Abby met Philip for the first time last weekend at Shie's baby shower. Philip, for his part, has already held hands with another girl. Abby, not taking any chances that she would lose out to her rival decided to make her intentions very clear. Philip didn't stand a chance...
We went to the rodeo this weekend. I never thought I'd say those words but what is truly unbelievable is that I had a great time. My roommate from my days in New York City has, through some fortuitous circumstances, ended up in Reedley, California. Dara, who my mother credits with giving me a grain of interest in fashion and having my room clean, is currently living an hour south of Fresno in the small town of Reedley with her husband Phil. I hadn't seen her since I got married so we decided it was certainly time to get together.
Albert happened to know another couple who also live in Central California from law school. Albert and I assumed that this meant that they lived fairly close to Dara and Phil so we set them up. Although they live an hour and half apart, they actually hit it off and became friends over the last month so a visit to Reedley and Springville meant that we got to see not only Dara and Phil but also Laurel and Jith. Laurel and Jith live in Springville where they held a rodeo this past weekend.
What is there to do near Reedley, you ask? There is, of course, the Sunmaid Raisin factory...
... and I think that's about it.
The rodeo in Springville was quite impressive. We were city slickers to the max with our Baby Bjorn in tow...
I was really impressed with the athleticism demonstrated by the cowboys who managed to stay more than 8 seconds on a bucking horse and those who tackled a young steer to the ground and tied their legs together in less than 5 seconds! We enjoyed this while eating the requisite barbecued beef ribs. Abby got too tired and we unfortunately missed the grand finale which was the bull riding. Alas, that gives us reason to return next year!
So we have even more reason to excuse Abby for having her crying/screaming fits recently. It turns out that she has her bottom teeth coming in. Cathy even suggested that this might be the case but I poo pooed the notion that our daughter would be early in getting her teeth (the average is apparently at 7 months). I didn't even notice until Abby took the initiative to grab my finger, stick it into her mouth and rub it against her bottom gums. Poor girl. This is why she slobbers constantly and also makes this weird fishy face all of the time:
Fishy Face
After the last post I feel compelled to clarify: Abby is not always crabby. In fact, she is mostly happy except when she gets sleepy. Recently, she has become extremely vocal (read: she loves to scream happily). Albert and I find this rather annoying because we see babies everywhere who are so perfectly behaved, quiet, smiling, etc. We ask ourselves everyday: How could such a loud child come from such quiet parents? We do, however, consider ourselves very lucky because she also happens to have a really loud laugh. She shares this with us particularly when we pretend to eat her:
Last week I started up at school again. The transition was much smoother than anticipated since I have essentially been back 60% for the last couple of months. It's just nice that it's official and I'm getting paid again. I hate to admit it because it makes me feel like a bad mother half the time but I really love being back in school. I love coming home with the feeling that I learned something today. I sometimes even tell Abby what I found to be interesting. I sometimes think that it will influence her to love science or engineering and buck the convention that women aren't supposed to be in these fields. I also realize that I sound totally neurotic. What I mean to say is that these dual roles I have: being an engineer in school and being a mother are both fulfilling. I also don't think that I could be one without the other anymore. As much as I love the things I learn, I also love to come home to giggling baby who I can pretend to eat.
Rita says that Abby will really hate it one day when I call her that. My response: "She should just stop being crabby then!"
Sometimes, I sing her this song when she gets particularly crabby:
Crabby Abby was a bear
Crabby Abby had no hair
Crabby Abby was still crabby Abby
Abby is one lucky girl. Well, obviously, she has some pretty fantastic parents... good looking ones I might add (objectively speaking of course). On top of the easy life she leads, she has the distinct advantage of being multi-cultural. She is not only celebrating the traditions of our American society (the first outing of her life was to buy a Christmas tree), her grandparents are showing her the old traditions of their respective cultures.
Drooly Abby in a Kimono
Earlier this month, my mother opened a box sent to us from my uncle in Japan. It was a kimono that had been made for my brother and now it was Abby's turn to wear the newborn kimono. Presumably, I wore it as well but I have a feeling that as a second child, this tradition was most likely overlooked (not that I'm bitter). A baby is made to wear this kimono and go to a shinto shrine. Since there are no shinto shrines nearby, we made do with the backyard and took photos outside on the deck and inside our house in the living room. Abby promptly drooled all over the three layers of silk which my mom will have to take back to Japan to get cleaned. The kimono was quite beautiful and had hand embroidering in the back to signify the Miura family emblem. Around the same time was Girl's Day. 20 years ago, my grandmother got me a huge set of dolls depicting the marriage of a prince and a princess. It must have been difficult to find the right one because I used to hate dolls with "scary" eyes. Most dolls had scary eyes but my grandmother found a beautiful set with the friendliest eyes she could find. 
