Johnny, Jack and I made it back to California safe and sound. We rolled into the apartment at around 9 p.m. last night, exhausted! I bathed Jack, fed him a pre-bedtime snack (since he’d eaten dinner and fallen asleep on the plane) and put him to bed. Then I unpacked only the essentials, made a quick dinner for me and Johnny, and we practically fell asleep as soon as we’d eaten. As we predicted, Jack woke up at 3 a.m. this morning — which would be 6 a.m. his body time (because we were in the Eastern time zone all last week). He did go back to bed but woke up for real at 5 a.m.! Johnny got up to play with him until 6 a.m., when I took over and Johnny got ready for work.

So, as always, it’s been a rough transition back to the real world! I’ve gotten a lot done at work today, though. Now, one thing that does help ease the transition from vacay back to the grind is to look back on some sunny vacation photos. So, here are some that I didn’t get to post last week:

Hooray for swings

Babies, babies and more babies! Johnny holds Jack; Will holds Audrey; and Shannon (Audrey’s mom) holds our niece Maddy. We were all headed to the beach

Beach photos — me pouring sand on Jack, and trying to get Jack to raise his arms and stand independently; family pic; and cute cousins together on the shore

Jack practicing to be in a Huggies commercial

Jack, looking adorable in Maddy’s stroller

At the playground on the beach

And finally, everyone loves a picture of naked babies in the tub. Here’s one of Jack and Maddy.

“Interesting,” Jack says. “She has an ear, too!”

Now I’m going to work on catching up on the posts I missed. If I don’t get to yours, please forgive me — it’s always so hard to read all the posts that have accumulated during a vacation!

If you can believe it, it’s been one whole year since Jack was born. Here are a couple of pictures from July 12, 2007:

When I checked into the hospital

Jack greets the world

What a difference one year makes. We had a lovely birthday party here at the cottage for Jack today. It was our last day here — perfect timing!

Jack in his birthday outfit (not to be confused with his birthday suit)

He had a lot of people to help celebrate!

For Jack’s party, I made salsa, garlic and lemon chicken wings and a sparkling berry vodka spritzer (for the adults). Johnny made white fish pate, which was delicious, and we set out a crudite platter. I made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. As soon as everyone had gotten settled with some food, we started the first activity, which Johnny dubbed “grabbing your destiny.” It’s a Chinese tradition to present a baby with a variety of items on his/her first birthday, each representing a certain career. Whichever item the baby grabs first is what he’s going to be when he grows up. It’s all in fun, of course, and no one takes it seriously.  We presented Jack with a hat from a golf club (in hopes that he might be the next Tiger Woods), a whisk (for a chef), money (for a banker or businessman), pen (for a writer), a policeman’s hat, and some other items.

I get ready to set Jack down in front of the items

Jack faces his destiny

Well, Jack grabbed the money!! It was funny because he stared at the items for a long time, as if considering. Then, he crawled toward the five dollar bill and picked it up. We all clapped and cheered, which caused him to immediately drop the money and cry. So we joked that he’s a banker with a conscience.

Jack turns toward me, crying after grabbing his money. Meanwhile, I am still cheering, haha

After that trauma, Johnny’s dad made a sweet toast to Jack.

Jack receives his birthday toast

Then, it was cake time!

Singing happy birthday and blowing out the candle

Jack tentatively enjoys the frosting

Something upsets him

It’s not so bad, after all

We then opened Jack’s presents (lots of cool books, toys and clothes), then hung out for a bit.

With our birthday prince

Two families and the cousins

 Johnny, Jack and my in-laws 

 Jack chills with Dave and Charlie

And, this isn’t a birthday picture, but we took Jack to a swing set on the shore of Lake Michigan the other day. He loved it! 

I have to pack for our return to Los Angeles, so I can’t stay on too long. I do want to say that it has been a wonderful year. In the very beginning, I felt overwhelmed and like I’d gotten myself into something I wouldn’t be able to handle, but parenthood has been amazing. Sure, there are aspects of it that are exhausting, and there are things that Johnny and I can’t do anymore, like pick up for a spontaneous trip, go to the movies at the last minute or travel extensively. But we were recently talking about the fact that we don’t miss those things. When we were free to do them in the past, we eventually felt that something was missing, and that something was Jack, an outlet for the excess of love in our relationship, as Johnny so aptly puts it. We are so happy to have our little family. This year has passed so quickly, and our little baby is quickly becoming a little boy. Even though he won’t remember this year (or the next one, probably), I believe that all the loving and happy memories are a part of him.

