Astrid Astrid Astrid

Wow, six months have passed! We've been so busy!

Spring was rapid. Astrid was born, Luca graduated Kindergarten, and we were off to summer in the blink of an eye.

Summer was INSANE. Once Kyra started work again, I had to drop off everyone else at three different locations, resulting in 2-2.5 hours of driving time every day except Tuesday. And I work from home! First we dropped Kyra off at work, then Luca at summer camp (which was a lot of fun), and finally Astrid at her daycare. There wasn't an opening at Kyra's new work - a daycare - so we had to wait until September until Astrid could go to school with her. This summer was a small taste of what many families must do every day, and we've been lucky to avoid such huge hassles.

Fall has slowed down a bit, but we're still breathless from the rapid summer season. It's November, and I'm trying to catch up on posting photos and videos from the summer. I haven't written anything about Luca's graduation or the start of 1st grade, the start of Astrid's new day care, or Luca's 7th birthday.

Astrid has been growing quite a bit! She's already learning the prerequisites to crawling and walking, like getting up on her hands and knees from tummy time and pulling herself up on things (with a bit of help). She's eating lots of different food, including some regular solids. For example, she seems to like bread! She's babbling a lot, and just like Luca, she says "Baba" quite well ("daddy" in Chinese). There are times when we think she may just mean it, too!

Here's a photo album with a few of the highlights:

Astrid's Photo Album

Astrid in her Take-Home Outfit

Luca and Astrid

The Whole Family!

Tummy Time

Learning to Sit

Two Goons in a Chair

Flower Girls

Laundry Girl

Jumping Girl

Reading with Brother

Halloween Costume (Take-Home Redux)

Eating Bread

I'll be catching up with the photos and videos soon, along with some new (professional) family photos for the website. Stay tuned! (What does that even mean nowadays??)

Ren Faire 2014

A few weekends ago, we attended the Renaissance Faire in Bristol, during the "Steampunk Invasion" weekend.

Steampunk... how to describe it. Well, Wikipedia has a great article: Steampunk. At the least, you should know that it's a certain style of dressing that emphasizes a combination of gears, steam-related machinery, and Victorian or "Wild West" clothing. It's an interesting style, to say the least.

Kyra decided to make a hat, and wear a skirt and corset.



Luca and I didn't do anything very fancy:



Kyra got a lot of (random) compliments on her hat.



It was a great day. We saw the two swordsman, fencing and "teaching gentlemanly behavior", as well as the main jousting event.

Luca has been telling everyone about the joust where one of the knights pierced the other knight's shield with his lance. It was pretty cool.

There was also a children's adventure, and they had to help Little Red Riding Hood. Other fairy tale characters made appearances, too.

At the end, he won some "treasure". When he got the treasure, he made this evil-sounding MWA-HA-HA laugh, while holding the treasure up in one hand and the other in the air. Very dramatic. I asked him to do it again, and I got this:



With a little more egging to do what he did before:



Not quite the same. I should have had a video camera!

All in all, it was a great day, and I'm glad we finally got out to the Faire with Luca again. He was too young to remember it the first time.

Christmas 2011

Now that we've had some time to relax from our busy winter schedule, I've finally had a moment to compile some photos from Christmas.

Christmas 2011

So what kept us so busy?

I had my 30th birthday in early December, we attended Kyra's work holiday party, Nana and Liliana visited for Luca's preschool holiday party and for the weekend. Then there was Christmas, and during the time off I helped with a political campaign doing data entry. We had Christmas at home, at Kenny's, and with my extended family and the Great-Grandparents' home.

New Year's was spent with Nick and LP, although we didn't stay up too late, and shortly after we went up to the Twin Cities for the first in-person meeting for the non-profit organization Kyra and I are volunteering for. I spent most of the time with the kids keeping them quite while the others met and discussed the organization charter and lots of other stuff.

