Alone with Baby D

Jenny had a doctor's appointment today. The original plan was to take baby and me along for the trip to the doctor's office might be too long and Jenny did not want to miss feeding the baby. However, Baby D was real fuzzy last night, crying and wailing non stop at around 2:00 am. After quiet a long time, he still refused to calm down, I couldn't resist the urge to see what was going on and if there was anything I could do to help. Jenny was changing his diaper and he had been fed. So I tried my luck with him. I took him to the bathroom and turned the fan on. He stopped crying and gradually calm down. What a miracle! I told Jenny to go to sleep and allow me to hold him longer to make sure he would sleep. He slept in my arms till 5:00 am. Well, I thought since he did not have a good night sleep so it was better to keep him home this morning, besides the weather turned real windy today. Jenny agreed to let me feed baby Daniel formula instead. After Jenny left Baby D only took 2 minutes naps, so I had to hold him the whole morning. It was after I fed him the formula then he really fell asleep.

Debbie dropped by with the clothes she borrowed for Nicole. She bought us lunch and helped to hold the baby while I ate. We had nice chats. Jenny's Mom came to visit just when Jenny got home. I was relieved that I was not alone with Baby anymore.

Daniel enjoying his walk.

Taking baby out for a walk.

Baby D practically slept through the whole morning, though I needed to hold him all the time to prevent him from waking up himself and his mom as well.

After lunch, Jenny decided to take baby D out for a walk since it looked very nice outside. He did not protest when we put him in the stroller and he quietly went to sleep as we pushed him to the drugstore. We all liked that.

After getting Baby back home, I started working on the leaves in the front until dark. After that, I started cooking. One silly thing I did today was forgetting to turn on the rice cooker, luckily I had enough time to cook the rice before Alvin came back.

Two big accomplishment today.

For the first time I drove myself to church this morning. I felt great. thank God for a safe trip.
Weather was super nice today. I took the chance to start planting the bulbs Ivy gave me. It was quite a relief to get this done. Now let's hope beautiful flowers will come out in spring.

A quiet Saturday

There were still lots of food in the frig. Everybody just ate whatever and whenever he or she wanted. I did not have much to do. Alvin was holding Baby D all the time, so I read the Chinese newspaper Ivy gave me.

A couple of friends came to visit. After they left, Alvin took me, Mark and Helen to Flushing. We dropped mark & Helen off at the subway station and went to the Chinese restaurant to book the banquet dinners for 12/3. I paid them all the cash I had -$250.00 for the deposit. After I got home I started calling people, only to find out Linda and Peter can't attend because they have to go to Toronto for a meeting while Martin can't come because he is in Hong Kong.

Black Friday

I stayed up late reading the chinese novel, so I got up late this morning. When I got down stairs, Jenny let me know Alvin had taken Mark and Helen out for Black Friday shopping. There were a lot of leftover food in the refrigerator, so I did not need to worry about cooking today. I felt relaxed. Ivy called. She wanted to take me out to return the library books and asked if we could go to lunch. I really don't think it was a good idea after eating so much yesterday, but since it was my turn to treat, I couldn't say no.

The first thing we did was to return the library books. Even though I wasn't hungry, but she did not have any breakfast, so I suggested her to forget about getting CDs that were on sale in Best Buy and go directly to Cheese Factory for lunch. The restaurant was quite full, we had to wait for a little while. We shared our order of chicken quesadilla and navajo chicken sandwich. Then we ordered coffee and cheese cake for dessert. Boy, I was really, really full.

Next we went to the bookstores to look for a little booklet for names of babies. Buy Buy Babies was our next stop. Ivy wanted to get some more stuffs for her baby shower for her niece. She ended up getting a green blanket and a sing-along CD. She had to get some non-caffeine tea bags and some more clemente for her party, so we went to Walbum. On the way, we first stopped by the Half Price Card store to get more matching ribbons. Our last stop was Party city so she could get some baby shower balloons. Thank god our shopping tour was finally over. By this time, It was dark already.

Mommy's friends from England and Japan came to visit baby D today. They stayed for dinner. Daddy ordered pizza and buffalo wings. Grandma was still full from eating lunch with auntie Ivy.

