We didn’t do much else this year to celebrate the year of the dragon but Em b always livens up the holiday spirit. Here’s some pics of the little B at school when we dropped her off. She is never that happy so we dot expect big smiles in the morning…otherwise we might be worried!

Nai Nai (milk)
Wa-de (water)
Mama
daddy
popu (emery’s nickname for poke)
Papa (emery’s nickname for Cappy)
Cheese
Peas (please)
No (she says this too much)
Book
Cra-ka (crackers)
Block (for her Lego mega blocks)
Apple
Pi-apple (pineapple)
Manana (banana)
Hot (hot food or stuff she should not touch)
Poop (when she dirties her diaper)
Brush teeth
Da-Dag (dogs)
Walk (when she wants to walk herself)
Up (when she wants to be picked up)
Bye
Hi
Hello (when picking up the phone)
Baybay (berries)
Bath
Hug
Kiss
Agg (egg)
Na nice ( when not suppose to hit)
Uh oh (when something has fallen or dropped)
Nose
Ear
Eye
Hair
Cheek
Toes
Shoe
Sock
Ball Ball
Ball (football)

I counted 41 words! There’s probably more I am forgetting now, but Emery is picking up new words all the time. It’s wonderful to here her. She also calls out to our parents and siblings but I don’t think she can register them with the words so I don’t count them for now in her vocab. From just a pronunciation perspective Emery can say almost all
of the alphabet. She has some trouble with R, G,J,V and X but amazing to here her go through all of them. Up next numbers!

Here’s a few great photos from recent events:

Four Generations of Women - taken in August 2011 in Hawaii

Here’s a few photos of us this Christmas:

Emery’s motor development is fascinating but her personality development is equally interesting. Ashley and I as well as all people that meet her have these common observations:
- Emery is really easy going, she adapts to her surrounding and does not fuss as over new experiences or new environments. She is good on the plane, with crowds and moving from place to place and sleeping and playing in different homes.
- Emery is not shy and lets anyone carry her and does not shrug away from people. She tends to stare at them.
- Emery is serious. She does not smile at strangers often and will warm up if she knows you but her defacto facial expression is more serious and all business
- Emery is persistent. When she wants to get something, do something, Emery will not give up. When trying to stand up, Emery did it over and over again one night until she got it. When she wants to crawl somewhere she will not be stopped whatever obstacle is in her way. She will grab objects and even if I swat her hand 10 times she will continue to grab. She does eventually get frustrated but soon goes after the object again.

Here are some pics of Emery during her birthday bash weekend and days around it.

As far as work trips go, India is a bit more fun but I did not get a chance to sight see nor did I really feel the need for it. A weekend was just too short to go anywhere far and cool and I had already explored dehli numerous times. This trip however I did learn finally the game of Cricket and got into watching two games of the 2011 World Cup. This was actually a historic moment for India who national sport if Cricket, Cricket and more Cricket. I partied with a few coworkers/friends and watched the highly emotional India-Pakistan semi final match which India won. On Saturday I watched the entire game of India vs Sri Lanka. India won. The whole country went crazy and it was amazing to see such an event in India. I think the last time they won was in 1983. I went down to the hotel lobby just in time as India won the world cup. People in the hotel weren’t just cheering. They were dancing. Guests and hotel workers alike hugged and danced together. Then this guy started to throw cake around and smeared half the people in the lobby with cake. Since I was there I got it too and also gave back some to a buch of others as well. Pretty soon the whole hotel lobby was slippery with pieces of cake. Needless to say, it was an experience.

Meeting the team in India was excellent and I was able to finally learn all 40+ peoples names. We worked some long hours as I had a lot of meetings during the day with our leads there and had to run some meetings in the e evenings with our clients. It was really great to meet them face to face and we discussed and i hope took a lot of actions against many issues. Here’s a pic of the Michelin team.

I also got a chance to meet some of their families over lunch on Sunday. Anuj, Kumar and Bahri have really cute kids and they we the center of our attention all through lunch. We ate at BBQ nation, a North Indian Grill. The food was excellent, except i thought the appetizer was the main course because there was so much food!

This time, I was able to meet up with Abi. He showed me his office and even one of his contraction sites. Abi was nice enough to take me around Delhi as we went jewelry hunting to buy some nice but affordable India style earrings and pendants. We eventually found a nice store in Karol Baugh a old market area in Delhi.

I had a great time in India, didn’t get any food poison, brushed up on my Hindi, met up with old friends and met new ones and learned how to watch cricket. I still really missed Ash, Emery and Nai Nai however and I am really looking forward to be home.

We are in a beach home in Charleston, South Carolina this week and loving the relaxation. We traveled together with the Lo’s. They have a little daughter as well Eva, so Emery had another small person in company. We’ve been taking in sights, sounds and tastes of the south in our vacation getaway.

Charleston has a lot of rich history and we got to visit and old southern plantation call Boone Hall. It dated back to 1600s and had over 300 slaves at one point producing cotton, indigo, rice and bricks. It was raining the day we were there but still gorgeous and just like the one in Gone With the Wind.

We also had some great food while here. Did not know it is one of the great culinary cities in America. We ate southern cuisine many of which were local southern ingredients from the produce to the the seafood. Ash, being a seafood had a blast with tuna and shrimp everyday!

Best of all the vacation home rental at Folly Beach was awesome. We spent a lot of time just lounging at the house both inside and out. Here are some more photos from our trip.

1. Update posts about Emery
2. Add Emery to our family page
3. Time to update the top masthead
4. Need to switch out the right module
5. Post some Emery videos and photos and a special emery page.

I’ll get started on these soon. But for now it’s time for bed.

When we dropped Emery off she didn’t cry, and I think she wasn’t completely sure what was going on. We said our good byes and I swear Ash might have had some wetness around the eyes!
When we picked her up, the teachers reported that she was good, played with the other kids and didn’t fuss at all! Emery is such a good girl and now all grown up!