Fasination Mode

I think the first 3 months is the survival mode as everyday is a fight to get enough sleep, make sure she has enough milk, hope she can sleep well at night, and watching her build baby fat. That's why they also call it the fourth trimester I guess.

Now that she is almost four months old, I think we have transitioned to the fascination mode. Jaime and I are just fascinated at all the changes she is going through everyday
- You can tell she is thinking and processing things every day
- She is fascinated with everything she sees when she goes outside
- She is starting to smile more every day and once in awhile laughing out loud
- She begin to reach for things and grab them (you can see she is aware of her hands and feet). She grabs her feet now and may soon enough put her toes in her mouth :-)
- The most amazing thing of all recently is two days ago, she learned to turn over. At first she struggled as you can see in the first video, but a day later, she can do it more no problem (in the second video). It's just amazing how fast she is learning. Now every time we put her down, she rolls over since she is amazed by herself. The only problem is she has not learned to roll back so she always ends up frustrated after awhile on her tummy. But I am sure that will change in a few days (we hope)


- Lei

Proud to be Chinese

After watching the Beijing Olympics games for two weeks straight, it's hard not to be proud to be Chinese. The opening and closing ceremony gave me goose bumps. What a production with 15000 performers and a scale never seen in the world. It's great to see how China re-introduced itself to the world by both being faithful to our traditional cultures/history and using the most modern technologies, like that awesome screen at the top of the Bird's Nest.

It's great to see how magnificent China can be when all the people worked together to make it happen. One million volunteers helped with the Olympic games. Imagine what China can do if they put their mind to it and united its people - anything! I am so glad to see China achieve its gold medal count goals (51) and was only 10 medals behind the US in total count. I loved watching Gymnastics, Diving, Badminton especially. I was so surprised China made it to the finals in Beach Volleyball too.

While I have been in the US for 24 years now, I am still so proud to be Chinese. China may not be perfect, but it's learning and evolving constantly. I am proud that the Olympics in Beijing inspires "One World and One Dream." This is what I plan to teach Isabel as well as some of the great Chinese culture and values that I know and perhaps take her to China for summer schools when she is older so she can learn the language. Chinese will be an important language to know in the future. I was lucky to know it from birth. I hope Isabel will get a chance to learn it as a kid as well.

- Lei

Who's the Boss?

It's amazing how intuitive babies are. Two weeks ago, my mom was in town to visit and so I breastfed Isabel exclusively for a few days instead of giving her a bottle at least once a day. This just happened to be around the time she turned 100 days and became more aware.

Guess what, after a few days, she refused to drink from the bottle at all when we tried. Before this, she was fine with the bottle for at least 8 weeks already. This came as a big surprised and we experienced our first test of will with Isabel.

She is stubborn and can throw quite a tantrum. But as she is learning - mommy is the boss! There is no winning this battle although she fought hard.

First, I went out and bought every bottle type out there thinking maybe she outgrew the Medela bottle we have using. That didn't work!

Then we decided well since she is such a healthy baby and the doctor say she is fine without eating for 24 hours, we basically had to withhold breastfeeding and just feed her from the bottle. This took 2 days of battling with her before she gave up. First day, she cried for what seems like 90 min and we lost. After 5 hours of not eating and lots of crying, I didn't have the heart to keep going and I breastfed her.

That didn't help our cause as she probably learned that if she cries loudly and long enough, she will be breastfed. The next day, we (Agnes and I) because determined. She will not be fed unless she took the bottle. After 6.5 hours, lots of crying and fighting, she finally drank 3 oz and from the same bottle she always uses. Then an hour later, she drank 2 more oz. I guess she gave up after awhile and realize mommy is not going to give up. After that, she has been drinking at least one bottle a day and no longer fussing (as long as Agnes is the one feeding her the bottle).

Morale of the story: "I have to stand my ground even to a 3 months old, otherwise, she will always try to be the boss."

- Lei

Today is a gift!

I just watched Kung Fu Panda yesterday and loved it. What I loved was it was funny, silly, and philosophical at the same time.

I laughed out loud so many times and there were some great deep moments. Here are two of my favorite sayings from the movie.

1. "Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, and Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present." It's so simple yet so difficult to achieve. Most of the time we are so worried about the future or thinking about what had happened in the past that we forget to be present at the current moment. This saying inspires me to treasure every moment with Isabel, with Jaime, with my family, and my friends and to stop worrying so much about what has happened or what may happen. Just enjoying life on the roller-coaster!

2. "There is no secret ingredient." Again, so simple yet profound. All we need is to believe in ourself and our abilities and extraordinary things happen. This is why I love Buddhist philosophy so much. It's simple to understand but take years to practice. As I find my footing as a new mom, I had moments of doubt of whether I can be a good mom. I begin to also care too much about what others think of me as a mom. Now I realize I judge myself too harshly as I sometime do others. It's important to go with the flow of life - experience happy moments, welcome challenging ones and have some mercy on myself. There is no secret ingredient to being a good mom or leading a happy life. I just have to believe and the rest will work itself out. :-)

- Lei

Isabel is growing up so fast!

Isabel is 15 pounds now, can do 15 min. of tummy time, and can sit now with some assistance of the boppy pillow. Time flies. I am loving every minute of just seeing her growing up. She also laughed out loud yesterday night for a little while. I wished we caught it on film. Jaime and I was just watching her in disbelief. Now we know what people mean by the rewards of being parents. It's so priceless to watch her laugh for the first time. I can't even explain how good it feels to witness all her little milestones.

