First Bruise and New Car

Emily is pretty good at one-hand walking. She likes holding our hand with her left hand and use her right hand to pick up things from the floor or touch the things along her way. Sometimes she can stand on her own for a few seconds. She can also bend down to pick up things on her own. Her favorite stop in the whole house is the air purifier where she can step on top of it and then step down. We fastened some of the cabinets with the rubber bands so she didn't play with them as much as before. Her new development this week is to hold bottles on her own. She put the bottle in her mouth a couple of times to feed herself. David said she also said Hi for the first time although she's been waving for a while. One thing that I wanted to jot down is when I came home from work, Emily always ran to my arms from where she was with big exciting screams - nothing is better than that!


Everything I read told me that babies are natural picky eaters. But Emily is an exception. She loves everything: from brocolli to tofu, from noodles to bread, from carrots to celery, from fish to chicken, from kiwi to catelope, from eggs to yogurt ... no matter what we put into her mouth, she took them all with gladness and she wouldn't stop until she was full! We are so glad at that. Hope she will keep up in the future!


Emily had her first bruise this week - she fell on the triangle block. It left a dark deep bruise on her left face. After that, she kept falling on the floor when she was walking or cruising around. But she only cried three times among those dozens of falls. She is a little explorer!

David went to the LST Harvest Call in NRHCOC Saturday. He had a great time. Prestoncrest announced to be a centurion church during the dinner. Friday night we stopped by Amy W's house to drop off Lori's baby gifts. We ended up staying there and had a piece of yummy pie. Rachel loved Emily. She took such good care of Emily the whole time while we were there.


We've been looking for a car to replace David's car for a while. Finally we bought a white 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid today. We loved it!

The bruise on Emily's left face and the guilty blue block

Stand up from where she falls and move on ...

Step on the air purifier

Such a good eater!

Love this picture

Bath is fun

First Sunday Class

We took Emily to the Sunday class this past weekend. It was her first class ever. During church, we took her to the nursery. There was only one boy of her age in that room. Emily started playing on her own. Melissa who worked there urged me to leave:" She did so well, you can go back to the service." I had planned to stay in case she cried. But after Melissa said several times that I could leave. I felt like I should leave. So I went back to the auditorium. After the service, David and I went to the nursery to check on Emily. She was doing fine until in the middle of the Bible class, she began to cry. Miranda told us it was because she saw us there. Emily didn't sit through the class. She was hungry and sleepy toward the end. She fell asleep not long after we left church. It was one hour after her regular nap time.

Emily figured out how to open and close the cabinets and doors this week. She practiced it whenever she had chances. She also knew that she could tear the paper into pieces.

David went to the EEM dinner Thursday. It had a great turnout. Saturday we had the last LST training session at our house. Sunday afternoon David's reader Victor wanted to go to church with David after FriendSpeak. But David had to give a ride to another reader back home. Victor has attended evening services with us for a couple of times. He apparently liked it. Hopefully he will come with us next Sunday.

These two pictures are taken when Emily played in the nursery

This is when Emily was in the Bible class. We missed the picture of her crying because we could not find the camera then.

This picture was taken when Emily ate banana while holding the paper she tore apart

In this picture, Emily was watching the Potty Power DVD
We moved Emily's sitting play area to the office so she has two places to play now

The previous sitting play area became a cruising/entertainment area

See what I mean by "cruising"

Ah, ah! Don't look at the diaper on the floor ...

Autumn After the Rain

In Chinese we have a saying:"Autumn comes after the rain". It's certainly true for the past week. I was digging through Emily's fall clothes everyday. Emily is more and more independent each day. She can stand and play for a little while; She started to wave; and she can walk with a pushing toy now! We are so proud of her! Little girl is growing up so fast!


