Two Little Bosses

Mustard flowers, ladybugs and clouds

2012-01-28T14:02:00.000-08:00

The wild mustard flowers are blooming all over Union City! There's huge fields of them at Coyote Hills which is near Nia's elementary school. So after dropping off Nia, Taryn and I stopped by a field to take a few photos.

This was probably the best photo I got of Taryn!

Most of the time she was too busy doing this...

What was she looking at? There were literally hundreds of sleeping ladybugs that could be seen on the mustard flowers! Here's one with a lot of dew to shake off when she wakes up!

It was also very foggy this past Thursday and Friday. Nia and Taryn both ended up with wet hair just playing on the playground before school started (they didn't seem to mind).

A couple of photos taken at stoplights to show how dense the fog was -- it was literally like driving in a cloud.

Berkeley and Uncle Bob's 70th

2012-01-22T16:19:00.000-08:00

Saturday afternoon saw us Chious wandering about downtown Berkeley. Our first stop was to the venerable Cheese Board Coop. We sampled cheeses from around the world before finally picking out some Dutch Havarti, Italian fresh mozarella and local cheese made from sheep's milk.

Nia and Taryn loved the cheese shop -- or rather, they loved running around and creating havoc in the crowded cheese shop!!!! They weren't too fond of the samples since most of the cheeses had a strong taste. Eventually, I shooed them out the shop to run around outside while Daddy paid for our cheese.

One quick photo in front of the counter! The counter, which wraps around about a quarter of a circle, takes up almost the whole store.

We went to the ground floor of the building across the street which has a small selection of food stalls. I visited this choclatier (Alegio) where I bought a miniscule bonbon for $2. It was tasty!

Afterwards, Jeff went off to Uncle Bob's 70th birthday party dinner. He said they brought out about 9 or 10 rounds of dishes followed by a spectacular cake! Here's his photo of the event.

But since it was getting late, the kids and I skipped the dinner and instead walked about a mile to the downtown BART. I got the kids to bed only 20 minutes late (8:20pm).

Wet!

2012-01-22T15:58:00.000-08:00

It's been windy and raining, raining, raining since Friday. Here's a couple of photos from my evening walk. I was the only one crazy enough to be out strolling in this weather! My sneakers took two days to dry out.

In the bathtub Saturday morning Nia was very pleased with her soap mustache!

After bath, this is how little Taryn's hair dried. She's getting quite a curly mop on her head!

Tapioca Express through the eyes of a five year old

2012-01-22T15:41:00.000-08:00

During our latest jaunt to Tapioca Express, Nia demanded my mobile phone so she could take pictures. She clicked away in such a fashion as only a modern-day kid can -- during my day I was very conscious of the fact that I didn't want to use up all my film and how much pocket money it was going to cost me to develop my roll of pictures. No such worries for today's five year old!!!

Here's a pared-down selection of her shots of our favorite tea house:

The roof still has Christmas lights up! Thank goodness we're not the only ones left.... ;-)

Taryn was suffering from a pretty bad cold or perhaps a mild flu. She'd been very cranky and had refused to eat anything all day which is one reason why I wanted to get her out the house. She was more than content to sit in the poofy chair at Tapioca Express and drink her mango yogurt while watching the football game on the TV! Phew!!!! I think Nia was as relieved as me!

The front door. Nia took so many shots this direction that our fellow pearl-loving patrons began to turn around! I told her to point the camera somewhere else and turned off the clicking sound so she could photograph incognito.

A shot towards the back -- I think she was trying to get the fish tank.

Our intrepid photographer:

Colorful Nia

2012-01-22T15:25:00.000-08:00

Nia dressed herself in such cute, colorful clothes last Sunday morning! I her asked if I could do her hair in a new style. She said, "You can do my hair however you want, Mama!" Hence, the 4 braided pigtails! I think they go pretty well with her outfit...

Taryn likes snow and Chitty

2012-01-16T21:04:00.000-08:00

Taryn frolics in Union City "snow"... It's been nippy in the morning for the past few days. This morning I checked the temperature to see it was 27F at 9am!!! I've left a small bowl of water out on the porch to show the kids how it will freeze during the night.

Aside from leaving snow prints, Taryn loves to hug "Chitty Chitty Van Van". Normally, Taryn is not a TV-loving kid. She'll watch TV with her sister for maybe 10 minutes and then run off to play with her toys. But she sat through the entire Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie which is almost 3 hours long. She REALLY likes Chitty!

1/3 of Mission Peak

2012-01-08T20:10:00.000-08:00

On Saturday morning we managed to do a 3 mile hike around Mission Peak -- about 1/3 of the full Mission Peak hike. We were invited by Aunt Juliet and Wayne who were very patient about our slow-poke pace!

On the way down, the kids said hi to this very friendly horse who trotted over when he saw the kids watching him.

Nia even got a nuzzle!

Nia's turn for "Star of the Week"

2012-01-08T19:53:00.000-08:00

Each week a different student gets to be the "Star of the Week" in Mrs. Vera's class. This week is Nia's turn. I'm not exactly sure what her role is as the weekly star -- if I was the teacher, I'd have the star clean the chalkboards and empty the garbages! But I think Mrs. Vera is more fun than that.

Over the weekend, Nia had to prepare a "doll" of herself and write out the answers to a few questions. Here's the doll she made (instructions in the background):

And here's the little write-in interview she prepared:

...and just because it came out so cute, here's the photo I took of Nia to make her doll's head (she colored the rest):

Reindeer meat

2012-01-08T19:19:00.000-08:00

For my Christmas gift to Jeff this year, I got him a pound of reindeer meat! The inspiration came because he loves to try different "exotic" meats. He's already sampled python (birthday gift) and alligator (anniversary gift).

This time I found a (supposedly) authentic Norwegian reindeer recipe on the web that was quite simple to prepare. You just slice the meat as thinly as possible, saute it in butter and salt. Then you lay it on top of a mound of mashed potatoes with sliced almonds. Around the perimeter, you put lingonberry jam. Here's the result:

Nia proclaimed, "This is my favoritest food ever!" Jeff liked it too. My opinion? Tastes very similar to lamb, just a little more tender.

Christmas visit to Uncle Derek

2012-01-07T16:20:00.000-08:00

After Christmas, we leaped onto a plane and jetted off to Austin, Texas to visit Uncle Derek. Well, not quite... Here's Taryn watching our plane (upper right) fly off:

We missed our flight by minutes and had to hang out in the airport until the next flight which had a stopover instead of being direct. The kids handled it like pros. They were perfectly behaved in the airport and on the airplane, although they were pretty happy to finally reach Uncle Derek's house in the evening. Grammy and Grandpa also flew in from Michigan so it was a nice gathering of family.

One really cool thing about Uncle Derek's house is the untamed forest in his backyard! Practically every morning the kids went outside to hunt for treasures.

Here's Uncle Derek giving us the tour of the woodlands and dried-up river bed behind his house.

Nia actually found a few fossils in the riverbed. Here's one small fossilized sea-creature -- possibly a mollusk of some sort?

I found this beautiful rock covered with yellow/brown crystals. Still haven't conclusively identified it.

This particular area of Austin had many kid-friendly parks, museums and even a miniature train ride!

Taryn was forever spoiled by all the attention she received from Grammy and Grandpa!

We made the rounds at a couple of BBQ restaurants including Rudy's, "the worst Bar-B-Q in Texas".

I don't think Grandpa and Grammy agreed!

The kids posing by a giant mosaic butterfly at the nearby dinosaur museum.

Nia's first official dig! She found something!

...meanwhile Taryn was quietly uncovering an entire dinosaur skull....

...then Grammy and the girls were eaten up by a very hungry-looking dino.

Uncle Derek took us to an Italian eatery -- the kind where you smell the garlic halfway down the block. Excellent!

He also took us on a hike the next day to walk off our noodles (pun intended!). We found this funny writing on a rock and took advantage of it!

Austin's waterfall (effects of drought conditions obvious).

Then we visited the Whole Foods Mothership. They are going to open one in Fremont soon and I hope that it's as awesome as the Austin one -- the whole place is basically a huge, fru-fru restaurant!

An outdoor Christmas lights show at the Mozart Cafe.

Uncle Derek took us on a brief tour of University of Austin. They had this awesome galloping horses statue. I couldn't resist poking Taryn onto one -- she's been asking to go horesback riding for weeks now.

Hanging out in Prof Derek's office! That hand-stick he's holding is a "spanking stick" from Taiwan that he uses for pointing.

Another BBQ place!

There was a huge dinosaur battle at the Children's Museum of Austin.

Another visit to the park.

You can see in the photo below that Jeff was doling out the punches as fast as he could, but he still got knocked-out by Derek on the Wii boxing gane.

Derek introduced us to Amy's ice-cream!

...and both kids tried out the cockpit on the ride home!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-07T14:49:00.000-08:00

Surprisingly, the kids didn't wake up at 6am, their usual time. In fact, I was the first one up around 7:30am. It wasn't too tough to rustle the kids from their slumber, of course!

Nia was the first one to shoot down the stairs. "TARYN, TARYN SANTA CAME!!!!"

Taryn made it down.... As well as Daddy. He was the Christmas morning slow poke.

The kids start in on their pile of gifts. They got one gift each from Mama and Daddy and then a few gifts from relatives. The massive pile of boxes in the background came from Uncle Derek. We were just as excited as them to see what was inside!

After a big breakfast of eggs and toast and V8 (their favorite), we hung out and played with the Christmas loot. Then it was off to Grandad and Auntie's house for Christmas part 2. Auntie had a little robot puppy that sang Elvis songs and danced around. The kids were big fans!

