Welcome 2014 and December Highlights

He’s just my size!

Happy 2014, all!

The last weeks of 2013 here in Seattle brought with it a bit of snow and some nice family time together as we celebrated Jesus’ coming to earth to rescue us. With less than 7 weeks till baby Grace is due, Andrew and I are trying to make the most of our time with Timothy before it gets busier around here. We laugh often at the little guy’s enthusiastic dancing and numerous requests as his vocabulary and understanding grow. I love watching him learn more Cantonese each week and use it in his everyday chatter. Although tantrums and frustrating willfulness are increasing with this age (coinciding with increased fatigue at this stage of my pregnancy!), I’m thankful to help shape Timothy as he develops into a little boy.

Starting to rock out more
Come here, Stewie…
Not into Santa 😉
Timothy picks out his clothes sometimes
Come on, Stewie!
1st Starbucks drink
What is this fluffy stuff?
We kept our snow day indoors
Enjoying his hat & mittens inside
Unagi temaki is a big hit!
Excellent squatter
Walking towards the basket
Mama joined in the fun
We’re working on riding forward
He preferred the bears to opening gifts
Tearing into a present from Papa and Mama
Timothy sure is a gift that keeps giving
Enjoying our little hand-me-down desk
Lots of dancing with the snowmen and penguins
He enjoys having Stewie in the house
Timothy’s memorizing books more now
Yay for Christmas!

Merry Christmas 2013

postcard-5inx7in-h-front

Merry Christmas, family and friends!

2013 brought our family many blessings for which we’re grateful.

Andrew continues to do well on the Instant Video team at Amazon. It’s also been a joy for him to serve our church by using his technology gifts to improve processes and create valuable tools to use in building God’s kingdom. Andrew and Jenny both enjoy serving in the kids’ classes at church on Sundays as well.

Jenny is continuing to enjoy and be refined through her roles at home. She loves caring for Timothy and experiencing so many of his early milestones. She also hosts and co-leads a women’s weekly Bible study. It’s wonderful to have our home filled with all generations of women hungry to learn from Scripture, along with many busy babies and toddlers.

Timothy had quite the year with learning to talk, play, walk, dance and much more! We love seeing his sweet little personality continue to emerge and appreciate seeing him help out around the house with chores. He continues to bring many smiles and laughs to family, friends, and folks we encounter while out and about. His favorite activities include enjoying books, being affectionate with his stuffed animals, exploring outdoors and eating lots of food. Stewie (our 9 year-old rabbit) seems somewhat acclimated to friendly Timothy and doesn’t appear to mind all the attention and petting too much, especially since they’re accompanied by fresh produce treats.

We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary and continue to learn much about God’s intent for marriage. Our little family took a few trips this year for weddings and had fun making some memories. We experienced the beautiful island of Maui in March and Timothy seemed to relish his first taste of the tropics. Another trip to Toronto allowed Timothy to meet much of the extended Ma family. We are saddened to have lost Andrew’s Grandma Ma in November, but are thankful that Timothy got to meet his Great Grandma Ma in April.

Looking into 2014, we’re very excited to meet our second child (first daughter!) Grace Elizabeth in February. Timothy seems pleased to be a big brother and already hugs and kisses his little sister while she’s still in Jenny. We are thrilled to welcome a baby girl into our growing family and welcome your prayers for us as we learn to raise a daughter.

With lots of love, Andrew, Jenny, Timothy (1½ years) and Grace (coming soon)

November Highlights and Thoughts

Hooray for bright crunchy leaves!

We had so much to be thankful for this last month!

A quick road trip at the beginning of the month to celebrate friends’ wedding allowed us to enjoy a bit of time in Vancouver together. We were also happy to have some beloved visitors this month in our home. I entered my third trimester with baby #2 so we’re pleased to be in the home stretch of the pregnancy and meet little Grace Elizabeth next year. We’re anticipating the good news of our second nephew’s arrival at any moment now and look forward to being able to introduce Timothy to his new baby cousin after Andrew’s brother and his wife have their second little guy.

He takes after Papa in being industrious and helpful

We celebrated Andrew’s birthday this month and it was a nice relaxed day of hanging out and enjoying some of his favorite foods. It’s such a pleasure to see Andrew grow in his love for our family as an outflow of what the Lord is doing in his life. I’m blessed to witness God grow him as a husband, father and church servant this year and am excited to see what’s coming in the years ahead for Andrew.

