A few snaps of Em B in Dec 2011
New Year’s Resolution Post More
Wow another long stint without touching this blog. I don’t really have much of an excuse, I am on the computer a lot, my phone has a app that can post to the blog any time yet I still manage to be such a slacker. My resolution for the blog this year is to post more. At least once a month if even just a photo or anything. I am going to try to keep my posts shorter, but more frequent.
Here’s a few great photos from recent events:
Four Generations of Women – taken in August 2011 in Hawaii
Here’s a few photos of us this Christmas:
Emery is One!
Our wonderful Emery turned one today. It’s been amazing to watch her learn and grow out of the newborn and infant phase into a little babbling little person. Although she is only one, Emery has learned many things at this point. Emery can:
– crawl
– sit up and roll
– pull herself to a stand up
– stand without support while drinking a bottle or carrying objects
– stand while holding nearby support and walk or side shuffle
– feed herself small cereal, cake, pieces of fruit or bottle
– perform gestures on request (when she feels like entertaining): clap, wave, open and close palm to show bye bye, shake head and nod for no or yes, pat her chest when you ask her where is Emery or Monkey, hold her hand to ear when you say hello? and telephone, put up one index finger when you ask her how old she is.
– Emery is also starting to babble more and make a combo of noises with gestures. She is getting good at doing the index finger point and making a single not sound
Emery’s motor development is fascinating but her personality development is equally interesting. Ashley and I as well as all people that meet her have these common observations:
– Emery is really easy going, she adapts to her surrounding and does not fuss as over new experiences or new environments. She is good on the plane, with crowds and moving from place to place and sleeping and playing in different homes.
– Emery is not shy and lets anyone carry her and does not shrug away from people. She tends to stare at them.
– Emery is serious. She does not smile at strangers often and will warm up if she knows you but her defacto facial expression is more serious and all business
– Emery is persistent. When she wants to get something, do something, Emery will not give up. When trying to stand up, Emery did it over and over again one night until she got it. When she wants to crawl somewhere she will not be stopped whatever obstacle is in her way. She will grab objects and even if I swat her hand 10 times she will continue to grab. She does eventually get frustrated but soon goes after the object again.
Here are some pics of Emery during her birthday bash weekend and days around it.
Emery on AstroTurf
We took Emery to the Atlantic Station’s park where they have some AstroTurf. We thought Emery would enjoy the freedom and crawl to her hearts content. Unfortunately Emery was really unhappy with the prickly plastic grass and made all sorts of funny faces.
Another Trip to India
On the plane back from about 12 days in India. I went to Delhi and Gurgaon again to meet my team and work with them for a week and a half. This marks my fifth time to India and in total I think I have logged almost half a year combined stay in India.
As far as work trips go, India is a bit more fun but I did not get a chance to sight see nor did I really feel the need for it. A weekend was just too short to go anywhere far and cool and I had already explored dehli numerous times. This trip however I did learn finally the game of Cricket and got into watching two games of the 2011 World Cup. This was actually a historic moment for India who national sport if Cricket, Cricket and more Cricket. I partied with a few coworkers/friends and watched the highly emotional India-Pakistan semi final match which India won. On Saturday I watched the entire game of India vs Sri Lanka. India won. The whole country went crazy and it was amazing to see such an event in India. I think the last time they won was in 1983. I went down to the hotel lobby just in time as India won the world cup. People in the hotel weren’t just cheering. They were dancing. Guests and hotel workers alike hugged and danced together. Then this guy started to throw cake around and smeared half the people in the lobby with cake. Since I was there I got it too and also gave back some to a buch of others as well. Pretty soon the whole hotel lobby was slippery with pieces of cake. Needless to say, it was an experience.
Meeting the team in India was excellent and I was able to finally learn all 40+ peoples names. We worked some long hours as I had a lot of meetings during the day with our leads there and had to run some meetings in the e evenings with our clients. It was really great to meet them face to face and we discussed and i hope took a lot of actions against many issues. Here’s a pic of the Michelin team.
I also got a chance to meet some of their families over lunch on Sunday. Anuj, Kumar and Bahri have really cute kids and they we the center of our attention all through lunch. We ate at BBQ nation, a North Indian Grill. The food was excellent, except i thought the appetizer was the main course because there was so much food!
This time, I was able to meet up with Abi. He showed me his office and even one of his contraction sites. Abi was nice enough to take me around Delhi as we went jewelry hunting to buy some nice but affordable India style earrings and pendants. We eventually found a nice store in Karol Baugh a old market area in Delhi.
I had a great time in India, didn’t get any food poison, brushed up on my Hindi, met up with old friends and met new ones and learned how to watch cricket. I still really missed Ash, Emery and Nai Nai however and I am really looking forward to be home.