Furry Friends

Here Comes the Sun!

April 23, 2012 By Misono in Furry Friends, Local Gems, Mio, Recreational Fun Tags: Berkeley, dan, Filipino, Max's, Max's of Manila, Mio, misono, North Berkeley, pet store, Totland, Vallejo

We enjoyed some gorgeous weather this past weekend, with temperatures reaching the 80s on Saturday! We had planned to go the Cherry Blossom Festival in the city, but at the last minute decided against it, since navigating the crowds in the hot weather with a toddler didn’t seem so relaxing. Instead, we stayed in the local area and spent our Saturday on more Mio-centric activities.

Our first stop was the pet store! We stopped by while taking a walk to the farmer’s market, because Mio loves to go to the pet store to see all the animals. Weekends are especially fun to go, because there are often kitties there for adoption, as well as all the dogs that customers bring in to be groomed.

Fun at the local pet store. — Mio looking at the birds.

Mio and the birds — Amazed at all the birds.

Mio staring at the snake. — Watching a snake.

So many fishies! — Look at all the fishies!

Guinea pig! — Also got to see a guinea pig...

Dan bought Mio and I these lovely tulips at the farmer’s market… so beautiful! 🙂

Mio showing us that she picked up some gravel — Back at the house, ready to go out again.

In the afternoon, we drove over to North Berkeley to visit Totland for the first time! I’d heard that it’s a popular for local mommies and kids to play, so we decided to check it out!

Scrunchy face! — Scrunchy-faced smiles on the swing.

Hanging out with a gal pal — Mio made a friend on the playground. Her mom happened to be Japanese, too!

Mio continues to scoot around — Mio is distracted by the older kids around the playground.

Scrunchy-faced goodness — Taking a break for snack time!

Mouthful of fruit — Mio with a mouthful of fresh fruit.

She cracks me up... — Back on the swing.

Stylin'! — Stylin' in shades! Thank you Matt for the baby sunglasses!

There are no words. — Dan and I couldn't stop laughing at how silly she looked in them!

After a couple hours of playground fun at Totland, we worked up quite an appetite! I’d been wanting some Filipino food, so we drove all the way up to Vallejo to try Max’s of Manila.

Filipino-style fried chicken. So amazing.

My first time trying pancit canton... and I am hooked!

They gave us a ton of garlic rice, which was also very tasty!

We also had some lumpia ubod, but Dan and I devoured it before we could take a picture…Â it was yummy, too!

Really happy with her lemon — Mio was really happy with a lemon she snagged from my plate.

Mio's reaction upon tasting the lemon = priceless. — Her reaction upon having a taste, however, was priceless. She's had it before, but she always forgets how sour it is.

She brings us so much joy! — Mio was in such a good mood that day, especially during dinner, which is rare because she usually gets cranky in the evening.

Sweet girl. — Sweet girl brings so much joy to our hearts.

We hope this awesome weather keeps up! 🙂 It’s starting to feel like summer!

Feeding the Chinchillas

March 14, 2012 By Misono in Furry Friends, Mio, Videos Tags: baby, chinchilla, chinchillas, Diesel, feeding, Mio, Piper, treats, video

Mio has been aware of our pet chinchillas for a few months now, and she often stares over at them and watches them eat and drink in their cage. She loves when I hold her up to their cage and let her poke her fingers in to touch their fur. Lately, I will give her a treat to feed to them and she’ll hold it out to the chinchillas to grab. (One out of five times, she’ll reach to put it into her own mouth, so I have to be hypervigilant about watching her and ensuring that doesn’t happen.) We captured it on video last night — the smile that spreads across her face every time Diesel or Piper accept a treat from her hand is priceless…!

These guys haven’t made an appearance on the blog for a while, because I’m always writing about Mio, but we still love them! I’ll always remember that our chinchillas (especially Diesel) were our first “babies” before Mio came along.

