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Wednesday me and Sienna had dim sum with my parents, my grandmother, my 2 aunts and uncle. They came into Brooklyn and we went to the same place we had gone to on my birthday. I think the name is East River? Or something like that, I forgot to take notice. I remember it because it’s in the old Saturn dealership building. Sienna had been cranky earlier in the week with not wanting to go down for naps and her molars coming in. She was her usual self at dim sum. The food tasted a little better than when we first went and seemed to be more variety. The place was totally packed, which is so surprising for a Wednesday!

Dim Sum with Grandma from Lisa on Vimeo.

I think it is totally cool that Sienna gets to meet her great grandmother! She was acting her usual shy self when Great Grandma came up to her. It’s a shame that I am not as close to my grandma and aunts as we could be. When I was younger, I want to say around 11 or 12 although I could be wrong on the age, my mother stopped associating with her parents and brother and sisters. The reason is still unknown to me to this day. No one would tell me why all ties were cut off. They did not start speaking again until maybe around 2000? It was right before me and Yves got married (as my aunts invited themselves to our Vegas wedding.) Our first dinner back into the family was held in Queens and pretty awkward. Some hellos and idle chit chat with my aunts and I’m not even sure I got hellos from my cousins. But whatever. I figured as more get togethers were held, the awkwardness would go away, I mean I’m not surprised. It had been years! They don’t know me and I don’t know them. I confess that I envisioned being able to finally have aunts to go shopping with or just to grab some food or just to bitch to about my mother. That never happened. And the awkwardness never went away. For the most part, dinners consisted of idle chit chat and then they would just converse amongst themselves. After awhile it seemed pointless to even attend these functions. We started turning them down more and more and accept just once in awhile to show ourselves. Which is such a shame really. I realize that my family is very private and that’s fine, it’s just too bad I’m not part of the family.

Hmph, well I don’t mean to be debbie downer, I kinda went off on a tangent a bit. Happy fun times will continue in the next post! HA!

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Last week I had a couple of hours of alone time, well, time without Sienna. Monday night was craft night at Etsy Labs and I was interested in going because it was a recipe slam where participants send in their favorite recipes and we make a little booklet out of it AND Sweet Tooth of the Tiger were co-sponsoring it. You know what a sweet tooth I have! I couldn’t resist their mini strawberry cupcake and peanut butter cupcake. Very rich (I was warned), a little too rich for even my sweet tooth. And since I did not have dinner yet, I ended up with a little tummy ache! Danielle taught us how to put the booklet together and I’m pretty sure I did this before but a refresher didn’t hurt. Everyone was nice and into their project and it went so quickly. They had another project afterwards (stenciling onto a tote bag) since it was so quick but my stomach demanded some food! And I knew there was a Golden Krust by the train! Yves was surprised I was home as early as I was and was jealous I had some patties but was glad I brought him some Ting!

Danielle showing us how to make our booklet as well as a live webcam (which of course I end up sitting right in front of so everyone in internet land got to see my pretty face! HA!)

My booklet!

Then Wednesday afternoon my parents watched Sienna while I went to have some lunch and browse Barnes and Noble on Court Street. I ended up having lunch at Layla Jones and got a chicken and goat cheese press sandwich. YUM! It was quite filling! After checking out the magazines and craft books, I decided to check out the newly opened Yogo Monster on Court Street. They had a grand opening special of free toppings! I was good and got fresh fruit with my blueberry and original flavor yogurt. It was good, better than pinkberry, which is a bit too bitter for me.

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Last Monday was an overcast and muggy day so I decided we should go check out the new Ikea in Red Hook! It would give Sienna a chance to run around a little bit and have lunch in the same place! I also wanted to check out some table and chairs for her. The children’s furniture is so colorful! My only issue is that I would prefer to be able to get in and out of a chair on her own so she doesn’t end up toppling over like she does with the beach chair we got for her. I guess she is still a bit on the small side as all the chairs were a little too high for her. I know I just need to wait a couple of months and she’ll probably fit them fine! We had lunch at the Ikea restaurant and this is actually the first time that I’ve had their meatballs! They were quite tasty and such a bargain! Sienna’s kid’s meal was just $1.99! The fries were so yummy that I ended up eating all her fries but gave her some of my mashed potatoes. I also ended up buying the colorful plastic utensils and small bowls.


It was funny to have her eating a meatball on her own and see her people watching. It was really kid friendly there with some play areas all around the store and family bathrooms and stuff. Ikea Red Hook was a bit of a pain to get to only because they are doing construction on Hamilton Avenue right under the overpass. So I don’t know how often we would go.

People Watching in Ikea from Lisa on Vimeo.

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Last Sunday my parents came over and we started cleaning out the garage. I can’t believe how much stuff we had in there! We threw away a lot of stuff but there is still more stuff to throw. Besides a dot matrix printer, an old PC and printer but a box of my old electronic games such as Speak and Spell, Simon, Fabulous Fred and Wildfire (as well as 2 of my old barbie dolls and a barbie doll photo studio!)! Sienna grabbed the Speak and Spell right away so we brought it upstairs and tried it out.

And here are some other misc. pictures from the past week.

And Tuesday I went to get my hair colored so we first had dim sum with my parents and then they took her to the park. Here is dad feeding Sienna with a chopstick!

Yummy!

Wearing Grandpa’s hat!

