Baby yogurt

I picked up some baby yogurt (vanilla and banana flavors) for Austin last night and gave him some of the banana flavored yogurt for the first time this morning. He seemed to enjoy it.

The weather is getting warmer

It was really hot over the weekend. On Saturday we went to my coworker's daughter, Summer's 3rd birthday party. We had a great time, there were lots of kids running around and lots of delicious food. Austin had a nap while the bigger kids were trying to break open the pinata and was in a good mood and didn't mind being carried around by various new people.

Austin's first tooth is just starting to poke out of his gums! I noticed it last night. :)

This morning I took Austin to the doctor to check his weight. He is now 13 lbs 15 oz. He's slowly putting on weight, but the doctor is still a little concerned so she recommended adding yogurt to his diet. I learned today that when Austin had some ear wax cleaned out of his ears a couple of appointments ago it costed $40 and our insurance doesn't cover it. :(

(Here's Austin playing with his toys. We played catch with the ball for a little while and he keeps trying to drink from his stacking cups)

First Tooth

Austin's first tooth will soon be making its grand entrance!! I felt his bottom left tooth just under his gums the other day and i've been checking every day for a tooth to pop out. This evening I noticed something that looked like a little cut on his gums. Willis already picked up some teething tablets, I think they were recommended by one of the other parents at daycare, so we'll be ready when it starts to bother him.

(Austin enjoying his cereal and drinking some milk from his cup)

Practice

Austin has been practicing his rolling. On Sunday, Willis had him in the crib and was playing with him bouncing his stuffed giraffe between the crib bars. He kept rolling back and forth as he was watching. When I was putting his stuff together to go home from day care on Monday I put him on the floor mat and he did the same thing, back and forth.

No crawling yet. I tried to put a pillow under his tummy to get him on his hands and knees, but he just squished the pillow down and squirmed around. He lunges forward when he's sitting and sees something interesting but doesn't mind leaving it if it's out of his reach. I am excited about him crawling, but i'm not sure if i'm ready for all that mobility and independence yet.

I'm feeling better today. My throat isn't sore anymore, but I still have a little cough and runny nose. I, unfortunately, slept through my alarm for my late-night pumping, but I guess my body really needed the rest. I woke up around 6:15am and had a nice relaxing shower. :) Austin fell asleep kind of early last night and slept in this morning. He has gooey eyes again and is coughing a little, we sound like an echo of each other. It's a continuous cycle, one of us gets sick and we cough and breathe on each other passing it back and forth. I just hope Willis doesn't catch it from us this time.

(Austin at 2 weeks old on his tummy time boppy)

(Austin at 7 months old recreating the pose on his tummy time boppy )

Bananas

Austin tried rice cereal with bananas for the first time last night. He was out of cereal at day care and that's the extra box we had, so I opened it to try at home then sent it with him today. He's a good eater and likes eating cereal with a spoon and drinking milk from a cup. He also likes to put his fingers in his mouth in between bites.

My mom was feeding him with a bottle the other day and when I came home he was holding it all by himself. I'm not usually the one feeding him with a bottle so I don't know how long he's been able to do that. On Monday when I went to pick him up from daycare I helped him finish the bottle he was drinking, he showed me how he can hold it with one hand! Last night I sat him on the floor and he kept playing with the bottle; picking it up, putting it to his mouth, spinning it around, dropping it. He doesn't quite know how to tip it upside down so the milk comes out yet though.

Sore throat

I have a sore throat again. I blame all the sick people who were at work on Friday, three of whom were sitting in adjacent cubicles to mine. I probably wouldn't have caught it except the lack of sleep over the weekend probably weakened my immune system. I've never gotten sick so frequently in my life before Austin came along! And speaking of frequent, Austin's right eye looks infected again, it was all gooey on Sunday morning. It looked better this morning, but he's stull rubbing it.

On Saturday we were planning to go to the Trojan Huddle at the Coliseum. We got ready, but Austin was having a nice nap and didn't wake up until almost 11am, which was too late since it started at 11. So, we stayed home and rested. That night Austin stayed home with his Granny and Uncle Bob again while Willis and I headed out to Toluca Lake to celebrate Inez' birthday at a Sushi Sho and followed up the night in Burbank at The Good Night, Brent's bar. It was lots of fun hanging out with everyone and finally getting to check out the bar.

On Sunday, a guy came out to give us an estimate on refinishing the outside of our house. The guy was late and stayed forever explaining his product, we thought he was never going to leave. When we were sitting with him I started feeling my sore throat and got very sleepy. I was rescued for a little while when I had to go feed Austin. I guess Austin was pretty tired because he fell asleep while he was eating, giving me a chance to cut his finger and toe nails.

