9 Months

Well, both Nicholas and Michael are well from their cold or flu (whatever it was that they both had), but now, it’s me who got the illness.  I have been sick for about a week or so now and I still feel very lousy and miserable.  I feel very tired a lot of times and have been trying to get more sleep at nights so that I can feel better during the daytime.  Michael has fully recovered from his surgery and is now more or less back to normal.  As for me, I’m still trying to look for another job. 

Well, Nicholas, while he was sick has lost a few ounces, but I’m sure that he will regain them soon.  He’s starting to have the courage to learn how to walk.  On Saturday, he started standing up and carefully taking one little step forward.  Now, he does it more often and he can take up to two little steps before falling again.  I think he will be able to walk probably by the end of this month.  Like I said in the last update, he still got no tooth.  He’s nine months old now and he still doesn’t have any sign of a tooth. 


This Wednesday, Nicholas will be going in for his nine month check up and also to test if the Hepatitis B vaccine was effective or not.  I think he will also be getting a few more other shots on this visit to the doctor.   I don’t think that he will be a happy camper after the doctor’s.  Well, Nicholas has also learned how to distinguish what is the end of the bed, sofa, or stairs.  At my parents’ house, he loves to climb up their stairs.  Every time he gets to the top of the stairs, he wants to come back down but is a bit scared to do so.  He realizes that he might fall back down so he proceeds with a lot of caution.  Last night, my mother was testing him by giving him her hand to help him get down but every time my mother gave him one hand, he would pull his hand back.  Then she would give him both hands.  At first he would think about going for it but then the next second, he would pull his hands away and abandon the trip downward.  The only time that he will actually try it is if you grabbed him by the arms.  If you just grabbed him by the hands, he will reject them and continue to stay on top of the stairs.  He’s a very smart boy.  When he’s on our bed with us, he is very careful when he is at the edge of the bed.  He will crawl towards it but will stop once he has reached the edge.  Before, he just kept going and if you don’t grab him, he’ll go overboard.  Now, he knows how to stop and avoid going over and hitting his head on the floor.  He does the same when he’s on the sofa. 

There isn’t much more that I can talk about.  Nicholas is continuing to grow and is extremely healthy right now.  We are still trying to get him to eat some solid food, but he doesn’t seem to like to many of the ones that we have fed him.  The only one that he really likes is carrot.  We are going to try more flavors and see if he likes any of them.  Oh, he now can eat cereal.  He’s had Trix, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Cheerios.  He just takes them and keeps it in his mouth until they get soft enough for him to swallow it.  He likes them a lot and it keeps him entertained for quite a long time. 

Hopefully, by the next time I write an entry again, he will be walking.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine’s Day to all (even though it’s one day late).  We didn’t do anything for Valentine’s and if you read on, you will understand why, but I hope that all of you had a great Valentine’s Day.  Well, Michael’s minor surgery went pretty smoothly.  He’s still at home trying to recover.  He will be returning to work tomorrow (Wednesday) but he won’t be able to bowl or carry Nicholas for the next six weeks.  He’s not suppose to lift anything over 15 pounds and Nicholas is already 20 pounds 11 ounces, too heavy for Michael right now.  Well, my New Years went by pretty quickly and smoothly.  I didn’t have to give away that much money.  Nicholas actually got quite a bit money himself, which will go towards his college fund.  I practically just went over to my mother’s house and hung out throughout most of the New Year.  On the first day, February 5th, a few of my sister, Erin (my oldest niece), Nicholas, and I went to see a presentation at Sac City.  Nicholas was in that cute Chinese outfit that you guy can see in the old pictures of the day.  The one where he was with Kelly, one of my younger sisters, was actually taken during the presentation that day.  Everyone at the presentation thought that he was just the cutest little boy around.  If there was a Chinese costume contest, I’m sure he would have won.  Well, the last time I wrote an update, I told you that Nicholas and Michael were sick.  Guess what?  They are sick again.  Nicholas has the cold again and this really nasty cough.  I took him to the doctor yesterday and the doctor said that he has an ear infection.  The doctor gave us some liquid medication and the last time I called my parent’s house, he spit the whole thing back out when they tried to give it to him.  Nicholas gave his cold to Michael again.  Michael doesn’t look that bad but because he just finished the surgery, coughing really hurts him internally.  He’s very reluctant that he has not sneezed yet and I really hope that he doesn’t until he has fully recovered.  I see the look on him when he coughs and I can tell that he’s in a lot of pain.  I can imagine how much pain it would be if he sneezed.  Well, now that Michael can’t lift anything over 15 pounds and still trying to recovery, I’m stuck with all the housework and the babysitting.  It’s been quite hectic this weekend with two sick boys and a really fussy one.  Mike could barely move this weekend so he spent most of his time in the bed.  (I think he finally realized how horrible bed rest is when you have to stay on it for more than 8 hours while you are awake!)  Nicholas was totally no help to me either.  He has been very fussy and cranking these past few days.  He’s been very sticky.  He never wants to get down from me and play.  If he’s on the floor playing, he wants me next to him or else he’ll start crying.  When I put him on my back, he’ll start complaining that he wants to get off, but when I take him down, he’ll start crying and complaining that he wants me to hold him again.  I really have no idea how to please him all the time.  Trying to do all the housework and take care of the two boys have really worn me out quite a bit.  Two nights ago, Nicholas fell asleep around 6 PM and didn’t wake up until 9:30 PM.  I didn’t want to wake him up because he was so tired, but I knew that I would be in trouble if he woke up because he would not want to go back to sleep until really late.  Well, I was right.  He did not go back to sleep until 1 AM.  I had to work the next morning and was I tired.  Michael and I use to switch off in taking and picking Nicholas up from my parents, but now I have to take him and pick him up.  That means that I have to get up an hour earlier now to take Nicholas to my parents.  I’m still not use to that yet and I have to do this for five more weeks.  Oh, boy.  Oh yeah, to add to this great fun that I’ve been having, I was sick last week also so imagine how much I must have really enjoyed this past weekend. 

