Thank you Aunt Cristina and Uncle Will

We got a package in the mail this week and it was a Romanian childrens book from Cristina & Will! There was also a cute cuddly toy.

Thanks!! We are one book closer to achieving our International Library for our little Tyler!!

Tyler and Alan taking a stab at reading Romanian! They were very quiet.. not sure how far they got!

Welcome Home Dadda..

That's what the card Tyler made for Alan said when he welcomed him home from Beijing. He patiently sat by the door for his Dadda to walk in. :)


Tyler surprising Dadda at the door...

It was so very cute!

Alan in turn brought back some Beijing 2008 dolls.


Beijing 2008 Dolls from China.. hmm.. what's not from China these days?

Anyways, Alan had been a way for a week for business in Beijing while Tyler and I planned a week full of adventures only to be spoiled by a bad cold. Tyler and I were both down with the cold and spent most of the week in bed. Well, I wanted to be in bed, he had no choice. By Friday, i thought I was better and went to work just to turn around after lunch to crawl back into bed.

Thank goodness for good friends like Steffen, Damith, Sabrina and Hish, who brought me food, medicine, did some grocery shopping and looked after Tyler while i took a hot shower. To think about it, they practically begged me to take one. Heck, i couldn't and still can't smell anything, maybe i did stink!!

Ugly duckling at the Ball... :(

This weekend, Steffen and I went to the Red and White Salsa Ball at the Denver Turnverein. Not sure what I was thinking, but i decided NOT to dress up. Maybe because Steffen showed up in blue or maybe because i was already 20 mins late.. but whatever it was, it was a choice i seriously regretted.

When i went downstairs, even Alan commented on my wrinkled pants!!! That should have sounded me off. But somehow i decided that night to ignore it.

So, you should see my dismay when i arrived at the Ball and everybody was dressed in their ball gowns and posh. I felt like Cinderella but still in her rags!!! *sob sob*..

I tried to convince Steffen we should go home and change but he was having none of that and convinced me that i was OK.

So, anyways, i vow that the next ball i go to, I'm going to be the Belle of the Ball!!! No more rags!!

(if i were unlucky enough to be caught in film by the photographer, i will post it as a punishment and reminder to never underdress!!)

Plaster hand/foot print.. don't do it!

Alan bought me a bunch of these make-a-footprint-in-plaster home kits for Christmas. It was a cute idea but i thought it was definitely a disaster-in-waiting projects. But after weeks of procrastination, we finally found ourselves having some time on our hands this weekend and decided that it's now or never to tackle this.

It was actually quite a funny task at first and our hand print was not as nice as the one in the picture. But I didn't find it so funny after i had to re-do the footprint for the 6th time! Like i told Alan, who's going to notice that there are 6 toes instead of 5 in Tyler's plaster??


First you pry open their teeny little fingers...


Then you push them into the plaster and press each finger


And make sure they don't wriggle. Didn't realize Tyler had so much toe movements till now!

So, my take on this subject.. let the pros do it!!

I would also show you a finished product but it's so ugly the camera refused to take a picture of it!! hahaha...

Tyler and his Bumbo seat

Look at him all serious in his Bumbo

When Alan and I saw this "gizmo" for the first time, we thought it was quite clever. A stable little seat for a baby who can't quite sit yet. So, we bought it soon after Tyler wanted to explore the sitting position.

He seems to enjoy it and i think it's funny as heck when he's in it. And my aunt Shirley bought this cute little pair of elephant slippers and he loves them. When he's in the Bumbo and he's wearing the slippers, it's like instant entertainment. Who needs toys?

I took a series of pictures of him(you always take so many) and couldn't decide which one to post, so i decided, post all. Hmm.. am I becoming one of those obsessive moms with pictures?? *gulp*

Valentine's Day

I think Valentine's Day is going out of style. I know more people not wanting to celebrate it than those who does. I mean, who can blame them right? Guys get gouged with very expensive flowers while women get all upset when they don't get flowers. The only person happy is Hallmark, ok, all the florists and restaurants too.

Anyways, Alan likes to celebrate Valentine's Day and so I got a bunch of very beautiful roses for the occasion, though it did arrive on the 13th, which i didn't really mind. One more day to enjoy them, yeah? I did think about selling them to the guys at work to make some extra cash! hehe..


Alan and I enjoying our mighty small portioned meals

I, in turn, took him out for a posh meal. I booked us at the latest rave called SoBo Bistro. Atmosphere was OK and food was not bad and it was the most expensive meal I've paid per volume. We were joking that when we were nearly done, that we should go over to Damith and Sabrina's house for a proper meal!!


Tyler hanging out with Damith and Sabrina

Damith and Sabrina were kind to babysit Tyler for us that night so that Alan and I could have an uninterrupted "romantic" meal and even lived right across the street from the restaurant. How lucky is that??

Links to pictures from Malaysia

Just in case you didn't get your picture in our blog(very selective).. check out the link below for more pictures of our visit to Malaysia.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcMXLRmzZtGa7

Maybe Tyler can read?

Well, I'm beginning to suspect Tyler can read and he's been secretly reading our blog because just after I wrote that he hasn't rolled over in the last blog, he went and did it twice the next day. Once for Daddy and once for Mommy just so that there was no confusion.

Oh, our little Tinker snores too. He's so funny.

But there's some other funny babies out there. I was watching this video of this hilarious baby. You can check it out at utube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXXm696UbKY

Tyler's Update - 14 weeks

I should do this every month to help me keep track of his progress and to keep all of you amused for a while.

Tyler is now about 13.2 lbs and quite an active young man.

