Tomorrow is my Last Day of Work

This morning began as a beautiful day. We woke up with Nina knocking on her door to get out and we went on a walk around New Ulm. We did the longer walk down to Center street, up the hill to Martin Luther College and back south to 10th street. Along the way, Nina saw her first real caterpilar. She knew what it was from her Signing Time vol 8: The Great Outdoors: The Caterpillar Dreams Song and had signed it in the past. Today she said it for the first time: "taterpilar" and that set the tone for the day.

We got back and we each looked forward to our fresh juice. Yum!

For lunch it was the Kaiserhoff's Essig Kraut special so we caught a ride with Erin's sister: Shannon or as Nina affectionately says "Ana" instead of Auntie Shannon. John met us there again. You might recall that he met us there two weeks ago also.

Spice Girl!

In addition, Nina has been obsessed with our spice drawer. She takes the spices out of the drawer and stacks them on the kitchen floor. She's able to stack them 4 containers high before she goes "WOW" then knocks it over while saying "boom!" And of course repeats the process.

When I tickle Nina or do something else she does not like, she signs "Stop Daddy!" while saying "Top Daddy!"

In addition, Nina likes to take her stuffed animal friends and put them by the cloths basket. She puts them to sleep, then one by one, signs "Awake" and moves them to the basket, then repeats the process :D

Dad's Birthday

We celebrated Dad's 60th Birthday by dining at the Harvard Club of New York.

 

Aunty Marga & Uncle Sowkioon

Bert had arranged to receive the dessert menus when the staff brought out a surprise birthday cake! What a wonderful gesture.

Video of Dad's birthday cake (9 sec)

 

Dad, Mom, Auntie Marga, & Uncle Sowkioon

 

Greg, Dad, Mom, Nicolas, Auntie Marga, Uncle Sowkioon, & Bert

Two Sisters

 

Mom & her sister Margaret the night of Greg's graduation

More Pics from Graduation

My parents, siblings, & Aunt & Uncle said that the Columbia College guest speaker (Matt Fox - alum & star from TV Show Lost) had an excellent speech (41 minutes into the clip). (real player)

Click here for a link to the entire University Commencement.


The Graduate


Bert, Nicole, Greg, Maurice


Eating at the Reception

Columbia University Graduation!

Greg graduated from the college at Columbia University today! He and 12,000 other students closed a chapter in their lives by completing their Columbia education. Here are some snippets from the morning!

Congratulations Greg!
Uncle Sowkioon, Auntie Marga, Greg, Mom, Dad, & Nicolas.

Greg and I!

Greg at the Columbia College ceremony on Tuesday.



National Anthem for 253rd Columbia University Graduation Ceremony (2:06 sec)


253rd Columbia University Graduation Ceremony - 360 Pan (17 sec)

Photos of Nina

Watermelon dress!




















Playing with Grandma's magazine's.
In my PJ's.












Eating my first fresh tomato!

Mommy & me!




Nina Eating Little Chocolate Cake (23 sec)


Nina Signing "Bus."
Erin and I learned ASL signs from
Signing Time DVDs, then we taught Nina!

Flight to New York

Unfortunately I've had my stream of bad luck when flying to New York. For the CBS Open House, my flight got canceled (American), but was able to get a direct flight instead via Northwest. Not bad. On the return, I was fortunate to depart prior to the heavy rain followed by flooding. Not so bad given the canceled flight.

Yesterday, Erin and Nina dropped me off at Land-to-Air, a shuttle service between Mankato/St. Peter & the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport. As soon as I sat down on the 9:17am shuttle from St. Peter, I received a voice mail from AA stating that my 11:55am flight was canceled and was reconfirmed on a 3:55pm flight. Thinking that there was an earlier flight, I called them and discovered that the Chicago leg was problem. I had a nice gentleman who checked my luggage on the earliest flights to La Guardia and put me on the standby lists on the three flights prior to my new Chicago outbound flight, scheduled for 5:05pm. I was number 34 on the standby list of the first flight: departing 1:40pm. # 27 on the following flight. For the 3rd 3:40pm flight, it was delayed. Around 3:30pm, I had resigned to the fact that I'd probably be on the 5:05pm fligght. I glanced at the status boards while sauntering to the food court and discovered that this 5:05pm flight was canceled. I immediately went over to one of the rebooking phones and explained my situation. It's my 2nd flight today getting canceled! Fortunately I was quick to notice and act for 2 minutes later, a line of at least 10 people appeared. The person on the phone was able to get me a confirmed seat on the 3:40pm flight (now delayed until 4:19pm).

