Moving

We are moving!

Here is the new home:

http://pipesicle22.wordpress.com/

It's going to be bilingual, in hopes that someday it will be Zoey's motivation to learn how to read Chinese.

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Wednesday, 6/16, was our 1 year anniversary. After working on our future house and getting ourselves dirty all afternoon, we showered, dropped off Z at her gu gu's, and headed for a date night. We went to Aloha Ramen in Greenwood for dinner, probably one of my all-time favorite restaurants (after Chipotle, though. Did I ever mention that we went to Chipotle for Sunday lunch 4 weeks in a row? :o) Aaanyway, This place is too small for Zoey and her stroller, which makes it a perfect choice for the night.


We each had a Ramen + Garlic Fried Rice combo.

Afterwards Gary really wanted some Top Pot Doughnuts for dessert, actually he only wanted Top Pot Doughnuts, even though it was already closed for the day. So we came to Starbucks @ U. Village and got some doughnuts which are supposed to be from Top Pot.


The mini was mine. :)

We pretty much just walked around U. Village for the rest of the night. We couldn't really get our mind off our home renovation so we went to Restoration Hardware and daydreamed on their fancy sofas. Someday...hopefully we'd be able to get one for our anniversaries ;)


Do you like the colors we're wearing? We tried hard to match.

a wannabe J.Crew model


On the way back to our car, I spotted a trailer that looked just like the scone mix I was looking for forever:

Ta-da!!! I can't believe they're selling their scones for $1.25 each (rip-off!). But it is really tasty. What can beat fluffy, soft, buttery, and a little salty scones? Nothing!

So, that was our anniversary night. It wasn't fancy, nor was it candlelight romantic. But I was so happy. Happy to be happily married; Happy to be Mrs. Lin.

And excited for many more years to come. :)

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Our babygirl is 5 months and a week old! She has passed the phase where she only wanted her parents - she does well with almost everyone now. She's keeping up the good work and sleeping 10 hours at night, and has learned rolling over, from tummy to back, back to tummy. We haven't given her any solid food yet, still waiting on the rice cereal. We've let her suck on bell peppers, apples, strawberries, and navel oranges so far. She loves it :o) Hehe. She also LOVES the baby bjorn. It can keep her happy and entertained at any time of the day, for as long as us adults' shoulders can handle. Oh, and I have also passed the toy shopping stage...she's got quite a nice collection now! :)


Sweet and Short! A shirt from Gu Po Po.


Loving her giraffe teether. Though nothing beats her left thumb.


My parents are visiting from Taiwan for the summer. They totally spoil Z. It's their job :o)


She turns 360 degrees in her sleep. Gary and I checked up on her one night and she slept like a karate kid.


Loving the tummy time.


I dressed her in this baseball outfit one day and we went to Home Depot. Everyone asked how old our little guy was :o)


"What, Mama?" "What, Wife?"
Probably one of my favorite pictures ever.

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Okay, I am officially the worst blogger ever. There are so many things/events I've been meaning to post but never did. And now it just seems too late to write about my first Mother's day. Since Gary started his own blog, and since he's a much better writer than I am, I decided to post some pictures of food for a quick, general update of our lives.


Yes. Do you like Pocky? Our family is a big fan.


Connie's Mango Sticky Rice, Thai Style.


New York Cupcakes, Raspberry Cream.


Honey Whole Wheat Bread + Raisins. One of those midnight baking urges. We're *trying* to eat a little healthier...at midnight.


Chicken Enchiladas for Cinco de Mayo.


Snickerdoodles! I love saying it.


Gary's The World's Best Sandwich. It was my birthday lunch. Recipe adapted from the movie Spanglish.


Homemade Pizza. Spinach, Eggplants and Bell Peppers.


The Everything Frittata. I recently bought a cast iron pan just for this. I love it. :)


Almond Chocolate Cookies. Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen.


Raspberry Lemon Tart. It was pretty, but really, really sour :o)

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This week I feel like Zoey's all of a sudden grown so much. She has become much better at breastfeeding now it doesn't take her forever to nurse, and she's finding other things more interesting than food (which also means she gets bored pretty fast..time to think about buying toys for her, maybe?!) She recently noticed the existence of the duck humidifier in her room, and can stare and talk to it for minutes. Speaking of talking, she has progressed from crying to yelling nowadays when she's mad or wants something. It's not tantrum-like, though (I don't think she's old enough to throw tantrums yet?) It's not screaming, either (whew!) However, it can get loud. I was embarrassed when she did that in a store today, and had to vacate ourselves immediately. Oh well, something to get used to and um, look forward to as she gets older ;)

Speaking of her getting older, I still can't believe I had to put on a 6-month PJ for her today! Her 3-month PJs are too short now.



