First Tattoo and First Time in the Pool

One of the weekends in May, we were invited to a 3 yr old birthday party and BBQ. Here, Anderson got his first tattoo and got to go into the pool for the first time. Here are some pics.

Anderson showing off his fierce tattoo. Oscar the Grouch! Grrrr!!!


It was hot that day. 100! So dad decided to take him into the pool to cool them both off. He was hesitant at first. The water was actually a little chilly.

But he got used to it quickly and loved it. He even splashed around and tried to swim.

After some swimming, it was time to sit on the lawn and enjoy some delicious roast pig. Yup, you read that right. It was a pig roast! Did I mention that Anderson used to be afraid of grass? Couldn't even come close to it without screaming? Well, look at him now... He picks it up!

And then eats it for dinner

One last one of him looking tough in just his diaper and tattoo

10 Month Update

Oh my goodness. Where do I even start?! Things happen so fast these days and things change every single day. I guess the biggest news is that 2 days shy of his 10 month birthday, the little guy started crawling. He has a little car that he can ride on, or walk behind and he was trying to get to it. He was reaching for it when Wilson decided to move it just beyond his reach. And then....he just went for it! No struggle, just crawled! Now, he is everywhere. And I mean everywhere. He does not sit still. He is always on the move. Sometimes he crawls normally, meaning both knees on the ground. And sometimes he does this crawl/walk where he crawls with one knee and then walks with the other. Wilson calls it is Gollum crawl. (Gollum from Lord of the Rings)

Here are other observations/thoughts/developments:

• He can pull himself up to standing quite easily now. In fact, we've had to lower his crib down to the lowest standing because we found him standing up in his crib, peering over the edge one morning.
  
• He is so much happier now that he can move. He's always been a happy baby but he is just loving his new found freedom. One of his favorite things to do is to crawl over to the coffee table and take down all the magazines off the shelf.
  
• He's a clapper. He loves clapping. Seriously loves clapping. One time, I was helping him walk by holding his hands and wanted to get down on the ground. Why? To clap.
  
• He loves to laugh and smile. Even at strangers. He's quite the flirt.
• He's letting us spoon feed him again without a fight but still loves to feed himself. One of his new favorite snacks are Baby Goldfish. It's for him but I see dad sneak in a couple (okay, handfuls) at snack time too.
  
• Loves to throw balls (or anything) and then chase after them.
• Also loves to hold two objects (one in each hand) and knock them together. Each time he does it, he looks up at us for approval, which we gladly give him, and then laughs in delight.
  
• Now that he's crawling, he goes for Sammy quite a bit. Unfortunately, all he wants to do is pull on his tail which isn't the smartest thing to do. So far now, we've had to keep them apart. It used to be us yelling at Sammy to leave Anderson alone. Now, it's the opposite.
  
• He's starting to get quite ticklish
• Very vocal and talkative. He definitely says Mama and Dada, although he will babble dadadada throughout the day even when Dada isn't around. We also think he knows "dog" since sometimes when he's sees Sammy, he look at him and saw "daw".
  
• Loves trees and is completely fascinated by them, especially when the wind blows and they move.
• He's growing more hair!!
  
• And lastly, as I said before, he is on the go now. Constantly. Always on the move.

Here are a series of pictures for his 10 month update. It's getting really hard now to take a decent one of him on my own.

Mother's Day 2009

My First Mother's Day! For my first Mother's Day I got the best of both worlds. I got a little time to myself which I spent getting a pedicure. And I got to spend some quality time with my family painting some pottery. On Saturday, Wilson took the little guy out while I got some me time and decided to pamper myself with a pedicure. Sunday morning I got to sleep in!!!! A gift in itself! The boys made breakfast for me and presented me with my gift. One they had made together and one that Anderson made at school.

The boys made this mug for me and filled it with some wonderful chocolates. It says "Anderson's Mom"


And this is what Anderson made a school on Friday for me. Yup, that flower doubles as a pen!

I love them. I truly truly love them. I used to wrestle with what to get my own mother for mother's day (I still do) but after receiving these gifts, the ones made with thought and love, I really do appreciate them. And after being a mom for almost a year now, I realize that there is nothing I could do or say to tell my mom how thankful I am for everything she's done for me. Being a mom is by far the toughest thing that I have done and ever will do. Nobody gives them enough credit for all they do. I have learned so much about myself and grown so much over this past year. Your life really does change on a dime and I wouldn't have it any other way. It is the hardest job, the most thankless job, most selfless job but what you get in return is priceless. It really is. When your little child turns to you, gives you a big grin and a hug, you realize that there isn't anything that you wouldn't do for them.

