Happy holidays (a bit late) and a happy new year!!!

Jason, Jasmine, and I hope everybody had a very safe/healthy/happy/delicious holiday season! We just got back from two week trip that took us to Hong Kong and then Florida for the holidays and as you can imagine, I have pictures to put up but haven’t had a chance to review them yet. Once I do that, I’ll post about our trip that amongst other things, brought together 4 generations of women and introduced Jasmine to the joy of tearing open wrapping paper.

Because I know all 10 of our readers love pictures, here’s a quick picture I took of Jasmine on my iPhone Christmas morning:

2009 has certainly brought huge changes into our lives. We are grateful for them all and can’t imagine our lives otherwise.

We have been busy the last few months of this year and look forward to things slowing down a bit so we can enjoy the “little things” a bit more in 2010. I hope to be more diligent in documenting our food adventures and to also share my new hobby — sewing — in 2010.

In the meantime, we’d like to wish you all a very happy new year!!

First haircut!

As many of you may already know from pictures of Jasmine throughout the past year (!), our little girl was born with a full head of hair. This is her on her two week birthday! Please excuse the cupcake hat I forced upon her.

Within the first 2 months, Jasmine lost a lot of the hair on the back and left side of her head. That tends to happen to babies since they mostly lay on their backs and a favored side. Jasmine’s hair loss however, did not stop her hair GROWTH. This means that while some parts of her head had very little hair, there were other parts that had very long hair. Case in point:

If the longer parts had stayed neatly tucked behind her ears AND if she managed to keep hair clips in for more than 2 minutes, we might have been able to last a few more months to uphold Jason’s preference that we wait until her first birthday to cut it for tradition’s sake. Alas, such was not the case and every day we woke up to a girl with the craziest looking hair. Therefore, despite Jason’s strong will, he broke down in November and conceded that we needed to get it cut.

Jason got to work doing some research to find a place that would do his little girl’s hair right and found Cozy’s Cuts. They have several convenient locations in NYC and specialize in children’s haircuts. The store is half toy store and half hair salon with fun little chairs for the kids to sit in. It was a quick and painless experience, if a bit pricey at around $35.

Here’s the AMAZING video that Jason took of the haircut in progress. As you can see, she did very well in the chair and didn’t cry or fuss one bit. I daresay she even enjoyed it a bit

Here are some pics of her in the middle of the haircut as well as a family pic of us afterward. The last picture is the next morning where you can really see the bob. She got a compliment on it at the coffee shop the very next day!!

It’s only been a month and a half since this haircut and our little over-achiever already needs another cut!

Jasmine’s First Halloween

This past Halloween was our first with a baby so an otherwise non-momentous day for Jason and I was very exciting. Since Jasmine can’t currently express her own opinion on what she wants to be dressed up as, we had to come up with something on our own. I turned to the Internet for suggestions and even debated putting together a costume myself. I’ve recently started sewing - in the interest of increasing my domesticity - but knew a costume was way out of my league.

While we initially really wanted to dress her up as some kind of food (Jason’s suggestion was a chili pepper, shocker I know), we thought it better to dress her up as something more relevant to HER likes. During my internet searches, I came across a very cute and high quality monkey costume by Paul Alma and since Jasmine has a deep love for her monkey, Mono, whom she sleeps with every night, it worked. Only one problem, it retails for almost $100 after tax and shipping.

Now I fancy myself a person who splurges once in a while, but to spend almost a hundred dollars on a costume my child will only be able to wear once and probably not for long was out of the question. That’s where Ebay and my quick-on-his-feet husband came in to save the day.

I checked if there were any auctions going on and just my luck, there was one ending in 2 minutes and the latest bid was only $25!! I tried logging in quickly but seeing as I haven’t used eBay in at 4+ years, had no idea what my password could be. A frantic call to Jason left me further disappointed when he said he didn’t know his either. I thought all was lost when the auction ended and I still hadn’t managed to uncover my password. That is, until Jason called me, told me he looked for his password in his gmail after hanging up with me on the off chance it would be there, found it, logged in, bid, and won. Yes folks, this was all in about a 45 second span.

So thanks to our (Jasmine and my) hero, here are some pics from Halloween with Jasmine, our little monkey!

Click here to see the video that grandma shot of us putting her into the costume.

D.P. Dough Philly!

