Almost a century apart!

Ernie and Aileen Norback are my parents' good friends from back in the Stanford days. They were actually my dad's English partners when he first came to the states and I met them when I was only 12 years old.

We have kept in touch with them all these years and they literally watch me grow up and now married with a daughter. Isabel, Agnes, and I went to visit them last week and it was so precious to see them play with Isabel.

Isabel is 4.5 months old and both Aileen and Ernie are 94 years old - almost a century apart. What different experiences Isabel will have in this next century. Time is so fleeting if you think about it. For now, it was so nice to see the delight in their faces when they met Isabel. Isabel also took to them nicely. :-)

-Lei

Size 6 and dropping

Hopefully... I have been striving to get into my regular size 6 jeans for awhile now. Finally, 10 days ago, I was able to wear them out without suffocating. :-) Yeah, progress is good.

I have been saving all my size 6 clothes from 4 years old when I was about 130 pounds. Now they are really coming in handy. Now I just have another 12 pounds to go, before getting to my pre-pregnancy weight and around size 2. Keeping my fingers crossed

I am doing Yoga 2-3 times a week, Wii Fit once a week, and crunches 5 times a week. Hopefully, I can keep it up. The best part though is I feel good, like my old self again. Can't wait to go dancing. :-)

- Lei

Laughing out loud

A parent will do anything to get their baby to laugh. We are no different. Apparently, Isabel loves these popping sounds. Enjoy.

-Lei

She recognizes me !

Wow, Isabel is growing so fast. One of the best developments has been that she recognizes people now. She almost always smiles when she sees me now. It warms my heart so much to see her smile. It's an indescribable feeling.

With recognition however, also comes fear. She is now afraid of anyone new to her and becomes anxious and agitated. Unfortunately, pretty much everyone except Agnes, Jaime, and I are new to her. The fear is just a phase I think. As she gets more accustomed to the world, she will get more accustomed to other people and crowds.

For now, Isabel enjoys herself a lot in her own little world, which is exploring this gym mat in our living room. You can also see in this video that she is starting to turn herself around with her arms. I wonder when she will crawl, maybe in a month or so. She is quite a fast learner. We will see. I don't actually want her to learn to crawl too fast as I haven't baby proof the house yet. yeeks.


- Lei

Head, Shoulder, Knees, and Toes

We learned a lot from baby yoga. Although the class is over, we are still doing it with Isabel. Here is a clip on how Agnes help Isabel become aware of her own body parts. It's sooooo cute. Enjoy!


-Lei

Family Portrait

Can you tell who is who? What a cute family, huh?


- Lei

How old am I?

How old do you think I am here? I ask this question because there was so much discussion regarding the age of the Chinese female gymnasts. I don't know for sure whether China faked their ages or not; however, I resent the argument that Americans thinks our gymnasts look underage.

I don't think most Americans have any idea how old a 16 year old Chinese Gymnast would look. Asians in general develop late and we look young (good genes). I remember being mistaken for a 14 years old at 16; while some 16 year old Caucasians could possibly pass for a 18 year old.

On top of that, Gymnasts, due to their rigorous athlete training probably develop even later. I hear most gymnasts get their menstrual cycle much later given how tough their training is every day. That would make any girl look even younger.

Well, my 2 cents. :-)

- Lei

Isabel is 4 months old!

Isabel is so alert and curious about everything now. It's hard to feed her and watch TV or do anything else as she would stop to look. She would check if the TV is on or look at me intently as I drink water. You can tell she is processing what everything is.

What an amazing process human development is. Well, her check up at 4 months went very well. She is at the 90% for her age for both height and weight and around 65% for her head circumference. She is 15.5 1bs, 25.75 inches long, and still 100% breast fed. I am so thankful I still have really good milk for her.

The Dr say she may get to 20 1bs by 6 months if not more. She got 4 more shots this visit and as usual, she was really tough. She only cried for 10 seconds and just stopped. This time, she didn't even get a fever from the shots like last time. Guess she is very healthy. The only thing she had was a bit of eczema on her face and arm. He prescribed a cream for her which worked well. Her skin cleared up beautifully except just one little spot now. No wonder she was hitting her face and head a lot before. She was itchy and we didn't know. Oh well. No one is perfect.

She can wear big girl clothes now, as you can see in the Jeans she wore on the photo. She looks actually much older than she is given her weight, although many people mistaken her for a boy when we go out. Oh well, I guess it's hard to tell. I just take it as it's because she looks so sturdy :-)

- Lei

Already a Dancer

Since Jaime and I both like to dance, Isabel naturally also has rhythm. She is such a cutie when she dances. :-)


- Lei