Joe carved a pumpkin for Andy tonight, pictures here. The baked pumpkin seeds turned out crispy and tasty and we stocked up for the trick'r treaters (lots of kids in the neighborhood).
10/28-10/31
For more Halloween spirit (party, pumpkin patch, etc) click here (and next for more pictures).
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
First Shower, Art Connoisseur, etc (10/24 - 26)
10/24 Wednesday
Louise came to visit in the afternoon. She got Andy a very cute outfit and made me a pan of Tuna casserole. It was so good that I had 4 meals straight; now I'll probably have to start making it myself! We talked for quite a while. I always draw inspiration from her. She told me of this Art lecture on a painting "Rogier van der Weyden’s Descent from the Cross" in Madrid at Gage Academy tomorrow and she's going to Madrid this weekend so it's exciting to learn about it before hand. I was excited to go to the lecture too (it'd be Andy's first art education :)
I learned from my Snuggler class that babies like shower so decided to try it out especially since he hasn't had his hair washed since the day he was born (getting a little sticky oily)! Shower has become such a luxury as with sleep and many other things. Joe handed me the baby when I got done with my shower. Andy did like shower much better than bath. He liked warm water beating on his head and didn't cry the entire time (unlike the first bath home where he screamed so hard that we skipped the head)! His lanky body was still very pinkish. His feet dangled and kicked. I still find it amazing how it all fit in me two weeks ago!
10/25 Thursday
We had a 40min walk this morning, and he was wide awake for most of it surprisingly. He seemed to be fascinated by the clouds in the sky. Since we are not close to the lake any more (more east now), we are watching sun rise instead of sun set now. It was very pretty, we saw more and more clouds turning golden and pink gradually, lighting up the whole sky. It was all lit up by 8:20.
It was a busy morning. With the granite cutting (counter top installation), laundry, and my vacuuming, Andy managed to fall asleep solid after the walk and nth breakfast.
By the time the counter top people finished, it was way past 1. We rushed out the door but the art lecture at Gage was over by the time we got there. I haven't been there for a long time. They always hang new works along the long hallway so we perused the gallery hall slowly. Andy was amazingly attentive to all the paintings in the long hallway. His eyes were wide open, with that serious look from corner of his eyes and held his gaze quite long. He has that expression for some paintings (esp the African Violet) at home too. This was his first trip to Seattle.
It was so beautifully sunny, so we took the long scenic route home along the lake shore and stopped by the parks. Then I happened to find the best parking spot in downtown Kirkland, so that was my excuse to stop by the galleries. The Elka Roukov gallery was having a lot of David Marty landscape, lots of nice fall colors. And we visited Howard/Mandville and the Park Lane galleries. The toasty sun did its magic on him so he slept through all the Kirkland galleries.
The day wrapped up with a hair cut for Joe. It occurred to me that I'll have a new customer soon! The idea of this little visitor sticking around for the next 18 years is still slowly sinking in...
10/26 Friday
Today was the original due date that was predicted for Andy, but he decided he wanted to arrive sooner. He's changed so much since a couple weeks ago. The skin is looking much more ivory, grew some eye lashes, and big eyes are more brown than blue now. I could see he enjoys growing outside more than inside of me.
He likes the fresh air outside; sometimes it's the only way to calm him (and works as soon as we step out the door). He kicks so hard that I can't imagine how I could bear it if he were still inside right now.
A little city night life. Andy and I went to Gage again after we dropped Joe off at 24 Hours. I saw a poster at Gage for the "Final Friday Critique" yesterday; I've always wanted to go to that but never got my act together. Now that I'm on "vacation", I've got no excuse not to. It was a very nice little group of 6-7 people (open to public) tonight and one instructor. people bring in their work and the instructor organizes a discussion around it. I found it a very supportive group to get advice on your works. I got some good insights on the pieces I brought in and on painting in general. It definitely gives me motivation to do more work and come back next month. Andy dozed off a big portion of the lesson.
