Busy, busy, busy

We haven't blogged in awhile because, well, Emi-chan's kept us so busy, and Rick and I are so tired. Here are a few highlights of what she's been doing:

Emi-chan has started furniture cruising...

...began learning how to eat out of a bowl...

...helped Mama sort clothes...

...caught up on old episodes of "What Not To Wear"...


...and started training to become a geisha.

What a busy little girl.

Party!

Emi-chan was invited to her first birthday party. Of course, we let her go. Mama was the chaperon, and papa was the chauffeur. The party was for a little boy named Matthew. He just turned one. He's a happy little boy and so cute! We had a lot of fun. There was a lot of food, a lot of kids running around, a lot of socializing (Rick and I are still learning how to become social), and Emi-chan taking it all in and drooling on everything. She rode on her first Ride-Along (I think that what it's called). She liked it until she fell off.


Rick also hurt his back. He's doing better now. Thank God for good chiropractors and Salonpas.

After the party, we all went home and took a nice long nap.

Favorite Things Part 1

I've been browsing through Oprah Winfrey's Favorite Things shows. I'm impressed and inspired. Although I can't afford to give all of my readers (all 5 of you :D) an iPod Nano or a Burberry coat, but I can blog about my favorite things.


The first of my favorite things are chocolate bars from an organic food company. Recently, I bought Dagoba (yes, like in the planet Yoda lived on) milk chocolate and dark chocolate bars at Whole Foods. Usually I wouldn't buy these because they're so expensive, but they were on sale. I ate the milk chocolate one a couple of days ago and I was knocked out. It was so rich and dense. It was like eating dark chocolate. Rick is now eating the Eclipse bar. It has a real bite to it. He's loving it.

Stay tuned for more updates...

Milestones

Emi-chan recently reached a few important milestones! First is she started eating solids. She's still not quite sure if she likes rice cereal, but she likes sitting at the big table and "using" a utensil like mama and papa. We're also trying to get her to drink from a sippy cup, but she doesn't like the cup.



Emi-chan also had her first haircut. Her bangs kept getting in her eyes, so we asked Grandma to trim them for her. Emi-chan didn't like that. She kept fussing and wriggling. Grandma did her best with a wriggly baby. I'm happy with the results. Emi-chan's hair doesn't bother her, and she looks like Spock.


Emi-chan is now strong enough to sit up and her balance is relatively stable enough, so on a recent shopping trip, I put her in the shopping cart instead of hauling the car seat out and setting on the cart. She did pretty well, except she kept trying to lick the cart. Bleah!

Happy Birthday to Moi

Today is my 15th anniversary of my 25th birthday (do the math). Hooray! It was a pretty relaxing day. I got a b-day call from No-ah, and then Rick took me and Emi-chan to a Malaysian restaurant in Milpitas called Banana Leaf for lunch. It was so good! I was going to take pictures of the dishes we ordered, but they looked so good, we ate them up before I could take them :) I'd like to go back again.

Then, I went (with Emi-chan) to Whole Foods to buy some fruit and a piece of cake and walked out with a cart load of stuff. I was a little disappointed that they no longer carry my favorite cookies :( When I got home, I had a b-day message from Ms. Lily. Happy, happy.

Had leftovers for dinner, and Grandma and Grandpa called to sing "Happy Birthday" to me. Smiles :) Later on, Rick and I had some cake. It was dry. Half a smile.

All in all, I had a good day, except I'm still in a little bit of shock over turning double 20. I'll get used to it.

Busy, Busy

We've had a pretty hectic last few days. It started on Saturday. We made some food and took it down to Monterey to celebrate Unca Vince's birthday. Happy "29th" birthday Vince! It was a good time of hanging out, eating good food, and ragging on each other.


We played Family Feud, the DVD version, for about an hour before we figured out how to play it correctly. Maybe we should have read the instructions first. Rick and I had to leave early because it was getting close to Emi-chan's bedtime.


The next day, we took my Bro Jeff grocery shopping and then went to little Paulie's birthday party in Newark. Happy Birthday, big boy! There was tons of good food, oodles of cute kids, and best of all, Rick and I got to eat a whole meal without getting interrupted! Paulie's grandmother and then later on Auntie B held Emi-chan while we ate. Plus, we were able to catch up with a few people we haven't seen in awhile.


