Another year, another birthday.  But this isn't just another birthday.  This is Mr. BAW's first birthday as a father.  This is the very first birthday card Baby got for his daddy.  This is probably the perfect card for Mr. BAW who is a super fan of Superman.  It is one of those new audio cards that allows you to record something personal and then plays a theme song, in this case the Superman theme song.  So I used a sound bite I recorded of Baby on one of his more vocal moments and played it back on the computer.  Then I recorded the sound bite onto the card.  It was basically Baby saying "Da da da...da da da da Da!"  He's really into saying da das and pa pas.  Not so much ma mas yet.   Occasionally, when he's really upset, he's belt out a maaaama!  

The weekend before, we were lucky enough to have Mr. BAW's Aunt babysit for us.  So we got to celebrate Mr. BAW's birthday at a fancy French restaurant in South Coast Plaza called Marche Moderne.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and spent 3 hours at dinner.  Though it was pricey, the food was excellent.  The only thing I wish we had known was that you have to request for the souffle two days in advance!  We ended up just getting the chocolate lava cake for dessert, which was good but it was not souffle.  Next time we know...
Happy B-day our Superman!

After a decade, I parted with my beloved 4Runner I fondly called Dorado.  Ten years ago, I purchased my first new car, an SUV in the color "Dorado Gold".  I bought the car just for my future new puppy.  Fast forward to 2010 and we just traded in my "bachelorette" car for a silver Honda Odyssey for our Baby and our middle-age dog.  We plan on keeping this minivan for at least ten years, throughout our Baby's (and possibly another baby's) childhood years.  We plan to take this vehicle on many family road trips and camping trips.  

I am slowly adjusting to motherhood and letting go of my "bachelorette" life starting with selling my condo back in April.  Then we traded my coffee table for an ottoman so Baby wouldn't have any hard angles to fall on when he starts toddling around.  Now, I am officially a minivan driver.  But don't worry, we're keeping the doggie! :-)

Here's Baby and Mr. BAW trying out the new car. I am still getting adjusted to driving a minivan.  I love the automatic sliding doors and the zone temperature adjustments for the entire cabin.  I do miss being higher up on the road in an SUV though.  Perhaps after another ten years, I'll switch back to an SUV.  We'll see...     

 Our little Toby had major surgery yesterday to remove a huge lipoma from his right shoulder.  He spent a night at the vet and is now resting comfortably at home.  Ever since Toby was about 4 years old, he started to develope a couple of little benign fatty deposits, usually on the side of his belly.  They are small, the size of a quarter.  However, there was one on his right shoulder that developed under his muscle and started to get bigger over the years.  A few years ago, we did a biopsy and determined that it was benign.  Since it didn't seem to bother him, we decided to leave it alone.  A few years go by and the lipoma became the size of a grapefruit.  It wasn't until several weeks ago that we noticed it starting to affect Toby's movement.  He became gentle with putting weight on his right paw.  So we decided that if we were going to remove it we would do it sooner rather than later.  

Thankfully, surgery went well.  We were told that half of the lipoma was above the muscle and the other half was under.  Therefore, they had to cut the muscle to get the whole thing out.  That means that the recovery is going to be longer and Toby would be sore.  But the whole surgery was a success, they were able to remove the entire lipoma.  Toby spent one night at the vet and was well enough to come home the next day.  Though the vet tech helped Toby get into the car, he was mobile and can walk around with no problem.  He was ever so happy to come home that he slept for hours and even skipped dinner!  He is still tightly bandaged up to keep the swelling down and they put a drain in to allow fluids to drain out.  Three days later, he will have the bandage and drain removed and a week later he will get the staples removed.  For now, we were instructed to keep Toby low key and well rested.  I think we won't have much problems there. :-)

We are so greatful for the smooth surgery and we are so happy to have our furry pie back at home with us.

It was my mother's birthday and I decided that Baby should make his Ah Poh (maternal grandmother) a birthday card.  So I went out and purchased some washable paint for kids to let Baby try to do some hand painting.  Afterall, he's been doing some hand painting at daycare so I figure it couldn't be that difficult.  

