Two Centuries

Today Lina got to spend some time with her only great-grandparent, my maternal grandmother or "oba-jiang" as I grew up calling her. Out of a possible eight great-grandparents, she is the only one alive. She is 93 (I think), and in amazing mental shape. Well, she tends to repeat the same stories over and over, but so do I and I'm 32. I tried to snap some photos of my 93 years old grandmother, crouched on her knees, playing with Lina. What a special moment. Two women, representing a span of four generations, 90+ years apart. Their lifetimes, God-willing, will cover a span of almost two centuries of history. Amazing. I had a lot of thoughts stem from this moment, as you can imagine. Obajiang was born towards the end of World War I in Taiwan, studied in Japan, came back to Taiwan after her mother died (while she was on the boat back), got married to Ojijiang, moved to Qingdao, China for several years during the 2nd World War, stranded in Shanghai for several months after the end of the war, waiting for a boat to return to Taiwan, had a few kids in Taiwan, and then moved to Japan where my grandfather practiced medicine. (When I started that sentence I wasn't planning to write an entire biography). Anyway, my point is that it's amazing how much she has gone through, and how much history she lived through. She has spent the last decade or more here in the US where her two daughters are. And so, almost a century after she was born in a little village in Taiwan, she is living in California, spending some time with her 8 week old great-granddaughter.

I was holding Lina the other day and was just wondering about her life. She was probably fretting a bit so I told her what I always tell her, "it's ok, daddy's here, daddy got you." And I started to think that there would be times when I won't be able to be around. (I know it's early to start thinking these things!) School. School can be a traumatic place. What about the first time she gets teased? Or the first time she feels left out in P.E. - I'm guessing she won't be the tallest kid in the class and therefore won't be picked first for basketball or volleyball teams? What about her first failure of some kind? First crush and broken heart? (I shudder). And all this while I'm alive (hopefully). On a side note, I got paranoid before my last business trip and finally entered into a term insurance thing. So if I kick the proverbial bucket prematurely, they'll be set! No crazy ideas, please. Gives me peace of mind though. Anyway, there will also be a time after Liz and I are gone (naturally) when she will start to grow old and go through who knows what. I wonder if someday she will be 93, and taking a picture with her great-granddaughter in 2101.

And maybe her grandson will write something in his blog (or whatever crazy 3-D holographic mind-reading technology they have then)..."My grandmother was born in 2008 in America, at the beginning of a very challenging economic time for the world with gas prices about to hit $10/gallon, but right before the first Black president of the United States (and the first of many minority Presidents)...she grew up her first few years on the West side of Los Angeles surrounded by cousins and family, and then...."

Slide

As you can see, I've been toying around with different Web 2.0 applications - the latest being the Slide widget. Most of these pictures are already on the blog.

The Cousins

Here are the fabulous Lee/Chen ladies enjoying each other's company.


Noah and Lina sitting together and having a conversation...(it's kind of fun thinking about them growing up together)

Noah: Oh boy, here we go again. Every where we go. Picture, pictures, pictures.

Lina: Yeah, it's like we're props or something. "Sit here, lie here, smile and giggle at the toy..."

Noah: Don't worry - I get back at them in little ways. Get this - today I just screamed and screamed instead of my usual peaceful feeding time. Mommy was pretty flustered. I love her, and I feel kind of bad doing it. But, I was just bored, you know?

Lina: I totally get you - a few nights ago I just screamed all night. I was a bit irritated because they always wrap me in this darn straight jacket thing. It was kind of funny watching these two grown people on the verge of losing it. Of course, I love them too, but it was...I admit...kind of funny!

Noah: That's a bit cruel, you should ease up on them. Uncle 2 and Ayi 2 definitely look tired!

Lina: Maybe you're right. (pause) Hey, how do you do that?

Noah: Do what?

Lina: Sit there like that without your neck being all wobbly and stuff.

Noah: I'm 2 months older than you!

Lina: Woah...woah...I'm falling...I'm going to fall over. I have no neck control!

Noah: Relax will you?

