Look at all my Aunties (& Uncle Teddy)

Daddy says I look like a boy without enough hair -- but with pigtails, there is no mistaking my girliness.

Here are Uncle Teddy and Aunt Anita with me at my favorite restaurant, Souplantation. I love garbanzo beans, peas, corn, blueberry muffins, watermelon ... they have all the good stuff!

Aunt Sophia, who brought gifts of coffee from Costa Rica, got reacquainted with me at Fritto Misto.

Aunt Jenn is checking me out here. I think she's a little scared of me, but she's getting married soon (congrats!), so she'd better get used to us little ones!

Aunt Vicky! She's my precious toy source (she works at Mattel). Thanks for the Learning Puppy!

Sedona's tricks glossary

"Clap" = clap hands together

"Eeeeek" = shrug shoulders

"Tilt" = tilt head/body

"La-la-la" = stick tongue out

Sedona (the Dog)'s tricks

Aunt Lulu visits

Aunt Lulu came to visit me all the way from Glendale (hee-hee), and then we went for our usual Oki Doki sushi.

She bought me this adorable red shirt ... though, doesn't everything look pretty darn cute on me?

Mama (I can say it now!) and Dada installed hardwood floors. They look good, huh? And don't worry about me; I can get around.

Look at me: SWIMMING in the Palisades

Happy July 4th!

Happy 4th of July!

We went to A-Go's house in Pacific Palisades, where I swam, played some mah-jong, celebrated Atticus' and Skyler's birthday, posed for photos using A-Gu's fancy camera and watched fireworks (wow, were they close up ... it was like our own private viewing!). Thanks for having us over!

Here I go into the pool -- nice and warm, even though it's not so sunny out.

There is Uncle Felix taking our pictures (be sure to check out the video below with me in action. Watch it till the end to "hear" an Uncle Felix mishap ... thanks for taking one for the team, A-Gu).

It's a picture of Mommy & Daddy with me (so rare!).I'm helping A-Ma with some mah-jong. I've got to start learning now so I can win their money! Happy Birthday, Atticus and Skyler. I wish Mommy and I could have some of that ice cream cake, but no dairy for us. I don't want eczema.

Dada is home, and school is out!

I appreciate the state of Texas so much for San Antonio sweeping Cleveland in the NBA Finals and sending Dada home that I'm going to make my first plane trip later this summer to Houston. I'll finally get to meet my friend Laney and her mommy, Auntie Julie. I'll also get to see Aunt Debbie, Jennie and Sara. I'm so excited -- though I hear it's brutally humid there ... not sure my extra chubby padding is going to like it.

Here is my Uncle Steve, Aunt Kelly and (Uncle) Jason visiting from Taiwan. They'll be here for a month, so I hope I get to see them a lot. I love Uncle Jason ...

I seek him out!

He's fun to crawl all over.
(Fun fact: Jason, Granny and I are all dogs in the Chinese zodiac. We are all multiples of 12 years apart.)


Ha-ha, Granny thinks I'm sleeping! I tricked her.

It's FATHER'S DAY!

Dada is out playing softball while I sleep with Grampy.

Aren't I a good girl? I quietly eat my peas at Salt Creek Grille so everyone can have a nice Father's Day meal with delectable garlic fries.

(Side note: They can't fool me. I know how to pick out ONLY the peas when Mommy tries to sneak in other veggies on my plate.)

Here we all are: LOOK at ME! I'm on the right!

School is out, so I'm hanging out with my friends and we're about to hit the pool. ... Let's go!

That's Kendall to my right and Noah to my left. TL, my walking friend, is off eating.

The pool is a little too cold for me. I'm going to just chill on this swing, 'kay?

Feel free to leave me a message here if you want to say hi!

Taiwan, the NBA and cousin Joseph

The following is a post copied from Kevin's Register work blog about a bizarre worlds-collide situation bringing Taiwan and the NBA together, including our family ...

Never thought something like us sort of crossing paths at the 2007 NBA Finals would happen when my cousin from Taiwan was living in my parents' house in St. Louis while I was growing up in the 1980s. Joe (Joseph Wu, for official reference, and my mother's oldest brother's son) was older and in St. Louis to get his master's degree in political science, but we would play catch in the backyard and hang out otherwise before he moved on to get his doctorate at Ohio State.

All that academia paid off for him, as he is now Taiwan's ambassador to the U.S. -- a pretty staggering responsibility and obviously a powerful political position. It is in that position that he was scheduled to appear at a news conference this morning here at the NBA Finals in Cleveland with NBA Players' Association leaders, including union president Derek Fisher, because Taiwan provided a remarkable amount of food for the NBA players' massive venture to feed the hungry in Kenya next month.

If not for a flight cancellation that prevented him from coming, Joe would've been here in Cleveland for the announcement at the same time I was covering the series. Weird, small-world stuff. I'd just seen Joe in Los Angeles a couple months ago, and he had brought along some letters I sent him when I was a kid. (And yes, they were tremendously well-written for a kid!)

Not to get overly political here, but unlike communist China, Taiwan is a Democratic country fighting for its American-style freedom. And in this venture, Taiwan donated 11 million pounds of rice for NBA players to distribute in Kenya, where there are apparently a million children in need of food. Taiwan donated twice that much rice in 2005 as relief aid to tsunami-ravaged Indonesia. In 2006, Taiwan donated the equivalent of $17.6 million (U.S.) in clothes to children, elderly and others in need.

The NBA players have done plenty of great work, too, especially in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It's kind of amazing to me, personally, that they and Taiwan have come together on a project. And it's kind of wonderful, really.

"Orange" County

Up and at 'em!