"This Is a Dancing Party!"

Sophie is ready for the club! Here are some videos of Sophie dancing to DJ Tiësto. She's quite good at finding the beat and tempo of the song. And I take full responsibility for her atrocious outfit in some of the videos.  

The Wiggle

Finding a Beat

"This is a dancing party"

At the club!

Shade in Bathtub

Sophie likes her sunglasses a lot. But she only likes to carry them in her hand. And when she wears them, it's the funniest thing ever. Have a look.

Eating Pocky

Pocky (pronounced Pokkī) is currently Sophie's favorite snack. She occasionally dips the biscuit sticks in the chocolate. What she really likes is to get her whole hand in the chocolate cup and lick the chocolate off her fingers. 

Pink Ukulele

Vân bought Sophie a pink Ukulele months ago, but Sophie didn't really care for it -- not even as a toy. Then Barbie came into the picture and changed everything. The Barbie movie "The Princess and the Popstar" really got Sophie interested in singing and strumming the Ukulele. Here's a video of Sophie singing her two favorite songs while strumming the Ukulele: "Here I Am" and "Look How High We Can Fly."

Sophie's Birthday and Father's Day

This year, Sophie's birthday and Father's Day happened to be on the same day. I had no choice but to share my day with her. It was actually really sweet that we could celebrate together. Vân picked Monsoon -- a Vietnamese restaurant by Eric Banh -- for the occasion.

The celebration at Monsoon lasted about 30 minutes. Vân and I probably had two bites each before Sophie threw up all over Vân's shirt -- front and back. We used to think this only happened in movies until it happened to us. The strange thing was that we weren't mad or embarrassed at all. We felt bad for Sophie because she was sick with bronchiolitis, so she could hardly keep anything down for the whole week. We cleaned up, tipped the waitress really well, and finished our meal at home.

Before incident

Unfinished radish cakes

After incident - phở at home

Goodie Bags

Sophie turned 3 a few weeks ago. And I was in charge of preparing the goodie bags for her birthday party at school. Sophie and I had a lot of fun picking out the toys and preparing the goodie bags. Unfortunately, Sophie had bronchiolitis, so we had to postpone her party for a week. But I heard from her teachers that everyone had a lot of fun when it finally happened. I think the Trophy cupcakes we bought for the party had something to do with it.

Wind-up toys

Sticky lizards, robots and bugs

Stickers

Goodie bag assembled

Ready to go!

Carkeek Park

Carkeek Park has always been a special place to us. To me, the park is almost magical because it is only 3 miles from where we live, but it can make us feel like we've traveled hundreds of miles outside of the city.

Belly Hanging Out!

Need I say more?

Talus Rocks - Tiger Mountain

We decided to go back to Tiger Mountain for a longer hike since our first trip was somewhat successful. I picked Talus Rocks -- 3 miles, round trip. It was flat, and it had caves and interesting rock fragments. I thought Sophie might enjoy exploring them. Well, I was wrong. Sophie refused to walk, and she cried a lot. It turned out she was sick. She was developing bronchiolitis, as we learned from the doctor a few days later. Here are some "happy" pictures when Sophie was not crying during the hike.

Caterpillar

More caterpillars on the bridge

Talus rocks

And more rocks

"Sophie's Fish"

We read to Sophie every night before bedtime, and she really likes it. I wish I could share such a tender moment with everyone, but there is never the right time to turn on the camera. Well, I have something close to it. Here's a video clip of Vân reading to Sophie her new favorite book after dinner.

A Perfect Day

Sophie is a pretty mellow child, but she can still wear us out at the end of the day. But a month ago, a strange thing happened. And it must be documented. We wore her out. She fell asleep on the couch as soon as we got home.

The day began with me taking Sophie to Discovery Park for our usual hike. Loop trail, three miles around the park. We had lunch at the beach. Sophie didn't eat much, but she had a lot of fun making burger patties with sand.

Walking with snack in hand

Lunch at beach

Making burger patties with eggs on top - not patty cakes

In the afternoon, we met up with Vân at the SAM (Seattle Art Museum). We took Sophie to the SAM a year ago, and she did not like it at all. So we were a bit worried this time around. But to our surprise, she loved it.

"It's so beautiful. I love it!"

Neon lights

Posing for daddy

"He looks really sad. He needs his mommy."

After visiting the SAM, we decided to go out for sushi. But we had dessert first at Hiroki, on the sidewalk, while waiting for our favorite sushi place Kisaku to open. Coke float, cream puff, then agedashi tofu, sashimi and sushi rolls. It was a perfect day. 

At Hiroki

I want tofu!

  

Pink in Motion

Sophie has turned our bed into a meadow and our pillows giant bouncy mushrooms. And she is a princess jumping on the bouncy mushrooms from one end of the meadow to the other. I have tried many times to capture this with my camera, but I never got it right. Then, I played with some color saturation feature and the shutter speed, and the pictures turned out pretty interesting. Have a look.

Funny Faces

These are the funny faces Sophie learned from school and dance class. They're quite silly.

Blowing Bubbles

Blowing bubbles is a lot harder than it seems. For a while there, it was quite funny seeing Sophie blowing so hard, but no bubbles came out.

I'm going to blow some bubbles. Ready?

Where are the bubbles?