Thankful for Thanksgiving!

Me, with uncle Ben (ha, I know!!) in Boston.
I had stranger anxiety with a lot of people over the
weekend, but for some reason, not with him!!
I love uncle Ben!!!  

So I went to Boston and back, and I made it!  Ok, just barely, as the first day I was there, I subsisted on only 11 hours of sleep for the entire day (and that is mostly because I slept straight all morning until 8am, when I was woken up to be taken to the train station) and was super grouchy!  I think that was the least sleep I have ever gotten since being born!!  But, it was my first time on the train, and my first Thanksgiving, and I really didn't want to miss a thing!  So, I refused to go to sleep until I pretty much had to crash.  But even then, I woke up that night every 90 minutes, and would refuse to go back to sleep for an hour or two in between those fits of sleep at night.  Thankfully, I was in grandma Paula and grandpa Aubrey's house in Boston, and it is such a big house that I didn't wake anyone else up!  Except for daddy of course, who slept on the couch next to my portable crib, and stayed with me throughout the night, giving me a shoulder to cry on!  Thanks daddy!!

It was a bit of a rough trip for me, but I am glad to have spent more time with the family.  I have been sleeping like mad since getting home last night -- I slept for 11 1/2 hours straight last night as I was happy to be home in my own bed!  Anyhow, I have lots to share, but I will do it through pictures.

Also, just a warning, but I likely won't be blogging as much pretty soon because mommy will be headed back to work, starting next week!  I mean, I can type but I need someone's help to reach the keyboard (I'm still too short ok??).  But, I will still make an effort to post pictures whenever I can, but we will see how it will work out!

Me, with my cousin Lila who lives in Boston!  She is 7 months older than me,
but we still have lots in common, like chewing on things!!

With uncle Ben and aunt Laura!  

With grandma Paula on my 5 month birthday!!  

Ack!!  

I think my expression says it all.

Reading People magazine with grandma Paula.

I think I like this Bradley Cooper character.  

Yes, I think I *REALLY* like Bradley Cooper.

And here is a video of me from today, playing with daddy!


Untitled from Linda Fang on Vimeo.

So much progress, so little time!!

Just a few more days until I start daycare...can you believe how fast time passes?  I am almost 5 months old, and am now eating rice cereal like it's ice cream (I hear ice cream is the tops -- but at this point, I pretty much have to take daddy's word for it).  Seriously though, I had big helpings of rice cereal ("big helping" for baby = 1-2 tablespoons mixed with 1-2 ounces of milk) at lunch yesterday and today, and I chowed it down like a champ!  (Mouth wide open, and hand "helping" mommy to shove the spoonfuls down the hatch!!!)  Meaning, I ate, oh, about 50-70% of what was fed to me, which is pretty amazing, considering my age!  (Really though, I am really anxious to make it to sweet potatoes, but supposedly need to get through rice cereal and various other non-appetizing strained and pureed vegetables first, or so I hear, so I am just trying to speed things along!)   

Me, post lunch.  Anyone have a wet-nap?
(Mommy usually gives me the spoon to play with after we are done eating.  It's very nice of her.)

Otherwise, I have been sleeping pretty well.  I went for a stretch of sleeping through the night (from 8:30pm or so to 6 or 7am) for a week or so, but the last few nights have woken up for a midnight meal, although I have almost always been able to go straight back to bed immediately after being fed and changed, which is a great relief to mommy!  She is paranoid about whether I am eating enough, so she usually doesn't mind waking up to feed me.  And during the day, I have been going down for naps without so much as a peep, and usually will fall asleep within minutes!!  I am really the BEST BABY in the world!!!  

Woohoo!!!  Jumperoo!!!  I don't look excited, but really, I am!!!  

In other exciting news, I got a jumperoo!!!  Mommy and daddy bought it for me about a week ago, and I have had great fun in it.  Just today, I was sitting in it looking mesmerized by all the many attached toys, and when mommy picked me up from it, I started to cry!!  (I stopped once she put me back in it!)  Now, I know what I want and have my own opinions, so mommy and daddy had better watch out!!  When I first got the jumperoo, my feet were several inches from touching the ground, but just today, my toes were touching!!!  Mommy and grandma Hong (who observed over Skype today) were shocked!  Did I grow so much in a mere matter of days???  Seems like it, huh?!!?  I haven't quite learned to jump in the darn thing yet, but all in due time.  I quite like it though when mommy bounces me up and down while I am sitting!

This is how I feel about sitting like a frog.  

