San Francisco

Before we came back to Canada, we stopped over at San Francisco. This was the last trip before I go back to work. It seems so fast that it's been a year and now it's almost time to go back to work.

Since there's like 9 hours in time difference between Hong Kong and San Francisco, we were all very sleepy for the 3 days that we stayed there. We rented a car for the first day and we went to Santa Rosa for the Snoopy Museum and the Golden Gate Bridge and the rest of the days we stayed there, we just simply walked around since the hotel that we stayed at was very close by China Town and very convenient to take transportation to other places.

Taiwan

For part of our Asia trip, we went to Taiwan as well. We stayed there for one week and my hubby kept on saying that we have to come back there to visit there sometime. He really loves the food there.

The tall building at the back is Taipei 101 building which is the landmark of Taipei:

At the night market:

Then we headed down to the South to Kenting:

At the resort that we stayed:

At the train station:

We stopped over at a place that I think is near Kaoshuing:

Hong Kong and Japan

In October, we travelled again (and yes, it seemed like I did travel a lot before my maternity leave ended). This time, we headed to Asia and went to Hong Kong and Tokyo, Japan. These cities were very crowded and busy and we had a lot of great food there.

Visiting temples in Japan:

Picture taken at the Japanese style hotel that we stayed:

We were having a lot of fun in Disneyland, Hong Kong:

New York and Boston

At the end of September, we drove down to New York and Boston. This is the first time that my baby girl went there and we had lots of fun!

At the harbourfront in Boston:

At Boston Common (I think that's what it is called):

At Times Square:

At Central Park:

L.A. and Las Vegas

Here we travelled again in July! This time we flew to Newport Beach, L.A. and then rented a car to travel around the places nearby.

We went to San Diego, Santa Monica, Disney downtown and Las Vegas and had some great

shopping atshopping at outlet mall too!

Picture at MGM Grand and M&M Store in Las Vegas:

I am really lucky to get a seat on the flight!

Picture at Premium Outlet while mommy got her shopping done!

Our trip to Osaka, Japan - Part 2

I have been very busy and it's been a long time to write any blog posts.

I will post pictures for the places that we had been to and hope that when I have time, I will come back and write down the places that we went to since we went there in May, 2010.

This a picture that we took at the outdoor hot spring of the hotel that we stayed! Really love it! It's about two hours bus ride from Osaka and definitely worth the travel time!

We went to a zoo nearby the town that we stayed near the hotel and one part of was like Amusement park. Too bad that we need to catch the 3:00 pm bus to another places, if not, we will for sure stay there for a longer time. The picture on the left, we took it outside the Osaka train station which was 5 minutes away from the hotel that we stayed. The hotel was really good since it has a mini hot spring on the top floor and we enjoyed it very very much!

We also went to Kyoto where there's many ancient Japanese temples there. We went there by train and it's less than an hour train ride from Osaka if I remembered it correctly.

We also went to a place that's like a studio where there's streets like ancient Japan, mini live shows to watch (and you don't really need to know Japanese to watch those and you will understand what they are doing from their body language). And there's a large exhibition of ultraman in that studio and that's one of the reasons why we went there as my hubby is a big fan since he was a kid.

We also went to Nara which is also less than an hour train ride from Osaka. There's many temples there as well.

We really had a great time in Japan and I look forward to going there again!

New York and Boston

For Labour Day long weekend, we flew to New York. We stayed at a very decent hotel which was just walking distance to the Central Park. It was definitely the most expensive hotel I have ever stayed but since we only stayed for a night, I just go for it. It's the first time that my baby girl went to Central Park and we enjoyed our visit there. We also tried the famous high tea at the hotel and it was a great experience too.

Then we rented a car and drove to Boston. We went to museums, Quincy Market and Aquarium. Places that a normal tourist would go. Originally my hubby wanted to drive to Rhode Island too but since we needed to drive back to New York to take our flight, we would save that for our next trip.

