Valentine's Day with a 20-month-old

Eating in

No going out this Valentine's Day, breaking up our two-year tradition of going to Merritt Bakery for fried chicken dinner. One, Tai can't sit longer than 15 minutes at a restaurant table these days. And two, tomorrow is Gala and Dang's fried chicken showdown, where a bunch of us will bring fried chicken from a variety of local eating places and vote for the best.

Staying at home was no problem, though. In fact, it was downright delicious. We cooked some sukiyaki beef, seafood, and vegetables, and gobbled up a plate of maguro and hamachi. Tai got to fill his face with an onigiri riceball and drink down bowl after bowl of noodles. As you can see in the photo below, he was very much into eliminating unnecessary steps.

Rice, meet mouth

After dinner, Thu and I rented "The Rebel," a Vietnamese action flick. Two thumbs up for this one. So, on this very windy night in the Bay Area, we managed dinner and a movie and had a wonderful time, and to Thu's satisfaction, we avoided caving into the Valentine-industrial complex by staying in and me not buying her flowers. . . .

In other news from earlier this month, Tai received a visit from Sid, who's back from his international escapades for now and stopped by the East Bay. Of the many new things Sid learned abroad, one neat trick was professional balloon making. He dazzled Tai with an array of balloon objects—dog, bear, sword, bow and arrow, flower.

"Have a flower, Tai."

And finally, Tai is pretty good at moving his little chairs around. The other day he set up a couple chairs next to each other and sat Piggy down next to him. It was cute.

Buddies