Ringing in 2008

Happy New Year!

We've all been a bit quiet during the Holiday season due to us spending time with our families, but please know that those of you who could not be with us are not forgotten! We simply thought about you in a manner that was not online.

Rest assured, we were carrying you in our hearts this Christmas and New Year's and we hope that all of you had safe and joyous holidays full of laughter, fun and family.

So a brief rundown.

We had Sarah's mother Roz (Grandma name, Mimi) with us this Christmas which was absolutely great. She came in on Christmas Eve and immediately, Grandmother and Granddaughter shared a connection. Below, you see their first meeting.



After that, was of course, Christmas which you've already seen photos of. Joy pulled out all the stops and put together a dinner of Turkey, stuffing, Salad with Caramelized Bacon, Creamed Spinach, beans, mashed potatoes and for dessert, Pecan and Chocolate Bread Pudding. It really does not get better than that.



Then, the next day, Roz made Lobster Newburg which was prepared from the lobster meat she carried in from Maine. Delicious.

The 27th is the day on which we actually did "Christmas" at our house with Roz before having dinner out with my Aunt. On top of all the great gifts for the grownups, Margaret got her very first Christmas presents as well. We were stunned by everyone's generosity. Margaret is extremely lucky to have such a large, wonderful, loving family. Just a sampling of photos of Margaret trying out her gifts. Our apologies if yours is not highlighted with a photo - we loved all the presents but can only display photos of a few of them.





The 28th was an outing day! George rented his company's junk (a small type of Chinese boat) and took us all out on a day long cruise where we had a fresh seafood lunch at Lamma Island and tooled all around Hong Kong's waterways. It was simply an incredible time. We even managed to bring a bit of Maine to the traditional Hong Kong boat trip with a home baked apple "boat pie" that Roz made just for the occasion.











The 29th was spent house hunting where we managed to sign a lease on a small, ~800 square foot 3 bedroom apartment. The place has great light, is in a great part of town and is in our budget. Plus, Roz saw it and approved of it and that is a nice seal of approval to have.

No photos, but here's the floor plan.



The 30th (Sunday) we had Korean Barbecue with everyone but my mom and Gayle who were busy accepting an award in Vietnam for my dad. He posthumously was honored with Vietnam's "Friendship Medal," the highest award the government can give to a foreigner, and even then, to only one other person (his late partner, Mr. Lawrence Ting). Gayle also won a citation for her contributions to Vietnamese development. We are very proud and honored that both my sister's and father's work has been so recognized.

On New Year's eve, we had to send off Roz in the morning. We were all very sad to see her go after spending so much in depth time with her. Afterwards, we had delicious New Year's Eve dinner at Joy's house.




We went home before midnight and were in bed by 11:00 pm. Such is the life of new parents. But that didn't stop the kids, Koos, Gayle, Joan and mom from going to the Lobos for talent night and New Year's countdown. I hear it was fun.

Finally, New Year's day was spent, (where else?) at Joy's where she prepared the most incredible beef tenderloin I have ever had. I don't have photos of the tenderloin, but do of the delicious caramel crunch cake we had after for dessert.





That was the perfect coda for a wonderful Holiday season. Throughout it all, Margaret was a joy. She smiled lots, made lots of interesting noises and was fussy mostly only once we got her to our house.

Having all the family around was great in that we managed to get lots of advice when we wanted it and understanding space when things were tough. It was reassuring to hear all the other stories of similar experiences and to know that we weren't doing anything wrong - sometimes, babies just scream for 45 minutes.

As I write this, I've now been at my new job for two days and things have been going well. My new boss wasn't there on the first day so it was quite slow after introducing myself to everyone. It was great though, as almost everyone took me out to lunch that day and I've been happy to learn that the staff in the office are close, happy and supportive.

Today has been a bit steeper on the learning curve as I was thrown contracts, financial statements and more to digest and got a taste of the hefty travel schedule to come. China, Boston, Moscow and Dubai in the coming weeks/months. It's going to be interesting.

In any case, thanks to you all for continuing to read the blog even after the lengthy hiatus, for all the supportive emails and holiday wishes.

We're lucky to have such friends and family as yourselves and can't wait to see and reconnect with you all in this new year.

