1460 days

That's how many days Albert and I have now been married. That's four years. I'd known for at least another two years that he was my ultimate partner in crime.



But after 1460 days, the inevitable happened and he messed up. Big time. Well, not really. He forgot the all too important wedding anniversary. When I nonchalantly asked if he knew what day it was, he stood by the door, mind racing, going through all possible holidays and special dates and finally got to the correct answer. He felt bad. Terrible, even.

And he made up for it. Flowers at the office. Shirt from my favorite boutique in Palo Alto.

The only thing is... I don't need all of this stuff. Albert remembers the important things every day. He knows how to make the ladies in his life feel important and remembered. From before Abby was born to today, we have many memories that are shared and treasured.

Here's one such moment for all of you who wonder how we manage to keep up our good looks...

An exuberant life

I want to live life with this kind of spirit...

Simmering down

The last month and a half have been absolutely crazy for the Miura-Ko family. I started at a new job without fully finishing the Ph.D. and so I'm trying to do 4 things at once: mom, research, teaching and job.

The job is as an investor in a new venture capital firm with Mike Maples - a fantastic entrepreneur with a great track record over the last few years as an angel investor. I'll likely write more about this in the future but the general idea is that there is a gap between financing that angel investors provide and the amount of capital venture capitalists typically look to invest. We call ourselves micro-cap investors. The quality of the companies I've seen coming through the door have been truly impressive and I'm really excited to be in the working world again. Having said that, it doesn't mean that I'm done with the Ph.D. or that I'm quitting. I plan on finishing. I know lots of people say that but I'm committed to it and hope to be done in due time.

In the mean time, Abby has been growing and we have done some traveling! The family went back East for our 10 year college reunion at Yale. I don't think I've sung "Bright College Years" or "Boola Boola" with such gusto in a really long time. Walking through that beautiful campus really brought back a flood of wonderful memories. Yale has really flourished in the last few years.

The renovations have been done spectacularly. I was only disappointed that we couldn't visit the library and visit the circulation desk beneath the altar of Sterling Library. We did get a chance to see many of our old friends including Terry, my dear old engineering partner who bravely made it out with his wife and THREE kids, Camelia and her lovely family,

(where Abby and Aiden gave us a preview of Aiden spotting Abby on campus in 16 years) and David Gergin.


I nearly thrust Abby at David Gergin and had him hold her for a photo but we (read: Albert) decided that that would be inappropriate. David Gergin is as thoughtful in person as he is on CNN. He actually stopped to talk with us for a little while after we took our requisite photos.


The only other celebrity sighting of the weekend was Barbara Bush of the Bush twins fame. We couldn't figure out a subtle way of taking her photo so that is not included in this blog.

The other highlight for the weekend was the fact that we got to eat some Pepe's pizza. It was as delicious as I had remembered it. For all of you who knock New Haven, I have to say there is no other city in the world that has pizza as good as that town.



The low point for us was related to travel to and from New Haven. On the way out, we were on the tarmac for nearly 4 hours in Chicago with no air conditioning. On the way back, we were stuck in the airport in Hartford for nearly 4 hours due to delays in Chicago. Lessons learned: 1) do not fly through Chicago and 2) 4 hours spent in airport is highly preferable to 4 hours on tarmac. We did get home safely, though, and even knowing what I know now, I would have gone for our 10 year reunion. I'm definitely going back for the 15th!

Living it up in Phoenix

One of my best friends, Camelia, lives in Phoenix. We visited her in January and loved it so much that we had to go again when Albert had a conference there a few weeks ago. Camelia has a son, Aiden, who is just a little over 2 years old. Little Aiden has big blue eyes and blond curls that would make any 18 month old swoon. He also has an incredible memory which makes it fun to go visit him because he remembers us.

Camelia is part of a mommy's group including one person who was nice enough to let us crash her son's birthday party on Saturday so that Cams and I could continue to catch up. It was at Chuck E. Cheese and Abby loved all of the cars there that she could "drive".



Sunday morning there was yet another birthday party that we were invited to crash but given that it was the only time when Al had free time to hang out, we chose to do that instead.



