Trip to Montreal

it was a wonderful trip. I had forgotten how pretty the summer is in Montreal. I know my little bear won't remember any of the fun we had ... wait a min. did he have fun? I know we were both exhausted and I had fun and I am assuming he did too... if he is my boy ;-)
booked the last minute trip on Monday and we were off in the air by the next morning. it was our first mom-son trip. not sure how much I could handle with Ethan constantly trying to escape, I packed as little as I could. (I should have got a few more diapers, it was a hassle to have to buy diapers in Montreal and haul them back, they are more expensive there, well, pretty much everything was more expensive considering the exchange rate) we had a little trouble at the check-in desk as they couldn't locate Ethan's ticket. but we made it and got lucky to have a empty seat for Ethan. it was about 3 hrs to NY-Laguadi, he slept an hour. then we boarded an smaller airplane with American eagle (only 3 seats per row) for an hour + to Montreal. he pretty much slept the whole time. (it was his nap time though) we landed onltime, Niuniu welcomed us inside the airport and Gong picked us up, it was nice he borrowed a carseat from his friend. I can't imaging to have drag a carseat with me .. on top of the stroller and a backpack of food, diaper ... toys ... and a running toddler!!
Day one - off the plane onto the boat! we went fishing with Brother's. his friend has a boat. the lake was quiet (no wind, no fish either) 2 hours and $5 bait later, we had 3 small bass and a clam. ;-) time to go home ...
Day two push Ethan to a nearby park. Gong told me there was a patting zoo. unfortunitely, it has been closed for renovation for 2 years. (talking about out dated infomation!) bought tickets

fun things to do with yr toddlers

Here is a list of activities you can start trying to help with their development. These activities are geared for 12-16 months. I had this list saved in a file so I can't recall where I got this information originally.

1. Babies love games at this age (Pat-a-cake, This Little Piggy, etc.) Try different ways of playing the games and see if your baby will try it with you. Hide behind furniture or doors for Peedaboo; clap blocks or pan lids for Pat-a-cake.

2. Babies enjoy push and pull toys. Make your own pull toy by threading yogurt cartons, spools, or small boxes on a piece of yarn or soft string (about 2 feet long). Tie a bead or plastic stacking ring on one end for a handle

3. Play the naming game. Name body parts, common objects, and people. This lets your baby know that everything has a name and helps him or her begin to learn these names.

4. Cut up safe finger foods (do not use foods that pose a danger of your baby's choking) in small pieces and allow your baby to feed himself. IT is good practice to pick up small things and feel different textures (bananas, soft crackers, berries)

5. Make puppets out of a sock or paper bag - one for you and one for you baby. Have you puppet talk to your baby or your baby's puppet. Encourage your baby to "talk" back

6. Tape a large piece of drawing paper to a table. Show your baby how to scribble with a large nontoxic crayon. Take turns making marks on the paper. It's also fun to paint with water.

7. Make an obstacle course with boxes or furniture so your baby can climb in, on, over, under and through. A big box can be a great place to sit and play.

8. Let your baby "help" during daily routines. Encourage your baby to "get" the cup and spoon for mealtime, to "find" shoes and coat for dressing, and to "bring" the pants or diaper for changing. Following directions is an important skill for your baby to learn.

9. To encourage your baby's first steps, hold your baby in standing position, facing another person. Have you baby step toward the other person to get a favorite toy or treat.

10. Arrange furniture so your baby can work his or her way around a room be stepping across gaps between furniture. This encourages balence in walking.

11. Let you baby help you clean up. Play "feed the wastebasket" or "give it to mommy or daddy."

12. Your baby is learning that different toys do different things. Give your baby lots of things to roll, push, pull, hug, shake, poke, turn, stack, spin, stir.

13. Give your baby containers with lids or different compartments filled with blocks or other small toys. Let you baby open and dump. Play "putting things back." This will help your baby learn how to release objects where he or she wants them.

14. Babies continue to love making noise. Make sound shakers by stinging canning rims together or filling child proof medicine bottles with different sounding objects like marbles, rice, salt, bolts, etc. Be careful to secure lids tightly!

15. Make a surprise bag for your baby to find in teh morning fill a paper or cloth bag wtih a soft toy, something to make a sound, a little plastic jar with a screw-top lid, or a book with cardboard pages.

