Life with two kids

In one sense, time flies! Today is Andy's one month birthday. In the other sense, as someone said, "the days are long and the years are short". For the parents who are in the middle of taking care of a new born and a 18 months old at the same time, it's so easy to lose perspective.

People remember the hard time and challenges the most. If I tell you that it's not hard to take care of two babies - I'm lying. Although I was prepared mentally before Andy was born, the reality still hit me when Emily cried almost to vomiting because I refused to hold her while I was feeding Andy. Emily had her "Big Sister" t-shirt on but she didn't know what it truly meant for her. Since Emily had cold and diarhea for almost two weeks right after Andy was born, even she was so gentle and sweet to Andy, I still tried to isolate her in order to protect Andy. The pain of rejection was real to our 18 months old princess, just as the pain of not being able to pick her up and love on her like I did before was real to me. I didn't care that I couldn't get a nap because Emily and Andy had different schedules. I didn't care that I was still recovering physically. But I care that my sweet daughter couldn't get the love she deserves. When both babies cried, all I could do was to hold Andy and let Emily hold my legs. One night, Emily jumped out of her crib and cried to our bedroom! I wished I had more hands to meet both babies' needs at the same time, Luckily things are getting better every day. Now Emily is recovered from the sickness and she is well adjusted. She has grown so much in one month! When I fed Andy, she just sat at my feet. When I told her not to wake up Andy, she would tip-toe around Andy's bed. She thought about Andy all the time and she is very gentle to him.

"It takes a village to raise a child". That's certainly true for me. I couldn't have made the one month mark without the "village" around me. Gayla was the most helpful person who took care of Emily whenever she could. She played with Emily, took her out and watch over her while we were gone. Dad took care of Emily for two days while we were in the hospital. Nadia came to cook, clean, and play with Emily as soon as she came back from the vacation. That was such a big help that I couldn't imagine what it would be without her. Until now every time when the door bell rings, Emily would say "Nadia!" Fang, Dawn, Kathy, Angela, Lori, Kyri, Nikki, Louella, Sandy, and Jean Ann brought meals to us when we couldn't even find a time to eat a family meal. We literally lived on these meals each every day. Our friendspeak readers Cindy and Michelle came to play with Emily whenever they can so that I could take care of Andy and other thing without too much stress. Thank you everyone for blessing our family with your love, time, service and thoughtfulness! We will remember this forever!

Emily and Gayla

Emily and Nadia

Andy is a sweet boy - really! I can already see the easy going personality in him. By now, he is in 75 percentile by weight and height. He is such a clean eater that we hardly used any bibs or burping cloth. He has charming sleep grins that can melt anybody's heart. Just recently he gave me two big open mouth, whole face smiles! I wish I caught them in the video. His crying is like a talking that he tried to use his eyes and crying voice to tell us something. That made me wanting to be a good student to decode his language. David and I have learned so much from him on how to be a better parent. He likes to be held tightly and danced to sleep (David couldn't believe this: after we tried swaddling, swinging, holding, rocking, sucking and all failed, I invented the dance for "Jesus Loves Me" and it worked 99 percent of time to calm him and put him to sleep in two minutes! When it worked the first time, Andy let out a big sigh and gave me a beautiful grin. That brought tears in my eyes.) David used to sing "Jesus loves me" to him and say "You are in Daddy's arms, safe and secure" over and over during the sleepless nights. Needless to say, our hearts were stolen by this helpless and beautiful child. We are certainly growing with him!

There are so much to write about. But I'll wait till when I have time. Most people are more interested in the pictures than the words. So for now, here are some pictures of the month:

Emily took her baby for a walk

Emily helped Daddy to plant the grass

Emily was so tired that she fell asleep in the middle of lunch

My friend Kathy bought us a car toy when she came over to see Andy. Emily loved it!

Emily also got the water table to play with. See how happy she was!

Shopping girl

Emily fed her baby

When I couldn't lift Emily unto the highchair, she climbed onto it with a stool.

David's reader Joey and his mom and his brother (from Taiwan) came to visit us. Joey told David that he wanted to be baptized. It brought tears in David's eyes.