Spring is here!

The weather was so beautiful these days. David took Friday off so we had a long weekend. Friday we ran several errands and met Fred and Fang for birthday dinner. Saturday David and Emily worked on the vegetable garden the whole day. I ran more errands and cooked a meal for our friend Jean Ann and Bill who just had a baby boy. By the end of the day, David was exhausted. He quoted Ecclesiastes 5:12 "The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much".

We started a new patch of garden in the backyard. Saturday was the beginning of that effort. Look how father and daughter worked together. Emily's finger nails got so dirty that they were still black even after washing several times with soap water. She also managed to eat the dirt (or organic manure ... Yuck!) twice when we were not looking.

We are getting ready for Andy's room. The wall borders are up. We also bought the furnature Saturday morning before David went to the Men's Breakfast. We couldn't wait to put everything in place. At the same time, we let our friends to use our bedroom set that was originally in Andy's room. Before they took the furnature away, Emily really had fun playing in the big bed: jumping, rolling, crawling, etc. She had such an excellent balance that no matter what she did, she kept herself in the bed.

As we counted, Emily knows and says about 60 words now. She pops out words constantly as soon as she opened her eyes. She still has difficulty pronouncing "S" and "L". But she is catching up very fast on other sound. She loves outdoor activities: blowing bubbles, spinning the pinwheel, picking up the rocks, examining the leaves, watching the puppies, pointing at the flowers ... As soon as she sees the stroller, she would say:"Walk! Walk!"

Emily also likes to share her favorite snacks with us. She constantly shares her puffs, apple bites, raisins and nuts with us. It made her happy every time when we took up her offer.

This is a video of Emily walking in mommy's shoe (the original video was sideway so I rotated 90 degree. But the quality got worse after rotation). If I don't know where my shoes are, Emily is the good person to ask ...

Birthday

Last week Emily had a play date with Charlie and Austin on Thursday. That was the second play date she had. So she was a little bit shy. Besides they probably don't know how to play together yet at this stage. I'm sure we moms enjoyed a lot more than our kids did. I fell in love with Kyri's salsa sauce called Aribba. That prompted me a trip to Target afterwards.

Kyri and smart Charlie

Dawn and sweet Austin

Emily and me

Friday night Robert and Gail took us to Nicola's for my birthday dinner. It was such a fancy restaurant that David and I wouldn't go very often. When David and Robert were talking about the new Medical Bill that Obama was going to pass, our waiter smiled:" Speaking of the President, George and Laura Bush are eating in the next room right now." Really?! David stood up to "go to the restroom". He came back and told us that George and Laura Bush sat right on the way to the restroom and their booth faced our table. Robert "went to the restroom" next. Then Gail and I went together. Two tall body guards stood at the kitchen and the restroom area. I just glanced at the former President and the former first lady and quickly turned my head away. They dressed as sharp as they were on TV. The waiter told us the family that were having dinner with the Bush was the 43rd richest people in the world Harold Simmons. I was not into politics at all. But having my birthday dinner at the same restaurant that the president and the rich guy had at the same time, certainly makes me talk about it to anyone! That experience overshadowed the delicious food we had. We definitely will go back to that restaurant again in the future.

Before we went to the restaurant, Robert and Gail asked me to open my birthday gift. I unwrapped it - it was a cheerio box. I guess they knew I am a mom now and I need lots of cheerios. As I thanked them, Robert said he wanted to taste a little bit of the cheerio. I opened the box and found two beautiful silver baby picture frames inside - I was tricked!!

Saturday we ran many errands and tried to work on Andy's nursery room. It began to get cold at night. The birds were extra active around our house after the sunset. I guessed those were the ones who didn't build their nests when the weather was warm and sunny (a simple lesson, Huh?). The next morning we had a big snow. On the way to church we saw three car accidents. Even during the second service, there were not as many people as we thought. Many people enjoyed the online streaming at home.

Can you believe the weather was in 70s on Friday?

David's poor vegetable pots

Spring or Winter???

Monday was my birthday. When I got up, I saw a beautiful pot of purple Hydrangea and a sweet birthday card on the table. Robert sang the Happy birthday song on the phone. Amy sang it in the email. Dad mailed a check. David also made my favorite cake - cheesecake with blackberries on top. Many friends left a Happy Birthday greetings on the phone or in the emails. Thank you everyone for making me feel so special! It was a wonderful day!



Dad forwarded an email about birth verse. It says that the Bible has a special verse for everyone's birthday. You can look it up here: http://WWW.birthverse.Com/mybirthverse.cfm I looked up mine. It is "(Lamentations 3:22 NIV) Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail."

Here are a few pictures of the week:

Emily loves being a doctor
Emily pretended to be a sick patient (she does this whenever she got a piece of tissue)

(Emily learns the Alphabet - E is for Emily)

The Road to Independance

Emily shows more and more of her will recently. There were a couple of times that she broke down and cried hard when we refused to do what she wanted to do. She is testing our limits! One of such occasions was in the park when we fed the ducks. She insisted in jumping into the pond with the ducks; Other occasions including not wanting to come home after playing outside; not wanting to change her diaper; not having the cookie that she asked for, etc. But before long she would realize that crying was not an effective way to get what she wanted. In case her little will collides with our big will, she will have to give in, although she doesn't understand why yet. This reminds me of our little will and our Heavenly Father's big will, when they clash, we know what will happen and we'd better learn.

