thrilled to be front-facing

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Originally uploaded by graciechiao.

henry, victor, & caleb

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Originally uploaded by graciechiao.

more NYC pics

so victor and i are notorious for not taking pictures during great picture-taking moments. but we figure that we can bum pics off those who always have a camera in their hands. (so note to kenny: we'd like to have copies of the pics you took at caleb's party.) so the same goes for when we were in NYC. we went to victor's sister, agnes' house for a family get-together on sunday afternoon. this was the first time most of them met caleb. i had my camera out and ready, and i ended up taking all of... zero pictures. ha ha. but thankfully, victor's cousin, yin took many. i wish i could post them up, but shutterfly and blogger apparently don't get along. so here's the link if anyone's interested.

i particularly like the one of caleb with his crazy smile. he has taken to smiling like this recently. i don't know where he learned it, but it's pretty hilarious.





this pic is very cute too. he's playing thomas trains with his 2nd cousins (jared, on the far left, and A.J. in the middle. they're both about a year older than caleb).



this one is of caleb walking around with victor's cousin, john. like i said, he took to all of them really well and relished all the attention he got. unfortunately, now that we're home, he's complaining a lot... i think out of boredom.


and these are the sweetest of all. victor's cousin, yin just had a new baby girl. cassie was 7 weeks old. caleb actually walked (or rather, hobbled) over and kissed her. so cute. and regarding that last pic... victor looks way too happy to be holding 2 kiddos.

NYC

we just got back from our trip to NYC to visit victor's family. all in all, it was fun, but unfortunately, we ran into many hiccups throughout the trip.

1st hiccup- our flight out of houston was delayed 3 1/2 hours. yikes! now, delays are already a terrible thing, but delays with a baby... hellish. we had planned things perfectly so that caleb would take his nap on the plane, and we'd get into NYC a little before his bedtime. obviously, this didn't happen. instead, he barely got a nap, and went to bed at 1 am EST (4 hours after his usual bedtime).

2nd hiccup- we went to caleb and my first yankee game on saturday afternoon. after watching half an inning, the game was called off due to rain. i was so sad. had we gone to either the friday night game or the sunday afternoon game, we not only would've been able to watch them play and win, i would've gotten to watch #42 mariano rivera bring in the saves! argh.

hiccup #3- (no picture available) coming home on monday afternoon, all was going well. we boarded the plane on time, taxied out towards the runway... all to find out that we would be an hour and a half delayed again due to bad weather west of NYC. caleb slept during that hour to hour and a half that we were on the runway, but then woke up right before we took off. that meant 3 1/2 hours of entertaining baby and trying to keep him from bothering others. grr... so much for planning.

on both ends of the plane trip, i was so thankful for great fellow passengers. for both flights, there were several really friendly women who would play with him and entertain him. he, in turn, would reward them with smiles and laughs. it was beneficial for all. interesting that they were all women, though. the men would barely even look at him. interesting...

on the flip side

it wasn't all bad news. caleb actually did awesome on the trip. i was really worried about how he would take to victor's family since he has never met most of them. sometimes, he has stranger anxiety pretty bad. however, he was great! it only took a short amount of time for him to warm up to them... and pretty soon, he charmed them all with his infectious laugh.

for the trip, victor and i bought the combi urban carrier.

this was so handy! because we were taking the subway most of the time, a stroller would've been the biggest headache. imagine lugging a stroller up and down the stairs of a subway... and all those stairs at yankee stadium. yikes! so we didn't even bring the stroller with us on the trip. we used this instead. while victor could never get used to it and hated using it, i found that i was able to carry caleb for over an hour in this thing without too much strain. it also freed up my hands to hold umbrellas or pull luggage through the airport. and the best feature of all? he fell asleep in it!!! woo hoo! if you know our kid, you know that he doesn't fall asleep outside of his crib easily. leaning up against me + the monotonous rumble of the subway = baby sleeping. so awesome.

and here's the ultimate shining star moment of our trip. just look.

drool...

i wish i had pictures, but the food was so good that we ate it and didn't think of taking pictures until the entire meal was over.

jenn, jussi, steve, and sunny came to NYC at the same time. jussi mentioned that he wanted to try the famed nobu restaraunt. coincidentally, victor's sister is the CFO of the restaraunt company that owns nobu so she hooked us up. we had the omakase, where the chef basically chooses the menu for you. or in the words of the menu, "OMAKASE - (CHEF'S CHOICE) Experience the essence of Chef Matsuhisa's cuisine with the multi-course omakase menu."

SWEET FANCY MOSES! i'm not exaggerating when i say that my mouth fills with saliva every time i think about our meal there. The first pic was our first dish, toro tartare with caviar. this was my favorite. a perfect blend of toro, caviar, and a wasabi dip. holy smokes. excuse me as i wipe the drool off my keyboard. we also had Sashimi Salad with Matsuhisa Dressing (i think it was tuna) this was jenn's favorite, their signature dish, Black Cod with Miso (2nd pic), Salmon with Teryaki or Pepper Sauce, Miso Soup, a plate of 6 sushi (Salmon, Tuna, Hamachi (Yellow Tail), Fluke, and Clam... hmm.. i'm missing one. victor, jenn, do you remember what it was?). Last, but not least, a mint chocolate souffle with green tea ice cream. decadence.

can you tell this was my favorite part of the trip? :)

side note to ted: can you believe how far i've come since you coerced me into eating that 1 piece of sushi 6 years ago? :) and baby, i can never go back.

Happy 1st Birthday, Caleb!

the party favors

i found a use for all those old baby food jars!

Caleb's 1st cake experience

note the clean, calm, serene baby. he hadn't figured out what it was or what to do with it yet.

the mess that ensued

not only was it a mess, he actually signed "more" after he was done. that was a first. figures that he doesn't do it until he has cake. :) the sign was followed by pointing, reaching, and then a tantrum because we wouldn't give him any more. i told victor that the ratio of cake to kid was probably equal to one of us eating an entire cake by ourselves. yikes! he was wired after this... all giggly.

one of caleb's favorite gifts

given to him by uncle gordon and auntie amy. i think he looks like bono when he wears them. :)

This Kid...

i love him to death, but he's driving me INSANE!

it's like some switch went off in him this past weekend. he suddenly knows that he has a will of his own and is throwing tantrums every few minutes. (he wants food, yell, but not that food, yell. he wants food, yell. hurry up, mommy, yell. but don't make me sit in a highchair or i'll scream and kick, squirm, defiant arched back. he wants to read a book, grunt, squirm. he can't turn the page, yell. don't help me, mommy, yell, swat her away, yell, face plant on carpet, continue yelling.) it's driving me crazy. most of the time, we're alone so i just let him have his meltdown, but it's diconcerting nonetheless... especially when it's so frequent. he's wearing me down.

what do these meltdowns look like? screaming, arched back, red face, swatting everything and everyone away (this one is popular during meal times)... he usually ends in a face down position on the floor with muffled screams.

what's worse is that he's so "tricksey". two seconds after he gets his way (usually when we're in public), he flashes you a sly smile and chuckles. what a faker! grrr...