one last vacation before william goes back 2 work

we have been doing these little home away from home vacations - i try to find the cheapest nice hotel in an area of nor cal we want to toodle around in and we go for 2 or 3 nights. that seems to work the best for thomas in terms of duration. plus, we tend to get a little homesick after more than 3 days in a hotel room too. here we are on the monterey wharf.


for this last little vacation, we went to beautiful Monterey, CA. it was the BEST weather, we enjoyed good food, a lot of walking and thomas saw his first seals - or rather heard them. he was actually trying to imitate their loud barking. i swear....
oh and of course, we took some more bed pics with Thomas. he just loves those big king size beds! do all babies love big beds? do they just know that they are on vacation? :)

by the way, his face is changing right before our eyes and yes! to cynthia's question from a while back - we do already miss his baby face! it's no fair that they change up so fast on you. william is blaming it on my last haircutting attempt, ha ha... he says it is too short. so i am letting it grow out to see if it makes a difference. i don't think it will - he is just plain ole growing up!

as you can see, Thomas' face is still cute - but not the same baby cuteness. and william has a very mischievieous smile on his face because he has plans to scoop up thomas for a roll-about-the-bed fest...


so home away from home vacations are nice because you don't have to drive far, but you are in a hotel so you can make a nice big mess and they come and clean it all up so when you get back each night - everything is all nice and neat again!

oh - tip for travelling baby parents: ask for extra blankets or bedsheets and you can lay them out all over the floor to give baby extra crawling around space, without having to worry about what gross things might be on the hotel carpet. maybe you guys have already discovered this, but we never thought of it before and this time, it was great! we had two blankets laid over the main section of the room and it was a perfect place for us to lay around with the toys we brought. no more constant vigilance to keep him from the edge of the bed. in this picture, both william and thomas have been hypnotized by teletubbies.

I also started teaching thomas how to shop... he is a very fast learner and has already started reaching for things he likes, like shoes :)


and while i was shopping, william noticed that for the first time, thomas saw himself in a mirror and really might be starting to understand that it is himself he is looking at...

Thomas and Story Time with Mommy

Part of the evening routine before bed-time is story time! Thomas and mommy (sometimes daddy will do it) will sit down for a 3-5 minute story reading.

A few months ago, Thomas would sit still and take in the colorful pictures... But now, he insists on turning the pages before we finish reading it!

This particular book has a "reflective mirror" star on it. Thomas loves to stare at it (seeing another little boy inside the star) and sometimes he plants a kiss...actually a multiple of face plants as if to say...hey, who're you?

Daddy's Mini-Sabatical is almost over...

Job Change From:





To:





I've never considered myself a true Oracle employee even though my paycheck had Oracle stamped on it since January 2005. That was when Oracle completed it's hostile take-over of PeopleSoft. Hearing rumors that my manager's manager threaten one of his directs with termination when that individual applied to another department within Oracle....made me realize that my career at Oracle (formerly PeopleSoft) is a dead-end.

So I interviewed for Siemens Business Services (in Fremont) back in late August. It was a great interview. Subsequently I had two more interviews there. They assured me that they liked me. So I resigned from Oracle without a formal offer from Siemens a few weeks ago.

It gave me GREAT pleasure to resign. I wasn't the only one. Within Sept, two others have left. One went to Livermore Labs, the other to Robert Half International. And just this week, another one left. Back in April, my PeopleSoft manager left to become a teacher in San Ramon. In June 2 individuals in my team quit. By August the team morale was pretty bad... Oracle is doing very little to motivate ex-PeopleSoft employees to stick around.

The company itself is probably OK. I've met 2 classmates this quarter that works for Oracle. How ironic...I had to tell them the same story and they sympathized with me because they've heard similar stories from former PeopleSoft employees that have left their teams.

So, it was my differences with my immediate Oracle management that made my decision to leave quite easy. Despite the perks of being so close to my home (1.5 miles 1-way)...that no longer holds water.

PeopleSoft was a great company to work for. It valued its employees and treated them with respect & dignity. Oracle...well, it's a hit or miss. Some of the ex-PeopleSoft landed in nice patches, some landed in rocky situations.

Funny thing is...if all the good people are jumping ship...who's left? The people who are either 1) too comfortable and don't care about their positions, or 2) those who can't get another job elsewhere. Hm....what a way to run an organization...it's Dilbert's comic at it's best.

Siemens internal recruiter called me today (after I finished the paperwork yesterday) and I will be expecting an official written offer Monday. If I accept...my start date is likely to be Oct 30th.

That means no more naps with Thomas or feeding him breakfast at 10am and watching Elmo's World at 10:40am. That means no more walks to Barnes & Noble with Catherine and Thomas to browse the bookstore and ordering scones & coffee. That means no more staying up late (like now) and reading my textbooks. Sure we can do all that on weekends...but weekdays are so nice and uncrowded!!

However I am grateful that through out this transition, there's great peace about the decisions that were made. That's how Catherine and I know God's will is at work here. Events just seem to fit together nicely and in a very timely fashion! We're so blessed! The only issues were trying to get use to each other being around each other all the time but that passed after a few days.

Ok...enough commentary from dad for now. Will update when I start on the new job. Catherine might have less time to blog...since I'll be working and attend 2 evening classes. But the silver lining is that this is my last quarter at Cal State!

