小小's 1 year old birthday party

This is the first birthday party that Cadi and Cody attended.  Since I didn't want to bring my big camera, I used Joy's Canon S95 digital point and shoot.  This little camera has gotten good reviews but since I have been using a DSLR for so long, I just didn't feel very comfortable using it.  My gripe with digital point and shoot cameras has always been that they are slow to shoot, the Canon S95 is of no exception.   But really, it isn't fair to compare a digital P&S to a DSLR.  Besides, having never really used any other digital P&S and having just started using this camera, I'm not in a position to judge this camera...yet.  :)


This is the birthday girl, nicknamed 小小 (Little Little).  I don't remember the real reason for her nickname but she really is very small compared to other children of her age so this nickname suits her perfectly.  :)  As you can see from the decors on the wall, 小小 turned 1.


We did not have an elaborate birthday party for Cadi when she turned 1.  So I took this photo.  When Cadi asks in the future, I can say "Yes, mommy and daddy gave you a very nice birthday party when you reached the age one.  See this photo for proof."  =D


All these kids are sort of close in age.  Cadi is the oldest.  Second oldest is the girl on the left side of the table.  Third is "Little Little".  Fourth is the boy, Thomas, on the right side and Cody is the youngest here.  Even though Thomas is the second youngest, he is bigger than all but Cadi.  He's a 100 percentile baby.  Finishes drinking his formula in one shot.  I wish Cody can do that.

2011 Planting Fields Arboretum Park

Decided to go to the Planting Fields Arboretum State Park again this year on the Easter weekend because it really is quite a nice place that's close to our home. What's different this year is that there's Cody and that Cadi can walk by herself now. Since Cadi didn't want us to carry her while we were in the park, that meant she walked on her own for a large portion of the time. Later that night, while sleeping, Cadi woke up crying. When Joy asked Cadi why is she crying, she pointer her hand to her legs. Guess what? She walked so much during the day that her legs were hurting. You know, it's like how your muscle feels sore when you don't regularly exercise and decided to do too much of it in one day. This was her first long walk by herself after all.

Our first stop in the park, the greenhouse. I would have liked to stay in the greenhouse longer but the weather was pretty warm that day and being inside the greenhouse made it even worse so we didn't. And Cody sweated like his dad did, which is quite a bit.


Slipper orchid.


Don't remember what this was. Think it was a type of cactus (top view).


Cadi likes to help out people carrying out various types of tasks. This was one of them.


Unlike last year, the cherry trees were blossoming this time we went. Had to take photos before this beautiful tree.






Not sure what Cadi thinks she is doing. Using umbrella to rake leaves?






Got a whole series of photos taken on the open ground that I liked very much.  Had a hard time deciding what not to post as they all were somewhat similar and yet different per Cadi's expression in each.  Love, love, love the two dual-toned photos of Cadi.

The Riverside Church of New York

View from the New Jersey side.

2011 Cherry Blossom

Now that the Winter is finally over, it's time to take the babies to enjoy the outside world again. Our first major stop for 2011, the Cherry Blossom at Branch Brook Park in NJ. I don't remember how many times we've been there but it's been quite a few.

Before I continue with the cherry blossom photos. Let me give some updates on the kids.

Cadi, she's learning to say words a lot faster now and is able to imitate sounds a lot better and today (5/10/2011), Cadi learned to say her first English word "apple". The way she tries to pronounce the other English words that I tried teaching her are hilarious. It's too bad that there's no way to capture that in photos. Cadi also started to sing a little. Although it doesn't sound too good as there's no real melody to it but it is still funny seeing and hearing her sing. Cadi doesn't seem to cry any more when strangers trying to hold her but if there are adult strangers around she will refuse to smile.


And Cadi likes to do this nowadays. LOL.

Cody, he has already learned how to roll over about a month or two ago. Started to eat things other than formula. Doesn't crawl yet. Always has this "huh?" look on his face. Still smiles a lot more often than his sister. Starting to recognize people and will start crying when strangers hold him although he seems to be a lot better than how Cadi did when she's at his age. Is getting heavier and taller (obviously and hopefully) at a faster rate than Cadi was (a boy thing I believe).




Now, back to cherry blossom. It rained a week before we went to the park and so we were afraid that the cherry flowers would be gone again just like last year but luckily they stayed on the trees for us this time.


