Our 6 Month Old

Tyler turned 6 months old. This picture is from L.A., just before turning 6 months.Here are his stats:
Weight: 16 lbs. 12 oz. (25-50%)
Length: 27.25 in. (75-90%)
Head Circumference: 43.9 cm (50-75%)

L.A. Highlights

Landed safely in Long Beach, CA. Tyler's first airplane ride (and our first with 2 kids). Tyler and Vincent riding the little red car. Tyler actually fits it great!

Seeing my cousin for the first time in 6 years and meeting her new baby girl.

Jack and Alice's wedding. Swimming pool fun at my other cousin's house. Tyler's first time swimming.

Speed Zone. Vincent didn't get to ride the actual cars because he was too short, but he got to sit in this dragster. David drove the Turbo Track so that Vincent could watch.

We played some games at Speed Zone and won tickets. Vincent picked a lollipop with his woppin' 20 tickets.

Lastly, a video of backyard fun.

Other highlights include the La Habra Children's Museum, meeting a couple of friends in Old Pasadena and having dinner at King Taco & dessert at 21 Flavors, me getting a little alone time with a friend, Vincent getting a fever for 2 days, seeing my sister & her husband's new house, eating In 'N' Out burgers, delicious Korean food, cheap Thai food, my mom's home cooking, and taking the kids to the playground with no diaper bag & one of them pooping...oops.

Dentist

Vincent had his 6 month dentist check up today. The last time he was there, he had bumped him tooth really hard & bruised it, so they needed to take an x-ray today to check it out. He sat in the big chair for the first time and did really well. The doctor let him pick out 2 toys for doing so well.
(We got back from L.A. yesterday afternoon. I'll post some highlights next.)

Ponyo

Ponyo, my new favorite Miyazaki movie. We took the kids to their first movie theater experience. Well, Vincent went with me twice when he was younger than Tyler, but those don't count, especially since I didn't even get to watch half the movie the second time we went because he kept pooping. And, I suppose this doesn't count for Tyler, either, since he slept through half of it & we walked around the theater with him for the other half. Vincent, on the other hand, this was the real deal for him. We think he quite loved it, although he had an iron grip on David's hands throughout the previews.

In line for tickets. Why is Vincent covering his face?

Getting the tickets.

Comfort Food?

Tonight, I'm cooking a chicken soup my mom makes for us whenever we are under the weather. The last time she made it for me was about 2 years, 8 months ago when I had my first child. She also taught me how to make it at that time.

It is a comfort food for me, but I don't know if others would agree, as it requires some Chinese herbs. It tastes very medicinal, too. Here are some of the things I put into the pot. Clockwise from the top: ginseng root, some sort of bitter herb, some sort of less bitter herb, dried whelk (I think it's a type of shellfish), dried goji berries, dried jujubees, and dried shitake mushrooms.

In a pot, sear chicken legs in sesame oil. Fresh ginger root is a key ingredient in this dish that I didn't have. I cheated and sprinkled ground ginger on the chicken. Hmmm...we'll see what happens. Deglaze with rice wine. Add water to cover the chicken, and put the remaining ingredients into the pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until chicken is very tender, approximately and hour or so.

Farmers' Market, Taco Bus, and Vietnamese Music

After a long break from not going to our favorite farmers' market (Columbia City), I decided that I would make the trek, fight the crowd, and just enjoy. I've had a few reason that have kept me from taking the kids recently. 1) traffic, 2) not super far, but definitely not close, and with traffic, it can be a real pain, 3) weather, 4) getting back in time to make dinner, 5) if the kids wake up late from their naps, or are hard to get out of the house, reasons #1, 2, and 4 are tougher.

Yesterday, we got a late start, but I decided that I would just pick up tacos on the way home. When I spoke to David, it turns out that he could take the MS shuttle pretty close to there, so he met us there. Even better. We planned to eat at the taco bus.

This little girl took a big interest in Vincent and Tyler, but was even more interested in the soft pretzel Vincent was eating.
Tyler and I worked on his sitting skills. Comin' along.Here's the taco bus!While waiting for our food, Vincent kept asking where the bus driver was, and when we were going to "go." He couldn't understand the whole concept of this bus, and why it wasn't actually driving.
Today, Julia and I took the boys on a bus ride to the downtown library to listen music played on Vietnamese instruments. It was so fun and interesting. We met up with a couple friends and their daughters as well.Here are some of the instruments. I think they're mostly made of bamboo. Super neat.Tyler fell asleep during part of the show. He's such a little dumpling.

Food

Just a friendly reminder that I sometimes cook dinner for my family. Okay, I actually do it more than sometimes. I used to blog about it (http://ourfamilymeal.blogspot.com/), but have not in a very long time. I'm going to try and do it more often, but I'm making no promises.

What has prompted me to revive that blog is Julie & Julia. No, no, I'm not going to cook my way through Julia Child's book or anything like that. I just got inspired by the movie, which I saw this weekend, to make Boeuf a la Bourguignonne (beef stew in red wine, with bacon, onions and mushrooms) - but I'm not doing the onions.

I will attempt to make this dish today, but serve it for dinner to 2 friends and my family tomorrow night. Stay tuned to see how it goes...but you won't read it here. You've gotta go check out our "Family Meal".