Rex and Oink oink Diary

青梅竹马 + their mommies (exchange)

2012-01-31T21:24:00.001-08:00

Here's Eve and Emily, Me and Mathew. lol... Each mommy carry other's baby

New gifts from locknlock

2012-01-31T21:12:00.005-08:00

We just received another package from the locknlock supporter program. Emily is all too eager to check them out.

Lock&Lock Bisfree Rectangular Tableware, Lock&Lock InPlus Cosmetic Case, Lock&Lock Easy & Simple Square Container. Hee.. i already have plans on where to use these.

I think the cosmetic box will come in handy to store random stuff on the table, the Bisfree is good to store snacks, and the square box is a nice size for sandwiches.

It doesn't feel like Chinese New year

2012-01-24T18:10:00.002-08:00

Derrick was just commenting that he doesn't feel the chinese new year festive spirit. Granted that we are far away in Seattle, USA, and that we did have a few gatherings with folks to celebrate Chinese New year.

And we soon started asking ourselves, what do we remember chinese new year for...

More importantly, we want to make sure Emily remembers all these festivals the way we did. So we decided some ground rules and make sure that we do plan ahead for future festivals:
- Cook a traditional chinese new year reunion dinner
- Have a christmas tree with pretty ornaments.

Well, there's a lot more festivals, but we want to start making our own traditions.

Snowmageddon 2012

2012-01-23T17:17:00.003-08:00

Just when you think winter is going to pass by, the weather decides otherwise. First off, it rarely snows in Seattle, WA. And when it does snow, people in Seattle freaks out. It's really hilly here. So what happens when you have snow storm, ice storm, wind storm consecutively?

Well, Snowmageddon 2012 paralyze the entire city and there's massive outages. As for us, we were lucky to have power. But we were snowed in and stuck at home for several days.

That's us and our Snowmen.

And here's Emily out in the snow

Speedpot and broccoli

2012-01-19T14:49:00.002-08:00

Do you know that you can use speedpot to cook broccoli?

The best part about using locknlock speedpot is that, the water boils really fast and you can strain the vegetables without using strainer. Yeah! less things to wash after cooking ...

Emily loves steamed bun

2012-01-16T20:27:00.001-08:00

Her new favourite food for now, steamed plain bun. Nope, she doesn't like those with fillings. Only plain buns will do for her.

Another yeah for locknlock

2012-01-03T21:31:00.004-08:00

So we made creme brulee for the Christmas party on the 12/23/2011. And since, there was around 10+ ppl, we decided to make 12 shares. And since we only have 8 rameskins, we decided to use the locknlock to make the remaining 4.

It turns out, everyone was too full by the time we get to desserts. So we had plenty of leftovers to bring home. And guess what?

Today is 1/3/2012, 11 days since we made these creme brulee. And i almost thought i need to toss them out as they may have gone bad. Guess what?

Those in the rameskins, which we covered with cling wrap, had all harden up and we had to throw those out. As for those in the locknlock, they are still good. Yup. put some sugar on them and carmelise the top. Yummmmzzz..

I guess the airtight lids really comes in handy here.

Merry Christmas from Emily and all of us

2011-12-22T22:11:00.001-08:00

Emily made this hand wreath to celebrate christmas. Of course, her teacher made the craft, but hey, that's her hand print =)

Thank you all for your generosity

2011-12-22T22:04:00.003-08:00

Emily just turned 1 and received a lot of presents and well wishes from family and friends.

Here's Emily and all the gifts she received. Yup, she's blowing a kiss to all of you

And she's all too eager to play with all the new stuff.

To everyone: we really appreciate everyone for being with us on this milestone especially since we are far away from Singapore. Once again, thank you all for celebrating this milestone of Emily turning 1.

We made cookies for the first time

2011-12-21T00:00:00.003-08:00

I been itching to make cookies after seeing this receipe from this site site. And we bought a set of Xmas cookie cutters when we were out last Sunday. And tonight, we managed to make some cookies.

Can you guess who decorated which tray? Clue: Derrick made his fancier...

here's another tray

This is my favourite. Derrick decorated this. One for me, one for him and one for Emily

opps.. did i tell you the cookies were really good? They taste like danish butter cookies. I have kept half away for a team potluck tommorrow, just in case we gobble everything up.

More gifts from locknlock

2011-12-19T23:01:00.005-08:00

It's so exciting to receive gifts from locknlock supporter program. And Emily is also equally excited to see the big box of package. This time, there's plenty of gifts

Yeah, this is the latest "Hello Bebe" babyware from locknlock and i almost bought this set. I'm so glad that locknlock sent us this set. Now we have a set of nice wares just for baby Emily.

Baby Stainless Steel Bowl
Baby Feeding Bowl with Double Handles
Baby Soup Mug
Baby bowl with Double Handles

Also, we welcome the new red wok to the family. Yup, i have been on the supporter program from the start, and loved their product. Definitely a nice addition to the wares i already have, and looking forward to cooking a feast with them.

Pink containers. They are BPA free and light. Definitely a must have in all households to store food or stuff.

Also included is the Lock&Lock BOROSEAL II, Borosilicate Glass Rectangular w/Handle, 12-Cup Size which should comes in really handy for all the baking, cooking i plan to do...

Thanks locknlock for all the wonderful products!

Happy birthday pudding

2011-12-15T21:57:00.002-08:00

woohoo!!! Emily just turned 1 on 11/24 and we were in Orlando on that day and she didn't have a proper birthday cake to celebrate this special day. So when we got back, we got all our friends and have a post birthday party for her.

Emily loves the coconut cake that we got from Whole Foods, which ain't too sweet.

To our dearest pudding. Happy birthday and we love love love you....

locknlock speed pot

2011-12-12T21:16:00.003-08:00

woah.. speed pot indeed is speedy. Been away on vacation and now that i'm back, i'm back to cooking. And decided to try out the speed pot i just received from locknlock not too long ago. And woah.. it boils water super fast. And the handle was pretty handy to hold the chopsticks. I boiled some water in the pot to scald some pork ribs, and loved this new pot.

Thanks locknlock

Day 1 at Orlando

2011-12-02T14:32:00.002-08:00

Yeah, we made it to universal studio, Florida

erm.. Emily has a long way to pass the height limit for the simpsons ride.

The phone booth at the Simpons.

Looks like Jaw would find find us very yummy

And yes, Emily is scared of mascots. She nearly cried when Shrek tried to touch her. Which made Shrek scared of her.

Thumbs up with the doc

Us with the the pretty marilyn monroe

It was a long first day at the theme park from 8am to 730pm, since that is the shuttle bus timing. And it's only day 1 and we are pretty worn out already. 13 more days to go...

Off to Orlando we go

2011-12-01T12:27:00.002-08:00

We are off to Orlando during Thanksgiving for 2 weeks to celebrate Emily turning 1. Also, we are joining Debbie, Quoqio and baby Owen who's flying in from Singapore. Owen also just turn 1 and the 2 cousins will be celebrating their big 1 at Orlando.

Happy birthday little ones!!!

