A Year in Review

2009 has been a year full of new adventures and introspection. One of our church members, Dr. Kerry Telford, tragically died with her infant, Sarah Grace, in a floatplane accident back in November and a couple of our dear friends' dads have passed away recently. As a result of such sad events, it brings us back to our knees as we ask our Creator some hard questions and often times, there's silence. "Why God?" "Why Kerry and her little girl?" Eventhough I've only talked to her a handful of times, Kerry has often radiated such fullness of life and joy that can only come from above. She's done such marvelous deeds to her community and to her jungles in Peru. A life that seems to be taken away far too soon. Our thoughts are with Kerry's family and with our friends' families who have lost their loved ones. In light of the frailty of life, we're reminded to live life to its fullest and to be thankful for what we have at this present time. We wanted to take this time to wish you a Happy New Year and we hope that you will enjoy reading our blog as we finish this year off by counting our blessings one by one:

• First on the list is of course, the birth of our second baby boy: Noah


• A's strong immune system as he licked the HK's tram windows and still didn't get sick =)


• Our first trip to Asia and we had a wonderful and memorable time spent with family


• Izzy finally received a continuing contract with the VSB after 6 long years!


• Watching A's learning new things. His latest accomplishments include being potty trained (day time) and stringing lots of words and actually making sense.


• A and N's brotherhood! It's such a joy seeing them interact with one another.


• One of Vince's highlights was Playtown in HK. Imagine a 10,000 sq. feet indoor playground that features gigantic play structures that both kids and adults can climb into and a really awesome ballistic arena.


• Family is always a blessing esp. Auntie Lulu who lived with us at the beginning of the year. We truly appreciate her help and her love towards us! She's so wonderful to our boys (and Uncle Damien, too).


• Izzy's mom came out during the summer and was an invaluable help during the birth of Noah.


• and last but not least, we're thankful for our friends both old and new, near and far...

Life with 2

A lot of people have asked how life is with 2? The first three months have been super hectic, like a whirlwind but things have settled down a bit and I am getting the hang of it these days. I love watching A interact with N and vice versa. My favourite times are when N is giggling away when A is doing something funny....and let me tell you how many silly tricks A has up his sleeves. Sometimes, N would laugh so hard when A is doing something that he shouldn't be doing ie. jumping too close to his head, bumping into him, etc.

The hardest part I would say is to make sure that each boy gets enough attention from me but the truth is that N is often ignored b/c he's so sweet and easygoing as he's content just staring or sucking on his fist. My little Noah is growing so fast and he's almost four months and close to 19lbs. Crazy! A wasn't even close to that weight until he was ONE. What is going on? Maybe it's my supermilk. =)

Wake up, Baby Noah!

Hello everyone,

This is Aidan and I have great news: I am officially a BIG brother now to...

Baby Noah
born on July 23, 2009
8lbs. (a bit heavier than me when I was born!)
51 cm. (same length as me when I was born!)

Noah was born at BC Women's Hospital after an intense and natural delivery at 10:30am in the Cedar Room #14 (just a few rooms down from where I was born!!). I like reading to Baby Noah and I even tried to share my trains with him but he doesn't want to play b/c he's always sleeping so I keep saying "Wake up, baby Noah"!! So far, it hasn't really worked yet. When mommy tells me that he's hungry, I also offered him some of my cheerios and once again, he did not seem interested. I want to play with him now! I like being a big brother so far =)

praying for the peoples...

Lately, we've been asking A who he would like to pray for (inspired by Auntie T and lumlum) and he's been answering us with "peoples". He often remembers to be thankful for the things that he has, too. It really warms my heart when A is able to look beyond himself and be able to grasp the fact that the world around him is a very big place. Of course, he has his typical two year old tantrums here and there but when he asks to pray for "peoples", it reminds me to persevere as it makes the hardships of parenthood all worth it.

I am 38 weeks prego and I have a gut feeling that baby #2 wants to make an early arrival. My mom's flying in from TO to help us out indefinitely and I'm very, very thankful to have an extra pair of hands as doing everyday things can be tedious now with my HUGEMONGOUS belly. I am trying to really enjoy my last days with A and try to prepare of what is to come. Another season of our lives is about to begin...