9 months at the doctor's office

finally got some pics with the doctor...

he likes his doctor (dr. tosaic) but we think he is actually starting to remember the nurse that always gives the shots because this time, no matter what we showed him or did to distract him, to keep his head facing forward, he cranned over to try to look at what she was doing. she is actually kind of a loud, heavy-handed woman... maybe that is why they make her do all the shots. heh heh... so thomas was sitting on dad's lap and i was trying to divert his attention but he just strained to see what she was up to. it is so funny! only 9 months old and already remembering that bad things happen when she is around.

he is currently 28.25 inches and 19.5 pounds. he is doing well, but his stupid undescended left testicle just does not want to come down. she said we might want to start thinking about going to a specialist, a urologist/surgeon that does babies. but i am just cringing thinking about him having to have any sort of surgery. we're just going to keep praying for now. God can heal - just depends on the method and the timing. we'll see...

this is funny - thomas is in a bit of a compromising position but the expression on his face... i had to post it, "what are you lookin at??"

swing swing oh the joy!

i read somewhere that once babies can sit up themselves well, they are ready for the infant swing at the park. i finally got to take thomas out yesterday and i have only one word for his reaction... whhhheeeeeeee!!!!!!


this was right after i put him in the swing. it is about 4 feet off the ground so he sat there for a moment contemplating his surroundings. note the rapidly twitching feet, indicating lots of brain activity as he tries to compute what is going on (there were a lot of other kids there playing on the playsets behind us and to either side).

then i started pushing him. :D I think he really looks like william in these pics.... like a chubby william. although the crooked lower lip is from me, the eyes and nose are from dad.
I can't wait until he gets on the slide with one of us!




------------- click click click ---------------

thomas has been a little fussy the past day and today and we couldn't really figure out why. today, william was changing his diaper and he heard this little "click click click". he looked closer to try to see where the sound was coming from and discovered that one upper tooth had come through! it was the sound of thomas clicking his little teeth together! so far only one is showing but i am sure the other one will make an appearance soon.

we started giving him a minimum dose of baby tylenol today to help with any discomfort from the teeth cutting through the gums (just until they are both peeking out of the gums). plus his 9 mo doctor's visit is tomorrow so he has shots and a weight/height check. tylenol will help with any slight fever he might get from the shots... 2 birds w/ one stone. we get to see if he has grown at all! feels like he has not since 8 month but the scales will tell. his face always looks so serious whenever he is lying there naked on that little scale. almost like he is saying "hey now... i am a person, not beef." i'll see if i can get a picture of it.

cornball cheesy-ness

not sure if i am moody or what is going on but tonight i was a little teary as i prayed for thomas. i usually try to put him in the crib before he is completely asleep. he has been good about falling asleep without one of us holding him. (although lately, he has been conning us into giving him a little back rub or singing until he is asleep... he caught us in a moment of weakness and now he objects loudly when we leave before a little rub and a song).
tonight, i just wanted to hold him for a bit. as we have all been noting - these little guys are growing fast! soon they will only want to be held when they are tired. even now, he is getting really squirmy. it is hard to hold him for long and when he wants down, he pushes hard with all four limbs against my stomach and chest. so anyways, i was just holding him in my arms, looking at his peaceful sleeping face. sometimes i bring him over to the little night light in his room so i can see him better :). before i put him down in the crib, i prayed for him and also prayed for all the many couples we know that are pregnant or trying to get pregnant. for some reason, i couldn't hold back the tears. it is no wonder that jesus loved children - they are so amazing, innocent, and pure, etc, etc, etc. there aren't enough nice adjectives to describe their wonder. it made me also realize that it was truly God's grace that all four of us got pregnant at around the same time (there were four of us couples, all seeing who could get pregnant first! :) because it is really hard to know when God's timing is for you. i mean, four out of four! that is amazing odds, esp with 2 of us almost in our mid-30's. figures that you young un's got pregnant first! :)

i was looking back through some of his early pictures and it is hard to believe it is the same baby. i can't believe that little stripped cap from the hospital fit on his head! and even though he was cute, we can see now why people really enjoy them after 9 months - they are so much more interactive and really start to show their personalities.


-------------aptitude or race?---------------

completely different topic but we get this UCLA magazine every month because both william and i are UC alum association members. this month there was an article about the crisis in african american applications. since afirmative action has ended, it has gone down exponentially and this current year of freshmen is only 2% african. wow... that is pretty shocking. they said latin decent and native americans have also fallen. i used to work in HR so my belief has always been hiring always based on skills and fit for the position offered, never based on outside factors (gender, race, religion, special needs, etc.). that transfered over to my thoughts on college admissions, never thought much of preferential treatment for ethnicities because it didn't seem fair. however, william and i just watched "Akeelah & the Bee". it was a great, family movie by the way, a little predictable but completely enjoyable! and it reminded me that there are a lot of kids out there with huge potential but no resources or mentors. so they end up channeling that talent negatively. now i realize that even if their ethnicity got them into college, the opportunities afforded to them once they are there can help them rise above. at any rate, it really surprised me that diversity had dropped so low... at least they are working aggressively to reverse that trend.

another first.... small milestones for baby

last week, we painted the TV room - gray cashmere - sort of a light green/gray color. it is hard to get a good picture of it b/c it's a light color. i really wanted to use this great cement gray color they just put out for 2006, but william really disliked the idea of gray walls so i used the green/gray. it turned out really well so today we started painting the kitchen. it is called "light khaki" and looks like khaki during the day but at night, it turns a very strong green... split pea soup. that was not expected but oh well, that is why i am not a professional designer.


unfortunately william has been doing all the work... i just watch thomas. the hardest i have worked is to dab at the little white pits the roller missed. enjoyable actually. william has been doing the grunt work. thomas was really amazing though - this morning after eating a pretty good sized breakfast, thomas played by himself on the floor for 45 minutes! 45 minutes.... i kept looking over, expecting him to look over at me and grunt, letting me know he was ready to do something different. but each time, he would just look over at me, smile and look back at whatever he was playing with. it was so nice to be able to get some stuff done, but it was a little sad too. i kept waiting for him to lift his arms out to me, but it just wasn't happening. it was like "uh uh... don't come over, i am fine here playing by myself for now. got too many interesting things to look at." getting bigger every day...

