Yakking away in the car

Christmas Dancing

Sierra has learned to "boogie down" early in her first year!

December 21st - one of the first moments we noticed that Sierra can't help but start bouncing when she hears music!

And unrelated, playing with her favorite chair:

Christmas Eve at the Taos. Cousin Julia on the piano, accompanied by Sierra's dancin' stylin's...

A trip to the San Diego Zoo

Second trip to the Zoo, but first time she expressed any interest in animals...

Petting a goat's ear

Good times with Lilly O

Babysitting Lilly... Sierra and Lilly love each other's company!

Here is Lilly pushing Sierra in a stroller for baby dolls.

Lilly and Sierra pushing each other

Santa Barbara Trip with the Huangs

Family trip with Grandma and Grandpa Huang and Uncle Ben.

1 year old + 1 week

Some pictures here. Not many videos were taken, but here is one where is she practicing walking... like a drunk girl... and growling with Uncle Ben. Daddy acting like Coco cracks her up!

After coming back to SD, a yummy meal at Rei do Gado. Dancing while eating papaya!

Walking with Grandma and Grandpa

Happy Birthday Sierra!

Sierra's first birthday - 12/04/2009
First birthday party! - 12/05/2009

Videos coming....

Eating Adventures Part 2

Sierra is almost 11 months old and getting better and better at chewing. I don't need to puree anymore!

October 30, 2009

We paid a recent visit to Red Lobster (craving some endless shrimp). Here are some snapshots of Sierra's evening of seafood...

Salmon!

Broccoli!

Drinking some water

Sierra certainly enjoyed this trip to Red Lobster. She also had some cheesy biscuit and made a massive mess.

*****

November 1, 2009

Remember how I said avocadoes were the only food that Sierra was not an instant fan of? Well, we've changed her mind!

We made some homemade guacamole with tomatoes, onions, lime juice, and parmesan cheese. Check out how much she loved it!

mmmmmmmmm!

Halloween 2009 - Heigh Ho Heigh Ho

Halloween pictures can be found in my Facebook album.

The O's recently moved to San Diego! Andy did his PhD in the same lab (you may recognize him in some old Diaz Lab/NYC posts from years back), graduated, and got an awesome job in San Diego. It feels great that a bunch of our good friends from Sinai are relocating to Southern California (i.e. Heather and Cheryl!).

They have a 2 year 3 month old, Lilly. She is SUCH a sweetie. So good to Sierra. She lets Sierra play with her toys and really watched out for Sierra this evening. Since Sierra couldn't walk up to doors and do trick or treating the "right" way, Lilly learned to trick or treat (a whole new phenomenon for her, but she was a quick learner! - The stages: 1. silence, 2. grab candy, 3. grab candy and say thank you, 4. say trick or treat, grab candy, thank you, 5. run to house, trick or treat, grab candy, thank you, 6. "another house?" etc. etc.) and quickly started to share her loot with Sierra!

Sierra's new best friend

Sierra was covered in a mound of candy by the end of the night!

Pai pai so! (Clapping!)

Also, some videos from yesterday:

Playing

Encouraging Sierra to practice walking with the remote

First Steps

We saw Sierra take her first tottering steps last night!

10.5 months

Here are the first videos that we managed to capture.

When a hand goes near her mouth...

We've conditioned our baby to do the following:

First trip tp the playground

10 months 1 week

Splash Park

Second time on the swing... Sierra was very interested in the little girl next to her.

First time checking out the playground.

Watching big kids... Practicing walking.

Gotta watch out for her habit of eating everything!

Climbing stairs

Stuffing Her Face

10 weeks and 1 week old.

Sierra likes to stuff her mouth
(reminds me of someone I know... ahem, DADDY)

"Mom"

Eating Adventures

We haven't been great at capturing all her first eating moments (check here and here for older posts), but here are a few that we have gotten. It's pretty amazing how quickly babies turn into more adept eaters.

Sierra is a good eater (she better be!). She's had rice, oatmeal, peas, carrots, green beans, sweet potato, potato, bananas, peaches, pears, apples, watermelon, wheat bread, cinnamon raisin bread, eggs, tomatoes, cheese, cream cheese, chicken, beef, cheerios, chex, broccoli, cauliflower, pasta, pasta sauce, yogurt, and a bunch of Gerber crackers. But so far, we have managed to find ONE food that she was not a huge fan of after the first bite - AVOCADOES.

Here's a clip from August 19, 2009. She was 8 months old.

That was Grandma Liu laughing in the background.

Sierra would make gagging actions and her whole body would shiver occasionally. We should try it again sometime and see if she would like avocadoes more now (probably would if it was guacamole!)

*****

This is how Sierra usually looks when eating.
(August 29, 2009)

*****

Fine Dining

Sierra is perfectly comfortable munching away on carrots and bread in middle of a fancy restaurant. (September 13, 2009)

Gimme more! Gimme more!

*****
Ba Ren - last night of Grandma and Grandpa Huang in town - Almost 10 months old!
(September 29, 2009)... She has a history of wanting to chomp away on the camera...

