Sweet Summer

There's so much to love about summer. Picnic-perfect weather (except for those crazy high 90- degree days), fat, juicy, freshly plucked strawberries, the return of friendly farmers' markets, a ton of kid-friendly activities and so much more.

We've been pretty busy the past weeks. Kayla started her KinderTots Dance class (hence the cute lil tutu!) and she's loving it. We also signed her up for a Princess Camp which runs an hour-long daily for a week. If I haven't mentioned it before, she's all about princesses now and can rattle off the names of all the Disney princesses. Besides that, we've been to lots of fun playdates with other little girls and most recently, we took her to the SF Zoo to see her favorite Fisher Price Little People in action. (pics and videos to follow).

Kayla's more active than ever and her pretend-play abilities are getting more amusingly amazing. She narrates her adventures, sometimes as she's drawing them out. She's getting more creative with things she finds and sees and words she learns and hears. But the thing I love most is listening to her conversations with "Sockie" (basically a sock over my hand). I'll try to get a video of it soon!


Fresh strawberries from a farm nearby. Kayla and Daddy at Shoreline Park in Mountain View.


Playing tag with Emmy in gramma's gorgeous yard. Kayla's become quite prolific at drawing faces. They have hair, eyes and a mouth!


My favorite ballerina!

A Roaring Good Time

Here are some snapshots from our trip to Singapore. We didn't really take that many pictures, partly because we were too busy fighting the hot, humid weather. Besides, lugging Mikey's bulky camera around was quite a chore. Time to invest in a credit card-thin digital cam. :)

Enroute to meeting Aunty Tanya, Kayla insisted on going to McDiddy's. You can't escape those golden arches wherever you are. And yes, we forgot to take a picture with Aunty Tanya! Ugh.

Zoo-fari: We weren't planning on going to the zoo this time round, but since there was a new children's rainforest park, we decided to check it out. Here's Kayla with GongGong and PoPo (and an ice-cream cone!)

We celebrated Gong Gong's 60th birthday at the National Service Resort & Country Club's recently renovated bungalows. These chalets were suprisingly modern, clean and pretty spacious. The resort also had a nice kiddie pool where Kayla and her cousin Darrell spent hours splashing in.

Sizzling Sunset: The gals decided we should go to Sunset Grill & Pub (yes, way out in the boondocks) after Mike remarked that the ribs were some of the best he'd ever had. So along we went to feed ourselves and mozzies at the same time. The wings were yummalicious but everything was just OK. But at the end of the day, it's the company that counts and it was great fun hanging out with ladies! And Kayla's smile says it all!

Picture perfect moments: I love the shot of Darrell and Kayla.

With Aunty Lynn at QianHu where Kayla fed koi for the first time!

Pix Mix Sequel

Here are more recent snapshots, mostly Jan through March 2009. Enjoy!


The perfect pout.

At the tot lot across the street, or what Kayla calls the train park.

Digging into her yoghurt dessert.

Whatcha looking at?

All eyes on the cake... Grandpa's 70th birthday cake!

Emmy and Kayla - I think this belongs to the previous post. It's from her 2nd birthday in November. :)

Pix Mix

I've been meaning to blog about our trip to the Lion City but I've been facing some serious "techinical" issues. My videos refuse to upload and the photos, I'm told, are "temporarily unavailable." So until these problems sort themselves out (hopefully soon), here are some way overdue snapshots of the young'un.

All set to paint the town red on her 2nd birthday (November 08!)

Kayla and Chuck E., her favorite rat on earth.

Emmy demonstrating Gift Unwrapping 101.

All dressed up for baby Caitlin's birthday party. Play pretend piano!

Christmas at the Chuns!

Her Classic Cheese Pose.

The Lion City

It's been almost a month since we've been back from our trip and boy, am I glad the jetlag's done and over with and our schedule is pretty much back to normal. Kayla came down with a cough and cold not long after we landed (I don't think it was swine-related.), was sick for a week, recovered and then fell sick again for close to another week. Thankfully, she's all better now. :)

The plane ride, this time around, was a little more traumatic than the last. Again, we hardly got any sleep and on our trip back, we decided to "drug" her, just so all of us could get some rest. And guess what, it didn't work. We waited and waited, and nothing happened. Well, at least we know now. :)

I was a little worried that the plane ride and change in schedule would derail her potty training. Surprisingly, she did really well, even in the tiny confines of the plane potty. And she probably had all of one accident throughout our stay in Singapore. The swine flu situation got everyone a little on edge about our return flight. And I'm eternally touched that a dear friend, Yuhying, drove all the way to my parents at 11pm (yep, 11pm) to pass us some masks out of love and concern.

Otherwise, the trip was pleasantly uneventful. Instead of cramming our days with loads of activities, we took it easy and just enjoyed catching up with family and friends. We celebrated Gong Gong's 60th birthday, went to the zoo, visited farms and ate to our hearts' and tummies' content.

Here's a video of our day at the zoo and some footage from our morning at the farm with Kayla's beloved Aunty Lynn. I'm having trouble retrieving the photos but I'll get to them...soon. :) Promise!