Fat Or Fiction

Growing up I was always the "skinny kid" - more accurate actually I was always the SHORT and skinny kid in school. And puberty hit and I grew a foot! Quite literally: I was 4'6" in 1992 (grade 8) and 5'6" in 1994 (grade 10). Since then, I have maybe grown 2 inches to my current lofty height of 5'8" (with a fully spiked hair and some tennis shoes on). But, I was still light-set, and this bothered me.

Boy have times changed!

In highschool I was active and played sports virtually every day of the week (weekends included). Following graduation, and all throughout university, I maintained my frequent dose of sports through the intramurals program and working out at the gym (where I also worked part-time).

Life was good, body image was healthy, I looked more stalky (not fat), no complaints.

Fast forward several years of fast food (and marriage and a baby) and I am a robust dude. Or should I say rotund, round, and not just in the face, but a full-on belly. Hey, I hope you all find this amusing, because I have no issues about telling it like it is.

I am fat(ter) and need to get back in shape. So much for New Year resolutions, it is now February and my treadmill just arrived.

That's correct. Nothing was working out. Mountain terrain is hardly a place to go "jogging with my iPod". Someone has to look after Nooms. Can't leave Kelly alone (and Kelly's not interested in exercise). Can't go to the gym when you have to juggle work and Ethan and preschool? Bike to work? Geez. And, yes, the EXCUSES are longer than ... well, just long, ok?

And I was getting tired of doing nothing, so I did what I do best and that's spend money.

I bought this Gold's Gym MAXX 650 treadmill that I have yet to break in (it arrived on Wednesday). I hope to unpack and assemble it this weekend and run everday thereafter. (and I'd better get some regular motivation from my readers to "keep up with the exercise, Max!")

I want to be fit for our trip to BC in June when I hope to hang out with my bro and all of my buddies and for them to meet Ethan (many/most for the first time).

Running With Research

River Birch Research is picking up the pace!

So far in 2008, we have 5 active studies - already equal more than half the total (n = 8) of 2007 - and we are only a week into February. We have a COPD study, as well as a rheumatoid arthritis, anemia, stroke/atrial fibrillation and osteoarthritis of the knee. Due to confidentiality agreements we've signed, this is all I will say for that. But I am getting very excited about where we are going.

I have interviewed an applicant (Deb) for a study coordinator position, who we hope to hire very soon. With another full-time coordinator, and several other studies in the pipeline, and a stylish and clean new look to our website (www.riverbirchresearch.com) things are slowly coming together.

We have brought in a few providers and staff members to our research team. In just this past week, Dr. Leski (sport's medicine), Dr. Sabreen (nephrology and hypertension), Dr. Issa (internal medicine and pulmonology) and Cami (women's and perinatal nurse practitioner) have joined our team at River Birch!

Next week, I am meeting with Dr. Mannino (cardiology), Dr. Whaley (oncology) and Deb (coordinator applicant).

Unlike basic science research, I can actually see immediate results to things I implement. And I realized something about myself -- that I need this steady supply of rather "instant gratification" to keep motivated (something that happens all too infrequently in academic research).

I truly enjoy directing our whole program. Far from knowing for sure if the changes I am introducing will translate to financial gains, I am still hopeful we can meet and exceed "2003" - our last respectable fiscal year revenue-wise.

Another goal and personal challenge: a satellite branch for RBRA in Atlanta, GA.

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

Sweet 16 (Months)

Ethan's 16 months has passed with little notice. It has been such a busy time for our family lately, I honestly don't know where all the time has gone. This is probably the longest I have gone without writing a blog entry. Sorry!

Ethan is doing well. Kelly and I should really be taking more videos of him, since he is just developing and changing daily now it seems. Speech is still (always) lagging. This can be frustrating for both parents and Ethan. His wheezing is now a regular occurrence and it is just a matter of time before he is "officially" diagnosed with asthma.

If not for Kelly, who I defer most/all of Ethan's health concerns to, I would not be able to stop worrying. I mean, breathing, so essential, the most essential of functions, to keep an active life - the very definition of this stage of toddlerhood that Ethan is in. But otherwise little slows Ethan. He is experimenting daily with things he gets away with which he should not. For example, climbing on to the dining chairs, and then on to the dining table. Pushing his toddler chair up to the kitchen counter to help him reach objects we purposely store in high places like the kitchen counter. Sticking his hand in the toilet bowl (he has sort of lost interest in flushing the toilet several times at least). And on and on...

Work is picking up for me, and Kelly and I have a bunch of meetings lined up that will just contribute to that added level of complexity that comes with having to coordinate everything which leaving home with a toddler demands. But time just zips by when we are stretched thin like this.

