Thursday, February 24, 2011

Tragic Figure

I had a boyfriend when I was a freshman in college, who told me that one of the reasons he was attracted to me was because I seemed to be a tragic figure. I actually did not even know the meaning of that term, and was not sure if it was a real compliment or not. Considering that it was quoted as a reason for attraction, I decided that it must have been a desirable quality.

A famous Chinese saying essentially states that in all of history beautiful women all have tragic fates in the end. Perhaps young men often are attracted to such mystique, as beauty presumably is what attracts men first and foremost. Surely we have all read about "tragic beauties", but have we ever heard about "comic beauties"?

In any case, I felt very tragic dating this guy, because I was constantly unhappy. Comically, that might have further contributed to his conclusion that I was a tragic figure, even though I had never wanted to be one and really don't think I have ever been one. Come to think of it, who wants to be with someone who is forever sad by nature? Perhaps we can appreciate such poetic sadness in a painting, in a song, or in a dance. But on a daily basis over dinner?

I find it funny that I am already thinking about what kind of girlfriends Winston might have in the future. I genuinely hope that he will not fall for any "tragic figure", as he himself is such a jolly fellow! There is nothing mysterious about tragedy, and therefore nothing beautiful about it. I hope that he will find humor more attractive than melancholy.

But of course, what is the chance of him listening to me?

Be Yourself

I don't remember being told to "be myself" when I was growing up, presumably because I was supposed to learn, mature and adapt. Therefore, there was not much of a sense of what was the best pathway for an immature little girl like me. Nowadays, everywhere I turn, I see words screaming from TV, newspapers, magazines and books that we should all "follow our hearts and be ourselves and not try to be someone else." Well, exactly at what age are we supposed to master all this confidence and simply "be ourselves" irrespective of what others are telling you?

Clearly that is an unanswerable question. In the United States, many people believe that much is in the genetics in that we should all "be ourselves" from a very early age, which to me sounds a bit fatalistic - we might as well throw up our hands and pray that we have good genes and that our kids have good genes as well. In Asia, most people believe that kids don't know any better and can and should be molded, but they often don't know when to stop molding these kids. Imitation is long considered the enemy of creativity, but I have come to believe that perhaps often imitation is the foundation of creativity. Whether or not someone has real creativity is perhaps largely genetic, but creativity without a foundation of imitation (i.e. learning) is at best equivalent to toddler's doodling.

Mozart was a real genius and a rare child prodigy. However, without the access to music and musical training, his phenomenal talent would not have been uncovered. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg all dropped out of college to start up companies, but what they learned before their entrepreneurial efforts were critical and fundamental, without which they would not have been able to even write any codes.

On the other hand, the pressure to conform is real. Perhaps many people who could have become decent writers, artists, musicians, scholars have ended up writing prescriptions, practicing corporate law or analyzing stock markets' movement. Even among those who did pursue a creative career, we often are dismayed to find them trying to be like someone else. For example, I saw Julie Delpy's "2 Days in Paris", which is as blatant of an effort to copy Woody Allen as there could be. Adam Goldberg was utterly irritating, because there is no way he could pull off Woody Allen's comical anxiety since he's not like that. What happened to the sexy, witty and somewhat crazy Julie Delpy in "Before Sunrise"? The creative talent behind "Before Sunrise" is utterly different from that behind "Manhattan", "Annie Hall" and "Vicki Cristina Barcelona". She should have tried to be herself, instead of Woody Allen. And if by being herself means no more ideas beyond the two movies she made with Ethan Hawke, well, so be it - perhaps that's the extent of her creativity.

Maybe after a certain age, we no longer have the excuse to "keep learning", and "be yourself" becomes an obligation as opposed to an option.

Winston's Learning to Speak

Winston has been learning mostly Chinese, as the nanny speaks to him only in Chinese. I have been trying with a mixture of Chinese and English, but Chinese is winning right now. Still, occasionally he decides to say certain words in English, such as the numbers "two", "five" and "nine". But he prefers to say the other numbers in Chinese. Since his favorite activity is to find doors to open and close (preferably those with interesting door knobs), he learned to say "door" or "door door" in English. The nanny likes to tell him to poop by saying "chou chou" (in Chinese it means "stinky stinky"). And whenever he wants to enter the bathroom, the nanny would say "that's chou chou" (i.e. it's stinky there) to prevent him from going in. As a result, Winston's current vocabulary is a very complex mixture of English and Chinese.