Don't I look cute in my Thanksgiving outfit?
Baby D's first Thanksgiving prayer
This year's turkey was quite a success, yum, yum
What a great dinner, we have turkey, shrimps, fish, stuffed mushroom and bean curd, vegetables and everybody's favorite - toful skin, plus a big pot of lotus soup!

Baby D's first Thanksgiving Day

The first thing in the morning I got the turkey out and started cleaning and marinating it. At the same time, I defrosted some grounded turkey meat to make spagetti for lunch. Alvin and Helen forgot to get the sweet potato and butternut squash, so after lunch they went out to get some from whole food.

I attended to the baby so Jenny could take her lunch. When she finished, I handed back Baby Daniel to her and started cooking the turkey at around 2:00 pm. I washed all the dishes and then started washing the vegetables, the sweet potato and the butternut squash. Meanwhile, Mark and Helen helped Jenny to move everything - all the baby gifts that had been lying around in the dining room, down to the basement. They set up the table and the new folding chairs that Alvin bought. The dining room looks much nicer now.

When Debbie's family came, they bought with them lots and lots of food. There was a big pot of soup, a big pot of pork and dried bean curd, a dish of vegetables and fish and stuffed bean curd and mushrooms, plus two bags of grapes and a pineapple. Boy, we had enough food to feed a whole army. The turkey turned out to be quite a success. We had a great dinner and hardly any room left for the pumpkin and pecan pies.

Baby D behaved well today with Daddy holding him all the time. He looked cute in his Thanksgiving outfit that Helen bought him. Believe it or not, he even folded his hand as if he was saying a prayer of thanksgiving. How cute!

Autumn tress, what a beautiful sight!

Alas but that would also mean a lot of work to gather up all the fallen leaves.

Day befiore Thanksgiving

After two days of rain, the sun finally came out. It looked very nice outside. Jenny's Dad came fully equipped with his own tools to fix a few things in the house. Baby d slept very good this morning, so Grandpa did not get to see him.

The last few days I couldn't work outside because of the bad weather and i was busy with baby D too. So I put on my jacket and start working on the leaves as soon as I got the opportunity. It was freezing cold, I had to hurry. It made me feel good and proud, looking at the finished lawn.

Alvin only had to work half day today. He went to pick up Mark and Helen. They were going to spend thanksgiving day with us. We had pork chops and veggies for dinner. They spent the night watching TV and I started reading the last book I borrowed from the library. wow, it turned out that I did pick a very good book. I really enjoyed reading it and wanted to finish it so I could return all the books, since two of them are due on Friday.

It had been a long day

Jenny had an doctor's appointment today. She had to leave the house at 7:45am. I was a little worried that I might oversleep, but I did get up on time. Baby was sleeping, however, the minute mommy left, he woke up. So I had to hold him all the time, hoping he won't wake up before Jenny came back. Well, he did co-operate with me. I was relieved when Jenny returned so I could hand him over to her for the next feeding.

As Baby did not sleep good last night and Jenny had to get up early, I offered to hold the Baby after he was fed so she could go to take a nap. Baby slept on and off, my hands were getting tired, I was getting hungry and I also need to go to the bathroom. By 1:00pm, I couldn't wait any longer. I put him down on the swing. He gave me enough time to go to the bathroom and warm up something for lunch. He woke up again. His crying in turn woke up Jenny. I hurried to eat my lunch and then took Baby back so Jenny could eat her lunch. When Jenny went for her second nap, I had a hard time trying to calm baby Daniel down. I took him downstair so his cries would not bother Jenny. Nothing seemed to work, he would cry and cry till he got tired and fell asleep for a little while, then woke up and started crying again. When it was getting dark, I started worrying when could I cook. I was still holding baby when Debbie arrived with bags and bags of grocery she bought for me. Oh, more work but I could not do anything with my hands full with the crying Baby. it sure made the day felt very long.

When I cry, and cry, and cry,
Everything my mother would try.
The bathroom is my favorite place,
among the toiletries and toothpaste.
I love listening to the exhaust fan,
and the lovely songs my mother sang.
Then slowly I would drift to sleep,
in the beautiful dreamland, deep & deep.

