Happy Halloween

Bag of Junk (Necessities!)

For some reason, my shoulders begin to hurt and I noticed that my bag getting heavier and heavier by the day. Today I took everything out of my Longchamp handbag and this is the amount of junk I found:

1.  My big fat wallet

2.  House key

3.  Purell disinfect handwash

4.  Pocket mirror

5.  Dentyne Ice gum

6.  Extra bib for Sarah

7.  a Pen

8.  Lip balm (blue & white tube next to pen)

9.  Floss

10. Various gift cards to Carters, Target, Old Navy, Borders, Barnes & Noble, Gymboree, etc

11. Sunglasses

12. Wash cloth for Sarah (just in case of any mishaps)

13. Hat for Sarah (in case it gets cold)

14. Aquaphor travel tube

15. Pacifier in case

16. Glasses (in Dior case)

17. Icebreakers sour candies

18. Various Coupons (in the Floppy Disc mailer) 

So you might ask, do I need all this crap??!  The answer is yes!  Believe me, the ONE day that I didn't bring one of these items is THE ONE day I needed it most.  yes, it is just that silly.  Well, maybe I can do without the sour candies, but that's about it!  This is for sure a mommy bag!! Notice I didn't even have any of my make-up stuff in here!! 

What's in your bag??

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TJ products

$4.99 a bag.  According to one of the cashiers, this is TJ's most popular item.  And I must say that I AGREE!! It is really really good.  You can bake them or fry them in a pan.  I pan-fried them and add a handful of green onions before adding the sauce.  1/2 bag (+1 bag of sauce) for 2 people for 1 meal.  They are incredibly delicious!!

$1.99 for 4 bars.  I find these refreshing, but they are not true to the fruit's original taste.  The only exception may be the strawberry one.  These come with little chunks of the fruit and are not too sweet.  I would buy them again for a hot summer day.

I think these are like $6.99/pound (don't remember).  They are marinated boneless beef ribs.  The seasoning is actually rather good - very similar to the Korean beef you eat at restaurants, but the beef was TOUGH.  I cooked it only medium rare, but on a stove top - not sure if it will be tender on a grill?

$3.49 for 8 bars.  Similar to the mango/cream ones.  You can taste the coffee, but it is not strong, maybe because the cream is 50% of the bar instead of 30% as shown on the picture

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Bumbo!

Thank you LK and SKC for this lovely Bumbo chair! It is already put into good use. Sarah can sit on here comfortably instead of the swing. This allows her to continue to balance her head & slowly grow her bald spot back! She does get antsy after 10-15 minutes, but I still think it works!

Nostagic Childhood Candies

I am absolutely grateful that I am still in touch with my elementary school friends.  Yes, elementary school friends!! We've all met as 6 or 7 years old...and over middle school, high school, college, jobs, boyfriends, husbands, and now kids, we somehow all managed to stay in touch.  We don't see each other often, but 2-3 times a year, we try to have a get-together.  This past Saturday, we went to YW's house in Castro Valley.  Our group has grown from us 5 girls, to 10 including boyfriends and husbands, and then now to 15 including kids.  The group will only get bigger in the years to come! :-)

The wonderful host, YW, gave us each a goodie bag.  Inside the bag was an assortment of childhood candies and snacks.  Oh, it was so nice to see (not to mention eat) the candies...sure brought back a lot of childhood memories!! I remember that after school, we would go to this convenient store on Stockton & buy all sorts of candies and snacks! Here are some of the candies I remember buying and eating away... (no wonder I had such bad teeth!!) Do you recognize any of these candies?

Sour Apple Chewy Gummies - I think they sold for 5 cents each

Hot Tamales - similar to Mike & Ike. I think they sold for 10 cents??

Jaw Breakers!!!

Juicy Fruit - 25 cents for a pack of 5!

Lemon Head - they sold for 10 cents a box!

Fun Dip - 15 cents each!

Nerds - I think they sold for 25 cents each?  My favorite flavor is Watermelon!

Smarties - 5 cents each

Sugar Straws (thanks TJ for this reminder!) - sold for only 1 cent each!!

Sugar Daddy - I believe these sold for 5 cents each

      Thanks YW for taking us back memory lane...

A letter to Sarah at 4 months 10 days

Dear my little baby Sarah,
Recently...

