Say Yi1

I often play this game of holding out fingers and saying each number from one to four (in Chinese). As I held out my index finger and said Yi1 slowly, for the first time, he slowly extended out his right index finger from the little fist just now. We repeated the game a few more times reliably. It 's such an exciting moment for me. I tried to capture it on camera: pictures here.

We tried other numbers, he attempted to open more fingers but the hand coordination wasn't there yet.

4 month checkup

Andy had his 4-mo checkup on Friday:
11 lb 11 oz.
24 in.
42 cm head.
Doc was happy with his growth. He was a trooper when it came to shots despite his crankiness of getting out of bed early and hadn't had his breakfast.

week 17

It's been a while since I last wrote. Andy is 17 weeks today if I haven't totally lost track.
Latest observations:
- He's discovering his hands. He opens and closes the fists and examines his little fingers when he is contently full (otherwise he chews on them.
- He is very vocal when he is hungry or happy. When I read him his favorite books, he makes a variety of high pitches.
- He's getting heavier and longer. It's when you get out the next size up set of clothing you notice the growth more.
- He has been a late riser consistently. I'd feed him 6 or 7, then he can always sleep until 9 or 10. So I'm back to my morning yoga routine, and started the house cleaning on Saturday mornings routine.

Andy and I got into a good daytime routine. My favorite time of the day is having lunch in front of the big living room window. I make a cup of tea and a big sandwich. Andy watches me in the stroller and talks to me; I hope soon I'll be making him a sandwich (or some food) too. We watch the sun and the rain out the window. It's the most peaceful time of the day.


01/26 Saturday
Two parties in one evening! Brian gave us tickets to Microsoft Chime's Chinese New Year show. It was in this huge church and had two large projection screens, and lots of Chinese families. Andy liked the colorful lighting and dances. We ran into my friend Li and her family. Their 6 week old Amy was growing fast.
We then went to a party for Apu, who just got married in India in December. We met his wife Seema for the first time. We ran into a 10-month old at the party. It's not too hard to imagine how soon it'd be when Andy starts to crawl and stand wobbly. Pictures here.

01/27 Sunday
Andy got to meet my good friend Hao, here for a week from Madison. We had a really nice time catching up. It was very cold outside (even Hao admitted that) as we took a walk by the marina and saw a nice sunset. Hao brought a suitcase from mom for me. Now we are loaded with baby books. My dad wrote the Chinese translation in a lot of the books. The "Baby Words" book has become Andy's new favorite as it has lots of colorful pictures. Pictures here.

1/31 Thursday
Most people at work went on the Whistler trip which I had wanted to go. But I enjoyed my time here. We went to visit Sara who just had a baby girl Elsa 2 weeks ago. Andy looked big in comparison to Elsa. It wasn't that long ago when Andy was that size and all pink! Pictures here.

02/02 Sunday
The model was late today. David volunteered to pose while the model was on the way. After a few minutes, he gestured me to hand Andy over. I was a bit skeptical, but did. To my surprise, Andy behaved really well as David held him. They modeled for a good 15 minutes before the model showed up. Everyone commented Andy was on his way to a modeling career. It'd be nice to get my own free model. Pictures here.

Chinese New Year Show and Apu's Party

This was a busy Saturday night. Brian gave us tickets to the Microsoft's Chinese New Year show. There were lots of kids and babies so Andy felt right at home. He liked all the lights and colorful customs on stage. We ran into Li and her family at the show. Her 6 weeks old Amy weighted about the same as Andy now! Pictures here.

Then we went to Ashish's for a welcome-the bride party for his brother Apu, so we got to meet his bride Seema. We saw another baby there, 10 mo old Jasper. Watching Jasper walking wobbly with assistance, it's not too hard to see Andy will be doing that soon too. Pictures.

Walks

It's another beautifully sunny but chilly day. Ground is dusted with a layer of frost and you can see your breath. The mild Seattle winters have softened me. This would have been considered a warm day in WI.

On our morning walk around the block, I saw the "for sale" sign on the big corner lot around the block. It's such a huge lot that I had thought it was a park when first moved here. It has a archaic rusty tractor and some white geese on the lawn. The gray house also looks very ancient. We met the 80 year old lady of the house while walking one day. She asked how old Andy was and said she had 11 children and now they've all grown and left only her with the big house. I wonder how she is now.

We went to the park across the street for our lunch walk. Andy was staring at the only kid at the playground so we stopped by. The grandma picked up the kid so the two can "talk" to each other. I said this is Andy and the grandma said Marshe and talked to the kid in Russian more. So I translated the info to Andy in Chinese. I asked how old was Marshe. The grandma shook her head and said "... English ..." so I understood she didn't speak English. She spoke some more Russian to me and held up 3 fingers. I nodded and said yes he's 3 months and pointed to Marshe and asked. She held up 2 fingers, so his grandson is 2 years. Again we translated to our native languages to the kids. Marshe grinned at Andy. Andy stared at them more. And we said Goodbye. Grandma and I spoke different languages but understood each other perfectly, and the kids continue to babble on in their own languages. I thought it was cute.

week 14

As soon as I complained about the eating spurt, Andy switched to the sleeping spurt, and soon he was back to normal.

Most notable development of the week:
- he slept through a whole night one time late last week, 11-6:30! I woke as usual around 3 and waited for him to wake up, but finally couldn't hold up and went pumping after an hour (he was still sound asleep). For the next few nights, we adapt to a new schedule of 11-4:30 or so with me pumping once around 1-2. So now I even build up a little pumped reserve that he gets an extra evening snack every day!
- We started the bedtime reading ritual. We always start with the "Snowman" book (it has fabric parts for touch), and then magazines. I'm amazed he always stays focused as I flip through the entire 150 pages of the "American Artist" magazine, even the ads pages. He's always eyes wide open, fascinated by the reading material. When my Parenting magazine comes, we read that too (and I point out cute girls).
- He developed a lot of hand movements. He is taking an interest in his hands, starting to differentiate the fingers or mimicking the hand gestures we show him maybe. He chews on an entire fist when he is hungry. Pictures here.

We had quite a bit of snow (by Seattle standard) Monday night. Tuesday was beautifully sunny and chilly. It feels like real winter. We went for a walk in the morning and he was fascinated by the white world. Pictures here.

3 mo growth spurt

I was googling for "baby growth spurt" at 3am this morning after a frustrating feed. I hardly get any longer than 1hour stretch of sleep between midnight to 6am these days. Andy wants to eat almost every hour. I wondered if I was making less milk due to all the quarterly goal setting at work or that he's having extra appetite (probably from all the kicking workout). So I had to confirm my suspicion. Yes, he's on target for the 3 month spurt (and the next one is at 6 month) as he turns 3 months today. But after all the whining, I still couldn't get slightest angry looking at his hungry little mouth.

My officemates were training him in German and French today as he started to fuss. Aaron told of an interesting fact that babies spend 45% of energy in brain growth where as adults much less.