Jolly Green Guy

The giant green bib wasn't planned, but paired with Christian's leafy green spinach meal, it camouflaged it perfectly! We've had him on solids for about a week now and he has so far delved into the gourmet world of avocado, banana, pears and spinach. To our surprise, he hasn't actively refused any of it! (Dae and I are rather picky eaters, so we were expecting to be met with hearty resistance).

The seasons have definitely turned and today was a typical northwest morning: cool, rainy and grey. My grandma knit Christian a beautiful, warm sweater earlier this year in colors that were slightly questionable in masculinity. My suspicions were confirmed with our first encounter in the elevator, when one of my condo neighbors asked "Oh, what's her name?". I've decided it's too early to cause any type of complex, so the pink-buttoned sweater stays! While we're at it, Christian also inherited brown with lavender polka-dotted leg warmers from cousin Mallory that he will be styling in the near future. (Consequently, Ev tells me Didi will be graduating to another one of Mallory's hand-me-downs: a pair of pink legwarmers.) Hey, we're in a recession here!



Last week Ev and I met at Mal's school and put 'the boys' in her double stroller. They got along great and even took simultaneous snoozes.



Lastly, the poor Huskies. Euphoria on the 19th and a humbling on the 26th. This photo was taken pre-game last week, when hopes were high and Christian was still proud to be a Dawg (he is a little bit disenchanted with the program but will still watch the Notre Dame game this weekend; a fair-weather fan he is not).

Photo of the Day

Maui!

Leelee is napping so I am going to try to squeeze in a much needed blog update. We returned home from a sun-filled vacation to Maui yesterday. It was, for all of us, our first trip to Maui and it was fantastic! This post will be mostly pictures with commentary, and a few of the photos (water photos) were taken with an underwater camera with actual film so, again, pardon the quality. I felt like I had drifted back to 1990 when I went to Walgreen's this morning to have my film developed and a CD made.

Anyhow, Jeff had scored us some first-class seats on the direct flight to Kahului, so Leelee was livin' it up in the 3rd row. He did very well on the way over and even got a few "he is such a good baby" comments from the fellow passengers (little do they know!). He got into the aloha spirit with the complimentary flower.



At the Hertz counter, Dae managed to upgrade us from our Ford Focus (or the like) to a minivan! Never in our lives have we been so excited about a minivan. We headed straight to Costco per recommendations from helpful friends about sky-high food prices in Maui and loaded up on breakfast and lunch foods, Caramacs, and beach towels. We drove in our beloved minivan toward Ka'anapali and our hotel and thought it was perfect - a small condo with kitchen, clean, with ocean views. Christian took over the bed upon arrival...


Our main focus of the trip (ok, MY main focus) was of course...the Beach! We visited three different beaches, Kapalua Bay, Wailea Beach and Black Rock Beach, and took snorkeling shifts while the other watched Christian. I did not attain my trip's goal of spotting a turtle, which just means we will have to come back again!!

As you can see, Christian takes a while to warm up...here seen in prime form at Kapalua Bay Beach

He shed the life jacket (and the attitude) by Day 3 on the beach

Of the many fish photos, this was the only semi-decent one...sad. Although poorly illustrated here, there were some beautiful and colorful fish very close to shore!

Telltale snorkel mask lines. Meanwhile, Christian ghost-like and covered in titanium dioxide.

Typical beach day: Dae frantically chasing the shade while I set up a my towel in prime sunning locales. Christian wisely stayed with dad.

Wailea Beach


Christian waited patiently for his turn at the after-beach shower.

So we, being typical tourists, were suckered into buying a lei the first night at dinner (Sansei sushi - delicious and everything 25% off before 6pm!). I spotted the lei lady making her rounds and told Dae "I am not purchasing anything if it's over $5". She came over, I asked the price, she said $11 and I immediately forked over the cash. Oh well, it's vacation. I had had my eye on a very specific lei - one that looked exactly like the ones we got when we were in Oahu 16 years ago for high school math team (yes, math team). For some reason, I loved that lei and just had to have one again. Here is Leelee in a variety of poses with the treasured find!




















