Big Head Shrimpie (and 蝦仔) Diary

Everything... into Evan's mouth

2012-02-02T23:49:00.006-05:00

Finally done tidying up our home. Our condo looks so nice and clean. It is back to the way it used to be before Evan came along. :) After we packed the last pieces of Evan's toys away yesterday, we had nothing else for the little guy to at home. Good thing he likes Roomba (the robot vacuum cleaner) a lot. We turned that on and Evan was entertained for a good 20min.

02-02-2012 婆婆公公 (grandparents') home:

Evan started putting everything in his mouth.

食蔗 Eating sugar cane. 好肉緊!

Chewing his new teething toy. Thanks Gaga EE!

For some reason, he likes the ring much more. 唔知點解, 豬仔鐘意食個手圈圈.

Yum, yum, yum. 又係好肉緊.

Evan loves his new jumper toy. 真係超級鐘意.
Thanks Aunty Vicky and Uncle Cap!

Eee? What's that down there?
Oo. It is an instruction tag. 媽咪無剪走個牌. 好野, 多樣野玩.

I wonder what it says inside. 入面咁多雞腸既...

試下好唔好食先. 又擺落口. Into his mouth it goes.
Mom: "畏, 唔食得架. No, no, you can't eat that."
Evan: "Ok." (I wish it's this easy in reality.)

Rolling over both ways... spells trouble

2012-01-31T00:51:00.005-05:00

Evan mastered rolling over both ways. He kept rolling away when we put him on flat surface. It is cute to watch the little 肥豬guy rolling all over our bed, but then he rolls so fast that within 5 second, he could roll off our bed or the playmat. We now have to watch him like a hawk.

This guy's curiosity makes him want to explore everywhere, touch everything, and put everything in his mouth all the time! Even when I nurse him, he would swing his arms around to see what he can touch; it could be my hair or a string on my shirt. 好好奇, 好八卦。

He started sticking his toe in his mouth!

He saw the gap on his crib tonight. So he purposely tried to stick his leg out. He looked like he was trying to get out of jail. :)

"Oh no! I am stuck!"
Alright, enough excitement for today. Going to take a bath and then sleep. Good night!

I haven't figured out how to best use iphone to upload photos on blogger. (I don't know how to format the size of the photos and add captions.) Hope I can find out how to do that soon.

Chinese New Year Evan

2012-01-30T00:43:00.003-05:00

This past week has been a super busy week. Attended a wedding last night (can't believe Evan would have attended 5 weddings before he turns 6-month-old.), went to dim sum with our relatives, hot pot with at my parents', and spent a lot of time tidying up our home. I organized all, and I mean all, shelves and closets, cleaned all surface area in every single room, and packed up all small items. Ka made several trips moving our stuff up to our parents'. Consider how little stuff we have and how much I love cleaning, I still didn't enjoy the process that much. The end result, however, is wonderful. It feels so nice to have created a clutter-free living space.

Good thing Evan slept for 10-hrs straight again this weekend. At least I had some good rest the past two nights. I really wish he can stay this way. But I am truly convinced that babies, just like adults, don't necessary do the same thing everyday.

Anyway, let me put up some Chinese New Year photos and go to zzz.

Chinese outfit. The hat is way too big even for this 大頭仔 (big head). Thanks Peggy and Vikki for helping me pick the outfit!

I like the gold suit on him. It makes him look like a little king (正一皇帝仔). 邊到有皇帝唔著襪唔著鞋架?

"修身. 齊家. 治國. 平天下."

"媽咪, 呢句說話點解呀. (我五個月人仔咱.)""噢.要平天下要先修身..."

E: "我知喇, 媽咪每晚食少杯雪糕, 我就修身啦!"
媽咪: "..."

同場加影. 送給祝我年生貴子的朋友. 豬仔十兄弟. :)

Exciting weekend

2012-01-25T12:52:00.005-05:00

Over the weekend, we went to see a house, went with our parents to inspect the house again, attended two weddings, celebrated our friend's birthday, put in an offer for a home... all within 36 hours! We surely made good use of the last two days of the year of Rabbit. I have some photos to post, but should make use of my time to do some cleaning up of our home. :) Will post those later.

我的星期五

2012-01-21T03:32:00.002-05:00

前晚呀仔差唔多一個鐘起一次身, 仲勁過初出世時, 呀媽真係得番四份一條人命; 尋晚1:10am先訓, 1:30am起身, 2:30am又起身, 之後5am都醒過, 不過自己哭两哭訓返, 起碼訓到今朝十點, 叫做好少少.

慣左豬仔呢两日早起身, 所以我今日豬仔未醒, 我都已經起左身. 搞左一陣電話, 豬仔醒左, 煎年糕做早餐, 餵奶, 自己沖涼.

老公開左隻Roomba吸塵, 返工; 我就一邊跟豬仔玩, 一邊做家務. 見個地實在太污糟, 拖下個地; 見煎年糕隻鍋未洗, 洗埋d碗; 見張床單成三個禮拜無洗, 洗床單... 做做下豬仔扭計, 又要跟佢玩下, 抱下佢, 'tum'佢訓覺. 總之無停過. 煎咗年糕都係有時間食咗三片.

之後跟Dor 食lunch. 有人跟呀仔玩, 起碼可以用少d精神. (真係要萬二分感謝呀Dor, 又帶lunch俾我食, 又幫我'tum'到Evan勁開心. Dor: 你第日生個女喇. 生女我會叫Evan以身相許.)

豬仔訓afternoon nap. Nap nap 下俾樓下大貨車響按嚇醒. Tum定d佢再跟佢玩換片同餵奶.

差唔多八點老公返. 問佢佢先話十點打hockey. 咁咪要九點半出門口! 好彩我無等佢返來已經開始bake pizza. 一邊食pizza一邊寫wedding cards (無再handmade cards 喇, 你估我好得閒呀), 一邊tum 豬仔.

幫完豬仔沖涼, 餵奶. 點知唔瞓. 陪玩到十二點先瞓. 之後拿拿臨揀聴日著嘅衫, 聽曰用嘅嘢, pack diaper bag, pack食奶用品... 豬仔十二點半可能發惡夢嚇醒, tum 返佢訓... 我本來已經好zzz, 不過要熨大少套衫. 之後見開左個iron board, 又擔心老公夜返無時間熨, 熨埋老公件衫. 熨衫唔係我強行, 熨左大半個鐘 (老公回家一句: 我本來聽日早d起身熨... 唉, 呢d咪叫死蠢囉.). 想訓, 發覺張被未入被袋, 枕頭未有枕頭袋. 搞掂好已經两點幾.

老公逢星期五晚打hockey. 我就要一個人搞掂呀仔. 當大部分人都TGIF時, 我就唔係太期望星期五跟週末來臨. 好像今日咁, 好堅既一日. 原來做呀媽真係有超常人既energy. 呢個weekend兩個weddings, 一個birthday lunch, 聴朝仲約咗人. 好忙!

"媽咪, 你咁辛苦, 等我kiss返你啦." <3

咁就3:44am. 晚安.

Shopping Therapy 1: My new toy

2012-01-19T01:02:00.002-05:00

Got myself a new toy today. I was going to wait till I return to work, but after this whole week of sleepless nights dealing with Evan and his fussiness last week, I have decided to treat myself better. Finally I am no longer using a dumb phone. :)

I joked that I will take shopping therapy whenever I have a rough time with Evan. Wakakaka, I will probably be broke by the time he turns one!

Dear Evan...I hope you will sleep better tonight.

2012-01-17T00:14:00.003-05:00

To my dearest dearest Evan baby:

I hope you will sleep better tonight. You've been waking up at 2am and then at 7am the last several nights already. Your last night of waking up at 1am, 2:00am, 3:00am, 5:30am, 7am, and then at 10am was not fun at all ...

(And while I typed this sentence, our little Evan boy woke up from his sleep again. :(

Were you having nightmares? Were you hungry? Were you bothered by something in the environment? Or did I do something wrong, such as the nursing you to sleep at night so that you lost your ability to sooth yourself back to sleep? Or were you just going through another development phase?

It puzzles me how you suddenly went from sleeping 10 hours at night, to waking up every 2 hours. Though you can go back to sleep after nursing or with a pacifier, or both. It still can take up to 30min sometimes to get you back to sleep.

The worst is that you haven't been able to enter deep sleep during the day as well! Just like today, we startled you during every single one of your naps.

(Hmm.. Evan just woke up crying loudly again. :( )

Though you slept at 9:40pm tonight, we startled you at 10:50pm. And after returning to sleep at 11:30pm, you woke up again just now! (Just before midnight)

I hope you won't be waking up every hour tonight. It is not fun for mommy and daddy to hear you cry as if you were really bothered by something at night, and it must not be fun for you not to get a good night sleep as well.

Love,
Mommy

Evan in a hat + Exploring with diapers + Vaughn Mills

2012-01-16T00:52:00.000-05:00

A good weekend, but also a tired weekend. Evan woke up at 2:30am and then at 7:30am the past 2 nights! I want him to go back to sleeping for 10 hours again! Zzz.Zzz.Zzz...

1-14-2012; We have been enjoying some relatively mild weather this winter. Finally the temperature was in the minus-teens yesterday. We had to bring Evan out. I was worried the little guy would be cold, so we put on a hat for him.
His annoyed look plus his big head does not go at all with this cute newborn hat. 下次都係唔好咁懶, 求其攞頂帽就算. 要襯得好少少先得. He looks too funny. :P
!

1-15-2012: Diaper baby 我有好多好多片!

Evan is a big boy now. He is wearing size 3 diapers. 我大個仔喇. 要著三號片.

咦~~ d片有無著過架. 擺o係我個頭到都得既.

So what does Evan do with his diaper (and almost everything else)? First he studies it by looking at it. 呢塊就係包住我屁股既片喇.
He then explores with his hands. 原來可以打開既...And then he would put it in his mouth. Yum yum. 幾好食.
Mommy and Evan
Big fat thighs 肥髀

Went to Vaughn Mills to buy a new top for Ka for Chinese new year. I kept saying we will only look for adult clothes, but ended up spending more time at baby Mexx and Toys R Us. I was nervous about shopping at Vaughn Mills since it is always so busy. But it wasn't too bad. What I liked the most is the family washroom and nursing room. Men can go in to help change diapers while there is an additional section for mommies to nurse their little ones. It makes life so much easier that Ka can be there to help.

Daddy helping to burp the little one 林大爺和林大少

What's Evan so mesmerized by?

Definitely something very interesting...

Ah! It's this ceiling fan! Guess it spins around, just like his mobile. :)

Ok... really need to sleep. Crossing my fingers that Evan won't wake up until tomorrow morning.

Toonie or Loonie?

2012-01-13T09:57:00.000-05:00

Had dinner with EasTa last night. Time always goes by so quickly when chatting with them. At the end of dinner, Evan was given a choice to choose between the Toonie ($2 silver colour coin on the left), or Loonie ($1 gold colour coin on the right). See which one he chose.

Our first family trip: Niagara Falls 玩樂篇

2012-01-11T21:31:00.003-05:00

We went to Niagara Falls for the weekend. Overall, it was a pleasant trip. The weather was surprisingly nice. Evan cooperated for the most part, he slept through the drive and slept through our meals, and woke up when we got to the attractions for photos. Packing for a baby requires so much more than packing for just us. I can't imagine what it will be like packing for a longer trip.

今個trip relax一下之餘另一個目的是試帶豬仔到其他地方過一晚夜. 真係大陣仗. 一晚overnight trip都要寫 "Packing List". 我自己就只帶了一件衫, passport, 和toiletry items. BB就一篋野: 衫五套, 巾仔四條, 外套一厚一薄, 襪子, 片差不多二十條, 藥膏, wipes, 床單, 玩具, 奶樽, 奶嘴, 洗潔精, breast pump, baby tylenol, 再加carrier. 不過唔好以為我誇張地overpack, 我們結果除了一套衣服, 所有野都用過. (還要忘記帶沖涼毛巾.) 有BB之後去旅行真係無咁自由.

"今期豬仔流浪記旅遊特輯介紹的是Niagara Falls Clifton Hill."

"Introducing to you Niagara Falls Clifton Hill"

Canadian Midway 媽咪嗲地拍拖時好鐘意去架. 媽咪成日都玩到唔捨得走. 裡面有好多遊戲機, 玩完可以換玩具架.
"Canadian Midway is one of mommy and daddy's favourite spot to go in the area.""至於我後面呢個圓錄錄既東東係唔係好大好靓呢."
"And behind me is a big ferris wheel!"

"呢個摩天輪叫Sky Wheel, 2006年建成. Skywheel令到成個Clifton Hill都摩登左好多."
"It's called Skywheel."

"Clifton Hill 真係一家大細都口岩玩."
"Clifton Hill is perfect for everyone, old and young."附近有Skylon Tower可以從高處望個falls.
"導演, 拍完未呀. 好眼訓呀."
"Are we done yet? I am getting sleepy."

Niagara Falls聖誕節還有Disney的燈飾.
"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." ~Walt Disney
等我訓多d, 發多d好夢先.

Ontario Niagara Parks. Lights Up Your Life.

我非常鐘意豬仔著呢件jacket. 攬住佢好似攬住隻bear咁.
I love this jacket. It feels like hugging a teddy bear when holding him.
Thanks Joanne and Eric for the Jacket!

媽咪仔 and 我最鐘意的豬仔.
Me and my dear baby.

豬仔扮熊 at the falls. 瀑布變左彩虹色. :)
Falls turned rainbow colour. Pretty. :)

嗲地鐘意呢張相既燈光.
Ka likes the lighting from this photo.

小朋友與小烏龜

2012-01-11T00:50:00.004-05:00

從前有一個小朋友, 佢八八卦卦咁两頭望.

佢成日都好好奇四周發生既事.
正當佢tummy time都要食手指時...

呢個時候, 有隻小烏龜經過.

小朋友扮師獅子去嚇小烏龜: "Rarrrrrr!!!!!"

"其實我嚇下你唶. 我好善良架."同場加映: Teletubby Evan. :) 呢個大頭仔, 成日著衫都卡住個頭.

Evan at 4-month + Misc Photos from January

2012-01-07T00:57:00.002-05:00

有時都好懶唔想寫blog, 因為寫blog就等於少左休息時間, 不過又好鐘意之後讀返.
Evan has grown and developed so many new skills the past month.

From our doctor's appointment 3 weeks ago:
Weight and head size are still 90-97%-tile. Height is at 75%. At least he is growing at a steady (instead of an increasing) rate this month.

New developments:
- Started reaching out to grab things. 初初完全伸都唔肯伸手. 無端端有己一手攞起眼前東西. 最鐘意我個眼鏡和頭髮, 又會搞我件衫, 自己條布布. 依家如果佢對眼前既野有興趣, 佢都會拿起來看看.
- Rolled over from back to front. Rolled non-stop once we put him on flat sturdy surface. 佢好像以為 roll-over 就可以得到自己想要既野.
- Love studying his hands with fond interest. 成日噘起個嘴, 皺起眉去研究自己對手.
- Found his feet and kept looking at them 開始自己掂到自己隻腳.
- Strong feet and neck muscles. Can support himself up with our help easily. Can sit on his own for a short period of time.
- Learned to sleep on his own. All depends on when we put him to bed. He can't go to sleep if there are lots of stimulation around.
- 同佢玩會笑到哈哈聲.
- Started drooling.
- 非常豬事八掛. 食奶換片時超級唔專心. 耳朵好靈敏. 一有聲, 佢就會四圍揾聲音來源.
- 開始有preference有要求, 學識扭計.
- Love it when I read books to him.

Took lots more photos after the new year since Evan was back to his happier self again.

12-30-2011: 肉團團. Chubby baby enjoying his bath.
It is a struggle to bath Evan these days since he wouldn't stop moving.
而家幫佢沖涼好似鬥豬牛咁. 唔係大力踢水, 就係扭腰翻身, 伸腳, 擺手入口(連埋皂水一起)食, "sir" 低個頭去飲水.. 要不斷抱返佢坐正.
"I can touch my foot!'
"摸下我隻肥豬腳先!"

