Niagara Falls

While in Buffalo, there are just a few things you must do. Go to the original Buffalo wing restaurant and Niagara Falls. Check and Check!

Niagara Falls is only half an hour away from Buffalo and it's a nice scenic drive there along the river. We went there with three of Tim's friends, all packed into our nice, big, rental minivan. Elizabeth sat in her car seat in the third row and I next to her. She did really well back there while Daddy and his friends caught up on old business. She ate her snacks, had a bottle and then she went to sleep for her afternoon nap.

When we got to Niagara Falls, I thought the cease of the car motion would wake her, but not this baby. We took her out of her car seat, put her in the baby carrier and walked to the falls, all while she was still asleep. Then, we walked around the falls, went to the souvenir shop and walked all the way back to the car, and not one time did she wake up. She loves this new baby carrier, the Beco Butterfly II, and we use all the time now. She likes it more than any of the other carriers that we have. Also, anytime we put her in it, it seems like she falls asleep. Must be the closeness and stability it provides. I always feel like a kangaroo when I wear it.

So after traveling all the way to Buffalo, the baby didn't get to see one of God's amazing creations. Not that she would have remembered it anyway. I'm sure, we will take her to see it again (or for the first time), later down the road. -S

Visit to the apple orchard

Fifteen miles south of Syracuse, there are many apple orchards. We visited Beak and Skiff Apple Farms and had a wonderful time experiencing all things apple. We picked our own apples, ate yummy apple dumplings, drank apple cider, and played in the orchard and kid area. The apples were delicious, ripened on the tree, crisp and sweet. Since the baby can eat solids now, she also got a taste of apples. She really liked the baked apple dumpling. I'm thinking of learning how to make it, so we can enjoy it again at home. It is like a delicious apple pie, about the size of your palm, except it is a whole apple inside the crust.

Elizabeth wore her ladybug costume to the orchard and was the cutest looking pest there. For a weekday, it was quite busy, and everyone was laughing and saying how adorable she was. She napped through the drive there and woke up refreshed and happy. We got so many pictures of her laughing and smiling.

We picked three different types of apples. We tried our best not too pick too many, but in the end, we ended up with about two dozen of them. Elizabeth even picked a small apple her size. We ate an apple each day of our vacation and brought some home in our suitcase to eat later. All our clothes smell sweet. -S

"Good Eats"

During our visit to Syracuse, Sana wanted to go to a BBQ joint so that I could try the ribs. We went to a place called Dinosaur BBQ and apparently it is well known in the area. It was pretty crowded. I did enjoy the ribs...very tasty and their sauces were good too. The big thing we realized while eating there was that Elizabeth was eating a lot more too. Before going to Buffalo, she drank less than 20 oz of milk daily and the amount of food was inconsistent. But, this trip just may have boosted her appetite. While we were at the restaurant, she had no problem eating more than half a container of sweet potato. Since then, she is downing bottles of milk and spoonfuls of veggies and fruits. Her daily intake of milk is up to 30 oz a day and two full containers of food. It is a welcome site to see. -T

Visiting mommy's college

Syracuse is about two hours away from Buffalo and since we were going to be in the area, we added a few days to our trip to explore upstate New York. This is my first time back in Syracuse after graduating in 2002, which means it's been seven whole years. Almost two full generations of classes have gone through since I've been there. There were many new changes to the campus and it was nice to go back to visit with the family.

While on campus, Tim and I had some nice coffee and pastries, while the baby ate some cereal and then had a bottle at the student center cafe. She made some noise, but not enough to annoy anyone. We definitely did attract some attention from the young students.

Afterwards, we went to the bookstore and bought a few Syracuse University clothing items. The baby even got her first Orange shirt and an SU pacifier keeper. She's growing out of her clothes so quickly, I thought it best to get her a size two shirt. Hopefully, she will wear it next summer or the summer after that. There were many baby items and the funniest one of them all was the pom pom hat shown below.

Also from the bookstore, we bought her the Dr. Seuss book, "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" Tim and I wrote a special note inside it to Elizabeth, letting her know that we bought it for her on her first trip away from home. It's probably going to be a very long time before we're in Syracuse again. Maybe it'll be in 18 years when Elizabeth goes to college. -S

Baby's first plane ride

This past weekend, we went to Buffalo for my friend Glenn's wedding. This marked Elizabeth's first ride in a plane. Sana and I were a little nervous about taking her on a plane trip because we would be those people with the crying baby. But, surprisingly, the trip was a lot easier than we both expected.

