4-Year Anniversary

Kelly and I celebrated our 4-year wedding anniversary on Friday 11/21 with dinner at Longhorns. Ethan was such a handful, so dinner was cut short, which was a shame. But food was good :-)

Elmo White Eyes

Ethan is slowly starting to put together three word sentences. This morning, he pointed to his plush Elmo's (nearly the same size as he is) eyes and said, "Elmo, white, eyes".

My little Noomsie is growing up. He still blabbers his own speach most of the time that no one understands. But every now and then, you get the feeling he is answering you with real words.

Ethan is getting better at counting from one to ten. He still hesitates to say "seven" and skips to eight, but I think more to tease me than anything. Right, Ethan? "seh-VEEN"

My little angel Noomsie.

Ushering In The 30's

Kelly turns 30 today! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Honey!!

Perhaps now Kelly will find comfort in answering the same question her many patients ask her: "How old are you anyways? [You seem too young to be a DOCTOR]", by replying: "Well, as a matter of fact, I am in my THIRTIES."

Congratulations, Honey. You know I am so very proud of you, and make it my personal duty to brag about you as much as I can on my blog. :-P

For Kelly's birthday, this morning, I bought a Chinese money plant in a nice white ceramic pot, with itty bitty black stones on the surface of the soil, and a band of bamboo around the pot (very asian looking plant/pot) to keep in her office. Dinner tonight will be at a local Italian restaurant called Cusina Rustica. This restaurant is family owned and operated, and in fact, it litterally feels (or is?) a part (extension) of the owner's home. Their hours of operation is only from 5-9pm and they have seating for about 20 people (or at least it seems this small/quaint the last time we were there).

Tomorrow will be the Tidman's annual summer Lake House party. It is expected to rain with scattered thunder storms starting at around noon. Still, I hope to pop in for a visit, and perhaps in the afternoon the family will go down to Atlanta for some shopping for Kelly, and activities for Ethan (Children's Museum, Aquarium, etc.. to which we have annual family passes that we rarely use).

Looking forward to soon join you in this decade milestone, Honey. (My 30th comes but a couple months later on September 23rd).

Ethan Is 22 Months

Ethan turned 22 months this past week, and his mama turns 30 years on Friday. [sorry no pic as apparently I have reached my allowable limit for loading photos on this blog ... time to start another one?]

Ethan's speech is developing more and more each day, although for the most part we still cannot understand what he is saying. He can now put two words together with his more favorite sayings being "all gone" and "my car". His most favorite thing in the world right now? Cars. Every waking moment is "kah", "kah" - like a British person not pronouncing the letter "r".

He runs faster, and is starting to test his jumping abilities.

He can identify certain letters of the alphabet like "O" and "U" and "Q", among others. He can also count to ten. Well, sort of. He "skips" four and quickly says "five", does the same with seven for eight, but otherwise says the other eight numbers.

He weighs 24 pounds and his eating habits are still hit or miss. Oh well. What can you do?

New Video: Ethan Reading

Here's a video mom took of Ethan (20 months) "reading" a brochure/manual. This is just 30 seconds long. Not sure if I can post the 3 minute version. In that longer version, Ethan stops to "catch his breath" and then continues to read "wawawawawa" ..

CRCP

I attended a conference in DC/Virginia last week for four days. The conference was for clinical research professionals - investigator sites, sponsors, CROs, and everyone else in between.

Having been "on the job" now for 7 months, it was SUCH a great learning experience. I would even go so far as to say it was the most enjoyable conference I have ever attended (granted all other conferences I have been to were academic by/in nature and enjoyable for other reasons).

I learned the ins and outs of the clinical research profession - specifically about contracting agreements/budgets for clinical trials research. The conference was set up in "tracks" with parallel sessions covering different topics: Track A - budgets, Track B - regulatory, Track C - etc .. There were many great sessions that I had wanted to attend, but they were being offered at the same time, and so I had to be very selective.

On the last day of the conference, I took a qualification exam to be a Clinical Research Contracts Professional. I just received notification that I passed my exam. The exam must have been graded on a curve, since I answered all of 8 questions (out of 20!) Actually, I answered most questions, but had to rush answering 12 of the last questions in 5 minutes. So much for pacing. It clearly showed just how much exam-writing skills I have lost since my days as a student.