Our Christmas tree and decorations have been up and it’s so fun to see Timothy enjoy them more as we try to share with him the great meaning and hope of this season. He especially loves the singing/dancing penguin and snowman animatronics we have – so much dancing and clapping goes on with them throughout each day!

It seems he’ll hug anything fluffy

Timothy started giving kisses to people (instead of only stuffed animals, dogs he meets and books) while Grampa Ma was visiting this month so that’s been sweet. It’s one of my absolute favorite forms of affection from him along with his daily hugs. He moves to all sorts of tunes and really rocks out to Christmas music; we can’t help but join him in the goofiness sometimes. It’s gotten too cold to go out much, but we did get to take in the last of the newly fallen leaves and nice weather before the month ended.

“Hello?” – Silliness in a box

 

We ventured into the world of larger family vehicles by purchasing a new car this month. You can find us cruising around in our red Mazda5 nowadays. My pregnant body is grateful for the ergonomic height of the car and the sliding passenger doors are terrific to have with some of the cramped parking situations out here. As with other changes happening around the house lately, Timothy appeared to adjust quickly and happily to the new vehicle. I’m glad to make use of the increased space with our growing family.

Timothy’s personality and busyness continue to delight us and we’re eager to see how he transitions into being a big brother. He already seems pleased with his new title and still loves to hug and kiss his baby “妹 妹” (little sister) everyday. It’s hard remembering not to call the little guy “baby” so much anymore since he points to my belly and actually says “baby”…but we’re pretty sure we’ll think of him as our little baby for a long time to come.

Enjoying the last sunny days

We enjoyed abundant Thanksgiving celebrations with several sets of friends in the last week of November. It was Timothy’s first enjoying the holiday table foods (directly anyway ;-P) and it was fun to see him continue to expand his palate by gobbling up turkey, ham, and stuffing. I am immensely humbled with our numerous blessings this year as we enter the Advent season in anticipation of Christmas. As Grace Elizabeth grows and moves actively inside of me, I think more about the wonder of Jesus’ coming to us in the form of a helpless baby to save us; a wholly undeserving and rebellious people. We’ve been in the book of Malachi lately with our church family and it’s hit me hard again that we truly don’t deserve any of the blessings we receive. Every gift is a sign of grace from God and He alone deserves the glory and praise, no matter how much I try to clean myself up and put on a good front. With my outbursts of impatience and ingratitude, I pray that God would redeem my days with Timothy and help me to point him to Jesus in my sins and shortcomings.

Enjoy this season of reflecting and celebrating the Savior’s birth!

October fun and photos

Here's another pine cone, Mama!
Here’s another pine cone, Mama!

October sure flew by for us! We are enjoying the beautiful autumn colors here and curious little Timothy is relishing all the pine cones and leaves he gets to pick up and examine. There are still enough dry breaks with all the drizzling around here that we’ve been able to take walks and explore outside, which is great for our busy little walking guy. Books, toys, indoor chores and yard work just isn’t getting Timothy’s energy spent enough at home sometimes so we’ve taken to roaming malls during rainy and cold days…some of you may be (understandably) surprised to learn I’ve become a bit of a mall rat lately.

A few highlights in Timothy’s development this month are his asking for many hugs each day, the loud smooches he gives to stuffed animals and (wants to for) dogs, and the snuggles he gives to his baby sister already while she’s growing inside of me. We’re pretty sure he probably doesn’t understand his big brother status, but it’s still very sweet that he likes to hug my growing belly and pet it affectionately… although, I probably won’t feel quite the same way if this continues after Baby Grace arrives. 😉 His little toddle looks like it’s going to develop into a run soon so we’re mentally gearing up for that, too. Timothypettingdog

Timothy’s languages are really coming along now and it’s so fun to hear him add “car”, “bus”, “truck”, “meat”, “bird”, “tiger”, “owl”, “bear”, “apple”, “pear”, “banana”, “avocado”, “hug”, “Bible”, “book”, “tree”, “eyes”, “pants”, “hat”, “shoe”, “socks”, “cat”, and the Chinese titles for all of his grandparents to his vocabulary as well as make lots of animal sounds. One of my favorites is the leaf-chewing sound he makes for giraffes – it’s so hilarious! I didn’t know what else to teach him for that animal but it cracks me to watch him remember that sound and repeat it when he sees a giraffe. He’s quite fixated on fruits and animals lately and it’s amazing to watch him absorb and learn so much through books, toys and interacting with us. 

Timothysmilingwithdog

We truly hope you enjoy celebrating with loved ones and giving thanks in these upcoming weeks and months – thank you for keeping up with our little growing family!