Chris Chen dot See Eh!
Family, Finances & Tech
Bubba at Play
Apr 10th
Now that he’s at an age where he can really get around, Thomas is totally entertaining to watch while he plays. Not only does he motor around the tot lot or the gym, but he says and does some of the funniest things.
I never thought sitting at the playground doing nothing for an hour would be much fun – no Web access, no music, no stock quotes — nada! But watching my little man is better than Sunday afternoon TV.
I wonder how he’ll play with Sarah when she’s able to keep up with him. I’m sure it won’t be all good times and rainbows between the two of them, but watching it will be fun either way.
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- Excavation one bucket at a time
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- He could do this forever
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- Shovelin’ rawks
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- That’s my boy
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- Working hard
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- Gaaah??!!
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- WTF?
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- The boy loves gates
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- Please, no pictures
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- I own this rocky thing
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- I may need some backup
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- Hey Dad – smell this
A Natural Big Brother
Apr 9th
During the final months leading up to Sarah’s arrival, Alex and I were worried as to how Thomas would handle the new kid on the block and what we would do to ensure he didn’t feel like he was second fiddle. He’s always been curious and quite interactive, so we decided that asking him for help with Sarah would make him feel that he was getting the attention he otherwise had focused on him.
Well lemme tell you, it’s working like a damn charm.
He has naturally (or oddly?) embraced Sarah and is extremely gentle and expresses great concern, with his trademark “UH-OH!”, whenever she cries or makes a peep otherwise. He’s quick to drop whatever he’s into, run to her side, and find out what’s wrong. It’s really something. And although he’s a bit shy to sing, we’ve caught him on occasion serenading his little sister with his signature muted-under his breath vocal stylings. I haven’t caught that on video yet, but trust me, it’s RE-DONK!
In this video, Thomas gives his little sister a much needed bottle of ni-ni (milk), while sneaking in a few feels of her head (his signature move first witnessed with cousin Xavier)
Sarah is settling in nicely so far. We were all geared up for sleepless nights and marathon cluster feedings, but she’s quite different from Thomas in this respect. She eats quickly, sleeps for 3 hours thereafter like clockwork, and does this around the clock! Almost makes me think a third one would be fun. Almost.
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- Gimmie that bottle Mom
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- Are you getting this on film?
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- She’s feeding well Mom
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- Sarah is alright
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- Hug time
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- Mmmmuuuhh
Introducing: Sarah Alexandra Chen
Apr 5th
I was right! For the past 40 weeks, Alex was walking around with our baby girl in her tummy, and I called it! It’s nice to be right since it doesn’t seem to happen as often as I think it should 
Sarah was born April 3, 2010 (a full ten days late) at 12:50pm, tipping the scale at exactly 8lb, 6.9oz, 53cm long, after few hours of really hard labour and 10 minutes of amazing pushing! Ladies, I don’t know how you pop those kids out, but I take my hat off to each and every mother.
Our morning started off casually as we knew Saturday was induction day. We planned to wake up, have some breakfast, drop Thomas off at Grandma & Grandpa’s, then make our way to Lions Gate Hospital to get the show on the road. But after all the waiting for Sarah to kick the contractions into gear, Alex’s water broke around 3am Saturday morning, and our casual morning turned into a flat out race to the hospital. Our doctor advised us that after the short labour with Thomas, should Alex’s water break this time around, things would likely happen very fast. So we made it to the hospital in record time (about an hour), this included getting Thomas and ourselves ready to go, dropping Bubba off at my parent’s place, then ripping off to the hospital. I felt like my years of watching auto racing and episodes of Dukes of Hazzard, A-Team, and Knight Rider were all for something after all!
After getting setup in the delivery room, it wasn’t long until Sarah came into the world wide-eyed and curious, barely a whimper or a cry, and very hungry — a stark contrast from her big brother Thomas. She took to Mommy immediately and it seemed like she was really checking out the faces of her family present in the delivery room: Mom, Dad, and Aunty Allison. Shortly after, I was on the phone to relatives and text messaging Jeremy, Scarlett and Xavier who were in Philly on vacation.
We hung out in the delivery room for a few hours then made our way to the Maternity ward and our new room for the next 24 hours. The evening and night went quite well, compared to our experience with Thomas. I think this was partly because of our past experience and partly because Sarah is more developed than big brother Thomas who was three weeks early.
We’re now home and settling into life with a newborn again. It was a real whirlwind few days, but we’re trying to find our groove and look forward to introducing the little one to friends and family in the coming weeks.
And as always, future pictures of Sarah and the rest of the family are on our family album at http://www.chendynasty.com
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- All ready to go
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- Everything looks good
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- She’s a thumper!
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- Fresh from the oven
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- Hello little sister
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- Our family
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- Hello big eyes
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- A long hard day
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- Cozy
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- Who’s missing from this picture?
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- Re-DONK
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- All ready to go home
Another Cool iPod Use
Mar 29th
I don’t own an Ipod (I’m a Blackberry fan myself), but I’m amazed at the cool thing users are able to do with their smartphones. This girl uses three iPods to play Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” while dropping some great vocals on top! Mad skillz!
Let me know if you have any other cool uses for your iPod, or do you have an iPad already?
Thomas at Our Playground
Mar 10th
Since starting my three month paternity leave, I’ve started to learn what it’s like to spend entire days with Thomas; and I’m still to learn what it’s like to do this for weeks on end, and looking forward to it! He’s a really fun age right now, and I feel like I have a new play-buddy, except he doesn’t drink and I have to change his poop a few times a day .
Bubba is already able to climb the bars and get up to the top level and shoots himself down the slide. It’s a bit nerve racking, but he’s a champ. It feels like only yesterday he was learning to roll in our Maui condo.
