Happy Halloween

Despite not being able to quite say "trick or treat" yet, baby K enjoyed going around the block to collect candy. We didn't head out until after 4:00pm, but were still the first trick or treaters our neighbors had seen all day. Here's a picture of our cutie pie in her tiger costume:

Here's what baby K decided to do with the bucket she used to hold her Halloween candy in after she dumped all the sweets on the couch. Our little dancer looked like she was on a sugar rush... and we didn't even give her any candy!

Eating Out

We don't really eat out much anymore... at least not since we've had baby K. It's asking for too much with an active toddler to go into a restaurant and expect her to behave (or in our case, eat) for the duration of a meal. With that being said, we did end up going out to eat tonight.

Earlier today, we went to the Jersey Shore Premium Outlets to drop off our damaged luggage bags at the Samsonite store to be mailed out for repair (another story for another time). The rest of our shopping trip (if you can even call it that) entailed walking outside the entire time with baby K pushing her stroller. Every time we stepped into a store, she'd start screaming bloody murder. At one point, she was strapped in her stroller, so I ignored the ranting and raving as I continued to shop (I'm sure other customers in the store were disturbed by the crying and were labeling me as a horrible mother). Baby K did get her way though, since we soon left the store, only for me to see her smile that evil grin once we got outside. M and I ended up taking turns going into stores, but our shopping experience was less than pleasant (or successful) with an antsy toddler in our hands.

Baby K didn't have much to eat for snack, so we thought she'd be hungry during dinner. We went to a diner near home, but much to our dismay, she refused to eat. The one thing I do have to give her credit for was that she kept herself busy with the sugar packets on the table, allowing M and me some peace and quiet to chow down our food. When we got home, we heated up some leftover pasta for baby K, and of course, she ate it. Maybe she's not used to it, but the few times we've been away from home, we've learned that she doesn't do well eating out. I guess I should be thankful since it's saving us money.

2010 Harvest Festival

We had a great time at the Harvest Festival with baby K's daycare this year. The added bonus was that M got to come and enjoy it with us. We had baby K dressed up as a tiger (it was the first costume we got her to try on at Macy's without putting up a fight), and to my pleasant surprise, she was the only toddler tiger this year (I still remember last year, every other baby was dressed up as a ladybug and it took me a while to find mine). Baby K loved being in the costume, but was sweating bullets since it was so warm out (what's with this crazy weather!?). I'm looking forward to dressing her up again on Sunday, when we go trick or treating in the neighborhood to collect some candy for mommy and daddy!

Happy Halloween!

Sesame Street Characters

It comes as no surprise to us that Elmo is baby K's favorite Sesame Street character (Elmo is probably every child's favorite). Next on the list are Abby, Zoe, and oddly enough, Oscar. Add Bert and Ernie to the list, and that's about all the Sesame Street characters baby K can say. Grover and Cookie Monster are non-existent in her vocabulary, and while she knows who Big Bird is (i.e., can easily point to the big yellow fluffy bird when I ask her where's Big Bird), she can't seem to say his name (which is strange to me since I thought that was one of the easier characters to pronounce -- at least easier than Oscar!). What comes out of her mouth is "Peter" instead (not sure how she got "Peter" out of "Big Bird" since the two sound nothing alike, but at least she has her uncle's name nailed down). Unfortunately, I'm sure if she sees her Uncle P, she won't be so cooperative to address him by name or salutation. In the meantime, I'm still working on getting her to say Big Bird. Hmm... maybe the trick is to teach her "Peter" and she may end up saying "Big Bird" instead. Yes... I think I'll try that next.

Baby K's Latest...