Abby absolutely loved the pool at the Biltmore. She never wanted to leave. I eventually bought her an inner tube so she could manage by herself a little bit (not that I'd leave her in the pool on her own but so she could get around a little bit by herself). After that, she wanted little to do with me and would get mad if I held on to her while she was "swimming". Abby even went down the water slide which she enjoyed by saying "weeeee" the entire time she was going down. Here's a picture of her with Albert immediately post-splashdown.



But let's be honest. I was there to honor the tradition of generations of Japanese women who have intruded upon their daughters' lives to set them up with their friends' sons. Sometimes it went well...



... yes, Aiden is holding a phone up to Abby's ear while he watches the Elmo movie. They actually got into the chair together themselves. And here's one of them at Whole Foods. Abby dragged Aiden into this car so she could show him her driving skillz



But as in any relationship, there are also the more trying moments - like when Abby tried to grab Aiden's Elmo guitar from him before he wanted to share...



Note the look of utter disdain in Abby's face.

The quick highlights and lowlights of the weekend:
1. Abby pulled Aiden's hair and we heard Aiden cry, "Abby boom my hair!". Abby then runs out of the kitchen to see a mad mommy and emits her fake distress call.

2. Abby comes down with severe case of eczema and Ann rushes her to hospital. Apparently pool and dry air are not a good combination for Abby. Strong steroids do the trick and all is well within a couple of hours.

3. Anthony takes a day off of work to do his backyard which when we last visited was a putting green. It is now a beautiful desert landscape with a firepit

4. When Abby falls asleep in the car, Aiden quietly lets us know that, "Abby sleeping." When Aiden falls asleep in the car, Abby leans over and loudly shouts, "NO!".

5. We celebrate Anthony's birthday twice with a bbq and with a nice dinner at a local Mexican restaurant the next night.

To the Tuminellos: Thank you for a great weekend in Phoenix. We had the best time and can't wait to see you all again for reunion!

a life perfect

Life is incredibly busy these days. The quarter ended with a bang and before I knew it I had 120 finals and 12 papers to grade and final grades to submit. I picked up my sis-in-law, Cindy, and mom-in-law from the airport and we all headed up to the mountains for some spring skiing.



You read that right. Double black and we're not scared. It was a win-win situation to say the least. Albert's mom got some alone time with Abby...



while Albert, Cindy and I hit the slopes. See here how Albert and Cindy enjoyed the scenery...


The snow was slushy but we had 2 great days of skiing and it was wonderful to see family and have them see Abby. When we got home, we went on a bike ride through Palo Alto and I had yet another moment where I just felt a lot of love from Abby:



Words Abby knows: No, Mommy, Daddy, Ya-yan (grandpa Miura), Aki (the dog), Ma-chan (grandma Miura), Georgia (friend at daycare), wheeeeee (when something fun happens), woof woof, cookie, ba-bou, up, down, hi, bu-bye, achiiii (hot), bubble, kanpai (pronounced banbai, means cheers), all done

Songs Abby sings: Twinkle twinkle, Old MacDonald, Wheels on the Bus, Farmer in the Dell , ABC's (up to P), John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt, Tulip Song (Japanese), Yurikago Lullaby, Butterfly song (Japanese)

Mommy

So Abby has finally mastered calling me "Mommy". This had started to click over the last few days but Abby chose last night at 1AM to really master this trick. I was thrilled for about 2 seconds until I realized she was really wide awake and wanted to play. 2 hours later, we finally managed to get her to sleep.

*YAWN*

That's "nyo!" to you

Our lovely daughter is quickly approaching the 15 month mark. We have lots to catch up on. I've taken a two month hiatus from the blog world mostly because I needed to start thinking about life outside of school. Apparently, there's a world where I actually earn more than a paltry stipend but with a more strict schedule.



In the mean time, Abby has really turned it on. Yesterday was the first time Albert and I really experienced that moment where we start saying, "You know, she's normally not really like this." Sorry Mark. We don't see you for something like 6 years and you get to see us at our lowest child rearing moment.

No one told me that the "terrible twos" actually begins at one. Abby still has not learned to call me "mommy" and Albert "daddy". The two names she knows are "Aki" - the dog, and "Ya-yan", my dad. For a while there, she seemed to think "mommy" was nose. She would carefully point at my nose and say "mommy!" I would reward her with a big hug and a "yes!" until she did the same thing to Albert and to my mom. Hmmmm....

