1 Baby2 Newbie Parents
6 Days
10 Cities
We had many good reasons (people) to visit SoCal, but one close to my heart was to visit Debbie. She's my longtime friend, roommate, confidante and had some challenges to overcome this past year. We've been through so much with our challenges, goals and successes over the last 13 years. I still remember the first day we met at UCLA orientation in Cooperage waiting in line for food. Who'd have known we'd grow so close together -- and always with food involved!! With my pregnancy and birth of Olivia, I wasn't there for her as much and she had not met Olivia yet. I just had to make sure she met Olivia before Olivia turned 1!
So in the morning, Dave and I went to UCLA...to go shopping...haha. We got Liv a chearleading outfit and a really cute and appropriate shirt:
We then went to lunch with Debbie at Royal-T. A very cute Japanese cafe/art gallery/shop -- check out their website: http://www.royal-t.org/. To my happy happy surprise, Richa (my college flatmate, friend and partner in crime) was able to meet up! She too had a lot of challenges recently and I was grateful that she was able to meet up with me and meet Liv for the first time. I was very disappointed that I did not get to meet Rohan (her 2 year old boy) and see her hubby Roman. A good reason to go back to SoCal!
My family has an ongoing joke that Olivia is Hello Kitty. When we announced
to the family that we were not only expecting a baby, but a baby girl, Erick had suggested that we name her Hello Kitty. Why? I don't know, you'll have to ask him. But since then Olivia has gotten Hello Kitty items before and after her birth. As she grew older, my mom commented that with her squarish head and big eyes, Olivia does somewhat resemble Hello Kitty. And so the joke continues because for Olivia's 7 month photoshoot with Aunt Christine, we even posed her in Hello Kitty poses (sitting with her legs to the side, but her face facing you). When we got to Royal-T Cafe, they had Hello Kitty bows! Of course Dave and I had a good laugh when we put the bow on her. We think she needs to grow into it more...haha
Dave of course had to do work, so he went back to the hotel and Liv and I hung out at Debbie's place playing with their new Border Collie, Yoshi, and watching Daigi (her cat - my Friendster profile) hiss at Yoshi. Liv was so good with Yoshi, not scared at all! And Yoshi loved licking Liv. I guess babies are nothing but sweetness!
Come evening we met up with some of my UCLA family: Debbie, Fletcher, Larissa with her hubby Baldwin. We decided to have dinner at one of our favorite college eateries, Versailles. They are known for their Garlic Chicken which tastes oh so great with plantains and black beans! Baldwin had not met Liv before and when he first held her, she looked at him and did razzes! How did she know that he was the lyrical engineer?! It might be because we listen to Baldwin and Larissa's music in the car :) Check out Larissa's site. She sang at our wedding which made it all that much more special.
Aug 20th - Hirata / Teramoto Day
Cousins' Day
(Olivia, Ethan, Paige, Lauren, Hailey, Alexa, Sophia)
X's & O's for Auntie Sharon
Our last day of fun! We wound down The Tour at the Murray house in Corona Del Mar. It was a perfect ending to our tour. Well, it would have been a perfect ending to our tour. We headed out to the Murray house in the morning to meet up with the Laws. Both of us happened to be in SoCal and were able to meet up at Sindy's house for brunch. She made a delish meal with freshly baked croissants (there isn't a croissant that goes by without me thinking of Sin -- Jo, June & Sin know what I mean) and choco croissants, egg quiche and bacon. Yum! The Murray's hadn't met Liv yet because right after my baby shower and right after Beckett was born they had to move to SoCal. (Sin blames June because June's theory is that us 4 girls can't ever all be in The Bay at the same time -- and June had just moved back right before Sin found out they had to move to SoCal!)
Aug 23rd - Home..sick..
All night she tossed and turn *guilt*guilt*guilt* so she didn't get up too early today. I tried to do a bit of packing the night before, but waited until this morning to do some more. Managed to get a lot in before she woke. I had purposely planned for today to be a free, relaxing day in case we needed to meet up with friends/family that we didn't get to earlier. But luckily we were able to see 99% of the folks on my list (sorry Ed!).