Taryn opens up a present in Grandad's lap. At the start of the morning, she wasn't quite sure she wanted to open up presents -- but by the time evening rolled around she was pulling off the wrapping paper like a pro!

Beginning to look a lot like...

2012-01-07T14:37:00.000-08:00

In the run-up to Christmas morning we partied at Grandad's workplace. Agilent has an annual Christmas brunch with lots of fun events.

Here's Nia telling Santa her wishlist.

Some of the other party-goers...

On Christmas Eve we had relatives over. Jeff's uncles and aunts and cousins came over to celebrate and exchange gifts. They also brought over dinner, including yummy Chinese food and some burritos.

Here's Jeff's cousins Kelly and Kristy -- looking so grown-up!!! There's a little person squeezed in between them in her jammies.

We exchanged gifts shortly before dinner. Nia got this princess dress + crown and wand from them. She loved it!

A final photo before everyone left a little after 8pm.

Taryn was very pleased to get a big goodbye hug from her uncle Jimmy!

Angel and school portraits!

2011-12-21T18:06:00.000-08:00

Taryn was too little to attend preschool when they were taking the official school portraits (they took them at the VERY start of the year and she wasn't old enough to start until October). So I was happy that they took these Christmas time portraits of her!

Nia looks like a polished, young lady in her school portrait!

Cute photos

2011-12-17T16:02:00.000-08:00

Nia spotted this gorgeous yellow rose one morning on the way to school. She wanted to pick it, but I talked her into taking a photo instead. It's almost as big as her head!

Taryn gets suited up as an angel for her Christmas photo at preschool. The head lady took lots of cute photos of her and it's going to be tough to choose which one I want (she's charging $15 each).

...and an ultraound photo of our sweetie #3! It's from the 1st trimester diagnostic. Everything is looking great. Since it's a close-up, it's a little hard to get the perspective, so I've labeled a few parts. The baby's head is tilted slightly away.

Photo catch-all

2011-12-08T12:15:00.001-08:00

Taryn loves to use the "big girl" bathroom at Eastin. She usually goes straight in and acts like she owns the place.

"Mama -- take a picture of my pizza princess crown!"

Taryn drives Miss Nia. Not sure where they were going but Miss Nia is clearly bracing for impact!

Nia has had a stomach bug for about a day and a half (she was throwing up from midnight to 4am). I kept her home yesterday an she was feeling much better today so I took her to school. But I prepared very, very mild food for her to eat, including this jam sandwich for breakfast. Nia was so charmed that I cut the crusts off she wanted a photo to remember the "special treat".

Quarry Lakes

2011-12-08T11:30:00.001-08:00

Grandad and I prevailed over the kids' calls to go to the park. We went to a park, but it was Quarry Lakes rather than the Golden Gate Bridge park (their favorite). At first there was some moaning, but Grandad quickly helped them get into the spirit by demonstrating how to throw rocks into one of the lakes. They both couldn't gather pebbles fast enough!

Here's a photo of Grandad helping Taryn back up to the path.

Afterwards Nia found a tree covered in tiny seeds that she called "bells". She picked herself some bells, but they were so tiny that she managed to lose them before we got back to the car. I told her a pixie must have taken them.

And a last photo right before we left (with me!).

Taryn the ballerina

2011-12-08T11:15:00.001-08:00

It seemed boiling hot last Friday afternoon around 4pm. When I looked up the temperature I was surprised to see it was 72F! I was hopeful we'd get a little warm spell, but no luck. Back to chilly temperatures by Saturday.

All this didn't matter to Taryn who found her swimming costume in the closet and demanded to wear it. She also doffed her "Hazelyn hat".

Then she declared herself a ballerina and demonstrated some poses for me and big sis Nia.

During the night it dropped below freezing -- so much for those last garden tomatoes that I was hoping would ripen! The kids both appreciated it when Heater Girl showed up to warm their clothes before they dressed.

Nia the Outstanding Student!

2011-12-04T00:26:00.001-08:00

Grandad came around to the house promptly at 7:15am to help escort little Nia to accept her "Outstanding Student" award! Taryn also came along to watch her big sis be honored. Here's a shot of Nia in front of the assembly holding her award. The principal, Mr La Rue, is to the left. He shook each child's hand and gave them a special congratulations. Nia's teacher, Mrs. Vera, is the woman with the white shirt to her right.

She appeared a bit rattled when she was standing in front of her crowd of peers! Afterwards they pulled the kids aside for the parent paparazzi. The school photographer also takes a picture and posts the portrait in a glass display case at the front of the school.

Aside from the paper certificate, they also got a special snack as a reward -- apple juice and gummies! Nia's favorite...

I video-taped the event on our "real" camcorder, but now I have to try to find the manual to figure out how to translate the tapes to digital files. So don't hold your breath...

Nia's Upcoming Award!

2011-11-30T09:55:00.001-08:00

Yeah! Go Nia!

Already charging the battery on the camcorder...

Santa 2011

2011-11-26T16:53:00.001-08:00

We hit the Black Friday sales at Pleasanton Mall. It was Friday afternoon about 4:30pm when we arrived so all the steals were gone. We bought a couple of things, mainly stuff we needed that we'd been holding off on purchasing.

While there, we visited Santa and got this awesome photo of the kids!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-26T16:43:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving was happily crowded this year. In addition to my folks and us Chious, my aunt Sharon attended and Rob brought along his new girlfriend. There weren't enough seats for everyone so the Chious ended up picnicking on the floor. The kids happily started off the gastronomic feastorama:

Afterwards there were board games and chit chat. Finally, people started to leave so we took one group photo (Mom and I are not in this shot):

And a group shot with me (Jeff acting as photographer and my Mom still abstaining):

The Chious occupy Oakland

2011-11-23T17:54:00.001-08:00

I was a bit more ambitious today and decided to take the kids on a morning BART ride up to Oakland. I looked on Google maps and saw the 12th St. station had a park about a block away so I figured this was a good stop to visit.

Of course, our first stop when we got there was somewhere to eat. The kids devoured crisps and a cookie at the Teatro Cafe.

The Teatro cafe was located on the 2nd story of a gorgeous building with marble floors and a fancy dome on the top. The kids were awe-struck when they saw it.

They thought this building was cute!

Then we walked over to the park.... and right into a small gathering of the famous Occupy Oakland protesters! There were about 30 folks there, holding signs and basically loitering. There seemed to be one policeman for each protester.

We also saw some tree sitters that were claiming Oakland as Ohlone lands. They are apparently lead by some guy named "Running Wolf" who previously staged an unsuccessful tree sit at UC Berkeley to preserve ancient oak trees (they were eventually cut down).

Then we wandered over to Oakland Square across the street which is very posh-looking! The kids had fun running around the fancy shopping center.

Flower girls!

More flower girl shots!

I made a really silly face to get Taryn to make a big smile for the camera.

Almost lunchtime, so we headed back home on BART. Taryn asked to try on my hair! Nia snapped this photo.

...and Nia showed off her souvenirs of our Oakland junket.

The hills are alive

2011-11-23T17:38:00.001-08:00

I almost forgot! The Monday after Veteran's Day was a school holiday for Nia (it was "grading day" for the teachers). So I took Nia hiking in the morning. This is tough to do with Taryn who has a very non-linear path that involves looking in every nook and cranny. So Nia and I walked up to the water tower and beyond. I got some cool photos of her!

We recently watched the movie "How to Tame your Dragon" which Nia absolutely loved. So she's been wearing her dragon Halloween costume as a jacket.

...but the exertion warmed us up soon enough as we climbed the hill. A nice rest spot for a photo!

We walked past the water tower into the mini hills above. Here's Nia up on top of one of them!

A grasshoper or cricket that fascinated Nia.

The kids and mama

2011-11-23T16:49:00.001-08:00

The kids have been home this week with no school for either of them. I've generally done some sort of activity in the morning followed by lunch and naptime. After nap we usually run an errand or two and hit the park. If Nia doesn't feel like napping she gets "learning time". I was really surprised to discover that although Nia can do simple sums and recite the numbers 1 to 100, it seems like she gets confused how to actually write the numbers between 11 and 30, so we've been practicing that along with strengthening her reading skills.

Here's a few photos of what they got up to. Nia turned her tangerine into a pumpkin by adding a green straw for a stem. "Take a picture Mama!"

We went to the library's "music and movement" hour -- Nia really got into it but I think Taryn was a little overwhelmed by all the kids bouncing around. At the end, they all sat down and the guitarist played a "calm down" type of song.

The kids checked out all the balconies in the library (I didn't realize they were there!):

Then Nia brought over this romance novel for me to read to her!!! I think she's been getting a little too much into the whole Disney princess thing. The other day she told me she drank up all her milk quickly because she wanted to grow tall so she can be an adult and get married. Watch out boys!!!!

Taryn runs on a hillside.

Nia basks in the sunlight.

Nia climbs up our front yard tree while Taryn pouts to get Mama to lift her into the tree too!

Another "take a picture Mama!" moment. Nia riding the tyrannosaurus rex super fast.

The Christmas tree at Kaiser. Nia loved the ice-skate ornaments in the middle.

The kids having fun on the swings at the park -- we left right after this since it was dark.

Weekend dinner and birthday party

2011-11-23T15:41:00.001-08:00

The parties never end in the world of preschoolers and kindergartners! I don't remember attending nearly as many birthday parties as kids today do. Most parties seem to be at centers instead of at the kids' homes or at the park like we generally do. It costs more, but eases the burden for the parents. Us adults have fun socializing with the other parents too, so it's really a fun party for everyone.

