Intel Spring Fair with Mommy & Daddy

Welcome Back Grandpa Tom and Grandma Katy

This past Sunday, we picked up our "reinforcement" team at the San Francisco airport! Grandpa Tom and Grandma Katy have arrived to assist the upbringing of Erik. Both have seen Erik just a little over 2 months ago when we were still in Bhutan but for them it must've been decades because both grandparents were ever so excited to see their little grandson!

Erik's first reaction? Hesitation! He was a bit uncertain and shy around them, as if wondering who these people are. Are they strangers? Yet he recognized them. Then the ultimate strategy came into play from Grandma Katy....PRESENTS! Grandma Katy whipped out a tube of plastic animal figurines (which for some reason, Erik is really into them nowadays!)...and that was it. Our son is a little greedy one...he grabbed the tube and went over to Grandma Katy. SIGH!

It was still a positive reunion. Grandpa Tom was eager to hold his darling grandson. Also, Grandpa Tom did something that he would've never done for his both sons, Chhimi and Penjo. The 30+ year old rocking horse that Grandpa Tom made for Chhimi and then all his little brother and cousins after him used...Grandpa Tom dismantled it, added extra padding, and brought it with him to the U.S....just for his grandson Erik! What a wonderful piece of history for us and for Erik!! It was a grand and sweet gesture from Grandpa Tom!

Erik couldn't really sleep so he stayed up waaaaay past his bedtime (~10pm) and ate a very late dinner with his Grandparents which included some very yummy stir fry tofu and BBQ pork slices from the local chinese restaurant...and then he finally dozed off to sleep in the car....all happy :o).

Influence and Shaping Our Erik

When we look at Erik nowadays, Mummy and Daddy realized that we are influencing and shaping our little baby every day, with our quirky behaviors and actions! For months, Daddy has been feeling a bit "left out", shall we say since everybody seemed to have influenced Erik yet Daddy couldn't really pin-point anything that was his original.

Some Examples
Mummy - ASL Signing Communications
Great Grandpa M.W. Hing - Riding Horsie Sound
GrandAunty Ellie - Ring Around The Rosie
GrandAunty Sally - Say "Dog" in English

Well, Daddy has finally left an impression with Erik and its totally something cute and amazing! Daddy being the photographer has been saying "Cheese" and "Smile" to Erik...and now every time Daddy says it, Erik grins from ear to ear showing all teeth and no eyes! It is the cutest and most adorable expression ever. Totally love it! Of course, Erik and Daddy are now into semi-pretend play. Erik is really into dinosaurs too, Thanks to Daddy, and knows how to "growl" and "roar" while playing. He loves playing with the plastic figurines ranging from leaping frogs, doggies, T-rex, gorilla, giraffe, and more.

At the same time, it is truly amazing for Mummy and Daddy to know that we have a son to raise. We hope to raise him, not perfectly, but well. So with everything we do on a daily basis, he's seeing and learning day by day what's acceptable, what's expected, etc. SIGH! We have a great responsibility in our hands to shape and mold our darling son. Hopefully, we'll do fine with a few mistakes here and there and that he won't be scarred for life!

Friday Night Swimming

Previously, Mummy wrote that we enrolled Erik into the local Parent-Tot swim class...and with our 2nd class underway. Erik is still loving it! Actually, Erik has a big preference to pretty instructors! We initially had a guy instructor and Erik screamed his head off not wanting anything to do with him. Literally!

Then after a few minutes, Sara, the cute brunette instructor came long and Erik went to her arms just fine! WHAT A FLIRT!! In his 2nd class, Erik went under the water for a few seconds...on purpose it was part of the class. Don't know how the instructor did it but Erik went underneath the water and didn't drink any. He also worked on climbing out of the pool from the edge all by himself.

Then also worked on "diving" back in on a sitting position from the edge back into the pool!! OMG! Both Mummy and Daddy's hearts just dropped when we saw Erik did that. Didn't know if he was okay or not...but he emerged just fine without any coughing! The entire class was pretty much devoted to Erik "swimming" under water safely. He loved it! It was 1/2 play and 1/2 lessons for the quick 30 minute! Daddy even got to swim a couple rounds all by himself since Erik found his new "girlfriend" LOL! Can't wait until this coming Friday again for another round of swimming!

Daddy is taking me to see Shrek 3 tonight

Lack of Posts

For our beloved blog readers, sorry for the lack of posts lately. Its been 9 days since we wrote anything down. Not that nothing uneventful has happened...its just that Mummy and Daddy are literally exhausted! So let's do a recap of what's going on for those who are sending me "IM reminders" to write (you know who you guys are!) LOL!