So far only Gary can make her laugh out loud like this. She loves it when he tries to teach her "da-da." It cracks her up.


She loves to smile for the camera, too.


And one day she slept from 11pm to 1pm the next day. Don't you just wish you could sleep like a baby? I do! :)

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Last Friday I made some Asian hotdog bread before Gary came home from work. It was my second attempt since I didn't know how to awaken the yeast the first time (yeah...VERY amateur.) I didn't knead the dough very well (not enough flour on the surface) so it was still super sticky after the first rise. Nonetheless, these little guys turned out quite okay.

I chose Challah for the bread part because of its eggy flavor. Gary had two right away and that made me happy more than anything else. :)

Saturday evening after we dropped Z off at grandparents, Connie, Kyun, and us went to see Dreamgirls at the Paramount theatre. We grabbed a quick dinner at M.O.D pizza on 6th & University in downtown Seattle. We each had our own - you get to pick however many toppings you want for just $5.88 a pizza!

We were satisfied.


Dreamgirls was amazing. So much fun to watch probably because I know most of the songs already. The whole time I couldn't help but comparing every actor/actress to those in the movie. I still can't decide which one I like more..but the broadway people were just amazing. Hei ren know how to sing!



Zoey is almost 3.5 months old now! She's growing faster than I want her to (literally and cognitively.) I almost cried at two of her recent breakthrough moments - one is when she finally discovered how to lift her head up during daily tummy time; the other is when she laughed out loud, with her biggest grin ever.


Wearing the cute summer dress Connie gu gu made (though you can see that it's a little tight around her belly already :P)

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I am very fortunate to be able to take school off for a few quarters because of Z. It enables me to discover many things that I'm interested in, though at the same time, I can barely start one thing without having to attend to Z. I can have a strong urge to make a sundress for her one afternoon, but won't even finish measuring and cutting the fabrics by the same night. It doesn't make me want to complain, after all I got this long break because of her :) It gives me opportunity to think about the old hobbies I used to enjoy doing, and find out new ones. A couple things on my list: sewing, cooking, baking, crafts, writing/journaling, yoga, and morning devotion. I know, half of my list is very gender stereotypical, but to me, it's fairly new and surprisingly enjoyable.

I've always loved sewing. I loved playing with fabrics when I was a little girl. I made all sorts of stuff...but stuffed animals are the only thing I remember now. (I'll never forget the days in the fabric store with my dad - how excited I was, and how he patiently looked around with me and graciously offered his opinion on the fabrics I liked.) Now that I'm at home with our babygirl and supposed to have "more time," Gary encouraged me to buy a sewing machine. It's one of the fanciest machines I have, and also one of the easiest to operate.


These are the two main things I've tried sewing. One is a sack-like summer top, and one is a tote bag, good for grocery shopping. They turn out alright, though "suei bien" is I...I really should care more about whether my seam is straight enough.

Another thing I want to talk about is cooking. It is one of those things that I never thought about or had to do until I moved to America. Also, until I got married. Learning how certain meat and vegetable combinations create flavors that I'm so familiar with is a lot of fun. And it's encouraging when people appreciate my effort and are willing to be guinea pigs. However, cooking for another person/a family is sort of a struggle for me. Guessing which dishes my husband is in the mood for is especially difficult when my recipe collection (and skills) is quite limited. Gary and I are both laid-back people about eating/food. Maybe too laid-back. We don't really have a sit-down-it's-time-for-dinner type of routine; we have cereal for dinner when we feel like it. Or chips. I've realized it's kind of a bad thing...and want to start a daily family time at the dining table in our home. It's good motivation for me to stop being a bum on the couch and get busy in the kitchen, too :)

Oh, and some recent updates: We are moving into Gary's childhood home in Northgate area at the end of this June. Home renovation is what we discuss and think about these days...we've been looking for materials and colors we want for kitchen cabinets, countertops, and flooring; paint colors for the living room, kitchen, and the bedrooms. Mmm, there are actually a lot more work than what I just mentioned, but I shouldn't bore the few of you who read my blog by listing it all. :) It will be a pretty stressful, major renovation, but we are excited!


We visited IKEA last Thursday to look at some kitchen layouts for some ideas. Gary was hard at work, I was being playful (he got mad by the way; but I was really paying attention at the same time!)

**
Thanks to Connie's reminder - I totally forgot to mention the useful 3D model Gary made of our future home! I somehow found it online but had no idea how to work the program and get inside of the house. So I can only offer this picture (and I had to look up how to take a screenshot on Mac. How embarrassing)