At least we caught her sitting on film. Enjoy!!!

- Lei

Isabel's first "date" with Dash :-)""

Baby Yoga

Isabel is attending 4 baby yoga classes for the last few Thursdays. It's a great way for her to start hanging out with other babies and do a little exercise. It is really interesting to see how she starts staring around at the other babies in class, soaking it all in. Here are a few videos from the classes.

Video 1 - "I love reading on my tummy"


Video 2 - "Look mommy, I can stand?"


Video 3 - "What is Yaya doing to me (says Isabel)?"


- Lei

Isabel and TV

Like father like daughter, Isabel has discovered the magic of the television. She could be crying really loud and as her eyes glance at the TV, she would all of a sudden stop crying and become fixated on the TV. You would think this is good news as it seems like another way to soothe Isabel, but I did some research on the effect of TV on infants. Click here for more details.

The bottom line is TV is BAD for infants before the age of 2. Research states that it increases the chances for babies to develop ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) later in life. Since there is a lot of brain development from now until Isabel is 2, TV is too much of a stimuli for her little brain. TV changes scenery way too quickly and babies will begin to expect that in real life, which explains the risk of ADD. Besides, Isabel is beginning to stare at things without blinking for prolonged periods of time like all babies do. I am sure staring at the TV without blinking cannot be good for her.

Everything in moderation though. We cannot prevent Isabel from glancing at the TV once in awhile as we still watch TV, but we would never leave her in front of it unattended or let her look at the TV for more than a min or two even when we are holding her.

We will have to limit her TV watched when she turns 2, probably to 1 hr a day if possible. It's too early to think about that for now. I still want to treasure every little moment of her as a baby.

- Lei

Isabel is smiling at us

Isabel is 100 days old which is a big deal in Chinese tradition. Usually, we are supposed to have a party to introduce her to everyone for the first time. But since everyone have already met her by now and we are a bit lazy, we will continue to introduce her on our blog with videos, pictures, and posts and save the party for later. :-)

Isabel is now 14.5 pounds, 24 inches, and poops like a champion. She can play by herself for almost 30 minutes some times and is learning to nap in the crib in addition to her chair since she is getting so big. She also seem a lot more alert, wanting to look around, make sounds, and also begins to smile a lot. Check it out.

- Lei

It's like coming home again!

When I walked in the room last Monday, I knew instantly that I missed it. It was my first Bikram Yoga class since giving birth, but walking into that room made me feel like I was coming home - it felt so familiar and welcoming.

I am so glad I did Bikram yoga up until the last week of my pregnancy. It may not have helped with my delivery, but it definitely helped me come back to Yoga more easily. I missed the heat, the sweat, the stretching, and the general calmness and patience it inspires in me.

Now that Isabel is 3 months old, I started to do serious exercising again - Bikram Yoga twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays) and Wii Fit for at 30 min twice a week. If I have more time, I will do Windsor Pilates and one long walk each once a week. While I still cannot do all the poses well in Yoga, I am staying in the room through the heat for all 90 min, which on its own makes me feel accomplished. The poses that squeezes my stomach are the hardest, but since I have done Yoga for 2+ years, at least I know how to push myself without risking injury. On my 3rd class this past Monday, I was able to do all the sit ups in the class (about 14 of them). Still cannot do one roll up in Pilates though but am working on it. Baby steps, remember?

The picture on the top right is that of my teacher (Lamott Atkins). He is probably the best Yoga teacher I have ever had. He also used to be a model in Europe, which is where this photo is from. Not only is his voice calming, but who wouldn't be inspired by a teacher with a body like that. Let's see how many classes it will take me to regain my body back. I will keep you posted. so far, I had 3 classes and dropped 1% in body fat. :-)

-Lei

Rather ride on a Rollercoaster

It's been a long time since I have seen the movie "Parenthood" (starring Steve Martin). It was on cable yesterday and seeing it now as a parent is so different from when I saw it as a kid in the late 80's.

There was a great scene in the movie, where the Grandma in the movie started to tell Steve Martin's character and his wife a story about how she used to love riding on roller coasters with her husband. It made her scared, sick, excited, and exhilarated all at the same time. She said that she could have just rode the merry go-around and play it safe, but it would not have been as much fun.

I thought it was such a wise story. I hope to always choose to ride the roller coaster of life with Jaime instead of the Merry Go-around. It may not always feel safe and predictable, but it will be an adventure.

- Lei

Isabel is 3 months old

Yesterday Isabel turned 3 months. We weighed her at home and she is about 14+ lbs already and about 25+ inches (a big baby!).

She is such a little person now with some personality emerging, although mostly still a typical baby (crying when she is bored, crying when she has dirty diaper, crying when she is hungry)

With that said, she is definitely focusing more on things with her eyes. At times she would look intently into my eyes for what seems like minutes without blinking. She can also play in her little gym by herself for a little bit now.

At first, I thought all these toys we got her (gym, the music soother, the toys on her chairs) were useless because she doesn't seem to like them. Now I realize it was too early for her. She couldn't focus yet on them before. Now she can and can stare for awhile at just one thing. It's so fascinating to see how she is developing into a little person.

- Lei