Chinny, Chin and Chin

Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T10:48:00.006-05:00

Merry Christmas! Here are some pictures of our Christmas events this year. Everyone had a good time and Santa got the kids just what they wanted! Brady asked for a football helmet and Mia asked for a toy ice cream set. :)

Ho Ho Ho at Bass Pro Shops!

Brady and Mia put the Reindeer food out on Christmas Eve

And Christmas morning begins (roughly around 7:45am, we have good sleepers)

Thanks to Skype, a global Christmas morning!

Power Rangers Unite!

2011-11-26T19:20:00.001-05:00

Perhaps they watch too much of the Power Rangers....

The difference between girls and boys

2011-08-14T19:35:00.000-04:00

Sun, at last! Let's play soccer!

2011-05-22T07:50:00.002-04:00

After 5 days of rain, the sun came out just in time to let the kids play soccer on Saturday. And, it was team picture day!

Notice how all the coaches are smiling and all the kids are looking around doing something else (and Naomi in the middle seems to have to go to the bathroom)

Happy Birthday!

2011-05-15T18:31:00.001-04:00

Today we had a joint birthday party for Brady and Mia. Fun was had by all.

Mother's Day Ballet

2011-05-08T08:36:00.000-04:00

Mia's ballet class had a "Parent Peek" day so that parents could go in and see what the kids have been learning over the past couple of months. Mia loves ballet!

Enjoy the videos.

Happy Mother's Day!

Easter Egg Hunting 2011

2011-04-24T10:48:00.003-04:00

The kids woke up this morning with the hopes that the Easter Bunny would hide a bunch of eggs to find. They were not disappointed.

Happy Easter everyone!! (and Go Celtics!)

Happy Birthday Mia!

2011-04-17T16:40:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was Mia's official 3rd birthday, and boy did she enjoy it (Brady too)! A fun day was had by all.

Brady's first day of T Ball!

2011-04-15T18:11:00.003-04:00

Today was Brady's first day of T-Ball - a very important day in a boy's life!

He did great. Participated fully, listened to his coaches, and hustled the entire time!

17 years from now ESPN 214 will be calling me for this video to show when the up and coming phenom got started in baseball...

We practice hitting, not throwing and catching so much. This week, we will practice throwing.

Soccer is back

2011-04-10T09:07:00.007-04:00

April 9 marked the start of soccer season again for the kids and this year Mia got involved too. The morning started with a lot of ambition, but Mia's attention quickly disappeared when the game started. As you'll see, she'd rather play chase with her friends from school. Notice that there are three team colors represented in the three person chase, which means the little boy in blue left his game completely to play with Mia and her friend Noa (in the black jersey).

Brady did great though and showed how much he matured over the year. If you recall last year he was hesitant to get in the mix of things and played only when he felt like it. This game he played 3/4 of the game and hustled the entire time. And he scored the only goal for his team. Yay!

Christmas 2010, Morning session

2010-12-25T08:30:00.003-05:00

8:45am and Christmas morning seems in the books already. Brady is already asking when are we going to the next house for more presents? This is going to be a long day....

Christmas Eve 2010

2010-12-24T21:46:00.001-05:00

First, put out the reindeer food...

Ready for Christmas!

Introducing #9, from the Maroon team, BRADY CHIN!

2010-04-25T19:27:00.004-04:00

After two rained out weekend's, Brady's formal athletic career began with his first soccer game at 8:15am ET, April 24. You might want to jot that down as the answer to a Brady Chin trivia question that reporters may bring up in about 18 years when he is being drafted by a professional sports team.

Anyway, it wasn't much of a game - as one might expect from 3 year-old soccer. As expected, it took Brady awhile to get acquainted to the environment and coaches, as these video's will show. However, by the end of the day he was kicking the ball past the other team and sprinting downfield to chase it.

And he was the only kid to crash into the other team's best player - which admittedly made me smile. All in all, I think he had fun. Two games next weekend to make up for one of the rainouts, so hopefully we have good weather again.

Brady getting ready to kick

Brady thinking "this is not as much fun as American football. Maybe I should just tackle that kid that keeps scoring against us." Juice boxes at the end of the game put a smile on everyone's face. :)

Mia's 2nd Birthday

2010-04-25T19:15:00.007-04:00

Last weekend marked Mia's second birthday which we celebrated with a family dinner and homemade, allergy-free cupcakes and soy ice cream. Fun was had by all, especially the birtday girl and her brother.

The Lost Easter Video

2010-04-11T17:16:00.006-04:00

I messed around with youtube and cannot figure out why it loads the other video as a black screen and this one fine. However, here's a different version of Easter Sunday fun.

Spring is here

2010-04-11T16:52:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the technical difficulties on the Easter video. For some reason youtube is not showing the video. I'll have to troubleshoot that. Too bad, it was a good video.

Anyway, today we are enjoying some very nice spring weather and the kids are having fun outside.

Easter 2010

2010-04-04T11:49:00.007-04:00

Easter Eve started with Brady coloring eggs. This is the first time I've colored eggs since I was a kid, so next year I will be more prepared, but all and all, not bad. Brady had fun.

Bats & Rockets

2010-03-16T18:50:00.002-04:00

The other day Brady came home with his face painted with a rocket and bat painted on his face. He was very happy and proud....

Brady also really likes balloons, just like Mia....

Mia

2010-03-16T18:48:00.009-04:00

Mia is really coming into her own personality, which is very different than Brady's at her age. She's really starting to yap yap yap though just like her big brother, who she loves. Her teachers say she talks about Brady constantly all day, every day.

However, because she isn't even two yet, sometimes it's hard to understand what she's saying, so here is a quick translation guide to understand Mia:

Loshie = lotion (hand or face)
Share Some, Try Some = Give me what you are eating
Mona = Mia
Cold = popsicle
Gabba show = I want to watch Yo Gabba Gabba
Bottow = I want my bottle of milk
Rees = Please
Minute = I want more time, sit down and wait for me
Bum Bee = Sing the Bumble Bee song
Cheese = I see you pointing that camera at me (see video for example)
Check up = Ketchup
Oh-gurt = yogurt
Bana = Banana
Rahhhh = Lion

Mia loves playing in laundry baskets

Mia loves her milk and loves her balloons.