A day at leisure

The morning went by fast. I did some reading and getting the chicken marinated for tonight's dinner. After lunch, I went downstairs to update my blog while Jenny fed the Baby. She then went to toy-re-us to return the musical mobile and get some toys for her friends who might be coming to visit this Friday. The minute she left, baby D started crying. I went to fetch him and bought him downstairs. He remain quiet in my arms, even allowing me to continue working on the computer for 3 hours, how amazing.

Jenny usually gives baby his bath real late at night, around 10:00 -11:00 pm, hoping the bath will help baby to have a good night sleep. Each time Daniel is surprisingly good and cooperative during the bath, but not when we dress him up. Then Jenny will feed him, with the hope that he will go to sleep after that. Unfortunatingly, for the last two nights, he kept wailing and screaming, absolutely refusing to go to sleep. We were totally at loss as to how to soothe him down. Finally we tried the trick of giving him the vitamin drop and the pacifier immediately follow after. It worked. Baby finally calmed down to sleep, so we all could go to bed at 1:00am.

Going to church with Alvin

Alvin was feeling much better today, so he decided to go with me to church. I thought I probably could drive myself there, so that I don't have to trouble Debbie every week. So it was nice that Alvin could show me the way once. I enjoyed the Sunday sermon ver much. The message was about how to be free of worries and anxiety.

When we got home, Jenny's Mom was visiting. She tried to put Baby D to sleep, so Jenny could take a nap. I spent the time cooking rice and making soup for Jenny. BABY DANIEL slept on and off, so grandma Li had to stay till it was time again for baby's feeding. Afterwards, we all left the house. Grandma Li going home and we went for a walk to the drugstore and bank. Alvin went to get humidifier for baby D. By the time he came home, he was very hungry, so he was happy to have his favorite dish - tofu again for dinner. It was really amazing Baby D slept all through the walk and our dinner.

A touch of flu

Today was Saturday. Alvin got to stay home, but he got a touch of the flu. So he had to put on a mask when he held baby D. I took the chance to go outside to work on the leaves again. It took me the entire morning to bag up all the leaves on the front lawn and at the side of the house. There were still a lot of leaves along the curb, but I had to quit because I was getting too tired.

Jenny went out on her own in the morning. She did not tell me where she is going, but asked if I could go with her to Costco in the afternoon to get the turkey. Shopping is not what I like, but of course, I would go with her. Boy, the huge parking lot was all full when we got there. The whole place was full of people. We had no trouble in finding the turkeys, but it took us some time to look for the ground turkey meat and the baby wipes. Then we had to wait in the long lines to get to the register. When we got out, it was already dark outside.

A fun day going out with Ivy

When I got up, Jenny & Baby D had already left the house. I got everything ready waiting for Ivy to come to pick me up. She brought us some bulbs and cassettes. First we went to the library to get some Chinese novels for me to read. We passed by a Indian restaurant, so instead of going to the Cheese Factory as planned, we decided to try out their buffet. I enjoyed the lunch and long talk with Ivy. Then she took me back to her home, to show me all the lovely things she bought for the baby shower that is to be held at her home next Saturday. She also offered me drinks and snacks, I was so full that I had to skip dinner that night. I couldn't wait to start reading the books that I borrowed from the library.

Cheering up

This morning I decided to cheer myself up by venturing out to take a walk to the supermarket. The wind had stopped and the sun was out. It looked very nice, but it turned out to be much colder than yesterday. I had to rush back home to get something warmer. Jenny's jacket was hanging on tha back of the chair, I left Jenny a note then went out again with her coat.

When I reached the school, I knew I was in the wrong direction. I now realized I had completely forgotten the way Jenny showed me. I turned back and walked along Moore street till I saw more traffic in the street ahead of me. That must be Hillside street, i thought. This time I was right. Turning onto Hillside, I had no trouble finding the Met Market and the Korean H mart. Ah, this is the Met that Jenny's Mom was telling me about, where I could get naturally grown chicken with no hormone injection. So I went in to take a look. The price of sweet yam was not bad - 39 cents a lb, so I picked some. Banana too, I picked a small bunch. Then I found the cabbages that I intended to buy to make soup for alvin. All the cabbages were in giantic sizes, I searched for the smallest one, still its felt like a ton. Next I had to get some cooking oil, since I used up all theirs. I was happy that I was able to get all these, even though they were quite heavy. Echerd is right across the street, I crossed over the busy street and went in to look for a hair dye. then I began to head back to the house.

