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Birthday Party for Aunt Pat and Mrs. Chang

We had the extended family over to celebrate Aunt Pat and Mrs. Chang’s birthdays. We had 13 people over for dinner: Agnes Chang; Amy and Kevin Olbright; Dave, Trina, and Will Fiala; Art and Pat Fiala; Bill and Dottie Bush; and Christine, Katherine and I. We roasted 4 chickens and ended up only serving 3. We plan to use the extra chicken meat to stock our freezer full of Chicken Noodle soup.

We got a late start with dinner as we spent too much time at a cool children’s bookstore in Issaquah. Everyone arrived around by 6P and we sat down to a chicken dinner. By this time, Katherine was completely exhausted. She had a long day, being entertained by Grandma and Grandma Bush and wandering around Issaquah. She didn’t get in her full nap schedule. By the time dinner arrived she was so worn out she couldn’t fall asleep. Christine and I took shifts trying to get Katherine to sleep but there was just too much going on. Katherine wanted to be social and hang out but she needed her sleep. Christine and I need to manage her sleep schedule better when guests are in town so this doesn’t happen again.

This was the first family gathering that Will and Kevin played with each other. They used to play with each other’s toys but this was the first time they actually played with each other as playmates. It was fun to watch though it increased the decibels in the house a couple of notches.

After dinner, Christine took her mom to the airport for her red-eye flight back to Dulles. Mrs. Chang was an invaluable help and we thank her for helping us take care of Katherine while we went to work.

Tong Family Visit

Ken and May Tong (Rich’s parents) are long time friends with Christine’s mom, Agnes. Mr. and Mrs. Tong came over today to spend some quality time with Mrs. Chang and to see Katherine. The Tongs chatted with Mrs. Chang in Mandarin Chinese for the benefit of Katherine. Christine and I asked Mrs. Chang to speak Chinese to Katherine so Katherine would learn the sounds of the Chinese language.

Mrs. Chang and the Tongs spent the afternoon together catching up and seeing the Tongs new house. Mrs. Chang returned just in time for the family gathering where we celebrated her and Aunt Pat’s birthdays.

Family Gathering

Christine’s mom has been staying with us since Monday. She’s been helping us take care of Katherine while our nanny Patty is on vacation. She’s been doing a great job and has really enjoyed spending some quality time with her granddaughter Katherine.

On Friday, my parents arrived in town. Christine’s mom leaves Saturday night and my mom will be taking care of Katherine until Patty returns on Wednesday. My dad is spending the weekend and flying back Sunday night. It’s great to have the extended family around. Katherine is the center of attention and the house is bustling with activity. There is no shortage for helping hands to hold Katherine while Christine and I catch up on chores.

Friday night, Kevin and Amy joined my parents and Christine’s mom for dinner. Steve threw together some hamburgers and we sat around the kitchen table for dinner. Earlier in the week, Steve broke one of the kitchen chairs and was paranoid that Mrs. Chang despite being light as a feather would re-break it and fall back through the glass door taking Katherine along for the ride. A quick chair change solved this problem.

After dinner, we all gave Katherine a bath. Katherine loves taking a bath, kicking her rubber duckies with her tiny feet. We showed everyone all of the bath entertainment devices we have: purple octopus, 4 yellow duckies, foam letters, and the highlight: bubbles. Christine whipped out the Gymboree bubbles and proceeded to fill the bathroom full of bubbles. Kevin and Katherine had the time of their lives. Kevin was impressed with the number of bubbles and that they stayed in the air for so long. Popping the bubbles turned out to be just as fun as watching them float around.

After Katherine’s bath, we all went up to the entertainment room to hang out. Steve blew up the Aero bed for Mrs. Chang to sleep on and Kevin proceeded to jump on it as a trampoline. Kevin had a great time jumping on the Aero bed and he demonstrated an uncanny coordination. There were several instances that we thought he was going to go careening off the bed into the couch or wall but he recovered his balance in the nick of time. Kevin also liked doing somersaults on the bed with the help of Amy and Steve to push him over the top.

Bisco has been itching himself due to a skin irritation. We put a cone on his head so he couldn’t continue to itch himself and irritate his skin some more. Everyone felt so sorry for Bisco, especially Kevin. Kevin called Bisco “cone head”. Kevin would stick his head in front of Bisco and pet his nose. Every time Kevin pet Bisco’s nose, Bisco would lick Kevin’s hand. Kevin started to imitate Bisco by sticking his tongue out too.

Soon, it was time for Kevin’s bath. Amy used our bath tub to give Kevin a bath so she could put him directly to sleep when they got home. Steve finished cleaning up after dinner and Christine moved downstairs to finish up her OneNote deck. She has an executive presentation next week and this was the best time for her to finish it up so the team could review before the meeting.

Everyone is coming over Saturday night to get together and celebrate the birthdays of Mrs. Chang and Aunt Pat. It should be a full house. We’re off to run some errands and to the grocery store to pick up fixings for Pot Roast.

Grandma Chang Visits Katherine

My mom (Grandma Chang) arrived yesterday to help babysit Katherine this week while Patty is on vacation. The great thing about having grandmothers visit is that they sometimes see very obvious things that you may have missed.  For instance, she pointed out today the presence of something fairly hard under Katherine’s bottom right gum. Also, when I gave Katherine my finger, she stuck it directly in her mouth and chomped down on it. Katherine is really teething, a breakthrough seems fairly imminent though we don’t really know for sure. This may help to explain why she hasn’t been sleeping thru the last several nights or it may just be her 4 months shots bothering her.

Mom also brought along four rolls of slide film or “color transparencies” from when we were little kids. Steve and I whipped out the light table, blew the dust off the slides, scanned and adjusted the pictures to get rid of fingerprints and dirt. If you look closely – or not so closely – it’s fairly obvious that Katherine looks a lot like her Aunt Sharon! She’s got Sharon’s eyes, and unfortunately my baby double-chin. We’ve also noticed that Katherine is developing red highlights in her hair (Steve’s happy), which is pretty cool considering that red hair is a totally recessive gene.

Grandparents Arrive for the Holidays

The grandpa and grandma Bush arrived for the Christmas holidays on Saturday. Their first stop was to get some Katherine time. Here are some pictures of them holding Katherine.

On Sunday night, my parents watched Katherine while Christine and I got a full night of sleep. We cannot remember the last time we got a full eight hours of sleep, probably not since Katherine was born.

Today, Sharon, Jamey, and Agnes arrive from the east coast. Our plan is to spend Christmas eve with the Changs and prepare for everyone coming over on Christmas for dinner.