Care for some Stone Soup?

Day before Thanksgiving, Erik's school held their annual "Stone Soup" where some of the classes performed special acts/plays for the parents. In the toddler classroom, it was a simple get together and enjoying a bowl of Stone Soup!

Each child was to bring in an item or two of either vegetable or bread or spices so that all can be put into the pot and to be enjoyed after its been cooked. Mmmm! Yummy! Erik brought in his favorite vegetable: POTATOES! Anything potatoes, Erik will eat! Seriously!

According to the toddler teachers, one version of Stone Soup was based on an old French story, 3 soldiers did not anything to eat but they carried their pots. The villagers were afraid and would not offer the soldiers anything to eat.

As a result, the 3 soldiers devised a soup made of stone. The villagers would be curious and would offer a little of what they had into the soup to "spice it up". From all the contributions from the villagers, a nutritious soup was made at the end called "Stone Soup". Erik's teachers jest that they were the soldiers and all the families were the villagers because we brought in all the ingredients.

Daddy even raced up from work (a solid 45 minute to 1 hour) in order to not miss one of Erik's events. We are a committed family in supporting each other. Grandpa Tom and Grandma Katy also attended. We got to each enjoy a nice bowl of stone soup with Erik on a nice autumn afternoon. Of course, our little Erik only ate the potatoes...and a little of the kidney beans from Grandpa Tom's bowl LOL!

Read More About Different Versions at:
http://www.storybin.com/sponsor/sponsor116.shtml
http://www.extremelinux.info/stonesoup/stonesoup.html

What Are You Thankful For In 2007?

Having just celebrated Thanksgiving 2007 with a full-house in our home, we had a lot to be thankful for. Mummy would like to use this blog to list it out so we can remember going forward.

In 2007, We are thankful for:

Having a very wonderful son, Erik, who really brings the sunshine into our lives every single day (and sometimes he brings in a little rain too but we still love him lots).

Having a great Daddy whom Boo Boo just adores (and sometimes could squeeze an ice cream or two from)!

Having an awesome Mummy who loves to give kisses and hugs to Erik (and can rarely squeeze an ice cream cone except she did introduce the ice cream concept to Erik!)

Having introduced Erik to his Great Grandparents (whom Erik adores!) and to travel back to Bhutan to meet his entire Ma Family Clan.

Having Grandpa Tom & Grandma Katy staying with us for an extended period to share a special bond with Erik (where on most mornings, Boo Boo will call out to his Yea Yea and Maa Maa)

Having Grandma Wai & Grandpa Tik "close by" to do occasional visits so they can also share a bond with our Boo Boo. We do wish they would spend more time with Erik but guess that's up to them.

Having Erik in a great school where he gets to explore, learn, and play with his good buddies and the teachers really do adore him (Thanks to Miss Tara, Miss Ashley, Miss Christy, and Miss Sabrina!)

Having a great network of friends from all over that we can turn to for support and love (You know who you are!)

In all, we are really thankful for a wonderful 2007...and there's still Christmas to be celebrated and enjoyed! Hope you all have something fabulous to be thankful for!

Here is Daddy's List in no particular order:

• Being able to share precious moments with my son – getting in quality fun
  times with BooBoo


• Visiting Bhutan with Erik – sharing our joy with my grandparents
  Taking (this is definetly the highlight)Erik back to Daddy’s Old Alma matter GMS (who celebrated their centenary this year)


• Watching Erik take his first steps – enjoying all his achievements and
  milestones


• Spending time with just Daddy and Erik – at the Zoo, at the Park… Potty Time, Reading to him – enjoying Jungle Book together

In a nut shell these are the dreams that I have had full-filled this last year.

Thank you Boo Boo --- I love you..

NUTZ

Happy Thanksgiving to all our wonderful readers – hope you all had a great time. Over the long weekend we ended up at Vacaville Factory Outlet Stores – specifically at the Nut Tree (http://www.nuttreeusa.com/rides.html). We spent a lot of time at the Carousel – where Erik enjoyed riding the Elephant, Crocodile and Frog. Overall time well spent with my darling “Boo-Boo.”

