Giving Thanks

It’s the Sunday after Thanksgiving and we have a lot to be thankful for. We have our health, our happiness, our family, our friends and most of all Linda.

It has been a little over two months since we have met Linda and just about two months since we have been home. I can say there have definitely been a lot of changes in Linda in only two months.

When we met Linda she already had a great personality. Linda could sit up straight, but you had to put her in that position. She would roll around or scoot backwards to get to places. And she never had any solid food.

Now she can sit up on her own from a laying down position. She can crawl very smoothly and even get up and down the little step we have going into the family room. She can pull herself up to a standing position from anywhere she can hold onto (including my bra strap :-)) and walk while holding onto things. She can even take a few steps on her own. I give it another week or two before she’s completely walking on her own… Yikes.

Linda is playing with blocks and putting them through holes and into slots they belong to. She is eating very well (I let her eat lunch with her hands).

The best thing of all is that she knows who mommy and daddy are. She even knows who she is… she’ll show you by pointing at her belly. Hey if she really likes you, she’ll show you her belly by pulling her shirt up. Go figure.

Of course her great personality is still there and even better. Linda has a sweet disposition. She doesn’t fuss much. She whines a little when she’s out of sorts. Now it’s hard to tell if she’s whining because she’s teething or has an ear infection. That happened to us recently. I thought she was teething on a Friday because she was in a bad mood. She had no fever and not tugging on anything. But Sunday she was in a great mood but all this stuff was coming out of her ears. We ran her to the doctor and she still had no fever… just an infection. She’s better now.

I have to say life as parents is very different than without children. You’re on schedules and you are drained by the end of the day. It’s a good drained, but drained. I sleep well at night now. Bill is great with Linda. He seems to know exactly what kind of playtime Linda wants at what time. Linda loves when he plays with her in the car seat and makes funny sounds. Linda also like when dad dries her off after a bath. And she loves when he carries her places. Bill is also great to me. He gives me the breathing time I need when he comes home so I can deflate before I make dinner. Bill is a great dad and husband.

Let me just finish by saying we had a great Thanksgiving at our friends Mary, Bill and Jinji. Yes their family made a nice dinner for them the day after they came home from China and we got to participate. Jinji is a great baby and I hope Linda and Jinji become life long friends like their parents have become.

Update! Oh we are so bad!

We have been soooooo bad at posting lately. Please forgive us. You might guess at how difficult it is to raise a child and keep everything else running smoothly. I must say that Mel has been doing an awesome job of mommy. I commend my beautiful wife for doing such a fine job.

In the last couple of weeks we have been quite busy. Last Monday Linda had her first visit to the Happiest Place on Earth: Disneyland! I had to work, yeah, touch life, and I brought Mel and Linda with me. It was very convenient as we also had a trip to LA to visit Mel's family. Linda had a great time. We hit It's a Small World and I never saw a kids eyes pop out as we floated through the show. She swayed with the music and clapped her hands. We also visited the Tiki Room. Oh, that was just as fun. She sure enjoyed the drummer dudes. We wandered around the park a bit and then we had to head out. No we did not try other rides as it was her first time and we did not want to over stimulate the little munchkin. That night Linda slept like a rock.

The daily routine I will leave to the hard worker of the family, but I will say that it is one busy schedule. My duties start when I get home from work. I just keep Linda busy and distracted until bed time! She is so close to walking it is scary. She holds your fingers and takes off. Once she has that self balance thing going we will not get any rest! In any case even though there are some frustrating moments, it has been a joy to have Linda around.

I will post pictures when I get them processed!

Catch Up!

We’ve been a little busy. No really, we’ve been a little busy. I know you don’t believe us, but we maintain that we’ve been a little busy.

As an update, Linda visited the doctor and got a clean bill of health on the second visit. Yeah! She has gained 2 pounds and though they said she has not grown, we think she has added an inch or two to her height.

While I’m at work, who knows what Mel and Linda have been up to, but I’m sure it is no good! ;-) Actually Mel has been a terrific Mom as I get home and Linda is pretty much wiped out from the day. Actually, that kid sure has a bunch of energy because I’m worn out from playing with Linda after I’m home! Mel has visited friends, going to play groups, and taking Linda to the park. They go on walks, too. Linda is getting better at being left alone, but the play pen (Pack N Play) is still not high on Linda’s “fun list”. She is only in that when Mel needs to get something done and doesn’t need Linda getting into trouble, e.g. shower time.

Since the last post, we had a good Halloween. No pictures from that day as we did not do much. A Tuesday night is not great for Halloween. We just went to a birthday party yesterday. That was fun. Thanks Joy!

One exciting moment last week was when I received a call from Mel. I was meeting with an electrician and Mel calls sounding serious, but with a sense of excitement. Mel was sitting in the office, the doorway is about 8 feet from Linda’s room, and tells Linda to come on down if she likes. Next think she knows, there’s Linda’s head poking around the corner. This is the first time Linda has ventured down the hall on her own! It is her first time doing the full on crawl, too! My thoughts: “Uh oh. We’re in trouble now!” Linda has gone mobile! Today we took a couple of pictures as she made her way towards the living room! Double Uh Oh!

We are at the point where we needed to add the glass doors to the stereo cabinet for obvious reasons. Here I caught Linda contemplating how to get past this little obstacle. Hmmmm? BTW, pull those pants up!

That’s all for now. We need to go for a walk and let the dog stretch her paws.