Happy Year of the Ox!

Happy Chinese New Year!

It's time for the one-holiday-late update! Here are pictures from December, Christmas and New Year.



Looking at these pictures made me realize how enjoyable vacation is- fun just to hang out as a family and not worry about our to-do lists. Can't wait for the next one.

We do have a new camera now and so have been taking videos again. But now having technical difficulty on the computer end, so that'll have to be another post!

Fall 2008

Here are pics from Halloween and Fall. Can't believe it's almost December!!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and we are thankful for so many God-given blessings. We are thankful that Dan still has his job, and that I am not in the finance industry. Things in NYC have been tumultuous, but there are so many things for which to be thankful.

Isaac is thankful that his daddy collects Happy Meal toys for him during his lunch hour (though he's wondering what happened to his actual meal...), and he's happy his grandmother runs a private catering service for him, dropping off meals early in the morning when everyone's still asleep. He is thankful that mommy is often a pushover when it comes to bedtime, and she spends the day with him on Fridays. Now that it's colder outside, we spend a lot of time in our building's playroom, and he loves being chased up and down our hallway (lots of squealing which I'm sure the neighbors love).

It's amazing watching him learn so quickly. He understands so much of what we say now (both English and Chinglish!) and will get his shoes, go to the bathtub and give us things when we ask (sometimes). He even sometimes give me a kiss on the cheek, and seemed to have no problem giving a little girl a kiss too (see pictures).

He also has finally begin to get the whole sign language thing (I felt like I was doing it with no results for so long). Some of the signs he's making are: dog, eat, bath, hat, head, grape, fish, more, all done, sleep, hurt, ball, bird, diaper, car. He's signed please and thank you a few times, but definitely prefers to point and whine.

He is doing a lot of jabbering now and having conversations with himself and us using his secret language. He loves to say "uh-oh" and imitates us every time we say "WOW" or "WHOAH"-it's so cute.

His favorite sport right now is climbing and trying to give his mom a heart attack. He found a way to push his toys up to the radiator, climb onto the radiator, and then onto the windowsill and just squat there. Which I guess is better than when he climbs unto a chair or couch and jumps up and down. Dan caught him once mid-air while he was tumbling down head first. It was one of those slow motion moments that I watched while from the kitchen.

We have no videos, because Isaac killed the camera by dashing it to the ground. I thought it might revive itself after a while, but Dan reminded me that electronics are not living creatures and once broken, usually stay broken. We will probably get a new one for Christmas, so stay tuned.

Isaac's Turned 1!

What a delinquent parent I am! I just realized I'm still working on Isaac's 1 year update and he's 14 months already! Dan says I should blame it on the chaos on Wall St., and the recession leading to production delays, but it's really more like mommy's extra work hours which are a bit removed from financial markets (thankfully). No more procrastination, will just have to forego the captions.

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So we've hit the big one year mark!! Hurrah to Isaac! Hurrah to his parents who've survived the first year of parenthood! We have lots of pictures and lots of catching up to do.

Basically, Isaac is a very active toddler now who doesn't like his mom being on the computer, so these updates get harder to do.

So, these are general pics which include photos from 11-13 months, including some professional photos we had taken.



Here is Isaac doing his first chore around the house. We pay him in watermelons.


These are pics from Isaac's first birthday party! We had Marcia the Moose give a puppet show for the kids. As far as Isaac could figure, the puppets were the real deal! He had a blast.


Next we have pics from our trip to Arlington, Va in August. It was a nice minivacation and we had fun seeing old friends and visiting our old neighborhood.

Finally, we went to a wedding where we discovered that Isaac is a better dancer than both his parents. And he knows it. Check out the self-applause.


More photos from the wedding of Jen Lo (who was a crucial link to Dan and I's initial meeting).


Already...until next time! (Hopefully he won't be 2 yet...)

10+ months!

Isaac's walking!

I imagine his view of the world just keeps changing.
First he could just see about a foot from his face, then he could look up at the ceiling when on his back or down on the ground when on his belly, then he could turn his head to look around, then he discovered how to roll back and forth, then he could crawl and check things out on his own, and now he is ambulating like an adult Homo Sapien like the rest of us!
(Except that he walks with his legs spread wide and his belly sticking out, and he stumbles a bit like a drunk and falls on his diaper padded bottom quite a bit, so it's a bit different than most of us.)

Anyway, here are some photos to show where Isaac's been and what he's been up to.

Montreal
We took a week long family trip to Vermont in May and crossed the border to Montreal the day before. It was the first time for all of us, and we really enjoyed seeing the French-Canadian culture. Isaac became a fan of good bread and cheese while there.


Tyler Place
Our week in Vermont was at Tyler Place, an amazing family resort that we recommend highly. Great food, beautiful setting, lots of outdoors activities, and best of all, childcare in the morning and evenings! Isaac had a blast with the other kids. AND he got over his fear of grass!!


Here are other photos leading up to his 10th month (pre-walking)


And here are some videos:
First Steps!


Playing Peek-A-Boo with his Great-Aunt


Bouncing Ball with Grandma Wang


See you next time!

Grass is Scary

Isaac's New Skill

Some Videos!