Fall Family Trip

Well, Mummy was very fortunate to go to the annual SWE Conference. It was in Nashville, TN. Since Mummy is still nursing (YES! Erik is almost 19 months already...and he's still a boob man!), we decided for the whole Ma Family to go, basically with Daddy & Erik too :o). At this conference, it was one of the most family friendly conferences that Mummy has ever been to. This is Mummy's 6th time attending a SWE conference but it is the as a working-mom and I just notice things a little bit differently, I guess. Priorities have shifted.

Plus this trip, it's more of a bonding time for father and son, which was absolutely wonderful to see! Erik really does love his Daddy a lot and sometimes even prefers the comfort of Daddy instead of Mummy. Mummy really does get jealous some times but it's OK too! We know that Erik can get comforted by either of us and that's important! Mummy is always so happy to have Daddy be absolutely comfortable at being a world-class affectionate Dad than one of those traditional asian dads that can only be sarcastic and offer plenty of criticsm and show no real affection/love. SIGH!

Anyways, mummy thoroughly enjoyed the conference and was also fortunate to have some down time to spend with Erik and Daddy. We got to spend a quick 45-minute family music class at the local Gymboree Play & Music. Erik learned how to speak French! LOL! The week's theme was Cajun music with some French mixed in. What a great way to introduce more language into our child! LOL! One of the songs was Un-Deux-Trois (1-2-3)...and its just a one-line song to the music. By the end of the short-fast song, Erik would sing "un...deux...troix". So cute! Of course,we also saw our little Erik as a social butterfly, flirting with the music teacher, Ms. Katie!

We also hung out a little bit at the local mall where Erik got to play in their play area and basically pushed all the other kiddies around. SIGH! We have to work on the 'sharing' and 'waiting' portion of Erik's development. We also visited the bookstore and Erik basically got a brand new puppet...BIG BIRD! From puppet-fobia to puppet-mania, Erik really has done a 180 turn around, he loves playing with puppets now and thinks they are the greatest things! So of course, Daddy had to get it for him, especially when Erik refuses to take it off! Sheesh!

We also got to see another "celebrity" on our trip. This may be a trend! We saw Ashley Tisdale, from High School Musical 1 and 2. Basically a teeny-bopper celebrity and we saw lots of pre-teens (ages 8-12) going wild for this celebrity at the local Nashville outlet mall. We were really on our way to dinner, after Mummy's conference, and the HUGE crowd gathered right in front of the restaurant, The Aquarium, made us wonder...what's going on?! Erik was more infactuated with the gorgeous aquarium and fishes in them then the celebrity! hee hee!

Overall, we had a great time in Nashville. Mummy got rejeuvenated into career growth, personal growth, and academia growth. You got the theme? GROWTH will be Mummy's focus, in all fronts this coming year :o)

Nashville TN

See Daddy's Post for more re-cap of our trip to Nashville.

Annual Pumpkin Carving Potluck Party

Every year, Mummy & Daddy go back and forth whether we should be hosting a pumpkin carving party at our place. Not because we do not want our friends over but its because of Mummy's hectic schedule of juggling work, school, and Erik. Every year, Daddy is the one that leads the way in planning out the party and dragging Mummy with him :o) hee hee. However, this year, it was also Grandpa Tom's first Halloween party as well so he was absolutely excited to have our friends over.

So a few weeks back, we held our party! We limited the party to be a Toddler Party instead. We had over 12 toddlers running all around in our tiny little house! Like any party that Mummy & Daddy throws...it was wild & chaotic! Our usual Halloween decorations were not toddler friendly (esp skeletons and such) so Mummy had to "toddler-fied" our decorations and Daddy went shopping!

We were fortunate to have a few of our blogger pals join us too! We had Alibrew & Family and Macaroon & Family. Macaroon & Family also shared their very popular bounce house to our party guests! It was a great hit! Unfortunately, Song of a Dodo & Family couldn't make it last minute due to a nasty cold.

We had a Halloween Pumpkin Pinata (converted to be pull-string) for all the toddlers and babies to pull. All 12 kiddies went one by one to pull the orange string! The candies were just way too full...and Jason's Dad,Jing, had to help pull the candies out for the kids LOL!

Mummy had a "foam pumpkin" patch for the kiddies to pick to see who gets a prize. However, Mummy had over 25+ foam pumpkins and 12 kids and only 1 winner...that was a bit exhausting for the parents to carry to the toddlers to grab foam pumpkins from our stairwell. HAHAHAHA!

