Pretend City

While we were down in Orange County, we took a trip to Pretend City Children's Museum in Irvine.  It was an entire (pretend) city for kids where I was free to roam anywhere and play with anything I wanted. So much fun!

I stamped some letters at the pretend post office.

Visited the pretend library.

Weighed vegetables at the pretend supermarket.

Then worked at a pretend farm, collecting pretend cabbages, apples and oranges, and looking at baby chicks (those were real).

I also hung out at a pretend family's house, complete with pretend living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms.  I spent a lot of time opening and closing the cabinets in the kitchen, since I can't do that in our real kitchen at home.

I drove my pretend BMW convertible to the pretend beach (we passed by a gas station on the way).

One of my favorite activities was fishing at the pretend marina (because it involved water of course).

Finally, I got a checkup at the pretend dentist and doctor's office.

It was such a fun and cute way to spend the afternoon.  I could easily have spent the whole time at just two or three exhibits but since it was our first time there we wanted to explore everything.  I wish we had a Pretend City like this in the bay area!

Christmas in SoCal

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!  We spent Christmas Day this year in HB with Grandma and Grandpa. We drove out to Arcadia to eat at Din Tai Fung along with every other Chinese person in San Gabriel Valley, then spent the rest of the day relaxing at home and going to the nearby park.

We are now spending the rest of the holiday in San Diego and having a blast with the Tans.  Since we walked through their front door, I have been running around nonstop, screaming and chasing my cousins all around the house.  Alex and Kieran were especially excited for our visit, because there was another round of Christmas gifts waiting to be opened.

Here we are in the middle of the festivities.  I've gotten pretty good at unwrapping gifts.  And if you listen closely you can also hear what sound a shark makes. :)

Of course no matter what we got for Christmas, there's no better toy than an empty box!

Christmas Eve

Look what Santa brought me for Christmas this year!

Yay! My own kitchen!

Since we were down in So Cal for the holidays, Santa came to our house one day early and I got to open my gifts the morning of Christmas Eve.  Mommy knew what Santa had gotten me and couldn't wait to capture the excitement on my face when I walked out "Christmas" morning to discover a brand new kitchen in our living room. Well, things didn't quite work out as planned. I didn't want to be put down so had to be carried out, Daddy could barely contain his excitement and I, uh, could barely contain something else.

So yeah, it wasn't exactly the Christmas video Mommy had envisioned. She even considered having a Christmas "do over" where we pretended that I was seeing my gift for the first time again, sans Daddy's assistance and my little accident. But even if we had the perfect video with the perfect reaction, this is how we will always remember my second Christmas, and it will always make us laugh.

At least we got a second Christmas celebration in San Diego which was just as fun!

I love my brand new kitchen!  Thanks Santa!

Office Visit

Day care was closed today for the holiday, and since it was a slow day at work, Daddy brought me in to the office!

I got to visit Mommy at her desk.

Then we went up to Daddy's floor and said hi to all of his coworkers. I even got to draw on the white board in his colleague's office (hope I didn't write over something important).

This is Mommy's view from her desk at work. She gets to watch the CalTrain station construction all day long.

Then Mommy put me to work. It was a hard day at the office and I took a nice nap on the car ride home. Thanks for taking me to work Daddy!

Family Photo Shoot

Here are some pictures from this year's family photo shoot. We took these in downtown San Mateo on a chilly Saturday morning. Kaitlyn was so full of energy that morning and all she wanted to do was run around and explore. She barely stayed still for the photographer - it's amazing she even got a decent picture!

All photos by Damaris Avila Photography.

And here is this year's family holiday card. Happy Holidays!

Santa Claus

Over Thanksgiving weekend we were shopping at Metro Pointe in Costa Mesa. Santa was there for free photos but since everyone was busy shopping for Black Friday, we got to walk right up to him. When Santa saw us he gave some good advice to back me into him without letting me see him, and then to quickly take the picture before I noticed. But Mommy was so excited for me to see him that she obviously didn't listen. The visit didn't go very well:

I was here for exactly five seconds until Daddy had to rescue me.

Poor me. At least we got a free picture and didn't have to wait in line! Hopefully thirty years from now I will look back at this and just laugh.

Amy's Favorite Things

Since I put together the list of Kaitlyn's favorite things, I started to think about what my own list would look like. Turns out that it's really pretty short. But in the spirit of the holiday and gift giving season, I thought I'd share just a few things that I love and make my life easier as a parent.


1. Canon S95 digital camera: I like to always carry a camera with me to capture those moments, but it can be a pain dragging the dSLR around. I love this camera because it has the ease of a point and shoot, but also lets you control aperture, speed, and exposure as you would with a dSLR. Compared to other point and shoots, it has a fast lens and takes great pictures in low light settings. This camera is super easy to use and takes amazing photos.

2. Eye-Fi Wireless memory card: This is probably my number one favorite thing right now. I hate always having to pull out the cable whenever I want to upload photos from my camera to computer. This memory card saves all the hassle by sending all the photos to my laptop wirelessly. It's just one less step I need to worry about. Without this it would probably be months before I shared photos on this blog!

3. Amazon Prime: Unlimited two-day shipping - what a convenience! As full-time working parents we just don't have time to go shopping during the week. And we do all of our research online anyway before making big purchases. We have ordered so much through Amazon - including Kaitlyn's highchair, stroller, car seat, toys and books - that the $79 annual fee has more than paid for itself. As an Amazon Mom subscriber, you can also get two months of Prime for free for every subscription order (up to one year), in addition to a great discount on diapers and wipes!

4. Tyler Florence Start Fresh cookbook: We're big fans of Tyler Florence and love both his restaurant and his TV show. With three kids of his own, he now also has a line of baby food and came out with a family cookbook earlier this year. Start Fresh has delicious, wholesome recipes that can be made for the entire family. Most of the recipes involve one-pan roasts that can then be blended or chopped to the desired consistency for babies or toddlers. I made many of his purees when Kaitlyn was starting solids and we also like the salmon with pea risotto and the one-pot lasagna.

5. Kodak Pulse Digital Photo Frame: This was actually our Christmas gift to both sets of grandparents last year. There are so many digital frames out there - I like this one because it is wireless. I can upload photos directly to the frames through the Kodak Pulse website and they will automatically appear on the frames, wherever they are located. We take so many pictures of Kaitlyn and this is a great way to share all of her pictures with our families remotely.

It's a short list but these few things have made a big difference!