling or flowing like what i had read about. however, i still wore a pad to be on the safe side. the only beauty of going to the hospital at 2 in the morning...absolutely no traffic! on the drive in, s and i really did think it was a false alarm and that we were going to be there for maybe half an hour, have the nurses tell everything was fine and then send us home.

when i got to the ob triage, they tested my pad and it was indeed amniotic fluid! the reason why there wasn't more fluid coming out was because the baby was very low and his head was clogging the fluid from flowing out. oh dear, were we surprised! i was only 2 centimeters dilated and was not feeling any contractions - but they were happening! the nurses then made us go for a walk around the hospital for an hour to see if that will speed up my contractions. after my boring walk, they moved us to my labor room and this was now about 6am. i ate a light breakfast as this was probably the last meal i was going to have until after delivery. the walk didn't do anything to speed up my contractions so they started me on pitocin at probably 7am. several hours later...still no progress in my dilation. they increased my pitocin dosage and finally at about 2pm, i finally started to feel the contractions. haahaa. the nurse checked my dilation and i was only still at 2-3 cm!! seriously, that sucked! i decided i didn't want to be on the epidural this early, so they gave me a narcotic, fentanyl. it only relieved my pain for a few contractions but an hour later, i had to tell my nurse that the pain was increasing and embarrassingly admitted that it felt like i had bowel movement. she got excited and that was a sure sign that i was probably fully dilated. and she was correct - i was! amazing, at 2pm, i was still 2-3 cm dilated and an hour later, i was fully dilated! crazy.

so...it was time for the epidural. ummm...can i say, it was SO painful. what was suppose to be a 5 minute process lasted over 20 minutes for me!! apparently, the anesthesiologist said i have a VERY "strong back bone". he had to numb my back several different times and at different spots because he couldn't find the right location for the catheter. there was pressure each time he puts in the lidocaine and each time i felt it got more painful. after each numbed attempt, there was another needle attempt. s felt very helpless but he didn't even want to look since the needle is so disgustingly long. my poor nurse, i had to squeeze her hands each time. finally after the 5th attempt, the anesthesiologist was done and i was instantly pain-free. i just would have never imagined that the epidural ended up being one of the more painful processes during this entire labor.

shortly after the epidural, my blood pressure dropped dramatically and the babies heart rate dropped significantly as well to ~60! very dangerous. the nurse thought it was just the initial reaction to the epidural but had to inform my doctor. the nurse told us that if the pressure and heart rate does not increase, it might mean c-section. however, the doctor didn't agree and felt that it would be fine to deliver as planned.

okay, this is all i can muster for now ... the next chapter will be the delivery!

newest addition to our family...

2008-10-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

a.j.
october 20, 2008
5:49pm
7 pounds
20 inches

10 days to go...

2008-10-17T19:25:00.000-07:00

as my first week of maternity leave winds down, i just have to say...OH MY GOSH...i hope baby l comes out soon! i've exhausted almost all my errands and financially can not continue to go shopping everyday!! i mean, i don't think i could be working because i am uncomfortable and have a horrendous time sleeping but i am getting a bit restless.

at my doctor's appointment today, i'm still showing no dilation but slight softening of the cervix and he has dropped. labor is a crap shoot but it doesn't look too promising that baby l will be early. as my sister says, i guess he's just too comfortable in my tummy.

sundays = stress

2008-10-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

growing up in san francisco, i've always been a football fan; especially with the niners and their amazing dominance in the 80's. what has made football more enjoyable in recent years has been fantasy football. i used to only care about the niners but fantasy football really makes you put more research and attention into other teams and players.

as silly as it sounds, only after 6 weeks, this has been a very stressful season already. the strength in my team is build around my quarterback and 2 running backs. i don't have very strong wide receivers. however, i've been ridden with injuries very early on!! ummm... brian westbrook has been out for 2 games and willie parker has been out the last 3 weeks. now, romo has a broken pinkie and will be out for a month!!

if s and i don't have plans, we sit in front of the tv and separate computers on sundays and take turn staring at the games on fox and / or cbs and our computers for our scores. so silly we know. everyone says that this will most certainly change after the baby comes out so why not enjoy it now while we can! =)

i'm currently 3-2. wish me luck tonight...i'm down by 4 points and have toomer while my opponent has burress!

only pregnant picture you'll ever see...