Happy Birthday, my dear Jackson!

Hey, everyone!

I don’t have much time to update, but I wanted to share some pictures from Michigan. We’re having a great time at the cottage with Johnny’s parents; Chris, Victoria and Maddy; Shannon, Will and Audrey; and Johnny’s Grandma Dorothy. The babies are getting along well. Jack is in the middle of the age spectrum. Jack held up well for the red-eye flight followed by the five-hour drive. He’s been sleeping well here, which is no surprise, given all the playing at the cottage and on the beach!

Here are some pictures to tide you over. I’ll start reading all your Xangas, commenting and writing more detailed posts again when we return! Oh, and you’ll notice I have curly hair in these pictures — I got a perm the Saturday before we left. I love it! People at work asked me whether I straighten my hair every day; they actually thought I have naturally wavy hair. Mission accomplished! Man, if I did have naturally curly hair, I would never straighten it (yeah, yeah, I know — grass is always greener on the other side).

The first full day we were here, we visited with our friends Tracy, Nick and their 6-week-old baby Will. They happened to be in town for a friend’s wedding. Tracy and I hadn’t seen each other in six years!

Holding each other’s babies — hard to believe Jack was ever as little as Will

That night, we went to a special dinner to celebrate my father-in-law’s 60th birthday (although he doesn’t look a day over 30!) Here are my in-laws with Grandma Dorothy

Johnny and I in front of the restaurant

Sunday morning, Will, Shannon and Audrey arrived after driving all night from St. Louis. Jack and Audrey’s first meeting went pretty well — they were intrigued by each other, or at least, the bounty of toys

Later on Sunday morning, Jack went to his first church service (he behaved well and loved the singing! Johnny was in the choir). He had a shoulder ride with Grandpa on the way to church

Sunday afternoon, we celebrated my father-in-law’s birthday officially with a party at the cottage. I spent a lot of time making sure Jack didn’t get into trouble! Jack wasn’t always so pleased about that

Jack visits with Daddy, his cousin Maddy and Great-Grandma

Funny moment with Daddy and Uncle Chris

Here’s Grandma Dorothy with Maddie

Jack loves to try to pop his cheek like Johnny does

Three generations of O’Neal men

The next day, Shannon and I gave Jack and Audrey a joint bath. Unfortunately, Jack, who normally loves baths, hated sharing a tub with Audrey! He cried the whole time. He’ll be sorry in about 15 years!

Tuesday, we took the kids to the beach. Jack and Audrey loved the water

Audrey in her adorable swimsuit

Audrey is 15 months and loves to show off her walking skills

Shannon and I with our kids

A couple of cute pictures of me and Jack

Victoria and Maddy

Today we mostly just hung out. Johnny took a few pictures while we played with all the kids. Maddy is great at sitting up and entertaining herself — she’s a very well-behaved cutie!

Audrey looks up curiously at her mommy on the couch

Thanks for looking! I’ll update on Jack’s birthday. Now, off to catch some sleep — tomorrow’s another day of keeping up with three active babies.

First, I want to thank everyone for all your concern and support after my last entry. Not only did you leave comments here, but I got a number of caring emails and comments on Facebook, too. I haven’t had a chance to reply to everyone, but I am really appreciative. It was a like one giant group hug!

I was feeling shaken up for a few days after the incident, but am doing better now. My foot is completely OK; I’ve even run a couple of times this week, just short runs — 3.5 miles and 2 miles — and I’ve done one session of Bar Method. I haven’t taken Jack to the park because it’s the workweek, but we might go this afternoon, in which case I’ll drive.

