Rolie Polie

Erik has been working hard on his muscle development and milestones every day as Daddy came up with a nice workout routine just for him. So here is Erik's morning routine, he gets to be in his favorite Jumperoo for about 10 minutes first. This is where little Erik grins and babbles and just get so excited. He also shows off quite a bit by bouncing quite high and using all his leg muscles.

After that, he gets to do his floor exercise on the ultimate baby mat (basically his very large primary color foam mat plus a another baby texture mat on top). On the floor, this is where he practices his rolling. Although Erik cannot crawl yet, he can roll from one end to another quite fast! As a result, I coin Erik as "Rolie Polie". Erik also does his tummy and back exercise from here too.



From there he works out his hand coordinations on the either the baby gym or he gets to sit on his favorite farm animal rocker chair (THANKS ELIZABETH & CHRIS!!). He grabs all the toys and looks at it with intent. So you know Erik is working out his biceps and triceps :-) hahaha

After that, if Erik still has energy, he goes into another of his favorite, the Hop n' Pop (THANKS PENNE & PHIL!!) where he can hop as long as he wants until he gets tired.....which by this time, he's lucky if he can make it in there for 1-2 minutes before he starts crying for help from being over stimulated and over tired from all the exercising.

So as you can see, we are already training Erik to be a Gymnast ;-). He just might be in the Olympics for the Gold, thanks to Daddy's exercise routine!!

Visit to SFO & San Francisco Zoo

SFO

This weekend, we dropped Grandpa Tom to the San Francisco International Airport for his flight home to Bhutan. Erik did so well, especially since it was late at night. It was as if Erik new that Grandpa will be leaving a long time and wanted to stay awake as much as possible before dosing off. He gave Grandpa extra sweet smiles and kisses and hugs all throughout Saturday. Then, as soon as Grandpa went into the security line, Erik dozed off in Grandma Katy's arms. Sigh! Erik is such a sweet boy! (Lots of kisses to our darling son)

P.S. On Monday, Erik was a bit lonely since it was just him and Grandma. He was looking for his Grandpa Tom!

Swimming w/ Daddy



Earlier on Sunday morning, Grandma Katy walked Erik by the pool and his eyes just lit up, as a result, Daddy and Erik took advantage especially since it was indoors and heated! Erik was loving the water and he got splash in the pool and spend just spend time with his favorite buddy, Daddy! I think it may just be Erik's last swim for 2006 since our gym pool doesn't heat up as much and its outdoors! Sigh!

San Francisco Zoo

Erik visit to the San Francisco Zoo

In the afternoon, Grandma Katy, Daddy, Mummy, and Erik visited the SF Zoo! (**Thanks Miriam, Matt, and lil' Gabriel for giving us the Zoo coupon!!**) It was our first time there and we had a blast! At first Erik was still sleeping away in the car but as soon as we arrived, his eyes popped open and ready for some actions. So here's a list of what we saw and what happened:

• 2 Baby Giraffes (born in May 2006) - Erik was very excited about seeing them


• Zebras


• A Family of Gorillas - Mummy is shorter than the avg Gorilla by 3"!


• Lemurs including an white & black one


• Erik sat on a high chair for lunch as-if he was a big boy!


• Daddy witnessed a flock of seagulls very calculated attack on one woman's Fish & Chips lunch - Poor Thing!


• Kangaroos including an all-white one and learned that they only jump at night since they are nocturnal creatures!


• We learned that Koalas are NOT related to the bear family but are marsupials!


• Erik fell asleep without a wimper in his stroller as he was too tired

Pressure Cooker!

From a previous post, you know we have started introducing solid food with Erik. So with the assistance of my mum-in-law, Katy, and her introduction to cooking with pressure cooker. It made making food for Erik so darn easy and within 15 minutes from start to finish that I want to share it out there for parents.

