Luca and Maya

Or if you ask Maya, she'd change the subject to "Maya and Luca" because she likes to be number one. In this case, she undoubtedly is. Sometimes you wonder how much the number two's personality is shaped by the number one -- just look at how Maya jumps around Luca, how she teases him, how she snatches toys from him, how she pushes him (most of the times she does that without knowing), how she wakes him up by screaming right at his ear ( she did that several times when mama or pappa wasn't watching)...if you were Luca, you'd probably want to grow up really really fast so you could get even with your playful yet mischievous big sister.

But Maya and Luca truly love each other 99% of the time, and they play together quite nicely if you're not being too paranoid about scatches and bumps.

Kiss, kiss, kiss, we're each other's best friend

We fight, of course, like all other siblings; the cause can be as big as who gets to sit on Pappa's lap and as small as a mug

When we play together, the game isn't always fair. Sometimes, Luca asks, "Do I have an option?"

Most of the time the older one has the final say. "No, Mama said that you cannot go out!"

As a compromise, we play indoor wrestling and have a lot of fun

All fun aside, there can be some unintended pushes and shoves. "Sorry that I just pushed you. Let's make up. How about some milk?"

Luca is eight months old

Luca turned eight months on 16th, the day after Waigong and Waipo left for Toronto to see Mama's brother and his family.

He can do a lot of things. He can drink from a cup directly (sippy cups are too slow for him), he can feed himself by holding a bottle (mama stopped breastfeeding in mid-July), he can walk by holding on to something, he can say mama, dada, baba, pappa, nainai (milk in Chinese???)...

Ponders

Laughs

Makes a face

Sleeps

Cries

Proud

Surprised

Frustrated

The mess Luca makes (he's just like his big sister)

A lot of catch-up to do

It's one month since the last post. We've been busy busy busy.

We visited UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley on July 6. It was much bigger and more beautiful than we anticipated. It's definitely worth another trip. Afterwards, we stopped at Nordic House. Of course, Pappa had a shopping spree there, having even bought the hot chocolate powder he liked when he was little. What do you say about that? Sentimental, isn't it?

We went to Alcatraz on July 12. It was hard to get the tickets - we had to order online ten days ahead. We left home at 10am but there was so much traffic on 101 and in the city and it was so difficult to find parking that we almost missed our boat (departing at 12:25pm). Pappa dropped the rest of us at the gate first and went to look for parking - all the garages nearby were full. After he finally found parking he had to run like a superman, just in time to catch the boat. When we got to the island, it was very windy. Luckily, Mama had reminded everyone to bring enough clothes. The audio guide took us from room to room. We were on the island for more than two hours. Other than the history and facilities, the wild flowers were also impressive. After the trip, we walked to Ferry Building -- it took forever because Waigong and Waipo stopped often to take photos --where Waigong and Waipo (and Luca) had noodles and dim sum, and Mama, Pappa and Maya had Japanese food at Delica. In the last photo you can see that Waigong was having a good conversation with the restaurant owner who's from Zhuhai, a coastal city in Guangdong Province. Waigong makes friends everywhere he goes.