I’m wrapping this up at work today. We get out early this afternoon, and then it’s vacation time! Yay! We haven’t gone away on vacation for quite a while. In fact, I haven’t taken vacation since I got back from maternity leave in November. It may not be the best timing, considering the fact that I only have a month left here, but I’ve earned the time, and we need to have some time off for a variety of reasons! Tonight, we fly the red-eye to Detroit. When we arrive, we will pick up our rental car and drive four hours (I love road trips!) to my in-laws’ summer home in the woods in northern lower Michigan. It’s a very relaxing place, with nice people, and it’s beautiful. We’ll be right between Lake Michigan and Crystal Lake, so there will be a lot of lounging by the “beach.” I plan to read (I picked up two Jodi Picoult books yesterday), eat ice cream, spend lots of quality time with family and friends and keep up with my half-marathon training (at least half the time!). It will be a full house. Besides my in-laws, Chris and Victoria will also be there with our niece Maddie, and our friends Shannon and Will will arrive Sunday with their daughter Audrey. The three babies are meeting for the first time. Audrey is 16 months old, Jack is almost a year old and Maddie is almost eight months. Fun!

I was up until 1 a.m. last night, packing and cleaning the apartment. It’s amazing how many things I had to pack for Jack. Don’t make fun of me, but I made a spreadsheet yesterday to organize my packing list. Down the left side, I listed each day that we would be gone. Then I had two columns going across the top, one for me and one for Jack. In each cell, I listed the outfits and things Jack and I would need each day of the trip. I then had a category at the bottom called “Miscellaneous,” where I listed the things that we might not need on a specific day, but were sure to need at some point, such as sunscreen, hats, bathing suits, swim diapers, recipes (for the things I’m making for Jack’s first birthday party), etc. I’m so glad I made the list, because there were definitely things I would have forgotten otherwise. It also helped me pare down the things I was going to bring. For example, I went from 10 pairs of shoes to five. You might wonder where Johnny comes into play. He was in charge of his own packing … I don’t micromanage to that extent!

OK, I’m going to share a few recent pics of Jack. Enjoy! I’ll try to update while I’m on vacation, but I may not be able to comment much.

Jack enjoys his favorite summer snack: Whole strawberries!

We got him his first birthday present early, since we can’t lug this to Michigan: The bounce and spin zebra! I’ve wanted to get this for Jack ever since I saw that Shelly’s daughter Hannah had one. I remember a video of her bouncing on it and saying “Uh-oh!” and thought it was SO cute. Jack’s not to that point yet, but he really loves spinning the toys and making the zebra play music.

Giddyup, Horsey!

After all that excitement, it was time for a bath.

I love this goofy face

Happy early Fourth, everyone!

Let me start off by saying that I’m not injured at all, but this morning, I was hit by a car as Johnny, Jack, Atari and I were walking across the street to go to the park. It’s a crossing we’ve made a million times before. This morning was no different — it was 8:45 a.m., there wasn’t much traffic, and all around us, families, couples and exercisers were taking advantage of the nice (but not yet hot) weather to be outdoors.

The light was green, and the walk sign was still up. Across the intersection, a beat-up silver hatchback (I didn’t notice more detail than that, although Johnny also saw that the driver was male) was waiting to make a left turn. There are very few left-turn arrows in Los Angeles (something that bugs me for many reasons), so I’m assuming when the driver saw that there was no oncoming traffic, he quickly took the opportunity to make his turn without seeing us there. I’m a little incredulous because there were four of us — two adults, a stroller and a dog! Also, we were already past the midpoint of the intersection, so he could have easily made a wider turn and avoided us. It really seemed like he sped up when he saw us and aimed for us, although I’m sure that’s not the case.

Anyway, it all happened very quickly. By the time we saw the car coming, there wasn’t much to do. I was so scared and only thought about Jack. I was the one pushing his stroller. I hurried up so that Jack’s stroller would be out of harm’s way. Johnny was walking to my right, and he gripped my arms so tightly that there’s a mark on my right arm. Apparently he was thinking the same thing, because he tried to get between me and the car, and he also pushed me forward pretty hard to try to get me out of the car’s way. I’m so glad he did that, because I’m pretty sure I would have been badly hurt otherwise. When the car hit me, the tire hit the left side of my butt, the inside of my right ankle and nicked the backside of my left heel. I think it also nicked Johnny as it drove past, but we’re not sure. Luckily, Jack was not hit, nor was Atari. They were both in front of us, out of the car’s way, thank God. The car drove off without slowing down, and Johnny helped me off of the ground (I fell after being hit) and we hurried to the other side (we were only a dozen feet or so away from the other side!!). The few other drivers around yelled to see if we were OK. Johnny answered that we were and started to run after the driver, but it was too late. He was so mad and was yelling. One of the other drivers sped off to chase after the guy who hit us.

