Kokochi

Video call with Japan

I had a fun video conference call, along with Garth (who came to me Tokyo with me last time), with Nifty (one of our major partners at Six Apart) and their customers from a small traditional town called Okuizumo. This town has internet connectivity, but representatives came to Nifty (a top ISP in Japan) to learn more about what the internet could offer. A fun demo was to connect via Skype with Garth and me in San Francisco to talk with them in Tokyo, to show how easy it was. We were so happy to help out for Nifty, and it was a pleasure.

For the timing, I had to first pick up T at preschool, bring her back to work, then do the video call. I gave T crackers, games, and stuff to draw with. I told her to be quiet and she totally was. But at the end of the video call, since it was rather casual, I brought T into the video call so she got to wave at the folks from Okuizumo!

Tesla and Fia

Fia met Tesla when she was a newborn, meaning pretty much a blob and not fun to play with. But Fia has always been an older sister to T. Lately, now that T can hold her own conversation and can join in Fia's fab imagination, these 2 gals have so much fun together. T pretty much begs everyday to hang out with Fia, and so far, they totally play happily together. I know a day will come when T, who is 1.5 years younger, may be shut out for being "too young." For now, however, it's pretty awesome to see them play together.

Lots of dress up and imagination character play. Here Fia was in her gorgeous dress, T in her best dress with a wand. I wanted to get them together for a pic, but as my camera clicked, Fia ran off, leaving just T posing diligently with her wand. Next I got Michelle to keep Fia in the pic.(Look at Fia and T totally pose!)

Here we have T dressed in one of Fia's dresses from Spain, graciously lent by Fia. They are really intrigued about babies and such, and they stuffed their animals in their bellies. They were quite proud to show us their "babies." Then we have some more wand action along with T's giant elephant & Fia's Lavender doggy.

T showing off Fia's dress. The 2 of them trying out fancy heel shoes. Yes, T loves such fancy shoes even though I never really suggested them. So, um, girly!!

And a little something else: a top-notch cheese platter that Michelle brought to a dinner party we went to. Big smiles from me for that.

Bunk Bed!

T graduated from her crib a long time ago, but we kept it since we often have baby guests, and T liked to play with it. We finally handed it off to Dav's cousin who is expecting her 3rd baby (!!!). T also is pretty much outgrowing her toddler bed, so we went off to good 'ol Ikea to buy Tesla a twin size bed; the real deal that I hope she can use for many years. We found a super cool bunk bed with tent combo that I fell in love with, and T got really excited about too.

With 3 hours of daddy's labor, voila! It's fun, cozy, and just perfect. For now we stuck her old bed underneath to open up play room, but plan to make the bottom part a play house. Kid deco is so much fun!

Kokochi on TypePad's Chroma template

Pretty nifty, eh? David Jacobs suggested I try it. The great thing with TypePad is it'll continue to be easy to change the look and feel from time to time. Fun!

this will make you smile

Check this out...and scroll through all pics.

tidbits

Been busy hanging out home. Just the way I like it : )

Other than that:

My brother visited from Helsinki. He had 2 days of meetings in Mtn. View, and he drove up to hang out chez nous for a few hours. I'm very grateful, and it was so nice to sit around the dining table as if he were stopping by after work when he used to live in Alameda. I miss having his family close by. Since he's at Nokia, he showed off his cool new phone/gadget. Mine is pretty much slowly dying, but I'm waiting for a few things before getting a new one. Here is my blurry pic of us (it still takes great pics but is so quirky to use that Dav had a hard time). Here is Ian's version.

Yesterday Dav and I had Dim Sum brunch, and today we went to our fav neighborhood place with the Regenbogens (huevos al gusto is a perfect breakfast). Love that S.F. has diverse choices.

Since it was raining, we came home, put the fireplace on, had the kids do an art project and made cookies.

Then my cousin Scott and his son Issac visited so I took them to the De Young, then dinner at Blowfish. Scott has been interviewed recently by the NYT and WSJ as a China expert. Way to go! Issac took some great pics that I'll try to link to later.

Blankie update

Tesla is still very much attached to her blankie, but she's allowed me to cut it into smaller pieces. This makes it easier to carry and not drag on the ground a la Linus, and now we have "spares" in case she loses this so very important pillow case.

A smaller blankie also allows for stuffing it in her pocket or putting into a little bag (pink one below) while at preschool to get her used to not holding it all the time, and have free hands to do activities with. However, we found that she'd take her bag off while at school, and still leave blankie around so the teachers had to keep track of it. The other morning, just before running off to school, I sewed this handle right onto a newly cut piece of blankie (no time to finish the edges), and this seems to work really well.

Tesla is quite pleased that blankie is a "bag" now, and this keeps blankie on her but out of everyone's way. Slowly, slowly, we're trying to ease the blankie habit although letting her have it nearby.

Year of the Tiger

This weekend, T's preschool was part of an event at Japantown where various organizations came together to celebrate the New Year, promote what they do, and show-off performances. I volunteered to help at the paper top making table, and T came with Daddy to sing (although she had no idea what to sing, and kept on checking out the microphone she and her buddy Ryo-kun were in front of).

On the wall, the preschool put up all the students' renderings of Tiger; I rather liked Tesla's

All ready to sing with her Tiger hat, and holding hands with Ryo for the performance.

 

The other performances included one of Kendo, and one cute one of traditional dance by a kid troupe.

New Year's catch up

Well, the week zoomed by, and we're steaming right into 2010! Belated, but I wanted to share a bit about our New Year's day which was all about hanging at home, having kids over with toys all over the living room, chatting & eating, and enjoying being mellow.

But I first want to share that we had a pretty awesome New Year's Eve too. So awesome that we only have 1 pic! Others took some, but haven't seen them yet. We basically invited a few other parents over to have the kids sleep here while us parents hung out and celebrated. Getting a babysitter on NYE is super expensive so the few parents turned into a nice sized group, and we had 8 kids sleeping in 2 bedrooms, all over the floors with sleeping bags and pillows. It was a sight!

Meanwhile, we had planned to throw a "pre-NYE warm-up cocktail party" so our friends who had fab parties to go to could stop by, and we'd get to see them since we weren't going out. I wrote 8~11 on the invite, but just in case bought tons of alcohol, and had Michelle & Daphine help me with appetizers. We did a Bangkok recorded NYE celebration for the kids at 7pm, threw confetti and had the kids wear the sparkly hats. Then they went to bed. Folks arrived, and the fun started...and got better and better. Basically, we had a rolling party with A LOT of people over the whole evening. It peaked at midnight ~1pm.  In other words, we became the NYE party folks were at...which was awesome, but I naively didn't expect. I was rather proud that so many folks decided to hang out at our house vs. all the festivities out on town. You should have seen the bags and bags of empty champagne bottles we had. Best thing was we were at home and got to see so many friends!

Back to New Year's Day, like I said, it was very relaxing. We let the kids play as they wished, and it just felt like a snuggly day with good friends and happy kids.

Later for dinner, we pulled out Osechi and baked some omochi (soy sauce and kinako versions). It really was a perfect way to start 2010.

   

2010 resolution business

I'm behind in updating about New Year's which turned out to be a fantastic & lovely 4 days, but for now I thought I'd share this. I don't do resolutions, but if you do, and have not made them yet, try this auto-generator that uses others' resolutions  : )