Getting older

Zachary is starting to become a very bossy boy.  When he doesn’t get what he wants, he cries his head off until someone gives him what he wants.  He also isn't very good at right and wrong.  I know that he is still very young, but even when I tell him that he is bad, he just smiles at me and continues doing whatever he was doing.  And when I take him away, he acts up by crying and kicking.  I just don’t remember Nicholas being this mischievous when he was Zachary’s age. (I do! -Daddy)

Okay, enough of the bad side of Zachary.  Another one of his teeth just came.  It’s one of his molars.  It’s on the bottom right.  He is also starting to repeat words that we say and is starting to associate them to things that he knows.  For example, he always says “mum mum” when he sees food.  He also can say “shoe shoe” when he sees a pair of shoes.  Another word that he can say is “ba ba” for daddy in Chinese.  He actually says that to Michael.  He can say rice porridge in Chinese and he understands you when you say “close the door.”  Like Nicholas, he knows where to take his dirty diaper after he has been changed.  He loves to say “bo bo” for the word ball.  (He loves to play with balls and throw them up and down.)  He can also say “milk” in Chinese when he wants milk.  Finally, he knows how to say “bye-bye” and will wave to you when he says it. 

Nicholas is getting along great with Zachary.  Whenever they are by themselves either at my parents’ or our house, they spend most of the time with each other.  It’s really amazing watching them and how they can make each other laugh at the weirdest things.  Zachary will laugh at Nicholas doing the “peek-a-boo” with a blanket while Nicholas will laugh at Zachary just jumping up and down on the bed.  Nicholas is very good with Zachary.  He normally will give Zachary want he wants when he wants it.  We try to explain to him that Zachary is much younger and does not understand the concept of sharing yet, but he needs to share with his brother.  We try to tell him to give it to Zachary and when Zachary is not playing with the toy anymore, then he can have it.  Most of time, he’s very receptive to this, but there are those times where he gets really upset over it.  There are also other times where he won’t give up the toy and will find Zachary something else that Zachary will want to play with.  He also knows to treat his brother with care. (No shoving, pushing or bullying around the younger brother)  I’m very proud of Nicholas and how he has been handling the whole big brother thing.  I really think that he will be a great role model for Zachary as they grow older.

Nicholas is starting to develop an interest for drawing.  He likes to outline words that you have written on a piece of paper.  He will try to trace it with whatever marker, pen, or pencil he has on hand.  Last night when we were signing Midge’s birthday card, he was tracing “Grandma, Happy Birthday” with a pen so it really looked like he was writing “Grandma, Happy Birthday.”  He loves to watch his cousins do their homework. However, because there are so many kids at my parents’ house and my sister just does not have the time to include Nicholas in the homework activities that my nieces are doing also, he does not participate in the same activities that they are doing.  We are trying to help him out by giving him paper and markers to write with when he’s home.  We write words like Nicky, Zacky, mommy and daddy on the paper for him to trace after.  Oh, yeah.  Nicholas can also say his full name, Nicholas Ryan Van Zandt.  We wanted to make sure that he knew how to say that just in case he got separated from us in public. 

Michael’s the same old Michael.  There’s not much different about him.  He’s going to be one year older in another few weeks.  I don’t know how he feels about that.  He’s going to be 40 in a few more years.  I know that he’s not looking forward to that.  I don’t know if I want to throw him a big 40th birthday party.  I know that he hates birthday parties for him already so to top it off with the big 40 may not be a very good idea.  (You're right! It's not! - Daddy) But you’re 40 only once. We’ll see as we get closer to the number 40. 

As for me, I’m getting old and I’m starting to forget things all the time.  It’s kind of hard for me to take this memory loss thing right now.  I’m normally really good with the memory thing, but the last weekend has not been a very good week for it.  I seem to be misplacing things all the time and it’s driving me nuts that I can’t remember where they are.  I guess I just don’t want to accept that fact that I’m getting old and as you get older, your memory gets worse.  Besides this whole memory loss thing, I’m okay.  I’ve been sick the last few days with a cold (I think).  I’ve been really busy lately watching the financial market to determine when to lock on my interest rate.  We ended up with an extremely good fixed interest rate so I’m very proud of myself for timing things just right. 

Well, I have no idea when I will be writing another update since the next month will be extremely busy with the holidays and the moving.  After we move, we still have to go back to the old house to clean up the house for the renters who will be moving in January 2004.  If I don’t write before then, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving and please do drive safely for those who are going out of town!

Smaller update

Okay, I’m getting lazier by the minute.  I just looked at the website and noticed that I have not written an update in over three months.  Well, let’s see.  What’s new?

Zachary has become a little rascal.  He is learning how to get into everything such as our cabinets and shelves.  Since we are going to be moving soon, we did not take the time to baby-proof the house.  He loves to get a hold of the pots and pans and bang on them in the kitchen.  He is also starting to learn how to climb up things such as our bed and his crib.  He’s not at the point where he can climb out of this crib yet, but he’s trying pretty hard.  He also likes to lift himself up on the edge of the cabinets and grab whatever is on the edge of the counters.  He also knows how to put on a temper tantrum.  He’s infamous for felling down onto the floor and start kicking all over when he doesn’t get what he wants.  He also very smart where to fall down.  He has “learned” from experience, not to drop himself on cement, vinyl, or tiled areas.  He continues the temper tantrum until someone goes to pick him up or until he can find someone to

The house is coming by really well.  If you have not seen the latest pictures, you should go see them now.  From the pictures, you can tell that the house is pretty much complete.  We also already have a walk-thru date set for December 11th and December 18th.  If everything goes well, we should be able to get the keys to the house on the 18th of December.  With the builder that we have, we could not lock on our interest rate until we got a walk-thru date.  Well, now that we already have one, I still have not locked on our interest rate yet.  Right now, we are sitting on 5.75% as our interest rate, but since the bond market has been doing so well, I am waiting for the best rate.  I just can’t wait until the 18th of December.  It’s would be exactly one week before Christmas and this is thus far, the best Christmas present I’ve ever received.

Nicholas.  He’s growing.  We are trying to prepare him for kindergarten by teaching him how to say his entire name.  We are also trying to teach him the alphabets and numbers (both English and Cantonese).  He likes to draw and write so we have been trying to give him some paper and pencil to write with.  We would write his name and other words on the paper for him to follow.  He’s pretty good at it.  I mean, it’s still a bit sloppy, but you can’t expect too much from a 4-year-old.  He also has been learning a lot by watching educational cartoon such as Dora, the Explorer. 

Even longer update

Time just passes by when you are having fun.  I can't believe that August is already here.  I have also noticed that I have been getting pretty lazy when it comes to writing family updates.  It’s the beginning of August and I have only written three updates this whole year.  Yes, some of them have been long, but that’s still no excuse to not write more.  Well, I guess I can use the excuse that we have been extremely busy for the past two months.  Last weekend was the first weekend that we had no social event to attend.  Well, technical, we did attend my uncle’s birthday dinner, but it was only on Friday night.  Let’s just say we didn’t attend any social gathering that took up one whole day. 

Let’s see.  Where should I start first?  There has been so much happening ever since my last update.  There was Nicholas’ birthday party, Zachary’s birthday party, Karen’s (the younger sister after me) baby shower, May’s (my youngest sister) birthday party, and of course, we bought a new house!  Okay, let’s start with the new house.  For those who still haven’t heard yet, we bought a new house in June.  It’s about 10 minutes south of where we currently leave.  The development is called Bishop Ranch and it’s off of Laguna.  The builder is JMC Homes.  Thus far, we have picked out all of our options, carpeting, tiles, and vinyl selections.  There are pictures of the house in the Miscellaneous Page of the website.  There you can see the progress of the house as it’s being built and the model home.  Also there is a picture of what the house should look like when it’s completed.  We are currently looking at moving in mid-November.  With the current weather conditions, I don’t think we’ll have a problem hitting the date.  It’s just been so hot around here lately.  If you want to find out more information about the house that we bought, you can go to jmchomes.com and look up the Bishop Ranch development.  The house that we got is the 3926 Plan. 

Okay, moving on.  We’re going to back track all the way to the middle of June, Nicholas’ birthday party.  Nicholas is now four.  I would have to say that he had a blast at his 4th birthday party.  We had two different pools set up outside for kids and adults to play with.  Of course, we got the normal water fights that made everyone else who weren’t part of the fight laugh.  It was fun watching Richard (my brother-in-law) and Michael get into it.  It was not very hot that day either so many of us were able to go outside and watch the fun.  Nicholas spent so much time in the pool and outdoors that he got sunburned on his back.  We did put some suntan lotion on him, but I guess it wasn’t enough.  I know he also had a lot of fun opening up all the presents that he got for his birthday. He has been playing with these new toys quite often.  We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came to the party and those who sent him cards and gifts.  Once again, Nicholas’ would not have as much fun as he did if you guys did not come to his party to celebrate his birthday with him.  And thank you to those who helped me get rid of some of that food by taking it home with you.  We had so much left over from the party.  It was all Chinese food and I have learned not to ever order so much Chinese food ever again. 

Well, Nicholas’ birthday party was on the weekend after his birthday.  For his birthday, we took him to watch “Finding Nemo.”  It was the first time he ever went to the theaters.  We have not been brave enough to try the theaters out with either kid because we did not know how they would react to the loud speakers and the darkness.  To my surprise, Nicholas took it every well.  He really liked going to the movies, but he got kinda bored after an hour into the movie.  There weren’t too many exciting scenes so his attention span kinda wondered off.  By the end of the movie, all he wanted to do was leave.  I am thinking about taking him to watch the Disney cartoon, Sinbad.  I think that he would like this movie more because there’s a lot more action throughout the movie compared to Finding Nemo.  I am debating on whether or not to take Zachary along.  Michael doesn’t think that Zachary will be able to sit there for the duration of the entire movie.  From talking to other parents who have done this before with younger children, they have all said that the kids will do fine.  Most of them usually fall asleep half way through the movie and some of them will actually sit there and watch the whole movie.  Right now, I can’t even find the time to take Nicholas so we’ll see when we finally decide to go. 

Okay, moving down the timeline.  The weekend after Nicholas’s birthday was Father’s Day.  We didn’t do anything special.  Michael didn’t want anything for Father’s Day besides a day with just the family.  Well, that’s what he got.  All we did that weekend was stay home and relax a bit.  We did go over to my parent’s house for dinner because that was what my father wanted, a dinner with the family.  It’s amazing how simple men can be sometimes. 

The next weekend, June 22 was my younger sister, Karen’s, baby shower.  I hosted the party so of course I spent most of Friday and Saturday cleaning and preparing for the party.  This time, I got smarter and did not order any Chinese food.  I also did not make as much food as I did for Nicholas’ birthday party.  (Michael will disagree to this one.  He claims that I always make too much food.)  This time, I did not rent the jumping house for the kids.  I rented the jumping house for Nicholas’ party, but no one really used it so instead, I decided to get a larger pool that would fit quite a bit more people.  The pool that we had at Nicholas’ party was a very small one that fit maybe five or six kids.  Once an adult or two gets into it, there isn’t any room left for the kids so we ended up getting a 13-feet wide circular pool.  It was about 3 feet tall.  I think that was the best idea I had in a long time.  So, not only did we have the two smaller pools out, we also had this big gigantic one all filled up.  The amount of people that got dunked into that pool was off the record.  Of course, anyone older than me in my family usually doesn’t get dunked.  So basically anyone who was not pregnant and was younger than me got dunked.  Of course I didn’t get dunked because the person who was dunking everyone was Michael and he didn’t dare get me.  All my little nieces (a.k.a. second cousins) got dunked.  Some of them were holding onto my furniture while they were being dragged out.  I remember Rosa was actually dragging the table with her while Michael tried to get her close enough to the pool.  Jenny was holding onto the refrigerator to avoid being dunked.  Eventually, she got dunked so we went in to change her clothes.  Then, she was stupid enough to walk right in front of the pool, all dried up, asking where the dryer was.  Well, I’m sure you can imagine that she got dunked again.  Overall, I think the baby shower was a big success also.  We played some games that involved the guest of honor and everyone ended up getting a prize since there were only six of them that were playing.  I didn’t end up with too much leftovers because everyone helped out by taking some home (and I didn’t make as much).