1-3-2012: Evan's looks like this lately when he smiles at people whom he likes. 好作狀.

Tai-chi baby. 豬仔太極拳.真係好鬼鐘意BB既睡姿. 訓到成個指揮家咁. 好搞笑.
BeethoEvan.
個個都話小Evan成日鄒眉, 似好憤怒, 似常在思考.
正如Dor姐姐講: 我大聲唔等於我粗魯. 我鄒眉唔等於我憤怒.
People say I look mad because I frown... Just because I frown, doesn't mean I am mad.

1-4-2012: Interesting facial expression

"各位鄉親父老, 叔伯兄弟. 小弟獻醜喇."表演變臉! 請看哈哈笑鏡.

Evan seems to have learned to smile at my camera.

Happy baby = happy mommy. :)

Party hat Evan

2012-01-03T00:53:00.002-05:00

These two days are much more relaxing comparing to last week. Evan has been cooperating so we had much more free time. 我有時間做個mask, Ka 又有得bubble bath下.

Wish everyone a happy 2012! Grandma found me a pointy hat for my first new year. It adds a few inches to my height. :)

新年快上! 祝大家今年事事順利, 日日開心. EE們唔駛美白d皮膚都白雪雪滑嘟嘟, uncles 們就個個都揾多d啦.

豬仔唔係太鐘意頭頂有野阻住. 笑左兩下已經面有難色.
Evan didn't like to wear hats. His expression doesn't hide the fact that he wasn't impressed.

"頂帽係就係幾靓. 又帶得我幾cute... 不過我帶唔帶都咁cute架啦."
"Do you think I look cute in this hat? Well, I think I look cute whether I wear the hat or not."

豬仔開始唔耐煩, 自己除帽. Started to pull the hat off.

"試下味先. 頂帽點靓都係假. 最緊要好食." Evan taste-testing the hat.

Grandma and me

The Lam family on New Year day, 2012.

To my working friends, happy Tuesday! It's going to be a short week this week! (Yes, always think positive. :))

2011 年大事回顧

2011-12-31T20:25:00.000-05:00

呢個禮拜, 特別是前兩天, 唔知點解, 豬仔非常clingy, 非常whinny. 點tum都唔笑. 一定要抱住先定d,
完全跟之前唔同. 我覺得豬仔像有些東西想要, 但我卻完全看不清. 又不知究竟是他扭計, 還是不舒服, 還是growth spurt, 還是wonder weeks... bb真係日日新鮮, 驚嚇還是驚喜, 就得看這個大爺的心情了. 幸好今日出完街之後, 我們又再一次見到豬仔的笑容, 他又再一次能夠自己娛樂自己.

***

2011年, 有懊惱的時刻, 有擔心的時刻, 但總結來說, 2011過得充實開心. 小Evan的來臨令2011變成我們人生轉變很大的一年.

2011過得充實. 因為知道要跟自由講拜拜. 五月去了Greece babymoon. 現在還能憶起旅行的寫意. 今年亦生活得很健康. 大肚期間一個星期去3-4次gym, 吃又吃得健康, 多了在家吃飯. 三月考了PMP, 可能胎教有方, 豬仔很準時的便要吃.

2011年, 我得到很多身邊的人的愛與關心. 由我大肚到小Evan出世. 謝謝關心過我們的, 謝謝聽我發牢騷的, 謝謝跟我分享我的喜悅的. 更特別要謝謝我的嗲地媽咪, 幫我照顧小Evan的同時, 把我照顧得更加好. 坦白說, 由小至大, 就連自己都覺得我爸媽教導我之餘也一邊spoil我. 他們對我無條件的忍耐和關心, 到我現在身為人母也未學得到.

2011 是開心的一年. 希望2012會更好更充實! Happy 2012 everyone!

Evan's first Christmas

2011-12-28T20:51:00.000-05:00

自從結婚之後, 過年過節就變得忙好多. 始終有兩邊家人, 兩邊朋友.

十二月一月更加忙. 又冬至, 又聖誕, 又新曆新年, 又團年, 又農曆新年...
返工仲可以話聖誕有假期都特別點, 可以休一休.
今個聖誕可能自己本身唔舒服, 始終少左d節日氣氛.
湊仔工作本身已經24/7, 過年過節像要開OT.

不過話o西都係豬仔第一個聖誕, 都係特別既.

豬仔就幸福啦. 好多aunties uncles 姐姐哥哥錫, 收到好多禮物呀!
雖然媽咪仔唔希望豬仔會受物質影響. 不過有禮物既童年真係好快樂!
因為呢d代表小朋友有好多人錫. :)

This Christmas has been busier than usual for me.
I would be lying to say the holidays have been relaxing.
Perhaps because I got sick for the past few days.
I felt pretty overwhelmed by all events happening.

But it is still special since it's Evan's first Christmas after all.
And what a lucky guy. Our Christmas tree was filled with presents for him!
While I don't want Evan to be spoiled by materials, a childhood is still such a happy one to be filled with presents.
When we opened presents, Evan looked at each one with fond interest. :)

On Christmas day... "Dear Santa. Evan's been a good little boy this year."

"I want to wish everyone a Mei-wee Quis-mus and a Hap-pee Nu Yeer."

"So mum, can I open presents now?"

"三蚊件! 三蚊件! 快d黎弟! 咪執輸呀! 買兩件送大大隻BB. 手快有手慢就無架喇...

Fee daw-la, fee daw-la... come buy come buy. Buy two and get a baby for free."

Evan throwing a fit: Nooooo! I don't want to sleeeeeep. I want to party all night!!!
Evan likes the toy from Uncle Pat

To 所有aunties uncles 姐姐哥哥: 多謝!
Thank you everyone for your presents and thoughts!

The very typical Christmas tree photo with grandparents

Another typical Christmas tree photo with mom and dad.

Merry belated Christmas everyone, and a happy new year! From CoKa and Evan.

Oh no, stomach bug.

2011-12-26T14:38:00.002-05:00

Being sick on Christmas day, and the day after... is not fun at all.
Will update Christmas blogs after.

孝順的四月豬 + Dessert buffet photos

2011-12-23T21:57:00.019-05:00

最新消息: 豬仔尋日成功轉身(He could turn from his back to face down yesterday. We teased that he purposely turned yesterday, just in time to earn him another check mark on his development list at his 4-mth check up at the doctor's office. 我地張床變左豬仔既gym.　依家一放底佢佢就扭身扭勢. 換片餵奶都難左好多. It is quite a miracle how babies found all these new skills on their own.)

***

Evan 豬今日四個月大. 呀仔人仔細細已經"好孝順", 帶呀媽參觀噴泉和食大餐...

豬仔尋日打完針發燒. 第一次發燒媽咪仔當然少少緊張. 夜晚起左幾次身check豬仔退燒未. 我好耐未試過一晚起幾次身. 所以今日比較眼訓.

老公今晚打hockey, 原本以為搞掂隻豬仔我就有得訓. 點知...

幫豬仔沖涼. 無端端個沖涼盤仔有條小水柱上升. 哎呀! 豬仔帶呀媽去參觀Saint Evan 噴泉呀!
豬仔個身已經開始起rashes, 實在唔忍心由得佢, 唯有抱起佢, 換過盤水再沖過.
平時一個人幫豬仔沖涼都有點吃力. 今晚仲要洗兩次~

沖完涼, 抹身.
我都已經覺得有件事我唔記得做.
呢個時候, 孝順豬仔傳來溫馨提示: 呀媽, 抹完身請快快趣幫豬仔著片.
1~2~3: BLEHHHH~
隻豬仔請呀媽食..... (都係斯文d好. 呀仔居然o係我地張床上排大便!)
唉~ 毛巾有糞, 床單有糞, 就連我地張床都沾到少少.

豬仔居然還要扭o西腰. 搏鬥一輪先幫佢著到片.
洗完床單再洗佢d衫.
好彩佢乖乖地十點幾就訓. 希望隻豬仔唔好玩野. 最好一覺訓到聽朝.

Uploading photos from last weekend.

12-17-2011: Afternoon tea buffet at Hilton

BBE can't eat the yummy desserts yet. 無份食.There was a nice tall x'mas tree.Another nice x'mas tree with teddy bears as decorations.
But BBE didn't show much interest.

BBE: Over over. Can you hear me. Roger.

BBE was on a mission to sleep.

One more photo. From 12-10-2011. One of the presents that Evan bought for his baby friends.

Silly Evan before sleep time

2011-12-22T23:45:00.005-05:00

After put Evan in his crib the other night, I went off to do our own stuff in the bedroom while Ka stayed in the den working on his computer. Suddenly, I heard laughter coming from the den (where Evan sleeps). I thought Ka was playing with Evan so I didn't think much. But after 15 minutes, Evan was still talking and laughing while Ka was quiet. Curious, I went out to take a look. Evan was laughing at the controls of his mobile! The mobile wasn't on, so there was no music nor light. I have no clue what was so intriguing. It looks silly that he was laughing all by himself.

And tonight he did the same thing again. After 5 minutes, he fell asleep on his own. :D Good job Evan! I am so proud of you!

Doraemon Evan

2011-12-22T01:57:00.003-05:00

Thank you Peggy EE for this super duper cute bib-hat set!! Evan looks so cute in it!

人人期望可達到
我的快樂比天高
人人如意開心歡笑
跳進美夢尋獲美好

爬進奇妙口袋裡
你的希望必得到
離奇神化不可思議
心中一想就得到

Hope everyone to be 如意開心 and hope everyone's 希望必得到!

My parents are back!!!!!

2011-12-19T23:59:00.001-05:00

My parents went away for vacation last week. It was the first time I took care of Evan all by myself for a whole week. It was both exciting and nerve wrecking!

Excited because I had more freedom. I didn't need to tell my parents about my daily plans (in order for them to know which day to help me with Evan or which day I could borrow their car). I haven't done that since I moved out for university, so I wasn't used to reporting my everydays' where-abouts.

I was also nervous because my parents helped me so much with Evan! If not for my parents, I don't know if I would survive the first two months.

So how did last week turned out? Fabulous! It was nice to have the 1-on-1 bonding time with Evan, especially when he was cooperating. I had a full week: various Christmas parties, met up with friends, did Christmas shopping (bravo to myself for pushing the strollers with 2 bags of x'mas gifts and 1 jumbo box of diapers across the mall), put up the Christmas tree, bought clothes for Evan, wrapped presents, organized his photos... and the usual cooking and cleaning up the home, of course. It was nice to be freely going everywhere doing things on my own.

Except for Thursday which Evan seemed to have gotten off the wrong side of his bed, the rest of the week went by smoothly. He was interacting with us and laughing more. He was talking more and could entertain himself for longer. He was also falling asleep better. There were less of his uncontrollable cries.

As for me, I learned to be more efficient. If using the pacifiers for 10 seconds will help sooth the baby, use it; if baby can entertain himself with his fingers for an hour, let him be and stop worrying about him not learning how to interact with people...

Before last week, I didn't feel confident at all about handling Evan by myself; after this week, I feel much more comfortable about handling him. The best part of being the main caregiver of Evan, he now smiles at me and babble to me more! I am no longer recognized as just his food source, which, to be honest, was extremely discouraging.

Happy Evan.

Super duper uuper wupper happy!

2011-12-18T23:14:00.007-05:00

Evan fell asleep on his own for every sleep and nap these past 3 days, without crying and without us carrying him at all!!!!!

Evan usually requires some soothing from us to help him sleep. Even during times when he fall asleep on his own, he still cried for a couple of minutes. These past three days, he falls asleep on his own, without tears!

You wouldn't believe how excited I was. I thought he'd never learn to fall asleep on his own. Hopefully it's not like his rolling where he has the attitude of "Learned that, done that, and not doing that again.". And hopefully it means he will shake his head less when falling asleep and his bald spot on the back of his head would be gone. :-))

And you know something funny? He was playing on his play-gym tonight. He was entertaining himself while I wrapped x'mas presents, cleaned the house, and cooked dinner. When I looked over, he fell asleep!! It was the first time that he gave no sign (aka fussing) at all that he was sleepy, and just fell asleep while playing. That was pretty amazing.

Passed out

It must have been the beer.

E: Mommy made me a nice bow since I was a good boy today.

Chinese baby carrier

2011-12-17T11:54:00.000-05:00

Someone gave Ka's mom a Chinese baby carrier. I have seen people using these types if cloth carriers when I was a kid.

We asked Ka's mom to show me how it's done first in case we needed to help her. Evan didn't like it one bit when I tried.To be honest, I was also uncomfortable with the idea... especially how Ka's mom said she could just throw Evan onto her back by herself. When she pushed me away to show me, my heart nearly fell out.

But Evan was better when grandma carried him.Overall, I don't think he was too impressed though.

Well, 呀麻咁鐘意粒乖孫, 就算我地返去佢屋企, 佢食緊飯都鐘意望實佢. 佢應該都唔捨得背住佢卦...

Playdates with NN 我和NN有個約會

2011-12-15T09:14:00.010-05:00

NN came to visit us when he was just a month. Both Nathan and Naomi were so gentle with Evan. They helped sing, talk, rock Evan... pretty much did anything that would make Evan happy. We enjoyed our dinners while NN helped take care of our little guy.

We visited NN a couple of weeks ago. 媽咪個日一早跟小Evan講: "Carmen EE 好錫小朋友架, NN都鐘意同小朋友玩. 所以小Evan好乖乖咁早上take 個 nap, 好讓去到Carmen EE屋企可以玩耐d.

NN真係好乖. 我們一入門口, 他們已經gave us a warm welcome, 好 gentle 咁同Evan say Hello. NN 又幫我們rock 小Evan, 又唱歌仔俾小Evan聽. NN真係好好好好好好乖! Hope Evan will grow up to be a loving gentle child, just like NN.

Carmen EE loves little kids. :)

Nathan and Naomi reading books to Evan. I was amazed by how much they can read.

Kekekekke. I have always wanted to try putting hair pieces on Evan to see what he looks like. He wasn't too impressed. :P 不過真係好得意呀!

So Carmen EE, when is our next 約會 ? :)

Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle all the way ~. Our first Christmas party.

2011-12-14T10:19:00.003-05:00

Evan attended his first baby Christmas party! It was a wild party with 21 babies and their mommies and daddies! Evan got too excited (and probably got overheat). It also didn't help that mommy's leg was injured so I had trouble carrying him in a comfortable position. So he wasn't exactly a happy camper. But regardless it was good to talk to the other parents and see the babies together. :)

Carrying little Evan in the beginning. 一開始好奇豬仔四圍望.

Then he fell asleep. 豬仔眼訓, 訓覺覺豬, 叉叉電.Feeding the little guy. 醒左就食.

And back to sleep again. 食左又訓.
BBE: No eyes see. 請勿打擾.

Gift exchange. 好多禮物, 呢到係一部分咋!
BBE: "What's going on?..."
好勉強咁既樣. 呀仔, 有禮物收呀.
Evan showed no interest in gift exchange at all. Meanwhile, mommy got so excited that she ran back to grab a present before remembering to pose for photos.Our mission of the evening: Meet girls. :)
當晚重要節目: 識女仔. 不過豬仔唔係太想識女仔咁. 唔係反(轉)面就係黑面.

Evan: I am happy with just mommey. 豬仔: "有呀媽就夠喇!" <3Yummy ice-cream cakes. 雪糕蛋糕好好味!Group pic! 真係 people mountain people sea.

My sports skills 樣樣運動我都精

2011-12-11T23:17:00.008-05:00

Unlike my mommy, I am good at sports. I am not shy about showing off my skills either.
好多樣運動我都曉架.

Volleyball 排球! 有姿勢有實制.

Oh? This is supposed to be a basketball? I can do b-ball. 籃球我都掂.

But soccer is still my favourite. 不過最在行都係足球喇.

Ooops. Kicked the ball to the back. 哎呀, 踢左個波去後面添.