Since Emily's birthday will fall on the weekend after we come back from China, we will not have time to take her birthday pictures before then. We took her 10 months old pictures instead. We had her pictures taken during my lunch hour last Wednesday. So we didn't have much time. But Emily did great. The photographer said most babies don't make it through the whole session. Here is one autume themed picture of her:





Here is Emily walking with Daddy. She loves to walk and stop occasionally to look up at us with a sweet smile. Wish I could capture that:


Here's Emily enjoying her food:

Here's Emily doing forehead kissing with Daddy:

Here's Emily shopping with Mommy:

"What's for dinner?"

First steps with the pushing toy:



Waving Hi:

Labor Day and Birthday

Our weekend was full of good food and wonderful time with family and friends. Hope yours was too! David had a nice birthday week - he had gone out for lunches with his friends almost everyday. The weather was so nice that it made us believe the beautiful fall was already here. Friday after lunch, we headed off to Tulsa for the Labor Day weekend. Here is a picture of David and Emily on the way to Tulsa:


After we arrived, Amy and Kendall were already there. Leedy Kay dropped by for a short visit. It was great to see everyone. As always, we had Mexican food for dinner Friday and had BBQ ribs for lunch Saturday. Saturday night we had dinner at Linda's house. We were stuffed with good food. Sunday we had lunch at Incredible Pizza's where we bumped into Rae B. She was visiting her brother there. Amy made peach cobbler for David's birthday. Both David and I liked it. David got to open his gifts Saturday afternoon. On the way back from the BBQ place, we also visited the house David and Amy grew up. We even found their hand prints when they were little. Monday night Terry, the new Chinese SMU student, invited us for dinner at his apartment. He cooked delicious food. When we asked how he learned cooking, he said he called his mom so she instructed him step by step ... We still remember the first night when Terry arrived at America, he asked David "What is Industrial Engineering" (his major at SMU is Industrial Engineering).

A snapshot with Leedy Kay

David's and Amy's hand prints from the old house

Opening Birthday Gifts

Emily also had a great time! First of all, she tried a lot of new food and she liked them all: the ribs, mashed potato, spaghetti, rice, guacamoli, refried beans ... I was concerned that she might have taken too much salt and spice by these adult version food. Hopefully these occasional dose won't hurt her much. From now on, no more salt and pepper for her! She also had lots of fun playing with Chloe and Presley; hanging out with Grandpa; and walking laps around the house. Despite of all the activities, she still kept her normal schedule for eating and sleeping. We were so happy about that. Hope she'll do great in China too!

Playing with Grandpa

Playing with Chloe

Reaching for snacks

Admiring Grandpa

Girls, look at camera

Walk! Walk! Walk!

Biting off the banana

David always joked that he lost his wife ever since Emily was born because I always sat in the backseat with Emily to attend her. On the way back home, I sat in the front seat this time. Emily was by herself in the backseat. We gave her a water bottle to play with during the second half of the trip. After a while, she began to be fussy. We thought she must be tired of the car ride. Ten minutes later we stopped at Sonic to grab a cup of drink. I went back to check on Emily. I was surprised to find that she was soaked in water. All her clothes and the car seat cover was wet. The water bottle that we gave her was empty! We had no idea that she could unscrew the bottle cap. No wonder she was fussy! After we changed the clothes and dried the car seat cover with towels and bibs, she was calm for the rest of the trip - of course, I was back to the backseat. We felt terrible. Here is a picture of David apologizing to Emily for what happened:


Emily has five teeth now. More are coming. Her drooling was really bad. She officially graduated from the immobile state. She wouldn't sit for 5 minutes. That's probably one of the reasons that David strained his back muscle earlier this week. He had to hold her hands and run all over the house! It was time to put away David's grandma's old quilt - we've made good use of it: when I was pregnant, I used it as stepstool to climb onto the bed; after Emily was born, we used it as playground for her; now that Emily doesn't sit down to play that much, the old quilt finally got off duty. Thank you Grandma for the quilt! Here is a picture sitting on the quilt the last time.

