Today my parents moved out of their home of 28 years into a new house that is less than 5 miles away (about 7 minutes) from us. The timing is not a coincidence, as they had been wanting to move, but were waiting for us to move first. I’m not one to get too sentimental about things, but it feels like I’m saying goodbye to a longtime friend. I lived in that house from ages 4-17, and then on and off again until I got married. Long after I moved out, I still referred to it as “my house”. There are so many memories attached to that place, and now it belongs to another family. I can’t imagine living in one place for so long, but I admire my parents for being willing to go for the change. In a way, their move is more of an adjustment to me than our own move, since D and I have never lived in one place together for more than 4 years so far. Anyway, I’m looking forward to when we’re all settled in, and to creating more memories for k & n!
Catch-Up
I’ve fallen behind in updating this blog again! Here is what has been happening in the past week or so.
I tasted my first Sprinkles cupcakes. D brought some leftovers home from work (Love when he thinks of me!) We tried strawberry, pumpkin (w/cream cheese frosting) and ginger (w/lemon frosting). Not surprisingly, I liked the ginger the best! The sweet-tart lemon was a nice contrast to the warm ginger flavor. Not sure I would pay almost $4 for one, though.
We went to a birthday party for a one year old with the same name as k (spelled a different way). The theme? Cupcakes!
Cupcake Tower
Went to Disneyland w/k, n, my mom, and sister. It was my first time going with either n or k.
Enjoying Countdown Chicken Fusilli at Red Rockett’s in Tomorrowland. Also shared a corndog from the Red Cart and a Dole pineapple float. (We’ll be going again for D’s birthday).
Our new Moen faucet installed by our real estate agent! (If anyone needs a rec for a real estate agent in Long Beach/OC, we would be happy to refer you).
Tonight I made ham/spinach/cheese crepes. I am in more of a cooking mood these days…maybe it’s watching all of those Top Chef Masters episodes. (Congratulations, Rick!)
The Joy of Rice Cereal
Here is the promised video of n’s first eating of solid food. He moved on to oatmeal today. Next up, barley cereal…yummy (not really).
5 Months Old
k & n enjoy their new bathtub. D got in with his swim trunks, too.
n is 5 months old today. We fed him his first bites of non-milk food (rice cereal). We’ll post a video soon.
Celebrating @ Irvine Regional Park
We are continuing to unpack boxes and slowly whittling down our pile of stuff in the living room. I am very excited to say that I managed to hook up my Series 2 Tivo to our AT&T U-Verse box. (I had to order an IR cable after failed attempts to purchase one at Best Buy and “The Shack”. I am still waiting for my wireless adapter from Amazon…then we’ll be really hooked up!) I must say, the connections do not look pretty as we have an awful media niche. Hopefully my BIL can help us use the conduit (is that the right term?) to hide some of the wires.
Back to last weekend. We celebrated my mom’s birthday at Irvine Regional Park, hence the title of this post. My sister and BIL brought some delicious food…ham and cheese baguettes (w/cornichons!), egg salad sandwiches, green bean/cherry tomato salad, potato salad (w/ bacon!), rice crispy treats and cupcakes. Afterward we rented a couple of bicycles built for two. (Look for the buy one rental get one free online). Of course, k was *very* reluctant to put on the required helmet for kids. We basically just forced it on her head while she cried/screamed. However, once D took off with her, she had a good time, like I knew she would. We ended up all taking turns and had a nice time in the perfect weather.
k also had a great time kicking around her new ball (from Target) with Uncle K. She was running around so much and had absolutely no problem falling asleep that night!
Roly Poly
Look What The UPS Guy Delivered Today
D’s parents sent us a box of New Zealand pears as a housewarming gift. How sweet (literally).
Anonymous requested pictures of the house. Here’s a shot from our balcony into the living room. Yes, we still have quite a bit of unpacking to do!
In other news, n can officially roll over from back to front. We’ll have to get that on video soon.
Settling In
We’ve been busy the past few days.
Sat.: Movers brought our stuff out of storage and moved it into our new home.
Went to a luau at church. Unable to put our bed together due to lost clamps.
Sun.: Sunday School/Service. (k didn’t cry when we dropped her off!)
Lunch with parents at Panera.
Parents helped us with unpacking.
Failed attempt to buy Costco pizza. Ended up at “Pandy X”, as D likes
to call it.
Found clamps for bed frame, but now can’t find two of the
wheels. D has ingenious idea to use toilet paper rolls.
Mon.: Brought kids to parents’ to work since we didn’t have internet access.
Came home before 2 p.m. to let in the cable/internet guy.
D was able to get home in 15 minutes.
Went to dinner w/friends at Curry House.
Tues.: Mom took k to California Adventure with her free birthday admission.
(k got scared on the Toy Story ride and doesn’t like new things in general.
We’re going to have to work on that.)
I worked while my Dad took care of n. (n is going through a stage where
he is EXTREMELY attached to me. We call him mama’s boy.)
It’s Ours!
It’s official, the house is ours. Our real estate agent gave us the keys yesterday. We will be moving in tomorrow. This past week has been spent at my parents’ house. We’ve had it pretty good–home cooked meals and extra hands to help with the kids at all times! Looking forward to moving in, though.
A Saturday Night in Los Alamitos
After a full afternoon of packing, we went out to dinner with my parents. D’s co-worker has been raving about a Chinese restaurant called Fortune Cookie that is near by our place, so we decided to give it a try. (My parents and I had take out from there a LONG time ago, but D had never been). We ordered chicken lettuce cups, orange chicken, eggplant, House lo mein and brown rice. Fortune Cookie is known for being “healthier” Chinese–all of the nutritional info is on the menu. D and I thought it was funny that we were the only Asian people in there aside from the employees, and it was pretty crowded! We enjoyed the food, and even had enough leftovers for tonight’s dinner.
Note the mess that k made…this happens pretty much whenever we go out.
Afterward my parents went home and we headed to the nearby Los Alamitos Race Course for the Wiener Nationals! This was another thing that we have meant to do, and now that we’re moving, we thought we might as well.
We didn’t get there early enough to get the good seats. The dogs are so small, it was hard to see:
There was also horse racing, but we only stayed for the first race. I’m sure it is a lot more interesting if you have money at stake!
k was more interested in this:
D was able to snag a beach ball that they were throwing out to the crowd.
On the way home we ran into a DUI stop set up by the Cypress police…I guess they wanted to target the race attendees.
Also wanted to note that last week n turned four months old. 
He weighed 17 pounds at the doctor’s office. Love those thunder thighs!