Cutie Face

Cuties- the popular mandarin orange brand. He has no mercy on these things. He nearly pulps them while trying to peel them, and when they're finally free of their rind, he smashes them into his mouth, as many as can fit. Probably 6-7 wedges at a time, though a little smaller than their original size for having been slightly rung out. He's done as many as 4 in a sitting, though that ceiling may be artficially imposed by us. Who knows what his natual upper limit may be. 

30 week ultrasound

Here's what our baby boy looks like at 30wks in the womb! You can see his face and arm under his chin posing. He had his HC and AC measured, which was slightly bigger than the norm.

At this point, he is 6 days bigger than average. Weighing in at approximately 3lbs 14oz (give or take 9oz) and is healthy.

He'll be getting much bigger in the coming weeks for sure, I'm guessing he'll be 8lbs 2oz when we meet him. We'll see!

Summer in March

Birthdays for me are now pretty much just another excuse to let Huelan help me blow out some candles and for both the kids to load up on sweets. 

This time, they got to do both on their first visit to Fenton's. After taking in some of their average diner fare, we split a banana split and Huelan got to choose the scoops- vanilla cherry with loads of marachinos, blueberry cheesecake, and choco chip. Pretty good selection by her, considering she could have opted for bubblegum and cotton candy flavors. My birthday, and they get the treats- pretty much the way it is now.

One thought I had was that Vansen is making out like a bandit. He gets to do all this cool stuff way before Huelan ever got the chance to, relative to their ages. Right now, the advantages mostly involve eating sweets, but he also gets to watch cartoons when she does and even gets to weeze on the ipad when we're feeling especially generous. 

I know that this will come up a bunch more times when they're adolescents, so I am planting this post here as something I can point to to prove that we're not favoring him unfairly. We're just lazy, inconsistent parents sometimes. 

Stairway

He learned to throw things down the stairs tonight. This is going to be a fun few weeks. 

Babymooning in Yosemite

Patty and I were debating on a few destinations for our babymoon. Hawaii, Arizona and San Diego were the front runners, but we decided to go to Yosemite instead. It was a short drive and we didn't have to deal with any airports which was huge. Neither of us has ever been so that helped us make the decision easier.

We didn't know that it was so close either, it only took us a little over 2 hours to get there and the drive wasn't bad at all, gorgeous really.... a segment of the drive in was like a scene from Lord of the Rings. We entered the park through the HWY 140 entrance.

We stayed at a little B&B about a mile from the park entrance for 3 nights over President's Day weekend. The park admission was free so that was a bonus! We mainly stayed in the Yosemite Valley and explored some of the smaller trails where we were able to get up close to a couple of waterfalls. One of our favorite times was where the giant sequoias grow in Mariposa Grove. Walking beside these 1,000+ year old giants was nuts, we were so small compared to these old giants.

It was a short trip, but we need to save some time for when the baby arrives! Nonetheless, it was an awesome time for us and the baby!

Goat/Ram/Sheep all say Baaaaaa

The last day of the Lunar New Year festival was this week, and SF had their annual parade today. We'd been mulling over whether we would go, and were on the fence til the last minute. Liz went many times growing up in SF (she says Dad loved parades and fireworks. They were free), but I had never been and the kids had never been.

It seemed a little daunting- packed streets with both kids. Loud noises. Bart. And it would have been super easy to default to hanging around the house a polishing off the leftovers. But instead we decided to pack some bags and make some memories. Transit was super easy, people were exceedingly nice, and the kids did great- Huelan was stoked to be so close to the action, and Vansen took it all in from his elevated backpack perch with minimal squirming.  There were Lions and Dragons for miles, and Huelan especially liked all the kids in the parade. I know what was going through her mind watching them- "...that could be me out there."

And it was free. Including this nice little surprise- Free Pocky Truck? Yes please!

Hi Tech

Finally upgraded to the new iOS, and this is one of the fun features- voice texting! You can't hear the message Huelan left for Ba Noi on this post, so you'll have to trust me that the adorability level was high. 

Nap Time

A couple of weeks ago, I had to pick Huelan up from school early for a doctor's appt. I arrived during naptime to this. 

Weekend Funtimes

I distinctly remember when I was in elementary school seeing commercials for events on TV like the Harlem Globe Trotters, monster truck rallies, and the circus. Doing stuff like that, just for fun, was just not part of my reality (although we did go to Disneyland pretty much every year, so we weren't really deprived).  But I do remember thinking, "Wow, how rich do you have to be to go to cool stuff like that?"  

Turns out, all you need is for someone to hook us up with free tickets. 

Saturday, Liz too Huelan and her friend Natalie to Disney in Ice. They even dressed up as Tinkerbell and Anna. The whole thing was a suprise for Huelan until the very last minute, and they had a blast. 

Saturday night was Ba's and Chu Ti's turn to have some douchie fun. 

Then Sunday we went to Mason's birthday party where Huelan bowled for the first time. She liked it, but not nearly as much as she like the claw game (five bucks won us a set of mini handcuffs???).  And not even close to as much as Vansen loved his cupcake. 

Every now and again, we actually kick some weekend butt, max out the fun, and make some memories. This was one of those weekends. 

Also, I'll just leave this here. She looks about 17.