I was crying a little because I was really scared and thinking of what could have happened to Jack. I was really grateful that he was OK and in fact was playing happily with a plastic fish toy inside his stroller. He had gotten scared when Johnny started yelling and running after the car, but otherwise Jack was unscathed. At that moment a police car happened to drive by, so we flagged it down. The officers were nice and put on their siren to see if they could chase the car down. While the police car went on its chase, the witness in the pickup came back. He said he had caught up with the driver at a stoplight and said to him, “Did you know you hit a lady back there?” And the guy shrugged, rolled up his window and drove off! The guy in the pickup did get a license plate number, which he wrote down and handed to Johnny. When the police car came back, the officers ran the number but couldn’t turn anything up. They suspect it’s a salvaged car and that the plate isn’t on the record.

We filed a report, but doubt anything will come of it. I’m just really glad that I’m OK. It’s always been a nightmare of mine to be hit by a car, especially while I’m with Jack, but I also hate to be paranoid and figured it would never happen! We are always really careful when crossing the street. We went to an urgent care clinic, where a doctor examined my ankle and determined that aside from a bruise, there wasn’t a sprain or anything. If I feel anything weird tomorrow or Tuesday, I’m supposed to go back, but she thinks it’s fine. I do, too — the tire didn’t run over me or anything. I’m not going to run for a few days, just to be safe, but the doctor said I could keep up with my training by walking the distance and seeing how my ankle does. A foot injury is no joke for a runner (or anyone else), so I’ll be taking that advice seriously.

I’m also happy that Johnny decided at the last minute to go to the park with me and Jack. We had left the apartment together, but he was going to head back with Atari after Atari peed. Jack and I usually have some alone time at the park on weekend mornings. But this morning was so nice that after we had parted ways, Johnny and Atari ran to catch up with us. If I’d just been with Jack and gotten hit, I don’t know what I would have done. Also, I really think Johnny’s pushing me at the last minute ensured that I didn’t get hurt. I’m just so mad that the guy drove off. I mean, OK, I can see how maybe he didn’t see us before making his turn, and maybe it was too late to stop. But there’s no way he didn’t know that he had hit us!

It’s not very environmentally friendly, but from now on, I think I will drive Jack to the park. It’s only about three-quarters of a mile, and I love to walk, but my mom has always pointed out that the intersection we have to cross is a bit busy, and I’m just scared after today. I know it’s unlikely to happen again, but it will be a while before I can forget the image of the car coming toward me! I just kept thinking it would stop, and hoping I could outwalk it, but nope, it hit me. It was very surreal.

The silver lining is that this adds to the arsenal of dramatic stories I can tell. “So, how was your weekend?” “Oh, it was fine. I got hit by a car.” Sigh.

Thanks for reading! And yes, I really am OK!

Today, my little sister is 23! She’s in Taiwan right now with my parents, so technically she turned 23 yesterday, given the time difference. I want to wish her a very happy birthday and a great year ahead.

You know what’s crazy? I was just thinking yesterday, while driving to work, how June is so young, only 23! She still most of her 20s in front of her, while I’m nearing the end of mine (boo-hoo-hoo), I thought enviously. But then, I recalled with a jolt that I got married when I was June’s age! Well, I was closer to the 24 end of things, but Johnny and I married when I was 23 (a couple of months shy of my 24th birthday). We got engaged when we were 22. At the time, I thought nothing of it, but now I’m like, “Damn, I was young!” No wonder some people asked if there was a “reason” (beyond love) that we were getting married. I was always like, “NO! Why would you even ask that?” But when I think about how I still view June as my baby sister, I can understand why people would ask.

