Life: lately

Life has ups and downs. We all know that but still find it hard when you are in downs. We’ve been experiencing rollercoaster lately. It’s hard but we are trying to be positive and hopeful.

I know this moment (newborn stage) is precious, no matter how hard life hits us, we still need to enjoy it as much as possible. I remind myself of that everyday.

I try to have quality time with Sofia every weekend as she’s in a stage between liking to be accompanied when she does things. As simple as taking her to playground makes her so happy.

I am amazed by how happy she can be be playing the toys that she’d played hundreds of time as every time is her first time! I need to learn this skill, it could make me so much happier.

Summer is here means festivals!!!

The last time we were at Vienna festival, Sofia was one year and half and she couldn’t play. But this time she wants to do all of them!

She’s truly fearless and adventurous.

As I watch her going in and out by herself, I am a bit sad, my little baby has turned into a kid, soon she will walk out of my life. Well… I’m being dramatic, but if you are a mom too, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

I can see in her face that she has mixed feeling about going into new things… a mix between excitement and fear. But that’s great! Because she’ll have so many more new things to her, and I’d encourage her to try them. Life is about experience, good or bad, we need to experience them by ourselves to truly understand the feeling and treasure them, they are all valuable to form who we are.

Some people says at age of 3 personality has formed. If that is the case, Sofia is adventurous but cautious, caring, compassionate, sweet, flexible, thinker (quick in making connection between events or things), and has facility with languages. She’s fluent in english, spanish and shanghainese. She’s still learning mandarin although she understands it. She even sings french sometimes. These languages will be assets for her in the future and they came so natural to her, effortless almost.

She loves dancing. Often time she’d ask me or grandma to play music so she can dance for us.

More recently, she’s developed the girl nature… wanting to be pretty! she’d sit still if it means she’ll get her hair done. So funny!

We went to Herdon festival the following week. She didn’t enjoy it as much as the first time.

she still prefers mommy than anyone else. Although I’m very strict with her and often time yell at her (during meal time), she still feel safe with me, and wants my approval or acknowledge more than anyone else’s.

We could be “fighting” one minute, and 5 min later, laughing silly to each other. I think it’s important to be able to have fun with her despite having to enforce rules.

She does powertot at school. Once every semester parents are invited to see their progress. It was my first time going and she was extremely happy.

so proud of her.

she has been such a great sister to Lizzy. So caring and protective of her.

I think she has my look and smile. 🙂

We’ve been having visitors to meet Lizzy. Since Lizzy is sleeping so much and not interactive yet, Sofia got to play with them.

Lizzy, the angel baby, is getting cuter and cuter.

We’ve had our first harvest of the season.

the most tender, fresh and delicious lettuce ever!!!

I’ve had lettuce salad for lunch in a row until I finished all we had for the moment. Because the lettuce is so fresh, simple ingredients as tomato, heart of palm, red onion and tofu, dressed in olive oil and lemon, makes a delicious meal.

or with a chickpea quinoa burger

with tahini lemon sauce

I’ve also had several kale salad. Massaged kale with a spicy tahini dressing (tahini, lemon, S+P, cayenne and nutritional yeast), tomato and seared tofu.

I’ve been making waffles for the family. Sofia likes it with PB for breakfast.

Myself, I’m in a pumpkin protein cake kick lately, topped with PB sauce. It’s so satisfying and delicious, it holds me for good 4 hours.

I’ve been working out every morning, like very early. It’s great to breath fresh air, clear mind, awake my body and hear interesting podcasts. I head out around 6:30am when the sun is still not too strong. I started jogging almost two weeks ago and it feels great! I started with 15 min jog, and now I can do 40 min. To have some structure, I’m following nike 5k training plan. I don’t have a race signed up, but jogging 3 miles everyday could get boring. So far I’m enjoying the plan.

Eating out is not easy with two kids but we try to do sometimes. When we eat out, we like to try new cuisines, things that I don’t know how to cook. The most recent one was another middle-east cuisine. We started with a mix of greek yogurt, hummus, baba ganoush and olives.

a spinach tart

for our entree, it came a bean/vegetable soup with a side of salad

we shared two dishes: one mixed kebab that has chicken, lamb and grounded beef

and the other only chicken

while we enjoyed our food, Lizzy looked around, that’s enough entertainment to her.

grandma takes so good care of her

we eat very simple for lunch and often time at different times (mom likes to eat around noon, I like to eat when I’m hungry, usually around 1:30pm, and Tony somewhere in between). But we all sit together for dinner so we prepare a good dinner to enjoy as family. I think family dinners are important part of the family tradition, a moment when we share our days and thoughts. Although we don’t do the talk part yet because otherwise Sofia talks instead of eating, but at least we make sure everyone is around the table at dinner time. As she gets older, we will introduce the talking part. Now it’s mainly just me talking to Tony and mom, and trying to get Sofia to eat meanwhile.

In term of food, we eat heavy in vegetables as you can see, and 1 or 2 dishes or either fish, shrimp, chicken or meat (only 1-2 times a week of red meat).

6/5 was chinese festival when family get to eat 粽子. A packet filled with glutinous rice and aduki bean wrapped in a big leaf. None of us have ever made it before so it was new to us. It was quite fun to figure out how to wrap it so the rice would not escape while cooking.

Tony tried and failed. My mom tried and failed.

but I did well…. not pretty, not equal sized, but it worked.

Sofia loves it!!!! This girl loves all things made with glutinous rice. It was delicious!!!

Lizzy has became such an easy-to-laugh baby. When she’s fed, she laughs when we talk to her.

Last weekend we celebrated Tony’s first father’s day with a surprise gift from three women.

Sofia even sing a song for him.

and had a simple BBQ at the backyard.

Summer has just started. It’s humid and hot, but it’s summery, relaxing and sunny. It puts us in a positive mode by default, we just need to follow. 🙂