Hi my name is Vince. I will crush you.

Oops I did it again....

2008-06-07T11:43:00.006-05:00

Jen is knocked up again. I am pretty sure that it is mine too!!!! Guess I need to come up with a new name for the blog.

Introducing baby boy Jumalon #2.

To celebrate, Vincent went bowling. His technique is a bit unorthodox.

Bowling from jennifer on Vimeo.

Later

TWO!!

2008-05-21T21:11:00.005-05:00

24 months. I really cannot believe how fast the past 2 years have gone. And despite all of Vince's efforts, mama and papa are still alive, and generally healthy. Honestly, we both feel truly blessed to have this little man. And although the crushing has been severe at times, its hard to imagine a life without him. Seriously, how could anyone live without having a daily argument about why you have to wear pants when you go outside. or explaining to someone why they can't just sit in a diaper full of poop.

But there is also the funny stuff; A few weeks ago, it was him counting out loud "uno, dos, tres, quatro, ocho, nueve, ocho". Or maybe the other day, when he saw mama pull the ice cream out of the freezer "oooh, I like it". Or just today it was him pointing at the TV and looking at me "papa, Dora...go"

But enough with the pleasantries. Lets see what Vince can do now that he couldn't do 12 months ago

1) A 2 year old can have a birthday party at the swimming pool.

If you'll recall, last year we had a birthday party in the backyard. The temperature was a little on the cool side and the kids nearly got hypothermia. This year, Vince graduated to the neighborhood pool. The temperature was a little on the cool side and the kids nearly got hypothermia. A wise aggie once told me, "2 and 3 yr olds are like polar bears, they have no idea what hypothermia means"

I only pasted a few below. Click here for more birthday pictures.

2) A 2 year old can teach a 1 year old about the concept of "mine"

I'm terribly sorry Chloe, I'm looking at this at the moment, would you mind waiting for one or two minutes. Thank you

Mine from jennifer on Vimeo.

3) A 2 year old can hunt for Easter eggs....
....or wander around aimlessly in the bushes

Easter Eggs from jennifer on Vimeo.

4) A 2 year old can take pictures with strategically placed dinosaurs

Nude but tasteful

5) A 2 year old can run

Here is us at Discovery Green, the new park that just opened up in downtown Houston.

Faster, Better, Stronger

Run from jennifer on Vimeo.

6) A 2 year old can handle firearms

I'm not sure how he figured out how a gun should be held? or what it does? But here is Vince trying to bust a cap on Nate Goldberg. He looks a bit maniacal. Should I be concerned?

7) A 2 year old can be in love with this person (ugh)

8) A 2 yr old can embarrass his father

I won't embed directly here for the sake of public decency. But click here for a video of Vincent accidentally pulling down his papa's shorts at the Galleria

Later

Another poop story

2008-04-19T20:16:00.007-05:00

Warning - if you have trouble talking openly and freely about poop, then I would recommend just skipping down to the pictures

Poop. It smells. Its gross. It smells. It's a strangely powerful symbol of a parents love.

So I'm giving Vince a bath, much like any evening. But tonight he decides to surprise me with a little gift. He can say "papa, poo poo potty". (He can't actually drop a deuce in the toilet yet, but he says that when he's feeling stuff starting to move around). Tonight he says something wierd like "papa, soap". Or maybe it was "papa, I think something's about to happen here". Either way, I ignored him, since I didnt here the magic words of "poo poo potty". So I turn back to the tub to find him sitting next to a big mess, for lack of a better word.

Now this isnt the first time this has happened. Fortunately, on previous occasions the poops kind of looked like this. ie quick and easy clean up. Tonight, the poop looked closer to this. Ugh. Oh well.

Here's some non-poop related pictures

Kind of looks like me. Replace blue cap with burnt orange cap. Replace water bottle with Shiner. Replace food stains on shirt with....well ok that one is dead on.

Yeah, papa still can't stay in the lines

Vince and his cousins. I think this is when Auntie Alice was in town for a visit

Roberto Jr's 1st Birthday Party.

Vincent in Austin. Check out the wicked bruise on his forehead

Vince in Zilker Park. We forgot to pack a bucket and shovel. Vince improvised

Untitled from jennifer on Vimeo.

Later

Chiles still can't throw

2008-03-01T12:12:00.008-06:00

We took Vince to his (and my) first Horns spring practice. The weather could not have been better. Vince enjoyed running around in the grass with Luke Svoboda. Later they discussed the flaws in John Chiles throwing motion and whether Roy Miller would best be used as a nose or a three technique.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Later that day we drove down to San Antonio to visit Dan's cats and enjoyed what was quite possibly the greatest hamburger ever created at this place. We also strolled around the shops at la cantera where Vince enjoyed some ice cream.

Also Vincent met a zebra.

Untitled from jennifer on Vimeo.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Untitled from jennifer on Vimeo.

another post?

2008-02-18T14:47:00.004-06:00

Yes crazy. So you might be asking, why all the new posts all of a sudden? Well.. I took a vacation day to run errands and take care of a few things that can really only be done during the work week. But of course that is the precise moment that Vince decides to get a 104F temperature. And to top it off, Vince's mom decides that since Vince was sick, she might as well get sick too.

As such, I was stuck at the house taking care of a sick kid, and a sick grown person. Since they were asleep most of the time, it left me some time to blog.

On a side note, we took Vince to the doctor regarding his fever. And while sitting in the waiting room, he pukes all over me. Of course we have a change of clothes for him, but I had nothing. Jen ran downstairs to the gift shop to find a T-shirt for me. Of course this is all they had. Don't even ask how much she paid for it.

Anyway here are some new Vincent promotional videos.

Vince eating cheerios as only he can. Yummy indeed

cheerios from jennifer on Vimeo.

Below is general foolishness. Not to be confused with Colonel Sanders.

foolishness from jennifer on Vimeo.

Chloe's mom and dad were interviewed by the local tv station. Good chance for them to pimp their new business. See if you can find Chloe. And if you are really smart, see if you can find a near appearance by Vincent

Dream Dinners on ABC 13 from The Dots on Vimeo.

El update grande

2008-02-02T19:54:00.015-06:00

delinquent - adjective - failing in what duty requires; "derelict (or delinquent) in his duty"; "neglectful of his duties";

Hello to the 3 or 4 of you that are still checking this blog. Its been quite some time since I've actually written something of significance here. What have we been doing the past few months. Not much, except for the 2 weeks we spent on the other side of the planet in November. More to come on that

Broken down into months for easy reading.

AUGUST
Quick trip to Dallas to see Grandma and Grandpa. Here is Vincent and Grandpa at the splash park.

SEPTEMBER
Vincent goes to his first Longhorn tailgate. Horns beat TCU that night. No comment on the rest of the season.

Auntie Vanessa visits from Manilla. Kind of a big deal, since getting a visa from that part of the world is like winning the lottery. Just a short trip, but you'll see more of auntie later down the page

OCTOBER
For Halloween Vincent went dressed as Toby Maguire

NOVEMBER
Lets skip for now

DECEMBER
After our exhausting November, we spent a very quiet and low key Christmas. Mostly quiet nights with friends and family. The Svobodas came into town for a visit. Luke and Vince decided they wanted to ride Vince's toy cop motorcycle.....together. This reminded of a very disturbing episode of CHiPs that I probably (even more disturbingly) just imagined.

Also congrats to the Benos.

Back to

NOVEMBER
Ahh yes...the trip. We spent the last few weeks in Nov, visiting family in the Philippines and in Taiwan. Anyone else traveled internationally with a 17 month old?
I'll paste just a few pictures below, but if you want to see all of the pictures click here

Philippines
Taipei

Some Notes
1) Portable DVD player. I thougt that we overpaid for this thing, but it was worth every single green dollar that we spent on it.
2) The trip. 16 hr flight, 2 layovers, 30 hours total travel time. No need to sugarcoat how hard this part of the trip is. But Vincent did extremely well. The DVD player and a bag full of snacks and toys was the key. He threw a fit on the last hour of the trip. We couldnt have asked for anything more.
3) The jetlag. not too bad for the grown folks. Horrible for Vince. Again the DVD player was a life saver.
4) Life in Auntie's city - Shopping malls, no car seat required, screaming with Kuya Josh. Fun
5) Life on Grandma's farm - too many cousins to play with. Too many goats to slaughter. Too much Karaoke to sing. Too many San Mig Lights. Fun.
6) Life on Grandpa's Beach - breezy. relaxing. San Miguel. Papa ate a
duck embryo. Fun.
7) Life in Great Grandma's big city - survived a typhoon. Vincent got kicked out of an R Rated movie. fun.

