There are so many memories from this experience, so many incidents and people I have come to work with along the way. The last weekend of launch was in of itself a memorable one and like Emery’s birth exciting and exhilarating. So after so long, my other baby is born and it’s live: www.allianzinvestors.com

Here’s some photos of my project team and our clients:

This was us in the war room right after the Go decision was made to Launch!
From left: Sudeep, Barry, Jomy, Josh, Sukhi, Rose, Paul, Catherine, Neal, Molly

This was my team in the US from Left, Josh, Sudeep, Sourav, Paul, Jomy

Pictures from Our Launch Cocktail Party (from left: Sudeep, Jomy, Josh, Brian, Alan, Paul, Neil)

From Left: Inder, Paul, Neil, Neal, Brian, Alan

From left: Henry, Kevin, Catherine, Neal

The website: http://www.allianzinvestors.com

Pok’e wished Ashley happy birthday with a big hug

Did I mention she loves seafood?

We finished the night off with some little pastries from a local shop and spent the evening playing with Emery and taking an evening stroll through Times Square.  I have been super busy at work lately so it felt like a little holiday to escape and spend some quality time with my Huney on her special day.

And ofcourse we need to include the gratuitous Emmy shot!

After Emery was born, my Mom came down for a few days to help us take care of her. It was good to have some help.  Our first night with Emery before my Mom arrived was an eye opener.  Little Emery cried every hour and even though we knew that we would have little sleep, waking up every hour to soothe her, change her and feed her, we kept asking ourselves, how long this would go for.  Then combined with people’s “get ready for the next 18 years of your new life” just added to our feeling that we would say goodbye to a good nights rest for good.

My mom arrived in the afternoon and stayed with us through the rest of the week.  It was nice to have her around to hold Emery and keep her company when we needed some time off to run errands or just nap.  Here’s some photos from Emery’s first week.

The following week, Ashely’s parents came to help out.  They were a huge help and stayed with us for 6 weeks.  Emery is very lucky to have such dotting grandparents.  Grandma Au would carry her non-stop, change her diapers and feed her like her own daughter.  They also helped us do a lot of grocery shopping going down to chinatown and making lunch and dinner for us.  Here are some photos of them the first few weeks.

After one month, we had a traditional one month celebration for Emery.  Our families all joined and had Dim Sum in Chinatown.  I got a strawberry Shortcake for Emery from a wonderful Italian Bakery call Vineiros.  We all had a great time, except Emery decided to take a very deep nap that day and hardly opened her eyes through the whole thing.  Emery loves sleeping in her car seat!

Here’s some photos of Emery Week By Week:

Week 1:

Week 2:

Week 3:

Week 4:

Week 5:

Here are the sequence of events that led up to Emery’s birth.

Friday May 14 AM: During our OB visit (now weekly),  Dr. Bradley tells us that Ashley is 2cm Dilated and she is doing well.  We start to feel like it could be coming soon!

Sunday May 16 Mid Day: I wake up late to find Ashley telling me that she thinks her water broke.  I call the doctor and we go into the hospital at 4pm thinking that it’ll most likely be a false alarm and that we will come right home.

Sunday May 16 5pm: The attending doctor look at Ash and confirms that her water broke.  Ash still isn’t feeling any contractions so they let us go home and see if we can start labor from home and go back to the hospital later than evening.  They encouraged us to walk and do a bunch of things that can induce contractions naturally.  We decided to walk home and on the way, there was a street fair. It’s the first one of the year and over 10 blocks on 9th Ave. closed for this all-day event. So our meal before the delivery turns out to be a variety of street food.  Awweesssomme!!!!

Sunday May 16 Mid Night: We check into the hospital, still no contractions.  The attending nurse helps Ash along with some pitocin at 4am the next morning.

Monday May 17 7am: Ash starts feeling contractions and over the next 12 hours goes into active labor.

Monday May 17 4pm: Ash can’t take the pain anymore and opts for the Epidural.  I am relieved!

Monday May 17 8pm: Dr. Bradley declares Ash is 10 cm dilated and she can now push!

Monday May 17 8:20pm: Ash pushes for a little under 20 minutes.  Ashley had a cough towards the end of the pregnancy and the cough turned out to be a blessing in disguise… it helped the baby come along considerably!  The doctor actually said that Emery was literally coughed out!  Little Emery is born!

Tuesday May 18 10:00pm: Ash and I check out of the hospital with our little Emery and we arrive home, our little family has begun!

