Happy Birthday, I love you.

As tradition with Stripes, we brought lots of cat toys and sashimi from our local sushi house (aptly named Sushi House; imagine their reaction if they knew some of the sashimi was for our cats). We got an extra special present for Panther this year: a cat furniture that is a two story condo. Turns out he very much likes it as he spent all night yesterday sleeping on the top floor curled up. Stripes explored it a little bit by going in some of the openings and so has Panther, but they both seem more interested in the open top floor. We put it next to our large windows in the living room so they can look out to the backyard.

Now we begin another chapter in our journey: parenthood. It’s both unreal and surreal to say that we are going to be parents. Even when the pregnancy test and doctor’s test came back positive, I was in shocked whereas Andrea had a certain calmness in knowing. Even when I first saw a glimpse of the bean like shape that would mold itself into a baby, I still couldn’t believe it was real. But it’s 100% real and it’s really exciting.

But at the same time I’m scared. Will I be a good father? Will I teach our child many great things? Will I be able to protect our child from whatever harms that may exist? Many of my friends that are parents say it’s a life changing experience when you have a child and I’m sure that will be the case for is when the child comes into this world and takes his or her first breath.

But today is also something very special. It is what has allowed us to have this child. It is our 2nd Anniversary where we share our love for each other. While we currently have nothing extravagant planned to celebrate, Andrea has already given me the best present anyone can give: immortality through a child.

I love you my wife and our future “bun” that’s cooking in the oven. Happy 2nd Anniversary.

Stripes has been at our house for 5 months now and has adjusted perfectly well. She’s been allowed to go outside in the yard for the past few months now and there hasn’t been any scary situations such as her getting lost or trying to go back to my parents-in-law’s home where she grew up and lived for six years. That certainly is a great sign given that cats do not adjust well to huge changes like that. She is now queen of the house.

Panther, since he’s a kitten, has obviously adjusted much quicker. Not too long after we got him, we let him out to the backyard slowly by himself with supervision and then he was allowed to follow Stripes out. Now he goes out as he pleases when we leave the door open for them, but we find he isn’t as interested in the outdoors as Stripes is. He’ll go out, browse around, watch Stripes for a bit, and then come back in looking for Andrea. Look in the dictionary under mommy’s boy and you’ll find a picture of Panther. He is so attached to her and follows her around. When Andrea is in the bathroom, he’ll sit in front of the door crying as if she left. Most nights, he’ll climb up to her, plop down on her pillow and sleep next to her head. Occasionally he’ll lick her also. He also “talks” a lot more than Stripes. He’ll be randomly walking around and he’ll make cute little meowing sounds. Not entirely sure what he is saying, but it does peeve Stripes off sometimes as he tackles him. He has grown a lot since we first got him. He’s almost as big as Stripes, but heavier.

The weight advantage helps him quite a bit when he tackles Stripes. He’s quite strong as he usually pins her to the ground. We’re pretty sure they are just playing, but they sure wrestle hard; fur is everywhere. Otherwise they actually have somewhat limited interaction. For the most part it seems as if Stripes just tolerates Panther as they neither sleep right next to each other or help each other groom, other than for the occasional licks on the head to remind Panther whose boss.

They both sleep on the bed with us at night, nearby each other but never next to each other. When they have the whole bed to themselves, Panther usually sleeps on my side and Stripes on Andrea’s side. According to my sister, when she’s at home alone, they don’t wrestle and spend most of their time sleeping.

When they are outside, they do tend to be a bit more affectionate with each other by nuzzling noses and following each other around. But once they are inside, the sibling rivalry starts again.

In two months, we will be celebrating our second wedding anniversary. We also hope to have other wonder news either before or after that date, so stay tuned.

Andrea, I love you. Happy anniversary.

My buddy Eric also came out to take some pictures for us. Click in to see all the pictures.

Tomorrow is also our house warming party for family; nearly six months after we’ve moved in, we finally having people over. Busy weekend!

Being married with the stress of life and work, you sometimes forget that as a married couple, you need some time together alone also. And this time isn’t time together to go over bills and stress about the future, but rather time together to enjoy each others company, reconnect, and be lovey with each other.

Since it’s been awhile since Andrea and I had been on an actual “date”, we decided it would be good to do so given that we were going to have a nice three day weekend with Memorial Day and all. With a great, last minute deal from TravelZoo, we got ourselves two tickets to the San Francisco Giants vs Atlanta Braves game on Memorial Day Monday at AT&T Park. The weather was just gorgeous, a tad warm, but nice and sunny; perfect baseball weather. It was my first time at an actual live in-person baseball game and Andrea’s second. I definitely have to agree with everyone who has said that watching the game in person is so much better than on T.V. The crowds, the atmosphere, the cheering and jeering all contribute. The Giants did excellent scoring in the 3th, 4th, and 5th innings. We left at the beginning of the 9th inning when it became clear that the Braves were not going to defeat the Giants. A lot of stunning moments such as base stealing and sliding into home. From where we were sitting, we also got a great vantage point. Pics are here.

We had dinner at Amici’s in San Mateo, which was quite nice, be on the lookout for a foodie review on RichBui.com.

I’ve been meaning to make more posts to update everyone on Stripes and Panther’s progress. The good news: they are getting along with each other more and more everyday. When we first brought Panther home, Stripes was not liking him at all. Over time, she started warming up to him and even on a few occasions have actually licked his head and paw. Most of the time Stripes seems to enjoy chasing Panther room to room and across the living room. Most of the time Panther manages to avoid being caught by Stripes, but on a few occasions, Stripes has cornered him or actually tackles him which results in some wrestling. It’s cute to see Panther being chased, but we usually break it up when Stripes has the obvious advantage of being on top of him or he is cornered.

Stripes and Panther have now reached a point where we are allowing them outside in our yard. It started off very slowly with Andrea taking them one at time outside for 5-10 minutes while holding them to let them get the scent and lay of the land. That progressed to slowly letting them walk around for 5-10 minutes during lunch time. Then we let them both out at the same time for limited periods of time. They are now at a point where they can both come out and we crack the door so they can come back in when they like, but they are usually supervised and not left alone. Stripes, as she has always been, only likes to stay outside when there are people to watch her. She has explored a bit and checked out our two ajoining neighbor’s yards. Panther on the other hand has done a lot more exploring and has even ventured into one of our neighbors garage. We are obviously a bit more worried about him.

One of the major problems that we have been unable to resolve is that Panther keeps eating Stripes’ food. Panther, when he eats, he devours all his food in one sitting. Stripes on the other hand likes to space her eating out. She’ll eat a little bit for breakfast and come back 15-30 minutes later to eat a bit more and so forth. The problem is that after Panther is done eating all his food, he seems to be still hungry and finds Stripes food to which he devours all of also. It’s not like we’re starving Panther, he just seems to like to eat. So now we have to put Stripes’ food away when she walks away so Panther doesn’t eat all her food or overeats.

Panther also has been getting braver. In the beginning, he was quite scared of Stripes. A simple stare by Stripes would cause him to bolt under the coffee table or under a bed. As of late, he has no fear in sneaking up on her and tackling her; although Stripes returns the favor.

So that’s what our two cats have been up to as of late.