Gobble Gobble, Lukas!

We hope that everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. So Lukas had a great first Thanksgiving. He tried meat for the first time on Thanksgiving which of course was turkey! We blended it with some water and a little rice. He didn't like the turkey unless it was mixed with the yams or rice, but then, who does? Since our last update, Lukas has also added tofu, applesauce, and bagels to his diet. This week, I think that we're going to try and add fish.

As usual, Thanksgiving weekend went by quickly. My cousin George and his girlfriend came up from LA for a visit. We spent Thanksgiving morning at home while Edwin smoked the turkey in the backyard. For dinner, we took the turkey to Jeannette and Jon's house since Jon was on call. Edwin's mom came up from LA as well. We took some photos of the food and fun which I'll share eventually.

On Black Friday, we didn't go shopping at all. We spent the morning at home making waffles and muffins with Lukas, Catherine, and George. Then we headed south to my cousin Billy's house to spend time with his family and my Uncle Glenn's family. Since Billy has twins that are 2 months younger, it's a lot of fun to see how they react to each other. For instance, we put down a toy closer to Justin who is not able to crawl yet. Lukas was close by and decided he wanted that toy and crawled towards it to get it. You could see Justin trying to crawl towards it, but all he could do was swim in the air. When Lukas reached the toy, Justin started crying in frustration. We can't wait until they really start interacting with each other.

On Saturday, we went to Jeannette's again to visit since their mom was in town. We had a long leisurely lunch at Park Chalet and then met up with George and Catherine to show them around SF since it was Catherine's first time here. We then met up with Billy and his wife Maggie again for dinner (sans twins) at Tadich Grill which is an old school SF seafood restaurant and then for dessert at Bi-Rite Creamery which is Edwin's favorite ice cream shop.

On Sunday, Edwin smoked some more turkey and chicken for a pot luck at the Banerjees. It was a get together for us and our parents, but Edwin's mom had to go home early and so she wasn't able to make it. Lukas took his first group bath with Mena. It was very cute. Lukas didn't like it at first, but then started to have fun playing in the water. He didn't mind Mena's splashing at all and enjoyed playing with the water toys, but did not like the water coming out of the faucet. He wasn't happy during the actual bathing part, but the job got done and we were able to have some fun doing it.

Vacation in Hawaii

So we just got back from Hawaii last night. It went by so fast! The trip started out with a 6 hour delay at the airport from a mechanical error. We were supposed to arrive at 1PM and arrived around 7PM. That was a bummer, but at least Lukas behaved well and didn't seem to mind hanging out in the airport.

Most of our days were spent at the beach. Edwin got to go to surfing every morning. Lukas had a great time playing in the sand. The hotel we stayed at gave him a free pail and shovel which he used everyday. We also got to see our friend Janet who lives in Honolulu. She took us to some great restaurants. She took us to a breakfast place near our hotel the first day we were there. Then, we met up for some awesome sushi at Zen Shu which I would say it was one of my top 5 favorite sushi experiences. They have some very unique dishes and we ordered the omakase which is chef's choice. I normally do not choose omakase because I am not sure that the chef will give me something I'll like and it's usually more expensive. In this case, the sushi was SO good and it was a little more expensive, but worth it because Janet knows the chef and he was very attentive.

We also had a lunch buffet at the Halekulani called Orchids. I ate until it hurt. I have not eaten that much in a long time. We had to sit outside for an hour before I could get up and move again. We also had a great meal at Tokkuri- Tei which is a yakitori restaurant AKA Japanese tapas.

That's not to say that we ate expensive and fancy meals while we were there. We also took a drive on the North Shore and had shrimp truck and shaved ice. We also had ramen and Hawaiian lunch plate while we we there. Lukas did great in terms of eating. He also slept relatively well. The hotel provided a crib and this time he actually slept in it. We had a few nights where he woke up, but he went back to sleep as well. Our experiences in Toronto and Cayucos made me nervous about whether or not he would sleep. Now I know, he can sleep! However, when we returned, it took him a while to get back on schedule and so we had a few painful, crying nights, but after a week, he was back to sleeping through the night.

Lukas also hit another milestone in that he is now officially crawling. He doesn't crawl very fast, but we have had a few falls off the bed/couch. Luckily, most of the time, he landed on pillows. He's also pulling himself up to standing which prompted us to lower his crib. Most mornings now, he'll wake up and sit in his crib. There was one day he woke up from his nap and pulled a clock that is also a foam puzzle that was outside of his crib into his crib and started chewing on it. One thing we already know, this kid is determined. I'll post videos soon. In the meantime, here are photos from Lukas's 8th month and from our vacation in Honolulu:

Weekend in the Suburbs

So it's official, we are really an old married couple now. We used to go out on Friday nights and hung out with friends or at least went out to dinner. We spent Friday night at Costco which included appetizers (AKA food samples) and a gourmet dinner of pizza and a hotdog. We were buying food in preparation for Saturday night.

On Saturday, we started the day by taking Lukas to get a flu shot. He was a real trooper as we waited in line for 2 hours to get his shot at the walk-in clinic at his pediatrician's office. Surprisingly, we didn't see any meltdowns.

Afterwards, we went to the Banerjees for a BBQ to celebrate Mena's first birthday. I can't believe that she's already 1. That means that Lukas's birthday is just around the corner. Happy Birthday, Mena!

Then, we rushed home to clean the house because we had some of my old coworkers over for dinner. It was a good time catching up. We spent most of the night just talking. I'm realizing that it's a lot harder to do with kids.

Today, we had an informal photo shoot with Lukas to take photos for our Christmas card. Edwin's friend and coworker took our photos in a park in Piedmont. He was also our wedding photographer. Lukas did pretty well, but was a little distracted by the dogs walking by. Hopefully, we got a good one. We don't know yet because he used film to shoot the photos. How novel! You'll have to wait to see those photos, but in the meantime, enjoy these photos of Lukas at 7 months:


We're looking forward to a 1 day work week as we're leaving for Hawaii on Tuesday. Woo hoo! Vacation here we come!