2008-10-06T21:46:00.000-07:00

i'm only doing this because everyone says i need to take a picture of my pregnancy. i'm always saying that there's no way i'll forget how big i am but here it is!

37 weeks and 30 pounds later

shower pics...

2008-10-06T21:24:00.001-07:00

long overdue - here are some pictures from the shower that my sister hosted. it was an extremely HOT day and with a full house, it was quite toasty needless to say. it was great to see all my close girlfriends and ALL the babies!

an adorable diaper cake from my sister

another cute diaper cake from j and her hubby, g

my precious nephew

delicous cupcakes from sibby's in san mateo

check out all the babies!!

35 weeks ... 5 weeks to go!

2008-09-22T20:33:00.000-07:00

wow, i can't believe i only have 5 weeks left. well, actually i kind of can! i was feeling really good up until probably the start of the 8th month. that's when i really started to feel the "weight" of this pregnancy:

1) my feet and ankles are REALLY swollen. it's quite disgusting. my calves are just so big! on some days, i really feel the extra water weight on my calves / ankles. it hurts quite a bit to stand or walk and oddly, my right foot is much more swollen than my left foot. i thought i was fine in my wrist and hands until i realized that my watch was starting to get a bit snug on my wrist! oh my...

2) shortness of breath! when i'm presenting in meetings, i'm SO embarassed that i'm already out of breath after speaking for like a minute or two

3) exhaustion. s has to drive me home in the evenings after work because i need to nap in the car. even with 8 hours of sleep, i still get sleepy around 6:30pm

4) bathroom breaks. my expanding uterus is causing me to make more bathroom visits. the only good thing is that when i take up in the middle of the night (which is twice), i can easily go back to sleep

i guess these things are very typical of the final weeks of pregnancy so i'm lucky i don't have more issues. i have a doctor's appointment this saturday so we'll see if there are any updates to my due date!

good news...bad news

2008-08-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

so i had my 30 week appointment yesterday and umm...somehow gained 7 pounds in the last 3 weeks! the glucose test results were not back yet so with such a weight gain, i really did think i had gestational diabetes!

however, today, i found out that i'm in the clear! i passed my test and don't have diabetes after all. so i guess really, the 7 pound increase was just me letting go a bit more than i should have. haahaa. i do honestly think that i'm going to have a little sumo wrestler. i mean, i was almost 9 lbs when i was born and s was almost 10 lbs!!

the 3rd trimester symptoms are starting to creep up on me! =( i'm starting to get tired more easily; i find myself falling asleep on the couch in the evenings when it's only 9pm. i don't feel too bloated, my wedding and engagement rings still fit. however, if it's warm outside and i've been walking, my feet do swell quite a bit but look fine in the morning again. thankfully, sleeping continues to be fine. i usually get up just once to go to the bathroom but fall back asleep quite quickly (unless s is snoring very loudly and then it becomes a major annoyance and keeps me up a bit longer).

unbelievable monday morning at work...