Time to put all that learning to practice and build a successful (and profitable) research program.

Ethan 19-M.O. Video

Finally, it took sooo long to upload this video but here it is. Ethan at 19 months old. In this video I ask Ethan what various animals say (animal sounds) and Kelly quizes him on his body parts (in chinese). For translation purposes, Kelly asks the following body parts in this order: nose, mouth, teeth, eyes, ears, hair, hand, tummy and foot. Kelly then asks "where are daddy's socks?" to which Ethan replies (in english) "socks" (but you'll have to turn up the volume to hear it). And last, Kelly instructs me to get a box, since Ethan can say "ba-ksss (box)" - again have to put up the volume for that one.

I am not sure how to get the HTML to embed that is specific to my video of Ethan; you will notice also other "Ethan" videos that others have posted (along with older videos I have posted) .... better than nothing :-D

Growing Up

Our Ethan is growing up. He turns 19 months today, and is now in full-time preschool. Today was day one back from "spring break" and Ethan and all his preschoolmates were excited to be back in school. Linda has done a fantastic job the past 7 months or so caring for Ethan. Transitioning to The Learning Depot, we had Ethan with Linda twice weekly (Mondays and Fridays), and now he will be at TLD 5 days a week.

Ethan's favorite or commonly used words are (Ethan's pronounciation in brackets): hi, hello (owww), bye (bah-yee), box, dots, baby (day-dee), mama, papa, ball (bow), deng (din; chinese for 'light'), socks, nay (chinese for 'milk'), si-sieh (chinese for "thank you") ... and of course his favorite word of all, NO!!

Animal sounds: mooo, meow (maow), baaa (ba-ha), woof (woah-woah)...

He understands the following body parts in chinese: hand (sho), foot (tsiao), belly (du-tze), hair (tow-fah), mouth (tsway-pah), teeth (yah-chuh), nose (bee-tze), ears (err-duah), eyes (yen-tsing) and not a body part but related ... socks (wah-tze) ... he doesn't say any of these words (yet) but points to these ..

We have a video but are finding it difficult to post currently...

PhD For Shan!!

My dear friend Shannan successfully defended her PhD on Friday. Congratulations to you! After 5 years filled with many crises and rewards, self-doubt, and all the rest (you yourself know what these are, Shan) you have overcome them all! What a testament to just what you are capable of achieving, and I hope this is the begining of many more milestones and achievements for you.

I would like to think that I was a witness to your maturation from a first-year graduate student, to a newly annointed "doctor" and academician. But having gone through the same experience myself, I know that so much of it is down to personal grinding, some semblance of self-belief, and a lot of bad fast-food and late-nighters.

Friends help too. Often far removed from the very discipline you are engaged in day in and day out for years (huh? transcriptome-what?), still, these wonderful souls urge you on and keep you positive and forward thinking and quite often make the difference in times of tests.

And just how time flies.

When you were giving your final presentation, Shan, I could recall vividly the small stuffy room where I had to present my final talk, May 22nd, 2003. An error in the booking meant that I got half of a conference room (the other separated by an accordion divider thingy) and all of 40-50 people packed into a space with only 25 seats or so.

My external examiner (from the Netherlands) was running late (his flight delayed) which ultimately left me with 40 minutes to speed through my slides. Perhaps that situation really just aided in calming my nerves since everyone felt pity on me. But that feeling, when your "acknowledgments" slide appears and you have nothing left to say but "thank you" to all the people who have helped you along the way - truly, NOTHING compares to that feeling. (except for your wedding day, birth of your first-born, but as far as academic achievements go ...)

May you remember that moment, as I do mine, and treasure it forever as you make your way onwards, Doctor.

Preschool A Success!

Ethan LOVES The Learning Depot. He completed his first week of preschool this week. He goes three times a week (T, W, Th) for now. Linda still looks after him Ms and Fs... but eventually we will transition him to full-time at TLD. In his first week, Ethan has played indoors and out with children slightly older than he is, experienced playing with Play-Doh, does gross motor play in a "jump room" where everything is "bouncy" and child safe, dabbles with art (he even brought home a piece of art work that he had scribbled!) and more ...