Emily's new sleeping posture

2011-12-01T12:14:00.001-08:00

Nowadays she sleeps like this, butt in the air, like a rock.

locknlock goes Orlando with us

2011-11-30T17:57:00.003-08:00

Where have i been?

Well, we are now in Orlando, Florida for 2 weeks to celebrate Emily turning 1 year old. And one of the all important ware is the locknlock vacuum flask. Well, initially, i did think the vacuum flask was a little too big to bring along. But alas, it sure come in super handy.

Use it to heat up milk, baby jar food and also whip out a cup of instant coffee for the tired parents. Yes, the cover is really handy to warm up the baby food/ milk. There are baby centers in most of the theme parks but we ain't going to walk all the way to the park entrance just to warm up a jar of baby food. With the locknlock vacuum flask, we ain't worried at all. Whenever baby needs a pitstop for milk/ food, we can prep it easily. Thanks locknlock for this super amazing gift.

Trust me, if you are going to be at the theme park from 8am to 7am, you better get yourself this vaccuum flask. Those small flask aren't going to make it through the day.

More holiday blogs to come soon.

Gifts from locknlock

2011-11-12T13:03:00.004-08:00

Awwwww.. Another round of gifts from locknlock. And there are some pretty cool stuff in this round of gifts. The The Wing Box, that can be stacked. The The Speedcook Ramen Pot, the cool Box with 2 lids and the always awesome glass container set from locknlock.

Oh, i'm soo looking forward to using the items. Ramen pot that can hold chopsticks with portion indicator. That's is definitely my new pot for cooking instant noodles

Oh, and the stackable box. Should i use that in the baby's room or our room? The new containers are a nifty size for Emily now that she's eating more. ohhhh, the plastic box with the lids can store cheerios for Emily. Sooo exciting...

It's daddy's birthday

2011-11-12T12:57:00.001-08:00

Happy birthday honey!

Hee.. Emily simply can't take her eyes off the dessert/candle.

Old Post: We went to The fair

2011-11-12T12:51:00.004-08:00

Almost forgot to talk about this outing. Towards the end of summer, we went to "The Fair". Yup, like the radio ad says, if the fair has a website that says http://www.thefair.com , it pretty much says the size of the fair, which by the way is big.

Derrick had fun with his share of fair food. Like the krusty pop aka corndog

oh, everything fried is too bad for us. We ain't brave enough to try this

Oh the long lines of folks waiting for the pipping hot scones. Those are sooooo good.

Giant pumpking carving anyone?

Totally turned off by this, who eats batter-covered-deepfried-butter?

Someone's not too happy

2011-11-03T23:13:00.002-07:00

Emily is going through this "separation anxiety" or "stranger fear" or "i just want to cry" phase. So it seems when a professional photographer tried to take her picture, she wasn't happy and cried really hard.

Oh well...

Halloween potluck dish

2011-10-31T22:27:00.003-07:00

What do you bring to a halloween potluck dish? Brainz...

I bought this brain mould from Kraft store for halloween as i thought it would be really awesome for halloween. And i made almond jelly with it to make a white brain

I also made red jello using them as suggested in the mould instructions. This certainly look more authentic.

Next comes the qn, how do you store the brainz for the party? And what better way than with locknlock. And to make it more authentic, i used tape to "label" the locknlock

It was an awesome idea and everyone at the party loved it.

Teeth update

2011-10-31T22:26:00.001-07:00

Nope, still no teeth in sight after a several nights of waking, whining, crying, drooling.

Yeah!

2011-10-22T12:06:00.002-07:00

2 more days and Emily turns 11 months, and to date, there's no sign of any teeth despite bouts of drooling. Most babies will have their teeth by now, and we heard Emily's cousin has a mouthful of teeth already.

Emily's doc told us that we should only be concerned if she still doesn't spot any teeth by 18months. And it's actually a good thing the teeth comes late, as we will need to start dental cleaning, etc.. on her.

And guess what the daycare teacher wrote?

Well, the teachers and us talked whenever we pick/ drop her off at the daycare. But she's excited about the potential upcoming tooth. Well, I'm taking this cool, since every time, we got excited about her upcoming tooth, it never showed up. So let's wait and see...

yippee, another rounds of gifts from locknlock

2011-10-22T11:58:00.002-07:00

See who's checking out the gifts from the locknlock supporter program. Emily of course...

Derrick says that's the prettiest paperbin he ever owns. And we debated for a while where to use that white faux leather paperbin, and we decided it will be in the powder room, where guests will use.

And all the cool items like the 2 pitchers are so nifty, which comes with a separate lid where you can use for travel. I'm going to replace my pitcher with that. And the 2 rounds containers, one of which comes with small containers. And a vaccum flask that's big enough to hold food.

Thanks again locknlock, looking forward to using them.

How do you store a huge watermelon?

2011-10-10T23:24:00.004-07:00

Summer has ended but there's still offers on watermelon. And we bought a huge one which turned out really sweet. But the problem is, we usually have to store half of it using cling wrap and the rest in many small containers. Luckily for us, we got the big salad container and the water bottle from the recent locknlock supporter program.

All these holds 1 huge watermelon which lasted us for 1 week.

And it was really convenient to use the salad container to hold the cut watermelon. Pop them into the blender to make watermelon juice. And the water bottle holds close to 1 litre too!

Living box is so handy and child safe

2011-09-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

A while ago, i got this Living box from locknlock, part of the gifts from the locknlock supporter program.

At that time, we thought to use the box to store her toys. But later, we found the box has a better use. To store all the knitting and craft stuff that I have lying around. Well, when you are knitting, you tend to have the balls of yarn, and knit needles for different stage of your knitting project out in the open. And it's pretty dangerous when you have a crawling baby in the house. And guess what? The living box comes in really handy. We store all the craft stuff in the box, and since it's zipped up = Child safe. Emily can't get her tiny fingers on them while i have easy access to my craft work.

And instead of keeping the box away, we actually use it to block a corner of our living room. For some reason, baby Emily just loves to stay in that corner next to the stairs. The box comes in handy, as it prevents her from knocking the corner of the stairs. Well, we did stick the white tape on the edge of the stairs, but we aint sure how well that is going to hold in the event if she bumps her head on it.

And she just loves sitting in that corner with her back on the box, watching us prep dinner, etc..

And it seems that box is the right height for her now in that she uses that box to stand up. We do have toys that teaches her to walk, but it seems that box works better.

My husband was suggesting we should buy a few more of this boxes. Not only to store things, but it's safer to store things in them and zip it. They look pretty good too and doesn't look like an eyesore like those plastic storage bins. Thanks locknlock for giving me such a pretty and handy storage box to make my living room a safer place for my baby.

For folks that haven't seen how Emily climb and fall off the stairs. Here's the video. Yes, it looks really scary. But now that we have the box there, she just rolls onto the carpet and we ain't too worried since she won't hit the corner of the stairs nor bang onto the wall.

Emily and her new toys

2011-09-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

Daddy says pudding aka "poor thing" needs more toys. So she now have $5 per week to spend on toys. And guess what? When we were shopping for toys at costco, we realised with her accumulated "Toy funds" of $10, she can easily buy 4 hand puppets. And since there were so many different themes like farm animals, zoo animals and magical animals, etc.. We decided to buy her the magical animals since both me and derrick find the unicorn very cute.