----------------------------------------
he just started "waving" yesterday too. he even noticed the shadow of his waving hand when he was in his walker last night. he was standing there, leaning over, waving and when i peered over to see what he was looking at... it was his shadow :)

help help i've fallen under a rock!

thomas has fallen and apparently been partially pinned underneath a large pillow rock. while struggling to get free, he has succombed to exhaustion and has passed out...


hee hee... actually just another exemplary photo showing william's exellent attempt to cover Thomas while they are napping together.

---------------------------------------

thomas is definitely developing a personality in his 9th month. he gets really REALLY mad now when you take things away from him before he is ready to let go. and he hates getting his diaper changed - he just howls away when you pin both of his feet together. he is getting really strong too - it is really hard for me to hold both feet with one hand now. i have to really squeeze to keep them under control and thomas lets me know vociferously how much he dislikes it.

food is a little more challenging now too. we found that he eats more if he likes the food (chopped up fruit, chunks of whole wheat bread, etc), less if it is ho hum (stage 2). he really likes chunks. so i boiled up some pasta and other vegetables, stuck them in a food processor and add them to all the stage 2 jars we have. i still have about 20 stage 2's left. he will only eat plain stage 2 now if he is really hungry, even then he will only eat about 4 oz. when it is food he likes he can eat closer to 8 ounces. crazy that they are so aware at this age!

my favorite times of the day are when the three of us play together on the floor. it is so much fun and feels so crazy good just hanging out together.... our little family. :) Oh! hey any of you with babies - play with them on the stairs... i help thomas climb the stairs and he LOVES it. he can do that with me for as long as i can last. he loves feeling like he is getting somewhere... anywhere.
plus now he can crawl forward. it is amazing, sometimes even with his tummy off the ground. we are not really prepared for mobility... not much is child proofed yet. i guess we need to start doing that for real now. but i love watching him move. i sit him down, he pops onto his tummy and he is off. forward, backward, stretching, twisting. i have to keep eyes on him all the time now when he is on the floor. he is scary fast.

our fat little bird head

obvious resemblance....

it's been awhile since he opened this wide. i made a strawberry mango pineapple smoothie today and he couldn't get enough :) definitely not the same as vegetable turkey dinner...

something must have loosened his tongue because he started with consonants today! not just one but several: "a ba ba" "ga" "na na" "da" "wuh" like a talking cornucopia today. makes it sound like there is a real little person talking up a storm in our house. amazing...

Dad's ranting

No more evening engagement that lasts past 8pm....

Last Sunday was at John & Liz's home for some much missed Zachary pizza. Getting there late (Thomas was napping till 6:15pm) was mistake #1. Because then it meant we wont' be able to finish the pizza and socialize and leave by 7:45pm.

So by the time we got home...and tried to get Thomas to sleep...it was 9:30pm and he didn't sleep until 10:30pm.

The result...a Monday to be remembered.

He ate 1/2 of his breakfast only. Then fussed.
He ate the 2nd half of his breakfast and started on his lunch...then stopped.

He finally took his usual 11am nap at 12:30pm instead.

He ate the 2nd half of his lunch at 3:15pm.

Then dinner started at 6pm and he only ate half o it.

No 2nd nap for today.

He fell asleep at 8pm...hard. Tired out.

But now as of 11:30pm..he's been up 30 minutes crying.



So....that is IT. Daddy has made a rule for his household. NOBODY stays out past 8pm...so if I leave at 7:30pm...it's not personal. It is just that I don't deal with a fussy Thomas very well.

Arg...

William

8 months and more updates

Thomas has this little giraffe that he likes to carry around. he likes to grab it right by the neck and use it to bash around other things around him. here he is being hypnotized by it :)

however he quickly recovered, grabbed it by the neck again and is looking for things to bash.


-----------8 months----------------

we went to the doctor's office measure him for 8 months. they told us that we could bring him in anytime to get his height/weight. so he is now 27.25 inches and 19 lbs, 2 oz. i was very happy because he actually grew this month! the last two months, he grew barely a 1/4 inch each month. this last month he grew 3/4 of an inch. yay! i know that they tend to switch off putting on weight vs. gaining height, but it is always nice to see them grow. although sometimes i wish his little razor sharp finger nails would not grow so fast - i feels like i have to clip them every 3-4 days and it is getting harder and harder every month to clip.

i also decided to start him on slightly chunkier foods. a while ago we tried those little star puffs to see if he could handle it. poor little guy gagged and threw up almost half his meal on the floor. so it has been about 3 weeks, and i was reading that about 8 months they should be able to handle slightly chunkier food (just very soft). so i very carefully tried giving him the star puff cereal again... and he was ok! he actually took 5 of them! this was after a 7 oz meal so i knew he was enjoying the new and exciting food experience. he definitely wasn't opening his mouth because he was hungry. btw, babies can keep their lips together really tightly when they want to. if they don't want to open, you can't even get a spoon in there if you wanted to.

