Tale of the Tape

At three months, Vansen's meeting all of the expected milestones. Our favorite is the social smiling, which he's realized gets him a lot of positive attention. He tracks us across the room and positively lights up when we smile at him.

Though he doesn't quite have control of his vocal chords yet, he's experimenting with squeaks, squeals, and gurgles. And as you can see, he's discovered his hands, though it'll be a while before he figures out how to use them.  

With his robust belly, sausage arms, marshmellow thighs, and generous cheeks, he's like a little cherub. Describing him as an angel might be going too far however, at least until he can bless Liz with more than 3 hours of sleep at a time. 

He weighed in at the doctor's office today at 26.25 inches & 16lb, 10oz.  A growing boy indeed. We're not sure whether he's growing so quickly because he eats all the time or if he needs to eat all the time because he's growing so quickly. 

First Day

We all visited the school a few months ago- a home-based place just four houses down the street from us.  It's been there quite a while, and most of the neighbors sent their kids there, so we felt that it'd be a good place for Huelan to start preschool.  It's set up like a preschool/daycare, with around 8-12 kids there at any given time with Ms. Jan and her twenty-something daughter Ms. Michelle.  You get the feeling from her voice and cadence that Ms. Jan's been at this a long time.

Huelan was so excited the day of her first visit that she wanted to stay (It helped that two girls told her that her dress was pretty).  We went home, but have been talking about preschool periodically since and ramped up the talk in the last week or so.  Her excitement ramped up too, but she let some trepidation show through. When we told her that she wouldn't be going to story time at the library, she said in a soft voice, "But I don't want things to change, I want everything to stay the same."  I would too if I was her- she has it pretty good.

The actual logistics are pretty easy right now.  Since it's just a 5 min walk away and she can pretty much show up any time before 9, we didn't have too much of a time crunch.  The first morning Huelan had the full escort- Mom, Ba, Vansen, and Gosia.  Huelan was a little shy when we walked in at 8:30, and there was just one other kid there, but in a few minutes half the kids had shown up and we were barely able to coral her for a goodbye kiss.  She had jumped in with both feet.

Mom and Ba did okay, too.  We were probably more anxious about how she would do than sad or nostalgic.  I was fully expecting to get a phone call in the middle of the day asking me to pick up Huelan because she was doing atomic knee-drops on the other kids during nap time or she wouldn't stop making fart noises with her mouth until all the monsters were gone.  But no, she did great, and especially loved art time.  Actually the only one of us to shed a tear was Gosia, who's also moving on to another chapter: Vansen.

Some more pics here

Lucky 7

It's amazing how much you can pack into just seven years.  Time sneaks up on us as it does on everyone, some days marked with significance, some just calendar pages we turn with our eyes on the next. Regardless of the kind of day, having a wonderful partner has made each of these 2,556 days so much better.

Flying Solo

I

(Huelan at her sleepover)

(Cursed with my hairline but blessed with Liz's dimples. Can't win 'em all.)

Tonight is the last night of a short work trip to LA.  

Last weekend I had both kids by myself for the first time. For about five hours. I was a little scared, but managed it ok. Maybe we watched a little more TV than we usually do and perhaps I held Vansen during his nap so that he'd sleep longer. The details are fuzzy....

Well Liz has had both kids since Monday, and she had the brilliant idea of setting up Huelan with a sleepover at Grandma's Tuesday night. I tell you that woman is a genius. 

So, yes, we are both scared of being alone with our kids for extended periods of time (me more so than Liz, to be fair). 

Oakland al Fresco

Sometimes the only way we can get Huelan to stay put for a picture is tell her that she can make a funny face.  Most of the time, she makes this one, and I make that one.

This was taken tonight after dinner on the pier at Lake Chalet.  Something we haven't had a ton of recently is spontaneity, but tonight the weather was perfect and we felt like eating outside.  We also felt like having someone else make and bring us food, and then clean up; a great combination of those things can be found at this spot.  Even Vansen approved.

Little Buddha

Smaller babies nurse on him.  

Flipping Out

Where we live, it doesn't really have sense to have a swimming pool- we'd probably only use it four weeks a year- but we do have sprinklers, which in some ways is more fun. With the dog days of summer upon us here in Oakland, temps topped out at around 85, which was perfect for a few sprinkler runs.  

And with the latest Picasa feature that stitches consecutive shutter releases together like a flip book, we can share the fun.

Selling It

This is not typically my M.O., and Liz was surprised that it I allowed this to happen, but since Liz and Ba Noi were going to get a mani-pedi before Anh and Patty's wedding, I allowed Huelan to attempt to sell me as to why she might have earned a mani-pedi herself.

She was positively beaming during the polishing, and was dancing around for days after showing off her nails.
Gradually over the last six months, she transitioned from a dino-loving, rough-and-tumble girl into a princess watching, necklace wearing, beauty shop playing girly-girl.  That's the way it goes I guess.  She still likes the rough-housing and being tossed around, so I've got that going for me. I might as well stop pretending that I have any control over this at all....

Kickoff

Contrary to reports, I did not get carried away and inadverantly punt him. 

Baby Talk

In the last two weeks, seems like the little fella's discovering that he can use his voice for more than just screaming.  Here's a conversation with Grandma where he seems undecided as to whether he wants to laugh or cry.

