Shopping

Today I went shopping and bought something for the first time since I've had the baby. I have gotten down to my target weight, so I figured it was okay to buy clothes again. I did not buy much, just a couple tops and a dress for my friend's wedding in a couple weeks. I also bought Lydia a dress for the wedding, though I'll be returning it and buying another since Trung did not seem to like it very much. :P

I actually managed to shop for quite awhile. I first met up my friend Laurie at the food court and had a mini birthday lunch with her. Then I went to White House Black Market, one of my favorite stores, and tried on a bunch of clothes. Lydia did good for a long time, falling in and out of sleep, but later got hungry. I asked the salesperson if I could put the clothes on hold, feed the baby in my car, and come back and try on the rest of the clothes. She said that I could nurse in the fitting room, and that tons of other people have done it before. Well, so, I did. It wasn't too bad, just a but nippy (literally) at times. :) By the time I bought my and Lydia's clothes, it was traffic hour, which is like all day on Friday, so the drive back home took longer than expected.

My fear is for Lydia is start bawling as I'm in the middle of traffic and I can't do anything about it. Well, today, she started to cry, but I managed to find the pacifier (while driving, but there was traffic, so it was VERY slow), and stick it back in her month. Then I turned the music to the classical station, which I had on for the entire third trimester of my pregnancy, and it soothed her...thank goodness. This was my first time trying that, so maybe it will work next time as well.

Mike is home!

YEAH!! My brother Mike is officially home for good! He had been overseas in Iraq and Dubai for about three years and now he is in Houston to stay. :) He has yet to meet the baby, so we're looking forward to our next trip to Houston to see him.

Well, not much has been going on these days though Lydia sure is getting bigger. We swear that she's already talking, but I'm sure we're just hearing things. Seriously, just the other day, I had just given her a dose of her gas relief stuff and she said "nasty". No, really! And then she was fussing this afternoon and I was asking her why, and she suddenly stopped crying and said "what?". I mean, they didn't sound that clear, but I'm sure that's what she intended to say. :P

Lydia has also been playing with her new toys more. I placed her in front of the little mirror and she seemed to enjoy staring at herself. Everytime I would appear in the mirror with her, she would start waving her arms and kicking her legs in excitement. But when Trung does it, she looks away from the mirror...hee hee. Yeah, not so much of daddy dearest.

The baby room today

Ah, the beginning of yet another week. I don't really do much all day, except tend to the baby and do a few chores here and there, but somehow, the days go by really fast. I'm just excited that Lydia is getting bigger and am awaiting the day when she will sleep through the night.

Okay, so here's what the baby room officially looks like. I finally got the glider and ottoman and it is oh so comfortable.

One year anniversary

Wow, it sure doesn't seem like we've been married only a year; we've already been through a lot. We really didn't do much to celebrate, with the baby and all...we just went out to a nice dinner, just the two of us. My cousin Grace, who lives right around the corner from the restaurant, was kind enough to watch Lydia for a couple hours. I got to have gyu tataki (raw filet mignon) and sashimi, which I had been craving for during my entire pregnancy. YUMMY!

Today we also busted out one of the toys that Tiff let me borrow, a 3-D gym. We laid Lydia on the mat and she unknowingly swatted at the hanging animals; this kept her entertained for a little while. Sasha, on the other hand, really seemed to enjoy hiding under the mat. We've got evidence and video footage...You know we can still see you, you silly cat. hee hee

Well, at least Lydia has the swing all to herself. Sasha has yet to attempt jumping onto the swing; and if she does, we'll turn it on a freak her out. ma ha ha!
Don't worry, we later propped up her head. :)

The many faces of Lydia

Last night was pretty rough, with the baby waking up a couple times during the wee hours of the night. She usually sleeps 3-4 hours without a feeding, but last night she only slept one hour around the 3-4 o'clock hours. It is convenient having the baby room next door to our bedroom, but it also means that every time she wakes up, Trung and I both wake up. That's fine for me because I'm not working, but I feel bad for Trung. So, early this morning, I found a cozy place on the couch with the baby and we had sleepy time. Needless to say, Trung found us and took a few shots of us. :P
Want a close up of the baby? Done!
After we woke up, the baby decided to give us all her famous facial expressions. Here's monkey face, which is basically having a blank look on her face while opening her mouth with thinned lips...
And the oh, so frequent "ooooOOOO" face, where her lips are pursed in a nice "O" shape. We like to make "ooooOOOO" sounds though no sounds seem to come out of her mouth. :)

One month old

Yeah, we made it to the one month old mark! It is Chinese culture to feed the mom certain foods (or avoid them) and to keep the newborn indoors for the first month. I guess I was considered somewhat of a rebel because I refused to eat ginger and I let Lydia out in public a few days before she was a month one. oooOOooo. Now that she is a month old, every old-fashioned Chinese person will be off our case, at least until the next baby. Free at last!

Today we had Lydia's one month old appointment and she now weighs 9 pounds, 4 ounces. She's pretty long (75%), so people think she's older than she really is. The doctor said that Lydia is doing well. :) Here's our big girl!

Late nights/Early mornings

I just finished nursing Lydia and thought I'd say "hi". The feedings have been going much better now, though just these last couple of days, she has not eating as much, which means she sleeps for smaller periods of time. It sucks, especially during the night, but what can you do? You cannot force a baby to eat and if you try to get her to eat while she's yawning, she will get mad and clamp down on you. Trust me, I know...it hurts.

I've been very thirsty as well. I think today I have been even more so because we went out to eat last night and you know how salty restaurant food is. Starting tomorrow I will be cooking full meals for the first time in almost a month. I've got tons of cooking magazines that I have not looked at yet, so maybe I'll find some good receipes there. Since Lydia is just about a month old, we've been taking her out with us, so she'll probably go to HEB with me "today". I hope she doesn't get all fussy and cry on me, though she's been very good about sleeping through everything because I feed her right before I leave to go anywhere. We'll see. I'm still trying to get Trung to fix the "pictures" problem. Until then, you'll just have to listen to me blab. :P

Pictures

We moved the blog to a different locations so the posts are still up, but the pictures are not. We'll figure it out soon. Come back and see us!

Sucker

Good, we're finally back up and running. The posting service that we use to host the family website was running a bit slow, but now we are back in business. Nothing new has really happened these last few days. Ummm, it's been a nice change being on our own again. Don't get me wrong, Ma (Trung's Mom) was truly very helpful while she was here, but now it's just us and it feels more real, like a little family. :) Oh, yesterday Lydia turned three weeks old and graduated from her Newborn diapers. Our little girl is growing up!

Okay, I have officially been suckered in...the baby has been sleeping with us these last couple nights, which is known as the "family bed". She really does sleep better with us, averaging 3-4 hours each session, while in the crib, she sleeps at most 3 hours, if she even falls asleep at that! I figured it would be okay because 1) she's still young and 2) she's going to have to sleep with us and/or the bassinet while in Houston since we're not taking the crib with us. I still try to get her to sleep in her crib as much as possible during the day, so she doesn't get "spoiled". :P

So they say in the baby books for mommy to sleep when the baby sleeps; let me tell ya, you really need it. Actually, just looking at Lydia sleep makes me sleepy.

Daddy's little girl

I know that they say you can never spoil a newborn, but when exactly is the child no longer a newborn? Well, I'm all about putting Lydia in her crib to sleep, but Trung, well, see for yourself.