month 11

month ten – wiped out! wt:18lbs.8oz/ht:29 1/4″/hc:44 1/2″

nara has to busy herself during the day in her crib while i work next to her on the computer. the nice progression to her tenth month is that she sleeps more than 30 minutes during the day. and she’s a thumbsucker!

pulling up!

isle of palms 6/05-6/12

Erich decided to make a family plan this year based on his yearly holidays with his in-laws. Sharon’s very large immediate family has been doing beach vacations annually for years and he thought this would be a nice solution to wrangling in time with all the Huangs.  He picked Charleston, SC since it was the one southern drive-able beach near a metropolis for a bit of culture. Of course, we ended up spending the bulk of the trip hanging out at the beach and cooking. Ama fed us a LOT. she and I went to the local fish market and got some fresh shrimp and a very large fish head for grilling one day. It meant lots of cheek meat! John took charge the last night and grilled ribeye and veggies to be enjoyed with the Sadler Wells Cabernet my father brought down from NC (Luckily that was one of the alcohols remained from the house robbery).  We did eat out once at the Poe Tavern that was renowned for its hamburgers.  Maddy coaxed all of us to ride a horse drawn carriage around the town.  Turns out we got two mules and a nice description of the local architecture.

Nara cried the first day in the tide in an extremely windy afternoon.  The next morning, the tidal pools were present and it was nice and quiet. By the end of the week, the ocean was no problem! The pool was a bit scarier for her but overall nice.  Hanging out with two attentive hyper cousins was a major bonus. They could all be quite busy together.

first to arrive brunchers and then high fever

we met up with shirley, sandy, mike, elliot, seungah and oliver for brunch at ICI. It opened an hour earlier but we were the first! Nara had woken up at 4am with a fever but she seemed normal again by daytime. she slept half of brunch and then we headed to the brooklyn flea, then to Target to find a swimsuit for Nara’s first trip to the beach. When we got home, her temp had gone up again and she was drowsy all the rest of the day, with a hand on her poor hot head. It persisted all memorial day weekend and seems to have resulted in the standard baby roseola.

friday with Marina Abramovic

Shirley and I took a quick excursion up to MoMA to see The Artist Is Present. Shirley was hoping to get a snap of me and Nara walking through the naked people, but alas, we forgot, that absolutely no photos were allowed in this particular performance art piece. But it was nice. I almost crushed the guy’s toes and I was courteous enough to hold Nara’s feet close so she wouldn’t kick any vulnerable parts. The couple were leaning in quite close – almost more when a person went through – compared to when Shirley had gone a week previous. Overall, Nara was quite blasé. She did seem to enjoy the garden and flitted around like a little apparition on the vast marble slab. She enjoyed the Bertoia chair as well.

first refusal

Nara has been going to gallery openings her whole life. She seems to quite enjoy all the company, hanging out in the ergo. So we decided on this one sunny early evening to join Casey, Alice, Ron, Andrew and Jane at the United Nude Boutique Bond Street Opening – Casey was the lead architect, Ron the architect of record, and Andrew swung all the City stuff.
The list girl, all hot in her cantilevered UN shoes, got all cute with Ron seeing that he was at the top of the VIP list. He downplayed it unnecessarily (live it up!). We stepped over to go in when the big bouncer stopped us and said, “no one under 21!” “Really?” Ron and I look at Nara look up at the giant bouncer hovering over her. “She can’t drink on her own free will.” again, “no one under 21!” Nara simply could not gain entry so we loitered outside while the BS increased at the velvet rope. Ron was nice enough to take a photo of me and nara together, and then he hung out with her in his shiny new car till i finally made it in and had a drink.

9 months

now that nara is sitting and crawling – it’s hard to keep her down for a length shot. i did catch a quick one without the tag!

singing lessons

Nara has a varied repertoire of vocal sounds at this point. It ranges from whispering tadoo-dadoo-teh-teh to squawky long tones percussioned rhythmically with the back of her hand flapping open on her mouth.  John has taken to picking up on her more softer “aaahhhh” and singing with her.  She responds by trying to match his tone. It’s a nice ear training exercise that every can do!

crawling!

we tried to use non-techy items as bait, but in the end it had to be the iPhone and the remote.

annual card

Taiwan being so far and me being tardy, ama and atzo always get digital cards instead.