Ethan starts preschool next week. I start a full week schedule (instead of half days on Wednesdays).

Kelly is looking in to a CME course in June in Vancouver. Maybe we can coordinate our trip to BC then and make for a short vacation to catch up with friends. Long overdue!

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!

Regeneron Investigator Meeting

Last Thursday I left to Atlanta to catch a flight to Las Vegas for an investigator meeting sponsored by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. On the way to the airport, I stopped by the nearest Toyota dealership for Kelly's 10,000 mile maintenance checkup. An oil and filter change, tire rotation and fluids check later, I was on my way to the airport's park-and-ride.

The flight to LV was more or less uneventful, which is always a good thing. The only exception was going through a thunderstorm in the first 15 minutes of the flight, which provided some uneasy moments for me (turbulence) but at least the storm provided good amounts of rain in Blue Ridge. Turbulence on flights always makes me worried.

I arrived at the airport in LV (for the first time) and was surprised to find slot machines in the airport! (I don't know why I was surprised). A shuttle service awaited us - several conference attendees. We stayed at the Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort which was about 24 miles or so away from "the strip" or the glitz of Vegas. The resort, situated in the desert in a sort of valley, surrounded by generous hills, the road or driveway leading to the entrance lined with palm trees, was really quite nice and impressive. We arrived around sunset and so you know I had to take some photos.

The meeting was over Thursday and Friday. Thursday's agenda was registration and dinner (which was fantastic BTW). Friday was the full day, starting at 7am for breakfast, concluding at 5:30pm or so. We were introduced to the study protocol, the investigational drug, the regulatory material, shipping of materials for lab testing, all the ins and outs of conducting this clinical trial. We received electronic data capture (EDC) training for this study also.

At 5pm, I get a text message from Ray (my boss) saying we have a ride waiting out front. -- I guess we were skipping the remainder of the meeting (which was only the wrap-up session and dinner left). Lee (Ray's wife) had a night on the town planned for us which included: (1) dinner at the ultra trendy nightclub and restaurant called Tao (located at the Venetian hotel) -- asian bistro cuisine, (2) a stroll through some of the hotels and shops at the strip, (3) gelato at the Venetian for dessert .. and best of all (4) tickets to the show La Reve, which was showing at the swanky (new) hotel, the Wynn.

I have to thank the Tidmans, especially Lee, for organizing this evening and for including me. They planned to stay an extra day/night and I am sure their Saturday would have included all of this though not necessarily the exact itinerary. But knowing I was leaving very early on Saturday, the Tidmans decided to quickly come up with a night on the town for my first Vegas experience. Thank you! There's nothing like experiencing Vegas the Tidman way: personal drivers to and from hotel (no waiting for taxis), near front row seats at our show, and more.

La Reve

Now I can say: Been there, done that -- I should have bought the book! This show rocked. A la Cirque (de Solei?), La Reve was absolutely breathtaking. The light show, the athletic and jam packed routines were just unbelievable. The difference between Cirque and Reve, I think, is that the latter is focused on utilizing water in their shows (diving, that sort of thing). The theatre being dome-shaped, and I don't know if I can explain what I am about to say and do justice to this one part of the show ... where, at ever increasing heights, performers (and as part of the routine or show) were being "dropped" into the pool -- and we're talking heights of 30-40 feet!! ... And then, this one last "diver", was lifted through and out the top of the theatre ceiling (usually the case if the performer is changing to another costume or whatever for the next scene) .. only for the brief suspense of nothing happening broken by the re-entry of this performer down to the pool - OK some 60-75 feet?? It was ridiculous! R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S! Here I thought this part of the show was over and on to the next, when this final guy comes through the theatre dome top to be dropped into water, perfectly vertical, little splash. Gasp! Needless to say the appreciative crowd gave a thunderous applause and many oohs and aahs. (don't people die at impact at those heights? hmmm)

Late and exhausted we returned to the hotel. I had but a few hours before I had to meet my shuttle service at the lobby the following morning for an early flight back.

So much for what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!

40 Of 137 Will Have To Do

With some reshuffling of photos, I managed to squeeze in a selection of pics from this past weekend with Carmel, Vipul and family. I failed to mention (see entry below) that we also went to Mercier apple orchard - at least the shop, since there isn't much to see in the orchard in January. Mercier in Blue Ridge always has the BEST apple cider and fried apple pies - yum! Anyways, check out the album in My Picasa (on right).