CASA Reunion Banquet

Last night we went to the USC CASA (Chinese American Student Associaion) 10 year Reunion Banquet, which was at the Alumni House on campus. It was my first night not being with Austin to put him to bed. He stayed home with my Mom and was just fine. He had a nice dinner of cereal and milk and was sleeping ever so soundly when we got home.

The CASA Reunion was lots of fun, we ate and mingled. We both got to see our CASA "Moms" and catch up with people. At one point during the program everyone there got to tell their story of how they were introduced to CASA. It was really interesting to hear, especially from those who were there from the beginning of the organization 10 years ago and how people really found a place with the organization.

Splish splash

Austin enjoyed playing in the water at bath time yesterday. He splashed the water with his hands and played with his bath toys. That was the first time i've seen him really take an interest and enjoy the water since we stopped using the infant insert and sat him in the water in his bath tub a couple of weeks ago.

7 months old

Austin is seven months old today! He stayed home from day care and spent a nice day with his Granny.

Austin and I finally got a chance to go to Willis' Wednesday night Torrance League basketball game. It was the championship game and they pulled a nice 10+ point win. We sat in the stands with Gail and April. Austin enjoyed watching all the action and was really entertained by some guys who were sitting near us waiting to play in the next game. They didn't know, but he was watching them and laughing at something they were doing, which may have been one of them drinking an orange Powerade. :)

Pump & Dump

I went to the dentist today and due to the anesthesia for my fillings I was advised by the dentist and pediatrician to pump and dump all day. So, i've had to sadly watch all my precious milk go down the drain... And I was just thinking to myself this morning that the supply was looking pretty good. Too bad it won't be so great after today. :( This will be the first time we will be giving Austin his last feeding of the night with a bottle, this will hopefully show us know how much he eats at night.

(Here are Austin and Tesshin shaking hands and hanging out with Aunty Joy (Tesshin's Mom) and Aunty Eve at the basketball game on Sunday)

Today's gas in Pico Rivera/Whittier: $3.99 (Chevron Premium) and $4.14 (76 Premium)!

Before and After

(Before haircut)












(During haircut)









(After haircut)

Baby's First Haircut

Austin got his first haircut today. His hair was getting really long so, after a couple of tries, we finally succeeded in taking him to Supercuts at Manhattan Village. He sat on my lap for his haircut and cried a little before finding his fingers. I think he may have been hungry and tired by the time we got there, but he calmed down.They gave us a cute little certificate for "Baby's 1st Haircut" and some locks of his hair to keep as a momento. He looks like a different boy and definitely not our little baby anymore.

(Here is Austin hanging out in the sling with me as I prepare his lunch. Today is the first time he's eating mixed grain cereal instead of just plain rice cereal. You can see his hair pre-haircut in these photos .)

News in El Segundo

There was a lot of activity in our area last night. We saw a police car in the middle of the intersection of Rosecrans and Isis on the way home from picking up my Mom from the airport. Once we got home we heard lots of police sirens and from our backyard we could see a police helicopter searching for something on the other side of the 405 fwy. We later heard that there was a shooting at the Pacific Theater in El Segundo, which is down the street from our house. It happened at 10:15pm, in the short time between going to and from the airport. That's pretty scary since that's the theater that we go to and it is right across the street from Willis' work. According to the news, two officers were escorting a man out of the theater when he opened fire. The two officers were shot and wounded and they returned fire, fatality wounding the man.

I remember when we first started watching movies at that theater a few years ago. It was the place to go for us because it didn't get that crowded, even on opening weekends. I guess the word has gotten out about it and nowadays it's always crowded. One good thing is that we can park in the Kinecta parking lot across the street to avoid the crowded theater parking structures.

Little Drummer Boy

Austin is getting really good at playing the drums. He plays with his LeapFrog drum at home and there's a drum with drumsticks at day care. He hits the drum with his hands or with a drum stick. He has also recently started banging things with his hands or with something he's holding, like a cup he's playing with. When we first took the drum out of the package a few weeks ago he couldn't hit it with his hands and wasn't sure what to do with it, he just turned it around and tried to eat the edges. We kept showing him how to hit it with his hands and now he knows just what to do. He also likes to let it roll away from him so he can reach out and bring it back.

He's getting much stronger when he's sitting up. He can sit and play on the floor for long periods of time and he reaches out for his toys without tipping over.

Yesterday's gas in El Segundo: $3.99 (Chevron Premium)
Today's gas in El Segundo: $4.05 (Chevron Premium)

Satin skin

Austin's arm and leg bumps have gone away. I've been using lots of lotion, I always use Johnson's Bedtime Lotion after baths and now I use the Aveeno Baby lotion on his arms and legs when i'm changing his clothes. I'm not sure if it was eczema or a reaction to his antibiotics, but i'm glad his skin is soft again. His doctor (and another lady whose baby has a bad case of eczema) had recommended hydrocortizone cream, but I was holding off since I was nervous about it being too strong. He still has the irritation on his cheeks and chin though. I put Aquaphor on his face every time I feed him. It helps but the irritation comes and goes as he sucks on his fingers and rubs his face.

