Paolo and Lediya

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noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:27:00 +0000

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Legoland

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:10:00 +0000

We recently went to Legoland down in Carlsbad because we felt that Lucas is old enough to appreciate the rides, and we were right. We also decided to stay down there for the night (Sheraton Carlsbad next door, which has a private entrance to the park). Got there at 10 am on a Friday, and hardly anyone was there. It was great! Absolutely no lines to wait in and we just took our time exploring the park. Overall we liked it a lot as it has a ton of rides for toddlers like Lucas. Rides that he enjoyed were the boat ride, the bouncy ride, Kingdom of Adventure, the Bob the Builder 3D show, and the helicopter ride. If it was warmer we would've tried the Pirates attraction because it's a wet ride. We'll definitely visit again.

2 Months Old

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:50:00 +0000

Leila is two months old today! She had her wellness check up this week, and she weighed in at 12 pounds, 4 ounces. She is also 22.75 inches long. The doc gave her a couple of shots too, and she wasn't too happy about that. Leila is a great sleeper, especially at night. Last night she slept for 9 hours straight without waking up! She is now cooing and she knows how to smile when she sees us.

Big brother Lucas loves her so much too. Here are a couple of photos of Leila at 2 months old! Time sure flies.

One Month Old

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:57:00 +0000

Leila is one month old today! We celebrated her "birthday" with a traditional Chinese tradition. The 30 day birthday is an important milestone in the Chinese culture and we celebrated by having incense, fruits, roasted chicken, and barbecue pork. We also cut a snippet of her hair to mark the occasion. We also had cupcakes for Lucas and Leila! Leila is probably around 8-9 lbs, and she is eating and sleeping really well. She is exclusively on breast milk. Leila is also now wearing size 1 diapers, she's getting so big!

Three Weeks Old

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:05:00 +0000

Leila is three weeks old today! She is growing each and every day. She eats well and her sleeping habits are normalizing in that she sleeps for a 3-4 hour stretch per night. She has almost outgrown her newborn sized diapers and will soon move to size 1. Big brother Lucas loves her very much and helps her out during her exercise sessions. And I am back to work starting tomorrow after a 1 month break!

iPhone 3GS

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:40:00 +0000

Thanks to our cousin Peter, we were able to upgrade Lediya's iPhone 3G to the 3GS for a reasonable amount and without having to sign another two year agreement with AT&T. The 3GS has a larger capacity flash drive (16GB), a faster processor, and a video camera which will come in handy recording the kids. It's great so far, and I think I myself will move to the iPhone when my contract with Sprint runs out this summer as I find the phone extremely easy and useful. The only thing I really dislike is the requirement to use the bloated and resource hog iTunes. The best part though was that I was able to sell the old iPhone 3G for close to its original cost on eBay, which was more than enough to cover the cost of the 3GS!

Two Weeks Old

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:21:00 +0000

Leila turned two weeks old a couple of days ago. She's doing really well - she is now 8 pounds, 1.5 ounces and 21.5 inches long. She gained 22 ounces in 14 days so she's a big eater! She sleeps a bit better at night with stretches of 3 hours at a time, and she is cluster feeding too. We've given her her first bath this past week as well. All in all she is easier at this point than Lucas was. We've taken her to Disneyland already too!

Leila Birth Announcement

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:37:00 +0000

Got it from Costco, but I took the photographs myself using my Nikon D60 with the f/1.8 35mm prime lens. Saved a bundle doing it at home!

One Week Old

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:55:00 +0000

Leila is one week old today! She's doing great, just a mild case of jaundice. We've had to go to the lab to get her blood drawn four times this past week but today was her last one as her doctor said that she's improved. She is a sleepy head as she sleeps a lot! She would rather sleep than eat, although she hasn't lost that much weight since last week (only 2 ounces). Big brother Lucas loves her a lot as he loves to kiss her head and say her name. She smiles a lot in her sleep and has a good set of lungs when she cries. Can't believe it's already been one week!

More Pictures of Leila

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:06:00 +0000

Leila Paige is Here!

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:16:00 +0000

Born December 28, 2009 at 4:28 p.m. 6 pounds, 13 ounces and 21 inches long. Both mom and baby are doing great!

37 Weeks

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:30:00 +0000

Almost ready to go! Hospital bag is all packed! Lucas loves kissing his mommy's tummy where his baby sister is at. He can't wait to meet her.