Sick boys

It’s been quite a while since we last had an update on Nicholas.  We have been extremely busy lately, especially this past weekend because Nicholas and Michael were both sick.  Nicholas caught a cold last week and ended up giving it to his father also so both of them were very miserable this weekend.  Nicholas also had the stomach flu, according to the doctor.  Nicholas has gotten a lot better now, but Michael is still not doing too well.  This weekend was very hectic for me as you can probably guess by now with two sick boys.  I ended up having to take Monday and yesterday off to watch Nicholas because he was still not feeling so well.  Sunday was his worse day.  He was so weak that he would not come down to play.  His head was always on my shoulders and whenever he was awake, he was crying.  He took small little naps but they didn’t really help him much.  He had diarrhea also and he was not too happy with that either.  I think I changed somehow around twenty five to thirty dirty diapers on Saturday and Sunday.  We took him to the doctors on Friday and then again on Monday.  He was also throwing up a few times over the weekend and I’m sure that he didn’t like that either. We started giving him Pedialyte and he has gotten a lot better now.  During the time that he was sick, we couldn’t see even one little smile on his face, but yesterday, he was more or less back to normal cause he wanted to play and was smiling all the time.  Both Michael and I feel very relieved that he’s doing a lot better now.  He got us really worried over the weekend.  I really didn’t know what else to do to comfort him anymore if his sickness kept up.  He kept waking up during the night and I didn’t get much sleep at all this past weekend and Chinese New Year is coming up this coming weekend so I had to do some stuff in preparation for it.  I couldn’t ask Michael for help because he was so sick himself and having to take care of two sick boys, the house chores, and preparations for New Years was very hard.  So, this past weekend was very, very hectic for me.  I’m just glad that it’s all over now. 

Well, besides his little sick story, he’s doing okay.  He lost a few ounces when he was sick, but I’m sure that he will regain them easily.  He can’t walk yet but we really think that it’s not too far away.  He hasn’t been practicing much lately due to his sickness, but I’m sure that he will now.  He can climb up the stairs at my parents’ house without falling at all.  He’s very tempted to try going back down the stairs whenever he’s at the top of them, but I don’t think he can do that yet.  He still doesn’t have any little teeth yet which worries me a bit.  We have now switched over from the baby infant car seat to the bigger toddler car seat.  He still doesn’t like the new car seat like he didn’t like the old one but I think he’s a little better with the newer one because he’s now faced forward and he can see a lot more.  We have been trying to give him some solid food, but he doesn’t seem to like them much.  Every time I put the little spoon near him, he would close his mouth tight and I’ve tried a lot of different things to get him to open his mouth, but I am still very unsuccessful with him so if anyone has any suggestion, please let me know. 

There isn’t much more that I can say about Nicholas.  Like I said before, Chinese New Years is this coming weekend so we will be pretty busy with that and next week, Michael will be having a minor surgery.  If you want to know more about that, email him.

Oh yeah, May, my best friend (maid of honor at my wedding) just had her baby on January 21.  It was a little girl and both mother and baby are doing fine.  We went to the hospital to visit her the next day but didn’t really get a chance to hold the baby or talk to May too much.  We are planning to visit her sometime soon, maybe tonight.

2000!

Happy New Year to everyone!  (I guess the Y2K bug didn’t really bug too many people after all.)