2008-08-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

what happened to me today at work...my manager resigned over email on friday evening and didn't even give me 2 weeks notice!! let me start from the beginning...

about 3 months ago, he initiated a conversation with me that he wanted to work towards being a senior manager. then a month later, he decided he couldn't handle managing 3 people after all and he doesn't want to be in my group anymore...he wants to try a different group in our company. oh, AND he wants out as soon as possible - definitely before i go on maternity leave. however, there isn't anything available in our company that interests him and one of his employees quit because he wasn't a very supportive manager. so i guess being frustrated with the lack of progress in his job search and having to do more work since he's short a person, what does he decide to do??? JUST QUIT!

couldn't even tell me in person and give me 2 weeks notice. what a coward huh? friday afternoon, he drafts an email to my work email and resigns. and of course, the 1 weekend i don't check my email, i come in monday morning completely shocked. to make matters worse, monday mornings are the craziest for us as we have all these reports to run. so i have to do all these additional reports that i've never had to run before...it was a crazy morning to say the least. anyway...i survived the morning and just kept cranking away with other things that i had to do. so i'm still in a state of shock and now have to figure out what i'm going to do with my team and the workload by tomorrow morning...it's aways fun times at my job.

i failed...

2008-08-12T20:43:00.000-07:00

some disappointing news from the doctor...i failed my glucose screen! now, i have to take a 3 hour sugar test. i'm not looking forward to this as it means:

1) fasting for 12 hours before the test
2) blood will be taken before you drink the glucose solution
3) drinking more glucose solution
4) waiting an hour to draw a 2nd sample of blood
5) wait another hour for another sample
6) 4th sample of blood is taken in the 3rd hour
7) CAN'T eat anything during this time...so i'm starving for over 15 hours...

i was reading that only 1/3 of the women who test positive on the glucose screen actually have diabetes...so hopefully i'm part of the 2/3 that doesn't have it!

final trimester...here i am!

2008-08-04T20:14:00.000-07:00

it's home stretch now..today is the 1st day of my final trimester! the last 2 months have definitely been a different experience than my 1st 4 months! i'm feeling great and my energy level feels quite normal. i do admit that some things are getting a bit harder ...

1) bending down - i definitely have to remember to use my knees

2) getting up - sometimes when i wake up, i forget i'm pregnant and i get up a bit too fast for my own good

3) getting in and out of s' truck - seriously, i hate driving / riding in his truck; he needs to get some running boards

4) my walking speed - i've definitely slowed down in my walking pace. i used to be a speed walker but ummm...not so much anymore

on a bright note, i had my monthly check up and guess what??! i only gained 1 pound!! woohoo. now, i am back to average!

on a slacker note, s and i still need to sign up for our classes. with classes only offered once a month, we are definitely behind the eight-ball on this one!

baby registry rookie

2008-07-19T19:13:00.000-07:00

my sister suggested that i should set up my registry soon. since my sister was getting off work early on friday and she only works five minutes away from lullaby lane, i got off work early as well so we can set up the baby registry. it's only logical that my sister go with me because there's no point in registering for things that she's going to pass down to us. also, hubby is not partial to anything so he didn't really care to weigh in on any purchasing decisions. it turns out that my sister is going to give us quite a bit so i didn't have to register for too much. however, the selection at lullaby lane isn't as expansive as babies r us, so we'll still have to set up a registry there as well. i don't know how most first time parents set up their registry - there are so many options! i guess one can do research but with my sister, why would i need to!

not only did we set up one registry but we also found our crib! turns out that the warehouse has the color we want in stock so we can pick it up any day! perfect - no need to wait 12-15 weeks! however, we won't be picking it up any day soon since we still have several rooms in remodeling mode. registering was exhausting so i'm going to wait a couple of weeks before I tackle babies r us!

uh oh - too many lbs...

2008-07-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

so the inevitable happened - i got a lecture from my doctor =( after the 3rd straight month of gaining 6 pounds, my doctor finally inquired about my diet and exercise routine. well, obviously, i am not watching what i eat and there is no exercise routine! so she suggested i only eat 2 servings of fruit a day and cut down on my grains. oh yes, cut down on my sweets as well! she also encouraged walking so s and i will be doing that in the evenings now.

so my goal for my next appointment is to only gain 2 lbs! wish me luck.

baby continues to be very excited and active. heart rate was 159 bpm and is not shy. the doctor always finds the heart beat right away as he's kicking!

happy 4th!