Luca and I spent the day together on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and we had a swimming lesson and then to the capitol to celebrate the holiday with Wisconsin Public Radio, in particular, Jonathan Overby from Higher Ground, and many other people. We listened to a Scottish band, a trumpet, and a gospel choir. That weekend, Kyra and I went to the first symphony of the year, and were blown away by the violinist, Augustin Hadelich, especially his performance of Paganini's 24th Caprice.

So yeah, it's been busy. Good lord. Kyra started her class again, and just finished another meeting with the non-profit today. I hope things will calm down soon!

Autumn Events in 2011

We've had quite a busy autumn! First, there was Luca's 3rd birthday, then apple picking, Halloween, a celebration of my first date with Kyra, and finally Thanksgiving at Dan's with our friends.

Here's a slide show and highlights:

Autumn 2011



Dan and Carla, LP and Nick on the Hay Ride


Baba and Luca on the Hay Ride


Luca and the Birthday Cake, with a Tractor!


Apple Picking


Apple Eatin'


Ready for a Date!


A Turkey at Dan's (wait, which one?!)

We still have more Thanksgiving parties to attend this week, so there might be more photos to post.

Kyra insists that we put up the Christmas tree next weekend after Thanksgiving. I'm not sure I have the stomach for it, especially before my birthday! I'm already reeling from the Christmas music at the mall... Sheesh! If Thanksgiving hasn't passed yet, it's too early!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! May you be warm and have lots of good food!

A big thank-you to Cassie, Mike, and Zea at Primrose Community Farm, who share their wonderful farm food with us during the year. We enjoyed the potatoes, mashed, for our Thanksgiving party!

Easter and Mother’s Day Weekend

It's been a while since we've posted photos, so here's a review of the last few months:

We visited my parents for Easter, and they hid eggs around their house. We also went to Kyra's family's Easter party, and they hid eggs around the house too. I think Luca was getting tired, though, so he didn't find many there. Here are some photos at my parents:

Easter 2010

At one point, Luca was running along and dumped all of the eggs out. He would say, "Uh oh" over and over, then pick the eggs up and dump them out all over again. It was very amusing.

On the weekend of Mother's Day, Kyra took Luca to his swimming lesson instead of me. We also went to Olbrich Botanical Gardens. As Kyra said, "Everybody and their mother will be there." Well, it wasn't that crowded. We had a snack at a local cafe afterward.

Mother's Day Weekend

Next up, we'll talk about our first camping trip as a family!

Of Two Weeks

It's been a busy two weeks.

Luca got some cereal stuck on his head.





Last week we were supposed to go on a trip to the Twin Cities to visit Kyra's grammy. Luca, however, caught a cold during his first week in daycare with other children. Kyra was shadowing another teacher at the east side location, so Luca had his first experiences being taken care of by someone else and being around other children. He's not quite socialized yet - he would crawl up to children and pinch their faces or scream, so there's something yet to be desired. At any rate, Thursday night he came down with a fever, and his infection progressively spread to his parents. We were all quite miserable.

This week we closed on the condo on Friday. The closing went well, and Luca was a good sport during the event. So now we are happy homeowners! There's a lot to do, like painting, re-wiring the dryer, and installing ventilation for the bathroom. We may also install new windows, but that might wait until later, perhaps in the fall. Once these tasks are complete, we'll move in, probably at the end of the month. We'll be quite busy, so if we don't write for a while, that's why!

After the closing, since we missed our trip the week before, we went up to the Twin Cities to visits Kyra's grandmother, Grammy. The trip went surprisingly well. Luca wasn't too unhappy about the long drive. We had dinner with Grammy when we arrived, then Kyra's sister, Sabrina, and her daughter, Lilianna, arrived. We picked up baby-shower presents for Sabrina on the way up, to commemorate the birth of her daughter, Dalila.

By the way, Dalila is doing well. She's had a number of problems: her breathing stopped, they found a hole in her heart, she had surgery, and all sorts of things. In the latest event, the doctors found another hole and figured out that one of her vocal chords is not fully functioning to close of her airway when she eats. So she's on a feeding tube while her vocal chords heals. Otherwise, she's gained a few pounds, weighing in at 5 pounds, which is great news. We hope she continues to get better!

