Hai's first base ball game!

Hai got to meet "Lou Seal" the Giants' mascot. That was clearly the highlight. I'm not sure he actually knew there were players on the diamond.

I enjoyed my beer and hotdog, of course :-)

Love all - Melissa

Memorial day at Sequoia National Park - 2009

Easter Weekend

Farmer's Market & Dim Sum on Sunday

Hi all -

Yesterday we went to the Mountain View Farmer's market and Hai got an Elmo balloon - after trying to take the money from the balloon guy while we waited, the balloon man produced a complete Elmo for Hai without making him wait in the line of 4 little girls all wanting princess balloons.

Mom ended up carrying the balloon later in the day... of course.

Lila! Lila!

Lila came to visit last Friday night. We had a great time eating pizza and hanging out. Hai has been saying "Lila, Lila, Lila!" ever since. When we come home to our parking lot he says "hi, Lila", "bye, Lila" (that's where he saw her first and said his last goodbyes). When he looks at the shells in the bathroom or sees the flowers Lila clipped in our house he points at them and says "Lila, Lila!" When he eats leftover pizza he says "Lila, Lila!". I think he's a little obsessed. Maybe Lila is Hai's first crush.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time and we are happy we were lucky enough to spend some precious hours with Lila - I think we got 12 of the 36 she actually spent in the Bay Area!

Love all,

Melissa & Hai

Milestone - caution, Mommy moment!

Last night we had a major milestone. Hai went pee pee in the toilet for the first time! He had just had his bath and he asked to put the kid's seat on the toilet. He got up, held mom's hands and then.... there it was! My little boy isn't a baby any more.

I think we probably have Christina to thank for Hai being such an early learner - he seems to follow her into the bathroom several times a day. When I tell him how proud I am of him, he says "thank you". It's almost too cute.

He wanted to try again this morning, but we were not as successful, but he's definitely motivated. He knows that he can ask me or Bebe (his nanny) if he wants to go now, so I suspect we'll be spending a bit of time in the lavatory going forward...

So, time to buy some pull ups I guess. He seems to be ready.

Wow.

Love all,

Melissa

Lemos Farms in Half Moon Bay

Saturday we went to "Lemos Farm" with Maria and Christina - this is our family photo as we rode the train. Hai had a great time playing with all the toys and running around feeding the goats. Christina particularly liked the pony rides!

Hai shows Lila his funny face!

Last night we got to see Auntie Lila, and Nabeel and Asha. Hai was being quite the ham with Lila and showing his funny faces!

Love all,

Melissa

Yes, we went to Chuck E. Cheese's last Sunday for Hai's birthday - #2!! We had a ball. There were about 12 or 13 kids there and parents. It was great to catch up with some folks in a place where the kids can basically run free. Oh, and Hai really got into his cake this year - but he was a little afraid of Chuck E. Can't imagine why a 2 year old would be scared by a giant rat in a baseball hat. Guess we'll have to wait a little while before that Disneyland trip...

Love all,

Melissa & Hai

Hai and Keith read a book

Slumber party!

Christina and Hai after our Christmas slumber party.

Happy 2009!

Hi all,

Happy 2009 to you! We "rang out" 2008 with a bang and a whimper... Hai and I flew back from New Mexico yesterday afternoon. Everything was going great... he fell asleep as we took off from Albuquerque and I thought "I'm home free". Next thing I knew he was awake... gagging... Yes, Hai barfed on the plane. 15min into the flight. Fun. The worst part was - NOT ONE SINGLE flight attendant lifted a finger to even bring me towels or help in any way. When I finally took Hai, covered in vomit, back to the bathroom, one of the flight attendants handed me a garbage bag and said "please put the diaper and stuff in here, I don't want it in the bathroom trash". Rene' & Murf, if you are reading this - this was a PHOENIX based crew on their last leg from ABQ to PHX, flight 1651. They sucked.

The flight attendants that joined us in PHX for the flight to San Jose' were much nicer... but of course I'd cleaned up all the barf and Hai was sound asleep on my lap for that whole flight. Hmmm...