------------almost crawling----------------

thomas is getting more and more mobile by the week. the last couple weeks he has become very adriot at spinning 360's on his tummy. a week ago, he demonstrated his excellent backwards crawling ability. he is so close to crawling... it is so amazing to watch. unfortunately, this amazing development also makes him more work to keep track of. it really was so nice when you could plunk them down anywhere and know that they weren't moving.

i almost had a heart-attack yesterday morning. thomas sleeps around 8pm. he wakes around 6am and i usually sleep with him after 6. but yesterday i was so tired i actually fell asleep while he was nursing. so when he was full, he was moving around and i didn't realize it. i woke up an hour later and FREAKED OUT when i realized that there was no baby in front of me! i got a wave of adrenaline as i bolted upright.
there was thomas, at the very foot of the bed, snoring away on his stomach... inches from falling off the bed. in fact one of his hands was slightly over the edge. i can not believe i fell asleep so deeply that he was able to drag himself down there before he fell asleep again. i am now going to be really REALLY serious about getting to bed by 11pm. he moves around way too much to be inattentive. i am not going to let him fall off the bed a second time if i can help it. william also mentioned that we are going to have to lower the crib soon. he can pull himself up above the railing now so it is only a matter of time before he will realize that he can pull him self over.

---------------mall walking-----------------

everyone was at the mall today! i went there at 3pm with Liz & Regina and we met up with Blanca. while we were at Pottery Barn Kids, we bumped into amber and her little boy, ryan. he was so funny, just tooling around pushing the little toy stroller they had there in bright pink. we also bumped into melissa on her hour away from home/toddler. she mentioned that she and another friend are looking into opening a clothing boutique in the new Ikea plaza when that opens in Dublin. how exciting is that! the other gal, elizabeth already owns a boutique in walnut creek and another in san francisco. that is so very hip sounding... but lots of your blood and sweat go into owning a business like that. have to get all of the babies into school first, then i'll have time to work on my fantabulous dream career. :)

tagged

i was reading joanna's blog and realized that i have been tagged! :)

1. Grab the book nearest you, turn to page 18, line 4? ops.... ha ha... pg 18 has no words - it is a fashion magazine! oh wait... if only real books count then: "A staple gun makes short work of small household repairs. For example, to repair a screen that has been pulled out of its wood frame, staple the screen..." 2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What can you touch? thomas' bitty baby toy wagon, thomas' favorite tree, camcorder, william's ancient agfa scanner, my Bible from high school, m&m's candy dispenser 3. What's the last thing you watched on TV? 9/11 memorial 6. Except for the computer what can you hear? the clock ticking on the computer desk and thomas fussing as he goes down to take a nap with william 7. When did you last step outside and what were you doing? checking the mailbox with thomas (yes my life is so very interesting) 8. Before you started this survey what were you doing? checking email, reading blogs 10. Did you dream last night? that william and i were trick-or-treating, but we looked like we were in high school. then as we were running down a street, we became part of a group of renegades trying to escape a compound. but these evil guys called the lords of war had been called in to help the bad guys recapture us. so i was hiding under a desk in one of the rooms and was discovered! (no idea why i am always hiding in desks. too many movies in my head...). they assigned an amazonian woman to keep an eye on me but for some reason i had an icee cold big gulp in my hand and remembered that her species (maybe they were aliens???) was deadly allergic to ice. i tricked her into drinking it and she started dying, but somehow the sound was vaguely familiar. i woke up and turns out thomas was doing his bird calls (or rather shrieks) from the kitchen and that was the sound of her dying. :) 11. When did you last laugh? an hour ago when thomas strained backwards in my arms to see what william was doing. i could see every single booger in his nose as well as the palette of his mouth and the two teeth that have popped through the bottom row 12. What's on the walls in the room you're in? a copy of matisse's "Les Oiseaux", a modern wall clock, random smaller framed prints, old Casablanca promo print, small cork board with so much stuff on it that you can barely see the cork 13. Seen anything weird? not that i can remember. unless my dream counts 14. What do you think of this quiz? am i done yet?! (same as joanna) these are kinda silly. don't keep reading please... unless you are reeeeeally bored. this is taking me a long time. i had to take a break... i took three breaks while filling this out 15. Last film or video seen? "History of Violence" with Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello. william and i just watched "Munich" tonight. it was excellent very heavy movie though. not something you want to watch for fun. 16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight what's the first thing you'd do? give money to the charities i have always wanted to support better (my church, world vision, doctor's without borders, smiletrain, UPC, the missionary couples we send money to). also i would love to set up an angel investment company. 17. Tell me something I don't know about yourself? i was an absolute compulsive liar from the 10th grade on, until college when i became Christian. 18. If you could change one thing about the world regardless of politics what would it be? i agree with joanna - cigarettes/cigars really suck. but if i had to choose one thing - i would give all babies a safe place to grow up. after having thomas, the idea of babies suffering makes both william and i heartsick. they are so innocent, pure and lovely and the thought of a baby in pain just makes me so sad. if i could do away with that, i would truly give my life. 19. Do you like to dance? yes i love dancing but most of the places where one would go to dance (i.e. clubs) tend to be full of leary guys and plus william doesn't like to dance. so now i dance with thomas in the den with mr. frog and curious george. 20. What comment would you like to make to George Bush? i believe in the republican party (of course, there is always room for improvement) but it would be nice if you could be a more transparent leader. I feel that would help win back the support you have lost in recent years. Oh also, please work on your extemporaneous speaking skills. :) 21. Your first child is a girl what do you name her? Rebecca 22. Your first child is a boy what do you name him? Thomas!! absolutely no regrets :) 23. Would you ever consider living abroad? no, the standard of living in the U.S. has spoiled me (cleanliness, easy access to almost anything, still many opportunities). 24. What do you want God to say to you when you reach the pearly gates? the same as joanna, Well done good and faithful servant. 25. Five people you want to do this quiz? I tag: regina, liz, audrey, debbie, cynthia... william, vijay...anyone that has some time on their hands. let me know if you fill it out!