The four of us - Mikey, Scott, Jason, and I - traveled down a long and hard road for three years to get to where we were a few weeks ago. On Saturday, September 26th at 5 PM, we opened the doors of D.P. Dough Philly to business for the first time. Our full story deserves a book, let alone a blog post. I’ll reserve that for another time though and just leave you with a few of the pics from our opening day.

We were so unprepared to pass our health inspection that our soda wasn’t even scheduled to come in yet. Scott and I rushed to a local beverage depot and filled up the car with beverages.

The make-shift sign Jason put up to let people know we’d be opening that day.

Scott doing his best version of magnum with Corwin, our kick-butt manager in the background.

Some Penn students in our store getting their first taste of the zone greatness.

Sonny has been a great supporter of us despite the fact that we were the ones who kicked him out of his original location. He was even our first customer ever!

PYT in Philly

This is a haiku written by Jason and dedicated to one of the best burgers we’ve had in a long time.

Went to PYT
Served on Martin’s Tater Roll
Burger was perfect

Fries and onion rings were awesome too! :o)

Being a Dad

I think one of the most common questions that I get is — not surprisingly — “What’s it like being a dad?” It’s tougher to explain the pros than the cons because it’s easier for people to relate to the tangible aspects like late nights, early mornings, and dirty diapers, all of which are the “work” part. It’s harder for me to explain that it’s all worth it just because she learns and laughs. The feeling of pride when she does something new, like simply rolling over or making a new sound, is a feeling that I think only parents can understand (I know that’s a cliché). All I can say is that it’s infinitely more rewarding to see your child accomplish something than to personally accomplish anything.

As for the laughing part, I hope the following video and pics put that in perspective. It’s the laughter in this video and the sheer elation in the photo that melt me. And always will melt me. This is what it’s like being a dad: nothing else matters when she laughs.

Jasmine’s going ons

The third Sunday in June was Jason’s very first Father’s Day as a father. We didn’t do anything particularly memorable but here’s a pic I took of Jasmine while she was waiting to surprise her daddy with the card she made him. He came out just as her restraint broke and she could no longer resist putting it into her mouth.

Here’s Jason reading the card whilst trying not to tear up It was a photo card summarizing the last 5 years of her mommy and daddy’s lives.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Another weekend earlier in June, Jasmine had her fist in her mouth once again. As I was scooping her fingers out, I felt something hard in there. At first I was concerned she had gotten something tiny into her mouth but then I realized that it was the sprouting of a tiny tooth!! We didn’t even think Jasmine would be teething yet because at 5 months, it was still a little early and she hadn’t been expressing any of the typical teething signs. It was an exciting moment indeed!

The single tooth you can see in these pics has since developed a next door neighbor and now there are two tiny teeth in her mouth. I’ll try to take a picture of the two together and post that soon.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Here’s Jasmine sporting her rainbow Paul Frank onesie to represent Uncle Tame on gay pride parade day a few Sundays again.


We had plans with Aunt Carissa and Uncle James though so instead of actually going to the parade in the city, we headed to Brooklyn. It was a gorgeous day out and we went to Brooklyn Flea in DUMBO and then the Unfancy Food Show in Williamsburg.



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I love putting my sunglasses on Jasmine She goes really still and has a semi-confused look on her face.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Next up, our most exciting (to us) news: we just started Jasmine on solids! All of her meals have been homemade and organic up until now and we hope to keep it that way. The next post we put up will have video of her first time eating, as well as some pics of her eating adventures so far.

Stay tuned!

Carrots, eggs, and coffee

When it comes to chain mail I usually skim over it, archive it, and give it little thought afterwards. However, my dad sent me the life lesson below and I thought it was appropriate for our blog since it combined both food and life.

——————-

A young woman was confiding in her mom, telling her mother about how tough her life had become. It always seemed that as one problem was resolved a new one arose and for that reason, she was ready to just give up.

Knowing that actions speak louder than words, her mother went to the kitchen and placed three pots full of water on stove. She turned the heat on high underneath each, brought the water to a boil then placed carrots in one pot, an egg in the second pot, and coffee grounds in the third. After letting each simmer for a little while she took out the carrots, the egg and a ladle full of water from the coffee pot and placed them in individual bowls.

At that point the mother asked her to feel the carrots and she stated the obvious, “They are soft.” Her mother instructed her to peel the egg shell and observe the hard boiled egg. Finally, her mother asked her to sample the coffee water, which had become sweet and aromatic.