Molars Are Coming Out
We thought teething was bad but when the molars are coming out...its even worse. The progress is at a snail pace! So basically for us and Erik, every 2 nights, he'd wake up in the middle of the night every single hour...crying! :o( Our poor little baby! For Mummy and Daddy, it means trying to comfort him as much as possible...rocking, holding...and yes, even night time nursing! Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But still the every hour of waking up really is wearing our old bodies out!! Daddy and Mummy are barely functioning in the morning. Really, I haven't needed caffeinated coffee for quite a while and have been surviving on DECAF ever since pregnancy...but these past 2 weeks....I've had to get coffee every morning..fully loaded!

Family Is Visiting
Well, our house is in a major disarray with the above event going on. Literally, our house is so messy that Mommy can't stand it any more. At the same time, Grandma Katy and Grandpa Tom are making their way back to the States from Bhutan! Erik will be major happy to see some friendly familiar faces! There stay will be an extended one, at least think so but who knows! At the same time, we are going to have two surprise visitors, Erik's GrandAunt Mary and GrandAunt Ellie from Bhutan are also visiting (only for 2 weeks though). So Mummy and Daddy are trying to figure out we are going to accommodate 4 additional adults plus our own little family of 3 in our tiny house! Hahaha! I guess it'll be a bit "cozy" for 2 weeks!

Swimming
We've enrolled Erik at the local swim school for a Parent-Tot class. Daddy and Erik LOVED every moment of it last week! Well, Erik really wasn't too keen on seeing so many strangers in his huge "bathtub" with him and he didn't like the guy instructor too much. However, he really warmed up to the blonde cutie-pie instructor that came after LOL! He even let her hold him to help him sway in the pool! Daddy had a lot of fun just dipping and swaying Erik...he said it gave him a pretty good work out! Erik was able to dip his head underneath the water...which Mommy was holding her breath seeing that!! They had an awesome time and we'll go again this coming Friday! This really makes Mummy and Daddy think to have a pool install in our backyard!!! ...keyword is "THNK" here :o) hee hee. We'll probably just end up using our friends' instead...YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!

Eating/Drinking
Mummy and Daddy had a bit of a rough time these past few weeks. Erik transitioned from the infant room to the toddler room. It was a major change for Mummy and Daddy as well. We were very much used to our infant teachers and had great chemistry with them. We knew that Erik was taken care of on his basic needs of drinking breastmilk (yes, I'm still doing nursing) and eating (okay, Erik's a light eater). However, once Erik has transitioned into the toddler room with a stricter schedule, his eating and drinking (milk) habits have changed drastically.

Thus, there were some emotional breakdown from Mummy and Daddy's part! We worry about Erik and his health. It literally took Erik's doctor's to give us a sanity talk to wake us up! Erik is no longer in the 75-90% percentile in weight...but it doesn't mean anything! Doctor asks, is Erik active and thriving?! Then he's OKAY! Doctor wasn't even concerned and told us to just really look for ONE solid meal a day...that's the goal. Is Erik eating one good meal a day and is he still nursing from me. If so...Good! So simple yet Daddy and Mummy freaks out when the toddler teachers call and says "Erik hasn't finished all of his breastmilk today, about 6oz out of 12oz are left but ate more food instead". We just got to breathe and relax! Easier said than done.

Now that you are all up to date in our lives....leave us alone :o) just joking! We may or may not update our blog for a bit due to the chaos going in our house with the visitors and the molars coming out. So bear with us. Plus Mummy is going back to school and taking on summer classes to continue on her MBA. Thus our hectic life will get a bit crazier now! Support is needed here...so drop us a friendly line or email whenever possible. That's always appreciated!

Thinking More and More

I visited one of my very close girlfriends just yesterday. She had a baby girl 6 weeks ago, named Elysse Kiyoko. The little baby was just so adorable as I held her in my arms. The whole purpose for my visit was to relieve the mom so she could actually have time to eat and drink something during lunch time. Poor thing! Being a stay-at-home mom is tough...but being a NEW stay-at-home mom is even tougher.

So while my girlfriend was running around trying to do everything under the sun within 30 minutes, I held her beautiful daughter and just rocked her to sleep. The newborn fragrance filling the air, her softness, her gentle body nestling in my arms...sigh! I WANT ANOTHER BABY!

Yep, holding a 6 week old baby made me realize that my little Erik is a giant compared to her. Don't get me wrong, Erik is great and fantastic in every way and as Chhimi says, he really completes us as a family! At the same time, Chhimi and I knew we wanted more than just one child for a bigger family but just didn't know when to space them out. I was thinking along the lines of 3 years apart just like Chhimi and his brother, Penjo but after holding Elysse...SIGH! I may want another baby ASAP LOL! Hahahaha We'll see...we're still thinking away!

