Saturday, November 27, 2010

Chatham Square Dim Sum

The weekend after Thanksgiving we took Calvin into NYC to meet up with some of Phil's cousins one last time before they all flew back to their respective homes. We were running late, as usual. (Calvin doesn't seem to understand being on time yet...) We met everyone at the Chatham Square restaurant for dim sum. It was super chilly out. Calvin was still wearing his dinosaur pajamas, but at least they are the pajamas with the feet on them so his feet wouldn't be cold.



Here he is with Lydia - her last time to see him for a while before she flies back to California.

After dim sum we headed back to Lucia's apartment. This is...Phil's cousin's cousin, Tian...Everyone was telling me how good he is with babies, and he really was. Look how comfy Calvin looks. Tian narrowly escaped being pooped on by one of Calvin's explosive poops. He seems to like having explosive poop when we're hanging out with Phil's family...or when he's eating...

After his diaper change Phil's Aunt Chan was passing Calvin around, letting him sit on Lucia's head...Post poopy diaper I wouldn't want him sitting on me either ^__^


Then it was time to head home. On the car ride back I put on his little bunny hat - yet another cute hat that Calvin outgrew before he even had a chance to wear it...This is what happens when your head is so big...

Friday, November 26, 2010

Thai Thai Cuisine

The Friday after Thanksgiving some of my old college friends, Le and Kyle, came to visit along with their significant others. Le also brought her 1 year old daughter, Mai. I couldn't believe how big she got! She was running around and interacting, it was so adorable. I still remember when I first saw her last year a month after she was born. Boy how time flies...


She even gave Calvin his first non-family member girl kiss!



It's Kyle and Calvin!


The group of us went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant not too far from our house called Thai Thai Cuisine. Phil and I had never eaten there before, but it got a good review from a friend of mine, so we decided to give it a try. Phil ordered a big bowl of their Tom Yum Gai. It was kind of hard to scoop the soup out of this bowl/tray thing, but it kept the soup nice and warm.


Phil ordered the Pad Thai and I got a flat noodle with Chinese broccoli. Phil and Kyle are on Calvin duty.


And then for dessert, fried bananas and ice cream.


Group photo!

Overall the restaurant was pretty good, except (surprisingly) for the Pad Thai. But we'd go back again for sure ^__^

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thanksgiving Part 2

After spending the afternoon with my family, we headed up to Kearny, NJ to have Thanksgiving dinner with Phil's family. His cousins were kind enough to take a nice family photo for us of Calvin's first Thanksgiving.


There were a couple cousins who live out of town that got to meet Calvin for the first time - cousin Lydia and Lea spending some quality time with baby Calvin.


The dinner spread was impressive. When we arrived there just a few things on the table (including the bacon-covered Turkey...that's right...), but the dishes kept coming as the night went on.




The turkey was almost bigger than Calvin.


It seemed to be a bacon themed Thanksgiving this year. In addition to the turkey being covered in bacon, Phil's cousins had made a "bacon explosion". And what is a bacon explosion you ask? It's a layer of bacon strips interlaced together...


spread with I believe Italian sausage, and more bacon....


and then rolled up all nice.


And the end product is a huge chunk of meaty goodness...Yum! ^__^


Phil's sister, Winnie, came up from North Carolina and was able to spend some quality time with her nephew.


And Calvin, being the well-behaved boy that he is, left her a little present on her leg...We all thought it was pee, but boy were we wrong...


But we got him all cleaned up and dressed in a new outfit and everybody was all smiles again.


And a Thanksgiving with Phil's family wouldn't be complete without some Wii playing. Phil showed off more of his dancing skills busting a move to Michael Jackson's "Beat It", along with Lydia and Angel.



Even Calvin got in on the dancing action...with some help from Lucia of course. ^__^




After everyone exhausted themselves from all the dancing it was time for dessert, and there was plenty of it. There were cream puffs, chocolate chip cheesecake...


the pumpkin cheesecake, and 4 different flavors of ice cream - including thousand year old egg flavored! (Phil's cousin, Lucia, is very creative with her ice cream flavors) and my chocolate Thin Mint girl scout cookie ice cream. I was in a bit of a rush though, so it came out a little soupy.


There was also a coconut cake and strawberry shortcake birthday cake to celebrate Phil's mom and Lucia's birthdays.


Thanksgiving Part 1

We've been splitting our Thanksgivings for the past couple years - afternoon/early evening with my family and dinner with Phil's family. Holidays are always kind of hectic, but this year was even more so with Calvin. We started the day by getting Calvin ready to head out, which basically entails making sure he's fed and changed. After he ate he did not look like he was ready to go anywhere...I call this his "sigh...life is so hard" face.


