monkey chew

this is helio's first extra-oral adventure!

helio has hiccups

here's our first baby movie. a typical morning, helio chillin with the hiccups.

4 weeks, 1 day

yesterday was helio's four week birthday. he seems so much bigger than he did a month ago. a lot has happened since then. It seems just like yesterday though. here's a list of some of our post one month observations and realizations:

• when sleep deprived you can't remember your observations...
• oh, right...
• your own baby IS the cutest baby, ever
• during the first week home, whenever you close your eyes you hear crying, especially when the baby is sleeping
  
• not only is there projectile spit-up, there's projectile poop
  
• family members only take pictures of themselves with the baby
• your baby is part pterodactyl
• after one month the daily poop report gets less fun
• you forget your spouse's name and just call her mommy or him daddy
  
• babies make lots of weird noises when they sleep
• hospital food is really bad
• you quickly trade your anti-pacifier ideals in favor of a quiet and happy baby
• the sound of a binky popping out gets you up seconds before the baby cries
• eating is no longer leisurely
  
• worrying becomes second nature
• the baby straight-jacket is the baby's most worn article of clothing
• nothing really prepares you for being a new parent
• its hard to imagine life without your baby

weekend with helio

tomorrow helio will be 4 weeks old. he'll never be this small again.





this saturday helio joined us in the yard to garden.





grasshopper friend.



end of summer flowers blooming.

the three of us

who looks like who?

Here's Kava, Wing and Helio as babies. We're comparing who looks like who and who may have what features. Feel free to comment...

Trip to the park

helio went on a car ride to the park recently. our destination: Carkeek Park.

we walked a nice path through the wetland area...

helio enjoyed the trip so much he slept through most of it!

all in all, it was a good outing. it gave kava and i a chance to get outside and get some fresh air, and it allowed grandma and grandpa a chance to see a new area of seattle.

Helio Semper Fong lands on earth

On August 12, 2008 at 11:43 pm Helio Semper Fong was born to two tired, excited, and dazed parents.



kava says: helio began his adventure to earth from the watery sea of his home in my placenta monday night at 9pm. i was getting ready for bed when i felt a few gushes and trickles of liquid and i knew this not to be pee. we decided to get some rest and call the hospital in the morning. by 3am i was having mild contractions every 5 or so minutes that kept me awake. by 7am we called the hospital and asked if we should come in. i was examined and the aminotic fluid was confirmed using litmus paper. we were shown to LDR 8 and put on the baby monitor for a while. things weren't in any hurry to get going so we went to the cafeteria and ate dispassionate potatoes and toast.

the afternoon stretched on, us moving steadily weary from lack of momentum. the midwife came in and suggested we start pitocin to speed along the contractions. we were anxious about this option because it is known to increase the pain level experienced and often leads to other interventions like epidural and c-section. we decided to take a walk down to the montlake cut to think it through. we weighed the pros and cons and talked about being tired from waiting all day and how eventually the hospital would have us induce labor since the risk for infection goes up after 24 hours of the water breaking. at this point, there were only 7 hours left until the dawn of august 13th, and i felt an affinity for the 12th... so we went ahead and got the i.v.



from there time became less of an issue. it seemed to speed up, slow down and stand still all at once. with the love and support of wing and the nurse and midwife cheering me on, helio was born 6.5 hours later without any major medical interventions. he was all purple at first because the cord was wrapped around his neck, but he turned pink pretty quick.

Wing says: Helio is now 12 days old and has been lots of things. He's been lots of fun, amazing to watch change so quickly, confusing, tiring, cute, funny, loud, messy, and did I say cute? Every day brings a new experience. Between feeding, sleeping, and his funny facial expressions we are always on our toes, even if we're trying to get a long 2 hour stretch of sleep.



A few days ago we took our first venture outside. Destination, the park. He slept most of the way but when we stopped walking he started crying, so we had to continue on our way. The second trip for the day was to the doctor and the third trip was to target for baby wipes.





Helio is growing steadily. He's up and past his birth weight proving he's eating enough. I'd sure hope so, cause it seems like he's always eating. Everyday we learn new things about him. More to come....

august yard pics and bombus fest

this dragonfly caught my eye... the rest of these garden pictures followed.










this little bombus is flapping very fast!


lots of lavendar and an unidentified flying moth




bombus-fest 2008




blue flowers in the ecoturf...


more acidic hydrangea

Newly Completed Project

i just finished up a project for the Wing Luke Asian Museum in seattle. the project was design of exterior signage for a new building they just recently moved into. there were many different elements of the signage plan, but because of budget only the most important were installed.



this picture it shows the 3 major elements, a corner sign, main entrance sign, and an orange graphic that wraps the building to tie all the window fronts under one unifying graphic representative of the museum.



this is a view of the corner sign which also lights up. i'll post some night shots later.



this is the main entrance sign. the design had to change, putting the sign inside since there were some permitting issues, and mounting issues if it was exterior. one drawback is the window reflections.



and lastly, here's a bonus picture of mitten eating kava's leftover dinner.

July 4th and 2 year anniversary trip

kava and i took a trip to the north cascades national park over the fourth of july. it was a vacation and two year anniversary celebration trip. this is diablo dam a source for seattle power.








kava loves her trail mix.

we took a short walk along the happy creek trail and found this secret door that led to a secret trail.





we saw this lilly



and another view of diablo lake



the next day we visited sakuma bros. farm to pick strawberries, which we are still eating as strawberry shortcake every night.





next we went to padilla bay national estuarine research preserve.





this is the cow we were watching when kava's mom called.



kava's naturalist 6th sense allowed us to identify this noble fir.

kitties!

Here's a cute kitty movie for all kitty fans: