Happy New Year 2010!!!

New Year's Eve parties are traditionally catered around adults and rarely are there any fun activities for young children. Fortunately, one of our friends informed us of a fun New Year's Eve party celebration at Pump It Up. Since Adrian is a big fan of jump houses, we instantly knew where we were spending the eve before 2010! Everyone had a blast running around, climbing up and over the obstacle courses and going down the amazingly fast, but uber fun slide! It was a great affair for kids AND adults! The evening ended nicely with a toast of Martinelli's apple cider with a roomful of happy friends and family! Happy New Year Y'all!

Dinner with the extended Tam Family

The extended Tam family (minus the Grandparents, Rose's family and Jen) were all in the Bay Area this winter holiday, may possible by Diamond's new permanent teaching position at Stanford. The whole family united over dinner at Joy Luck Palace in Cupertino. The last time everyone in this picture were together was back in March '08 at Majestic and Jen's wedding in Vancouver with little Adrian and little Justus baking in the oven! :)

Daddy's Little Assistant

A foreign object got lodged inside one of Adrian's toys and required disassembling in order to remedy the problem. Our little helper was keen on providing a helping hand to his father and grabbed, not one, but two screwdrivers and got right to work! Thanks little guy! :)

Merry Christmas from our family!

Our warmest wishes to you and your family for the holidays! May your home be filled with much love and happiness!

Happy Birthday, Mummy! :)

Here's a special birthday kiss for my wonderful Mummy! Hope you have a spectacular Birthday, Mummy! :)

A whole bunch of kids

We hosted this year's Christmas gift exchange / pot luck with our poker buddies at our place this year. From left to right, we have -- Megan, Ethan, Adrian, Alan, Haley and baby Carter. MIA are Mack & Dean. The kids had fun playing with each other and with Adrian's many toys while the adults got to remedy their poker itch. Too bad the house didn't win tonight! :(

Clowning Around

Adrian is always clowning around where ever he goes. Here we are at Valley Fair mall squeezing in some last minute holiday shopping and doing our part to re-fuel the economy!

Adrian's 1st White Elephant Gift Exchange

We felt like we had hit the jackpot when we were (FINALLY) invited to the Nguyen family's annual Christmas party this year! Perhaps our invitation to last year's event was "lost" in the mail! Not only did Adrian get to play with the Nguyen brothers, but he also got to participate in his first (of many to come) White Elephant Gift Exchange. For the most part, everybody played nicely and there were very little stealing action (except for both of the cool gifts that we had brought, which ended up being traded multiple times!) We decided not to steal any gifts (from adults, maybe, but not from kids) and chose wrapped gifts so that little Adrian can tear open the wrapping paper. It was sheer joy seeing his happy little face as he ripped away at the wrapping paper -- a skill he now has mastered just in time for Christmas! :) We took home a set of tupperware and a stainless steel bottle and mug set! Yay! :)

Adrian's play date with Sophia

We missed the first play date that the Nolan's organized earlier this year when Adrian was feeling a little under the weather. Fortunately, Adrian was feeling perfectly fine for the second one. Usually, our little munchkin is shy around strangers and clings onto us while in a foreign place, but for some reason, he felt completely at ease. In fact, Adrian took over little Sophia's living room and played with all of her toys as if they belonged to him all the while under the watchful eye of little Sophia who clung onto her Daddy! Sophia did warm up to little Adrian a little later so they were able to interact for a short while. We'll have to set up another play date for these two at our place to see if Adrian's up for sharing his toys with little Sophia! :)

Winner of a Wine Set @ My Company's Xmas Party

This year, my company hosted our Xmas party at the W Hotel in Newark. This would be another rare opportunity that Ed and I would ship off our precious little cargo, our munchkin, Adrian off to Grandma's for the evening! As a member of the social committee, I'm pleased to say that this was the BEST Xmas party to date as the number of compliments we received from our coworkers were never ending! This year, in addition to the usual great food, DJ, dancing, raffled gifts etc., we had casino tables for some friendly gambling! We had tables for Craps, Spin the Wheel, Black Jack etc. We even had prices for the top 3 people with the most chips! Unlike last year (when I took home an awesome tiny little green Ipod Shuffle), I didn't win a prize from the raffle (boo!), but I did collect enough chips to take home 2nd place for Casino challenge!!! $12,700 chips total (1st place had $14,000!) Yay! I'm not much of a wine drinker, but nevertheless, it was nice not to go home empty handed! :)

Brandon's 1st Birthday Party!

We've attended lots of kiddie birthday parties this year, but this one was extra interesting! Little Adrian was getting lots of attention from a 21 month old little Audrey! First, they played "house" together." Notice how well they shared the space together and allowing each other time at the window?


Then they went to sit down together. It wasn't long before Audrey reached around and tried to place her little arm around my little Adrian!

Little Adrian sat still, as if frozen and didn't know what to do. Then Audrey got all shy as the adults were gasping on what had just happened, while snapping crazily away on their cameras! Little Adrian decided he wanted out of the "sticky situation" and ran to his mummy! :)

Happy 1st Birthday, Brandon!!! :)

Our Little Photographer!

Adrian is so used to being in front of the camera since Mummy is super snap happy, he decided to *steal* daddy's SLR to have a taste of what's it like being behind the camera. Go easy on Daddy's expensive toy! :)

Polar Bear Cookie

We have a very sweet chef at our cafeteria who is very fond of kids. He knew about my little 16-month old and gave me a polar bear cookie to take home to little Adrian. To show our gratitude, I took a picture of Adrian eating the cookie so that I could share the picture with Takis the following morning. Thanks for the cookie, Takis!!! :)

Our little Coder

When Daddy has a brain fart while coding, guess who comes to the rescue? J/K! No, we haven't put the little guy to work yet (but we should!) :) For the most part, Adrian doesn't usually interrupt us when we're tapping away on the laptop unless he needs our attention. But then there are days that he just want in on the action, like today! :)

Winner of our Halloween Costume Contest!

Last month, my work hosted a Kid's Halloween Costume Contest where employees were encouraged to vote for the cutest Halloween picture. 17 contestants participated - some parents even submitted separate pictures of their kids to increase their odds; all vying for that coveted 1st place win! Well, guess whose little munchkin reigned supreme? Yup, that would be my little monkey below who tied for 1st! As a result, I've dedicated my cubicle wall with his montage below! :)

"Battered & Bruised"

Yup, if our family car had a voice, that would be her complaint! The poor SUV just 1+ year old has not only been hit in the front, but now also in the rear!

Exhibit A below is an accident that Ed endured earlier this year while going to Tahoe for a ski trip! Even though, he wasn't technically at fault -- the car in front had spun out of control and was sitting at the bottom of an on ramp like a sitting duck, Ed ended up taking the blame since it was our SUV who hit the car! :(

Exhibit B below occurred this past weekend with the family riding inside! Thankfully, nobody was hurt! The young fella behind us admitted to not paying attention to the road and had taken his eyes off before slamming on the brakes when he looked up and noticed our red brake light at an intersection. Luckily, the Mitsubishi Eclipse was no match for our SUV as the SUV itself didn't budge and nor did we experience any whiplash!

I'm thankful that nobody was injured at any of these accidents and hope that it doesn't occur again. Be careful and stay safe on the roads during the holiday period folks!!!