Other than that, we had a great time at Grandma and GrandDad's, despite my Dad's attack of gout and both Hai and I having sinus infections for most of the time... We spent a lot of time in "quiet activities". Hai got to play with his new puzzles and his new train. He's still a little small for his new trike, so we left it there so he can ride it this summer. It will be perfect then.

I hope you all had a great holiday and are having a happy new year! We are off to Whole Foods this morning to get some probiotic yogurt to see if we can get Hai's gut back to normal after the antibiotics...

Here's hoping your New Year does NOT start with barfing... :-)

Connections

Someone shared this quote with me today, and I thought it was so true to my personal journey that I wanted to share it with you all. Hai has certainly set me on a "mythic quest" and has also reminded me of how connected we all are.

"Adoption is a metaphor for the human condition, setting us forth on a mythic quest that will prove that we are connected to each other and to all the creatures of this world and in this process, reveal to us who we really are."
Betty Jean Lifton, author of Journey of the Adopted Self

Love all, Melissa + Hai

Happy Hai!

I love this shot. It's seldom that I am able to capture my happy kid. Cute, huh?

Good ears, good teeth, not so good at sleeping...

In the past 2 weeks Hai's gotten a clean bill of health for his ears, and his teeth. On the ears - the audiologist was finally able to actually make the equipment work and get a reading that says he can hear! And the teeth, well, Hai braved his first trip to the dentist yesterday. I don't think it was a great first impression, but at least she said his teeth look fine.

But Hai continues to earn the name "little stinker" with his Tia. I went to a concert last night and when I got to Tia's house around midnight, Hai was asleep, but apparently whenever the word "sleep" was uttered he decided to wail and say no (reference "hearing exam" above!).

I must say, it was nice to get there and just take my time, get ready for bed and have Hai sleep straight through the night and wake up with a smile on his face. Hmmm... wonder if I could make this a habit? :-)

I made my first apple pie for thanksgiving today. Yes, I'm 40 something years old and had never made an apple pie. I learned that I am thankful that the nanny was watching Hai this afternoon, as I would never have been able to cut and peel all those apples with him around. It's an artery-hardening recipe - lots of butter - but it sure smells good!

I hope you all have a great thanksgiving. I'm so thankful for the past year with Hai and many more to come. And I'm thankful for my friends and family that make it possible for me to be the best Mom I can be. Happy Thanksgiving!

Love all - Melissa

Little stinker...

Last night Hai tried the patience of his Tia ... I had a work dinner so I asked Hai's "tia/auntie" if she would watch Hai until about 10pm. Of course she said ok.

She asked me, "so, how do you put him to sleep".

My answer: "oh, he's pretty good about it, I just give him some milk (or not, even), brush his teeth and put him in the bed, read a book and then let him roll around awhile until he goes to sleep (yes, I stay with him until he's asleep). You should be able to put him in bed with your daughter and they should both be asleep by 9."

Yeah, right...

I got to her house at 10:15 and there was Hai, smiling and running to me saying "mommy!! mommy!" His Tia did not look so happy... she was ready to throttle him. I guess he kept the whole house awake for awhile.

Of course, when we got home he was asleep in his bed in 5min.

I've created a monster...I wonder if I'm ever going to be able to leave this kid with someone else at night. Hopefully before he's a teenager...

love all,

Melissa & Hai

Happy Halloween!
I believe Hai was on his 2nd or 3rd Kit Kat at this point. The Elmo hood quickly came off, but the suit stayed on all night. (Note he still has his painted toes leftover from Cabo).

Here is one of my favorite shots from Cabo. Hai went to sleep on the sunset booze cruise... mommy didn't get very much booze... :-)

Let him eat cake!

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Originally uploaded by michelebertolone

A photo from last weekend's reunion. Hai loves cake, but he loves frosting and the chocolate candy ON the cake more. :-)

The spider at the door

This spider has been building and re-building her web right outside our sliding glass door to our deck for a couple of weeks. She's about the size of a silver dollar, and I'm sure she's harmless. But boy, is she interesting looking.

I guess Hai and I have a pet after all!

Melissa