"Last weekend, the kids went to their buddy Noam's party at a place called "The Playroom" and had a blast. The crew arrives on the rainy Sunday morning, ready to party!

They had face painting!

Taryn wanted an ice-cream cone on her arm. She liked the results!

Taryn does an art project with Noam, the birthday boy.

The photo op:

And finally, a random photo of Grandad spoiling Taryn by letting her sit in his lap during dinner at Fresh Choice on Saturday (she refused to sit in her own seat!).

Taryn's Thanksgiving Luncheon

2011-11-23T15:12:00.001-08:00

The final day of school for both kids before Thanksgiving break was November 18th. Taryn's preschool had a Thanksgiving luncheon to celebrate the upcoming holiday and I volunteered to help serve the kids in her classroom. I turned up to see the place filled with twice as many adults as kids!!!! Aside from the teachers, there was at least one parent per kid and one of the kids had brought no less than 3 of his grandparents! One of the grandfathers was quite a camera wizard and had expensive-looking photo equipment with telephoto lenses and seemed to be having a ball firing off photos. So I elected not to send the school teachers my goofy mobile phone pictures of the gathering!!!!

When I first arrived, us adults were kept busy heating up the food. Then we were just waiting for the kiddies to come in. They were still outside playing so I snuck out and took a few photos. They had just finished free play and moved on to group games on this tarp thingy. Taryn is the littlest one in the middle.

Then they stood up and made the tarp parachute up and down which Taryn seemed to love!

...she ducked under it every time it reached the top.

..then it was time to come in and feast. The empty chair is for the boy being held by his mother -- he's only 10 days older than Taryn. Since Taryn is a late September baby, she's the youngest of her class, hence why she's the littlest.

Mama asked Taryn to say "cheese" for this photo and didn't realize her mouth was full of cheese & macaroni. How appropriate!

Nia's Fire Station Tour

2011-11-23T14:17:00.001-08:00

Since I got laid off around the start of November I've had more time to spend with the kids which has been nice! Nia realized I was staying at home all day and asked if she can get laid off from kindergarten and stay home too? Uhm....

I recently volunteered as a chaperon for her class trip to see Union City Fire Station #4. Since I had never been inside a fire station myself, this was secretly a field trip for me too. Nia was really charmed when I showed up to help the teacher walk the kids to the fire station (it was only a 10 minute walk). She held my hand the whole time -- these days she's so squirrely that I never get to hold her hand for more than a few minutes!

I was pretty surprised to learn that the fire station crew stay for 2.5 days at the fire station at a time -- for instance, they come in on Monday morning and live there until Wednesday afternoon. So they have dorm rooms, exercise equipment and a nice rec room with a flat screen TV. Then they get the rest of the week off.

Here's the firefighter giving the kids fire safety tips and demonstrating all the equipment he needs to fight a fire.

Then they got to the fun part -- pretending to drive the truck!

The class photo:

Nia Firefighter Girl!

Nia asked a couple of questions during the tour. She wanted to know -- what do firefighters do when there's lava? The guide dodged the question by saying there's no lava flows in the Bay Area. She also asked what a girl fireman was called and the guide told her both genders were called firefighters. Here's the guide posing at the end of the tour with Nia:

Then it was back to class and recess time!

Cute photos

2011-11-14T19:46:00.001-08:00

Just a few cute pics! Taryn taking her big sis to school on a chilly morning.

There was no school on Friday (Veteran's Day) so I took the kids for a short hike in the afternoon. It turned out to be very short since Taryn was super-slow and examining every little thing she came across. That's ok...

We also came across this weird bug that thrust its tail up in the air like a scorpion -- but was clearly not a scorpion. After a bit of Internet research, I found out that it was a Devil's coach horse beetle.

...another shot of the Devil's coach horse beetle:

On the way down, the kids' feet didn't touch the ground.

Grammy and Grandpa Fall visit 2011

2011-11-14T18:56:00.001-08:00

We had what seemed like a whirlwind visit with Grammy and Grandpa starting late October and finishing early November. They were here for two weeks, but for some reason it only felt like maybe 1/2 a week. Oh well, I guess they say time flies when you're having fun! The older I get, the truer that saying becomes.

Here's a few photo highlights from their visit:

"Boo!"

Grandpa and Jeff did a Segway tour in SF!

There's a chipmunk hiding in the curtains in Grammy and Grandpa's hotel room!

Taryn's birthday party with her cronies.

Bookworm Nia.

Grammy helps Taryn ride a small rocker train at the park.

...following which Grandpa gave her a really giant push on the swings!

Noodle time. This particular establishment happens to be Nia and Jeff's favorite noodle place. In fact, Nia was saying yesterday that it's her most favorite restaurant in the world!

Uncle Derek popped in to help celebrate a belated birthday for Grammy. He also brought tons of gifts for his little nieces too!

Taryn gazing adoringly at her Uncle...

A couple months into kindergarten

2011-11-03T11:49:00.000-07:00

School has been going really well for Nia! I turned up early one afternoon to surprise her and take her home early. Her response? "Mama, why are you picking me up? I'm not ready yet!" Poor me!

Taryn also enjoys playing on the school playground with Nia and her friends before school starts. Taryn mainly just runs around trying to keep up instead of actually participating -- but she laughs the whole time so it's alright. I think the bigger kids are a little charmed by her and sometimes they fall in line behind her and run around too.

Here's Nia and Taryn and one of their close friends (Julien):

On the other hand, this is what regularly happens when I'm finally driving Nia home around 5pm. She still needs her nap even though they don't give kids naps anymore. We've partially made up for it by putting her to bed about 1 hour earlier and she takes a nap on the weekends.

This past Monday, her school had a Halloween costume parade. The whole family came to watch. Of course, it got off to a later start than expected, so Daddy and Taryn amused themselves.

...but finally here comes our little pixie!

A short video clip of the parade...

Also, a short clip of Nia doing the monkey bars for the first time! (At least, the first time that I saw her).

The pumpkin patch

2011-10-08T15:36:00.000-07:00

We actually were trying to attend the harvest festival at Ardenwood Farms this Saturday. But this is what the crazy line to get in looked like -- I heard people saying it took an hour just to get through it.

...so we walked over to the Ardenwood pumpkin patch instead. We visited the patch last year with Grammy and Grandpa.

The kids enjoyed choosing pumpkins...

They also climbed the hay stack tower. This was the view from the top. Taryn was too scared to climb up by herself, so I carried her to the top.

Nia looks like she flapped her butterfly wings to get to the top!

Ahhh...

Daddy and Nia do the haystack maze. I think Daddy was cheating... ;-)

Obligatory tractor ride around the farm.

When we left the line to go harvest corn was STILL the same length!

The kids blog

2011-10-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

Nia has been bitten by her Mama's bug of wanting to take photos all the time. Of course, the world through her eyes is very different from the world through mine! Here's a few photos she had me take.

Mama! Look at me! Look at MEEEEE! Huh? Where's Nia?

She was fascinated by this car with lots of flags and wanted to do the same thing to our car.

Showing her bite marks in her apple.

Another apple, another day. She wanted a picture of the hole in the center of the apple.

Taryn isn't really asking me to take pictures (yet) but here's what she was carrying around today at the pumpkin patch (more about the patch in a later post). She picked up lots of these dried-up root kinds of things and little hard clumps of dirt. After her hands got full, she gave the roots and dirt to me to hold and started collecting all over again.

Science in the Park

2011-10-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at the school's "Science in the Park" event! There were about 30 booths and each one had a fun science activity for the kids to do. They got tickets for every activity they finished and could exchange the tickets for prizes at the end. We only managed to get through 8 of the booths. Such are the limits of 5 year olds! Here's a few photos of Nia's favorites:

Nia spent a long time with the rubber band cannons. It had a ruler so you can measure how far you stretch the rubber band and a compass to measure the angle of the cannon. The object was to shoot your rubber band through a target hole. It took her quite a bit of experimentation!

This was Rube-Goldberg-ish. One person sat on a bicycle and pedaled which caused a disc to spin that held a piece of paper. Another kid dropped on globs of paint.

The results!

Even NASA was there, handing out goodie bags with sheets that talked about the different kinds of objects you can find in space. Nia liked posing as an astronaut.

Taryn was able to do some of the activities such as this "make a healthy plate". You cut out newspaper clippings of a meat, a vegetable, a starch and fruit and tape them on the plate. She was very pleased with her meal!

The piece-de-resistance (as far as the kids were concerned) were the exotic animals (all rescues!). A real-life llama! Not eating his pajamas.

The iguana...

...even a baby alligator that Daddy was courageously petting! I asked the handler if he bites and the guy said, "Yup." Uhhhh, watch out Daddy!

There were also lots of snakes, an owl, a monitor with a forked tongue, different types of ducks,.... and probably stuff I'm forgetting!

Taryn starts preschool

2011-10-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

Taryn turned the big 2.0 last Monday and this week we switched her over to preschool. She was very chatty in the morning. She seemed much more interested in the fan remote than in the fact she was starting a new school!

...and voila! Her first time in the Rainbow Room at preschool! She did really well. I think she cried for all of two seconds when I left (I was standing just beyond eyesight) and then got busy with the toys. After school I asked her what she did all day and she told me she "cooked breakfast for everyone". All day? "Yes". Fortunately, they have a schedule, so I know she did other fun things too.

