Mars is 2!

This post is a little late, but better late than never!

Mars turned two a few Sundays ago! We started out the day by going to a tea ceremony for J's cousin, Cynthia. We had lunch there and got to see a lot of family that we haven't seen in a long time.

Afterwards, we drove down to Palo Alto while Mars napped in the car. He woke up just in time to visit the Junior Museum and Zoo. His favorites animals were the bees, fish, raccoons, birds, and ducklings. It was a small space, so we felt comfortable letting him run around and going from exhibit to exhibit.

Afterwards, we went to the Stanford Shopping Center to pick up his birthday cupcakes from Sprinkles. We shopped around and ended up having dinner there at CPK.

When we got home, we sang happy birthday to him, and let him blow out the candles on his very own rainbow sprinkle cupcake.

Overall, Mars had a wonderful day. Happy 2nd birthday, my little guy! We love you so much and are so proud of all the learning you do everyday. At the age of two, you are already such an empathetic, funny, loving, and easy going little person, and we feel so lucky to have you everyday. 

Mars' First Words

Here's a picture from November that didn't make the holiday card.

On December 1st, I started writing down all the words Mars knew how to say. Since then, I added more words to the list until I couldn't keep up anymore. Here is the list:

12/1

Mama

Dada

Daddy

Pa ba or pa pa (papa)

Mommy

A Ma

Ah den (Arden)

Yayyay (Yeye)

AiYa (Aila)

Ah Dee (Uncle D)

Mine

Mee (repeats it after you say excuse me)

Mop (milk)

Ehh (egg)

Nahp (nap)

Hot (hat)

Wowo 

Nay or nah (horse)

Pah-dee (potty)

Dai-bee (diaper)

Poo poo

Pee pee

Wah-wee (water)

Enni (other or engine)

Tee (teeth)

No

Ah-dun (all done)

Ah oh (uh oh)

Help

Hop!

No (nose)

Eye

Ee (ear)

Mop (mouth)

Meep (meat)

Pea

Ta-pee (spicy)

Hot

Dahb (dip)

Ta-pa (pasta)

Pee-sa (pizza)

Yo-wee or yo yo (yogurt)

Na na (banana)

Yummy

Num mum (yum yum)

Yum

Ah-gee (ouchie)

Tee bee (TV)

Bah-day (Thomas)

Pah-day (Percy)

Eh-wah (Edward)

Ah-mee (Emily)

Hunny (Henry)

Doh den (Gordon)

Toby

Nah-nee (dinosaur)

Weeyo (whale)

Al-mo or Ow-wo (animal)

Dah (duck)

Al-mo (Elmo)

Ming Ming (From The Wonder Pets)

Bol (ball)

Buh (book)

Bah (block)

Ee-oh (the end)

Away (throw away)

Na na (knock knock)

Mohe (more)

No moe! (No more)

Yay!

Huh-way! (hurray!)

Woahhhh!

Wee!

Hi (and waves hi)

Hel-wo? (hello?)

Bye

Up

Down

Dup (jump)

Ho-dawn (hold on)

Ha-bee (happy)

Tuh (stuck)

Tup (stop)

All weh (all wet)

Homme (home)

Ha ba (hi five)

Bee beep (car)

Boh (boat)

Buh (bus)

Baby

Home

Dah (dark)

Tee or Dae or Dee (tree)

Nah nah? (Knock knock)

Ay pee (airplane)

Ha Da (outside)

Wahht (what)

Yah! (Yeah! While nodding head)

Ah Dee (ouchie)

Peeeh? (Peek a boo)

Whao (wow)

Yuht (light)

Buh Bo (bubble)

Ba (bath)

Bal bal (balloon)

Toe (corn)

On

Hubbo (hippo)

Bah bei (bumpy)

Gah day (got it)

Beebo (beebo from belly button book)

Booh (boot)

Deeh (cheers)

Hall-wee (Halloween)

Dah bah (Pumpkin)

Yight (light)

May may (Christmas)

Mah-zee (Marsy)

Nāh (snack)

Heh-Vee (heavy)

12/6

Taow (talk)

O dare (over there)

Wo-bah (robot)

Da Bei (dumpling)

12/9

Doo Dae (Santa)

Taw ("tall" building with blocks)

12/11

No nap

Mohe bah dee (more Thomas)

Mohe taw (more building with blocks)

Mohp ohb dare (milk is over there)

Monen (morning)

12/14

Dou po (Duplo)

No moh hat (no more hat)

12/15

Doop (soup)