32 Months Old

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:55:00 +0000

Lucas is 32 months old today! It's a real joy to watch our big boy grow up, but sometimes we feel that time passed by so fast. His favorite toys right now are Transformers (Optimus Prime) and his yellow L-shaped ruler (more on that later). He also loves playing with his lightsaber and his pillow swords. He pretends that he is Snake Eyes and I am Storm Shadow, the bad white ninja. He's also always the good Optimus Prime and me the bad Decepticon leader Megatron.

About his L-shaped ruler - Lucas pretends that it's his gun. Yes, yes, he's too young for that but I guess he picked it up from some of the movies and cartoons that he watches. Even though I don't play video games with him present, he said one day that he is "pretending to play Modern Warfare 2, daddy's game." Where he got that, I don't know! So yes, we will have to tone down the older kid cartoons and games at home. It just amazes me how fast he picks things up!

Lucas has also been preparing for his baby sister. He loves kissing mommy's tummy and say hi to baby sister. He even helped us out with naming her. We' read a couple of books to him about the upcoming baby too. Right now though, he's being pretty clingy to his mom, as he may sense that his days are numbered with being the only child and sole source of attention. It's been difficult for me to put him to sleep at night by myself as he is always looking for his mom who has been working late to wrap things up in the office.

As for eating, he's still the picky eater we know and love. But he's at least eating enough. He still drinks Pediasure for supplementation. The good thing is that he hardly gets sick and if he does, he usually fights it off within a few days. At school, he's in the middle of transitioning to the older kids' classroom so he's adjusting to that but it's getting better.

He loves playing with his new computer (Leapfrog Clickstart) and he knows how to use the keyboard and mouse. He helped us decorate our Christmas tree and when we lit it up he said "It's Christmas!" He believes in Santa Claus and asked him for a remote control car and Transformers. I can't wait to see his eyes light up when he opens up his gifts! He's been to Disneyland a couple of times now that we have annual passes, and the look on his face when he saw the snow and the holiday parade on Main Street was priceless.

Preparing for New Baby

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:42:00 +0000

For the last couple of months we've been pretty busy preparing for the new baby. We originally thought that hey, since this is our second one, preparing should be a breeze right? Well, actually, no. Since we are having a girl, all the baby boy clothes we have are now useless. Not to mention the blue car seat. Luckily though, my sister is loaning us her girls' clothes and they are in great shape. We just had to organize and wash them. Logistically, we also decided that baby girl will be staying with us in our room for at least a year (just like Lucas did until he moved over to his own room). This makes it easier to feed her and to put her to sleep. I also assembled a new Hello Kitty dresser drawer for baby's clothes and picked up newborn diapers, a new stroller, a pink car seat, and an extra car seat base. Most of the stuff we picked up from Amazon so that made it easier.

It's not just about getting things and stuff though. We also had to make sure that Lucas is prepared. We moved him several months ago to his own room but he still needs either me or Lediya to help him sleep (been mostly Lediya though). But with baby coming, he has to accept that mom will be busy with baby girl and that dad will be the one to put him to sleep. We've also prepped him by getting him a couple of books on being a big brother and on getting a younger sister. He seems to understand and I think he can tell that baby girl is coming real soon.

Other things left to do: clean the house from top to bottom, especially our room; last minute baby toiletries; swing set; rechargeable batteries; and pack for the hospital. For pictures, I picked up a new 35mm f/1.8 lens so I can snap away without having to use the flash. So I'm all set with that. Oh yeah, we still have to finalize her name. We can't wait to meet our little princess!

Nikon 35 mm f/1.8G AF-S DX Prime Lens

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:37:00 +0000

I just added a third lens to my growing collection, and this time it's the Nikon 35mm prime lens. My main reason in getting this lens is to be able to take better indoor shots without using the flash. This is important in that I plan to take a lot of pictures of our baby girl. In fact, we may even skip the professional photographer and just have me take her photos to save money. This lens produces sharp pictures and great color and contrast. It is also perfect for portrait and other general purposes. Being a prime lens, it doesn't zoom so I have to move my feet to compose the shots. I've had it for a couple of weeks now and it's been on my camera ever since. It's so light and compact too. I used it in Disneyland to take evening shots of the park and it performed excellent without having to use the flash. Fast and versatile lens!

