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| Malawaina came over to see Noah last Saturday. It was so nice to see her! |
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| Saya eating a cupcake Jen made for Xander's birthday. I can't believe he is three now. |
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| Noah had the cupcake, too. It was dangerously yummy! |
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| Saya playing with iPad. |
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| I love our new door. |
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| Sean now helps around the kitchen every night. He loves to "cook" and serve food. |
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| This is the funny birthday card I made for my father-in-law's birthday. I cut out pictures from family group photo and pasted them on top of Mike's bike catalog picture. He loved it! |
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| Saya at soccer class on Friday. She is starting to pay more attention to the coach now. |
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| Saya didn't get much sleep during Sean's sleep over, so she was tired! |
November in Seattle is the wettest month of the year, usually. This is the time when we start to feel the lack of the sun and reach into the cabinet religiously to supplement it by taking Vitamin D pills. Seattle in winter can be down right depressing. Everywhere you go, you feel trapped indoor and more importantly, the type of shoes you can wear becomes very limited. Good-bye flats and converse, see you next spring! I do love boots, but I just don't like being circumscribed!
Besides being a little on the cranky side (as our neighbors could tell), we are doing well. Mike is on a 10-day business trip to Shanghai and will be returning tomorrow morning. It was hectic taking care of everyone especially in the morning, but I survived. I even pulled several playdates and a sleep over! If Mike asks me tomorrow how the week had gone, I would say "it went just fine". The memory of stressful episodes are already starting to fade in me. I call it my "coping skill" and it does come handy to keep on going!
We are excited that Aly's return date is fast approaching. She will be coming home on Dec. 23 with my Mom. Although I am happy, I also feel sad that she is leaving Japan. I felt very connected to Japan for the past eight months because my daughter lived there. She walked on the very road that I used to walk as a child, went shopping with my Mom to our neighborhood shops etc... I felt like I was living there myself through Alyson. She did so well in Japan and was very impressed with her adaptiveness. We are now busy getting her room set up with purple things, her current favorite color!
After fretting about problems I face, I always come to the conclusion that I am a fortunate person. Sometimes the reward comes much later and when it does, it returns the joy ten times greater than those attained faster. So, I tell myself and I think it is true.