What impresses me is how detail-oriented TLD is in completing these "report cards" that are sent home with every child, EVERY DAY :-D They include things like what Ethan ate, in what quantity, when he slept, for how long, diaper changes, supplies needed, potty training, and such. There is this one part that reads, "Today I was:" and then an area to fill out. Ethan's "teacher" (for lack of a better term that escapes me just now) writes for Ethan such adjectives as "wonderful!" and "great!". So cute. (you know, it reads as if in Ethan's voice saying "Today I was wonderful" - ahh you get what I mean) ..

And the other children are so happy with Ethan - as if Ethan is a new class pet (everyone wants to touch and "pet" him) - partly because he is just so darn cute in his toddler outfits. The parents of Ethan's classmates sure have voiced their admiration for our little Noomsie and his dashing good looks.

Tomorrow will be back with Linda. It will be interesting to see how he does after three days (kinda like a long weekend anyways) away from her care. But we suspect no difference in his behavior or attachment to us or Linda, since he is quite used to her now and loves very much being in her care and with Lukie and Lilly to play with.

Next week, I think, Ethan's class at TLD gets a local clay artist come and visit and teach them some pottery. We'd better slip in a note to E's teacher to pay special attention so that noomz doesn't eat any of the clay. :-p

All Fun & Games

Immediately after my flight from Las Vegas landed in Atlanta, I was making my way to meet Kelly, Ethan and friends to celebrate Kelly's successful passing of the Pediatrics board exam. Renea (her partner, Richard), Josie (and housemate Sarah), and the Teskes joined us in congratulating Kelly, with dinner at Okinawa in Ellijay. Our party took up an entire (and private) hibachi table/section. The children, Adib and Ethan, were especially interested in the cook and his tricks (and of course the flames!). Ethan kept on repeating, "Wooooooooooooow" albeit he was saying this for everything the cook did, even when the cook was merely cracking an egg.

Most of us then returned back to our home for what is quickly becoming a sort of tradition - games and tea and cake!! This night, however, there was another special reason to have cake: it was Sarah's birthday (today)! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

The Learning Depot

This past week has been filled with many new and exciting things.

One thing that has transpired over the past few days that both Kelly and I feel very excited about, is the discovery of this place in Blue Ridge called The Learning Depot.

Both Kelly and I are working parents, and like many, we too experience the rollercoaster of emotions that come with parenthood. This ride or journey takes us through guilty valleys, and deserving peaks, and loop-to-loops of toddlerhood. In particular, when the topic of Ethan's care and early education comes about, this dynamic coaster is in full gear.

With much investigation and heartache, we were pleased to find a nice home and very loving caregivers for Ethan. Linda and Jimmie Gray, better known as mi-maw (grandma) and pa-paw (grandad) have taken very good care of Ethan the past couple of months, and Noomsie really enjoys Lukie and the other infants currently also cared for by the Grays.

But with toddlerhood comes new challenges, and finding a solution for Ethan that would keep up with his increasingly curious mind and mobility was a very real issue Kelly and I now had to face. As wonderful as Linda has been in providing the best "care" for Ethan, what is needed now is someone who can provide more hands-on activities, and the exploration of many new learning opportunities.

Enter, The Learning Depot.

Back when we were looking for childcare for Ethan, we visited one particular center (name not mentioned) and en-route, drove by The Learning Depot. At the time of course, we were merely intersted in getting to this foreign address and just last week, Kelly thought to contact TLD and see what they have to offer.

By the act of God, TLD was exactly what we have always been looking for, and that we thought would not be available here in Blue Ridge. TLD is a learning center, a preschool based on the philosophy or approach of Reggio Emilia - Italian early childhood educator. (similar to Montessori)

The Reggio Emilia approach to education is committed to the creation of a learning environment that will enhance and facilitate children's construction of his or her own powers of thinking through the combination of all the expressive, communicative and cognitive languages.

As God would have it, TLD accepts children no younger than 16 months (preferably 18 months old). Ethan is 15 1/2 months old. And a 2 1/2 year old boy is leaving town by the month's end, making available one spot in February (when Ethan just turns 16 months old). Class sizes are small (5 children per age grouping per one instructor). Ethan's class will have 5 children, but 2 are part-time/morning, leaving only 3 children to one instructor in the afternoon.