Okkatots Baby Carrier

Okkatots has recently won the PTPA awards. There's an awesome giveaway at the Okkatots website for their baby carrier and travel diaper bag!

Go to their website at http://www.okkatots.com/ to check out their products and also enter their giveaway for a chance to win either the grand prize which is a baby carrier or the runner up prize which is a travel diaper bag!

I would really love to win the travel diaper bag as we do travel a lot! If I won, that would be awesome!

Our Japan trip - Osaka - Part 1

I left this post in draft form for quite sometime already and it's finally time to finish it up (well at least for the Part 1)!

I went to Tokyo before and I absolutely love this place!

This year, thanks to Air Canada's buy one get one free deal (because of Canada won gold medal in Winter Olympic, this was one of the promotions), we decided to go to Asia and Japan was one of the stop. This time, we went to Osaka and surrounding area. We had also decided that we were going to bring our baby with us as well.

We were lucky enough to get the seats with the bassinet and therefore, during the long flights, my baby were able to sleep a few times and not really too cranky overall during the flights.




We took the airport bus to our hotel as with a baby with us, we did not want to lift our luggage and stroller going up and down by taking the train. My hubby had booked the hotel right next to the airport bus stop and thus it's only 1 minute walking to the hotel after we got off.

We stayed in Osaka for a few days and we just simply browsed around the area near the hotel and then headed to other surrounding area. (To be continued)

My baby is having Diarrhea ...

My baby is having diarrhea for almost a week now. She has bowel movements at least 3 to 5 times a day. We bought her to her doctor this Tuesday and he simply said it's normal. He told me to bring her back if I found any blood in her stool or if she has stomach pain ...

I have done some research on the internet and I know that it is important to keep her hydrated and I have been feeding her as normal (breastfeeding plus rice cereal) and give her water from time to time as well ...

Hope that she will be better this weekend since it's been a week already.

My Baby loves Huggies

Here is a picture that my baby plays with her Huggies diapers which we stocked up at home! She just loves using Little Movers!

Baby's 2nd Trip - Miami

We went to Miami for 4 days last weekend. The first two and a half days were raining there and thus, we only went shopping. I realized that the baby/infant clothes are a lot cheaper in the States than in Canada. I bought quite a number of clothes for my baby and it should be good enough that she does not need to buy any more in the next 6 months.

We stayed at Fairmont Turnberry Isle Hotel and it is such a fabulous hotel that we will definitely stay there again when we go back to Miami. The baby crib was the best based on 3 other hotels which we stayed previously in different places (2 of which were Fairmonts as well).

On the third day, we went to the Adventura Mall which is next to the hotel (which my sister said was one of the top five malls in Florida). We found a lot of great toys on sale at the Toys R Us Express store (pretend play fabric food by Playskool 70% off). We bought so many of those that we needed to ask the store to give us a box so that we could pack our stuffs in the box when we were back to the hotel.

Since it stopped raining in early afternoon, we rushed back to the hotel to get change and got down to the pool. We were able to get two Cabana and this was the first time my baby dressed in bikini and kind of played inside the pool for a short little while. The pool was really really nice! It was so comfy there that my baby even fell asleep!

The next day (which was also the last day that we were in Miami) was a sunny day! We took the shuttle to the private beach and enjoyed a very short time there. It was so nice! I really love there!

Then we headed to South Beach. It was very hot and sunny. Then we had to head down to the rental car company and then to the airport.

Hope that in the next couple of years, we will be back to Miami again!

annies home - Kid Konserve and Flingo reviews with a giveaway

This is a very wonderful giveaway from Konserve! I really love the set and would really love to win one!

You can go to annies home right now to enter and this giveaway will end on May 3, 2010.

http://shopannies.blogspot.com/2010/04/kid-konserve-and-flingo-reviews-with.html

Good Luck!

CoolCanucks Blog Contest ~ Kids Konserve Giveaway!!

CoolCanucks has a lot of blog giveaways! I came across this Kids Konserve giveaway which is a really really good one!