Baby was sleeping when I got home. Jenny asked if I had any dirty laundry. Of course, I had been waiting for this opportunity, because with all the yard work I had to change my clothes and shower more often and pretty soon I was about to run out of underwears. So I gladly accepted her offer.

After lunch, Jenny had to feed the baby, so I went downstairs to put the washed laundry into the dryer. I tidied up the shelves and cleaned the top of the washer and dryer. The sink was really yuckky with lots of brown stains. After scrubing it the best I could, I settled down to dye my hair. As there is no mirror in the laundry, it was quite difficult to do a good job by myself. Luckily Debbie showed up at the right moment. She came to deliver some dumplings that she made for us. Unhessitatedly I asked if she could help me. This was the first time she dyed any hair, not too experienced or careful, but still I appreciated her help very much. With my hair looking much better after the dye, I managed to cheer myself up today.

In the process of making myself happier, I tried to find somebody to talk to. First I called Daniel. He was driving the senior people for their Thursday Meeting, so we did not get to talk much. I also called Amy around her lunch hour, but got no answer. Lastly, I called Ivy. She was not home, I left a message telling her that perhaps we could get together for lunch on Saturday since Alvin would be home to help taking care of baby. Jenny told me before feeding baby that she had to take baby to the nursery tomorrow. I blurted out at once,"Oh, I could meet with Ivy tomorrow then." Right after that, I thought of may be she needs my help going out with the baby. So I asked if she need me to go with her or not. After hearing what I said about going with Ivy, of course, she would say ," Oh, no, I think I can manage." Just then, Ivy returned my call, and agreed that we would meet the next day. Unfortunately, when Alvin came home, he mentioned that I should offered as Jenny did not want to ask and wanted me to have some free time. So I guess I made another boo-boo.

What a windy day!

The wind was super strong today. The sun was hiding. Leaves flying everywhere. Boy, my blog sound like the weather report now.

In the morning, I got the chicken out to make soup for Jenny. I had to spend at least a whole hour cleaning out the fat. Debbie gave us a big container of tofu. We ate some yesterday. I was aftraid it won't stay fresh, so I should cook the rest today. For a change of taste, I decided to make stuffed tofu instead. Never done this before though. For the fillings, I first had to debone the chicken drumsticks. That was because they do not have any other meat in the refrigerator. After removing all skin and tendons, I had to cut them up into very small pieces. Then I had to chop it to a paste. With baby sleeping, I did not want to wake him up with the noise. With Baby waking up, then I had to help holding him. It was getting late and I still to chop up the meat, dig holes in the tofu pieces and stuff them. I could not do all these until Jenny fed him. I was in the middle of a big mess when Jenny's Mom came by to bring Jenny her juice and guess what? more tofu. Finally when I got everything ready, I offered to hold baby D so Jenny could eat first. Baby co-operated with me by keeping quiet while Mommy ate her dinner. When Jenny finished her meal, it was my turn to eat. Alvin does not like us to wait for him. I was quite disappointed with the tofu dish because Jenny can't take too much salt, so the dish tasted tasteless to me. Then I thought if I put away some low sodium tofu, perhaps then I could add some flavor for Alvin's portion, for he loves to eat tofu. It wasn't a bad idea except I stayed too long on the computer and did not check on the tofu till Alvin got home. I was horrified to find out a lot sticked to the expensive frying pan. Boy, am I in trouble now. As I was feeling real bad about this, Alvin came down and exclaimed," How come you put raw meat on the dinner dish!" he had me run upstair to show me that I am supposed to use the glass dishes and bowls for raw meats. Godly, how would I know if they never told me. After a whole day's hard work, I was really upset.

Nice & Sunny Day

When I got up, both baby and Jenny were sleeping, so I took the chance to update my blog. Helped Jenny with Baby Daniel the rest of the morning. Then since it was such a nice day, I couldn't wait to go outside to work on the leaves.There were so much, so much leaves lying around everhwhere though. I started with the curbside. Next door neighbor suggested that I should use a dustpan instead of scooping up the leaves with my hands. Too bad Alvin does not have one, so I use a cardboard box lid. It sure helped me to work faster. Before I got the whole front lawn done, it started raining. I therefore had to hurry back inside.

