24 Months Old

I can't believe it - it has be 2 years. i can still remember when he was 1 months old... all i wanted was for the sun to rise and the nights were long for those tough moments all you wanted was for him to sleep or stop crying. The hours seems long the winter days seems even longer, then he's 3 months... slept through the night we were all able to sleep longer! things got a lot easier and fun. It has been amazing these last 24 months watching him grow into this little person. It starts from crying because he's hungry or not feeling well to seeing his favorite toys or objects and finds happiness. Then crawling-standing-walking-running... talking. He now can express verbally about how he feels and say the funniest thing. He can also speaks and understand 2 languages, some times he mixes the two together i don't even know what he's talking about.

He is and will always be my chubby, cute and sweet baby :-) Happy Birthday Luca!

here he is day 2 with e-ma at age of 98,

here he is at 12 months playing in the kitchen

here he is at 22 months at his friend Phaedra's b-day party

Happy New Year 2012!!!

i know it has been so long since the last update... so many things have happened.

Sept. we made an offer on a house in Alameda and got accepted.

Oct. we then went to NY, NJ, DC for 2 weeks to celebrate our new purchase J/K! It's funny how things happen when you plan a trip. We closed our house 2 days before our trip. As soon as we got back we packed up our loft in a week and moved over 1 weekend. Good thing is the house is just a few blocks away. We moved to the east side of Alameda and we love our new neighborhood! Luca celebrated his 1st Halloween as a monkey, wrestler, and a dinosaur all in one day! Our neighborhood was a zoo filled with a ton of trick or treaters. We handed out 2000 candies in 1.5 hours and turned off our lights at 8pm. Marco's mom met us in NY and stayed with us for 2 months to celebrate Luca's first birthday.

Nov. Luca turned 1 on 11/3!!! what a milestone! 365 days ago we were wondering when and what will be like on this day - and here we are...! We have 6 birthdays in Nov. in our family... starting with Luca, then Marco's mom, Marco, My mom, My aunt, and My Grandma who turned 99 this year over thanksgiving weekend! let's just say my grandma party like a Rock Star for 3 days! My aunt/uncle and cousins from Canada visited us for her birthday- it was a fun long Thanksgiving weekend.

Dec. there's Christmas...! Luca's 2nd Christmas, but this time all he wanted was to shred the wrapping paper and playing with packaging materials. I got us a duckie ornament for this Christmas and Luca loves to go and touch the duckie. He also loves the tree mainly because it's got lots of lights and he would say "woow" every time he sees the Christmas lights. Luca met Santa this year at his daycare ... let's just say he was not happy to see him. Luca finally after 2.5 months of bottle strike since NY trip, he's now drinking milk - in his sippy cup and I was able to wean off completely on Christmas day. Our baby is growing up!

1/3/2012 - today everyone went back to work and things went back to norm and here we go another year. This year we have lots of plans for the house remodeling and a few mini vacations. We look forward to an exciting / unexpected 2012!

First day of Swim Lesson

Red MEAT

this month we started to introduce red meat = protein. here we have beef chopped down in cubes with oregano and just boiled down until it's cooked then we puree and freeze it in ice tray. i have to say the smell of chicken or beef boiled down with no seasoning is pretty grooose... but Luca eats it all every morning!!!

this is Luca's feeding schedule as of 9M and our Dr. tells us that it's time to cut back on milk and more solids. the idea is to have him eating table food by 12M.

Here's a typical meal for the day:

630am - milk

830am - milk 7 oz

nap

1030am - solids (we give him beef with potatoes with a side of kale and carrots = 3/4 cup = 6 oz. of mashed food ~ yum ~)

1pm milk 7 oz

nap

330pm - solids (brown rice with beets and sweet potatoes (3/4 C) + finger food like cut up bananas)

500 - solids (millet with red bean and sweet potatoes (chinese dessert - 1/2 C = 4 oz.) + cut up peaches)

730 - milk (sweet dream... see you tomorrow at 630am!...)

as you can see he eats every 2 hours and every waking moment, non-stop which keeps me really busy in between changing his diapers.

