Guest Post

My mommy is not good at writing posts so here's my first annual newsletter to my fans:

Dear Inaugural Member of the Louis Bao Plasencia (LBP) Fan Club,

Welcome! This has been an exciting year for me. I can’t believe nearly 8 months have gone by since I arrived on the outside. Time flies when you’re having fun. Anyway, here are some fun facts:

I was born on April 29^th, 2012 at 10:40 in the morning at Mount Sinai Hospital. I weighed 8 lbs, 15 oz and measured 20½ inches. Mommy ate lots of cake and ice cream while I was on the inside, which she believes has contributed to my cheerful demeanor/chunky cheeks.

I spent the first few weeks sleep-training Mommy and Daddy. They were so resistant to sleeping during the day and being awake at night!  But everything is a phase, and now I’m fairly certain that we all have adjusted well to the new routine.

I have been to Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Long Island, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Lewes Beach in Delaware,. I have ridden on ferries, buses, the NYC subway, Metro North, LIRR, NJ Transit, and Amtrak. I’ve been in a car a handful of times, but I don’t understand why I get exiled to the chair in the back. My preferred method of transportation is to be carried.

There have been many celebrations in my honor. I think that there may have been people getting married (like Mommy’s cousins, Garbo & Jakob and Aranya & Chris) or getting engaged (like Ming May & Jaouad), but I am the center of attention everywhere I go. Shout out to everyone who came to witness my open-eyes Cambodian ceremony and my baptism!

I tried rolling over a few times, but it’s not that much fun. I’ve also tried scooting myself backwards while on my belly, but that resulted in me being farther away from my objects of interest. So now I like to sit up and reach for anything in my sphere of influence. Sometimes I can move to my belly from that position, and sometimes I can get on all fours and rock back and forth. People seem to think I’m getting ready to crawl, but that seems like an energy-inefficient process since with surprisingly minimal whining, Mommy or Daddy will pick me up.

Lately Mommy has been putting strange things into my mouth that she calls bananas, pears, and carrots. Thankfully I have an excellent gag reflex and can expel the vast majority of these foul substances.

My favorite things are wet washcloths, newspapers, singing “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider,” and people-watching on the bus and subway.

Every day is a new adventure. I am living life to the fullest and hope you are doing the same.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Lots of love,

Louis Bao Plasencia