First Trimester

Ashley did not enjoy her first trimester very much.  Morning sickness did not do justice to what Ashley went through.  She was feeling sick day and night.  I think the prenatal vitamins made things worse, though it was good for the baby.  In one of our earlier doctors visits, we see the tiny little developing baby in the sonogram.

Our first Sonogram

Emery in November

Emery in December

Ashley was really starting to feel the hormone changes.  First trimester was a really tough time for Ash since it coincided with the beginning of her business venture. She is starting a healthy high-fiber muffin business and had to go to different stores to buy testing ingredients and research competitors.  I realize doing this while having her morning sickness wasn’t easy at all.

Second Trimester

Ashley’s tummy is getting bigger.  At our doctor’s visit we find out that it’s a girl later confirmed by a full sonogram.  During that sonogram we also get to see little Emery’s profile.

Third Trimester

Third Trimester like the doctor said was just like the first trimester.  More morning sickness! Fun, fun, fun!!!! NOTTT!!!! We tried to make the best of it, though.  We had a so-called ‘bucket list’ of things to do before little Emery arrived while we are here in NYC.  We spent some time venturing different neighborhoods, going to a Broadway show, “Wicked”, going to Central Park, Top of the Rock, visiting the NBC studio, and did a bunch of other things. One of things we did was go to a pottery-making store called “Make” on the Upper West Side to make Emery our first little gift to her… a little keepsake box.

See all the photos from the pottery making here.

The third trimester went by rather quickly and little Emery’s upcoming arrival soon dawned on us that she will no longer be in Ash’s tummy but that she will be a little human being we will be raising and cherish for the rest of our lives.  We talked about what we think or hoped Emery would look like, be like and act like.  We wonder about what things and hobbies she will like.  We wondered how our two little dogs, Pok’e and Cappy will respond to our little addition to the family. And we wondered what life will be like in general with our precious newborn.  We were getting more and more anxious and excited… this was really happening!!!! The past nine months suddenly felt like it passed with a snap of the finger (well, it did for me but maybe Ash may feel differently as she is the one who had to carry the baby in her tummy all these months).  We can’t wait ’til Emery arrives!!!!!

The Central Park Zoo was amazing.  This zoo was right in the middle of the bustling city and yet, it was able to house all these amazing species.

Ray was so excited that he would be taking a bunch of animal pics…

Some of the birds could fly freely in the bird area and flew right passed us.

A family of snow monkeys… this was our favorite attraction.  These monkeys are so playful and agile.

This is probably Papa monkey…

They help clean each other…

A very pregnant me in front of the sea lion performance… whew! The day was pretty warm and we had to keep taking breaks in between the attractions.

Polar bears outdoors just hanging and lounging around. They are so cute.

Beautiful view of this building right across the street from the sea lion display.

Ray didn’t take the beautiful flowers for granted and captured some great pics.

We had another camera with us so I could take pictures of Ray taking pictures of other things.. that was pretty fun, actually.

Here is a view of the city from the Top of the Rock Observation Deck at Rockefeller Center…

This view overlooks Central Park…

Ray chilling and letting me try out the camera….

A view of the Empire State Building from the Top of the Rock.

We stayed there for a couple of hours in order to capture the view as the sun began to set.

A view of the Empire State building and city lights at night…

Our doggie photo at home… this is our favorite recent picture of Pok’e….

Cappy waiting patiently for us to take a GQ pic of him…

Pok’e surrounded by some toys…

Our train ride on the way to Flushing Chinatown.  We love going there but it’s quite a bit of train ride so we don’t go frequently.  Flushing Chinatown has some of the best chinese food.  It’s also the only Chinatown I am aware of where mandarin is the predominant dialect.  Ray loves that he can communicate on his own and not have to ask me to translate.  At this Chinatown, I am reliant on him to help us order food and ask questions.

This is our favorite dish from one of the vendors at the Flushing Mall. It’s a cold, spicy vegetarian noodle dish and it’s less than $5! Only in Chinatown can you get such a great deal on food..

This Flushing Mall is practically carb heaven.  It was hard to find a pure protein dish.

We really enjoyed spending the weekends sightseeing and taking all these pictures.  There’s just so much to do and see in NYC and it’s the perfect place for Ray to make use of his camera.

On the evening of March 4, I conducted phase 2 of my high-fiber muffin taste testing at our apartment; I did phase 1 taste testing back in December 2009.  For phase 2, about 8-10 girls showed up.  One of my three target audience is women between 20-30 years old who are interested in healthy-eating and high-fiber products. The taste testing session was very successful and I received great feedback through speaking to the testers and a survey.  I had 12 flavors in total and one of the goals of the testing was to help determine the best 6 flavors to use going forward.  I received great comments and helpful suggestions on how to improve the muffins since this was going to be the last taste testing before pushing the product into our next stage, which is to submit a sample to get an accurate nutritional analysis.

