Goo Goo's birthday celebration

We had Lisa (Goo Goo), Kevin and his g-friend Mai, and Hao-bu (Derek's mom) over for Lisa's birthday celebration on Monday night. It was a really nice night - the weather was perfect for dinner outside and it's always nice getting together with family.

The food was very yummy, if I do say so myself. By the request of the birthday girl, we made babyback ribs which we slow cooked in the oven for 4 hours and when they came out of the oven, they were falling off the bone. Also by request, we made pork chops which we brined all day and then grilled them. With the chops, we made a onion-peach marmalade to go on top of the chops and they were delicious. It was very easy and sooo good.

Here's the recipe for the pork chops... I highly recommend it:
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1816274

We finished the night with a birthday cake and Miles and Oliver loved helping Goo Goo blow out her candles.

Happy birthday, Lisa! Here's to a great year! XOXO

CC's baby shower

This past weekend, I had the honor of co-hosting a baby shower for one of my dear friends, Christina (aka CC). Christina is expecting her first baby, a boy, on November 11th and I cannot be more thrilled for her and Justin (aka JMan) to start their family! They are going to be amazing parents and their little bean is going to be so cute! It was very special for me to throw her baby shower -- Christina has done so many wonderful things for me and my family over the years (to name a few... throwing me my baby shower when I had Miles; cooking so many incredible dinners and desserts, and, most importantly, she is always there for me) so it was such a treat for me to do something special for her. Her baby shower was in San Francisco at Mary's (her sister) house. It was so nice to see Christina surrounded by her friends and family who love her so much. It was a great day! We can't wait to meet you lil baby Mauch!

Here are a few pics from the shower...

{Christina, the glowing guest of honor!}

{The soon-to-be grandmas... Christina's mom and Justin's mom... talking about who gets to babysit first, hee hee}

{Christina and Wendy... who came all the way from Boston!}

{Christina's BFF from LA, Seem, and other guests}

{The beautiful flowers and the yummy food}

4 year stats

{Miles wearing funny "nerd" pajamas from his great aunt and uncle}

This morning, we took Miles to his 4-year checkup (one month late) and we are pleased to say that he's a very healthy boy! He's 42 inches tall and 40 pounds (both are in the 75th percentile, which means he's taller/weights more than 3 out of 4 kids the same age as him).

There were some new things at his appointment...
1) He was asked to take off his clothes and put on a gown, which he had never been asked to do before. And, the nurse made the mistake by saying "He doesn't have to if he doesn't want to" which gave Miles his out. After trying to get him into the gown, we settled on him taking his t-shirt on and keeping his shorts off. He's quite private, like his daddy. :)
2) Then he had his hearing checked. This was done in a very small closet in the doctors office which had a little stool for his to sit on. He put on the headphones and was supposed to clap when he heard a noise. He didn't seem to clap very often, which of course got me worried. I asked him a few times if he could hear anything and then I remembered that back when I was taking those darn hearing tests, I didn't really hear anything either. But I guess he passed since the doctor didn't mention it.
3) After that, he had his eyes checked for the first time. He stood in front of an eye chart with letters on it and I was actually impressed that he saw most of the letters, considering I couldn't see all of them. He missed quite a few smaller letters, but our doctor wasn't concerned as his eyes are still developing.

All in all, it was a good appointment. Dr. Lan is so nice and makes us feel like we have the smartest kid on earth which I am sure he does for all parents. :)

Dance party

We were trying to leave Luke's 1st birthday party but the kids heard a Prince song and immediately started bustin' a move.

This is what it sounds like, when the doves cry.

Gotta love Prince!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

The proof is in the pudding...
Two little monkeys!

Thank you, Kevin?

Yesterday morning, we were sitting on the couch and Oliver kept saying "Xie Xie, Bon Bon" which translates to "Thank you, (uncle) Kevin". We aren't sure why he was saying it... probably because we were laughing so hard when he kept saying it over and over.

Derek used his iPhone video camera to capture the moment. Pretty funny... and super cute.

Sweet speech

Our lil Oliver is 21 months old (as of yesterday) and we've really noticed a big leap in his speech in the past few weeks. It's so fun to hear him say new words and try to figure out what he's trying to say. He loves to grab our hand and say "Come" and he leads us to where he wants to go. He's even starting to say a couple of small sentences like "Here you go." Of course, as his parents, I think we understand more of his speech than most.

Here's a very sweet speech-related story that Layla, his daycare provider, told us last week...

She said that she had gotten up on a chair to hang a poster on the wall. She said Oliver got right next to her, looked up at her with big concerned eyes and was saying/mumbling "cuful Layla," "cuful Layla" ... over and over. She got down from the chair and asked him what he had said and so he said it again a bit more clearly..."Careful Layla" and she said she just couldn't believe it -- she wanted to eat him up. Pretty darn adorable!