Last week my old nanny from the Philippines, my "yaya", came to visit us. She was with our family during our postings abroad, on and off, from before I was born till I was fifteen. Since then we've kept in touch through phonecalls and cards. She came for both my sister's and my wedding. She always remembers our birthdays and wedding anniversaries.

When I was a little girl, I adored my yaya. Yaya now lives in Vancouver where she works for a babysitting agency as a nanny on call for hotels. When she heard that my sister and I were both having babies, she wanted to come and see them.

When I met her at the airport, I was struck by how much older, plumper, and smaller she's become. Children love her and Colin was no exception. Very soon, she was carrying him around and he was smiling and laughing. During her visit, I wanted to give her her own room but because of the unpacking and boxes, she ended up sleeping in the baby's room. "Never mind," she said, and even though he woke her up quite a bit, she was happy to play with him at all hours of the night.

In the early mornings, I would lie in bed and hear them playing together in the room next door. I could hear Yaya singing songs and Colin squealing with delight. During the daytime, she helped me carry him. When I took naps, she cleaned the house for me. "Don't clean," I said. But she washed the bathrooms and cleaned the windows. She ironed the clothes and James exclaimed that he had never had his shirts so beautifully crisp. She brought us a small pile of Christmas presents painstakingly wrapped with cheerful Christmas paper.

When she left, early one morning when it was still dark, I held the baby in the doorway as James put her bag in the car. "I'll visit you next Christmas," she said. She doesn't have much leave and the bulk of it is spent on a trip to the Philippines each summer. I packed her some food for the plane. A banana, a muffin, a bunch of grapes and a bottle of water. Then they were gone to the airport.

I was so tired that I went back to bed. Later in the pale light of dawn, I could hear Colin crying in his crib. Drifting in and out of sleep, I dreamt that Yaya was still with us. That I could hear her voice talking to him, saying the same endearments, singing the familiar songs she had sung to me when I was a child. And I wept.

Colin doesn't really like his car seat but he doesn't look all that traumatized when wearing this bear suit. Of course, he doesn't look all that happy, either. Click on the picture to see more photos!

I must admit that I'm very glad and surprised that we've had so many visitors since we've moved up to the Bay area. My mother, James' parents and brothers, Mike Lee, Danny and Sue, Eunice and Taylor, my cousin. Many of them multiple visits, all in the span of about 2.5 months. It has been so kind and unexpected. And now comes Tan Li Lian. Hooray! (breaks out into a restrained cheer because baby is sleeping).

I can't believe I had so much free time before. That is one visitor that hasn't come lately. Looking back, I wonder, what was I doing with it? Years and years of fooling around, never suspecting that one day Mr. Free Time would just say goodbye to me. How could I have known he could be so fickle? Just when I need him the most, off he goes to some other dilettante.

Is really only what Colin can see from the window. Over Thanksgiving when he was feeling rather poorly after a bout of itchy eczema, I sat on the porch at James' parents' house with him on my lap, wrapped up in a blanket. It was very pretty, with sunlight on the grass and leaves slowly whirling down from the trees. Colin was entranced. Who needs TV?

This will probably change soon and I will no doubt be plonking him down in front of the tube at some point, but right now it's quite endearing to see how entertained he is just looking out of the window. In fact, in order to post this blog I've set him in his tiny rocker (thank you Auntie Chuin-Ru!) in front of the big window in our living room. He's been sitting there for the last 15 minutes, looking at our patio and talking to himself. As he's rather small, his view is limited to some rather scraggly bushes and the legs of the outdoor gas grill which the previous tenant left behind... The radio is on NPR where someone is waffling on about Carl Jung and the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama seems to be a perenially popular subject, although I don't think Colin has any particular opinion about it. He did however wear an orange towel over Thanksgiving which gave him a rather festive, Tibetan air. (Colin, not the Dalai Lama)

I was worried about going to Los Angeles this Thanksgiving. Not because of traffic jams on the 405 (of which there were many) or because the logistical nightmare of bringing a three month old to a new place (he seemed to enjoy himself). Instead, I was worried about whether Colin was going to be chubby enough for his aunt Aileen's approval. The last time she saw him, I'm afraid he was a bit scrawny. He's not that robust right now evidently Aileen approves.

You can see more pictures of our adventures in LA--along with Michael's victory in Settlers of Catan--here.

It took about three months, but we finally got around to buying a full-sized crib for Colin. Up until now, he's been sleeping (rather comfortably, I might add) in a mobile bassinet that Rebecca kindly lent to us the day we returned from the hospital.

Now that he has a big crib, we're actually able to give him new friends. You can see them here. The truth, of course, is his best friend remains his hand.

Today Priscilla, Micah and the bigger Collin came by for a visit at our new apartment. Micah looks an awful lot like Collin (and Collin's mom) but there are definite streaks of Priscilla in him.

Micah is only 18 months old but he's articulate and understands American Sign Language, Mandarin, Japanese and English!

You can find more pictures of the visit here.