I finally used my Mary Kay Satin Hands for my dry flaky skin. It exfoliated all the dry skin on the backs of my hands and now they feel great and so soft!

What happened??

Yikes! What happened to my feet?!?











Oh, that's right... I did this.. Hee hee.

Little Akemi

We got to see the Fu family yesterday. We hung out with the gang at Brian & Steve's place after the basketball game. I was so excited to get to carry Akemi. We haven't seen her since she was born and she's grown so much in two months. She's so laid back, she has long lady-like fingers and soft fuzzy hair and fits perfectly in my arm with her head on my shoulder. She felt just like a little teddy bear. I remember when Austin was calm and sleepy like her. Seems like so long ago.. We laid out our new Tuffo blanket so the babies could lie on the floor and Austin was so excited he rolled all over the place. He even tried rolling into Akemi and then patted her head with his hand. :)

On Saturday Allison brought over the foam puzzle mat that she bought for Austin. We laid the mat out on the living room floor in front of the couch so Austin has a soft place to roll around that's bigger than the little carpeted area in his room. Our house has mostly hardwood or tile so it's kind of a hard surface if he tips over and bumps his head. Now I know what my coworker (who also had hardwood in her living room) was talking about when she said it's better to have carpet if you have a baby.

Dreaming of sitting

I had a dream last night that I saw Austin sit himself up from a lying down position for the first time. He can't do that yet, but it seemed so real. Maybe i've been watching the video of the little laughing boy too often because that's what he does.. :)

(Austin sitting on the couch in his big boy jeans and cool "shoe" socks)

Momma's Day

Today Austin and I got to spend the whole day together. He had a day off because the teachers went to a conference. We had a nice morning playing together and I got to clean house and do some laundry while Austin had a morning nap. We met up with Kelly at Babies R Us after lunch. We went along as she added things to her baby registry and I picked up some sun screen (now that Austin is 6 months old he can wear sunscreen) for outside time at day care. We had such a nice day!

(Austin being silly when I put on his "top hat")

Go Team!

(Here's a picture of the cheering section at the Too Much Ball (Willis' team) basketball game last Sunday)

The babies: (l-r) Austin (6 mo), Tesshin (8 mo) & Penny (10 mo)

Latest News

Some sudden and unfortunate news, as of today both Aloha Airlines and ATA Airlines have shut down. It's sad, but I haven't flown Aloha in years and have never flown ATA, mainly because Aloha only flies out of Long Beach, I rarely fly interisland now and if i'm going out of LAX I fly Hawaiian. Hawaiian Airlines is increasing flights to pick up the slack and I hear the Superferry is moving up their return to service. Also, I just found out that the Grapevine Radio Network online radio station is shutting down as of the end of this week. What's going on these days?

Our frozen milk storage is getting low. I'm a little worried, especially since we're starting to give him cereal every day, so last week I started pumping at night after Austin goes to bed. We haven't had to dip into the frozen stuff to mix with the cereal yet, hopefully we won't have to. I'm even considering taking fenugreek, an herb that is supposed to increase production. It can be found in a tea called "Mother's Milk Tea." Although i'm apprehensive since it will make me and baby smell like maple syrup and I just read online that there can be some undesireable health side effects. Well, the next chance I get to go to Whole Foods I may look for it. We'll see when that happens. :p

Lots of coughing

Well, day care was full of coughing kids today. It was like an echo. I guess that's probably where Austin caught it. I sat him down in the middle of the room with Makenna. They were the coughing-runny nose twins and both sucking on the drum sticks that were attached to a toy drum. Makenna even blew a nice big snot bubble with her sneeze. :)

Some good news.. My left wrist seems to be completely healed. I hope i'm not speaking too soon, but lately it hasn't been hurting, isn't swollen and doesn't pop when I bend it. Yay! Now to fix the constantly dry, cracked skin on the backs of my hands and my sore back..

Here's a video that my coworker forwarded to me today. I love this video! It makes me crack up each time I watch it. :) And his laugh reminds me of Austin's laugh.

April Fools..?

It's April! Time is really flying. I'm home today because Austin is sick again... I wish I could say "April Fools," but unfortunately I can't. It seems like he may just have a cold but I thought it'd be better to keep him home and let him rest. He started coughing last night and this morning was coughing and his nose was congested. :( Poor thing. Willis is wrapping up at work to come switch with me so I can go into work for the rest of the day.