32.5 month / 11 month update

Here's a picture of our dynamic duo - but don't be deceived by their smiling faces. This month, they have been cooped up at home (neverending winter) and at each other's throats. The crying episodes and screaming matches are out of control. It's to the point where we can hardly leave them unsupervised for even a few minutes, for fear of someone really getting hurt. We sometimes catch Josiah pulling off her fingers when she's standing, swinging a toy a bit too close to her head, or simply trying to sit on her body. And Samantha isn't so innocent either - she grabs tufts of his hair, scratches his face, and kicks him. It's been an exhausting month of refereeing these squabbles and trying to be patient with explaining things to Josiah in the process. Thank God we have daycare during the day. While it was a tough process to get him acclimated, time apart and structured environments have been the best thing for everybody!

JOSIAH - 32.5 months

Josiah's been loving daycare. He makes a big spectacle about leaving in the morning.  He gives me, Maria, and Samantha hugs and declares that he's going to school with Daddy and going to be a good boy. While the teachers praise him for being very engaged and active, they also alluded to the fact that he tattles on other kids when they don't listen! Haha - little hall monitor. His main issue at school was being too scared to use the potty. However, after buying him a Thomas the Train potty seat, he's been at least agreeing to sit on it during school. But no action yet. So, some progress, but seems like we have a long way to go.

Josiah's still really clingy to me. He won't go to sleep alone and will only agree to go with Daddy if he thinks he's sad.  He's very sensitive to emotions and still says "I'm sad" like every other sentence. His bouts of jealousy have hit a peak as well. He gets really pouty when he sees us give Samantha too much attention. He constantly begs me to "hold me!" and pick him up. As much as I could use a good work out, it's killing me! Of course, when Samantha's not around, he agrees to walk.  And I don't know where he's learned this, but he often yells at Samantha in a stern, growly voice...like "Sa-man-taaa!" She, of course, screams right back.  It's amazing how sibling rivalry starts so early.

Another new thing these days is him walking out of his room in the middle of the night. It's so startling to wake up to his footsteps and little voice in the night. Lately, we've been singing to put him back to sleep that he's now learned to demand "sing song", with a special request for "how great" (is our God). As we've learned, he's very particular, and likes things a certain way during bedtime - his water bottle on the windowsill, his seahorse by his side, his blue blanket on him (my green blanket dare not touch him). Sigh.

Josiah's leaned out completely. I don't think he's gained even a pound this full year!  Just like Samantha, he's at the 20% percentile now. I still look at his baby pictures and gasp at the contrast. There's almost no trace of his rolls now! Part of it is due to him not eating as much. It's so hard to get him to eat, let alone give him any sort of healthy balance. I hate to admit it, but I still bribe with Youtube (Bob the Train or Pocoyo) to get him to eat. His loves are still strawberries, egg whites, and bread...and now orange juice! In fact, when he sees us eating something he likes, he yells out "sharing is caring!"

Multi-tasking

Developmentally he's doing great. He continues to rattle off new words everyday. He can name almost every shape (even parallelogram and trapezoid), knows colors and numbers in Spanish, and say a ton of funny phrases ("my goodness", "i got idea", "ready Freddy", "I superman and save the day") However, he's not as advanced with regards to physical coordination - probably my fault for coddling him so much! He still needs help feeding himself and picks at his food with his fingers (if not spoon fed by me). While he can spell his name, he can hardly trace the letters. Either he doesn't enjoy these things, OR he's already being reinforced to only enjoy the things he's good at. Maybe I'm reading too much into it already, but I'm hoping to foster a 'growth mindset' in him early on!

Overall, Josiah is doing well and going through the typical toddler motions, it seems. Most of the time, he's a delightful goof and knows how to make everyone around him laugh. He loves to "dance crazy"and make jokes and rhymes, mostly related to poopy diapers and stinky feet. As much as he can drive me nuts, he knows how to make me melt. Just today, he called me "Princess Mommy" :)

SAMANTHA - 11 months


Our gal is one month away from being a toddler! She seems ready to grow up and see the world for herself! She crawls so fast and tries to get her hands on absolutely everything, especially cell phones and power cords, of course. She can stand with support, and always has this look of fierce determination on her face as she tries to figure out her stance. We thought she may walk sooner than Josiah did, but she doesn't seem like she wants to take the risk now. Instead, she just screams until she gets what she wants :)

Speaking of screams, she is SO LOUD. She babbles up a storm and repeats "do do do do" with her lips out like a duck. But most of the time, she has varying degrees of yelling - ear-piercing pitch when she doesn't want to be in the crib, normal high pitch when she's yelling at Josiah, and a lower pitch when she's hungry. She will accompany these screams with fist pounding on the ground and dramatic flairs, like throwing her pacifier if it's not to her liking. Little diva!

Her food preferences keep changing too. While she continues to like Daddy's homemade creations, she's been eyeing our table food more and more. She loves whatever we give her from our plates. And now, she seems to prefer water over milk too. We are always afraid of over-feeding her, because she easily throws up (got that from her Dad!). Earlier this month, we had the craziest projectile vomit scene at a restaurant that you can imagine. Even Josiah was like "woah".