My self invented move: frog legs. 青蛙豬腳.

練習扭球. 噢, 扭到條要都扭埋. 幾認真!

倒掛金勾

Happy Monday! :)

Happy anniversary + Chubby Skeleton

2011-12-09T23:51:00.008-05:00

First, Happy Anniversary to myself and hun! I was hoping to make this anniversary a special one since it's our first with baby. But I have been busy and been carried away by little Evan that I didn't have time to plan anything.

Thinking back our anniversary last year, I used one of those home pregnancy test kits and learned that I was potentially pregnant. I was pretty excited and woke Ka up from his sleep (only to get a response of "Huh? what is this?". :P Well, of course we later confirmed with our doctor about my pregnancy, and our life has been very different since then.

***
Back to talking about our little guy.

Evan has been very much mesmerized by his hands this past week. From crossing his fingers, to touching one hand with another hand. He could entertain himself for a long long time with his own little hands. He even got better at sticking his hands in his mouth. He used to swing his arms around, and when his fist happened to be in front of his mouth, he would suck his fist(s) as if they were the yummiest food in the world. He proceeded to looking at his fists with fond interest, and stuck his entire fist (sometimes both of them) into his mouth. Occasionally, he would suck only one or two of his fingers.

His interest in his mommy (yes, me) dropped to close to zero this week. He no longer turns his head towards me when I talk; he turns away when I stick my head in front of him. He doesn't even cry much for milk this week. I am glad he still shows interest when I read him his night time story (must be from a book though). That's the only time he would look and smile at me now. Definitely not very encouraging. 三個月咋, 咁快將呀媽講既野左耳入, 右耳出.

12-6-2011: Have you ever seen a chubby skeleton before? :) Shirt from Erika.

Evan sitting in his high chair, playing with his fingers. He is like a little boy now! (But he is just 3 months old!)

He cares about my camera more than me.

Evan's latest favourite activity: pretending to walk.
Just lifted him up and pretended he was walking. He got so excited! He had this really proud look on his face when being walked too.

Anyway, I should sleep soon. Weekend is the beginning of a work week for me. Since Ka plays hockey on Friday, I need to get Evan ready to sleep on my own. I also try to take care of more stuff at home so Ka can relax after a week of work. I always knew stay at home moms / house wives bare a lot of responsibilities. Even with my parents' help, it's still a 24/7 job, especially mentally!

開心 Happy Baby

2011-12-06T17:45:00.001-05:00

We were out Saturday the whole day. Evan got too excited in the noisy environment and wasn't able to sleep. We ended up having to carry him for a long time. I thought our arms would break that night. To thank his parents for carrying him, the little guy decided to be a happy baby these two days.

這個星期六很多節目. 一早出了去到很晚才回家. 晚上跟朋友慶祝生日. 豬仔不習慣那又熱又嘈吵的環境, 被吵醒了又睡不著. 可憐我們要抱著他, 真的抱到手都快斷.

(都唔可以怪豬仔, 因為媽咪仔星期六晚出完街, 自己都overly stimulated, 完全訓唔著. 眼光光, 由三點鐘數綿羊數到七點. 差點想叫醒隻豬仔同我玩.... 訓得四個鐘, 所以今日得返半條人命, 今早豬仔醒了都係嗲地陪住, 媽咪扮聽唔到, 繼續訓到死豬咁. 哈哈.)

豬仔可能報答爹娘抱抱之恩, 這兩天超級開心baby.

不過其實主要是豬仔這兩天都睡得好, 又有嗲地公公婆婆跟他玩. 總之今日隻豬仔開心到呢...
豬仔心情好, 反而可以自己跟自己娛樂很久, 又可以自己訓. (當然都要wee wee wah wah 哭幾分鐘.)

過了這兩天令我有所領悟. 與其想盡方法去train 個三個月大的BB不扭計, 何不用多點愛心, 令他開開心心快快活活. 得到愛的小朋友最幸福.

老公晚晚都用電腦做公司野, 無電腦搞相. 一次過放堆random 相.

豬仔而家表情越來越多.
BBE has so many more expressions.

呀婆呀公買左件醒目背心俾豬仔. 呀婆話豬仔襯朱古力色. 太可愛既衫唔襯豬仔.
Little vest from grandparents. Grandma said BBE doesn't go with baby colours, brown fits him much better.

豬仔唔鐘意帶帽. 加上熱底. 呢頂得意帽都應該係淨係有機會影相.
BBE doesn't like hats. We only put on a single layer of shirt for him when we go out with a car seat cover. Yet, he becomes all sweaty even in December weather.
對boot仔係Uncle Kendrick and Aunty Joyce從Nepal帶回來的手信. 希望將來豬仔都可以好像他們般行萬里路.
Little boots from Uncle Kendrick and Aunty Joyce from Nepal. 呢排勁鐘意食手指.
He started putting things in his mouth. He loves chewing his fingers lately.

食到彎腰添.

食到皺眉, 好認真.
Such a serious look.

再來一幅艷照. 好肉呀.
The all meaty BBE.

不過豬仔呢個星期開始食得好少. 埋身餵人奶, 五分鐘十分鐘就食完. 飲bottle都係飲2oz. 唔知係唔係想減肥呢. 希望豬仔會食返正常少少既份量啦.
BBE suddenly ate less this week. For every 3-4 hours, he sucks only for 5 to 10 minutes on breast, or drink only 2oz from bottle. Hope he will eat a bit more later on.

E: 喂, 講夠未呀. 有個呀四餵我食奶, 都重要個呀四幫我"潑"扇.
What's with that expression?

He cares, he cares not.

2011-12-05T08:35:00.000-05:00

When daddy plays with him, he was laughing out loud. (His laughter is getting louder and louder.)

And when I stood in front of him last week, all he cared were his fingers. 咁細個就當呀媽係透明!

What did we do on Evan's 100th day?

2011-12-01T23:54:00.001-05:00

Our little guy turned 100 days today! He must have gotten excited about the events that mommy and daddy planned for him, he woke up at 1am, and then at 3am! Good thing he woke up for a quick morning feed at 8am, and then slept till almost noon. Mommy would have been a grumpy mommy otherwise.

So what did we do today? Since we all slept in, we decided to stay at home instead of going out. I took some pics of little Evan. 婆婆公公下午過來同豬仔玩左陣.

呀仔今朝合埋個嘴仔, 個樣咁斯文既.

我地個個都覺得豬仔overnight好像又大隻左.
He seemed to have grown overnight.

Evan: 呀媽, 你好喇下, 唔好再公開話我肥喇.
Evan: "Stop saying I am fat."

跟老嗲來個合照先. 依家依然好多人話豬仔像Ka.
Many still think Evan looks like Ka.

Admiring daddy "Daddy, 你去返工啦. 我會乖架喇. 會喊少d, 扭少d計."

Evan chilling in his bumbo seat.

Evan: "喂, 仲唔幫我按摩下個背脊?"

We also tried to capture Evan's hand prints.
藍色唔係好甩色, 豬仔隻手變左Avatar 手. 好搞笑. :P

Can only do hand print after baby falls asleep. (We tried foot printing last weekend when he was awake. It was pretty disastrous.)

We had a special dinner. :)

Evan: ":( :( :( I can't eat these anyway ~~"

We got a cake for Evan. (其實都係媽咪想食.)
Green tea-red bean-black sasame cake from Ruelo, so so so good.

So difficult to take a family photo ourselves.

This was the best that we could do.
Evan: "Hmm.. the cake looks good. Can we cut it yet?"

Evan: "I am so ready to have a piece."

I love this photo of Evan and Ka. Two of my favourite boys in the world. :)

吹蠟燭.

Happy 100 days Evan!

Mommies gathering

2011-11-29T23:31:00.003-05:00

What a fun day. Had lunch with other mommies from my prenatal class. I didn't expect there would be 15 mommies and babies showing up! Even with only 15 adults eating, we needed one big section of Go For Tea to park our strollers and place our car seats. :)) We were too busy chatting away that I forgot to take pics. Well, we will see each other next Saturday again anyway. :) :) :)

Guess who this is?

Playdate with baby Nathan

2011-11-28T20:24:00.000-05:00

Baby Nathan came to visit Evan several weeks ago. BBN is so cute! Big round eyes and a beautiful dimple. Babies were behaving. It was soooo cute to see two babies side-by-side together.

They weren't really interacting, except for the accidental hand- and ear-grabbings. But they probably will be in a couple of months!

E: Ooo, nice legs buddy. Can you share with me how to have such great legs?N: Yea. I have this exercise routine that I do when I am awake...
E: (Listening with full concentration)

E: O yea? That's it? Let's try the exercise out!Baby push ups (aka Tummy Time)

哎呀, 無力! Taking a break.

N: Repeat this exercise 5 times a day for best result.
E: Cool, I am going to get the greatest legs in the world!

More photos here.

開心星期五 Happy Relaxing with Dor and Sashimi!

2011-11-27T23:59:00.000-05:00

星期五呀Dor姐姐又黎探我地. 豬仔可能知道有靓姐姐探佢, 超超超超超級合作. 好多次都自己靜靜咁訓著, 起身又無fuss (間直奇蹟!).

We are so lucky that Dor 姐姐 comes visit. She brought such a lovely lunch for me!!!!!! And of course she helped ~~玩隻豬仔~~同豬仔玩 entertain little Evan.

Dor 姐姐, 多謝你件好型既jacket仔. 豬仔特別擺個型仔pose.

Hipster look.

My super delicious sashimi lunch.
有Taro魚生食既媽咪仔實在最幸福! Scallops 重大隻過呀B隻拳頭!

Before Dor came over, I took Evan out for a quick walk in the carrier. He seems to like it a lot because he could see check out his surroundings.

It was a super short walk though. It was too windy for mommy's liking.

Ka has an early hockey game, so I bathed Evan on my own for the first time. Evan was so well behaved that after I played with him for a bit after dinner, bathed him, and nursed him, he went to sleep on his own.

Evan @ 3 months update

2011-11-26T23:59:00.005-05:00

Went for his 3 months check up on Thursday.
Weight: 16lbs 10oz (+2lbs 10oz from last month) - 97%
Height: 62cm (+1cm from last month) - 50-75%
Head size: 42.5cm- 70-75%

He has been growing wide this past month. 由高佬變肥佬喇! I thought he was slowing down with his growth, but at least his height is back to average.

New skills developed:

Discovered both his hands. 成日埋頭苦幹對住自己兩隻手仔. 撩下撩下自己D手指. 撩撩下就成隻擺入個口到食. 食到dap dap聲.
Rolled over from tummy to back. 不過轉左兩日就唔轉喇. 依家用個肚dum頂起自己個頭就算. 都唔知豬仔無力還是懶. Need to practice this more.
Laughing out loud. 好心情時望住自己d玩具都可以笑一輪, 有時候望住鏡見到自己會對住自己傾計和笑. 最近最鐘意對住呀公笑.
Can see things further away. 成日八卦周圍望. When we carry him or change his diaper, he would twist his body around, making things more difficult.
開始多左自己訓著. 擺佢落床有幾次自己訓得著. 特別係拖住佢入睡, 佢就訓得特別好.
Favourite words: "Er", "Mer", "Mah" (He sometimes go "Em Mah"... I know he doesn't know how to talk yet, but I pretend he was calling for me anyway. :))
開始認人認地方. 對著新環境, 陌生人會皺眉頭. 暫時未識驚陌生人.

He loves toys hanging from above, like his mobile, the bears from his play pen, and play gym. If he is not sleepy nor hungry, he can entertain himself for a while, if we are really lucky, up to an hour sometimes! Though he looks at the toys with so much excitement that he would sweats and soaks the back of his PJ. He would even rub his head against his bed, causing a big bald spot at the back of his head and 後面看成個光頭佬. :(

11-24-2011: 一早起身等出門口看醫生

指定動作. 換條新片, 除衫等磅重... 點知一打開條片, St. Evan Fountain就噴喇!
無奈的小Evan
Ka: 我先無奈呀.

就快唔fit個磅喇.

醫生一入黎. Evan皺眉頭望了醫生兩眼就哭.

打完一支vacination, 豬仔又痛, 又肚餓, 所以好crazy咁哭. 回家吃了奶就完全無事喇. 好彩豬仔鐘意食. Perhaps Evan knows he "only" gained 2lb 10oz this month. He no longer sleeps from 10:30am till 8am anymore, but has been waking up for a 4am feed in between the last two nights. :(

Thanks Yuki EE!

2011-11-24T23:29:00.001-05:00

Yuki EE has helped us design this beautiful birth announcement. Thank you Yuki EE!!!!!!!

媽咪: "呢張係Yuki EE幫你 design 的 birth announcement 呀."

Evan: "裡面個BB好靓仔bor... 呀, 原來係10日大既Evan"

Evan: "Thank you Aunty Yuki, (aka Joyce)!"

Happy 3-months!

2011-11-23T22:41:00.003-05:00

Can't believe 3 months have gone by so quickly. Evan gave mommy and daddy a nice present by sleeping from 10:30pm till 7:30am the past two nights. After the 7:30 feed, he entertained himself for a good 30min in his crib before going back to sleep more.

Little Evan is quite a character. He cries for a reason, but there are MANY reasons that would make him cry: He could have just pooped, could be because he was sleepy, could be because he was hungry, could be because he was bored... He is pretty good most of the time, but when he cries, he cries loud! Thus giving people an illusion that he is a cranky baby. I am going to cut this blog post short since the little dude is... yes, you guess it, crying mad. (I better go rescue Ka from the crying Evan.)

Anyway, happy 3-month Evan!

Self-shot. Us @ Nov 23, 2011. Evan is getting really good with looking at the camera.

Evan found his fist, and loves to put it in his mouth.

Pretending to look smart.

Eating outs weekend

2011-11-21T15:05:00.002-05:00

這個weekend, Evan好像比平時fussy. 跟媽咪嗲地出街. 有得食又喊, 訓完都喊, 抱著都喊. 最神奇的是豬仔一秒鐘前可以好開心的笑, 一秒鐘後就好大聲咁喊. 都唔知豬仔係扭計定係真係唔舒服.不知是否3-month的growth spurt, 還是不習慣新環境, 還是身上的粒粒, 還是鼻塞, ... 真令媽咪費解.

不過可能豬仔喊聲大, 我地全家人都開始聾聾地. 我開始對豬仔喊聲隻耳開隻耳閉. 開始無咁易比豬仔出街時大哭stress out到. (希望朋友們唔好怕左豬仔喊聲而離棄我地喇!)

Super cranky Evan. He is soooo loud.

E: Mum~~~ Are you talking behind my back and saying I am cranky?!

Nov 17, 2011: Mommy and daddy decided to eat out for dinner. I haven't gone out for dinner for almost a month!
Pigging out. What a yummy poutine! Too bad I can't drink beer.

Over the weekend, we went to Mansion on Main and then Milestone for brunch. Both meals were quite good. They give a good selection of fruits for my Belgian waffle. And Suday, we went to Milestone for lunch to celebrate Janny and mun's birthdays. Aunty Janny really loves Evan. She loves giving Evan many many kisses. Evan gave a little photo of himself to Aunty Janny as present. :)

E: Hm. I wonder what I should have for brunch... milk, or lots of milk?

Tummy Time!

2011-11-18T22:25:00.001-05:00

Tummy time is supposed to help with baby's spine and neck development, and to decrease the chance of flat head. Evan hated tummy time initially, screaming and crying 5 seconds after we turned him around. My friend then encouraged me to try tummy time for just 5 seconds at a time. We started this 3 weeks ago, he went from lasting only 5 seconds, to a good 5-10minutes now!

Ka thinks that since his head and upper body are so heavy. They make it more difficult for him to tummy time. :P For me, I am sure his spine and neck would develop, but I was worried about him accidentally turning himself one day, and not know how to lift his head up.

Oct 31: This was already a very significant lift 3 weeks ago.

Nov 1: Then suddenly after just 2 days of tummy time practice, he could lift his head up, but only for 1 sec.

