Victor my son, you are now one year old! We opened up the little pen to more of the house so you can run around and explore.

That is an important thing for your life, to go and explore and discover what you like, what you are interested in, and what you are good at. It will be important as you think about your future work. Finding what you love to do will allow you to focus on doing that as a profession!

It’s hard to believe at this time last year, you were still inside your mommy waiting to be born. We still didn’t know if you would be a girl or a boy. You were expected to come soon, but we didn’t know exactly when of course.

Now, nearly one whole year later, you are more like a little boy than a baby. You can walk and nearly run, you call call for mama, and you are laughing a lot.

You had to fall down a few times to know that walking on the sofa was dangerous. As my Dad told me, give you space to do things, but watch closely and make sure you are alright.

I feel there are lots of things to be careful about and wonder how can I both keep you safe but also let you learn. There are some things like art and music you can really try freely, but things like addictive drugs that you should never try at all.

Eventually, you will be your own man. I must do my best to set a good example. I notice now that you emulate me. When i smack the tree with my palm, you will watch me and hit the tree with your palm as well! So I try to be my best.

You’ll be one year old soon, I feel you are already so smart, fun, and communicative than I imagined you could be so soon.

I think soon you’ll start to develop your own values as well. I already can see you are independent and have your own ideas. You will pick up toys to play with and picture books you like on your own. So soon you’ll be thinking about what you want to do. That will tell you what you value, what is most important to you. Those things may change over time as well. I honestly would like to spend all day everyday with you playing and learning about the world. I have to pay the bills, so I go to work for many hours everyday, which hurts me because I rather be at home with my son. My goal is to get my Internet business to make enough money so I don’t have to go to the office and can spend more time with you!

Hey my son!

I’ll tell you, you absolutely amaze me everyday! Everyday you can do a little more. I was so happy today because you put one block on another block by connecting them! You may think that is no big deal, but actually we have been working on that, and you did it today for the first time! It actually takes some hand eye coordination and practice. You hadn’t been able to do it before. I think you also had to learn that it was even possible to connect two blocks together.

Another thing that made me happy was as soon as I walked into the room after you woke up, you stood up and walked across the bad and jumped into your Daddy’s arms! What a great feeling that you are as excited to play with your Daddy as he is with you! So we went into your play area grabbed the blocks and number cards, trucks and books and began to play. Its usually like this, I build the blocks up and you knock them down. But you are starting to learn how to build things too. Today you got under the table and tried to stand up but hit your head and got upset because you couldn’t stand, that was another learning experience. Oh, another exciting this is you started hitting the keys of the piano, instead of just the piano. It just shows me you are learning everything. You watch everything we do. You tried to be like Daddy and hit the piano but you didn’t know where the sound came from. Then you realized the connection between the keys being pressed and the sound, and now you play them! You really love books, you love to turn the pages and look at the pictures. You laugh at the pictures and use your own hands and fingers to turn the pages! I didn’t teach you that, you figured it out on your own.

Its like you are naturally curious to learn about the world and you will try anything and everything, and Mom and Dad are here to guide you along and help you learn, but you are super proactive and try everything yourself. I remember my mother telling me how amazing and smart I was as a little boy, and now I finally can see my own son and think wow, he is so amazing and smart. I hope you’ll have children some day and know the total joy of having a wonderful child. Of course its not always easy to keep up with you because you have 10 times more energy than your mother and I, but its amazing and wonderful to be with you everyday!

Before you were born, I thought I’d have to teach you to stand and walk. Boy, was I wrong! You amazingly learn to do so much on your own. You’re a self-starter. You stood up on your own and you use the sofa to walk on your own. You love to crawl around and you climb over everything.

Its funny to me that you like to do things your way as well. For example, you have your own way to play with toys. I may try to suggest another way, but you stick to your own way. I figure another month or two, you be walking without any help as well!

My son! I remember just 7 months ago, in the delivery room, as soon as you were born the doctors and nurses wrapped you up in little blanket and set you beside your mommy and I. You were just born! Its amazing to think about that day and just as amazing to think how you’ve already grown and developed so much in these past 7 months! You are hardly the little 3.5 kg baby anymore. You are nearly 10 kg now and your head and body have really filled out.

In the first few months after you were born, we could put you on the bed, you couldn’t move very much. You would flail your arms and legs, but you couldn’t get anyway. But since you learned to rollover, you really started to move around a lot. You can crawl around, and since yesterday even use your toes to push forward! You can climb over my leg and almost stand up if you hold on to something. Your hands, arms, and legs have really gotten strong, sometimes you pull the hair right out of my head!

We put a big mat in the middle of the main room for you as your play area. We have lots of toys, but it seems your favorite is the little blue star. You grasp it and even if we carry you to the park or store, you hold on to that blue star!

You have a great little giggle. If we look at you in a funny way, and bounce you on our leg, you giggle and laugh like you are having a great time. That is great for me to know that you are enjoying yourself and happy.

It’s amazing how much you have grown and changed over the past 6 months. I can’t believe you are more like a little person than a baby than a baby. You can laugh, move around, giggle, smile, cry, and communicate. When you look at us and wave your arms, you lets us know you are excited or your frown, you let us know something is not right and you are unhappy. Its amazing how much you can communicate without knowing any words yet. You mother discovered you respond to hearing your Chinese name now. I need to work harder at helping to hear and understand English. That is one of my goals, to make sure you are completely bilingual. You mother always speaks to you in Chinese, and I speak to you in English.

