Rafee's little sister Maya was born underwater at 3am on Christmas in England weighing in at 7lb 7oz.  Such a precious addition to the Rahman family.  Congratulations to Charlotte and Shagor from the bottom of our hearts!

Joey & Steve
 

Mana was born in Japan on September 1, 08 weighing in 3.1 kg to Mikiko and Urashima san.  Mikiko was my host sister when I homestayed in their home in 1995.  She married Urashima san who happens to work in the same company as me.

Congratulations to Otousan (father) & Okaasan (mother) for becoming grandparents!  I can't wait to see Jamie and Mana play together.  They are like cousins to each other!

Joey

I met Jaden during my last HK trip.  He was born on March 28, 2008 to my elementary school friend Kei.  He weighed only 5 pounds 15 oz at birth but quickly picked up the weight and now he's big for his age.  I like his chubby legs.  He looks so cute with the head wrap!  I think he highly resembles Kei.

Chow (Joey)

Congratulations to Maggie & Ming for the birth of baby girl Charlotte.  She was born on August 2, 2008 in Hong Kong.  The birth was smooth and she weighed 6.7 lbs.  I think she looks like both parents but more like mom.  She has so much hair already!  The amount that she had at her birth is already more than what Jamie had when he was 1 year old.

Maggie & Ming, welcome to the parents club!  Especially with Maggie, now we have even more things to talk about!  In fact, she just sent me an email asking detailed questions about breastfeeding.  Great!  I'm so glad we share similar experience.  There are topics that only those who have experienced it could talk about it and I find it especially true regarding parenthood/motherhood.

Looking forward to seeing you all in real person soon.  Take care!

Chow (Joey)

Congratulations to Aya and Chin San for the birth of Leah!  What a beautiful name.  Aya told me the story behind Leah's name.  Leah is the name of Aya's host sister in the States.  Leah in Japanese is written as Ria.  "Ri" is the same character from Aya's mother's name and "a" is the same character from Aya's name.  What a beautiful story behind this beautiful name!  And of course the beautiful baby girl who was born on December 19, 07 which was very close to their wedding aniversary.  Leah, you look a bit like your dad but look a lot like your mom.

Aya and Chin San as couple have very special meaning for me because I was the cupid who introduced them to each other.  Weeks after they were introduced they already became a couple and months after they were together they became husband and wife.  Both are very kind and sincere persons that I have no doubt Leah is going to grow up as a gentle and kind girl too.

The girl who was created by this special couple of course holds very special meaning for me too.  Immediately after I found out about the birth, I sent over tons of gifts to Japan.  I was waiting to do that for months already.  From my limited experience as a mother, I handpicked a few must-have items for them.  Among them was this swaddling blanket which Jamie also couldn't sleep without for the first few months.  Hope they'll found it useful too.

Leah, I'm looking forward to meeting you and seeing you play together with Jamie!

Joey

Not only twins but boy & girl twins!  Well done, Thomas & Jennifer!  Especially to Jennifer who gave natural birth to this pair of twins.  That's just amazing and brings me tears to imagine how much effort you must have put into that to make it happen.  I couldn't have done it even with just one!  Although birth is tough, bringing up twins is probably even tougher.  They definitely look like Thomas especially Aidan.  They are only a few months younger than Jamie.  Los Angeles is very far from Bangkok but hopefully someday, we can all meet.

Joey

Congratulations to Apitan & Pornthawee, the proud parents of baby Beng!  She has big beautiful eyes just like her daddy and a beautiful smile just like her mommy.

Steve & Joey

Kotarou was born in Chiba, Japan on October 30th, 2006.

Kotarou's mother Hanako used to live in Bangkok too but after she got pregnant very soon after she got married, she moved back to Japan.

Not too long ago we were both hanging out as singles.  We never thought we would become mothers so soon and even experience first motherhood at the same time.

Although I still haven't had a chance to meet Hanako's husband Mr. Kuma yet, I knew he's very tall (over 190cm!) so I was expecting their baby to be no smaller than Jamie.  But it turned out Kotarou was born a good 3,188 grams and 50.3 cm.  It gives me hope that it's possible for me to have a smaller baby too.  My hope is with a smaller baby, the birth will go smoother too.  I'm also looking forward to time my next baby with Hanako's next :) because it's so fun to go through the same stages as our babies grow and share all the joy and difficulty we experience as we grow as parents.

Joey

Ho Chuen was born in October 2006 in Hong Kong.  He weighed 3.265kg at birth.  His nickname is Hayden.  He's the fifth addition to the huge Hing and Wah family.

Hing is one of my best friends.  We met in the first year of secondary school in Hong Kong and we've been close ever since.  She was the one to name me "Chow" as a nickname which many of my friends from Hong Kong call me by.  She's also the godmother of Jamie.  And I'm the godmother of all her children.

I'm very excited that Hayden is only 2 months younger than Jamie.  I can't wait to see them become best friends like their moms too!

Chow (Joey)

Yujia was born on April 15th, 2006 in Beijing, China.  She was 3,695 grams and 50 cm at birth.  This photo was taken when Yujia turned 100th-day old.  Her hair style looks so cool!  And those little toes are very cute!

Her mother Yan and I used to work in the same division when we were working in Tokyo.  Now Yan is taking maternity leave in China.  She's lucky to have over a year maternity leave from our Japanese office although I do look forward to working closely with Yan again.
 
A message from Yujia: "I'm a loud energetic girl from the year of dog.  I'm looking forward to meeting Jamie in the future."

Joey

Rafee was born on May 17th, 2006 in Bangkok, Thailand.  His parents Charlotte and Shagor were our classmates in childbirth class and we happened to be living in the same apartment complex.  Since we were all first-time parents, we were clueless about birth and babies but we had fun learning together.

Charlotte was the first to give birth among all the classmates.  We rushed to the hospital to visit them.  Our eyes were filled with joyful tears when we heard their birth story and saw the cute little Rafee with so much hair on him and who looked just like his daddy! 

Now they're back in Bangladesh where they reside.  Jamie still hasn't had a chance to meet Rafee yet.  Let's hope that they'll take another vacation in Bangkok in the near future.

Joey & Steve

Tesia was born on July 1st, 2006 at 6:16 a.m. in California, USA.  She was 8 lbs 11 oz and 21 1/4 inches.  Tesia was 3-months old in this photo.  Mike and Jaclyn must be very proud of this beautiful girl.  We really can't wait for Jamie to meet her.

Steve & Joey

Steve: Mike, let's lock them up in the garage and see how things work out...remember Pepper and Sauva? :)  It'll be dangerous to get them together.  They'll probably talk about how silly their fathers are.

Joey: Seeing how cute Tesia is makes me want to have a daughter so I can dress her up like you do Tesia.  What a cutie!