2008-07-04T21:25:00.001-07:00

hope everyone is having a great relaxing 4th of july. i went to a giants game with some family members. we didn't stay too long since my nephew was with us. although it was nice to be outdoors and at the giants game, i felt so claustrophic! i was just surrounded by people and felt so paranoid about being pushed and jabbed; especially around the belly. after the game, we had dinner at r&g lounge in the city for my grandmother's birthday. i do have to say, r&g lounge is definitely the best chinese restaurant in the city (though it is pricey).

the c family

my crazy boys

i love this pic of my newphew - it's just such an innocent picture

my sis and i with our cutie

WORK = ARGHH

2008-07-02T20:14:00.000-07:00

i know work has been tough when every night this week, i've really really wanted a glass of wine to wind down the evenings...thank goodness we have friday off.

don't get me wrong, i still really enjoy my job. i am always learning and being challenged. i have a great relationship with my boss. my team has tons of potential; they just need to get acclimated to the business and more training. i just wish there were more hours in the day to get what i need done and spend the time with my team.

anyway, enough about work...

baby has been kicking up a storm. it's great to feel him move everyday. it makes me feel like someone is always with me; that i'm never alone. =)

boy names...why is it soo hard to come up with a boy name?? s and i are really struggling to come up with a list of names. granted, we haven't really spent a ton of time compiling our list but nothing really stands out to us. at least we have time on our hands...

classes - i've been procrastinating on researching which classes we need / should take but i guess i better get on that since most are only offered once a month and we need to take at least 3 classes!!

the BIG 3-0

2008-06-25T21:01:00.000-07:00

unlike most people, i really embraced the arrival of my 30th birthday. i feel like i'm growing and learning so much and as i get older; i am so much more confident about who i am and what i want out of life.

s and i went to tahoe this past weekend with my family to celebrate my birthday. we rented a cabin since we had my nephew with us. since my entire family LOVES to gamble, we just basically did that the entire weekend. of course, we took shifts to watch my nephew. well, my sister and her husband took shifts with my parents, i didn't really volunteer. =)

my biggest concern about being on the gambling floor was the smoking. however, there really wasn't a lot of smokers in tahoe. i think i only walked away from the tables twice when someone started smoking.so overall, it was not an issue although i'm sure the other gamblers were looking at me like i was a sicko who can't even stay away from gambling for 9 months. so baby has been to the casinos twice. the 1st time was when we were in memphis (didn't realize I was going to be pregnant that soon) and now tahoe. the dealers were making fun of me saying that this child will grow up to be gambler. well, what can i say, can't really discourage that since i'm basically one myself!

gas is out of control...

2008-06-11T20:57:00.000-07:00

yesterday morning, i got gas at $4.71 a gallon. this morning, i drove by the same gas station and the price had gone up $0.10 to $4.81. then umm...this evening on my way home, it had jumped up another 10 cents to $4.91! holy moly.

so i drive 50 miles a day (roundtrip) and fill up my tank almost every week. i also pay $275 a month for parking. gees --- that's $500 a month. =( however, driving gets my commute time to about 55 minutes a day. if i take bart, it takes 2 1/2 hours round trip but would only cost $236 a month. so i currently spend $25 a day to drive to work versus potentially spending only $12 on bart. so is the extra $13 worth the hour and a half of time that i save???

20 weeks later...half way there!

2008-06-10T20:44:00.000-07:00

i can't believe i'm in my 20th week. s and i went to our doctor's appointment today and i gained another 6 pounds. oops...at least i'm consistent right? hahaa. the baby was very active today just as he was last week at our ultrasound appointment. he was kicking his little heart out. =)

s and i bought the bedding for our nursery this past weekend so we can find the right paint color! of course it's not as easy as it sounds. we are currently living in what will be the nursery. we moved out of our bedroom into the spare bedroom to remodel our bathroon / bedroom. s finally finished the bathroom last week (ummm - 6 months past the original date)! now he has to repaint our bedroom and replace all the trim and then have someone come to put in some new carpet. then once we move back into our bedroom, we can start on the nursery!