Samantha's got some new tricks! She can now wave (squeezes her palm toward herself), clap to "yay!" and blow kisses when we say "besito"! I love the look of pride on her face after these major accomplishments! She loves to show people too and seems to enjoy the positive attention she gets from it to. We catch her staring and smiling at people across the room. And just like Josiah, she loves music and will bop her head, kick her feet, and wave her hands to the music. At church, she will howl along to the songs too.

Our "Samantita" is small but mighty. I wonder how she will be when she starts walking! We have some major child-proofing to do!

31.5 month / 10 month update

I am so late with this post...so much so that I’ve decided to use Samantha’s birthday (18^th) to be the new monthly rhythm.  Whatever makes me feel less behind, right? :)
 

As much as I’ve considered abandoning this blog, there’s so much that happens each month that I don’t want to lose track of those things.  And God knows my memory is not reliable these days!  These past few weeks, in particular, have been crazy.  I took a new job (same parent company, different role), with occasional travel to Philly.  I’m actually typing this on the train now, since I haven’t had a second to do it elsewhere.   It's been exciting to change things up, but also a bit stressful to be adding something new into our busy lives!

Beyond the usual busyness, we went on vacation this past month to Puerto Rico, both kids have gotten sick (first bout of daycare-related illnesses?), and Josiah’s sleep has majorly regressed.  Being a toddler is tough enough, but throw in sickness and a disruption of routine, and all the good habits are undone :/

JOSIAH – 31.5 months

This has been a big month for Jiggy.  He’s been at daycare for a month now, and while it started out rocky, it only took two weeks for him to declare “I like school”.  It’s amazing how kids can go from one extreme to the other.  Now during drop-off, he just waves goodbye to Daddy.  And whenever he gets picked up, he exclaims “you came back!”  I only wish I could watch him in action, but from what the teachers say, he’s doing great.  His only issues are that he won’t use the potty there (not even close to training!), generally doesn’t poop (whereas he’s usually a machine!) and who knows if he’s eating anything since he’s so used to being hand-fed at home!  And as verbal as he is, he won’t tell us a thing.  When I ask him about his teachers, he just says “Miss Alison says SSSHH. Go to sleep.  Turn off light”.  And when I ask him what his friends’ names are, he just laughs and says “Yaya”.  I’m waiting for the day he really makes his first friend!

Perhaps related to the adjustment to daycare, his sleep routine is out the window!  His bedtime is now pushing toward 9pm and he won’t go to sleep without one of us with him.   He teases us and pretends to debate between his options (“I sleep to Mommy or Daddy?”)…yet picks me 9 times out of 10.  And as much as we want to be stern about going to sleep alone, we can’t afford him crying and waking up Samantha.  So, Josiah wins.  And I lose my evening “freedom” and usually wake up in the middle of the night, confused and disoriented.  Shaggy doesn’t stay victorious for long – he usually handles the middle-of-the-night screaming responsibilities.

In general, Josiah’s been on TEAM MOMMY these days.  He flat-out said he loved me more than Daddy! (I win!) He gets upset when I give Samantha attention and will insist that I hold him ("hold me hold me hold me!") and that I give Samantha over to Daddy.  In some ways, we’ve reinforced that since we typically divide/conquer the kids that way – it wasn’t really an intentional thing, but I do think we generally gravitate to our minis”!  As silly and hyper as Josiah is, I have to admit that he gets that from the Cha side.  He reminds me a lot of my brother as a kid, especially with his humor and wild dancing.  And he certainly has acquired my sense of caution and pickiness.

The jealous spurts between the kids have been tough.  I actually can't trust them to be alone for too long, for fear that he will sit and smother her.  Josiah is not great at sharing and has developed a stern voice to yell “No Sa-man-ta!” when she gets close to his toys.  And he monopolizes all of her toys too and loves to yank things away from her.  When we try to encourage him to share or anything else he doesn’t want to do, he immediately pouts and says “I sad” or “I don’t want anything, anymo!” Or he just bursts into tears. How can a 2 year old be so emo?!?  Sometimes he even lashes out and even hits us, which is when we followed through with his first time-outs.  It’s heartbreaking to do and I’m not sure how successful they’ve been beyond just completely freaking him out.  And then he'll just quickly shout out "sorry sorry!", without truly being remorseful.

Now the fun Josiah quotables from this month:

• What the big idea?
• Broccoli is gross.  That’s caca.
• I be patient
• You want special? (referring to his cooking)
• Just one more.  Pinky promise
• Scary monster! Hami is grandma!
• What?!?  I not Min-Jong, I Josiah (when I call him by his Korean name)
• Mommy big, Josiah small (-_-)
• Are you get my blanket? (I love his grammar mistakes)

SAMANTHA – 10 months

Our Sammy Burrito is a real person now, albeit a little one (she’s now 20 percentile!)  What is it about our kids oscillating from one end of the weight curve to the other?!? She is so adorable and I could kiss her all day! 

