Four Little Words

Hearing “I love you, too” for the first time is one of those special moments you’ll always hold on to about your baby. After days of “I la you you” and other slurred variations, Brady couldn’t have said it any more clear than on Saturday… Kevin and I shot each other a look of shock. Wow! 4 whole syllables and a response that wasn’t just mimicking us! It seemed like an impossible idea, but somehow adding those four little words to his vocabulary instantly made Brady 10x cuter and more lovable 🙂 He’s doing really well these days, learning at such a fast pace that it seems like every few days he’s showing off a new set of skills. Lately, his favorite things include:

1. Watching Chuggington and “choo chooing”
2. Riding in the Radio Flyer wagon with Tutu, his pet bunny
3. Slamming the cage door in Tutu’s face – he seems to think that’s hilarious (obviously his sense of humor is inherited from Kevin)
4. Swimming in our spa tub before bed, doing booty shakes and belly rolls to iTunes
5. “Pop! Pop! Pop!”-ing bubbles
6. Chicken nuggets and cookies
7. Getting massages from the parentals – man, what a life!

Life is good. Brady continues to bring smiles to our faces every day and sometimes Kevin and I just have to gush at how cute he is. We’re lucky 🙂

Our house has been full of buzz lately, thanks to Kevin, and all his kick-ass glory. After searching for “any job besides IBM” the past 15 months, he finally struck gold with a job offer from GeoMagic. Today was his first day and it was wonderful to see him come home so excited. It’s hard to believe, but this company seems even cooler than his last one. I mean – free massages on Fridays, two-windowed office to himself, two computer monitors and a brand new laptop, gym and shower in the same building, shooting Nerf balls in the office, free beverages (including Keurig) – kind of cool. Yeah… now we’re all depressed for ourselves. HA! He’s so deserving of this opportunity and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Another exciting piece of news we’d like to share is Kevin’s invitation to paddle with the USA Canoe and Kayak Federation at the 2012 Dragon Boat World Championships in Milan this fall. It’s a big honor and will allow him to get back to what he truly loves doing – paddling! So until he take Italy by storm, Kevin will be busy training during the next couple of months. We’ll be sure to keep everyone updated on this status 🙂 Please cheer him on!

Our latest photos:

Chan Update

It’s kind of amazing how time has flown by the past two months. Kevin has been pushing me to post an update on our family lately… something I promised to do but never got around to since returning from China.

Things have been chaotic in the Chan house, but all positive. Right around the time of Brady’s diagnosis of Spinal Muscular Atrophy, we started to push for changes in his healthcare providers because the ones we’ve been seeing since last summer, although reputable, made it painfully apparent they were ineffective.

So in with the new, out with the old. Brady’s team now consists of Mrs. Jenny, his physical therapist that comes to play twice a week; Margaret, his occupational therapist who visits once a week; and Jennifer, the part-time childcare provider we hired to work with Brady on his daily development. It was a hard decision to make, but going back to work and leaving Brady’s therapy “to the professionals” was definitely the best thing for him and our family.

Physically, Brady has gotten slightly stronger… able to withstand some tummy time and bear more weight with his legs. We ordered a floaty that was especially designed to help kids with mobility issues swim as a form of exercise; and Brady absolutely LOVES it. We usually fill up our tub at night and let him play around before bedtime. Turn up iTunes and he’ll even belly roll and booty shake to the music! There seems to be more laughter in the Chan house than ever before.

Brady has been a total chatterbox since coming back from China. Between English, Chinese and Kevin’s signature Chinglish-Jibberish in the home, it’s amazing that our kid isn’t totally confused. But he gets it! Brady’s latest accomplishment is connecting words together for the first time this week, “bye bye mama.” His favorite things to do lately is play with Tutu, his pet bunny, riding around the neighborhood in his new Radio Flyer wagon, and making monkey noises every time he sees one in a book or on TV.

Kevin continues to interview for jobs and is hoping for an offer very soon. In the meantime, he continues to coach for the Raleigh Dragon Boat Club in his spare time and will be competing in Charlotte’s annual Dragon Boat festival next week. He’s trying to redo our lawn little by little, but it’s a frustrating task that always manages to put him in a bad mood. Times like those we both miss the immigrants outside of Home Depot in CA, haha.

