Napa Valley California

On Saturday, we drove to Napa Valley, the main wine growing region in the United States. Located in Northern California, Napa Valley is renowned to contain both the soil and the climate that is considered one of the best in the world for growing wine grapes. Hence, daddy and mommy have always wanted to visit the wineries, and enjoy the pleasant climate and beautiful scenery in Napa Valley. Finally, we had a chance to do so in this long weekend. Thanks to daddy who insisted on this getaway.

Undeniably, it was a refreshing break from the hustle and bustle of the city life in berkeley. It has been quite awhile since we enjoy the tranquility of the suburb and the drive along the valley made us feel as if we were back in the loving arms of Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvannia, a place that we have so many fond memories.

Our little girl had fun scampering around in the vineyard.



Frankly, fall is not the best season to visit the valley. Most of the grapes have been harvested. Those that are left are mostly dried up.

Different regions of the valley produce wines of different flavours. We visited two wineries, Monticello and Miner family winery.

Cheers!

Can I join in the fun too?

Before we left, we bought a bottle of red wine from the Miner family winery . Cheers, Napa Valley!

Lunch with Uncle Tao Feng & family

We had a long weekend last week because of the Thanksgiving holiday. On Friday, we met up with Uncle Tao Feng and his family for lunch at Sichuan restaurant. Uncle Tao Feng has a pair of twins, one girl and one boy. Time flies. The last time we met their lovable kids was when they were born in Princeton. Now, they have all grown up.

Thanksgiving 2008

Yesterday was Thanksgiving day, the most important occasion in North America. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general. Over the years, it has evolved to be an occasion for togetherness where families and friends gather together to enjoy a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner with turkey roast and pumpkin pies.

With all the Thanksgiving goodies out in the store, I could not deny that we were inevitably drawn into the festive mood of preparing a Thanksgiving dinner even though we are not native Americans. We baked a pumpkin pie on the night before so that we can have it as a dessert for the Thanksgiving dinner. As for the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving dinner, we bought a 14 lbs turkey. We started roasting the turkey in the oven at noon and it took about 4 hours to cook the turkey completely.

Finally, it was out of oven, ready to be carved by the head of the household.

This year, we decided to be more adventurous. We prepared the stuffing and turkey gravy ourselves. It turned out be fabulous.


Auntie Deanna came to join us for the Thanksgiving dinner and we had a lovely evening with her.

To us, we will always regard Thanksgiving as an occasion to renew our ties with our loved ones, a time for remembering, cherishing and being thankful for all the good things we have been blessed with. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Last Music Together Class

Last week, we had our last Music Together class for the fall season. Mommy and Sheri will definitely miss the fun we had during the class. Mommy managed to capture part of the lesson that we had last week so that Sheri can watch it in the future.

'Animal Bread' for tea-break

Even though our little girl is a full fledged toddler now, she still has very strong liking for baby food. Apart from lunch and dinner, she still eats Gerber oatmeal cereals for breakfast and tea-break. Her favourite food for tea-break is banana puree mixed with milk and Gerber oatmeal cereals. For some unknown reason, she is not a big fan of bread even though mommy finds the bread here very tasty and has developed a strong liking for eating bread during breakfast after being overseas for all these years.

Nowadays, mommy is trying to introduce wholegrain bread into her diet. A few days ago, mommy bought some cookie cutters from the store, thinking that it might be a good idea to cut the bread into interesting shapes, which will hopefully arouse little girl's interest in eating it. Today, mommy decided to give the cookie cutters a try. After she woke up from her nap, she went scampering into the kitchen. Mommy told her that she was preparing 'animal bread' for her tea-break. The reason mommy used the phrase 'animal bread' was because I was trying to cut the bread into shapes of animals and since our little girl knows that cookies that are shaped like animals are called 'animal cookies', the phrase 'animal bread' will enable her to understand that she will be eating bread that are shaped like animals for tea-break. Mommy decorated the bread with peas, corns, crasins and cheese.


To my disappointment, our little girl could not tell mommy what those animals were on the plate. "Is my artistic skill so bad that she could not identify the animals?", mommy wondered deep down in her heart.

Anyway, she started by eating the peas, corns and crasins and she finished all of them except the bread. In order not to waste the bread, mommy torn the bread into small pieces and fed her bit by bit. She did finish eating all the bread in the end.