We didn’t have anything planned for the last weekend of June so I was hoping for a very quiet weekend, but oh, no, that was not the case.  My youngest sister told us that she was going to have a birthday party at the Park that weekend so we ended up going there.  And to top things off, Michael had to work so he was not able to make it until late in the afternoon.  After he came, we went out to the lake and did some swimming.  Well, I guess it wasn’t that great that he came out that afternoon.  While we were swimming in the lake, his wedding ring slipped off and we were unable to recover it.  We ended up spending the next afternoon looking around for a new wedding ring that matched his original one.  Also, after that day, I started having this itching problem.  I was scratching all over my body.  At first, I thought I got sunburned because I was wearing a swimsuit for the first time and my back and neck was exposed to the sun quite a bit.  Well, that was not the case because I was then scratching my belly and my legs.  It went away for a day or so after a few days so I didn’t think anything about it anymore.  Then it came back again and this time, it was at work.  After a week or so of scratching all over, I finally decided to go to the doctor and she gave me some medication to help with the itchiness.  She told me that it would clear up in a few days.  Well, a few days later, I was itching again so I went in to the doctor again and this time, she gave me some other prescriptions.  She thinks that it has to do with stress because I was quite stressed out that whole week over the new house, work, and other stuff.  As you can tell from this family update, we haven’t had a peaceful weekend in a long time.  She thinks it’s because of all the stuff that I’m doing and the stress that I was having.  It was causing my adrenalin to shoot way up there.  I have never heard of such a thing, but hey, after taking the medication that she gave me, I have not had the itching problem again. 

Okay, the weekend after that was 4th of July.  My family had a barbeque at our house and we set off some small fireworks for the kids.  I didn’t want to buy too many fireworks or any that was big because the kids are just starting to be okay with fireworks. I don’t want to scare them off with any big firework.  That same day, with the help of other family members, I made over 150 egg rolls for the next day.  Dan was hosting the annual 4th of July party at his house and it’s somewhat a potluck thing.  Every year, I just make a bunch of egg rolls and take it to the party so this year was no exception.  Nicholas had a blast at the party.  So did Zachary.  For the first time, Zachary actually was in a swimming pool.  You see, when we bought the big swimming pool for Karen’s baby shower, Zachary refused to go in.  Then when we went to Rancho Seco, he was okay with the water in the lake and then Dan’s swimming pool.  I guess the first time, he was just a bit scared of big bodies of water.  Nicholas and Zachary, especially Nicholas, didn’t even want to get out of the pool. 

Okay, the weekend after that was Zachary’s birthday party.  It was his first birthday party ever.  I have to say that everyone had a fun time during the party.  This time, we had all three pools out and everyone was having a blast playing with the water.  Richard, Michael’s brother, also got smart this time and went into the pool willingly by himself.  It was really nice that we had all three pools because it was hot that day.  I think Zachary had a lot of fun at his party.  He got a lot of attention from everyone there and I had a few friends that I haven’t seen in a while come to the party too.  They also brought their kids with them so I got to see a lot of babies at the party.  We got the chance to show everyone the new house that we were going to buy.  It was very interesting watching Zachary open his birthday presents.  I have to say that thus far, Nicholas and Zachary have two totally different personalities.  Nicholas is always hyperactive and smiling while Zachary is always serious looking and quiet, except for when you don’t pick him up.  During the present opening event, everyone around Zachary was more excited about opening the presents than he was.  He just sat there, quiet and serious looking.  After each present was opened, he didn’t change his expression at all.  Of course, now, those toys are what he plays with most of the time.  Well, you can see pictures from Zachary’s birthday party in his birth page.  You’ll see what I mean when I say he’s serious looking.

Okay, after that weekend, things started calming down.  Work has not been as hectic for both Michael and I.  We have been able to spend more time with the kids and each other lately.  For the first time, we have not had any social event in two weeks and I was able to work on the backyard this past weekend.  (Well, we had other life altering events go on.  I’ll talk about them later.)  We are trying to get rid of all the rocks (pebbles, some may call it) in the backyard to make room for grass.  It has taken me quite some time to pick them all up and to dispose of them.  I am also done with this. I think about two hours or so of rock picking and I’ll be done.  After that, we’re going to look at the existing sprinkler system and see if we can just add on to it or if we need to replace the whole thing.  Also, I need to know how deep the sprinklers are because if it’s not too deep, then I won’t be able to use a machine to plow the dirt.

Okay, even though we haven’t had any social event to attend, Michael did have some work done on his gums.  Two Tuesdays ago, Michael had a surgery to clean out his gums and he is still trying to recovery from that surgery.  He hadn’t been able to get much solid food.  His gums are getting better, but he claims that there is still some pain around.  For a while there, he was on Vicadon and those drugs has a lot of bad side affects.  He was in toothache hell for over a week.  He could not eat anything, but soup or stuffing for over a week.  He also had to warm his milk up because the cold was too sensitive.  The cold is still very sensitive now so he doesn’t eat any ice cream nowadays.  He was in so much pain for the first week that most of the time, he was on the bed complaining about the pain.  He couldn’t play with the kids because of all the bad side affects of the drugs that he was taking.  He lost quite a few pounds from this whole experience.  He can eat more solid food now, but there are still foods that he can’t eat such as steaks.  I’m hoping that with this experience, he will appreciate food more.  Maybe, he’ll try broccoli now.  (I highly doubt it, though.)

Okay, one more big news before I end this update.  My younger sister, Karen, just delivered her first baby boy last Wednesday, July 30th, at 4:16 PM.  I am now officially an aunt (older aunt, I mean.)  I was fortunate enough to be able to witness the entire event.  It was very enlightening and different.  I have always been the person who was delivering the baby and who was in extreme pain.  I was never a bystander watching from the outside.  It’s very interesting to watch how a little baby comes into this world and how the doctor’s handles the entire situation.  Overall, it was a very eye-opening experience and I’m glad that I was able to see my little nephew come out into this world.  Just want to say Congratulations to Karen and John.  Jake is a beautiful baby and we hope that you guys have lots of fun with him.  May he bring you guys a wonderful bundle of joy in the years to come.  Also, watch out because Auntie Mui is going to spoil your son like you spoiled mine!!! 

Long update about everything

The past few weekends have been extremely busy.  Many joyous, sad, and memorable events have taken place during the last few weeks.  Over the past few weeks, we have experience both life and death and this has helped us put our lives into perspective.  This truly has taught us how to cherish the moment and your loved ones and to be glad for what you have and not to take anything for granted.  During one week, we celebrated my birth into this world and then two weeks later, we mourned over the death of Michael’s grandmother. 

During the last weekend in April, Michael took me to Utah as a birthday present.  There were two purposes for the trip.  The first one was to watch the Kings play-off game in Utah.  The second purpose was a mini vacation from the kids.  The trip was very interesting and relaxing.  I slept through the night for three nights without any kids interrupting my sleep.  It was cool.  I also got to sleep in late.  The one downside to it all was that the Kings lost Game 3.  (Of course we all know now that the Kings won that series.  Go Kings!)  Overall, I had a lot of fun.  I have, however, come to the conclusion that Utah is a very boring place to visit or live.  There isn't much to do around there.  We walked around a mall a lot.  It's very similar to our Downtown Plaza.  We watched Bulletproof Monk.  Michael didn't really like the movie.  He complained that the graphics and special effects were done very poorly. I tend to agree with him on that.  For me, it was an okay movie.  I just like to watch Chow Yun Fat.  He was very cool.  The plot was okay, but like Michael said, the acting was very poor.  We also went to a planetarium.  The show that we watched put me to sleep.  It was very boring.  It reminded me of sitting in a science class and forced to watch an education movie on the big bang and how the universe was formed.   We also watched a 3D IMAX movie. Now that was cool.  Tom Cruise narrated the movie and it was about how the space station was built.  No falling asleep to that movie.

There was one thing that I did not like about the whole trip and that was dinner on Sunday night.  We decided to try this new restaurant inside this mall.  It was Brazilian food.  Yes, me trying new food. The menu in the window looked pretty promising so we went in.  We were seated, but we never got a menu.  We found out that dinner was buffet style.  It was a very different type of buffet dinner.  There was a buffet table where you could get all different types of appetizers and side dishes.  There was also an inside grill where all the meat was cooking.  Each table had a little turning wheel that you would use to tell the servers whether or not you wanted to be served meat or not.  They supposedly had 15 different kinds of meat that was being served and of course, honey glazed pineapples.  Well, the dinner was pretty good overall.  I tried a lot of different types of meat and Michael loved the buffet dishes that they were serving.  The surprise came when we got the bill.  The whole dinner for two and two glasses of strawberry lemonade (the strawberry lemonade was made from real strawberries and lemon) cost $53.00 after tips.  When we got to the airport, Michael got the bill for the car that we rented for two days.  It only cost $52.00.  So, we spent more on a one-time dinner than we did on a two-day car rental.  And of course, we never knew that dinner was so expensive because they never disclosed that information to us. 

I think overall, Sunday was just a rip off day.  When we got back into Sacramento, we went to pick up our car.  When we left the car at the airport, we looked at the daily parking rate and it stated IN BOLD AND BLACK LETTERS that it was $7 for every 24 hours.  Since we got there around 7 PM on Friday and didn't get back until midnight on Sunday, we were guessing the most that we could be charged for was $21.  Well, SURPRISE again.  When we got up to pay for the ticket, it was $30.  We asked why and the lady told us that it was because parking in Daily Parking at the airport was $10 per day instead of $7 even though the stupid sign when you drive in stated $7.  She also informed us that $7 a day was for the Economy Parking.  Boy did that get me fired up.  Like dinner, it’s not about the money.  It’s about being honest to your customers.  If it’s going to be $10 a day, then tell me that it’s $10.  I don’t like being lied to or deceived.  Oh, well, I guess I’ve learned my lesson to always park in the economy parking lot if I ever leave my car at the airport.

Okay, a bit about the kids first before we move onto the next weekend.

Zachary has three teeth now!  The first one came right a little after I wrote the last journal entry.  It’s on the bottom of his mouth.  It’s really cute because when he smiles, you can see this one little tooth sticking out.  Two more came out a few weeks ago.  They are his bunny teeth.  They’re not all the way out yet, but they’re getting there.  I checked a few days ago and I also have noticed two more coming out on the top of the mouth and one more on the bottom.  The two on top are right next to his two bunny teeth.  The one on the bottom is going to be right next to his one stand out tooth right now.  He’s beating his brother at the teething game.  Zachary can also stand by himself now.  We’re guessing that he will be walking in about a month or so.  He can actually take a step or two by himself before he falls down.  He can stand for about 10 – 20 seconds before he loses his balance.  Zachary is getting growing up very fast.  It seemed like yesterday when we bought him back from the hospital.  I can’t believe he’s more than 10 months already.  

Nicholas will be four in a few more weeks.  The last four years have just been incredible.  Not only did I find a wonderful husband, but also I have two beautiful children.  Nicholas is still developing his speaking abilities.  He’s getting better and better everyday.  He is mainly speaking in English, but he can understand Chinese.  I am trying to make him speak in Chinese more often.  We are also teaching him how to count to 10.  He is also learning to recognize the alphabets.  He knows the letter “w” for sure.  I remember when we first started reciting the alphabets with him, he couldn’t say the letter “w” and now that’s the first letter that he can recognize.  Michael was also teaching him how to recognize actual words in a book.  I remember when we were up in Oregon, Michael thought Nicholas to recognize the word “foot/feet” in a Dr. Seuss book.  Nicholas is a smart kid and is learning very quickly.

Okay, this family update is taking quite a long time to finish.  I’ve been at this for more than a month now and I’m still not done with it.  Everything above this paragraph was written over a month ago on May 12th.  Well, a lot has happened in the last month.  We made a trip up to Oregon to see Michael’s father and step-mother.  It was the first time that they got to see Zachary.  They were very happy to see the little one and thought that he was adorable.  He also enjoyed them and the cats.  Nicholas loved the trend mill that was up there.  He wanted to get on it the whole time we were there.  Oh, Zachary wanted to get on it too.  It was a nice weekend getaway and we all enjoyed our time up in Oregon.  I just don’t like the drive up there and the drive back home.  It was way too much time to spend in the car.  Zachary didn’t like the car ride either.  He complained about it every second when he was awake. 

The weekend after that was a very sad weekend.  On May 9th, Michael got a very heart breaking call in the morning.  It was his mother calling him to tell him that his grandmother had just passed away.  I was on my way to work when Michael called me and I could here how devastated he was by the sound of his voice.  I didn’t know how to comfort him.  I thought about it the whole day at work and Michael never did go to work that day.  He stayed home and did a memorial for Grandma Tuttle on our webpage.  We went down to the Bay Area that Sunday and stayed there until Wednesday.  We went to the viewing and the memorial service, but did not get the chance to attend the burial because it was on Thursday.  Michael was able to see his grandmother one last time and was able to say his good-bye’s to her.  He also got to take the time to visit his old neighborhood again.  It brought back a lot of old childhood memories in him.  I’m glad that he was able to spend most of the time down there with his family during his most unhappy times.  During both the viewing and the memorial, I got to hear many great stories about Grandma Tuttle and how she was a wonderful teacher.  I learn a lot about who she was and how wonderful of a life she lived.

