Finally got around to uploading photos from “Hats off day” “Grandpa’s b-day” and some additional baby photos in “Erica”
Let me know if the upload time is acceptable, or if I need to change the filesizes. I have the originals, so if you see something you want to print, I can email it off to you.
Q3 came to a close a few days ago, and it’s hard to imagine that we’re 3/4 of the way through the first year already!
Yesterday we finished our swim lessons. I’m still amazed at how much these infants take to, and enjoy the water. I don’t think I learned to swim until I was at least 5 or 6, and I remember some trepidation at the first few times I went into the deep end. But infants this young don’t really have any fear, and sure they get annoyed when they get water up their noses, down the wrong pipe, or in their ears, but a quick timeout to recover and they’re right back in it. And the little buggers learn fast- when we count to 3, e will close her eyes and mouth in preparation for the dunk…
Mind you she still sticks out her tongue to taste the pool water, so maybe she still has a few more things to learn. In the end, she clearly enjoys it, and we don’t mind getting up on Saturday AM to do this. We’ll enrol her into the same class, even though we know the routine. The kids don’t go to “Duck” level until 18 mos.
Another change or development in e’s behaviour is when we put her down to play, then walk away, she puts up a verbal fuss/whine… as if to say, come back here, don’t leave me. We then give a quick verbal response that we’re still nearby, and to not fuss. The thing we want to avoid is to run back to her as she’ll quickly figure out that this is the way to get what she wants.
Raspberries are still going strong, as is the baby talk- baa baa baa, maaap, maaap, etc. She has much better control of her hands- clenching and unclenching both of her hands, clapping her hands, and grasping at items… and it seems she’s starting to prefer solids to her formula, and drinking water from a sippy cup or straw.
She’s interacting with her enviroment a lot more- whether it be staring outside at trees, watching and grasping at the cats, or listening to her story CD. It doesn’t take much to make her giggle- E and I both agree that she’s a lot of fun at this age!
A couple of weeks back, Peter, our friend who is living and working in Japan came for a visit! He was in town for a wild and too brief visit, but we managed to get together for a nice dinner. Here’s a photo of Uncle Peter and little e, and we asked him to take, what I believe is our first, family photo together. If you notice that I’m a bit red, no I did not get sunburned and I am fully sober…
When E told me she had signed e for swim lessons, my first thought was cool! Erica can learn to swim like the baby on Nirvana’s Nevermind CD cover http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:NirvanaNevermindalbumcover.jpg… except for the dingly dangly.
My next thought was- swimming pool full of infants… what happens if there’s an “accident”… and believe me, they will happen.
Enter- swim diapers. Yes, swim diapers. Who comes up with these ideas? Aren’t diapers supposed to absorb liquid? What happens when you immerse one in a swimming pool? Anyways, they seemed to do the job. One swim diaper website advertised that “products are proven to significantly reduce the chances of the deadly E. coli bacteria from being released into water by infants and toddlers.” Lovely.
The next surprise was when E told me that the swim lessons last 30 min, and occur over the next 9 Saturday AMs. So much for sleeping in. 🙁
So how do you teach an infant how to swim, what do you do for an entire 30 min lesson, and can I bring my mask/snorkel? I had no idea.
E then tells me that I’m going into the pool alone… and that she didn’t want to go in. Alone? Me and e, with a bunch of other mom and tots?? sigh…
Saturday morning comes, it’s pouring rain out, and we pack up for the pool. When we get there, we notice that there’s a Male change room, Female change room, and a Family change room. Family change room? I don’t get it. We haul our stuff there, and yes, the room was packed with kids of all ages plus their parents trying to change, shower, etc. There are big stalls that the entire family can go in to change and shower. Still, after years of understanding that “boys go in there; girls go over there” I feel a bit uncomfortable at the setup.
Luckily we changed e into her swimsuit and swimdiaper beforehand, so she’s set to go. I had to hunt around for an open locker/stall while dodging kids and strollers and other parents.
Enter the chaos. When we get to the pool area, it was crowded like Superstore on a Sunday afternoon. The pool was packed with lessons of all sorts. Chairs were setup all around the pool, 2 or 3 rows deep so fully clothed parents could sit, watch, and take pics of their kids. And every chair was taken up.
