Happy 1st birthday, Aidan!!!

Our little guy is officially ONE today! It's hard to believe that a year ago, AC came into our world and has enriched our lives in so many ways. We had a few busy weeks with Poh-poh and Auntie Lulu visiting us and then we drove down to Cannon Beach with the dogs for a special family trip.

Here are some highlights:

• Aidan had a special birthday party at Lumlum's party room with his little and big friends. He was absolutely mesmerized by all the balloons. We were sooo happy that Auntie Lucia made it out just in time for the party from Calgary.
  

• AC has four teeth now, two on top and two on the bottom.

• It's been a lot of fun watching AC dance and bopping his head up and down. We still need to catch it on camera.

• First words are: mama, dada, dog, and tung (light in cantonese).

• First signs are: eat, water, milk, and brushing teeth.

• AC has a lot of energy for such a little guy (he's in the 10th percentile for weight and in the 20th percentile for height). If you ever come over, you would find him busy sweeping the floor with a real broom, attempting to walk the dogs holding onto their leashes, and getting into trouble (taking books out of the bookshelf and touching the dirty shoes!) Needless to say, our lives are consumed by this twenty pound child =)

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Walking before teething

Life has been quite busy and fun lately as Aidan is now walking! We couldn't believe that our toothless little guy was walking at ten months. Just shortly after walking, his bottom teeth finally sprouted and we were actually more excited about the teeth than his walking because we have been waiting for them to come out for so many months. The teething experience was not that great as the sleepless nights emerged once again. We tried everything from cold cloths, teething rings, teething tablets, to teething biscuits but the only thing that really worked for us were these vanilla biscuits from Choices called "Healthy Times". The Hyland teething tablets seemed to somewhat help, as well. I cannot believe that this teething business will go on until he's two or so.

We dedicated Aidan in February at Tenth Avenue Alliance and it was a very special moment for us as it reminded us what a good and perfect gift we have received from above. We have also been doing a lot more activities with AC like snowshoeing, swimming, going to playgroups, playing with sand and pebbles, and eating out for dinner. Both Vince and myself are really enjoying this new stage of AC's mobility =) It's hard to believe that AC is turning ONE at the end of this month!

I have also been doing some reflection upon my identity as this past year has been somewhat of a whirlwind. A good friend of mine, T. has been sharing with me what she's been learning at the Regent mom's group and it's been such a blessing. I know that I am first and foremost a child of God, and then a wife, mother, teacher, etc. It's hard to remember that order as being a mom seems to have taken first place over every other aspect of my life. One challenge is to disassociate myself from Aidan and still find time to do things that I love and enjoy! I would love to get back into running again so that is why I am really considering running the Scotia Half Marathon. I'm afraid to sign up because I know that I need to start training soon and I'm wondering where I will find the time and energy to do that? I will just have to make the time, I suppose.

the new park on selkirk is awesome esp. when we go with J & M.
we will really miss them when they move to Richmond!

Auntie J takes the best pics and this is one of them =)

snowshoeing at mt. seymour with the dogs

Nine months report

Vince asked me the other day, "Do you remember how Aidan was like when he was a newborn?". I sat there thinking and tried to remember how he was like but found it really hard. It feels as though some of the memories have faded away especially during first few weeks of Aidan's life when everything was like a big blur. Days and nights were all mixed up as I recall being in my pjs all the time ;) Then Vince's second question was: "Are you ready for another one?", and my immediate response was "NO!". I think that it would be nice to wait for a bit longer so that I can enjoy taking care of just one child. I guess it's all in God's timing, right?

We've been very busy lately with baby proofing our house as Aidan is mobile now. He's quite the speedster when it comes to crawling and he is also cruising along the walls and the sofa. We've been anticipating his first tooth since a few months ago but, nothing still! He's got the cutest toothless grin, though.

Here are some fun and interesting stuff about Aidan's nine months report:

loves...

• playing with daddy
• eating food esp. arrowoot cookies, and turkey soup
• giggling to himself (he sort of sounds like Beavis)
  
• looking at lights and in the mirror
• going out for walks
• going to places where he's not supposed to like the TV and the fireplace
• touching Rylee's soft ears
  
• meeting new people
• to jump and jump in his jolly jumper
  

dislikes...

• getting changed
• being held/restrained, or strapped into his car seat
• naps because he would rather play all day long if he could

Aidan's developing a sense of humour. These are some things that he thinks it's funny:

• when mommy puts her hair in a turban
• looking at pictures of his friends and of himself
• playing hide and seek

We hope that you all had a wonderful time during Christmas and
we wish you a Happy New Year!



