PB and I both found amazing coupons for Old Navy so we went to Old Navy yesterday to get BB some stuff since he doesn’t really have much after his current set of 6-9 months.  We scored big time since a lot of their stuff was on sale anyway…we ended up with 26 items (including two for PB) for $100.  Woohoo!!!  We got a few things for next fall/winter too, but they didn’t have that much winter stuff left.  We got him a bunch of  t-shirts and polo shirts and several pairs of shorts (including swimming trunks!) for the spring/summer.  Does he need anything else?  I guess maybe just a hat.  What do you use as SPF for babies in the summer?  Any recommended lotions that smell good and won’t sting their eyes?  Maybe we’ll get one of those quick set up tents or shades for when we go to the beach or the softball tourney. 

We put BB in the Roundabout yesterday and it was FANTASTIC.  I wish we transitioned him sooner.  It fit so much better than the Safe Seat because it’s more vertical than long.  We had to put the Safe Seat in the middle seat because it was too long for the passenger side.  It’s the safer place to put it, so we were fine with that.  But as he got bigger, it became harder and harder to feed and change him in the back seat.  On our last trip home, I must’ve bumped his head at least 4 times while feeding him at the rest stop.  Once on door when I fed him on one side…then on the car seat when I fed him on the other and twice on the ceiling when I took him out and put him back in the car seat.  No matter how small I tried to scrunch him, I kept bumping him on stuff. 

Now, we put the Roundabout on the passenger side since we wanted to use the latch system.  We used the seat belt system with the Safe Seat and we could never get it as stable as we wanted.  So now I have the middle seat as extra room.  And BB LOVES it.  He spent the entire time just looking out the window until he fell asleep.  No crying at all.  Usually, he’ll start to cry as soon as we put him in the Safe Seat until the car starts moving.  And now, he rides in his stroller like a big boy, which he loves.  We put his Bundle Me into his stroller instead so he’s nice and toasty.

I did some reading in my What To Expect The First Year book…and I guess the whole tantrum thing normally starts around 6 months.  He did it at Old Navy yesterday. We went to show him two onsies to see which one he liked better and he pulled one towards his mouth to lick it.  So we had to take it away…and then, hysterical crying.  We had to do a bait and switch with one of his toys to get him to stop.  So of all things that he could do early, he chooses this.  Crazy BB.

Yesterday, we forced BB into some tummy time and we usually help tuck his arms under him since he seems to tolerate that a little better.  Eventually both arms will be untucked and then he’ll just be crying with his face on the ground.  But yesterday, we must have positioned him just right because only the left arm came out.  The combination of a lean to the right and a little push with the left arm and he ended up on his side…and from his side, he can normally kick his way over.  So he kicked and then he was on his back.  Does that count? Even though we helped him in the beginning and it was done in two steps.  This just proves to us that he does have the strength to do it…but he just doesn’t want to.  He’s okay from his side to his back…or his side to the front.   It’s just getting from the initial position to his side.  I know he still has time to achieve this milestone…but I guess I’m just paranoid that his lack of tummy time may pose a problem later on.  I tried it again today and it was a no go.

I tried to lure him into rolling from back to front by holding a toy of interest just out of his arm’s reach as suggested by many people and websites.  Instead of trying to roll towards it, BB just thrashed his body back and forth. pushing with his legs (almost like a snake doing the S-walk) until he reached the object.  The whole time, he’s still flat on his back.  Hmph.  Cheater!  He’s too smart for Mama!

Is it possible to crawl before rolling over?  BB can now tuck both legs underneath him like he’s crawling whenever we try tummy time.  He’ll tuck, stick his heiny in the air and try to push off his knees.  But of course, his front half isn’t as ambitious, so he’s basically just rubbing his face in the ground.

He’s slowly starting to revert back to his old sleeping through the night thing.  It’s still back and forth…a day or two of sleeping through the night, then a day or two of waking every few hours.  But at least we’re getting some nights.  I’m pooped…it’s hard working with no sleep.  I now pick his nose every night with a Q-tip before his last feed.  A few days ago, he was waking every 30 minutes and we couldn’t figure out why…it turned out just to be a stuffy nose bothering him.  Once we picked it, he slept through the rest of the night. 

