20 Months Apart

Well, here's the proof:

We are technically 8 weeks and 3 days into Baby #2. This means the baby should be due some time around the beginning of December (Crew's birthday is 12/1). Susie is terrified of a VBAC so we'll probably pick a day in week 38/39 that will be convenient.

By the calendar, Simon would be 2007, and the new baby would be 2008...but they're on opposite ends of the Calendar. Cary and Kelvin were only 10 months apart (both born in 1975)...that would have been insane. (Kudos to Grandma/pa Ning)

We had a big pool at my office trying to figure out gender and hair-color which I'll eventually start-up again soon. But here are some of my thoughts regarding Pros and Cons for gender. Feel free to add comments for additions or criticisms.

Baby Boy:
- It'd be great for Simon to have a brother to romp around with
- We wouldn't have to buy any clothes for a long time
- Males are considered lucky in Chinese Culture
- We wouldn't have to save for college AND for the wedding
- Less drama overall

Baby Girl:
- Susie would lose her fear of having all boys
- Grandma Ning would be completely ecstatic (she still would be fine with a boy...)
- She would need all new clothes
- Who are we kidding...we'd have to fend off all the boys when she turns 14
- Simon would be able to look out for her

Behold...he walks

So, it's been quite awhile now that we've known that Simon could walk. He's done 1, maybe 2 steps between furniture, but he always looks for someone to offer his right hand a finger before he really starts to walk anywhere far.

This was kind of annoying for awhile since you ALWAYS had to be there for him to find a finger just in case he needed to move...if you weren't there, he wouldn't be happy.

Of course, on Saturday, he really decided to take off on his own. He's very secure and is walking quite well as you can see in the video.

Simon turns 1

Well, we've finally hit the 1 year mark. At his last check-up, here were his stats:

25.5 lbs (90th Percentile)
32 inches (95th Percentile)

We invited a small group of people, and family to come by and do a housewarming / Birthday party for Simon. The Ning grandparents gave Simon this nifty red wagon. It comes complete with a canopy, seatbelts, and backrests. Simon's here with his greatest new friend, James from the PA1 Ward. Seeing as I changed jobs (maybe I'll post about that later...) I had a couple of days off in between and Susie wanted to build Simon a sand-box. We downloaded plans from Lowes.com and off I went. Jared came by and offered a hand. Apparently, none of my other friends are all that great with a hammer. I felt sorry for the left-handed Jared as he used the rotary saw designed for right-handed people. Oh how the lefties suffer.

Susie made a really simple cake...or should I say assembled a really nice cake. She used the ever-so-hard to find Nabisco Chocolate wafers and layered whipped cream between and on top. She then covered it with M&M minis. Obviously, Simon has never seen a cake that he could eat, so when he saw the M&M's, he went TO TOWN on those little guys.

When he was out of M&M's, he finally got down to business with the cake.

As his proud parents, we could never have anticipated the joy this single baby has brought into our lives. We feel blessed that our Heavenly Father chose us to be Simon's parents. He is always so happy and easy to enjoy.

The Binky Mule

If Binkies were ever illegal, Simon could make a great mule. Susie called me while I was at work saying that Simon had stuffed the entire binky into his mouth. I told her, "of course, that's what he always does." She said, "No, he stuffed the entire binky, including the retainer and ring."

Now there are pictures to prove it.

Paige McFarlane's Baptism

This is the McFarlane Clan Right before we left for the church.
We took the opportunity to take a family picture as well. Yes, Simon is wearing his Easter outfit.


Yes, this was a San Francisco reunion. It was so good to have everyone gathered around like this. All the kids were running around and we were all able to pariticpate in the confirmation of Paige as a member of the church.

We want to make a special note and say how proud we are of Paige's decision to be baptized, and allowing us to come up and participate in this special occasion. For those that are unfamiliar with the LDS faith, here is a link regarding this ordinance.

Visiting the McFarlane's

This last weekend, we took up a trip to see the McFarlane's. We took off on Thursday at 2pm and assumed that it would take 9 hrs to get to Eugene. We forgot that we were starting an hour south of San Francisco. We ended up arriving at around midnight. There was a note to have us just enter in the front door. We looked around and Rob came out of the restroom carrying his laptop surfing Ebay. (Sorry Rob, had to mention it)It was good to see the girls and Crew. We had a lot of fun making making funny faces and solidifying eternal friendships.

Simon and Crew were like best buddies. Rob and Kelvin did a lot of errands with the boys which was probably easier than taking the 3 girls and their cousin McKensey.

Yes, that's right...Rob is cooking.
Look for the purple bag, they're DARK. They taste so much better. We finished off several bags while we were there.

The only thing that would have made this weekend better, is if the Wilkinson's came down. Unfortunately they were deathly ill and we were all so sad. Apparently Abby and Emma cried for an hour saying, "But you promised that we could see them!!!" We all nearly cried for an hour also when we got the voicemail. We'll have to make other arrangements to see each other again.

Simon the Farmer

I know, we haven't had any other pictures of our new place, just pretty much Simon playing in the dirt. He is slowly becoming a red-neck