Happy birthday to my lovely wife and an awesome mom. Here are a sequence of photos showing Julie enjoying a very good slice of pizza from Luigi's pizzeria. She claim it was toasted to perfection and the expression on her face says it all.
Here's some pictures of Terrence opening a present my cousin Casey gave Terrence. It's a cool basketball hoop set and I think I have been playing with it more than Terrence. I shoot the ball and try to make a basket. Make it or not, Terrence chase after the ball and toss it back to me. As soon as he is old enough, I will teach him to do that same with tennis balls. Then I'll have my personal ball boy. ;)
The funniest thing is, when you make a basket, the fans cheer - yaaaaaayyyyy!. The basket itself even bends when dunk, just like the professional ones does. The other morning, Terrence was causing the basket to cheer and he tries to repeat the sound himself. It was funny to hear him try to say yaaaayyyyy!
Sometimes I don't always get to post all the photos I would like. Life and work gets in the way. Especially during this past month of Feb when I was busy transitioning from the 9-5 in the corporate world to being full time dad with a home based business. Anyways, when I find old photos I haven't posted, I will just post them with the date they were taken so you all can have a point of reference.
Julie just changed Terrence and was taking him to the bath. I had to get a shot. Aren't they so cute. Terrence has been so happy and cheery all morning. As if he knows today is a special day. He even tried to wake up at 4AM. Starting the day off early means a longer birthday. Smart little bugger. I swear, sometimes his reaction and responses to things makes us wonder if he knows more than we think he does. Both mom and son are absolutely glowing right now. I wonder why???
Well, not exactly but almost as good in Terrence's eyes. After coming back from WPPI, I learned that Terrence is now able to pick up Cheerios and put it into his mouth by himself. And now that he's one, we are fighting our parental urges to keep him safe and clean by allowing kids to be kids so to speak. One of his favorite new game is to go around finding nuggets of "gold" that we left for him around the room. Yea, it sounds gross to us adults...but Terrence loves finding the Cheerios and picking it up with his little fingers and then placing it into his mouth. He gets so happy. To help boost his immunity, we even allow him to eat off the ground. That will train his stomach to be able to withstand the hole in the wall eating establishments, with a "C" rating for "care," his dad often seeks out. This boy is made in the USA, but we'll harden him like he was a 3rd world child. :)
Julie and I were at the Fashion Valley mall last week so I can do some packaging research at some of the higher end shops. It's always good to go and just observe how a high end store does things if you are marketing your business to the same high end clientel. From the way they greet their customer to how things are arranged throughout the store and also how things are packaged and presented. While at Bloomingdale, I spotted some cute socks I had to buy for Terrence.
Terrence is so ripe to begin walking. Julie and I have always feel that it's best to allow a child to develop at their own pace as much as possible while in their early years. Eventually we will all go to school and then into society where we are constantly judged and compared with the status quo. We are taught to think and behave a certain way. All that is important to maintain a state of society that is not in constant chaos, but I think that a kid has the freedom and innocence to not have to worry about those man made concepts. So I feel it's important, no matter how tempting it is for us parents, to check ourselves and not constantly think our kid needs to always be better or do better than another kid. They will all get there in their own way. However, it is important that we are there to encourage and teach...but it is up to the child to process and discover in the childlike ways.
So to Julie and I, walking is one of those milestone in our Terrence's life that comes when it comes. And I just love being able to sit back and watch as he discover the intermediate mechanism for walking. That's always nicer be in his face trying to get him to walk all hours of the day. That would be tiring for me and for him. It's wonderful to see all the little subtle things he learns. Like simply learning he can prop himself up on his own or learning that his feet doesn't have to always be on the ground all the time in order to maintain an upright state. It's so cool to watch all that.
But it's always amazing how quickly Terrence picks up a skill. It feels like I literally shows him something and his focuses very intently. Next thing you know, he's doing it. Yesterday, I felt that Terrence is balancing quite well, so I had him try to walk while his mom was busy downstairs. When she came up, we demonstrated that he can take about 4 steps with balance. It was so fun to watch him take his baby steps...but it's hilarious when you see him try to run or leap into your arms as he nears you. So he took some good steps. Ones that I consider actual demonstration of the ability to walk. Where you see him re-balance himself mid way and fight attraction of gravity. The crazy thing is, later that evening, he was not only walking..but he was able to stop mid way, swing around on one feet and head the opposite direction. Julie and I look at each other dumbfounded that he can do advance maneuvers like that so shortly after taking his first steps earlier in the day.
Hopefully the following video comes through:
Terrence Baby Steps from David Mai on Vimeo.
Ok, I do my best to minimize these types of stories but here is a first in the daddy...daddy...emergency storytime.
So, I was busy working on customizing my proofing site software when I had a stinking suspicion my son is content playing by himself...but too content is the key here. I turn around to see him sitting innocently rolling a small ball in his hands. Small ball? I don't remember giving him anything that small to play with. Then the realization sank in when I see his diaper next to him instead of on him.
Somehow he managed to pull off his diaper and found some new goodies to play with. I freaked out and ran towards him as he reaches with arms outstretch to me to share his new toy!!!
I picked him up like he was infected and rushed him to the sink and tried to force him to drop his "goods." I finally had to dawn the rubber glove to pry it out of his hands. Then it was the antibacterial soap - lots of antibacterial soap - to try to disinfect his hands. I then proceeded to give him a thorough cleaning and dress him.
My dad's birthday was this past Sunday but my sister wanted to celebrate it on Saturday. Unfortunately for me, I had a client session on Saturday. However, that changed when the drab weather took San Diego hostage for a day. This became a blessing in disguise as it allowed me to reschedule the shoot for the day after.
Julie and I drove up to Victoria Garden in Rancho Cucamonga to join the family for dinner at a Japanese Yakiniku ηΌγθ restuarant call Gyu-Kaku. Yakiniku is basically Japanese BBQ with roots from the more well known Korean BBQ as it was Korean immigrants that are thought to have originated the dish in Japan during the Kansai period. The Japanese took it one step further and melded the philosophy of sushi to create a type of BBQ where the meat are prepared in bite size pieces and arrange very nicely on a platter as it is brought to your table.