Here are some photos from our trip:

Trip to Grammy's


Here are some highlights:



Sabrina and Luca



Luca and Nana



Chris and Lilianna



Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren



All of us!

Finally, to commemorate our new home, I would like to share an edited poem by Robert Louis Stevenson:

Behold, our family here assembled.
We are thankful for this place in which we dwell;
for the love that unites us;
for the peace accorded us this day;
for the hope with which we greet the morrow;
and for our friends in all parts of the earth.
Let peace abound in our company.
Let peace abound in us all.

They Come in Threes

They say things come in threes. I think the origin of that saying was the observation that buses in the UK would never show up, and then all of a sudden there were three. Whatever the origin, we have three things:

• Today I won an employee recognition award! It consists of $25 shopping card and lunch with the head of our division. I was nominated once or twice before, and I was finally selected at random.
  
• We put an offer on a condo, and when I came home from work, we found out our offer was accepted! We'll be moving in August to a place of our own!
  
• Kyra had a job interview on Wednesday, and she received an email this evening extending an offer. She'll be starting on July 13th at a pre-school!

What a day! And all of this before bedtime! How are we supposed to sleep!

Here are some photos of the condo:

Condo Photos


Arial view courtesy Bing Maps

And now the cutest baby niece ever:



She's so tiny! Get big and strong little one!

Pooh All Over

As new parents, we've come to realize that pooh gets everywhere. Here's a sample of photos showing where we've found it.

If you have trouble viewing the slideshow, go to the album by clicking here.

Luca had a couple of very good poses while we were shooting the pooh photos.







What a happy little guy!

Santa Claus is Watching

Were you naughty or nice? Santa knows...

More Christmas Photos

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's Luca wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Day

Another Baby Shower

Luca had another baby shower today, and here are some photos.

Second Baby Shower

Here's a photo in a cute outfit.



And here's a photo of him being burped by mommy.

Birth Announcement

Name: Luca Theodore
Chinese Name: 小熊 (Xǐao Xíong)

Date: October 14, 2008
Time: 12:32 AM
Location: Meriter Hospital in Madison, WI

Gender: Male
Weight: 10 pounds, 11 ounces
Length: 22 inches

More baby photos...

Baby Photo Album

Heartbeats, Thai Festival, and Baby Shower, Huzzah!

Here are the latest two heartbeat samples. We just had an appointment today, but I forgot the sound recorder again! Oh well. At least I was there to hear it, and it sounded great! The midwife estimated that he was about 7 pounds!

Our Baby's Heartbeat, Sample 6


Our Baby's Heartbeat, Sample 7

Two weekends ago, we attended a university dance and took a couple of photos. We thought it would be the last dance we would attend, but we went back last weekend for a short time. It was nice to see all of our friends, and it's hard to go for weeks without seeing them. After attending the last dance, we went to Carla's and watched My Neighbor Totoro. It's a cute movie, but very strange!

Chris and Kyra

Carla and Kyra

Kyra and Baby!

Before going to the baby shower hosted by Kyra's paternal family, we went to the Thai Festival at Olbrich Gardens. Unfortunately, it was kind of rainy, so the performances were inside. We did get some shots of the pavilion, and Kyra finally got her picture with the bears!











The baby shower was fun, and not at all as embarrassing as Kyra led me to believe. We ate, played some games, opened presents, and talked. The decorations were all about bears and a picnic. Some of the games were very inventive, like the game about guessing which bear a phrase described. Players would throw a ball around, and when someone caught it, they had to look at where their thumb landed and read the phrase written on the ball. Then they had to guess what bear the phrase was about. Even though I was the only guy attending, I had fun!

Last weekend, Kyra started to have some contractions. In the last couple of days, she's had more, lasting longer than before. Tonight (Tuesday), she had a long series of contractions and decided to take a warm bath to help sooth the pain. The midwife reminded us that chances are she'll go past her due date, but I think this baby is going to come soon! Maybe next weekend! Who knows?!