Isabel's First Pottery Painting Class

On Sunday, I planned a playdate for Isabel with 4 of her friends to paint Pottery. Isabel loved it as did all of her friends. She is so grown up now so I wanted to expose her to more art. the Rainbow coin bank is hers. Her ninong will pick it up for her in a week after they glaze it. :-) Lei

Isabel's First Karate Seminar - with Senior Sensei

On Friday, both Jaime and I left work a little early so we can take Isabel to her first Karate Seminar with the grand master of Karate - who was born in Japan and now lives in LA.  Isabel seems to be the only child invited from the SF Karate classes. It was quite an experience for Isabel

Happy 90th birthday Tita Yo

We hope to see you soon. Have a great day!
Lei

Swimming class by herself

Isabel started swimming last week - she goes all by herself and we just watch from the sidelines.

She is making a ton of progress now and on sat dunked her head all the way and picked up an octopus toy at the bottom of the pool. Pool is about 2-3 feet tall.

So proud of her.

Mornings with mama

Isabel is growing up so fast and I want to do more things with her on a regular basis. So now on Tuesdays and Fridays morning, I spend an hour with her at the coffee house before going to work.

Here she is carrying my bag with her coloring book and pens. She is getting to be such a big girl.

Russian Hills Academy - Oct 2012

Opening Car Seat Present from Lao Ye and Lao Lao

Since my parents couldn't be there with us at Xmas, I took a video of Isabel opening their present - a convertible booster car seat as she is a big girl and her little sister will now use her other seat. Isabel is very happy Lei

Alexis Signature Crawl

Alexis still loves to crawl and she is very good at it.  She does it with so much cuteness that I am not sure I want her to walk yet. She tilt her head from side to side when she crawls to express her enjoyment. See this video

Kindergarten Application Submitted

Who knew applying to public school for 5 year old could take so much time. Well after many tours of different elementary school, I submitted the application today in person at 555 Franklin. 

All apps have to be submitted in person by Jan 22 so I thought I beat the rush. Her school choices are 

1. Starr King Mandarin Immersion program
2. Sherman General Ed 
3. Garfield General Ed
4. John Chin General Ed

Her language test is on Sat Jan 26.  Fluency in Mandarin will help greatly to get our first choice.  crossing our fingers.  We don't find out until March 15.

Lei

Russian Hills Academy - Videos and Photos - Sept 2012

Alexis loves real food

Forget gerber. Once Alexis started eating food from the table she is not going back. Smart kid as our food has much more flavor than the baby stuff. Here she is eating a corn dog and loving it

Happy 2013

Happy New Year!  One of the biggest things I learned this year is: with two kids, I have to give up getting everything done on time or at all.   So what's meant to be a Xmas letter is now a Happy new year letter.  Better late than never, right? :-)

2012 has been an exciting year as ever.  With Ling Ling born in Dec last year, we had our hands full just integrating her into the family.  While Isabel loves her little sister, sometimes, she can love her too much (when she tries to pick up or feed her crackers yikes, or hug her too hard).  All in all though, we survived.

Alexis has developed quite a personality.  She is a pretty mellow kid in general,a good sleeper and loves to smile a lot. Her signature move is the princess wave which accompanied by a big smile has melt many hearts.  Don't get her mad though.  On the rare occasions where she is mad, she has a booming, heart-wrenching cry. She has 4 teeth now, weights about 20 pounds, height 30 inches.  She hasn't started walking yet but she can crawl really fast.  She LOVES food and will pretty much eat anything (so far no allergies! YEAH!)

Isabel has grown into quite a creative, expressive little girl.

• By expressive, I really mean non-stop talking in the house, in the car, walking on the street, anywhere including with friendly strangers on muni.  She has made a friend, Victoria in Paris whose dad is our neighbor.  They talk by Facetime a lot and it's so cute to hear her conversations.  She also made many friends from school and all her social activities.  
• Isabel has a keen fashion sense and the ultimate girl - not sure where she gets that from.  I was a tom boy and liked to climb tree when I was 4.  She loves everything princess.  Luckily she also has just as much fun getting herself dirty in the sand at the beach.   
• Isabel loves to read and learn.  She thinks reading to her is as fun as watching TV.  She voluntarily does Math with me in Chinese and she has taken on the 100 piece puzzle.  It's amazing to watch her mind soak up all the information and figure things out.  Isabel is pretty fluent now in Mandarin.  Even my parents were impressed.

