nephew #2

october 25, 2009
2:13pm
6 lbs 2 oz
18.5 inches

woohoo...my 2nd nephew has arrived! he was 3 weeks early and was actually a decent size for being this early. he was born 5 days after aj's birthday! we will now have joint birthday parties! heehee.

while visiting my sister in the hospital, we realized that her nurse was my nurse from a year ago! she was happy to see aj as she rarely ever sees the babies again once they leave the hospital.

this poor 3rd boy - so neglected. half the time, we forget that there is a newborn in the house! the other day, i went into his nursery to get a diaper for aj and i turned on the lights without even realizing he was sleeping in his crib. oops.

my little peanut turns 1!

i know, peanut isn't quite appropriate considering he's quite a chunky monkey now! i'm a little late in posting his 1st birthday but it's been insanely busy at work and i've barely had a moment to come up for air.

here are his stats:
height: 31 inches (75%)
weight: 25 lbs (75%)
head circumference: 18.5 inches (50-75%)
still very consistent in his growth. poor guy had 3 shots since we decided to give him the regular flu, H1N1 and hep a shot. he'll have to go back in a couple of months to get his other immunization shots that he didn't get since we gave him both flu shots.

where do i even begin about his recent developments?

personality biggest observation...boy, is he stubborn and fearless. he also throws some major attitude and tantrums. both my sister and my mother have noticed how he has no fear in putting his hands everywhere and climbs up on everything. he is definitely standing up to his nephew now and throws quite a tantrum when my nephew is in his "space". when he doesn't get what he wants, man, is he fierce. my mom says this is what i get for being such a stubborn child myself. other than his stubborn nature, he's still more like his dad. still very laidback and plays well by himself. he does occasionally get clingy, but for the most part adjusts easily w/ different people and surroundings.

nutrition we are very lucky that he eats everything. and lots of it too! he still loves his milk but loves fruits and cheerios and really, any snack we give him. the only issue is he hates wearing his bib. he tries to pull it off every time we put it on.

mobility close to his birthday, he had teased us with taking a couple of steps every now and then. however, last week, he took ten steps and now he is a walking machine. we went to the stanford mall and that was his first time walking around in public. it was great to let him walk in such an open space and not feel like you are in someone's way. he still crawls when we wants to go somewhere fast but he definitely tries to walk everywhere first.

sleep so we regressed a couple of weeks ago. he started waking up in the middle of the night and we just took him to our bed. so, now every night, he falls asleep in his crib but will wake up in the middle of the night. we'll go pick him up and he'll sleep between us until it's time to get up! we need to sleep train him again but we actually really enjoy his smiling face when we wake up.

long overdue update...

while i'm stuck at home sick, i might as well update the blog since i've been such a slacker. =)

i can't believe my little man is turning 1 yr old in a couple of weeks. the time has flown by so fast. since the last post, he's grown so much!

teeth: after his 1st 2 bottom teeth came in when he was 6 months old, there was no progress until he was 10 months old. at 10 months, his front 4 teeth came in all at the same time! poor kiddo. just this week, another bottom tooth cut through. so now he has 7 teeth!

standing: i can proudly say that a started standing on his own a week ago or so. at first, he was distracted by playing w/ something w/ both hands and didn't realize he was standing on his lone. however, last week, he was aware of what he was doing and was clapping and so proud of himself!!

walking: my mom claims that he made his 1st step this past week. he made one step twice! i have yet to see this milestone so until i've witnessed it...it's not true haahaa.

a is an expert at clapping. he's so proud of himself when he's clapping! he's also gotten really good at waving hi and goodbye and giving kisses!

i've been sick this week and a has been staying w/ my parents so i don't infect him. so maybe he's made even more progress! =)

deflated...

i had a pretty unlucky car experience this past week. when i went to get my car out of the work garage, i noticed i had a flat tire. luckily the car attendant and building maintenance changed my tire in like 5 minutes! this is the 2nd flat tire for me. luckily both times, it was a slow leak and it wasn't while i was driving on the road. that same day, the engine malfunction light came on in my car. this is the 2nd time the light has gone off. s took it to our mechanic and got it fixed on monday. i'm still driving w/ the full spare but have to get it replaced this weekend!

my poor car...last month, i got into a fender bender when someone rear ended me. it caused a couple of scratches on the back bumper. bo currently has 108k miles and has to hold up for a couple more years!! s won't let me get a new car until his truck is completely paid off. i don't know why it matters since we pay out of our separate accounts anyway. something about being fiscally responsible?!?!

