Things I learned in Anchorage (or My 2:00 AM Misadventures in Ted Stevens International Airport)

1) Ted Stevens has an airport named after him

a) If you live for long enough, serve for long enough, and manage to be convicted for perjury (and believe that the Internet is a series of tubes), Alaskans will still name an airport after you even if you're not dead ("Thanks, Exxon and Conoco Philips!")

2) Nothing in life is free



3) No matter where you're from, where you're going, what time it is (2:30 AM Alaska Time)or how cold it is outside, you have GOT to make sure you are moisturized, made up, wrinkle-free and not too shiny.



4) In Alaska, they love their natural heritage shot, killed and taxidermied.






5) Alaskans care more about the animals they don't have then the ones they do.

She looks like Popo!

Attentive fans will have noticed that there has been a conspicuous absence of posts lately. This is due to the fact that Daddy's visit to Boston/Maine has been extended due to the weather and he is now stranded (at Mimi's, happily) until after Christmas. Pa has been filling in the gaps on his blog:

http://livefrom5b.blogspot.com/

We've just emerged from nearly a week of a very fussy M. Teething? Growth spurt? Missing her Dad? Jealous of Pa? We wish she could talk to tell us. Popo's arrival yesterday marked the return of the M that we are used to. But I think she's grown! Pictures and video below are from dismantling a whole new 包包 (bag): Popo's. So many treasures!

"How much do I owe you?"

"I'm not sure, can you go cheaper?"

"How do I look?"

Like Popo! Anyone else agree?

All done!

The Eagle Has Landed

"There's so much floorspace at this airport place!"
Pa flew in yesterday (Saturday) at noon and we all went out to greet him.

M enjoyed quite the fun time running around the largest indoor space she's ever had the opportunity to run around in.

Thankfully, most adults tend to be quite polite towards toddlers, so the people whose legs she grabbed onto and those who had to make last minute course corrections to avoid trampling M were very accommodating.

"So who are we looking for?"
After flirting with and charming half the staff at the airport, Pa finally arrived on his final leg from Korea and a happy reunion was shared with the three McLeans now in Hong Kong.

After a brief and delicious meal at the airport, we took the train home and proceeded to unpack Pa's luggage.

Pa arrives
As it turns out, much of Pa's luggage allowance was taken up by some beautiful solid maple blocks from an artisan wooden toy maker from Vermont.

M wasted no time in starting to play with them. They make a beautiful sound when knocked together and, according to SAM and Pa, are exact replicas to the set that SAM got as a baby gift when she was young and which now currently reside in Arrowsic.

A Matchbox car was quickly found and a ramp quickly built by Pa for it to roll down.

Shortly thereafter, a tower was quickly built by Dad (me) and then dismantled by M.

The blocks are beautifully made and I will love playing with them with M as much as she already loves them.

Click, Clack, Blocks
Today was Sunday, and while we spent most of the morning in, it wasn't a wasted day. We had a wonderful time lounging in the sunny living room during the morning with the familiar figure of Pa reading on the couch and the rest of us chatting while M played on the floor with her new blocks.

Family stroll
In the late afternoon, we all went for a stroll during which M was quite forceful about walking for the first 100 meters or so.

SAM likened walking with M to walking with a puppy because it really felt like two steps forward, two steps back via three or four steps to the left and a large sweep to the right. Every object laying on the ground was examined, every new plant was mentally cataloged. She quite literally left no leaf or stone unturned.

I think the first hundred meters probably took half an hour.

After the video you see here, we put her in the stroller with her snack trap, and the walk was much brisker for everyone.

We swear, it was only one beer
After we got home, it was, as always, the same evening drill for M. Dinner, bath, nursing, then bed before our own dinner of shepherd's pie and family time spent around the table.

The one cool thing that is a new skill for M is the use of a fork.

She doesn't do it all the time (as you will see), but she does know how to do it.

At the video in the end, you will see her eating some parsnip. It takes awhile, but she finally displays something that she's been doing since about Tuesday.

SAM says that M can even spear the item and put it into her mouth, but she wasn't doing it for me.

