A day with Grandpa

On Fridays Lauren hangs out with her Grandpa. She seems to have a lot of fun with Grandpa doing all sorts of different things. The weather has been relatively nice so she has gotten to play outside.

Today she went to Alameda with Grandpa and fed some ducks. According to Grandpa she wasn't afraid of them even though they were crowding her. Grandpa gave her some bao bao to give feed the ducks and she was supposed to feed the bao bao one by one.

Grandpa was surprised to learn that Lauren knew her numbers up to fifteen. Here she counts with some prompting. She will count on her own when no one is really paying attention to her but she will count with you if you ask her. She practices with me (Mommy) all the time as we count almost everything (her cheerios, how many crayons she has, how many stickers she gets from Grandma and Grandpa). Thanks Grandpa for capturing this on film.

Here are some photos of Lauren playing out in the backyard:

Going through the table tunnel

Here I am Grandpa!

Playing with the bubble mower.

Play ball with me Grandpa

Eating something yummy?

Lauren has been practicing using her spoon and fork at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

She likes to eat yogurt. She calls it "yogurr"


Not all makes it in my mouth but I try.

Gotta make sure I open my mouth wide to get all the yummy goodness.

Yummy yummy.

Eating my ham with my plastic fork.


In these pictures she is using her right hand but she does use her left hand a lot too. She will sometimes switch in the middle of the meal. Maybe her hand gets tired. She will also switch to using her hands when she is really tired/or the fork isn't picking up her food the way she wants it to.

Go Bears!!

Grandma and Grandpa watched Lauren on Friday so when we went to pick her up that night, I casually asked what Lauren did today. Of course they had to show me:




So this video turned out funnier than I expected. One has to admit Cal and cow sound very similar and of course to Lauren's defense she was really tired :P. But thanks Grandma and Grandpa for teaching her to recognize the Cal logo and to say Go Bears!

The video below is of my niece Victoria (Tori) a few years ago when Eric taught her to say "Go Bears!" as well. Her parents (my sister Joy and her husband Greg) went to USC for college so Eric that it would be funny to teach her this saying. So one weekend when we were visiting, every time she would say "Go Bears!" Eric would give her a coin ranging from a penny to a quarter depending what he had on him. He would say "1, 2, 3" and then she would respond "Go Bears!"




The sad thing about this video is that her father was on deployment and her mom was trying to get her to say I love you or something to that effect but the "1,2,3" trigger Eric had instilled in her was too strong. Darn you Uncle Eric. Either way it's a funny story. I hope Auntie Joy and Uncle Greg get a kick out of this one!

Some time with the Caros

During the trip to San Diego we spent a little time at Auntie Joy's house painting. I posted some photos earlier but here are some more.


"This painting stuff is fun!"

Painting with cousins Catherine and Victoria.

What eventually happens when little kids paint.

Singing with cousin Catherine or just putting my mouth really really close to the microphone.

Thanks to Joy, Greg, Tori and Cat for hanging out with us!

Random Pics

Here are a couple of random pics of Lauren pre-hair cut but I just didn't get around to posting them.



Ok she isn't trying to take a gumball out of the machine she is trying to put it back in. She witnessed it go round and round as it came out and wanted to see it again. Of course Mommy didn't want to fork out another 25 cents for a gumball that no one was gonna eat.

Who lets their kid gamble at this age?
Well, she was just pushing all the pretty buttons with the lights. I guess the state lottery knows how to lure in children :). We went to visit our old bowling buddies down in San Jose. It was a little late for Lauren but she had fun with this machine.

This one obviously is not of Lauren but this goes out to my sister Anne.
The little kitchen you got Lauren for Christmas gets more use than we all know. :P That is our cat Little Man who isn't very little any more.

Time for my first haircut

Lauren's hair has been getting longer but a little scraggly on the back so Mommy decided it was time for a hair cut. We went to a place called Little Scissors in Fremont. There were two other kids ahead of us so it gave Lauren some warm up time to explore the little shop. It had a little playhouse and a big tv playing kung fu panda. Lots of things to keep kids interested.

Here she is getting ready to get her hair cut. If you look in the back of the picture you can see a pink jeep that she wanted to sit in, but I think since she is small she was put in this yellow car. The car actually had little pedals that one could push to make the tires rotate. Alas, Lauren was not interested in pedaling.

Here we are getting ready for the cut. You can see the longish locks in the back.

"What if I don't want my hair cut?"

Ok I didn't take any action pics of the actual hair cut. She did pretty well in the beginning when it was just scissors. When the lady brought out the buzzer thing Lauren did not want to sit there any more. Tears came out of course, but in the end all was well.

Here is my little doll with ribbons in her hair. Of course to get her to be happier I let her play in the pink jeep she originally wanted to sit in. She even try to insert my keys into the keyhole so she could "drive". I did get some locks of hair as a keepsake. I think the hair cut looks cleaner even if it is short.