M and I are really enjoying our moments with baby K nowadays. She's gotten a lot more talkative (at least around us), even though we still can't understand half the things she says. Here are some of the things she's been doing recently:

• When she's in the bathroom brushing her teeth and either M or I are not in there with her, she would yell on top of her lungs "MA-EEEE BRUSHIE" (or "DA-EEEE BRUSHIE" if it's M that's missing) while pointing at our toothbrush, and she would keep it up until we showed up to the bathroom, picked up the toothbrush, and started brushing our teeth. It's not enough for her to have one parent with her; she needs both of us. [Side note: For those of you who don't know, baby K calls me "MA-EEEE" instead of MOMMY and she refers to M as "DA-EEEE" instead of DADDY.]
• She is very good at cleaning up. When she's finished playing with a toy or using her crayons, she puts it back where she found them without being told.
• When we are going down the stairs at home, she purposely reaches up to the light switch to turn off the light once we get to the last step (helping us save on the electricity bill - that's my girl!).
• When she wants to watch her Veggie Tales or Elmo DVD (and if we allow her to), she would take the DVD out of the case, bring us the empty case and all the correct remote controls we'd need, and wait for us to turn on the player and press "open," so that she can slip the DVD into the machine. [Side note: Yes, as parents we have ultimately broken the "no TV" rule, but her tube entertainment is limited to no more than 20 minutes a day, and she does not get to watch it every day.]
• She can almost sing the entire A-B-C song, though she does not perform on demand.
• When I have her count from 1-10 in Chinese, she would automatically skip to the next number instead of repeating the same number after me.
• She will say "BLESS YOU!" when she hears someone sneeze.
• When I drop her off at daycare, she would point to every single one of her classmates and say their name.
• She has started to let me cut her nails. What a treat! I no longer have to do it in the dark when she's sleeping while holding a flashlight (trust me, it's not easy!). Now the next step is for her to let me cut her bangs.
• She started to wipe her nose with a tissue by herself when it's runny, and would throw the dirty tissue away without being asked when she's done with it.
• She can use the mouse to scroll up and down when watching her Elmo videos on youtube.
• She loves grabbing the phone receiver to the fax machine in the office and speaking to it. We only understand the first word, "hello?" (with a silent "h"), then everything after that is foreign to us.

The one milestone we haven't been able to meet yet is potty training. Baby K hasn't been interested, so we haven't pushed her. She does tell us when she has to poop (and sometimes when she has to pee), but just refuses to do it sitting down. There have been a few times where she was willing to go up to the bathroom and sit in her potty chair, but nothing comes out and she ends up spending half an hour in the bathroom playing. Even the prospect of flushing the toilet (which she loves) is not enough incentive for her to go potty in the chair. For now, we're just trying to be patient and follow her timing on when she'll be ready.

Tissue

Sometimes I feel like baby K is growing up way too fast and we don't give her enough credit for all the things she knows. Tonight she was having a cup of milk before bedtime. Unbeknownst to M and me, she had spilled some on her chair. She walked over to me and asked for a tissue. I thought she wanted to play with it (as she often tends to do), so I said no. She didn't complain, but went back over to the chair and just stared. It was only then that I saw the spilled milk on the leather. I grabbed some tissue and cleaned up the mess. A few minutes later, some more milk spilled (baby K kept tilting her sippy cup over on the chair). This time, she walked over to the tissue box (not a word to me), stood on tippy toes, and tried to grab a tissue despite the fact that it was out of her reach. As much entertainment as it was providing me, I couldn't bare to see her struggle, so I handed her the Kleenex. She went back over to the chair and wiped up the mess herself. I couldn't help but laugh while watching my little independent girl in action. Maybe next time she will be able to tell me that she spilled milk on her chair instead of just saying "tissue."

California Trip

Our recent trip to Los Angeles and San Francisco was stressful and tiring, to say the least. It's been a few days since we've been back, but I am still in need of much sleep. I can't even blame my exhaustion on jet lag, since the three-hour time difference doesn't usually have an impact on me. Now why was this trip so stressful and tiring, you may ask? Well, let me start from the beginning...

Friday, 9/17/2010
We were already off to a bad start in the wee hours of the night when baby K woke up crying incessantly. We brought her back to bed with us, but even being near us didn't bring any comfort to her. Our poor girl was so exhausted that she finally went to sleep when the sun came out. We suspected she had an ear infection (since that's typically the only time she would react in such a way), and made an appointment with her pediatrician as soon as they opened Friday morning. We were scheduled to head to the airport mid-morning and I ended up changing our car service pick-up time for a half hour later. The visit to the doctors proved to be uneventful; despite our concerns, baby K was given a clean bill of health and cleared to fly (in retrospect, that may not have been the best decision).