In the taxi going home
Anyways, the weekend is over again, but Pa is now here, so there is most certainly, nothing to fear.

Fork!

Mid-Week Busy-ness!

After breakfast this morning
For those of you who are a bit more eagle-eyed, you will see that M got a bit of a trim last night.

I came home late, but upon coming home was regaled by a proud as a peacock SAM who told me all about how a brave mother executed her first ever haircut on another human using baby nail scissors to safeguard an ever bobbing and weaving toddler who was sitting in the bath.

Showing off her trim
Unfortunately, the babe was already sleeping by the time I got home, so I had to wait until the morning to check out the new hair cut.

I was a bit hesitant at first, because the plan has been to grow out M's hair, but even I will admit (as much as I see her through rose colored lenses) that her hair was getting a bit... scruffy.

Fortunately, as with almost all things, SAM knows what she's doing, and in the morning, I plucked an extremely well groomed baby out of her crib.

Only the back and sides got their ends snipped and a bit evened out. The front was left to grow out so that we will eventually be able to pull her hair back.

Personally, I think she looks very much nicer now, with the trim.

The kitchen timer as "phone"
Margaret continues to bring us such unexpected joy that I am simply cannot express its breadth or depth. Not only that, but continues to give us incredible satisfaction by growing and changing (something which we have absolutely no control over but which we feel proud of nonetheless).

For instance, such is her fixation with telephones that she has now learned to say the word, "phone," albeit with a Filipino accent. It comes out more like, "pohne," but it is clear what she is talking about because she will only use the word when reaching for or holding some device which she will then hold up to her ear.

Self Portrait (see video below)
Also, today, before her bath, she delighted her father (as I delighted her) by emitting the most heavenly giggles, gurgles and laughs while roughhousing on the bed while getting ready to get in the tub.

I discovered that she loves it when I lay her on the bed, draw myself up really tall, then slowly keel over onto the bed next to her, missing her by just a few inches. There must be a some thrill-seeking streak in her because she absolutely loves it, and will let loose uncontrollable laughter when I do it.

Likewise, she loves being heaved into the air to experience a moment of weightlessness at the apogee before coming down to land softly on the bed.

We played like this for a good while as the bath filled and never have I had so much fun. I felt buoyed by her laughter in my very heart.

When she laughs like that, it just feels like I must be doing something right.

Opening the advent calendar for today
Even better, SAM came home just in time to join us for some splashing and some post-bath-time fun (see videos below).

After her bath and bottle, either M wasn't tired, or all the excitement had her too keyed up to sleep, so rather than going down at the customary 7:00 pm, we let her stay up for a little while.

This left us plenty of time for us to observe our very busy little baby toddle all around the living room practicing her new words ("phone" and "shoes" were all the rage) and learning how to use Daddy's camera.

Unfortunately, even though we let her stay up until 7:30, she screamed and screamed so much after putting her down that we had to pull her out again to tire her out after half an hour.

"Midnight" snack at 8:00 pm
As it turns out, she may have been hungry, as the above picture shows.

Yes, what you see is a Salt and Ground Pepper Kettle Chip in her mouth, and, yes, it was her dad who gave it to her, but I promise, she was also eating a banana concurrently. It's just that she saw me munching on chips and wouldn't stop bawling until I gave her one. I am not kidding. There were real tears and snot was everywhere.

Making Waves!

So now, we continue with our week, looking forward to Jack's arrival at it's end.

I wonder what M will be able to show him by then.


Post Bath Play Time

Sundays at the Park

Hanging out at home this morning
On Sunday, we ate one nice green leaf, and after that, we felt much better. :)

Actually, we were lazy again today and had brunch in the neighborhood. M, who had already eaten breakfast at home, ate what seemed like a full meal.

On the way to Brunch
After brunch, we went to the park where we saw some friends and co-workers of SAM's. There was running around and climbing all over the play park before someone got a little tired and had to go home.

What can I say, I went to sleep late last night.

But M was also getting a bit easily fussed too, so we put her down and we took a nap as a family starting from around noon.