Dave's 2nd Gig

Dave was asked to perform at his brother in law's 45th Birthday BBQ today... Here's a clip (keep a close eye on Sierra in the backdrop):

L.O.V.E.

Doesn't Dave sound good? He had to transcribe the music from some youtube videos he found. He put together a bunch of songs in just a week!

Sierra likes to F L Y !

Maneuvering around the Baby Chair

2 days shy of 9 months.

I noticed that Sierra was paying a lot of interest to the baby chair today and was glad I had my cell phone nearby to capture these shots. Albeit fuzzy, these pictures show Sierra maneuvering herself in and around (and most importantly, back out!) of the chair all by herself! No fuss whatsoever...

Yay, success!
How to get out?
Crawl back the way she came in...

Successfully out!

Which tastes better? Table or Lemon?

I think the lemon won.

Sierra wants some taco (octopus)

Waikiki Aquarium

Chasing some Achilles Tangs

Shark's Cove

Hawaii

Dada/David Liu????

Sierra loves her rings.

Listen to what she says around 8-9 seconds on this next clip... You need sound and jack it up!

Sierra's boat

Testing out her Hawaii gear (hat, shades, and boat) before we take her out into the big ocean at the end of the month.

(She's sportin' the cute bikini from Linda)

"I'll do anything for the remote"

Sierra stands on her own!

Climbing, Standing, Reading... well, someday...

Sierra crawled over to the stairs in her room yesterday and tried to climb up them (unsuccessfully). But she managed to quasi-stand with the help of the steps, and then plopped down in sitting position. This technically makes it the first time she sat by herself!

Afterwards, she crawled over to her dresser and yanked out a bunch of board books (Thanks, Miguel, for the gifts!)... Maybe she'll be a reader one day... but for now, she seems to enjoy the taste of cardboard and plastic!

"BaBa"s and "A-Bah"s!

Sierra was practicing her future talking skills today. She would always stop when we got the camera ready to tape her. However, we found the perfect opportunity when she was happily vocalizing in the car:

I'll work on getting some better videos. It's so cute watching her mouth and tongue move...

Happy 4th from 4S!

Our community had its inaugural 4th of July Fireworks Celebration this year. The most exciting part was that they were launched from the elementary school 2 blocks from our home! Dave, Sierra, Coco, and I chilled out on our balcony (first time we really used it since we moved in), ate dinner, and enjoyed the show...

Coco barked a lot. Sierra watched with intensity.

When Sierra is happy...

Arms and legs go flying!

Sierra Meets Maddie!

We stopped by Chris and Charlene's place to visit little Collin! It was great to finally meet them and we look forward to the 2 little ones playing together in the future...

Sierra was exploring the living room and crawled into Maddie. Here is a clip of their first encounter:

"mmmm, fingers taste good!"

Does this count as Crawling?!?

Sierra has been trying to creep and crawl without too much success. She usually will end up sticking her butt into the air and either smush her face into the ground or flip herself to one side or the other.

Recently, she's been making reaching motions and grabbing and trying to pull herself forward.

Today, she looks like she's doing the real thing!

Watch me sit!

For the first time, Sierra can sit up longer than a few seconds! (Sorry for the sideways video, I don't know how to rotate it!)

Dave's Early Retirement Plan

Yum Yum Yum

Sierra forgets all about her food when she has her new spoon to practice with!

Feeding myself is fun!

Enjoying some fine wedding tunes

Sierra was unusually fussy at Hannah and Shay's wedding. :(

But the musicians seemed to calm her down....

Squeaking Baby

Some videos from Sierra playing in the hotel room in SF.

For some strange reason, she was especially fond of high pitched squeaking with happiness this weekend....

Look how strong my arms are!

Sierra is almost 6 months! She's rolling around a bit, reaching and grasping... Sometimes, trying to crawl (more like sticking her butt up in the air)...

A very happy girl! Here she is playing on the bed, reaching for her favorite rattle (thanks Aunties Heather and Cheryl!), and showing us how strong her arms are:

Happy Baby in the Crib

This video speaks for itself:

Sierra is big enough to reach and touch the mobile! It's amazing how fast babies grow.

Sierra meets the "Piano" for the first time

"SWIMMING" for the first time!

Happy 4 months + 1 day, Sierra!

Many infant swimming programs will start teaching babies to "swim" at 4 months old. Since Sierra is 4 months and 1 day old, we decided to introduce her to a pool for the very first time.

Learning to use her hands

March 30 - Sierra learns to use her hands while Mommy goes back to work!

April 4 - Happy 4 months, Sierra!

Sierra chilling in the car, singing and playing

April 5 - Playing in her carseat

Rolling front to back!

BREAKING NEWS!

9:30am 

Sierra manages to roll over from her tummy to her back!

A video clip of her 5th roll:

Avid reader and eater in the making...

Sierra takes after Mommy...

and Daddy!

