Uncle Gabe in Town

Today, the Wong Family woke up early to spend the whole day with Uncle Gabe before he drives back up to San Fran tomorrow. Uncle Gabe drove down to attend his friend's wedding and took advantage of the time to also spend time with Yee-Po and see baby Kara. Knowing that he would get to see her, he bought a ton of toys for baby Kara even after mama Lyanne told him not to go crazy with the spending.

As soon as the Wong family arrived at Yee-Po's house, they all went to out to eat lunch. Baby Kara only had 15-20 minutes of nap time in the car and mama Lyanne was afraid that she would be cranky during lunch. But surprisingly, baby Kara did not fuss that much. She was playing and interacting with Yee-Po and Uncle Gabe in the restaurant. Towards the end of the lunch, baby Kara started to fuss for nap time. Typically, mama Lyanne would put baby Kara in her car seat and push the stroller back and forth, tricking baby Kara that she's 'moving', and baby Kara would doze off to sleep within the half hour. However, this time it didn't seem to work for her anymore. Either she got smarter and knows that she's not really moving or the restaurant was just too loud for her to fall asleep. So mama Lyanne took baby Kara out for a walk around the restaurant until baby Kara fell asleep. Mama Lyanne ended up walking 2-3 times around the restaurant before baby Kara finally dozed off to sleep (luckily the weather was cool enough to take a walk). Just when baby Kara fell asleep, papa Matt came out to look for mama Lyanne and they both went back to the restaurant. Baby Kara stayed asleep even during the transfer from the stroller to the car and on the car ride back to Yee-Po's house.

Afraid of waking baby Kara up, mama Lyanne decided to leave baby Kara sleeping in the car seat and placed her in papa Matt's (old) room. That didn't last long because ten minutes later, baby Kara woke up crying. After calming baby Kara down, mama Lyanne took baby Kara out to the living room to play with Uncle Gabe. At first, she was still groggy so she cried when Uncle Gabe tried to play with her. But after baby Kara was fully awake, she was back to her usual playful self and 'allowed' Uncle Gabe to play with her with no fuss. This was also the time when Uncle Gabe brought out all the toys he bought for baby Kara. Uncle Gabe started to open all of the toys and removed all of the tags so that papa Matt wouldn't be able to return them. (Haha) Uncle Gabe bought several musical toys, soft toys, teething toys, water toys, and developmental toys such as stacking cups and rings. He also bought baby Kara a doorway jumper which he immediately set it up for baby Kara to test drive. It was just around the same time where baby Kara likes to bounce every time she's in a standing position. When she was in the jumper, she was very happy and jumped around over excitement.

After that, all the adults ate dinner while baby Kara played by herself on the living room floor. After dinner was done, Great Auntie Winnie and Yee-Po had a lot fun playing with baby Kara. Baby Kara is very easy to amuse and entertain. Something as simple as paper crinkling is a great example. Today, her point of amusement was Great Auntie Winnie's sparkly shirt. Seeing that baby Kara was looking at her shirt, Great Auntie Winnie turned it into a game and they both had a ton of laughs.

Getting Mail with Mommy and Daddy

This week, papa Matt had the idea of getting everyone out for a walk to get the mail after picking baby Kara up from day care. On days to get mail, the typical routine consist of papa Matt unloading baby Kara's diaper bag, milk bag and car seat in the house while mama Lyanne cleans baby Kara's bottles and get them ready for day care tomorrow morning. Then everyone goes out to the back yard. Papa Matt would pick up dog poop while mama Lyanne let's baby Kara play/interact with the dogs. After that, everyone takes a walk to get mail. Instead of carrying baby Kara on the arms or by the hip, mama Lyanne decided to let baby Kara ride on her shoulder. Papa Matt liked what he saw so he wanted baby Kara on his shoulder too.

It's a nice short walk and mama Lyanne can already picture baby Kara walking with her and papa Matt in a few more months when baby Kara can walk!

Just 3 days ago, baby Kara was playing with paper. Mama Lyanne was about to take the paper away, but while doing so she happened wrinkle the paper just before taking it away. All of a sudden, baby Kara bursted out laughing (maybe the sound of crinkling paper was amusing to her). Mama Lyanne couldn't resist to bring the paper back and made a game out of it, just to get baby Kara laughing.