(1) You love sticking your fingers into your mouth. Sometimes 2 fingers, sometimes 3. You always leave your pinky out though. I'm sure if your mouth is big enough, you would include the little guy too.
(2) You don't babble as much as before, for some reason. But when you're sleepy, you babble for about 5 minutes, right before your little eyes close. Your grandpa says you're singing a song - I think you're more like yelling at people to shut up so you can sleep! LOL
(4) In exchange for babbling, you love to blow bubbles with your saliva during your wake hours. This is your newest trick and you find joy when people notice you performing your newest trick. What is worst than mommy seeing your bubbles is being able to hear them. That means your saliva is flying off everywhere...
(5) You haven't learned how to roll over yet, but you're getting close I think. Every time you flip over onto your tummy, you squeal with delight.
(6) You still love the ABC song - that still gets your attention somehow. "London Bridge," "If You're Happy," and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" have been added onto your play list.
(7) Your eye brows are not fully visible yet. But when I look at you close-up, I can see the little hairs. And you have your daddy's brows. Just great. That means you will need eyebrow waxes for the rest of your life.
(8) Your daily routine is Feed & Poo at 6:30am, Sleep at 8:00. Feed at 10:00am, Sleep at 11:30. Feed at 1:30pm, Sleep at 3:00. Feed at 5:00pm. Sleep at 7:30. Feed at 10:30pm. Sleep until next morning. I love your schedule. You are a good baby.
(9) Your bald spot on the back of your hair is getting noticeably bigger, while the rest of your hair still stick up like foxtail grass - super fine and soft...and oh yea, defying gravity.
(10) You are going to be a TIGER for Halloween! This is in honor of the fact that you're born in the Year of the Tiger. But you know, you're always going to be a kitten to me... :-)

Scream-fest!

As a new mommy, everyday is a new learning experience.

I brought Sarah to her 4-month wellness checkup at Kaiser yesterday. Lesson #1: Don't schedule baby's check-up during her nap time. Appointment was at 3:00pm; Sarah fell asleep in the car at 2:30pm. She was a little irritated when we got there, but being so nosy, she kept herself awake and quiet. Nurse called us in and we did the usual measurements. Sarah was absolutely fine during this whole time. Brought her back to the room & then the doc came in. Lesson #2: Do not, I mean DO NOT let anyone look baby in the eyes for a long time when she's at the height of her Stranger Anxiety phase. This was an important lesson to learn!! Sarah went hysterical... she cried, kicked, screamed, had rows and rows of tears falling down her cheeks, turned beet red, coughed, the whole nine yards. The entire Pediatric wing heard her cry & probably thought I am the worst mommy ever...

The screamfest lasted forever. (Well, it's maybe for about 10-15 minutes, but it seemed like an eternity). For the life of me, I could not calm her down. The ABC song didn't work. The pacifier didn't work. The hugging, the swaying, the patting, you name it. Nothing worked. She was besides herself... she has NEVER cried so hard before. Doc had to leave the room so I can have a few minutes to calm her without her being present. I finally put her back into the stroller, let her cry it out while pushing the stroller back and forth. This calmed her a little bit although she would still cry out once in a while. Doctor came back in and we continued our conversation. It was so unfortunate that she wasn't able to examine Sarah thoroughly since Sarah was crying so hard during the examination! But her stats (below) are good & she's gaining weight as projected...so doctor didn't have any concerns. Sarah's vomiting seems to have improved since we switched to Enfamil. Before, she would at least vomit once a day. Now, she maybe vomits once a week, if even.

We proceeded into another room for Sarah's immunization shots. I was thinking to myself, "oh no, here we go again..." But surprisingly, she barely cried at all!! She cried when the 1st shot went in, and then by the end of the 3rd shot, she was already pretty much done crying. 30 seconds at most? I was impressed. Got her back to her stroller & into the car without hearing another peep from her. In fact, she fell asleep before I even made it out of the parking structure. Poor baby - probably too tired and sleepy from all the commotion! She's tired?! She sure tired me out!

Growth percentiles (4 months - 1 week)

Weight: 13 lb 14.5 oz (51%)
Length: 25.5 inches (87%)
Head circumference: 16.7 inches (84%)

Here is a picture of Sarah, in the elevator - tired & worn-out. She normally doesn't take the pacifier, but on this day, she did.