Fun at the park
Unfortunately, I had to go in to work for the rest of the afternoon, so SAM and M were on their own, but it was still nice to spend the morning with them. Luckily for us, SAM and I had taken our little getaway so even now, after working for most of the afternoon, I still feel relatively well rested and not overly put out at having had to go in yesterday.

Now, as we contemplate a new week again, it's made easier by the knowledge that Jack comes in on Saturday, and then, the holiday season begins in earnest.

After all, it's not the holidays without plenty of family and good cheer.

Sliiiiiiiide

Fun with mom

Weekend Getaway!

"Apples are delicious!"

What a weekend!

Even though it is only Saturday night as I write this, it feels like SAM and I have already had a weekend due to the fact that last night (Friday) we took a "mini trip" and spent the night away from home! We used hotel points to book a room at Le Meridien which is in a quieter part of town, and pretended we were away on a trip.

There was date night dinner in the hotel coffee shop, TV couch potato time and room service breakfast in the room. It all felt very grown up and utterly refreshing.

It was our first time away from M as a couple and it was incredibly liberating to just spend time together as a couple and not as parents.

She was only the topic of every other conversation.

Happy Baby
After checking out around noon, we returned to the baby you see in these photos.

It certainly didn't seem like she missed us.

Actually, she seemed quite happy to see us, and we were really glad to see her again. It was nice to spend alone time as spouses, but coming home to M was just joyous for all of us.

Snack time!
After her lunch, we spent the afternoon out with M running errands.

She is getting quite heavy to carry now and we went to the mother and baby store to pick up a sort of fanny pack style hip carrier for Margaret called a "Hipseat."

It's pretty awesome.

The Baby Bjorn has been getting a little bit heavy with Margaret getting ever bigger and heavier, and with this thing, she simply sits on the little seat that straps around your waist and the adult simply slings an arm around the baby to keep her attached.

While at the store, one fellow mom told us that when the child is older it can be worn with the seat in the back and and the child can hang on piggy-back style.

It's quite comfortable and we'll be looking forward to trying it out.

M and Dad
While picking it up, however we discovered that M + Walking + Store = Independent browsing.

I think we've got a shopper.

In the baby store, we had her out of the stroller and I watched as M strolled up and down the aisles browsing all the interesting products. She especially liked a toy lion that played music when his nose was pressed, and spent quite a bit of time handing her Daddy many different stuffed animals that caught her fancy.

Then, later at the kid's book store, she found a box of rubber balls for sale, and spent much of her time bringing them to her mother one by one.

She must have been very curious as to why the number of balls in the box didn't change no matter how many trips she took (Daddy was putting them back)!

Telling Mommy all about it at the water cooler
At the grocery store food court for the grown-ups' lunch, she wanted out of her seat and was walking just everywhere, mingling with the other shoppers and flirting with the counter ladies. Please see the video below for evidence.

It was fun to just watch her walk around independently and exercise her own will in terms of what she wanted to do and where she wanted to go.

It was the first time I've really observed Margaret being so independent in a public environment that was not the park, and it really hit home how much she has developed and how much independent will she now has.

It's like she's becoming a person!


And while I'm sure that we're going to wish she was a little less independent later on, it's incredible to observe it now and to think that we made this thinking, walking, (sort of) talking, person.

At least for now, she's always coming back to us.

Thanksgiving Weekend HK Style

On the Subway to Thanksgiving at Tia Sylvia's
The weekend is, alas, over much too quickly once again.

Most of you are reading from the US and so doubtless are coming to the end of your long Thanksgiving weekends. Whether busy or relaxed, Sarah and I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving full of delicious food, time with family, and plenty to be thankful for.

We ourselves, celebrated Thanksgiving three times. Once with Joy last Saturday, once with some friends (I didn't attend - though I did get leftover turkey and fixings) on Thursday and once with some of Sarah's work colleagues on Friday evening.

Each one was special (and delicious!) in that we got to celebrate and give thanks with a separate group of friends and family. It was like we got three years worth of Thanksgivings in one week!