Haht (heart)

12/16

Showy (motorcycle)

12/17

Wah-bo (waffle)

Non-no (noodles)

Too (too, also)

12/18

Bay-dey (bacon)

Tup (cup)

Tee (cheese)

12/19 12:11am talking in his sleep "bah-dee! Bah-dee!" "Eeeeeeeeee....." And some light chuckling :)

Boo-bee (blueberry)

Shooey (Chewie)

Too (shoe)

12/30

Xi xi (謝謝）

teedee (cookie)

Meetee (Mickey)

No May (snowman)

Ta day (furikake)

Hammuh (hammer)

Yight (light)

12/31

Oop (oops)

Heli (helicopter)

1/1

Koodee (cuties tangerines)

Seewee (seaweed) 

Toby

Mahdee (Marsy)

Two word phrases like "mahdee head" "mama hat "

No muh nap!

1/4

Tadee (cuties tangerines)

Deed-ih (I did it!)

Ghad-dih (I got it!)

1/5

Meim (man)

1/6

Dain (train)

Peyo (pear)

Beer (bear)

Ton (Chuggington)

Booby (blueberries)

Feet (foot or feet)

1/9

Tutu (skirt)

Bih (big)

Bih tutu! 

Weebow (rainbow)

1/10

Dawh (dog)

Tat! (Cat)

Mahn (man)

Huwower (flower)

1/12

Owwa (another)

Weeyo (wheel)

Owwa weeyo 

Bahmbee (bumpy)

Panda

Montee (monkey)

Bed

Thadt (train track)

1/15

Bahn (barn)

Tao (cow)

1/16

Behdo (better)

Tahr (car)

1/17

Woodoo (rooster)

Oh dahbey (oh David)

Chip

Meetu ( nice to meet you *shakes hands*)

1/18

Paydoh (play doh)

Feet

Heavy

1/19

Seeyo (cereal)

Fay (face)

Mobeh (moving)

Boing

At-choo! (Sneeze)

Weinday (reindeer)

Nomay (snowman)

1/20

Moobing (moving)

Beh (fish)

1/22

Fhuanny (funny)

Thoo (shoes)

Hoohuh (cool huh?)

Apa! (Dunno translation but he says it when he slams his face into the ottoman)

Dennt (dance)

Ahh yoo (where are you?)

Bye-ded (spider)

Hah-poh (grasshopper)

1/24

Halp n share (help and share)

Chut (truck)

Tah-duh (tractor)

Turtle Tuck (from Wonder Pets)

Smehl (smell)

Hahn (hug)

Allmoat (almost)

Ya yu (I love you)

Soup

Huaht (floss)

Bahn nai (spinning)

Beeah (beer)

Wiiiiinnnnnnnne (wine)

Hayyuh (hair)

1/26

Tape

Shadoh (shadow)

1/28

Yeaaahh

Heepo (hippo)

Fhoot (food)

Eating

Ton dol (tunnel)

Phone

Stah bee wawee (strawberry water aka pedialyte)

Hewwit (hear it)

Boy

1/29

Waynay (raining)

Doh (doll)

Feet

Tay-uh (chair)

Peedza (pizza)

Bhat (bOx)

Pahbaopahp (hop on pop)

Dum (drum)

Suh boh (surfboard)

2/1

Wabbol (waffle)

Hahn hon tootoo (honk your horns, toot toot!")

Dando tyduh (Daniel Tiger)

Tidey (Tigey)

Tahwee (carrot)

2/3

Peenah (peanut butter)

Noisy

I bit it

Joh'd (Curious George)

2/4

O-tae (ok)

2/5

Weetdol (whistle)

Toppy hat (Sir Topham Hat)

2/8

Wawee mehmay/ wata mehmay (watermelon)

2/11

Weet (read)

Mahnta (monster)

Murmet (mermaid)

Pets

Frent (friend)

Emo (Korean aunt)

Donut (Jonah)

Singing

Marsy Eating

Wahbeet (rabbit)

All aboard! 

Marsy poopoo

Farting

2/14

Nopen (empty)

Nut

He can also name 35 different Thomas trains :) 

Shawwee (sorry)

Ideedit (I did it!)

Mahtee ahhhyou (Marsy where are you?)