Merry Christmas!

A quick post for tonight with just a few photos since 'tis the season where there's no time!

Margaret wishes you a Merry Christmas!

The whole crew for Christmas

Margaret with her Grandmas


Turkey and all the fixings


A most especially plentiful Christmas. Look, the ribbons are fluffed!


Mimi Roz and Margaret share a moment

Big Trouble in Little China (SAR)

My best friend in third or fourth grade was a stocky, blonde boy named Jorma Olili. Jorma was generally known on the playground and the school bus for his two talents.

His primary (and most unhygienic) trick was to pick his nose and then eat his own booger. This, I know, many children do, but it never loses its shock value when witnessed.

His second was the ability to hold his breath and try to exhale it so hard while holding it in that his face became engorged with blood and he turned a disturbing shade of purple. Think dark violet with eyeballs popping out and every blood vessel in his face looking like it was about to let go. He looked like he might have inspired that end scene from the movie, "Total Recall" where Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rachel Ticotin are flushed out of the airlock without spacesuits. Or at least convinced Paul Verhoeven that it could be done without special effects.

Once, he even combined these two to devastating effect on the school bus while at a light next to another school bus. The older kids hustled Jorma to a window, opened it and had him pick a particularly nasty booger out of his nose with his index finger. Then they had him engorge his face with blood before slowly, so as to allow the tension to build, inserting his index finger into his mouth and triumphantly swallowing that which was on its end. All this happened, of course, while the entire bus, chanted "Jor-ma! Jor-ma! Jor-ma!" over and over again.

A more satisfied crowd I have never observed, even after four Exeter-Andover football games (though that may be because Exeter lost three of those four games). On that particular bus ride, Jorma was the hero that carried the day and his smile as he sat down again next to me, said it all.

I bring up Jorma, not because I am nostalgic for my mucous masticating friend but because of Margaret and my observation over the past weeks of her ability to create and withstand seemingly incredibly high pressures within her body before releasing them explosively.

After the diaper blowout of today and a projectile spit-up session after her 3:30 am feeding, the cogs in my sleep-deprived brain began to turn and gnash.

Ever the concerned parent, I began to wonder if this is normal or not. Is it something temporary or permanent? Perhaps she is exceptional at this. If exceptional, how will this effect her in her life?

Does this make her a more survivable astronaut in the event of explosive decompression? Will she be less susceptible to decompression illness as a SCUBA diver? What career options does this potentially open up to her?

Recognizing the preposterousness of these thoughts, but continuing to follow them down the rabbit-hole I began to consider that this might advantage her in the field of Chinese Qigong / Chikung ("Breath Work.") where she could, perhaps, become a master?!.

I thought of Jorma and whether he has found ways to use his breath control in his adult-hood.

But of course, that got me thinking of this.



Perhaps Qigong is too dangerous and it's too early to think of these things.

Maybe I should just go to sleep.

Yeah, I think I will.

Christmas Ramp

My girls share a moment

It's the day before Christmas Eve and the reality of the season has finally hit. Though we didn't see my family today except for dinner, the day was full of activity.

We were out and about picking up some last minute groceries and other things today with Margaret in the Baby Bjorn. We were stopped for conversation a couple of times by curious bystanders who took an interest in Margaret. I have to say, it's very gratifying when complete strangers take an interest in her. Vanity, I know.

Unfortunately, she's been particularly fussy today while not in the Baby Bjorn.

Lots of crying even after feedings. I think it may have something to do with her tummy. Her poop has been quite runny and I wonder if the antibiotics are interfering with her digestive system. SAM finishes her course of antibiotics tomorrow so we'll hope that her digestion improves.

"Don't tell daddy, but..."

Fallout from the runny tummy happened explosively today at around 5:00 PM, after we got home.

SAM was feeding her on the couch when Margaret let loose an explosive report. The next thing I hear is, SAM saying, "Oh it's all over my jeans. Can you go get a cloth?"

Crap. I dash into the next room only to find our stack of cloths completely depleted. By the time I come back with one from the crib and manage to hold up Margaret, it's too late. Margaret has leaked a stream of liquid poop out of the side of the diaper and in Sarah's lap is a pool of yellow baby poop. Sarah is covered in poop. Margaret is covered in poop.