PS: Sorry if I don't post a lot -- I am just really having the time of my life -- and trying to enjoy every possible moment with my son. He’s really amazing (I am Papa Bear to him) and I love him to death.

Celebrated A Lovely Thanksgiving!

Since 2006 Thanksgiving was a big hit on the turkey, Daddy decided to do it again this year! Daddy chose once-again the Williams-Sonoma route Thanksgiving recipe booklet but this time, we had the pleasure of working together with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Katy in making a wonderful holiday meal.

Of course, when we were working together, it was absolutely chaos. One would say "too many chefs in the kitchen", literally! However, it was still a good time! Grandpa Tom was super excited in celebrating his first Thanksgiving with his grandson, Erik, and sharing the holiday with family & friends.

We invited Grandpa Tik, Grandma Wai to come over for a festive meal. We also had our friends, the Chen Family (Oliver, Sherry, and big bro Austin), and also this year the Zhang Family (Jing, Lin, and DuDu), plus we also had Mummy's friend from college days to stay the night as well. It was wonderful! 11 adults plus 3 toddlers...what a great holiday get together! Mummy was "fortunate" enough to have day before Thanksgiving off so majority of the cleaning was done the day before.

Since 7 am of Thanksgiving day, the oven was already on, the stoves were running, machines were mixing. Our house smelled wonderful! However, we did not forget about our little Erik, we actually took him to the neighborhood park in the morning to run some of the toddler energy out LOL! Plus, when we got back home, Erik also wanted to "help" in the cooking so he went to the cabinets, grabbed a set of pots and pans and began to cook for his Daddy! So adorable!!! Love it that he does pretend play and uses a lot of imagination! Active mind is great!

So here's what we had:

Butternut Squash Chowder


This was one of the absolute favorites of Daddy's! He had 3 bowls of this stuff!! Grandpa Tom made the chowder according to recipe and it turned out great!! MMMM! A nice bowl of warm soup in a chilly autumn holiday! Just what we needed!

Cider Brined Turkey


This turkey was a bit different since it was BRINED and never have done brining before but turned out wonderfully!...except for the part that Mummy told Daddy to pull the turkey out 30 minutes earlier and it turned out to be not "cooked" all the way through...thus the Turkey was delayed for serving. Still, after it was thoroughly cooked, it turned out GREAT! Even Grandpa Tik, who absolutely hates Turkey, had a 2nd helping! HAHAHA! It was a great team effort by Daddy, Grandpa Tom, and even little Erik! He rubbed some butter on the turkey LOL!

Wild Mushroom, French Chestnut, and Italian Sausage Dressing


The dressing turned out "okay", it wasn't a out of this world WOW! Thought it was a bit dry or not enough mushroom stock. However, Mummy loved the earthy taste from the mushroom and the chestnuts. Mmmm! Yum-O!

Brussels Sprouts with Radiccio, and Pancetta (Italian Bacon)


How can we forget about our vegetables?! LOL! This dish was a surprise! Everybody in our family did not like Radiccio because of its bitterness. So we were not thinking fondly of this dish...but we decided to try it anyways! It turned out fabulous!!! Of all the side dishes, this one was only left with the least amount, maybe a few tablespoons! HAHAHA!

We had a lot more dishes, as usual! Mummy made her Sticky Rice Dressing, which is again one of Daddy's all-time favorite and also Grandpa Tik's. We had another different dressing with Cranberries as a back-up since one of the toddlers have a nut allergy. For the kiddies, we also had baked sweet potato fries and chinese-style stir-fry noodles, in case they weren't ready to be foodies yet.

Then, there's also dessert! We had our annual Apple-Hill pie but this year, it was a blue-ribbon award winning Sour-Cream Apple & Raspberry Pie. Absolutely divine, especially a-la-mode with double-vanilla ice cream. HAHAHA!

As if it wasn't enough, Grandpa Tom also made a Pumpkin Spiced Pecan Triffle, according to Williams-Sonoma recipe!