A Day at the Oakland Zoo

February 20, 2012 By Misono in Family and Friends, Furry Friends, Local Gems, Recreational Fun Tags: baby, dan, giraffes, goats, Jinwoo, Kayo, lions, Mio, misono, Oakland, Oakland Zoo, sheep, Sung-kook, tortoise, zoo

On Saturday, our little family took a trip to the Oakland Zoo! I’d never been, and had been telling Dan that we should take Mio once the weather got warmer — since Saturday was surprisingly warm, we seized the opportunity to finally go! Our friends Kayo and Sung-kook and their 16-month old son Jinwoo also happened to be free that day, so we invited them to come with us.

I grew up going to the National Zoo in Washington, DC, which is pretty impressive and much larger, but I really enjoyed visiting the Oakland Zoo for the first time. It was very clean, well-maintained, and very child-friendly — there were lots of open areas where children could run around and climb onto animal sculptures, and a petting zoo where they could actually touch some of the sheep and goats. I think the more intimateÂ size of the zoo actually works in favor for parents with young children, because you can get through the whole zoo (or a lot of it, at least), without getting too exhausted but still be able to see all the animals that kids love to see (monkeys, giraffes, lions, tigers, elephants. etc.).

It was of course Mio’s first time at the zoo, and although she’s a little too young to truly appreciate it, she definitely seemed intrigued (and at times, perplexed) by some of the animals at the zoo. Here are some of my favorites from the photos we took at the zoo!

16-month old Jinwoo and 10-month old Mio — Jinwoo saying hi to Mio. "Long time, no see!"

Mio and Jinwoo playing with the "snake eggs"

Mio looking into the stable. — Mio and Daddy at the petting farm section of the zoo.

Look at all those animals, Mio! — Mio looking at the sheep.

A cautious Mio — A very cautious Mio petting the sheep.

"Don't come near me!" — Daddy took Mio right up to the goats.

She looks scared by the goats... — She looks quite apprehensive...

Our family's first time at the Oakland Zoo — A family picture.

The Kim family, a month before their second baby's arrival! — Kayo, Sung-kook, and Jinwoo... soon to be a family of four!

Look at those magnificent stripes! — A tiger with magnificent stripes!

Lions at the Oakland Zoo — We ended our trip with the lions - the king of the jungle!

You can see the full set of photos we took on our outing to the Oakland Zoo in the slideshow below:

One Month Away.

March 8, 2011 By Misono in Furry Friends, Pregnancy & Parenthood

Today is March 8th, which means only one month until our little princess is due. It’ll be interesting to see whether she decides to arrive sociably early, or chooses to be fashionably late. (With how uncomfortable and heavy I’m getting, I’m kind of hoping she goes for the former!)

Here is our chinchilla Diesel feeling her kick… or rather, getting crushed by the girth of my ever-expanding abdomen.

Spain Wins World Cup 2010!

July 11, 2010 By Misono in Furry Friends, In the Headlines Tags: champion, chinchilla, Diesel, Dutch, Paul, prediction, psychic chinchilla, psychic octopus, South Africa, Spain, The Netherlands, World Cup, World Cup 2010

This past month has been intense with all the excitement of the World Cup — I know it’s been keeping me glued to ESPN and on the edge of my seat for many a game — but it all came to an end today with the World Cup Final, as Spain emerged as the victors over the Netherlands to become the World Cup 2010 Champions!

Congratulations to Spain! Holland did really well this World Cup too, but this time it just wasn’t in the cards…. Â (Although they did win for getting the most yellow cards in any game I’ve ever seen.) Congratulations to Paul the Octopus as well, the cephalopod who has gotten 8 out of 8 of his predictions this tournament right! He has become an international sensation of sorts. 🙂

Seeing this little octopus making “Breaking News” on CNN and causing such a stir this World Cup got me wondering if either of our very own pet chinchillas had any psychic abilities of his own. Here we are putting Diesel to the test this morning, shortly before the game:

Unfortunately, the only thing Diesel ended up proving was that he is not cut out to be a psychic chinchilla. 🙁 His quest for fame will have to be rewarded by some other means….

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