The best day

It's amazing how there are opportunities to make everyday one of the best of your life.

I've been fortunate enough to be blessed with two wonderful people that I can honestly say I enjoy every second of everyday with. For those of you that laugh about Vancouver and it's snow days (particularly those of you in Alberta that are suffering in -50 oC windchill temperatures), two points of thought. First, it does snow in Vancouver especially on the North Shore (not at all in Richmond though). Second, the problem with Vancouver is that the temperature when it snows is around zero. So, during the day it snows and melts on the roads, then at night the water freezes into ice. By the time morning comes and it hasn't thawed yet, there is a layer of ice on the ground underneath a light layer of snow. Compound that with some of the worst drivers in the country (hey, I'm considered above average here) and that's a recipe for a great excuse to not go into the office.

Geneva got up on Tuesday morning and said as she walked out the door, "if it looks bad, I'm turning bad and we're all staying in." The beauty of UBC and EA is that we work at places that embrace technology, work-flex, and being able to manage your own time. So Geve kissed Sydney, exchanged "bye-byes" and not five minutes later came back through our door. Living where we do, they don't always plow down the road that leads to our complex. Sure enough, 2 feet of snow, no plow and no way to get out.

Well, it was a great excuse to work from home and spend a full day with the family. Sydney was sick on Monday, so it was better than she stay home anyways. I think she had a good time with mommy, daddy, her six dwarfs, her fisher price kitchen, her rubber ducky tub that she fills with stuffed animals, and discovering that there are dvds under the TV that she can scatter across the living room floor. For me, it was a reminder of those great four months we had at home everyday last year.

Enjoy the pics. Love you all.

Mac n' Cheese or Braised Beef?

We love to eat and I think Sydney is starting to notice that.
What typically happens when we go out to eat is we feed Sydney right away. We always start with her finger foods, then the main meal, some of our food, and then more finger foods.
On this particular evening, we had cheese as an appetizer.
Mommy and Daddy had gourmet Mac N' Cheese and some sort of braised beef with sweet potato mash. You tell me which one Sydney preferred :)

The Natural

Poor Christina... she was the guinea pig that i worked out all my trial and error baby techniques with.



Exhibit A: How to hold a baby so that they are very uncomfortable.

Daddy's thought process.....

a quote from an email dated January 23, 2008 from Daddy to Mommy...

"i realized something. did you realize that she spends nearly double the time with us than she does with daycare? the average day is this:
- 530am to 630am with you
- 630 to 700 us
- 700am to 850am with me (that's 3.5 hours in the morning
- 9 to 330 at daycare, but sleeping for 2 hour - 4 awake hours at daycare
- 330pm to 600pm with you
- 600 to 700 with us

mom time: 1+2.5=3.5 hours per day
dad time : 2 hours per day
us time: 1.5 hours per day
= 7 awake hours with us and 4 awake hours at daycare

that makes me feel really good, knowing that she has so much time with us."

She's walking...

She's been cruising for a while, but as of Thursday her preferred mode of transportation is walking. She still loves dancing for mommy and playing jokes on people (like me with the psych-out pumpfake on cereal, or putting toys on her head for laughs). Our family definitely has a new center-of-attention... hopefully she can figure out how to walk her plastic dog soon instead of carrying it by neck... :)

Sydney: New Words

more more... all done!

December 31, 2007: The Holidays

Hey Syd,

It was a holiday season of mixed news and emotions, but overall we can never complain about spending time with family and friends, and I can't help but be happiest when I am spending time with you and mommy.

We started the holidays in Calgary because Uncle Ian was on call and couldn't get the time to travel up to Edmonton. It was our first family Christmas in Calgary and Caden's fist Christmas e's ever! Ian and Katherine's place was gorgeous. We enjoyed hanging out in the bonus room which was 10 degrees warming than downstairs. I'll remember you and Caden playing with Caden's play mirror (there's a picture of him clutching it), you chillin' out in his rocking chair, you being too fast and strong for me and swiping mommy's place mat with her pho bowl and smashing it to bits on the floor and making a dent on the hardwood floor (sorry kath!), Santa getting you the new Olympic mascots, Christina and Jade dancing to Four Squares at Grand-Unc's house to make you laugh enough to eat, you wearing your Peyton Manning jersey for mom's good luck in the family NFL pool, late night NHL08 and Guitar Hero (Christina was a monster in GH3), and your first bath with Caden (and me and Ian). I even managed to impress Miki with the fact that my name was in the EA Playground credits (though admittedly it's after "testers" and takes 10 minutes to get to).

After a Boxing Day feast at Ian's, your Popo and Gong Gong came to pick us up from Edmonton (yes, they drove to and from Edmonton in one day just for you) in Gong Gong's new pick up truck. It was off to the farm for the Chan Boxing Day Dinner (yummy alaskan king crab and prime rib). Highlights from Edmonton were shopping with Popo and Mommy, visiting Cameron-Dave and Van for the first time with Cameron only two weeks old, Elia-Ben-and Kim visiting to see the horses and hang out at the farm, seeing Theo-Shawn-and Dolly and the oddles of toys they have, opening gifts with Auntie-Sabrina, Tarrick, Auntie Ava and Uncle Kirby (who's hair is the longest we've seen it in years because he's the best man at Augie's wedding). You LOVED Sabrina's front-door-house-fisher-price toy. You've got this thing right now with opening and closing doors.

We definitely got our mixed share of news over the holidays. Some friends sick, some friends expecting... and everything in between. My personal escape was NHL 08 at the farm and reading Bret Harts autobiography which I enjoyed more than I thought I would. I also got to sneak out a couple of nights thanks to mommy and treated Gong Gong (who drove from Leduc and sped in his big-rig truck), Ong Noi, and Christina to the Oilers vs the Ducks (we lost... and the game was boring) as will as meet up with Jess-Alex-Sarah-Chris and Ed for mini-Eggos get together. We capped off the holidays with a slumber party with the Tanakas and the traditional KFC and white wine feast (i'm still hurting today).

Other than winning the lottery, my biggest wish this year is that we can have a baby brother or sister for you by next Christimas. Love you every much. As I always say after getting to spend days with you, I miss you already.

xoxoxo, daddy