Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! We wish you all good health, true happiness, and peace at home!

Here are some New Year photos of us with our photogenic lil’ girl.

In case you are wondering, we never tell her how to pose. I always tell her to “stand properly and look at the camera,” and she will figure out how she wants to look in photos.

It’s definitely not a genetic thing.

She is just very comfortable in front of the camera, probably because I have taken more than 15,000 photos of her in the past 5 years.

A couple of weeks ago, my cousin Maggie & her family stopped by and stayed with us for a night, while on their way to Seattle from L.A.

I think the last time we saw them was like 6 years ago, on our wedding day, when their son was only 2 months old! We went back to New York and I think not long after, they moved to Taiwan for a little while before settling in Hawaii; so we haven’t seen each other since.

Although it was the first time the kids have met each other, I was great to see that they had no problem playing together and getting along.

The visit was short, but now that they are in Seattle and we are in SF, it will be much easier to visit them as well as my Grandpa more frequently then ever.

Of course, I’ll need to find a steady job first.

Benny is one of Kaitlyn’s new friends from church and he just turned 4. He had his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese last Monday & we were invited.

Here are a few photos I took from the party. I guess I was having such a blast there that I totally forgot to even take a picture of the birthday boy! Sorry!

strongHere are some of the funny things that Kaitlyn says from time to time. We intend to update this post with new ones, so for your convenience, we will keep it at the top of our site./strong

strongCheck back often Enjoy!/strong

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emstrong2012-01-08/strong/em

Kaitlyn was watching Benji (an old movie about a dog saving 2 kidnapped children) with Daddy.

strongKaitlyn:/strong What do dogs eat?
strongDaddy: /strongAh, dog food.
strongKaitlyn: /strongDog food spiders?
strongDaddy:/strong I don’t think so.

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emstrong2012-01-06/strong/em

We were at Wal-Mart, a woman over the P.A. system called for a “code Adam” to all store associates. I think code Adam means “drop everything you are doing look for a missing child.”
The woman over the intercom went on to give a description of the child said something like, “The boy is wearing a grey shirt, blue jeans, has brown hair…”
Looking a little lost, Kaitlyn said, “Oh dear, what’s that??! I don’t know what that means.”
But then, after giving it a second thought, she understood it.
“Oh, she’s talking about him because it’s his birthday!”

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strong2011-12-17/strong

On our way back from Kaitlyn’s dance class, Paw-Paw (means “Grandma”) asked Kaitlyn if she gave Ms Lyons the Christmas gift bag in Chinese. Kaitlyn said yes. Then Paw-Paw asked if Ms Lyons said “Daw-Jeh” (means “Thank you”). Kaitlyn replied, “No, she said ‘Thank you.’”

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emstrong2011-03-21/strong/em

Kaitlyn was on the floor coloring. She sneezed.

strongKaitlyn:/strong Who’s going to say “bless you” to me?
strongDaddy:/strong How about me?
strongKaitlyn:/strong Yes.
strongDaddy:/strong Bless you.
strongKaitlyn:/strong Thank you! Now you say “you’re welcome!”

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emstrong2010-12/strong/em

strongMommy:/strong Now I can’t get that song out of my head!
strongKaitlyn:/strong Because there’s no hole. That’s why. (said it matter-of-fact-ly)

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emstrong2010-11/strong/em

We were having dinner at home. Kaitlyn was eating Chinese-style steamed spareribs pulled a small piece of bone out of her mouth. Speaking in Chinese, Daddy told Kaitlyn to wipe the chipped bone off of her finger with the napkin, he said, 「Kaitlyn, “hi”喺呢度。」(“Kaitlyn, wipe it here.”)
Kaitlyn, holding the bone close to the napkin, with a soft, squeaky voice, she said, “Hi! Hi!”
“To wipe” in Cantonese Chinese is pronounced “hi”.

Jeremy & Kristie invited us, along with two friends of theirs, to their house for a small but fun Easter Egg Hunt & delicious lunch the day before Easter.
The three of them were almost the same age and all the activities were very well planned, so they had a lot of fun playing together. (Thanks Yau family!)
Here’s a selection of the photos we took that day.
Enjoy!

Always willing to help, Kaitlyn volunteered to help her mom make some dumplings a little while ago. Not exaggerating here, but she really begged us to let her help & didn’t stop until we told her to. Here’s some photos to prove it.

One Saturday in early April we decided to visit IKEA. Actually, Kaitlyn & I first went on a Friday night. I forgot why but I had to take care of Kaitlyn that evening & I took her there. And when Mel found out, she was jealous & wanted to go as well, hence the Saturday visit.

We walked around a bit, bought a few small items & had lunch there.

It’s now June so naturally it’s time to do an April recap… No, not really. I’m just home because I’m sick & Kaitlyn is sick, so I have some time to kill.

Here are some random photos from April of Kaitlyn being silly, being sick at home, being a bunny at school, and being pretty in a pretty dress.

It was an eventful April, so I already have scheduled a few more posts w/ photos for the next few days. Make sure you check back daily for the updates!

Enjoy!

Here are a few more photos from Kaitlyn’s other birthday parties—at school & on the day of her birthday. (Yeah, she’s spoiled.)

Enjoy!

We certainly can’t believe that Kaitlyn is 4 already. As usual, my parents made the trip out to celebrate her birthday with us, along with a few good friends, in our tiny apartment. This year, Kaitlyn’s birthday happened to be on Chinese/Lunar New Year, so she got even more attention than she would have gotten already.

As much as I think that she is spoiled/blessed with so much materialistically & attention-wise, I believe she deserves all of it very much—she has grown into a very mature 4-year-old single child.

What do I mean by mature? Well, if I have to describe her, I would say she is hardworking, honest, very caring & considerate, brave, optimistic, funny, ambitious, fair, a good listener & has a passion for learning; I don’t think many of these traits are considered common or natural in people today (including myself), let alone a 4-year-old girl.

Of course she is still a handful, but she’s only 4 and that’s what great about it.

Besides, Kate has Mel & I—the best parents for her!

OK, enough talk. Let’s look at some photos from this year’s party!

And if you want, before clicking on the photo thumbnails, first click on the arrow below for some background music while looking at the photos! Enjoy!

Daughter — Peter Blegvad