The biggest hit, however, was Grandpa's Tom idea of a WALL MURAL! We basically had washable crayons and markers plus stickers (thanks to Daddy's Aunt in Toronto for working at Sandylion). We covered parts of our walls with sheets of white paper and basically have the toddlers go crazy at it! Hee Hee :o) Of course, the parents used gentle guidance to only mark on the sheet and NOT on all the other walls. LOL!

Then we also completed our mission goal, of carving out pumpkins! One set of parents would be carving the pumpkin and the other parent would be hanging out and just having a good time with their toddler. Daddy carved a Scooby Doo for Erik while Grandpa Tom carved out a "scarry" figure. Overall,the pumpkin carving came out great!! We had a great time with everybody over...but by the time it was said and done...we were TIRED! ZZzzzzz!

Happy 2nd Anniversary to our BabyChhimi.com

To all of our blog readers! Thanks for reading our blog and following the updates of our crazy and hectic life in the adventures of parenthood! It really only dawned on Mommy that its been 2 years because of our recent Halloween Party (more on that one later) that we hosted. As a 'tradition' for the last 4 years, we've hosted a Halloween Pumpkin Carving Party in our home.

2 years ago was when we debuted to our close friends that we were expecting (click here to see post). 2 years later, we have a healthy toddler that just brings out the very best in us! No matter how tired and exhausted we are, it is only a mere moment away when all 3 of us shares giggles and laughs over the silliest things, like "tickle tickle".

The family is still going strong and we're getting the hang of things (for the most part). We love hanging out with our sweet Erik, even though sometimes he can be a pain :o) hee hee. We can talk about Erik all-day long, seriously!

To our blog readers, thank you so much for sticking it out with us through the thick and thin. Your comments, emails, and support are appreciated. We know that we are well loved! Cheers to you all on our blog's 2nd anniversary!!

Fall Is Here

The Fall season arrived with wonderful weather and beautiful changing colors of the leaves. We took the opportunity to take Erik along with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Katy up the hills to the apple orchards. It's our little family tradition, even when it was just the two of us, Mummy & Daddy used to go by ourselves or with friends or with friends and their kids! Hee Hee! However, its always special to share our tradition with family.

Mummy prepared Erik early morning. Telling him that we will be sitting in the car with Grandma and Grandpa and Daddy & Mummy will be taking him to see lots of pumpkins, apples, apple tree, pigs, goats, cows, etc. (petting zoo animals) So I think he was pretty jazzed and excited since he behaved very well in the car for the 40 minute ride (thanks to DVD of course!)

We reached our first Apple Orchard and it was a field of pumpkins! WhooHoo! Erik ran downhill towards the pumpkin patch and wanted to touch them one by one. :) At school, they have a gigantic pumpkin sitting on the outside of the school and every morning, our little Erik will be sure to say 'Good morning, pumpkin' and hug it (and sometimes kiss it) and give it a little "knuckle". So for him to see a field of pumpkins of all sizes, it was pretty amazing. He also got to see horses and ponies. Loved climbing the fence and looking at them. He also tried out the "walking beam", basically it was just a long log on the ground to seperate the pumpkins and help it not roll around the grounds but Erik decided it was a walking beam instead :o) hee hee.

Second Apple Orchard really wasn't much a kid-friendly place. However, Grandparents wanted to look and try a few things. Got ourselves an Apple Fritter and Apple Strudel to share and taste. Mmmmm! Yummy! Daddy was taking care of Erik while Mummy got to relax a bit (back was hurting from posing Erik and holding him to see the animals). SIGH!

Third Apple Orchard, ah, this is Daddy's usual spot every year for his Tri-Tip sandwich. They have a great little pumpkin patch and petting zoos and tire swings. What's not to love? This year, the farm even had a country band and a clown (eh, kinda scares Mummy...but we just avoided the that area). Erik got to play "Peek-A-Boo" in the pumpkin patch and also got to play with "sticks", as in the pumpkin plants LOL! This is the place where we do our "Fall" portraits. Daddy would set up the area with lots of pumpkins big and small and just take candid shots. Then we went to the picnic table and ate a good lunch. Some was homemade (Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma) and Mummy & Daddy bought some stuff too including Blueberry Pie and Peach Pie (non-apple for a different flavor). Erik got to play a little air guitar as the band was playing...then he fell asleep :o) hee hee

Fourth Apple Orchard, by this time, it was already well in the late afternoon and our Erik only got a quick 45-min catnap! We lasted this long with a Toddler. Pat on the back! This orchard was just adjacent to the other farm but we drove in there and here...our little Farmer Erik decided to PICKED two apples off the trees! Daddy posed him on top to "pretend" for a picture moment...but um...no pretend here for Erik! Then it dawned on him...Apple Tree = Tree with Apples on top. His eyes widen in amazement that he figured out where apples come from. Our Erik then began to go from tree to tree pointing to the top and shouting out with glee "Apples!" He was so proud of himself that he wouldn't let anybody have his 2 apples :o) So Cute!

