Tao Love

Dearest Tao, you are now five months. Wisecalm and very smiley, you love to laugh and you surprise everyone by your mellow easygoing ways. Tao means rushing river, great river and also infinitely generous, friends from Shanghai found us the characters and wrote them, why does this typewriter keyboard not enable me to draw it? Of course it does…   And today you are six months, a day full of laughter as Song jumped and played to make you laugh more. You are a superfast roller now from one side of the room to the other and you want to taste everything, you are so ready to eat, though you have no teeth. We let you enjoy an apple, that is kind of nurse it, smell it, delight in having some like the big kids around you at Quonquont farm. You like to get your hands in things and are conscientious, as far as we can tell. You scooped into a pumpkin and a butternut squash. You squeezed some pizza dough and some pie dough. The world of food is right around the corner. You continue to love being outdoors, to look up into the leaves, to feel the air and feel the grass in your hands. Ba has started feeding you sometimes and is giving me the time and support to do some of the other work in our lives. Song calls you sweet boy and sweet bun, as I do. This family treasures you, admires you and strives to be like you, even as we continue to become ourselves.

Welcome little one

On Wednesday March 27, 2013, dearest Youme gave birth to our first son, Tao

Nguyen Ly. Tao arrived promptly at 9:57 PM weighing 7 pounds even and

measuring 20.5 inches after a fairly easy and short active labor. Both

mother and child are doing well and my two and a half year old daughter, Song, is

super excited to have a little brother. She can't wait to show him how to

use the iPad and the computer.

Here are some photos. How did we come from this  to this?

and this?

Life is truly a miracle. Somehow we even managed to avoid having a baby on April 1st.

Dear one on the way

It is three in the morning, we are expecting you any time now. The
moon is almost full and the rainy season has started. Grandma,
Grandpa, Song and Ba are asleep, collectively dreaming you. Yana will
be here in a few days. It is spring in Miami, new year time, new
beginnings. The world is preparing itself for you. You are stretching
even now, as I write this. We want you to know that we already love
and respect you for being your self. I want you to know that this
world overflows with joy and with sorrows, it is all worth it. We are
called to love and be loved, it isn't easy sometimes, but it is why we
are here. Thank you for choosing us to be your family.