Ethan + Chicken Feet

More pictures from our trip to Hong Kong.  This time with captions.

New trick: fish lips.  Or, it's more like his interpretation of fish lips.

Gong Gong gives him the coolest toys.

Other than the keyboard, Ethan got to play with phones, remotes, and camera lens caps.

This is what he does when mommy does her makeup.

On the subway.

Can you tell that he had been watching the Olympics?

Here is a future gymnast.

I told ya!  Having a blast with the remotes.

Family portrait.  At a Westrail station.

It was SO hot in Hong Kong.  

Jake and I were both parched and Starbucks was the closest place for a drink where we were.

Its ice chocolate is pretty good if you ask me.

Karaoke.

It smelled like heaven.  NOT.

Good thing I'm not pregnant because if I were I would've been barfing instead of taking pictures.

Red bean popsicle.  Nom nom...

Chubby cheeks.

Yum Cha.

E's first encounter with chicken feet.  He liked it.  I'm a proud mama.

Watching a show in his bassinet on the plane.

Aaand... We're Back!

Hi, did you miss me?  I'm thinking it's not likely that anyone has been missing my blog posts but I would be absolutely delighted if you said yes.  The hub, the bug, and me have gone to and are now back from Hong Kong!  It was a good trip but it was way too short what with all three of us getting sick and my sissy's wedding celebrations.  We didn't even get to meet up with any of our friends!  I'm quiet distraught by it.  But we enjoyed hanging out with the family and Ethan soaked up all the love his grandparents could give out.  Any tips on how to unspoil your spoiled baby?

Jake came home by himself early because, duh!, he has a job, which means I had to fly home with the mini all by myself.  It was the longest flight of my life.  Luckily, my sister and her husband were on the same flight as us (even though they weren't sitting right next to us) so at least I didn't have to hand my baby to a stranger when I had to go potty.

Here are the first half of the pictures we took with my iPhone in Hong Kong.  I especially like the one where E was typing an imaginary email on his very own keyboard given to him by his Gong Gong.

Dear My Sixteen Year Old Self

Dear Self,

Hi there.  Listen girly, one piece of advice today-

Do not, and I repeat for exaggeration, do not ever consent to accept any jewelry from any of your male acquaintances under any circumstance unless his name is Jake with blond hair, blue eyes, and speaks perfect Cantonese.  Do you hear me?  For it will only lead to heartbreak...

Sure it might seem like a very romantic thing for an admirer to hand you a robin-egg-blue-colored box with a perfectly tied white ribbon wrapped around it, and you might feel awkward refusing the gift but it would be a wise decision to just say thank you but no thank you.  And then say it again to the many more robin-egg-blue-colored boxes that will be presented to you in the future.  Because when that person no longer admires you nor you him, you will think to yourself Darn it!  Now I can never wear that tiffany bangle that matches so well with everything and makes all of my outfits look so much better.  And then you will go out in search for another bangle that will fit your tiny little wrist just as perfectly and fail miserably.  Still, you refuse to wear the one that was gifted to you so you buy another one, exactly the same, and hope that if you ever run into your ex wearing the bangle that he will not mistake the gesture.  Because, let's face it, the best thing you got out of that relationship was the knowledge that Tiffany makes an absolutely stunning bangle that fits you perfectly.  Was that too harsh?  I'm not sorry to have spoken the truth.

And guess what?  That Jake I mentioned earlier.  He is going to be the one.  Believe it or not, he absolutely adores you and is running out of ideas of what to get you for all of the special days that you're going to spend together.  He will get so desperate that he'll come home one day and have in his hands frying pans as a "just because" surprise present.  He's really cute, that one.

Yours truly,
Your Wiser Self

Corn Boil FHE

Nom nom nom...  I have successfully taught Ethan to say nom nom when he wants food.  It's quite cute.  In the past few weeks, he has also learned to conduct when he hears music, say "all done!" when he's done eating, clap his hands, sign more (finally!), and "sing a song" by saying la la la la la on the same note.  He's a smart little boy, that one.

We went to a corn boil FHE hosted by our ward today.  I had mine mexican style with mayo and parmesan cheese and cayenne pepper.  It was delicious.  I would never have guessed!  Yum!

I hope you had a wonderful Monday night with people you love as well.

No-brainer Dress

I gave a talk at church today.  It was more like I barfed it out.  I did a horrible job...  But people in our ward are all super nice--they risked their salvation to make me feel better by lying and saying that I did a good job.  The biggest liar of them all is my very own husband Jake.  He has gotten so good at lying over the years, always telling me that I look cute even when I am in my most unattractive hoodie and sweats with hair looking like the former abode of some really messy birds, that I was almost convinced that I really did a good job.