Manilla Philippines (Auntie's city)

Cagayan Philippines (Grandma's farm)

Siquijor Phillipines (Grandpa's Beach)

TAIPEI (Great Grandma's Big City)

Whew...that was long one. later

Dog vs Boy

2007-12-30T19:03:00.000-06:00

We're taking your votes, which of the following sounds closer?

1) Dog

or

2) Boy

YOOOOUUUUUU!!!!!!

2007-12-20T21:15:00.000-06:00

Too cool for school...

2007-08-04T13:07:00.001-05:00

So now that he can move on 2 feet, Vincent graduated from his infant II class to the toddler class. Let's just say he hasn't enjoyed the transition. The teachers say that it might take a few weeks for him to adjust. Frankly, I think they underestimate Vincent's resolve. Mama says that he cries exceptionally loud when she drops him off now, and he clings to her like stink to poop.

I'm way too cool to be hanging with those other kids anways....

In other news, Vincent seems to have discovered music. He watches something called "The Wiggles" while mama and papa are getting ready for work. Those guys kind of creep me out for some reason, but he enjoys the singing and dancing and we enjoy getting to work on time.

WOW!!! The Wiggles are awesome. Except that purple guy...he kind of creeps me out for some reason

Need more proof?. Here's what Vincent looks like in the car rockin out. This time to Blue October (yuck)

And here's a picture of Vincent paying tribute to his favorite band The Warlords of Freedom

And in still other news, here's Vince makin his move

BYE!!!!

He walks

2007-07-18T20:44:00.000-05:00

"But I would walk 500 miles
And I would walk 500 more
Just to be the man who walked 1,000 miles
To fall down at your door"
~ The Proclaimers, 500 miles

So the big news is that Vince started walking. I wasn't sure when to actually make this announcement official. He started taking a few steps 2 weeks ago. And he still prefers crawling, but he made it all the way across our living room yesterday. I figured that was good enough.

Here is what it looks like.

We're excited. So is he. Now I can finally start training him to shoot a rubber ball through a metal hoop. I bought all of these when Vincent was still living in Jennifer.

The other big news, was that Vincent's Ninang came all the way from Thailand on a visit. We enjoyed the company. Vincent enjoyed being able to crush someone other than his mama and papa for a change. He and Gabriel took turns crying through the night. (Gabriel was jetlagged/ Vincent got another pesky ear infection) I was amazed that Cuya Ethan and Ate Megan could sleep through it all.

The other other big news was that Vincent has a new friend. Ms Chloe Phan decided to jump out of her mom on June 9th. Chloe's dad has already warned Vincent repeatedly to stay away from his daughter. You can check out her story HERE

Here is Vincent getting a little too close to Chloe

The other other other big news was that one of Vincent's buddies finally made it home from the hospital. Rees is a bit of a miracle baby, but he still has quite a battle in front of him. Please keep him and his family in your prayers. You can check out his story HERE.

That's all for now, I'm deeply involved in some Guitar Hero'ing.

BYE

When Vincent speaks

2007-07-05T20:36:00.000-05:00

Here's a video of Vincent discussing his stance on the US involvement in Iraq and the looming troop withdrawal. I think Vincent foolishly fails to acknowledge the ever present threat of Sunni aggression in the burgeoning Shia republic. So much to learn. oh well, he's just a kid

The Birthday

2007-06-02T09:53:00.000-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VINCENT!!!

So I had this great idea for an entry. I was gonna steal yet another one of Bill Simmon's pet articles and write an hour-by-hour recap of the days events. Well after a rough draft, I quickly realized why Bill Simmon's writes for a living, and I'm an accountant. So I'll kinda let the pictures tell the story on this one (like most of you would probably prefer anyway)

Our plan was to basically have 2 parties. An early one for the smallest of Vince's guests (to keep them from getting trampled), and a second one in the early afternoon for bigger guests. A few weeks earlier Mama went crazy and bought some baby pools for the backyard. Hot summer day, cool water, cold beers. Hmmmm...seems like that would work.

Well except for
1) Not so hot summer day meant that the water was freezing cold later in the afternoon for the bigger kids
2) Our backyard was waterlogged for a couple of days
3) we almost ran out of toilet paper.

Despite all that, I think everyone had a good time. Vince got to splash around a bit, and smashed some cake in his face. I ate too much. Someone had a tooth pulled.

Good times. good times.

bathtime? outside? crazy?

Cake

not exactly sure what these kids are doing, but I'm sure it's nothing good

Here's the first picture of Chloe and Vincent

HR Puf-n-stuf?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

ONE!!!!!!!

2007-05-20T14:11:00.000-05:00

Tracy McGrady, Warren Moon, Buck Johnson. All famous 1's from Houston. Now you can add Vince to that list.

Welcome to the club Vincent

Yes, as of May 16th, Vince has been crushing us for a full 365 days. We've cried a little. Laughed a lot. Cleaned some poop. Alot of poop. And what have we learned as parents over the past year (other than how to sterilize rubber nipples)? Well, we certainly haven't mastered anything. Any advice is welcome as always.

The one thing that I do know is that we love this kid. How do I know this? If someone pees on you, poops on your jeans, makes you rush out to the doctor at random times, keeps you up all night, bites you in the face, and you still rush home after work just to see their toothless smile before they fall asleep, than it has to be love.

But enough with the pleasantries already, lets get to the pictures!!!!! I missed an entry for month 11, so I'll try to make up for it. For those of you waiting for birthday party pics, I'm gonna dedicate an entire post just for that, so you'll have to wait a few more days.

EASTER
Baby's first Easter came and went. We spent Easter Sunday with Auntie Fe. Vince's new friend Samantha came and visited from New Jersey. Vince liked picking up the little plastic eggs and clanking them against each other. He never really understood that something was actually inside them.

Hey Sam, check these things out

Wow, plastic eggs. What a great holiday

GAMES
Vincent has a game of his own design. it involves picking up a few of his toys, and putting them in some other object (ie box, bag, empty can), then removing those objects, and then putting them back in, and out, and in, and out, over and over and over and over. The funny part is the intent look and concentration that he displays while he's playng this game. Its kind of like he has some wierd agenda in his head for how many times he has to repeat this action.

Here's what it looks like

BATH
Vince gets a bath every night after dinner. Mainly because he feeds himself and manages to get only about 65% of the food in his mouth, while the rest winds up somewhere else on his body. He does the same set of things whenever he bathes, not necessarily in this order;

1) Turn water on and off
2) Turn on shower
3) splash papa
4) urinate in tub
5) throw toys out of tub
6) taste bath water

I always consider it a successful bath when he does #6 BEFORE doing #4.

Here's Vince in the tub;

he he he

STANDING
He isn't walking yet, but Vince can stand up whenever he feels like it.

Why walk, when someone can carry me? Walking is for suckers

I Luv LA
Vince took his first trip on a plane 2 weekends ago. His Uncle Arthur got married and had a big reception in LA, and so Vince got to meet a lot more of his family on his mom's side. Fortunately, he seemed to be OK on the flight. No screaming, no crying. He was a little bored on the plane, but so was I.

He absolutely loved his grand-aunt's house. Lots of room to crawl around, but he even had more fun crawling up and down the stairs. up. down. up. down. over and over and over and over....and over.

Congrats Uncle Arthur and Auntie Shelley

2nd generation Tu's in America

3rd generation Tu's in America

Stacked Blocks
Vince HATES stacked blocks. He can't stand to see any of his blocks stacked up for more than a few seconds.

Well, that's it for the moment. Like I said, I'll get a birthday party entry up on the site in the next few days.