I’m a proponent of young marriage (relatively young, not like 16 or something), though, when the relationship and the reasons are right, as they were in our case. I love that we got to have our carefree years as a childfree married couple, without feeling the pressure to start a family because time is ticking on. I like how we began working toward our common goals — like relocating to be closer to family and saving for a house — early on. I also like being one of the younger moms in my mothers groups. 

But, I digress. This entry isn’t about me — it’s about June! She is wonderful, talented, and accomplished. She’s one of the top students in her optometry school program, even though she’s also one of the youngest. I’m very proud of my sister. We may occasionally butt heads (not very often, but all siblings do!), but she is one of the very few people whom I know will always be there for me and will put my best interests before hers. She’s extremely smart, and I can always count on her to show me a better, quicker way to do things or to warn me about the potential pitfalls of a situation. June is also kind and will do anything for her family and close friends who’ve earned her trust. Of course, we all know that she is very skilled at video games (something Johnny appreciates) and has a keen fashion sense (something I appreciate). Some of you may think I’m into shopping and clothes … well, you haven’t met my sister yet! Oh, and June can also tell you what any celebrity is doing at any moment in time. Anyway, besides being a wonderful sibling, June is also a great Top Friend (many thanks to Facebook for introducing this term into our everyday vernacular).

We’re going to belatedly celebrate by taking June and Charles to Mastro’s when June is back from Taiwan. Woo-hoo!

Have a great day, everyone!

p.s. Also, a very happy birthday to my friend Shawn, whose birthday is also today!

So, the other day, I was approaching the end of my four-mile training run when I passed by a house in our neighborhood that just went on for sale. Johnny and I will be house-hunting next spring, and although we are not looking for a house in our current neighborhood (because we’d like to move to the suburbs and because West LA is just too expensive), I was still curious.

The house was cute but definitely not something to write home about. According to the flyer, it has four bedrooms, three baths and a small yard. It’s 2,600 square feet. Since housing prices have supposedly gone “down, down, down!” in recent months, I thought it might be comforting to sneak a look at the price of this house. I knew that prices in our current neighborhood are often inflated just because it’s in West LA, and that I can’t use the price as a barometer for housing prices that Johnny and I are likely to encounter, but the asking price still blew me away.

Are you ready??

$1.3 million.

That’s right, folks! $1.3 million for a 50-year-old house near a busy intersection. Again, this is much more than what houses cost in the ‘burbs (who am I kidding? LA is one giant suburb), but it was not very comforting. I was like, “Where do I live? Crazyland?” (OK, yes, I know all you East Coasters are like, “We could have told you that without this entry.”) I showed the flyer to Johnny and we (for the millionth time) lamented the fact that we’ll probably end up in a three-bed, two-bath ranch house, and we will be lucky if we get away with it for just a bit over half a million dollars. It will be adorable just because it will be our first house, but we try not to think about how for the price we’ll probably pay for said house, we could probably buy something much nicer and newer in our beloved Chicago (or at least, its suburbs).

However, beloved Chicago does not have many of the attractions that Crazyland has, like my mom, June, Char-izzle, Johnny’s job, and (hopefully soon!) Chris, Victoria and Maddy. Not to mention the friends we have here. I’m not going to mention the weather, because yes, it’s great here, but Chicago’s fun factor and homey feel really trump its insane weather. Besides, have you ever seen the waves in Lake Michigan frozen into shape? It is so wild, it’s (almost) worth the six months of winter. So, Southern California it is. I am a happy resident, except when it comes to housing prices! I guess the nice thing is that no matter what, housing prices in the LA area just seem to rise over time, so we can always sell for a higher value later on. Unless we get that huge earthquake and become an obsolete island. Hmmm.

My friend Liz tagged me for this meme, and you know I can’t resist. So here goes!

Four movies I could watch over and over

1. American Pie (the first one)
2. The Sound of Music
3. 10 Things I Hate About You 
4. Clueless

What can I say?? So they’re not the most critically acclaimed movies (except for TSOM), but you know you love them too!  

