Put into Perspective

B's first day of school

I cannot believe it, but my little girl is growing up.  Bethany started her first day of school yesterday.  It seems like yesterday that she was just a baby, and now she is all grown up.  We put Jonathan in part time preschool at age 2, but because of Bethany's many illnesses, her doctor suggested we keep her at home until she turned 3.  

Bethany was very excited to go to her new bilingual Chinese school. She has been begging to attend school since Jonathan goes, so she finally had her wish come true. She is in the 3 year-old class room, and though she is much younger than all of the kids, she is nearly the tallest child in the class.  Those are either some small children in the class or Bethany is very tall.  Or both.  

Her Daddy drove her to school, and I picked her up.  On the way home, I asked her if she wanted to go back, and she said, "No, I want to just stay home with you and Daddy."  I replied, "But Daddy has to go to work. And Mommy is going back to work soon too." She said, "Mommy, don't go to work.  Stay home and play with me all day."  I am not sure whether to be happy that she enjoys our company or sad that she said it.  

Today, she was once again excited to go to school.  She loves her new classroom and comes home bursting with news of the day.  Unlike her big brother who tells us nothing about his day other than a couple of "I don't knows", she gives me a good play by play of the activities.  

It is strange to see your little girl grow up so quickly.  It is particularly pronounced in Bethany since she is a 2 year old but wearing size 5T clothes.  She is bigger than many 4 and 5 year-olds we know.  We hope that this is a start of a lifetime of joy in learning that her father and I had when we were in school.  

I am 2 months old!

Time flies for a little baby.  It is a brand new year, and I am two months old.  Here I am with my brother and sister in a photo courtesy of Prevoir Photography's Erin.  

• I have been sick about 5 weeks of my 9 weeks.  It has made me sad.  I have something called bronciolitis which made me cough for the entire time and kept me from eating and sleeping.  Finally I am better!
• I like to smile when my tummy is not hurting and I am not coughing.  It is not my fault I have colic, but it does keep everyone in the household on their toes. 
• I took my first trip.  We went to Dallas, TX and Raleigh, NC to visit my grandparents.  I met my Grandpa (daddy's dad) for the first time!
• Grandparents love babies. So I get a lot of attention.
• I look just like my big brother.  Daddy pulled out Jonathan's baby album, and there I was!  Or so I thought.  
• I only like to eat when being bounced.  Everyone feeds me on a excercise ball or a recliner.  
• I eat like I am a dribble glass.  I like to let milk leak out of the side of my mouth.  It makes for a messy, messy meal. 
• Yummy mommy's milk is great, but it is a lot easier for me to get it from the way Dr. Brown intended, from a bottle!  I still cannot nurse normally which makes Mommy sad. 
• I have cute hair.  It stands up on end just like it did for my big brother and sister. 

Well that is it for this month!  See you next month all!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

It has been a crazy holiday for us.  With David and baby Danielle sick, and all of the travelling, I have hardly had the time to post anything.  It was bittersweet to see my dad since he has been going through radiation to attack the cancer that has spread to his brain.  But seeinghim hold the littlest one made it all worthwhile. Each time I see him, I wonder how much more time he has to watch the kids grow up.  We are so fortunate he made it this far, and we are praying he will one day be there to see our kids off to college. One day and one prayer at a time.  Happy holidays everyone!

I am 1 month old!

I am one month old and boy am I tired.  It has been a busy month in our house. A few hightlights:

• I had a lot of eating problems, so I lost a lot of weight.  I am finally back on track after some serious round the clock feedings. It makes Mommy and Daddy stressed out, but I like all of the attention.
• My big brother and sister adore me.  They fight to hold me, especially my big brother.  He as a steadier hand holding me and he learned how to bottle feed me Mommy's milk. 
• I sleep all day and am awake all night. It makes Mommy and Daddy crazy, but I use the lack of weight gain as an excuse to keep them up.  They cannot possibly want to let me get off track, so I get away it for now. 
• Thanksgiving is here!  There is a lot of yummy food around, but alas, I am not really able to eat it.  I do like milk though.  
• I sound like a ducky when I cry.  It is cute except when it is not (that is usually about 4am!).  
• I look a lot like my older brother and sister. Our baby pictures are virtually identical.  Even Daddy is not quite sure which is which when he sees the pictures. 
• Grandma and Grandpa came out to visit me.  Grandma is great at feeding me, though Grandpa is not feeling well.  He is pretty sick and the other day he fell hard and made a hole in the wall with his head. Then he was in the hospital for a few days.  Luckily he is feeling much better now. 
• I often wake up with stuffed animals thrown into my crib from my big siblings.  Mommy and Daddy worry that I will play with them, so now there is a blanket ban on anything being put into my crib when I am in there.  They are being really nice to share their toys, so I cannot wait until I am older to scuffle over the really fun ones with them!

Until next month... signing out! 