On Monday, I went to a Premier Jewelry show hosted by Auntie B's house. The demonstrator was a friend, JoAnn. It was fun looking at the jewelry she brought and at the catalog, but Emi-chan got fussy so I had to leave before I could place an order. So, on Tuesday, I went back to Auntie B's and had lunch with some friends, placed my order, and visited a bit.

On Wednesday, I took Gran Gran to the doctor. He said she's doing well considering she had surgery just a few weeks ago. Yeah!

Today, I went shopping for a couple of baby showers I'm going to in the next couple of weeks. Whew!

Happy Anniversary

Today is Rick and my third wedding anniversary! Yeah! It feels like 30, but in a good way. Seriously, it has been three very good years. It amazes me how much our lives have changed in a fairly short period of time. Five years ago, we were weird, geeky, timid single people. Now we are weird, geeky, timid married people trying to raise a baby not to be so weird, geeky, or timid.

Tonight, Grandma and Grandpa came up from Watsonville to help take care of Emi-chan. We took this opportunity to go out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary. We went to an awesome Middle Eastern restaurant called Dishdash. From the flat bread and dipping oil, to our entrees, everything was delicious. Rick had mashwi, charbroiled prawns and sea bass.

I had sambusak dajaj, chicken, almonds, and mushrooms baked in filo dough on a pool of spinach sauce. I really liked the sauce. They also gave us a complementary dessert called kenafeh. It's made of cheese, covered with shredded filo dough, and served with rosewater and pistachios. At first we were a little scared. Cheese as a dessert? What's rosewater? It turned out to be really, really tasty. It was nothing like what we expected. It was pleasantly sweet. The filo dough crunchy. The cheese faintly sweet and soft. We really enjoyed the dessert.

Later, we took a little walk through a street fair called Music and Market on Murphy Street, kind of like a farmers market with a concert, less food, and lots of crafts and artists. Apparently, the city of Sunnyvale has been sponsoring this event for six years and we just found out. Oh, well.

We had a very nice, low key, very enjoyable anniversary.

Today Is Your Birthday!

Actually, it was yesterday, but that's okay. Happy Birthday, Rick!

Gluttony

After a long night of binge drinking milkies, marathon readings of Star Wars novels and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and whooping it up with Mama, Papa, and Lamby, Emi-chan collapses in an exhausted slumber. Poor girl. She lost her toga.

Bonding

Here is Rick and Emi-chan spending some quality bonding time, doing something we like to do as a family: watching TV. I don't remember what they were watching. NOVA? Star Wars IV: New Hope? MythBusters? Monk?I know it wasn't Napoleon Dynamite or Miami Ink (that would be my TV time). We really need to break this bad habit. Sometimes, Emi-chan pays more attention to Dr. Phil than to me.

A New Friend

Emi-chan recently found my Sleepy-Time Hello Kitty (no, I didn't sleep with Kitty). She loves Kitty. She starts to squeal and flap her hands when she sees Kitty. Mostly she loves knawing on Kitty's feet and licking Kitty's night light. I am so proud of Emi-chan. Rick is not so sure. I don't think he wants to live with two HK maniacs. He's trying to foster in Emi-chan a love for NOVA programs and Star Wars novels. We'll see who wins.

My Avatar

I know, you came to see if we posted a new picture of Emi-chan. Instead, you got...what is this? I went to The Simpsons Movie website and created an avatar of myself (thanks Kimbocita).

Ain't I purty? Like my fashionable shoes? And how I tuck my shirt into my pants? Isn't my ducky shirt so cute? I think I kinda look like Milhouse. I also made one for Rick. I hope he likes it.

Hey Dad...

...you're in my space!

Fuddah's Day

Happy belated Fuddah's Day to all you fuddahs.

Day of Birthdays

A couple of weekends ago, we had to attend 2 birthday parties. It was a crazy day. One was for my mom in San Carlos, and the other was for Marlene in Monterey.

For my mom (Gran-Gran), we got her a St. Honore cake, basically a giant cream puff and whipped cream pie, and took her out for lunch. At first, we tried to get into Hotaru in San Mateo, but it was packed, like always. So, we went down a block to Masu.