As for me, I love my new job and am relishing in stress free nights and weekends. It feels good not to have the load of entrepreneurship on my back, so I can enjoy time with Kevin and Brady. My goal is to take a family trip overseas before our little man turns 2 so we can take advantage of his fly-for-free status. Si può dire che “L’Italia?”

I’d be lying if I said we didn’t have our moments, but all in all, life is good. The Families of SMA has been an amazing support system and we’re planning to attend their annual conference in Minnesota this June, where we can actually meet the researchers who are working on a cure for SMA. Kevin and I can only hope it’ll come during Brady’s lifetime. We received a letter from FMSA this week, saying our dear friends, Ben, Ken, Evan, Josh, Shai and Jennifer made a donation towards this cause. Gahhh! Don’t make us cry… You’re all amazing. THANK YOU.

This is where we sign off. I promise to be more consistent with posts from now on.

Back to My Sweet Self

Kevin discovered a wholesale restaurant supply store around the corner from our house awhile back and told me to check it out when I was preparing to bake a cake this Christmas. For someone with a new found passion for baking, I had a pathetic entourage of bakeware and jumped at the chance to expand my collection (for a fraction of retail cost, at that)!

I found some mini 3″ tart molds with removable bottoms for $1.60 each!!! I bought half a dozen. And yes, after making my first batch of tarts, plan to go back next week and buy the other half dozen plus a large tart mold 😀 I’m obsessive like that. Thanks to my wonderful hubby, who had Christmas Eve off and watched Brady all day, I got to baking again.

After browsing quite a few tart recipes, I decided to go with a non-roll-out-dough shell. I hate making dough… perhaps because it usually requires getting my hands dirty (and I hate getting my hands dirty) and cleaning the mixing bowl afterwards is a pain. Bah!

So here’s my yummy rendition of an apple cinnamon tart. It turned out so well that I was even impressed with myself! 🙂 Next up… Lychee tarts in coconut shells.

Oh my, all that yumminess!

Nicely wrapped for our neighbors. It’s all about the presentation!

A la mode. O.M.G.

Makes 6 3″ tarts 

The No-Roll (!) Dough:

2 egg yolk

1 tablespoon cold water

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2/3 cup crushed graham crackers

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

4 ounces (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter, cut in 1/2-inch slices

1. Beat the egg yolks with the water in a small bowl.

2. Combine the flour, graham crackers, sugar, salt and lemon zest in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse briefly to mix the ingredients. Add the cold butter pieces and pulse several times until the mixture looks evenly crumbly. Open the lid and dribble the egg yolks and water over the dry ingredients. Pulse the machine several times until the dough looks like wet crumbs, but does not yet clump together.

3. Scoop the dough into 6 fluted tart pans with a removable rim and spread the crumbs evenly over the bottom of the pans. Cover the tart with a piece of plastic wrap and use your fingers to press it evenly into the sides of the pan first, and then the bottom. Bake at 375°F for about 8 minutes. Take out of the oven and begin to place the filling (but leave the oven at 375°F).

The Filling:

4-5 large apples (I like granny smiths), about 1 3/4 pounds

1/3 cup plus 3-6 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup milk or cream

3 tablespoons apricot jam

1 tablespoon water

1.Peel and halve the apples and core them. Set 2-3 apples aside for the top of the tart and cut the remaining 2 apples in small (1/4-inch) cubes. Mix the chopped apples with 1/3 cup sugar, cinnamon and the vanilla and spread them evenly over the bottom of the tart pan.

2.With the flat side down, cut the remaining apples in thin, half-moon slices. Lay the slices over the top of the tarts in a circular pattern, overlapping them as you place them on the tart.

3.Bake the tarts for 25 minutes. Remove it from the oven. Whisk the egg yolk, milk and remaining 3-6 tablespoons sugar (6 if you’re using granny smiths, 3 if you’re using a sweeter type of apple) together until thoroughly combined. Pour it over the apples and return the tarts to the oven to bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the custard is set and the apples are golden brown. Let the tarts cool for 20 minutes.

4.Mix the apricot jam and water in a microwave safe bowl and heat on full power for 1 minute in the microwave. Strain if necessary and brush the glaze over the cooled tart with a pastry brush.