Pecan Pumpkin Butter Trifle


This is a keeper recipe as well! Everybody loved it, except Grandpa Tik, who absolutely HATES cinnamon. Mummy thought it needed more liquor for the pumpkin cake/bread portion but it still turned out excellent!

However, Erik surprised us this year by not wanting a taste of the turkey. Instead, he wanted the Maple-Glazed ham instead!!! LOL! Plus he stuffed himself with lots of sweet potato fries and was more interested in playing with Jason and Austin instead! Mummy even made the toddlers their own Thanksgiving table but only Jason really sat down and chowed LOL! The toddlers though, ate a lot later, and Austin & Erik only wanted Mac n' Cheese instead! HAHAHAH!

Visiting the Library

Saturday, Mummy and Daddy went to one of the local libraries so Erik can partake in their scheduled Story Time, plus Daddy had some overdue library books to return. Hahaha! Usually Erik loves circle time and listening to stories. However, this time around, Erik only got through to their "Open Shut Them" song and lost interest in the whole "Thanksgiving theme" of stories.

At the same time, he was also distracted with the library computer and wanted to play a lot of PBS Sprout Online games, like coloring Barney, or zooming into some jungle animals. Plus they have a very cute tiger mouse for him to press! Erik also saw 2 of his buddies at the local library, Austin and Jason! Hahaha! So they ran around the library with each other a little but mainly Mummy and Erik got to do some computer games.

After checking out all the books, including Grandpa Tom and Grandma Katy's love of recipe books. We headed out to the play area next to the library. Erik saw lots of animals along the way. Lots of "semi-wild" chickens, roosters, and little chicks. He also saw a few peacocks! So it was a "cocka-doodle-doo" good time just walking to the park.

Erik showed off to Mummy and Daddy what he can do by climbing up and down on the rope ladder! Good gosh! That was nerve-wrecking! One label he got from his toddler teacher was "Dare-Devil". Hmmmmm, we'd like our son to take informed risk-taking instead of being the 'dare-devil' LOL! So lots of reminders of "careful" and "concentrate" were given to Erik as he does his own stunts.

He also got in some playtime with his 2 buddies, Austin and Jason. Jason showed Erik where to go on the slides and run back and forth on the "bridge". Erik even tried the balance beam! We were about to leave the park for lunch but Austin showed up and all of a sudden, the 3 boys ran towards each other...and then ran away from each ...and then Erik would shot "Austin Ge Ge" (as in Big Bro Austin) when he couldn't keep up with the running any more. HAHAHA! Guess Erik wanted his buddy to slow down to play!

It turned out to be a great impromptu morning playdate for Erik and his buddies! Afterwards, we were even able to eat lunch at Grandma Katy and Grandpa Tom's favorite burger joint because of their yummy hot and fresh fries! HAHAA! Great family outing for a Saturday.

Passing on the "Disney" Tradition

Daddy always claims he does NOT like Disney or he'd really like to coin the phrase of "Anti-Disney" because he thinks its wimpy and too commercial. However, Daddy really is a "closet" Disney fan, if there is such a phrase. "Why?" You may ask.

When Daddy was a child (toddler age and up), Grandma Katy would put on the Jungle Book VHS tape every afternoon. Daddy and along with a few of his cousins would request that tape every day and would watch it until they fall soundly asleep for their naps. That was their routine. Daddy to this day remembered every single minute and song from that movie!

As a result, from the recent unlocked vault from Disney, Jungle Book is now available for a "limited" time before it is "locked" back up! Daddy got the Jungle Book DVD for Erik, didn't know if Erik would like it or not but decided to give it a try.

Well, from the first night it played, Erik has been hooked along with Daddy! They watched a little 1/2 way through the movie together, silently, completely enchanted with the story. Daddy was pretty surprised that Erik actually loved it and gets so excited requesting "Jungle Book", at the same time, we think Erik is just really into the songs a lot more than the storyline :o) hahaha! Every morning ever since, Daddy would now wake Erik up via the Elephant's character "Military March" song and Erik would be super excited to do the march!

