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:

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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.

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