Ferry Building Excursion

Day 123

After a long first week at work, all I needed was a little more sleep and to be able to spend time with Simon instead of rushing off to work. His sweet little face (and funny expressions) make it all worth it. “Yo, mama, what’s going down?”

Ron is still trying to train Simon to hold his own bottle and most of the time he’s able to hold it. It seems hard for him to hold onto it though when it is near empty and sometimes he flails his arms and drops it or tosses it to the ground. Ron likes taking silly pictures of Simon for Facebook.

Simon and I had an excursion planned out to meet with friends at the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market. Karla, Brandon, and their son Miles are visiting from Santa Barbara so we met up with them for coffee and lunch. It’s been 5 years since we’ve seen each other and both of us have adorable little boys now.

Simon was having a bit of an off-day, probably from the vaccines but Miles was a cheerful happy baby the entire time. We had iced coffee from Blue Bottle (yum!) and a light lunch at Delica, a Japanese deli. I had their ma po tofu salad which had romaine lettuce, noodles, minced pork, and a bit of spices but wasn’t spicy overall. A bit pricey too, $12/lb so a full pint container was $9.60. But they have fresh strawberry mochi and I bought one ($2.75) to try but haven’t had a chance to dig in just yet.

It was really nice catching up and talking about our babies but Simon and I had to make our exit when he started to cry his head off. Not sure why he did but he probably realized he was really tired and wanted to go to sleep. On our walk home, he took a little nap and was more pleasant when we arrived home. It was good to get out and good exercise for me since I hadn’t been walking all week. It’s a little over a mile there and takes about 20-25 minutes to walk.

Simon had a nice long 2 hour nap when we arrived home and was quite a bit more cheerful. He hasn’t been eating much today, it seems like his appetite is down again just like the last time he had shots. He wore this outfit today from Auntie Virginia, his version of wearing a shirt and tie.

So now he had a shirt and tie onesie or a black tuxedo bib to look dressed up for special occasions. He actually does have other outfits like button down shirts and a fake tie (the ones that are like a necklace) but they’re still a little too big so will have to wait until he is older.

It was a beautiful day in SF today and I was glad to be able to enjoy it outside with Simon. The farmer’s market was pretty crowded but it was fun since they had lots of samples out of peaches, nectarines, figs (yum!), blueberries, cherries, etc. I picked up some organic nectarines and peaches as these are at the top of the list for still having pesticides on them. We picked up a list from Simon’s doctor yesterday that has a list of which fruits and vegetables should be bought organic because of their high pesticide content and also a list of fruits and vegetables that are low in pesticide content so it’s not necessary to buy organic.

The list is available at FoodNews.org called “The Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides”.

The Dirty Dozen (buy organic)

Peach

Apple

Bell Pepper

Celery

Nectarine

Strawberries

Cherries

Kale

Lettuce

Grapes (imported)

Carrot

Pear

Clean 15 (lowest in pesticides)

Onion

Avocado

Sweet Corn

Pineapple

Mango

Asparagus

Sweet Peas

Kiwi

Cabbage

Eggplant

Papaya

Watermelon

Broccoli

Tomato

Sweet Potato

4 Month Well Baby Visit

Leave a reply

Day 122

Simon is 4 months old today! I can’t believe how fast time has flown by. We are starting to retire some of his outfits because they longer fit! Last night I put on these set of PJs but his legs hardly fit into them, he can’t extend his legs all the way since the fabric is too short. Since he was already so tired last night I didn’t bother changing them out yet so Ron changed him in the morning. But one last photo. He is grabbing his purple elephant toy that makes music when he pulls on it. If he pulls on it multiple times, the tune changes.

My frog prince waiting for a kiss!

Simon had his 4 month well baby visit this afternoon. My coworkers were very understanding and let me get away for a bit to be with Simon and Ron during his appointment. Although since I was away for an hour, I ended up staying late to finish up my work. With the holiday weekend, preparations for next week involved more week since fitting all the patients in four days instead of the regular five days since Monday is a holiday.

Simon’s official numbers:

Weight = 16 lbs 4 oz (7.4kg, 78th percentile)

Height = 25 3/4 inches (0.654m, 80th percentile)

Head circumference = 17 inches (43.3cm, 79th percentile)

So still on a good track although has slowed down a bit. Simon is showing signs of “stranger anxiety” already since he started crying when his doctor started to examine him. His doctor said her daughter also had stranger anxiety at 4 months so it is normal and unfortunately there’s not much we can do about it at this point. So, friends, sorry if Simon freaks out, it’s nothing against you, he’s just a baby and doesn’t understand what’s going on.

But luckily it doesn’t take too long for him to calm down.

After the visit with the doctor, we went to get his second set of vaccines. Today is the oral rotavirus and two injections: pneumococcal and the three combo of DTAP/HIB/POL.

Simon took the oral vaccine okay.

But poor little guy started screaming as the first needle went in his little thigh. He bled quite a lot from the first injection since he was screaming and his blood pressure was up. Some of the blood got onto my skirt, a little bit frightening at first to see so much blood from his little leg. But after the second injection, Ron picked him up off my lap and he stopped crying pretty much right away.