For one, our flight out to Buffalo turned out better than we had booked. Our flight was at 6AM, but we woke up at 5AM because yours truly forgot to set the alarm. It turned out that this was better for us. From Denver to Chicago, we were flying on the usual Airbus, and from Chicago to Buffalo, on one of those commuter jets. Instead, we got rebooked onto a 777 for the first leg and an Airbus for the second...all in economy plus, which means more leg room. Elizabeth slept for most of both flights. That was really good. Despite our good luck, obviously something had to go wrong. When we got to Buffalo, it turned out that our car seat hadn't left Chicago. So we had to wait about 4 hours for the next flight to get the car seat.

The return trip was just as good. The baby slept for a good chunk of the ride and even when she was awake, she didn't really cry or make a lot of noise. In fact, she was a pretty happy baby. Elizabeth was jumping around and looking at the new environment and all the people around. She seemed to really enjoy all the attention.

Now that we've got this under our belts, it's time for another trip...in the near future? -T

Chatfield Pumpkin Festival

Every year at Chatfield State Park, they have a pumpkin festival with a corn maze, food and game vendors, and lots of other fun things for kids to do. We've never been before, but Tim drives by it on the way to work and it always attracts a large crowd. This year, since we have a little one of our own, we decided that it was our time to start visiting the pumpkin patch.

We hope to make the pumpkin festival an annual event. It was great fun and Elizabeth was so amazed by all the orange "balls" everywhere, it was hard to get any pictures of her looking directly at the camera. All of the shots of her are so intense, like she is studying the pumpkins.

This year, unfortunately, we only got to play in the pumpkin patch and couldn't enjoy all the other fun stuff due to her young age. Maybe next year, it will be different. There were many craft tables, a tractor train ride, hay rides, pumpkin tosses and other games to be played, all free with the admission fee. Nonetheless, we did get to eat some toasty kennel corn and homemade root beer. Not the baby, just the parents and grandparents. Yummy! -S

Houston, We have a problem...

No, it's nothing bad. The problem is that we now have forward motion. Yes, Elizabeth is mobile and she is getting faster everyday. For awhile, she could get into the crawling position, but that was followed by rocking back and forth and then "crawling" backwards. It was more like pushing herself backwards. Anyway, when I got home from work last Thursday, Sana had the baby on the floor and all of a sudden, she was slowly inching forward. I was so amazed by that. Unfortunately, I wasn't witnessing her first crawling steps. She had really started earlier in the day and this was more of a re-run. Either way, we were all excited (Sana's parents were in town for the weekend and they were really happy to see this new skill too). We tried to get Elizabeth to crawl everyday just so that she could practice and build up her muscles, but by Saturday, it almost seemed like she forgot how to. She would get into position, but instead of shuffling her hands and knees, she would get on her feet and straighten her legs into the upsidedown V position. But, everything turned out fine because she started crawling for real.

Well, I do have to say that it is kind of scarey now. We can't just leave her alone, especially on the bed. If she crawls too close to the edge and slips, she'll go for a nice trip. Even on the floor, she'll crawl over to the TV or to the couch and try to grab stuff. Also, she tries to pull herself up to her feet (which I'm thinking is a sign that walking may be around the corner). Anyway, I guess it's time to me to figure out the whole "baby proofing" thing and get on that around the house. -T

First day of crawling - Oct 15, 2009

Rubber Duckies

Finally, Elizabeth has some toys to play with in the tub. Until now, she was playing with rings and a solo rubber hippo that came in a shampoo gift basket. Now, she has all sorts of things, duckies, sea animals, and small raft rings to save the drowning play toys. Yesterday was ducky night, so all the other animals had the night off and the duckies played in the tub.

Elizabeth loves to splash around and dunk the toys in the water and watch them float up. She favors baby ducks, probably because they're the perfect size for her little hands. When we start bath time, they are usually sitting in mommy duck's back, but soon afterwards, they are everywhere. -S

Beary Vinegary

It was a cool day this past Sunday. Fall is here and the temperature is surely dropping. We also had our first snow last week. It didn't accumulate, nevertheless, it was nice to see the flakes in the air.

Right before Elizabeth was born, on one of our last shopping trips to get ready for the baby, we bought this bear hat and glove set. We knew it was going to be a while before she would be able to wear it, but Tim wanted to get it for her. It was his special item for her.

Back in February, I washed it and put it away in a box in the closet thinking that it would be a few years before I would take it out again. On Sunday, we were trying on all her hats figuring out which one matched her outfit best, when suddenly we remembered the bear hat sitting in the back of the closet. I took it out thinking that it would still be big on her and to our surprise, it fit well. So our little one went to church in a warm bear hat.

Due to the cold, she also wore another first, boots. Red leather boots from her grandma. After church, we came home and as we were undressing her, there was this new smell, a smell we had never smelled before. It was an interesting sweet and sour smell. When we took off her boots, the sudden realization that she was a baby no more stunned me like the crisp wind outside. It was the smell of little vinegary feet. An addicting smell. We smelled it once, twice and a few more times. Laughing to ourselves that a baby could have sour feet. Bouncing around and standing on her feet must have made her feet sweat in her new boots. -S



Pouting after we put the hat on her head. She's mad because we won't let her take it off.

