A not-so-spooky Halloween night at the library

As mentioned in my earlier post, Halloween falls on this coming Friday. Mommy and daddy did not have the chance to celebrate Halloween when we were young, so we thought it would be a good idea for Sheri to join the fun when she is here. Mommy has to confess that it was daddy who prompted mommy to get a Halloween costume for our little girl. This shows that daddy is still very concerned for Sheri even though he is very busy in his work. For the past few weeks, mommy was busy scouting for an appropriate Halloween outfit for Sheri, making sure that she has everything ready for our little girl before the start of the week. As for Sheri, I do not think she knows exactly what Halloween is all about, but we have been mentioning to her these few weeks that she is now able to say 'Halloween' and 'Tricks or treats' very well. Hopefully, she will have fond memories of her first 'Halloween' when she sees the pictures next time.

There are a couple of Halloween events in this week and the first one to kick start the week is the not-so-spooky night at the library. It is a story time, specially organized in conjunction with Halloween. We feasted our eyes on the different Halloween costumes that the kids were in. Our little girl also had the chance to debut her first Halloween outfit, complete with tiara and a necklace.

Happy Halloween, our little princess!

A Princess and a Toad. Sounds like a fairy tale, doesn't it?


A farewell kiss with the bear before we left. Goodnight!

Sheri's pet-Clifford, the red dog.

As all of you know by now, our little Sheri is an animal lover. She loves to chase after dogs and pet them whenever we see them in the parks. One of her favourite toys at home is Clifford, the red dog. This was the present that her godmother gave her for her one year old birthday. She treats Clifford as a pet. She likes to pet and kiss him, and feed him with water occasionally.

This evening, mommy asked her to take Clifford out for a walk and off she went.

Homemade Pumpkin Pie

October is the month of Halloween and there are lots of pumpkins on sale now in the grocery store.

Halloween falls on this coming Friday, 31st . What could be a better way to kick start the week than to have some homemade pumpkin pies.

Mommy specially made six small pies for our little girl.

Sheri: Wow! So many pumpkin pies!

A sneak preview of our little girl's Halloween costume. Be sure to catch our little girl debut her first Halloween costume in the later posts!

Let's take one family shot before we dig in.

Sheri: It's time to sample mommy's pumpkin pie.

See how clownish our little girl looked when she ate the pie.

This is certainly a more graceful way of eating the pie. Keep it up, little girl!

Verdict time: Mommy's first homemade pumpkin pie seems to have passed the test. Our little Sheri finished eating all the filling in the pie. She just needed some help from mommy in digging the crust out.

Simple pleasures in life

Often our lives are overwhelmed by our busy schedules. In the midst of our whirlwind of doing, we may overlook some of the simple pleasures that life can offer.
For that, Mommy is thankful of these simple pleasures that she indulges in.

1. Trying something new in the kitchen
Mommy loves the joy of whipping up a new dish in the kitchen. The feeling of anxiety in anticipation of a newly concocted dish is just therapeutic. Mommy's latest fad in the kitchen is casseroles.

This was the breakfast casserole that mommy prepared for daddy and Sheri last week. Casserole is a good way of sneaking in vegetables for our little girl even though she is not picky eater when it comes to vegetables. Her favourite is carrots, but she eats other vegetables like celery, mushrooms, corns and peas. However, she is not a big fan of red pepper and onions. So, mommy deliberately diced the red pepper and onions into small pieces and added them into the casserole. Guess what? Our little girl did not spit out the red pepper like she usually does.
Mommy also tried baking a shepherd's pie for the first time last week. Well, it turned out to be a big hit. Daddy and little Sheri swept out the dish cleanly. It does give mommy an immense sense of satisfaction when she sees her loved ones savoring the dish that she has specially prepared for them, to the last bit. Of course, there were times when things did not turn out the way I wanted, but I see it as an opportunity for me to improve on it the next time.

2. Accompanying Sheri through her 'Music Together' class
Mommy will bring Sheri to the Music Together' class at Live Oak Recreation Centre. There are about ten toddlers/babies in class and all of them have either their mommies and daddies with them. All of us will usually sit in a circle with our little ones on the lap. It is very interesting to see how our little girl responds to certain music in the class. Sometimes, she will just move to the centre and start dancing to the rhythm of the music without any hesitation. In fact, mommy has received positive feedback from the rest of the mommies that Sheri seems to enjoy the class very much.

3. Having a good workout
Nowadays, mommy tries to sneak out of the bed to go to the gym when our little girl is still fast asleep early in the morning on weekends. Thanks to daddy for taking care of our little girl during the weekends. I guess mommy really needs to take a break and take care of her own body too. So far, mommy has been quite disciplined for the past few weeks. Hopefully, mommy will be able to adhere to this arrangement as long as possible.

North Berkeley Spice of Life Festival

Last Sunday, we had the chance to witness the North Berkeley Spice of Life festival, which was held just along the street outside our apartment complex. This annual event aims to celebrate North Berkeley's landmark as a 'Gourmet Ghetto'. As a result, there were cooking demos and sampling by the East Bay's finest chefs, and gourmet food offerings from neighborhood restaurants throughout the festival. Besides catering to the food-lovers, there were also booths selling exquisite art and craft pieces, and offering mini-facials and massages.

Daddy kept himself entertained by getting a massage at one of the booths while Mommy found the nature sculpture project particularly interesting.

