It is hard to believe that Ian and I have spent one year being parents already… how did the time go?!  We absolutely cannot imagine life without Michael.  But more importantly how Michael will grow from here will only continue to put us both at awe!!! 

Michael’s first birthday was really not so exciting by normal people’s standards.  There was no big birthday party and we were too far away from any of Michael’s “friends”.  Instead, he had Mom, Dad and Nanna.  But a day he had!  He woke up with a lot of presents to open!  What a shock to his system!  This is a boy who had a limited number of toys, but was so thrilled to keep looking at all the new gadgets!  Then we went down for a swim which Michael loved.  After a nap, we cut a nanna-made birthday cake.  Nanna was barred from putting icing on the cake (and hence it looked boring!) but boy did Michael enjoy his first bite of sugar!  He must have gotten his sweet tooth from his dad, Poppa and Gung gung!

We then went over to Puxi (the other side of Shanghai) for a coffee with Ian’s friend and had a late night back to our home.  It was a big day for Michael but he seemed as though he had a great time.

Since coming to Shanghai, Michael had been having so much fun crawling / walking around the apartment.  He even took his first steps without help in front of his nanna.  Due to transition period with our new helper Jenny, Michael had 3 people (Nanna, Jenny and May) playing with him every day and on Saturday, he even gets his M&D!  Talking about being pampered!

Michael is growing so fast that it’s so hard to catch up on writing the blog (esp when Mom still hasn’t got the whole web hosting thing sorted!)!  He is now able to point to his head, ear, nose (almost!) when asked.  And he knows how to clap, jump and say “ouch”… Need I to say again how much fun we are having hanging out with Michael again?!

Still no webshots and therefore some photos for your enjoyment in the below link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=57315&l=52c50&id=625711049

Until next time I can blog or when I get my act together… all is well and we’re so lucky to have Nanna around!

Love from Shanghai.