16. Most babies enjoy music. Clap and dance to the music. Encourage your baby to practice balance by moving forward, around, and back. Hold his or her hands for support, if needed.

17. Loosely wrap a small toy in a paper towel or facial tissue without tape. Your baby can unwrap it and find a surprise. Use tissue paper or wrapping paper too. It's brightly colored and noisy.

18. This is the time your baby learns that adults can be useful. When you baby "Asks" for something by vocalizing or pointing, respond to his or her signal. Name the object your baby wants and encourage him to communicate again - taking turns with each other in a "conversation."

19. Play "pretend" with a stuffed animal or doll. Show and tell your baby what the doll is doing (walking, going to bed, eating, dancing on the table) See if your baby will make the doll move and do things as you request. Take turns.

20. Prepare your baby for a future activity or trip by talking about it before hand. Your baby will feel a part of what is going on rather than being just and observer. It may also help reduce some fear of being "left behind."

Kite runner

I have been reading Kite runner by Khaled Hosseini lately. it is very powerful and moving in such a way that I forgot it supposed to be a fiction.

loves to read

Ethan hadn't been into books until I got the "big wheels" book for him from the library a couple of weeks ago. (don't know what it is, but he is obsessed with car stuff, anything with wheels) he loves that book, he'd drug it with him everywhere and asks us to "read" to him over and over. he'd point at the truck and go "dumb" so cute ...

M.W. Turner

http://preview.theartsnetwork.net/turner_edu/index.html
I have always liked Turner's oil painting but have not seen his watercolor until this show at DMA. his watercolor almost has many depth of color as his oil painting, but still stay clear and transparent. he rendered the lights and shadow so vivid as you can feel the morning sunlight leaking through the leaves, dancing on the water ... warming up the steel railings. I was so impressed, his painting is not the striking kind, at least for me, it wasn't one of those that I will be dying to have ... but they are beautiful, everything must be so perfect in his life, I can see him being confident but modest, successful but soft spoken, hardworking and gentle. his talent was recognized at a young age of 21 so I guess we don't see angry or struggle in his work. even those battle scenes ... they looked sad but not mad ... I am surprised that I'd like him, hmm... I must have getting old ;-)

Ethan had a good time touring the museum with me. he had lots of fun climbing the stage in the cafe, watching the maya dancers and playing water at the sculpture yard.

welcom baby Xu Dou - little mouse- Thomas

baby XuDou was born on the 2nd of May 2008 12:19 PM. (2 weeks b4 the due day) 5 lb and 11 oz 18 1/2 inches.
He is a cutie, he has long winkled slender fingers, we all said that he will be growing up playing piano ;-)
Congratulations to Tao and Lian and wish you all the very best luck.



in retrospect, I hosted a baby shower for Lian on the weekend when she was finally discharged from the hospital (at 33 weeks). color theme was yellow/blue. I baked a cake (my 2nd cake ;-) Jing helped with decorating and June brought balloons and lots of fruit ... Wendy grilled the daddy-to-be with baby questions, we tighted bolloons on him when he picked the wrong answer. I thought the party went well and we all has a good time. Tao told me that it did help to cheer Lain up a little. that is more important, right?

twinkle winkle little star

小皮猴Keon's blog

http://blog.sina.com.cn/keonzhang
came cross Keon's blog today, Keon's mom is doing such a awesome job of keeping up with everything. sham on me ;-)
well, well ...let's see ... this is lunch time and guess what I am eating?? Ethan's baby food !!! yuks ~~~~~~~
the other day I read a pressure-cooker babyfood receipt on MITBBS. basically you put everything (veggies and pasta) in there with cream chicken soup, cook for 10 min.then all done! sounds great huh? and the mom finished the post with "I love my pressure-cooker too death" hmm...I thought, we have pressure-cooker and this sounds like something that easy enough that I could do. so there I went, dump all kinds of veggies, beans, corn, some kind of green leaves and pasta with cream of mushroom (just run out cream of chicken) add some water (some I mean, I had to add water 3 times cause I don't cook and have no idea how much water is needed for the pasta I have put in there ;-( to make the long story short, after 3x10 mins and it is finally done (soft enough for Ethan to chew, I thought so) and it didn't taste bad at all. (well, I thought) but you guessed it, my little has a much more sophisticated taste than I do. he spitted the food right up ;-U
erhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, so frustrated. took a jar with him and let the babysitter tried at lunch, same thing ..gave up ... but I had a whole pot of it???? well, that is how I ended up with my lunch today ;-( yukkkkkkkky
sorry, baobao, I am not a mommy who can cook for you ... go get your daddy ba