Her personality is becoming more prominent and she’s becoming more active and verbal by the day.  She started crawling last month and will move around the house without us realizing it sometimes.  She seems very determined and will do whatever it takes to get the object she’s eyeing. Shaggy says she’s like Ursula with her active arms.  But whatever you do, don’t try to take the toy (or iPhone or extension cord) away, or watch her throw a fit and start beating the ground in frustration.  

She still a happy and chill baby and sleeps great at night and can play by herself easily (she loves rolling around in her “cage” with all the balls and toys).  However, she’s no pushover – when Josiah gets in her personal space, she screams and/or pushes/kicks him, probably rightfully so.  Since Josiah is home 2 days out of the week, our nanny has commented how much happier Sammy’s been when her brother’s away!  She loves the 1-on-1 attention and ability to touch all his toys.  And despite how angelic I still believe her to be, she definitely whines and cries more these days.  And she’s begun to show some stranger anxiety this month for the first time.

Samantha’s become very responsive and interactive too.  She knows “baba” for bottle and will scream in the morning until we give it to her.  She runs the extremes - will either be kicking her feet and chuckling like crazy...or screaming with her face all pruned up if we don't give her what she wants immediately.  She's less "deadpan" in facial expressions!

She's trying to talk and makes all kinds of babbles like “na na na” and "ya ya ya" and waves her hands around, best compared to either a conductor, fan-dancer, or pageant queen!  She also puts her hand out for high-fives and makes sounds by playing with her or others’ lips.  She’s often grinning and smirking, especially at Daddy, and has just recently been laughing more like “Ha Ha” these days.  She loves being swung around by Daddy and just squints her eyes in bliss.  Shaggy and I joke around that she’s going to be into action sports like her Daddy, while Josiah will watching from the bench with me :/  However, one commonality with her brother is that she seems to love music.  She bounces her body and kicks her feet along to the music, sometimes even howling along.

Samantha is loving food these days, yet less into milk (she guzzles her morning bottle, then tapers off throughout the day).  Shaggy’s been making amazing purees that she’s been gobbling down.  They’re really good – I even sneak in a taste sometimes! 

I can’t believe how quickly Samantha is growing up.  I definitely wish we could keep her at this stage for longer since it’s so ideal – she’s interactive, yet can’t walk nor talk back to us!  :P  Although her legs are still wobbly and unsteady at the moment, she's starting to pull herself up... so it won’t be too long! 

2.5 years / 8.5 month update

Happy New Year!                 Before jumping ahead to 2015, I don't want to forget all the significant events and milestones from last month - birthday celebrations (Shaggy's 39th and Dad's 70th), Christmas (Samantha's first), and Samantha's baptism.  Luckily, things slowed down at work after my trip to LA, so it was the perfect time to unwind and focus on the family...which meant a lot of fun and hair-pulling moments (and near broken nose) of insanity too.  All in all, it was a great month that I'll certainly miss as things pick up again this week. 

 

Josiah - 2 1/2 years old

Our little man ("the mayor", according to our neighbors) is midway through his twos.  And as parents warned me, the "terrible" period is only truly beginning!  While he continues to have a lot of personality and charm, he is definitely displaying more defiance and attitude these days.  He has mastered the scrunched-face pout, the glares, the fake cries, the real cries/screams, the body-plants on the floor, the slaps/kicks, the teases (replacing words with "yaya" or "no"), ultimatums ("I'm mad...I don't want anything... anymore!")...and just recently, the occasional lies ("Mommy hitting me two times")!  And don't even start with trying to get him to do something he doesn't want to do, like get a haircut!  We had the most epic meltdown at the salon, regardless of every bribe we could think of...thus the botched-up, shaggy 'do that he'll be rocking for the next few months until we go for it again...

 

As frustrating as phase is, I know he is right "on schedule" and we are doing our best to be firm, consistent, and patient through these episodes.  It's so much easier to give into him and just throw him a video ("press red!" = YouTube) or a snack...which I admit, we sometimes do.  Most of the time, he's a good kid that's probably acting out from being cooped up at home.  We've finally bit the bullet and signed him up for part-time daycare starting next week.  I'm ultimately excited for him to make friends, have more stimulation and organized activities, have more structure/discipline...and have them attempt potty training for us!  But I'm so anxious about the adjustment period (for him and us!), and a little sad for Samantha and our nanny since they're so used to having him around 24/7.  But as they say, change is good.  So I'm trying not to worry, and trust in the natural resilience of kids.  Last Sunday, Josiah stayed in Sunday School by himself for the first time!  I'm taking that as a signal that the timing is right.