Emily checking out the new soft toys

But for now, she seems more interested in the water bottle from locknlock than the new toys

Emily is ABC

2011-09-25T12:28:00.002-07:00

For folks that doesn't know, Emily is ABC (American Born Chinese) and she doesn't like porridge or rice. Usually babies in Singapore are eating porridge/rice as their main staple when they start solid foods. What about Emily?

She only eats rice cereal and loves pancake, waffles and cheese.

It also doesn't help that the daycare here gives them pancakes, mac and cheese, corn, french toast. She likes the american fare better. I guess she's an American and she likes the American fare better?

Another box of gifts from locknlock

2011-09-25T12:06:00.003-07:00

It's always so exciting to receive a package from locknlock supporter program, since we don't know what's in it. This time round, they gave us a salad bowl, a nifty water bottle, ceramic container and the new Airless container

The airless container in particular is interesting. There's a date dial and you can expel air out of the container to keep it fresh for a longer time.

As usual, baby Emily loves to explore all the locknlock gifts.

I'm pretty excited about these gifts and looking forward to using them. Thanks locknlock again !!!

If you think taking picture of baby is hard

2011-09-16T23:46:00.004-07:00

Wait till you try to take a group picture of 3 babies and 1 toddler. Well, the 2 youngest babies are the most cooperative since they can't move anyway. Emily and Curtis are constantly moving around, so it's really hard to get 1 good group picture.

Emily is Nov 2010 baby(9 months), Matthew is June 2011(2 months) baby and Frederick is April 2011(4 months) baby.

We made mooncake this year

2011-09-16T23:34:00.004-07:00

Yup, made mooncake from scratch. Lotus paste and skin, all of them.

They turned out pretty good

And we even had a lantern to boot. Well. our friend Junyong/Eve gave us these lanterns that were shipped from Singapore.

Oh well, i think Emily's still too young to play with lanterns yet. We did light a candle and put inside the lantern for her to play. Luckily the lantern didn't get burned.

Emily's first crawl?

2011-09-13T22:22:00.002-07:00

We been waiting for her to crawl. Well, her peers of similar age have started crawling a while ago, and she's showing no signs of teeth, nor crawling.

She does look she was going to crawl.

And yes, it's official. We have a crawler

Snacks for Emily

2011-09-10T21:13:00.003-07:00

Now that Emily is starting to eat solid foods, we have to pack her food and snacks. I have blogged previously about how we prepped her food. So this post is about her snacks. We started giving her cheese and she LOVES them. So much so that we, make trips to Whole Foods just to buy her organic cheese.

We cut the cheese into cubes for her to snack on and she loves them. It's much more convenient to pack these cubes using the locknlock containers than to bring those string cheese since she can't finish the entire string in 1 feed anyway.

We also pack cheese puffs in locknlock container. Yup, it's so much more convenient to pack them in 1 small containers than to bring out 2 big containers.

Yup, we don't leave the house without these 2 small boxes of snack for the baby

Daddy's girl

2011-09-10T10:14:00.002-07:00

It's official, her first word is "da da". Emily is a daddy's girl, awww.....

Labor day 2011

2011-09-05T18:32:00.003-07:00

What did we do this year?

Well, we wanted to go camping, but backed out of the idea as we, or should i say i am really tired. We had family visiting us for the past month and been shopping non-stop, and all the shopping is really tiring. Furthermore, there seems a long list of things i wanted to do at home, ie.
1) Vaccum the carpets. Now that baby emily is always on the carpet, i like to vaccum more often.
2) Install the 2 shelves that we bought for Emily's room.
3) Pack the dinner table. There's piles of letters and random stuff.
4) Bring to recycle bin the stacks of cardboards and newspapers that's been piling up.
5) Usual weekly stuff like laundry and wash bathrooms.
6) lots of other random stuff

Yup, there's a list of housework that i like to get done and there's simply no time so far. So we decided to spend this holiday just doing housework. sigh..

Uncle Justin and Emily in Pink

2011-09-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

Locknlock pot and pan

2011-08-28T22:27:00.003-07:00

I am really thankful to be accepted as locknlock supporter for the second round, and this time, i got a bigger pan. Don't get me wrong, so far i love all the stuff from locknlock. But it's just there are days, when i feel like cooking a lot more food.

Like today, i feel like cooking pasta with spicy sauages and minced beef. Luckily i now have the bigger pan and it works great. I sauted the peppers with very little oil and it didn't stick to the pan. Oh yummmzzz...

Baby Emily showing signs of crawling

2011-08-28T22:25:00.001-07:00

Is she going to crawl? I think she think prefers rolling around as it's faster. Did i tell you her nickname at the daycare is roly poly

Kevin, Linda, Curtis, Frederick> This is for you

2011-08-28T22:23:00.001-07:00

Especially for Kevin and Linda from Sofie Torpedo on Vimeo.

Copied from Alina/ Justin, who made this heartfelt video.

Goodbye old friends and see you soon in Singapore

2011-08-27T21:34:00.005-07:00

Today, we send off the Hos at the airport where they will return to Singapore. Kevin has accepted a job offer in Singapore and they are relocating back to Singapore to be with family. It's a good thing but it's really sad to see them leave after knowing them for 5 years.

We celebrate every festival, every one's birthday together. Life here in USA is more homely with all of these precious friends.

We all are like family here in USA. We meet almost every friday/ saturday for dinner + chit chat + Mahjong. When we have car trouble or need any help, we know there's plenty of help around from these very dear friends here. In fact, i said this before and i repeat again. I don't think even relatives are as close as these friends we have over here. So it's pretty sad to see anyone leave.

This is by the the most pieces of luggages i seen any of us travel with

A little hug from everyone for the safe flight back.

Sending my extra love for the Hos:
Kevin: Stay funny and crappy, we will miss you.
Linda: Stay young and we know you are a wonderful mom and dear friend. Will miss your love
Curtis: To our little drool monster, be a good brother and be good. You know you have all our love forever.
Frederick: Hello love, we are going to miss you growing up. But i know, you grow up to be a fine boy.

Last but not least, you know we will really miss you guys

Emily is eating a lot more solids now

2011-08-25T22:09:00.003-07:00

Emily just turned 9 months yesterday and still no signs of teeth yet. But she's eating a lot more solids now, teething biscuits, etc.. Everything including toys, etc.. goes into her mouth.

Despite our busy schedules, i still try to make her homemade baby food. And i bought several of those small locknlock glass containers which comes in really handy. And now i have to upgrade them to the next bigger size since she's eating more. Thankfully, locknlock sent me the lunchbag set for kids, which comes with 2 small glass containers.

Yup, they are perfect. Nowadays, we pack her 2 boxes of solid food to bring to daycare. Tomorrow she's having pears mixed with baby cereal.

We love the locknlock since it's really airtight and doesn't spill with the lid. So we don't ever have to worry about cleaning up any mess since the lid doesn't pop out. And usually we microwave the food, give it a few stirs, and we are good to feed a hungry baby already using the locknlock glass containers.

locknlock knives...

