Memorial Weekend

It's nice to have a long weekend. James and I originally planned to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park near the border of California and Oregon. But we worried about the traffic jam and crowd and postponed the plan until the end of June.

Saturday, James cooked some pancake and egg over easy for brunch. I enjoyed intermittent kicking by Chubby while reading in the bed and fell in sleep. After a long nap, we went to the library and a nearby farmer's market to get all the ingredients I need for a Russian style beef stew.

Sunday, we woke up pretty late. Had some Korean style pancake as brunch and went to Asian Art Museum. Started from the third floor on south Asian exhibition and moved down to second floor for some Chinese painting and finally ended our visit in Yoshitoshi's strange tales exhibit in the lobby. We really appreciated the detail he had created in the woodblock prints. Interestingly, we got to know that the museum would start a special exhibition of Tezuka Osamu, Japan's iconic godfather of manga and anime, on June 2nd. Oh, my good memory of Astro Boy. After museum, James took me to North Beach and we had a nice dinner in the Stinking Rose (yes, they did serve garlic with food). Then we walked down to Chinatown and got half a dozen custard tart (egg tart) in a famous Chinese bakery: Golden Gate Bakery. Because it was pretty late on a Sunday evening, the line was just 1/5 long as usual.

Monday, I decided to make some traditional Chinese breakfast for us: Chinese donut (You Tiao) and freshly grinded soy milk. Since pregnancy, I had a lot of craving for some Chinese food that fed me up during my childhood. I especially love northern style dim sum: Chinese donut, sesame pancake, soy milk, soft tofu in special sauce, Chinese donut wrapped in thin pancake, red bean bun, congee... Too bad back in China I was as lazy as here, if not lazier. I would rather stay in bed 10 minutes more than getting up for some breakfast. How much mouth-watering food have I missed? :(

It turned out that Monday Monday was not so good to me. Monday Monday was not all I hoped it would be. The Chinese donut was a failure though soy milk was still as good as usual. It's very hard to persuade James to have a glass soy milk. Why? It always took me about an hour to make freshly grinded soy milk from soy beans. And my soy milk was so delicious that James always finished more than 80% before I had a chance to have some. To trick James drinking less, I told him that soy contained a chemical that is like estrogen. If he would drink a lot, he would have boobs. From then on, whenever I made soy milk, I became the only consumer.

At night, I asked James to talk with Chubby and put his hand over my belly to feel Chubby because I felt Chubby could sense the touch and would respond with his movement. Unfortunately, Chubby seemed not want to communicate with Daddy. While I put my hand over my belly, Chubby "kicked" within a minute. James was jealous of the special bonding Chubby and I already formed.

Such a lovely baby. I love you, Chubby.