Go to their website and check it out! But act fast to enter this giveaway as it will be ending today:

http://coolcanucks.ca/coolcanucks-blog-contest-kids-konserve-giveaway/

Good luck!

ERGObaby carrier Giveaway

There is a fantastic ERGObaby carrier giveaway at Cars, Trucks and teethingrings now! ERGObaby has really nice carriers and it is such a great opportunity to win one!

Go here to enter:

http://carstrucksandteethingrings.blogspot.com/2010/04/ergobaby-review-and-giveaway.html

This giveaway will be ended on May 6, 2010!

annies home - Boon Potty Bench review and giveaway

My baby is 6 months old now and we are searching to buy a potty for her. It is nice to know that annies home is hosting a giveaway for Boon Potty Bench! A very stylish potty!

Enter this nice giveaway here:

http://shopannies.blogspot.com/2010/04/boon-potty-bench-review-and-giveaway.html

This giveaway will be ending on May 13, 2010

Win a PlaSmart PlasmaCar! at Mama's Mess Website

Just found out today that Mama's Mess website is hosting a PlaSmart PlasmaCar giveaway sponsored by CSN Stores. It is going to end today, hurry and go to enter this fabulous giveaway!

http://mamasamess.blogspot.com/2010/04/csn-stores-win-plasmart-plasmacar.html

Good luck, everyone!

First Rollover

Yeah, my baby finally learned to rollover by herself on April 22!!!!

We had tried to teach her a lot of times already as to how to rollover and a lot of her little friends had already know how to do that in 3 - 5 months. We were little worried that why she still does not know how to do that.

Finally in 6 1/2 months, she did it!

Still have no success in solid

I am still having a hard time to try to feed my baby solid food ... she struggled a lot a lot ...

What to do ...

We are going to Miami this weekend, should I continue breastfeeding for now and wait till when we come back to try to feed her solid again or I should keep trying when we are in Miami ...

First Time Trying Solid

My baby went to see her doctor and the doctor confirmed that she could start solid food now.

We went home and she tried the rice cereal for the first time ... but it seemed that she did not quite like it ... Probably will need some time for her to learn how to swallow the rice cereal (since I full breastfeeding since her birth and she did not take bottle) before I can give her to try other stuff ...

Admiral Road Personalized Blanket

I am so lucky to be one of the PTPA product testers to test out the Admiral Road personalized blanket. I want to thank you PTPA for giving me such an opportunity to take part in testing this product.

Obviously, baby blanket plays a very important role in my baby's daily life. Not only that she uses it while she's sleeping, but she also needs it whenever we go out.

When we took the blanket out of the package, we were all very excited! The blanket was very eye-catching. It has a monkey pattern on it with my baby's name sewed towards the bottom part of the blanket. I washed it right away so that my baby can test it out.

After the first wash and after I put it in the dryer, it's still look like new (the colour did not fade, no thread tangling etc. and no shrinking) and it feels really soft (I did not use any fabric softener for the clothes and other things that my baby uses). I let my baby held it herself and she did not push it away (I had another blanket, after I washed and gave it to my baby, she did not like it and refused to use it! My baby did like to pick her own things!). I let her to use this blanket whenever she's in the living room, in her crib and whenever we went out. My baby likes this blanket a lot and I think as a mom, obviously, I would want to buy something that my baby loves!

Then we went for a two days road trip to Niagara Falls. We used this blanket to cover part of her car seat to work as a sun shade while we were in the car. Then when we put her on the stroller, we used the blanket to cover her as it was still kind of chilly when we were close-by the Falls. The blanket was very handy and light weight and it served the function to keep my baby warm!



When we went back home, we washed the blanket for another 3 times before we brought the blanket with us again to another trip, Banff and Lake Louise in Calgary. We brought it with us on the flight so that when our baby was alseep, we could use it to cover her. Then in the rental car, again, it was used to cover her car seat and worked as sun shade.

