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!
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.
A
ctually, it was yesterday, but that's okay. Happy Birthday, Rick!
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.
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.
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.
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.
...you're in my space!
Happy belated Fuddah's Day to all you fuddahs.
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.
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.
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.
To honor your mother, have some chirashi sushi!
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.
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!
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!
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...
The tree in our "yard" is beginning to bloom. The petals are falling like snow, covering the ground and covering our cars with pollen.
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.
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...