Nov 7: From the top. 大頭大屁股. :P

Nov 10: Higher and longer. 高左好多. 又耐左.

Nov 13: Using both his arms to support. 識用兩隻手抬高自己.

And on Nov 17 (12 weeks) He was able to roll over to his back!

Evan loves chocolates!

2011-11-17T22:14:00.003-05:00

Baby just learned how to laugh out loud over the weekend.

自拍 Self shots

2011-11-14T22:18:00.001-05:00

隻豬實在太鐘意望鏡頭. 影左七張self shots, 有六張都望鏡頭.
We took the photos this morning. So funny, out of 7 photos, Evan looked at the camera for 6 of them.

原來奇蹟係會發生嘅. 尋晚豬仔神奇地合作，八點多睡了. 當我地十二點猶疑好唔好叫醒豬仔食奶, 佢突然從惡夢中驚醒. 我快快趣dream fed佢, 五分鐘後佢又自自然然進入夢香. 這一睡又睡到四點半! 我心想豬仔訓左九個鐘 (他之前七點已經開始nap), 點都起身啦. 所以Ka幫豬仔換好片時. 我繼續唔願起身, 一直都live in denial, 希望自己在發蒙中, 希望只不過係自己夢見隻豬仔起左身.

餵完奶, 五點鐘, 豬仔鬼咁精神, 放落張床仔俾佢望下個mobile好讓我地可以訓多少少先起身攪佢. (佢自己多數可以entertain到自己二十分鐘.) 本來我只係諗住閉目養神. 點知唔小心訓著左. :P 訓左三十分鐘, 起身... 望下個baby cam... 隻豬仔居然自己瞓咗!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (有無留意我用勁多exclamation marks 呢. 因為豬仔都差唔多未試過安靜咁自己瞓.) 超級開心. 佢咁一訓就訓到八點半喇! 食完玩一陣又nap多大半個鐘. 實在太合作! 豬仔都係間中一次先咁乖架咋. (依家已經大喊要嗲地aum訓覺 :P.) 所以真要好好紀錄一下.

個個都夠訓. 齊齊起身做tummy time!

Amy EE's baby shower + Bumbo Seat + more.

2011-11-13T22:11:00.015-05:00

A very eventful weekend for little Evan. May be that's why he napped so little during the day today and fell asleep around 8pm (even before we started cooking our dinner). 隻豬仔八點幾訓左所以我地今晚可以好得閒. 不過夜晚快樂既時間係建築於我地聽朝要早起痛苦既身上. (無理由expect呀仔會八點訓到十點. :P) 都係快D upload 完相去訓覺.

This weekend... Evan Skyped with his uncle Pat.
He wore a UK bus shirt to show how much he misses his uncle.

This weekend... we attended Amy EE's baby shower.

It is so rare that we have a family photo. (Thanks Dor!!)

Dor姐姐係第一個幫Evan"gut"針既人. 不過Evan好鐘意呢個Dor 姐姐架!
Thank you o西呀慈母Dor, 幫我babysit Evan, 仲幫我"aum"隻豬仔訓覺!

This weekend... we went to Toys R Us to buy a Bumbo seat for Evan.

This weekend... Evan bent his back to admire his daddy.
(First time Evan bent like this on his own.)

This weekend... mommy suddenly thinks I look like 阿桔 from 我們這一家.

This weekend... Evan seemed to have gained even more weight. Look at those thighs.

正義 (Justice) look. (To Mike: Can he be your super hero follower?)

This weekend was a good weekend. 明天要上班的朋友們: Happy Monday 呀!

Evan @ 11 weeks

2011-11-10T23:16:00.004-05:00

看了兩本Baby Whisperer的書, 當中談到S.L.O.W. (Stop, Listen, Observe, What's up) 的 approach 和 E.A.S.Y. (Eat, Activity, Sleep, You) 的 routine. 這兩個星期給小Evan 較routine的生活, 再放慢去留意他的需要, 對小Evan加深了了解. 雖然依然日日新鮮, 但開始分得出他的哭聲,對handle 小Evan是較得心應手. 他也似乎睡得更好更長.

Evan上個星期九點半就嚷著要吃. 我們通常都先幫他洗白白, 然後餵他. 十點半,十一點左右就睡. 一睡就睡到六點! (昨晚睡到六點半呢! ) 唯一頭疼的就是豬仔還不太懂自己入睡. 不過我知他也努力嘗試. 我不喜歡把他獨自放在床仔由他哭. 我們採用了Pick up / Put down approach. 哭了抱起他, 到他calm down 了便立刻放他落床仔, 哭了又再抱起他. 目的是讓他可以學習自己入睡, 又不會令他覺得被遺棄. 幸好他是個喜歡睡覺的BB. 若沒有over stimulate他, 他也算能很快入睡. 這隻仔只要他肯，學習得很快. 起碼現在睡夢中驚醒懂自己繼續去睡.

個身好撗 (像爸爸). 手仔就細細. 腳仔開始漲book book. 大腿越來越肥美.

昨天開始懂得望鏡中的自己．懂得對著鏡中的自己笑．

Nov 7, 2011: Looking at himself in the mirror.

非常八掛．對四周圍發生的事存有好奇心. 抱起他時四處望. 條頸這個星期開始有力.

心情靚時（瞓夠）會發放勁燦爛的笑容去吸引別人的注意。一早及睡完晏覺心情最好. 開始認人. 早上起身會對我開心的笑; 嗲地放工回來, 豬仔也會對嗲地勁笑.
改了鐘後豬仔早了起身. 六點那餐我餵他奶時在釣魚中. 他竟給我報以極燦爛的笑容. 真被他激死.
兩個多星期前才開始讓他tummy time. 由一日只做10秒(還要是手完全無力）到今天已可lift 高自己個頭數分鐘了。

Evan 的moto大慨是＂Work hard, play hard.＂ He also投入地食，全情的玩, 專心的訓覺, 也用盡力去喊.

Nov 8, 2011: Evan and mommy @ Week 11.

Can't believe he even looked at the camera for our self-shots.

E: Hi beautiful 靓女~
(Notice the victory sign on his right hand.)

E: "I am 11 weeks old. I am a big boy now, and ready to go to work!"

Grandma burping Evan.

Evan... a girl?

2011-11-06T15:43:00.002-05:00

All except for one person guessed we would have a boy when I was pregnant. Even the old man sitting next to me on my flight from London back home said he was 100% sure I was carrying a boy.

Since Evan was born, I hear mostly people saying Evan looks exactly like Ka, and that no doubt he is a boy. So out of curiosity, I created these images to see what he would look like if he was a girl.

Black hair + my glasses. Does he look more like me now?

With a bright pink flower. :)

Sorry baby, I will make sure these photos won't show up on your wedding day.

原來我可以... + Photos from Week 9

2011-11-02T23:50:00.017-04:00

11-03-2011 (5:30am): Evan is still sleeping since I fed him at 10pm last night! This may sound weird, but I actually miss him waking up in the middle of the night?!

Evan的來臨可以是我人生最大的改變. 幸好我有嗲娘幫忙, Ka又非常supportive, 我還未至於完全失去所有自由. 還能夠剪個頭髮, 約下朋友食lunch. 不過很多東西未生BB是想像不到原來我可以做得來的.

原來我可以...

原來我可以望著BB的大小二便都可以面不改容. 還可以一邊看著別人替小Evan換片, 一邊吃東西. 試過Evan小噴泉請我們"飲茶", 我竟可以一手擋著.
拿起 15lbs 的 Evan加 car seat 四處走動.
原來我可以在Evan出世頭兩個禮拜, 最多每次只可以睡一個多小時也能function.
上網找nursery的lyrics學怎樣唱童謠.
真正擔心另外一個人.

Photos from the past weekend.

10-29-2011: Family photo. Evan成個肥紳士咁.

** 10-30-2011 **
Evan再一次model舅父仔買的Arsenal波衫.
小肥腿 Legs got chubbier.Cranky Evan. 苦瓜樣一樣可愛.

** 10-30-2011 **
Weather was nice, so we went for a walk.
第一次directly坐張stroller, 終於可以front-facing. 呀仔看落大個做好多呀! (又再一次要提醒自己, 豬仔只是個兩個月大的BB.)

It was chilly out, Evan was nice and warm in his bear fur jacket.
(抱著這樣穿的 Evan 好像攬著隻bear-bear-熊. :))同隻豬仔合照先. Mommy, Evan, and a bit of fall colours.

我地去買Bubble Tea.
Evan enjoying his bubble tea. :) Yummy!

Fun fun Halloween party

2011-10-29T23:36:00.004-04:00

Evan attended his very first party! We went to a Halloween party with our prenatal class classmates. 16 babies! All dressed in super cute costumes. :)

Evan was dressed as Pillsbury dough boy. But many just thought he was a chef. :) Hat and his little neck tie were home made. (Thanks grandma for sewing the neck tie for Evan!) We got many many praises.

During the group photo session, many babies were crying, parents were moving around to sit up their babies or fixing their costumes, other parents were calling out to grab babies' attention....), it was a bit chaotic. Yet, our little Evan slept through it all. :P That made him even cuter. Everyone said Evan looks like he was deep in thoughts, thinking up what yummy dishes to cook. :) I thought he just looked drunk. :P

Our homemade costume won second best costume of the night, with just 1 vote less than the winner. :) I can't be more proud of this little guy. I should share the instructions for this easy-to-make costume later on. It is cute and cost almost nothing. :)

Pillsbury dough Evan

Group shot. All the babies were sooo cute! :)

Big group shot with the parents.Evan: Mommy, I don't want to cook! I want to eat instead!!!

Evan @ 2 months update

2011-10-25T23:36:00.002-04:00

We took Evan for his 2 months check up yesterday. He was quite ok with his first set of vaccination, only cried for 2 seconds, and stopped immediately after doctor gave him a dosage of the yummy medicine. 正一餵食仔, 咁容易就俾人"tum"到.

10-24-2011: On our way to the doctor's office.

We waited for an hour for our doctor. Evan was beaming smiles at us, and then fell asleep.

Anyway, at 2 months:

** Physical **

Weight: 14lbs! (What a leap from 50th percentile last month to 90-95th percentile this month!)
Height stays at 90th percentile.
Head size stays at 75th percentile.

Top: Several days after he was born.
Bottom: 2-month check up.

I kept hearing comments that he is the size of a 3- or even 4-month-old baby. :P No wonder he feels so heavy. (唉, 早個禮拜買左d size 3-6 Month 既衫仔居然只係just-fit.)

Switched from Size 1 to Size 2 diapers last week. He uses about 12 diapers a day, sometimes changing 2 to 3 diapers for one feed. (We certainly make sure he keeps a clean bum-bum.)

Smelly dude: This guy stinks! He sometimes poos or farts when being nursed. It stinks sooo badly that we must change his diapers or fan off the smell before resuming the feeding. There was one time I was curious what it feels like inside the nursing cover, so I stuck my head in. Boy, I nearly suffocated with his stinky-fart-bombs. :P

** Communication **

Crying is the way babies communicate with us. He cries when he is hungry (but more calm-able now), and when he is tired (and when we fail to provide a quiet comfortable environment for him to sleep). BB當然會哭. 我越來越明白Evan的不同哭聲, 他也越來越有耐性, 哭得越來越少, 也少了一開始便大哭的情況.

** Sleep **

I learned how to read his sleepy cue better and he is getting better at falling asleep on his own. 豬仔11pm訓, 睡前我們通常都會跟他唱lullaby和講故事 (雖然他累了便不太喜歡聽故事).'

Sleeps pretty well at night. Can sleep between 4 to 6 hours. At night he usually goes back to sleep immediately after a short feed, but strangely he started waking up an hour shortly after the early morning (around 7am) feed, as if something startled him from his sleep.

豬仔好像會發夢. 有時訓訓下會郁下個嘴, 再笑得好開心. 像食奶食得好幸福咁. 又會扁起個嘴. 最近試過幾次訓訓下突然好驚咁大咸, 像是被惡夢嚇醒.

** Eat **

It takes me 10 to 30 minutes to nurse. Still feeding him on his demand, usually between 2.5 to 3hrs per feed during the day. 食夠隻豬仔自己"mung"番自己出黎. 再餵佢就會"dood"長個嘴, 拒絕再食, 個樣"招招積積". 食飽飽鐘意小睡數分鐘先起身跟你玩. There was one time that I fed him on bottle and found he was eating 4oz of milk.

** Activities **

Smile: He learned to smile and "coo" at people, especially at mommy and daddy. 好鐘意跟我地傾計. 跟豬仔講野佢會郁郁下個嘴, 好像學我們講野咁. 鐘意擺手踢腳. 超級鐘意洗白白.

最鐘意佢張bouncy chair. He can entertain himself in his bouncy chair for an hour, and often fall asleep in it on his own. 成個大老爺咁. Enjoys story books sometimes. He likes his animal and alphabet books more. He prefers Chinese over English when being read to.

Started sucking his finger (more like his fist) and started staring at them. Slowly learning those are his little hands. (It's so cute to see him staring at his own hands. :)) 玩手仔. 上個禮拜開始懂得放隻拳頭仔入個口, 不過隻豬仔都未control到隻手. 呢幾日就成日望住自己隻手, 開始知道個隻就係自己隻手仔喇.

Evan goes out everyday. May it be grandparents' home, the park, restaurants, the mall... He loves going out, and loves to be surrounded by people. 次次出去都訓.

Top: During first month
Bottom: 2-month old Evan.

Happy 2-month old Evan!

2011-10-23T23:53:00.001-04:00

Remember when Evan turned 3 weeks old, he celebrated it with firemen who came to our building for a false alarm? At 2 months old today, he was greeted again by firemen. This time at Fairview Mall! (It was the first time I experience a fire alarm inside the entire mall.) 估唔到兩個月大既BB已經走過兩次火警. 好彩BB唔係叫林木木. 木怕火嘛.

Lego event @ Fairview Mall, before fire alarm.

"Do you know what I did on my 2 months birthday?"

Took pictures, of course.

Alright, daddy took photos of me.

Happy Evan and his teddy friend. 甜美的笑容.

笑到眼都唔見了.

估唔到笑兩笑, 媽咪嗲地就唔記得我呢幾晚夜一夜都唔肯訓. (奸笑)

晚上: 跟媽咪d MBA同學食飯.
訓足成晚dinner!

BB 聽日 2-month check up. 聽日再做成長紀錄喇!

咖啡累事

2011-10-23T00:46:00.002-04:00

唔知係唔係咖啡茶等咖啡因飲品累事，我喝罷咖啡當天小Evan都很難入睡，成個人好似傻咗咁，完全無原因咁喊。(最近Evan開始懂自己在牀仔入睡, 所以那種喊絕不是扭計喊咁間單）。唉，睇嚟我要停止飲我最鍾意嘅茶先得。

Parenting workshop

2011-10-20T13:58:00.009-04:00

Something I missed the most after having Evan are regular adult activities: going to work, meeting with friends for dinner or desserts whenever I want, going to the malls without having to find the elevator... Going for my haircut last week felt like a huge treat.

I signed up for a 6-weeks parenting workshop. The first session was yesterday. It was a networking opportunity for mommies, sharing our experiences. The best part was that we were able to talk to other adults (mommies). And we didn't need to worry about our babies crying distracting others, since all babies cried. (Surprisingly, except for Evan, who was sleeping the entire time -- The nice thing about bringing 8-week-old babies out. :))

Some photos from over the weekend -

10-15-2011: Evan @ mall.
Like most guys, malls don't interest Evan. He slept all the way.

10-17-2011: Hat and shirt from grandma.

Didn't get much chance to wear it, and it is already getting small!
(Looks like he is going to play golf. :) 好可愛!)

10-17-2011: Happy when being bathed.

Hair is long enough for some wacky styling. :)10-18-2011: Evan staying awake and happier for longer. 可愛的包包面. 眼仔好奇的四圍望.