The testing was also very fun because it was the first time I had a chance to meet some of the taste testers.  Everyone was great and friendly.  I am so thankful to have them provide valuable feedback!

We did a lot of walking around the city so that he can capture as many photos and shots as possible.

Times Square at night….

The subway station near our place…

A very colorfully-dressed musician on the street on the Upper West Side… he played really well!

Indian Food at a store near Penn Station…

Our apartment…

Empire State Building on a foggy and misty day…

Columbus Circle…

I tried to use the new camera, but apparently, unless you are using the automatic focus mode, you need to have some skills in order to take a decent picture. I, apparently, didn’t have those skills and Ray is trying to teach me. Thank goodness he is pretty patient with me… the camera is too complicated for me and I just don’t really get it. In the picture above, I took it, and he told me it was no good. To me, it was good. I didn’t know what he was talking about and why he thought it was no good?  That’s what I meant… I don’t know what’s a good picture and what’s not.  He said he’ll teach me more along the way and explain to me how to take a good picture. Oh boy… Good luck, huney, on teaching your tech-unsavvy wife!

We got some crab cakes and shrimp cocktail for appetizers… they were so fresh and scrumptious!

I got the sirloin steak and it was good, but Ray’s $90 Wagyu Beef was better…

Even the side dishes were pretty amazing. We got some asparagus and potatoes au gratin.  The best part was that we took the bone home for the dogs and Pok’e had a feast! Del Frisco lived up to its hype! Next time, we have to try their infamous Double Eagle Steak.

This is our second year celebrating Valentine’s Day in New York City.  It’s really a great city to spend this special occasion in because there’s always so many options and places to go and things to do.  A lot has happened in a year.  Last year, we spent Valentine’s Day riding a horse carriage in Central Park and we lived out of a hotel. This year, we are actually settled in to our apartment and no longer feel like a tourist.

She has this cute little crooked smile….

“Ahh… life is tough”

Surrounded by her favorite toys.  We took her to boarding one day a couple of years ago in Atlanta, and she came home with the froggy that makes noises. We had no idea who that belonged to, but it was obvious it soon became one of her favorite toys. As for the monkey in the back, it had a shirt at one point.  After the first day, Pok’e ripped it off with her crazy fangs…

I took her to the store with me recently and the sales people introduced the squeaky slipper to her.  Right away, she grabbed it with her mouth and salivated all over it.  Trust me, I didn’t want to spend $18 on a dog squeaky toy, but how embarrassing is it if your dog drools all over it and you decide to just put it back on the shelf and say no thank you? So… $18 less in my pocket later… I decided, it’s a one-time deal and she will never step foot into Juicy Couture ever again. At least, not without being in a carrier and have salespeople tempt her into these overpriced toys…

It’s funny how this dog doesn’t even try to distinguish herself from a human being… look at the way she sleeps. When Ray and I leave the bed, the bed suddenly belongs to her.

On Christmas morning, we opened presents. In the past years spending with the Pengs, Eugene would normally be the designated person  to facilitate the gift-opening process; he would hand the gifts to each of us to open and we took turns.  This year, we decided to do things a little differently.  Ray and I have a little basketball hoop in our apartment and all of us took turns shooting the basket. We could only open one of presents each time we get a basket in.  It was a lot of fun and we got some great laughs. The gift-opening process took a big longer than previous years…

Below… Ray opening one of his gifts…

Of course, our dogs were never ever left out of a Christmas.  They always had their own gifts! We learned our lesson from past years to never leave dog treats wrapped up under the tree because Pok’e and Cappy have very keen noses and they could sniff through the gifts and knew which ones were treats.  Last year, they opened their gift days before Christmas arrived when Ray and I left our apartment and came back an hour later to find both of them eating the treats.  This year, we hid the treats wrapped and kept it in the closet until Christmas morning.  It’s always a lot of fun to watch them unwrap their gift…. below, they wait patiently for their gift.  They just knew it was for them.

They went through the wrap pretty quickly and had a blast eating their treats…

One of my friends, Lisa, gave our soon-to-be daughter a gift a few weeks prior. This is our baby’s first gift from a friend… a very cute monster stuff animal.

After a wonderful fun morning, we all relaxed and just hung out for the rest of the day. That night, after dinner, we walked around Times Square.