Daddy -

me want to enjoy Erik as much as I can for now

Dad: BooBoo what are you chasing?
Son: Aaah (*translation Duck)

then son -- aaaaaaaaaaaa and chases duck with Mommy in tow.

Proud Papa

Proud Papa – and I have never been more content with anything in my life then now sharing my time and being around my son watching him grow. These last few months or year has been an awesome adventure – not to say that it was all a pleasant ride but it’s been so rewarding and I guess as cheesy as it sounds – our son completes us. It’s an amazing journey and our son surprises us each day with all the amazing accomplishments of his and the tireless dedication of Mommy teaching him cool stuff like signing and the most recent off our dear son’s major accomplishments – signing for poop time.. He misses sometimes.

Here are some pictures of him taken over the weekend. Erik May 5 thru 6, 2007.

Need Some Toddler-Friendly Recipes

To all our readers,

This is a request for you to send in your Toddler-Friendly Recipes!! Daddy has been cooking up a storm every evening after Erik has gone to bed but our little Erik is such a picky eater!! With every "new" food or unfamiliar looking food we introduce, our Erik would poke his tiny little fingers dead-center of whatever it was, be it a pancake, a carrot, a tofu, etc, to do the prodding test. After the prodding was done, the sniffing test would be conducted where Erik would use his little IKEA plastif fork, sticks it on the morsel of food then pretends he's about to eat it and then all of a sudden just takes the morsel away and gives us a laugh ....we'd like to think that its not an "Evil" laugh per se but still, its a laugh!

For Daddy and Mummy, its frustrating! We're both foodies, as in we love to eat food...but not junk food as in pizzas, hot dogs, etc. But come on, Erik has his own personal chef, Daddy, and personal sou-chef, Mummy! What more can a Toddler asks for?! Are there such a need for these excruciating tests?! By no means is Erik skins and bones...nope! But at the same time, he's not an easy person to please during meals! This evening, Mummy served him the following diced up: Lightly seasoned Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots, fresh Avocado, and very yummy Mandarin Oranges in very very light syrup (rinsed out three times with H2O!) Along with sum very yummy tomato beef rice (a very common Cantonese family dish) semi-pureed for easy feeding, either by self or with assistance! Plus a side of homemade chicken soup (this is the only way we can get Erik to take his iron supplement)


However, our little Erik decided he will have none of those items for dinner, instead, he ate Pillsbury buttermilk bisquits that Mummy and Daddy...and that's it!! We've also tried serving his toddler food from our own plate...but nope, same thing, his mouth was closed so tight like a vault!

So this is a PLEA if you will, to help our poor tired little souls (well, basically give Chhimi some other ideas!), SEND or COMMENT your Toddler Friendly recipes...and PRONTO! Mummy is expecting each of our faithful readers (what? the whole 5 of you out there?!) to help us out! We need something that a one-year would like...and high in iron content and stay away from processed food. If no recipes, at least tell us how you guys think we can sneak in more veggies and fruits into our darling son's diet!! ...or just sneak food inito his diet period!

We've officially crossed the line and became the "annoying" parents

You know what kind of parents I'm talking about. Those that just loves to boasts about their kids latest talent or quirks or whatever. Well, Chhimi and I never intended to be like one of those parents. HONEST!

However, Mummy and Daddy are just proud of Erik's milestones and how resourceful our little guy is! I'm sure that there are many other toddlers that can do whatever Erik can do and it may not be as "special" as we'd like to think. At the same time, we can't just contain our excitement for our son....so really couldn't help it. We apologize that we're being the annoying parents...but this is really the only time we can be proud of our son being on the toilet. Um because after age 5 or so...um...its expected :o) Hahaha

With the toilet-training, its just amazing...and a lot of work! In truth, I was a non-believer of Chhimi's mom (Grandma Katy) in the beginning but after some further research online, it validated that the technique does work but just takes a long commitment and time. Chhimi and I didn't have an issue continuing it plus it built into our morning routine with Erik. And now...all of a sudden Erik is being a little communicator is telling us WHEN he needs to go. Never really hoped for it...and were just going with the flow and no pressure for Erik to be pottie-trained until he's ready.

As for fully pottie trained...I think that'll take a while (as in wiping ;o) hahaha), but for now, we're happy that Erik can tell us when he needs to go and indicates a desire to sit on his pottie. Mommy is just looking for a way to save on diapers ;o) hahahaha!!

Erik Potty Update

Well -- I don't want to be the one boasting -- actually Tabitha is being doing a lot of sign -- that now Erik signs toilet whenever he needs to go -- woo hoo!! sorry :D

I am a Big Boy now!

Erik-Bath Time