Anyway, let us move on.  Shall we?

I knew that I would have no time for the usual Sunday routine (which is where I try on about a dozen outfits before settling on the winning contestant to wear to church) what with the talk and nursery lesson and all; so when I was laying in bed thinking about it last night I decided to wear one of my no-brainer dresses.  I love no-brainer dresses.  I wish that my closet was crammed full with them but they are not easy to come by.  They need to be low-maintenance (absolutely no ironing or for heaven's sake dry cleaning required), modest (the most I will have to wear is a wonder tee with it), and cute.  An extra bonus would be that I could nurse in it as well.  When I chance upon a no-brainer dress, I do my wiggly-hop-hop dance.  It's pretty intense.  This dress fulfills all the requirements and it was a pretty great day when I snatched it off of a rack at Nordstrom :)

p.s. The dress looks shorter in the pictures than it is in real life.  The wicked wind not only blew the dress a few inches up, it also made my hip looks like a giant pumpkin.  Thanks a million!  Humph!

I'm Going to be Sick...

Because I'm going to give a talk in church tomorrow.  Why would the bishopric think that I have anything valuable to say on the topic of pioneers?  I do not know.  I'm so nervous I swear I am going to throw up all over the podium.  But then again, I got an A in public speaking when I was in college.  How did that happen?  I know not.  I just remember that my professor was quite fond of me.  Anyway, there is nothing much I'd like to say about my day.  All I have been doing is preparing for my talk.  Oh, but here are two pictures from my phone...

I found this new magnet arrangement on the dishwasher when I came downstairs in the morning.

Apparently the hubby did it after he washed the dishes the night before.

...

Need I say more?

I think he thinks that I think he looks cool.

And I suspect that he's going to be quite the heartbreaker when he turns three.

Heaven help me.

The Nook

Ah, the nook.  Let me tell you about the nook.  The moment those evil little e-readers came out on the market, I knew that they should never be trusted.  How suspicious I was of the kindle and the nook and the hundred other e-readers there were.  I was an inside-out gung-ho paper girl.  I love paper.  I love the feel and the smell of it, and that's why I got so entranced by bookbinding.  The idea of reading a book on a digital device was unthinkable!  Blasphemy even!  

Until the hubby got me one the summer I was pregnant, that is.

I didn't love it at first even though it was nice.  The words on the screen were clear and crisp, almost exactly like you're reading an actual book.  I appreciated how it was so well designed that it's very natural to hold and I love the page-turning buttons on both sides of the device.  The first feature that started turning my anti-e-readers guard off was the dictionary, of course.  The dictionary on the nook makes it so fast and easy to look up words.  Plus, it was far more precise than the walking dictionary (aka husband) that I had to use when we were out.  I took it on several road trips and vacations.  It was super nice that I didn't have to haul 10 pounds of books with me when I had the nook.  It's extremely light and it takes up hardly any space at all in my purse.  Also, you seldom have to charge it.  The battery lasts forever.

And then came the little one.  The mini made it quite hard to read.  You need some practice and extra flexible arms to turn a page without waking or distracting a little one sleeping or nursing in your arms.  And it's almost impossible to hold your baby's head (my baby's head size was in the 100th percentile let me remind you) and a hardcover that's on the larger size with one hand for more than fifteen minutes without it falling asleep so I once again turned to my nook and it served me well.  I grew to love it more and more over time.  I feel like the best thing about it right now is that I can get digital books downloaded onto my device from our library without driving in the hot hot car under the hot hot sun with a hot hot baby in the back seat to the library.  What's more?  I suspect that my paper-loving gene has somehow transfered to my child.  His little hands find papers to tear everywhere we go.  There was this one day when I found him tearing out pages of the Ensign and chewing them--he was literally feasting upon the word of God.  But I digress...  My point was that with the nook, I'm saving money from all the tape that I would otherwise have to buy to tape up destroyed pages or to tape the mini's little hands together to stop him from tearing my books up.

The nook, of course, is not perfect and there are things I don't like about it.  The on/off button on the back is total garbage.  Also, the material on the back is extremely prone to smudges and finger prints which makes it look dirty all the time.  But these are all little things that I can live with.

Anyway, I better sign off now to spend the rest of the evening with the hub.  How's that for an abrupt end to a blog post.  Happy weekend everyone!