Favorite Quote of the Day!

"You know someone, not based on what other people say about him, but rather what he says about other people"

I am paraphrasing, as I don't know exactly the quote or who said it for that matter, but I thought it was a cool perspective. Next time, you gossip about someone else, it's interesting to reflect on what does that say about you?

- Lei

Signature Hairstyle!

I always loved Superman - he can fly; he looks good in tights, and he always has that strand of hair curled on top of his forehead. While it may not be PC to say that I always wanted Superman's baby, it's ok since Jaime's favorite costume on Halloween is Superman or Clark Kent. He looks good, I might add, and he always makes sure he leaves one strand of hair curled on his forehead.

Well, that seems to be genetic as Isabel definitedly inherited the signature hairstyle (although not curled yet). Ahh, now all my dreams have come true! I have "Superman's" baby - Isabel Mei "Superbaby" Lapena :-)

- Lei

Watching Daddy Play Air Hoop

It's obvious that Isabel adores her daddy so much. Anything daddy does is interesting and sometimes funny. Here daddy is playing air basketball in our living room (off camera) and Isabel just loves it.



- Lei

Our latest toy

You know we can be geeky sometimes. Well this is one of those moments, as we excitedly tell you about our new toy for the house - a Breville Juicer.

We have been eating healthier every day - not all organic just healthy. So this include trying to eat more raw vegetables.

I used to have a juicer that my parents gave me. It broke a few years back and I never replaced it. Our "magic bullet" has a juicer module but it's super weak and really wasteful.

We have been going to jamba jucie to get fresh carrot and orange juice lately, so we decided it's time to invest in a new juicer. We went to BBB and got this one for only $150. The best part is they said we can take it back anytime if it breaks, even if it's 10 years from now and without a box. How cool is that? Well, we have been juicing in the morning everyday since - carrot, celery, apple combo. It's awesome and so good for our digestion.

It's a little loud so we try not to use it when Isabel is sleeping alone but as long as she is with someone, all is cool. We are happy juicers now and highly recommend it!

- Lei

Rays of Dawn

Recently, Jaime and I joined a discussion group that meets weekly to read a chapter from this book called Rays of Dawn by Dr. Thurman Fleet. It's actually fascinating as it evokes quite a bit of discussion on our own perspectives on life. Dr. Fleet wrote this book after going through a 7 day, 7 night enlightenment in the 1930s. His language is quite sophisticated although he himself only finished the 4th grade.

What is really even more amazing is that Dr. Fleet claims that it doesn't matter whether you agree with what he wrote in this book. As long as you think about what he wrote, you can heal mentally, physically, and spiritually. How wonderful would that be if it is true.

As the content is interesting, we decided to join the discussion group. It is led by Dr. Peter Goldman, someone we highly respect and know is a great healer. Since it meets on Wednesdays, it's also a fun way to break up the week and have something to do together.

We look forward to learning something new every week!


- Lei

Peace of Mind is a Myth!

This is actually good news, I think. I always thought that the most enlightened or wise people are those that have more peace of mind. We are told often to have peace of mind as a goal.

My mind goes all over the place all the time, partly because I hate being bored and partly because I am very analytical in nature. If I don't have a huge issue to solve at work or in life, then I will create something in my mind and make it a big issue so I can solve it. Silly but true. Unfortunately, this much activity in the mind keeps me from sleeping well at times. I sometime will go to bed at night trying so hard to calm my mind so I can drift off to sleep, yet I can't. I start judging myself on top of that. Why can't I calm my mind and control it. How I wish I was a kid again where sleep was never an issue. Now, I may stay awake for hours especially when I am tired because I am fretting about how much sleep I need to get and how little I am getting since I can't fall asleep. It's a vicious cycle.

How is the fact "Peace of Mind is a myth!" is good news, you ask then? How is this even related? Well, recently in a discussion group I joined I learned something amazing and eye-opening. I always thought if someone is an enlightened being, like the Buddha, then they have peaceful minds, meaning they learned somehow to control their mind from having random, unstoppable thoughts. I imagined that all they feel is peace and harmony and have pictures of gardens and beautiful scenery in their mind. This is actually not true as I learned. The enlightened ones such as Buddha, actually still have screwed up minds like any human being. What they have mastered is detachment, an ability to watch their mind go crazy and unstoppable without judgment or emotion and still feel at peace.

This is good news because it actually means it's natural and human to have our mind be sometime full of too many thoughts. It is not actually controllable and whoever tries to control it is on a fool's errand. The more I have tried before, the worst sometimes it gets. Instead, I am learning to accept it as part of life and see if I can just watch it do its thing.