Guess Daddy can't be an "Anti-Disney" person any more!

The Next "American Idol"?

As most of our readers know, Erik loves music and he loves to hear people sing! He would shake his bum bum when he hears a great tune on TV or being sung to by Daddy or Mummy, sometimes even Grandma Katy. Grandpa Tom...well, he's not much a singer per se.

Mummy and Daddy would sing songs that Erik likes. We'd paused in the middle or end of the verse and let Erik have a chance to join in on the singing or we'd like to think of it as a duet or trio :o) hahaha!

Now, our little boy also loves to belch out solos once in a while. Whenever Mummy and Daddy would start to sing one of his favorites, he'll shake his head and calmly say "No, no" and then would wait until we've stopped singing. Then...and only then would he sing the exact same song!

Mummy has done this a few times already while riding in the car with Erik, Mummy would be driving and doesn't want Erik to just watch DVD in the back and get zoned out so DVD goes off and Mummy & Erik goes for a singing session in the van. Mummy likes to think of it as a "Mummy & Son" time, just the 2 of us, nobody to judge our vocal cords. Hahaha!

However, whenever Erik wants to do his solo, he'd literally stopped Mummy right in the middle by shaking his head back & forth with a "No no". If Mummy would continue to see if Erik would chime in for a duet, Erik would sternly say "No, no" and wait for Mummy to stop. It's quite cute! Mummy likes to think that Erik is "dedicating" a song to her by singing "Baa Baa Black Sheep!"...but the most likely case is Erik thinks Mummy may need some vocal coaching and he's really just providing some mentorship in singing. HAHAHA

Erik's favorite tunes for singing solo are:

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Old MacDonald

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - in English & Cantonese

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Wheels on the Bus

Froggie Croaking Song - in Cantonese

Hot Cross Buns - in English & Cantonese

Row Row Row Your Boat - Recently Added

Song(s) Erik likes to sing in duet or trio are (including the above list):

The Alphabet Song

Military March (from Jungle Book)

Bear Necesities (from Jungle Book)

Hmmmm? Could Erik be the next "American Idol"? Simon Cowell, watch out! The next rising star is coming! HAHA!

Sweet Dreams

Erik has been having trouble going down to bed at a proper time lately. Mummy would like him to be in bed, ready to sleep by 8:30pm or soon after bathtime. However, Erik would be very tired (rubbing his eyes, yawning, and just 'cranky') but refuses to go to sleep. As a result, despite Mummy's intuition, Daddy will believe that Erik is not tired and will take him downstairs so Erik can have some time with Grandma Katy & Grandpa Tom.

Anyways, Erik loves Dora the Explorer! Seriously LOVE IT! Grandma Katy was more than willing to indulge, of course. So last night's episode (NOTE: Played in English) was of Dora's friend, Benny the Bull, turning into a potato by a mean ole' witch/wizard. Then it is the quest of Dora and her sidekick, Boots the monkey, to help Benny to turn back into a bull.



Well, after watching the 25 minute episode Erik was finally content and said "Bye-Bye" to Dora and "Good Night" to his grandparents to go to sleep with Mummy & Daddy. Soon after in the middle of the night, around 2:00am, Daddy & Mummy hears shouting from Erik, in distress. We're right there since we do the "Family Bed" and then we listen carefully, Erik says in Cantonese "Daddy, help!" ...."Daddy, help Benny!" ..."Bennnnnnyyyyyyyy!"

Mummy and Daddy just chuckled right there! Erik wanted to help his TV pal Benny and Daddy was his sidekick! So cute and adorable.

At the same time, Erik saw the episode in English but he is dreaming in Cantonese, which is absolutely amazing! Can bilingual kids do that?! I have to think back myself when I was a kid, did I dream in Cantonese?!

It is also a huge reflection on what Erik sees really sticks with him, especially at night time. If he can have a dream about Benny...who knows what other things he will be dreaming of that can cause more anxiety?! So Mummy and Daddy have decided to limit TV watching to a minimum during the night and to have Grandparents buy off to do some engaging activities instead of just TV!