The children do "social play", music activities, hands-on art activities in an art studio that includes pottery instructed by a local clay artist (!!), outside play, gross motor play (bouncy room), "science", and many others. The children have nap times and also snack times, and with each and everything they do, the children are involved: set up cots to sleep in, put away, wash hands and set up table setting to eat, clean up, and so with each learning responsibility and a sense of self, others and sharing.

This Wednesday, I will go with Ethan for his "first day" but only to see how a day's activity is carried out, and the afternoon, Kelly will go back with Ethan. Once we get a sense of TLD in action, we will make our official registration.

www.learningdepotpreschool.com

Toddlerhood

Life has been so hectic and irregular recently that I totally forgot to blog about Ethan entering into toddlerhood!

That's right. Ethan is officially walking or toddling around the house :-D It has been about two weeks now since he took his first steps. Quite honestly, one of the proudest moments of being a parent. It is just such an accomplishment, walking, that one forgets ('since everyone eventually learns to walk') how much goes on to learning to first walk.

We have managed to capture on video some of Ethan's early steps, though the videos are a bit dark, and I don't know when I will have time to post them on my blog. (YouTube has just been very unreliable lately for me). We also have so many pictures --- AHHHHHHHHHHHHH -- that I wish to post, but sadly, our camera has now reached the end of its life, and so I will have to wait, patiently, until mom and sis send us a CD of all the pictures we took over the past 6 weeks.

Besides watching with so much pride as a father, my son walking about everywhere he wishes, Ethan has developed other skills equally satisfying (if not more so than walking) to any parent. He can hold his own sippie cup/bottle and even feed himself a Cheerio every now and again. There is something so satisfying beholding my son as he drinks water, for example, with such delight and intensity, and pauses when he wants, and continues when he wants.

Ethan is also teething more. He now has 6 teeth - 3 up, 3 down - with a seventh and perhaps eighth whitie poking through his gums.

Kelly is letting him go up the stairs now, supervised of course. With each step nearly half his height, it is cute watching this determined little man tackle each, and with a great big smile on his face.

Some things to come which, as parents, we don't necessarily wish our child develop too soon are the abilities to run, and climb furniture (or other high places). But those are next! :-D

9 - M - O

Noomie Noomz is 9-months old today! Ok, so this picture is not the best and is quite blurred. Ethan won't "stand" still long enough for me to take a clear picture without using the flash. He is such a busy body now and wants to get at everything and crawls and pulls to stand and is curious for new things every minute. Will try to get a better one later today/tonight. I wish you were all here with us :-D

Amby Baby Jumper

We've since replaced the hammock on the Amby Baby to the jumper attachment, which Ethan enjoys. He doesn't quite last as long as I would have hoped on it though, usually getting frustrated and bored after a few minutes of hearty jumping! Thanks again, Ah Ma!

Standing Leap Frog

Here's a video Kelly took a while back of Ethan standing while holding and playing with his Leap Frog table. Since this video was taken, Ethan can now pull himself up from a sitting position, onto things that are not too tall (e.g. wagon railing). Many more short clips to be added soon.

Ethan (Says) "Allah'u'Abha"

Don't blink or you'll miss it! I think Ethan is actually mimicking the words I say to him. Oh BTW he can say both da-da and ma-ma now (much to the delight of Kelly) :-D

8 & Counting...

Ethan was 8 months old yesterday! And with this new age he has also reached several new milestones:

(1) teeth are in!!! Noomz is finally teething. I say "finally" because for the longest time I had been thinking he was teething since he would drool a lot more than usual, bite on things more, etc.. etc.. but nope, only just now, his bottom two front teeth are just barely poking through his gums!!! Awww... just realized this probably means no more GUMMY SMILES :-C

(2) sitting to tummy. Ethan has been able to sit unaided for a few weeks now, and has just recently developed the ability to get from a sitting position to his front, and he even "tests" his ability to move forward and crawl by doing this forward-to-backward swaying (ala a preying mantis). And even though he can't really crawl yet, he can get around by rolling and back scuttling (yes, he can "crawl" backwards!) Weird, or not, but soon I cannot simply put him down one place and expect him to be there.

