Graduate Puffs Video

Here's a short video of baby K enjoying her Graduate puffs. She's becoming a pro at eating these on her own. I'd like to start giving her Cheerios, but M wants to wait until she's done with the puffs so that she won't get confused. I don't think she would, but Cheerios are harder, and they don't automatically dissolve in your mouth (or if it does, it takes a lot longer), so I'll wait until her top two teeth are out. She's been having all the teething symptoms this past weekend, so it should be any day now!

"Backseat Parent"

Why do people feel the need to brag about their kids or teach me how to parent my own? Maybe it's a cultural thing with the older Chinese generation, but what happened last night annoyed me. We attended a dinner in Brooklyn celebrating the christening of M's co-workers' two children. We sat across from a couple with a 10-year old daughter. When I was feeding baby K her formula at one point, the woman says to me condescendingly, "You're still using a bottle to feed her? At nine months, your daughter should be using a cup by now, or drinking out of a straw. They should be using a cup at six months on!" Then the husband says, "Yes, and you should start weaning her from diapers. My daughter didn't have to use diapers after the age of one!" He looks to his wife for confirmation, and she says "two." Then he goes on to brag about how his 10-year old daughter is able to take care of herself when she gets home from school, and how she prepares dinner for the rest of the family. I just looked at them politely and nodded, all the while thinking to myself, "You parent your kid your way, and I'll raise mine my way. It's great that your daughter is so self-sufficient, but personally, I'd like mine to develop some more social skills." Their daughter was very shy. Every time someone came over to talk to her parents (and/or to her), she would hide her face in her father's chest and clam up. When someone came over to take a picture of them, she covered half her face with her hair. My nine-month old baby (who I am not ashamed to say is still using a bottle to drink her formula!) can interact with people better than that.

I can't stand it when people (especially strangers!) criticize and judge new moms and dads, make them feel like they're doing a bad job, and give them unwarranted advice on how to raise their kids. Their comments were probably not intended to demotivate and discourage, but it certainly feels that way. Hopefully I can be a better role model for my child and not talk down to other parents doing the best they can to raise up their kid(s).

My Busy Baby

Baby K has sure been keeping herself busy these past few weeks. Here are some things she is able to do now:

• Crawl (forward and backward)... and she does it at lightning speed! I can't take my eyes off her for one second for fear she'll get herself into trouble.
• Wave (although she's very selective on who she waves to, and she only does it when she's in the mood).
• Pull herself up and stand from a crawling or sitting position. She still needs to hold onto something for support while standing, but I couldn't believe it when they told me this at daycare!
• Clap her hands. I saw it for the first time this morning while changing her. Hopefully she'll cooperate and show daddy this new accomplishment when he comes home tonight.

SIGH! My little girl is growing up so fast! She went for her nine-month check-up earlier this week. I thought she would be at least 20 lbs by now (she certainly feels like it!), so I was quite surprised when she only came in at 18 lbs 5.5 oz. Baby K got her hepatitis B booster shot and was such a tough cookie, barely letting out a peep. She did give the nurse a nasty look afterwards, but who can blame her?

Task for mommy and daddy this weekend: baby proof the house! We definitely need to put up those safety gates now!

Homemade Pizza

We decided to make pizza for dinner last night, and I was actually pleasantly surprised that it didn't turn out to be a major disaster. It was very easy to make -- just knead the dough for a bit, flatten it out (it would've been more helpful had we had a rolling pin, but since we didn't, we improvised and used a tall cup, coating it with olive oil so that it wouldn't stick to the dough), add spaghetti sauce, mozzarella cheese, your choice of toppings (we used mushroom and broccoli florets), and when you're done with all that, just pop it in the oven for 20 minutes at 425 degrees, and voila! It's done! Here's our yummy masterpiece (before and after it was cooked):

Daddy's Girl

Proud Mommy

I can't help but beam with pride as I see how quickly baby K picks up on things. We first introduced the sippy cup to her about two months ago, but she never quite got the hang of it, playing with the cup rather than using it for its intended purpose. Week after week, we were always "too busy" doing something else, so we never really gave it to her to practice as much as we'd like. We decided to try again today, only instead of putting water in the sippy cup, I mixed in some apple juice in hopes that the sweetness would entice her to suck from the sprout. Low and behold -- it worked! Our little girl can now draw liquid from the sippy cup! Granted, she still thinks it's a toy and enjoys playing with it as such more than anything else, but I am so proud of her!

