Things I'm thankful for this year....(in no particular order)

• The family leave act
• Friends that cook, very well, and share their gift
• Friends that order take out, very well, and share their gift
  
• Friends that don't mind a lot of banging on the high chair during thanksgiving dinner
• The distance between my house and Maria's is only a 10 minute drive (makes a big difference after dark when Hai is howling in the back seat....)
  
• The bouncy chair and the friends that gave it to me (thanks to you, I shower regularly)
• Screw tops
  
• waterproof mattress pads
• Christina, Cristian and Jake, Hai's new friends and their patience with a little "brother"
  
• NAPS
• balls that rattle and make a really good noise on the hardwood floor
  
• hand-me-downs
  
• Friends that don't mind visiting me after dark (so we don't have to get in the car/car seat)
• wash and wear
• Baby Einstein and The Wiggles (so far)
• Our adoption agencies
  
• The dishwasher
• Peet's coffee
• Maria, Jaap and Josie and the time they took from their lives to go with us to Vietnam
  
• safeway.com
• Kate, for taking care of business while I'm gone
  
• My parents, and the fact that they are coming here next week and we will celebrate Thanksgiving again!

• And of course... everyone that has been so incredibly supportive of me and of Hai this past year. Work friends, family and extended family - we love you!

I hope everyone has something very special to be thankful for this year, I know I do.

With love and gratitude,

Melissa

At the park

Video for Grandma... playing at the park

Mirror, mirror

Christina and Hai

Breakfast

Car seat meltdown causes major crimp in social plans...

We had a big weekend. Yesterday we went out in the morning and ran some errands (Hai kept falling asleep in the car 2 minutes before we got somewhere, so he got woken up a lot) and then my friend Bob and his daughter Katie came over and also Lila and Karl. Lila and Karl got the crash course in children as Hai was just waking up from a nap and also decided to have a big poo for them. I'm sure the newlyweds are rethinking that whole kid thing right now.

Today we had a big play date with my friend Susan and her son, Bryce. We went for a long stroller ride and played in the park and then we had lunch at Susan's and stroller'd home. Funny thing is, Susan and I worked together years ago and now we live less than a quarter mile from one another and both have sons that are about 6 months apart.

Tonight we were all set to go to auntie Lisa and uncle Mark's house, but Hai had other ideas. The second I put him in the car seat he started to cry. No, make that bellow and cry. No make that scream and cry and sob and howl and generally act like the car seat was cutting his arm off. Yes, I pulled over. After checking for spurting blood, and removing him so he could calm down, I tried to put him back in. Same thing, before I even had the harness snapped... Well, I hitched him in, opened the sun roof to drown out the noise, and went home.

He went straight into a bath, had some dinner and he crawled around the condo for an hour or so. Now he's happily sound asleep. I'm not sure what it was all about, but I really hope it's not a pattern. Tomorrow I will either be buying some car seat toys or a year's supply of ear plugs, or we'll be playing ELMO CD's really loud for a while. If you see us driving down the street, I guess we won't be hard to miss...

I wonder if it's because yesterday our last stop was the doctor's ofc to get his ear checked out? (It's all fine, by the way. In fact, all his tests from the dr. look good from what I can understand...) :-)

Here's to happy commutes to you all...

Melissa

The "exersaucer"

The definition of accomplishment...

It's Friday night, almost 8pm, and I'm in front of the computer in my pajamas...
Hai is asleep in the next room. He's had a bath and been fed. I never thought feeding and bathing a child would feel like such an accomplishment.

It's been quite a week, or at least it's felt that way. Come to think of it, we really didn't do that much. I mean, Hai got his first trip to Safeway in this week, and we ventured to Maria's house for dinner one night, but beyond that... it's amazing how little things can feel like big accomplishments... comforting, actually.

I did actually get to a yoga class twice this week. That's more yoga than I've done in a couple of years, so that's something. Oh, and thanks to Maria's prodding I got a massage today and a manicure/pedicure (ref: "the wonders of a nanny" post from Monday). And I ordered thank you cards... you all will be getting one before the end of the year, I hope.

And what else, ooooohhhh... we finally assembled the "exersaucer". Good God, that damn thing was clearly made by some angry mechanical engineer that got turned down for an astronaut job because he was too unstable. How many screws and springs does a children's toy really need anyway?? And TRIPLE A batteries? 9 of them??? Who has 9 Triple A batteries laying around? (An experienced parent, clearly). I can see how some children have been injured because their parents gave up half way through the assembly process at midnight only to find their maimed child laying helpless in the half-built saucer in the wee hours of the morning as they went to make their coffee...

But... Hai really digs it, so I guess that's all that matters...

Love all,

Melissa

Learning to crawl...

The wonders of a nanny...

Hai and I had a good weekend, but I must say I was glad when the nanny showed up this morning. I asked her to come in for a few hours a week for the next couple of months so that Hai could get used to her. It's working. Today when she came he reached for her and clearly was ready to "go to the park". The nice thing is the park is right across the street from my condo complex, so they are not far away - and he really seems to like the swings, the fall leaves that crunch and the sand. (He's definitely going to be a beach kid).

This weekend we spent a lot of time with his "Tia" Maria and his "cousin" Christina. Christina is 4 and getting used to the idea that her Tia Melissa has a baby. He's pretty fun until he takes time from her is basically how it goes... But she's a great little helper and we had a fun weekend. We went to Stanford shopping mall where Hai saw more dogs than he's probably ever seen in his life and yesterday we braved "Babys R Us", it was actually less painful than I thought.

Now I'm headed to a yoga class to work out the kinks from carrying Hai in the Baby Bjorn and pushing the stroller all weekend... I may just end up in the jacuzzi at the gym, but the intention is there...

And yes, I know I need to take some more pictures, it's on my "to do" list. I can't wait for Grandma and Grandpa to get here, we might actually get some real photos taken!

Hope you all are well!

Melissa

Good vibrations...

We've had a lot of excitement in the past 24 hours. First there was the earthquake on Tuesday night. Luckily, Hai was in his bouncy chair with the vibrate on because I was eating dinner with Uncle Jaap. We just picked up the boy, chair and all, and stood under the door jam. At one point, Jaap, who was holding the chair said "I think it's still shaking"... I laughed and said "I think that's the chair!!".

I don't think Hai ever knew what happened, he thought the whole thing was some kind of weird game we were playing...

Yesterday we put on our "little devil" shirt and went to the doctor for the first time. I'm convinced now that a pediatrician's job is to make sure that the mother is not killing the kid - not really to make sure the kid is healthy :-)

The good news is, Hai seems to be a happy, healthly little boy. He got 3 shots and has to go back for more in a month, but he's a pretty tough kid and didn't cry too much. Then we had to go to the lab for them to take blood and test for all kinds of things. The poor little guy, they took 5 vials of blood from him!! He was a trooper, but the whole staff of the laboratory watched as he cried. As soon as they took the needle out and I could hold him by myself he was fine again.

But I think the worst part for mom at least was getting the "stool samples" for the lab. Those of you that are parents, hope that you never have to have your kid checked for parasites... ick, is all I'm gonna say.

He's had a little fever thanks to the shots, but the good news is that it's put him on a little bit more normal schedule, he was asleep last night by 11pm and up today a 7:30am, and he's napping now. Maybe the worst of the jetlag is over? :-)

Hope you all had a happy Halloween!

Melissa