Louise came to visit in the afternoon. She got Andy a very cute outfit and made me a pan of Tuna casserole. It was so good that I had 4 meals straight; now I'll probably have to start making it myself! We talked for quite a while. I always draw inspiration from her. She told me of this Art lecture on a painting "Rogier van der Weyden’s Descent from the Cross" in Madrid at Gage Academy tomorrow and she's going to Madrid this weekend so it's exciting to learn about it before hand. I was excited to go to the lecture too (it'd be Andy's first art education :)
I learned from my Snuggler class that babies like shower so decided to try it out especially since he hasn't had his hair washed since the day he was born (getting a little sticky oily)! Shower has become such a luxury as with sleep and many other things. Joe handed me the baby when I got done with my shower. Andy did like shower much better than bath. He liked warm water beating on his head and didn't cry the entire time (unlike the first bath home where he screamed so hard that we skipped the head)! His lanky body was still very pinkish. His feet dangled and kicked. I still find it amazing how it all fit in me two weeks ago!
10/25 Thursday
We had a 40min walk this morning, and he was wide awake for most of it surprisingly. He seemed to be fascinated by the clouds in the sky. Since we are not close to the lake any more (more east now), we are watching sun rise instead of sun set now. It was very pretty, we saw more and more clouds turning golden and pink gradually, lighting up the whole sky. It was all lit up by 8:20.
It was a busy morning. With the granite cutting (counter top installation), laundry, and my vacuuming, Andy managed to fall asleep solid after the walk and nth breakfast.
By the time the counter top people finished, it was way past 1. We rushed out the door but the art lecture at Gage was over by the time we got there. I haven't been there for a long time. They always hang new works along the long hallway so we perused the gallery hall slowly. Andy was amazingly attentive to all the paintings in the long hallway. His eyes were wide open, with that serious look from corner of his eyes and held his gaze quite long. He has that expression for some paintings (esp the African Violet) at home too. This was his first trip to Seattle.
It was so beautifully sunny, so we took the long scenic route home along the lake shore and stopped by the parks. Then I happened to find the best parking spot in downtown Kirkland, so that was my excuse to stop by the galleries. The Elka Roukov gallery was having a lot of David Marty landscape, lots of nice fall colors. And we visited Howard/Mandville and the Park Lane galleries. The toasty sun did its magic on him so he slept through all the Kirkland galleries.
The day wrapped up with a hair cut for Joe. It occurred to me that I'll have a new customer soon! The idea of this little visitor sticking around for the next 18 years is still slowly sinking in...
10/26 Friday
Today was the original due date that was predicted for Andy, but he decided he wanted to arrive sooner. He's changed so much since a couple weeks ago. The skin is looking much more ivory, grew some eye lashes, and big eyes are more brown than blue now. I could see he enjoys growing outside more than inside of me.
He likes the fresh air outside; sometimes it's the only way to calm him (and works as soon as we step out the door). He kicks so hard that I can't imagine how I could bear it if he were still inside right now.
A little city night life. Andy and I went to Gage again after we dropped Joe off at 24 Hours. I saw a poster at Gage for the "Final Friday Critique" yesterday; I've always wanted to go to that but never got my act together. Now that I'm on "vacation", I've got no excuse not to. It was a very nice little group of 6-7 people (open to public) tonight and one instructor. people bring in their work and the instructor organizes a discussion around it. I found it a very supportive group to get advice on your works. I got some good insights on the pieces I brought in and on painting in general. It definitely gives me motivation to do more work and come back next month. Andy dozed off a big portion of the lesson.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
2 Weeks: a Warm Autumn Day (Fire Dept Visit, etc)
It must be the warmest and sunniest day so far this season! Andy and I took full advantage of it since it's supposed to rain tomorrow.
We called the fire department a few days ago and found out the names of the fire fighters who responded to the 911 call for Andy's birth. So I got a card, a letter, and a pan of carrot cake and brownies together for a visiting plan. After frosting the cake this morning, we headed to the fire department to deliver the goods around Andy's birth time 2 weeks ago. But we learned the officers were only going to be in tomorrow, so we dropped the stuff and went on for a walk in the park. We'll probably go again tomorrow to get a picture with the officers. I decided this is the best time for maternity leave since the fall is my favor season. The autumn colors is the most beautiful.
