A Stroll with Baby K

The trees on my block have blossomed into a beautiful shade of pink (just as it did last year), so I took baby K out for a walk when we got home on Tuesday to admire the wonders of nature. Admire I did, but Baby K spent more time staring at me than looking at her surroundings. I guess she's gotten used to being outside since they take her out to play pretty much on a daily basis at daycare (weather permitting).

It's only been about a week since they've bloomed, but I've already noticed the flowers falling from the trees this morning. Soon they will be replaced with leaves that will stay until the end of summer. The picture above really doesn't do it justice... the scenery is much nicer when seen in person.

Of course, mommy can't resist snapping some shots of the cutie pie. Here are some pics of her serious look while she's stretching out her leg, as well as her playful look when mommy made her smile:

Baby's Hot!

Now that spring is here (although it felt more like summer this past weekend), the garage sales have started up again. I found a bunch of them on craigslist, so that's what we ended up doing on Saturday morning. I picked up another Precious Moments figurine to add to my collection, as well as a safety gate in preparation for the days when baby K learns to walk.

I am usually a fan of the warm weather (key word being warm, not hot!), but the jump in temperature was a bit too much for me this past weekend. Baby K got so hot that we ended up stripping her down to a short-sleeve onesie even though she was still sneezing every so often. We'd also take her temperature every few hours, afraid that she'd come down with a fever. Despite being all sweaty while fighting a cold, she was in good spirits. Look how rosy her cheeks are!
We didn't drive out to NY on Sunday. It was too hot to be pushing the stroller through the stinky streets of Chinatown, so we went to church near home. Here's our cutie pie dressed in her watermelon outfit, all ready to go.

Baby K's Latest...

Baby K's latest hobby is grabbing her foot, but since it's always covered, she ends up just pulling on her socks most of the times. The odd thing is, she only does this with her right hand (I have yet to see her try it with her left):Now our little munchkin knows better than to leave her left hand idle. She hasn't quite gotten over her previous favorite pastime of sucking on her hand, so why not do both at the same time? Who needs toys when our cutie pie can be self-entertained?

Ducks Crossing

I take the back-roads to work every day to avoid getting stuck in traffic on Rt. 1. This morning was no different. Along the way, I pass through a lot of open fields, farms, and signs for deer crossings, but I've never really encountered anything of interest before. In the past two and a half years I've taken this route, today was the first time I've ever seen ducks on the road! There were four of them, nicely groomed and all white (not those wild mallard ducks you see in an open pond), and they weren't just crossing the road to get from one side to the other... they were actually waddling down the one-lane road like they owned it, oblivious to the fact that they could get hit by oncoming traffic at any moment. Good thing they were on the other side of the road from where I driving (although I had slowed down dramatically by that point), and no other cars were approaching. It was such a funny sight that I actually laughed out loud in the car! If I had a camera, I would've been tempted to stop and take a picture. Too bad M wasn't with me... he would've appreciated seeing this, being the nature buff that he is. I don't know where those ducks came from, but maybe they should put up signs for drivers to share the road with their fellow web-footed friends if they're here to stay.

Pooped!

Mondays are always tough for me, being the start of a new work-week, but this morning was particularly hard. Baby K didn't sleep well at all last night (which means mommy doesn't get to sleep well either). She woke up and started crying several times during the night, almost once every hour. The first time she did, M and I left her alone hoping she would go back to sleep by herself. When that didn't happen, we both got up to tend to her. I carried her back to bed with us, thinking I'd have to stay up with her for a while, but she was fast asleep within a few minutes, so I brought her back into her own crib. Less than an hour later, she woke up and started crying again. This time, I didn't pick her up, but instead turned on the musical soother by her bed and started massaging her chest to calm her down. That seemed to do the trick, as she quieted down fairly quickly. I was able to climb back to bed, only to be woken up by the same cry an hour later. Again, I got up to turn on the soother and massage her chest until she fell asleep. This process repeated itself a few more times throughout the night. Where was daddy in all this? Fast asleep! At one point, I stayed in bed hoping he would go tend to our crying daughter, or that baby K would quiet down by herself, whichever came first. Unfortunately, neither of those happened, so I had to drag myself out of bed again. Sigh! What I wouldn't give to take a nice nap right now...

