Cousin Jennie is staying in the Chinatown apartment. One day when we came to visit she let Mimi be her make-up artist…brave, brave girl.
Putting on blush…with her hand.
Oh no, no more makeup!
All done! Doesn’t Cousin Jennie look so beautiful?! She’s all ready to go out to her party that night.
We love you Cousin Jennie! Thank you for keeping Mimi busy for a half and hour and letting her give you two black eyes with eye shadow and use lipstick on your cheek as blush. Hope is wasn’t too hard to take off…
Chrissy xoxo
This week my Mama took me into NYC to visit Bak Bak (maternal great-grandmother). We took the 
I found a ball to play with on the floor. It was so fun!
Later in the day, Bak Bak took me out to dinner at her favorite restaurant, 
I was having fun blowing raspberries at the dinner table.
Bak Bak let me play with her chopsticks.
I point my arm to tell Bak Bak what I want.
I was pointing to an orange. Bak Bak wiped the skin over 100 times so I could eat the orange.
Boy is this orange delicious.
So juicy! Good thing Bak Bak rolled up my sleeves. I had so much fun visiting Bak Bak. I love her so much and cannot wait to see her again.
Moysee (Isabella’s nickname) wakes up every morning with a big smile on her face. She has my undivided attention during the week while Mimi is away at camp upstate with my parents so I decided to share her morning routine.
For her morning stretch, she stands on her tippy-toes and reaches her arm to try to touch a flower.
After her stretch, she goes to her toy chest to find something to do.
This particular morning, she found a book to read. It was about animals that live in the ocean.
Back for another stretch.
Dada comes to say good morning and read her a Barbie book about 
With Mimi away, she plays in the kitchen uninterrupted.
Finally, time for breakfast! This is her favorite part of the morning.
I tell her stories when she eats. She is a good listener.
She laughs at all of my stories.
And then claps. I love you Moysee!
We just came home from a family trip to Boston. This was a big trip because:
Our first full day, we went to the 
Even Jeff got into the bubble blowing.
This machine makes life-size bubbles but it was not really working that day.
Who is taller?
We had a great time at the 
Since Mike lives across the street from the 
The next day we went to the 
After the aquarium we went on the 
On our last day of sight-seeing, we went to the 
Mimi loved how close she could get to the butterflies.
She even touched one (which I’m pretty sure is not allowed).
This is a silly (almost embarrassing) story…On the front door of Mike’s apartment, I saw this sign. It surprised me so much I had to tell my sister to look at the sign and commented that Boston is really relaxed about racial terms. Since some of the concierges are Asian, I thought the “FOB” meant “Fresh Off-the Boat”, a derogatory term for immigrant. After a good laugh, Kimbie explained it meant the 
We survived the Boston trip. I love to travel and Boston isn’t that exotic of a place, but it was a change of scenery and not too stressful. I cannot thank Kimbie and Mike enough for accommodating us, helping us navigate, getting us meals, and babysitting one night so Jeff and I could have a nice child-less dinner. We all had a great time and we cannot wait to come back again and visit.
Mimi, my oldest daughter turned 4 a couple of weeks ago. This year instead of having a big party, we took a family vacation to Boston (look out for pictures in the next blog post). On birthday day, it was all about the birthday girl. The Hello Kitty candle on her Carvel ice cream cake is the same candle we have been using since her first birthday.
After a birthday pancake breakfast, it was all about opening presents.
Moysee (Isabella’s nick name) helped her big sister open presents.
Family picture with the birthday girl in front of her birthday cake.
She might be 4, but I remember her this big like it was yesterday.
Happy 4th Birthday Baby! I love you always. Love, Mama
One of my greatest learnings from being a parent is selflessness. What use to be my time and my money is now time and money I want to spend and invest in my girls. The greatest example of this in my life is my Father. I grew up in a nice house in a good neighborhood and we went on vacations every year. We didn’t have cable and never drove new cars. Growing up I never understood why we didn’t have these things and my friends did, but now that I am a parent, I understand completely. My Dad devotes his life to his family. When he wasn’t working, he was spending time with me and my three siblings, going on bike rides, having us help him rake the leaves in the yard, or watching movies. He sacrificed to provide a good life, college education, a wedding (for me so far) for us. I know he would have enjoyed cable TV and a new car. Even now, he selflessly spends his time teaching Olivia how to ride a bike, or driving me and the girls to family events, and is letting us live in a second home he bought for when he retires.
