Author: James

Kids

Lia Crawls!!!

We initially tried manipulating Lia into crawling, but after the futile attempts, we decided to let nature take its course. Apparently the latter was the better approach, as we witnessed this in the morning…

To retrace the steps building up to this milestone, Lia started Tummy Time from 1 week old. Then came sitting. After that she went from sitting to tummy position, started rolling around on her tummy, and then learned to push herself back from tummy to sitting position. Lastly, she started straightening her feet in a reverse-V posture, falling on her face occasionally, and finally, crawling.

Time to stop procrastinating on child-proofing the room!

Kids

Exotic Food

As a new member of our household, Lia will be embracing the savory taste of exotic foods, which consists of the assortment of food such as pig ears, chicken feet, snails, durians, pig feet, cow tongues, frogs, pig blood cubes with intestines, and fish heads. The last food mentioned is typically offered with one of my favorite–the fish eye ball–which contains a gushy, viscid texture with an ecstatic taste and a tiny crystal-like orb, as one chews it down to its innermost constituent. If you have never tried it, you have forsaken one of the most gratifying experiences in the culinary world.

Here’s a little video on Lia’s “head” start on exotic food…

Events

Happy New Year 2009!!

I recall attending a party one year where everyone was counting down to the start of a new year, and the festivities were extravagant, with dancing, cheering, and just a whole lot of fun. I was bringing down the house with all my fancy dance moves with all my friends cheering on as we celebrated the arrival of the new year. I didn’t have any champagne because I didn’t need alcohol to have a great time, and, well, I was also… 10 at the time so it was either Martinelli or Sprite.  Okay, okay, so maybe there wasn’t any fancy dance move either, just a weak version of the Running Man or the Moonwalk, as others laughed on, I’m sure. It is surprising, though, how much of our childhoods we carry with us. To this day the arrival of a new year seems incomplete to me unless a crowd of people celebrating, so we invited a few people over…

Here were some of the family and friends moments after New Year…

and some Happyfish brothers and sisters…

And a video to the countdown…


Along with a new year, it is also time to set some New Year’s Resolutions.  Some of you may have thought my last year’s resolutions were somewhat weak, so hopefully this year’s will be slightly better.

James Lee’s New Year’s Resolution for 2009:

  1. I will be a good daddy to Lia and give her gifts that she would want, such as XBOX 360.  For the record, just because Lia didn’t want me to have one doesn’t mean she doesn’t want one for herself!
  2. I will eat healthy and limit fast food, such as KFC, to five times a week.
  3. I will try not to scare Lia with the Little Drummer Tigger.
  4. I will prevent my house from looking like a Tornado has hit, and keep my yard from resembling the second Amazon Rain Forest.  Hmm… how old does Lia have to be before she can help mow the lawn?
  5. I will not jump off Chargers bandwagon even if they start off 4-8, and I will try not to grimace at the thought of the Mariners.
  6. I will continue to help Earth (and my wallet) by taking the bus to work everyday, and I will try driving Karen’s car at least once a week so we don’t need to jump it every time Karen needs to go out.
  7. I will be a good husband and invest in a Blu-Ray player, such as the PS3, so that we can have quality TV picture for our at-home movie nights.
  8. I will start our weekly family devotionals, even if we need to strap Lia to her high-chair to do so.
  9. I will have better time management and not be more than 3 hours late to any event.
  10. I will post at least one blog a week, even if I have to bore all my faithful readers to death with my stream-of-consciousness babbling about nothing.
And thus starts the year 2009.  Happy New Year!!
Kids

Vitamin D Supplement

With the incessant rain and the daylight hours of 1pm to 3pm in Winter Seattle, Lia doesn’t get much sun these days. Babies need Vitamin D for strong bone growth, so we added Vitamin D supplement to Lia’s gourmet diet, in the company of bland steamed broccoli and flavorless hard-boiled chicken. Many people have noted how difficult it may be to offer these supplements to babies and suggested adding it to food instead, but we decided to see Lia’s response of raw vitamin D (and A, C in this case). This was the clip of our first attempt at what was portrayed as an insurmountable feat…

Looks like we’ve underestimated Lia!

Sports

Chargers in the Playoffs!

So I admit I was a man of little faith.  When Chargers went to 4-8, I thought the season was over, but they were not mathematically eliminated.  Now they just beat the #1 team in our division Denver (where my bro-in-law, who must be waving his hands in disgusted, resides) by 21-52, and they’re in the playoffs!!

The Chargers won four in a row and they’re really hot.  Next week against Indy will be a tough game, but it will be an exciting one! GOOOOO CHARGERS!!!

Time to get Lia a baby Charger outfit, probably to the chagrin of my lovely, fashion-conscious wife. 🙂