Visiting a new baby friend

2011-10-16T23:55:00.001-04:00

Took Evan to visit Baby R last Friday. They are only 4 weeks apart. But at this stage, Evan is twice as old as Baby R! 係大呀哥黎架.

星期五帶Evan去探Baby R. Evan第一次跟細過自己的bb"玩". 兩個BB擺埋一起, 感覺好可愛呀!!
Baby R 好calm好乖. 起身之後都唔會扭計. (我不斷讚Baby R. 唔知Evan係唔係聽完妒嫉. 之後好fussy. 到後來跟他講媽咪都係最鍾意小Evan, 隻豬仔就乖返喇. 昨晚仲連續訓左六個鐘添呀!)

Evan and Baby R

Evan was so restless. Shaking his head back and forth.

Once we put them together, Evan and Baby R held hands on their own!

R: 喂! 男男授授不親呀!
Evan got rejected on the spot. :) 被拒絕好無奈. (仲ling o西頭添呀.)
R: 我地拖住手好難識女仔嘛... 我一陣帶你去玩. 你跟住我就得架喇. 不過唔好俾d大人知wor.

Curious Evan 八八卦卦: "咦. Dor 姐姐, 你部電話mut野型號架?"

I love Evan's chubby cheeks. 我超鐘意呢張相. 包包面既小Evan好可愛!

It was such a nice relaxing afternoon. We gotta have more get togethers!

Evan's smile

2011-10-15T00:53:00.002-04:00

Evan started smiling more this week. He smiles when we talk to him. He smiles the most in the morning after a good sleep and feed; and in the afternoon after his nap and another good feed. :)

It is difficult to capture his smile since he doesn't smile too often. And once I take the camera out, he only stares at the camera, and not at us.

Random photos @ Week 6

2011-10-12T23:18:00.015-04:00

Evan finally smiles because he feels happy! He doesn't smile a lot yet, only right after he has a good sleep and a nice feed, but when he does, his smile is so sweet that it melts our hearts. :D Not sure if he recognized me, but he's greeted me with bright big smiles when I go up to him.

Random photos taken during last week.

10-07-2011: Evan loves being bathed. Photo taken after bath. He looks more like a baby than when it's combed to one side.

He still has this smile from his natural reflex after I nurse him, which I find quite cute.

10-08-2011: Random matching colour shirts, without intention.
Evan's arm is moving so much.No doubt Evan looks like Ka... same sleep posture, same facial expression.

10-09-2011: Many expressions after feeding him. 食完奶... 個樣寸到呢...

通嗲地玩緊既Evan. 咁快學mung耳仔?

媽咪最愛的豬仔腳

Richmond Green + 父子裝

2011-10-11T23:35:00.000-04:00

豬仔同媽咪仔好鐘意去街街. 無出街就"囉囉亂". 自從Evan三個星期開始, 我地日日都會同豬仔出下街: 到公園散步, 跟朋友食lunch, 去Walmart買野. 之前豬仔出街都係咪埋眼, 早兩日終於懂得開眼留意一下四週的東西. 雖然只能維持10-15分鐘...

The weather was so beautiful this past weekend. The CoKa Family decides to go to the park together. We went to Richmond Green on Sunday to walk around and took some photos of little Evan. We purposely put on the matching shirts that Dor姐姐 bought Ka and Evan.

I am da little monster!
And here is my daddy monster.
(Evan looks so much like me when I was a baby in this photo.)
"I am the king of the world!!!!!"
Once we got to the park, Evan woke up.The happy face only lasted 15 minutes before he turned into this...Family photo

We ended up having to carry him to the parking lot and took photos there. :P

The curious baby Evan"有爸的孩子都像個寶架

"Baby... 你點呀. (How are you?).

"咪又係咁. 我又未有車牌, 可以點wor."

Samko and Miko Toy Warehouse + Start of hockey season

2011-10-07T03:05:00.001-04:00

Wow!! Evan slept from 11:30pm till 4:30am the night before!! It was the first time I have a 5 hours of continuous sleep since he was born!! It felt so... strange. I woke up 4:20am, finding our condo extremely peaceful. (Usually we would hear little stretching or breathing noise.) It took me a minute to remember the existence of Evan, so I dashed out of my room to check if he is still there. He was moving a little bit, but quietly. He finally woke up so I fed him quickly and put him back to sleep. It was so nice to sleep for 5 hours. Although I was wide awake (from the excitement?) afterwards that it took myself another 30min to go back to sleep. :P

***

Evan has a lot of expressions after a feed. 我成日笑小Evan吃完奶表情多多, 像要選金像獎.

Staring at mommy. "口夷! 你係mut水呀?"

Evan started to smile more. Especially after feeding him, he would give us many smiles. I caught him smiling this morning on camera. "多謝呀媽俾奶我食!"

A big yawn. "成日攞個相機對住我, 你唔悶, 我都悶喇."

Evan 個樣好老積. 難得呢幅相影得BB少少.

Yesterday, we took Evan to a toys warehouse sale! There isn't much people on a weekday, and there were other mom's with their newborns, so it was relaxing to walk around. At least I don't need to worry if Evan wakes up crying. (But he felt asleep throughout the trip anyway.)

10-06-2011: Samko and Miko toy warehouse sale

I bought him some books and a new toy.

Hmm. Didn't realize Evan's head was this tilted to one side. Should have put a rolled towel to support next time.
And at night...

Getting the chips and beer ready for the hockey season... Need to get the little guy a hockey shirt instead. :)

Evan @ 6 weeks

2011-10-05T13:52:00.002-04:00

Things prone to happen when they shouldn't. We put Evan in my very favourite white PJ, and guess what? He threw up milk several times! Fine, I told myself. I won't get him stripped during the middle of the night because of the little milk stains. But then guess what happened? He pooped, and it leaked!!! The leak was so bad that it was through his undershirt, the PJ, the receiving blanket, and my 2 layers of PJs! Grrr. The little guy just learned how to smile and gave us a lot of smiles in return after we changed him, but we would rather he not give us the diaper leak and just give us the smiles.

***
六個星期的小紀錄

小Evan 每天都有不同的轉變. 這一個星期小Evan懂性了點. 醒了終於不是立刻哭, 有時候懂望來望去; 大概一半時間可以自己坐在他的bouncy chair或聽著他的mobile去自己入睡 (不過如果讓他有一兩次甜頭, 當他睡著也抱著他, 他就會go back to 每次睡覺也需要抱, 很困身.).

開始懂得對著人笑. 週末我已經覺得他不只是吃完奶入睡前那閉著眼睛的笑容 (those are natural reflex), 而是醒了當我們跟他說話時, 他也會開心的報以微笑. 這隻豬仔大部分時間都是皺眉頭, 突然來的笑容就像曇花一現, 好令我們心甜.

手腳有力. 開始alert旁邊的東西. 在他的playgym上, 他懂四周望. 雖然我不覺得他懂得控制他的小手, 那手還是四處舞. 幫他換片, 他不斷把他的豬腿踢, 很多時都把自己push up到changing pad 以外, 又會把旁邊的東西 (如我們幫他抹屁股的那盤水) 掃開.所以, 我們現在換邊時都要打醒十二分精神. Overnight 像重了很多. 今早一磅, 12lbs 了!

我們買了條carrier. 昨天剛嘗試帶小Evan去公園走了一圈. 出外走走吸吸新鮮空氣, 人也開心點.

去相. 豬仔@10-03-2011:

豬仔with his 面豬dun. Evan and his fat little cheeks.

豬仔大腿開始肉肉地. His thighs are slowly getting chubby. :)

"唔制呀! 你話人地肥既!!"
"Wah~~ stop saying I am chubby!"

豬仔sleeping in his favourite bouncy chair.

老積BB

2011-09-30T05:42:00.007-04:00

Evan went to sleep at 10:30pm and slept till 3:45am last night! Funny I was the one who woke up at 1am thinking Evan was crying for milk. :P As a result though, he was more awake after waking up at 3:45am and seemed to want to eat more. But the longer hours of sleep for me was definitely good.

餵完奶到媽咪仔肚餓. 一邊喝前晚剰的花膠湯, 一邊寫埋個blog post先.

***

Evan呀公話Evan D相成日都係咪埋眼, 無辦法啦. 當BB不是睡的時候, 我地就要金精火眼的望實佢, 那有時間幫佢拍照! 不過早兩日見Evan穿了件"大人衫", 幫佢影了些精精神神的相. 我都係快D飲完湯去訓, 還是快點兒去相吧.

"我咁著好似大個仔去返工咁." "I look like I am dressed for work. :)"
~Baby Mexx shirt from Uncle John and Aunty Bonnie ~"返工可以賺錢." "I can earn money when I go to work."

"我要賺好多好多錢." "I want to earn lots and lots of money."
"我大個要做老闆!" "I will be the big boss.""賺左好多錢要黎買架跑車俾媽咪嗲地." (We wish...)
"... then I will buy my parents a fancy sport car. :)"

"Hey... stop putting words in my mouth. If I have the money, I would buy lots and lots of milk first."

老積完畢, 變回BB.

包包面+小拳頭. Chubby face and baby fist. 媽咪最愛.

"Oops, 俾人見到我偷食薯片添!"

Grandma burping baby. Show off 下個雙下巴. :)

Evan @ 5 weeks update

2011-09-27T23:54:00.003-04:00

Took me a week to write this post...

Measured on Thurs, Sep 22, 2011:

Weight: 9lb 13.8oz (50 %tile) 2lb 13.8oz increase from birth.. As of Sunday night, he was close to 11lbs.
Height: 58cm (90 %tile) 7cm increase from birth
Head: 39cm (75 %tile)

豬仔開始長肉. 個面就漲得最明顯. 大腿有摺位. 雖然我不覺得BB需要太胖, 他的肥肉始終是媽咪仔的驕傲. 腳仔開始有點兒漲book book. 腳指仔一粒一粒, 很可愛. 媽咪就最鐘意一邊餵奶, 一邊欣賞呀仔的腳仔. 我好鐘意kiss呀仔既面豬登 and 嘴仔.

食奶食得好左. 無之前咁每次食30至40分鐘. He cries like mad when he wants food. But he seems to know we are prepping him for food and know to calm down for a bit. Growth spurt happened on 1-week, 2-week, 3-week, and 1-month. 一growth spurt就好難搞, 所以我都幾怕growth spurt.

After a feed, he takes a 3 min "nap" with lots of sweet smiles on his face (his natural reflex). At night, we usually can put him to his crib and he would sleep for several hours. It is more difficult to get him to sleep during the day. He can sleep for 3 and sometimes 4 hours at night, but only 30-40min naps during the day.

Baby is moving his hands and kicking his legs a lot. He also likes stretching when he is done eating. 一d都唔細力! He is able to move his head one side to another, to follow his Eeyore rattle and to check out different toys on his play gym, while lying on his back. He likes his bouncy chair and play gym. He loves music. He can be calmed by music most of the time.

Peeing and Pooping lots. At least 1 soiled diaper at every feed. Sometimes even one before and two after! Loves farting and pooping during feed. (Which stinks!) Had a good number of open air accidents. 一個多星期前已經由NewBorn 片轉到Size 1喇!

Can't sleep on his own. Cries when he is tired. Need to be carried, put in his bouncer, or nursed to sleep. I don't want him to have to cry too hard to sleep, but am not sure how else this can be 'trained'.

Love to be with people. He sleeps better when he knows someone is talking around him.

Evan's first wedding

2011-09-26T21:30:00.000-04:00

Holy cow, can Evan tell time or something? We have set our alarm clock for 7am, 8am, and 9am on different days this past week. This little guy always wake up just 5-10min before the alarm goes off! (Sometimes from an 1-hour sleep, sometimes from a 3-hour sleep!) That's just crazy.

***

Evan attended his first wedding on Saturday! I was a bit nervous seeing how Evan "behaved" during his growth spurt the day before, so we made different back-up plans in case Evan was fussy.

But it turned out we didn't need to worry much. This little Mr. alarm clock woke us up just 5 min before our planned wake-up time. After feeding him, it gave us enough time to dress ourselves to drive to the wedding.

He fell asleep at home already, and stayed more-or-less peaceful until almost the end of ceremony when the couple was announced "men and wife" and everyone clapped. Evan was just too touched and couldn't hold back his tears anymore.

Evan in his little "tux". He got many compliments that day. :)

With the newly wedded couple.

There was an hour between ceremony and banquet. Mr. Evan made sure he got fed during the
"intermission". Evan had no interest in banquet food so he slept through most of it. (Except when they announced the entrance of the couple when Evan also got excited and cried out loud... I suspect the clapping startled him.) Mommy and Evan had our first dance by swinging Evan back and forth as the couple was having their first dance. Let's just say I quite enjoyed that moment. :)

Happy zzz son, Happy parents.

嗲地媽咪的第一次: 幫BB沖涼 (CoKa's first time bathing Evan)

2011-09-25T23:20:00.001-04:00

一直以來都是婆婆麻麻幫BB洗白白. 今晚我們嘗試自己幫呀B沖涼. 嗲地抱著呀B, 媽咪負責幫呀B抹身. 呀B居然哭也沒哭! 第一次沖涼好成功呀!
First time we bathed Evan. Ka carried him, while I helped clean him up. He seems to enjoy mommy and daddy bathing him.

09-25-2011: Evan enjoying his first bath by his daddy and mommy

Daddy and Evan

Evan had a tough time going into deep sleep since last night. And having to wake up since 6am for different appointments for the past few days, I was truly exhausted. Good thing some aunties and uncles came by to visit and helped us carry little Evan. It was a nice little break for us. Thanks Ka for taking care of little Evan today so I could take my power naps.

Ka managed to take a 5min nap. I caught them sleeping the same way!
(We did not purposely pose for this photo.)

Look at how small Evan is in our bed!
(And no, we don't let Evan sleep on our bed unless we have our eyes on him.)

Heehee. He is so cute, especially when he is not fussing.

1-month Evan

2011-09-23T22:23:00.006-04:00

09-23-2011: Evan @ 1 month. He was very anxious.

~ Hoodie from Aunty Losanna ~

Evan turned 1 month today! While it is an exciting milestone, little Evan certainly know to pick this special day to go through his growth spurt. It started yesterday when he didn't sleep much at my parents' already. It continued at night. He demanded a feed every 1.5 to 2 hours, needed to be nursed for at least 30-40min, and then continued to fuss for 20min afterwards. He then slept on and off for 30min and the cycle starts over again. (I knew I would have jinxed myself when I mentioned how good Evan has been at night...) So I had to feed him at 1am, 3am, 5am, 7am, 9am, 11am, 12:30pm... then 3:30pm, 6:30pm, 8:30pm...

This morning we returned to the hospital because they needed us to bring Evan back for blood work. Ever since they called me yesterday, I have been feeling a bit down (and no, I am not experience postpartum depression). They had to cut baby's ankle to get the blood and I have seen how Evan screamed from the pain the first time he went through it. Hopefully the test results will show to be ok though.

This was the first time I was with Evan alone outside. It wasn't easy especially he was already fussy from his growth spurts. But both Evan and I did it! (After lots of crying and lots of people came out from their offices to check if Evan was ok... Some probably thought I kidnapped him. I also fed Evan for the first time outside!)

Little Evan was certainly testing his mommy's patience (which I didn't have a lot to begin with :P). Regardless, grandparents came up and we enjoyed a sushi and wings dinner. Mommy had California rolls which was already a nice start. :)

110923: Funny sleep posture. He is growing too big for his bassinet.
Good thing he likes his crib in the computer room too. :)

Our date night

2011-09-22T23:55:00.001-04:00

Evan was able to sleep for 3.5hrs to 4hrs straight at night! (Somehow this baby seems to know night time is for sleeping on his own... at least for now.)

Anyway, Ka's mom offered to look after Evan so we could go out for Ka's birthday dinner. So we went to TenRen's for a baby-free meal. Although Evan wasn't there, we couldn't stop thinking and talking about him, comparing him to the other babies at the restaurant.

We came home and Evan was still sound asleep, very 合作.