Unusually, I was the only one not covered in poop. It was almost worth a cheer but I managed to restrain myself. I didn't think SAM would have appreciated that.

Anyways, trying to get a poopy onesie off a baby without further spreading it around is harder than it looks. I mean, you have to get it over her head without rubbing it on her or the changing table.

I managed it, however, feeling lucky that at least this time, I wasn't the one who had to clean it up.

First day of Christmas

Today was the first day that SAM and I spent with my family and so it felt a bit like the first day of Christmas break.

Photos from today but not much text as the season is busy, busy, busy.

Margaret asleep as we're trying to leave the house

On our way to Joy's!

"Put 'em up, buster!" Margaret and Andrew.

Samantha, Margaret and the Nickster

With 婆婆

Multi-Cultural, Multi-National, Multi-Innoculated M

Today was another busy banner day.

We picked up M's brand new Hong Kong passport and Hong Kong permanent ID today. Now, she's officially a dual-national and can stay in Hong Kong visa free.

As we picked up the passport today, SAM said something very true and powerful to me about how lucky M is. US and Hong Kong citizenship are some of the most highly sought after statuses these days and there are people who would pay or sacrifice mightily for either of them. Just because of who her parents are, M gets both. We feel very lucky to be able to give this to her through no actual effort on our own.

At the same time, I feel somewhat strange because the passport does say, "People's Republic of China" on it. My father sacrificed much so that we could be American citizens and never came to peace with the communist takeover of China. He was proud to be an American and felt that he did his part to fight communism during the cold war by being a defense and space program electronics contractor. I do wonder what he would say.

Color coordinated in her little rocky chair today

After that, we ran to the doctor's office where M got a whole slew of vaccinations. Actually, the visit was a family affair. I got a Chicken Pox vaccination because I've never had it and the doc strongly recommended it. SAM had her six week check and M had her host of inoculations.

When it came time for M to take her medicine, It was hard for SAM and I to take. Two injections and an oral inoculation left her with a band-aid on either thigh, a bad taste in her mouth and screaming so loud that her face turned a shade of purple I have never seen before.

I can only imagine what the people in the waiting room were thinking.

"Do the horizontal and vertical stripes clash?"

The nurses also weighed and measured the little one. Turns out she's 4.5 kilos / 9.9 pounds (with the diaper) and 56 cm / 22 inches long. I'd take the length one with a grain of salt since everyone measures differently (though it agrees with the midwives measurements) but apparently she's firmly in the 50th percentile. Our daughter is perfectly average!

Not sure whether to celebrate, but at least we're glad she's healthy.



Finally, now that I've had my vaccination, I'm firmly convinced in my neurotic, hypochondriac mind that I'm going to come down with the Chicken "Bocks" and am feeling every slight skin irritation, itch on my head or under my shirt tag as a glaring signal of impending illness.

I have visions in my head of spending Christmas in my bed with angry pox all over my face and hands wrapped in gauze while everyone else (including M), wearing red and green reindeer sweaters, drinks eggnog, carols and enjoys Christmas happily without me at Joy's house!

I'll keep you posted.

Administrative Question

In the interest of security, I am constantly tempted to make it a requirement for you, the readers to sign in before being able to access our posts.

From my profile page, I've noticed that I've had about 100 profile views. Assuming that each person views my profile less than once, this means I've had more than 100 separate people on the blog. This concerns me as the blog is intended mostly to be a means of sharing information with our friends and family and thus includes personal information.

Blogger enables owners of blogs to control who has access to their blogs by choosing who is allowed to view the blog. Unfortunately, this means that only people with registered gmail or blogger accounts and who I have specifically granted permission to will be able to log in and view our posts.

The alternative might be a much less richly detailed blog moving forward, and careful redaction of previous posts.

I wanted to poll the readers to see if you felt that requiring you to log on would be so onerous that you would stop visiting.

I would, for the most part, grant permission to almost anyone I know or who has been referred to the blog by someone I know.

If you have an opinion on this, I implore you to please leave a comment in the comments section letting me know what you think. I'd prefer to not have to force people to log on but am carefully considering this option.

Thanks, All.

