Bike Helmets

The weather has been really great, so lately we have been taking Meliya out by bike. When she was one, she received a bike helmet, and so we went to buy a kid seat. Initially she wasn't that into biking, but by the third time, she really liked it.

 Yet it was too cold for the last 4 months to go biking with a baby. So this last month, when the weather got better, we started biking again. We also bought helmets for ourselves, and twice took Meliya and her friend Serenity on the bike with us (since both Alvin and I have kid bike seats.) Meliya is now crazy about biking.  She even likes it more than walking.  She will even run up to other people's bikes, and signal that she wants to ride on it.  One time she ran up to a local's person's bike with kid seat, and while signalling that she wanted to ride it, knocked it over in front of the owner.  Oops.

March in a Flash

March started off with Meliya walking. She was getting really close to walking before, but she wouldn't take the steps independently. So I took her to this activity center, and she was crawling around, and then all of a sudden she walked to the manager, who she really likes. The whole center started clapping for her, which really excites her, and so she started walking more. I told Alvin to meet us at the center after work so he could see her. It was a good thing he was able to watch her a little, because for the next two days at home and elsewhere, she wouldn't walk. So on the third day, we took her back to the activity center and then she started walking again. After that, she hasn't stopped walking. Now she still walks with her arms out, but she can walk pretty fast and hasn't really taken a tumble at all.
 At the end of the month, we had an Easter party.  Alvin and I dyed some eggs and invited kids around Meliya's age over for an Easter egg hunt.  We were supposed to do the hunt outside, but there was a sand storm outside, so we ended up having the hunt in our living room.

Most of the kids were too young to understand what was happening.  The oldest kid, a boy a couple months older than Meliya, was the only one that got the gist.  One of the kids just found the egg, with the shells, and started eating it.  Eventually there was egg shells, egg white, and egg yolk all over the place.   You can see in the picture one kid eating the egg.  You can also see Meliya looking like she is stealing the other girl's basket.  After reviewing the film, we see that Meliya was actually unloading her eggs in the other girl's basket, but after Meliya had no more eggs, she then took the other girl's basket.  The other girl did not mind as she was trying to figure out how to eat eggs without eating all the shells.

Still, it was a fun time.  Some of the moms have hinted that it was so fun and the kids would like to do it again.  I guess Easter egg hunts don't have to be limited to Easter time.  One of the moms even suggested that next time at her house she will boil the eggs, put stickers on them, and then we can have another hunt.

February in a Flash

After we left Los Angeles, we flew to Thailand to try to get there in time to see some friends. We had also planned to take a week of vacation in Phuket with Alvin's parents.

We spent almost everyday going to the pool. During our vacation time, we went to the pool two or three times a day. Meliya really loved it. After we got home, she had some major breakdowns if she couldn't go outside right after every meal, and also renewed her love for bathing in the bathtub.

During the vacation time, we saw a baby elephant. If you buy bananas from the owner, you could feed the elephant and even pet him. Meliya and I decided to do it together, but we both did not like it when he put his trunk around my neck. It was itchy.

Also, we went to the beach. Alvin's parents really enjoyed their time with Meliya and loved helping her walk around and helping her up and down the stairs. Meliya was getting really close to walking by herself, but she never took the steps while we were in Thailand.

January in a Flash

Oh dear, well the months have just gone by.  I will try to do a month by month update in a week.

In January, I was done with school and spent more time at home.  I guess the big news was that we bought an upright piano.  Alvin has been looking on a Chinese ebay site to look for second hand pianos.  Finally, he found one that fit for us.  It was only 7 years old, and according to the owner, wasn't used that much.

We hired professional movers, 4 guys, that helped move the piano.  Meliya took to the piano right away.  Everyday, she comes by to "practice," esp. if we are trying to play.

Also, at the end of the month, I received the  sad news that my grandma was not doing so well. My parents gave me the news and so our whole family flew to Los Angeles to attend my grandmother's funeral (as we were leaving for the states, we found out she passed away).

We were only able to stay 9 days in the states.  We were able to have a family reunion with my side of the family, celebrate and remember the memories of my grandma, and also Meliya was able to play with many of her cousins.  The sad part was that Meliya had roseola (an infant virus that has 3 days fever and then a rash for 3 days).  Those 3 days, Meliya was acting terribly cranky, and she pretty much stayed at Alvin's parent's house sleeping, except on the day of the funeral where she spent a lot of time in the car sleeping as we traveled from event to event.

After a long whirlwind of a trip, we packed up to go on our already scheduled annual trip to Thailand.  Come back and read about it in a couple of days.