Later, we met Aunt Sonja, Uncle Paul, Nai-Nai, and Paul's mom and aunt at a pottery painting place for more QT (quality time).

Headshots

Why do we have kids? For our own amusement of course! Kidding. But there is no doubt that a child provides endless hours of free entertainment. We are thoroughly entertained each and every evening watching Anderson play and figure things out. Just last night we were shocked when he decided he wanted to start learning how to stand on his own. He'd take a second to steady himself, and then all of a sudden let go! I think we all just stared at each other for the 5 seconds or so he was standing on his own. He started to wobble and grabbed onto his little car for support again. And it's also fun to take him to different things, even though he can't really participate, it's fun to see his expression and how big his eyes get when he sees something new. But, I admit that we do a few things at his expense for our own amusement.

A few weekends ago, I took Anderson to the UC Davis Picnic Day, which is more or less and open house for the school. All the clubs and departments come out and have fun events for the town. We went to a petting zoo (although Anderson was too timid to touch the goat) and watched dog races. We also went to a bug exhibit and took this picture:


Anderson as praying mantis!! Of course you can only do this when they are really young and don't know what's going on. Anderson even has that look on his face as if to say "I don't know what's going on but I'm pretty sure I don't like this!"

The next weekend, his daycare/school had a carnival for the kids. Again, there was another headshot opportunity and you better believe we grabbed it! Here is the series of pictures:

"What's going on? Why am I in this thing?"

"There's Daddy! Daddy help! Ms. Julie, Help!" (Ms. Julie is one of Anderson's teachers)

"Everyone's laughing! There must be something funny!"

Unfortunately he couldn't participate in much again. No face painting, no balloon animals, no sock puppets, and definitely no hot dogs and cotton candy. But he did get to make one of these fierce animal bracelets!

"ROAR!"

Easter

Easter Sunday was a fun day for all of us. Quite busy too as we went to church, a friend's house for an Easter egg hunt and other kiddie activities, and then to our brother-in-law's parents' house for dinner. Like all parents, I did have a special Easter outfit picked out for Anderson and let me tell you, he looked darn cute in it.

Anderson doesn't like grass. He doesn't like the feel of it, he doesn't like to be near it. He'll even draw his feet up if he sees that he's getting close to it. I think he doesn't like or isn't use to the texture. If he's feeling brave, he may swat at it quickly, but only does it a few times. So imagine when eggs are hidden in grass and plants. He sees something shiny and we're pointing it out to him. He wants to pick it up but he's too scared to touch the plant/grass.

"Ewww mommy. I'm not touching that!"


We ended up just picking it up and putting it on the dirt so he could bend down and pick it up himself.


Here he is standing and showing off his Easter outfit. Cute huh? Luckily he was wearing shoes or else he would not have even stood on the grass.


One of our few family pictures


"Can you hear me now??"


Daddy's excited because he's the one that got to eat Anderson's Easter candy (okay, Mommy had some too)


Here he is with Nai-Nai (Grandma in Chinese). Since it was sunny, we tried to get him to wear a hat to protect his head but he refused

Monterey

In the middle of March, my mom, Anderson and I headed down to Monterey. I had a Genetics conference down there and they joined me for the little vacation. It was a little cool but really beautiful. All of us had a great time being in the sun, seeing the ocean, showing Anderson the birds, water and sea otters. He was just fascinated by everything. He even got to touch the Pacific Ocean for the first time (it didn't go well in case you were wondering. The Pacific Ocean is very, very cold.) It was fun seeing how he excited he was about everything and being able to see things through his eyes. I was there for work so I was in meetings for about 6 hours a day, but I did have breaks in the middle of the day where we would go for lunch and head out to Monterey or Carmel and just see the sights. It was really great just spending time with Anderson and Grandma. Grandma taught him a bunch of new things (kicking the ball, clapping different objects together). Here are some pics from the trip.

My mom, Anderson and I in Pacific Grove


Anderson about to touch the Pacific Ocean for the first time. "Careful Grandma! I hear this ocean is cold!"



Anderson and I on the beach (As a side note, we quickly learned that Anderson's lack of hair means that he must wear a hat on sunny days. Poor little guy has no hair to protect his head)

Grandma and Anderson at Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey

And lastly, in case you didn't know, this is how Anderson rolls in his stroller
"Laid back. With my mind on my money and my money on my mind."

8 and 9 Month Update

I know I've been a little behind in updating the blog but I really hope to make it up in the next couple of days. I have been taking his monthly pictures though and intend to post as many pics as I can. Anyway, on to the update.

A lot has happened in these past couple of months. Our little baby is turning into a little boy! He seems to have suddenly grown so much in these past few weeks. I think the best way to recap all that has gone on and he's accomplished is to break it up...