Being Americans away from the United States, Thanksgiving takes on even more meaning because it allows us to reconnect with our heritage and with the very meaning of the Holiday. It makes me think of the adage that you don't appreciate your home until you're away from it.

That's what celebrating Thanksgiving abroad does for me. It makes me think about what it means to be American and to appreciate being from the United States. It makes me appreciate not just friends and family (and parenthood), but the sacrifices that those Americans who came before us have made so that we can celebrate Thanksgiving.

From the Pilgrims to our veterans to my parents who immigrated to the United States, all so we, my sisters, my daughter and I could have the opportunity to grow up in an environment in which we are free to pursue the lives we wish to without fear of repression.

It's something pretty incredible which I am incredibly thankful for.

Saturday Tea Time
Margaret even managed to go to all three Thanksgivings and, for the first time, enjoy Turkey and fixings and all that this most (United States) American of holidays has to offer.

I suppose that technically it is her second Thanksgiving, but the first time, she wasn't aware of anything.

All that enjoyment and thankfulness aside, the weekend passed much too quickly.

Unfortunately, either the turkey or (more likely) something else didn't agree with Margaret and she was up for an hour starting at around 2:00 AM on Saturday. My angel of a wife stayed up, changed her, fed her and warmed her up and stayed with her for over an hour before M would go back down.

That meant that Saturday morning was daddy time with M while SAM slept off the rather debilitating sleep deprivation she suffered. M and I got to go to the park where she got to swing, slide, tunnel and climb all over the play equipment before too many bigger kids showed up lay claim to the playground.

She had an absolute blast!

Thankfully, we were all recovered in the afternoon and had tea time buffet at the Excelsior Hotel. Margaret surprised us all by rejecting the fish fingers and going straight for the sandwich.

Incredibly, she managed to eat the sandwich as an actual sandwich and managed to put down about half of it before it fell apart into its components of ham, cheese and bread. Once that happened, she was not at all interested.

Her proud parents were amazed. We're not sure where she learned to eat sandwiches, but she's got it down.

Discovering Sandwiches

Today (Sunday) was pretty slow paced, actually, because we were planning on taking Margaret to Ocean Park here in Hong Kong for a CIS event.

The morning was SAM feeding M while I made French toast for everyone (even M!). Margaret enjoyed hers very much.

Then, M took Mom to the park while I worked on my family Christmas present.

After the family afternoon nap, I got a haircut and came home in time to discover along with SAM that our family evening would have to be modified since Margaret had a slight fever.

This could either be from her vaccinations last week (she had her Vacirella, Streptococcal and flu vaccines if you will recall) or from the (so far) slight colds that SAM and I are suffering from.

This meant that SAM had to go on by herself while daddy and M stayed home to eat, take a bath and wait for the baby tylenol to kick in. Unfortunately, there would be no hotdogs and burgers for M tonight.

It's just as well, though, since I've got a sore throat and a long week ahead of me. Poor SAM, however, to have to go off on her own. Fortunately, because of this event tonight, CIS doesn't start until 11:00 tomorrow!

"Everything in its place, Daddy!"

Once the tylenol hit, M was fine, as you can see from the video above. What you see is our post dinner playtime, with Margaret hiding these little round barrels that belong to a balancing game she has called, "Coocoo the Clown." (Yes, the game is not age appropriate for M and the little barrels are choking hazards, but she was being supervised by a toy professional).

Margaret has recently become quite into organizing - everything has its place. Apparently, the little multi-colored barrels belong between our couches.

What you don't see is me periodically trying to clean up by trying to put everything back in the box, but Margaret would have none of it. I finally gave up and waited to clean up until after she had gone to sleep.

Dinner was small, but she drank a TON of milk before and after her bath. I mean, more than I've seen her drink since she was six months old. It was incredible.

By 6:30, she was asking for bath time by literally crawling into the empty bathtub. In fact, she wanted her bath so badly that she started screaming when I took her away from the filling tub to her room to get her diaper and pj's (I didn't want her to fall in headfirst and drown).