 

Aside from his moments of bad behavior, he's still my silly & sweet boy and original baby (although he corrects me with "I big brother" when I call him this).  He's been more attached to me this month and will spontaneously give us hugs, kisses and "I love you guys".  What's equally cute and frustrating is that he always wants to be carried, and only by me ("I want you to hold it.  Carry me please Mommy") and will cling onto my arms and legs until I pick him up.  As hard as it is on my back, I secretly love his preferential treatment :)

 

He's also moved officially out of his crib and into the bed in their shared room.  Since it's a full-size, it's pretty much just a larger, make-shift crib since we use body pillows to flank the sides and he sleeps on top of the covers.  Regardless, he seems to love it...but now requires us to stay with him until he falls asleep.  As much as we want to be firm, we don't want to risk him screaming and waking up Samantha (to which she will yell back in anger).  And now that he can just walk out of the room himself, we don't have much leverage in the situation.  Sooo..another rough patch in the sleep department, that is slowly getting better again.

His communication skills continue to be rapidly growing...while listening skills are still not great (gets that from his dad, haha).  He remains obsessed with numbers, letters, shapes, and colors and often recites them spontaneously on his own.  I even caught him in the baby monitor making shapes with his hands.  Here is a list of recent Josiah sayings this month:

• It's a Christmas miracle!  Santa is on Mistletoe Mountain.
• That's amazing!  I love it!
• Thank you Friend!
• Ay yay captain! Coming through!
• Hello down there!
• I sad.  I want to go home!
• Are you get me out of here?
• We go to beach, get coconuts, make sand castles
• Mommy, are you ok?  I give you boo-boo (with a smooch).
• I help Mommy be pretty (watching me in the bathroom)
• I really hungry.  I want chicken and rice.
• She is soooo cute (to Samantha)
• Is it Disney, Disney Junior, or Disney XD? (when watching TV)

Samantha - 8 1/2 months old

How do I start with our little Sammy?  Her diva streak continues!  While her disposition is generally calmer than her brother's, you can already tell she's the tougher one out of the two.  Honestly, I think she is like a cat - calmly waiting, observing, and choosing her moments to strike!  She even has cat-like movements, constantly swatting at our faces, scratching rugs/couches, and grabbing things.  She has become an pro at tossing away her toys and stealing Josiah's right under his nose...which instigates a screaming match between both.  As young and innocent as she may seem, I truly believe she knows what she's doing...always with a little sly smile on her face.  Her newest thing is slapping my face or pulling my lips (particularly when I'm looking at my iPhone!) and laughing in response.  Now that she is sitting up and almost crawling, look out world!

Samantha has mastered her deadpan resting face and "mean mugging" stares.  But she doesn't stay still for long - she has fully found her voice and will randomly yell out "AHHH"  or blow raspberries for attention.  She loves it when we spin her around in circles - she will close her eyes in bliss and scrunch up her face into a big smile.  Even her nanny has mentioned that "she likes rough play", whatever that means!  She continues to love bath time and being naked in general.  Daddy is worried!

She still isn't the greatest napper.  She will only nap for about 30-45 minutes at a time, before waking up in hysterics.  She's become much more high maintenance about wanting to be held constantly, to her nanny's exhaustion.  Luckily, despite not napping well, she still sleeps through the night well...with the exception of this week, since she is getting over her first cold :(

The biggest change this month is that Samantha has finally found her appetite!  She now guzzles 6-8 ounces of milk and will start screaming when she's hungry.  She gets hyper and sort of babbles "baba" when she seem her bottle.  Given how hard it was to feed her in the early months, I welcome this change!  She's also better with solids too, and we are moving into meats and thicker textures.  Even still, you can tell she wants to skip ahead to the grown-up stuff.  Despite this increase in appetite, she seems to be trimming down.  Her checks are not as plump as before, but still very kissable :)

Me - age undisclosed (haha)
Speaking of weight, I am now determined to lose some of my baby LBs and focus on my health.  2nd time baby weight is much harder to lose than the first time around!  I guess having a fitness-guru as a sister has its perks!

Now that I haven't been nursing for over a month now, I need to accept the fact that I cannot justify all the carbs and snacks I consume each day.  And weirdly enough, my stomach is back to being sensitive, as it was in my pre-pregnancy days.  So even more reason to cut back on bad foods. 

Other 2015 resolutions:

• Less screen time for all of us, but especially me!  How I love my iPhone and TV binging!  But it's definitely had an effect on my 'engagement' with the family and ability to sleep at night.
• Less worrying and anxiety.  Gotta let things go, not obsess over to-do lists and enjoy the present.
• More decisive actions...that ranges from the big things, to the smaller things like shopping/returning! 
• More praying and reading the Bible as a family.  This will directly affect all of the above!

 

29 months / 7.5 months

Our dynamic duo

This post is a week late, coming off the heels of a bunch of crazy work weeks.  I just came back from LA - my first trip without my baby girl. Although I had some mixed feelings leading into it, I was too engrossed with work once I got there to really miss the fam back home. And I'm not gonna lie...not having baby-duty at night and getting to attend events at nice restaurants and Universal Studios weren't bad consolation prizes at all. But even with that brief taste of freedom, I still missed my hubby and kids and wished they were with me to enjoy the fun and sun!  I guess "freedom" and "fun" are never easy to achieve as a mom!