Flood Zone

2010-03-16T18:48:00.008-04:00

On Friday night, it started to rain in the northeast. On Sunday around 11:30am the ground around our house hit its saturation point and the water started forcing its way into our basement. We were lucky to catch it early and set up our utility sump pump, and get out to purchase a second one as well. The pumps ran non-stop from then to today.

As you can see, water came in fast when it came because these videos were taken 20 minutes after finding the initial leaks. We were headed out to lunch at the time, so the kids were in their rain boots and jackets, which they used to play in the basement as it flooded and we set up the pumps.

The good news is we are drying out and we were able to get the basement emptied quickly so the damage is very minimal, especially compared to so many others in the area.

Learning a new language is hard, I guess?

2010-02-27T08:39:00.004-05:00

We've always been amazed how Brady 'sniffs' out which words are Chinese and which are English. Whenever Irene tries to teach him something in Chinese, he purposely bastardizes it so that it's like watching a rerun of Friends, when Phoebe tried teaching Joey French (I watched this and this exactly like Irene and Brady!). For instance, "Ni Hao Ma?" comes out of Brady's mouth as "Now Pee Pops Moo!"

Given this historic trend, he amazed us last night again, choosing to watch the CHINESE VERSION of Ice Age, and watching it for about 30 minutes solid before opting to move to the English version (which he watched in full).

This video proves that, for kids, there is a difference between watching, hearing, listening, and understanding - remember that all you parents....

All Mia

2010-02-06T13:16:00.001-05:00

This is how Mia fell asleep for her (very short) nap today

I introduced Mia to jelly sandwiches this week and she loves them!

Yeh Yeh jumping...or jumping on Yeh Yeh

2010-02-05T19:16:00.002-05:00

The Power of Wall E

2010-02-04T19:28:00.001-05:00

When kids are good (and these two monkeys have been great while Irene has been away), you reward them. And if you reward them smartly, then you also reward yourself. :)

Hi Mom!

2010-02-02T19:55:00.004-05:00

Once again proving that the box is FAR more important than the present that comes inside it...

In our house, Mom's nickname is apparently "Cheese"

Say Cheese

2010-01-27T21:05:00.003-05:00

The kids have really taken to the camera, taking every opportunity to say cheese that they can.

I Scream, You Scream, We all scream for Ice Cream!

2010-01-25T19:39:00.003-05:00

Last week Irene introduced the kids to ice cream cones. As you can see, they jumped right in, literally.

Want to go to the moon? How much money you got?

2010-01-22T18:50:00.004-05:00

Last weekend Brady put his imagination hat on and came up with being an astronaut and blasting off into space. He took all the cushions off the couch and used pillows and our BOSU ball to make the 'head' and 'tail' of the ship. He then demanded to be dressed in all white and Aunt Judy made him an astronaut face mask for his helmet.

If if that wasn't enough, he showed his commercial sense and charged Yeh Yeh 25 cents to sit on the rocket ship... TWICE.

Rose Bowl, oh Rose Bowl, will I ever get to watch you?

2010-01-01T17:54:00.005-05:00

New year's day - 2010...

The day started out normal as any other day. We got up, had breakfast, then took the kids sledding. Of course I snuck in as much college football as I could - I love college bowl games. Then, at 4:30pm it began. Irene went to yoga and the kids were rested and amp'ed up, and apparently ready to ambush me.

Initially Brady was being a very good big brother playing with Mia. I should've gotten suspicious at that point, but was fooled into thinking this was a good thing. He said Mia and him wanted to go jump on his bed (extra mattress lying on the ground, so no risk) and he took her upstairs. I was washing the dishes so said I would come up in a minute.

I heard them playing...then Penn State lined up to kick a game winning field goal...not sure how much time passed, but then I realized it was awfully quiet upstairs - NEVER a good sign. I ran upstairs and was greeted with Brady and Mia being covered in skin lotion.

When I asked Brady why he was doing that when he knew it was wrong, he said "Mia started it and I told her to stop, but she said "no" so I decided to help her." I wasn't really sure how to handle that response given it started out right but ended SO wrong.

So, for the past hour I basically have been giving them baths and cleaning up the rugs....all I wanted to do today was watch the Rose Bowl....it started at 4:30pm...happy freakin' new year to me.

Snow fun

2009-12-29T18:53:00.006-05:00

Last week we got blasted with a good old fashioned N'or Easter - which is meteoroligist speak for 'one big snow storm'. We ended up with about 18 inches by the end of it all, but that was actually pretty good compared to other areas. The town that our summer house is in got over 25 inches!

Anyway, it was a good snow for sledding and shovelling, so it led to a pretty relaxing and lazy Sunday - you can't do anything but play in the snow in big storms.

Brady and Mia both really enjoyed sledding outside of our house. Mia was quite impressive, considering it was her first time on a sled. She hopped right on behind Brady and began cheering when the sled started moving. Then, when she fell off and got a big snow face I thought for sure I was taking her in, but when I brushed her off and asked if she was okay she replied joyously "YEAH!". So we continued, so much that Mia actually fell asleep *in the sled during a sledding run* from exhaustion. Yes, it was a good day.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T10:58:00.008-05:00

Ho Ho Ho. Santa came last night and to our surprise both Brady and Mia slept in more than normal - perhaps the anticipation of Christmas wore them out. Brady has already declared this the best Christmas ever, and he hasn't even gone over to his grand parent' house yet.

Brady and Mia have had a great Christmas day so far and have enjoyed playing with their new stuff and sharing (woo hoo!).

Here are some photos and videos for everyone. Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning - the reaction. Notice how fast the excitement of getting a new bike wears off and Brady asks "where's my skateboard?" (he asked Santa for a bike and skateboard the year).

Here videos of why you don't bike in the house....

Mia loves her new baby carriage!

And she loves her new babies too!

Santa brought Brady a skateboard too.

Yo Gabba Gabba!

New blankets from Aunt Cara and Uncle Gary - Thank you!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

2009-12-20T20:54:00.003-05:00

Today we got hit with a nice Nor 'easter and got coated with about 12 inches of snow. Since it snowed most of the day, we decided to go sledding for a bit before we began shovelling. We bought Brady a new, bigger sled for the storm and he and Mia really enjoyed themselves today.