Okay, an update on Zachary. He now has six or seven teeth now. It seems like more of them are on the way.  Also, Zachary can now walk.  He can walk quite a long distant before he resorts to crawling.  Since his mobility is much more rapid now, we have to baby proof the house now.  He’s getting himself into cabinets, drawers, and closets. He’s grabbing everything that he can get his hands on, especially cat food and the water tray.  Oh, yeah, he loves the toilet also.  He thinks it’s a small little pond where he can splash all the water he wants.  We have to keep the bathroom doors closed because of him.  And yes, he loves taking baths.  Kids and water just go together so well.  He loves it when he gets to sit in the tub and splash water all over the place.  He hates it when he has to come out because his hands are all wrinkled. 

Well, it’s time for their little bath so until next time, cherish the moment!

Another crawler

Zachary can crawl now.  He has been able to crawl for about three weeks now.  He also can sit himself up straight.  It’s amazing how fast kids grow.  Not only can Zachary crawl, but he can also pull himself up on many objects.  For example, the sofa, he can pull himself to a standing position on the table already.  He is also walking around using the sofa.  He does the same with the coffee table at home.  I would not be surprised if he started to walk in a few more weeks.  All this is coming too fast.  For about 8 months, he was not able to mobilize himself, but now he’s too mobile.  It’s like he’s trying to skip the crawling stage. 

Zachary just got over a cold again.  For the past few months, our family has been catching quite a bit of colds or flu. It seems as if there is not a day where someone is not sick.  I guess it comes with having more people in the family.  Once one of us gets it, everyone else will eventually get it.  I have almost fully recovered from the cold that Zachary gave me this last round.  Michael still has a bit of it left also.  It has been a bit harder for him to get over the cold because he has been working a lot of overtime lately. 

We are very sad to hear that Grandma Tuttle was not doing to well in the last month.  We have wanted to visit her when she was sick, but Michael has been working a lot so we have not had the time to go down to Palo Alto to visit her.  Also, we have been sick and we didn’t want her to catch whatever we have had.  I heard yesterday that she is doing a lot better.  She was able to attend a gathering for half an hour yesterday.  This is very encouraging.  I don’t know if Grandma Tuttle will be reading this, but we wish that you’d get better soon.

Nicholas.  Oh boy, is he a handful.  He has gotten better with speaking to us in sentences.  I am starting to understand him a lot more.  He has also gotten to like having his baby brother around.  He likes to play with Zachary a lot.  They both seem to like to play in Zachary’s crib a lot.  They have spent many hours in that crib.  Nicholas is starting to play with his brother a lot more.  He also like to hold Zachary, but I’m not too sure that Zachary likes being held by Nicholas all that much.  I think it’s the way Nicholas holds him.  Nicholas also loves to play video and computer games.  He has become such a computer wizard.  He also has a new favorite fictional character.  It’s Power Rangers.  We saw the video at Wal-Mart over this weekend and he basically would not leave the store until he got that movie.  He watches it at least once a day when he’s home.  I’m sure this trend won’t last long. 

Michael.  He’s doing fine.  I think he’s been very tired and sleepy lately.  Like I mentioned above, he’s been working a lot of overtime so he doesn’t get much rest.  I haven’t seen the guy in quite a while.  The same goes for the kids.  He’s home for bed and that’s about it.  In the mornings, he gets the kids ready for me and he usually doesn’t see them until it’s bedtime.  There have been a few days where the kids and I are able to see him more.  Actually, I get to see him on Wednesday nights because we go bowling on Wednesday nights.  I also get to see him earlier during the evening on Fridays. 

Well, because Michael has been working so much lately, I have taken on the job of a single parent.  Oh boy, do I know how single parents feel.  It has been very hard and stressful to maintain the family and the kids when you’re the only one who’s suppose to do it all.  Usually, Michael is around when I need help with the kids, but lately, he hasn’t.  It’s hard to pay attention to Zachary when Nicholas is right next to you asking you to assist him in something.  It’s hard to try to put Zachary to sleep when Nicholas is screaming for you from the other room because his tape is over and wants you to rewind it for him so that he can watch it again.  It is also no fun to be eating by yourself or have the whole house to yourself and the kids.  I miss having Michael around and the house never gets clean without his help.  I try to keep it as clean as I can, but with just me around, it’s next to impossible.  He has told me that he won’t need to do this for much longer.  I hope so because I definitely need his help around the house.

Well, this is about all that’s been going on around the house.  Hopefully, the next time I write this, everything will be much better.

Update of the kids

Okay, it’s time again for another update of the kids. 

Well, both the American and Chinese New Year have come and gone.  2002 was a very memorable year.  Of course, the most memorable thing was having a new addition to the family.  He has added so much fun and joy into our life.  I just can’t imagine living without the two little ones.  They are so adorable. 

Well, as stated above, the Chinese New Year has come and technically not gone yet, but close enough.  A few more days and it’ll be over.  For those who don’t know, Chinese New Year traditionally lasts 15 days so it’ll be over on the 15th of February.  We had a lot of fun during the New Year celebration.  Both Nicholas and Zachary were dressed in traditional Chinese outfits and both of them looked adorable and cute.  We took some pictures of them and should be putting them out in the February pages.  I also bought myself a Chinese dress.  I was thinking about going and taking some picture with the kids in the Chinese outfits this weekend.  It all depends on how we all feel.  During the New Year, we were at my parents’ house a lot.  On the second day of New Year, which was last Sunday, my parents’ had a big celebration.  You see, on the second day of New Year is the day I’m suppose to be returning to my parents’ house with gifts.  Well, that morning, I went to the Chinese supermarket to buy these “gifts.”  I had both Zachary and Nicholas with me.  We didn’t go until it was almost noon because I knew that in the morning, there were going to be lion dances and firecrackers going off and Nicholas doesn’t like those.  I was playing it safe, but I guess not safe enough. When I got there, they were just about ready to light the firecrackers.  I thought that I would have had enough time to take the kids out of the car and run into the store, but I was wrong.  While I was in the process of taking the kids out, they lit the firecrackers.  Nicholas was so freaked out that he rushed back into the car.  I had to close the car doors to close out most of the noise.  Zachary was fine, but I still covered his ears because it was so loud.  Nicholas was so scared that he refused to go into the store afterwards.  I eventually convinced him to go in with me.  Besides that, Nicholas had a wonderful time that day.  He was playing with all his cousins and all the other kids that were at my parents’ house.  Overall, I have to say that this year was pretty fun.  I took that Monday off because I knew that I would be too tired to go to work.  It was a good thing because I was really tired from staying up and partying. 

The kids.  They are doing okay.  Zachary caught something right before the New Year and is currently trying to recover from it.  At one point in time, he was so stuffed up that his eyes were every sticky also.  I mean, whenever I wiped off all the nasty things off his eyes, more would be there within minutes.  Thank goodness this only last a day or so.  Currently, he’s still a little stuff up and coughs a bit every now and then.  He doesn’t have a problem sleeping at night anymore because he couldn’t breath.  At least now, I can give him his milk and he’ll go back to sleep.  Every now and then, he might complain a little, but not much.  Zachary is already 7 months old.  It’s amazing how time flies when you are having so much fun.  I can’t believe how fast he has grown and he continues to remain extremely healthy and chubby.  He still doesn’t know how to crawl yet.  He’s been trying.  He can move himself a little by little on the floor, but after a while, he gets frustrated and ticked off.  He’ll start crying by then.  The walker, on the other hand, is a different story.  He moves extremely easily using the walker. I am afraid that we might be allowing him to be on the walker too often and not enough on the floor.  I am hoping that he will be able to crawl by the end of this month.  He is also very different from Nicholas when it comes to baby food or any other type of food like soups.  Zachary will eat almost anything while Nicholas, at the same age, refused to eat solid baby food.  With Zachary, it seems like we’re not feeding him fast enough.  He would open his mouth and be finished with the food before we can scoop up another serving.  He loves to eat solid food.  He also likes to try new things.  I have had extremely great luck with him and all the different types of baby food that I have gotten him.  He seems to like them all.  He’ll also try all sorts of soup.  The other day, he was eating the noodles from Michael’s chicken noodle soup.  Nicholas would never try something like that.

Well, Nicholas.  He’s doing fine.  He’s the only one in the family, so far (knocking on a lot of wood), that seems to be in great health.  Both Michael and I have been sick also with what I think is the flu.  (At least that’s what my doctor told me that I had.)  He’s learning a lot of new things.  Lately we have been trying to focus on getting him to speak more Cantonese instead of English.  He can understand Cantonese but his replies are always in English.  He also speaks Cantonese with an English accent.  Sometimes, it’s funny when you hear some of the words that he tries to pronounce.  My parents have been trying to use all Cantonese when speaking to him and has been trying to make him reply in Cantonese also.  I guess a lot of it is my fault that he doesn’t reply in Cantonese.  I mean I always speak to him in English because that’s the primary language that we speak at home since his father does understand any Cantonese.  He’s so use to replying in English.  He has forgotten that he can also reply in Cantonese.  Well, we are starting to talk to him more in Cantonese so maybe he’ll still be able to pick it up.

Well, that’s about all that I have to talk about right now.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine’s Day.  I hope that your significant other got you a wonderful gift that you’ll like.  I know that Michael will like his!

Holidays

Okay, I just realized that I have written an update in more than two months now.  Well, there's a lot to talk about then.  

First, Halloween.  Nicholas had a wonderful time during that night.  As you can tell by the picture in October, we went with my older sister and her kids.  We only went around our neighborhood.  I think a total of four blocks.  If you ask me, that was already too much judging from the amount of candy they brought back.  So, what do you guys think about the customs?  Aren't  Nicholas and Zachary both adorable in them?  Nicholas was always the first one to the door.  We were afraid that he might get shy and not dare go up to ask for candy, but after a few homes, the shy little boy disappeared and the hyper, energetic one took over.  Not only was he the first one to the door, he was also the first one to move on with the next house.  He didn't even bother to look at what he got.  He knew that the more homes he got to, the more candy he would get.  Zachary on the other hand, fell asleep half way through the journey.  I think he'll enjoy it a lot more next year when he's much older to understand the fun of Halloween.  

Okay, onto Thanksgiving.  We had two different Thanksgiving dinners this year.  The weekend before Thanksgiving, we went to the Bay Area to have Thanksgiving with Richard and Irene.  This year, Thanksgiving was a bit different and special.  Instead of the tradition of having it at mom's house, it took place at Carla's parents' house.  For those who do not know who Carla is, Carla is Richard's (Michael's brother) girlfriend.  And the most special part of the whole event is that Richard and Carla were the cook.  It was the first time Richard ever cooked a Thanksgiving dinner so it was very special.  Dinner was really nice and good.  They experimented with making egg rolls and they turned out great.   I think everyone enjoyed it.  Of course, Nicholas stole the show at the end after dinner by wrestling with his father.  

The second time we had Thanksgiving was at my mother's house.  Technically, it was not a Thanksgiving dinner because there was no turkey.  My father was too busy putting up tents and everyone else had to help out because my cousins were going to be having a party that weekend.  So no one was able to help with the dinner.  At first we were planning on going out, but the restaurant that we were planning on going to was closed.  It was only closed two days of the year and one of them was Thanksgiving.  So, I ended up having to just whip up something.  I made some spaghetti and a bunch of other side dishes.  I guess the most important part of it was that we all had a good dinner together.  

Okay, now onto Christmas.  Christmas was a busy holiday.  Making sure that we took the Christmas family pictures in time so that we can mail the Christmas cards on time.  Making sure that I got presents for everyone that I was suppose to get them for and making sure that they were delivered on time before Christmas.  Trying to figure out what to get for everyone was the most difficult part of the whole thing.  This year, my family did something different.  Instead of everyone buying presents for everyone else, we used the secret Santa strategy.  Everyone was to pick a name out of the hat.  Even the kids had to pick and the parents were responsible for getting the presents that the kids picked.  Of course, that meant I had to get four presents in all for my side of the family, not including my parents.  I ended up with two kids and two adults.  The kids were the easy ones.  The adults were the harder ones.  After hours of thinking, surfing on line stores, and walking the mall, I finally found presents for everyone.  And for those who we did get presents to, we hope that you liked what you got.  I took the week of Christmas off.  I had a lot of vacation and had to use some before I stopped accruing any more hours.  I did nothing this week besides wrapping presents, help out with preparations at Karen's house, go to Christmas gatherings, and catch up on my sleep.  That was all I did this past Friday.  I slept through most of the day.  There was a lot that I had to do and was planning on doing, but for one, I thought that I just might sleep instead.  And it was so cool to be able to sleep without anyone else around.  No one to wake me up to get milk for.  No one tapping me asking me to turn the television on for him.  I have not slept like that in a long time.  Okay, enough about my sleep.  Once again, like Thanksgiving, we had two Christmas gatherings.  The first one was on Christmas Eve at Karen's house.  This was when we exchanged presents.  I wish everyone could have been there to see the stack of presents that were at her house that night.  I think there were at least 40 of them.  It was also fun to watch the kids open theirs.  A few of the adults bought presents for all the kids besides their secret Santa.  Nicholas got a lot of clothes has his Christmas present.  

