new sweater

poh-poh crocheted this beautiful little cardigan for amelia for christmas. you can't really see it, but that little red button on top is a ladybug!

o, glorious california

who needs to be in the center of the universe--new york, that is--when it's january and it's almost 70 degrees out here in san francisco?!? yes, poppa kwong is indeed wearing only a short sleeve shirt. see that guy in the background in the picture below? he's not even wearing a shirt!!! it's been a ridiculously gorgeous weekend. people keep telling us that this weather is really unusual, but we've been hearing that pretty much since we moved out here. so here we are, exploring a little park in north beach, filled with old chinese folks doing tai chi, and half naked people playing badminton. amelia was strangely mesmerized by both. until she found the swings.

cutie pie

new year's weekend

we rented a house in sonoma with our friends the cooper-kims. this was the view from the driveway of our house:

the view from the path to the pond, where justin managed to catch one teeny-tiny fish:

amelia ordering helen to share goldfish:

despite how this appears, we did not go to antartica, but rather visited bodega bay:

where the wind shaped poppa kwong's hair to be this:

all in all, we had a great weekend of eating, running around with the kids, and playing boggle. pretty much my idea of an ideal weekend.

here's a funny story from the weekend about my child, the goody-two-shoes (not that i'm complaining): poppa kwong, justin and i took amelia and helen to martinelli winery while ian and his momma took a nap. while the men tasted wine, i looked after amelia and helen. we found a nice little lawn for them to run around, but the lawn was bordered by a dirt path covered with big spiky pieces of gravel. i told the girls to stay on the lawn and off the rocks. helen, the more, shall we say, adventurous one, insisted on going to the rocks. i tried to insist that she stay on the lawn. helen got a little fed up with my orders, and walked up to amelia, grabbed her hand and said, "melia, let's go. you [pointing at me] stay here." amelia looked at her, pushed her hand away, picked up my hand and said, " no helen, i hold momma's hand." helen gave up on corrupting my child, and ran off to the rocks. amelia followed her to the edge of the grass yelling, "helen, come back! come back, helen!" it was too cute.