So for those who haven't used pressure cookers or don't know what it is. Here's a brief intro. Pressure cookers is your basic pot aluminum or stainless steel pot but the lid has a extra seal and allows steam to escape as pressure builds. The liquid inside the pot comes to a rapid boil and high temperature as pressure builds in relateive short time. As a result, steam, pressure, and boiling liquid infuses the food inside as fast as possible thus the food cooks rapidly.

So, I was doing some research on how nutrients were affected by various cooking methods. So from the least to the best of how much nutrients/flavonoids are retained after cooking:

• Microwave - loses about 97%!


• Boiling - nutrients are lost in the water (so retain the water and you're good)


• Pressure Cooked - very good! food is cooked in short amounts of time.


• Steam - Great! food is cooked within its own juices!


• Steamed & Pressure Cooked - Excellent! Retains more than 90% of the vitamins!!

So I tried the middle option last night. Chhimi bought home some fresh sweet potatos that he got at a nearby farmer's market and I was able to dice them up into small chunks. Place them in the pressure cooker & covered with water just barely and within 10 - 15 minutes, the potatoes were really nice and soft! I pureed it and added a little bit of filtered water just to mix it to a right consistency due to the startch in the sweet potatoes. It tasted yummy without any seasonings!! I'm amazed, that for one small sweet potato, I was able to make 3 super-large servings for Erik so I froze two of them and left one in the fridge for tonight's dinner :-). YAY! My goal is to really start making Erik's food myself and build up my skills in cooking with the help of Grandma Katy.

Below are some links about pressure cooking and baby foods (for those who may be interested, of course, my mum-in-law is the expert in this!):

How to Make Your Own Baby Food
Pressure Cooker Outlet - I think this is the brand we have.
Some Misc. Recipes (non baby food)
Baby Food Recipes

Weekend Get-Togethers!

We had a blast this weekend! It was a baby-filled two days! Erik was lucky enough to be invited to two baby play dates!!

SATURDAY
On Saturday, we went over to the Mansion of "Song of a Dodo", also known as, Joshua's mansion! Erik had great fun over there! He got to see Josh and Guilia, they're about 11 months old and saw how they played and interacted with them. There was one cute girl missing from the get-together, our dear "Marooned with Macaroon"'s Makena, she was sick so she had to stay home and rest (GET WELL SOON, Makena!! HUGS and KISSES for you).

Playdate with Josh and Guilia

Josh showed us how he can throw lots of toys around and how he played soccer...um...and how he can wink and say "wassup doll face" (okay, Josh really couldn't say that but his dad sure did say it a lot LOL!). Guilia showed us how she can stand and walk in her firetruck. Man, that girl got some good control on the walker!! Erik tried so hard to imitate Josh and Guilia but his motor skills at 5 months just cannot compare. Josh was super sweet and nice to share all his toys and room with Erik and Guilia. Erik basically was very tired by the end that he just slept in the guest bedroom :-) hee hee. As for us parents, we enjoyed a relaxing BBQ lunch, thanks Heidi, Russ, and JoJo for inviting us over!! You guys were awesome hosts, we will definitely have to return the favor!!!

SUNDAY

Get together @ Casa de Gabriel

Then on Sunday afternoon, we headed over to Casa de Gabriel's where he got to play with 4 other babies, Erik was the 2nd youngest in the play group, but that didn't deter him one bit. From the oldest, we had Talia, who is in her toddler years of 2 1/4 years old!! From there, we had Bhao Nghi, who's the only girl in the group and is already 1 year old. Then we had Austin, who's 9 months old but just a sweet boy! After that, we had Gabriel, who just turned 7 months old yesterday (Happy 7th Month Birthday, Gabe!). Then there is Ryan, who is 6 months old and traveled for 2 hours to get to the party (Thanks for driving up!! U Da Best! We LOVED the "Chick Magnet" onesie!). After that comes, Erik, who just turned 5 months old yesterday (Happy 5 month Birthday, our darling boy!) Then there is Ethan, who is almost 3 months old but at a whopping 18 lbs!!