Nicholas just turned 7 months yesterday and he’s sure getting big.  He will have going to his next doctor’s visit this Friday.  I’m sure that he’s not looking forward to it since he will have to get his vaccination shots again.  He’s gotten a lot better with those shots now.  We just have to remember to put a warm cloth over the shot and also give him a warm bath at night and he will do okay.  As I have mentioned in the previous update, he can now crawl and pull himself straight up.  I am having the thought that he might be teething now because he has been acting quite strange lately.  At nights, he gets really upset and wakes up crying a lot.  He’s also blowing a lot of bubbles and making noises with his mouth.  I really don’t know how to describe that noise, but I was told that when babies do that, they should be teething.  He always likes to put his mouth into hard objects, but lately he’s been doing it more frequently as if his gems itch and he needs to scratch it.  Another thing that he's been doing a lot more frequently is putting either his index finger or his thumb into his mouth.  Yes, he’s sucking on him now.  He has never liked a pacifier nor did he like his thumb, but I guess now that’s changing.  I am not too sure because there are a lot of other things that people have told us about that he’s been doing for months now but still we do not see any little tooth showing yet.   

This Christmas, we went up to Nicholas’ grandfather’s house up in Oregon.  We had a really pleasant time there and Nicholas had lots of fun starring at the squirrels and birds outside.  He also had fun chasing the cats, Tabby and Simon.  One deer even jumped up on top of the porch while we were there.  We spent Christmas day opening presents and having that lovely Christmas dinner.  Nicholas got a lot of nice stuff and we thank those who gave us Christmas cards and gifts.  This coming weekend, we will be going to visit Nicholas’ grandmother and great grandmother. 

There has just been too much to do.  Next weekend, we will be hosting my best friend’s baby shower and about two weeks after that Chinese New Year will arrive.  I want to go to Chinatown and buy Nicholas a little Chinese outfit so he can wear it on New Year.  He received one from a friend of mine, but when we tried it on the other day, it barely still fits him so I’m sure he will not fit into that one anymore in another month.  He looked really cute in that outfit and you’ll be seeing those pictures in the Pictures of the Day somewhere in the near future.

Mike also has entered him into a little baby contest and if you would like to help vote for him, you can go to  (link no longer works).

Holidays

It’s been quite a while since we last had an update of Nicholas.  This is probably going to be the last update for this year. It’s almost Christmas so I would like to take the opportunity to say “Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year” from Michael, Mui, and Nicholas.  And we wish you all a wonderful holiday and may the New Year bring more joy and happiness to everyone. 

Nicholas has finally learned how to crawl.  He’s being doing it for quite a while now. I think it’s been about three weeks since he’s being able to crawl.  Right now, he goes everywhere around the house.  Ever since he knew how to crawl, he doesn’t seem to like his walker much anymore.  My mother tells me that he doesn’t seem to want to sit in it for a very long time.  At home, we let him go all over the house.  He loves to follow the cats.  He has, more than once, followed the cats from the bedroom all the way out to the dinning room.  One time, I used the remote control to lure him into following me and he was doing really fine until he thought about taking a detour.  He saw that the restroom was somewhere he has not visited yet so he just took a suddenly left turn on me.  I had go in and bring him back out into the hall before he started heading towards things that we really didn’t want him around.  Right now, we have to watch him every second because he’s so mobile now.  If you don’t look for a second or two, he’ll be gone.  He enjoys crawling a lot and I’m kind of glad that he can move around by himself.

There is one amazing development that I couldn’t believe about him.  About a week after he was able to crawl freely and quickly, he was able to pull himself up straight.  He can now hold onto an item and pull himself straight up.  Sometimes, once he pulled himself up, his legs are pretty far away from his hands.  He will slowly move his legs closer to his hands and before you know it, he’s standing up straight by himself.  We have some laundry baskets on the bedroom floor and he uses those to lift himself up.  But the problem is that after he’s up there, he doesn’t know what else to do so he’ll complain about it a bit.  Because we have the basket flipped upside down, he can bang on it for a while, but after about 2 minutes or so, he’ll start complaining about not knowing what else to do.  Then we would put him back down on the floor and he would go back to it and stand straight up again.  At my parents house, my mother tells me that he holds on to the sofa and sometimes walks along it a bit, but not too much nor too far.  A lot of people have told us that because he can stand himself up without anyone helping him, he will soon be able to walk.  I mean, he can take little steps at a time now and can move himself closer to the laundry basket without any help or falling down. 

He still doesn’t have any teeth yet.  He’s almost 7 months old and he still doesn’t have any teeth.  That worries me a bit (but everything worries me when it comes to Michael and Nicholas).  I have a friend whose baby is only eight days older than Nicholas is and her baby already has his little front tooth.  I really want to know when he will have his first little tooth. 

We’ll be going up to Oregon tomorrow to visit Michael's father and step-mother for Christmas.  I have never been there before so it will be a really nice experience for me.  The weekend after New Years, we will be going to visit Nicholas’ great grandma.

Well, to end this, have a fun holiday!