At this point the mother explained: “Each of these items faced the same adversity – boiling water – yet each reacted differently. The carrots were strong, hard and unrelenting but once boiled they became soft and weak. The egg was fragile with just a thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior but after facing the boiling water it’s insides became hardened. The coffee grounds, however, had done what the other two could not – they changed the water.”

——————-

I think the question here is pretty simple: who do we become when faced with adversity? Are we going to fall apart when we’re hit with hard times (like the carrot)? Or like the egg are we going become hardened on the inside even though we look the same on the outside? Hopefully we can be the coffee and make the best of a bad situation.

Granted it’s not a perfect metaphor but it’s a good addition to Tupac’s “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” motto. Let adversity make you stronger, just be sure not to lose who you are in the process.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Rest in peace Jeremy. As the saying goes, I assume that when you were born you were crying and everyone else was smiling. I guarantee, though, that when it was all said and done for you last year, you were smiling and the rest of us were crying. As much as I miss you, I take solace in my belief that you’re watching out for Jasmine from above like you used to watch out for me down here.

Memorial Day Hamptons 2009

We took our first trip with Jasmine this past weekend! Granted it was only a 2 hour drive away to the Hamptons but it was the first time she was somewhere other than our apartment overnight. She did really well though so our worries were for naught.

As per our usual vacations, it was a big eat fest. We explored some food places in town but mostly shopped for groceries and made a lot of our own meals at the house. We utilized the grill a LOT, which got us very excited for my parents to move into their new house where we’ll be able to use one.

I took a lot of pictures and thought it would be more efficient to put captions to the pictures in a gallery, rather than to try to write one long blog post. Click through the pictures in order for captions to make the most sense. Enjoy!

2 months old and lots to show for it

We had a big party for Jasmine when she turned two months old a few weeks ago but unfortunately, we forgot our cameras of both the video and photo variety. Hopefully some people will send us pictures that they took and we’ll be able to share those with you. This post is on some of the happenings since then.

As you may recall, we got Jasmine a bouncy chair less than 2 weeks after she was born. She sat in it for a couple of weeks (not straight of course) but would fuss so we stopped putting her in it. We decided to try the bouncy seat again a couple of weeks ago and now that she’s big enough to support herself in it, she’s fine.

Now that she’s older and can see more than a foot in front of her face, I bought her a mobile to keep her entertained while she’s lying in her crib. The Babies R Us by us doesn’t have a great selection though and I regret the one I bought. It’s a very basic design, is a manual wind up, and only plays rock-a-bye-baby. Oh well. Perhaps I will be able to justify spending another $40 after we’ve used this one for a couple of more months. By then she’ll probably have grown out of the mobile phase. She likes it for now though which I guess is the point even though it’s more work on our part with the wind up Here are some pics of her enjoying it.

Jasmine is not really a fan of tummy time but we have to give her some everyday so that her neck and shoulders muscle develop. She’s much better at it now and can hold herself up on her elbows for a few seconds. She’s even better at holding herself up when she’s propped up on her Boppy. She’s also much more happy doing tummy time on it because when she’s tired and needs rest, she can just lie her chest down and her face isn’t smushed into the bed.

Jasmine still loves to sleep while being held and here she is asleep in her daddy’s arms. She worked herself down from his chest to the crook of his elbow and passed out there.

We had another doctor’s visit last week and found out Jasmine is in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. Hopefully this is an indication of her future stature and she’ll grow up to be tall and lean like her daddy That being said, she’s starting to get a bit tall for the special swaddle sack that she sleeps in. She has managed to work herself out of it a few times now as she kicks and moves in her sleep. Here’s how I found her one morning last week. Normally all you’d see is a head and the yellow sack but as you see, she’s worked one leg out and one hand up.

At the checkup, she also got 4 more immunizations. One was oral which she likes because it’s a sweet syrup. The other three were less pleasant, being shots in her thighs and all. Here she is napping after the visit and you can see one of the bandaids where they gave her a shot. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of how cute her foot looked pressed against the sofa

2 months is still a little young for golf but here’s Jasmine with her gong gong’s (maternal grandfather in Chinese) golf club hat. Maybe she’ll be a future golfer, which I’m sure would make her gong gong and daddy very happy. 

Most exciting of all, Uncle David and Aunt Tessa (both of whom are AWESOME with children by the way) came to visit Jasmine all the way from Louisville! Some highlights of our weekend were dinner at Babbo (sans Jasmine of course), watching movies all day Sunday, and getting dollar dumplings.

There are some more pictures we’ve taken since she’s turned two months old. Click here to take a look

Next Page »