Debbie dropped by to give us the fish she bought for us while I was cooking. Alvin came home to enjoy country music award show after dinner. I sneaked downstair to see my VCDs. This time Alvin had me putting down the steps to turn everything on. Hope I will have no more trouble starting the TV and DVD ever again.

Picking up the car from the auto shop

First thing in the morning, Jenny left Baby D with me to run to the hardware store. She wanted to get something to cover the air conditioner for the winter. She came back to feed the baby, then left again to get the car back from the auto shop. Wow, Baby Daniel was nice with Grandma. He allowed me to put him lying down in bed for a while or sit in the swing for a while. He also went to sleep and allowed me to put him down on the stroller, so I could have time to prepare for dinner. Since I was doing so well with him. I offered to take care of him after ll:00pm, so Jenny and alvin could go to sleep. I held him till 1:30 am till it was time for the next feeding.

Timmy's birthday celebration!

Today was sunday. Debbie came to pick me up at 9:30 am for church. It was a day for combined service and Holy Communion. Debbie was the translator. She was great, except both she and the speaker hardly had any expression or smile. After service, we had lunch at church. At 1:00pm they had choir practice for the evangelical special meeting on coming Saturday. I had no choice but to join them in singing, luckily I know both songs that they are going to sing.

We left for Alvin's home after choir practice. Alvin prepared spagetti and steak. Auntie Debbie bought the cake and cook vegetables. Timmy was happy he could play games downstairs. Michael and Samuel watched TV in the living room. Me? I was left with nothing to do. Dinner was good. After eating the cake, they left. Alvin insisted that he would take care of the dishes, I was just too happy to go watching my VCDs.

Today was also Baby Daniel's one month birthday. He behaved good, not to disturb us having dinner and dessert. May God bless him with fast growth and good health, so that pretty soon he can enjoy eating all these yummy food with us.

Baby Daniel is one month old today!

Saturday Daddy is home

With alvin home on Saturday, I don't have to worry about the baby. so I started early to go outside and work in the yard. Jenny's Dad came with lawn mower to cut the grass in the back yard. I guess he felt sorry that I have so much to do. It is a constant battle. The minute you pick up all the leaves, more will be falling down. He left after finishing the back lawn, I continued to work in the front. There were so many filled bags, Jenny told me not to put them at the curbside anymore.

In the evening, I cooked chicken soup for Jenny. alvin does not quite like the cabbage soup I made for him, but at least he was willing to eat it, although he refuse to follow the diet straightly.

Since Alvin was home, I took the chance to ask him to see if his TV and DVD player will work with the VCDs that I brought. Wow, it does. I was so happy. Now I enjoy watching Korean soap again. Unfortunately, Disk one and two both got stuck after a while. Well, I just went on to No.3. I did not miss much.

I like Daddy holding me when I take a nap.

Ivy's Visit on Friday

After breakfast I started working in the backyard. It was a bit chilly today. The temperature was around 40 degree, much colder than I thought. So by noontime I quit.

Ivy came to visit us in the afternoon. Jenny let us take care of the baby and she went to take a nap. However, Baby daniel did not quite co-operate with us. We took turns to hold him. He would calm down a little bit or close his eyes for a short while, then he would cry again. We were relieved when it was feeding time again and Jenny came to take over. Upon seeing I had a handful with the baby and the leaves, Ivy did not want to stay for dinner and she left right after.

Baby's check-up visit to the doctor

Alvin's car couldn't start this morning, so he took the van. Jenny's mom came to see if she could start the car and take it to the repair shop. No such luck, so she decided she will stay a little while to rig the leaves with me. We filled up another three bags. As I did not want her to work too hard, so I called it quit. she left shortly after.

Well, we were supposed to take the Baby for his check-up. Now that we did not have a car, Jenny's father had to come to give them a ride. It made no sense for me to tag along since they have Grandpa would take good care of them, so I stayed behind and concentrate on working in the yard. Yesterday, we took care of the front, I therefore tried to trim the trees by the fence at the backyard. When the baby came back, I was still hard at work. Grandpa later came to take a little inspection and told me that he did not have any lunch until just now. what sacrifice parents do for their offsprings.