Some of the questions from Me Me Me, posted by Liz:

What characteristic do you despise? people who are mean
Where would you go on vacation? anywhere in europe
Favorite brand of clothing? currently H&M. although, if i had a money tree it would be prada, gucci and dolce & gabbana.
Where would you retire? i agree with liz - Hawaii (they say hawaiians live the longest of anyone in the US). or to the central coast of california where william and i would have a kitty farm so unwanted kitties could come and live out the remainder of their natural lives
Favorite sport to watch? hmmmm... i am not really into sports...
Name on birth certificate? catherine inkyung choe
Number of candles on your last birthday cake? 34
Tattoos? one on upper shoulder - a spiked butterfly
How much do you love your job? someday i will have my own clothing company and i will love my job! right now i love being a MOM :)
Been in a car accident? yes at least a dozen if you count all the fender benders. in '92 i totalled my poor jetta
Favorite restaurant? Frisson (because it is so Sex & the City cool)
where would you like to max out your credit card? H&M and EQ3
What do you do most when you are bored? play with Thomas & William. read. watch movies.
If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? I agree with Liz - Bay Area is wonderful!

going nuts

maybe it is being a stay-at-home mom but i am going NUTS! i bought a peg perego stroller from a family in livermore, in very decent condition, from craigslist. it was only $40 which was good considering it originally retailed for $350 to 400 depending on where it was bought. peg perego strollers have a fairly good resale value (kinda like hondas) so i thought i was getting a good deal. when i got there, turns out the reason it was only $40 was because she couldn't find the detachable hood. it is a nice hood - it retracts fully and opens fully to cover the child and has a zipper to allow air to circulate. it is rain resistant and machine washable. all the things you would want in a stroller hood. that was a bummer but oh well, it was only $40.

that was 2 months ago. so now i was a doing a little research on strollers and it is almost $120 to buy the replacement part from peg perego. forget it!!! now i start obsessing a little because i really want a hood. i start looking at craigslist again for a similar stroller with a hood. only most people want at least $75 for the sim stroller in decent condition with all parts. call me a cheapskate but i do not want to pay that much for a used stroller. arrrrrgh...

well, william was cleaning out his garage a little this evening and guess what he found in there?? a hood attachment that matches my stroller. what?? how can that be? i don't recall getting this part when i bought it. i mean, i even remember her saying that she couldn't find the hood. william walks in, holds it up like a fish he just caught and says "hey is this something we got from lawrence/daphne or julie/james?" i practically had a coronary!! what is that doing in the garage? did it magically appear there? did God put it there??? william claims that when he first took the stroller out of my trunk, he remembers pulling two other pieces out with it. are you lame?? why did you not tell me this? i mean, actually, why don't i remember this? do i have alzheimers? why can't i remember getting this from her? that is just greeaaaat... i have emailed her twice pestering her about whether she has found the hood yet. she is going to think i am a complete nut case. sheesh... is this what having babies does to you? sucks the youth and mental capacity out from you until all you are is a white haired grandmother sitting on the porch drinking lemonade?? !!!! why doesn't she remember giving me the hood? i am so confounded...


----------------thomas milestones-------------------

trying to calm myself down... his first two teeth started breaking through last saturday. so far, he has been very good about not biting while he is nursing. we'll see how long that lasts. in this picture, if you click on it to get the larger version, you can see the two bumps in his gums form the teeth. he has such a wonderful smile. :)
more lovely pictures of thomas on our vacation, and yes... it would be so nice if all of our bedrooms looked so cool, uncluttered and clean. we decided that a king size bed is very nice.
we actually had a very good vacation. i was a little worried because i have been so cranky lately.... worried that i would spend the entire time making william miserable but it never happened. we had one incident over take-out but as i was putting thomas to sleep, all i could do was look into his sleepy, lovely eyes and take-out didn't matter any more. i put him down in the pack-n-play and went over to the bathroom to see what william was up to.

there was william, sitting in the middle of the bathroom floor (it was pretty large bathroom for a hotel room) on one of the big white bath towels, drinking beer, eating take-out and reading my celebrity trash magazine. :D
as he looked up at me with that very happy smile, it completely did me in and all i could do was giggle and join him. so there we ended the night, drinking beer & wine cooler (btw, the green apple vodka chiller is really really tasty), eating thai noodles, sitting on towels and reading trash about celebrities.

our mini vacation - day 3

Day 3 started at 1pm. We drove up to Mt. Tamaplais. It was HOT up there...about 88F and no wind. What made it hot was that there is NO shade. So we made haste and came back down the mountain to Muir Woods (a chilly 60F).

A couple on their honeymoon asked if we wanted a family picture and we accepted their offer. They were a young couple from the southern part of the country.

We stood between two big trees...and for once Thomas did not look upset in a family picture!







I finally held Thomas over my shoulders and it was scary for me. I made sure my hands were always inter-locked at all times because this little guy can really move when he wants to. Dropping him from 5 ft. up onto pavement is not something I'll ever forgive myself for....

As you can see, Thomas here is trying to look up at the tall trees and has pushed away from my head with his little arms! Crazy Thomas!






Thomas is laughing like crazy in this picture. His high-pitched laughter must've been heard by everyone hiking near us at Muir Woods. The place is quiet...and the majestic trees almost demand that you respect their tallness with silence. And here's daddy rubbing the back of his head into Thomas' belly which made him giggle and squeal.

Who knows...maybe the trees enjoyed baby laughter for a change...




At one of the bridge crossings, there was still some light left (6pm) and we stopped to take some pictures. Thomas here is looking at his dad with a puzzle'd look cause I was hanging way over the bridge to get this shot. He probably wonders if I'll fall over...








Here's where I'll get a little bit philosophical:

Thomas is at the bridge with mom. Mom made sure he is safe. The look on his face, I'd imagine, is of curiosity. Without parents looking out for our kids, they wouldn't know any better and literally would fall into harm's way.