Here are a couple of bonus pictures:

With the temperature going down, we put socks on Emily so she won't feel cold on the tiles. But these blue socks are the only ones that are big enough for her feet. Need to go shopping now!

My co-worker gave us some toys. Emily was so happy to ride on this toy:

Emily loves to walk holding our hands. But she refuses to move by holding on other stuff. See how nervous she is when she doesn't have our hands.

Here's a short video of Emily and Grandpa:

Here is a video of Emily the little soccer player:

New Diet, Teething, and Packing

Emily just loved her real food this week: puffs, cheese, corn on the cob, macaroni and cheese, bread, grapes, banana, brocolli, etc. She also loved the frozen celery. These new food can keep her occupied for a long time. Puffs are the biggest hit that it quiets her down every time at church. We are so happy about this because we will have more food choices when we are on the road. It was so neat to watch her to pick up food with fingers and put them into her mouth. We can hear her biting on them!



We bought Emily a little basketball goal (for $5). See how excited she was:


Emily also had a few difficult times. For two nights, she was suddenly cranky and crying. I thought the terrible two must have come early. We started looking into how to react appropriately when she is unhappy and whether we should have some discipline strategy toward her. Two days later, she was back to normal again. She touched the top gum with her fingers all the time. So we thought maybe more teeth are coming out. Poor baby! The frozen celery and teething ring really helped a lot at times like this. But I don't like the fact that she has to hold the frozen things with her tiny hands - it's so hard on baby!

David took Justin to Bob Chishom's Step by Step study Tuesday night. Friday afternoon he took Emily to see Sue. Friday night we went to Brook and Ann's house for their reader Michael's birthday party. Saturday we went to Fred and Fang's house for the going-away party for Fang's parents. The food was the best food I've had in a long time. Cody recited an ancient Chinese poem "Zan Zi Jing" for us; Evan sang a Chinese song "Only Mom is the Best in the World". Their Chinese really amazed us. Hopefully Emily will absorb both languages too. Sunday we had Marv, David and Gayla over for lunch. It was a busy weekend.




We started packing for the China trip now. It seems like Emily's stuff will occupy the big suitcase. David and I will pack our stuff in the smaller suitcase. We may need a third one for the LST stuff.

Happy last days of August!

Here is a picture of Emily dancing with Mom:





And a video of Emily's first bite of the sweet potato puff. She struggled with it for a little while. But after that she was so proficient with her fingers.

Week in a flash

A Chinese saying goes like this: "Walk a hundred steps after the meal; you will live to ninty nine years old." Emily definitely live up to that now. She passionately practices her walking and standing with every opportunity. We'd love for her to crawl before walking. But she seems to have her own agenda.

Joey came back from Taiwan. David continued studying with him every morning. Joey brought dozens of new Taiwanese students to FriendSpeak this Sunday. Several of them even stayed for the church service. We are in serious need of new workers now.

Jerry came over Wednesday afternoon. He was surprised at how much Emily had grown during the past month. David picked up Jason from SMU to FriendSpeak Wednesday night. Friday night he went to the LST training in Arlington. I stayed at home with Emily because I went to the training last year. We all went to the training on Saturday. Below is our team picture.

After we came back from the training, Emily sat on the floor played on her own for the longest time - she missed her toys! She played them one by one until the dinner time. See how happy she was back to her own place ...

Emily had her passport photos taken at WalGreen Friday afternoon to apply for the Chinese visa. The lady at WalGreen complimented that it was the best baby photo she's ever taken.

Sunday Emily was a little fussy at church. It could be the fourth tooth that is coming out, or she didn't want to be still on the pew. We spent most of time out there in the foyer. David and I thought about taking her to the nursery. But with the big trip only a few weeks away, we decided to keep her with us to lower the risk of being sick. After church, we met Heidi and Yongying for lunch. Heidi read with me three years ago during FriendSpeak. Hongying started meeting David at StarBucks six months ago. They are moving to New York next week. We are going to miss them!

