Monthly Archives: May 2010

They fit!

Day 85

What fits might you ask?  One, my wedding ring!  Two, my jeans!  I am amazed… and just a bit giddy that they both fit again.  Finally the swelling is completely gone from my hands and as for my jeans… either the Skechers Shape-Ups are working or else they are just motivating me to walk more and eat healthier so that the weight is coming off faster.  I am almost to my pre-pregnancy weight, only a few pounds left… plus hopefully a few more will join them.  It feels really good to wear my regular jeans again.

Simon is getting his workout too to strengthen his core.  I love how he looks sitting in the Bumbo Baby Seat.  It’s like he’s enveloped in it and he looks a bit perplexed and unsure what he should be doing.  If the TV is on though, he’ll try to watch TV… all he needs is his own remote control.

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He had a rough napping day today, he couldn’t really stay asleep.  He seems to be having more digestive problems the last two days because he’s been having more gas and it’s been difficult to get him to burp completely right after eating.  So we would burp him, he’d let out a few small ones, then he would sleep for about 20-30 minutes then wake up crying and after picking him up and patting him on the back, he’d let out a huge burp.  So by evening, poor Simon was exhausted and fell asleep right before I was to go out to meet Vicki for dinner.  I was able to wrangle him into the Baby Bjorn and he slept pretty soundly for the next 3 hours.  He must like the motion of walking, it feels like I’m constantly rocking him probably.

As for our adult part of the evening, we did a bit of shopping and had dinner at Cocola Bakery.  We wanted to try something different since we usually eat on the lower level food court.  They don’t have that much selection and they ran out of our original sandwich choice but it seems like a good place for a quick bite and bit quieter than downstairs.  My only complaint is that the server was kind of unpleasant.  We had asked for our sandwich with potato salad but it came out with another salad so when we asked him to change it, he seemed exasperated and that he was doing us a huge favor by re-plating our sandwich with the potato salad.  I could hear him slamming plates behind the counter.  The person we placed our order with was much nicer.

This is Vicki with our chicken sandwich and potato salad.  It was a very simple chicken breast on a baguette with some lemony sauce and the side of potato salad.

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We decided to have a light dinner and then having two desserts.  On the left is cappuccino mousse cake.  The cake itself was a bit dry but the mousse was yummy.  On the right is a slice of millefeuille (or Napoleon).  The pastry cream was light and fluffy but the puff pastry was already a bit soggy so kind of tough to eat.

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I also decided to try the banana hot chocolate.  I loved the design in the foam and the mug was great, easy to hold and held a lot of hot chocolate.  The banana flavor was light so not overwhelming.

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I might not go back for the food but I do want to try their French macarons.  They have a rose flavor which sounds yummy.  I think they are only $1.50 each which may sound expensive but they are usually $2-$2.50 per piece.  They do take some work to make so I can understand the cost.  I would make them myself but they never turn out as pretty as the ones in the bakery.

An update on Simon’s sleeping situation.  We started him on a sleep routine two nights ago to see if this would help him sleep longer through the night.  Around 8:30 pm, we give him a bath, put on a fresh diaper and put him in some long sleeve PJs, feed him, wrap him in a blanket, put him down in his crib and whisper “shh shh shh, it’s bedtime Simon, good night” a few times.  He usually gets really drowsy after eating so it’s been easy to let him fall completely asleep on his own.  So far it seems like it’s been helping.  The first night, he slept 5 hours then woke up to eat and slept another 4 hours.  Last night even though we were out late, we did the routine with him and he still slept 3 hours then 4 hours.  Just a few days ago, he had still been waking up after 1.5-2 hours.  I hope this is a good sign that’s he’s getting more restful sleep so that we can get more restful sleep!

San Francisco Giants versus Washington Nationals

Day 84

Simon’s Bumbo Baby Seat finally arrived so we have been having him test it out.  His back isn’t quite strong enough yet so he kind of slouches a bit so we don’t let him sit in it very long.  The seat is made of a firm foam-like material so seems pretty comfortable.

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Wearing your baby is a unisex fashion accessory.  Now don’t you want one of your own?

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Tonight, Simon attended his first baseball game at AT&T Park, the San Francisco Giants versus the Washington Nationals.  My friend Kathleen organized the gathering and it was a lot of fun.  It was Chinese Heritage Night so we also received a Year of the Tiger Bobble Head to take home.  Simon did great and overall was not too cranky.  During some songs and loud cheering, he did wake up, and fussed a bit when he was hungry but mostly slept and entertained some of Kathleen’s friends during the game.  It rained a bit but since the section was pretty empty, our group moved so that we had some cover.  I have to admit, I did not really watch or pay attention for most of the game because we were wandering around but I did manage to pay attention enough so I know the Giants won 4-0.

Just a few pictures to share:

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Me and Simon, Aileen, and Kathleen.

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The rest of our group:

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Simon received this certificate from Guest Services for attending his first baseball game.  A nice little gesture from the ballpark although I wish they would do a polaroid or something but still cool nonetheless.

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A close-up of the “2010 Year of the Tiger” Bobble Head.  Pretty cool, huh?

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Kathleen went on a little photo-taking spree with my camera so there are more photos if you click here.

Or if you are able to view embedded slideshows:



I hope we can do it again soon!

Fussy baby sleeping on stomach

Day 83

This morning was one of those mornings where we just didn’t know what Simon wanted.  He was fed, had a fresh diaper, and seemed ready to go to sleep since he yawned a few times and no longer seemed interested in playing.  We tried our best to burp him but nothing came up.  We lay him down in his bed and he started fussing as soon as he was put down horizontally.  Once we picked him up and put him vertically, he stopped fussing and crying.  Even while holding him and putting him horizontal, he would cry so we know it’s not just because he wanted to be held.

Eventually the only solution Ron had was to flip Simon on his stomach.  Simon immediately stopped crying and fell asleep.

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He is on our bed and we let him stay there to take a nap.  We know it’s not recommended to have young babies sleep on their stomach but when we tried to flip him on his back, he would wake up and start fussing again.  We are guessing he had some stomach gas and this was the only position that was comfortable for him and he was really tired and just wanted to sleep.  We kept an eye on him during his entire nap.  His neck is strong enough now for him to left his head and turn to the other side.  Ron eventually woke him up though since he face planted directly into our comforter so Ron tried to turn him but that woke him up.  We hope this won’t become a habit yet, he’s still too young to sleep like this without us worrying.

Simon has been “rolling over” lately.  While having tummy time, he’ll lift one arm (in this case, his left arm) and sometimes wave with too much force that he’ll tip over to the opposite side.  Then he can’t get tip back to center.

“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”

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We can’t tell yet if he favors his left or right side since it seems to change daily.  Some days he’ll use his left arm more and some days his right arm.  Although by feeling his arms, the right one feels like it has a bit more muscle.  He needs to work out more to make them even…

Fremont Central Park

Day 82

Simon spent the afternoon in the park for a birthday party.  He got to wear his hat outside to protect him from the bright sun and strong winds.  We were in Fremont Central Park behind Yamaguchi’s Playground.

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For dinner, we met up with the Chungs at Joy Sushi in San Mateo.  Their sushi rolls are a good value for the price and the family always buys the coupons from Restaurant.com for even better value.

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He was definitely pooped out this evening, he might have gotten too much sun.  He looks a tiny bit darker.  He fell asleep before we reached the restaurant and slept for 4 hours straight so not sure how this will affect his sleeping at night.


Who can resist this face?

Day 81

I know I definitely can’t resist this little face.

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What do you think of Simon becoming a baby model?  I met a photographer at the Macy’s Sex in the City event the other night and she says she does commercial photography of children and she thought that Simon was pretty cute.  She said she could email me some names of possible agencies and contacts to get Simon “into the business”.  I emailed her so waiting to hear back.

My darling sleeping baby.  He looks so peaceful.

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Although I guess Simon doesn’t look cute 100% of the time but some of his facial expressions make me laugh out loud.  What do you think he is thinking here?  Please suggest a caption by writing a comment!

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Here’s a look at our freezer door.  Most of this is from March and April.  There are still about 10 more bags in the ice compartment of our freezer from May.  It makes me feel better that we do have this much stored in our freezer for when I have to go back to work so that Simon has plenty to eat.  I’m still working on making it a bigger surplus because I’m afraid once I go back to work, it won’t be as easy to continue saving this amount of milk.  Each bag here ranges from 120-240ml.  In the last week, Simon has been eating about 90-120ml per meal by bottle (he’s still not breastfeeding voluntarily during the daytime) for a total of 500-800ml per day… so really, this supply won’t last that long, especially if his appetite gets bigger.

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We’re thinking of buying a separate small upright freezer to store this milk and also the pureed foods that we were going to prepare for him.  Not sure how much it would be but it would make it more convenient so that we can still use the freezer for our frozen foods too.  Right now these bags of milk take up about 1/4 the space so we can’t really buy that much stuff for ourselves for fear that it may not fit.  Something to think about…