The morale of the story - I am not my mind! I may have become quite successful because of my mind's intellectual abilities, but who I am is not my mind's thoughts. I don't need to control it to have peace. I just need to let it be. Easier said then done, but it's somehow comforting

- Lei

Isabel loves to rock to the beats!

I think Isabel will be putting on shows soon. She loves to move whenever she hears beats or music.



- Lei

so excited

Isabel can get so excited - she is excited when she eats, a true blessing as some babies do not like solids.


She was also really excited on Xmas day - perhaps she could sense it was a special day even though she didn't know why.


- Lei

She said "mama"!

We went to the mall yesterday. Isabel loves the mall for some reason and can watch mommy and yaya do retail therapy for hours. During which we sat down for lunch at the food court to refuel and I fed her some solids at the same time.

Isabel has been saying "da da da da" for a month now and has started saying "na na na na....," Yesterday, to my delight, she said "ma ma" when I was feeding her solid food. It just came out and she's been saying it a lot today.

I don't think she knows what it means yet but I am totally excited.

- Lei

starting early

Since Isabel is already such a daddy's girl, daddy started her on some early training. See for yourself :-)



- Lei

Isabel's first xmas ornament - Winnie the Pooh

- Lei

She loves to laugh

- Lei

New Years (No) Resolutions

As you can see from this picture and the slideshow on our blog, we had a fun New Years Eve. Since Isabel was asleep by 8, we went out to a house party hosted by our friend Pang and his brothers.

They do this party every year and charge a small fee $20 for a great time (all free liquor, DJ, RockBand, Karoke, etc.). This year it was hosted at the apt building Pang bought. He plans to remodel it so he didn't mind if it got a bit trashed by party people.

Over 300 people were there and the top floor where the main dance floor was overlooked the golden gate bridge. It was quite nice. We tried Rock Band and was able to finish a song although limped through it. The girls also sang at KTV for awhile while Jaime made fun of us. We all had plenty of Jello shots and champagne to celebrate.

I decided this year to not do New Year Resolutions because I guess I do them every year and I thought instead of waiting for new years to do something different, I can choose to be different every day and just start from there. It's my way to be more spontaneous and fluid with life instead of trying to plan every minute out. So far it feels pretty good. ;-)

Happy New Year. Best wishes in 2009!

- Lei

12 hours of sleep!

We are truly blessed as Isabel is such a big girl now. Since we have freed her from her swaddle and her sleep blanket, she is actually sleeping better - 12 hours of sleep straight without any crying! Wow. I guess she has been trying to tell us she can do it now and it took us a week to understand her.

She looks so at peace and cute in her crib when she sleeps. She loves sleeping on her stomach and sometimes with her butt up. It looks so comfortable for her. I am so happy and can't believe how grown up she is now. In the middle of the night if she wakes up, she doesn't cry and simply crawl a little to another spot and sleep again. She also doesn't cry when she wakes up in the morning. She just simply start climbing the sides to stand up and either look to see if Agnes is up and look towards the door to see when we will come in to say good morning.

How lucky we are! Morale of the story is don't fret and let sleep happen naturally. Eventually they figure it out.

- Lei

8 months old and unswaddled

Happy New Year! Isabel turned 8 months old yesterday. She is almost 18 pounds and about 28.5 inches tall. It's so fun to watch her grow, play, and make sounds right now. Everything to her is a delight - especially anything electronic like remotes, cell phones, clocks. I guess she will be a geek like me. :-)

Also she has finally broken free of her swaddle at night. We had modified her swaddle two months ago to be on a larger sleep sack. That worked well for awhile, but for the last week, she has been breaking free of it and waking up screaming. She is so strong now that she can flip over with her arms swaddled or she would just break free and start standing up on the crib even though her feet are in the sleep sack blanket. We got scared that she would trip over her own sleep sack while trying to stand up, so we bit the bullet yesterday and took out her swaddle and her sleep sack.

We were bracing for a rough night, but I guess she has gotten old enough to sleep without help. Of course she cried for 20 min, but she was able to stand up and then sit down and then go back and forth without falling and finally fall asleep on her tummy until 8:30 this morning. We just hope this will repeat again tonight. Keeping our fingers acrossed.

I guess there is a reason people say a baby can be swaddled up until 8 months old, because after that they are so strong, it's no use to keep restraining them anymore. We hope this time the sleep training will not take two weeks. will keep you posted.

- Lei