Life is precious

Life is so precious and unpredictable. The usually healthy and athletic papa Yang suddenly fell ill in early September, sending our little clan into panic mode. Packing up everything we needed in 4 hours, Julie was still in a daze when they made it on a flight bound for Taiwan.

( Yes! William and his stroller!)

Unlike our last trip, we just brought whatever bare necessaries we could fit into two carry-on suitcases (e.g. William's slumber music machine, bath time rubber ducky, baby carrier, and lots of clothes).

Like our last trip, William was a pretty good sport. He was able to sleep through most of the flight but this time wanted to crawl around when he was awake. We tried to keep things light for him so we took him to the child play area while transiting through Narita Airport so he can get some crawling out of his system (he enjoyed following the older t0ddlers around).

We also rewarded ourselves with some ice cream while we were there. Sorry William... maybe when you get older^_^

Papa Yang and Mama Yang were glad to see William there.

Luckily Papa Yang was able to recover quickly during our 3 weeks stay in Taiwan.
Here is William having fun with our luggage as we are packing up for our return trip. He always likes to be in the middle of the action!

Towards the end of our stay, a typhoon came through the southern part of Taiwan sending down lots of rain and wind. Julie's uncle's house in Kaohsiung was affected.
Although water flooded their basement/garage, Julie's uncle, aunt, and cousins were able to move their car and mopeds to higher ground in time. Julie's aunt said that since the water rose so fast, they didn't have time to think about what to save. They tried to save whatever floated to the top (e.g. slippers) but later realized that their nice shoes were all in shoe boxes... which didn't float up.
Luckily no one was hurt.

As Julie was doing her final e-mail check before heading to the airport, she got the bad news that her college roommate Amy has passed away...

It was quite a shock to both Julie and Eric since we just spent a Saturday with her back in June.

It was a beautiful day in San Francisco. She brought William a Giant's panda bear, which became one of his favorite stuffed animal (probably because of it's high contrast). In Julie's mind, Amy was always smart, happy, and smiley... wish we were able to share some of her burden...

Life is truly precious... we thank God for our wonderful family and friends and we hope to be able to continue treasuring our time with love ones.

William 8 months: Swimming class

William is finally old enough to start swimming class. Eric and Julie did a lot of research to make sure that William is not too young to swim and the possibility of toxicity from the chlorine in the water. It turn out to be a great idea! William loves to splash in the water and it totally wears him out and helps him sleep at night ( even though he was only in the pool for 30 minutes).

And who said being a mom is not a dirty job? Here is Julie making pumpkin baby food... that is not #2 on her jacket. Here is William having some nectarines for dessert. Did we mention that William likes to eat everything (except for carrots... just like his mama).

Since William started crawling, Julie had to say goodbye to her mammy and me yoga class because William was too interested in all the other babies in class and would not stay in one place ^_^

Just as a side note, Julie was finally able to get her hair cut. Donating 15 inches of her hair to Locks of Love sure feels good!


Here is Shirley getting her hair chopped too. Yap! partner in crime for hair donation! Sure hope to do it again in 2 years!

William 7 months: William's new ride

Even though Eric and Julie would like to save a little $$ by keeping William in his infant car seat/stroller combo, our little monster is growing at a rapid speed and has quickly out grew his car seat. So Eric and Julie finally broke down and bought William his very first set of fancy wheels.

That smile is all worth it right?
Since Julie had back problems before, Eric tried to find a full size stroller that is light weight, can lay flat, and allows for forward and rear facing. The Bumbleride Flyer was just the stroller. We picked it up from Lullaby Lane is San Bruno and quickly put it together for William to try out and we LOVE it!

Besides getting his first fancy stroller, William also got his very first high chair/booster seat. Once again, this was a great purchase. William loves the seat! He looks like a big toddler already.

Of no surprise, William's above average weight and height allowed for his early motor development. He shocked Julie and Eric with his first crawl a day after he turned 7 months. (click on picture above to see video)

And here is a bonus video of William's reaction to Eric's chicken dance!

test-tickles

On the subject of laughter, Eric and Julie were discussing tickling. Julie had never heard of tickles to test something, so Eric relayed the following story:

This woman gets hired as a temp worker just before Christmas for a toy company making tickle-me-Elmos (remember when those were selling like hotcakes). She gets put at the end of the production line. Finished Elmos are slowly coming down the conveyor belt, and the boss says to her that she should give each Elmo two test-tickles to make sure he's complete and in working order. He then rushes off to fix another part of the production line. He returns at the end of the day, surprised to find a pair of testicles sown onto each doll in a huge pile of anatomically-correct Elmos. Furious at the new worker who has just ruined the day's work, he demands to know what she is up to. Confused, she says that she was doing what he asked and gave each Elmo two testicles. He says, "No! Two test tickles, not two testicles!"

Happy 6 month old!

Staying at the top of the growth curve, our little William continue to impress us with his advanced motor development and bright smiles. He is so close to putting the crawling thing together but not quite. He is often on his knees rocking back and forth. Julie usually has the camera ready thinking that William will be crawling any minute now.

Seeing his pudgy fingers and knuckle dimples gives Julie a sense of achievement ^_^

Here is a video of William's fun laughs:

Happy 1st Father's day!

Happy first father's day to papa bear!!! To celebrate this special moment, William started to scoot backwards this weekend. It is a lot of fun for us to watch him get so excited about exploring the world around him... I guess we should start child-proofing the house, huh?

Did we mention he giggles too?

For father's day, Eric decided to wear the t-shirt he wore when we brought William home. We went to the cafe across the street for a nice breakfast.

Took our car for a car wash... (washed off the bugs from our road trip)

And went to Baker beach for some family time and to take some nice pictures ^_^ (here is a picture Eric took while Julie was trying to get sand off of William's face... seriously, Julie is not picking William's nose).

Even Angels have bad days

Our lives have certainly changed since the arrival of our little bundle of joy. We are full of pride as we watch him hit his developmental milestones.

He is a happy boy and a strong boy. He is no longer content sitting in his rocking chair while we eat our dinner. Here is a picture of him trying to sit up and get out of his chair.

He is also a big eater. He loves to eat every thing. He even wants to grab the spoon and feed himself. Avocados and peas are currently on the menu.

Here is William shocking his parents sitting up for a whole minute in front of the mirror one morning. He loves to talk to his own reflection ^_^

He also started to roll over. One morning we found him asleep in this awkward position... sound asleep.


As part of our summer travels, we took a road trip down to LA to attend Louis' graduation. Since William was so well behaved last time, we didn't think this road trip was going to be difficult. We drove down on a Saturday evening and William slept pretty much the whole time. At the graduation, William provided plenty of entertainment for the family.


He was curious about everything on our table. Here is a picture of William's first high chair experience (a little wobbly)... doesn't it look like he is ready to order.


Here is Louis's graduation gift from us as we spread our love for photography. With his artistic talent, we are sure he will be able to put it to good use.

We had a fun visit with our family ^_^

But on the way drive back to SF, Julie and Eric finally experienced for the first time the car ride horror often described by other parents...

William made it clear to us that he is no long interested in looking at the back of the car seat... 15 minutes of crying felt like an hour to Julie... luckily he slept through 1/2 of the car ride. With the frequent stops to give William fresh air, Julie also got to have some snacks from McDonald's ^_^ 8 hours later... we finally survived our first car ride tantrum.