At home, our dynamic duo are doing well, but just going through the expected sibling phases/pains together. They generally play well together - Josiah shows affection toward "Baby Sa-man-ta" and will ask about her when she's away in her crib.  And Samantha is constantly watching her brother, both out of interest and self-defense, perhaps. Despite limited motor skills at this age, she always seems ready to kick or scratch at all times.  I'm actually quite impressed by her reflexes and strength at such a young age!  Uncle Ed would be proud by her martial arts potential.  And I don't know if it's deliberate or not, but she only wants to play with (aka suck on) Josiah's toys!  If we give her a rattle, she will throw it down and reach for his legos or puzzle pieces instead.  That's usually followed by his scream and her growl back.  These little tussles remind me of my brother and I growing up.  And like her, I was the sneaky and annoying sister =P

Sammy burrito

Speaking of our little "munequita", Samantha has transformed into a DIVA this month!  She literally went from calm/angelic/easy to hyper-sensitive/loud/demanding in just a matter of weeks! She's still a sweet baby, but definitely has her bouts of screams, growls and "jjing-jjing" whines to make us crazy.  I'm not sure if something like teething pain or moving her into Josiah's bedroom prompted the change, or if she's just more aware of her place in the world.  In any event, our spoiled days of just dropping her into the crib and walking away are long over.  Instead, she wants to be held constantly and will freak out if she spots us walking away even for a second.  Our saving grace is that she still effectively self-soothes with her fingers or with a paci (but only likes the silicone kind).  She has certainly found her voice, and is not afraid to use it! On the flip side of these angry screams, she also laughs more heartily - with a snort and squished face too!  She gives the biggest grin when Daddy swings her around.

Perhaps she screams because she's just hangry? :)  She's still fascinated by our food but doesn't seem keen on her own. She still struggles at drinking milk and will push the bottle away roughly when she's had enough. However, she actually holds the bottle when she drinks, which Josiah never did!  We are still not too far into solids and are still early on in the canned food rotation (I never ended up making my own...sigh).  She will barely open her mouth for purées so it's frustrating to feed her.  And peas just make her heave, which I totally don't blame her for. I wonder if she wants to just skip to the good stuff?

She's got two little teeth on the bottom of her mouth....one of the reasons I decided to wean her completely this month. It was a tough decision, but with work demands and this business trip, I couldn't balance it all. Luckily, Samantha (like Josiah) seems to like formula better anyway! Maybe because we're using "Gentlease" formula, which has been working well with her sensitive/gassy tummy.  It is nice to be off the hook for feeds, but the expense and process of preparing formula is annoying.  And the poop is worse...but at least more frequent. Ironically, I was juuuust starting to enjoy the bonding moments with Samantha during nursing (particularly morning), but I'm trying not to look back. 

Jiggy, our mad scientist

Josiah is still my sweet-talking, silly, little man. He still sounds like a minion and will literally talk to anyone and anything...when he's not moody, that is.  He often says to strangers "Hi Friend, I'm Josiah.  What you name?  What you doing?" He continues to pick up funny lines from TV, like "hold onto your hats", "that was gross", "I'm a superhero", and "that's what I'm talking about!" Beyond just being a parrot, he can actually carry more of a conversation these days.  Some of my favorites: "I'm ok", "What about me, what about Josiah?", "I'll do anything" (when he wants something), "that's not scary, that's a (name of object)", and most recently "how about sleep together?" when he didn't want to go to bed alone. And of course my favorite is when he spontaneously tells us "I love you Mommy and Daddy.  Group hug!"

He sure knows how to work us.  He's equal parts sweet and sneaky.  Recently, he curled up onto my lap to cuddle and then quickly grabbed my phone on the other side of me and tried to run away with it.  That rascal!  He still loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Veggie Tales, and Baby Bum music videos as long as we'll let him.  He constantly asks for me to "press the red one" when he wants YouTube, but we are trying to limit his video watching as much as possible.

The great part of this conversational phase is he's able to tell us when he's hungry or tired.  For a few weeks, we would simply put him in his crib around 8:30 pm, turn on the mobile, give him water, and he would go down without a fight.  As I've learned, the easy phases don't last long.  Now, he's protesting sleep, screaming for us to stay with him, rolling around the bed, and eventually going to sleep after an hour or more of back-and-forth....only to wake up in the middle of the night screaming again.  The worst is when he wakes up Samantha in the process.  We are in the thick of it now.  We initially thought he was ready to move out of the crib, but it's not working for us.  Having a mobile child at night is not a good thing!  So, I'm pushing to put him back in the crib and pray that we can drag out out as long as possible.  He'll stay there til college if I have it my way!

Behaviorally, he's been good.  He whines and demands things like any other toddler, but his tantrums are few and short-lived.  I think he watches too much TV to want for anything.  Haha.  We need to get him some new toys because all he has are his same-old legos and kitchen/food pieces.  And rather than really play with them, he tends to just move items from various bags, boxes, and other containers.  He's quite the hoarder and organizer it seems.  The other day, I even found Samantha's red shoes in his pile.  Funny boy.