Still learning to crawl

Well, it’s that time again.  Nicholas still can’t crawl yet.  He’s getting there.  He can flip himself onto his stomach and then back onto his back easily now.  He can also sit up pretty straight and stay there as long as he doesn’t make any big movements.  He’s able to move backwards a bit on his stomach and also forward.  He knows how to get into the position of crawling but just can’t seem to figure out how to move in that position yet.  He moves around by putting his head down to the floor/bed and pushes his legs either forward or backward.  We think he’ll be able to crawl maybe in a month or so.  We took him with us to bowling last Thursday and most of our league members got to see him.  He’s starting to sleep through the night a bit better now.  Just that if we put him to sleep any earlier than nine, he’s wake up around six in the morning.   We were told that he can try solid food now but we haven’t tried it yet.  Maybe starting next week we will try giving him some solid food. 

He can hold his bottle somewhat now.  A while back, when we feed him, he would always fight with our hands to try to push the bottle out of his mouth.  One day, we just decided to let him try to hold his own bottle and he did.  From then on, we started letting him hold it by himself a lot more.  Michael says that Nicholas has held it by himself for about five minutes before.  It just depends on how hungry and how tired he is.  If he’s full of energy, he’ll want to play with it more.  When he really hungry, he’ll just hold onto it and drink until he’s had enough and will, then, start playing with it.  Also when he’s tired, he doesn’t seem to want to move around too much so the bottle will stay in his mouth.  When he’s playing with it, he pulls it out and tries to stick it back into his mouth.  His success rate is about 50/50.  Sometimes, he’s holding the bottle way to high so can’t get it into his mouth.  He looks really cute with it and watching him try to put the bottle back into his mouth is so entertaining.  Last Thursday at bowling, we placed him on the table and he held his bottle while watching television.  He looked so relaxed and cute.  Too bad we didn’t bring the camera with us or else I would have taken at least that pose.  I’m sure it won’t be long before he can completely master the bottle holding.

I’m just wondering when he will be able to sit himself up.  Right now, we put him in the sitting position and he can stay there but he can’t get into the sitting position by himself.  He has this really bad habit that I don’t really like.  He can do it both while sitting up and also lying on his back.  It’s him grabbing his feet and sticking them in his mouth.  He does this even if his shoes are on.  He’ll try to eat the shoes.  I hate it because his socks and shoes are not the cleanest things in the world.  I know that all babies like to do that, but when I think about where those little cute feet have been, it just gets to me.  Every time he does it when I’m around, I try to stop him.  I mean it really looks cute seeing him bend with such flexibility.  Babies are just so flexible.  He scares me with some of the things that he does. 

Well, there isn’t much more that I can think about that has to deal with Nicholas’ progress.  Hopefully, he’s start crawling soon.  Well, maybe not because then, we would have to follow him everywhere. Well, this is all and when he starts to crawl, I’m sure I’ll be very eager to talk about it.

Learning to crawl

Well, Michael was supposed to put the other update a lot sooner than yesterday but I guess he’s been really busy with his new hard drive that he forgot.  I just bought him a new 16.8-gigabyte hard drive.  He’s just one computer freak. Well, hopefully he will put this one out in time.  Let’s see, Nicholas.  Well, he just went to the doctor last Friday and he weighed 17.2 pounds and is 27 inches tall now.   I have started dressing him in 1 year-old clothes now and they fit fine on him.  He really just amazes me.  The doctor said that he’s bigger than more than 90% of the kids his age.  He also said that Nicholas could now start eating some solid food such as rice cereal with his milk.  We haven’t tried it yet but I will probably do so sometimes this week.  He was not crying as hard as I expect him to be.  He did pretty well.  He only let out a few cries and then calmed down.  This weekend has been more hectic.  He has chapped lips and there’s a little cut on his lips because of it.  He’s been crying about it a lot this weekend.  I guess it was really painful.  We’re not sure if it’s the cut or the shots that he got since he just got them on Friday. 

Well, Michael says that he is for sure learning how to crawl.  At least he moves around a lot when he’s on his tummy.  He can slowly move across the bed now on his tummy.  He’s also doing fine on his walker.  He’ll stay on it for a while and when he wants to come out, he’ll tell us so.  It gets pretty obvious when he wants to come out.  We’ve also spread out a comforter in the living room so that he has plenty of room to crawl while we’re out there, putting together puzzles.  It’s my new hobby right now and Michael helps me out with them.  We’ve put 4 puzzles together already and got 3 more to go.  (Most of them are 1000 pieces.)

New Update

First off, apologies for the incomplete update earlier.  I was sick and really could not write much more than that at that point. Michael thought that we should still post it anyway.  Nicholas has a very good immune system because I’ve been sick for the past week or so, but still I’ve been taking care of him.  Amazingly, he’s still doing a lot better than I am.  Actually, it was him and Michael who got me sick in the first place.  He has a little cold earlier and Michael caught the cold from work so they just thought that they might pass it on to me and let me suffer instead.  Well, enough of the cold, let’s continue on with his development.  From the last update, I said that we have started putting him into his walker.  Well, he can now go backwards on it.  On Sunday morning, I placed him in his walker and to my surprise he started pushing himself backward with his legs.  The next thing I knew, he was all the way on the other side of the living room.  I then pushed him back to the other side of the living room and watched him slowly push himself across.  It’s really fascinating watching him go.  It’s been really fascinating been a mother as I discover new habits or tricks about Nicholas. 