Shelly and I spent most the afternoon in the Snuggler class. Today's topic was on Diapering. I was surprised to learn a baby goes through about 8700 diapers and spends more than 25,000 hours in diapers! Disposables equates to one ton of soiled diapers for one baby! The "Go Green" themed teacher promoted cloth diaper (no more huge pins nowadays). I'm contemplating trying that. Check out his trial cloth diaper here.
After the hospital, I didn't feel like going home since it's so beautiful out, so started driving around randomly and discovered the "McAulife Park" (sp). It had a little playground area, and lots of lawn space with some very rusty archaic truck parts laying in the orchard. It would make really nice paintings. I'll have to go back there again. Andy dozes off on all walks so I just try to describe things I see to him, hope the Chinese tone make some impression on him.
In the evening, we all had another little walk in the park across the street. It was nice getting lots of fresh air! Then it was furniture re-arranging time since we moved everything out to the living room for the carpet installation last night. The place finally started to take shape.
p.s. I got Andy weighed while at the hospital. 6 lb 3 oz! He's catching up really fast (5 lb 11 oz last Wednesday).
We called the fire department a few days ago and found out the names of the fire fighters who responded to the 911 call for Andy's birth. So I got a card, a letter, and a pan of carrot cake and brownies together for a visiting plan. After frosting the cake this morning, we headed to the fire department to deliver the goods around Andy's birth time 2 weeks ago. But we learned the officers were only going to be in tomorrow, so we dropped the stuff and went on for a walk in the park. We'll probably go again tomorrow to get a picture with the officers. I decided this is the best time for maternity leave since the fall is my favor season. The autumn colors is the most beautiful.
Shelly and I spent most the afternoon in the Snuggler class. Today's topic was on Diapering. I was surprised to learn a baby goes through about 8700 diapers and spends more than 25,000 hours in diapers! Disposables equates to one ton of soiled diapers for one baby! The "Go Green" themed teacher promoted cloth diaper (no more huge pins nowadays). I'm contemplating trying that. Check out his trial cloth diaper here.
After the hospital, I didn't feel like going home since it's so beautiful out, so started driving around randomly and discovered the "McAulife Park" (sp). It had a little playground area, and lots of lawn space with some very rusty archaic truck parts laying in the orchard. It would make really nice paintings. I'll have to go back there again. Andy dozes off on all walks so I just try to describe things I see to him, hope the Chinese tone make some impression on him.
In the evening, we all had another little walk in the park across the street. It was nice getting lots of fresh air! Then it was furniture re-arranging time since we moved everything out to the living room for the carpet installation last night. The place finally started to take shape.
p.s. I got Andy weighed while at the hospital. 6 lb 3 oz! He's catching up really fast (5 lb 11 oz last Wednesday).
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Day 10: Busy outings
Ann read about the "Baby day movie" in my blog and we decided to check it out on Friday. It was beautifully sunny in the morning and we met up at the Park Place cinema in Kirkland for the "Mike Clayton" movie. There were about a dozen others moms (and 1 dad) in that screen. I had to feed Andy in the beginning but then he slept through the whole movie. I was surprised how quiet the theater was during the whole course. There were intermittent baby noise of all kind but no loud long cries. We chatted a little after the movie, and by the time we left, we got caught in the biggest rain storm! We dashed across a block to work (I parked there), and went upstairs for bathroom. We were totally soaked. Andy got his first experience of Seattle rain (well, this is not quite Seattle style rain), luckily he was totally bundled up with blanket and hat so he didn't even notice. He finally woke up when we got to the cafeteria and started his cry for food again. when we got home, we found a nice surprise that Joe cooked up a couple dishes and a soup!
The rain died off. Andy and I went to Shelly's house to make a sling in the afternoon. The piece of cloth I found happened to be perfect size for 2 slings. Shelly taught me how to work the sewing machine and here is the first sling I made. Andy wasn't quite used to sitting in the sling yet. I discovered sewing is fun, I'm having ideas about other sewing projects already!