I am growing stronger by the day, and now can stand for a few seconds with just a little bit of support!  (I know, it's amazing!!!)  I can also sit like a frog, and just today, mommy noticed that I was able to right myself (with no help!!!) in that position when I started to tip over to the side!!  Also, I can grab things in front of me extremely well, even when the things are dangling in the air!!  I am also expert at passing things from hand to hand, like my pacifier, woohoo!!  Now, I just have to get this talking thing down, and I will be all set!  

Unfortunately, however, I have developed quite a case of stranger anxiety (much too early for my time, I know, but I can't help that I am so smart and advanced!).  It took me a whole day to warm up to grandma Hong, to allow her to hold me without crying, although I was laughing a lot when she made funny faces at me the first day when mommy was holding me.  (Although, I didn't object at all when grandpa Jim held me, much to everyone's surprise!  Grandpa Jim said that it was probably because he and mommy look so much alike.)  Mommy thought that Melissa, my babysitter, was immune since I see her every week or so, but she was WRONG!  I had not seen Melissa for 2 weeks, and so when she came and picked me up just as mommy was going to go out for dinner with daddy, I looked nervous for a few seconds, looked at mommy, and then pouted and was off to the races!!!  But, I settled down shortly thereafter and was (of course!!) asleep when mommy and daddy got back from dinner.  Fair warning to all relatives that I will see in the next few days for Thanksgiving -- it's nothing personal, but I will probably scream at first!  But, hopefully I will warm up to everyone quickly!  Or else, this does not bode well for daycare!!  

I can spend long stretches of time sitting in my chair and reading on my own!!
(And I didn't even try to eat the book.  Ok, maybe just a little.  Once.)

With grandpa Jim in Central Park!

With grandma Hong during her visit last week!

Can't help but smile when playing with grandma Hong!!  I learned a lot of Chinese during her visit!!  

A Blogpost in Pictures

A picture with daddy.  (Note my trademark hairdo.)

Daddy, you're embarrassing me!!!  No kissing for the camera -- that's for babies!!!!

Daddy!!!!  He never listens.  Sigh.

Me, as a panda!  All bundled up to go out for a nap, er, I mean, a WALK, in the stroller.   

Daddy is such a prankster!!  (I am not amused.)

A flying panda!!!!  (Adorable fleece suit courtesy of grandma Paula.)

A rare smile caught on camera.  I smile and laugh often, but always look inquisitive when I see the camera.
Here, mommy tricked me by playing with me while daddy took the picture!

Ha hahahahaha!!  

Heh!

First attempt at feeding me solids -- rice cereal.   

Um.......???

Yuck.  It tastes like ... cardboard.  

Please, no more for me.  Really, I insist....I will stick to milk thank you!

Happy Halloween!

Me, as a PUMPKIN!!

Hi all, hope you had a lovely Halloween!  It was my first ever, but I think I made out ok, even though I didn't get any candy!!  That was a bummer, but seeing as how I still don't have any teeth, I guess it was not a big deal in the end.  This year, I decided to be a PUMPKIN!  I LOVE pumpkins!!!

So, I saw my first snow this past weekend!  Can you believe that there was a snowstorm (with many inches of snow) in October?!?!  This doesn't bode well for the upcoming winter, when I will be schlepped back and forth every day by mommy and daddy to and from daycare (at least in December)!  Oh well.  I am a New Yorker after all, so I am sure I will do fine.  I mean, I have been riding the subways since  I was just a month or two old, so I can handle anything!

I had my 4-month doctor's checkup yesterday, and I did GREAT!!  I grew another half an inch, and gained about 3/4 of a pound.  Now, I weigh 13 pounds and 6 ounces (42nd percentile) and am 25.5 inches tall (90th percentile)!  Daddy is excited because he says I will grow up to be a model, since I will be tall and skinny!!  Mommy is just worried (she always worries!!!!) whether I am eating enough!!  But, I am doing great, so says the doctor!  Plus, I was super brave for my shots -- I had 3 shots in my legs and got an oral vaccine again.  I cried more for the oral vaccine than I did for my shots!!!  Mommy was surprised and very proud of me!  I stopped crying as soon as the shots were done!  Now I am all set for shots until my 6-month checkup -- I'm growing up so fast, I don't have to go to the doctor's every month anymore!  Yay!  The doctor was also very impressed by how developed I am and said that I am now ready for solids!!  First up....rice cereal?!?!  Doesn't sound very tasty (I had personally been hoping for a hamburger and fries), but I'll take it as a start I guess.  Baby steps....

Seriously, mom???  What's happening here?!?!  No candy??!  Just pumpkins?!?!

