Sarah's 2nd Home

We came back from Hong Kong late Friday night, close to 10:30pm by the time we got home. Knowing that Sarah has already slept for the night, we decided to pick her up the next morning.  We arrived at my sister's house and rung the doorbell.  Sarah stood by the glass doorway up the stairs and she had the biggest smile on her face when she saw us.  She was so excited that she giggled.  But as we walked up the stairs to her, she suddenly became confused.  She still recognized us but probably realized that she hasn't seen us in such a long while.  Where have we been? Although babies don't typically have a sense of elapsed time, she probably knew that we were gone for a long time.  She ran back to my sister's arms and somehow became distant.  Only moments later did she open up and went to her dada for comfort.  Sarah then became quite clingy, as if she wanted to punish us for leaving her behind.  She started to whine and whimper, knowing that she is now in her parents' arms.  There was a moment in time that I was afraid that she wouldn't recognize us...but luckily, she did.  From what I heard from my sister, Sarah slept and ate well during the week and was very cooperative.  Barely any crying and no fuss.  I must say that I was a bit afraid that Sarah wouldn't adjust or that she will be hard to manage because it was the first time both SQ and I are away from her.  She has been waking up in the middle night for many nights in a row...not to mention that she started to throw tantrums and cried a lot more than she used to.  Plus, her left eye was a little pink the day before we left...(thank goodness she didn't have pink eye). All of that just made me a little afraid that Sarah would be a handful for my sister and my BIL.  Thankful it all worked out!

Here are some of Sarah's activities during the week:

Visiting her Great-Granny

At the library with her cousin, EK

Love to eat waffles!

Playing with her cousins' toys (yes, a lot of boy toys!)

I am so grateful to have such strong family support and my sister and BIL for lending their hand to watch Sarah.  I am thankful that all my sisters willing come to my rescue every time I call out for help. This is a bond that I will miss when we move to Hong Kong and it gives me great sadness whenever I think about it. :-'(  

Today is our 8 year wedding anniversary! Can't believe that I've known SQ for over 11 years and we have been married for 8 years already! I must say that it sure doesn't feel that long.  Other than me travelling for work, there was not one day that SQ and I are apart. We spend almost all weekends together. His friends are my friends and vice versa. Some couples like their own space, their own separate friends, own time, but for me and SQ, we don't mind each other's company a bit...because we are best friends.

Sure, we get into arguments and fight about the silliest things, but we somehow get over it and move on. There are things we don't like or can't stand about the other, but we either overlook the flaws or find a way to change. Life's not perfect.  It never will be. All I know is that I can always count on SQ to be by my side, through good and bad times.

Cheers to a wonderful Eight years and many more to come!

My 2 Loves

Cousins

Top Row (R to L): Hayden (5),  Evan (5), Ethan (7)
Bottom Row :Sarah (1), Tyer (2), Kyle (3)

Every Thursday night, my sisters and I would congregate at my parents' house for a family dinner.  It's a day of the week that I always look forward to... not only because I can be lazy and don't have to cook, but it's a time to eat my mom's delicious home-cooked meal, to see my sisters, to catch up on the latest events, and for Sarah to see her little cousins.  They don't play with her much, because all she does is to go destroy their buildings, rip up their paper airplanes, or steal their trucks to play. hahaha LOL  

Here is a rare picture of Sarah and her little cousins (she has older cousins too!)  Missing is in the picture is little Hailey who turned 3 months about 2 weeks ago. 

New baby in town!

On March 15th, I welcome the newest addition to our extended family. Hailey is my 3rd sister's newborn daughter.  She is beautiful and looks just like her brother, Tyler. I can't wait to meet her when I get back to SF!

Happy Holidays!!

Happy Holidays to all!!

Academy of Sciences

Today SQ and I took advantage of Free Neighborhood Day and visited the new Academy of Sciences in GGP. We took our parents there. At first I was nervous whether my parents would enjoy these things and if the walking would be too much for my mom. But we took our time and took short breaks when we're tired. We ended up spending 4 hours there. We went through the aquarium, the rainforest, the living roof, saw the albino alligator and the penguins. We watched the show, Bugs in 3D. We had a great time and I enjoyed spending time with my parents.

The building is a lot smaller than I thought it would be, looking from the outside. I was also not so impressed with the Living roof, maybe because I've seen so much hype on TV about this "green roof." Anyhow, I still enjoyed the visit and do appreciate all the work the scientists are doing there to preserve our environment and to ensure the future generations can enjoy the same animals and plants we see today.

Am I really THAT heavy?

We spent a beautiful Saturday celebrating an early Mother's Day at Washington Park in Burlingame. It was perfect - the park was absolutely beautiful, complete with tons of flat grassy areas, BBQ and picnic areas, tennis courts, basketball court, a baseball diamond, a children's playground and a rose garden! And the weather was fabulous! We BBQ'ed during the afternoon and then played some games. The kids had the most fun, bouncing around and just being kids.


I wanted to take a picture of SQ carrying me... and look at SQ's facial expression. Am I really THAT heavy?

Buca

It has been years since I last dined at Buca di Beppo on Howard & 4th. You just got to have a big group to eat here because the portions are so big. Thank goodness I have such a big family. We came here last Thursday to celebrate my dad's birthday. There were about 25 of us ... and boy oh boy, I was STUFFED walking out the door! We had calamari, brushettas, pizza, pasta, you name it... the meal was probably my whole week's worth of calorie in-take!




But it was fun...gotta love hanging out w/ the family.

The Tong Family
(P.S. These family pictures are harder and harder to come by)

Welcome Tyler

Baby Tyler born 2/23/09 at 4:19am via c-section

7 lbs 9 oz. ; 19-3/4 inches

Welcome to our world, Welcome to our family, Nephew #11!