Week number 1 with 3 kids...

After a week and a half, everyone is adapting to the beloved little being who joined us last week. She looks just like her big brother and sister as babies, so much so that is a bit disorienting. We wonder what her personality will be like.  So far, the only salient fact about Danielle is that she has her nights and days confused.  It makes for a frustrating night since she seems to be only wide awake from 3am to 7:30am every day.  Ugh!  

Her big brother and sister are enjoying her a lot.  They sing her little songs and fight to play with her.  It is adorable.  Big sister, Bethany, is particularly helpful getting her milk, bringing her stuffed animals to play with and telling her stories. Unfortunatley, Sleeping Beauty sees none of it as she is sleeping in the daylight hours.  

Life has been hectic, but we have been blessed. 

Welcome to the world, Danielle!

Welcome to the world, Danielle!  It has been a long hard pregnancy with you, but we are happy to welcome you to our family and to our little world.  Your brother and sister are super excited to have you join them and cannot wait to play with you.  

A few things about you:

• Your birth was one of the hardest and happiest days of my life.  You were a couple days past your due date, and since your big sister came quickly, we figured you would too.  Unfortunately, that did not happen and Mommy made the huge mistake of trying to give birth naturally. Alas, 8lb 7oz babies are not easy to come into the world.  But you are a cutie so it was worth it.  
• You are one sleepy baby! Since you were born, you have been so sleepy, and you only open one eye to see what is going on and go back to sleep. We like the pirate look, but we would love to see you pretty eyes more often.  
• You look just like your brother and sister when you were born. You have their identical expressions and features. I wonder if you will also have similar personality traits.  
• We wish you did not have your nights and days mixed up.  Daddy and I have not slept in over 4 days because you are up all night and sleep all day. Good thing we are night owls, but still, we hope you will switch over soon because we are tired. 
• Your brother and sister are your biggest fans.  They are always asking to hold you and play with you.  We are happy they love you so much.  

We look forward to learning more about you soon!  

Love, Mom and Dad

Baby Number 3!

 

It has been awhile since I have been here posting.  Mostly because of the big news - we are having baby number 3.  The first few months were pretty bad, so I have been playing catch up again.  Here is a peek into the world of our little girl.  Jonathan is super excited he will have another little sister, but Bethany is a bit ambivalent.  She keeps saying "But I am the little sister!"  She does not understand that when we call her "maymay (little sister)" it is generic.  She has been stressed out that there is another one since she does not want to be displaced. Poor little one. Baby number 3 will be here in October. So hopefully the house renovations will be done around that time...  crossing our fingers. 

I am 2 years old!

Time has been flying!   I am now two (count em - 2) years old.  I have had a wonderful couple of years so I wanted to catch everyone up to date.

• I am 33 lbs and have been wearing 3T clothes for the past 4 months.  I am a tall little girl at nearly 3 ft!  They say that you will be 2x the height you were at 2, so that means I will be 6 ft tall, right? 
• My favorite person in the world is my brother Jonathan.  I am his biggest fan.  But when he steals my toys, I scratch him.  We are both best friends and worst enemies.  But we love to play together.
• I love Mommy's new iphone.  I learned to use it so I can watch videos of myself singing songs.  I ask her to see it everyday when she comes home from work.
• I love Grandpa (gong gong).  I ask to talk to him all the time.  I wish he lived closer to us because it is way too far away to go to Dallas.   We pray for him every night because he is sick with cancer.
• I love watching Chopped, but not Iron Chef.  I like to say "Yucky Iron Chef, let's see Chopped!" 
• I get sick a lot lot, so Mommy and Daddy worry about me.  I had croup 4x, viral pneumonia, tonsilitis twice, a double ear inflection, and the stomach flu at least 3x in the past year.  The doctor said I am fine, but I just need to stay away from germy kids for awhile.  When I am sick, I cough and throw up a lot.  It is messy and my stuffed animals will never be the same.
• I have a menagerie that I sleep with.  There are my favorites - Baby Bear (from Auntie Susan), Rabbit (from Uncle Stuart), Panda (from Auntie Caroline via big bro), Pooh Bear (from Auntie Mary Ann via big bro) and many more.  I need them to sleep in my arms or I cannot fall alseep.  Heaven forbid one of them go missing.  Mommy and Daddy spend a lot of time looking for them since I lose them a lot.  One time they found them in a cooking pot behind the washing machine.  I thought I would never see Baby Bear again.
• I suddenly started speaking only English.  I used to only speak Chinese, but now I switched.  It makes Mommy and Daddy crazy!
• I played a funny trick on Daddy the other day.  I will show you pictures of it next month when Mommy downloads the photos. 
• I love our new house.  It is big and there is a big backyard we get to play in. 
• I sleep with 3 blankets just like Mommy!  I like them in a certain order with the paterns facing out.  And I like them tucked in mummy style.
• I love Chinese songs. I know a lot of them though I sort of make up the words because they are hard to understand.  You should listen to me sing them sometime.  Youtube video anyone?

