Prima

Huelan just finished her third session at the local kids' dance studio.  This time around, Grandma volunteered to drive her to class.  During the session, parent (it's really mostly grandparents and a few nannies) sit in a seperate room and can only watch via closed circuit TV.  The instuctors find that the kids are less distracted that way and can thus concentrate on serious dancing.

The exception is the last class of the session, when parents, grandparents, and pretty much anyone off the street can come and watch the "recital."  They do some tap and some ballet, and it's incredibly cute.  One of the parents told me afterwards that "Nicole certainly is a performer."  I can't disagree with that- somehow she almost always finds her way to the front of the class or end up right next to the teacher....

There are 10 videos.  I'll post two here, but the others are easy to find if you're so inclined:

Hung's Bday

A couple of week's ago was the anniversary of when our Mother birthed Hung.  For celebration, we all went to Lanesplitter's Pizza and grubbed down on some pizzas and beers.  It's been a big year since his last birthday, having baby Vansen now in our lives!  Below you see him posin' with his birthday gift.  When he retires, we'll think about getting him a real gold watch.

Ly Boys

We had the Zatulovskys join us in the Creek the other day for some food and good drinks.  They are expecting their first kid soon (we think it's going to be a boy).  Whatever gender the baby is going to be, don't mess with them - or you'll get a face full of lead.

Patty's Home Cookin'

One of Patty's passions at home is creating and trying out new recipes and new dishes that she's never made before.  In hopes to share some of my beloved wife's creations, I'm going to try and catalog some of her delicious dishes that she's made so far.  Although I love to eat her creations, I'm just not so sure if it's a good thing....I seem to getting rounder and rounder by the mouthful.

One of my favorites, Cuban Potato balls. 
Seasoned ground beef pressed around creamy/fried mashed potatos:



 

For a celebratory dinner, Patty is making the main ingredients to one of my favorite pasta dishes, Frutti de Mare which contains Mussels in a white wine sauce and buttered Scallops as seen below:

 

 

Stay tuned for more entries, until then.  Stay salivating.

 

 

 

 

 



Lax

We pretty much just let this one roll around on the floor when we're busy doing other stuff.  

Getting it

Mobility is kind of a conundrum for parents.  Of course we want our kids to develop normally and gain some independence, but it's really nice that for the most part infants stay where you put them. 

Vansen's in the early stages of being mobile.  He knows that other kids can move, and that he sometimes can, but hasn't quite figured out how to reliably get himself from where he is to where he wants to be. He can't yet get himself from a sitting to a crawling position, but if we place him on his belly, he is just figuring out how to propel himself forward.  If he's properly motivated....

Irish Eyes

She said she didn't want to get pinched. But I pinched her anyway. 

Cutting

Teething kind of snuck up on us this time around. We checked the baby log, and Vansen's first teeth came about 10 days after Huelan's. Though later, his came with much less commotion. He was uncomfortable for the preceding days, but nothing like Huelan was. Let's hope this is a long trend. 

Last Weekend

Before this weekend starts, I 'll try and catch us up on last weekend, which featured what is beginning to become an annual Tahoe cabin trip.  This year Sam found a place on the Nevada side, up over 7,000 feet, which was great because below that altitude there was virtually no snow.  As it was, there was some crusty stuff around- just enough for a mini snowman and some boot tromping for Huelan.

We went up Thursday night, which gave us an entire extra day.  Friday was the snowboarders hit up Kirkwood (first outing for me in two years), which left Saturday to take Huelan to ski school at Heavenly.  We met up with Liz's cousin Jackie and her son Mateo, who is almost four and was on his second day of ski school.

Huelan loves new stuff, and this was no different.  She was stoked for everything about it- the drive up, the lodge, the class, the boots, the gloves, and especially the snacks (goldfish).



Pics forthcoming, ***Updated: Here are the pics along with some other ones from March's first half***

Here's a vid from the ski lession:

February Stuff

I don't think that I've posted any pics from February yet!  I don't really recall exactly what happened last month in any great detail, so I'll let the album do the talking:

Pics from Early February

Wednesday

For the past 4+ years, Grandma and Papa have been making a weekly trip to Oakland spend the day with Huelan. After Huelan started preschool, they kept their Wednesday dates in order to be with Vansen.

We started Huelan in school a few months ago with the intention of sending her five days a week, but it hasn't really worked out that way because of the irresistible pull of Grandma and her green bag filled with goodies and art projects.

So Wednesdays will continue to be Grandma and Papa's days to be with both Huelan and Vansen. After all, Huelan has plenty of time for school in the next ~20 years.

Here's a screenshot of an email Grandma sent us this evening, a tiny vignette that belays their special relationship.

Way Back in 2103, Part 3- More Xmases & BDays

Decemeber seems like about 50 days long.  We used to do a big crab cook for Liz's birthday, but that's morphed into a Christmas party the last few years, and this year we had the most kids ever at the party. I don't think that record will stand very long. Hams were smoked, lasagnas were baked, and wine was mulled- it was our official kick off to the holidays!

Christmas at the Lees was early this year in order to accommodate everyone's increasingly busy schedules.  I liked the early family celebration because it forced us to get our shopping and wrapping taken care of early (thanks to Amazon Prime).  It also lengthens a highly underrated part of the holiday season- the time between Xmas and New Year.  We did our big family holiday on Dec 22, giving us NINE WHOLE DAYS before NYE to bask in a sunny post-holiday state.

Turns out we needed those days because we had something like six birthday parties for Huelan.  The first one was the same day as the Lee Family Xmas.  Before dessert, Grandma orchestrates a set change, this year the holiday table cloths made way for a pirate motif.  And the parties continued for the next two weeks. If we counted a year for every birthday party, the girl would be like 27 by now.

Some pics here, including the NYE family bash at the Hardcastles'