Other words she knows:
Nyo which apparently means "no", "I don't want to", "leave me alone" and all sorts of other negative things. It is used not as a single "nyo" but more commonly "nyonyonyonyonyonyonyo!"
Ba-bou which apparently means anything she wants at that moment. It can be used to mean grapes or other such tasty treats as well as her favorite stuffed animal.
Apa chi chi which refers to the song "The Farmer in the Dell". We actually have no idea how she came up with this but when she sings the song, she sings it with these words. We only could tell because she gets the melody pretty close.
There is more but I can't think of them.



The most difficult thing about Abby is that she absolutely hates the stroller and loves to walk by herself. She has finally taken to holding my hand but that's also a problem because it just has to be my hand. I know. I will one day look back on this moment where Abby insisted that it had to be me and I'll shed tears of sadness as my teenage daughter holes up in her room while she texts her 3 friends what a mean monster I am. It's just that sometimes I want both of my hands and I don't love it when she throws a temper tantrum in the middle of some posh baby store where everyone else seems to have well behaved children and the $40 t-shirt that says "I'm a drama queen" is meant only to be cute and not REAL.



BUT... as with all things, there is always the silver lining. We are unbearably proud of the fact that Abby is no pushover. She is independent and gets what she wants (read: a little bit of a bully but we're working on that). She is stubborn but has a clear idea in her head what she wants. I like that she's not wishy washy. I certainly was as a kid. I love that she has books that she loves to "read". I love that she sings me songs - ones that I have taught her and that sometimes she'll sing me lullabies when I tell her I'm tired. She is usually full of smiles and giggles and if I ask, she will give me a hug 40% of the time (the other 60% she gets really close and then turns around at the last minute while running away laughing).

For those of you who are logging on here desperately wanting to know how my research is going - it's going. I was working on something this week but I got terribly ill for about 3 days and couldn't move or eat. I'm hoping something will pan out this week. I've been paring down my extracurriculars in the hopes that this will mean I focus more on research and get out of here soon. My prof just realized I'm a fifth year and decided I need to get out soon. Grad school is great but there is such thing as being here too long. I don't want to overstay my welcome.

Credit where credit is due

Abby has had a very good life this past year and I have had the chance to move forward with research primarily due to one person - my mom. I feel that before the end of the year, I should give credit where credit is due. Abby is a thriving, carefree baby because there is always someone around who will love her and most importantly feed her whenever the thought occurs to her.

Here is a montage of Abby as she eats a cream stew my mother made for her. I think it speaks to exactly how she and I both feel about my mom...


Thanks a bunch mom!

Merry Christmas!

December, although mostly undocumented thus far, has been a wonderful month for us. I finally finished up a class for which I was a TA. I have to say, as much time as this class took, I do love the process of seeing students transform from engineers to entrepreneurs in the course of a single quarter.

As classes wrapped up and the holiday break began, we had a moment to really enjoy Abby. In the week following Abby's birthday, Abby went from single unsteady steps to running. I used to hold onto this notion that Abby actually enjoyed our company but with this newfound independence, she is proving to us time and time again that we are the uncool parents we thought we would be in about 10 years. Sometimes, we test exactly how independent she is by taking her to a crowded mall during pre-Christmas sales and watch as she exits stores on her own and startle other oncoming (and perhaps more attentive and wary) parents. Using this extraordinarily scientific method, we have determined that although Abby is quite independent, she does return to us after some meandering - perhaps for some food, drink or because she has really tired legs.



We began our Christmas tradition of taking Abby to see Santa Claus. Obviously, Abby had some seriously misgivings about her behavior this year and begged for forgiveness as she was being held by Santa.



Aside from her brief melt down with Santa, Abby has been in generally very high spirits. We have to say we are very blessed to have a happy baby on our hands with a very good disposition. This doesn't mean that she is obedient, quiet, or sleeps well but she is happy as she is getting into lots of trouble. This is Abby enjoying time at the park on the swings:


We kept Christmas pretty low key this year because, as we like to say, everyday is Christmas for Abby. Honestly, we have way too much stuff - baby stuff - in our cramped apartment to take anymore. Besides, her idea of a good time is to take empty plastic bottles and bang them together to create noise. No need for electronic gadgets. On the other hand, every day is not Christmas for me or Albert so we rewarded each other with gifts which we will return tomorrow for something we like more.

