Trick-Or-Treat: Give Me Something Good To Eat

Erik went for his first trick-or-treating with Daddy & Mummy!! He was dressed very warmly as a pumpkin. It seemed fitting since Daddy's high school nickname was "Pumpkin Head", so Daddy thought Erik will be "Pumpkin Head, Jr." Hahahaha!

Mummy & Daddy were also dressed too, as pumpkins!! We are the pumpkin family! hee hee! Mummy basically bought orange polo t-shirts and cut up black felt to make the jack-o-lantern faces and then glued them on! She got the idea after buying Erik's costume and thought it'd be nice to go as the "Pumpkin Family" hahaha! By the way, it was very easy to spot us in the dark too, with bright orange!!

We went over to our friends, Sherry and Oliver's place since they were hosting the Trick-Or-Treat Night. They had made some great food such as Pesto Fried Rice, Jazzed up meatballs, Chicken Wings, and more! It was on a weeknight too! (Thanks for having us, guys!!) What a treat for us! Of course, Erik's buddy, Gabriel was also there along with two other families. We got to eat some great food, babies had a good play date, and then we also got free candy!! hee hee

Erik even had his first "disappointment" when one of the houses in the neighborhood ran out of candy!! hee hee. He was pretty much very excited when approaching stranger's houses and Daddy saying "Trick or Treat" All in all, the three of us had a blast as Erik's first Trick-Or-Treat!! Looking forward to next year's Halloween already!!

Erik's First Halloween (2006)

This past weekend - we threw our Halloween party - we managed to put together a little "shindig" despite arriving back from our trip from Arizona the previous night. Sad to say a few of our dear friends couldn't make it as some "bug/flu" seems to have gotten to them. The party was a blast as we got to catch up with some of our friends.

Every year - I get excited about our pumpkin carvin - party. For the past couple of years we have cranked out a couple of pumpkins using (Zombie Pumkins) templates. Click here to see some of our past years pumpkins. But this years a lot of newbie’s to our annual pumpkin party showed up with no pumpkins. But we still did manage to get some pumpkins carved up... and we also had some "Pumpkin Carvin' Virgins" who I might add did some awesome pumpkins.

Halloween2006

Erik's First Flight

Sorry for the lack of post but we were in Phoenix, AZ recently due to a business trip. As a result, Erik took his first flight on October 22! Erik did absolutely wonderful! Even with all the airport hassles and waiting for our flight, Erik was just his happy self. He's always smiling and was just very curious about the airport! But as soon as we got on board and was about to take off, Erik fell asleep in his own little carseat. So he didn't even know that he was on the plane, until a little later.

Daddy was very much into on board safety so he reviewed the manual with Erik. As a result, Erik was "reading" it very intently and wouldn't let go. At this point, anything to entertain our little guy!!

In addition, Erik got lots of attention from one hostess, and even got held by her! And of course, being Erik's loving self, he gave her a big hug and a big smile, which totally melted her!! :o) hee hee My boy has the looks and the charm!

Growing Up too fast!

Our Darling Son is 6 plus months old – and he seems to be getting more and more independent. The more we try and keep him close and attached to us – the more he is fighting to be independent. Simple things like – wanting to drink the milk bottle by himself with no help – just his little pudgy fingers – wanting to drink out of our tall glass of ice water which we might add he has gotten away with. Just like our class at UC Davis – where a guess speaker was speaking about attachment and how if parents give and meet all the babies need the more independent they become. Dang it that’s it – I guess we are going to start ignoring him so his needs are not met and maybe curb his independency. (just kidding)

Love watching him grow – I still remember meeting him for the first time – he was the size of a pea. (first Ultrasound visit).

Erik growing up too Fast

2 Lil' Chompers

So previously posted, Daddy's firt tooth peeked out at 6 months 1 day versus Erik's first tooth popped out also at 6 months 1 day while the 2nd one was ready to come out any time. So now, Erik's 2nd tooth has peeked out!! It is the cutest thing for Daddy and Mommy to see. We were just putting Erik's PJ's when he flashed us a smile and there they were, two little pearly whites peeking out. So Erik has been using his tongue to try to push these odd objects out of his mouth, little does he know that those won't go anywhere :o) hee hee. Now our night time routine doesn't just include bath time but also teeth brushing time! Erik even has his own little toothbrush :o) hahaha

Baby Signs

This evening all four of us attended the Baby Signs demo class at Mommy's work. The parents network at Mommy's work organized it so Mommy thought it was a good idea to attend since we are interested in signing with Erik (see previous post). There were 8 other groups of parents there, expecting some good presentation. However, we were disappointed with the presentation style and its content. The presenters were dressed professionally but their way of presenting the material was quite dull. Needless to say the babies were bored and so were the parents. We'd much prefer our Saturday class in Davis instead.

