Okay, I just looked out on the web page and saw that the last update I made was back in July.  I don’t really remember if I made an update in August that Michael forgot to put up or if I just didn’t write one.  (She didn’t make one - Ed.) No matter, here’s one for the last two months. 

Let’s see.  What did we do in August?  Well, first of all, Michael took two weeks off to do stuff around the house.  It didn’t really work out the way he wanted it to.  For the first week, he was knocked out with the flu so he didn’t get much done at all.  He did get well enough for us to go the State Fair that weekend.  Nicholas had a lot of fun.  He got to watch a lot of animals and sand castles.  We didn’t go there for long though.  I think we were only there for about four hours.  At the end of the evening, while we were leaving, they set off the fireworks and he started freaking out.  He was very glad at that point that we were going home.  All we really did the whole time there was walk around and look at things.  I bought him some more bubble toys and a few other things, but that was about it.  The first part of the second week, Michael and Nicholas went up to visit Lauren and Midge.  I didn’t go because I had to work.  There are some pictures of Nicholas up there in September’s pictures.  The one’s where he’s trying to get on the treadmill.  While they were gone, I worked overtime, and then I was knocked out with the flu.  Ended up staying home for about two days.  Then on Friday, when I went back to work, Michael went back to working on the back deck.  He was determined to tear it out by that day. Well, he didn’t get that done because he accidentally put a nail through his left foot.  It was pretty painful.  He was on crutches for the weekend and basically lay on bed for the whole Labor Day weekend.  That weekend, my brother, his girlfriend, my younger brother-in-law, and I finished his deck for him because there were way too many nails sticking up from the wood pile out in the back yard.  It was a big hazard to me.  I couldn’t let Nicholas out back and I was afraid to go out back myself and since my brother volunteered to help finish the job, we might as well get it over with.  In one afternoon, the deck was gone and the wood was at the city dump.  No more nails in the backyard and it was safe again to allow little Nicholas to wonder in the backyard.

Okay, now this leads us into September.  The second weekend of September, we went to Grandma Tuttle’s 90^th Birthday party and it was fun.  We got to see a lot of Michael’s relatives.  Dawn Marie came all the way from LA to the party and we haven’t seen her and her family ever since their wedding.  It was also the first time I met Conner and Kyle.  They are really grown up now.  I remember seeing pictures of them when they were really little.  The party was a success, of course, and after the party, we all went over to Uncle Ron’s house to chat.  Nicholas and Joy Marie were playing in the backyard and you can see those pictures on the September page also.  After that, we went home.  Oh, we found out that day that Richard has a new girlfriend.  I haven’t seen her before (nor has Michael), but from Richard’s words, “She’s nice.”  I am really looking forward to meeting her in person. 

Let’s see, after that weekend, everything went downhill.  I caught some sort of bug.  I have had it ever since last Wednesday.  Thursday was when it started really hitting hard.  Then on Friday, I went to the doctor and the doctor told me that I had an ear infection.  That afternoon, I had a temperature of 104 degrees.  At one point in time, I’m freezing and need to comforters over me to keep warm, then the next thing I know is that I’m burning hot and need to take a cold bath before my brain burns.  This continued on through the weekend and into the next workweek.  Everyday around, 4 PM, I’m always having a temperature of at least 104.  On Monday, it was at 105.2.  When I told the nurse about that, she thought I meant 100.5, but I correct here on that one.  Another thing was that my cough was getting worse.  Whenever I cough now, it hurt my stomach.  Maybe I’m just coughing too much.  I went back to the doctor’s on Tuesday and she told me that my ear infection was getting better and that this fever thing will last about a week to 10 days.  She also said that I could not go back to work until at least Thursday and that all depends on how I feel.  Well, it’s Thursday today and I’m finally back at work again.  I feel a lot better now.  Just kinda dizzy and still coughing like crazy.  This cough is one stubborn one.  It has been around for more than a week now and no medication seems to be getting rid of it.  My fever is under control now.  I don’t think I have gone over 100 ever since Tuesday night.  Michael has been very patient with me this past week.  He not only has to work, but also take care of the baby, the house, and me all at the same time.  He also had to get those pictures of Nicholas and Grandma’s birthday party out on the web this weekend.  I think he’s worn out by now with all the stuff he had to do.  I feel so bad for not being able to help him out.  All I would do was lay in bed.  I barely had the strength to walk or move during the weekend.  Luckily, neither Nicholas nor Michael caught whatever I have.  Michael doesn’t think that it’s contagious.  I’m just hoping no one gets whatever I have because I really don’t want anyone to suffer through what I had to go through.  For the past week, I haven’t been able to play or be around Nicholas and I guess for that reason, I have noticed that he has gotten a bit chubbier.  Every time I hear him crying, I really want to pick him up or every time he comes up to me, I want to play with him, but I couldn’t because I just didn’t have the energy to do so.  This weekend, I’m going to make it all up by taking him out to the park to play.  Hopefully, I will have fully recovered by then.

