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When people asked me what Andrew was going to be this Halloween, I told them “a monkey.” Most people responded by saying something to the effect of “isn’t he a monkey everyday?”

I suppose so… but this Halloween, he had the costume and the requisite banana to complete the illusion.

Truth be told, though, monkey was only his third choice. His first choice of custome was a cow, but that one was too small for him (amazing how fast they grow!).  His second choice as a bumblebee, but daddy thought it was too much of a little girl costume (with antennea, leggings, and all). So the monkey was his third choice… but so much for not picking little girl costumes. Witness the mass-market in action with this picture from last year’s post:

We went on our first cruise as a family this summer – a seven day trip around the western Carribbean. Late August is the middle of hurricane season, but we lucked out and steamed out of Miami just ahead of tropical storm Fey. However, the weather did make us reverse the direction of our ports of call in order to avoid the nasty weather.

At the Port of Miami, there’s a large dedicated cruise ship terminal. We onboarded 3000 people and all the luggage in about 4 hours – pretty efficient!

We sailed on the Carnival Valor, a 110,000 ton cruise ship – the largest in Carnival’s fleet right now. The ship is over 900 feet long, has 3 pools, a water slide, and a whole bunch more things that took a while to explore.

The first night at sea was a “formal” dinner night – any excuse to get dressed up and have a good time!

Our first port of call was Cozumel, Mexico. We spent the day at the beach, and Andrew had a great time playing in the water and with the sand. He had been looking forward to this trip all year… Here he shows that he’s already learned how to lounge while on vacation!

The cruise ship port at Cozumel is very developed… in fact, it’s impossible to exit to the city from the ship without first passing every shop in the shopping center… a well designed tourist trap, if you ask me.

The Valor is huge – we spent seven days and still didn’t explore all of her features. I looked for the mini-golf, but never found the entrance. Supposedly it’s right under the smoke stack, but I sure didn’t see it.

The waters off Cozumel are gorgeous.

We took an organized shore excursion to the Mayan ruins at Altun Ha in Belize. It was about 45 minutes away by bus (air-conditioned, thankfully). We traveled down a very bumpy and winding two-lane road, or as the locals call it, the “Northern Highway.” It’s one of three highways in the entire country – the other two are… yes, you guessed right, the Southern and Western highways. Why no Eastern Highway? Well, any further east than Belize City and you’re in the ocean.

Altun Ha is a partially restored Mayan ruin that was originally built about 2000 years ago. The weather in Belize is unbelievably hot and humid. The air was very still, and sweat would pour off just standing around. Plus, there were mosquitoes everywhere. But, the view from the highest structure on the ruins site was spectacular. Yes, those specks are people down below.

Andrew fared OK in the heat, but did enjoy his very first fresh coconut in Belize. No complaints from Andrew, but $3US seemed a bit steep for a coconut…

Roatan, Honduras is an up-and-coming port of call. It’s currently being developed, and at least two new cruise ship terminals are being built (rumored to cost $35-$50 million each). Step away from the terminal, and the area reminds me of the way southern Taiwan was about 25 years ago. I took a SCUBA excursion (my first time) – sorry, no pictures! The SCUBA was a bit scary and pretty thrilling at the same time. We dived about 40-50 feet with a certified master instructor, and the dive lasted about 30 minutes. Not sure that I’d do it again immediately – but maybe in the future.

A group picture on Grand Cayman with the entire Chung clan, our traveling buddies for this trip. Thanks for the invite, guys! We really lucked out in terms of weather, as Hurricane Gustav roared through Grand Cayman a week later with 100+mph winds.

There’s an out-of-the-way spot on Grand Cayman called Hell. The name is perfect for tourist merchandising (you know… post cards that say “Wish you were here!”), but the name originally came from these interesting black coral formations found along the coast.

Andrew was never far from his boxes of cereal – a side benefit of having an open buffet all the time on the ship. Here he and the cereal pose with Kathlyn for a picture on Grand Cayman.

Andrew had a ton of fun at Camp Carnival, the onboard babysitting activities. He looked forward to going back every day, which was great because it allowed us to spend some “couple” time together.

After a long day on a shore excursion or playing around the ship, there’s nothing better than to kick back and catch some Olympics action on the satellite TV.

The last night of the cruise was a huge party – a lot of the passengers turned out on the Lido deck, and it got pretty loud and rowdy!

After seven long days as sea, the only thing left to do is sleep on the Heavenly Bed in Miami.

Evidence of a couple of things – Andrew’s future potential at being a crossword/Scrabble champion, and the fact that he’s been hanging out at the mall too much.

We had a company retreat up in the mountains – the second year we’ve done so. Afterwards, it was only fitting to spend some personal time enjoying a bit of Colorado history. We stayed the weekend at the very old historic Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, the inspiration and setting for Stephen King’s novel “The Shining.”