Of course, Mummy also will work on getting the bedtime down! Our Erik needs proper rest to grow and enjoy his environment!

We Are Fortunate!

While shopping at Target, Mummy overheard a young boy, probably in the ages of 9 to 10 years old, walking with his Mom and his baby sister in the shopping cart. Okay, let me stop and clarify here, I was not snooping on these strangers, I was shopping for a baby gift and this lovely family happened to walk into my aisle while I was standing thinking which gift to buy!

On with the story, the young boy told his mother what he said to his friend, who just celebrated a birthday. The boy says to his mom, "I told [my friend] that 'I'm sorry, I didn't get you a birthday gift, my parents do not make enough money..."

Before he could finish, his mom immediately told him sternly and quite audibly, "You never ever say that!....Don't say that to anybody!..." At this time, I decided that the conversation was too personal so I walked myself away to another aisle and lo and behold, the family walks into my aisle again!

The smart boy recanted his statement and tried to ease his mother's worries and said "Well, I really didn't say it like that...I told him that 'I'm sorry, I didn't get you a gift, because I just thought of it last minute and [my friend] said 'it's okay, you can just get me a gift card'"

The mom seemed to be content with that 'made-up story' and did not press any further. Or she just didn't see the point of continuing on this conversation and just proceeded with the shopping instead.

This short exchange of words made Mummy reflect on how lucky we are as a family. We may not have the biggest of houses. Nor do we drive the fanciest of cars. Nor do we roll ourselves in money. However, we do have a lovely home that we return to every night. We have a wonderful family to share our lives with. We have an absolutely amazing network of friends that we cherish dearly (Yes, even for those who we have not seen over the last 19 months...aka ever since Erik has been born). Yes, we are indeed fortunate!

...for our dear Erik, you better not take this for granted ;o)...or else we're shipping you back to India for school! Just ask Daddy! Muahahaha!

Smoking & Kids: They Don't Mix

On a lovely autumn Sunday afternoon where the weather was just gorgeous outside for a day in November, Daddy and Mummy decided to take Erik to the local pet store. For One, Mummy was really just procrastinating on getting started with her Finance homework (due Monday 10:00pm, but who's counting down?!). Two, Erik's weekend schedule was a bit off, he only took a quick 1 hour 20 minutes nap compared to his school schedule where he naps at least 2.5 hours. So Daddy decided a nice way to tire Erik out...eh, we mean to enrich Erik's understanding of his environment and his love for animals :o) hahaha.

Anyways, Starbucks was just around the corner (aren't all of them like 'around the corner' since there's soooo many of them? hee hee) so Mummy & Daddy desperately needed a shot of caffeine. Mummy needed to study and Daddy...well, he just needed it to extend is 3-day weekend due to Veteran's Day.

As Mummy walked by, the scene was set. A fairly young couple in their mid-20s with a baby, probably between 11 - 14 months old in the stroller. The two was enjoying their caffeine loaded drinks outside on the Starbuck's patio. However, this couple was also smoking cigarettes!! WHAT WERE THESE TWO THINKING?! They didn't even have the decency to take turns and smoke AWAY from the baby...nope, the baby was just strapped there in the stroller...breathing down the 2nd hand smoke. ARGH!!

It made me wonder if they were actually the baby's parents or were they just some babysitter doing a friend/relative a favor?! It absolutely made Mummy upset to see that the poor baby girl was subjected to sitting there breathing their 2nd hand smoke! Don't these people know that smoking harms babies?? (Click Here) For Mummy, personally, whenever we walk and see somebody smoking, we really avoid them like the plague, especially when we have Erik around!

Happy 19-Month Birthday

Erik is 19 month old today! Yes Daddy would tell Mummy to stop counting in months and just start doing the years (1.5 year old, good enough). However, Mummy still likes to keep track in months until Erik is officially 2 years old :o).

So at 19 Months, what can our little Erik do? It's time for a quick milestone update.

MILESTONE UPDATE

Geometry - Our little Erik is beginning to recognize his shapes very well, thus Mummy brags that its the beginning of Geometry! HAHAHA! He knows his circle, triangle, and sometimes square and oval in English.