At that restaurant, they have an all you can eat lunch buffet. What's different is that you place an order for what you'd like to eat, then they make it for you. It's a little slow, but fresh. Too bad Rick and I ate a huge breakfast. We could have gorged on $12 each. Gran-Gran and Bro Jeff didn't like that idea so they ordered off Masu's regular menu. Gran-Gran had chirashi sushi and Bro Jeff had kalbi.

Right after lunch, we jetted down to Monterey for Marlene's 50th Birthday bash. It was huge, Hawaiian, and cold. But it was a lot of fun. Lots of good food and good people. Rick got to catch up with people he hadn't seen in years. There were a lot of people from Day Camp days, when Marlene was the director and Rick and his friends were volunteers. There were former volunteers, and former day campers and their parents at the party. The youngest of the day campers are starting college soon. The oldest have careers and families. This made Rick, and a few others, feel old. We were having a good time hanging out when Emi-chan had enough people for the day and began crying, so we had to pack up and go home.


We were exhausted by the time we got home, but it was a good day.

Mmmm...

Today, I went to Beard Papa in Redwood City. It's like a Japanese Krispy Kreme, but instead of glazed donuts, you get cream puffs. And very good cream puffs. Like Krispy Kreme donuts, you have to eat the cream puffs immediately, or puffs get pretty gross. Like Krispy Kreme, Beard Papa can get pretty addicting.

The cream puffs are filled with either chocolate or vanilla custard, with a rotating flavor of the week. This week, it was pumpkin, but I wasn't interested in that flavor. Next week, it's coffee flavor. Yum! I might need to go back for a sample.

Memorial Day

Over Memorial Day weekend, Rick and I took my mom, my brother, and Emi-chan to my dad's niche at Skylawn Memorial Park (the cemetery).

It was a nice, breezy, sunny day on our side of the mountain, but as we got closer to Skylawn, we could see the fog rolling in and the wind kicking up. Once, we got to the top of the mountain, we realized that the cemetery's name was changed to Lifemark and the usual entrance we use was closed off. We took a detour which took us to a part of the cemetery we've never been to. We spent a few extra minutes driving around because we got lost. Good thing we went up in the late morning. At dusk, it would have been really creepy, with the fog curling around the graves.

Finally, we found dad's niche and spent a few moments to put some flowers by his name. It was very touching to see Emi-chan reaching for dad's name. I wish he survived long enough to hold her.

Happy Mother's Day

To honor your mother, have some chirashi sushi!

Squeaky Clean

Here is Emi-chan. She just had a bath. She is nice and clean. She no longer smells like old formula and dirty diapers. Her face is scrubbed and pink. Her hair is nice and fluffy. Then, after I put on a new onesie on her, she spit up all over herself. Oh well. Such is life.

Dim Summing

This is a quick post. This morning, I went and met some women at Sino at Santana Row for Lauren's bridal shower. Congrats Lauren! It was a small, intimate affair, but a lot of fun and good food. Sino is a fusion Americanized Chinese restaurant started by the same chef that started the Straits Restaurant chain. We went there for dim sum, but at this place, there is no carts that come around where you can take a peek at the food. You get a little check list of what they carry and you mark off what you'd like to eat. I prefer the carts, but the food was still pretty tasty. And a very nice, upscale place.

Vegetable Dumpling. Yum!

HELP...ME...

Yesterday, April 26, was Emi-chan's 2 month birthday. Happy Birthday! On her 2 month birthday, she had a doctor's appointment and got 4 immunization shots and one oral vaccination. It's been a roller coaster ride since.

Last night Emi-chan was miserable. She would whimper constantly. We could tell she would scream and cry if she could, but was too weak from the shots. She was so listless and pathetic looking. Kawaiso. Papa and I felt so sad for her. Emi-chan had a slight fever so we gave her baby Tylenol so she slept soundly most of the rest of the night.

Today, she was fine during the day. She slept most of the day, but when she was awake, Emi-chan was alert and mostly in a good mood. So I thought. After we got home from visiting Gran-Gran, she turned into the Howling Scratching Monster of Sunnyvale. Papa and I are in fear of this monster we call our daughter. What happened? Where did our poor little girl go? Was she switched with a changeling? Aaagh! When will we be able to sleep! Help me!