Evan went out a lot today: Pediatrician appointment, walk in the park with mommy, visiting grandparents, and then lunching with daddy and friends.

Lunching with my daddy on his burfday.
I tried to be good until I got into the car. It was wayyy too hot for my liking.

Daddy and Mommy's date night

Grandma helped little Evan buy a cake for Daddy. Thanks grandma!

It's not a good habit to give baby a blanket, especially Evan moves around in his sleep now. But then we had a diaper leak accident and he wet his sleep sac. Look at him 30min into his sleep. 大腿開始肥美啦!

** 09-21-2011 **
"Hmmm. Mommy is dressing me way too warm...""Oh well, at least I look smart with my army pants."
~ Army pants from Aunty Diana, hat from Uncle John and Aunty Bonnie. ~ "Ok. That's all for the photo show. Please come back another time. Good night!"
~ T-shirt from Uncle Edin and Aunty Priscilla. ~

Happy birthday hun!

2011-09-22T00:00:00.003-04:00

Happy birthday to my dear hubby. He has always been a great husband, but during the past year, he has stepped up a lot more to take care of me and things at our home. He has been extremely supportive, from accompanying me to every OB appointment and prenatal class, to now waking up to help change diapers and give me massges when I wake up to feed the baby. He understands exactly what's on my mind and what I want. He is someone whom I can trust completely.

Anyway, this year's birthday is more special since we have Evan to celebrate with his daddy as well! I just want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY and that WE LOVE YOU!

Evan at Park & at Dim Sum 去街街

2011-09-20T21:36:00.000-04:00

We have been taking Evan out every day since last week. With more practice, we are hoping to become less stress about it, he seems to enjoy it too.

With such nice weather, I took Evan for a walk outside our condo today. Of course he was sleeping. Otherwise, I wouldn't dare to take him out.

Remember this hat? He wore it on the day he was born. It looks small on his head now.

Me and little Evan.

Back to last Tuesday 9-13-2011: Dim sum with parents and Pat

First time I took Evan out without Ka. My parents and I struggled a lot with the car seat and stroller. 扭到豬仔頭都"lut". We had to call Ka to ask him how to do it, very 雞手鴨腳.

After 5min of trying to dock his car seat, Evan looked so helpless 無奈 :P

Us @ Dim Sum. Evan loves the white noise at dim sum restaurant. He slept for hours!Evan let us enjoy a peaceful lunch. Good job Evan!This little guy may not know his hands were his yet, but I love all these random hand gestures. This is the famous conductor gesture.

110919: Us at Phoenix before brother left home

跟Evan說故事 Story for baby Evan

2011-09-19T21:00:00.001-04:00

Evan仔朝早唔係好肯訓, 而且又需要attention. 就算他訓了, 也對外邊環境極度敏感. 我們關了窗簾, 關了門. 但一開水喉, 他又醒. 出街反而可以訓一兩個鐘. 真費解. 這兩天好像有點兒進步.

小哭還可以忍受, 但當豬仔叫破口嚨, 哭到氣來氣喘, 真的心都離埋. 一方面很想用盡所有方法令他舒服令他開心; 另一方面又真的很怕他被遷就慣, 之後黐身.

作為BB媽咪, 當然最想令他在舒服的環境成長, 也知道就算他黐身, 也只是有限時間. (之後大概想他拖著我的手也難.) 但只怕他變本加厲, 越來越需要更多attention, 到時候就更加不能provide他所需要的.

最近發覺Evan仔fuss不只代表扭抱, 他其實想有人跟他談天. 早兩天我跟他講那些BB故事, 他聽得很悶. 於是我便拿了本中國名人小故事來跟他講個中國明代時期王守仁的故事給他聽. 我照書直讀, 估不到豬仔安安靜靜的聽了二十分鐘!!

昨晚我抱著豬仔, 講了另外一些故事. 當中一下媽咪創作的故事, 豬仔想聽得最入神:

從前有一個Evan BB, 白雪公主跟七個小矮人. 他們很喜歡吃蘋果. 有一天, 他們把吃完的蘋果籽吐到泥土裡. 不久, 長了蘋果樹, 樹上報滿蘋果. 小矮人把蘋果賣掉, 還開創了蘋果上市公司! 他們的股票大升, Evan BB 也賺個盤滿本滿. 原本幫襯隔鄰三隻小豬黑莓園的客人都過來試試小矮人的蘋果. :) [通常Evan聽到這兒都會扁嘴... 沒辦法, 可能這故事令他聯想起嗲地媽咪的Nortel股票吧...]

***
Evan started fussing not only because he wants to be carried or he is sleepy. He sometimes fusses for others to talk to him. there is really only so many things that I can talk to him about, he also seems bored when I read him baby stories. So the other day, I read him this story about this Chinese famous person. I just read straight for the book for 20 min. Surprisingly, Evan stayed attentive for the full 20min!!

I sometimes make up stories for him as well. He seems to like the following one a lot:

Once upon a time, there is Evan, his friend Snowwhite, and 7 dwarfs. They love apples. One time after they finish eating the magical apples, they spit out the seeds on the ground. Not too long later, apple trees started growing. All the friends bought apples from them. They started their own company. Apples stocks did great, baby Evan also earned a fortune...

9-10-2011: "Nooooo! I don't agree with msg on this shirt!!!! Take it off me!!!!"

9-13-2011: The relaxed look after a bath. Evan loves to bath in warm water.

Hehe. All babies need a full-body shot. :) Love his feet! I admire his little feet every time I feed him. They are so cute.
9-14-2011: A 3-weeks Evan and his toys. He has a lot more than what's shown...

Trip to Walmart and Macdonald's

2011-09-17T23:56:00.004-04:00

We celebrated Evan's full month tonight with our family. (There is still one more week till Evan turns 1-month-old though.)

We started taking Evan out more this week. Kenny's lunch, dim sum with my parents, Friday lunch with work friends (how can I miss Vicky's lunch!), and went to Walmart today. I have been up since 6am. Instead of writing more, let me just post some pics taken from today.

Evan & Eeyore. BBEvan: "How come you are blue, and have such a big nose?"

Evan at Walmart. Diapers were on sale, but we couldn't find the right size.

Evan and fries.
Baby Evan: "Hm.. *Sniff* *Sniff*, What's this?...)

"Hmmm. I smell cholesterol and fat.""Daddy, I wouldn't eat it if I were you."

Took this photo early this morning after a feeding. Love all his funny hand posture.

Anyway, the next feeding will probably be within 30min. Going to take a quick sleep. Night!

三個星期大 and 第一次走火警

2011-09-13T17:17:00.009-04:00

Took me 2 days to write up this blog post! 今早斟了杯茶和奶, 到有時間喝的時候已是個半鐘頭後的事.

Too tired to translate my entire blog post to English. In short Evan is growing everyday. Even I feed him every 2 to 3 hours, I still notice the change. He learns to get fussy, and fusses during the afternoon. Good thing he sleeps well at night. Evan's uncle Pat came back from London to visit Evan. It's so funny to see my brother loving little Evan so much. He took many photos for the little guy and carry him around when we go out.

Evan 昨天三個星期大喇! 踏入三星期大, 凌晨五點多, 我才剛起床看看Evan手仔腳仔凍唔凍, fire alarm 便響起. Evan"走"了他第一次火警. 我們大廈的住客跟消防哥哥們跟一起跟Evan 慶祝他的三週生日呢! 而這個小Evan, 卻一直睡得安甜.

三星期大的Evan開始對四週發生的事更敏感. 能夠看遠少少的東西 (不過都只限一尺多以內的範圍). 對他說話, 他也懂望著你. 之前大部分時間B仔的反應都是超級不耐煩或極度confused. 今天竟然很好心情的報以一副"我喜歡聽你說話"的樣子! 他特別喜歡聽我媽咪說話.

小Evan晚上睡得好. 可以睡三至四個鐘. 早上卻雖要多一點attention, 食奶也食得較密. 沒睡的Evan兩個小時便有要吃! 幸好我爸媽早上上來幫我一把, 晚上奶奶又為我們帶晚餐, 好讓我有點時間休息. Evan喜歡嘆奶, 不過最近很準時, 通常40分鐘必定吃完. 身體開始長肉, 大脾今天好明顯漲了. 手脾都有少少肉. 面豬也開始肥dood dood. :) 小Evan人仔小小已經出了四次街. 間中哭時有眼淚. 投訴時叫破口嚨地哭, 聽了令人心煩. 我們儘量都想satisfy 這三個星期小子的需要, 不想讓他驚慌過度. 不過有時候真不知這小子想要甚麼.

雖然這只是他的reflex, 我很喜歡Evan這個"笑樣".

Evan 的舅父仔上個星期從英國回來. 我很少見到我這個細佬這麼多. 他差不多天天都上來我們家跟Evan玩. 時不時就聽到他說: "哎唷! 好得意... 真係好得意.".

Me and my brother

Arsenal球迷的舅父仔買了兩套Arsenal球衣俾BB. 好醒目仔仔呀! 遲些Evan大個仔就可以跟舅父仔一起踢波喇!

這個舅父最近買了個iPhone, 裡面可能最多便是Evan的相. :)

哈哈! 舅父把BB變成雙面怪.

Alien BB!

把EvanBB的頭放大了!

Tamagochi Evan

2011-09-11T19:22:00.001-04:00

(English post at the bottom)

前日有機會幫Ｅｖａｎ　Ｂ　磅重. １６日人仔已經由７磅長大到８磅５安士喇! 昨晚更好神奇地連續睡了四個半小時! 不過豬仔開始好扭計, 一唔likey就大吵大鬧, 叫破口嚨地哭. 帶他出街都驚嚇死其他人... ...

兩個多星期的嬰兒只懂食, 大小二便, 和扭計. 記得學生時期好興玩一種叫Tamagochi電子寵物的電子遊戲機. 當年很多同學都有一隻那小蛋型的遊戲機. 只見同學們時不時就要餵餵隻Tamagochi 雞, 時不時要跟雞仔玩下, 又要幫雞仔清理它留下來的米田共 .

湊B有點像玩Tamagochi. 簡單的程式. 這隻TamagochEvan有不同的版面, 每個版面都有一些challenges. 要過關便要pass這些challenges 了. 餵奶一個challenge; "aum"訓是一個challenge, 帶他出街又是另一個challenge. 有時是single player mode, 有時是雙人合作, 亦有時候需要援手幫忙. 當中collect不同大小的pee and poo. 過一個星期計算累積磅數.

TamagochEvan很花時間, 亦很addictive. 每次看見隻豬仔食飽的滿足, 睡得甜甜的樣子, 跟一天比一天漲"book book"的臉孔, 就忘記了deal with他扭計的frustrations. 雖然很look forward to 遲些BB大一點, 懂得跟我們interact, 但也很珍惜這段他還這麼小的每一天.

***

We got a chance to weigh Evan on Friday. He is 8lb 5oz now! That's a 1lb 5oz increase from 16 days ago. Evan slept for 4.5 hours straight for the first time last night! (Though I was still paranoid and kept waking up to check if he wanted milk or if he was too cold, etc.) Little Evan started to know how to scream and fuss to grab attention though. :(

A 2-week-old infant only knows how to eat, pee and poo, sleep and fuss. Back in my school days, there was a popular digital game called Tamagochi. It is a digital pet that requires player to feed the digital pet, clean up its poop, and play with it.

Taking care of Evan is like playing the Tamagochi game. There are different chapters of challenges to pass: Breastfeeding, getting him to sleep, trying to take him out... This game offers single and double player mode. It even allows us to seek external help for some challenges. During the game, we collect pee and poo At the end of the week, we measure baby to get the accumulated points (aka. his weight).

TamagochEvan takes up a lot of time, but also very addictive. Looking at little Evan's face makes us forget about all the frustrations when dealing with him. Although I look forward to baby's getting a bit older when he can interacts with us more, I also cherish everyday now when he is so tiny and small.

2-week-old Evan

2011-09-07T01:47:00.013-04:00

Baby Evan and his Eeyore rattle. Taken on Sunday, Sept 4, 2011.

餵奶原來可以用個ipad黎寫blog. 雖然要分開幾次去寫, 不過都算有建切性...

昨天Evan兩星期大。同一星期大的milestone一樣，隻豬仔又俾鑊甘嘅我哋嘆. 前曰growth spurt, 開始要兩個鐘餵一次奶(記住係start-to-start). 豬仔食得慢, 有時要餵成個鐘, growth spurt中的豬仔特別fussy, 有時要搞半個鐘一個鐘先肯瞓. 好彩老公都好搞得掂隻豬仔換片and "aum"瞓，如果唔係，真係成日完全無得休息。

Let me document some info about Evan. Evan is a/an...

Alarm clock baby
Besides growth spurt periods, Evan is like an alarm clock, waking up every 3 hrs for a feed. He falls asleep while being fed, so it takes me a good 40min average to feed. Evan似乎學媽咪咁鐘意有規律嘅生活。

A little man with many faces
When he wakes up looking for food or comfort, he looks extremely grumpy and cries like mad （似成個世界都欠咗佢咁). When I put him on my body, he bobbles around and sometimes seems quite disoriented (隻bobble-頭可能需要個GPS). When he latches on initially, He becomes very uptight (超緊張, 好似女朋友走咗佬又返番嚟佢身邊 or 股票大跌令佢損失慘重. 肉緊到呢... 佢通常都咋實拳頭，正一緊張大師.). Sometimes when he is sucking, he looks like a little old man. But after he finishes, he would be content again, smiles and give me this satisfying looking (擺個「我好合作」嘅乖仔様。）After that he would stretch, when he stretches, he looks so ugly. :P 完全無義態. After he sleeps, he becomes all angelic again.

A Good Pooper
Need to change him during every feed, sometimes even twice. Already had a few open-air incident, where he tries to showcase how high Evan fountain can go for.

Activities
Not much right now. I am not sure what a 2-week-old needs in terms of activities. He sleeps between feeds except for the noon feed. May be after a month, I will start taking him out for daily walks and other outings.

Bath
Baths are handled by the grandmas now. He doesn't hate it, but doesn't like baths too much. He enjoys getting his hair brushed. 隻豬仔未識享受洗澡。不過沖完涼佢似乎瞓得幾舒服.

床上照

2011-09-04T00:11:00.006-04:00

哈哈, 唔好誤會我post d 艷照. :)

初出世的BB還未知自己隻手屬於自己. 話雖如此, Evan成日都把手仔擺來擺去. 尤其食奶時, 時不時整個"V"手勢, 一時又整個OK手勢, 間中都整隻中指俾呀媽, 似要話俾我知餵得隻豬仔舒唔舒服. 好過癮架.

訓覺大部分時間都鐘意自己托住個頭仔. (因為通常我都會swaddle得Evan好實, 所以佢無位郁.) 今日無swaddle, 佢訓到好似打功夫咁.

Superman? or 投降?
跑步?

哈! 俾人見下豬仔個扭計樣先. 扭到成身都扭埋.

E家食奶食得好左, 呢兩晚BB好似訓得耐左, 無每隔一個小時起一次身. 希望今晚繼續係咁. (都係唔好開心得太早.) 今日下午Ka要參加朋友婚禮, 我第一次自己一個人搞掂隻B. B仔都好合作. 換完片, 食完奶, 扭陣抱, 訓. 開始明白隻B多一點, 所以handle得佢好少少.

今日嘗試自拍. 好醜樣. 下次揾個好d既角度再影過.

Baby Delivery Log (Part 2)

2011-09-02T18:18:00.006-04:00

Took baby out today for a photo shoot. May be it' was all the training he got while in mommy's tummy, baby Evan certainly loves to get photographed. He is always so calm once he hears the shutter "Click!" sound. He was fussy all morning, but manged to stay awake calmly for the whole hour at the studio! Even our photographer commented she hasn't seen a new born staring at the camera for as long as Evan!

Anyway, on with the documentation of my delivery. (May contain too much information for you. Read at your own discrepancy.)