At this point of time, I can only conclude that cutting the bread into animal shapes only makes it more visually appealing, but I'm not too sure if it will sustain her interest in eating it. I guess mommy needs to look into getting some bread dippers or spreads. Hopefully, that will make it even more appealing to our little girl.

Homemade Blueberries muffins

Daddy is a big fan of muffins, especially blueberries muffins. Last weekend, mommy decided to bake some for the family.

Like father, like daughter. Our little girl could not resist munching the muffins that were fresh from the oven.

Frankly speaking, mommy found the muffins to be too bland, but it did not seem to bother daddy at all. Greedy daddy ate most of it.

Family Hip Hop dance workshop

Before we had our little girl, mommy and daddy had always wanted to take up a dance class together as a form of relaxation from our sedentary lifestyle, but we never had a chance to do so. Nowadays, it is even more difficult for us since we do not have any reliable babysitter with us. Thankfully, YMCA organises a family dance workshop on every second Friday of the month, so all of us can go together as a family.

So, here we are, at our first Hip Hop dance workshop. As usual, our little girl was the youngest participant in the class. Even though she was unable to follow the dance steps, we could see that she seemed to enjoy herself. Who cares! It's the fun that counts. It was a fun-filled evening for the whole family.



Thank you, daddy, for letting mommy put up the video!

A stubborn girl

Sheri's personality is emerging everyday. As each day passes, she is becoming a more independent person with a mind of her own. Inevitably, this poses a new set of challenges as far as discipline is concerned.
Last week, mommy had a very unpleasant encounter with Sheri. It happened on one of the evenings when mommy was just resting on the sofa after dinner while daddy was still having his dinner at the dinning table. As all of you know by now, our little girl is an avid reader. She never fails to come to us with a book in her hand everyday, sometimes at the most inconvenient time. However, she has a bad habit of throwing the book at us at times and the book can hit us really hard as picture books are usually made of thick card boards. When she was much younger, we just gave her warnings and we usually do not pursue the matter further since she might be too young to realize her mistake. Nowadays, mommy feel that we should not condone her bad habit. So, when she threw the book at me when I was sitting at the sofa on that evening, I was very upset by her behaviour and wanted her to apologize immediately for her action. However, she refused to do so and started crying, hoping that mommy would give in to her this time.
Even though it pains me to see our little girl crying her hearts out, I know that I have to be firm with her in times like this that she is clearly trying to push her limits. I looked at her in her eyes and told her repeatedly that mommy would not read the book to her until she apologized. However, she refused to look at me directly, which clearly shows that she knew that she had done something wrong. Daddy who witnessed the whole affair also came to lend support to mommy, sending a clear and consistent message to our little girl that it's time we put an end to her bad habit of throwing books. It took her quite awhile for our little girl to say,'I'm sorry, mama', but she finally said it and I fulfilled my promise of reading the book to her. Looking back, I'm glad that I stood firm at that moment as our little girl does not throw the book at us from that day onwards. Mommy hopes that she will keep up her good behaviour.

Who is the snuggle puppy?

Nowadays, there is no need to set the alarm clock at night because we have a walking alarm clock who never fails to wake us up in the morning. She is none other than our little girl. She never fails to wake us up in the morning between 6.30 am to 7.00 a.m.Poor mommy and daddy! There is no way we can laze around in bed as we used to in the past.
Ever since we got rid of the crib, she sleeps with mommy on a queen-sized bed while daddy enjoys the other queen-sized bed all by himself. Nowadays, the first thing she likes to do every morning when she wakes up is to crawl onto daddy's bed and snuggle with daddy. As a result, daddy calls her a 'snuggle puppy'. Usually, he will say to our little Sheri, "Snuggle puppy, Snuggle puppy, I love you." Recently, mommy also heard her saying that to daddy that as a wakeup call to daddy until he opens his eyes and responds to her.

Sunday morning walk at Berkeley Marina

For some unknown reason, our little Sheri is very susceptible to having a runny nose ever since we moved here. Thankfully, she is still as bubbly as ever despite her runny nose. It is mommy who cannot stand the mess she is in whenever she starts rubbing her nose. So, mommy kept her at home for a couple of days, hoping that her runny nose would subside eventually. On Sunday morning, we could not resist bringing her out to breathe in some fresh air as the weather was too pleasant for us to stay indoor. It was sunny and cool. We took a walk at Berkeley Marina.

