Long Update

Okay, I just looked out on the web page and saw that the last update I made was back in July.  I don’t really remember if I made an update in August that Michael forgot to put up or if I just didn’t write one.  (She didn’t make one - Ed.) No matter, here’s one for the last two months. 

Let’s see.  What did we do in August?  Well, first of all, Michael took two weeks off to do stuff around the house.  It didn’t really work out the way he wanted it to.  For the first week, he was knocked out with the flu so he didn’t get much done at all.  He did get well enough for us to go the State Fair that weekend.  Nicholas had a lot of fun.  He got to watch a lot of animals and sand castles.  We didn’t go there for long though.  I think we were only there for about four hours.  At the end of the evening, while we were leaving, they set off the fireworks and he started freaking out.  He was very glad at that point that we were going home.  All we really did the whole time there was walk around and look at things.  I bought him some more bubble toys and a few other things, but that was about it.  The first part of the second week, Michael and Nicholas went up to visit Lauren and Midge.  I didn’t go because I had to work.  There are some pictures of Nicholas up there in September’s pictures.  The one’s where he’s trying to get on the treadmill.  While they were gone, I worked overtime, and then I was knocked out with the flu.  Ended up staying home for about two days.  Then on Friday, when I went back to work, Michael went back to working on the back deck.  He was determined to tear it out by that day. Well, he didn’t get that done because he accidentally put a nail through his left foot.  It was pretty painful.  He was on crutches for the weekend and basically lay on bed for the whole Labor Day weekend.  That weekend, my brother, his girlfriend, my younger brother-in-law, and I finished his deck for him because there were way too many nails sticking up from the wood pile out in the back yard.  It was a big hazard to me.  I couldn’t let Nicholas out back and I was afraid to go out back myself and since my brother volunteered to help finish the job, we might as well get it over with.  In one afternoon, the deck was gone and the wood was at the city dump.  No more nails in the backyard and it was safe again to allow little Nicholas to wonder in the backyard.

Okay, now this leads us into September.  The second weekend of September, we went to Grandma Tuttle’s 90th Birthday party and it was fun.  We got to see a lot of Michael’s relatives.  Dawn Marie came all the way from LA to the party and we haven’t seen her and her family ever since their wedding.  It was also the first time I met Conner and Kyle.  They are really grown up now.  I remember seeing pictures of them when they were really little.  The party was a success, of course, and after the party, we all went over to Uncle Ron’s house to chat.  Nicholas and Joy Marie were playing in the backyard and you can see those pictures on the September page also.  After that, we went home.  Oh, we found out that day that Richard has a new girlfriend.  I haven’t seen her before (nor has Michael), but from Richard’s words, “She’s nice.”  I am really looking forward to meeting her in person. 

Let’s see, after that weekend, everything went downhill.  I caught some sort of bug.  I have had it ever since last Wednesday.  Thursday was when it started really hitting hard.  Then on Friday, I went to the doctor and the doctor told me that I had an ear infection.  That afternoon, I had a temperature of 104 degrees.  At one point in time, I’m freezing and need to comforters over me to keep warm, then the next thing I know is that I’m burning hot and need to take a cold bath before my brain burns.  This continued on through the weekend and into the next workweek.  Everyday around, 4 PM, I’m always having a temperature of at least 104.  On Monday, it was at 105.2.  When I told the nurse about that, she thought I meant 100.5, but I correct here on that one.  Another thing was that my cough was getting worse.  Whenever I cough now, it hurt my stomach.  Maybe I’m just coughing too much.  I went back to the doctor’s on Tuesday and she told me that my ear infection was getting better and that this fever thing will last about a week to 10 days.  She also said that I could not go back to work until at least Thursday and that all depends on how I feel.  Well, it’s Thursday today and I’m finally back at work again.  I feel a lot better now.  Just kinda dizzy and still coughing like crazy.  This cough is one stubborn one.  It has been around for more than a week now and no medication seems to be getting rid of it.  My fever is under control now.  I don’t think I have gone over 100 ever since Tuesday night.  Michael has been very patient with me this past week.  He not only has to work, but also take care of the baby, the house, and me all at the same time.  He also had to get those pictures of Nicholas and Grandma’s birthday party out on the web this weekend.  I think he’s worn out by now with all the stuff he had to do.  I feel so bad for not being able to help him out.  All I would do was lay in bed.  I barely had the strength to walk or move during the weekend.  Luckily, neither Nicholas nor Michael caught whatever I have.  Michael doesn’t think that it’s contagious.  I’m just hoping no one gets whatever I have because I really don’t want anyone to suffer through what I had to go through.  For the past week, I haven’t been able to play or be around Nicholas and I guess for that reason, I have noticed that he has gotten a bit chubbier.  Every time I hear him crying, I really want to pick him up or every time he comes up to me, I want to play with him, but I couldn’t because I just didn’t have the energy to do so.  This weekend, I’m going to make it all up by taking him out to the park to play.  Hopefully, I will have fully recovered by then.

Yesterday was our bowling night and at first, I didn’t think that I was going to be able to go since I was still pretty sick.  Amazingly, by Wednesday, I was doing a lot better and by the evening, I had a lot of energy back.  Michael finally was convinced and allowed me to go bowling.  Bowling would have been fun if we didn’t have to bowl with a bunch of pathetic people who knew nothing about common courtesy.  One of the gals that were there took forever when it was her turn to bowl.  She would go out and take cigarette breaks in the middle of a game and we would all be waiting on her for like ten minutes.  Well, I ended up talking to the league secretary about it and she, half drunk, started a scene about it.  Then she went and got all her friends and started asking why we had a problem with her.  We tried calmly and civilized to explain to her “friends” that she’s the one at fault here, but we ended up giving up on that.  All we wanted was the game to be over with and go home.  Thank goodness we are not ever bowling them again.  I am also going to try to ask that they not be put next to us.  They are a bunch of teenage (or college) drunks.  She continuously bluffs that she’s from a family of bowlers and if you ask me, then she should be totally ashamed of herself.  All decent bowlers (decent human beings) know that it’s not right to have other wait on their time just because you feel like going out for a smoke or want to continuously talk to your friends.  The thing that really pisses me off about her is that she goes up to her friends and make it sound like we are the ones at fault and she’s the innocent little one who’s being insulted.  I guess there are all kinds of people in this world and I hope I never have to run into another one like her.

Let’s see… What else is new?  Oh, yeah, one of my younger sisters was given a kitten from her co-workers and she wants to keep it, but my parents do not allow cats in the house.  (Chinese superstition – cat bring poverty and dogs bring wealth) So she has asked us to help her house the kitten for three weeks.  She has said that she will move out in three weeks and will take the kitten back then.  It’s a really small little thing.  Michael thinks that it’s only about four weeks old, but my younger sister told me he’s 6-weeks old.  His name is Boa and for now, he’s a guest at our house.  Oh, boy, this little guest is one active one.  He kept the both of us awake last night.  He kept playing with my hair thinking that it’s a string or yarn.  I ended up hiding underneath the comforter to avoid the little guy.  He also purrs really loud and he does it right next to your ears.  Amazon and Cat are not too happy with this new cat around the house.  Michael told me that this morning when he went to feed them, Amazon and Cat was eating their food when all the sudden, the little one came by and started eating their food.  Both of them went into the computer room where Michael was and just gave Michael the “he’s eating our food” look.  Once they saw the little one again, they realized that he was not eating their food anymore so they scrambled out to eat their food again.  Amazon was out of the house once he was done with breakfast and for once, Cat wanted to go outside.  So, the little one has the whole house to himself.  I think he likes being with us so far. 

Nicholas.  Oh, he loves the little kitten around.  Of course, like all the other cats, he wants to carry it and pet it.  With this little one, he can do that, but we don’t want him doing it too much because we are afraid that he might be a little too rough.  Nicholas chases after it all the time and is very excited about the little guest at our house. 

Okay, that was what I wrote yesterday about Nicholas and the kitten.  But last night, Michael said that Nicholas was not too fond of the kitten anymore.  For some reason, he is now scared of the little one.  Whenever the kitten gets close to him, he starts screaming.  I am hoping that it’s only a phase thing and will go away tonight or maybe by the weekend.  As for the kitten, it’s getting to be a handful.  It turns out that he’s not really litter box trained.  Michael said that he used the restroom all over the house and cleaning up after it was a tough job.  Last night, around 2 in the morning, he used the restroom on the bed and that was not good at all.  The whole night, I was a bit paranoid that he would do it again.  I don’t know if we are really going to continue to keep the kitten.  I mean, it’s a big handful and Nicholas is not too happy with it around anymore.  We have to talk to my younger sister about other arrangements. 

Okay, now, on to the most important update of them all, Nicholas!  Well, he’s doing really well.  He still can’t put words together, but he can sure understand us.  He’s also very good at distinguish what is garbage and what is not.  He will take the garbage and dump it in the garbage can.  He will take his diapers and put it in the diaper pail.  He will put the bowl and dishes into the sink when he’s done with the food.  He has also gotten better with brushing his teeth.  Now, Michael can do it alone instead of having me hold him down and he doesn’t complain too much about it anymore.  He still loves taking baths.  Now, after we washed him, we leave him there to play around in the water for a while before taking him out and when we do take him out, he knows how to pull the stopper from the drain to let all the water out.  He knows how to say “shoes” and from watching Pokemon, he can say “Jesse” every time Team Rocket says their slogan.  He may not know how to say too many words, but he can sure listen and understand us.  He’s still not too good at going to sleep early instead of midnight.  I think it’s somewhat our fault for allowing him to stay up so late sometimes.  He won’t go to bed until we do and we, ourselves, stay up pretty late.  We are trying to figure out what he likes and what he doesn’t like.  I mean I know he likes rice, but he can’t just have rice every meal.  We tried giving him hot dogs, but I’m not too sure he likes those too much.  He was eating corn for a while, but he’s kinda tired of those also.  He was having a lot of bread during one point in time.  Maybe he just needs something different everyday, but because of the fact that the proportion that he eats is so small, having a variety of food around usually means that a lot will be thrown away at the end.  Let’s see… what else is new about him?  Fall is almost here and it’s time to get him new clothes.  He has outgrown a lot of his summer shirts already and they are already at size 3T so his winter clothes are going to be 4T at least.  It’s not cold yet, but I just want to make sure that he has warm clothes to wear when he needs it.  He’s growing into a very handsome and cute little one and I’m very proud of this little boy.  I’m sure one day he will be talking and then, we’ll probably wish that he would stop.  I really look forward to that day.  Until then, this is all I have to say about the past two months of our lives.  Hope all of yours was fun and happy.