Here are his stats real quick. At his 9 month well-baby appointment (which was actually 5 days past his 9 month birthday) he weighed in at 17lbs 6oz and 27.25 inches. Still a small little guy but still mighty cute.

First, here is his 8 month picture:

And a series of his 9 month picture:






As you can see, he can't sit still anymore. He is always on the move, or at least trying to move. He doesn't crawl yet but is trying. He can get on all fours and rocks back and forth. And then he either lunges towards something (usually we try to put one of his toys just out of reach so that he'll have to work to move to get it) or he'll just fall onto his belly and roll over. He's really close now and I can tell that one day, he'll just figure out to do it and amaze is.

One thing he is really good at is standing! The boy has always wanted to stand since he could hold his head. Seriously. It's quite possibly his favorite thing to do. And now he can pull him self up to standing if you're holding his hands. When he's lying on the floor, we hold out our hands and say "Anderson, hold on to our hands." Then he grab them while we pull him up to sitting position. Then, he'll pull your hands so that they are above his head and pull himself up to a standing position! He's really proud of himself every single time he does it and smiles and laughs. When he falls down, he'll just grab your hands again, put them above his head and repeat the process. Once he got mad at me because I wanted to clap instead of helping him stand. Just recently (meaning the last few days) he's been able to take a few steps while standing. He doesn't do it all the time but he's beginning to understand the concept of moving his feet while standing. He can't pull himself up to standing while holding onto other stationary objects (ie coffee table, sofa, etc..) So far it's only while we're holding his hands that he's able to do it. He seems much more interested in standing/walking than crawling. Who knows? Maybe he'll be one of those babies that skips crawling and goes straight to walking.

Okay, if there's anything he likes better than standing, it's eating. This boy LOVES to eat. Seriously LOVES to eat. He's still eating purees but finger foods is his real love. We started finger foods around 7 months with the puffs. Then we moved on to crackers only because I got so frustrated feeding him purees one night that I gave him a teeny tiny bit of my multi-grain cracker that I was snacking on before dinner. Well, he loved it and we haven't turned back since. He is quite the self-feeder. He's very good at it if I say so myself. Of course it took awhile for him to figure it out and get it into his mouth everytime, but at 9 months and 6 days, he's a pro at it. He would rather eat finger foods than purees so we're really trying to find and make different foods for him to eat. Stuff we've tried and he's loved are puffs (of course) bananas, avocados, pasta, mac and cheese, grated cheese, carrots, tofu (either plain or dusted with crushed crackers), graham crackers, turkey-apple meatloaf, sweet potato pancakes, peaches, bread, egg yolk, and today we tried cottage cheese. He seemed to like it but I think the jury is still out. Oh, he also tried so raspberry frozen yogurt.....and, uh, he liked it. He usually doesn't like cold things and usually scrunches up his nose, but then he tasted it and thought, Wow. Cold things can be yummy! We are constantly looking and searching for other finger foods that he can eat because 1) he likes it better than purees and 2) it gives us time to eat too since he's busy feeding himself. He still gets most of his veggies through puree but I think we're going to try and find some veggies he can eat. Here's a pic of the boy at work eating some cheese



Did I mention how happy Anderson is when he eats? He is always smiling, laughing, talking, screaming, and kicking his legs when he eats. He truly, truly loves food. Just like mommy and daddy ;)

When he was 8.5 months old, he finally cut his first tooth. It wasn't too bad but he was mighty cranky for a couple of days. Soon after, he cut his second tooth. Both are on the bottom. No more goofy toothless smile :(

Hmm...what else is he doing? For some reason, he's gotten into hitting himself on the head. No idea where that came from. He also shakes his head as if he's saying "no, no, no". I don't think he actually knows what "no" means, but when we say No, no, no, he'll shake his head. He likes to spit, which is real fun when you're trying to feed him purees. LOVES to drink water. We tried with the sippy cup but we just didn't have the patience so he just drinks from a cup. He love playing with balls. He'll pick them up and bang them together (something my mom taught him). He can even play catch with you! He can throw the ball towards you (he's really good if you're playing with the O-ball) and if you throw/roll it back, he'll pick it up and throw it again. He can also kick the ball (another thing my mom taught him). Just this past weekend, he learned how to high five and wave bye-bye. He's not waving every single time we do it, but he's good at the high-five.

All in all, the past couple of months we've seen him grow so much. We're having so much fun with him and are head over heals in love with our little guy. He is so happy and smiley and such an easy going baby. I can't believe 9 months has already passed. It goes by so quickly. My little baby is growing up to a little boy. But, at times, he still is our little baby


I'm sure there is so much more I can say about him and who he is but I think I'd be here forever.