Saturday Activities

We had 2 events yesterday, which made the day a bit busier than usual.  In the morning, Sarah went to SKC's house in Castro Valley for a play date with CF and SKC.  Sarah checked out SKC's new kitchen and all his food and cooking utensils! It's more complete and impressive than the real kitchen in our house!  The kids enjoyed each other's company, had a couple of "fighting for toys" moments, but everyone had fun!!  Sarah loved the 2 kitty cats!    

After leaving Castro Valley, Sarah took her usual afternoon nap while we went around Oakland/Lake Merritt to enjoy the unseasonably-warm day. The weather was absolutely gorgeous.

In the evening, we went to St. Thomas' School for their annual CNY fundraiser event. My nephews come here to learn Chinese (Mandarin) and my sister, MT, is one of the committee chairs.  The event has a lion dance, food, raffles, and lots of performances by the children.  Sarah saw the lion dance for the first time. I was pretty surprised that Sarah was not afraid of the lion, even though the drums and symbols were quite loud.  She even saw the lion up close! I am so proud of my two nephews for such awesome performances.  It was a fun-filled day indeed.

Sarah's first "ya-ya"

SQ and I aren't one of those parents who get freaked out every time Sarah falls down or hurts herself.  We believe that she can toughen up and learn from the falls and mistakes she makes along the way.  Thank goodness Sarah also isn't one of those babies who are super adventurous to experiment everything. She is a careful baby. For example, we are able to leave our stairway door open without fearing Sarah's falling down.  As much as we wants to follow us down the stairs sometimes, when we tell her not to come down, she actually listens. So when I heard from the daycare teacher that Sarah got a gash on her face (near her left eye) and saw it for the first time, my heart dropped. Oh my! How did Sarah trip and fall like that?!  Silly Girl seemed to be in good spirits when I picked her up though.  When I asked her where's "ya-ya?" she was quick to point to her eye.  Today, the corner of her eye is a little blue, which only means that it would eventually turn purple and it will look like a black eye... :-(   I just hope that this wouldn't leave any scars!

 

Happy Year of the Dragon!!

May the Year of the Dragon brings you and your family a year of Prosperity, Wealth, Joy and Happiness! Happy Chinese New Year!

CNY Eve dinners

I must shamefully admit that SQ and I barely follow any of the Chinese New Year traditions.  A quarter of the reason is that we don't know what the traditions are but majority of the reason is that we are (truthfully) just too lazy. We barely get the house tidy up, let alone deep clean.  We don't have any CNY decorations, candies or tangerines in the house.  We wash our hair on the day of and we eat meat.  I guess we are less superstitious than most Chinese.  However, during this time of the year, the CNY Eve dinners are a must.  They are equivalent to the American Thanksgiving, where everyone gathers to have a nice family dinner.

This year, my side of the family had our CNY dinner on Saturday (1/21) at my parents' house.  My mom prepared a lot of the dishes, with names symbolizing good luck and good fortune.  The sisters, BILs and kids all had a chance to talk (in most cases, scream because it was so noisy LOL), laugh and catch up on things.  Even though we see each other very often (at least once a week) and are in constant communications via FB, Twitter, or Email, there is still so much to talk about!!

The Tong Grandkids (all 13 of them!)

the Z gens (R to L): Hailey, Sarah, Tyler, Kyle, Hayden, Evan, Ethan

the Y gens (R to L): Catherine, Caitlin, Cadence, Crystal, Derek, Darryl

On Sunday (1/22), we drove up to Sacramento to SQ's brother's house for our CNY Eve dinner.  This year, the family decided to eat at a restaurant instead of cooking at home.  We went to Asian Pearl  and enjoyed a delicious feast of black chicken & herb soup, whole abalone, lobster 2 ways, quail, fish, and giant clams. All the dishes were very tasty - and must have costed quite a bit of $$! 

The Quach Grandkids (R to L) : Kenneth, Derrick, Alex, Sarah, Alyssa, Albert

Sarah doesn't get to see this side of her cousins often, but it was amazing how well she interacted with them.  She was playing with them, giggling, and laughing.  She was even willing to give them kisses! In case you're wondering, yes, Sarah is in her jammies, getting ready to hop back on the car on a long ride home!  And yes, no luck in getting all the kids to look in the camera at the same time!! 

A Letter to Sarah

To my mao mao:

Recently -

• You've learned so much this past month, it's unbelievable. You continue to surprise us with how much you understand and your increasing vocabulary.  You are able to pick up the words we use and can identify so many objects.  
• Your neck and wrists are red and dry. You have eczema in between the folds of your skin.  The ointment we put on it doesn't seem to help much.  We are surely going through a cold, dry winter.
• You have developed a strong attachment to Fred, the elephant.  He is your friend and you like him to be around you although you understand that he only stays in the car or the house. 