swim class

marco wanted him to take swim class ... at 9M?!!! i think it's too early but.. it's all about playing in the water. this is at Alameda Aquatic center where the water is heated to 85 degrees and the class is 30 min. with signing and few techniques.

here are some images of his first day. he was crying for the first 5 min. but soon he was getting comfortable also hanging on to pa-pa very tight and by the end of the class he was splashing and playing.

graduating from baby tub

after this bath time we knew this was the last time he'll be in this baby tub... way too much splashing all over the kitchen and he won't sit still in the tub. we now bathe him in the adult tub and he bathe it with his pa-pa... and he can splash all he wants!
my little Luca is growing up! didn't think this day will come so fast at 9M.

8M

Luca is now 8 Months!!!
already?!!!
i still remember when i reading about what your baby will be doing at 8M and thought when will that get there - it seems like a fun age.... and here we are. I felt like the last 2 months since 6M has gone by really fast and he progresses so much from rolling to standing while hanging on to things all in 2 months. Yesterday he Clapped his hands!!! finalllllly!!! i've been showing him how to clap his hands since 4M i think and today he did it again :-) we were all very proud of him! and soon i think in a few weeks he will wave bye-bye. Luca is a textbook baby - right on target! so i can pretty much expect what will happen next month by reading the book.
he has been teething really bad and i think we even found some blood on the cloth when we dry his mouth from chewing on his toys. his top 2 teeth are coming in - i can feel it! it's all very exciting to see him grow and sad at the same time... i just want him to stay at his age for a little bit longer so i can enjoy a little bit longer. i'm glad that my work schedule is only 3x a week and i get to catch up with him the rest of 4 days. when we get home around 6pm we have to clean him, change, play, and i have to cook, then marco will get home, then feed him, and he'll goes to sleep at 7:30 or 8pm, then we eat dinner around 8:30pm. we really only get to spend about 2 hours with him and it's his worst time, because he's usually so tired by the end of the day and he usually don't get his 4 hours nap at daycare, some times he'll sleep as soon as we're in the car for a short nap of 30 min. poor little guy...
we can't wait to watch him grow, learn and experience life with us!

Standing with one hand

yesterday Luca was standing in his rain forest again, but this time we put his rattle ball at the top and he was really focused in getting the ball slowly with one hand while the other hanging on to the bar and standing all on his own. what a big boy now!!!
part of me don't want to grow up so fast and still wants him to be a baby but part of me can't wait for him to walk and talk so we can have a in depth baby conversation.

where's the clock

at 6 month Luca not only knows his name , mama and papa he also know where the clock is. i would ask him 鐘鐘在哪裡? ("where's the clock?") in chinese and he would turn his head and look at the clock. At first i thought he was just turning his head to the right... then i reorient him around the room and ask him again and he looked for the clock and smiled.
he also know the word "No!" and i think he knows hands, grandma, bird (we're still working on that), bell and doggy.

UMMmmm...

here's a video of 2nd week of feeding.
we're serving 1/4 cup of mashed sweet potato.

First Day for everyone

we all got up at 6am this morning to get ready for our big day. I went back to work - 9 hours and Luca went to daycare for 10 hours :-( Marco did the drop off at 7am and i'm doing the pick up at 5pm. My first day back was good, it was really good to see my co-workers and i was surprised how much i still remember where things are. there are moments i was like i rather be with Luca or i wonder what he's doing... then...
... the daycare called us and was like luca is still hungry and he already drank 3 bottles of 5 oz of milk by about 1pm. (this was suppose to last him until 5pm) and he was not happy after each feeding. marco had to make a fresh milk delivery to him in the afternoon back in Oakland, because we didn't have any back up milk or formula.
Luca was really happy to see both of us at 5pm he started to cry. I just held him tight in my arms and gave him lots of xoxoxo. we read his report and found out luca didn't nap at all, only 10-30 min. here and there and he usually naps 1-2 hours for 2 or 3x. so as soon as we got home he was pretty tired and out by 7pm!!! poor little guy... i think it will take some time to adjust to the new change/environment. i'm not sure about feeding him every 2 hours at 5 oz each time... i'm gonna have to call the Dr. and see what he thinks.
i look forward playing with Luca for the next 4 days until next monday where we all return back to work :-(

eating solids

yum sweet potato

H2O

First bite!

