I can't write too much without crying, but a fond farewell to Xiaolum, who has a wonderful new home with three other cocker spaniels and three cocker-spaniel lovers. We will miss him but we know he'll be happier than he was with lots of little kids around. The pictures above are from puppy-hood in Hong Kong and below with his doggie and people cousins. We had a farewell party for him at the dog beach, since he's always loved swimming.
Louis has started to notice his birds in the swing. He has also finally started to smile, which makes us very happy. He's good at making eye contact, but seems pretty serious so far!
We got our first Christmas tree this year, and Rosemary helped us decorate it. Her new favorite thing to do after diner is to sit by the fire and drink "hot tea together."
Rosemary had about a week long birthday celebration -- two major highlights were neck-naces from Nani and a jewelry box from Grandma and Grandpa and baking cookies with cookie cutters and a turtle apron from Grandma. We also had high tea at the Huntington.
Today is Louis's one month birthday, and tomorrow is Rosemary's two year birthday! Amazing. She is finally enjoying being a big sister, after a rough first two weeks (she did attack Louis with a spoon once, but, fortunately we were there and he's tough). She has really grown up, her speech and understanding have skyrocketed. In the past month since Louis has been around and now she tells me that she loves baby "Luddie." Its still hard for her when I feed Louis, as I can't really pay attention to her, but she's much better. Sometimes she pats his head gently, and praises herself for being good by saying, "so nice" (she does the same thing when she shares her toys or food, which is a pretty tough/traumatic thing for her). A friend of mine gave her her first doll yesterday, and that was genuis -- Rosemary now can feed the baby (see below) when I feed Louis.
We also got to feed Beatrice her first applesauce this month! It was great, she seemed to love it. Rosemary is eating apples as Beatrice gets applesauce (leaning precariously over).
The cutest thing she does now is sing songs. In fact, she demands several songs by name (many of them she learned from George Weller's wonderful collection). If you just sing the song without giving her a chance to sing along, she gets very frustrated.
Halloween (although it feels like ages ago) was really fun this year, with a great party at Dev and Summer's house (despite the look on Rosemary's face, she had fun -- she was just a little freaked out by the spooky noises CD they were playing). Louis went as an ultrasound picture of himself, thanks to Summer's creative genius.
Little Louis is almost three weeks old. I was just looking back at Rosemary's blog from around the same time and I guess I glossed over how incredibly hard it was to take care of her as a newborn. The only indication of this is that it isn't until her one month birthday where I mention that I left the house for the first time alone with her (ikes! I left the house for several hours today with Louis -- we went to Noah's bagels, the grocery store, and the doctor while Leticia took care of Rosemary). Louis, on the other hand, is really, really mellow and primarily sleeps and eats. But he does spend time in "quiet alert" with his eyes open, looking around, and NOT crying. My mom left yesterday, which was sad (Rosemary woke up from her nap yesterday demanding to "see Nani") -- it was really wonderful to have her around for so long, and I really needed the help with Rosemary -- but I didn't feel as panicky as when she left last time. Having her around really helped us get out and about and helping Rosemary adjust -- we did all kinds of things the past 2 weeks like go to the Museum of Natural History, Huntington Children's garden, the zoo, out to dinner, to a party at Dev & Summer's house -- all things we didn't DARE do with Rosemary (as she cried so much). Overall, the second time (particularly because I don't feel physically awful!) has been way easier! James, on the other hand, is pretty tired (see below -- Rosemary dressed him up and he's so downtrodden he couldn't even protest).
Well, I guess Disneyland really did the trick to bring on labor, as last Sunday morning my water broke, and Louis James Kumar Spindler was born at 3:30 on Monday, October 12th. Labor was not too difficult (if a little LONG) and we are all recovering well. Little Louis is an extremely good sleeper so far (but its only day 6). The pictures of the family here are taken at Huntington Gardens the day after we came home from the hospital.
We got our first Christmas tree this year, and Rosemary helped us decorate it. Her new favorite thing to do after diner is to sit by the fire and drink "hot tea together."
The cutest thing she does now is sing songs. In fact, she demands several songs by name (many of them she learned from George Weller's wonderful collection). If you just sing the song without giving her a chance to sing along, she gets very frustrated.
Little Louis is almost three weeks old. I was just looking back at Rosemary's blog from around the same time and I guess I glossed over how incredibly hard it was to take care of her as a newborn. The only indication of this is that it isn't until her one month birthday where I mention that I left the house for the first time alone with her (ikes! I left the house for several hours today with Louis -- we went to Noah's bagels, the grocery store, and the doctor while Leticia took care of Rosemary). Louis, on the other hand, is really, really mellow and primarily sleeps and eats. But he does spend time in "quiet alert" with his eyes open, looking around, and NOT crying. My mom left yesterday, which was sad (Rosemary woke up from her nap yesterday demanding to "see Nani") -- it was really wonderful to have her around for so long, and I really needed the help with Rosemary -- but I didn't feel as panicky as when she left last time. Having her around really helped us get out and about and helping Rosemary adjust -- we did all kinds of things the past 2 weeks like go to the Museum of Natural History, Huntington Children's garden, the zoo, out to dinner, to a party at Dev & Summer's house -- all things we didn't DARE do with Rosemary (as she cried so much). Overall, the second time (particularly because I don't feel physically awful!) has been way easier! James, on the other hand, is pretty tired (see below -- Rosemary dressed him up and he's so downtrodden he couldn't even protest).
Well, I guess Disneyland really did the trick to bring on labor, as last Sunday morning my water broke, and Louis James Kumar Spindler was born at 3:30 on Monday, October 12th. Labor was not too difficult (if a little LONG) and we are all recovering well. Little Louis is an extremely good sleeper so far (but its only day 6). The pictures of the family here are taken at Huntington Gardens the day after we came home from the hospital.