IT'S A BOY!

2008-06-05T20:13:00.000-07:00

s and i had our 19 week ultrasound appointment yesterday. after making sure the baby was healthy and measuring all the important organs and body parts, the technician told us we are having a boy! s, of course, had to ask if that she was 100% sure and then she pointed out his lovely body part.

as we watched the technician check other things, our baby kept us entertained. our baby waved "hi" to us and at a different time gave us a knuckle sandwich. the 3-d picture wasn't very successful because baby was not very cooperative. he had his hand in front of his mouth / nose the entire time. i guess he was a bit camera shy =)

i'm going to treat myself this weekend for surviving the 1st half of my pregnancy...i'm going to bliss spa to get the maternity massage! =) then i think i'll indulge some more and go to coffee bean to get my favorite drink, an english breakfast latte! yummie.

i'm one of those...

2008-05-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

ridiculous parent-to-be who actually bought the bugaboo cameleon. i really tried to keep an open mind about other strollers but in the end, my heart was with the bugaboo. i've been eyeing the bugaboo for years but recently decided that i need to explore other brands.

there is a great baby store in the peninsula, lullaby lane, that everyone recommends as a good 1st trip to learn about baby products. they have great knowledgeable sales associates who walk people through various brands and how they are different from one another. i was able to convince s to come along because the store was featured on an episode of "ghost hunters" on the sci-fi channel (and yes, they concluded that there really are ghosts in the store).

it's still very very early for us to go shopping but i saw one color of the cameleon on sale on the website so we wanted to see if it was available in the store. umm...so when we got to the store, the power was out but they were still open!! talk about liability and shrink issues!! the power had been out for a couple of hours and it was the ONLY store without power (umm...the ghosts perhaps hahaa). the lack of power obviously didn't deter pregnant couples because the place was packed (as usual)! s and i spent over an hour just learning about strollers! it was really down to 3 brands, the cameleon, the quinny buzz and orbit. each stroller had different benefits that we liked but also other things that we weren't necessarily fond of. at the end of our tutorial we decided to go with the bugaboo and i know s is quite excited about our purchase as well.

17 weeks and counting...

2008-05-23T19:41:00.000-07:00

i've been feeling a little better. however, i did throw up earlier this week so i still get an occasional case of morning sickness and nausea. i'm sleeping okay. i wake up once in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom but fall back asleep right away. no issues with any back pain or sleeplessness YET. no cravings yet either. if anything, there are things that i don't want more than want. chocolate is definitely something i don't really care for.

regardless of whether we have a boy or girl, i've already decided our nursery theme! i've never wanted a pink nursery so if we have a girl, there is no way we are having a 'girlie' pink room. as much as i would love to have a sports theme if we have a boy, i don't think it's the most practical thing especially if we have another child down the road and it's the opposite sex. gap recently launched a nursery assortment. it's in select stores but everything is available online. i love love the baby safari bedding collection. steve likes it too. =)

well, only a week and a half until we find out whether it's a he or she!

2008-05-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

i had my 16 week appointment and things are fine - except that i gained 6 pounds! don't know how that happened when i'm still pretty nauseas. i guess i better get a bit more active.

so next month s and i have our ultrasound appointment to find out the sex of the baby. originally, i didn't want to find out the sex while s wants to so he can "plan" for it. however, i'm slowly changing my mind since everyone keeps asking and it's getting me more anxious! we have our theories as to why it's a girl or boy heehee.

why it's a girl:
1 - women with severe nausea are 50% more likely to have a girl
2 - my doctor told us that an old wives' myth is that a fast heart rate is a girl - our was 170 bpm at 12 weeks and 164 bpm at 16 weeks (normal is 140 - 160 bpm)

why it's a boy:
1 - the lau men family lineage is very male dominated. in his dad's generation, he is 1 of 6 siblings and there is only 1 girl. in s' generation, there are 8 cousins and his sister is the only girl
2 - it's still a bit early but i think i'm carrying low - which myth claims is a boy
3 - because the trusty chinese calendar says so ... hahaa

happy mother's day!