First Day in NY

Just learned that Alvin had to go back to work starting tomorrow. So we left him enjoying his baby, while Jenny took me out for a walk to the nearest market. We bought some fruits and vegetables. The price is a bit higher, so I thought I could wait for Debbie to take me to the Chinese stores in Flushing. When we came back, I decided to start rigging the leaves. By the time I filled up the third bag, it started raining. I had no choice but to get back inside. There is so much more to be done!

Alvin cooked steak for dinner and even washed the dishes. I picked up the book "the Joy Luck Club" and started reading it.

Saying Hi to grandma.
Look at all these presents that I got.
Are these presents nice?
Making friend with Teddy
Are you going to pick me up now that my diaper is changed?

Arriving in NY

While watching Nicole having her breakfast, I spotted Becky looking sad because I had to leave. This effect of my short visit was exactly what I was afraid of. I tried to comfort her and encourage her to eat a little breakfast before heading for the airpot. Traffic was not too bad. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time for me to check in. since my luggage was heavy, I was glad that I could check in by the curbside. The walk to the gate was not far either. However, the flight to NY seemed quite long. No meal or TV was offered, so I spent the time reading my Quidepost and listening to my i-pod.

We arrived NY 45 minutes ahead of schedule. Waiting for the luggage was long, but waiting for Debbie to pick me up was not too bad. She brought lots of food and we had dinner together. Baby D was sleeping in his swing when I rushed over to see him. He looked cute in real person when he wasn't crying. Alvin showed me to my room upstair. The temperature was set at 65 degree as suggested for Baby D, it was a little chilly for me the first night, but I was sure I would get adjusted to it soon.

Nicole finding it more fun playing with the chopsticks than eating.

Last day of my stay in LA

This day went by fast. After Becky got up we took Nicole to the Kidspace. However, we were not allowed in the playroom till 11:00am, because they had the meeting for the circle of friends. Becky got quite upset. So we took Nicole to the outside stand to learn how to make tortilla. It was messy, but Nicole enjoyed pressing down the handle to flatten the tortilla. After that, she tried riding on a bike. She quitted after a short while. because she did not like having the helmet on her head. There were lots of kids on the outsdie background, we took Nicole there. Unfortunately, she kept going to the place where kids played with water. As Becky did not want her to get wet and get her new shoes dirty, we dragged her to the bathroom instead. When we came out and tried the playground once more, Nicole still couldn't resist the temptation of going to the water stand. So we decided to head back to the inside playroom again. We had to wait a little bit before it was opened for everyone. Nicole had a good time there as usual.

Since today was Monday, Becky had to attend the Women's fellowship and Chris' ballgame would start at 6:00 pm. Scot came to pick up Becky. I tried t0 clean up the kitchen and get Nicole ready for bed. She did enjoy her bath and she let me put on her pyjama. After the brushing teeth routine, I put her down in her bed. She cried for quite a while before falling asleep. I hurried to my room to get my luggage ready so Chris could help to carry the heavy thing to the car. He came back after the game with Scot and a couple of friends to play Mah Jong! I went to bed with mixed feeling, I was sad that I had to leave tomorrow and happy too to go to NY to meet Baby Daniel.

Here comes another sunday

I was all prepared to venture out on my own, taking the train back home after church. However, becky decided to skip sunday school again, so I was kind of happy that we could go home together. the speaker for the sunday sermon was a Chinese seminary student. He talked about how Jesus took care of His disciples physically and spititually. After church, I went to the grocery store to get some taro and topiaca for the red bean soup I was going to make, since Becky had friends coming over this afternoon. We had a quick lunch. I barely had time to get the red bean soup done, the first guest arrived. I therefore went upstairs to enjoy the Chinese newspaper that I bought. Her friends stayed almost up to 6:00pm. They bought a lot of food, so I did not have to cook. Before long, Chris returned with Nicole from Grandma Kwan's place and we all settled down for the night.

NICOLE helping herself and eating well.