In case, I don't get a chance to blog, I wanted to brainstorm some of AC's new stuff:

• newest obsession: Thomas the Train
• fave animal at the Vancouver Zoo: racoon
• loves climbing, running and jumping
• finished his first "Music Together" class and has learned many new songs (his fave: Ladybug)
• developing a funny sense of humour
• started humming and singing (and dancing at times) with no prompting
• gives fishy kisses to daddy
• still loves his hippo and must have it when he goes down for his naps and bedtime

Thank you for the wonderful times, Auntie T, Uncle P, and lumlum! We miss you!!!

Thank you, mommy!

Aidan's 2nd birthday celebration at the Aquarium!
He loved the beluga whales and the jellyfish...

I received one of the best mother's gifts that a mom could receive...
her child saying "thank you, mommy!"

It has been one of those very special and touching moments when AC finally grasped the concept of expressing gratitude! He has been very thankful as of lately and at times, he just says "thank you, mommy" out of the blue. It totally melts my heart.

Life at the Chan household has been hectic as we are now preparing for Baby #2's arrival in July and the school year is coming to an end. (report cards time!! yeesh). AC's developing his sense of humor these days where he often finds ways to make us laugh with his phrases like telling daddy that he has three eyes, and then saying "silly Aidan". AC has also been experimenting with many monkey moves at the playground and often times amazes me that he's growing so quickly. Vince has told me more than once that how he would like to just "bottle" this part of AC's life and now I can totally relate to him. I am enjoying watching AC's exuberance of life and his strong yet sensitive personality.

below: Aidan just loves sour lemons!

Baby #2

We have awesome news to share!

We are expecting Baby #2 at the end of July and we are looking forward to this new phase!! We know that it'll be a lot of work having 2 but just imagine how much more love, joy, and fun we will have? We are most likely going to find out the sex so that we can give him or her a more adequate name and A can also start saying brother or sister rather than just baby.

Here are some of our highlights of 2009 thus far...

• Trip to Hong Kong to celebrate the Chinese New Year amongst Vince's family. We are definitely done with travelling as it's a lot harder with a toddler and especially with the time change. It was a trip to remember in many ways, though!
• I wrote my first batch of report cards since coming back to work from mat leave.
• Dogsitting Sidney! Having three dogs and one toddler was definitely very tiring but we had a wonderful time.
• Auntie Lulu's staying with us until she finishes her precepting at SMH. We love having her around and A is always looking for her and wanting to jump onto her bed.
• Daytrip to Victoria to hang out with the Huangs, P&P (Peter and Philippa). The day passed by way too quickly but A had a great time with M =)
• AC's first two words strung together were: "watching TV"
• AC's three words strung together were: "monkeys eatin' nanas"
• AC's four words strung were: "bye bye jelly fish" (it could be considered three words since jellyfish is one word...)
  

*hug*

totally mesmerized at the Toronto Zoo

One of A's favourite words right now is *hug* and I absolutely love it especially when he puts up his hands anxiously waiting for the embrace. I figured that I have at least a few more years to enjoy these hugs until he becomes a "big" boy. He's babbling a lot more although often times, we're still not sure what he's trying to string together but for the most part, he is able to express himself either through sign or one-two word(s) sentences. This morning, something really cool happened...

I've been teaching Aidan to say "Aidan" and he finally got it, then my next goal was to teach him to say it after "What is your name?". After a few times, he got it and then we were jumping up and down for joy. I also managed to squeeze in the question "How old are you?" and he can say "Two!" when I hold up two of my fingers. (Although he's not quite two yet, but why not get a head start?)
Our Christmas holidays was really busy but a lot of fun. AC went for his third plane ride to Toronto and enjoyed a wonderful time among his poh-poh, great-grandparents, aunties, uncles, etc. Only mommy and A went as daddy wasn't able to get time off from work.

Other updates include that AC is now in Daycare three days a week as I have gone back to teaching. I am currently teaching Grade 6 at Moberly on Thurs. and Fri, and I am also teaching Resource at Begbie on Tues. I am really enjoying the balance between being mommy and a teacher.

A and his great-grandparents in TO