Cuddle

Safe and secure in Daddy's arms

Focus on the cute baby, ignore the grinning ogre.  Picture was taken by our friend Ilona... thanks for visiting us!

We're well into the fall season.  The leaves have changed colors and many have fallen.  It is getting cold!  Baby Bunny is nice and toasty warm though.  It's such a treat to cuddle up with her.

Yesterday, I heard a talk given by my colleague on global climate change due to human activity.  It was quite depressing.  The drastic weather patterns (severe thunderstorms and record snow falls) we've been experiencing have been primarily due to increase in temperature globally, perhaps better known as the green house effect.  We've been burning fossil fuel, releasing the CO2, but also cutting down the forests.  Trees complement us so well when they take up the CO2 and convert it to sugars and other organic matters.  Glacier ice in the Arctic have shrunken so significantly that it's scary.  Where we should all work together to salvage what we are able and reverse the trends, we've sadly made this really important issue very political.  Sure hope Baby Bunny will live in a world where we take better care of the resources given us.  In the mean time, we are preparing for another rough winter ahead.

Notice I'm wearing my Philadelphia Phillies sweatshirt. Another sad note...  The Phillies had the best season ever, winning 102 out of 162 total games this year.  They had the best winning record of all the baseball teams, too.  You think they would be playing in the World Series right now?  Nope!  They pathetically lost in the first round of playoffs.

I promise my next post will be more uplifting!

Live, Love, Smile!

Smile, Baby Bunny!

Huh?

Smile?  Like this?

This better?  Like my little dimple?

Baby Bunny has been smiling!  No giggles yet.  We're working on it!

By the way, at 3.5 months old, Baby Bunny has more than doubled her birth weight.  She now weighs about the same as a gallon of milk.  Yup!  We're getting a good workout picking her up and holding her.  Soon enough, we'll have to move her out of her bassinet and into a real crib, now all ready to go with bedding and lady bug mobile.  Don't grow up too fast, Baby Bunny!

Neglected!

Poor neglected Doggie!  Going anywhere with the baby takes a lot of planning ahead.  Before she arrived, our Sundays composed of going to church then to Mom's house for lunch.  That's when I get my fill of Doggie.  She gets a quick rub down and her teeth brushed.  We haven't been to church in about 3 months now.  I've seen Doggie here and there since we've been to Grandma's house several times, but sporadically.  Doggie and Bun Bun haven't officially met.  Hope they'll be the best of friends.

Grandma

There are pictures of Grandma back in 2006 when we visited Taiwan to celebrate the Chinese New Year.  The last time I saw her was just this past January.  She passed away a few days after Baby Bunny was born.  Grandma celebrated her 101st birthday in May.  Baby Bunny would never know her great grandmother.  But, they kind of have met.  I was barely 3 months pregnant when we visited in January.

Most of what I know about my grandmother are stories my mom told me.  She raised seven children, lived through the Japanese occupation & WWII, was grandmother to ten grandchildren and great-grandmother to two great-grandkids.  I got to spend one whole week with her in 1995 when I visited Taiwan after college graduation.  At that time, she still walked to the market and grocery store; I had a hard time keeping up with her!  She spoke the Cantonese dialect and had a thick Mandarin accent making her hard to understand sometimes.  That was a fun week nonetheless.

She is greatly missed.

Globe Trotting

One of my favorite preachers is Chuck Swindoll.  His sermons are broadcasted on radios and available on podcasts.  He loves to tell stories and jokes during his sermons.  One that I will always remember is his retelling of a Christmas gift he received when he was a child.  He had wanted and begged his parents for a basketball.  Come Christmas morning, he saw a round package under the tree.  When he unwrapped it, it wasn't a basketball but a world globe.

I thought of this story when we first learned that Baby Bunny has Down syndrome.  During the pregnancy, John and I talked about the hopes and dreams we have for our daughter.  She would rather be smart than pretty and a nerd just like her parents.

When I was pregnant, people always asked if the baby was a boy or girl.  Before we found out, we really didn't have a preference as long as the baby was healthy.  I thought then, well, even if the baby wasn't perfect, we would still take him or her home.  Perhaps I had a premonition that something maybe wrong.  After all, I am older, nearing the end of my child bearing years.  Children bore to older women have higher incidences of chromosomal abnormalities.

God gives perfect and good gifts.  Baby Bunny is none other.  We have no idea what her future will be like.  Down syndrome is exhibited differently in different individuals.  We are fortunate that our daughter does not have many of the physical ailments that often come with the diagnosis, like heart defects and gastrointestinal issues.  One of the biggest challenges is low muscle tone which makes daily physical activities difficult, even something as simple as sucking.  Baby Bunny actually has pretty good muscle tone.  The other biggest challenge is low mental capacity.  But, there are some Down syndrome individuals with fairly average IQ.  At this point, it's difficult to assess how Baby Bunny will do as she grows.  We're enjoying this wonderful gift God has given us for now and savor each moment.

Chuck Swindoll may have wanted a basketball, but his parents knew better how much more he needed the globe.