We ended up not checking out until 3pm, because after her first waking (with minimal breakfast) Liv went back to sleep for about 2 1/2 hours! Dave ended up walking to South Coast for McD's and we dined in front of the room in the hotel hallway (felt like college days again!).
Despite how she was feeling, Olivia was our trooper. She fussed just a little on the plane
but for the most part she hung out like she normally does on planes....whew! We are such lucky parents!! *guilt*guilt*guilt* When we got home, she was quite exhausted. I thought I'd just feed her milk and nothing else because she seemed so sleepy while drinking milk. My family had picked us up and stayed for dinner. Shortly after I came down to join them for dinner, Liv woke up fussy. I tried to get her to sleep, but she didn't want to have any of it, so per her 婆 婆 's suggestion (more like insistence), I brought her down. She was hilarious. She was so excited to see everyone that she was making her "eh" noises (her way of calling out to people when she wants their attention - will try to film it on video one day!).
All in all it was a great tour. Thanks for coming along on the recount!
6 Days
10 Cities
Downtown LA * Santa Monica * Culver City * Ladera Ranch * Foothill Ranch * Rowland Heights * Hacienda Heights * Anaheim * Corona Del Mar * Costa Mesa
Oh my, you say! I still can't believe we were able to pull it off! I've been wanting to go to SoCal for so long, but with Baby, work, weddings, holidays it was hard to find a time to go. But when David got more than just a weekend off for our 4 year anniversary, I went into high gear trip planning. I really should change jobs and become a professional trip planner...actually, a personal assistant is more like it!
As you saw the above stats, those are actuals. But it really felt more like: 2 Babies, 1 Parent, 1 Day and 20 Cities! The tricky part of planning was coordinating locations. As most know, driving 5 miles in SoCal can equate to 20 mins! So here's a recap:
**warning** it's a long blog post...diary style....so if you have the time...enjoy!
Aug 18th - Feldman Family Time
Olivia is now a professional traveler. We got up early, fed her, dressed her and rushed her out of the house. Lucky for us she's the most enjoyable morning baby. Cooing, smiling and cooperative. As we went through the airport, we would always get comments like "oh what a happy baby", "look at her smile", "what big eyes." We feel so blessed that 
we aren't the parents with crying/screaming babies/kids -- though I fully empathize. I was a bit worried as the flight was scheduled during her nap and she didn't really sleep since she was more interested in what was going on.
The plan was that after we got into LAX, we would drive straight to downtown LA to eat Ramen at Daikokuya (highly recommended by my sister, introduced to us by Bonnie's cousin Jenny). I was worried about the wait warned by folks and the web since we would be there around noon. However, between getting our luggage and waiting for the Alamo shuttle (6 buses came and went before one picked up passengers!) we decided we quickly had to restrategize.
As you saw the above stats, those are actuals. But it really felt more like: 2 Babies, 1 Parent, 1 Day and 20 Cities! The tricky part of planning was coordinating locations. As most know, driving 5 miles in SoCal can equate to 20 mins! So here's a recap:
**warning** it's a long blog post...diary style....so if you have the time...enjoy!
Aug 18th - Feldman Family Time
Olivia is now a professional traveler. We got up early, fed her, dressed her and rushed her out of the house. Lucky for us she's the most enjoyable morning baby. Cooing, smiling and cooperative. As we went through the airport, we would always get comments like "oh what a happy baby", "look at her smile", "what big eyes." We feel so blessed that 
we aren't the parents with crying/screaming babies/kids -- though I fully empathize. I was a bit worried as the flight was scheduled during her nap and she didn't really sleep since she was more interested in what was going on.The plan was that after we got into LAX, we would drive straight to downtown LA to eat Ramen at Daikokuya (highly recommended by my sister, introduced to us by Bonnie's cousin Jenny). I was worried about the wait warned by folks and the web since we would be there around noon. However, between getting our luggage and waiting for the Alamo shuttle (6 buses came and went before one picked up passengers!) we decided we quickly had to restrategize.
