What's Ann up to?

Like most days, I'm catching up on what I need to do while Oliver is sleeping. It's been great with Oliver taking really good naps so I can take a break too. If I am smart, I'd turn off the phone and jump into bed as soon as I put him in the crib...but it's hard to resist getting on the computer.

The past 2 months I've just been trying to keep the house clean and stay on top of errands and chores. I've picked up a few books that I try to read whenever I get a moment to myself. I really haven't gone anywhere without Oliver or do anything for myself. So when Chris offers to take Oliver out on a morning weekend, I take that opportunity to do some pamperng. A nice long shower, a facial mask, paint my nails, just girly stuff.

The freelance job I had for the church in Denver is on hold at the moment, so I've volunteered to redesign the website for the moms club. With all of my volunteering work for the club, they have decided to put me on the board! I knew that once I got involved I wouldn't be able to help myself from giving it my all. I did pick up another small project for an organization I used to design for while I was at Disney. I hope maybe they will contact me for other work in the future since they really enjoyed working with me. It's hard for me to not try to fill every minute of my day with some type of project, but it's hard to turn down work when these days they are hard to come by.

A few weeks ago someone had gotten into our yard and dropped some things on the ground. It didn't seem like the person was trying to break in, but we still wanted to up our security just to make sure. So I got right to coordinating workers to put up more fencing and lighting around the perimeter. Although it's extra expenses that we rather not have to pay, it definitely gives us a better sense of security being home with the baby.

2 months ago, I chopped off my hair that I've been growing for a few years to donate to Locks of Love. 10 inches of hair was mailed to them in a little envelope to help a child with cancer and other hair loss diseases make a wig. It was quite liberating to have all that hair chopped off. I just received a post card from them for the donation and I know I'll definitely do it again. I'm loving my short hair right now and will probably keep it for a while before growing it out again.

In the coming months, I'll be working on the moms club website redesign, and reformatting the mom's tip book I wrote last year. I found out I can self publish through Amazon.com and sell it on their site. I'm excited about that and need to get to it soon. I know the book will be very helpful to new moms and after I've put so much work into it, it would be a waste just sitting on my computer. I also haven't made any cakes lately, I should really get back to that again.

Baby Milestone - Nineteen Months

In these past few weeks, Oliver and I have gotten into a very good rhythm. He is still waking up at 6:30 every morning, but now he just calls out for Mommy instead of crying to get our attention. Our morning routine with breakfast with Barney and Sesame Street continues. And he often will dance along to the music or call out the names of all the characters. Mondays are still our free day to do anything we want. We haven't been back to the zoo this winter, but we continue to plan fun places to hang out. Tuesdays are for Fit For Kids classes, which Oliver is getting better at staying put during "Circle Time".



Wednesdays, my parents come over around 10:30 and we all have lunch together. I then clean the house while Oliver plays with a-ma and a-gon. They really have a great time together. Thursdays are with the moms club play group either at the Grove or at the park. And Fridays are my parents again, then Grandad in the afternoon. This is a schedule that has worked out well for everybody. On the weekends, Oliver gets to hang out with mommy and daddy all day at some place new and fun. This past month Grandma Dooley came to viist and we all went to Kids Space Museum together. It was the perfect place for Oliver with lots of outdoor activities. he got to ride a tricycle and climb a rock wall! Daddy also took him to a farmer's market with a petting zoo, mini train ride, and pony ride. And I took him on a spontaneous trip to the beach and played in the sand...in the 72 degree California winter.





All the days now are broken up to morning activities followed by his nap. He's been taking great naps, sometimes as long as 3 hours. I suspect he is going through a growth spurt. I love it because I can get a nap in myself and get some work or reading done too.

In the past month, we've also applied for preschool in the neighborhood. It's a really great school and Chris and I did everything we could to show our commitment to having Oliver there. We had a good phone interview, and now we can only wait and hope that Oliver will be accepted. Space is very limited, but hopefully our efforts have paid off.

Later this month, we're heading down to San Diego to see grandma and visit the wild animal park!

Baby Milestone - Seventeen and Eighteen Months

Oliver is 18 months now, measures 33.5 inches tall (he grew little over an inch in the last 3 months.) He weighs 27 lbs (gained 2.5 lbs.) and his head grew 1cm. And he is running all over the place. We finally got him one of those backpacks with a leash because it was getting too dangerous. He is now tall enough to reach anything too close to the edge of the table. And when he can't reach it, he knows to push his little chair around and use it as a step stool. He is also very strong, and can lift up his chair or giraffe bike and move it around. He also can push his climber/slide when he wants to play with it in the living room. It seems like there's nothing he can't do. He helps to put all the balls in a bucket when we're done. He also uses sticks to help him reach for balls that rolled under the cabinets.He can get himself a matching pair of shoes. He knows how to wipe when he spills water. He can pour water or little snacks from one cup to another and back and forth. He can sometimes reach and turn the door knob, but if he can't, he knows to knock.

He has also become very attached to all of his stuffed animals and will make sure no one is left behind. He knows them all by name (There's his best friend Ba, Bo, Pooh, Baby Ba, Baby Bo, Bear, Lobster, Monkey, and Banana...and they ALL play and eat with Oliver)

Oliver has been doing a lot more talking. He knows 20+ words now in English and Chinese, and can count to 10 in both! I'm a very proud mama. "No" is his favorite word, with "mama" coming in second. He can understand everything I say in both languages, and each day he is getting faster at repeating the sounds he hears.

Oliver is now taking a baby fitness class every Tuesday. He loves to play basketball, and go down the slide. He is practicing "circle time" where everyone sit in a circle and do exercises. He is getting better at staying in the circle longer each time. He can also do half of the gestures the teachers demonstrate on his own.

Some days we like to take walks around the neighborhood to collect leaves and pods. He really enjoys being outdoors, and even when it rains he loves to jump in the puddles.

There was a time when taking naps was the most stressful time for me in the day. Amazingly now it's the best time for me. Oliver has learned to enjoy the process of putting his stuffed animals to bed. And he wants to get into the crib with them. And this week he started to sleep on a pillow and be covered with a blanket. It's the cutest thing ever, and he loves it! I love it too so I can have time to take a nap, or update the blog!!

Happy New Year!

It's the beginning of a new year, and I'm 2 months behind on my blog update...sigh. We had a rough few weeks around the holidays when Oliver and I both had a cold, and followed by a stomach bug. It was so sad to see little Oliver not feeling well. He couldn't eat for 2 days or have any milk. I felt bad that he might have been confused with all the changes. He did great though, he was sad, but we made it up by holding him close most of the day. We even took a few naps together!

For Thanksgiving, we had a traditional dinner at Grandad's. I made a cake that was decorated with melted chocolate butterflies. It was a test for another cake I was making for a friend. It was interesting using the chocolate, you have to work fast before it hardens. You can blend the colors which makes a really neat marbling effect, and It tasted really good too!



We were able to have Oliver take his nap in the car while driving to grandad's. We packed everything he needed for his sleep routine, including his best friend "ba" the stuffed animal dog. After Oliver enjoyed his first solid Thanksgiving dinner, I gave him a bath, and put him in his pajamas, and he dozed off on the way home. Must have been the turkey!




Chris's company also had a potluck. I didn't have much time to bake, but last minute made some cupcake when I realized I didn't have any icing. So I had to improvise, which I'm always up for the challenge. I ended up using fondant (like edible playdough) and made miniature foods to be placed on top of the cupcakes. My favorites are the corn and the mini turkey.



So my first paid cake was a birthday cake for a friend's boyfriend. He has a favorite hockey team, so the idea was to make a puck with the team logo in the middle. I had some major disasters, it was definitely a learning experience. I felt like I was on the Food Network cake Challenge, but I pushed through and worked it out. My friend loved the cake. It was funny, she said the black fondant turned everyone's lips black!

To help move some of my old t-shirt inventory, I decided to host an all-member playdate/trunk show at our house. It had rained hard for a few days before that, so I didn't think it'd be a big turn out. Then the day came and it was one of the nicest days in the low 70s. I had set up a table with the t-shirts nicely displayed, some snacks and drinks on the side, and toys all over the living and dinning room. Including a slide/climber meant for the outside, but perfect for indoors on a cold day. The playdate was a big success. Unfortunately the sale wasn't so great. I made $38.

So before committing to the playdate, I had agreed to make cupcakes for my mother-in-law's "Puppy Party". She works at a hospital and organizes to have a blessing for the pet therapy dogs. It worked out that we were leaving for San Diego the day after the playgroup, which meant that after 15+ babies leave the house and Oliver goes to bed, I still had to decorate 2 dozen cupcakes! I was so tired, but was also excited to make little puppy cupcakes. They turned out super cute and was a big hit at the party!

For Christmas, we had the whole family over for brunch. We got Oliver a little Christmas outfit with a bow tie. He looked adorable! This year, we got a tree for the living room, and Oliver helped with decorating the tree, which he called the ornaments "Tree Ball". He loved seeing the tree lit up, and he also loved a Winnie the Pooh ornament that also had Piglet, both fallen asleep on a chair waiting for Santa with milk and cookies. Oliver also recognized it was milk, and was excited about that.