This is what BB does when he hangs out with us at the computer table.  He chomps down on his toys..then throws them on the floor (that’s why there are like a million toys on the table…so he can just grab a new one after the current one ends up on the ground.)

He LOVES to chew on the suction cup of that toy…I guess since it’s soft and rubbery.  In the second picture, that’s the face he makes when he’s really getting a good chew down…it’s usually accompanied with a grunt.

My parents and Auntie Chrissy got him this super cute hoodie as part of his belated Moon Yreh thingie.  I didn’t even notice it had spines on the hoodie until I put it on him.

BB has this area on his right cheek that’s red and has a few small bumps in it.  It started a few weeks ago, about the same time we started the rice cereal.  I actually didn’t think anything of it because he had really bad acne when he was younger and it seemed like he would get short episodes of it even after the first round went away.  So I thought it was that or his dirty hands going into his mouth and then all over his face.  I was reading something online today and someone said their baby’s food allergy presented as a small rash on his cheeks.  Then it clicked.  Of course, I don’t really know if it’s an allergy or not.  I always thought food allergy rashes would present with hives….what BB has looks more like a diaper rash and it doesn’t bother him at all.  I kept thinking…how could he be allergic to rice…he’s ASIAN!!!

I guess I could call the pedi tomorrow.  They think I’m nuts…I’m one of those moms that call about everything and insist on testing everything to make sure it’s not what I think it is.  I’ve become a huge hypochondriac when it comes to BB…actually all my co-workers are.  We sometimes sit around and compare stories about how neurotic we are.  One of them even paged one of our specialists to ask his opinion on his kid! 

I do remember the rash/irritation going away and coming back these past few weeks…but I don’t remember if it coincided with the days we didn’t give him any while we were waiting to re-try it.

BB has become quite the troublemaker…he has started to do that thing where he grabs anything and drops it on the floor to see what happens.  We seat him in the clip on high chair on our table and put out 5-10 little toys for him to play with.  He’ll go through each toy, one by one….grab…drop….grab….drop.  And when he’s done with all of them, he’ll search for more stuff to grab (or he’ll fuss).  Once, when I wasn’t paying close enough attention, my phone and clutch ended up on the floor because it was placed too close to him.

PB and I had another big cooking day today.  We went food shopping to get everything we needed and BB was so cute.  He loves the giraffe that came with our play mat, so we hook it onto his car seat (we haven’t put in the roundabout yet).  It’s a long skinny giraffe with stuffed, round balls as feet that hang from the body.  He LOOOVES to stuff those feet into his mouth…they’re like meatballs to him.  But the skinny neck is perfect for him to wrap his hands around.  So he’ll grab it by the neck with one hand and stuff the feet into his mouth with the other.  As we were shopping, I looked down and BB was holding the giraffe against his body….he kept stroking it and looking down at it as if it were the love of his life.  So freaking cute.  And then he stranged it and ate it!!!

After out last big cooking day where we cooked foods in the same style…we decided NOT to do that last time.  Even though it was different stuff they all had basically the same flavor and after a week,  I got so sick of it.  So this time, we cooked all different things…so we made: Beef stew, baked sausage and beef ziti, tandoori chicken, thai red curry chicken and chicken and broccoli.  That way you only feel like you’re repeating every few days.

BB has been able to sit up unassisted for very short periods of time…like seconds, but I think a lot of times that just was due to us positioning him in just the right position so that he was perfectly balanced.  Recently, he started to do it all by himself…catching himself with his arms if he started to tilt and pulling back up if he started to scrunch over too much.  Now he can sit all by himself for much longer…sometimes 30 seconds before he topples over to the side.  I also saw him bend over and lick his feet.  Yuck.

He’s starting to be able to form very distinct sounds.  Sometimes he’ll put together a whole string of noises that sound very much like words, except they’re not words….and he’ll repeat them too.  A favorite one is, “Ah GUY guy guy”.   He’ll say that a lot when you try to stick a paci in his mouth when he doesn’t want one.

He also is starting to throw mini-tantrums.  Isn’t it too early for the terrible 2′s?! If you move his toy away from his face to wipe up his spit, he will burst into tear immediately…and will stop just as suddenly as soon as you return it.  Uh oh…am I in for big trouble?!