I'm normally okay with letting baby K cry it out if she's just being fussy and wants attention, but waking up in the middle of the night is out of the norm for her, so something must've been wrong. I'm hoping it's because she's teething now and her gums are bothering her. I'm just a bit more concerned because when I changed her this morning, I saw tiny streaks of black in her poop. It was similar in size and shape to the blood we saw months ago before her dairy allergy was diagnosed, only instead of being bright red, it was black. I rubbed it against the diaper to see what the texture was like, and it turned into powder... almost like it disintegrated. I'm just afraid it's blood that's coming from further up her GI tract. In any case, I have to call the pediatrician's office later today to see what they say (haven't been able to reach them all morning). We also called up the GI specialist she saw back in February, but the doctor said he can't tell us anything over the phone, and that he'd have to see her in person. As much as we appreciate him accommodating us at the last minute, the drive to Ocean, NJ is a bit much, and unless baby K's poop has that same black substance when we bring her to see him, the visit would be useless. Hopefully baby K's regular pediatrician will be more helpful this time... as soon as I can get a hold of them.

Baby Dedication

We will be driving out to Chinatown again this upcoming weekend. I'm actually very excited because baby K will be participating in a baby dedication during service this Easter Sunday. What's even more exciting -- my parents will be there! It took a bit of convincing to get my dad to come, but he finally agreed to it (well, he said maybe but that's as good as a yes in my eyes!). For the past several years, I've invited them to come to service with us whenever there was a combined Easter or Christmas service with the Chinese and English congregations, but they've declined every time. The only reason why they said yes this time was because of their granddaughter. I didn't know how to say "baby dedication" in Chinese, and when I asked the pastor, he said that I should just tell my parents there will be a prayer for baby K so that they don't misunderstand its purpose since they are not Christians. I could see why because the literal Chinese translation could be interpreted as giving the baby away. My dad actually asked me if this was to initiate baby K into the church (I'm assuming he meant to become a Christian), but I told him no... baby K would make that decision on her own when she is old enough. I'm just really psyched that they will be there! Hopefully we can use that opportunity to witness to my parents.

More Baby Talk

Here's another video clip of our cutie pie talking to mommy and daddy. Baby K barely got any sleep during the day on Sunday (too busy playing with grandma and grandpa, and too many new sights to see!), so she was very cranky at daycare yesterday. Hopefully she's gotten back into her normal routine today.

Baby K's current favorite pastime: sticking her hand in her mouth. She's been drooling a lot more too, so maybe she's starting to teeth (which may also be a cause of the crankiness). I didn't feel anything in her gums yesterday though, but then again, I've read that babies can start teething a month or two before any teeth actually come out.

And The Music Plays On

I am happy to report that my iPod mini is now fixed, thanks to some helpful links from DC and KF! We ordered a replacement battery from eBay two weeks ago, and finally got around to trying it out last night. I am so glad I decided to pay a little extra to get the tools so that we can open the iPod easier, otherwise I don't know how we would've disassembled it. It took us less than half an hour from start to finish to complete the task, doing everything based on memory from watching a video on YouTube last week. I don't think it was that difficult, but then again, M did most of the work, so he might disagree. In any case, my iPod mini lives on, and baby K can have music in her room once again.

Speaking of baby K, she came down with a cold, and has been very congested all weekend. She's too young to be taking any medication, so we've just been using nasal drops on her. But she hates it, and would scream for her life every time I get near her nose. She moves around so much that a couple of times, the nasal drops ended up in her eye and in her mouth. Good thing it's just salt water, so it shouldn't be harmful to her. She has a lot of mucus and phlegm that she needs to get out of her system. After I fed her this morning, she coughed up what seems like half the bottle of milk b/c of all the phlegm in her throat. She was protected by her bib, but it left a big mess all over the couch, mommy's pants and socks, and the floor. Needless to say, I had a rough start this morning. At least baby K was still in good spirits, smiling as she was being put in her car seat and staying quiet while mommy went to change and pack everything up.

Here's a picture of our cutie pie holding her own bottle with a little help from mommy... the bottle looks almost as big as she is!