I asked a lifeguard where to go, and he pointed to the Starfish sign where 7 other babies/parents were gathered. Our instructor, Teresa, is an asian girl in her 20s. E says she’s cute. Hmm, maybe this won’t be so bad after all. 🙂
So, lots of other babies… from 6 mos to about 14 months in age. All wearing swim diapers and looking a bit bewildered. I couldn’t blame e for looking all around as there was so much to take in. We all wade into the shallow area, and have a seat. The water is nice and warm. I’m thinking, ok so we now take turns diving to the bottom to retrieve a weighted soother or something like that… Nope. As Teresa explains, we’ll pretty much do the same thing every week and do lots of repitition cuz babies don’t really remember that much, especially since lessons are once a week. The first thing we start off is with a song. Song?? Singing?? What about the front crawl or breast stroke? 😐
First song is “The wheels on the bus go round and round.” Of course I don’t know all the words, I though it was “wheels on the bus go round and round…. all day long” In fact it’s “all through the town.” And of course I don’t know all the other verses… like the “wipers on the bus go swish swish swish” and “the babies on the bus go wah wah wah!” Yes I felt like going “wah wah wah”… incidently I had a chuckle as I remember Jim Dickson saying, after riding BC Transit on a hot day “the people on the bus stink like sweat….”
Erica seemed really happy/smiley when she saw everyone around her singing and having a good time. We tried “bubbles” exercise… where we’re trying to get them to blow in the water. e stuck her mouth in the water and tried to drink it. Then she stuck her tongue out and tried to taste it. 😐
After that, we went over to the deeper end, and sang “Motorboat, motorboat” “Ring around the Rosie” and “Humpty dumpty.” We put them on the edge of the pool and got them used to jumping in. Other exercises had them float on their tummy or float on their backs. It seemed that each infant took turns crying because they got water in their eyes or too much in their mouths. I had e too close the water on her front, and i think she took in a good mouthful. Then I had an upset baby to deal with. All in all, I think she had a lot of fun. She did lots of kicking and splashing with her arms.
I was surprised at how much these babies liked and could adapt to the water. I suppose it’s natural, as they spent 9 months in a watery environment, and there’s absolutely no fear for them.
On another note, it seems like my Winter conditioning and muscle building program is paying off… it’s only March and I’m ready for the beaches. 😉
Holy Toledo.
I think the recent month really opened my eyes as to how much development goes on after 4 months. The past month we’ve noticed a lot more experimentation with vocalizations. Before it was “How loud and how much range does my voice have!” Now we notice her being more subtle in trying to make different sounds with a lot more control and a much softer sound.
Earlier this month she started nodding- usually when she’s excited, like when her diaper is about to be changed or we greet her first thing in the morning.
We also started her on solids- mushy carrots, followed by mushy yams, and then mushy peas. The first few feeds were… well… messy, with more on her face than in her mouth, but then she started getting the hang of it. She’ll now open her mouth when she’s hungry and most of it gets in.
Here’s a couple of pics of Erica and her buddies. Enjoy!
Finally got around to selecting the better shots and uploading them with some commentary. With the weather we’ve been having, we’re looking longingly at the beach photos. Warning- lots of baby photos included!
Well as of last week, Erica reached the 5 month mark.
When E was preggy, we heard other parents remark that they grow so fast. Boy do we ever believe it. She’s now approaching 15lbs.
Thinking back since our last update, she’s gone from a newborn who mostly eats/sleeps/make dirty diapers to a newborn that well… eats/sleeps/make dirty diapers, but also now has very sharp hearing/eyesight, has full control over her head, can roll over, suck her thumb, and grab her feet. Also giggles and makes a lot of pterodactyl like sounds.
It’s hard to believe that she was 4 months when we took her to Maui. It was on the flight there that we first noticed that she was sucking her thumb, and not “west-coasting” it. One night in the hotel room, we heard her grunting and doing something that was taking a lot of exertion… we naturally thought she was making a big diaper, but when we peeked into her crib, she had rolled herself over! Now she can do it at will, and keep her head up to look around. Her bum is also in the air, so we think it’s a precursor to crawling.
For some time now, she’s been staring at her hands… and it was during the trip that she discovered her feet. Now she has them to stare and grab at.
One thing that’s surprised us is how interactive she is becoming with her surroundings. For sure, her eyesight and hearing is better than ours. While feeding, she can become distracted by the cats walking around, or if I’m feeding her, she’s scanning around to see where mom is. She’s definitely spending more time noticing and staring at the cats and fishtank… and TV. 🙁
She’s also been practising her vocals, babbling, listening to how high her voice can go, making subtle gurgling noises. In short, she’s finding her voice.
There’s also been other subtle signs that show she’s understanding things- like during nap time when I show her a soother, she’ll open her mouth to take it, and grab her rattle bear.
