Footprints in the Sand

Morning After Snow

2009-12-06T16:21:00.006-06:00

Icy Plant

2009-12-06T16:12:00.004-06:00

More Snow

2009-12-04T18:59:00.004-06:00

Snow in Houston

2009-12-04T18:29:00.003-06:00

Jump!

2009-09-28T20:46:00.004-05:00

Great timing shot!

Benjamin the Bumble Bee!

2009-09-28T20:32:00.004-05:00

Costumes Fun!

2009-09-28T20:13:00.009-05:00

Home Studio Shot

2009-09-28T19:35:00.007-05:00

Last Saturday, our dear friend Colin set up a home studio at our house to take photos for our family and the kids (Janine, Adrien and Benjamin). After the session, I realized that it is not easy to be a studio photographer as well as model. Keeping the kids quiet are pretty challenging. It was really difficult to pose for single portrait as I have no talent in posing. Ching Xin and I were having fun trying to pose for the portrait. Here are a couple of photos. More will come after some editing. Thanks Colin!

Ice-cream Treat

2009-09-23T22:53:00.003-05:00

Adrien has been eating one of this after dinner since Sunday. Skip one today though. I am trying to increase his calories intake as he is a skinny little boy.

Adrien's Wild Style

2009-09-23T22:47:00.005-05:00

After school one evening, Adrien took this hat and these unique shoes and wear for the entire evening while playing.

Community Park on 9-20-09

2009-09-23T22:40:00.006-05:00

Mommy's Boy

2009-09-23T22:29:00.004-05:00

When I was accompanying Adrien to sleep earlier.

Mommy: Adrien, mommy got to go out to update blog. Mommy asked daddy to come in and "pei" you sleep, okay?

Adrien: But I want mommy woh!

Mommy: Daddy cans also "pei" mah!

Adrien: I want someone who looks like this (Adrien pointing at me).

I came out to upload a few photos while daddy went in. Daddy came out after 10 minutes. While daddy "pei" Adrien, Adrien keep repeating, "I don't want mommy to write blog." Then he came out. I just took him into the bedroom again and asked him to count from 1 to 100 and then I will go in. He negotiates by saying that he will count to 10 and I will go in to "pei" him. Till now I have not heard him calling yet so I will continue to post some other photos from the playground.

Party at the Park

2009-09-23T22:18:00.005-05:00

These pictures were taken in Austin Park last Saturday. We were there to celebrate Caylan 5th birthday. Adrien really enjoyed the party and asked me to take him to Caylan's party at the park again.

Acorn

2009-09-23T22:10:00.004-05:00

This is the acorn from our front yard oak tree. This is one of Adrien favorite's things during this fall.

Swim Lesson

2009-07-28T12:09:00.012-05:00

Adrien started swimming lesson last Monday (7-20-09). All beginners are required to attend everyday lesson for two weeks. It is an indoor pool. The class ratio is 4:1. Parents are not allow to the pool area. We watch from the glass surrounded the pool. The kids are not able to see their parents from the pool.

First Week
Monday - Adrien started to cry when it was time to enter the pool. On the first day, I am allowed to take him to his instructor (Mr. Corey). Adrien started to kick with barbells and row his arm. Adrien did not want to blow bubble. His favorite activity was the floating mat.

Tuesday - I picked him up from school and basically he cried in the car all the way to the swim club. All the children are supposed to walk to their instructor by themselves. Because Adrien was crying, I need to pass him to the swim club personal to take him in.

Wednesday - I told him that we are only going to watch, so he did not cry in the car. He started to cry when we got there. He did not go to the pool by himself. Dived into the water and picked up ring.

Thursday - The rain was pouring when I picked him up from school. I was talking to him in the car to get his mind off swimming. He keep asking me to go home when we got there. Dive into the water and pick up ring.

Friday - Missed a lesson.

Adrien shiver all the times throughout his lesson. I was asked him to keep his body under water while waiting for his turn but he was still not comfortable doing that yet.

Second Week

Monday - I was very proud of Adrien with his progress. He walked into the pool by himself for the first time even though he was very scared. He was able to put his head and blow bubbles and turn to sleep position and float without the instructor help.

I am very excited to see Adrien swim today.

Adrien in Destin

2009-07-26T15:30:00.007-05:00

Activities at Destin Beach

2009-07-25T08:03:00.010-05:00

Building sand castle

Bonding Catch up Stroll by the beach in the evening

Destin Sandy White Beach

2009-07-25T06:43:00.017-05:00

We spent our July 4th long weekend in Destin beach with uncle Colin, Feh Teng ah yi and Feh Yee ah yi. It was a fun and relaxing trip. This is one of the nicest beach I have landed my feet on, comparable with Cozumel in Mexico and Negril beach in Jamica. We will definately visit Destin again. Adrien was having lots of fun playing with soft white sand.