2008-05-11T19:10:00.000-07:00

s and i went to antioch yesterday to see his parents for mother's day and tonight my siblings and i took my parents to san mateo prime. former chefs at the house of prime rib first opened broadway prime in burlingame and just recently opened san mateo prime in downtown san mateo. the menu is almost identical to the house of prime rib but there are more side options in the 2 peninsula restaurants. as my pseudo-first mother's day, my wonderful nephew "got" me a mother's day card. it was very adorable...

this was actually a nice end to a weekend that started off pretty miserably. on friday, as i was driving home, i threw up in the car AS am driving down s101 in the far left lane!! can you imagine, here i am trying to get to the far right to get off the freeway, still driving 65 mph and barfing into a plastic bag on my lap. even though i had a plastic bag, when you are trying to look straight to drive, it's pretty difficult to vomit downward. so it actually projected straight out and hit my steering wheel and my thighs. it was just the most disgusting thing ever. i had to then stay in the car smelling everything for the next 1o minutes until i finally got home. SO gross.

my arduous first trimester

2008-05-03T20:13:00.000-07:00

some might read the title and think "wow, she is dramatic". however, i kid you not, it has definitely not been a walk in the park for me these last 10 weeks. for those that have been pregnant and didn't experience any typical first trimester symptoms, you are SO SO lucky. i have experienced almost every possible symptom these last two and half months. so let's start from the very beginning when i was still "normal" and had control of my body...

Week 5 - The Exciting Discovery!

s and i were actually in memphis when i thought i was pregnant. i'm a very regular gal so when i was a day late, i knew it! of course, since we were with my family, we had to wait a couple of days until we were back home to take a pregnancy test. the 2 pink lines showed up pretty immediately! the weird part is that you don't see the doctor until your eighth week so it's just a waiting game.

so what do people do after finding out your pregnant and the first doctor's appointment? i just started reading everything and anything online...what you should eat or not eat, feel or do. as much as i wanted to share with the world the exciting news, there is just so much risk in the first trimester, s and i didn't tell anyone except my sister. it was nice to have someone to confide in other than s. plus, since my sister was just pregnant last year, it was nice to hear her experiences and have someone that can help me with all my questions.

Week 7 - First Doctor's Appointment

after several weeks of being pregnant and a couple of vomiting incidents, we finally had our 1st doctor's appointment. all I wanted to know was that I was still pregnant. luckily, when we saw the baby on the screen, it was a little overwhelming (even though my doctor called the baby a blob). my official due date is october 27! after the doctor's appt, we told my parents and brother. we still didn't want to say anything to anyone until I was safely through the 1st trimester.

Week 8 - Ugh, Morning and Evening Sickness

the doctor mentioned eating crackers and drinking ginger ale to help alleviate my nausea. ummm...all useless. everyday, i threw up. first it was in the morning but then it also happened in the evenings. not only that but i was so tired. i normally get to work around 7:30am and stay until 6:30 - 7:00p. now, once it hit 5:00p, i got so tired! i did manage to leave a little earlier at 6ish but gosh, it was so hard to maintain my energy in the afternoons.

throwing up and being tired wasn't too surprising as it's discussed a lot as typical symptoms. what was really strange was that i really didn't want to drink water. i used to drink tons of water but oddly enough, i was barely drinking 2 cups of water a day. it was so weird - i just couldn't figure it out.

as i was starting to really feel "pregnant", my lovely husband was also leaving for china for 2 weeks...so I decided to stay with my parents to shorten my commute time and have someone around me. =)

