It's nice to have parents

I have to say. Life is pretty good for a baby in this family. Mommy and Daddy treat me pretty well.

I get six squares a day, a roof over my head, clean sheets, clean clothes, walks outside, lots of toys, diaper changes when I need 'em and a bath once a day. What more could a growing baby need?

Bath time is especially fun. Sometimes, Daddy gives me a bath on the weekends, but on weekdays, Mommy and I get to share twosies time at around 6:00 ever day. It's really great to have girls' time, especially since she usually feeds me both before and after.



Sometimes, after my bath, Mommy gives me a massage, too. I didn't have one today, but I got to horse around with Ubi2. She's a bear, but she knows how to horse around... especially when I'm acting the horse! For some reason, Daddy didn't take pictures of when she was giving me a piggy back ride.



I have to admit, it's pretty easy to get what I want. I just have to keep crying and they'll cycle through everything until I'm satisfied. Whether it's more milk, a new diaper, a change of clothes, more clothes, less clothes, a change of scenery or just a cuddle, if I keep going, usually, it's only a matter of time until they get it.

There have been times when they keep not hitting it, but when that happens, I forgive them because they usually do a pretty good job.

So don't worry, all you aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. I'm doing okay over here!



One of my favorite past times these days is to do tricks and make faces at them and see how they react. Parents are SOOOO cute when they're happy and excited.

If I do something that I haven't done for them before, they get even more excited. Lately, I've shown them how I can put my hands together and this seems to get both Mommy and Daddy especially giggly and huggy.

Today, I even picked up my burp cloth with both hands for them and they were over the moon.

Parents are so funny and smiley. It's nice.



They seem to grow and develop each day. I swear, every time Daddy comes home from work, he looks different. Mommy, too, she just seems to be getting prettier and prettier every day!

Well, I should get going now. First, I don't want them to know I can use the computer, but also, it's time for my late evening feed.

You know, it's not all naps and playtime over here. I've gotta' work to maintain this girlish figure!

WAAAAAAH!

A Weekend in One Day

Reading to Margaret this morning at 7:00

Sarah and I now trade off feeding and playing with Margaret on weekend mornings which allows each of us one day to sleep in (awesome).

Since I had to work yesterday, today was my turn. Sarah was so nice as to actually breast feed Margaret and take pictures of us before handing her off, so in actuality, she didn't actually get to sleep in either. Regardless, my girl and I spent alone time this morning reading, singing, playing and trying to fall asleep.

In matching PJs with her chair

Margaret was loads of fun this morning, all smiles and goo goo eyes at dad, and didn't actually become fussy until I tried to put her down when she wasn't yet tired.

I guess sometimes, dad's own desire to get some shuteye over rides the part of the brain that drives parental responsibility.



Lunch with the Koos was at the Hong Kong Country Club this afternoon.

For some reason, Margaret picked the moment when Sarah and I started to relax into our afternoon to bust out in a fit of crabbiness that has lasted almost the entire rest of the day.

Standing in the parking lot so as not to disturb the other diners, Andrew, Samantha, Margaret and I stood by the parking lot as dignified women in big hair and floral print stretchy pants threw glances our way as they walked past.

Yes, they'll let anyone into the Country Club these days... after getting off the 10 year wait list.



She wasn't all pins and pricks, though, as these pictures attest. She managed a few smiles for the Koos and even survived an afternoon in Central where we ran some errands.



Margaret seemed to recover in the afternoon after we got home; even acquiescing to play with mommy and daddy in her crib and flash this gummy smile while on her tummy.

Usually, she rather dislikes being on her stomach.



Her recovery from crabbiness has been short lived, however. We had Molly and Bill over for dinner and halfway through, she busted out in full force, crying fury.

After making sure that her diaper was fine, that she was warm enough and that she wasn't in any sort of apparent pain, I put her down again and she quieted down.

We're not sure what's going on with Margaret these days. Last week, after weeks of sleeping through the night, she started waking up at 4:30. Now that's over, but this whole day she's been fussy and fidgety and will randomly break out in screaming.

So much of taking care of a baby is trying to figure out what's wrong with your child without the benefit of her being able to tell you. Sometimes, it's super hard.

We're just hoping that she'll sleep through tonight.