So Dave fought his way onto the Alamo bus with 1 suitcase, 1 carseat with base and 1 heavy computer bag and I, with 1 baby, 1 stroller, 1 diaper bag and 1 suitcase, headed back to the terminal to wait up at departure (due to the heavy arrival traffic)!! In the end, we made it and had our Ramen fix. Their sliced pork belly is yum, but we felt that the Ramen was as good as Santa Ramen back in San Mateo (which is was easier to get to - hehe). I think we may have to go back with my sister or Jenny to order the good stuff.
By the time we got to Le Merigot in Santa Monica, it was late in the afternoon and it was hot. Olivia was still in good spirits, even though she only had 2 catnaps. I was sooo excited to go to Le Merigot. It is right next to the Loews Hotel (where I had a great experience with an ocean view room and beautiful beach facing pool). To top it off, I cashed in 15k/night points for the room aka FREE! So you must understand my utter stress and disappointment when we tried to check in and they could not find my reservation! Turned out that I had booked the wrong hotel. Somehow I booked at another JW Marriott! (In fact the one near downtown, which we had passed and I had commented to Dave "wow, that's new to the LA downtown skyline.") To top it off, Le Merigot only had 1 night available for points and the other night was $400! So we just had to make do and we got the other night with a lower AAA rate...boo...AND to pour salt onto open wounds, they were sold out and did not have a room with a King.
By the time we got to Le Merigot in Santa Monica, it was late in the afternoon and it was hot. Olivia was still in good spirits, even though she only had 2 catnaps. I was sooo excited to go to Le Merigot. It is right next to the Loews Hotel (where I had a great experience with an ocean view room and beautiful beach facing pool). To top it off, I cashed in 15k/night points for the room aka FREE! So you must understand my utter stress and disappointment when we tried to check in and they could not find my reservation! Turned out that I had booked the wrong hotel. Somehow I booked at another JW Marriott! (In fact the one near downtown, which we had passed and I had commented to Dave "wow, that's new to the LA downtown skyline.") To top it off, Le Merigot only had 1 night available for points and the other night was $400! So we just had to make do and we got the other night with a lower AAA rate...boo...AND to pour salt onto open wounds, they were sold out and did not have a room with a King.
After we checked in, I had to chill out and we decided to go to the pool.....more salt... the pool was smaller than a motel pool - with no view of the ocean! So I was quite sulky, but David and Olivia cheered me up and we had a great rest of the night with a trip to 3rd Street Promenade and a poolside nightcap at Loews..hehe. Happy Anniversary!
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*Photo Here*
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We suck at taking couple photos... ;(
Aug 19th - Debbie / Bruin Day************
*Photo Here*
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We suck at taking couple photos... ;(
We had many good reasons (people) to visit SoCal, but one close to my heart was to visit Debbie. She's my longtime friend, roommate, confidante and had some challenges to overcome this past year. We've been through so much with our challenges, goals and successes over the last 13 years. I still remember the first day we met at UCLA orientation in Cooperage waiting in line for food. Who'd have known we'd grow so close together -- and always with food involved!! With my pregnancy and birth of Olivia, I wasn't there for her as much and she had not met Olivia yet. I just had to make sure she met Olivia before Olivia turned 1!
So in the morning, Dave and I went to UCLA...to go shopping...haha. We got Liv a chearleading outfit and a really cute and appropriate shirt:
We then went to lunch with Debbie at Royal-T. A very cute Japanese cafe/art gallery/shop -- check out their website: http://www.royal-t.org/. To my happy happy surprise, Richa (my college flatmate, friend and partner in crime) was able to meet up! She too had a lot of challenges recently and I was grateful that she was able to meet up with me and meet Liv for the first time. I was very disappointed that I did not get to meet Rohan (her 2 year old boy) and see her hubby Roman. A good reason to go back to SoCal!