Mia, for her first time, handled sledding like a champ. She got right on with Brady and was giggling and yelling with Brady. She had so much fun that she ran out of energy and actually fell asleep in the middle of a sledding run.

Snow Day!

2009-12-06T19:24:00.002-05:00

The first snow of the year arrived last week and the kids couldn't wait to get outside and play. Snowball fights and snowmen were big hits.

Fun in the leaves

2009-11-11T20:08:00.003-05:00

GRRRRRRRRRRR!

Last weekend we took advantage of the beautiful weather again to do some yard work - picking up leaves and acorns specifically. The kids were not so interested after about 10 minutes, so they found other things to do, like ride their bikes and motorized vehicles...

...But Brady decided that puttering around in the driveway was getting boring, so why not use good ole gravity to take a speedy ride into a giant pile of leaves, right? We decided to take the risk of ending up on the 'Stupid Human Tricks' bit on Letterman or worse, candidates for the Darwin Awards, and took a video. Here is our little dare devil.

Mia playing with Brady

2009-11-07T14:19:00.002-05:00

One good thing about this concept of retroactive posts is that I'm forced to look back at stuff that we took awhile ago. Hard to believe that this video was taken just two months ago because they kids look so much bigger now. Mia is no longer uses her high chair but instead sits at the dinner table with us, and she now eats with a fork and spoon more often than her hands. She does still like to play fetch sometimes though....

Re-living the good ole days

2009-11-04T19:18:00.002-05:00

Tonight Brady decided he would get up into (now) Mia's high chair to remember what it was like. Once he realized he couldn't get out once strapped in, he decided it was not so much fun...

The Cranberry Festival

2009-11-02T20:18:00.004-05:00

In September we stumbled along the Harwich Cranberry Festival, but it got rained out. Fortunately, the rain date did not and we were able to join in the fun. It was a great time. The kids played all the games on the beach (there were a lot) and we came back after dinner to attend a beach bonfire, which everyone enjoyed. And on the way back to the car, we looked up into the sky and caught a glimpse of a wierd bell shaped formation in the sky. A UFO? Well, it was until the next morning when we read on cnn.com what it actually was. All in all, great fun was had by all. Looking forward to it again next year already.

Irene showed Brady the game where you throw the bean bag through hole...

...Brady threw and swished his first toss (see the bag below the hole in the board).

Here Brady shows he can throw with different arm angles (valued highly in both Major League Baseball and the NFL)

McDonald's anyone?

Brady loved the scoot boards.

We're baaaack. Happy Halloween. Boo!

2009-10-31T20:58:00.006-04:00

Sorry for the long silence but some technical difficulties made the process of downloading pictures and posting them just difficult enough that we couldn't get much time to do it.

However, we're going to try to be better because we've been getting a lot of feedback requesting the updates return.

Here's our first attempt - Halloween 2009 (tonight). Hot off the presses. In the coming weeks we'll go retroactive and post up some of the pictures from the last several months to try to catch you all up on things!

Take one baby girl and get her dressed....

and ta daaa, you have one little dragon

Brady put on his race car driver costume...

...and off we went in search of candy
We picked up Andre (the firefighter) along the way

To end the night, we had a visit from Yeh Yeh

A Ducky Beach Day

2009-08-06T07:04:00.007-04:00

94 Degrees and humid - a perfect beach day in Duck, North Carolina. All the kids in the family - Brady, Mia, and cousins Maddie, Garret, Brendan, and Ryan all had a fun time playing in the waves and, of course, surfing!

Brady practiced mostly in the surf

Maddie had some really long runs!

Wipe out!

My brother Gary

Mia and her grandpa (yeh yeh)

Eldrick Chin?

2009-05-26T21:07:00.002-04:00

Hmm, based on his size (can still fit in 18 month size shorts) and his first full swings caught on film, maybe we should have named him Eldrick rather than Brady...

Go Mia Go!

2009-05-21T20:19:00.002-04:00

Hard to believe, but Mia is up and walking around with a little help from her walker. Hopefully soon she learns how to turn because following her around and pointing her in a different direction gets tiring!

This is what it looks like from the Mia-cam

Happy 3rd Birthday Brady

2009-05-17T17:30:00.002-04:00

Today our little boy turned three and, as most parents would say, we can't believe it. Although I honestly can't remember what life was exactly like without Brady (our Brady, not Tom Brady...) around, it feels just like yesterday that we were taking him home from the hospital.

He celebrated his birthday weekend with:
- 3 popsicles
- 1 Lemon Slush
- 1 nap
- 1 playground trip
- 1 long period of running around the bases of a baseball diamond
- 1 trip to an indoor play room
- a long bike ride (big wheel) around the neighborhood
- 1 cupcake and ice cream
- a new pair of sneakers that, in his words, make him super fast
- 1 new Thomas Tank Engine toy set (all of a sudden he loves Thomas and Lightning McQueen from Cars)

All in all, it was a good weekend for the little guy. Many more returns!

Popsicle #3

Mia decided she didn't care if it was Brady's birthday or not, his Thomas chair is a perfect size for her!

Then she gave the evil laugh of Dr. Evil from Austin Powers.

It's all about Mia

2009-04-29T20:51:00.004-04:00

Sorry, a bit late posting this but below is an example of why nobody in my family line will ever appear on American Idol.

Mia is enjoying being one, chasing Brady around and trying to grab everything he is playing with. Brady does not find this nearly as amusing as Mia does though.

I'm one!

2009-04-29T20:45:00.003-04:00

Now that Mia is officially one (April 16), she feels that she can wear fancier clothes and have her hair spiked up circa 1980's style...

Go Celtics!

2009-04-20T09:02:00.000-04:00

Ring Around the Mia

2009-04-15T20:37:00.001-04:00

Brady loves entertaining his baby sister, especially when she's immobilized and can't catch him.

Crawling and Climbing

2009-04-05T19:51:00.003-04:00

And so it begins. This past week Mia finally decided that scooting around on her bum was just not going to cut it for the rest of her life. So she started crawling forwards and climbing up on things. In just one week she went from barely crawling to full steam sprints on hands and knees, and pulling herself up on things. She skipped the whole army crawling stage that Brady went through, likely because she's anxious to run around like him.