SAM and I are both exhausted.

Thursday Update

Before dinner on Wednesday night
Surprise! A mid-week post.

We had some time before going out to dinner with friends last night and Margaret was still awake when I got home.

Mommy brought her out to the living room to meet Daddy and both got a kiss for being their wonderful selves.



For the past three mornings, Margaret has been waking up much earlier than usual - around 4:30 am. Tuesday and Wednesday she had a soiled diaper but this morning, she was simply hungry. We're hoping this doesn't represent a return to earlier, pre-sleeping through the night days.

We can't wait for the weekend.

My Morning Sunbeam

Before her bath on Sunday
Quick update, today with a few bonus snaps from the weekend.

Sarah was home sick on Monday for some well needed mental and physical rest, I think. Back at school today, she heard that there's been something going around, so we're wondering if it was that.

On our way to the grocery store
Sickness aside, I think I've discovered the best feeling in the world.

On the last two mornings, I've awoken to Sarah lowering a smiling and freshly fed Margaret into my arms. There is no sight more beautiful for bleary, sleepy eyes and no feeling more extraordinarily heart melting to me than my own daughter smiling up at me from my own arms.

It's like the heat that's radiating from her body is some sort of radiation that causes one to feel love. Like a little sun putting out love beams that I can feel on my skin as it penetrates into my heart.

These last two mornings, despite my best intentions, I've fallen back asleep after waking up briefly to mutter a few words of support to SAM as she headed out to get Margaret.

My wife, however, despite being abandoned to the thankless task of early morning feedings by her husband, did not forsake me. No. Instead, she showed me one of the greatest joys I've ever felt.

Gently and happily, these past few mornings, I've awoken to the feeling of Margaret being laid in the space between my arm and body with her head resting on my shoulder.

Margaret, happy as she is after just being fed, starts out accommodating and slowly, ever so slowly increases her squirminess level so that I wake up more and more and sit up more and more so that eventually, Mom, Dad and Daughter are all happily sitting on the bed, awake and ready to tackle the morning.

It's the best feeling in the world.

A tired Macaroni right before nap time.

Grrr...

A few thoughts hit me today about that miracle of miracle substances, milk.

The first thought was how amazing it is. You pump this white fluid into a baby and not only does it turn into more baby, but it gives her energy to scream at a volume completely not commensurate with her size. It must have more btu's than rocket fuel.

The other thing is that from a color perspective, white is the absence of color. So somehow, through the miracle of digestion, this white liquid gets turned into all the colors that Margaret is (red for blood, brown for her hair and eyes, etc), as well as a very stinky, disgusting brown that winds up in her diapers.

Amazing.



The family laid low today, for the most part. Not only were both Sarah and I not feeling well last night, but Sarah's discomfort has continued today and Margaret had a very rough night as well.

In the first time in a long while, Margaret was up screaming at 4:00 AM. This, of course, threw the rest of her and our day off. Thank goodness that there are two of us to trade off, otherwise, things would have been a lot more exhausting than they already were. Basically, if one of us was up, the other was sleeping. It hasn't been like that since the very early days of Margaret and it helped us realize how glad that those days are mostly behind us.



The nice thing about being home all day, though, is that you can do things like stay home, hang out by the window, read books and take pictures of your baby.

Despite the whacked out sleep / feed schedule, she was a load of fun today. We managed to capture a couple of new expressions and heard two new sounds too.

Peevish or curious?

She's now able to make that really high pitched scream that some toddlers do that makes you want to jump out of your skin. Thankfully, while she does it, she still exercises some restraint in deploying it.

No, the one she absolutely loves doing now is a guttural, gravely growl that makes her sound like an angry bear cub. Imagine a snore that's being exhaled. It almost sounds like she's eaten too much and the milk is blocking her breathing.

It's intentional, however, as on several occasions, she has made the sound and immediately smiled happily as if to let us know she's not angry or anything. It seems like she either likes how it sounds or likes how it feels to make the sound. Probably both, actually. She's did it a lot, today.

Another new one

She's also becoming more orally aware. We've been noticing that she's sticking her tongue out to taste and feel things more and more, particularly when you get objects near her face. We're finding small, wet, tongue prints, now on the side of the Baby Bjorn and random parts of her stuffed animals.

