Mini-Vacation Part II: Williamsburg

Williamsburg...What can I say? I want to go back! Not only to that special part of the country which we really like, but to the special time we had with our friends Chris, Corinne and their precious daughters Ella (age 5) and Sadie (9 months old). We really enjoyed every minute of our long weekend there. And one of the highlights was that Ella and Daniel "fell in love" with one another and really enjoyed each other's company. By the end of the trip, they wanted to be together all the time. It was so cute and wonderful! The photos below do a great job in telling the story of our vacation-weekend...

Going for walks...



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Watching golf...



Corinne adoring baby Sadie and enjoying every  moment of having a baby again...



My oldest friend since being in the U.S. -- soon to be 8 years!

When Sadie ate, she did the cutest thing with her mouth!

Daniel just had a blast!

We loved holding Sadie...

Daniel wanted to hold her too but she wasn't as thrilled...

Enjoying Colonial Williamsburg...

Daniel was allowed to use our smaller camera for the first time and just loved it!

Our family...



Parade...

They needed help with some of the walking...

First time in the pool this year!!!

A cook out by the master chef overlooking the beautiful scenery...

Beauty all around us...

Daniel loved playing with the bubbles in the nightly jacuzzi bath...

Since Corinne went to college at William and Mary, she gave us a tour of the campus and old buildings...

Baby Sadie looking very regal...

Perfect weather and lots of love...

Playing "catch" was/is a favorite!

Look at this!

Chris. What an awesome dad!

It was sad saying good-bye. Ella said to me: "I want to go wherever you go and be with you all the time." And I replied: "You are with me wherever I go. You know why? Because you are in my heart, right in here, and so you are always with me."



Can you see why I want to go back?

At least now, we have these beautiful memories...

Video Of Daniel: Children's Museum In Charlottesville

This short video shows so much of his character at age 3: bossiness, imaginary play (mainly around firefighters), love of climbing ladders, energy and excitement!

Mini-Vacation Part 1: Charlottesville

We are back from our mini-vacation and to our normal busy routine -- except for Jonny's night classes since he still has 1 and 1/2 weeks off until the summer semester starts.

We had a lovely time away! How we wish we didn't have to come back so soon!

Jonny and Daniel joined me in Charlottesville for the last 2 days of my work meeting and we had fun sharing the hotel room and exploring the town. I also loved showing Daniel off to my colleagues who all thought he was very cute. I always said, "I agree with you, he is cute!" :-)

Here are some photos of the first part of our mini-vacation:

Daniel loved playing inside his suitcase while I tried to get it packed before I left...


It was so wonderful to be reunited again. And Daniel really expressed that he was happy to see me again. He kept saying over and over "I'm so glad to see you!" and was very cuddly!

Jonny really needed a haircut so we decided to go and get his haircut at the local barber. When we got there, Daniel said: I want my haircut too! I want to go first! This came as a HUGE surprise since I have always cut his hair. But since he was so determined, we said yes and he seemed to enjoy his first ever haircutting experience outside of our home. He enjoyed it and really did a great job at sitting still. And the people there were so friendly and had worked there since the mid 70s. It had a really nice small town feel. 

It turned out that one of the customers at the barber was a firefighter. And Daniel went up to him and said: "Excuse me. Are you a firefighter?" And the man said: "Yes, do you want to see my car?" And oh boy, we had a very happy boy!

The next day while I was at the meeting, Jonny took Daniel to a children's museum which Daniel absolutely loved! He even got to dress up as a NASA pilot.

We had dinner with Linfeng, an old colleague of Jonny's from Hopkins that now lives in Charlottesville. Not a great picture of us, but it is a good reminder of our time together. 

After dinner, Linfeng took us to see University of Virginia's campus -- it was beautiful!

And Daniel, of course, took the opportunity to run around the historical buildings.

More soon on Part 2...

Photo With Colleagues

All is going well here in Charlottesville and Jonny and Daniel are arriving today -- can't wait, I've missed them so much!

