Hills of Hayward

After having two kids, I never thought of celebrating my birthday anymore. However, Stonebrae sent me a dinner invitation so I showed it to Harrison two days before my birthday. Harrison said, “Why did they send it so early?” I didn’t have any doubt but just thought that he forgot which day my birthday was again.

So he scheduled a last minute dinner at Kiss Seafood Japanese Restaurant, though now I don’t know if he just played like it was a last minute reservation or it was really a last minute thing. Unfortunately we had to miss our dinner because Arden started crying for feeding while Anders was fussing and not going to sleep. We could only feel at ease if we calmed Anders to sleep before we headed out so our nanny could focus on the little one. I guess that you can never predict your schedule when you have two young kids.

Luckily, thanks to my dear husband, who is great at finding new and nice restaurants. Instead of Kiss Seafood, we had a great time of a late night dinner at this nice cozy restaurant, Izakaya Mai.

I thought that was nice and it should be it! I never thought that Harrison had planned for tonight for a while. It was the first time I hang out with friends for a movie after Arden’s birth. I enjoyed Star Trek a lot and have been craving for Tea Station. I was happy but not surprised to run into Nancy, Chuang and Wei at Tea Station since they live close by; didn’t have doubts when Nancy asked to combine the tables. I didn’t suspect a thing until the birthday cake was brought to the table. I started laughing out loud since normally I was the one planning surprises!

Harrison’s plan was considered a total success. Thanks, Nancy, Chuang, Wei, Duc, Howard and Paul for coming out. Of course, thanks to Harrison for always thinking for me.

The house feels so much more lively when there is a relative visiting.  We were fortunate enough to have Christine’s mom over to help with Arden’s first month.  Thank you again mom!

媽媽今晚回台灣了，心裏很是捨不得。但我猜爸爸和小妹在台灣也巴不得媽媽趕快回家吧！

這一個月多虧了有媽媽在身邊，好多事情不用操心，Arden 也幾乎都是媽在餵的。媽，您辛苦了！

自從大學離家之後，第一次有機會能在家長住是拜 Cisco 的 flexibility, 讓我在台灣遠距上班了一個多月；第二次是托 Anders 的褔，媽來美幫我坐月子住了一個多月；再來就是這次生 Arden，又讓媽辛苦了，但我也才又有這個褔氣能再把媽給請來一個月。下次就真不知是何時了！

真希望台灣跟美國能近一些……..

I have been seriously falling behind on posting all of our photos.  Late last year, we wanted to make a trip to Taiwan to visit family before Arden arrived.   Both Christine and I think that traveling internationally with two young kids in 2009 would be unlikely, so we made an effort to get out one last time.

Christine’s mom helped out by taking care of Anders for a week.  This freed up our time to visit our good friends Andy and Tim who had both left for Asia from the SF Bay Area.  Andy was so accomodating in figuring out our hotel, itinerary, AND feed our ramen fetish with his top ramen picks from his own ramen otaku adventures.

Both Christine and I had a great time in stomach and soul.  I fell in love with the orderly nature of Japanese culture.  We both want to visit Japan again more thoroughly in the future.

早在Anders10個月大時，他就學會“HiHi“和”ByeBye” （他的小手會舉起一張一合）。但對我們的話卻還是似懂非懂。慢慢地，他似乎聽得懂了但總是沒有確切的反應。直到這過去一個月（16個月大）Anders終於懂的“要”與“不要”，“是”和“不是”，“可以”跟“不可以”。他會點頭和搖手，連我處罰他的時候也會好好回答，很是可愛。

即便如此，Anders昨天的反應仍叫我驚訝不已。

每週四早上是他去圖書館“Play & Learn“上課的日子。他一吃完早餐就黏著我要抱要玩。已經快遲到了我還得收拾出門的東西，沒辦法，情急之下給了他車鑰匙，”寶寶乖，拿著鑰匙去門口等Mommy，我們要出去玩嘍！“ You know what！？ 他竟然真的握緊了鑰匙砰砰砰地”跑“到門口定定地站在那兒一動都不動。

圖書館“Play & Learn“的後半段是自由玩玩具的時間。每次到了該收拾的時候，老師會唱著“Toys away, toys away! Time to put the toys away.” 媽媽和大孩子們就會把玩具放到一旁。以前總是我在收，寶寶都聽不懂，只會把我放好的玩具馬上又拉出來。但昨天在我沒有任何期待只是習慣地邊收邊說，“寶寶呀！把玩具放到旁邊了呀！” 他竟然對著我指的玩具跑過去，雙手捧起搖搖晃晃地走到牆邊放下。原本以為只是湊巧，但屢試不爽！

也許寶寶終於開始聽懂Mommy的話了！