Worth the Wait...

It’s All About the Benjamins

Though Olivia was sad to see the Year of the Pig go, she was excited to usher in the Year of the Rat – especially because both Ah-Ma and Uncle Jason are rats (figuratively or literally?). As we celebrated the Chinese New Year with Ah-Ma and Ah-Gohng, the OG was introduced to the Chinese tradition of hong bao. Hong bao is a small, red envelope that usually contains money and is meant to symbolize good fortune. Up until a few years ago, I used to look forward to the Chinese New Year each year, not only for the celebration, but also for the hong bao. However, I was informed that upon marriage, I was no longer entitled to hong bao. Sad. This year, however, I found out that not only was I no longer entitled to hong bao, but now (because I am a mother), I am supposed to give hong bao to Ah-Ma and Ah-Gohng! What?!?!?! Ok. Fine. But rather than the nice, dense feeling of Benjamin Franklins packed into the little red envelope…there'd be a lot of noise coming from the Abe Lincolns jingling and jangling together. If only Stephane could pass an algebra test, then Ah-Ma and Ah-Gohng would have had better luck in the hong bao department. Maybe next year…

Congratulations to Auntie Ana and Uncle Stevo

We were lucky enough to return to San Francisco to attend the wedding of Uncle Stevo and his beautiful new wife, Ana. We are happy and very excited for Ana to join as the newest wife-member of the "Undie Crew."

We arrived late on Wednesday night…after several hours of unexplained delays on our American Airlines’ flight. (If anyone knows anyone who works for American…perhaps you can ask them to do something about their service?) The OG was a peach on the plane – she fell asleep before we took off and woke up after we landed – we didn’t even need to crack open the huge carry-on of toys that we had brought for her. She landed in San Francisco in a great mood and greeted Uncle Jason with a big smile.

No Shoes, No Socks, No Problem…

Throughout the weekend, we walked all over (and up and down, literally) San Francisco – the Mission, Market Street, Union Square, Chinatown…we had great fun. The OG, during all of this, loved looking out of her stroller at all the people that walked by. While we strolled and shopped along…the OG was very tricky. She waited until we were distracted and then kept taking off her socks and throwing them on the ground. Sometimes, we would notice that she was pulling them off of her feet…once, I even retraced our steps and found one of her socks…but, mostly, we would return to Jason’s apartment before we noticed that we had a barefoot baby. We must have left socks all over the city. We shouldn’t be too surprised, however, since the day she was born, she’s hated wearing socks and shoes. At her baptism, she had pulled off her shoes in a matter of seconds; so, she was the only barefoot baby getting baptized that day. If she keeps this up, we’ll just have to give up putting socks or shoes on her feet. No point in wasting our money…plus, that means more shoes for me!

The OG was very excited to see Uncle Travis and Auntie Cori in San Francisco, as well. She and Uncle Travis spent the morning reading a book about the city. Afterwards, the OG and I shopped around with “the ladies” – Aunties Cori, Patty and Mandy – while the boys went to lunch…and then a bar…and then another bar. We had a nice lunch at Neimans even though the OG was a bit crankier than usual. I think that she was upset that the waiter asked “and, how are you doing today, sir?” when addressing her…but, I told her that she more than made up for that slight, with the pile of cheerios, crushed banana and popover pieces that we left, under my chair. An extra special, big thanks to Aunt Mandy for taking care of the OG while I got a quick manicure. I’m glad that after those 10 minutes of babysitting…you only had to add one month to your timeline! J

The Next Generation - Olivia, Alina and the Beatles

The OG has a lot of cousins (children of my cousins) in San Francisco. Uncle Jason cooked a huge and delicious breakfast and all of our cousins came over for a visit. We are very fortunate, in that this was the second time in 3 months that we could all get together. I propose that the next visit should be in Chicago!!!

The OG and Alina had fun playing with each other, before the rambunctious boys arrived.

Growing up, I’d always looked up to my cousins – Ah-ma comes from a family of five and Ah-gohng comes from a family of four…so, Jason and I have always had many, many cousins to play with. (Well, since we were the youngest, we thought we were “playing” with them…they probably thought that they were “babysitting” us.) I want the same experience for my kids…so, I’ve instructed Jason to have a minimum of 8 kids. Who knows if that will actually happen…but, we are lucky to know that no matter what, the OG will have this next generation of cousins to play with.

At first, [he] was afraid, [he] was petrified…

…but he survived! Uncle Jason is still standing after a loooong weekend of babysitting the OG – Thursday night, Friday night and almost all day on Saturday.

