Trip to Connecticut, part I

Just got back from our trip to Connecticut! Here's what you missed:

Setting the Scene
A trip to visit Mom's side of the family just isn't complete if it doesn't have some element of surprise, and usually there are multiple layers of said surprise. About a month ago we decide to make a trip to Connecticut, we cannot resist the temptation to pull a fast one on Ong Ba Ngoai. We quickly go in cahoots with Di T, Uncle M, and Auntie A. Scheming at its best. It is no easy task to pull off, but luckily, we just watched The Sting and are feeling pretty confident (we pulled straws for who gets to be Robert Redford).

Baby's 1st Airplane The days of traveling light are long over. In preparation for the trip, we find ourselves with a decent amount of gear : 1 suitcase, 1 carseat (with stroller adapter), 1 stroller frame, 1 stroller bassinet (Rosie's bed), and 2 carry-on bags. We decided to be creative with our flights and end up with a flight out of Oakland, but returning through San Francisco. We had it all worked out: we'd coordinate airport drop-off and pick-up with our good friend A, who would take care of our car for the week. But, not surprisingly, Saturday morning rolls around and we leave the house half an hour behind schedule. En route to Oakland, we decide to leave the car in long-term parking, otherwise we might not make the flight. And good thing we did because everyone and their mothers were at the airport trying to get in one last ski trip, turns out. Everything goes smoothly at check-in and we gain a new appreciation for the family line at security that gets us through in a relative jiffy.

Rosie is a rockstar on the plane. Taking the advice from friends, we are ready to run interference to any ear-popping aches by being in position to feed during take off and landing, but it turns out Rosie's favorite lullaby is Airplane Jet Engines and she sleeps most of the time. And when she isn't sleeping, she is being cute and making eyes with the other passengers. We hit a hiccup with our flight and have to readjust our path, but all in all the flight goes smoothly.

Loves at First Sight
Touchdown! Rosie has landed. We make our way to the baggage claim and, out of the corner of our eyes, see two figures sneakily racing toward us. It's Uncle M and Auntie A! Lots of hugging and cooing commence:


It's a hard decision (Rosie was pretty comfortable in her Uncle and Auntie's arms), but we finally decide we should probably hit the road. This of course involves a lot of bundling up. Brrrrr it's windy out there!

Now, onto Ong Ba Ngoai's house!

The Surprise
Uncle M and Auntie A have told Ong Ba that they are flying up to go to an engagement party in Boston and afterward they'd spend a couple days visiting. So while they are supposedly in Boston, they are picking the three of us up and we head to West Hartford, Ong Ba none the wiser and being watched closely by Di T. On the drive to the house we deliberate over what course of action to take to get the highest shock value. We decide to go for a waterfall assault (you'll see what I mean) and hit them big with the guest of honor (Rosa) at the start.
We pull into the driveway and see Ba Ngoai's head in the window. Uncle M shuts off the headlights and slowly creeps in. The three of us get out of the car, Rosa in Dad's arms, and run for the door. Mom tries to throw them off even more by calling as we walk in the door but there's no time and it's freezing out! We run to the kitchen door and Ba Ngoai see Mom at the door. "Vi!" she yells, and points to the door. Then her hand drops to her side, realizing the oddity of seeing Mom standing at the door and she yells again, "VI?!" The moment we enter, Ba Ngoai grabs Rosie and runs through the house calling for Di T.

Cue joyful screaming.

The pieces then quickly fall into place when Ong Ba Ngoai see Auntie A and Uncle M, who of course are not in Boston as they claimed. It's only then that Ba Ngoai We head back to the kitchen and there are giant smiles on everyone's faces, including Ong G who is visiting as well (more on this in a bit). Success!

...BUT WAIT!
Just when you think the excitement is over, there is a knock at the door. It looks like Ba Ngoai almost drops to the floor (luckily she doesn't since she's still holding Rosie at this point) when she sees Ong D, Great Aunt D, and Aunties NaMi from Delaware walk through the door!

Consider Ong Ba Ngoai punk'd!

...to be continued...


(Thanks to Di T, Uncle M, Auntie A, and the Delaware crew for making the surprise a memorable one!)

guest bloggers: Auntie Vivienne and Auntie Valerie

Hey it's us! We came to Tien's house to see Rosie. An amazing thing happened last night. We all were in the living room playing with Rosie, except for Vi (the dishes had to be done). Tien, Valerie, and I were singing part of the Oompa Loompa song from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory:

Oompa loompa doopidy doo,

I have a question for you,

Oompa loompa doopidy doo.

When we finished, Rosie said,"Do." We sang it again and then she said it again! She said "do" twice! We were so surprised. Mike was there to witness Rosie saying her first words.

another first!

Ms. Rosie looooves her bath time almost as much as she loves being naked!

Pre-bath today, she was so overwhelmed by the liberating feeling of being in the nude that she decided to pee all over me. I've gone 13 weeks without incident...not bad! Not exactly a milestone. And possibly not really blog-worthy, but here we are nonetheless ;)

(again, no picture with this post...!)

dramatic timing

Like all babies, Rosie will occasionally spit up. And, like all babies, Rosie will rarely have a major spit-up (i.e. projective flow of milk). But when she does, she always has choice timing:

Incident #1: In the car. First week of life. Mom and Dad learn the oh so important lesson of packing an extra change of clothes in the diaper bag.