One more month and she could be taking her first steps.

Time to break out the stair gates again I guess.

Brady is not so impressed with Mia's recent accomplishments

The Best Of: Post Poop Interviews

2009-03-16T19:43:00.003-04:00

Brady is really starting to get the hang of this potty training thing. Since we introduced the potty chart, Brady has not had a #2 accident and he's now up for getting his third prize which means he's now gone 15 times in a row!

We've learned that incentives are a powerful thing with kids. Brady sometimes goes to the bathroom and sits on his potty saying "I'm going to get another sticker." He then sits there for 30 minutes with nothing to show for it. But then there are other times when he's more successful and he declares victory. Here are a few of our favorites:

- I win! I get a stickerrrrrrrr!
- I did it, I did it! Can I show Dad?
- My poop looks like a submarine!

Play Date

2009-03-09T19:21:00.004-04:00

Two weekends ago we had Cleo over for a play date. After that day, we realized how blessed we are to not have had twins (no offense to the LaFleche sisters).

And we electricuted Cleo just once this time

Thank you Bright Horizons!

2009-02-28T08:14:00.006-05:00

This week Mia starts in a new daycare in our town, which means last week was the end of her time at Bright Horizons in Braintree. This change is probably more traumatic for me than Mia because they are in my old office building and so I got to visit a lot when Brady was there as an infant. Kathy, Peggy, and Sue took such good care of both of them that we're convinced their playful demeanor towards each other stems from their days in daycare. We can't say enough good things about everyone there, so we'll just say "thank you for caring for our kids like they were your own!"

We'll miss you!

Kathy and Mia
Peggy and Mia

And since they are always asking how Brady is doing, he's doing great and well on his way to being potty trained. Irene introduced the potty incentive chart where he gets a sticker for every time he poops in the potty, and every five stickers he gets a little award. Last week he hit his first milestone! - and got a toy car. Next up is a trip to the museum of science to see the dinosaurs exhibit (Brady loves dinosaurs). Tonight, he said "I have to go potty" and proceeded to sit there until he achieved his goal "I'm going to get another sticker so I can go to see the dinosaurs!"

I don't know if it's going to be easier or harder with him potty trained, but I guess we'll soon find out!

Daddy's little girl

2009-02-22T17:31:00.003-05:00

Mia's daycare teachers have said from Day 1 that Mia looks a lot like me. My parents gave me this picture of me when I was Mia's age. What do you think?

Hot and Cold

2009-02-21T14:05:00.005-05:00

Brady: I'm cold dad. Mom says turn up the heat.

Jason: It's not that cold.

Brady: But I'm cold dad.

Jason: Look at Mia. Why don't you put on your snow clothes like her?

Brady: Okay. Good idea dad.

Who said I didn't learn anything from my dad?

Just a standard night at home

2009-01-31T16:23:00.002-05:00

Brady enjoys soy ice cream while Mia plays in the exersaucer....night after night after night.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2009-01-25T17:11:00.001-05:00

Welcoming in the year of the Ox!

Finishing of the Christmas season

2009-01-19T20:57:00.002-05:00

It pays to be the youngest grandchild on Christmas....

Tiger Chin

Correction - Buck NO!

2009-01-13T19:00:00.007-05:00

The editor-in-chief has noticed that the alleged perpetrator has attempted to attack the credibility of our fine, upstanding blog by claiming a misprint in the prior entry. We would like to set the record straight that PITA is not a misprint of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), as was suggested. The entry was correct in referencing PITA - Pets In Transit Accidents.

Due to this attempt at slander, our organization has dug deeper into our extensive research of aggressive behavior towards bucks. The following picture was captured from a unique on-antler camera specifically created for helping track down buck attackers. It was taken days before the 'accident'.

Buck off!

2009-01-11T15:34:00.005-05:00

Recently, I noticed that Irene has been acting odd. She always liked wearing her camouflage pants, but the other day she wore them with a big bright orange vest, polarized glasses, and an Elmer Fudd hat. I didn't think much of it at the time. Then, later, staring out the window, in a fit of spontaneous rage she called me a "dumb buck!" Given that Irene is not a pure born and bred American, I just assumed the whole ESL (english as a second language) thing finally got the best of her at the moment.

Shortly after though, I realized she was not talking to me. She had secretly been hunting deer in her spare time. Without a gun and realizing forks were no match against antlers, she took our brand new minvan out and tried to "whack" (see Italian translation) our neighborhood Buck. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on what side you support, the minivan got the worst of the encounter.

Below are some pictures of the aftermath.

Look closely and you'll see the buck's fur. Without this, I probably wouldn't have believed the story, but it does seem plausible based on the evidence.

I surfed youtube.com for videos of similar accidents occurring - all of which are actually pretty disturbing and not fit for our family oriented blog. However, with a burning desire to bring a visual aid to our loyal readers, the editor-in-chief found a way to do a reinactment of the incident. Please do not try the following without a ducky helmet, a one-wheel drive vehicle, and a few Sam Adam's Summer Ales....

And before PITA shows up at my front door looking to take Irene away to PITA jail, this story is somewhat exaggerated but is based on the true life character of Irene Chin.

Chrismas Day 2008

2008-12-25T12:33:00.011-05:00

As Brady said at 10am today, "it's been a good day." Yes, Brady made out like a bandit this year and brought Mia along for the ride. We even got to have Cleo and family over for a bit to break in the new stuff. Here are some highlights of Christmas day.

On go the pads...

...and he's off....I was surprised he just hopped on and went.