We didn’t see any ghosts – but we did see a lot of tourists!

Andrew hangs out on the famous front steps.

The river that flows through Estes Park is mostly fed from snow melt – the water is very cold!

This video was taken at night after Andrew’s bath. Earlier in the morning, before he went to school, I had written out “Andrew is cute” on his little magnet board. He looked at that for maybe 30 seconds in the morning, and managed to remember it all day. He spelled the words in the tub by himself…

Andrew has been on somewhat of a “learning” spurt lately. Although he’s been reciting the alphabet for some time now, he recently has showed a whole lot of interest in reading and writing. He has been constantly asking how to spell words, and recently he wrote the entire alphabet (upper and lower case) without help. Granted, some of the letters weren’t very well constructed… but, hey, he’s a three year old!

He’s also doing well with his numbers… he can count from 1 to 20, and from 1 to 10 in both Chinese and Spanish. He’s also doing his colors in all three languages, although he’s by far got the most words in English. Andrew is also able to remember his birthday, our house number, and even our home phone number!

Andrew has been doing a lot of three letter words, and has recently moved on to four letter words that he can recognize and spell. (He’s the one putting the letters together to form the words.)

Andrew is also writing most of his letters without help, and can put together whole words on paper (mostly one letter per sheet…). Today he brought over these sheets and told us that he “draw Andrew Wang.” At first we didn’t believe him…

Andrew turns three years old today. It’s been quite a thrill – he’s growing, learning, and becoming a big boy (kind of). His 36 month check-up stats still show he’s small in some ways.

See the updated charts (use the tabs on the bottom of the new window to switch charts).

Do you know about the Bedazzler? Andrew decides that he really doesn’t need to pay the $19.95 for in order to enjoy “the fashion craze of the season.” He just busts out the sticker book!

Despite our best efforts at making things safe for Andrew, he apparently is not happy with the fact that we let him “ride” without protecting his head. Tonight, he finally figured out what he needed to do. He was riding around the house, happily yelling “Helmet, helmet, helmet…”

I’m nuts about photography. The latest skill I’m trying to learn is studio lighting… and having a oblivious willing model makes it more interesting than shooting thin air all the time. Having a distraction prop also helps to keep the model interested in staying put long enough to snap a couple of photos.

Andrew: “What am I supposed to do with this yellow thing?”

“Hmm… let me think about that.”

“Remember, daddy: ‘Measure twice, cut once’!”

And since I’m experimenting, the only way to remember what I did is to write it down (or in this case, draw it out.) Check out this sweet little tool that Kevin Kertz put together for Photoshop that allows for easy lighting diagrams!

We spent a long weekend in LA, close to Chinese New Year. It’s the first time Andrew’s spent any time in California… he seemed to enjoy the trip, but after a few days of hotel living and not seeing his friends or playing with his usual toys, he ended up telling us “I wanna go home” by about the third day. Despite that, the trip went well, and Andrew wasn’t too fussy during the plane rides… he was mostly bored!

What’s a trip to LA without good food? We visited Ding Tai Fung (among others!)… mmmm, steamed dumplings!

If IKEA ever decides to open a store in Denver (hello, IKEA, are you listeing?), we would probably spend many weekends there. It’s a favorite place just to stroll around and dream about new looks for the house. Andrew really like this kids’ chair that had a curtain that closed, making a neat hideaway!

We also visited my cousin Sabina and her family. Andrew and Sab’s older boy, “Peanut” got along very well! Peanut is about a year younger than Andrew, but he is SOOO smart! Must be good genes…

The trip to the LA Zoo convinced us that we need to take Andrew more often when we get back to Denver. He had an absolute blast, running around and seeing all the animals.

In addition to the kangaroos, koala bears, zebras, lions, gorillas, orangutans, elephants and giraffes, there were a flock of flamingos, whose color made for the best pictures of the day.

We also visited the KidSpace museum in Pasadena with the family. It was a nice facility, although there were a number of outdoor areas that were closed because it was raining pretty hard (a rarity in SoCal!). I’m really happy to see that Andrew’s attention span has been increasing… he actually sat and painted for over 15 minutes without getting bored!

What’s a trip to LA without a family portrait?

Andrew attended his first “cultural” event recently. OK… it wasn’t really a cultural event, but the Disney Live stage show was held at the Denver Opera House… does that count?

Andrew had a blast seeing all his favorite characters on stage, including the Little Einsteins (kinda freaky when real adults dress up as little kids…), Mickey and the gang, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and Handy Manny with his tools.

Whenever we take Andrew out shopping, he inevitably runs around the store and we end up chasing after him rather than getting any shopping done. Well, it seems like there’s a small parenting trick that I had not learned until now – the kid-friendly shopping cart. I was amazed that Andrew (and Michael) actually sat in the shopping cart for more than 15 minutes, pretending they were driving the cart. Thanks for the tip, Kelvin!