I would estimate she's the shortest kid in the class -- but she only just turned two and the tallest kid is almost 3 years old.

Some videos...

2011-10-02T17:19:00.000-07:00

I was looking through my collection of videos. They're mostly mobile phone videos so they're pretty low quality. But on the other hand, I'm able to capture lots of little moments. For example....

On the evening before Taryn turned two we all went to Fresh Choice to enjoy Taryn's last "free meal". They start charging for children over age two. Here's a clip of her pushing her own tray.

...and here's a video I can't resist posting.... This was one morning during the school-run, right before I dropped Nia off at Eastin:

Here's a clip of how I usually find her when I pick her up from school -- see-sawing with her 5 best buds...

...and Nia trying to make me hurry up one morning...

Planet Taryn orbits Sun Nia at the Fremont Hub:

Wait a sec... Who's chasing who? This was a hot day back in July (I think 100F+ heat):

Taryn got her hands on Mama's violin! Cover your ears!!!!

Click here to see a video post of Nia at a similar age playing my violin.

Taryn turns two!

2011-10-02T16:28:00.000-07:00

The morning was still dark when we all serenaded Taryn happy birthday on September 26th. She is clearly enjoying her moment in the spotlight, but not quite sure what it's all for!

Then Taryn carried homemade cupcakes in her lap for her daycare buddies. She insisted on being the one to carry them. Rainbow cupcakes with a frosted letter "T" on top.

That evening, we took Taryn around to Toys'r'us to choose a toy. She chose a Disney princess laptop. I have to say that technology has come a long way. In addition to a keyboard and mouse, it even has a stylus and a touch screen and CDs that load music programs. All for ~$30...

Then Grandad met us at Prolific Oven to toast the birthday girl. We took Taryn to Prolific Oven for her first birthday as well. Here's a photo of her choosing a swan pastry way back for her first birthday:

...and here she is, aged two, choosing the same thing (no prompting at all)!

...watching the waitress take her swan out the display case....

Then we all serenaded her again with a candle on her pastry. I love her smile! PS. Yes, Nia, you can see the candle...

Nia thought the swan was so cute she ordered one too. She really went to town on her pastry.

Taryn does the honors to clean her sister's face.

Afterwards, Grandad presented Taryn with a stroller and a ball. You can see she was pretty pleased!

Taryn wheeling her "dolly" (aka her sister) back to Chitty chitty bang bang.

Then off to bed for the tired, but cheerful little birthday girl. Still to come: we are eagerly waiting for grammy and grandpa to fly into town to have a party with her friends!

Mallika and baby

2011-09-25T14:53:00.000-07:00

We were happy to have the chance to see Mallika and her new baby! Mallika and her husband flew all the way from London to the Bay Area with their 4 month old girl. We managed to catch the exhausted parents and their very happy baby one weekend and spent a couple of hours at the park with them.

...here's Taryn and Nia checking out the little baby (and vice versa!).

Apparently baby clothes in London are ridiculously expensive. Mallika, if you need a shipment of reasonably priced baby outfits, Nia and Taryn offer their services as fashionistas for Indira.

Bubbles!

2011-09-25T14:40:00.000-07:00

Took a few photos of the kids playing bubbles.

The circus was in town!

2011-09-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

We visited the circus two weekends ago. It's been ages since I saw the circus (age 5?), so it was almost a new experience to me too. Jeff bought the tickets and we rode BART up. I was a bit worried that the show would be too much for Taryn -- she's at the age now where it's hard for her to sit still (click here for previous attempts to take her to the movies). But I needn't have worried! She and Nia were both gripped by the show from the start to the finish! That's not to mention Jeff who had a huge smile on his face the entire time.

You'll notice ear plugs in Nia's ears below. The circus volume was LOUD. Even Jeff, who isn't very sensitive to loud noise, complained. Nia was more than happy to wear the ear plugs I gave her (although she complained when she saw my orange ones that mine were prettier).

Afterwards, Nia was certain that she wanted to be an acrobat. Taryn was sitting in my lap the entire time, so I wasn't able to get any photos of her.

Here's a photo of the tight-rope walkers. Amazing. Particularly because they do this night after night. It's not a feat for them, it's just another night...

A quick video I took near the end of the show.

Cute pics

2011-09-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

Just a collection of some of the pics from the past month...

Nia up in SF with the Nesquik bunny.

What a cute bonnet! Lunch at Thyme for Tea.

Taryn enjoying the colorful sculptures at the Palo Alto Arts&Wine Festival:

Princess Nia.

The kids play baby with their dolly:

Taryn giving her bestest bud Hazelynn a big hug:

Nia usually does this when I pick her up from school:

Train weekend at Ardenwood Farms -- we're riding a train from the 1860s. This is inside the train:

..and this is outside:

What's that? A pixie?

The pixie is stealing our watermelons! (The watermelon was very sweet, by the way).

Taryn dozing in the afternoon, still wearing her favorite princess clip clops.

Oakland Zoo

2011-09-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

My company's "Family Day" was at the Oakland Zoo this year. Great idea, especially for families with little kids. We managed to visit most of the animals before lunch. The kids also liked playing in the little playground with the stone animals.

Nia starts Kindergarten!

2011-09-24T14:51:00.000-07:00

Nia had her first day of Kindergarten on August 31st, 2011. She was very, very excited! It was pretty clear which kids had attended preschool and which were going to school for the very first time. Nia was very outgoing and excited to see all the new kids. She easily "worked the room", meeting the other children, pulling books out the basket to read and having a great time. The kids who were starting school for the first time were sitting in their chairs crying.

As a mother, I'm especially thrilled with Nia's new teacher, Miss Vera. She's very gentle and kind. The exact sort of teacher you want to instruct your 5 year old. I'm writing this blog post almost 1 month into Nia's "tenure" as a kindergartner. She has said practically everyday how much she loves her new school. So I guess it's working out!

Here are a few photos from the big day.

Her friend adjusts her backpack straps to get her ready. Do you notice the computers in the background? Already in kindergarten they are taught how to use a computer. And the teacher starts right in with how to be safe on them too (thankfully!):

Uncle Derek gave her the light blue backpack with her name embroidered on the top.

Nia finds her desk!

My name is...

Her name tag:

All ready for class to start!

Nia takes her place in "the next generation". I felt like I was watching an historic moment! She's in the middle (just the top of her head poking out).

After work, I drove over and picked her up and this is how I found her!

Here's a very short video clip I took of roll-call. Nia was speaking with a quiet voice, so you have to listen carefully for her.

I also was also excited for Back-to-School night which occurred last Wednesday... So much fun! We got to look at the artwork the kids made and hear from the teachers their plan for the year.

The words below read, "Beginning of School Self Portrait. I am Nia. I drew this picture so I could remember the way I looked in early September, Date Sep 09 2011".

Electrostatics and slides

2011-09-24T14:18:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I entertained the kids while my Dad and Jeff installed a new fan light in the bedroom (the old one started having electrical problems and it was cheaper to buy a new one than to try to fix it).

I took the kids around to play in the park in the 90F+ heat. Check out their crazy hair!!!!

The electrostatics on the slide were nuts! This even beats the hair-raising photos I took back in 2009 when Nia was about 3! Same slide!

Back from hiatus!

2011-09-24T14:08:00.000-07:00

Took a small hiatus from the blog... No reason in particular, just busy. In the meantime, I've managed to snap 197 photos. And many noteworthy things have happened -- maybe the biggest milestone from Jeff & my perspective was that Nia started kindergarten! More later...

In the meantime, here's a couple of photos from the park this morning.

Taryn looks like a noble knight, riding on her horse to save the day! Both kids have really fallen in love with fantasy stories. They gobble up anything with pixies/fairies/princesses, horses and magic stuff (especially magic crystals). Welcome to the new fad!

Nia was pretty excited about the patch I put on her pants. These days it seems like I buy her a couple of new pairs of pants to replace the holey ones in her closet. And literally a week later, the new ones have holes too. So I actually went out and bought a sewing machine!!!! A Brother CS-6000i computerized machine from Amazon.com. I watched a few YouTube videos to see how to use it and voila! I made this patch from material I got at Joann fabrics and decorated it with fancy pre-programmed stitches. I'm still a beginner, so it took me a lot longer than if I'd sewn it by hand. But it looks so much prettier!

Most importantly, Nia thought her pants looked "much fancier".

Below, Nia re-interprets the trim-track exercises for the 5-and-under set.

This one, she says, is called "Ride the Donkey":

And this one is "Fly Butterfly":

Cactus fur

2011-08-28T20:09:00.000-07:00

This photo is a re-enactment. It's step 1:

No, Nia that's not fur -- those are super-fine cactus thorns!!!! Nia ended up with literally hundreds of hair-thin cactus thorns in both hands. They were like splinters and just as hard to remove.

This 2nd photo is not re-enacted, it's the result! Two medics from the hotel, tending to her hands. One to hold the flashlight and one to pull the thorns out one by one. It took about 45 minutes. Apparently Nia is not the first kid to do this -- the hotel medics said they did these "operations" about 2x per week. But they did say Nia had the most thorns in her hands that they had ever seen.

Once the two guys arrived and started fussing over her, Nia actually seemed to enjoy herself. But there were tears before that and afterwards she steered well clear of all the cactii!

Great grandma!

2011-08-28T19:56:00.000-07:00

Grandma was fairly quiet for most of the visit, probably because her vision is poor and she is hard of hearing. But her eyes were following the little kids around. You can see I'm trying to take a photo with her, but she keeps looking at Taryn (who's parading around the house in my flip flops)!