Chinese people can never have enough rice cookers...maybe hugging them is a bit much though

This is my first Christmas and Brady's getting all the good stuff! Grrr. Mia got a nice Backyardigan's toy, which Brady was happy to help her open

Brady got three baseball gloves for Christmas Mia loved eating her clothes presents. They were yummy. What's Christmas without something Wii Wonder Pets! Brady loves books

Ho Ho Ho, here we go....again

2008-12-24T22:40:00.003-05:00

Christmas 2008, new year, new kid. We visited Santa again and spent much of the time in line preparing Brady so he wouldn't cry like last year. "Remember Brady, you are going to sit next to Santa with Mia and you tell him what you want for Christmas. Then we'll take your picture...." The responses from Brady indicated he was ready, much more mature and prepared than last year. Then when we got our turn with Santa, Brady refused to sit with him alone and by the time we got him settled, Mia figured out that she was being held by a giant white bearded guy in a red suit. A told the photographer to snap the picture but the kid was really a kid and responded "she's not looking at the camera" and then snapped the shot 2 seconds too late and we have now are the proud owners of a $22 picture that looks something similar to the one I took below. Merry Christmas. Santa clearly isn't feeling the recession.

December 24, 2008 - Brady prepared for Santa. First by putting out his cookies and writing a letter to Santa to read.

Then he went out to put out food for the reindeers to be sure they stopped at our house.

We're ready for you Santa!

Excersaucer joy!

2008-11-25T19:26:00.002-05:00

Thank you to Cleo and parents for letting Mia borrow your exersaucer. Mia loves it, and because she's content in there for up to 30 minutes, we love it too!

Mia in her party dress

Brady, open your eyes

That's better

The Wilfork Rules

2008-11-05T19:25:00.002-05:00

Ever play the game "Simon Says" when you were young? Well, in our household Simon carries no weight, but Wilfork certainly carries a lot (pun intended).

I can hear all of our non-New England readers saying "who is Wilfork?" Wilfork, as in Vince Wilfork, is the 325 pound nose tackle for the New England Patriots, and the most recent idle of my son. We're not fully sure how this all happened, but as I mentioned in an earlier blog entry Brady has become 110% boy overnight.

Two Sunday's ago Irene insisted that we watch the Patriots game (which was quite annoying because TLC was having a "What not to wear" marathon running that day that I was just dying to watch). During the game Brady asked "who is that?" pointing to Vince Wilfork on the TV. We explained it was Wilfork and then all game Brady would periodically (or repeatedly) ask "where's Wilfork?" By the way, in case you are wondering, the answer is always the same - "he's in the middle"

Anyway, it went from "where's Wilfork" to being "I'm going to be big and strong like Wilfork". Then we quickly learned that if we said Vince Wilfork did something then Brady would too --

- Vince Wilfork wears gloves when it's cold out....
- Vince Wilfork eats vegetables and noodles to get big and strong....
- Vince Wilfork takes naps...
- Vince Wilfork uses the potty...

You get the picture. We're not sure how long this will last, but everyday includes a healthy discussion around Vince Wilfork. While it lasts, we are going to continue to use it to our advantage. :)

My son's role model - a 300+ pound black man with freakish athletic abilities

The Patriots say he's 325 pounds, but this picture implies they are about 50 pounds light!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-02T20:09:00.005-05:00

Halloween on a Friday night. It doesn't get much better than that. Well, maybe if I was back in college again preparing for an epic halloween costume party would be better, but as far as life with kids goes, this is about as fun as it gets.

Brady was a race car this and not only Friday night, but Saturday and Sunday too. He even raked leaves with me wearing his costume. At least we're getting our money's worth out of that purchase.

Brady's friend Cleo (ladybug) and Andre (Drago) also came over to trick or treat together. Mia was a lion.

Brady was excited to start the night with a lolly pop

Mia joined the fun as a lion

The mighty dragon eyes the little lady bug's lolly pop

A day on a Farm

2008-10-28T21:51:00.002-04:00

A couple of weekends ago we took in an enjoyable autumn day at Drumlin Farm. It was our first visit but not our last for sure. Brady loved running around and looking at the animals. Thanks to Mike, Linda, and Cleo for introducing us to Drumlin Farm!

Brady the Builder

2008-10-16T21:16:00.002-04:00

It seems like overnight Brady turned into a little boy. Yes, he still sleeps with his blankies and dogs, Spotty and General Gau, at night, but during the day it's all about diggers, trucks, race cars, dirt, rocks, and bugs.

Random Videos

2008-10-05T21:26:00.005-04:00

Hey Mom, take a picture with the kids

2008-10-05T19:34:00.004-04:00

Nice family pictures are hard to come by with an energetic two year old and a squirmy baby girl. Maybe we'll go to the professionals afterall....

Mia doing the 'old man gumming' smile

Eye contact Mia, we need eye contact
Brady, Focus!Focus harder
Finally, a decent shot

Cape Vacation 2008 - part 2

2008-09-28T21:16:00.004-04:00

Brady ran a lot...

Brady, the great Seagull chaser

Cape Vacation 2008 - part 1

2008-09-25T22:21:00.002-04:00

Here's a first set of pictures from our recent vacation on the Cape. We tried to go to all the different beaches we could just for fun. This is Corporation Beach in Dennis. A bit windy that day, but Brady enjoyed himself on the swings and in the water.

Smile

2008-09-21T21:49:00.002-04:00

We got the kids to take their attention away from Dora The Explorer for just a few moments....

"Can you hurry up? The commercial break is almost over."

"Don't bother me, the show is back on."

Earning his keep!

2008-09-01T20:57:00.006-04:00

Our days of going to the car wash are officially over. Now that Brady is big enough to wield a soapy sponge and brush, it's time for him to start paying us back for all of those popsicles and cookies he's gotten through the past year. Given the amount of times that he hit our car with the brush pole though, we may need to defer the payback just one more year.

Welcome to Brady's Car Wash

Mia enjoyed watching and waiting for her turn to use the sponge

Holy Sh*t!!

2008-08-28T20:04:00.002-04:00

At 6:13pm ET, August 28, 2008 it happened....

The initial post-event interview did not go so well....

The follow-up interview got him to give up the answers we wanted.

Trip to the San Diego Zoo

2008-08-25T21:50:00.006-04:00

Sorry for the lag since the last posting. Things have been quite busy between work and home the past few weeks in particular. However, to make up for it, here's a posting of pictures from our 4 day vacation to San Diego that we got home from just two hours ago. Why four days? Well, first because we were visiting some friends out there and joining in on their daughter's baptism. Second because we simply were nervous to travel across the country for much longer with the kids since they've never been out of the timezone we didn't know what to expect.
Much to our enjoyment though, the kids were great! They both adjusted to west coast time wonderfully and it was a great family trip. Here are some pics (I'll post some every day or so this week) of the trip and we'll also get up some other ones from prior.
First, the AWESOME San Diego Zoo!

We started with a bus tour of the zoo where we got our only glimpse of a Panda Bear. Can you see it?

Okay, it wasn't actually in the picture above. I saw him and tried taking a picture but the sun was making it hard to see the camera viewer so I just took a guess. In the shot above, a bad guess, but I did get her in the shot below, climbing the tree on the right side of the picture.

The Polar Bears were Brady's favorite at this zoo!

Aqua man

2008-07-31T22:29:00.001-04:00

Brady would like Ro for the great party gift he got at Isaac's birthday party. He loves goggles!

Mommie and Mia

2008-07-21T22:00:00.001-04:00

As easy as yi, er, san

2008-07-09T22:05:00.002-04:00

If this isn't the blind leading the blind, I don't know what is. Brady now knows all the same Chinese that I do, as you can see. Over to Irene now...

Hangin' with Ska-Mee

2008-07-01T19:59:00.003-04:00

As I said in the last post, Brady has really taken well to being a big brother. Today when we got home from daycare, he got out of the car and hustled up the steps to the house front door saying repeatedly "I'm coming little girl! I'm coming little girl!"

I'm not sure why he was in such a big rush, but he was.

He also created his own nickname for Mia, "Ska-Mee". We're not sure where this came from or what it means exactly. He just started saying Ska-Mee over and over one day. When we asked him what it meant, he pointed to Mia's belly. We thought *maybe* he was mispronouncing Stomach, but his pronunciation is pretty good for a two year old so that was a stretch. Then, after a few more iterations, it became apparent that Mia was Ska-Mee. We captured him saying this in the video below. If you can decipher what he's saying and it makes any sense, please let us know.

Brady saw us trying to take a picture of Mia and decided that he should be in the shot too.

Big Brother

2008-06-30T22:12:00.001-04:00

Brady has certainly adjusted well to having Mia around. He loves talking to her, singing to her to try to stop her from crying, and generally checking on her. We think he is really excited to be her big brother. The other day he picked up our house phone, pushed some buttons (as long as it's not 911 we're okay with this), and said "hello, I'm Brady. I'm a big brother." And a very good one too....

Stomping in the rain

2008-06-23T10:19:00.003-04:00

Certain things you can really only do when you are a little kid (or a really bored teenager). Jumping and splashing in puddles is one of those things, so when the thunderstorms rolled through over the weekend Brady didn't miss his opportunity to convince mom to take him out to play.

Celtics are back on top!

2008-06-17T22:58:00.004-04:00

To all the Celtics fans, WAHOOOOOOOOOO and congratulations! Especially those fans who are like my dad, who always knew when the Celts games were and rushed home to watch them for all of these recent years when they were, well, non-competitive shall we say. For those of you like this, this is your championship to celebrate. Enjoy it. Bring on the parade!

Go Celtics!

2008-06-16T22:08:00.005-04:00

The great thing about sports is that no matter how old you are, it brings you back to the memories you had as a kid, when all that mattered was Larry Bird's dominance in the NBA 3-point contest, or Roger Clemens striking out 20 batters in a game (presumably before he began taking steroids), or your own personal free throw percentage. Kids growing up in the Boston area these days think that Boston has always dominated the sporting world - afterall, they've experienced the Patriots' dominance in winning three Superbowls and seen the Red Sox win two world series. What kids don't know is that the Sox had an aura of choking moreso than than success for the prior generations and that the Patriots could've actually patented ways to lose games in the 90's because every week they found new an inventive ways to lose by 3 points (see the Dick McPherson years - entertaining years, but so stressful that I think his Patriots coaching era will be the single reason I die 10 years younger than I should).

Another thing they may not know is that the Celtics were actually the greatest team in town for decades. After 22 years of frustration though, the Celtics have now risen up, achieved the greatest single season improvement in NBA history, and are just one win away from winning their 17th NBA Championship. For those of us who *were* kids when they won their last championship, who got to live the Celtics/Lakers championship battles, and feel like that was the most important thing in the world, TONIGHT we all will get to feel like we did when we were kids - giddy, excited, nervous, hopeful, and scared.

With this excitement comes the gush of memories from 25 years ago:

- Hating the LA Lakers and actually all of Los Angeles, even though I had never been there,

- Sitting on the couch WAY past my bed time and my dad telling me "pay attention, you're watching the greatest player in the world. You'll never see anyone like Larry Bird again." (he was right, so far...)

- Thinking that Kevin McHale's clothesline foul of Kurt Rambis was one of the single coolest things that was ever done in sports,

- Wondering why Michael Cooper wore his socks so high,

- Practicing McHale's up and under baseline move (if Kevin Garnett practiced it half as much as my friends and I then this championship series would be over by now.)

- Chanting "Beat LA, Beat LA, Beat LA" over and over and over, and not getting tired,

- And lastly, being scared to death every time Magic Johnson touched the ball because even though we had Larry, they had Magic. And we all knew that Magic was the only person who could beat Larry. Sometimes he did, sometimes he didn't. Regardless, you shivered everytime he touched it.

Yes, these are the greatest things about sports - the emotions and the memories. I can only hope that in 7 years there will be some greatness in Boston sports that Brady will get to bask in and grow up with. I hope that I'll have the opportunity to tell him to pay attention because he's watching one of the greatest ever (and he's on our team!). Yes, sports is a wonderful thing.

So, today, all Bosonians get a pass from work to have a singular focus on Game 6 of the NBA championship. The night we've been waiting painfully for since 1986. Tonight, hopefully we will all get to celebrate a 17th Celtics championship (even better, at the expense of LA!)

BEAT LA, BEAT LA, BEAT LA.......

Faces of Mia

2008-06-10T21:18:00.003-04:00

For a 7 week year old, Mia is expressive and awake. She loves looking around and trying to hold her head up. This makes for good photo ops, which Irene likes to take advantage of.

I wear my sunglasses at night...

2008-06-10T21:10:00.002-04:00

Since it's been so sunny lately, Brady has taken to wearing sunglasses....even before going to bed.

