Memorial Weekend

We had an early start of the Memorial weekend as my company let us go at 1:00pm Friday afternoon. My co-workers had asked us to bring Emily to the office many times. So David took Emily to the office right before lunch. Then we went to Genghis Grill for lunch with my group. After we came home, David played with Emily while I tried a new recipe for the bread pudding.

I planned to clean the house and do some baby-proofing on Saturday. But I ended up doing nothing. We met Eric and Jenny for lunch. After that, David worked on the plumbing problem since we heard the running water constantly in the house. He ended up replacing the washer outside the house.


Memorial day we went to a cookout at Nathan and Amy's house. Emily was a little suspicious toward strangers at first. She warmed up later and had a great time. Here is Lori holding Emily. Lori was so kind to let Emily play with her hair for a long time.

When we were all ready to have a piece of desert, Emily was so tired that she curled up for a nap at Amy and Nathan's guest bedroom.

Emily loves playing Peek-A-Boo in her crib, Skinning The Rabbit before the bath time, watching falling blocks and clapping hands ... She reached out both her arms if she wanted us to pick her up (or as soon as she saw us approaching her). Her hands can reach more and more stuff. Below are other random pictures from this week:

(Emily can't stand the food on her chin. After each bite, she would wipe her mouth with her sleeves. She did this so quickly and so firmly that I couldn't stop her. Here she did it again! )

(Here's Emily watching the bunny in our backyard )
(Emily loves watching the sign language video. Here is a picture of her learning how to sign "Eat". From the picture, you can see that she lost bunch of hair in the back due to the rubbing against the bed.)

(Daddy has to learn the sign language too so that they can communicate with each other)

(Here is a picture of Emily kissing the bee (we also have her pictures of kissing the baby doll, the sunflower doll, the whale, the books, etc.) Isn't she adorable?!):

I’m Not Ready For This

This week Emily started on her baby food: sweet peas. She liked it as much as her mommy and daddy did. On the first bite, she was kind of avoiding the spoon- not sure what’s in it; on the second bite, she leaned forward; on the third bite, she reached out for the bowl! By the end of the feeding, she opened her mouth wide and swallowed the peas like a pro! Here is a picture of her third bite ...

She also started to splash the water in the bath tub so we moved her from the kitchen sink to the big bath tub.


Emily licks on everything. In the restaurant, she licks on the menu (Yuck!); at home, she licks on the toys; if there's nothing else, she licks on her feet. She is so fascinated by any hanging strings (including my hair). She tries to catch them with both hands whenever she sees them.

We went to two birthday parties this week. One in Papadaux for Jeff Nolan and one in Papasido for Nikki. It was the first time for some of our friends at Jeff’s party to meet Emily. Lea cried when she first saw Emily. At Nikki’s party, Emily got to spend some time with Charlie, Ethan and Cole. We had great time at both places.

Dad stopped by Friday night on his way back home from Amy’s place. We had birthday cake for him and enjoyed breakfast with him Saturday morning. After that we met with Leslie and Johnny for lunch talking about the possibility of doing Let’s Start Talking in China this October. We’ve been planning it since early last year. Although it may still be difficult to do that with Emily. But we will not be able to find a convenient time in the near future. David is really motivated to study Chinese now. In his own words, he’s got 150 days to polish up his Chinese! We didn't have any plan for Saturday afternoon. So I tried a new recipe for making the sweet and sour pork ribs. After much boiling, frying, coating, the dish was ready by the dinner time. I couldn't wait to dig my chopsticks in the ribs. But for the first bite, I almost spit it out - it was way too salty! The recipe didn't call any salt. I remembered putting four table spoons of sugar in it though. Where did the salty flavor come from? "Did you put the salt in instead of the sugar?" David asked. Guess what? That must be what happened. I was trying to put Emily to bed in the middle of cooking. My brain was not working! Here is a picture of me washing off the salty coating and trying to modify it to another dish ...

Sunday Gayla invited us to her house for lunch. Emily found a baby that she loves there. Gayla was so kind to let her to take the baby home. Here is her first baby...

Sunday afternoon, I was busy in the kitchen. David came over and said, “Our Emily is a little girl now … Look at her, she is sitting there playing on her own – I’m not ready for this!” Yep, she’s growing up! I was in the mourning mood when I put away the onesies, dresses, hats that are too small for her. I was sad every time when I saw the bassinet and the bouncer at Babyrus - we sold them a couple of months ago. Six months flew by and she gains more and more independency each day. We are NOT ready for this!

Below is a past video of her rolling over from tummy to the back

Happy Mother's Day

Daughter Of Mine - by Cari Vick

"My beautiful daughter, love of my heart,
I hope that you know you're wonderful and smart.
I cherish you dearly for the person you are;
you have passion and caring that will carry you far...
You have my love forever;
I adored you from the start;
It's a privilege to be your mother,
Dear daughter of my heart."

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers! Happy Mother's Day to my mom! And happy Mother's Day to me! Last year on Mother's Day, our church asked all the mothers to stand up so they could receive a rose by the kiddos. David whispered to me:"You should stand up!" But I was still in the first trimester. Eyeing those beautiful roses passing by, I remained in my seat. This year, I had my first Mother's Day with Emily. David made banana pancakes and fresh blackberry syrup for breakfast. We had my favorite Chinese food for lunch. Joy filled my heart when people said "Happy Mother's Day!" to me all day long. How blessed I am to be a mother to our sweet Emily!