I went back to work and Ron took him home. He fell asleep in his car seat.

and was snoring…

After I got home from work, I was exhausted and Simon was sleeping. He ended up waking up only for a short while and I tried to nap with him on my chest while he was napping. I ended up not being able to fall sleep for very long. I think because I was enjoying the moment too much. I really miss having him nap on me but in all the books you read, they say it’s a bad habit that should be avoided… but it’s such a comforting and enjoyable thing so I indulge once in a while. When I compare his size from when he was first born to now, he hardly fits laying on my chest anymore…

We plan on starting some rice cereal soon… we’ll see how that goes!

Day with grandparents

Leave a reply

Day 121

Simon’s new PJs. Actually these are from Grandma Tam that matches his blue striped blanket. It was too big for him at first but now it’s almost too small! This is from before bedtime last night.

When I woke up this morning, Simon was sleeping on the sofa with daddy. Ron tried to get him to sleep through the night but Simon wouldn’t have it and cried until he got something to eat. So since Ron didn’t want Simon to bother me, he took him outside to the sofa to sleep the rest of the night.

Simon was going to the Ron’s parents to spend the day so they dropped me off at work on the way to their house. So I got a little more time with him in the car.

Simon had a good time with Grandma and Grandpa Chung at their office.

After spending the day there, Ron and Simon came to pick me up from work too. The week is almost done, only one more day of work before a three day holiday weekend!

Your next blue jeans model

Leave a reply

Day 120

As I mentioned in this previous post, we bought Simon these blue jean diapers made by Huggies and Ron put them on Simon for the first time. If he wants to be a model, I understand he might need to show a little skin. So without further adieu… Introducing your next blue jeans model!

Here’s what they look like in the back.

Super cute, don’t you agree?

After donning his new jeans, he already has an entourage following him around: a cow, a frog, an elephant, and Winnie the Pooh.

Simon seems to enjoy the cow bell toy. I was able to make him laugh out loud when playing with him. He is also a bit scared of it though so kind of makes laughing-crying sounds at the same time.

A video from Sunday where I’m playing with Simon and his cow toy and he is laughing.

Ron and Simon came to pick me up from work today so I had more time to spend with Simon since this morning, I didn’t get to spend any time with him as he didn’t wake up until about 2 minutes before I had to leave to catch the bus. The last few evenings, it’s been difficult to figure out a routine that works for us all. I get off of work this week at 5pm so usually arrive home by 5:45pm by bus and walking a few blocks. Simon’s bedtime is 8:30-9:30pm so I only have a few hours to play with him. In those few hours, we have dinner and I’m exhausted and would love to take a nap but when I fall asleep at night, I usually don’t wake up again until it’s the middle of the night so I’m trying not to nap. But I’m not sure how that is affecting my playtime with Simon when I’m not as alert as I could be. When Simon does finally fall asleep, I still pump and then it’s time for me to get ready to go to sleep at 10pm since I try to get as much sleep as possible before I wake up around 3am to pump again, then I am up for about 30 minutes before going to sleep again and waking up at 6:15am so that I can do all my morning things before Simon wakes up.

I’m not sure how long I can keep this up and I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to keep this blog on track. While on maternity leave I would update usually on the next morning but may now change to the evening of. I still want to be able to print out these blog entries to make a book of his 1st year. We’ll see if I can keep it up.

One good note, Simon has taken to breastfeeding again. He is no longer so fussy that he requires a bottle to drink milk. I wonder if he notices that I’m at work all day… if he does, maybe he knows that when he breastfeeds then I don’t feel so bad (like I’m failing my baby when he refuses) and makes me still feel useful.

Alright, time for bed, my eyes are already drooping and it’s not even 10:30pm yet!

Simon’s visit to Mt. Zion and “I can turn over!”

Leave a reply

Day 119

I got a nice surprise today when Ron and Simon dropped by for lunch at my work. Unfortunately he got a bit scared when my co-workers came to say hi to him. Too many people at one time and I think he got overwhelmed so started to cry. It took a bit for him to calm down in one of the offices then we headed down to the cafeteria to have lunch together.

When I look more closely at this photo, you can really tell that my hair is starting to thin out. In the last week or so, when showering, large clumps of my hair fill the drain as I wash my hair. I knew it was going to happen eventually but didn’t think it would be that bad. My hair is a lot longer now but am looking forward to when my hair grows back in.

You can tell Simon is getting bigger when you compare Day 8 when he wore this outfit to today:

For most of the day, Simon was practicing keep balance while standing up. Most of the time he was successful as he was leaning on the sofa cushions.

At times, not so successful…

Help me!

A video of Simon wobbling while standing (sorry, don’t know how to flip it, still getting used to videos on our camera and YouTube).

This morning was a bit easier to leave since Simon fell asleep shortly after feeding him so he was asleep when I went out the door. I think if he was awake, I would have wanted to stay to play with him instead of catching the bus to work. When I got home, Simon was awake so I got to play with him for a while and had a nice surprise! He was able to turn from his back to his front without assistance. He used to get his arm stuck underneath him and then get frustrated and cry out. He did this a few times in a row.

A video of his attempts to turn over and finally success!

So we will have to watch him more carefully now as he usually takes naps on the sofa and since he is getting longer and also squirming around more, he might roll himself off the edge.

I can’t believe he will be 4 months old on Friday, he really is growing up so fast. I’m afraid to blink or else I might miss something.

Jennifer & Ronald

Our little home on the internet.

Ferry Building Excursion

4 Month Well Baby Visit

Day with grandparents

Your next blue jeans model

Simon’s visit to Mt. Zion and “I can turn over!”