How time flies…

In the few months away from blog life, I realize now how fast time really does fly as you get older.  Seemed but only yesterday when I was holding a little dear baby Emma in my arms, the size of just a football that I could easily carry posed like a Heisman trophy winner.  In a matter of months it seems, she went from laying on her back to rolling over, to sitting up, to getting on all fours, to crawling to pulling herself up to standing and defying gravity by letting go of the chair she was propped up against.  Next up, taking those steps. 

It’s been fun to see her learn these new things and to see her try to figure out how to ‘undo’ what she did that first week.  Like when she would roll over, and not know how to roll back and cry or she would stand up and not know how to sit back down, and cry.  Though when left to figure it out, she learns very quickly.  I’m amazed now how that little mind is constantly soaking up everything around her in some spastic display of head turning and crawling back and forth between objects of interest.  In fact, I get worn out watching her play.  As I soak in the joy of seeing my baby progress and grow up, part of me is saddened by the thought that these first 10 months would never be duplicated or relived with her.  Check out all her new pics on picasa.

Everywhere we go with her, peoples heads are turned filled with smiles.  She gets comments all day long about what a happy baby she is, and in fact it is true, and we are very blessed.  She looks at new faces with an innocent smile, causing random strangers to can’t help themselves but to smile back.

These past few months have seemingly been like a gaunlet of activities and things to look forward to. From birthdays to Easter to weekly games, Hells Kitchen, Lost and the Office, we’re never bored during the week.

On the home front, thanks to a tax refund, we’re able to get the major landscape and the fence on the home done!  Horray!  Time to invite people over and enjoy the new yard and backyard furniture.  I’m going to especially enjoy the new BBQ… We’d love to have people come visit   Now with grass, I’m going to have to buy a mower and edger   Ah the joys of home ownership.  Also joys in working in the yard, restuccoing and painting and wall building and moving dirt and rocks and pulling weeds etc.

But with all this craziness it seems at times, I have to step back and reflect on how good God is and how he’s blessed this family with what we have, the wonderful wife I have and the wonderful baby he’s given me.  Times can still be rough, but even then, I will praise Him still..

Survived…

Well, past couple weeks have been challenging with the sickness that first hit Emma and Heather, and then this past week hitting me.  Definately one of the worse nights of my life.  I can’t remember the last time I threw up, but it has to be over 10 years.  But I’m glad we’re all well and back to our spunky selves again.  I always know when I’m better when I go to Lonestar and have ribs, fillet, garlic mashed potatoes and a ceasar salad.  Yup, my appetite was back.

Last week we got our new garage door installed.  A new Martin garage door with an ultra quiet opener.  Now Heather can park inside the garage again!  It is seriously quiet and we’re amazed each time we open and close it.  I usually do a double take just to make sure it’s closing.  Come over and I’ll show ya it sometime.  Got a great deal thanks to the down economy.  In fact lots of deals out there if you have money to spend, but guess that’s where the problem lies for most people.  Next on our list, landscaping!  Goal is to have it all done in time for spring hang outs and bbqs out back.

We’ve posted a few pics of Emma this month in our Album.  Finally after all these months of chewing and drool and fuss, Emma’s getting in her first tooth that you can see.  She’s doing great with solids but has developed a habit of grunting and crying after every bite.  It’s almost like the food is not coming fast enough.  We’re also getting closer to the day she becomes completely mobile.  She has been rolling around and turning on her stomach for the past couple months it seems, but she hadn’t gotten up on all fours until the past couple of weeks.  She does the sweet rocking motion on her hands and knees even with the risk of face planting every so often.  We’ll be in for trouble when she gets a moving.  She grows up so fast it seems, especially since she’ll be 8 months old Jan 31st.  She is a great baby though and a wonderful blessing in our lives.  Seems that she can bring joy to people all around her, including strangers at stores, restaurants and church that she flirts with.

I look forward to opportunities to sit down with friends.  To have dinner or coffee or breakfast or whatever.  So if you’re open, let me know.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 Time sure flies by between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Since then, we took our family pictures, I went to Taiwan for a few days, I got my new crazy computer, and I got a new HD camcorder.  (See a trend here?)

Emma’s first Christmas has come and gone and it was a crazy experience.  Gratefully I was off from work for the whole week of Christmas to experience her daily life for a week and help Heather with the Christmas madness.  Lots of pictures were taken (in the hundreds) and lots of videos too that I still need to edit.

