Soup Baby

Sarah is a soup baby.  She loves to drink soup. She loves all sorts of soup and she drinks them out of the bowl.  She doesn't care if the bowl is hot or whether the soup will burn her tongue or not.  She finishes all you are willing to give her.  She has been practicing drinking liquids from an open cup at daycare, so she's putting her learned skill to good use.

Pear Tree Greetings

I don't normally vouch for a company anywhere, but I have to do so for Pear Tree Greetings!  They are a personalized stationery online store where you can order Birth Announcements to Holiday cards to stickers.  They offer super cute designs at reasonable prices.  Best yet is that they have EXCELLENT customer service. In fact, I ordered both last year's Christmas cards and Sarah's 1st birthday invitations from this company and I am 100% satisfied each time!! That is why, this year for our holiday cards, without browsing any other online site, I went straight to Pear Tree Greetings.  It did not take long for me to find a design that I liked.  So I uploaded the picture & sent it to print. Done!

However, when I got my cards yesterday via Fed-Ex, I was disappointed. The picture turned out darker than what I thought and wanted.  :-(   I was not happy with the cards.  With Pear Tree Greetings, your satisfaction is guaranteed, so I logged onto their website and connected with their Live Chat person.  A customer service rep named Kimberly responded immediately and I told them my situation.  Kimberly told me to send her a "lighten" picture and she would reprint the cards for me, for FREE!!  I was so happy that I have a second chance with my cards, even though it was obviously my fault for uploading the dark picture in the first place. The cards will ship in 2 days! Wow! Can't wait to see them!

I am so pleased with Pear Tree Greetings' customer service that I am spreading the word out to my fellow readers.  They are great!!  They are reasonably priced, have cute designs, and shipping is super fast!  You won't be disappointed!    

  

Gilroy Gardens

SQ bought some discounted Gilroy Gardens tickets from Plum District a while ago and they were expiring this weekend.  So we went this past Saturday and brought along my 12-year old niece with us.  We couldn't ask for better weather to be in Gilroy.  It was partly sunny with temperature in the mid-60's.  It definitely made walking around the park very pleasant.  We got there around 11:30 and went out a few rides.  Sarah didn't nap so she was kinda cranky.  She didn't even enjoy her usual merry-go-around ride. This park is perfect for young kids - most of the rides are tailored primarily for the 2.5 to 7 age group.  Sarah is probably still a bit young to enjoy the rides and my niece a little too old - but I think we all had a great day regardless.

Sarah - obviously NOT enjoying her ride

A visit from Charlie Brown and friends

I am glad that my niece enjoyed her time there despite the fact that most of the rides were "kiddie rides."  She and SQ got on some of the more "thrilling" rides and had a lot of fun.  We don't see her often, so it was nice to spend some time with her there.

Flying!!

We completed our day at Gilroy Gardens with a train ride around the park.  It started to get chilly so we decided to end our day a little earlier at 4:45pm to beat the parking lot traffic.  We all really enjoyed the day out in Gilroy... a bit far from SF, but it was nice to get out of the City once in a while. When Sarah gets a little bit older in a few months, we will surely come back again.     

          

Happy Turkey Day!!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!!!!  I feel very blessed this Thanksgiving.  I am thankful:

• for the world's most supportive family, loving husband and adorable daughter!
• for my house and my bed to keep me warm at night
• for my health so I am able to do and see the things I love
• for my company because I still have a job that pays well 
• for my friends who I can always share a laugh with
• for world peace

*Sorry for the grainy picture. We were checking out the webcam.  A nice (and rare) picture with all of us smiling at the camera at the same time. 

CF's birthday

This past Saturday, Sarah attended her little friend, CF's 2nd birthday party.  Sarah always enter the room with a great deal of shyness.  She is clingy, refuses to look at anyone, and loves to bury her face into our legs.  Over time, we learn to accept the fact that she needs time to warm up in a new environment.  Food always seems to help warm her up. We distract her by giving her food.  Then after a bit, she becomes herself again, playing with toys and walking around everywhere.  

CF celebrated her 2nd birthday early and we had a nice gathering among the kids' parents.  It seems like all the kids grew taller since I last saw them, which was not too long ago! They grow up so fast!  Here is an attempt to get as many kids looking the same way as we can.  I have to admit I didn't take this picture.  Despite multiple clicks on the SLR, my pictures had the kids looking in all sorts of directions... 

Tobisha Ultrabook

hehehe... either SQ saw my post or maybe the layer of dust settling on top of the eepad gave him a clue that I wasn't using the tablet much. Today, I got an early Christmas gift, the Tobisha Ultrabook!!

Again, I can save you all the specs but so far it is GREAT!!!  It's super thin and weigh less than 3 pounds and have all the features I want.  It just came out this month and it is by far one of the best laptop out there! I am so happy with it. YAY!!! Thank you SQ for giving me what I really truly want and need!! Love you!