Luca have been watching us putting food in our mouths for some time now and he will moves his lips and wants to try it. I think at one time Marco gave him a taste of an orange and banana - I think he was more curious then the taste. We wanted to wait 6M to let his tummy matures to try eating solids then on Easter weekend we thought it was time! Joy-Joy!!
Organic whole grain rice cereal from a box, because it contains iron. Then when veggies and fruits being introduced the next month we will cook our own rice cereal. Easter weekend Luca was 1 week shy of 6 months. We feed him about 2 Tablespoons of cereal. We first mix the cereal with breast milk and he loves it then the next day we mix with water... oh no! he could tell the difference and hates it-but eventually after a few spoons he ate it all up!
We also gives him a training sippy cup, it's really a cup for him to "develop of a good strong fist grasp and the ability to easily move things from the hand to the mouth" according to the book. Luca just bangs the cup on the table and really uses it as a teether. Water is also good when solid foods are being introduced to help with his kidney function.

We have tried 1 ingredient once a week to make sure he doesn't have any allergic reaction and we've had... sweet potato, avocado, beets, carrots, and sugar snap peas this week. Luca will be 7M next week and starting tomorrow we will try feeding him 2x a day.

2 teeth

i got 2 teeth at 7M!!! and they are sharp and pointy...

Luca is 6 Months old!!!

i can't believe Luca is 6 Months old today!!! what a big boy!!! i came across this video of him at 2 days old in the hospital, this all seems so long ago and both of us can't seem to remember what that was like. He was so tiny... at 7 lbs and today he's at 18 lbs!!! Marco is trying to sooth him in the video... and now looking back he was really just hungry even though i just fed him. I think for the first 2 weeks all he wanted was to eat then sleep for almost every hour if not every 2 hours.. those days were rough! then by the 2nd month he was a pretty good baby. we got the feeding down pretty well and we even got a routine schedule. i miss holding him as an infant... he's growing up so fast and every month is a milestone. Luca is a really happy sweet baby and i really cherish every minute with him :-)

... and we have teeth!

my baby is so big now...i'm sooo happy yet a little sad - he's growing up so fast.
i can feel a little sharp teeth coming out ... feeding has not been easy - let me tell ya!
big milestone Sir Luca!!! and Prince William and Kate got married today!! lots of celebrations!

blowing a raspberry

blowing a raspberry... is what they call it. Luca went through a phase for about a week where he would just blow bubbles all day none stop to amuse himself (that's what the baby do - once they found something fun to do or a funny sound). it would be a big mess all over his mouth-yuck!

LAUGHTER!!

when you hear your baby laugh, it's the best thing in life!!!! it makes you sooo happy!!!

Sitting Up

Luca can kind of sit up on his own for 30 seconds before his big head weighs him down.

TEETHING

yummy strawberry!


i love my baby giraffe!!!

Luca has been teething a lot and he chews on everything he can get his hands on. He especially loves his baby giraffe which is made of natural rubber and it make this squeaking rubber noise when he rubs it on his gums. The strawberry is a little big for his mouth, but he still tries to put it in his mouth-the problem is keeping it in!

5 Months Old

Luca was 5 months yesterday!!!

Here's what he loves to do:

loves seeing mommy or daddy first thing in the morning loves to sit up or stand up (with help) loves his diaper being changed loves playing with his stuffed monkey loves to starring at his hands and fingers loves eating his fingers or yours loves to turn and roll on his belly loves typing on keyboard loves going for a walk in a carrier loves seeing water running loves to grab anything in front of him loves to play with cell phone especially with iphone with dual camera views! loves to smile loves to grab your nose and touch your face loves to laugh when he hears the word "play" loves to chew on his big toes loves to take baths loves to kick and hit his tummy loves to eat!