Week of July 16 - Momma Bird...Baby Bird.. & Other "Kodak Moments"

I know that some of my readers are very much the "show me more photos!!" crowd, so this week I thought I would do mostly "Kodak moments" :)

I often tell my wife Nancy that she and Emily look very much like mother bird and baby bird together at times. This is most especially so when Nancy if feeding Emily some tidbit from her own plate. Emily is generally very insistent that she get to eat some of whatever mom is eating, especially if it is some Chinese tasty treat. The Photo below is pretty much classic "baby bird" taking food from moms chopsticks as mom takes a moment to enjoy some left-over tasties consisting of rice, green squash, meat, and one or two other odds and ends, steeped in the savory flavor of Grandpa's cooking.

On the same general theme, Emily is very much keen to do whatever mom and dad might be doing... with special emphasis on whatever mom is up to. Mom likes to read home decorating and gardening magazines, and so naturally Emily wants in on the, action as shown in this next photo. Note: this photo is in no way posed.. this is natural baby/mom action under way. My challenge was to sneak over and get my camera before Emily discovered my actions and went for my camera (she thinks all gadgets belong to her.. my camera and laptop included).

My dad flew in to visit us this week, so Emily has a chance to spend some quality time with her other grandpa who she sees less often. With Emily, you will likely get a "brush off" the first time you meet her if you are not known to her. But once she sees that mom or dad approve of the stanger, then she will usually smile and put her hand out to touch your nose. Touching of your nose is THE cue from Emily that you are "good people" from her perspective. As it turns out, Emily loves to sit in grandpa's lap as seen in this next photo



One of the things that Emily really enjoys is a family outing to a restaurant. Two things about this please Emily: 1) she loves outings of most any kind as she is a people watcher and loves different sights and sounds. 2) she loves to taste new foods, and so we expose her to different food tastes often. As we can see from this next photo, Emily very much likes to review the menu :) Once again.. this is not a posed shot, Emily was just insistent that mom let her see the menu, and I'm now smart enough now to bring the camera ALWAYS in order to catch those impromptu photos that happen at unpredictable times. By the way, the food this day was Korean Tofu, one of Nancy's favorites, and as we were soon to learn... a new favorite of Emily's as well. What this style of food consists of is a very hot soup made with lots of soft tofu, choice of meat, mushrooms, onions, and a meat broth. You then get to specify the degree of spicy you would like.



So... moving right along... Emily very much wanted to share mom's food .. and so we have the classic baby bird eating from chopstick and also from spoon. The most interesting thing to note on this food outing is that Emily does indeed have some Hunan girl love for spicy foods. While mom ordered unspiced Tofu soup, I ordered mildly hot spice in my soup which is roughly equivalent to a medium hot sauce level of spicy at a Mexican food restaurant. We decided to let Emily taste test mine to see if all the hype about Hunan girls being spicy had any validity. Amazingly enough, Emily loved my tofu and wanted more and more of it. We let her have several spoonfuls and then decided to stop and see how she if we got any diaper surprises the next day (we did not.. she both tolerates and loves spicy!).