Introducing Colin

Mmmm...

colin by the bay

Mika about to go

Waiting for cake.

Discovering Skype Video

Some videos of Colin and Mika

Flickr now offers videos. I've uploaded a few recent videos of Colin and Mika. I'm afraid that they aren't well edited and a little long so they are most suitable for relatives--except for the first one of Colin at the computer (it's short and sweet).

Colin looks at a bee at Griffith Park

Colin looks at a bee
Originally uploaded by James Cham.

Colin and Yang-Sze at Santa Monica beach

Colin and Yang-Sze at Santa Monica beach
Originally uploaded by James Cham.

A few pictures from a quick trip to our old haunts in LA.

Natalie's Third Birthday Party

Colin and I went to Natalie's third birthday party on Saturday. James

Imagination

Tonight Colin was standing in his crib before going to bed and he called to me in a small voice. At first I didn't understand what he was saying, until I realised he was saying "My paw is itchy, Mama" and holding out his little hand. A long time ago he had been playing a plastic tiger and pointing to the feet, told me that the tiger had "hands". I corrected him and said the tiger has paws. Now, many months later he suddenly applied the word "paw" to his own hand!

He's really developed an active imagination. Sometimes I think he's living in his fantasy world where there are lots of animals, Grandpa takes him to the "big zoo", everything can be turned into a train (including playing cards, dinner plates, lego bricks and shoes). Sometimes he runs around the house shouting "Rrragh!" and tells me he's a lion. Sometimes he dances and says "Lion dong dong chang!" (thinking about the lion dance he saw at a friend's wedding). He put on my mother's red slippers yesterday and walked around, telling us they were "robot shoes" and he was a robot. He's so funny yet exasperating at this age!

New birthday photos

IMG_0980

Thanks to Wendy Lim for taking some great pictures!

Chatty Colin

Tomorrow is Colin's birthday - I can hardly believe he's two! He talks so much nowadays and is quite the noise maker. He can make increasingly complex sentences, as opposed to the pidgin he's been spouting for a while. Yesterday, he told his grandmother "Colin yi jing chi bao le" (Colin has already finished eating) after dinner. Noticing a glass vase with roses on the dining table, he told me "hua hua he shuai" (flowers are drinking water). This afternoon I took him to a new park - Burgess Park in Menlo Park which has a nice play area and plenty of open space as well. He ran across the sunlit grass, looking at the birds flying against the brilliant blue afternoon sky, and told me "niao niao fei lai fei" (birds fly back and forth). When I pointed out that it was a crow, he said "wu ya, bu shi hai ou" (it's a crow, not a seagull). We went to the seaside to look at the gulls a few weeks ago so I guess he knows that they look different. Some people were playing softball, and he commented "people da qiu" (people are playing ball). It's really amazing how much he can say nowadays! Uh... I'm sure that very soon, he'll be talking back to me, being sassy etc...

My babysitter, Mrs Fu, called this morning to tell me that her little granddaughter was visiting again and was insisting that they visit Colin, so could they come over? I was very happy to tell her yes. The two children get along so well, even though the little girl is 6 years old. She told her grandmother that she likes Colin better than her older brother because her 11 year old brother is mean to her (ah, siblings! More things to look forward to). He probably doesn't want to play with her because she is a lot younger than him. But Colin really likes her a lot. When they got ready to leave, he cried and held onto her hand, saying "jie jie wan" (sister, play) and "jie jie bu huay jia" (sister don't go home). It was really pathetic. I had to practically pry him off her since he was hanging on to her backpack strap like a limpet. In the end they were forced to take him for a short walk since he had already fetched his own small shoes to go out!

Colin's Second Birthday

We're starting to post pictures of Colin's second birthday party. Thanks to my brother Michael and his girlfriend Sabrina for coming up from LA and taking these pictures. We'll add more later.

Colin at the supermarket

Colin at the supermarket
Originally uploaded by James Cham.

Here is Colin at Ranch 99. Can you count the five ways that his dad is not doing a good job? I'll start with the way he is siting in the shopping cart and the coffee in his lap. Whatever you do--don't tell his mom!

Colin leaning, Mrs. Wong and Mikaela in the middle

Colin leaning, Mrs. Wong and Mikaela in the middle
Originally uploaded by James Cham.

What does Colin do while Yang-Sze is away?

Yang-Sze has been at the hospital for the last few days to deliver Colin's new sister Mikaela so my parents have been taking care of Colin. What has he been up to? Yesterday, he went to the Farmer's Market in Mountain View:

And, he's had a great deal of fun with his new toy:

Colin has a sister!

Sleeping Mikaela
Originally uploaded by James Cham.