Emily had her 6 month checkup on Friday. Her report was the best Mother's Day gift. She got an A+ again. Her height is 27.5 in. (off the chart this time. Her doctor said that's the average 10 months old baby length) and her weight is 16.8 lb (still 75%). For some reason, the doctor added her 9 month shot to 6 month shots. She was fine for several hours. Then she began to have fever when we were having dinner with friends at the restaurant. She was up every other hour Friday night and three times on Saturday night. I was frustrated that the doctor gave her more shots without asking our permission. Luckily the fever was gone by Sunday. David and I learned a lesson to take a proactive role during her doctor's visits in the future.

Emily just started rolling from the stomach to the back, although she conquered the more difficult part (rolling from the back to the stomach) long time ago. She can sit up on her own for about ten minutes at a time. She is eager to adventure out to the solid food now. When the feeding spoon is near her mouth, she would open her mouth wide and reach out for the spoon. What amazed me and David the most was her ability to work the blanket. Every night we put her in bed and cover her lower body with a loose blanket. But when we check on her or pick her up the next morning, the blanket is always tightly wrapped around her body - better than what David or I ever can do! David said he wished he could see a video on how she did it. Emily also began to experiment the sounds with her lips and tongue. Even when she was drinking milk, she couldn't help practicing blowing rasberries.

One of our FriendSpeak readers Yao was baptized on Wednesday. Yao is a UTD professor/PhD/faculty. We've been praying for him for years since his wife (FriendSpeak reader also) was baptized two years ago. Many Friendspeak workers (especially Louella and DG Wilks) have reached out to his family. He finally joined our big family. Below is a picture of him. More pictures at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prestoncrest-FriendSpeak/171452815022

Mother's Day Sunday is always different. Many friends are gone to be with their mothers and many new faces are here. In case you were away this Sunday, here is the insertion in the church bulletin that I'd like to pass to you:

BEFORE I WAS A MOM by anonymous

BEFORE I WAS A MOM, I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby. I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous. I never thought about immunications.

Before I was a Mom, I had never been puked on, pooped on, chewed on, or peed on. I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts. I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom, I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests. Or give shots. I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got gloriously happy over s simple grin. I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom, I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put her down. I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt. I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much. I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom, I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body. I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby. I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child. I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom, I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay. I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom. I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom.

Kudos to all the mothers!!!

Blowing Rasberries

Chewing teethers

Yao's baptism

Backyard fun

Toes, Anxieties, and Swine Flu

Emily’s new trick this week was chewing her toes! Have you seen those baby gift bags with a classic painting of a little precious baby grabbing both feet or chewing on the toes? I had one on the counter (it was Gail’s gift for Dawn) and couldn’t help saying:” That’s Emily!” Isn’t it amazing that all the babies do the same things?? It is difficult to take a good picture of her doing that because she stops as soon as she detects the camera. But I did manage to take one:



Emily loves kicking, standing, stepping, and swaying – anything but lying down! We bought a used Jumperoo for her two days ago. David calls it "Rockeroo" since all she did in it so far was to rock back and forth. She liked it. Below is a video of her standing in it for the first time. (Don't know how to rotate the video. Sorry!)

Emily began to recognize faces (Many books call it Stranger Anxiety and Separation Anxiety). She cried a couple of times this week when strangers picked her up from anywhere that she couldn’t see us. The book I read told me not to be embarrassed on that; comfort her as soon as I can instead. It also advised other people to approach babies of this age with slow warm-ups. She was very happy if someone picked her up from my arms though. Diane, Dawn, and Gail held her for a long time on Sunday without any problem. She was also scared at the loud toilet flushing sound. Last Sunday, I put her down on the church changing station to change her diaper, a group of ladies came in and the toilet sounded on and off for five minutes. Emily cried the whole time. Two other ladies were waiting in line to use the changing station. So I didn’t have time to comfort her until we finished diapering. Bless her little heart! Ever since then, Emily was afraid when I put her down on the changing station.

The biggest news going around last week was the Swine Flu. I had sore throat and fever last Sunday. So I stayed at home on Monday. When I returned work on Tuesday, many co-workers walked to my cube and asked how I was doing. It was strange to be cared by so many people at work just because of a cold! Soon after that I saw the company email on Monday about the Swine Flu. Anyone who has a flu symptom was advised to stay at home. One co-worker suggested me to see the doctor since the school in his area was closed because of the flu. I made an appointment on Wednesday. After two swab tests, my doctor congratulated me with a hand-shake:” It’s not a flu, definitely not Swine Flu; It’s not the strep throat either. So just rest and drink lots of water or orange juice!” My heart settled.

I went to Dawn’s baby shower on Saturday morning. It was a big turnout. I was so happy for Dawn. She certainly deserves everything. During the shower, two people complimented my haircut. They were amazed that David cut my hair! When I came home at around 2 o’clock, David told me that he talked to my brother-in-law and my sister via Skype to practice his Chinese! I was so proud of him. We went to the World Wide Youth Camp benefit dinner at 6 o’clock. David got to visit with many of his old friends who used to do WWYC together in Russia and Ukraine. We were surprised to see Ashley, Nic and Juliana there. Ashley’s mother invited them to the dinner. Saturday was Amy's birthday too! Happy Birthday Amy! Wished we could celebrate your birthday with you. Sunday we went to Robert’s birthday dinner after church. Robert’s actual birthday was Wednesday. Gail bought him a new computer. David set it up for them Thursday night. We were glad to see Richard, Cathy, and Annabelle at the dinner too. They were so busy that we didn’t get to see them very often. Annabelle enjoyed making Emily laugh by her drum beats on the cake container. Emily didn’t take any good nap on Sunday. She went to sleep as soon as we got home and slept until 9:30am this morning!! She was so tired.

Here are some random pictures this week:

Trim finger nails

Saturday afternoon hails

Let's go to the WWYC dinner

Sunday

Father-daughter play: