Chinny, Chin and Chin: February 2007

Wii got it

Well, Irene's Valentine's Day present finally arrived. It was love at first sight....

Up to no good

Hi Dad, whatcha working on?

Can I help?

What's in here? (notice that he has kicked off one sock and got his legs tangled in our camera case strap. Nothing but mischief from this little guy

Freedom!

It started at my parents house this past week. Up on his hands and knees, and signs that they would finally work in sync to propel him forward, rather than backwards. Friday, daycare reported that he was indeed crawling forward in short distances. Saturday, we realized our fears finally have arrived, Brady is mobile. We knew this meant that he would now be moving into the deepest, smallest parts of our house trying to find every way possible to kill himself. What we didn't realize is the adrenaline rush that he would get from this new found freedom to explore.

Saturday night we opened the Chinese New Year at my parents' house and he stayed awake until we left at 7:30pm, without a nap all day. This is basically unheard of for this little tyke.

Oh well, I guess watching football will never be the same again. I'm not a prophet, but I predict this conversation will happen at least once in the coming fall....

Irene: Jason, what happened to Brady?

Jason: Nothing, he's fine. They're just blitzing him a lot and our recievers can't get off the cornerback bumps to their hot routes and he has too hold the ball longer or force a tough pass.

Irene: No, Brady your son stupid.

Jason: Huh? Oh, he's under the coffee table playing with your Blackberry.

Despite our required lifestyle change, we are excited for Brady as he seems very excited about this new development. So, we've tried to figure out how to use the video function on our digital camera to capture some moments (and research exactly how he gets where he ends up). Thanks to YouTube.com, we can try to share some moments with you.

We wasted no time putting up the gate on Saturday. He is now a jail bird.

Chinese New Year play group

On Sunday we were invaded by the little people. Everywhere you looked, was a little one crawling, hiding, or in Isaac's case, licking our french door. Yes, that's Pudge's kid (shocker, I know). Despite the chaos, the event was completely incident free - no blood, no vomiting, no crying (amazing), and no melt downs. A good first day of the Year of the Pig! All hail the Pigs!

In case you are wondering why there are no pictures of Brady on this post, it's because he slept through most of the get together. Again, big surprise....

Sammy, Ro, Isaac, and Joey

Lisa and Josephine (who won the fastest crawler award for the day)

Alison hiding in the diningroom. Alison won the "best streaker" award for racing away from Lisa in the middle of her diaper change.

"how do you get your hair like that? I'd like to try it"

Lucky money for the kids Alison enjoyed playgroup

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone. This is not an ordinary new year though. Yes, it's Brady's first New Year's celebration, but more importantly it's the year of the Pig! That's right, this year is my, and my friends', year! It only comes around every 12 years, so we have to take advantage of every day we can!

For those not familiar with the glorious traits of the pig (also referred to as the boar), here's the rub...

The Pig is a fun and enlightening personality blessed with patience and understanding. People born under the sign of the Pig enjoy life and all it has to offer, including family and friends. They are honest and thoughtful and expect the same of other people. Pigs can be perceived as oblivious or gullible because they do care about others so much that they will do just about anything for a friend in need.

Next year is Irene's year, the year of the Rat, but that's a full year off so we'll post information about that in due time. For now, it's all about the Pigs! Irene has decorated the house quite a bit to celebrate and Brady woke up early in excitement (okay, he's a bit congested and can't sleep, but he likes looking at the house decorations).

Chinese New Year has a lot of superstitious customes and traditions that go along with it. Basically, we are not supposed to do any cleaning of the house, wash our hair, or really do anything except celebrate the day. It's very similar to the US New Year's day, except in Chinese tradition this is done for good fortune purposes whereas in the US it's typically done so you don't miss any of the College Football Bowl games. Also, you're not supposed to use foul language on this day in Chinese customs, whereas it's close to impossible not to use foul language on the US New Year's day, due to the watching of said College Football games.

Happy New Year to everyone and let's celebrate the ushering in of the year of the Pig! Did I mention this is my year?.....

Brady is wearing his red PJ's underneath his jacket. We put his jacket on because he got up early and the house was not warmed up yet.

Michelle Wii

Over the weekend we went over to our friends house for a play date with Brady's buddy Cleo. They had just bought a new flat screen TV - a killer one - so we were excited to visit. When I got there, Mike (Cleo's dad) mentioned he had a Wii, which I quickly hushed hime about and told him not to mention it infront of Irene. Like any man, he assumed this request was out of manly self-preservation that bringing up the topic of a Wii would bring a womanly attack like a hungry monkey on a package of Hostess cupcakes.

We almost made it through the whole playdate until the very end when he let it slip again (someone remind me not to tell Mike when I bet my whole home equity line on the Pats against the Colts next season without Irene knowing....). Once the Wii was mentioned, Irene was as excited as I was when the Patriots beat the Chargers in the playoffs. Instantly, Mike was in motion to set up the Wii. We both ended up playing a few holes in golf and Irene also tried out tennis. I must admit, the Wii is very cool. So cool, that Irene was willing to trade in five pairs of shoes and two handbags to purchase one. This is how I know she is serious about getting one. It's like saying 'would you trade a superbowl win for this?' to me.

Here are some photos of the whole scenario playing out.

With the Wii, you swing as if you are actually playing. Pretty cool. "Brady's fine. I need to focus on hitting this wedge straight now, don't bother me"
"Mom, look....mom?"
Mike: "Ahh, Irene, I think Brady is eating something he shouldn't"

Irene: does my grip here look okay to you?

Brady's fine...

Irene celebrating a 'winner' in tennis

Fortunately, Linda is always ready to scoop up Brady

Happy Valentine's Day!...where's the shovel?

Well, another Valentine's Day has come and gone, just like the first winter snow storm did today as well. The bummer part was that I was planning on making a nice lobster dinner for us but couldn't make it out to the markets because of the weather. The upside though was that Irene and I got to spend the day together because we both worked from home. Even though we were working, it was fun to spend a work day at home together.

And of course today is Brady's first Valentine's Day and he celebrated by being giggly and self amusing all day long. Last week he was given clearance to not have to wear his helmet anymore. Ladies and Gentlemen, Speed Racer has left the building. Brady seems to be enjoying life without it more than we thought and has quickly learned that slamming his head into things actually hurts. So smart. Maybe he'll go to Harvard someday....

The lonely helmet will never be worn again

A Valentine's Day moment - reading with Brady

Who took my helmet? Have you seen my helmet?

Laundered

Reading Time

One of Brady's favorite things to do is read books. He's finally decided that the pictures are more interesting than eating the book. In 17 years, in college, he may think otherwise but until then we will give him a healthy dose of book reading.

Single and Loving It

It's amazing how fast things transition with little kids. Saturday morning Brady woke up and excited to take his Valentine's Day photo shoot with his favorite new shirt. He wears this to daycare it seems to attract all the little girls, so he wanted to give out pictures of himself to them for Valentine's Day. However, like the New England weather he went from fun and sunny, to sick and miserable in the span of eight hours. He's still under the weather, but finally on the upswing today.

"Single and Loving It"