aj turns 2

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

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

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

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...

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

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...

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

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

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

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