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7 months!

pat — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 12:00:28 +0000

As far as we can tell, the cute quotient continues to rise around here. Belle has started eating solid food, and spends most of her days sitting up. She still only rolls over in one direction but is getting more wiggly; though she has yet to figure out that things not only come to her but she can also come to them. She loves sitting in front of the mirror on her play mat, watching college football (woot), standing (with support), and eating fruity things (of which we have many in Taiwan). The only food she’s rejected so far are peas, a distaste for which she seems to have interited from her mother.

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I made a couple of videos – one of her very first bites of food, and volume 2 of the “skill” videos.

Bonding Leave

pat — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:45:03 +0000

12 hours from now I’ll be at back work after a month off for bonding leave. Most of that time was spent in our RV travelling up and down the west coast seeing friends and family. I’ll just cut to the chase:

California Friends:

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Cynthia’s mom’s family in Angels Camp:

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Cynthia’s dad’s family and the Oregon coast:

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You should check out the professional pictures Megan took while we were in Davis.

I also made this time lapse video of the Halloween Party:

Almost 5 months

pat — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 13:25:49 +0000

Time is flying. Belle still smiles all the time, assuming we maintain her routine and she gets enough sleep (she is like her mother in this regard). Pictures and videos from the last few weeks below.

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The Perfect Vacation

pat — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 05:55:05 +0000

We’ve made it back safe from the best trip home I’ve ever had. It was very special and gratifying to introduce Belle to a huge chunk of my family: grandparents, uncles and aunts, great-grandparents, cousins and friends. We also packed in an incredible amount of stuff over two weeks without the pace feeling frantic. I took too many pictures, which have taken us days to edit, upload and caption. They are divided into sections in case you don’t want to look at 400 pictures at once.

Belle cried the last hour of the flight but otherwise acclimated to 12 hours of jet lag much better than we expected. Cynthia did not have it so easy, as Belle’s sole food supply she foreswore pharmaceutical sleep aids. Belle showed off her newest skills to everyone – she has control of her lower back and can stand up for long periods now, she holds her head up during tummy time and she can roll over (clockwise only) from front to back. Everyone was charmed by her smile.
My cousin Lauren got married in Traverse city. We stayed with at Aunt Ellene’s with my family which was great.

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I got to see all of my brothers. Paul and Rachael drove over from Minneapolis to the wedding and so we got to spend a day or so all together. Sean, Dave and Louis were all on summer break from school during the whole of the trip. I went to the junkyard with my brother Sean and my dad to retrieve a power antenna for a 95 Probe and battle a wasp’s nest (it was a draw). David drove up with us to Traverse City. We also went to see the documentary Senna together which I highly recommend you catch at your own local quirky art theater.
On the way back from the wedding we went to Grand Rapids to visit my Aunt/Uncle/Cousins and spend a last night in Spring Lake at the cottage which is about to be sold.

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Michelle and Mia came from California for the final weekend to surprise Cynthia. This made Cynthia cry, in a good way.

I went to the Selfridge Air Show to see my cousin Rick jump as part of the Wings of Blue Air Force Academy jump team. After landing on target, Rick came out into the crowd and folded his parachute right in front of us which was cool.

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Belle was baptized at the same church Cynthia and I were married in (I was also baptized there 33 years ago).

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There were plenty of pics that didn’t fit into these other categories. This “dual raised eyebrow” one maybe my favorite of the all the pictures we got, but Godfather Sean and Belle were especially photogenic together in a lot of different shots.

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Our return flight to Taipei got cancelled on Monday, and we were forced to tack an extra day on, which also yielded better seats for the new return flight. We were hoping this extra time would help Belle fight off her first cold, but she still has it so I guess not.
Also, I posted a regular update for Belle from the two weeks before our trip. Cuteness abounds.

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The Sad Face

pat — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 13:46:57 +0000

The picture below is blurry, because you only have one second to capture this face before the bawling starts. Even so, it’s my favorite expression. There are many smiley faces as well in the latest pics . . .

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Belle hasn’t really developed any awesome skills since my last post , though she continues to polish her existing stuff. She still doesn’t really know she has arms and legs attached, though she does flail them with a lot more force than she used to. She also will carry on a conversation of coos and gurgles if you parrot them back at her. Overall, she’s a very happy baby who’s growing fast at over 14 pounds (93rd percentile!).

Already 8 weeks

pat — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 04:47:41 +0000

Belle is smiling and coo-ing at us now. I really miss her during my workdays and can’t wait to get home. Things are still a bit of a whirlwind – I’m a bit sleep deprived, Cynthia has it much worse. Belle is sleeping in a couple of 4 hour blocks at night but prefers 30minute naps during the day much the chagrin of her mother. Cynthia is armed with a baby sleep technique book on her Kindle, and we are in the midst of establishing rituals and schedules that hopefully will help things.

Belle is is not only cute but now also deductible with her immigration status in order- we’ve gotten a social security number for her as well as a passport and ARC (alien resident card). The bureaucracy is now clear for our highly anticipated trips back to the US in August and October to meet her grandparents in person.

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Belle Week 3 and 4

pat — Mon, 30 May 2011 14:25:26 +0000

Belle had her one month checkup and is up to 4700g/10.5lbs – so the eating is going well. Cynthia claims she rolled over and I claim she smiled on demand. Neither of us co-witnessed these events so it’s just hearsay at this point.

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Belle Week 3

pat — Tue, 17 May 2011 14:57:11 +0000

We can’t believe it’s been 3 weeks already.

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Week 2

pat — Mon, 09 May 2011 15:24:59 +0000

The baby showed up, and pragmatism and fatigue have led to a bit of a shopping spree on stuff we previously resisted getting . . .

Vacuum cleaner – the time efficiency of the swiffer and dust-buster weren’t quite cutting it anymore
Stroller – an awesome Maclaren XT loaner from Haritha and Mike. It’s great to use at restaurants when Belle is sleeping
Changing table – I wanted our bedroom desk back, and Cynthia’s back was starting to hurt. I bought the floor model from IKEA since it was the only one available in Taiwan until the next shipment in 2 months. I asked them to disassemble it but this didn’t exactly translate, so I stood on Dunhua and flagged down a hatchback cab that could eat it whole.
Convertible High chair/rolling bassinet – a friend at work has one that’s no longer useful to him, but will be to us
SLR camera – I mentioned buying this already, but now I need to get some kind of camera box/bag, because there is an unsustainable pile of random camera accessories sitting on the desk.
Wet wipes – the cloth diapers are working awesome, but the homemade wipes were marginal. Costco sells them 900 at a time which is handy.

I’d suppose rather have it this way then buying buying a bunch of stuff in advance and finding out we don’t need half of it.

Belle and Cynthia moved to the other room last night, and I got my first full nights sleep in a couple weeks – Cynthia is so awesome she even put up with the broken AC in that room (hopefully the guy will come fix it tomorrow).

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Xiao Beibi

pat — Tue, 03 May 2011 13:16:04 +0000

Just a quick post of some more pics . . . most of these are meta-shots the 1 week photo shoot Mike did for us. I bought an 1100D SLR over the weekend, so I’ll keep the pics coming as something interesting arises. Belle is doing well, Mom is tired.

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