Here's a photo from the first day. Grandma was mostly sleeping, but woke up briefly and gave a small smile for us to take a photo with a really excited Nia.

My Aunt Carolyn also has a little puppy that enchanted all the kids (my two kids and my cousin's four children who were visiting as well). Taryn did her best to make friends with the little pup.

Trip to visit great grandma!

2011-08-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

We had a short but sweet trip to visit my grandma last weekend. It was the first time ever for both the kids to see their great grandma -- even I hadn't seen her since our wedding back in 2004. We flew to Phoenix, Arizona, where my grandma lives. It was Taryn's first time on an airplane (Nia's third). I didn't know kids were still allowed to visit the pilot's cockpit!!!

The pilot let Nia turn on all the control lights and use the pilot's mic to call out "Hi, Daddy!" (announced to the entire plane).

Taryn was her usual chatty self on the ride. She chatted away the entire 2 hour flight!

This being Nia's third airplane trip, she pulled out her crayons and got busy...

We stayed at the Hilton Squaw Peak Resort hotel -- very reasonably priced! It was more expensive than a regular hotel (~$100/night), but considering that the temperatures in Phoenix were around 110F (I think the high was 111F) I wanted to stay in a hotel where there were fun things to do without going anywhere. The Squaw Peak Hilton has a large lazy river, multiple swimming pools, goofy golf and kids activities. It was also very opulent -- I felt like we were staying in some sort of palace.

There were different water fountains in every courtyard in the hotel. The kids loved playing around them.

Nia liked these cactus "flowers".

The courtyard view from our hotel balcony.

I didn't take too many photos of the actual swimming we did -- mainly because I didn't want to risk dunking my mobile phone into the water. My Dad got a couple of photos of us going around the lazy river. Maybe I'll post them when he gets around to forwarding them.

Photos from daycare

2011-08-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

Since preschool is out, Nia has been hanging with the babies at Taryn's daycare. Those seasoned daycare babies are a tough crowd. Nia told me that one morning a baby came and grabbed her toys away. Taryn went over to the baby and told her "No, those are Nia's!" and gave them back to Nia. Lucky for Nia that Taryn is there to look after her while she serves her time in the pen...

Nia's forced labor -- making Leggo buildings...

Picture of summer

2011-08-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

Nia said "Let's take a photo of summer".

Blustery trip to SF

2011-08-14T13:36:00.000-07:00

Nia finished a "good citizen" challenge that we gave her. And her prize was ...(drum-roll)... a trip to SF to ride the cable cars!!!!

So we invited some friends along and we all merrily drove up to the city. Things went well until we reached the Bay Bridge approach where we got stuck in really yucky baseball traffic. I think it took 40 minutes just to cross the Bay Bridge. Then we were crawling around an utterly tourist-packed SF. We finally reached our destination and found an hour-long line to ride the cable cars. What a disaster!

Luckily, Nia and our friends were all understanding. We ended up going to a Mexican restaurant near Ghiradelli Square and then just letting the kids play near the ocean. Here are the kids running around the square before dinner.

And dancing round and round after dinner was over!

The restaurant owner enjoyed their dance moves so much he brought them out giant sombreros!

At the park we saw these giant dogs. The grass was sloped, do it's difficult to tell from the photo how big they were. But you can see how high they come up on their owner. Nia pet the dogs, but Taryn was too scared (I don't blame her!).

Nia and her buddy:

Taryn and her buddy:

On our way back to the minivan to drive home, we ducked into the Ghiradelli chocolate shop and indulged in a few treats.

Little ladies

2011-08-13T16:26:00.000-07:00

Our little girlie-girl, Taryn, has become obsessed with wearing heels everywhere she goes. We received several bags of dress-up clothes from the Scerbaks and the kids have both had fun role-playing. But Taryn wants to wear them everywhere and one weekend we let her wear the heels while we ran errands. Mistake! The shoes are too big for her and every time they fell off, she screeched! At the same time, she was so proud of her shoes, she refused to let us carry her or put her in the shopping basket. She insisted on walking like a little lady. We haven't made that mistake since then!!!!

The Fremont Arts and Wine festival was last weekend and both the kids really enjoyed the miniature water fountains booth.

Sunday service

2011-08-13T15:55:00.000-07:00

Taryn has started reading the Bible! ;-)

As usual, once the pastor started delivering the sermon, the kids got antsy and I had to take them out. I took them to the minivan after service was finished where we waited for Daddy to catch up. They always love to sit in the front and pretend they're driving (look away Grandpa!).

This over-exposed photo makes it look like they're driving me to Heaven...

Final day of preschool

2011-08-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

It was Nia's last final ever day as a preschooler! Well, technically she graduated back in June and has been in summer camp, but it's pretty much more of the same except the final week which was "vacation Bible school". Nia really enjoyed the songs and plays and stories that they put on especially for the preschoolers. I dropped Nia off a tad late on Friday:

When I picked her up, I asked if she wanted photos with any of her buddies. She ran to Ms. Cassie for a picture first:

Then posed with Ms. Lauren and Veronica:

There are other teachers she really loves too, but they had already gone home. She definitely wanted a photo with Kayla. Kayla seems to me to be one of these kids that's a natural leader. I often see her sitting on a chair, "reading" books to the little kids, or "writing" notes to send home with other kids' parents. I asked the teachers about it one day and they told me that she just has a lot of initiative. Maybe we'll see her in politics one day!

And Layla (she smiled right before my shutter snapped):

She's mentioned a few other names, but I think those kids go for just half-days, so I wasn't able to get any photos of them.

Because I was taking photos at Nia's preschool, I thought it'd be nice to take a photo of Taryn's favorite daycare buddy, Hazelynn. Taryn really looks forward to seeing Hazelynn everyday, probably because they let Taryn feed Hazelynn her bottle and help change her nappy. The irony is that Taryn was almost named Hazel herself! I was in the hospital after she was born, still trying to choose between Hazel and Taryn. My preference was for Hazel, but every single person I asked (Jeff, Grandad, the nurses, the woman sharing the recovery room with me, her husband,...) all said Taryn was a better name. But I still think Hazel is cute, especially this Hazel!

On the left in this photo is Muna, one of the two Sudanese home daycare ladies. Muna really loves little kids and is very gentle and kind with them. Taryn is pretty lucky!

Just a few park photos

2011-08-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

A few photos from Lake Elizabeth!

Aren't they cute?

These days, not only is Taryn talking up a storm, she talks fast! This often leaves us bewildered as to what she's trying to say.

Angry birds at their peak

2011-08-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

Our local grocery store quarter games features a claw grabber with stuffed angry birds inside... We must be at the peak of the fad! I predict that next year's kids won't even know what an angry bird is.

Gazanias, polka dots, and socks and shoes

2011-07-31T15:04:00.000-07:00

The burgundy gazanias that Grammy and Grandpa planted for us back in May are very happy in the flower beds! I've since added some dark orange ones and am on the lookout for white ones. I also transplanted a few of the gazanias to make room for the rocks and bush grass seen in the upper left. Coming along!

Nia coincidentally wore the exact same spotted dress as her friend Kayla. When she sat down next to Kayla their eyes both grew very big and serious and they each pointed to their own dresses to make sure they other one knew they had the same thing on. Later when I picked Nia up, she told me Kayla was her best friend for the day.

Taryn nicely made sure my toes were warm by getting her little socks and putting one on each of my toes! Lucky me!!!!

And after all those socks comes a photo of shoes -- a commemorative photo of Taryn's first "real" shoes. Her baby gift from Grammy and Grandpa who really fussed over her at the store when choosing them. They were too big at first, but she still wanted to wear them everywhere. Just last week I tried to dress her in them and couldn't mash her feet in. She's been telling everyone who will listen, "Too small! Too small!"

Cafe Borrone

2011-07-31T08:56:00.000-07:00

The kids larked about at Cafe Borrone! The occasion was Uncle Rob's birthday and we met there for a pleasant outdoors dinner.

The exact moment Nia threw a penny into the fountain! If you squint you can see the penny just leaving her fingers.

Taryn does a balancing act.

It's really interesting seeing the kids playing at Cafe Borrone -- because I spent many evenings at Cafe Borrone myself as a small kid! I've also loved Keplers (the next door bookstore) since I was a kid and couldn't resist buying Nia and Taryn a small stack of Fancy Nancy "First Reader" books. Too bad we don't live closer -- we'd probably be over there every weekend.

Tri-CED recycling plant tour

2011-07-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we had a tour of our local recycling plant. I'd always wanted to see what goes on in there and I phoned in to ask if they have any public tour dates. Richard, the guy who founded the plant, handled my call personally and said they didn't have public tours, but just name a date and he'd give us a personal tour. I was very surprised -- he agreed to Saturday at 10am!

I have much newfound respect for our local recycling facility. It's a non-profit, founded by Richard in the late 1970s. I wish I remembered his last name! Originally, they just collected cans, but they've expanded their operations to include everything. They own and maintain their fleet of trucks which all run on compressed natural gas. This was Nia's favorite part of the tour! I think he said they have 22 trucks.

Here's the inside of the sorting facility where the cans pile up. That's Richard on the far left. One thing to keep in mind when looking at all the photos -- this is the collection for merely one morning! It was probably around 10:30am when we were in the facility.

A photo with me in it too!