Lina: Ok, I'm bored. I hope they pick us up soon. That chicken stew sure smells yummy. I can't wait to have some. All I get is milk...and daddy thinks he's funny and clever...every night he likes to say, in this silly high-pitched voice, "Ok, Lina, tonight on the menu we have...to start...milk...and then, you're main will be...milk...and finally, for dessert and a night cap, we'll be serving...milk..."

Noah: Complain, complain, complain...

Lina: (Rolls eyes)

Noah: Nice sari by the way.

Losing Our Minds

Our friend Dr. Dennis Chang warned us that by around a month, we would both be zombies. The fact is, we haven't had more than 4-5 hours of continuous sleep since Angelina came into the world. 4-5 hours would be a treat. Most of our sleep is in the 2-3 hour range, and 10, 15-minute cat naps during the day when possible. According to Dennis, we never really hit deep sleep (or was it REM, I forget), and so we're not getting real rest. Something like that - I'm sure there's a more scientific way to frame it.

Well, there is real evidence that we have lost our minds. We had heard before of people like my brother-in-law Jonathan going out of the house with mis-matched shoes, due to pure exhaustion. It's happening to us.

Going out of the house now is a major undertaking. I can't believe that we used to just walk out the door with keys, wallet, blackberry, and phone in pocket. That's it. Out the door. Out the door into the Upper Westside, out the door into our garage here in West LA. Now, it takes about half an hour to prepare everything - diaper bag with every contingency imaginable, stroller, car seat, etc. The timing has to be perfect also. If Lina is in a bad mood, she'll go into the car seat in a bad mood, and takes a while to calm down in the car.

On Sunday, we were getting ready to head out to my high school and college friend Jen Tsai's wedding in Pasadena. As I was headed for the door, after taking care of the aforementioned preparations, I realized that I didn't have my phone. I roamed around the apartment muttering, "#$%!, I never ever mis-place my phone at home, where could it possibly be? I can't believe this is happening now!" Liz suggested I call it with my blackberry phone - ring ring ring - something is buzzing in my pocket. Yes, my right pocket. Liz said, "who has time for this," as we headed for the door with everything in tow.

After leaving our apartment and walking down the hall towards the elevator, Liz noticed that her feet felt...well, different. She looked down and realized that she had two different sandals on - a gold one and a black one! I, of course, said, "oh, who has time for this?," as she ran back to the apartment to pick up the right shoe. Yes, we are really losing our minds.

Btw, one of the things we have to pack into her car seat is this "Cloud B" soothing sheep. It is a stuffed animal - sheep - with speakers inside with ambient noise options - Rain, Ocean, etc. Here's a picture of it. Jonathan and Emily gave it to Lina...extremely helpful.

Rock 'n Roll Girl

I placed a temporary Coldplay widget on this blog as a small tribute to Coldplay. Since it's almost 1am, and who knows how long Lina will stay down right now, I don't feel like spending more time trying to tweak the formatting of the page so that the entire widget fits. I already spent 20 minutes looking through all the template settings/formatting options in blogger. If anybody knows how to quickly decrease my side margins so that the page isn't so narrow, please let me know. Anyway, as you already know, we downloaded a "white noise" album from iTunes for babies. Lina's favorite track is "Rain," which we blast on repeat for nearly 12 hours a day. When we drive, we look for the perfect static station. 7 weeks ago I would never have imagined that I would some day find such elation when finding the perfect static station. You see, the static has to be pure. It can't have hints of a sports announcer broadcasting a game, or of a Spanish or Mandarin talk show - the static has to be pure white noise - even and balanced. Well, for those who want to know, 1060AM works very well between San Gabriel Valley all the way to the Westside. 970AM works well only sometimes. On the East side of LA it begins to pick up the news channel. Now that I've wasted five minutes writing about nonsense, I'll get to my point.

Other than the white noise that we have Lina listen to, we have been playing "Fix You" and "The Scientist" by Coldplay - also on constant repeat. Both songs have a great groove, and a driving bass line that facilitate sleeping - especially when daddy is bouncing to the rhythm around the room like a moron (and mommy, but mommy isn't a moron when she does it). So, that's why I put up this temporary widget for you to check out four tracks from the new album (click "media player" on the widget).