John

She's absolutely grin inducing to us when she's awake, alert and calm

Friends, Family and Fun

The last few days have truly been a whirlwind of activity. As we close in on the holidays, it seems that everyone is in the spirit, and our days have been full of friends and laughter.

Yesterday, we had visits from Sarah's colleague Olivia in the early afternoon, then Janice and her daughter at around 3:00 pm, then dinner with my friend Sarena who is in from NYC on her way to Shanghai.

Then today, Lindsay, Fred and Molly all came over in the morning while I spent the day with Sarena. Fred and Lindsay spent the day with Margaret and SAM and had a grand old time. They even all napped on the couches together. Fun stuff!

After I got home from hanging out with Sarena, Lindsay, SAM and I had the most incredible meat-loaf I've ever had - recipe courtesy of Lindsay and executed impeccably by Daisy. Incredible.

It has been absolutely great over the past few days to have people come over. One of the challenges with spending so much time with the baby is that you begin to miss contact with other people, but making it out is tough. Having people come over to visit is a great way to see people while staying close enough to home to make sure the baby's needs can be met.

Now, tomorrow, my mom, sisters Joan and Gayle and their children arrive. No rest for the weary, I suppose!

Trying her hardest to lift her head during tummy time

Gainful Employment

In other news, I've accepted a job at a toy company which is one of, if not the largest manufacturer of Light and Sound Trucks in the world.

I'm not going to say too much about it until the contract is inked, but the owner has ambitious plans to transform the company moving forward and I will be at the center of many of those changes. I am tremendously excited about the upcoming challenges and for the opportunities they will open up. I think that this is a great move and hopefully it will pay dividends for years to come.

I was telling Sarah that this job as it has been described to me is essentially the dream job that I was hoping to build towards and I got it about 10 years early as my very first toy job.

It's been a long year waiting for the right opportunity. Now that I've got it, I just hope I'm up to the challenge.

I start January 2.

My girls

Margaret and related matters

As people may have noticed over the past couple of posts, Margaret's sleep and eating schedule continues to be one of the most challenging elements of our new parenthood.

The logic of her internal clock has now become a complete enigma to us. We do believe that she was on some sort of a growth spurt over the past couple of days as she has been eating a mind-boggling amount and at ever shorter intervals.

Today things seem a bit calmer, but now it seems that the flurry of activity has left her jet-lagged and sleeping not when we expect her to. Tonight could be very interesting.

The sleep deprivation has been making itself evident in me over the past couple of days. Two nights ago, as I was getting a bottle ready for Margaret at around 6:00 AM, I pulled down an entire shelf of dishes while trying to get a bowl to heat up the bottle.

There I am, Margaret is screaming her head off in the bedroom with Sarah trying to console her, and I'm barefoot, barely awake, on my tiptoes, in the kitchen, surrounded by a sea of knife sharp broken Corning Ware bowls. If the earth had chosen that exact moment to implode, I don't think I would have had much of a reaction.

"Um, SAM... Help, I can't move!"

So rather than giving Sarah an opportunity to sleep while I fed Margaret, she had to spend her early morning cleaning up broken china while I tried to quiet Margaret with milk.

Janice, her daughter and Margaret

Of course, things have been tougher for SAM who sleeps even less than I do, while facing the challenge of producing enough milk for the little eating machine. Breast feeding continues to be quite painful for her, so much so that it has had her in tears at times.

Luckily, a lactation consultant came to the rescue tonight when she called after dinner. With a few questions over the phone, she determined that Sarah's issue was with the latch and made a few suggestions which SAM said immediately made a difference at the very next feed. Hopefully, things will get better on this front now that we have some help.

Of course, this is all after Sarah was put on a course of antibiotics on Monday. If you want to know why, you'll have to call. Suffice it to say, she was quite uncomfortable, but is doing much better now.

The issue, of course, is that the antibiotics can cause issues with the flora in a baby's digestive problem which may cause gas. And while we've been watching Margaret for effects, we can't be sure that it's not contributing to her difficulty in sleeping at night.

We have another appointment tomorrow (Friday) for Margaret to have her vaccinations and for Sarah to have her follow up visit. Hopefully, she will be cleared then.

Sarena and Margaret

So yeah. Long week. I'm glad to see the end of it and hopefully some light at the end of the tunnel as we come into the Holidays.