On her road to independance, Emily shows more of her dependance also. We started to take her to the church nursery every Sunday for the classes. She cried every time when we put her in those cute yellow bucket seats. Many people told us that she will get over it. Hopefully it won't take long.

After I failed the one-hour glocuse test, I began to modify my diet to cut down a significant amount of carbs. As a result, I felt weak during the day, especially after the meals. So I added back some carbs. This week after the three-hour glocose test, I was told that I didn't have the diabetes. I'm back to my normal diet again. Yeah! By the way, I'm totally enjoying staying home with Emily: no fixed hours, no deadlines, no traffic in the grocery stores ... more play dates, more outdoor activities, and more visits with friends.

We didn't take many pictures this week - the battery died. The hightlights of the week were: visiting Lori and Matthew (Matthew was really an easy going sweet baby. Unfortunately we forgot to bring the camera) and playing in the park. Also Gayla came to babysit Emily on Monday morning when I had the three-hour glocuse test; Jerry and his mom babysat Emily on Monday night when we had the hospital tour; Nadia babysat Emily on Wednesday when I had the regular doctor's appointment. Sunday we had lunch at Gayla's house and we finally spent some time with Chelsea who is going to Romania to work for "His Little Ones". We are very thankful for our friends. Here are a few lucky ones that made to the camera:

Emily the climber!

Emily the Ignorer!

This picture was taken after Emily had a break-down.

Better cooperative than resisting

Two Goals before May

Last week marked the end of the working mom. Our thoughtful co-workers had a going-away lunch for me at Marcoroni Grills. Thirty plus people came to the lunch. We reminiscented how fast these ten years has been and how much changes we went through. In the end, they presented me an 8 in. digital photo frame and a basket of beach/garden toys for Emily. What a sweet sendoff!

My 1-hour glocose test failed again. I didn't realize that Carbohydrates actually played a big role in it. It's time to cut off noodles! Hopefully I'll maintain a good diet for the next couple of months. Two other goals for the next two months are: helping Emily to feed herself with spoons and forks; and getting Emily potty trained. Both tasks are not easy for us. But I'm not intimidated to try. Look, Emily is already eager to tackle them.

First step: climbing unto the toilet stool

Second, turn around.

Third, try to sit on it


Last, flush and all done!

It's funny to see how Emily holds spoons though. She always grab the end of the spoon. When she finally got food in the mouth, half of it already ended up on the chair or floor. We started the spoons with yogurt since it's easier to stick onto the spoon:

Then we tried other food:

I have to fight the urge to help her and to keep the eating area clean. She's still not good at shoveling the food and leveling the spoons. Hopefully she'll get it soon with more practice.

We had a few days of nice weather here. David couldn't wait to start his garden. On Saturday he got all the seeds and containers out and planted some peppers, tomatos, pumpkins, and onions. We guessed the weather may get worse again before the end of April. Hope these seeds will grow out strong.

I bought a used kitchen toy for Emily last year (for $5). We just took it out for her to play. She loved it! Here's her putting the potato chips in the microwave and getting ice cubes out of the freezer...

Like all other babies, Emily loves to play Peekaboo. This is a video of her after bath:

Tribute to My Husband

David went back to work last Friday. My last day at work is this coming Friday. We are so thankful that the transition was very smooth so far. I've been working from home last week and this week. So besides working and playing with Emily, I did nothing. I look forward to next week when I can take Emily out to watch the birds, run in the playground, meet with friends, or just do some errands.

But I can't let this special time of our family passing by without thanking my amazing husband for what he did for our family during the last year. There are not many husbands in this world who are willing to risk their jobs and social images to stay at home with their kids. I still remember how much struggle we went through before we decided to keep my job and risk his job. Once we decided, David faithfully and beautifully carried out his in-home duties: he took care of every need that Emily had so that Emily grew into such a content and happy little girl; he made three meals a day every weekday and I was totally spoiled; he cleaned the house, did the laundry, ran the errands, made the beds, grew the vegetable garden ... flawlessly. In addition to these, he visited Sue in the hospital every day for the past three plus weeks. He did Bible studies with Joey four days a week and with Victor two days a week for almost a whole year; During the last two days, Joey wanted to learn as much as he could before David went back to work. Luckily we hooked him up with Louella so that he could continue his Bible study on a daily basis. Sweetheart, I wanted to let you know that Emily and I are so lucky to have you. We love you from the bottom of our hearts and we can't thank you enough!

Here are pictures of David and Emily last year at this time (when Emily was around 3 months old):



And now look at them:



I know that David and I will forever remember the wonderful time we had during the past year. Hopefully it will leave trace of imprint on Emily too. So long the father-daughter days!

Last Friday through Saturday was our church lady's retreat. Gayla and I carpooled together. We had a great time. The theme for the retreat was "Under His Wings" (Psalm 91:4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and buckler.) There were lots of tears from every touched heart. But all four speakers left a high note of hope and transformation in the end. Just as Bible told us, it's not if, but when, we have troubles, we learned how to be carried under His wings to a higher ground from these wonderful Christian women. I pray that when the trial comes, I'll be like them and stand the test of trust and faith.