After the party, we went home and opened more presents.  This time, all his presents were toys.  He loved every one of them.  He had so much fun opening them.  I think the best one that he liked out of all the presents he opened that day was the remote control car that his father got for him.  The next thing was the bath toy that Grandpa Lauren and Nanny Midge got him.  He liked to blow on the dolphin and hear it whistle.   He also opened up all of Zachary's presents.  Zachary got a toy car and a circular toy that he can roll around.  

On Christmas day, we went to Irene's house.  Nicholas was extremely shy at first, but after a while, he warmed up to everyone.  And after the present opening event, he was extremely friendly with everyone.  He loved all the gifts that he got.  The one toy that caught his eyes was the one the Carla got for him from Disneyland.  He was holding it for the entire day.  You can see him playing with it in his December page.  Usually, he gets tired of his toys after a day or two, but he's still loving it today.  We had a wonderful time at Irene's house.  We got to see Richard's side of the family at the gathering.  Irene did a lovely job at with the dinner table.  It was so elegant and pretty.  The food was great and the company was wonderful.  Nicholas  loved going to Irene's house so much that every day ever since we came back, he's been asking to go to "grandma" house.  At first, Michael and I thought that it was to my mother's house, but we finally realized that it was to Irene's house.  As I am typing this update, he has asked me four times today to go to "grandma's house and open birthday presents".  He got a bunch of Star Wars toys from Richard and Irene and he loves it.  He has so many new toys that he's playing with now that he has forgotten all his old favorites.  Well, not completely.  There is still one old favorite that he still loves playing with.  And that is the PlayStation that he now has.  We borrowed it from Karen when I was on bed rest so that I would have something to do, but now Nicholas plays with it every day.  His favorite toy use to be his computer, but nowadays, he doesn't play on it that often anymore.  He spends most of his time on the PlayStation instead.  When Michael went to Maryland, we also borrowed Karen's Game Boy.  Well, he's been playing with that a lot also.  Nowadays, he rarely watches his Cartoon Network.  I really don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing for him to be playing so much games at his age.  The good thing is that he has learned a lot from the games that he plays.  For example, he can count up to seven all by himself.  The bad thing is that that's all he does the whole day. 

We took a bunch of pictures from the two different gatherings.  You can see them here.

Maryland.  Yeah, Michael had to make a trip to Maryland for training two weeks ago.  He was gone for one whole week.  I was planning on going with him, but after further discussions, I ended up not going.  I guess it was a good thing because according to him, it was quite cold there.  It most likely would have been too cold for me.  I really wanted to see the landmarks that Washington D.C. had to offer, but I guess there will be other opportunities in the future.  

Zachary.  Well, he's extremely big.  He can sit up all by himself now.  He is starting to show signs of crawling, but he just isn't there just.  I think he has a cold right now because he's been quite fussy today. He didn't seem to sleep well last night so he woke up somewhat grumpy.  I could hear him in the middle of the night.  His nose was so stuffed up that it bothered him the whole night.  He is able to mobilized himself when he's on the walker.  He can get to almost everywhere in the walker and that's starting to become a problem.  Every time he's on the walker, I have to remember to put up the trash can or else he will start grabbing the trash bag and will try to eat it.  He also loves to go for the cat food.  It's a good thing that he's kinda tall in the walker and that he can't bend down while he's in the walker.  He has been dwelling a lot, but both Michael and I do not think that he's teething.  Nicholas didn't teeth until he was 14 months so I'm not putting my hopes up for Zachary to start now.

Okay, I think I have typed enough for one day.  But before I stop, I have to inform everyone of the wonderful news I heard last night.  Remember Carla.  Well, before Christmas, I knew that Richard was planning on proposing to her when they went on their little trip this weekend, but I didn't know how it was going to turn out.  I was hoping that she would say yes, of course.  Well, last night, Michael called Irene and Irene informed us that Richard had proposed and Carla said YES!!!  We are so excited for them.  We can't wait until the big day. It's the best news that I've heard this whole year!

Kids

Well, in my last update, I mentioned that I was thinking about taking Nicholas to the Aquarium.  Well, I did that this past weekend.  Michael and I both took Thursday and Friday off last week.  It was our wedding anniversary so we spent all of Thursday together. Friday, we took Nicholas to Monterey.  It was really a nice day to go to Monterey. There was no fog and the weather was perfect.  While going there, we got lost for a bit (thanks to my brainless directions).  Nicholas really loved the Aquarium.  There are quite a few pictures of him at the Aquarium in October’s pictures.  He was a little scared of some of the animal up front, like the stingrays.  Of course, he wouldn’t touch anything. He loved to look out into the ocean at all the animals that were out there, like the seals and sea lions.  He also had a lot of fun in the kid’s center.  Michael also loved the trip since there were quite a few exhibits that he had not seen before either, such as the outer bay.  Too bad the sunfish was no longer there.  I think he would have been very amazed to see that fish.  Nicholas didn’t really like the outer bay.  Guess he wasn’t too into jellyfishes and how they light up in the dark.  Maybe it was because it was dark in there most of the time or because it was one of the last places we visited.  I think he was quite tired by then.  Nicholas did love all the hands on exhibits, like all the fake fishes that made noises or lights that would turn on to show creatures hiding in the dark.  After the Aquarium, we headed up Highway 1, towards Santa Cruz, thinking that the Boardwalk would be open.  Well, we were wrong, the Boardwalk was closed for the winter.  We did get a chance to go onto the beach, but Nicholas was a little scared of the waves so we didn’t stay long.  On the way home, we had an opportunity to stop by Michael’s favorite restaurant, Florentine’s.  If we did not stop for dinner, we would have been sitting in traffic on 680 instead so might as well be sitting in a more comfortable environment.  

We also helped one of my younger sisters move into her new house this weekend.  She got the keys to her house the Friday before last and finally was able to move in this past weekend.  She’s so happy to finally have her own house.  I really wish her the best with her house and her new career. 

 Zachary.  Well, the little one is extremely fussy nowadays.  Last night, he woke up quite a bit during the night.  He has gotten into a habit of waking up every three hours or so now, but last night, I ended up staying up with him for about fifteen minutes and then having him sleep in the bed with us.  Of course, Nicholas was complaining last night also and he ended up in the bed also.  So, there was the four of us plus two cats on the foot of the bed.  It was quite crowded considering that we only have a queen size bed.  I think that the two of them planned it yesterday afternoon to both complain last night so that both of them could sleep in our bed.  I mean it.  Every time the little one acts up, Nicholas also acts up that same night.  It’s like they planned it all out in the afternoon to get at mom and dad for disciplining them or something.  Well, I just hope tonight will be a better night. 

 Okay, Zachary has grown a lot.  One of my younger sisters took some pictures of him when he was two months old and then at three months old.  Boy, do they look different.  In the three-month-old pictures, he looked like he was six or seven months old.  You can see both sets of pictures in his October page.  He looks very cute in all of them.  And still he looks so much like Nicholas.  I wonder if they will look alike three years from now. 

 Halloween.  Well, we will be taking Nicholas and Zachary trick-or-treating this year.  I bought them customs already.  Nicholas will be Batman and Zachary will be Superman.  We tried the custom on Nicholas and he looks really cute in it.  My younger sister wants to take pictures of them with their customs on.  When she does, we’ll put those pictures up also.  We were thinking about going around the neighborhood for a little while that day and then go back home and pass out candy ourselves.  I think Nicholas will love it especially when he sees how much candy he’s getting.  Of course, I’m going to be going through all of them to make sure that their all safe and also to decide which ones he can eat and which ones he can’t.  Don’t want him to be eating that many sweets.  I’ll most likely save the rest for him as a reward when he does good things like clean up after himself. 

 Oh yeah, that reminds me.  Nicholas is now potty trained.  He can now go to the restroom by himself.  Well, maybe not 100% trained.  He still needs to work on going to the big restroom.  He hasn’t mastered that yet.  He seems to tell us after the fact, but he knows how to go pee by himself.  Every now and then, we’ll give him a reminder if he hasn’t gone in a long time.  He still requires a diaper at night.  He doesn’t know to get up in the middle of the night to go the restroom yet.  We’re going to take this one step at a time.

Okay, I think it should do it for this update.  Until next time, have a wonderful day.  And don’t forget to set your clocks back one hour this coming Saturday evening.  YES, an extra hour of sleep!

3 Months Old

Oh, boy how time flies when you have way too much to do. I just looked at the family journal and I have not written one of these in a long time. Well, I've gone back to work and boy, do I have work. I have been working overtime for the last few weeks and will continue to do so until next week. At least that's what I am hoping for. I don't know how much work I can take if I continue to work all this overtime. I mean, it's great in a way because I get paid a lot more, but it's also very tiresome. For example, yesterday. I went to work at 8 AM and did not get off work until 7 PM. And since I work so far away from home, I had to get out of the house by 7 AM and did not get home until 8 PM. That's a total of 13 hours away from the family. I was totally dead by the time I got home. I'm doing that also today. I also worked this past weekend and most likely will have to work again this coming weekend. There is just way too much to get done in the short amount of time that I've been given.

Okay, onto a different topic. Zachary is almost 3 months old now. He's quite big. When Michael took him in for his two-month exam, the doctor said that he was in the 75 percentile. Nicholas was in the 95 percentile, but 75% is still pretty big if you ask me. How is he doing? He's doing great, but Michael and I have both noticed that Zachary is a lot more fussy than Nicholas was. Nicholas really didn't cry much. He was pretty good. Zachary is a totally different story. Zachary cries whenever he gets a chance too. It's not that he's hungry. It's not that he's wet or that he wants attention. No matter what Michael or I do, it doesn't seem to calm him down. He'll continue to cry. So what we have started to do is just let him cry and when he's ready to stop, we'll tend to him again. He is also a very late sleeper. He usually does not go to sleep until at least 11 PM. Last night, he didn't go to sleep until 2 AM. At least that's what Michael told me because I fell asleep around midnight. Zachary does like to move around a lot. I think he's getting ready to flip over because he's trying very hard to do so. I think sometimes he just gets too frustrated with himself and he'll complain about it. Zachary can also scoot himself along a bit by pushing on his feet. It's amazing how fast babies grow.

Now, Nicholas. He's doing great. He is starting to use full sentences instead of just phrases. Every now and then, he surprises us with some new word that he can say. For example, the other day, he told Michael that he was full by saying "I full." I never knew that he was able to say things like that. He's missing the verb, but it's pretty close to a full sentence. He still points at a lot of the things that he can't say. We are also slowly training him to use the restroom. He knows how to use the restroom already, but he just doesn't know when the right time is to go. Most of the time, he'll tell us after the fact. We have been extremely busy that we have not had the time to teach him. Most of the time, it's a reminder here and there and not actually asking him every so often if he needs to go to the restroom.

A few weeks ago, we took both boys to the San Francisco Zoo. Nicholas loved it and of course, Zachary is too young to know anything. Nicholas had a lot of fun looking at the animals. We didn't stay there long though because we had to get to Chinatown before the stores closed. We also went out there to buy a movie that I really wanted and Chinatown was the only place that had it. Truthfully, I was a bit disappointed with the Zoo. I was expect it to be a lot bigger than it was and I was expecting a lot more things to see. It was really just like Sacramento's Zoo except on twice the amount of land. I mean, there were a few animals there that Sacramento did not have, like the penguins. There really wasn't much of a different. Maybe because I was expecting a lot more than what they really had. Nicholas, of course, didn't care. He only cared that he got to see all sorts of neat animals and exhibits. I think it was worth the time and drive to go out there. I have been thinking about taking Nicholas to the Monterey Aquarium. I think he would also love it there. It is also next to the ocean, which he loves. I was thinking that we could visit the Aquarium for an afternoon and then go over to the beach and let him play there. But the problem is that fall is here and I'm not sure about the weather out there.

Okay, Michael. He's doing well. I don't think he's been getting much sleep ever since the little one was born. Zachary still wakes up every two hours or so during the night. Both him and I are bowling again so we do get a break from the kids one night during the week. I think that's a good thing.

Zachary Update

Time sure flies when you're having fun.  It's already August.  Zachary is four weeks old today.  How is he doing?  Well, he's doing pretty good besides still having a little trouble with the cold.  Yes, he caught the cold from the rest of the family.  We all had it for a little while, but it's mostly gone now.  Zachary seems to be the one who was hit the hardest.  I guess that's probably because his immune system is still developing.  He only has the stuffy nose left.  Actually, that's all he ever had, not like mom or dad.  I have had the stuffy nose, the runny nose, the headache, the stomach ache, and the weariness.  Michael has had it all also.  Nicholas did pretty well with it also.   He only had the cough and the runny nose, but he didn't seem to complain a bit about the cold.  That's how he has always been.  I think he has a very good immune system.  Whenever he gets sick, he never really complains about it at all and it usually doesn't last long.  Also, it has never affected his play and mood (at least most of the time, it doesn't.)  