The past week and a half have been hard on all of us, but still full of wonderful moments with Margaret. I don't often post about those because they either aren't as dramatic and because they are all largely the same. I look at Margaret, she looks at me, and I am filled with both happiness and pride at this momentous thing that Sarah and I have done and brought into the world.

While tired, most of the time these days, I'm smiling. And it's all because of her.

Now it's to Christmas, my favorite time of year. With my family, Roz and now Margaret all together.

All that plus my new job have me firmly believing in Christmas miracles.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Growth Spurt

Started feeding at 12:18 AM. Finished SIXTH ounce at 12:50 AM. The picture is taken just after finishing.

I'm posting this from bed.

This is after finishing a top off with SAM at 11:30 pm and feeding about every 2 hours today previously.

She hasn't slept much today at all.

She's eating like milk is going out of style.

It's been a long day.

More tomorrow.

Ой, ты песня, песенка девичья,

Verging on a smile. Don't get too excited, it's just gas.

One of the most challenging aspects of our lives this week or so has been getting Margaret to sleep. Frequently, now, Margaret simply will find a need to scream for forty five minutes or so before falling asleep. Often, even if she does sleep, it is fitful and she easily wakes.

This impacts our lives in two ways. First, a baby screaming at full volume for that long, especially your baby, wears on one's consciousness, and makes one feel helpless. Also, it impacts our own ability to sleep which tends to compound problems.

Unfortunately, this is simply where she is in her development and is completely normal for a baby of this age. We're following the book and just hoping that we get through this "stage" (apparently, this behavior peaks at 6 weeks) in one piece.

I love this look.

This dynamic in our lives has made us especially excited when she DOES go to sleep. We get very excited and it has been known for us to do silent little dances around the house. SAM once even come out of the bedroom, silently shut the door, pointed to herself and whispered forcefully, "I WIN!"

I hadn't seen it as a competition up to this point, but could definitely see where she was coming from.

The "what are you doing, Dad?" look.

What has made it especially challenging is that what works to put her out isn't necessarily consistent. One day it's singing, another it's forceful patting on her back, yet another, it's the white noise we play over the stereo in her room. Sometimes, nothing works and you simply pick her up to check her diaper and when you put her back down, she falls instantly to sleep.

Essentially, we're not sure what puts her to sleep, so we cycle through everything we know that's worked in the past and see what works.

Tonight was interesting however. We've known for awhile that babies are able to soothe themselves by either touching their own faces with their hands or sucking on their fingers or hands. Margaret isn't yet able to get her hands in her mouth yet, but we've experimented with swaddling her with her hands partly out so that she's able to feel her fists. It hasn't proven effective.

Today, however, completely accidentally, we managed this.

Accidentally great swaddling technique.

This, if we can ever manage it again, is the perfect solution. It allows her to suck on her fists or turn her head away from it if she wants.

For awhile, she actually sucked on her fingers and hands between screams. We were very excited and hope that this might be a way to get her to self-soothe without the need for a pacifier.

Ultimately, however, this time, the hand wasn't enough. She sucked on it for about five minutes, turned her head away and kept screaming.

What worked?

We sang a Russian folk song, "Katyusha" to her until she fell asleep while pressing firmly on her chest.

Gotta' love that SAM speaks Russian. It's given us one more weapon in the arsenal to try now.

Oh, and the title today is a lyric from the song. Translated: Oh, you song, you little song of a girl.

We do love her so much.

The Margaret only we get to hear.

A Series of Snapshots from Sunday or Margaret Scoffs at Daddy

I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille

The Morning

Sundays are supposed to be lazy days and even Sarah seized the moment this morning and delegated to me so she could get a well earned extra hour of rest.

Since trying to stabilize Margaret's sleeping and feeding, she has surprised us several times by seemingly randomly altering her sleep / feed schedule. This involves waking up and being absolutely inconsolable and / or wanting to feed, and I think that Sarah has been bearing the brunt of the impact.

Couple with this the fact that we have decided to not feed Margaret if she has fed within the past two hours. While this has positive long term implications, it makes it difficult for whoever has to manage her if Margaret wakes up screaming within thirty minutes of going down. If that happens, quite often, she will simply scream for forty five minutes no matter what the adults do.