Applehill with friends

Erik woke up bright and early on Saturday just to say his goodbyes to our friends from San Diego. He usually wakes up around 10am but on Saturday, he woke up 1 1/2 hours early just to join in on the morning festivities. Daddy was already in the kitchen making batches of yummy waffles **they smelled so good**, frying eggs on two pans, and heating up some very yummy sausages. It was wonderful!! Downstairs in the kitchen and dining area was already lots of chatter, around the table. Anybody coming in would've thought chaos, but for us, it was just family and long-time friends enjoying themselves. Mommy loves Saturday like these cuz Daddy makes awesome breakfasts!! For those who know us, Daddy is not a morning person, so its a real treat to have Daddy cook breakfast in the mornings!

Afterwards, it was off to the airport to drop Great Grandma Lien since she has to go back to New York. It was great having her visit us for 2 weeks. She always hold him nice and tight and ready to cuddle. Of course, Great Grandma Lien also hogs the chance to feed Erik solid food too, while complaining vocally "you guys don't know how to feed him" :-) but Daddy and Mommy takes it lightly so no offense to that, plus we get to actually eat meals while Erik is getting taken care of. Hahahaha!

So after long hugs and kisses...and some more extra kisses for Great Grandma. Off to Applehill we went and met up with Erik's buddies, Gabriel and Ethan, who are 8 months and 4 months, respectively. We quickly enjoyed taking pictures at the Pumpkin patch, thanks to Daddy doing a make-shift baby studio. It was awesome!! Gabriel and Erik took pictures together, of course they weren't in the best of moods but still, very cute! Ethan was snoozing away so he had to opt out on it. Afterwards, we roamed around to see all the barn animals and ate some very yummy pie. Mommy even got a frozen pie to take home for Thanksgiving!! Yipee!! We tried to take a hike with all the babies and kiddies but after a small stroll of about 10 minutes, we headed back as it was time for babies to nurse and time to relax the day away!!

Erik-10-14-6 (Pumpkin Patcdh1)

Dumpling Party with Old Friends

Daddy's long time buddies drove all the way from San Diego just to visit Erik. It was wonderful!!! Such a happy reunion. Daddy has known them for almost 13 years!! Sigh!! And it has been 3 years since we've last seen them...oh my, how time flies!! They have never seen Erik before and made this special trip just to see him.

We also haven't seen how their daughter, Carmel, has grown. She has grown to be be such a lovely young lady. We even celebrated her 9th birthday with homemade dumplings by Grandma Katy and Great Grandma Lien. It was fantastic. Then Daddy brought out raspberry chocolate cake just for her. It was nice just to celebrate a special occassion with good friends.

Erik warmed up to them very quickly!! He babbled to Monica and Carmel. He showed off how high he could jump in his little jumperoo. Erik also liked sitting and cuddling with Monica and Carmel. Afterwards, we all just caught up in the little details of our lives. A little bit here and a little bit there. But by the end, we promise that the next time we visit, it will be our turn to do the traveling down.

Physical Milestones: Learning to Crawl, Sit, & Stand

Erik is trying hard everyday to reach his physical milestones. So at 6 months, he is learning how to crawl, sit by himself, and stand with some help.

Crawling
Yesterday, Erik surprised Daddy and Mommy by crawling a 'little' bit on the bed. He would arch his bottom way up high into the air then tuck his chubby legs in and push off! It was just the cutest! Erik could support himself on all-fours and rocks back & forth slowly but he hasn't quite figured out how to coordinate the crawl. As a result, he created this little "arch & tuck" method to go to his desired destination. We can tell Erik is a very resourceful little guy already :o).

