This One is for the Glynns

“It’s so Damp and Delicious!”

What started as a Wayne Street tradition has continued into our “adult” lives – Friends’ Thanksgiving. (“Wayne Street” was a frat-like house where Stephane and many, if not all, of the people featured in the blog have lived, crashed at or stolen stovetop burners from.) At Friends’ Thanksgiving, we invite new and old friends to gather, be thankful and eat as much as possible. Most years, we are so uncomfortable after dinner that no one has much energy to go back for more. This year, we mandated stretchy pants as the dress code (even though the OG didn’t listen)…I think it really helped because we barely had any leftovers! Stephane and Travis were once again put in charge of deep frying a turkey. They worked out all the snafus last year…and this time the turkey turned out perfectly (and, on time)! For those skeptical about deep fried turkey, you MUST join us for Friends’ Thanksgiving next year…

PS: If you were to guess which one of my friends is nicknamed "the Instigator"... could you do it?

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

As we were preparing for Friends’ Thanksgiving, the first snow of the season fell. The OG had not seen snow, yet…so, she kept staring out the window at the cold, white fluffiness. The next day, we took Olivia to pick out her first Christmas tree. We had had great intentions on going to a Christmas Tree farm and making Stephane Bunyan cut down our tree with an axe…but something just didn’t seem right about swinging sharp objects in the air with the

baby girl close by (actually, it was just the bad weather).

Instead, we went to the farmer’s market to pick out our tree.

We walked through rows of Balsams and Frasiers and Pines (oh my!), until we found the perfect one.

All I Want for Christmas…

With the stockings hung up and the Christmas tree fully decorated, all that is left to do is put some presents under the tree. With that in mind, we set out on a cold and snowy Chicago Saturday to do some shopping. The OG was her pleasant little self and didn’t complain once as we wheeled her throughout the city, wrapped in layers upon layers of clothing and blankets.

In the land of Grumpy Old Men

The OG accompanies Ah-Ma and Ah-gohng on errands and appointments, so she is often taken to the land of Grumpy Old Men. Once, at the dentist’s office, the OG was staring and staring at a Crabapple, sitting a few seats down. He was resolutely trying to avoid the OG, but after about half an hour of feeling her eyes on him and her smiles sent in his direction, he had no choice but to give up and smile back at the OG. Satisfied, she sat quietly while waiting for Ah-gohng to be finished with the dentist. More recently, the OG worked her charms at the Mercedes dealership. There was a particular Grouch who has been cranky with Ah-Ma and Ah-gohng for years…while waiting to pick up the car, the OG would just laugh and smile whenever he walked by. We knew that she had officially won him over when he stopped Ah-Ma, as they were leaving, and ran back to his office to get a teddy bear (Mercedes-branded, of course) for the OG! This holiday season, the OG is certainly doing her share of bringing goodwill to (grumpy, old) men!

…Got Places to Go, People to See…

Since she taught herself how to crawl, it is nearly impossible to keep her in one place! Ah-Ma’s house was just renovated, so the family room area is still relatively open and uncluttered. The OG spends her days crawling from one end of the room to the other – and, she is quite fast! Yesterday, she even crawled herself underneath a stool that was in the kitchen…and then got herself stuck!

Get Up, Stand Up

The only thing that stops her from crawling…is when she is standing up. The OG doesn’t limit her standing to her crib or her playpen…she stands up anytime (and every time) there is an object that she can use to pull herself up. She is getting very steady on her feet and you can see her confidence growing. In the last few days, she has even let go of whatever she is using to hold herself up with one of her hands. And, at Little Hands, she has already tried to climb up the stairs (and got up 3 of them) on the Baby Climber! Her very favorite thing to do is to pull herself up, using the mirror, and then to talk to and kiss herself. She is certainly going to be a handful in the upcoming months.

Look Ma!

The OG can now push herself into a sitting position (previously, she could only half push herself up, so that she ended up in a position similar to that of a 1950s swimsuit model). Between the crawling and the standing, she doesn’t have much time for sitting…but, it is a relatively new development, so I thought I’d include it anyway.

Peas Porridge Hot

Slowly, but surely, the OG is learning to eat her vegetables. One thing is for sure…the OG is very dramatic. She would not only make these exaggerated facial expressions whenever we tried to feed her, but she’d also occasionally gag and/or shudder after taking in a mouthful of the baby food. I was making the baby food, but thought that I wasn’t getting something right, since she didn’t like it. But, after trying a few mouthfuls of commercially made baby food, we received the same reaction so I think we’ll go back to making our own. One trick that really seems to work is mixing her rice cereal (which she now loves) with her veggies and a bit of milk. This must dilute the taste of the veggie (and thicken the texture) because she’ll open her mouth for more and more. Eventually, though, she’s going to have to learn to eat her veggies straight! So far, the OG has tried carrots, sweet potatoes and peas. She’s had some apples and pears, but we are trying to get her to like her veggies before the fruits (so that she won’t develop an aversion to non-sweet foods).