I tricked him into a few minutes of tummy time by putting up his mirror…sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t.

I think I have tendinitis in my left wrist.  I thought it was carpal tunnel at first but the location doesn’t match up.  Carpal tunnel hits on the palm side of the wrist and into the palm of your hands…my pain was on the side of my wrist where my thumb meets my wrist.  I notice it the most when I open and close my hands…and when I do open them, my thumb gets stuck for a little bit before it snaps open.

After reading stuff on carpal tunnel relief, I saw a link to De Quervain’s tendinitis and clicked on it.  That’s exactly what I have.  It’s pretty much like carpal tunnel, but it affects the tendons going into your thumb.  It’s supposedly pretty common in new moms who are constantly holding their arms/hands in awkward positions when they’re taking care of a baby. 

So the treatment is ice, rest, a brace and if it’s really bad, a cortisone shot or surgery (for REALLY bad cases).  I can do the ice…but it’s so hard to rest my hand.  First of all, I eat with my left hand and do most of my baby carrying/feeding with my left hand.  At least I write with my right hand (don’t ask….it was an asian parent’s left handedness to right handedness conversion gone wrong)…but who really writes anymore hahaha.

I tried to get a brace, but they had every other brace in every other size EXCEPT for the one I needed in my size.  I guess there are a lot of small women out there with the same thing.  I guess I’ll try to switch stuff to my right arm…I just hope I don’t end up developing tendinitis in my right arm instead.

On a different note…at what point does the baby’s growth start to plateau out?  We now moved BB into his 6-9 months clothes (BB’s just over 4 months).  It’s actually a really cute set that we have.  Unfortunately, I was planning on him wearing that stuff in the spring and maybe summer…but that doesn’t seem like it’ll happen.  I have basically no 12 month stuff for him because we thought we had close to a year to worry about that.  So now I need to buy spring/summer stuff in size 12 months.  Will he continue to grow this fast for a few more months…or will he be able to still fit into his 6-9 months stuff.  I was going to get those onesies extenders, but I don’t know if it’ll help because then the shoulder part will be too small…his shoulders JUST fit into some of the 6-9 month onesies now.

I finally figured out what was wrong after nearly two weeks of trying rice cereal and having most of it end up on his face or bib.  It was actually my fault!  I put the spoon in and took it out just like I would if it were my own mouth.  It was actually too fast for BB to close his mouth over it and keep the food in.  I figured it out when I accidentally left the spoon in his mouth for a few seconds because I was distracted by a conversation with PB.  When I turned back, there he was shoveling the food in with his upper lip and sucking the rice off the spoon!!!  Oops!  The next day, I made the rice cereal thicker and tried the new technique and it worked!  I keep the spoon in his mouth until he finishes sucking all the rice off.  I barely had anything on his bib when I was done and he ate the entire tablespoon of rice!  yay!

*see protected*

We went home this weekend to celebrate my mom’s bday early since I have to work next weekend.  My family hasn’t seen BB since Christmas and they were shocked to see how big he’s gotten.  Every time my dad sees him, he comments on how big BB’s head is and tells us stories about how he was called Wang Da – Toh (Big Head) all through HS…even by his teachers!  Then he adores BB’s little nose and mouth and follows up with his signature “jiu jiu jiu”

Here are some pics from the weekend:

A-Ma and BB

A-Gong and BB:
  

Auntie, Uncle and BB:

PB and BB:  (BB can sit up by himself for a little while…until he gets distracted by something to the side of him and forgets to put his hands out for balance)

Birthday celebration:
 
There’s always one “guai” son-in-law and one not so guai son-in-law.  Guess which on PB is?  hahaha.  We laughed until our stomachs hurt when we came home and uploaded the pics.  I probably shouldn’t ever show my mom this picture.

Since I only have a twin bed at home, we all sleep on the floor on sleeping bags.  But because BB is a bed hog, PB and I end up sleeping shoved against things in order to avoid being punched in the face during the night.  I always hear about babies who snuggle up to you at night.  BB is not one of those.  He wants all that space for himself.  I love seeing my two boys sleeping amongst my pink bedsheets!