Running Through the City of Trees

3 days after returning from Boston, we were packed up and on the road again, headed to Sacramento for the 29th California International Marathon. Kevin had decided during the summer that he’d exit this decade with one last hurrah by running 26.2 miles, his second marathon ever.

Brady was a doll on the drive up and slept most of the way. We arrived in Sacramento to brunch at Cafe Rolle, a place I found on Yelp, my trusty go-to site for all things food related 🙂 It was like we were back in Montreal! The French cafe was so authentic, right down to the owner/chef singing French songs from the open kitchen. Our food was soooo yummy. Warm salmon and gruyere sandwich, steak and gruyere sandwich and chocolate creme brulee. ‘Nuff said. I would move to Sac-town just to have daily access to that!

Kev checked in at the convention center after brunch, picked up his number and we browsed the endless row of booths for everything running related. It was a mad house, with runners and their families milling around everywhere. I was amazed and inspired to see marathon runners of all ages and backgrounds there, from teenagers to grandmothers. It really made me realize that 1. anything’s possible and 2. it’s never too late.

We decided to drive the race route in the afternoon, just for kicks and giggles (although by that time, Kev was on the verge of passing out from exhaustion). Kevin and I were both pleasantly surprised by how beautiful Sacramento and the surrounding areas were. The City of Trees certainly lived up to its name. We ended the day with a quick dinner before retreating to our hotel to get ready for the big race.

A true Guppy for life! He was so excited to represent his paddling team in the marathon 🙂 Pumped up and ready to hit the pavement, Kevin was out the door to catch a shuttle to the starting line by 5am. The weather was on our side, with the rain giving way to morning sunshine.

Brady and I greeted Kev at the halfway point. He was making good timing and later said he felt energized after seeing us. This shot was way too zoomed out because I was so excited to see him that my finger just couldn’t wait to capture the moment :-p He ran over, kissed me and yelled “I love you!” The crowd on the sidelines gave us a big “AWWW!” What a great husband!

I was so disappointed not to have been able to meet Kev at the finish line! Grrrr >_< The race ended at the State Capitol building in downtown Sac. Although he didn’t finish within the time he had hoped for due to injury and burning out around mile 19, I couldn’t be more proud of Kevin for finishing the marathon! Perhaps a third marathon is in the future? 🙂

The Chans went Coastal

Things have been chaotic since October, due to work picking up and the demands of new motherhood. Posting has been the last thing on my “To Do” list.

… Correction. It never even made it on the list; always trumped by showering, laundry, much needed sleep, or you can list any other basic necessity. My bad lol.

But here I am. Not because I have loads of free time again (like pre-Brady days) but because so much has happened lately. It’s like when you haven’t seen a friend in so long, and so much has happened since your last meeting, that the overwhelming feeling of “where do you begin” takes over when they ask what’s new. So the answer is usually a glossed over one of “nothing much”. You all mean too much to us for me to let that happen 🙂

Anyways, Brady is fantastic. Truly a blessing that lights up our lives on a daily basis, even on days when there just aren’t enough hours and we’re dog tired. All it takes is a coo or a smile from him and we’re hooked for more. Brady’s a happy baby and generally only cries when he’s hungry, wants to be changed or needs a nap. We’re lucky! Life as new parents has definitely been a big adjustment but not as daunting as others make it sound, thanks to the help of our parents, who stayed with us in rotation during the first two months post-birth.

It’s now December. Isn’t that crazy?? Brady is turning 3 months old next Friday. We estimate his weight at 13 pounds, a chunky monkey and far cry from the 6-pounder that entered this world. He loves to converse with and smile at whoever will give him the time of day and has already become a globe trotter! Well, we’re starting small. North American trotter 🙂 The Chans hit up the eastern coast for Thanksgiving, visiting Kevin’s family in Boston for 10 days. We were nervous about Brady’s first flight, especially since it was a red eye. The other passengers were either going to hate us or not notice us at all. Luckily it was the latter. I’m proud to report Brady slept through his first flight, from take-off to touch-down!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Commemorative pre-flight photo with Mommy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Commemorative picture with Daddy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