Ray’s family went back to Boston for a couple of days before coming back to celebrate New Year’s with us.  On New Year’s Eve, we had a couple of people over also.  My sister Audrey, my friend Valeria and her boyfriend, Walid, came over to see the ball drop at Times Square outside of our apartment.  Times Square was packed with people by the late afternoon and streets were getting closed off for the celebration by 6 p.m.  We were fortunate that we didn’t have to wait outside for hours before midnight to watch the ball drop.  We hung out at the apartment and had some food and drinks and went out to the sidewalk 15 minutes before midnight for the big hoorah!

It’s amazing how people come from all over the world to see the ball
drop every year and what they would do to get up as close to the ball as
possible.  There was a crowd in Times Square by 3 pm that day! That
means standing around for 9 hours in the rain and cold before
midnight!!!

There is a terrace on the 4th floor of our building and we just hung out there for a while to see the craze and frenzy that was going on downstairs.  We could see snipers across the street on top of the Hershey’s store… security was definitely very tight. This crowd was downstairs of our apartment by 6 pm… the bathroom situation must’ve been tough. They had to stay in this blocked off area until midnight. We did see some people being escorted in and out of the area by cops… probably to and from the bathroom. It was also cold and drizzly outside so we felt really bad for the crowd.

New Year’s Eve also happens to be Ray’s mom’s birthday.  We had a cake for Mr. Peng and it was so nice to be able to celebrate her birthday with her.

We all went downstairs to the outside of the building 15 minutes before midnight for the ball drop.  The elevators in the building were jammed with people and it felt like forever before we got downstairs… Whew!

When midnight stroke, the ball dropped and people were throwing things everywhere and just celebrated and welcomed 2010!!! There was so much energy in the air and everyone was just so happy and … drunk! It was definitely a night to remember. Ray and I have never been in Times Square for New Year’s before and this was such a fun and memorable experience.  Who knows where we will be for New Year’s 2011…

We weren’t able to fly anywhere due to again, the much complained about morning sickness. Plus, we wanted to take our dogs with us. Ray didn’t have a lot of vacation so we can’t go too far.  We finally decided on going to Montreal, Canada, the first weekend in December. We figure it’s within driving distance (around 6 hours), can bring the dogs with us, and Montreal would be very different than visiting any other city in the U.S.  It felt like we were could’ve been in France. Old Montreal was especially beautiful. The brick-paved narrow streets and homey shops were well-preserved. When we visited the Notre Dame Cathedral, a glamorous wedding was about to take place.

We stayed at the Omni Hotel, a short walking distance to all the shops and restaurants.  The weather was really cold so we didn’t manage to walk too far, just around the downtown area and to the Old Montreal district.  Fortunately, there were many great restaurants nearby and Ray and I, in our opinions, managed to go to two of the best ones… the hotel concierge recommended a French restaurant called Europea and another one known for its bouillabaise, Cafe Ferrera. We were lucky to have gotten reservations for both within 2 short days.

Do you know what those were above?  Lollipops. Yeap, lollipops. But not the conventional ones that you would expect. They were goat cheese lollipops. What????? I had to pass on it and Ray happily took one for the team and ate both and loved them.  The ambiance of Europea was very romantic and the food (aside from the strange lollipop and lobster truffle), was absolutely delicious. The wait staff kept bringing over “complements from the chef” and what was expected to be a 3-course meal turned out to be more of a 9-course meal.  The dessert was one of the best. We tried macarones for the first time (no, not macaroons as I first thought) and we fell in love. Now, whenever we see them in New York, we had to try them. The ones we had at Europea were orange-flavored. Yummmmm…

At Cafe Ferrera, we had one of the most delicious bouillabaise ever! Although this was a portuguese restaurant and the bouillabaise was slightly improvised with added sausage to its broth, I have to say I’ve never had a better bouillabaise than this.  The seafood was fresh and the shrimps and scallops were huge! The broth was so flavorful and savoring. Ray and I sat pretty close to the open kitchen and I just wanted to walk up there and take another one that was prepared for someone else. Ray also got a saffron seafood dish served over rice and that was amazing too.

Despite the fine dining in Montreal, we don’t want to forget the wonderful breakfast(s)… yeap, twice, at the Eggspectation. We haven’t had such scrumptious and filling breakfasts in a long time….

Ray loved his eggs benedict.

All in all, our babymoon in Montreal was a lot of fun.  We were fortunate the hotel was nearby and we were able to take a lot of breaks in between the sightseeing and walking. I was near the end of my first trimester and the fatigue and morning sickness started to subside slightly so we were able to enjoy this trip a little more than we initially expected. This was definitely a memorable trip!!!