Up at the top of this platform is where the sorters stand. The sorters are typically local kids who are transitioning from prison to normal life and need a helping hand financially. There's a hole in the middle of the platform and that's where all the cardboard is dropped through to make the pile below:

It all travels along a giant conveyor belt where machines help sort the rest. Here's where the regular paper pile (no cardboard) comes out:

While we were standing at the end of the line, there was what can only be described as a mini-explosion. Apparently sometimes people put inflammatory objects like propane cylinders into recycling. The machines automatically crush these and a small explosion is the result. The side of the machine facing the wall suddenly blasted a large fireball. They had to shut down the line and call the fire department to perform an inspection to make sure everything was safe before starting up again. Richard says this happens about once/week.

Grandad peppered Richard with many, many questions. I'm guessing it was Taryn feeding him all the questions to ask. Richard mentioned that he works 7 days a week and has done so since the founding of the recycling facility in the 70s. Yikes!

A bundled stack of cardboard, ready to be shipped off to China! Apparently many of the recycling materials end up in China for reuse in manufacturing new products. This is particularly true for electronics components like recycled TVs and mobile phones. Aluminum cans are one of the few exceptions. They are mainly recycled by beer companies in the US. One aluminum can is typically reborn 18 times before it is lost. There's no reason why it couldn't be recycled again -- that's just how many people it takes before someone throws it away instead of recycling it.

The background shows a sea of plastic bottles:

We were all mightily impressed with the Tri-CED recycling program. Particularly because it is a non-profit, helps kids with records get back on their feet and saves our planet for the many future generations who will need all these resources. Thanks guys!

Dinosaur park

2011-07-24T16:38:00.000-07:00

Nia really wanted me to take a photo of this "Dinosaur park" she made at preschool and post it to the blog. She was almost cried when it was time to tidy it away!

Nia's prize and Taryn's troubles

2011-07-24T16:36:00.000-07:00

I posed a challenge to Nia to memorize her full name/address/phone number -- I probably should have done this a long time ago! To motivate her, I offered her a toy of her choice. I was thinking she'd choose a matchbox car like she usually does (~$1). It took her about a week to fully memorize everything. I knew she had succeeded when I picked her up from school and she had written our phone number in large print all over 3 pieces of paper! When I quizzed her in the car, she rattled off the info with no hesitation. So we went over to the Disney store at the mall for her to choose a toy.

But it was Walt Disney who got the last laugh! Nia's choice was the Queen car from the recent Lightening McQueen movie. The only problem? It was sold only in a package of cars, the rest of which she didn't really want, totaling $15! I looked all over, including checking my phone for anywhere online that I could just get the Queen car by itself, but no dice.

But wait, the story gets more expensive. Taryn had managed to dump juice all over herself, necessitating a clothing change. When I checked my diaper bag for spares I found... Nothing! So I ended up buying her a Winnie the Pooh tee. And since there was a reduced price for buying 2 instead of 1, I got 2 "to save money". When I walked out, I'd spent almost $40 with the tax.

I definitely felt like I had a huge sucker in place of my head! But Nia was very pleased!

This past week Taryn has been unusually fussy -- I suspect she's getting her last 2 molars in. That's usually the case when we have streaks of fussiness. Here's a picture taken earlier where you can see the delightful time Grandad is having getting Taryn into her car seat!

So here she is at the mall, finally content with her new Winnie the Pooh tee and eating an orange-candy:

Oh well, I guess $40 isn't terrible compared to the resulting fun, relaxing evening!

Los Altos Arts and Wine

2011-07-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

I was looking back over my pictures and realized I'd forgotten to post a few photos from the Los Altos Arts and Wine festival a couple of weeks ago. We were busy that weekend and only just managed to squeeze it in. It's one of the largest Arts and Wine festivals in the Bay Area.

This time we spent quite a bit of time at the kiddie section which is basically a mini carnival. We bought a packet of tickets and ended up finishing them very quickly. We were waiting in line for a particular ride when we realized we didn't have enough tickets left. To our great fortune, the guy in front turned around and handed us a huge wad of tickets! We tried to refuse his generosity, but he explained that his son worked at the carnival and had given him all the tickets and he couldn't possibly use them up.

Here's Nia and Grandad getting a ride all to themselves:

Taryn was too little for many of the rides, so she just had to watch sometimes:

..but she got some action too! Here she's riding a tugboat with Daddy:

Grandad wins the sliding race!!! Mama on the far left with Taryn in her lap and Nia still about half way up:

Nia's new chop

2011-07-16T15:19:00.000-07:00

I gave Nia a haircut midweek. I cut it much shorter than I'd been intending. I started on her left and trimmed it to shoulder length, but by the time I'd reached her right side, it was chin length. Oops! Nia was so squirmy and I was cutting fast in a futile attempt to try to cut straight. After she laughed at her ridiculous haircut in the mirror, Nia held still and I evened it up. It actually ended up quite cute!

Here she's modelling her new 'do...

Gourmet Food Trucks

2011-07-16T15:09:00.000-07:00

...we had dinner out on Thursday at the gourmet food trucks in Union Landing this time! Of all the food trucks I've sampled I like the Korean Mogo BBQ truck the best. But I haven't tried them all so research continues.

The Union Landing food trucks circled the wagons next to a grassy field with picnic tables and benches so we were able to eat outside (last time we had to eat inside the van). This gave everything a very picnic-y feel. Taryn sat nicely and ate her dinner in Mama's lap. But Nia... Next time we need to bring a set of balls and chains for her ankles!

Grandad met us there and gave the kids swag that he had scored at Semicon West. Taryn got a dancing robot and Nia got a small mountain of pens and paper pads. Even Mama and Daddy got a couple of things. Daddy got a puzzle that it actually took him awhile to solve! Mama got an awesome yoyo.

The kids horsing around after the dinner...

Cowgirl Nia!

2011-07-16T13:14:00.000-07:00

Cowgirl Nia ridin' on the trail... (of her preschool!):

I almost forgot to post Nia's graduation photo taken back in June:

Lake Union City

2011-07-10T15:28:00.000-07:00

We dropped in on some dragon boat races today over at the Quarry Lakes. The best part for the kids by far were the nasty, old bird feathers they found on the ground (which Nia used to taunt Lynn and Annie) and the lake itself!

When was the last time anyone over age 10 was this deliriously happy!?!

Yes, Taryn is still wearing her sneakers...

The dragon boats in the distance were busy racing away while the kids were playing.

July Days

2011-07-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

A few other fun things...

Our little imp looked positively angelic on the park swings!

Taryn really got into the swing of things too...

Nia asked if she could try some of my jamba juice. This isn't exactly what I expected her to do...

Typical for Taryn... Leaving her worried Daddy in the dust!

...both kids also attended a birthday party for twin boys (Nia's preschool friends):

4th July 2011

2011-07-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

We celebrated July 4th in the Chiou family tradition of gorging on BBQ followed by setting off miniature explosives. I looked up on wikipedia what the first July 4th celebration was like (way back in 1777!) and it was pretty much the same.

Dinner involved potato salad + a ton of BBQ chicken and sausages. Grandad brought over a chocolate silk pie which was too delicious. We were all totally stuffed at the end.

At around 7:30pm, we headed over to the usual Union City parking lot next to Logan High School to set off fireworks. Another family showed up around the same time as us and we ended up sharing fireworks with them. They had a very enthusiastic 8-year old who was setting everything off at a frantic speed. At least this doubled the number of fireworks we all saw!

Jeff opened the Chiou Family Fireworks Performance, 2011:

Nia was timid at first, but she soon caught the whiff of excitement:

Eventually she held a sparkler herself.

Taryn was utterly fearless concerning the fireworks. No, we didn't let her hold any sparklers.

Mama pulls a goofy pose...

Spider Size Estimation

2011-07-04T22:13:00.000-07:00

Remember my blog post about that "horrifyingly enormous" black widow from the other day? I've wondered since then if it really was as big as I thought, or if my fear somehow made it seem larger than it really was?

According to National Geographic, black widow spiders are the most venomous spiders on earth. Also, according to their website, they grow ~1.5" long. The females, that is. The males only grow to about 1/3 to 1/2 the size of females. The males are also brown with streaks instead of black with red spots.

When I was looking through my photos for June, I realized that I'd taken one other spider photo and it looked like a male black widow! That poor sucker is probably long gone since the females eat the males after they've mated (hence the name "black widow").

I was curious to try to estimate the size of my ex-spider visitors. So I overlaid the images and measured objects in the background close to the spiders. I think they show the female spider was ~3" and the male was about 1.5". That makes the male about 1/2 the size of the female (which is in-line with Wikipedia's info). But it also shows the spiders to be roughly double the standard size. I wonder if that's at all due to the wacky weather which has kept things green for 2 months longer than normal. Hence, plant-eating insects have had an extra two months to feed and the spiders have had an extra 2 months of good eatin'....

Here's my composite photo:

The Heat

2011-07-03T20:43:00.000-07:00

July 3rd... Hot, hot, hot! Well, only this hot:

We kept the windows and shades shut so it was only ~85F inside the house... But that was hot enough!

Another photo of Taryn's curly mop after her nap...

I took the kids to the park to play around 5pm. It was still quite warm, so their cheeks were rosy by the end. But they had a good time.

Nia hides from the heat in a pine tree.

Saturday Morning

2011-07-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

Yay!!!! July 4th weekend!!!! We took it REALLY easy on Saturday morning. Nia fed the ducks some bread. Taryn was too busy lecturing the ducks about "not pecking" and "taking turns" to have time to feed them.

Then we enjoyed a relaxing lunch at Starbucks where Taryn regaled us with her brand of baby humor. These are her "fishy lips".

Here's the appreciative audience.