I will be returning to work in two weeks.  Come to think of it, I haven't been to work for more than three months now.  I am hoping that I can readjust to working again.  I think it's going to be a lot more difficult with two now.  I have to adjust to the little or no sleep that I get every day.  Right now, I can sleep during the day when Zachary is asleep, but that won't be possible anymore when I go back to work.  That's why I'm not looking too forward to going back to work.  Well, it's more of a half/half thing.  I would love to go back to work because I really miss working.  It's really boring sitting at home every day just watching Zachary.  It's either sleep, watch TV, or "try" to clean the house.  Once in a while, I'll do things like this, updating the web pages or other things that Michael would like me to do.  Going back to work will give me lots of things to do.  I've already talked to some of my co-workers and there are lots that I can do when I get back to work.  The time at work will fly by very easily.  Hey, I might even forget that I will be tired by then.  

Zachary is doing fine besides the little cold.  And no, he still does not sleep through the night.  He's getting better and better at that.  I'm just hoping that he will get into a better sleeping habit by the time I go back to work.  Michael says that when I do go back to work, we will alternate who gets up during the night to feed and change him.  Right now, I do all that because he has to work and I don't.  I think Zachary has grown a lot.  Michael is guessing that he's around 11 pounds right now.  I would have to agree with him.  Two weeks ago, when I took him to the doctor, he was already at 9 pounds 8 ounces.  Well, we'll find out this Wednesday when we go in for his one-month check-up.  He is somewhat spoiled, though.  (Of course, I did that.)  It really wasn't my fault, really!  Two weeks ago when I took him to the doctor, the doctor said that he might have colic.  He gave me a handout on what to do with this problem and to summarize the handout, "spoil him."  It said to do things like rock him, cradle him, and give him all the attention that he wanted.  If none of that worked, then the last resort would be to let him cry himself out.  Of course, I never allowed him to get that far so he's use to the attention and the pampering.  Of course, Michael did not agree with that so yesterday, when he was watching him.  He went to the last resort.  He just let Zachary cry himself out.  I was sleeping and when I heard the crying, I immediately went out to the living room to see what was going on.  I was not allowed to pick him up.  He eventually did cry himself out, but boy, did that need a lot of restraining from me to not pick him up.  He was screaming off the top of his lungs.  I just can't stand babies crying like that.  I guess it runs in the family.  My younger sister, Karen, came over last night and when Michael was doing the "last resort" plan again, she gave in and eventually picked him up.  I think it's a girl thing.

Last weekend, we had a little party for Zachary.  Sorry to those that I might have forgotten to invite.  And thank you to those who came to his party.  It was a pretty good turnout.  I was able to see a few friends that I have not seen in a long time.  Of course, Irene and Richard got to see him.  It was a shame that none of Michael's other relatives were able to make it t see him.  But that's okay.  Well, be heading down to the bay area in early September so they will all have a chance to meet the little one.  Oh, and if Aunt Irma is reading this, I hope that your hand is getting better.  

Okay, onto Nicholas.  He's going great.  He's quite big now.  He still goes to my mother's house during the day.  I don't think I'm able to handle to kids at once right now.  Nicholas is doing fine with Zachary.  We actually allowed him to hold Zachary a few times.  He calls it "big hug baby."  What we would do is have him sit now and put his hands out.  Then I would put the baby into his hands, but I would still be holding the baby at the same time.  He really likes it.  He also is a very good helper.  He will find us whenever Zachary starts crying and tell us that he's crying.  He will also find for Zachary  a pacifier when he's crying.  He'll also help us with changing Zachary.  Nicholas is really taking the whole "new addition" to the family a lot better than I expected.  The only jealousy that Nicholas seems to have is the fact that Zachary gets to sleep in our room and he doesn't.  So, every now and then, he is allowed to sleep in our room and after he falls asleep, Michael moves him back into his bed.  That seems to be working out pretty well right now.  Of course, there are the times when he wakes up in the middle of the night wanting to come over and sleep with us.  There was one time when all four of us were sleeping on the bed and did it get crowded.  We have a queen size bed so having all four of us on there was not the most comfortable thing in the world especially since the both of them (the kids) take up so much space.  You would think that it's the adults that would take up most of the space.  Not in our family.  Nicholas moves around a lot when he's sleeping and sometimes he'll sleep horizontally instead of vertically on the bed so you can imagine how much space he needs.  As for Zachary, he needs a lot of space in between him and any other human because we are afraid that we might hurt him or leave him very little room to breathe.  And then of course, you have to add on to the count, the cats.  Sometimes they sleep at the foot of the bed so when they are both there, that's six living bodies on this tiny little queen size bed.  It usually ends up that either Michael or me would have to give up our space and either sleep on the sofa in the living room, sleep in Nicholas's bed, or go to the computer room and play games until someone else give up their space on the bed.  I think it's time we got ourselves a king sized mattress.  

Zachary

So, how's everyone doing?  Me? TIRED!  Haven't had much sleep ever since the little one arrived.  He's been keeping me up most of the night.  It's not that I don't get sleep.  It's more of the little naps here and there that I get that's killing me.  At night, he'll usually wake up every two to three hours and stay awake for about an hour or so.  At least that's how long I have to stay awake in order to feed him, change him and put him back to sleep.  So every two or three hours, I'm awake for an hour.  Then I go back to sleep.  Even if I get 8 hours of sleep, it feels like I only got four or so.  I just don't ever get long enough of a rest to regenerate myself.  Okay, besides not getting much sleep, everything else seems to be fine.  I am recovering from delivery very nicely. 

How was delivery?  Well, it was actually pretty cool and unusual.  My water broke around 10 AM that morning and we were in the hospital around 11.  After my water broke was when my contractions started to really hurt.  I forgot how painful those things were.  About 1:30 in the afternoon, I chickened out and asked for an epidural.  I was thinking about having Zachary naturally, but the pain was too much to bare.  With Nicholas, he was out 1 hour and 15 minutes  after my water broke.  I was told by many mothers that the second pregnancy would be a lot faster than the first one so I didn't think that an epidural was necessary.  Well, Zachary seemed to be taking his little time so I decided to go with the epidural.  Michael called me a chicken and I told him that he should try some of the pain before telling me that.  It took them about ten minutes to put the epidural in me.  After that, the medication kicked in pretty quickly.  In about twenty minutes or so, all my pain was gone.  My legs were also starting to get extremely numb.  At around 3 PM, the nurse checked me and told me that I was fully dilated and that the baby's head was right there.  The problem was that I could feel a thing anymore with the epidural so I decided to get rid of it.  I wanted to feel some pain so that I would know when to push.  Well, the medication took a long time to ware off.  While it was wearing off, the nurse told me to push when I had contractions.  I couldn't feel the contractions so the nurse helped me by telling me when to push.  We did this for about 45 minutes before I started feeling some pain coming back.  By that time, the baby was pretty much ready to come out.  The expected part of this delivery was that I was told to stop pushing at that time.  The doctor that was delivering me told me to laugh as hard as I can.  I thought that he was kidding so I asked him again and he told me the same thing.  Well, I tried to laugh and Michael tried to tell me things that would make me laugh.  I think this went on for about 10 - 15 minutes.  Then he finally told me to make one last push.  I did and the baby was out.  Throughout the whole delivery process, I felt very little pain.  Yes, I think that the epidural did prolong the delivery a bit, but it was a very pleasant experience.  It was not painful and stressful like Nicholas' delivery.  I was not as tired or wore out.  Recovering has also been much easier with this pregnancy then my first.  I think that if we ever have a third child, I would opt to go the same way.  Have an epidural, but have it discontinued right before delivery.  This way, I was able to regain my strength much quicker after delivery.

Okay, onto Zachary.  If you haven't seen pictures of him yet, you can by clicking on the Zachary link at the top of this page.  He's much bigger than I expected him to be.  People tell me that the second baby is usually bigger than the first one so I was thinking that he would be around 8 lbs since Nicholas was 7 lbs 6 ounces.  I was very surprised when they told me his weight.  I could not believe that he was once inside me.  A week before my delivery, the doctor was guessing that he was only around 6 lbs and I was guessing that he would be about 7 lbs.  I guess both of us are wrong.  Both Michael and I really think that he looks very much like Nicholas when Nicholas was born.  They look like twins.  I have gotten the same remarks from some of those who have seen his picture or in person.  Of course, everyone says that he looks like Michael, again!  He does have black hair right now, but Nicholas had black hair too when he was born.  After he lost his baby hair, the new ones were brown.  I am guessing the same will be true with Zachary.  Zachary is doing extremely well.  He's eating fine and sleeping very well.  He doesn't cry much expect for when he's hungry.  He's starting to stay awake a bit more during the day and sleep most of the time during the night.  I'm just hoping that by the time I go back to work, he'll sleep through most of the night.  

Nicholas.  Oh, he's doing great also.  He's okay with the new baby idea.  I think he's gotten use to it because my older sister just had a baby and the baby is always at my mother's house also.  I remember when Ethan first came along, Nicholas would always want to touch him and play with him like a doll, but I think he has learned that he's not suppose to do such a thing.  I don't think Nicholas is jealous of Zachary either.  Most of the time when I'm holding Zachary or feeding him, Michael would occupy Nicholas or Nicholas would be watching cartoons.  He likes been a helper though.  Whenever the baby is crying and he's at home, he would run to one of us and tell us that the baby is crying.  We would ask him to go get Zachary's pacifier and he would go get it for us.  There are times when Nicholas would actually put the pacifier into Zachary's mouth.  He also will help out with getting the diaper or the baby wipe.  I really think that Nicholas is taking the new baby thing very well.  Okay, we went bowling this past Sunday and we took Nicholas and Zachary with us.  Too bad that we forgot the camera because the event was a Kodak moment that I'll never forget.  We let Nicholas bowl for the first time.  We had the bumpers up and asked for the little ramp.  He was so happy to be able to bowl.  At first, I helped him carry the bowl to the ramp and then he would just let the bowl go by pushing on the bowl.  After the first game, he started lifting up the bowl by himself. It was an eight pound ball.  (That's how much my ball weighs!)  He was able to carry the ball to the ramp and put it on himself.  He also learned to wait until the rack was finished racking up the pins before he released the ball.  He had so much fun.  I wish I could show everyone the expressions and noises that he made when he was bowling.  They were so adorable.  He got so hyper.  The first game that he bowled, he bowled a 94.  Then he got a 100 and a 104.  Not bad for a beginner three-year-old bowler.  It was a nice little outing for all of us.  I have been suck at home for so long that it felt good to be able to go out again.  Of course, when my parents found out about it, I got in trouble.  (I'm not suppose to be going out that early after delivery!)

Okay, one more to go.  Michael.  He's doing fine also.  He took last week and this week off to be with us.  I think besides being a little tired, he's doing pretty well.  The baby wakes him up in the middle of the night also because whenever I change his diaper, he cries.  He doesn't like the cold baby wipes that I use to wipe his button with so he cries.  Like me, he's very amazed at how big Zachary is.  I think he's one happy father, though!

Okay, I think this is about all I am going to write for now.  I'm very tired so I'm going to take a nap now while Zachary is asleep.

No baby but there is a name, mostly.

I hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July.
Well, it's Sunday and still no new baby yet. He doesn't seem to want to come out yet.  Michael's baby pool date is today and the baby doesn't seem like he's wanting to come out today yet so we're going to aim for mine, which is the 10th. It would be so ironic and surprising if the baby actually ends up coming late. I mean all that bed rest and caution just to make sure that he doesn't come out early and now, to think that he might be late.  It's just amazing how different each pregnancy is. I saw the doctor this past Wednesday and he told me that the baby was about 6 lbs. (The doctor was guessing July 4th because Nicholas was a week early.) I'm guessing more around 7 lbs because of an ultrasound that we had in late May that told us that he was already 4 lbs 7 ounces. They say that the baby should grow about 1/2 lb per week. I think that this baby will be about the same size as Nicholas when he was born.

So, what did everyone do for the holiday?  We didn't do much. We went over to my brother's house for a BBQ that day and that was about it. We came back home around 6 PM. We didn't buy any fireworks this year because last year, Nicholas freaked out at them. He was really scared of the noise that it made so we decided not to get any this year. He ended up looking at some from the window, but when we asked him to go outside, he didn't want to do so. I think next year, we'll get some and set it off while he's in the house looking through the window. This way he doesn't hear the sparkling noise.  I think that the new baby will like that too. Michael took Friday off also so that he can have a four day weekend. We haven't really done much on this long break of his. Just a very quiet weekend, which I think he likes since so far, every weekend for the last two months have been so busy with events.