Disneyland Annual Pass

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:31:00 +0000

We got annual passes, yay! This started when my sister told me that I could use the value of the birthday pass to buy an annual pass. A Southern California pass (which is good on a lot of days, even some weekends, except that it's blacked out in the summer and holiday periods) normally costs $194. But with the birthday discount, it drops to $122. Since a 1 day ticket is already $72, the cost of the pass is made up in only 1.5 visits! So that's exactly what I did for my birthday. When I went, there were no lines since it was a Tuesday. Lucas got in for free (until 3 years old) and my best friend Jimmy also came with us. Met up with my sister there as well. It was a great four hours there and I never felt rushed since now that I have a pass I can take my time. That's the best part since Lucas can only take a few hours before he gets tired. My plan is to go on my off Fridays with Lucas, park at Downtown Disney (free parking for 3 hours), take the Monorail to Tomorrowland, and have fun! We decided to get Lediya one as well because she can go on Sundays with us. We checked out their holiday decorations last week, and we all enjoyed seeing the holiday parade as well as watching Sleeping Beauty's castle light up. And it snowed! Seeing Lucas' face as he saw all of this was priceless.

Tanaka Farms Pumpkin Patch

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 03:01:00 +0000

We visited the Tanaka Farms Pumpkin Patch down in Irvine today and we had a great time. It's a huge working farm with pumpkin patches and vegetable patches. They have a tractor wagon that shuttles visitors around the farm to different stops. One of the stops is a petting zoo, where Lucas had a fun time with the goats licking his hands. Overall, it's a fun place to visit with the little ones, and very reasonable too. Nothing says autumn like huge pumpkins in a real patch!

2 1/2 Years Old

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:52:00 +0000

Lucas celebrated his 2 1/2 year old birthday two days ago! He's now a big boy. He is just a smart boy. He speaks full sentences and is able to let us know what he wants and doesn't want. Still a picky eater though, but it's getting somewhat better. He loves being outdoors, and he recently visited his first national park. He enjoys watching Dinosaur Train and Dora the Explorer (although he is a little frightened by Swiper the Fox). And, he enjoys visiting the Aquarium of the Pacific with dad. All in all, he's a very happy boy!

Grace's Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:46:00 +0000

On September 27, 2009 Grace, Lediya's best friend, got married to Jason. Lediya was the matron of honor and Lucas was the ring bearer. The ceremony was held at the Disney Concert Hall and the reception was at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. It was an absolutely beautiful wedding. Congratulations!

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:30:00 +0000

(More pictures here). Took the family to visit Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park for the Labor Day weekend. This is Lucas’ first visit to a national park. Earlier this decade Lediya and I visited national parks so often that we purchased a “Passport” to keep track of the parks we’d visited. We hadn’t gone to a park since Joshua Tree in 2005 and we thought that it was time to introduce Lucas to the wonders of our nation’s wonderful parks. We came with my parents.

We arrived first in Sequoia National Park after driving 3.5 hours from Lakewood. We had a nice picnic lunch at the Pine Forest picnic area, amidst tall sequoias and pine trees. It was a great location to have a lunch of rice, pork adobo, cherry tomato salad, and beef tapa. Lucas enjoyed it there, and I was able to get great shots of him sitting on a fallen sequioa tree log.

After the lunch we then drove the short distance to the General Sherman Tree. The tree, which is the largest tree on Earth by wood volume, was a easy 0.4 mile hike away. We found out that the easy part was on the way downhill as the return back was strenous. Especially if you have a 25 pound toddler on your back (I used my REI kiddie back pack). But, the weather was perfect (75 degrees) and the tree was simply majestic. Lucas definitely was awed by it.

After the hike we drove an hour to Kings Canyon National Park where the John Muir Lodge is located. The lodge, while lacking in modern amenities (no TV, Internet, AC, or cell service), was a wonderful place to stay. Set in the middle of a forest, it is a short 10 minute walk from Grant Grove Village.

The next day we drove 1 hour east to Cedar Grove Village. While only an hour, the road is half the adventure as it was narrow, curvy, and downhill. It seemed that the granite cliffs were right on the road! Very scenic journey though, following the course of the Kings River most of the way. At Cedar Grove we picnicked at Roaring River Falls and hiked 5 minutes to get to them. After the falls we drove to the Zumwalt Meadow, which reminded me a lot of Yosemite Valley and El Capitan. The Kings River also flows through here and the river meanders through a lush meadow surrounded by granite walls. Lucas had a great time playing at the water here, and he even found a keepsake rock to take home. We also got Lucas his very own Passport to the National Parks, and promptly stamped it with the Cedar Grove Ranger Station stamp.