Keep it real, ya'll

Oh my word, he actually posted something!!!

2007-05-17T22:08:00.002-05:00

yeah yeah. I know. Sorry. You all could have had your own kids in the amount of time that has passed since the last entry.

I'll get back on it. I promise. And of course if you read something on the internet, than you know its as good as gold.

Anyway, work has been a beast lately, and combine that with Vince's newfound mobility, and his endless energy, and it kind of makes things difficult to keep up with a blog. It also hurts when he loves pounding on the keyboard of this computer whenever he sees me open it. He somehow managed to pop off one of the "shift keys'. (seriously). If you see some uncapitalized letters than you'll know why.

I'll post a much longer entry after this weekend. (aka the big one year birthday extravaganza). But to keep you all interested, here's a slideshow from a few weekends ago. We made a new friend Janelle through Vince's Auntie Nhi (hey Nhi, Vince can't wait to meet his new buddy Chloe!!!). Janelle also happens to be a fantastic professional photographer. If anyone needs an event captured on film, give her a call. She's great.

www.janellelynnphotography.com

Click on the below to enjoy some of her latest work. I'll be writing soon (I promise).

10 MONTHS!!!!!

2007-03-25T19:51:00.001-05:00

Do you guys enjoy talking about poop? If no, please feel free to click away from this blog.

...pause...

Still here? OK. you were warned.

HAHA You said poop

Well, this past month, Vince contracted a nasty nasty stomach virus. Grandma and Grandpa Tu graciously offered to babysit the boy, while mama and papa enjoyed a quiet night out with some friends. Well, when we got home, it had already started. Vince had thrown up twice, and had been crying incessantly. Grandma was scared that she had fed Vince too much corn. oh, but if that was only the case.

Hey, I'm usually a good eater

That was just the start of a very very long week for mom and pop. Vince couldn't eat anything without throwing up a little while later. and whatever he did manage to get down......well that came out the other side. and it came out fast. and wet. and smelly. and leaked out of the diaper. a few times a day. for about 3 days.

It was gross. the poop was so loose that it would leak out and soak into his shorts or pants, or whatever we would put him in to keep the poop from reaching the bed/carpet/sofa. Which unfortunately it did a few times. Sometimes, the poop would leak upwards (??? yeah I don't even know how thats possible) and soak into his shirt. just disgusting.

and since he was just feeling bad in general, he just wanted to be held all the time. especially at night when humans are supposed to sleep.

It took a good 3-4 days for the diarrhea to somewhat subside. and another 7 days or so for Vince to totally get back to normal.

As of today, Vince is doing fine. He is horribly active now. He's moving around so much, that we've dedicated our back room as his play prison. Because a) there's tons of room to crawl around and play and not much "stuff" to break and b) it's easy to barricade the entry way so he can't escape.

In other news, the Jumalons & Tu's took a joint weekend trip to Austin. It was quiet and relaxing. Pictures below.

Ana & Vince at Threadgill's

Jumalon men doing what the Jumalon men do. Eat too much.

Spring time, a shady deck, a hammock

Mama and Uncle Alex

Peek a boo

Bye!!!

Grandma!!Grandpa!!

Go Horns

That's all I've got for now. Hopefully you won't have to read about poop for a while. Later

um...mama I think this shirt got smaller

Gung hei faat choi !!!!!

2007-02-19T09:24:00.000-06:00

Vincent celebrated his first Chinese New Year yesterday. In keeping with Chinese tradition, the family gathered for a big meal, played Nintendo Wii, and watched the second half of the NBA All-Star game.

Vincent wishes everyone a prosperous year.

Traditional Chinese New Year "crying in the park"

Wasn't sure what to caption this picture with, either a)Mmmmm...Lechon or b)Year of the Pig?

We're Back!!!! Just in time for 9 MONTHS!!!!!!!

2007-02-15T06:06:00.000-06:00

After a long and painful hiatus. www.vincentjumalon.blogspot.com is back in business, armed with a new hard drive courtesy of my very generous in-laws. Hopefully I havent lost the 5 of you that were previously checking the blog.

Long entry this time, to make up for lost time. Lots to cover. Lets get to it:

CRAWLING:
I guess the coolest thing that has happened is that Vince is crawling. really crawling. Chest up off the ground, cruising around on all fours. Of course the first thing that he goes for is our electronics (reciever, DVD player, stereo). Perhaps Vince is a techie. Maybe he just likes flashing lights.

Here's Vince crawling around at the Children's Museum

How fast does this thing go?

NEW YEAR'S EVE:
We spent a quiet night at home with the family. Cousins Azure and Ali came over. And we all ate way too much, while ABC showed us the party in times square.

Maybe it was the strange glow emanating from Dick Clark's face. Maybe it was the excitement of his cousins being around. Maybe he just knew what was going on. But Vincent refused to fall asleep on NYE. refused. until 12:02 am. Seriously. 2 minutes after the ball dropped, he fell asleep. Coincidence? I was asleep by 12:03. Uncle Alex ran out into our street and launched what seemed like 1000 fireworks in our front yard.

I'm staying up as late as everyone else, what about you?

NEW YEAR'S DAY:
I don't know what the deal was this year. nobody wanted to throw a NYE party. But everyone wanted to throw New Year's day parties. So Vincent spent all of his first new year's day party hopping.

Guess what, I stayed up until 12:02 last night

New Year's cake

???

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Vince also got invited to birthday party at Bounce U. Ate Lauren turned 6 this year, and I think invited every filipino kid in Houston under age 7 to her party.

Kids

Vince didn't do much bouncing himself, but he did seem fascinated by all the other kids jumping around and general chaos. I jumped around a little bit, just to show Vincent how it was done of course.

Uncle Paul and Ate Ana

Pizza...true

LAUNDRY:
I threw Vince in the clothes hamper (clean clothes) looking for a photo op. Here is how that went

MEET THE FAMILY:
Vincent also spent some time meeting some long lost relatives at the zoo. The weather was mild, the monkeys were howling, the smell of manure was magnificent in the air.

Tito?

.....

Where the $%^# am I? oh man, I'm never drinking that much again.

EAR INFECTIONS:
This pesky ear infection continued to plague Vincent over the past month. Just when we thought it was gone, it would return. So far he has gone through 3 different types of medicine. Some he liked, most he didn't. I think this last one finally did the trick. But we'll see

Vincent crying for a medicine fix

EATING
Vince has been eating all sorts of stuff lately. To name a few; Cheerios, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, mashed potatoes, apples, bananas, beef stew, paper (oops), eggs, prunes, turkey and gravy, avocados, broccoli, carrots, a bit of plastic (again oops), aroz caldo, beef noodle soup. I think the avocados have been his favorite so far, with paper a close second.

did someone say paper?

Vincent got a hold of some asparagus while we were at Osaka Japanese Sushi Buffet in Dallas. Here are the results

So you see, we've been busy while you were away. We promise not to blow up another computer. Again I will make my empty promise of more frequent updates. Later dudes.

Bye!!

NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

2007-01-14T19:59:00.000-06:00

So the other day, I tried to turn on our computer. After several minutes of some strange clicking and buzzing, I got an error message on the screen that said HRD ERROR!!!.

I am hoping for the best, but I am fearing the worst. My computer may be dead, and along with it, countless Vincent pictures, which had not yet been put on a disc or on paper or on this blog.

We are working to correct the situation. We want to make sure we fill all of your Vincent needs.

Stay tuned

On Christmas, ear infections, and (of course) 7 MONTHS!!!!!!

2006-12-28T19:51:00.000-06:00

7 months old. He keeps getting closer and closer to that one yr old mark. Simply amazing.

It being Christmas, and with all of the things that are going on around us these days, and with all the stuff that we had to go through last year, Jen and I just look at each other lately and all we can do is give thanks for this unbelievable gift that we have been blessed with. We have this remarkable little person who makes us laugh and cry. Who makes us proud and joyful with every passing day. Sometimes we're just at a loss of words to describe it.