growing up fast...

this month has 2 growth milestones...aj turned 9 months and my nephew had his 2nd birthday!!

as aj reached the 9 month mark, it's just so fascinating to see how he's developing! he started crawling a couple of weeks ago and is making his way around the house. he's still not crawling the right way, he's definitely a fan of the army crawl. he does transition really well from crawling to sitting up. however, he still gets a bit over excited and sometimes while sitting, will fall back and hit his head on the floor. =( oops.

s actually taught him how to grab puffs and feed himself. at first, you had to be really precise and put the puff between his thumb and index finger. now, he's great at picking up food off the table and putting it in his mouth. next...i'm trying to transition him to a sippy cup.

as he's really starting to master pulling himself up, we had to lower the crib mattress as he definitely loves to lean against the crib.

so with these new developments, getting him to sleep has definitely been a huge struggle. i knew it was going to catch up to us at some point! every night for the last week, we have struggled to get him to sleep. he just keeps standing up in his crib and staring at us or at the door for us. and his bedtime has been getting later. he used to be asleep by 7:30pm but now it fluctuates between 8:30-9pm. yep, that's right, he's been crying in his crib for almost an hour!! i wouldn't mind the later bedtime if he actually got up later but he still wakes up at 6am!! my poor baby needs his sleep!!

he's physical development is consistent with his last checkup so we are happy about that!
head circumference: 17 3/4 inches 50% percentile
height: 29 inches 75% percentile
weight: 20 lbs 4 oz 50% percentile

some recent adventures...

it's been an adventurous last couple of weeks for aj. as he is getting a bit older and starting to be aware of his surroundings, we are trying to explore new things with him. i think he's still pretty clueless of where we take him and he doesn't fully appreciate it but that's okay. s and i are having some great quality time together!

oakland zoo
2 weeks ago, we took aj and my nephew to the zoo! this was the 1st trip to the oakland zoo for all of us actually. we also met up with s' sister and our neice which was nice. my nephew was definitely more aware of the animals and this new adventure. aj was just staring at everything haha.

siblings w/ their kids!

where are the monkeys?

lake tahoe
we had our annual family trip to tahoe. it was nice to just get away for a couple of days and hang out with the family! of course, it was also nice to go gambling! this was our first trip to tahoe with aj so it was definitely interesting to balance baby duty with gambling time! =) this was the first time for aj swinging at the playground and at the beach / lake.

there was actually 2 sad parts to the weekend:
1) most of my family stayed in tahoe through monday but i went home on sunday since i had to be at work the next day. being home on sunday night was just so depressing! it wasn't my 1st time away from aj but usually i'm with my friends! so i'm not in bed thinking about how alone i am...
2) tahoe has definitely taken a hit in this recession. 2 casinos have eliminated all their table games so you really only have 3 places to go casino hopping. also, with the recent opening of an indian casino in folsom, tahoe has definitely lost a lot more visitors. all the dealers were saying that during the week, it's just a ghost town and even though the weekends are busy, it's nowhere near where it needs to be...so sad.

i love the beach!

i also love to swing!

j practicing for his soon to be new role as a father of 2 boys!

f with his 2 favorite nephews

san luis obispo
s' colleague actually grew up in pismo beach and had his wedding in san luis obispo this past weekend. the ceremony and reception took place at a fruit ranch. i have to say that for not knowing anyone, this was one of the best weddings we've been to. best in the sense that it was just so casual, personal, intimate and non traditional. the fruit ranch was also such a great place where all the kids ran around and had a great time. every out of town guest had this awesome goodie bag. it was filled with some great essentials like water, sunscreen and kleenex but also had local made treats, maps and guide to central coast.

this was aj's 2nd trip to slo but his first wedding. i just have to say, he was just such a trooper! there were tons of kids there and all the parents were just so amazed that aj was so well behaved. in an example of what a small world it is, i actually did know another guest!! one of our chi delt alums went to junior high with the groom.

adorable centerpiece appropriate for a fruit ranch. great treats for each guest...cds, swedish fish, goodie bags and bubbles for the kids

father and son

hat's a little small but isn't he just so dashing?! hahaa.

what a precious flower girl. when she got down the hill and saw all the guests, she totally froze. then when her petals fell out of her basket, she started picking them all up!

kudos to my father...