We went swimming for the first time at Marianne and Alan's new house!
Aidan was quite scared and hung onto me like a baby gorilla...

Family portraits by kidsphoto

The AC experience

AC along with mommy took his first flight at the end of October to visit his grandma, great-grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc. We flew with Air Canada and despite of how tainted their reputation may be, we were surprisingly pleased with our flight experience. It was great to receive extra care and attention when traveling with an infant. On our way to Toronto, our flight attendant was so helpful that she kept on checking up on me and making sure that I had a pee break during the flight. And during our way back to Vancouver, I was thankful by the surrounding people as they played and entertained Aidan. I am really proud of my baby because he did so well on both flights =)

We both got sick right before going to Toronto so we ended up staying at home a lot to recuperate. It was wonderful to have my mom take care of us in terms of cleaning and cooking! What a great vacation! We also celebrated AC’s great-grandpa’s 85^th birthday and that was very special. During our two week stay, AC learned a lot of new stuff that I kind of felt bad that his daddy wasn’t there to witness them. Some of his new stuff include commando crawling, pulling himself up and sitting up on his own from his back or tummy. It was really neat to see him learn so much in such a short period of time. My days of rest are over!

Another special occasion was getting together with my RHCCC friends, Jenn and Becca. AC was able to meet Jenn’s kids and they played so well together that it makes me wish that we lived closer to them. Perhaps in a few years, we might consider moving out East. We shall see what God has in stored for us.

We definitely miss having my mom, Jessica and Nick around and we hope that we can go back another visit soon although daddy may not agree as he lived as a bachelor eating pizza for dinner.

AC with Uncle Nick

he loved poh-poh's nudges...

AC loves his Tai-gung (great-grandpa)

Jessica yiyi is the best b/c she takes such great care of AC. She's his human toy!
We also took him out for his first Trick or Treat experience around our cul-de-sac.

Here are some "traveling with an infant" tips:

-Bring some new toys for baby to play with. He/she might be entertained by everyday things like water bottle, paper, etc.

-Use a soother, bottle or breast for baby to suck on to alleviate the ear pressure during take off and landing.

-Borrow whatever you can from friends or family at your destination so that you do not have to lug so much around. My friend, Jenn, was so gracious in lending us her car seat, high chair, exersaucer! My mom also helped me by purchasing diapers and baby shampoo.

-Check in early so that you can get the bulkhead seat or an empty seat so that you have more room for baby. I found that having the extra seat was much better than the bulkhead b/c AC played on the seat and I even changed him right on it rather than lugging everything to the small, claustrophobic washroom.

Aidan's Many Firsts

Today, our little munchkin is 6 months old! During the last while, we have been able to witness some of his new stuff. Here's a list of Aidan’s many firsts (in no particular order):

• Discovery of his toes
• Knows his name
• Learning sign language with Markus & Erin
• Going on a swing
• Face recognition
• Sitting on his own
• Finally meeting Uncle Herwie
• Eating solids and producing super stinky poos
• Proficient at rolling back and forth
• First road trip to Victoria to attend Henry and Tiffany’s wedding
• Shopping in the States
• Daddy using gel on Aidan’s for church one day…
• First prescription for his eczema
• Purposeful reaching
• Patting other babies and his own reflection
• Trying to imitate sounds
• Loves to make chewing movements

Babytime!

Singing "Baa baa black sheep"

This past Friday, we went to the Cambie Library in Richmond to take part in something called "Babytime". It's a program aimed at pre-walking babies which uses rhymes, songs and stories to engage the little minds. Aidan looked more confused than entertained but it was good anyways, just to expose him to different things. I truly endorse the Richmond Public Libraries even though I live in Vancouver because they have many different programs and new resources that enhances the love of learning and best of all, not only are they open right now (all VPL branches are closed due to the ongoing strike) but all the programs are free. You can join the RPL even if you are not a Richmond resident.

I've talked to some of the RPL staff and they've told me that they have renovated many of their branches by using Chapters as their model. Hence the nice leather seats, funky signs, good lighting, and tasteful colours all create a nice, and calm ambience for all library goers. We get many of our movies from the library, too! Just place an order and you can get some of the newer movies. I have to thank Phil and Claire for introducing me to the RPL!

Go to their website to find out more...

http://www.yourlibrary.ca/aboutus.cfm

Doing actions with Daddy

One really cool resource for babies is the "Baby Theme Boxes".
Themes include "Celebrating Diversity", "ABCs", "Counting", etc. and
each box has eight books related to the theme along with
a stuffed animal and songs & rhymes!