We actually made it to a couple of nice dinners, one at the sushi place mentioned before and the other at Hula Grill in Whaler's Village. We did not, however, make it very far in our trek to Paia and Mama's Fish House. This restaurant had come highly recommended from about 4 different people so we were determined to go. The reservation time of 6:15pm (late, in our book) should have already deterred us. It did not. We drove over with a wailing Christian, Beco'd him (in the baby carrier), and went as far as checking in and sitting at our table. Christian would have none of it and made it very clear he was done for the evening. We think he took one look at the menu prices and decided he was outta there (he believes the money would be better spent toward his college fund so he does not end up in junior college - an ongoing joke at our house). Anyway, we moseyed on over to the cute little town of Paia and ended up at the considerably less upscale Paia Fish Market. Ono burgers and Mahi Mahi fish and chips hit the spot. The evening wasn't a total loss, though. We snapped a few photos at sunset at Mama's Fish House and the lighting turned out pretty nice. (Disclaimer: don't be surprised if the photo shows up again in your Christmas card...we've got pretty slim pickings as far as decent family photos!)



We read about the "Best Banana Bread on the Planet" in our Maui Revealed guide book and made the treacherous journey over to the village (population 140) of Kahakuloa. The minute Dae read about a single-laned, very narrow, very windy road with the ocean on one side and mountains on the other, he was in and practically salivating with anticipation (I was mainly in it for the banana bread and coconut candy). I had to remind him that we were in a Kia Sportage, not to be mistaken for a Porsche, so that he would lay off the gas. Luckily on the way up we were trapped behind an older couple who took the speed limit very seriously.




We splurged on day 2 and lunched at the Four Seasons. While there, we checked the scores and received the excellent news about UW's win over No. 3-ranked USC in football (Go Huskies!!!). Therefore, it was a great lunch. And as you can tell, the Four Seasons is absolutely gorgeous.


And now my random Hawaii musings:

1) We stumbled upon a local market and saw a local ordering an interesting shave ice concoction. It looked delicious, so we asked what it was and ordered it....it was called a "halo halo" and it is a Philippino creation of ice cream, shave ice, banana, mixed fruit and coconut milk...delicious. No pics, sorry.

2) Christian started babbling "da" on our trip. (Dae was excited. I am holding out for "ma")

3) A fire alarm roused us out of our nightly coma and evacuated our entire hotel around 9:30pm on night #2...this being the same night as the Mama's Fish House debacle and meltdown. Needless to say, not Christian's most pleasant night.

4) Here's Christian's mermaid look. As I was putting the jeans on we were wondering why it was so hard to get them on. Massive growth spurt? Nope, just two legs down one hole!

5) Kaiser in Hawaii! Now, if only they could get dental on board...

What we did today

Absolutely nothing. We sat (laid) around all day, mapping out our next meal. Tomorrow: Home to Portland!!!

A weekend at Ni-Ni's

Dae came to me a few days ago with a grave concern: "Is Christian cross-eyed?" he asked. No, I assured him, he is not (Of course there is nothing wrong with our perfect baby! Plus I thought I read somewhere that it's normal for babies to appear cross-eyed through the first few months of their lives, but I could be completely wrong). After much contemplation, Dae reached an epiphany. It was an illusion caused by Christian's latest obsession: his hands. He stares at them intensely and at such close range his eyes must cross in order to accommodate the short distance. Whew! Disaster hopefully averted. I managed to snap a photo this morning:

We just returned, Christian and I, from my grandma's apartment in Richland. It was business as usual. We can always count on the following when visiting my grandma: 1) A toasty 80-85 degree climate indoors. When I began to actually sweat while just sitting, I asked if I could turn on the air conditioning. My grandma said "Sure! I'll go put on a sweater." I felt bad, so I continued to sweat it out. 2) Chocolate. Lots of it. 3) Tennis or NBA on fulltime when in season. The US Open (tennis) was on and we probably watched about 12 hours per day. CBS at 8am, Tennis Channel starting at 4pm. 4) Dinner options including, but not limited to, Granny's Buffet, Pizza Hut and Red Lobster. My grandma usually manages to (at 87 years old!) cook up something good as well. 5) Mothball aromas permeating all livable areas.

As usual, it was a wonderful trip home. I pulled out Christian's travel bed and he took to it like a pro. Here he is during a nap - sans clothing due to aforementioned heat.