Mom's is clutching Thomas's chest while Thomas "thinks" about jumping or what lies beyond the edge. No way Thomas....daddy & mommy will protect you as long as we can. You're so precious to us; but someday we'll have to let you go....

our mini vacation - day 1

here's the first pictures from our mini-trip out to Mill Valley, a little bit north of SF. without traffic on a Labor Day Monday, it only took us 48 minutes to get here. thomas slept almost the entire way there so it was a perfect drive.

Here's the view from our balcony. Catherine swindled the young man at the front-desk by saying it's our 10th year annivesary (which is true...) and he bumped us from a regular to a junior suite with a balcony and a bottle of champagne.














Acqua hotel is nice...and not too pricey at all. I'd recommend for a short get-away in our bay area backyard. all the staff are also very nice. continental breakfast is included along with free wine & cheese in the lobby every evening. BIG plus! instantly made me like the hotel.

Here's Thomas all by himself in the king-size bed....









we got into our room and immediately took over 100 pictures of thomas on the bed. it was so arty looking we couldn't help ourselves. plus it was very funny seeing him, sitting so properly on the bed. we got quite a few good shots of him smiling, laughing and looking pensively out towards the bay.

-william

big laugh

william got lucky and caught thomas laughing... not just any laugh. this was a full body, rolling on the floor type laugh. it even looks like he is hitting the tray with his little left hand. i have no idea what he was laughing at. maybe something that daddy was doing? who knows what goes on in the minds of our little innocent babes :)


--------------- jessica's baby shower----------------

a couple weeks ago, i went to jessica's baby shower with debbie. it was really nice to hang out with debbie and jessica again. they both looked great, esp jessica with her beautiful bump. debbie had on the cutest flats that she had picked up in taiwan. always very on trend:) and i love that maternity clothes these days are designed more to show off the bump than hide it. although it was a hot day and her dad's place has no a/c... one of her aunts was so funny. she said her brother was so cheap to not even put ceiling fans in. but he does have a beautiful home. we got to meet her whole family... and while no family is perfect, I must say she has such a nice family! 95% of my extended family lives in Korea so it is near impossible to keep in touch. plus most of them can't type in English and i can't type in Korean, so email is out of the question with most of my 13 cousins. so sad!


anyways, seeing you guys made me miss my co-workers and lunches in the cafe. although, i definitely don't miss work esp. with no more Target distribution/financial software... i am glad i am not there for that part. but i miss interacting with the people on a daily basis!!

perseverance or faith

say you have a decision that needs to be made. once the decision is made it will affect quite a few people (at least a couple dozen). So you pray about it and ask God for wisdom. Then you seek advice from other Godly persons. One person that you feel is very Godly tells you one scenario, but a second person (whom you also regard as Godly) tells you almost the exact opposite.
now, the first i regard as having more experience/wisdom. but they are both Godly people, so who is right? there are times i know exactly what direction God wants me to go. other times, it is hard to discern (or i am not hearing anything God is sending me because sometimes, I just don't feel up to being focused on God at that moment). i have actually been fortunate never to have been in a situation where God has sent two very opposing advices. so this is a pickle...
usually all the signs (from other people, from reading the Bible, from going to church, etc.) point in the same direction. other times, you only get one sign from God. still other times, it is just not the right time for an answer to be given and so you wait.
what do you do when there are clearly two different directions? i feel i need to wait and pray about it and ask God for further clarification. but so many things go into this decision (plus it is absolutely not mine alone to make). there is pride in my own abilities (which come from God anyways) and my own desires that affect how i see the outcome. it could be that satan is pushing me to rush into a decision based on my own deductions. Or is God testing us to see if we persevere in the one direction? does God want to see if we have enough faith to step out in the other direction? tough tough situation...

helmet head and dropping baby

here is yet another one of william's hilarious attempts to protect thomas. this time it was to protect thomas' lovely baby skin from unneeded sun exposure. he took thomas outside to water the plants but couldn't find a hat - so he plunked his big ole bicycle helmet on thomas' little head. (actually thomas head is not so little - 90-95% for his age.) amazingly thomas put up with it and i got this picture from the patio door. i can't believe he is not flinging things off his head yet; he still puts up with hats. sunglasses are not so lucky - they got taken off about 50% of the time now so that he can examine them. i am sure it is only a matter of time before he starts taking hats off too.

-------------------big falls-------------------------

on another topic, thomas has fallen twice now. both times my fault. :(
the first time, i was playing with him on the bed. our bed used to be a platform - no box spring. when we got a queen, we had to use the frame and box spring that came with the bed (we didn't want to buy a queen frame b/c i eventually wanted a king). this year we borrowed one of those 3" foam toppers to put on the bed from helen (william's sister). so for about a year - our bed has been high - almost high enough for me to need a stool to climb up. i have been DYING to get a king size bed so i can just get another platform bed - no BOX SPRING. i really dislike box springs. anyways, that is not going to happen until later this year... so in the mean time, we have a high bed.
so there we were - lying in bed, thomas was lying in william's spot. i thought to myself "i should really pull him back over to the center of the bed". then i thought "oh he'll be fine." i even started dangling a toy so that he would roll towards me. well, for some reason, that toy was not good enough, b/c he decided to roll away from me. one second baby was on bed, next second, he was dangling at the edge of the cliff. the next second he disappeared from sight as i lunged for his limbs. THUD. i scrambled and peered over the edge. there was poor thomas on the ground crying pitifully, looking up at me to make sure i was there. at least he landed on his back and not his face. i believe he hit his forehead on the nightstand, which caused him to flip from his stomach to his back. anyways, i rushed to gather him up and comfort him. he didn't even cry that much after i had him in my arms. that made me feel worse for some reason. he pulled back a little and leaned over to take a look at the ground that he had just fallen onto. gave a few more sniffles and was ok after that. i held a bag of frozen corn to his forehead for the next 30 minutes. after he realized it was not comfortable to have frozen produce on his head, he started batting it away as soon as he saw me lift it towards his face. smarty little baby... :)
ops... he is awake... have to finish later :)

