Party Hearty!

Well, the last few days have certainly been busy for us. Most of my partying days ended in college, right before graduate school. For the past few years, we haven't really had much partying here in Melbourne - it's really not much of a party town. So, it's pretty odd that in the last two months, we've already had five dinners or parties! First was our dinner with Adam, Sarah, and Izzy on Sofia's one-month birthday. Next was Thanksgiving dinner at our house. The last one I have covered so far in Grant's Pad was our Sofia's introduction party a few weeks ago.

Right before our famous holiday shutdown (most of the companies here in Melbourne get the time off from Christmas Eve to a few days after New Years), Adam and Sarah invited us to a Christmas party, attended mostly by other sets of new parents. There was of course Izzy and her parents, but also Kenzie and her mom and dad and Lucas and his mom and dad.



Midway through the party, Sarah talked our new friend Chris into dressing up as none other than Santa Claus! Sofia got to take a photo with Santa for her first Christmas after all!


After dinner, we finally got a chance to have all three of the Class of 2028 neighborhood girls together for a group picture:


The next day, Mom, Dad, Ed, and Melinda came over, and we had some Chinese barbecue before they headed off to Orlando the next day. Then, on Christmas day, they came back, bringing Melinda's friend Vivian and her family with them. We had a huge dinner of dumplings and soup but it certainly made for a lively Christmas day! I would be lying if I didn't say we were completely exhausted when it all ended though! Note to future parents: I would advise against throwing parties when you have a 2-month old infant to take care of!

One more party to go before the end of the year!

Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays to all our friends and family, and to all of the readers of Grant's Pad too!

New Phone!

I (and a lot of my friends) used to think of myself as a tech-savvy guy. You know, one of those people that knows all about computers and the latest gadgets. Well, I'm actually really not - I don't really know much about the differences between processor technologies or hard drive types, I have the most technologically outdated video game systems in this generation (the Wii and the DS), I only got my flat screen TV this past year, and it's a fairly low-end model at that, and, as evidenced by my post about smart phones, I don't really see the merits of having a device like that!


Or at least, I didn't. But then, a few months back, I had an opportunity to get my first smart phone for free (*plus an $18 activation charge, so it wasn't completely free, but pretty cheap). This phone was the Nokia Nuron, or Nokia 5230.


The Nuron features a resistive touch screen that is fairly responsive - it is responsive enough to scroll smoothly and type on the virtual QWERTY keyboard for texting and e-mail purposes. It also has the ability to sync your photos, music, contacts, messages, and calendar with your PC. It is this last feature that I have found particularly useful about smartphones - I've actually long desired the ability to carry my calendar in my pocket, and now, with the Nuron, I can sync my Google calendar to my phone, and the events show up right on the main screen!

The Nokia Nuron is a fairly low-end smart phone, but it, like other Nokia smartphones, has one key feature that differentiates it from the typical powerhouses like your HTCs, Blackberries, and iPhones. And that is free GPS for life, using Nokia's in-house Ovi Maps service.


Now, the other phones have an instance of GPS (usually in the form of Google Maps), but Ovi Maps is actually regarded as having more features and also being "true" GPS, offering turn-by-turn voice directions in several different languages (including Mandarin Chinese). Additionally, maps are downloaded to your device, so you do not need to have a data plan in order to use it, putting Nokia's claim of "free GPS for life" to the test. In fact, you don't even need to have a cellphone plan to use it, so if you got rid of your plan, you could still use the Nuron as a standalone GPS (and, still download updated maps for free!)

And that is the real draw of the Nuron. Even without a data plan, it is still a formidable device. That's not to say that a data plan is totally a waste if you have one of these. I recently got to try the data plan for free for 30 days. The 3G service (through T-Mobile) is appreciably quick, allowing me to view YouTube videos fairly pain free. Being able to surf the web on the fly - now that's a dream I've had since the dial-up days! Going back to Ovi Maps, there's even a free game called Ovi Maps Racing that allows you to build tracks from maps based on your actual GPS location if you have online capability. Too cool!


At this juncture, however, unlimited data is still not really a big deal for me, so I will probably end my data service after my free trial is up. However, I can add a 200MB data plan for just $10 a month on an as needed basis with no contract (or, if that's not enough, unlimited data for $30 a month), and all that I need to do to get that is just call customer service!

So, with the ability to sync your calendar, take photos/videos, listen to music, surf the web, and, most distinctly, have free GPS in your pocket for life, you can say that the Nokia Nuron has given me a new appreciation for smart phones!

Catch-Up

The last couple of months have been pretty busy for our blooming little family, as you can imagine.