He smiles quite often and laughs when you make snorting pig noises.

He is usually most happy in the morning when he wakes up and babbles non-stop.

He goes to daycare 5 days a week and apparently does not like taking his milk from the bottle.

He rolled over when he was about 10 weeks though i haven't seen him do much of it lately. But he is more mobile when he's in his bed.

He likes to sit up(needs support still) and makes cute little steps when you stand him up.

He loves eating his knuckles and sometimes even chews on his arms.

His grabbing skill is not all there but is able to sometimes grab his toy to put in his mouth

He can lift his head quite well when he's not tired. When he's tired, he gets frustrated and just chews on his arms.

Malaysian Adventure Part 3 (in Spore)

It's 11:40 pm, so let's see if i can finish this before i go to bed.

On our last day in Spore, we paid my aunt Maggie in the morning before meeting up with Aunt Shirley for lunch. She took us to this nice little restaurant which had really good duck salad and fatty pork. Yummm... After than, my cousin Yin, met us and we walked around the area for some shopping and a little sight seeing. It was nice to see some beautiful CNY decorations around Singapore.

Beautiful CNY decorations at local bank

Cousin Yin and Aunt Shirley with Tyler around Raffles Place

At about 6 pm, we headed towards the Esplanade to meet up with a few friends. It was a collection of old and new friends and an aunt that I haven't seen in years. We had a nice meal at an outdoor food court with a collection good local cuisine(except for the bad satay!) and I had a great time catching up with everybody.

Brandon and Tyler

Cheng Li - one of my High School classmates

Wilson(old old friend from BP) and Eileen whom i met in Colorado

Anyways, it had been a fun 2 weeks in Malaysia and Singapore. I had a great time eating all my favorite food and meeting my friends while Tyler had a wonderful time with Po-po and Kong-kong who pampered him to no end. I am sure Tyler misses their constant attention very much.

Tyler and Po-po and Kong-kong...

More birthday and CNY celebrations

Of course there's more celebration.. :) I waited a good 30 years for this!! So, on Friday, I arranged for a Chinese feast to celebrate with 14 of my friends. We went to a Chinese restaurant in Boulder and went for the banquet meal option. 9 courses!

Unfortunately, the entire city of Boulder was also at the restaurant that night and we waited for more than 1.5 hrs before we got seated despite our prior reservation. However, despite a super late start, the food was good and I had a great time with my friends who were kind to shower with more gifts. I am quite the lucky girl!


My 9-course CNY feast celebration

Then on Saturday, i woke up bright and early to start preparing a traditional chinese new year vegetarian dish with Fat Choy for a CNY party hosted by my friend Lily. It was something I had never done before so, i had to call to consult my mom who gave very detailed instructions. So, plenty of braising, chopping and cooking later, my dish was ready! I wasn't sure if it was as good as my mom made it, but when i went back to get the dish, it was clean. I figured it must have not been too bad!


Picture of my vegetarian dish

It was a fun party at Lily's. There were about 50 people there and we did the traditional "Lo Hei" to bring in luck, prosperity for the year. Food was good and plentiful as usual. Tyler, who went with me, had a great time being carried around and fussed about by many people(Alan was not feeling well, so he didn't go).


Tyler and his Chinese pony-tail .. hehehe..

My Birthday and Chinese New Year

Ever since I can remember, I've always wished that my Birthday and Chinese New Year would coincide. This year, it finally did!!

On the morning of my birthday, as I woke up, i was greeted by Alan and Tyler who showered me with nice cards and presents.

Birthday card from Tyler (pardon my sleepy face, as I said, i just woke up)

After opening all the nice presents(Jaffa cakes and mirror from Tyler and Spa certificate from Alan), we got ready for the day(work for Alan and I and day care for Tyler) and we dressed up in our semi new clothes for CNY and Alan and I gave Tyler his first CNY red packets for luck.

Tyler holding his "Ang Pow"

That evening, my darling hubby also took me out for a nice meal in Boulder. As our babysitter had to work, we decided that Tyler can come along too. Food was excellent and i enjoyed the company of two of my favorite people in the world. Life is good.

Tyler and I at the restaurant

The whole family enjoying a quiet meal

Happy Chinese New Year

Wishing everybody a very Happy Chinese New Year!

May the year of the Rat bring you happiness, health, wealth, success and all the good stuff!

p.s it's my birthday this year on first day of CNY. Cool, eh???

2nd week back at work

It's been more than a week since i last blogged. Not by choice. It's just first week of being back at work, doing house work, looking after Tyler and on top of that, battling with jet lag has definitely pushed me to my limits. I had to sleep at some point, so, i thought blogging could wait for once.

But i think I've caught up. Both Tyler and I have finally switched back to the right time zone and usually only wake up once a night.

Anyways, I'm still trying to establish some sort of schedule but am still doing a few trial and error runs. Just trying to find out what's the most efficient way to do all these activities in the morning:

a) Wake up
b) Shower and dress up
c) Make breakfast
d) Wake Tyler up
e) Get him ready
f) Get his bottles ready
g) Get my bottles ready(wash, sterilize breastpump etc)
h) Feed Tyler
i) Feed myself
j) Get Tyler and I out of the door(easier said than done)
k) Drop him off at Daycare
l) Drive to work

So, everyday i sorta play with the order of these few activities and find that when Alan helps me, it gets done wayyy faster. :)

Anyways, tonight i feel quite good that I've actually made dinner, given Tyler a bath, washed all my bottles, cleaned up my kitchen and now doing my blog! I must be good!! :)

But once again, it's time for bed...