So some photos- the one with Sloan was taken today. Sloan is *almost* 3. The other pic shows Aidan (August 9) and Caden (August 12) and Erica (August 17). Aidan and Caden (and oh yeah, their parents) live in our complex. E sent this photo to me at work and pointed out that e is playing with her two new BOY-friends.
Auuuugh! 😐
Today, my wife and baby were baptized; and for me, my past met my future…
This morning we got up, dressed baby in her baptism dress, packed her up in the car, picked up Grandpa, and went to Chown United for the 11:30 service.
Some of my earliest memories are of Chinese United. My Grandparents have been going there since the 60’s. My parents, Uncle Ron/Aunt Joanne, and Uncle Albert/Aunt May were married there. I was the ring bearer for Uncle Albert’s wedding, and all I can remember is being directed down the aisle with an older girl who knew what she was doing, and looking at a packed church. I freaked. Thankfully my Uncle Foo grabbed me and kinda directed me to where I should be standing.
Vennie and I, and most of my cousins were baptized at CUC.
Years later when I moved back to Vancouver from Calgary, I attended fellowship, met a lot of great families and friends, and was confirmed at 19. I left CUC and went to Burnaby Alliance a few years later. As it was there I met Evonne, I’m guessing it was the right move. 🙂
Now that I think about it, the church actually has been an important part of our lives. Reverend Kao married Evonne and I in 2002, and now he is about to baptize Evonne and our daughter into the Church.
When we arrived, we had some drama over the parking arrangements. The entire area is a bit chaotic due to the RAV line construction.
We were a bit early, so we made our way downstairs to have a seat. The 11:30 service is all in Chinese, and most of the attendees are those in my Grandparent’s generation. A lady came up to us, and she said to me: “I delivered you!” Although it’s been many, many years, I immediately recognized Dr. Madeline Chung, and yes, she did deliver me way back when. It’s not often you get to meet the doctor who helped bring you into the world!
She is now one of the elders, and helps Rev Kao with the service.
As 11:30 approached, more familiar faces- Mr. and Mrs. Ng; Mr. Steven Ho- my Grandfathers long time friend; Mr. and Mrs. Seto; Auntie Garbo; Mr. Henry Ho…
It’s been years, but I remember each of them from when I was growing up. I know their kids as well, but they attend the earlier service in English.
Erica was on her best behaviour- ever alert and ready with a smile or gurgle. We weren’t sure what to expect from her during service, but she’s handled busy public events before.
Back in the 90’s when E and I went to service, we sat in the back, but because we had e, we were asked to sit right at the front. I had my camera all charged up and ready to go when I was instructed to go up with E and e… meaning I had to let Uncle Ron do the photography. Believe me, I had to really look for the best shots. 🙂
After years of not attending, it wasn’t a strange feeling to follow the service rituals- we found the right hymns to sing and the proper passage to read. Everytime I attend an all Chinese service, I do struggle with comprehension because they use the really big words.
Erica really was on best behaviour- a few gurgles and shrieks when the Choir was singing, and during the baptism she just looked at us and Rev. Kao. She took and nearly finished her bottle during the sermon.
Why did I ask to have Erica and Evonne baptized? Well faith is the first reason, but also continuity. It was nice to come back years after, and still see the family friends. Everyone is getting older of course, but that’s all a part of life. During the service, Dr. Chung made the announcements, and said some nice words about Grandpa- that he was a longtime member, and how this was a joyous occasion because his Granddaughter-in-law and Great-Granddaughter were baptized today… and mentioned how she delivered his Grandson- 30 something years ago. She got some polite applause for this comment.
She then spoke in remembrance about my Grandmother- about how she was a long time, active member of the Church who helped in many events. We were genuinely touched by this.
So why did I ask to have Erica and Evonne baptized? For me, I was baptized as an infant, and although I spent years away from the Church, here I am many years later, bringing my daughter and wife back to the Church to be baptized.
For Erica, her whole life is ahead of her. We’ll encourage her to keep an open mind and encourage her to find her own path through life… but that she will always have the Church, and Faith, and friends/family who will always accept and support her.
The morning of Dec 15th was surreal- howling wind, driving rain, and as we stepped out of the door at 7am, we were greeted by freezing rain/snow.
After the drama of getting to the airport, and losing the car seat base, the plane ride was fairly uneventful. Aside from the stewardesses dressing in a conservative Hawaiian print blouse, and some passengers wearing sandals and shorts, it was a normal flight. Luckily we had the extra seat between us so we could lay Erica down between us. We were instructed during takeoff and landings to hold her in a burp position, but other than that, she could lay down on the seat.
