Studio Portraits & Puo Puo's Departure

My mom left today...Boo! Dae and I, as well as both boys (and our well-fed stomachs) are sad to see her go. It's amazing how quickly one month flew by. Thank you Mom! We love you!

Here are some photos she took of Olin and his beloved hands. They are always nice and close to his face, besides when he's waving "Hi" while sleeping...

His baby acne is bad, real bad. At least he has been under house arrest along with myself, who is also not looking fantastic these days.

So Olin is pretty much attached to a warm body 23 out of 24 hours in a given day. The second we put him down, crying follows. Sigh.

We were handed down a Groupon for Yuen Lui studios last week so we went armed with both boys and pretty low expectations for cooperation from either. Some of the pictures were hilarious, some were cute, and all were copyrighted (haha!) so my mom managed to convert the online images to downloadable images. Resolution is not great, but I have a feeling most of them won't be making it to a framed wall portrait anyway!

Christian is learning how to become quite the poser :)

And the ones that didn't quite make the cut:

Christian's Sayings

Christian loves the letter H. Yesterday when we picked him up from church daycare the daycare worker even told Dae that he loves H's and provided us with this drawing Christian had supposedly done. We are pretty convinced that he asked the daycare workers to draw green and yellow H's - his favorites. We're also highly suspicious that the coloring (within the lines) may not be entirely his doing!

When he counts now, he does 1-10, then he says 11-14....19....then back to 14. He conveniently skips over 15-18.

He loves saying the phrase "It's a little bit dangerous" with the dangerous very well enunciated. He says it all the time, especially if we ask him to do something he is not interested in doing (which is frequent). He'll say "No, it's a little bit dangerous".

As posted before, Christian loves milk more than life itself, or any food. For a while he was wetting through his diaper at night and would wake up crying with wet PJ's since he would drink so much milk during the evening. We've remedied this by discovering extra absorbent nighttime diapers as well as telling him he can't have milk at night because "Remember? You'll have wet PJ's". He'll nod seriously like he totally understands and then he'll turn around and either ask me in Chinese for just a half cup or ask Dae in English for just a little bit.

Olin's Photos by Dawn & Christian the Nun

I always spoil birth announcements/Christmas cards by posting all the photos because I get so excited, so I am reining myself in and just posting 2 until birth announcements go out. Even though Olin was not the most cooperative guy in the world, Dawn still managed as always to get some beautiful shots. We are so appreciative!!!

In other news, Christian got a hold of dad's (clean) undergarments and decided to pull some hijinks. I think he fits right in with the nuns from the Sound of Music!

Puo Puo managing 2 kids at storytime. Puo Puo is like the horse whisperer with Olin...he never makes a peep when she holds him. Dae or I...another story...

2 week Appointment & Prayers

Olin had his 2 week appointment today. My mom, Dae and I had placed bets on how much he weighed. We all guessed in the 7 pound 0 ounces range, and it turns out he's 7 pounds 12 ounces. Hurray! Gained back to his birth weight and then some. I was very happy. Sometimes when he's feeding it seems like he's not getting enough, or that he's hungry every 45 minutes to an hour, so I was very relieved to see he is eating enough and gaining weight well. His head is 14.5 inches and his length is 20.5 inches.

Auntie Ev and Grandma always chuckle about the hand next to the face pose

Grandma taught Leelee to pray before each meal. I opened my eyes to peek at Leelee once and saw him keeping his eyes tightly closed and hands tightly clasped until we say "Amen". It is so cute.

Dae took Leelee to the Evergreen Aviation Museum yesterday. Dae said he got scared on the airplane carousel and they had to stop it after one rotation. Aye carumba.

Another self-portrait. I can tell that there is some food squirreled away in those cheeks.

#2

Leelee did his first #2 on the Potty today! Definitely worthy of its own post :)

I was semi-awake when I heard Dae and Leelee in the bathroom, Dae asking Leelee if he needed to poo, Leelee saying yes, some straining noises (haha) and about 10 seconds later Dae saying good job. Seeing as how we have made little to no conscious effort to get this guy potty-trained, you can imagine how surprised I was that he did a #2 on the potty. (I hear that's usually the hardest thing to get kids to do, but again, I wouldn't know because I have done no research on the subject!)

So Dae ran out and bought a little potty attachment and step-stool and I think next on our list of things to buy are big boy undies. Hopefully they have something exciting like Cars or Thomas...

Haircut for Mr. Cranky

I don't know why I had my mind set on cutting Leelee's hair yesterday, but I wasn't going to be deterred. It had been on my to-do list for about a week and I was tired of not checking it off, so even though he woke up cranky from his nap, I set off to the task. Dae swooped in mid-cut and tried to help but you can see the reaction that garnered from Leelee. He was rewarded with one episode of Blues Clues and 3 gummy bears. Cranky little guy. The cut turned out miraculously decent (if you don't look too close)!

He finally came around in the end

Christian & Olin

Christian's week has been filled with cousin-time, food, and fun. Olin's has been filled with sleep and milk.

Sno-cones after bouncy houses. A protective hand on Mal.

Sweaty mess, diggin' that sno-cone

Farmer's Market with Ev and Puo Puo on Saturday

Meanwhile...

Awake! With both eyes open!

Lovely Dawn photographed Olin on Friday. I like this photo a lot :)

Ev's new glasses.

5 Days Old

Olin is 5 days old today. Here are my observations:

1) He might have dimples. Dae and I detected a hint of one on each side, particularly his left. How fun would that be! We would have my mom to thank, but it might be too early to determine.

2) I stand corrected on the small ear assessment. Just like Leelee, little baby has some nicely sized ears. We have Dae's dad to thank :)

3) I think his hair might be the traditional Asian stick-straight. My $30 clippers from Amazon may not cut it - no pun intended! I know it is also too early to tell, but I have a feeling this will probably be a job fit for a professional.

4) His mad face is almost exactly like Leelee's was. (I know Ev will get a kick out of this one.) Reference this post for Leelee's mad face.

He's not mad that often. Had to include this photo to neutralize mad face photo.

Christian has been going through some tough times. I feel really bad. But seriously, he is whining and clinging all the time, hitting everyone and everything (including baby and grandma) and throwing food and toys. Dae took him to Jamison Park in the morning and Lloyd Center in the afternoon. He came back happy as a clam with a new 'helicotter' and I have a feeling the new toys are going to be flowing for the next couple of weeks, courtesy of dad. Oh well. This too shall pass!

Otherwise, it's business as usual over here. My mom is making me all sorts of crazy food - this morning it was pigs' feet (you eat the cartilage or gelatin or whatever the non-bone portion is) and I actually managed to force about 1/4 of the bowl down, but after that I just didn't have what it takes to finish it. It's funny though, the two scenarios I keep thinking are "What if this were Amazing Race" and "What if my choices were to eat this or go through childbirth again" and of course in both scenarios I would finish my plate, but with no TV show or labor in sight, I just can't stomach it!

More photos:

His bilirubin is moderately high so this is his UV therapy. Little chicken legs.

Leelee has learned how to take self-portraits with the iPhone: