Happy 100th Day, Ethan!

Ethan turned 100 days old on October 16, 2011.

Just like his older sister, Ethan had a Red Egg and Ginger/100 Day party.  This time, the party was held at a Korean restaurant in the Central Valley.  The Red Egg and Ginger part celebrated Ethan's Chinese heritage, while the 100 Day part celebrated his Korean side. 

In Korean culture, we celebrate a baby's 100th day of life (baek-il) with family, friends and food.  We also share a particular type of rice cake on this day, to spread luck and to wish the baby a long life.  Typically, this rice cake is white, but we had a rainbow one ordered (the pink topped one in the picture).  Unfortunately, the rice cake didn't travel well from San Francisco, where we had it special ordered, to the Central Valley.  Pretty to look at, but it was dry. 

He pretty much slept through the entire dinner party. 

Meanwhile, Emma ate and sang at the table and then ran around outside the restaurant.  She also managed to find a water source outside of the restaurant and played around with the water in the fountain. 

She swam in her grandparents' pool since it was 88 degrees outside!  She was a little unsure at first, because she hadn't been swimming in a while...These two pictures crack me up. Note her displeasure in each.

But, then after a little while, she decided she liked being in the water again and didn't want to come out. 

Again, note her displeasure at being dried off and being told that swim time was over.

We celebrated another important family milestone with loved ones and lots of food, which is always a recipe for a good time. 

Separately, I am returning to work at the end of November, after the holidays.  I am totally reluctant to return, even more so than last time, because I know that a mountain of work is already awaiting my return.  In fact, I have had to go into work a few times while on leave, and every time the question has been "When are you coming back already?!"   My husband's advice "Don't psych yourself out before you even know what it will be like."  Solid advice, I think, so I am going to try to keep a positive attitude and an open mind, and see how it goes when I actually am back at work.

Apple Puff Pastry Tart

We have an apple overload due to this.  The apples are lovely and crunchy and delicious eaten raw, but I decided that since we have an abundance, I would make a baked good.   I had high falutin' ideas about making a pie from scratch, crust and all.  Then, I realized I have two kids and one is only 3 months old and I am tired.  I opted for this easy tart instead.

I used one puff pastry sheet, purchased from the grocery store, three large apples, one Rome, two Fujis, half a lemon, about 1/2 a cup of brown sugar (I am guesstimating here, since I didn't really measure the amount) and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

I don't have a fancy apple corer thingie, so I cut out the core by cutting into the apple wedges diagonally and then thinly sliced the wedges.  The resulting slices still look pretty good.

I mixed the apple slices, lemon juice, brown sugar and cinnamon all together, letting the mixture sit a little bit until it got juicy.

Then I cut the slightly defrosted puff pastry sheet in half to make two tarts and layered the apples into each half. 

I suppose you could add more sugar and some butter to make this even tastier.  I have seen plenty of recipes with more sugar and melted butter added to the apple mixture, or with butter dotted over the top of the layered apples in the pastry prior to baking.  However, I opted to cut the sugar and fat so that I wouldn't feel too guilty about giving a big piece to this little character:

I had leftover apple mixture, but didn't want it to go to waste.  So, I threw in some walnuts and dried cherries, put the mixture along with the leftover juices into a saucepan, along with some water so that the liquid covered the apples just slightly, then cooked on the stovetop until the liquid was syrupy.

 The resulting apple concoction is good and will taste great on ice cream or on our morning oatmeal.

Look at the twin beauties.  I drizzled a little bit of the apple concoction syrup on top of the tarts.

 

I think if you want a more professional look, you could glaze the tarts with a little melted jam.  Also, if you put in more sugar and/or butter, you would definitely get way more juice at the end.  But, to us, these were very good, and not overly sweet.  Husband ate half of one in about two minutes.

Pumpkin Patch October 2011

For this year's pumpkin patch excursion, we left San Francisco and went to Half Moon Bay.  And this time, we had this little guy along for the ride.

We went the first weekend in October with our friends and their one year old son.  What fun we had!  We rode on the "train" which Emma loved.

We saw some real ponies, but since she was too little to ride one, she rode a wooden pony instead.

She picked a pumpkin for herself (she finally chose the little orange one she is holding in the picture)...

 But, only after she picked a larger one up and tried to run off with it.

 Happy Autumn!  This is my favorite time of the year!

Look Similar?

Here's Ethan at 3 months! 

He has been able to hold up his head without wobbling like this since week 10.   Does this look similar to this?

He is pretty strong and also like to "stand" on his feet.  He is almost 16 pounds already - my chunky monkey!

Apple Picking

Today we went picnicing and apple picking in Sebastopol with friends. Fun and delicious!

Groovin' and Babblin'

Back in May, my brother bought and sent us an old school boombox so that Emma and my mother could easily play their music.  People, I live with a computer nerd who took away all our CDs after burning the music onto an external hard drive.  Yes, it saves space, but sometimes, I just miss the simplicity of putting in a CD and pushing play, no turning on the computer, no searching for the proper directory, no searching for songs, etc. etc.  And, yes, I know I am a dork and not with the times.  But, do you remember making mix tapes and/or mix CDs?  That, my friends, is a lost art...

Anyways, we keep this boombox in the living room on the floor.  It only took Emma a few days to learn how to operate it and she has been using the thing ever since.  She picks the CD she wants to play from a small CD case, puts it in the player, pushes play, and then starts dancing away.

Here's a video of Emma dancing to a song from her Pororo CD and to Wheels on the Bus.  She *LOVES* her Pororo CD.  I have heard this CD so many times, my head aches just thinking about it.  Let me tell you, Pororo the Little Penguin is like cartoon royalty in Korea (warning! clicking on the link takes you to a site which plays one of the crazy-making songs from the CD).  He is everywhere.  I guess he is like the Elmo of Korea.  Her new favorite song is Wheels on the Bus.  She knows the hand motions that go along with the song.  In the video, you see her looking off to the corner because that is where I am standing, following along with her motions.  You will also see her running over to me a couple of times to make sure I am paying FULL attention to her.  Did I mention she is having some jealousy issues since the arrival of baby Ethan?? 


Emma really loves to sing as well.  She knows quite a few songs, but her favorites to sing are Wheels on the Bus, the Alphabet Song, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep (all three of which have the same exact melody, just different words), Are You Sleeping, and three or four other Korean songs. 

I don't know what Ethan makes of all this singing and dancing.  I think sometimes he is just overwhelmed by Emma and all the noise a 2 year old can generate.  Here he is, babbling away after his sister's bedtime, which is really the only time he can get a word in edgewise.

Recent FOs

When I started this blog, I posted stuff about my corporate peon role, books, knitting, cooking, travel, all sorts of things.  But over the last year and a half, this blog has evolved to become a forum about my family and children.  That's fine, I know the only people who really read this blog are our family and friends who are genuinely interested in our family life and long to see pictures of our oh-so-cute kids.  BUT, sometimes, looking at my older posts, I am nostalgic for those freer days when both husband and I had more time for our personal hobbies and pursuits.  

Because I don't really have that much time to knit anymore, I decided that instead of trying to start new ambitious projects that I know I will never be able to devote enough time to, I would pick up my old projects I started but never finished and actually finish them.  Doing this, I have been able to clear out a bunch of things from my knitting basket and have ended up with some pretty cute things.  Some things, like the Poppy Beret were started in 2008 and only had a few more rows to go before completion, but for some inexplicable reason, it languished in my basket for 2 years?! 

The 2 year Poppy Beret which was originally meant as a gift for my sister in law, but now has become mine.

Here's the Vine Lace Vest which I gave to my mom.  It's a horrible picture, but trust me the thing is pretty cute in person.  I admit I have borrowed it once or twice.

The Noro Entrelac Scarf.  Another well intentioned gift.  Even if posting a picture ends up ruining the surprise, I am posting it anyway because I think it is pretty and the knitting technique is neat.

 The Open Ribwork Socks for my mom.  I have only knit two pairs of socks in my life, and one of those pairs was the pair I knit in sock class while learning how to make socks.  People who don't knit will probably chuckle about handknit socks and wonder why anyone would bother in this day and age, but let me tell you this - the socks are measured to fit my mom's feet perfectly, the yarn is comfy and pretty and they are super warm.  My mother actually likes wearing them to bed to keep her feet warm at night.  Go figure!

I have other unfinshed sweaters and projects that will still take a while to finish.  Maybe some will be finished in another two years (yikes!). 

I did manage to knit three things for baby Ethan, mostly done very late at night/past midnight between feedings, diaper changes, etc.  I felt like I had to make some things for the little guy because his sister got so many handknit baby things, but he didn't yet have any. 

A plain ol' newborn knit cap which is already too small for my little guy.

The Garter Yoke Cardigan - probably will fit in another month or two.  Still need to find the right buttons for it.  Oh how I hate to sew buttons and seams...

The Sweet Norwegian Baby Cap.  This matches the cardigan.  It is a neat contruction, sort of like a bonnet because it covers his ears and the back of his head to the nape of his neck.  It's a little too big for him now, but he will grow into it.