I worry a lot about your future, maybe too much. I often think about what to do if you want to play video games so much, or do something like stick your arms out of a moving car when you get older. I want you to be safe and healthy your whole life. Being a young boy myself before, I was pretty confident and outgoing. I felt my environment was safe, I had friends in school, and my parents loved me, that’s important to have that in your life. As your father, its my job and responsibility to make sure you are safe and have a good environment to grow up in. The influences of your friends and environment can have a huge effect on your life. So much of what happens in your life depend on the choices you make. One small decision can change your entire life. Paying attention, learning to know when to play it safe and when to take a chance, listening to your heart and intuition can help you make good decisions and keep you safe and healthy and hopefully prosperous as well.

You really enjoy looking at the computer screensaver. My computer always shows pictures of the planets and stars as its screensaver. You sometimes stop whatever you are doing and stare at the images. I wonder sometimes if your spirit was flying around with the stars and one day came to Earth and became my son. Or maybe you just like the movement and colors. Nonetheless, you do like the pictures of planets and starts, so I will try to remember and introduce you to more things about Astronomy as you get older. I took an astronomy class when I was in college and really enjoyed it. After that class I could always look into the night sky and recognize Jupiter, Mars and Venus and know where the planets would be and what to look for.

Science is really fun, its surprising that everything you learn, even if it seems useless at the time, can help you or will show itself some time in the future. So learn as much as you can.

This was a big day, you could flip over! After this day you started moving so much!

Today was a big day. We took you to get your 6 month check up at Dr. Xie’s office. She is a great doctor who seems to really care about children. She has a been a great help to your Mom and I to make sure you are doing well. You are 8.8 kg, 44 cm around your head, and 69 cm tall. Completely normal and healthy! Our job and biggest responsibility is to continue to keep you healthy and safe, while trying to teach and prepare you for being an adult. Dr. Xie told us we also need to start feeding you fore rice meal and vegetables which will be a challenge as you already love sweet fruit like apples. We’ll just have to find a way. One think you’ve been getting good at is mimicking us. Just like the other day I play the little xylophone piano and you hit the keyboard with your hand just like your Dad. I was bursting with pride because you had watched me play and you tried to do the same. I also use that skill you have to entice you eat healthy food as well. If you don’t seem to like the food we make, I eat it in front of you and you tend to try to copy me. the other day you even at a little spinach, but we could see you didn’t like it very much. You had a frown and made a face like yuck! So sad, but so cute too.

After we took you to the doctor’s office, we went to the International grocery to buy some food. I also stopped by my work office and showed you off to my coworkers and students. They all gathered round and looked at you and smiled. You were very well behaved, I think you were also in a bit of shock as you have not been around a lot of people yet. Its important for you to get out and see the world even at this age.

You change so much so fast, its hard to keep up with this blog. Just a couple weeks ago I would sit you down to play with toys and you couldn’t hold yourself up. You’d fall forward or fall backward and I would have to prop you back up again and again. But nowadays I can sit you down and you can hold yourself upright! That is just amazing. You seem to figure out how to do stuff all on your own.

I put a little ball on a block and you reached for it. Several times you simply knocked it over, but finally you actually grabbed that little ball with your hand and held it! I was just amazed you figured it out so quickly. You were born just a few months ago and you can already hold yourself up and grab a little ball placed in front of you. Its just amazing to me.

I bought lots of block toys. I always thought it was fun to build things and stack things on top of each other. I figure you’ll might like that too. I often feel bad we can’t go outside as much as I would like. The weather was cold and wet during the winter and not really appropriate to for taking a newborn outside. Its gotten a little better after the Chinese New YEar, hopefully we can go to the park more soon.

Its fun when the sun comes out and we all go to the park. The first few times you would just fall asleep as we carried you. You would cry as we put your winter suit on you and you especially hated when we put your hat on your head. However, as soon as we stepped out, before we even got to the sidewalk, you went straight to sleep. Nowadays, you stay awake much longer and look around. I really appreciate that you are curious about the world and your environment. You look at things like cars and trees and other kids playing, really take them in. I suppose you are thinking about what those things are.

I try to smile and talk to you. Even though you may not understand specifically what I say, you seem to know you are being talked to and smile and your eyes brighten up. I think you may feel good that someone is trying to communicate directly with you. I’ll ask you questions about things like what are you looking at or what is that thing? 

You try to hold anything that we put in front of you. You are curious and that is good attribute that will serve you to learn and grow over a lifetime.

Sometimes I think about what kind of questions you will ask me in the future and how I can answer them. What is the meaning of life? What should I do if I am treated unfairly or badly or I feel sad. What to think about relationships or dating? What is really important in this world? I wont go into my thoughts on these answers just now, but I will share a little something my father told me when he got older. He said don’t get too happy or too upset about anything. What I think he meant was don’t let your emotions get out of control even when you’re happy or unhappy. Things may never be as good or bad as they seem at the time. In other words, you might say, stay cool and don’t fly off the handle.

I suppose you don’t need to hear those words now, you’re only a few months old, you are doing just fine as you are!

You were about 3.4 kilograms when you were born. Hard to believe you were that little. That’s like a couple of hand weights put together.  I have barbells that weigh several times more then you did. Your Mom could easily pick you up and carry you. At that time we could only cradle you in our arms. Your neck muscles were not developed yet and couldn’t hold up your own head. We’d have to support your head. Maybe a couple months or so later you started to hold your head up on your own. Your head would shake a little bit as you struggled to hold it up and would still need mommy and daddy’s support. But now that you are nearly five months old, you can hold your head up on your own and even turn it right or left to look at things you are interested in and look at where sounds are coming from. Nowadays, you don’t like to be cradled, you prefer to be held head up so you can see and look around.

We weigh you frequently to measure how much you’ve grown. We get so excited everytime you get a little bigger. In the first month you grew so fast, maybe nearly doubled in size. Once we started feeding you apples and bananas and carrots, you seemed to grow much faster. Going on 5 months now, you are closing in on 9 kilograms!