Today is also my 6th wedding anniversary. I have to admit, I forgot, so when my husband showed up with flowers this morning, I wondered why he would buy flowers for Father’s Day and asked the shameful question “Why did you bring flowers home?”…Since I shared a picture of my father-daughter dance with my dad from my wedding, I thought I would share the first-dance with my husband. Even though we took dance lessons and even changed our song to 
This is my husband, Jeff’s, new car. This car represents Jeff’s professional and business success and that makes me a proud Chinese wife. Even though I think this car is overpriced, excessive, and overpriced (did I say that already?!), I love what it represents, and I love that it makes him happy. As a wife, I want my husband to find success in something he is passionate about. Being Chinese where good fortune is so highly regarded, success is almost a requirement. Early in our relationship, a combination of luck and a lot of hard work, I was one of the first employees of a very successful start-up that sold for millions of dollars. As happy as I was with the success in my career, it put Jeff in my shadow. As a Chinese wife, I didn’t want him there. And as a proud Chinese man, I knew Jeff did not want to be there. I always knew Jeff would do great things. It took him a little while to find his success and I am so, so…SO proud of him.
Jeff is a police officer. He realized later in life he wanted to be a policeman. He was the oldest cadet in the police academy. Good thing he is young at heart. This picture is from the day Jeff was sworn in. He was so happy. As much as I don’t like he has a dangerous job, I love that he has found something he is so passionate about.
My sister in-law, Melissa, is getting married in June and we went to Atlantic City, NJ for her bachelorette party weekend. I had not been to a bachelorette party in so long, the last one We stayed at 
The first night we had dinner at 
After dinner we headed to watch a cover band play. They were really good and the songs they sang were awesome. We all had our shoes off dancing.
Melissa and Cheryl taking a moment on the dance floor to pose for the camera.
And of course if you are partying with Melissa there will be shots at some point during the night.
Something scandalous is going on here.
Melissa and Annmarie not doing something scandalous.
Cheryl and Annmarie lifted Melissa onto the stage (even though there were stairs) so she could sing with the band.
I mean really sing with the band…
Brunch the next day. We were tired, slow, hungry, and all of us took naps afterwards.
After an afternoon of spa treatments and lounging, we started getting ready for another big night of dinner, drinking, and dancing. I love this picture of Lynn doing Melissa’s makeup. They both look so pretty.
Melissa deciding which Louboutin’s to wear. There is no wrong decision here.
Champagne toast before going out dancing.
We went to 
Melissa and Cheryl posing for the camera on the dance floor.
Me with the bride-to-be.
The Long Island Girls! So much fun partying with them.
Lynn, Jeannie, and Alycia. Can you believe Jeannie had a baby 10 weeks ago?!
Group shot! I think I’m the only one not wearing something shiny.
The DJ needed some help with the music. He didn’t look up once. If he did, he would have noticed that no one was dancing. Katie and Sienna got up on stage to help him out and the music was much better.
Melissa and Annmarie.
Kimbie and I. It was great to hang out with my sister this weekend.
**Update January 31, 2015 – here is a 
We had a family dinner at home and a Carvel birthday cake. Like I said, a very low-key day…we are all in our pajamas in this picture.
Dinner with my sister, Kimbie, and brother, Matt, at 
One of my favorite things to do is go horseback riding. Kimbie and my cousin, Cheryl, graciously joined me on a trail ride up north. Have you ever seen the movie 
I have this equestrian helmet that I purchased many years ago and I just love it. I think wearing it is most of the reason I love horseback riding so much.
After horseback riding, we headed home for Matt’s famous fried chicken and wine.