A Conversation with Blue

Emi-chan: Boy, Blue, I had a really rough day today.
Blue: Oh, yeah? What did you do?
E: I had 8 bottles today, 6 of them the yukky formula. I had 10 diaper changes. I pooed on Papa once and peed on Mama twice. Then I let my diaper leak. Oh yeah, I screamed at the top of my lungs for half an hour every 2 hours...
B: Why did ya scream?
E: I don't know. Just bored. Then I spat up 2 times in a row. I made Mama change my clothes 3 times. I think she was mad. Then, to get back at me, Mama and Papa made me take a bath.
B: Oh no!
E: Yeah! What's worse, they washed my hair! It was awful.
B: Wow. Made my day look tame.
E: What did you do?
B: Sat at the bottom of the toy box until your Mama picked me up.
E: That's not too bad.
B: Yeah, but what made it bad was Lamby was sitting on my head for most of the day.
E: That's a bummer.
B: Yeah...

First Day of Spring

The tree in our "yard" is beginning to bloom. The petals are falling like snow, covering the ground and covering our cars with pollen.

Emi's Posse

Here's a picture with Emi and her first friends. As you can see, she's really relaxed around them. Clockwise from the top, is Lamby, Crabby, Mi Amigo the Bear, Miffy, Ensign Bear-Bear of Star Fleet Command, and sitting on Emi's lap, is Raichu, who is related somehow to Pikachu.

Happy Girl's Day

Well, I know, we're a little late. Girl's Day, or Ohina Matsuri, is on March 3. We're a little behind. I hope it was a fun day for all the little girls.


Baby pictures on it's way...

Welcome Emily!

After a long wait, here is the wonderful Baby Emily Michika! She was born on February 26 at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford after a 3 hour labor that someone described as "awesome." I don't know whether it was awesome or not, but I do know it was quite painful and caught everybody, including the doctors, by surprise. We were expecting for me to be waiting and in labor for at least half a day because I had to be induced. Well, I didn't make it that far. Emi-chan decided she wanted out NOW.


Once my water broke and the contractions started, all I remember is that there was a lot of action. Nurses running in and out of the room, my OB, Dr. S, rushing in ordering people around, the anesthesiologist informing me about the dangers of epidural (spinal cord damage, etc.). To make things even more interesting, after an hour or so of pushing and nothing happening, the doctor decided to use the vacuum to get her out. Guess what? It didn't work. She was still stuck. So, he had to use the dreaded forceps and she popped out.


Emi-chan came out screaming, and screaming, and screaming at the top of her lungs and wouldn't stop. Once the nurses handed her to me, 3 thoughts hit me immediately. First thought: how much I loved a person that I just met. She was the perfect gift from God and a part of me and Rick. The second thought: she had a BIG head. No wonder Dr. S had to use forceps. Third thought: she's hairy. Just like mama and papa. But, she's so beautiful.


After almost 2 weeks, I'm still healing from the birth, and Rick and I are still learning how to care for Emi-chan. We're delirious from the lack of sleep and we can't keep dates straight, but we wouldn't give up being parent's to little Emily.

Waiting...

I was supposed to go in tonight for induction, but postponed it until tomorrow morning because of my rotten cold. So, tonight, I get to sleep at home and wait. I guess it's for the best. Although I'm not as congested, my cough did get worse. So bad that I pulled a couple of muscles coughing this morning. Oh, well. I'd rather wait at home than at the hospital.

Baby's friends are waiting, too.

Hawaii Friday

On this chilly Friday, I waxed nostalgic about our past Hawaii vacations. Here is a picture of Rick learning how to surf at Waikiki Beach.


He had a blast and I was really proud of him. Hopefully, we can go again soon, after the baby is born.

Baby is due in 2 days.

Sick Day

I was going to blog a little more, but I got sick. I caught a bad cold. Darn! I'm pretty miserable. Baby is kicking up a storm. My body is achy. I can't breathe. I have sinus headaches and face aches. I'm dragging. I feel like I weigh 2 tons. I was so healthy until now. I'm mad at myself.

Baby is due in 3 days.

Baby Shower #3

This past Friday, Rick's co-workers threw us a baby shower. I didn't know what to expect. Was there going to be 5 guys? 20? Food? A deli platter? Will I feel comfortable with people I don't know at all? What kind of shower can a bunch of electrical engineers throw?

