Remy's "NEW" to School Shopping

Paul Frank for Target

August 16, I went to Target baby section to look for some shoes for Remy. It's the requirement for all students to wear shoes to the Day Care. When I first entering the baby section, I can not believe in what I saw; Paul Frank Products! Target started to sale small Paul T-shirts, sweatshirts and sleep wears for babies. Their prices are about half of the regular small Paul products. The differences are regular products are more detail decorated and tailored. However, they are really cute and you really can not tell the differences:)

Target Baby Department: New line-PAUL FRANK for Target


"Paul Frank for Target" through out all the products' tags.
Price is is about 1/2!

Remy Climbs the Stairs

8.7.09_New Development: Getting off from the Bed

I can get off from the bed and do more stuff now:)

Remy finally knows how to get off from the bed. Ever since Remy knew how to crawl and started falling off from beds and sofas, Ira kept showing him how to get off and landed safely. Now, Remy can get off from the bed by himself and wonder around and explored everything!
This morning, Remy got off the sofa from in Ira's office, crawled into the bathroom next door and played with toilet water!

Remy's Potential Girlfriend #1: Katherine Chen

Alice had her baby girl yesterday, 8.9. 2009. Her name is Katherine Chen. She was born in the morning around 7:00-8:00. Her weight is 8 pound 4 oz and 20.5 inches long which is the same weight as Remy but shorter then Remy.
Alice's water broke on 8.7.09, Friday night. She went to hospital the next day and the hospital induced the baby around noon time. Due to Katherine was not face down, it took extra hours to get her out. Alice's intense labor was about 19-20 hours right after the hospital started induction. She had Epidural after tried pain killers. She also had fever during the labor. According to Alice, "I tried everything except c-section! ..... I told myself, I got to push Katherine out because I do not want to have c-section......" Alice made it and Katherine is a natural birth baby!
Ira and I got Diana's phone call about 11:00 when we were in Berkeley. We drove down to Alice's hospital to see them and share their joy in the late afternoon.
Congratulations!

Katherine's close-up portrait!


Katherine & the Dad


Stephanie was holding Katherine

Caffe Trieste

We discovered Caffe Trieste on San Pablo Avenue, Berkely couple weeks ago and decided to come back and have fun. Caffe Trieste in North Beach, SF is a well known and unique cafe. Artists, writers and musicians gathered and it regularly had music concerts in the cafe. We visited the one at North Beach last year after seeing the movie, "The Parrots of Telegraph Hill" and decided to discover the area. It's a very European style cafe and brought us back to the France trip memories. Ira talked to an Italian independent film director there. Since we had great time at the North Beach Caffe Trieste, I was quite excited when I saw one in Berkeley.

I spent lots my college and graduate years in Cafe; I studied, wrote and people watching. Caffe Trieste has all the three characters which make me return and visit:

Good Cafe #1: Nice Crowds
lots of interesting people, nice dressed people and people who is doing something fun.


Good Cafe #2: Good Foods
Caffe Trieste on San Pablo has the best almond croissant around the Bay area in my opinion. When I was in France, I often had "croissants aux amandes" or "pain au chocolat aux amandes" for breakfast or dessert. I kept searching for the similar kind of almond croissant after I got back to the US. It's not the common kind of croissant here. SF Tartine Bakery has good almond croissants but I need to drive cross the bridge and wait for half hour to get it. I am so happy that I can find it here. It's $2.25 each which is almost a dollar cheaper then Tartine ones.

Caffe Trieste also has very good coffee, paninis and desserts. Their panini is big enough for two people to share. Ira and I shared a chicken panini, an almond croissant and a pot of tea for brunch and we are quite full.

A thick and crisp almond chips cover on the top of croissant.


Grilled Chicken Panini


Characteristics of a "Good Almond Croissant."