….And it’s time to go to sleep 🙂

It was really nice to see Brady’s aunties and cousins interact with him for the first time.  He’s the 7th grandchild in Kevin’s family and everyone was jumping out of their skin in excitement to finally meet him. The stay was very low key this time around… We stayed home most days, ran errands and just let both Brady and ourselves be spoiled 🙂 The weather was fantastic (cold) and a much needed change from the boring sunshine of LA (of course, spoken by someone who had warmer weather to return to hehe). And in true Chan style, Thanksgiving was a massive feast, led by head Chef, Auntie Jackie. Brady decided to be a good boy and let us enjoy dinner by taking a nap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Auntie Ling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brady vs. Haley, who can chug their milk the fastest??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Auntie Vanessa doing the honors of bathing Brady.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posing with cousins Rachel and Haley. The youngest trio of Chan grand kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Chans love to eat. I’m definitely a Chan :-p

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A party for Brady! His belated 1-month celebration (celebrated at 2.5 months haha). Better late than never.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parentals posing with friends John and Dez.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Bro Matthew giving Baby Brady a hello kiss. How sweet!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Janice and Rachel just finished making a pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving dinner (supervised by yours truly).

We finished off our first family vacay with a quick road trip across the northern border to Montreal. Again a trooper, Brady slept through the whole 6 hour drive. The 17 hour stay (yes, 17) was amazing. It was like stepping into Europe but with all the comforts of the US… like English 🙂 Every meal we had was ahhh-mazing and even the latte somehow tasted better. This time of year, Christmas decor light up the entire city, from cathedrals to the local pub. As we strolled through Old Montreal and took in the beauty Canada had to offer, I was almost a little sad to be going home. But home we went. Landed in LA Tuesday night and back to our normal lives. November was a blur and I’m sure December will follow suit. Between marathons (see next update), work, Christmas and “changes to come” in the new year, 2010 will fly by with the bat of an eye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brady on the drive to Montreal, pimpin’ his wintry hat 🙂

I want to take this moment to thank you for following our blog this year. It’s been an exciting one and we hope to continue to entertain you with escapades of first time parents in the upcoming year 🙂 Keep reading! Keep commenting!

 

Lessons in Parenthood

I’ll keep this post short and sweet since I have zero time to write long-winded ones lately, haha. It’s been 5 weeks since we welcomed Brady into this world and life as we knew it will never be the same again. Here’s a few lessons Kevin and I have learned as new parents so far (much more to come later):

What she’s learned…

Delivering is only half the pain of recovery…Breast milk tastes nasty… When he’s smiling, he’s probably crapping… If you’re not doing at least 2 things at once, you’re being unproductive… Having the cutest baby in breastfeeding class gives one inner joy and triumph… I’m wrapped around his little fingers for life… Kevin is the best husband and diaper changer 🙂

What he’s learned…

Being parents isn’t so hard (when you have two moms around to help)… 1-month olds do NOT sleep through the night, no matter how much one tries to feed them… how to change a diaper in 60 seconds… he’ll always turn to face mommy first (rejection hurts)… burping is a dangerous job.

Brady on his 1 month birthday.

Welcome to the World, Brady Chan!

I started this post in the middle of the night, while “on duty”. Delirium must’ve taken over, because I accidentally deleted the entire entry towards the end. So here it is. Again. I’ll try to sound just as enthusiastic 🙂

Our Birth Story

During the last 3 weeks of the pregnancy, Kevin and I were on pins and needles, ready to go into labor at any moment. With every tingle, every foreign sensation, all eyes were immediately on the closest clock, watch or cell phone, ready to time contractions. Our little one must’ve sensed that eagerness in the air, because Brady Chan made his grand entrance into this world 2 days early!

It all began at 2am, Thursday, September 9th – just a few hours past my 30th birthday. I woke up feeling something different from any sensation I’ve felt during the pregnancy. Somehow I just knew that they were contractions (real ones) and the greatest gift of all would present itself very soon. After laboring at home all day into the early evening, the pain got to be too uncomfortable to handle by dinner time and my heroic effort was over. We headed to UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center after dinner so I could get checked in and drugged up. It was bliss for the next few hours and Brady was making great timing! All hopes of a quick birth, however, was dashed by 11pm Thursday, when progress stopped at 8cm. After 12 hours of laying in the hospital bed, morning had arrived; I was exhausted, riddled with back pain and on the verge of visiting Meltdown City, when the doctor came in and said I was at 10cm and ready to push soon. I hadn’t slept in 30 hours and my legs felt like cement blocks from the epidural, so it was very much a mental preparation. Psyching myself up to “push”. That’s when Kevin stepped up to the plate.