See you next time.

Los Angeles

This past weekend, we went down to Los Angeles for a friend’s wedding.  We left Sacramento on Friday morning and returned on Monday night.  On Saturday, we went to California Adventures.  It was fun, but I think Disneyland would have been better for Nicholas because there would have been more things for him to see.  There was a lot of water in California Adventures so most of the time he spent it watching the waters of the river or of a fountain.  We watched a parade called the Eureka Parade and it was pretty cool.  We also went on the California Screaming, which was a lot of fun.  We wanted to go on the river water raft ride, but the line for that was way too long.  I watched a 3-D Muppets show along with my younger sister and her husband.  Michael didn’t come along because he had to watch Nicholas.  After Nicholas fell asleep, we were able to explore the theme park a bit more and we found this one place were he would be able to play with the water and you know him, he loves the water.  After he woke up, we took him there and he had a fun time.  At first, he wasn’t too happy because just as he was about to enter the water area, another little kid ran right into him knocking him to the floor.  He was a little shaken up and was not too happy about it.  After a while of watching all the other kids having fun, he came down and enjoyed himself.  He got himself soaking wet and cold.  After a while, he started shaking so we stopped him from playing with the water.  We left the theme park after that. 

The next day, we went to the wedding and Nicholas was in his tuxedo again with one minor adjustment.  I forgot his bow tie so he had to go without a bow tie.  I don’t think he would have kept it on anyway.  He kept taking off his tuxedo because he didn’t want it on.  We were very tired from all that.  In the evening, we went to the banquet for the wedding and when the groom and bride started walking to their seat, everyone set off their party poppers and that really frightened Nicholas.  He started screaming and I had to remove him from the room.  He didn’t want to go back into the room for more then 15 minutes.  I eventually was able to get him in the room, but he was still very cautious about any noise around him.  The banquet itself was a typical Chinese wedding and not all that exciting.  Not until the end, that is.  At the end of the banquet, people started dancing.  I don’t know what the dance is called, but it’s where a bunch of people gets into a line and start going around the room.  Kind of like a train.  Well, as they were passing by us, someone pulled Michael into the train and Michael had to start dancing along with everyone and I took a few pictures of that.  After that, everyone just started busting out those dancing moves and it was very interesting to watch.  (Thank goodness, I wasn’t the one who was pulled out.)  The next morning was the long drive back to Sacramento.  Right after I-5 and Hwy 99 split, there was construction on I-5 and the bad news was that we picked I-5 so we sat in traffic for about an hour.  I think we traveled about 40 miles or so in one hour.  I was started to dread the trip home.  It was going to be one long drive home and we didn’t have much room in the car so we weren’t exactly comfortable.  All I can say is that I’m glad it’s over.  The time in LA was fun, but the drive was horrible.  Nicholas actually did quite well in both of the car trips.  He didn’t get too fussy.  I think it might have been because we had a lot of people entertaining him when he was awake.  Overall, I have to say that it was a pretty nice mini vacation away from everything.

Nicholas, let’s see.  Well, lately, he has had this weird incident with water.  Two Fridays ago, when I brought him home from my mother’s house and Michael was about to give him a bath, he started freaking out.  He started to scream about going into the bathtub.  He did not want to go into the bathtub.  It was as if he had a very bad experience with the bathtub that he was not going to go into it again.  We force him to take a bath that day.  The next morning, we tried giving him a bath again, and he still refused to go in.  That day was also Dan’s 4th of July party, so we went there.  At first, he would not go near the swimming pool.  Then Linda set up a little tiny pool for the little ones and he eventually got into it and started playing in it.  After an hour or two, we moved him over to the swimming pool and he was fine with it.  We thought that whatever it was, he must have been over with it.  He ended up not wanting to get out of the pool.  Both Michael and him were in the pool for more than an hour.  The next day, my brother had his 4th of July party and we brought our little pool over and Nicholas was fine with that too.  I think he changed about 6 – 7 times.  So we thought that the fear of water thing was over with.  We were wrong.  This past Saturday, in the hotel, when we were trying to give him a bath, he started freaking out again.  The same thing happened.  He just didn’t want to get into the water.  It was as if the water was going to bite him or something.  Again, we forced him into taking a bath by holding him tightly.  But then, that afternoon, he was running around in the water again.  I really don’t know what the problem is or what causes him to react so violently sometimes to water.  I have asked everyone who baby-sits him and they have all said that they have done nothing to him that would make him react in such way.  I mean, only my family baby-sits him and I know that they would never harm the little one in any way, so why he acts that way, I have no idea.  Some people have told me that it is just a phase that little kids go through.  I really hope that it is so. 

We are still trying to get him to start talking.  He doesn’t seem to want to talk.  He points a lot and if he wants us to do something, he’ll push us towards what he wants.  I know that he will be a talkative little one (just like his mother) when he can talk because he does a lot of talking right now, but it’s just all baby talk.  I can say ABC if he wants to, but not too many new words that he doesn’t know already.  He’s starting to repeat some of the stuff that we say, but only when he wants to.  I just wish that he would tell me what’s wrong sometimes or what he wants.  Oh, well.  I guess I just have to be more patient with him. 

We were planning on going to Monterey next week, but I think I need a break from going out of town every weekend because the weekend after this coming one, we will be going to the Garlic Festival in Gilroy.  Michael really wants to go so I thought that I would take him there this year.  I am not sure if we will be bringing Nicholas along.  If I can find a babysitter then we won’t bring him, but if we can’t, then he’s coming along.  I would like to go there without him so that Michael gets a chance to really look around and not have to worry about Nicholas trying to destroy everything in his path.  It would also be nice to have a day with just him and me.  We don’t get those much anymore.  Well, just have to see if anyone is willing to watch him for us that day. 

Well, that’s about all that’s happened.  I hope that Michael will be able to get those pictures that we took down in LA out soon because there are some really cute ones of Nicholas.  I mean, at one point in the hotel, the little one was posing for the camera.  I guess I’ll talk to you all next time.

Two Years Old

Well, I thought I wrote an April update, but I don't see it up there so either I didn't want write or Michael did not put it up. I will check with him tonight to figure out which one it was. Let's see. The house we were betting on, as most of you will know by now, we got. We moved in on May 5th. We really like the house. There are a lot of things to fix up around the house, such as the back yard so we have been keeping ourselves quite busy with stuff like that. The one thing that the house does not have enough of is storage space so Michael is building these little cabins in the garage to give us more storage space. The last few weeks have been extremely busy ones so I don't think that he is done with that project yet. Let's see what else happened in May? Oh, yeah! I was laid off in the middle of May. Don't worry. I currently have a job. Found myself a new job last week. Actually, found myself two new jobs and had to reject one of them. I guess I can call it my little vacation in between jobs even though I didn't go anywhere. It was really cool though to be able to get up whenever I wanted and not have to worry about getting fired. I did get to collect 3 weeks of unemployment pay. Well, right now, I work for a company by the name of TASQ as a consultant. Hopefully, after six months, I will become a permanent employee. It's up in Rocklin, which is about 45 minutes away from where I currently live. I have to get up around 6 AM in the morning in order to get here at 8 AM. It's quite a change in lifestyle. I am so use to getting up later and not showing up to work until at least 9 AM, but now, I have to get up so early just to get here on time. I really don't have to show up at 8 AM in the morning. I was told that I could come in anytime between 8 - 9 in the morning, but because of the traffic and the long trip up here, I thought that I would start off early so that I would be able to leave here early. I am just wondering how long more can I continue to get up so early before I decided to get up a little later instead. Michael seems to be impressed with me so far since I now get up earlier than he does and both Nicholas and I are out of the house before he even wakes up. Most of the time, he still is snoring when we try to kiss him good-bye. It's going to be hard on Nicholas also since he's also use to getting up late. For the past two days that I've tried to get him up early, he's been okay. Usually, when he doesn't want to get up in the morning, he puts on a temper tantrum and gets all upset about it. The problem he is having these two days is when he gets to my mother's house. He doesn't want me to leave and every time, he has broken out into tears and screaming. My parents also say that it's a little crazy since they have him at about 7 AM in the morning now. Oh, well, that's what happens when you start a new job that's 45 minutes away from the house.

As for my new job, well, it's quite fun. I really like it because it's really what I want to do and people at work respect me. I mean, at my previous job, people there respected me also, but it took them a while to do so because I had to prove to them that I was not someone who didn't know anything and someone who knew what she was doing. I guess this comes with the age things since I am still young in this field. I remember with my first job, I felt little respect from the people I worked with. The people I work with are really nice and friendly. Many of them are also new to the company so I don't feel like I'm the only one who doesn't know what's going on around here.

Nicholas. Let's see. He just had his second birthday party about two weeks ago. And for those who came or sent him presents, I would like to say "Thank You Very Much." I have the thank you cards at home, but have not had a chance to fill them out yet and mail them out. Probably this weekend, I will work on those. The party was really fun and a pretty big success, if you ask me. We were able to see a lot of people that we have not seen in a long time so it was really nice to see them again. I know for sure that Nicholas had a lot of fun especially in the pool. The little one wanted to go out there and play in the water even at 9 PM. Michael ended up having to deflate it the next day so that he would not be whining about going out there and playing in the water. He got a lot of new clothes and toys and he's enjoying them all. As for all the gifts for the house, I would like to say "Thank You" also for all the wonderful house warming gifts you guys gave us.

Let's see, after his birthday party, he has his two-year old checkup and the doctor told me that he should not be using a bottle anymore so as of that day, we stopped giving him bottles. Now he uses sip cups (the spill proof ones, but I don't believe that they are spill proof. He spilled a bunch of his apple juice in my car today). The weird part is that ever since he has been using these cups, he does not drink his milk anymore. We have tried many times to put milk into these cups, but he would not drink them. He will take any other type of liquid in the cups, but not the milk. So now, instead, he eats rice, bread, meat and fruits. I guess it's a good thing because it now forces him to eat solid food when he's hungry. Another thing that we are slowly allowing him to do is to have his own plate of food whenever we eat. Usually, we would just feed him, but now, we are attempting to have him feed himself. If he's hungry, he will do quite a fine job at it, but if he's not hungry, he starts playing around with his food. I still don't know if he's left-handed or right-handed because I have seen him use both hands whenever he eats. From the check up, the doctor says that he's behind on the talking. He still only knows those same few words that I mentioned in the March entry. The doctor says that he should be putting words together now such as "Up Mommy," but that is not the case with Nicholas. Maybe it's because of the two different languages he hears all the time. I mean he understands me most of the time when I talk to him. Like when I tell him to come over to me, he comes or when I ask him to sit down, he will do so (most of the time). The doctor said that if by the end of the summer he cannot put words together, we would need to take him back in for a more thorough check up. One minor concern that I have about him is that he still only has about 10 - 12 teeth. I know that he started teething late, but to still have that little teeth just bothers me. He does have, I think all of his molars in. He also have four teeth on the top and bottom, but that's it. All the ones in between the molars and the middle teeth are not around yet. I just wonder if that might be one of the reasons why he still can't talk yet.