She's combining this tendency with her ability to grab and manipulate objects, as well. She can get her stuffed animals into her mouth, now. Here you see that she's gotten tired of her own fingers and has secured one of her mother's as a replacement.

Tired of her own fingers

As the weekend winds down, we're already looking forward to the next when we can recover from work and immerse ourselves in Margaret.

We'll keep you posted.

We love Saturdays y Domingos

Today at the park. She was tired.

Aaah. Saturday.

We wheeled Margaret to the park today with grand plans to try her out on the swings.

We're not sure what we were thinking. One look at even the baby swings served to inform us that safe swinging would be at least another month or two away.

Regardless, however, it was a beautiful, sunny day, reminiscent of early spring days in Central Park. The grownups enjoyed just being out and about.

Margaret, of course, didn't care. She was falling asleep in her stroller.

SAM and I had a good laugh on the way over. In her stroller, Margaret seemed to have a death grip on the frame while I was pushing her along. SAM commented that this was like how she always has to hang on to the door handle on the car while I'm driving.

I had to pretend not to be amused, but in all honesty, it was pretty funny to see. not even four months old and she's already afraid of daddy's driving.

Smart girl.

Biting the hand that feeds her

After the park, it was feeding and bath time which is when these photos were taken.

I can't even begin to explain how much fun feeding/bath time is for us as a family. We all hang out on the bed while Margaret feeds on one side. Then, I give Margaret a bath while SAM hangs out with us. After she's clean and dressed, Margaret feeds from SAM's other side while I sit with them on the bed. It's honestly the best way to spend an hour I could possibly imagine.

In fact, Margaret seemed to enjoy it so much that she unleashed the first actual confirmed laughs that her mother and I have heard out of her. I was kissing and nuzzling her tummy right before her bath when we were startled by peals of baby laughter. There may be no sweeter sound.

Of course, attempts to make her recreate the sound were met by silent, determined fist sucking.

We can only hope it becomes more frequent.

Can't tell who's happier

Bonus

Had a couple more photos from yesterday (Sunday) that I thought I'd put up. Not too much to report, really.

Or should I say, nothing different to report. As usual, Margaret seems to look different every time we wake up. This morning, I could swear she looked different from yesterday, with seemingly more intelligence and intent behind those eyes of hers.



She continues to be drooling a ton but there are no signs of teeth. She continues to grab at things with her little hands with more strength and more deliberateness.

We're living the old saw that "the only constant is change." It's odd, but as much as one day seems like the last, the changes are many from one day to the next.

Of course, the real constant is Margaret in our lives. With each new development, we learn more and more about her and who she is inside. It is enormously gratifying and each night, SAM and I both marvel at where she is now and what we're going to learn next.

Exhilarating. Exhausting, but exhilarating.

Babies change your life

Mom and Margaret in Matching blue Polo shirts

Modern diapers are a technical wonder to me. They're light, they're disposable, they're fairly cheap, they come with magic polymer to absorb liquids and they have a little gauge to let you know when they needs to be changed. Diapers now seem as feature laden as a Mercedes.

This morning, while feeding Margaret, I noticed that her diaper felt like a half melted memory-foam pillow. Fearing the worst, I broke off the feeding and immediately went to change her.

There was no need to be worried. The diaper was completely full of both poop and pee, but a couple of swipes from a wet wipe and a new one was on with no fuss and no muss.

Later on, at lunch, Margaret had another monster number 2. Same story.

I don't know what they put in those things, but those engineers at Huggies and Pampers should get on that whole global warming thing.

Yes, they are an environmental problem and while at home, during the day, we use Bambino Mio cloth diapers, but while out and in the middle of the night, I don't doubt that these things are saving us from some serious messes.

Thinking back to a few of our early newborn experiences, I'm appreciative of that.

As an aside, I now wonder about the accuracy of Margaret's weigh-in from yesterday.



It came to my attention today that I've become one of "those" parents. You know the type, one of those parents who is sickeningly gaga over their own child, thinks they're the cutest and is tickled at everything their child does. That actually wouldn't be half bad except that "those parents" have to share every smallest detail with a public who isn't nearly as interested as they are.