The other morning, after he woke up, I took him out of his room and was changing his diaper in our bedroom. He looked around and realized that Michael was not in bed and turned his head to the direction of the bathroom, where he could hear some noise and see the light through the door - obviously Michael was in there. I asked him, "where is baba (daddy)?" He said loudly and clearly, "Baba Chou!" (i.e. Daddy stinky!) My heart always melts away upon hearing his adorable and crispy voice uttering such innocent and unintentionally creative words!

Dinner With a Friend

I had dinner with a friend at SliderBar Cafe in Palo Alto. Last time I saw him was over Thanksgiving, when we went to his house in East Bay for the traditional Thanksgiving fare. As usual, we exchanged some gossip. I told him how I was giving up getting back the few thousand dollars that my agent stole from me, because clearly he and his whole family are going bankrupt. He told me how he had come to dislike lawyers after his son's boat accident because he realized that they represent themselves as opposed their clients and they are best buddies with lawyers on the opposite side because more arguments between them keep both of them employed longer.

We talked about movies. He said that I had weird tastes because I seem to like movies from totally foreign places and totally remote periods, and I said that would make sense since I can't travel to those places in those times. He said that he could not see any sad movies because that would destroy his mood and that's why he did not finish "Leaving Las Vegas", and I said "Leaving Las Vegas" was by far not that sad compared to some other movies out there, such as the Czech films and Danish films. He said what are you doing watching Czech and Danish movies, as Denmark is in the Arctic circle and people are depressed half of the year, and the Czech people have nothing to be happy about. I reminded him that since he himself likes beer so much, the Czech people consume more beer per person than any other countries on earth. And he said that just proved his point. He asked me if I liked living in Palo Alto, and I said yes indeed so much better than up north in South San Francisco, and he said, "Stepford wife."

He observed that I seemed so happy and relaxed, and I said that since I don't have a full-time job and I am seeing friends periodically, of course I seem happy and relaxed. He reminded me that when I was doing my first startup company, I was often tense and anxious and unhappy. And I said that I am now trying to resume that type of life by raising financing for my second startup. He asked me if I was really sure about going through it once more, or if I had become so mature and experienced that I would not let things bother me as much. I said that I was sure there would be a ton of headaches once I raise financing, but I will try to not let things bother me if there is nothing I can do about them.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Save the Children!

My mom just returned from her trip to Cambodia, which according to her is certainly a heaven for those interested in history and architecture. Since she's not particularly into either, in the conversation she spent most of the time talking about the extreme poverty she saw there.

Clearly in her life she had seen extreme poverty when she was in the remote countryside of China, but what she saw in Cambodia still surprised her.She said that there were so many little kids no more than 4 to 6 years old accompanying all these Chinese tour groups, helping older people pass a bridge so that they could receive a tip or a few candies. They also peddle little souvenirs. They all learned to speak a few sentences in Chinese, such as "you are so pretty" to girls, "you are so handsome" to boys, and "I don't have money to go to school" to anyone. The minute they received a tip, they would run back to their moms who were waiting quite some distance away. I felt such heartache for these kids when I heard the story. My mom said that she heard Cambodians all had lots of kids, and therefore seemed to pay little attention to anyone of them in particular. They were running up and down the mountains, standing on the edge of boats, or doing other things that could be quite dangerous. But no one was watching over them carefully or closely.

I always find it hard to hear about people's sufferings, but I absolutely cannot bear to hear about sufferings of any children. It just breaks my heart. It makes me want to do something about all of them, only to realize that not even the most powerful people can do anything about all of them. Sometimes I want to adopt a kid from the poor area of China so that I feel that I will have done something good. But when I think about it, the kind of kid I can adopt and want to adopt will be adopted by other American or European families anyways - in other words, I am not sure that I want to adopt a kid with severe disabilities, as that will be heart-breaking for me every day. I guess I belong to the faint-hearted people who desperately want to save these poor children but don't want to be painfully reminded on a daily basis about all these unbearable sufferings. Perhaps that makes me rather a hypocrite.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Love of Risk

I met a business friend for coffee the other day. She has been in the industry for decades and has now decided to do some consulting here and there instead of anything more strenuous. When she heard that I had started another company in such an atrocious financing environment, she said, "I admire your courage and love of risk."