We did, however, use Christmas eve as an excuse for an unbelievable feast. We didn't eat a lot of turkey for Thanksgiving so we used this as an excuse to eat a 15 pound bird between 5 of us (my parents and us). I am now a convert to dry brining. The bird came out juicy and wonderfully tasty. Our recipe for our turkey follows:


For a 15 pound bird I did the following:

Ingredients for Dry Brining:
1/3 cups of sea salt
6 tsps of poultry seasoning
4 leaves of bay leaves crushed

Instructions for Dry Brining:
I took the giblets, neck, etc. out of the turkey and dried the bird with some paper towels. I then rubbed down (inside and out) the entire bird with the dry brining concoction described above. I put the bird on a rack on top of the roasting pan for 15 hours (1 hour per pound). I then rinsed the bird off and carefully pat dry the bird with more paper towels.

Ingredients for stuffing:
3-4 tbsp poultry seasoning
3/4 stick of butter
1.5 loaves of Challah bread
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb of chestnuts (boiled for 20 minutes and peeled of skin and chopped)
2 onions diced
giblets

1 day in advance cut the bread into small squares (if not enough time, cut and put in oven at 250 degrees for 20-30 minutes until dry). Melt the butter in a pan and sautee the onions and giblets until the onions are tender. Add bread and poultry seasoning and mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. Keep mixing until the poultry seasoning has coated the stuffing evenly. Put into turkey and put remaining stuffing in a pan, cover with some chicken broth and put in oven to heat 20 minutes before dinner.

Preparation of turkey:
There is no need to salt the turkey because of the dry brining. I do, however, poke the turkey with a fork and separate out the top skin from the breast and stick in some butter. I covered the turkey with butter. I placed the turkey back on the rack and roasted at 375 degrees for 4-4.5 hours. I covered the turkey with an aluminum foil tent for the first 3.5-4 hours. I took off for the last half hour to brown the skin. I also put in some water and chicken broth into the roasting pan to keep moisture in the oven. I used this to baste the turkey every 30 minutes starting at hour 2.

My birthday overshadowed

My birthday has always been shared. I was born on my older brother's birthday, November 27. So, birthdays were never a truly special day - a day to celebrate all things Ann. With Abby being born 2 days before mine, it has become even more clear that my birthday is but an afterthought. This year, Abby had 3... yes, THREE birthday celebrations. I had one small affair. I'm ok with that. Really.

Our trip to LA for Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. It was Abby's first time meeting her only great grandparent - Albert's grandfather from Korea.


We got to see Cindy, Al's sister, which was a real treat for Abby.


Abby also had her Korean style first birthday celebration. She picked a book (we're not sure how that differs from picking a pencil).


Our Thanksgiving was a delicious affair. Thanksgiving in LA for us means that the turkey is not the central entree. There is the bbq kalbi beef which is so good that you only have a taste of the turkey for the sake of custom and but the vast part of your plate is taken up by the kalbi.


Albert's family then came up to San Francisco for a quick visit for Abby's actual birthday.


I baked yet another cake and that was the end of the week of all things Abby... just in time for the afterthought that was my birthday. We have no photos of that occasion.

Miss Independent

I'd love to say we made it but there are so many more years to go. These days you love to copy. I clap my hands and you do the same. I wave my hands and you wave back. You're sad to see anyone leave. When someone in your inner circle (mommy, daddy, Grandma or Grandpa Miura) leave, you quickly crawl to the window by the door, pull back the blinds to see them walking away and cry your saddest cry. You're in love with balloons. You'll clutch to them even as you're sleeping.


Last night, we went to the grand opening of the local Safeway and you wanted all of the balloons in the store. When we walked out empty handed (balloon-wise) you were in a bad mood all evening long.

Just like mommy, you hate to have your feet covered when you sleep. Daddy insists on the pajamas with covered feet so mommy sometimes thinks about cutting vent holes like grandma used to do for her. Your cheeks turn rosy as you nap every day. When you wake from naps, you sit up and talk to yourself.