Lakhanis Visit

Last weekend the Lakhanis came to visit us. Carmel, Vipul, Kavi and Layli spent the weekend in our home. We took them to downtown Blue Ridge and did a bit of shopping and browsing through the many stores selling local art crafts and furniture, and many antique shops. We went into art gallery stores, fudge shops, and the Great Eats delicatessen for lunch.

Will write more in a separate entry or update this one. For now, I am trying to upload the many pictures we took that weekend. I have run out of space on my Picasa and Flickr accounts, and so I am trying to open a Photobucket account. There are many free photo album sites. Any recommendations? Or, since I am clearly a trigger-happy photo enthusiast, I should just invest in a real (paid-for) account with unlimited space?

Anyways, soon I hope to have these pictures up.

One thing I will say about this past weekend, it was relaxed and so much fun being with our old friends again. And what an adorable - and ALWAYS smiling - lovely baby girl, Layli.

Huh?

OK, so it's not as hot as this picture portrays. Was it not just a few days ago I posted an entry saying just how cold it was? 4F (-16C) ring a bell? Well, Earth no longer remembers, that's for sure. Today it is 70F (21C).

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

Board Certified

Nervous and trembling, Kelly opens her email which would tell her whether or not she passed her Pediatrics board exam she sat in October. Everyone that knows Kelly probably had no worry at all that she would pass. Easy to be on that side of the fence, isn't it? Well, y'all are right! Kelly passed and is now a "board certified" pediatrician!

What a long road. Already with her Georgia medical license she can practice both her specialties in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, but board exams make it all the more official (and are they required, Honey?).

In any case, one down, one to go. Kelly is already registered to sit the Internal Medicine board exam in August. Luckily for her, the medicine boards is a one day exam, compared to the pediatrics one which is covered over two exhausting days.

www.riverbirchresearch.com

Several weeks in the working and our company's website is now much more polished and more or less complete. Thanks to my friend Frank Lam, we now have a professional presence on the internet to reflect the quality of work we do in clinical research.

Frank has put up with my many "requests" for changes or ideas, many of which are still ongoing as we strive to put together the best website for our company's current needs. But this is not merely my own vision. Oh no. Frank has inputted many of his own ideas and design elements, many of which I initially would "gently" disagree with, but later find Frank's eye for webpages and his ideas more appropriate and aesthetic than my own. And for this, your own critical decisions for our site, I thank you immensely.

So as we strive to bring more clinical trials studies to Northern Georgia, I welcome you all to view our new look at www.riverbirchresearch.com.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

'08 has been thus far, freezing.

Too cold! The drive to work this morning: 8F (-14C).

We finally got some snow, though nothing compared to my Canadian friends' and families' standards. See My Picasa.

Perhaps it's the wind? or just not being used to cold weather lately? ... brrrrrrrrrr!

NYE With The Teskes

Happy 2008!! We rung in the New Year with our friends, The Teskes. Sevda and Michael graciously hosted dinner prior to (Nineteen Day) Feast.

THANK YOU!!

And when the kids retired for the evening, and our other friends and guests had left also, the few remaining watched a bit of Planet Earth while sipping hot tea and eating chocolates. (Totally laid-back, home-style New Year's). When suddenly, engrossed in a scene of mountain cats and baboons, Orville reminds us it was midnight! Out with the sparkling grape juice, a few toasts, a group photo later, 2008 was officially ushered in. Kelly and I, exhausted as we were then called it a night, but apparently Sevda, Michael and Co. still stayed up to watch Memoires of a Geisha. Ah, good for you guys. We slept the night at the Teskes and are now back at home.

And guess who decided to come back? Sparky!! More later. (Josie, we need the cat food back! Hahaha)

Holiday Meals With Friends

Josie and Sarah and company invited us to join them in their Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners in their home this year. And so the turkey I had purchased to cook for Thanksgiving - all 18lbs of her - was kept frozen until this past week when Kelly and I offered to host dinner and games at our home.

It was the first time I had ever cooked a whole turkey by myself. With the help of mom's own recipe, and some searching for other "tricks" online, I pulled it off! The bird tasted pretty good! :-D Hahaha... I just wish I had taken a picture of my cooking labour prior to us all digging in.

But here's a picture of our spread after all was had.

And so with this, I would like to return the thanks to Josie and Sarah for making us feel like part of the family, and now, we truly have a family with whom we can play the many games we all enjoy!!! Hahaha.. A sort of belated Happy Thanksgiving in a way.

Here's to many special gatherings together!

Happy 2008 to all.

Feng Shui

This past weekend was all about cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.

Kelly was on call and had to field a lot of patient and hospital calls but otherwise this weekend was devoted to getting our place back in order. After some 5 weeks since we last cleaned (the floors) we decided we had not another minute to lose, and so we got to work.