Ong Co

Ba Noi's dad (Ong Co) has two great grandchildren- Huelan and Vansen. He and Ba Co recently moved to the US and are expecting a grandchild in just a few months. One of these days we'll have to count the grandchildren, but I'd say it tops 20 pretty easily. 

Cankles

These cankles recently weighed in at 13lbs, 7oz and 24.25 inches. That's 94th and 91st percentiles for two month olds. That's some good home cookin....

We're Back

A month is a loooong time to be away from the blog at this age- Vansen is twice as old today as he was the last blog entry!

We've had an eventful month, highlighted by the road trip to San Diego for Anh + Patty's wedding.  We made a week of it, driving down on the prior Sunday and spending the whole week on vacation.  We've never had a SoCal vacation like this- lazy summer trip without a real itinerary- and it was awesome.

Some highlights of that trip and some other random stuff I remember from the month:

- The drive to OC was 8 hours long, which wasn't actually too bad.  It was a pretty low-stress drive with plenty of nursing stops.  Huelan had the mini-DVD player set up for the first time, so she was pretty stoked.

- Crystal Cove is a perfect little family beach.  It's just young families and the beach is big enough to explore but not so big that you have to worry about getting lost on endless stretches.  Huelan's a big fan of the tidepools, where we held hermit crabs! Then there's Ruby's Shake Shack at the top of the hill- a perfect way to end a sunny day.

- The Natural History Museum of LA.  We never go to LA.  I've been told that LA has restaurants, beaches, parks, and museums, but we've never seen them.  Though Huelan's kind of phasing out of her dinosaur obsession (and into fairies/princesses), she was still stoked to get up close and personal with some fossils.  Maybe her favorite thing about the the fully assembled fossils was pointing out the dino butt. The NHM also has this butterfly tent that was super cool- dozens of interestingly colored butterflies up close and personal.  LA- who knew?

- San Diego. The fam stayed at a house in PB with a deck and a view of Mission Bay, and the wedding was in La Jolla, at a perfect little spot on the beach called the Wedding Bowl, which claims to be the most booked wedding spot in America.  Look at the pictures and you'll see why.  Obviously great to get all the family together for a big celebration.  Huelan reprised her role as flower girl along with Viet's daughter Leah, who is also a major cutie.

- One of my funniest memories is from the rehearsal dinner.  Anh's doing some intros and comes to Huelan. She's been running around with Leah all night, both on fire.  They met everyone in the restaurant.  So Anh unexpectedly lifts Huelan up in the air and introduces her.  She realizes in a flash that she's in the spotlight and instantly turns on her megawatt smile, just positively beams at everyone.  That's Huelan in a nutshell.

- The wedding itself was just beautiful.  One of those times when the perfect occasion meets the perfect crowd meets the perfect setting.  Strangers watching from the path overlooking the Wedding Bowl, hugging and applauding.  The wedding guests in tears.  Gorgeous bride and groom.

- Debonairest Best Man ever.

- The reception was party time.  Huelan led Leah, Francesco and Jay Sondhi around the dance floor sliding all night.  First Dance, Lion Dance, Break Dance.  Great party.

- We were kind of intimidated by the drive back- San Diego straight though to Oakland.  We left at 11AM and pulled into our driveway at 10:30PM, clocking 11.5 hours on the road.  Sounds grueling, but it was actually pretty casual.  We needed to do make nursing stops every 2-5 hours, and stopped for both a casual lunch and dinner.  It was long, but for the most part easy.  Could have been muuuuch worse.

- The following week getting back to life was a challenge, but at least we had a three day weekend to look to  (Cal Game, Triple Birthday Pool Party in San Jose, Vassar BBQ), and a four day work week after that.   We're getting our bearings back now! Let's see how long that lasts.....

Pics here

And here

First Month

 

We're a month in.  Feels like a year. 

At one month, Vansen's starting to fill out nicely.  The kid's got an insatiable appetite that keeps Liz tied up for about a half an hour every two hours or so.  He's packing on the ounces; though we haven't weighed him since the last doc's visit, he definitely feels heavier and is started to get those tell-tale baby chub rolls.  He hasn't fit his NB sized diapers since the second day we brought him home, and he's firmly into his 3mo wardrobe now.  He's going to eat us into debt come about age 13.

Though his limbs still move completely independently and without any semblance of coordination, his neck is getting a little stiffer so that his head only bobs a full 360.  Just side to side now.  He's awake a little more during the day, responding a bit to the faces we make and reacting to our voices sometimes.  Though shapes are supposed to be getting clearer to him, what he really likes are overhead lights, especially the skylights in the kitchen.

At one month, he spends most of his time cradled in the crook of one arm or draped over one shoulder, which is just fine with us.

At 3.6 years, Huelan spends most of her time doing exactly what she wants, which mostly involves outings with Gosia during the day and the exact opposite of what we ask in the evening.  The sweetness is still there, the hugs, kisses, and vivaciousness.  But the tantrums can be fierce.  At times, she's totally, tenderly aware that she's in tantrum mode, but just can't stop doing it.  We're getting a little better at talking her through it, like a spirit guide through a bad trip, but if we fail to come up with the magic words or paint the right picture, she goes deeper toward the dark side.  At this age, the ability to reason is only beginning to form while emotion is raw and unfiltered.  I have a feeling it's going to be a while before that ratio turns in my favor.

more pics here

Yup

Life is perfect.