There was some of this at play this morning starting probably around 8:00 am with me noticing in my half slumber that Sarah was fleeing the bedroom multiple times with a screaming Margaret much more frequently than we are used to.

Sometimes, I swear she's going to start whistling

Finally, at around 11:00 or so, when Margaret began to wake again, a very exhausted Sarah turned over and asked me to feed her a bottle.

Woah. "My first SECOND bottle of the day," I thought to myself. It felt like I had graduated to Yellow belt or something.

After bumbling around to get set up - I never have to feed Margaret during the day - Margaret absolutely SUCKED down the five ounces within thirty minutes and, oddly for Margaret at 11:30 AM, fell almost immediately asleep.

I'm thinking Laura Ashley

This was when the day started feeling like a normal Sunday.

The Afternoon

Quite proud of myself, I made my lunch and hung out until Sarah awoke a bit better rested at around 12:45. The rest of the "morning" was spent cleaning up the house from last night's guests and motivating for the day.

We left the house at around 3:00 pm with a mission.

On Friday, Sarah had gone to school and discovered that each of her twenty two students had gotten her a baby gift. From onesies to chocolates, they poured out their personalities and hearts into wonderful gifts.

After opening all the presents, we quickly came to the realization that we didn't have enough cards to send thank you notes to everyone. Our mission of the day was to try to find stationery.

Tummy Time!

So it was off to Causeway Bay with Margaret strapped to my chest. It seemed that every last person in Hong Kong was at Time's Square today. Compounded by the Holiday season, the shops were absolutely packed, but Sarah, true to her super-human ways, found exactly the stationery she was looking for.

Woohoo! Mission one accomplished. Our only other task was to dash across the street to buy Margaret her very own matching (to ours) passport case then go home. With the thronging crowds rushing past, we could see no other obstacles to home.

Scooching along

It was on the escalator that I began to feel wet through the front of my jeans.

At first, I looked up and around to make sure nobody had spilled on me. It didn't seem possible. Then it dawned on me. I looked straight down and felt Margaret's right leg.

Yep.

"Um, SAM. Margaret is peeing on me."

Sarah's reaction was swift and decisive. Grabbing an extra burp cloth out of the diaper bag, she quickly tried to put it between me and Margaret.

But it was too late.

In the nursing/changing room at Times Square

Luckily, Times Square is the best place in Hong Kong for something like this to happen as they are one of the few malls with a nursing / changing room (sort of like having a heart attack at the cardiologist). On the ninth floor. We were at ground level.

So it was up the elevators.

Luckily, we had a change of clothes for Margaret. I was not so lucky.

Another couple with an older child looked at us, asked what happened, then asked with a smile, "First child?"

Talk about insult to injury.

Margaret's gift to Daddy

Turns out, I was the last one to change her. Now, typically, I feel like I am vigilant about fringe management. My contention is that being in the Baby Bjorn must have somehow shifted the diaper. Yeah.

"...and no, Senator. Beyond that, I have no recollection."

Well, we managed the rest of our errands with spirits only slightly dampened and came home to feed and then finally bathe Margaret.

Aaah, bath time.

We've come a long way with bath time since those early days. Now, baths are quick and efficient and we know what we're doing. First, we wash her hair and face while holding her, then dunk her in the sink to wash her body. We're good at this now.

So we got her all ready, and I'm soaping up her scalp when I suddenly feel a now familiar warmth spreading across my shirt and jeans. Again. I look down.

"For ****'s sake!"

I mean, really?

Usually, we do the first stage of head and face washing with a diaper on. Today, for some reason, SAM handed her to me naked, and I, for some reason, accepted her this way. Perhaps we thought that lightning never strikes the same place twice.

Maybe not lightning, but peeing babies, definitely. I have experience. There should be a new saying. "Babies almost always pee in the same place twice. Ask that John guy with the blog. And not just pee. Poop, too."

Or something like that.

Perhaps this is her way of getting back at us for trying to change her feeding / sleeping schedule?

Now that we've had dinner, spoken with Jack and Roz and are ready to end the day, finally, I'm ready to strip off my soiled clothing, take a shower and hit the sack.

It's been a pisser of a day.