I started out by choosing two colors (I decided on orange and blue), I wanted to make two hand prints of Baby, left hand and right hand.  Since Baby likes to suck on his fingers, I had a wet paper towel ready to wipe paint off his hand the second I get a print.  


Using a small paintbrush that came with the kit, I applied some paint to Baby's hand and was ready to push his hand onto the card.  However, I soon disovered that in order to make a nice handprint, Baby's hand has to be wide opened.  Unfortunately, babies tend to curl their fingers together.  So by the time I can spread out his finers, his fingers have smeared up the handprint!  Oh well, I guess it's tougher than I thought for at this age.  But here's the better handprint of the two...Ah Poh loved the card and his smeared up handprint nonetheless!  :-)

Hm...I wonder if it'll be easier to make baby footprints...

Happy hump day!  It's mid-week and I'm looking forward to the weekend already!  This picture was taken last Sunday when we took Baby to the beach for the first time!!  Since he's now 7 months old, I felt ok using sunscreen on him.  The bottle says it's for 6 months and older.  We still kept him pretty covered up with a hat and didn't let him stay in the sun for more than a couple of minutes.  But Baby seemed to like the beach and the water.  He didn't mind getting his feet wet and wanted to swish the water with his hands.  Mr. BAW also buried his legs in the sand and he didn't complain.  :-)  Naturally, he tried to eat sand but we managed to keep that at a minimum.  He realized after one try that sand didn't taste good!  We took tons of pictures of Baby's first beach day but I do love this one...gotta love cubby, short baby legs and feet!

Congratulations to our good friends Ruben and Lalaine for finally taking the plunge!  On Friday, we attended our first wedding reception with  Baby. Though it was not a large event, the reception was intimate and cozy.  We were 3 of 30 guests at a local Italian restaurant.  The private room had a giant fireplace at one end of the room.  The whole event was beautiful, warm, and romantic.

We drove to the event in two cars because we weren't sure how long Baby can stay.  His bed time is usually around 8pm and he gets cranky at around 7:30pm.  In case there was a melt down, one of us would drive Baby home early.  But he surprised us all by being very pleasant!  He lasted all the way til 9pm, after the cake was served.  We left after eating cake and he slept all the way home.  I put him to bed and he didn't wake up until the next morning.  

For such a glamorous event, Baby had to dress for the occasion.  Luckily for us, a friend just gave us a tuxedo onesie two weeks ago!  I paired it with a pair of black shorts and some black sneakers.  Doesn't he look dashing?  He was a hit with all the ladies at the reception.  Here he is writing a guestbook message to the happy couple with a fancy feathered pen.  

We all had a wonderful time at the wedding reception and we wish Ruben and Lalaine all the happiness in the world!  Congratulations to them again on their beautiful wedding.

Most people know that Mr. BAW and I love food and love to eat.  Mr. BAW especially, loves gourmet food and anything with chocolate.  So naturally, we have been intrique by exotic chocolates of late.  In the past few years, there's been a trend of creating strangely delicious combinations of food, such as putting bacon in chocolate.  But these exotic chocolates are not cheap.  One day, Mr. BAW bought a small piece of bacon chocolate from our local specialty market and we loved it.   It's not as gross as it sounds, there's not huge pieces of greasy bacon covered by chocolate.  Rather, it's quite subtle, there's a hint of salt flavor and tiny bits of crunch amoung the dark chocolate flavor.  So, rather than going out to buy more expensive chocolate, Mr. BAW decided to make his own.  He used very good quality dark chocolate, tempered it over boiling water and mixed in chopped crispy bacon.  He then used ice cube trays to freeze little pieces of bacon chocolate.   He tells me that the real secret is that he sprinkles a tiny bit of salt over each piece of chocolate before freezing them.  The verdict?  It's fabulously yummy!  I can't stop eating them...afterall, I love bacon and I love chocolate...so why not love them both together?!  My only question is, why he didn't make these for me when I was pregnant!?  :-)