There were also activities for children ranging from a rock climbing wall, pony rides, farm animals, face painting to dance and composting activities.

Mommy was pleasantly surprised to see that Sheri lifted up a Hola hoop on herself even though nobody demonstrated it to her.

As usual, Sheri was so excited to pet the farm animals that she could not wait to get into cage the minute she saw them. Once she was in the cage, she was running all over the place busy petting the animals. Poor animals! Here comes an over-zealous child!

See how intimate she wanted to get with the goose! She wanted to kiss the goose at its beak and rear. Poor little goose!

A wonderful evening with Deanna

Last Saturday evening, we invited Auntie Deanna to our place for dinner. Deanna is from Australia and she is working in the same group as Daddy. She has been a great help to us ever since we decided to move to Berkeley.

As a token of appreciation, daddy and mommy decided to whip out some Asian dishes for her. We had turkey dumplings served with ginger and vinegar, stir-fried bean sprouts and drunken prawns. Last but not least, what could be a more tasteful and delightful way to end a meal than a slice of homemade cheesecake that daddy had specially baked for Deanna. It was a combination with the fruit salad that Auntie Deanna had brought. The fruit salad was so refreshing with a wide variety of fruits that we could not resist a second helping.
It was also very thoughtful of Auntie Deanna to bring with her a bouquet of flowers, which had certainly helped brighten up the whole house. Perhaps, it's time for someone who buy a bouquet of flowers for mommy.

Thank you, Auntie Deanna for coming. We had a wonderful evening with you.

Positive feedback from the classes

It has been a month since we arrived in Berkeley. Mommy has been busy shuttling our little girl to her classes. Frankly, these are not formal classes. They are mainly playgroups where kids can have all the fun and play.

Mommy and daddy are firm believers that learning can take place through all the fun and play. For instance, she learns how to interact with other kids in the 'Baby gym' by taking turns to play with the gym equipment.

During the circletime, she also learns how follow instructions and participate in group activities. I believe that all these are beneficial to her development as a person. Being the only child in the family, I do not want her to subscribe to the notion that she must always be the center of attraction everyday. She has to learn to accept the existence of other kids and conduct herself in a way that is appropriate.

In fact, she is showing some positive signs from the classes. There are a couple of occasions that she says 'Hi' to the residents that we met in our apartment complex even though we do not know them personally. From their reactions, I could tell that they were surprised by her friendliness and they could not help but smile at her. Yesterday, one man offered to open the door for us at the apartment lobby. Before I could say 'Thank you' to the man, Sheri blurted out the two words instantly. At that moment, I could not deny that I was very proud of the way she conducted herself. Hopefully, there will be more occasions like that in the future. From these instances, I can sense that she is learning how to engage and interact with other people in the society.

Nowadays, she also sings more often at home. Mommy was pleasantly surprised to hear her singing songs like the 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and 'ABCD'. Perhaps, it was because I did not have any recollection what I could do when I was at her age. I thought it was pretty amazing for a 21 months toddler to memorize the lyrics of the two songs that I mentioned earlier. A few days ago, we also witnessed her trying to create some background music for herself as she sings the 'ABCD' song by hitting an inverted bowl with a spoon. During last week's 'MusicTogether' clas, mommy also noticed that she stayed behind to play with electric organ that teacher was playing during the class while other kids were busy queuing up to collect stickers from the teacher. So, it seems that our little girl does show some interest in music or it may be because all kids have the natural inclination to music. Whatever it is, mommy hopes to continue to nurture in her an interest in music through all these classes.

UC Berkeley Campus

After arriving in Berkeley for almost a month, mommy finally took some pictures in the campus.

The most charming part of the campus is the Sather Tower which is reputed to be UC Berkeley's most recognizable symbol

Mommy loves the tower because it is a campanile(a bell and clock tower). The bell was ringing when we took the picture. Somehow, it always gives me a sense of peace whenever I hear the bell ringing.
UC Berkeley is a large campus, so it is not easy to move around in the campus without getting lost. Thankfully, the tower has always served as a major point of orientation for us.
Mommy and Sheri chanced upon this big clock in front of a building. We were pleasantly surprised that it is still working fine.

The Berkeley's campus is characterized by diverse architecture which ranges from neoclassical to contemporary. One of mommy's favorites is the University Library, which is ranked as the top public university library in the nation.




UC Berkeley, being one of the top research Universities in Chemistry, has produced a lot of Noble Prize laureates. They even have a special parking lot for them. Pretty amazing, isn't it?

Is the Lewis Hall assoicated with the Lewis dot cross diagram that we studied in Chemistry? Yes, the Lewis Hall is named in honor of Gilbert Newton Lewis who introduced the Lewis diagram. He was a Professor of physical chemistry and dean of the Chemistry in UC Berkeley in 1912.


Similarly, the Hilderbrand Hall is also named after Joel Henry Hildebrand who is well-known for his work on solubility of non-electrolyte in UC Berkeley.

Parks near our apartment

Before we came to Berkeley, we were a bit worried that there would be very few parks for Sheri to roam around. Fortunately, it turns that there are quite a number of parks and nature reserves in Berkeley that we have yet to explore. We have visited two of them that are within walking distances from our apartment complex over the past few weeks.

Cordornices Park opposite Rose Garden:
Ohlone park, which is about 15 minutes walk from our apartment complex:

An interesting 3-D structure that we saw at the park.