Let's see. Oh, yeah! Another thing that the doctor said that we should start with him is potty training. I would love to do so, but I'm afraid that he doesn't understand me and that I won't know when he wants to go to the restroom. I bought him a potty training stall, but we haven't used it yet. Maybe I should just start trying it with him even though he can't talk yet. I'll give you more update on this one as we go along with time. Nicholas is now sleeping on a toddler's bed instead of the crib. Over the weekend, I bought him a toddler's bed and we set it up Monday night. The first night he slept in it, he fell out twice. It has bumpers on the sides to help prevent fall, but I guess Nicholas was so use to moving around freely in his crib. The floor is only about one and a half feet from the bed so the falls were not all that big. He just whined a little and when Michael went to put him back into bed, he went right back to sleep. Last night, (his second night on his new bed) he didn't fall out at all. He's a really smart boy and I think he has adjusted to the new bed. When Michael first set it up, he was so excited about it because it was a new toy for him to play with. We were not too sure that he was going to like it and was going to sleep in it so we didn't take the crib apart until last night. I guess the little one adjusts to new things very quickly.

Right now, his new favorite movie is Tarzan, the Disney cartoon version. He watches it at least once a day and he's starting to repeat things from the movie. For example, in the middle of the movie, Jane says "no, no, no, no" and he would repeat it in the same type of tone. The other night when the movie was at the ending, Tarzan let out the gorilla cry and Nicholas did the same thing. It was so cute. I have been trying to teach him how to say things like TV, but he doesn't seem to want to listen. Every time, he just points that way instead. When he needs you to go somewhere, he will try to get you up by pushing you and then when you are up, he will push you until you have reach the destination. Then he just points at what he wants. Just wish he could only tell us what he wanted instead. Another thing that we are trying with him is brushing his teeth. We are thinking of having him visit a pediatric dentist sometimes in the near future. Nicholas' doctor said that they usually don't' go until they are three, but he could go if we really wanted him to. I think it would be good just to get his teeth clean thoroughly once. I heard that they also have these candy-like things that toddlers can eat to help them take care of their teeth. I want to know if this is true and if so, can Nicholas have some. I don't want him to end up with a set of rotten teeth at such a young age.

Well, this weekend is Father's Day weekend so I would like to wish that all the fathers out there have a great Father's Day and may your loved ones be with you on this special day! I think this is all I have to say for this update. I hope this one update will make up for the ones that I have missed. Sorry, got lazy and keep putting this off until tomorrow (and we all know that tomorrow never comes)!

The House and Nicholas

Let's see. The house. Well, we are looking at Wednesday to finalize everything for the house. We were planning on a big move for this Saturday, but I'm not sure if that will still stay true or not since we won't get the house until at least Wednesday (that is if everything goes through smoothly.) Michael is thinking about moving it to next weekend instead. Things are just getting to cramp right now.

Well, me. This is really bad timing. We are just about to get a new house and my job is in jeopardy. I have no idea when it will be, but I am guessing that I will be laid off pretty soon. Right now, the company that I work for is in some trouble getting work and the market right now is not all that great so trying to find another job is getting a bit difficult. I just hope that I wont' get laid off because to lose my income would be a great impact on the family financially.

Enough about me. Now for Nicholas. He's getting more naughty as he grows. Like yesterday, I had to run after him to avoid him from running out into the streets. He was at my parents' house and I just turned away for a split second and the kid was running towards my cousin's house and towards the streets. I ran after him and stopped him. I scolded him for doing that and told him never to do it again. Of course, he didn't listen. He gave me a cute look again, like usually, but this time, I didn't buy into it. I hit his little hands to teach him not to go out there. He tried to hit me back because he was upset with me not allowing him to go any further. So I grabbed his hands and hit them again. He started crying and I carried him back into my parents' house. He was very upset with that because he wanted to go outside, but I was punishing him for running out in the first place. Once he calmed down, he wanted a soda cup filled with lemonade. I gave it to him with the lid on, but he wanted to take the lid off and start pouring it all over. I stopped him and instead gave him a little cut with some lemonade in it. He didn't want it and started getting upset because he couldn't have the soda cup. He's just too spoiled. (I know it's mainly my fault) If he doesn't get anything, he will start crying and eventually someone will give it to him (usually either me or one of my family members). But this time, I was determined not to give in and I ended up winning the battle. He was so tired after crying for so long, he fell asleep. It's really hard to discipline him, especially when he's at my parents' house because if he cries, someone will pick him up. Karen did that yesterday after I said that she was not allowed to pick him up because he needed to learn that he did something wrong. She still went ahead and picked him up. Well, she ended up been lectured by me. After that, she immediately let him go and he started coming towards me again, but I just let him be. He needed to learn that running out into the streets was not something that he should be doing at all. My parents' are going to fence up the front of their house to block him from running out there. Out of all the grandkids there, he's the only one who runs out towards the street. Maybe because he's a boy. I really don't know.

Of course, there is always the cute side to this boy. Last night, he climbed onto the bed and threw all the pillows off the bed. After that, he took the comforters off the bed and just started jumping up and down on the bed. He was so happy. Even when he's bad, he's just so cute. He makes these sad faces that are so cute that you can't be mad at him for long at all. He has learned how to climb in and out of his crib. For some reason, he just loves to scare the heck out of the both of us. I mean, out of all the sides of the crib to climb up, he will always pick the highest side. Maybe he does it on purpose to get back at us for punishing him. It's also the side where the television is so if he ever falls, he would hit the television and the shelf that the television is sitting on. I mean, we have lower the front of the crib and there's also a box that he can use as a stepping stool. But he doesn't ever go in that way. I guess it's not challenging enough or something. I'm just glad that he does climb out from the front of the crib. When he first started doing this, I freaked out every time. I always wanted to just catch him and put him into his crib instead of allow him to climb in, but I knew that he needed to learn the hard way. I mean that's how we learn. That's why failure is the key to success.

Nicholas and House Shopping

Well, Nicholas still cannot talk. He's getting there. He can now say a few more words. He can say "go" and "no" quite well. He has also learned to shake his head when he doesn't want something. From talking to people, I found out that most boys do not talk until they are about two so I'm not so worried about him not talking yet. He says a lot though, even though we can't understand him. He is also telling us a lot by his actions. For example, when a video that he's watching has ended and he wants to watch it again, he either starts pointing at the television set or hands us the remote control. We are trying to get him to talk more by telling him what things are like sit, chair, bed, milk, juice, and simple things like that. Hopefully, soon he will come up to me and say something like, "I want some milk, please!" I am really looking forward to that day. While, I wait, I will have to live with his "nai, nai" instead.

In the last update, I said that we were going to try giving him cups instead of the bottle. Well, we did try a few times, but have not had much success with him. He'll drink from his cups for a little while and then start pouring the liquid out of the cups onto the floor. He has this little Blue's Clue cup with a lid and a straw. He does better with that cup. He drinks the liquid through the straw and usually will not pour it out like he does with every thing else. We still haven't tried putting milk in it yet. I tried giving him milk from a cup, but he didn't seem to want it. He would not take it from him like he would with any other liquid I put in the cup. I don't know why. Maybe because of the way it looks. Oh well, we're still trying to move him off the milk bottles and into cups. Another thing that we are trying to do is not give him too much milk right before he goes to sleep because that's not good for his teeth. Speaking of teeth, we are also trying to teach him how to brush his teeth in the bathtub. He likes sticking the toothbrush into his mouth, but he doesn't seem to want to brush with it. I have tried many times to ask him to open his mouth and allow me to brush his teeth for him, but he refuses every time. I have had a few successes at getting a little of his teeth. He also likes putting a little toothpaste on the toothbrush. At least he's getting some toothpaste into his mouth. I'm sure he'll soon start brushing his teeth if we keep this up.

Speaking of teeth, he has grown a few more of them lately. I think he now has about ten teeth, at least. Still not a full set, but getting there. His gums have been itching lately because every time I pick him up, he's sinking his teeth into my shoulders. He's not doing it too hard so it really doesn't hurt, but by the time he's done, my shoulder is all wet.

Another new development about Nicholas is that he loves to eat bananas. We usually get about one banana a day. We usually will cut it in half and give him half of a banana at once. He will try to stuff the whole thing into his mouth all at once. Then after he realizes that he can't, he will start taking big bites out of it. He's really cute when he's trying to eat the banana. As he gets towards the end of it, he'll stuff the rest of it in his mouth. I would say about one and ½ inch in height. Imagine the little one's mouth stuffed with a banana in it. It's the cutest thing in the world. There's a picture of him with a banana stuffed into his mouth on this month's pictures. He's just so adorable. Actually, I think there are a few of them with the banana in his mouth. Michael thought that it was cute so he had to take pictures of him.

Let's see… Umm… Oh, yeah. We have put a bid on a home already. I think we are supposed to find out the results today. The house is on the same street of my brother's house and is in a pretty nice neighborhood. It's a three-bedroom house. It has a living room and a family room. The previous owner has replaced all the carpets, tiles, and repainted all the shelves and walls before he put the house on the market. It's quite a catch. Right after we placed the bid on the house, someone else also placed a bid on the house. To my surprise, I know the person. It's one of my friends. I haven't talked to her yet, but after the results, I think I will call her and see how much she bid. I really would like to get this house, but if we don't, we will continue to look for another one.

Well, I didn't get to finish this update yesterday so I can tell you now that we didn't get the house. I guess someone bid more than full price for the home. It was someone else besides my friend. Oh, well, next.

Well, this weekend, we might be going to the Sacramento zoo again. I am not too sure if Michael is going to come with us because I think him and John might be golfing instead. If Michael doesn't go with us, I will remember to take a lot of pictures of Nicholas at the zoo. I think he will really enjoy himself there. He did the last time we went. I saw from the website that we have not been putting up too many pictures of Nicholas for the month of February and March. I will try to take more pictures of the little one, especially now since the weather here is so great. I think we can go out more and maybe to the park. I know Nicholas will really like that.