Portraits

As I blogged a month ago, we took Sarah to Sears for her 3-month portraits. Here are a couple of nice ones that we end up buying. She was cranky and sleepy that day = not-so-good pictures. Stupid me made sure she was well fed, but didn't think about her much-needed nap. So she didn't sleep much beforehand, which made the photo shoot somewhat difficult. The other mistake we made was that we brought her there exactly on her 3-month mark, which at that age, her smiles were mostly by chance. Her tummy pictures were also a disaster -- struggling and crying. No good pictures there

Our experience with Sears wasn't all that great either. I could tell that the "photographer" was inexperienced taking pictures with babies. She didn't have any of the props ready and even had to borrow our blanket. At first she was at least patient and took a lot of pictures of Sarah (these were the 1st pose we took). But after she found out from her co-worker that the camera in the other room wasn't working and her co-worker had to use ours, our photographer rushed the pictures. And the sloppy work showed in the poor quality of the pictures. We didn't buy any of those pictures at all. I think I would think twice before going to Sears for portraits again. It could be that I just got a bad photographer, but it could be that they are all like that. For Sarah's 6-month portraits, I think we are trying another place; just for fun.

P.S. This was the outfit I bought for Sarah's Red Egg & Ginger party. But on the day of, she threw up and she ended up wearing something totally different. With babies, sometimes things just don't happen the way you plan it to be...

Sarah is Potty-Trained!

Sarah is potty-trained! Well, kinda. No, she still can't talk and tell us when she needs to go. Good heavens, she's only 4 months old! But what she can do is give us signals that she needs to do her #2... after that, we quickly bring her to the bathroom, release her diapers, hold her legs up in a sitting position and then she just does her thing! The best part is that there is no messy clean-up to do. We just wash and dry her bottom & put on a new diaper. Simple as that. No more sniffing and no more guessing. No messy butt to clean and no diaper rash. All of this mean we have one happy and clean baby! Absolutely awesome!! So I think you might have 2 questions for me:

(1) How did we do it?
We have to attribute all the credit to our friend's mom, who took care of Sarah while I was in the hospital. She potty-trained Sarah and after weeks of the same routine, Sarah knew the drill. I'm certain that it took a lot of work, not to mention A LOT of patience. But the hard work paid off, and we, the parents, got to reap the rewards! Thank you Mrs. Ha!!

(2) What "signals" does Sarah give?
Basics on how the body works - every time we eat, our bowels move. Babies work the same way. So 10 out of 10 times, Sarah does #2 during feeding time. Sometimes her signal is as simple as a fart. Sometimes she gets fidgety and refuses to eat. This will be the time I bring her to the bathroom and let her go. Unless she is constipated, Sarah usually poops once a day in the early morning. If she is not quite done, she will poop again mid morning (never on the diaper - she actually just waits for the next feeding). When I know she's done pooping for the day, I will still take this break during her feed to change her diaper & and let her rest a little bit. It's a lot for her little stomach to take in 6 ounces all at once!

I know we are absolutely blessed to have Sarah pseudo potty-trained. I just hope that when she is ready for the real potty-training, she would be just as easy! *fingers crossed*

P.S. She still pees on her diapies...

Sarah is 4 months today!

Thank you Ticker for reminding me that my baby girl turns 4 months today! She is growing up way too fast!!

Gymboree Play & Music

Today I took Sarah to our free Gymboree Learn & Play session. I actually signed up 1.5 hours before the class because I didn't know how Sarah's schedule would be like today. I fed her at 10am and then she took a nap. By 12:30pm, she was at least awake & ready to have some fun.

There were about 6 other babies in the class, ranging from 2 months - 6 months. During the class, we sang a lot of songs. But I didn't know any of the lyrics! Should have brushed up on my lullabies. We also used a scarf to play peek-a-boo, a paintbrush for touch sensory, and bubbles for hand/eye coordination. We also did tummy time with a big floor mirror. Most babies looked at themselves in the mirror but of course nosy Sarah just looked at everyone else! We also used the big parachute. Overall, she did great although she spent most of the time staring at other people... Towards the end (45 minutes later) Sarah got really sleepy & fidgety. But it was time to go anyways! Sarah ended up falling asleep in the car on the way back home. SQ bought the Groupon for 1 month, so we will go back for at least another 4 more times!