Tofu princess and her peculiar habit

We learned a lot about our little baby from our road trip. Although baby girl was stuck in the car pretty much the whole time, she was very well behaved. Ali seemed to really like the movement of the car. So when the car was moving, she would be content and started to doze off. When it was stop-and-go, she would cry bloody murder. Unfortunately, that happened quite a bit on our way to Portland, but much less so when we drove back. She slept surprisingly well when we were in the hotel. I guess the ride did really tire her out.



Nursing her was a challenge too. At first, I tried to nurse her without a nursing pillow. Boy, that was a HUGE MISTAKE! Baby cried on top of her lungs and I tried everything, EVERYTHING! I gave up shortly after and daddy had to travel 8 floors down to the garage to get her pillow. Once she got her pillow to sleep on, she was as happy as a lark! Alison is indeed my little tofu princess. So in order to keep our little one happy, we had to bring her pillow everywhere we go. Quite a few people walked by us with a strange look on the face. They must be thinking, "what a retarded mom, who needs a nursing pillow to feed a baby, really?!"

A BIG THANK YOU to Aunt Marie and Uncle Ming for taking care of Alison when Anders was in the hospital! And the stuffed pork loin was just SCRUMPTIOUS! Andrew will grow up to be a food critic! Ali also wants me to thank Caleb for letting her sleep on his bed! What a great cousin!! =)

Happy 3-month birthday, baby Ali!

Time really flies. I can't believe our baby girl is already 3-months old! Happy 3-month birthday, baby girl! From second last blog to now, quite a few things happened. First of all, baby girl learned to support her head using her arms! We tried to put baby on her tummy every day and it seemed that she was making not too much progress. Some time last week, she was able to support herself. I was so surprised and a little shock (good kind of shock) to be honest.

Check this out:


Second, my hubby was hospitalized because of appendicitis. He had a sharp pain in his lower abdomen on Thursday and luckily, they were able to perform the surgery the same night. Poor thing had to stay in hospital for a few nights. Yikes! My mother-in-law is nice enough to offer to help with our meals and stayed with us for a few nights. Thanks mom! Andy is now recovering and life is almost back to normal, except that he can't do any heavy lifting for the next six weeks (which means, he can't carry baby since she is a little heavy). I get to have Ali all to myself. Yay?!

Third, our first road trip (before the appendicitis of course)! We drove all the way to Portland to visit hubby's relatives. The trip down was action packed. We were planning to leave early in the morning, but our car made really weird noises the night before our trip. So, hubby went to the shop and got it checked and found that one tire was separating from the rim. Bad, bad, bad. Luckily, we caught it in time and replaced the bad tire with our spare. When we finally hit the road, the traffic on I-5 was just insane. We left around 11 am and we did not get to Seattle downtown until 4 pm (border line up was minimal). Then there were the rain storm. It was raining pretty hard and there were quite a few accidents on I-5, slowing down the traffic and we did not arrive at our hotel until 10 pm. Overall, it was a pretty good trip and it was great for Ali to meet her Portland family. We got some good deals and the outlet is just awesome!

Baby hanging out with Uncle Stephen and Aunt Margaret:


Ali sitting comfortably in Aunt Judy's arms:

To Aunt Judy, Uncle George and family: Please come visit us in Vancouver! Baby Ali misses you all!

The Dou gang only stayed for 6 days - the visit was TOO SHORT!! All of us have had a wonderful time. Everyone seemed to have fallen in love with the little one and had a hard time parting with Ali. We will miss you tons! Please come back and visit us soon! (Or get married, so that we can come and visit you guys instead!)

Uncle Peter playing with baby Ali:

Uncle Paul trying to sneak a kiss:

The 4 trouble makers:

Grandma saying goodbye:

Family Portrait:

Uncle Peter and Paul

Ali had a wonderful time hanging out with Uncle Peter and Paul. At first both Uncles were a little nervous and were afraid to hold Ali but after some practice, they got a lot more comfortable.



Her first meeting with her uncles:

After hanging out for a couple of days, both uncles feel a lot more comfortable handling the baby.

Uncle Paul even attempted to change Ali's dirty diaper. He was very stressed, but he did successfully completed the task! Good job, Paul! I wish I took a picture of him after he finished with the diaper, he was sweating like mad!