In the evening we saw a musical show and Andy behaved amazingly well, didn't make any loud noise. We tried out the pacifier for the first time. He took it for the first half of the show, but was still good without it the second half (slept through the most of it). On the way back, my milk was really coming for the first time. So Andy had a feast when we got home.
My friend Monica and Fei came to visit on Saturday. They have been really nice to me, giving me maternity clothing and now huge bags of baby clothing sorted by ages. Here are pictures of Andy with their kids Lawrence and Lily.
The rain died off. Andy and I went to Shelly's house to make a sling in the afternoon. The piece of cloth I found happened to be perfect size for 2 slings. Shelly taught me how to work the sewing machine and here is the first sling I made. Andy wasn't quite used to sitting in the sling yet. I discovered sewing is fun, I'm having ideas about other sewing projects already!
In the evening we saw a musical show and Andy behaved amazingly well, didn't make any loud noise. We tried out the pacifier for the first time. He took it for the first half of the show, but was still good without it the second half (slept through the most of it). On the way back, my milk was really coming for the first time. So Andy had a feast when we got home.
My friend Monica and Fei came to visit on Saturday. They have been really nice to me, giving me maternity clothing and now huge bags of baby clothing sorted by ages. Here are pictures of Andy with their kids Lawrence and Lily.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Day 9: First Art Project
It was a strange weather day today. Wind gust became high in the afternoon; power outage warnings were repeated on the radio. The sun peeked out once in a while. It was a strange combination of storm approaching sky with bright sun shine. It was surprisingly warm so we went for a small walk. Andy didn't mind the weather at all and slept through the wind hollowing. Coming home, the lights blipped a few times and finally power was out for a good 20 minutes. Instead of couped in the power outage, Andy and I went for a little shopping trip after dropping off Joe at the gym.
We went to my favor craft store "Paper Zone" to gather material for our big project tonight. One of the store employee noticed Andy right away and came to chat. Andy was good at first, continuing the nap from the car. I discovered the advantage of taking a baby shopping: most people would be extra nice to you. The girl helped us picking the right shade of paper and offered to cut it for me, even though she was leaving her shift already. But this was the first time Andy not behaving in front of people -- he woke up and started the loudest cry for food. Eventually he was tired out and fell asleep.
I shall not disclose the details of the project or post pictures until later since most of you will be getting the final product sometime. My original design involved having his little finger print but he doesn't like opening the little fist too much, so a foot print substituted. The final design involved a photo, a gold foot print by Andy, a little watercolor by me, and a personalized blurb written in gold pencil.
We went to my favor craft store "Paper Zone" to gather material for our big project tonight. One of the store employee noticed Andy right away and came to chat. Andy was good at first, continuing the nap from the car. I discovered the advantage of taking a baby shopping: most people would be extra nice to you. The girl helped us picking the right shade of paper and offered to cut it for me, even though she was leaving her shift already. But this was the first time Andy not behaving in front of people -- he woke up and started the loudest cry for food. Eventually he was tired out and fell asleep.
I shall not disclose the details of the project or post pictures until later since most of you will be getting the final product sometime. My original design involved having his little finger print but he doesn't like opening the little fist too much, so a foot print substituted. The final design involved a photo, a gold foot print by Andy, a little watercolor by me, and a personalized blurb written in gold pencil.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
First Pediatrian Visit
We had the first pediatrician visit today. He got weighed the first thing. 5 lb 12 oz, yes, he gained 1 oz! What a relief! The doctor was patient and attentive. She coached me on feeding. She kept commenting that he's got strong legs, "Did he kick a lot when you were pregnant?" "oh yeah" They poked his heel for some blood for the PKU (protein allergy related) test. Andy is like me when it comes to draw blood, not much blood flow, but hopefully he's not anemic. The nurse squeezed and squeezed, but very little was coming and slowly. She almost had to poked a second time to get enough. I found a scale in the hallway and found I was back to my regular weight. I sure had the easiest birth experience throughout.
