Okay, it’s time again for another update of the kids. 

Well, both the American and Chinese New Year have come and gone.  2002 was a very memorable year.  Of course, the most memorable thing was having a new addition to the family.  He has added so much fun and joy into our life.  I just can’t imagine living without the two little ones.  They are so adorable. 

Well, as stated above, the Chinese New Year has come and technically not gone yet, but close enough.  A few more days and it’ll be over.  For those who don’t know, Chinese New Year traditionally lasts 15 days so it’ll be over on the 15^th of February.  We had a lot of fun during the New Year celebration.  Both Nicholas and Zachary were dressed in traditional Chinese outfits and both of them looked adorable and cute.  We took some pictures of them and should be putting them out in the February pages.  I also bought myself a Chinese dress.  I was thinking about going and taking some picture with the kids in the Chinese outfits this weekend.  It all depends on how we all feel.  During the New Year, we were at my parents’ house a lot.  On the second day of New Year, which was last Sunday, my parents’ had a big celebration.  You see, on the second day of New Year is the day I’m suppose to be returning to my parents’ house with gifts.  Well, that morning, I went to the Chinese supermarket to buy these “gifts.”  I had both Zachary and Nicholas with me.  We didn’t go until it was almost noon because I knew that in the morning, there were going to be lion dances and firecrackers going off and Nicholas doesn’t like those.  I was playing it safe, but I guess not safe enough. When I got there, they were just about ready to light the firecrackers.  I thought that I would have had enough time to take the kids out of the car and run into the store, but I was wrong.  While I was in the process of taking the kids out, they lit the firecrackers.  Nicholas was so freaked out that he rushed back into the car.  I had to close the car doors to close out most of the noise.  Zachary was fine, but I still covered his ears because it was so loud.  Nicholas was so scared that he refused to go into the store afterwards.  I eventually convinced him to go in with me.  Besides that, Nicholas had a wonderful time that day.  He was playing with all his cousins and all the other kids that were at my parents’ house.  Overall, I have to say that this year was pretty fun.  I took that Monday off because I knew that I would be too tired to go to work.  It was a good thing because I was really tired from staying up and partying. 

The kids.  They are doing okay.  Zachary caught something right before the New Year and is currently trying to recover from it.  At one point in time, he was so stuffed up that his eyes were every sticky also.  I mean, whenever I wiped off all the nasty things off his eyes, more would be there within minutes.  Thank goodness this only last a day or so.  Currently, he’s still a little stuff up and coughs a bit every now and then.  He doesn’t have a problem sleeping at night anymore because he couldn’t breath.  At least now, I can give him his milk and he’ll go back to sleep.  Every now and then, he might complain a little, but not much.  Zachary is already 7 months old.  It’s amazing how time flies when you are having so much fun.  I can’t believe how fast he has grown and he continues to remain extremely healthy and chubby.  He still doesn’t know how to crawl yet.  He’s been trying.  He can move himself a little by little on the floor, but after a while, he gets frustrated and ticked off.  He’ll start crying by then.  The walker, on the other hand, is a different story.  He moves extremely easily using the walker. I am afraid that we might be allowing him to be on the walker too often and not enough on the floor.  I am hoping that he will be able to crawl by the end of this month.  He is also very different from Nicholas when it comes to baby food or any other type of food like soups.  Zachary will eat almost anything while Nicholas, at the same age, refused to eat solid baby food.  With Zachary, it seems like we’re not feeding him fast enough.  He would open his mouth and be finished with the food before we can scoop up another serving.  He loves to eat solid food.  He also likes to try new things.  I have had extremely great luck with him and all the different types of baby food that I have gotten him.  He seems to like them all.  He’ll also try all sorts of soup.  The other day, he was eating the noodles from Michael’s chicken noodle soup.  Nicholas would never try something like that.

Well, Nicholas.  He’s doing fine.  He’s the only one in the family, so far (knocking on a lot of wood), that seems to be in great health.  Both Michael and I have been sick also with what I think is the flu.  (At least that’s what my doctor told me that I had.)  He’s learning a lot of new things.  Lately we have been trying to focus on getting him to speak more Cantonese instead of English.  He can understand Cantonese but his replies are always in English.  He also speaks Cantonese with an English accent.  Sometimes, it’s funny when you hear some of the words that he tries to pronounce.  My parents have been trying to use all Cantonese when speaking to him and has been trying to make him reply in Cantonese also.  I guess a lot of it is my fault that he doesn’t reply in Cantonese.  I mean I always speak to him in English because that’s the primary language that we speak at home since his father does understand any Cantonese.  He’s so use to replying in English.  He has forgotten that he can also reply in Cantonese.  Well, we are starting to talk to him more in Cantonese so maybe he’ll still be able to pick it up.

Well, that’s about all that I have to talk about right now.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine’s Day.  I hope that your significant other got you a wonderful gift that you’ll like.  I know that Michael will like his!