24 and william's "tumor"

william and i finished watching the first season of 24. now we know why it is such a popular show. it is just real enough to make it completely believable... really well written. he is an uber-agent of sorts, but not like on alias where sydney bristow is practically super human. i read eric haney's book "delta force" (it is the book that "the unit" is based on, the new show that dennis haysbert is in). it is amazing the training that delta force operators have to go through. they really can shot accurately while running, and they can accurately identify people holding weapons from innocent bystanders while under high pressure. they are trained to be highly resourceful and delta force picks from the best. btw, you know those HALO knives are almost $400 each??? they have over 20 parts and are pretty much guarenteed to stay open regardless of any pressure you are exerting on the handle. i guess when you are trying to kill someone, the last thing you want is the blade to accidentally "pop" back in the sheath. anyways, delta force operators are mostly special forces guys when they are selected to try out for delta force. eric haney made a comment in his book that after 4 weeks of intense selection exercises, all the big, heavily muscled, jock guys were gone. the few remaining guys that made it through the selection process where fairly average looking guys, people that you would never pick out in a crowd. so it is believable the things that jack does as a former delta operator. whereas i have to admit, syndey is pretty skilled at things that really can not possibly be... as much as i love her character. plus, 24 is believable, whereas alias got into funky plot lines after the first season.
*******SPOILERS COMING******* DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT AND INTEND TO**************

it was heart-wrenching to see jack discover terry in those last minutes, but so believable. nina is obviously a highly skilled field agent, deep undercover. her handler told her to leave no connection to germany. the writers made a point of terry discovering nina speaking german. why would someone that like leave a liability like that alive? no way. she was trying to cover her tracks, there is absolutely no reason to let terry live. oh and watching sherry palmer get dumped was a most satisfying moment as well. palmer is a character that does not bend his principles no matter the effect on his career. i guess that is why everyone likes him. btw, dennis haysbert is the 8th of 9 children and he is 6'4". he was also in a lot of TV (A-Team, magnum p.i., buck rogers... ha ha yeah he's been around for awhile) before getting his film break in a movie opposite michelle pfeiffer. he got a couple sports scholarships but decided to go into acting. interesting guy. anyways...
we are taking a "24" hiatus for now, to catch up on some movies we have really been wanting to see (munich, firewall, cars, etc). but we are really looking forward to renting the next seasons of 24 and the adventures of jack and senator palmer. if anyone has seasons 2 and 3 let us know :)

------------william's stress--------------

william has had a headache off and on for 2 weeks now. i think it is stress - not bad stress - just stress of interviews, final projects due, micro-manager boss looking over his shoulder here and there, and crabby wife at home :p. he also managed to get a kink in his neck last wednesday - from just reaching over to turn the light off from bed. we are getting old. the neck kink still hasn't gone away and neither has his headache. he keeps saying he has a tumor. yeah... real funny bubba.... keep that up.... NOT funny at all! no more joking about brain tumors.... life's too short to be thinking about brain tumors. although, knowing william he is saying as a sort of reverse murphy's law. he is always saying "if i say it and it won't happen." i still say no more joking about brain tumors. although, william just sounded off a ridiculously long wind (of the nitrogen/hydrogen/sulfur kind) in the kitchen, making it really hard to be serious about this. he just deadpaned "do not come near here unless you want to die."

------------finally thomas---------------

i can not resist making fun of william's makeshift attempts to protect our son against chills while sleeping. sometimes i find thomas wrapped in old tshirt, old sweat pants, random bedsheet... i finally got proof...

Silly Pictures of Thomas and William

Thomas moves around in the crib a lot before he falls into deep sleep. In this instance, he decided the center of the bed wasn't "cool" enough so he decided to head for the corner and on top of that, decided that it's more comfortable to put his left feet up on the crib bumper. in the dark of his room, i thought he was asleep... i could see the outline of his body and thought it would make a funny picture. so i snapped a quick picture. to my surprise, his head whipped up after the flash went off. later examination of my surveillance photo revealed that i had snuck into his room when he was awake!!!
that made my heart kind of ache - because he was laying there in the dark, not fussing or making any noise... just waiting to go to sleep :( little boy has learned to put himself to sleep. *sigh* it is true what they say about how fast they grow up. one day, they cry for you to nurse them before they fall asleep, the next day they are fine without you. makes me kind of sad...


Here's a few silly shots William asked mom to take quickly while she was in the kitchen cooking. William had just finish spoon feeding Thomas his dinner... goofy goofy :)

piles and piles

i have 4 piles in the house. (1) the recent pile is things that have come in the mail recently or need to be done in the last week. that is located on the dinning room table. (2) the monthly pile is in the den upstairs. that is stuff that has come in in the last month that i really need to sort through in the next month or so. (3) the 2006 pile is in the office upstairs. this is stuff that has been sitting there since thomas has been born. yes jan 8th. i try to take an item or two from that pile every week so it doesn't sit there forever.
(4) the last pile is the X-files pile... scary. it is compiled of all the items pre-2006, including from when i was on bedrest (sept to dec 05) and some stuff from when i left Mervyns in feb as well as some stuff from my previous employer (yes 2003). it is a fairly big pile. i tried to avoid it for a long time. i am sure there is a lot of stuff in there that is not even valid any more. i used to have it under my desk upstairs. then i moved it right next to the chair on the floor in an effort to get myself to take a look. i bumped it with my chair and now the stack has toppled backwards, kinda of in a fan. it is like art. i should take a close-up picture of it and blow it up real big for the wall. i can probably throw away half that stuff... *sigh* i just need to start looking through it. or maybe, if i manage not to touch any of it by the end of the year, i'll just toss the entire pile in the circular file...