I'm looking forward to work slowing down a bit for the rest of the year until 2015 picks up again. And now that Josiah seems to have a better understanding of Christmas, it'll be fun to see how he takes it all in this season.  One thing's for sure, he loooves ornaments and managed to take them each off the tree (and into his bag, of course).  

Merry Christmas everyone - peace, joy, and comfort to all!

Family pile-on during Thanksgiving

28 month / 28 week update

Happy Halloween, from Chef Josiah and Chicken Little

Another late blog!  This time, I blame exhaustion and narcolepsy.  These days I've fallen into the bad habit of completely crashing on the couch after putting the kids to bed.  I've been back to work for three months now, so I guess the "grace period" of adjustment is very much over.  It's just a full-speed-ahead sprint everyday (although I can't really relate since it's been a while since I've been to that place called the "gym")!

I'm going to summarize this month's update with just a list of milestones:

ME:

• I was alone for an extended period of time with the kids for the first time (while Shaggy went gallivanting in New Orleans).  We survived and actually had fun - although we didn't step foot outside!  Thanks to the family and friends I called in for lifelines!

JOSIAH:

• We went trick-or-treating - Josiah as a Chef and Sammy as a chicken (recycled costume from Josiah).  Josiah was determined to collect lots of candy and we had to pry his fingers off his basket when the night was done.  He doesn't seem to understand the eating part though, so now Shaggy and I are left with free candy to ourselves.  Yay!
• He continues to talk up a storm, picking up new words by the day.  Some random ones lately: "step aside", "hocus pocus", "amazing" that he clearly picked up from TV. What's most useful is that he can clearly communicate basic needs like "I so hungry", "I tired", or "gimme milk please", or his most frequently used phrase, "get me out of here!"
• He's like a moody teenager these days.  One minute he'll be cackling his head off, and next he'll be moping around the house.  Lately when I leave or come home from work, he just completely ignores me.  And don't get me started with the occasional tantrums...
• Perhaps related to the above, he's been showing strong emotions toward Samantha, often blurring the lines between love and jealousy.  He'll get really close, ask "how are you sa-man-ta?", and smother her roughly with hugs and kisses.  When I'm holding her, he'll tell me to move her so he can sit on my lap...or just attempt to sit on top of her.  
• He's always singing!  He demands Veggie Tales during every car ride and sings at the top of his lungs.  His memory of lyrics and melodies is quite impressive!  He'll sometimes replace words in the song with silly sounds just to get a reaction.
• He participates during prayer.  He'll add to our list of thanks - "ebebody", "all da friends", "ice cream", etc.  And he ends with "Jeju name pray" :)
• He's still obsessed with letters, numbers and shapes and likes pointing them out when he seems them.  Even at the playground, he'll run past the slide, but instead run toward the sign with letters.  Our nerdy boy.
• His new favorite book is "Are you my Mother?"  I beam with pride every time we read it, although I don't think he realizes that I'm his "mother" yet.
• Next up: we are looking into daycare options to help relieve our nanny, focus on potty training, and also force some socialization for Josiah!  Just thinking about how much he's going to initially cry already breaks my heart :(
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  Our little entertainer

SAMANTHA:

• Sammy passed her 6 month milestone!  Man, 2nd children get so neglected.  I completely forgot about feeding her solids, so we've just recently started with some rice, oatmeal, carrots, and peas.  I think she likes the idea of food more than the actual taste.  She vomited her first carrot meal on our nanny :(
• She had her first bottle of formula this month.  I don't know why I had so much mommy guilt in the transition, but she took it fine (still just her usual portion size of 4 ounces though). Now I have more justification to start weaning from nursing/pumping...but I'm still dragging my feet for various reasons.  And as much of a time commitment it is, I can't remember my life without those routines!
• She's a Mommy's gal!  Whenever I walk into a room or start speaking, she looks toward me, squishes her face into a smile and starts laughing.  She even says "ummamama" every now and then.  It's the sweetest!
• She's affectionate.  Maybe because I kiss her constantly, I'm convinced she's trying to kiss me back by squishing her (drooly) mouth onto my face.
• She's extremely grabby and strong!  I'm constantly batting her hands away as she tries to scratch my face, yank my necklace or hair into her mouth, aim for my earrings, etc.  She even pulls Josiah's hair and grabs his water bottle from his hands.  Pesky little sister.
• She cut her first tooth (bottom-center).  Poor girl occasionally bursts into shrieks of pain.
• She is rolling around like crazy.  We can't keep her in the bouncer for too long, for fear of her flipping off completely.  She likes the jumperoo, especially if it's facing the TV.  When she can't see the screen, she starts to moan like a bullhorn.
• She is still a great sleeper.  Once again, due to being 2nd child and having to adjust to Josiah's schedule, we don't even keep track of her naps!  Luckily, she sleeps on-the-go and it doesn't seem to affect her ability to go down at night.  In the morning, I just find her on her tummy, babbling and waiting for me to get her!
• Next up: we gotta move her out of our room and into Josiah's.  Despite Shaggy's urging, I keep pushing it off.  I'm not ready to see my baby girl grow up!