I used to disdain people like me. I used to lump them in the same category as couples who dress the same on purpose, dog owners who shave their poodles, people who collect porcelain figurines from the Hallmark store and readers of Cat Fancy.

Now I'm blogging about how Margaret can turn onto her side (a horse can gallop when it's born) and putting her in clothes that match her mom's so I can take photos and post them on the blog.

*sigh*

The crazy thing is that I don't really care. I have a blast doing all these things.

I think that Margaret is the coolest thing since sliced bread and I'm into her.

I think she's helping me to *gasp* grow a bit.

Wow, dude.

Babies change your life.

Finally, some numbers!

Age: 3 months / 15 weeks.
Head Circumference: 42 cm / 16.5 inches
Length: 59.5 cm / 23.4 inches, or, as I prefer 1'11"
Weight (with dry diaper, onesie and sopping wet bib): 6.6 kg / 14.5 pounds

This puts her weight and head circumference in the 75th - 90th percentiles and her length in the 25th - 50th percentiles.

If I'm interpreting the data correctly, that would put her in some high percentile for "Stockiness."

We can't tell and love her anyways.



From whence these measurements, you may ask?

We took Margaret to the doctor this morning for her inoculations and prior to the jabs (there were two) the nurses took her measurements for the record.

I was carrying Margaret during the morning and wanted to just keep kissing her and hugging her close because I knew what was coming and knew that she had no clue. As far as she was concerned, until the moment it happened, we were just on a cruise out on the town.

Luckily, she cried only during the actual jabs and was quickly settled thereafter by feeding off of mommy.

Poor Margaret, though. She came out of there with two round band-aids, one on each thigh. She looked like a race-car with numbers painted on the doors.

Thank goodness.



Besides putting on weight, Margaret continues to develop and impress her captivated parents. Last night, she managed to kick off her swaddling completely, leading us to a new regime of sleep sack usage at night.

Also, her manual dexterity continues to improve. Here you see her grabbing at Freddy the Firefly this afternoon.



Her love of Freddy is what led to the real excitement of the day, however. Margaret is now able to get herself almost completely on her side. We figure that it won't be too long before she can turn herself over onto her stomach.

We spent a lot of time trying to catch video of this but never managed to get a complete cycle of her going from flat on her back to on her side and back again. I think the surest way to get a baby to stop doing something is to break out the camera.



Parenthood continues to be a learning, growing experience full of questions and the thrill of discovery.

Just this morning, I was wondering to myself how babies can survive when the overwhelming temptation is to hug and squeeze them tighter than their little bodies can withstand.



Ain't love grand?

Ear-lai in the Morning!

Here are some of the little munchkin at 6:30 in the AM.

I have to get to work early for a meeting this morning, but Margaret was so awake and chatty this morning that I couldn't resist sneaking a couple of the pics onto the blog before I left.




She's now pretty much awake from when SAM feeds her at around 6:00 AM (this morning, M was up at 5:30) until about quarter after 7:00, so it was a pleasure to have our whole family together for breakfast this morning.

She then feeds at around 9:00 AM, again at school with SAM at noon, then again at 3:00 PM, 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM.

It's a schedule! Now, to follow mine...

Home from work

There's no feeling like coming home from work and finding Margaret and SAM hanging out in the bedroom, still awake and chatty.

Having my own family is the best thing ever.

These all from tonight before dinner.

Cheating, a bit as these are pics from last week.

However, didn't want to leave you guys without some new morsels to chew on!

Reading with mom. She will actually look at the pages, sometimes.

This past Sunday. Happy to be with family.

As I write this, it is 10:23 PM and SAM has been asleep since about 9:15. Prior to that, she was mostly asleep on the couch after dinner. While I think the adjustment back to work has been mostly good for her, the days have been exhausting. Hopefully, as we fall into a schedule and the stress of going back to work drops a bit, her evenings will be more restful.

One high point is that SAM has been enjoying her first couple of days back with the students.

More good news is that Margaret's feeding and sleep schedule seems to be relatively stable (except for the getting up at 5:30 AM to feed, bit) and she seems to be in good spirits.

