My Dearest Husband,

Happy Anniversary! Seven years has gone by in a blink of an eye. I love you more and more each day. Abigail and I miss you a lot and can not wait to see you in one month.

Abby tried on a new shirt today with these cute lacy sleeves and we complimented on how pretty she looked. Abby must have felt her outfit lacked some accessories because she went straight to the living room after she got dressed and pulled out these Mardi Gras beads my parents kept for her to play with and started draping them around her neck.

We went out of the house with her wearing 5 necklaces. In the car, she grabbed my Chapstick and moved it all around her mouth, trying to mimic me putting it on.

I never thought my daughter would be a girl-y girl!!

Tonight, I took my brother to see a Vaudevillian melodrama. I didn't really know what to expect and had to google Vaudeville shows.

I learned of the show through my manager, who happens to be the father to the founders of the company, Handsome Little Devils Productions, and creators of the show. One of his kids continues to be a starring character.

What my google searches taught me was to expect some sort of variety show - music, dancing, comedy, drama, circus acts, perhaps animal acts, etc. I was looking forward to it and expecting it to be decent entertainment.

What we ended up seeing surpassed all expectations. The show was fantastically creative, funny, entertaining, visually stimulating, and often breathtaking. Amazing juggling, dancing, acrobatics, hilarious comedy, with original slapstick, all weaved together with light love story punctuated by the malicious plots of The Baron Vegan Von Hamburger to destroy everyone.

The characters connected well with the audience and the show was overall well orchestrated. I haven't seen a show with this much originality in awhile and it certainly was a different kind of entertainment which I wonder why we don't see much of anymore.

Last night and tonight were the World Premier shows of the Squirm Burpee Circus theater act and they will be taking it around the world. If you should get the opportunity to see this show, I would highly recommend it!

Below are a couple of links worth checking out:
Squirm Burpee YouTube Teaser
The Handsome Little Devils' Website

Cuties are great! These little golf-ball sized clementine oranges are always super juicy and sweet, easy to peel, and seedless. Last Sunday, Abby saw a display of them at the grocery store and got very, very excited. So much so that we got a box for her.

It was addiction at first bite. We could not keep up with how fast she was shoving them in her mouth. Thank goodness they're easy to peel.

That first night, she consumed 7 oranges. We restricted her to 2, but fit after fit and endless crying made us cave one orange at a time until she was finally satisfied at 7. Seven!! We thought we would end up with tummy issues that night, but we lucked out.

Her first verb-noun combination of Chinese was heard that night, too. A very distinct "Buo Ji!" as she points towards the kitchen. An attempt to say, "buo ju" which means "peel orange!"

My parents got Abby this little, red, polka-dotted rocking chair. We had to take off the rockers because she was still too small to get into the chair easily and we didn't want to risk her getting hurt if rocking too hard.

It is the perfect size for her and she really enjoys sitting in it, watching Taiwan news about former president Chen Shui-Bian's arrest.

Welcome to Abby's Daycare from Cecilia Newell on Vimeo.

I just experienced the world's quickest hair cut! I walked into the salon at 1:55PM. My coat was taken, a robe put on, my hair washed (twice) with a scalp massage, my hair was cut and styled, and the cut was paid for and stylist tipped...all within 15 minutes. As I put on my coat to leave, I was not surprised to see the clock barely hitting 2:10.

The stylist was amazingly fast. I never saw her comb, shears, or her hands very clearly - It was all a blur.

I went to a Korean hair stylist next to the HMart in Aurora. It was called Leekaja Hair Bis. I get mistaken for Korean so often that I figured it might not be bad to try a Korean hair stylist. Perhaps they will know better what would suit me.

No one there spoke much English, but they know what they're doing and I felt comfortable right away and was willing to trust them. My hair stylist came up to me and said, "Style?" gesturing chin-length short cut. I said, "Yeah." "Bob," she said. I said, "Yeah." Half way through the hair cut, she pulled my hair to one side to indicate a part direction and asked, "This?" I said, "Yeah." Her hands barely touched my hair how quickly she moved to style it and at the end, she asked, "Ok?" To which I replied, "Yeah!"

I was totally happy with the cut.