End of Week 6

It's the end of week 6. Here are some photos from the week. Angelina is wearing a dress for the first time in the first picture. She is starting to become more responsive and interactive. In the second picture, she is shown in her crib with her toys and "mobile"-like thing. She now laughs and smiles when she looks at her toys. The last picture is of her in a swaddle blanket. Since early on everybody keeps advising us to swaddle her as tight as we can, and not to think twice about it. It's sort of awkward at first, but you get used to it very quickly because it works.

The Great Escape Reprise

It often feels like we've come full circle on a lot of things since becoming parents. Rather than just wax philosophical, I have a specific example from tonight. Although Liz and I both grew up in in the 2nd or 3rd largest city in the U.S. (LA), it is essentially a gigantic suburb. (I say 2nd or 3rd b/c back then I think Chicagoland was 2nd) Actually, it's probably more accurate to describe LA as falling somewhere between urban and suburban - a third category that I'll coin here as "suburb plus" or "urban light." It's not Manhattan, but it ain't the grand leafy suburbs of the Northeast, like Bryn Mawr or Lower Merion outside of Philly or Westchester County outside of the city. By the way, when I say "city" I am referring to New York City - Manhattan, specifically. The same "city" as in SATC. Although we only lived in the Upper Westside for under three years, I have to admit that I inherited the city snob thing which is probably here to stay.

But I digress. Anyway, I was talking about growing up in the 'burbs. In the 'burbs, Arcadia specifically, the first moments of relative freedom from our parents were times when I and my friends were allowed to walk around the mall by ourselves. Specifically, the Santa Anita Mall in Arcadia. Sure, my mom was probably walking around the mall at the same time, but those 45 minutes to an hour that we had to walk around and roam the stores by ourselves were the first experiences of having some sort of independence from parents. I could walk into "Surf and Stuff" and browse "Maui & Sons" and "Town & Country" t-shirts by myself, and pay 12 bucks for one if I had saved up a week of lunch money. I was probably in fifth or sixth grade? I know, I know. My friends who grew up in the city like to brag about taking the NRQW trains by themselves when they were 7 or 8. Or the 7 train for those who grew up in Queens. Whatevs. Walking around the mall by myself, or with friends, was absolutely thrilling. Soon after, we would graduate to going to the mall all by ourselves - either being dropped off by my parents or taking "Dial-A-Ride" for 75 cents a person. Obviously, it got better from there. Tearing through town on our 10-speeds, taking the car out alone for the first time in 10th grade (yes, before getting the license, while folks were in Japan on holiday...too bad Dad wrote down the odometer reading before leaving)...fast forward to moving into the dorm room, going on the first trip to NY with friends...fast forward to traveling and living abroad with Liz, and even our last trip to Paris a few months ago...

Tonight Liz and I went to the local mall. The Westside Pavillion, here in West LA. It was thrilling. Besides me going to work (and my very exhausting but productive 36 hr trip to the city last week), we have mainly been sequestered at home since coming home with Lina. Just two weeks ago, we started doing some social outings - starting with a wedding, a birthday dinner, graduation, and a birthday bbq. But Liz and I have rarely gone out together, just the two of us. My parents came over this evening to see their granddaughter and to bring over some of mom's home-cooking. We took the opportunity to run off to the mall for an hour and a half. What freedom! Twenty-odd years after walking around the mall by ourselves, here we were, feeling a bit of that same sense of independence. But it faded...

We missed Lina. And Liz ended up buying her some clothes. And I went to the bookstore and bought some books on babies. And then we rushed home to make sure she was ok...

Hanging out with Mommy and Daddy

Today we were able to lounge around a bit. These pictures make it look like were just lazying away all day - it was really probably just 10 minutes or so. Either way, it was fun.

6 weeks today!