Incident #2: Safeway. about 1 month of life. Mom misses it, but Dad gets the full view. Luckily she's got enough layers so she's not too wet.

Incident #3: Los Gatos Cinema @ Diaper Date Night. Maybe she was protesting Jeff Bridge's facial hair or Matt Damon's accent, but either way there was certainly some true grit...all over Mom.

Incident #4: Campbell Café. Last night. After a relaxing dinner out, Rosie decides it's her turn to dine. She was slowly but surely feeding. We even made the comment that she seemed to be feeding for a long stretch. Dad goes to pay the bill, Mom lifts Rosie to burp, Rosie lets the flood gates loose! I had no idea her stomach could even hold that much. Rosie's pants had to come off (maybe that was her plan from the start?). Unfortunately, going pantless is way cuter and socially acceptable for a baby. Mom didn't have that option.

Don't worry...no pictures to go with this story!

To the beat of her own drum

athlete

Rosie's been working on her vertical. She'll be ready for ultimate frisbee tryouts!


































p.s. this is inspired by the art of Adele Enersen

Elbow dimples = awesome

I heart Popple

So much so I yell my affection at it!

a butcher, a baker, a human smoke detector?

We had quite the scare this morning!

Picture this: It's 5:30 in the morning and all of a sudden Mike jumps out of bed and runs to the bassinet. My first thought is that 1) He thought Rosie was in the bed with us and couldn't find her (yes, I've had that mild freak out before) or, even worse, 2) His super human hearing could tell she stopped breathing or was choking. Turns out, it was his super human smelling. Still mostly asleep but on the verge of freaking out, what I hear Mike saying is "Turn on the light!" but as he's doing this, he's grabbing Rosie and running out the door, where there is even less light. I'm confused and follow him. Finally (meaning, 3 seconds later) I finally understand one very scary word: "Smoke!"

And smoke there was.


(like the dramatic use of line spacing?!)

So, rewind for a second. In our room we've gone through variations of night lights and finally landed on an option that would allow the minimum of light that would allow us to sleep but let out enough light for midnight feedings and diaper changes to avoid turning on lights and stimulating Rosie. Our set-up was this: at the end of our bed was clipped a run-of-the-mill desk lamp.

Now fast forward. "Smoke!" I run to the end of the bed and find our favorite blanket given to us by dear friends (sorry J and B!) is smothering the light and fuming. UH OH. I grab the blanket which is smoldering bright red and toss it onto the ground. I grab the nearest object, a large pillow (!), and start beating the embers out. I don't know if it was actually doing anything, but embers were still there so I grab the blanket and run to the tub to douse it in water. I run back and open all the windows, then grab said run-of-the-mill desk lamp and throw that in the shower as well. Meanwhile, I hear Mike calling out "Take the baby! I'll take care of it." But no need, it really ended up just being a lot of smoke. And icky smoke, at that. Fan is on, windows and doors opened throughout the house, baby safe in Daddy's arms.

I wish we could have captured Rosie in this moment. She was at her cutest, sitting up in Mike's arms with her fist raised up and a let-me-at-'em look on her face. Things now calm, we set up camp on the living room rug. Rosie is bundled from head to toe, and then some. Mike and I use folded laundry that I had strategically left out from the day before as pillows (ha).

And now, Mike's at work and Rosie and I are on the couch resting. Today will involve airing out the house and, yes, lots and lots of laundry. Hope the mattress does wreak of smoke...any tips on getting the smell out if it does?

All I can say is yay for Super Dad, who came to the rescue. Any longer and we could have had a much more serious problem on our hands!

[Here is what's leftover of our lamp. The whatIthoughtwas metal lampshade melted onto the bulb. FrEAKY!]

Sweet dreams

write up: Rosie's first Tết

We had our third annual Tết party, this time with a special twist to it: meeting Rosa! On Saturday we had a barbecue, and by mid-afternoon the house was packed (we counted 48 guests who had come through the doors at some point).

We couldn't have asked for a more amazing day. It must have been 75 degrees, so Rosie got to show off her legs for the first time, going pantless under her áo dài.

The amazing thing about this gathering was the chance to reflect on how time has passed.
Tết celebration #1: In Oakland, we spent much of the evening mostly with friends playing games like Pin the Tail on the Water Buffalo and cheering with drinks into the wee hours of the night.
Tết celebration #2: We had just finished an epic year of moving, selling and buying houses, marrying, starting new jobs, discovering San José. We celebrated with friends old and new, work colleagues, and family.
Tết celebration #3 (this year): Baby party! In addition to having beloved friends and family, our front room was filled with our new friends who also have young bundles of joy.
Tết celebration of the future: What next, a dog? Win the lottery? Spend Tết in Vietnam?!!....

chúc mừng năm mới

Rosie's first áo dài! Happy New Year!

Morning baby

At her cutest first thing in the morning.

Mandela

"There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."
Nelson Mandela

happy birthday Rosa Parks

Born February 4, 1913

If you're happy and you know it...oink

Rosie has been mesmerized by the pig maestro, a gift from her Virginia cousins. She's even showing signs of rhythm ( clearly from her dad).

magic eye

Can't stop staring. Haven't gone this cross-eyed since that magic eye craze.

Peek a Boo

Sitting up like a big girl and playing big girl games like peekaboo!