Good news - Abby's pinkeye is gone and she is over the cold that followed. She is back to her cheerful, goofy self.

I keep running across blog posts and articles touting the need for more companies to embrace the idea of offering on-site childcare. They catch my eye because I think companies with this benefit will really draw employees to the company, increase retention, and for the mothers who take maternity leave, it just might encourage them to come back to work earlier than they otherwise would have.

Several of these articles discuss the increased productivity employers will gain from their employees who know their children are well cared for and nearby. It reduces tardiness and the need for employees to leave work early significantly, due to drop-off and pick-up, respectively; It eliminates the need for employees to make an extra pit-stop twice a day to and from work, sometimes more if you need to stop by mid-day for administrating medication, or to nurse a young infant, or to simply enjoy lunch with your child.

A couple of days ago, I caught a discussion on the local radio talk show which focused on a controversial piece of data that for women there was, in fact, a signficant decrease of productivity. It is with men that a significant increase in productivity was observed. Their claim was that women had a hard time focusing on their tasks at work because their minds constantly wandered to their kids; they were constantly reminded of their kids and therefore what predominantly occupied their minds are all their motherly duties, which are mostly care-based - being with your child, feeding, holding, playing, etc. Whereas the men, when constantly reminded of their kids, recalled their fatherly duties, which include understanding the significance of why they're at work, making money to support their family!

I don't agree with this data and I believe that on-site childcare - this is different than being allowed to take your child to work, of which I agree would decrease productivity for everyone in the vicinity! - especially GOOD on-site childcare, would alleviate a lot of stress for many parents.

Companies, as they strive to instill a culture of diversity and better work-life balance, are starting to give employees more flexible hours to take care of family business such as daycare/school and many negotiate significant discounts with nearby childcare facilities. Not a terribly shabby start, but....

An interesting note from the company's perspective is that consider an average childcare facility which accommodates less than 100 kids from ages 6 weeks to age 5. Very large companies and organizations are the ones who can afford to provide a on-site facility and most have so many employees that only a very small percentage of them with kids ages 6 weeks to age 5 are actually able to take advantage of this benefit. So, is it really a fair and cost-effective benefit for the company to offer?

Anyway, it just gets me thinking that creating a business model for a daycare franchise that's employee-sponsored - such as the Bright Horizons chain employed by the Department of Energy - and targeting companies which may not necessarily make it on the Fortune 500 list wouldn't be a bad idea.

Yeah, if only I had the guts to pursue something like that....

Abby is finally back to sleeping through the night (down at 8:00 PM and up at 6:45 AM) again and I am feeling settled at my parents' house and at work. Abby seems happy at her new daycare, despite being sick for more days than she has been healthy, due to her bout of pinkeye. Today, we found out her teachers have successfully taught her to cover her mouth when she coughs. They accomplish in 2 days what we've been trying to teach her for almost a year!

The house in Maryland is listed on the market. If anyone is interested in buying a house in Montgomery County, Maryland, check out this listing (MLS #MC6912323).

We are actively searching for a new home in Colorado, but I think we'll end up finding an apartment when Paul moves out here with our 3 kitties and then taking our time to find our permanent residence.

What's left on my to-do list before I can say we've completely moved out here include:
- Getting an emissions test for the car and obtaining Colorado tags for it
- Attending orientation for my new job (it'll feel strange considering I've worked for this company for over 10 years now! Even though I'm changing business units, I actually started in this business unit as an intern in college.)
- Disenrolling from Tricare Prime, our military medical insurance (I have already enrolled Abby and myself in the group medical insurance provided by my company.)
- Finding alternative - and quicker - routes to daycare and to work (current time on road is 45 minutes each direction.)
- Finding a good hairdresser

All in all, I am feeling much more relaxed and can start to appreciate a few of the many reasons we have decided to move back here - the most important reasons being family. For example, this past weekend, we spent some time with Grandma and Grandpa Newell in Colorado Springs. It was so amazing to know they're just an hour away and we can pop in the car and go see them anytime we want now! Uncle Allen is Abby's idol and Abby is such a goofball with my parents; she provides so much fun and laughter in the house every day.

These photos accompany the Relocated post describing our status after Abby and I moved to Colorado and when Paul finally arrived, delivering the vehicle and the rest of our stuff.