Angelina is six weeks old today. Can't believe it. It went by really fast, and it was an eternity! I really have no energy to write anything profound - not like I ever do - so I'll post a few more pictures that I like. The first one is of her first bath. It's funny - all in all, I'm sure the digital age makes life better. Net-net, our lives are probably more convenient. Yet, it does bring a lot more pressure. With digital cameras, we can record Lina's life almost without limit. So, when we gave her her first bath, we felt pressure to document it. Mind you, we had no idea really how to give an infant a bath. It's a pretty dangerous thing - we probably should have put all of our energy and concentration into preventing her from slipping into the water, knocking her head against the sink counter, or catching a cold. Instead, we spent half the time going, "where's the camera," "grab the camera," "oh that's a good shot, oh watch her head..." Stressful. But worth it, this was a great shot! = )
I love it when she falls asleep (not just because it's quiet). She looks so peaceful. Here she is, falling asleep in her swing, with her hands to her face.

I love this picture. Anyone who is around me long enough will hear me ranting and raving about my nieces Kay(5) and Bekah (3). I think they're adorable, and they are extremely funny! We have the best conversations. And now there's little Noah (or "Noey" according to Kay and "No-yay" according to Bekah) added to the family! Here's Lina and her three cousins hanging out. I'm looking forward to watching all of them grow up together. I grew up around a lot of cousins, which was really fun. I'm glad my daughter will have the same.

More Visitors from NY

Last weekend, we attended our friends Warren and Lily's wedding in Arcadia. We know both of them from NY. Warren is a real New Yorker through and through - grew up in Manhattan's Chinatown. Lily, like us, is from SoCal, and was in the city for a few years. Lily and Warren met in NY, fell in love, and...Warren followed Lily westward, into the sunset. Anyway, it was great to be able to catch up with a bunch of our friends from NY, most of them from Vision Church, the church on the Upper Westside that Liz and I attended while in NY. As usual the time was too short. Here are some pictures of Kenny, Wendy, and Dris, who came over to our place to see Lina (and graciously brought over some dim sum, my favorite!). I have other pictures with lots of other people, including our Pastor, Joseph and his wife Theresa, but it's all on the other camera, and I haven't uploaded them yet.

The wedding was Lina's first real social outing. Prior to last Saturday, we only brought her out for doctor visits. Well, we survived it. All in all, it went alright, but it was pretty stressful! I'd rather not go into the details now. Since then, we've been a little more adventurous and have started going out more and more.

Victor Lin, another friend from NY, stopped by last week to hang out with us. He entertained my folks, who were over for dinner, with his Taiwanese language skills.

Kathy Teng and Ryan

It's midnight and Lina is hopefully down for the count, which gives me some time to catch up on regular adult stuff, like blogging. As usual, I'm gonna upload a bunch of pics that have been on backlog. Here's a picture of Kathy Teng, Liz's roommate from college, and her son Ryan. Kathy came to visit Liz and Lina last week, I think, while I was at work. (no sense of time these days) I haven't seen Ryan since he was just a couple of months old, but Liz describes to me how cute he is every time she gets to see him.

Seems like just yesterday when Kathy and Liz were roommates in college. Now, here they are...

Speaking of which, we are attending Eunice's (Liz's third sister) college graduation tomorrow. Time flies.

Gearing up for tomorrow

Taking her on her first big social outing tomorrow - our friends Warren and Lily's wedding in Arcadia. Very exciting and very stressful...

Pre-Delivery Advice

I was working on this post awhile ago, but never completed it. As I mentioned in the prior post, our baby has been keeping us quite busy. I was inspired to finish this today for several reasons. We've been trapped in our apartment (besides me going to work), basically, for almost a month, and it's fun to day-dream about the outside world. The cover of today's LA Times magazine is "Paris, Pastry by Pastry," and details many decadent dessert places in Paris. And in general, it's summer time which means travel time. My sister is about to go back to Europe again on a study trip, and the jetset is off to the races for the summer season. I'm envious. I have to admit that one of my biggest fears of parenthood, aside from losing sleep, had to do with how it would affect our traveling. ..

Anyway - people love to give advice or share their experiences about pregnancy and becoming first-time parents. It's one of those topics that people love to talk about - their kids and their experiences. And I really enjoyed hearing it all. In fact, towards the end of the pregnancy, it became a regular topic on all of my business calls. To the extent that I wouldn't be surprised if my colleagues were thinking, "go have your baby already. We have to start every damn conference call small-talking about your upcoming event!" Actually, everyone, from people at Warner to all the companies I deal with have been super supportive, patient, and encouraging. Well, this post is not about all the different pieces of advice. I'm still compiling that for later. This is about one particular piece of advice, which seems obvious.

One of the best pieces of advice we received before having Lina was to go and travel as much as we can. We were encouraged to go on a "babymoon," which was introduced into my vocabulary by some friends. I've been fortunate enough to have traveled to some really cool places for pleasure as well as business. For the last three years, I attended a conference in Cannes, France, in January. Not to be confused with the Cannes Film Festival. I thought, why don't we just make a trip out of it and go to Paris, one of our favorite cities in the world, for "one last hurrah." By the way, I'm writing this post because I was going through our iPhoto collection while trying to rock Lina to sleep earlier today, waxing nostalgic about our young and carefree years!

Anyway, the idea to go to Paris was there, but we were hesitant because Liz was well into the pregnancy, and Europe is not exactly cheap these days. While having brunch one day with our good friends Tim and Grace and their lovely kids in Soho [at Cafe Colonial] this past winter, T&G urged us to just go for it. (Tishia Que first took Liz to Cafe Colonial). They have two awesome kids - Jonah (I have a funny story about guessing his name), and Isaiah (not "Isiah"). Right before they had the first boy, they also went on a "last hurrah" to London. T&G basically said, your life is about to change in a major way - and it's awesome and you'll never want to turn back - but it is going to change. Go, suck up the cost, and enjoy your time together, just the two of us. So we did. And we had a wonderful time. Thanks Tim and Grace for the kick in the pants!

Liz and I are both a bit "anal," so we did scour for deals and did a bit of planning. We discovered a great way to experience Europe while pregnant and also while the euro is kickin' greenback arse. Through a site called Vacation Rentals by Owners, we decided to do a short-term rental of a flat, or an apartment, in Le Marais, one of our favorite districts. This was great for a host of reasons - first of all, it was much more economical than staying at a hotel in Paris. You would all be surprised at the daily rate. It was a deal. We also saved money because there was a washer dryer and a kitchenette in the place. Besides the economic reasons, living in an apartment really helps you to experience real life as the locals do, at least a sliver of it for a short period of time. Every morning, I pretended to be a Frenchman - I would walk to the corner, have an espresso (at the counter, for the cheaper rate) in the corner cafe, then walk into the local bakery and order "un baguette(sp)." We would make our own Jambon baguette every morning, which was both cheap and made us felt like locals. Mmm. I do miss that bread. Speaking of great bread, Fairway Market on the Upper Westside also has fresh French bread, baked hourly. I really miss that too. But that's another topic - things I miss about the Big Apple.

Liz and I had a wonderful time in Paris. I'm grateful that we were able to do it. Since we've been lucky enough to have been to Paris several times, together and separately, there was really no pressure to do anything touristy at all. Liz was 5-6 months pregnant, near the upper limit of being allowed to travel, we really did take it easy. We walked around neighborhoods, checked out cool patisseries and restaurants, and my favorite...enjoying an espresso at numerous cafes around the City of Light and people watching. Oh, and I finally made it to the Musee d'Orsay (free on the first Sunday of the month). The last two times we tried to go, the museum workers were on strike.

Ahhh, Paris...can't wait to take Angelina there!

Almost a month

Radio silence because our beautiful "benevolent dictator" has been keeping her subjects (me and Liz) quite busy and beat down...Can't believe it's been nearly a month! Here are some recent pics. She's in a pretty good mood here...


Here's Angelina being reflective in this motion glider. Some "experts" claim that it's bad to get the kid "addicted" or reliant on an automated motion thing. Who cares. Whatever works!


My sister, Joanna, finally came down from Berkeley. Angelina, as you can see, is thrilled to meet her Auntie for the first time. = )