Miura Girls
This year, Girl's Day was celebrated with Abby, my mother and Michele (my niece). Three generations of Miura women together celebrated the fact that we were girls by putting up the dolls and eating sweets together. It was wonderful.
100 days old
Albert's mother visited when Abby turned 100 days old. This is called the baek-il in Korea. The main feature of this celebration is that we eat rice cakes called deok. We also had a "birthday" cake. Lucky Abby. She can't even eat cake right now so we were forced to consume lots of really good food for her. She also received a gold ring from her grandmother which she promptly tried to consume. I've put it in safe keeping for her. 100 days! Can you believe it? That also meant I had survived 99 nights. I, too, had reason to celebrate.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Albert and I are on a gift-giving hiatus (what do you get for two people who already have too much stuff?) so we chose to stay in with Abby and make a nice dinner. Of course, Albert broke the rule and got some roses (purportedly after he haggled with some street vendors in Spanish). It made me feel like we were back in the days when he was actively courting me and Albert routinely broke those rules. 
Al's Valentines
For Valentine's I decided to go with a beet salad in a balsamic glaze and an Afghani lamb dish called Qabili Pallau which we've had a couple of restaurants but never at home. 
Our Valentine's Feast
Here are the recipes:
Beet Salad
2 medium sized red (and/or yellow) beets
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tsp brown sugar
olive oil
Drizzle the cleaned beets in olive oil. Wrap completely in aluminum foil and place in oven for 1-1.5 hours (until it can be pierced easily all the way through). Take the balsamic vineger and brown sugar and heat. Stir to completely melt the brown sugar and bring to a rapid boil. Keep stirring for 5-10 minutes until the mixture is thick enough to coat a spoon. Slice up beets and mix into the balsamic glaze. Serve with some greens
Qabili Pallau
2 cups basmati rice
1 medium onion
olive oil
1.5 lbs lamb shank
2-3 large carrots
1 cup golden sultana raisins
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cardamom
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp saffron
2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper
Brown the diced onion in oil until brown. Add the lamb shank and brown on all sides.
Add 2 cups of water, 1 tsp. salt and the cinamon, cumin and cardamom. Cover and simmer until the meat is tender (about an hour). Remembering to keep the meat juice, strain out the meat and onions and set aside in a casserole with a cover.
Cut the carrots into match stick size pieces. Saute carrots in oil with 1 tsp of sugar. Cook until the carrots are lightly browned. Remove the carrots from the oil and add the raisins. Cook them until they swell up.
Boil the meeat juice and about 2 cups of water. Add 2 cups of basmati rice, 1.5 tsp of salt and cook until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender.
Finally, preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix the meat, carrots, raisins and rice together and place into the casserole. Cover and place in oven for 30 minutes.
Sometimes we look at Abby and we can tell exactly what Albert will look like when he loses most of his hair. Abby was born with a full head of hair but gradually over the course of the last couple of months, she's lost a good chunk of it. My friends tell me that this is what happens to babies but I have to admit, it looks really odd. I think it's karma.
You see, a couple of years ago, I visited Japan and saw a baby cousin of mine. She's adorable now but she had the weirdest hair loss pattern. She had lost her hair on the back and side of her head but had a full tuft up top. I had a hard time finding ways to compliment the baby because I was so caught off guard by the hair.
Now I look at Abby and I know what people must be thinking. Abby has lost a lot of her hair except for some on the sides and a tuft that sticks straight up towards the top of her head. She's lost most of her hair up front so it makes her look a bit like a monchichi. Yesterday, my mom and I went up to San Francisco to get her Japanese passport (she can have dual citizenship because of me). We had to get passport photos taken in advance. I had a bit of an ordeal to get it done but Abby was very patient. The only problem is that Abby is very camera shy. She doesn't like to smile when she sees a camera and becomes very serious. With the hair the way it is and her serious expression, her photo ended up looking a bit like a mugshot:
Abby's first mugshot
There are certain photos I look at of Abby and think to myself, "Now THAT is a photo that we should definitely have in the slideshow at her wedding!" This is definitely one of them.
People told me that life would change drastically when you arrived and it certainly has. You came into my life when I was starting to feel the desire to take care of someone other than your father. I wanted to have my dreams of my future to start being realized today... and you have made it so. 
Abby and her faux-hawk
Some people ask me how I spend my days with you. I tell them that we have many conversations... although most are one-sided. You should know that as much as I talk to you about Real Analysis, Schrodinger's equations, and Kuhn-Tucker, I don't dream about you becoming an engineer or mathematician. I just do that to see the look of horror on my friends' faces. Still, sometimes you laugh when I tell you how the sum of infinite numbers could actually be a finite number and I wonder if maybe you have a little bit of my nerdiness in you. Or... maybe it's that you're laughing at me. Either way, it's ok because your laugh makes me laugh too.
You were an eagerly anticipated baby. For months in advance, we gathered the gear we would need to take care of you. We used a stuffed monkey as a your substitute to test out what we got. 
Testing the Baby Bjorn
Everyday, I would place a hand on my growing belly to make sure you moved at least 10 times in an hour to guarantee your health. Often, you would start hiccuping and I could count 10 movements in less than a minute.
When you were born, I expected you to cry the soft cry of a newborn but you let out a scream worthy of a 3 month old. I was startled but quickly realized that your father is incapable of whispering. That loud voice will help you be heard over the din of your boisterous parents - the marvels of evolution. I love your long fingers because I can dream that maybe one day you will play piano and will learn to love the rich symphonies of Brahms or the chord progressions by Bach or the wonderful melodies of Schubert just like me. And your eyes... I wonder if someday you will be teased as I was that your eyes are shaped like almonds. I hope that you will respond as I did that you don't care because your daddy loves your almond shaped eyes and how they curve into small arches when you let out a giggle. You should. We love the curiosity in your eyes as you stare at the sunlight reflected on our walls and the suspicious glance you throw us when we aren't handling you quite right. 
Abby enjoys reading
You have filled our life with hope, love and laughter. Some people would say that I should hold off until you are a teenager to see how you really turn out. I say to those people that I will probably love you more as you start to rebel against my wishes creating a new "you" that is separate from my dreams and wishes. We are imperfect parents by any stretch. Your dad said that he hopes that in your future is wisdom, integrity, and charity. Me... I hope for languid afternoons of shopping and ice cream. I guess all that means is that I hope we are close... that you can confide in me your fears and dreams. With that, you might be able to attain all those things your dad wishes for in spite of the parents you have.
We've been asked if we make it out of the house since having Abby enter our busy lives. The truth is that we make it out of the house and we do so often! The other night, we went to Koh Samui and the Monkey with some old friends from BCG. 
Gathering of good friends
We've been there before but haven't reviewed it so we'll put in a review here.
Koh Samui and the Monkey (Thai food)
415 Brannan Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 369-0007
www.kohsamuiandthemonkey.com
What we ate:
Soft Shell Crab Salad
Mango Catfish Curry
Seafood Clay Pot
Review:
Overall, this is decent Thai food at a good price for Soma. For some reason, Soma has a lot of pretty pricey restaurants so it's nice to find a place to go that doesn't really break the bank but is tasty. The special Mango Catfish Curry was awesome but I wasn't that impressed with the Seafood Clay Pot.
Other than that, we have also been out to Circa which is co-owned by a friend of ours.
Circa
2001 Chestnut Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
(415) 351-0175 Reserve Online
www.circasf.com
What we ate:
Sliders stuffed with black truffle and Brie cheese, served with Maui onion strings and house made ketchup 13
Lobster & white truffle mac-n-cheese 10
Moroccan spiced roasted Australian rack of lamb "lollichops" Mint chimichurri and pomegranate molasses 18
Review: I thought that the food here was really good although it is a little bit on the pricey side for the amount of food you get. I was a big fan of the mac-n-cheese and Albert will tell you that I just love sliders (I just have a thing for small burgers). I also liked the fact that although it is a bar/restaurant, it was quiet enough for us to be able to talk like normal human beings. The crowd is distinctly "Marina". I've also heard that this is a cougar-den but I can't say for sure since I'm not a young single male that cougars would target.
Special thanks are in order to my mom for looking after our little one while we tapped into our pre-baby selves. We definitely feel more human after our nights out and love Abby more for it.
It's suspected that someone I knew may have committed suicide this past weekend. It reminded me that no matter how happy or successful someone might seem to be, there is pain that we might not recognize under the surface. My heart goes out to May's family and close friends.