Sitting
Erik can also sit unsupported pretty well. Of course, he also flops over when he gets too distracted. Erik sometimes would twist his back all the way around while sitting and forgets that he needs some extra support...thus the "flop" happens (on to his soft cushion foam mat of course!). And a that point, Mommy and Daddy excited cheer "Yay!! What A Good Flop That Was?! Yay!!" [add hand clapping!] [add extra big smile!]. Then Erik would give us a perplex look as if "what the heck you so happy about? I just fell!" :o) hahahaha



Standing
As for standing, Mommy or Daddy needs to help Erik with us. We basically pull him from a laying position to a SIT position and then we hold out our hands and Erik would grab hold and move his legs into a STAND. He could hold it for a few seconds and then sit back down. Of course, he loves to STAND in the big bathtub and splash the water!! Daddy and Erik loves to "splish n' splash" in the tub every night...and Mommy is basically thinking "oh my goodness, look at those water getting onto the floor and onto my cabinets?!"...but its' worth it to see Erik giggling and smiling away...and a few wipes later, everything is good as new!

Happy 1/2 Year Birthday, Erik!

Monday, October 9th was Erik's 6 month birthday. We can't believe he's a 1/2 year old already!!! Mommy swears it was just yesterday that Erik was only a tiny little newborn. Sigh! Daddy could still remember Erik's first photo (sonogram) and he was only at the size of a pea. Another Sigh! Where did the time go? Our little baby is growing up.

So, HAPPY 1/2 YEAR BIRTHDAY to our darling son, Erik!! We love you lots!! You've definitely brightened up our days and nights.

We didn't really do anything to "celebrate" since it was time for his 6 month shots. Erik had to have 3 immunization shots yesterday and our poor boy didn't know what was coming. At first, he was happy and smiling like his usual self. He even grinned at the nurse and the doctor. He was observing everything in his environment and wasn't scared of the doctor. Afterwards, the nurse came with 3 injections and the first two, Erik didn't even cry! He was soooo brave! But the third one...that was the big stinger!! He made Erik cried like crazy :o( SNIFF SNIFF!! Even nursing him didn't help...he was just looking at me with tears streaming down his cheeks...as if asking "WHY, Mommy?!! WHY, Daddy??!!"

Afterwards, he just slept a whole lot during the day and was a fussball during the night. His fever went up to 102.5 degrees!! We gave Erik baby Tylenol droplets and that helped a bit. Mommy and Daddy had to call the on-call nurse to see if there's anything else we could do to relieve Erik a bit. Basically recommended cold water for sipping, ice for gnawing (also Erik is now teething, we can see his buds! **NOTE** buds as in 2 little chompers. Erik had to out do Daddy), and a cold towel as a compress for the forhead. So as you can imagine, Daddy and Mommy didn't really get a good night rest since Erik didn't. But no worries, his fever faded after 2am. WHEW! Hope Erik will be okay for the rest of today! Kisses and Hugs to Erik!!

First Pumpkin Patch

We headed up east for about 40 minutes or so to take Erik to his First Pumpkin Patch! It was very exciting for Daddy and Mommy :o) hee hee. As many of our friends know that we are very fond of Halloween and the Autumn season. It is just the perfect time to take photos since the changing of the leaves gives a perfect background and lighting. We usually like to take lots of pictures during this time of year.

So that was our mission. To take some cute photos of Erik. As a result, pumpkin patch was the place to be! Daddy had to gather a whole bunch of pumpkins to put together so that Erik could sit comfortably (aka, not wobble over). At first Erik didn't know what the heck was going on. He had a perplexed look on his face as we plopped him down on the hay and was surrounded by these funny orange balls (aka pumpkins). Then he saw Daddy snapping away and Mommy jumping up and down to get his attention so he figured that it was picture time :o) and gave us some cute moments! WHEW!

After the picture taking event, Erik got to see lots of little farm animals like goats, chickens, donkeys, and a gigantic pig! Holy Moley, that pig was really really big!! Don't know if Erik got scared but he sure was grinning and smiling as he sat on Daddy's shoulders. So all in all, we had a good time. Next week, we may go on a light hike if Erik and his buddies are up for it!

Dining Out With Daddy's Friends

After attending Erik's usual UC Davis class, we jammed up east to go for a late lunch with Daddy's friends from college days. These are very cool and nice people that we've known for so many years now. A couple of them even made the 100 miles drive out East just to see and meet everyone. Everybody is at a different milestone in their lives. One is single and maybe searching, One is just single and not searching. One is married but single. Another is Dating n' Waiting. We were the only boring married couple with a child :o) hee hee. But it's good to know that even though we are all at different points in our lives, we still like to meet with each other and catch up!