Auntie DebbieMy family has an ongoing joke that Olivia is Hello Kitty. When we announced
to the family that we were not only expecting a baby, but a baby girl, Erick had suggested that we name her Hello Kitty. Why? I don't know, you'll have to ask him. But since then Olivia has gotten Hello Kitty items before and after her birth. As she grew older, my mom commented that with her squarish head and big eyes, Olivia does somewhat resemble Hello Kitty. And so the joke continues because for Olivia's 7 month photoshoot with Aunt Christine, we even posed her in Hello Kitty poses (sitting with her legs to the side, but her face facing you). When we got to Royal-T Cafe, they had Hello Kitty bows! Of course Dave and I had a good laugh when we put the bow on her. We think she needs to grow into it more...hahaDave of course had to do work, so he went back to the hotel and Liv and I hung out at Debbie's place playing with their new Border Collie, Yoshi, and watching Daigi (her cat - my Friendster profile) hiss at Yoshi. Liv was so good with Yoshi, not scared at all! And Yoshi loved licking Liv. I guess babies are nothing but sweetness!
Come evening we met up with some of my UCLA family: Debbie, Fletcher, Larissa with her hubby Baldwin. We decided to have dinner at one of our favorite college eateries, Versailles. They are known for their Garlic Chicken which tastes oh so great with plantains and black beans! Baldwin had not met Liv before and when he first held her, she looked at him and did razzes! How did she know that he was the lyrical engineer?! It might be because we listen to Baldwin and Larissa's music in the car :) Check out Larissa's site. She sang at our wedding which made it all that much more special.
Aug 20th - Hirata / Teramoto Day
Thus ended the West LA portion of our tour. We then ventured into The OC, where we traveled from Santa Monica all the way to Ladera Ranch! Original plan was to visit Dave's cousins the Hirata sisters, as they were not able to come to Aaron's wedding in Kona this summer. In addition, two more cousins were born (Ethan who's ~1 month younger).
Cousins' Day(Olivia, Ethan, Paige, Lauren, Hailey, Alexa, Sophia)
Afterwards, we packed up and headed to visit Liv's Aunt Kristine at Foothill Ranch. She had recently gone through a transplant and we wanted to say hi and see how she was; lucky for us Kristine had just gotten the green light for visitors. Elsa, who was at Stephanie's, was planning on going as well (it was their dad's bday) and lucky for Liv, she got to hang out some more with her cousin Paige (who is ~3 months older). Here's a cute video of them playing with a bouncy ball:
The Hirata's were so gracious to ask us to stay for dinner. They invited Sharon over as well, and since we were planning to see Sharon and Ryan but it was getting late for Liv and they live in Anaheim, Sharon said yes and they were nice enough to drive all the way out on a Friday and with her being ~8 months preggers....Yep! Yippie! Liv gets her first 1st cousin...a girl cousin at that!
When it was time to say good bye, Liv's Auntie Sharon wanted to spend some 1:1 time with Liv...to our amusement, Liv gave Auntie Sharon many many wet kisses. I wanted to get a video but we got photos instead...I wonder if she remembers Auntie Sharon...or if she just knew that she was a Feldman too. I've not seen her give sooo many kisses to another person other than her 阿 姨 (my sister - who gets the most) then her 婆 婆 (my mom - who gets second most), then me (yes 3rd in line).
X's & O's for Auntie Sharon
Aug 21st - The Heights
Today we headed out to The Heights...Rowland Heights and Hacienda Heights. At Rowland Heights we went to Debbie's parents' house. Over the course of my college years, I spent a lot of weekends at Debbie's parents' house. I still remember how amazed I was when the first time I stayed over, we had stayed up all night watching movies and Chinese movies and the next morning, half asleep, I heard via intercom, "Debbie -- do you want McDonalds or Dim Sum?"......"Debbie, we are home with the Dim Sum!" Wha--?! And to top it off, we had BoBa Nai Cha waiting in the fridge for us!!
