last day of 2009

A couple of days ago, Binbin went to see his cardiologist. She listened for his heart murmur...



Binbin was very still and cooperative, earning Dr. Hourihan's praise. Everything checked out normal, and so...



we headed to the rock climbing gym. Here climbing with Baba on belay...



Here, bouldering



All in all, Binbin did great and is looking forward to the next trip to the gym!

Merry Christmas

Warm holiday greetings to one and all! We are all very grateful to be celebrating the holidays together at home this year. Santa was extra generous to Binbin this year (more on the loot and the loot sled later).

I did squeeze in a quick (too quick, really) trip to Los Angeles to visit my newborn nephew, Kieran Lee Xia'an Furlong. He's a keeper, even though he's keeping his parents up all night.



Debbie gave me lots of hand-me-downs, which is always an extra bonus. This lavender fleece hat was perfect for this year's snow man, made on Christmas Eve.



Also, on Christmas Eve, Ah-Gong and Ah-po sent a gift basket of crackers, cheese, and fruit. Binbin promptly took possession of the basket and transformed it into a nest for his many convalescing action figures (missing limbs and so forth).

snow, for real

Last night we had our first real snowfall of the year, about 6 inches. We came home after sauna and dinner at my friends Amy and Spike's place, and even though it was well past bedtime, we indulged Binbin's request for playing snowball fight. He woke this morning, and his first thought was to look out the window to see if the snow was still here. A resounding, yup! Even more than the night before. The sun was up, the sky was blue, and the white fluffy stuff had coated all the tree branches and trimmed all the rooftops and windowsills. Gorgeous! The perfect day to get our Christmas tree. We'll be heading over to Hummer (undoubtedly a name a pre-dates the gigantor gas-guzzling auto-beasts) Tree Farm just as soon as Binbin can change out of his pajamas...lickety split.