Man it's hot!

2008-06-08T18:52:00.003-04:00

95 degrees and humid. Welcome to summertime in Boston. Today Brady decided to give us all a break from the heat by getting us to pull out his water table and new slip-'n-slide-pool-like-thing. Of course, he did this in lieu of his daily 2 hour nap. So although he gave us a break from the heat, he fried us mentally by having to keep up with him! What we're learning is that a two year old's motor just keeps going and going and going.

Anyway, before I go down for a power nap before tonight's game 2 of the NBA Championship, here's some footage from today. That reminds me, I haven't said one thing about the Celtics making the NBA championship or the renewal of the Celtics/Lakers rivalry. Hmm, stay tuned for some thoughts on this in the coming week. Until then "Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!..."

A day at Houghton's Pond

2008-05-28T22:21:00.006-04:00

Over the holiday weekend we found a great little pond and beach that Brady really enjoyed. He loves the beach and playing in the water.

Finishing up Brady's 2nd birthday

2008-05-26T21:13:00.008-04:00

Here's the rest of everything I've got. After a drought of photo opportunities, the ole camera has gotten a lot of work as of late. So, lots to come of memorial day weekend and Mia's one month celebration.

The "Pose with Mia" section

The "Brady 'Tiger' Chin" Section

Chaos in the yard. Good thing Chan is there to watch everyone. Ha!

The Joey Florendo Section

The Biker Section

Everyone loves bubbles!

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me....

Brady's birthday pictures - part deux

2008-05-21T19:28:00.005-04:00

We lucked out this year and had a great weather day for Brady's birthday party, so the kids could enjoy playing the backyard.

Brady was attached to my hip most of the day because he wasn't feeling well, but by the end of the day he was feeling a little better.

Sammie and Joey played in the water table...

While Grace did yard work and Isaac popped wheelies with the big wheel...

And little Jason took practice swings on the tee ball...
And then everyone piled onto Colin in the hammock.

The Weekend of Milestones

2008-05-19T21:33:00.004-04:00

Well, our little boy is now officially two years old and our little girl is also one full month old, and we celebrated both milestones this past weekend. Needless to say, it was a long weekend but there were lots of photos taken. So I'll drip them out throughout the week as best I can.

We'll start with Brady's party, since he's the oldest...

Brady loves diggers. He points them out every time we pass one in our neighborhood. And since we have a house being built across the street, every day he looks at the digger.

Getting ready to blow out the candles.
Isaac got a headstart trying to taste the cake

Unfortunately, Brady woke on his birthday with a fever, so all day he took his periodic doses of medecine, which he always enjoys.

On the eve of birthday #2

2008-05-16T21:38:00.002-04:00

Terrible Two's? Maybe those are coming, but on his last night before officially entering the Terrible Two status, Brady reminded us that sometimes he will be a Hillarious Two.

Tonight when getting changed into his pajama's, Brady stood up and exclaimed "Two nipples!" and then proceeded to point to his nipples.

Then later right before going to bed I smelled something that implied he needed a diaper change. I asked him if he pooped and he got up and said "Yeah, Brady pooped! Something in there!", pointing to his bum.

Hopefully the coming year will have as much laughs as terrible-ness.

Happy Birthday Brady!

mmmm brownies

2008-05-09T12:42:00.001-04:00

Dealing with the Paparazzi

2008-05-07T21:55:00.002-04:00

Mia has learned that coming out of the womb has it's perks (exposure to sunlight and the ability to stretch her legs more often primarily), but it also comes with the downside of having to deal with the constant flashes of cameras in her face. She sleeps, a picture is taken. She opens her eyes, a picture is taken. She poops, picture. You get the picture (no pun intended, okay, actually it was intended).

To help you understand better what it's like to be photographed so much at a young age, here is a recent paparazzi hit on Mia.

The first picture actually got her while she was sleeping

But the flash woke her up

Once she realized what was going on, she tried the ole 'stare him down' tactic to see if they'd leave her alone
When that didn't work, she got right up in the face of the camera and yelled "get that thing out of my face!"

Finally, they left her alone and she celebrated her victory with the "I'm number one!" sign, before falling asleep again

Back at home, enjoying the weather

2008-05-06T11:32:00.004-04:00

Finally the weather is starting to be more like Spring and every day Brady goes out to the yard to water our plants and run around. He's also adjusting to like with his little sister, who he is realizing is here for more than a visit. So far so good!

I'm awake!

2008-05-02T16:06:00.002-04:00

Okay, I've finally gotten my bearings and adjusted somewhat to the crazy sleep schedule that comes with a newborn.

Here are some more pictures. Sorry, I'll be better next week so you'll get more postings.

Nickname: Double Chin

Our Little Girl!

2008-04-17T13:51:00.012-04:00

After long, sleepless hours of thought, and an extensive name search, we are proud to introduce the newest addition to our family....

Mia Jean Chin
Born: April 16, 2008 @ 12:21pm ET
Weighing: 7lbs, 13 oz
Height: 19 1/2 inches

Everything went exactly to plan, no surprises and no issues. Irene did great and is doing well recovering. Brady, in case anyone thought we've forgotten him, is safe at home with Irene's parents. He came to visit yesterday and met Mia for the first time. A good meeting overall, especially when we gave him the presents that Mia got for him (books and a puzzle).

If you are wondering what other names were being considered, the runner-up names included:

- Gisele -- how could you not consider creating another Brady/Gisele combination? It fell short though because you can't guarantee who Tom Terrific is going to end up with (see Bridget Moynihan as Exhibit A).

- Randy -- An obvious celebration of the greatest single season Quarterback/Receiver touchdown combination in NFL history. Unfortunately, this combination needs more than one year and at least two superbowl championships to get such an honor. Plus, Randy Moss is still relatively suspect mentally.

- Peyton -- Wouldn't it be cool to have the biggest quarterback rivalry of our generation represented in our household, especially when Peyton is a girl? Regardless of the coolness of the not-so-subtle jab on Mr. Manning, I still can't stomache my girl having the same name as him.

