Exhausted

No nap today and this is the result over dinner.

Spaghettio

We went to Il Fornaio today and Mia had spaghetti and she loved it.

In Full Stride

Mia is walking quite well now. She could make it from one side of the sun room to the other side without much issue. She tried to rush it. It works better if there is someone at the receiving end so she aims for that specific distance. It seems that yesterday she was not able to do it so well but this afternoon when I got home, she was making amazing progress.

SV came to visit from San Fran and played a little with Mia. She warmed up to him quickly to my surprise. We went out to the back yard and took a bunch of pictures.

I then went out to Mon Ami Gabi and had some long awaited apple-tini. I haven't had a cocktail for almost two years! OMG it was delicious!

At the Mall

We went to the Mall yesterday and took a train ride at the children's amuzement area. Afterwards we played at the playground. Mia made a friend. She's been walking a lot these days. At times on her own for a few steps. She hasn't completely let go yet even though she's now strong enough to walk on her own.

She's experiencing a growth spur. Lately she's been drinking whole milk/formula mix for over 30 oz every day. When she got home yesterday, she took 12 oz!

She was so cranky at lunch (around 2 PM her usual nap time), she made a fuss at the restaurant and poured water all over herself and me. She cried aloud in public for the first time. So we packed lunch and left. I felt bad that we disturbed her routine. It's really difficult timing-wise these days to go anywhere since she needed about two naps during the day. I can't wait for her to be more manageable going out. I am concerned over traveling to China and our 14 hour long flight.

Meadowlark Garden

It's Spring. We went to the Meadowlark garden yesterday. Everything was in bloom and beautiful. Mia walked bare foot in the park. Now that she's older and eager to walk, we are taking her out more.

It's been a warm winter so Spring came early this year as well. Usually we don't get the bloom until April but in early March, we already have tulips in our front yard this year.

Walking

Mia is now able to stand on her own. She does not realize it but when she does, she flops to the floor. We have witnessed her first steps. She's been walking a couple of steps here or there. Not continuously but enough for me to scream with excitement. Today her grandparents came to visit, she walked four steps from the window to the middle of the sunroom. I missed it but I know it's any day now.

Better

Mia has been better. We started feeding her lactose free milk two nights ago. She still has not started eating all the solid food. Her diet is mainly bananas and rice porridge and a little bread. I gave her oatmeal this morning. Since she did not have diarrhea, we think it's not stomach virus as the doctor suggested. She seems to have bounced back and regained her energy.

Sick

Mia's been throwing up since 7 AM this morning. She could not keep anything down. Even after two sips of water, she'd vomit everything out. I took her to the pediatrician's at 10:20 and was told that it was probaby stomach virus. Since 7 PM last night she did not had one drop of milk. We went back to the doctor's twice this afternoon. When we got back, she was able to keep the Pedialyte down. I fed her some rice porridge and bananas for dinner. We were going to skip milk per doc's instruction but she would not fall asleep. Eventually we gave in and gave her 5 oz of lactose free formula. She finally went to sleep. Since her birth she has not been so sick. I was wondering if it had anything to do with the music class since now it's the start of the stomach virus time according to the doctor. I had to take the entire day off, which means tomorrow will be a hellish day at work. I am exhausted. Good thing is she is not showing symptons of the virus and hopefully things will be back to normal tomorrow.

She also officially hates the doctor's now. She started to whimper even before we stepped into the building. As soon as she saw the nurse, she bursted out crying. I think she remembers her experience of the four shots from the one year check-up.

At the park

3rd Day Away

Today I checked out the Falls over the Tapatio Cliff and the hotel proper. It's really a nice resort. I had dinner at the Pointe in Thyme and tried some flat iron grilled steak. I miss Mia and have been looking at her video clips and photos on my cell phone. I love the smart phones. I would have never been able to post to my blog without it.

Convertible car seat

2nd day away

Today is the second night away from Mia and first time since her birth.
Mike called and said she refused to eat solid food.
I had a dinner reservation at Different Pointe of View at the Tapatio Cliff.

Away

Hi

Mia's favorite thing to say these days is "Hi". She can now enounciate clearly and loves to repeatedly saying hi. I failed to inject the Chinese word of "hi" into her vocabulary since it has two syllables "ni hao" and it's more difficult. Out of her limited vocabulary, she now says "hi", "bye", "dada", "baba", "mama", "wawa" for water, and "Yueyue", her Chinese name. At times she says "yaya" for duckling in Chinese. I guess she has a mixed understanding of language. It would be interesting to see which language she gravitates to later as her nanny is Japanese, I speak Chinese and Mike speaks English.  I told myself I must talk more to her and repeat more in Chinese so she will pick it up. It would be a shame if she grows up and can't communicate with her grandparents in China.

Happy Belated Valentine's Day

Mike and I both had President's Day off today so we had our belated Valentine's Day lunch date. We went to Harth, a restaurant recommended by friends, for lunch and saw Mission Impossible III. It was nice and relaxing. It's been a while since our last date. Parenthood kind of changed everything. We are now partners in raising Mia. There are so many nitty gritty things you take care of everyday, you could easier see your partner and not see him. When we have a rare chance to spend time just with each other, it's almost unreal.

