We left the house at around 8:30 in the morning. By about 10:30, we arrived at our first stop in Philadelphia: Pat’s King of Steaks (the “birthplace” of Philly cheesesteak) & Geno’s Steaks.

Then we got back on the road & headed for Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA. Because of some bike tour/race, we hit traffic just a few miles away from the park, on a single lane, country road for a good half an hour. We didn’t get there until 1 PM.

It was humid & hot that day—95˚F by 9:30 AM. Fortunately, the place has the greatest water park for little kids, so we got to cool off right away. Most lines were short & we had a great time there together. Hopefully we’ll get to go again, may be with some family or friends next time!

She can’t wait to take a vacation though. Walmart, here she comes!

She and Kaitlyn got sick again over a month ago while all the swine flu hysteria was going on. Kaitlyn got the flu and Mel had severe allergies & a sinus infection. Kids and teachers at school were getting sick left and right as germs were spreading like wildfire. It was unbelievable that our school didn’t get shut down for cleaning/disinfecting. Thankfully they got over it quick.

Well Kaitlyn has been in school (daycare) and has learned a great deal. From saying to mommy “Can you stop?”, “I don’t like that!”, and “No!” to learning to sit on the potty (although nothing ever comes out) to pretend play, Kaitlyn is becoming a big girl. It’s getting really scary.

She is always full of energy and wants to do everything herself. She loves to sing and talk in both English & Cantonese. She loves to watch Cantonese versions of “Cinderella” & “Monsters, Inc.” She has picked up a lot of Cantonese words & phrases especially from “Cinderella.”

Strange things about her are that she’s afraid of humans dressed up as characters (like Hello Kitty, m&m’s) and she’s afraid of animals. In a way it’s good because then we don’t have to worry about her wanting to go to the zoo or to Disney World. We’ve saved hundreds of dollars already. =D

She is such a daddy’s girl. She sure loves her daddy. She will smile the biggest smile when she wakes up and sees him. She loves to pick on mommy.

No, we didn’t abandon technology & move into a cave, nor have we decided to let Facebook replace our family blog, at least not completely.

Things were crazy for the past 6 months (helping w/ cross-country move & dealing w/ family illnesses) & we just didn’t have enough time & energy to do everything we wanted. Other priorities had to come first & we had to temporarily abandon lings.info.

Anyways, since so much has happened in the last 6 months, I have scheduled a new post everyday for the next 2 weeks to update you all. So, come back tomorrow. We’ll be here.

This year, she’s a cat. Although this one has legs, she didn’t really like wearing it either, but for the most part she was OK with it. It might be because she got to wear it once at a church Halloween party, a few days before Halloween. This year, we took her to Queens to her grandparents’ house & trick-o’-treated there.

Here are some pix from the party & Halloween night:

So this is what happened. My old pal Patrick happened to come down from Boston that weekend. He stayed with us for a couple of days, so we, along with Diane & Nancy, went to Ave U & had dim-sum/lunch that morning. After that, Patrick wanted to go into the city & do some shopping. “We” tried to invite him to go to dinner with us, but he insisted on us going by ourselves. Of course, I later found out that he knew about the surprise dinner all along. Both Melanie & him were just playing along when I was trying to get him to come to dinner with us.

So we went home & decided to take a nap before dinner. At that time, I still didn’t know where Melanie was “taking” me to dinner, but it didn’t really matter to me, so I didn’t ask.

By around 6, we left the house. Since I was the one driving, Melanie had to act like a GPS, tell me where to go, turn by turn, without giving away the final destination.

So we got on the Belt Parkway, everything was fine, but then all of a sudden Mel started to complain about stomach pain. She pretended to pretend to act OK, but was soon taking deep breaths! We “happened” to have just gotten off of the highway, so I asked her if she knew of any place that has a restroom she can use, since we were at least another 15 minutes away from where she told me the next turn is. So she “suggested” Diane’s place & I said let’s call her & see if she’s home. (Of course she was!) She said no problem, but wants us to bring Kaitlyn in so that Mr Kwok can see her.

Mel jumped out of the car before it came to a complete stop. Diane was outside already. I pulled into the driveway, took Kaitlyn out, & followed Diane up the steps & into the house, & that was it——SURPRISE!

Here are some pics from that day:

Here’s a video of Kaitlyn having fun with her friend Darion at the party:

They are things that she took from grocery stores (which we returned afterward) back in June & August.

What’s next, you ask? Well, how about swearing?

WARNING: If this is a hollywood movie, it would be rated PG-13 because of what Kaitlyn appeared to have said in it. Cover your young children’s ears or put on some headphones before playing this video. You’ve been warned! If your kids start saying the same bad word out loud at church or at your in-laws’, don’t blame us!

What are we going to do??!

*more videos on YouTube