Do I have a love of risk? I seriously doubt it. When I was a kid, I was among the most timid. I recall being scared to death climbing up a simple play structure in a park. I recall fearing teachers' criticism when I thought that I had not done something exactly according to instruction. I recall waking up in a nightmare because in the dream I missed a bus or was late for an exam. In summary, I have always considered myself very timid and risk-adverse - until one day I have been definitively viewed as a "brave entrepreneur", in which case "love of risk" has also become a descriptor of me.

However, in reality, I still do not love risk, although I love reward. I have not grown more fond of risk, but I have grown to understand the relationship between risk and reward, the trade-off between excitement and security, and how to estimate the right balance. What appears to be much risk-taking for others may not be much for me, and what appears to be nothing for others still may appear too risky for me - for example, climbing up rickety play structures.

President's Day

It is President's Day today. The weather is a bit gray, but at least it is not raining. For someone who lives in sunny Palo Alto, I really ought not to whine about the few days of rain we had last week - think about my poor friend who lives in England right now! After all, California desperately needs water. But I surely can see why people's moods get better when it's not raining constantly!

Not that we will do anything different today - I have a business meeting today, and Michael is going off to work in a few minutes. I am still a bit sleepy even now. I woke up a couple of times last night hearing Winston tossing and turning, and I knew that he could not found his purple blanket any more (his "zi beibei" in Chinese). Once he was so frustrated that he started crying. Then I had to go and find his purple blanket for him (usually at his feet or underneath his chubby butt) and put it on his chest so that he could cuddle with it, and then he was immediately quiet and back to sleep as always. This happens often, and as a result, although I normally have enough hours of sleep every day, I often have such an interruption or two, which seems to have dramatically decreased the quality of sleep.

I wonder what people normally do on President's Day. Do people go over their American history and reflect on all the past presidents? The other day, I went to the open house of Sidley Austin's Palo Alto office, as they have invited me to speak at an upcoming life science event. A senior partner chatted with me about the cultures of various notable law firms, and mentioned that he used to work at Morrison and Forester. When I asked him why he left, he said that he had to leave to work for the Justice Department because it was the beginning of the Clinton Administration. Then he had to come back to private practice because George W. Bush won. Then he asked me, "do you know who else worked at Sidley Austin? - Barack Obama and his wife." Indeed I have a biography of Barack Obama, and I know that he met his wife at a law firm where he was a summer intern. But I totally forgot the name of the law firm.

Suddenly I feel so special about the invitation to speak at this upcoming life science event, where I will be speaking at the office of a firm where the President and First Lady met and once worked!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Where Would I Go If I Could....

My mother and my sister are on an organized tour in Cambodia right now. I recommended that they go there for a vacation trip, although I have never been there myself. Come to think of it, I have not been on any vacation trips since Winston's birth. I did go to Boston, San Diego and London in the past year, but all for business. I will be heading to Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong in April, again for business. But there are so many places I want to see still. I occasionally look at photos taken from my vacation trips, and I myself marvel at how youthful I looked before, and sometimes even quite fashionable - at least by comparison to my current daily attire which are sweats unless I have to go to a business meeting, in which case I will be wearing equally exciting black pantsuits. As Tina Fey said, "Being a mother makes me very tired." She also added, "and very happy."

Since I can't go on any vacation trips in the near future as all trip slots are reserved for business, I find myself compiling a list of places I would go, if I could - classic wishful thinking. Granted, I have already asked friends to consider going on a cruise to Alaska next year when Winston turns 3, at which age he could join on-board activities and leave me and friends to relax, chat and party. This way, it will not be enormous amount of work for me to keep Winston entertained. But that really is meant for a continuous party which presumably would be fun for Winston more than anyone else. I actually like neither cruises nor Alaska - Cruises are boring without a big number of friends coming along to fend off the boredom, and Sarah Palin unfortunately poisoned the image of Alaska for me.

Just selfishly speaking, where would I want to go for my own sake? Well, I would love to see Cambodia and Vietnam. I would love to see Greece and Turkey. I would love to see the Russian grandeur in St. Petersburg and Moscow. I would love to see the castles in Scotland. I would love to see the Scandinavian countries - preferably in the summer. I would love to see Japan. I would love to see New Zealand. And I would love to see the many places in China where I have not been.