2011-08-23T22:22:00.003-07:00

Yup, i bought 3 knives of the same knife. One for my in-laws, one for my mom and one for myself. Well, my mother-in-law wanted to buy one for my father-in-law when they were in town. And hearing all the rave about Santoku knife and the reviews on the site, i decided to buy them too.

And they come in a nice beautiful box for gift. Hee.. it was definitely a surprise for my mom as she doesn't know i bought her a gift. And guess what? She loved it!!!!

See Emily clamouring over the locknlock knife. Lucky it's in a nice box and safe for her to play with.

Round 2 of LocknLock supporter program

2011-08-10T23:47:00.004-07:00

Today i received our first package from the second round of the locknlock program. Yipppeee yeah!!! I'm lucky to be selected for round 2 and even more happy to receive fabulous free stuff from locknlock. And it has become a tradition in our family, to take pictures of baby Emily and the stuff we received from locknlock.

This time round, got a fying pan. Yup, we loved their ceramic cookware that was given to us during round 1 of locknlock. This new pan is bigger than the yellow pan we received earlier. See, it's big enough for Emily to sit inside it. The yellow pan is now the pan i use everyday in my cooking, so definitely looking forward to using this bigger one.

In this package, there's a lunch box set. Perfect size containers to use for our every day lunch. It looks small enough to use to store Emily's food also. Comes with Spoon and fork also. Also included is the tea water bottle and a living box

Yup, we know who is trying to claim the living box first.

Looks like all her toys can't fit into 1 living box. We only added some of her toys into the box. Yup, Emily does have quite a bit of toys.

Emily is most certainly having fun posing with her toys in the box.

Warning: Do not leave any baby inside any box. This was done under parents' supervision along with the cooperation of a happy baby =)

I melt daddy's heart

2011-08-03T23:44:00.000-07:00

Got kicked out of daycare

2011-08-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

This happened a few weeks back when Emily got kicked out of daycare because she got the pink eye. See the yellow discharge in her eyes? Oh yes, that's contagious. And there was so much yellow discharge that when she sleeps, they dried up and glued her eyelid together. She gets pretty upset when she wakes up and can't see. And to add to that, see the red bruise on her cheeks? That's caused by me, apparently i was too aggressive in rubbing off the discharge and didn't realise that baby's skin is very gentle. And she got a nasty bruise from my rubbings.

Poor emily.

Because of this incident. Emily's new nickname is pudding, aka "poor thing". Our little pudding needs more love and pamperings. Calling all uncles and aunties to swing by and hug the little one.

Warrior Dash 2011

2011-07-31T10:06:00.002-07:00

This happened a few weeks back but i didn't have time to blog about this. A few of our friends are participating in Warrior Dash and we promised to go and support them. Ok, we were rather sick and I was still coughing badly.

Here's us taking the bus from the parking area to the competition area. OH MY GOD, i wasn't expecting the mud at all.

Here's us waiting for the uncles (our friends) to reach the finish line. Oh boy, it was a looong wait

We finally see them

up they go

Yeah! they made it

See the warriors after they got hosed down. Got most of the mud off but they are still yucky, wet and cold

See all the dirty yucky sneakers? Well, apparently they ask folks to donate their sneakers, which will be washed and sent for recycling/ donation. Yup, the mountain of shoes for a good cause.

I think it was a pretty fun experience although i was totally ill prepared for being there. It was cold and rainy and i was wearing my white jacket. Oh ya, i totally was screaming at the "warriors' who got mud on my white jacket. I bet it's the 4 of them who were talking and flinging their arms around =P

Like my new onesie?

2011-07-30T23:22:00.005-07:00

We are doing a lot of shopping these days since grandparents are in town. And we saw this super cute and cheap onesie at Target and we just had to get one for Emily. I bought the matching blue color for Owen also - Emily's cousin.

Like my new clothes?

Here's Emily and grandma

Here's Emily and grandpa

Here's Emily playing with her grandparents.

It's a pity that we are so far away from family and Emily doesn't get to see the rest of the family often. So while grandparents are in town, Emily gets all the love and pampering. Oh yeah, she's definitely the family favourite, ain't she a cutie in pink?

AFK

2011-07-28T22:53:00.002-07:00

Oh yeah, i'm away from keyboard (AFK) these days as grandparents are in town to see Emily. Time flies, to think that Emily last saw her grandparents when she was 2 month old, and now she's 8 month old.

Since we have folks in town, and the weather was really sunny, we decided to make the long 3 hours drive to hurricane ridge. This was Emily first road trip too and it involve boarding the ferry too.

More posts to come soon.

Here's us on the ferry. A very pretty family picture considering it's tough to get everyone looking at the camera

cough cough

2011-07-16T16:58:00.003-07:00

Haven't been this sick for a long time. cough + fever, all thanks to Emily who herself is sick and got kicked out of daycare. Well, she has the nonstop flu ever since she started daycare. And now she got "pinkeye", which means yellow discharge coming out of her eyes and it's contagious. The daycare called us on tues afternoon to ask us to bring her to the doc, and she's been home ever since. Blah, and since it's a viral infection, there's no medicine for it.

Emily doesn't seem too bothered by it, except that we kept rubbing her eyes to clean off the yellow discharge.

Derrick also got a little cough from Emily, but this time round, he didn't fall as sick as me. I guess that last round when he was sick for 3 weeks, he kinda built up his immune system. And since i escaped the last round, i had it bad this time round.

Good thing is Derrick's parents are visiting us next week. And we will be putting Emily of "vacation mode". ie. She will be out of daycare for a week or two. Time for her to get some grandparents pampering and love. And also a break for her and us to recover from the daycare sickness.

*cough*cough*

Last gift from locknlock round 1

2011-07-12T22:43:00.004-07:00

Yippe, another gift from locknlock. What is it this time?

It's a really really nice insulated lunchbag with a pair of beautiful chopsticks set

Did i say it's really pretty?

We bring lunch to work daily and also canned drinks whenever we go out. This is definitely nicer and bigger than our current lunchbags. Time to put it to use. Thanks again for the great gifts, hopefully i get in for the second round of locknlock supporter program so that i can continue to blog about their wonderful products.

What else did we do on Father's day?

2011-07-06T22:55:00.002-07:00

Where are we going? What's with Emily's hair and what are we doing with Emily?

We brought Emily hiking on Tiger mountain for the first time. And here's us strapping her into the carrier. Yup, we bought that carrier second handed for $50. Oh, yes.. Emily had funky hair cos her mommy (which is me) tried to change her hair parting the previous night.

Here we go..

Here's a cheeky Emily and her mommy

It was tiring for us, but Emily seems to enjoy it

Oh ya, Emily been blowing her saliva that whole day. She picked that up from her friends at the daycare and all the babies are doing the tongue blowing thing.

Here's our dinner venue for Father's day. We bought a $15 for $30 voucher previously to use at this italian restaurant.

Here's daddy and her precious one

Happy Dada Day!

2011-07-06T22:27:00.002-07:00

Sorry it took that long to post this

On Father's day, the daycare gave us a Father's day gift "made" by Emily. It's so precious as it's the first father's day for Derrick. It's also has a picture of Emily smiling. AND.. prints of her 2 tiny feet.

