My dada's weird friends

Dada invited a few of his friends over for the Olympics opening ceremony. Most of them are pretty chill, but there are two that are a little weird and creepy.

Shoo...go away monkey. Stop bugging me. Maybe if I use my wet, drooly hand, he will be scared and leave me alone.

It didn't work. That weird guy is sniffing my feet now. What should I do? Help me, Auntie Haelan!

Fat man vs Fat baby. Place your bets.

Who is this weirdo? Mama, he is now trying to bribe me with a toy block. Is he a "gold fish man"?

Maybe he won't be able to see me if I hide behind this toy. I am not here, I am not here...

Yummy blocks

Someone gave me a block to play with. OOOOoohhh, it smells so good. I wanna eat it!!! Yum, yum, yum, let me put it in my mouth.

RRRrrrrrr...yummy yummy yummy....

Oops...I totally missed it, I guess I will suck on my fingers instead! Oh no, the camera is there.

Okay, gotta look innocent. I didn't suck on my fingers. Nope, I did not.

A big block of Tofu

Lately, Ali has gained a little more weight and her face is getting rounder and rounder. Just want to illustrate our point, we decided to take a few pictures.

From the left:

... to the middle ...

...to the right.

"Whaddya looking at? You haven't seen a tofu princess before? Shooo...go away or I will drool all over you!!!"

Joining the Olympic fun - Part II

After we relaxed a little in the Coke cafe, we carried on our little Olympic tour. They had a huge Canadian flag up on Hotel Georgia. Pretty impressive, eh?The reflection on the TD building. Somehow, it looks a little grander than the actual thing.
We were on our way to the count down clock in the Art Gallery Plaza. I don't know if they pick this print because Chinese New Year is around the corner?
Six more days to the Olympic....wait, it is starting TODAY!
After all the excitement, hubby wants to try the famous Japa-dog.

This little hot dog stand is probably the busiest hot dog stand in town. Look at that line up!

It is so well known and popular that it was featured in a few different magazines, including the Maclean's! Many celebrities have visited this stand, including Jin (from Lost)! Look at all the different varieties listed on the board. Crazy!

We tried the most popular item - Spicy Terimayo. It is pretty good, definitely different. I wish I have taken a picture of our dog before we devoured it. The presentation is great (damn those Japanese people, they can make anything look GREAT)! But is it worth the 30 minutes wait?? Definitely not! We will definitely go there again...when there is no line up!

Joining the Olympic fun - Part I

The Winter Olympics is starting real soon!! I thought what is better to do than to check out all the different cool Olympic related exhibits and memorabilia around downtown. It turned out to be a little bit of a disappointment. Maybe it is because we don't really know where to go, but the places that we checked out were not as exciting as I thought it would be.

Along Granville Street:

"Forest of Lanterns" - I don't want to be mean, but at first glance, I thought they are hanging some garbage on a pole. It turned out that those are paper lanterns and each lantern is decorated (pictures drawn) by an elementary school student. Too bad we were there in the day time. I am sure it will look pretty cool at night.
Again, another lantern crafted by a group in Taiwan.
A neat looking fish:
Um....I don't really know what it is, but it's unique, right?

What I really wanted to do, is to check out the Coca-Cola cafe. Yup, I am a big fan of Coke! It is way better than Pepsi and it is awesome! Although the cafe is much smaller than I anticipated.

Check out his cool Cola recycling container:

Ali will grow up to be a Cola girl too. She wants us to take a picture of her and our Coke bottle and she gives it a thumbs-up!

Our best man and his wife are in town and we all enjoyed a nice cold one in the Happiness cafe. Do you see that little box on the table? Well, there is a gold-coloured cola bottle in that box and they are selling it for $65!! It is a collectible item and they are only releasing 1000 of them. Nice, but really $65?? Are they crazy??

Monster Ali

Since Ali is much stronger and sturdier now, she likes to sit in her Bumbo to play with her toys. One of her favourite is her building blocks. She had a whole tub of it, but I thought it would be a good idea to start with smaller pieces. She is learning to hold it, but usually ended up knocking them down on the couch or the floor. Last night, she found a new way to play with them:

"Yay, my mama gives me these colourful blocks. I like them!"

"This red one tastes like strawberries! Yum!!"

"Oops, dada is taking pictures. I better pretend I am just smelling them. Hi dada!"

"Boy, this orange one tastes pretty good too. Oh, I don't think I can resist eating them much longer...remember to look innocent in front of the camera, but...they are so tasty..."

"Waawwaawwwaa....."

Ali's foot prints

When Ali was born, a good friend of ours (thanks Maria) bought us a footprint/handprint tile set. We didn't have a chance to play with it until last weekend. I thought there is some kind of crazy contraption that involves five thousand things, but it turned out to be a really simple thing to do. In fact, it's so simple I think every one should be able to do this at home and it probably costs less than $10!

Here are the steps:

1. Use a piece of sandpaper to lightly scrub the surface of the porcelain tile.

2. Use white vinegar to wash the surface. Let it dry.

3. Use an ink pad (that is good for embossing, make sure it is the washable kind since you don't want your baby's hands to be black for too long) and rub it on your baby's hands or feet.

4. Have your baby stamp her hands/feet on the tile.

5. Sprinkle embossing powder on the stamped image on the tile.

6. Put in the oven for 5 minutes (set at 350F). Let it cool for 15 minutes.

Here is the end product:

From our experience, we find it EXTREMELY difficult to get the hand prints. Being an angry baby, Ali likes to hold her fists real tight. We gave up after a few tries and decided to do foot prints instead. Even that was a little tough since she was kicking her feet like crazy. I would strongly suggest the parents not to wear anything nice in this process as it does get messy. Have fun!