Socal

At the end of May, shortly after my graduation, we took a week-long family vacation to Southern California. It was our first real vacation since our trip to Hawaii, more than a year and a half ago. My parents, who had been staying with us since my graduation, drove down ahead of time with a car-full of Ruby's gear. The three of us flew down a couple days later, taking advantage of the last time Ruby would be able to fly for free.

Our first stop was in LA, where we visited my cousin Hao-hao, who had also recently graduated from the prestigious Art Center College of Design. We stayed on the East side of LA near his house, which is not the most glamorous part of LA but has the best Asian food that I've ever tasted in the U.S. In fact every time we go, I feel like I've returned to China.

Ruby was very happy to be reacquainted with her Uncle Hao-hao.



However, she was less sure about his very friendly doggie, Lancelot.



While she took a great interest in him from afar, whenever she was approached, she would burst into tears and run for Mommy.



Ruby slowly warmed up to the doggie and got to the point where she liked to feed him treats. However, she would hesitate at the last moment and drop the treat on the floor instead of putting it into his mouth.



While in LA we also had the chance to visit Kidspace Children's Museum, which seemed to be the LA-equivalent of our Bay Area Discovery Museum. Ruby's favorite part of the museum was the area by the cafeteria where water shot out of the ground. She thought that the water was dancing, so she went ahead and danced along.



After 3 days in LA, we drove down to San Diego. We had envisioned a warm and sunny San Diego vacation filled with days at the beach, but the weather during our stay was not much warmer than San Francisco temperatures. In fact, our first day in San Diego was overcast with intermittent showers (one of the maybe 5 days a year San Diego sees rain). Fortunately, we were able to enjoy Sea World anyways.







The next day we went the the San Diego Zoo, and saw the real-life version of Ruby's halloween costume.





The San Diego Zoo is much larger than the San Francisco Zoo, and after hours of walking, we were all very tired and in need of an ice cream break.







Ruby loved Sea World so much that we returned the following day.









In the end, we were only able to make one visit to the beach, even though it was just walking distance from our hotel. It was a bit cold, but still beautiful and a nice end to our Southern California vacation.

Birthday addendum

On the afternoon of Ruby's birthday we drove down to Palo Alto where Steve had a business meeting, and I took Ruby to the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo. Afterwards, we had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Krung Thai. For dessert we ordered Ruby a birthday FBI (Fried Banana Ice cream), and the wait staff sang "happy birthday."

I'm TWO!

Hi everybody! Thank you very much for all of the birthday wishes! I had a very happy birthday this week. I haven't had so much fun since I was one!

On Sunday we had a big party at our house. Mommy and Daddy filled the house with 1 million balloons. It just about blew my mind!!! You see, balloons are my favorite. Anytime I see a balloon, I say "Ba-yoon! Ba-yoon!" and wave my arms until someone gives it to me. Several months ago, my boyfriend Julien gave me a balloon at dinner, and I still play with it, even though it is sad and shrivelled. Therefore, I could not be more excited to see 1 million balloons in my own house!





One of my favorite parts of the party was hiding in the balloons with my new friend Mila. There were so many balloons on top of us, that Mommy couldn't see us at all!



Then we would pop up and scare her! It was too funny!!!



Another neat thing about the party is that everybody who came helped to make dumplings for me, and I LOVE dumplings!

The best part of all was when everybody sang one of my favorite songs, "Happy Birthday To You," and I got to blow out my candle. I enjoyed it so much that I made everyone do it twice. Daddy got in on it too because it was also his birthday. He is turning 3 with an "O" on the end.



I very much enjoyed my cuppy-cake, particularly the icing. My tastes have greatly refined from last year, when I thought that cuppy-cakes were icky. What was I thinking! *facepalm*





I really want to thank all of my friends for coming to my birthday party, and I especially want to thank my family for doing all the work!



Tuesday was June 7th, which is the day I officially turned 2.



After breakfast, it was finally time to open my presents!









I couldn't believe it -- I got my very own baby! But she was in a plastic box -- get her out quick!!



She needed to be fed and loved on the double, so that's what I did.







I couldn't have been any happier with my new baby, but Mommy and Daddy had ANOTHER surprise!



They built me a whole kitchen!!! I didn't want to lose any time, so I got to work at once.



I even cooked while holding the baby, just like I sometimes make Mommy do.



Now that I'm 2, I can do everything just like Mommy*!





*except for pee and poop

Happy birthday, Sweet Ruby!

I cannot believe you are already two, but I also cannot believe I have only known you for just two years. You are my dream come true!

Changes

As usual, this period of blog inactivity paralleled a period of increased life activity in our family. In the month since I last updated, we've taken two trips (the first two excursions out of the bay area in a year and a half), and I've graduated from UCSF. A lot has changed in Ruby as well. She is much more verbal, now parroting back everything she hears and forming more-or-less complete sentences. She is far more active than she has ever been in her life. Even though in public or in unfamiliar settings she still prefers to sit stoically on my lap, at home or in comfortable surroundings, she is a constant pitter-patter of little feet. No matter where she is going, she has to run there, and if something gets her excited, she will break into a tap dance, twirling in circles and waving her arms.





This burst of development is bittersweet because it also marks the end of Ruby's "sweet baby phase." She now fits much better into the mold of a typical toddler: demanding, particular, and prone to occasional fits of whining or screaming. For several weeks I mourned the loss of my sweet, quiet baby who would only sit and passively observe. Now I am starting to come to terms with the fact that little Ruby is growing up, and with great power comes great responsibility, or something like that.

















While I will try to fill in the gaps of the last month, the next few weeks will also be filled with activity for us. Tomorrow Steve and I are leaving for our first overnight trip without Ruby. We are going to Vegas for Steve's 30th birthday! Steve is extremely excited. I am filled with both anticipation and dread. It has taken quite a lot for me to set my mind to taking this trip. I have not been away from Ruby for more than ~8 hours since the day she was born. However, in this moment, I feel the stars have alligned: 1) I know that this is the one gift Steve wanted for his birthday, 2) My parents are visiting for an extended period of time for my graduation and Ruby's birthday, 3) Ruby is not quite as fiercely attached to me as she once was, and she has developed a very comfortable relationship with grandma and grandpa. Therefore, I am confident that she will be OK. The dread is more in regards to how much I will miss her.

The birthday that may steal Steve's Big 3-0 thunder will be next week, when Ruby turns 2! We will have a joint birthday party for Ruby and Steve this weekend and will do some fun, as-yet-undetermined activity as a family on her birthday next Tuesday. These days I am wondering, how did we come to be the parents of a 2 year old???

These are only a few of the ways that our lives will be changing in the upcoming weeks/months. Hopefully I will have time to document the rest soon.