checking out the hands

thomas started looking at his hands again. he was doing it a lot starting around 3-3.5 months, then stopped around 5 months. he started again a few weeks ago, so i thought i would try to get a picture of it. he holds them up and just turns slowly front to back, palm to back. it is SO cute. like he is trying to get a really good look. "hey look here i have these hand things and they move when i want them too."


what a difference not using the flash makes. almost looks like different times of day but i shot these at the same time in the afternoon. opsy... i've been discovered! thomas was very intent on his hands but he suddenly flipped up really fast to say "hello! i see you!!"


----------------- 7 months old! -----------------------
i took him to the doctor's office yesterday to get a height/weight check. the office we go to said we can take him by any time to get an height/weight check. plus the scale we have at home is not always accurate. he is 18lb 9oz and 26.5 inches. he barely grew, but he packed on almost 2 pounds in the last month with all the solid food. look at how fat his cheeks are. i like to call him my fat little fluffy bird head because he is fat and his hair is fluffy (when it is clean) and he just sits there like a little birdy, mouth open, waiting for the food. although, i take that back, he is a moving target now. he gets distracted very easily and looks at everything except his food. so we have become experts (mostly) of RDMI (rapid digestible meal insertion). mrs naomi - that was for you oh queen of acronyms :)

more firsts for the record

we took some more pictures of him this weekend. here is a artsy little picture of his cute butt. look at the fat ooozing out the sides of his stomach! :)

thomas clearly recognizes his name now. he turns his head towards us when we say it. last Monday, he also started getting angry when we take toys away from him or when he can't get at something he wants to touch. it is so cute. he gets a little frustrated and starts breathing fast, hyperventilating really. then if he still can't reach it, or i take it out of his reach, he starts crying - a really whinny, higher pitched cry. so funny! at least it is funny now because he is so small...

i also had him try his gumball toy and AMAZINGLY, he realizes now that if he pushes the little lever, fun things come rolling out. that is amazing! i have showed him the toy several times, but he would slap it with his hands as he watched me push down the level and the gumballs roll out. now he actually pushes the lever himself and watches as the toys roll out. it was so great watching him discover this. look at the sly look on his face. like "whadda you lookin at?" the way he is holding it, it is like when you have put money into a vending machine and it is not spitting out what you selected. so he is shaking it to see if it will come out. ha ha....

i have been really really moody lately and poor william is getting the brunt of that. everyone has off days and this has been more of an off week for me. one minute i am fine, the next minute i will be chewing william out. poor daddy... never knowing when to duck! :p

thomas is finally getting used to sleeping without waking up and crying for us. wow... that took almost a week to get him back on track. it is so nice having him sleep through 9 to 6. and every morning when i go to pick him up, he cries a little when he sees me and gives me a big hug as soon as i pick him up and clings to me. it is so nice to be loved!

------------------- 24 ------------------------
on a side note, we borrowed the first season of "24" and we are totally hooked. we watch one episode every night. it must have been torturous for those of you that watched it when it first came out. we can't imagine a whole week between each episode.

look at the mess i made

i was eating and eating. and i had enough. mommy tried to make me eat more. so i showed her with my fast karate hands that i had enough. she wasn't expecting my fast karate hands!

by day, lovely baby, thomas anderson, with respectable parents. by night, a renegade cereal hacker with matrix hands...

sleep battles

thomas has been waking up quite a bit the last month or so. at least 2-4 times a night. as long as william picks him up and rocks him, he goes right back to sleep. sometimes around 4am, it takes longer than that and william ends up taking him to the downstairs room to co-sleep. i got sick a couple weeks ago and william was trying to protect my sleep. which is greatly appreciated but i am not sick anymore and we need to get our little crafty one back on track. i suspected that thomas was just looking for comfort but really didn't have a way to prove it. william doesn't like to hear him cry and neither do i (it certainly has a way of raising your blood pressure) so william always comforts him back to sleep.
well, the night before (at 3am), william was trying to talk through why he keeps waking up. we know he can sleep from 9 to 6 am without needing food. so william keeps thinking it is because he is cold. i've been telling him that he gets congested because he is crying, but he doesn't want to believe that. then he tells me that i need to get myself in order and figure out what is wrong. sheesh... if i had it my way, thomas would only get picked up once after 9pm to check for any remaining burps. anyways, i told him last night that babies wake up here and there during the night. they are not manipulative but they do learn and thomas has learned that if he cries, daddy will come sooth him back to sleep. i think william was finally ready to hear that, so we let him cry and he was back asleep after about 10 minutes of crying. around 12midnight, he cried out but it was literally less than a minute and he was back asleep. the third time, he cried out once and decided it wasn't worth staying up.
he slept right through until 6am. so, william has learned, even though he wants to comfort baby, sometimes, it is better to let them learn to cry it out so they learn not to cry for a certain reaction. then thomas can learn to sooth himself back to sleep and we all get a full night's sleep!

and i am supposed to change his diapers...

this is getting a little ridiculous. i need to install a restraint system of some kind. maybe velcro straps across his chest and hips...

he even uses the towel bar for leverage! several times now, when i try to flip him back, he swings his leg wildly all around until his foot finds the towel bar and hooks on for dear life. he grabs hold of the side of the changing table and presto magico flipping baby... look at that crafty face, so proud of himself.