All in all, I arrived at my brother's apartment at 11:30pm, tired, but relieved to be at my destination!

Mother's Day

Sunday was Mother's Day. We celebrated by having Erin not change any diapers, however, that was the intention. There were a couple of times when Erin changed the diapers, but by her own volition.

We spoke with Mom & Dad in New York, but unfortunately we had some technical difficulties. Firstly, we did not have our web cam (yes, it was packed) so we could see them, but not vice versa. Furthermore, the video cam was via MSN messenger and their account could not receive any messages, and consequently did not receive any voice from us. So we could see and hear them, but they were deaf & blind with respect to us. Talk about a one-sided conversation.

For lunch I made some Laksa complete with rice noodles. Yum.

For the afternoon we were outside where Nina played ball. Grandpa grilled hot dogs and Landjägers. This ended with Nina having a wonderful dessert with a cookie plus double dutch chocolate cake! She had a wee bit of energy afterwards, so we went for a walk during which Nina was able to play on some slides!

Saturday Morning

This morning, Nina had her freshly juiced carrots, apples, ginger, & collard greens. Now she is eating a plateful of cut fresh strawberries.

Yesterday late afternoon Nina and I were outside in the back yard playing with her purple ball. We were passing the ball between the two of us, back and forth! Nina was very coordinated to get the ball straight to me. She liked signing "Ball." She learned the sign from Signing Time DVDs.

Tuesday Evening

We found out Monday morning that we did not get university housing. We're waitlisted with and update on August 15th. Given that most incoming students in the U.S. are waitlisted, it's not likely that we'll get off of the wait list.

We're looking at other options.

Sunday Evening

Today was a good day. In church, Nina moved constantly, but overall we did not have any melt downs.

All of us had a nap this afternoon. Erin's parents invited us up for dinner. Photos/videos are from that.

Following a windy but wonderful evening daily walk, we gave Nina a bath. Since in New Ulm, we have been giving Nina morning baths. Tonight she had pineapple juice among other things in her hair so we gave her another bath in the evening.

During the bedtime routine, we had changed her diaper, put her in her PJs, had said prayer, and were hugging. This is the final step before putting her to bed. Nina was telling us "bush teef." Erin and I looked at each other inquisitively, but with a puzzled look. After a little thought, we realized that Nina was telling us that we had forgotten to brush teeth! Wow. This is the first time that she had said that phrase, otherwise prior to that she would do the ASL sign for it.

What an amazing little girl! She reminds us to brush her teeth!

Saturday

We began early morning by going for a walk to a garage sale because Erin's Dad told us that there was a bicycle seat for $10. When we got there, we were not certain that it would fit, so we returned back to the house to look at the seat, decided to buy it, but it had already been sold.

There were showers on and off through-out the day, but we managed to go for another walk in the afternoon. We're really liking and enjoying our walks. Nina and Milo do too!

I bought the laptop I'll use for business school. It'll take 3-4 weeks to ship.

I made a Chinese vermicelli noodle soup for dinner tonight. Nina really liked slurping the noodles off from her fork. We wished that our camera was handy.

We borrowed one of Shannon's movies to watch tonight: Message in a Bottle.

One Week

It has been one week in New Ulm. We had some moving adjustments when we arrived, as expected. We have had an eventful first week.

Nina has made progress in leaps and strides. She has said, "Pretty Mommy" and "Daddy eat" if she wants me to eat a piece of her apple and share breakfast with her. We're trying to make the most of the time we have here together, despite missing our "Home" in Burnsville. New Ulm offers us opportunities, especially those of a small safe community.

We've scoured the various grocery stores (and the newly opened Walmart) for organic produce to eat and juice every morning. Nina, Erin, and I all love our morning "juice" not only because it is bursting with freshness and tastes good, but it also very healthy and good for us!

We've been able to eat quite well despite the limited dishes. We've had rougaille (with Italian sausage), Chinese noodles w/ soup, and Rachel Ray's recipe of Apple Cider Chicken w/ Mashed Potatoes.

Following dinner we go for a family walk in town by the tennis courts and track course. It's amazing how much we like this :D It's also amazing how many looks we get!

Greetings from New Ulm!