Vancouver and Seattle

We took a *very* mini break to the Pacific Northwest to visit my brother and sister-in-law. Siri was relatively good during the plane ride to and from Seattle -- as good as possible for a very mobile toddler. We visited the Vancouver aquarium (in Stanley Park), which is phenomenal. While it's not as big as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it housed interesting mammals like dolphins and belugas. Siri enjoyed fish-watching, but was scared of the humongous fish from the Amazon (there was a special Amazon exhibit). It was a fun trip overall, but exhausting for all parties involved! Here are a few select pictures. The entire album is available on snapfish; let me know if you're interested and I'll send you an invitation.

* a few aquarium shots
* strolling with daddy and jiu jiu down robson st.
* siri loves aunt hanh's keyboard!
* made friends with the pilot and got an invite to cockpit
* happily playing in play area at seatac

Land's End

on sunday, we took a little trip out to land's end with aunt jenn and uncle todd (who are siri's favorite people right now -- it's easy to bribe her to do things as long as aunt jenn and/or uncle todd is/are involved). siri was super excited to see the ocean, and kept exclaiming "wawa!" she also got to try out her new boots, which she clearly distinguishes as boots and not shoes.

we're getting ready to take a trip to seattle and vancouver (not washington) with diana's brother and sister-in-law (for all intents and purposes), so our next photo updates will be of the pacnw (hopefully).

Our teenager-to-be

Here's Siri prepping herself for the corporate world:

* too busy texting or responding to emails on her blackberry
* reading some important case
* dictating to mommy and daddy the report she needs drafted...stat!

and, she does all of this with her belly hanging out.

Finally!

We've had a busy month or so and have been pretty bad with blog upkeep -- I apologize for that. Siri is saying all kinds of interesting things now. Her vocab list has swelled to over 60 words in both English and Mandarin, and she is starting to try stringing together simple sentences, such as "my dada," "dada work?" and "eat more." And, she has learned the possessive "mine." One of the perks of an in-home daycare is the family-like environment, which is also its drawback: peer socialization. The two-year-old is possessive and makes it known when things are his, and Siri has clearly picked up on it.

Some pictures from the past week:

* looking more like a big girl at Randall Museum
* super excited at Duboce Park after spotting the roped off area for dogs
* sitting like a big girl -- what happened to my little baby?
* diaper only -- mildly babylike
* refusing to get dressed until I told her that if she got dressed we would go see Aunt Jenn. She got super excited, laughed and ran into the bedroom ready to get dressed.