Nia's Note to Grandpa

2011-07-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

Nia had a letter-writing exercise on Thursday. Obviously, the teacher helped her, but she said the words were all hers!

Weird Stuff

2011-07-03T20:20:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to document the cold downpour we experienced on Wednesday, June 29, 2011. Very strange weather...

Also, I forgot to mention that we finally ate the python meat that Daddy got as a birthday gift! We marinated it with honey and teriyaki sauce and barbecued it. It was actually quite tough -- a bit like teriyaki beef jerky. Both Jeff and Nia enjoyed the taste.

While I am documenting strange things, I also wanted to note this horrifyingly enormous black widow spider that was hanging out on our doorstep. It was the size of my open hand, including its legs. I came back from jogging and it waved at me. I took this photo then asked Jeff to "deal with it". Jeff went and got a tiny piece of tissue paper from the bathroom. I didn't even let him try! I immediately snatched the tissue paper and found him the largest sneaker in the house. I think it took Jeff two whacks to do it in. Yeesh! I've never seen black widows this huge!

A loosely related YouTube video:

Photo with Uncle Derek

2011-06-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

Derek went to watch Cars 2 with us and stayed for dinner too! Both the kids really love to see their uncle. I tried to get a photo with them and him, but one or the other of the kids was always in motion:

Here's my attempted paste job:

How Cars 2 went...

2011-06-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

Cars 2 was the most anticipated movie in the Chiou household since... ever!!!! Both the kids were excited to go watch it. But, despite her enthusiasm, Taryn grew restless after the first half hour. Here's how she (and I) spent the rest of Cars 2:

She rode a motorcycle...

...and drove her own race car!

...followed by a visit with a grumpy-looking smurf...

And then she got hungry. So she went to Starbucks and ate a sandwich...

...and after running around outside, finally the rest of the gang emerged! She and Nia (who enjoyed the movie) took a last photo with Optimus Prime before we headed home.

Weekend Playdate!

2011-06-25T14:59:00.000-07:00

It was a really beautiful morning and luckily we spent it at the park with friends. Apart from snack time, I don't think Nia or Noam ran any slower than this the entire time!

Taryn, on the other hand, has become the queen of posing for pictures. As you can see, she raided Nia's closet this morning for a Lightening McQueen tee. It looks more like a gown on her. We're planning to see Cars 2 with Uncle Derek in just a couple of hours.

Taryn hanging with her buddy Tamar. Look at Tamar's hair! Tamar is about 1.5 months younger than Taryn -- I can't believe how long her hair is compared to Taryn's.

Tutu Friday

2011-06-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

Nia has relatively recently dived head-first into the "princess" culture that seems to the rage among young girls these days (much to her Mama's irritation). And she's dragging Taryn with her. "I want to wear a tutu like Nia!" Taryn demanded once she saw what her big sis was wearing. They did both look cute in their tutus and Taryn was saying, "I'm just like Nia!" when I snapped this photo.

Oh, wait! Stand still Taryn! Where are you going?

Oh! What sweet sisters...

Taryn and Mama's girls' morning

2011-06-25T14:37:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, while Nia rode on GoCars with the Dad and Grandad, I got the chance to explore the wharf area with Taryn. Us two gals had lots of fun and I got to take tons of photos of little Taryn...

First off, we started the day right with a late-morning coconut ice-cream which left Taryn's hands nice and sticky.

We moved on to a grassy area near the ocean where Taryn ran back and forth for a bit. There's something about grass that kids just seem to love...

On to the giant two-story Ferris wheel! Taryn knew exactly which animal she wanted to ride. At $5 a ride, I pretended not to hear her when she shouted "again!" (But it's definitely worth the $5 -- the Ferris wheel is huge, you get a long ride and there's baroque classical music blasting loudly).

Then we chased pigeons on the docks for awhile. Something about kids and birds...

Taryn became distraught that the pigeons kept out-running her... Surprisingly, they just ran, they didn't fly away!

...well, I wasn't going to do it, but we returned to the giant two-story Ferris wheel. That did the trick! This time she wanted to ride a dolphin.

After that, we admired the wharf seals and the ocean for just a few minutes before the boys and Nia returned!

Super-faster!!!!

2011-06-22T21:53:00.000-07:00

My good buddy all the way back since junior high (and erstwhile bridesmaid at our wedding!) has been featured in a nation-wide commercial!!!! Lesley's done a few before this, but this is the first one to play nationally. She has the speaking role at the very end:

We saw her most recently in April at our friend Jeanne's wedding. Here's a picture Taryn and I took together with the star:

Father's Day Weekend, 2011

2011-06-20T19:49:00.000-07:00

We had a really cool Father's Day 2011! We rented each of the dads an hour's time to ride around San Francisco on GoCars. It was a beautiful day in San Francisco -- not a cloud in the sky and very pleasant weather. Here's Grandad adjusting his mirror before setting off:

And they're off to the races!

Nia was thrilled too. She took turns switching between riding with Grandad and Daddy. I stayed behind with Taryn and we amused ourselves at Fisherman's Wharf until the two Dads returned. After a delicious lunch on the pier (thanks, Grandad!), we studied the harbor seals...

..and Daddy took the kids on the wharf carousel (if you squint really hard you'll see them on the top deck):

...before retiring for afternoon naps.

Later on, we went to Grandad and Auntie's house for Father's Day dinner. My mom prepared a huge buffet of food. I also got the chance to take a few photos of her gorgeous garden. Here's one of them:

Happy Father's Day, Dads!!!!!

Taryn and Nia's Dilemmas

2011-06-18T17:11:00.000-07:00

We were dealt a double whammy on Wednesday when Taryn was diagnosed with pneumonia and I discovered lice on Nia's head... Talk about suddenly having your hands full!

Doctors are so busy these days that they don't see children for a fever unless it's been more than three days. So Taryn had been running a fever for four days when I took her into the doctor's office. The nurse took one look at her and noticed that she was having trouble breathing. The doctor ordered a chest x-ray and saw that one of her lungs had fluid in it. So he prescribed antibiotics. What a difference there was in Taryn's behavior just one day after the antibiotic. By Thursday her fever was gone and by Friday she was starting to eat again. Thank God for modern medicine!!!

I've been home taking care of Taryn all week. We mostly rested, but we did sneak off for a visit to Bob's House of Foam which I've been meaning to do for quite some time now. Taryn insisted on carrying my purse around and also pulled out my credit card to pay for the purchase. Hmmm... Who took who?!?

The same day that Taryn was diagnosed with pneumonia, I discovered lice in Nia's hair. She had been scratching her head for a few days and Jeff and I had been telling her to stop. All of a sudden a light bulb went off in my head and I peaked into her hair and.... So I phoned the advice nurse who told me to use a special lice shampoo as well as wash everything and vacuum the whole house. What a pain! And since lice are resistant to the shampoo these days I've had to use a nit-pick every day in Nia's hair and continue to launder/vacuum the whole house (with Daddy's help). We're supposed to keep this up for a full week to make sure we dispose of every last lil critter...

Nia and Taryn Beat Up Daddy!

2011-06-13T19:39:00.001-07:00

I just realized that I uploaded this to YouTube but never posted it on the blog! Shot a couple of months ago...

Sunday's beautiful weather

2011-06-13T14:33:00.000-07:00

Daddy has been on a quest to find the ultimate chocolate cake. I have been forcing him to sample chocolate cakes ever since he declared the Chuck-E-Cheese chocolate cake to be the best he's ever tasted. Trust me, it's gross. It's basically the same as those grocery store cakes that have the partially-hydrogenated-oil-frosting smothering the fake-ingredients-cake. The ones with infinite shelf life that even ants know to avoid.

So far, he's tasted a Trader Joe's chocolate ganache cake and rejected it as inferior (for the record, I thought it was delicious!). And he also insists the Let's Cupcake bakery near my work is less tasty (I cannot fathom what he's thinking).

Yesterday, he said he wanted to compare to Sprinkles in Stanford shopping center. So we visited and Sprinkles carried the day! But only by a very slim margin. "They're slightly better than Chuck-E-Cheese."

Anyways... Here's Taryn helping Daddy out by carefully examining her marshmallow cupcake.

It was a beautiful Sunday, so afterwards we strolled around the shopping center and the kids played at the various water fountains.

Welcome, Sammy and Goldie!

2011-06-12T13:47:00.000-07:00

We're trying our hand at having butterfly koi in the pond again. Last time they were savaged by the neighborhood racoons, but they were so beautiful while they lasted! It seems like they can outrun the racoons while they're small, so Nia and I chose two tiny baby koi. We will have to think of something to keep the racoons away once the fish get bigger... Until then I hope Sammy and Goldie are fast!

Nia Approved Dinner

2011-06-11T19:43:00.000-07:00

For several days Nia has lamented the fact that we haven't been to IHOP in a long, long time... So we went to IHOP for dinner tonight. When we were there, she queried why I wasn't taking a photo of her dinner... So I did. Here you go, little Nia... Your dinner is definitely noteworthy!!!

Curls

2011-06-11T16:03:00.001-07:00

With all the rain and humidity we've had this last week it should be no surprise that Taryn has been waking up from her naps with a mop of curly hair on her head. Wonder if she'll inherit Mama's curls when she's a bit older?

Last day as a preschooler

2011-06-11T16:00:00.000-07:00

Nia's last day as a preschooler was June 6th, 2011!

Finally got the tandem bike extension installed!

2011-06-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

Mama finally put together the kids tandem bike extension kit. Nia was super-excited! You can see helpful Taryn operating the pump in the lower right corner.