BB finally learns how to play with his foot rattle.  He’s so lazy…he won’t try to grab for his feet like other babies because it’s too much work!  I always thought he just couldn’t really reach.  But as soon as the rattle is on there, he can totally reach it.  He has yet to stick them in his mouth thank goodness.  I think he might have a hard time with that since he has such a long torso and short legs!

Our Britax Roundabout came in!  It looks so roomy and comfy. BB found something to stick in his mouth as soon as he was buckled in (the warantee).

After doing much research and asking around, we decided to get the Britax Roundabout for now.  I know it’s smaller than the Marathon, but actually there’s only 1 inch difference with regards to the seated shoulder height allowance.  BB is all torso, so that was more important to me than the overall height and from what I’ve read and heard most kids hit the height limit before they reach the weight limit.  We are almost 100% getting the Graco Nautilus as his booster seat later on, unless they come out with something just as affordable and better.  Since it’s a 3 in 1 convertible, it doesn’t really matter at what point he outgrows the Roundabout because he can go in the Nautilus as long as he’s over 1 year and 20 pounds.  And after that we’re done with the car seats. Whew!

Sigh.  Who would’ve thought I would have to think about this stuff so soon!

Here’s the Roundabout.  No worries…I did not get this pattern…although I was tempted for a split second because it was cheaper than the other designs, probably because it was so, uh, festive.  I’m sure a little girl would love it.  This is probably a better fit in our corolla.

The Graco Nautilus…every time I see it, I feel like it belongs in some science fiction movie.  I have grown, adult girlfriends who could probably fit in this thing.  By the time BB’s big enough for this, we may have to get a new car…the minivan!

*EDIT*  I re-measured BB.  He came out to a little over 26 inches (around 80 something %ile).  I guess they weren’t as off as I thought.  I can’t believe he grew that much…no wonder none of his 3-6 month onsies fit anymore.  I’m getting ready to wash all his 6-9 month stuff now.  I’m glad he’s growing so well!

I didn’t want to blog about this earlier since I didn’t want to jinx things.  But we saw a house we liked last weekend, put an offer on it that day, the offer was accepted the next day and we had a week to do inspections and negotiate payment for repairs and pull out of the deal if need be.  We did not pull out and we’re almost there.  The process was relatively easy…and thank you to all you xangans who gave me advice about buying.  I must admit, I had no idea what you guys were talking about when you left comments.  But now I do…sort of.  The hardest part about being first time homebuyers is not really knowing what the heck is involved.  (That and actually finding a home…although people tell us our 1 month search is actually pretty good).  I’m so glad we found a good real estate agent who took the time to explain everything and held our hand through everything.  I really respect my agent…he took so much time out of his life to help us get this house.  We called him at every and any hour of the day, we were only available to look at houses on weekends and weekday nights and he took us whenever we wanted, he missed super bowl to go to the office and draft our contract for us, etc. 

He has a baby girl and I felt so bad that we were keeping him from her…especially since we lugged BB everywhere with us.  Let me tell you, that three hour meeting we had to draft the contract was tough with BB there.  At first he told us the meeting would be 1 hour and I thought to myself, how am I going to keep BB occupied for that long just sitting in an office.  It ended up being 3 hours and during those 3 hours, BB threw up, then pooped very audibly and then let out a 15 second fart!!!!  I kept apologizing…and I had baby stuff all over his desk because I had to pull things out to wipe BB with and entertain him with. 

Anyway, the house is a small twin house that I may have blogged about earlier (not this house specifically, but this type of house)…but it’s the corner lot, so there’s more room around the house and there’s even a small side yard.  It’s not in the town we originally wanted…but that turned out for the best since during the time we were looking, that school district re-districted and the kids from that town would actually have to go to an elementary school and HS farther away (previously walking distance).  So we looked in the town next door which kept its kids in the schools we originally wanted.  We looked at about 10 houses when one day PB saw a new listing on realtor.com and called the agent to set up a viewing.  We got an appointment the next day and grabbed it.  The house was only on the market for 2 days at that point.  We got really lucky with out timing because their open house was the day after they signed the contract and immediately, they got asked if they would take back up offers if we pulled out.  Had we waited a few days to think about it, we would have been caught in a bidding war.