A Letter to Sarah

x

Recently,

• you are getting kinda of sassy! We're not sure if you starting your terrible twos but you've definitely learned how to test the limits and our patience! You cry if you don't like something, and definitely let us know when you're not happy about something!
• you are beginning to "choose" your food.  So far, you still eat everything we give you, but there are times when you prefer one food over another and you make that preference known!
• you are sleeping later than before, to our dismay. Your sleeping time is between 9-9:30. Your ulsualy bedtime was 8:30 before!
• you LOVE books. We go through at least 3-4 books before bedtime.  Sometimefs you won't go to bed because you want to read more books. Your favorite book is s till Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
• You understand a lot now - words, directions, questions.  You finally know that you are Sarah. When I ask,"where's Sarah?" you will point to yourself.
• You know most of your body parts - head, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, fingers, elbows, knees, tummy...
• You have about 12 teeth now.  Soon you will have a full set of teeth! You're not a big fan of brushing your teeth though.  You just like to suck on the edible toothpaste (which I don't like to give you) so I always have to pin you down to brush your teeth for you! One day, you will thank me.
• At daycare, you are energetic, playful, and vocal. You love music, play in the sandbox, ride toys, and of course, books!!
• Your double-eyelid finally emerged on your left eye today!  I've always wondered why you only have single eyelids when both your daddy and me have double eyelids. I guess they just come up whenever they're ready...now waiting for your right double eyelid to arrive!
• You know how to feed yourself (still with a mess), drink small amount of liquids out of an open cup, walk backwards, stack and nest  boxes, complete board puzzles, 

Your smiles, giggles, and laughter continue to brighten our days everyday!

Eepad

SQ bought me an ASUS Eepad Transformer for my birthday this year.  It's an e-tablet, which has supposedly the best operating system with fast internet computing power, etc etc.  I can spare you all the geeky technical info since I actually don't know much about all the functions myself.  Despite it being one of the best e-tablets out there in the market, I find it not suitable for my use!  I specifically told SQ that I would like a small laptop that would do the basics - browse the internet, upload and organize pictures, and blog.  That was all I needed.  This e-Tablet doesn't fit the bill.  Well, I think what my hubby got was what HE wanted, not what I wanted.

First of all, the built-in camera sucks.  It's awkward to hold and balance the big tablet with 1 hand, while trying to push the click button with the other. The pictures all turn out grainy or out of focus.  So I take pictures from my other camera, but I can't download any of the pictures onto this tablet because it doesn't have a SD memory slot, or a USB port for that matter.  It is so troublesome (to say the least) to transport pictures to and from!!

Browsing the internet isn't so great either.  My hands get stiff (borderline cramping) after holding the tablet up, even after a short amount of time.  I seriously can't figure out how to hold the thing up so I can see the full screen without hurting my hands at the same time.

Blogging - ok, this is perhaps the worst of all.  Touchscreen keyboards are great for texting or tweeting, when your message is less than 50 characters long. If you must type up an entire post, touchscreen keyboards just ain't going to cut it!!

Ok, maybe I should stop complaining and appreciate the gift and SQ's gesture.  I just really wish I can use that darn thing more often!!!

HFMD

WTH is HFMD, you might ask? Well, I didn't know either until yesterday.  

This past Monday, Sarah was very clingy and cranky the whole day.  We didn't know why.  She was a bit warm, but SQ and I thought it was just because it was a hot day and she did have that furry kitty costume on.  We finally measured her temperature and it was about 100 degrees. Low grade fever.  She was drooling a lot - so maybe she's teething.  We gave her some Tylenol and she slept OK. The next morning, she woke up, again with a low grade fever. She was whiney and just not herself.  We decided to keep her away from daycare so SQ worked from home to watch her.  When I came back from home, I noticed that Sarah has small blisters on her tongue.  They are like canker sores, except she has about 5-6 of them on her tongue. Some were bigger than others.  So I searched the internet on her symptoms - mild fever, blisters on tongue. And low and behold, the results came back:

Hand Foot Mouth Disease = From the Center on Disease Control:  Hand, foot, and mouth disease is a common viral illness that usually affects infants and children younger than 5 years old.  Symptoms of hand, foot, and mouth disease include fever, blister-like sores in the mouth (herpangina), and a skin rash. Hand, foot, and mouth disease usually starts with a fever, poor appetite, a vague feeling of being unwell (malaise), and sore throat. One or 2 days after fever starts, painful sores usually develop in the mouth (herpangina). They begin as small red spots that blister and that often become ulcers. The sores are often in the back of the mouth. A skin rash develops over 1 to 2 days. The rash has flat or raised red spots, sometimes with blisters. The rash is usually on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet; it may also appear on the knees, elbows, buttocks or genital area.


This is what Sarah has.  She not only has blisters in her mouth but also on her buttocks.  Poor thing!!  So we kept her away from daycare for another day.  She is doing much better today because she's actually eating more.  Like the common cold, the virus can incubate in the body for 3-7 days before showing any signs. There is no cure or medicine for HFMD - it just needs to run its course (about a week). Meanwhile, we need to keep Sarah hydrated and well-rested.  Apparently, 2 of her other classmates got the same thing - so it must be going around.  I also emailed my pediatrician and he said that he saw a lot of children with HFMD lately.  The disease is spread via saliva and nose secretions... so remember to wash hands thoroughly and stay healthy!