May 31 Update

Sofia - 31 months

Potty training - We are en route towards being potty trained in the daytime! Sofia is better at holding it in longer and telling us when she needs to go. The trick for her is if she is wearing a diaper, she will go in it and may not tell us but will hold it if she's in undies. We have been successful with napping without a diaper and today I took her over to a friend's place and she told me when she had to go. I have been lazy and too tired lately to deal with nighttime training so it will be on our 'to do' list in the weeks to come. It's progressing well so baby steps.

Language development - Sofia is picking up on melodies of songs/jiggles and likes to hum/sing with them when she hears it. I love how she sings the cknw jiggle and other radio ads since obvious that's what mom and dad listen to most of the time. Her sentences are getting longer and tots have an amazing memory. We are working with her counting which she can do up to 12 and needs some help to get to 20. Typical phases heard these days: sure mum! five minutes! mui watch ipad/tv/iphone? She hasn't figured out the pronouns yet so has not used 'I' and confused with 'me' and 'you' - she saids, help you instead of help me!

Toddler Attitude/Behavior - Meltdowns galore and they are so draining on us. Their impatience leads quickly to whining and crying simply because they don't understand the concept of 'after'. We have instituted a rule that if there's any (fake)crying/whining then she does not get to play with the ipad. ipads are only for happy girls and boys. Sofia has also recently developed more fear with anything unknown to her. She becomes really cautious and will not try new things. Even the playground is now a territory of fear where she refuses to go on the swing and now even the slide because she went down it awkwardly one time. I don't really know what to do. Our DD can be real sweet towards her little bro at times but at a turn of a dime, she becomes little miss bully and asserts her passive aggressive behavior on N. Little pushes, pokes and tackling him to the ground are just the beginning of many years of sibling squabbles to come.

Nolan - 9 months

Potty time - Nolan is pretty regular at going to the pot 1-2 times/day so we have not had to deal with poopy diapers for a few months now (yay)

Motor and fine skills - He is a fast crawler and can easily pull up to a standing position. His favorite is crawling under table and chairs so we are constantly fishing him out of trouble. Soon, he will be walking...OMG We call him 'Mr. Bear' because of his big cute paw hands. He just recently started waving bye and will give you things in his hand.

Verbal - whoa he's a very chatty baby. Auntie Pam called him a bird when he screams. He loves to scream and when you have both kids copying each other's screams, it makes for a long car ride=P He can make a 'm', 'da' and 'ba' sound.

Sofia had her signature piggy face when she was young. This guy makes the funniest and sweetest smile ever (squinty eyes with mouth wide open)

He has two teeth out. No more toothless grins!

Still waiting for summer to appear so I can show off N's thunder thighs =)

pics from our last aquarium visit (yes it was sunny!)

A Tale of Two Surgeries

I'm 33 years old and fate would have it that I would experience two non-birth-related surgeries in my life so far. It sucks but lucky for me, neither of them have been very serious but still, I got a taste, a sliver of what it's like when our bodies have health issues and recovering from surgeries.

In Fall of 2004, we discovered a benign tumor on my right thyroid gland. Phew for being benign but it was large enough that the specialist wanted it removed. And so I waited for my surgery date. In Feb. 2005, I was scheduled for the surgery. The surgeon was from St. Paul's Hospital but my surgery would take place at the False Creek Surgical Center and then I would be transported to the hospital for an overnight stay. I was engaged at that time and working full time so didn't really think much of it. In fact, I remembered being much at peace with it all. The Surgical Center was a sleek, modern medical office. I don't exactly know how my surgery ended up there; perhaps, there was outsourcing done by the hospital?! Once I changed into my patient gown, the nurse led me into the operating room and I climbed onto the operating table myself. Yes, I found this (as my first experience) to be very odd. The operating room had large windows all around with an amazing view of the North Shore mountains and it was altogether more like a dentist office than an operating room. The last thing I remembered was hearing the doctors chitchat with each other, before I went under...

During one of my second pregnancy ultrasound, my OB noticed a large cyst on my right ovary. I had not felt any pain so we monitored it until after I gave birth to see if it would go away on its own. Unfortunately, it didn't, so on Friday, i was scheduled for a laparoscopic removal of the cyst and possibly my ovary at St. Paul's. My second experience was more worrisome. There was just more to worry about; the kids, and going under the knife yet again. This time, the surgery was at the hospital so I checked in two hours before my surgery. They did an assessment, I changed and then waited for a good long hour. I felt way more anxious this time around. The hospital setting does not lend itself to be a calm and restful place. There were nurses, patients, support workers all milling around the Surgical Daycare unit. When it was my turn, I was wheeled into the OR though a set of doors to a hallway of many large doors into the operating rooms and one of them had my name on it. The operating room was stark white and sterile. The radio was playing but it didn't soften the feel of the scary operating room anxiety I felt soon after. My OB was there and other nurses and resident nurses introduced themselves. It was weird having small talk with someone lying down and quite honestly, I wasn't in the mood to chitchat with masked faces. At one point, I thought they had already administered the sleeping drug and was waiting for me to go under. My legs felt heavy so I asked but they didn't yet! But soon, my OB said, "Rachel, you can go for your spa session now" and then I did =)

I am recovering well but can't carry the kids or do much so it's a rest time that I'm definitely not accustomed to as a busy mom of two!

mui mui update

I've been a mom for 2.5 years...wow wee!

I want to recount all the new changes with my little girl, where shall I begin?

