First day of Kindergarden

Today I was too pre-occupied with how much traffic and bottle neck near the school it would be so was busy planning not driving to school so Orion was on the scooter and I had Vivi in the stroller and went to school that way.  Now because we were on foot I was worrying that we would not make it on time.  When when we got there I was just glad we were not late.

His teacher Ms. Tooey took pictures of the people dropping the kids off and most of the father's came too.  I think it was not a big deal for me and Noel because we've dropped him off at so many different summer camps this summer that we knew he would be okay.  There were a couple of parents crying.  It made me think back on the first time I dropped Orion off at Villa.  I think I was a bit choked up but wasn't big crying.  Plus Vivi came one month later.

What we did in New York

Saturday: John picked us up. dimsum at chinatown with Tony N and Ewah. Dinner at David's in Queens with Mom

Sunday: Saw the 5 boro bike tour out the window. Breakfast at City Bakery. Walked to Union Square. Took train to Wall Street. Borders. Walked to Soho. Purl, Aveda, Dean and Deluca.

Monday: BuyBuyBaby. CVS for Nestle GoodStart formula. Baby Bjorned him. Grab lunch at wholefoods market. Visited 125 Broad. Train to Paragon and Mark at 19th street.

Tuesday: Yoga with Michael at 19th street. Picked up Orion from Noel's office. St Vincent's, Flight 001, Purl again. Coldstone. Cosi. Walked home. Baby sitter. Wayne's step class, fun! Massage.

Wednesday: Katz's deli, Giggle, Kate Spade, chinatown with mom. haircut with Chie. Ferraro with JT. BuyBuyBaby.

Thursday: Real Birth weight. B&N coffee dessert. BuyBuyBaby exchange bath tub. Wholefoods milk. Noel brought home Gyro guy food.

Friday: Phoned Yonah, Daisy, Judy, Joanne, Vivian. Lunch Chinese delivery. Baby sitter. Purl again. Peter Hermann for Orla Kiely bags. Blue Ribbon Manhattan.

How eight treasure soup was created

Eight treasure soup (八寶粥) is a common chinese dessert.

I started adding more things to the rice to make it more nutritious.  First a little bit of split peas.  Then some beans and then more and more.  Eventually it had so much things that the family did not really want to eat it anymore.  So I added sugar and make it in to a dessert soup so the family would eat it more.

That must be how the 8 treasure soup was create...  hehe

2012 Summer: So proud of him

I don't remember which summer camp it was but Noel said one of the camp counselor told him that he really liked how Orion reacts to things when another child takes his creation (most likely Galileo camp, possibly lego play).  Instead of feeling threaten and panicking like most kids do and snatch his creation back, he goes up to the kid and starts to explain what else you can do with the model and such ("and you can also do this and that and blahblah")  I don't know what we did right or perhaps it's just his personality but I am very proud and I hope he always retain that kind of good spirit that surprises people in a good way.

"So people will laugh at me?"

After one of the session of the summer swimming class Orion took, Orion had to urinate so we went to the bathroom.  Since he took off his swimming trunk already, I figure we might as well take off his swimming shirt too and get him out of the wet stuff.   He did not realize we were going to put his bath robe (which is quite big) on for the ride home and thought I meant for him to walk out naked.  So when I ask him to get out of his wet cloths he asked "So people will laugh at me?"  I told him "silly no, you will put on your bath robe on!" and we all laugh and all was well.

But after thinking about it, it daunt on me that he was feeling shame about going out naked in public.  We had always told him that it's not polite to do that but he learned from somewhere else that it's "bad" to do that.  This same boy a year ago walked around Mission district of SF with underwear and legwarmers on his legs because he had an accident and those were all I had.  My boy has lost his innocence!  He has taken a bite of the apple in the Eden.  I guess it makes me a little sad.  My boy is growing up too fast....

The feeling in the beginning

When we first had Orion, we labored very long hours and ended up c-section in the end. We were beyond exhausted during the c-section and so maybe the exhaustion made us more emotional but I remember the minute I heard Orion's cry, I cried too and felt like overwhelming love I had for another being that I never felt.

That was the initial feeling. Then we settled back home and try to keep this being alive (still in awe that the people at the hospital let us take this being home!!). It was hardest few weeks of my life. In fact the first 5 weeks seem a blur. I was so stressed from trying to produce enough milk for him and frustrated that I did not and had to supplement with formula and wondering how I could manage to take care of him all by myself when Noel goes back to work. So the first few weeks, we did not feel like parents. It felt like we were on hell's baby sitting gig and wondering when his real parents will come and take him back. It definitely took a while to developed a deeper feeling with him.

With Vivi? I think these initial weeks with the same task over and over (feeding, changing, cuddling, etc), I don't feel like her mother yet. I just feel like she's the baby that takes away my time with my son. But as we get to know her...i think she's starting to grow on me. She's starting to not feel just like someone that takes my time away from my son.

I know I am being too wordy on this post but it's late and I am really tired....

Gonna get some rest before getting up to feed the baby again.