Four places I have lived

1. Chicago, IL 
2. Taipei, Taiwan 
3. New York, NY 
4. Los Angeles, CA 

Four TV shows I like

1. So You Think You Can Dance (and I can’t help but hear “dance, dance, dance, dance” in my head every time I think about or say the name of the show) 
2. Project Runway
3. The Office 
4. What Not to Wear 

Four favorite foods

1. Udon noodles 
2. Ice cream
3. Mangoes 
4. Guilty pleasure: Cup o’ Noodles 

Four places I would rather be

1. Driving on the road to Hana in Maui, with Johnny 
2. With my mom, dad and sister in Taiwan (no fair, they are off doing fun things every day!) 
3. With Jack 
4. In bed, sleeping 

Four people I’m tagging

1. June 
2. Shelly 
3. Robin 
4. Becky

Anyone else who wants to do this, please do! I’d love to see your answers. 

Although most of my blog entries mention Jack (and of course feature lots of pictures of him), it’s been a while since I reported solely on my boy, his development, latest interests, etc. I figured I should document these things before I forget. So here we go!

Jack is now 11 months and one week old, and he:

• Has seven teeth — three on the bottom, four along the top.
• Is down to just two bottles a day (from four) — he has a breakfast bottle and a post-morning-nap bottle. He takes a sippy cup with lunch and dinner. Looks like we are on track to be down to just one bottle (or maybe none?) by his first birthday. I’m not too anxious about taking away bottles completely by one, but I figured we would transition slowly, and it seems to be working. Jack’s been playing around with sippy cups since he was six months old (when he started solids), but in the last couple of months, has really begun drinking in earnest from them.
• Enjoys some whole milk. Since he’s supposed to start on whole milk at 12 months, we’ve been adding some whole milk (the kind spiked with DHA, for extra brain power ) to his formula for the last couple of weeks. He doesn’t really seem to notice a difference — he guzzles it down just the same.
• Is eating more table foods. I am still making purees (but much chunkier ones now) for him, but now Jack also has grilled cheese sandwiches (cut-up into small pieces, of course), pita, hummus or whatever else we’re eating.
• Is so ready to walk! He only holds on with one hand while cruising now, and it’s with a pretty light grip. Sometimes he’ll let go while standing, and once he realizes he’s standing by himself, he gets this cartoonish “uh-oh!” look on his face and falls to the ground.
• Waves and says something when people leave. Sometimes it’s “baba” (which of course we think means “bye bye”), sometimes it’s “dada” and sometimes it’s just “aaaaah.” But, he seems to get that he’s supposed to wave and make some sort of noise when people walk out the door. Sometimes he says it after they’ve left (for instance, when Ann came to visit the other day, Jack kept waving and saying “babababa” as Ann walked down the hall!), but it’s still cute.
• On the verbal front, Jack continues to come out with new syllables. I feel him edging closer to actual talking.
• Tosses his paci out of his crib at bedtime, then lays there, calling out, “Maaaaaama. Maaaaaaam. Mamamamama” lazily. If I don’t go to him within a few minutes, he’ll get more insistent: “Mama! Mama! Ma!” Then he grins like a bandit when I go in there to pick up the paci. It’s hard, but I always just hand it back to him and walk out without lingering, so he doesn’t get the idea that it’s a fun game. It’s not so cute when he does the version where he tosses his paci out and then cries holy murder. He did that a couple of times last weekend, when there was lots of activity due to Johnny’s graduation festivities. Luckily, it seems to have been a few isolated incidents.
• Chews on the rail of his crib. Jack apparently likes to pull up on his crib, stand there and gnaw at the rail like a mouse. The paint on the crib is lead-free and safe for this very activity. I am amused to see the little tooth marks on the top of the crib. It reminds me of June, who gnawed a lovely ring all around our wooden coffee table as a toddler.
• Finally, Jack loves having his teeth brushed! One of the fellow moms on my pregnancy.org birth club forum asked how often people brushed their babies’ teeth. I was like, “What?! I’ve just been going over Jack’s teeth and gums with a washcloth.” Little did I know that other moms were brushing their babies’ teeth! At first I was confused — how would babies spit out toothpaste? Would Jack actually tolerate a brush in his mouth? I learned from the forum that there is such a thing as baby toothpaste that the baby can swallow, that most babies love the flavor (usually banana or apple), and that it usually comes with a fingertip brush. So Johnny went out and bought baby toothpaste from CVS (actually, it was apple-banana flavor), and it came with a blue fingertip brush. We laughed because it reminded us exactly of brushing Atari’s teeth — we used a green fingertip brush and peanut butter-flavored toothpaste with him. Anyway, Jack adores it. When he sees the blue brush, he claps his hands and opens his mouth, and he laughs when the bristles go over his gums. I hope this love of brushing continues!