Having Abby be bilingual in Mandarin and English was never mandatory, but a wishful thought. I knew we would give it a good try, but living in an English-speaking household, I didn't feel that disrupting our normal patterns to force a second language on our child would be natural.

I read an article once that to become bilingual, a child will need to be exposed to a different language at least 30 percent of their waking time. That sounds about right. To be immersed in an environment with a different language for a few hours a day is absolutely necessary to become fluent. Knowing a few nouns and verbs in a different language means little. So, when teaching Abby by holding up objects and giving them names in both Mandarin and English, or repeating requests directed at her in both languages, is probably enough to allow her to be familiar with the sounds of Mandarin - to be able to understand, but not speak - however, she will never be fluent with this small effort. She still needs exposure to Mandarin in the form of passive conversation between others to fill up parts of her day if we should wish for her to know Chinese as well as she will English.

The importance of passive conversation in helping a baby learn another language was evident last week when Abby requested a cup of milk in Chinese and also her usual sign language, having NEVER been directly taught it in Chinese. It's silly, but my mom would ask me if I thought she was thirsty for milk and I would actually translate that into English when I asked Abby. We talked about buying milk and pouring or heating up a cup for Abby in Chinese, but never used the word directly with her. Yet, a week ago, she toddled up to us right before bedtime, signed milk and shouted, "Nai! Nai! Nai!" (signing "Please" when we didn't immediately respond) and she has consistently requested her milk this way ever since.

Another really cool thing about teaching Abby some Chinese is that I'm noticing that she will select words from whichever language is easiest for her to say. It's nice that she can pick and choose to build her own vocabulary. In a way, she's being lazy and taking the easy route. I have heard that in some bilingual households, the mastery of both languages may be delayed, but fluency will usually be achieved before age 5. At the very least, giving her "easy means" to communicate however she wants - just as teaching her baby sign language was meant to achieve - gives her an early start in mastering overall communication.

With learning a second language becoming a cultural norm in America these days, we're very lucky that we can give Abby a chance to learn Mandarin. I still don't want to force the language on her, but it sure would be a waste to not at least give her as much exposure to it as practical and natural. Having moved back to Colorado and being so close to my family and the Chinese community I grew up with, her exposure to Chinese will certainly increase.

What dreadful luck! Three days at her new daycare and Abby comes home with pinkeye. I'm not upset or disappointed with the daycare at all. One of the factors that led us to choose this daycare was the attention they paid towards health and cleanliness. The kids and staff wash their hands more than any daycare I've come across and the facility simply sparkles.

We think that by letting her take her blankie to school - and allowing her to drag it everywhere with her throughout the day - probably put her in this predicament, but she needed the comfort.

I spent a good 2 hours yesterday fighting with Tricare Medical Insurance, though. See, Tricare is managed by three different companies, depending on your region. In MD, we belonged to the Tricare North region. Moving to CO, we are now in Tricare West. Our benefits do not transfer without a change of address in DEERS (military personnel database, which is NOT accessible online) and a whole lot of paperwork and waiting.

Abby needed to get antibiotics ASAP - even though her pinkeye is more likely viral - or she would not be allowed to return to daycare. We needed a prescription, but we couldn't see any providers in CO!!! After calling Tricare North, Tricare West, then Tricare North again, plus Abby's primary care doctor, we finally determined that we would disenroll in Tricare Prime - which forced us to only go to Military Treatment Facilities - and drop to Tricare Standard, which will allow us to go to any Tricare provider we find, but need to put up with co-pays.

Right before I went to pick Abby up, I was able to get a hold of Abby's doctor at Bethesda and since pinkeye is not really something you need to see a doctor for, she was happy to call a local pharmacy for me and put in a prescription for an ointment that will help with Abby's condition.

Abby insisted on having a balloon when we went to pick-up her prescription, so Grandma got her one. :)

Anyway, Abby is doing just fine. By this morning, her eye is no longer red. It is still a bit teary and the area around the eye is a little puffy from her rubbing it, but she seems a lot better.

I am staying home with her today and laundering everything that has touched her face.

Thank goodness she isn't still trying to do this.

Going Downstairs from Cecilia Newell on Vimeo.