Now I’m not saying that this past month has been uneventful, but we have been sick. It’s been a very sickly month. We all caught a cold and was all miserable. But you tried your best to be happy. Your nose got all runny, stuffy and congested. You’d have boogers sticking out of your nostrils all the time. Whenever we tried to pick’em, you start fussing and crying, for which I don’t blame you for. Your nose would be all red from the soreness of wiping your nose all the time. But you were ok. You would still play and smile. Still the happy baby.

Daddy even took the time to shoot a photo to show you what a Raider fan you are …

😀 hee hee

Even though we’ve been sick, this past month wasn’t exactly an uneventful month. Mommy made a make-shift wagon, that you loved. We called it the “Ghetto Wagon.” We’d pull you down the sidewalk and you’d smile, laugh and look at things that pass you by. People would look at us like we’re poor, retarded, and abusive parents. But hey, we were sick. We didn’t feel very well. Besides, it’s not like any of us were embarrassed.

I’m sure that we will be apologizing to you about this when you get older.

We also went to Ye-ye and Ma-ma’s house and had a Red Egg party for you little sister (Younger Cousin on daddy’s side) Kaiya. We helped Ye-ye and Ma-ma clean up and get ready and played in their yard and later had a big dinner. You and Kaiya wore chinese baby outfits, which everyone said how cute you guys were. We all had a great time celebrating and welcoming Baby Kaiya to the family.

Earlier this Month, March 3rd, we celebrated Kelina’s big 23rd birthday! She just loved turning the big 2-3. But what she doesn’t realize, is that with age, come wisdom and beauty. The beauty never fades. Just look at your mom. So we celebrated and took her to BJ’s pizza and had a great time trying not to embarrass her by doing anything stupid. That was hard.

Ever since you started walking on your own, you just want to walk all over the place. Going here and going there. You love going to the girls’ room and walking around outside on our “porch” and sidewalk. And for some reason, you like going through all our wallets. You just rummage through it, pulling everything out and throwing it everywhere. I’m just glad that you don’t think, yet, that it’s the magical wallet that buys you things.

It’s funny, whenever you meet people or just play with people, you make this squinty face …

We don’t know why you do it, but you started doing it with Mia a few months ago. She probably started making that face to you and then you probably thought that it was funny and started doing it yourself. And whenever you do it, everyone does laugh. You do it me and mommy, Tita, Mia, and people you meet and like. Everyone says what a happy baby you are. Maybe it’s also because of this face and your developing sense of humor.

You amaze us with how smart and aware you are. Just yesterday, your mommy was eating pumpkin seeds out of it’s plastic bag. You looked at her eating it and looked at the bag; noticing how it looked. So you then went to the hallway and came back with a plastic zip-lock bag holding the dryer sheets and gave them to your mommy, showing her a similar bag to the one that she has. We wondered how you even remembered the zip-lock bag and compared it to the pumpkin seed bag. You are so aware of your surroundings.
Here’s a few photos from the past month…

You’ve been working walking for awhile now. Sometimes during the day, when you’re with Tita and Mia, you’ll take a few steps here and there. But you won’t quite do it. You’ll hesitate and then go down on your knees. You would maybe to one or twice a day. Three steps. Four steps. Maybe five steps. But you wouldn’t do more than once or twice at a time.

So tonight, February 27, 2007, you walked to Daddy and back to Mommy. And then you did it again. So we thought, “Is this it? Is she going to do it more that once? More than a few steps?”

So I back away from Mommy a couple more feet, to see if you would walk a little bit further, maybe 9-10 steps. And you did it! Of course you were so excited that you’d get ahead of yourself and try to run and then end up falling down, but hey, we’re not complaining. You weren’t. So at that point, Mommy told me to go grab the camera.

Here it is on camera. Now Mommy and I are a little closer than previous, so that we could fit within the frame of the picture, which didn’t happen. Either Mommy was cropped off, or I was cropped off, but oh well. At least we got you.

So enough blabbering. Here you are …

Kung Hay Fat Choy Muoi! Happy Chinese New Year Baby! It’s the year of the pig now. This year, all those who love you wish you happiness and joy! We wish you good health. May you grow strong and beautiful. May you learn to walk and count to 10 😉 May you be rich in life and successful in all you endeavors.