With our next one on the way, I really get it when people say “they grow up so fast.” Alex is ready to go at any moment. We’re in the redzone, but my guess is things start happening March 12th. And I think it’s a girl.
I’m looking forward to some serious quality time with T-Bone. We’ve got Imagination Station every Wednesday, story time at the library, and Little Dippers at the local pool when possible. I feel so grown up.
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- My boy loves the rawks!
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- One of many shovels in his pail
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- Serious excavation project in progress
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- Dad – is that your Blackberry taking a picture of ME?!!
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- Setting up for takeoff
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- Getting ready to launch
The American Economic Collapse in Brief
Jan 23rd
The economy is not much better today than it was in 2007 when the recession began. There’s been many major events from the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, to the massive bailout efforts put forth by the US Government, to the seemingly stunning stock market recovery during 2009.
In the past week, we’ve seen some signs of the “recovering” economy faltering and possibly the begin of the long predicted pullback. The Globe and Mail published a great little summary of the events in the US, how the people were screwed by bankers time and time again, and what Obama plans to do to make those bankers pay.
I particularly like the part about financial industry lobbyists returning “home on their private aircraft, where they were served fried puppy for dinner by their personal chefs.”
USA, USA!
Thomas Visits Santa – Year 2
Dec 8th
Great picture!
We made it to the mall before Santa and were only behind one Mom with her kids. Thomas was ready to bust through the rope and run to Santa, kinda like a dog with his eye on a steak 20 yards away. When it was finally our turn, Thomas took off like a juiced sprinter in the 100 metre dash. As he got within a couple metres of the fat man in the red suit, he froze and looked back for us.
Alex put him on Santa’s knee, and we were wondering how he’d react. My money was on a full scale tear fest. But as usual, I was wrong. He seemed really curious about everything around him: the reindeer, the lights, the Christmas buildings with cotton snow, and this dude that was holding him while we all waited for a smile or a cry. Alex managed to tickle him (Thomas not Santa) just enough to get a couple good shots. The end result as you can see below was pretty damn good.
My boy is a champ. What can I say? Merry Christmas!
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- Great picture!
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- Thomas with Santa
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- No crying going on here
Christmas Tree…done.
Dec 1st
This is a new personal best for our household: The Christmas tree was trimmed by November 29th. Mind you, it’s a fake one; but a damn good fake if I do say so. A few pine cone air freshners doubling as ornaments and it’s just like the real thing.
Thomas was ripping around the living room in his Santa outfit as Nat King Cole rattled off some yuletide cheer in the background via MP3 (of course). Nothing in the key of St. Nick to be found on the digital TV music channels just yet — too damn early I guess.
But that’s not stopping the Chens from getting our jingle bells on, and stockings hung.
Goodbye Grandparents. Hello Cousin.
Nov 23rd
Today was a busy one.
Since I had the day off, (I’m working the coming Saturday), and Thomas’ fever was over and done with, we decided to see Grandma and Grandpa Cryer as they left town to start their new life in Kelowna, followed by a visit with Uncle Jeremy, Aunty Scarlett and baby Xavier – our inaugural visit was cut short.
We were 1/3 the way to West Van when Grandpa called to say that they were ready to head for the Okanagan to make sure they get in with daylight ahead of them. So we re-routed to Caffè Artigiano in Burnaby for a morning drink. Perfect for us since it’s only a stone’s throw to Jeremy’s place. We spent some time chatting about this and that, and before we knew it they had to get on the road. Thomas had fun hanging with Grandpa, trying to pry his Blackberry from the holster to press them buttons!
We said our “see you soons” and were off to see Xavier. When we arrived, the little guy was sleeping, but that didn’t matter to Thomas. He quickly made himself at home, opening doors and sliding open cupboards like he owned the place. We ended up hanging out for the day. Thomas had a tough time getting down to his nap, but when he finally passed out, he was out for a good while.
Grandma and Grandpa Chen came by (they hadn’t seen their grand kids in 15 hours) with lunch. We left for home shortly after to beat the rush hour traffic. So ended another weekend.
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- Loving the attention
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- Checking email
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- Proud Aunty for the 6th time!
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- My new nephew
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- Hello baby Xavier
Xavier Clifford Chen. Son, Nephew, Cousin.
Nov 20th
Baby Xavier - aka the X-Man
We didn’t have a chance to visit Xavier on November 19th because 1) I worked until 8pm and 2) Thomas was rawking a fever from a bout of roseola. I was a bummed that I couldn’t be there that evening, but Alex and I were determined to visit the hospital Friday night since I finished up at 4pm. We were hoping Thomas’ fever would break and it did just that. I ripped out of work (later than I wanted to) loaded up the troops, and ripped it across town to Women’s Hospital in a monsoon like downpour. I can’t remember having driven in heavier rain – even for Vancouver!
When we arrived, Xavier was feeding and having a bit of a tough go. So we waited down the hall and tried to occupy Thomas. My parents kept him busy as he ran around from one person to the next, eating his snacks and drinking his bottle. His fever started to creep up a bit, so we gave him some Tylenol to keep him cool. Big mistake. He unloaded his stomach all over himself and me. Which was good time because Xavier was finished feeding. Alex and I took turns sticking our heads into the room to meet the little guy, make sure Scarlett was okay and pay our respects. We all wanted to see how Thomas would react to the new kid on the block, but we had to save that for the next visit. We took off with puke-boy in tow, back into the rain, home to PoMo. All the while enjoying the pungent odour of milk, food, and everything else he consumed that day.
It was a busy evening to say the least. But it was all worth it. Totally worth it. I got to meet my new nephew, see my parents become grandparents for the second time and see my little brother become a Dad before my eyes.
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- Thomas with Grandpa’s mug
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- Xavier Clifford Chen
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- The proud parents with baby Xavier
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- The X-Man
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