Mommy and daddy are buzzing with news about our potentially moving in a few months!  They keep asking me if I am ready to be a "country baby."  Frankly, I am worried that I will be so bored out in the country since I am clearly a city baby and Manhattan is all I know!!  I mean, how will I sleep when there are no sirens and honking every 10 minutes all day and night?!?!  Mommy and daddy will have to tape the sounds of the city to play for me to lull me to sleep I think.  I only saw the house they have been talking about once (when mommy took me around in the babybjorn the first time she saw it), but I think it looked pretty nice.  I hope I like it out there!

I had a bit of a sleep regression for the last few weeks, where I was not sleeping well and was waking up several times a night and crying.  Mommy was exhausted and said that she felt more sleep-deprived the last few weeks than she even remembered being since I got back from the hospital!  But, then she started putting me down for naps earlier, and instituted a much earlier bedtime (I now am put down starting at between 6 and 630 every night), and as of Friday night, I have been sleeping much better and am sleeping in longer stretches again.  Still not back to the consistent 7-7 sleep schedule I had for a few weeks last month, but it is an improvement regardless.  Hope this lasts!!

I have been developing a lot in my skills since my last post!  I have now laughed a number of times in a row (always when mommy makes loud squeaking smoochy noises when she kisses my cheeks in the morning), which she says never gets old!  Otherwise, here are some of my current favorite pasttimes in no particular order:

1.  I can now pick up things and transfer them from one hand to the other!  (I know, I am SOOOO advanced!)  Mommy was excited when she saw me do this for the first time last week....although I think she might have been more excited had it not been 3am in the morning....and had the object I was passing back and forth not been my pacifier (see #2 below).

2.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE taking the pacifier out of my mouth with my hand and playing with it.  I do this often.  Many times a night, especially at bedtime.  Here is the sequence:  mommy or daddy puts the pacifier in my mouth; I suck on it a few times; my left hand moves towards my mouth and I grab the pacifier out of my mouth with my hand; I look at the pacifier in my mouth; I turn the pacifier around and try to put it back in my mouth, but can't because it is usually sideways; I either slam my hand (while holding the pacifier) on the crib mattress a few times to see if I can make it right and then try to put it back in my mouth (unsuccessfully); I then drop the pacifier off to the side and then my hand tries to find the pacifier in my mouth (where it is not); and I get frustrated that I don't have a pacifier to suck on and cry out, whereupon the above sequence repeats.  Many times.  Every night.  Again and again.  The doctor was very impressed that I am able to do this because it is very advanced!!  But, that's me!!

3.  I also LOVE LOVE LOVE grabbing my feet.  I do this whenever I can.  With or without socks.  With or without footed pajamas.  I do this when in the crib, when I am sitting, and even at bath time!!  I love it when daddy changes my diaper (not mommy, only daddy) because he allows me to grab my feet and put them in my mouth (which I can do now -- I am SO flexible) while I am being changed!  (Mommy is more strict and keeps a solid grip on both my legs at all times so I can't grab my feet -- so restricting!!)

Finally, I am looking forward to the visit from grandma Hong and grandpa Jim next week!  Mommy told me that grandma made me lots of cute bibs and knitted me a pretty sweater and will bring me all sorts of goodies (including flannel sheets -- I LOVE flannel!!!), woohoo!!  Can't wait!!

Really??  Must we take a picture now?  Where is Sophie?

Oh, there she is.  Hm.....tastes rubbery.

Hm....still tastes rubbery upside down.  

Yay, bundled up and ready to head out into the cold!  

I protest!!  Next year, I demand candy!!

Do I look fat in this picture?

To Boston and Back.

So, I know I have been gone for quite a while, so I thank you for your patience!  But, I have been busy.  In any event, there is a lot to catch you up on....

First, in the most exciting news...I got my passport!  Woohoo!  Now I am ready to jet set in style!  Although I have to say, I am not loving my passport photo anymore -- I look such like a ... baby!!  I've grown so much since that photo was taken, it's amazing!!  Oh well, I guess I just have to live with it for the next 5 years until I can get a new one.  