A few days after Sofia's one-month dinner at Adam, Sarah, and Izzy's house, my parents and siblings came over for Thanksgiving Dinner. I don't really know how to prepare a turkey in the traditional Thanksgiving style, but fortunately, Publix came to the rescue with their awesome holiday dinner package. For just $40 you can get a 10 pound turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and a dessert to serve 7-10 guests! We had enough food after the dinner to have turkey soup noodles for the next several days, even after feeding the whole family!


The next several weeks were less eventful at home, but quite eventful at work. I've not had an opportunity to write about it yet, but I recently changed roles at work and am now assigned to a program that is supporting the development of China's new foray into the Commercial airliner market, the C919. My experience and education seemed to be a great fit for the program, not to mention my language skills in both English and Chinese.


As a result of my new assignment, I have had to learn about a number of the other products we manufacture and provide, and, more excitingly, I've had the opportunity to work with a team of engineers from Chengdu, Sichuan Province, who will also be working with us on the project. Not only did we attend several training courses together, but we also had several banquets, as is the custom for Chinese business partnerships. The Chengdu team managed to find a restaurant which had a chef from Chengdu on its staff and was able to create several authentic, Sichuan style meals for the team! It was easily the best Chinese food I have ever had in Melbourne, and possibly Florida (although it's hard to beat dim sum!)

Back to personal life, in early December, Cherry, Sofia, Ed, my mother-in-law, and I got to go once again to Orange Lake resort. We hadn't been back in a couple of years now, and it was nice to change the scenery a bit. We made the unfortunate mistake of listening to their sales pitch (again), as I thought it would be a good opportunity to tour the resort. On the plus side, we did get to see their new lavish units (ours is definitely aging and not nearly as nice as the new ones overlooking the water park!)


We also attempted to go to Downtown Disney that night, but it was rather cold and Sofia got pretty upset, crying all the way home.

The next day, Ed and I took my mother-in-law to the Premium Resorts to shop a little bit. We picked up a pair of Jordans for my wife's nephew (my mother-in-law's grandson), but spent most of the rest of the time shopping for a pair of shoes for myself (I hadn't bought new shoes for work in almost four years). Unfortunately, it took a pretty long time, and my mother-in-law was pretty tired by the end of the trip.

To wrap up today's catch-up blog post, this past Sunday, we threw a little welcoming party for Sofia. Ed showed up first, and helped us with some last second decorating. Then, Shawn and Britney came, followed by Nick. Next, Mike, his wife Emily, and their son Antonio came. I hadn't seen Antonio in almost a year - he's walking and jumping around now all by himself! Babies grow so fast - it won't be long before Sofia is that big! A few hours later, Chris and his new girlfriend Carrie showed up. We watched a bit of football before playing some Smash Bros. and Mario Kart, reliving some of our college days!


Sofia slept through most of the party, but that didn't stop us from trying out her new "Pineapple Princess" look!


With the holidays coming up, hopefully I'll have a bit more time to post!

Baby Tips

For all new parents!

STEM Video

There is a cool contest going on now to produce videos on YouTube intended to promote science and engineering to our youth. Here is my company's entry! Please click on "Like" if you enjoy it!

Feeding Patterns

Sofia is more than 6 weeks old now! At her last weigh-in, she came in at 9 pounds, 12 ounces - a 30% increase from her birthweight!


A lot of her good growth can be attributed to her feeding patterns. It took a while, because in the beginning, Sofia was not a particularly good feeder, and she exhibited a strong preference for the right breast. She has since more or less gotten over that issue, but she still seems to feed better with pumped breast milk in a bottle.


Even with pumped milk, it has been a bit of a challenge. At first, Sofia only liked to take about 1.5 ounces of milk per feeding, which caused her to be hungry quite often, needing to be fed about every 1.5 hrs. Taking into account the time needed to clean the bottles and the pump after each feeding, and, well, you can see that we would not get much opportunity to rest between feedings, which became problematic at night!

Fortunately, with some conditioning, Sofia's feeding pattern has stabilized. She now takes around three to four ounces per feeding, which, incidentally, translates to needing to be fed only once every three to four hours. She's also quite punctual, so we can expect to get a few hours of rest in between! In previous weeks, she had a bit of a habit to stay up and awake through most of the night, but now, she seems content to suck on a pacifier if she has trouble sleeping at night!

Speaking of sleeping, I'll close this parenting post with a photo of Sofia's preferred sleeping position! It looks awkward to me, but it must be comfortable for her because this is how we find her every time we wake up to check on her!