ring bearer...

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!

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

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