Jaime made it through a year in the corporate machine - SalesForce who bought the startup, desk.com, he

worked at in Sept 2011.  Luckily for him, Salesforce has kind of a Frat culture - many happy hours, young energy, so he fits right in.  He was also shielded from most of the corporate politics by his boss. Well, no more, his boss just left last week, so Jaime is taking over the marketing department for desk.com and will have a team of 4.  He is instinctively a good leader but we will see how long he can fend off or take the corporate BS.  2013 will be another exciting year.  Jaime continues to do Judo and Jiujitsu although not as often.  He hope to get back to a regular schedule in 2013.   

Agnes is as usual a life saver for our family's sanity and balance.  She is great with the kids and continue to teach us by example how to be better parents.  Ha!  She is also an amazing interior organizer.  Without her, our apt would probably look like a storage all over.  She manages to tuck away many things in our storage closet and on the balcony.  She loves her Netbook and iPhone so she can stay connected with her family in the Philippines, her friends around the word, us, and good shopping online :-).  Now that my sister in law, Em, is back in town, Agnes also parties it up with her once a month and get some girl time.

I am back at Wells Fargo working 35 hours a week since March.  I almost took a head of marketing job at a start up but luckily I wised up. :-)  Not a good fit as the CEO and I didn't have the same execution focus. Besides, I want to be there to see my kids grow up.   The Wells Fargo contract affords me flexibility, convenience and financial security.  Gives me more time to also work on my career success blog.  I have about 15K readers monthly and almost 1500 people receiving my email newsletters.  I have many ideas for next year - local events and maybe a book.  We will see how I can fit it in. Lastly, I am happy to return to my pre-pregnancy weight - losing 37 pounds over 8 months.  Yeah!  I know I am vain, but I am also a dancer.  The bigger me just didn't feel right.  I hope to do more salsa dancing next year. :-)

All in all, our family of five is doing well and want to wish you a very happy new year.  Let's get together in 2013.  Best wishes,

Lei, Jaime, Isabel, Alexis, and Agnes

Alexis 1 year check up

Alexis is growing up fast. She is

• height 29.75 inches - 55%
• weight 19 lb 13 oz - 25%
• head 17.75 inches - 55%

All very healthy and switching to cow milk plus lots and lots of food.  We are feeding her now 3 meals a day + 2 snacks + 3 bottles of milk of about 18 oz total.

Isabel first Santa letter

She wrote all the letters with a little coaching from mama. Santa got her letter and delivered her beautiful train set !!

A Very Merry, Busy Xmas

The holidays is just flying by. Between family, work, and friends gatherings, we have been dashing from one place to another non-stop all the way up to Xmas.
- Jaime's company party at SFMOMA
- Jaime's high school friends holiday lunch in San Mateo
- Diva dinner with Ajantha, Judy, and Tamara
- Adult couples night out with Kerry, Brett, Ena, and Chuong
- Early Xmas dinner at Bito and Bita and Birthday celebrations for Roy and Alexis \
- Birthday lunch for Bito at Bocce Cafe
- Decadent Xmas Eve dinner at Christina's house in Portola Valley
- Isabel's dance recital
- Jaime's jiujitsu friends holiday party at Angie and Matt's 

This is just to name a few things we been up to. Here are some photos from some of the festivities.

 Isabel of course got a lot of presents again although she seems to never be satisfied. We are trying to figure out how to teach her to appreciate things she gets instead of focus on the one or two things she doesn't have. One tradition I started with her is we went to feed the homeless on Xmas Eves Day. WE got 3 meals at McDonalds and went around our neighborhood to hand them out. I don't think she get the concept of homeless yet but she was sweet to go with me and we will probably do it every year.

 Now it's a little quieter at home so we can recover from all the festivities.. Enjoy the photos. First one has the kids. Second one are more adult parties
 Lei