my little dumpling

so big daddy had a day off today. such a nice treat on a weekday, especially for my little dumpling,
who has serious daddyitis these days. So adorable. I love seeing the two of them together.
So after the three of us had a nice session of coffee and book reading in bed,
I hit the gym. Now normally I just do the elliptical for cardio for 30-40 min. then hit the weights for 30-40 min. or so,
or at least until I stop thinking about the muscle group I'm torturing, and start thinking about what's for lunch.
did I mention I'm a bit of a foodie?
but today I thought I would try something new. I'm feeling adventurous these days. new season, fresh starts etc.
so I tried a class called "NIA" a sort of Brazilian dance, marshal arts, yoga fusion.
It was interesting to say the least. I was trying to get into it and have fun, but during the entire class I kept looking in the mirrors and thinking that I have absolutely no rhythm...and god I'm fat! so instead of feeling great that i went to the gym and tried something new, I ended up feeling blah.
but big daddy came to my rescue and showered me with nice compliments...well maybe not "showered", but told me that I am NOT fat and that I shouldn't be so hard on myself, and that it's good that I'm FINALLY trying to take a little time for myself (even though it's only a couple of hours a day) he's so supportive. I'm one lucky gal. (hi big daddy, I know you will probably end up reading this)
so any-hoo..we couldn't figure out what to do today. It's a cold windy day in T.O. and it's march break. The galleries will be packed and annoying. didn't feel like the usual suspects re: shopping-yorkdale,bloor, bayview, distillery, queen.....
Too cold and windy to do any antique shops. well not THAT cold but didn't feel like having to bundle the dumpling.
we needed a change of scenery.
so we ended up at Pacific Mall.
I used to live a few blocks from china town (back in the day) and never really ventured north of Bloor,
but since we moved uptown we discovered a whole new china town (there's several in T.O)
china town north rocks! way better dim sum and asian grocery stores.
going to Pacific mall reminded me of past trips to hong Kong or Bangkok. It's like a mini Siam square.
We were specifically looking for eye glasses, there is a great selection of eye wear like (prada, ck, d&g etc.) for half of what you would pay at say rap on college or spectacle on queen west..
the dumpling was loving all the neon lights, hello kitty booths, shoe stores with lots of shiny plastic bright colored pumps, she was probably thinking "wow, mommy only has black and brown shoes, I've never seen her wear bubble gum pink stilettos" she was almost salivating (although she is constantly salivating as she is currently teething) in the eye wear stores, as she absolutely loves to rip big daddy's glasses off...constantly.
people were so nice to her, and kept saying how pretty she was, and commenting on her eye color. She was loving all the attention. we sat down in the funky food court (decked out with red paper hanging lanterns, rock waterfall and gold fish pond) and had some steamed shrimp dumplings, and a bowl of PHO. I fed the dumpling some rice with chop sticks and she loved it. (she's just moving on to more solid food instead of just pureed baby food)
it's so exciting for us to watch her try and experience new things each day, especially when it comes to food.
did I mention I was a foodie?
so at the end of the day I felt really great about living in such a culturally diverse city like toronto, and exposing the dumpling to new and exciting things within it. Especially when it comes to food! so all in all a really fun day,and I almost forgot about feeling like a fatty..well except when I was trying to estimate how may calories in shu mai???