People, Places, & Faces

Fiona's had opportunities to hang out with some favorite people lately. One of the BEST things about our new place is that we live 1 block away from our friends Tommy & Celeste, and their 7-month-old baby Elisa. Fiona loves Elisa (who she calls "Baby Li"), and it's always a treat for us to see Fiona actually looking LARGE next to another baby!

As you can see, Elisa has a wonderful tolerance for Fiona's outbursts of affection. It's pretty sweet to see them together!
Our former neighbors Eric ("E-E") and Amanda ("May-May") came over last weekend for breakfast at the Homemade Cafe, which meant Fiona had the huge treat of eating PANCAKES with two of her favorite people!

Now, we've been getting lots of nice comments in response to this blog about how cute Fiona is. Make no mistake about it, the girl knows how to work the camera.

But I do think it's time we added a dose of reality. Fiona is not always cute. She often looks like this:

Or even like this:

But of course, we love her anyway.

Father's Day Part 2: Grandpas are Fathers, Too!

(Trying to catch up on the backlog of photos/events to post -- the Internet version of nesting?)
In addition to a great Dadoo, Fiona also has two wonderful grandfathers. Sadly, we couldn't be with Boom on Father's Day this year (though we did spend it on the East Coast with him last year), but this year was Granddaddy's turn. We celebrated Granddaddy a couple days after Father's Day itself. As with most celebrations in the Gong family, this one revolved around food, specifically...

NOODLES!

Grandmommy, Granddaddy and Dadoo took Fiona to lunch at Daimo, a great Chinese restaurant that serves delicious noodles. Fiona was particularly fond of the beef chow fun.

After lunch, they stopped by Ranch 99 supermarket to check out the carrots, and other attractions.

Fiona ended up with a bag full of her favorite sweet buns. Happy Father's Day to Boom & Granddaddy!
In other food news, we've all been enjoying Dadoo's Father's Day gift: a griddle for making pancakes for the family. Here's Fiona enjoying some strawberry/blueberry pancakes (complete with blueberry on nose):

And the less nutritious (though Dadoo justifies it by using buckwheat flour) chocolate chip/banana version:

Why I Love My Dad-oo, by Fiona

Fiona here, FINALLY updating you on how I celebrated Father's Day with Dadoo (Mama's pretty hopeless now, what with all the preparing and waiting around for my sibling!). First off, you should know that I have a GREAT Dadoo (and yes, that's what I actually have decided to call him). We do lots of fun things together, just the two of us. Usually these things involve food. For instance, he took me to explore this great bakery near our new house.

I got to eat cookies.

And this made me very happy. Sometimes a girl just needs to bust out in a spontaneous dance.
Dadoo is a wonderful cook himself, and he's teaching me his secrets. Lesson #1: Mixing. I've got this one DOWN.
Anyway, on Father's Day we all went for breakfast to the Homemade Cafe, our new favorite place. They have the BEST blueberry pancakes. Yum!
Then we went to church, and after church Pastor Jose had arranged for a TACO TRUCK to pull up outside for lunch. I had a great time at the taco truck!

After my nap, we headed over to the Oakland Zoo. I liked looking at the animals (like the giraffes in the distance here)...

...I rode the Merry-Go-Round with Dadoo...

...and after a picnic dinner, I took a few rides down the slide. All in all, a great way to celebrate Dadoo!

Fiona from the Block

As June 1 approached, so did our move. Fiona bid a fond farewell to 1763 Spruce St., the only home she'd known since birth.

And with the help of a LOT of WONDERFUL friends, the Gongs moved a short distance away to our new place in South-West Berkeley, aka the "Berkeley Flats."
As far as Mama Gong is concerned, the "Flats" comes just at the right time; pushing our new double stroller up all the hills in our old neighborhood might have broken me.

Fiona found moving to be a lot of fun. Especially the boxes, which are great to sit in...
...and even better when made into a clubhouse!

As the most fashionable Gong, Fiona quickly determined that a change of address required a changed look. The day we moved in, we were informed by the neighbors down the block that we'd moved to the "semi-hood." (Disclaimer/explanation: we LOVE our new neighborhood, our new house is the best we've lived in to date, our friends Tommy & Celeste and their baby are virtually across the street, etc. But yes, compared to North Berkeley, the Flats are definitely rougher around the edges and more diverse. Which we consider a very, very good thing). The next day, Fiona found one of her old baby hats and insisted on wearing it all afternoon. In our opinion, it definitely gives her that tough, do-rag look, and has us wondering if she's secretly running a cracker-dealing gang after hours.
But the next day, it was on to new headgear: a bandanna for planting with Mama.
Moving had other perks; our new layout and Fiona's ever-increasing Big Girl status inspired several new purchases, such as:

A Fiona-sized table and chair for creative work...
(she doesn't always like to be disturbed in her creative endeavors)

...and a bathroom step-stool for a better tooth-brushing experience.

Yes, life is very, very good. Especially when it all comes together and a girl can eat breakfast at her new table, wearing a bandanna.

Miscellaneous Fun....

Still attempting to get caught up on the past month! Much has happened. Fiona:

welcomed back Grandmommy & Granddaddy from their Mediterranean cruise!
continued to make some interesting sartorial choices. Here she is wearing FOUR sweaters on one of the hottest days we've had this spring...

...and modeling Dadoo's tie.
is becoming far more daring at the playground. Note the tricycle and the BIG GIRL SWING!
Coming next: THE BIG MOVE!!

Fiona's First Swim

Still getting caught up on these posts....

A few weeks ago, we had some VERY hot weather here in NorCal -- made worse by our lack of air conditioning (for you East Coasters, almost nobody here has residential air conditioning).

Thankfully, our friends Steve and Kathleen live in an apartment complex with a POOL, and kindly invited us over for a swim! (Actually, I think we invited ourselves over. See a trend with the prior update? We're always inviting ourselves over!)

This was Fiona's first time in a swimming pool and she took to it like, well, like a fish to water!

Of course, every good pool party ends with a barbeque! Thanks, Steve & Kathleen!

May-May & E-E

Well, we've now successfully relocated to SW Berkeley, hence my (again) long absence from posting. Thanks to a LOT of help from friends, the move went incredibly smoothly and quickly. In fact, we're more or less settled in, and loving the new place already! (Pictures to come).

The WORST thing about the move, without question, was that it required us to put a 10-minute drive between us and our now former neighbors Eric and Amanda. Eric and Amanda are the best neighbors one could ever hope to have, the sort of neighbors who somehow KNOW when it's been a long week and show up with a lasagna. At our old place, we could -- and often did -- shout up to their windows and have what I'm sure were irritating public discussions for all the other neighbors.

Needless to say, because she is a good judge of character, Fiona adores Eric and Amanda, whom she calls "May-May" and "E-E." In addition to shouting at their windows, we'd also taken to dropping in on them unannounced, and it got to the point where Fiona couldn't pass their driveway without requesting a visit. (Now that I think about it, they might be happy that we've moved!)
In their final act of neighborly kindness (apart from Eric helping us move for 4 hours), E-E and May-May had Fiona over for a playdate, allowing Fiona's mom to pack for the move. From the look of things, everyone had a wonderful time.
We love E-E & May-May, and hope they'll now drop in on us unannounced!!