first haircut (kind of)...

aj's hair was getting quite long and out of control. the long hair was not a good look for him; poor kid looked like a total fob. aj's stylist aka daddy gave him his 1st buzzcut! we didn't take a before and after when s cut his hair but you can tell w/ these pictures.

before =(

after =)

my very own chair...

aj really enjoyed sitting in my nephew's chair so we decided to get one for him. just as a test, we took him to pottery barn kids to see if he would still like it. once he got in the store, he went straight for the chair and sat right down with a big smile! how could we say no then?? of course, s being a huge star wars fan had to get the r2d2 chair. here are some pics of him enjoying his new piece of furniture...

enjoying his bday present from the l family

adventures w/ daddy...

s had 2 weeks off during the holidays. he was very brave to do daddy daycare and aj had a great time at the zoo and children's museum w/ his pops.

1st trip to san jose children's museum

surprisingly, he was brave and touched the goat at the sf zoo

happy new year!

i can't believe another year has passed and we are now in a new decade! the holidays have been great w/ aj; his development has just been amazing these last couple of weeks. everyone in my family is already saying he is going to be a very stubborn child and boy does he have some attitude! as my mom so kindly reminds me, i was not the most angelic child growing up so she thinks this is payback.

in the last week or two, i've definitely noticed that he is very decisive about what he wants. he is very good about nodding his head no and is an expert pointer. i am still having some problems w/ what he is pointing to and what it really means. for example, if he points to the refrigerator or microwave, it actually means he wants some milk.

we've definitely noticed some growth spurt really from what he is able to reach now. he can reach all the door knobs and is "exploring" turning and opening doors. he actually opened my sister's front door the other day. he can reach things off our kitchen counters and dining table so we have to be careful about not putting anything close to the edge. he can nicely slide his body off our bed and land on his feet w/out falling on his butt. hahaa.

he loves going out now. he gets very excited when we get his jacket and is very willing to put it on. the cutest thing he does is get his shoes and bring it over to us. he'll then stick his foot out to put his shoe on.

the sweetest thing we've noticed is that he loves his baby nephew. whenever he sees j, he always smiles and makes his mischievous expressions. he probably loves him because he knows he can bully him since he's bigger.

we've been really bad about taking pictures but my sister has all the holiday pictures. i'll post some once i get them from her.

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!