Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Holiday baking

Before the start of Ali's Christmas vacation, we wanted to give her teachers some holiday treats.  This year we decided to make some shortbread cookies.  This is Ali's very first time baking.  She had so much fun rolling the dough and cutting the cookies!


 Ali, the chef with crazy hair!


Some of our finished products:


Ali sampling her own work.  When we brought them to school the next day, she ran to her teachers and told them she made the cookies.  When we picked her up in the afternoon, her teachers told us that she told everyone that she made the cookies and she was very willing to share with her whole class!  Maybe I should bake more with her so that she can learn to share!  


We have also received a super cute xmas card from our Kiki and Hayden.  Ali loved it so much she wanted to put it up on our tree with her favourite teddy bear.


And she remembered she made a xmas tree herself too.

So, she wanted mommy to put kiki and hayden's card on her own tree instead.  Silly one!


Nate is totally missing out on the blog.  So here is a random picture of por por burping him.  Cute!












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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas 2011

One of the best Christmas presents that I have ever got is...my wonderful son, Nate.  He arrived just in time for the holidays!   Nothing beats spending time with your loved ones, right?  Lucky for us this year, we get to have both Ali and Nate to celebrate Christmas with!  And you can't ask for better companions than these two!


On Christmas Eve, we spent time with my husband's family.  This year, we decide to take it easy and go out to eat.  


After dinner, Ali opened her xmas gift from goo ma and goo cheung.  She is SUPER excited to get a camera for xmas!!!  She wouldn't let go of her camera the whole time.


Great-grand went over to our house and gave Ali her xmas present.  Ali returned the favor by giving her a big kiss on the cheek!  Thank you great-grand!


And of course grandma has a gift for Ali too!


Por por got her a medical exam kit.  Silly mommy forgot about Ali's 2-year old check up until a few weeks ago and since that visit (and a few more that we went for Nate's check ups), Ali has been fascinated with doctors.  She would pretend to be doctor and we are forced to be her patients.  LOL.  She is super excited to open to see that she got the doctor kit from her por por!  


And as a really special treat, we had our neighbour dressed up as Santa this year.  Ali told Santa earlier that she wanted a bag (just like mommy's) for Christmas, so Santa came all the way from North Pole to deliver her present!  Unfortunately, instead of a big warm welcome hug, Ali started crying as soon as Santa walked in!


After a few minutes, Ali finally warmed up a bit and willing to sit close to Santa (but has to be on mommy's lap).  It is really cute to see her super excited and nervous about getting the gift from Santa.  I think Santa is the only person that would make her nervous.  Sometimes, she gets all shy and would not say anything at all. But when Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said in a quick and excited voice, "A bag", and she would hide in my arms again.  And when Santa asked if she has been a good girl, she would nod her head fervently.  SO CUTE!!!!!  


The Lams with Santa Ernie:


When Ali was finally asleep, hubby and I had to sort through a sea of gifts.  There are so many xmas presents!!  Our kids are super spoiled!  After we went through some of them, she was allowed to open (just the packaging paper) half of them and we put them underneath the tree for her to look at the next morning.


Our family wishes you and your family the absolute best this holiday season!  We hope your Christmas was just as fun and exciting as ours!  Merry Christmas!

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Sunday, December 18, 2011

Hotel hopping in December

Last week, we took the two to Downtown to take a look at the Christmas trees that are n display.  First stop was the Four Seasons.  We happened to past by a Telus booth and daddy won an owl doll for Ali.  Look how happy she was!!


"Woooo...this tree has so many owls on it...coool!!!!"


Daddy with the two little ones.


Ali is quite interested in fire trucks and ambulances.  She was pretty excited to see the fire trucks xmas tree on display and of course, the firemen board!


"Mommy, this polar bears are playing hockey!"


We went to Hotel Georgia after and they have a uber-cool artwork.  This is what you see from the front.


And this is what you see on the side.  So cool!!!!


And from the other side.  Isn't this the neatest thing?


And when you get closer to the painting, this is what you will see.  Fascinating, isn't it!?


We were then off to Hyatt to check out their gingerbread house.


Ali really enjoying the Christmas carols at Hotel Georgia, so we had to go back to listen to the carols again!  She was really scared at first, but she loved their singing so much that by the end, she didn't want to leave!  Oh and did I mention Santa was giving out free hot chocolate too?  A must-hit if you are interested in xmas hotel hopping.

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Friday, December 16, 2011

Welcome to the world, Nate!