The house is a 5 minute walk into the downtown area of the town we first liked.  We woudl actually take the train from the first town since the station is closer than the train station in our town.  That awesome park in the first town is just past downtown, so it’s close too.

I can’t believe we found a house and are going to be homeowners!!!!

Okay, so what happens next?  We chose a settlement date in mid-march since our lease ends the end of March.  We signed the papers for the mortgage and now we’re looking into homeowners insurance.  But after that, is there anything else? or do we just pack and wait for the day?

And do you tip the real estate agent?  Or is the comission their tip?

We’re back from his 4 month visit.  He now is:

Weight: 16 pounds, 1 oz (74 %ile)
Height: 26.5 inches (93 %ile) …. but I think this is off…she used the line and the head and feet method.  He was jsut shy of 25 inches using the length board about two weeks ago.  I don’t think he could’ve possibly grown 1.5 inches in two weeks.  I think somewhere around 25.5 inches is more like it.
Head circumference: 16.75″  (59%ile)…he was always in the 30th for this…I guess his head is starting to catch up.

Our pedi office FINALLY decided to use combination shots.  Thank goodness.  His two month shots were 5 separate injections, which sucked.  This time, it was only two and the oral RSV.  No pictures yet…he was fussy and tired after this morning. We’ll see how he is after his nap.

After our doctor’s visit, we went to Babies R Us to pick up some spoons for BB since he has a hard time eating with the spoon that came with his Baby Dipper bowl.  That spoons is fairly deep, so he can’t get the cereal out of it…that will probably have to wait until he’s older.  We got the Gerber ones with the rubber coating…it’s almost flat…so we’ll try that out tonight.  The funny thing is, all those times we went to Babies R Us, we never even noticed the solid foods section.  I didn’t even know where it was until I just happened to see it while we were looking at bottle brushes (it was right next to it).  Hahaha…how fast they grow…I wonder what section I’ll be looking for next.

We think BB is going to outgrow his car seat soon.  Is that possible?  His shoulders are slightly too broad for it so they kind of curl forward and we sort of have to stuff him in there.  And his feet almost reach the front of the car seat.  Is there a point where it’s not good to have him in the infant car seat anymore?  Once his feet reach the front edge, should we transition him to a rear facing car seat?

My original plan was to keep him in the infant car seat until he reached 1 year and 20 pounds and just switch him to a Graco Nautilus until he doesn’t need any sort of car seat/booster anymore.  That was the easiest and most cost effective thing.  Now that he will probably reach 20 pounds before one year, we’ll probably have to buy a rear facing car seat and then a booster seat later on since the Nautilus can be installed rear facing.  Can you recommend one?  I know the Britax Marathon is the go to car seat…are there others that are just as good, but more affordable?  (I wish I was one of the lucky ones to get the super cheap Target ones…I bought mine too late and the rescinded the purchase. ugh)

*EDIT*  BB woke up from his nap relatively happy and unphased from the shots, so we decided to have a go at the picture even though it was dark.  I didn’t want to change him in case his leg hurt, so I just put on the awesome Japanese robe Jenn T’s grandma sewed for him.  PB thinks he looks like Hugh Hefner in it puahaha. 

We thought he would be old enough to hold the sign himself.  It started out well….for 2 seconds until he learned that it’s fun to make the paper move by kicking it non stop.  He’s getting pretty good at using his feet now…he’ll always try to use his feet and toes to grab things and bring it towards him because he is too lazy to reach over and use his arms.  hahaha.

At the end, this is the only one that came out semi-well.  It looks like he is pointing at the sign, but he was actually swatting at it non stop.  PB had to hold the sign to keep him ripping it down…hence the weird crop job.

Oh yeah, after showing my mom some of Tyler’s pics, she wrote me this email telling me how the sign I use it too large and plain.  She said I should create a small sign using cardboard and decorate it and then make a matching stand also out of cardboard to prop the sign on.  Then I should dress him up and create a nice background for the picture.  I was like uh…I am taking care of a baby…do you think I have time to do all of that?!  I barely had time to print that sign out (actually PB had to do it).  Ugh.  asian moms.