Fireworks from the beach was spectacular even though we watch from far. The moon in the sky gives a great back drop for the photos. Unfortunately my camera was all fogged up due to the cold temperature in the hotel room and the humidity at the beach. No photos for me that night. Luckily uncle Colin camera was working on July 4th night and I am sure he has lots of great shot that he will post in his blog.

Here are some of the sceneries from Destin beach.

Adrien Primary Class - Game Day

2009-06-30T22:20:00.007-05:00

I brought two cookies cake to Adrien's class on June 26th to celebrate his 3rd Birthday with his friends. The kids love the cookies cake and some of them asked for second serving. It was Friday and game day. Each child brought a game from home that day.The most popular games were the hippo games that catches ball game and the fishing game.

Adrien 3rd Birthday

2009-06-30T22:01:00.005-05:00

Blowing the candles! All the boys!

Bonding & Love

2009-06-19T23:16:00.003-05:00

These pictures were taken in "ah cho's" garden.

"Ah cho" and Adrien bonding"Ah ma" and Adrien Adrien holding the flower

Focus

2009-06-19T23:10:00.003-05:00

This picture was taken in "ah cho's" (great grandma) house in Penang Malaysia during our vacation home in March 2009.

Caring

2009-06-18T22:29:00.006-05:00

While I was reading with Adrien in the evening I mention I got back pain.

Mommy: Mommy back is painful.
Adrien: Don't worry, I will massage for you.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2009-06-18T21:57:00.008-05:00

Adrien sang daddy a birthday song and we had a little celebration at home. Adrien loves the cake, not so much of the actual cake itself but the chocolate for the cake decor.

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday to daddy.....

Happy Birthday to you.....

Happy Anniversary!

2009-06-15T21:19:00.007-05:00

Today is our 7th year wedding annivesary and we went for a nice dinner at Le Mistral, a highly rated French restaurant. We had initially thought about asking our friends (uncle Colin and auntie Feh Teng) to come over to our place to baby sit Adrien while we went for a romantic dinner for two, after all it's been a while since we have been out on a dinner for two.

The last time we went out on our own without the little one was for lunch during mommy's birthday where we had wonderful seafood and crabs that were to die for.....yummy making my mouth water. That lunch place actually has eat all you can crabs for dinner on Monday. We will try to find a way one day to sneak away without him to chow down on the never ending crab buffet. However at the last minute we decided to bring him along to let him share in our celebration.

Luckily he was a good boy and very well behaved since it was a nice restaurant it could have been embarrasing if he were to shout at the top of his lungs and misbehave, kinda of like Dennis the Menace cartoons. We decided to have an early dinner so daddy made reservations for 5.30pm. Luckily he did as the restaurant was full by dinner time.

For appetizer we had.....

Burgandy snails baked in butter, garlic and parsley

Foie Gras Terrine marinated in sauternes, butter brioche, beet salad (in plain english this is duck liver, even mommy who hates liver loved this dish)

Right after the appetizers our waiter gave us a tour of the kitchen where we saw some of our food being prepared. We were surprised over how clean the kitchen looks.

For main course we each had

Caramelized duck breast, spicy orange sause, apple foie gras cake, asparagus

Special of the day, 6 ounce fillet mignon (delicious...)

and last but not least the dessert

Souffle au chocolat

The dessert actually turned out to be our favourite dessert that we had for dinner every night during our recent 5 day cruise. Now we know the name of the dessert that we sooooooooooo loved during the cruise.

Our Bed

2009-06-15T20:47:00.012-05:00

Adrien loves to sleep and cuddle with us in our bed and almost every time in the wee hours of the morning he will call "mommy mommy!!!!!!!" and I will drag myself, usually half asleep to his room and carry him over to our bed. He loves to put his leg over my tummy while sleeping with us. If mommy is already up then he would turn over and sleep very close to daddy. He just loves cuddles :)

The other morning (well very early in the morning) I asked him why he likes to put his legs over my tummy.

Mommy: Adrien, why are you putting your legs on mommy?

Adrien: I am just trying to hug mommy.

On Saturday morning, Adrien woke up in our bed and he used his finger to pull down my lower lips.

Mommy: What are you doing Adrien?

Adrien: I want lots of smiles.

Then we started to smile and laugh and sing. Daddy as usual is still sound asleep and in dreamland zzzZZZZZ.

He is just adorable at this age, the things he does just touch our hearts and makes us feel like our life with him is just so wonderful. I guess that's why they call it the magic 3s and 4s. However since he is not completely out of the terrible 2s yet there are days when he gets difficult too :)

Conversation

2009-06-04T07:55:00.014-05:00

On Sunday Adrien was climbing on a storage box in my closet.