There are certain things that I really hope to do with Abby some day. Some of these dreams might be put under the category "Crazy Asian Mom" like helping her with calculus problem sets or proof-reading her physics project paper or attending her first piano recital. Others come from my own memories of childhood like going on hikes and collecting bugs or helping my mom wrap dumplings. I put Afternoon Tea under this latter category. My mother is a bona fide tea addict. She loves to sit down and have some tea. When I lived at home briefly after college, my parents and I would sit down almost every night for tea and we would just talk about our day. As many asian families will most likely note, tea is not simply a beverage in our culture. Particularly in Japanese culture, it is central to social interactions. My five year old niece who goes to pre-school in Japan drinks tea everyday at school. So when Michele visited earlier this month, I wanted to show her how tea is served in Western culture so I took her to a tea shop close to my house for some girlie time while my mom watched Abby.
Although Michele didn't have tea, she got to have hot chocolate. She also ate half of my tea sandwiches, soup and most of the dessert. Like any proud woman in the Miura family, she has the appetite of a small bear waking up from hibernation.
Michele prepares to demolish the dessert
My mother reports that upon getting back to Japan, Michele bragged to all of her classmates how cute her cousin Miyuki is. I like that Michele calls Abby by her full Japanese name. Everyone else seems to shorten it to Yuki but Michele insists we use the full name.
Ma-chan, it's not just Yuki! It's Miyuki. Miyuki is so much more special than just plain Yuki!
Michele is Miyuki's advocate in our family. Hopefully, Michele knows that she has many advocates within our family too.
A good day used to mean a bike ride on a spectacularly sunny day and dinner in the city with a group of friends. A good day used to be swimming in Lover's Cove in Monterey or shopping with girlfriends in Berkeley. Who knew that good days would mean something so drastically different today? I had a friend who once told me that she and her husband used to do such fun things before they had kids and once they had kids those fun things they used to do were a distant memory. Instead, the days are filled with things they do with their kids but for her, this too is a lot of fun.
A pensive Abby
In a similar way, my good days are really good but in a different way. Today, a good day is when Abby has a solid nap when I have time to clean the house, catch up on email and upload some of the more recent photos. Some times, I might even have an extra minute to start looking at papers relevant to my research. A good day is interacting with Abby and wondering if what I saw was her first smile or not. A good day is eating dinner in peace with Albert because Abby is loving the new swing we borrowed from Cathy. I love my good days. It may not involve any physical activity yet but as Abby's neck gets stronger, I can almost see the day when I can plop her into the BOB stroller and go for a leisurely jog up Sand Hill Road. That too will be a good day.
Happy 2007 to our friends and family! We haven't had much of a chance to update the blog in the last few weeks. You can imagine that things have been quite busy with baby Abby and with our family visiting! It's been so busy that Albert hasn't taken many photos. I was so surprised when I downloaded the photos on the camera and discovered there were less than 50 to download over the last two weeks - and most of those were taken by me! 
Abby feeling festive
Christmas and New Years flew by in a blur. We managed to buy a 4 foot Christmas tree which was Abby's first outing ever. We got out our annual Christmas newsletter with our baby announcement. I even baked two batches of cookies! Somewhere along the line, Abby gained over 2 pounds and my mom-in-law and sister-in-law came for a visit. 
Abby with the in-laws
Christmas came and went without much hoopla. We had dinner at my parents' house with Julie and Bob. I made a roast beef and my mom made a stuffed salmon. Abby slept through most of the meal. We weren't so lucky with New Years. Abby decided this would be the opportune moment to ring in the new year with lungs ablazing. I suppose she also wanted to share with Julie and Bob exactly what is in store for them in a couple of months. She did a very good job.
Abby and Al
Albert has his own strategy for dealing with an Abby meltdown. It involves the Bose noise cancelling headphones. I guess we shouldn't be calling our daughter's cries "noise" but if you heard her, you would agree that she has not exactly inherited her parents' quiet voices... ok ok we both have loud voices so we both take the blame equally.
I can't say I loved pregnancy. Too many complications. Too many dietary restrictions. Too many aches and pains. Motherhood is a totally different story. I finally get feedback on my efforts. When I pick Abby up, she stops crying. If I feed her, she looks full and content. Sometimes, she lets out a whine (or perhaps a ear-piercing scream) just because. And we respond. We sing her songs. We tell her how beautiful she is. She appreciatively stares back at us (or continues her ear-piercing scream). I love this feedback.
November 25 started out as any day after Thanksgiving ought to begin - we got up at 6AM to make sure we got to Stanford Shopping Center to claim a prime parking spot in preparation for "Black Friday" - the busiest shopping day of the year. We were surprised that it was actually quite empty when we arrived around 7AM.