This weekend, we went to San Francisco for an aunt’s birthday party.  On the way, we also went to visit Mom.  It was a good trip.  We had a chance to show Nicholas to a lot of my cousins and relatives that has never seen him before. We didn’t make it home until 11 last night, which really wore us all out especially Nicholas.  For the first time, he slept through the whole night.  He fell asleep while we were going home around 9:30 PM and did not wake up until this morning at around 8 AM.  I did pick him up once during the night though, being the paranoia mom that I am, just to feed him and change his diapers, but he didn’t really wake up through all that.  This morning when I woke up, I had to go over there and check to make sure that he was already and not sick or anything because he didn’t wake up at all.  It’s a good thing that he can sleep through the night because it gives me more sleep, but the first time is always a scary time.  Being the paranoia that I am, I freak out over practically everything. 

This Friday, he will be getting his second set of shots and I’m already worried that he will be crying so hard because of it.  We actually missed the original appointment, which was last Tuesday.  I forgot what date it was suppose to be and by the time I called, we had already missed it.  Oh, well.  I’m sure Nicholas doesn’t mind that. 

He has another new habit.  I have no idea where he picked it up from.  (Probably my parents, but I’m not really sure.)  He likes to make this one facial expression with his mouth.  It’s like.  Whenever he does that, he blows little bubbles with it, which gets really messy.  Sometimes, some milk will actually come out instead and it will just be a big mess.  He does it all the time now and we have to keep wiping his mouth.  I’m starting to think that it’s about time he puts on a bib.  

Oh, yeah.  From the last update, I told you about this new toy of his.  Well, he also has another favorite that you guys will see later in the pictures of the day.  It’s a little red, black, and white musical centipede.  He loves it.  He has even gone to sleep hugging it before.  It also seems to calm him down a lot when he crying.  The head of the centipede is where the music box is.  At the tail, there is a handle that you can pull and the music will play.  The centipede at this time will also stretch out.  As the music continues, the centipede will slowly shrink together until the music dies and the centipede is back to its original form.  The center of the body is hollow so Nicholas can hold it and also put it in his mouth.  It’s also has these very small legs and ears that will fit fine into Nicholas’ mouth.  

He’s growing really fast.  He’s starting to not fit into his 3-6 month clothes now and it’s about time to go shopping for bigger clothes for him now.  I also bought a few pairs of shoes for him the other day and for the first time yesterday, he was wearing shoes.  He fits right now into a size 2 but he’ll outgrow that pretty quickly.  It’s kind of like perfect fit right now, but there is this one pair of boots that I bought, which was size 2, that I just can’t seem to fit him into. It’s not that it’s too small because there is plenty of room to fit it in him but for some reason, his foot just doesn’t want to go in it.  There was a theory that maybe he has his toes crouched (???) up so his feet won’t go in, but I really don’t know.  I have to try it again.  The shoes looks really cute and I’m sure that it will look very cute on him but I have to put it in him first.

Well, there isn’t much else that I talk about right now.  He’s growing and slowly, we’re learning new things about him and as we do, we’ll inform you.

Rolling Over

Well, these past few weeks have been very entertaining.  Nicholas now knows how to roll over from his back to his stomach.  He seems to like to do it a lot now.  Every time he wakes up, he’ll usually roll over.  Just picture me sitting on the bed watching television and suddenly you see a head peaking out of the crib.  His neck muscles are extremely strong which allows him to look up when he’s on his stomach.  He’s starting to learn how to crawl.  He can maybe crawl a few inches per minute but he’s making progress.  We have started putting him into his walker now and he can move a little bit in there with his feet.  An interesting thing about him is that he loves to stare at the big fish tank that we have.  This morning, Michael placed him in his walker and he saw the tank.  Michael said that he stared at it for over 15 minutes.  I have also noticed that he likes to do that.  Two mornings ago, when he woke up at 5 am, I took him out to the living room and he just sat there in my lap staring at the fish tank.  He looked extremely content and barely moved around.  We have also bought him a lot of toys to play with now.  He has this interesting habit.  He has this one toy that I’m not sure if he likes it or hates it.  Why do I say this?  Because he looks so happy with it, but then the next moment, he gets so upset and frustrated by it.  Let me explain this more clearly.  It’s a spinning wheel with various rattles and gadgets on it.  It also has a suction cub on it so we stick it to his walker.  First he’ll be so amazed with it and plays with it.  Then he’ll try to stick the various rattles and gadgets into his mouth. Sometimes he succeeds with putting half of it in his mouth and sometimes he totally misses.  But then, after that, he’ll all the suddenly explode into frustration.  He’ll starting crying and develop a look of extreme anger.  He’ll just do that for about 5 seconds or so and will go back playing with the toy as if nothing happened.  Then after a while, he will repeat the same cycle again.  I am really not sure I can say that he's not enjoying the toy because most of the time he is, but when I think about that look he makes when he gets frustrated, it makes me think otherwise.  I mean, the look on his face is  really cute but also mean at the same time.  It really looks like he’s really to do something extremely violent because he makes some very violent moves at the same time.  