Since it was quite cold in Banff and Lake Louise, we used the blanket all the times. When we were holding our baby either by hands or using a baby carrier, we used the blanket to cover my baby's head and body to keep her warm and separate her from the wind (as it was really really cold at Lake Lousie, especially). The personalization on the blanket was really stand-out and eye-catching! It was also used to identify my baby in the picture even she was asleep and could not see her face!



Overall, I love this blanket. The blanket's size is good and we feel comfortable for our baby to use it in her crib at night (for some baby's blankets, babies will soon outgrown it). When we folded it up, it's very light weight and handy to bring it with us to simply go anywhere. The quality of the blanket is really good and I have washed and dried it several times already and it still looks like new. My mom is really picky about the products/things that my baby uses and even after the Banff/Lake Louise trip, she says this blanket is really good to be able to keep my baby away from the wind and served as another protection to keep my baby warm!

I have recommended it to a few friends already should they need to buy any baby shower/baby gifts for any expectant mom or new parents.

We will be going to the States in two weeks and of course, we will bring this blanket with us as well!

Disclaimer: The product/s mentioned above have been given free of charge from the company/PTPA. The product features expressed in this post are those of My Panda Space and have not been influenced in any other way.

My baby's first trip to Calgary

This past Easter long weekend, we flew to Calgary. It was my baby's first flight and surprisingly, she was doing really good! She did not cry, fed her once, fell asleep when the flight departed!

After we had arrived the Calgary airport, we went to pick up our rental car. Dropped by to visit two friends at Calgary and then headed to Banff! It's been 6 years since we last visited there and the scenery was still breathtaking when we entered the Banff area.

We went to Grizzly House to have lunch. A lot of people saying that their fondue and hot rocks dinners were really good. My hubby tried an exotic meat hot rocks dinner but as I expected, it's not really exceptionally good that you "must" try it when you were at Banff.

Then we headed to check-in at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. A very nice hotel and we got upgraded to a deluxe room. The view was beautiful! From our room, we got the full view of the mountain!!!! Everyone was very excited!

We then drove around and took some pictures and then went back to the hotel to walk around. There were a lot of activites for children and probably few years later, I will bring my baby back to Banff during Easter so that she can enjoy the children activities offered by the hotel, like Easter egg hunt, bunny story time etc.





The next morning, we tried the famous brunch at the hotel! It's really good and it's totally worth the money that you paid for the brunch. But need to be sure you made a reservation, since it's always very full there.

After the brunch, we drove to Lake Louise. Since the weather was not really good by the time we arrived, we simply stayed inside the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise hotel. Again, we got upgraded to a room with lake view. Although Lake Louise was full of snow, but it was very beautiful. We went to enjoy the pool and whirlpool inside the hotel. Really relaxing!

The next morning, we went outside to take some really good pictures. Time passed so fast that we did not even realized it's almost two hours that we were there! It's not as cold as I thought (since I saw on the weather report that it's -10 degree outside!) We were so lucky that we were able to make reservation to try their Easter brunch. The restaurant itself and the scenary outside the window was better than Fairmont Banff Springs but in terms of food, I still prefer the brunch at Banff. It got a lot of different Easter decoration, like ice scruplture, chooclate scruplture, bunny sweet treats, bunny bread etc. I was so excited to see all these!!!!!



After the brunch, we loaded all our luggages into our rental car and then we drove the Hwy 1A for some scenic viewing and then headed to the airport.

This mini getaway was fun and I am looking forward to my next trip to Miami in two weeks!

My baby's first trip to Niagara Falls

On March 27, we had stayed a night at the Niagara Falls. This was the first road trip that my baby ever had since birth. Everyone was so excited. We first drove to Buffalo to see the Falls there and then went to outlet mall to do a bit of shopping. Then, we went back to the hotel to drop off our luggage and simply stay at the hotel for dinner.

The next morning, we went to the see the Falls on the Canadian side but too bad that my baby was only able to take one picture and then she fell asleep the entire time. But overall, it was a very fun trip!