Goodbye Summer!

BEST waterpark: Steveston

As summer draws to a near, we are slowly getting back into the swing of things as we put away our tanks and shorts and pull out long sleeves and pants. We will definitely miss the warm summer days (although we didn't have too many of the HOT, hot ones this year) but nevertheless, it was nice to just hang out at the parks and bbq. We look forward to the beautiful changing colour of the leaves and for a new school year ahead of us. Here is a list of our summer faves...

Little A's Summer Reads
The Bear Snores On written by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman
I love you through and through written by Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak, illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church

Mommy's Summer Reads
The Chamber by John Grisham
Between Parent and Child by Haim G. Ginott
The Eighth Promise by William Poy Lee

Dada's Summer Reads
any book by Tad Williams

Our Family Adventures

• Maplewood Farm
• PNE in the rain!
• playing at various water parks throughout Vancouver and Richmond
  
• outlet shopping in Tulalip with Poh-poh who visited us for three weeks
• trail running in the UBC Endowment lands

White Rock

all geared up for A's first rainy PNE day!

Fifteen months report

We have had a rough couple of days and nights as Aidan's been super fussy with a fever, and lots of drooling. Could it be teething? We're still waiting for something to erupt! This happened just in time of Auntie Lulu's visit from Calgary =) We went out for dinner at Toshi's last night and we were only able to sit down for less than half an hour before we made an early exit. Aidan usually loves eating out and has not caused any problems for us....so I guess it's not bad for his first time in 15 months.

Here's a quick update of what the little guy has been up to lately:

• AC is one affectionate fella as he enjoys giving people hugs and kisses
  
• can identify his head, ears, tongue, and nose (likes to stick his finger UP his nose!)
• has an impressive upper body strength as he manages to pull himself up onto everything including the toilet (he would put the toilet seat down first before climbing, of course)
  
• loves to go to the beach and dip his feet into the water and play with the seaweed
• had a great time in June because he had lots of visitors: cousin Angigi, Auntie Cynthia and Auntie Lulu. he also watched mommy race her first 1/2 marathon after giving birth...
  
• is beginning to exert his needs and wants with screaming (grrr...) and we are constantly trying to teach him to ask for something nicely
• is learning to be more gentle... (this sounds like a PLO, for those who are teachers, you know what I'm talking about)
• enjoys slurping up all kinds of noodles like lai fun, ho fun, spaghetti
• rocks are his utmost favourite "toy" right now. he finds small holes and puts the rocks into them....he even managed to put one into our door holey thing.
  

hanging out at Jericho beach


with cousin Angigi at the airport

going down on a very BIG slide and having loads of fun

Our Victoria get-away!

Aidan is running really fast around the ferry terminal

For Father's Day, I attempted to plan a surprise Victoria get-away to visit our dear friends, G and A, and their little girl M. I was so close to have successfully planned it but due to my forgetfulness, Vince found out when he saw that I had googled "Victoria weather". I am not a very good liar so I ended up having to tell him my elaborate plans. We had a wonderful time away and we soaked in the sun as we lazily hung around G and A's porch while our kids napped. It was really great to be amongst friends and to be able to celebrate such an occasion as Father's Day. It made us realize how special it is to have friends who truly love and understand you completely. How we wish that we lived closer together!

Aidan gives cutie pie, MH a big hug and a kiss!

Favourites

My current three favourite things are:

• spending time together as a family (doesn't matter if it's just lazily hanging out in our living room with the dogs or going out for a hike, time together is precious)
• when Aidan gives me a BIG bear hug
  
• reading to Aidan when he brings me his selection of books

Aidan is beginning to really love reading! Yay!

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 =)

• 
• 

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...