New Tricks Up Her Sleeve

It’s been a long time since we’ve last updated on the OG’s developments – you may be wondering why…well, it’s because we’ve been spending our time teaching the baby girl new “tricks” which she will use to entertain everyone!

“Meeeeeeee”

When someone asks the OG “Who’s Olivia Grace,”

she will respond by putting one hand or two hands up in the air. Sometimes, she will also tilt her head to the side so that it rests on one of her elevated arms.

“Twinkle, Twinkle”

Whenever she hears the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle” (aka the “ABCs”), the OG will raise her arms and open and close her fists (“like a diamond in the sky…”) - sorry, I don't have pictures of all the "tricks" yet, but I'll work on it.

“Bye-bye”

The OG’s getting to be a pro at waving “bye-bye”…

she’ll wave goodbye to you, even when you aren’t going anywhere!

“Peek-a-Boo Baby”

For Christmas, the OG received a book called “Peek-a-Boo Baby”. She can do two tricks with this book. Every page of the book has a picture of a baby hidden under a flap – when you open up to a page in the book, the OG lifts up the flap and finds the baby underneath. She had to teach herself how to do that – at first, when she tried to lift up on the flap, she would push down on it with four fingers, while trying to push up with her thumb – that never worked out very well…so, she eventually figured out that she had to lift the flap up with her thumb before she used the rest of her fingers to get the flap all the way open. Smart cookie!

Her second “trick” is that you can hide the book around her bedroom at Ah-ma’s house (under the bed covers or in her toy basket, etc) and you ask her “Where’s the Peek-a-Boo Baby book?” and then the OG will go around the room and look high and low for the book until she finds it. The best part is that she gets soooo excited after she finds the book! If this trick sounds familiar…it’s because it has been showcased on the show “Amazing Pet Tricks” on Animal Planet…

“Give kisses”

The OG knows how to kiss. She doesn’t quite know how to pucker her lips yet…so, when you ask her to give you a kiss, she comes at you with her mouth shaped into a round “O” – it’s a little bit scary at first…but also completely endearing.

“Mama and Do-do”

The OG has been practicing her words lately. Sometimes she’ll spend hours just jibber jabbering to herself, contentedly. Of course, Stephane and I are in a race to get her to say mama or dada (with meaning), first. Sometimes, she will look at me and say “ma-ma-ma-ma-ma” and I am 100% convinced that she recognizes that I am her “mama”…but then she’ll turn her head, look at Stephane and say “ma-ma-ma-ma-ma” Oh well. Stephane is working on getting her to say “Da-da” through imitation…the only problem is that whenever she tries to repeat “Da-da”, it comes out as “do-do” (doe-doe) instead! I don't think there is any doubt that this baby girl will soon be a full-fledged daddy's girl.

Steady Eddie

The OG is officially standing on her own…and, it’s not the shaky wobbly standing that she was doing just a week or so ago. This is the confident stance of an experienced stander-upper. She can bounce up and down (like jumping, except her feet never leave the ground) and even pat her belly, as she is standing.

Action Plan/Next Steps

The OG is getting more adventurous by the day. As she stands up, she uses both hands to pull herself up. Then, once standing, she lets go with one hand and walks in a semi circle with her hand as a pivot point. Occasionally, she will let go with both hands and contemplate taking a step or two. Both Ah-ma and Miss Helen (her caregiver at Little Hands) claim that they have seen her take two steps (before she fell on her bottom). I didn’t believe that the OG would think of doing such a thing, outside of my presence…until I saw her try it this weekend. While I wouldn’t say she is walking yet…she is awfully close (and not scared at all of falling).

What Goes In, Must Come Out?!?!?

Currently, one of the OG’s most favorit-est things to do is to go in her play pen. Yup, she loves her play pen…it’s a ball pit and a toy chest all wrapped into one. But, that’s not what she loves about it…What the OG loves most of all is to go into the play pen and then proceed to throw out the hundreds of balls, blocks, plastic fruits and veggies and any other toys that happen to be in there. We think that she likes to throw them out, just to watch us have to bend down and pick them up!

“Johnny Dip”

Huey and Dana came over for yummy Rose Angelis and to watch the Academy Awards on Sunday night. We decided that the Oscars are quite boring when you haven’t seen any of the movies, but luckily we had the OG to keep us entertained. The OG was very excited to meet a new friend…especially one that paid so much attention to her!

Phew! The OG is as exhausted as I am after writing this post!