Almost two month

She will be two month by Friday. She's completely on breast milk now but of course I still constantly worry that she doesn't have enough. Plus the only way for her to have more milk is to feed her more, I sorta don't mind having to feed her more. When she does longer stretches at night and my boobs get really full, I worry that she doesn't eat enough. When I see her peeing a lot and pooping it makes me happy because I know she's drinking enough. Still doing the weight/feed/weight weekly. Just to check how much milk she takes and how much weight she's gaining. She's gaining the proper amount for breast feeding baby but still a little jealous that formula fed babies are gaining more weight than her. I should stop obsession. As long as she's growing nicely and have wakeful interactive time I should be happy.

She's starting to coo a little. She likes to coo/talk when she's very awake and not too hungry yet. I love how she smiles now. Thank goodness she started smiling. Makes this physically demanding job more rewarding. We can put her down for "bed" around the same time as Orion. I would feed her to make sure she's not hungry anymore (even if it's just an hour or two since I last fed her) and we should put the music. If she's sleepy already, then she lies down on the bed easily but sometimes she's over tired we would need to rock her a bit to get to the sleepy stage. I am glad she generally stays in sleepy state through out the night even if she needs to get up to feed often. I just wish she's awake enough to have both breast so she can last longer between feeding.

Orion is really great with her. I play down how good he is with her in front of other people but I am grateful and impressed at how nurturing he is. I hope he stays the same when she becomes mobile and reach for his toys. He's only had one major tantrum since her birth (and I survived!) and boy did we learn lesson from it. I don't let him sleep in the car anymore because it gets too hot and he gets woken up at the wrong sleep cycle and gets really cranky. He really is a very good boy.

He's getting in to coloring and drawing and building legos, just in time. I feel bad we haven't started the bike with him. Hopefully when Noel's job is certain we can focus our attention on that.

Speaking of which...just so worry about it. I really would like to know why does his big boss not think he's working hard and really wish that his boss would fight for Noel and let his big boss know that Noel can be a hard worker. Hopefully we will find out for sure if he still has a job by Friday....sigh.

One month old today

It was a busy day today. She turn one month old today! Four weeks exactly thanks to the 28 days in February. Went to weight/feed/weight her and was not happy that the milk supply doesn't seem to have increased though she hasn't had much supplement today. Need to step up my protein in take... Plus I added Goat's rue today so we'll see if that helps by Friday. If not, I might go back to Fenugreek.

Went to the Chinese group play day for the first time since her birth. Went relatively okay but just feels a bit more chaotic than I would like for these early days. So might not go back for a while. Maybe invite individuals over for playdate might be better.

She's been making messy mega poops on her weekly anniversary. When she made a small poop at the playdate, I thought "oh, this is not so bad" Then when I was reading Orion nap-time story while feeding her, she pooped BIG time!! It was so big and messy that not only did it leaked out of the diaper, it started to ooze down her pants and got on my pants too. I did not realize what was happening until it dripped down to Orion's carpet!! So disgusting and messy!! Didn't want to share this on facebook. Share too much poop complain on facebook already. But nobody really reads this so it's fine.

Still worried about her milk intake because of this morning's WFW but she seem satisfied without needing additional formula yet. Maybe it's what Noel said. She's just eating less today and she will make it up another time? We'll see.

She's sleeping more today

It's very weird. She's sleeping more today than yesterday. It was very frustrating yesterday that I can barely put her down for a minute to eat. Today she's sleeping more soundly even with Orion being loud and the rest of the family chatting loudly.

I think I paid for it later that night.

Vivi is three weeks old today

Can't believe she's three weeks old. It feels like it's been forever. Went to weight/feed/weight her today and overall she did gain weight. And that's after she did a big messy poop this morning before we left.

I am glad my milk production has increased too. It went from 1.5oz last week to 2.3-2.8 oz. But now I am not sure what's causing the milk to increase, because i am doing so many things: Taking Fenugreek, drinking mother's milk tea, drinking massive amount of soup, drinking special chinese "increase milk" soup and the brewer's yeast. *shrug*

Next week will be the real challenge when everybody goes home and it's just us...No more food fairies* either...

*Thanks to these wonderful friends that take turn to cook soup and food for me during the first month..

Entering third week

While Noel is using the parental time to work from home one more week, I am still taking advantage of him helping and try to get as much rest as I can while take on more house things just so I can get used to it when he goes back to work next week. Trying to rest to increase milk supply still.

Went to weight/feed/weight yesterday (2/23) and she's still gaining weight nicely. So I will lay off always following up with formula if she doesn't seem to look for more food. My milk supply? Well, the right side is still only about half an ounce so was a little worried that it did not increase at all. But when we went on the left side, it was about 0.7 or 0.9. Which was encouraging. This was also the factor that made me feel okay about putting her to nurse more because my milk has increase while her formula intake hasn't change much.

Plus I am starting to feel that my left side seem to have more than one let down. Today I definitely put her to nurse longer and I think I can feel more than one let down on both side. We will see how this goes.

Crossing fingers.