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Some times I wonder if my son is 3 or actually 15. Last week I took him to his very first dental appointment. I was very nervous about it but I try not to show my nervousness around him. Instead, I just matter of factly told him a few days before the appointment that he will go see the dentist and they will look at his teeth and count how many he has. We even practiced how he was going to open his mouth.

When we got to the dentist's office, Buzz was the perfect little boy. He was extrememly well behaved, he sat and watched a movie (Lion King) while we waited for our appointment. When the clerk came out to take a picture of him for their record, she asked him to smile, he opened his mouth instead!! It was the cutest thing! When it was time for us to go into the exam room, he followed the hygienist right into the room and sat right down onto the chair. I was only expecting a quick check up but the hygienist told me that they will do a cleaning right away!! Again, I tried to hide my nervousness and put on my best poker face for Buzz. The hygienist proceeded to show Buzz all of the instruments she will be using, including the water spray and the vacuum hose. I was getting reallly nervous then, thinking that Buzz was going to freak out when he sees the scraper! But he was completely nonchalant about it all. He just listened and opened his mouth when she started to work on the cleaning! It also helped that the movie will still on. But I was beamimg with pride after the cleaning was over!! He even endured the yucky floride foam!!

I so wanted to give him a huge hug and tell him how proud I was of him and tell him how brave he was!! But I didn't. I was still wearing my poker face and kept quiet even when it was over. I wanted Buzz to think nothing of going to the dentist and getting his regular cleaning. I didn't want to tell him that he was brave because that would imply that going to the dentist is a scary thing and that one had to be brave to go to the dentist. But believe me, I was so impressed by my little guy that I started to wonder if he was only 3!! After it was all over, the dentist took Buzz out to pick out a little toy, sticker, and balloon. He picked out a little orange police car and held it in his hands all day long!

Then a few days later, I was sitting with Buzz at the dinner table. He was eating his dinner of Chinese BBQ pork bun and I was enjoying my giant artichoke. He looked at my artichoke and asked me, "Mama, what's that?" I said, "It's an artichoke." He then asked me, "Is that your dinner?" I said, "Yes." At that point, he gave me a frown and said, "You've got to be kidding!" Grandma was in the kitchen and she just started laughing. All I can think of is, this kid is 15, definitely 15.

Buzz's very first dental appointment and cleaning!

I love this little guy!

Soccer Shots!

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Posted April 22, 2013

One of my favorite vegetable is artichoke. But these flowers are so expensive that I only really get to enjoy them during artichoke season. Although they are available year-round at the grocery store, they are typically $4 per artichoke. But during artichoke season, they are 4 for $5!! So I stock up when I can!

Another reason that artichoke is a treat for me is because they take time to prepare and to eat! Thankfully, my MIL is currently staying with us so she's been helping out with the kids. So I was able to take a little bit of time to prepare the artichokes, basically trim off the spikes on each leave and cut the stems off. Then I just store them in a zip loc bag in the fridge. Each night I will take one out and boil it for about 45 minutes. Then when the kids are in bed, I get to enjoy the artichoke while watching a little TV! I know, it's a little odd that I love artichoke so much. But there are worse things to be obsessed with right??

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Posted April 16, 2013

It's been a while since we've been to Ikea, maybe more than 6 months now. We love to go see the childrens' section and let the kids play in the play area. Plus, it's always nice to see what new things they've come up with. This time, I fell in love with their new crib bedding. Although we converted Buzz's crib into a toddler bed, the bedding still fits. We bought two sets of duvet and covers, a set for Buzz and a set for Ahgoo. I love the pattern on the duvet covers, gingham on one side and nature patterns on the other. The duvet cover also comes with a pillow case.

Buzz loves his new bedding. Unfortunately, Aghoo does not. She's still a little to young to use a blanket when she sleeps. She also still sleeps on her tummy every night. She did not like that the duvet takes up most of her crib! I guess we'll have to wait another year or so before she can use the pretty bedding.

Oh, and I also picked up a couple of these beautiful ikea bowls in pink! :-)

Brown for Buzz.

Pink for Aghoo.

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Posted April 14, 2013

Dried Kimchi. Seriously, I'm in heaven. If you love spicy, crunchy, and savory food then run to your local Trader Joe's and ask for these dried kimchi chips! What will they think of next??

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Posted April 9, 2013

We threw Ahgoo a 1st birthday party last weekend and it was a complete success! Since she was born in the Year of the Dragon, I wanted her first party to be a Chinese dragon theme. I also wanted it to be more girly since most of our guests were girls. There was one boy at the party to play with Buzz and the two boys had a blast! So when I started planning the party a few months ago, Mr. BAW and I were talking about what the cake would be. I said that I would like a dragon cake and he thought that it was a great idea. So I started to do research online and found all these amazing cakes with dragons on it like this one. But then he tells me that he wants a dragon cake, not a cake with a dragon on it! That blew my mind because I had never thought of it that way! Just goes to show how different our brains work!

Luckily, we know this woman who makes delicious custom cakes for a restaurant that we frequent for a very reasonable price. So after doing some more research online, we decided on a cute baby dragon and asked the cake lady to make it red for me. I know it is more of a Western dragon than a Chinese dragon but I just could not find any good pictures of cute Chinese dragons. The Chinese dragons are always so fierce looking. I wanted Ahgoo's birthday cake to be cute, not fierce. We all loved how the cake turned out. It was a chocolate cake and it was absolutely delicious!

Besides the cake, the Chinese theme continued onto the party favors. I used little Chinese take-out boxes as the party favors and each container has a little squishy monster toy and a wind-up dragon toy. I also included a red envelope in each container with a dollar in it! Giving out red envelopes is a gesture of luck in the Chinese culture.

Since Easter fell on the next day, we held an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Easter egg hunt plus a bubble machine makes for great entertainment for little girls! :-) We all had a wonderful time celebrating Ahgoo's first birthday!

The dragon cake for our little girl.

Not sure if Ahgoo or Daddy enjoys the cake more.

The Chinese take-out boxes party favors.

There were Chinese dragons lurking throughout our backyard.

I love these giant red paper pom poms!

To complete the Chinese theme, we had to have red and pink fortune cookies!

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Posted April 6, 2013