Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011 in review

2011 seems to have come and gone. People says that happy time flies. So we decided to look back in our photos to see what are the highlights and make sure it wasn't just another episode of missing time. Turns out, happy time did fly. But also baby did suck out half of 2011.

Back in Feb, we decided to take our "last" vacation before the baby comes. So we went to Puerto Vallarta. Had a great time there! Stayed in a nice hotel Garza Blanca in our own suite. This is our "babymoon". I highly recommend it.

Sensing that next year's valentine will be different, my wife decided to make me a nice valentine bouquet.


Then in April, Pei-Yean came to visit us in the US. We took a weekend trip to Napa, enjoyed beautiful spring weather there and some nice wines. Wait, did we? Pei-Sun was pregnant if that's not obvious in the pictures.
Chuen-Howe visited us from Singapore. We went on a day trip to Carmel. The cats were sensing the arrival of the newborn, they were especially cuddly...
Soon it was about time for baby showers. 2011 is the year of the rabbit. Also the year of babies for many of our friends here. The first baby shower belongs to Zainab's. Pei-Sun hosted the baby shower in our house. Note that I said year of the babies...










 Then Lynn and Jocelyn hosted Pei-Sun's baby shower at Lynn and Jack's house. This was where we got a lot of the goodies and it felt real that Wei Yang is finally coming.

Then Pei-Sun's mom came in time for the delivery of Wei Yang. Well, she came a bit early, and we had time to make a trip to Monterey. Getting ready, but not yet!



 

 






Long story short, we missed the delivery because she had such a quick delivery. So quick that everyone missed it including the husband, and doctor. The nurses were in charged. It's all good. All that matters is that mom is safe and baby is healthy. Our Wei Yang was born on June 7th 2011.

After much sleepness nights, it was time to celebrate Wei Yang full month. Friends and family gather to celebrate the happy occasion. We also took the opportunity to follow the tradition and shave Wei Yang's head. It is believed that by shaving his head, he will grow thicker hair in the future.

And shortly after that, Wei Yang's other grandparents visited from Malaysia. The first thing they noticed was how dark is his skin tone. We blamed that one sun bathing that he had to do to get rid of his Jaudice.
On Sept 16th, Wei Yang's cousin Nathan was born. He is a big baby. After Nathan's birth, Wei Yang's grandparents moved to stay with Chin Ping. I thought our first month was tough, sounds like Matt and Chin Ping have quite a bit of hard time early on as well. And soon it was time to celebrate Nathan's full month.
Flowers for our wedding anniversary.
Then it was time to wish everyone a Happy Halloween. Chin Ping and Nathan gave Wei Yang a dinosaur's costume. We thought he was too young to go out, so we just stayed at home and prepared candies for all the kids in our neighborhood.

This year's Thanksgiving was different. Not only because we have a family now, but we also hosted an American family, Matt's parents. We invited them over, and prepared traditional turkey thanksgiving and served it to our American friends. We were glad that they enjoyed the lunch. Even complimented the food as one of their best thanksgiving turkey and stuffing.
Winston unwilling to move...
Weather is getting chilly... :P
Enjoying swing at Cuesta Park.


We decided to take a vacation to Florida as a practice run for our upcoming trip to Malaysia. Florida was fun, the flight wasn't. We spent a night in Conrad Miami. Wei Yang really liked hotel bed, he also liked his own bed. For the rest of the 5 nights, we went to Marathon in the Florida Keys. P'ng and Judy came down from New Jersey. And Dave and Xiaoli came down from Toronto. All the kids came and had a blast. It is our belief that during this trip, Wei Yang learned how to crawl from Darren. Since Darren is 3 months older than Wei Yang, they ended up interacting with one another quite well. :) And then Kai Yi is also super cute, always asks for Wei Yang and cuddles with him. Amy also loves hanging out with Wei Yang, treated him like his little brother. Cute! During the trip, I also have 5 kids singing Happy Birthday songs to me. How lucky was that! There were many first in the trip, Wei Yang actually dipped in the hot tub(more like a warm tub). He enjoyed himself. Sounds like we should go to the pool when in Malaysia.
Enjoying complimentary buffet breakfast!
Conrad Miami
View from our room
Dinner at a fancy restaurant in Miami.

Having fun at hot tub... actually warm tub :)

Kai Yi & Wei Yang
Darren & Wei Yang
Kids singing birthday song!
Amy & Wei Yang
my birthday cake.. :)


Hemingway's House w/ a polydactyly cat


Hemingway's House at Key West

Strolling along the street at Key West.


Diaper Cake that I made for Jocelyn's Baby Shower
Christmas is finally here. We are in town. So we party again. This time, we had a small party, had some steaks and other food. Yummy... Have to admit that with Wei Yang, it is harder to throw parties, have to simplify on the food or ignore the decorations. Well, we managed... I think.

Yummy Christmas Eve's Dinner :)


Wei Yang's first Christmas Gift!



The day after Christmas, we went to watch a concert by Sandy Lam. Wow! My favorite singer of all times. She is still the best. She kept me company for the past 20+ years. Never expected I would ever see Sandy Lam in person. But I did, so fair to say that my life is now complete!