Our sweet & spicy gal





27 month / 24 week update

Loves his daddy

Fall is here...and is already flying by so quickly!  Even though the brisk weather and foliage colors are a nice change, I've always been one to cling onto summer as long as possible.  My refusal to change out of my flip flops is my way of protest.  Part of it is because things have been just insanely busy that I've lost track of time and season. This is now my 3rd month of being back at work and things are in full swing.  Every day feels like a sprint.  The daily childcare and work demands are just so relentless that I feel like I'm always multi-tasking and focused on several trains of thought at once. I always fear that one day I'll walk into a wall one day with all the on-the-go emailing that I do.  Like many moms have coached me to do, I'm trying my best to just "go with it", embrace the craziness ("life's a party!"), and let some balls drop if I have to.  That's a hard thing for me to do, but after a health scare this month (that turned out fine, thankfully), I'm forcing myself to try harder.

So if life's a party...Josiah keeps it going all day long!  He's constant entertainment for us.  He starts out the day asking "Hey, what doing?" or "What doing next?" or "What about Josiah?".  If we ask him to do something that he doesn't want, he quickly blurts out "I fine" or taps his chin saying "let me think about it".  He surprises us with so many new phrases and words.  Just today he shouted "stupendous!" And his favorite word to use lately is "either".  Random, I know.  Someone recently complimented us in having such a verbal and imaginative child...but we confessed that everything that he says comes verbatim from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!  So at least his memory is sharp!  While it's great to have such an advanced talker, the one downside is that other kids sometimes assume he is older than he is and will be unfairly harsh to him. We saw this today at the playground when Josiah inserted himself onto a group of kids playing with a toy ("excuse me, Josiah here!") and had to remind the other kids that he was only two when they started pushing him away.  Mama Bear is on alert!

Devouring his ice cream

Josiah continues to mirror a lot of my personality traits and taste.  He loves singing and listening to music, and is already trying out some harmonies!  He continues to be obsessed with Veggie Tales Sunday School songs and croons to "Let it shinnnne" and "Jericho" all the time, unashamed in public. Good thing he can sing because he can't dance for his life.  But he has fun running in circles anyway. He's still very afraid of trying new things.  Even at the playground, he chooses to call out numbers and shapes that he sees than actually go down the slide.  And he's pretty OCD too, stacking and organizing his toys into piles.  While it's cute to have a mini-me (in Shaggy's body), I worry of course.  While I have a decent amount of self-confidence, I acknowledge how anxious, self-conscious, and uptight I can be.  I hope Shaggy's adventurousness and laidback-ness find their way into him as he gets older.

Josiah's been incredibly sweet to Samantha these days.  He'll wrap his arm around her and say "I love you" or "coochie coo". Even though she bats him away with annoyance, it's cute to see them getting along.  What melts me even more is when Josiah pretends to tuck me into bed and says "Mommy, I love you.  You're so sweet".  Once again, he's just being a parrot...but still, I eat up every word.  Even though he gives me all this affection, he's definitely on "Team Daddy" lately.  He particularly asks for Daddy when he cries in the middle of the night, which unfortunately has been happening a lot lately, along with bloody noses.  I don't envy Daddy's job.

Now onto Lil' Miss Samantha.  I just can't get enough of her.  Unlike Josiah was a baby, she totally lets me cuddle with her.  And she giggles so easily, which is the best sound in the world.  The easiest way to get her to laugh is to beatbox or nibble at her neck, which I do all the time!  She continues to be a good sleeper - we pretty much just put her down, close the door, and she just lays there and soothes herself to sleep.  She will sometimes use the paci, but usually prefers her own fingers...and now toes!  Although we really can't complain about how chill she is, she has been getting a bit feistier lately.  If we leave her in the bouncer or car seat for too long, she'll start shrieking or moaning like a cross between a cow and bull-horn.

We've noticed that she's also very cat-like in her behavior.  Whenever I burp her while sitting down, she starts vigorously scratching the back of the chair.  And shes always swiping at things, especially my lips and hair.  And when Josiah come close, she will kick him with strength and precision. Hmm...Josiah = dog?  Samantha = cat?

Sammy is still not a great drinker - we are still pushing 4oz of milk during each feed, which is a battle!  She's pretty willful and strong and will push the bottle away.  Since she seems to be interested in our food, we started her on some rice cereal this past month.  But she doesn't seem to be much of a fan of that either.  We will give some other purees a try soon and hope that will start to pique her interest and fatten her up again.  She's still got chubby cheeks and thighs, but she's definitely thinning out.  She also rarely poops (~once every 3 days), which is apparently "normal", just not what we're used to.  Josiah used to poop with every feed...and continues to have an active digestive system even now!  But as clear in every other way, our two kids are very different from one another...even down to their diapers!