Happy Seven Months Elizabeth

Elizabeth turned seven months on Sunday, October 4, 2009. On this day, she measured 16 lbs, 13 oz, and 27 inches long. We measured her at night before we went to bed, so the weight might be a little off from the food she ate during the day. At six months, she weighed 15 lbs, 9 oz, so her increase in weight is a little over a pound this last month. She also grew half an inch from her six month frame of 26.5 inches.

She is growing steadily and it's good to see the results of good nutrition, especially since she is eating more solid foods now. They say that solid foods have less calories than milk and so I was worried that she would put on less weight, but she seems to be doing fine. Elizabeth is tall and skinny for her age, so we're hoping that she puts on some more weight before she turns one. We've never had full fat dairy products in the house until now, they are so yummy. Hopefully only the baby will enjoy them. Tim and I don't want our hips to grow too! -S

Brunch at the Inverness Hotel

We had brunch at the Inverness Hotel last Sunday and it was so amazing, we went back with Tim's brother and friend when they were in town this past weekend. I've wanted to go there since I got pregnant with Elizabeth, but because of one reason or another, we never made it until last Sunday. Now, we've been the past two Sundays in a row.

It is a brunch buffet with mimosas and the most delectable dessert bar. There are all your breakfast fixins as usual, plus an assortment of seafood items and a variety of appetizer style dishes. Also prime rib! The baby got to experience a plethora of fruits and really enjoyed melt-in-your mouth feta cheese. She also ate a little potato and bread. Brunch was a dining adventure for the baby too.

Pictures from outside the hotel, prior to David and Anhhuy leaving for the airport. Thanks for visiting, it was lots of fun. Visit again when it snows... -S

Visitors from another land...

And that land is Maryland. My brother David and Anhhuy, my best bud from back home, flew out this past weekend to visit us...well probably more Elizabeth, but that's just detail. They arrived here Friday evening and left Sunday afternoon, so not a whole lot of time. This was their first time seeing Elizabeth in person. Sure, there are pictures and all, but the experience isn't the same until you hold the baby and watch her squirm and laugh and cry and everything else that she does.

When Anhhuy tried to hold her, she cried followed by more crying when David held her. It was kind of expected seeing as how she doesn't like being held by just anyone, especially two dudes she's never seen before. As the weekend went on though, she actually seemed to be comfortable with David. She actually sat next to him on the couch without making that face that says, "Mommy, Daddy...where are you? Pick me up!" Also, she seemed fairly comfortable being held by her uncle. Sana thinks it's because he's my brother and we look enough alike that she got fooled. Well, whatever it was, it worked pretty well.

As for what we did, not a whole lot. We did eat some good food though. Or at least I thought it was good. We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner Friday and man, those ribs were good. Makes me want to eat some just thinking about them. Elizabeth didn't seem to like the place, probably because it was a bit loud. Then there was this wings place in Morrison, CO. I can't remember the name of the place, but it was good and that's all you need to know. But then again, we all did feel gross afterward. I didn't think 70 wings would be a lot, but I guess I was wrong. We also went to the Coors brewery on Saturday for the tour and the guys seemed to enjoy that. Afterwards, we went to Red Rocks and I must say, it is an awesome view no matter how many times I've seen it. Sunday, we had brunch at the Inverness Hotel. As always, excellent eats.

All in all, it was a pretty lazy weekend. Even though we didn't do a whole lot, Sana and I still enjoyed it and I'm sure Elizabeth enjoyed seeing Uncle Anhhuy and Uncle David..."Wait...I have 2 Uncle Davids? I'm gonna be confused." That's right, Uncle David and Uncle David. -T

Happy Rocktober

Yeah! The Colorado Rockies are in the playoffs! Elizabeth went to her first baseball game on Thursday and coincidentially, it was the last home game of the season. Also, because they won this game, they are now advancing to the playoffs. Thank you to Ji Un and Kevin for inviting us to the game, the best seats I've ever sat in at a sporting event. Tim was suppose to go to the game too, but because of an important meeting at work, he couldn't join us, so it was the three of us and a baby.

Elizabeth did very well at the game, eating, snacking and even finishing off a bottle of milk through the cheering and fun. At the begining of the game, she took a short nap and then fell asleep for the last 30 mins for another nap. When she was awake, she took great interest in the field and watched her first live baseball game. When I tried to hold her facing me, she would turn her body to face the field, so eventually, I just sat her on my lap facing out and she watched the game that way.

After the game, we had to walk 15 mins to the car and she was still sleeping when I put her in the carseat to go home, but woke up a few minutes later after I put on her seatbelt. -S