He can call her mei mei but I don't think he knows that she's coming home with us!

With Uncle Danny

Colin liked sitting on Uncle Danny's shoulders so much he didn't want to come down. Poor Uncle Danny! -- ysc

Dinosaur train

At the Palo Alto Junior Museum, Colin lined up all the dinosaurs into a "choo choo"... clearly the Great Train Phase has begun -- ysc

Colin's favorite toys

Colin loves his train set. He hasn't quite figured out why the trains' magnet connect one way but not the other but the coos with delight when they are all hooked up. We bought his set at IKEA.

Colin and his dad

Colin is outraged

Colin is apparently outraged by the latest issue of Business Week.

Colin's Breakfast

UPDATE: Mommaduck asks a fair question: what the heck is this stuff? It is the only thing I know how to make for Colin in the morning: cheese toast cut into little squares. Not as healthy as the stuff that mom makes but pretty tasty.

Colin and Grandparents in Palo Alto

Colin and Grandpa

Colin and Mom on Chinese New Years 2007

Colin on Chinese News Year Day 2007

Colin and his cousin Sophie

Colin sits watching the laundry as his cousin Sophie walks away.

Not So Sweet Colin

Colin is not happy about being carried off.

Sweet Colin

Colin starts to run...

I haven't seen Colin or ysc for three weeks. I was shocked to see how fast he runs now.

Colin Gets a Haircut

Warning: this may only be interesting to relatives:

Colin Goes Camping

Colin's second Thanksgiving

Colin in Nov 2006

Colin Playing With Water

This is the sort of thing that perhaps only relatives will find charming:

Mom attacks Colin!

Colin walks...

Colin says hi!

Milk

Since his recent ear infection, Colin has been refusing to drink milk. This was one of the few occasions that he was willing to do some chugging.

Red balloon

Colin loves balloons and will play quietly with one for a surprisingly long time...

Colin and his balloon

Colin likes music:

But he loves his mom:

Colin and Audrey

Grandma and Grandpa loved the videos so much that I can't resist posting more videos of Colin--this time with his best friend (and favorite person) Audrey:

Colin Standing

Colin Feeding James

Birthday 27

Paloma is already bilingual!

Birthday 26

Audrey really likes to pat Colin's hair. Now it's time to pat her hair instead.

Birthday 25

Sorry you weren't here, Auntie Wendy and Uncle Sunil.

Birthday 24

Going home with Uncle Jeffery

Birthday 23

Grandma and Grandpa came all the way from LA

Birthday 22

Auntie Inka decided on 2 types of cake, a very wise choice!

Birthday 21

Everyone is laughing but I'm not quite sure what the joke is...

Birthday 20

What would we do without Auntie Fran? Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Birthday 19

Doh, forgot to ask you to bring Ranma 1/2!

Birthday 18

Ethan ponders the meaning of gravity

Birthday 17

Audrey, if I check the engine for you, can I drive your car??

Birthday 16

Aidan and Auntie Tania

Birthday 15

We all think that Brennan looks like John Cho -- but better looking.

Birthday 14

Colin's best friend, Audrey.

Birthday 13

The Choi family and multiple balloons!

Birthday 12

New friend Jet

Birthday 11

Success!

Birthday 10

I want to touch!

Birthday 9

And now to cut the cake(s)

Birthday 8

With Mummy and someone else's ball

Birthday 7

With Lan

Birthday 6

With Uncle Jeffery

Birthday 5

Baby Zach is so cute!

Birthday 4

with Audrey and Lan, checking out Audrey's car.

Birthday 3

Here's Colin with Wang Lian, his babysitter.

Birthday 2

Lots of friends came and picnicked on the grass. The babies had fun crawling and rolling around.

Colin's birthday!

Colin is turning one on August 8 so this weekend we had a little party for him in the park opposite the apartment. Here's his cake, made by me! p

I love laundry

There's something just so luxurious about laundry...mmm.

Yaya comes to visit!

Yaya has come for a visit from Vancouver -- hooray! Today Colin tried to help her fold some laundry...

Cute overalls

Thank you for the cute overalls, Auntie Carmen!

Spiffy

The other day Colin woke up with a very spiffy hair-do.

11 months old

Colin is now almost 11 months old and I can't believe how fast time has flown. He can do so many things now, compared to when he was born! He can say a few words, like "mum-mum" (to eat) "nai-nai" (milk) "bye", "kai-kai" (going out), clap his hands, wave goodbye, and play all kinds of games with you such as rolling a ball back and forth and peekaboo. He's crawling rapidly around the house, pulling himself up, standing and beginning to cruise by hanging onto the furniture. He likes music and will stop to listen intently if you start to play music. His musical tastes tend towards polka and other "oom pa pa" beats. He laughs and smiles all day and is a real sweetie-pie. God bless you, little one!