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Sunday Pete, Nate and Mari came over for game day and a BBQ. We kept it simple with just burgers and I made potato salad and pasta salad and for dessert, banana bread and blueberry crumble (all that morning since I was lazy from Coney Island on Saturday!) Yves claims he is ready to expand his repertoire so next time we’ll have to do something other than (or in addition to) burgers. Pete also brought over Two Bite Brownies from Whole Foods and made deviled eggs (YUM!) and Nate and Mari brought watermelon! Ok so besides the food, we had a variety of games to choose from that Pete and N/M brought over. After Sienna went down for her nap, we decided to try Grass since they did not have an opportunity to play that one yet. The instructions were a bit long but once we started playing, we were getting the hang of it and it was quite fun! After a practice run, we got to play one game before Sienna woke up. We moved inside so we can keep an easier eye on her shenanigans while still playing games. Inside we played Pit. Oh, my gosh, WHAT FUN!! I look forward to playing that game again!

I love how Sienna is looking up at Pete!

Sienna checking out the neighbors!

Making sure Yves isn’t burning down the garage!

Lots of games to choose from!

Nate playing with Sienna.

Sienna sharing her toys with Pete.

Pit! Such a fun game!

Sienna wants to play games too!

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There has been an energy sucking heat wave in the mid-90s from Saturday through Tuesday. It wasn’t so bad in the backyard on Sunday when we blew up the little kiddie pool I got for Sienna. I do believe I spent more time sitting in it than Sienna did! Hey, if she doesn’t care, who am I to complain? It’s there for her to use! 🙂 We didn’t BBQ this time and just made sandwiches to munch on.

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Last Friday me and Sienna went over to Park Slope. I had 4 rolls of color 120 film I wanted to develop and have been meaning to check out Accurate Photo (13th and 5th Avenue) on a suggestion from some flickr folks. I’m so glad I finally did! What a nice lady! I was getting develop only and she told me to come back in 15 minutes!!! I was ecstatic! I came back an hour later after lunch and was even more thrilled that I was charged just $3 a roll!! Woweee!! I’ll have to test out their B&W developing and scanning.

For lunch we went over to the Chip Shop. Something I’ve been craving since I discovered they opened one in Bay Ridge. The Park Slope one is the original and where me and Joy first tried deep fried twinkie and deep fried reese’s peanut butter cup (not a twinkie fan so I wasn’t thrilled with it but the peanut butter cup, YUM!) Of course I got the fish and chips! They are very kid friendly and not only did they have a hi-chair but also a diaper changing station in the bathroom!

Where’s the Morrissey/Smiths stuff?

After lunch and picking up the film, we discovered a community garden right by the car. We took a little stroll through it as Sienna enjoys walking. It was such a beautiful day out!

And she was getting a kick out of this flower. (E-mail or comment to get password)

The Flower Tickle from Lisa on Vimeo.

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Saturday we took my parents out for dim sum for Mother’s Day. Sunday is normally a busy dim sum day so I can imagine how crazy it would be for Mother’s Day. We tried a new place in Brooklyn, which I failed to notice the name. It’s on 65th Street and 8th Avenue. Their dim sum wasn’t bad, wasn’t fantastic, but wasn’t bad. They had some dishes I never saw before, which I appreciate. And Sienna tried everything we gave her!

The carb lover in me enjoyed these noodles. I don’t recall seeing this before at other places.


All finished! Sienna claps at the end of the meal and really seemed to like the steamed roast pork bun!

Then on Sunday for Mother’s Day, we decided to stay in the neighborhood since I had a hankering for Mexican food. We went to La Villita for lunch, a truly authentic Mexican place with delicious food!

Sienna eating some chips.

She really loved the fried plantains!

I also bought myself a resin necklace from stoopidgerl on Etsy. I’ve been admiring her stuff for awhile and when I saw this latest necklace, I had to get it! I hope to one day make some resin stuff of the same quality as hers!

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Last week, Yves took off Thursday and Friday. Friday I had the luxury of getting a spa at Ohm with a gift card Yves got me a few months ago. Needless to say, it was wonderful! I had gotten the masseuse I got the first time I went and he is really great. Before my appointment, I decided to have a quick lunch at Rickshaw Dumpling bar, remembering the delicious dumplings DeeDee had brought over for potluck. Since I forgot to take pics of the dumplings at the potluck, I made sure I took some this time!

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SO I mentioned that Sienna was sick and pretty much got better by Sunday. Well, I caught her cold and have been dealing with it all week! I guess I was overdue since this was the first time I got sick since Sienna was born. I could deal with the stuffy nose, it’s the cough that is driving me up the wall. Especially at night. I am a lot better but still not 100%. I hate being sick!

So we are chugging along with Sienna’s new eating habits. We are giving her more of the stuff we eat with minimal success. She really wants to feed herself and rarely wants any sort of bottled food except if we are out in a restaurant. Strange. She’ll push it away at home but when I went out to lunch last week with my parents after going to BuyBuyBaby, she ate the whole bottle of jar food! Besides grilled cheese, she also likes french toast and cheese omelet. I baked some breaded chicken cutlets, she ate some but not much. I made her a little turkey burger while we ate the bigger version. Not so great. She didn’t care much for the mashed potatoes either! Well, we are going to keep trying! Hopefully I’ll have more energy this week as I get back to my healthy self!

Here’s a video I took about 2 weeks ago (I think). I thought I posted it already but didn’t. Just leave a comment if you need the password.

Messy Mohawk from Lisa on Vimeo.

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