As I mentioned, the post-bath feeding was quite large, and after finishing, I saw her do something I've never seen before.

Once she was done, she waved off the bottle as usual, found the cap for the bottle and put it on (this is normal), then rolled off of me, rubbed her eyes a couple of times, then laid down and stretched out on our bed as if to to to sleep.

That one was new as usually, she's quite keen to play after her evening bottle.

I took that as a signal, and sent her right to her crib.

She went down without a peep and by 6:55, she was down for the night.

Phew.

Now for me, it's just to wait for SAM to come home and see how her evening went before we go to bed and start another week all over again.

How thankful I am, for my girls.

Random Musings On a Wednesday

Walking the Dog before bathtime

One thing Margaret started doing today was walking the dog. This morning, before heading to work, Daisy pointed out to me that M was walking around the house pulling along Toby on his leash.

Upon getting home, SAM showed me how M had graduated to simply walking around holding Toby in her hand.

I suppose you can do that if it's not a real dog.

She was really into it, though, walking all over the house, sitting down and putting Toby down when she got tired, then picking him up again to move until she got tired or tripped again.

Gettin' ready to get out of her clothes
M is now into everything and everywhere at once. I swear, for someone who just learned to walk, she runs circles around us.

Sometimes, I feel like I'm tied to the coiled end of a rope with Margaret on the other end. She'll take off, and it takes a moment for her to gain some speed and for the rope to uncoil, then there I am, having to follow as if whiplashed out of my seat for fear that she'll get into some trouble.

I'm thinking Road Runner and Wyle E. Coyote here. Beep! Beep!

Bedroom antics
Thankfully, the house is mostly baby proofed, so for the most part, we can let her be unless we ourselves have put something down that shouldn't be in her reach.

We've been lucky so far (knock on wood) that the only real crying we've had has been mostly due to her not getting what she wants or us changing her.

Not to say she hasn't bumped her head, but aside from one scare where she stuck her fingers into a socket at Joy's house, our baby seems recently to have acquired a decent sense of self preservation, even able, now, to come down off the bed bum first.

Happy, clean and groomed
Fatherhood continues to amaze me with how much fun it is. I'm exhausted at the end of every day, but this is the longest period of such incredible fun that I've ever been through.

It has changed everything in how I look at the world.

I can't recommend it highly enough.

Weekend in Review

An eventful minute
Margaret's mobility continues to improve at a rapid clip. In the video above, you will see her walk for quite awhile without needing rest, then standing up on her own without needing to pull up before finally saying, "shoes."

This was all taken five minutes before going to bed, tonight.

She is now able to change direction mid-course to go wherever she pleases, and the ability to stand up on her own enables to walk much more frequently.

I know, I know - we're the only ones who care, so this is the last walking video for a while... unless something really interesting develops!

Taking care of the baby taking care of her baby

Of course, as Sarah said, there's been a decent amount of still photography over the past few days to complement the video, but there really hasn't been time to post it.

Please see a few from Sunday, which was a fun morning of the whole family lazing around in our PJs all morning before meeting our friends Sarena and Shan for lunch.

We took it easy since we all had to recover from Saturday's very full day.

Not only did M have her 1 year checkup, which included three jabs (only a little crying) and her measurements (75th percentile head circumference, 50th percentile weight), but we went to a birthday party for a fellow one year old baby and enjoyed an early Thanksgiving dinner at my sister Joy's which, as always, involved much too much turkey, creamed spinach, stuffing, yams and desert.

She was out with us until almost 10 pm after that very full day, so she really needed two naps on Sunday to recover.

Leonard in his dotage

Thankfully, Sarah's friend Janice had given M the baby stroller as a birthday present on Saturday, so Margaret was well entertained even inside the house on Sunday morning.

As you can see, she loves it, and has learned to walk without putting too much weight on it (it collapses if you do that).

Sadly, the weekend was over much too soon. Margaret has been developing seemingly by leaps and bounds these few days, and it really feels like if you blink, you'll miss something.