July 4th Weekend

July 4th weekend, mama Lyanne had invited all of her cousins up to hang out for the weekend. It was a fun and busy weekend. On Saturday, mama Lyanne had planned for an all park day. The day started with softball in the morning when the temperature was still cool. Including mama Lyanne and papa Matt, there were a total of 10 people which perfectly formed 2 teams of 5 people. The teams were randomly picked. Uncle Christian, auntie Christina, auntie Leslie, auntie Joanna and mama Lyanne were on one team. Aunti Jessica, uncle Jimmy, uncle Kevin, auntie Katherine and papa Matt were on another team. After playing an hour to two, mama Lyanne's team won. Then they break for lunch, eating sticky rice cooked by Great Auntie Dau (uncle Christian's mom), yesterday's left over pizza and chicken bake, peaches and vietnamese dessert cooked by Auntie Jessica and auntie Jessica's mom, Great Auntie Jeannette. Mama Lyanne also packed watermelon, but it was touched because there were so much food.

After lunch, they played 3-legged race. Once again the 5 pair of teams were also randomly picked. Each round of game had 2 teams racing against each other, each team played at least 3-4 round of games, and the team with the most wins won the game. The last round of game determined the winning team. It was between auntie Leslie and mama Lyanne's team versus uncle Christian and auntie Joanna's team. The rest of the teams stood by to be the judge. The final round had to be played 2 times because the first final round was determined to be a tie. Finally, on the 2nd (final) round, auntie Leslie and mama Lyanne won the game. Hmm...do you see a trend here? Heheh.

Lastly, the park games ended with "Motion Telephone". Similar to 'telephone' or 'rumor' game, a message is passed on from one person to another until the last person determines what was the original message. In 'Motion Telephone', the acting is the message so the member in each team must pass the acting to the next team mate until the last team member must guess what was the message that was trying to be conveyed.

All the while, baby Kara was playing and relaxing with Great Auntie Jeannette in the shade by a tree. The day ended with bbq burgers and hot dogs at home, while Great Auntie Jeannette, auntie Jessica and uncle Jimmy drove back to OC.

Yesterday, everyone was sore from the park games that they all relaxed at home during the day while mama Lyanne went to buy fish for sushi night. After she came back from grocery shopping, everyone went swimming at the community pool. Baby Kara has had many 'water day' at day care with auntie Yammi, but this was the first time that mama Lyanne and papa Matt saw baby Kara in her bathing suit and watched her play in the pool. She loved the water! Baby Kara kicked and kicked her legs when she was in the water.

After the pool, mama Lyanne got ready to make sushi dinner. Sushi included white tuna, yellowtail, halibut, salmon, shrimp tempera, masago, and baked mussles. Delicious! After dinner, the plan was to go to Valencia Town Mall to watch fireworks, but dinner went late and therefore going to Valencia Mall was cancelled. However, just when dinner was finishing up, they started to hear fire works. Some went upstairs to watch while others were still watching TV downstairs while mama Lyanne and papa Matt were packing and cleaning up dinner left overs. In the end, mama Lyanne got everyone to go upstairs to watch the fireworks. Couple minutes in, auntie Christina asked if she could watch from the roof, which was accessable through the balcony bedroom window. Of course, mama Lyanne didn't even hesitate to think about it and gave the OK. Not everyone wanted to go on the roof. Only auntie Christina, uncle Kevin and mama Lyanne went on the roof with a blanket to keep them warm because it was mighty cold outside. In the end, they didn't miss the fireworks afterall. After the fireworks, papa Matt drove uncle Christian home because he had work the following day, and auntie Christina followed home as well.

Today was the last day of the cousin get-together so it was just board game day. They played Apples to Apples then Monopoly. The Monopoly game lasted couple of hours until it was time to meet with uncle Christian and auntie Christina at Asia Buffet on Van Nuys for dinner. While everyone was getting ready and packing their belongings, mama Lyanne bathed baby Kara. Baby Kara had graduated from the infant sling, so it was the first time mama Lyanne let baby Kara sat up in the tub without the sling. Baby Kara loved it! She kept on kicking and kicking so much that water started to splash out of the tub and onto the floor.