First Words?

Yesterday as we were leaving my brother's place after a long fun outing in LA, we did the usual "say bye bye Joaquin" so that he would wave back, but instead he actually said "buh buh"! I might be biased but this time I have witnesses (although his Uncle and Aunties might be biased too).

Playing Housewives

As a youngster, we were always asked what is it you want to be when you grow up? I guess I have thought about various jobs I could take when I grow up and never have I thought of becoming a housewife. This week, Jaime and I took turns of living the life of a housewife. We rented an apt for our one week stay in SF. Jaime had to take care Chamu for four days all by himself since I had more 50 meetings to attend. I did a few hours on Thursday and a few hours on Friday when Jaime was off to his meetings. And it's not easy! You have to always think about what you do and how does Chamu fit into the context of what you do. Your productivity becomes way low and your day becomes really long. I really have so much more admiration for my friends who are staying home full-time with a baby/kids and my husband who was a far more successful housewife this week than me...

Survival of the Fittest

As new parents in Hong Kong, Jaime and I are stunned at what we and our baby need to do in order to get a decent education. At 7 months old, Joaquin is already no. 200+ on the play group WAITLIST that he is supposed to join in 5 months. We were told that many parents put their babies on the wait list of prestigious nursery schools at birth/pre birth while we haven't even figured out what schools to call (which may be moot since whichever schools we call, I'm sure they are full already). For primary schools, we were told that one must have a portfolio of awards, photos of activities and scores of music that he/she can play in at least two instruments plus a reflective piece of essay on education philosophy from the parents. Having both grown up in the less developed parts of the world, both Jaime and I constantly have trouble understanding why kids even need to go to kindergarten at all so it is very difficult for us to buy into this super-competitive culture.

Childhood is so short and I would hope Joaquin's will be filled with memories of only fun and laughters (not sure if this is the philosophy piece I should expand on in the school submission). If survival of the fittest is what governs this world, maybe Joaquin can survive on his big and charming smile...

Still Laughing

More Laughing

No School for Joaquin

What kind of parents forget their son/daughter's school appointment? Well, Jaime and I happen to be exactly this kind of parents... Jaime had signed up for a visit for a nursery three months ago and I was supposed to call to confirm. Of course, every day in the last three months I was too busy to call and today I suddenly remembered and figured that I had some free time to call. Unfortunately, it was also the same time that Jaime got his pop-up reminder that the visit is scheduled for 9:45am today (or 2 hours from now!). In a competitive world like today, Joaquin's biggest disadvantage is to be born a child of two uncompetitive parents...

All I Want for Xmas Is My Two Front Teeth (part 2)