One night we were talking about spiritual lessons that we learned from Emily. Here are just a couple on the top of the list:

1. Emily never holds anger or unpleasant feeling for longer than one minute. No matter how unhappy she is at the moment, she always forgives us and turns into a happy and trusting baby within one minute. (Eph. 4:26 "Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry")

2. Emily has an abandon trust toward her parents. When she decided to roll off the surface, she covered her face with blanket and beamed with smiles on her face - trusting that we were going to catch her in the fall. (Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding")

3. Emily is friendly and happy. She responds to people's smiles almost instantly under normal circumstances. Sometimes she initiates smiles to the strangers whom I thought might scare her a little. (Philippians 4:4"Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.")

Waving and Grandpa's visit

Emily's new development this week is waving bye bye. She first waved with us when we saw Dad and Linda off on Friday. Then she waved several times during the weekend. Our Frienspeak readers loved it when she waved at them when they left the room. Emily is also obsessed by walking and standing with our help. She can't quite use the pushing toy independantly yet. But she loves to hold our hands and walk over and over until we are worn out. She definitely slept more these days with all the exercise she had. She also started humming, clapping, and rocking along with the music. Her favorite words are still "mama" (which happens to be Chinese "Mom") "dada" "baba" (which happens to be Chinese "Dad") "yeye" (which happens to be Chinese "Grandpa") "yaya" ...

(Cruising in her crib)

Dad and Linda stopped by Friday for lunch on their way to Austin. We had hamburgers for lunch. Emily so enjoyed their visit. David got several really sweet pictures of her with Grandpa and Linda. Friday night we went to pick up some magazines that I bought for Emily -"BabyBug". I can't wait to read them with Emily later.

(Laughing with Linda and Grandpa)

(Forehead kisses with Grandpa)

(Momentarily sitting between walks)

(Daddy put double clips on Emily)

We met with David's cousin Gregg's family for lunch on Saturday. It was great to catch up with them. Emily enjoyed playing with everybody too.

Dad and Linda came in late Saturday. We had ribs for dinner and played with Emily for the rest of the evening. Emily was so excited to play with so many people. She loved having grandpa and Linda with us. David and I loved it too.

We drove separate cars for church on Sunday again because David had to teach the Single Purpose class. I took Emily home to take a nap after the first service. David came home after the class. He really enjoyed teaching the class on "baptizing into the red sea". I wish Emily and I could listen to his teaching.

Ray and Olivia brought Stephen to FriendSpeak Sunday afternoon. It was the first time for us to see them after Stephen was born in April. He is a big boy and has a sweet disposition. Emily played with Gail and other people. She was so sleepy in the end but she managed not to fall asleep until we came home and got ready for bed.

(Emily and Gail)

Here is a prayer that Gail forwarded to me this week:

My Sweet Baby (pray for your babies) by Charla Aldous

My Sweet Baby -a loan from above.

No better treasure

Could I have more love.

Standing here beside you,

But as I pray,I lay my hand on your head and I say....

"May you grow up to serve Him all of your days.

May He lead you and guide you in all of your ways.

May His Hand bless your future with friendships that last.

May you cherish your youth and not grow up too fast.

I stare in wonder at your tiny frame.

Just to think that God knows you by name!

He knows every hair on your beautiful head.

He knows all your thoughts before they are said."

"May God grant you peace in the midst of a storm.

May God give you strength even when you're forelorn.

May you answer the door when Jesus comes knocking.

May wisdom guide you when your mouth is talking.

May discretion protect you and keep you pure.

May you never stumble or fall before the Lord.

May your heart remain humble to the very end.

May uprightness and truth be what you defend.

May the world not ensnare or change who you are.and

May the light that's within you shine like the stars.

May angels surround you - body spirit mind;

May favor and peace be yours to find.

May rejection and pain never reach you.

May your spirit grow old for what you're called to."

As you rest in God's careI will rest, too.

Knowing that Jesus is watching over you.

In Jesus Name, Amen