There is always a reason for not blogging.  This time is because my baby boy is born!  

Again, this is more like a diary for my children (man, totally not used to writing the word, children!), so here is  a quick recap on the labour.  Contractions started around 1 pm on the 8th (there goes my dream of having the baby on the 11th!) and it was quite irregular.  Coincidentally, my hubby told me there was a really important meeting from 2 to 4 pm that day and that's the only thing he wouldn't want to miss.  All other days that week was just fine.  Terrific.  I was trying so hard not to call him and I finally called him at 4.  During this painful waiting period, I had to rope my mom in, just in case, I needed to go to the hospital right away.  We were joking that it would be great if my regular contractions start after Ali went to bed and baby listened!!  (this is how we know Nate will listen to us!  Ali, on the other hand...)

We went to the hospital at 10 and learning from my mistake last time (stupid narcotics, made me nauseous!), I opt for epidural.  And of course, it didn't happen until 1:30pm when I was in some serious pain.  It just so happened that there were some meteors or some kind of planetary things happening that day and there were 6 other people in the maternity ward (it's a big deal for a small hospital!) so the anesthesiologist was stuck in the operating room for a long time.  I guess I am still very thankful that she came, because she did mine and had to go back to the OR for another C-section.  I was able to sleep for an hour before the true labour came.    And lucky me, my OBGYN was on call that day and came in right after performing a C-section.  Labour was super fast, like 3 sets of pushes and the baby came out in 15 minutes.

Ali was a little scared of the hospital and was really nervous when she came to see me in the morning, crying the whole time.  We are lucky that she still had daycare to go to.  She really needed her routine and being in a familiar place with familiar people around her.  I was in the hospital for only one night and I got discharged.  When Ali came to visit the baby at night, she was a lot happier and was excited to see her baby bro!  Boy, it melts my heart whenever I see the two together!


Recovery is good.  Tummy shrunk a little faster than last time, but man, the cramps were crazy!!  I didn't know that the more children you have, the more intense the contractions.  Apparently, Mother Nature knows that our body needed to work extra hard to shrink the uterus back as you have more kids (that flabby tummy of mine!)  Another reason why I shouldn't have another baby.  I am so done!!!  Baby is nursing well and pooping well!  We are doing well!!


Nate loves heat.  He likes to be wrapped with a million blankets and swaddled.  The hospital was really warm and I thought one blanket would do it, but he wanted two extra blankets!  He couldn't sleep otherwise!  What a funny fellow!  Ali, on the other hand, hates heat.  She loves to be naked and sadly, she still does!  Nate cries like mad when we take off his clothes or bathe him.  His dada had to use a warm water bottle to warm up his blankets and bassinet first before he tucked him in!!  Talking about devotion and love!


"My crazy mommy forced me to take these weird naked pictures.  It's so cold.  Brrrrr........."

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Thursday, November 10, 2011

Ali's first field trip

Ali's school took the kids to a pumpkin patch in late October.  This is Ali's very very first time taking a school bus and go to a field trip with her class.  The school requires parent participation, that's why the bus is full of adults as well.  There is no point for me to go (I am useless with my big belly), dad volunteered to take our little girl.  Apparently, our little one was miserable on the bus, crying and hanging on to daddy the whole time, while her classmates are having the time of their lives.  

Part of her class and the teachers:


The kids' favourite - a red barn and farm animals!


A covered area where the kids and parents hid from the rain:


Ali loves the dancing pumpkin and corn.


Enjoying the hay ride to the pumpkin patch.


And of course there is entertainment.  The staff did an awesome job singing and entertaining the kids.


Ali and the pumpkins:


All in all, most of the kids had tons of fun, maybe except Ali's dada.  Hubby was complaining about Ali being such a crying baby the whole trip.  I am sure the other parents must think Ali is a brat and a horrible kid.  Oh well, c'est la vie.  It's MY little monster!
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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Kau kau

One of my brothers came back to Vancouver to visit.  Ali loves spending time with his uncle (in Chinese, kau kau).  Unfortunately, he could only stay for a very time - just under 1 week!
Ali's uncle also brought a lot of stickers and books for her and no wonder they become best of friends in such a short period of time!  Look at those two!  Grinning from ear to ear!


Ali doing her cute face and pretend to be shy around her uncle.



Smooch!!!


Thanks for visiting, kau kau!  Please come back and visit us more often!  Ali misses you so much!
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