We had a great brunch with a HoneyBaked Ham, lobster quiche, salad, and some appetizers. This year I was so out of it, I totally thought I had an extra day. Then the night before the brunch I rushed out to buy ingredients for the food, and was wrapping gifts all night. It all worked out and everyone had a great time. The weather was so nice, we even moved the unwrapping of the gifts out to the patio.



Then on New Year's Day, we drove to Dad's in Pasadena and he dropped us off with Joan to watch the Rose Parade. We got to walk across a tall bridge. Oliver sat on Chris's shoulder most of the time and was able to get a good view of the parade. It was quite overwhelming. I don't think he has ever seen that many people, heard that much noise, and seen that many flowers. He didn't really know what to make of it, but he did enjoy running around after the parade and played in a rose garden, which we got some great pix of.

Baby Milestone - Sixteen Months

These last few months Oliver has become more aware that he is an individual with his own thoughts and feelings. You can see it in his facial expression, and when he makes his "demands". There were a few very hard days when it seemed that nothing I did was what he had in mind, and he will throw himself to the ground and cry. Simple things that he used to just sign "please" or "more" all of the sudden seem like he never learned it. Everything was upsetting and he had zero patience for anything. I wondered how long it would last and what happened to my sweet little boy who now pushes me away when I try to kiss him.

Then a few days after, it's as if he realized that tactic didn't work...or maybe I just started to tell him "if you say please you'll get what you need right away." that he started to communicate with us again. Not only that, he also signs "Thank you!" He also started to enjoy sitting down then point to the spot next to him for you to sit. Or he will hear music and start dancing and spinning and wants you to join him. He also will pull my hand to take me to where he wants me to go, take the spoon or fork from my hand so he can feed himself. A new purchase of plastic bowls with suction cups on the bottom is a lifesaver for self-feeding. His favorite food now is oatmeal with peaches and blueberries. He also has decided he no longer needs bite sized food, and will take his fruits whole, and prefer taking a bite out of a meatball over smashing it up.

Oliver is still sleeping very well. While he was sick we put him to bed an hour early one night and found that he actually sleeps longer...almost 12 hours. He also takes a 2 hour nap from 1 to 3 most of the time. He sometimes wakes up crying, but I have found that bringing him some water when he wakes up is very helpful. It's funny that we have slowly adjusted our bedtime routine to be a fun family time. Instead of slowing him down we've actually been quite active, run around in circles in his room while clapping our hands, making funny voices while reading the same books (Freight Train,Spoon, and Polar Bear Polar Bear What Do You Hear are his favorites now) He no longer relies on the milk or the bottle. He'll drink the milk from a straw cup, play, read, run, then we blow out the 'moon" and he goes to bed. We are slowly introducing a pillow and blanket, but now he is still dressed in layers and socks to keep him warm at night. Lately I've been sneaking in the room to cover him with a blanket which I think helps keeping him sleep through the night. It's funny that he understands what sleep means because he started to sign sleep when he sees the bed. One night after dinner he signed sleep, and I thought "I better get him to bed soon! he is telling me he wants to sleep!" Today we went to the zoo, we saw a brown bear sleeping. So I signed to him that the bear is sleeping. By the time we got to the chimpanzees, Oliver saw a chimp laying down sleeping, he pointed to the chimp then signed "sleep". Wow....

Another huge milestone is our very casual attempt to potty train him. He's had 2 different potties that he played with for months and months. He likes sitting on them, or fill them up with water. Before bath is the perfect time to get him to sit on it without his diaper. In the last few months when he poops his diaper he sometimes will point to it to let me know he needs to be changed. And the doctor said that it was good that he is aware of what his body is doing. So in the last 2 months he has peed in the potty 3 times. Then yesterday he pooped in it! What a big achievement!

And by the way, he also started to give me kisses again.

Feeling Better

Both Oliver and I are feeling much better this week. His cold got better each day. He was probably tired of me wiping his nose every 2 seconds. His face had a scab under the eye and tip of his nose that also looked lighter and almost fully healed. As for myself, once I let it out I felt so much better. Sometimes that's all I need, a really good cry. It wasn't even like I was sad or anything, more tired and stressed I think. So I've been taking more time to make sure I eat and rest. And my latest tv obsession...netflix actually is the Showtime series Dexter-a show about a serial killer of other serial killers. If I can find the time to lay in bed and watch a show so far removed from reality, that's good times.