On that appetizing note, I'm going to turn in and prepare for another busy week at work.  But despite the crazy juggle, I enjoy my job and having time for myself.  And I love my kids.  So I'm happy...just tired and unkempt.  I keep telling myself that I'll make it to the gym...next month.  But as we approach Samantha's 6-months, I feel like it's time.  I had hoped to lose more of my baby weight by this point, but I'm realizing that it's true that pudge from the 2nd baby just does not fall off the way it did with the 1st.  Or maybe it's all the carbs I inhale everyday.  Sigh, whatever the reason, I need to start focusing on my fitness before winter hibernation totally sets in...

Having a nightcap with my bebe

26 month / 20 week update

Summer is officially over :(  At least we ended it with a bang by going to California for a family wedding. And we did it up big, with both kids and 10 pieces of luggage in tow (including 2 strollers, 2 car seats, etc.). Thankfully, Esther eemo came with us to keep us company and an extra eye on the kids. Despite the many months I spent planning and worrying about this trip, the kids did great on the plane. Josiah loved his wheelie car seat and enjoyed stuffing his face with crackers while watching a Mickey Mouse marathon on his personal TV screen. And Samantha's first airplane ride was great - snoozed the entire way! Once we made it there and got over the initial jet lag, we had a blast in California.  We got to see lots of family, visited beautiful places (Marin County, Napa, Half Moon Bay), and Josiah had his first experience as a ring bearer! I didn't think he would make it down the aisle, but was pleasantly surprised that he took to the catwalk pretty naturally - all by himself too! I was so proud of him,, even though he didn't look up once since he was too busy eating crackers. He seemed to enjoy all the action at the wedding - bopped around to the hip-hop music, wore a cowboy hat in the photo booth, and grabbed cupcakes at the dessert buffet.  He's definitely my son...just in Shaggy's mini body.

During the trip, I fell more in love with my kids. It's so easy for me to get frustrated and stressed by them in the moment. Even though I definitely had my share of hair-pulling moments during the trip, spending a week with them reminded me of their sweet and quirky personalities. I've become obsessed with Samantha's sweet smile and disposition.  I've finally accepted that she's an easy baby - there, I've said it! Since we are usually running around with Josiah, poor Samantha tends to get left behind.  However, she seems fine and can usually be found rolling around in her crib, sucking the life out of her fingers (index & middle finger, making a surfer sign), and tackling whatever doll or toy is there next to her. But when we come near, she dazzles us with a smile and will easily giggle and kick her feet in glee. However, whenever Josiah comes close and starts hugging her, she'll kick and swat at him! Generally, she really is good with everyone and will gladly be passed around from person to person. Even still, I like to think that she gives me special affection and tracks me whenever I'm on the move.  I love my chill, yet feisty girl.

The only difficulty that remains with Samantha is that she really does not seem interested in drinking milk. When I try to nurse her, she'll just pop herself off and stare at me and pick at my face. And it will take all the strength I have and even a headlock to put her back on! Sometimes, she'll just stay on but make humming/growling sounds. I've never heard of any baby like this! She does seem really fixated at watching us eat and clumsily swings toward what we're about to put toward our mouths, so perhaps she's ready for solid foods already.  But I don't want my baby to grow up...


Josiah is still our goofball, stirring up laughs wherever he goes. He likes to run around in circles, make nonsense sounds, and throw his body on the bed and floor. He's still chatting up a storm, picking up new phrases at rapid speed thanks to his nanny and TV. Some of his latest ones: "See you later, alligator.  In a while, croc-dile", "e'cuse me guys", "wait for Josiah", "Baby seester, how ahhh you?", "Josiah big boy", "I den know", "tomato & q-burger (cucumber)", "I need diaper change", etc. Beyond picking up phrases, he is able to string together new sentences using his limited vocabulary. I love hearing his new, surprising combinations. He's also much clearer with what he wants - it's either a "No way!" or "Oh yes!" This comes out during dinnertime, as he's become increasingly picky. All he ever wants to eat is rice, pasta, fruit and occasionally chicken.  

While I love his ability to communicate, this unfortunately does not eliminate his random bouts of screaming and crying. Unfortunately, that's been happening a lot lately since he's gotten even clingier with us recently and will not let us out of his sight. He won't even go to another relative without one of us there. Sigh, hope this is a phase if we ever dare try to put him in daycare.  His sleeping at night has relapsed a bit too, but hope that's just a temporary post-vacation phase.  At least he's still in his crib and is hanging onto his nap (finally down to one a day).

As for me - I'm fully back into the swing of things at work and feel like everyday is a race to the finish. I don't regret returning to work, but I definitely am starting to feel the wear and tear of trying to juggle both "jobs" and not let any balls drop. As much as I never feel like I have a second to breathe, I'm realizing how important it is to force that time to pause, pray, and play!  3 Ps - just came up with that!  Haha.  Ok, maybe it's now time for Mommy to sleep.