Throughout the flight to Los Angeles, baby K was not a happy camper. We gave her some Tylenol to calm her down, but the worst came during the landing, when her crying started up again and didn't stop until we were safely on the ground (which makes us wonder if the pediatrician was wrong about her ear infection). She didn't eat anything that morning, nothing during the flight, and skipped dinner that night. At least she was still willing to drink water and milk. Friday night marked the second night of no sleep.

Saturday, 9/18/2010
We went out to San Gabriel for dim sum with my grandfather, my parents, and a few of my aunts and uncles in the morning. Baby K refused to eat or sit still at the restaurant. M and I had to take turns bringing her outside. That evening was my cousin KT's wedding, so we drove back to Claremont (to my aunt and uncle's place, where we were staying) to get ready. The wedding was held at Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa in the mountains 5,106 feet above sea level. We got there early and explored the complex. Great view, but not many (or rather, any) photo ops since baby K was too cranky to cooperate. About 15 minutes before the ceremony was to start, baby K started feeling extremely warm. Fortunately, there was a supermarket not far from the resort, so we took a quick walk there to pick up some Ibuprofen. By the time the ceremony was over, the medicine had fully kicked in, resulting in baby K running rampant during cocktail hour. She refused to eat anything during dinner time and eventually crashed in M's arms despite the loud music blaring over the speakers. Unfortunately, she wasn't tired enough to sleep through the night and still kept waking up crying, making this night #3 of no sleep.

Sunday, 9/19/2010
We went out early that morning with baby K and drove to Starbucks in hopes that getting a pumpkin bread or blueberry scone would entice her to eat (she usually loves that stuff). Of course, it didn't work and baby K just got more cranky when we tried to force-feed her. We drove around the neighborhood and baby K eventually fell asleep. When she woke up, we were parked in front of CVS (waiting for the Minute Clinic to open up at 10am). We still had time to kill, so we went inside and walked up and down all the aisles. It was heart-wrenching looking at baby K; she didn't even crack a smile when we showed her Elmo stickers. We ended up getting her a Dora the Explorer toy since that was the only thing she seemed remotely interested in.

The nurse at the Minute Clinic checked baby K's ears and said she could have an onset of an ear infection, but it was hard to tell since she had been crying so much. Since we were traveling, she prescribed baby K some antibiotics just to be on the safe side. After the visit to CVS, we went back to my aunt and uncle's place and just hung out there for the rest of the day. Baby K got her much needed uninterrupted nap in the afternoon and slept for almost three hours. We then took a short drive to Trader Joe's and I picked up some pasta to cook for her that night. I was so thrilled that she ate it; her first meal in three days! However, this still ended up being night #4 of no sleep.

Monday, 9/20/2010
With baby K being sick, M and I explored all the possibilities of changing our flight to San Francisco (we were scheduled to fly out Monday afternoon). Some of the options considered were: canceling the leg from LA to SF and renting a car to drive to SF instead; changing our SF flight from Monday to Tuesday or even Wednesday; staying in LA the rest of the week and flying home from LA on Saturday; or flying home immediately. With any change in our itinerary, it would've meant an automatic $300 change fee right off the bat, plus any difference in airfare (and subject to availability of the flight). I called up Continental Airlines and priced out some of our options. Even taking the $300 out of consideration, none of the options we had were very viable. We ended up sticking to our original plan and flew to SF that evening. Baby K didn't do well on the flight, but I suppose I wouldn't either if I was burning up with a fever that wouldn't go away.

We stayed at my friend MC's place during our stint in SF. This new environment meant more unrest coming from baby K and night #5 of no sleep.

Tuesday, 9/21/2010
We took the BART out to San Francisco and ventured off to Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, and Chinatown. Baby K was still feverish and cranky, but there was some slight improvement from the past few days. We went to an Italian restaurant for lunch at Pier 39 (since pasta was the only thing we know she'd eat), and she actually had an appetite for food. Progress made, but still night #6 of no sleep.

