smitten!

I confess! I'm smitten. I can't wait to show you Caleb's little dimple on his right cheek, if I could just catch it on camera. Well, I guess he is only three days old; there's time yet ;o) He has already changed since this photo was taken (his eyes are less 'puffy'). He checks everything out now, and while I am feeding him, he tracks Karl's face with eyes. Pretty miraculous!

More to come!

more pics

Caleb is doing very well; we are on our way back to the hospital for an evening feeding. Wanted to show off some more pictures... wish we could call each of you with updates! We will be in touch soon...

He has mild jaundice and is receiving some phototherapy; here he catching his rays!

It's a boy!!!

It's a boy!!!

I guess that's not exactly a surprise. The surprise was when Dayna woke me up at 5:30am Thursday morning and told me, "I think we need to go to the hospital." My first thought (Dayna doesn't even know this yet) was "are you sure, he is five weeks early." Fortunately, I have learned from my first and only prenatal class that the first cardinal rule for deciding when to go to the hospital is whenever she wants to go. We arrived at the hospital at 7:00am. To make a long story very short, Dayna gave birth to Caleb Sing-Kwong Chu on July 26^th, 2007 at 8:55pm. He weighted in at 2,449 grams (5 lb 6 oz) and was 46cm (18 inches) long.

Despite being five weeks early, Caleb has been breathing on his own since birth. He was put under a temperature regulator but did need it anymore in a few hours. He is still getting half his nutrition through an I.V., but he is doing real good feeding as well. When he is able to feed normally, he will be taken of the I.V. and he will likely go home shortly after that. Dayna is also healing quite fast and well. We expect Dayna to be able to come home tomorrow (Saturday).

Caleb, a biblical name, has the meaning of faithful and bold. We want him to have the same faithfulness and courage as Caleb in the bible. Sing-Kwong (承光) means "to bear light" or "bearer of light". We want him to be a light of the world (Matthew 5:14-16).

Where to Start?!

I can hardly believe that it's been nearly a month since I blogged last. Karl has broken a record... two consecutive posts before I got back to it! I'm not even sure where to start; it's been a jam packed month, but full of all those "that's-what-summer-is-for" happenings. I bet pictures is the best place to start:

Forsyth's June visit: Zoo Trip

Forsyth's June visit: the guys took the kids to Science World so that my mom and Melissa and I could go do a birthday/girls' day. We had an awesome lunch at the Brava Bistro, and Melissa and I each got some cute 'birthday money' outfits. Mom was the fashion consultant ... and financier :)
My 31st birthday was on 07/07/07... crazy eh? Maybe I am extra lucky now? Too late; I already feel like the "luckiest" gal around :) great friends, great family, great husband, great baby on the way... and how about that Skor bar blizzard DQ ice cream cake?! YUM.I am done my CCUFairs position and spent last week hiring my replacement (she's fabulous); Karl assembled an armoire in our living room so that we can have a more accessible computer; my office is in the basement, and I was in the habit of using the laptop in the kitchen... but the laptop is not mine, and went to its new home with Julie :(

Next on the furniture assembly priority list: our new crib and baby-change-table-dresser! Maybe when the weather cools off a bit (they're upstairs and boy has it been toasty warm in these here parts!).
And last but not least in my summary of what feels like the busiest month ever (I didn't even get started on my uncle's wedding, and can you believe I missed pictures of the chocolate fondue and finger nail painting with my cousins (13 and 17 years old)?...

Tonight's Dinner: mmmmandarine chicken salad with cashews and pea pods and perfectly grilled-by-Karl chicken


It won't be as long of a break until next blog... I am working a couple of weeks full time at my church, then I am officially off on maternity leave. If baby waits long enough, I will have nearly a month off before he comes. All is going well with Baby Chu by the way! Six more weeks (sigh!). We had our first prenatal class on Thursday and that was already good for some laughs.

My Mom and Trent head off to Vegas in a couple of weeks; I am not jealous of the heat they will have there, but I am definitely jealous of their tickets to the Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil's "O".

I think I hear some left-over DQ ice cream cake calling my name... :)

Malt Beverage

Dayna and I went to the Calgary Co-op to pick up some grocery this afternoon. I saw this "Malta" drink and decided to give it a try... and now I can claim that I have given it a try...