But all of that being said, Vince gave us a good crushing this Christmas. It started on Sunday. The crying. The no-sleeping. The general crankiness. By Christmas day, Vince was just miserable and accompany that with a 102 degree fever. Poor Vince. He could barely play with wrapping paper and boxes. Even had to cancel a play date with his buddy Luke from Austin (sorry again Svobodas). The doctor took a look and determined that Vince had developed an ear infection. Otitis Media to be exact. Pretty common for babies. Most of our friends warned us about it. The remedy, antibiotics. Twice a day. Should take a few days to clear up. In the meantime, he is crying relentlessly and needless to say, Vincent's sleep patterns, which were inconsistent to begin with, are now just FUBAR

Merry Christmas from Houston!!!

But even sickness couldn't keep this kid from partying hard this Christmas. A few weeks before Christmas, Vince took in his very first concert. He got to watch his Cuya Ralph in the Houston Boys Choir annual Christmas concert. Midway through the show, Vincent got bored and tried to sing along. He listened to the rest of the concert from the lobby. This was Ralph's last year to perform with the Boys choir. Its kind of like Menudo, where they kick you out after you (and your voice) reach a certain age.

And as usual we spent Christmas day with Auntie Fe. The infamous Magic Microphone made an appearance as is normal at an asian party. Vincent got to hear papa do his best (or worst) Ricky Martin impersonation. That is probably what caused his ear infection.

Lolo singing "oops, I did it again"

Guess how many of these kids are sick

Too much partying

Vincent recieved far and away the most gifts this year. Mama was a distant second. Papa is still waiting for Santa. The most handy gift that Vincent recieved this year was probably his high chair. Perfect for feeding time. So far, Vincent has tried, rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, green beans, apples, peaches, pears, and bananas. He seems to enjoy the sweet potatoes the most. An interesting side note to this is that his poop now looks and SMELLS like a grown person's poop. And please allow me to emphasize again the SMELL.

Uncle John, if you don't buy me a gift than you are a Loser!!

Here's a quick video of Ate Ana opening some gifts

And while we're talking about eating, Vincent has two teeth. Both bottoms. They work too. Mama has the bloody nipples to prove it.

I have more teeth than Lolo now!!!

On the mobility front, Vince turned over finally this month. But he seems to have gotten bored with that rather quickly. He prefers sitting up and playing with his numerous toys, which seem to be scattered EVERYWHERE. He also really likes being stood up and leaning against the coffee table or couch. He can't quite pull himself up yet, but he's working on it. He's also attempting to crawl. But all he can manage so far is kind of a backwards squirm. All in good time, I suppose.

In other news, after several months of preparation Vincent's buddy Gabrielle (and the rest of the Fernandes family) made their final move to Bangkok. Good luck guys. Hope we can visit soon.

Gabrielle, who are all these people, and why are they taking all of your stuff????

-------------------------------

So that was Vincent's first Christmas. Hope you all enjoyed the holiday as much as he did. To close, I leave you with Vincent's favorite Christmas song

Ho Ho Ho

2006-12-08T13:14:00.000-06:00

The temperature has gotten quite a bit colder lately. Meaning, no more trips to the park for the little guy. So instead, we've been making trips to the Galleria just to get out of the house. In case you were interested, I rate wandering around the Galleria during christmas time just a little above watching a "Date my Mom" marathon on MTV (i.e. I hate it). But I guess this is one of those "sacrifices" that Im supposed to make as a parent. On one of these trips, I invited my bro to share in the torture....err...joy.

So anyway, it being Christmas and all, Vincent and Ate Ana had a visit with Santa. Of course with the holidays, the line was long. But Vince made a new friend while waiting. By sheer coincidence, Eva Lin lined up right behind us. Mama and Papa knew Eva's dad Frank from their carefree college days in Austin. Eva was scared of me at first (as most women tend to be), but Vince's charm helped to win her over.

"Hey Eva, do you know what this line is for?"

Surprisingly, the actual picture taking with Santa was uneventful. I had envisioned 2 screaming kids. And one annoyed Santa.

I tried to upload the actual picture that we paid for, but I'm not very good at the internet. So this one will have to do for now.

Mama promised Ana a trip to Dylan's Candy Bar after the pictures with Santa. Ana picked out a lollipop the size of her face. So needless to say, she was happy.

Here's a cool picture of Ana by the ice skating rink

Vince also seems to enjoy these outings. Maybe its all the people he likes to stare at. Maybe its all the lights. Maybe he's happy that consumer spending seems to have rebounded after a sluggish past 2 fiscal quarters. eh, he probably just farted.

Here is what we look like at the mall

Here's a completely unrelated but horribly cute picture. Just to tide you guys over until the next update

Laters

EDIT: Vincent has a new little buddy, Rees. I got to be friends with Rees's dad a few years ago when we were both trying to look busy at a big energy company in Houston. Rees will have a pretty amazing story to tell one day. He came into the world a little early than normal, he's a 4 month preemie. He has battled like a champion so far, but he's still in the NICU and probably a few months away yet from going home. He can use as many prayers as he can get, so please keep Rees in your thoughts.

6 MONTHS!!!!!!!!

2006-11-15T12:24:00.000-06:00

The fastest 6 month time period that I can ever remember. For those of you that just found this blog, let's recap.

Here is Vince at age 2 days

little

Here is Vince at age 6 months

Big

Pretty wild huh? I don't know how he got this big without us seeing it. crazy.

Here are some highpoints from the past month

The Park
What did we do to celebrate the big birthday? The weather in Houston has been muy bueno the past few days, so mama and papa took Vincent to the park. He's finally big enough to sit in the baby swing. He seemed to enjoy it for a while. But he seemed more impressed by the other little kids runnin around.

Good Bye Spike :(
Well, its time to say goodbye to the spiky hair-do that Vince made his own for 5.5 months. His baby hair has fallen out in various degrees around his head, and the few strands that do remain are too long and wiry to stand up in a spike (EDIT: In all honesty, we started styling his hair with water or sometimes even hair gel on a few occasions just so his hair would stick straight up. But man that is just a little wierd to do to a 6 month old) So, mama decided to just cut it off. It was a sad day for all of us. But I think his new cut is still pretty nice.

To celebrate the new look, mama decided that we should get a family picture taken. The fine people at the Sears portrait studio made this magical moment possible. (The coupon that Sears sent in the mail helped also)

Time to eat?
If you remember from a few posts back, we tried to feed Vince some baby cereal. Which he rejected proudly. As seen here

Well, we are thinking of revisiting the cereal sometime soon. Because Vince started making these funny chewing motions, whenever he sees us eating anything. Maybe he wants to start eating? I think its all a big ruse, so as to throw up on me again.

School Pictures
He is only 6 months old, but I guess that isnt too young for school pictures. (yes mama went a little picture crazy this month) These were taken just before the spike was cut from his scalp. In the spring, the photographer will come back to take class pictures. I'm curious to see how the photographer manages to organize Vincent and his classmates (approx 10 3-12 month olds) into one big picture.

Too cool for school

Fine dining
Grandpa Tu celebrated his 60th birthday this month, and as that is an important milestone in Chinese culture, Vince decided to treat his grandparents (both sides) and family to a fancy dinner at Antika Osteria. Imagine if you will, one of Houston's finer italian restaurants. Quiet candelelit tables. Soft jazz in the background. Couples enjoying a romantic evening. Now imagine that same restaurant with one large table that included a 3 year old (Ana), a 2 year old (Ali), a 7 month old (Azure), and little Vince at 6 months. Needless to say, things got a little hairy at times. Ana enjoyed the birthday cake. Ali ate about 20 pieces of bread. And Azure and Vince took turns crying as loud as they could. But we all survived and a good time was had by everyone at our table. I can't speak for the table right next to ours.

fancy fancy

Hi

I hear that this restaurant has bread.....

Just let me know when its time to cry

Three generations of Tu's

Rolling
In other news, Vince still isnt rolling over. We think Vince might be a bit lazy. Which isnt surprising if you know Vince's dad.

Later

100.1!!!