This is about all I have to say. We will try to keep everyone informed about our house seeking and when we will find a house to move into. Have fun out there in the nice weather!

The Wedding and CNY

Well, the wedding went fine.  Of course, I had to lose my voice because of all the screaming and shouting I had to do.  It’s really hard to talk over 20 people who do not want to listen to you at all.  Oh well, next time, I will by myself a loud speaker so I don’t have to lose my voice.  Nicholas was in the tuxedo that we bought him and you can see those pictures of him on his page under January 2001.  He was so cute and handsome.  The only problem was that he wasn’t very well behaved.  He got his tuxedo dirty by mid morning and we had to take him home and wash it before we returned to the reception that night.  If you want to see some of Karen’s pictures, just click on Relatives in the miscellaneous section and then John and Karen.  Those were all the pictures that we took at her wedding. 

Nicholas, Oh, he doing okay right now.  He is now tall enough to grab the handle of doors so he can close the doors holding the knob now.  He does that a lot at my parents’ house and at home.  He’s a great handful now.  My mother tells me that it’s almost impossible to keep up with him because he is so active.  You cannot believe that amount of energy he has all the time.  He still can’t talk though.  We are trying to help him talk, but I guess he just doesn’t want to yet.  He knows how to say Mama, but I think he associates it with “carry me” instead of Mom.  The thing is that he only says it to me, but everything, with his hands out.  I am not sure if he says the same thing to Michael when he asks Michael to carry him.  I don’t think so but I will let Michael speak for himself. 

Chinese New Year has come and gone.  He received a lot of red envelops for New Year.  He was in his traditional Chinese outfit on the second day of New Year and everyone who came over wanted to hold him.  The only problem is that he is afraid of strangers.  If he has not been around you, he will not go to you and will cry very loud if you try to hold him.  I guess it’s a good thing, in a way.  He won’t just go to any strangers.  We didn’t do much for New Year besides eat a lot of Chinese food.  I am so tired of seeing lobsters and crabs.  I mean that’s what we had for Karen’s wedding and also for New Year.  Just a little too much seafood, if you ask me.  I’m sure Michael will agree with this one.  

We are thinking about switching Nicholas over to cups instead of bottles.  I mean, he can hold cups fine and that he’s old enough to stop using bottles.  I am planning on doing this transition this weekend and hopefully he will adapt to it without any problems.

We are currently in the process of looking for a home.  If we do have another child, the house we currently are living is will be too small for the family.  We want one that has at least three bedrooms and also something that we can call our own instead of renting.  Michael wants another baby and I am somewhat ready for another one.  The only thing that is really worries me about having another baby is the bed rest part of the pregnancy.  I have talked to my OB/GYN and she told me that if I do have another child, the chances of me going back on bed rest is extremely high and that the chances of me going back on bed rest before 22 weeks is also high.  I like my current job and don’t want to have to give it up, but I have talked to my employer and they are okay with it right now.  I just hate the thought about lying in bed for such a long time.  It really won’t help my back either.  My back is already somewhat messed up and hurts a lot of the times already so staying on bed for 4 months or so will only add more pain to it.  Well, all I can wish for is that “every pregnancy is different” and I don’t have to be on bed rest for the next pregnancy. 

Well, this is about it for this month.  See you guys next month.

New Years and a Wedding

There was an update that I wrote in November that Michael never put out there, but I'm going to get on his case and hopefully, he'll put it up along with this one. Hopefully, they both will go up there maybe like tonight or this weekend since he does have the whole week off.

I hope everyone had a very nice Christmas and New Year. Ours wasn't all that pleasant. Nicholas has a virus in his mouth right before Christmas and we ended up not going up to Oregon because of it. He was very fussy and cranky. His tongue was filled with cold sores and also a few around his mouth and under his mouth. He would not drink anything besides apple juice so for about five days, all he had was apple juice. Michael had the flu also at the same time when Nicholas was sick so that didn't help either. I had and still have the cold (or whatever it is that's making me feel this bad). Nicholas was also very sticky during the time. He would not want anyone besides Mom and thought of Dad as the bad person because he was always the one with the medicine. He didn't like drinking the antibiotic at all. He had the virus for about a week and in the middle of it, he took the medicine and poured it all out of the bottle. It has a childproof lid on it, but I guess it wasn't all that child proof after all. We ended up getting him another one but because the insurance would not pay for it, we had to pay the full price which wasn't that bad, luckily. Teach me never to give him a medicine bottle to play with even though it has a childproof cap on it. He had a fever for the first two days of this virus and was very cranky. Both Michael and I did not get any sleep because of it and Michael was sick at the time. They both got a little bit better by Christmas. Somehow, Nicholas associated the pain to milk so after he recovered from the virus, he would not drink his milk at all. I tried and tried, but every time he saw his milk bottle, he would shove it away. On Christmas day, (maybe because he knew it was Christmas) he drink half a bottle which really made my day because he did not have any milk or solid food for about five days before that. He was getting so skinny. The doctor said that we had to make sure that he got lots of liquid so that was all we really cared about while he was sick. So we gave him all the apple juice that he wanted. I guess he got use to it and didn't want his milk anymore. After the virus was gone, he ended up with the cold and so did Michael. (I think I gave it to the both of them.) So from having a mouth that hurt, he went to a nose that would not stop leaking. It was pretty bad. He was just miserable for about two weeks. (Probably tells you what a holiday we had) He would not drink he milk even though his mouth has healed until last Thursday or Friday. For a while there, I thought I would never see him drink another bottle of milk. For about two weeks, all I ever saw out of him was a cranky face and tears all the time. He looked so miserable. I was wondering throughout the whole thing when I would be able to see my smiling and sweet little boy back. This weekend, he was a lot better. He's almost over his cold and he's drinking his milk again. Now, all he wants is his milk and he's looking a lot better. He's smiling and running around like he use to and getting himself into all sort of trouble again. That's okay because I love to see this Nicholas than the one two weeks ago.

Christmas was spent at home because Nicholas, Michael, and I were all sick and so was New Year. Michael spent New Year's Eve putting up the tents for my younger sister's wedding and I just spent it watching him and Nicholas. Afterwards, Michael went home with the baby and I stayed at my mother's house for dinner. After dinner, I drove home, but stopped to get Michael some food. I went to a Vietnamese restaurant that he liked, but they ended up being closed. As I headed out to make a left turn at the light when it was my turn to go, the scariest thing happened to me. As I was making my left turn and in the middle of the intersection, I heard this loud noise. It was the sound of someone slamming on his or her breaks. I looked to my left and there was this car coming straight at me. All I did at that moment was stare. I did not step on my breaks nor did I step on my gas to move my car out of the way, if possible. All that was running through my head was "Oh, my god. This person is going to hit me!" The car came within literally a few feet from hitting my car on the driver side where I was. After I realized that I was not going to get hit, I continued to make my left turn and continued my way, but for about twenty minutes after that, I was still shocked. I was so shaken up that everything was a bit blurry to me. My head was blurry and my neck was tinkling. I have never been that scared in my life and that close to maybe getting seriously injured. That car would have hit the driver side directly and I have no idea how seriously injured I would have been if it had hit me. All I can say right now is "thank whoever is up there for not allowing that accident to happen!!!"

My younger sister's wedding is this weekend and there are a lot of things to do. Michael took the whole week of to help them with stuff but I'm not sure what else Michael can help them with besides putting up the tents, which they have already completed. Me, I'm taking this Thursday and Friday off since I'm the head of the caterers. The reception for my side of the family will be this Saturday, but there the dinner the night before that on Friday. I just hope everything will go okay. Oh, yeah, by the way, we got Nicholas a cute little tuxedo because he's the ring boy and his aunt wants him in a tux. Oh, he's going to look so cute. I think he might look cuter than the groom himself!

Well, that's all for this month. Chinese New Year is coming up so I think next month's update will be quite interesting with the wedding and new year. Talk to you guys next time.

Thanksgiving

Well, he's still the same little boy that I remember. He has developed a few bad habits though, that we would like him to get rid of somehow. One of them is the fussy temper that he makes when he doesn't get something he wants. For example, if he wants to be held, but we don't want to hold him at that moment, he would start crying really loud and now matter where he was, fall back and usually would hit his hand on the floor. Of course, then, he would cry a lot more because the bang on the head would hurt. He's done this quite a few times on tiled floors. He just doesn't seem to pay attention to what type of floor he's standing on and will just drop straight backwards. This little bad habit of his really scares me because I'm just not too sure how much of it his head can take. He won't listen when we tell him not to do that. We don't want to spoil him either by giving him everything he wants. Another thing that has changed is his willingness to give things up. Before, if you just stick out your hands and ask him for it, he would immediately give it to you. But now, he would say "no" and then run away from you. Then, if you take it by force from him, he would put on his little temper tantrum. I mean, if he's walking around with a Q-tip in his ears, wouldn't you want that away from him. Well, he thinks it's cute and won't give it up without a good fight. If you stay persistent and keep asking him for it and corner him, he will eventually give it up. It takes a lot of patience with this little one nowadays. I will look on the bright side that he knows how to say "no" when he doesn't want to do something or doesn't want to give up something. He will start running away from you saying "no, no, no". It really looks cute, if I really think about it. Just the part of not giving things up is not so cute. At first, I though that Michael and I were the only ones to notice these changes, but amazingly, my parents also noticed these sudden changes also. He's a lot more whinny now and cries a lot more.

Oh, I just remember the incident where we took him to take Christmas pictures. Lesson learned: never take him anywhere around 1 - 3 when it's his naptime. We had scheduled an appointment to take Christmas picture at 1:45 and on the way there, he fell asleep. He woke up when we got there but he would not take pictures. It was amazing that we were able to pull off the Christmas card picture but we never finished the rest of them. We were able to get 3 of the 6 poses needed for the package. He just would not sit on our lap or on any type of platform. He was fine when we took him outside and went shopping. (We were at Wal-Mart.) And I thought I was stubborn. He's worse than two of me! He refused to take any pictures. You put him on a platform; he'll immediately climbs off no matter how high the platform was. You put him on your lap, he'll immediately starts twisting and turning to get off your lap. Nothing worked with him. Not even giving him a Barney toy. The photographers tried everything, but nothing would please him. He didn't want to take any pictures. Simple as that. We gave up after 30 minutes or so and had to go with whatever shots we were able to get. We didn't get any single picture of him at all. I will attempt it again this weekend with him but at a different studio. I just hope he will behave himself a bit more and be a little more willing to take pictures. Hopefully, he will be good and we will be able to get some single pictures of him in time for Christmas.