Christmas Eve we had Heather’s family over for dinner after Christmas Eve service at church.  We had soup and bread and lots of desserts.  We topped off the day with family Wii.  Go Ravin’ Rabbits TV Party!  Good times were had.

On Christmas, of course, everyone wanted to see Emma, and hitting 3 places on Christmas day, with a baby in tow, made it a little too crazy.  We loaded up the car with baby stuff and gifts and headed out.  We started the morning over at my parent’s house and met with my brothers and sisters.  Emma was the center of attention as usual.  Emma made out with a car load of gifts!  My mom made fried chicken (actually fried cornish game hen) at 9:30am to eat!  

Then we headed off to Heather’s parents for Emma’s morning nap and prep for the afternoon meal.  We had ham with a full assortment of sides that were amazing.  Opened Emma’s presents and watched the Lakers take on the Celtics (go Lakers!). Heather and her parents joined together and bought me a big tool chest (more man toys), so now I just need to collect tools to fill it.

Then it was off to my aunt’s house for extended family festivities.  Crazy house full of people.  Sometimes it’s nice to have a baby so you have an excuse to go home.

The time went so fast it seemed a bit hard to enjoy it all. Our goal for next year is to figure out what Christmas traditions we want our family to have, and what we want Emma to grow up remembering. After all, Christmas isn’t about chaos and presents. It’s about God sending His Son down to earth as a man, to be our Savior. Spending time with family and friends, the presents, and the yummy food, are just icing on the cake. We’re thankful for all of that – the birth of Jesus (and the work He did), that we have family close by that we can spend time with and they can watch Emma grow up, and for the generosity of family and friends.

So…. Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!

How X-Mas seems to come earlier and earlier…

Yes, time does fly, and it seems that Christmas seems to come earlier every year thanks to all those retail stores trying to be the first to put up their Christmas offerings, from blow up snowmans and lights to decorative kitchwares.  Amazing that they showed their head well before even Halloween rolled around.  I’m surprised that this Nov. 3rd that Xmas stuff isn’t already on clearance to make room for swimsuits and sandals. Only in California it seems where we go straight from summer to winter and back to summer again. 

With this passing of Halloween, Emma celebrated her 5th month!  Check out her new pics in the album.  Time sure does go fast in hindsight. New challenges every day, but we are blessed she is healthy and overall a great baby.  She sleeps 10 hours or so each night and we’ve gotten in tune with her communications to us.  Now, if she would only take naps well during the day.

On halloween we cruised to our traditional Country Fair at Northpoint.  Emma was a flirt as usual, dressed in her Pumpkin outfit.  Looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas this year with Emma.

House is still under construction as usual.  Got landscaping and baseboards to still do, but we will press on.  Hopefully this weekend the baseboards will be done.  TV is mounted, and drapes are up.  A trip to IKEA brought new bookshelves home.  Living room is looking great.   Almost there!  It’s definately coming together and we look forward to when we can invite people over for a party.

What a busy couple of months! New House, Moving, Vacation!

Yup, our lives have gotten really busy as of late with lots of updates coming up.  Let’s just say 2008 has been a very eventful year.  Aug 15th, we closed on our new home in Corona!  We are now 1st time home owners!  For the next 3 weeks, we worked hard to get the house ready for our Labor Day move in target.  There was a lot of prep and work to be done.  Lucky for us, Heather’s Dad Chuck, Brother Ryan, Uncle David and cousins, DJ and Shaun, my brothers and sisters Vu, Don and Trucmai, Heather’s grandpa Roger, Heather’s Mom Carol, and Friends from church, Vinoj and Ken all helped to make it achievable.  Here are some of the things we had to do before move in.  I put came home from work those weeks and immediately went over there working until 10pm or later each night or putting in 14 hours of work on the weekend Saturdays.  It was definately hard work but very rewarding.  Just to name a few items.

1. We had to clean and prep the house for painting (Sand, Patch, Wash, Mask)
2. 4 Coats of Paint (2 coats of primer, 2 coats of final coat) EVERYTHING was painted.
3. Rip out baseboards
4. Rip out kitchen countertop and sink
5. Wash and seal tile floors
6. Install New Fixtures
7. Rip out landscaping
8. Replace light fixtures
9. Sand Kitchen Drawers and Cabinets
10. Replace outlets, switch and socket covers
11. Move

Let’s just say our new daily store is now Home Depot and Lowes.  We have some pics of what the place looked like in our web album.  A worlds of difference as we continue work.  Tons of little things including painting Emma’s room.  We’ll upload more pics as we get them done to show off the finished product. We lived in the house not even 4 days and left on Vacation to Chicago to visit Heather’s family and for Emma to visit Great Grandma Marion Geis.