Mommy: Adrien, bu yao pa, xiao xin tie tao (mandarin).
Adrien: I am just making sure that the clothes is organized.

I did not expect him to say that. Children from birth to 5 learn and absorb knowledge like a sponge. We have to be careful what we say in front of them. Adrien would copy every word I say. He speaks mostly in English. I tried to translate what he say to mandarin the best I could but sometimes I am not that good as you all know my mandarin is half pail full.

On Tuesday night after "nen-nen."

Mommy: Still a bit of "nen-nen" left, finish it.

Adrien: It is too sweet! (This is the first time he said the "nen-nen" is too sweet. I know that it is just an excuse to not finish the "nen-nen".)

Mommy: Ok, I will let daddy know make sure the "nen-nen" is not too sweet tomorrow.

The we went to the toilet and Adrien pee pee.

Mommy: Adrien, do you want to poo poo?

Adrien: No because the "nen-nen" too sweet.

Mommy: Laugh and said "nen-nen" too sweet not related to poo poo.

Adrien: Adrien is being funny. Because........no poo poo in stomach.

The he laugh and repeat because "nen-nen" too sweet and said Adrien being funny.

Last night (Wednesday) while I was making a calender for Adrien to learn about day and month (idea from coolschoolathome blog, my friend Hui Fun's blog).

Adrien: Oklahoma...(Adrien picked up a purple stock card).

Mommy: No it is not Oklahoma, it is a purple stock card....maybe you are correct, it may be shaped like Oklahoma (then I picked up the card and looked at the shape. I took the US map out and checked. It was indeed the shape of Oklahoma). Yes Adrien, you are correct. It is the shape of Oklahoma )and I showed him the US map.)

He took the map from me and put the shape on top of Oklahoma state.

Adrien's Art

2009-05-31T20:45:00.007-05:00

I can't believe it is already 18 months since Adrien attended montessorri school. He cried for almost 1 month when we first started him there. He is now a leader in his toddler class and will soon be transitioning to primary class in June. He alway said "I am a big boy now and I can go to primary class." When I first bought the primary polo shirt for him, he has been wearing the shirt for the entire weekend. Luckily I bought 4, if not I won't have clean one for him to wear for the weekend. Here are some of Adrien's artwork from school.

Beef Flank with Carrot

2009-05-31T14:22:00.000-05:00

My collegue Chiao Yun thought me this dish. You can use beef shank as well. I steamed it with "da tung dian guo". You can braised it as well. Ingredient includes soy sauce, "lu bao", onion and carrot (optional: chilli if you like it spicy). Salts to taste. The time to cook this could take up to 6 hours or more as the beef flank or shank is really tendon. Compliment well with noddles.

La Strada Restaurant

2009-05-31T13:56:00.000-05:00

La Strada was rated "excellent" in zagat and was known for it hearty, flavorful menu of creative Italian dishes and luscious homemade dessert. The ambience was really great. We spent our Saturday lunch there with Uncle Colin and Feh Teng ah yi. Daddy had Fettucini Afredo and mommy had Seafood Omelet. Adrien had both.....

Open window

Cycling

2009-05-31T13:14:00.000-05:00

We went cycling at Terry Hershey Park on Saturday morning. Just after 10 minutes I was tired. This shows how unfit I am. I have not been doing much exercise for a while now. With the weather getting warmer now we are trying to be healthier. We cycled for about 4 miles and on the way home we stopped at a play area. Adrien had lots of fun and he wanted to go again next week.

Fun at the bar

Fun tires

Peach Orchard

2009-05-29T14:42:00.001-05:00

Adrien loves the peaches....Small but plenty of SWEET peaches...Adrien loves the wagon

It is peach season in Houston. We drove up to E&B Orchard in Hempstead with our friends last Saturday. This was our 2nd time there and daddy first. Adrien was really enjoying himself and had lots of fun pushing the wagon and playing with uncle Colin and Feh Teng ah yi. After picking the peach, we enjoyed the fresh peach ice-cream in the orchard followed by “yum cha” in Ocean Palace. It was a nice Saturday.

First Post!

2009-05-29T13:16:00.002-05:00

I finally created an account. I was still trying to figure out how to import some of my previous blog from multiply to blogger. No luck yet.

For the last 3 weeks we have been pretty busy working on our house. We had a store room installed above our garage now. Then we had all the bathroom and laundry room installed with tiles and finally replaced the carpet with laminated wood floor. All the above are done by the contractor. It is finally complete now and I am happy with the result. We also got a new sectional sofa for our TV room. After having the new sectional sofa delivered, the living room is still missing something. On memorial day I finally took out my canvas and paint something for my TV room.