Well, he's growing along nicely. He can now say a few more words than a month ago. You guys can tell, he can say "no" by now. He can also say a few words in Chinese if he wants to. He can do the blow kiss if he feels like it. Nowadays, everything has to be "if he feels like it." I mean, sometimes, you just wish he would say bye-bye to people but he won't do it until we get into the car. He has six teeth now and sure loves to chew on stuff, especially sweet stuff. He has being at my work place a few times now and I have a lot of candy at work. Every time he goes there, he'll look for the lollipops sitting around and start sucking on it with the wrapper still on. Eventually, he will be able to suck through the wrapper and get to the sweet candy. Oh, by then, he will not want to give the candy back to you. He'll start a fit if you take it away from him. He always tries to climb on my chair to get to the computer. He's just a big handful.

We had a great Thanksgiving Day. We went to Irene's house for turkey and then had more turkey that weekend. We did get our share of rest. We did a lot of catching up on sleep and cleaning the house. Michael forgot to put up the Christmas light so he'll probably be doing that this weekend. For Christmas, we will probably be visiting Michael father and stepmother in Oregon. I just hope that Nicholas will be okay with the six-hour drive there and back. He's very active now and I am not sure that he will like sitting in a car for six-hours straight. Well, we'll see.

This is about all I have to say this month. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and we wish everyone will have a great Christmas also. If I don't put up another update before Christmas, we just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Haloween

There isn't much I can say about the little one this time because he hasn't changed much. He still can't really talk too much. He can say little things like "more", "baby", and "ma". He can also say a few words in Chinese but he cannot put words into phrases or sentences. He has learned how to do the blow kiss and he always will associate his baby bag with bye-bye. He loves to watch Barney. Every morning when he wakes up, he'll usually watch Barney for a while. We have over 5 different Barney tapes at home and sometimes, Michael and I get some of those Barney songs stuck in our heads. He seems to get along with his cousins pretty well. One thing that he loves to do when Erik (my youngest nephew) is around is go over to him and kiss him on the cheeks. Then if Erik is in his car seat, Nicholas will start rocking the car seat. He seems to really like babies that are smaller than him. It was the same when Kayla (May's daughter) was over. I have been shopping around a lot since it is starting to get cold. He needed a new wardrobe. Things that would keep him warm over the winter. I found some really cute clothes for a very good price. Michael also got him new shoes and they look really cute on him. Lately, he has been a bit fussy but we don't know why. I am guessing that it might be another tooth coming in. Oh, yeah, by the way, he has five teeth now: two on the bottom center and three on the top. My father jokes around about those teeth, saying that he look cuter now when he smiles because he has some teeth.

Mike and I are doing fine now. For a while there, I had a sinus problem or something like that and I had headaches, backaches, neck aches, stomachaches, and my eyes were very heavy. I went to the doctor and she gave me some medication for them and also, I have to attend physical therapy for six weeks. Michael has been getting headaches on and off. I guess it must be the weird weather. We are planning to go take a Christmas picture sometime within the next few weeks because we want to get them out before everyone else starts rushing in for the holiday season. One of my younger sisters (Karen) was going to get married at the end of this month or beginning of next month but the wedding has now been postponed due to a death in her finance's family. I think the wedding will now be held during the beginning of next year. And guess who's going to be the little flower boy? Yep, Nicholas! I have to find him a tuxedo for the wedding and I am still trying to figure out if renting one would be cheaper than buying one since he would probably only wear it once.

We do not plan on taking him trick-or-treating. (At least, I don't think so because if we are, he doesn't have a custom yet.) I think it's better for him to stay in that night. We will see how he's going to handle all those kids coming over to the house for Halloween. Maybe afterwards, I will write to tell you guys about his first Halloween experience. (The one last year didn't count because he was still too small).

Well, that's about all I have to say about this month. Maybe next month there will be more interesting things to write about and he will have more teeth. Like I said, I might write after his experience with Halloween right afterwards, but we'll have to see. Until next time, good health to you all (especially with this cold weather)!

Misc Update

I have not noticed that it has been more than over a month since I last updated you all on Nicholas. Well, for the last two weeks, we didn't put up any pictures of the day. The reason was because about three weeks ago, Nicholas and I were taking a bath and he was playing around. The water was somewhat slippery and he's always been an active kid, even in the bathtub. Well, as he was standing up and trying to walk in the tub, he suddenly slipped and hit his eye onto the side of the bathtub. He ended up with a big black eye. Michael didn't want to take any pictures of him like that because he was afraid that you guys might think that we beat him up or something (I didn't really think that. - the editor). The funny thing was that three days later, he had a doctor's appointment and the doctor was asking what happened. I'm guessing that he recorded that down just to make sure that Nicholas doesn't go back there with another black eye. After a few days, it got a lot better. The swelling disappeared. The only thing left was this really dark black eye lid. It was on his right eye. It really looked like someone put a lot of dark black eye shadow on his eye lid. Then the next weekend, we went to Irene's house and he got his right face scratched up a bit. So Michael only took pictures of him on his left side because his right side of the face looked so beat up (these are her words, not mine! - the editor). Well, both the scratch and the black eye have healed by now. We are starting to take pictures of him again so this week, there will probably be more pictures of him on the web. Well, besides the black eye and the scratches, he's been doing quite fine. He's just a bit too spoiled. He throws these temper tantrums all the time now when he doesn't get something. He's a very active boy. I just can't believe how much energy he has in him. Last Thursday, I brought him in to work with me for about two hours. He had so much fun running up and down the entire office. Everyone at work liked him because he was so cute and so hyper.

Well, we are trying to apply for a home loan and also looking for a house. Hopefully, we will be able to move by the beginning of next year. Also, I have taken another job on my spare time doing private tutoring to CSUS students. Thus far, I am tutoring Advance COBOL but I hope to expand this out to all other MIS courses. It's just to help make some extra money for the house and also keep myself away from Mah Jong. So, Michael will be spending a lot more time with Nicholas alone and it has already shown because now, Nicholas goes to Michael more than he comes to me. Usually, it's the other way around. We are trying to discipline him a bit by telling him "no" to things that he should not be doing. Michael seems to be having more success with it than I am. I can give him my meanest look, but he still will smile at me. When Michael gives Nicholas a mean look, he will start putting his head down frowning. To be truthful, I think he looks very cute when he does that. I guess the reason why he's not afraid of me is because I usually give him what he wants and Michael doesn't. Especially when he throws the temper tantrums. I would usually go pick him up while Michael lets him know that he can't always do that. For me, I just can't stand him crying. And that little one is one stubborn baby. I mean, if we don't pick him up or give him what he wants, he can keep crying for more than half an hour. And he gets louder by the minute. Eventually, he'll understand that he can't get what he wants and will calm down by himself. I guess I just need to learn how to let him cry because it's bad for me to pick him up all the time and give him what he wants. I can't seem to be as firm with him as Michael can be.

Nicholas still only has three little teeth. He has being grinning his three teeth together and it's very annoying. I also asked the doctor about it and was told that it's not good because he could make it grow off to one side instead of centered. We don't know what to do to make him stop it. He doesn't suck on a pacifier so that won't work. Well, another thing that he has done a lot more now that he has some teeth is eat more solid food. I guess now, he can somewhat chew on the food. Before he could eat solid food but because he couldn't chew, he would spit the food back out once he has sucked out all the juice in it. Now, he just eats the entire thing.

Well, that's about all I can think of for now. Oh, yeah, one more thing, he can now climb out of his crib now. He has only done it once but it's starting to get a bit scary with him being able to do that. We are thinking about getting him a toddler's bed but he moves around a lot when he's asleep so we are afraid that he will fall off the bed every night.

Okay, now, I think I am done talking for today so see you guys next time.

Ok, now: Teeth!

It has been a long time since the last baby update and I remember saying that he was not teething.  Well, guess what?  He’s finally cutting teeth.  We realized it this past Saturday morning.  Actually, it was Michael who noticed it first.  He was playing with Nicholas and flipping him upside down (I tell him not to do that all the time, but he never listens) and he noticed a little white object in Nicholas’ mouth.  Michael tried to make Nicholas open his mouth but Nicholas was quite the resistant.  Michael finally got him to open his mouth and he saw three little teeth.  The one on the bottom has broken through the gum and the two on top are pretty close to breaking through also.  We feel very relieved that he finally has some teeth.  I don’t know of any other little baby who didn’t have any tooth at his age.  My best friend’s little girl, who is six months old, had a little tooth the week before we realized his.  He’s just extremely slow when it comes to teething.  Another friend’s baby, who is eight days older than Nicholas, is only missing the four teeth before he has a full set.  And Nicholas is only starting to teeth.  He has a lot of catching up to do.  Another good part about him teething is that it doesn’t seem to bother him.  He doesn’t seem to be having much pain with the teeth cutting.  I was told by many that the later the teeth come, the more it hurts.  Well, we were ready for the no sleep and crankiness, but we didn’t get any of it.  Maybe we did, but at that time, we found no tooth on him.  About two weeks ago (started on Monday night, August 5), he was sick. He had a fever for about three days.  I took him to the doctor and the doctor said that they didn’t know what it was because all he had was the fever.  He didn’t have any diarrhea or vomiting so he didn’t have what was going around.  He also said that it could be anything and that we shouldn’t be surprised if we saw rashes later on.  Nicholas did end up with rashes last Saturday, but they went away within the next two days.  We were so worried that we called the physician on call on Saturday because we didn’t know if it was maybe the measles or chickenpox or not.  He told us that it was normal for sick babies to break out with rashes at the end of their sickness.  He said that it was a good sign because it tells you that the sickness is over.  I didn’t think that he was teething at that time because I’ve had too many false alarms already.  And I did look in his mouth but there was nothing.  Then a week later, he has three.  I guess it just takes a while before they start coming after the fever.  Well, both Michael and I are just glad that he’s finally cutting some teeth. 

Well, at the beginning of this month, we went up to Oregon to visit Michael’s father and stepmother.  We had fun there and this week’s pictures were from a lake that we went to that was really close to the house.  We also did some shopping since Oregon was tax-free.  That Friday, we also went to Michael’s yearly division picnic and the water picture that Michael posted up last week was from the Sacramento River.  That was when Nicholas was all better from his fever, but also the next day was when we noticed the rashes.  We thought that it had something we us allowing him to play in the river.  It really freaked me out for sure. Then the Monday after that, Michael and I went to Great America by ourselves.  It was kind of like our day off from Nicholas.  We had a lot of fun and we went on most of the rides.  We did have to wait in line for two hours for the newest attraction, the Stealth, but it was really worth it.  It was a very interesting experience.  It was like really flying in the air.  Scary in a way because I’m afraid of heights and we were hanging like a few stories upside-down.  Once we finished that ride, all the other rides seem somewhat cheesy and generic compare to that one.  We also watched the IMAX movie that they were showing.  The graphics were cool but the whole thing was like another roller coaster that got you extremely dizzy.  It was somewhat of a disappointment for both Michael and I. 