There are tons of photo opportunities and some fun times visiting family and friends.  Emma did wonderfully on the plane rides though it took her a few days to adjust to our new schedule.  On this week, Emma’s now talking and smiling at you when you talk to her.  She also found a new laughing squeek sound that she can make.  Her laughes and unconditional smiles at you makes everything just wonderful and worth it.  I’m going to miss spending 24/7 with her when I’m back at work.

2 Months Already??

As the dust settles in the month of July, with all the crazy iPhone 3G lines in the malls, with one week dedicated to the madness we call VBS, and finding a house that accepted our offer, we look in the rear view mirror (reflecting off another seat mirror) to see Emma in her car seat 8 weeks old. We prepare for the next dust storm in August, when we close on our house, paint and repair the house, and move in by the end of the month, only to stay for a couple days before we’re off on vacation.

How quickly and amazing it is to see Emma growing so quickly and how time flies by when the days and weeks are busy. She had her 2 month dr’s appointment recently. Emma is now 10 pounds, 7 oz and 22.5 inches. Basicaly she’s gained 4 pounds in 2 months, and grew a few inches. Her head control is progressing well which makes holding her a lot of fun. She does this one pose where it looks like she’s an Olympic Ski Jumper with arms straight and back and head leaning forward. If those hands come up towards her chest, she’ll push off into a “Little Mermaid” pose as she’s looking up at your face. She looks more like a bobble-head Little Mermaid with her head bouncing up and down as she’s working to control her oversized head.

Things are getting more interesting now, especially for her. Seems like everything and anything is catching her attention and her eyes focus on all contrasts of color or people, almost like she is absorbing everything she sees and doesn’t want to miss out on something. She’s also starting to smile a lot at things, especialy after she’s eaten and burped. She’ll smile and occassionally laugh at different people or things. This means she’s entertained longer by herself when we set her down. She’s starting to make baby happy noises when she’s awake. Sleeping is still a challenge. Some days are better than others. We’re still waiting for that day when she sleeps a longer stretch during the night without waking up prematurely.

With her growth, she has now had to move out of her newborn clothes and into 0-3 month clothes that used to be like oversized clown suits on her. With all the clothes we have, most outfits will only be worn 1-2 times. That’s because she’s just in a diaper all day long when she’s home.

Anyways, we’ve uploaded a few more pics to our album. Hopefully more video soon. I’m trying to capture the smile and laugh.

5 Weeks and Counting…

Yes, Emma is now 5 weeks old this past July 4th weekend.  I continue to look forward to coming home to see mom and baby after work.  She is definately getting more or less regular in when she wants to eat, but not quite so regular on her sleep, which has a couple times either in a day or night time nap that is just a constant battle of wits.  Lucky for Heather that she doesn’t have to work.  Taking care of a baby is a full time job.  I have a new respect for those mothers who take care of a newborn, have multiple kids, or work with a newborn.  We got to go shopping this weekend to Babies R Us and Target to get the rest of the items on our registry.  Emma got to try out her Jeep Carrier.  Of course dad got to carry her proudly around everywhere.  I don’t mind the constant staring and “Oooos and Awwws” when seeing Emma’s little legs and head sticking out of the carrier.  Nothing like a wailing baby though while waiting to do a return at Marshalls.  All in all, it was the longest outting as a family.  As we understand Emma more and more, we become more and more confident in what she can handle, or to say, what we can handle.

Some new pics posted including a video of Emma’s elusive sneeze sound.  Only a few have ever witnessed it.  Even the pediatrician did a double take and asked if that came from her.  Now that it is caught on camera, we can share this joy with others.  Be forewarned though.  The clip is VERY CUTE and may cause you to want to smile and laugh.  Maybe it’s just a parent thing, but we at least think it’s adorable…

Emma’s 2nd Month

Amazing Growth

Emma had a dr’s visit last week.  We have been curious to find out how much she’s grown in the past week and a half since her last visit.  Throughout the week, I’ve been noticing her voracious appetite and my sore arms, thinking it was due to some definate weight gain.  Well, today she officially weighs in at 7lbs 7+oz.  She’s gained over a pound in the last week and half and has grown over 2 inches since birth (21.25″ long).  That’s pretty amazing to see that kind of growth.  I guess that’s what happens when she eats every couple of hours.