2006-10-30T18:44:00.000-06:00

It finally happened. Vince had been fighting some wicked nasty congestion for over a week. And despite all of our efforts, he caught his first fever last weekend. The peak came in at 100.1 degrees F, which in hindsight does not seem very high. But it lasted through the night, and Vince was very agitated. Translation; if Vince doesnt sleep, then no one sleeps.

We called the nurse late at night, and she said that there was no need to be concerned as long as his temperature did not break 100.5 F (we could almost hear her laughing at us silently), but that we could still see Dr Schafer the next morning if his fever persisted.

The waiting room

By morning his temperature had backed off a bit to a cool 99.9 F, and so of course we were off to the doctor's office. By the time we got there, and seemingly as if to make us look like crazy people in front of the doctor, Vince was feeling better. He listened as other kids were screaming whilst getting shots or being examined. He ripped up the paper covering the examination table and then tried to shove it in his mouth. But mostly he drooled and slobbered all over himself and whoever carried him.

The doctor checked him out for 3 minutes (maybe less), declared that Vince had caught some kind of virus, and then gave us some decongestant for his nose (which wound up not really working).

So to summarize, doctors make good money.

Suckers!!

5 MONTHS!!!!!!

2006-10-17T19:24:00.000-05:00

Is it just me, or is time moving much faster these days? I really can't believe he's this old. I still feel like we just came home from the hospital. What have we been doing? Lots of questions to answer so let's review;

What does baby vomit smell like? Well pretty much like you'd expect, like vomit. One of mama's friends said that at around 5 months her baby had started waking up in the middle of the night, much like Vincent. Her Doctor suggested that she put a little bit of baby cereal in her baby's milk before bedtime. With the thought that the extra substance would keep his tummy full for much longer. After getting the OK from our docter, mama and papa tried this technique. The cereal stayed in his stomach for a few hours, but after that he thought the cereal would look better on papa's shirt and all over the bedroom carpet. Oh well, guess Vince isnt ready for that. (Or maybe, he isnt ready for us to sleep yet)

I don't know why they are complaining. I'm sleeping just fine

Where do you put a baby when you need the use of both of your hands? Let me introduce you to the Bumbo Seat. The real beauty of this contraption is that the baby is sitting up, so he feels like he is in the middle of all the action, but yet does not realize that he is completely immobilized. Sometimes I like just watching him try to figure a way out.

help me

What does the house of a 5 month old look like? Like a pig-sty. I can't even begin to tell you how messy our house seems to have become. Letters are piled up, baby toys are laying around everywhere, laundry unfolded. We didnt always live like this. I dont know what happened. Its easy to blame the baby, so I'm going to say that this is Vincent's fault.

who me?

Where do two parents go for their first overnight trip away from their first born child? To Oklahomaof course. This was for our friend JW's wedding (I of course would never freely travel to Oklahoma). Vincent had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma Tu while mama and papa were away. He rewarded his grandparents by sleeping soundly and waking only once during the night. Mama and Papa had a hard time leaving, One of us even sobbed on the way to the airport. Fortunately, JW had plenty of fancy-pants wine at the wedding to drown away our tears. Seriously though, the night away from baby was fun, but we were both excited to come home the next day.

Here is a picture of us at the wedding. Look at how sad we are to be apart from little Vincent.

Can a baby be a good luck charm? You bet. The longhorns are undefeated against the hated Oklahoma Sooners ever since Vincent got here.

Hook Em

What does a 5 month old dress up as for Halloween? duh, Winnie the Pooh. Well, so this was kind of the default answer. This was the only outfit left at the baby store that was in his size. I was dissapointed that we couldnt find a chicken costume, but as you can see, I think this one will work just fine.

How many times can someone promise to update the blog more frequently? I'll try to find out.

Later

Advice needed

2006-09-30T10:41:00.000-05:00

The crushing shall continue as planned. Mwahahahaha

So as we mentioned a few entries ago, Vince got into a good cycle of eating at around 10pm and not waking up until 5:30 or 6 in the morning. This lasted for several weeks and mama and papa were both relieved that the middle of the night silliness had ended. Well, seems like we spoke too soon.

He slowly started waking up every now and then at 3 in the morning. And then that slowly reverted back into the painful twice a night awakenings. Many times he is hungry, sometimes he is just crying. Anyone know how to fix this? I've heard of people taping pacifiers to their kid's mouths, but Mama wouldnt let me try that.

His charm and good looks, however, keep us from being mad at him for very long.

He just isn't playing fair.

The good news is that he seems to have adjusted pretty well to the daycare routine. The bottle feeding problem that we were so worried about, never really became an issue. The daycare ladies said he took the bottle just fine. Leave those type of things to the professionals I suppose. The only issue that we have with them is that Vince often comes home from daycare with his signature spiky hair combed down and to the side (GASP!!!).

Down and to the side. Maybe we should start putting some product in there

After a rough start, Mama seems to be adjusting to the daycare schedule also. Her boss had a lot planned for her on her return, so she doesnt have much time to worry about little Vincent on the days that she is in the office.

What we do on mama's day off

Dr Schafer says that Vince should start turning over on his own soon. We're very excited. We'll keep everyone posted.

hello ladies

L8er

4 MONTHS!!!!!!!

2006-09-17T10:53:00.000-05:00

Sorry about the lack of updates this month. Papa got a nasty stomach virus which laid him out for about a week. And then a few days after he got over that, he got food poisoning at 100% Tacquito. So lets just say Vince wasn't the only one spitting up over the past couple of weeks.

Anyway, lots of firsts this month so lets get to it

First 4 month checkup - Four more immunizations. Four more screams. Unlike the last set of booster shots though, no fever and not too much crankiness. 24 & 1/4 inches, 12 lbs 13 oz. Still short. Here's a picture of him and Dr Schafer.

You're gonna put the thermometer WHERE?!!

First pho- this is a picture of Vince taken at Pho Saigon in Midtown Houston. His first pho experience was actually at Tau Bay on the southwest side 2 weeks prior, but he kind of slept through that pretty soundly. So this pic will have to do. Vince likes his pho light on the tendon, heavy on the tripe. Breast milk on the side.

First time finding feet - Vince discovered this month that he has feet. He is not sure what they are for yet, and Im not sure that putting them in his mouth will help.

First trip to Austin - first trip to Longhorn country. Mozart's, Salt Lick, and Town Lake were Vince favorites. Hannah and Aldous kept Mama and Baby company while Papa proudly sat in the end zone and watched the Horns lose at home to a large publicly funded university from Ohio.

wake me when we get to the BBQ

Dad, I got accepted at Oklahoma!!

First pony ride

Thanks Buddy

First Catholic Sacrament - Needless to say, Jen and I feel incredibly blessed to have this little guy. And so now we pray that he carries those blessings with him throughout his life. The big baptism weekend came and went without much incident. Mama and Papa were mentally prepared for alot of crying when the deacon dumped the water on his head, but happily (and strangely) Vince slept through it all. Thank you to everyone that came. Special thanks to Nenang and Nenong.

Here's a couple of quickie slide shows for those that could not attend.

and finally,

First bittersweet news - Vince is losing his babysitters Ethan and Megan before they even got a chance to babysit. The Fernandes's are moving to Bangkok. Great oppurtunity for them, but Vince is still very sad to see them go. Mama and Papa are excited now that they have a good excuse to visit Thailand. Good luck, Meg, Ethan, Gabriel, Uncle Beav, and Nenang Lulu.

Bye. Send me some Pad Thai

Later..

The Crushing Continues at Daycare

2006-09-07T13:11:00.000-05:00

Vince has taken crushing to a new level. Momma and poppa were afraid the daycare teachers would break Vince's little spirit and let him cry in a chair at daycare. Fortunately for Vince, his will was strong.