And so since we were already moving furniture and stuff around to gain access to as much floor surface to clean as possible, I figured I'd go ahead and rearrange the furniture. You know, do a bit of Feng Shui.

What a difference! It always amazes me how much positive energy I receive from viewing (and occupying) our living space with slightly different positioned furniture. Try it!

I started with the living room area and ended up re-positioning all of Noomsie's furniture in his room.

The floors are spic and span, and though not any one method of cleaning floors I find spectacular for the job, I must say the whole "Swiffer" line of products really you should *not* be without. I mean, dust is dust, and sweeping with a broom just does not collect this stuff. You need something that attracts and holds the easily airborne particles. And then a good ol' fashioned mopping is needed. Voila!

And so here's to a safe and happy Holiday Season to all our friends. May the New Year bring you all much blessings.

Jetlagged & Sick

We made it back home! After some 30 hours plus of travel we made it home from Singapore to Blue Ridge. The journey, difficult enough as it is for a single, healthy person, was made that much more daunting for many reasons: (1) Ethan and Kelly were both sick, (2) we lost one seat on the return flights for Ethan and were down to two for the three of us though we paid for three seats, (3) we had 2 huge checked in luggages and 5 (five!) carry-ons (is this even allowed?) plus a stroller, (4) Blue Ridge is still a two hour drive from Atlanta after all those flight hours, and "so on and so forth" :-D

Our colleague, Renea, picked us up from the airport. Luckily she had spoken to our supervisor and colleague, Dr. Tidman, and was told by him that we would be delayed through immigration in Atlanta so to not arrive when our flight arrives but 30 minutes to an hour later. Boy was he right! And we had totally forgotten to remind Renea before we left or even while we were in Singapore that we would be delayed through immigration.

And so, we arrive in Atlanta airport, and are greeted by long lines queueing up for immigration officers. Not surprising, everything takes that much longer in the U.S. and you just can't help but harbour all these negative thoughts and feelings for why the officers take so long to do their job (compared to the many airports we had passed through on this trip in other countries). Lest, finally, it was our turn, and a cue on my passport always signals "special" - for "special registration" that is. And off we were for another hour in a smaller, stuffy room where persons born from certain countries are always detained a bit and screened. Myself, I was born in Iran - probably the *number one* country being flagged these days by the U.S.

But the veteran that I am, now having gone through this NSEERS process half a dozen times or more, I was patient and answered questions briefly and succinctly and in time was granted the stamp I needed to proceed to baggage claim. By the time we had arrived to the carrousels, the place was literally desserted. It had taken that long through immigration for me, that only our lonesomes from our flight of hundreds were left to collect luggage.

And anyone who's flown into Atlanta's Heartsfield-Jackson (??) airport knows how confusing and long the walk from baggage claim to your car can take!!

Alas we meet up with Renea who had been waiting some 30 minutes - though would have been a heck of a lot longer had she not been fortunate enough to speak to Dr. Tidman before picking us up.

Atlanta was 38F, few degrees above freezing. Penang, Malaysia was 32C (90F?). So it was a change to get used to :-P I am the type that enjoys having four seasons. I welcome cool to warm and back, but this was extreme even for my liking.

A 2 hour drive later, and we were home! Lug all our stuff and we were inside our home, but still freezing since we had put our thermostat way down while away. A few hours to warm up the whole house later, then we were fast asleep -- at 4pm! LOL

We awoke at 10:30pm, did some unpacking, ate something, went back to sleep at just past midnight or 1am. Ethan woke up (and so we all did) at 5:30am for good to start our day.

And this patterns has continued for the past couple of days, each getting slightly better and back to our regular cycle though still not right. Two days ago was bed at 6pm instead of 4pm, and waking at 12:30am, back to bed at 2:30am and up at 6am for the day. Last night was bed at 8:30pm, up at 4:00am, and well.. I'm still up and probably will be for the rest of the day today. So sort of getting back to normal, progressing 2 hours a day it seems.

Now it is my turn to be sick. I now have what Ethan and Kelly had the last few days of our trip. Funny, when I am sick and tired, it seems like I just cannot remember the last time I was healthy and without these symptoms. Sniffle, sniffle, cough, cough.

Malaysia

As we did on our '05 trip to Singapore, a major part of our journey was to meet all the relatives on both mom and dad's side of the family, who all live in Malaysia (mostly on the island city of Penang). And so this reunion also, we made our way and met all the uncles and aunts and cousins -- and of course grandparents, Ah Ma and Ah Gong.

