August pictures

August 2010

Talking more and more

Malea has been in the midst of a language explosion these past few months. Last month she was all over Sesame Street characters and their colors. Even though she's never seen an episode of Sesame Street, I love the fact that she knows the characters from her diapers!



And here are a couple videos from last week. We've been amazed at how much Malea remembers and recognizes, and also how creative she is sometimes! (What do we put on our hands in the wintertime? Lotion!)

Nutella face!

German pancakes with banana and Nutella - a Diehn family breakfast tradition!







Now, if only I could find some pictures of Felix and his siblings with a Nutella face!

Summertime in Seattle cont.

Malea enjoyed a lot of quality time with my family during our trip - lots of reading time, snuggle time and even a haircut by Auntie Chira! And, as has become a tradition when near Chira's SLR, Malea was the subject of many a photo shoot!






















Have to mention that my mom was astounded that Malea dipped her naan in these Indian curries when we got Indian takeout one evening. "This green curry is even too spicy for Yai! Malea, you are amazing!" Malea definitely took advantage of all the delicious ethnic cuisine choices we sampled while in Seattle!






Malea also got to sport this stylin' sun protective outfit at a park near our house on the shores of Lake Washington.

All too soon, it was time to hear back to Rochester. It was a wonderful week in Seattle!

Summertime in Seattle

We flew to Seattle for a weeklong visit earlier this month. Although the weather wasn't quite as summerlike as I was hoping the first few days we were there, our first day in Seattle coincided with one of the best events for an ethnic-cuisine-deprived foodie like myself... the annual Thai picnic at the Atammayatarama Buddhist Monastery in Woodinville! Just imagine dozens of booths preparing delicious, authentic Thai food. I was in heaven! Besides stuffing myself lots of oyster omelette, khao man gai, som tum (Thai and Lao style), chicken wings, grilled salmon, chicken satay, ba mee and so many desserts I lost count, I think I had the most fun introducing Malea to a plethora of Thai food and being super happy that she ate everything with gusto! And I mean everything! Here she's happily eating Kra Pro Pla, which is fish maw soup. I won't list all the ingredients (in case some of you are squeamish), but I'll share that Malea ate everything in it (including the bits that I usually eat around)! She's a true-blue Thai girl!







Here I am with both my little sisters!




Don't tell Felix, but Malea found herself an admirer in 4-yr-old Dylan.


Malea also said hello to Dylan's little sister, Kendel.


Of course, hanging out with Grandpa Chare is always fun!


After all the Thai food and Thai company, Malea decided to work on her ranat playing the next morning...




She's not exclusive though, and spent some time practicing the piano too.


To make sure she has a well-rounded upbringing, Grandma Su also brought out a special broom for Malea and they had lots of fun sweeping the kitchen (and the walkways) together.


On Tuesdays, we meet up with EB and her adorable almost 3-year-old son Matthew. After running around the Wallingford Playground for a while, we all enjoyed a sugar overload with a visit to Trophy Cupcakes, Chocolati and Molly Moon's Ice Cream - yum! (Luckily, Malea decided an extra long nap was in order after all that goodness... Matthew though, had a different plan for the afternoon - sorry EB! Thanks for indulging us - it was great to see you!)



Papa Felix joined us in Seattle on Tuesday evening and we explored a park near my parents house.





This playground included a couple Kompan-designed play structures that were a bit funky looking. Malea wasn't quite sure what to do, but Felix had fun checking some stuff out.



One of the highlights of this trip was getting together with a bunch of the old Seattle crew and meeting the newest addition to the group, baby Julia, for the very first time!


Thanks Greg and Cheryl for hosting a wonderful dinner - it was great fun to see everyone and catch up! And as always, the food was awesome! I really miss all the dinner parties we used to have...


On Thursday, Malea and Matthew were thrilled to be reunited, this time for dim sum in the International District.


Later that day, we took Malea to see my all-time favorite Seattle landmark, the Pike Place Market!


It seems like every other stall at the market is my favorite for something or other, but I've always had a soft spot for the mini-donut stand that is just around the corner from the famous Pike Place Fish, where fish and other various seafood is usually flying through the air. Like her mom, Malea found the donut making machine fascinating to watch. And, after waiting patiently in line, Malea got to enjoy her very first donut, hot from it's trip down the river of oil - yum!




I'll leave you with visions of mini donut goodness for now... More of our Seattle trip to come in a later post.