4 Months Old

Nicholas just turned four months old yesterday.  I took him to the doctor’s about a week ago and he weighed 16 pounds and 1 ounce.  He’s really growing fast.  We’ve been extremely busy this past month.  Two weeks ago, we went down to visit mom and Richard.  We also saw Uncle Don, Aunt Bernice, Grandma, Aunt Irma, and Uncle Ron.  It was a really nice little get together with everyone. 

Well, Nicholas has been learning a lot of new stuff lately.  For one, he always cries whenever he wants to go to sleep now.  It’s kinda funny because he will be crying that he wants to sleep but then he won’t go to sleep. After a while of crying and complaining, then he will slowly go to sleep.  I have to walk around with him.  Sometimes, I even put him on my back.  It really takes a long time for him to actually start calming down and going to sleep, but once he gets to that point, he’ll fall right asleep.  The best way of knocking him out is with milk.  As long as he’s willing to take the milk bottle, he’ll probably fall asleep.  The hard part is to get him to actually take the bottle.  Sometimes, he’ll take it for about a second or two and then suddenly cry and reject the bottle.  Sometimes, I really don’t know what he wants.  I have tried everything I know of to calm him down but he just won’t.  I guess that part of the job of being a parent is trying to figure out what your baby boy wants when he’s crying.  We have a walker for him, but we haven't started putting him in yet.  He likes to kick around a lot so I think that he’ll like the walker.  His new habit of trying to jam both of his fists into his hand still has not changed.  It actually has gotten more frequent.  If you play with him and make him laugh, you’ll see him give you this big gigantic smile and the next thing you’ll see him do is jam one of his fists right into his mouth.  He uses his right hand mostly. (There goes Michael’s dream of a left-handed pitcher.) He’s slowly learning how to completely turn over on his stomach.  He knows how to turn on his side already.  (He’s always on his side when he’s sleeping.)  We’ve placed him on his stomach a few times now and he’s learning how to use his legs and hands to push himself forward.  He’s pretty good with the legs, but it would really help if he would stop putting one of his hands in his mouth at the same time he’s doing this.  It was in his mouth the whole time that he was trying to push himself forward.  Oh, well.  I’m sure, someday, he’ll learn not to do that.  He’s also very good at grabbing things and sticking it in his mouth.  When he’s in the car, he has a blanket on top of him and no matter how low I place the blanket, he seems to be able to grab it and pull it up into his mouth.  Sometimes, he’ll pull it up so high that the blanket covers his whole face.  Then he’ll gradually pull it back down into his mouth.  He doesn’t seem to do that talking routine when he’s falling asleep anymore.  It was like a few day thing.  Don’t know where it went but he’s pretty quiet now when he’s falling asleep. (Besides crying and whining right before the stage of falling asleep.)  Lately, he’s been getting up pretty early in the morning and not going back to sleep until 8 or 9 in the morning.  It’s okay on the weekends, but it’s really tiresome when he and I are awake at 4 or 5 in the morning and I have to work in 3 more hours or so.  Maybe it’s because he’s sleeping too much during the daytime or something like that. I can’t wait until he truly sleeps through the night.  Right now, I still get up about every three hours or so to feed him milk and change his diapers, but sometimes he’ll wake up a lot more often than that.  Like last night, he woke up at 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7.  You can imagine how much sleep I get from that.  The good news is that this type of pattern is very rare with him. 

Nicholas Update

Okay, here's another update on Nicholas.  Well, he’s as healthy as he looks on the web.  I see that Michael has put up the pictures of them in the showers. Yeah, they take showers together.  It’s really funny because now Nicholas has gotten so use to it that whenever he hears the water go on and he’s in the restroom, he starts closing his eyes. Nicholas actually likes it a lot in the shower.  It’s when he has to come out of the shower that he never really did like because he  gets cold.  Well, he is growing really quick.  He has already switched over to size two diapers about a few weeks ago.  He’s outgrowing his car seat and his automatic rocker.  Speaking of that, he doesn’t seem to like that as much as he used to anymore.  He might stay on there once in a while for an hour or so, but it’s not like before when he would love to get on it all the time.  We have started to put him on this little entertainment playground where he just stares up at a bunch of little toys.  Michael tells me that he likes to stare at the one that has a mirror on it.  Michael says that Nicholas likes to stare at it and talk to it.  Yes, he can talk now.  He does a lot of baby talking all over the place.  Sometimes, he’ll just sit there and talk to himself.  He also likes to watch television now.  When he’s over at my parents when we're working, they sit him up in his car seat and face him toward the television set.  He’ll sit there and watch television for a long time.  Amazingly, he will do that in grandpa’s lap for hours and not complain about it while he might do it with us for maybe an hour, at most.  I guess everyone has their own special thing and this is my father’s special thing with Nicholas.