Happy Thanksgiving

You couldn't pay me enough...

The week before Thanksgiving, Ah-ma took the OG to Little Hands so that she could take her first set of class pictures! I wish I had been there because Ah-ma said that is was hilarious – imagine trying to get 8 babies to stop crying and sit still for a class photo. At one point, Ah-ma said that all the babies had calmed down and the photographer was getting ready to snap the picture, when…the OG started screaming. And then all of the babies started screaming! He did eventually get a cute class photo, but there were tears on half of the babies’ faces. Poor guy - it’s no wonder the photographer charges so much for the pictures! At least, for her individual picture, the OG doesn’t have tears in her eyes, but she does look like she is doing “The Robot” – she must have inherited her dad’s dance moves. We don't have any digital pictures from the class photos, but for anyone that wants to come over, we have an 8x10 hanging up on our dining room wall.

A Traveling Fool

After spending weekends in Wisconsin, Indiana and, again, in Wisconsin, the OG wanted to see what the world outside of the Midwest looked like. So, we decided to take her to visit Uncle Jason in San Francisco. We were a bit nervous for the plane ride, even more so because she had caught a cold the day before we left. But, as you have come to expect, she was a total angel. After we boarded, she stared around at her surroundings for a few minutes and then promptly fell asleep. She slept most of the way, waking up when we were somewhere around Denver. Even after she woke up, she just smiled and played with Ah-ma and Ah-Gohng. The closest that she came to causing havoc was when she tried to pull the hair of the man sitting in front of us (he didn’t have that many hairs left, so I don’t think he appreciated it).

“It tastes oak-y”

Straight off the plane, we zipped through San Fran to pick up Uncle Jason and headed up to Napa Valley. There, we spent time relaxing, eating and drinking wine. At first, we were all a little timid – were we supposed to swirl the wine in our glass? Swish it around in our mouths? Use the spit buckets? Gradually, we loosened up and by the end, we were all tossing back the 2 oz pours like it was nobody’s business. I think the OG especially enjoyed getting fed that day (look at her legs).

Hello, Stranger

The OG has taken to staring at strangers. She will (from what I can gather, randomly) pick out a stranger in the crowd (almost always a male) and then continue to stare at them with her wide eyes until they look at her and smile. If they don’t notice at first or don’t respond to her stare, she just continues looking at them until they do – however long it may take. The kicker is that as soon as the person she is staring at makes eye contact with the OG and smiles…she looks away and finds someone else to stare at.

This, I Do Not Understand

Never in my life (or the OG’s life) have so many people asked whether the OG was a boy or a girl. This was the typical scenario…we’d be walking down the street or shopping in a store and someone would walk by and say something like “what a cute/beautiful/adorable/smiley baby,” but then this was quickly followed by “is ‘it’ a boy or a girl?” What?!?! As most of you know, 95% of the clothes that Olivia wears is pink, maybe even 97%. Even wearing pink, even wearing a dress, people would still ask if she was a boy. Actually, in many situations, the person would just assume that she was a boy – I was too exasperated to correct anyone, but Stephane took it upon himself to do so. So…if one day you open this blog to find a picture of the OG with a giant bow taped to her head, you will now know why.

Taking in the sights

On Monday, we were back in San Francisco. Since Stephane had never been before, we spent the day taking in the “touristy” sites. We walked around Nob Hill and Chinatown, then spent the rest of the morning at Fisherman’s Wharf, eating clam chowder from sourdough bowls and watching the sea lions push each other off of the platforms. In the afternoon, we drove down the “crookedest street” and across the Golden Gate Bridge. At sunset, we tried to find a vantage point from which the Bridge appeared to be golden, but to no avail. The Golden Gate Bridge just looked a rusty red color to me.

A trip of many “firsts”

On Tuesday, Jason took us around to some of his favorite spots in the city. After brunch at a little French bistro, Uncle Jason and the OG rode on a swing together. The OG LOVED it – she laughed out loud every time Ah-ma gave them a push and they swung a little bit higher. Since she loved the swing so much, we thought we’d see how she liked the slide. I’m not sure if she enjoyed that or not…she mostly just looked scared, as she came down. We’ll have to try that again when she’s a bit older. After the playground, we went to the Ferry Building. The Ferry Building houses many gourmet, specialty stores – even though we had just eaten, we bought bread from the bread store, cheese from the cheese store, meat from the meat store and cookies from the bakery (as an aside, I had my eye on a beautiful cake platter at the bakery…and, if Santa Claus happens to be in the San Francisco area, I think he should be reminded that I was a very good girl this year). Outside the Ferry Building was a farmer’s market, which had beautiful fruits and vegetables - we promptly bought some strawberries and oranges, after inspecting the selection at all of the stalls. Next, we drove over to a park in the Mission to have a picnic. We found the perfect spot – half in the sun, half in the shade…and there was a guy singing and playing his acoustic guitar. We could have stayed there all afternoon, but since there were more foods to be eaten and stores to be shopped, we moved on…but not before stopping by the Bi-Rite Creamery to try Salted Caramel ice cream. I’m not sure what the highlight of the Mission was – the picnic, the ice cream or the fact that a lady stopped on the street, after catching a glimpse of the OG, saying “I wasn’t prepared for that cute!”