Yup, we tried taking prints of her feet when she was 2 months old and it was a nightmare. So we are really happy to receive this priceless Father's day card from our little one.

It's finally sunny here in Seattle

2011-06-27T21:58:00.002-07:00

It's almost 260+ days since we last had nice sunny day here in Seattle. So off we go to enjoy some sunshine at the park. Oh ya, sun is such a rare thing in Seattle, that we definitely should be outside to enjoy the warm sunshine whether we get nice weather here.

Here's Emily on her tummy time and enjoying sunshine with daddy.

Yup, Emily needs to train her hands while on her tummy

Emily's first time on the swing and she likes it

Technical issues

2011-06-27T21:52:00.001-07:00

There was some technical issues with skydrive and as a result, previous images and videos were unable to load. They have now been fixed.

Emily can sit

2011-06-23T23:12:00.003-07:00

Emily can sit on her own for pretty long, thanks to the teachers at the daycare who have been working at getting Emily to sit.

Here's Emily playing with a "new" toy. It's a hand-me-down toy and Emily is having fun with it. She's bored of her existing toys and so it is good to have more toys to add to her stockpile of toys. Now we rotate the toys around, so that she won't get too bored of them too soon.

Craving for some korean dinner

2011-06-20T22:28:00.003-07:00

Last saturday i was craving for some korean dinner so decided to try making some seafood pancake for the first time. And since i have no kimchi at home, i decided to cook some kimchi cup noodles to go with the pancake.

Loved my yellow ceramic cookware from locknlock.. See how pretty they look!

Yummy kimchi noodles with seafood pancake. I really love the the ceramic frying pan from locknlock, which is truly nonstick. It made cooking this pancake a breeze. Yummy korean dinner!

Happy daddy 's day!

2011-06-18T21:19:00.007-07:00

Happy fathers' day to Derrick and all dads!!!

My Review

2011-06-15T10:17:00.002-07:00

Originally submitted at locknlockplace.com

Perfect size for lunch box

By ji_yinz from Seattle, WA on 6/15/2011

Pros: Good Design, Safety Features, Quality Materials, Easy To Use, Durable

Best Uses: Outside, Lunch, Lunchbox, Inside

Describe Yourself: Professional

I had bought the glass containers to replace all my cheap plastic ones, which were warped and stained from my daily use. Yup, heating in microwave warp the cheap boxes. Red pasta sauce stains the plastic box.

Lock & Lock Glass, Basic Heat Resistant Glass, Rectangular, 1.5-Cup, 360-Milliliter - turned out to be a little too small. It's enough to hold a small portion of soup or pasta or a side dish. But they work great. Red pasta doesn't stain the box and easy to wash grease off.

So I went out and bought this bigger ones and they are great size. I use these to store lunch for work, and the smaller ones for side dishes or breakfast like oats.

Pasta

Tags: Lunchbox

(legalese)

We have a laughing baby who laughs at om om

2011-06-10T21:22:00.001-07:00

This is pretty funny. We used to say Emily is a sad baby and now she smiles and laugh more. Tonight, for some reason, she find it really funny when i make the sound "om om", and we even managed to video tape it.

Another box from locknlock

2011-06-09T21:16:00.002-07:00

Yippe another box arrived from locknlock for the supporter program that i'm on.

Baby Emily is equally excited about it. I wonder what we will receive this time round.

Looks like a lot of stuff. Yup, all neatly packed. Loved the packing of locknlock.

wow wow wow. It's a full set of the plastic containers, a set of ceramic containers, a set of glass round containers and a big coffee mug.

oh yeah, it's really so much items that we can surround the baby with them.

Many thanks to locknlock for all these free stuff. Loved them and looking forward to using them and blogging about them.

Pork bulgogi with fun cookware

2011-06-08T20:49:00.004-07:00

We had bulgogi before at a friend's place and never quite remembered whether it was sliced beef or sliced pork. So when we were at the Korean supermarket doing our weekly grocery shopping, we bought the sliced pork to try cooking bulgogi for the first time.

Do not let the look trick you. It taste super super yummy. Oh yes, it does looks like stir fried bacon.

And did i tell you that our favourite cookware is now the bright yellow ceramic cookware from locknlock?

They are so fun to use and they REEEEeeeeaaalyl don't stick. I use them on a daily basis now and i rarely even add oil when i cook stuff. Ok, I think my husband is going to yell at me for that but he hasn't found out so far. Which is good! Less oil = Healthier meals, but with less oil it often means a mess to wash up after all the food getting stuck on the cookware. With these ceramic cookware from locknlock, i haven't even found any need to put any oil and they don't stick at all.

We are making our own icecream

2011-06-06T21:46:00.005-07:00

We had kohls cash to spend before it expires. Basically we "earned" $10 for every $50 we spent at kohls previously and we had to use them before they expire. Well, there's nothing we really need so we bought an icecream maker with it. Yup, another new gadget to the kitchen.

First experiment with the new toy is Mango icecream since we had fresh mangos in the fridge. Now the receipe says to store the icecream in airtight containers in the freezer. I guess that's to minimize freezer burn on the icecream.

So what better container to use? LocknLock of course. And the best part is, you can make small batches of icecream and store them using locknlock in the freezer. Yeah to using locknlock containers to store icecream.

The best part about making your own icecream is you can control the ingredients that goes into making the icecream. Another yeah to super yummy homemade ce cream!

Here's the homemade icecream frozen using a locknlock container

Here's baby Emily having fun with the ice cream maker

What did we do on Memorial Day Holiday 2011?

2011-06-05T11:16:00.002-07:00

It was a long weekend as Monday was a holiday too. But since Derrick and Emily are still having the cold, we decided not to join our friends for fear of spreading the sickness. They were having BBQ at a park and it sounds fun. So it was really a pity that we can't join them.

Derrick, in order to make me feel better, decided that we will have our own BBQ in our own deck. Well, we stayed in this place for 3 years now and never used our beautiful patio deck. We used our camping portable BBQ grill.

Bought a charcoal chimmney, the black cylinder that makes starting the fire with charcoals a total breeze. It's definitely worth buying that.

Here's Derrick bbqing the food

Oh yummy, corn, sausages, chicken wing, zucchini...

It was a great Memorial day holiday after all.

Emily doesn't like plain porridge

2011-06-05T11:11:00.003-07:00

Emily's been trying out solid food and she loves it. All except one, she doesn't like plain rice porridge.

Emily trying out rice porridge

2011-05-31T21:20:00.003-07:00

Since i cooked porridge, i figured i blend some of the porridge for Emily to try it. It's her first solid food without breastmilk. And we are all set to start to feeding her that.

hee.. notice that i used the glass locknlock as bowl? Well, we didn't buy Emily any bowl and instead bought some of these glass containers for her. We like using that since the size is good and it's really convenient.

My only regret is i should have bought them in round shape instead of rectangle. The teacher at the daycare showed me another parent put the homemade baby food in these same round containers, and they can heat it directly using the baby bottle warmer. The next time when i order stuff from locknlock, i'm going to get some round ones. For now, i'm using the square ones and microwaving them instead.