Then, Grandpa Tom was disappointed with the orchard. There was nothing worth noting, nothing good to sell. He was pretty much "appled-out". However, he saw the sign across..it said "Organic Apples". Therefore, one last apple orchard to visit. We all crossed the road to take a look. Got a few more photos in. Erik got to run around some more in nice open space with fresh crisp air. We weren't going to buy anything but the bakery lured us in. We were told an award blue-ribbon pie is here and that we must try it. SOLD! Plus Grandma Katy loves pumpkin pie and she hasn't had her share yet. So we got our last 2 slices of pies, Blackberry-Apple Sour Cream Pie A La Mode and Pumpkin Pie. Our calories intake are way up already...but we didn't care (for today).

Erik LOOOOOOOVED these 2 pies! He ate the ice cream. He ate the apple pie. He even ate the pumpkin pie! AND He demanded Grandpa Tom to slice fresh apples for him. He ate ONE whole apple by himself for the entire day. Absolutely surprised us! We finished off our FINAL desserts (6 slices of pastries for the 4 adults in one-day, crazy!)...and off to home we go! Erik fell asleep in the car in dreamland for a full 1.5 hour!

Apple, apple and more apples

More pictures to come....

Spending some quality time with Grandpa & Grandma

Erik - just being playful

Erik Update

Half-Hearted Goodbye to Breastmilk

Grandparents are back in town and Mummy asked Grandma Katy to help clean out the freezer to get some space. One shelf of our freezer was just full of breastmilk for Erik. Really, not kidding! From a few posts back, Mummy already stopped pumping at work and no longer serving Erik breastmilk when he's away at school. Instead, Erik gets organic DHA Omega-3 fortified cow's milk.

However, as I come home and see all the empty bottles on the counter. A part of me was very sad! I am sad to know that my baby is growing so fast and becoming a little boy. I am sad to know that the phase of cuddling him and holding him and burping him are all gone. Never can get that time back. It honestly seemed like a blink of an eye that yesterday he was a baby and just started the bottle and today he's sitting up by himself eating crackers!

I mean with all the pareting articles saying "breastmilk" being so important to the baby that it was deemed as "white blood" and Erik needed this, needed me so much more when he was a tiny baby. It makes me think...well, if he doesn't need breastmilk as he is growing, does that mean he doesn't need me as much either?! Silly to think like this I know! Nor do I wish the extreme side of having a full-grown son wanting breastmilk either. LOL! Just thought this stage wouldn't have past so quickly!

Don't get me wrong, I am also very happy to see my Erik running and playing and just being his own self. Having him at this stage is just as wonderful too! He's extremely playful and getting more comfortable with his environment at home, at school, and anywhere he goes. He likes to "help" around the house. He's more independent day by day. I just miss the "baby" stage, especially when Daddy sends me old phots of my chubby Erik at a few months old...SIGH!

Guess we'll just have to make another baby ;o) hahahah! Just kidding! Don't hold your breath people, our family planning for baby #2 may be a while yet.

Daddy is going to try and take a picture or two a day

Random Pictures of Erik from Today

Getting ready for Halloween

With Mommy in Central Park

More pics of Erik

Getting Ready for Halloween

Call me Mr. Mom

Every Monday and Thursday – I play Mr. Mom. Mommy goes to school on those days and the boys have fun. Erik does miss his Mommy a lot but Daddy tries his best to play Mommy. (I don’t even know if this story should get on this blog – but these are things I hope to share with Erik someday). One Monday night Erik was missing Mommy a lot and wanted milk as in the “boob.” I offered him his milk in his “Dora Dora & Spongebob” sippy cups and he refused. So while I was reading him his books – he picked up his sippy cup and douses my chest with milk and tries to lick it off.

Erik being his usual playful self at the park.