babyG is 2

today is Griffin's 2nd birthday. i can't believe babyG is 2. it's gone by so fast. feels like i was just on maternity leave, and now he's running around the house singing rihanna and rent (just like his sis).

so here's a quick progress check on the boy.

allergy update: seems to have improved overall. we tested him a few times with cheese, and he seems ok. still comes home from school with a bumpy torso from time to time, so we think he may still have an egg sensitivity. but we are hopeful that he'll outgrow it soon.

sleep: sleeps well, once he falls asleep. we put him down around 10pm or so, and then we hear him serenading his sister for the next hour or so before finally falling asleep around 11:30pm. (more on the singing later.) the good news is he's still napping well.

talking: this boy sure loves to talk. recent quotes include: "where casey go? dere she is!" "no, jie-jie, stop it, i don't like it." and my personal favorite, "dancing queen, mama, sing it!"


name that tune: ok, so our kids don't have any real useful talents. but griffin can already name pretty much any abba song in 2 notes. he's pretty amazing. i'll post some videos on it soon (hopefully). sometimes we'll be trying to skip over a song (because we've heard it 50 million times and are sick of it), and he'll catch just the first note or two and exclaim "wee-hoo!!" (sweet escape, gwen stefani). then, we feel obliged to let him hear it.

singing: not only does he name that tune, but he sings along. his current faves: "another day" (rent -- and yes, i know that is not quite kid appropriate), "umbrella" (rihanna), "lay all your love on me" (abba), "no one" (alicia keys).

playing with his sister: ally and griffin get along fabulously. we feel very fortunate that they have such a great relationship (for the most part). as to be expected, they do enjoy tormenting each other from time to time, but they also spend a lot of time cracking each other up.

btw, check out this picture that ally took of us. not bad for a four year old, eh?

so you think you can dance

here's a little dance number from ally to the tune of girlfriend by avril lavigne.

BFF

when we ask ally who her best friend is, she'll usually say sloane, her pal from school. but when we ask her who she likes to play with the most, she'll say devon, her cousin. devon is just 5 1/2 months younger than she is, so they are pretty much the same age and really play well together. now, when we go to mark and irene's house, ally pretty much disappears until dinnertime -- or until one of the 4 starts crying, which usually happens every half hour or so.

ally loves playing with griffin, but clearly it's different when you're playing with a toddler who won't follow directions and insists on destroying her tents and stealing her "baby" every time she turns around. with devon, they act silly together, play make-believe together, and boss each other around. we've even caught them ganging up and picking on devon's older brother, peyton, which must be a thrill for devon.

people often think that ally and devon are twins, as they are a similar size, have similar hair, and even a similar face shape. but maybe they think that because they seem to have a strong bond and connection. we are all so happy that they have each other as best friends -- and i hope it's a friendship that lasts them a lifetime.

Dance dance

here's a video of ally dancing at "baby loves disco" back in january. she reminds us of the character mango from SNL.

The Big 0-4

our baby girl is 4 years old.
oh, sorry, she asked me to clarify that she is not a baby, as she is "4 already" and "almost 5."

we had a little party for her up at the "baby loves disco" party in sf @ ruby skye. it was pretty cool. ally had a blast, and she spent most of the time getting her groove on down on the dance floor.

at one point, all the girls were down on the dance floor, and all the boys were sitting upstairs in the room, staring down at the dance floor. irene commented that "dancing is an important life skill, especially for boys." shortly afterwards, all the moms dragged their sons onto the dance floors for their first lessons. all except for elaine, since her hubby and son were hiding in the "reading corner" and refusing to come out.

but there were 2 boys who spent a LOT of time on the dance floor -- of course, those would be the two mr. yims. griffin loved rocking out to the music, so we definitely have 2 babies who love disco!

ally was thrilled so many beloved aunts, uncles, and friends could come out and celebrate on this special day with her.

our taiwan trip

the last few months at work have been crazy busy, and i was on the verge of burning out. so at the end of march, i headed to taiwan for a week long vacation with just me and ally.

but 12 hours into my vacation, i was really really regretting the decision to take a 14 hour flight with my almost 4-year old daughter. she was great at the airport, and even for the first couple hours of the flight. i had been worried that her ears would hurt during takeoff, so i kept feeding her gummies. then, i popped on her headphones and "wonderpets" on edward's video ipod, and she was a happy camper for another hour.


so far so good. but then it all started. quick summary:

• i spilled tomato juice and benedryl on ally and her seat (2 separate incidents)
  
• lots of crying and kicking violently as ally struggled with falling asleep in her seat; eventually had to hold her as she slept
  
