Mia at a birthday party

Mia was at a birthday party this weekend. She was horrified by the Mini mouse.

Flying

This picture was actually taken on April 31 when we flew to China. When we took off, we gave Mia a bottle so she would not feel the pressure that much during takeoff. 

Mia was a champ and was not affected during takeoff and landing at all. She slept most of the time during the flight.She recovered from jetleg in four days. I expect her to be a good traveler just like her  mama some time soon.

Mia

This picture was taken when Mia was in China. We did a prefessional photo shoot for her and made a big album. She looked more mature in these pictures than her actual age of 15 months. I am glad we were able to retain these images forever since she would only be 15 months once and now she already looks different. She is growing so fast.

Daddy Went Home

Mike took off today for the State. Mia and I still have 12 days to spend in China. I gave her a bath myself today. Usually this is Mike's job. Afterwards, she called "baba" (daddy in Chinese) twice when I was feeding her and looked for Mike on the bed next to us. She is missing her daddy.
 
Time flies. Soon we will go back home. Mia has been enjoying her time with her extended family here. She plays with her cousin everyday. Yoyo, my six year old niece adores Mia and has been acting like a really good sister.
 
I have been stuffing my face as usual only this time with really authentic Chinese food. I have gained five pounds in two weeks.

Heat

The weather is extremely abnormal for May. Today it was over 33 degrees celcius which is well over 90 degrees F. I forgot how hot Wuhan was. We turned the AC on and stayed in one room for a good part of the day. Mia has developed a heat rash and she even had little bumps on her cheeks. I feel terrible for her. All day now she walks and explores and would not stop so she sweats a lot
 
This coming weekend Mike and I are going to Shanghai for a couple days. My family will babysit Mia.

Jetlag

Mia was such a good sport on the 14 hour flight. She hardly fussed. We were at the bulkhead so there was extra leg room and she was able to play on the floor most of the time. On the transfer flight, the fatigue did her in. We were delayed and she cried for a long time right after taking off.

It's been four days. The first night was awful. She was screaming and wouldn't calm down. The second night she woke up twice and refused to go back to sleep.the third and fourth nights, she woke up only once and the spacing between the next nap got narrower.

Today we had a banquet with family and friends. Mia has been trying all sorts of food and learning to appreciate the Chinese way of life.

Packing to Go

Still packing. Mia will have her first international trip tomorrow. 14 hour flight to China. We don't know what's going to happen on the flight yet. I am packing everything I can think of. Lots of change of clothes, formula, mac & cheese, cookies, fruits... Hopefully she will be a good sport.

I can't wait to see my family.

Cherry Blossom Parade

Today we went to down town for the Centennial Cherry Blossom Parade. Even though I have lived here for over ten years, I have never been to a Blossom Parade myself. It started at 10 and we got there around 11 and we did not go to where the crowd was but stayed at the 19th st., where the end of the parade was. The good thing was every emsemble had to pass us so we did not miss anything but had lot of room around us.

Mia was pretty engaged. It was a beautiful day. We stayed at the parade for more than an hour then headed for the Mall. We passed a pool where Mia saw a bunch of ducks and ducklings. She was so excited she kept saying "yaya, yaya" which was Chinese for ducks. They filled out the entire reflecting pool in front of Lincoln Memorial for re-construction/cleanup so it was not that pretty. Otherwise the picture would come out better.

Our last stop was the WWII memorial. By then she was hot and tired and probably hungry too even though she was still a good trooper. She also got a little too much sun. I applied sun screen twice but I missed her neck. When we got home, she went to bed around 3:30 for almost two hours.She was beat.

Travel Shots

We got her to see the pediatrician two days back since she's been coughing a lot. The doctor said she was having allergy so we gave her some Claritin starting on Monday.

She also go three shots. Two are routine for 15 month checkup (Chicken Pox, MMR (measels, mumps and Rubela). The other one is H1A since the doctor is concerned about Hib-A being common in China and we will be there for five weeks.She now recognized the doctor's place and started screaming before anything was even done to her. I felt so bad. Good thing she did not get a fever this time. Knock on wood!

Her Vocabularies

Mia's vocabularies:

Mama
Dada
Wawa - water
Gaga - cookie
Yaya - Chinese for duck
Fafa - Chinese for flower
No!
nini - for milk
jiajia - grandma
Go
Uh - oh (her favorite right now. She says it when she drops stuff.)

It really helps now that she knows "no". I don't have to stuff her face as often any more since the intention is clear.

Easter Bunny Hop

 We celebrated Easter at Grandma and Grandpa's house today. Mia dressed in a white dress Julee gave her at her birth. I almost forgot she had a dress like this and it could not be more perfect for Easter. She's now walking and attempting to run, even though she looks like a drunk most of the time. Today she exhausted all of us. Now I know what "bundle of energy" means. She kept wanting to go out to the lawn. She held her Easter egg bucket and walked, tumbled, got up, walked and tumbled, rolled over, on and on. She could never get bored of it.

 First round... this egg basket is from last year. Grandma brought this when Mia could hardly move her neck. We propped her up last year to take a picture. See what she can do now! Time flies!

Many hours later... still going strong

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