Good Cafe #3: Inspiring
Very often, I went to a cafe alone but I also like to invite friends to my favorite cafes. A good cafe inspires me. I feel comfortable to write, brain storm, read and do lots of things. It has the creative atmosphere. I love to write down my thoughts, ideas and life experiences on my note book when I am in a cafe alone . It's like doing the meditation to me.
Going to a cafe is not only for a drink; it's an experience and I enjoy it!

Dance while Brushing Teeth!

I thought those photos are pretty funny. Remy had lots of expressions on his face.
9 month old Remy can interact a lot with mommy. He knows to pose in front of the camera. He knows to preview the photos and films at the back of the cameras or computer screen. He imitates lots actions from his parents. Just couple days ago, he made a phone call on Ira's cell.
I took those photos to document how Remy started using tooth brush. Started a while ago, I started brushing my teeth in front of him and hopefully he would imitate me and play with his brush. This Banana brush now is an important toy in his life!

Zip-Bin

I got this Zip-Bin for Remy after seeing the reactions from other kids and parents in the store. Last week, when I was at Borders, I saw several boys were playing and having fun in the kids section. Their ages are from 1.5 to 4 years old. I went over and took a closer look at what they were doing. I saw they were playing with cars and car books. One of the kids had this package in his hand so I pick one up from the shelf, too.


This is a toy serves two functions. Kids can zip the map and made into a carrying bin or they can un-zip it and play cars on the map.








The package for this zip bin is quite amazing. It has very detail and clear illustrations with a lenticular card to describe how it functions. So people can assemble this unit within a minute. Being a designer, I really appreciate the package designers and toy company put their afforts and money to produce this product.

Package Overview when first opened.
Two cars included. There is a parking lot inside the cover!
One spot for handicap!


One zipper for each corner of the box.
To make the map into a box, simply zip up the 4 corners.


Un-zip the 4 corners. This box expends and becomes a map.
(Inside map view)


Top view of the box cover


Inside view of the box; a cover with a box.
Kids can put their toys inside this box and carry it to travel.


Outside view when cover is on!
There are velcro tapes to seal the cover so nothing falls out while traveling.

Dry Mom: Diana

Dry mom (translate straight from Mandarin) = God mother (English)

August 1 2009, we visited Remy's god mother, Diana. Remy loves to play with her dog, la-la and the dryer. This is the new kind of dryer; has light and music.

Dryer Baby

July 31, Friday, I got home early from work to baby-sit Remy. I did some laundry in the afternoon and decided to leave the dryer door open to let it cool off. At night, around 8:00, I started folding all the clothes and carried them into different closets. As usual, Remy was playing around me and followed me all over the place. After returning from the master bedroom for the last pile of clothes, I did not see Remy. I called his name out loud a couple times and searched for him. Suddenly, I heard little noises coming from the laundry room. Here is the Remy boy! He climbed into the dryer and trying to figure out how to get out. I called Ira and quickly took this photo!
Ever since then, Remy did not give up any chance to help me with the laundry. It's one of his daily activities that he would carry his dad's flash light and crawled into laundry room to check on washing machine and dryer. If dryer's door is open, he would come in to visit and have fun! Ira thought maybe we should put a pillow and a blanket inside the dryer so he can nap there!

Howdy

My good friend, Alice is pregnant and going to have her girl in mid August. Last Saturday, we went to visit her and brought some presents for her and her little girl. We saw a very cute pink bouncy cow right in front of her nursery room. We have Remy "rest ride" it right away to see how little baby play with this toy. I thought this is really cleaver to use plastic for children's toys. Remy is teething and he loves to chew on everything in sight. So when he rode on this little howdy cow, he also chewed on the 2 handles at the top. Remy had fun even though he needs an adult to be aside to supervise him.
When I came home, I thought to get Remy one to play with. We found this manufacture in Italy does not only make Howdy, they also has Gyffy as Giraffes and Rody as horses. There's a rocking base sold separately which allows people to turn these bouncers into rockers. Tones of nice colors for Rody. You can find all sorts of information online.