Now that I have bored you half to death, here are some pictures from Father’s Day. We took Jack in the pool with his floaty seat. Johnny bought it for Jack at Target. It also comes with a shade that can go over the seat. It wasn’t too sunny when we went in, though, so we left the shade part in the apartment.

Goofy faces

Jack loved floating in the pool

Yes, water!

My turn

He kept wanting to leap out of my arms and into the water

It was fun to be all wrapped up with Jack!

After the pool, Jack got bundled into PJs and went on to his next favorite activity: pushing a mixing bowl along the kitchen floor

Thanks for reading!

Yesterday, Johnny graduated from UCLA’s MBA program (master’s in business administration). That’s right, as Johnny put it, he has mastered business administration.  Johnny’s parents (my lovely in-laws) came out on Wednesday evening. I worked a half-day yesterday, and we spent the afternoon swimming and hanging out before heading to the graduation. Here are some pictures — most of the great-quality ones are courtesy of my father-in-law’s awesome Pentax.

Johnny, Jack and I before graduation

Johnny in his cap, gown and master’s hood

Johnny holding the other product of these past two years

Once Johnny put on his cap and gown, Jack found his tassel fascinating

All of us. My parents were really sad that they missed the event (they’re in Taiwan right now), but they were there in spirit!

Soon, Johnny had to go meet up with the other MBA candidates, so Jack and I spent lots of time waiting around

When the procession started, Jack and I were able to gather by the sidelines and greet Johnny as he passed by!

Johnny waits for his name to be called

Johnny gets his diploma! I am so very proud of him.

My handsome husband and his diploma (actually, it was just a placeholder diploma. The real thing will be mailed to us later).

After the ceremony, we greeted Johnny as he came through the recessional

Isn’t this the greatest pic of Johnny and Jack?

Johnny and my very young-looking mother-in-law

I like this pic of the three of us … we look very happy (well, Johnny and I do. Jack looks dubious!)

I wanted a turn at wearing Johnny’s cap. Johnny said in a way, I deserved it too, for supporting him during the last two years!

Jack loved wearing the cap!

It was a very long ceremony. We got there at 2:45 p.m. (so Johnny could gather with the other candidates). The ceremony started at 4 p.m. By 5:45 p.m., they finally started calling each candidate by name to get his or her diploma. We did not get out of there until 7 p.m. Jack behaved beautifully, considering that I was impatient to be sitting for that long. Johnny’s dad took him for a couple of stroller rides before it started. During the ceremony, Jack ate his dinner, drank his milk, went through one diaper change in the stroller, clapped after people applauded speakers, flirted with the girls sitting behind us and ate Cheerios. Whew! Yesterday he was very clingy — only Mommy would do! It was tiring, but I was secretly (or not-so-secretly) happy because he’s been more independent lately.

Anyway, I can’t believe two years have passed. It seems that not so long ago, we were worrying about the logistics of our move from New York to Los Angeles, about my job transfer, and about how we’d manage to survive through two very busy years while starting a family. I have to say that Johnny has handled business school beautifully. Not once have I felt like I was playing second fiddle. I always know that Jack and I are Johnny’s priorities. That’s no easy feat, because I know the curriculum has been demanding, and Johnny’s been pretty involved in school. In the last 20 months, Johnny has managed to excel at school, be a great husband and father, and also land the job of his dreams. Not bad! I’m very proud of him.

Speaking of job of his dreams, Johnny starts on Monday! He didn’t want any sort of break. We’ll make tomorrow, Father’s Day, very relaxing for him! Now I’m off to make dinner and enjoy it with Johnny and my in-laws. Sadly, they leave tomorrow. We’ll see them again soon, though, in Michigan for Fourth of July.

Happy early Father’s Day!