"Pbtpbtpbt"

Happy to be with Mom

On the way to the park

Sunday morning

Since everyone keeps requesting video, this is a quick montage of Sunday morning at home, unedited. Watch for:

- the recent role reversal of Margaret and Leonard (formerly known as Ubi2)
- the appearance of a few new birthday presents
- Margaret's new determination to put on her own clothes (particularly one fabulous hand-knit sweater - thanks, Auntie Beth!)
- a continued interest in taking out and attempting to put in her own hair clips
- a genetic predisposition to percussion (her father is a drummer)




In the language field, Margaret's single-word utterances include a few bilingual pairs:

milk = "dede" (Tagalog) and "nainai" (Chinese)
shoes = "shoos" and "xiexie" (Chinese)

This is really cool to a language geek like me, because it shows an awareness that a single item can have more than one name. She seems to utter them indiscriminately, not filtering yet for who speaks which language. She also responds to both "paipai shou" (Chinese) and "clap your hands" by clapping. So cool.

Other single-word utterances include:

"gougou" (dog in Chinese, her first word)
"baobao" (bag in Chinese)
"dada"
"mama"
"yaya" (nanny in Tagalog)
"chiss" (cheese)

Thanks to her new birthday book, she is quite excited about animal sounds, and bounces up and down making an "oof oof" sound when she sees any animal, live or in a picture.

If you ask her "Margaret zai nali?" ("where's Margaret?") she covers her face to play peekaboo. What's funny is that the "Margaret" part doesn't really matter to her, so in the book-reading video the other day when I asked her where the cow was ("niuniu zai nali?") she covered her face to play peekaboo. I only noticed that after re watching.

There were some photos from this weekend, too, which will have to come from John's computer later in the week. Love to everyone.

Happy M Videos

Finally, it's the weekend and we have some time to rest, relax and play with our daughter.

Above, please find a video of her playing with Mommy's lunch dishes and practicing self feeding.

She's quite a happy baby.

The walking has been continuing apace (har har) even though she seems to prefer holding on to Mom's hand and walking around the house for the most part.

When she really wants to get someplace quickly, she'll still drop to her knees and crawl. It seems that independent walking is reserved for when she's in a very specific mood.

Luckily for us, she's in that mood frequently enough for us to catch it on video. Below, a short clip.

The Latest Changes

Since this weekend, there have been two major changes.

1) The Very Hungry Caterpillar was officially displaced as "favorite book" (I guess it wasn't interactive enough).
2) She's walking more and more stably.

Please see above video evidence.

Birthday!

Yes, in fact, there was a birthday.

Luckily, it didn't matter much to Margaret whether it was on a Monday or a Saturday, nor did she mind playing with the wrapped presents for a week until we had a moment of family time to open them. In fact, she had a great time pushing one very large and heavy present up and down the hallway, then bringing it back to the carpet and climbing on it.

Parcel number one came from cousin Clara. M knew immediately where the clips were supposed to go, and hasn't let them be taken out since Friday!

She immediately tried to call her cousin to thank her:

Then there was the singing card. M was so pleased by this. We also have video footage, to be shared at some point, of the look on her face when the card first opened. She danced to the music and has been opening and closing the card for the past three days:

Friday evening

Saturday morning

Finally, Saturday morning was present time.


We opened the book from Mimi first:



She liked it so much, she tried to rip the cover off. Happily, Mom managed to pull a fast distraction with the wrapping:

Then we opened THE BIG ONE:

Margaret unpacked it herself:


With a nod to the Munroe family, we stopped to read the book before unpacking any more of the present:


Our budding fashion diva was very pleased by all the new clothes, and wanted to put them right on:

"Eeaahh!"
(translation: "Mom, help please!")

"How do I look?"

"Or should I try the sweater?"

"Do please notice my shoes, as well!"

"pants, please!"

"there!"

"Do my hair clips match?"

"I love you, fabulous baby!"

Thank you to everyone who remembered Margaret's birthday and sent greetings on the day. Special thanks to Tee, who has once again outdone herself in dressing another generation of our family. Love to everyone.