Saturday, May 28, 2011

First Summer BBQ

Right before our big trip to Key West my sister and brother-in-law had a BBQ at their house in Bridgewater. Mandy made an awesome summer fun package for Calvin, aptly named "Calvin's 1st Summer of Awesomeness!" It was filled with an all-weather outdoor mat for the beach, baby powder to help brush off the sand, some baby friendly bug balm to keep away the Florida bugs, a couple classy summer outfits, some swim diapers...


There was even an early Father's Day gift in there for Phil - a batman outfit for Calvin. I think Calvin has an outfit for almost every major comic superhero, and even some not so major ones. (I unintentionally dressed him up in Aquaman colors once - orange tank top and green shorts, or so Phil tells me...)



Mandy and Tam just upgraded from their dinky coal grill to one of those big fancy gas grills. This was their first time using the new grill, with chef Tam at the ready as always.



There was a decent amount of food - macaroni salad, fruit salad, home made lemonade, corn on the cob with the steak, chicken drums and hot dogs from the grill.



While Tam was grilling up a storm, I got to spend some time with my niece, Maddy. She has gotten so cute and adorably chubby.



Calvin and Maddy were both practicing standing by the banister.


Help! We're in jail!

Downstairs Van was in a little jail of his own. Mandy and Tam had a little play area gated up in the basement for Maddy to play in. Van, being the most mobile of the 3 babies was the first to get put in playpen jail.



He tried to enlist the help of Calvin to bust him out...






...but in the end Calvin ended up in baby jail too...




Look at them playing together so nicely. This was probably the one second when at least one of the babies wasn't crying - most of the time it was Calvin because he's scared of all other babies, even when they're smaller than him...




After everyone headed home we went into the master bathroom to give Calvin a bath and try out the baby floating device that Mandy bought for Maddy. It's a little donut with a seat inside for the baby to stick his legs through. It would have been perfect for Key West, but Calvin was scared to death of it. I had to get in the tub with him just to calm him down. I guess no lounging in the water for Calvin.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Baby Sophia

This weekend we headed back into the city but this time it was to meet a new cousin, baby Sophia! Phil's cousin, Amy, just had a baby girl. Calvin was strapped and ready to go meet his new playmate.


Before heading into Flushing we stopped by Chinatown in Manhattan to have lunch with Lucia and her mom. We went to the Overseas Taste Malaysian restaurant by Lucia's apartment.




We definitely ordered way too much food. In addition to the taro bird's nest and the fried noodles, we had 2 orders of roti canai, and an order of soup noodles. That's a lot of food for 4 people!



Of course Phil ended up eating a lot of the food so we had to stop back at Lucia's apartment for a post-lunch nap. Classic picture of father and son passed out together.



Once the boys finished their nap it was off to Flushing to meet baby Sophia. She was so tiny! it seems so long ago that Calvin was that small - how time flies...I don't think Sophia liked me, she kept sticking her tongue out at me while I was holding her.



She seemed very well behaved - she didn't cry once the whole time we were there. The closest she ever got to a cry was more of a whimper.


As always Phil's family had prepared a lot of food.


Phil's parents were excited to see Calvin, as always.




Even Phil's cousins had fun interacting with Calvin. He's much more entertaining now than he was last time they saw him, now that he's more alert and rolling around. Here he is playing with Derek's hand while he tries to eat.


Phil and I had brought a Haagen Dazs cake with us.


The happy family - baby Sophia definitely looks like her dad.





Babies, babies everywhere!!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

NYC - Hester Street Fair is Back

This weekend the weather was nice, so we decided to head into the city for lunch. Before lunch we stopped by Lucia's apartment. Although we are no strangers to Calvin's gas, both Lucia and I were definitely caught by surprise when he farted on her. I think it wasn't so much the fact that he farted, but that he actually lifted his leg and directed his fart at her...That's my son...Only a baby could get away with pulling a stunt like that and still get such a big hug afterwards. ^__^


We were still waiting on some people for lunch so we stopped by the Hester Street Fair, which opened up again for the summer.


Even though it was nice out it was still a bit cold for any popsicles or ice cream sandwiches, so instead we went across the street to a little Chinese store for 3/$1 dumplings. Calvin seemed very interested in trying one.



For lunch we headed to Congee Village. Calvin was very well behaved at first, until the sleepiness started to set in.


And then it was lights out, while daddy tries to juggle baby and food again.




He seems to be getting better at sleeping in noisy restaurants. He even stayed asleep during our little hand-off. He looks like such an angel when he's sleeping, but nothing but trouble when he's awake!

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Mother's Day Outing

For Mother's Day Mandy took my mom and I out on a full day outing. Our first stop was a hidden spa in the middle of Korea town in midtown NY. It was on the second floor of a dinky looking building but the inside was amazing, but unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures.

After a quick body scrub and massage at the spa, we headed to a Thai restaurant in SoHo called Kittichai.




The decor in the restaurant was really well done. There was even a little water display in the middle of the restaurant with floating candles - very pretty.



Me, my mom and Mandy celebrating Mother's Day together as mothers for the first time.



At any new Thai restaurant I always feel compelled to order the Thai Iced Tea, mostly just because I like it. Here they keep the tea, condensed milk and sugar separate so you can make it to your own tastes, which was nice.



For appetizers we had the Kittichai fish cakes with cucumber and red onion chutney.




I ordered the Eggs Benedict with Penang curry hollandaise and Canadian bacon. I know not really the first thing you would think to order at a Thai restaurant, but it still tasted really good.


Mandy ordered the Kittichai pad thai.




We ordered a side of pineapple fried rice.



And my mom ordered the Chili-smoked hanger steak in green curry, and that was delicious. The meat was nice and tender and the sauce was excellent.



For dessert we shared the banana spring rolls with coffee ice cream . They definitely get points for presentation!





Even though we already had dessert at the restaurant, Mandy made plans to take us downtown to a dessert place called ChikaLicious. It's a tiny little place run by a little Japanese lady who study in France. It's definitely the fanciest dessert place I've ever been to. My mom ordered an iced coffee and it came with espresso ice cubes. We did the prix fixe, where you get an amuse-bouche (like an appetizer to the dessert), a choice of dessert and petits fours. I can't remember exactly what the amuse-bouche was - it was a honey flavored something with a berry sauce. In any case it was delicious.




There's the owner/chef, Chika, putting together one of our desserts. It was amazing what they were able to whip up in such a tight space.



Mandy had ordered something with rhubarb topped with ice cream. We watched the assistant chef melt it a bit with a hand torch.





I had ordered a mango tartar with ice cream and a ginger cookie.



My mom ordered the Fromage Blanc Island "Cheese Cake". It's not what you would think of when you hear cheese cake. The consistency is totally different and actually tastes more like cheese than cake - no cream cheese in this cheese cake!



And, as if that wasn't enough dessert, that was followed by the petits fours. There were chocolate truffles on the right and in the back are coconut covered marshmallows.




It's definitely on the pricier side, but the food was delicious. A nice place if you're looking for something a bit fancier. Then across the street the chef has another store, their Dessert Club, where they sell various desserts and baked goods. I felt bad that Phil didn't get to join in on the festivities, even though it was Mother's Day, so I bought him some cookies - the Situation and the Situation Dark.



The Situation (left) had pretzels and corn chips in it, and the Situation Dark (right) had pretzels and caramel corn. They reminded me of the compost cookies they make at Momo Fuku.