Meeting the Family

We have a lot of family in the area, so on Thanksgiving, we all congregated at my cousin Audrey’s house. Audrey and her husband, Jorge, just moved from Berkeley, earlier this year. They have an amazing back patio area with gorgeous views of the hills and the sunset. Audrey and Jorge also just had a little baby girl named Alina. Alina and Olivia are about 3 months apart - but, you wouldn’t know it by looking at them. Alina is already almost the same size as Olivia! The two cousins enjoyed looking at each other and the OG practiced the “gentle touches” that she learned at school. It was so much fun introducing Olivia to all of my favorite cousins, their children and my favorite auntie (Alina's grandmother).

Rice-a-Roni

We couldn’t leave San Francisco without a ride on their famous cable cars. So, on our last day in the Bay Area, we rode a cable car from Fisherman’s Wharf all the way to Chinatown. At that point, we got off and tried to hide in some shops so that Ah-Gohng wouldn't make us go to the airport 4 hours early. But, he must have a sixth sense for these things and he immediately spotted us as we tried to duck into the store. Oh well.

Sweet Home, Chicago

It’s a fact of life that no matter how great a vacation is…there is always some amount of happiness in getting home and sleeping in your own bed. The OG was, once again, a peach on the plane – there were no hair pulling incidents this time. Thanks to Uncle Jason for showing the OG such a fabulous time in San Francisco. She can’t wait to see him in a few weeks, when he comes home for Christmas!

Very Delinquent

I know that it's a bad sign when I haven't posted Halloween pictures yet and Thanksgiving is just a weekend away! Sorry! We have all been very busy the last two, three weeks...the OG is developing faster than ever!

One guess who carved the ship...
Steph and I decided to carve pumpkins with the OG this year. She had a lot of fun playing with the slimy pumpkin seeds and we had a lot of fun carving the pumpkins. Since we had so much pirate paraphernalia lying around from Steph's birthday party, we decided to continue the theme. I don't know if you can tell, but the pirate ship even has a little white flag that says "the OG" on it.

Pepe the Duck?!?!?
Some of you (many of you) are familiar with my previous, irrational fear that everything the baby would ever own would be yellow...and would have a duck on it. It seems like a silly point now, but when I was 7 months prego (and we didn't know the gender of the baby), it seemed like it would be the end of the world. As luck would have it, I don't think the OG has ever worn an all yellow outfit...at least not one with a duck on it. In celebration of that fact, we decided to dress Olivia up as a duck for her first Halloween.

The OG had a lot of fun going trick or treating...and, Ah-ma had a lot of fun taking her to all of her friends' houses. Something tells me that the OG received special treatment because she only went to 3 houses, but came home with two full bags of candy. I guess it pays to be cute!

It's true what they say...
One morning, I put Olivia into her crib while I went into the other room to grab something. When I came back...she was STANDING in her crib, holding onto the railing and grinning at me! You could just tell that she was so proud of herself. I don't know when she learned to pull herself up, next week, I'll probably be writing about how she tied her own shoe! (Let's hope not...I'm not ready for my baby girl to be a big girl, yet!)









No Cheeseheads here
It had been a few weeks since the OG saw her godparents, so last weekend, we decided to pay them a visit in Milwaukee. It was the first time that Olivia had been up in Wisconsin in person, to visit them. Olivia has lots of fun showing Auntie Cori and Uncle Trav how she can scoot/crawl around and watching the Bears game.

PS: It was Steph who carved the pirate ship pumpkin. Not bad, huh?

A Special Double Issue

The Weekly Recap:

The OG and the Boys

Earlier last week, we had a nice dinner in Naperville with the Glynns, Kyle and Brad (who were both in town for work). We had a great time, though the topics of conversation were quite varied. On one end of the table, there was talk of sleeping on mattresses found in alleys and refusing to splurge for air conditioning (but spending hundreds at the casino). On the other end of the table, the talk centered around day cares, diapers and Halloween costumes.

