Our new little addition...

Well, it finally happened. About 3 days past her original due date, Kinsey Hope Tran Makan has come into our world. Apparently, a number of different weather changes (change in barometric pressure) and moon phases (full moons) can trigger labor in women. If you don't believe it, statistically, this happens to be some of the busiest times for women's hospitals. In our case, Woman's Hospital, was filled to capacity for days.

Anyway, Kinsey was born on September 22, 2009, at 3:57 pm, weighing in at 7 lbs 15 oz, and measuring in at 22 inches. Big brother Gage was especially happy and could not wait to hold Kinsey. Woman's also has a special sibling's cake which was presented to him as the older brother. To add to his special day, he also received a really cool gift from her as well.

Exciting Times

We're are about 10 days, give or take, from another little addition to the family. As we gear up this weekend for Kinsey, family will be coming into town. Both Anand and Aarti are coming to the US and this will be the first I've seen the both of them since 1981.

Xuan's just about done and is pretty much ready to pop, but we both have some last minute work committments that need to be completed before Kinsey arrives. If all goes well, we would like to have a 9/9/09 birthday. Let's see what happens.

In the meantime, big brother Gage says "Hi" to the world. Oh, and Hook'em Horns for the start of 2009 football season.

First Day of School

Well, the day finally came - Gage's first day at The Galloway School. He did really well and took to the teachers and the whole environment. Compared to his first day at the daycare, this was a breeze. I'm just so proud of the little man. The only snag was his missing Gap jacket, but I'm sure it will turn up soon enough.

We finally decided to put Gage into private school a few weeks ago after learning that he would be at a disadvantage if he didn't get the education starting at age 3.

I know he's already inherited the competitive drive from both the wife and me, so he should do fine.

Halloween

Halloween started about a week before the actual day of at Gage's school. He wanted to dress up like a fireman, again, this year and got a treat when a fire truck rolled up to the school.




On the actual day of Halloween, we were lucky enough to have Caden and Uncle Jim head over to our house early enough in the day to start off trick or treating before the sun went down. Quite a few of the neighbors went out of their way and really did it right. Both Gage and Caden got a bunch of candy and we headed back to the house right around 8 pm.

However, the highlight of the night occured when both of the kids saw their favorite superheroes. Gage couldn't keep his eyes of the one in the dress...

Life Flight

I had the opportunity at the end of September to take Gage to visit Life Flight at Memorial Hermann because he's been so excited about seeing them since I first mentioned them. Since I'm the HR rep for Life Flight at our hospital, I was given access to bring the little man to the hospital to visit.

He was so excited that I had trouble getting him to get off the chopper once he got in it.

Catching Up!

As we roll into the fall, Gage and I have had a bunch of adventures throughout Houston but I haven't sat down to share them with anyone.

Well, I'm going to start with our trip to the Downtown Aquarium during the month of August. Not only was it hot but beyond humid. We got to see the large aquarium, white tigers, a large shark tank that we actually drive through with a train, and a large ferris wheel. At one point, we got stuck on the top of the ferris wheel for about 20 minutes, overlooking I-45, which ended up being one of the nicest parts of the afternoon. Gage and I had time to look over the city of Houston, watch over the busy traffic down below, and take in a cool August day breeze.

With relatives in town, during the month of September, I took everyone to Galveston for a visit. This happened a week before Hurricane Ike hit and destroyed just about half the Island. Luckily, we also visited the Kemah Boardwalk that weekend, so at least we were able to take in our favorite sites since they will be offline for several months.

Moody Gardens is amazingly beautiful and they've spent a ton of money making it a tourist trap. This time, we visited the Rain Forest Pyramid, which has a ton of animals, fish and birds of all kinds.

Washing the Car

Washing the car wasn't ever high on my priority list of things to do, just because I didn't enjoy spending my time doing something I could get someone else to do while I sit back and enjoy some quiet time. I also have a problem spending $30+ to clean a car that will only get dirty on the way home. Although, this idea doesn't necessarily mean I won't pay someone to cut the lawn or clean the house, even though the grass continues to grow and the house will eventually get dirty again. At least I can get some joy out of soaking the little man while he runs around screaming.

However, with Gage coming into our lives, a few things have changed. While it's still a battle to get him to take a bath every night, he has absolutely no problem getting into the pool, or running through the water sprinkler, or getting soaked with a water hose. In fact, I don't even think Gage comprehends the concept of a water sprinkler, beyond just another way to get wet wearing clothes.

Well, the family car was getting to be a bit embarrassing this past weekend so Gage and I decided to make things right again. Plus, with the price of gas getting a bit out of hand, I thought it was necessary to cut down on the drag coefficient and wash some of the dirt off the car. Two hours later, we made some memories and cleaned the car.

I just wish Gage could stay 3 forever (minus the temper tantrums).

Short Week

I can't wait for the week to end on Thursday. We are going to be heading to Austin to meet up with close friends of the wife, both of whom were pregnant as of this morning. We found out that the hostess actually delivered this morning but is such a trooper that she and her husband still expect for us to show up. At a minimum, we can help out with diaper duty.

Anyway, just to show you how much of a neat freak we have in our three year old, the following video show Gage actually sliding down the water slide for the first and last time. He actually hates having anything even slightly dirty on him and realized that the water in the pool wasn't as clean as he would have preferred. For some reason, he actually enjoyed walking up the other side of the slide (on the plastic ladder) and falling backwards (taking out kids behind him was a bonus). After the third time, he stopped doing that as well because the there was water and grass build up.