Side effects of a Michelin baby

God has granted my wish of having a Michelin baby. However, little did I know all the "side effects" that come with one.

1. Deep folds - Every morning, I spend quite a bit of time trying to clean all of Ali's folds. Man, you can find some pretty nasty stuff there.

2. Bye bye designer clothes - Grandma Maria bought Ali a nice outfit and her chubby arms just won't fit in the sleeves. Aunt Amy bought Ali another pretty outfit and her thunder thighs just couldn't get into her pants. Oops!

3. Sore arms and back - My arms and back are officially broken. When baby has her daily afternoon naps on me, my arms very, very numb and my back very, very sore. It is especially difficult when we give her baths - taking the slippery whale in and out of the bath. We also noticed that we put less and less water in the tub each time.

Not that I am complaining, I do love the fact that Alison is chubby...okay maybe except for the fact that she can't wear really stylish clothes. Oh well!

When we went to the doctor's to do the 2-month immunization, we found out that baby Ali was in her 97th percentile in weight (14lb 5.5 oz) and 80th percentile in height (59 cm). In typical Chinese culture, grandma said 97% is not good enough, why didn't she get 100%? Huh?

A more recent picture of baby:

Baby showing off her wonderful folds. Notice the strategic placed towel.

Baptism

We are so happy and excited - Baby Ali is officially a Catholic! Her uncles, Peter and Paul, flew all the way from Beijing and Seoul to participate in her baptismal ceremony. Thank you for visiting and agreeing to be Ali's sponsors!

Baby Ali receiving the holy cross:

The lighting of the baptismal candles:

Rev Smith and the Lam family

Daddy, baby and her two sponsors - Uncle Peter and Paul

The Lam family and the Jang family - Thank you Marie, Andrew and Caleb for attending Alison's baptismal ceremony and the wonderful gift! (Uncle Ming, Paul was a little disappointed that you were not there! He was looking forward to ask you about your "mean" facebook posts!!!)

The Dou family

The Dou gang with baby Ali

Losing my marbles

I guess having a baby really make you dumber. At least, I think I am not as sharp as before. I booked a two month vaccination for Ali when she was three/four weeks old. I thought it was TODAY, but when I went there, the nurses told me that I have missed my appointment YESTERDAY! What the heck!! I don't know why I wrote down Wednesday Oct 6th and did not bother to check that it should be Tuesday Oct 6th. I guess when you stay at home for too long, you start to lose track of time - which day or date, does it matter? Well, the answer is yes!! Oh well, I guess we will go to our family doctor for the shots tomorrow instead. What a bummer!!! ARRRRRRGGGGG!!!

On the other hand, we are really looking forward to this coming Friday. My hubby is going to take a week off and my brothers are visiting from HK. My whole family will be in town!! Yay!! Our family has not been together since my wedding (that's 5 years ago!!). I can't wait!

Ali has grown quite a bit in the past few days. She is slowly losing those chubby cheeks. I want them back!!

Baby Ali and her friends

Hello, Aunt Sue!

One of baby's favourite aunts, Auntie Susy, came to visit Ali this week. Ali had a great time hanging out with her. We went out for a yummy dinner together and then headed back to our house playing Mario Cart for a little bit.

We also played a little game together. Do you know why Aunt Sue was so giddy?

Because Ali pooped on Sue's hands (Ali was wearing her diaper of course, but what a wonderful sensation!) She also checked out Ali's dirty diaper (oh, what a pretty sight!).

Auntie Sue, please come back to Vancouver and visit me more often!!

Welcome, little one!

Hubby, Ali and I went to visit a good friend of ours, Mish and Jay, last week. They had a beautiful, adorable little baby girl - Kaley Mia Chiu! She is a precious little darling and my heart just melted away when I first met her.

Here is a picture of the little mia-chiu (sounds like pikachu...hahhaha..sorry mish!)

Mia-chiu and Ali - future BFFs! We gonna have a lot of play dates in the future. I am absolutely sure about that part, because their dads just love to have an excuse to hang out and play video games together!

Congratulations, Mish and Jay! Enjoy your little bundle of joy!