Chamu Escapes Big Snow Storm

Chamu was scheduled to take the last flight out of NYC today at 6:30pm. Two days ago, Mamu saw on the news that a big storm was coming in on Friday and secretly thought perhaps she could try to escape it by getting on the first flight to head back to LA on Friday. Fortunately, she was able to finish her work on Thursday and Dadu so patiently waited for 75 minutes on hold with American Airlines to get us seats on the first flight out of New York on Friday.
On Friday, we woke up to 4 inches of snow at 5pm but nonetheless made our way to the Airport. At the airport, we were told that our flight was still scheduled to fly but the flurry was getting even heavier. We waited and watched news about major delays and cancellations around the Manhattan airports but were glad to see that our flight takeoff time only got push back a little bit. Finally, after one hour of delay, we were able to board and after another hour of de-icing the plane, we took off! Although it was wobbly take-off, we soon cleared the storm and were flying at 30,000 feet.
Six hours and a few drinks (non-alcoholic) later, we landed in LA. Early spring sunshine and breeze were awaiting us. We watched many stranded passengers at the East Coast airports on TV as we exited the airport. We were so glad to have escape such a big snow storm and we are finally on our way home!

Chamu in the Big Apple

Dadu escorted Mamu and Chamu to New York City for the third time just two days before the Valentine's Day. After a week in sunny Southern California, it was a shocking sight when we landed the airport that was fully covered in white. It was cold, icy and snow and sleet kept falling.

Dadu was leaving the day after to Panama so he was terribly worried about how imbalanced Mamu was going to survive in this kind of weather. Mamu had fallen on her butt four weeks ago in SF and caused a perpetual back pain since (and she was 10 lbs lighter). Luckily, snow turned into rain the next day and rain turned into sunshine the day after.

Chamu has been growing nicely. He is now almost 28 weeks big. Mamu has gained more than 30 lbs even though Chamu is probably only slightly over two lbs in weight. With the dry and sunny weather in NYC at least Mamu will have courage and motivation to walk around without Dadu on her side. Dadu left on Wednesday to return to Panama to attend his cousin's wedding so it is a big test for Mamu and Chamu since three of them have not been apart since little Chamu was conceived.

Luckily, Mamu is preoccupied with conference calls and meetings (Chamu's only fetal education thus far) and only has to suffer loneliness at night.

Tonight, Friday night, she is stuck on a tourist cruise dinner around the Hudson River with her colleagues. Even though the music is loud and she is with another 100 tourists, she and Chamu still miss Dadu tremendously... Big Apple is really not that fun when you are missing your other half...

Hotel California

Chamu seems to have checked into Hotel California and now he can never leave... After much premature excitement and celebration about being able to finally return to HK, we changed our schedule again. We got back to Cali on Saturday and now are scheduled to stay for another week, after which the destination is still unknown. The only consolation is that the weather here is always sunny, breezy and kind to us. There was supposed to be a storm over the weekend but it never really came.
We got together with Jorge, Suli, Carmen and James for Super Bowl Sunday: underdog NY Giants against undefeated Patriots. Super Bowl parties are never really about the game itself. We didn't expect much since most people were sure that Giants were going to be slaughtered by Patriots. For us, it is even more evident that we were there for food and family, considering Jaime and I showed up only knowing Tom Brady out of two teams.
I tried to hold myself back from eating since I have already gained 30 lbs since Chamu's inception and there are three more months to go (I broke down in tears uncontrollably when I weighed myself on Saturday). But I just couldn't resist the temptation of yummy Panamanian Paella (made by Carmen) and chicken wings and fresh frozen Yogurt (by Suli). We munched on and on and watched the game (which turned out to be a very exciting one given that NYG won and I betted on exactly the right outcome - NYG won by 3 points!)
Today, Jaime, Chamu and I have to go down South for a little adventure. My I-94 is up today so I need to get another one by crossing the border again. The drive to Tijuana was nice and the cross over to the Mexican side was a breeze. However, coming back was a crazy wait. The lines go around the block several times. We decided to jump on the taxi shuttle which we were hoping could place us ahead of people waiting in line and get back to the other side faster... The guy promised us we would clear in 20 minutes if we paid him 20 bucks but now one hour has passed and I'm still here typing. Hopefully in another 30 minutes, we can set our feet on the soil of the Golden State again (the fifth time in the last 10 weeks. )

Chamu is finally going home!

We are going back to HK at last next Monday. Originally, we thought we would be in the US for another two weeks. Since my I-94 expires on Monday, we had devised this elaborate plan to drive down to Tijuana in order to get my I-94 renewed. But it is no longer necessary since we can just hop on the plane to HK Monday evening...

JoJomami is getting bigger each day and her back is in more pain as more weight is gained... Ever since she accidentally fell on the hilly street of San Francisco, she has become extra careful with her movement, especially here in NYC where you have crazy yellow cabs and aggressive limousines.

Chamu is scheduled for his next check up on Feb 11, five weeks from his last checkup. I think he is also missing home. Sleeping in hotel rooms just does not compare to sleeping at home. All of sudden, the crowded streets of Hong Kong seems just so much more attractive than the glitzy Big Apple and glamorous LA. Yeah!