A Warm Day at Ocean Beach in S.F.

This is the 1st time we actually "play" at Ocean Beach in S.F. because it's normally cold and foggy here. The weather was gorgeous today and both Nathan and CoCo had a blast.

A Date with Seahorse

This is how Nathan post for pictures if you ask him to smile!

We went to visit Monterey Bay Aquarium to view the "Secret lives of Seahorse" exhibits. It was a beautiful day and the exhibits were amazing. My favorite is the Sea Dragon (above)! Nathan is very interested in learning the different creatures in the ocean. He now knows that it's the daddy seahorse who gives birth to baby seahorse. What an interesting fact!

1st Visit to the S.F. Academy of Sciences

We finally visited this most crowded and most talk about museum in the Bay Area. It's truly amazing...an aquarium, a planetarium and a natural history museum all under one "Living" roof. Besides the living roof, the building has a solar canopy, an extensive water reclamation system and walls insulated with recycled blue jeans. It's definitely impressive. No wonder everyone wants to come here. We had a fantastic day exploring and learning...

Giant Sting Rays greeted us at the entrance.
Meeting diver Dave was definitely one of Nathan's highlights of the day.
A beautiful butterfly landed right next to us as we were walking around the 4-story rainforest.
Gill (from Finding Nemo) is still stuck in the tank again!
Nathan loves to learn about the tropical fishes in this Philiphine Coral Reef (deepest Coral Reef in the world).

Things I want to remember

My niece Cindy has this great way of jotting down her daughter Sofia's milesstones and anything she wants to remember on her blog. I thought that is a brilliant idea, but just never got around to do it until now...
-Nathan's language skill has grown so much the last 3 months. He now talks in full sentences (since a couple of months ago) and can name most objects that he knows in both Chinese and English.
-We are still keeping Cantonese as his primary language, but he can understand instructions in English. He picks up lots of English vocabularies from his play mates and friends. His favorite phrase in English is "No Way" which he said he learned it from Sofia (my niece's daughter).
-He started asking "Mut Yeh" (means What is it in Chinese) all the time about a month ago. Whenever he hears some noise or sees something he doesn't know or not familiar, he will ask you "Mut Yeh" again and again until he gets it down in his head.
-He is a true boy because he is obsessed with cars, trucks and trains. He has been playing with those soon after he turns one. He can identify the different kinds of vehicles, the different kinds of trucks and even some differnt brands of car.
-Nathan loves to read. That is how he spends his quiet time. He usually reads at least 2-3 books before he goes to bed. He reads when he gets up in the morning and before and after his naps. I guess reading helps him to whine down. Some of his favorite books are Thomas the Tank Engine (we got quite a few from his older cousin, Christopher) and Richard Scarry's "Cars, Trucks & Trains", "Busy Busy Town", "What do People Do All Day" and "Clifford the Red Dog".
-We are absolutely having a lot of fun together these days. I love taking him to parks, museums, play dates and other fun things because he just lights up whenever we're going out. Before I start my car to go somewhere, he will say "Thank You Mommy". That just puts a HUGE smile on my face.
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Gilroy Gardens

Gilroy Gardens is one of Nathan's favorite places because he can ride the carousel, Gold Fish, race car, fire truck and many other things all by himself. Believe it or not, we do spend the WHOLE day here. He is known to play till he drops. I wonder where he gets that gene from ?



1st time on the monorail. It's pretty cool!

Come on, give me the food cowboy! If not, I'll eat your hat.
Mommy, the rabbit is as soft as CoCo!

Aunt Christine and Uncle Charles

Aunt Christine and Uncle Charles came to visit from Hong Kong. We spent a wonderful day together at Fisherman's Wharf. The sky was clear and the weather was gorgeous, you can even see Alcatraz from the picture below

Does he look like a little Gap model?

Nathan Feeding himself

Nathan has been feeding himself for a while, but lately, he seems to have mastered that skill.