Sarah's BFF, Fred the Elephant

• You are having a lot of fun at daycare. There are times when we pick you up, you don't want to leave!  You love all your teachers and like to play with all the other kids.  You now know how to fight for toys too!
• You love to dance!! Arms swinging up and down, body twisting and going around in circles. Your favorite tune comes from the hand-me-down Barbie RV.
• You still lick some type of fabric whenever you go to sleep for comfort 
• You call me "mommy," and your daddy, "dada."  I absolutely love it when you say "mommy"  :-) 
• You can identify and recall some alphabets and numbers, play match games, and can do board puzzles by yourself.
• You love to eat almost everything - your favorite is String cheese and crackers (all types). You also really like avocado, milk and yogurt.  When you're hungry and focused on eating, you can feed yourself well with a spoon or fork, and can drink soup out of a bowl and liquids out of regular cup with minimal mess. 
• You are fascinated with the self-timer function of the camera. You get really excited every time the camera "beeps" and eventually takes the picture.  We have found the sure way of getting you to smile in the picture.  Set the self-timer, let it do its thing, and then manually take a picture afterwards.  The 2nd shot is always going to be the one with you smiling in it. Works like a charm, every time.

Picture taken with self-timer

Picture taken manually seconds after the self-timer goes off

You have grown so much - and yet you're still the silly you. You continue to brighten our day with laughter and joy.  You bring so much life into our lives!! Love you, mao-mao

Are you kidding me?

Ain't this the truth??!! I'm sure every parent in this world can relate to this cartoon.  This evening, the situation was so similar it brought both SQ and I to tears, crying of laughter!  The name "TOBISHA" was embossed on the screen of my laptop. When I pointed to each letter, Sarah was able to read them all!! She had a little trouble on the "T" but all the others she was able to repeatedly come back with the right letter, even when I mixed the order.  I told SQ to quickly get the camera so we can document this important milestone.  And when the camera was rolling....all we got was a blank stare followed by typical baby gibberish.  O-M-G!  Are you kidding me?!  We couldn't believe how true this cartoon is!  How would we ever prove to other people that Sarah is able to recognize some of the alphabets at 19 months?? You'll just have to trust me.  Either way, I am so proud of my little girl.  She is learning very fast!! 

Pinterest

My sister introduced me to Pinterest, which, on Wikipedia described it as "a vision board-styled social photo sharing website and app where users can create and manage theme-based image collections."   The photos posted are not only beautiful, many are very interesting.  You can also get a wide variety of ideas, from wedding ideas to crafts and DIY projects.  I've learned about this website (there is also an app for it) a while back, but haven't really took the time to browse through it before.  With all what's going on in my life right now, I really needed a distraction.  So today, I went through some of the photos and this one particularly struck a cord with me...

T minus Zero

For years, I pondered and pondered over the question of whether I would relocate to Hong Kong should and when our company decides to move us there.  Well, the time has arrived.

4 years ago, our company moved half of the merchandise buying team from SF to HKG.  Some people got relocated but most got severed.  1.5 years ago, they moved another quarter of the group, including the President and VPs. We are the last remaining quarter of the team left in San Francisco. This past Wednesday, it was announced that we, the last group, would also be relocating to Hong Kong.  The move will complete the buying functions under one roof since there will no longer be a San Francisco-based office after 2012.

While the announcement was not surprising to most of us in the office (because we all knew this day would eventually come), it was still hard to bear.  For the handful of individuals offered relocation packages, the decision weighs a ton - relocation means uprooting your family to a foreign land and completely changing your current lifestyle and environment.  For those not offered relocation, the outcome is to be severed and lose your job.

I was one of the fortunate handfuls who was offered a relocation package, which means I technically still have a job, just in a different location.  While SQ and I have discussed the subject of relocation countless times in the past before, they were all "what ifs."  With no concrete timeline back then, everything was only hypothetical.  Now, with an offer at hand and an effective date, the decision became real, in an instant.

I had a hard time sleeping this entire week to say the least.  I felt a lot of anxiety of what relocation will mean, both for me and SQ and especially to little Sarah.  She is still young and probably won't understand the changes, but she will have to get used to a total different environment.  I am most concerned about Sarah's preschool arrangement.  Most young kids in HKG are cared for by a domestic helper so there are not a lot of daycare center choices as we do here in the Bay Area.  While getting a helper is an option for us too, I prefer sending Sarah to a daycare environment, where she can learn and play and socially be engaged with other kids her age.  I absolutely love the daycare she's at right now.  It's hard to give that up and accept anything less...The other thing that saddens me greatly is that Sarah will be away from her extended family (grandparents, aunts/uncles and cousins).  It terrifies me that I won't be physically close to my family, especially my parents, who have been my support and strength all these years.

On the other side of the balancing scale, moving to an international city intrigues me.  I have lived in San Francisco all my life!  Ok, ok, I lived in Davis during my college years, but I always drove back to SF during the weekends so it doesn't really count.  This will be different.  Hong Kong is miles and miles away and different enough to give me a life experience I can tell stories about when I get old.  I only live once, right?  This move is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that many people would only wish to have, and that opportunity arrived right at my doorstep.  And moving as an expatriate definitely made the financial aspect of the relocation more sound and enticing.

As you can see, I am all over the place.  I am a pendulum that swings from one direction and the opposite direction within seconds.  I still have a lot of think about and I don't know what I will do.  But when I make the decision, I will honor it and not think anymore about the "what-ifs?"     

To be continued...

Sarah turns 19 months today!