I realized how our life and days now have changed to revolve around Emma and her feeding and sleeping schedules.  I find myself doing a time check of “When is she supposed to get up to eat”.  Our ‘going’ out timing is now based on when she finishes her last feeding.  Then we thread the needle of time and hit up on the store or Target while she’s milk drunk. 

What’s amazing is how quickly time flies.  This past Saturday, Emma celebrated her 4th week!  She is such a blessing even though there are times of great sleep challenges, she is so worth it.  Last two weekends was full of baby showers which Emma got to attend. Funny how the show on the 22nd was on her due date.  Can’t imagine someone her size being born right now.  Just a couple more pics for now, have to download them off our camera.

Emma’s 3rd Week

Emma’s 2nd Week

Babies are amazing.  I knew they were eating and pooping machines but I didn’t realize how amazing it would be to experience it first hand.  Emma eats every 3 hours and has a dirty diaper at least that many times (if not more).  I’ve definately gotten better at the diaper changing, working more like a well oiled NASCAR pit stop now.  Before I was so careful and scared I’d hurt the baby in some way or do things wrong with people watching.  But those days are long gone.  Definately had a few close calls with changes. 

We continue to learn more and more each day about Emma and her personality and her wailing need calls.  She definately has some lungs.  The most challenging part out of all this is her sleeping when we want her to sleep and feeding.  2am feedings are followed by a wide awake baby who refuses to go night night when mom and dad are dying for some shut eye.  Feeding becomes a wrestling match of wills but lately, parents have been winning this battle.  Now if she would just sleep when we want her we’d be in good shape, but people keep telling us to give it time.  Granted she’s only 2 weeks old, but we have high expectations  

Week was filled with a few visitors including Emma’s great grandparents and people from church bringing meals.  AMEN to the church family, whose love brings meals for us.  Really it’s for the husband’s survival.

She’s already strong enough to lift her head up and turn it to the other side while she’s on her stomach.  She’s already grown past her birth weight and seems to be hitting her 1st growth spurt.  Man she’s going to grow up so fast.  Some new pictures and videos posted to Our Album.

View Album

Home Sweet Home

We all finally got to go home! Here begins the real challenge. Good times ahead.

For those who haven’t heard the story of our unexpected delivery, Heather had a doctor’s appointment on Friday morning (36.5 weeks), was told to stay for additional monitoring due to high blood pressure, and then subsequently told that she would not be going home until the baby was born! They induced her around 4pm on Friday afternoon, and while her labor was about 28 hours long, she was able to sleep through most of it due to a variety of medications/antibiotics. The doctor declared that an emergency C-section was needed at 7:50 on Saturday night due to the baby’s distress, and at 8:08pm Emma Grace Mai Nguyen was born - 6lb 7oz and 19″ (SAME WEIGHT AS HER FATHER WHEN HE WAS BORN.  I had to check my birth certificate to verify.  So amazing)  Check out her amazing welcome picture in the album.

 While nothing in the whole process went according to our plan or timing (except that Heather got an epidural), it did show us once again that God is in control and His plan is best. We found out after delivery, that if things went according to our plan, Emma would probably not be here, and that she definitely would not have made it through a normal delivery, as her cord was both detaching from the placenta and wrapped around her neck.

After birth, Emma had to spend the next 3 days in the NICU due to both being premature and to continue the antibiotics that Heather had during labor. While the hospital stay was long (from Friday to Wednesday), they didn’t released Emma from the NICU to our care until late on Tuesday night. This gave Heather a chance to recover from surgery, and for me to be there and help her, prior to also having Emma to take care of (and I only had to change one of those first nasty poos!). The nurses at Kaiser were great (both for Heather in recovery and Emma in the NICU), especially the ones that brought Heather her meds without reminders.

Thanks for all the prayers, visits, gifts, and meals.  Food always speaks to my heart.  We feel so loved and blessed by everyone!  We thank God for this gift and this experience and pray for continued joy and perservernce in the literal “Grace” He has bestowed upon us.

More pics have been posted in the album (click on “Our Album”).
So far we have Emma’s 1st Week as an album.