There are of course places I loved which I think I would love to see again. However, in my experience the second time was never as magical as the first time when it comes to tourist attractions. Therefore I am determined to not revisit places unless they would have been exciting places to live and work for a while, such as London and Paris.

Alright - enough daydreaming and back to the reality of weekend errands and laundry.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Death and Taxes

It is time to file tax returns again. According to Michael, this year we have to pay a lot of money in additional federal and state taxes, because of the sale of my first start-up company and my consulting fee. I have been a Democrat without ever questioning it, and now suddenly I feel that perhaps I am not a real Democrat since I really don't like the idea of writing such a huge check!

Of course, I am married to someone who is always textbook correct. While I have always been terrified of death (one reason why I loved Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters" since I totally identify with his character's comic struggle to come to terms with the inevitable death), Michael seems to view it as a natural part of life and therefore not unwelcome when the time is right. When it comes to taxes, he seems to be particularly excited this year about paying more taxes to support the government and the poor.

Therefore I am speechless - I can't complain to him about having to pay so much taxes or my fear of death. While death and taxes are the two things we cannot escape but I wish I could, Michael seems to take the position that even if he could escape both, he would choose to escape neither.

Artistic Liaisons

Recently I watched a few old movies, and it was only afterward that I realized what they shared in common. One way or another, they all portrayed artistic liaisons.

"Impromptu" told the romance between the Polish pianist and composer Frederic Chopin and the French writer George Sands. The dramatic rendition of this romance did not touch upon the unhappy ending of this relationship in real life, which according to their contemporaries, contributed to Chopin's premature death.

"Hilary and Jackie" portrayed mostly the relationship between the cellist Jacqueline du Pre and her sister Hilary. But no film about Jacqueline du Pre could omit her marriage to the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim. Needless to say, their marriage did not end on a high note - she was dying from multiple sclerosis, while he had two kids with another woman, who would become his second wife upon du Pre's death.

"Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky" has perhaps the most fiction built since it was based on a rumor that the Russian composer had an affair with Coco Chanel. This film rendition featured a cold-hearted Chanel having passionate but loveless sex with an equally cold-hearted Stravinsky. Of course it did not lead anyone anywhere.

Our love of music and art often leads to our adoration of the artists. It is not surprising that artists often attract each other. However, I am beginning to wonder if artistic liaisons on average have a higher rate of failure than say, relationships between people who are perhaps more different than alike.

By analogy, perhaps successful marriages can only cope with the success of one partner, which demands the full adoration of the other less successful partner. Artistic liaisons fail more often, likely because neither wants to be in the shadow.

Tina Fey's Confessions

I absolutely enjoyed reading Tina Fey's article "Confessions of a Juggler " in The New Yorker. Finally, there is someone who can eloquently talk about how I feel with incredible humor.

What is the rudest question you can ask a woman? “How old are you?’ “How much do you weigh?” No, the worst question is: “How do you juggle it all?” Usually it implies, "you must be screwing up everything!" The second-worst question is: “Are you going to have more kids?” She said that she thought that she would be raising her daughter in Manhattan with many other couples with single kids, but it turned out that her daughter was perhaps the only "only child" in her preschool. The baby versus work question keeps her up at night. She quips that the anxiety she feels is due to the fact that she's on her last five minutes - the last five minutes when she could become famous happen to coincide with the last five minutes when she could have another child without a high chance of giving birth to a "ball of fingers". With her signature humor, she resolved that she would have to keep working instead of having a baby because over 200 people rely on her financially, unless she does have a baby, in which case it is nobody's business, and she will absolutely not regret it, unless it ruins her life.

Indeed I have been asked so many times by well-meaning friends and family "are you going to have more kids?" I usually feel annoyed, but also annoyed at myself for feeling annoyed, as how could I possibly feel annoyed at such innocuous questions? It must be me, who has a bad temper! Therefore, I felt a particular relief and even glee to read about Tina Fey's confessions. If only I could be half as witty or eloquent!

The guilt that I feel towards Winston when I keep realizing my deficiency as a mother keeps piling up - this question about whether or not to have more kids in the end is about Winston. I feel guilty that the main reason for not having another child is my work, in which case I am hopelessly selfish. Will he be the only lonely kid in his class? Will I give him too much pressure because he's my only kid? Will I be too protective or spoil him rotten because he's my only kid? Basically, I fret over whether I am going to be too demanding or too soft on him, and it all seems that somehow having another kid will miraculously solve that problem, that I will then be a "perfectly balanced" mother if there is another kid. Yes, it does sound ridiculous.