Mohawk

Mia's hair is growing really long now. After shaving her head last June, her hair has been growing steadily back. Now she has a mohawk! We actually already trimmed her bangs once so they won't cover her eyes. Looks like it's time again to give her a haircut.

These days she's been eating finger food and insisting on eating everything on her own. She's still a messy eater and picky as well. It drives me nuts when she rubs her messy little finger in her hair and all over her face. I am slowly developing my patience but sometimes it's just so darn hard when she does not eat after preparing for all kinds of food so painstakingly. After she started eating solid food, I have not been able to eat a meal without interruption if I am home. I am the main person who feeds her dinner and it's been such a headache lately. I tried many things but her favorite is always cheese and bread. She loves tangerine and asparagus but it varies on the day whether she eats them or not. I have been trying to figure out how to get more protein into her little stomach without feeding her too much cheese since it's so salty. It's been a challenge.

Puppet Show & Playground

This Saturday was a busy day for Mia. It was in the upper fifties, sunny and warm for Winter. We went to see a puppet show in the morning held at the Regional Library. It was actually the first puppet show I have seen live myself. Mia enjoyed the dancing penguins and I had a lot of fun too.

In the afternoon, we decided to go to a park that was just a huge playground. Even though Mia was too little to try most things, we let her go on the slide many times, sat on the see-saw, bouncers, etc. She was giggling on the swing and liked it a lot. Since it was a long weekend and the weather was so nice. The park was full of kids. I thought I'd come back on one of the Fridays. Hopefully there would be fewer people so we did not have to wait in line for the rides. There is a carousel in the park but will not operate until late March. For daily rides, it will start late May when it gets warmer. I love carousels and I will definitely come back with Mia.

 Riding in her plane without a co-pilot. She was staring down a passer-by. Mia has been observing others a lot lately. She's not a fussy child who is afraid of strangers. She does not even have too much separation anxiety when we leave our house. (Knock on wood). So she's been pretty friendly with strangers.

Hello world!

A Miserable Valentine

When I set up the appointment for Mia's first year check-up, I did not think too much. Then I realize it is Valentine's Day and Mia had few shots today. She is now 32 inches tall (98 percentile) and 20.9 lbs (45 percentile). She cried a lot after the needles went in, all four of them. I feel partially responsible.

When I got home from work, I learned that she threw up in the afternoon and had a fever of 100. After dinner, it got worse. After we gave her tylenol, she threw up her entire stomach. We had to bathe her and feed her again. She's now asleep at 100.7 F. Tonight we have to check her every two hours or so to make sure the fever does not spike too high. I did not expect to spend my Valentine's day like this but I guess this is life for me for some time. I am anxcious.

Celebrating One Year

This morning Mike went to pick up balloons. I also bought a candle and some cupcakes yesterday. For lunch we went to Maggiano's for family celebration. Mia ate some creamy chicken potato soup and some spinach and was in high spirit. We lit the candle and she was grabbing the flames and almost pushed off the candle. The restaurant made another birthday candle plate for her using lemon cookies  so she got to "blow" her candle twice today.

 Mia got a lot of presents including yoda from Mike. Look at her planting a big kiss on "scary" Yoda. There was a gift that I ordered for my parents. It took almost ten days for the shipment to arrive. When I opened it last night to wrap it, I realized that they sent the wrong shipment. It was Philips Sonicare toothbrushes. I was furious. I w

 Everyone had so much fun now that she is more interactive. She was so energetic, she refused to take a nap. For hours she played, danced, walked around using her push toy. And yes I got her another push toy since the wooden one I got her for x'mas is now already too short for her.

 She just laughs!

And laughs... I hope she knows that this is a special event just for her. One day during every year, she will have this day always for her only.

First Birthday

Mia turned ONE year old today! I cannot believe it! We got this balloon last weekend when we went grocery shopping. She loves balloons. I just can't believe last year this time she was born and we were in the hospital clueless about parenthood. Now she's SO BIG!

We are doing a family celebration luncheon instead of a party this year. Today I actually had to work late and did not leave until after 6. By the time I got home it was after 6:40. I had no time to spend with her. I had to quickly snap a few shots so we could keep our memory for today.

 She loves being with Mike. She only recently started saying Mama and it finally made me happier. I was so jealous that she only said "dada" for a long time.

 I felt guilty not having to spend much time with her today but she said "Hiiiiiiiiii" as soon as I stepped into the house. She melted my heart.

 Over dinner, she ate her avocado, macroni and cheese and some veggie. When she was done, she started checking out the camera. She is a curious creature, always wanting to find out what's going on around her.

After playing with the camera, she headed straight for the trash can and tried to open the cabnet, which is safely secured. She attempted to stick her hand and entire arm into the gap but could not pull anything out. She gave up and went to the other cabinet that we reserved for her to play. She can now stand tall.