Margaret continues to grow and change though neither of us have been snapping photos these past few days. By the time I get home from work, she's already sleeping or almost sleeping. Likewise, when SAM is home, she either has to be feeding Margaret or putting her down to sleep. I think I'm going to try and wake earlier, now, so I can spend some time with my girls when they're awake.

Lately, M's burps have been simply stupendous. It's harder and harder to burp her, now as she gets bigger. I find I'm spending more and more time at meals patting her back in all sorts of positions and issuing all sorts of vague, empty threats about what might happen if she doesn't burp.

"Margaret, if you don't burp, the doctor will have to use tubes down your throat to get them out."

It makes me feel better to have a laugh, anyways. I have to remember to stop as soon as she can start understanding me or I'm afraid I might give her nightmares.

When the payoff comes, however, it's simply incredible. It sounds like some of the raunchier post keg-stand belches I've heard.

Fun stuff.

Anyways, there likely won't be another update until this weekend. Hope everyone has a great week!

Back In The Real World

We've been back from Cebu for less than a week yet it already seems so long ago. I feel like I'm ready for another vacation already!

Sarah goes back to work tomorrow morning and so big changes are in store for the family. Perhaps that's why the weekend seemed to pass so quickly - the waning days of our current life with one parent working and one at home.

The busy-ness of being back and trying to settle back in hasn't deterred us from taking photos, however! Here are a selection from this week.



Above and below you see Margaret and SAM on my day off this past Monday. I just hope the readjustment to Hong Kong's cold weather wasn't too jarring for Margaret!



Lately, she's been more and more able to sit up on her own. BabyCenter calls this stage the, "Pre-sitter" stage. At the same time, she has begun to be very interested in watching us eat grown-up food. As a result, we've been taking the opportunity to actually sit her with us in her high chair (strapped in, of course) while we eat meals. This way, not only do we get to see her and be with her during family meals but she gets to figure out what we're doing, too. Hopefully, this will have some sort of effect when she starts eating solids in a few months.

She seems to be enjoying it!


Samantha's Birthday party was this past Saturday and we managed to get ourselves "invited." That's what happens when you call up your sister and you ask her if you can go to the party.

The Koo clan, our family and some of Samantha's friends went and saw "Enchanted" with Amy Adams which we all enjoyed very much. Afterwards, we all went for snacks at Dan Ryan's. Below, you see Margaret actually sitting on the table. I guess since she's the oldest sibling, she gets to make these decisions.

I can't help but feel like she's being served up like a dish when I see this photo. It's funny because sometimes, I just want to gobble her up!


Of course, Samantha got to hold her as well. Margaret got passed around like a hot potato that day and she was a great sport about it, hardly uttering a peep.

She was likewise very good at the movie, as well. She got fussy only once, and so we changed her outside, but other than that, her parents got to watch almost the entire film without interruption.


Today, we had dim sum with many of our friends. Lindsay, Graham, Graham's mom, Patsy and Freddy, Dickson, Lucy, Oscar and Andrew and us. Tons of food and fun. Below, you see a shot from lunch today.


And of course, the last shot should be a smiley one. This one also from today.



Keeping up with all the activity this week(end), Margaret seems to be developing apace as well. Just this week, Sarah informs us that Margaret is now able to put her hands down to lever herself up when placed on her tummy and I've noticed that she's now more and more able to grasp things with her hands. On Saturday, she was clearly holding on to her pacifier handle. She's still got a ways to go before the grip is firm, but it certainly seems deliberate.

Also, Margaret has been increasingly vocal and she's able to make noises more clearly. Today, while changing her, she made the, "mmmuh mmmuh" sound clearly on three separate occasions. We're just waiting for her to associate that sound with the person and then we'll be over the moon.

Finally, we did a bit of home improvement today. This weekend, we managed to get to the lighting store and have now changed the wall mounted lamps next to our bed to ones which aren't so hideous. We've also installed dimmers as well so now we can feed Margaret at night in the bedroom and not have her come completely awake. I just wired them up this afternoon and we can't wait to try them at her 10:00 PM feeding in less than an hour.

Now, we're just trying to decide if it's worthwhile to change the bulbs to the dimmable compact fluorescents from the incandescent ones we have now. Sure, we'd love to save electricity, but are they worth the equivalent of $25 US dollars apiece? Not sure.