Another breakthrough on the baby food front: Graduate puffs... those little pea-size snacks made by Gerber that taste like cardboard (yes, I've tried them -- they smell better than they taste) but is good for babies because it melts right in their mouth. The first time I gave it to baby K, I put it directly into her mouth (probably a month or two ago). She hadn't quite mastered the art of chewing yet, so I think it just melted in her mouth. She also didn't seem to care much for them, so I waited a few weeks before trying again. When I did, I put a few puffs on her tray table and watched her pick them up with her fingers. She just played with them until they melted in her hand (except for the few that ended up on the floor and eventually in the trash can). As much as I coaxed her and demonstrated by example, she wouldn't bring the puff into her mouth. We tried again today. M placed a few on her tray table and she proceeded to pick them up with her fingers again. She played with them, but this time, she also put the puffs in her mouth - all by herself!

I understand that what my baby has achieved today is no different than what other babies her age (or even younger) can do. It doesn't mean baby K is more advanced or smarter than others, but that doesn't make me any less proud. I am just grinning from ear to ear! =) If M and I had been more diligent in teaching her, baby K could've probably picked things up sooner. But I'm in no rush for my little girl to grow up. She works according to her own pace, and as long as she's happy, healthy, and safe by our side, I can't ask for anything more.

Baby K nearly has the crawling thing nailed down. Now my next feat is to get her to call me "mama!"

Rest for the Weary

I had no idea how exhausted we were, but after putting baby K to sleep at around 9:30 last night, we staggered into bed ourselves, with no intentions of actually falling asleep. We were just going to rest for a few minutes, but the next thing we knew, the alarm clock was going off and it was 6:00 in the morning. We had left all the lights on downstairs, the air conditioner running, the radio playing in the kitchen, our leftover dinner still sitting on top of the stove, baby K's bottles unwashed, and a pile of dirty dishes in the sink. I guess we were more tired than we thought. Despite having gotten a little more sleep than usual, I don't feel any better rested. Hmm... maybe it's time to hire a cleaning lady.

Weekend Recap

I had a wonderful time on my date with the hubby on Friday. After dropping baby K off at daycare, we stopped at Starbucks for some coffee before driving to the AMC theater in Hamilton to catch a movie. We didn't really have a particular movie in mind that we wanted to watch, so when we got tickets for "Julie and Julia," it was based more on convenience and process of elimination than anything else. I was slightly amused looking around the theater and seeing how we brought the average age group of the audience down by about 30 years (I guess now we know what senior citizens do with their time).

The movie itself was okay... nothing earth-shattering, but it held our attention for the two hours we were there. Meryl Streep gave a great performance as Julia Child, her annoying qualities you can't help but find endearing; she provided the much needed comic relief. I wonder if Julia Child's cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" will now skyrocket off the bookshelves as a result of this movie. Not likely, but then again, you never know.

We went to pick baby K up at around 4:00. As usual, she lit up my face the second I saw her. The Y family then went grocery shopping to get some last-minute items for the family barbecue we had the next day. Here's baby K entertaining her aunts and cousins on Saturday... no surprise that she was the center of attention:

On Sunday, we drove out to Chinatown. Since we got to church a little late, we didn't bother going into the sanctuary; we headed straight upstairs to the nursery. Here's baby K playing in there:

It's hard to get our little girl to smile for the camera, but she finally did in a picture with daddy (too bad both of them were looking away):

Baby K on all fours getting ready to crawl forward:

Hooky Day with Hubby

M and I are taking the day off tomorrow to go on a date -- the same date we were suppose to go on nearly two months ago for our 4-year wedding anniversary, but was postponed because baby K threw up that morning and we ended up taking her to the doctor's. I don't quite know what we're doing yet, but whatever it is, it'll be sans baby. Just brainstorming on what our options are... we can drop her off at daycare, then go get some breakfast, maybe catch a movie, have lunch in Princeton (good time to go now since it's summer and school is out), and walk around the Princeton area before we realize we miss baby K so much that we have to go pick her up. Or then again, we can bypass the whole movie, lunch, and walking around idea and just get baby K right after breakfast. Or better yet, why bother even bringing her in to daycare at all? Why don't we just spend the whole day with her? :)

Okay, now I'm just getting carried away...

Saturday Outing

The Y family trekked out to Manhattan on Saturday and spent the afternoon with some friends of mine from junior high school, one of whom I haven't seen in nearly 16 years. If e-mail was as popular then as it is now (or if it even existed back then!), we probably would have kept in touch more. Poor excuse, I know, but better late than never. It was great seeing everyone, and we vowed not to let another 16 years pass before we all get together again.

Here's baby K and baby C playing together. While the grown-ups were catching up, the little ones were busy getting to know one another. It was priceless watching them interact, especially when they were screaming at each other at one point (or maybe that's just their version of baby talk). It's nice that baby K has a play-buddy so close in age (born just 11 days apart!). We look forward to our next play-date.