When I let you, you'll sit on the couch and watch the Wiggles the same way Daddy watches ESPN SportsCenter - with your arms up in the air for the highlights and lots of screams and giggles. You hate hats. All hats. And you're really really close to walking. This week you started to take two to three steps on your own. When you get scared you start to crouch even as you're walking.

This week, we went to the doctor's office for your one year checkup. You're only 20 pounds (gained 7 ounces in 3 months) but you're a little over 30 inches long (grown 2 inches in 3 months). That means you're 35th percentile for weight but 90th percentile for length.


The doctor asked what words you're saying at this point. There are two:
1. Ow: an expression of pain or desire for attention. Usage: immediately after your mommy has told you "no". Daddy suggests that perhaps this is in reference to the emotional pain inflicted.

2. A-choo:In reference to either a fake sneeze or immediately following a real one.

Do those count?

Saturday was the start to Abby's first birthday week extravaganza. This is a week in which Thanksgiving is but an afterthought and the whole week is a celebration of all things Abby. Albert's grandfather is flying in from Korea in honor of the occasion.

To kick things off, we had a party at Gymboree where I displayed the fact that should this whole Ph.D. thing not work out, I might have a future in making cakes for mom's who don't really care if the frosting is a little bit runny:

For those of you who can't tell, that's not a bear. It's a monkey. The cake is a banana cake in keeping with the theme. It actually came out quite tasty and for a first effort at decorating a cake, I would even go as far as to say that it's not too bad.

So what do you do at a birthday party for a one year old, some may ask... Well, it's quite simple really. You throw your daughter into a ridiculously cute pink dress which she promptly covers in drool (with the requisite pink bow in her hair lest someone still asks if she is a boy)...


You throw in some bubbles...


... and some games...


... and you convince some people to hit a Chinese restaurant where a couple named Wendy and Benny are getting married on the first floor. Your best friend proceeds to order way too much food for the 9 adults left standing and everyone goes home with enough left orders to feed a full family of four until Thanksgiving!

Thanks to all those who made it out!

Boo to you

My mom gave Abby a Halloween card today:

Your very first pumpkin,
your very first "Boo!"
Your very first autumn
and first costume too...

I didn't just carve one pumpkin this year. I carved three: a family so to speak.



Even Grandpa stopped by...


But in the end, all Abby wanted to do was to play with all of the candy. MINE! MINE! MINE! Our greedy little monkey.

Ain't misbehavin'

Today, Abby was entertaining herself pretty well so I decided to try and get some work in. I was typing away when I noticed that strange silence once again, and then a... "riiiip!" I knew that she had gotten into one of her books and ripped out a part of the page. I peered over, saw a piece of a pop up book in her hand. I took it and scolded her, "No!" I went to my room, taped the piece back in by which point she knew she had done something bad. She was following me around crying. I walked over to the living room and said, "Come over her!" She crawled back to me crying with tears streaking her face. I was ready to make up with her and I was going to show her the book when I noticed that right behind her was my dog, Aki. I forgot that I also scold Aki in exactly the same way. She came up to me with her ears pressed against her head, apologizing for a crime she was sure she had committed. I kept saying, "Not you!" but she was so insistent on making up with me that I just started to laugh. Abby sat on my lap while Aki laid down next to me and we read the ripped book together.

Our week in review...

This past week was incredibly busy for me with a lecture I had the opportunity to design and teach! It was on how Handspring developed their operations. I really enjoyed the process of bringing together a lecture and thinking through how best to present it to the class.

This week, Abby went back to Mary Jo's daycare. I think she really does like it there but she is so sad to see us leave her. I'm convinced things will be better especially because the other kids there seem so nice. On Thursday, Abby had to go in to get her flu shot. In the afternoon, she seemed incredibly sluggish and by the evening she could barely move. I handed her to my mom and not 2 minutes later, she had projectile vomited at least three times. We were incredibly lucky to have had a sheet on the couch so nothing was ruined and we just had to throw the sheet and all of my mom's clothes into the wash. Poor Abby looked like she felt a lot better.