It turned out to be a very well attended shower with lots and lots of food. There were about 35 people, mostly men. Some of the women who work there helped pull the shower together, so I didn't have to worry. There was all kinds of food. Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, roast chicken, salads, soups, cakes, etc., etc. There were 3 different cakes.

One was the official baby shower cake...

and the other was the joke cake...

Rick's co-workers also gave us a lot of gifts, one which will help us get a head start on baby's college fund. We also got a diaper warmer, a beautiful quilt, and a cute little robe.

Here's a few more pictures from the shower:


...and here we are showing people "who's the boss" in our family :)
We both had a lot of fun at the shower. It was nice to see how much Rick is liked and appreciated at his work place. We felt so special.

I know I'm going backwards, I'll try to post a little about the other two baby showers before the baby comes.

Baby is due in 6 days!

Baby Mozart?

...No! It's Bruddah IZ!


When I first learned that I was pregnant, I decided to listen to classical music as much as possible because I had heard that it was very good for the development of the baby's brain. I thought, no problem. I like classical music. I'll enjoy it just as much as baby. So from the time I was 2 1/2 months pregnant, I listened almost exclusively to the classic composers: Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorak, Ravel, etc. The radio in my car was set on the classical station, much to Rick's annoyance. I reveled in the "1812 Overture" and "the William Tell Overture". "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" calmed me down during traffic jams. Baby seemed to react whenever Mozart's "Jupiter" was played.

Then, about a month ago, I just had it. No more classics! I'm tired of Bach! Out of my way Debussy! I'm sick of Mendelssohn! I want something different! So, I've gone off my classical kick and I'm listening to whatever I want. James Blount. U2. Old school rap like Run DMC. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole is constantly playing in my car. I'm enjoying myself right now, although I wonder what baby is thinking when Rick and I break out in "Who's house? Run's House!" while driving to church. Will she be scarred for life for listening to Prince's "Kiss?" What about "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" by U2? Will she have a skewed view of love from "Every Breath You Take" by the Police? I guess it's too early to worry. I'll just kick back, relax, and dream to IZ's "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."

I'm due in 9 more days!

Happy Valentine's Day

Rick and I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day, spending it with loved ones and eating lots and lots of chocolates.

Update: Baby is due in 11 days!

Ono Grinds In San Mateo

On Sunday, Rick and I took a break from going to church (oops) and took my mom and my brother up to San Mateo to run some errands and to have lunch. Mom and bro wanted Chinese food. I didn't. We went our separate ways. They went to Hakka, a cheap and greasy Chinese restaurant (or as my dad would have called it, China-meshiya). Rick and I went to Ono Grill across the street.

Ono Grill is the second Hawaiian restaurant that opened in Downtown San Mateo, and it's down the street from L & L. I think it's the better of the two. Ono Grill tastes less like styrofoam compared to L & L.

Although I had visions of Loco Moco and kahlua pork dancing in my head, in reality, I wasn't very hungry, and neither was Rick. So, we decided to split a chicken katsu curry rice plate. I was just right. There was enough rice and chicken katsu for both of us, although I wished there was more potato mac salad :) All in all, it was a very satisfying lunch.

We're Baaack

We're finally back from a long hiatus. No, we didn't get abducted by aliens, or fall into a crevice on a mountain, or finally got sick of living the suburban life and ran off to join the circus, only to find we really like living the suburban life. Something much more exciting happened to Rick and myself. We got pregnant! Or at least I did. Still, very exciting and mind boggling.


A lot happened during the past few months which kept us from blogging. I spent the first trimester slightly seasick. I couldn't look at a computer screen for more than 2 to 5 minutes at a time before I became queasy. Finally, when I phased out of the morning sickness stage, my mother and brother were pretty much evicted from the home they were living in for 35 years, and Rick and I had to scramble to find a new home for them. Fortunately, Rick's family had a home they wanted to rent out, so my family moved in. Phew! Then, during the middle of the move, my mother collapsed with pulmonary edema (water in the lungs), and had to be hospitalized. Then the holidays hit. Then I quit my job. Then I realized I was 7 months pregnant and NOT READY for the baby. Rick and I have been busy the past month and a half trying to catch up. We can only hope for the best because I'm now 8 and a half months pregnant and still taking classes, trying to fit a car seat into my car, and filling out paperwork. We're still busy, but finally enjoying the pregnancy and preparing for the baby. Finally!