Tina Fey will probably not have another kid, and that will be just fine as she says, unless she does have another child, in which case everything will still be fine. As for which way is "better", as we are prone to ask, there will never be an answer. Perhaps we do not always need an answer to our questions. We just have to know which questions need answers, and which ones do not.

The Only Thing That is Constant is Change

One of my favorite sayings in my early twenties was "the only thing that is constant is change." I said it blithely, with a youthful confidence bordering on indifference. I looked forward to the changes all the time.

Curious about attending college in the United States, I transferred to Harvard from Peking University. Unsatisfied with the graduate school I chose upon graduation from college, I transferred to MIT to finish my PhD. Restless with my bench scientist job at Genzyme, I decided to change career path by joining McKinsey & Company. There were unwelcome changes that happened to me as well, such as when I was part of casualty during Syrrx's second layoff. When the idea of starting a company caught my fancy, I quit my job to start a company based on a PowerPoint presentation. It seems that at every step of my life, I always liked and welcomed change.

Recently, however, I have come to realize that perhaps like many other people who are getting older, I occasionally feel a loss when changes do take place. When my first start-up company was acquired early last year, it took me a while to get used to the fact that it no longer existed. When I chat with long-term friends, I sometimes remember fondly the good old days when all of us were essentially carefree and responsibility-free, playing cards until dawn.

It looks like that finally Sanofi Aventis will acquire Genzyme Corporation, the company where I had my first job out of school. I used to tell others that had I stayed at Genzyme in my comfortable scientist position, I would have made more money (because of stock options and stock purchase plan) than I actually did by pursuing the business development career path. Despite all the mergers and acquisitions and ups and downs of the industry throughout the past 10 years, Genzyme seemed solid and invincible. My friends at Genzyme adored Henri Termeer, who turned Genzyme from a little garage company to a multi-billion dollar biotech company.

Therefore, Genzyme represented in my eyes the epitome of "constancy". Now, even Genzyme will be no more. That reminded me that the only company where I worked that has remained independent is McKinsey & Company - all the other 4 companies have been acquired.

"The only thing that is constant is change." Nothing will last forever. Still, I felt a wave of nostalgia, when I remember those days when my colleagues and I at Genzyme would go t BeanTown for coffee, Penang in Chinatown for Malaysian food, and Museum of Fine Art for the annual holiday party.

I no longer view change with absolutely rosy glasses - change is inevitable, for better or for worse. We all have to embrace change and adapt. However, change erases a lot of beautiful things, leaving our own memory as the only proof that such beautiful things ever existed.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Winston's Monthly Cold

I am determined to document every time Winston gets sick. I was hoping that he might be able to skip a month without catching a cold. Alas, that was not to be the case. On the day we came back from Monterey, he caught a cold with a runny nose and constant sneezing. That night he woke up every hour because of congestion, and was utterly miserable. Of course I did not get much sleep either and was rather cranky in the daytime. Who knows - maybe the hotel room was too cold at night for him, or he caught a virus as we went to so many places with lots of people around.

To make matters worse, he also suffered from constipation after he came back from Monterey, as he ate no vegetable or fruits on the trip. I fed him two baby jars of prunes and finally he pooped, but with a great deal of pain and effort. His eyes would look at me in agony, her face beet red, and his arms stretched straight and he would cry in pain as he was pushing. Oh I felt so sorry for him...

Whatever mental benefits this trip provided for him perhaps were probably canceled by the physical discomforts caused by his cold and constipation as a result of the trip. Oh well...

An Outsider

The suspected murder of her husband with thallium poisoning by Tianle Li, a Bristol Myers Squibb chemist in New Jersey has stirred a lot of discussions in the Chinese community. She went to Peking University and received a chemistry degree before coming to the US to pursue a PhD in chemistry. A friend of mine forwarded me a website in Chinese where the author warned people never to marry a woman with a chemistry degree, as chemists have "a thousand ways to kill you", and least of all someone from Peking University (considered the Harvard of China), because they will be amongst the best to concoct deadly potions. As a PhD chemist by training and also as someone who attended Peking University as a chemistry major around the same time as Tianle Li went there, I could not help but feel a chill by reading about this case.

