Blessing in Bridgewater

One of the monks from my old temple had flown back to the States from Indonesia so we had lunch with him at my sister's place in Bridgewater. She wore her "Buddha belly" shirt just for the occasion.


I was excited he got to meet Calvin and give him a little blessing, even though Calvin was sleeping the whole time.


Mandy ordered take out from the Cheesecake factory. There was a LOT of food...it's crazy how many Asian inspired dishes the Cheesecake factory has.

1 Month Celebration - Day 2

On Sunday, after having the family gathering at Phil's parent's house, we had the formal 1 month party for Calvin. We had it at the Ocean Jewel Seafood restaurant - the same restaurant where Phil proposed! They had a decent sized room in the back for parties. We only had 4 tables, so the room looked kind of empty.

The restaurant even put up a nice little sign for Calvin. It's a picture of the Yu family men under the "Yu" sign.


Calvin even got his own little throne. And we were all ready with the hand sanitizer. Can't be too careful, especially since he's only 1 month old.

Not many of my relatives live in the area, and out of those that do only one family was able to make it - my cousin Susan and her husband and 2 kids, Ben and Jennifer.


Everybody got a chance to hold baby Calvin, even baby Jennifer! (with some help of course)


Just like Phil and I had to make the rounds at our wedding, Calvin made his way around to each of the tables. Here he is with Phil's Aunt Ruby.


Calvin's Auntie Mandy and Uncle Tam are looking over Calvin imagining when they'll soon be holding baby Madeline in their arms.


The dinner was a traditional 10-course Chinese dinner. Phil was very excited to finally be able to sit through a 10-course meal and actually eat some of the food. He's still bitter that he missed most of the food at our wedding. The first "course" was hard boiled eggs. I think it's supposed to be lucky for the baby.


Dish number 2 was walnut shrimp and fried milk. I had never heard of fried milk before, but it wasn't too bad.

Dish number 3 was a plate of beef tips, tripe, fried ribs, fried scallops, and fried squid. Basically lots of fried stuff - yum ^__~

Dish number 4 was the shark fin soup - nothing but the good stuff for Calvin. We even got the nice fancy golden bowl at our table.


Dish number 5 was the fish - half of it was steamed fish and the other half was fried. As you can tell, there was definitely a lot of fried stuff, but no complaints here.

Dish number 6 was the lobster.

Dish number 7 was the lucky chicken.

Dish number 8 was lamb. This was the first time I ever had lamp cooked at a Chinese restaurant. Even though I'm not much of a lamb person it wasn't bad.


And of course, you can't have the 10-course meal without fried noodles and fried rice.


The food was really good. Too bad Calvin wasn't able to eat any of it, but we made sure to enjoy it for him ^__^

1 Month Celebration - Day 1

In Chinese tradition you're supposed to have a celebration for the baby after he (or she) turns 1 month old, so we planned a big party for Calvin for Sunday of this weekend. But first we are heading out into Queens to have a small gathering at Phil's parents' house, mainly for his mom's side of the family and some friends. We got Calvin all dressed up in a little collared onesie. With babies you never know when they're going to spit up or pee on themselves so we made sure to get a picture before we left.


Calvin got to meet his great grandmother. She was very excited to meet him and hold him.


We also got to meet Phil's cousin's new baby girl, Eva. Check out that full head of hair!


Baby meets baby. Eva is 3 months old already, but it looks like Calvin is almost as big as she is!


Because of all the people they ordered some food from Chinatown in Manhattan. Trays and trays of roast pork, noodles and chicken.


Phil even went to the Baskin Robbins nearby to pickup an ice cream cake for Calvin. Poor Calvin, his first party and he can't even enjoy the cake...I think this might be the first family picture of the 3 of us ^__^

Mid-Autumn Mooncake Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival (aka Mooncake Festival) was on Wednesday. My mom and Phil's parents were over for a nice big dinner to celebrate. We dressed Calvin in his "Granma Loves You" onesie. For once he's actually awake!


Phil was taunting Calvin with all of the food he's missing out on. Although technically he'll get it eventually anyway from the breast milk...


Before dinner all the dishes were spread out on the table to offer to the ancestors. In Cantonese tradition everyone has to stand before the table and bow 3 times. Even Calvin had a turn (with some help of course). Phil's mom made the standard dishes - vermicelli noodles with shrimp, cabbage, lotus seeds, mushrooms, bean sprouts and chicken, and of course the giant whole chicken complete with head! Good thing we got a new dining room table or else all of this food would never have fit.

Week 4

Some more pics of Calvin from his 4th week:

This is one of Calvin just coming out from his bath wrapped in a little lion towel. Sleeping again...I like to call this one crouching tiger, sleeping lion.


The bib says it all...

Little baby fingers are the cutest!



Nap time with Calvin.
Phil gets in some TV time while Calvin lounges out for yet another nap. At least now we know where Calvin gets his sleeping pose from. ^__^

Calvin's First Play Date

In preparation for Calvin's 1-month celebration I decided to take him on a pre-mini trip to Auntie Mandy's. I figured this would be a good warm up trip for him before the big trek out to New York in a week. Mandy's cousin-in-law (not sure if that's an actual term, but you get what I mean so I'm just going to roll with it) was visiting with her 3 month old, so we decided to make it a play date of sorts, though it was more like a get together for recent and, in my sister's case, soon-to-be moms so we could swap stories.

Mandy is due on October 8th, so her baby belly is getting bigger every day. Soon Calvin will be able to meet his cousin Madeline.


Mandy showed us Tam's new creation for the baby. It's a folding baby changing station that he built above the toilet in the guest bathroom. When open it folds down over the toilet so you can change the baby. And since they're using the re-usable g-Diapers (a cross between cloth and disposable diapers) the toilet is right there for them to flush the disposable inserts.


Then when you're done the whole thing folds up so the toilet is free for use.


Next we went to check out the finished nursery. Mandy and Tam had especially ordered a bedding set from somewhere in England and had it shipped over.


It came with curtains and this cute bunny curtain tie.

The pattern of the bedding set is simple but cute.


Overall it was a successful first outing for Calvin. Luckily I had my mom with me to help.

I was a little tired after I got home, so I left the baby with Phil once he came home from work. And this is what you get when you leave the baby alone with Phil for too long...baby ends up in the laundry basket...

Like Father Like Son

Its only been a couple of weeks, but Calvin is already starting to pick up habits from Phil. Thanks to my high school friend, Jamie, he already has a head start into the world of WWE wrestling with his new pillow friend. According to Phil this is the "Ultimate Warrior". Considering how tiny Calvin is in comparison his new pillow friend looks slightly intimidating.


Aside from Phil's love of wrestling, he and Calvin have also started playing video games together...well, Phil does most of the playing while Calvin just kind of lays there like a log...


And of course there's Phil's gift for falling asleep anywhere at any time. Although I think Calvin may have him beat right now with the sleeping. They look so comfy I get sleepy just watching them. ^__^

Man of the House

Now that Calvin is here there's a new power struggle for the role of "man of the house". Phil insists he's still man of the house, but one look from Calvin suggests that he thinks otherwise. This is Calvin with his "you talkin' to me?"/"don't mess with me" look. Better watch out daddy!


I think that look prompted this little stare down between father and son. Who will win in the end is still yet to be determined. Phil may be bigger, but Calvin looks completely unphased.


Calvin definitely has mommy wrapped around his little finger. I admit it. I can't help he's so cute!...


Phil tries to lay down the law every now and then by giving him a stern talking to...


Calvin for the most part just comes out looking confused.


And in the end Calvin still ends up looking like the king of the castle....


But, honestly, how can you deny a sweet face like this??