Mama yahyou (mama I love you)

Huh (hug)

Hisheeit (I see it)

Dahdih (Glasses)

Helfant (elephant)

Noono (noodle)

Meeball (meatball)

Shiot (socks)

Pootit away (put it away)

Peetah dada (pick up dada)

YaiYen (lion)

Pepuh (bell pepper)

Fy ah engen (fire engine)

2/17

No more Percy socks (4 word combo)

EDIT: I also wanted to add that in addition to these words, Mars also knew how to recognize and name 35+ trains from Thomas and Friends :)

December - January - February Instagram

2015 Holiday Card

November Instagram

Lately

We've been pretty busy around here lately. My cousin came to visit us for the week of Thanksgiving, so we were out everyday doing all kinds of touristy things around the city that we don't usually do. It was fun and made me a little more open to random outings in the city with a toddler! For Thanksgiving, we had a dinner here at our place with all the traditional side dishes and pies :) Now that Thanksgiving is over, we put up the tree and are counting down the days until Christmas. These are some pictures we took for our holiday cards this year. These ones didn't make the cut :(

1 year, 8 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days old!

Mars is 1 year, 8 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days old!

Happy Friday! Here are some pictures from when we went to Day Out with Thomas a couple of weeks ago. It was so much fun! Mars was in shock from seeing such big celebs like Thomas and Percy. Honestly, I was too. It was pretty amazing :)

Southern California

We spent three weeks in Southern California and this time we rented a car. It made such a huge difference and gave us so much more freedom than we had in the past with borrowing my mom's car when it was free. We did a ton of baby friendly things, and I know Mars had so much fun spending time with his cousin as well. Here are just a few pictures from some, but not all, of the things we did while we were there:

Swimming!

Mars' first trip to Disneyland!!!

Our yearly trip to Tanaka Farms pumpkin patch:

They took the same picture last year

And this was Mars having an insanely good time in the rain while playing with Maya Lin's water table at the arts plaza at UCI! My old art school stomping grounds!

Some other fun things we did included:

Riding the train at the Irvine Park Railroad
The LACMA
Riding the train and carousel at the Irvine Spectrum Center
Going back to our childhood home and helping my mom clean out the garage
Pretend City!
The Discovery Cube in Santa Ana
The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach
Picnicking in Aldrich Park at UCI 

We're planning on spending Christmas in So Cal, so we're looking forward to going to these places again :) 

October Instagram

On 35mm: Oakland

Fuji 100 Film

There are so many cute mid-century modern buildings in Oakland. We rarely ever venture over on that side of the bridge, but I really want to go more often. I saw so many cute buildings that I want to photograph when we were driving through on our way to Children's Fairyland.

Halloween 2015

Mars dressed up as his favorite character, Thomas the Tank Engine, and J and I went as BoJack Horseman and Diane Nguyen. We went over to a friend's house and took all the little babies trick-or-treating for the first time. They had so much fun knocking on doors and getting candy :) Although they'd probably enjoy it more if they knew what was in those candy wrappers! I had so many costume ideas for Halloween this year and was sad I could only pick one since we didn't have any more plans. Some ideas included Wedding Day Solange, Kim K with Champagne Glass on Butt, Cookie Lyon, and of course, Elsa... Maybe next year! 

Happy Halloween!

Mars had a runny nose on Friday, so we just stayed home in pajamas and carved a pumpkin :)

1 year, 8 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days old!

Mars is 1 year, 8 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days old!

It's been a bit quiet around here but irl, we've been busy! Right after our visit in New York, we went to Southern California to hang out with my family and pretty much live everyday like a vacation. We went swimming, shopping, and just lounged around and enjoyed the 100 degree heat. It was so much fun and I miss it already. I sometimes dream about what it would be like to move our little family to So Cal :) 

To catch up, here are some pictures from our trip. Since Mars loves trains, I took him to the Irvine Regional Park to ride the little train and to run around the pumpkin patch. It was super hot so he doesn't look particularly happy, but I think he had a good time.

The cutest thing happened when we were here. Once we were allowed to board the train, Mars ran straight to the engine and waved hello at the "face" of the train. He thought Thomas or one of his friends would be there, but it was just a regular train with no face. He still waved anyway. It was so sweet :)

Mars can say a lot of words now and his first two-word combo is "no more" and it sounds like "no-mohr". He can repeat after what we say but usually only pronounces the first phoneme correctly :) It's super cute, "kiwi" becomes "kewpie", "Halloween" becomes "ha-wee", etc.

September Instagram

On 35mm: Children's Fairyland

Fuji 100 Film

A couple of months ago, we went to the Children's Fairyland in Oakland with Mars' good buddy, Joss. It was a mid-century wonderland and I wish I took more photos on film, but this is where my Ricoh R1 died :(