I love this time of year because it's really all about food. In particular, Thanksgiving is an amazing time to load-up on the carbs. That's why it's so much fun when you get to spend it with people who really love to eat. Last year, we had Cindy (Albert's sister), our friends Julie and Bob along with Bob's parents and my dad over for Thanksgiving. We made way too much food and had a fantastic time. This year, even though it was a year in which we were supposed to be in LA (we switch off each year between Albert and my family), we decided to spend Thanksgiving close to home since my due date was only a week away. I didn't want to overload my mom with Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's duty so we took up Julie's kind offer to have all of us over to her house for a mega-Thanksgiving feast. This year, Julie really outdid herself because we had 14 people over at her house!
The people: Julie, Bob, Bob's parents, me, Albert, my parents, Aileen, Chris, Jeffrey, Nancy, Linda and Joseph (Linda's husband).
Albert discovered a long time ago my love for the holidays. The holiday extravaganza starts in mid-October when I get my ghost lights out along with a little wooden ghost and pumpkin that says "Boo!" I, then, agonize over a costume and usually become too busy at some point to really think it through and then panic the day of some party we're supposed to go to. This is how Albert and I ended up as hula dancers a few years ago when we were in Boston.
I've been very delinquent in updating but am trying to catch up with a few posts so here we go...
We are now only 5 weeks away from the due date! I continue to negotiate with baby Ko in the hopes that she will come a few weeks early with a relatively small head and narrow shoulders. Gestational diabetes hasn't been nearly as bad as I thought it would be. This is, of course, because I cheat. The best example to date is the dinner I had a Boulevard this past Friday. Cheating has never been quite so delicious...
Boulevard
Cuisine: French
1 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 543-6084 Reserve Online
www.boulevardrestaurant.com
Hours:
* Mon-Fri 11:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
* Mon-Wed, Sun 5:30 p.m.-10:00 p.m.
* Thu-Sat 5:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m.
Website: http://www.boulevardrestaurant.com/
Address: 1 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94105
Telephone: 415.543.6084
What we ate:
Foie Gras with toast and currant sauce
Hamachi Sashimi with Daikon Salad
Roasted Veal Filet with Sauteed Shrimp
Wood Oven Roasted Iowa Berkshire Prime Rib Pork Chop with Butternut Mashed Potatoes and Roasted Quince
Chocolate Medley Dessert
Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches with Chocolate Fondue and Berries
Lychee Juice with Club Soda
My overall assessment of Boulevard, while positive, is that it wasn't really amazing. I would give it 3 out of 4 stars. Comparing it to a restaurant we recently went to and loved, Quince, Boulevard didn't give us more than what we expected: great ambience and solid food but no surprises. I didn't feel like doing cartwheels after I ate dinner like I did at Quince when I tasted their pesto sauce. It was to die for. I was full and happy with the meal from Boulevard but I didn't feel any exclamation points. 
The one exclamation point I felt was after I cheated and ate a Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich with chocolate fondue and found that my blood glucose level was low enough to warrant yet another serving of carbs! The company we ate with was great and the building is truly beautiful but I can't say that it was everything I hoped it would be. I have to say, though, cheating on this gestational diabetes diet was truly divine!
My heart goes out to diabetics everywhere. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes a couple of weeks ago which hopefully means I only deal with this condition for another two months. Then it's back to full on gluttony with respect to chocolate dipped ice cream, french fries, and white bread.
We've been trying out a bunch of different foods just to see how it affects me versus him. I was saddened to see that the In 'n Out double-double (despite the reassurances of my dietician) caused my blood sugar to go above the desired 130 limit. Albert's blood sugar had already self-regulated down to a 93... and he had had the whole plate of fries with ketchup.
Still, there are lots of things I can eat that are quite tasty. My favorite so far has been our version of the fajitas so here is the recipe:
Chicken Fajitas for the Diabetic who loves to eat
1 whole wheat tortilla
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 purple onion
1 chicken breast
1 orange bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1/2 avocado
bunch of cilantro
salsa (as much as you want - go crazy because this barely has any carbs)
Cut the chicken, onion, and peppers. First sautee the chicken. Salt to taste and add course ground pepper. When the chicken has almost fully cooked, add the onion and peppers. Continue to sautee until the the onions are fully cooked and slightly translucent. On a separate frying pan, heat the tortilla and sprinkle the shredded mozzarella over the tortilla. Warm until the cheese has melted. Slice the avocado. Over the tortilla, add the chicken, onion and peppers. Add the sliced avocado, cilantro and salsa and you are ready to eat!
These fajitas were tasty and kept my blood sugar level fairly low. It should be pretty healthy as it's not too high in fat (except for the cheese). I'll keep adding recipes that end up working for me!