It tastes like watered-down carbonated molasses with a slightly bitter Milo aftertaste. It is not that bad, but I had it with my supper. So in contrast with the mandarin chicken salad, the bitterness was very pronounced.

It is now about ten minutes after supper and I am just finishing the last bit of it. It is a bit more enjoyable but I probably won't have it again. Nevertheless, it was definitely a worthwhile adventure for the day.

My new favorite quote

If everything is under control, you are going too slow. - Mario Andretti

"It's Almost Canada Day" Barbecue...

With good friends in from out of town, Canada Day coming up, one of the said good friend's birthday, and never knowing when to trust Calgary weather, we hosted a barbecue at our place yesterday...




Thanks for coming everybody!

~Karl & Dayna

Weekly Awards

I call them weekly awards... a friend/colleague/fellow blogger of mine calls this kind of post "the junk drawer": kind of odds and ends piling together in a single post. We've had a busy week and have a couple more busy ones coming, so I suspect you may have a series coming.

Comic of the Week:
Holiday of the Week: Father's Day. It wasn't as bad as I anticipated, being the first one after my dad died. It was great to focus on Karl's new role as dad, and we had friends in town with a three year old girl, so that was cute too. Us gals made the guys waffles for breakfast before church, and I got Karl a dad-sized shirt that says "V 1.0" on it and a baby sized shirt that says "V 2.0" ... computer guy humour. No pics until Baby Chu gets to be the model! That night we went for a barbecue at my Step-Dad (of nearly 15 years) and Mom's house, so it was great to celebrate with them too, because Trent means a lot to me.

Visitors of the Week: Our good friends the Schafers; Rich was the best man at our wedding and Melanie was one of my bridesmaids. Sophie was just barely "along for the ride" at that time in mommy's tummy!Martha Stewart of the Week: Jane Kruger! I went for a visit to pick up some of her amazing Stampin' Up! cards, and she had this gorgeous Dahlia in one of her pots:

"No Kidding?!" moment of the Week: Finding out that the biggest brand of "duct" tape is actually "DUCK" tape. My husband is a genius.

"I Know a Celebrity" of the Week: My brother-in-law! An author! Check it out on Amazon


Baffled-but-won't-ask-out-loud of the Week: Handicapped urinal? But I know what you're asking out loud, the answer is Karl took the picture :)

Last but not least...
Baby Chu Update of the Week! I am officially at the 10 week countdown... Baby Chu is kicking up a storm and already waking me up for early morning feedings... usually at 4:30am. Overall, things are still going great... Here are two belly shots from a couple of weeks ago (bad hair day) at church serving communion with Karl:














Funny enough, the shirt is not even maternity... I am pretty lucky with the acceptable style right now! Baby-doll shirts and LONG t-shirts. Perfect!

Happy Birthday Honey!

GO AWAY!!!

I came across this web site, and its colour is screaming, "Please go away, or I am gonna hurt your eyes!"

Update...

We went for a little drive today to see if we could find the house that was hit by lightning... the news photo looked like the area right across from our house. We didn't have to drive far! It turns out it is just around the bend from our house, but at an angle that we couldn't see from our windows so we missed all the action last night. I'm pretty glad we didn't get too much action! Here's a photo I took earlier tonight...

crazy storm

We had some crazy thunder, lightning and flooding in Calgary last night. I took some videos, but they don't really do it justice. At lunch today I told my friend Stacey that we didn't have the usual volume from the frogs in the pond across the street from us and she said, "you know it's bad when the frogs are drowning!"

Here are some other photos... one of a house that got struck by lightning in my neighbourhood (Tuscany) just across the way from us... I could smell smoke and Karl was checking our basement to see if something had shorted out down there... but it wasn't us!

(I didn't take these photos they were emailed to me, I am unsure of the original source...)


Lightning in Tuscany:



























Flooding on Glenmore:


Other flooding:


I can see how the first car got into the depths, conceivable not knowing just how deep the water was... It does kind of make me wonder why the others followed...

Anyway, the forecast is for sun tomorrow! Hopefully sunny for Karl's 35th birthday on Saturday :) Banff here we come!