Nicholas is doing extremely well. He is saying a lot and picking up a lot of new words every day.  He doesn't seem to have a problem pronouncing  the letter "s." He seems to like to say, "don't want it" more than anything else even if he doesn't know what it is that he doesn't want. He's been having this temper tantrum as of late that we do not like and we are trying to undo it. Whenever he doesn't want anything, he'll start throwing things that he might have in his hand or start screaming really loud.  I have read in magazines (when I have nothing to do waiting for my appointment) that this is a toddler's way of expressing their anger and frustration.  We are trying to tell him that he needs to talk to us about it instead of throwing these little fits. It doesn't help when my parents just allow him to continue with it when he's over there. Nicholas still is not potty trained. He'll go when he takes a bath, but that's about it. He'll tell us when he wants a diaper change, but we haven't been able to get him to tell us when he wants to go before hand. Nicholas just had his three year checkup one week ago and the doctor said that it was the first step toward been potty trained. He thinks that Nicholas is progressing along fine so I'm not too worried about it. Just got to continue buying them expensive diapers.

Zachary will be the baby's name.  We still have not decided on a middle name yet.  I like the name Zachary Taylor Van Zandt, but as I found out, it is also the name of the 12th president of the United States so unless I want to name our son after the President, we're going to have to go with another middle name.  Hey, you never know, maybe this little one will one day end up being the President of the United States.  

Well, Sunday's not over yet so Michael's pool date may still come true.  (It's only 9 AM in the morning.  Nicholas woke up early today so I have been up with him.) I am going to say again that the next update I write will most likely be when the baby is out so until then, have a good day.

4th of July and soon a baby

Happy 4th of July to everyone.  I hope that you all enjoy the festive holiday.

Okay, the little one is still inside.  Both the baby and I are doing fine as long as this pain on my right side doesn't act up again.  About three r weeks ago, I woke up in the morning with this really unbearable pain on my right side.  I could not move at all.  It was worse than having labor pains.  I really scared the heck out of Michael.  I went to the doctor that day and by the time my appointment came around, the pain was almost gone.  The doctor told me that it might have something to do with my gallbladder.  She said that gallbladder pain is common with the second pregnancy.  She also has a theory that it might be a gallstone.  If it is, there isn't much that they can do about it right now because the baby is still inside me.  I will have to live with the pain until after the baby is born.   an ultrasound appointment on the 15th see if it is a gallstone or not.  If it is a stone, they will try to remove it while I'm still on my 6 week recovery period.  My doctor was hoping that the pain was a one time only thing, but the pain came back last Tuesday and this time it lasted two days.  I ended up going to the L&D that night and they took some blood test.  The doctor there thinks that it might just be caused by the baby since the baby kicks to my right side very often and very hard.  This morning the pain came back again, but is gone now.  I'm just hoping that whatever it is will go away soon.  It's really painful when it's around. 

Michael re-arranged the entire bedroom so that we can put the basinet in here for the baby.  Since I am no longer on bed rest, I went and bought some stuff for the baby, like diapers and new receiving blankets.  I also bought a few new outfits.  I got a bunch from my best friend, but I wanted a few more.  Most of the clothes that I got so far are for 0-3 month old babies and I'm not too sure that the little one will fit into those immediately so I went and bought some newborn clothes instead.  I also bought a new baby bag since the one Nicholas once used is old and torn.  

Michael and I are trying to guess when the baby will be coming.  He is guessing the 7th and I'm going for the 10th.  It might be fun to start a pool of guesses as to when the baby will be coming out.  

We have no plans for the 4th since we do not want to set plans up and then have the baby suddenly come out on that day.  I think my family might have a BBQ that day and if so, we'll just go to the BBQ and if not, we'll most likely just BBQ ourselves.  We didn't want to host the BBQ because we're afraid of planning things right now since we have no idea when he's thinking about coming out.  Nicholas was one week early and one week early this time would mean the 4th of July.  

As for the name of the baby, we still have not decided on a name yet.  We have narrowed it down to a few names again:  Zachary, Alexander, Elliot, and Anthony.  Hopefully, by the time the baby comes out, we will have a name for him. 

Nicholas.  He's doing extremely well.  I am still not sure if he understands that a new baby is coming or not yet.  He always points to his tummy and says that there's a baby inside.  Yesterday we took him to the park and he had a lot of fun there.  We brought along his sand pain and shovel so that he could play in the sand.  He really seems to like to play with sand.  We went to Dan's (Michael's best friend) house this past Saturday for their annual 4th of July party.  Nicholas had a lot of fun there.  They have a swimming pool in their backyard and that's where Nicholas was most of the time.  He always wanted to go into the pool.  He was really enjoying himself.  One time, they stayed inside for more than 1 1/2 hours.  Michael showed me Nicholas's little foot and boy, was it wrinkled.  It looked like a baby's foot when he was just born.  When Michael was playing volleyball, Nicholas wanted to go back into the pool, but I had to say "no" to him since I can't swim so I couldn't go in with him.  We are blowing up the inflatable pool that we have at home so that he can go inside it during the early evening since it's so hot here.  They say that the next two days or so are going to remain in the triple digits.  Nicholas was really looking forward to the pool last night, but because it's such a big pool, it's taking a while to blow up with our small pump.  Hopefully, it will be finished today so that he can go out and play inside when he comes home from my parents' house.  

Well, this is about all I have to say for now.  I think the next update will be when the baby comes out.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there.  We wish that you guys have a wonderful and great day because each and every one of you deserve to be appreciated.

Okay, me.  I am off bed rest now because I am now past 36 weeks pregnant.  The reason why I don't have to remain in bed anymore is because the baby is now fully developed and is considered full term.  He can come out anytime now if he wants to and the doctors would have no objections to it.  My doctor thinks that this one will be like Nicholas, give us a scare and then come out close to my due date.  I'm really glad that bed rest is over because now I can go all over the place.  Don't have to be stuck to either the bed or the sofa all the time.  I want to go shopping for the new baby.  There are a lot of things that we still need and because of bed rest, I haven't had a chance to do any shopping for him yet.  I also haven't had a chance to get all the necessary stuff ready for delivery yet.  You know how they tell you to go to the hospital with certain stuff like clothing and blankets.  I haven't packed any of that yet.  I don't intend to go to the hospital any time soon, but you just never know.   

We still haven't thought of a name for the little one yet.  We were going to go with Timothy, but I changed my mind.  Michael is starting to consider Zachary.  Hopefully we will have a name for him by the time he comes out.  

Okay, onto the little one that just turned 3.  He's growing.  He has been picking up a lot of new phrases lately.  The newest one that we can make out is "I don't know."  We have no idea where he picked it up from.  Sometimes, he'll say something, but we can't understand him.  After a while, we'll catch on.  I just love the way he says "thank you" and "please."   When he says "please," he'll give you a big gigantic smile along with it.  It just looks so cute and melts your heart every single time.  He is also becoming more independent.  He can now play by himself for hours at a time.  Whenever he needs something, he'll call or come grab one of us and then go back to playing.  He doesn't seem to need as much attention as he used to.  He also had learned that in order to get his favorite ice cream (which is really otter pops), he needs to eat his food first.  He has learned that it is a reward for being good or a way to comfort him when he hurts himself.  It's also one of our best strategies at waking him up from a nap.  We can't allow him to sleep too much or else the little one will not go to bed until at least midnight.  Sometimes, he doesn't even need a nap and he still doesn't go to sleep until midnight. I think he picked up this bad habit up from mom.  Oh yeah, lately, he loves to take baths.  We bought some bubble bath liquid for him and ever since then, he has to have at least two baths a day.  Sometimes they are only an hour apart.  He just likes to go into the water and play with the bubbles.  And the amazing thing is sometimes, he can stay in there for more an half an hour.  Most kids that I know hate taking baths.  Another thing he likes to do is get bandages.  If he hurt himself somewhere or if something hurts, he will go get a bandage and put the bandage on the painful area.  The funny thing is that he will then ask for it to be removed in less then five minutes.  He seems to be all better after that.  Before, he would give us the bandage.  We would remove it from its wrapping and put the bandage on the wounded area.  Lately, he's been doing the removing and has been attempting to put the bandage on himself.  He sometimes will even get mad at me if I try to help him out with it a bit.  Like I've said, he's getting more and more independent by the day.  I don't think that he understands yet that he is going to be a big brother.  He kinda understands that there is a baby inside me, but I'm not too sure.  I mean, he will point to his own tummy and say that there's a baby inside him.  I am hoping that he doesn't get too jealous when we bring home the new one and he sees mom giving the new little one so much attention.  

Okay, onto the last, but never by far the least, member of our family, Michael.  I think he's still pretty tired from this whole pregnancy thing.  I am hoping that with me off bed rest, he will not have so much things to worry about.  Also with my younger sister helping out with some of the housework, it should lighten his load a bit. 

Well,  I think I will end this entry here because both Nicholas and I are getting hungry and we have both decided that there's nothing home that we want to eat. 

Bed Rest Again

Okay, I have been put on bed rest as of last Monday.  I no longer work and all I do is lay in bed.  I had a doctor's appointment last week and as of then, I had already dilated.  I went into the Labor and Delivery room the Saturday night before my doctor's appointment and I knew then that I was dilated.  I was lucky to be able to come home after that visit.  I was afraid that they were going to keep me in the hospital on magnesium sulfate again.  

Well, since I can't do much, I have decided to reorganize this website.  I am learning how to use FrontPage.  I have redesigned this section already.  I want to organize the pages a bit so that you don't have to scroll so far down just to get to a page.  I am going to reorganize Nicholas's picture gallery also.  I may also be doing all the updates to the website for a while.  This will help Michael out a bit since he now has to do everything.  He works from home a lot so that he can take care of me.  He also has to deal with Nicholas who can be a hand full at times.  Well, the good news to this is that I only have to be on bed rest for another 3 weeks or so since I only have to last until 36 weeks.  

This is really bad timing to go out on bed rest.  My brother's wedding is this weekend and I can attend, but mainly sit on the sofa and do nothing.  I will be missing out on a lot of the fun that will be happening during the wedding.  Also, my younger sister and her husband are both graduating this weekend also.  I really would like to attend the ceremony, but I can't.  Michael will be going, though.  Nicholas's birthday is also coming up soon.  I really wish I can get off bed rest.  There is so many things that I would love to do with these few weeks.  

Like I said above, my brother is getting married this weekend.  I had a dress picked out and was looking forward to wearing it to the wedding, but I missed out on one small detail, pregnancy!  Since I am 7-months pregnant, there is no way I am going to be able to fit into the dress so on Tuesday, I had to go get another dress.  I tried on many different types and styles.  Many of those dresses really gave me a reality check on how big I was.  It was really hard to take.  I could not believe how "fat" I was.  Most of the dresses that I tried on made me look SO BIG.  I  was eventually able to find a dress that I thought was suitable.  I can't wait to be able to fit back into my "normal" clothes again.  Now I have to wonder what I am going to do with the dress after the wedding.  I most likely will not be able to fit back into it after my pregnancy.  

Well, onto the adorable little one in the family, Nicholas.  For the wedding, I asked my younger sister to help me buy him a new tuxedo.  Just thought that it would be appropriate that he be in a tuxedo for his uncle's wedding.  Nicholas just had his four upper front teeth fixed.  I took him to the dentist yesterday.  Don't worry.  All I did was drive there and pay the bill.  I asked one of my younger sisters to come along and care for him.  Michael was busy with work so he couldn't take him.  In order to fix his teeth, he needed to be sedated.  We choose to use oral sedation on him.  We showed up at the dentist office at 9 AM.  He drank a cup of medication.  (My gosh, what an expensive cup of medication!)  Well, before the appointment, he was not allowed to eat and when he got up that morning, he wanted to eat because he was hungry.  I felt so bad for the little guy.  He was screaming in the car the whole way there because he wanted something to eat and he knew that there was food in his backpack, but he was not allowed to get to it.  Ten minutes after he drank the medication, we could see the effect of the medication. He was still grumpy because he was hungry, but he could barely walk straight.  My younger sister had to help him walk most of the time.  We had to wait an hour before they could start the work on his teeth and it was not a very pleasant one hour.  Throughout the hour, he wanted his backpack and food.  He also wanted to play with all the toys that were around.  Thank goodness my younger sister was there.  She took him out for walks.  She also took him to the car so that he could play in there.   He was pretty knocked out by the time they started fixing his teeth.  It took another hour and a half to get his teeth fixed, but they did it all in one visit which was a good thing.  Right after the work, I gave him a banana and he was so happy to be able to eat again.  The little guy was so hungry that he ate the whole banana extremely quickly. Well, the good thing is that his teeth are fixed and that he will have a nice looking set of teeth for the wedding.  The second good thing is that it did not cost as much as they estimated it to be since they were able to get it all done in one visit instead of two.