Well, this is about all that I have to say for now.  I will continue to update everyone on Nicholas’ teething as he continues to get more.  Until then, have a nice day!

No teeth

Okay, I lied. He's not teething or at least I don't think he is. I think it he was just sick. I don't really know anymore. I really thought that he was teething but he still doesn't have any teeth sticking out at all. He is a bit sick now though. He has a very stuffy nose and has a hard time breathing at night. He's been quite fussy lately. He wakes up a lot during the night. I guess it's because he can't breath. Two nights ago, he woke up almost every hour and by 5 in the morning, he would not go back to sleep. I didn't know what was wrong with him. He didn't want anything. He was just crying. I don't know what it is anymore. I really wish that he could speak and tell me what's wrong. For the last week or so, I haven't had much of sleep at all. He was a lot better over the weekend. He was playful and okay but on Monday, it was a totally different story. My father has been babysitting him lately and he seems to do fine during the days. My father can barely catch up to him. It's totally different at night. It's like two different personalities from day to night. I am guessing that it has to do with his breathing problem at night. Overall, he's not doing all that bad. He's quite active during the day. He's very playful and my father has been telling me that it's hard to catch up with him when he's outside playing. He loves the outdoors especially the garden. He loves to play out there because there are so many new things for him to play with like running over all the vegetables as he walks on top of the row of vegetables. He loves to go put little dirt balls into a bottle. He can sit there for the whole day and do that. He will also take vegetables and put them into the bottle and then shake the bottle to hear the noise that it makes. At home, he loves going into the back yard. Over by the tree, the landscape is somewhat like a hill and he would run up the hill and try walking down. Sometimes, he goes too fast and ends up rolling down the hill. He loves it cause he goes right back to it. Either that or Michael will turn on the water for him to play with. He loves that. He gets himself totally soaked but he enjoys it so much that when it's time to go back inside to change, he gets really upset. We are thinking about getting him an outside playground so that he can have more things to play with outside instead.

Well something bad is going around because all my nieces are now sick too. My father's not feeling all that great either and I think I'm coming down with something also. Now my older sister also has the sore throat and runny nose. I just have somewhat of a sore throat and stuffy nose. I have been very tired lately. Maybe it's because of the lack of sleep. Whatever it might be, I just hope it goes away. I feel out of energy all the time and can barely get up each morning to go to work.

Just wanted to update everyone on Nicholas' condition. I'm just a bit worried about him since he's still not teething just. We asked the doctor and he said that Nicholas will soon get it. I guess all I can do is wait for them to come right now. Oh well. This will test my patience.

Teeth

Well, I think it has finally come.  I am 75% sure that Nicholas is teething now.  He had a fever this past weekend up to 102 degrees.  He was not too happy on Sunday nor was Michael because he was sick.  I felt his gums and they were very bumpy, but that has happened before and he didn’t have any teeth then.  Another thing that he does out of the normal is that he uses his tongue to feel his upper gums a lot now especially when he’s in a grumpy and crying mood.  He loves to put his fingers into his mouth too.  To this day, he’s still very grumpy and whiny.  It’s either he’s teething or he’s also sick like Michael was, but I don’t see many more symptoms of sickness besides a stuffy nose.  For the past few days, I have not been able to get much sleep because Nicholas keeps waking up in the middle of the night crying.  On Sunday night, he woke up practically every hour.  He would some times stay awake for up to 30 minutes before going back to sleep.  On Monday night, he was crying so hard at around 5 AM that he woke Michael up and Michael ended up having to sleep on the couch.  There was no way Michael could have gotten any sleep if he was in the room because Nicholas was complaining for so long.  There wasn’t much I could so.  Michael needed the rest since he was sick but I couldn’t get Nicholas to calm down.  He was crying because I guess his gums were hurting really bad.  I don’t know what to do to help ease his pain.  I tried the oral gel but it doesn’t really work on him.  I’ve tried giving him teething toys that were iced for a while.  I’ve tried rubbing his gums with a cold cloth.  They all provide short relief but nothing that will work with him at night or when he’s crying really hard.  I don’t actually rub his gums with the cold cloth because he won’t let me near his mouth.  I have to put an ice cube inside the washcloth and then he will want to suck on the ice.  While he’s sucking on the ice, I try to rub his gums a little.  He seems to be a lot worse at my parents’ house.  He is so “sticky” over there that my parents can’t get anything done Whenever he sees my mother, he will want my mother to hold him and if she ever leaves, he’ll start crying really loud.  This also happens with my father.  He has been very whiny lately.  Even at home, he’ll always want to be held or be next to us.  I guess it’s because he wants to know that someone will be there when he’s in pain.  I wish there was something that I can do for him because it really hurts to see him in so much pain.  Sometimes when his gums hurt, he holds on really tight and starts biting my shoulder or my shirt.  The look on his face tells me that it hurts a lot and that he’s very miserable.  He also gives me the look of “mommy, take this pain away.”  The part that gets to me most is that there isn’t too much I can do to help him.  I still don’t see any little teeth yet but I was told that sometimes it would take over a week before I can see any.  I just hope that it’ll come out soon so that he doesn’t have to suffer so much pain.

Michael is doing a lot better now and me, besides a bit tired, I’m also doing fine.  We both just wish that Nicholas would soon be better.  If you have any idea or methods on easing his pains, please send me an email.  I really want to try to ease some of his pain so that he can sleep better and also feel better.  Nicholas himself has not gotten much sleep.  My parents tell me that his pain will wake him up from his naps and he will not go back to sleep after that.  He does the same at night so he doesn’t get much sleep either. 

I’ll try to write again in a few days to have a follow up on Nicholas’ conditions.  Until then, send those e-mails with the remedies.  If you don’t know my e-mail address, just use the “Mui” hyperlink at the bottom of this screen where it says Michael & Mui or you can always call me at home.

July 4th Plans

Fourth of July is coming up and I hope everyone will be having a fun and safe holiday. I don't know what we will be doing on Fourth of July, but we will be going to a Fourth of July party this weekend at Dan's house. I think Nicholas will like it because there will be a swimming pool there. You can already figure it out by now that he loves the water. We bought a little inflatable swimming pool for his party and now, Mike and Nicholas get into it once in a while and the little one never wants to come back out from there. We don't put too much water in it so he can walk inside the pool so he really enjoys it.

Well, Nicholas is doing fine. To this date, he still has no teeth. Mike took him for his one-year check up about a week after his birthday and asked the doctor about this. The doctor said that it was okay and that he will be getting them soon. A week ago, he was crying a lot for no reason and I was thinking that it might be because his gums were hurting. I even bought some oral gel just in case, but after about two days of crying and complaining, he was okay again. He doesn't seem to be having any problems now and is playing around like usual. I am just a bit worried about him. He has always been such a normal baby and sometimes, above normal. But when it comes to his teeth, he is so behind. I don't know if it's going to be a problem or not. I mean he's almost 13 months old and no teeth. Not even any signs of teething and too many false alarms have occurred that I'm not going to get my hopes up until I see a little tooth sticking out of his gums.

Besides no teeth, Nicholas is progressing greatly. He now can climb up onto our bed now. I mean our bed is at about 3 feet tall. There is a shorter dresser at the edge of the bed and he will climb up the dresser and then up onto the bed. He scared the heck out of me the first time he climbed onto the bed. I was sleeping and the next thing I know he was next to me playing on the bed. I thought it was Mike who put him on the bed so I asked, but Mike said that he didn't. I was so curious as to how he got onto the bed so I sat there and watched him after I placed him back onto the floor. For the next minute or two, he just amazed me. I had mixed feeling running through me at the time. I was happy that he was so cunning, but also worried at the same time because of the danger that was associated with him on our bed. I really don't want to ever see him falling off the bed but I have to say that this is a very likely possibility if he continues to climb on the bed the way he does now. He is also capable of grabbing things that are at the edge of the tables so we have to be very careful of what we put on the edge of the tables. The day before Father's Day, we allowed him to play in the dining room and the living room after I gave him a bath and the next thing I know, he was on the computer table. There was a pen on the table and he got a hold of it. Somehow, he broke off the tip of the pen and started dripping ink blobs all over. By the time Mike got to him, he was filled with ink blobs all over himself. We had to take him back into the restroom and clean him off again. He also got the computer chair and the keyboard filled with ink blobs and there's nothing much we can do about those. He's just one active and hyper baby. He can also get himself into a lot of trouble without even having to try. At my parents' house, they had to move the computer table away from the sofas because he was using the sofas to climb into the computer table. Now, he is starting to climb onto the gates that block him from going like going up the stairs or into the dinning room. Speaking of stairs, he can now climb up and down the stairs with ease. He's just one daring little boy. I just hope that if he ever hurt himself because of the things he does, it won't be that bad or serious. He doesn't seem to get scared of things even though he might have fallen off of it before. For example, he climbed onto a table that we have in the living room and it's not that high, but he fell from it once. The next thing you know after we comforted him is that he goes right back to it without even a bit of doubt or fear that he might fall from it again.

Watching Nicholas has become a handful and my new job is turning out to be a really good change. I am also going back to school so it's hard to find time to sit down and write these update so if you don't see one anytime soon, you'll know why.

Well, with that, I'll see you all at the next update.

One Year Old

Nicholas' birthday party was this weekend and it was a great success. We would like to thank all those who attended the party and thank all those who gave him presents. We really appreciate the wonderful gifts and the wonderful thoughts that were around him on his birthday. He really had a great time, especially the part with the inflatable pool. He had a lot of fun playing with the water on a warm summer day and he enjoyed all the company of everyone on his birthday. We are sorry to hear that some of you weren't able to make it but we still appreciate your calls on his birthday and on behalf of Nicholas, I would like to say "Thank you" from the bottom of our hearts. We would like to give special thanks to those who helped out with the party, especially Shirley and Lisa. They helped me out a lot before, during, and after the party. I would also like to thank my brother and Cynthia for all their help and all their equipment. Cynthia was the one who did all the decorations to the house and my brother, Michael, and my father were the ones who set up the tent. My brother also brought all the chair and tables over to our house with Michael. He was also nice enough to lend us their BBQ grill. My brother and Sing also did most of the cooking which allowed us to attend to our guest. Without these people, I don't think that the party could have gone as smooth as it did.

