Yes, I drive a minivan

Yes, I had said years ago that I wouldn't buy a minivan. But, here I am eating my words. We got a new Honda Odyssey.

For a year now, I've considered how convenient a minivan would be. With a second baby on the way and my parents with us still (they will probably be living with us until the second is at least 1 year old), we need a vehicle that can transport 4 adults and 2 kids. Yes, some of the SUVs have an extra row of seats, but they are not the easiest for my parents to get in and out from. I was convinced we needed a minivan, but Bill was resistant, specially because at first I suggested trading in his little WRX turbo charged fun car! Since my bimmer was getting older (10 yrs and 120K miles), I decided to trade in mine instead - that was easier for Bill to swallow. He could keep his car, 4 runner we share with my parents, and I would drive the minivan. It has never been my dream to own a minivan, but I am "taking one for the team" for the convenience it brings. Maybe in another 10 years, I will trade it in for a car again.

Bill expects me to negotiate with the dealers, since I am Chinese. I did for the last 2 cars we purchased, but I really don't like the process either. Instead, we used a car broker my coworker recommended - no back and forth negotiation, works with multiple dealers and car makers, he got us a great price and we didn't even have to set foot at a dealership, he delivered it to our house, signed the papers there and picked up the trade in - what service.

And Bill really[ed. note: Cecilia decided on the word "really" - not me] likes the minivan! He enjoys watching DVDs in the back with Mason. Lots of gadgets to play with, in fact, he already lost the DVD remote! :-)

Baby Girl (we're pretty sure)

We would have been fine with either another boy or a girl. Bill was sure he was going to have two boys, based on a dream/vision from a few years ago. I thought it would be a boy because my symptoms have been very much like the first time around, although I am a bit more tired. But, the ultrasound showed us we are having a GIRL! We are very excited.

We do have a name in mind: Audrey. Can't wait to meet her in early April.

Thanksgiving Family Cruise

We went on a week cruise of the Western Caribbean for Thanksgiving this year, along with my parents, Bill's parents, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin and his family, step brother and his family - 19 of us in total. It was our first cruise aboard the Veendam on HAL, and we had a great time! We stopped in Key West, Belize, Guatemala and Costa Maya. Bill SCUBA dived in Belize, but Guatelama was our favorite stop. There was always something to do, see or eat, and surprisingly I only gained 1.5 lbs (not bad, since I was 21 weeks pregnant). The weather was warm and beautiful, nothing like the freezing weather we came back to in Colorado.

Here are some pictures.

The send off from Tampa

Sunset at sea
Enjoying the pool on Lido Deck
Our ship - the Veendam
Belize - Cecilia caught this great picture of a lighthouse with the sun behind it

Guatemala - Cecilia's parents went on a trip to see the ruins. The scenery was beautiful
An action shot of Lillian finding an ant hill
We went to a beach resort for the day. Guatemala was just picturesque...
We went with Bruce, Stacey, and Emily
Riding back in the boat from the resort, this picture doesn't do justice to the mountains

Mason and Daddy enjoying the bubble pool
Costa Maya Mexico - Mason and Emily enjoy the fountain pool
We ran into some natives there, and we convinced them to dance for us.
At the airport, waiting to go home, only chocolate can make you feel better...

They had a professional photographer. We had a whole group photo taken:

And several of us, but here is a great one of Mason:

Not enough time until Christmas

Between the cruise and Thanksgiving being the last few days in Nov, we have been playing catch up since we got back. We had been setting up the tree, decorating, hanging lights, getting Christmas cards done and mailed, buying and shipping gifts, and all while avoiding leaving the house when it is negative 15 outside. Things are slowly coming together. We look forward to staying in Colorado for Christmas - not that we don't want to see family, but we don't like travelling around the Holidays.

Trip to LA

We decided to take a 3-day weekend trip to SoCal the weekend of Halloween, so that we could take Mason and he could meet some of our friends and family who haven't met him yet. It turned into a complete baby trip, as I have 2 friends in San Diego who had children within 2 months of Mason. Our friend Maress was also in LA with her 2 children visiting family, and (Cecilia's cousin) Diana's brother, Michael, had a little girl about 4 months after Mason. Whew.


It was a nice time to be out there, although after a few crisp days in Colorado, it felt downright hot the first 2 days. We flew out Thursday night. On Friday, we decided to go the beach, so we went to Newport beach. It was Mason's first time at the beach, and seeing the ocean. He immediately pointed at the breaking waves and started smiling and giggling. So, we walked down to the surf:

When the first waves came over Mason's feet, you can see that he really, really enjoyed it:

Later we went back to Auntie Diana's place to rest up, and hang out and watch the tv. Diana loved it when Mason put his hands behind his head. I didn't teach him that. I swear.

The next day we went down to San Diego to meet my friends Mat and Gerry. I've known them for a long time - we met in Minnesota. Mat's daughter Isabella was born in April 07, and Gerry's son Ben was born in August 07, so all 3 of our kids were born within 4 months of each other. How amazing is that! That we would all end up having kids when we were 40!