Needless to say their home was my home away from home so I just had to bring Liv over to visit with them. Of course when we got there, Liv worked her charm and had Mr. & Mrs. Yu under her spell. I even have a photo with Debbie's dad smiling with her (Deb told me that he rarely breaks a smile for the camera). Liv was also extra comfortable with them, so they convinced Dave and me to go with Debbie and Michale to a store and they would take care of Liv for an hour....eeps...I held my breath and went out the door. When we got back, the report was that she did very well and was okay until about 5 minutes before we got back...which Mrs. Yu was then able to distract her with a running faucet...haha....
So we packed up (notice how I say "pack up" every time...it's not an exaggeration...one little person can have sooooo much stuff!) and off we went to Hacienda Heights...which was timed perfectly...ya 15 mins away perfectly...where Liv got to hang out with her Jenny Yi-Yi and Uncle Billy. It was so nice to finally be able to relax...after all, Jenny is my family family ;). We didn't get to spend too much time with them. Liv had slept during the 15 minute ride, so we brought her in in her car seat. Poor Liv, I bet it seemed like every time she closed her eyes for a nap she woke up in a new environment with new faces from when she closed them! But as always she's a trooper with smiles a-blazing. Lucky for us Jenny and Billy will be moving up and we'll get to see them more. Can't wait for playdates with future baby cousins (hint hint if you are reading this!!!)
FAnd then we were off again to meet up with the Joe's in Anaheim. They thoughtfully suggested eating in Anaheim since it was closer to where we were at the time than going to them. I insisted that they bring their girls as I love seeing them and wanted them to meet Liv. We were so happy to hear that they would come and very happy to hear Uncle Dick & Aunt Marian were coming as well! We had a great time eating dinner at Roy's. If you have kids and want to go to Roy's, go to the Anaheim one because it's kid friendly being so close to Disneyland.
All the girls behaved..until the very last bit of dinner...which was just in time for us to wrap up and go. But amongst the chaos of leaving, both of Olivia's hands got stuck in the stroller. Apparently, when Dave had opened the stroller, he did not snap the hinges in place completely and when I saw that I tried snapping it down. But it didn't lock right away so I snapped it down harder and was strolling out after I heard it snap in place...when all of a sudden Dave's like, "her hand, her hand!" He saw that one of them was caught and he pulled it out. I thought I had hit her hand on the wall when strolling out. She was crying really loud, but the restaurant and chaos was sooo noisy you couldn't even hear her. So I tried to pull her out of the stroller to comfort her when I realized she wasn't budging because her other hand was caught! What a frantic moment! She was screaming and I thought I broke her fingers as did Dave! I rushed her outside and sat her down in my lap to calm her. After 5 mins of crying she calmed down and after 2 more mins she started smiling and babbling again in between hiccups....I felt soo bad! But she's our little trooper!
Dinner with the Joe'sAug 22nd - B-Man Turns 1!!
Our last day of fun! We wound down The Tour at the Murray house in Corona Del Mar. It was a perfect ending to our tour. Well, it would have been a perfect ending to our tour. We headed out to the Murray house in the morning to meet up with the Laws. Both of us happened to be in SoCal and were able to meet up at Sindy's house for brunch. She made a delish meal with freshly baked croissants (there isn't a croissant that goes by without me thinking of Sin -- Jo, June & Sin know what I mean) and choco croissants, egg quiche and bacon. Yum! The Murray's hadn't met Liv yet because right after my baby shower and right after Beckett was born they had to move to SoCal. (Sin blames June because June's theory is that us 4 girls can't ever all be in The Bay at the same time -- and June had just moved back right before Sin found out they had to move to SoCal!) It was a nice leisurely morning. Liv had taken her morning nap on the way there so again, when she woke up, she was somewhere new with new people. She was welcomed by Makenna (2 yrs) in the family room as Makenna showed her some of her toys. During brunch we moved all the kiddies in for feeding and afterwards they got to play...or shall I say parallel play (see photo). Apparently it's a noted thing, parallel play. Once again, it was just one boy in the room...the Birthday Boy that is...Mr. Beckett! He's 7 weeks older than Liv.