A unique statue that we saw on the pedestrian bridge from the Berkeley aquatics park to the Berkeley marina.

A hiking trail in the Eastshore State park.

Indulging in activities like bird watching can be a relaxing way to spend a Sunday morning.

A picturesque view of the yacht habor

A boathouse

It was a sunny and breezy morning. A perfect day for launching the sailboats.

A panoramic view of the San Francisco bay

Father and daughter kicking the ball in the park

Yummy! It's time for some homemade breakfast casserole.

All smiles after a hearty meal.

We also visited the Adventure Playground, which is very different from the usual playground that we see in the parks. There, children are encouraged to play and build creatively. They have the opportunity to design and build their own equipment.The concept for Adventure Playgrounds was originated in Europe after World War II, where a playground designer saw children playing in dirt and lumber from the post war rubble. He realized that children had the most fun designing and building their own equipment.

With this unique concept in mind, many of the structures in the playground are designed by kids and built using recycled building materials such as wooden planks, ropes and tires.

This is the area where we saw kids building their own equipment under the supervision of adults. Of course, our little girl is too young for this. Obviously, she was more interested in playing with the toy car that she found.

A good start to potty training

Time flies. Our little Sheri is going to be two in this coming December. The next milestone that mommy hopes Sheri can achieve is be potty trained. With no one to turn to in this foreign country, we have learnt to be self-reliant in raising our little girl for the past two years.Thankfully, mommy has a very supportive mother whom she can seek advice from whenever she calls home.
With her encouragement, mommy started potty training when Sheri was 15 months. Frankly speaking, I did not expect much success in my first attempt. My initial goal at that time was to let her be accustomed to the idea of urinating in the potty without a diaper. This might sound trivial, but it was not easy. I had to keep her entertained at the potty so that she could sit on it for awhile. Being an avid reader, mommy just had to keep on reading books to her at the potty, so potty time also became a storytime during that time. Sometimes, we could sit there for hours, but she might not pee into the potty. After awhile, both mommy and Sheri just lost patience and it became a very stressful time for both of us. Forcing her to be potty trained when she is not ready may cause her to have unnecessary resentment against using the potty in the future. Thus, mommy decided to give it up for awhile. Since then, mommy has been seeking advice from other moms regarding potty training. Most of them advised me that I should start potty training only when she is two years old.
Just before we moved to Berkeley, mommy bought a training seat for our little Sheri to avoid the hassle of cleaning the potty and at the same time, bypass the transitional stage from the potty to the toilet seat. After settling down in Berkeley for almost two months, mommy decided to give it a try again using the training seat. Besides making the potty experience to be as fun and enjoyable as possible, I will applaud her achievement each time she is successful. The results has been very encouraging. Our little girl is now comfortable with idea of urinating into the toilet, and she will clap her hands and say the word 'yeah' whenever she is successful. That is certainly a good start to her potty training.
However, our little girl is still unable to convey her need to go to the potty even though mommy keeps reminding her to do so, so mommy has to make her sit on the toilet at appropriate times. I guess this is something that mommy needs to continue to work on it.

Halloween Carnival 2008

On last Friday evening, mommy brought our little princess to the much awaited Halloween carnival. This carnival was specially organized by YMCA for kids who are from 0-3 years old. Undeniably, this was an excellent idea to let kids in this age group be involved in the Halloween celebration since they are probably too young to go door-to-door for trick-or-treat.

It has been very rainy these few days and mommy was very worried that she could not bring our little girl to the party. Fortunately, the rain stopped just in time for the party. Off we went!

Sheri: It's time to do some artwork on the pumpkin.

Mommy helped our little princess write her name on the pumpkin.

Sheri: How about putting some stickers on the pumpkin?

Apple bobbing is one of the traditional games associated with Halloween. Here is our little princess trying to fish a green apple in the tub.

Sheri: I got it. Here's my green apple!

There were also balls to keep the little kids entertained.

The 'Baby Gym' was also open on that day to let the little ones roam around.





Daddy came to join us later, just in time for a family shot at the pumpkin and haystack.

After all the fun and play, it's time to go home. We came home with a goodie bag from the carnival. The apples were fished by our little princess. Happy Halloween!