Talking: love all her expressions and favorite phrases. She is stringing together longer sentences now but she saids it so fast and it's slurred together, that even mom is left perplexed at times. She has realized that if she wants something, all she needs to do is ask it MANY, MANY times. She is also so tricky and asks dad to turn on a video instead of mom. Nowadays, I hear, "baby Nolan crawling" as she watches in horror that her little brother is headed for her stuff. haha I love asking about her day and hearing her try to recount (with some assistance) all the fun things she did.

Her fav phrases these days: 'What's that mommy?' 'There it is'

Independence: With her starting preschool in Sept., I wondered how she would adjust. During Sunday service, we have been dropping her off at sunday school to help with this transition and it has been awesome. The first time, I was so nervous. She cried when Rob dropped her off (this was strategic that it wouldn't be me) but when we picked her up afterwards, I saw that she wasn't crying. Her teacher said that she is doing better and this past Sunday, while I was in line to get her, I saw that she was sitting with another teacher and trying to say something to her (I don't think she was listening though) but it is so good to see our little girl be a big girl! It helps that there is lots of toys to play with and snacks afterwards =)

Focus: I thought she was ADD, the way she would lose interest 2 mins into something but this has changed a lot. She is enjoying more activities that require a level of focus such as stringing beads together, playing with her mega bloks and completing 15 pc puzzle sets. She really enjoys it and can spent whatever time is needed to finish it.

Pottying: I guess you can say we have began potty training. It actually happened naturally. We aren't completely there yet but good progress so far. The problem with Sofia is she doesn't tell us when she needs to go. Poops end up in the potty 90% of the time. She is beginning to tell us more often but by the time we hear it, she's already peed or some of it has come out. It started when she didn't want to wear a diaper and just go commando. I would have to ask her if she needed to go (answer was no most of the time) but she can hold the pee, I just have to try to persuade her to go before it's too late. We've had many accidents but today, we had only two so not too bad. I've tried naptime without one but she was totally soaked when she woke =p I don't think she's ready for pottying during sleeptimes even though she insists on not wearing one. I'm not quite ready to deal with soaked bed sheets yet so maybe we'll wait until summer to potty train during sleep times.

Skills: She loves to twirl around like a ballerina, jump, go up and down stairs by herself, put on her pants and boots all by herself =)

In a blink

and my little guy is eight months old! These past four months have been a blur (won't go into it here but 2011 has been crazy so far!)

Nolan is a hefty one with mega thighs (after dad haha) and an infectious personality. He is quite the talker and has some volume in his cries and screams which ain't so pleasant to hear in the wee early mornings. He loves to blow raseberries, pretend cough and play peekaboo. I guess the only complaint I have is I wished he slept in a hour or so more in the morning so I wouldn't have to be up at 6ish each day. I can only dream of the day when I can wake up on my own accord. It will come...I believe =) We were spoiled from Sofia being such a good sleeper.

We began solids with him back in Feb and he is now already onto the chunks of cooked carrots, peas, potatoes, avocado and egg yoke plus congee and bread. In fact, he doesn't seem to like any of the pureed or liquid type stuff like yogurt and apple sauce. It is fun to feed him cuz he likes to eat.

He has changed so much in the past two weeks. From a little boy who hated tummy time to now being able to roll, go to/from tummy to a sitting position and army crawling/regular crawling. He is trying to pull himself up so I can't imagine what he will do in a few more weeks. Most of his crying now is from banging his head and other tumbles as he explores the world in his own stride. His interest lies solely for his big sister's toys and he wants to taste it all! Sofia is having to learn to share her toys (which incl. Nolan's baby toys). It is the cause of the many pulling matches and rough behavior towards N. I can't help buy smile at the look of disgust on her face when she touches a mega blok that is wet with drool.

I may have already mentioned in previous posts but it still amazes me how different he is from his sister. N loves to use his hands to spin and move things and exploring how his toys work. He also gets into everything and is so strong (changing him is a wrestling match always so beware when he arches his back!)

Toddler Chit Chatting

There's been lots of it these days. She is bursting with excitement in trying to express herself and using sentences, mainly the nouns and verbs to get her point. Oh what a sweet image of her, pausing sometimes as if there are a million thoughts inside her that she wants to share with me but with a limited vocabulary to formulate her thoughts with. I know i'm supposed to be the mommy translator but sometimes, I get the big fat question mark over top of my head with her toddler chinglish. I have so much fun telling her about our upcoming activities and especially love the bedtime reminiscing of the fun day we had. I hear her singing in her room during nap and bedtimes her own versions of certain songs. TTs have lessened for the most part but we still have issues with 'going home' - Her response, 'no home!'

Fav song that both kids enjoy together:
-Sleeping Bunnies (Sofia will ask me to sing it again and again)

Other Developments:

I took the kids to a toddler story time session at the library and boy was I proud of how captivated and responsive Sofia was during the stories and singing time. She didn't sing out loud but did the actions for the songs she was familiar with and was able to follow the facilitator's actions for others.

Pretend play - She is finally playing on her own! She enjoys putting all the little people onto the train, the animals in the zoo and checking Nolan's heart beat! She makes us act out the actions from some books, points to the characters which one is 'mui mui' and who is 'baby nolan'. I thought it was amusing that she pointed out in the book that the little boy jumping in the sand wasn't wearing any shoes (typical Asian family who would never be caught barefooted on the street!)

Happy 7th month to dear Nolan...his update to come =)