Grandpa in town

Grandpa arrived today and is already super Grandpa, carrying both kids! (G wanted "gong gong" to hold her after she saw him pick up baby T)



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G at a party; T diapers

G at a friends birthday party:



All the kids sat together in one long low table. Quite fun. They had a teacher from Music Time come and do a parents-and-me session, so G and I were clapping, singing, banging drums, etc. Lots of fun. S and T stayed home, too tired and not allowed to go out yet, respectively.

I took G around the block today as it was a nice day and her vocabulary continues to build. She said, "gou gou kan fei ji" or "doggy see airplane".

Changing T's diapers continues to be a challenge -- no I haven't gotten peed on, it's just that the diapers keep leaking, from the front. Yesterday S and I saw this wet spot suddenly appear and grow on his tummy. When I open the diaper his member is always pointed down! So our latest theory is that when he pees it points up and somehow the top of the diaper is loose enough to allow the liquid to go up. If anyone has any boy diaper techniques to pass this way I would definitely appreciate it!


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G using chopsticks!

She continues to pick up words at a faster pace than we can track, and want to imitate every thing we do. Lately, that has meant using chopsticks and a bowl.


She insists on putting her own diaper on. :). I have to be patient and wait a few minutes for her to realize that she can't do it.

She continues to adore and want to hold Baby T. She is now swaying her own baby doll.

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Baby T at 2 1/2 weeks

So Baby T is now at two weeks and a half. He has a voracious appetite and has been gaining quite a bit of weight; at his two week appt he was 5 lb 14 oz which is already well above his birth weight. He is starting to lift his head up when he gets tummy time -- mostly when I burp him on my shoulders. So growth wise and feeding wise he's doing well.

One consequence of his appetite is that he often feeds three times in a row. Nurse 10 min, burp, change, rock him to sleep, wait half hour, then repeat. During the day it keeps S glued to her nursing chair; at night it's brutal on our sleep, as often it becomes nurse, burp, change, spit up, change again, hiccups, refuse to sleep, wake S up to nurse again, repeat. The lack of sleep becomes apparent when we have to drive out. Unfortunately, I have to drive much more now to run errands. Another side effect of the lack of sleep is that we are very impatient and argumentative. I'm happy that Baby T is eating so much, but this is a tough period.

Baby T tends to sleep much better during the day than at night. This trend should reverse in a couple weeks; in the meantime we are trying to wake him up during the day. This can be tough though - it's not uncommon to take half an hour to wake him up.

Diapers - I have noticed pampers makes very nice preemie/newborn diapers with a notch for the umbilical stump (which just fell off) plus an especially high back side to prevent slippage. The
7th Generation diapers we have don't stay on as well and seem to leak once in a while. Yes I pointed his member down.

I have to say we cannot thank S's mom enough for coming out and living with us, cooking for us and helping to take care of G and baby T. She is helpful everywhere and we are dreading the day when we won't have her around to help. That day is when we will realize how much work two kids really is.


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G's 2009 Christmas Presents

Due to the arrival of Baby T, we've had to forgo the traditional open-all-your-gifts-on-Christmas-Day tradition for something more akin to "12 Days of Christmas." On Christmas Day, her paternal grandparents gave her a little drum toy:

Plus a music box playing "Swan Lake":

We got her a gift from the baby, so G could have a baby of her own to hold. G named it "Baby U-bu." Note the doll's Asian hair color! G has been feeding her milk with a spare sippy cup. The funny thing is that G has tried to feed Baby T with that same sippy cup.

A few days later G woke up in her Christmas pajamas to find a new toy kitchen set, complete with stove, oven, and what she calls the "fridge." She loves it, but it took staying up many hours to put together.

She then got a Penguin backpack from Grandma and Grandpa Chan. She always wants me to put it on her; we think she can start carrying her own stuff. :)

Next, G got a Winnie the Pooh lights-and-sound airplane, which she loved, but much to our chagrin and dismay -- it's similar to her other already-very-noisy airplane. However, unlike the other one, this one doesn't make yucky clackety noises and also has a shape sorter, so at least it's educational.

This next one is a wooden clock-themed shape sorter, which G loves and has been playing non-stop today. Not only can she find and put all the shapes down correctly by herself, but she has been stacking the blocks - as high as 9 - something I haven't seen her do with her many other blocks.

Of course, we think that the best Christmas present she got is her little brother. :)