Two Monkeys: Nicholas & Joshua Read

One years old seems like a magical age. In a matter of a week, I have seen Nicholas transform into a little toddler. He's finally back to his old self after a few weeks of teething, that left him feeling needy and uncomfortable. He had a blast at his birthday party - especially opening his presents from friends and family. He did his monkey face every time he saw a new toy. He really hated putting on his birthday hat. We caught some great pics of his reluctance to wearing his birthday gear. Since turning one, he's been really good at understanding my commands in Cantonese. He doesn't obey them all, but I'm surprised that he understands what I'm asking. In a week, he has learned: "Give that to mom", "go make the monkey dance", "do you want milk?". I also explain all the activities we do in Cantonese in hopes that he will catch on as they get repeated. He has also been playing more independently with his toys. He walks from room to ro...

A year passes so fast when you have a little one. Nicholas is a few days away from turning the big 1. He's grown so much that I look back at pictures and can't remember him being such a tiny baby. He's now almost 20 pounds and about 30 inches. He was 7 lb. 15 oz. and 21 inches when he was born. Jean and I had a bet as to when Nicholas would walk. It turned out that I was right! He took his first steps at 11 months. He was completely fearless and persistent. It's been around 3 weeks and he hasn't resorted back to crawling. I am going to miss the pitter patter of his hands on and feet when he crawled around in the morning! Since he's been walking, I've had fun looking for shoes for the size 5 feet. He now has a cute pair of runner and a pair of waterproof boots for the winter time. He also has a number of tricks now too! He loves to grab our cordless phone, press the messages and page the phones, flushes the toilet, unravels the toilet paper, climbs up our...

I can't believe it's been two months since my last post. We spent all of September in San Fran where the sun shone every single day. It's not hard to wonder why people lust over being in California full time. It's so beautiful there with the ocean, mountain view, coastal scenery and amazing organic food. While we were there, Nicholas perfected his clapping and pow wow trick. I've been trying to teach him how to clap for months. I read that if you used a song to teach them to clap, they may pick it up faster so for a few months, I was singing "happy birthday" to him. Cam would always say - it's not his birthday!!! One evening during a feeding, he started to clap. The funniest thing is that he has to look at one hand to make sure it's there before he can clap. Nicholas has also been a cruiser for the past month. He's hanging on to our furniture and moving around the ottoman with no troubles at all. Jean and I had a bet on when he'd start ...

We had our 9 month check up today at Dr. McConville's and Nicholas now measures 29 1/2 inches (born at 21 inches) and is almost 18 pounds. He keeps hovering over the same weight, so Cam and I are determined to keep shoving more food into his mouth. He never says no to anyting we feed him, so we will just continue with healthy, fatty food. The doctor ordered a blood test just to be sure his iron was ok. I brought him to the clinic and I felt bad just telling them that the requisition was for the baby. Thank goodness he didn't know what I was up to and I sat him on my knee as the nurses prepared him. They even had a baby sized rubber band to compress his vein. A second nurse held his arm down while I held him tight to me. The nurse pricked him for the blood.....and....not a peep. He didn't feel a thing and only started to squirm when he realized that his arm was being held down. A quick minute later, it was all done - two full vials of blood. I was amazed at how quick and p...

I never thought holding your baby could result in injury to your hands, but I've definitely got Mother's Thumb. It's better known as tendonitis and mother's typically get it on their thumb and wrists. I've been dealing with it for about a month and it's left me unable to move my thumb without the tendon snapping. I've had some massage therapy to relieve the soft tissue and bought a brace to keep my thumb from moving in awkward positions. Simple tasks like holding a bowl is quite painful, so my left hand is now getting a workout. Ironically, Nicholas is still holding strong at 17 pounds and he's also crawling around. It likely was a buildup throughout the months to this point. I'm hoping that it will repair itself over the next few weeks, but the recovery period is usually a few months.