After Cedar Grove we returned to the Grant Grove area. With the zig zag road Lucas finally succumbed and got car sick. Poor guy. Once he got that out of his system he was fine and happy (after enjoying a lollipop of course). We then had a pepperoni pizza dinner at the Grant Grove pizzeria. Tomorrow we visit the second largest tree on Earth, the General Grant tree, which is a short drive from here. Then we head back home. It was a great road trip to introduce Lucas to the wonders of our national parks!

Mint.com

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:51:00 +0000

We've long been fans of using personal finance software because it helps us track our day to day spending and long term investments. We see the tool as an important key to helping us achieve financial independence. For years, we've used Microsoft's Money software. While the software was feature laden, I still had to key in some transactions manually every day as the product did not download transactions automatically all the time. Also, the data lived only on one PC. If I wanted to quickly check our financial situation, I would be out of luck if I wasn't near our computer. So I started looking at web-based personal finance programs and the one that I tried out was Mint.com. It works like this: The user looks for their financial institutions and enter their username and passwords on Mint. Mint then aggregates all this information and presents it in an easy to read format. The best part is that Mint automatically downloads the transactions every day so when you log in, the transactions are there ready to be reviewed. It also tries its best guess in categorizing the transaction (which can be manually overriden by the user, and it can also be split).

Mint also has a robust reporting tool that is fully date and category customizable. Very useful to see which spending categories are out of whack or are underspent. You can also construct a budget and Mint will automatically track your spending and alert you (via email or text) if you have spent more than the amount you alloted for that category. Finally, Mint also has an Investments section that tracks the performance and purchases of your investments.

There are some cons however. The big one is that the user has to be comfortable providing all their usernames and passwords to Mint as it is now all stored in one place and in theory, a hacker now can have access to all of your accounts in a single shot. However, Mint uses Yodlee security, which all the large financial institutions use. Also, having Mint store all the login information is actually useful because now you can see, on one webpage, all the transactions that have posted to your accounts, whether its legit or not. So it's easier to spot fraudulent transactions. Another Mint limitation is the inability to enter manual accounts and transactions. Not all my financial institutions are supported unfortunately, and my local credit union is not on the list. So I have to login to that bank separately. But Mint is adding new financial institutions every day and hopefully my credit union can be included in future updates.

Since Mint and my data resides in the "cloud" now, the single best attribute is now I can access my account from anywhere at anytime. I mostly access it from a laptop or desktop, but I also use Mint's iPhone/iPod Touch app to get a quick snapshot of my accounts when I am on the road.

Overall, Mint is a viable replacement to Microsoft Money and if anything, I've saved so much time not having to enter transactions manually. I am confident in the security of my accounts, and I find anytime/anywhere access of my data extremely convenient. The reporting features are also top notch. Best of all, Mint is free!

Baby Beltran 2 - Coming December 2009!

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 03:47:00 +0000

Lucas is going to have a sibling! Baby Beltran #2 is coming this December 2009, and baby is going to be a girl! Stay tuned to this blog for more updates as the date gets nearer and nearer.

Green Living

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 03:06:00 +0000

Back in 2006, mainly in the spirit of saving money, I embarked on finding ways to make our Lakewood house more energy efficient. Of course, during the process, I learned that this "greening" process also saves the environment. Here is a list of what we've done to the house (click for a PDF version of the presentation that I did at my work):

Replaced 30 incandescent bulbs with 30 compact fluorescent bulbs

Replaced a 15 year old refrigerator with an Energy Star certified refrigerator

Replaced a 20 year old water heater and set it at 120 degrees

Cut off gas flow to floor heater that we never use

Installed low flow shower heads faucet aerators

Installed fiberglass attic insulation

Sealed windows and doors

Use only cold water setting on washing machine

We hunted down electrical vampires by unplugging gadgets when not in use

We also use commercial car washes to cut down on water use, and we water the lawn less frequently

Cost savings result:
Average monthly utility bill before greening project: Electricity - $70, natural gas - $40, water/trash - $50
After greening project: Electricity - $25, natural gas - $15, water/trash - $30
Total annual utility savings = $1,080
Initial investment outlay = $2,500
Broke even in 2 years

Other green things that we do:

We buy our consumables in bulk so less packaging

We reuse plastic grocery bags as trash can liners (we recycle the excess)

We recycle newspapers/magazines/junk mail, aluminum cans, plastic and glass bottles at a facility, thereby making some extra cash in the process

I encourage everyone to at least do something to help the environment. You'll save some money too.