Well, a little update on us.  Michael and I just started to go back to bowling two Thursdays ago.  My parents watch him while we are away.  It does get somewhat tiresome because I’m so not used to bowling and also staying out so late.  I guess it’s such a different situation now because of the full time job and the baby.  One thing that I know for sure is that I really need to practice my bowling technique again really hard because, boy, did I suck on the first night.  I bowled a 94 in the second game!  It was horrible.  I have not bowled that low of a score before for at least 4 years now.   I didn’t do so bad last week, though.  I bowled a 165, which was around my average.  I’m still trying to get use to picking up my 6-pound ball, though.  (Yes, there is such a thing as a 6-pound bowling ball and yes, I bowl with a very light ball.)  I have problems throwing my 8-pound ball still.  I can’t seem to lift it up as high and I can’t seem to control my throwing of that ball because it’s still too heavy for me right now.  Give me another two to three weeks and I’ll be able to play with it again.  Michael seems to be doing better at bowling then I am still.

Okay, enough about me, back to Nicholas.  Let’s see.  What else can I talk about?  Oh yeah, he’s really cranky at night.  Every night, around 8 or 9, he starts getting really cranky because he wants to go to sleep.  It takes me a while just to put him to sleep.  The bad thing is that he doesn’t ever seem to like Michael putting him to sleep so he can’t really ever help me with this.  He’s very picky when it comes to the person holding him at night.   I have no idea how Michael is going to handle him when I go back to school. Oh, yeah, by the way next year, I will be starting on my MBA.  Michael will be baby-sitting him a lot and I know that he can do a good job at it.

Well, another thing that he is starting to do is produce little bubbles with his mouth.  He’s starting to be able to produce a lot of that so it seems like he’s drooling a bit.  In a way, it’s cute, but in another, it’s a bit of a mess.  If you carry him and his head is resting on your shoulders, you’re going to get a bit wet.  He also has this little thing that he does with his dad.  Mike would laugh out loud and move his head back.  After awhile, Nicholas will do the same thing and when you see the both of them live, you’ll really laugh along with them and think that they are just so cute together.

Well that was the update that I wrote about a week ago but we didn’t have any time to put it out.  Now, here’s another update that hopefully we will be able to put out soon.  We went down to Dawn Marie’s (one of Mike’s cousins) wedding this weekend.   It was really nice.  I got to meet a lot of Michael’s relatives that I have not met before and for the first time, I actually experienced a full-blown American wedding.  Yeah, I’ve never been to one before, but I’ve been to too many Chinese weddings and I can go on forever about the difference and similarities of the two but nah!  Well, of course, Nicholas went with us.  We drove down there.  The wedding was close to LA and it was a six-hour drive down there.  We left on Saturday afternoon and got there around 7 PM.  Nicholas did pretty well in the car.  We did make a few stops though so that he could get some fresh air and exercise instead of always been stuck to his car seat.  That night we went out to dinner with Grandma, Uncle Ron, Aunt Thelma, Aunt Irma, and John.  The wedding was the next day and it was really nice.  Nicholas was also very good during the wedding.  He didn’t cry or make much noise during the service and was really quiet during the reception. He actually went to sleep for a while during the reception when they started the dancing.  The amazing part was that he was sleeping while the music was so loud.   Overall, we really had a good time.  Nicholas met a lot of his cousins and boy, did they like him. One of his cousins, Laurie, just started saying baby, baby once she saw him.  One time at the reception, she was out on the dance floor dancing and when she came back, she flipped over Nicholas’ blanket inside his car seat (thinking that he was in it) and started saying, “baby, baby.”  Then there was Joy Marie.  She was very fond of Nicholas.  You can see some of the pictures that she took with Nicholas.  At the reception, she was also looking around for him once in awhile.  We stayed there until Monday and then we drove back up to Sacramento.  Overall, it was a really nice and elegant wedding.  Many relatives that are not from around here got to see Nicholas when they usually wouldn’t get to except through this web site.  Also, we might be going to Palo Alto, this weekend, to visit Mom and the two Richards since she has not had a chance to see him yet ever since the last time she saw him (which was way over three months ago when he was, I think, 10 days old).  Well, last week I did do a lot better on bowling. I can now pick up the 7-pound ball and throw it with much more accuracy.  Michael did really good.  He bowled two 200+ games and a 155 one.  Well, at least I’m getting there.  Maybe this week, I will be able to pick up my 8-pound ball.

Well, Nicholas seems to have this new habit now.  It started on Friday, September 18 at night.  I was trying to put him to sleep and suddenly he started making this noise. I told Mike to come in and listen.  It was the first time that I’ve ever heard him do something like that.  It was really funny.  It seems like he’s talking with his eyes closed.  He went on for over ten minutes and when he stopped, he was deep asleep.  It was like he was trying to say “I’m going to sleep now” repeatedly in baby language until he really fell asleep.  So now, whenever he goes to sleep, he would make the same noise until he fell deep asleep.  It’s really hard to describe how he does it and what the noise sounds like but when you see it in real life, it’ll be practically impossible to not laugh or smile at it.  He also has this really cute face when he’s doing this so at the same time, he looks so adorable but funny. 