Another day of being sick

2011-05-31T21:15:00.003-07:00

It's been a week already and the 2 of them are still sick with cold and coughing badly. I do feel my throat itchy a little and i'm drinking a lot of water in hope that i won't fall prey to the sickness around me.

Still on love porridge diet.

Comfort food for Sick baby and daddy

2011-05-29T16:01:00.003-07:00

Baby Emily got the cold and daddy got the cold from her. The 2 of them have been sick for the whole week. So it's me taking care of the 2 of them.

Emily wasn't kicked out of daycare as she doesn't have a fever. It's her first sickness ever and the poor baby been coughing and choking. We went to see the doctore also, and there's no medicine for her. She's too young for anything and guess it's part and parcel of life, for her to build her immunity system. The teachers at the daycare are really nice. They check her temperature, etc.. and try to make her comfortable. And they make me, the worried mom ease at heart with the little things they do.

As for daddy, he's seldom sick and this time, he got the cold from Emily. Well, she just have to spread the love around. He's been resting at home for the whole week and it doesn't seems to be any better yet.

As for me, i do feel my nose a little itchy but i force myself to drink a lot of water and oranges. We can afford to have all 3 of us sick at the same time.

This weekend was our 7th year anniversary of us being together and also it concidence with the long memorial holiday. So we all get a long weekend break. No camping trip this week and we are home bound since we have 2 sick people. I decided to cook some spam and porridge for the poor sick daddy, some porridge for emily to try also.

Of course using my favorite pot now from locknlock. There's no porridge sticking to the bottom and i didn't stir the porridge. Usually, it sticks to the bottom of my pot if i forgot to stir.

I cut the spam into little heart shapes to cheer daddy up.

Of course we did cook the remaining odd pieces also.

What can a busy working mom cook ahead?

2011-05-26T21:47:00.003-07:00

Baked rice!

With the help of campbell soup and rice cooker.

And lots of glass containers from locknlock. and bake this tray of baked rice. After cooling, cover them with their plastic covers and keep them in the fridge. A total of 8 servings in 6 containers that can tide the busy chef through 4 meals.

Here's a mega smile

2011-05-26T21:46:00.001-07:00

A mega smile from the little one who just turned 6th month old:

Emily attending a party

2011-05-24T22:26:00.002-07:00

It's Fredrick 1 month old party and we are all at their place to celebrate.

Here's Emily all dressed up for the party. Do i look like a princess?

Oh yes, she's our little princess...

yummy dinner

2011-05-24T22:17:00.002-07:00

Time to put the new cookware to test. Melt some butter, saute some minced garlic and quick fry mussels.

Saute the marinated artichokes. Wow... with very little oil, they didn't stick to the pan

Add in the pasta, chicken

yumzz.. We have super duper yummy dinner with the help of the new cookware. They are pretty. light and work super well. The food doesn't stick to the pans and washing was a breeze. Loved them...

woohoo! 2nd set of free gifts

2011-05-24T22:05:00.003-07:00

Saw the Facebook post from LocknLock that they mailed out the second set of gifts and been super excited waiting for them. And they are finally here..

Looks like i'm not the only one excited about them

Yup, the little one just had to get her lick of approval on it.

Here's the link to the products:
Ceramic Sauce Pan
Ceramic Frying Pan

Wow... Didn't expect to receive sauce pan and frying pan. I never own or used a ceramic cookware and can't wait to try them.

Trail mix snack

2011-05-20T23:00:00.005-07:00

Do you often crave to snack while your brain is hard at work when you are at work? Well, i do. Which is why i just bought a pack of tropical trail mix for some snacking while at work. Yep, need some sugar to keep the mind going. And what better way to store them to keep them fresh?

i kept them in the air tight locknlock box to keep them of course. yumzzz

We love pasta

2011-05-19T23:02:00.004-07:00

Yep, we love having spaghetti with ground beef in red sauce. But we try not to have it too often, maybe once a week since it's mostly carbo. And yes, what better way to bring pasta for lunch, than in a lock n lock box. We don't have to worry about the plastic box changing shape when you microwave too long, neither do we have to worry about the tomato sauce leaving a stain on the plastic box. Yummzzz...

Yummy nachos

2011-05-17T22:33:00.004-07:00

We are having nachos this week since Emily is having avocados as part of her solid food testing. And it seems the locknlock glass pot fits perfectly in the toaster oven, so we don't have to use the big oven just to melt the cheese.

Throw in chips, shredded cheese into the locknlock pot and broil it for a few minutes to get the cheese melted. Top it with tomato, green onion, onions, sour cream and guacamole, beans. Loved it! It's super yummy

It's a perfect match, the pot is deep enough to hold chips for 2 people portion. And it's super easy to wash after dinner is done. Another plus to the locknlock pot

Happy Mother's day

2011-05-16T23:07:00.002-07:00

My very first mother's day, and we celebrated this day by having lunch at The Keg steakhouse.

Yeah, Emily's first mother's day too!

look at her staring hard at all the yummy food

Happy mummy day!!!

What do we do with apples that ain't sweet?

2011-05-16T22:37:00.005-07:00

We bought a small bag of fuji apples and they turned out terrible, they ain't sweet and neither were they crunchy. But i feel bad about throwing away food, knowing that somewhere, someone could be starving. So what do with do with these apples?

We make pies with them.. And since i have the great gifts from locknlock, let's try making pies using them.

Sliced and cored apples cooked with sugar.

Dough to make the pie crust. Cover with cling wrap using locknlock pot and put in the fridge for 4 hours. Loved the pot as it's the perfect size and ain't too big to put in the fridge. Even the cling wrap is from locknlock, and they are really of much better quality than the cling wrap i have at home.

It comes with a cover to keep everything covered.

Instead of using my usual round pie pan, i'm using the oval pan from locknlock instead. Well, i thought it's deeper than my usual pie pan, it seems like a good fit.

Here's 2 pies ready for baking in the oven. Since i only have enough apples for 1 pie, i filled the other pie with red bean paste.

Yummy pies fresh out of the oven

Hee, we are too eager to eat the pies that we couldn't wait for it to cool down. And they turned out super good. Yeah, the oval glass pan from locknlock were great and we loved them. And we don't have to worry about scratching the pans when we cut the pie since the pans are made of glass.

Kept the pies covered using locknlock cling wrap in the the fridge.

Loved the gifts from locknlock, and thanks to them, we get great yummy pies.

We are having fish for dinner

2011-05-15T22:22:00.006-07:00

Today we went to Ranch99, an Asian supermarket that's about 20-30mins drive from our place. It's a bigger supermarket than the one we go regularly and we bought some japanese snowfish to steam for our dinner. Some ginger, chilli, soy sauce and green onions.

Viola, supper yummy and healthy dinner for 2 of us.

And what better plate to steam the fish than to use the free glass pan from Locknlock. Yup, it's perfect size, fits in the pot to steam, have the 2 handles to take the pan easily from the pot of boiling water., have some depth to hold the fish and sauce. LOooooved it!!! Thanks locknlock again.

Our little angel is almost sitting on her own

2011-05-14T22:14:00.008-07:00

With some help from pillows, Emily can sit on her own now. She's almost 6 months old now

But she's always our princess. Daddy's girl and angel

What's are we having?