I do not know anyone involved in this murder case, but a friend of mine was once good friend in middle school with Tianle Li back in Beijing. She was devastated by the news, and wondered if she could have been helpful had she stayed in touch with Tianle Li. Apparently, within a year after the birth of their son, Tianle Li and her husband started fighting which led to the police showing up several times in a year. Whether or not she will be proven guilty is still not clear, but the animosity between her and her now-dead husband was well-known.

From what I heard from my friend, Tianle Li was an only daughter whose father died when she was very little. She was a hardworking girl in highschool and college, who received a bachelor's degree in two majors at Peking University. Maybe she was a bit lonely in that she transferred to Peking University after her freshman year elsewhere, when most people already established friendships. My friend said that she was certainly an introverted girl, who did not have many friends and kept to herself most of the time.

I feel so incredibly sorry for her two-year old son, who is now in foster care. I feel sorry for her dead husband as well. But perhaps more than most people who read about this story, I feel sorry for her, even if she was the murderer. Not that there is any excuse for killing anyone, but there just might be some explanation for what could push an otherwise mild-mannered, sweet-tempered and hardworking person to do something heinous and unthinkable.

Human beings are naturally gregarious creatures. We experience a whole gamut of emotions, which make us human. Starting from a young age, we want to feel that we belong. Nothing feels worse to an impressionable kid than to feel that she is forever an outsider, trying to fit in, to be accepted, to be respected, admired and loved.

Maybe in Tianle Li's case, her whole life has been a thinly veiled sad saga enroute to this final tragic ending. Back in her days in China, few kids if any had only one parent, so she felt like an outsider, with which I can empathize. When she transferred to Peking University, in her class she was the only person who did not go through a whole year of military training and she was once again an outsider. She wanted to major in chemistry but her assigned major was library science, so she was taking classes with students who did not socialize with her. She lived in a dorm room with girls who did not welcome her. When she came to the US, she was once again an outsider. Perhaps her whole life has imprinted in her mind that somehow people were against her all the time. Then came the final blow - the husband who for whatever reason also rejected this marriage to her. Despite her academic success, perhaps she felt that she had always been an outsider trying to fit in, and eventually she gave up in dramatic desperation.

Very few things feel worse than being an outsider always. It must be excruciatingly painful to be so incredibly lonely.

Winston's emotions

You can easily tell if Winston is happy or sad, most of the time. Quiz yourself on your Winston-EQ. Try to figure out how Winston is feeling in the pictures below, then click on each photo for the answer!



Monday, February 7, 2011

Monterey

After more than a year of being pestered by various friends and relatives, I finally decided to take Winston on a trip. We went to Monterey for an overnight trip. While he will remember nothing from this trip (my reason for not taking the enormous trouble to plan for trips), hopefully he is getting more than usual sensory stimulation that might contribute to a few points increase in IQ (or EQ). After all, these hypotheses were what drove me to take this trip.


So did I accomplish the goal? Well, it is hard to say. He was very excited when he first got out of the car in Monterey, running around like crazy, presumably because he was in the car seat for the past 2 hours. He paid a little attention to the seaside scenery, the jelly fish in the aquarium, and the boats at Fisherman's Wharf, but he paid much more attention to the elevators of the hotel and the doors at every place. In fact, partly because I was trying to get him to see what's really unique about Monterey, I was constantly taking him away from a door knob or an elevator that his temper seemed to be worse than usual. After all, he was happily playing with the door knob, which would have been acceptable were he at home.



The weather was beautiful, even though it was early February. Most people were wearing T-shirts already. I recalled that the previous time I was in Monterey was for a company conference, and it was really cold, windy and dark. There was an organized tour of the aquarium, but somehow my mind was preoccupied by various things. That was almost 6 years ago. How time does fly...



Winston slept in the same room on the other double bed. We put all those pillows around him to prevent him from falling off the bed. And he snored... Is it normal for a toddler to snore?

Since he is too young to keep a journal, I am doing it for him. He ate fish and chips for dinner, and had a bath in the huge bathtub at the hotel room. First he was afraid and said "pa pa" (afraid), but when he sat down in the tub, he was fine. He had some pictures taken in Monterey, and as usual, received a lot of praises and compliments for his looks as he ran up to people or ran by them.