Day 1 of daycare
- momma cries for half an hour when she drops off Vince
- momma cries for half an hour when she thinks about Vince in the afternoon
- momma decides to stop crying and pickup Vince early instead
- momma asks daycare teachers if he cried alot. Daycare teachers said he just cried a little, but he cries really loud. momma also asks teachers if he ate from the bottle. Teachers said no problems

Day 2 of daycare
- momma drops off Vince (Vince was asleep, no crying from momma)
- daycare needs more breastmilk because they left the milk in the fridge
- momma returns with more milk and decides to feed Vince
- momma cries for 15 min
- momma picks up Vince. Teachers said Vince hates not being bounced on the chair but is an angel when they carry him

Day 3 of daycare
- momma drops off Vince (no crying from momma)
- momma gets nails and hair done
- momma picks up Vince. Teachers said Vince is easily bored and likes people talking and/or singing to him

Momma picks up Vince at daycare

Vince's buddy Gabriel wondering what all the fuss is about

Good news / Bad news

2006-08-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

The bad news first; a troubling pattern has emerged over the last week. The return of the 3:30am feeding. RATS!!! Mama has been quite sleepy and cranky the past week. What a way to spend your 30th birthday (happy b-day baby). We've been reading and some of the literature (I always like using that phrase as a former auditor) says that sometimes this happens when the kid goes through a growth spurt, and the regular feeding cycle isnt enough yet to support the new calorie burn. Hopefully over the next few days, mama will start making more milk, and Vince will eat better.

The good news; Vince has gotten a lot better at using all these toys that were previously just occupying prime real estate on the living room floor. He seems to especially like his Aquarium Bouncer. Those of you with kids are probably familiar with this one. Its cool, cuz it makes sounds and stuff whenever he kicks one of the hanging fish. It keeps him occupied for a little while and gives us a few minutes of precious reprieve from all the crushing.

Cousin Azure (seated), Vince (seated), Cousin Ali (wondering where his seat is)

Other good news; Vince's baptism is penciled in on my Outlook calendar for Sunday Sept 3. Ceremony at St Thomas More Catholic Church here in H-Town, followed by party at our house immediately afterwards. I have yet to hear back from MTV to see if we will be a part of their new reality series "My Super Sweet Baptism", a spin-off of one of their more popular shows. Also have yet to hear back from Kanye West to see if he will make an appearnce. If anyone is in town that Sunday and wants to get their respective grubs on or watch a baby get wet and cry at Church, just drop on by.

Even more good news; Vince has narrowed his career choices down to two this past week, on a visit to his papa's office, and to his lola's unit at the hospital. Pictures below. (Maybe its just me, but I could feel my mom smiling a very big smile down on us while we were there)

hello

This is where you go everyday?! B-O-R-I-N-G

why is everyone wearing those blue hats?

hmmmmm...more blue hats. Where can I get one of those?

nurse, scalpel

And finally, hey Potts congrats!! You made the blog. Good luck with everything to you and Amy.

L8er

3 MONTHS!!!!!!

2006-08-16T18:12:00.000-05:00

"MB: What have we always said is the most important thing?
GMB: Breakfast?
MB: Family
GMB: Oh right family. I thought you meant of the things we eat."
-Season 1, Arrested Development

3 mos already? How fast is that? Can you believe it?!!! The 4th trimester has come and gone. Parents, still sane. Vince, still crushing. Let's see what he learned this month;

Hand sucking
So Vince really started doing this in his second month, but at that time, he could only do this when we moved his head next to his hands. Well, now he can clearly find his hands on his own. It normally starts by him slapping the side of his head, and then slowly sliding his hand down towards his mouth. The side effect of this new behavior is drool. There is now slobber EVERYWHERE. clothes, blankets, carpet, beddings, socks, toys, keys, cousins, laptops, tables, couches, curtains, checkbooks, sandwhiches, grandparents, CDs, rose bowl DVDs, stuffed longhorns, La Madeline, Nissan Maximas. All wet.

Laughing
We are talking about full on hearty robust laughter. He's done it on a few occasions. And it might be the most awesomest sound Ive ever heard. Vince truly listens now to whomever is speaking to him. And he looks like he tries to verbally respond. Sometimes with smiles, sometimes with coos, and then (when he's super entertained) with big chuckles. The problem with this occurrence is it is kind of like the Loch Ness Monster or the Wilt Chamberlain 100 pt game. Many stories have been written about its existence, but its never been put on tape. The laughter seems to repeatedly escape the paparazi.

Here's a video of us unsuccesfully trying to squeeze a laugh out of him

Bottle Feeding
Well I guess he hasn't quite gotten this down. As we've blogged previously, Vince has to go to day care in a few weeks. Which means he has to start eating from a bottle. Outside of a hospital setting, he has done this exactly twice (one time captured below). If he doesn't pick this up soon, we're not sure what to do. Jen thinks he will starve. I suggested taping a bottle to his mouth.

Mama
We've argued repeatedly about this one. But I think he definitely recognizes his mom more than anyone else. He seems to be more relaxed around her and likes being with her the most. (I tested my theory by placing him in a dark closet by himself and noting his reaction, and then comparing this reaction to the one we get when Jen holds him immediately afterwards.) My Dad and my in-laws have supported me in my theory. Jen thinks we're all crazy, and are just looking for a way to dump Vince on her when he's fussy. She's clearly wrong. (or is she?)

Beer
We here at vincentjumalon.blogspot.com do not condone underage drinking. If you know someone who has a problem please get them help. Your local library or AA chapter can help. Don't wait. They might end up like this guy....

L8er Dawgs

Baby School

2006-08-12T08:16:00.000-05:00

So Mama has to go back to trabajo in about a month or so, which means baby needs to find somewhere to hang out for a few days a week. We checked out one place in downtown. Creme de la Creme was new, fancy, close to work, but with monthly payments more than my mortgage.

So on the advice of Edwin and Lisa and later from Gabriel F, we decideded to check out The St Nicholas School (SNS). Here's a play-by-play of us checking out the SNS;

June 23 2006 - This place is about a 5 minute drive from our house, on a side street, in an older quiet neighberhood. (halfway sold). And according to our friends, quite reasonably priced (3/4 sold).

Walking up to this place it was quite a bit older facility than Creme de la Creme. So we approached with furrowed brow. The administrator Lynn, walked us around. She pointed out the bunnies and duckies running around in the yard. (sold). And then we saw the infant room. Again, not as fancy as the other place, but the ladies there seemed like they loved holding the kids. And Lynn said the infant room ladies had worked there for 15 yrs or so (really sold). Jen asked if they had a TV in there, since Vince loves the sound of high volume TV static. Lynn laughed and said no. (Jen not sold).

Despite some reservations, Jen agrees that St Nick's would be a good choice for us. We submit our application fee, and then are told to wait for the admin office (near downtown) to call us back. probably would only be a week or so.

July 3, 2006 - no word from the admin office. so we call, and they say the headmistress is out. They will call back in a week.

July 10, 2006 - no word from the admin office. so we call, and they say that someone will call us in the next 2 or 3 days.

July 14, 2006 - no word from the admin office. so we call, and they say someone will call us in the next 2 or 3 days, but if we could fax them his shot record and birth certificate.

July 15, 2006 - we fax over the birth certificate and shot record.

July 18, 2006 - no word from the admin office. so we call, and they say someone will call us in the next 2 or 3 days. But they do confirm that they got our fax.

July 22, 2006 - no word from the admin office. so we call, and they say "oh we haven't called because we are waiting for your fax". Jen's blood boils red hot.

July 23, 2006 - we fax (again) the birth certificate and shot record.

July 31, 2006 - Meriam (from the admin office) calls. Hallelujah. We set up a meeting for Aug 8 to finalize things.

Aug 8, 2006 - We arrive at the SNS admin office for our meeting. The lady at the front says "oh, i didn't know that you hadn't met with the owners yet, we can't sign you up today". That was it for Jen. Let's just say she raised her voice a little bit, and nearly played the "crying mother" card. The SNS folks accomodated us shortly afterwards, and we enrolled Vince.

So moral of the story; the SNS people that take care of kids seem awesome. The SNS people that take our money seem not so awesome. School starts Sep 1. Wish us luck.

In other news, here is Vince's submission for baby photo most likely to haunt him as a pre-teen

L8er

Like a Cheetah

2006-08-10T07:14:00.000-05:00

Ever been in one of those situations, where you either react with super human quickness and prevent something from happening, or you just sit there dumbfounded and watch disaster unfold. Example, you see a glass on the edge of a table, and you see someone bump into aforementioned table, and you either move very quickly to catch the glass before it hits the ground, or you sit there stunned and watch the glass shatter into a thousand pieces.