Between brunch and Beckett's party, Dave, Liv and I headed to South Coast Plaza Shopping Center...it was scorching hot. Afterwards, we got back in the car and once again Liv fell asleep....which I had already messed up...I should have gotten Liv to sleep at the mall or at Sin's house. So when we got back to the Murray house, she was asleep...which was fine, I waited in the car for her to wake with the windows rolled down. When she did wake I took her out sweaty and all....mind you it was still hot but the day was starting to wind down. I asked Dave once, to calm my paranoia, whether it was okay that we didn't put a layer on Liv since she had just woken up from a sweaty nap, but then it was 90 degrees. Liv had a great time...a little fussy, but mesmerized by the magic bubbles Sindy had going at the park.
After birthday songs, balloons, and cupcakes, it was time for us to jet back over to Costa Mesa to meet up with the Wang's. Tina just had her daughter Makenzie (almost 1 month old). We were so happy that they were willing to come all the way out to Anjin for dinner. Unfortunately it was too hard for them to bring both Sebastian and a newborn to a self-cook BBQ restaurant. A little factoid - the first time we met Sebas was when he was also 1 month old, at Anjin at the same table! It was icing on the cake for us -- great friends, new faces, yummy food. It was suppose to just hit the spot! But after 5 mins Liv started fussing. I tried all my restaurant tricks and tactics with her, but they just wouldn't do. Finally I took her out in a stroller thinking she must be sleepy if she's so fussy. Dave and I traded off a couple of times because she wouldn't fall asleep. I finally brought her back in and she was back to her old self, happy as can be, so we took that opportunity to snap some photos for the memory book/blog. :)
Then shortly after again she got fussy...sigh...sorry Tina! Sorry Nick! We went back to the hotel where we got her to sleep...and all the while she was very fussy and screechy. This whole tour she had been sleeping in cribs on her own. This night she just fussed. I held her hand through the bars and she still fussed so I finally brought her into our bed where she finally started sleeping..but with tosses and turns. And then I realized she was running a temperature! Oh no! I should have gone with my mother's instinct and put something on her after her nap. Yes, I know the theory about not being able to get sick from being cold, but whatever...she was sick. First time I really realized and appreciated my own mom's paranoia...I felt soo guilty that she was sick. After all, she's completely dependent on us to keep her safe and healthy...sigh. Sorry Liv.
Aug 23rd - Home..sick..
All night she tossed and turn *guilt*guilt*guilt* so she didn't get up too early today. I tried to do a bit of packing the night before, but waited until this morning to do some more. Managed to get a lot in before she woke. I had purposely planned for today to be a free, relaxing day in case we needed to meet up with friends/family that we didn't get to earlier. But luckily we were able to see 99% of the folks on my list (sorry Ed!).
We ended up not checking out until 3pm, because after her first waking (with minimal breakfast) Liv went back to sleep for about 2 1/2 hours! Dave ended up walking to South Coast for McD's and we dined in front of the room in the hotel hallway (felt like college days again!).
Despite how she was feeling, Olivia was our trooper. She fussed just a little on the plane
but for the most part she hung out like she normally does on planes....whew! We are such lucky parents!! *guilt*guilt*guilt* When we got home, she was quite exhausted. I thought I'd just feed her milk and nothing else because she seemed so sleepy while drinking milk. My family had picked us up and stayed for dinner. Shortly after I came down to join them for dinner, Liv woke up fussy. I tried to get her to sleep, but she didn't want to have any of it, so per her 婆 婆 's suggestion (more like insistence), I brought her down. She was hilarious. She was so excited to see everyone that she was making her "eh" noises (her way of calling out to people when she wants their attention - will try to film it on video one day!).All in all it was a great tour. Thanks for coming along on the recount!
That was not a whirlwind tour, that was a vortex of a tour! I saw no downtime at all, let alone time for travelling! I really enjoyed the pics and video, Liv looked happy in all of them! I hope to see some of these kiddies in person someday, whom I have not met yet.
ReplyDeleteWow! I am so honored you squeezed in time for us! It was great to see you guys and hopefully we will see you when we come up for xmas. And don't forget to think about the cruise!
ReplyDelete