Next, mommy and daddy took me to Boston to visit grandma Paula and grandpa Aubrey, where I also got to meet great aunts Gretchen and Lisa, great uncles Scott and Steve, great grandma Ruth, and my cousins Carter and Tyler and Jay.  There were so many people to meet, and I was so sleepy, that it was all a blur!  Hopefully I will have more time to get to know everyone at Thanksgiving!  I can't wait for turkey (so I hear)!!!  I don't know what it is all about, but mommy seems to be super excited about the Thanksgiving meal so hopefully it will live up to expectations!  Anyhow, I did well on the drive up with mommy (I slept pretty much the whole way and was very peaceful), but I did not like the drive back!  Maybe it was the car -- on the way up mommy snagged us a Cadillac SRX SUV, which was a fancy and great ride, but on the way back, daddy got us a Mercury Grand Marquis (!!!) which looked like it was from the 1980s!!!!!  And as if that wasn't bad enough to ride for 5 hours in a total boat, the car had New Jersey plates!!!  As if!  Anyhow, I sincerely hope that we will do better next time on the way back from Boston at Thanksgiving. 

Caught in the act!  

In other news, I am now quite mobile when I am in my crib.  I like to spin around (like a turtle on its back) and sometimes have ended up 180 degrees from how I was initially placed in the crib (see left)!!  Mommy and daddy just laugh at me, but they don't understand how frustrating it is not to be able to just get wherever I want to!!  But, just they wait!!!  

Also, I have gotten quite good at grabbing things that I see.  I often now sit on the couch or in my bouncy chair and mommy will put Olivia the Owl in front of me, and I will just grab and squish her crinkly wings while babbling to myself.  It's so much fun!!!

How I was found this morning by mommy.  Uh oh.  Time for bumpers, pronto!!!  

Adventures in Westchester.

Can you spot me in the nice house??

This past weekend, mommy and daddy took me with them to house hunt in Westchester.  I behaved extremely well, if I may say so myself (also, daddy said so, so there!!)!!  I still don't really like my carseat, and didn't really get to get all my usual naps in with all of the ins and outs and being carried around all of the houses, but I didn't fuss too much in the end.  I think I will like it in the country -- I hear from mommy that it is very quiet there!!!  I don't know what quiet is yet (since all I have known is the NICU and our currently very noisy apartment with sirens and trucks going by 24-7), but I think it will suit me.

Me, first time facing outwards in the babybjorn.  I got
all sorts of coos and adoring looks from passersby, and
a nice lady on the platform offered to take a photo of
mommy and me (when she saw mommy trying
to take a photo on her own....not very successfully).

Also, here are some other big firsts and milestones that have happened since my last post:  (1) I had my first real laugh with sound (not just squealing or squeaking, but an actual laugh) on Monday, hooray!!, but I haven't done it again since; (2) I can now sometimes grab things that I see (so far I have done with mostly with Mr. Bear, the pink stuffed bear that grandma Hong gave me, who I always try to put in my mouth, unsuccessfully though, because Mr. Bear is quite big); (3) I can now go face forward in the babybjorn when mommy and I go out, and I have learned to nap while facing outwards; and (4) I have now officially switched to the big girl stroller (no more bassinet for me -- that thing is for babies!!!!!), so yay for me!!

Me, snug as a bug in a rug in my carseat on Sunday,
on the way home from Westchester.  

Me, in my big girl stroller!

New friends!

Yay, visitors!!  I am getting patted on the head by my new
friend, Potter in this picture!!  She is 1 1/2 months
older than me, so she is my big sister!!
And yes, I am the only one not paying attention
in this photo!! 

It has been an exciting weekend for me so far because we have had a lot of visitors!  Some of mommies friends from law school were in town and I got to meet them!  It would have been more fun, except that mommy kept trying to make me go to sleep when the visitors were around, when I just wanted to hang out with everyone!  Wasn't I the main attraction anyway??!!  Geesh!  So the whole time, mommy was trying to put me to sleep, but I fought hard!!  Finally, mommy just gave up and let me join the party.  I had a great time, even though I looked like a zombie-baby since I was so sleepy!!  But, as I am always trying to tell mommy (except she seems to have trouble understanding me, as she always just repeats back what I say with a silly smile on her face...she's pretty much a lost cause at this point), sleeping is for the birds!!

Yes, the blanket is stuffed in my mouth, as per my usual.

Also, new milestones for me include:  (1) falling asleep in the bouncy chair that auntie Jaya bought me for the first time (of course it was my babysitter who succeeded in doing this for the first time -- she is great at putting me to sleep!!  much better than mommy and daddy, who are just tyros!!); and (2) picking up my pacifier with my hands from out of my mouth and then trying to suck it again (except usually I will have turned it around in my hands so I can't seem to get anything to suck since it will be backwards...I'll be working on this....).  Yay, me!!

Quiet, please.  I'm concentrating on tummy time!!   

This is my old man face, with my forehead furrowed.  Heh.