First Independence Day

Today is July 4th. It's a public holiday but Roque had to work, so he came home for lunch. It was a spectacular day, so atypical of San Francisco this time of year. We got sandwiches and had lunch out on our deck. We brought Greyson's little Chinese chair with us and fed him out there. It was lots of fun. Here's another hilarious video of him corn chomping. He absolutely loves the stuff. Apparently it's a big deal that he's able to handle corn on the cob as well as he does. My friend, Tin, told us that and we didn't quite believe her (sorry, Tin.) until I gave him corn on the cob at playgroup the other day, and the other moms were incredulous at his motor dexterity. They couldn't believe how well he was able to turn it back and forth in his hands, get it in his mouth and actual remove kernels of corn with his four teeth. I was so proud of him.

After lunch, we had another unsuccessful nap afternoon. He spinned and flipped back and forth for an hour, so I pulled him out, played with him until 4pm, and put him back down. He slept till 6, so when he woke up, we went out and had Japanese for dinner. It was awesome to be eating dinner out, and with our little Precious at that. During dinner, we gave him water through a straw and after just a few attempts he was sucking beautifully. He couldn't get enough of it, and cried when we took it away. Drinking from a straw is supposed to be a tough thing for kids to learn. Pediatric dentists encourage parents to transition their kids from a sippy cup to a straw cup as quickly as possible so as to prevent teeth malformation. We were amazed how fast he got the hang of it. It's nice to know that even though Greyson isn't really crawling yet, he's ahead of the game in other areas. Of course, we are admittedly biased and are convinced our child has inherited third party genius.

Being Singaporean, I've always been very detached from July 4th. Even though I've been in the States almost 13 years and I consider this place my home, it isn't my country. However, as Roque reminded me several times today, Greyson is American and from now on, I'm going to have to take it seriously. It is important for him to understand what this day means and it's part of my job to teach him that.