Well, I think this is all I will write for today.  I am going to reorganize the picture gallery now.  Bye.

Mother's Day

First off, Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there!  We hope that you all have a wonderful day.

 Well, I thought that I would have the time to write another update sooner than today, but I have been extremely busy at work.  My condition has changed dramatically since my last update.  I went to the doctor the Monday following the last update and was put on modified rest.  This meant that I was not physically allowed to go back to work.  I broke the news to my boss and we have been able to arrange me working from home.  I am supposed to be lying down at least for two hours during the morning, afternoon, and evening.  I also cannot do any house chores so Michael has to do everything.  I am also supposed to limit my activities.  That means not too much walking around.  It’s much better than total bed rest.  At least I can move around the house.  I can still cook for myself and play with Nicholas.  The one downside to this is that I usually have no one to talk to during the weekdays.  I also have not seen or interacted with too many other human beings besides Nicholas and Michael.  I sit at home everyday and no one to talk to.  I am on a lot of conference calls, but most of the talk there is usually about work.  After two weeks of this, I am getting really tired of staying at home.  Michael thinks that I should go to my parents’ house once in a while after work just to let myself get out.  I mean whenever Michael comes home, I want to talk to him about everything.  Last week, he was sick so he really wanted some peace and quiet except that was not too possible with both me and Nicholas around.  I think we both drove him nuts for a few days.  I also no longer go bowling.  Hopefully I will be able to attend the banquet this coming Wednesday.  It would be nice to be able to get out of the house for once. 

 Well, I was hoping to avoid bed rest for this pregnancy, but it seems less and less likely.  I went to the Labor and Delivery Department again last night at 10 PM.  I was on a contraction frenzy routine so they told me to go get myself checked.  The doctor checked me and told me that I was 1 centimeter dilated.  Two weeks ago, when I was first put on modified rest, my doctor told me that my cervix was soft and was in the process of opening.  I guess it’s now open.  My next doctor appointment is tomorrow.  I am hoping that she will just continue to leave me on modified rest and just tell me to pump up my medication.  I was given Nifedipine my last visit and I’m suppose to take it every 8 hours to help stop my contractions.  It’s the same medication I took when I had Nicholas except the last time I took this medication it was every 4 hours.  The medication helped me make it all the way to 39 weeks with Nicholas so I’m hoping the same will be true with this one.  I just want to avoid bed rest.  I am already not liking this modified rest, but if I had to choose, I would take this over the bed rest any day.  I just do not like being confined at home and then on a bed.  I would like to continue this modified rest because then, I would be able to attend my brother’s wedding and my younger sister’s graduation ceremony.  These are very special events and they are on the same weekend.  If I go on bed rest, I am not too sure I can attend the graduation ceremony.  I could attend the wedding expect I would just be lying in the house the whole day.  Not too fun, if you think about it. My older sister also is going to have a baby shower for my nephew and I really don’t want to miss out on that either.  The next few weeks are filled with events that are very special to me and I don’t want to miss any of them, especially Nicholas’s third birthday. 

 Nicholas.  Well, he sure gave me a very, very unusual mother’s day present today.  He was taking a bath and usually after his baths, he likes to use the restroom.  I should say that he like to try to use the restroom and flush the toilet.  Well, after the bath, he did just that.  He flushed the toilet and the next thing we heard was Nicholas screaming.  Michael went in first and then called me in.  What I saw was a floor filled with water.  I have no idea what he might have flushed down the toilet, but one time, I caught him flushing down one of his toy cars.  Michael thinks it might have something to do with that toy car.  All I know is that whatever it was, it clogged up our entire sewer system.  None of the drains were working.  Water was actually coming back up from all over.  It was not just in the bathroom that Nicholas was bathing in, but also the other bathroom.  It looked pretty bad.  The shower in the other bathroom was filling up with water and was in the process of overflowing out onto the bathroom floor.  Michael went out to get some equipment to try to empty it out before it overflowed.  While he was out in the garage, for some reason, the clog seemed to have cleared itself.  All the water started going back down the drains again.  What was left was a bathroom filled with water.  Michael cleaned it up and we are hoping that whatever it was is gone now.  Let’s just say that it will be a very memorable mother’s day present. 

 Well, besides this little mishap that he did, Nicholas has actually been pretty good lately.  Yesterday, I took him outside in front and let him play with his tricycle.  He was so good at staying away from the street itself and whenever cars came by, he would come up on the garage a bit.  I was so amazed at how well behaved he was.  We were out there for about 30 minutes.  He is starting to repeat a lot of things that we say and he also seems to understand so much more.  He also will pick after himself if you make him.  For example, if you sit there and continuously tell him, he will clean up his room by himself.  Of course, he’ll mess it up five minutes later.  He also seems a lot more interested in his books.  He would bring me one of his books and we would start pointing at pictures in the book.  From the books, he’s been able to recognize a lot of the objects and also say a lot of the words.  The one thing that he does not like to do is sit down and listen to me read the book.  He likes flipping back and forth through the books instead.  He’s just getting so much more curious nowadays.

 Well, I think this is all I have to say for now.  Hopefully, I will give everyone another update after tomorrow’s appointment.

Possible Names

Well, another month has passed and I'm still not on bed rest yet. I guess it's a good sign. You never know, maybe I won't have to go on bed rest at all for this pregnancy. (This is me being wishful) In the last update, I stated that as long as I don't get two or more contractions in an hour for two hours consecutively, I would be fine. Well, I did just that about two weeks ago. I ended up having to go into the labor and delivery room. They monitored me on the contraction monitor and they also monitored the baby's heartbeat. Of course, by the time they started monitoring me, my contractions had stopped. My doctor did come to look at me and she did check me. She told me that my cervix was still closed, but it was getting "soft." I don't know what that means and I didn't really bother to ask at that time. I didn't think anything about it since she said that it was okay for me to go home. She also mentioned that the baby was doing great from his heartbeats. After I got home, I started thinking about what she said and now I really wish I would have asked her what she meant by "soft." I talked to a co-worker at work here who went through the same thing I did and she told me that "soft" was not a good thing. The good news is that I have a doctor's appointment next Tuesday so I'll ask my doctor then. I also have this feeling that I will be going on bed rest soon. I am starting to feel a lot of muscle stretching and expanding on my uterus. I'm hoping that it's nothing big. I still have lots to do at work. I want to be able to finish things up before I take off for maternity leave. My last day at work will be June 12 if I don't end up on bed rest sooner than that. As for the baby, he is getting bigger and bigger by the day. I am "finally" starting to show, according to my co-workers. I am also outgrowing all my overalls that I bought a while back. I need bigger clothes, but I don't want to have to buy maternity clothing. I think I can get away with just buying bigger sized clothing instead of maternity clothing. (Maternity clothing is just way too expensive!!!!) Oh yeah, I've come up with these first names so far: Timothy (I like this one the most now!), Michael (Of course, Michael doesn't want this one), Zachary, and Benjamin. There was a fifth name, but I can't remember it anymore so I guess I didn't like it that much.

Okay, I wrote the above paragraph about one week ago. Right now, I'm lying on the couch writing the rest of this update. A lot has changed since I wrote the above paragraph. I have been to the Labor and Delivery Department twice this past week, once on Tuesday and once on Thursday. I had my appointment this past Tuesday and the nurse checked me. She went to talk to my doctor and they sent me to the Labor and Delivery Department to be checked. I was monitored for about two hours and my doctor checked me again. She told me that my outer cervix was dilated. She didn't allow me to return to work for that day. I went back to work the next day. I was also not allowed to bowl for this week. I now also have medication to help stop the contractions. They're the same medication I had t take with Nicholas after the hospital stay. I went back to the L&D on Thursday because I felt four contractions in an hour. By the time I got to the L&D, the contractions stopped. These contractions have been playing games with me. I feel them all the time, but whenever I have to go to L&D, they stop coming. It's like these contractions know that I'm going there and don't want to ask up. Kinda like a kid knowing that he's going to get in trouble if he acts up in front of the principal or teacher. Well, they told me on Thursday that I was not allowed to return to work and that I couldn't go back on Friday either. I did end up working from home, though. They told me that I need to limit my activities. Michael takes that as pretty much bed rest. So for the last two days, I've been either lying in bed or on the sofa. I have been able to work with the laptop so it's hasn't been as boring as I thought it would be. I have another appointment scheduled for this coming Monday. Michael wants to come with me on this appointment. Both him and I think that this appointment will determine if I have to go on bed rest of not. I am hoping that the medication that I am taking will help prevent the bed rest. One weekend of staying on bed is already bringing back bad memories. If I do go on bed rest, I'll look on the bright side. I'm 28 weeks pregnant right now so if I do go on bed rest, I will only have to stay in bed for another 8 weeks. It's not as bad as the first pregnancy, but still bad enough. This really makes me think hard about having a third child. I really would like to have a daughter, but the downside to pregnancy makes the decision much more difficult for me.

Well, onto a more enjoyable topic, Nicholas! He's growing too fast. He has learned a lot of new words. His new favorite new words/statement is "No want it." He says this every time he doesn't want something. Like when he doesn't want to wake up in the morning, he'll say, "no want it." He also now knows how to take his own bath. Gets in and comes out on his own. Lately, he also will use the restroom by himself after he finishes taking a bath. We want to potty train him, but we can't seem to get him to tell us in advance when he wants to use the restroom. He'll tell us after he does it, but not before. His birthday is coming up in two months or so, but with my pregnancy and my problems, we don't know if we will be doing anything big for his birthday. If I'm on bed rest, I won't be able to do anything. Even if I wasn't on bed rest, the doctor and Michael will still limit my activities. We're still deciding on what to do. Oh yeah, we have been having minor problems with him wanting to eat real food. I think he has had too much junk food lately. He's eating a lot of sweet and he doesn't want to eat real food. He use to eat rice every night with me, but lately, he won't eat the rice. Michael has been doing a lot of the grocery shopping so he's been buying a lot of different new stuff for Nicholas to try. He's been buying thing like fruit cocktails, small containers of corn, pop tarts, and other miscellaneous stuff. Nicholas has not been too responsive to most of this food, but we have been able to persuade him eat them, of course, with a little authority.

Now, onto another topic, Michael. Michael has been extremely supportive. Sometimes I really wish I could help him out a lot more. With my problems, he has to do all the housework, watching and caring for Nicholas, and of course, caring for me too. He has to cook for me or go out and get me food since my activities have been limited. I call tell that he's very tired most of the time because of all the extra responsibilities that he has to take on. I really wish that he wouldn't have to do so much. It makes me feel really bad and feel somewhat worthless. As a wife and mother, I have certain responsibilities expect right now, those responsibilities have been taken from me. It's really hard to stay in bed and just want Michael work every day to keep this family in one piece.

On a side note, my older sister gave birth to her fifth child, Ethan, two Saturdays ago (April 13, 2002). Both her and the baby are doing fine and are at home. My parents have their hands full with the other five kids, including Nicholas, during the day.

Pregnancy

Sorry for not putting up another update sooner. I have been very busy. Work and family has occupied most of my time lately. Michael wanted me to put up more updates since he thought that you guys would like to know more about the pregnancy.

Okay, let's not waste any time then. The little one is doing fine. I am contracting. I have been contracting for the last month now. I told my doctor about them and she told me that as long as I don't get two contractions in an hour for two hours straight, I am still fine because of the fact that my cervix is above normal this time. But once this scenario hits, I'm suppose to call her and I'm guessing that she's going to monitor me in the hospital. Thank goodness this hasn't happened yet. There were a few times that it almost happened. I get about one every hour right now, but sometimes, I get more than that. Once I got three in an hour, but luckily the next hour, I only got one so I was safe. I have another doctor's appointment this coming Monday so I get to see if I'm still okay then. Oh, as a side note, my doctor is also pregnant and she's actually due 9 days after me so she might not be the one delivering me.

We haven't thought of a name for the little one yet. It is my turn to come up with the first name. I came up with a few, but the one that I like the most, Michael doesn't seem to like. I asked Irene about it and she seems to like it. Well, of course she would, it's the combination of both of her sons. It's Michael Richard Van Zandt. Of course, you can tell by now why Michael doesn't really like it. Oh well, back to the drawing board. I still got a little more than 3 months to think of a name.

