Welcome to our new site!  Thanks to Lester for helping set everything up.  After a cursory look around, there’s a lot of features to take advantage of, and of course we’ll be posting to a pretty cool photo gallery… once I get time to figure stuff out.

So back to Erica… In some ways, it’s been the longest month in recent memory, but at the same time, it’s gone by so quickly.   

Looking back at older photos, it’s amazing to see how quickly things are changing.

Yesterday we had her 30 day dinner.  At first, we were debating whether or not to have it.  I think this custom, and probably a lot of other Chinese traditions concerning babies has a lot to do with the high infant mortality rate a few generations ago.  If your baby makes it to 30 days, it has a good chance of survival, and so it’s cause for celebration!

For us, we debated back and forth about this… and two factors stuck out.  First, you only get one chance to have a celebration of this type, and years from now we didn’t want to regret not having one.  But more importantly, Erica is the first grandchild for both our families… and there were a lot of first time Uncles and Aunties as well.  Erica managed to sleep through most of it, but it was good to see both families present and smiling as they got to see and hold her.  

It’s one of those things, but the timing was such that my parents and sister couldn’t attend… and due to the short notice (big sidebar story about that) Uncle Albert/Aunt May and my maternal Grandad couldn’t make it. 

I spent most of the night just standing back and observing everyone interact with her- Erica is one lucky girl.  I see the happiness that she brings to everyone, and how quickly our relatives have bonded and accepted her.  Everyone has been very generous and very gracious. 

So for our baby, our relatives, and our friends, we were pleased to host this dinner.  For those that could not make it, we’ll be sure to visit soon… or put her in front of a webcam.