Well, this is all that I’ve noticed new about Nicholas.   I hope you have enjoyed reading my penmanship.

See you again in the next update.

Short update

By now, you all know that Nicholas does not have a growth problem besides maybe doing it too fast! However, his eating times are pretty much random. He will go six hours sometimes and only eat 2 ounces afterwards. Other times he will drink six ounces and then two hours later he drinks another 3.

He likes to talk often and has been able to say such things as aye, ogh, oo-ool, and even ghah! We talk to him often and have our own little conversations. He really enjoys a good debate.

First update on Nicholas

Okay, I'm suppose to be writing an update on Nicholas. This is the first update so first of all, I'd like to thank those who visit our web site frequently or even just once. I would also like to thank you for all the nice things that you guys have given or done for Nicholas. I don't think we would have been able to make it this far without all the help that we have gotten. For one, Michael should be the first person on my list to thank. Without him by my side throughout all those hard pregnancy days, I don't think I would have been able to make it this far. (Of course, he's still there for me everyday, but those pregnancy days were really tough on him.) Thank you for those who have helped us baby-sit him while we were away, like out to dinner once in a while or the movies. It really helps being able to get some time to ourselves. It's not that we don't love Nicholas or anything, but a break once in a while is really nice. Well, enough of the thanking and let's get onto the update of Nicholas.

Okay, he was born on June 3, 1999 as most of you already know by now. Right now, he's about 2 ½ months old and boy, is he one big boy. Oh, by the way, we both call him "baby" instead of his name. Don't ask me way, it just came out that way. He was weighed two weeks ago and he was 13 pounds and 6 ounces and was 2 feet tall. The doctor said that he was growing at the top of his class, around the 90 percentile. During that visit, he got three of his vaccination shots and he wasn't really happy with those. Me (Mui, if you haven't figured it out by now), for one, chickened out and left the room. I couldn't stand watching them poke him with all those needles. I saw it once when we went in for his one month check-up and his Hep B shot. It was so painful and I just couldn't bear to watch. I was outside in the hall about five six doors away and I could still hear him screaming after he got the shots. I felt so much pain inside. Maybe this is just a parent thing because Mike was about the same but someone had to hold him while the nurse gave him the shots. Well, he's a very strong boy, though, because he didn't get any fever or anything like that both times when he got his shots. He was just a bit unhappy about them but after a few days, the pain went away and he was back to his normal self again. 
Now, what's his normal self, you ask? Let's see… he likes to eat and sleep a lot. He's been really good with sleeping through the night. He usually just wakes up a bit to drink his milk and I change his diaper, then he goes right back to sleep. He does this about every three hours, but lately he's been going off his schedule a bit. Sometimes, he'll eat a lot and sometimes, he'll only drink an ounce or two. There is one thing that he is really good at and that is shooting at the right time. Every time you take off his diapers, you better be extremely careful because he just loves to shoot when you least want him to (like when his diaper is not on yet) and gets himself all wet and dirty. There are a few times where I was trying to lift him up to put on his diaper and he shot right into his face. Luckily, I usually see it in time that he doesn't get too much on him but it has happened a few times before. He also likes to do it right after he's gotten a bath or shower. We take him out and is ready to put on his diaper and clothes and you'll see him shooting it right out. It just seems like that he doesn't want to get out of the showers and want to go back in so he'll do something that will make us take him back again. Well, so far, he has succeeded every single time. He also has learned how to really cry a lot. At first, maybe for the first month or so, he rarely cried. He liked to do this whining noise but didn't cry much, but now, he'll cry whenever he wants something. He still has that whining cry also but his real cries have become perfected quite a bit. He seems to cry a lot when he wants to sleep. The problem is that he doesn't go to sleep. I would have to hold him and rock him and then slowly, he will fall asleep. (He does this everyday around 8 or 9 PM.) Oh, another amazing thing is that he likes to stand up now. He used to like to sit up while being supported and look all around but now, he likes to stand up. We support him by his arms but we can also feel that he puts most of his weight on his feet and he can actually stand up pretty well. He also has very good neck muscles. He can support his head easily now. He likes looking around a lot. The really cute thing that has happened lately is that he likes to talk a lot. I remember one day standing at a supermarket check stand talking to him for about 5 minutes or so. It was really cute. He smiles a lot now. See, we would really like to show you him talking but we still haven't gotten the movie stuff to work on the web yet so for now, you'll have to see him in person if you want to talk to him. (He doesn't seem to like to talk on the phone with anyone so calling won't do.) 

Well, we will try to have more updates in the future to let you know how he is doing. Goodbye for now.