The ribbon in the hair lasted about an hour before she pulled it off. But it looks pretty cute on her. :)

Fun at the park x2!!!!

The weather has been really nice lately so we hit the park again... this time with even more friends!!! Lauren is getting stronger and stronger every day... and climbing and doing funny stuff is what seems to challenge her the most. Before she goes "weee!" down a slide, she swings a couple times off the bar that is there for kids to hold onto.

Here's her getting a little bit of air!Here's her doing the Union City Park version of Austin Power's "In a Nutshell".



A pic of Soapie:

Lauren has always liked to be tossed up in the air. Here Mom-ai was tossing her so she could touch some branches.


We spent some time with the Clarkson's(Mark and Berry) and their little one Eamon. Eamon likes to swing, and gets super high!!!


Also there was Benson and Anna Yang with their little one Ethan.


and then Mrs. Sourpuss... I mean Sakai..

On Sunday, we also made back to the little park in Mountain View for some play in the sand with water and the origin of "nut" into her vocabulary.

Another fun(and tiring) weekend. Hopefully the weather holds and we'll have much more!

We had a fun day at the park last Saturday with the Sakai's.... lots of running around.

One of the things that we now appreciate is play-structure design.

When you have a little one that you are concerned about falling(is there another kind?... but you won't really know what I mean until you experience it), then there are differences in how these are designed and setup.... This park, in Union City, has one of the better layouts for concerned(read protective) parents in that while there are steps up to different levels, there aren't multiple paths with precarious descents. If its a slide, straight, paired, or curvy, then that's all fine and dandy, but when there is a platform with multiple outs, firemans pole, another set of stairs and/or a slide, it can test the predictive capabilities and directional encouragement of the parent.

that being said... we had tons of fun!!!!


"Weeeeeeeeeeee!!!" is always one of the favorites.... she has gotten quite adept at the slide...Viking Challenge? American Gladiators? bah.... this slat-structure-ascension contraption was the child equivelant. While we were there, multiple kids, all much older, tried their courage, dexterity, and ultimately their wills against this contraption, most of them were crush, left paralyzed in fear, only to be carried away crying by their parents. We're not sure if its skill or fearlessness, but Lauren put them all to shame, and even had the audacity to stop and give props to the crowd.



What can you say about a picture like this? I'm not quite sure... but it sure is funny.
After wooing the crowds, taming the play structure, and having fun with the twins.... relaxing at the park bench...

She even got her first try at a water fountain!!!
All in all... a good day at the park.... one of many more to come.

Children's Discovery Museum

We went to the Children's Discovery Museum this week where Lauren seemed to have a really good time. There were a lot of activities for Lauren to try out. They have areas for kids under 4 so it works out so the bigger kids don't maul the little ones.


Here she is painting on the wall. She likes to paint/make a mess.

"Ah my masterpiece!"

Playing with the water. Now what child doesn't like to do that. She could have played on this exhibit the whole day. If the balls are placed correctly on the stream of water it will stay in the stream as the yellow one in this picture. Whenever I would put a ball in on of the streams Lauren would knock it out by trying to put her ball in. She wouldn't let go of her ball though so water would go everywhere.

Water, water everywhere, and hopefully she isn't drinking it. She is a little damp by this time, but still going strong. She is holding her purple ball in the stream of water.

Playing and cooing.

When I used to live in Florida as a little girl we used to have a museum like this one. I wonder if my sisters and brother remember it as I used to. I went back to visit the area when I was in my twenties and made a trip to that museum, it wasn't as big as I remember it. I still have fond memories of that place, hopefully Lauren will form those types of memories from the places I take her. Grandma and Grandpa have taken her to the aquarium in SF and she supposedly loves that place. I think the fish don't hide from her in that place. :P

Some Holiday time in SD

Ok this post has a lot of photos from our trip to SD for New Year's. The temperature was quite warm compared to here (near 70 as opposed to low 60s) We had a lot of fun playing outside since the weather was quite nice. Lauren had fun playing with her cousins and Aunties and Uncles. Happy Birthday Auntie Jan!




Playing with cousin Auren on the swing set they have out back.

"I know this key is supposed to open something, maybe it will open this cottage door."

"Yep, that worked. Let's go inside!"

"I can fit in her with my cousin Jordan..."

Playing the drums at Auntie Jan's house as I am getting ready for bed.

"OOOh Jenga anyone?"

Grandma Aurora showing me how to line up pieces and count them.

Ok clean up time.

Auntie Jan explaining to me that I cannot sit on these chairs, they are only for dolls.
(Yes, Lauren tried to sit on them)

Smiley face at Auntie Mona and Uncle Vince's house.

Playing with Uncle Vince's shoes.

My first foray into painting. Of course purple was used.

"Can I wash my hands? Where's my towel?"

Helping Grandpa Ben with his seeds. I can cover it with the cap Grandpa.

See, I can do it!