Original mohawk

Sometimes we joke that we should just shave the sides of his head and then he'd have a mohawk.

World Cup (2)

In fact, he enjoyed watching football so much that he clapped his hands!

World Cup!

It was the World Cup semifinals (Portugal vs.
France) and so I let Colin watch 10 minutes of football. I was surprised to find that he was very excited, particularly by the close-up shots of the football. Perhaps that's not too surprising, considering that his favourite toy is a ball...

Long car ride

For the 4th of July weekend, we drove down to LA for a friend's wedding. Traffic was quite bad on Saturday -- it took us 8 hours to get there and I felt really bad about making Colin sit in the car for so long (we kept stopping to give him a break and carry him around). But he was a good little trooper and didn't complain. He sat in the back and played with his toys. Here he is wearing his Last Emperor sun hat. Next time we go to LA though, we're flying!

Those photogenic godparents again

Notice how Uncle Danny's hair blows against the breeze. Perhaps he'll share the secret with me when I'm grown up.

The smaller one

is my back-up ton-ton. Also known as Mama.

Papa is my ton-ton

and off we go!

Outside

the museum it was very windy but still sunny.

de Young

the mural room. Colin slept here too.

Art

it makes me feel so... sublime.

At the de Young museum

aah -- art!

Why don't you

move to the Bay Area, Auntie Sue?

Danny and Sue

are Colin's godparents and they just came up this weekend to hang out. Here they are in front of Citizen Cake in SF.

Giddy up!

Colin loves wheels and he especially loves to ride on this little horse borrowed from Tania and Enoch (thank you!). He's a little too small for it but he will manfully trundle around using his toes. He tends to fall off though around the corners so you have to scoot around behind him holding him up.

Room

We sold the queen mattress, dismantled the bed and cleared out Colin's room. Now it's an airy, empty space with a bamboo rug on the floor and a crib. I hope this inspires James to clear up the rest of the apartment...

Delicious

Colin is teething his two front teeth and evidently nothing tastes as good as a Nikon lens cover.

Stand tall

and hope that Mama will take you out of your crib.

Trapped!

behind bars chez Cham.

Mike's ice

Mike came up to visit us and I made him a special ice ball from a mould bought at Marukai. It makes a large sphere of ice. Very cool and makes your drink intensely cold. Hope this makes you feel special, Mike!

Thoughts on poop

So I decided that since I'm not up for cloth diapers (tried that briefly -- it's very difficult given that we have no washer/dryer in our apartment), my contribution to the environment would be to potty train Colin early. I don't expect him to be able to wait though, so perhaps the more accurate description is that I'm being potty trained to watch him.

When he was 7 months old and able to sit up nicely, I started putting him on his Baby Bjorn potty (trendy lime green with a high back and arms -- great support for a younger baby) when he began to grunt and make faces. I was so delighted when he actually pooped in the potty! (btw, I recommend lining your potty with a few sheets of toilet paper. This makes it easy to tip the poop out into the toilet and makes clean-up much less messy). So now, when I can catch him, he poops in his little potty and sometimes throws a pee in for good measure.

Of course, there is a downside to this. Schlepping an increasingly heavy baby through the house in frantic search of a potty whenever he begins to grunt and look serious is, to put it mildly, not so fun. But the great thing is that he seems pretty happy to do his business there, which is perhaps a result of starting a little early before the baby has notions about when and where he's willing to potty. The other thing that my mum stressed is DO NOT make the baby sit on the potty for too long. I put him on for at most about a minute and if he hasn't done his business by then, I put his diaper et al back on again. This may mean numerous time consuming potty runs, but I guess you have to make some sacrifices for the environment. My mum has this thing about it "harming the child's intestines by making them sit too long" but beyond that, I think if you're forced to sit for too long, any throne is going to be less than appealing.

This morning after completing his morning poop, Colin looked up at me, smiled and clapped his hands. Hooray!

Colin and Collin

Here is a picture of Collin and his namesake, Colin.

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Naptime

I like to look at Colin sleeping. He gives off this peaceful, soporific feeling. There's nothing like cuddling a warm baby and watching them snooze quietly!

Lipstick?

Nah, just beetroot.

First kiss

from a cute girl. Our little neighbour Audrey is so sweet. She and Colin like to play together and today she gave him a kiss. When they see each other they get excited and start making loud noises in some sort of baby language. The other day they were riding in the car together (Audrey's carseat faces forwards, Colin's faces backwards) and Fran and I could hear them laughing and giggling at each other. Too cute!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008