We asked Cadi to smell the flowers but she didn't seem to understand the word "smell".


My attempt at painting using a camera. Looks a bit like oil painting to me.


A very normal photo but I would like to point out how it was taken. Didn't ask anyone to hold the camera nor was there a tripod. I placed the camera on the stroller. So I learned that strollers are useful for more than carrying children. :)






I just like the look of this (abandoned?) pole.

The Facebook 'like' button

Facebook, while I don't find it that essential, it's certainly one of the most popular web site on the Internet. So when I received a comment suggesting me to add a Facebook button, I decided I'll add one. Not only are the blog posts shareable through a couple social networks now, I've also added the FB 'recommend' button to the albums on clearcubic.com.

I thought adding a FB 'like' button would be easy but that turned out to be not completely true. While the process of adding a normal 'like' button is fairly simple, I learned that there are several ways to do that and depending on which method you choose, what happens on FB can vary after a user clicks the button and that part confused me for a while. Anyhow, the 'Recommend' button is now on clearcubic.com photo albums and I just want to have a blog entry on the date that I added this feature, 4/23/2011.

Oh, and while in blogger.com today, I found out that blogger introduced a new way to view blogs. I thought the new ways are pretty cool. Use the following links to check them out.

New Views To Read Blogs - http://clearcubic.blogspot.com/view/

Cadi & Cody 2011 - First batch

See, that didn't take long at all, only two weeks after my last posting. Now, what about the next update? The answer is "I don't know". I have processed everything I have and I probably won't have new photos to add for a while.

I can't think of anything new to add so I'll jump straight to my favorite photos.




Cody, what's up with the girly hand gesture? And Cadi, please give the pacifier back to your brother.


Look at what Cody's wearing in many of his photos and you should notice the many girlish clothing that he wears. Ya, the "advantage" of being the second child and having an older sister who's not much older than you.




Look at the TV screen and see if you can tell what was on. Super Bowl XLV, Packers vs. Steelers. Cadi's first Super Bowl experience.


No little toilets. This is the REAL potty training.






Joy bought these clothing for Cadi but unfortunately they were too small for her. We had to give them away but since they looked so cute on Cadi, I had to take photos.


Never before had I found the purplish tint work well with a photo. This is a first.

2010 Cadi and Cody last batch

Three months have past since my last photo posting. It's probably the longest time that I've not posted anything. But you know, having a baby who does not have a regular sleep pattern and who drinks slowly will take a lot of time away from you. (Yes, Cody, I'm talking about you.) The good news is that Cody FINALLY started to sleep through the night after 4 months and his drinking speed has improved a little.

After some complaining from Joy, I've finally finished processing the last batch of 2010 Cadi's and Cody's photos. And while I'm at it, I've also started on the 2011 photos. So the next update should be much quicker than 3 months. =D

Cadi has picked up a couple more words now but they are still all single syllable words that are pronounced twice. My mom also started to potty train Cadi and had seen a couple of successes. A photo of Cadi sitting on a toilet is coming up in the 2011 album. :)


Cadi likes to take her shoes and socks off whenever she gets a chance. We eventually replaced the ones in this photo with ones that she can't take off easily. Her hands gesture here means "No more shoes and socks" and you can see she's happy without them. :)


I'm sure most children like to explore. This is part of what Cadi does when there's no one watching her.


Stool from Ikea. She pulls them out whenever she's brushing her teeth. She has 6 of them as of now.


One can never be too young to start racking leaves.




The first of a couple BIG snow blizzard that we received in NY in 2010. Joy and I couldn't get to work that day and right after our failed attempt of trying to go to work, I took Cadi out for her first snow experience. In this photo, Cadi almost fell because of the strong wind blowing against her.


She didn't know what 'snow' was at first but she grew to love it after a while. She loved it so much that when I wanted to bring her back into the house, she started to scream.


Cadi and Cody's Christmas presents, Crocs shoes, from their aunty, Camy. Pink is for her and yellow is for him. Cadi should be able to wear hers within a year? Based on the size of the yellow ones, we don't know when will Cody be able to. They are BIG. -_-

There aren't that many photos of Cody at this time and still won't until Cody can start moving on his own because that's when the fun starts. One running and one crawling around the house? I can't wait.