Laughing and squealing

A couple days ago, Dave and I were doing squats while holding Sierra (Dave was holding Sierra, and I was making goofy faces and funny noises at her). She was laughing like crazy! 

Tonight, we captured her happiness while bouncing on video! Notice the high-pitched squealing. We've never heard her squeal like that before...

Grandma and Grandpa come a'visitin'!

March 18-23, 2009

My parents came for a short visit to see little Sierra and how much she's changed in 3 months! 

Sierra was fascinated by Grandma's dumpling making skills

She really enjoyed all of Grandma's silliness. Wow, if you think I'M loud, you should've seen my mom!

Too short of a visit though. :(

Having a conversation....

Sierra had a busy morning and afternoon strolling all over La Jolla (La Jolla Shores, La Jolla Cove, lunch at Cody's) with Mommy and Daddy. She was telling me ALL about it....

Thumbs are yummy

Signs of Spring!

Our plum tree has 1 blossom (hopefully, there will be more in the future)

The hibiscus are blooming!

Pretty geraniums

Don't know what these are, but they're nicely flowered as well

Grape vines!

Garlic shoots

Scallions!

Our orange tree had 3 blossoms last year... Look at it now!

Happy 3 Months! Celebrating with some Mirror Dancing

Happy 3 months to Sierra!

Sorry that this video is sideways and jerky (hard to do with one hand on a squirmy bouncing Sierra and the other with the camera)... but have a peek at one of Sierra's most favorite pastimes: playing in front of the mirror! She loves to interact with the baby in the mirror... and here you can see the smiles that are so elusive to catch on camera (she's not a fan of the camera as it is always flashing in her face!)

Tour of California - Stage 8 (aka Stalking Levi and Lance!)

Chasing Levi and Lance all over North County!
February 22, 2009

My brother came down to visit for the weekend and meet little Sierra. Since his visit coincided withe the ending of the Tour, we decided to check it out

We caught them at 3 locations:
-Official start at 0 Km
-In the middle, near the Wild Animal Park (we ran down the street and got there JUST in time)
-Finish in Escondido

The Finish was too crazy and we didn't get too many good shots cuz they're blazing by too fast at the end! But here of some pictures we got. I've tagged Levi and Lance where I knew it was definitely them. I may have gotten some Floyd Landis, but not sure yet.

Location: Rancho Bernardo --> Escondido

Since facebook pictures have such low resolution, I've appended the original photos of the ones with Levi and Lance below for your viewing pleasure.

At 0 KM

Levi is in the middle in the yellow jersey and navy arm warmers

Lance's butt! (He's #2)

In the middle, the Breakaway... Frnk Schleck (winner of the stage) should be here.

Team Astana at the front of the peloton

(Levi in yellow, Lance is the only one with a yellow helmet)

Finish - Levi's teammates congratulating him on winning the Tour

Levi's butt

We went home afterwards and watched the race that we DVR'd.

Fun day!

Sierra is"singing"?

She's been fairly vocal since 2 months or earlier. We've had "conversations"... but this is new as of last night/this morning:



She's been a loudmouth all morning!

Mission Bay Sunset

Palm Springs Half Marathon and 5K

Dave and his friends had so much fun at the Carlsbad Half that they decided to run the Palm Springs Half this weekend!

We drove into Palm Springs Saturday morning. Check out the snow-capped mountains along the way. There were tons of rain the week before, we were worried that it would rain this weekend. Thankfully, the storms held off 'til Monday.



Apparently, it was the day of Tour de Palm Springs - a big cycling race ranging from 5-100 miles. Cyclists EVERYWHERE. We walked through the small Expo at the finish line. Fun shopping! Lots of fantastic deals! We gotta find some more bike races to shop for our gear. Much much much cheaper than REI...

Playing with Sierra that night in the hotel.

I decided at the last minute to run the 5K and test how well the stroller works. Technically, you can run with a baby in the stroller at 6 months, when the neck is stable. However, since we bought the infant car seat adaptor, that should work well enough. It actually worked very nicely (as long as the roads are smooth).







My pictures from race day:

Dave in his trash bag staying warm (it was in the 40s!).

Pretty mountains

While waiting for the 5K to start, I caught the Half Marathoners blaze past us!

Dave

Mike

Check out the backdrop of the race...

No pictures of me on the way since it's hard to take a picture of myself while jogging. I kept John's cousin company during the 5K, so the pace was very leisurely. To test the jogger, I ran the last mile pretty fast and passed a bunch of people. That was FUN! :) BOB jogger is very awesome. So smooth! Sierra was zonked out the entire race!

Dave coming in!

Finishing! (Time was pretty good. Around 1:45 again... very consistent)

A minute later comes Mike!

Another minute, there's John!

Becky finishing with an awesome time of ~1:53. Wow, I wish I can run like that.

Baby's first race. What a good girl.

Free advertising for Lexiva (drug that Becky sells)

(Dave and I forgot to bring our Jerseys! Oops! We'll take this picture again, properly, with everyone later on....)