All in all, it was a baby filled weekend and we wouldn't want it any other way. Chhimi and I know that we just really fortunate to have wonderful friends that are on a similar journey in parenthood to share our experiences together.

So, cheers, to great friends, without you guys, Chhimi, Erik, and I wouldn't be the same!!!

Started On Solids!!

Alright, we started on solid food now! For some parents, it may be "what the heck? why so late?!" For other parents, it may be "what the heck? why so early?!". For us, it was a pact between Daddy and Mommy. Mommy was aiming for 6 months to start and Daddy wanted to start ASAP ...well, really at 4 months. So 5 months was a good compromise!

Erik on Solid Food

We're going at it pretty much how we want to do it instead of what the books recommended. For example, Erik's first solid (aka pureed food) was Green Beans instead of the rice creal with breastmilk. In all over the world, they are much more relaxed about solid food compared to the United States where its overly analyzed. Our approach is to go with the flow. Of course, for us, we're also going to feed him our version of rice cereal which is basically pureed cooked rice in home made beef stock. The beef stock will have the iron necessary for his diet and rice...well, can't help it, we're Chinese, we eat rice! :-) hahahaha

We're going to go with one meal per day for now until he really demands more. Just because I don't want it to mess Erik's nursing schedule and really want to prolong his nursing as much as possible, my goal is to make it to one year.

So what was Erik's reaction to his solid food? HE TOTALLY LOVED IT!

These are the foods that we've tried so far from Gerber as a test run (in order of the introduction to Erik):

• Green Beans - Thumbs UP!


• Sweet Potatoes - Thumbs UP!


• Peaches - Thumbs DOWN!!!! - gave him gas, YUCK!


• Carrots - Thumbs UP!


• Green Peas - Inconclusive - his facial expression was "Eh? But I'll eat it"


• Mashed Avocado - Thumbs UP!

So far, I think our little Erik is going to be a "foodie" just like us :-) hee hee

Labor Day Celebration

Erik had a great labor day weekend with the family. Uncle Penjo flew in from New York for a lovely long weekend and those two were just the best of buds! Erik warmed up to him quickly. At first I think he was a bit confused at who this fellow was and why does he look similar to Daddy? But after a little time has passed and he got used to this new "stranger", Erik was his usual cheery self.

We visited the California State Fair this year to show Grandpa Tom and Uncle Penjo the lovely fares that you can get. Grandpa Tom was not impressed with the jumbo corn dogs nor was he impressed with the fair BBQ. Uncle Penjo was not impressed with the livestock exhibition and quickly ran out of the building (**We think he's been in New York a little bit too long :-D hahaha **) However, Grandpa Tom and Grandma Katy absolutely loved the Strawberry Funnel Cake!! They were impressed with the live cooking show demonstrations and were able to sample some yummy cuisines by "celebrity chefs". **That just means that they have been watching Food Network a bit too much **

Then we hosted a small BBQ get-together with Grandpa Tik and Grandpa Wai along with Erik's cousin, Alyssa. Friends (that were actually in town and didn't have any other friends) were also invited. Daddy made some kick @ss BBQ ribs that everybody just dived into, including the ole' so picky Grandpa Tik! Erik got to introduce his buddies to his Uncle and Grandpa :-) hee hee

ME & My Family

Me & My Grandma Wai


Me & My Grandma Katy


Me & My Uncle Penjo


Me & My Mummy & My Daddy
(I LOVE YOU LOTS!)


Me & Me


Just Me!

We also went swimming at the local gym and Erik was able to see his favorite lifeguard "Laura" one last time before she heads off to college in Seattle. The life guard just adores Erik. For the past summer, every time we head over to the pool, "Laura" would just smile at Erik and of course, he would just coo and smile back and show off a bit on how he can "swim" so well with Daddy. He even splashed with his arms this time while he kicks under the water!!! So proud of our little sprout!

So all in all, we had a blast on Labor Day celebrating the last holiday of summer before autumn sets in!