(3) and Ethan's first word is ... DAAH-DEEEE!!! Yay!!! Noomz can say dada, daddy, and a host of other hard consonant sounds like baba... though still working on MA-MA (he can sort of do the mumummmmmmmm sound so almost there!)..

(4) stage 2 foods cont ... And he's already tried so many different types of foods now, though his intake has lessened considerably and he's not putting on too much weight these days, likely attributed to his teething..

(5) standing with support! Noomz can play with his Leap Frog learning table and hold himself upright! Quite cool... and just the other day, he grabbed my leg like a toddler would and was totally standing :-D (not quite on his own though... a few months from that)


(6) toys and playtime... Ethan is slowly multi-tasking with his toys, now grabbing multiple objects with both hands, and generally very attentive and curious about what his toys can do (sounds, textures, etc..) all very exciting to him! And he anticipates a ball rolling towards him, an object falling off the table/high chair, etc...

Not sure if left out any other milestones, but it seems these days, each day, something new is learned or developed, and this was not really the case during the first 6/7 months... so moving fast forward now if you know what I mean all you veteran parents.

May take me some time to upload the many videos Kelly has been taking of Ethan displaying perhaps these various acquired skills/milestones... but I can post some pictures now..

Enjoy!

Kitchen Drum Set

Here's Noomz playing drums with a collander and wooden spoon. Burp cloth on head to enhance baby rock star persona. Note: Ethan is sitting all by himself, and mama is only behind him because Noomz is on the countertop. It's been a long day today, and Kelly just got home from work. This is the "fun" we get up to :-) Enjoy!

Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz: Noomie Update

If you have read, or are currently reading, Dr. Seuss's ABC book, you will know what a "Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz" is.

In a nutshell, my day is all about duckdogs and quacking quackeroos... not to mention the Wozet in the closet, or the Nooth Grush on the boy's tooth brush. I mean, seriously, are these quality learning materials? Maybe, maybe not. But they are certainly classics.

And my day with Noomz would not be complete without reading a few books in the Dr. Seuss collection. Ethan really enjoys "One Fish, Two Fish", mainly because the book has these moveable plastic fish toys along the spine which he likes to reach for while I read to him.

But Noomz is changing, developing.

We (Kelly and I) have officially agreed, that, yes, Ethan CAN sit unaided now, and so I've gone on to buy Stage-2 foods. Some of the foods I bought include: sweet potatoes and corn; banana, apple and pear; turkey and turkey gravy; and other single veggie or single fruit varieties that are thicker and chunkier in consistency and not the liquid puree of stage 1 level foods. In addition, I bought a multi-grain cereal that I plan to indroduce by first mixing with his single-grain rice cereal he's been eating now for a couple months.

But besides Ethan's ability to sit on his own, he is getting very hard to carry and hold still as he likes to climb and grab and generally do things with intent (i.e. you are holding something I want or am interested in simply because you are holding it). He rolls all the time, and so we cannot put him on elevated furniture (bed, sofa) unless we are right there with him. Even using pillows as barriers is not always full proof. He can get around them, or over them, but he does so not by crawling (yet), but by rolling, and pushing up with his legs when on his back. Clever little guy.

As if these changes were not all enough for mom and dad to tackle first, Ethan has also developed a bit of stranger anxiety, and also separation anxiety, or both the same? First, like in situations where we are in public and some of our friends wish to carry him, a once very playful and willing 3-month old is now a stranger-fearing 7-month old. He does warm up to others in a few minutes, and some, instantly, so not really "sranger anxiety" per se, but definitely something going on there.

Separation anxiety though has given us more trouble. Ethan can hardly be put down anywhere for a second before he kicks up a fuss. If you are out of his line of sight, he will let his displeasure be known. Calling back at him as if to say "don't worry, I am still here" only restores comfort for a second or two, if that.

And so bed time routines are being reinvented, and sad to say, his sleep training is no more. Ethan wakes regularly once, or twice at night, and usually cannot fall back asleep, as he usually flips to his stomach and props himself with his arms and finds this new position not conducive to going back to sleep :-) And mom and dad, being softies, let in, and he ends up cozying up in bed with us, content and snoring his baby zzzzzzz's the night away.

Kinda just have to roll with the punches I guess. One day at a time. One "Verna Vera Vin and her violet violin" at a time.