My mom is returning from Taiwan tonight after being away for 3 months. During this entire time I've only spoken to her once on the phone. The time difference plus the baby schedule made it hard to get connected. Mom and I, at least from my perspective, haven't had the greatest relationship. There's always some tension, fear on my end of disappointing her. I'm not sure where it came from, her comments always have affected me a lot. So it becomes a cycle where I am anxious in anticipation of what she might say, and then probably act weird around her and makes her feel the tension then say something that upsets me. If I saw the situation from a different perspective, I'd probably say how lame I am that I don't just enjoy her company. I think I always feel hopeful and want that, but find it hard to shake off old habits. Every year she goes to visit her family in Taiwan for a few months, and every time she returns is like another chance to start over. So hopefully this time it'll stick. The good news is my dad and I always end up bonding while she is away. I think maybe our personality if more similar, or that he is just more easy going...it wasn't always like that. I was so close to my mom and fearful of dad. Who knows what happened, I grew up and wanted to rebel maybe. She's seeing her daughter who no longer needs her, and she is hanging on tighter. Now that I have my own child, I can understand that. Oliver these days will not hug or kiss me and it makes me sad, but I know it's because he associates that with saying good bye...so in his own way, I know he loves me. I hope even when he is older I'll be able to have the same understanding.

Just about me...almost

These past week has been very tough on me. It all started when Oliver and I got into a car accident. It felt like one of those scenes in the movie where everyone else can see the car is about to hit you but you. Luckily no one was hurt. I don't even think Oliver realized what had happened. We were on our way home after visiting Chris at the office. A normal Friday afternoon interrupted by someone who was in a rush to go somewhere. He didn't even want to give me any of his information. I was intimidated and knew that I couldn't just let him leave without giving me something. I did manage to get a phone number, and he was truthful about the car not being his. He did however lied about his mom being in the hospital and that he had to leave. Things got worked out for the next few days with insurance and renting a car. I was surprised by how easy the insurance company have made it for us.

I think with that happening, I had to readjust my schedule and plans. It's not something I enjoy in my days. Everything is already so out of my control, having something like a car accident really throws me off. I had to reschedule a meeting I set up with a new potential design job. And leave the house after Oliver goes to bed for my meeting. It was strange to go out by myself at night. I couldn't remember the last time I did that. The meeting went really well. The name of the company is OLIVE U and the owner Jennifer needed someone to design appliques for her. She had received many referrals, but felt that I was right for the job. And so far she's been extremely happy with my work.

This past weekend was the Halloween party for the moms club. I'm enjoying being part of the club, mostly the outings that I don't need to come up with myself. It's nice to have some more mom friends to talk to. So far there are a few moms I enjoy talking to. Others are a little more intimidating. I think they are the ones that I feel like I have to really work on making conversations with them. I guess I don't really have to try that hard. I can't expect to get along with everyone, and the few that do seem more friendly towards me are enough for the short time we hang out with the babies. The party was nice and I was friendly with everyone. The highlight, although bums me out a bit, was a young boy telling me what a "sorry looking banana costume" I had on. One that I spent hours making and was very proud of. He didn't agree. I also made Oliver's Tarzan costume, which worked out pretty well.



Oliver got sick the next day. It could have been the other kids at the party, or when it cooled down for the evening. He had a runny nose and slight fever. When he gets sick he likes to be held a lot, so it was hard physically to keep carrying him. I'm happy to do it, but I can feel that all the holding and chasing him around has really taken its toll on my body. And being so close to him too puts me at great risk of getting sick also.

I can feel myself getting more sensitive to everything happening throughout the day. I felt anxious, tired, hopeless at times. I realize how stressful my job is to take care of Oliver. There's never a break, and even when he goes to bed, there's still more work to be done. Weekends don't matter either. It just never stops. Don't get me wrong, I love every minute of it. I think it's not that I don't want to do it. My body and emotions are just tapped out. I try to give 100% all the time, and I can feel that it's slipping down. It's not even about getting more sleep. I guess it's about making the time to give myself a break, both physically and emotionally.

Then yesterday, Oliver took a big fall in the backyard which left his nose and cheek bruised. He is fine, but along with the cold and teething he looks like a mess. Amazingly he is still in good spirits. Lately he started to push and pull me to where he wants me to go. He loves to see me sweep and vacuum. He keeps me moving all day long. We have discovered a children's museum nearby and joined the membership. So now we have the zoo, and the museum to go to whenever we can schedule it in. I've found that I much rather be out with him and let his surroundings entertain him than just me. It's probably better for him anyway. Although he never turns down a ride on the toy giraffe around the house while I pull him.

So...I had a break down. I cried while feeding Oliver dinner and expressed to him how tired I was. And he laughed at my tears, which made me realize maybe it's not that big of a deal. He gave me a hug, and it made me cry even harder. I just needed to release all the tension I've been suppressing. Because all of these days I have shut myself down so I don't have any needs to be fulfilled for myself. It's not a good plan because it just made life so much harder. I'm not sure what I'll do differently, but I know Oliver will benefit more from a mom who is more relaxed and takes care of herself.