PS. little bear walked 5-6 steps, but won't get up without pulling on things

walking

have been a while since my last update. it is hard to keep up with the diary. I still remember when I was a teenager I wrote a lot, seems the day was a lot longer when you were little??
Anyway, Xiaoxiong cast his first step yesterday, he was standing with his back against the sofa, then he walked one step towards me ;-) we both yelled out of excitement, he put his face in my chest and laughed hard. I gave him a big hug and walked him back to the sofa then he did it again ;-D "OK, third time it is the charm ..." well... he sat down after I let go his hands, smiling to himself ... I think he is capable but he prefers crawling which is much faster for him. the babysitte told me that he walked 3-4 steps today! obviously he is more confident on carpet comparing to hard floor. after spending 5 days with him at home, I found leaving him in the morning makes me really sad. the big smile on his face when he saw me opening the door then the smile replaced by disbelieve when I closed the door and waved bye bye. I heart saddened ...
baby, u r at sleep right now, but I want to hold you in my arms and tell you how much I love you and you are the best thing that ever happen to me. would you like that? ;-) would you rather be sleeping ? ;-) I guess I could wait till tomorrow ... wutheheck, I am going to sneak in and give u a kiss ;-D sweet dream, bao bao ...

Happy Birthday to me

I will be one year older tomorrow, but I am actually not as upset as I was 2 years ago. having Ethan does make my life more meaningful. or I just don't have time to be self pitty or sentimental ... or selflove? do I love myself? I remember I asked the exact question 20 years ago and the answer was no back then. I have tried so long and so hard to be selfloving and I thought I have complished that but now I am asking for love again. I have been asked many times if I were ready for baby #2. I didn't know the anwer, I always thought if there'd be abay #1 then there has to be #2, cause it made sense. well ...it made sense then but I am not ready for another one, I know that for sure, as least for today ... I love Ethan, I won't treat him for the whole world, but I need to get myelf back, I need to learn to love myself again, take care myself again, get my balance back so I could be able to give again. saying that makes me feel lighter already. ;-)
again, Happy Birthday and sweet dream

Happy the First Birthday!

http://picasaweb.google.com/evette.yu/FirstBirthday
Feb.8 was Ethan's first birthday. I can't believe how fast a year has gone by, how much our little bear has grown up. I am scared of him being a "toddler", I am not through with his babyhood yet... should we start disipline? should we start watching our own behaviers? erh... this is coming too soon.
anyway, I baked a cake, a teddy bear cake, for ethan's birthday party. Maria helped with the frosting. it turned out to be really good. I mean both the look and the taste, ;-) what a surprise !

the party was on Sat. the 9th. we had 20+ guests plus 5 kids. it was a beautiful day, I think the temperature was in the 7o. unfoutanitely Ethan had cold the day before, he wasn't in a very good mood, didn't nap well either ... but he has fun, stayed up till 9:30 and a good night sleep (except I had food poisioning?? up all night, puking or sitting on the toilet)

Yeah, Snow !!

Jan 24-29 2008, Little bear's first snow encounter and mommy's first ski trip in 2 years.