John and I hung out and ate at the Tribeca Grand Hotel for mothersday brunch. He had a dry prosecco and I had a bloody mary. Nara had lots of company from surrounding eating neighbors and wait staff and sipped apple juice, ate blueberries, homefries, blackberries, and watermelon.  One man asked if she was for sale for his very cute doting wife.  We got to meet Tommy’s very beautiful girlfriend Amanda and found out he loves kids!

vignettes

catching up!

as nara progresses leaps and bounds, mommy realizes she needs to be following nara’s lead doing a strong downward dog, a cute eager cobra and frequent leg lifts so she can keep up.

along with sleeping as soundly.

seems we need to add a teething guard to the crib.

see nara hold herself up and enjoy the view before papa lowered the mattress.

and i once observed before, and now confirmed, she looks like alfred hitchcock’s logo.

easter

we went for our annual brunch/egg dying at sandy and chris’s chatham tower quarters. both john and nara made it this year! we dressed her pink and frilly for the occasion. sandy made her hot cross buns and a asparagus and ham frittata and this very tasty salad with apples, goat cheese, nuts and mizuna?! [years past it has been fried cod cakes, brioche in a braid, pear salad...i'm getting hungry right now]. we were talking about Bourdain’s Brittany episode and Sandy mentioned their last trip to france, they got to eat Belon Oysters!! A [once in a] lifetime experience [unless you live in France]!

7 months

we forgot months 5-6. so here’s 7! we used Cochin font due to charlie – he just came down from Williams after finishing his qualifying paper. His exhibit that he’s been slaving over is going to be using Cochin for the labels.
Nara gets to pose in her new crib! Thanks to Ninja, Sung, Tobin and Mika. Tobin has now graduated to his new bed.

long lashes/going to the library/the stack

i wish i had Nara’s lashes. Christina and Ada coaxed us out to the Hudson Public Library in the children’s room. Nara was a bit oblivious, but we got to watch Ada negotiate the space and the toys along with quite a few kids of all different ages. Then Ada found her favorite Carle book out of a stck of books which was really impressive. It was about the moon which happens to be Christina’s last name! Lastly, John played with stacks with Nara using the blocks that Ron, Erica and Ace gave her.

facing out and dancing

maggie gave us one of the moby slings which we used to carry nara and do household chores in the house. she seemed to enjoy it most facing outwards which was a position conducive to dancing. so when anicka and maggie came by to hangout (way back in Dec. actually), we did just that!

hiccuppeekaboo

nara gets the hiccups when she’s excited.

sekiya, hoon and ryko!

it’s already been ages since ryko was bottle training at our place back in the fall. we’ve been missing him and his parents. we managed to swing by during their short stay before heading down to DC. nara was so excited to see ryko she made loud noises that we’ve never heard before while she lunged forward and tried to grab ryko’s nose. ryko wasn’t too excited about that but he was happy to demonstrate his swimming on the mat skills. of course, i insisted on having mcdonalds that afternoon

getting bigger

nara has graduated to the next level of cushy stroller world. we put the bigger seat attachment on her stroller with her footmuff. she seems to like her new vantage point.

green blue + sleeping papa

spoons and raspberries

nara’s having pears these days. yum. and she learned to blow her first legit raspberries [yes, now i know what those are thanks to john]

year of the white tiger

i headed over to sandy and chris’ chatham tower space [i love that building!] and found that we were not only having dumplings handmade by sandy, but also hotpot! yay! and last minute, steve chang and a very pregnant jude came over. nara loves jude and her white smile. chris served up prosecco with grenadine and soju with orzata. woohoo! chris designed a horizontal opening above the cooktop that peeks into the living room – it became a bonus while filming nara

new years dinner dec 31

we cooked batali’s more rustic northern dark beer-braised pork cheeks with browned pancetta, sauteed sour savoy cabbage, crisp prosciutto and a prune vinegar garnish. john made spaetzle to accompany. we also had roasted cauliflower and broccoli with roasted lemon slices and garlic. and a arugula salad with goat cheese, pear [courtesy of bernie - the best pears!], apricots, and sliced almonds in a shallot white wine dressing. to end, the traditional cranberry walnut crostata. after a bit of play, erich, maddy, neila and sharon went home and somehow my parents, john and i managed to stay awake watching anderson cooper and the D-list woman – i forget her name – banter till midnight. i actually enjoyed the duo – crass, tough woman taking stabs at giggly nerdy harvard grad. then we watched j-lo in her un-scandalous cat suit [what's the big deal? she looks great] and called it a night.

neila versus nara

we borrowed maddy and neila’s jungle playmat during nara’s visit in durham. nara was a bit over 4 months. turns out i had a video of neila a bit over four months on the same playmat – with her little curly horns. she’s already growing fast, approaching that 6 month 98th percentile marker. Nara maintains her 50th percentile weight and 75th percentile height. they both seemed to enjoy the comfy mat.  It’s fun to play both videos at the same time, cute overload!

typical sunday lunch

as long as i remember, sunday lunch at the huang house is noodles. every variety: spicy beef and tendon noodles, wonton with spinach and thin noodles, tsah-jia-mien taiwanese style, dan dan noodles, spaghetti with sausage, mai-fun with a nice crust which erich and i fought over, it goes on. today it was the fried noodles with the seafood and white sauce. nara enjoyed the scene from the high chair.