Wednesday, 9/22/2010
We visited the California Academy of Sciences at the Golden Gate Park (which, despite the name, is not at all close to the Golden Gate Bridge!). It was a bit of a waste since we went thinking it was a child-friendly place for baby K, but she ended up napping the majority of the time we were there. By the time she woke up, we had already gone through all the exhibits and it was time to leave already.

Wednesday was probably the turning point of the trip where baby K was back to her usual self. Night-time sleep was dramatically better... I believe she only woke up twice in the middle of the night.

Thursday, 9/23/2010
We got off to a late start that morning and didn't leave Concord (where we were staying) until close to noon. We made a trip back to Fisherman's Wharf and had lunch at In-N-Out Burger (can't pay a visit to CA without going to In-N-Out!). M and I committed a big no-no... we let baby K eat fries! After days of inconsistent meals and barely having anything in her stomach, I was just happy that my little girl was willing to eat!

We had hopes of visiting the Golden Gate bridge after lunch, but baby K fell asleep and we didn't want to risk waking her up by taking her out of the stroller when we boarded the bus, so we ended up walking around Fisherman's Wharf, back to the Embarcadero BART station, and all the way to Chinatown.

Friday, 9/24/2010
We made it to the Golden Gate bridge in the morning, stayed long enough to take a few pictures, then rushed to Pier 33 to make it in time for our boat ride to Alcatraz. Baby K gave daddy a hard time while we were in Alcatraz, running around the island and refusing to listen to him. M got mad, but I was so happy to see my little girl back to normal that her rambunctious behavior merely put a smile on my face.

Saturday, 9/25/2010
We had an early morning flight out of San Francisco. EC drove us to the BART station and we got there so early that the station wasn't even open yet. I panicked for a brief minute when I saw the gates down, thinking we wouldn't get to the airport in time (we were already cutting it close; any unexpected delays would have resulted in us missing our flight). Fortunately, someone came and lifted the gates soon after. It turned out we didn't have anything to worry about anyway, since our flight was delayed by an hour.

There must've been some miscommunication at the airport. During check-in, we were told that our flight was delayed by three hours. As a result, we received $12 in vouchers to use at the airport for our inconvenience. When we got to the gate, the staff there said they knew nothing about the delay being three hours. By the time we got breakfast, fed baby K, and enjoyed our lattes (courtesy of Continental Airlines), it was time to board already. I even had to rush to change baby K's diaper. Timing worked out great, and the flight back worked out even better. Baby K slept for four hours straight and when she woke up, she was happy and playful. I wish all flights can be just as smooth.

In Closing...
I was originally thinking of hitting Asia for our next trip, but after what we just went through in the west coast, I am having doubts and reconsidering. Regardless of where we go, we'll have to invest in travel insurance going forward.

US Open 2010

Our trip to the US Open this year was one of many pleasant surprises. Thanks to my friend SW, I ended up being a grand prize winner of $1,000 from Chase. (I wouldn't have won if it weren't for her, so the prize money will be split.) We also got free passes to go into the Chase lounge to enjoy some free drinks and refreshments (and to allow some peace and quiet for baby K while she took a nap). Of course, the t-shirt and ball M got autographed by Mary Joe Fernandez at SmashZone weren't too shabby either. We definitely made out better this year than any other time we've been to the US Open. How ironic that earlier that morning, M and I were just talking about what we can do to maximize our trip and make the most of the expensive ticket prices and parking fees.

I was disappointed that we didn't get to see any of the women's semi-final matches. I had expected them to be staggered a day apart as they have been since the beginning of the tournament (so I thought we'd be able to catch Wozniacki vs. Zvonareva), but apparently all the women semi-finalists were given the day off and they didn't play until the next day. We only caught the end of the women's doubles semi-finals and part of the mixed doubles finals at Arthur Ashe stadium. The men's quarter-finals started in the late afternoon (Youzhny vs. Wawrinka) but by that time, baby K was fast asleep in her stroller. Nevertheless, we had a good time and I am looking forward to returning next year. I'll have to plan the trip with SW again... maybe this is a new tradition we can start.