One Small Step for Daryl, One Giant Leap for Me

To watch your child growing up every day is the most wonderful thing in the world.

When I go home after work each day, I would find him physically bigger, and look a little different from the time I left home.

One day, I noticed that his eyes were opening more, and becoming bigger and bigger, just like his mother. And the other day, I found that he could finally look straight at my eyes, as he has started to figure out how to control his eye muscles.

The other day, I found that he could make different noises. Not just "Meow", but also different kinds of groaning and yelling which, if you listen carefully, all sound different and can tell you whether he needs milk or whether he wants to be cradled.

And one day, Mommy would place him onto my chest while I was sleeping on the couch. He didn't cry or flinch at all, and enjoyed every moment while on my cushy chest, because he knows who I am, and it's a safe place for him.

I like it a lot, because I love him too.

Moving up the Weight Class

Daryl has reached a milestone today. A time to celebrate indeed.

His weight has broken the 10-pound barrier.

And compared with other new borns, Daryl is bigger, stronger and faster in all area. A giant among the boys, you may say.

One of the reasons is that Daryl has taken a lot more milk powder than usual. While the instructions on the Wyeth S26 can says that babies between two to eight weeks should have six meals per day (one meal once every four hours) and four ounces each, Daryl has been eating once every one to two hours, and sometimes up to five or even six ounces per meal.

By the way, our usual guys and gals held a lavish party for Daryl's one-month birthday yesterday, with lots of presents and a lovely cake prepared by his godmothers. All the beautiful gals fell in love with him at first sight, and being a great ambassador, Daryl is more than happy to be cradled by them, and kept his eyes wide open when taking pictures.

Daryl the Cat

It surprised us a lot when we heard Daryl made some noises while we were having dinner last night.

We were surprised not because he made noises, but the kind of noise he made.

No, he didn't speak any words.

He MEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWED.

Now Creamy, our family pet, is a Schnauzer, and we have never had a cat or kitten before. Why the heck did he imitate a cat?

Why Daryl?

So the question is: Why do we name our baby Daryl?

Well, I'm a huge Dallas Cowboys fan. And I always like Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Daryl Johnston, the three key players in their backfield in the late 80s' and early 90s'. Yet we can't use Troy (which sounds rather funny in Chinese) or Emmitt (which is a rather peculiar name itself and sounds like "Vomit" or "Emit") as his name. That's why we have chosen Daryl, a common first name in English-speaking countries but a rather "rare" one in Hong Kong.

Daryl's Pictures

Some older people believe that taking pictures of a small child will damage his eyes or even capture his soul! Nevertheless, my wife and I love taking pictures. That's why we have taken thousands and thousands of pictures of our month-old Baby Daryl. Some of them can be found here, our online album. More to come. Stay tuned.

By the way, this isn't Daryl. She's Creamy, our lovely little Schnauzer.

Finally, A Blog Belonging to Me!

For a computer illiterate like me, it isn't THAT late to finally have a blog of my own.

I didn't think of creating a blog in the first place. Yet when I started posting the email address and pictures of my new-born son, Daryl, through other on-line applications, my longtime friend, Paul, asked why not create a blog for Daryl as well. So here we go.

I, like many of you, am a busy man, and may not afford a lot of time writing stuff on it. Don't expect me to use it as a diary by writing and adding new stuff every day.

So you guys' contribution would be essential. I would like to hear more from all of you, and let me know what you're thinking. Okay?