That is it for this month!  See you all soon when I will be back with more toddler adventures!

Blessings in the midst of cancer

 

In September, we got a call from my father that there was a shadow on his chest x-ray.  I thought back to when Bethany was born, and he came to help out with her.  He had coughed and coughed all night when he was here.  He thought it was an allergy to black pepper.  When he called, I remember thinking, why didn't I make him go see a doctor sooner?  She was 20 months old already.  He had sat up with her all night rocking her when she could not sleep.  Would he not be able to watch her grow up? 

We found out a week later it was Stage IV lung cancer.  We are not sure of the cause since he did not smoke, but about 1 in 10 cases of lung cancer are in non-smokers.  How could this happen? 

The past few months have been tough.  We convinced my parents to move in with my sister's family to undergo treatment.  It is hard to be so far away and know there is not much I can do to help.  We visit, of course, but in the end, we leave all of the hard work to Caroline and David.

The treatment has been hard on him, but in some ways we are so blessed.  The average lifespan for a lung cancer of this type is only months, but he has been doing pretty well.  The metastasis in his brain are gone, and his cancer tested positive for the EFGR mutation which makes him a good candidate for an amazing drug that came onto the market just a few years ago.  Only 10 to 20% of people are lucky enough to have this mutation.  Today we found out that his cancer is down from 7cm to 2cm.  He is beating the odds. 

Life is so precious.  I want my children to know their Grandpa.  He was the one who came and cared for them when they were each born.  He held them when they slept and rocked them when they could not.  He took the 5am feedings when I could not handle it, and David was back at work.  But I want them to know him as I know him once they are old enough to understand.  I pray we just have that time. 

Blessings come in different forms. If I could wish this cancer away, I would do so in a heartbeat, but barring that, I need to find something meaningful out of it.  And I choose to think of it everyday as a reminder of how fragile and unpredictable life is.  And how we are blessed to be able to love and be loved. 

Love you, Dad!

I am 22 months old!

I have been pretty busy growing up the past few months. Mommy has been sick for nearly a month, and I was too!   Daddy and Jonathan have also had a cough for a long time.  And today, we got the stomach flu.  Yuck!  

A few things about how things are going:

• I love to talk, talk, talk and talk some more.  I speak English, Mandarin and Cantonese.  Unfotunately, most people are not sure what I am saying because I like to mix it all up.  But when I have something to say, I will say it!
• One of my favorite things to do is to scoot along on my big brother's tricycle. He recently got a new trainer bike, so I inherited his nearly new trike. 
• I sleep with a menagerie of stuffed animals.  I MUST have my baby bear (from Auntie Susan & Uncle Greg), Jonathan's Pooh Bear, my doggy, a giant Nemo fish, a rabbit (or what Mommy thinks is a rabbit) and my long pillow to sleep.  I count them and ask for anyone who is missing. 
• I am my big brother's biggest fan!  He is my best friend, though he does take away my toys a lot. 
• I love baths!  I often stand at the tub and beg to get in even if I already had one today. 
• I love my Chinese music.  I dance at dinner when big brother turns on the tunes.
• My favorite food is Chinese shrimp dumplings.  Yummy!  I pretend to go shopping and I always buy shirmp dumplings.
• I like to draw.  Unfortunately, that includes drawing on the walls, tables, and other things I should not draw on.
• I have been sick a lot this summer and fall.  I had croup, bronchitis, and a double ear infection.  That was after I had hand, foot and mouth - TWICE!   
• I dressed up as a ladybug for Halloween.  We only got to go out for about 20 minutes because I was sick, but the doctor said that the cool night air is good for croup.  Thank you, Mr Doctor!
• I love blankets.  I sleep with at least two, and I like them wrapped up tight.  It makes me happy to be mummified by blankets with lots of stuffed animals.
• I call myself "maymay" because that is what big brother calls me.  I cannot say "I" or "me" so "maymay" it is!
• I am not a very confident runner yet since I am a bit clumsy, but I do love to go out for walks.
• Whenever I fall or hurt myself, I always say that my big brother knocked me over even if he was not home.  I am not sure why, but if I am hurt, I always think he has something to do with it. 
• We moved!  I like our new house!  It is a little bigger and it is closer to Mommy and Daddy's work.  I like it a lot because it has a big yard for me to play in. The old house had a pool so I was never allowed outside.
• Daddy had to give up his old car.  It was on its last legs, and he was afraid to let Mommy drive it anymore.  So we got a new Hyundai Elantra.  I like to play in it. 
• Both my grandpas are really sick.  So please pray for them.  I am sad, and I ask Mommy and Daddy to pray for them everynight.  I miss them lots. 

That is all for now.  Take care and I will visit more often.