Mai Helps With Dinner.

Mai is such a good helper in the kitchen. We were looking for someone to do just that!!!

Athlete's in the Family

Mai and Daddy got to spend some quality time together on Saturday morning while Mommy was attending her 10K training program. I decided she needed to know the proper way to shop (real shopping...not this fru fru clothing shopping she does with Mommy, Nana, and Natalie), so we first went to the Home Depot and picked out some plants for the yard and then we looked at the riding mowers, bird feeders, and gas grills! After we finished looking around at the Home Depot, we decided it was time to go to the park. There is a "new" Greenway park project currently under construction that provides a paved walking path along the Yadkin River on the northwest side of Winston-Salem. Mai really enjoyed the park and let me push her for about a mile and a half before she had enough of being confined. She decided she wanted to get out and explore. We spent the next forty minutes or so just exploring and pointing to all sorts of "stuff" along our way. We saw and heard tons of birds and wild flowers and Mai walked across a gravel parking lot for the first time! She didn't want to leave, but it was getting close to the time Ashley was due home and lunch as well. She had a little fit, but we survived and by the time we got back on the road she had forgotten why she was upset and just started talking away. It was a fun time and Daddy really enjoyed this time with baby!

On a different note, it appears to me that we may have an athlete on our hands...

...Mai showed off some of her soccer skills yesterday. She seems to love to run, it's as if she's saying "...the heck with walking Daddy, if I'm going somewhere I'm gonna run." I just support her and say okay Forrest. She loves being outside and playing with her ball, helping Daddy in the yard, or just exploring the yard with Mommy.

Speaking of athletes; Ashley ran in the Susan G. Komen 5K run a few weeks ago and did really well. She ran the 5K in 26 minutes...That's while pushing Mai!!! She did really well and I am so proud of Ashley for training hard and doing so well. Currently she's training for a 10K and meets with her running group twice weekly for sprinting and other drills. She said the coach really kicked her butt yesterday. Thanks Stacie!

What Can I Say!

No words needed...

It's Been A While...What's New???

It's been a while since my last blog post. We've been incredibly busy, as I'm sure most of you have been as well. What did we do with all of that free time we had before baby?!? Let's see, Mai is growing like a weed and loving to explore the world. At just under 15 months, Mai now has four teeth (woo hoo), is talking (most common words are Mama, Dada, and A-men!), drinks from a straw, and most recently let Mommy push her in the Susan G. Komen 5K Race for the Cure here in Winston-Salem. She is incredibly active and social and loves visiting with friends. She no longer stays with us during church services as she starting talking to our good friend Amy (also one of the ministers at our church) on the video screen during the sermon. She now goes to the nursery after the opening music. She's down to one nap in the afternoon and does does very well in her car seat on long trips.

Ashley and I stay busy aside from our time with Mai. I actually went a saw the new Star Trek movie today! I was quite pleased. They did a good job with it; perhaps even brought Star Trek back to it's roots.

She Finally Popped...A Tooth!

Mai finally popped her first tooth this morning, well actually sometime during the night! It only took 13 months and four days!!! She's been walking a talking for a while now, but still had no teeth. In Vietnam, we would kid with Dave and Teresa by joking that Mai would be talking and walking before she had any teeth...Apparently that was no joke! As her parents loudly celebrated her new tooth, she just clapped her hands, smiled really big, and laughed. She doesn't understand the significance of this but her parents do...Yeah!!! The picture above is "Pre-tooth," but it captures the true Mai of the present time!

Hi Again Everyone!

Hi everyone,

It's been a pretty busy few weeks for the Graham Family. We celebrated Vietnam's New Year (Tet Celebration) on Jan. 24th. Mai had her first day at day care. I had my first week back to work. More importantly, Mai has been taking her first steps. Her coordination is getting better and better so we expect her to take off any time now! Watch out hounds!!!!!!!!! Oh I almost forgot, Mai is learning the stairs. Check out the photos! :)

This is Mai's first day of Day care and my first day back to work (Jan. 26th). It was extremely hard but Mai did really well. She continues to amaze me. Apparently she has lots of boyfriends. As matter of fact, she had her first love bite on Monday 2/1/09. One of her boyfriends at the day care was hugging her and then procede to give her a kiss but decided that she would taste better! :) He has atleast 4 teeth. It made me laugh. This was only her second week at day care and she did great. She didn't cry at all when I dropped her off which made me feel better. Dropping her off sort of happy made the day go easier!

Along with many other families who have adopted from Vietnam, we celebrated Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, on Janurary 24th. We had so much fun that day. It was so much fun seeing some of the families again and meeting other families who we went through all of the drama together. The kids were amazing as usual.

Look who's walking! She is getting stronger and stronger each day with her walking. Watch out hounds!!!!!!

I'm Steppin' Out...

Mai is amazing! She's gonna be walking before she has teeth or can talk. Right now she's surfing the furniture and will pull herself up on Mommy's pants to walk. Her balance is getting better each day so I expect her to take off on us some day soon.