We took many pictures during the party and I think Michael said that he would put those pictures up tonight in a separate directory called Nicholas' first birthday so be looking for those tomorrow.

I really can't believe that he has grown so fast. It seems like yesterday when I gave birth to the little guy. He's just so big and cute now. As most of you can tell from the party, he has become very active and hyper. He seems to be full of energy all the time. The day of the party, he was awake at 5:30 in the morning. Some thinks that it's because he knew that it was his special day and he was too excited to sleep. For whatever reason, he was quite an early bird and he didn't go to sleep until 10 PM also. We were wishing that he would teeth on his birthday but thus far, it still hasn't come true yet. Michael is going to ask the doctor when he takes him in for his one-year checkup in about two weeks. We are a little concerned about the late coming of his teeth, whenever that may be. Saturday night, well, technically, Sunday morning, he woke up and was crying really loud. We couldn't figure out what was wrong. He kept this up for about an hour before I could finally put him back to sleep. The next day, I noticed a little white spot on his gems. I am not saying that he's teething because that was the only fit that he had. I think that little white spot was there before also because there was a time when we thought he was teething because we spotted something that looked like a tooth but ended up being a false alarm. So I'm not putting my hopes too high at all. This year has gone by pretty quickly and to summarize how Michael and I have felt about this new additional to the family, I can only say that we are extremely grateful for having him and very glad that he came into our lives. He has brought so much joy and happiness into our lives (not that we didn't have any before he came along), but a different type of joy and happiness. I guess it's what they can parenthood. I mean the little one does so many cute and wonderful things even when he upset. The way he just cries at not being able to put a toy because he pushing it into the wall. The way he'll play by himself until he sees one of us coming and starts coming to us. There are just so many wonderful things about him that I can't talk about them all in here. I would be a whole book if I had to write all the wonderful things that Nicholas does.

Michael and I were talking this morning that I noticed on funny little thing about Nicholas. Well, in the above paragraph, I said that he woke up around 5 in the morning on Saturday. Well, he woke up around 7 on Sunday morning, but this morning, it was 8 and he still was not awake. We had to go and wake him up. I have noticed that during the weekdays, he will not wake up until we wake him up which is usually around 8 and if we don't wake him up, he could sometimes sleep until 9:30 or so. But on the weekends, he seems to wake up no later than 7:30, most of the time between 6:30 to 7 AM. It's just amazing how he knows when it's a weekday and when it's a weekend. To be truthful, I really wish he would switch those to habits around. We both have to get up early during the weekdays already to go to work so we would like to be able to sleep in a bit during the weekends, but the way Nicholas has been waking up, we don't seem to have that option. Michael and I would switch off watching him in the mornings so that the other one can get a little more sleep.

Well, overall, we had a great weekend and thank you all for everything! We are very glad to have a group of such warm and loving friends and family. Thank you very much for everything!

New Job

Well, I am quitting my current company and will be moving on to work for another consulting company by the name of Practical Consulting. This will take effect next Friday. I am looking forward to this new change.

We are still trying to prepare for the party, getting the house clean, buying stuff for the party. Nicholas has been doing great lately. He did come down with a little cold about a week or so ago but he's doing great now. He's just growing very rapidly. I think he's starting to talk. He can now say "bye bye" very clearly now. That is if he wants to. I have heard him say "da da" quite a few times and the other day when he was crying, he just suddenly screamed out "mama" loud and clear. I was very surprised that he can say my name. I am not sure if it was directed towards me or not. Another thing that he can say is milk in Chinese when he's hungry. I know that he can't quite say it yet but every time when he wants me, he'll say, "mum mum" which is pretty close to mama. I'm sure he'll get there soon. He can finally also fit into his shoes now without them falling off every ten seconds or so.

Nicholas has been quite a sleeper lately. Last Sunday, he slept until 9:30 in the morning. Usually he would wake up around 6 or 7 but not Sunday. Then on Tuesday night when Michael took him home, he fall asleep in the car and didn't wake up again until 7 in the morning the next morning. The time when he fell asleep was about 7 at night so he slept for about 12 hours that night. Then this morning, he won't wake up even when we tried waking him up and it was 8:30. He's also been going to sleep late. Last night, he didn't fall asleep until almost 11 and the night before, he didn't sleep until 11:30 at night. I guess all this late sleep has been making him wake up later in the morning.

We are about to try regular milk with him because he's almost one year old. I just hope that he will like it. We are going to try the straight forward switch over to see if he will adjust to it and if he doesn't, we will try the slow transition of a little formula mixed with a little of real milk.

I had this really bad rash problem last week. Last Monday, when I woke up, my nose was all swollen and itchy and my cheeks were red. I went to the doctor on Wednesday and they gave me some face cream for it. My nose got better but my cheeks got worse. My cheeks started to get more swollen and red. It was very hot and burning all the time. It was also extremely itchy. For the whole week, I had to retain myself from scratching my face. It was mentally torturing. They never found out what was wrong with me, but on Friday, I went to the doctor's again and they gave me another cream for my cheeks. On application of it did the job. My cheeks were not swollen and layered. Nor was it dried up and itchy. I am somewhat back to normal now and I really don't want to ever go through that again.

As for Michael, he's doing fine. He doesn't seem to be having any problems nor aches and pains. This week, all of us are feeling fine and great. Just going to do some cleaning this weekend in preparation for the party and some shopping.

Well, nothing much else that new. I guess I'll just see you all at the party!

May Update

Five more weeks and Nicholas will be one year old.  Time sure flies by when you are having fun and busy.  I look back at this year and can’t really believe that it’s has being almost a year now since I gave birth to the little one.  I can still remember very clearly all the bed rest and the hospitalization that I had to go through just to have him.  It’s like as if it was yesterday.  Those times where I don’t have to worry about him being able to get out of his crib or run around the house is gone now.  Now, everyday, I have to keep a very close eye on him or else, I wouldn’t know where he ran off to.  He’s so active now and so full of energy.  It’s hard to keep up with him sometimes.  Nicholas is growing up so quickly now.  It really seems like yesterday when he was only this little tiny creature in my hands that was so innocent and helpless.  Now, he’s tearing the house apart if we don’t block him and watch him carefully.

Well, this past weekend, Nicholas had diarrhea.  He was not feeling very well at all, but I think it’s gone now.  We gave him a lot of Pedialyte for his sickness and it seems to have helped him.  He seems to be doing a lot better this morning when I took him to my parents.  About two weeks ago, I was going to write another baby update telling everyone about the new tooth that we thought that he was getting.  He had a little fever a few days before that and then we noticed this little white dot on his gems.  We thought that it might be a little teeth but I didn’t write a baby update about that.  Thank goodness I didn’t because it would have being another false alarm.  The little white spot is still there but no sign of any tooth.  We can’t figure out what the little white spot is.  Michael felt his gems before and says that it’s not really bumpy at all.  I haven’t really tired it before so I can’t tell if it’s bumpy or not.  All I know is that there is a little white spot there.  I just hope that when his teeth comes, it won’t hurt him so much because I have heard that the later it comes, the more it hurts. 

Well, this past weekend, we were preparing for the party.  We were trying to figure out what to buy and wanted to get the house ready for the party.  We are thinking about putting up a tent in the back yard so that there will be plenty of shade for everyone if they want to go outside.  The house is not all that big and we don’t want everyone to just stay inside the house.  I am sure that it will be a nice sunny day that day so we want to be able to allow our guest to stay outside and not be afraid of getting sunburned.  We were also working on the lawn.  I brought some miniature roses last weekend and we are trying to figure out where to plant them around the house.  I am also trying to kill all the weeds in the back yard.  They are a big pain and are hard to get rid of.  I have to dig about a foot deep before I can remove all their vines from the ground.  They are the type that will suck up all the minerals from all the plants that are around it and they are all over the roses bushes.  I have being working on them for quite a while now on and off, but I have only gotten rid of about ¼ of them.  I will continue to work on them and hopefully will be finished with them before the party. 

Nicholas is doing great besides the diarrhea that he had this past weekend.  He is getting very smart and adaptive.  He seems to be able to adapt to any new obstacle or traps that we put in his way so that he won’t be able to get to things.  On the right side of the bed, there is this little opening where the laptop is located and also Michael’s coke.  Well, it’s about two feet wide and Nicholas loves to go there and mess with the laptop and some plugs that are over there.  What I have done before was put this laundry basket in between the bed and the wall.  He has learned how to move that basket out of his way and get into the crack. He pulls the basket outward but also in an angle so that by the time he is finished, he can just walk around the basket and get into the crack.  At first, I thought that it was Michael who moved the basket.  Until I caught him in the act of doing so, I couldn’t believe that he was capable to doing such a clever thing.  Well, now I use a rubber maid tube-a-ware to block him from getting and he still uses the same methodology to remove it but I caught him in the act of doing so, so I pushed the box in more and now, he had not taken it out yet.  I am sure that he will soon one day figure out to that he needs he pull the box out a bit more before he can turn the box sideways.  The box is also the one that holds all his toys so sometimes as he trying to pull the box out, he’ll spot a toy that he’s interested in and will stop pulling on the box and play with his toy instead.   This isn’t all that bad of a strategy to stop him from getting into the little crack.  The little one is just getting too smart and clever.  We are also planning really baby proof the whole house.  We have done so with many of the shelves and cabinets but not most of the drawers yet.  We are in the process of buying more baby proofing stuff such as plug protectors and plastic wedges. 

Well, if you are wondering what to buy for Nicholas on his birthday, we will be soon providing a list of things that we think he would be needing and things that he really doesn’t need anymore of cause he has an abundant of, like clothes.  I am composing that list right now and will probably be releasing that this weekend. 

Easter

Happy 10 months Birthday to Nicholas!!!

Spring 2000 is finally here, but if the weather is going to be as hot as yesterday, then I’m not too sure that I want spring to come.  It got up to 88 degrees here in Sacramento and boy was that hot. 

Well, Nicholas is still working on his ability to walk.  He is getting better and better at it.  He can now walk for about 10 feet without falling or crawling.  He is also seems to be a very early bird.  He goes to sleep quite late and gets up quite early also.  He doesn’t fall asleep, usually, until at least 10 PM, but then he gets up around 6 or 7 in the morning.  A month ago, he usually doesn’t get up until at least 8 AM.  I guess he’s just an early bird.