Ah, nothing like the downpour of a thunderstorm after a few hot days (I know you BC folks may beg to differ, but we like it). Karl finished mowing the lawn merely minutes before it started raining... perfect timing.

Yesterday I did a bit of garage sale-ing and got a new jogging stroller. Not that I'm a jogger... but it will be good for walks on the paths around our place. I am also looking at what to get by way of our 'real stroller' ... from online reviews it looks like looking for light but sturdy is the way to go... plus parent cupholders and lots of parcel storage? It seems like some of these reviewers are asking a lot though... The dilemma for me is whether to go with a double/tandem right away, or wait until we actually have 2 kids...

Here's our $40 steal (the closest rendition I could find, too lazy to take a pic myself!) the best part being that the seat adjusts so that the baby can face you too):
At the same garage sale, I picked up an infant bathing tub with a fabric-holder-insert thing, a pile of receiving blankets and hooded towels, and a couple of books. Where on earth are we going to put everything? By the time Baby Chu arrives, his room will be overflowing!

Making supper now, maybe more later :)

Last Hurrah...

I just returned home from YC (Youth Conference) 2007 in Edmonton... 16,000 attendees, 12 Christian Higher Education Canada members (the organization that I work for)... reservations for 20 at Moxies for all of us social butterflies... good times!



It was a bitter sweet weekend for me. One of my favourite parts of my job is conferences and connecting with the reps and partner organizations. This was my last event :( I realized that the next time I see most of these reps will be in the fall when they come through Calgary on the CCUFairs (my main job responsibility is coordinating the fairs), and I will be pushing a baby carriage and showing off Baby Chu! I am jealous to be missing the fairs, but ready to be a mom too... For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven (Eccl. 3:1).

So you thought a guitar is hard to play...

I was ripping a CD of classical Chinese music. One thing led to another, and as a result of that, I found this video on YouTube. The instrument played there is called "pipa". The composition played, as introduced in the video, is called "Ambushed from Ten Sides", which portrays an epic battle in year 202 BC that led to the establishment of the Han dynasty. Here is another short description of the piece. Hope you enjoy it.

May Flowers?

So, it turns out that it's a good thing I didn't give my flower boxes too much attention last week. A lot can happen in Calgary weather in a week! I am very jealous of the Forsyth's trip to Disney World... but hey, I get to go to Edmonton tomorrow. WooHoo! ;)

Automated Dog Wash

posted by Karl:
I watched a short story on the Weather Network about an automated dog wash. I thought it was pretty cool and proceeded to search for a video so I could blog about it. Apparently, it works much better for dogs than for cats. :P

Just Peachy...

Mom & Trent enjoying the peach crepes and each other's company :)My Amma with her peach crepe... and her first ever Latte! She'll be a Starbucks-a-holic before we know it!
Thank you to my hubby! The crepes and peach sauce were incredible.

Now that it's raining... I need to figure out a "Plan B" for the barbecue we were supposed to have tonight... hmmm...

Cooked Peach Sauce

I volunteered to make crepes for Dayna's amma, her mom, and Trent tomorrow morning. So I adapted the Cooked Strawberry Sauce recipe I made for Dayna and prepared my own version of "Cooked Peach Sauce". It is too simple of a recipe to not share with anyone, so here it is:

Ingredients:

• One 14-oz can of peaches in juice/syrup
• One tablespoon cornstarch

Directions:

1. Dump the whole can of peaches, juice and all, into a saucepan. Do not apply heat yet.
   
2. Use a potato masher and mash up the peaches
3. Add the cornstarch and mix it well
4. Put the saucepan on medium heat and cook until mixture is boiling
5. Continue to boil for one minute or until sauce begins to thicken. Stir constantly while cooking.

Easy, piece of crepe!

Mother's Day & Groovy Grandma...

My step dad and his brothers got their mom (my Grandma Jacquie) a helicopter ride for her 79th birthday... here she is!


And we went to an "edutainment" Mother's Day brunch buffet at the Calgary Zoo... could become a annual tradition! I missed pics of the chocolate fountain though :(

Mom and me

Trent & Jacquie

Trent enjoying his
favourite food group: bacon