How have I been feeling? One word. TIRED. It's not that easy being pregnant, working full time and being a full time mother. Especially since work has been extremely busy lately. We are trying to meet a deadline so everyone is working really hard right now. After work, I am so tired that half the time all I want to do is sleep except most of the time, that's not what I end up doing when I get home. Right now, I am trying to think of hobbies or things that I can do around that house that are not labor intensive. Michael bought me this plant container for the window seal in front of the house. I wanted to plant some flowers in it since this time of the year would be the perfect weather to do so, but Michael thinks that it's too much work and requires too much manual labor that he won't let me do that. I have a tree that I got last year for our house warming that I still have not planted. (Poor tree) I wanted to plant it this spring so that it would have the opportunity to grow properly instead of in a pot. Well, Michael doesn't want me doing that either. I am thinking about reorganizing some of the stuff in the house this weekend so I'm hoping that Michael isn't going to be considering that too labor intensive since it requires climbing up and down chairs and bending up and down. I think he wants me to do things like sewing (which I really hate). Things like that are too boring to me. I prefer more active chores but most of them are pretty labor intensive, if you ask me. Any suggestions?

Nicholas. Oh boy. He's a handful. He actually can say a lot of things now. He can say sentences like, "Momma, where is she?" The only downside to him talking is that he seems to still like calling Michael Momma instead of Daddy. The funny part of this is that he calls one of my younger sisters, Kellie, Daddy. I don't know how he made that association. I mean, he understands who Daddy is because I always tell him to ask Daddy, but the problem is that the word that comes out of his mouth is always Mommy. He knows how to brush his own teeth now, even though he doesn't do a very good job at it. He's not too grumpy about brushing his teeth at night anymore. According to Michael, when you tell him to brush his teeth, he'll, sometimes, go and grab the chair, put it next to the sink. Turn on the water. Put toothpaste on his toothbrush and brush his teeth. Of course, brushing his teeth in the morning is a totally different story. Half the times, he's not awake yet so he doesn't like it when Michael brushes his teeth. We bought him two playhouses and he seems to love them. He plays with them a lot by himself. He still, of course, loves the TV and his cartoons. This weekend, we are having an Easter hunt at my mother's house. I think he will like it since it involves candy and sweets. He did the Easter hunt last year and love it so I'm hoping that this year was be as fun for him as it was last year. This year, we got smart and bought all the stuff in advance. Last year, we didn't think about it until that day so I went on a hunting trip of my own trying to find plastic eggs and good candy. Hopefully, this year, we'll be a bit more organized.

Well, I think this is about it. I'll try to write more often whenever time permits me to do so.

CNY

Happy Chinese New Year to those who celebrate it.

This year has not been all that great for us. We really didn't do much for the New Year. I was planning on doing a bunch of stuff, but all of my plans got cancelled because of a sudden death in the family. My uncle (my mother's oldest brother) passed away this last Friday morning. He was not in the best shape, but no one saw this coming. He was not sick or anything before this. He apparently went in his sleep so no one really got to say good-bye to him. I guess it's a peaceful and painless way to go. I am a bit worried about my aunt and my mother and how they are taking this. My uncle was the only brother my mother had in the US. He was actually the one uncle that I liked the most out of all the uncles and aunts that I know from both sides of my family. I remember when I use to spend time with them, taking them shopping, and just helping them with stuff.

Sorry to start off on such an unhappy note. Now, on to the more interesting subject. Nicolas. He had his first dentist visit at the beginning of February. I was expecting him to be a handful since he doesn't really like us messing around in his mouth with a toothbrush. I was expecting him to be a very uncooperative little one. Michael went with him and to both of our amazement; Nicholas was an angel at the dentist. He actually kept his mouth open the whole time for the dentist to clean his teeth. He had his hands inside his pockets and didn't move a bit. The only time he was a little of a problem was when they tried to take an x-ray of his front top teeth. He didn't like those things in his mouth so when Michael let go, Nicholas spit them back out. Michael ended up having to hold the x-rays in Nicholas's mouth. Nicholas needs some work on his front top teeth. We were given a few options on how they could fix his tooth. It was oral sedation, IV sedation, restrain, or general anesthesia. I am not going have him go through the restraint or the IV sedation for sure. I don't mind the other two. I want him to have a good impression of the dentist and not be afraid of going there. So far, his impressions of both his dentist and doctor have been fine. I am not ready to have that change any time soon.

Can you believe that he is now tall enough to open the freezer without any assistant from his little chair or toy cars? He can do it all by myself. Michael saw him do it first and he was so amazed. Michael had Nicholas do it just to show me. We both cannot believe how fast and big this little one has grown. The next thing you know, he'll be attending kindergarten. He can also say a few more words now. He has another speech therapy appointment this Friday. It's a follow up from his first appointment. They want to see how well he is progressing. For sure, he can say the word "mine" and he knows what it means. Everything that he touches and that he likes, it's his. And when you ask him for it, it's always going to be "mine" "mine" "mine". He usually will not give it up. You can try asking him nicely, but if he doesn't see the authority in you, you're basically out of luck. And when you try to take it away from him by force, you'll be hearing an extremely loud screaming toddler. I've been trying to teach him how to say the words "please" (in English) or "give me" (in Chinese) when he wants something, but he doesn't seem to be picking up on it or he's too lazy to say them.

I got a new electronic musical keyboard for Valentine and I love it, but I'm not the only one who seems to have grown in love with it. Nicholas loves to play on it. When he first saw it last Thursday, he was so happy. Then you let him play with it, he was like in heaven. It's a really cool keyboard. It takes you step by step on how to play a certain song. Currently, there are 100 songs that I can learn, but I can also download more songs off the Internet as long as they are MIDI compatible, whatever that means. I am currently trying to learn how to play "My Heart Will Go On." Nicholas just likes to play with it. Michael is also playing with it. He's trying to master the more difficult songs since he use to play on a keyboard. Me, I prefer to start off as a beginner.

Okay, on to the new little one. The baby is doing fine. I get to name this baby since Michael got to pick Nicholas's name. I have not thought of any names yet because I want to know if it's a girl or boy first. This eliminates half of the names that I need to choose from. And I get to find that out this Friday also. I can't wait to find out. I would like the baby to be a girl since I already have a boy, but no matter what, we'll still love the baby lots. So far, I'm still doing okay. I am not too sure if I am having any contractions yet or I'm just paranoid. I think I can feel some, but it seems to only happen during the evenings and when I'm sleeping. This is why I'm not too sure if they are contractions or not. I called the doctor today, but because it's a holiday for most of us (not me. Boo hoo hoo), they are not open today. I will try again tomorrow and I'll have to see what they would like to do from there. I really fear going back on bed rest, but I know that it's good for the baby. If I don't, there's a really high chance of a miscarriage or premature birth. But just the thought of staying in bed 24/7 again for 20 weeks or so is just frightening. Oh, yeah, the baby is now kicking. A week ago, they were very light and faint kicks, but now, this little one is extremely active. The baby seems to be kicking all the time. I forgot how cool it was to feel the baby kick instead me. To me, it's a reassurance that the baby is healthy and active.

Well, I am thinking that I will be writing again after this Friday. Maybe not a long one, but something to tell everyone the sex of the baby. So until then, have a wonderful day!

Okay, since Michael didn't put this update up before Friday, I thought that I might just add to this instead of writing a whole new one. Well, we went to get an ultrasound of the baby Friday and now we know the sex of the baby. It's a BOY!!! I really wanted a girl, but two boys are fine still. Everything else so far is fine as far as my complications. I did go to the hospital on last Tuesday because I started feeling contractions again. They released me after monitoring me for a few hours. I have been feeling them ever since but not too many, maybe two to three a day. I am tracking them so that I can show my doctor what is going on with the contractions. Because of the contractions, Michael would like me to stay on bed a bit more just to help prevent actual bed rest. I am a bit more positive towards no bed rest for now after Friday's ultrasound appointment. My cervix is at normal length this time. I think even if I do get put on bed rest, it won't be anytime soon. I am going to see my doctor in about a week and we will most likely be discussing this. All I can do right now is hope for the best.

Well, Nicholas had a minor accident on Friday. He was running around outside at my parents' house and somehow fell. He supposedly landed face first on the cement floor. He has a bruise on his forehead and his nose is a bit bruised up also. He doesn't seem to be too bothered by the bruises right now.

Well, not much more to talk about right now. I will try to write again after my doctor's visit to update everyone.

Holidays

It has been quite some time since I did the last update. We have been extremely busy and work for me is really piling up so I haven't had much time to write this update.

Let's see. Halloween. Well, Halloween was somewhat uneventful. We had our league bowling night on Halloween so we were at the bowling alley. The only change was that we took Nicholas with us. The team that we were bowling was not showing up so we were not going to bowl anyone. That meant that we were going to be able to leave early so taking Nicholas there didn't seem like a bad idea. Nicholas had a lot of fun watching the pins fly all over the place. Of course after a while, he got tired of sitting still and had to run around the alley. We took turns watching him while bowling. It was pretty cool. Everyone at the bowling alley like him and thought that he was cute.

Okay, that was what I wrote back in November. Well, it's the middle of December already and I still haven't gotten this update out the door yet. I guess I've been pretty lazy lately.

Okay, let's talk November. Nothing much. For Thanksgiving, we went down to Irene's house and had a turkey dinner. It was nice except for the long drive down there. Usually, it would take about 2 hours to get there but because there was an accident in Tracy, it took almost 3 hours to get there. We got to meet Richard's new girlfriend, Carla. She was very nice, but a bit shy, if you ask me.

The next day, we had a turkey dinner with my family. The not so fun part about this dinner was that we had to do the cooking. Michael volunteered to cook the turkey this year. My younger sister won a 22-pound turkey the week before during bowling so someone had to cook it. Oh boy, was that no fun at all. The bird was so big that by the time dinner came around, it still wasn't done. We literally cooked it for more than 8 hours. Thank goodness everything else was done so everyone ate all the side dishes and the appetizers. We did cut out the meat that was cooked and served that. Then we ended up cooking the rest of the turkey in pieces. Of course, we never finished the whole turkey. Well, one thing for sure is that I am not going to let Michael volunteer us for this again. It was just a lot of work. I mean we were cooking for more than 15 people. It took the whole day to prepare for it and then the whole weekend to clean up after it.

Well, a little about me. I am now a permanent employee at TASQ Technology. It just took place this week. My contact with the contracting company expired last Friday. Not much different. I'm still doing the exact same things as I was doing 6 months ago. The move was a bit of a pay cut, but that's what happens when you go from contracting to permanent. Oh yeah, the biggest news of them all. For those who have not heard through the grapevines, we are expecting another little one next July. We went to get an ultrasound yesterday because no one knew how far along I was. I'm about 10 weeks pregnant and the little one is expected July 11th. As for my complications during the first pregnancy, there is an extremely high chance that I will go through the exact same thing, but we won't know until later. Right now, they are still treating me as a normal pregnancy. How am I doing so far with this pregnancy? Tired! I have this sinus problem and am congested a lot. It wears me out a lot and because I'm not more than 12 weeks pregnant, they do not want me to take anything so I have to suffer through it. This has been going on for about three weeks now. Every day at work, I don't have the energy to do much. I always feel tired and want to go to bed. By the time I get home, I am so exhausted. Hopefully, this will only last for the first trimester and my health will be getting better as we start the second trimester. Oh yeah. Another news from my side of the family is that my older sister is also expecting another child. She's actually four months pregnant already so she will be delivering way before me.

Now, on to Nicholas. The biggest news I can talk about with him is that he can repeat all 26 alphabets. He did it last Saturday. Last Friday, he went up to m and then on Saturday, he went all the way to z. We were so happy and proud of him. He is starting to slowly repeat words. Of course, he favorite word so far is "no." If he doesn't want something or doesn't want to do something, it's always going to be "no." And can he say that word clearly. He is also slowly learning the animals. Well, not the actual words, but more of the sounds that they make. Like for a cat, he calls them "meow meow." He likes to look at his books and stare at the pictures. I asked my younger sister to get him some books that had lots of pictures with lots of different things in them since I'm not allowed to get him anything until Christmas is over. I think he will enjoy looking at those books. And we try to point out objects in the pictures to him and sometimes he will repeat after us. He has a speak therapy appointment this coming month. I think he will do well based on his progress right now.

Another thing about the little guy is that he still doesn't have a full set of teeth. I asked the doctor last month to see if that was okay because I was getting a little worried. I mean, he's 2 ½ years old and he still doesn't have a full set of teeth. The doctor said that they will eventually come and that I shouldn't be worrying too much about them. He has 8 on the top and 6 on the bottom. He has all his molars and his front ones. It's the ones in the middle that are missing. Oh well, I guess they will come when they feel like it.

Well, this Christmas, we are going up to see Lauren and Midge since both of us has Christmas Eve off. We will be going up there that weekend and returning Christmas day. Richard will most likely be coming with us also. We have no plans for New Years and I don't think that we can really do a whole lot that day.

Well, I think this is all I can write for now. I'm getting tired and it's almost time to go home. Just want to wish all of you a wonderful and safe holiday!