Psychology - Venturing into the field of playing "mind" games. Our son knows who to go to when he really wants something but Mummy will not let him. That person would be Daddy! The other night, it was past his bedtime, Erik said in Chinese in his sweetest of voices, "Daddy hug" and after Daddy holds him for a hug, Erik says "open door", to request to go outside the bedroom. HAHAHA! At least he's resourceful and knows what way to get it!

Nutrition - Erik loves eating Daddy's home made waffles and pancakes! One weekend morning when Mummy extremely tired from the endless nighttime wakings/nursing, Daddy and Erik went downstairs to have a homemade breakfast! Erik downed a 1/2 of a waffle all by himself! He also LOVES Pepperoni and Meatballs. He could down a big 1 1/2 meatball all by himself and Erik loves saying "pepperoni" but it has to be from a certain Italian deli...if its round-table, BLAH, no thanks!

Vocal - Erik absolutely loves music! He'd sing to himself and to us constantly. One of his old favorites would be Old MacDonald but he's also picked up Cantonese songs (about a Froggie) and a Nepali song from Grandma Katy. Erik would sing and sign "Baa Baa Black Sheep" or he'd sing Twinkle Twinkle. SIGH! Mummy even had to ask his toddler teachers whether they taught him a song about a whale in water because Erik would be humming to his own tune about it!

Erik is learning new things constantly and Mummy already have a very hard time keeping up. He knows a lot of his animals ranging from walrus to sea horses to whale to dolphins, etc. He is understanding a lot more about his environment at school and at home.

Erik loves riding on carousels with either Mummy or Daddy. We absolutely adore every moment we spend with Erik...of course, we also have our share of frustrations too (e.g. refusing to sleep at a proper bed time)! However, overall, we are still loving parenthood (which is good right? cuz there's no turning back now! LOL)

Halloween Parade @ School (Part 2)

Halloween Parade @ School

Thanks to "Alibrew & Family", we got some cute footage of Erik's school's Halloween Parade.

Two Year Old Birthday

Okay, this is the first of the 2 year old birthdays that we are attending. In our current 'baby group', there's quite a few of us, and one of the older ones just turned 2! Can't believe it. How time flies?!

Anyhow, this past Saturday, Mummy, Daddy, Erik, along with Grandpa Tom & Grandma Katy, attended Jeremy's 2nd birthday. The party was held about 45 minutes away from our home. Quite a drive for a birthday party but still, we went. It was held at a kiddie "indoor amusement park" with a full carousel, bounce houses, quarter-quart basketball hoops, acade games, dance dance revolution (DDR), etc. Absolutely crazy!! Erik LOVED IT! Mummy & Daddy were in shock :o) Hahhaha!

However, let's take a step back. Birthdays are getting so elaborate these days that its starting to scare Mummy & Daddy....well, Mummy mostly!! What happened to the days of going to a home and eating cake with great company?! Or even at the local McDonald's Play Structure and eating Happy Meals and Cake?! Much more cost effective right?! Yet now, our friends are doing these elaborate triple-digit price tag parties....Whoa!! It scares us!

Don't get us wrong! We had a ton...and really a ton of fun! Erik pretty much conked out in the car within 5 minutes after we left the parking lot. He was that tired but still wanted to play and ride and run around. Erik even did his first DDR dance LOL! Very cute! He got to ride on a moving fire truck (you've seen those, outside the grocery stores, or at the mall). Erik got to play air hockey with Grandma Katy :o) hahahaha. Got to shoot some hoops with his pals! Bounced around in the bounce house. Did some Red Light Green Light. Definitely great fun!!

We had tons of food to eat. Pizza, Chow mein, homemade lumpias (filipino egg rolls)..gosh those were good, sandwiches, deli rolls, etc. Lots of yummy food! Erik definitely enjoyed the vanilla ice cream the most!! He didn't even want the chocolate cake ...he spat it out and went for the ice cream. SIGH! Mummy thinks we indulge our son a bit too much at times...not even 2 years old..and eats ice cream! ARGH!