We were somewhat worried about how she would take the change in cabin pressure, and react to all the new sights and sounds, but she didn’t seem too bothered by the takeoff. We had her feed shortly after takeoff so that the act of swallowing would equalize any pressure differences. Throughout the flight she did her normal thing- sleep, eat, pee. (Thankfully she got the big #2 out of the way while we were on the ground back at YVR). We even got to hand her off to UH/AD for about 30 min near the end of the flight… just for a change of scenery.
As we came in for a landing in Maui, I had her in the burp position. During the wide banking turn for final approach, we hit some air pockets and turbulance that had our stomachs in our throats. We could hear passengers go “whooooooah!” everytime we hit one. I’m not bad with this sort of thing, but I definitely felt the drops and could hear the engines speed up to counteract the turbulance. I looked down at e, and she surprised me by falling asleep during the worst of it!
Thankfully we landed safely, and looking outside we could see that there was a very brisk wind blowing through the palm trees, so that’s why we had such a fun landing. And the sunshine! Haven’t seen sunshine like that for months!
As soon as the plane’s door opened, you could feel the extra humidity and warmth in the air. At that time, we understood why some of the more seasoned passengers changed into shorts at YVR.
We got our luggage, stroller, and car seat (it was the very last thing to roll out onto the baggage carousel). The stroller and car seat was a bit banged up, but what can you do? We decided to use our own car seat rather than rent one. The cost of renting one was like $6/day, and it likely would not have fitted our stroller.
Standing outside the car rental place, we had to get our sunglasses out, take off our jackets, and roll up our sleeves- it seems that Hawaii is a constant 27C year round. Very warm, but not scorching hot like Cancun. As we drove out and got our first look at the landscape, it was beautiful.
I didn’t know what to think about Maui- my perception of Maui mostly came from Hawaii 5-0, Magnum PI, and the Brady Bunch episode where they visted Hawaii, and took a sacred idol, and got cursed with bad luck.
The scenery
I’ll post more photos into the gallery, but wanted to show this one as an example of the sand, water, sky, mountains, and trees. Needless to say, it wasn’t hard to get used to all of this.
Differences in culture
One thing about visting a place like Maui or any foreign land is seperating the stereotype from reality. I had questions like, “do people really say ‘Aloha’, or has Maui become so Americanized that they just say it for the tourists?” Well as we drove along the highway, we saw one dude riding a mountain bike- fitted with a bracket to carry his 9 foot long surfboard. I have no idea what happens when he encounters a strong crosswind.
Another day we took a walk with e in a stroller by the beach. A surfer/hippie dude walks by us, takes a peek at e, smiles and gives us the “hang loose” hand sign. I thought that only happened in Magnum PI re-runs.
Like Mexico, a lot of the buildings are “open” meaning that there aren’t very many windows. Our resort had sliding front doors for you to walk through, but then everything else is just open. Covered, but open to the elements. For example, from our hotel room, we can take the elevator downstairs to the lobby, walk forward about 10 yards, and we’re outside. Basically the cover ends when the carpet ends.
The very first morning, we went downstairs to the resort restaurant “Ono- which means delicious” and sat down for breakfast.
Something was out of place… the food, which I’ll describe later was fine, the restaurant was outdoors, but you had cover… hmmm… wait… there’s a girl wearing a bikini to breakfast. We noticed that girls wear bikinis virtually all the time in Maui- to eat, shop, run on the beach, and yeah, to swim. When things “cool” down in the evenings, people cover up with miniskirts and tube dresses. Two main observations- This never happens in Canada, and after the age of 12, Erica is banned from Maui.
Next chapter- more about the food and activities
I can’t believe that Christmas is over, and 2006 is winding down. It has been the most memorable year for family and friends- lots of new babies, new job, Maui, engagements, retirements, milestone birthdays, etc.
It’s been awhile since the last blog entry, and so I’ll break things down into chapters instead of one big entry.
The big thing is that we packed everyone up and had a family vacation in Maui- Ka’anapali and Kihei. We were apprehensive at the thought of travelling with e being just shy of 4 months… but until she’s 2 years old, she flies for free. Plus we had Uncle Henry and Aunt Doreen (UH/AD) on our flight to give us a hand, and some potential baby sitters in Maui.
