A Very Nice "Dirth-day"

On Stow Lake

It was my birthday today (35, oh my!), but we tried to make it exciting for Tai too. We headed to the City, not by car, but by BART train! And MUNI train! These rides Tai loved. Met Auntie Uyen for lunch (Thanks!) at a Japanese restaurant, then walked over to Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, where you can rent boats that you pedal around the lake. We saw ducks and turtles and birds flying high, high in the sky.

Darla's Burgers

Then it was off to "dinner," or just another excuse to eat, at Darla's Burgers (Thanks again, Uyen!), where Tai finished off a grilled cheese sandwich, while others downed the House Burger, one of the tastiest burgers ever—a juicy patty topped with mushrooms, grilled onions, mozzarella cheese, and bacon. This after devouring pulled pork, spareribs, and fried calamari at T-Rex last night and at home this morning (Thanks, Thu!).

Everything is good, including this song by Tai:

Five Years Ago

Sometimes we post updates to our Facebook accounts and those photos get left out of the blog. This one should appear in both places, though. Earlier this month, we ate Sunday brunch at the Thai Temple in Berkeley, where Thu and I first met that fateful day just over five years ago. Now here we are and so much has changed.

Things Tai Says

Tai's preschool teacher said he started to verbalize his thoughts a lot more this week. We're not sure what he's saying at school, but here are some of the things he says at home.

"I don't like it." - When Tai sees anything scary or is offered something he doesn't want to eat.

"Go to sleep now." - The few times where he's decided to end bedtime stories, turn to his side, and say that he's going to sleep now.

"I want some." - What he'll say when he sees chocolate. He even tried to ask Mommy the other day "What's that?" as she held a bag of cookies from which Tai already had one ten minutes earlier with Daddy. When Mommy told Tai he already had chocolate all over his face, he cut to the chase and said "I want some."

"Cat in the Hat." - When Tai puts a long cup upside down on top of his head in the bath. Also, when he enters the house with an umbrella.

"I not scary." - When he's scared.

"Here we are!" - Every time we pull up to our house, regardless of his mood.

This evening, Tai took the bed sheet off and wrapped it in a log shape. He cradled it just like . . . a baby. He even called it "baby." We asked him if that was a girl or boy. Is that like Mia or Oliver? Neither apparently, because Tai shouted, "Piggy!"

Simple Things

Happy

The Chronicle had a good blog post recently about things that make you happy as a parent that you wouldn't have really noticed before having children. The list includes things like rainbows and alone time before going to sleep. We might also add balloons and puddles. This past weekend, Tai got a little bit of both at the Grand Lake Farmers Market. As one woman who walked by and saw Tai holding up his balloon said, "Ah, the simple things."

Fallen tree branch. Must stop and play.

Another one we could add is the BART train. Public transportation to us, but a joy for Tai. The past two times Tai has ridden BART and after we'd gotten off at our stop, he threw major tantrums the entire way home. He does not like leaving the train!

By the way, I took these photos with the Droid and tried editing them with a fun little application called PicSay Pro.

Celebrating Papa's Birthday

Happy Birthday to Grandpa in Torrance. Here's a little video of what Tai did to celebrate his Papa's day (a few days before).

Ringing in the New Year

Playing a New Year's Eve tune with Nicolas and Samantha.

Better late than never, here's an quick recap of our New Year's parties. We rung in the new year with a lovely gathering at Sam and Julia's house, which has magnificent views of the bay. (You can see the San Francisco lights in the window past the reflection of the tree.) Tai stayed up and we all made noise at midnight, then watched the fireworks blast off in the city from our very nice view. Ate lots of wonderful food made by Sam's family and enjoyed a fun board game.

New Year's resolution: Exercise! (Or watch other people do it, like Auntie Uyen.)

On New Year's Day, we headed to San Jose for more delicious food and fun, and a few belated Christmas gifts for Tai. What does 2010 have in store for us? Exciting times, no doubt, fun and challenging all at once. Let's have a great year!