Yesterday was our bowling night and at first, I didn’t think that I was going to be able to go since I was still pretty sick.  Amazingly, by Wednesday, I was doing a lot better and by the evening, I had a lot of energy back.  Michael finally was convinced and allowed me to go bowling.  Bowling would have been fun if we didn’t have to bowl with a bunch of pathetic people who knew nothing about common courtesy.  One of the gals that were there took forever when it was her turn to bowl.  She would go out and take cigarette breaks in the middle of a game and we would all be waiting on her for like ten minutes.  Well, I ended up talking to the league secretary about it and she, half drunk, started a scene about it.  Then she went and got all her friends and started asking why we had a problem with her.  We tried calmly and civilized to explain to her “friends” that she’s the one at fault here, but we ended up giving up on that.  All we wanted was the game to be over with and go home.  Thank goodness we are not ever bowling them again.  I am also going to try to ask that they not be put next to us.  They are a bunch of teenage (or college) drunks.  She continuously bluffs that she’s from a family of bowlers and if you ask me, then she should be totally ashamed of herself.  All decent bowlers (decent human beings) know that it’s not right to have other wait on their time just because you feel like going out for a smoke or want to continuously talk to your friends.  The thing that really pisses me off about her is that she goes up to her friends and make it sound like we are the ones at fault and she’s the innocent little one who’s being insulted.  I guess there are all kinds of people in this world and I hope I never have to run into another one like her.

Let’s see… What else is new?  Oh, yeah, one of my younger sisters was given a kitten from her co-workers and she wants to keep it, but my parents do not allow cats in the house.  (Chinese superstition – cat bring poverty and dogs bring wealth) So she has asked us to help her house the kitten for three weeks.  She has said that she will move out in three weeks and will take the kitten back then.  It’s a really small little thing.  Michael thinks that it’s only about four weeks old, but my younger sister told me he’s 6-weeks old.  His name is Boa and for now, he’s a guest at our house.  Oh, boy, this little guest is one active one.  He kept the both of us awake last night.  He kept playing with my hair thinking that it’s a string or yarn.  I ended up hiding underneath the comforter to avoid the little guy.  He also purrs really loud and he does it right next to your ears.  Amazon and Cat are not too happy with this new cat around the house.  Michael told me that this morning when he went to feed them, Amazon and Cat was eating their food when all the sudden, the little one came by and started eating their food.  Both of them went into the computer room where Michael was and just gave Michael the “he’s eating our food” look.  Once they saw the little one again, they realized that he was not eating their food anymore so they scrambled out to eat their food again.  Amazon was out of the house once he was done with breakfast and for once, Cat wanted to go outside.  So, the little one has the whole house to himself.  I think he likes being with us so far. 

Nicholas.  Oh, he loves the little kitten around.  Of course, like all the other cats, he wants to carry it and pet it.  With this little one, he can do that, but we don’t want him doing it too much because we are afraid that he might be a little too rough.  Nicholas chases after it all the time and is very excited about the little guest at our house. 

Okay, that was what I wrote yesterday about Nicholas and the kitten.  But last night, Michael said that Nicholas was not too fond of the kitten anymore.  For some reason, he is now scared of the little one.  Whenever the kitten gets close to him, he starts screaming.  I am hoping that it’s only a phase thing and will go away tonight or maybe by the weekend.  As for the kitten, it’s getting to be a handful.  It turns out that he’s not really litter box trained.  Michael said that he used the restroom all over the house and cleaning up after it was a tough job.  Last night, around 2 in the morning, he used the restroom on the bed and that was not good at all.  The whole night, I was a bit paranoid that he would do it again.  I don’t know if we are really going to continue to keep the kitten.  I mean, it’s a big handful and Nicholas is not too happy with it around anymore.  We have to talk to my younger sister about other arrangements. 

Okay, now, on to the most important update of them all, Nicholas!  Well, he’s doing really well.  He still can’t put words together, but he can sure understand us.  He’s also very good at distinguish what is garbage and what is not.  He will take the garbage and dump it in the garbage can.  He will take his diapers and put it in the diaper pail.  He will put the bowl and dishes into the sink when he’s done with the food.  He has also gotten better with brushing his teeth.  Now, Michael can do it alone instead of having me hold him down and he doesn’t complain too much about it anymore.  He still loves taking baths.  Now, after we washed him, we leave him there to play around in the water for a while before taking him out and when we do take him out, he knows how to pull the stopper from the drain to let all the water out.  He knows how to say “shoes” and from watching Pokemon, he can say “Jesse” every time Team Rocket says their slogan.  He may not know how to say too many words, but he can sure listen and understand us.  He’s still not too good at going to sleep early instead of midnight.  I think it’s somewhat our fault for allowing him to stay up so late sometimes.  He won’t go to bed until we do and we, ourselves, stay up pretty late.  We are trying to figure out what he likes and what he doesn’t like.  I mean I know he likes rice, but he can’t just have rice every meal.  We tried giving him hot dogs, but I’m not too sure he likes those too much.  He was eating corn for a while, but he’s kinda tired of those also.  He was having a lot of bread during one point in time.  Maybe he just needs something different everyday, but because of the fact that the proportion that he eats is so small, having a variety of food around usually means that a lot will be thrown away at the end.  Let’s see… what else is new about him?  Fall is almost here and it’s time to get him new clothes.  He has outgrown a lot of his summer shirts already and they are already at size 3T so his winter clothes are going to be 4T at least.  It’s not cold yet, but I just want to make sure that he has warm clothes to wear when he needs it.  He’s growing into a very handsome and cute little one and I’m very proud of this little boy.  I’m sure one day he will be talking and then, we’ll probably wish that he would stop.  I really look forward to that day.  Until then, this is all I have to say about the past two months of our lives.  Hope all of yours was fun and happy.