Super good Day for Nicole

Since today is Saturday, I wanted Chris to sleep a little longer. So the minute I heard Nicole's waking up noise, I rushed to her room. She was nice enough to let me change her diaper and pyjama before going downstairs for her breakfast. I made her a toast and put apple sauce on it. Much to my surprise, she ate and drank without any fuss. She liked the crunchy toast and the sugarless applesauce very much, so it did not take long for her to finish the piece of toast and the whole container of applesauce. I told her all gone and she allowed me to throw away the container. Then we played and watched cartoon. Daddy was up. Nicole wanted to put on her shoes. Chris told her out for a walk outside. After they returned, Chris started working on the big flower pots, removing the dead plant and putting in the seeds he bought. Then he came up with a very good idea that we should dig the half dead plant out of the other pots and planted close to sprinklers. So I went out with him to dig the holes for those plants, and I stayed behind to weed and clean up. By then, it was time for them to leave for Melanie's birthday party. I went inside to help Nicole putting on her shoes. Chris and Nicole took off. Becky was getting ready to go out. I could see she wasn't too happy. So I said," You don't have to go if you don't want to." She started crying and said she had to go to see the psychiatrist. Immediately I offered to go with her. On the way we talked and she started to feel more relaxed. The doctor just asked her some background questions. He concluded that she does not need any medicine. When I asked what is his suggestion if she feels depressed. He just recommend relaxation and music. one thing good about this short session was he did point out to Becky that she was asking too much on herself and that she is doing a very good job as a mother. Later, we had a very enjoyable lunch at In-and -Out Burgers. After that, we went shopping at Cosco. Nicole had a good time at the party. Chris took her to Grandma Kwan's place afterwards. So we all had a very good Saturaday evening.

A Busy Day

Nicole seemed like she got up from the wrong side of the bed this morning. Her crying woke me up. I rushed to her room, only to discover Chris already took her down and she was giving Daddy a hard time. So I hurried up to make her toast with jam, but no luck this morning, she did not even want to touch it. Becky got up early because she made an appontment for another picture-taking for Nicole. I was worrying all the time, how could we manage her when she was already in such a bad mood. We tried to teach her to use her new potty, but of course she would not sit still. Then right after I changed her diaper, she had a little poo poo, so we got to change her again. There was a lot of running around before we finally got her shoes on and got everything ready. When we got to the mall, Norstrom was not opened yet, but the main entrance to the mall was already opened. So we took her to Robinson Mays' bathroom to change her into her pretty dress. She even allowed us to put up her hair into two pigtails. However, when it was time to take her picture, she did not cooperate with us. No matter how hard we tried she just did not want to smile or stand still. The photographer was not too patient with Nicole. This upset Becky. She really wanted to get a nicer picture of Nicole for this year's Christmas card. We had to wait for one hour for the pictures to come out, so we took Nicole to the playground. The hour went fast.
She's so interested in what the other kids are doing, she insisted on climbing into this boat head-in first!
She loves to say hi to everybody!
A picture with a smile is a rare thing to capture!
Nicole is busy chasing after the pretty, curly-haired girl, trying to give her a hug!
The pictures turned out as expected not too nice, no smile at all. We picked one and hurried home. I was worried about what to serve Nicole for lunch, so I suggested that we should eat out. It turned out she preferred plain white rice this time to our surprise.

Nicole did not sleep too long for her nap. Becky was able to rest a little bit. Our first visitor in the afternoon was Peggy. She stayed a little while to play with Nicole. After she left, Nicole asked for her dinner. Before she finished her last bites, Rachel came with Kristen to have dinner at our place. Next came Pat and Christine. While chatting with them came the whole gang of OSU friends - Richard & Barbara, Irene & Chung, Paul and Christie and also Dorothy too. The whole living room full of people. Pat started showing them DVDs about Shanxi school. Chris came home from work to pick up Becky for Friday night Couple Fellowship. Nicole already went to bed. They left around 8:30pm for dinner. The house became quiet and peaceful again.