His coaching instincts kicked in immediately and for those who know him on the water, Kevin is one of the best at instilling motivation and encouragement. As we counted down each push, “10, 9, 8, 7…” he was 2″ from my face and exerting probably as much effort as I was. The nurse jokingly said he’d make a great professional birthing coach haha. After 2 hours of pushing (yes, 2 glorious and “memorable” hours) and a vacuum assisted birth (since Brady has a big head like his mama), our little bundle of joy entered this world at 10:19am on Friday, September 10.

Kevin and I immediately broke into hysterical sobs. We had made it. The past 9 months. The past 32 hours. Love and respect for each other had increased exponentially overnight as we experienced the birthing of our son, Brady Chan.

Brady is 6 days old today and boy, has this week been full of laughter, joy, sleepless nights and self-doubt as new parents. Thanks Google Search Engine; for reassuring us that our baby isn’t “colicky” (whatever that is), showing us how to assemble these damn feeding bottles with a zillion parts, and the correct way to swaddle. At 2:32am on any given night, we can rely on you.

Brady’s turning into a handsome little fella, with eyes like Kevin, lips like me and dimples that prominently show themselves during feedings. He kisses the air when hungry, has a baby doll cry and hasn’t peed in our faces yet. There are just so many things to love about him and we’re both so excited to discover more. Kevin and I want to thank everyone who’ve stopped by to visit or sent gifts of congratulations. You’re all wonderful friends and we invite you to meet little Brady next time you’re in the neighborhood 🙂

Cinnamon Pear Muffins

I had two over-ripen pears sitting on the kitchen counter, facing a destiny of being trashed. Before tossing them out, I decided to peruse Tastespotting to see if there were any simple recipes to turn expired fruit into something fabulous. The only criteria was I had to have every ingredient at home already. Baking can get expensive and shopping for a slew of ingredients can get very tedious (especially for someone who can’t even walk around Target for more than 15 minutes before pooping out these days). And then there was cinnamon pear muffins. It was pretty simple and turned out to be super delish! Great for breakfast or a snack.

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 egg — beaten
zest of 1 lemon or lime
1/4 cup melted butter — cooled
1 cup mashed pear pulp — (2 or 3 soft regular sized pears)
Optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans and/or 1 teaspoon finely minced crystallized ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, F. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Mash the pears. Beat together milk, beaten egg, butter and lemon zest. Mix pears into flour mixture. Gently stir milk mixture into dry ingredients. Batter should be lumpy, not smooth. Do not over mix. Spray muffin pans with nonstick spray (or take the easy way out and use cupcake liners, to avoid too much scrubbing). Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes, until tops are browned.

30 is the new 20

To celebrate his 30th birthday and confirm that he is, indeed, still young despite moving into another decade of life… Kevin will be running in the 28th Annual California International Marathon in Sacramento this December 5th. His second marathon ever.

Goodbye, junk food. Hello, training!

For those of you who’d like to take on that challenge with Kevin, whether it be to do the marathon with him or simply run for fun, please email him! It’d be nice for him to have a partner in training 🙂

Back Yard Oasis

Kevin and I decided a few weeks ago to pull up his sleeves and fix up the neglected back yard. I supervised 🙂 And while the left half of it is still a work in progress, the right half of our yard is now an oasis! It feels good to walk back there and actually want to stay a few minutes to enjoy the scene (versus wincing at the mess and immediately running back inside). Every transformation needs a good Before and After shot, so here are ours:

The weeds are gone, replaced by succulents and pretty annuals for a pop of color.

I never knew rose bushes could grow like weed until we purchased this house. Former owners planted some really beautiful roses here but never took care of it. After awhile it grew into a hot mess that looked more like a spider habitat than a beautiful plant. My original thought was to trim that baby down into something resembling pretty… it took me an hour just to graze the tip, so we ended up chopping the whole thing down to a stump and starting from fresh. Within a month, the rose bush grew a foot in height and started blooming again! Man, what a difference.

We also added an iron plant hanger, my fave.

Here are some other pictures of our back.