Our parents came to the hospital that afternoon. Of course they were all excited to see the little one, and also made sure I was well taken care of. It was nice that they watched the baby while I slept. They took the baby away so I could rest better, but I couldn't stop thinking about the baby, always 心掛掛.

Ka went home for the afternoon and came back for a couple of hours that evening. Honestly, I don't know what we were thinking that I could handle the baby all by myself the very first night... Still hooked up with IV and catheter, just had a c-section within 12 hours, feet were still asleep from the epidural (I couldn't even sit up without pulling on to the bed rail), never taken care of a baby before... I didn't even know when I should breastfeed, nor did I know I should check baby's diaper.

Baby was crying like crazy some point at night, my feet still couldn't quite move then, but I managed to pull myself up on the bed to check up on him, 母愛真係偉大. Since I didn't know he was crying for hunger. I just held on to him for a good couple of hours that night.

The nurse said she would remove my catheter at 9:30pm, but didn't do so until 2:30am! She also scared me by saying "If you don't urinate a certain amount within 6 hours, we will need to put the catheter back on, and that would hurt." So there I was, walking back and forth to get water from the kitchen with my IV still hooked up during the wee hours. I was also feeling increasing pain from my incision. Each time it takes me over an hour to breastfeed the baby. Let's just say the memory is already blurred, but I remember the night not being easy.

I did luck out and shared a room with a lady who hasn't given birth yet (she has some complications and needed to be monitored at the hospital). So I was able to rest peacefully without another baby crying in the same room. But it got me very nervous about little Evan crying and disturbing her instead.

It was only around 7am when the day-time nurse came to check me out and said it is normal to feel the increasing pain because the epidural wasn't effective anymore. She gave me some tylenol and advil. (If I have known, I would have asked for them earlier.)

Ka came around 5 or 6am. Let's just say it's a big relief for me that he was back. We had breakfast and talked until Dr. Ho came to check up on me. He gave me the reassuring smile and said I could probably go home the next day. (Yay!)

So without going into all the details (nor do I remember all the details now), the next days at the hospital included a lot of walking around, breastfeeding attempts, people telling me to sleep and telling me to eat. Continuous measure of my temperature and blood pressure. Ka stayed with me at the hospital the second night. Even though he couldn't help me feed, he took care of the rest: changed diapers, sooth the baby, brought me water... simply supporting me. Within 48 hours, Dr. Ho already said I would be able to go home. I was also walking freely, with only one painkiller per 6 - 8 hours. Nurses said it's quick for someone to have recovered well enough to be released within 48hours after a c-section.

During the stay, nurses also weighed Evan, gave him shots, measured his temperature, did blood test... It was a bit heart broken to see Evan do the blood test. They literally cut his little ankle and took more than a tube of blood from it. I felt a bit bad for Evan since within just 48 hours, he went from staying securely inside mommy's tummy to being exposed to all these new things. I hope he wasn't experiencing too much shock.

A few first photos from the operations room:

Last photo of us as only a couple. (I was still smiling since the atmosphere was so pleasant!)

Baby Evan at birth (Not very cute at that point :P)

Happy parents welcoming our new family member!

Our first "family outing"

2011-08-31T21:48:00.006-04:00

We took baby for his very first pediatrician appointment today. He is already above his birth weight in 1 week! (Babies normally take about 10-14 days to grow back, so Evan is definitely absorbing well.)

"媽咪呀! 點可以坦蕩蕩咁俾人睇哂我既全相架! 仲要將我既磅數公告天下!"

Our first lunch outing... the default choice: Portuguese chicken rice at Kenny's :)

"Hmmm... I gotta make my first eat-out-meal special. What should I eat?"Our tiny little guy.

We had another appointment with the public nurse in the afternoon. We were sooo tired after our two appointments. Hopefully Evan will sleep better tonight. (He was up for a whole hour even after an hour of feed last night!)

A few more pics from today:

"呢兩晚用好多energy去搞到嗲地媽咪都無得訓, 搞到自己都有d眼訓."
"Boy i am so tired after trying so hard to cause troubles for mommy and daddy these two nights."

"咦! 數下數下. 我聽日九日大喇."

"Wow, counting fingers... I will be 9 days old tmrw!"

"唔知九日大有無蛋糕食既呢."
"I wonder if there will be an ice cream cake with presents waiting for me."

"我chok唔chok呀?"

Happy 1-week old Evan!

2011-08-30T13:44:00.001-04:00

Announcing our baby's name on his one-week-old "birthday".

Evan Lam (林懐希) , Chinese name stands for 滿懷希望 (full of hope). We are hoping baby would always stay positive in life, no matter what challenges are ahead of him.

So no, it won't be La La Lam (拿拿林), it won't be Lam ++ (Lam "Plus Plus"), it won't be Mu Mu Lam 林木木, it won't be 林小森(小森林)...

Happy 1-week-old, Evan!

Our FIRSTs

2011-08-28T22:01:00.011-04:00

There are a number of FIRSTs today.

First time Ka and I went out since baby is born. Ka and I took a small break and left baby at home with my parents to do some shopping. I was pretty tired during the 1.5hr "trip", but it was still nice to go out for some fresh air. (Otherwise, my only breath of fresh air these days is would be the time when I water my tomato plants.)

Us going out! 出街喇!

Our first destination: Loblaw :) Bought lots of snacks. I like to have a snack or two when I feed baby at night. 晚晚係咁食, 實肥死我.
Then we stopped by Toys R Us to buy Wii Fit Plus. We bought it for the Baby Stat feature to weigh our little one. :)
BB: 都唔知你買黎自己玩or真係要黎幫我磅重.

BB is like an alarm, looking for a feed every 2-3hrs. We were able arrive home just in time for the next feed.

First bath at home: The nurse helped take a bath for our little one on the first night. The poor little guy was screaming like crazy! So I was very nervous about the first bath at home. Baby was crying, but not as bad as the first night.

婆婆幫BB洗澡. 不過我地d旁人wee wa鬼叫. 一時話凍親bb, 一事有話要快d. 四個人, 八隻手, 搞到呀婆都亂o西.

乾淨o西! 呢幅相影到bb個面好圓. :)

多放一幅豬仔相. 食飽飽奶, 正!

Aug 25 的小B, aka LaLa Lam ("o拿""o拿"林), aka little angel (E家無咁像小天使了), aka "需"豬 or 臭豬仔, aka 老人精... Don't worry, we have decided on a name today. :) Will reveal it tomorrow.

BB: 咁鬼多花名, 我都無眼"目弟".
(I didn't even know how he could move around even while wrapped up to get himself covered up like this.)

First time clearing out diaper genie. We have at least 8 soiled diapers a day since Day 1!!! BB 食得又'all'得. 未有BB前, 完全沒想過數住 BB 的 pee and poo會變成我們的工作. 只有new parents才會對住d poo感到"滿足感"和得到"安心"吧.

Proud dad and the soiled diapers :P

Baby will probably demand another feed soon. Going to rest now. Good night!

Caring for a baby requires - lots of love

2011-08-27T21:10:00.005-04:00

Getting used to caring for baby. It is such a new learning experience for everyone.
Caring for a baby requires lots of love.

Lots of love is needed between the mom and baby, so she can continue the waking up and feeding every 2 hours even when my entire body is aching.
Lots of love is needed between the dad and baby. Men are the ones to get the less care and attention, but yet expected to take on most of the responsibilities after baby arrives.
Lots of love is needed between the mommy and daddy, so they can continue to support each other.

Love is needed from our families. We have received great help from our parents. They were the ones who were probably the most excited besides us; yet they are also the ones who need to put up with all the fuss from us. Trust me, I haven't been a happy camper when talking to them, and I have seen how tired our parents looked coming early and leaving late to take care of us. But I just haven't been good with showing my appreciation for their help, which I do feel sad about. I got to remind myself to stop nit-picking and complaining about everything that they do, and show more love and appreciation towards what they are doing for us.

A photographer at the hospital came by to take photos for the baby. Baby's first professional photo session.

Baby with his proud grandparents.

Quick log on my delivery

2011-08-27T14:56:00.002-04:00

Sunday (Aug 21)

Woke up at 4:30am feeling tightening on my belly. Not sure if those are real contractions. Some were more painful, but bearable. They did come at pretty regular 5 to 6 min intervals. I thought they were just Braxton Hicks since I was told contractions were the worst possible pain. I just tried to breath through them. Managed to buy take out lunch and went to Toys R Us to buy a breast pump through out these tightenings.

Took a nap after lunch around 1:30pm. Suddenly the tightening just stopped. Had a great sleep on Sunday night.

Monday (Ag 22)

Induction was scheduled on Monday. They called us just before lunch hour. Took a shower, wrapped up some stuff, and headed to the hospital. Had an assessment around 1:30pm. Cervix was already dilated to 3cm, water also broke already. (Amazing how I didn't feel too much pain still.) I was still laughing and joking with the nurses.

They admitted me right away. We got lucky and got one of the biggest corner unit rooms. :)
Gave me Oxytocin for induction in the afternoon and hooked me up to an IV. (Good thing Diana has set me with the right expectation. I didn't like needles and they took 2 attempts to stick that tube in me.) Took me another hour to feel the contractions again.

Meanwhile, watched a movie on the iPad. Nurses come check on me every 10-20min. Don't think I have ever had my blood pressure and temperature monitored this closely.

Early Tuesday (Aug 23)

Contractions were coming every 3 min. They were getting strong, but not dying pain. Friends told us to request for an epidural as early as possible, which I told the nurse whenever they feel I should, just give me the epidural. Around 11pm, nurse said I could consider the epidural. I told her I could wait till midnight, but since the doctor was in the operations room, I had to wait till past 1am before getting the epidural. (So yes, definitely tell them you want an epidural as early as possible, even before you felt unbearable pain.)

Contractions were much stronger and frequent then. I was able to joke, but not laugh with the doctor. The injection of epidural was painful, but good thing the nurse was very good to help me relax. (And I am so glad I still haven't seen the epidural needle.) Some pain was relieved right away and I was laughing with the doctor and nurse right away. It took another hour before the epidural actually worked perfectly. (Apparently I was told it didn't exactly worked on me at first. :P And they had to flip me back and forth.) Although I could bear the contractions, there was no way I could sleep through them. Once the epidural truly worked and I felt zero-pain, I finally understand why people say it's the best invention.

They checked me again during wee hours and I was still only 3cm dilated. I was feeling a bit disappointed.

Rested for a couple of hours afterwards. They came in to check ever 10min... apparently baby's heart rate was dropping so they needed to monitor me more closely and stopped the induction drugs. On call doctor came to check me around 6am and I was only dilated to 4cm . She said they would expect me to open up at least 1cm from that point on and turned back up the induction drugs.

My OB came just past 8am, checked me again. I wasn't making much progress so he suggested a c-section. I was a bit scared (of the pain) and nervous (about the recovery). But hearing how great my OB is from all people, it's comforting to know he would be performing the c-section. Room was supposed to be available at 10am.

Everything from that point on seems to happen just within minutes. Ka was just calling his mom, and they were already wheeling me into the operations room! (Guess the room was available then.) I kept telling him to get off the phone quickly to also call my dad, and to pack things up to come to the OR with me.

By 9am, I was already in the OR. There were a team of many many many medical staff! They came and introduce themselves to me, but I had no memory of who was there. :P It was a pleasant environment since everyone was joking. I felt pretty calm at that point. 1) I felt I was in good hands, 2) I knew I would see my little guy soon, 3) I couldn't move anyway. Luckily, my friend who was a nurse at L&D unit was on duty at OR as well. She made sure she keep Ka calm.

Since I couldn't see what was going on, I just feel everyone moving really quickly around me to set me up for the c-section. Within minutes, they probably already cut me opened, and within seconds, they were putting a lot of pressure on my belly. (Ok, that part was pretty painful. Good thing it only lasted for less than a minute.) And before I knew it, I was told to look over at the baby table, and the baby was already out!!!!!!! Nurse handed me the baby to let me give him a kiss (awww, such smooth skin). Baby was exactly 7lbs (I didn't think that was heavy nor did I really think he has a big head... but then all nurses and doctor say "Oh... no wonder he couldn't come out. He has a big head.")

My first thought: Man, he looks just like Ka.
First thing Ka said: He looks just like me! :)

Ka gave baby some skin-to-skin contact and we were wheeled to the recovery room. Stories after that will be in Part 2... if I am up for it later.

Sleep, sleep, sleep

2011-08-22T11:46:00.003-04:00

I didn't know I can sleep this much. :P Took a couple of hours nap yesterday, and then slept for 11 hours last night. It's true that I didn't sleep well at all the night before, but wow, the great sleep last night all made up for it! :)

On with the wait...

2011-08-19T17:12:00.005-04:00

Yup. Still no news.

Friends who have no kids make comments such as "You must be excited about baby to come!", or "I hope the baby will come soon!"
Friends who are parents tell me how lucky I am that the baby is cooperating and I get to enjoy this relaxing time.

Either way, I am not the type of people who can just sit at home, and neither is it good to be "waiting" at home. I tried to find some fun stuff to do without tiring out myself.

*Thursday*

Had a relaxing and fun craft shopping date with Diana. We then went for afternoon tea together
Went to buy some household items
Picked up car from the shop. Door fixed and $230 poorer
Made more craft cards
Took a walk around the block
Baby rolled around a lot in the evening which made me uncomfortable. I think he likes it more when I walk around. But I was just too lazy and tired to walk in the late evening

*Friday*

Met up with my work lunch buddies for poutine at Hero's burger (We forgot to grab a bbt afterwards!)
I wanted to go to Ikea, but I have done enough driving this past week, so I baked cookies at my parents' instead. My first attempt of oatmeal raisin cookies is a success!
Ate mango sherbet
Now thinking about what to eat for dinner...
I hope the baby will keep me relatively occupied. It seems like I eat when I have nothing to do at home... If that persists, I will be gaining 40lbs after giving birth!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Recipe

1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, softened
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed (I only used 1/2 cup of brown sugar.)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I used 1 teaspoon instead.)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup raisins (I put them in warm water to soften it.)

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth.
In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture.
Stir in the oats, raisins and walnuts, if using them.
Chill dough for 5-10min
Scoop dough onto cookie sheet
Bake for 10-12min until cookies turned golden
Let them sit on hot baking sheet for 5 min before transferring them to rack to cool

Origami Bunny Rabbit

2011-08-18T10:54:00.003-04:00

I bought this origami kit when I visited Hong Kong in 2003. I made half of it when I was spending time with my grandfather in the hospital back then, but I pretty much left it after I came back. Finally have time to finish it off these two days.

Her name is: Bunny Rabbit.
After I announced her name, Ka said sarcastically, "What an originally name!"

忙碌的一天 Busy day

2011-08-18T01:04:00.003-04:00

今日... 好"忙".
中午看醫生. 正如我們所料, 完全沒有動靜!
吃過lunch, 車林大少上班. 拿點東西回娘家, 再拿車去整.
沒錯! 我的愛驅可能妒忌BB的來臨, 驚我們之後會把它疏忽, 嚷著要attention. 在due date 的前一天司機位的門居然壞了! 不能從裡面開門.
在車房等了一回, 得知要over night等parts. 借了媽咪的車, 去買了一些家庭用品, 買了是晚晚餐.
回家間有一點時間, 烘了banana bread.
再去接林大少下班和車他去打soft ball. 我自己卻去了圖書館再多借數本小說看.
回家弄晚餐, 到吃得飯都已經九點半了!

Busy day today.
Went to see our OB today. Still absolutely no sign.
Then had lunch, dropped Ka off at work, dropped some stuff off at my parents', and then took the car to the mechanics.
That's right. Our lovely car must be jealous of baby-to-come, and is screaming for attention. The driver's seat door stopped working just one day before due date!
Since the parts won't come till tomorrow, I borrowed my mom's car to do some grocery shopping.
Baked a banana bread in the afternoon, and then drove Ka from work to softball; while I went to the library to borrow a few more novels.
Returned back to the softball field to watch the game.
By the time we came home, and had dinner ready, it was already 9:30pm!