The meeting has been very productive and it's great to get to know my colleagues better -- they are a great bunch of people from different parts of the world. Here is our team's photo taken last night after dinner.

Bye for now!



 

Away On Travel!

Hi Loved Ones!

Yes, I know, my attempt to have a weekly update failed...  I still like the idea so let's see if I can implement it in the near future amidst our busy schedule.

For now, just wanted to say that I'm currently away in Charlottesville, Virginia, for a work conference/meeting and Jonny and Daniel are joining me here on Wednesday -- can't wait! We will then spend a long weekend in Williamsburg for much needed R&R! Jonny is officially done with his first MBA semester and now has 3 weeks off until the summer classes start, so we are taking advantage of this to get away!

Here are some cute photos of Daniel from his last day at his first pre-school a few weeks ago -- he was so happy running in the playground! He continues to do well in his new school and I hope to take some photos of him there soon.

Bye for now!

Didn't get nice photos on Mother's Day but enjoyed cuddling up with my little firefighter -- yes, it's still his obsession!

Week in Review - Last Week of April

Sometimes it's so hard to find time to blog, especially when there is so many things going on and so many pictures to sort through. I just read a blog in which the author posts weekly reviews using short bullets summarizing key events of the past week and only one favorite photo. I think I will give this a try too and see if it helps me be more consistent with blogging, with at least one post per week.

So here we go...

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK

• After being sick for more than 2 weeks, I am finally starting to feel better again. I'm still not 100% but am much better, thank God -- it was pretty bad this time around!
• Daniel had his last day at his first pre-school on Tuesday. His teachers were great in preparing him and his friends to say good-bye. I showed up for the afternoon snack, brought a special treat and took lots of photos. His class prepared a "good-bye" book for Daniel with class photos and drawings. It went as well as we could have hoped; we wanted Daniel to be clear that he was leaving and to say good-bye properly but we didn't want him to get sad or scared.
• Wednesday through Friday was Daniel's orientation at his new pre-school which is just around the corner from my new job (as opposed to 40 minutes away -- the commute was just too hard for us to keep Daniel in the previous school long term). I went with Daniel for 1 hour on Wednesday, he went on his own for 2 hours on Thursday and then on Friday, he was there until after nap. The great news is that he did great and really likes his new school! Praise God! He did not cry even once and even told me twice yesterday he wants to go back to school! This is a huge relief for us since we were worried about him having to adjust to a complete new environment again. Jonny said that the highlight of his week was picking up Daniel from school on Friday and seeing him so happy playing with his new friends.
• Daniel had his second soccer practice (Wednesday afternoon) and first soccer game (Saturday morning). He is part of the Mustang soccer team, for 3 and 4 year olds! He didn't want to join the practice at first and preferred to watch from the side but then joined in a little and managed to dribble the ball and score a couple of times -- followed by a very excited dance of celebration! On Saturday, he wasn't interested in the game at all but instead, preferred to play with Jonny on the side, practicing to kick, etc (see photo above). We need to be really patient with him, encourage him in this area, since he is only 3 and is a little overwhelmed by soccer! :-)
• We've had to start treating Daniel's eyes for conjunctivitis again (second time in one month) but thankfully, this time he is tolerating the eye drops so much better (before, he screamed through the whole process, now, he just wiggles around).
• Jonny had his marketing and statistics MBA classes and now only has 2 weeks left until his first break (about 4 weeks) before the summer semester starts. It will be so nice to have him home again more for a whole month.
• Jonny and I got up at 5:30 am on Friday to watch the Royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine. It was just amazing, true fairy tale. Daniel even joined us at 6:30 am (unusual for him to wake up so early) and said "he wanted to go to the wedding too." It was fun!
• We just started a new series at our church and will be going through the book of Hebrews -- Jonny and I are really excited about this!

(Note to self: I still ended up writing quite a bit, but it didn't take much time. This may work, let's see how it goes from now on...)