Last post of 2011

It has been a while since last time I update my blog. Both M and I wrote something, but they are just piece and fragments that I found them hard to read.

So, what had happened after we visited the zoo in September?

Well, we had major events like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I made custom for Leonard; Jeffery came to visit us and we had Thanksgiving dinner together; Leonard opens gifts first time for Christmas. 

There are also some remarkable moments-- such as we use our new snow-plower for the first time. It is awkward to say this now as it is snowing really badly: this year weather seems much milder than usual. We have only inches of snow till yesterday. Since it was snowing, Leonard went out side to play snow the first time. 

Leonard in his Halloween outfit. Do you ever meet a Vampire this chunky? 

Yes. I plow the snow All BY MYSELF!!

First time walking in snow boots, Leonard: what's going on here? 

After thanksgiving, we did not do crazy Black Friday shopping as we usually do this year. Instead, we took Leonard to Pittsburgh for a little trip. To Leonard, everything brings fun. Children's Museum in Pittsburgh of course is nice to play. In Westpoint Overlook, he picks up acorn from the ground and looked at it curiously. I guess I would never seize to amaze how a child can be so easily happy. We as adults-- got all greedy and became pre-occupied-- just not able to enjoy those simple things anymore.

Thanksgiving dinner. I did decorate the table this time. We have pasta salad, ham and chicken rolls, BBQ Ribs, and Southern White Bean Soup. 

Say Cheeze!

I made PECAN BAR for M to satisfied his craving.

(At West End Point Park in Pitts.)

WOOOOH!! (In Children's Museum in Pitts.)

Leonard grows a lot since his 1st birthday. Quote to quote of M, he is more like human-- not little animal. He can say mommy, daddy, A-po (grandma in Haaka), hi, bye, open, on, light, happy, go (outside), full, baby (his bunny), and this/that. He can scoop yogurt to feed himself and he can do kiss bye! He sometimes mixed two languages when he talks. To me, it is a lot of fun to hear him say a long sentence that nobody can understand it. I usually ask him to repeat, he can repeat exact the same thing. Obvious, it is meaningful sentence just we could not understand it.

In Daycare, Leonard with his buddies: Owen and Henry. Leonard learns puff-and-blow from Henry, and Kiss-bye from Owen.

A trip to Sam's-- he insists to sample coffee and the guy find him hard to refuse-- so he gave Leonard an empty cup to play.

Look how cozy I am in my shopping cart cover!

Leonard now absolutely knows right and wrong-- he usually went hiding after doing things he is not suppose to do. When he takes items from our desk without permission, he usually runs to another room so that he can play with it. We often find things at weird place after them disappear for a few days-- for example, I found my makeup pouches under dinning table, a glue stick on Leonard's bad, and my lunch bag between plants.

Another trick: No! No! (he learns that finger pointing gesture from M).

He is holding my lunch bag-- kind of hiding it at his back as he knows that is mine.

At the corner of his playroom, he now can entertain himself by finding new tricks.

Leonard took this picture for me. Yes, that is right, he took this picture. His daddy let him hold the camera; he looked at the screen, and then hit the shutter. Not bad at all for one and half year-old a first timer, right?

My Mommy.

Leonard also plays a very neat trick-- he brings us our outdoor sneakers (we kept a pair by the front door), and after seeing us put them on, he drags us to the door and try to get us to open it. He will says "open, go!" and M usually cannot resist when Leonard does this cute trick and will take him for a short walk around the house.

Daddy, go!

In the morning of Christmas, I woke up everyone because I really wanted to open the gifts. As usual, M asked us to take formal pictures before we can do anything open our gifts. Now, I gonna say something that probably will make everyone freak out. This year, since Leonard is so young and there are many uncertainty in the future, I set up a limitation we can spend on the gifts to each other. In short, we can only buy one gift to each other so we do not over spend on things we don't necessary need. To be honest, we are not in need of anything, right?

So, here we are, opening gifts on Christmas morning:

Formal picture.

Us with Annie.

I am helping Leonard opening the gifts.

Cars! (He is a boy!)

M opens his gifts...

Annie, reading the scarp book I made for her.

On the New Year's Eve, I made hot pot for dinner. This seems like a weird choice for holiday. Shouldn't we be drinking and partying? I guess I just like to have something everyone enjoy-- with the ingredients I can get in here, hot pot is not easy to make and is special enough for holiday. We made the broth ourselves using bone-in ribs (takes about six hours) and napa cabbage rolls. I found tofu, green been noodle and imitation crabs in Wagmens. Too bad I cannot find Japanese's yams in this season or it would be perfect.

On the last day of 2011, Leonard did another neat trick-- M and I was sitting on the last step of stair and chatting. Leonard-- after staring at the space between me and M for a while, decide to squeeze in and sit between us. He seems enjoy it, and his smile is say: I like to be with you guys!

Last, I want so showoff some great picture M took in this year. God creates a beautiful world for us-- we hardly realize because we are too busy to enjoy it.