• Jan 24 3pm. last minute shopping with poor little bear falling asleep in my arm. got a little truck toy for Ethan and sunblock for mom and dad. 3:30 pm, Alex couldn't fit both of our gears with the car seat in the middle, so maggie offered to stop by and help.4:00 pm Lian's house , heading to airport.4:20pm Lian dropped us off at the terminal. a hour before the flight time. Little bear is sleeping again. 5pm, finally through the security, the airplane was packed with skiiers ;-) 20 mins later we were on our way to Jackson WY !!!7:30ish local time, we were welcomed by cold wind and snow flakes. no connecting tunnles between airplane and the terminal building at the jacksonhole airport. Xiaoxiong was greeted by everybody. Nina, xiaoxiong's new favorite girl, they couldn't keep their eyes off each other ;-)checked into snowking resort. nice room, ordered pizza for dinner cause all resteraunts were closed.
• Jan 25, we didn't sleep well because of the supper dry air in the hotel room. I ended up sleeping with a damp towel over my head on the pillow. OK breakfast in the hotel. free shuttle ($3 w/o package) to tetone villege. Daycare is a 10 min uphill walk from the bus stop. 2nd floor of the kids ranch building. pretty good size for the 6-8 children were there (6mon-2 years) 3-4 teachers. lots of toys, naps in crib (I didn't see the nap room) cubbies at the entrance for everykids, report card at the end of the day. LB was not shy, he got up and crawled to the toys after 2 mins abserving. great snow, fresh powder all day. but I was totally not as fit as i used to be. went to look for LB at lunch break but he was at nap. finished up around 3:45pm, daycare closed at 4pm. longwalk to the bar which we were rejected because LB was under 21 (of course) got a table in the resteraunt had a few drinks, got back to the hotel and then moved into the condo (which we were supposed to the stay the first night) it was a long day.
• Jan 26, LB slept a little better, still woke up every 1-2 hours. went to get breakfast and hop on bus, daycare, skiied a little better, group dinner, I stayed in condo with LB
• Jan 27, good night sleep, sunny in the morning, beatiful moutains. skiied with Peter and Kathy to the tip top. finished early to get LB for a gandola ride. storm came in later in the day.

sleeping regression

XiaoXiong is going through a sleeping regression. it has been terrible last couple of nights. it started last week, he would up between 1-3am and screaming unless I picked him up, sometime I could pat him back to sleep, but mostly we would end up co-sleep on my bed till the morning. I thought maybe he is over tired and according to askMoxie.com "between 7-8pm is the sweet spot for baby to go to bed" and "the early they go the later they wake up" so we tried to put him down at 7:30 on Sat. he woke up every hour but we were albe to put him back but then it came to the midnight strike, he was up and wet and mad, we changed him but he wouldn't stop crying, we hold him, cuddling, walking, singing, rocking .... nothing worked, he just screamed his lung out. after 30 min, we were both frustrated, so we put him in his crib and we sat in the dark and waited, he stood there screaming for 10 min then he sat down screaming, then lying there screaming .. he'd stop for a few min then started again (even harder and louder). it was unbelievable. you won't ever think a little person could have that much energy and endurance. I gave up and picked him up again and Alex made a 4oz bottle for him. we were not sure why he was upset at the first place, but he gotta be hungry now. he drunk the whole bottle with one breath and cried in my arm for 5-10 mins before felt asleep. he was tired the next day. took two 1-2 hours naps on Sunday. we put him down at 8pm then he woke up 1:30 and cried for 10 min b4 I picked him up and he continued for about 20 min until alex came upstairs and took over, he cried on and off for another 20 mins. Alex managed to put him down and patted him to sleep. then he screamed every 20-30 min (but I only had to got up and pat him twice) that last for about 45-60 min before he finally settled down. he got up 6:30 this morning, I nursed him and he gone back to sleep in my arm till 7:45. he moans every 20 mins though ... I don't know what is his problem but the last a couple of nights had been terrible. he was tired this morning and ZhangJing told me that he was grumpy and weepy all day. ;-( btw, we gave him 9 oz. last night and I changed his diaper before I went to bed at 11:00. and I rubbed his gum while he was crying at night, didn't help ...

11 month old

Xiaoxiong has been an early waker for a couple of weeks, ever since Christmas, he had been waking up crying a lot - as a result of being sick or teething, ooh, btw, he just cut his first tooth!!!(yeah, finally) these week, he slept much better except that he wakes up at 6:30 instead of 7:15 this is definitely not in my favor. I hope it has something to do with starting the new babysitter or his development. I hope it is just a phase and I can't wait for him to grow out of it.
Little bear has surprised me this morning, he woke up at 6:30 and I nursed him back to sleep ( after some protest and struggle) then I set the monitor and went downstair to get ready. while we were eating breakfast I thought I had heard some noise but thought it'd be a loud yell if xx is up... then by 8 I went up to check on him, guess what!! he is playing the music box on the floor, I was like OMG, how did he get down from the bed? then I smell poop so I put him back on my bed to change him, he twisted and turned, before I could catch him, he was half way off the bed, but he crab the sheet to slow him down and made a very nice gentle landing. then he lowered himself to the floor and off he he went.
he has also mastered turning around before going down the stairs
he likes to walk while pushing his highchair or our dinning chairs.
I am getting him a ride-on dumpster truck ... so far he likes play with the "cookie jar" which daddy got him