- Katherine -- A classic name fitting of almost every situation, except when everywhere you go you'll hear "it's Katie and Brady!" Although this is in line with the Chin single generation naming tradition (also known as the Harry, Gary, and Larry Tradition), we decided that this tradition is only fitting if the siblings are boys. :)

- Charlotte -- (nice suggestion Jamie) Another great name, but I personally could not endorse another city that is home of another NFL team (Carolina Panthers). If I have to name her after a city, I would rather choose Worcester or Waukesha. Also, her nickname would likely end up being Charlie - see prior blog entry for why this is bad.

Well, I'm off to go play with my little girl now. Thank you for all your name suggestions and please come back for more pictures in the coming days!

The art of naming a child

2008-04-16T20:26:00.001-04:00

Once again, Irene and I find ourselves with a newborn and no name. With Brady, we took the whole four day stay at the hospital before making the final decision. And what was interesting was how often names moved up and down in the list of top choices, not to mention how many 'flyers' (names that were not on the list going into the hospital) rose up to get consideration on the list. Some spent time in the top 3 spots.

It's all very similar to the NCAA basketball tournament, with the big name schools getting all the attention going in, but several unknown Cinderella's stepping up and getting noticed by hopping over one of those big names.

Then once you think you have a name, you have to run through all the nicknames that the child could be called - especially when their last name is a noun, like Chin. For instance, if you name him Charlie, then he'll be called Charlie-Chin his whole life, as if that is his full first name with no second name. Or Chuckie-Chin, which quickly turns into Chunky Chin with just a bit of bad luck. Or if we name our little girl Violet, then her name would be Violet Chin. I can just see kids on the bus saying "Are you sure you have a Violet Chin? Or do you have a Blue Chin?" Then some kid will pick up on that and take it one step further and start calling her Blue's Clues. And once your into the ether-space with a nickname for a person, God only knows what nicknames arise from there.

Anyway, some people may have a knack for this, but we clearly don't, so we want to get your opinion (and you only get one day to respond!). Any ideas?????? If it helps, we had a baby girl....

My legs are too short, so push me, as I am the king!

2008-04-15T22:34:00.002-04:00

And now introducing....

2008-04-14T21:08:00.003-04:00

Okay, just kidding, that's actually a picture of Brady when he was one day old. The past week has been filled with activity. Our nanny started with us and we've been trying to get the spring yard work done. Brady is loving the warmer weather and running around in the yard.

Keep checking back for pictures of our new family addition. In the meantime, enjoy wathching Brady pick up leaves and water our new plants on Sunday.

Perhaps a basketball phenom?

2008-03-28T19:32:00.000-04:00

Do you have your lottery ticket?

2008-03-25T18:58:00.004-04:00

One difference between raising a kid these days and raising a kid in prior generations is that in "the ole days" when you finally saw your kid pick up a bat and hit the doorjam in the same spot time after time after time, you thought "hey, in the fall he's going to be able to help me chop firewood for the winter."

Nowadays though, when you watch your kid do something new or coordinated, you start to wonder if you're sitting on a lottery ticket. Will he grow up to be the next Michael Jordon? Maybe David Beckham (threw him in for the international readers. Irene seems to know about him. To me, he's just the guy that's married to Posh-Spice)? Or perhaps, we, umm, I mean he, will be doubley lucky like Tom Brady and Tiger Woods and be a major sports star AND dating/married to a super-model!

Well Easter Sunday was not only the latest anniversary of Jesus Christ rising from the dead, but also Brady's first recognition and verbal identification of the aforesaid Tiger Woods. We were watching TV at my aunt's house and flipped to the PGA Tournament which was showing Tiger putting for birdie. At that very moment Brady exclaimed "Tiger Woods" and pointed to him.

Being Chinese, Brady may be too small to play in the NFL and too short to play in the NBA. I've ruled out Hockey because pee-wee hockey is too much to do. And Major League Soccer is still being out-rated on ESPN by Texas Hold'em poker events. However, he can go all the way in golf!

So save these clips because in 20 years people will be watching them saying "that's Brady Chin when he was small!"

In case any of you are wondering how little Brady compares with Tiger when he was just a Tigger - Mr. Woods started playing golf at age 2 and at age 3 shot a 48 over nine holes on a Navy golf course. And for those non-golfers, if I'm hot then I'm shooting a 42 over nine holes, so baby Tigger's score is VERY impressive.

Brady is not quite 2 years old, but is clearly showing he has the golfing bug.

Irish for a day

2008-03-18T22:02:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Brady celebrated his Irish heritage with my parents with his St. Paddy's Day hats, some corned beef, and of course a couple pints of Guinness.

Cheers!

Shoe-less and fighting back

2008-03-17T22:34:00.004-04:00

Last weekend we took Brady to Gymboree. Usually, my parents take Brady during the weekdays, but since he's moved up a grade, he also has classes on Saturday mornings, so Irene and I get to go with him then.

In case you've never gone to Gymboree, it's a shoe-free zone. Complying with this rule, when we got there, we took off our shoes and put them in the little cubbies under the benches. Unfortunately, when we were packing up to leave, we found that one of Brady's shoes had been stolen! Poor Brady, who absolutely loves shoes (gee, I wonder where he gets that from....), had to limp around with only one shoe on - and it was raining out that day. On the way home, I heard Brady mumble something about knowing who took his shoe.

When we got home I told him we could call the Police if he could somehow help identify the scoundrel that left him bare footed. With Brady's limited vocabulary, I thought maybe drawing may be the best path forward, and I pulled out a piece of paper to have him draw a picture of the thief. Brady tried, but it ended up looking mostly like scribbles and Brady kept yelling "worm! worm!" I didn't see any worms at Gymboree, so I tried another tact - a stroke of genious actually, if I do say so myself.

I pulled out Mr. Potato head and told Brady to try to show me what he remembered the villan looking like. This is what he did....

So, if anybody sees a uni-browed 2-year old, with four shifty right eyes, and two left arms, let me know. According to Brady, that Saturday he was wearing a green baseball cap with blue shoes too. I took this picture and had it posted on the local Police website and sure enough, the next time Brady showed up to Gymboree with my parents, the teacher said his stolen shoe was dropped off anonomously for Brady.

But we'll always have this picture and when we find the uni-browed runt, we're going steal his shoes and see how he likes it!