散步

2011-08-16T21:12:00.000-04:00

印象中從未試過周日中午在家附近散步. 見天氣不錯, 出去買午餐, 順便到附近走走. 外面陽光普照, 但不算猛烈. 陽光曬在身上, 很舒服. 中午時分, 鳥兒大概也懶洋洋的躲起來小休. 沒有鳥兒聲, 但四周依然"熱鬧". 街坊們坐在公園中, 談天的談天, 曬太陽的曬太陽, 打太極的打太極, 不同家園傳來工人們在裝修的聲音. "熱鬧"同時卻感到寧靜. 正當大部分人都在忙碌上班時, 間中有機會這樣閒著走, 也不能騙你說這生活節奏不寫意.

Our home transformation

2011-08-14T12:42:00.001-04:00

No. Baby hasn't come out yet. This laid back baby is still very comfortable inside. Ka還跟bb說叫佢唔好咁快出世! 我都知嗲地仔趕緊公司project, 已經日做夜做, 埋頭苦幹地debug. 不過, 我真係唔可以想像bb再遲兩個星期, 再大隻d, 我可以點樣生...

我今日已經同BB講左好多次: "唔好咁遲出世喇. 呢個世界有好多野好好玩架!" 成個金魚嬸嬸咁. :P

Meanwhile, we are more-or-less ready. Let me show you how our home has transformed to include our little guy. It's funny how for every 10 steps in our condo, there is a sleep area set up.

I noticed friends gave us some doubtful or worried looks when we told them baby will be sleeping in the computer room. Honestly, I was worried where to sleep the baby at first too. But I think Ka and I have done a decent job to set up this corner, providing a quiet, tidy, and clean corner for our baby.

The corner of our den. Aka - Nursery.

Showcasing baby's stuff in the "nursery".

Left: Lamp that I got when I was in high school, with little stuff animals from different baby gift set.
Top Right: Reading and Diaper Changing Headquarter. Books for baby, books for mommy, and items that we will need for diaper changing.
Top Bottom: Thanks Janny for the humidifier! That gives our den a cute"nursery" look. :)

It's actually kind of sweet to imagine baby will be kicking his little fat legs while daddy is sitting next to him to work. (Only daddy will likely be playing on the computer instead and also assuming baby won't fuss like crazy. LoL.)

Our living room. Thanks XXLicious Gang for the playpen! I wanted it at my parents' home, but I like it so much that I am keeping it in our living room now. Depending on the stage, we will rotate in different toys and items such as the play gym, bouncy chair, and jumper. :)

Our bedroom. Got this nice bassinet from Raymond. It rocks and plays music! I wasn't going to have baby in our room, but I heard it could be convenient during the first month. So we will see. May be he can be in the bedroom during the day.

Hospital bag and diaper bag are packed. They will come with us when we leave for the hospital:)

Baby takes up more drawer space than us! One drawer has smaller clothes; another for 2 months+ clothes. One for towels and receiving blanket, another for toiletry products.

Near the entrance. Parking spot for stroller.

Bath area. We will see if the kitchen counter top can work for now.

That's it for now. I wonder if baby will be excited enough to come out yet?

結果了! 結果了! First sight of my tomato fruits!

2011-08-13T10:46:00.004-04:00

Such an exciting morning!! I went out to water my tomato plants and guess what I found? Little tomato fruits started forming!!!! Woohoo! Woohoo!! Not just 1, but 4! They are like little green pearls dangling on our plant now.

Maternity Leave

2011-08-13T00:10:00.002-04:00

3 more days till due date. No sign of baby yet. I have been enjoying the first 3 days of my maternity leave. It's been filled with fun. My friend teased that I am living a "c lai" life. :D

Look who came to visit me on Wednesday? It's Baby R!

Diana came over for a "crop date", sharing with me her new circle-cutting craft tool. I had so much fun! I made a lot of cards on Wednesday, including wedding cards and birthday cards for all the August events.

Holy cow. I am HUGE!

Then my parents came over, and we went for afternoon tea at Ruelo. (Yup, a good holiday is about non-stop eating.)

During the last 3 days, I also did some cleaning, met up with different friends, Shanghainese lunch with Joanne and Wings night with EasTa, shopped for presents for friends, went to the library, got a pedicure, tried a new recipe for cooking. It has been a fun 3-days of maternity leave so far!

Updates on my plants

2011-08-06T20:03:00.006-04:00

I don't have much ~~luck~~ skills with plants. But I am so proud to say that all my plants are blooming with flowers right now!

First to give an update of my tomato plant. Remember I repot these in June? In the beginning, I was quite frustrated. The leaves had dry patches. I wasn't sure if I over-watered it, or under-watered it. After consulting with Joyce, I pruned off the dried leaves, and watered it with tap water everyday. (I was watering the plant with filtered water, which was a bad idea.) The plant is growing strong with lots of flowers! :D :D :D :D :D

Comparing to how they looked on Jun 21.

Flowering!

Not the best pic, but shows some of the flowers from the plant.

Then my violet plant is also flowering too!I bought the violet plant in April. Usually after all flowers died, I put it aside and would forget about the plant. Eventually it would become super dry. This time, I actually continued to water it regularly. And the plant flowered again!!! :D :D :D

This other house plant is also flowering. This plant is quite worth mentioning. Got it for our housewarming. It is the most durable plant. We often forget about watering it and all the leaves would wilt and become very pathetically looking. But after we pour a cup of water, the leaves would "wake up" within the hour! It is quite amazing. But of course with such poor care, it doesn't flower much. Surprisingly, we have 3 flowers growing!

It is such a happy feeling to see all the plants are doing well. :)

More celebrations in July

2011-08-04T21:56:00.002-04:00

I hope you are not getting bored of me blogging about my birthday celebrations. I am not trying to brag about how many birthday dinners I had, but spending time with my great friends always remind me how lucky I am.

** July 23: Corrie and Vicky's !(baby shower) **
Aren't we looking goooood. :)

This was supposed to be a play date with our friend, Mary's little prince. I sensed something suspicious when Mary, who is normally easy-going, asked us to go over to her place with all the strict "rules".

"Come after 4pm. Baby would be napping, don't come too early."
"Try to stay for dinner, since baby may be napping in the afternoon. Staying for dinner gives you more time to play with baby."
"Don't come late. Baby may get grumpy being awake from his nap for too long."

But then it became a surprise gathering with most of the lunch group at work! It was so much fun chatting away with everyone. I was trying not to laugh too hard that the baby would come out! :D

Goup shot! (With Kendrick being the 3rd preggo)

Another group shot to include Ka. He is afterall the daddy-to-be!

** July 24: Summerlicious with XX-licious gang **

Knowing how much Vikki doesn't like to organize events. It is special for her to organize a "birthday + shower" lunch for us. Went to O&B for lunch. It was funny seeing her keep running to the washroom to "傾生意" (my guess was she was getting the card signed and was dealing with money matters). We then spent a couple of hours at a bbt place. (In fact, I think we spent 3 hours there until we were politely given the bill. :P Can't believe time went by so quickly.)

Playyard from 細v, Gootoe, Yuki, 文生, Kevin, and Melanie. Thanks!!

** July 30: Bday dinner with YYT gang **

I always enjoy spending time with the YYT gang. Most of us seem to be 'growing' at a similar rate. Most of us got married within the 2 or 3 years. And this year, we are expecting three babies to come!

It's too bad that everyone's home seemed to have something broken that weekend though: Freezer, air con, more air con, and H&V even got some water damage in their bedroom! When I made a birthday wish, I couldn't help but hope that all their home problems would be fixed soon.

I got Ka to get me the Apple Pie cake that Vicky has been talking about from Old Firehall Confectionery. It was sooo YUMMY, and much cheaper than a Baskin Robin ice-cream cake. I gotta try the other flavour cake next time.

Food for foodies in July.

2011-08-03T23:06:00.003-04:00

With baby to come in August, I am living life to the fullest. Besides meeting up with friends, we also scout around for yummy food. More events were happening at Markham Civic Centre this year. Since we work and live only minutes away, of course we went to 湊熱鬧. First off was Markham rib festival. Markham rib festival isn't big comparing to other cities, but it was packed with people! We lined up for more than 30min to get a rack of ribs. Ribs were ok. It was more for the fun of being there.

Me and my lemonade while waiting in line.

Night It Up night market also happened in July. Seeing the status on FB, I already guessed the event would be packed. So we went around 6pm when it was still very hot out. There were still lots of people lining up for stinky tofu and oyster snacks! I don't know how people can eat those hot stuff under the hot weather. All I wanted was just a cup of ice.

We ordered two shed ice which was just perfect.

We also tried grilled squid. The squid was alright, nothing compared to what we had in Greece, of course. :) Last week, we had a dinner date with K&J. Kendrick suggested this $40 burger at Nota Bene. 間中富貴下都OK既. So there we went to try, probably the most expensive burger that we will ever get in our life time. Wayu beef burger with truffles. Very 富貴! It could be a bit bland for some people, but just the way I like. (I like to be able to taste the actual flavour of food.) Ka had the beef tenderloin. I tried a bit of his rare steak. It was even better!

My $40 Wayu Beef Burger with truffles!

For appetizers. We ordered hamachi ceviche, blue cheese stuffed zucchini flowers, and shaved onio rings as appetizers. The appetizers were yummmy! Grapefruit sorbet was our dessert. A sorbet for $8 isn't cheap, but both Ka and I thought it was the best sorbet that we had. It wasn't rock hard like sorbet from most other restaurants, but it wasn't melting. It was just perfectly smooth! Taste was also perfect! I wouldn't mind going back for the sorbet.

Not fancy looking, but very delicious.

Over the long weekend, we went to Yorkville area with my parents and had afternoon tea at Crepe A Go Go. Owner Veronique and the staff all parlent en francaise at the small cafe. It made me feel like I was in Quebec or Paris. ;) We tried a savory crepe and a dark chocolate crepe. Both were delicious. Definitely gotta go back.

Maternity photos!

2011-07-28T23:41:00.004-04:00

We went for a maternity photo session a few weeks ago. We just got the full res photos back yesterday!

We asked Carly Wade to be our photographer. I was looking up baby and maternity photographers one night when I couldn't sleep, and I was attracted by her photography style. Carly has a positive attitude, We felt so comfortable and relaxed throughout the session. Don't we look pretty natural? :) I think she has done a splendid job capturing the joy and love between us.

Since *some people* (yes, you know who you are :)) don't use facebook, and I do like documenting things on my blog, I will share my photos here.

A little kid's bday party & A fun wedding at Atlantis

2011-07-24T10:32:00.018-04:00

Wow! What a fun surprise party last night! I should continue blogging about the different events in July so I can log about all the memorable friends gathering before baby ET arrives.

** July 16: Evie's birthday party**

We organized a fun birthday party for little Evie. I like Evie a lot, and not just because she still calls me Corrie 姐姐, she is also very sweet.

It was my first time organizing a birthday party for a little one. Good thing most Ka's friends are experienced, so there were great venues and food suggestions.

It turned out to be a great party! There were over 10 kids. Even thought they aren't all close to each other, they weren't shy and were playing in the playground right away! I chose a Hello Kitty ice-cream cake for the birthday girl. Perhaps when little ET is older, I will order an ice-cream cake for him too. :)
It's more difficult to get people to come out these days, so of course we have to do a group photo. :)

** July 17: A fun wedding at Atlantis**

Ka and I were very close to picking Atlantis Ontario Place as our wedding venue if it wasn't that they couldn't quite accommodate our wedding ceremony in the winter time.

So we were very excited to go to Elia and Rob's wedding. It was a very Elia's wedding: Great taste and great styles. She certainly focused a lot on her guests, making sure her guests are treated with lots of delicious food (It was a 5 course meal, with the main course being chicken , steak *and* rack of lamb! Not to mention hors d'ouevres include goodies like scallops and rack of lambs. Dessert was the oh-so-good Godiva chocolate mousse cake. *Drool* *Drool* *Drool*.

We had a great time catching up with the Idoit friends. With this group of friends, we can always chat about different topics for hours and hours. Can't wait to see them next time!

BBQ with the UHS Gang

2011-07-23T09:16:00.006-04:00

Gotta catch up with all these friends gathering blog before more happen...

We had a BBQ at my parents' with the high school gang last Sunday. I expected only half of the people, but to my surprise, everyone in the gang showed up!! It felt like 37C with the humidity, so besides the guys who were kind (and nice and sweet and great....) enough to be outdoor to do the BBQing, the rest of us stayed indoor.

Everyone brought yummy food (I would have had just fishballs and steaks :P)! It was also have a fun evening to chat and laugh.

I look so tiny here. :)

Birthday cake for me and Eddy. Where is the "I" in my name?
Group shot!

I didn't want a baby shower, but friends surprised us with baby gifts!! Keith and Gloria gave us a useful oral care kit with other goodies.

Will little ET be as hot as the male model on the Acrocrombie bag?

Janny and Howard got us this duckie humidifier that I couldn't get my eyes off of. It is both cute and useful. :)

Another group shot before we say Goodnights. For some of them, next time they see me, I will not have my big belly anymore! What a fun evening!

Happy birthday... to me!!

2011-07-20T23:53:00.004-04:00

Although to everyone else, July 20 is just like any other day, I still like to think of my birthday as a special day. Hey! Who doesn't like to feel unique and special! And although I have 7.5 hours of meetings scheduled and didn't have time for lunch, I was in a pretty cheery mood most of the day. Birthday is reserved for my family.

To start off, Ka surprised me with a nice bouquet of roses after work. (I gave him a very detailed request of the type of flowers and colour of flowers I want back in February, supposed to be for valentine's. :P But it's still a surprise he remembers.) That put me in a very cheery mood.

Birthday presents from my parents and Ka. Tiny miniature flowers vs. roses.

Then, to follow the tradition, we went for vegetarian meal. We went to 素聞千里. I really like the food, especially they have vegetarian sushis!! I am not talking about Cucumber or Avocado rolls, they have rolls like vegetarian spicy salmon! The fake salmon's texture is quite close to real salmon. That certainly satisfied my craving of sushis.

Mango california rolls and Spicy salmon rolls

And after dinner, we went back to my parents' to enjoy a yummy cake.

Pictures with my parents.
My mom kept saying that I should take a pic with them with my pregnant belly.Ka and I. Thanks hun for making me feel special on my birthday. :*

Of course nowadays, birthday celebrations seem to last for a month. I will blog about the other events later on. :)

Hello Kitty 生日卡

2011-07-15T10:25:00.006-04:00

公司 project release ontime, 所以七月的每個星期五都day off. :) 雖然好多工作要做, 做半日, 懶半日都好呀.

朋友的女兒跟她的麻麻爺爺回多倫多過夏天. 明天是她的四歲生日呢! 我們決定幫她好好慶祝一下, 好讓小朋友們開心開心. 況且這一班朋友近來也很少gathering 了. 多個excuse讓我們get together都好.

場地, 食物, 靓靓蛋糕已經安排好了. 昨晚我做了這張生日卡. 我很喜歡整女孩子的生日卡, 因為可以較多顏色, 較多變化. 這張卡用得最多時間是"砌"那隻Hello Kitty. 畫了多個初稿都是很不像樣. 最後都是上網"抄考". :P 我幾鍾意呢張咁girly既生日卡架!

How can a dream be so disturbing?

2011-07-13T23:31:00.001-04:00

I have been having very vivid dreams lately, most of them are either sad or scary. I would either be yelling in my dreams, or crying while feeling extremely extremely sad (last week I had this felt so so sad in my dream that I woke up in tears. Even though I don't remember what my dream was about, I just felt very sad waking up.) And last night, I had one of the most disturbing dreams in my life. It was the same level or cruelness, or worse than 满清十大酷刑. (I am not getting into details here since it was purely disturbing.) I woke up, my heart feels all tightened up. It disturbed me how I could even dream of that scene. I don't feel stressed at work nor about the baby, so why am I having such weird dreams?