We had no idea how Erik will react to restaurant dining since it was more of a 'grown-up' place, where the water glasses were just a bit fancier and cloth napkins were used instead. However, Erik did extremely well! He was such a big boy in his high chair. Daddy and Mommy were very impressed at his good behavior. The lunch lasted about 2 hours but Erik did absolutely superb (according to us)! He made noises and was curious of everything (of course) and such but didn't cry or fuss too much ....only near the end when he was absolutely too tired.

While the rest of lunch group enjoyed some awesome persian food, Erik dined on organic sweet potato and water. One cute moment was when our server picked up Mommy's glass to refill the water, Erik reached out towards the glass with both hands and looked at the server as if "Hey lady, where you taking my water glass?!" (but in a polite manner) Very cute!!

Hope this means we'll have many more Happy Dining Moments!

Family

Daddy's Grandma Lien from New York is currently visiting us and just really spending time with Erik. For Daddy and me, we've finally realized how important family are. Daddy can recount numerous stories back in his younger days of how happy and loving his entire family is (**don't get me wrong, there are many moments that were not as loving either but that's for another blog**). Since Daddy was surrounded with wonderful aunts, uncles, grandpas, grandmas, and lots and lots of cousins, he wants Erik to experience that happiness that comes with a large family.

As a result, Daddy actually requested Grandma Lien (aka now Great Grandma Lien to Erik) to visit from New York. In addition, we are requesting our dear Aunty Ruth to visit during Thanksgiving holiday since we have not seen them in so many years already. Erik just loves being around family and company.

As for Grandpa Tom, he's in Bhutan now but still makes the call over here on a weekly basis just to hear Erik's voice. I must say, Erik absolutely adores Grandpa Tom as eagerly grabs the phone...and you can see Erik's face that he wants to say something but gets frustrated that he can't so he lets out a big "SIGH!". So I guess message to Grandpa Tom from Erik "Yea Yea, I miss you lots and love you lots! Come back soon!"

Can Erik Be Trilingual or even Quadlingual?

As you can see in the title, we are expecting Erik to be at least bilingual, as in knowing both Chinese (Cantonese) and English as a minimum. However, here lies our challenge of introducing Erik to become trilingual with the addition of Hindi, since Daddy speaks it.

Why So Many Languages?
Honestly, it is not that many. Only in the U.S., is it rare to speak multiple languages. In asia and in europe, it is very common to speak more than 2 languages. It eases communicationa lot easier. In addition, I've even read an article long time back that if you are fluent in more than 2 languages from the time you were a baby and onward, you actually age slower!! How wonderful is that to hear?

So How Does It Work?
I've read various blogs and books regarding introduction of languages of how one parent speaks only in language A to the baby/child and the other speaks in language B to the bab/child and then language C between the parents. I personally would like to try that route but Daddy is hesitating a bit to do strictly Hindi with Erik. But don't get me wrong, Hindi, is defintely spoken in the household, just not directly to Erik. Hindi is spoken between Grandma Katy and Daddy from time to time. In addition, Erik is exposed to Hindi through the weekly "Hindi Movie Night" that Grandma loves to watch! ...and I do notice that Erik is loving the Hindi song & dance numbers.

What About Quadlingual
Well, one activity that Daddy and Mommy have decided to do as Erik grows a little older is to learn a new language together as a family!! What a wonderful activity to do, where everybody starts on the same step and then help each other learn, practice, and converse in it? What language? Not sure yet, but we're already leaning towards French!

So that's all for now, au revoir!

Teething & Babbling

Teething

We think Erik is approaching another milestone...Teething. He's been making some very funny faces lately, especially when we're feeding him his dinner. Even though he likes pureed apples, Erik will squint his eyes, suck in his lips, stick out his tongue and just give us the cutest "funny" face! Daddy says that it reminds him of those beer commercials with "Bitter Beer Face". Hee hee.

Since Daddy popped out his first tooth at exactly 6 months and 1 day, we're guessing that Erik is doing that as well since he's going to be celebrating his 6 month birthday on October 9th! So maybe on the 10th, we'll be seeing Erik's first pearly white.

Babbling

Erik is also doing a lot more babbling and communications so far. He has learned new sounds like "ga ga", "ya ya", "yeah yeah", "di di", basically he's making up sounds with the letters "g", "y", "d" so far. He just started this past week so he's still practicing his babbling. And also, Daddy and Mommy claims Erik to be a definite Chinese baby....because we swear we heard "aiyah" uttered from Erik's mouth. It was just so cute!! Of course, we also heard "uh-oh" from time to time too. So adorable!!