who has officially retired today! after 35+ devoted years of working for the city of san francisco, he has finally decided to hang up his "mop".

my father is the typical immigrant story. he came to america over 40 years ago to provide a better future for his family. with minimal english skills, he fell into a job as a janitor. although he was a blue collar worker, he always loved what he did and still does to this day. also, it was literally "blue collar" as his uniform shirt was blue hahaa. although it wasn't the most glamourous job, my dad always worked hard and really did enjoy working for the city. also, the health benefits were always great for our family and he has a really good retirement plan now. that's actually one reason why he can retire a bit earlier than his 65th birthday.

it always amazes me to think how my parents were able to raise three kids, while owning 2 homes in san francisco and working pretty low income jobs. there obviously wasn't any extravagant things that we had or did while growing up but we were also never really deprived. somehow my parents learned to make things work!

sometimes i do wonder (and s wonders ALL the time) how i possibly grew up with so little and somewhere along the way my tastes / preferences changed. when did i start to want all the nice things and why does it matter so much? how did i get these horrible spending habits when my parents tried to instill such a frugal mentality? s always says i act like money grows on trees. i really don't and try not to spend recklessly but sometimes i do get a bit out of control. =(

date night / day

this past weekend, s and i went to dinner at gary danko with my sister, her husband, our cousin and his wife. we dropped off aj and my nephew at my parent's house...and stayed out a bit late. by the time we got back to my parent's house, it was already well past 10p. both boys were peacefully sleeping in their cribs. my mom suggested that we just leave the boys at their place and enjoy sleeping in the next morning. s and i were a bit hesitant at first but realized that this was the best decision for aj as we didn't want to wake him up.

although i felt terrible that aj might wake up my parents in the middle of the night or make them get up early in the morning, i was looking forward to sleeping in. i have NEVER slept in since aj was born because i'm on morning shift since i'm the one nursing aj. i guess my body was just used to getting up early as i woke up at 6:30a for no reason. however, i fell back asleep and woke up at 8am! i felt so guilty for sleeping so well just thinking about how my parents had an infant and toddler to take care of overnight. s and i decided to try to get to my parents house early to pick aj up. when we got to my parents house, they had plans to take the boys out to dim sum with our other relatives. my parents also told me that not only did aj sleep through the night, he didn't even get up until 7:30am! i mean, gees, that's better than when he's at home!! he was actually napping when we got there so we didn't even get to hang out with him. we stayed at home until he finally woke up and then hung out with him for a bit. while my parents took the boys out to chinatown, s and i hung out in the city. it felt SO STRANGE to walk around, just the 2 of us without our child! it felt so weird to do these things that were so normal to us a year ago.

s and i agreed that it was a nice break to have some quality time together and we are so thankful that we have such understanding parents who are so willing to take care of our son! here are some pictures of him hanging out at my parents house.

my dad was using a pillow to try to swat a fly out of the house...aj could not stop laughing at my dad!

so proud that he's sitting up...trying to eat the book

work / life imbalance

gosh, i didn't realize how long it had been since my last entry. where does the time go?

where do i even begin? most days i struggle...frantically trying to find the balance with work, aj and s. needless to say, i'm pretty much flunking.

every morning, i'm rushing out of the house before 7am to get to work early; usually between 7:30-7:45a. i spend the majority of the day in meetings or working with my team so i never get to actually sit at my desk to do my work. i'm then rushing out of work to get home. my goal is to leave work by 5:30 but that rarely ever happens. i don't even get home until 6:30-6:45p. then s and i are rushing to cook and eat bc we have to start aj's bath routine at 7ish and put him down by 7:30p. then i get back online and work until 10ish.

i have absolutely no time to do anything. i even stopped pumping a couple of weeks ago because i just really needed that time to work or do something else. it totally sucks. i'm all over the place like a chicken running around with her head cut off. i'm not giving my all when it comes to work and i'm certainly not mom of the year. people say it gets easier and you just learn to let things go or prioritize but i just don't see how!!?! okay, just had to get that off my chest. enough about me; what fun am i haha. let's move on to my precious son!

aaron has grown and changed so much these last couple of weeks. it's just amazing how he can struggle for weeks trying to do something and then one day...he just does it like it was no big deal. it's incredible to see how engaged he is with what he sees or hears and how he interacts with the people. he definitely loves to people watch; especially when they are speaking or eating!

