bonnie & jason

Studio pics of Alissa and Bonnie

I haven’t had a chance to take the backdrop down so Bonnie had some ideas for some more studio pictures. I swear, Alissa has to be the most photographed baby ever. I challenge anyone to present a more photographed baby. Here’s the album in it’s entirety with a few favorites below.

Alissa is crawling… sort of

Alissa is at the stage where she kind of does the army crawl when she’s trying to get something. Sometimes she goes backwards, sometimes she just rocks back and forth. But more frequently now, she can actually get from point A to point B. She seems to get better at it every day so we’re thinking baby-proofing the house needs to be a priority now. Doh!

alissa on her mat from Jason Wang and Vimeo.

alissa crawling on her mat from Jason Wang and Vimeo.

Cafepress store

Bonnie has opened up a Cafepress store.

There are only a few items on it right now since it’s a free store front. But here’s a sample:

Alissa teething, Avenue Q, and Saigon sandwiches

Well, our super easy baby isn’t quite as easy now that she’s started teething. They haven’t erupted yet, but I think they’re on the verge as she’s drooling more, seems to be running a slight fever, and doesn’t go to sleep as readily as she used to. Also, she really goes to town on her teething pacifier, chomping down pretty hard with her gums. Here are a couple pictures from yesterday when I was setting up the backdrop for Kathy and Eric’s maternity studio session:

In other news, we went to see Avenue Q with Kathy, Eric, and Benita today. It was pretty darn funny although the music itself wasn’t all that great. I have to say, some of the lyrics were a little hard to pickup so maybe I’ll have to listen to the soundtrack to make sure I didn’t miss all the jokes. One thing that I didn’t miss was all the puppet sex. Yes, puppet sex. Pretty funny… certainly worth the price of admission just for that. =)

Before the show, we had lunch at Saigon Sandwiches. A coworker of mine claimed it to have the best Vietnamese sandwiches and if you remember from this post, I’m quite the connoiseur of Vietnamese sandwiches. (I stole this pic from Yelp.)

So what was noteworthy of this new contender? Well, first of all, this place is similar to Bahnwich in that there are two Chinese ladies working their tails off in a tiny little place trying to get the line of people out the door served. (Yes, there was a line out the door.) Second, the official menu is pretty limited, but what do you expect when the sign outside says, “Saigon sandwiches?” Despite the limited official menu, they still had a wide variety of drinks as well as other random snacks like spring rolls, mochi desserts, and other pre-made appetizer kinds of things that were not listed up on the board. There was also a shelf full of random Chinesey kinds of candy and snacks. Third, the sandwiches are all $2.50… including tax! Even cheaper than Bahnwich! Yeah, yeah, but how were they?

The bread was really good. The sauce was more sweet than savory. The pork was tasty. And the fixins (carrots, cilantro, peppers) were fresh. All in all, I’d say that they edged out Bahnwich but didn’t quite dethrone Vietnam Village. I guess I prefer the savory sauce and stronger BBQ flavor of Vietnam Village still. Maybe it’s because Vietnam Village is where I had my first sandwich. Or maybe it’s because I’ve been there so many times. Whatever the reason, they still hold the title of best Vietnamese sandwich.

Alissa sticks her tongue out

Just today, Alissa started sticking her tongue way out, especially when smiling. Here’s the flickr album if you want to see the whole series. Otherwise, these two are pretty good:

Rylee and Tyler’s birthday pool party

Update: Here’s the video:

2007 08 12 Rylee and Tyler birthday party from Jason Wang and Vimeo.

Rylee and Tyler always have fun birthday parties and yesterday was no exception. Tons of food (Hawaiian and BBQ), even more desserts, and best of all, a pool to play in!

Alissa was really excited to go as she has never been in a pool before:

First though, she had to get some seat time with Uncle Tommy:

Anyway, here are a few more pictures and here’s the entire flickr album.

I counted at least 7 different kinds of desserts.

Alissa wasn’t a big fan of the pool. She tolerated it for ten minutes or so, but I think she wasn’t a big fan of the colder temperature compared to her bath water.

Norm demonstrating his firefighting training:

Megan seemed fine in the pool. Not ecstatic, not upset. Just fine.

Ching-An and Rylee hugging the edge.

Abigail was fearless in the water! Calvin was a different story. I have some video of Terry teaching Calvin how to swim. Pretty hilarious… I’ll try to post it later.

Alissa likes her sunglasses.

Tina and Trevor. Love the wife-beater.

Christine and Ethan… Ethan looks a lot like dad, James, who runs So restaurant. One of our favorites! Mmm… So wings…

Alissa in a really good mood!

We consider ourselves extremely lucky that Alissa is a pretty good baby. She eats well, sleeps well, and we really have no complaints. Of course, she has her moments like every baby does, but overall we couldn’t be happier. Of course, people always say that if your first baby is easy, the second will be difficult. I think that’s ridiculous. It’s like saying that if your first baby had black hair your second baby will have blond hair. If that’s the case, then Bonnie has some ’splainin’ to do. Granted, the law of averages would say that your second might not be as easy as your first. However, there’s also this thing called genetics… maybe you’ve heard of it. =) Anyway, this rant is just a lead-in to some video that shows Alissa in one of her better moods. I think she just likes the touch, the feel of fleece.

Alissa amusing herself on the bed from Jason Wang and Vimeo.

Alissa is getting ready to be mobile

Alissa has always liked to stand and has been able to do that with me holding her hands for quite a while now. In the past few weeks though, she’s been getting more and more stable with her sitting and has also started getting up on all fours, getting ready to crawl. Then yesterday, while sitting in her pack-n-play, she pulled herself on her feet all by herself! Pretty soon, she’ll be mobile and we’ll be chasing her around the house.

Anyway, here’s some video of her pulling herself up. It starts with Bonnie helping her up once. Then she does it herself. And finally, she bops her lip on the edge. Oops.

alissa pulling herself up from Jason Wang and Vimeo.

Alissa likes sweet potatoes

Here’s some video of Alissa eating her sweet potatoes. Apparently, she likes them quite a bit and has decided that the rice/oatmeal/barley cereals just aren’t good enough anymore. We’re going to try mixing the cereals with other stuff to make sure she’s getting enough calories. The last few nights, she’s had a tendency to wake up earlier in the morning. That might be a teeting issue though. Not really sure.

Alissa eating sweet potatoes from Jason Wang and Vimeo.

Megan’s red egg and ginger party

Tony and Vicki threw Megan her red egg and ginger party at the Daly City Moonstar today. This is the first of a number of family outings we have planned over the next couple months. Tomorrow is Tyler and Rylee’s party. Tommy and Phyllis get married in a few weeks. Then there’s my brother’s bachelor party followed by his actual wedding. Before you know it, the holidays will be here and Alissa will be a year old! How time flies.

Here are a few more pictures from today.

Too… much… fun… can’t… stay… awake!

Who’s a big girl? I am, I am!

How many hands does it take to eat spaghetti? Two!

Untitled from Jason Wang and Vimeo.

Growing boys love buffet!