Our friend Maress also happened to be out in LA during this time, and she came over with her 2 kids. Hannah is 3, but she's a little small for her age, and, well, Mason is a little big for his age. We thought this picture was adorable:

On Sunday we went to go visit Diana's brother Michael. They had a daughter about 5 months after Mason was born (it was a baby explosion!). This is their daughter Layla:
Then we got a picture of the girls together. Cecilia (with Mason), Helen (Layla's mom), Diana, and Karen (with Layla):

It was a great trip! Here's a link to a photo album with many more photos!
More photos from LA

Halloween

Mason had his first pumpkin carving this Halloween. As a matter of fact, so did Cecilia. We thought he would be so excited to stick his hand into a gooey pumpkin, but he was a bit cautious and unsure at first:

But once he got his hands on that mess, he started to enjoy it:

Cecilia's dad Simon drew the stencil and carved it, since he's the artist in the family. You can see the spooky result:

The harsh reality under the light. He spent the next day cleaning up the details:
Since we were going to be in LA for Halloween, we didn't get him a costume this year. We thought he would be too young for trick or treating, and he can't say "trick or treat!" anyway. Although, I'm sure we would have eaten the candy. :-)

New babies, old(er) babies

Our friends Cory and Mary had a little girl in August named Ivy. We have been trying to go see her, but Mason has been sick pretty much the entire time, except when one of us was sick. Turns out Cecilia got sick, and was unable to go, but Mason and I got to go meet Ivy. Fortunately, later that week, we ran into them at a restaraunt, and everyone got to see each other!
And here she is with her 80's leg warmers:

This week we also found out that Mason is definitely Chinese:


Here he is filling Daddy's shoes:

And here is what happens when you let Mason feed himself oatmeal:

Random photos

Enjoying the great out doors:


Hellboy:

Big High Five:

Big handshake:

No more daycare, ... and some happy news

After a month of part-time daycare, Bill and I decided to pull Mason out. He has been sick from pretty much the first day. It is hard to say how many colds he's had, since we can't tell the beginning or end of each. In addition to the colds, he's had two ear infections and the croup that lasted at least 2 weeks.

We knew he would be sick, but we were hoping for a few breaks in between. But there hasn't been any. One of the reasons we wanted to try daycare was to give my parents a break twice a week, but they argued that it is harder to have a sick kid 3 days a week, than a healthy kid for 5 days.

Part-time was also hard on Mason. This class (12-18 month toddlers) is full and the only spot available was the twice a week Tuesday and Thursdays. At first we through it would be a great schedule, but it turned out to be hard on Mason to have a back and forth routine.

And finally the final straw... timing is not the best for him to bring home germs. We are excited that Mason has a little sibling on the way, due early April. Cecilia has caught a couple of Mason's colds and haven't been able to take much to recover from them. In addition to feeling tired, mild morning sickness, the colds made the past few weeks very difficult. With Winter ahead, that was the final push to get him out of daycare until early next year, when we plan to put him back full time in the 18-24 month toddlers class.

Pumpkin Patch

We met up with Jef, Michele and their daughter Josie at Rocky Mountain Pumpkin Ranch this past Saturday. The weather was beautiful. We picked this pumpkin patch because it has a lot of kid activities, and we were not sure what Josie and Mason would enjoy.





Josie enjoyed helping pick pumpkins and the airplane rides. Mason loved the pony ride, the airplane ride, and the petting zoo (he wasn't shy to get in the middle of the animals). It was a good time had by all.

Catching Up

So much has happened since our last posting. We haven't been very good in keeping this blog up to date in the last two months.

1) Yaya and Mimi came to visit in mid August - here are some pictures









2) I had a business trip to Atlanta right before Labor Day weekend, so Bill and Mason came out as well and we went to visit Bill's family.





Flying with a 14-month old is an adventure. I look back to when he was a baby and couldn't move around much with fondness. We prepared milk, snacks, toys, videos, etc. I was anxious. Bill assured me that everything was going to be okay, even if he cried the whole way there. On the way there, we had a middle seat between us open, so he had space to stretch and play. Although we planned and kept him up, he was too excited to nap and stayed awake the whole trip, moving constantly, until he finally fell asleep in the last 10 minutes of the flight. One the way back, we knew we were in trouble. No middle extra seat in the fully packed flight, and he napped for 2 hours between our trip from Bill's dad's house to the airport. We gave him some Benadryl, but he didn't go to sleep until the last 20 minutes, but he was more mellow. Everything did turn out just fine.

We should have taken more pictures of our visit, but we were having too much fun. Here is a picture of Mason on his first boat ride.


3) Once we got back, Mason started daycare twice a week (Tue/Thu). He is adjusting, he didn't eat or nap much on his first day, but we hear he did much better on his second day. And as expected, he got sick at the end of his first week. He's had a running nose and low grade fever for a couple of days, and on Saturday his fever went up a little. Fearing an ear infection, we took him to Children's Hospital's Urgent Care facility which is only 5 minutes from our house. We got there fast, but took 2 1/2 hours to see a doctor! The nurse was kind enough to set us up in a unoccupied waiting room, with toys, snacks and a movie. The good news is that his ears were clear, and it is just viral cold. His fever broke in the next two days, but we decided to give him a day off from daycare to recover fully.

4) Mason got sick again from daycare. And just two weeks after our first visit to the Children's Hospital's Urgent Care, we were back after Mason got a new cold and a 103.8 fever. We knew the nurse by name (Deborah) and the same doctor recognized us "Weren't you just here?". This time Mason did have an ear infection and the croup. He has been on amoxicillium since - he doesn't seem to mind the taste.

5) Mason is 15 months today! Around 26.4 lbs per our last urgent care visit last weekend; He is eating more table foods, great for when we eat out; no words yet, although he seems to understand a great deal and nod & shake his head, and getting better on some sign language; lots of fun!