Lucky for her, this meant she got to have popsicle. Abby hates Pedialyte but LOVES the Walgreen's generic pedialyte popsicles. She loves them so much that she cries when she finishes them:


Also this week, she made a habit of cruising the furniture with something in her mouth. Sometimes she also likes to crawl around the house with a sock in her mouth (behavior I believe she learned from Aki, my parents' dog). I've decided to take pictures of the former but not of the latter for fear of really embarrassing her in the future.

With a straw...


After she tore the pig's tail out of her pop up book...



The big lesson for me this week was: when I hear silence, there is most definitely something going on. I was sending out some emails on Monday when I noticed that Abby was not making her characteristic ruckus. Alarmed, I looked over to where I had spotted her last, only to find that she had extracted the entire box of Kleenex and put it on the floor:


Lastly, we have the all important Menlo Park Halloween Parade photos. Abby went in her full monkey costume. The #1 lesson I learned is that when you buy a costume from Old Navy, you will spend some significant portion of your time at the Menlo Park Halloween Parade avoiding other kids wearing the exact same costume. Still, she looked just like my little monchichi...

Pumpkin in a patch

This weekend, Albert's mom came for a visit. I'd been looking forward to this weekend for some time because we were planning on attending the pumpkin party at a professor's ranch on Highway 1. Anyone who knows me knows that I love the last 3 months of the year ... LOVE them. Last year, 8 months pregnant, I ran out of a lecture at 7PM to get to Whole Foods on Halloween in search of the perfect pumpkin to carve. This year, I learned my lesson and set out to get my pumpkins at this party a good week early.

Steve held a fantastic barbecue during which we explored his ranch. We came home with 4 pumpkins in preparation for our Halloween extravaganza.

the stuff in between

It's been a while since my last update and I've actually started getting messages from friends asking me what happened to my blog and what is going on with my life... Really? People actually read this blog?!? I'm not fooling myself. I know you all come only for the pictures. All of these words are "blah blah blah"... filler. I know. I've even noticed that at times, Albert takes photos of what I think is Abby and me. Later, I find that the picture looks like this:


Is that the way to treat the love of your life (at least until this munchkin was born!). It seems like not much has happened in the last two months but I take a closer look at all of the stuff that's happened in between and I realize I've been delinquent in reporting the highs and lows of the last few months.

After my mother got home from Japan, we ended up looking for a more stable daycare for Abby and we found Mary Jo's family daycare. Abby has been twice and I have a feeling she will adjust really well to this environment. She will have the same friends the days she goes to daycare and Mary Jo just feels like a sweet motherly type.

Abby is looking forward to days when she will have greater mobility and freedom. We think she'll be walking in a matter of a few weeks but I feel like I've been saying that for a while now. Albert claims to have seen her first three steps but given that she hasn't made anymore independent steps in the last two weeks, I'm going to chalk it up to a very active imagination. Until then, I'll put up this photo which Albert will likely claim to be the last time Abby drives a car until she's 30.


Abby also had her first illness. She came down with roseola shortly before my mother came home and while Al was off on a business trip. She had a really high fever and ended it all with a rash that covered her body. When healthy, Abby is not particularly cuddly. She is more active / squirmy. She has places to go and things that must be put into her mouth. What I discovered is that when Abby is sick, she is the cuddly girl of my dreams... except that she spends the whole time groaning. She sits in my lap but is constantly saying , "oooooh" as if she were in excruciating pain. It was particularly sad when I put her down in the hallway, called to her from our living room and expected to see her padding along on all fours the way she usually does. When I didn't see her come around the corner for a few seconds, I went to look for her and found her resting her head on the floor. So sad!

She was better for a few weeks and then came down with a cold. I have to take the blame for that since I had a cold around the same time too. She has finally turned the corner and we're hoping for healthy days for at least a little while. In particular, I'm really looking forward to the trifecta of holidays starting off with Halloween! We can't wait to post the pictures!

Next week will be better

This past week was a big test for Abby. It was her first time in the care of anyone other than my mother or me for more than just a few hours. I would love to say she passed with flying colors. I would love even more to say that she was as happy as the 7 month old baby we saw when we were touring the daycare facilities. Let's just say that I certainly hope they didn't have any tours for new parents on Wednesday or Friday since it would have done very little to allay the fears of those parents.

