New Diet, Teething, and Packing

Emily just loved her real food this week: puffs, cheese, corn on the cob, macaroni and cheese, bread, grapes, banana, brocolli, etc. She also loved the frozen celery. These new food can keep her occupied for a long time. Puffs are the biggest hit that it quiets her down every time at church. We are so happy about this because we will have more food choices when we are on the road. It was so neat to watch her to pick up food with fingers and put them into her mouth. We can hear her biting on them!



We bought Emily a little basketball goal (for $5). See how excited she was:


Emily also had a few difficult times. For two nights, she was suddenly cranky and crying. I thought the terrible two must have come early. We started looking into how to react appropriately when she is unhappy and whether we should have some discipline strategy toward her. Two days later, she was back to normal again. She touched the top gum with her fingers all the time. So we thought maybe more teeth are coming out. Poor baby! The frozen celery and teething ring really helped a lot at times like this. But I don't like the fact that she has to hold the frozen things with her tiny hands - it's so hard on baby!

David took Justin to Bob Chishom's Step by Step study Tuesday night. Friday afternoon he took Emily to see Sue. Friday night we went to Brook and Ann's house for their reader Michael's birthday party. Saturday we went to Fred and Fang's house for the going-away party for Fang's parents. The food was the best food I've had in a long time. Cody recited an ancient Chinese poem "Zan Zi Jing" for us; Evan sang a Chinese song "Only Mom is the Best in the World". Their Chinese really amazed us. Hopefully Emily will absorb both languages too. Sunday we had Marv, David and Gayla over for lunch. It was a busy weekend.




We started packing for the China trip now. It seems like Emily's stuff will occupy the big suitcase. David and I will pack our stuff in the smaller suitcase. We may need a third one for the LST stuff.

Happy last days of August!

Here is a picture of Emily dancing with Mom:





And a video of Emily's first bite of the sweet potato puff. She struggled with it for a little while. But after that she was so proficient with her fingers.

Teething and Such

Our little princess started teething this week. For the first couple of days, she was constantly moaning with her fingers in the mouth. We used her teething toys and our clean fingers to rub her gum. That seemed to comfort her a little bit. Two days later, she suddenly stopped moaning and went back to the normal happy Gerber Baby (that's the name that my co-workers gave her. They call Emily their Gerber niece). Emily began to enjoy the rice cereal more and more each day. She sleeps from 7 or 8 o’clock to 4 o’clock in the morning. Only four or five times in the past couple of months, she slept to 6 o’clock. But since she goes back to sleep very quickly, we aren’t stressed about her night wakening at all. We rejoiced several times when she fell asleep on her own. Emily is growing into a fast grabber. Last Wednesday when David was having Friendspeak with Jerry, they put her in the bumbo seat on the dining table. Within minutes, Emily grabbed the spoon from the blackberry sauce bowl and swirled in the air. It took David a good effort to clean the red dots all over the place.

It’s a challenge to keep up with Emily's growth. Last month I was very proud of myself buying some pretty 6-9 month summer dresses at a local consignment store, thinking that they should get Emily over the whole summer. Last Sunday we found out we ran out of clothes again since she outgrows 6-9 month clothes already – summer even hasn’t started!! I wasn’t satisfied by putting away those pretty dresses that were never worn. So I tried to put them on Emily - at least once. One morning when I took Emily to see David after I dressed her, David hesitated for a while and said, “Do you think the hat is a little bit too small? It looks like a shower cap on her …” Well, I knew it was too small. But I just didn’t want to admit it. Too bad that Daddy thought that way too!!!

David put out the Exersaucer that Fang and Fred gave us. Emily loved it! She would bounce on her feet and check out every Nic-Nac’s. We were so happy that she had a new place to play!

David has been helping Jerry’s parents on the Insurance. He met with the insurance guys and other restoration service guys during the week to put Jerry’s mind at ease. Friday night he went to the Mission Resource Network benefit dinner and had a wonderful time. Saturday was Prestoncrest Lady’s conference day. But considering that we will have a very busy week ahead; our refrigerator was completely empty; and most importantly, David was bound home for a whole week, I decided to give up on it this year. Next year it will be a lot easier!

Heidi came with us to church on Sunday. We had invited her to come on Easter. But she didn’t make it. We were glad that she made it this time. The message wasn’t really for a person who comes to the church for the first time, but we prayed that Heidi benefited from what she heard and experienced at some level. If not, at least she knows that we enjoyed having her very much.