Simon has been making attempts to turn over. He usually spends quite a bit of time squirming and can get onto his side but his arm and shoulder stops him from completely turning over.
Our friend Suanty’s son Samuel is able to turn all the way over from his back to his front. They are almost the same age so we’re thinking that Simon should be able to do it soon too.
Simon’s legs are pretty strong though, he’s able to stand pretty well and support his weight by himself for about 1-2 seconds before wobbling in his center. We just have to lightly hold him under his arms so in case he buckles. It’s pretty amazing to feel his leg muscles at work.
He’s got some muscular legs… runs in the family.
Simon has been more persistent in trying to suck on his fingers. Ron devised a new way of preventing Simon from putting his right hand into his mouth.
Either like Steve Urkel from Family Matters or Al Bundy from Married With Children. We’ll see how long this lasts to prevent him from sucking on his fingers.
Simon is still waking up in the middle of the night one time to eat. I really hope it’s just a growth spurt. He’s been eating more than usual if that’s any indication…
Simon continues to wake up in the middle of the night asking for food. Last night it was at 3am and he drank 100 ml, pooped, then went back to sleep until 7am. Not sure what’s going on but he did seem a bit fussier today.
This was taken in the morning shortly after waking up, he’s still in his PJs but already starting to drool.
So today we went to visit Ron’s parents so that they could spend some time with Simon and I could learn how to make “zongzi“. I first went with Ron’s mom to the supermarket to buy ingredients: rice, fatty pork, Chinese sausage, dried shitake mushrooms, garlic, ginger, salted duck eggs, bamboo leaves, twine, and peanuts. The other ingredients like soy sauce, rock sugar, rice wine, white pepper, fried shallots, and oil were already things she had at home. After some precooking of the ingredients, we had all our ingredients laid out ready to wrap.
The preparation and cooking took about 1.5-2 hours but the wrapping took about 3-4 hours. It is pretty hard to get a hang of since if you don’t do it correctly, the rice seeps out and can ruin your zongzi.
After we finished wrapping, the zongzi had to be boiled in hot water for about 5 minutes then steamed in a steamer. Unfortunately, after steaming for about 30 minutes, Ron’s dad comes to realize that mom bought the wrong type of rice. I had always been under the impression that you use sticky rice but at the grocery store, his mom bought long grain rice. I asked her about it and she said this was the type of rice she normally uses. But after steaming the zongzi, the rice wasn’t cooked all the way through and was kind of hard and very separated. So although the filling tastes good, I’m not sure if we can salvage all the zongzi we made, there are maybe 35 of them. We only took a few home so I’m going to try boiling the entire thing to see if the rice will cook all the way. The flavor might all come out though into the water so we’ll see how it goes. But thanks to Ron’s mom for teaching me how to prepare them.
During the time we were preparing them, Simon had been sleeping in his car seat for about 2 hours.
For some reason, he wriggled his little hand out of the blanket and didn’t want to have it covered.
We originally started out the day at their office. Ron was going to stay with Simon and his dad at the office and as I was going to leave with Ron’s mom to go to their house to prepare the zongzi, I started to cry so Ron and Simon came home with us too. It hit me that I have less than 2 weeks left to be full time at home with Simon. It’s amazing how fast time flies and how much Simon has grown the last few months. I’m not sure if I’ll survive the first day back at work without crying. I had Ron promise me that he’ll send me at least a picture a day when I’m back at work.
On a happier note, we had a hilarious surprise from Simon as we were leaving the grandparents. Grandpa Chung was saying his goodbyes and trying to get Simon to smile and instead, Simon broke out in hiccuping laughter! I recently got a Flip SlideHD Camcorder and caught this:
Sleeping update: Simon did not sleep through the night last night. I hope it’s just another growth spurt. But at least it wasn’t too terrible, he slept 4 hours, woke up to eat, and slept another 5 hours. He only had two real naps today so I’m hoping he will sleep longer tonight.
Simon with his friend Winnie the Pooh just chillin’ on the couch.
Simon says “I want to give Winnie a hug”…
Simon says “Wait, I changed my mind… I want to chew on your ear instead…”
Thank you to the Moon family for Simon’s new best friend.
Nap time today required wrapping Simon completely like a burrito. He slept well for 2 hours. Daddy Ron thought he was too fussy and this was the only way to get him calm enough for his nap.
Simon has gotten into the habit on holding on to us. It’s usually onto our shirt… or in this case, my hair.
Here’s Simon all bundled up to go on our walk. It’s a bit colder and windy today compared to the last few days. Simon usually wears his cap with a bill but the wind sometimes blows it off. So today I put on his aviator’s cap that we got from Ron’s former co-worker who lives in Germany. It kind of makes him look bald but at least he is warm.
He got really fussy around 7:30pm when we were still on our walk and I tried to calm him by bouncing him and patting him on the back but it would only calm him for a minute before he would start fussing again. Eventually I covered his head with a blanket and he fell asleep. I guess there was just too much going on and he was over stimulated and couldn’t fall asleep. But then he only napped for about the 15-20 minutes that it took for me to arrive home.
Last night was not a good night for him. He went to bed a bit earlier than he usually does, he fell asleep at 7:30pm and didn’t wake up for his bath or an additional meal. He ended up sleeping only 5 hours, waking up to eat and a diaper change, falling back asleep for another 3 hours, waking up to eat again, fell asleep for 30 minutes, woke up again to eat, then sleeping for another 2 hours. By that time it was 7:30am so time for all of us to wake up for the day. But he must not have had enough rest since he took a 2.5 hour nap this morning and the 2 hour nap when wrapped like a burrito.
We’ll see what he does tonight. I hope he goes back to sleeping 8 hours again. Saturday’s party probably really affected his sleep schedule.
Simon is holding on a sock that has a rattle ladybug attached to it. He won’t reach for toys himself much but if you place it into his hand, he’ll hold on and shake it for a while.
So he is learning how to use his hands and arms more. I was taking a nap at the same time Simon was taking a nap. I think Ron tried to use Winnie the Pooh as a barrier again but instead Simon gave him a BIG HUG!
It’ll be a happy day when Simon can hug us like this.
Simon had another good night’s sleep, 8 hours continuous, up at 5am, ate, then slept another 2.5 hours.