Typically on New Years Eve, family gathers together for a New Year’s Eve dinner, where we all eat a huge meal and where there is a surplus with left-overs, which is save overnight, so as the Chinese phrase 年年有餘 (nián nián yÇ’u yú), which means “may there be surpluses every year”, sounds the same as “may there be fish every year.” (source: Wikipedia and a distant memory as a kid with Yeh-yeh and Ma-ma.)

So since we could have dinner with Yeh-yeh and Ma-ma and the rest of the family on New Year’s Eve, we planned ahead and had it the weekend before at Happy House Restaurant in Artesia, CA, with #5 Ee-Po Linda and Grand Uncle Lion (Larry) joining Yeh-yeh, Ma-ma, Uncle Matt, Auntie Lyly, Cayden, Kaiya and us. The food was yummy as usual.

On February 18, 2007, New Years Day, most of the family, Grand Uncles, Grand Aunties, Uncles, Aunties, Counsins, Grandparents and all, gathered all together to wish each other Kung Hay Fat Choy, wish each other good luck in the coming year. The children paid respect to their parents and elders, pouring tea for them, wishing the good health and good fortune, as the elders gave the younger generation, lai-cee, red envelopes, lucky money, for good luck and good fortune in the new year.

So on February 5th, the exact date you turned 9 months old, we took you for your 9 month check up at Dr. Fleiss’. You measured 29 inches tall and weighed 19 lbs 10.8 oz. And boy have you grown. In your height, they said that you were in the 95th percentile. That’s pretty darn tall. And you’re still growing. Yikes!

You continue to love to eat as well. You’re discovering different foods and starting not to like your baby food. You love noodles and sweets. Like chocolate (daddy shakes his head).

There goes raising you on a healthy diet!

And as you can see, if it doesn’t get all over the place, it doesn’t belong in your face.

So the day before Valentine’s Day, I had to fly up to Oakland, home of the Raiders, for work. It was planned so that I would be able to fly back the next afternoon in time for your first Valentine’s day, and I didn’t want to miss that. I also didn’t want to miss being with your mommy either.

Being the romantic that I am, and also since I knew that I was going to be out of town, I ordered to have a large bouquet of flowers sent to your mommy on Valentine’s Day while I was still in Oakland. So while I was in meeting after meeting, I keep wondering when your mommy would get the flowers, wanting to call her, hoping to hear her be all surprised and lovey-dovey. So between meetings, I would call and see how she was doing. She’d just say “Okay,” with a melancholy manner. I said, “Oh that’s nice,” trying not to sound too dissapointed. I wondered, “When she was going to get the flowers?!” I know that the flower shops are usually really busy on Valentine’s, but I hope that they don’t miss her before she leaves work. I didn’t want to ask her either and ruin the surprise.

As the day reached mid-afternoon, my meetings end and my co-workers and I headed back to the airport. I thought I’d call your mother again, and our conversation was pretty much the same. No flowers! Argh!!!!

I was also hoping to get home in time so I could do something special for your mommy. Maybe cook her a nice dinner or go to some fancy restaurant or something. After some traveling boo-boo’s by my co-worker who planned our travel arrangements to the airport; some walking; some near muggings in downtown Oakland; we finally arrived to the airport and just made our flight.

I arrived back home later than I thought. There was so much traffic. I got dropped off in front of our apartment at 7:30pm. It was dark and I walked up to our door and you and mommy were there to greet me with smiles, hugs and kisses. It was good to be home. Mommy surprised me with a wonderful home cooked meal that was amazing. I just loved it. And you loved it too. Especially the Belgian Brownies that just melted in your mouth. YUM!!

So then I asked your mommy, “Did you ever get any flowers?”

She broke out with a uproarious giggle and exclaimed, “Yes!” She continued, “I knew you were wondering about the flowers when you called. And there they were, sitting on my desk. But I just loved them! They are so gorgeous. I’m sorry, I just thought that it was funny hearing you wonder if I got them or not.”

So you gotta love you mommy’s “unique” sense of humor.

Happy Valentine’s Day!