...and the maiden voyage!

Last night we hit up a gourmet food truck food fest...

We've occasionally visited the Mogo food truck, a fusion of Korean BBQ and Mexican. I think it's great, but Jeff thinks so-so. This food truck food fest gave us a chance to try out a few new trucks. I tried out another fusion Mexican food truck, Magli. The burrito was a bit bland until you got to the bottom where all the sauce was -- then it was awesome! It also had exceptionally long bean sprouts that I convinced the kids were baby snakes. The kids competed with each other, trying to eat all the snakes out of the burrito. Jeff hit up two different trucks and got some kind of funky soft taco and a big bowl of chilli. We also split a gourmet cupcake and a cream puff.

Just as we were finishing up, Grandad rolled into the parking lot. He went to the gourmet Indian food truck and got a huge plate of spicy chicken and rice. The kids decamped the minivan where we were eating and invaded Grandad's Scion.

They'll be having these food fests every other weekend starting in late June, so hopefully we'll be able to try more gourmet trucks!

Daddy's Birthday

2011-06-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, Daddy really whooped it up for his birthday! We had dim sum at Mayflower with Grandad:

Taryn wanted to sit by herself for a change! Mama's clean pants thanked her afterwards.

Grandad then babysat the kids while Mama and Daddy went to watch the latest installment of Pirates of the Caribbean We both loved it! But I'm sure we'll like the following movie even more when it FINALLY comes out (June 24th)... Watch out Daddy, you're on the racetrack!!!!!

After coming home and collecting Grandad and the kids, Jeff decided to party away the rest of the evening at Chuck-E-Cheese:

He may be in his fourth decade, but he's still a 10-year old at heart!!!!

Happy birthday, Daddy!!!!!
-love, your family

SOLD!

2011-06-05T16:18:00.000-07:00

I turned around and sold my Honda CRV, aka "Snookums" to a coworker. I gave him a good deal! I sold it for about half of its worth. I considered it only fair to "pass on the favor" since we got the minivan as a generous gift from Grammy and Grandpa.

Here's our final photo with our beloved, Snookums....

Nia was sad afterwards and asked if we could go get Snookums back, but I explained that Snookums was going to be driving a new family around now. Luckily she recovered herself and the two kids quickly got back to the business of playing.

Lady Nia

2011-06-02T21:50:00.000-07:00

With spring in full swing and showing no signs of ending (rain in June!) there were plenty of daisies at the park for me to knot together into a chain for Nia. She was delighted! Taryn immediately clamored to get one too. Oops.... Next time! Until then, here's Lady Nia for us all to enjoy...

Grandad's Birthday!

2011-06-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Grandad's birthday on Saturday by driving over and hanging out at his pad. Grandad liked his gifts!

We then finished out the evening with dinner at Il Fornaio where Grandad got to try out his brand new newsboy cap...

Next year's gift: newsboy satchel + coin jar for payments.

More Pics from Grammy and Grandpa's Visit

2011-06-02T20:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a few more photos from Grammy and Grandpa's visit to Chiou-ville.

A cool photo at the Monterey Bay Aquarium:

How many engineers does it take to fix a Lowly Worm apple car? Answer: not sure but definitely more than two...

Taryn proudly gives Grammy a tour of her workplace, aka the park:

The wharf in Monterey, featuring a Taryn and grandparents sandwich:

Grammy serves a stint as a fry cook at Krispy Kreme...

Nia gives her best whack at a festival at Lake Elizabeth!

There's room for you too Grammy!

I want in!

Uncle Derek reads stories to the kids (or is Taryn reading a story to Uncle Derek?):

...All in all we had the usual amount of fun when Grammy and Grandpa were visiting -- which is to say we had a blast!!!! Can't wait to see you guys again!

-love, The Chious

Highlights from the Monterey Trip

2011-05-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

Going on a 4 day road-trip to Monterey when Grammy and Grandpa arrived turned out to be a great idea! We did a little bit of this, a little bit of that and generally had fun. Here are a few photo highlights from the trip:

It was a bit chillier than usual for early May -- definitely not tshirt weather. We went to the beach a few times, warmly bundled up! Grammy showed Taryn the ocean waves on Carmel beach...

Nia loves to run away from the tidal waves. She got soaked too, so I guess she also loves letting the waves catch her!

...the famous Dennis the Menace playground! Yay!!!! There were a couple of new pieces of play equipment this year like a slide that has rollers.

No trip to Monterey is complete without a trip to explore the Aquarium. We spent nearly the full day there except for a brief afternoon nap. This photo shows a full scale gigantic clam.

And a pose inside the tide simulator:

On Sunday us Mamas were treated to a fancy breakfast!

My two dudettes playing in the flowers in the Barnyard afterwards.

We stopped during a coastal drive to explore the tidal pools and get a shot of all of us (plus Nia's blue tongue).

Spring in Monterey is a really beautiful place to be!

We win.... a new car!!!!!

2011-05-30T20:55:00.000-07:00

For their Spring visit this year, Grammy and Grandpa trucked all the way from Michigan to California -- 2400 miles -- in their Honda Odyssey in four days. Why, you may wonder? They decided to get a new minivan and gift the Odyssey to us! How awesome is that?

Here's the front eye view of our spacious new Chiou-mobile.

It was a small luxury to be able to tool around town in one car instead of caravaning with two (sometimes three) cars like we usually do when we have guests. One of our first stops was Krispy Kreme (of course!).

Nia Turns Five!!!!

2011-05-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

It's been really amazing watching Nia growing up... I still remember her as our little peanut -- so dependent on us, loving to be held and kissed and giggling as we gave her "roller coaster rides." But now she's five years old and mere months away from starting kindergarten! She's really looking forward to this next phase. The teachers at her school tell me she's one of the leaders for her class. Certainly at home we've noticed huge leaps and bounds in every area. She's slowly but surely made the transition from cute toddler to adorable little kid!

The day before her birthday, she brought in homemade rainbow cupcakes with whipped cream frosting for her class. She was busy handing them out to her friends when... Grammy and Grandpa from Michigan dropped in!!!!! Nia was bowled over! Mama also dropped in and took this photo of Nia with a handful of her buddies and one of her teachers.

On her actual birthday, May 6, her Michigan Grandparents, Cali Grandad, Mama, Daddy and Taryn all loaded up into the minivan and drove for a 4-day weekend at the seaside in Monterey.

After frolicking on the beach for a short while, we took Nia for a seafood dinner on the boardwalk.

Her gift this year was something she's been wanting for awhile now... Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! Nia fell in love with Chitty after seeing the movie.

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY, NIA!!!!!!!!!!

Love,
-your whole family

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T13:44:00.000-07:00

Easter morning service was very nice! Trumpets, the organ and the festival choir -- the church really pulled out all the stoppers. And here are our two little Easter bunnies, all dressed up!

A sneaky shot during the Lambs Message (when the pastor gathers the kids around and gives them a special sermon).

And very soon after that, the kids and I tip-toed out of the service.

We were going to go to the playroom, but I discovered that there was a pancake breakfast fundraiser going on, so the kids and I had a yummy mid-morning snack. Well, for me it was really breakfast because we were rushing so much in the morning that I hadn't eaten.

On our plate after naptime: a wedding in Santa Cruz!

Shopping for Easter Dresses

2011-04-23T14:49:00.000-07:00

This morning, we took the kids shopping for Easter dresses. They're 60% off now! We got two really beautiful gowns for cheap. Here's Nia trying on the dress she DIDN'T choose!

Tune in tomorrow to see the dress she did choose!

Good Friday Service

2011-04-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

Daddy and Nia hold their candles during Good Friday service last night...

Towards the end of the service, there was a re-enactment of Jesus being nailed to the cross. From where we were sitting, the view was blocked, but we could hear the whacking of the hammer on the wood (no one was actually hurt). Nia became so distressed that we almost had to leave. But then the candles were lit and we gave her one to hold. Fortunately, she was completely mesmerized!

Walk in someone else's shoes

2011-04-16T02:01:00.000-07:00

Taryn has always been a shoe-girl, just like Nia. I dread the teen years. Hopefully, Manolo Blahnik will have retired! In the meantime, Taryn works on her fashion strut:

Few more anniversary pics

2011-04-16T01:57:00.000-07:00

This year, I went off the beaten path and bought Jeff some alligator meat for his anniversary gift. Originally, I had been looking around for bear meat (apparently black bears are very abundant), but I found out that California has outlawed the sale of black bear meat. I also read that since bears hibernate all winter and stuff themselves all summer, they tend to be very, very fatty so cooking with bear meat is a total grease-fest. Not so with alligator meat! If I were to describe what it tastes like, I'd say it tastes exactly like chicken but with a texture like a steak. There was also virtually no fat on the "sirloin" cut that I ordered.

Here's a close-up of the anniversary lunch. Back row: fresh mango, baked & marinated alligator meat, and plain alligator meat (so we could taste it by itself). Front row: asparagus with a little swiss cheese melted on top and rice & beans.

...and the happy eaters...

...even Taryn ate alligator:

...and one final closeup of the plain, baked gator meat:

The gift went over well and Jeff even wanted to know the website I'd ordered from so he could see what his next selection would be!

Meanwhile, Jeff's anniversary gift to me, The Illusionist Locket, just arrived this week! It looks super-cool. Unfortunately, it wasn't printed properly and doesn't fit together, so Jeff is either going to return it or file it down himself to make it fit. Will take a photo in the future! In the meantime, here's a scene from the movie "The Illusionist" that demonstrates how it works: