i heart oe

We took the Oes up to Lake Tahoe to see some snow. They’d never seen snow, and when we first spotted it at 5000 feet, Chloe said, “Where does it come from? It’s just always there?” And when she saw that the ground was wet after the snow fell, she would ask, “Why is it all wet? Is it raining?” The things you take for granted in life…Chloe had a fun time ice skating and sledding, although she couldn’t seem to keep her gloves on. I also learned that Zoe is quite like me - doesn’t really like the cold. She couldn’t stand wearing her snow suit, and screamed whenever we tried putting on her helmet and goggles.

We brought the G2 to test out in the snow blizzard, and it worked pretty darn well. Unfortunately, I can’t show photos (as I alluded to in a previous post, there is a new product that we are working on, and I couldn’t get any photos without it). Zoe preferred to hang out in the stroller, rather than stand out in the snow.

We’ve now been to this restaurant a few times, and I’ve decided that I really, really like it. Every time we go, the girls do a fantastic job - they eat the noodles, rice, and pork like nobody’s business. And for that, I will keep going back. We got there at 11:50 last Saturday, and it still wasn’t quite opened, but given that there was another family in a mini-van waiting in the parking lot, I decided to venture in with Chloe to snag a seat. Good thing I did - within 10 minutes after noon, the place was packed. Almost everyone was there with a toddler, and people came prepared - the Asian mom who sat next to me brought her own scissors for cutting the noddles, the other mom across from me brought a special cloth seat for her daughter (pretty cool contraption, will need to do some digging), and the dad across the way broke out some tiny chopsticks for his young son. To top it off, I love this poster they have hanging up there. On my last visit, I had asked the owner for the name of the artist, and never got a call back, but I’m sure he has better things to do (like stewing pork).

Zoe of course fell asleep (in her Orbit, of course) on the drive over, but upon waking up, she inhaled a bowl of rice with stewed pork and edamame. Yummy.

As part of celebrating the launch of Orbit Baby’s new line - G2 - we had Sibby’s cupcakes at work. Sibby’s makes the most delicious cupcakes EVER. Hands down. I have had plenty of cupcakes in this current craze of tiny cakes and these are by far the best. And, since we had some left over, we brought them home for the Oes.

Nothing like some good old red velvet…

A blog about love would not be complete without our annual Valentine’s Day card extravaganza. I know this is a delayed entry, but later is better than never. We had to take a few photos before we got the perfect one; Zoe hasn’t quite yet mastered her “normal” smile yet (she prefers frowning).

We finally settled on this one:

The Oes helped sticker, Joe cut the red paper, Grandma helped glue, and I wrote in my best Arial font. Chloe started off by signing them, but since we had to make 50 cards, I took over. That’s right, 50 cards. Now that both girls are in school, we have lots more cards to make!

I have been SO itching to show photos of the Orbit Baby G2, but of course I had to keep it under wraps until this past week, where we’ve officially gone live with photos on our website. Plus, we’ve also shipped floor displays to stores all across the country, so it’s now LIVE and breathing. Like, seriously. We’re getting a ton of calls and questions about the product, it’s a bit crazy. So, now I can finally post some photos. You might remember that we took a trip to Taipei, China, and Singapore in the fall, where we got to test the stroller pretty heavily - from the cobble-stone paths in Guilin, to the rough concrete street curbs in Taipei. And, it was pushed around by eight other cousins, too.

Here Zoe is riding on the Orbit Baby Stroller G2 with the Panniers:

The funny thing is, we actually tested it with another product which isn’t yet launching, so I actually still can’t share the majority of the photos I took. You’ll just have to stay tuned to find out what that other cool new thing is. I say this not to tease, but to make the point that Orbit is all about innovation and making really cool products - so if you like our concept and design, you will almost for sure like all the other stuff that we’ll introduce in the future.

Sometimes I reserve the right to just post fun photos. Why not, right? Also, auntie Joy posted on Facebook today saying how cute the Oes were.

By the way, some photos of Zoe look identical to Joy when she was little. I’ll have to do some scanning one of these days. Pretty trippy.

A few nights ago, when we were getting ready to go to bed, Zoe did her usual “sleep-with-me-plea” that she does every night. Except this time, she gave me a special pillow. When I asked her, “Where am I supposed to sleep?!” she pointed to this:

Meanwhile, she put her dolls on a pillow here:

She was really serious, actually. When I told her my head was 10x the size of the pillow, she still insisted I try it out. Ahhh….the joys of parenthood.

I was never good at ice skating when I was young. The blades scared me. I think I might have fallen once, and had someone kick me in the head with their blade. Or maybe that was just something I made up in my head, thus incapacitating me to make any forward progress on the ice beyond the age of eight. The mere thought of going on the rink frightened me. So needless to say, when Chloe begged us to take her ice skating, I pawned off that duty to Joe.

[notice the helmet, to protect from getting kicked in the head. yes, i am crazy.]

We almost had to leave when we first got there, though, because Chloe said that her skates were for “boys,” because they were black and grey (not brown or white). “We get what we get, and don’t have much choice over the rental, Chloe.” Thankfully, she was okay with that response.

I would have taken Zoe on the ice if she was at all interested, but she was more keen on watching and making funny faces. Truthfully, I think she was just as scared as me.

Auntie Clara sent along some paper dress up dolls. Chloe got a “Chloe La Mariee” one:

These Les Choupinettes are actually made in France…Not sure where Clara found them, but the clothes stick on with tiny little velcro strips. Very cool. But coolest of all is that she found BOTH a Chloe and a Zoe one:

So fun!

I posted earlier this year about some conversations I had last year with Chloe when she was three. Well, time flies and she just turned four recently, and managed to ask some pretty strange questions today. Compared to nine months ago, we are able to have more coherent conversations now, although it is harder to convince her that I actually know what I am talking about (which, is probably because, I don’t):

Chloe: “Did you change me when I was in your belly?”

Me: “You mean change your clothes?”

Chloe: “Yea, like take off my shirt.”

Me: “No silly, you were naked inside my belly.”

Chloe [half smiling in thought]: “Did you get poop on me when I came out of your butt?”

Me: “No, I didn’t poop you out, silly.”

[Full stop because didn't know how to (or whether I should) explain the rest. If a mom, or psychologist, or biologist has any suggestions out there, feel free to share because I'm sure this will come up again.]

Then, an hour later, she asked:

Chloe: “If I keep scratching and scratching, will there be a hole in my skin?”

Me: “There could be.”

Chloe: “What color is underneath the skin?”

Me [pausing to think, visioning one of those cut open flesh diagrams from college Biology]: “Pink.”

Chloe: “For reals?” (because she loves the color pink, I think she was rather charmed).

Me: “Yes, for reals.”

Then, 10 minutes later, as she’s lying down for bed:

Chloe: “If I have dark skin, what color is underneath the skin?”

Me [thinking really hard this time, for reals]: “Dark pink.”

Chloe: “Oh.”

She seemed satisfied with the answer. Either that, or she thought I was an idiot, because, in hindsight, my answer doesn’t make any sense. Or does it? I’m trying to picture those diagrams of the epidermis and dermis and all those tiny cells and I think it should just be pink, and not dark pink, but whatever. If I can’t even answer her questions now, how will I do when she’s fourteen?! I better break out my Stanford Bio32 books. On second thought, that class kicked my ass in college, so never mind.