more Isaac and Meredith photos

Houston trip and the bread makers club

We drove to Houston last weekend. Boon Hong's mum left for Malaysia after spending more than a month with us in New Orleans. She flew out of Houston airport. This trip was very busy since we had to do some maintenance work in our old house which is still for sale on the market.
Luckily, Meredith is there to lend a helping hand. Here is Meredith helping to change out the air filter in the central AC system in the attic.

Our old neighbor came by to visit us.

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Boon Hong's mum went back to Malaysia. I know that Boon Hong missed her a lot.

Another end result of our trip to Houston is the bread making machine. All the aunties in Houston (quite a few of our friends with young children from WHCC church have purchased breadmaking machine) are into homemade bread now, they exchange recipes and exchange their homemade breads. So Boon Hong caved in to the peer pressure (actually, the homemade bread tasted very good and is more healthy) and have been shopping for breadmaking machine since we came back from Houston last Sunday. Finally, we bought a breadmaking machine yesterday for $40 plus. We made our first loaf of honey wheat cranberry bread today and the end result is shown below.

Back on Malaysia soil in US

Boon Hong and I have not been back to Malaysia since 2006. We miss home a lot. So when we went to the Malaysia embassy for Isaac's paperwork, I would like to think that we have technically step on Malaysia's soil again. I heard that an embassy is technically a country's sovereign ground even though it is on foreign soil. Anyway, Malaysia embassy in Washington DC is quite nice and the people there are very courteous. The Malay guard even came out to chat with us and then took these photos for us.

More Washington DC photos

I finally have some free time to post some more photos from our trip to DC.

Self portrait with Isaac to kill time while waiting for Boon Hong to shop

Boon Hong's mum and Meredith in front of Washington DC Chinatown street.

We went to Smithsonian museum during our last day in DC. We went to the museum store to look for the tiger hair band. We took several photos when we visited in 2006 (Meredith was 7 months old at that time). I remembered those photos very fondly and wanted to recreate the shot. But I don't think I captured the same effect this time.

Photo s taken with Meredith at the same place in Smithsonian museum in 2006.

Washington DC Trip

We went to Washington DC about two weeks ago. We went there to register Isaac at the Malaysia Embassy so he can become a Sarawakian in future. This is also a chance for us to take Boon Hong's mum for sightseeing while she is here in the states. So all five of us flew up to DC and spent four days at the nation's capital. It was a fun trip overall. The logistic of going through airport and clearing security checks etc were challenging. At the security check point, we lug around our carry-on lugages, diaper bag, one toddler, one baby, laptop, stroller and at the same time take off our shoes, fold up the stroller, shoved everything onto the conveyor belt towards the X-ray machine while the TSA agent yelled at the top of her lung "no liquid more than 4 oz!", "shoes off!'', "move faster!","have your boarding pass out!" . Instead of making flying safer, I think all the TSA agent contributed is more chaos at the airport and unneccessary delay at the security line.

Isaac knows how to smile now!

Annapolis, Maryland 30miles from DC (unlike Xiao Niu Niu, Isaac enjoyed being carried around in the suspended baby carrier)

Now that we live in a very "Ulu" place like New Orleans, we take every chance we have to eat good chinese (or Malaysian) food when we go to big city. This is taken at Penang restaurant in Dupont Circle, Washington DC. This place is pricey, $11 for chay kuay tiau. The clientele is mostly American and business is good. I think Malaysian food has gone mainstream in many cities.

Isaac resting after shower

Rumah putih

Lincoln memorial

We miss Houston

We miss Houston, we miss our friends, we miss our church http://www.whcchome.org/, we miss good Chinese food and I above all miss $2.99 hair cut. I have been enjoying cheap $2.99 hair cut by vietnamese barber in Houston for years. Although the styling may be less than desired, it is very hard to argue with the good value of having your hair cut for less than the price of a cup of coffee. I went to Walmart in New Orleans yesterday to get my first New Orleans hair cut. I have not research extensively but I figure Walmart saloon has to be among the cheapest in New Orleans. However, the price for men's haircut is $14. This is the first double digit hair cut that I had in America!

Photos from our last few days in Houston

Our farewell dinner with friends in Houston

We stayed at Tuck Leong and Sabrina house after the movers empty our house.

Infant dedication for Isaac the week before we move.

More New Orleans photos

Cafe Du Monde

Meredith enjoying the powdery sugar in the beignet. We pulled the plate away from her but when we were not looking, she was digging into the powdery sugar again.

We've been to French Quarter in New Orleans three weeks in a row. We don't know anyone in New Orleans yet so our weekends suddenly seem so empty. In Houston, there's always a baby shower, bridal shower, bachelor party, wedding, bbq, party at someone's house on weekend so the weekends agenda are usually packed. Actually, all three of us (Boon Hong, Meredith and myself) miss Houston a lot. Now, we don't know where to go and who to talk to. So we ended up taking Boon Hong's mum to French Quarter several times. She happened to like French Quarter too especially the area around Jackson Square. We went Cafe Du Monde in French Quarter. This coffee house is a very well known in New Orleans and has been in operation more or less since 1860. Cafe Du Monde is famous for their beignet which is fried donut dipped in powdery sugar. Meredith is a big fan of beignet. She finished the entire beignet and then she devoured the powdery sugar on the plate bit by bit.

New Orleans

Despite being devastated by hurricane two years ago and having the highest crime rate in the entire America, New Orleans is still a beautiful and charming city. This is especially true if you look at French Quarter. Tourists are back swarming this crown jewel of New Orleans. We took Boon Hong's mum to French Quarter in downtown New Orleans for sightseeing and we chanced upon this beautiful wedding party in Jackson Square.