Two more random thoughts for the day: We love Christian's curly eyelashes and have no idea where they came from. Of all things for an Asian boy to have - curly eyelashes? Mine are curly, but not nearly as curly as Christian's. And Dae's? Well, let's put it this way...we call them his Venus flytraps due to their nearly vertical nature. Secondly, Christian now can sniff a stranger a mile off and will have none of it! It now takes him a few sessions to become familiarized with someone enough to be held by said person. I suppose it was bound to happen, but it just came so swiftly (last weekend) that I was caught off-guard. Part of me loves that he actually knows and prefers me and Dae, and part of me thinks he will now be attached at my hip indefinitely. Oh well, there are definitely worse things!

Leelee in La Grande

We arrived in thriving La Grande last night around 10:30pm. I had rushed home from work like a madwoman, packed the car with Dae, and left by 6:15pm in order to make it to Pendleton before closing time of 9:30pm to pick up our rental car (I am heading home to Richland for a few days so Dae will need a car). There is no rental place in La Grande, so Pendleton was the closest spot. When we arrived at the Pendleton airport at 9pm, we discovered they had been waiting for us to arrive in order to shut down the airport. My, oh my.

Anyway, rewind a couple of days: Dae came home Monday with a BR cake (cookie dough ice cream and chocolate cake - he obviously knows me well) and a card and a People magazine subscription for an early bday celebration. Score! (Over the past few holidays, he had underestimated how much I enjoy receiving a greeting card and had finally decided to take heed of my suggestions.) The next photo is basically an exact replica of Dae's birthday two weeks ago, but for the sake of completeness, here it is.

Yesterday, Ann, my assistant at work, outdid herself with birthday celebrations. Walking up to the building I found a mylar balloon attached to the outside door, reading "Happy Birthday Dr. Lee (please take me)!". The inner dental door entrance also boasted a balloon. My desk was filled with flowers, balloons and a gift. The lunchroom was filled with strawberry and peach shortcake, candy and chips, and our dental operatory had a "Happy Birthday" banner strung outside along with little decorations hung from the ceiling. That Ann! She is such a gem. No task is too small for her...

So, back to La Grande. We've been here a little less than 24 hours but so far here are my miscellaneous musings:

1) It seems the Grande Ronde hospital was just waiting for Dae to arrive and saved all their cases for him. He has been called in 4 times today and managed to take out a gallbladder during one of those visits. We had selected a local 'fine dining' restaurant for my actual birthday dinner, but it looks like I might have to take a raincheck. (Oh well, Safeway is just around the corner and I am by no means above a nice Safeway birthday dinner!)

2) I've talked about and celebrated my birthday a lot this year for some reason. I will stop talking about it now.

3) Today I took Christian in the Bob (no crying, finally. Hallelujah!) to the historic downtown section of La Grande. Our Best Western accommodations are more along the fringe of the city by the freeway, so it's a nice 1.5 ride into town. Saw 2 LDS missionaries riding their bikes and wondered, in a town of this size, won't they have gotten to everybody before their 2 year stint is up? (Not to mention, can you imagine being sent to La Grande? Poor guys)

4) La Grande has a WalMart, a Safeway, an Albertson's and a Rite-Aid. Correction: the WalMart is actually in the adjacent town called Island City (apparently it used to actually be an island, according to one of the pamphlets provided by the hospital staff and presented to Dae during his hospital orientation). It also has an abundance of fast food restaurants within about a 100 yard radius of our hotel. Dae's idea of heaven.

5) La Grande does not have much else. And by "else" I really mean Target. Big sigh. At least my wallet will appreciate it, and I did manage to entertain myself and Christian today downtown. Following are a few iPhone photos.

It actually was a J.C. Penney inside!

Shoe Repair shop. Not sure what the Native American has to do with it?

6) The Best Western has an indoor pool, which means we'll be able to resume swim lessons right where we left off (much to Leelee's dismay).

7) The Best Western also has a continental breakfast. For some reason, Dae and I were very excited about the continental breakfast this morning. I think it was probably the waffle-maker (for Dae) and the hard-boiled eggs (for me) that really did it. I love continental breakfasts, especially when complimentary.

8) Christian only rolls over on his left side. This information is very convenient when laying him down to sleep. We place him snug up against the right side and before you know it he's flipped over and is dead center.

9) (A few hours later now) Dae made it home in time for dinner! We just got back from Foley Station restaurant and it was delish. A couple photos:

10) A few photos from Didi's Birthday party this past weekend.