A special trip was planned this time (which we did not have time to do in '05) to visit the village in which Ah Ma and Ah Gong live, and where Kelly's mom (and dad) grew up - Pantai Acheh. The journey to this tiny village was arduous, driving through steep mountain passageways, that are both narrow and extremely windy/curvy. Of course this made for some fantastic views of such steep mountain slopes, dressed in dense dense foliage that end only when the land dives into private coves of glassy water. But of course the reason the drive was made that much more difficult was not the mere route we took, but the fact we had a full car load - 7 adults, 3 toddlers. Fun!

And in time, we see the welcome sign to Pantai Acheh, and arrive at a humble home, decorated with lush vegetation and potted plants and flowering trees and shrubs and fruits -- Ah Gong's garden was indeed impressive, of which (no surprise) I admired greatly.

Outside this mountain village home were many fruit trees including one I recognized from my early childhood living in the Philippines -- water apples! The distinctive taste brought back long forgotten memories of the fruit (and climbing the trees) in our home in Cebu. Ah Ma and Kelly's aunts were busy collecting and cleaning the fruits, which were bagged while still on the tree, to prevent from being eaten by the many bugs and insects, but also to aid in their ripening (??).

Inside the home were family portraits and also individual portraits of Kelly's mom's siblings, parents and grandparents (Kelly's great grandparents, Ethan's great great grandparents!~). There was even a picture of Ethan on one cabinet! To think, from "far away" Blue Ridge, Georgia, USA to Pantai Acheh, Penang, Malaysia. I guess there are many evidences these days to show for the "smallness" of our world. But still amazes me.

And so compared to '05 where all I was concerned with was addressing the many relatives by their titles or family positions correctly (in Chinese!), this time around, I really enjoyed myself and evening taking initiative to have photos taken with Kelly's grandparents, and uncles and aunts. I even feel a lot closer to many of them now.

So the 5 day trip (within a trip) to Penang has been the jewel of this vacation. I am glad Ethan got to meet his great grandparents. We were unable though to have a meeting with Kelly's (paternal?) great grand aunt - Kelly's longest living relative, not necessarily by age but by generation. Had we found time to meet, Ethan would have met his great great grand aunt :-D (significant probably only in photo, as Kelly puts it, even she hardly knows her great grand aunt).

Not Much Going On

With Dad, Kelly and Ethan feeling under the weather, little has gone on the past two days. The weather has not been cooperating either, with the sun only breaking today after several days of rain (at times extremely heavy downpours). So, I have found time to sit and post several pictures on Facebook, and also blog a little.

Tonight we have another dinner planned with some family friends. We have done most of our shopping that we hoped to do on our trip, but disappointingly for me, not a lot of site seeing in Singapore -- partly because it is so difficult to get everyone ready to go anywhere (especially with three boys), partly because everyone but me has lived or grown up in Singapore and so the "downtown" or "Esplanade" or certain shopping centers are all but "been there, done that, don't really want to do that for some time to come", but also because of the weather and illness that's been going around. What ever the reason, it is quite a loooooong journey to then be cooped up at home all day, no?

There's always 2010 for the next family reunion?!

Last night, Ethan had another wheezing episode (or few) and Kelly and I had little sleep. Early this morning, mom and dad and Kelly took Ethan to the hospital to get some oral steroids to help with his breathing, as well as a nebulizer since the one we own is not portable, and we did not take with us on this trip. Personally, it has been sad and frustrating to see Ethan suffer so much. And to think this is now likely going to be a part of our everyday and travels. Ethan is doing marginally better now, and Kelly is taking a much needed nap (actually has been napping most of the afternoon now, though not without being disturbed by Ethan who wishes only to be with mama all the time). So not very restful, but at least something. Poor, Kelly!

Mom has now taken Ethan for a walk around the block.

Adeline has been working hard the past two days on completing her Master's thesis corrections.

Yuske and Michelle have been back at work the past couple of days, and the boys to school (pre-nursery for Ryu and nursery-1 for Jun), so they are gone literally the entire day until mid/late evening.

So it is looking like this vacation is coming to a halt far earlier than our return flight to the U.S. :-(

Short Blurb

Hi Everyone!

We're back in Singapore after spending the past few days in Penang (Malaysia). Kelly's relatives met Ethan for the first time. We had many dinners, shopping trips, close encounters with wreckless (Penang) drivers -- or perhaps US driving habits are simply very tame in comparison -- and 499 pictures which are downloading as I type this entry!

With one more week to go until we are back in Blue Ridge, I will be sure to post a lengthy many entries and photos.

Love y'all,
Max