What's In Your Wallet? (Update)

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:50:00 +0000

In this blog post that I wrote back in September 2006 I wrote what credit cards I had in my wallet at that time. The nature of credit card rewards is that the benefits don't last very long. Case in point: the two credit cards that I featured in the blog post are no longer in our wallets. Instead, this is what we carry now:

Fidelity Investments 529 Mastercard - 2% cash back on all purchases, deposited directly into a designated Fidelity Investments 529 account.

Chase Rewards Plus Visa - 5% cash back on gas, groceries, and pharmacies.

Costco TrueEarnings American Express - 3% cash back on gas and dining out, 2% back on travel, and 1% back at Costco

Citi Forward Visa - 5% cash back for dining out, entertainment, and most importantly bookstores (and Amazon.com - where any purchase is 5% back!)

Starwood Preferred Guest American Express - 1 Starpoint for every purchase, double Starpoints for a stay at their hotel properties.

Five credit cards? Seems overkill, right? It's actually simple. For groceries, we use the Chase Visa. For gas, since Costco gas prices are usually 10 cents per gallon less than other stations, we use the Costco Amex. For dining out, movies, and Amazon.com, we use Citi Forward. For Costco purchases, we use the SPG Amex. It's the Swiss Army knife of travel cards. With it:

1. You can “top off” several different frequent flier accounts to get to that coveted reward ticket level.
2. You can convert just a few miles to keep your other miles from expiring.
3. You can get 1.25 miles per dollar spent, 25% more than most other airlines cards.
4. It’s a cheap way to get free nights at decent hotels.
5. You can redeem the starpoints for gift cards at a lot of popular merchants.

We also like to stay at Starwood properties (for our anniversary, we stayed at the US Grant in San Diego) and being a cardmember and an SPG member enabled us to be upgraded to a suite free of charge. To avoid unnecessary hits to our credit scores, I simply called Citibank to convert our old Dividend Platinum to the Forward and American Express to convert our old Delta SkyMiles to the SPG Amex.

Finally, for all other purchases that do not fall in the other categories, we use the 529 Mastercard. I've got it down pat, the problem is that Lediya still gets mixed up with her purchases. At least the worst she can do is get 2% cashback.

Note: Pay off balances in full every month otherwise the interest will wipe out any cashback you may earn.

28 Months Old

noreply@blogger.com (Paolo and Lediya) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:53:00 +0000

Lucas just turned 28 months old and it is just absolutely amazing what he is doing now! Here is a just a sample of what he does:

He likes to put his blue hat on and pretend to be a mailman by delivering letters and boxes to us. He also knows how to say the word pretend and use it in a sentence.
Favorite phrases: "No wanna do it!" "I do it!" "Go away daddy!" "Go outside with mommy" "Play with bubble gun outside" "How about..." "I want some nem nems! (M&Ms)"
He also knows how to play hide and seek. Yesterday he said to me, "Daddy, go play hide and seek. You hide."
He also tells me bedtime stories now. He would say "One upon a time, princess and horse..."
And, he likes to get measured for his height. When we marvel how tall he is getting, he would run to the door where we mark his height and stand there to wait for us to measure him.
He also loves going to school. In the mornings when he is ready he tells his mom "I ready mommy. I want to go to school." He knows the names of both of his teachers and all of his classmates.
He is very imaginative. When I tell him a story that I made up, he listens intently and remembers it the next day.

He is eating much better now. He is still drinking his Pediasure with his milk, which helps to fill in holes in his diet. Also, just last night he started sleeping in his own room. We outfitted his bed with Cars sheets with Lightning McQueen (his favorite character right now). He sleeps around 8:00-8:30 at night after about a half hour of reading books and storytelling. He wakes up between 5:30 and 6:30 in the morning and takes his nap at noon until 1:30 - 2:00 pm. He loves to play with his water gun and his bubble gun, and enjoys running through the sprinklers in the backyard. He likes watching Caillou and his Mighty Machines on TV (he can't get enough of the firetruck episode). We've started to potty train him now so we will see how that goes. That's Lucas at 28 months old!