• ally: ate 4 mini-bags of gummies, slept 4 hours, watched 3 hours of wonderpets, woke happy as a clam
• ellen: ate barely anything, slept less than 1 hour, watched 2 episodes of heroes, felt nauseated and generally miserable
  

the good news is that once we were in taiwan, we both had a great time. ally adjusted very quickly to the time zone change, and she had a grand ol' time hanging out with the extended family. we stayed with my parents and spent some good quality bonding time with them as well.


here's a brief recap of what we did:

• ate excellent food at every meal -- japanese food, hsiao long bao, beef noodle soup, oh-ah-jian
  
• sipped coffee in cafes with relatives several times a day (cafes are the rage in taipei)
  
• visited a botanical garden and a taiwanese cultural center, and stayed at a beautiful hot springs resort (hotel royal chiao hsi)
• did some shopping (101, miramar, etc)
  
• slept a lot (more than 9 hours for me a night!!)

ally had a blast, and i got what i wanted -- a relaxing, leisurely vacation with nary a thought about work. of course, i missed griffin a lot (oh, and edward, too, of course :P ). and i was thrilled when we landed and saw that he actually remembered me!

but as much as i enjoyed the trip, i am also quite sure that i won't be doing long distance travel with little ones for quite some time. that is, until the next time i'm desperate for a vacation ...

First Update of 2007

so as of the first week of 2007, here's what's going on.

* griffin is on the verge of walking. he had been breaststroke crawling for a while, and since the first week of december (at karen ah-yee's and uncle rex's house) started doing a normal hands and knees crawl. now he can wobbly-walk while holding onto 1 hand (and grasping a sock in the other).


* ally is starting dance class. she LOVES dancing. ah-ma bought her a kids "dance dance revolution"-like toy for xmas, and she just loves dancing on it.

* ally is talking more and more like an adult. today, she said, "he's like, where did it go?" she is also the grand negotiator, always trying to negotiate for just "1 more 64 zoo lane" episode or "3 more pieces of persimmon".

* griffin says "da!" and "uh-oh" and "hao-chur". well, the "hao-chur" actually comes out as "jia-jia", but the intonation is right. and the "da!" has no real meaning, except that if you exclaim "da!", he'll respond with an equally enthusiastic "da!" even his "uh-oh" isn't used quite correctly, as he will say it (with a grin) after he has deliberately thrown something on the ground (for the umpteenth time).

* griffin loves cars. he loves blocks. he loves anything that's hard and makes loud noises when he bangs them together. he has already fallen off the changing table, tumbled down the stairs, and bonked his head and bit his lip countless times. he is such a boy.

* ally is ever the music fan. her latest faves include sexyback (justin timberlake), ye de di chi chang (jay chou), dani california (rhcp), and the little mermaid soundtrack.


* griffin has finally figured out how to eat his food without cramming his mouth full, gagging, and throwing everything up. i'm sure you're thinking, "what do you mean? isn't that a basic skill we are all born with?" no, not this son of ours. if you gave him a slice of apple, he would shove the whole thing in his mouth and start gagging. even if you cut up the apple into small pieces, he would shove them all in his mouth until his cheeks puffed out and then start crying because he couldn't swallow it. but about 2 weeks ago, he finally figured out how to bite off chunks and swallow it before putting more food into this mouth. hooray for no more daily throw-ups!

SoCal Vacation

we had a lovely vacation in southern cal over the holidays. we stayed at a sweet 6-bedroom beach house in encinitas, where we would watch the sunset from the living room in the early evenings and fall asleep to the sound of crashing waves at night. in the mornings, ally loved watching the surfers ("ducks!") riding the waves.

the drive down was rather painful, as we had a couple of false starts and then hit traffic pretty much right off the bat. then our "quick" lunch ended up taking over an hour, and an hour later we had to stop again to feed the baby. the sun was setting, we were 5 hours into our drive, and we couldn't believe that we weren't even out of the bay area. the good news is that ally and griffin were both good sports, and ally was happy as a clam once we cracked open the dvd player and popped on her headset.

here are the highlights:

* we went to legoland for 2 days with mark+ irene+the boys

(this lego santa is the only santa that ally is not afraid to sit next to!)








* m&i took us all out for a lovely sunday brunch at the four seasons















* spent xmas eve at ling-chi's place and saw lots of aunts, cousins, and other relatives

* went to the zoo with vicky jie-jie

* ally and griffin spent the evening with vicky jie-jie and mimi jie-jie + her family, while e&e went with el's aunts and cousins to the casino. it was a win-win evening, as ellen won $500 on slots and ally had such a great time she didn't want to go home.

* spent a couple days in LA, doing a little shopping and just relaxing. highlight meal was fogo de chau, where we feasted on tasty grilled meat.