Week 9 - Oh Dear, A Visit To The OB Triage

my morning throw ups aren't unusual, so i always still go to work. however, one day i threw up 2 more times at work in the morning. so really 3 times in 3 hours, was more than i can even handle, so i went home after lunch. i got home and just slept for the rest of the afternoon. by the time dinner came around, i had to eat something since i really hadn't been able to keep anything down all day. then guess what? after dinner, i threw up again. i knew i wasn't going to sleep it off or feel better in the morning so i called my doctor. she suggested i come into the hospital. my parents thought it was weird that i was going to the hospital; they thought i was just "weak".

after the urine sampling confirmed that i was dehydrated, they started me on an IV with glucose water and some anti-nausea medication. after 1 full bag of water, the nurses were surprised that i didn't have to go to the bathroom. that just meant that i was THAT dehydrated. so they started a 2nd bag of glucose water and during the 2nd bag, i swear i went to the bathroom like 5 times in half an hour.

i still wasn't feeling better so they gave me a 3rd bag of water! i mentioned to the nurse that not only was i not really eating but i wasn't drinking water as well. she then educated me that when you are nauseas, the last thing you want is water. it only makes you more nauseas. that was the most shocking thing i've heard --- don't drink water?!?! my mother even asked if she heard the nurse right when she said it! the nurse recommended drinking plenty of juice instead.

so my doctor suggested a couple of things to hopefully ease my nausea:
1) take vitamin b6 with half a tablet of unisom every night
2) eat crackers every morning before i get out of bed
3) wear "seabands"; these accupressure bands around your wrists

yes, did i also mention that i was very constipated (umm... 3 days of no bowel movement!!) and actually had a hemorrhoid as well! so needless to say, i was pretty miserable. however, after the visit to the hospital, i was feeling a bit better. i was still nauseas but at least i wasn't throwing up everyday.

Week 10 - Who Needs Sleep?

ummm...i haven't been drinking a lot of water so why do i have to get up twice every night to go pee!?! totally, don't get it. every night - like clock work i get up twice. the annoying thing is that hubby snores so when i get back into bed, i can't fall asleep right away because all i can focus on is his snoring!!! so frustrating!

but exciting new...i only threw up once this week! i'm still very exhausted; every night i sleep at 9pm. just as i was starting to feel a little better, hubby gets back into town. he has no idea what i've been through the last 2 weeks. he thinks i'm being dramatic and that my parents are enablers. huge argument ensues but we resolve it quickly...

Week 11 - Internal Struggle

one of the hardest parts about being pregnant has been the struggle of my independence (or lack there of). as my husband can attest to, i am fiercely independent and in control. now, i have no control of my body and it's difficult for me to accept that. i'm also very frustrated with how i don't feel like myself and can't focus at work because i'm so exhausted. maybe this is to prepare me in slowly transitioning to working less and finding a better balance but i don't like it.

although i have been quite sick, the only consolation is that the sicker i am, it means the healther the baby is! hormone levels are super high so although my body isn't adjusting to them well, the baby is hopefully developing well.

Week 12 - 170 BPM

i was worried that because i haven't had the healthiest appetite, i was losing weight. it was a relief to hear the doctor say i didn't gain or lose weight! during the 12 week visit, we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. it was a pretty cool experience. 170 bpm sounds fast but the doctor said that the baby's heartbeat does tend to be fast in the early stages; nothing out of the ordinary.

although i haven't gained any weight, i do feel my pants tightening. i have a couple of jeans that were big on me so those are definitely more comfortable to wear. oh dear, might be time to buy some maternity clothes.

on the home front, i do have to say that my hubby is now uber supportive. he basically does all the household chores. all the cooking and cleaning - it's amazing. i do try to do the dishes or tidy up every now and then but seriously, after work, i'm only up for an hour and need to unwind.

happy 4th anniversary...