At the same time, Mummy and Daddy are just worrying about the logistics of Erik's 2nd birthday. Yes, its not even until next April...but still, this started us thinking already. Don't think we would go the same route for Erik just because Mummy & Daddy really do miss the intimate aspect you get from a party at home. Yeah, looking back at our Halloween Party with more than 12+ toddlers and a borrowed bounce house, it was crazy/wild but still...our home was opened to our friends and they really could've venture into any room in our house and it would have been just fine and normal...and we felt the pace of the party was relaxed yet chaotic :o) hee hee. Maybe that's what we're looking for? Relax & Chaos together...Hahahaha!

Guess we're going to attend a few more birthday parties and see how it goes. Definitely do not want to do an at home party and then rent a petting farm in the front of the house either. No no no...stay away from elaborate things! We're simple people aka cheap & frugal...ahahahhaha! Poor Erik...he may even only celebrate with just Mummy & Daddy along with his two sets of grandparents LOL! HAHHAHAH!

Trick-Or-Treat!

On Halloween, it was a full-fledge weekday holiday for Daddy & Mummy. We had to rush from work to Erik's day care in order to join in on their annual "Harvest Parade". First, Daddy missed it, and he was super disappointed (aka p*ssed) and Mummy did not have the mega-SLR camera so Mummy literally begged all our friends to take pictures of Erik :o) Hahahahah!

However, let's take a break from the report out and talk about "Harvest Festival" Parents, do you celebrate Halloween believing that it is a non-harmful holiday for the kids? Or do you stand firm and say NO believing that it is a pagan holiday? For Mummy personally, not sure why the public changed Halloween to be a more political-correct 'Harvest Festival'. In Ireland, where the holiday originated, there seems to be NO conflicts or issues on celebrating Halloween. However, only in clear across the atlantic ocean, do we see such "Harvest Festival" popping around. SIGH! One friend even said that her kid didn't want to participate in trick-or-treating because the private Christian school linked the occassion to be non-Christian. SIGH! So complicated these days in raising children!

Okay, back to our report out. We're BIG fans of Halloween! NOT because we're pagans and devil-worshippers but because we are Kids at heart! In addition, in our Chinese culture, there is such a day call "Ghost Day" but its not celebrated the same day as Halloween. At the same time, the background is similar where sprits and souls are released for the one night to roam the earth. So we do our role of passing out candies and also taking our little Erik out trick-or-treating.

We visited our friends, Oliver & Sherry, for the 2nd time for their "annual" trick-or-treat outing around their gated community about 20 minutes away from our home. It's just great to get together with about 8+ families and eat/chat the night away and then go trick-or-treat together! Mummy dressed up as a witch (basically wearing her purple hat, Daddy dressed up as a pirate with dredelocks, and our little Erik was dressed up as a turtle. Too cute! Even Grandpa Tom and Grandma Katy participated in the trick-or-treat around the cul-de-sac. They were equally excited!

Erik didn't get it at first and was a bit scared to be going out at night and seeing lots of odd things/ppl (such as 2 sumo wrestlers, 1 floating 'ghost', mermaids, etc). It was quite dark! Then after a few houses, Erik finally got the idea that if he goes up to somebody's door and say "trick-or-treat", he gets something to put into his basket! HAHAHAH! Of course, he doesn't get to eat the candy...its just for fun! Erik warmed up and would then RUN to the next house (eh, or garage) and wanted to do it all by himself. :o)

We had a great night with awesome company and excellent food! Couldn't ask for a better Halloween evening to spend with family and friends!

Happy Halloween

Another year, another Halloween... our son is really growing up fast... Last night Daddy missed Erik's Halloween parade at his school – being stuck in traffic… but we ended up going to our friend’s house and trick or treating in their neighborhood. We had a blast – Daddy dressed up as a sexy “Gay” Pirate – Mommy put on her witch hat and Erik was the headless turtle… he refused to put on his turtle hat… After the first couple of house Erik got into the rhythm of things and walked the rest of the houses on his own…