CNY dinners - 2 families

The Quach Family

Front Row (L to R): Albert, Quach mom, Alyssa, Derrick, Alex, Kenneth, Mrs. Lam

Back Row: me, SQ, Han, Lily, Jenny, Vinh

Missing from pic: Tuong

The Tong Family

Front Row (L to R): Hayden, Cadence, Catherine

2nd Row: Kenny, Amy, Dad, Kyle, Mom, Evan, Bonnie, Sean, me

Back Row: Benny, Herman, Ethan, Crystal, Shelly, Mary, Derek, Caitlin, Carolyn, Darryl

missing from pic: Cindy, Darren

Baby Shower

My sister had her Baby shower yesterday, and here are some photos:

3 little onesies hung on the wall as decorations. Each had a question - When? Weight? Length? Guests are to use a fabric marker to write their guesses to the appropriate questions. These are super easy to make. Just buy plain white onesies and print the image / words onto a special transfer paper and have them ironed on.

Of course there is the diaper cake....Blue for Boy. My other sister made this. It's almost a "staple" now in any baby shower parties. The cow as the cake topper because next year is the Year of the Cow.

Picture of my nephew, Kyle. He turning 1 on February 28. Isn't he adorable? He's currently the youngest grandchild in the family - but will soon be replaced by another baby boy. Grandchild #11!

The Triplets

Not many people realize that I actually have a set of nephews/niece who are triplets. They are my husband's brother's kids. They were born in July 2005 and will be THREE years old in a couple of months! They were born weighing less than 4 pounds each, and a 2-1/2 months from full term. They stayed in the hospital for a few months until they were big enough to breathe on their own. Now, they are healthy toddlers who loves to take pictures & run around making a mess. They are a handful (literally!)

Their names from left to right: Albert, Alex, and Alisa (in that birth order too!). Obviously, they are not identical triplets, but faternal triplets. They look different from each other and definitely have their own personality as well!!

Can you guess who is the naughtiest one?

Today I welcomed the newest addition to the family...my nephew (no name yet!). He was born today, 02.28.08 at 2:54pm at CPMC. 8 lbs 1 oz. 21 inches. One day away from being a Leap Year baby.
Happy to be a 10th time aunt again!

Family Camping

This past weekend, Sean and I went camping with my family at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park in Kenmore. It's located in the North Bay, about 7 miles away from Santa Rosa. It is a well-run and well-maintained campsite, with various hiking trails and beautiful scenery. They also have some modern conveniences such as a flushable toilet and running water. No showers though!


We drove there after work on Friday and got lost along the way. Nothing wrong with the directions given, it's just us. We weren't paying attention to the signs. We got there aroun 10pm - just enough time to set up tent!

The next morning, we did a short hike on one of many trails. We chose one that is well-shaded and not too long. This is one that is 1-mile long and shaded. It's pretty steep though as you can see in the picture. But it was good exercise. This hike is along a creek which also has a vista point of a waterfall. But too bad, it is dried up. We didn't see much water in the creek, nor any waterfall. We're definitely experiencing a drought this year.

After the hike, we went back to camp and grilled some hotdogs and hot links for lunch. Yum ! We rested a bit and played frisbees where we caught a record of 14 times without dropping the frisbee!! Yeah! That was tough! My sister MT created a scavenger hunt for us so we separated into teams for the challenge. We are graded for team work, creativity, and intelligence! And of course, our team won!!! We had to solve puzzles to get to the next clue, perform tasks and use our creativity to think of ways to accomplish the request. We are here brainstorming to solve the puzzles. We each won a gift certificate to Polly Ann Ice Cream!


After we were done with the game, we were hungry!! We cooked with our portable grill for our gourmet dinner! And I said Gourmet because we had chicken wings, steak, mushrooms, zucchini, and sea bass! It was delicious!! We were all so full!

Here is a picture with our tent, where we stayed for 2 nights. The ground was really hard because we didn't have mats. My back really hurts today, but it was still fun!

Group Shot (L to R):
Upper row: Ethan, Mary, Derek, Cindy, ME, and Sean
Lower row: Luck, Caitlin, Benny, Catherine, Bonnie, Carolyn, Cadence, and Crystal.
Missing from Picture: Herman and Evan

Cruise

My husband and I, along with my entire family just came back from a short cruise vacation we took this past week. This was my first cruise but I've heard quite a lot of things about cruises from friends and people who have gone before. Our port of call was in L.A. so we had to drive down there. It was no easy task to coordinate a trip for 18 people, ages ranging from 1 year old to 70. Thankfully, it was somehow managed and no major issues happened. The ship was a little bit aged and probably needed renovations, but overall, not too bad. The best part of the cruise was of course, the delicious, around-the-clock food. Dinners were of course the best --many times I ordered more than 1 appetitizer, more than 1 entree, and more than 1 dessert! :P

Our port stops included San Diego, Catalina Island, and Ensenada. We visited the San Diego Zoo, kayaked on Catalina Island, and walked around Ensenada. This was definitely a good starter cruise because it was short and have 3 port stops to rest and be on land. I actually got a little uneasy when we sailed over choppy waters the first day. I never knew whether I get motion-sickness or not. I've been on speedboats before and have no problems but the rides were always less than 30 minutes short. I guess I was able to adapt on this cruise to the constant swaying.

So the week just zoomed by without me even realizing it. I'm now back in S.F. and am totally NOT looking forward to going back to work. I took a sneak preview of my work inbox and saw that I have 250 emails sitting there. :( Next week is going to be a long week for me, like always.

Spring Forward!