2008-04-25T19:43:00.000-07:00

hubby and i had our 4th anniversary yesterday. 4 years married but we've known each other for 10 years now!! it's crazy - i've been with him for a third of my life. my sweet husband baked me a cake and got some pretty flowers for me. i am still feeling pretty crappy so we just ordered take out. no sense in spending the money at a nice restaurant when my body won't appreciate it!

no spring chicken...

2008-04-06T10:25:00.000-07:00

s and i went to slo for the day. i just love to be down there and to reminisce about our carefree days of college. we like going back there to see how things have evolved and changed in the downtown area and especially around campus. i do feel like the city has lost a bit of it's charm with all these mainstream retailers but it does still have such a great personality. but really, we just love to eat there. we, of course, had firestone for lunch. the tri tip sandwich and french fries are just as good as i remembered! i didn't quite have room for uptown yet so we just walked around downtown. there are quite a bit of higher end boutiques. who are their customers? how do students afford to shop there? while i was in the dressing room, i did hear someone say they can put something on lay-away!! wow...

after we were done with downtown, we checked into applefarm's. after a quick rest break, we went to splash cafe for dinner. i had the yummie clam clowder breadbowl =) and a garden salad ... i was starting to feel a bit guilty for my unhealthy diet. after dinner, we went to uptown for a caramello and then to the fremont to catch "21". while in line, i heard the lady behind the booth ask the kids in front of me if they are students. i thought, "sweet, i don't need to show any id for a student discount!" steve walked away because he clearly looks older and i seriously thought i could pass as a student. okay, maybe i didn't look 18 years old and maybe i do have a couple of greys but i totally thought i could still pass as a student. when i said "2 for 21", she didn't even ask me if i was a student!! i was so shocked. i mean, i still get carded a lot at the casinos and whenever anyone sees my id, they are shocked at how old i am. as s said, "what do you expect, you are turning 30 this year". hahaa, i guess that's true.

end of march already...

2008-03-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

i can't believe tomorrow is the last of march?! seriously, where does the time go? i've been keeping myself busy with march madness these last 2 weeks. my work bracket is pretty pathetic as i'm in last place but that's not the important one. the crucial one is one that my brother in law puts together - there's about 40 people and the pot is almost $1000! plus, there is a couple's side bet where the loser has to host dinner for the other 2 couples. i'm still in the middle of the pack but i have to carry my hubby's bad bracket!! go memphis tigers!!!

s is in china for 2 weeks so i've been staying with my parents. i feel like i'm 16 years old again. however, it's nice to only have a 10 minute commute, dinner ready when i get home and no house chores! s calls my parents enablers but i just call them caring parents hahaa.

southern hospitality...

2008-03-07T08:38:00.000-08:00

is really true. i've never been addressed "hon", "sweetie" or "miss" as many times as when i was in memphis. the funniest is when they call me "miss sue".

other than the frustrating flight getting to memphis, it was nice to take a couple of days off work and spend it with my family. so since we got in a day later than planned, we really only had 2 full days in memphis, monday and tuesday.

so on monday, we spent some time in downtown. we went to see the fed ex forum. it was all star weekend so we didn't get a chance to watch a grizzlies game. we walked around beale street and spent some time at the national civil rights museum.

it's pretty incredible that they built the museum around the actual motel that martin luther king jr was actually assasinated in.

i feel like whenever you see shots of memphis, they always have this sign

baby j and my sister with me in front of fed ex forum

on tuesday, we planned a trip to graceland. umm...who knew they closed on tuesdays for cleaning!! we were still able to walk around the mansion and through the garden.

we actually spent a day in tunica, mississippi doing what my family loves the most --- gambling!! it was nice that my parents got to do something during this trip that was fun for them hahaa. although i told hubby that being with my family just brings out the worse in me. i know it's sad and love my parents but they can so easily push my buttons!! they of course, don't realize it or intend to, but spending 24/7 with my parents for 5 days was just a bit too much for me. =)