2011-05-09T21:17:00.003-07:00

Today, i cooked sweet potato leaves, ABC soup and rice. It's definitely a typical homecook meal from Singapore with some variations. ABC soup apparently means the soup have vitamins A, B and C. It's kinda my throw-everything-in soup which is mainly vegetables such as carrots, radish, potato, tomato, corn and a little pork. Yup, i try to incorporate a lot of vegetables into our meals. It's all good and healthy.

LockNLock containers also make packing lunch an easier task. Everyday, i will pack the next day lunches with these boxes for me and my husband, Derrick. This way, we both get to enjoy healthy and wholesome food.

I would encourage all to get some lock n lock containers and start bringing your own lunch. It not only save you a lot of money, but you can have healthy meals too.

See no evil

2011-05-08T22:50:00.001-07:00

This is Emily sleeping. She covers her eyes when she's drinking milk, and it does seems she's doing the same when falling asleep. Oh yes, the pacifier is still in her mouth at the time the photo was taken, but i'm pretty sure, she's going to take it out and throw it.

Sweet potato for Emily

2011-05-08T22:38:00.001-07:00

I made some sweet potato today for emily to try it out. It's her first new food other than rice cereal so far. She had some of it mixed with breastmilk, but she doesn't look like she loved it yet. We are going to try feeding her this for this week, and freeze the 3 portions in the fridge. Oh yes, using the glass locknlock containers we bought earlier.

Gifts from Lock N Lock Supporter Program

2011-05-08T22:14:00.004-07:00

Yep, we love the products form Lock N lock, so when there was an opportunity to join in the supporter programs, i immediately applied for that. And i was really lucky to be one of the 20 selected. So for the next 3 months, i will get 2 products every month from Lock n lock to review.

Here's the box of items from Lock N lock. Sooo exciting, even baby emily looks excited at the big box too. Certainly looks like a huge box of items and i wonder what's in it.

oh wow! there are so many items in the box, there's
1) 1 x Lock&Lock BOROSEAL, Borosilicate Glass Pot, White, 7.8-Inch, 74.4-Fluid Ounces
2) 2 x Lock&Lock BOROSEAL, Borosilicate Glass Pan, Orange, 4.8-Cup, 39-Fluid Ounces
3) 1 x Lock&Lock BOROSEAL III, Borosilicate Glass Rectangular, 6-Piece Set/3-Containers
4) 1 x Lock & Lock Wrap, 11-Inch by 5.6-Feet

oh yes, that's really a lot of items from lock n lock and we are really surprised.

Now, watch out for my posts about using them.

Parenthood has changed me

2011-05-04T07:59:00.008-07:00

Now that baby Emily is starting solids, we are looking at prepping food for her and freeze them using ice cube trays. Yes, as working parents and who wants efficiency, that seems the fastest way out.

I know, my mum back in Singapore has been nagging about that, she's the traditional school of thinking. She says i should cook every meal for Emily fresh out of the pot. And no blender, stew rice until it becomes mushy, etc.. Well, if i'm not working, maybe i will do that. I get barely a few hours every day to cook dinner, spend some time with Emily that i rather do things more efficiently.

Anyway, most sites i go to do recommend making your own baby solid food and freezing them in ice cubes. And thaw whatever you need to feed the baby each time. So with this in mind, we went out shopping for ice cube trays last saturday. Well, we don't have ice cube trays at home since our refrigerator comes with ice maker. Besides, i would rather pay the $ and buy a new ice tray for Emily since i'm going to store food in it. And i'm looking for one with a lid.

We came across one at Daiso in Lynnwood, WA and was about to pay for it at the cashier when something occurred to me at that moment. Is it BPA free?

Nothing on the packaging or the tray itself mention anything about BPA free. Do we need a ice cube tray that's BPA free? Well, not wanting to take the risk, we promptly put the item back onto the shelf.

I'm going to buy the ice cube tray from locknlock the next time i order items from them. Most probably i will get this.

Decorate my office window

2011-05-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

With the recent office move, i was inspired to decorate my office. Oh yes, team reorganisation (aka team re-org) and office moves are a super common thing in Microsoft. And we have professional corporate movers who will move your stuff and setup your machines the way it was (or, the way you want them configured in your move instructions). Now, that's really important to keep the downtime as minimal as possible. And yes, everyone has their own preference on how the monitors and pcs are laid out.

Like the pacman on my window?

Here's how it looks, I should probably have the yellow pacman on my sliding door so that it can eat the ghost.

lol.. hee, ok i'm a geek wannabe at heart. I will admit to that.

Emily was a trooper

2011-05-03T21:54:00.004-07:00

The director and teacher at the daycare said Emily was a trooper today. She ate well, napped well, pooped and did tummy time also. Oh yes, mommy on the other hand, teared when leaving her at the daycare for the first time. And only called the daycare once today to check on Emily. Guess Emily fared better than her mommy.

I'm having jitters

2011-05-02T22:15:00.002-07:00

Emily is starting daycare tomorrow and i've been pretty cool about it until this evening. When all her stuff are packed and milk bottles prepped for tomorrow. Yes, it's another major milestone to think that she's now 5 months old and entering daycare.

Oh yes, i do feel quilty that i'm going back work and not being there with her. I worry whether she will be scared and cry tomorrow when she's in a unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. I guess i'm worried just like any parent about their child.

Our new lunchboxes

2011-05-02T21:32:00.005-07:00

We have been packing our lunches to work for every workday for the past 3 years. And recently, it dawn on us that the plastic boxes that we are using ain't BPA free and i have been looking to replace our lunch boxes. We are looking to replace them with glass ones for the various reasons:

1) Heat soup longer without the plastic box warping
We try to have soup once a week as part of our healthier diet, and soup taste better when it's warm/ hot. Now, if you have tried heating soup using plastic boxes in microwave, you will know that sometimes, if you overheat, the plastic box actually warps out of shape.

2) Easier to wash oily glass than oily plastic
Yep, it's easier to wash off the oil off glass than plastic. Sometimes, we scrub 4 times and the plastic still feels oily and we have to sit the box in soapy water overnight.

With the above in mind, we started looking for new lunchboxes.

1) Thermos
Now, i know this is not glass, but one of our friend highly recommend Thermos. But nay... It's difficult to try to microwave food stored in Thermos, since you have to pour the food out first.

2) Pyrex glass containers.
Now, you can always find these on promotion and they come with plastic lids. Seems like a good fit for our requirement. But the problem with the lids is, they ain't super tight, and you may spill soups, etc..

3) Lock And Lock glass containers.
We own a few Lock and lock plastic containers, which are BPA free of course. We just found out they do have glass containers with the lock and lock lids. Now, that seems like a winner except that they are a little pricer compared to Pyrex.

And it so happened, there was a promotion at http://www.locknlockplace.com and all my girlfriends jumped and bought new glass containers. I did too.. And we have been loving them, since we started using them.

See no spillage:

I had oats with soya milk which i cooked and pack it to work. Yup, it's still warm and i can enjoy yummy and healthy oats as i start my day at work.