We were to leave Dec 15th at 7am to catch a 10am flt with Harmony. The night before, we were madly packing and trying to get all the logistics sorted out. In the end we managed to get to bed just after midnight… just in time for the biggest storm we’ve ever seen roll in. First the wind- our windows are double paned and framed by plastic, glue, and compression fitted rubber seals. They generally stand up well to the elements, but that night we felt the building vibrate when the winds were gusting. I could hear the window and frame groan and creak as the wind whipped at it from the west- to the point where I was really concerned the windows were going to be blown right into the bedroom. Although the windows were fully closed, the blinds INSIDE the window would move everytime a blast of wind came roaring. The rain driven into the window sounded like someone was shooting an automatic BB gun.
In the distance, we could see lightning- blue and red, but we couldn’t hear the thunder?!
About 3:30am, I hear a LOUD crash upstairs. I went up to take a look, and found our big deck chair flipped over and on top of our hatch. The top part was wedged in, so I couldn’t open the hatch to free it.
6am rolls by, and we find that the power is out. Great. We still have to finish packing and get baby ready. We groped around in the dark and found our LED headlamps, flashlights, and lit some candles. Somehow we manage to get all our stuff together in time for our ride to the airport. We checked our flight, and it was still on time. The worst was over.
At the airport, we went to long term parking and took a shuttle in. The windows were fogged so we couldn’t see where our stop was, and the driver didn’t say anything and continued to Domestic Departures. 🙁
Ok, so we’ll unload and hoof it back all the way to US Departures… a good walk, but we were doing ok for time. Halfway there, E realizes that we left the base for our carseat on the shuttle. The carseat won’t work without the base. Argh.
Think fast… ok, the radio is faster than me trying to run around to find the shuttle. So I run over to customer service and ask them to radio the shuttle. They can’t do that, so they had to call around to find out which company runs the shuttle service. After a few anxious moments, they found someone who could contact them. They then instruct me to go downstairs and meet the shuttle.
Ok, I went down to the stop, waited a bit and the shuttle comes around. I talk to the driver, and he tells me that he dropped the seat off to the Long term parking kiosk. Hop in and he’ll give me a lift.
So here we go back out to Long term parking. We can’t leave without the base, and E can’t check-in without me. I check the time, and we’re getting near 9am.
We get to the kiosk, and the attendant there informs the driver that the base is on another bus, and they don’t know which one. 😐
At this point, I’m trying to goto my happy place.
The driver then gets on the Radio “This is 1, looking for 4…” “This is 1, looking for 9…” “Does anyone see Mike…” “Is his radio working”
Time is now accelerating as we’re getting close to our departure time. After an eternity of trying to raise the shuttle, the other driver responds that he’s at Domestic. My driver tells him to hold and he’ll meet him. We race off to Domestic where indeed, the driver and carseat base is there. Whew! I shake his hand and thank him for all his help. I then realize I’m back at Domestic and need to run all the way back to US Dep with a carseat.
I get there, we check in, go through security, and found out that we were pretty damn close to missing the flight. The staff at check-in were getting panicky that I wasn’t there on time, and would miss the flight. In the end, we made it to the gate and got on the flight.
The guy next to us was nice enough to move seats so E, e, and I could have a row to ourselves. I think he also wasn’t thrilled about being next to an infant, but hey it worked out for everyone…
Next chapter- Winter to summer in 5 hours.
15 years ago this week, my maternal Grandma passed away.
I think that was the moment where I realized that things will never go back to the way they were before.
For me growing up, it was great being part of a big extended family. Everyone you know and care about has been around for as long as you can remember, and you don’t know life without everyone being present. And then she unexpectedly left us… and left an enormous void in the fabric of our family.
I remember that day- even though I was 22 at the time, it was like I was 6 years old again… and I’ve just been told that there’s no Santa, my puppy ran away, and a dozen other events that mark the end of childhood. I remember it was a very hard time for everyone.
One thing I’ve noticed over the past couple of years is 1) a lot of our friends/family are having kids and 2) some of our friends have lost a parent. It’s a sobering thought for my generation to realize that our parents won’t be around forever… and our heart goes out to our friends who have recently lost theirs.
So, 15 years later… it’s gone by so fast. My Uncle sent out some old photos, and with them, some pretty fond memories. It’s clear that everyone misses her as much now, if not more so, as we did 15 years ago.
When I think back to that time, I recall all sorts of conversations and odd recollections that shape my memory of her. I can say that they are all happy memories… I think the only tinge of sadness is in recalling how much I enjoyed those years and how times have changed.
But, the fact that I’m writing about this means that her influence and values are very much alive… and I can’t help but to pass them onto my own daughter. I realize that it’s now my time to start a family, and create the environment that made my childhood so memorable… and if we’re ever in a tough spot, E and I can have faith that we can get through it because we got some pretty good values from our parents and grandparents.