Taking the van to the repair shop

For breakfast Chris gave Nicole some waffle. Nicole simply did not want to touch it. I gave her some orange, but she ended up spilling half of the container on the floor, because she insist to carry it running around. Well, that was the first clean up. After playing around a little while, Nicole got bored, so she said poo-poo and made me take her up to change. There was no poo poo, I got fooled. Before I could force a diaper on her, she ran to the kitchen and pee pee there. Ah, clean up number two. When Becky got up, she suggested we might as well take Nicole to Kids' Place in the morning since they got to take the car to the repair shop in the afternoon. I told her to get some breakfast first and see if she could make Nicole eat something. When Nicole saw the jar of jam Mommy took out, she yelled out "Jam, Jam, Jam! " She started eating the toast and wanted more. I was excited thinking Ah, tomorrow I could offer her toast with jam. Time spent at the Kids' place went well. When we got home we fed her lunch. She was so tired she almost fell asleep in the chair.

Chris got off from work around 2:00pm. He ate a quick lunch then set off with Becky to take the car for repair and to get a rental van. Nicole was already up when they came back. She was a little bit fuzzy, so Chris took her to the nursery. They came home with 3 packets of seeds. Nicole wanted to go in her room while daddy and mommy were trying to put up the new bedrail for her. I was afraid she would be in the way, so I closed the door and tried to get her downstairs. She got really upset, putting up a big fight with me. I gave up leaving her lying on the steps. I figure her parents would take care of her if they did not want her to cry too long, so I went to the kitchen to start cooking. Chris gave her a bath after she ate her dinner. After she went to bed, daddy and mommy enjoyed a night of TV and grandma could play computer game for as long as she liked.

Encounter with the stubborn girl

The morning went off all right, I guess. We ran out of the muffins for Nicole's breakfast, so we had to try different stuff to see if she would take it. Chris fished out some cranberry and pumpkin loaf for her. She did take a few bites.

Becky found out she had used up all the rent receipts, so we decided that I would keep an eye at Nicole at the Kidspace, while she hopped over to the mall to get the rent receipts and a present for birthday girl Melanie. I thought it was no big deal, because Nicole is always happy to be playing with other kids at the Kids' Museum. Little did I know I was heading for trouble when we let her take the snack sack. While I was pushing her in her stroller, she unzipped the bag and took out the juice herself. She kept holding onto it when I sat her down to take off her shoes so that she could go play with the other kids. All the time, she was being very nice and sweet to the people passing by, calling out Hi to everybody. So I explained to her if she wanted to go in and play, she would have to put the juice back in the bag. No deal!! She wanted to drink it. I had no choice but to take her out of the room so that she could drink her juice first. I put her back to the stroller. However, she simply refused to let me have the straw to put it in for her. Each time, I tried she yelled NO at me. So I told her "ok, I am leaving." and went back inside to see how she would react. It meant nothing to her. She sat there happily saying Hi to every passerby. After a few more try, she finally followed me inside the room again. I handed her the bag and asked her to put her juice back. Wow, more trouble!!! she saw the bag of pretzel sticks and started crying for it. Good thing she did not cry for long before another kid got her attention. From then on she went on her way to play with the different toys. She would say "Thank You" to the adults when they handed her something to play with, or she would say "Sorry" if she ran onto someone. She fetched out a book when she saw another mother reading to her kids, sat herself down beside the mother and waited for her turn to have her book read. So far so good. When all the other kids started leaving, she insisted to put on her shoes and go too. Outside, I gave her the juice and pretzel sticks, she cried for more. I gave up and started pushing her to the parking lot. Thank God Becky arrived in time to give us a ride back home.

Shopping for a potty

Nicole was in a pretty good mood this morning. After pm nap we went to Target to get her a potty. We ended up with bed siderail for Nicole, a match outfit for Baby D, and a nice laundry hamper for Becky to sort out her dirty laundry. Then we went across the street to Office Max to get some name tags for the baby shower.

After we got back from shopping, I started preparing for dinner because I wanted to make chicken soup and usually it takes long time to take out the fat. Chris had half day off today, so he took the opportunity to go golfing. At 3:30 pm Becky went for her Christian Counseling session. Around 5:00, Peggy called and said she would drop by. She did not tell me why. A little later she arrived with Chris. I offered them soup and started cooking, not knowing she was staying or going. Later, when Becky was home we had dinner together. She was supposed to go to some Bible class at a nearby church and Patrick was having some men's group neeting, so she came here instead of going home after work. I did some reading after cleaning up dishes. Before long, I got too tired, so I took my shower and went to bed.

A rare quiet moment to post for grandma.
This picture not bad, eh?