First Thanksgiving weekend

This first work week went by fast.
11/21 Wednesday
Xiaoying hung out with mom for most of the day while I was at work. They came over for lunch so I got to feed Andy too. Li, a friend at work who is able to held Andy for a while; it was a neat sight seeing her holding one while carrying one in the belly (2 more weeks to go!). It was very sweet to see mom hanging out with her college friends. They made Bao1Zi (my favorite food) together in the morning and baked in the afternoon as mom demonstrating Xiaoying her American food cooking. That's one quality I admire in both of them is their open mindedness to new things and how they are always interested in learning.

11/22 Thursday
We went to my friends Dave & Barbara's for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. They have two kids Miranda (7) and Jake (5). They made a delicious meal. Now I looked at their children and listened to their stories with a whole new perspective. I kept noting Andy will get to that one day. It's daunting to think about all the parental responsibilities. We went to another Microsoft friends Randy and Julia's party for the after dinner visit. It was really nice to see both families and former colleagues and catch up on office gossip. Pictures here.

11/23 Friday
I treated mom to her first spa massage experience at a nice waterfront hotel in Kirkland in the morning. I enjoyed the blue sky and water outside while she was worked on. It was another rare beautiful winter day full of sunshine. She came out relaxed but feeling bad for the masseuse girl so I guess that'd her last professional massage experience. We used to massage her back in trade for TV watching when we were kids so I suppose that'd continue. Mom and I went shopping for cloth for a couple of home projects and browsed baby furniture since mom was eager to fix Andy's night owl schedule with a rocking bed (but didn't find one). Everywhere was so packed that I so dread shopping the day after Thanksgiving.

I had the leisure (thanks to mom's babysitting) of going for a long jog in the afternoon and visited the old route that I used to jog along the lake for the first time.

Joe surprised us with a load of fresh grocery for some of my favorite dishes in the evening. We made a nice dinner together, pictures here.

11/24 saturday
We went to my friend Shelly's for a potluck. It's quite a change from gatherings a year ago: increase in new faces (new moms added to the social circle); 7 kids where as a year ago there is usually 0 kids; meeting time has shifted from dinners to lunches tailored to baby schedule; girls' conversation topics revolve around babies. I thought it was really sweet of Shelly to be hosting this when she's got her hands full with Sophie already.

11/25 Sunday
We've been lucky with the gorgeous weather this weekend. I took mom to the Kirkland waterfront. Got some pictures of Andy staring intently at Thomas Mangelsen's nature photos. We met up with Joe and checked out the marina scenery. The Kirkland Christmas tree is up and the Santa shop is in good business now. Pictures here.

We had 2 couples over for dinner in the evening, picture here. Mom cooked up some nice veggie dishes and I got some takeouts. They are mom's old time friends' children about my age; we used to play together when families visited in China. It's interesting to see them as adults now and that we all meet up again in another corner of the world after all these years. One of them has a two year old already.

I finally caught some pictures here of Andy's smile after a night feed.