We still managed to get him dressed and ready to go. We actually saw our first snowflakes of the winter, so I got him bundled in this cute bear hat one of my college friends sent. Too bad Calvin's such a big boy that he's already outgrowing it.


Our first stop for Thanksgiving was my mom's house for a light pre-Thanksgiving dinner lunch. Calvin was super alert when we first got there. He looks like such an old man in this picture with his bald head and pot belly, sitting on the couch looking grumpy.


Everyone wanted to save room for Thanksgiving dinner, so my mom prepared a bunch of small appetizer type foods - cheesy biscuits, chicken skewers, stuffed mushrooms, bacon-wrapped scallops, bacon-wrapped asparagus, meatballs, Japanese yams, walnut shrimp and sticky rice. And of course my experimental pumpkin cheesecake.


Luckily for us both Calvin and Maddy were knocked out while we were eating. It's so cute that they have the same sleepy pose in this picture - king and queen of the couch!


After lunch it was time to bundle Calvin back up in his winter jacket and get ready for part 2 of Thanksgiving...

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

More Visiting Cousins

As we get closer to the Thanksgiving holiday we had more family come to visit. This time it was my cousin Susan and family, and my cousin Nora and her son Joseph. Both of them are one of the few relatives on my side of the family that don't live in Canada. Mandy and Maddy came by to join in the festivities. Maddy really loves sleeping on pillows. She looks so comfy in her cute little leg warmers.


For once Calvin and Maddy are not crying and scaring each other. They had some nice cousin-bonding-cuddle time.


Since neither of them was really sleeping we decided to un-swaddle them and let them just hang out. They did surprisingly well and managed to play nice. They only wacked each other in the face once or twice...


Calvin found a nice comfy spot being held by cousin Nora.


After all the cousins left Mandy got to spend some quality time with the babies while I did some baking in the kitchen for Thanksgiving. She was pulling double baby duty - very impressive!


I noticed that Maddy is way more flexible than Calvin. How she can sleep with her legs bent all the way up like that?


And the finished product from my baking frenzy - 2 pumpkin cheesecakes. It was my first time making a cheesecake, but it actually wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Although mixing the cream cheese by hand was a little challenging. The crust seemed a little thin, but overall I think it came out OK. We'll see on Thanksgiving!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

The McRib

They recently opened a Sonics not too far from our house on Rt. 1. Phil and I were super excited. There aren't many Sonics in our area. The only one I'd ever been to was when we were in Texas. They just opened but already it's super popular. We headed there for lunch and every single spot was full. There was even a cop car there trying to re-direct traffic! So, unfortunately, no Sonics today. Instead we headed down the road to McDonald's.


Phil has been talking about the return of the McRib, so its no surprise he ordered one. I don't get the appeal. It must be one of those novelty things. Phil was wafting the smells of the McRib to a sleeping Calvin.


The sweet tea is almost as big as Calvin - that's a lot of sweet tea!


Back at home Phil was having a little too much fun posing Calvin with his new stuffed animal that he got from Maroa and Mohamed. I think it scares him a little since it's so big. If only he could support himself, he could ride it like a pony...



Saturday, November 13, 2010

Houlihan's

Calvin's next set of visitors for the day were some of Phil's coworkers, or ex-coworkers in some cases. First Anand stopped by to meet Calvin. Unfortunately, I think the visit from my cousin Peter and his family earlier in the day tired him out so he was asleep the whole time.


After Anand left Joanna, Maroa and Mohamed came by so we could all go out for dinner. Joanna recently became an aunt, so she's well practiced in baby handling. Calvin looks so comfy.


Maroa and Mohamed look like they might be ready to add a new addition to their family too! ^__~


For dinner we headed to Houlihan's. We ordered some pizza and loaded fries for appetizers.


Phil ordered the enchilada. We had a nice long discussion trying to figure out what an enchilada was. I think the general consensus was that it was a taco that was wrapped in something other than a taco shell...Whatever it was it looked pretty good, and Phil gave it a decent rating.


I ordered a chicken stir fry. I know...stir fry at an American restaurant probably not the best idea, but I have to be careful what I eat now because of the baby. It was what you would expect of Chinese food from an American restaurant. They even give you chopsticks! Why do people always think that sprinkling those crispy noodle things on top of a dish makes it more Asian?


Calvin was being good and he slept all the way through dinner.


If only we could guarantee he'd always be this good every time we go out...