The Usual Suspects

The weekend came and went with various visits from our favorite aunties and uncles. Trav and Cori stopped by to play with the OG, as did Tamra and Mike. Auntie Lily came to visit on Saturday and, unbeknownst to me, had called ahead to ensure that she and the OG would be wearing matching outfits. I felt a bit left out, but since Auntie Lily is one of my closest friends, I let it slide…this time. On Sunday, Cori and Travis brought Carrie Underwood – I mean, Angie – back to the house with them…The only one who was missing was Uncle Huey, who was enjoying a vacation in Florida – lucky him!

Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend

One unexpected visitor to grace our house (twice, no less) was the newly engaged Miss Leah. She came over to give hugs and kisses…and to meet the OG (well, really, it was to pick Tamra up, but all the other things happened too). Olivia enjoyed meeting a new friend…and she especially loved wearing Leah’s new ring (which is very shiny and sparkly and dripping with diamonds). Congratulations to Leah and Brian!

…Not Flintstone’s Vitamins

Olivia takes one dropper-ful of Vitamin D with Iron every day…and she hates it! Admittedly, the syrup doesn’t smell very good, but she needs her vitamins to grow strong and healthy bones. When we first started giving it to her, she couldn’t do anything about it; the doctor had showed us a trick - we stick the dropper in between her gums and cheek, so that she has no choice but to ingest the vitamins. Now, not only does she use her tongue to push out as much of the syrup as possible, she has also figured out how to purse her lips so that we can’t even get the dropper into her mouth! She’s a smart cookie, that one!

Ah-gohng’s 60^th birthday

Last night, we celebrated Ah-gohng’s birthday. According to the lunar calendar (used in Taiwan), he turned 60 last year – so we had a big party for him, then. This year, we just had a small family celebration. At dinner, Ah-gohng declared, “Olivia is my best gift.” However, it should be noted that he did not offer to let us return all of the other gifts. The OG had fun helping Ah-Gohng open his presents and eat his cake. She also gave him a lot of hugs and kisses.

In Other News:

Last week, the OG turned 6 months – yes, 6 months! On the one hand, I can’t believe it has already been 6 months, it seems like just yesterday that we came home from the hospital. On the other hand, I can’t believe it has only been 6 months because I can’t even remember what my life was like before the OG entered it. One thing I do know for sure…seeing her wide, toothless smile each morning makes my whole day.

The OG is getting harder and harder to keep in one place. If you place her on one end of the couch, she can make it to the other end in a matter of seconds. I wouldn’t say she is “crawling” per se, but her movements get her to where she needs to go. Olivia’s also doing a great job with sitting. If you put her in the sitting position, she can maintain it for a period…eventually, she will start to slowly tip forward. She’s working on developing her back strength so that she can stay get into and out of the sitting position and, of course, stay in it for as long as she wants.

No more paci for Olivia. We have been weaning the OG from the pacifier for the last several weeks. She wasn’t that attached to it, to begin with, but she did miss it when going to bed. She’s now learning how to soothe herself to sleep. It’s not always easy on her, but it’s coming along.

One aspect of turning 6 months that the OG is/has been DEFINITELY looking forward to…is eating solids! Whenever the OG would sit at the dinner table with us, she would watch us bring each bite from our plate to our mouths. Then, she would mimic us and make chewing motions with her mouth, as though she was eating something too! We’ve received the OK from the doctor to start integrating food into her diet. We started with rice cereal. The first night that we tried it, the OG did not take very much. She wasn’t used to eating with a spoon and would shut her lips when we brought it to her mouth (much like what she does with her vitamins).

However, the next day, she opened her mouth and allowed us to put some of the cereal into her mouth. Even so, much of it went on her face and bib (and eyebrows), but she (and we) are starting to get the hang of eating with a spoon.

One addition that will help the variety of food that she can eat is…teeth! We think we can see her bottom middle teeth coming in. The gum is stretching tightly over them…so, it should be any day now that we’ll find the tops of the teeth breaking through. She hasn’t been too crabby through the teething process, although she does seem to find comfort in biting on her toys and, sometimes, her own fingers.

With her 6 month birthday came her 6 month doctor’s appointment. She’s growing right along her curve – 26 ½ inches (75-90^th percentile) and 16 lbs 12 ozs (50-75^th percentile). The OG had to get 4 more shots this visit…and, with Steph out of town, I convinced Ah-Ma to come to the doctor with us. Olivia was a good sport with the doctor – she allowed Dr. Cherian to poke, prod, measure and weigh her…but, when Nurse Peggy came into the room (and Ah-Ma was holding her), the OG took one look at her and started crying! I’m convinced that the OG must have recognized Nurse Peggy (and remembered the shots she brought with her) from her 4 month appointment because she rarely cries for no reason. As expected, the OG was not very happy about this month’s shots. But, on the upside, she seemed to hold it against Nurse Peggy and not Ah-Ma or myself. Unlike last time (when she wouldn’t even look at Stephane for the rest of the night), the OG was her usual happy self once we left the doctor’s office.