From my previous baby update, I found out that I am not suppose to give Nicholas any Honey Nut Cheerios because of the honey, so I have stopped that.  He now eats Lucky Charms instead.  Nicholas can now climb down the bed and the sofas now.  Well, I am not to sure if I should call it climb down or slide down.  He can get off the sofa pretty easily but hesitates a bit when it comes to the bed.  I was told that he does it a lot at my parents’ house.  Whenever he gets up from his little naps, he would climb down the bed by himself and sometimes he would end up falling.  He has even tried climbing down the stairs, but my parents’ are trying not to let him do that since he might fall backwards and hit his head.  One thing I know is that he really loves Teletubbies.  He watches them every morning when he gets up.  He also watches Barney but isn’t as interested in it as he is in Teletubbies.   He loves to see the little baby sun, especially when he smiles and laughs.  Nicholas will jump up and down to him. 

Another thing that Nicholas has come to like is music.  Whenever he hears music with a beat, he will start dancing to it.  He can’t really do much of a dance, but he will start jumping up and down while he’s standing.  Or when someone starts dancing and he’s also in the mood to dance, he will start jumping up and down.  He also has a passion for the outdoors.  I guess it’s because there are so many unexplored things outdoors.  I mean, he’s always in the house so he has practically explored every inch of the house, including the restrooms.  Outdoors is a different story.  It’s hard to be able to explore the whole outdoors.  He always wants to do outdoors.  Whenever anyone opens the door at my parents’ house, he would start getting excited and head towards the door.  Once you close it, he will start whining (crying without tears).  He is just so good at whining nowadays.  I mean, he lets out these really loud cries that if you just heard him, he sounds like he’s crying really hard or like something really hurts, but when you look at him, he has no tears coming down his face.  His eyes aren’t even wet.  If you left him have what he was whining about, he would immediately start smiling at you.  I guess he’s just a bit too spoiled.

His one year birthday is coming up, but we are not too sure what we are going to do for him just yet nor are we sure who to invite.  It’s a Saturday and we were taking of having a barbecue, but we are not totally certain of that yet.  We would like to have Michael’s side of the family come to Sacramento though.  As for my side of the family, they usually have to harvest the vegetables on Saturday so I am not sure how to work this out.  I am trying to ask my parents to skip on day of vegetable selling so that we can celebrate Nicholas’ birthday on June 3rd.  Another option would be having it on June 4th since my father would probably come home early from vegetable selling.  I do have two months to work it out though.  Hey, but we do plan on having something that weekend.  Just not sure which day yet.  Hey, another option would be to have to birthday parties for him, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  If anyone has some suggestions on what to do for his first birthday, please feel free to e-mail us. 

10 Months Old

Happy 10 months Birthday to Nicholas!!!

Spring 2000 is finally here, but if the weather is going to be as hot as yesterday, then I’m not too sure that I want spring to come.  It got up to 88 degrees here in Sacramento and boy was that hot. 

Well, Nicholas is still working on his ability to walk.  He is getting better and better at it.  He can now walk for about 10 feet without falling or crawling.  He is also seems to be a very early bird.  He goes to sleep quite late and gets up quite early also.  He doesn’t fall asleep, usually, until at least 10 PM, but then he gets up around 6 or 7 in the morning.  A month ago, he usually doesn’t get up until at least 8 AM.  I guess he’s just an early bird.

From my previous baby update, I found out that I am not suppose to give Nicholas any Honey Nut Cheerios because of the honey, so I have stopped that.  He now eats Lucky Charms instead.  Nicholas can now climb down the bed and the sofas now.  Well, I am not to sure if I should call it climb down or slide down.  He can get off the sofa pretty easily but hesitates a bit when it comes to the bed.  I was told that he does it a lot at my parents’ house.  Whenever he gets up from his little naps, he would climb down the bed by himself and sometimes he would end up falling.  He has even tried climbing down the stairs, but my parents’ are trying not to let him do that since he might fall backwards and hit his head.  One thing I know is that he really loves Teletubbies.  He watches them every morning when he gets up.  He also watches Barney but isn’t as interested in it as he is in Teletubbies.   He loves to see the little baby sun, especially when he smiles and laughs.  Nicholas will jump up and down to him. 

Another thing that Nicholas has come to like is music.  Whenever he hears music with a beat, he will start dancing to it.  He can’t really do much of a dance, but he will start jumping up and down while he’s standing.  Or when someone starts dancing and he’s also in the mood to dance, he will start jumping up and down.  He also has a passion for the outdoors.  I guess it’s because there are so many unexplored things outdoors.  I mean, he’s always in the house so he has practically explored every inch of the house, including the restrooms.  Outdoors is a different story.  It’s hard to be able to explore the whole outdoors.  He always wants to do outdoors.  Whenever anyone opens the door at my parents’ house, he would start getting excited and head towards the door.  Once you close it, he will start whining (crying without tears).  He is just so good at whining nowadays.  I mean, he lets out these really loud cries that if you just heard him, he sounds like he’s crying really hard or like something really hurts, but when you look at him, he has no tears coming down his face.  His eyes aren’t even wet.  If you left him have what he was whining about, he would immediately start smiling at you.  I guess he’s just a bit too spoiled.

His one year birthday is coming up, but we are not too sure what we are going to do for him just yet nor are we sure who to invite.  It’s a Saturday and we were taking of having a barbecue, but we are not totally certain of that yet.  We would like to have Michael’s side of the family come to Sacramento though.  As for my side of the family, they usually have to harvest the vegetables on Saturday so I am not sure how to work this out.  I am trying to ask my parents to skip on day of vegetable selling so that we can celebrate Nicholas’ birthday on June 3rd.  Another option would be having it on June 4th since my father would probably come home early from vegetable selling.  I do have two months to work it out though.  Hey, but we do plan on having something that weekend.  Just not sure which day yet.  Hey, another option would be to have to birthday parties for him, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  If anyone has some suggestions on what to do for his first birthday, please feel free to e-mail us. 

Walking

Well, Michael will not be home for the next three days.  He’s in San Jose training.  He left yesterday night around 7 PM and will not be home until Friday night.  Nicholas and I will be spending the next couple of days together by ourselves.  For Michael, if you are reading this, we really miss you and hope that Friday will come with a blink of the eye.  Nicholas was doing pretty good last night.  I think Nicholas knew that Michael was going to be away for a few days because before he left, Nicholas would not get off Michael.  He just wanted Michael to hold him the whole time through.  One thing that was very amazing to both Michael and I was that Nicholas actually waved goodbye to his daddy.  Nicholas was in my arms at the time and he just kept waving his hands.  We were very amazed that he was able to wave goodbye.  I tested that again this morning and he did actually the same thing.  I took him to my parents’ house this morning and he was on the floor.  I waved goodbye to him and he waved back at me.  This morning, he woke up very early and without Michael at home, I woke up along with him. 

Well, since the last update, Nicholas can now walk.  The most that he has walked was ten steps.  He seems to want to walk more when he upset or crying and wanting to come to us.  He has also developed a taste for carrots.  I do mean baby carrot food.  My mother started feeding him carrots one day and now, he seems to like them a lot.  He’s also gotten into the habit of opening his mouth when we put a spoon near him.  I am thinking about trying other favors especially those with meat in them.  He can also chew on cereal now.  We put him in his little walker and put some Honey Nuts Cheerios in front of him and he slowly puts on in his mouth and slowly dissolves it even though he still doesn’t have any tooth.  We have also tried giving him little pieces of bread for him to eat and he does pretty well with those.  He also knows how to spit it back out at you when he doesn’t want any more.  He also shows no sign of teething yet.  I just don’t understand why it’s taking him so long to grow some teeth.  I mean, he so good with everything else.  His legs have also gotten stronger.  Before, when we put him in his walker and put the walker on the carpet, he would not be able to move anywhere but now, he can move on the carpet and knows to head straight for the kitchen where all the cat food is.  He has also gotten a lot more curious than before.  He now goes through everything.  He can open drawers and cabinets. He can open the bottom two drawers to one of our dressers and all the bottom cabinets in the kitchen.  One time, he opened the cabinet in the kitchen that contained all his formula milk in it and he just started taking out the formulas and dropping them on the floor.  He would also go to his father’s side of the bed and dig through Michael’s box of cokes to take a few out to play with.  Oh, he loves to go into the refrigerator.  Whenever he sees it open, he would literally dash for it, but most of the time, he misses it, but once in a while, he would catch it before it closes and he would start grabbing things from the refrigerator.  He has become so active lately sometimes, too hyper, if you ask me.  He likes to climb into a basket of clean clothes and then try to get back out of it.  Amazingly, he does not climb into a dirty basket of clothing, but only clean ones.  It’s amazing how he knows which ones are clean and which ones are dirty.  He has being exploring the hypothesis of climbing off the bed.  He succeeded twice last night.  Before, he would slowly slide himself off in between the frame of the bed and the bed, but he would get stuck in it.  Now, he is slowly putting his legs down the side of the bed and slowly sliding himself down.  But once he’s down, he starts complaining and wants to get back onto the bed.  He’s just one funny little boy.  He has developed a passion for the outdoors.  He loves to go outside.  Whenever he is at my parents’ house, he would always want to go outside.  If he was crying and you open the door, he would stop crying and staring jumping up and down while you were carrying him.  You take him outside and push him around in the wagon for a few minutes and then take him back inside, he would be start crying again.  He tells you very clearly that he does not want to go inside the house and wants to remind outside.  Oh yeah, and another thing.  He does not seem to like any of his shoes.  Every time we put on a pair of shoes for him, they will come off of him in about two minutes or so if he is running outside in his walker.  They just come right off without any help from anything at all.  They are not too small or too big.  The shoes usually fit him just right but they just don’t seem to want to stay on his feet.  So, he ends up running around only in his socks and by the end of the day, if he was outside for the whole day, his socks would be extremely dirty and sometimes, even torn.  I really don’t know what to do about this problem.  I have tried slippers and tennis shoes.  I am thinking about sandals but I am not too sure if they will stay.  

On Monday night, he did come down with a high fever. He had a temperature of about 101 – 102.  It really had both of us worrying.  We didn’t know why he had such a high fever and we called the doctor at about 10 PM at night.  The doctor said that a fever was normal and that he was probably coming down with some kind of sickness.  Yesterday, he started having a runny nose but by the nighttime, he seemed to be fine.  He was playing around like normal so I think that whatever he was coming down with is either almost all gone or gone.

 Well, I think I’ve talked about everything that I can think of about Nicholas for now.  I am not too sure how to update a baby update so if you see this by tonight, which is Wednesday, March 22, 2000, then I have succeeded, if not, you will probably see this later after Michael has come back from his training.