Can you guess what i'm having for lunch?

Yep, Herbal chicken soup that was leftover from last friday dinner. Oh yes, it's duper yummy and healthy. We packed the leftover into the boxes and into the fridge, and later it went straight into the microwave.

I loved our new lunch boxes from locknlock so much, that i have signed up to be a locknlock supporter. So look out for more posts from me about these products.

Yup, it saves $ to pack your own lunch and you can definitely eat healthier too. And it ain't troublesome or messy to pack soup with these boxes.

More reading about BPA at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A

It's actually getting warmer

2011-05-01T22:48:00.000-07:00

Yes, now that we finally see more of the sun, we try to bring Emily out to enjoy the sunshine while it last. Last saturday, there was an event called Campus Jam at the Microsoft campus for the Microsoft employees. We had intended to go enjoy some freebies and food, before heading off to a park. So we decided to walk to campus to the event since it's really near our place, and also we didn't intend to stay that long.

Emily trying out mommy's sunglasses

oh yes, Emily is definitely daddy's girl

Wow, didn't know it was such a big event. and yup, it was nice just lazing on the grass and enjoying the sun. We ended up spending most of our day at the event and lazing on the beautiful football fields at Microsoft.

And to think it's finally warm enough that we could be out in the sun without our thick jackets.

We had fun at the Microsoft event and hopefully they have another event soon. It's always good to get freebies and the sun.

Princess in her Big Boss Chair

2011-04-30T23:06:00.000-07:00

Does she look like the big boss? She's certainly the big boss of the house. Here's her smiling at the camera while holding the butterfly and bee. She's been holding the honey and bee for a good 15 minutes already.

Where are we on this saturday?

2011-04-29T22:59:00.004-07:00

We brought Emily to Discovery Park in Seattle. We came here last year and they have a really nice beach. But this time round, it seems to early too come here as it's still super cold.

Derrick and Emily enjoying the beach

Yes baby, it's super cold indeed.

Funny faces

2011-04-26T22:04:00.004-07:00

Looks like she still like to make the same funny faces. See how fast she has grown within a few months. The left picture was Emily when she's 1 month old. And the right is her now at 5month old.

Emily having fun with baby cereal

2011-04-25T21:49:00.003-07:00

Yes, she has baby cereal plastered all over, her face and pooling on her bib. And mommy is all too eager to wipe her clean before any of that lands on the carpet.

Oh precious...

awwww...

2011-04-24T10:48:00.000-07:00

My colleague's daughter heard that i have a baby and made Emily a cap. Yes, i think she's only 10 or so, and to think she's such a darling. Yup, my colleague said her daughter insisted that he delivered the cap to me. She has such a big and generous heart to care for others. Although i have never seen her in person yet, i would love Emily to be like her when she grows up.

Here's Emily wearing the cap made by the little girl.

Hee. Another of her sitting among the toys. Previously, Derrick asked why i put so many toys on her tray and now he's doing the same too. Well, i just lay all the toys out on the tray and let Emily pick whichever she so desire.

New working hours 7-4

2011-04-23T10:13:00.007-07:00

For the past 1.5 weeks, i have been trying out this new work schedule of 7-4. Which translate to, me waking up at 6 and reaching home at 5. The whole goal is so that i can cook dinner and spend some time with Emily before she heads to bed every night between 8-9. We try to bring out out for a walk, feed her some baby cereal, bath and read story book. Yes.. all these between 5 to 8.

I'm sooo tired that i go to bed around 10pm now. And i wake up at 1am and 6am to spend 15-20mins to pump breastmilk. And every 4 hours or so, i have to pump milk while at work.

The coolest thing about working at Microsoft is that they have really cool Mother's room., for all the breastfeeding moms to go pump breastmilk. It's really a nice room and the moms can do the pumping in private. You be surprised how many moms are breastfeeding in my building alone. The room has secure code lock, fridge and shelves etc... After hearing all the stories about moms having to hide in storage rooms to try to pump milk while risking being peeped at, i feel i'm lucky to have Microsoft as an employer who cares about their staff.

Also, being at work this early means i get the best parking lots in my building. Yes.. parking is terrible at my building. And i get much work done before the rest of my team comes in. Yep, they are usually in around 10. So far, my teammates have been supportive of me working 7-4. Although i do check emails at night but that's just the normal us. Yup, we loved our emails and check on them non stop.

Oh, and i try to cook soup or pot of dish that can last us for a day or 2. This way, all we need to do is cook rice and vegetable under 30mins for dinner. I did consider us eating out instead of me cooking our meals. But the issue is the food ain't super healthy and i think i will get bored of eating sandwiches/ pizzas in order to keep each meal under $10.

And i'm into soup these days. Well.. Derrick loves soup and i try to cook a soup each week to last us a day or two. Experimented with several herbal tonic soups and i must say they are healthy and taste yummy. And we are reducing the portion of our meals and try to eat more fruits and space for a little icecream after dinner.

And we changed all our lunch boxes to those glass ones from LockNLock. We feel safer to microwave lunches in glassware than those plastic BPA free ones.

This is the new me, aka mommy who works full time, breastfeeds her baby and cooks Sunday to Thursday. Let's just say it's been super tiring but we are getting the hang of it. Thank goodness that Derrick helps me out, otherwise i think it's impossible to be the new me. Also, Emily for being cooperative to the new me.

Here's us going out for a walk in the evening.

pss.. Derrick gives in to me for the pamperings i give Emily. Yes, i feel bad being away from her for most of her day. But i know she's in good hands.

The apple has fallen

2011-04-21T21:24:00.003-07:00

There has been several times, Emily wearing her apple hat, falls asleep in the car seat and her head looks dangerously stuffed into the blanket. Yes, the first few times it happened, i actually pull over to the side of the road and try to pull her head up.

But we finally figure she's fine even with her head down since she's held up by the seat belts. So now the code "Apple has fallen" means Emily has fell asleep in her carseat.

Daddy's home alone with Emily

2011-04-20T22:24:00.000-07:00

Derrick being the stay home dad these 2 weeks with baby Emily. He's clearing vacation and spending some time alone with the little princess before she starts daycare. Here's a picture of them taking a afternoon walk outside

When the weather is good on a weekend

2011-04-19T22:07:00.003-07:00

When the weather looks sunny on a saturday, we bring Emily out. First stop, brunch at University District for us at Mr. Lu's. It's our first time there and this was one of the top few choices recommended at Yelp. So off we go to try something new

The burgers are indeed pretty good. Store website: http://www.mrlus.com

There was a farmer's market at the University district and we spent some time there before heading over to the Arboretum. Yup, both of us haven't been there before, so it's our first time there.

Yup, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom now

Emily and her first cherry blossoms

Of course there are other pretty flowers in full bloom too.

And we have a sleepy baby that's too tired from taking in all the sights.

Yeah!! She just made her first roll over

2011-04-16T23:10:00.002-07:00

We had dinner at friend's place tonight and thanks to uncle kevin, who told us to dangle the monkey toy over her head. Emily rolled over for the very first time today.

She has been on the verge of rolling over for a while. Or rather Derrick has been training her to get her to roll over.

Good job everyone!!!!