Well the same feeling applies to when a baby decides to use the restroom, while you are in the middle of changing his diaper. (duck)

That is all

yeah, I do that to my parents too. haha. good times

Victory??

2006-07-30T08:14:00.000-05:00

"I know a place where we can dance the whole night away. Underneath electric stars. Just come with me, we can shake the blues right away. You'll be doing fine once the music starts"-Debarge, Rhythm of the night

I've been kind of waiting to write this, just because I wanted to be sure it was a pattern and not just a fluke, but little Vince seems to be getting the hang of this sleeping at night thing. Its just been a little over a week, but for 7 of the past 8 nights he's been waking up at 6 or 6:30 every morning. (sound of knuckles against wood).

While I have been sleeping through the night pretty well for the past 2 months :) , my poor lovely wife has been waking up for the dreaded 3:30 am feedings. But starting a little over 2 weeks ago, she would give Vince a last feeding around 10 or so, and wouldn't have to get up again until the morning. So nice job so far and kudos to everyone for making this possible. Vince for sleeping so well (finally), Jen for so dutifuly getting up in the middle of the night every night for 2 months, and of course most importantly John for updating the blog.

Let's hope that this keeps up. to be continued........

In other news, am I alone in loving Chicken Adobo?

L8er dawgs

Ewww Gross

2006-07-25T21:38:00.000-05:00

Vince has been slobbering alot lately. If we're not careful, slobber gets all over his face, his neck. And all over his hands as they spend a good chunk of time in his mouth. Basically, dude is starting to smell like a foot. A 10lb 20 inch foot.

He smells gross, but yet its strangely intoxicating. Is this normal? Can any other parents out there back me up on this? Am I crazy? (and no I will not say if this is John or Jen typing this). Whilst you ponder that, here are just a few new pics;

you don't realize how hard it is to get shots like this

Aldous and Hannah visit from Austin. I always find it funny how curious kids are with babies

serenity now

(Its Jen)

Later dawgs

Rose Bowl

2006-07-17T12:19:00.000-05:00

Almost.....

So this past weekend, I was hanging out with Vince, showing him how to use the Ch up and Ch down arrows on the TV Remote control, when we flip the TV to ESPN Classic. When lo and behold, what should be on, but the 2006 Rose Bowl. Last 10 minutes to be exact. I figured this would be a good learning experience for him. Here's a running diary of our conversation

10 min mark
ME: You HAVE to watch this with me. This is the greatest college football game ever played
VINCE: -blink-

8 min mark (as Dwayne Jarret catches a TD putting USC up 38 - 26)
ME: Papa almost cried when he saw this the first time
Vince: -cough-

5 min mark (VY walks in for a TD)
ME: YOU CANT GUARD HIM!! YOU CANT GUARD HIM!!!
Vince: -fart-

30 seconds
ME: HAHA look at Pete Carrol's face. He called a timeout on a freakin extra point!
Vince: -stares blankly-

So you see, he was clearly displaying some quiet enthusiasm. But admittedly it was a great feeling for me to try and teach him about something so utterly cool. I cant wait 'til I can do this with him at DKR.

Here's a picture of his room, if you have never seen it.

2 MONTHS!!!!

2006-07-15T13:27:00.000-05:00

"Welcome to your life. There's no turning back." - Tears for Fears, Everybody wants to rule the world.

So what, if anything, has happened over the past month?

He had his 2 month checkup the other day. So Jennifer calls me at work, and tells me that he's only in the 10th percentile for height. (if around 2:30 pm houston time on July 14 you heard the sound of something breaking, that may have been the sound of my dream of my eldest son making it to the NBA smashing into a million pieces). The good news was, that he was average for weight. Up to 10lbs 8oz now. Great. He's gonna be short and fat. No questions now on who the father is. (damn you Danny Devito)

He also got some booster shots. 2 pricks to one thigh, another prick to the other thigh. High volume screaming on both. Fortunately, the crying only lasted for a few minutes, and then he forgot about it. But because of the shots, the little guy caught a little fever that night, and was generally not very pleasant to be around. We gave him some infant tylenol for the fever and discomfort. Must be the sugar in the medicine, because it looked like he loved that stuff. I could almost hear him say, "this HAS to be that crack stuff I've been hearing so much about".

Not the Dog towel!! I HATE the Dog Towel!!!

He's also not sleeping as much as he used to. His alert time is getting longer and longer. We like laying him down, and then making stupid faces at him. He smiles. I must admit its real cute. He enjoys studying people's faces. He'll start at your hairline, then make his way down, checking out the ears, and then the mouth (stick out your tongue), and finally eye contact.

We try to get him some time on his tummy also. This is what that looks like.

Over the past month we got brave with taking him out of the house. Among other fabulous destinations, he went to church, took a long walk around Rice University, made a few trips to the grocery store, shopped at the Galleria, and a 4th of July BBQ at Uncle Paul's.

Vince and papa grabbing a double espresso at Ruggles Cafe

But the thing with this kid is that he keeps getting dates with girls. He saw Cars at the Alamo Drafthouse Crybaby Matinee with Mama and Auntie Angelica. He stayed awake for most of the movie, but surprisingly no fussing. (quiet applause)

Vince working the Jumalon mojo

A few days later he scored a lunch date with Mama and auntie Yung-Ju at LaMadeline.
The girls enjoy the generic french fare, he enjoys the smell of breast milk. Not surprisingly, he was uber fussy.

Ooh la la

Next month, tequila shots at M Bar.

L8

July 4th Weekend

2006-07-05T20:51:00.000-05:00

Vince was invited to his first dinner party at Nate Goldberg's house. This is how it went.

Setbacks?

2006-07-01T19:31:00.000-05:00

So mama and baby had been in a pretty good breastfeeding cycle for a few weeks now. Every 3 hours or so, he would eat. And eat for a good little while. One breast, two breasts, three breasts (???). Whatever. You put a breast in front of him, its in his mouth.

Well for the last few days, Vince decided that routine was a little too comfortable for mama and me. Instead he decided it would be more fun to eat for 2 minutes, stop eating, and then WAIL at the top of his lungs. Requiring mama to console him for a bit, before trying to nurse again. Hopefully, its nothing and he goes back to the old cycle soon. We still love him.

In other news, we took Vince to his first birthday party. Josh Tia celebrated his 6th birthday at "Incredible Pizza" in Sugarland. We were a little nervous about how Vince would handle the noise, kids, and limitless choices on the Pizza buffet. Somehow he slept for the whole 2 hrs. Giving papa a chance to hustle some 5 yr olds out of their prize tickets on the pop-a-shot machine. (what kid? what? you gonna cry? You don't want none of this)

Oh and Vince had a nice big present waiting for us in his diaper when we got home. I'll spare you the picture.

Oh man, I shouldn't have eaten that whole pizza

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But I think the most important thing that's happened over the last few days is that he can concentrate his vision on things a little better now. Some things catch his attention more than other things. And its even better when he cracks that little toothless smile when he looks at stuff. He loves gazing at the mobile over his swing, papa sticking his tongue out at him, breasts, and the 2006 Rose Bowl on DVD presented by ABC (ok that last one may be a bit fabricated, but I know he's wondering why I'm holding out on him). He hasn't quite made the eye-contact-with-parent-and-smile smile yet. That's the one we're waiting for.

Here's Vince checking out the mobile in his crib. Catchy tune.

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Later,

2006-06-27T10:39:00.000-05:00

Announcements

Our friends Steve and Anita came by on Sunday to visit Baby Vincent and also to bring by my super cute baby announcements. I don't normally do such disgustingly cute things but since having a baby, I've been a little crazy. I think it's the hormones. I want everyone to see what an adorable baby I have. Since I am neither creative or artsy, I jumped at the chance when Anita offered to make my baby announcements for me. She just started her own scrap booking and announcement company http://www.scrapfancy.com. Sitting around the dining room table and gossiping about people we know, Steve said that his brother finalized his divorce. Steve thought it strange that he had to find out from his mom about such an important milestone in his brother's life. To be fair though - how do you tell people about such a weird milestone? Hi bro - how's your life? By the way my divorce was finalized. So, we thought why didn't people make divorce announcements? Hi ladies, I'm single and available now. If you've been pining for me, here's your chance. Since I just finished the whole process of baby announcements, I thought it was a funny parallel. If any of you are looking for custom and creative baby announcements or divorce announcements, call my friend Anita.

