Look At This HAIR!!!!

What in the world am I supposed to do with this hair??!! I saw a little boy who had a shaved head yesterday at daycare and I asked the mom when she first cut his hair. She said her son was a little over a year before they buzzed it. That's what I would do but Jay wants to let it just grow out.

And those ear muffs, he grabbed them off the table and put them on himself. He just thought that he was the coolest.

By the way, my sister has had her first co-authored paper published the other day!! Congratulations! It's really hard to live with such an overachiever. For anybody that's interested, her paper is called "Synergism between vitamin D and secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine - induced apoptosis and growth inhibition results in increased susceptibility of therapy-resistant colorectal cancer cells to chemotherapy". Whew, that's a mouthful. If any wants to read it, just email me. If anybody wants to EXPLAIN it to me, email me as well. I never have any idea what the heck she's talking about. When I read her undergrad thesis, I was thoroughly confused and convinced that I knew nothing.

Caleb & Auntie Michelle

I was looking back at the blog entries and I can't believe that I forgot to post a picture of Caleb & Auntie Michelle!

Well, here it is...it was in Vancouver and you can see the ever present camera in her hand....

Do you think that she looks like me? There's definately a family resemblance between Caleb and her right there.

Caleb On A Box

There's this box that was in our living room that we used to store christmas lights, stockings, etc. and Caleb thought that it was the best thing in our house.

He climbed up on it himself and just hung out. It took awhile for me to realizet that he was just going to keep hanging out there before I went to get my camera.

And did we tell anybody that he is now officially off the bottle and onto the sippy cup? He's using this one that has a really soft spout (you can see it in the top picture by his foot) so it's not the big kids sippy cup but it's definately a step in the right direction.

Some Action Shots...

Here's some action shots of Caleb at the Vancouver airport right before we flew back home to Raleigh.

He's starting to look like quite the athelete....they had a little play gym there and he was just having a great ol' time running around and screaming.

I particularly like the 'action shot' with him looking like he's about to sprint across the airport floor. I think that he get's that from Jay since I for one know that I wouldn't be running unless my life was endangered. :)...although, my sister and my dad are both runners so maybe he inherited some latent gene from the Tang side. Although, from what I hear from Toon, Jay was a very fast runner back in the Army days...

Communication is Key

"Communication is COMPLICATED. We are all raised in a different family with slightly different definitions of every word. An agreement is an agreement only if each party knows the conditions for satisfaction and a time is set for satisfaction to occur."

I read that quote somewhere and thought that it was very on pointe. This relates to all people that we have to communicate with: family, spouses, bosses, co-workers, friends....

Which brings me to thoughts on how to raise Caleb to be the best person he can be. As parents we strive to keep them safe, warm, fed and otherwise free of other baby worries....and as they grow into toddler-hood, we then strive to teach them right from wrong. But then comes the more abtract values. How to you teach them to be compassionate, kind, and giving? How do you teach them to be creative thinkers and how do you teach them to keep their minds open? How do you teach them to be hardworkers but also have fun and not to grow up too fast?

Don't all parents have these worries? I realize that we teach by example as they grow but are there things that can be done to make sure that all our bases are covered in case I forget a crucial lesson?

It's Been A Busy New Year So Far...

It's been a super busy New Year so far....

Caleb and I just got back from a very short visit to Vancouver....and to anybody that's surprised that I was in town, it was because my visit was so short that I didn't really tell anybody. It was filled with family stuff and visits with my parent's friends. I'll post some pictures later.

It really reinforced that I would love to move back to Vancouver....but it also reminded me of how expensive it is to live there....oh well,....maybe in a few more years I'll be back home.

Grandma Stella was so happy to spend time with little Caleb....don't you see the family resemblance in these two?