for the most part, he definitely has his daddy's temperament. he's a pretty laidback and low maintenance child. he seriously cries only when he's hungry or sleeping. just like dad, he eats anything!! and he can never get enough of whatever it is we are feeding him. although, he definitely has a preference for fresh fruit that i've just mashed for him.

sleep has definitely been a bit on the tough side. he started teething last weekend so he's been pretty fussy with sleeping all week. normally, he just peacefully goes down for the evening. however, every night this week, he's cried for almost an hour each night!! poor kiddo.

i haven't been good with taking too many pictures but here are some recent pics...

his favorite activity - jumping around his saucer

look ma, my teeth!

this is probably one of the best picture of his dimple

6 months old...

where does the time go? i've been back at work for about a month and a half and i just can't believe aj is 6 months old now! talking about my transition back to work is another entry in itself so i'm going to stick with writing about aj for now!

it's amazing how much has changed in the last 2 months! aj's personality and physical development just keeps evolving and i'm always surprised at how he's changed on a daily / weekly basis.

his physical developments:

rolling over - about 2 weeks ago, he made his first roll at my parent's house (tummy to back)! he rolled for his po-po in the afternoon and showed me his new trick when i went to pick him up in the evening. when we got home, he was too shy to show dad but was more than happy to exhibit his new trick to dad the next day! it took another week or so before he was able to roll from his tummy to back. he is rarely on his back now because he wants to roll over right away. however, it's like he forgot how to roll from his tummy to back because it doesn't happen too often.

sitting up - not so advanced. hahaa. when we try to get him to sit up, he goes straight for his toes and just lands head first on the couch! he is great with the bumbo but tends to slouch quite a bit in his booster seat.

standing up - he loves to bounce! if you hold him up or put him in his saucer, he is a jumping machine.

crawling - ummm not even close! however, when he's on his tummy, he loves to squirm his way around and stick his butt up in the air! that's really it though =)

to my other "favorite" topics: eat, sleep, drink...

eat - we started aj on solids about 2 weeks ago. at first it was just rice cereal but it made him constipated so i moved onto veggies, starting with green beans. he loves them! i started with 2 1-ounce servings a day. however, the doctor said i can probably increase it to 2 2-ounce servings a day. next we moved onto sweet potatoes. umm..can we say pooping machine! one day, he pooped 4 times! and then the poop was exactly the sweet potatoes! it was as if he didn't digest or process any of it and it just went straight to his diapers. so now we are banning sweet potatoes for awhile. i'm back to green beans and we will try apples and avocadoes this week. =)

sleep - oh, so inconsistent (but i guess that's not new and what everyone tells you)! for the last 2 weeks, he would wake up every morning at 4 or 5am!! it got better for a few days but usually he'll wake up once. recently because he can roll over, he's been rolling onto his tummy. however, he doesn't remember how to roll back to his back and then starts crying. last night, he woke up at 3am...i went to roll him back onto his back and guess what? he peed through his diaper and all over his clothes and bed! poor baby! =(

drink - even with the 4 ounces of solids, he's still drinking the same amount of milk. dr. m said we can start decreasing as he takes more solids but so far he still wants all the milk! i haven't been as diligent with pumping at work. i just get so easily distracted and caught up in my work. my supply has definitely decreased. i actually can't meet his supply on a daily basis now. i've had to use my reserves just to give him enough milk. i don't really have much reserve left so looks like we'll be adding formula soon.

so when we went his 6 month check up, these were the original stats: 16 lbs (25%) , 26 inches long and 17 inches in head circumference. when dr. m saw the stats, he was alarmed and said he wanted to remeasure because he wasn't happy with the results. when i got home, i can see why. the original stats had him only gaining 1/4 inch in his head, 1/4 inch in height and 1lb 8 ounces in weight! shhh, i would be alarmed as well!!! i felt so guilty that i was not giving him enough milk!! so dr. m remeasured and his height was 26.5 inches which keeps him in the 75th percentile. his weight did drop off a little as he was in the 50th percentile previously. but dr. m wasn't too worried. it was just so hard because he was spitting up milk so i thought he was full and gave him slightly less milk every feeding. however, everytime he was done with his bottle, he would cry. i just thought he wanted to suck on something but i guess maybe he really was still hungry.

what is daddy putting in my mouth?

yumm...i like sweet potatoes (too bad mommy and daddy don't)!

oh, i think i like green beans!

going for a walk to farmer's market

i like gymboree outfit!