2006-06-23T21:04:00.000-05:00

Broke Back Baby

I thought I finally got this motherhood thing figured out. For a week we were eating and napping on a schedule. John and I were able to enjoy dinners together because we could predict when he would be hungry and when he would be napping. Vince saw I was getting it too easy so he decided to throw some salt in my game. He started looking like he was having a nightmare every time he nursed. He alternated attacking me and crying for an hour. He also started coughing and sneezing. Being the calm and collected mom that I've become, I immediately called the pediatrician's office. The nurse said Vince was too young for drugs but to come in if he had a fever. I asked the nurse, how do I know if he has a fever? Reply - if he has a rectal temperature > 100.5 F. What about if I take his temperature under the arm? Reply - no, it has to be rectal. I called John and told him he had to take Vince's temperature rectally when he got home. When John came home, he chickened out and kept saying Vince was probably ok. I had to know if he had a fever so I prepared the vaseline. I dreaded putting something in his tooshie. I kept picturing first this surprised look on his little face followed immediately by screaming and crying. I put him on his tummy and inserted the dreaded device. Surprisingly, he was relatively calm. No crying, no screaming, no fever. Now that I know it's no biggie to take his temperature, I may start taking it whenever I think something is wrong. Which is probably going to be every week. Poor Vince.

ADVANTAGE: Mama

2006-06-13T12:10:00.000-05:00

One Month Old!!!!

You don't realize how fast time goes by, but it looks like the little dude survived his first month. (Be a successful parent - Check). Let's recap how the first month went, Dr. Jack style;

Crying -
This seems to be an area that everyone explored this month. The first few days after Vince came home, he simply refused to eat (which we later found out was partially because he had some bad juandice and partially because he wanted to crush us). It breaks your heart to see something so little suffering whenever you try to feed him. Needless to say, mama shed some tears. Around the same time, I began to realize that the hated Dallas Mavericks would soon be in the NBA finals. I also shed a few tears. But Vince had us all beat in the crying department.
ADVANTAGE: Vince

This is what he looks and sounds like when he cries;

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Eating -
Vince finally figured out what breasts were for towards the end of the month, and started eating much better. Mama and papa were treated to some good 'ol fashion chinese cooking courtesy of grandma and grandpa (who braved some horrible gas prices driving to Houston from Dallas). Uncle Alex also grilled a damn fine lamb kabob, and drank all my beer.
ADVANTAGE: Parents

Sleeping -
Honestly, no one did much sleeping (see crying above). But Vince seemed to take some twisted pleasure in waking us up at 4 in the morning. You can see it in his face, as demostrated here ------------>

Happiest Baby on the Block on DVD helped quite a bit (thanks for the tip Mike/Louise & Lou/Jennifer). But what came in really handy at the end of the month was the swing that we borrowed from Ronnie and Ben Ostrin. Thanks guys. Hopefully month 2 will be better.
ADVANTAGE: Vince

Bathing -
Vince does not like bathing. Hates it. Just to make sure we know this, he sprays me with pee at each bathtime. Once he even left a nice streak of poop all over my leg extending oh so delicately from my right hip to the top of my left foot. How do you compete with someone like this?
ADVANTAGE: Vince

This is what he looked like during his first bath. If you could only hear the ear piercing howling.

Gifts -
Vince got some stuff. Alot of it. Too many people to name, but thanks everyone for all the cool gifts. He even got a new Barong from Auntie Remy in Manila. Mama got a bunch of pretty flowers. Papa got jack $ht.

REAL BIG ADVANTAGE: Vince

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Entertainment -
When he's not pooping or sleeping, Vince loves staring around, being held by all the friends and family that come to visit, sitting in his swing, wondering why his room is burnt orange, chilaxing in his fancy bugaboo, and generally being constantly catered to. Mama and Papa got to experience sleep deprivation. They also got to watch, among many other crappy movies, The Family Stone on DVD (quite possibly the worst movie ever made).
BIG ADVANTAGE: Vince

This is what the Family Stone DVD looks like

(Yawn) B-o-r-i-n-g

_________________________________________________________

So all-in-all, month one had its ups and downs, but Vincent takes round one pretty handily. You can probably see already where this is headed. In summary, Vince is hell-bent on crushing us.

Stay tuned though, booster shots are right around the corner.

Later

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2006-06-12T22:29:00.000-05:00

Yellow man - May 24, 2006

Well, so its been a week since we took the little guy home. We weren't expecting sleep, and didnt get any. But we were surprised at how he didn't know how to eat. Don't babies just know how to do this? Apparently they don't. Needless to say, this caused much worry and some tears in the Jumalon household. Visits from the Goldberg's, Tia's, and trips to lactation consultants helped alot. (My requests for help on a Houston Rockets fan message board surprisingly did not help at all by the way). But despite all of our efforts he still just didnt seem to get it. What we did notice was that he was turning yellow. Very yellow.

This is what he looked like towards the end of that first week. Note the yellowish hue. Although at the time we thought he might just be drunk

So the doctor said that Vince's bilirubin levels were pretty high. It was time for us to face the truth. Yes, Jaundice had claimed yet another asian baby. The prescription, 2 fabulous nights at Texas Children's hospital laying out under the latest in UV tanning technology. Here is what that looked like

Surprisingly, Jen was calm and collected throughout this whole process. I was a wreck. She had to talk me down a few times.

Me: He's only a week old, and I already have to bring him to the hospital. I'm such a terrible father.
Jen: no honey, you're doing a great job
Me: YOU DID THIS TO ME!!!!

Major props to the nurses and staff at TCH. Top-notch. I only wish they accepted kids my age.

Later

2006-06-12T21:52:00.000-05:00

Meet Vincent - May 16,2006
Well, inspired by the blog of young Luke Svoboda, we've decided to figure out how this so-called "internet" works and start a "blog" of our own. Check back here from time to time if you want to see all the fun and hijinks that our little guy is up to. But for those of you who have just tuned in, here's what's happened so far....

Happy Birthday

So Jen was supposed to have labor induced on May 17th. Vince had the wrong date on his Outlook. So around 4pm on Tuesday the 16th, the water broke, I rushed home from work, and we were off to the hospital. I couldn't help but think that I had seen this on an episode of Saved by the Bell. We even got stuck at a railrod crossing, with what may have been the SLOWEST TRAIN EVER. Seriously, this happened.

Oh by the way, labor pains started almost immediately, and they came fast and furious. None of this 5 minutes apart bull crap. They were almost on top of each other. For the ladies reading this, I don't want to downplay the pain and stress involved during labor. This hurts. If anyone tells you otherwise, they are lying. Jen didn't actually say this to me, but I could see it in her eyes as our anesthesiologist was telling us that he would have to stick her in the back again;

you did this to me!!!
YOU DID THIS TO ME!!!
YOU DID THIS TO ME!!!!!

This is what Jennifer looked like trying not to strangle me

6 hrs, two epidurals (one failed, one successful, both painful), and many many breathing excercises later, Vincent Evan Jumalon was born. For those of you who have never seen a baby jump out of a woman before, I highly recommend it. You know in your head what's about to happen, but you don't actually realize how strange it is to see a baby pushing his way out of your wife. One minute you see the top of someone's head, the next a human slips out, and then after that all this other icky stuff falls out. (and then if you're Tom Cruise, you have a light snack).

Awesome, miraculous, breathtaking, joyful. All those cliche words that people use to describe a birth. They were right. Its all of those things. Although I would also add; painful, spiritual, and Hook 'Em.

This is what Vince looked like 23 seconds after he forced his way out of Jennifer. We were surprised at how non-wrinkly he was.

Later