On Wednesday when I left Abby, she was actually fine. She sat amongst other babies staring at the mirror, waving her arms like she usually does when she's in front of the mirror. Things headed south apparently in the afternoon when the caretaker tried to make her take a nap. Eventually she worked herself up into such a frenzy she threw up all over herself and the daycare had to call me to come pick her up a little early.


Clearly, this photo was NOT taken at the daycare center...

On Friday, I put her in the farthest corner of the room from where I would stand so I could fill out paperwork in peace. I hadn't finished the page when I felt her chubby arms clinging to my leg. She had managed to crawl across the room - while crying - so that she could plead with me not to leave her here. The other baby there saw her and also started to cry. I apologized profusely to the caretakers as they took a now screaming Abby so that I could slip out of the door. An hour later, I called to find out how she was doing - apparently not crying but clinging to caretakers. By the afternoon she had taken a nap and had even managed to sit by herself for a little while and play.

Small steps, I guess.

We've only just begun...

When we got married, we were told that dating was easy but marriage was hard. People said, "Give it a year and the honeymoon will be over... reality will set in." Reality did set in and we found it to be even better than the honeymoon. It's been three years and we're still groovin' to our own beat.



The rush of getting married was in the newness of it all. I would repeat to myself (as countless other brides have probably done as well) "my husband". It felt so new and strange. Living together was wonderful and yet it seemed like we were still playing house. At year three, "my husband" feels familiar. Our little apartment that seemed so large before we purchased the gigantic couch and coffee table is cramped with all of our baby gear. Our household chores were never explicitly divided but we each do what we think needs to get done and somehow it works. We are truly companions... partners in all that we do.

Albert is my better half. He makes me a better mother, a better student, and overall a better person.

Abby's "isms"

It's been almost 9 months since you were born and life has definitely changed. People often talk of milestones and I always imagined that they would be spaced apart... milestones, right? With you, they're all so close together I can barely sort out what's going on before you're onto the next new thing.

You spend most weekdays with Grandma Ma-chan. You love any food she makes and open your mouth wide for anything she feeds you. She knows how to tire you out with the things you want to do whether it's standing and cruising the furniture to sitting in a box banging on her pots and pans.

Your best friend right now is Michele, your cousin. She can make you laugh more easily than anyone else. You take baths together and share your bath toys. Michele has made frog hats for the two of you so that you both match.
When Grandpa Ya-yan comes home, you greet him with a smile and a wave of your arms. He sings you songs and patiently talks to you with a calm, adult voice. By the time I come to pick you up, you've had a full day of love and laughter. It's what makes it easier to go to school and think about things other than high chairs and blocks and baby shoes.

Last night you figured out how to stand up after I'd put you down to go to sleep. You stood there crying, hanging on for dear life to the edge of your crib. You know how to stand up but not quite how to get back down.

You now have almost 8 teeth in. You drool constantly - over everything. I change not only your bibs but your outfits constantly. You love eating. You eat porridge, carrots, fish, chicken, yogurt, peaches, plums, cheerios, rice crackers and peas. You dislike spinach and let out a scream when I try to sneak it into your food. You give an easy smile and giggle especially when I sing "Rubber Duckie" to you. You love to strike out on your own. Your dad gives you most of your baths. He's your most compassionate advocate and when you give your slightly crooked smile, you look like the splitting image of him. You want to walk - maybe even run but can barely crawl. You want me close - but not too close. You simultaneously love and fear ceiling fans. You have so many things to say but have a limited vocabulary of "bababa" and other consonant-vowel combinations. You hate sleeping. You fight it with everything you have but deep down inside, you know it's a losing battle. You love books (at least you love to try to eat them). You hate being held like an infant. You want to face out and see the world you'll one day conquer. You love Aki and you pull on her fur and ears to show her that love.


Your daddy has called all of my peculiar habits my "isms". You have your "isms" too. You're not particularly sensitive and you have a happy disposition. You're curious and loud. You snort when you laugh heartily. You wave your arms and bounce when you're happy. I know that as we approach your first birthday, I'll discover more of your isms and almost every one of them will bring a smile to my face.