We then stopped by my office to say hi to everyone. Andy behaved like an angel and slept the entire time (it's his usual mid day nap time). It's
In the afternoon, I tried out doc's strategy of feeding on both sides per feed. This seemed to be working. We want to fill him up every time, so he doesn't doze off and get hungry too soon. The idea is to turn him from a snacker to a solid meal eater so he sleeps in bigger chunk of time.
We then stopped by my office to say hi to everyone. Andy behaved like an angel and slept the entire time (it's his usual mid day nap time). It's
In the afternoon, I tried out doc's strategy of feeding on both sides per feed. This seemed to be working. We want to fill him up every time, so he doesn't doze off and get hungry too soon. The idea is to turn him from a snacker to a solid meal eater so he sleeps in bigger chunk of time.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
One week birthday
Andy napped peacefully in my lap while I sketched his sleepy face in the living room's morning light. I then did yoga for the first time in a week and discovered I could kiss my knees again. It's almost 9:30, I thought what state I was in this time last Tuesday. Then it's feeding time, I relived the sequence of events as the clock ticked past 10. Eventually I fell asleep too with Andy (he always falls asleep on me during feeding).
I took Andy to the 0-3mo Snuggler class at Evergreen hospital; it's an informative moms' support group class. There were 20 mom & baby pairs today. The topic of the day was on breast feeding. So I got a lot of good information out of it. It was nice to hear others' experiences and tips about what to expect and how to deal with it. I learned this constant feeding is the norm. Many new moms have to deal with a lot of issues, such as mastitis (antibiotic 4 times a day), jaundice, fussy/gassy baby (Andy has been very good so far). So we've been very lucky so far. A few moms went to see movies together at the Friday morning "free baby movie time" at nice theaters. It feels funny to realize I'm eligible for this perk now. I like the class very much, except for the noise the 19 babies made. Andy was the youngest and quietest; he slept through the entire 2 hours. Mid day nap has become the longest stretch he sleeps during the day.
I filled out a form at the Snuggler class and found I have lost track of dates, other than in reference of Andy's birthday (9+7, ok it's 16th today).
After a few consecutive feeds, Andy is knocked out for a longer nap for the evening. I started making a carrot cake to give to the neighbors. We were really surprised and touched that two of the neighbors witnessed the parking lot scene and brought us dinner food.
So much has happened in a week! It's been an incredible learning experience in a week. The little guy grows everyday. His eyes are opening more often, with that curious look of the world around him. His skin is more vibrant (neck is peeling a bit. The purple hands and feet are normal colored now). It is also incredibly comforting to have so many friends talking to and visiting us (not to mention the homemade food!).
I took Andy to the 0-3mo Snuggler class at Evergreen hospital; it's an informative moms' support group class. There were 20 mom & baby pairs today. The topic of the day was on breast feeding. So I got a lot of good information out of it. It was nice to hear others' experiences and tips about what to expect and how to deal with it. I learned this constant feeding is the norm. Many new moms have to deal with a lot of issues, such as mastitis (antibiotic 4 times a day), jaundice, fussy/gassy baby (Andy has been very good so far). So we've been very lucky so far. A few moms went to see movies together at the Friday morning "free baby movie time" at nice theaters. It feels funny to realize I'm eligible for this perk now. I like the class very much, except for the noise the 19 babies made. Andy was the youngest and quietest; he slept through the entire 2 hours. Mid day nap has become the longest stretch he sleeps during the day.
I filled out a form at the Snuggler class and found I have lost track of dates, other than in reference of Andy's birthday (9+7, ok it's 16th today).
After a few consecutive feeds, Andy is knocked out for a longer nap for the evening. I started making a carrot cake to give to the neighbors. We were really surprised and touched that two of the neighbors witnessed the parking lot scene and brought us dinner food.
So much has happened in a week! It's been an incredible learning experience in a week. The little guy grows everyday. His eyes are opening more often, with that curious look of the world around him. His skin is more vibrant (neck is peeling a bit. The purple hands and feet are normal colored now). It is also incredibly comforting to have so many friends talking to and visiting us (not to mention the homemade food!).
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